What A Day

Reflecting upon President Biden’s missed July 4th vaccination goals, we talked to epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner Dr. Abdul El-Sayed about the spread of the Delta variant and Republican vaccination hesitancy. We also discussed concerns of a potential resurgence of COVID-19 when a partially-vaccinated America returns to indoor, crowded spaces this fall and winter. And in headl...

The Supreme Court affirmed two provisions of an Arizona law that restricted voting rights, yesterday. One would void ballots from citizens who voted in the wrong precinct, and the other would restrict voters from having their ballots delivered to a polling station by a third party. The justices also overturned a California law requiring charities to disclose the identities of their major donors, c...

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court set Bill Cosby free on a technicality after he served part of his sentence for three counts of sexual assault. Back in 2005, when he was a local DA and before he was Trump’s defense lawyer, attorney Bruce Castor promised Cosby that nothing he said in a deposition for a civil case would be used against him in a criminal proceeding, and honoring that promise meant Cosby...

Intense heat waves in the Pacific Northwest are causing heavy power demands and rolling blackouts. Unprecedented rainfall in the Midwest has caused flooding, which politicians have blamed on a lack of spending on proper infrastructure. Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a bill to establish a House committee that will investigate the January 6 Capitol riot. The committee will have 13 members, but it's...

The Delta variant of coronavirus has been detected in 92 countries, leading to lockdowns and the reintroduction of limitations on border crossing. Additionally, researchers in India have identified a variant of the Delta variant they're calling Delta Plus, though it's so far unknown whether it's any more transmissible than the original variant. Mixing and matching the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZene...

A 12-story residential building collapsed in Miami last week, resulting in the deaths of at least 9 people, with more than 150 people still missing. An engineering report from 2018 found major structural damage to the building, and it was supposed to undergo repairs this year. There’s a climate change connection, too, with some suggesting that rising temperatures and sea levels might have accelera...

President Biden announced a new $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that will be primarily funded through heightened IRS efforts to reduce tax evasion by corporations and the wealthy. Human infrastructure spending, which covers things like childcare, education, and clean energy, is missing from the deal and would need to be part of a second bill passed through reconciliation without Re...

The Supreme Court ruled that President Biden had the authority to remove the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who was appointed by the former Trump administration. Other SCOTUS rulings from yesterday protected a high school cheerleader's free speech on Snapchat, barred a union from organizing workers at their worksites, and banned police from entering homes without a warrant to arrest m...

The vote to open a debate about the For The People Act, which would make it easier to vote, strengthen campaign finance rules, and end partisan gerrymandering, was blocked in the Senate yesterday with all 50 Republicans united against it. With moderate Democrats like Manchin and Sinema refusing to budge on the filibuster, the future of voting rights is uncertain. We spoke with Crooked Media's Poli...

New York City holds its mayoral primary, today, one of the highest profile elections since the presidential election and a super visible test of ranked-choice voting. Closing messages in the last days touched on police violence, public safety, economic recovery and more. We spoke with Emma Fitzsimmons, City Hall Bureau Chief for the New York Times, about the four leading candidates, and we intervi...

Juneteenth is coming up this Saturday, and Congress just passed legislation to make it a federal holiday. We talk to UCLA Professor Brenda Stevenson about the historic legacy of June 19th, and why it deserved to become a national holiday now more than ever. Plus, we hear about how some people plan to celebrate this weekend. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday .

President Biden had his first one-on-one meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Geneva, yesterday. The leaders discussed recent cyberattacks and the state of human rights in their respective countries ... and allegedly, things stayed basically cordial. Next week, the Senate has a scheduled vote on voting rights legislation, and a memo put out yesterday by Senator Joe Manchin laid out the...

The main electric grid operator in Texas, ERCOT, is dropping the ball on providing services again, this time during extreme heat. It’s asking residents to conserve electricity until Friday to keep up with demand. Approximately 12 gigawatts of generating capacity was offline on Monday, and the electricity demand by residents came dangerously close to exceeding the grid's capacity. The U.S. death to...

President Biden meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow in Geneva for the final stop as part of his overseas trip as President. We spoke with Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration and a host of "Pod Save the World," to talk about the takeaways from Biden's trip and what to expect for Biden and Putin's meeting. And in headlines: a driver kills...

The G7 summit ended on Sunday, with President Joe Biden and several other world leaders pledging to send one billion COVID vaccines to poorer nations and endorsing the idea of a global minimum tax. Today, Biden is set to meet with NATO leaders before meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.  Yesterday in Israel, the Knesset voted to approve the new coalition government which includes ei...

On Saturday, four Republican-led states will pull out of the federal government’s pandemic-related unemployment benefits program early. Congress hasn't moved on the wage issue at all, either, with Senate GOP members this week blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act. An extreme drought is affecting the West, with the entirety of Oregon, California, Utah, and Nevada under drought conditions, along with p...

President Biden is expected to announce a deal today where the U.S. will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID vaccine and send them to 100 countries that are short on shots. This is great, but those doses alone won't help us achieve global vaccine equity. We discuss what else is being done and what more can be done. Biden's attempt to agree on an infrastructure bill with Senate Repub...

A more infectious coronavirus variant called the Delta variant is becoming the dominant strain in the UK, accounting for more than 60 percent of new infections there. We discuss what we know and don't know about the variant, which has yet to take hold in a major way in the U.S. International law enforcement agencies arrested more than 800 people in a sting operation that had criminals sending mess...

Several social programs launched during the pandemic are set to expire soon, including an eviction moratorium and enhanced unemployment benefits. Federal student loan payments will be due again starting October 1st, with no movement from the White House yet towards cancellation.  The Supreme Court ruled that immigrants who came to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons can’t apply for a green card if t...

The twelve year tenure of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may come to an end as early as this week if the broad coalition of officials that are set to replace him can hold together and form a new government. We spoke with Haggai Matar, the executive director of +972 magazine in Israel about the coalition, which includes representatives from eight ideologically distinct parties...

President Biden had hoped to have 70 percent of adults in the U.S. vaccinated with at least one shot by Independence Day, and we’re close to hitting that goal. Biden also elaborated on his plan to share 80 million vaccine doses by the end of the month, with the first batch of doses headed for South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.  This was another banner week in the w...

Yesterday, the U.S., Canada, and a number of European countries called for a ceasefire in Ethiopia, where government forces have targeted an ethnic group called Tigrayans with horrific attacks that have been described with elements of a "genocide." Reports have suggested that millions of people have been displaced with an unknown number killed. We spoke with Nima Elbagir, a senior international co...

As most of the U.S. prepares to reopen by the end of this month, a World Health Organization official warned, “It would be a monumental error for any country to think the danger has passed.” Peru recently reported that COVID deaths in the country are almost triple than what was previously reported. Plus, the WHO moved to rename variants using letters of the Greek alphabet in part to remove the sti...

The past year and more were filled with extreme ups and extreme downs, and as we reflect on that time, we’re looking back on some conversations that moved us, informed us, and made us smile. Today’s show includes interviews with 6th grade special education teacher Monice Seward, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Sana Khan, a student of public health at the University of Arizona. For a transcri...

Congressional Republicans have countered President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion infrastructure proposal with their own plan and a lower price tag: $928 billion. It came as Biden is expected to unveil a $6 trillion budget on Friday, too. We breakdown what’s in the GOP version of the infrastructure bill, and where this puts negotiations. The filibuster is coming into play as Senate Republicans vow to...