Even just bringing the voice of Governor Walker and other public officials can connect the audience to their officials and tell them something that you don't necessarily know just by reading the the printed word but I also really enjoy contributing stories to our website. Your support keeps independent journalism strong on f.m. 91 point one thank you for listening and supporting Alaska Public Media I'm in true kitchen in the state government and politics reporter. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Norah Rahm president's choice to head the drug enforcement administration withdrew his name from consideration today as N.P.R.'s American want to know are all reports Republican Congressman Tom Marino has supported a law that weaken federal efforts to slow the flow of oil this came after a c.b.s. News 60 Minutes Washington Post report that found that Marino was somebody who was behind a law that actually stopped federal law enforcement in the Drug Enforcement Administration from really going to heavily after some of these pharmaceutical companies that made drugs that a lot of people wound up being hooked on and you know President Trump ran on trying to curtail opioid abuse and this became unsustainable n.p.r. Has to make a mountain r.-o. In Puerto Rico heavy rains this week are complicating the island's recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Maria N.P.R.'s Adrian Florida reports scattered rain is an every day occurrence here but parts of the island have seen downpours in the last couple of days over the weekend officials were touting they had restored running water to more than 70 percent of customers but that number dropped back to 65 percent because the rain washed too much sediment into reservoirs forcing officials to shut down to treatment facilities ground saturation and mudslides have also destabilized roads and bridges under that I come but is the femur official in charge of port that we go after Maria we had 19 bridges affected. Our grocery either big bridges as of yesterday we have $32.00 The rain has also caused misery for the many thousands whose roofs were damaged during the storm the dream for n.p.r. News San Juan Puerto Rico the United Nations says the number of road hang a Muslim refugees who fled meum are from neighboring Bangladesh has now topped 580000 in just over 7 weeks Michael Sullivan has more the United Nations High. For Refugees says another 121-5000 people are now stranded just inside Bangladesh but unable to move farther perched precariously on levees between paddy fields as they try to figure out how to make it to the makeshift camps set up on the Bangladesh side dramatic drone video from you in h.c.r. On Monday shows a line of people more than a mile long trudging toward safety reports over the weekend spoke of thousands more are massing on the Myanmar side waiting to cross the Associated Press reports many of the new arrivals say they fled when their villages were set on fire some told the a.p. That Bangladesh border guards were keeping them from moving toward the camps on the Bangladesh side for n.p.r. News I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai The Dow is up 28 points at 22985 it briefly rose above 23000 this morning this is n.p.r. News from Washington the Justice Department says it's indicted 2 Chinese nationals suspected of being major drug traffickers officials say they manufactured tons of fentanyl and other powerful narcotics that ended up in the u.s. The men are not in custody they're accused of separately running chemical labs in China and selling on line to Americans more than a dozen other people are accused of selling the drugs in the u.s. And Canada. The Canadian rel organization that oversees provincial securities regulators has set out specific expectations for disclosure from marijuana companies with investments in the u.s. Then carbon shock reports the expectations are designed to clarify issues for companies that operate in both countries the disclosure guidelines mean that cannabis companies must tell investors about the risks when they invest in the us were growing and selling marijuana continues to be illegal under us federal laws the guidelines set out the legal limitations and laws as well as any possible fallout Meanwhile the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange t.n.x. Group is considering delisting stocks of companies that violate those u.s. Federal regulations t.n.x. Has issued a statement saying that u.s. Federal law takes precedence over state laws about a dozen of the 50 cannabis companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange have holdings in the u.s. For n.p.r. News I'm Dan Koppen Chuck in Toronto tens of thousands of Californians are still out of their homes more than a week after wildfires began burning in the northern part of the state at least 41 people have died there are still dozens of people reported missing I'm nor rom n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include c. 3 i.o.t. Providing a software platform that brings artificial intelligence big data cloud computing and Io t. To industrial scale digital transformations learn more at c 3 I o t dot com. This is the takeaway on top swelling Thanks for spending some time with us today I don't feel anything that helpless seems like something I just naturally. Women across America are speaking out on social media and on our show about their own experiences being sexually harassed the nation is spent a week with the story of yet another man using a position of power to intimidate and exploit the women around him the Harvey Weinstein story isn't the 1st and it isn't the last from Roger Ailes to Bill O'Reilly Bill Clinton to Donald Trump but is the country finding new ways to reckon with a festering problem social media platforms lit up with the hash tag me too as people step forward to acknowledge their experience with sexual harassment and assault you've been calling in to say me too as well by not Lake City Utah this is Laura in Oakland I mean I'm calling from Miami Florida I would really rather not broadcast my name was a challenge I'm coming from and a note many of these stories are difficult to hear I thought he was my friend when I was asleep after a night. Reading birthday. I was confused should you think there's any myself to refuse to acknowledge and I didn't file a police report because I don't think anyone believes like almost every woman I know I've been sexually assaulted and harassed How significant was decades ago at the University of Miami when I was drugged and raped by a football player in the backyard of a college party when it happened I did not report it. To the 4 girls in my family all 4 of us suffered sexual abuse 2 by strangers into at the hands of then they were dating I think only one of those was reported to have been a victim. Well. Thanks for that but at one point. Your voices on your experiences with sexual harassment Well when it comes to workplace sexual harassment the entire concept didn't really make it into the American mainstream until the mid seventy's our friends at retro report have been looking into the American History of sexual harassment from 1974 when the term 1st emerged to how the country deals with the issue today Bonnie Bertram is a producer with retro report Bonnie Welcome back good to be with you Well the phrase itself sexual harassment body seems like it's always been part of the lexicon but really it has and when did the term sexual harassment arrive on the American scene Well of course sexual harassment been going on forever and what happened in 1974 was a woman was teaching at Cornell University in the human affairs department and she had been tasked with this course called Women work where she would examine how women were fairing in the workplace because they were entering in large numbers in the seventy's for the 1st time baby boomers were rushing into the job market and a lot of those people were women so in the course of talking with these young students you realize that every woman in that class had experienced losing their job or being demoted because they had refused the advances of a male boss and she kept thinking this is bizarre it's happening everywhere and she said everywhere she went she would just pull woman aside and say Have you ever experienced something like this and she realized how pervasive it wasn't she said we've got to name it I was going to talk about something seriously that heretofore had been a joke in the culture I remember thinking well they're all either laugh or they won't and so she helped come up with the phrase sexual harassment in the workplace to describe what women were experiencing the body that's the mid seventy's and then you go forward to the mid eighty's and there are these important milestones in the cultural. And legal concept of sexual harassment in 1906 there's a Supreme Court ruling on harassment as discrimination what did that case do that case put businesses on notice in a new way that if they had a workplace where women were experiencing this kind of harassment or a hostile workplace or in fact what was common at the time it almost seems incredible now but a boss would say I'm not going to promote you unless you sleep with me or do something and what that Supreme Court ruling did is it said that it was a form of discrimination and that it violated the 1964 Title 7 Civil Rights Act And after that case came down did workplace practices change significantly Did it have a big impact on the culture it in bubbling up in lower courts for years but what happened when the Supremes court ruling came in 1906 was it really put the onus definitively on the businesses that they had to take proactive steps to try to prevent this from happening and if they didn't and women experiences there would be a price to pay or Bonnie we talked about the mid seventy's we talked about the eighty's and then at the beginning of the ninety's came Anita Hill in 1901 testimony in front of the Senate in the confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas which really rocked the culture the comments were random and rage range from pressing me about why I didn't go out with him to remarks about my personal appearance. I remember his saying that someday I would have to tell him the real reason that I wouldn't go out with him. He began to show just pleasure in his tone of voice and his just demeanor. And his continued fresh air. For an explanation. He commented on what I was wearing in terms of whether it made me more or less sexually attractive the incidents occur in his inner office at the e.e.o.c. How did the Anita Hill experience and the Clarence Thomas experience impact the culture of sexual harassment Well I have to say we were doing this report soon after those Billy Bush tapes had emerged of President Trump and the way he was talking about that woman and groping her so against this backdrop of that moment happening and some women feeling like Oh my gosh I can't believe this man's behavior and then yet women voting for Donald Trump when they went to the polls I think in a way it was a similar moment because the nation was divided and all of the coverage at the time said he said this she said this who do you believe there was a real sort of galvanizing moment on side of people who said I can't believe Anita Hill's been treated this way and I can't believe he's been confirmed to the bench anyway and on the other hand there is a group of people who I mean not to use the parlance of today but there was this notion of boys will be boys and that sort of locker room attitude so what it did to the country was it really brought it out of the shadows when they heard Anita Hill talk about it and it galvanized them and a lot of women suddenly realized that they should they have the responsibility to call out this behavior when it happened and so the number of filings of sexual harassment claims to the e.e.o.c. More than doubled in the next few years and body where your story ends and what Anita Hill says is that the reaction now to stories of sexual harassment often that involve famous people because this is a celebrity culture that reaction is now Swift and overwhelming and condemning it is but Todd you know when you look at the long view I mean Time magazine the cover of the you need a hill hearing says we're at a watershed. Sad moment and I'm sure when that 1960 court ruling came down a lot of women who didn't want to tangle this abuse anymore cheered that moment too and said wow finally we've got a definitive ruling on our side so I would just caution that this does seem to be a particularly relevant moment and we've heard words like tipping point and watershed but I would just caution that the long view of history would tell you that this might not be our 1st watershed moment on this issue Bonnie Bertram producer with retro report with a new piece on the American cultural and political history of sexual harassment right on time Bonnie thanks for coming back oh thanks for having me you can see retro reports documentary on our website at the takeaway dot org. And let's head to Somalia now after this weekend's truck bombings rescuers and volunteers are digging through debris for remains hundreds are injured and many are still unaccounted for and the government says they expect the death toll to rise past 300 no one has taken responsibility for the attack but Somalia's government is blaming al Shabaab there an al Qaeda linked Islamic extremist group in Africa with a long history in Somalia and in the region in 2013 the group was blamed for an attack at a mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people and back in 2015 targeted a series of hotels in Mogadishu killing at least 15 people Kevin Seif is Africa bureau chief from the Washington Post and he has the latest from Mogadishu the death toll just continues to go well I mean tax happened on Saturday thinking about that issue but there was so big and the destruction was so massive it's taken a long time to figure out who's still missing how many people have died and right now I think the totals over 300 but it continues for us so people are trying to identify family members there's a huge blood donation campaign going on because huge number of people or sort of survival so I mean it's. It's incredibly bleak Is there a message coming from the leadership of the country to people in Mogadishu and around the country about how they'll react here you know the president has declared 3 days of national mourning there's been a sort of sense from the leadership across the Somali government that they're trying to crack down trying to improve security but it's been so many years of these kinds of attacks I mean this is a particularly dramatic one but I think many Somalis particularly in Mogadishu have sort of lost faith in the government's ability to provide security to keep this sort of major Islamist group from conducting these kinds of attacks in broad daylight in major hotels and so the government has a real challenge ahead to try to convince people that you know Mogadishu you know for a long time this sort of slogan of the government was Mogadishu rising and there are pictures of people on the beach playing soccer and eating it outside restaurants and this idea that like the war was was fading away and normal life was returning It's really hard for the government to promote that narrative now after an attack like this and indeed the president of Somalia Mohamad Abdalla he Mohamad took power in February promising that very thing that he would bring the country out of conflict with al-Shabaab Exactly and he had the support of the u.s. Behind to I mean the president is small is actually a dual citizen so he when he came to power there was a sense that he would be you know very sort of helpful partner with us in cracking down on terrorism improving security across the country and I think what this attack shows is that it's just an incredibly difficult thing to do I mean the u.s. Has had a counterterrorism campaign in Somalia that's gone on for the better part of a decade there have been drone strikes that have killed multiple leaders of al Shabaab and yet here we are so even a counterterrorism campaign as concerted as as the American on even a small I got. That is saying all the right things comes up against you know one of the biggest challenges I think and East Africa which is an incredibly powerful terrorist organization that appears to be well financed and well resourced What is it the United States needs to be thinking about now in Somalia so I think the u.s. Has been trying very hard to develop a Somali security force that kin fend against this sort of a threat you know a security force that ideally would have been able to stop a truck bomb like the one that we saw security force that could conduct its own offensive against al Shabaab and that has been I think one of the biggest failures in the history of the war in Somalia I mean it is an absolute failure there is still no functional Somali military the Somali police is wildly corrupts and often accused of human rights abuses so at this point there's no there's no Somali force you can do you to do the sort of basic security work the kind of basic counterinsurgency work that needs to happen in Somalia and I think until until that sort of local force is created there's really no substitute and there's really no way that the u.s. With a bunch of drone strikes and air strikes can pacify the country Kevin see thank you for joining us no problem Kevin c. Is Africa bureau chief for The Washington Post. Point for the takeaway comes from Babble on language at that teaches real life conversations in a new language like Spanish French and German battles 10 to 15 minute lessons are available in the app store or online after the a.b.b. Dot com and know working to help businesses of any size create customized business cards postcard stickers and more and learn more at mu dot com. 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This is the takeaway from w n y z n.p.r. I Public Radio International in collaboration with w g b h radio in Boston it's talks about like welcome back the dual truck attack in Somalia over the weekend is undermining stability in that country Somalia is already struggling with famine and drought while trying to overcome a decade of violence by the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab with some analysis now Peter he's director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council and co-author of Somalia fixing Africa's most failed state Peter fond thanks for being here thank you for having me Tom but when attacks like this happen Peter the victims suffer horribly Of course the rest of us are left to look for the messages imbedded in that attack what did you see in this devastating devastating watch over the weekend the thing I saw primarily was that beyond the obvious concern for the victims. It was the reminder that al-Shabaab is a remarkably resilient organization this is a group whose roots go back several decades whose current form perhaps dates more recently but it's proven remarkably resilient it's adapted to changes in the political and security environment of Somalia in the neighboring region and transformed itself each time to survive and it's recently been under a lot of pressure just a few years ago Shabab controlled 2 thirds of the territory of Somalia and the government was barely confined to a few buildings in Mogadishu and the airport zone since 2011 through the efforts and sacrifices of the African Union peacekeepers Shabab has been gradually pushed out and through recent strikes by the United States and others its leadership ranks have been decimated but it has adapted and less interested now in seizing and holding territory that hasn't proven to be a winning strategy so it's engaged in these terrorist attacks this is by far the deadliest but it's not the 1st one my count has the explosions this past weekend where the 34th time a car bombs have been dug a detonated in Mogadishu since January of this year 34. Car bombings it's an amazing number so as you're saying and as we heard before a tactic shift still is showing it has the ability to inflict enormous damage what about strategically what can I do now to really undermine the government or undermine stability in Somalia. A couple things one is one has to acknowledge that the current government under President for Maggio is arguably the best chance that Somalia has had in years if not decades to reestablish some modicum of stability that being said one has to be realistic and clear eyed This is not a government that is without its warts the Auditor General of the government it's acknowledged that somewhere up to $20000000.00 exchanged hands in the process of creating this government has people literally bought offices so that's not a regime that is likely to engender much support or to be able to fight in order to fight a counterinsurgency and win against a group like that one has to have legitimacy and what Shabaab is aiming to do right now is to undermine the tenuous legitimacy and hold of the governed by showing people that you may have a government but it's unable to deliver security for you and that's a devastating message Peter the United States has been focused largely on ISIS places like Syria Iraq even Libya has Somalia been neglected I would say Somalia actually has gotten a fair amount of attention there were a number of drone strikes as well as a few raids during the Obama administration and earlier this year the Trump administration loosened a bit the rules of engagement giving more devolving more authority to the commanders on the ground those closer to make decisions and as a result there probably been about a dozen drone strikes or other actions involving u.s. Assets in the region and they've not been without effect. In July there were $22.00 drone strike that took out 2 key regional commanders of al Shabaab just last month about a dozen militants who were planning a terrorist attack were eliminated. So there been some successes on the other hand I think the attack this weekend as well as the ones that preceded also underscore the limits counterterrorism strikes of those kind these military strikes can certainly eliminate high value targets and take out forces but what is needed is policing and security and intelligence to fight the new game that Shabab is playing is the United States doing enough on that score then policing and intelligence sort of what I'll call the ground game of counterterrorism strategy and not necessarily relying simply on drone strikes Well here's here's here's the rub there's a lot there's a lot the United States and other international partners who have been involved especially our European friends in Somalia can do but at the end of the day in the only way stability and security are are going to return to Somalia is of the Somalis themselves take ownership and there's a government that's capable of that and that's that's where we had some real problems even example over the last few years the United States as well as its principal European allies the French the British as well as the European Union active with a host of smaller countries have trained somewhere between 60 and 80000 troops for the Somali government yet if you go out there and try to count the ones you can find there are probably only a few 1000 so that means you know maybe 10 percent of those who are trained are still serving the functions for which they're training the other 90 percent where they've gone. Some of them possibly possibly even gone over to the enemy that's a real problem and that's not a problem that the international community can solve it's a problem that the Somali government needs to solve Meanwhile Peter Pham we've been reporting for weeks months on this show about the famine in Somalia and countries around it draw the line before we let you go to connect that political crisis of the famine to the terror that we're seeing in. Well it's certainly that's yet another thing that undermines the legitimacy of the government and this is why it's important not only to feed people because it's the right thing to do but also reinforces the legitimacy and stability of the government which is really for all its warts are bulwark against. Peter Fonda rector of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council and co-author of Somalia fixing Africa's most failed state thank you for being here thank you for having me. For the take away comes from Legal Zoom dot com providing American business owners with legal advice through its network of independent attorney is available in all 50 states more information available at Legal Zoom dot com slash take away want to bring us with you on the girl subscribe to the takeaway as a podcast on i Tunes or wherever you get your podcast. On the occasion of Alaska Public Media's t.v. Premiere of the Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns in Lynn Novick were airing special programming related to the era a complete list of radio where then t.v. Content is available on our website at Alaska public dot org slash the. Hi I'm Anna that we are a proud member of Alaska public media whether it's news from right here where we live or stories from across the globe everything you experience on 91 point one f.m. Is worth your time and worthy of your support and none of them would be on Alaska Public Media without the financial support of listeners just like us become part of the team that helped make great stories on Alaska Public Media give out Alaska public dot org Today it's. The in. That's the sound of Iraqi government troops in Kirkuk yesterday celebrating a lowering of the Kurdish flag and the raising of the Iraqi flag Iraqi forces took back the contested city as well as valuable oil fields nearby 3 weeks after Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence from Iraq in a referendum both Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are key u.s. Allies though in both are armed and trained by the u.s. In the fight against ISIS President Trump had this to say about the clashes yesterday we have had for many years very good relationship with the Kurds as you know and we've also been on the side of Iraq even though we should have never been in the 1st place we should never have been there but we're not taking sides in that battle the president taking no sides in that battle between Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces and the sky over saw Kirkuk as governor coordinator for the Coalition Provisional Authority from 2003 until 2004 she's also author of the unraveling high hopes and missed opportunities in Iraq I don't think any prime minister in Iraq can afford to lose cook to cook is a key city it's a contested city and it matters not only to the Kurds who want to incorporate it in Kurdistan because they see it's essential to their independence but it also matters to Baghdad cuckoos go to mixed population of Kurds talk among some of those who want to be part of Kurdistan and some didn't and could cook has a lot of oil so what's the prevailing imperative here is that the oil in the resources or Iraqi cohesion I think the imperative is to find some compromise on the way ahead everybody told me not to go ahead with this referendum and he was thinking that this referendum would help him with leverage to negotiate separation from Baghdad but he reached by including could cook within that referendum so. I think the imperative is to look at what compromise can be found I think a compromise is possible and that compromise could be looking at whether Cook could have some special status jointly administered perhaps by Baghdad and by Kurdistan and to have some sort of mediation through those disputed territories to work out which districts should be parts of Kurdistan and which district should remain part of Iraq proper and this could help pave the way perhaps for Confederation between Kurdistan and Iraq and to lower tensions across the region and what about the American position behind the scenes in the private diplomatic rooms I mean the United States was clear before the referendum it did not want the Iraqi Kurds to separate the u.s. Told Barzani not to go ahead with the referendum and I think they would believe that was on he wasn't going to go ahead with the referendum so they told him not to not to not to and then when he did they were shocked and I think their attitude is that Barzani has created this crisis but with the u.s. Playing no role if you like in mediating between the different groups that's opened up the space for Iran to be the mediator Iran has been supporting the different popular mobilization forces which is shared militia which had been supporting the Iraqi government forces to take a cook and Iran was also putting pressure on the p u k to do a deal with Baghdad so the hand of the wrong is there in the background helping the Iraqis of oppression the Kurds to do a deal Iran finds a way to increase its influence in Iraq yet again as Kurdish forces and Iraqi forces clash over the city of Kirkuk Emma Sky Coalition Provisional Authority 2003 until 2004 thank you for joining us thank you. 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We continue our ongoing coverage now of the opioid crisis in America and we have some news out of Washington the president is expected to officially declare a national emergency next week to address the opioid crisis but the leadership of that initiative is now in question Republican Congressman Tom Reno of Pennsylvania was president Trump's pick to be the next White House drug czar now Marino has withdrawn his name from consideration this comes after an investigation by The Washington Post and 60 Minutes found that Marino pushed for legislation that would make it harder to rein in drug companies that manufacture opioid medications Joining me now is Lenny Bernstein a health and medicine reporter for The Washington Post he coauthored that initial investigation for the paper on how the drug industry weaken the power in this arena when he welcome to the take away I taught how you do and I'm fine thanks Lenny how did Tom Marino this congressman from Pennsylvania go from being the president's pick for drug czar to suddenly withdrawing his name imagine if you you would for one second Tom merino as drugs are going into a town hall meeting in southern Ohio or West Virginia where people have dozens and dozens of people have lost relatives to opioid overdoses and trying to credibly speak about controlling drugs in this country they would tear him apart if it couldn't happen and I think that was quickly realized take a minute let me in detail some of the allegations some of the findings both in your story and in the 60 Minutes profile that helped get us here sure the main thing that Marino did was at the behest of drug companies that did not like the law that was being used against them he carried a very onerous version of that law that made it almost impossible for the Da to use their most powerful weapon the ability to immediately suspend drug shipments against companies. Mostly distributors manufacturers in theory but mostly the very large companies that distribute drugs to the places where you and I consume them the idea here is it just made it easier for drug companies but mostly distributors as you say to flood the market with prescription opioid medications it made it easier for them to ignore the d.n.a. Under the law they are required to report suspicious orders of drugs and that's a great idea if a pharmacy is ordering $20000.00 pills in one month and 100000 pills the next month the d.a. Wants to know about it well the only way they're going to know about it is if the big distributor who takes the drugs there tells them about it because the data is immediately available to that distributor under the law they're required to do that but they didn't like it and they didn't want to have to do it and maybe it was because they were making so much money at filling these giant orders of drugs so the Da crack down on them they went and got the law changed but it raises the question of vetting in the 1st place and why the president or the Trump administration thought that Tom merino given his history working at the behest of the drug industry in this way was the right person for the job all through this story we have been astonished at what people didn't know this law passed both houses of Congress by unanimous consent no congressman no senator raised a fuss saying this is a really bad idea let's not do this President Obama signed this law and yet his staff at the o.m.b. And at o. And d.c.p. Said no one told us this was a bad idea we did have no idea this was sent up to us as a non-controversial bill I find it completely credible and yet at the same time amazing that Tom Marino wasn't vetted in this same way that the Trump administration didn't know that he. Carried this bill and that the d.a. Fought him for 2 and a half years before finally exceeding to their wishes what does this say then about the power of the drug industry whether it's manufacturers or distributors as the government the president and the nation searches for a solution to this crisis I'll just quote Joe run as you see the fellow who blew the whistle on all this he says that the drug industry has influence right now that hasn't been seen in American government I don't know how to measure that but I know that they have a tremendous amount of power and influence in this game Lenny Bernstein covering health and medicine for The Washington Post thanks a lot Lenny thank you and if you missed it you can find our hour long special on opioids in America and all of our continuing coverage of the Crisis that's at the takeaway dot org slash hope your. 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It's the takeaway I'm Tods Willich and this week's case in point involves judicial misconduct jury misconduct police misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct all of those grievances affected the fate of Rogers Le coz he was an 18 year old African-American man from New Orleans in 1905 Rogers like Oz was convicted of murdering a white police officer and 2 other people and given the death penalty he spent the last 2 decades in legal wrangling that made it all the way to the Supreme Court and earlier this year justices told the Louisiana Supreme Court to take another look at the case I spoke to Blith Tejpal and senior attorney at the capital appeals project who is now co-counsel on the causes case and also Andrew Cohen who you heard from senior editor there Marshall Project and author of Case in point about this series of alleged errors in poor judgments that resulted in the cars being sentenced to death after only a 3 day trial it's New Orleans you have a black defendant he gets a new attorney who is hired essentially for the cost of a used car who has no experience in a capital case there's very little pretrial work done on behalf of the defendant and the judge is sort of in a sour mood the judge in the defense lawyer don't get off to a good start there's a actually a contempt finding against the lawyer which probably chills his ability to to do his job there's a codefendant in the case who was also a cop in a cop killing case the codefendant basically points the finger at the defendant here and he really had no chance in the trial there was some self incriminating statements that he made after what he says was police brutality that wasn't explored before and during the trial and so you have what you usually have in these sorts of cases a quick conviction and a death sentence what about jury selection jury selection is where things really go off the rail one of the jurors who was asked the question Do you have any ties to law enforcement was a 911. Patcher who was working on the day of the shooting she does not disclose that fact during jury selection she attends the funeral of the dead cop the victim in the case she does not disclose that fact during jury selection another person who makes it on to the panel who sits in judgment on this defendant is a long time police officer he's been on a related force or I guess a police force in the neighborhood or in the area for over 10 years he does not disclose that fact to the lawyers or to the judge when he is asked questions about his ties to law enforcement and finally another juror makes it onto the panel who had lost 2 siblings in a murder so ask yourself the question if you were ever a capital defendant in a case involving a dead police officer would you want to people with such close ties to law enforcement to sit on your panel of course not and the fact that they lied to get on the panel they failed or refused to disclose that information is jury misconduct and I think is strong case for a new trial let me also just now briefly tell you about the judge the judge in the case was had problems because he had signed a warrant if you will allowing the murder weapon to leave a police locker in the hands of a police officer who reportedly then gave it to the codefendant in the case the cop who we think or some people think actually did the shooting so you have a judge who is a witness who basically allows the potential murder weapon to get into the hands of a codefendant who then denies that he signed this order and then believes that none of this is grounds for recusal none of it is even grounds to allow the defense to make a recusal motion because the judge doesn't tell the defense lawyers what's happening Blake is this a classic case of incompetent counsel it seems like a case that would have been right for a mistrial certainly it is a classic case of incompetent counsel when you have someone who has absolutely no experience doing capital cases and really little experience and to. Eneral with murder cases you know talking about jury selection this was someone who didn't even understand how to do why dear jury selection for a capital case and asked a friend of his to do it for him who was unrelated to the case jury selection took 3 hours and I believe the attorney who did it said at the beginning to the jurors the defense attorney has asked me to do this I don't know why but I said yes and then he left immediately after jury selection and then by his we go over the long history of this case after the conviction after the criminal part this case has gone in and out of Appeals and in and out of the courts for many years help us understand why Mr Le cause was convicted in 1905 he filed a direct appeal with the Louisiana Supreme Court and he lost there it wasn't until 2008 that he started sort of his post conviction proceedings which is in front of the same judge that presided over his trial we filed in 2008 a motion to recuse that judge but unfortunately the recusal proceedings took a couple of years finally the judge was recused from the case and we had an ad hoc judge put on it and a new trial was actually granted in 2015 on the issue of jury misconduct but then the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal which is the court of appeal here in Louisiana reversed that it then went up to the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Supreme Court denied relief in December of last year and that's when we took cert to the u.s. Supreme Court and it was this month that the u.s. Supreme Court granted cert and sent it back to the Louisiana Supreme Court and now that the Supreme Court has sent it back down what might this mean for Mr look at. This crime was committed with a 9 millimeter gun that was never recovered the police department in New Orleans realized very quickly that the codefendant in this case who was a New Orleans police officer had obtained. Guns from the evidence and property room she obtained a 9 millimeter gun from a court order that appeared to be signed by the very judge who is hearing our case that judge was approached by internal affairs officers on multiple occasions and asked to give a statement asked if handwriting exemplars there was an investigation into this and the judge sat on this trial of Rogers the cas and said nothing we don't need to prove in this case that the judge was actually biased but simply that the probability of bias is too high to be constitutionally tolerable and we believe that it is. Andrew we've talked about so many of the twists and turns in this case dating all the way back to 1905 is there a broader policy implication in your view here I think the broader policy implication is just the failure to acknowledge a mistake the failure to acknowledge what is not a close call here and to me one of the larger implications here is that it took this long to get the u.s. Supreme Court involved and I'm not sure this case is over I'm not sure that the Louisiana Supreme Court is going to be so willing to follow the spirit in the letter of what the u.s. Supreme Court has essentially asked it to do it wouldn't surprise me if the state courts that have basically denied this man relief for decades continue to try to do so for a few more years the case of Roger like has convicted in 1905 of a triple murder in New Orleans headed back to Louisiana after a decision by the u.s. Supreme Court Andrew Cohen senior editor at the Marshall Project author of Case in point thanks Andrew my pleasure and Caplan senior attorney at the capital appeals project thanks to you thanks. For. 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Welcome back to the takeaway I'm Tods Well like when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963 African-Americans own less than one percent of the total wealth in the United States 154 years later that number has barely changed white families have 13 times the net wealth held by black families that's according to the survey of consumer finances in 20131 proposal for fixing this huge wealth gap black owned banks by investing in them African-Americans keep money within their own community and the idea goes back centuries Mercer broader on is associate professor of law at the University of Georgia her new book is The Color of Money black banks and the racial wealth gap in the book she explores the wealth gap and the dilemmas of black banking back to the Freedman's Bank created after the Civil War the freedoms bank was the only sort of relic of Reconstruction Era reformers efforts to help defeat slaves that that survived to get some you know capital some stake in the lands that they had been working for centuries and was the only bank ever created by Congress for private citizens and it was created as a savings bank so that feat you know they weren't going to get land but they would get a savings bank and they could deposit money in there and buy land and so it seemed that it would be supported by the full faith and credit of the government that would be backed by the Treasury it was not the bank failed disastrously it wiped out 60 percent of the feet slave savings Well how long was it then before there was another real effort to form black banks and to consolidate black capital has it was it was decades later I mean it was funny right there was this dual and the fact of the Freedmen's Bank One is that there's a slack of trust of banking institutions but the other is propaganda efforts of the Freedmen's bank really and impressed upon the black population that banking and savings account was the way to wealth it's decades later black communities across the south. Are saying we need our own banks Jim Crow segregation was rampant blacks could not invest in white institutions and so we're going to create our own and these banks were you know quite successful and robust and led to this you know heyday of black making between 191-1930 so during this era there were hundreds of black banks formed all across the country in the segregated black communities and so this was the height of segregation and it was also the height of black banking and a real renaissance in community building in these black spaces all those banks were so successful a myriad the injustice of segregation why didn't they flourish past the 1930 s. . Because you can't it's a crude people and bar them from real sort of the actual sort of mainstream arteries of capital and it just doesn't work so they were successful in drawing in deposits but they were never able to do the magic of banking and so the mechanism was broken because of segregation because of Jim Crow and because of widespread exclusion from Commerce toward the end of the civil rights era President Richard Nixon Republican was a big advocate of black making as well really tried to promote it but he seemed to believe in it to an extent talk about Richard Nixon and how he viewed black banking as a Nixon is it's a fascinating and ironic twist to this black banking saga which is that his response to black power is black capitalism when Nixon meant by black capitalism is Ok we're not going to integrate we're not going to give reparations with work with the black power groups were demanding We're going to give you black capitalism you are going to own the businesses of the ghetto and you're going to just you know use the rules of capitalism to build wealth and so he gives you know very weak by the way support to these black banks and black businesses in the ghetto he puts you know some government deposits in these black banks he does the s.b.a. Loans which you know the Supreme Court finds later to be a discrimination to to white affirms he starts affirmative action so this is a whole bundle of black capitalism responses there was no capital black capitalism there was no real state support of these industries but the thing with black capitalism is that it was incredibly successful politically and it also ends up leading to the sort of libertarian free market idea and we're not going to help these communities we're just going to allow them to compete in the free market and what I point out in the book is actually that's only applied to black spaces because the way that the other you know surrounding areas outside of the black ghetto had gained their wealth is through these government programs that have been ongoing from the. New deal until the sixty's and now the blacks were saying Ok Well we want to part of this you know capital credit structure Nixon said No pointed to the free markets and sort of wish the communities luck Well I want to talk about the state of black banking today because it was just about a year ago you know we covered on this show the bank black movement which took off on social media and elsewhere to almost overnight with that movement a $1000000.00 in new deposits in black banks and since then estimated $60000000.00 into black banks because of the movement has it been a big success and what does it say about the overall health of black banks today I mean look this is industry that was decimated by the financial crisis there were over 50 black banks before 2008 now they're about 20 most of them are still kind of limping along this is not an industry that's robust and part of it is because you know the way the banking works you really need a strong capital base and most of these banks serve a community it still suffers from concentrated poverty is still 30 years 40 years post civil rights is still segregated mainly it's the mechanism of banking is not going to save these communities I get the urge for bank black you know I deposit my money in a black on bank I get that urge and I think we need to be supporting these institutions because they're the only ones really committed to closing this wealth gap but they can't be the only one sitting in the room they can't be the only ones doing it there has been this I think myth that the problems of the black community are just problems of free markets right that they're you know low wealth communities because of lack of initiative by blacks or you know family values and all of this language that blames the lack of wealth on the black community itself and if there's any myth that I want to dispel it's that is not the cause the cause of the wealth gap is structural policies that we have made through banking through credit through redlining through Jim Crow and institutional racism that has created. Wealth Gap and when it was time to pay attention to it you know in the late sixty's and until now a lot of times white policymakers responded with free market responses this is how we've dealt with segregation in the ghetto and concentrated poverty is all we'll give you this micro lending program will give you a community bank and this is not just Nixon This is Reagan and Clinton and Obama and Trump you know every policy makers response to you know these pockets of concentrated poverty is small banking Yes Bank block for sure but I just want for this time you know instead of just relying on black banks that we all sort of wake up and say this is not just their problem the book is The Color of Money black banks and the racial wealth gap measures abroad Iran is associate professor of law at the University of Georgia thank you so much for being here thank you so much for having me. And today we have some sad news to leave you with for fans of the cult hit Trailer Park Boys John Don's worth otherwise known as Sunnyvale trailer park supervisor Jim lay He died yesterday he was 71 years old Dun's Worth had a long career on stage in Canada and then he hit it big when Trailer Park Boys became an instant binge Classic his character Mr Leahy and his beloved Randy battled over 11 seasons in multiple films with Ricky Julian bubbles and of course Takeaway is supported by. Offering marketing solutions for business. Presentations manuals and more. Staples it's. Our public. Support for Alaska Public Media comes from attorney Anthony banker of the banker Law Group Alaskan lawyers helping injured Alaskans learn more at 2222999 or banker Law dot com are your ducks in a row estate plans are more than matters of money and inheritance they can guide your future health decisions and provide special instructions for loved ones in your care put your mind at ease by getting your ducks in a row today order your free planned giving guide from Alaska Public Media call Gretchen Klein at 5508435 or email legacy at Alaska public dot org k s k Anchorage life informed this is a last page like present in North Korea today on the world. I'm Marco Werman president drops threats to bomb North Korea they sound new to us but in Pyongyang from a North Korean perspective successive American presidents have threatened bombing campaigns against North Korea Trump is only the most recent also the story of the ruthless American spy who helped shape the Korean War through people out of airplanes push them out of boats to shoot out with some of his own intelligence people who were reluctant to go to North Korea because they kept on a Plus just how advanced is the scanning tag keeping our seaports safe you can actually tell the difference between a Coke and a Diet Coke in the box and you can also detect exactly where that is in the container that's all coming up today here on the world. B.b.c. News in Montgomery the u.s. Backed Syrian Democratic causes of retaken Rock have from Islamic state John who proclaimed this city their capital flags at the Kurdish and Arab alliance are flying over public buildings Paula Adams reports that. The 4 month battle for Iraq is all but over and the victors are celebrating Rocco was the I asked capital and the place where attacks in the West were planned and foreign hostages murdered the group now controls just a handful of towns along the Euphrates Valley either side of the Syrian Iraqi border the caliphates days are certainly numbered but that doesn't mean that this particular brand of violent jihad is and has been defeated and you know as John just blocked the latest version of President Trump travel ban hours before it was due to come into and thanked the proposals targeted the citizens of 6 mainly Muslim countries North Korea and some Venezuelan officials the judge at a federal court in Hawaii said the ban had the same defects as the previous ones arguing that it didn't show the nationals of the targeted countries posed a threat terms of.