Podcasts about public affairs research

#podcast #politics #immigration #Michigan #Education #InternationalStudents #Deportation #GovernmentCorruption #MAGA #Republicans #CorporateAuthoritariansm #Authoritarianism #LatinoVoters #Trump #Economy #Democrats #LeftOfLansing Here's the Left of Lansing "Monday Musing" for April 21, 2025. A new Gallop poll shows Americans are beginning to reject Dear Leader Trump on a host of issues, including his top issue of Immigration. Ryan Cooper of The American Prospect gives reasonings as to why Americans are no longer supporting his anti-Constitutional immigration disappearance program, but also why Latino-American voters are rejecting him even though many voted for him just five months ago. And this is why Democrats should've never ceded ground on immigration rather than choosing Trump-Lite on the issue. It didn't solve the issue, nor did it give them extra votes. Please, subscribe to the podcast, download each episode, and give it a good review if you can! leftoflansing@gmail.com Left of Lansing is now on YouTube as well! leftoflansing.com NOTES: "Trump scores better marks with the public on immigration than the economy." By  AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

AP correspondent Marcela Sanchez reports a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests fewer Americans see Canada as U.S. ally.

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A new poll shows that most Americans are exhausted by political news. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted the survey in early December. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit their media consumption regarding politics and government due to information overload.On Dec. 26, a Kremlin spokesperson commented on reports claiming that Russia's air defense had shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight on Christmas Day, causing a crash that killed 38 people on board. The spokesperson urged people to wait for the investigation to be completed before drawing any conclusions about the cause of the crash.Holiday travel across the United States faced major disruptions on Thursday due to severe weather. In Texas, nearly 90 flights were delayed, and over two dozen were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with additional delays at Dallas Love Field and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.Most of the costs associated with presidential inaugurations come from privately raised funds. In addition to the swearing-in ceremony, events typically include a parade and a ball, among others. So far, for the upcoming Trump inauguration, the largest donors have been tech companies.

A new poll shows that most Americans are exhausted by political news. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted the survey in early December. About two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit their media consumption regarding politics and government due to information overload. On Dec. 26, a Kremlin spokesperson commented on reports claiming that Russia's air defense had shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight on Christmas Day, causing a crash that killed 38 people on board. The spokesperson urged people to wait for the investigation to be completed before drawing any conclusions about the cause of the crash. Holiday travel across the United States faced major disruptions on Thursday due to severe weather. In Texas, nearly 90 flights were delayed, and over two dozen were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with additional delays at Dallas Love Field and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Most of the costs associated with presidential inaugurations come from privately raised funds. In addition to the swearing-in ceremony, events typically include a parade and a ball, among others. So far, for the upcoming Trump inauguration, the largest donors have been tech companies. ⭕️Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

(AURN News) — President Joe Biden's pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, faces strong disapproval across party lines, according to two major polls released recently as his presidency draws to a close. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds that 51% of Americans somewhat or strongly disapproved of Hunter Biden's pardon. The disapproval spans the political spectrum, with 27% of Democrats, 51% of Independents, and 80% of Republicans opposing the decision. A separate Monmouth University poll showed even stronger opposition, with 58% of Americans disapproving of the pardon. The survey revealed similar partisan divisions, with 24% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 81% of Republicans expressing disapproval. The Monmouth poll also indicates broader challenges for the outgoing president, showing only 34% of Americans approve of his overall job performance, while 61% disapprove. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump's favorability has reached a historical high, with a Real Clear Politics average of polls showing 49.4% approval as he prepares to return to office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process on Thursday for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act. It would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. The legislation has passed the House. The bill would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds, which are already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. The measure would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for high-level positions in his administration face scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts.  WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI should have done more to collect intelligence before the Capitol riot even though the bureau did prepare for the possibility of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a watchdog report. It also says no undercover FBI employees were present that day and none of the bureau’s informants was authorized to participate.  KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones in Friday's bombardments.  Stanley is recalling approximately 2.6 million of its switchback and trigger action stainless steel travel mugs sold in the U.S. because of a potential burn hazard.  Dick Vitale said he’s cancer-free after his fourth bout with the disease in just over three years. The 85-year-old ESPN college basketball analyst posted Thursday on X that he got the news after a morning scan, saying: “SANTA CLAUS came early as Dr Rick Brown called & said that my PET SCAN at 7 AM came back CLEAN OF CANCER !” Vitale posted on X. NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday it's capping overdraft fees at $5 with a rule set to take effect in October 2025, if it isn't overturned by Congress or altered under a Trump administration. President Joe Biden had called the fees, which can be as high as $35, “exploitative,” while the banking industry has lobbied extensively to keep the existing fee structures in place. In other news: Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast. Trump is named Time's Person of the Year and rings the New York Stock Exchange's opening bell. Meta donates $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. US senator says mysterious drones spotted in New Jersey should be 'shot down, if necessary.' Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing. NATO chief warns that Putin wants long-term confrontation with Europe after Ukraine. Stock market today Wall Street’s rally stalls as Nasdaq pulls back from its record. Elon Musk wants to turn SpaceX's Starbase site into a Texas city. US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated. Average rate on 30-year mortgage hits 6.6%, its third straight weekly decline. Country star Morgan Wallen sentenced in chair-throwing case. 3 men say in lawsuits that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them. The Rams close in on the Seahawks by beating the Niners, North Carolina makes it official with Belichick, Celtics roll without Tatum, Oilers blast Wild behind Draisait. US Olympic and Paralympic officials put coach on leave after AP reports sexual abuse allegations. Wander Franco's sex abuse trial has been postponed 5 months. Crown of Thorns returns to Notre Dame cathedral for public veneration. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare has made it clear he isn't going to make things easy for authorities. Luigi Mangione shouted unintelligibly and writhed in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court Tuesday. And he objected to being taken to New York to face trial.  MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Weather conditions are forecast to improve this week in Southern California and aid firefighters in their battle against a wildfire that’s forced up to 20,000 people from their homes. Celebrities, including performers Cher, Dick Van Dyke and his wife, were among the evacuees. WASHINGTON (AP) — Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter after earlier promising he'd do no such thing. That's according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A federal judge has rejected the sale of the conspiracy platform Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet after Alex Jones claimed that a recent bankruptcy auction was fraught with illegal collusion. The Onion was named the winning bidder on Nov. 14 over a company affiliated with Jones. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez’s decision Tuesday night means Jones can stay at Infowars in Austin, Texas. NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s is reporting a decline in profits and sales for its third quarter with many customers of the department store chain continuing to divert spending to basics like groceries amid elevated prices. Company shares tumbled 7% before the opening bell Wednesday.  In other news: Key details about the man accused of killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO. DA suggests unusual idea for halting Trump’s hush money case while upholding his conviction. Biden says he was 'stupid' not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump did. Task force probing attempts to kill Trump urges Secret Service to limit protection of foreigners. US says it will support new Syrian leaders who protect women and renounce terrorism. Woman killed in crash as officer responds to threat at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's home. FBI says 2 Homeland Security agents in Utah sold illegal drugs for profit through informant. Stock market today: Wall Street slips to a rare back-to-back loss. Proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons is halted by federal, state judges. Homes burn as wind-driven wildfire prompts evacuations in Malibu, California. Nikki Giovanni, poet and literary celebrity, has died at 81. The Bucks and Thunder advance to the NBA Cup semi-finals, AP top-ranked Tennessee beats Miami, the Yankees and lefty Max Freid agree to a big-money contract of historic proportions, and PGA star Scottie Scheffler wins another award.  Taiwan demands that China end its military activity in nearby waters. Ex-defense chief in South Korea tried to kill himself after being arrested over martial law. Organized crime gangs expanded into a third of cities in Brazil’s Amazon, report finds. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Today, we bring you a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This episode features host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. The United States is electing its next president on November 5 and according to a poll published this week, Israelis massively favor Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. So ahead of next week's results, we take a closer look at exactly how Israelis are polling, which candidate they favor — and some reasons why. We also learn how the current polling matches previous surveys of Israelis ahead of past US elections and who was actually elected in the end. We also hear from Rettig Gur, who has been touring Jewish communities over the past week, what concerns he's gathered about both candidates from the American Jews he's spoken with. And finally, we look at the recently published AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of Americans which, among other things, drills down into the US population's partisan divide on all things Israel and the Middle East. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now? For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Poll shows Israelis massively favor Trump over Harris in US election Poll: Democrats, Republicans split on Israel's responsibility for war's escalation Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: This combination of pictures shows US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) speaking during a Get Out the Vote rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 2024; and former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. The United States is electing its next president on November 5 and according to a poll published this week, Israelis massively favor Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. So ahead of next week's results, we take a closer look at exactly how Israelis are polling, which candidate they favor -- and some reasons why. We also learn how the current polling matches previous surveys of Israelis ahead of past US elections and who was actually elected in the end. We also hear from Rettig Gur, who has been touring Jewish communities over the past week, what concerns he's gathered about both candidates from the American Jews he's spoken with. And finally, we look at the recently published AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of Americans which, among other things, drills down into the US population's partisan divide on all things Israel and Middle East. So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now? What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.  IMAGE: This combination of pictures shows US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) speaking during a Get Out the Vote rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 2024, and former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024. (Angela Weiss / AFP)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans are feeling a lot of emotions heading into Election Day, but excitement is not one of them. A new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in 10 Americans report feeling anxious or frustrated about the 2024 presidential campaign, and a similar share say they’re interested. Only about one-third say they feel excited. About 7 in 10 Americans say “anxious” describes how they are feeling ahead of Tuesday. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris crisscrossed several swing states on Wednesday, passing each other in Wisconsin, where the former president appeared in Green Bay with a one-time local icon, retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre. Mumford & Sons, Gracie Abrams, Remi Wolf and members of the band The National appeared at Harris’ rally Wednesday night in Madison. PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge is set to hold a hearing in the city prosecutor’s bid to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day sweepstakes in battleground states. The giveaways come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign through Election Day.  People prone to seasonal depression are bracing themselves as winter approaches. Many have found strategies to get through the dark days. Depression that begins in the fall and eases in the spring or summer is called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.  In other news: Democrats are leaning on celebrity star power. Will it matter? Abortion-rights groups outspend opponents by more than 6 to 1 in ballot measure campaigns. Presidential candidates fight for battleground Nevada. Supreme Court's conservative justices allow Virginia to resume its purge of voter registrations. Donald Trump boards a garbage truck to draw attention to Biden remark. Nicky Jam withdraws endorsement of Donald Trump over comedian's 'garbage' comment about Puerto Rico. Report says crowd-sourced fact checks on X fail to address flood of US election misinformation. Teen Trump supporter charged with threatening Harris backers at polling place with machete. Police say the man behind ballot box fires has metalworking experience and might plan more attacks. More former cadets accuse US Coast Guard Academy of failing to prevent campus sexual assaults. US economy grew at a solid 2.8% pace last quarter on strength of consumer spending. California voters consider controversial vacation homes tax in iconic Lake Tahoe area. The Dodgers win the World Series, White Sox tab Venable as manager, Commanders quarterback Daniels is recovering from injury, and the Celtics fall from the ranks of the NBA's unbeaten.  Saudi startup Riyadh Air orders 60 Airbus A321neo planes. A new push to wind down the Middle East wars faces familiar challenges. Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency's chief says. North Korea test-launches a suspected long-range missile designed to strike US, South Korea says. North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, US says. Russia and Ukraine exchange drone strikes as North Korea's top diplomat visits Moscow. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has hosted a rally featuring crude and racist insults at New York’s Madison Square Garden, turning what his campaign had dubbed as the event where he would deliver his closing message into an illustration of what turns off his critics. PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kamala Harris is seeking to energize voters in Philadelphia, a crucial Democratic stronghold. She needs strong turnout in the city to overcome Republican Donald Trump's strength in Pennsylvania's rural areas.  WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll finds that American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow. They are worried about the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the results and the implications for democracy. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research speaks to persistent concerns about the fragility of the world’s oldest democracy.  LOS ANGELES (AP) — McDonald's says testing has ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to its Quarter Pounders. The company said Sunday it will resume selling Quarter Pounders at hundreds of affected restaurants in the coming week. McDonald's said in a statement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to believe that slivered onions from a single supplier are the likely source of contamination.  RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (AP) — Egypt’s president says his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.  LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — The Rev. David Peck is an Episcopal priest in the heartland of Pennsylvania, a swing state at the center of the tense presidential election. As a result, he is teaching ancient prayer and meditation techniques to survive the political turmoil. In other news: Latin superstar Bad Bunny backs Harris for president after comedian's racist jokes at Trump event. Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally. Trump's deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally. Harris and Trump offer worlds-apart contrasts on top issues in presidential race. A century after Native Americans got the right to vote, they could put Trump or Harris over the top. An elections worker wanted to serve her country. A stew of conspiracy theories and vitriol awaited. Russian actors made fake video depicting mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed, FBI says. The 'Black Insurrectionist' was actually white. The deception did not stop there. Here's a look at Musk's contact with Putin and why it matters. Biden marks anniversary of Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11. Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said. This Halloween, be safe when trick-or-treating by watching for cars. It's almost Halloween. That means it's time for a bat beauty contest. 'Venom The Last Dance' misses projections as superhero films' grip on theaters loosens. AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta has the AP Entertainment Update, with news about Hallmark movie actors.. Timothée Chalamet crashes his own look-alike contest after police shut down crowded event. Phil Lesh, founding member of Grateful Dead and influential bassist, dies at 84. Hail Mary to the rescue in the NFL Sunday, quarterbacks enjoy some prolific performances around the league and will Shohei play in Game 3 of the World Series? US approves $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan including advanced missile defense system. The trajectory of Ukraine's fight against Russia hangs on the outcome of the US election. Artisan cheese seller in a pickle after thieves made off with massive cheddar haul. Russian forces thwart attempted cross-border assault from Ukraine, official says. Souls to the Polls battles Believers for Trump in wooing religious voters in the presidential election. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX

How elections forecasters became political 'prophets' Before there was a FiveThirtyEight model, or a New York Times election night needle, or 13 keys revealing "how presidential elections really work," there was an economist named Louis Bean. Bean achieved a sort of political fame for a book he wrote in 1948 that suggested, contrary to conventional wisdom, that Democratic President Harry Truman was favored to win the election, not Republican Thomas Dewey, the governor of New York. "It is here, presumably, where the experts fall out, that the tea leaves and intuition enter in," said a Times review of Bean's book, How to Predict Elections. "The intuitive school has already counted Governor Dewey in by a landslide." Truman won. When Bean predicted that Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio), would lose reelection in 1950, The Washington Post printed the headline: "Political Prophet Sees Taft Defeat." Today, there are more of these "prophets" than ever. It may be no surprise that people seek certainty before elections happen, given what they see as the stakes: One recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 7 in 10 Americans believe that the future of democracy is at stake in this year's presidential election, and another found that about 6 in 10 Americans described themselves as being "fearful" about the possibility of Democrat Kamala Harris winning, Republican Donald Trump winning, or both. Yet often the forecasters themselves are the first to push back on the characterization that they can tell you what's going to happen. "People I think are looking for oracles, right?" said Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight and author of the Silver Bulletin, a new site analyzing elections. "They're looking for people that seem to have some magic formula or have some almost quasi-mystical understanding of elections and trends." Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report, said he flinches "at the term 'prediction' because it suggests saying, 'I think Smith will win.'" But, Cook said, "In close races, how can someone say that without knowing precisely what will happen between now and the last vote is cast?" Most people, Cook said, "don't really understand probabilities, they want it to be definitive, either Smith or Jones, no hedging, no qualifying, no conditions, don't give me nuance" and "they want us to say something that is unknowable." In a recent column, the Cook Report's publisher and editor, Amy Walter, issued a "plea" to stop "attaching your hopes, dreams, and fears to one poll or a poll model on any given day." "Just take a breath and accept the fact that this election will be won on the margins," Walter said in an interview. Even Bean, whose election predictions made headlines for decades, cautioned against reading his analysis as gospel. A year before the 1968 election, he predicted, with a caveat, that Democratic President Lyndon Johnson would defeat Republican Richard Nixon: "If the Republicans win, you ought to forget it and say it was a good, tentative early analysis." Johnson ended up dropping out and his vice president, Humbert Humphrey, was the party's nominee. Nixon won. Nuanced analysis versus snappy headlines Before the 2022 midterms, a Q-and-A with David Wasserman appeared in New York Magazine with the headline "'A Category 2 or 3 Hurricane Headed Democrats' Way.'" The quote wasn't wrong. It just wasn't complete. "Today, we're somewhere between an asterisk year, where there's a minimal wave, and a classic midterm election, where Republicans do quite well," Wasserman said at the time. "I think this is probably a Category 2 or 3 hurricane headed Democrats' way, just not a Category 4 or 5." Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at the Cook Report, said he was trying to convey that, despite the conventional wisdom, a massive Republican wave wasn't imminent at all. But that's not how many readers interpreted the headline. Republicans ended up making only modest gains....

Siete de cada diez de los 1.072 votantes registrados en la más reciente encuesta de The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research señalan que Estados Unidos va en la dirección equivocada. Sin embargo, a la hora de definir a quién le iría mejor entre Kamala Harris y Donald Trump, el resultado es un empate técnico, con dos puntos de ventaja para el candidato republicano.

A poll can represent your opinion even if you weren't contacted for it Chances are, you have never been contacted for an election poll. But the dozens of high-quality election polls that will be released before Election Day, Nov. 5, represent a reasonable estimate of the opinions of all Americans. The best pollsters do that by ensuring they can randomly select the group of people who respond. That means each household in the United States has an equal chance of being included. Pollsters cannot reach every single household or even come close, so they assemble a group of people with the same range of political affiliations, ages, genders, educational backgrounds and locations as Americans overall. In other words: You may not have been contacted to participate in the latest poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago, but someone else who shares your background and outlook likely was. High-quality pollsters select people randomly to take surveys It is the concept of random selection that allows a relatively small group of survey participants to represent the country as a whole. Top-quality pollsters often start with lists of possible home addresses or telephone numbers, and then people are randomly selected from within that group. This is the kind of method that the AP uses in its polls conducted through the AP-NORC Center. Some pollsters use a different technique, where anyone who wants to participate in their panel can join it. But with that approach, there is less certainty that the group of people responding to any given poll - a "sample," pollsters call it - is randomly representative of a broader population. If the initial sample does not look like the country as a whole, some views could be overrepresented or underrepresented, making it harder to accurately capture the attitudes of the entire U.S. population. An individual's chance of being selected to participate is low Polls conducted by the AP through the AP-NORC Center use the AmeriSpeak panel, where households across the U.S. are randomly selected for the sample and then contacted to tell them about the panel. If the household agrees to participate, people complete an introduction survey that collects basic information and participate in polls between two times to three times each month. For this kind of poll, the odds of being randomly selected to participate are extremely low. There are about 130 million households in the U.S., so to start with, each individual household has only the tiniest chance of being chosen. Even once a household has been selected to participate, there is a relatively small chance of being selected for the surveys that are conducted by media organizations such as the AP-NORC poll. Pollsters make adjustments to make sure they're reflecting the population as a whole It is not a perfect system. Some groups are harder to reach or are less inclined to take surveys, such as nonwhite adults or people without a college education. To correct for that, pollsters magnify the responses of people who are part of those underrepresented groups to make sure the population percentages in the survey reflect the overall population and they lower the impact of people who are part of groups that are more likely to take surveys. This process is called "weighting." The goal is to make some responses count for more if their demographic characteristics are underrepresented in a survey and some count for less if people like them are overrepresented. To figure out which participants should get more weight and which should get less, pollsters use findings from the most accurate surveys out there, such as ones by the Census Bureau, to get a baseline for what the U.S. population actually looks like. Even this extra step cannot ensure that the group of people who are being surveyed is fully representative. That is why all high-quality pollsters will tell you about the margin of sampling error, which helps you underst...

Milton has strengthened into a major hurricane on a path toward Florida not even two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the state's coastline. Milton is expected to hit the densely populated Tampa metro area, which has about 3.3 million people. Traffic was thick on Interstate 75 heading north Monday as evacuees fled in advance of the Milton. WASHINGTON (AP) — Black registered voters have an overwhelmingly positive view of Vice President Kamala Harris. That's according to a recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 7 in 10 Black voters have a somewhat or very favorable view of Harris, with few differences between Black men and women voters on how they view the Democratic candidate. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to a Biden administration regulation on ghost guns, the difficult-to-trace weapons with an exponentially increased link to crime in recent years. Tuesday's case is centered on gun kits that are sold online and can be assembled into a functioning weapon in less than 30 minutes.  STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two pioneers of artificial intelligence have won the Nobel Prize in physics. John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the prize Tuesday for discoveries and inventions that formed the building blocks of machine learning.  DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of a Mega Millions lottery ticket will soon more than double, but officials said they’re confident players won’t mind paying more after changes that will lead to larger prizes and more frequent winners. Lottery officials announced Monday that it will cost $5 to play Mega Millions beginning in April. That is up from the current $2 per ticket.  In other news: Harris calls Trump 'incredibly irresponsible' for spreading misinformation about Helene response. FEMA administrator continues pushback against false claims as Helene death toll hits 230. Hurricane Milton is the latest blow in a bizarre hurricane season. Home insurers argue for a 42% average rate hike in North Carolina. Trump says migrants who have committed murder have introduced 'a lot of bad genes in our country'. Intelligence officials say US adversaries are targeting congressional races with disinformation. Federal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition. President Biden has marked the Hamas attack's first anniversary with a solemn ceremony. US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7. Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from singer R. Kelly, convicted of child sex crimes. Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban. Another top aide to New York City mayor resigns amid federal probe. Chicago mayor names new school board after entire panel resigns amid a fight over district control. Georgia Supreme Court halts ruling striking down state's near-ban on abortions as the state appeals. Michigan gun owner gets more than 3 years in prison for accidental death of grandson. American Water, the largest water utility in US, is targeted by a cyberattack. A spacecraft is on its way to a harmless asteroid slammed by NASA in a previous save-the-Earth test. Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's mother and a Grammy-winning singer, dies at 91. Road teams win in baseball's playoff games, Mahomes leads Chiefs to a victory, Jets' Rodgers has an ankle sprain, a win for college athletes, and an NFL player faces charges in Massachusetts. NCAA's $2.78 billion settlement with colleges to allow athlete payments gets preliminary approval. Middle East latest Israeli military says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike. Five Russian climbers die in a fall on the world’s seventh-highest peak. A Pakistani separatist group claims bombing that killed 2 Chinese near Karachi airport. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, is less popular among voters than his Democratic rival, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. More friend groups bought homes together in recent years, data show, especially those who couldn't afford to go it alone in the feverish pandemic housing market. There is the fantasy of hanging out around the fire pit together and splitting up solo weekends, all at a cut-rate. 

A recent poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk in the 2024 presidential election.

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found Click On Picture To See Larger PictureYouth unemployment is rising, the jobs situation is getting worse and more people are going to feel the pinch. The Fed sees that they beat inflation, the problem is the people are not buying it. Trump is telling companies if you move out of the US, 100-200 percent tariffs. Gold is telling a story on how the economy is doing. The [DS] is panicking, pedogate is being revealed, Schiff panics and says don't believe the deep fake pics and video. [DOJ]/[FBI] releases letter from 2nd Assassin, finish the job. The [DS] just gave the green light to their assassin teams to take Trump out. War, financial crisis, chaos are all on the horizon. Buckle up its going to get very bumpy and dark.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Economy https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1838000864952213515   by 3.1 percentage points. Such a material increase usually occurs during an economic downturn. Currently, 16% of 18 to 24 year-olds are neither employed nor enrolled in high school/college according to Fed data. When the labor market deteriorates, the youth are usually the first to feel it. The Fed sees its inflation fight as a success. Will the public eventually agree? With its larger-than-usual half-point cut to its key interest rate last week, the Federal Reserve underscored its belief that it's all but conquered inflation after three long years The public at large? Not so much. Consumer surveys, including one released Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, show that most Americans remain unhappy with the economy, still bruised by an inflation rate that hit a four-decade high two years ago as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession. Yet in the view of some economists, the shift toward steadily lower borrowing rates could eventually boost consumer sentiment. Inflation has sunk for more than two years and is nearly back down to the Fed's 2% target. Though that means overall prices are still rising, they're doing so much more slowly. Source: abcnews.com US Manufacturing PMI Plunges To 15-Month Lows; Prices Are Soaring Again  PMIs disappointed in the early September print with both Services and Manufacturing falling. S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI 47.0 (48.6 exp, 47.9 prior) - lowest since June 2023 S&P Global US Services PMI 55.4 (55.2 exp, 55.7 prior) - two-month lows     Stagflation Anyone... Not exactly what a 50-bps-rate-cutting Fed wants to see!!! Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1837869845117128820 TAKE A LISTEN  https://twitter.com/Patri0tContr0l/status/1838311569001975990 https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1838243069285573019 Political/Rights https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1837971520615842144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1837971520615842144%7Ctwgr%5Ed8fd496ad48cf0eade7f45135c4a2a91a03dbc15%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F09%2Fbreaking-arab-american-democrat-mayor-hamtramck-michigan-endorses%2F https://twitter.com/SammyRaveloNY/status/1838214724850208970  zero unless you are on the left. It's incredible how some people react to differing opinions, but I won't be silenced. I'm proud of my choice and excited to join a movement that puts America first. Let's Make America Great Again! #MAGA #TRUMPTRAIN #WalkAway #USA #AmericaFirst #LatinosForTrump https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1838241402867654765 HERE'S YOUR BORDER CZAR: Kamala Harris Caught Chanting “Down,

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Aug. 21 at 7:45 a.m. CT: CHICAGO (AP) — Warning of a difficult fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were at times both hopeful and ominous. “America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.” Barack Obama, the first Black president in U.S. history, insisted the nation is ready to elect Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage and would be the nation’s first female president. HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has pledged to “make America safe again " while campaigning in Michigan as the Democrats who gathered in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris branded him a career criminal. Trump campaigned Tuesday in Michigan as part of a battleground campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention. MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say Moscow has come under one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, and that it destroyed all of them. The Ministry of Defense says Russia downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq has crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people. The crash happened Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd.  WASHINGTON (AP) — Tim Walz and JD Vance have vaulted themselves out of national obscurity as they hustle to introduce themselves to the country, but the senator from Ohio has had a rockier start than the Minnesota governor. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Walz had a smoother launch as a running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris than Vance did for former President Donald Trump.  In other news: Democrats turn their roll call into a dance party with celebrities, state-specific songs and Lil Jon. Fannie Lou Hamer rattled the Democratic convention with her 'Is this America' speech 60 years ago. More than a dozen protesters arrested after clash with police outside Chicago's Israeli consulate. Blinken ends latest Mideast visit without a cease-fire, warning 'time is of the essence.' New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez resigns from Senate after bribery convictions. Sen. Rick Scott wins Florida GOP primary as he seeks a second term. Arizona Supreme Court clears way for voters to decide on constitutional right to abortion. ‘Hitting kids should never be allowed’ Illinois bans corporal punishment in all schools. 3 people charged after death of federal prison worker who opened fentanyl-laced mail. Army and police missed chances to intervene before Maine mass shootings, final report says. A new setback hits a Boeing jet US will require inspection of pilot seats on 787s. Jennifer Lopez files for divorce from Ben Affleck after 2 years of marriage. Disney drops bid to have allergy-death lawsuit tossed because plaintiff signed up for Disney+. A flurry of moves headline the day off the field in Major League Baseball, the Orioles hold on to outlast the Mets, the Guardians need 12 innings to beat the Yankees, the Braves prevail over an NL East rival and more. WNBA players would like more time off after the Olympics are over before league play resumes. Spanish woman believed to be the oldest person in the world has died at age 117. India's top court creates task force on workplace safety after doctor was raped and killed. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Aug. 19 at 7:45 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is entering the Democratic National Convention with increased excitement from Democrats and a steady rise in her favorability ratings among Americans as a whole. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 48% of U.S. adults now have a very or somewhat favorable view of Harris. That is up from 39% at the beginning of the summer, before President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance. The latest measure is in line with how Americans viewed Harris at the beginning of Biden's term. It suggests some renewed positivity toward Harris, but she risks hitting a ceiling as she approaches her previous highest approval rating. WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have released their initial impeachment inquiry report on President Joe Biden. The yearlong probe by Republicans stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the president over his son Hunter Biden's business dealings. Instead, the almost 300-page report out Monday, before the Democratic National Convention, covers familiar ground.  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says now is “maybe the last” opportunity to reach a Gaza cease-fire agreement that would return hostages held by Hamas and bring relief to Palestinian suffering after more than 10 months of war in Gaza. Blinken on Monday was on his ninth mission to the Middle East since the conflict began. Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is due in court on Long Island on Monday afternoon, where a person familiar with the matter has said the New York Republican is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts in his federal fraud case.  Ernesto has regained hurricane status as the storm churns away from Bermuda and heads farther out into the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Ernesto’s maximum sustained winds were 75 mph, just barely Category 1 hurricane strength. But swells and dangerous surf and rip currents generated by Ernesto are affecting the U.S. East Coast and Canada’s Atlantic coast.  CAIRO (AP) — A cholera outbreak has killed nearly two dozen people and sickened hundreds more recently in Sudan, which has been roiled by a 16-month conflict and devastating floods. Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said Sunday that at least 22 people have died and 354 cases of cholera have been confirmed across the county.  In other news: COVID-19 is on the upswing in the US. Her name was on a signature petition to be a Cornel West elector. Her question What's an elector. ‘Alien: Romulus’ bites off $41.5 million to top box office charts. Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire Video game performers want their work protected? The Yankees and Orioles are back in a first-place tie in the A.L. East, Hideki Matsuyama wins the first leg of the FedEx Cup Championship and the Raiders decide on their season-opening quarterback. Judge blocks plans for sports joint streaming venture among Fox, ESPN and Warner Brothers. Fire breaks out at London's Somerset House, home to priceless works by Van Gogh, Cezanne. 'Banksy woz ere.' London Zoo is the latest to remove street artist's animal mural for protection. Former Saudi official alleges Prince Mohammed forged king's signature on Yemen war decree, BBC says. More than 400 homes evacuated in Northern Ireland to remove World War II bomb. What to know as India's medics and women protest the rape and killing of a doctor. At least 23 injured when fire breaks out on a Ferris wheel in eastern Germany. On this week's AP Religion Roundup, the site of a Texas church shooting is demolished, and Bangladesh's Hindu minority fears mob violence. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted July 31 at 7:45 a.m. CT: Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard says Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been assassinated in Tehran. No one immediately claimed responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on Israel. It has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s swearing-in on Tuesday. Iran gave no details on how Haniyeh was killed, and the Guard said the attack was under investigation. The top Hamas leader in Gaza is Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 attack. BEIRUT (AP) — Israel has carried out a rare strike on Beirut, which it said killed a top Hezbollah commander who was allegedly behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The strike in the Lebanese capital killed at least one woman and two children and wounded dozens of people. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the commander’s death.  WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have energized Democrats in the early days of her candidacy, with the surge in warm feelings extending across multiple groups, including some key Democratic constituencies that had been tepid about President Joe Biden. That's according to a new poll. About 8 in 10 Democrats say they would be very or somewhat satisfied if Harris became the Democratic nominee for president. The survey from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted after Biden withdrew from the race.  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A floating barrier in the Rio Grande meant to discourage migrants from trying to cross from Mexico into Texas can stay for now, a full federal appeals court has ruled.  A “side hustle” can be one way to try out a new business idea before taking a full-fledged jump. Nearly 1 in 3 Americans earn money on the side in addition to working full time, a Bankrate survey found.  Decades ago, the standard transmission was a manual, while that newfangled automatic was optional. In today’s vehicles, automatic transmissions help a vehicle get better fuel economy and acceleration than traditional manual transmissions. Many performance cars don’t even come with a manual transmission anymore. But there’s still a level of satisfaction you get when driving a vehicle with a manual and shifting your own gears. In other news: Biden prods Congress to act to curb fentanyl from Mexico as Trump paints Harris as weak on border. Harris and Trump launch new advertisements for presidential election sprint. Acting Secret Service boss says he 'cannot defend' why roof in Trump rally shooting was unsecured. Kari Lake wins GOP primary for closely watched Arizona Senate race, will face Gallego in November. Project 2025 director leaves Heritage Foundation after Democratic attacks and Trump criticism. First interest rate cut in 4 years likely on the horizon as the Federal Reserve meets. American consumers feeling more confident in July as expectations of future improve. U.S. job openings fall slightly to 8.2 million as high interest rates slowly cool a hot labor market. Boar's Head expands recall to include 7 million more pounds of deli meats tied to listeria outbreak. Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas in privacy lawsuit over facial recognition. Son of drug kingpin 'El Chapo' pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago. Tesla in Seattle-area crash that killed motorcyclist was using self-driving system, authorities say. NYC's latest crackdown on illegal weed shops is finally shutting them down. Francine Pascal, author of beloved 'Sweet Valley High' books, dead at 92. US boosting alliance with the Philippines with military funding and pact amid concern over China. The US Women's Gymnastics Team wins back the gold, the Orioles, Yankees, Dodgers and Padres bolster their pitching at the trade deadline, and the White Sox suffer another loss. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted July 19 at 8:15 a.m. CT: FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A global technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said Friday that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump, somber and bandaged, has accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. His speech described in detail the assassination attempt that could have ended his life just five days earlier before laying out a sweeping populist agenda, particularly on immigration.  WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a critical weekend ahead for President Joe Biden. Isolated as he battles a COVID infection at his beach house in Delaware, he is confronting the stark reality that many Democrats at the highest levels want him to consider how stepping aside from the 2024 election could be the party’s best chance of preventing widespread losses in November.  WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden faces a growing drumbeat of pressure to drop his reelection bid, most Democrats think his vice president would make a good president herself. The new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top slot. In other news: Federal appeals court blocks remainder of Biden's student debt relief plan. Rally shooter had photos of Trump, Biden and other US officials on his phone, AP sources say. Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of tax, gun cases, citing decision to toss Trump's classified docs case. Amazon says this year's Prime Day was its biggest ever. Ford to start making F-Series Super Duty pickups at plant in Canada to keep up with demand. Boeing is closer to understanding thruster failures on its first astronaut flight with latest test. Average rate on a 30-year mortgage drops to 6.77%, sliding to lowest level since March. US homes find fewer foreign buyers as rising costs and a strong dollar leave market in record slump. Comedian Bob Newhart, deadpan master of sitcoms and telephone monologues, dies at 94. Lou Dobbs, conservative pundit and Fox Business host, dies at 78. Shannen Doherty finalizes divorce hours before death. Alabama has executed man convicted of killing delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt. A sizzling first round has a young tour member atop the British Open leaderboard, in the NBA, it looks like a former MVP will be joining the Nuggets, and in baseball, Tampa Bay has a plan to improve its ballpark situation. Correspondent Bruce Morton reports. Dodgers and Cubs open 2025 MLB season in Tokyo March 18, rest of league starts March 27. Jason Wright is out as Washington Commanders president and will leave the team after the '24 season. Clemson gives men's basketball coach Brad Brownell new contract after run to Elite Eight. Meet Crush, the rare orange lobster diverted from dinner plate to aquarium by Denver Broncos fans. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted July 9 at 7:15 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has tried to address questions about President Joe Biden's health. During a Monday news briefing, Jean-Pierre said the president has only seen a neurologist three times while in office, and those visits were in conjunction with his annual physicals.  HOUSTON (AP) — Power has started to come back for some of the millions of homes and businesses left in the dark when Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Houston area. The weakened storm has moved east, spawning suspected tornadoes and causing more damage. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Alec Baldwin's trial in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer is about to begin. Jury selection starts Tuesday in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the actor's trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter that could get him 18 months in prison.  WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll finds that a solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban and that a rising number appear to support access to abortions for any reason. The findings from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey highlight a politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election draws closer. In other news: Biden tells Hill Democrats he 'declines' to step aside and says it's time for party drama 'to end.' Republicans move at Trump's behest to change how they will oppose abortion. Americans are split over whether Trump should face prison in the hush money case, AP-NORC poll finds. Prosecutor tells New York City jury at bribery trial that Sen. Bob Menendez put power 'up for sale.' 3 Columbia University officials lose posts over texts that 'touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.' Opponents of Louisiana's Ten Commandments law want judge to block it before new school year starts. Karen Read’s defense team says jurors were unanimous on acquitting her of murder. Bloomberg Philanthropies gifting $1 billion to medical school, others at Johns Hopkins University. 'Bob's Burgers' actor pleads guilty to interfering with police during Capitol riot. Manhattan court hearing slated ahead of Harvey Weinstein’s retrial in New York. Paramount and Skydance merge, signaling end of a family reign in Hollywood and the rise of new power. Hatch recalls nearly 1 million power adapters sold with baby sound machines due to shock hazard. Officials in Oregon's Multnomah County, home to Portland, report 4 suspected heat-related deaths. United Airlines flight loses wheel after takeoff from Los Angeles and lands safely in Denver. Violent holiday weekend sees mass shootings in Michigan, Illinois and Kentucky. UConn agrees to a contract with coach Dan Hurley, Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain, Day 8 at Wimbledon, and the Cardinals are on a roll. Correspondent Chuck Freimund reports. Former MLB outfielder Raúl Mondesi sentenced to 6 years in jail in the Dominican Republic. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

This news may make your day matcha better. Consuming a lot of flavonoid-rich foods and drinks such as green tea, berries and apples can lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new UK study finds. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Friday, George Latimer, a pro-Israel centrist, defeated U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a Democratic primary in suburban New York that highlighted the party's deep divisions over the war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez handily won her Democratic primary over a conservative-backed challenger. He'll soon be the “Worst Boyfriend” in state prison. Two women who had tens of thousands of dollars swiped by smooth-talking scammer Nelson Counne – dubbed the “Worst Boyfriend on the Upper East Side” – ripped the rogue Romeo in court as a judge sentenced him to up to eight years behind bars. And most U.S. adults plan to watch some element of tomorrow's presidential debate and many think the event will be important for the campaigns of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A recent poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk in the 2024 presidential election.

Our current President, Joe Biden, once again let his guard down, revealing something he didn't intend to during a public event in Washington, D.C. this past Wednesday. The gaffe happened while he was musing about his plans and dreams for a hypothetical second term in office. In this unguarded moment, Biden expressed a statement, seemingly from his teleprompter, which was evidently not on the agenda to be vocalized publicly. Expressing an unforeseen aspiration for a second tenure, Biden said, 'Think about the possibilities, another four years.' His gaze appeared to be trying to focus on the teleprompter and a wry smile spread across his face as he witnessed the crowd spontaneously break into a chorus of 'Four more years!' While this might seem like a minor stumble, it underscores a pattern of strange blunders from the President. The steady stream of such faux pas sparks genuine unease about his cognitive health in this demanding role as the nation's leader, especially considering he is now well into his eighties. In fact, a significant proportion of Americans have expressed their low confidence in President Biden's mental capacity to handle the presidency, as shown by a study conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The research, published in March, disclosed that 63% of adults in the United States had little or no trust in Biden's mental fitness for the top job. This data point is particularly interesting considering that, in a comparable question about former President Trump – who himself is also seeking a re-election bid this year and is now in his late 70s – just 57% of adults voiced the same level of concern. It presents a stark indication about the distinct shift in public sentiment on the subject of mental fitness for office between the two political rivals. Naturally, questions arise about the President's ability to perform his duties effectively given his age. When confronted with these issues, Biden offered a bracing rebuttal: 'Observe my actions.' However, apprehensions still persist among conservative factions, fueled by his tendency to make baffling and concerning remarks. In this recent gaffe, the official transcript released noted a portion of what the President had said as '(inaudible)', conveniently overlooking the importantly clear context provided by the recorded audio. However, it's not just conservatives who are starting to notice these lapses. An increasing number of citizens are beginning to worry about the President's mental sharpness and the implications of his position of leadership. This anxiety has been intensified by Biden's series of gaffes. These red flags, coupled with the President's evasion of questions about his mental capacity for the role, paint a concerning picture of the state of leadership in our country. An honest assessment of the situation seems to be underserved by the current administration's narrative. The public has every right to question and discuss their leader's aptitude, particularly when the leader of the free world is increasingly prone to such slips. The stakes are simply too high for this to be brushed under the carpet. This situation underpins the need for clarity and transparency from the leadership. Public concern cannot be dismissed or downplayed - it is a crucial part of our democracy. In essence, this blunder serves as yet another stark reminder. Constant scrutiny is a democratic necessity, but it does induce a moment of pause. Who is at the helm of our nation? A well-rested and ready captain that our country needs, or merely an empty seat? Staying committed to the ever-important principles of accountability and transparency for our public figures, such revelations and gaffes should not be downplayed or overlooked. They must be placed in broad daylight and critically examined. Only then can we ensure that the nation is guided by nothing but sound mind and sound policies. It is our responsibility as citizens to question, to scrutinize, and to hold accountable those in positions of power, particularly when their ability to execute such power responsibly is under question. It's not about partisan politics but rather about safeguarding our nation's future. Real News Now Website Connect with Real News Now on Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealNewsNowApp/ X Twitter: https://twitter.com/realnewsapp Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realnews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realnewsnowapp Threads: https://www.threads.net/@realnews/ Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/realnewsnow Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@RealNews YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@realnewsnowapp End Wokeness: https://endthewokeness.com #realnewsnowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest survey conducted by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that merely one-third of the US population presumes former President Trump's actions illegal in relation to a monetary nondisclosure case. This information arrives as the former president's legal proceedings commence their second day. The aforementioned case is one segment of the quartet of criminal charges put forth against Trump, filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) during the previous annum. The case carries 34 felony charges on the grounds that Trump allegedly manipulated business records following payments intended to maintain the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult film industry professional, concerning a supposed past romantic liaison with Trump. This case was among the key developments that shaped the narrative during Trump's bid for presidency. The study's findings revealed nuanced opinions held by the surveyed populous over Trump's handling of the case. Around 35 percent are convinced he committed unlawful actions while roughly 31 percent see his actions as ethically questionable though not necessarily illegal. Meanwhile, 14 percent of the respondents believe that Trump is not in the wrong, and 19 percent expressed uncertainty. Interestingly, the study showcased vast differences in perceptions when evaluated across party lines. A substantial majority of Democrats, 62 percent, are convinced of the illegality of his actions, while 27 percent believe he may have acted unethically, but not unlawfully. Merely two percent perceive no issue with his actions.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted April 12 at 6:30 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that more than half of U.S. adults think Joe Biden’s presidency has hurt the country on cost of living and immigration. Meanwhile, nearly half think Donald Trump’s presidency hurt the country on voting rights and election security, relations with foreign countries, abortion laws and climate change. The poll numbers also show Americans generally think that in the White House, both did more harm than good. Meanwhile, when asked which president did more to help people like them, roughly one-third say Donald Trump and about one-quarter say Joe Biden. Yet roughly 30% of adults said neither Biden nor Trump benefitted them. BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced an investigation into suspected Russian interference in Europe-wide elections in June. He says that his country’s intelligence service has confirmed the existence of a network in several European countries trying to undermine support for Ukraine. He said Friday that Moscow wants to help “elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and to reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative.”  LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson has died. The decorated football star who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but wound up in prison years later in an unrelated case died Wednesday. He was 76. His family made an announcement Thursday in a statement on Simpson's X account. Simpson said last year that he was battling prostate cancer. Simpson’s gridiron legacy was forever overshadowed by the 1994 knife slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable. Simpson's nine-year prison stint in Nevada was for the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers. NEW YORK (AP) — A dozen Manhattan residents are soon to become the first Americans ever to sit in judgment of a former president charged with a crime. Jury selection is set to start Monday in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial. WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will again try to advance a bill reauthorizing a crucial national security surveillance program. The second attempt Friday comes just days after a conservative revolt prevented similar legislation from reaching the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to bring forward a Plan B that would reform and extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702 for a shortened period of two years, instead of the full five-year reauthorization first proposed. In other headlines: Trump is testing the limits of a gag order with post insulting two likely witnesses in his criminal trial. Biden says he's considering Australia's request to drop prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Shouts of "Shame! Shame!" erupt in Arizona House as fight over abortion ban engulfs lawmakers. Environmentalists protest as Biden administration approves huge oil export terminal off Texas coast. Former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani faces bank fraud charges in sports betting case. Round One of the Masters was highlighted by two magnificent performances, but numerous players were unable to finish due to darkness, Jalen Brunson does it again for the NY Knicks, a polarizing football figure has passed away, news both on and off the field in the MLB, and the latest from the NHL. Agency probes Philadelphia fatal crash involving Ford that may have been running on automated system. Average long-term US mortgage rate edges closer to 7%, rising to highest level since early March. US producer prices rose 2.1% from last year, most since April, but less than forecasters expected. Fewer Americans file for jobless claims as labor market continues to shrug off higher interest rates. Vietnam sentences real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death in its largest-ever fraud case. Coast Guard Academy cadets disciplined over homework cheating accusations. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted April 3 at 7:15 a.m. CT: Thousands of homes and businesses are without power as severe weather roars through several states, causing at least one death and spawning possible tornados. A strong weather system in northeastern Oklahoma with heavy rains produced three suspected tornadoes. The storms were blamed for the death of a 46-year-old homeless woman in Tulsa who died inside a drainage pipe. In Ohio, firefighters rescued two people who were trapped under a bridge when the waters of an Ohio river began rising. Meanwhile in Wisconsin, a spring snowstorm was expected to drop more than a foot of snow. HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — The strongest earthquake in a quarter-century has rocked Taiwan during the morning rush hour. Wednesday's quake killed nine people, sent others scrambling out the windows of damaged buildings and halted train service throughout the island. WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll finds that most Americans share many core values on what it means to be an American despite the country’s deep political polarization. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 9 in 10 U.S. adults say the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy are important or very important to the U.S.’s identity as a nation. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Donald Trump is suing two co-founders of Trump Media & Technology Group, the newly public parent company of his Truth Social platform, arguing that they should forfeit their stock in the company because they set it up improperly. The former president’s lawsuit, which was filed on March 24, follows a complaint filed in February by Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who asked a Delaware court to block Trump from taking steps the two said would sharply reduce their 8.6% stake in Trump Media. ISTANBUL (AP) — A deadly fire that spread through an Istanbul nightclub during renovations was likely caused by welding sparks coming into contact with combustible material, Turkish news reports say. The fire engulfed the popular Masquerade nightclub on Tuesday, trapping workers and club employees inside and killing 29 people. In other news: Lawsuit seeks to force ban on menthol cigarettes after months of delays by Biden administration. Tesla sales fall nearly 9% to start the year as competition heats up and demand for EVs slows. Largest fresh egg producer in US halts production at Texas plant after bird flu found in chickens. After welcoming guests for 67 years, the Tropicana Las Vegas casino's final day has arrived. Freight railroads must keep two-person crews, according to new federal rule. Amazon is removing Just Walk Out technology from its Fresh grocery stores in the US. College newspaper sweeps up 2 tiny publications in a volley against growing news deserts. 15 Miranda Lambert, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj submit letter to AI developers to honor artists' rights. ‘SCTV’ star and comedian Joe Flaherty has died at 82 after an illness, his daughter says. John Sinclair, a marijuana activist who was immortalized in a John Lennon song, dies at 82. Larry Lucchino, force behind retro ballpark revolution and drought-busting Red Sox, dies at 78. The 76ers get their star center back, the NBA's Western Conference remains tight, the NHL playoff races are heating up, and the Phillies Bryce Harper had a huge game on a busy night in Major League Baseball. Correspondent Mike Reeves reports.  —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 28 at 6:45 a.m. CT: BALTIMORE (AP) — The largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard is arriving by barge so crews can begin removing the wreckage from the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says the crane can lift up to 1,000 tons. It will be used to clear the channel in order to resume the search for four workers who remain missing and reopen the key shipping route. Another crane is also on the way. Moore says “the best minds in the world” are working on plans to remove the twisted metal and concrete remains of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. It was struck early Tuesday by a cargo ship and quickly fell into the river. WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more worried about legal immigrants committing crimes in the U.S. than they were a few years ago, a change driven largely by increased concern among Republicans. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Democrats continue to see a broad range of benefits from immigration. Overall, about 4 in 10 Americans say that legal immigration to the U.S. is beneficial to the economy and culture, but that sentiment is down since 2017. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that immigration is an important issue for them personally. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court has ordered Israel to take measures including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza to tackle crippling shortages in the war-ravaged enclave. The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Israel stringently denies it is committing genocide and says its military campaign is self defense. Thursday’s order came after South Africa sought more provisional measures, including a ceasefire, citing starvation in Gaza. Israel urged the court not to issue new orders. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's armed forces say Moscow launched a large-scale attack on energy infrastructure Friday, with a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country. Ukraine's Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said air raid warnings across the country continued through the night as the strike targeted 10 separate regions. Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent days, launching several missile barrages on the capital Kyiv and hitting energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian aerial attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. Such sporadic attacks, however, have been common throughout the war. UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Haiti now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to help tackle “catastrophic” gang violence which is targeting key individuals and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, the U,N, rights expert for the conflict-wracked nation says. Last July, William O’Neill said Haiti needed between 1,000 and 2,000 international police trained to deal with gangs. Today, he said, the situation is so much worse that double that number and more are needed to help the Haitian National Police regain control of security and curb human rights abuses. O’Neill spoke at a news conference Thursday launching a U.N. Human Rights Office report. In other headlines: Donald Trump attends wake of slain New York officer, calls for 'law and order,' to show contrast with Biden. Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison. Home Depot buying supplier to professional contractors in a deal valued at about $18.25B. Ford to trim workforce at plant that builds its F-150 Lightning as sales of electric vehicles slow. Russian veto brings end to UN panel monitoring enforcement of North Korea nuclear sanctions. The White House expects about 40,000 participants at its 'egg-ucation'-themed annual Easter egg roll. It's a bittersweet Easter for chocolate lovers and African cocoa farmers but big brands see profits. US changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity. It's the first revision in 27 years. The NCAA basketball tournament holds its first four Sweet 16 games, the NBA has a couple of games with playoff implications, the NHL regular season nears its completion and the Major League Baseball season begins in earnest. Correspondent David Schuster reports. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 4 at 7:15 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump could learn Monday whether the Supreme Court will let him appear on this year’s ballot as he tries to close in on the Republican presidential nomination. The justices are expected to decide at least one case Monday, with signs pointing to resolution of the case from Colorado that threatens to kick Trump off some state ballots because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Any opinions will post on the court’s website beginning just after 10 a.m. Eastern time Monday. Trump is challenging a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said he is disqualified from being president again and ineligible for the state’s primary Tuesday. WASHINGTON (AP) — Nikki Haley has won the District of Columbia’s Republican primary. It’s her first victory over Donald Trump in the GOP primary race. The Associated Press declared Haley the winner Sunday night after D.C. Republican Party officials released the vote totals. Her victory halts the former president’s sweep of the GOP voting contests at least temporarily, though Trump remains the race’s dominant front-runner. There are only about 23,000 registered Republicans in the nation’s capital, which is heavily Democratic. TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) — A powerful blizzard that closed highways and ski resorts had mostly moved through the Sierra Nevada but forecasters warn that more snow was on the way for Northern California mountains. Sections of Interstate 80 to the west and north of Lake Tahoe were closed Sunday, and the highway patrol says there is no estimate for reopening. Blizzard warnings have mostly expired but scattered thunderstorms are likely and another 2 feet of snow is possible in the mountains. Several ski resorts were closed all weekend. Power has been restored to thousands who lost service on Saturday.' KING CITY, Calif. (AP) — Police say a group of men in masks opened fire at an outdoor party in central California, killing four people and injuring three others. The King City Police Department says officers responded to a reported shooting around 6 p.m. Sunday and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard. Four other people sustained gunshot wounds, including a woman who died after being transported to a hospital in King City, about 106 miles south of San Jose. Police say several people were at the party outside a residence when three men with dark masks and clothes got out of a silver car and fired at the group. The suspects, who were not immediately identified, then fled the scene in the car. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station who will oversee the arrival of two new rocketships during their stint. The U.S.-Russian crew should reach the station on Tuesday, following Sunday night's launch from Florida. They'll replace a crew from the U.S., Denmark, Japan and Russia. Boeing's long-delayed Starliner capsule with test pilots and a new private mini shuttle with cargo are due to arrive during the new crew's six-month stay. NASA's Jeanette Epps was originally assigned to fly on Boeing's Starliner. NASA finally switched her to SpaceX. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government says it may renew the search for MH370 after a U.S. technology firm proposed a fresh search in the southern Indian Ocean where the Malaysia Airlines plane is believed to have crashed. The plane with 239 people aboard vanished a decade ago while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Sunday that Texas-based Ocean Infinity proposed another “no find, no fee” search, expanding from the site where it first looked in 2018. He said he has invited the company to meet him for a briefing on its plan. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett reportedly said the company has worked with many experts in analyzing data to narrow the search area and is ready to return to the search. WASHINGTON (AP) — A poll finds that a growing share of U.S. adults doubt that 81-year-old President Joe Biden has the memory and acuity for the job. That means Biden's coming State of the Union address could be something of a real-time audition as he bids for a second term. According to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 63% of U.S. adults say they lack confidence in Biden’s mental capability to serve effectively as president. That's a slight increase from January 2022, when half of those polled expressed similar concerns. Nearly 6 in 10 also think Republican frontrunner Donald Trump lacks the mental capability to serve. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials say Americans with COVID-19 no longer need to stay in isolation for five days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its longstanding guidance on Friday. People can return to work or regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and it’s been a day since they’ve had a fever. COVID-19 is no longer the public health menace it once was and most people have some degree of immunity from vaccinations or from infections. And some experts note that many people are not following the five-day isolation guidance anyway. NEW YORK (AP) — More than 61,000 pounds of steamed chicken soup dumplings sold at Trader Joe’s are being recalled for possibly containing hard plastic, according to U.S. regulators. The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service noted that the now-recalled dumplings, which are produced by CJ Foods Manufacturing Beaumont Corp., may be contaminated with foreign materials — specifically hard plastic from a permanent marker pen. The 6-ounce Trader Joe’s Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings under recall can be identified by their side box labels with lot codes 03.07.25.C1-1 and 03.07.25.C1-2. To date, no related illnesses or injures have been reported yet. In entertainment news, "Rust" director Joel Souza testifies, historians scramble to capture Woodstock's voices and "Dune: Part Two" leads at the box office. In sports, a basketball massacre in Boston, UConn wins the Big East regular season title for the first time in 25 years, Caitlin Clark tops Pistol Pete's scoring record and Connor McDavid's Oilers beat Sidney Crosby's Penguins. In religion news, Pope Francis struggles with his health as some priests are rebuked for praying for the pope to go to heaven as soon as possible.' —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 10 at 6 a.m. CT: Millions of Americans will find something to be excited about when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. That’s before even factoring in the influence of Taylor Swift. Four in 10 U.S. adults are extremely or very excited for at least one part of the Super Bowl day’s festivities. That could be the game, commercials, halftime show or the Puppy Bowl, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The Kansas City Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. A total solar eclipse is coming to North America. On April 8, the sun will pull another disappearing act across parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada, turning day into night for as much as 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That's twice as long as the total solar eclipse that darkened U.S. skies in 2017. This eclipse will take a different and more populated route, entering over Mexico's Pacific coast, dashing up through Texas and Oklahoma, crisscrossing the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England, before exiting over eastern Canada into the Atlantic. There won’t be another U.S. eclipse, spanning coast to coast, until 2045. NEW YORK (AP) — Noticeable pockets of Americans — renters, and lower- and middle-income borrowers — are running up their credit cards balances, and increasing numbers are falling behind on their debts. It’s the latest sign that while the U.S. economy is broadly healthy, the last two years of inflation have sapped much of the savings of vulnerable Americans, possibly leading to further deterioration of their financial health this year. The credit rating company Moody’s says credit card delinquency and charge-off rates are well above 2019 levels. They're expected to keep climbing. Americans held more than $1.05 trillion on their credit cards in the third quarter, a historic high, and the average credit card rate is the highest it's ever been since the Fed started tracking the data. PHOENIX (AP) — For months after George Floyd was killed by police in May 2020, people from around the world traveled to the site of his murder in Minneapolis and left signs, paintings and poems to memorialize the man whose death reignited a movement against systemic racism. Now hundreds of those artifacts are being displayed at an exhibit at the Arizona State University Art Museum. It’s the first time the work is on public display outside of Minnesota. Paintings of Floyd and poems written about him stand on easels throughout the exhibit, while protest signs made from paper plates and reused cardboard cover the walls. Some visitors were moved to tears as they moved through the exhibit. NEW YORK (AP) — Small business acquisitions were up and down last year, reflecting the increase in interest rates that threw a chill into the market. But a strong fourth quarter, helped by a signal from the Federal Reserve that it was done raising interest rates, could bode well for 2024. Overall, the number of small business acquisitions were largely unchanged in 2023, according to business marketplace BizBuySell’s Insight Data, which tracks and analyzes U.S. business-for-sale transactions. A total of 9,093 businesses were reported sold on BizBuySell in 2023, up less than 1% from the 9,054 businesses sold in 2022. People do not need to wear lead aprons or thyroid collars when getting X-rays at the dentist. That's according to the American Dental Association. The new recommendation is just that, however. State rules may dictate if people have to wear the aprons, and some states still require them. Experts say there needs to be more education on the safety and risks of X-rays to broadly change minds about the aprons. COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine (AP) — A family with an audacious plan to build the world’s tallest flagpole as a centerpiece for a billion-dollar project honoring veterans is abandoning the idea. An attorney said Friday that the Worcester family won’t pursue the flagpole project in Washington County or elsewhere. Instead they will look for other ways to honor veterans. The plan has divided the town of Columbia Falls, population 485. Residents are preparing to vote next month on proposed ordinances governing large-scale developments. A town select board member says a flagpole stretching 1,461 feet skyward wouldn’t meet the proposed ordinances’ height restrictions. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers are reporting the best evidence yet of a vast, young ocean beneath the icy exterior of Saturn's Death Star-looking mini moon. The French-led team based its findings Wednesday on observations by NASA's former Cassini spacecraft. By analyzing changes in Mimas' orbit and rotation, the scientists have concluded that the frozen crust hides an ocean that's only 5 million to 15 million years old. The findings open up the possibility of water — and life — at seemingly sterile moons. COOKE CITY, Mont. (AP) — The day after a Minnesota man survived an avalanche while snowmobiling in Montana's backcountry, government forecasters posted details of the near-tragedy as yet another cautionary tale. Avalanche safety specialists say their job has become more difficult in recent years as the number of skiers and snowmobilers visiting backcountry areas surges after the pandemic. Shifting weather patterns due to climate change further complicate safety efforts, and four people already have died this year in snowslides in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and California. Despite the growing risks, the U.S. avalanche death rate has stayed relatively constant in recent years. Experts attribute that to better forecasting and more people educating themselves about the dangers in the mountains. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 9 at 6:30 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — A special counsel report has found evidence that President Joe Biden “willfully” retained and shared highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan. The Justice Department report nonetheless says no criminal charges are warranted for Biden or anyone else. In remarks at the White House Thursday evening, Biden denied that he improperly shared classified information and angrily lashed out at special counsel Robert Hur for questioning his mental acuity. The report from Hur, released earlier Thursday, represents a harshly critical assessment of Biden’s handling of sensitive government materials and includes unflattering characterizations of his memory. LAS VEGAS (AP) — Donald Trump has won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses after he was the only major candidate to participate. The former president handily won Thursday’s contest run by the state Republican Party and wins Nevada’s 26 delegates as he seeks to accrue enough to become the party nominee. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley skipped the caucuses, blaming what she considered an unfair process that favored Trump. RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel has bombed targets in Rafah, after U.S. officials warned Israel against expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the southern city where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge. Russian President Vladimir Putin has used an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to urge Washington to recognize Moscow’s interests and persuade Ukraine to sit down for talks. A new poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds most Americans believe air travel is generally safe in the U.S. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged higher this week, reflecting a recent uptick in the 10-year Treasury yield. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.64% from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. The Biden administration is announcing an investment of $5 billion in a public-private consortium aimed at supporting research and development in advanced computer chips. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems poised to reject attempts to kick former President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot. A definitive ruling for the leading Republican candidate for president would largely end efforts in Colorado, Maine and elsewhere to prevent his name from appearing on the ballot. In more than two hours of arguments Thursday, both conservative and liberal justices raised questions of whether Trump can be disqualified from being president again because of his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. A federal judge has denied Trump White House official Peter Navarro’s bid to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro was sentenced last month to four months in prison after being found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House Jan. 6 committee. NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission is outlawing robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence. The decision sends a clear message that exploiting the technology to scam people and mislead voters won’t be tolerated. Thursday’s unanimous ruling targets robocalls made with AI voice-cloning tools under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. LAS VEGAS (AP) — Usher says it was a challenge to fit a 30-year musical career into a 13-minute halftime show as he'll have to do at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas Sunday. But when he addressed the media on Thursday he said he's been focusing on how to represent his past, his present and future within the show. It was a big night for current and past NFL players, trades galore in the NBA, a wild game in college basketball, another big signing in major league baseball and a historic day on the links. In other headlines: Clayton Kershaw says he's staying with Dodgers for a 17th season and could pitch in second half of 2024. Applications for unemployment benefits fell again despite recent layoff announcements. 200 victims allege child sex abuse in Maryland youth detention facilities. The Paris Olympics medals are monumental. They're embedded with pieces of the Eiffel Tower. A volcano in Iceland is erupting for the 3rd time since December, spewing lava into the sky. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 3 at 6 a.m. CT: WASHINGTON (AP) — Sometimes a story is more appealing than the truth. Experts say that's one of the reasons to explain the popularity of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories have always been around. They're alternative explanations for world events and they're often not supported by the facts. Today, they're playing an outsize role in politics and culture. Some of the examples are QAnon, as well as conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and stolen elections. Psychologists say conspiracy theories offer a sort of mental shortcut, giving believers a way to navigate a world that to them seems random, frightening and chaotic. NEW YORK (AP) — Payroll payments per small business moderated as 2023 came to a close, according to new data from Bank of America. The BofA report found payroll payments rose 1.7% in December at small businesses. That’s consistent with the trend last year, with payroll payments rising most months. But the pace of payroll growth slowed “significantly” from its peak in March 2022, the report said. Data is culled from Bank of America’s business clients with less than $5 million in annual revenue. Small businesses have been pressured over the past two years due to high inflation, high costs and a labor crunch. LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Preliminary tests by a University of Nebraska road safety research facility and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers point to concerns that the nation’s roadside guardrails are no match for new heavy electric vehicles. At a news conference Wednesday, a university official said a first-of-its-kind test crash of a nearly 4-ton EV pickup truck last fall showed the guardrail did almost nothing to slow the truck. Cody Stolle with the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility says more extensive testing is planned. But he says tens of thousands of miles of guardrails along roads in the nation will likely need to be adapted as more electric vehicles populate the roads. Those grounded Boeing jets are coming back starting Friday. Air travelers will want to know if they are safe. The head of the Federal Aviation Administrations says he is confident they will be, as long as airlines follow new inspection procedures approved by his agency. Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners have been grounded since early January, shortly after one of them suffered a midflight blowout of a panel on the side of the plane. Alaska Airlines resumed flights with inspected planes beginning on Friday. United Airlines, the only other U.S. carrier to use the Max 9, says its planes will come back starting Sunday. WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study shows the return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland. Sea otters eat constantly and one of their favorite snacks is the striped shore crab. Left unchecked, the crabs can turn marsh banks into Swiss cheese that can collapse when big waves or storms hit. Researchers found that the return of the crab-eating sea otters to a tidal estuary near Monterey, California, since the 1980s helped curb erosion. The research was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. WASHINGTON (AP) — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, illnesses like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks their own bodies. That gender disparity has baffled scientists for decades but new research may finally explain why. Females have two X chromosomes and Stanford University researchers say how cells handle that extra X can be a red flag for the immune system, essentially an early risk factor. The findings, published Thursday in the journal Cell, could lead to better ways to detect autoimmunity. WASHINGTON (AP) — The company behind a global recall of sleep apnea machines says it will stop selling the devices in the U.S., under a tentative agreement with regulators. Philips has recalled more than 5 million pressurized breathing machines due to risks that their foam can break down over time and be inhaled by users. The deal announced Monday has not yet been finalized and will have to be approved by a U.S. court. Philips would continue servicing existing machines in the U.S., but would not be able to sell new ones until meeting several corrective actions laid out by the FDA. NEW YORK (AP) — Infectious syphilis cases in the U.S. rose by 9% in 2022. That's according to a new federal government report released Tuesday on sexually transmitted diseases in adults. The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade, while chlamydia rates were relatively flat. Total cases of syphilis surpassed 207,000 in 2022. That count includes the most infectious stages of the disease but also latent cases and cases in which pregnant women passed syphilis on to their babies. It is the highest count in the United States since 1950, and is rising in heterosexual men and women. Allegations of research fakery at a leading cancer center have turned a spotlight on scientific integrity and the amateur sleuths uncovering image manipulation in published research. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announced last week it’s requesting six retractions and 31 corrections of scientific papers after a British blogger flagged problems in early January. The blogger is 32-year-old Sholto David of Pontypridd, Wales. He is a scientist-sleuth who detects cut-and-paste image manipulation in published scientific papers. And he’s not the only hobbyist poking through pixels. Other champions of scientific integrity are keeping researchers and science journals on their toes. RENO, Nev. (AP) — A new state law requires Nevada to hold a primary election next week, but the Nevada GOP voted to hold their own caucuses, or party-run meetings open to Republicans only. The state GOP will only award delegates needed to win the nomination through the caucuses, rendering the state-run presidential primary purely symbolic. Former President Donald Trump is competing in the caucuses, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is running in the primary. The unusual arrangement has confused some voters, including some who have received primary ballots in the mail and wonder why Trump's name isn't on it. Critics say the state GOP changed rules to help Trump win. WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. adults are only feeling slightly better about the economy, despite stocks being near record highs and surprisingly strong growth last year. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 35% of U.S. adults call the national economy good. That’s an uptick from 30% who said so late last year and up from 24% who said so a year ago. While 65% still call the economy poor, that’s an improvement from a year ago, when 76% did. Voters’ confidence in the economy could be the pivotal factor in this year’s election. President Joe Biden is running for reelection in part on the economy. The poll puts his overall approval rating at 38%. PARIS (AP) — French Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that some 300,000 spectators will be able to attend the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games, about half the size of what was originally planned. The giant show on the River Seine on July 26 will mark the first time that an opening ceremony is held outside of a usual stadium setting. It will also involve a massive security operation, with tens of thousands of police officers and soldiers deployed. The athletes will be paraded through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route. Both banks of the river will be lined by spectators, behind multiple security cordons. MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is acknowledging that at least two well-known Mayan ruin sites are unreachable by visitors because of cartel violence or land disputes. But two tourist guides in the southern state of Chiapas say the routes to two other sites are plagued by drug gang checkpoints and many groups are avoiding trips there too. The government seems unconcerned. And there is even anger that anyone would suggest there is a problem. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy is to play down gang violence even as the cartels take over more territory in Mexico. Both guides say the imposing temple complex at Palenque is still open and perfectly safe for visitors. But there are fears tourism could be damaged in Chiapas. In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to prisoners wind up in the supply chains of everything from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. They are on the shelves of most supermarkets, including Kroger, Target and Whole Foods. They’re also exported. The prisoners who help produce these goods are disproportionately people of color. Some are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work – or face punishment – and are sometimes paid pennies an hour or nothing at all. They also are excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. And it can be almost impossible for them to sue. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 2 at 6:30 a.m. CT: COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley’s path to the Republican presidential nomination is rapidly shrinking. But she’s vowing to stay in the race indefinitely. And the harder she fights, the more Republican officials fear she may be hurting Donald Trump's long-term prospects in the all-but certain general election against Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump allies describe Haley’s continued presence as a distraction, a drain on resources and a source of frustration. They also worry that Trump’s preoccupation with Haley, whom he frequently calls “birdbrain,” might further alienate moderate voters and suburban women. In practical terms, the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential primary season has barely begun. But after decisive wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump's grip on the nomination has never been stronger. CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Fire officials say a small plane has crashed into a home at a Florida mobile home park, killing several people aboard the plane and in the home. There’s no immediate word on the exact number of people killed. Authorities say the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 reportedly went down at about 7 p.m. Thursday in Clearwater, about three miles north of St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport. The FAA says the pilot had reported an engine failure. Clearwater's fire chief says the plane hit a mobile home and at least three homes received fire damage. NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — At least three people have been killed in Kenya's capital and 270 others were injured when a truck loaded with gas exploded and set off an inferno that burned homes and warehouses. The death toll is likely to rise. A government spokesman said early Friday that a lot of people were home late at night when the fire reached their houses in a Nairobi neighborhood. Police and the local Red Cross said 271 people were rushed to several hospitals to be treated for injuries. Firefighters were searching the burned area later in the morning. WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll shows half of U.S. adults believe Israel's war in Gaza has “gone too far." The poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents for Israel's conduct of its military offensive in Gaza. And notably for President Joe Biden, about 7 out of 10 young people in Biden's Democratic Party disapprove of his approach to the conflict. Overall, 31% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the conflict, including just 46% of Democrats. The U.S. has become increasingly isolated in its support of Israel as the Palestinian death toll rises. NEW YORK (AP) — The latest COVID-19 vaccines are 54% effective at preventing symptomatic infection in adults. That's according to the first U.S. study to assess how well the updated shots work. The shots became available last year and are designed to better protect against more recent coronavirus variants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released a study of how well the vaccine has worked since then. The finding is similar to what’s been reported in other countries. It's also similar to what was reported for earlier versions of the vaccines. WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he never directed anyone on his staff to keep his cancer surgery and hospitalization secret from the White House but acknowledges he should have handled it differently. He apologized for keeping President Joe Biden and others in the dark for weeks. Austin was speaking to reporters in the Pentagon briefing room on Thursday, providing his most extensive comments to date on the secrecy surrounding his cancer diagnosis and struggles with complications since his surgery on Dec. 22. It was the first time he answered reporters' questions since his surgery. WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says it's time to more significantly disable Iran-backed militias that have struck at U.S. forces and ships in the Middle East. And he says the U.S. is poised to take significant action in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members in Jordan on Sunday. For days the U.S. has hinted strikes are imminent. While the threat of retaliation has driven some militant groups to say they were stopping hostilities, as late as Thursday Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels were still attacking vessels and fired a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Red Sea. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who've been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory. The order Thursday imposes financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals. The order says those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property. The penalties aim to block the four from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. U.S. officials are evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the U.S. penalties. LONDON (AP) — A judge in London has thrown out a lawsuit by former U.S. President Donald Trump accusing a former British spy of making “shocking and scandalous claims” that were false and harmed his reputation. Judge Karen Steyn said the defendant was entitled to summary judgment and the case should not go to trial. Trump sued Orbis Business Intelligence, the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated. The former president sought damages from Orbis for allegedly violating British data protection laws. The firm sought to have the case thrown out. LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 66th annual Grammy Awards are right around the corner, airing live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. So, what can viewers expect? Some new, some old. Comedian Trevor Noah will host for a fourth time. Performances — and the arc of the show — will reflect the nominees, which this year in the major categories, are led by women. There are many potentially-history making moments, too. Executive producers Raj Kapoor and Ben Winston, as well as Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr., walk The Associated Press through the 2024 Grammy Awards. NEW YORK (AP) — Legendary Southern rapper Juvenile says he had been unaware of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series when a social media post suggested that he do a performance, setting off a frenzy. Two months later, Juvenile's performance became one of the most notable of last year. with nearly 7 million views. NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series began almost 15 years ago as a niche online platform mainly highlighting rock and folk musicians. The series has become one of the premiere live music platforms and a pop culture phenomenon, expanding to include performers from across musical genres. The creators say it all started after they attended a performance where an artist was not heard. The Knicks and Sixers each win despite missing key players, the Lakers overcome injuries to win in Boston and the Cavaliers remain red hot. In college games, the ranked Arizona men win, but Wisconsin loses and the top-ranked South Carolina women remain undefeated. In pro football, it looks like the Commanders have a new coach. NEW YORK (AP) — American Express is rolling out several updates to its Delta SkyMiles credit cards that will give additional benefits to users. AmEx is eager to soothe sore Delta Air Lines customers who have considered abandoning the airline after last year’s SkyMiles loyalty fiasco. The updates unveiled Thursday will also come with a higher annual fee, which AmEx says it believes that the new benefits will more than pay for. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers say an asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. There's no chance of it hitting us since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon. NASA estimates the space rock is between 690 feet and 1,575 feet across. That means the asteroid could be similar in size to New York City's Empire State Building or Chicago's Willis Tower. The asteroid was discovered in 2008. It won't be back our way again until 2032, but it will be a much more distant encounter, staying 45 million miles away. NEW YORK (AP) — Under cover of darkness a year ago, someone slipped into the Central Park Zoo, cut a hole in a cage and freed a majestic Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco. The owl has become one of New York City's most beloved characters since then. By day he lounges in Manhattan’s courtyards and parks and perches on fire escapes. He spends his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city’s abundant rats. Some experts feared he wouldn't be able to hunt after a lifetime in captivity To their surprise, Flaco is thriving. But as his second year in the spotlight begins, the crime that led to his freedom remains unsolved. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Hosts: Leah Murray and Greg Skordas Tax season is upon us. According to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, two-thirds of U.S. taxpayers feel that they pay too much in federal taxes. Leah and Greg break down the poll.

Hosts: Leah Murray and Greg Skordas Pentagon identifies the 3 U.S. soldiers killed in a drone attack in Jordan On Sunday 3 U.S. soldiers were killed in a drone attack in Jordan. And today, the Pentagon has identified the names of those 3 soldiers in a press release. NewsNation’s Washington Correspondent Evan Lambert joins Leah and Greg to discuss what went wrong, as well as the bigger question… Does this mean war? Taylor Swift news roundup: deepfakes and Super Bowl AI-generated deepfakes of Taylor Swift made the rounds on social media this past weekend. Fortunately, X has taken them down but made it so you can’t search up her name, which is a bummer during Super Bowl season. Greg and Leah discuss the legalities surrounding deepfakes before switching over to the brighter side of things with Jason Nathanson, ABC News Entertainment Correspondent in Los Angeles, who says Taylor Swift is Super Bowl bound. Poll: Most Americans feel they pay too much in taxes Tax season is upon us. According to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, two-thirds of U.S. taxpayers feel that they pay too much in federal taxes. Leah and Greg break down the poll. Utah lawmaker makes fourth push for affirmative consent One of the big issues the KSL Investigative team has been looking into for the past year or so is sexual assault in Utah. To help alleviate this issue, a Utah lawmaker has proposed a bill, HB162 Sexual Offense Amendments, which is unfortunately not getting much traction on Capitol Hill. KSL Investigative Reporter Daniella Rivera joins Leah and Greg to explain what this bill would do to protect sexual assault victims. What would a major league stadium cost to Utah taxpayers? What would it cost taxpayers to put a major league baseball stadium here in Utah? What about hockey, too? Jay Evensen, Senior Editorial Columnist with the Deseret News, joins Greg and Leah to discuss where some of Utah’s politicians stand on this topic. The issue of chronic absenteeism in schools nationwide Should school be mandatory? It sounds like a rhetorical question, but it’s becoming a more serious issue as schools nationwide are struggling with chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing more than 10% of their school days. Leah and Greg discuss where things went wrong and why incentivizing student attendance is NOT the way to go. Is it discriminatory of coffee shops to charge more for non-dairy alternatives? It’s common to see coffee shops charge their customers more if they ask for non-dairy substitutes in their drinks. In fact, a recently filed lawsuit against Dunkin’ is challenging this exact practice. Greg and Leah have a fun little discourse about this lawsuit from opposite perspectives: one being lactose intolerant and one not.

Die Verkrygingshervormings-werkgroep in Suid-Afrika, insluitend die Ahmed Kathrada-stigting, Corruption Watch, Equal Education en die Public Affairs Research-instituut het hulle ernstige bedenkinge uitgespreek oor die vinnige aanvaarding van die Wetsontwerp op Openbare Verkryging. Die wetgewing moet Suid-Afrika se jaarlikse besteding op verkryging van ‘n biljoen Suid-Afrikaanse rand reguleer. Ryan Brunette van die Public Affairs Research-instituut sê die groep sien die wetsontwerp as gebrekkig en gevaarlik en is bekommer oor die helderheid, gebrek aan navorsing en onvoldoende konsultasie:

Recent opinion polls reveal that Americans seem to trust the former President, Donald Trump, more than President Joe Biden in handling the ongoing Israel crisis. Almost half of the survey respondents, precisely 46%, expressed confidence in Trump's abilities to steer the American approach towards the conflict between Israel and Hamas. On the contrary, only 36% trusted Biden more to guide America's stance. Evidently, Biden's role in managing this crisis has met with bipartisan criticism. Trump publicly reproached Biden last November due to his administration's unsuccessful efforts in ensuring the safe return of captive American citizens. As the situation evolved, it was understood that Hamas was still detaining from eight to nine Americans as of November 27. Unfortunately, even the White House acknowledged the lack of definitive details surrounding these cases. Biden's approach towards the Israel conflict isn't only subject to criticism from the right, but also from his own party members. A contrasting perspective from within the Democrats has emerged, indicating dissatisfaction with Biden's reaction to the Israel war. Data extracted from a poll conducted by the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on November 9 uncovers that 46% of Democratic respondents disapprove of Biden's actions concerning the war.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you believe in angels? In fact, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe in angels, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Would you like some angelic assistance in regard to money? Listen in today as Belinda Womack explains about the 12 Archangels and how they can help you with abundance. Belinda has been a clear and trustworthy messenger for the 12 Archangels of the Central Sun for more than 30 years and she shares her new book Angel Abundance, that was transmitted to her by the Angels. Tune in for the conversation as Belinda shares angelic messages and more.  Find out more about Belinda Womack and The School of Spiritual Evolution Find books and oracle card decks from MindBodySpirit.fm podcast hosts in the online store Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not unusual among educated Nebraskans to hold the expectation that, if you're an ambitious young person in this state, you'll leave. This is within a moment where, over the past decade, the Nebraska Examiner has reported that “more people have continued to leave than enter Nebraska from other states, and the loss is heavily those with an education level of at least a bachelor's degree.” Today Dr. Josie Schafer, director of the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about her research on Nebraska's concerning demographic trends, the root causes of brain drain, and what steps may be taken to mitigate concerns as job requirements shift over the coming decades. Later in the show, Joshua LaBure reviews 'Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda.' --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

Hour 1 -  Good Monday morning! Here's what Nick Reed covers this hour: Approval of President Biden has dipped to near the lowest point of his tenure in office. Approval for Biden is currently at 38%, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. President Biden is reportedly frustrated at VP Harris for not "rising to the occasion" as his second-in-command. When will Sen. John Fetterman return to work? Revelations of the sheer number of FBI informants involved in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot have shaken a trial of members of the Proud Boys in Washington, DC, as one FBI informant had infiltrated the defense team. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey created a hotline to report abuse cases of children who are subjected to transgender medical interventions.

According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Biden's approval rating has dropped to 38 percent.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this rebroadcast episode from 2020, Maria and Julio welcome Valarie Kaur, renowned Sikh activist, civil rights lawyer, and author of the book “See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love.” They reflect on Valarie's activist roots and her experience writing her book. They also discuss America's history of state-sanctioned violence against communities of color and explore how revolutionary love is a feminist intervention and a force for justice. ITT Staff Picks:  Melissa Harris-Perry interviewed Valarie Kaur about how “misdirected” islamophobia has affected the Sikh community for two decades, in this episode of The Takeaway.  Valarie Kaur talks about how love is revolutionary and makes the case for reclaiming love as a public ethic in this Ted Talk.  “A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted ahead of the 9/11 anniversary found that 53% of Americans have unfavorable views toward Islam, compared with 42% who have favorable ones. This stands in contrast to Americans' opinions about Christianity and Judaism, for which most respondents expressed favorable views” write Mariam Fam, Deepti Hajela and Luis Andres Henao for the Associated Press.  Photo credit: Amber Castro   

Hour 1 -  Good Wednesday morning! Here's what Nick Reed covers this hour: Sen. Lindsey Graham announced a bill to ban abortion after 4 months (15 weeks). Nick pulls polls from multiple sources and multiple years... In 2015, a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll found that 84% polled wanted abortions limited to, at most, the first 90 days of pregnancy. Almost seven in 10 (69 percent) who identify themselves as "pro-choice" favor this limit on abortion, the survey found. A 2021 AP poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65% said abortion should be illegal in the second trimester, and 80% said that about the third trimester. A June 2022 poll by Rasmussen Reports finds that half of the country approves of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and send the issue of abortion back to the states. In a bombshell revelation, Special Prosecutor John Durham revealed Tuesday in court filings that the FBI paid a Russian businessman as a confidential human source in the investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign even though it had prior concerns that businessman was tied to Moscow's intelligence services.

[00:30] Biden in Denial (6 minutes)A new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 85 percent of U.S. adults believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction. When an AP reporter asked Joe Biden about this survey, Biden flat-out rejected the poll, saying the people “don't think that.” [6:15] Media Accepts Hutchinson's Testimony (26 minutes)CBS's Norah O'Donnell said Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony on Tuesday was “breathtaking in scope and devastating in details.” At the Atlantic, Anne Applebaum wrote, “If the January 6 hearings don't change minds, nothing will.” The Washington Examiner also chimed in by saying that Hutchinson's testimony was “very precise,” proving that Donald Trump is “unfit for power.” Despite her story of President Trump attacking his secret service agent in an SUV being thoroughly debunked, talking heads are still holding up Hutchinson as the hero of the January 6 hearings. [32:40] Bible Study: Godly Emotion (18 minutes)The apostles and prophets of old were passionate men! Channeled properly, godly emotion actually strengthens our worship of God. It is a vital key to becoming a man or woman after God's own heart. [50:45] E-mail Feedback (4 minutes)

A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 56% of Americans favor requiring people on planes, trains and public transportation to wear masks, compared with 24% opposed and 20% who say they're neither in favor nor opposed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's episode, we're talking about one of the most urgent issues facing humanity today, and how we can reframe our mindset around it to better encourage and allow ourselves to take action. That issue, of course, is climate change. Technology has created a lot of the problems we face, but is also coming up with some of the most innovative and inventive solutions. Solving this is going to take creativity, collaboration, and a willingness to change, but that's what we're all about here at the Tech Humanist Show! What is our individual responsibility to tackling these problems? What are the most exciting solutions on the horizon? Who should we be holding to account, and how? Those answers and more on this week's episode. Guests this week include Sarah T. Roberts, AR Siders, Tan Copsey, Anne Therese Gennari, Christopher Mims, Art Chang, Dorothea Baur, Abhishek Gupta, and Caleb Gardner. The Tech Humanist Show is a multi-media-format program exploring how data and technology shape the human experience. Hosted by Kate O'Neill. To watch full interviews with past and future guests, or for updates on what Kate O'Neill is doing next, subscribe to The Tech Humanist Show hosted by Kate O'Neill channel on YouTube. Full Transcript: Hello, humans! Today we're talking about a problem that technology is both a major cause of and perhaps one of our best potential solutions for: climate change. By almost any reckoning, the climate emergency is the most urgent and existential challenge facing humanity for the foreseeable future. All of the other issues we face pale in comparison to the need to arrest and reverse carbon emissions, reduce global average temperatures, and begin the work of rebuilding sustainable models for all of us to be able to live and work on this planet. By late 2020, melting ice in the Arctic began to release previously-trapped methane gas deposits. The warming effects of methane are 80 times stronger than carbon over 20 years, which has climate scientists deeply worried. Meanwhile, the Amazon rainforest has been devastated by burning. The plastic-filled oceans are warming. Coral reefs are dying. Experts are constantly adjusting their predictions on warming trends. And climate issues contribute to other socio-political issues as well, usually causing a big loop: Climate disasters create uninhabitable environments, leading to increased migration and refugee populations, which can overwhelm nearby areas and stoke the conditions for nationalistic and jingoistic political power grabs. This puts authoritarians and fascists into power—who usually aren't too keen on spending money to fix problems like climate change that don't affect them personally—exacerbating all of the previous problems. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson showcased exactly this type of position before a recent UN climate conference, claiming the fall of the Roman empire was due to uncontrolled immigration as a way of refocusing people's fear and attention away from climate change. Marine Le Pen of France went so far as to say that those without a homeland don't care about the environment. Similarly out-of-touch and out-of-context things have been said recently by right-wing leaders in Spain, Germany, Switzerland… the list goes on and on. Perhaps the most psychologically challenging aspect of all this is that even as we begin to tackle these issues one by one, we will continue to see worsening environmental effects for the next few decades. As David Wallace-Wells writes in The Uninhabitable Earth: “Some amount of further warming is already baked in, thanks to the protracted processes by which the planet adapts to greenhouse gas…But all of those paths projected from the present…to two degrees, to three, to four or even five—will be carved overwhelmingly by what we choose to do now.” The message is: It's up to us. We know what's coming, and are thus empowered to chart the course for the future. What we need are bold visions and determined action, and we need it now. At this point you may be thinking, “I could really use some of that Kate O'Neill optimism right about now…” Not only do I have hope, but many of the climate experts I have read and spoken with are hopeful as well. But the first step in Strategic Optimism is acknowledging the full and unvarnished reality, and the hard truth about the climate crisis is that things do look bleak right now. Which just means our optimistic strategy in response has to be that much more ambitious, collaborative, and comprehensive. As Christiana Figuere and Tom Rivett-Carnac wrote in The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, “[To feel] a lack of agency can easily transform into anger. Anger that sinks into despair is powerless to make change. Anger that evolves into conviction is unstoppable.” One of the things slowing progress on the climate front is the people on the extreme ends of the belief spectrum—especially those in positions of power—who believe it's either too late to do anything, or that climate change isn't happening at all. Technology exacerbates this problem through the spread of false information. Thankfully by this point most people—around 90% of Americans and a higher percentage of scientists—are in agreement that it's happening, although we're still divided on the cause. The same poll conducted in October 2021 by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, found that only 54% of Americans believe humans contribute to climate change. A separate study conducted that same month looked at 88,125 peer-reviewed climate studies published between 2012 and 2020, and determined that 99.9% of those studies found human activity to be directly responsible for our warming planet. It's important, however, not to write off the people who aren't yet fully convinced. Technology, as much as it has given us near-infinite access to information, is also a tremendous propagator of mis- and disinformation, which is fed to people by algorithms as immutable fact, and is often indistinguishable from the truth. Sarah T Roberts, who is Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she also serves as the co-founder of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, explains further. Sarah T Roberts: “When I think about people who fall victim to conspiracy theories, what I see is a human impulse to make sense of a world that increasingly doesn't. And they're doing it in the absence of information that is way more complex and hard to parse out and might actually point criticism at places that are very uncomfortable. They sense a wrongness about the world but they don't have the right information, or access to it, or even the ability to parse it, because we've destroyed public schools. And then the auxiliary institutions that help people, such as libraries, and that leaves them chasing their own tail through conspiracy theories instead of unpacking things like the consequences of western imperialism, or understanding human migration as economic and environmental injustice issues. Y'know, you combine all that, and people, what do they do? They reach for the pablum of Social Media, which is instantaneous, always on, easy to digest, and worth about as much as, y'know, those things might be worth. I guess what I'm trying to do is draw some connections around phenomena that seem like they have come from nowhere. It would behoove us to connect those dots both in this moment, but also draw back on history, at least the last 40 years of sort of like neoliberal policies that have eroded the public sphere in favor of private industry. What it didn't do was erode the public's desire to know, but what has popped up in that vacuum are these really questionable information sources that really don't respond to any greater norms, other than partisanship, advertising dollars, etc. And that's on a good day!” The fact is, there are a number of industries and people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Not all of them engage in disinformation schemes, but some corporations—and people—who are interested in fighting climate change aren't willing to look at solutions that might change their business or way of life. Too much change is scary, so they look for solutions that keep things as they are. AR Siders: “Too much of our climate change adaptation is focused on trying to maintain the status quo. We're trying to say, ‘hey, the climate is changing, what can we do to make sure that everything stays the same in the face of climate change?' And I think that's the wrong way to think about this.” That's AR Siders, assistant professor in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Geography and a Core Faculty Member of the Disaster Research Center. Siders' research focuses on climate change adaptation governance, decision-making, and evaluation. ARSiders: “I think we need to think about the idea that we're not trying to maintain the status quo, we're trying to choose how we want our societies to change. I often start talks by showing historic photos, and trying to point out, in 1900, those photos don't look like they do today. So, 100 years in the future, things are going to look different. And that's true even if you don't accept climate change. Even if we stop climate change tomorrow, we might have another pandemic. We'll have new technology. And so our goal shouldn't be to try to lock society into the way it works today, it should be to think about, what are the things we really care about preserving, and then what things do we actively want to choose to change? Climate adaptation can be a really exciting field if we think about it that way.” And it is! But as more people have opened their eyes to the real threat looming in the near-horizon, disinformation entities and bad actors have changed their tactics, shifting responsibility to individuals, and away from the corporations causing the majority of the harm. So let's talk about our personal responsibility to healing the climate. Tan Copsey: “We always should be careful of this trap of individual action, because in the past the fossil fuel industry has emphasized individual action.” That's Tan Copsey, who is Senior Director, Projects and Partnerships at Climate Nexus, a strategic communications organization. His work focuses on communicating the impacts of climate change and the benefits of acting to reduce climate risks. You'll be hearing from him a lot this episode. We spoke recently about climate change solutions and responsibilities across countries and industries. He continued: Tan Copsey: “I don't know if it's true but apparently BP invented the carbon footprint as a way of kind of getting people to focus on themselves and feel a sense of guilt, and project out a sense of blame, but that's not really what it's about. Dealing with climate change should ultimately be a story about hope, and that's what I kind of try and tell myself and other people.” Speaking of, Shell had a minor PR awakening in November 2020 when they tweeted a poll asking: “What are you willing to change to help reduce carbon emissions?” The tweet prompted many high-profile figures like climate activist Greta Thunberg and US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to call out the hypocrisy of a fossil fuel company asking the public for personal change. In truth, research has found that the richest 1% of the world's population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, with people in the US causing the most emissions per capita in the world. Now, this doesn't mean to abandon personal responsibility. We should all make what efforts we can to lower our carbon footprint where feasible—whether by reviewing consumption habits, eating less meat, driving less, or anything from a wide variety of options. There's interesting psychological research around how making sustainable choices keeps us grounded in the mindset of what needs to change. I spoke with Anne Therese Gennari, a speaker, educator, and environmental activist known as The Climate Optimist, about the psychology behind individual action, and how the simple act of being more climate conscious in our daily lives can make the world a better place in ways beyond reducing our carbon footprints. Anne Therese Gennari: “Do our individual actions matter… and I think it matters so much, for 4 reasons. The first one is that it mends anxiety. A lot of people are starting to experience climate anxiety, and the first step out of that is actually to put yourself back in power. Choosing optimism is not enough. Telling ourselves, ‘I want to be optimistic,' is gonna fall short very quickly, but if we keep showing up for that work and that change, we're actually fueling the optimism from within. And that's how we keep going. The second one is that it builds character. So, the things that you do every day start to build up your habits, and that builds your character. Recognizing that the things we do becomes the identity that we hold onto, and that actually plays a huge part on what I'll say next, which is, start shifting the culture. We are social creatures, and we always look to our surroundings to see what's acceptable and okay and not cool and all these things, so the more of us that do something, it starts to shift norms and create a new culture, and we have a lot of power when we start to shift the culture. And then lastly, I'll just say, we always plant seeds. So whatever you do, someone else might see and pick up on, you never know what's gonna ripple effect from your actions.” No one person can make every change needed, but we can all do something. Every small action has the potential to create positive effects you'll never know. One surprising piece of information is that some of the things we're doing that we know are bad for the environment—like online delivery—may have more of a positive environmental impact than we thought. While the sheer amount of product that we order—especially non-essential items—is definitely exacerbating climate change, there are some positive takeaways. Christopher Mims, tech columnist at the Wall Street Journal and author of Arriving Today, on how everything gets from the factory to our front door, explains how, especially once our transportation and delivery vehicles have been electrified, ordering online may be a significantly greener alternative to shopping in stores. Christopher Mims: “The good news—you would think all of this ordering stuff online is terrible for the environment—look, it's bad for the environment in as much as it makes us consume more. We're all over-consuming, on average. But it's good for the environment in that, people forget, hopping into a 2 or 3 thousand pound car and driving to the grocery store—or a store—to get 5 to 15 pounds of goods and driving it home is horribly inefficient compared to putting the same amount of goods onto a giant box truck that can make 150 stops (if you're talking about a UPS or an Amazon delivery van), or a few dozen if you're talking about groceries. The funny thing is that delivery has the potential to be way more sustainable, and involve way less waste than our current system of going to stores. Frankly, physical retail is kind of a nightmare environmentally.” That's only a small piece of the puzzle, and there are still social and economic issues involved in the direct-to-home delivery industry. More important in regards to our personal responsibility is to stay engaged in the conversation. A both/and mindset is best: embrace our own individual responsibilities, one of which is holding companies and entities with more direct impact on the climate accountable for making infrastructural and operational change that can give individuals more freedom to make responsible choices. Tan Copsey again. Tan Copsey: “It is about political action and engagement for me. Not just voting, but it's about everything that happens in between. It's about community engagement, and the tangible things you feel when there are solar panels on a rooftop, or New York begins to move away from gas. I mean, that's a huge thing! In a more existential sense, the news has been bad. The world is warming, and our approach to dealing with it distributes the benefits to too few people. There are definitely things you can do, and so when I talk about political pressure, I'm not just talking about political pressure for ‘climate action,' I'm talking about political pressure for climate action that benefits as many people as possible.” So, if part of our responsibility is to hold our leaders to account… what changes do we need? What should we be encouraging our leaders to do? Since we're talking about political engagement, let's start with government. Tan spoke to me about government response to another global disaster—the COVID-19 Pandemic—and some of the takeaways that might be applied to battling climate change as well. Tan Copsey: “What's really interesting to me about the pandemic is how much money governments made available, particularly the Fed in the US, and how they just pumped that money into the economy as it exists. Now, you can pump that money into the economy and change it, too, and you can change it quite dramatically. And that's what we're beginning to see in Europe as they attempt to get off Russian gas. You're seeing not just the installation of heat pumps at astonishing scale, but you're also seeing real acceleration of a push toward green energy, particularly in Germany. You're also seeing some ideas being revisited. In Germany it's changing people's minds about nuclear power, and they're keeping nukes back on.” Revisiting debates we previously felt decided on is unsettling. Making the future a better place is going to require a great deal of examination and change, which can be scary. It's also something federal governments are designed not to be able to do too quickly. But that change doesn't have to work against the existing economy; it can build with it. It might be notable to people looking at this from a monetary perspective—the world's seven most industrialized countries will lose a combined nearly $5 trillion in GDP over the next several decades if global temperatures rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius. So it behooves everyone to work on these solutions. And what are those solutions? AR Siders spoke to me about the four types of solutions to climate issues. A lot of her work involves coastal cities, so her answer uses “flooding” as an example, but the strategies apply to other problems as well. AR Siders: “So the main categories are, Resistance, so this is things like building a flood wall, putting in dunes, anything that tries to stop the water from reaching your home. Then there's Accommodation, the classic example here is elevating homes, so the water comes, and the water goes, but it does less damage because you're sort of out of the way. Then there's Avoidance, which is ‘don't build there in the first place,' (America, we're not very good at that one). And then Retreat is, once you've built there, if you can't resist or accommodate, or if those have too many costs, financial or otherwise, then maybe it's time to relocate.” We'll need to apply all four strategies to different problems as they crop up, but it's important that we're proactive and remain open to which solution works best for a given issue. City governments have tremendous opportunities to emerge as leaders in this space. Studies project that by the end of the century, US cities could be up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the afternoon and 14 degrees warmer at night, meaning cities need to start taking action now. Phoenix, Arizona—a city that experiences the “heat island effect” year round—is actively making efforts to minimize these effects. In 2020, they began testing “cool pavement,” a chemical coating that reflects sunlight and minimizes the absorption of heat to curb the heat island effect. Additionally, measures to offer better transit options are on the table, with cities like Austin and New York emerging as leaders in the space. The Citi Bike app in New York City now shows transit information alongside rental and docking updates as acknowledgement that for many trips biking isn't enough, but in combination with buses or trains, biking can simplify and speed a commute as part of a greener lifestyle. Austin's recognition of the synergies between bikeshare and public transit has been praised as a model for other cities, as city transit agencies move away from seeing themselves as managers of assets (like busses), and towards being managers of mobility. I spoke with Art Chang, who has been a longtime entrepreneur and innovator in New York City—and who was, at the time of our discussion, running for mayor—about the need for resilience in preparing cities for the future. Art Chang: “There was a future—a digital future—for New York, but also being open to this idea that seas were rising, that global temperatures were going up, that we're going to have more violent storms, that things like the 100-year flood line may not be drawn to incorporate the future of these rising seas and storms. So we planned, deliberately and consciously, for a hundred-fifty year storm. We softened the edge of the water, because it creates such an exorbitant buffer for the rising seas and storms. We created trenches that are mostly hidden so that overflow water had a place to go. We surrounded the foundations of the building with what we call ‘bathtubs,' which are concrete enclosures that would prevent water from going into these places where so much of the infrastructure of these buildings were, and then we located as much of the mechanicals on top of the building, so they would be protected from any water. Those are some of the most major things. All technologies, they're all interconnected, they're all systems.” Making any of the changes suggested thus far requires collective action. And one of the ways in which we need to begin to collaborate better is simply to agree on the terms we're using and how we're measuring our progress. Some countries, like the United States, have an advantage when it comes to reporting on climate progress due to the amount of forests that naturally occur within their borders. That means the US can underreport emissions by factoring in the forests as “carbon sinks,” while other countries that may have lower emissions, but also fewer naturally-occurring forests, look worse on paper. This isn't factually wrong, but it obscures the work that's needed to be done in order to curb the damage. I asked Tan about these issues, and he elaborated on what he believes needs to be done. Tan Copsey: “Again, I'd say we resolve the ambiguity through government regulation. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at ESG. So this big trend among investors and companies, the idea that you take account of environmental, social, and governance factors in your investments, in what your company does. Realistically, there hasn't been consistent measure of this. I could buy an exchange-traded fund, and it could be ‘ESG,' and I wouldn't really know what's in it. And it could be that what's in it isn't particularly good. And so regulators are really trying to look at that now and to try and standardize it, because that matters. Likewise, you have carbon markets which are sort of within European Union, and then you have voluntary carbon markets, which are often very reliant on forest credits sourced from somewhere else, where you're not quite sure if the carbon reduction is permanent or not. And yeah, there is a need for better standards there.” To do this holistically we will need to get creative with economic incentives, whether that involves offsets, green energy credits, or new programs at local, state, or national levels. One of the more aggressive and comprehensive plans for rethinking energy policy came from the EU in summer 2021, just as Germany and Belgium reeled from killer floods that were likely exacerbated by the climate crisis. The EU announced its ”Fit for 55” plans, ”a set of inter-connected proposals, which all drive toward the same goal of ensuring a fair, competitive and green transition by 2030 and beyond.” It's an approach that is systemic, recognizing the interconnectedness of a wide variety of policy areas and economic sectors: energy, transportation, buildings, land use, and forestry. And we need more programs and regulations like this. But until we have those better regulations we need, there are still things business leaders can do to make their businesses better for the environment today, so let's move away from government and talk about businesses. A lot of businesses these days pay an enormous amount of lip service (and money) to showing that they care about the environment, but the actual work being done to lower their carbon footprint or invest in cleaner business practices is a lot less significant. Tan spoke to me about this as well. Tan Copsey: “They need to move from a model which was a little bit more about PR to something that's real. In the past when a business issued a sustainability report, it was beautiful! It was glossily designed… And then when it came to like, filings with the SEC, they said ‘climate change is a serious issue and we are taking it seriously,' because their lawyers read it very, very closely. And so, if dealing with climate risk is embedded in everything you do as a business (as it probably should be), because almost every business, well, every business probably, interacts with the energy system—every business is a climate change business. They should be thinking about it, they should be reporting on it, y'know, when it comes to CEOs, it should be part of the way we assess their performance.” Nowadays, lots of companies are talking about “offsetting” their carbon emissions, or attempting to counter-act their emissions by planting trees or recapturing some of the carbon. But is this the right way to think about things? Dorothea Baur: “Offsetting is a really good thing, but the first question to ask should not be, ‘can I offset it?' or ‘how can I offset it?', but, ‘is what I'm doing, is it even necessary?'” That's Dorothea Baur, a leading expert & advisor in Europe on ethics, responsibility, and sustainability across industries such as finance, technology, and beyond. Her PhD is in NGO-business partnerships, and she's been active in research and projects around sustainable investment, corporate social responsibility, and increasingly, emerging technology such as AI. Dorothea Baur: “So, I mean, let's say my favorite passion is to fly to Barcelona every other weekend just for fun, for partying. So, instead of offsetting it, maybe I should stop doing it. And the same for tech companies saying, you know, ‘we're going to be carbon negative!' but then make the most money from totally unsustainable industries. That's kind of a double-edged sword.” It is notable that one of the key ways businesses and governments attempt to offset their emissions is “planting trees,” which has more problems than you may think. Yes, trees are an incredibly important part of a carbon sink approach, and we definitely need to plant more of them—but there's a catch to how we say we're going to do it. The promise of tree-planting has been such an easy add-on for companies' marketing campaigns to make over the years that there's a backlog of trees to be planted and not enough tree seedlings to keep up with the promises. It's not uncommon for companies to make the commitment to their customers to plant trees first, only for them to struggle to find partners to plant the promised trees. Dorothea Baur lamented this fact in her interview. Dorothea Baur: “It's also controversial, what I always joke about—the amount of trees that have been promised to be planted? I'm waiting for the day when I look out of my window in the middle of the city and they start planting trees! Because so much—I mean, the whole planet must be covered with trees! The thing is, it takes decades until the tree you plant really turns into a carbon sink. So, all that planting trees—it sounds nice, but also I think there's some double-counting going on. It's easy to get the credit for planting a tree, but it's hard to verify the reduction you achieve because it takes such a long time.” It's going to take more than lip service about tree-planting; we have to actually expand our infrastructural capability to grow and plant them, commit land to that use, and compensate for trees lost in wildfires and other natural disasters. Beyond that, we have to make sure the trees we're planting will actually have the effect we want. The New York Times published an article in March, arguing that “Reforestation can fight climate change, uplift communities and restore biodiversity. When done badly, though, it can speed extinctions and make nature less resilient…companies and countries are increasingly investing in tree planting that carpets large areas with commercial, nonnative species in the name of fighting climate change. These trees sock away carbon but provide little support to the webs of life that once thrived in those areas.” And that can mean the trees take resources away from existing plant life, killing it and eliminating the native carbon-sink—leading to a situation where net carbon emissions were reduced by nearly zero. These are problems that require collaboration and communication between industries, governments, activists, and individuals. Beyond those initiatives, companies can also improve their climate impact by investing in improvements to transportation for employees and customers, perhaps offering public transit or electric vehicle incentives to employees, or investing in a partnership with their municipality to provide electric vehicle charging stations at offices and storefronts. Additionally, business responsibility may include strategic adjustments to the supply chain or to materials used in products, packaging, or delivery. Another issue when it comes to offsetting emissions is the leeway the tech industry gives itself when it comes to measuring their own global climate impact, when the materials they need to build technology is one of the chief contributors to carbon emissions. Dorothea Baur again. Dorothea Baur: “The whole supply chain of the IT industry is also heavily based on minerals. There are actually, there are really interesting initiatives also by tech companies, or like commodity companies that specifically focus on the minerals or the metals that are in our computers. Like cobalt, there's a new transparency initiative, a fair cobalt initiative. So they are aware of this, but if you look at where is the main focus, it's more on the output than on the input. And even though the tech companies say, ‘oh, we're going to be carbon neutral or carbon negative,' as long as they sell their cloud services to the fossil industry, that's basically irrelevant.” Currently, AI tech is an “energy glutton”—training just one machine learning algorithm can produce CO2 emissions that are 5 times more than the lifetime emissions of a car. But there is still hope for AI as a tool to help with climate change, namely using it to learn how to more efficiently run energy grids and predict energy usage, especially as energy grids become more complicated with combined use of solar, wind, and water power in addition to traditional fossil fuels. AI can also make the global supply chain more efficient, reducing emissions and speeding up the process of developing new, cleaner materials. One small-scale use-case is “Trashbot,” which sorts waste materials into categories using sensors and cameras, eliminating the need for people to try to sort out their own recyclables. What's clear from every emerging report is that net zero emissions are no longer enough. We need governments and companies and every entity possible to commit to net negative emissions. Cities need ambitious plans for incentivizing buildings that sequester carbon. Companies need logistics overhauls to ensure their supply chains are as compliant as possible, and then some. Tan Copsey: ““What's interesting is when they talk about Net Zero—particularly companies, but also a lot of governments—they talk about Net Zero by 2050. What is that, 28 years. 28 years is still a long time away, and if you're a government, the current president certainly won't be president in 2050. If you're a company CEO, you may not be CEO next quarter, let alone in 28 years, and so we have to have nearer-term targets. You want to be Net Zero by 2050? Tell me how you're gonna get there. Tell me what you're gonna do by 2030, tell me what you're gonna do by next quarter. One of the things that encourages me is things like change in financial regulation, which sounds arcane and slightly off-topic, but it's not. It's about what companies report when, and how investors hold those companies to account to nearer-term action, because that's how we get there.” One of the reasons that corporations do so little to minimize their carbon footprint is that they don't accurately measure their own carbon emissions. Using AI to track emissions can show problem areas, and what can be done to address those issues. Abhishek Gupta, machine learning engineer, founder of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, and board member of Microsoft's CSE Responsible AI board, spoke to me about an initiative he's working on to help ease this burden by making it easier for developers to track the effect they're having on the environment by incorporating data collection into their existing workflow. Abhishek Gupta: “One of the projects that we're working on is to help developers assess the environmental impacts of the work that they do. Not to say that there aren't initiative already, there are—the problem with a lot of these are, they ignore the developer's workflow. So the problem then is, if you're asking me to go to an external website and put in all of this information, chances are I might do it the first couple of times, but I start to drop the ball later on. But if you were to integrate this in a manner that is similar to ML Flow, now that's something that's a little more natural to the developer workflow; data science workflow. If you were to integrate the environmental impacts in a way that follows this precedent that's set by something like ML Flow, there is a lot higher of a possibility for people taking you up on that, and subsequently reporting those outcomes back to you, rather than me having to go to an external website, fill out a form, take that PDF report of whatever… that's just too much effort. So that's really what we're trying to do, is to make it easy for you to do the right thing.” And Abhishek isn't the only one who sees potential in AI. Dorothea Baur also spoke to me about her belief in AI, although she sees us using it for a different purpose. Dorothea Baur: “AI has huge potential to cause good, especially when it comes to environmental sustainability. For example, the whole problem of pattern recognition in machine learning, where if it's applied to humans, it is full of biases, and it kind of confuses correlation and causation, and it's violating privacy, etc. There are a lot of issues that you don't have when you use the same kind of technology in a natural science context, you know? Where you just observe patterns of oceans and clouds and whatever, or when you try to control the extinction of species. I mean, animals don't have a need for or a right to privacy, so why not use AI in contexts where it doesn't violate anyone's moral rights? And where you, at the same time, resolve a real problem.” Turning AI and algorithms away from people and towards nature is a wise decision in many respects. A lot of our efforts to curb the effects of climate change thus far have overlooked the same people that are overlooked in our data, and in almost every measurable respect, negative impacts of the climate crisis are felt most by marginalized populations and poorer communities. Tan Copsey: “I think that when it comes to climate tech, you need to think about who it's supposed to benefit. There's more than 7B people on earth, it can't just be for the US market, it has to be for everyone.” “The best futures for the most people” really comes into play here—communities of color are often more at risk from air pollution, due to decades of redlining forcing them into more dangerous areas. Seniors, people with disabilities, and people with chronic illnesses may have a harder time surviving extreme heat or quickly evacuating from natural disasters. Subsidized housing is often located in a flood plain, causing mold, and frequently lacks adequate insulation or air conditioning. People with a low-income may also be hard-pressed to afford insurance or be able to come back from an extreme loss after catastrophe strikes. Some indigenous communities have already lost their homelands to rising sea levels and drought. Indigenous communities, speaking of, often have traditional approaches—empowered by millennia of historical experience—to living gently on the planet and a mindset for cooperating with nature that are well worth learning. Seeking leadership on climate issues from Indigenous people should be a priority. An article published by Mongabay on December 21, 2021 gives an example of an initiative in Mexico that is using the knowledge of indigenous communities, and is working. Essentially, the Ejido Verde company grants interest-free loans to local communities to plant and tend pine trees for the tapping of resin, a multibillion-dollar global industry. Younger generations are eager to participate, and fewer people feel the need to migrate away from their homes. According to a paper by the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, the only way that recovery can work is if it is based on sound science, supported by fair governance, incentivized by long-term funding mechanisms, and guided by indigenous knowledge and local communities. Speaking of long-term funding mechanisms, let's talk about another group of leaders who have the potential to make a drastic positive impact today: private investors. Activist investors may seem unwelcome, but when they're making priorities known on behalf of humanity, they're ultimately doing us all a service. These people have the ability to help shape company and government policy by letting their dollars speak for us, by investing in solutions and burgeoning industries that we drastically need. That's been happening, such as when the shareholders of both ExxonMobil and Chevron sent strong messages about getting serious with respect to climate responsibility. In Europe, shareholder votes and a Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its emissions faster than they'd already been planning. And social and financial pressure is a good way to nudge executives in the right direction, especially leaders who don't make climate-friendly decisions out of fear of pushback from their boards and investors. Tan Copsey: “Investors increasingly should be thinking about the companies they invest in on the basis of their climate performance. And that isn't just, ‘oh, they reduced some greenhouse gas emissions,' because, y'know, you look at a lot of tech companies and they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but really they have to do more than that. For businesses in other sectors, it may not be that simple. Certainly there are harder to abate sectors, and so it could be that you are the CEO of a steel company, and your emissions are still gigantic, but the change you can make by introducing, say, hydrogen, and getting rid of coal, or introducing renewable energy plus hydrogen to your—the way in which you do steel, is transformative for the global economy and transformative for the climate system, and in a way investing in that company is more climate-friendly than investing in a tech company; but chances are you have an ETF and you're doing both.” Despite everything I've talked about today, it's important for all of us to remain optimistic. I asked Anne Therese Gennari why optimism is important, and her answer didn't disappoint. Anne Therese Gennari: “Optimism, for scientific reasons, is actually very important. If you look to neuroscience, we need optimism to believe something better is possible, and then find the motivation and the courage to take action right now to get us closer to that goal. And I think there is a huge difference between optimism and toxic positivity, and I think a lot of people who don't agree with optimism associate it with always trying to be happy, thinking good thoughts and hoping things will turn out to the better. And that's why I love to come back to this understanding that ‘awareness hurts, and that's okay.' Because when we tell ourselves that not everything is beautiful, and sometimes things will be painful, we can actually handle that, and we can take that. But from that place of awareness, we can start to grow a seed of hope and tell ourselves, ‘well, what if? What if we did take action, and this happened? What if we can create a more beautiful world in the future? And so, we can paint a picture that's all doomsday, or we can paint one that's beautiful. So which one do we want to start working towards?” And if you find yourself saying, “I really want to be optimistic, but it's too hard! There's just so much bad news out there…” don't fret! You aren't alone. You might even say that's a quite human response. Anne Therese Gennari: “We're human beings, and as a species, we respond to certain kinds of information in different ways. Information that's negative or fear based has a very limiting response in our brains. When we hear something that's overwhelming, like climate change, and we know it's urgent, we might understand that it's urgent, but the action isn't there. Because how our brains respond to something that we don't want to happen is actually to not take action. And it goes back to way back in time, where like, you're facing this dangerous animal, and you're like ‘there's no way I can fight this animal, I can't outrun it, so what am I gonna do? I'm gonna stand here super still and hope that it doesn't see me.' That's literally what our brains think about when something's that overwhelming. And so I think the more urgent the matter is, the more important it is that we actually fuel ourselves with an optimistic future or goal to work towards, because that is the only way that we can actually trigger action.” So let's fuel our minds with an optimistic future to work towards. Despite all the bad news you've heard—even on this episode—there are a lot of hopeful developments happening! The most recent U.N. Climate Conference, COP26, established the Glasgow Climate Pact, which recognizes that the situation is at an emergency level, asking countries to accelerate their plans by calling for provable action by next year. Policy changes, government regulations, and people becoming motivated are all on the rise. Caleb Gardner, who was lead digital strategist for President Obama's political advocacy group, OFA and is now founding partner of 18 Coffees, a strategy firm working at the intersection of digital innovation, social change, and the future of work, spoke to me about what he's most optimistic about, which is right in line with this show's values. Caleb Gardner: “I'm probably most optimistic about technology's ability to tackle global problems like climate change. I'm actually pretty bullish on technology's ability to solve and actually innovate around the reduction of carbon in our atmosphere, electric vehicles, electric grid… and what's great is a lot of that's already being driven by the private sector around the world, so it's not as dependent on government as we think that it is.” So let's talk about some of the emerging technologies that show a lot of promise in mitigating the effects of climate change—and that might make sense to invest in, if you have the means to do so. A team of UCLA scientists led by Aaswath Raman has developed a thin, mirror-like film that reflects heat to outer space through radiative cooling, and can lower the temperatures of objects it's applied to by more than 10 degrees. The idea comes from generations of knowledge from people living in desert climates who learned to cool water by letting the heat radiate out of it overnight. If this film were added to paint and/or applied to pipes and refrigeration units, it could help cool buildings and make refrigeration systems more efficient, reducing the need for air conditioning, which accounts for as much as 70% of residential energy demand in the United States and Middle East. One of the strongest selling points of innovations like this film is that it doesn't need electricity; it only needs a clear day to do its job. Another innovation in reflecting energy back into space comes in the form of ‘cloud brightening,' a technique where salt drops are sprayed into the sky so that clouds reflect more radiation, allowing us to refreeze the polar ice caps. Then there's the new trend of green roofs, in particular the California Academy of Sciences' Living Roof, which spans 2.5 acres and runs six inches deep, with an estimated 1.7 million plants, collecting 100 percent of storm water runoff and offering insulation to the building below. The whole endeavor is brilliantly hopeful and strategic. A massive green roof is completely on brand for a science museum, but that doesn't mean other buildings and businesses wouldn't benefit from them as well. The National Park Service even estimates that over a forty year building lifespan, a green roof could save a typical structure about $200,000, nearly two-thirds of which would come from reduced energy costs. Other building technologies move beyond solar panels and green roofs, with automated building management systems detecting usage patterns of lighting, heating, and air conditioning. There have also been innovations in window insulation, trapping heat during the winter and blocking it out in the summer. ‘Green cement' can be heated to lower temperatures and cuts emissions by a third compared to regular cement. There are new Hydrogen-powered ships whose emissions are water. Electric planes have been developed for short-distance flights. Large floating solar power installations have the potential to generate terawatts of energy on a global scale, and when built near hydropower, can generate electricity even in the dark. Lithium batteries continue to get smaller and more efficient, and can be charged faster and more often than other batteries, making electric vehicles cheaper. And speaking of electric vehicles, they can help with our energy storage problems, with owners buying electricity at night to charge their cars and selling it to the grid when demand is high and cars are unused during the day. Feeding cows seaweed and replacing beef with insects such as mealworms can drastically reduce methane emissions. Scientists in Argentina are working on backpacks for cows that collect their methane, which have shown to collect enough methane from a single cow every day to fuel a refrigerator for 24 hours. To help curb other types of emissions, carbon capture and storage technologies like NZT allow us to capture CO2 in offshore storage sites several kilometres beneath the North Sea. But it's not just about new technologies, or technologies that only work for the richest people. Here's Tan again to elaborate on this idea. Tan Copsey: “This is a really tricky moment, y'know, this is a really bad time to be inefficiently using the resources we have. As we think about climate tech, think about optimizing mobility, as well as copying the existing model. There's a lot of existing tech out there that would make people's lives better—very simple irrigation systems—and so, we shouldn't just think of this in terms of big new exciting things, we should think about it in terms of deploying existing things.” All of this is part of embracing the mindset that says things can change. We need a can-do mindset, but we also need clarity and collaboration. Basically all options need to be implemented if we want to curb the damage that has already been done. Our solutions need to work in conjunction with one another, and support the greatest number of people. To close out, here's Christopher Mims with the last word on putting away the doom and gloom, and remaining optimistic in the face of overwhelming adversity. Christopher Mims: “If you really think about the whole sweep of human history, we live in a time where the pace of especially technological, and therefore in some ways cultural change, is so much faster than ever. We keep inventing new ways to kind of trip ourselves up, and then we have to just adapt so quickly to them. We're constantly playing catch-up with our own technological and social developments. So there's a lot of beating ourselves up over like, ‘woah, how come we didn't do it this way, or we didn't do this right?' or whatever. Sometimes I'm just like, ahh, just chill! We're going as fast as we can. It's very easy to get caught up in the moment to moment, but I think there is this kind of overall arc where, if we don't cook ourselves to death, or blow ourselves up, or distract ourselves to death, we're moving in directions that, once we have fully understood how to live in harmony with the technology that we've created, we'll probably be okay.” Thanks for joining me on The Tech Humanist Show today. I hope you've learned something, and at the very least, that you're going into the future with more hope than you had before.

Hear from Josie Schafer, Ph.D., Director of The Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She shares her insights related to Nebraska's changing demographics and the impact on the future workforce.Also, we hear from David Slattery, Director of Advocacy at the NHA. He provides an update on the bills being supported and their chances to become law by the end of the current legislative session.