Flu season starts officially on Sunday, and while the government has been urging schools to close only as a last resort in the battle against H1N1, there have already been at least 187 school closures since the school year started last month. Ross Hammond from the Brookings Institution discusses his new report that reveals that the true cost to the nation of closing schools and day care centers could be as much as $47 billion. Kathleen Murphy is a registered nurse and the health services coordinator for the Milwaukee Public Schools; she tells us what her school district is doing to prevent closings. We also speak to Dr. Faheem Younus, the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the Upper Chesapeake Health Center in Bel Air, Md., who has some practical advice for parents who can't take the day off of work.
"Approximately 75-80% [of students] eat two meals a day at school, so right there, when schools close, there's an impact on their nutritional status and a family's ability to meet that child's needs."
—Kathleen Murphy, registered nurse and health services coordinator for the Milwaukee Public Schools, on a side effect of closing schools in case of an H1N1 outbreak
We preview the weekend's college football matchups with our favorite sports contributor — and former University of Rhode Island linebacker — Ibrahim Abdul-Matin.
The hot topic on our show and across the country this week was "Driving While Distracted." Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said almost 6,000 deaths last year were connected to driver distraction. They proposed some solutions, including a push for states to pass their own laws. You’ve been sending us your own ideas on this problem, which we cover this morning.
One listener, Anthony from Watchung, N.J., emailed us to say: “There is a BlackBerry application called "Color ID" which flashes a sequence of colors. I use this for important people who send messages. If it's cyan and purple, I know I need to check the message right away and look for a safe place to do so. Otherwise, I ignore the message.”
More than a hundred members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are meeting in Copenhagen to take a look at the final four presentations from four global cities that each want to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Representatives from Madrid, Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro will each be making 45-minute presentations to the IOC members; the committee will vote in secret later this afternoon.
We talk first with Alex Capstick, BBC sports correspondent, on the scene in Copenhagen. Then it's back to our own Femi Oke, who reports that Chicago and Rio are really the only two contenders, and both cities are ready to talk a big game to go for Olympic gold. And finally, to get the mood in Chicago, we turn to Lynette Kalsnes, arts and culture reporter with WBEZ.
"The Twilight Zone" turns 50 years old today, and we take a look back through the episodes that made this one of the most influential television series – science-fiction or otherwise – in history. With Rod Serling's distinctive narration alongside mysterious plot lines that made the hairs stand up on viewers' necks, the series was and remains in a class of its own. Are you ready to enter ... the Twilight Zone?
[The trailer for the new Cohen Brothers' movie, "A Serious Man"]
It's a good weekend to go to the movies, according to The New York Time's film critic (and co-host of "At the Movies") A.O. Scott and Newsday's Rafer Guzman. They review "Zombieland," which stars Woody Harrelson; Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, "Whip It"; Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story"; Ricky Gervais' "The Invention of Lying"; and The Coen Brothers' latest, "A Serious Man."
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its monthly unemployment numbers this morning. To tell us what the numbers mean, we’ve got University of Maryland economist and business professor Peter Morici. We’ll also talk with those whose jobs and businesses are represented in these numbers. Michael Powell, the president and founder of Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., joins us to tell us how his business is making it through the recession. We also speak with Sandy Cole, an unemployed office manager who lives in St. Joseph, Mich., and is currently looking for work.
Todd Zwillich, our Washington correspondent, talks about the affordability of the health care reform bill about to leave the Senate Finance Committee and also cracks the Sideshow File to discuss bad manners in Congress. Republicans are demanding an apology from Democrats in general and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) specifically. On Tuesday, Grayson said on the House floor that Republicans' plan for health care reform consists of two points: "Don't get sick," and if you do, "Die quickly." He apologized, but it wasn't the kind of apology House Republicans had asked for.
Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, joins us after spending all day yesterday at the Senate Finance Committee's markup meeting on Sen. Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) health care reform bill.
Cable giant Comcast is reportedly in negotiations with GE to purchase their television and movies division, NBC Universal. Joining us to talk about this is New York Times finance reporter Louise Story.
Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin looks at some of the big NFL games coming up this weekend, including a battle between the team with the league's top-rated offense, the Saint Louis Saints, and Rex Ryan's all-out blitzing New York Jets defense.
Aid groups are rushing into Indonesia on the heels of a second earthquake that shook the country yesterday. Indonesia's Health Ministry says nearly 3,000 people may still be trapped under rubble after a powerful earthquake two days ago. Aid organizations are mobilizing a relief effort.
We speak with Bill Horan, the president of Operation Blessing International, about what his organization is seeing on the ground in Indonesia as relief efforts get underway in earnest after this week's earthquakes.
We then talk with Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist from the U.S. Geological Survey. After three earthquakes in three days in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, followed by tremors in California and Peru, we ask: How interrelated are all these seismological events?
Sarah Palin now stands victorious over a sinister array of dark conspiracies. We’re not talking about the media or liberals, though: Palin’s win is over best-selling author Dan Brown. Her still-unreleased memoir is now number one online. "Going Rogue: An American Life" sits atop the best-seller lists at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Motoko Rich covers the book business for The New York Times, and she tells us how important this is in the publishing world.
The U.S. and Iran have discussed uranium enrichment in meetings outside Geneva, and Iran has agreed to open its uranium enrichment plant to international inspection in the next two weeks. For the latest, we're joined by Steve Erlanger, Paris Bureau Chief for our partner The New York Times.
In 2002, teenaged William Kamkwamba had a vision in the very poor African nation of Malawi: A little bicycle generator that powers a light, if connected to a windmill, could allow him to read his schoolbooks at night. As he went further with his plans, he began to see how such a windmill might actually bring the 20th century to his own village. Out this week is "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," a book that tells Kamkwamba's story. We talked with William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, the book's co-authors.
“He didn’t have washers, so he would go collect bottle caps, beer bottle caps, in front of the bar and flatten them out and put a hole through the middle. He didn’t have a drill, so he would use a nail and heat it over his mom’s cooking fire, that he would bore holes through this plastic ... His cousin found a car battery so he was able to hook the windmill up to a car battery, charge it and then power four more bulbs which he ran through a circuit breaker system that he made out of nails and wire and a magnet that he busted out of a stereo speaker. And it worked.”
—Bryan Mealer, co-author of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” on how William made the windmill
Last night, David Letterman had a startling admission to his audience: that he had had sexual relationships with female staff members and was being extorted for it. Authories have arrested a suspect for the alleged extortion scheme but haven't released a name, though the AP reports that the suspect is Robert Halderman, a producer on CBS's show "48 Hours." We talk with our friend Delaina Dixon, TV blogger at DelainaDixon.com.
Watch his admission for yourself:
The DSM and Mental Health in America
Defining Normal After a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia, The Mayor of Oklahoma City, A New Kind of Commencement Speech
Lessons From a Female Union Electrician
Diplomatic Damage Caused by Drone Strikes, In Defense of the DSM-5, Bob Woodruff's Advice for New Grads
Defining Normal After a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia
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