Has tons of joy now news. Live from n.p.r. News 18 Washington I'm Jack Speer President Trump appears to be softening his position on the $5000000000.00 in border wall funding he wants from Congress as N.P.R.'s Tamara Keith explains the official White House position now is they want to avoid a shutdown President Trump previously proclaimed that he would be proud to shut the government down to secure $5000000000.00 in funding for the border wall but now press secretary Sara Sanders is saying the White House wants to avoid a government shutdown and would look at creative ways of financing the wall and other border security measures at an unrelated White House event this reporter asked the president about the looming shutdown and he said it's too early to say what will happen in the Senate there are $5000000.00 Thank you very much every day we need a border security thank you very much that non-answer would seem to indicate the hard line he took earlier is up for negotiation Tamara Keith n.p.r. News the White House a judge has delayed the sensing a former national security adviser Michael Flynn N.P.R.'s Carrie Johnson reports the judge raised questions about whether Flynn deserves prison time Michael Flynn opted to wait until next year for his punishment after a judge said he could not guarantee Flynn would not face at least some time in prison fined has pleaded guilty to lying to the f.b.i. About his contacts with the Russian ambassador the former national security advisor has given prosecutors full cooperation much Emmett Sullivan warned he was not bound by the special counsel recommendation Matt Flynn serve little or no prison the judge said Flynn had misled federal agents from inside his office inside the West Wing of the White House a very serious matter the judge added friends lawyer said he might still be called to testify in a case against 2 of his former business associates charged with acting as agents of Turkey they opted to wait until that case ends to hear flan sentence Carrie Johnson n.p.r. News Washington Arizona governor Doug Doocy is appointing Republican a Martha mc Sally to be that state's newest senator. Or filling the vacancy created by the death of John McCain in August just last month Nick Sally narrowly lost the race for Arizona's other Senate seat Democrat Kiersten cinema today Mick Sally said she intends to work with her colleague we had a very spirited campaign but it's over I congratulated her on the phone the night I conceded and in person on the floor and I look forward to working with her in the future in Excel He also appears to have reconciled to some degree with McCain's widow Cindy McCain McCain's family is reportedly furious mic Sally followed President Trump's lead and did not mention McCain's name at the signing of a defense bill just before his death builders are breaking ground and more homes last month virtually all that increase building was in the apartment sector the Commerce Department reports construction of new Fingal family homes actually fell last month overall housing construction was up 3.2 percent from the previous month after a volatile session on Wall Street stocks edged up modestly The Dow gained $82.00 points the Nasdaq was up 30 points the s. And p. Closed up a fraction this is n.p.r. . A cease fire brokered by the United Nations has come into effect around a critical port city in Yemen it's a decision aid groups hope will address the dark humanitarian situation in the country N.P.R.'s worth Sherlock as more these are just the 1st fragile hours for the new cease fire agreement but so far the effort seems to be working residents say hey data has been largely come since the cease fire began in the early hours of Tuesday you agree ment is between the Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia and whose militias who now control much of the country and have some support from Iran a joint committee led by un offices will oversee the cease fire which also requires for the 2 sides to withdraw their forces Yemen needs this ports to bring in vital food supplies to a population that lives on the brink of starvation. M.p.r. News favorite technology entrepreneur a lawn mosque is unveiling a new underground transportation tunnel he says will be able to move people far faster than existing subways must reveal comes some 2 years after complain about California traffic so it was going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging. Actress Penny Marshall who starred in the sitcom the burn and Shirley and want to become one of Hollywood's top directors has died according to a publicist Marshall succumbed to complications from diabetes her Hollywood Hills home yesterday Marshall became the 1st woman director film that grossed more than $100000000.00 in the 1988 comedy big strong Tom Hanks she also directed a league of their own Jumping Jack Flash and awakenings Penny Marshall was 75 years old I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Wallace Foundation fostering improvements in learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children and the vitality of the arts for everyone ideas at Wallace Foundation dot org and the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station we've made it easy to update your monthly sustaining membership on line go to k. Or c c dot org to find the support tab and click on update my sustaining membership all your information can be updated quickly and easily could be k o c c dad or today programming on 91.5 k. R.c.c. Is supported by peak Vista community health centers dedicated to providing medical dental and behavioral health care services throughout 26 health centers more information on services for all ages at peak Vista dot org I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Elsa Chang the Trump administration has come under fire for holding a record 15000 migrant children in shelters across the country and for long delays in releasing those children to relatives today n.p.r. Has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to speed up the release of those children that means hundreds of them may be able to spend Christmas with family already living in the u.s. N.P.R.'s John Burnett has this exclusive report and joins us now from Austin Hey John hi also so tell us what you learned today. Well starting immediately Health and Human Services which is responsible for the care of the migrant kids is changing a policy that's been really controversial they're no longer going to do background checks on every adult who lives in the household where the child is going to live and mention of several families live in one household the government has had to do background checks on every single adult which means fingerprinting and criminal records checked and even if there were no red flags So this led to all these enormous delays and some kids have been in custody since last summer or rather this summer the government will continue to do these full background checks on the actual adult sponsor who takes custody of the child and that's often a parent a legal guardian or extended family member and how quickly exactly will these children be released you think Well earlier today I spoke with Lynn Johnson she's the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services who's in charge of Children and Families she told me initially there are about 2000 kids in the shelter system who are ready to be released and the next 4 to 5 day I know I asked Assistant Secretary Johnson whether the extra vetting had accomplished anything and we're finding that it's not adding anything to the protection or the safety for these children the children should be home with their parents. Government makes lousy parents. So also this is the 1st time the government has admitted that its background checks were a little over the top and what has it been like in these shelters for these children all this time well I spoke with a source in West Texas who is familiar with the operation of the tornado tent city out in the desert it's the largest shelter in the system and it's been the most criticized he said it was only supposed to be open for 30 days but it's been extended 3 times he says their staff is exhausted now there are $2800.00 kids out there mainly teenage boys from Central America who came to the border without their parents and they're running out of beds the nonprofit that runs the camp let h.h.s. Know that its contract is up in 2 weeks and the department had to do something to start downsizing the camp so if all of these extreme extensive brac background checks were causing lengthy delays there with really wasn't any real justification for such extensive background checks the government's admitting to that now why was the government doing all of this in the 1st place well I mean hey teach us has been hypersensitive to the safety of the kids in its care ever since a highly publicized incident 4 years ago there was some a lot of reporting around migrant kids who were released to human trafficking rings that put the kids to work in an egg farm in Ohio and then trumpet ministration said that was one of the reasons that initiated this extra screening But today these shelters are more than 90 percent full they were going to reach capacity any week now so the government had to do something to avert a crisis and the assistant secretary said one option is they could have even added more beds but I think what weighed more heavily was that I don't want to be causing any additional harm by keeping kids in care longer than they need to when they have that they're only that it here and waiting for them and there was also the question of cost also the tent camp for children is reportedly costing the government nearly a $1000000.00 a day if you have 2000 employees out there taking care of $2800.00 kids now all along children's advocates have been highly critical of these shelters they've said that detention is not good for kids what's been their reaction today. So when organization called the National Center for Youth Law along with some other immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit last month challenging the extra backgrounding checks and here was the reaction from the group's director of Immigration Neda decide when I told her about the rule change the movie hang Wow she said it never should have been initiated in the 1st place because it's causing so many children some as young as toddlers to be warehoused in these shelters but I'm truly truly But the government has finally acknowledged that deeply flawed approach in chosen to crack choir's and she agreed it should dramatically reduce the number of kids in custody and it's heartening that hundreds of them could be home for Christmas it's wonderful news that's N.P.R.'s John Burnett thanks John you but also to another story now the trumpet ministration is following through with a promised ban on bump stocks President Trump talked about this earlier today this morning we also completed the process to issue a new regulation banning Bob stuff from Saks are the after market gun attachments that let simming automatic rifles fire much more quickly they effectively turn rifles into machine guns the ban gives people 90 days either to destroy their bomb stocks or turn the man N.P.R.'s Martin costly reports on how this change came about and a warning this story contains the sound of gunfire before October of last year most people had no idea what a bump stock was then came the mass shooting in Las Vegas 58 people killed hundreds injured the gunman shooting down to a crowd from his hotel room shooting with what sounded like a machine gun. Police on the scene assumed it was a machine gun only later when the shooter was dead did they find his semiautomatic rifles had been outfitted with bump stocks the thing about bomb stocks and similar devices is that they're basically a novelty before Las Vegas that almost never been used in a crime this is a You Tube video of a gun enthusiast in Louisiana Jeff lacrosse. Showing his daughter how to shoot one whole time right there Ok. Post more pressure from home. And even the across seas the bump stocks is a rare indulgence as he says in the video they're almost too expensive to shoot We don't need to say much and I had lunch before this because it cost too much their money to feed you can put $50.00 worth of violence down range in about 5 seconds if you want to you a list and that bum stocks also make your rifle jump around a lot making it very inaccurate and that's because of how they work the attachment simply harnesses the recoil energy from the gun shot before to pull the trigger again for you faster than you could do with your finger it's never been considered a reliable way to fire a rifle in the attachments have been sold mainly by small aftermarket vendors most people in the industry didn't know what they were that's Lawrence keen with the industry trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation commenting last week on this impending ban it's not something we're concerned about in particular we didn't really comment on it it is such a small small niche it's really quite consequential to the overall scheme of things for the industry while the mainstream gun industry has kept its distance from bumps stocks some gun rights activists have rallied to the cause they worry about a slippery slope effect with the spread of 3 d. Printers it's now easier for people to make their own homemade attachments and some of the activists worry that the government might eventually just broaden this ban to include any rifle that could be bumped fired the n.r.a. Expressed disappointment that owners of bump stocks will have to turn them into or destroy them they have 90 days to do so when there's no amnesty here for people who bought them when they were still allowed by federal regulators another group Gun Owners of America promise to sue to block the rule from taking effect March and cost n.p.r. News. Versa. People this is the 1st holiday season since something momentous happened in their lives something that means things will never be the same take Audrey to graph a year ago she was pregnant with triplets and seeking advice and then once they all came home did you get any sleep no no you don't sleep I'm sorry I want to tell you that good too but you really don't digraph speaking there with Lawrie Challis a mom of adult triplets for our series have been there well now Audrey digraph knows what that feels like Cooper Madison and Adeline were born in January along with Big Brother Sullivan that means Audrey De Graff is now a mom of 4 we asked her how this holiday season compares to last year. Last Christmas since it was our 1st born's 1st Christmas week if you tried to make it fun but truthfully I was miserable I thought I'd be due any day I'd been an active player I was on bedrest we thought we potentially were going to have an emergency c. Section and potentially have some special needs to deal with I just really think full that that wasn't part of our journey and that we're getting to kind of enjoy just some healthy kids who are thriving which is super fun it just isn't what we thought it might look really different than it's ended up looking. So when Laurie mentioned that we want to be getting sleep I couldn't really understand what that would actually feel like edges right we didn't sleep the 1st 6 months of their life was the hardest I've experienced in my life just a chronic sleep deprivation I describe it as pretty dark it was really rough. And then around 6 months it finally got a little bit better and then when they were about I guess they were about 8 months old at the light bulb came on and life didn't look so Graham they were all sleeping during the day together at the same and suddenly everything looked a lot brighter and. These days my wife and I are feeling better about having triplets and we love our kids but it's it's different change the direction of our life and so we're still sort of figuring out a new normal in a lot of ways there's ways or we've figured it out where we are now feeling like days we feel really confident and then other days where it feels like a moving target. I think as a parent kind of seeing the holiday seeing that sort of light in our kids' eyes just I would say brings us tons of joy even though you know it's stressful having triplets on that the joy is like huge I was you know sitting at home and the gym just laying down and all the babies are like cotton on me and big brothers sitting on my belly and I'm like Life doesn't get better than this you're just surrounded with all these little beans that just think you're the greatest and I think they're the greatest and see them smile and laugh and kind of see their world through their eyes it's like seeing the world through ball to bulls children's eyes all at the same time with different personalities and one laughs when they see something the other looks at it a little skeptically and you know it's just it's just fun it's really fun to do all that it's a lot of joy this year. That was Audrey digraph talking about her 1st holiday season since having triplets and you're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. China continues to detain large numbers of mostly Muslim minorities. And terming camps are part of broader campaign to crack down on what they see as separatism in religious extremism some detainees are reportedly forced to work in factories that produce American clothing for more on that right after the break here keep tuned for that story much more all things considered the Marketplace Tech Report also coming up here at $430.00. Crystal City Virginia home to government contractors lots of them and soon Amazon with its promised 25000 jobs just not. For government contractors the Commonwealth has very wisely said we are to have a lot of that and we're not going to incentivize that. Reading the fine print in that Amazon h.q. To deal next time on Marketplace and that's what's coming up after All Things Considered tonight at 630 here on 91.5 k. Or c. C. Programming on 91.5 k. Or c. C. Is supported by Nabokov hosting after work activities like rooftop parties with their house band anti-virus geeks by day musicians by night since 2001 offering tech support Cisco Systems network security and consulting dot com by Planet granite for 20 years remodelling kitchens and bathrooms with colors from around the globe granite Quartzsite marble and more on display in the show room at 3020 north stone online at Planet granite dot us $49.00 degrees current temperature in the downtown area at $420.00 looks like overnight lows again in that mid twenty's to mid thirty's range right around 30 here in the Springs tonight and then windy for our Wednesday some of those gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Trader Joe's with new seasonally available products and new always available episodes of the podcast inside trader joe's had Apple podcasts and where podcasts are found more at Trader Joe's dot com and from little passports a monthly subscription service for kids each package includes games souvenirs and activities from a new country designed to spark curiosity and cultures around the globe at little passports dot com slash radio. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Ailsa Chang The Associated Press is reporting that the Chinese government is forcing ethnic minorities to work in factories some that produce clothing for an American Athletic brand the a.p. Track shipments of clothing to badger sports where a large supplier of athletic apparel to college sports teams the company says it will stop taking clothing from those factories as it investigates this a.p. Report is part of a larger investigation into the growing number of internment camps in China Dake Kang is one of the reporters on this story and I called him in Beijing earlier for a breakdown of his reporting. So 1st can you just describe for us what these in term and camps are I mean who is the Chinese government sending there and what is the purported reason so basically showing the kind of indigenous ethnic minorities that are predominantly Muslim. And Kazakhstan and what they're trying to do with these internment camps is what they say is try to bring them into the modern world but you know detainees themselves say that they can be detained for things like having smartphone applications that aren't subject to government surveillance you know having prayer mats in their home behaviors the government has somehow deemed a sign of religious extremism and how did you find out that people sent to these camps were being put to work in factories Yes So this is interesting the Chinese government published the 15 minute long c.c.t.v. Report basically pre-trained of the internment camps as being vocational training centers and those kind of the 1st hint that there was something up if if this is job training as the Chinese government labels it have you met anyone who actually needs this job training who would actually be able to make use of it I mean in some of these cases the workers are not being paid at all right exactly you know one woman I interviewed her daughter was actually a vocational college graduate and last she heard her daughter was working in one of these factories for no pay and she had to meet a daily quota this is a white collar professional now being forced to work in a textile factory that's exactly right I I want to get to how you guys trace the supply chain after product moved out of these factories I mean we should note that it is illegal in the u.s. To import products made with forced labor supply chain is considered tainted if even one item is made from forced labor from what I understand so how do you track shipments from these camps to badger sportswear which which is based in North Carolina right. So the initial clue was that there was actually a State media reports which show a badger employee actually accepting a television interview inside basically an internment camp so those initial hint and we basically matched the c.c.t.v. Segment with satellite imagery and having all of the same mind when we went there and saw the place on the ground I already kind of knew what I was looking for Wow Fascinating so because you couldn't enter any of these factories you haven't been given admission to any of these internment camps you're basing this knowledge about what conditions are like in these factories on mostly interviews with either former detainees or relatives of current detainees is that correct Well that's one part of it but the other part of it is we actually saw 2 of these interment camps from the outside it didn't look like normal factories they look like prisons there is double barbed wire fencing and there's posters lining it they say things like learn to be grateful learn to be an upright person there's surveillance cameras everywhere as I was filming out of the car as we were passing by the sit still iffy they spotted my camera and they were yelling at us for us to stop so we had to stop and then we were detained while you were detained and interrogated about your purpose I mean this is this is very common engine John you're followed everywhere when you go as a foreign reporter to your hotel room in cars in taxis to the airport on the train everywhere they are that paranoid Dake Kang a.p. Reporter in Beijing thank you very much for your reporting thanks so much for having me this is n.p.r. News. Who is a man well the answer is more complicated than you might think he is the star of a blockbuster film opening this week but for most of his life man has been strictly a delist superhero benchwarmer an also ran N.P.R.'s Glen Weldon reports that Aqua Man has gone through a lot of changes Aquaman has been around since 1901 when his creators Moore wising and Paul Norris establish the basics he protects the scene it's creatures whom he controls through mental telepathy wears an orange and green outfit he's got this big poof a blond hair but jet black eyebrows for some reason unlike his a list but he's Superman and Batman it took the guy 26 years to make his way off the comics page with a Saturday morning cartoon in the sixty's dark. Where. We're going to get married all week yours. That's Ted Knight narrating there by the way in that cartoon he was pretty much your standard square do gooder a fish cop basically or maybe a fish sheriff because he had a sidekick rode around on giant sea horses and got into various maritime scrapes Oh your car was not but your many. Times snag in the seventy's and eighty's on the cartoon Superfriends Aquaman remained a hero with Nisha powers only really useful when the threat the face to Manatee was somehow water related which you know it often wasn't but with the rise of the Internet in the 1990 s. Something changed those kids that had grown up on his cartoons were teens and adults now they look back on the cheesy aquatic hero of their youth who couldn't even fly unless he strapped flying fish to his feet and started making fun of him on message boards and web rings he became a joke a meme before memes were thing a just talks to fish they said Maisie they said by the early 2000 some of those same kids started writing for t.v. Themselves and making fun of Aquaman and became a cottage industry on shows like Adult Swim's Robot Chicken he was the over eager hero always left behind while Superman save the day someone say cruise ship like in the Oceanic. Why did you invite Mayo to tell the fish to get out of the way they figured out a nice one so how sorry guys Meanwhile an h.b.o. Man was about to face his biggest threat ever in terms of public perception anyway . So. The series Entourage about the spy ring actor Vinnie Chase and his band of meathead pals in Hollywood turned the notion that a blockbuster film could be made about Aquaman of all characters into an extended joke a joke that stretched over several seasons beginning with Vinny reluctantly entertaining the pitch from his nation to new. All right you ready. Aqua not cool man baby it's Spider-Man under water then rejecting the proposed Aqua Man costume which in his defense did look a little sparkly no way I'm going to be on a 70 foot screen looking like an underwater Elton John video just to suit will not look like that on Vinnie did the Aqua Man movie and Entourage paid off that long running joke with the ultimate punchline it became the highest grossing film of all time imagine right useless old Aqua Man Well a lot can change in a decade man especially since entourage went off the air he went from being the butt of jokes to well up. To a bro himself a surfer bro specifically as played by Jason Momoa and both Justice League of the new film Man he's the kind of long haired tattooed party animal dude you could imagine in Vinnie Chase's entourage the bros one Aquaman became one of them now maybe that makes him more popular the film's already broken records in China but whenever a character like Aquaman changes this much this quickly something is gained and something is lost something kind of cheesy and square to some of us no matter how hard core how gnarly how extreme he becomes we'll always remember him as just Aqua Man the undervalued underestimated undersea underdog the hero who talks to fish when wild and n.p.r. News. This is n.p.r. News. In the movie Ben is back Julia Roberts plays a mother whose son is home for the holidays and struggling with drug addiction it is not unfamiliar territory I think it does help people see it for what it is this monster that you don't know what direction it's coming from plus we'll have the latest on investigations of Russian influence in the u.s. Elections and more tomorrow on Morning Edition from n.p.r. News tomorrow morning edition 5 to 9 am with local host Abigail Beckman here on 91.5 k. Or c. C. Thousands of coal miners are suffering and dying from exposure to toxic dust. And. Tomorrow. And you investigation reveals that the government could have done something about this epidemic but did not that story in the next half hour of all things considered the actually an extended piece that will get to right after the Marketplace Tech Report that's next n.p.r. On 91.5 k. R.c.c. Is supported locally by Pike's Peak Hospice and Palliative Care committed to helping people live their lives to the fullest and to supporting their loved ones during the holidays and all year round more information is at Pike's Peak hospice dot org . Amazon's Alexa was a surprise hit but what's its next play from American Public Media this is Marketplace Tech demystifying the digital economy I'm Ali would. Marketplace Tech is supported by Babel a European made language learning program babble teaches practical conversation in Spanish French German and other languages available in the App Store or on line it . Dot com And by fracture creating photo decor in gifs by printing photos on glass u.s. Made in a carbon neutral factory Morant fracture Me dot com slash marketplace voice enabled smart speakers kind of came out of nowhere to become a huge deal in consumer electronics over just the last 2 years really Amazon launched the category with its apologies in advance for setting them all off Alexa devices and the digital assistant is now showing up in cars home entertainment systems even a microwave but as its popularity increases so do questions about privacy security and what might be coming in the future Tony Reed is vice president of Alexa skills an echo devices at Amazon I spoke with her at Fortune's Most Powerful Women next gen conference she told me people still mostly use Alexa for music news and everybody's favorite the timers so you can now have named timers named alarms you can have sleep timers and so what we launched just a few years ago was a basic experience and we keep expanding to make each of the skills even more delightful for customers and then as these devices have become more prevalent There's also been a lot of fear around them there been news stories about Alexa mysteriously starting to laugh or saying things out of nowhere or reading back in appropriate emails How do you manage and think about those especially privacy concerns for people well the 1st thing is that we take private. And security very seriously we have built and privacy from day one and 2 boys services as well as our echo devices and so I think one of the more important parts about this is that customers understand how the technology works and that they have control and transparency over the use of their data how much control do I have as a consumer like can I go in and delete everything I've ever said to Alexa I guess you can delete your recordings one by one or you can delete them all you have a control like in the app. And the app and on the Web site so we have a privacy page where customers can go and we actually continue to build them hands months to that page to make it even easier that you can actually now search your activity by date ranges if you want to say what what did we say on Monday evening and so we are making it easy for customers to access control that data and then you previously worked in advertising at Amazon talked to us about how the Alexa platform and Amazon's ad ambitions may meet in the future we have no plans for advertising you know our view has been that we build great experiences for customers the rest will take care of itself but also who customers will pay for services and some of those services Amazon build such as Amazon Music Unlimited customers listen to audio books we have audible e-books except. For us the focus has been on building a great customer experience and offering the services that customers care about Tony Reed is vice president of Alexa skills an eco devices at Amazon it is somewhat surprising that Amazon isn't planning to bring ads to the eco universe but according to the marketer Amazon is already the 3rd biggest digital ad platform in the world behind Google and Facebook I'm Molly Wood and that's Marketplace Tech. This is a pm This is 91.5 k. Or c c Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station programming on 91.5 k. Or c. C. Is supported by with a collective give selections from jewelry and fashion to home decor and books with staff to help make a selection gift wrapping always available 1713 South 8th street Albertine or dot com by never card believing that technology is not about the computer as much as it's about the person using it Cisco Systems network security consulting and office scooter races since 2001 you have a car dot com. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from 2 euro price offering a strategic investing approach that examines investment opportunities 1st hand institutions advisors employers and individuals choose to Rowe Price to Rowe Price invest with confidence and from Zoom Zoom offers cloud video conferencing on line meetings and a video conference room solution and one platform featuring digital video and audio with screen sharing account registration and more at Zoom dot us from n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Ailsa Chang despite mounting evidence and a stream of dire warnings federal regulators and mining companies failed to protect coal miners from toxic dust n.p.r. And the p.b.s. Series Frontline spent more than a year looking into this we have obtained documents and data that show federal mine safety officials had evidence of the danger more than 20 years ago but they never addressed it and now more than 2000 miners are dying from an epidemic linked to that toxic dust N.P.R.'s Howard Berkes has traveled across Appalachia to meet many of those miners and to bring us this story. Before we get to why it happened here's why it matters listen to some of the 3 dozen coal miners we interviewed all suffering from progressive massive fibrosis the advanced stage of what's known as Black Lung it's a disease that turns lungs crusty and useless The doctor says my lungs start shutting down the state is hardened It's like a lump of coal it's bad when you. Let her down you can get in and then you know. Perhaps to try to take a bag of trash out stamps and heels I think you all come under our check mail box and want to. Play by our as go look at Curie. You know able to. Get up packing spit in black and blood call from to the point of almost throwing is a death sit ins we're going to die for him there's no cure for it it's going to be and knowing that it's coming to you. It's pretty hard to. That's from inhaling coal mine dust for Roy Mullins Jimmy Wampler Edward fuller Charles short rich Jackie ates Bernard Carlson Roy sparks Greg Kelly Lacy Dutton Jr and Jerry Helton they mined coal underground and above for 20 to 40 years in Kentucky Virginia and Pennsylvania and they share simple milestones for ruined lives grass and I've got a big yard and there's only one part that we have to have actually push mowed in as I passed those as a lot of this. Danny Smith pushes a lawn mower in front of his white rancher in a holler a narrow valley in Canada Kentucky he wears a t. Shirt jeans and ball cap and a cloth dust mask stretching from eyes to neck and I used a bell to mow in about 6 minutes and the last time that I tried it it took me about 6 hours. And I'm not exaggerating at all I would have to stop and go and said I already asked for losses in all and they go back out and I took 3 more passes. And Smith spent only 12 years mining coal 6 years ago he says when he was only 39 he was diagnosed with progressive massive fibrosis and after a few minutes knowing. All the. Smith spits up a wet crust dark gray with black streaks its deadline to issue it dies so fast it just appeals away his respiratory therapist says Smith recovers enough to settle into a chair on the perch and clips to his nose a tube that leads to an oxygen tank I'm terrified. I'm scared it will suffer a lot of my dad's. Short a long go through what he went through and a lot of guys that died and they all suffer. I worry about my kids a lot and how are they going to make it when I know it's heartbreaking if I was to not tomorrow. In the last 8 years more than 2000 coal miners were diagnosed with progressive massive fibrosis According to Black Lung legal and medical clinics surveyed by n.p.r. In Ohio Pennsylvania West Virginia Virginia and Kentucky some are part of the largest clusters of the disease ever reported says Scott Laney an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health I think this is clearly one of the worst industrial medicine disasters that that's ever been described Lanie and his colleagues have also documented the highest rate of basic black lung since the early 1990 s. Among miners still working in Central Appalachia with at least 25 years on the job one in 5 has the disease he says were counting thousands of cases thousands and thousands and thousands of black lung cases thousands of cases of the most severe form of black lung and we're not done counting out here is what n.p.r. And frontline discovered about why this is happening in the last 30 years miners in Appalachia cut more and more rock wall mining coal rock that contains quartz and when Cortes is. Cut by mining machines it creates fine and barbed particles of toxic silica dust almost all the sick and dying miners we interviewed with 12 to 40 years in mining describe more of this rock in coal seams that includes Bill Cantrell James month see Harold Dotson and Randall Owens back in 90 s. And early ninety's I was a lot of this month ago but as it went on. Modern war you want you had rock probably 20 years a moron could go all the saying we're no closer working harder no solid same's of coal oil. And there were more rock in the Co Co probably hating the rest of that for a 6 night food the more rock you had to cut the dust it was just like being in a room full of smoke like your set and apply old Walkman to a fog bank you're in Hello Nat into your lungs wail you know when. I suspected a costly and we just couldn't keep it down good enough ever work we could the silica dust that results is easily inhaled and lodges in lungs forever epidemiologist Scott leaning it makes a huge impact because still look as a lot more toxic than coal mine dust somewhere around 20 times more toxic and it can cause disease much more rapidly so get this n.p.r. And frontline documented thousands of instances in which miners were expose not just to coal dust but to that toxic silica dust at dangerous levels that's what we found in 30 years of data collected by federal regulators they measure coal and silica dust where miners are working and 85 percent of the time they reported safe levels of silica but the rest of the time there were $21000.00 instances of dangerous exposures to silica that's what causes disease is the excessive exposure I think if the intent of enforcement is to reduce exposure and you getting over exposure it didn't work Jim Weeks is in industrial high Genest who has worked for the Federal Mine Safety Agency and the United Mine Workers Union n.p.r. And frontline found that federal enforcement does not directly address silica dust if there's too much silica mines are put on a much tougher limit. For overall coal mine dust that's supposed to lower the silica exposure because the coal and silica dusts are usually mixed but it didn't always work there were still dangerous levels of silica or courts close to $9000.00 times in the last 30 years that in place efficient attention and you know we've got the bodies to prove it. I mean these guys wouldn't be dying if people lives and paying attention to courts it's that simple and when federal mine inspectors issues citations for too much silica which they did only a fraction of the time they said more than 9000 miners were affected now the data only show what happens when regulators are checking they often didn't check during some of the most dangerous exposures. Before the big offer I should right here not far from his house in Kentucky now all along our property but that's here after Danny Smith slows his s.u.v. As we pass an abandoned coal mine he and other miners use drills and mining machines here cutting through solid rock underground to get from one coast seem to another you know there's a rock. That we had all kinds I or. I was still breathing not only in our case anyway regardless. Then how many. Days weeks months all it took months to days oh save a 7 days a lawyer made of 16 hours a day this is called Snow mining and it's not really mining There's no coal and it's all about cutting through solid rock to get to coal seams and because there's no coal there's no requirement for sampling the air for dust even if it's the most dangerous dust that's optional Danny Smith cut at least 2 slot machines is it possible that your disease came from cutting through solid rock for hour after hour day after day murder after my very possible Yeah most of my mind career are on a continuous miner Iraq are also. And it's very possible from all that our family or roof bolters drill into solid rock continuous miners cut rock and coal dust is supposed to be controlled by massive ventilation fans curtains that channel air and constant water sprees. Sometimes they work miners told us and sometimes they didn't there's also this dust masks or respirators are not required miners who use them told us they often didn't work anyway I would with the with be honest never good enough are a new an electromagnet sit near with their hand over your face that gave you heart of that kind of breathing they're not going to stop 100 percent in their spine or particles get in through them fielder's it creates what I've got some of the companies our friend in Hammond all appeared a member of no such thing in the dust math no accounts James Hayes and Edward Wayne Brown are among the miners who weren't protected by death masks in fact dozens of other miners including Danny Smith are suing dust mask suppliers there's also this federal law makes mask secondary and optional in protecting miners 1st and foremost the law says is keeping mine Air Safe it all adds up to this for Celeste Mon Fortan top mine safety official in the Clinton administration it's a combination of the regulations were not adequate the enforcement of those regulations was not sufficient and the mine operators themselves or were not held accountable that didn't seem to be the direction back in 1902 when presidential candidate Bill Clinton met with coal miners in West Virginia suffering from black lung he's going to be our nominee he's going to be our president he's to Marcus all is name is Bill Clinton. Clinton told the miners and a crowd in Charleston that he knew what black lung could do because he represented miners seeking black lung benefits when he was a young lawyer in Arkansas I saw those big strapping men who could no longer push a lawn more across their front lawn who could no longer pick their grandchildren up some of them could not even make their own beds in the morning. And I learned a lot about. What a caring government would do as compared with what a heartless one would we found internal memos from the Clinton administration that showed alarm way back then about a cluster of advanced lung disease among coal miners as young as 40 the Mine Safety and Health Administration warned the industry back then about excessive exposure to silica and severe disease among minors the Department of Labor Advisory Committee and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health called for separate regulation of silica and an exposure limit twice as tough debt McAteer led the mine safety agency at the time and we started a national campaign 1st to raise awareness and it was that campaign that began to try to go after the silica requirements for reasons silica standard and certain a separate path to control silica there were other dust control Lupo's so big you could drive coal trucks right through them loophole number one mine inspectors did not check for coal and silica exposure most of the time they inspected just 4 times a year underground and twice a year at surface mines loophole number 2 sampling devices did not check for a mine dust the entire shifts miners worked despite more and more overtime double shifts and 6 day weeks Lou poll numbers 3 when inspections turned up excess silica mining companies could then take their own samples of mine dust unsupervised they could average the results which hid the worst exposures and their samples were sometimes fraudulent resulting in criminal prosecutions as recently as this year loophole number 4 it could take weeks to get dust samples analyzed for silica overexposure could continue for dozens of shifts debit McAteer says he tried to fix it all but the National Mining Association the industry's biggest lobbying group sued and won that through the silica standard that. Can we were able to pick that up again and go forward with that and then we ran out of time and it's something that's unfortunate then put a lot of lives at risk in the meantime remember this was 20 years ago there were clusters of severe disease like there are today miners were sickened younger like they are today and cutting rock creating silica dust was blamed Then too there's nothing new about any of this except thousands more miners are suffering severe disease and silica is still not directly regulated Celeste Mon fort we failed had we taken action at that time I really believe that we would not be seeing the disease that we're seeing now and having miners die at such young ages from exposures that happened 20 years ago I mean I don't know how you can reach any other conclusion I mean this is such a gross and Frank example of regulatory failure nothing changed in the next administration of George w. Bush when a former coal mining executive ran the mine safety agency then President Obama put Joe Main in charge Maine came from the United Mine Workers Union and he was on that Labor Department Advisory Committee that sought tougher regulation of silica back in 1906 so it was very obvious that that whole scheme to have been a place that has left so many people sick had to be changed had to be fixed main close some of the big loopholes no more sampling by mining companies no averaging of samples no sampling for just part of the work shift new real time coal dust sampling devices were deployed to make the process more honest and the exposure limit for coal mine dust got tougher but not for silica you know high tide rises all boats are saying goes we were going to get a benefit out of the. Do seem to overall just exposure to what we did would not only lower cold wind but all dust that was part of that including silicon but as we found in the agency's own data that formula had failed thousands of times Celeste Mon Fortan wonders why the agency missed that were ignored the fact that you went back for 30 years and looked at that data and that data was available to the agency to assess as well why wasn't that problem recognized and rectified none of the former agency officials we spoke with could explain that they thought they were doing what they needed to do but another agency did act on silica the Occupational Safety and Health Administration so now every industry that cuts rock every industry except mining has those separate and tougher regulations on Seleka Joe Main left it to the trumpet ministration to address silica in mining ladies and gentlemen please welcome our lecturer today Secretary that there is a lot. Less bridge in need university in September President Trump's choice to lead the Mine Safety and Health Administration spoke to mining student David's a Tesla as a former mining industry executive and lobbyist and his agency declined multiple requests for interviews so we were there to when's a Tesla's sounded unequivocal about silica and disease here the furries in health circles or progressive massive Farber says Sure just things to me really those are all the really show the comparable. So good is something. That has to be controlled but when we approach the Tesla afterward he was suddenly uncertain I don't like the song says that Walter Fogarty with Howard. You have 2000 miners right I don't get it I don't think it. Just Sancia causation as well before and I don't You said yourself because you know I should are suspect shilling I didn't say it was awesome at Auspex I think until such time as you figure out what it is you don't really know excuse me students I read it was a Tesla was whisked away to pose for photographs with students so far his agency has no plan for separate and tougher regulation of silica at coal mines. 01 to take in a big the bridge in a black lung clinic in St Charles Virginia who is now a coal miner stands face 1st against a wall mounted x. Ray panorama his bare back lit bright except for a target shaped like a cross Amber he. Go it moves or this clinic continues to diagnose new cases of progressive massive fibrosis at the rate of a dozen a month the epidemic continues so does the finger pointing even the National Mining Association the industry trade group pushed for specific regulation of silica But mining companies also knew they were cutting more courts courts slows the mining process and it has to be removed before coal can be sold so why didn't mining companies act on their own Here's Bruce Watzman of the National Mining Association sure they could have done that but again Howard I'm not going to speculate on why they did or didn't do what they chose you know our focus here is forward looking how do we prevent this in the future I can't answer for those what occurred in the past isn't part of figuring out what you need to do in the future recognizing maybe what we failed to do in the past sure it is but at the same time I recognise that we're doing better today than we did in the past for better the mine safety agency says the same thing based on new data on those changes Joe main push through a. Few years ago mining companies now meet exposure limits for coal dust and silica 99 percent of the time that's a deceptive statistic says epidemiologist scuttling their sample very infrequently so we don't know what's going on with these miners when they're not being sampled 99 percent of the time we don't have information on that and it'll be 10 years or more given the time it takes for disease to develop to know whether the new dust rules really work they can stop important. Danny Smith pulls up to a parking lot choked with lead this was a massive energy mine and strength worked here Massey is a defunct company now with deadly disasters in its history and a c.e.o. Who went to prison for conspiracy to violate mine safety laws a ball cap shade Smith's face and sunglasses hide the tears it's a day I mean 8 maybe for at least the last 2 years it that I don't want to over it's over you know it's all it's Harbor I can you know not. Have Been you're going to ever see omen. Of all the science that killed me while they were rock falls and all that you know and I lived through all. And I found out years later. Despite a downturn in mining coal mines still employ about 50000 workers nationwide. Drone style. But to the band of their one of the to cripple they had you know. Was always me it. Was just. Back at Danny Smith's house in the hollering Canada Kentucky a small family cemetery sits at the edge of the line he has so much trouble knowing it holds a single gravestone bright with flowers and chiseled into it or the names of his parents behind it in the shade is the plot Danny Smith has picked for his own borough He's 46 years old. Howard Berkes n.p.r. News. You can see our entire investigation on npr dot org The Frontline documentary called holes deadly dust is scheduled to air January 22nd on p.b.s. . You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Focus Features presenting Mary Queen of Scots a rebellious young queen stops at nothing to reclaim her throne search her own and Margot Robbie Starr is warring Queens now playing in select theaters in theaters everywhere Friday from at last a collaboration software company powering teams around the world committed to providing the tools and practices to help teams plan track build and work better together more and at last and dot com and from Doctors Without Borders with medical teams on the ground in more than 70 countries last year Doctors Without Borders provided medical care to more than 11000000 people learn more at Doctors Without Borders dot org. Good afternoon it is 459 how Mike Purcell Thanks for tuning in for all things considered and southern Colorado n.p.r. Station k r c c k or c c h d Colorado Springs. Into. Starkville and k w c c f m Woodland Park supporters of formal former national security advisor Michael Flynn gather outside a Washington d.c. Courthouse great Americans are hard to find and when you do have a me you don't throw money or the bus Flynn was supposed to be sentenced today for lying to the f.b.i. But that's not what happened more on that right after headline news from n.p.r. That story coming up at $5.00 o 6 programming on $91.00 k. Or c. C. Is supported by Colorado Springs Philharmonic swinging in the New Year in the Big Band spirit of Louis Armstrong Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman Thomas Wilson conducting New Year's Eve at Pikes Peak center more at sea as Philharmonic daughter work by monument occupational medicine working with injured workers and employers dedicated to helping employees return to work with comprehensive medical care drug screening and d.o.t. Exams and pre-employment physicals monument o.c.c. Med dot com Please consider all the value you gain from 91.5 k. R.c.c. And give a little back we're ready to close out 28000 but 1st we need to hear from you but December 31st please visit. And make your year in donation and thanks just past 5 o'clock 46 degrees here in the downtown Springs area low expected near 30 in the Springs tonight ranging from the mid twenty's in some of those upper locations elevations to 30 here in the spring sturdy 6 in Canyon City that looks to be the warm spot tonight and then mild temperatures tomorrow but the wind is back some very gusty winds up to 60 miles per hour possible high wind warning for northeastern Colorado to. Oh and a winter weather advisory tonight tomorrow for the northern mountains acts spear gun control activists are welcoming news of a federal ban on bump stocks after market attachments that increase the firing rate of semiautomatic rifles more from N.P.R.'s Martin costy the Trump administration says it's going ahead with a new regulation that classifies the rifle attachments as machine guns which renders them illegal Shannon Watts is founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action we think this is a very good 1st step error and we're very hopeful that it signals that the president is willing and open to the gun safety legislation that the bass majority of Americans support and and signal that they want during the midterm elections the n.r.a. Expressed its disappointment that the new regulation doesn't include an amnesty which might have allowed people who bought the devices when they were considered legal to keep them once this rule is implemented owners of bump stocks will have 90 days to turn them in or destroy them Martin n.p.r. News House Democrats will hold hearings in the next Congress on an epidemic of advanced black lung disease among coal miners N.P.R.'s Howard Berkes says the call for hearings was prompted by an n.p.r. Investigation into the causes of the epidemic Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia is the incoming chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee and he says in a statement that the n.p.r. Investigation reveals how coal executives regulators and policy makers have failed coal miners and their families that statement came hours after n.p.r. Reported that federal regulators in the mining industry knew more than 20 years ago that toxic silica dust in coal mines was leading to severe and fatal one disease but no administration then or since has imposed direct and tougher regulation of silica Scott says Congress has no choice but to step in and direct the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the mining industry to take timely action Howard Berkes n.p.r. News. After Democrats rejected his proposed budget bills Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today told reporters he's now consulting with the White House about what kind of spending legislation President Trump would be willing to sign Trump previously and said he'd be prepared to allow partial government shutdown to take effect if lawmakers refuse to give him a downpayment on his proposed border wall bill today he seemed to indicate he does not want to shutdown Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer says if there's a partial government shutdown Friday it's on the president so President Trump throws a temper tantrum and clings to his position on the wall he will not get a wall but he will cause a trump shutdown over Christmas dinner says he and other Democrats rejected the current g.o.p. Budget proposal because it contained what he called a $1000000000.00 slush fund for Trump's immigration policies stocks managed to hold on to some of their gains after a big early run up the Dow closed up 82 points or 23675 the Nasdaq was up 30 points the s. And p. 500 closed up a fraction today this is n.p.r. . Despite a delay on British prime minister Treece amaze exit plan for Britain from the e.u. The government has decided to ramp up preparations for what it's calling a no deal Breck's it rocks at Secretary Steve Barclay saying while the government remains committed to May's exit plan it also needs to be ready in case another option is needed the country's government says about 3500 troops will be on standby in support of the government to help deal with any disruptions in a bout of a no deal vote with Britain crashing out of the e.u. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is proposing legislation that will require more transparency around how state Medicaid programs choose the drugs they cover and pros Allison Kojak reports the legislation is in response to an investigation by n.p.r. And the Center for Public Integrity Booker's bill would require drug companies to disclose payment and perks they give to pharmacists who serve on state Medicaid drug boards Booker says the change will address the conflicts of interest exposed in the n.p.r. C.p.i. Investigation which show drug makers use lavish trips consulting contracts and other perks to influence what medications state Medicaid programs cover my bills going to.
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