MAY 8, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


US CRIMINAL JUSTICE TODAY

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/04/watch-live-sanders-joins-philly-da-larry-krasner-roundtable-discussion-americas
Published on
Friday, May 04, 2018
byCommon Dreams

VIDEO -- Watch Live: Sanders Joins Philly DA Larry Krasner for Roundtable Discussion on America's 'Broken' Criminal Justice System
"There can be no debate, whether you are a conservative or liberal or something in between, that we have a broken criminal justice system," Sanders said
byCommon Dreams staff

TEXT AND VIDEO – PANEL DISCUSSION

CAPTION -- The discussion featured author and professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, host of "The Dig" podcast Daniel Denvir, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, and Civil Rights Corps litigation director Premal Dharia for a roundtable discussion on possible solutions to America's mass incarceration crisis. (Photo: Facebook/Screengrab)

As America's major television networks featured wall-to-wall coverage of President Donald Trump's unhinged speech before the NRA convention in Texas on Friday, a substantive discussion on an immensely consequential issue was simultaneously taking place in Philadelphia—a discussion that received virtually no attention from the corporate media.

Denouncing a criminal justice system that "incarcerates 2.2 million people and disproportionately incarcerates people of color," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, author and professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Civil Rights Corps litigation director Premal Dharia for a roundtable conversation on possible solutions to America's mass incarceration crisis.

"There can be no debate, whether you are a conservative or liberal or something in between, that we have a broken criminal justice system," Sanders said during the discussion, moderated by Daniel Denvir, host of "The Dig" podcast.

Watch live:

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ROUNDTABLE
POSTED BY US SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
FRIENDS: Help Us Fight
Independent journalism has become the last firewall against government and corporate lies. Yet, with frightening regularity, independent media sources are losing funding, closing down or being blacked out by Google and Facebook.
Never before has independent media been more endangered. If you believe in Common Dreams, if you believe in people-powered independent media, please support us now and help us fight—with truths—against the lies that would smother our democracy. Please help keep Common Dreams alive and growing. Thank you. -- Craig Brown, Co-founder



https://www.aclu.org/bio/udi-ofer
UDI OFER
Deputy National Political Director and Director of Campaign for Smart Justice,
ACLU

Udi Ofer is the Deputy National Political Director of the ACLU and Director of the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, which is dedicated to ending mass incarceration in the United States. At the ACLU, he oversees the legislative and advocacy strategies to reduce the nation’s incarcerated populations by 50 percent and to challenge racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Ofer is also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Ofer brings more than 15 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer to the ACLU. From 2013-2016, he served as Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey. Under his leadership the organization achieved historic victories on a variety of issues, including overhauling New Jersey’s broken bail system, creating one of the nation’s strongest police civilian review boards in Newark, banning the use of solitary confinement as punishment of juveniles, and launching a bipartisan campaign to tax and regulate marijuana. From 2003-2013, he worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he founded the Advocacy Department. There he challenged the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices and spearheaded the successful effort to pass legislation banning racial profiling by the NYPD and creating an NYPD Inspector General’s office.

Ofer began his legal career in 2001 as a Skadden Fellow at My Sisters’ Place, a domestic violence organization. He was as an adjunct professor at New York Law School from 2009-2012, and has published widely including in the Seton Hall Law Review, Columbia Law School Journal of Race and Law, and New York Law School Law Review. Ofer’s work and commentary has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and hundreds of news outlets. He has testified before numerous legislatures, including the United States Senate, and is frequently cited as an expert on criminal justice matters. Ofer is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 2007, Fordham Law School’s Stein Scholars Program presented Ofer with its Distinguished Graduate Award.

UDI'S BLOG POSTS
9 Major Insurance Companies Are Profiting the Most Off the Broken Bail System
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
Big Corporations Make Millions by Selling People a Chance to Get Out of Jail
JANUARY 16, 2018
Ending Mass Incarceration Is a Winner for Politicians
JANUARY 15, 2018
We Can’t End Mass Incarceration Without Ending Money Bail
DECEMBER 11, 2017
ACLU Poll Finds Americans Reject Trump’s Tough-on-Crime Approach
NOVEMBER 16, 2017



IF YOU FEEL PEPPY RATHER THAN SLEEPY AND YOU WANT TO READ SOMETHING IMPORTANT, BUT EXHAUSTING, GO TO THIS WEBSITE. I DON’T FEEL PEPPY ENOUGH TO READ IT, BUT FROM WHAT I DID READ, IT’S VERY COGENT AND NOT OVERLY CHALLENGING VERBALLY. IT IS TALKING ABOUT THE DIVIDES BETWEEN THE RIGHT, THE LEFT AND THE MIDDLE.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/normcore-trump-resistance-books-crisis-of-democracy
Normcore
Channeling the anti-Trump #Resistance, a slew of recent books seeks to reduce democracy to a defense of political “norms.” But overcoming today’s crisis will take more political imagination.
Jedediah Purdy ▪ Summer 2018




“... THE POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SANDERS HAS BUILT WITH HIS ORGANIZATION, OUR REVOLUTION, WHICH HELPS PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES WIN ELECTED OFFICE, HAS DOZENS OF LOCALS GROUPS AROUND THE NATION READY TO WORK ON HIS BEHALF.” AS FOR CONVINCING BLACK PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR HIM, HE IS BEGINNING BY LISTENING TO THEIR TAKE ON THEIR PROBLEMS. THAT’S SOMETHING THAT WHITE PEOPLE VERY FREQUENTLY JUST DON’T DO.

IT WAS VERY INTERESTING TO ME THAT AFTER THE DNC DECLARED ITS’ VICTORY OVER SANDERS IN 2016, THEY TRIED TO CONVINCE HIM TO GIVE THEM HIS MAILING LIST IN RETURN FOR A RESPECTED POSITION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. ALWAYS THE CANNY OPERATOR, HE DECLINED. HE BUILT HIS STRUCTURE OF MASS COMMUNICATION JUST AS THE ROMANS BUILT THEIRS. ENGLAND, AND PROBABLY OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE HAVE ROMAN ROADS STILL IN USE TODAY. IF THEY NEEDED A BRIDGE THEY BUILT IT. THE THOROUGHNESS OF THAT APPROACH IS IMPRESSIVE.

https://www.theroot.com/bernie-sanders-is-trying-to-get-race-right-1825787761
Bernie Sanders Is Trying to Get Race Right
Terrell Jermaine Starr
MAY 5, 2018 4:11pm

PHOTOGRAPH -- Princeton Prof. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, left, Daniel Denvir, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and Premal Dharia at a roundtable on criminal justice reform at Philadelphia Community Access Media
Screenshot: Bernie Sanders Facebook Livestream

One of the biggest criticisms against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016 was that he didn’t talk enough about race and racism. Ever cognizant and well-read on the intricacies of economic inequality, Sanders’ racial analysis was severely lacking in comparison, for the most part.

But on Friday at an invitation-only roundtable focused on criminal justice reform at Philadelphia Community Access Media, Sanders listened to academics, activists and the new, progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner talk about how racism plagues the city’s criminal justice system in an effort to better understand the issue. The roundtable is one of the many ways in which Sanders appears to be making up for his shortcomings in 2016.

For more than an hour, Jacobin’s Daniel Denvir moderated a conversation between Kransner, Princeton assistant professor of African-American Studies Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and director of litigation at Civil Rights Corps, Premal Dharia. Sanders listened a lot and commented when asked.

Taylor discussed the ways in which poverty makes minority and poor populations even more vulnerable to the ills of the criminal justice system, citing that racial and “poverty profiling” as primary culprits. [The U S government’s] Divesting from public education, hospitals and clinics have also driven and exacerbated poverty, she added. But Taylor stressed that economics and race have to be looked at equally to organize the best attack against the reasons why people of color are so easily criminalized.

Sanders listened attentively.

Krasner spoke very directly about what he felt has been the racist prosecutorial practices of past district attorneys in Philadelphia. He discussed how Frank Rizzo, a former mayor and police commissioner from the ’60s and ’70s—“a brutal and racist one at that,” Kransner added—allowed white-dominated police organizations to reign with legal abandon. Police officers were able to cover up misconduct and brutality, he said. But under his leadership, the prosecutor’s office is taking a new direction and undoing the legacy of those racist practices.

After the event, Taylor praised Sanders for coming to Philadelphia to listen to how racist policing and prosecuting impacts people of color.

“I think that him participating in a forum like this feels indicative of a desire to really figure out how to get race right,” she said. “I think it’s a goodwill gesture for him to come to a city like Philadelphia that has a huge problem with the criminal justice system to participate in a discussion about what reform would look like. His actual responses demonstrate that he’s taking these issues seriously.”

It would not be unreasonable to assume the Vermont senator appears to be testing the waters for another presidential run. “Much too early,” he said when The Root asked him if he’s running in 2020 as he dashed off to a rally. But it appears that he’s doing something more intentional. Sanders is trying to generate more black support. He lost the 2016 Pennsylvania primary to eventual Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton 55 percent to 43 percent, according to the New York Times; she won 70 percent of the black vote.

But Clinton isn’t running in 2016 and Sanders is the most popular politician in America, making him the clear Democratic frontrunner if he does decide to run. While popularity doesn’t equal votes, as I have written in the past, the political infrastructure Sanders has built with his organization, Our Revolution, which helps progressive candidates win elected office, has dozens of locals groups around the nation ready to work on his behalf. Not only did Our Revolution, led by Nina Turner, win big in the last election cycle in 2017, those candidates, many of whom are people of color, are primed to support Sanders in 2020.

Basically, his 2020 infrastructure is already taking form.

A few weeks ago, Sanders spoke at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference and was well-received. His appearance was widely viewed as a testing ground to see if there is enough black support for him. It is a well known fact that it is virtually impossible to win the Democratic nomination without the majority of black support. And whether Sanders acknowledges this or not, his appearances in New York City and in Philadelphia on Friday clearly indicate that he knows the path to the Democratic nomination will come with black folks’ blessing—especially black women.

Sharpton said Sanders’ appearance at NAN showed that he is making adjustments in how he is discussing inequality.

“He seemed to be making a real effort to reach out to black communities on the distinct issues that affect us because he had in the past dealt with class issues in an effective way,” Sharpton said. “But there is even in the class differences a difference between how blacks and whites are treated, even in low income. So, I think he is beginning to understand that you’ve got to deal with race and class, not just class.”

If he does decide to run, Sanders will have to keep doing roundtables like this—focusing on racism—across the nation, and calling it out explicitly. Though one person sitting in the small studio audience on Friday felt that Sanders has been committed to taking on racism in the criminal justice system from the very beginning.

Donte Rollins, who was exonerated in 2016 after spending 10 years in jail for a shooting in Philadelphia he did not commit, said he watched Sanders presidential campaign from prison and would have voted for him if he could have. Now that he is free, Rollins hopes Sanders will run again, so he can cast his ballot for the Vermont senator.

“What he said today was the same thing he said when he was trying to run,” Rollins said. “He ain’t switch off his position with that.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terrell Jermaine Starr
Terrell Jermaine Starr is a senior reporter at The Root. He is currently writing a book proposal that analyzes US-Russia relations from a black perspective.



BERNIE THE ACTOR -- A SURPRISING BIT OF SANDERS’ SHOWMANSHIP, RARELY SEEN. LOOK AT HIS RENDITION OF A LOCAL RABBI SPEAKING AT A JEWISH WEDDING. IT REALLY IS FUNNY, IF NOT QUITE PROFESSIONAL LEVEL. HE LEFT OUT A WORD IN HIS SPEECH AND WENT BACK TO CORRECT IT. IT’S A SPOOF OF A CERTAIN KIND OF RELIGIOUS JEW, AND UTTERED WITH GOOD HUMORED FUN THAT I THINK EVEN JEWS WON’T THINK IS RUDE. SANDERS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS JEW, THOUGH HE DID SPEND SEVERAL YEARS IN HIS YOUTH IN A KIBBUTZ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZtWWbbQVLY



MUELLER V TRUMP CAMP

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mueller-rejects-potus-request-to-answer-questions-in-writing/
CBS NEWS May 7, 2018, 7:12 PM
Last Updated May 8, 2018 6:30 AM EDT
Mueller rejects Trump request to answer questions in writing

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is now on President Trump's legal team, told CBS News correspondent Paula Reid Monday that special counsel Robert Mueller's office has rejected proposals to allow Mr. Trump to answer questions from investigators in writing.

The president's legal team has signaled that this would be their preferred format for a possible interview, since it helps protect Mr. Trump from the possibility of lying or misleading investigators, which is a criminal offense.

Giuliani told CBS News it will take up to three weeks for him to get fully up to speed on the facts of the investigation and be prepared to engage in formal negotiations with the special counsel about the terms of a possible interview with Mr. Trump.

Giuliani told Reid that he and the president's legal team continue to be in communication with the special counsel, but that he wants to have a better sense of the facts before engaging in formal negotiations about a possible interview.

Giuliani said Mr. Trump's team also wants some issues to be off-limits, although he wouldn't elaborate on which ones, and they want a time limit for the interview.

In addition, Giuliani also told Reid he'd want to know whether the interview would become public, and whether they would have the chance to issue a rebuttal to anything alleged by the special counsel.

If they can come to an agreement on the terms of an interview, Giuliani says he would like to wait until after the North Korea summit to prepare Mr. Trump. He believes that it would take several days to prepare the president for this kind of interview and he would not want to take him away from preparing for talks with North Korea.

If negotiations are not successful and Mr. Trump is subpoenaed, he will fight it, Giuliani said. The case would likely end up at the Supreme Court.

Giuliani is not suggesting that Mr. Trump would ignore a subpoena, but rather that they will use it as another opportunity to negotiate an interview on their terms. If that does not work, they will challenge it in court.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



DOES TRUMP, OR DOESN’T HE, “HAVE TO COMPLY?” WE SHALL SEE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rudy-giuliani-says-trump-doesnt-have-to-comply-with-a-special-counsel-subpoena/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS May 6, 2018, 10:42 AM
Rudy Giuliani says Trump doesn't have to comply with a special counsel subpoena

VIDEO – STORMY QUESTIONS

Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump's attorneys, said Sunday that his client doesn't have to comply with a subpoena from the special counsel's office and instead "can assert the same privileges other presidents have." This comes as the Washington Post reported this week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has told the president's lawyers that Mr. Trump might be subpoenaed if he doesn't agree to answer investigators' questions.

Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump's attorneys, said Sunday that his client doesn't have to comply with a subpoena from the special counsel's office and instead "can assert the same privileges other presidents have." This comes as the Washington Post reported this week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has told the president's lawyers that Mr. Trump might be subpoenaed if he doesn't agree to answer investigators' questions.

Asked on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" if he would recommend that the president sit down for an interview with investigators, Giuliani said, "Not after the way they've acted. I came into this case with the desire to do that, and they just keep convincing me not to do that."

"They're trying to trap-- you couldn't put a lawyer on the show who wants to keep his law license to tell you he should testify," he said.

He added, "I wouldn't be an attorney if I did that, I'd live in some kind of unreal fantasy world that everyone tells the truth."

Giuliani also said that he can't be confident the president won't invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if he speaks with the special counsel.

"I've got a client who wants to testify please, he said it yesterday, and Jay Sekulow and I said yesterday, 'I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk that he's taking,' so he may testify, we may actually work things out with Bob Mueller because working it out directly is good," said Giuliani.

On Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters he'd "love to" speak with Mueller about the Russia investigation but will only do so if he can be "treated fairly."

"I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me," added Mr. Trump.

As for whether the president's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, would cooperate with Mueller's team, Giuliani said he expects him to cooperate but that he "doesn't have any incriminating evidence about the president or himself." The former New York City mayor told ABC that a pardon for Cohen was also "obviously not on the table."

"That's not a decision to be made now, there's no reason to be made now. It has not been discussed, and would not be discussed," Giuliani said.

Meanwhile, when asked if Cohen made any payments to other women on behalf of the president besides adult film star Stormy Daniels, Giuliani said, "I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes."

Giuliani added that Cohen regularly "made payments for the president, he conducted business for the president."

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



AS MOST OF US GET OLDER, WE DO TEND TO LOOK BACK TO THE PAST WHEN WE WERE YOUNG. MY PIEDMONT AREA OF NORTH CAROLINA HAD LOTS OF THOSE SMALL TO TINY TOWNS WITH A FEW REMAINDERS OF HOUSES AND BUSINESSES. MY GREAT GREAT AUNT’S HOUSE, STILL IN USE IN 1950, CONSISTED OF ONE SMALL MAIN ROOM WITH TWO TINY ATTACHED BEDROOMS AND AN EQUALLY TINY SEPARATE KITCHEN. KITCHENS IN THOSE DAYS WERE USUALLY SEPARATE BECAUSE OF THE DANGER OF FIRE. THERE WAS A COVERED WALKWAY FOR RAINY DAYS SO YOUR FRESHLY MADE BREAD WOULDN’T GET WET! THAT’S ONE OF THOSE “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEYS” FOR ME.

I WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE, AS I STILL DO, IN GREAT DEPTH, AND GOING TO THE SITE OF THEIR LIVES IS MY FAVORITE WAY TO DO THAT – UNLESS IN A TRUNK SOMEWHERE THERE ARE OLD LETTERS, A BOOK SIGNED BY AN EVEN MORE DISTANT RELATIVE, AN OLD CUP AND SAUCER, ETC. THAT, BY THE WAY, IS WHAT I REALLY LIKE MOST ABOUT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. I FEEL THAT “LIFE” CLINGS TO OBJECTS IN AN INVISIBLE BUT PALPABLE WAY.

IT’S LIVING HISTORY. IF YOU PICK UP THAT OLD ITEM AND HOLD IT, YOU MAY GET AN IMAGE OF LIFE IN 1870 OR SO. TO ME, THAT IS JUST AS “REAL” AS THE CHAIR I’M SITTING IN RIGHT NOW, JUST NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT. I DO HAVE THAT FEELING FOR THE “SPIRIT” OF A PLACE AND TIME THAT SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO LACK. NO, WE SHOULDN’T “LIVE” IN THE PAST TO AN UNHEALTHY DEGREE, BUT IF WE DON’T RESPECT THE PEOPLE AND THE LIFE FORCE THAT REMAINS THERE, IT’S EASY TO STOP CARING ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT BLING. WHAT A BORING WAY TO EXIST. KING MIDAS AND OLD SCROOGE ARE NOT GOOD COMPANY FOR ME, SO I HAVE RETAINED MY SPIRITUAL LINKS. IF THAT MAKES SOMEONE THINK I’M A NUT CASE, THEN THEY CAN JUST STAY AWAY AND WE WON’T SEE EACH OTHER ANYMORE.

THE PRESERVATIONIST INSTINCT THAT STILL LIVES AMONG US IN THE USA IS SOMETHING I PRIZE HIGHLY. RIPPING EVERYTHING DOWN AND BUILDING SOMETHING NEW THERE SADDENS ME GREATLY. DESTROYING THE IRREPLACEABLE ANGERS ME DEEPLY, AND THAT IS THE TREND OF THE MONEYED WORLD.

IN THOSE NOOKS AND CRANNIES WHERE I-95 HASN’T PENETRATED YET ARE GREAT PLACES FOR A LEISURELY ROAD TRIP IN SMALL TOWNS OR HISTORIC CITIES. IF YOU HAVE NO PATIENCE FOR WAITING AT A STOPLIGHT, THEN THIS ARTICLE WILL PROBABLY BORE YOU. BEST TO YOU ALL, BUT I’M GOING TO STAY HERE IN DENTON, NC, OR OLD SALEM, NC, AND SOAK UP THE SCENERY A LITTLE WHILE LONGER.

SUGGESTED SITES TO VISIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Salem -- MORAVIAN COMMUNITY, WINSTON-SALEM, NC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugtown_Pottery -- SEAGROVE, NC

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-small-town-america-in-renewal/
CBS NEWS May 6, 2018, 9:46 AM
Small town America in renewal

We hear it over and over again: America is a house divided, split between trendy metropolitan areas enjoying a boom, and smaller cities and towns stuck in a downward spiral. It's a familiar story, but is it entirely true? Not according to a pair of travelers who've taken flight to towns on the rebound, as Lee Cowan reports in our Cover Story:

A good craft beer starts with good water, and Duluth, Minnesota, sits on the shores of the some of the best. Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, is what helped make Duluth … Duluth. It's how its iron ore, grain and timber made its way to world markets.

But then came the industrial decline, and Duluth became just another rust belt community suffering an economic hangover.

It turns out, however, that Lake Superior has just the right balance of minerals to make a pretty good pilsner, and in 2013 Laura Mullen and Bryon Tonnis, along with their spouses, thought this flat Duluth neighborhood had the potential to fizz again.

"There was a billboard 10 or 20 years ago that said, 'Will the last one leaving Duluth turn out the light,'" said Mullen. "There was this mentality that there were no jobs, and I definitely felt that, too. I said, 'I have to create my own job if I'm coming back up here.'"

As soon as the Bent Paddle Brewery opened its doors, it helped a decaying part of Duluth became a destination. Restaurants and retail followed, owned by other young entrepreneurs carving out a new life in a town many had written off.

small-towns-bent-paddle-brewing-co-duluth-620.jpg
The scene at the Bent Paddle Brewery in Duluth. CBS NEWS

"There's definitely a bit of a wave of people moving back that have lived here in the past," said Tonnis, "looking at new opportunities, and kind of thinking outside of the box to try and figure out how to make a good living here."

That kind of neighborhood comeback doesn't generally make national headlines, but James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, has a soft-spot for micro-brews – and he sees beer betterment as an intriguing piece to a larger economic puzzle.

"The existence of craft brews really is a marker of a town that's on the rise," said Fallows. "It employs hundreds of thousand of people across the country, so it's a real business that's making a real difference locally."

our-towns-cover.jpg
PANTHEON

He and his wife, Deb (an author in her own right), were in Duluth doing research for a book they co-wrote called "Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America" (Pantheon), a travelogue of sorts of what they describe as a journey into the heart of America.

It started back in 2013, when they posted a request on The Atlantic's website asking readers to suggest towns they could visit that offered examples of America on the rise.

"We got a tsunami of replies," said Deborah. "And it wasn't just naming your town; it was these long, heartfelt, descriptive narrations of the stories of their towns. So, I think that was the point where we thought, We're onto something here."

Whatever it was that was happening, the Fallowses thought it was telling a different story about America than the prevailing national narrative that the fabric of the country is unraveling. Instead, they found an almost universal determination to stitch things back together.

The common thread was looking at the old with new eyes.

Two brothers from Minneapolis took what used to be Duluth's concrete burial vault factory and helped raise it from the dead. Now it's the home of Loll Designs, which fabricates vibrantly-colored outdoor furniture in an eco-friendly way.

"It's a hundred percent recycled from milk jugs," CEP Greg Benson said of his products.

small-towns-a-factory-and-bikers-promo.jpg
The shells of factories have gained a second life in Duluth, and brought vibrancy back to this former industrial powerhouse. CBS NEWS

Benson also started Epicurean, the maker of cutting boards and other gourmet kitchen utensils all made out of an environmentally-friendly wood composite.

"People here, we recognize there's something happening here, and I don't think it's just because we're prideful of this place," Benson said. "I mean, there really is something happening here."

It's not just Duluth, of course. The Fallowses saw similar things happening in towns all across the country.

Jim happens to be a pilot. He figured if he and Deb were heading to "fly-over country," what better way to do it than by flying themselves? The whole idea of fly-over America is just the opposite; we felt like we were flying into America," Fallows said.

For four years, they hopscotched to places reporters don't generally go unless there's a natural disaster or a presidential campaign -- places like Redmond, Oregon; Spearville, Kansas; St. Mary's, Georgia – nearly 50 towns in all.

a-view-of-america-from-above-620.jpg
A view of America from above. CBS NEWS

Their plane was a Cirrus SR 22, which coincidentally is yet another Duluth success story. The aircraft maker moved its headquarters to Duluth back in the mid-'90s, and it grew fast.

"It was a major, major factor in the town's modern emergence," Jim Fallows said.

Nearly everywhere the Fallows landed, there were nuggets of success like that to boast about – new industry, innovations in education, expansion of public art, all of it mixed into a stew of re-invention that seemed to present a view of the country that was far more optimistic than the one you might get if your window on the world were just cable news.

"In a non-sappy, non-saccharine way, there are people who are aware of the national and regional and urban problems, but feel as if they're making headway," Fallows said.

That was certainly true in Greenville, South Carolina. It's a community about the same size as Duluth that had also lost its dominant industry: textile manufacturing.

Early on, civic leaders began trying to recruit other industries to replace it. GE was one of the first to accept the invitation. Then came Michelin, and most recently BMW. But the heart of Greenville, its downtown, needed a shot in the arm, too.

"The first thing that towns seem to sit down and do, when they're serious about trying to make improvements, is figure out who they are," said Deborah.

One feature that made Greenville what it was was the Reedy River. It spun many a mill wheel over the years. and longtime Mayor Knox White had an idea to use that legacy to bring downtown Greenville back.

"The beautiful waterfall was covered by a four-lane highway bridge for 40 years," Mayor White said. "Most people who had lived in Greenville all their lives had never seen the waterfall."

He convinced fiscal conservatives to tear down that otherwise perfectly good bridge to expose the falls once again.

"It was a very hard sell that we're going to spend money to build a beautiful park around a waterfall you've never seen, trust us … until they did it," White said.

This is the result: an elegant pedestrian bridge replaced the highway, and a jogging path now winds its way along the river. Trees and flowers sprouted.

small-towns-greeneville-sc-waterfall-620.jpg
The waterfall in Greenville, S.C., was freed of a bridge that hid its beauty. CBS NEWS

Nearby downtown sprouted, too. Shuttered textile mills have become apartments and art galleries. It is, say the Fallowses, civic resurgence at its best. "Long term-visioned people in all the different sectors working together to say what will this town look like a generation from now," said Jim.

Not that the places they visited don't have their troubles. But it was the creativity, compassion and generosity of small town America that, to the Fallowses, were the driving forces behind how the country was remaking itself one town at a time.

"I think maybe the surprise factor was how hard people are trying to solve their problems or make things better or make things right," said Deb.

"It's not all doom-and-gloom?" Cowan asked.

"It is definitely not all gloom-and-doom," Jim replied. "We've got our big problems, but the country has not lost what made it America to begin with."

For more info:

"Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America" by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows (Pantheon), available via Amazon
James Fallows, The Atlantic
Bent Paddle Brewery, Duluth, Minn.
Loll Designs, Duluth, Minn.
Epicurean, Superior, Wis.
City of Duluth, Minn.
City of Greenville, S.C.