Latest news with #MikeTrapp
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Protestors stand against CoreCivic ICE facility in Leavenworth
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A group opposing the possible opening of an ICE detention facility in Leavenworth, Kansas gathered Saturday morning, July 19. The CoreCivic Opposition Group of Leavenworth (CCOG – LV) led the 'Pots and Pans March' at 9:30 a.m., protesting the proposed opening of a private, for-profit ICE facility. The march was organized by Leavenworth residents, as well as some from around the area. CoreCivic would make $4.2M a month running ICE detention center in Leavenworth One of the organizers, Mike Trapp, described how he's seen the group grow over time. 'There were four of us at our first meeting,' he explained. 'Then we had a roundtable discussion where we brainstormed ways we could impact and got more people involved, and out of that event, this march arose.' Others who attended the protest explained their reasons for protesting, sharing that immigrants are 'neighbors, not criminals.' 'I grew up in a very immigrant-dominant community and have so many immigrant family members and friends,' said Lynzie Clark, a demonstrator who came in to protest from out of town. 'I've watched my whole life the immigrant struggle and the impossible obstacles they put against the most loving and hard-working communities. None of these people deserve to be jailed for their birthplace. They are just like all of us. They're people.' Around three dozen people were seen protesting CoreCivic and its attempt to turn a former private prison into an ICE detention center. The protest comes after a Kansas City District Court judge temporarily blocked CoreCivic's plan. The judge sided with the City of Leavenworth that CoreCivic must first get the city's permission through zoning laws. 'I think it's great that they have actually responded well to trying to postpone and hold off and allowing them to roll in and take over with the CoreCivic facility,' said Nate Davis, who was seen at the protest. 'I hope that we can be the first of many for a rising movement for local communities to stand up to the authoritarian take down and the rule of law,' Trapp echoed. Judge hears motions from CoreCivic in Leavenworth lawsuit However, CoreCivic says they don't need that permission. 'We maintain the position that our facility, which we've operated for almost 30 years, does not require a Special Use Permit to care for detainees in partnership with ICE,' a release from Saturday reads. 'CoreCivic respects the judicial process and looks forward to the next steps in presenting our position to the court.' According to CoreCivic's website, a partnership with ICE would generate 300 new jobs, $2 million annual payouts to the city and no detainees would be released in Leavenworth. 'The overall economic impact on the community and local jobs seekers would be significant,' a spokesperson for CoreCivic shared Saturday. 'MRRC serving as a partner to ICE would create about 300 new, good-paying jobs with a starting salary of $28.25/hour. We've had a positive response from jobs seekers interested in these positions. As of July 1, we've had over 2,000 unique applicants who submitted over 3,000 applications for the open positions at MRRC. About 115 employees have been hired.' However, Trapp is standing strong. 'Leavenworth knows CoreCivic well and Leavenworth says no,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Devil Works Fast, but ‘Game Changer' Social Videos Are Working Even Faster in the Dropout Series' Latest Episode
It's not often that 'Game Changer' host Sam Reich is the person on the show's colorful set made to look anxious. But the latest episode of the Dropout series begins with not just a push-in but some vignetting on Reich as he stares down the barrel of the endless wheel of content creation, coming up with 'Game Changer' ideas one after the other, 'backing myself further and further into a corner where it's harder and harder to be original.' It's real Season 7 problems. Enter players Mike Trapp, Rekha Shankar, and Jordan Myrick, whom Reich deputized to produce the latest episode of 'Game Changer' — or really, to produce the things that keep 'Game Changer' inside of a virtuous cycle for online comedy series. The show's segments get broken out into social clips, and those that perform well drive viewers who discover 'Game Changer,' 'Make Some Noise,' or 'Dimension 20,' back to Dropout and the sweet, sweet, $7/month subscription fee that powers the platform. More from IndieWire 'Very Important People' Uses All the Tricks of TV To Unleash Great Improv How 'Worlds Beyond Number' Broke Battlefields, Hearts, and Also Pro Tools This episode would address that cycle head-on, offering the players/producers the opportunity to 'greenlight' potential viral videos pitched by other Dropout cast members and compete with each other for which videos will perform the best on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms. The conceit means that this is the first 'Game Changer' episode that will require an update, in about a month's time, to see who actually has won the game. Even for a show that delights in interrogating its own nature, it feels like an exciting escalation for 'Game Changer' to tackle its own social media shadow so explicitly. Cast members pitching ideas grapple with who among the Dropout team tends to go viral doing what — Myrick's deadpan 'Any clip with Brennan [Lee Mulligan] will go viral, so it kind of doesn't matter what you do,' is a highlight of the 'Shark Tank' style commentary the players provide as they debate ideas. But on the other hand, the Dropout team does put a lot of thought and care into crafting clips of 'Game Changer' episodes so they play well on social platforms. IndieWire reached out to Andrew Bridgman, Chief Digital Officer at Dropout, to ask about the team's approach to social videos and the challenges of 'Fool's Gold' specifically. Some of the effort is just the work of reframing, 'making decisions as to whether certain segments should be fullscreen vertical or letterboxed to show more of the original composition in a 9:16 frame,' Bridgman told IndieWire. Dropout also has a standardized style for captions, usually a manual process vs. automated CapCut-style captions, so they can better maintain accuracy (and occasionally slip in a joke about feudal shrieking). For 'Fool's Gold' specifically, the team had the challenge of creating ideal versions of the videos to play within the episode itself and to exist out in the wilds of the Internet. That meant making more editorial judgments about cutting, especially with the in-studio segments that had some time lag to them, like Paul Robalino's Operation Snake Skin or Erika Ishii's offer of side-shave real estate. 'There will be some small differences between some of the videos as we see them in the episode and the versions that live on across our social accounts,' Bridgman said. 'We sought some input from Grant [O'Brien], Izzy [Roland], Erika, and Lily [Du] in particular. There were some cases, like with Katie [Marovitch], Vic [Michaelis], Johnny [Stanton], and Anna [Garcia] (most of the outside the studio ones), where the finished product was so airtight there was no question of how it had to be presented.' All of the videos, however, went through multiple rounds of revision with the 'Game Changer' creative team, including Reich and Robalino, so that the timing on them is exactly right, the captions pop, and the pacing evokes the cheerful chaos of the show proper. Bridgman told IndieWire that adjustment is no hardship, however. 'If the original content is good enough, marketing doesn't have a lot of work to do to make it sing on social platforms,' Bridgman said. The success is already evident — Tumblr is, of course, already shipping characters from Marovitch's 'Dimension 20: On A Bus' video and demanding a full season, although it may require additional funding to secure Matthew 'Mark' Mercer's appearance fee for that one. But Bridgman refuses to pick a favorite among the 'Fool's Gold' clips. 'All of our social videos are perfect angels, whom we subject to the cold, merciless judgment of The Algorithm to establish value and worthiness of love,' Bridgman said. 'Game Changer' is available to stream on Dropout. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in July, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' The Best Lesbian Movies Ever Made, from 'D.E.B.S.' and 'Carol' to 'Bound' and 'Pariah' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme'
