From the secretive court that oversees intelligence gathering Morning Edition from n.p.r. News. This hour a whistleblower complaint against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I'm David Greene and I'm now well King a former investment manager says the church misuse $100000000000.00 that was meant for charity. Also the shutdown of the Boeing 737 Max jet could slow overall economic growth and research shows a racial divide in the opportunity gap will go to Albany New York where kids with the best chances live in a few select neighborhoods It's Wednesday December 18th singer Billy Eilish is 18 today. And the news is next. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington on core of the Coleman today lawmakers in the House of Representatives will take up the impeachment case against President Donald Trump N.P.R.'s Brian Naylor reports the lawmakers will debate 2 articles of impeachment the articles charged President Trump with abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress each was approved on a party line vote last week by the House Judiciary Committee and it's expected today's vote will also closely follow party lines Democrats say the president be trade the nation's trust by enlisting a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections and that his defiance of House subpoenas for information and testimony constituted an assault on the impeachment clause itself President Trump fired off an angry letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the eve of the vote calling the impeachment effort an illegal partisan attempted coup and telling Palosi quote you view democracy as your enemy Brian Naylor n.p.r. News Washington meanwhile thousands of people held rallies on Tuesday to call for the president's impeachment activists gathered in cities from New York to California and in towns from Alaska to Florida the League of Women Voters has filed a federal lawsuit to try to stop the potential removal of more than 200000 names from voter rolls in Wisconsin from member station. In Milwaukee reports the league claims voters did not get enough notice a state judge in Wisconsin has ruled that election officials should within 30 days remove about 234000 names from the role of registered voters but the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin argues the removal would violate federal due process projections one of the league's attorneys Cecilia Hagel era of the Washington d.c. Based Fair Elections Center says the group is asking for a slow down and obey Election Commission have an opportunity to notify voters eg Bakley of what's going to happen to help. We need you to respond to a conservative legal group that pushed for the voter name removal says is trying to protect the integrity of Wisconsin the watchman's for n.p.r. News I'm Chuck Walky in Haiti there have been months of protests against government corruption and P.R.'s Carrie Kahn reports from Port au Prince Why Haitians are very angry people are upset here about corruption specifically with regards to billions of dollars opponents of the current president. Says was stolen mismanagement just gone that money was part of a low interest program by Venezuela that provided all its ideological allies and neighbors and there's just no accounting for that money and Haiti is unable to repay the billions now that press N.P.R.'s Carrie Kahn despite massive protests Haitian president says he won't step down before the end of his term in 2022. You're listening to n.p.r. News. Studies suggest the world gender gap won't be closed for another century New statistics show that 8 years sooner than the last estimate Teri Schultz reports the most progress is expected in education the World Economic Forum the predicts gender equality worldwide will only be achieved another 99.5 years the 14th Global Gender Gap Report surveys more than 150 countries ranking member quality of participation and opportunities in politics the economy and education as well as by health and survival rates Iceland takes the top spot for the 11th year in a row followed by Norway Finland Sweden and Nicaragua the Us ranks 53rd despite more women holding high profile political positions around the world equality in politics is the worst performing category meanwhile is projected to take just a dozen years to reach gender equality in education and 40 countries have already achieved that for n.p.r. News I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels Southwest Airlines says it's going to ground its Boeing $737.00 Max planes until at least next April that comes after Boeing announced that it would suspend production of the troubled just liner until at least January Southwest decision will affect about 300 of its flights every day out of some 4000 daily flights the National Weather Service warns a vigorous storm system will dip from the Great Lakes into the northeast this week that will set up several days of frigid temperatures and snow in New England across the country a storm system is approaching the West Coast that region will get heavy rain with a chance for flash flooding I'm core of a Coleman n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from I drive providing cloud backup full system back up and on site I drive appliance to protect P.C.'s Macs and servers from data loss due to crashes and ransomware and I drive dot com slash n.p.r. And Americans for the Arts. Good morning The time is 6 minutes after 6 o'clock on this Wednesday morning December 18th your tune indicates you radio and N.P.R.'s Morning Edition as always thanks so much for joining us Time now for our 1st look at the weather forecast with support provided by big-O. Tires and service Spencer from Cortez and wind from Durango are pleased to support quality programming on the great you begin to service a team you can trust that a mostly sunny start to the day with increasing clouds expected this afternoon they will reach low thirty's across the San Juans the rest of the region will top out in the low forty's so it should be mostly cloudy with a go to springs and dropping into the single digits all the rest of the case of the listening area settles into the teens Thursday should turn mostly sunny just a few degrees cooler than today's Friday and the weekend will see the continuation of mostly sunny days and clear nights the slow trend bringing highs into the forty's and low fifty's by Sunday the extended forecast is calling for next week to start out cloudy in advance of another winter weather system which could impact the region through much of Christmas week. N.P.R.'s Morning Edition continues on gays u.-t. Public Radio and stay tuned coming up at the bottom of the hour we've got 90 seconds world news headlines with b.b.c. Top line. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Joel King in Washington d.c. And I'm David Greene in Culver City California a secret federal court has emerged from the dark to publicly slam the f.b.i. And Justice Department the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance or phase the court has to sign off if say the f.b.i. Thinks someone may be a foreign terrorist or spy and they want to wiretap them or carry out surveillance on u.s. Soil recently the inspector general of the Justice Department strongly criticized the f.b.i. For how it handled the investigation into President Trump's campaign and Russia now the inspector found no political bias against Trump from the agency but he also said the f.b.i. And the Justice Department mishandled surveillance on a former campaign aide to Carter page they didn't disclose information to the court that made page less suspicious now the phase the court itself has demanded that the f.b.i. Explain its mistakes and show how it will fix the problems Mary McCord is a former top Justice Department official she served during both the Obama and Trump administrations and was partly involved in the files applications we're talking about she is now a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and joins us this morning thanks for coming on the program my pleasure happy to be here I just want to start with you know your former role you were assistant acting assistant attorney general for national security played some role in the 1st 2 phase applications during this f.b.i. Investigation I mean you're actually named to me in the inspector general report so how do you defend the department's actions that are in question here well I think if you know a kept careful read of the report shows that most of the blame at least that the inspector general is placing on the department is. With respect to a failure of the f.b.i. To apprise Department of Justice attorneys those in the chain of review phase applications of all of the pertinent facts and relevant facts that should have been provided and not only to the Department Justice officials but also many facts that should have been provided to the court and so. And I'm not here to you know trash the f.b.i. There are very good people excellent people there who try very hard every day and are very careful every day to make sure that their face applications are 100 percent accurate but obviously the inspector general's report found a number of deficiencies in this particular fuzzy application and so I'm not at all surprised that the chief judge of the FISA court has asked for the government to answer to those to those misrepresentations and those omissions and explain what intends to do to rectify the situation so you're saying that if employees of the f.b.i. Were were trying to look at quarter page for example they might not have been totally forthcoming about things that for example may have seemed less suspicious about this former Trump campaign aide that information never even made it into the department that like the level where you were working that's correct and you know it's similar phys cation is not that much different than say an application for a search warrant or an application for it Title 3 warrant in normal criminal case in the process is different the court it goes to is different because it's a face a court but the feds the court is made up of Article 3 judges the same judges that sit in criminal cases and any time that Department of Justice lawyer or a prosecutor is going to be submitting an application for any type of search or surveillance to any court they are reliant on information provided by law enforcement sometimes that might be local law enforcement sometimes it might be the f.b.i. Sometimes it might be other law enforcement and so the in this case the Bureau of course the. The strength of the application is dependent on the information provided by the Bureau to the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice of course is the only entity that can make applications to the FISA court for these orders so it's a a union a yang relationship the f.b.i. Needs the department the department relies on the f.b.i. And the face a court relies of course on both and the phase a court now saying that they can't necessarily rely on on the f.b.i. Or the department to be truthful even in future applications So what needs to be done here what needs to be fixed Well I think that what you're going to see and we've already seen out of director read a you know 40 different recommendations or 40 different things he intends to change about the process I think we're going to see a much more rigorous review of the factual accuracy of every assertion made in a phased application so there's a procedure that the f.b.i. Uses and it's a creation of something called a woods file named after the f.b.i. Assistant director who came up with this notion which is a file where every single factual assertion is stored it's where any kind of derogatory or negative information is stored any kind of information as you indicated earlier David that would tend to suggest that maybe the target of the application is less culpable and so I think what we'll see is a much more rigorous of review to make sure that everything that is in that would file 1st of all that everything's in there and that everything in that woods file that needs to be presented the Department of Justice and needs to be presented to the FISA court will in fact be presented very McCord was a long time Justice Department official now with Georgetown University Law Center thanks so much for time this morning really appreciate it you're welcome Boeing's decision to suspend production of its 737 Max airplanes has hit the airline industry but it probably won't stop there Boeing is this country's most important industrial company so important that the decision to. Making the plane is expected to cut into u.s. Economic growth on the whole N.P.R.'s gyms are only has the story in October Boeing c.e.o. Dennis Mueller Emberg appeared before a congressional committee to apologize for the 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people and he said government officials should keep the plane on the ground as long as necessary regulators around the world should rigorously scrutinize the max and only approve its return to flight when they are completely satisfied with its safety and that's what regulators around the world have done refusing to say when the 737 Max will fly again throughout this crisis Boeing has continued to build the planes and parked them in giant facilities in Texas and Washington state now it's shutting down production Boeing is just one company but it's an enormously important one it's the biggest u.s. Export are and the 7 $37.00 Max is by far its biggest selling plane says Gregory Dak of Oxford Economics Boeing is a big company and the 737 is the largest share of its production of of aircraft 80 percent of the planes produced by Boeing are the 737 doco says because of the decision to stop making the plane u.s. Economic growth will tumble over the next few months at an annual rate of half a percentage point it's a view shared by other economists the impact will be so great because Boeing has tentacles throughout the manufacturing sector says aviation consultant Ross aimer there are hundreds of sub contractors who supply engines and other parts to Boeing they're going to be affected that includes big companies like General Electric which makes engines for the $737.00 and spirit Aviation Services which makes assorted aircraft parts they. And many smaller companies will now have to decide how long they can afford to keep their factories open and their workers working as for Boeing it says it won't layoff anyone with the job market so tight the company is reluctant to see skilled workers walk out the door but the company has lost billions of dollars since the plane was grounded and Gregory doco says it could be forced to cut jobs as the months drag on some of these employees will be geared towards other parts of Boeing's production chain but that being said I wouldn't be surprised that as we move into 2020 there will be some layoffs announced that says that could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs next year alone none of this includes the potential impact on Boeing's customers the airlines both domestic and foreign carriers have had to reduce flights in recent months because they haven't been able to fly their 737 Maxes and that's cut into the money they make one of the worst hit has been Southwest which operates War of the plane than any other carrier yesterday Southwest said it would have to cancel more flights at least through April Jim n.p.r. News New York. In Pakistan a country long dominated by its armed forces a military dictator has been sentenced to death for high treason for suspending the constitution but the government says the special court that sentenced the country's former president General Pervez Musharraf is void N.P.R.'s Dia deed has more from Lahore the verdict was unheard of in Pakistan and for many unimaginable in a country with full military generals had ruled the country for nearly half of its 70 year is a mirage as an analyst and deputy director of South Asia for Amnesty International we spoke by phone it's actually a huge huge to the idea all anyone senior and beyond full says let's learn official military rule. Being elder council or in this way the president of the punishment isn't likely to be carried out Musharraf was tried in absentia because he now lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates he resigned from power in 2008 a year after he suspended the constitution and imposed a state of emergency since then Pakistan's been ruled by civilians but the army is still considered the country's most powerful institution and is quite close to the current government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan in fact the attorney general told local media that he thinks a special court doesn't have legitimacy it was created at the instigation of the government that was in power in 2013 the attorney general statement echoes the military spokesman who tweeted that Julie go process was ignored this is Amar Duranty a political analyst and add on day for the judiciary to dig a body or it. Is huge because despite all stand to both spending of democracy the army is perceived. With the army and government on one side the judiciary is pushing back that's a role it's stepped into in the past few years as it tries to demonstrate is independent of both this is what Raj The analyst again you can hear the tick talk of his car into Qaeda in the back row. And you can see the judiciary saying no one is above the role we will hold powerful accountable he says the judiciary isn't going to take orders and that's a challenge to those who have always seen the military as beyond accounts did the n.p.r. News local. This is n.p.r. News. What documents released through. The flawed strategy. Question what we were misled the public. Of The Washington Post. Gross for. Public radio as today at 6. Considered and. Provided by pipe. Goods stocked with holiday gifts from. The clothing and accessories. Shop they located in the heart of downtown. Pine needle dot com. As we move toward the. Project. Expand. To continue. Support provided by crisp a team. And their team at. Brokerage pleased to announce their. Campaign with the support philosophy. Holmes integrity leads. They can be reached. $2222.00 and their. Homes dot com. Station and from Wells Fargo Wells Fargo is committed 1000000000 dollars through 2025 to help develop housing affordability solutions for transitional housing rentals and homeownership learn more at Wells Fargo dot com slash impact from Subaru with their Subaru share the love event now through January 2nd details on the not for profit organizations that it supports are at Subaru dot com slash share love it's what makes Subaru Subaru and from pro Quest creators of pro Quest one academic unifying journals ebooks videos and dissertations across disciplines in one mobile enabled interface dot com slash go slash n.p.r. . It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm David Greene and I'm Noel King good morning if you want to know how a kid is going to do as an adult look at the neighborhood they grow up in schools safety access to healthy food all of it matters new research shows a big racial divide in almost every major metropolitan area in the United States most white children live in neighborhoods with lots of opportunity most black and Hispanic children live in neighborhoods with low opportunity and often these neighborhoods are just a few blocks away from each other N.P.R.'s Pam Fessler went to Albany New York where the disparity is among the widest in the country drive around the arbor Hill and West Hill neighborhoods of Albany and you can't help but notice all the boarded up homes they have big red signs with large Access slashed across the middle put there by the fire department signal to let them know on Case of Emergency. The structure could fall today Jonathan Jones is Albany's commissioner of recreation youth and Workforce Services he's trying to help turn things around here by pushing more investments into the area like building a new park with colorful playground equipment and what used to be an empty lot now we have this open space for young people you can work out there in the back in the little kids can play but it's a very small step in what promises to be a major challenge new data collected by researchers at Brandeis University show that arbor Hill is one of the lowest opportunity neighborhoods in the country for kids a quarter of the buildings are abandoned green space is limited unemployment and poverty are high and 97 percent of the children who live here are black or Hispanic we keep track. Of those. Victims so far in our former gang member just in Gaddi says the consequences 1st hand he's with an anti-violence group called snug which stands for should never use guns a telling on his office wall shows it's been only 14 days since the last shoe. In here which happened right near the new park Gattis group is trying to keep neighborhood kids from becoming the next to to stick someone you know to go just a mother at home with 3 or 4. The mother has to work you know she's by herself sometimes these kids are left alone workers direct them into activities like sports to keep them busy but recreational outlets here are limited even Albany's Mayor Kathy Sheehan who recently moved to Arbor Hill knows these neighborhoods aren't the best for kids not necessarily because they're safe but because of the message that they send the message of disinvestment the message that nobody cares yet when they in high and it's in the middle of December. The city is using the Brandeis research to help guide its response among other things it has new programs for teens about 3 dozen are meeting after school trying to come up with a theme for a party and a case of a party and get in there eventually as many as are sounds chaotic but they're learning how to organize events they also have internships at local businesses and talk a lot about careers and their futures 15 year old days are right wants to go into marketing She says the program helps but the real eye opener for her came when she attended private school for a year and a wealthier part of town she says she was one of the few African-Americans and only poor girl in our class and was constantly amazed by the things she saw and once my friend's house and she has floor heaters and like there's floor heaters that's a thing you can heat your floor right quickly realized that just a few blocks from her home there was a whole other world is one thing to be like oh you know we don't have that opportunity but then to see how many opportunities people actually have I'm like well you guys are really fortunate really lucky and it's me realize how much people in my community don't have those things in fact the new research which looks at every u.s. Census track finds that while the Albany area. Overall is among the best in the nation when it comes to child opportunity those opportunities are concentrated in a few select neighborhoods. And the. Seniors come from around the city to a daycare program in the basement of a church in Albany's Buckingham Lake area it's a far cry from Arbor Hill the church is surrounded by neat single family homes 20 percent of households here are headed by a single parent compared to 86 percent in Arbor Hill the median income is 3 times higher and most of the children are white Harris Oberlander says the area was a great place to raise his kids because it had so many resources there were Catholic churches and Jewish temples and you know all sorts of services all the outpatient clinics for the local hospitals are lined up along some of the boulevards there he said he and his wife also had easy access to grocery stores good preschool programs and most importantly a network of close friends we literally raised our children with different people babysitting from one another it's the social fabric of the neighborhood that helped us raise our children Oberlander knows how important that is because he works in Albany's poorest neighborhoods where the social fabric is often frayed he runs Trinity Alliance a nonprofit that provides food medical assistance and other services more readily available on his side of town Brandeis Professor Dolores Acevedo Garcia says the pattern in Albany can be found across the country and the way that we find by the sort of thing we see of really vast inequities between black and white children as well as between white and Hispanic said then and it's not surprising such disparities igs. But that they're so pervasive and don't seem to be getting better Acevedo Garcia says and equities tend to perpetuate themselves children from low opportunity areas face more problems as adults in terms of economic success and health life expectancy an arbor Hill is 7 and a half years less than in Buckingham lake. I'll stop her from. City Commissioner Jones pulls up to 2 story brick house on the edge of arbor Hill this red house is like the Mayor Jones and his family have moved here and are renovating a once abandoned building as part of the effort to revitalize the area Albany's not only upgrading parks and offering more activities for kids but providing grants to turn vacant buildings into affordable housing it's a long haul but Jones hopes his children and others growing up here will one day have opportunities much more in line with the rest of the region Pam Fessler n.p.r. News Albany New York and just a quick note the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation one of the funders of the Brandeis research is a financial supporter of n.p.r. This is n.p.r. News. A historic day in Congress the full House of Representatives debates articles of impeachment against President Trump as in past impeachment inquiries technology has played a leading role a received text messages on a 3 way what's up next conversation with investors both groups on the I'm Ari Shapiro tech and impeachment this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. And that's one of the many stories in features in it that it headlines from around the nation and the world that you can hear right here on case you tea as we bring you 2 hours of all things considered it gets into way at 4 o'clock right now we're coming up on 630 and b.b.c. Topline Good morning from the b.b.c. In London I'm repute joins with b.b.c. Top line a few stories we're following this hour there's a shocking report out this morning about the activities of some United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti research there by a British university reveals that u.n. Peacekeepers fathered hundreds of babies before abandoning the young mothers to lives of poverty the b.b.c. Sanjay Gupta The problem was so white spread that these children of absent fathers had locals name that the minister after the afternoon for the u.n. Mission to Haiti research has not instances of goods as young as 11 being fullest trait 6 The fooled all for a few callings the u.n. Has condemned what it called the egregious behavior of some of its peacekeepers in Haiti elsewhere China sees Taiwan as a rebel region that must be reunited one day with the mainland by force if necessary that explains today's request by Taiwan's foreign minister Joseph move a file that u.s. Support to provide defense calls for Taiwan to Seoul the Taiwanese able to what they found itself in a whistle to engage with Taiwan in the military training or military cooperation and staying in East Asia no agreement has been reached in talks between the u.s. And South Korea on how much Seoul should pay to host more than $28000.00 u.s. Troops present Trump's trip. Requesting a 5 fold increase in South Korea's contribution to $5000000000.00 for the talks are expected on this next month in London on repeat germs at the b.b.c. N.P.R.'s Morning Edition continues in support is provided by Adam's plastic surgery offering cosmetic surgery and injectables as well as and and reconstructive surgery they can be found online at Adams plastic surgery dot com and reached by phone at 505-327-1754 extension 8 new study shows that marijuana remains the most commonly used drug by adolescents but as N.P.R.'s reader chatter Gee reports use of other drugs like prescription painkillers and alcohol continues to fall nearly 36 percent of 12th graders and 30 percent of 11th graders use marijuana and the boss Tio and daily use of the drug by 8 than 10th graders has gone up since $20000.00 but use of other drugs by teenagers is declining according to the new report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse misuse of the opioid painkiller Oxycontin by 12 creators has gone down over the past 5 years with only 1.7 percent reporting using it in 21000 misuse of vi Kadin by both 10th and 12th graders has also dropped to the lowest level in 5 yes use of cigarettes and alcohol also continue to decline. N.p.r. News temperatures are soaring across Australia the country recorded its hottest day on record yesterday at 105 degrees Fahrenheit Meteorologists say the heat will intensify over the coming days and cool bit by Friday in addition to the higher temperatures strong winds are also fanning bush bush fires rather around the country including more than $100.00 in New South Wales Carol prices are trading lower this morning down boats extensive a percent at 60 dollars 50 $0.09 a barrel I'm Janine Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Zoom Zoom offers cloud video conferencing online meetings and a video conference room solution in one platform featuring digital video and audio with screen sharing account registration and more at Zoom dot us from Indeed with its skills tests built for employers who want to see a deeper sense of the person behind the resume learn more it indeed dot com slash n.p.r. And from the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm David Greene in Culver City California and I will King in Washington d.c. Good morning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints whose members are known as Mormons is facing allegations of financial fraud a former investment manager for the church has filed a complaint with the i.r.s. He says the institution holds and misuses charitable contributions close to $100000000000.00 Lee Hale is reporting on the story from member station in Salt Lake City good morning Lee good morning before we get into the specific allegations this is a big deal because donations are very important to this church right yeah I mean the church is Chrysler is saying it's like most churches are a lot of churches I should say asked for 10 percent of all income of their members be paid in typing the interesting thing is that leaves most that money for facilities missions mentoring work what's left over they invest and that's where David Nielsen comes in Ok so who is David Nielsen and what is he alleging So he's the whistleblower who filed the complaint to the i.r.s. And he's a former employee of the church as nonprofit investment arm that's called peak advisors and he says peak would receive about a $1000000000.00 of excess tithing a year and over time and through some clearly successful investment strategy they ended up with $100000000000.00 The church has not confirmed that figure they don't have to by law but Nielsen argues that peak this investment arm they're out of compliance for their tax exempt status because they receive this tithing money they invest it they haven't made any charitable donations from that money no no charitable contributions and so instead they've used it to bail out for profit companies the church also owns How are Mormons reacting to these allegations about misuse of money that they've donated. Yeah when it comes to type the paying members of the church I think most of them will likely agree with church leadership and the official response from the church has been that the vast majority of tithing is used for the purpose of helping meeting the needs of the church and church he has also said that the claims being circulated are based on narrow perspective and limited information they've even defended their right to invest the money invoking the parable the talents thing is the sound doctrine on financial principle topped by Jesus in the New Testament other members of the church have a different reaction they've referred to this as hoarding and there are lips that this 100000000000 for investments isn't being used in religious or humanitarian efforts what is the parable of the talents that you mention to their. Basically Jesus is instructing. These disciples to go and basically magnify what they've been given you know to kind of grow what they've been given and basically that this is an example of them growing the money they perceive investing Yeah Ok I think now if these claims do turn out to be true what are the consequences for the church potentially Well I spoke with a law professor Sam Bronson Loyola University in Chicago who's an expert on this kind of stuff and he says if the whistleblower is correct that no money has gone to charity then this investment arm of the church risks losing its tax exempt status but importantly he says that the church itself is not risk the church itself is not at risk why well because they have the separate investment arm which caused the problem but is also going to shield them from potential fallout Lee Hill with member station k.q.e.d. Our thanks so much for your porting thank you so cops have long had dogs and also robots to help them do their jobs well now they have a robot dog robotics company Boston Dynamics is loaning out its dog like robot named Spot to police departments beginning with the Massachusetts State Police this is raising questions about the future of. Lease robotics and what kind of oversight there should be for member station you r l e Germanic has a story spot is a robot that gets a reaction oh my goodness it's kind of scary looking actually it was like aliens you know physical brains to me and awfully there's a lot of always going to those are people in Boston watching videos of spot opening doors and climbing over snow banks. Spot kind of looks like a headless dog a metal one that has 4 legs a long arm and a $360.00 degree camera Massachusetts State Police became the 1st law enforcement agency in the country to get access to spot earlier this year with a 3 month loan alone was revealed in documents requested by the a.c.l.u. Of Massachusetts while in this brand new robot to police Michael Perry is Vice President of Business Development at Boston Dynamics we've tried to make the robot as customizable as possible so that our customers can do exploration and really truly understand what the value of a legate robot is in the real world police of long use robots when dealing with potential bombs or hostage situations places where they wouldn't want to send human and state police troopers were giddy about getting to use the more nimble spot spots police handlers gave specific feedback to Boston Dynamics spotted great walking over big dirt mounds but not so great dealing with tall grass into real life police calls it checked out a suspicious briefcase and surveilled a barricaded suspect both Boston Dynamics and state police are quick to say that spot wasn't and won't be weaponized but it's not unheard of that appears to be the 1st time police have ever used a robot bomb on u.s. Soil as n.b.c. News reported in 2016 tells police that a bomb disposal robot armed with explosives to kill a sniper that sniper had earlier killed 5 police officers Boston Dynamics is a lease agreement won't allow clients to use spot to physically harm or intimidate people. But that doesn't quote concerns from people like Kate Crockford director of the technology for liberty program at the a.c.l.u. Of Massachusetts the secrecy surrounding all that is very concerning Crockford wants to see a policy from state police or even a state law about the use of robotics and they want more openness about the program the technology that can be used in concert with a robotic system like this is almost limitless in terms of what kinds of surveillance and potentially even weaponization operations may be allowed even some law enforcement officers see the need for more transparency about how police are using robots the Orioles is the executive director of the National tactical officers association and a former Swat commander he gets that people want to know more about how robots are used law enforcement shutdowns and tactical secrecy with the public's right to know how their police departments are working these tools are used in critical incidents the primary purpose of it is to gather information to help him making decisions that can ultimately save lives he noted police still have to abide by the law if you need a warrant to send a person into someone's home you also need one to send a robot but judging from the trooper's excitement over the robot dog Spot will probably be on a few police departments wish lists for n.p.r. News I'm Eleanor Manning and about that. Let's look ahead to all things considered later today Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams says he is voting to impeach the president here how that is being viewed in the new district which President Trump carried in 26 tell us more speaker to play n.p.r. For your member station. This is n.p.r. News. I'm Tanya mostly I'm Jeremy Hobson for only the 4th time in history the House of Representatives gets set to vote on articles of impeachment against the president the vote is expected to fall largely along party lines with Democrats voting to approve and Republican standing by the president we'll have that and the rest of the day's news next time on here and. They do for now as N.P.R.'s here and now they gets under way today at noon following the Wednesday morning music planned support for the weather forecast as provided by Tomsic physical therapy wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and happy new year a regional physical therapy clinic dedicated to returning clients to an active Colorado lifestyle in 2020 because life has no off season or information is it p.t. Dot com and at 970-259-0574 we're looking at a mostly sunny start to the day with increasing clouds expected this afternoon today's highs will reach the low thirty's across the San Juans well the rest of the region will top out in the low forty's that should be mostly cloudy but those springs and Silverton will drop into the single digits while the rest of the case should be listening area will settle into the teens tomorrow should turn mostly sunny skies will be a few degrees cooler than today's then Friday in the weekend will see mostly sunny days in clear nights along the slow warming trend bringing highs into the forty's and low fifty's by Sunday then things start to change the extended forecast is calling for next week to start out cloudy in advance of another winter weather system which may impact the region too much of Christmas week. N.P.R.'s Morning Edition resumes on k. Shooty and stay tuned for a look at the community calendar that's coming your way after next break at 649. Well King in Las Vegas someone is still putting tiny hats on pigeons bird lovers are worried a rescue group has been holding stakeouts the group said they nabbed a bird in a red had earlier this week they called him cluck Norris the had appeared to be glued to his head so they planned to take him to the vet yesterday they caught another one believe the kid's still loose wearing a pink cat is Calamity Jane It's Morning Edition support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from the ring foundation in support of N.P.R.'s continued mission to create a more informed public one challenge than invigorated by a deeper understanding of events ideas and cultures from the Andrew w. Mellon foundation guided by the belief that the arts and humanities are essential to the well being of diverse and democratic societies learn more at Melun dot org And from the e.c.m. C. Foundation at e.c. Mc Foundation dot org. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Noel King and I'm David Greene So this is what it sounded like when police stormed a college campus in India's capital Delhi on Sunday. Then hunting him down must see. They were firing tear gas at protesters this uprising began after India's parliament passed a bill that provides a path to citizenship for persecuted minorities from Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan but it does not apply to Muslims this legislation has made its way to India's Supreme Court which today refused to strike it down critics of the bill say this is part of the government's agenda to marginalize that religious test being particularly directed at one community the Muslims who are the only community excluded from the purview of the bill has sent alarm bells ringing me everywhere because the b j p Party the ruling party has had a long history obviously I'm a phobia and demonising in Beijing the Muslim community that is the voice of an Indian member of parliament Sha she tour and he's speaking there about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political party he told me he believes Modi is government is finally trying to pursue its agenda then this 2nd term it looks like they have. Gone in against Muslims mills. And the problem of the so this should be Amendment Bill is compounded by the declared intention to introduce a national register of citizens now unfortunately that requires people to be able to demonstrate the Rainman where they were born but the vast majority of Indians particularly poor Indian slum dweller marginalized people or people and so on I have not even had birth certificates they were not commonplace to well into the eighty's and ninety's she wrote a series of things triggered off by this wholly unnecessary bill which was purely in pursuance of a bigoted ideological agenda but in Islam a full recruiting policy. Modi tweeted this week that this is this act is to help those who have faced years of persecution outside of India and have no other place to go except India the argument being that many Muslims in neighboring countries do have a place to go where they are welcomed but the problem is that's not true I mean there are Muslims in Muslim countries been persecuted so it doesn't mean that Muslim countries only persecute non Muslims they also sometimes end up for individual reasons reasons of conscience or political opinion or of religious ideology and of persecuting people and we've individually got as other Muslims It sounds like you see a lot at stake here oh this is a fundamental challenge as I said in Parliament we've already seen of partition in the soil of India what you are doing is nothing less than the partition of the so of India. There's a sense of agony and betrayal that goes to the very harsh of how Indians feel about their country and in many ways it's turning out to be a galvanizing moment for but are you worried that you're fighting against the popular will know not purely because of the media people anti do not forget it's a passing off 37 percent of the electorate it's a fragmentation of the opposition in a 1st bought the post system that has given them 67 percent of the seats in parliament but we only have 37 percent of the vote and if the result of what they're trying to do to the country the other opposition parties think their differences and come together. If we can do all of this then I think we might well be able to reverse the tide but the next election is 4 and a half years we that's a tour thank you so much for your time really appreciate it nice talking to you thank you let's talk. And this is Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm David Greene and I'm Noel King good morning the time is 649 you're tuned indication Public Radio and N.P.R.'s Morning Edition on this Wednesday December 18th. Support for programming is provided by Wendy most State Farm agent with insurance and financial service products for Colorado and New Mexico offering a customized holistic approach to protecting property assets in income when the most state farm in the north Maine district on 1000 in Maine Avenue in Durango online at insured by most dot com except going to take a look at the community calendar but starting with this programming note 1st the House of Representatives is debating and voting on articles of impeachment against President Trump today and he will be carrying in P.R.'s live video feed that's on our website. That should begin this morning at approximately 7 o'clock. The annual project Merry Christmas gift wrapping station is set up next to j.c. Penney at the Durango mall that's going on through Christmas Eve project Merry Christmas dot com as Pacific hours of operation plant a tree holiday gift certificates are now available at Sam one national forest offices across the region more information is that fs u.s.d.a. . Slash San Juan a holiday rug sale to benefit the shanta foundation takes place through the end of the year at the Durango rug company on main avenues proceeds go to support relief efforts in me and more Shanta foundation. As more information up next as the Marketplace Morning Report was support provided by Maria's bookshop an independent family owned book store. For 35 years shopping locally for loved ones supports the community and Maria's offers books unique gift cards and more they're open every day from 9 to 9 in historic downtown Durango and at Maria's Book Shop dot com. Major banking regulator wants to know what will climate change do to banks and insurance companies Marketplace Morning Report is supported by McDermott will end Emery providing clarity on the regulatory sprint to coordinated care updates on changes to Stark anti kickback and more at m.-w. Dot com slash Sprint and by Fidelity Investments taking a personalized approach to helping clients grow preserve and manage their wealth learn more infidelity dot com slash wealth but ality brokerage services l.l.c. I'm David Brancaccio No less than the central bank of Britain is said today it will begin stress tests to predict the financial impact of climate change on big banks and insurers at a news conference the head of the Bank of England Mark Carney said he wants companies to carefully consider their exposure to this the B.B.C.'s Victoria Craig has more from London the U.K.'s Central Bank says this new set of stress tests will be the most rigorous in the world it will put financial firms under a series of hypothetical climate scenarios like whether nations together reach their Paris climate agreement targets that it says will test their resilience to climate policy changes it will also gauge how exposed companies are to the risks of climate variations banks and lenders are already tested annually on their ability to withstand severe economic shocks and ensure they have enough cash on hand to cope with those kinds of events the Bank of England says then these tests will focus more on sizing up the adjustments required for companies to respond to climate risks both financial and physical the bank says already about 10 percent of the value of mortgage exposures in England is on properties in flood risk zones some banks it says also have large exposures to regions like Southeast Asia which is particularly vulnerable to the changing climate in London I'm the B.B.C.'s Victoria Craig for Marketplace and here's a number 105.6. Fahrenheit that was the average temperature in Australia today one o 5.6 hottest on record there are more than a 1000 wildfires burning in the state of New South Wales alone so market numbers footsie in London is up to 10 percent here though as in Vienna as Dick futures are each up slightly about a 10 percentage Congress has been voting this week on a number of bans on Chinese made equipment electric buses rail cars drones telecom gear but how clear and present is the threat to national security Here's Marketplace's Scott Tong The ban on Chinese drones would apply to the Pentagon and as part of a defense bill headed to the White House the fear is these drones could take photos or g.p.s. Coordinates of secret say u.s. Intelligence facilities drone data links to phones and servers and could fall in the wrong hands says Lanier Watkins cyber security scientist at Johns Hopkins any equipment that has access to total or the data if it's Chinese branded there should be 0 suspicion because he says Beijing is not an ally the same argument applies to Chinese telecom gear from Huawei whose machines would get ripped out of u.s. Networks under a separate bill but some argue that bans are overreactions when there's no specific evidence of spying then get injures studies drones at Bard College I would hope that there is more information on what the actual technical concerns are because I see so much disagreement or as the targeted Chinese firms put it show us the smoking gun I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace Marketplace Morning Report is supported by black line helping over 200000 accountants at midsize and large enterprises achieve visibility control and automation for their financial flows blackline dot com because trust is in the balance and by a.d.p. Focused on transforming how work gets done with h.r. Talent Time benefits and payroll informed by data and design for people. Always designing for people. The country seems divided on the following question no I'm not ramping up for an impeachment story right at this 2nd the country also divides into people who would give a gag gift for the holiday and people who go all earnest with the presents they give one gag gift that really had legs or gills was that plastic fish trophy the singing bass George w. Bush had one former u.k. Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly got one they've been around for 20 years and it is a business story as we'll hear from the inventor of that novelty My name is Joe Cole Terry and if known for anything I guess I would be known for being the inventor of big mouth Billy Bass really was my wife's initial idea we were driving by a Bass Pro and she said about a fish on a plaque singing and we talked about you know singing taking to the river and that was hilarious. 2 to me about a year you know working with engineers a member I had the item up on the in Hong Kong I could hear all the customers were coming to see us and it was just it was just singing in the mouth was just moving it was wiggling and it was just Ok so I took it off the wall I took a train in the China met with the engineers you know it was my last day there is a can you make the head turn and then once they made the head turn it became the item that was. The surprise factor when it turned it was the whole key you got to get the joke in you know within the 1st 57 seconds you know so they don't walk away and so that's what we did with Billy Bass and it worked. It was for the biggest novelty items of all people talk about you know that Rock was miniscule compared to think about Billy Batson it was huge. Numbers but you know I had my 15 minutes of fame I was in The Wall Street Journal it was in People magazine but I tell people not a one hit wonder I've got other hits that you probably are familiar with. Dancing hamsters I had to have frogs and after a while it wasn't as an exciting thing that really hurt retailers I'm Eckard drugs went out of business k.b. Toys been out of business 2 years in a row I lost my biggest customer and you know a lot of retailers change your focus and didn't want to do novelty items anymore so the business changed. Had. Hound dogs. Knocking 56 percent ahead movie house and I had 68 special they look great they sounded great they had Elvis is voice and I just didn't sell one of. His just don't know it's funny because my background got an m.b.a. And you know I just I didn't really want to use that I run to make products I mean I tell people I make toys for a living I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do. Pellets Arry was a long time vice president of product development for a Gemini industries based in Texas he's now creating products for a company called locations and he referred to the late Gary doll in an advertising copywriter who made millions selling at rocks for $4.00 each in New York I'm David Brancaccio this morning. From a.p.m. American Public Media. Support for gays he's provided by Rothschild general dentistry as part of their full complement of innovative offerings Rothchild general dentistry now supplies cutting edge solutions to identify and relieve range of sleep disorders information about scheduling sleep assessments is at 970-382-7780 at sleep solutions Durango dot com This is case you. He u.t. Farmington u.s.w. Flora Vista and springs we're coming up on 7 o'clock Morning Edition continues with support provided by Oxford financial planners Steve Pease and Dave Smiley certified financial planning professionals are committed to creating comprehensive long term relationships to assist their clients in meeting retirement goals Oxford financial planners at their new location Suite 323 in the West building in Durango online at offered f.p. Net.