The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

Two men in Arizona had trials, were found guilty in state court, appealed, ultimately lost again, and landed on death row. But after each of their cases underwent a post-conviction review, things got interesting and escalated all the way to federal court. Dr. Jules Epstein, Professor of Law and the Director of Advocacy Programs at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, offers his take on a rec...

Inflation continues to rise. When can we expect it to slow down? And what about the dreaded economic "r" word, recession? Could one be looming in the not-too-distant future? Philadelphia economist David Fiorenza is back to break down the biggest economic stories of the week and what they mean to you and me. Oh, and try not to choke on those year-to-year profit numbers for oil companies. 

In 2021, breaches in proctored online exams rose by more than 6%. So what does that mean? Are students suddenly cheating in school a lot more than they have, or is something else to blame? And what should be done to address these problems? We asked Louise Krmpotic, Vice President of educational enterprise for DigitalEd, a company that works with colleges and universities around the world to improv...

If we couldn't trust the integrity of our elections, what else would be left for us to believe in when it comes to the American political system? At one point in time, a question like this might have seemed overly dramatic, but these days, the issue is becoming more and more urgent, especially in very tight, competitive races. Dr. Craig Green, a professor of law at Temple University, shares his th...

It takes a lot of money to buy a sports team. Sure, owners have a lot of money - mostly from business dealings - but where does that money come from? What’s keeping those businesses afloat? Henry Abbott manages the website True Hoop, and he’s been following money in pro sports for years, so it was no surprise to him that when sanctions started coming down on Russian elites in the aftermath of the...

Remember early last year when stocks like Gamestop and AMC went through the roof, powered by people from the subreddit Wall Street Bets? Meme stocks and retail investors sticking it to hedge funds were the biggest stories in the world for a few months, but what happened when the hype died down? We wanted to revisit what happened, see if it is still happening, and ask if there have been any ripple...

Is the media biased? Allegations of political bias happen every day just about everywhere you look, but there are other examples of bias that are worth a hard look as well -- like how Black and white people are often portrayed in similar crime stories. We wanted to take a closer look at implicit bias, what it looks like, and why it happens, so we called Timothy Welbeck, a civil rights attorney and...

Hourly earnings are up over 5% from a year ago, payrolls are up nearly 400k in May, and leisure and hospitality are leading the way in jobs added -- more really good news for regular people in this economy. Philadelphia economist David Fiorenza is back to break down the biggest economic stories of the week and what they mean for you and me.

Will it ever end? In a matter of days - sometimes hours, it feels like - gas prices jump. Then they go up again, and again, and again… How long will this surge at the pump last? Buckle in, says Dr. Scott Jackson, a former senior research fellow at DuPont who has spent most of his career in chemical engineering and the oil industry. Despite envisioning a future where gas prices eventually start to...

In the immediate aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine, there were feelings of fear, outrage, and uncertainty around the world. Three months later, are we paying as much attention to the conflict as we should be? Dr. Melissa Chakars chairs the history department at Saint Joseph's University, and is an expert in Eurasian history with a focus on Russia. She explains why we shouldn't look away from wh...

What happens in someone's brain when they're freestyling or doing improv comedy? Anthony Veneziale - a Philadelphia native who started Freestyle Love Supreme with Lin-Manuel Miranda - has actually been studying that, and teaching others how to harness the skills of freestyle for their everyday lives through FLS Academy . He breaks down the neuroscience for us, along with some history of hip-hop, f...

With apologies to Josh Lyman, the secret plan to fight inflation isn't that secret after all: raise interest rates. The Federal Reserve has already raised interest rates a couple of times this year, and more rate hikes are on the horizon. So what else happens when rates go up? Will the Fed's actions result in any other real impacts on regular Americans? What does it mean for people buying or selli...

We hear a lot about companies trying to combat biases in the workplace in respect to gender, race, and sexual orientation. But what about class? How do class biases influence decisions that are made in the business world? TEDx speaker and Ascension Worldwide founder CJ Gross has written a new book - "What's Your Zip Code Story?" - that explores this subject, and examines the way that our class aff...

The jobless claims numbers paint a picture of an incredibly healthy worker economy. But what should you expect from second quarter GDP? Why are so many people focused on predicting a recession? The Jersey Shore is gearing up for a big summer -- we talk about what that could mean for the regional economy. And what could cancelling student debt mean for a generation of people saddled with tremendous...

America has experienced yet another mass school shooting, this one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Every time this happens, people ask why it happens so much in the United States compared to other countries. Why does the gun culture in the United States and access to guns seem immune from legislative regulation, even after mass shootings? Why does it seem like nothing ever changes, no ma...

19 children and 2 adults were shot and killed in a horrendous school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It is horrific. It is senseless. It is the most recent in a long list of school shootings in America. This country continues to accept that this just happens here. And as a result, we have young children trying to process fears and problems that adults can’t or won’t address. How can we help our childre...

Judges are a critical part of a system designed to provide accountability and justice. But what happens when a judge needs to be held accountable? What happens when harassment or discrimination takes place inside the judicial system? These are important questions that in some cases don't really have satisfying answers, but there is legislation proposed that would help hold federal judges accountab...

There are a lot of tools in the tool chest to fight COVID-19 and other respiratory ailments, but one that doesn’t get talked about enough is significantly improving the air quality in buildings. We wanted to find out how you improve a building's air quality and how hard it is to do so we asked Dr. Bryan Cummings to come on the podcast. Dr. Cummings is a research scientist at Drexel University who...

Inflation is high, and interest rates have followed suit. Taken together, those factors usually signal that stagflation could be looming. But with unemployment at historic lows in the United States, just how much are we at risk? When it comes to the national debt and national deficit, the Biden Administration actually seems to be making progress. How does this affect our everyday lives? Plus, Memo...

Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent every day. From self driving cars to machines that solve logic puzzles, AI can be a very good thing for society. But there is always that nagging worry of disaster scenarios we see depicted in books and movies where computers and machines overtake humanity. Is something like that really possible? What is the current state of AI? And what...

Where does monkeypox come from? What are the symptoms? How does it spread? These are some of the questions now getting asked in the wake of new monkeypox cases popping up around the world, including the United States. While monkeypox isn’t as contagious as other viruses, like COVID-19 or smallpox, La Salle University Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Brian DeHaven cautions it can still be “very s...

The US is experiencing a significant and massively disruptive shortage of baby formula. It started because of several factors, says Dr. Nilofar Varzgani, assistant professor of business systems and analytics at La Salle University. One of them was the recall of formula and shuttering of a major Abbott production plant in Michigan. Another reason: the concentration of power in the baby formula indu...

There has been a lot of discussion about transgender athletes in recent months, from Lia Thomas’s success as a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, to state legislatures working overtime to keep transgender kids off the field and the court. Sometimes it seems like much of the discussion is more about the politics than the people who are actually affected. We wanted to talk about transgender...

There was a lot of concern at the outset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine about the possibility that this conflict would lead to the use of a nuclear weapon. That hasn't happened, but is the danger still there? What would happen if Russia used a nuke, and how would that escalate? We asked Dr. Amy Nelson, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution, a nonpro...

As the great Brian Dawkins once said, "Ray spits the truth." For 53 years, Ray Didinger has been an authority on Philadelphia sports, especially the Eagles. He has been a newspaper writer, radio host, television analyst NFL Films producer, author, and even playwright. He has won countless awards, including being recognized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Didinger announced he is deciding to reti...