EDUCATION | Supporting Students in Pandemic Times

Local agencies hope to aid working parents by providing safe spaces for students during virtual school hours

This story is provided by ideastream as part of special community coverage of COVID-19 and funded by Third Federal Foundation and University Settlement. [Photos by Tim Harrison for ideastream.]

By Rachel Dissell

For some parents of school-age children, the decision of most area school districts to start the school year with remote and virtual learning came as a relief, as uncertainty about increasing cases of COVID-19 and possible outbreaks loom.

But for many Cleveland-area parents, the news sparked worry. Parents who can’t work from home, don’t have reliable internet or necessary virtual-learning technology, or who live in neighborhoods with rising levels of gun violence are balancing concerns over the coronavirus and fear of their children falling behind in school or being unsafe at home alone.

Rahaim Stubblefield, 16, foreground, and David Warner, 16, both of Cleveland, use the computers in the teen room following an afternoon playing basketball at the Boys & Girls Club on Broadway Ave. in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland. The computers are placed more than six feet apart to accommodate the new distancing rules.

Community after-school programs and some area churches are stepping in with plans to offer safe, digitally equipped, socially distanced places for students during school hours beginning in September. The hope is that they can help parents keep working and students keep up with studies this school year.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio accelerated plans to expand its programs as soon as Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon announced in July that students would learn remotely for the first nine weeks of the school year, a decision followed by many other local districts. 

One of many concerns was the well-known “digital divide” in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, said Jeff Scott, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio. More than 40% of Cleveland households don’t have regular access to broadband, according to a digital inclusion study and U.S. census data from 2018.

The clubs normally serve about 2,000 youths, ages 6 to 18, daily at 39 centers in Cleveland, Akron, and Lorain and Erie counties. The arts and recreational activities and tutoring and career-readiness programs traditionally are provided after school. 

The idea that students, through no fault of their own, might lose academic ground, “It just makes your stomach churn,” Scott said. “That's why we are so committed to figuring out a model that allows us to operate during the [school] day.”

In April, a CMSD survey of parents led to estimates that as many as two-thirds of families did not have electronic devices needed for learning at home. The district scrambled in the spring to distribute more than 10,000 computers and WiFi hotspots to students. Local foundations and businesses have contributed millions of dollars and donated hotspots for the fall, though it is unclear how many students still lack adequate computers and high-speed internet access needed for remote learning. CMSD schools last week were conducting parent surveys about technology needs. 

A challenge for churches

Local pastors will also offer support to working parents and their children by opening up as many as 20 churches to school-age children in September. 

The Cleveland Clergy Coalition hopes to offer safe places with digital connections and adult supervision during the nine weeks or longer of remote learning, said the Rev. Aaron Phillips, who leads the coalition. Some of the congregations provided after-school programming and tutoring before the pandemic, Phillips said, but the demand is expected to be greater this fall, especially for parents who must work. 

The churches that will open to students, mostly on Cleveland’s East Side and in the inner-ring suburbs, face a litany of logistical issues to get their spaces ready and to make sure proper health protocols are in place for children who would come during the daytime hours to learn.  

The project, Phillips said, won't be easy. "It's a huge undertaking and we don't know where the funding resources are going to be to help us with any of this."

The challenges of opening to students are also compounded by the higher rate of COVID-19 infections in Cleveland’s black community, Phillips said. As of July 15, black Clevelanders made up 73% of the hospitalizations for COVID-19 and 57% of the deaths attributed to complications from the disease, though they make up about half of the city’s population. 

Other organizations, such as YWCA of Greater Cleveland, charter schools and youth development programs, are also looking at operating small learning centers for school-age children. 

A test run

The Boys & Girls Clubs estimates it might be able to serve 500 to 700 students at its standalone centers, three of which are in Cleveland, where 37,000 kids attend district schools and more attend charter and parochial schools.

Churches are still gauging demand and figuring out how many students each building can accommodate. 

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio reopened nine of its 39 clubs in June, including this one on Broadway Ave. in Cleveland. The clubs are working on a plan to serve school-age children during the day at multiple locations so students can learn safely and have access to needed technology for remote learning.

With a small number of students using the facilities each day, Boys & Girls Clubs believes it can operate safely. The organization already had a test run of sorts, Scott said. In June, it reopened nine of its Northeast Ohio locations to provide meals and safe gathering places to kids dealing with stress from the pandemic, social and racial unrest, and community violence, Scott said. 

The first time a club learned of an exposure to the virus, which has happened a handful of times, it shut down for several days to clean. Leaders personally made sure front-line staff were comfortable with reopening, Scott said.

The organization activates a task force within the hour of learning of a positive coronavirus case involving a club member. It uses a process similar to the one when a club member or family experiences community violence: Learn what happened, find out how staff and families are feeling, make a plan to respond to concerns and plan for next steps, he said.

The effort includes balancing both virus-related health issues and the other safety issues some kids face daily. In July, the week the decision was made for Cleveland schools to open remotely, the city had recorded 83 official coronavirus deaths, five more than the 78 reported homicide deaths.

“It really is about the nuances of all these situations,” Scott said. “And you're in a tactical battle on a day-to-day basis and make the best decision that you can based on the information that you have. But the inputs are many. The inputs are about the virus, the inputs [are] about our kids’ safety and all of the social unrest and the racial equity issues that we're dealing with,” he said.  

Violent crime in Cleveland neighborhoods is up. Homicides have increased about 20% from last year and shootings have jumped nearly 40%, according to Cleveland police crime statistics. 

Four kids involved with Boys & Girls Clubs in Cleveland have been killed or had a family member killed by gun violence since the beginning of May, Scott said. Pre-pandemic, a single such incident might have happened once every couple of months, he said.

Attendance at the King Kennedy club on the East Side was down recently following several shootings, Scott said. Children were afraid to walk the 200 yards to the club from the King Kennedy Estates, where many of the members live. 

National effort

Efforts similar to those in Cleveland are emerging across the country, particularly in urban areas, where concerns about COVID-19 have to be balanced with the realities of keeping children fed and safe from violence and other risks where they live. 

Higher-income families are creating “learning pods” by hiring educators to help with instruction for small groups of children while schools are closed or operating virtually, said Jen Rinehart, vice president for research and policy at the Afterschool Alliance, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.

Replicating that pod-style learning among local organizations or programs that serve low-income families can help prevent existing inequities from being exacerbated, she said. The alliance created a blueprint for programs looking to partner with school districts. 

But those endeavors will need public policy support and funding so that all young people have access to a safe, supervised place that offers technology support, access to food and additional enrichment, she said.

One obstacle is that current federal funding, through childcare and education grants that support before- and after-school programs, only allows money to be spent when school is not in session. The Afterschool Alliance and others have asked the U.S. Department of Education to relax those rules so money can be used to serve children who are learning virtually during the school day, Rinehart said. 

Planning for school

Over the next few weeks, staff from the Boys & Girls Clubs will prepare each site that will open to students, working with school districts from Cleveland to Sandusky, Scott said. 

Staff members are trying to answer a long list of questions, including:

·      How many kids they can safely serve?

·      Should gyms be used to spread kids out?

·      What hours should they be open?

·      What infrastructure — from desks to power cords, fiber-optic cables and hotspots — are needed?

·      How long will it take to ramp up and how much it will cost?

Ideally, the clubs will create distance-learning pods where children can set up to do schoolwork and the center’s youth development staff can monitor and help them with their work. 

Depending on the club, the plan is to serve ages 6 to 18 and group them by age, like the old schoolhouse model, Scott said.  

The centers hope to also continue to offer after-school programs by closing to clean for a few hours each day and then reopening, Scott said. 

The churches that will open to students, mostly on Cleveland’s East Side and in the inner-ring suburbs, also face a litany of logistical issues to get their spaces ready and to make sure proper health protocols are in place for children who would come during the daytime hours to learn. 

“It’s a matter of safety as well as providing the tutoring and educational piece that we know our students are going to need during this virtual period as well,” he said.

The Boys & Girls Clubs and the clergy coalition both said they were working closely with CMSD to reach families that might need help the most. They are also learning how to use the district’s new online education software and discussing whether district transportation might be available for some students. 

Cleveland Metropolitan School District officials did not respond to questions sent last week about the community efforts to support students’ learning. 

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Contact info for parents seeking help: 

Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio: 216.883.2106

The Cleveland Clergy Coalition: clevelandclergycoalition@gmail.com

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What the Data Say: Whites – Republicans – Trump

By Wornie Reed

One-half of white Americans would vote for Trump if the election were held today. Let that sink in. Roughly 50 percent of white voters would vote to re-elect Republican President Donald Trump if the election were held today, according to a new poll by Hill-Harris X.

Even though his ignorance and corruption are evident every day, they stick with him.   

Even though tens of thousands of Americans have died from COVID-19 because of his actions, or inactions, they stick with him.

Even though Trump lies as readily as he talks, averaging nearly 15 lies a day, whites stick with him.

Even though he — whether intentionally or not — is doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin and ruining relationships with our allies, they are sticking with him.

Even though many whites are in the streets participating in Black Lives Matter protests and voicing opposition to Trump’s racist actions, the majority of whites are sticking with him.

Even though he is the king of lies, they stick with him. According to Michael Gerson, Trump is “a bold, intentional liar, by any moral definition. A habitual liar. A blatant liar. An instinctual liar. A reckless liar. An ignorant liar. A pathological liar. A hopeless liar. A gratuitous liar. A malevolent liar.”

Or maybe they stick with him because he lies. I agree with Gerson that Trump’s lies purposely and effectively disconnect a portion of the public from political reality. 

I have been complaining that the news media emphasize the wrong things in their reporting of the polls. They go on and on about Biden beating Trump in the polls — by single digits nevertheless — while I think the story is that Biden is only leading by single digits. And that is because so many whites are sticking with Trump.

In the Hill-Harris X poll, Trump led Biden among male voters 45 to 43 percent, Midwest voters 42 to 39 percent, independent voters 35 to 33 percent, voters earning above $75,000 a year by 48 to 39 percent and voters aged 35 to 49 by a margin of 44 to 37 percent.

That, to me, is the real story, when the object of their affection is so clinically flawed.

On the other hand, maybe I should lighten up since whites always vote for Republican presidential candidates. Since the regular use of exit polling in 1972, we know the results of presidential voting by race.

In the 12 presidential elections since 1972, the majority of whites — sometimes by extensive margins — have voted for the Republican candidate. This is the case even in the four elections that the Democratic candidate won.

Nixon, of course, won the majority of white votes in his 1968 landslide victory. LBJ’s landslide victory over Goldwater in 1964 was the last time the Democratic candidate won a majority of the white vote.

However, by my calculations, this shift did not start with Southern Democrats becoming Republicans after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. A majority of whites voted for the Republican presidential candidate in each election between 1948 and 1960, and this occurred when there were liberals in the Republican party.

Thus, in only one presidential election since World War II, 1964, has the Democratic candidate won the majority of the white votes.

Regardless of the reason, white voters are sticking with the Republican presidential candidate. And Trump seems to be counting on it.

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Wornie Reed is Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies and Director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech University. Previously he developed and directed the Urban Child Research Center in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (1991-2001), where he was also Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies (1991-2004). He was Adjunct Professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (2003-4). Professor Reed served a three-year term (1990-92) as President of the National Congress of Black Faculty, and he is past president of the national Association of Black Sociologists (2000-01).

This column first appeared online at What the Data Say and is shared here by permission.

COVID-19 cases in children rise

Educators still begging for financial back-to-school help

By Susan Tebben

As data shows rising numbers of children contracting COVID-19, school districts are still begging for funding to keep students and staff safe.

One of the state’s teacher’s unions said school districts can’t be expected to live up to the standard needed to prevent COVID-19 spread in schools if they don’t have the proper resources.

“All students are going to be learning in a different environment than we’re used to, and all students are continuing to live in a state and in a country, in a local community where we still have a pandemic going on,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, during a Tuesday press conference with progressive think tank Policy Matters.

DiMauro is also concerned about new data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, showing a 90% increase in COVID-19 cases among children in the last month, and 97,000 cases nationwide among children.

Only nine states in the country reported testing of children, according to the study, but Ohio was included in those states.

As of Aug. 6, Ohio reported 8,572 COVID-19 cases in children ages 0-19. Children made up 8.9% of all cases in the data provided in the report. 

Ohio Department of Health numbers released Monday showed monthly cases for ages 0-19 more than doubled between June and July, from 2,203 to 4,506.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a total case count of 9,360 for ages 0-19 during Tuesday’s coronavirus update. Among those, 229 hospitalizations and 2 deaths were reported in that age group.

Physicians from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital all said while children are not overwhelmingly suffering from severe symptoms or effects from the disease, they should still be treated as at high risk of spreading the disease.

“If you’re sick, stay home,” said Dr. Adam Mezoff, of Dayton Children’s Hospital. “It doesn’t have to be COVID.”

Education officials are some of the many groups calling for federal assistance held up in the HEROES Act. DiMauro said that money is needed not only to bring in the gallons of hand sanitizer for students, but also plexiglass separations for office, additional staffing of all kinds and even upgraded HVAC systems to bring critical ventilation and filtration medical professionals have said is needed to bring students and staff back to classrooms.

“Columbus City Schools alone estimated it’s going to cover over $100 million in one-time and continuing costs related to the pandemic,” DiMauro said. “And they’re starting out online.

DiMauro and Policy Matters executive director Hannah Halbert criticized the $1 trillion U.S. Senate’s response to the HEROES Act, called the HEALS Act. Halbert said the HEALS Act doesn’t include any support for state and local governments, and school funding is limited to those districts going back to full-time in-person instruction.

“Honestly, if it wasn’t so dangerous I would call that proposal a little bit of nonsense,” Halbert said.

Jake Zuckerman contributed to this report.

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… This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.

COVID-19 — Stories of Black Survival

Community Members Overcome COVID

By Rhonda Crowder

The Novel Coronavirus Disease — COVID-19 for short — has taken the world by storm. With new cases and the death toll rising daily, it seems to be no end in sight. Unsurprisingly, it has hit black and Latino communities the hardest.

On the bright side, more people survive it than not.

Carol Joiner, a 61-year old real estate agent and investor, tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after the March shutdown. Right before getting sick, she attended a birthday party and a church gathering.

“It hit me so hard, I didn’t know what it was,” she said.

Joiner had a cough and felt weird. Unable to shake it and experiencing dizziness, she asked her sister at four in morning to take her to the emergency room on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. She learned her vitals were abnormal and that she had a touch of pneumonia. Since she was there, doctors suggested taking a Covid-19 test. She did. They gave her some antibodies for pneumonia as well as the option to stay or go home. She chose the latter. 

Three days later, her results came back positive.  

At the same time, she felt worse — short of breath, dizziness, and fatigue. Too weak to move or eat, she remained hydrated by drinking hot water and tea. The hospital called to check in on her. Because she didn’t sound well, they sent an ambulance. She refused it.

But she didn’t get better. “I felt like I wasn’t going to make it,” she said.

Joiner went to the hospital the next day and was admitted. Because the Clinic’s main campus was full, they transferred her to their facility on Turney Road, where she was hooked up to intravenous therapy (IV). They never put her on a ventilator or oxygen. They did offer some form of treatment, but she declined.

“Everything was still experimental. I didn’t want them trying something on me,” said Joiner.

Seven days after her first visit to the ER, she started to regain her sense of smell and feel better. Joiner believes the virus didn’t shut her all the way down because she’s exercised consistently for the last 12 years and has been on a 90 percent plant-based diet.

“Thank God for the fight in me and the prayers. Through God’s grace, I’m blessed and grateful I survived it,” she said. “It was scary.”

On a ventilator and in a coma

Jae Williams was in a coma with COVID-19 for 24 days

Jae “The Gospel Kid” Williams, 63, general manager at WOVU 95.9 FM, felt burning hot flashes as well as cold chills and didn’t understand why. His wife took him to Cleveland Clinic emergency room on March 16. All he remembers, before waking from a coma, is being swabbed in the nose for the Covid-19 test.

“It burned my nose so bad. I thought it was up in my brain. I was shocked,” said Williams who remained in that coma, on a ventilator, for 24 days.

He recalls having an “out of body” experience, during that time, wherein he stood by the window looking at himself and heard doctors telling his wife and children he would not make it and to consider DNR, a do-not-resuscitate order.

“My wife refused to accept it,” he said. “She kept praying.”

Williams said, “I kept asking God to take my life. The way the doctors talked, I would never be any earthly good.”

He also said he heard the doctors discussing taking him off the ventilator to give it to another patient. 

Once he regained consciousness, doctors told Williams his kidneys would never function properly, he would be on dialysis, wear a catheter the rest of his life and never walk or talk again.

Williams stayed in the hospital a total of 54 days. At home, he had to crawl up the stairs.

He went to dialysis one time since being discharged and hasn’t returned. His kidneys are normal. His lungs are healthy. He walks, talks and sings as he’s done for the last 49 years.

“I’m one hundred percent today. I do have a cane for my balance,” he said. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy. It was a nightmare. I’ve never been that sick in my life.”

Williams said he had no pre-existing conditions, hasn't eaten red meat in 30 years, and has no idea where he got Covid-19.

“It wasn’t at the radio station. It wasn’t at home. My wife never got it. It could’ve been at church,” he said. Williams questions if he caught the virus through testing.

Doctors asked Williams to donate his plasma to help ICU patients recover. He agreed. “My wife said that’s what God wants me to do.”

Dr. Dee Banks of the Northeast
Ohio Infectious Disease Associates

When asked if people who survive Covid-19 remain positive after symptoms pass, Dr. Dee Banks, an infectious disease specialist at Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates in Youngstown, said, “We don’t know the answer to that question. We don’t know how long they will have side effects.”

To protect yourself from contracting Covid-19, Banks suggests wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing and refraining from large crowds.

She also said people without pre-existing diseases can and still get Covid-19 but are less likely to die from it. “Once you get sick with COVID, everything else gets worse.”

Jones stressed the importance of taking control of your own health.

“This is an opportunity for us to do some things. Churches and other organizations should take the lead on healthcare messaging initiatives that lend themselves to improved health. We can take some control and change our health within the confines of this pandemic,” she said.  

Banks recommends that everyone get tested, as well, even in the absence of symptoms. “Like with HIV, everybody needs to know their status. This thing is bigger than all of us.”

Rhonda Crowder is a freelance writer who writes about health for The REAL DEAL PRESS.

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Ohio Politics Today | Murray Energy's limited disclosures leave big questions unanswered on Ohio conspiracy case

For-profit corporate structure of Hardworking Ohioans, Inc. keeps veil on how companies use money to influence energy policy.

By Kathiann Kowalski

This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism, in partnership with the nonprofit Energy News Network.

While an Ohio-based coal company has contributed $100,000 to an organization that may have been involved in an alleged bribery operation to pass a power plant bailout law last year, company officials said in a bankruptcy filing that they don’t know how the money was spent.

A bankruptcy court ruled last week that Murray Energy can move ahead to seek approval of its reorganization plan, subject to a representation that its officers and directors have no knowledge about how money it gave to a dark money organization might have been used to promote the Ohio coal and nuclear bailout law at the heart of a federal conspiracy case. 

The ruling is a partial victory for environmental and citizen groups, who had objected to a more limited disclosure statement proposed by Murray Energy and its related debtors on Aug. 6. But creditors or others can’t independently verify that statement or dig into other questions about the extent to which the company may have spent funds to influence Ohio energy policy.

“If we do not have the ability to verify, we should not trust,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, paraphrasing a Russian proverb.

"Company B" in federal complaint

Murray Energy has been identified as “Company B” in the federal government’s July 21 complaint, which alleges that $100,000 was wired from a company to “Dark Money Group 1” on Oct. 26, 2018. Murray Energy’s bankruptcy filings show a $100,000 cash contribution that day to Hardworking Ohioans, Inc. That organization, which is registered as a for-profit corporation, allegedly spent $1.5 million on political ads supporting Republican candidates in 2018.

Murray Energy did not respond to a request for comments for this article.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Ohio Environmental Council, and Ohio Citizen Action had asked Bankruptcy Judge John Hoffman, Jr., to require disclosures about Murray Energy’s possible involvement in the federal case. Murray Energy’s Aug. 6 filing stated that the case had been filed, that so far it was unaware of contacts with the authorities that had filed the complaint, and that it had previously disclosed all gifts and charitable contributions.

Criminal charges against the company generally would not be wiped out by bankruptcy, so they might impair the financial viability of the reorganized company. That information could be important to creditors, the environmental and citizen groups stressed.

Moreover, if the government should bring criminal charges, Murray Energy might be unable to complete its mine closure obligations, the groups argued. If that happened, the state fund set up as a backstop lacks sufficient money to cover the estimated costs of more than $200 million for that work.

It’s unclear whether those liabilities will be discharged in bankruptcy — and thus limited to the reorganized company’s assets going forward.

“The question is still before the court, and we will object to the plan on the grounds that it is not feasible and does not comply with federal law,” said attorney Margrethe Kearney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Ohio’s current bond pool has never been approved under the Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act, she explained.

What’s disclosed — and what’s not

The revised statement required by Judge Hoffman’s Aug. 7 order specifically notes the payment to Hardworking Ohioans, Inc. It also says that, to date, Murray Energy and its affiliated debtors and their officers and directors “have no further knowledge regarding how Hardworking Ohioans Inc. spent the contribution.”

That  representation raises the question of why the company paid $100,000 to the organization. Because Hardworking Ohioans is set up as a for-profit corporation, there’s no way to find out who its directors and officers were, unless that company voluntarily discloses the information.

J. Anthony Kington, the attorney who signed for Taft Service Solutions Corp. as the Hardworking Ohioans’ incorporator and agent for service, has not responded to a request for comment.

The bankruptcy court’s required disclosure statement also calls only for Murray Energy to indicate whether it had communications from authorities about the federal criminal case. It does not require any statements about communications the coal company, its officers or directors may have had with the defendants named in that case, including Ohio Rep. Larry Householder, a Republican from Glenford.

There have at least been some contacts over the years, although topics of any discussions are unknown. For example, an attendee list from an executive roundtable at a 2015 conference for Republican governors shows both defendant Jeff Longstreth and attorney Eric Lycan as guests of Murray Energy. Jamie Corey, a senior researcher at the watchdog group Documented, uncovered the material from a public records request. Lycan has been treasurer of both Generation Now and the Growth and Opportunity PAC, which are alleged to have funneled money in the federal court case.

“Federal authorities have made clear that their investigation into the events surrounding the passage of House Bill 6, which benefited Murray Energy, is ongoing and they will follow the evidence where it leads,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy & Policy Institute.

The lack of information is compounded by a $15.7 million settlement of claims an unsecured creditors’ group had made this spring. At that time, the creditors’ group alleged that company officers had been “grossly overcompensated” and that members of the Murray family had used the company as their personal “piggy bank.” The company had denied the allegations, stating that its claims were “baseless and concocted.”

A July 29 filing in the case includes stipulations that the settlement would be in the best interests of Murray Energy and its creditors. However, the settlement also means there won’t be more public inquiry into the issues it resolves.

“Investigations within Murray Energy's bankruptcy case have identified a larger pot of contributions made between 2016 and 2019 that has not been fully disclosed publicly,” Anderson said. “The bankruptcy court could simply request that the results of these investigations be made public, rather than suppressed as part of a settlement agreement.”

“Ultimately the Murray Energy bankruptcy has broad implications for things like mine clean up funds that are a matter of public concern, and the public deserves to know how this private company spent itself into bankruptcy,” Anderson added.

The bigger question beyond the bankruptcy case is the way companies and others use different organizations to engage in political activity without being upfront with the public about what they’re doing, Turcer said. And that applies, in her view, whether the spending is done through a for-profit limited liability corporation, a tax-exempt group known as a 501(c)(4) corporation, or another type of entity.

“It’s completely infuriating that these entities that are claiming they need to go bankrupt are willing to make investments in political advertisements — and that they expect to operate in secret, so that their debtors wouldn’t even have information about what they’re up to,” Turcer said.

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