Plus Wall Street veteran Sally crotchet says Need to her take on why harassment in the corporate world is still undercover I've got a lot of journalists call me and say where's the Harvey Weinstein of Wall Street and he hasn't shown up yet but 1st this news live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Janine Herbst California Governor Jerry Brown says deadly and destructive wildfires in the winter are becoming common and not unusual this is totally new normal this code I was just looking at my cell phone before I tracked it looking at the humidity it's a 2 cent in Los Angeles I don't suppose it's much different right here. That's very very low Today he toured Ventura County neighborhoods destroyed by the Thomas fire which is only 15 percent contained and has destroyed nearly 150000 acres it's one of 6 wildfires burning in Southern California Ventura County fire chief Mark Lawrenson says crews are making progress but even though we are increasingly again on the continuing this fire that continues to grow especially to the north in my one message to everybody out there is just one of the I pray should always be ready at least one death is being attributed to the fires around $1000.00 homes and structures have been destroyed President Trump traveled to Mississippi today to mark the opening of museum celebrating the state's history and its role in the civil rights movement but the president spoke at a private event because I'm prominent lawmakers and civil rights groups boycotted the president's attendance N.P.R.'s Bracton Booker reports speaking in Jackson today President Trump did not wade into the controversy surrounding his visit to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum instead he highlighted efforts made by African-Americans in the pursuit of equal rights here we memorialize the brave men and women who struggled to sacrifice and sacrificed so much. So that others might live in freedom earlier in the week the head of the. And others like congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis said they would not take part in the event if Trump came in a statement Lewis said Trump's hurtful policies were quote an insult to the people portrayed in the Civil Rights Museum Brecht and Booker n.p.r. News Washington Iraq says its war against the Islamic State is over and its forces are in full control of the country N.P.R.'s Jane raff has more from Baghdad 3 and a half years after ISIS wept in and took control of almost one 3rd of Iraq the government says they've been defeated prime minister Hyderabadi declared victory against the group a top Iraqi commander said Iraqi forces had retaken control of the border with Syria and combat was over Iraqi security forces have been backed by a u.s. Led coalition that has provided air support 3 years ago entire Iraqi army divisions retreated rather than fight this so this is a huge victory but it's at a cost thousands of civilians and security forces were killed in the battle the city of Mosul was heavily damaged and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are still displaced from their homes Jane or Apha n.p.r. News Baghdad this is n.p.r. News that chief of the Arab League is calling on countries around the world to recognize the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital this is in response to the trumpet ministrations decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital a credible gate says that that decision raises questions over Washington's role as a peace mediator around the world the Arab League held an emergency meeting of its 4 ministers today to discuss the White House's action. Britain is being urged to follow the lead of the United States and dozens of other countries by requiring producers to fortify flour with folic acid Larry Miller says the objective is to sharply reduce the number of birth defects but health officials have so far been resistance to the move the Scottish and Welsh governments have written to British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt urging him to make it compulsory for flour to contain folic acid they say this will cut the number of stillbirths brain defects and conditions such as spinal bifida and unborn babies official figures suggest 80 percent of women of childbearing age in Scotland and Wales have a folic acid deficiency while pregnant women in Britain have been advised to voluntarily take supplements research shows those who need it most don't hunt recently announced a new strategy to reduce stillbirths but folic acid wasn't mentioned and Health Department official says the recommendations will be carefully considered for n.p.r. News I'm Mary Miller in London I'm Janine Herbst And you're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from Haynes donating 200000 pairs of socks to those in need and more than 2100000 pairs since 2009 information about a day in the life of a person experiencing homelessness at Hains dot com slash sock drive. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin we're going to start the program today in Southern California were 6 large wildfires continue to burn out of control since the beginning of the week thousands of people have been forced to evacuate more than 100000 acres have burned and nearly 800 structures have been destroyed so far one of those structures was the home of Lori and Jake Colburn of Ohio California my husband it's his heart and soul into building it and making it what we want it Lori is a retired nurse her husband Jake is a contractor and Carpenter her ran his business out of a home workshop and spent decades perfecting their house that's where we live that's where we raised our children it was a one to full gathering place Lori Coburn says that living in the foothills of Ohio the prospect of wildfire was something they'd learn to live with and we've had several wildfires before and that's why neither one of us for that worried because it always easily not come down the canyon where we live this timely such start up at the top of the hill behind our home and that was about 730 on Monday night and by 830 we had to get out of there they were embers coming down on our deck but I still didn't think that it would be completely gone but it was when the Colburn's returned to the property the following day there was nothing left it looks like a war zone it just looks like a bomb went off trees are all gone and the House and the shop are total rubble Coburn says that while she and her husband have received overwhelming support from family and friends she still worries about the wider community we are only a fraction of the number of people that have been impacted by this I've never seen anything like this ever tear county's been decimated basically Janet Upton with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says these fires along with the ones in northern California this fall have made 2017 a record fire season our Southern California region of. Hellfire has a seasonal force that would normally be laid off this time of year and come back late spring they haven't let anyone go we also have an air force of over 90 year craft in theater down in southern California that's unheard of them are up and says that authorities have made some progress in recent days but that even with the 8500 firefighters that are currently working the California fire lines ongoing dry and windy conditions mean that the danger posed by these fires is still far from over I don't think there's an end in sight for the foreseeable future I think we're going to be celebrating Christmas and the holidays on fire and lightning which you know now we'd like to hear a bit more about the Thomas fire the biggest fire in the region right now Thomas has been burning since Monday across venture a county north of Los Angeles reporter Stephanie O'Neill lives in the city of Ohio and has been witnessing the destruction firsthand Stephanie thanks so much for speaking with us and you're welcome so can you tell us what's been happening where you are today where the fire is still burning strong although it's not right above the taluk we've seen earlier in the week and the winds have calmed quite a bit but today the area around Ohio is the Western advance of the Thomas fire and today I was on the southwest corner of it and it really was flaring up quite a bit. I spent the morning near Lake to see this about 5 miles west of Ohio and I was in this narrow canyon that's literally canopy with these gorgeous oak trees and tall sycamore trees and thankfully the winds weren't crazy because the whole thing could have gone up really fast but the flames were just leaping above the hills and the concern was it would destroy some ranches and really beautiful estates there tucked away in this canyon where I was hanging out we have been hearing that over the course of the week that the wind has made fighting these fires very difficult and I hear you telling me that that that has changed a bit it's changed a bit we had some helicopter support a couple of nights ago but that's really something that's strangely missing or it feels strange to not hear helicopters flying over and see. These planes dropping you know fire retardant around because this fire is so different it has these strong Santa Ana winds fueling it sometimes it has these offshore winds coming on the other side and this fire has been very erratic because of those very erratic winds and today even as we saw these leaping flames cresting the hills and then they would kind of die down they got a little bit of oxygen in them and they kind of create their own little fire storm so they get wild at 1st than died down but they were able to bring in these fire these helicopters today these are known as Long line helicopters that carry these buckets attached to cables that are at least 150 feet long they dip in into into the water wherever they can find it in this case it was this little tiny backyard reservoir and the helicopters would drop these 600 gallon buckets into it these bright orange buckets and pick them up and drop it on the fire and they did a great job because they knocked out most of what was threatening these homes although they're still doing mop up and they said you know if winds kick up again the fire could start again because there's plenty of fuel out there Stephanie before we let you go we know we can't predict an end to the to the Thomas fire or any of the others but can you tell us a little bit about what the immediate next steps might be in trying to contain all this well I talked to Battalion Chief Fred Burress who's been in charge of this area and he tells me you know as it moves west and away from us the concern now grows for those who are in Santa Barbara County the fire has already burned into Santa Barbara County and a fork of it is kind of up in the mountains above the town of Carpentaria and then there's the towns of mana Seato in the city of Santa Barbara so those areas are next and right now the fire officials are in massive tactical planning you know for this so that they can try to fight the fire and keep it from coming down into the homes in those areas that's reporter Stephanie O'Neill talking to us from California that's north of Los Angeles with an update on the devastating for. Fire that's burning there right now Stephanie thanks so much for speaking with us you're welcome now to Jackson Mississippi where President Trump visited today for the opening of 2 new museums marking the state's bicentennial and the state's role as ground 0 in the civil rights movement his appearance drew controversy the end he and some African-American leaders including the civil rights hero Congressman John Lewis boycotted the event N.P.R.'s Debbie Elliott is in Jackson for the occasion today and she's with us now Debbie thanks so much for joining us glad to be with you and I stand here a little bit now banned in the background you know I understand the president's remarks were delivered separate from the public ceremony can you tell us about that and if you would please tell us what he said Right so the public ceremony was outside after the president had already left town and that's what you're hearing the remnants of now there are still bands playing outside on the stage but the president spoke to a private group inside the museum's in the shared auditorium that they have the history museum in the Civil Rights Museum it was a group of politicians elected officials and some key figures from the civil rights movement he had just had a brief tour of the museum which he called a labor of love quote for the God given dignity written into every human soul and he indicated that it should serve as an inspiration listen to what he said today we pay a solemn tribute to our heroes of the past and dedicate ourselves to building a future of freedom equality. Justice and Peace Now the president stayed pretty close to his script he only varied off once or twice to talk about how much he loves Mississippi he shouted out the brother and the widow of Medgar Evers the slain double a.c.p. Leader from Mississippi and he talks about how Mississippi is a state where he's had great success now that's what some key figures had feared that somehow the president might say something that distract detracted from the serious of the this moment and that didn't happen. This is the only state sponsored civil rights museum in the country and I think a lot of people view this museum opening as a very significant event for that reason I mean this is a state that violently resisted you know human and civil rights for African-Americans and for many people seem very slow to acknowledge the brutality of that history so some of veterans of that struggle did choose to attend and I was wonder what they said about the occasion Well you know certainly the most during comments came from early Evers Williams. She described what it was a lie as she went through the museum we living all the things that had happened not only to her family but to a lot of her contemporaries. I wept because I felt the blow. I felt the bullets i Phone The tears I felt the cry. But I lost so sense the hope. Now there were tears in the audience as she as she talked about that she also noted that the country today is suffering from some of the same ills as when her husband was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963 and she said you know with Mississippi can rise so can the rest of the country to me and we mentioned earlier that Congressman John Lewis boycotted the event after Governor Phil Bryant who's a Republican invited the president did Congressman Lewis say why and did other people choose not to come well he said it was an insult and yes other people decided not to come including Mississippi's only black Congressman Bennie Thompson he issued a joint statement with Congressman Lewis Lewis actually had been jailed in Jackson and was supposed to share the stage with Marlee Evers Williams and make some comments and he wasn't here. In the Jackson mayor had a countering bent as the president was coming into town this morning the current president of the he is from Mississippi so some significant people were not here. Also just ordinary people I spoke with one gentleman who had come here from mound by you which is up in the Mississippi Delta that is a historic town that was founded by freed slaves Herman Johnson was really looking forward to seeing the museum but he said he was not at all pleased to know that the president had come to Mississippi for this occasion to only have a couple seconds left I was just wondering if this is all taking place in the context of this important Senate race in Alabama and I just wondered if the president's visit is being seen in somehow in context with that. Not really he didn't say anything about that here today even though this is pretty close to that state he did however last night in an appearance in Pensacola Florida shout out Roy Moore the Republican candidate who of course is embattled with accusations of sexual assault from decades ago and he talked about you know people needing to get out and vote for one more that was almost like being in Alabama Pensacola is in the Mobile Alabama television market so he was able to campaign without actually setting foot in Alabama That's N.P.R.'s Debbie Elliott in Jackson Mississippi thanks so much You're welcome. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm Bernie aren't member of public radio and vice president of unfulfilled dreams for the Aspen Skiing Company. Public radio is my inspiration. That's my story this is my station. I'm joining her with these headlines after more than 3 years of combat Iraq is declaring victory over the Islamic state Iraqi officials say security forces have now retaken the extremists last remaining territory near the Syrian border Israel launched air strikes today in the Gaza Strip striking Hamas military targets this in response to rocket fire following president trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital the Arab League met today at the request of the Palestinians and Jordan and firefighters in Southern California are making some progress but forecasters are warning that winds could strengthen again by tonight the fires have killed one person they've also destroyed some 1000 structures and forced hundreds of thousands from their home I'm Jenny Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Progressive Insurance offering a way to buy home insurance with their home quote Explorer tool custom quotes and rates are available online more and more at progressive dot com or 1800 progressive Now that's progressive and from Subaru with the 10th annual share the love of vent through January 2nd more information about the event and the not for profit organizations that it supports is that Subaru dot com slash share love it's what makes a Subaru a Subaru. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin now we're going to head into the barbershop that's where we gather interesting folks to talk about what's in the news and what's on our minds sitting in the chairs for a shape up today are Kevin Blackistone He's a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland and a frequent e.s.p.n. Commentator He's here with us in our studios in Washington d.c. Kevin welcome back thank you but also with us c.n.n. Writer a.j. Willingham She joins us from Atlanta Georgia a.j. Welcome back to you as well Ana and finally film director Brian Fogle his documentary Icarus revealed the extent of Russia's state run doping program at the 2014 Sochi Olympics Brines with us from his home in Malibu California and he's back with us as well Brian thank you so much for joining us once again it's a pleasure so let's start with this huge huge story in the world of international sports the decision by the International Olympic Committee or the i.o.c. Earlier this week to bar the Russian Olympic team from the upcoming Winter Games in South Korea that means the Russian flag won't be seen at the opening ceremony the anthem won't be played Russian athletes who do want to compete can do so by proving that they haven't been cheating by being cleared by an independent panel in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency but even then the athletes who do compete have to wear neutral uniforms and the official record books will show that Russia did not win any medals in this upcoming Olympics Now this comes after the i.o.c. Finished its own investigation and concluded that Russia was guilty of executing an extensive state run or state backed doping program now Brian this is your subject this is a subject of your film and folks who want to hear about the whole story Brian was actually on this program earlier this summer where he talked about this in detail but if you just briefly tell us for those who didn't hear that conversation and I do recommend it is how did they do it. I got into this story is essentially wanting to prove that the anti-doping system in sport was a fraud and that. I mean led me to Dr Gregory rich a cough who was running Russia's World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory at the time and over about 2 and a half years of working with Dr Rich hank of a chain of events happened that led him to flee Russia under duress and threat of his life he came to Los Angeles and essentially blew the whistle and told me and my film team over 7 months time the extent of what is this 40 year operation that cheated every single clean athlete on planet Earth Rob thousands and thousands and thousands of Olympic medals under the hands of the Russian ministry to which Gregory was in charge of this program so let me hear from everybody on this in Brunell ask you to start now some people are saying wow it's about time other people are saying you know who gave Russia the 2014 Sochi Olympics to begin with it's this has gone on for so long you know how is it possible that you know all of a sudden now these particular athletes are going to pay the price for this and perhaps want to hear your thoughts on this well I well I think that this is not a question of cleanout fleets or doped out fleets or question of of doping this is a question of a criminal conspiracy to cheat in international sport and what they did in the Sochi Games was literally break into these untampered ball collection bottles and swap out the dirty steroids urine of the Russian national team athletes and substitute it with the clean your own of that same athlete so this isn't a what we want to call a Lance Armstrong of it meaning hey everybody's doing it and if you can get away with it then you know then is it really cheating because you're doing essentially what you're. Other opponents might be doing this is pure outright criminal fraud and the Olympics finally said We are not tolerating this and banned Russia because they sent a statement to the rest of the world that this sort of behavior is no longer acceptable and I don't think it ever was acceptable given what do you think about this of course only gradually Brian on his film the findings of which were actually cited by i.o.c. In making their decision but it is farcical in a lot of ways and it is very problematic in the the interesting thing to me about this is that for one we've been here before we made half a step in the last Summer Games because the Russian track and field athletes were banned and the question then was Well do we not think that the other Russian athletes in other sports were not also part of this this state run program and clearly now we're arguing that they all are and they're going to have to prove their innocence on their own a.j. What do you think. There are 2 things about this that really intrigue me Michel one of the 1st things is of course there are echoes of what's happening in the global political climate you have people all the way from the top down denying that this event is happening have put in denying this is happening you have a large section of the Russian populace not really believing this is happening you have cause for it's a conspiracy from the West against Russia trying to mean Russia's power which is of course this rhetoric that we also see in the political sphere but the other thing that's really intriguing about it is that what else is coming in 2018 the World Cup is coming to Russia and that is a huge sort of referendum I think not only on the i.o.c. And just the lympics or community in general but Fifa and what are they going to do about the fact that you know obviously it's being hosted by Russian It features Russian players and this really could have come at it were. Time for anybody involved so let me turn a corner now and I want to bring up another topic that involves sports and you know possibly politics this week there were several hard hits that were very hard to watch in the n.f.l. 1st the New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski gave a nasty helmet hit to a player who was lying face down on the ground who was defenseless then on Monday night's game between this Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals the Steelers linebacker Ryan choosier made a illegal tackle and injured his back immediately after the hit it appeared that he couldn't move his legs he was taken to the hospital apparently he either had or is going to have surgery to stabilize his spine but that was a very hard thing to watch and then 2 players who were involved in these hits that bangle safety George Loka was fine and the Steelers receiver Judy Smith Schuster was suspended for a game so if you want to start with you on this one you know is this the right response I mean people are still talking about that in fact I read one column from a columnist in Pittsburgh said you know the reason I'm you know you know forget calling Capron it the reason I'm not watching football is I want to watch somebody die and so do you feel that the league is responding appropriately What do you think about what just happened last week. I think 1st of all it's important to establish that this is the absolute worst of football. You know a lot of players that there have been a couple Steelers players who have come to sniff Schuster's defense and said you know this you know what you're expecting from the sport you know be a man and sort of just go in there and there's no doubt that this was an a.f.c. Grudge match that this was a particularly sort of difficult. You know very heated game but it's just it's absolutely unacceptable and I think the league has an opportunity here to create better. Sort of rules to deal with this look at college football a lot of people are calling for the n.f.l. To look to college football and say they have a targeting rule that you know it's not perfect of course it's not perfect sometimes it's inforced. Unduly but the targeting rule would for instance Mr and I Local would both be punished under that targeting rule they would be taken out of the game and suspended the 1st half of the next game and so I think that the n.f.l. Needs to look at putting in place more consistent rules so that you don't have things like this happening where for instance I look a was suspended and then he wasn't he was fined which was bringing up punishment down and so now you have the Steelers coming in and speaking out against that and it's just really inconsistent and I think the more consistency that the league can get with it the better we can deal with this overall problem it would have what do you think I mean is this a flare up of some of some kind or is there a bigger problem here that needs to be addressed I mean for example right a.j. Point on Ben Roethlisberger the Steelers quarterback was asked about the game after the Monday game and he said well that's just a.f.c. Football I don't know whether he saw what everybody else saw or right or what he was you know he's a player writing the masculinity that that in the game you know say a couple thing one thing that's kind of this ingenuous on the media's part is we hype the. These games as great grudge matches and we bring up what's happened in the past between these particular teams and then we we we have this shock and awe after something horrible happens you know I went back to look at the statistics over the last few years in terms of penalties for unnecessary roughness personal fouls and dejection Zz and actually they've been down over the last 3 years which is a good sign which means that there are some of the rules and some of the emphasis on . On not having agreed just violence in the game may be getting through and so I think that these particular incidents were were more anomalies than than anything else but we all see them and we all focus focus on them. The thing that I thought that was really bad was a growing Koski play because that was after a play is over one player is in a vulnerable position and not expecting to be hit and he gets hit in maybe the most vulnerable spot on the body which is the back of his head the back of his neck the other plays happen within the context of the of the game and so I don't think that they should necessarily be penalized as heavily as as drawn cowskin fact you know the more I thought about it going Koski should have received an even heavier penalty but Brian before we let you go do you I know this isn't particularly your expertise I know that you're into cycling and and other other stuff but do you have any final thoughts about this I don't know if you're football fan but you have any thoughts about this you know I am a football fan and I think that you know it's all part of the greater sporting thing which is you know sports is essentially gladiator games and it's war without the weapons and so you know we can't have it both ways I mean if we want these guys to go out there and essentially beat each other up and and prove that you know New England is strong. Or than Denver it's cetera and and that is also the risk of sports Well that was Brian Fogle he directed the documentary Icarus that exposed Russia's state sponsored doping program he was with us from Malibu California also with a sports writer and journalism professor Kevin Blackistone with us from our studios here in Washington d.c. And c.n.n. Writer a.j. Willingham with us from Atlanta thank you all so much for speaking with us thank you thank you thank you now to something kind of boring. It's actually been called legendarily boring tedious and among the most boring games of all time we're talking about the 90 Sega video game Desert Bus and it's now available in virtual reality a single player boards a digital bus in Tucson Arizona and then drives it through the pixellated desert all the way to Las Vegas in real time 360 miles 45 miles per hour for 8 hours there is no one on the bus it is a perfectly straight road there is absolutely nothing interesting that happens but the bus pulls to the right so you need to constantly through these 8 hours tap left on the controller to correct and keep the bus on the road and at the end of that 8 hours you get one point and you can turn around and go back to Tucson It literally never ends that's Graham stark he's been a desert bus driver for more than a decade he's part of the Internet comedy troupe loading ready to run which hosts charity telethon sessions of Desert Bus every year it's one of those things that sounds hilarious and then you sit down to play it near like oh wait I get it it's awful it is amazing it is amazing. Amazing that's Penn Jillette of the magical comedy duo Penn and Teller talking on his podcast about the new virtual reality version of the game Penn and Teller created the game as a satire in the 1990 s. When a debate raged in Congress over. Violence in video games and television then Attorney General Janet Reno was one of the voices who spoke out against video games that were deemed to lack educational value at the accumulated research clearly demonstrates a correlation between viewing violence and aggressive behavior Mr Chairman and so this was a direct response to that player Graham stark again it's like Ok if you want to game that super normal and boring then here's a game that's going to teach you how to drive a bus through the desert and Penn Jillette promises the new version includes even more real world skills you pick up your time card you punch it in you walk out to the bus. It's really a lot of activity for 45 seconds and then nothing for 8 hours if that's still too much action for you there is a multiplayer option. You can. Desert Fox if you're into that. 2 You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Now to Venezuela which holds municipal elections tomorrow as we've discussed on the program before food shortages hyper inflation and a violent crackdown on protesters have made the administration of President Nicolas Maduro deeply unpopular but Maduro's problems have not translated into success at the ballot box for Venezuela's political opposition reporter John Otis. And he explains why Young would seem like an ideal candidate for the opposition in municipal elections that will be held on Sunday but I don't want to know that all of you who is running for mayor of that I feel a middle class suburb of Caracas who says Karisma this town hall meeting he quickly wins over the coming your way. One could change has earned his stripes in the opposition as a university student he led protests against the late to go Chavez who ushered in Venezuela a socialist revolution after receiving threats he fled the country he returned to Venezuela last year but was jailed for 14 months on charges of possessing explosives and a 1st class sale in which if I stand my arms I could touch both sides of the cell it was really hard made excessive he was released last month after the charges were dropped but instead of a warm welcome back to freedom his decision to run for mayor has angered his political allies that's because Venezuela's main opposition parties are calling for a boycott of Sunday's vote claiming it will not be free and fair they point out that electoral officials are more due to loyalists and that the government has refused to allow independent observers to monitor the vote dirty tricks also marred October's gubernatorial elections that were dominated by candidates of the ruling Socialist Party didn't like the. Bulk of them. I think at a recent news conference opposition leader pretty gave out a said under these conditions we can't keep playing the regimes game as a result defiance of the opposition boycott has sparked ugly rumors some say that while in prison he cut a deal with the government his freedom in exchange for taking part in sham elections Yeah theories. Yes they're not giving your face at the town hall meeting this woman asked point blank whether he's gone over to the government side which he strongly denies the dispute is another sign of chaos within the opposition and let's say that instead of keeping their eyes on the prize of winning elections rival factions often spend more time taking aim at one another What's more sitting out the election will allow the ruling party to maintain control of hundreds of town and city governments That's according to have your court Alice of Venezuela expert at Amhurst college. The government. 'd Meanwhile opposition leaders are holding talks with a minority government in the Dominican Republic one of their goals is to ensure equal conditions for next year's presidential election but doubts Maduro will make any concessions he argues that the opposition must contest every election and points out that its candidates sometimes pull off upset victories I know the electoral conditions are not fair I know that these are not democratic elections but this is what we can do and we need to get stronger it will if we want to change the situation in the country newly freed from prison will resume his fight for change on Sunday for n.p.r. News I'm John noticed in Caracas. This is n.p.r. News. You I'm Jenny Hertz with these headlines in an emergency meeting today the Arab League chief is calling on countries around the world to recognize the state of Palestine with each Jerusalem as its capital this in response to President Trump's decision to recognize that city as Israel's capital and vice president Pence is due to travel to Bethlehem this month but the trumpet ministrations decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital has prompted Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to decline to meet with pence presidential visit Mississippi today for the opening of 2 museums one dedicated to the state's history the other to the civil rights movement trumps a visit to the museum there was boycotted by some African-American leaders including civil rights leader and Georgia Congressman John Lewis and Jeanine Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from the Union of Concerned Scientists putting rigorous independent science to work for a healthy planet and a safer world more at u.c.s.f. USA dot org from the pajama gram company offering 29 matching holiday pajamas styles for the whole family including cats and dogs and with Charlie Brown and holiday themes in its fleece and flannel more it pajama gram dot com and from the John d. And Catherine team MacArthur Foundation at mac found dot org. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin we're going back now to a subject that has rattled Hollywood and newsrooms and now Congress 3 members of Congress resigned this past week over allegations of sexual misconduct Representative John Conyers of Michigan Senator Al Franken from Minnesota both Democrats and Congressman Trent Franks from Arizona Republican many people who've been writing and talking about this have pointed out that these are all industries where men overwhelmingly hold the positions of power so that invites the question what about Wall Street Sallie Krawcheck has been writing about this topic she's the c.e.o. And founder of l. Of s. That's an investment company aimed at women but she's long been on every list of most influential women in finance having been c.e.o. At Merrill Lynch wealth management and c.f.o. At Citi Group in a recent op ed in The New York Times titled The cost of devaluing women she talks about how she's navigated through years of lewd behavior and come ons from supervisors peers and clients she's with us now from n.p.r. In New York Sally Project thanks so much for speaking with us once again for having me pleasure to be here so you actually said me too back in 2016 when you wrote about male coworkers putting photocopies of their genitals on your desk you know a colleague pretending to perform a sex act on you when your back was turning even clients thinking that they could proposition a really crude ways and I was wondering what was the reaction when you 1st started talking about this did anybody care oh yeah that you know it was yeah that happens the other happens Wall Street male dominated no female C.E.O.'s trading floors are 90 percent male financial advisors 86 percent male there were huge settlements on Wall Street in the eighty's and so in a way you almost feel like the rest of government media etc catching up because Smith Barney had the boom boom room and $150000000.00 settlement so it's been going on for a while and when I spoke about it a couple years ago was sort of yeah that's that's what happens but why did. I think we're not hearing more about C.E.O.'s and other top executives losing their jobs over this well it's interesting we did have one you know the past couple of days gentleman or maybe not a gentleman Forgan Stanley who lost his job but I've had a lot of journalists call me and say where's the where's the Harvey Weinstein of Wall Street and he hasn't shown up yet and it may be because we still have to wait for him to be revealed it may be also as noted this is been going on on Wall Street and much money has been paid out for decades that maybe there isn't one maybe this has been happening all along so there's not that one guy or maybe it's not conducive to it you know a Hollywood agent can promise a young lady the moon the stars I can make you a star that's pretty compelling a Wall Street c.e.o. I'm going to send you the best traits not quite as compelling one of the things you're trying to get on here in your piece is not just the tangible invisible costs of say lawsuits but also what I think a kind of us would call the opportunity cost like what are we losing by driving women and people of color out of fields when their ideas and talent are ignored or worse because they just can't work in an environment that's so thoroughly demeaning I mean is there some way to quantify that and how would that be when you have diversity in these companies you have higher returns on capital lower risk greater innovation. Take a step back Wall Street again our man talk Recy 90 percent of traders are male There is research out there that draws a correlation between levels of testosterone and poor risk taking when groups are homogenously they tend to over trust each other before we let you go wondering what reaction you got to the to the times are bad and was there a different reaction when you wrote your most recent piece and when you 1st started talking about the you know what I got the most reaction to what it wasn't the stuff that I talked about the beginning of my career the disgusting stuff it's actually the story I told at the end the more recent thing in that story is that when I was pitching for money out in Silicon Valley this summer and the venture capital is the guy who was making the decisions about money as I was talking through l. Of asked and I mentioned that I plan to hire financial advisors began to give me chapter and verse on how you know boy the financial advisors are tough they're difficult to manage the economics are this this this and this and I sat there and for your listeners who don't know I ran Merrill Lynch wealth and power in Smith party so I'm pretty sure I've managed more financial advisors and anybody on the planet maybe in the universe and this as we as women say mansplaining to me how to run this business and the reactions I got from so many women were what we've been hearing about you know the stuff that chasing around the desk but my gosh if you're getting mansplaining by one of those guys it just shows that even after we name these harassers how much very Further we have to go before we reach a point in which all of us recognize our equality that Sally crushed She's the c.e.o. And founder of Elle of us that's an investment platform aimed at women selling question thanks so much for speaking with us once again thank you so much for having me here and tomorrow we are going to hear from another voice whose powerful testimony about sexual misconduct has made it impact the actor and former n.f.l. Star Terry Crews he describes what he says happened to him and what happened or didn't happen after he spoke up that's one man's story and that's tomorrow. And we're thinking you might have hit the stores today or jumped on line because it's the holiday gift giving season and if you are a parent or grandparent This might also be the handwringing season because this is the time of year when you might be particularly concerned that gifts are given and received in a spirit of gratitude that bragging is or dare we say it a sense of entitlement does not really it's ugly head for more on how to handle this we called 2 authors who have been writing about this Beth Kobliner is the author of Make your kid a money genius even if you're not and Richard Watts is the author of entitled mania how not to spoil your kids and what to do if you have and I started by asking Beth Kobliner if kids really are more spoiled these days or is it that they're just really clueless about money because adults don't talk about it I do think it really is about the conversations every generation feels that our the younger generation they're spoiled and and I do think we're in such a pivotal point in time it seems that everything is a click away so it's all about instant gratification and I was thinking about it this time a year members a kid waiting to watch It's a Wonderful Life that came on once a year this time of year and now you can download it whenever you want so I think it's more challenging for parents to teach their kids and it's more challenging for kids so Beth your book is divided into sections according to age group when I was looking at the section around gift giving I noticed that you mostly focus in specific ways on kids in the elementary school group I was wondering why that the why that is about like how to gracefully receive gifts and what to do when people give too much and things that I mean why do you focus on that particular age group I think that it's so important for people think their kids are too young to understand that and we know from research that by age 3 kids can understand basic money concepts like value and exchange so that is really a great time preschool early elementary school. Just start talking to kids and I think one of the most important things when it comes to gift giving and shopping and don't be afraid to say No University study found that kids whose parents are constantly giving into their man it's a man's they're more likely those kids to have credit card problems down the road and I find and I tell parents that they think Oh Ok now I get it I can say no and know that I'm saying no and it helps my kids it sort of I think it's important to educate parents and explain why it is so Porton to not give your kids everything they want so they don't get on that with a stick called the hit Donek treadmill getting everything you want whenever you want and becomes meaningless after a while I used that Lisa Cohen affluenza when I was exhausted every day yeah Richard do you have a general rule of thumb for gift giving at this time of year yes I think I do but it's not quantitative I think it's qualitative I think that the you know I agree with regard to you know the kids you should say no to certain things but I think generally speaking the 2 things that that concern me are one I think parents need to model the behavior that they're suggesting so that if they're telling their kids they can't have a mom and dad are or are charging up the credit cards they have everything they desire and don't speak about that they had their their behavior speaks loudly and the 2nd part of that is that I'm always one that believes in investing in Memories in choosing experiences over things but what about you do you have some general rule of thumb right I mean I agree that kids do take their cues from us and it is hard you know if you're rushing out to get the latest version of the i Phone and then you tell your kids well you can have that hottest toy you know they are very smart and they get even the subtle clues that we're not really you know practicing what we're preaching Here's a question from our list. A number of people had this question it came in in different ways but we've sort of boiled it down into one question which is how do you teach children the value of charitable giving as compared to saving for themselves and their own future Richard you want to take that 1st you know I that's that's a really interesting and difficult one because in the world that I see I do see parents that often leave tremendous foundations and whatnot to their kids and grandkids only to find out that the kids and grandkids aren't so fired up about giving They don't see the benefit in that and I think the reason for that is that the children really haven't been able to develop their own passion for something and it may be very elementary in the very young years but they have things they love and that they care about and I don't know if those would be so you know stray dogs and rescue dogs or whether that's something at school or they're benefiting people that aren't don't have the opportunity have done Christmas dinner but for the kids to participate in things they choose and they develop gives that meaning and it makes it exciting rather than a parent saying I'm going to drag you to my favorite charity and I'm going to have you give $10.00 to that charity because I think it's a great idea but I'm going to ask you to take this one do you have any advice for teaching children on the autism spectrum about financial responsibilities and entitlement right I'm not a specialist on disability but I have had some personal experience with it and I do know that including kids regardless of you know whatever level of understanding they have showing that they understand kids really pick up on what you're doing as a family you see a person on the street who doesn't have anything and instead of walking by explaining we're going to give that person the little bit Richard another question for you is what should you do if a child doesn't seem appropriately appreciative of a gift and you suspect that the child is becoming spoiled Well I think that always takes the big long look in the mirror. You know this really is about binding yourself you know a great big roll of duct tape and duct tape yourself as a parent to the chair and just allow some of these things stutter trying to placate them all the time no doesn't need to be explained all the time dinner never used to be to me no was no and I think sometimes if you take the positive side of inviting in looking at struggle as an opportunity for your child to work through something I think that that really begins to set the tone for for the children in self discovery Richard Watts author of In title mania how not to spoil your kids and what to do if you have and Beth Kobliner author of Make your kid a money genius even if you're not thank you both so much for speaking with us and Happy Holidays to you both thank you you too Michel finally today we're going to take a moment to consider a label that has ruffled many a feather since it was 1st coined in 1901 we're talking about the term millennial as in millennial generation that generally is meant to refer to people born between 1980 and the year 2000 earlier this week the Wall Street Journal issued a note on that style blog acknowledging that much of its coverage had painted these young people with broad and in some cases insulting a brush writing we risk alienating them if we write about them with such disdain to hear more about what this might mean we called Ben Zimmer he is a linguist he writes a Language column for The Wall Street Journal we know that he was not connected to the Stylebook He's with us from his home office in New Jersey Benzema thanks so much for speaking with us Oh thanks for having me 1st could you just give us a little background on the word millennial Where did the word come from and how did it become a stand in for a generation Well the word millennial is old in English going back to the 17th century but back then it meant something quite different millennial comes from a root referring to 1000 years that's the Latin root but back in the 17th century if you use that word you were talking about this idea that comes from the Book of Revelation that there would be a 2nd coming of Jesus Christ it was only in the 1980 s. And 1990 s. That the word Millennial. Started to be used to refer to the coming of the 3rd millennium so that was when 2 demographers named William Strauss and you know how published a book in 1901 called generations and at the time this new generation they were just starting preschool but Strauss and how decided that they should be called millennialist because they would be coming of age in the new millennium do you have a sense of how the usage of millennial compares to that of other generational labels like Gen x. Baby boomers the silent generation etc Do you see a difference Well it's interesting because a lot of these generational labels they might start off as something relatively neutral but then they can get some pejorative connotations associated with them and so you know we've seen this with Baby Boomers and Generation x. Which would be a member of this idea that there was this new generation of disaffected youth you know very often being called slackers and so forth well as you know The Wall Street Journal where you have a language column issued a style note this week apologizing for painting a millennial is with a broad brush I was curious what you made of the note if you feel comfortable telling me I mean do you think it's reflective of people complaining or do you think that they have a point that they've perhaps had a little too much fun with the term Well I think the Wall Street Journal like other media outlets has probably gone overboard in pinning various social ills on millennial zits become almost a cliche now headlines that say millennial zur killing the travel industry or you know millennial is are killing marmalade millennial is at a scapegoat for everything these days and so I think we should be careful in how we use these labels because they tend soo lend themselves to easy stereotypes generalizations that really don't tell you much about the people in those generations but might actually reveal more about the writer who's slinging these labels around the. That's been Zimmer he is a linguist and language columnist for The Wall Street Journal he was kind of to join us from his home in New Jersey and I noticed that we avoided all jokes about avocado toast so good Russ Yeah but for us Ben Zimmer thanks so much for speaking with us thank you. For Saturday that's All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin you can follow us on Twitter at n.p.r. A.t.c. Or follow me at npr m i c h l thank you for listening we hope you have a great night support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Life Lock reminding consumers that identity theft can happen even while monitoring credit card or bank statements identity thieves can steal from for a one k. And investment accounts or commit crimes under another name or at Life Lock dot com and from Tire Rack who wants drivers to be smart with their cars offering a personalized decision guide to help customers find tires that fit their car and driving conditions Tire Rack dot com helping drivers find deliver install. This is ask and public radio broadcasting i k j x Aspen in k.c. Carbon. Packed up my cares and while. There I go swimming in the. Little black bird. Where song. Waits my meagre sweet. So is she. Me by. Birth. No one. Under. Me. Luck stories. Of me you. Like the. Late tonight. You live. There. Here I go. Sing in the. Black Bird. Where sung you. Should we. Do not. Black. Your. Lack. Bought by black bear Sammy Davis Jr one of the members of the Rat Pack and happy birthday goes out to Sammy Davis Jr born December 7th 1925 and he die May 16th 1990 at the age of 64 and he will be our featured artist tonight a member of the Rhett Peck Welcome to Saturday night Aspen hot wax live on member supported Aspen Public Radio your news your music your station stand Bialik hear your hosts for your weekly Odis fix and I'll be with you until 8 o'clock and will also play a couple of members of the Rat Pack However next in line here will be our featured artist Sammy Davis Jr What kind of full Am I. Was. Never. Here.