Bob Collins
April 1, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)
9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
MPR News Host Kerri Miller runs down the week in politics with Ken Rudin, host of The Political Junkie Podcast.
9:20 a.m. – 2016 was the second time in five elections when the candidate who won the popular vote lost the presidency. I’m Kerri Miller and today we’re talking about the push to abolish the electoral college. And is it really even possible?
Guest: Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory University.
10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
Last week, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner said immigration enforcement systems at the border are “at the breaking point,” according to The Washington Post. And while migrants continue to come over the border, how are they treated once they arrive? We ask experts what the numbers actually tell us about the border and immigration and talk to a reporter on the ground.
Guests: Doris Meissner, senior fellow and director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, Migration Policy Institute; Julian Aguilar, immigration and border security reporter, The Texas Tribune; Carrie Kahn, international correspondent based in Mexico City, NPR.
11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis
Big companies, desperate cities. Are big tax breaks and subsidies offered to giant corporations the cost of doing business today?
Guest: Timothy Bartik, senior economist for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan
12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
The latest “In The Dark” episode from APM Reports. It recaps the recent Supreme Court oral arguments in the Curtis Flowers murder case. Curtis Flowers was on death row in Mississippi, but APM Reports was listening at the US Supreme Court in Washington.
1 p.m. – The Takeaway
President Trump announced late Friday his intention to cut some $450 million in aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, in reaction to the swell of migrants from the region coming to the US border. The Administration blames the governments of the three countries for not stopping migrants.
Cyclone Idai is being described by a United Nations official as possibly the worst weather-related disaster in the history of the Southern hemisphere, killing at least 750 people across Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and affecting more than 2 million.
It may soon cost more than $10 more to drive into the busy heart of Manhattan, New York, with a plan for so-called congestion pricing to be adopted in the coming days. The idea is to raise funds that would support public transportation and the long-needed fixes to New York’s transit system.
Israeli fire killed at least four Palestinians this weekend, and injured many more, as tens of thousands marked the anniversary of the “Great March of Return” protests. In the year since the protests, began some 250 have been killed.
Billboard has quietly removed Lil Nas X’s viral country-trap song “Old Country Road” from its Hot Country Songs Chart, saying “it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music” and that its inclusion was a mistake. Now critics and fans are pointing out that country music is deeply tied to black history, even though it has been increasingly pushed aside. We get some of that history and ask if today’s definition of country music needs to change.
2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
Turkey: in local elections viewed as a referendum on the President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his party has lost the capital, Ankara, and the opposition is claiming Istanbul.
Brexit: MPs vote again, on alternative plans after rejecting the prime minister’s withdrawal deal for a third time.
A special report from Belarus where in 1942 the Nazis massacred the Jewish inhabitants of the city of Brest, then part of Nazi-occupied Poland. A mass grave has now been discovered.
3 p.m. – All Things Considered
Beef without antibiotics; food stamp work rule; vanity plates; Parkland mental health; cracking the black box.
6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
Boeing continues to face investigations and scrutiny in the wake of two crashes of its top-selling 737 Max jet. For employees of the company, a look at what comes next.
6:30 p.m. – The Daily
After months of trying and failing to pass a deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May had one final thing to offer: herself.
Guest: Ellen Barry, chief international correspondent for The New York Times.
7 p.m. – The World
What will be the impact of President Trump cutting US aid to Central America? That’s where we start today’s show. First we find out how much aid the US has set aside for Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and how that money has been spent up to now. Host Marco Werman discusses that with Shannon O’Neil, who focuses on Latin America as a senior fellow with the Council of Foreign Relations. Then we turn to El Salvador, to hear how one grassroots organization there uses US aid money to help young people escape the grip of violent gangs.
Also today, a comedian with no prior political experience has won the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election. Now Volodymyr Zelenskiy faces incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in a runoff later this month. Host Marco Werman speaks with journalist Veronika Melkozerova in Kyiv about what Ukrainians think of Zelenskiy — and what’s at stake.
Plus, how a group called 38 North uses satellite photography to decipher what North Korea is or isn’t doing on the military and nuclear front. The World’s Matthew Bell has that story.
And Marco speaks with Egyptian novelist Alaa Al-Aswany, author of the bestselling “The Yacoubian Building,” who’s being sued by his country’s military rulers for expressing his dissent.
8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Understanding Chief Justice John Roberts. Veteran Supreme court correspondent Joan Biskupic talks about the roots of Roberts’ conservative views, and his reasoning on key decisions including one upholding the Affordable Care Act. Biskupic’s new book is The Chief.
