COVID-19 numbers are up in the US, with more than 500,000 new cases over the past week. Trouble spots include El Paso, TX, where hospitals are stretched to capacity, plus the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Montana. Europe is also seeing numbers spike, leading some countries to re-implement national shutdowns. There are five days until election day, so we’re continuing to review notable ballot initiatives. Today, we discuss Utah and Nebraska amendments that would outlaw slavery as punishment for crimes,...
Oct 29, 2020•20 min
With less than a week until November 3rd, almost 70 million people have already voted in this election as of last night, which is over half the total in 2016. We talk with Charlotte Swasey, the Vice President of polling at Data for Progress, about how things are looking for Biden, how to read the polls, and what results we may and may not get on Election night. And in headlines: protests in Philly over the shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., California’s record-breaking fire season continues, and Ru...
Oct 28, 2020•26 min
Amy Coney Barrett was officially confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the court. Barrett has not said whether she will recuse herself from cases having to do with this election… meanwhile, her confirmation has led even more moderate Democrats to warm up to the idea of court reform or expansion. Policing is on the ballot this year, with over 20 state and local measures that deal with law enforcement budgets, police oversight, marijuana legalization and mo...
Oct 27, 2020•19 min
At least 5 aides of Mike Pence including his Chief of Staff have tested positive for Covid-19, but Pence still isn’t going to quarantine. The country is seeing record numbers of new cases, with over 85,000 new cases last Friday… that fits with a recent admission from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the federal government is “not going to control the pandemic.” Over 59 million people have already voted in the election and far fewer votes are undecided this year than they were in 2016...
Oct 26, 2020•20 min
Last night Biden and Trump faced off in the second and final presidential debate. It was less interrupt-y and the candidates discussed everything from the pandemic to climate change and racism. We break down what Biden and Trump had to say, and the biggest news leading into the night. And in headlines: Remdesivir approved, Pompeo signs an anti-abortion declaration, and a beautiful green dog is born in Italy. Show Links: “What Prop 22’s Defeat Would Mean For Uber and Lyft — And Drivers” https://w...
Oct 23, 2020•20 min
The DOJ announced an $8.3 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma yesterday for illegally marketing their painkiller Oxycontin. The settlement doesn’t prevent members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue Pharma, from criminal liability and there is still a criminal case pending. Protests continue in Nigeria against a notorious police unit called SARS, which has been accused of corruption, violence and other forms of abuse. Earlier this week, security forces fired on a crowd of protesters, reporte...
Oct 22, 2020•17 min
The Justice Department filed a major lawsuit against Google saying that the company is illegally trying to maintain its search dominance using anti-competitive practices. We look at what's the behind the case and what it could mean for Google. Trial volunteers in London will be deliberately infected with COVID-19 to aid in vaccine research starting in January, if a plan by researchers gets approval from regulators. In the US, the governors of California and New York are pledging review any FDA-a...
Oct 21, 2020•17 min
In the final two weeks before November 3rd, Trump has been criticizing his own public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci. Meanwhile, Biden and Harris have been defending scientists and their role in public policy. Federal prosecutors charged six men for some of the biggest, most notorious hacks in recent years, including the 2018 Winter Olympics hack and a 2017 hack on Ukraine. The hackers are all members of the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, which was also linked to election ...
Oct 20, 2020•18 min
In the US, we’re now seeing uncontrolled spread of coronavirus as parts of the country get colder and people prepare to gather for the holidays. On Friday, the CEO of Pfizer said his company won’t apply for emergency vaccine authorization until late November at the earliest, which appears to be the nail in the coffin for any vaccine getting approval by election day. After SCOTUS ruled that Trump could shut down the census count last Tuesday, the court agreed on Friday to review Trump’s plan to o...
Oct 19, 2020•19 min
A new study shows eight million people have fallen into poverty since May, when the CARES Act money started running out, but lawmakers in Washington still can’t agree on a second relief bill. We review the current state of negotiations, and how the delay is affecting Americans in need. Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up their confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, with no big surprises except a few frustrating moments where Democratic ranking member Dianne Feinstein ...
Oct 16, 2020•24 min
Amy Coney Barrett appeared for her last day of Senate questioning yesterday and gave more evasive non-responses. Today is the final day of the hearings, and will feature witness testimony on Barrett’s nomination. Brian Fallon is the executive director of Demand Justice, a group which pushes for progressive structural reforms and political hardball when it comes to the judiciary. We spoke to him about Barrett’s confirmation and what Democrats need to do differently to fix the courts. And in headl...
Oct 15, 2020•23 min
Yesterday was day two of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee got their first public chance to directly question the nominee. There were a lot of questions, but there weren’t many answers. Safety concerns led Johnson & Johnson to pause a large clinical trial of its COVID vaccine candidate and Eli Lilly to pause trials of their antibody drug. A new study found a person in Nevada was infected twice with COVID within a period of six weeks, wh...
Oct 14, 2020•22 min
Senate hearings began yesterday to consider Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats tried to keep the focus on the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans treated the day like they were writing a profile of Barrett for a conservative version of Marie Claire. With three weeks left until November 3rd, we look at recent polling, what it says about swing voters, and the state of early voting across the country. And in headlines: the California GOP installs illegal ballot-...
Oct 13, 2020•20 min
Senate confirmation hearings begin today for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's Supreme Court nominee. The president is scheduled to return to the campaign trail today just over a week after being hospitalized with COVID-19, after his doctor released a memo saying he’s no longer contagious, but providing no other information. Daily new cases of COVID-19 in the US are creeping above 50,000, which is the highest since August. Our guest host for today—epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissi...
Oct 12, 2020•22 min
Thirteen men were charged yesterday in connection to an alleged violent plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. This is unsurprising when you consider Trump’s “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” tweets from earlier in the year that encouraged armed protestors to mount anti-government and anti-COVID restriction rallies. The fate of next week’s debate is in question after an extended back-and-forth between the Trump and Biden campaigns, which concluded with Trump insisting that he should be allowed to ...
Oct 09, 2020•16 min
Last night was the first and only vice presidential debate, with Senator Kamala Harris and VP Mike Pence facing off. Their conversation covered police killings of Black Americans, Trump’s response to the pandemic, Roe v. Wade, and more. We discuss a debate that was a lot more measured than the last one, but still very frustrating. Trump went back to the Oval Office yesterday and released another long-winded video in which he said contacting COVID-19 was a “blessing from God” and described the an...
Oct 08, 2020•19 min
Trump said yesterday he won't negotiate with Democrats on another Covid relief before the election. He sent a torrent of other tweets too, all while more people in D.C. continued to test positive, including Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller and General Mark Milley. Former South Carolina Democratic party chair Jaime Harrison is tied with Senator Lindsey Graham in a tight senate race according to recent polling. We talk to Harrison about his campaign, his vision for South Carolina, the Supreme...
Oct 07, 2020•22 min
Trump is now back in the White House after making a Trumpian and very public return, but doctors say he’s still not "out of the woods." Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive along with two deputies in the communications department, but the White House’s contact tracing effort seems to be negligible at best. The Supreme Court began its new term yesterday by rejecting an appeals case from Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who refused to give out same-sex marriage licenses due to religious objec...
Oct 06, 2020•18 min
Amidst rosy reports about Trump's condition, we also learned that he received multiple drug treatments over the weekend including dexamethasone, which is typically reserved for patients with severe cases of coronavirus. We look at what his diagnosis, along with other positive cases among Senate Republicans, means for the country and the Supreme Court confirmation process. Following a negative test on Friday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tested negative again on Sunday. VP Pence and ...
Oct 05, 2020•19 min
In a tweet overnight, President Trump said that he and the first lady had tested positive for the coronavirus. The news comes after a White House aid, Hope Hicks, tested positive. She had been traveling with the President in recent days, including to the debate on Tuesday. House Dems passed a new slimmed down relief package yesterday, but Republicans still say it’s too expensive. In the meantime, layoffs continue across industries and about half the jobs that were lost between February and April...
Oct 02, 2020•22 min
Former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy is running for Senate in Mississippi, hoping to be the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate in over thirty years. He’s nearly tied with his opponent, incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde Smith, who’s previously joked about “public hangings” and held up the legacy of Confederate soldiers. We talk to him about his race, Trump’s refusal to renounce White supremacists, the Supreme Court, and how the pandemic is impacting Mississippi...
Oct 01, 2020•24 min
The first presidential debate took place in Cleveland last night. It was an extremely bumpy ride, with Trump failing to condemn white supremacy and suggesting once again he might not accept the election results. We discuss the highlights and lowlights of a night that was almost all lowlights. And in headlines: Kentucky’s AG to release grand jury proceedings from Breonna Taylor’s case, the UK and Canada impose sanctions on Belarusian officials, and David Attenborough kills it on Instagram....
Sep 30, 2020•18 min
Tonight is the first of three debates between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Trump. The debate will cover six major topics, which include the economy, the pandemic, and the integrity of the election, but notably, not the environment. We discuss what else to expect and how this debate could affect the election. Reports have revealed a strategy that the Trump campaigned allegedly used in 2016 to suppress Black voters by convincing them not to vote. The campaign sorted 3.5 million Black...
Sep 29, 2020•17 min
The New York Times published a bombshell report on two decades of Trump’s taxes, showing he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and in 2017. Trump received massive refunds after reporting losses on his businesses, one of which is currently being reviewed by the IRS, and could cost him $100 million if it’s found to be illegitimate. On Saturday, Trump formally announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court. We discuss her past positions on abortion, gun rights, a...
Sep 28, 2020•19 min
While Trump is casually threatening to be an all out dictator, the economic crisis he continues not to solve continues. New unemployment data show the recovery is slowing down. We look at whether Congress is any closer to another relief package. Next week Congress is expected to call in big tech CEOs for another big hearing, this time on Section 230 and the moderation of social media platforms. We explain. And in headlines: Breonna Taylor protests continue, Eric Trump ordered to testify, and pro...
Sep 25, 2020•19 min
Yesterday, the grand jury in Jefferson County, Kentucky announced that only one of the officers who shot at Breonna Taylor would be indicted… and that officer’s charges don’t have anything to do with Taylor’s killing. Last night following the decision, two police officers were shot in downtown Louisville. We spoke to Kentucky state representative Charles Booker hours after the decision about what comes next. Booker has been organizing and protesting in the streets for months for Breonna Taylor a...
Sep 24, 2020•16 min
America has passed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths in the COVID-19 crisis, which was made far worse by Trump’s abjectly poor leadership. The FDA is expected to roll out new, more rigorous standards for approving the coronavirus vaccines following concerns that Trump would try to push out an unsafe drug. As the election approaches, there have been a deluge of legal cases seeking to address how people can vote during the pandemic. We discuss legal battles in four swing states: North Carolina,...
Sep 23, 2020•17 min
Arizona Senator Martha McSally said she will support a Senate vote when Trump nominates a Supreme Court Justice, but she might not have a chance to participate if she loses her race against Democrat Mark Kelly in November. Since McSally is an appointed Senator instead of an elected one, she could be replaced by Kelly within the year if she loses. We take a look at the race, and what else is at stake. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office forecasts more than a doubling of the national...
Sep 22, 2020•17 min
Supreme Court Justice and gender equality pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 on Friday. The immediate response online and elsewhere was a mix of grief, fear, gratitude and determination. Within 24 hours of her passing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump both said they would move forward to replace her, despite her dying wish as well as past precedent set in 2016. We talk to constitutional law professor Leah Litman about Ginsburg’s legacy and what’s n...
Sep 21, 2020•26 min
Two pharma companies released information about their vaccine trials, including details on their timelines and specific metrics they’ll be using to assess efficacy in early data. It’s all part of a push to gain public trust. We explain what to expect, and when. While Congress is still stalled on another relief bill, Republicans in the Senate are busy confirming federal judges nominated by Trump. And in headlines: Bill Barr says all the wrong things, the USPS wanted to send us masks but was stopp...
Sep 18, 2020•17 min
