Alex Goldmark

Last night at around 8:00 p.m. the "Joe Griffin," a 280-foot container boat, left Port Fourchoun, Louisiana for a fifty mile trip to the site of the collapsed Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

UPDATED 5:30 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark here picking up the evening duties. 

The big thing we have our eye on right now is the anonymously sourced reports from The Washington Post that the Times Square bomb plot may have international links. So far our sources (and most sources) are saying they can't confirm that, nor even comment on it. But as soon as more information becomes available, we'll be ready to share it with you. In the meantime, on the bomb plot, we're also looking into the elaborate CSI style investigation underway by the NYPD an FBI. 

Another segment in the works is likely to get you talking, well, at work. Do you know how much your co-workers make? Do you want to find out how you stack up to them? Well, stop wondering, because its only going to lead to heartbreak and frustration according to Beth Kobliner if you start to ask around. Luckily, there are other ways of find out your worth at work. So tune in tomorrow for that. 

Buried below the banner headlines of oil disasters and bomb plots is the tragic deluge in the American south. Tennessee has been hit terribly hard by rain in the past few days. We're going to find out the extent of the damage of the other environmental disaster in American right now. 

Oh, and we'll look back at the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings with archival audio. 

First, watch a little snippet of the throwdown in Kiev today; there is at least one fist fight, one smoke bomb, and several umbrellas being used to block hurled eggs. After taking in the vitriolic antics displayed by Ukraine's elected leaders you'll probably want to know why they are beating each other up with fists and farm products. It was spurred by a controversial deal, that passed by a narrow margin, to extend an agreement with Russia that gives their neighbor a naval base on the Dead Sea in exchange for discounted natural gas.

UPDATED 5:45 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here, excited about tomorrows show a full 12+ hours ahead of time. Here's why...

We had a good show going already (see below re: Detroit week, Supreme Court fun, and some exotic lunch plans) but we've added some solid international coverage. Former Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, will join us to look back on five years of democratic governance in Iraq, and to look ahead on the prospects for the intensifying war in Afghanistan.  

Our other international news highlight for tomorrow also has to do with repercussions of decisions made under the George W. Bush administration. At Guantanamo Bay, an Army judge will hear the case of the Canadian man Omar Khadr, who claimed he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The hearings could establish a precedent of the admissibility of confessions by detainees. We'll get an update from a reporter at the detention facility tomorrow morning. 

We also have an update on wind farm plans of the Massachusetts coast and on the political (and literal) egg throwing in Ukraine. 

UPDATED 7:15 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark here on the evening shift. 

All is well here with a few changes from Anna's post earlier.

For one, police have seized the computers of the Gizmodo blogger who published reports of a "lost" next generation iPhone. And the legal implications of this for journalists, including shield laws, have us debating way more aspects of this case over the cubicle walls than we'll have time for tomorrow. 

We're adding another angle to our coverage of Arizona's new immigration law. We'll hear from law professors who will explain how the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof have evolved over time, and where this new law fits. It won't be the first time a class of free and legal Americans will have to be able to prove their status in order to walk the streets of their city. 

And our man in DC, Todd Zwillich, is walking the halls of the Capitol right now, mic in hand, monitoring the preliminary votes and opening shenanigans in the financial regulation reform debate in the Senate. 

Yesterday, we talked about Google's emerging foreign policy, as it deals with take-down requests from governments around the world. Today, we speak to the executive who is in effect the company's "Secretary of State."

Last month Google said enough is enough and moved its search operations out of mainland China, causing noticeable diplomatic waves. Yesterday, the company took another step, revealing some of the extent of its foreign policy. It published this explanation of censorship requests from all the governments with whom they deal.

UPDATE 6:45 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here with the evening update as the sun sets and the news settles in. 

As the day rolled on we began to see more and more fertile ground for great conversation in the legacies of historic events (see original post below re: Mariel Boat lift and Dorothy Height). So we will explore how younger generations take lessons from the legacies of these past events. How soon is history forgotten and how does it live on in ways we don't always recognize. 

Another note on legacy, groundbreaking old school MC Guru died on Monday. We'll examine Guru's influence on hip hop (and Jazz)with Tricia Rose. 

And our partners WGBH along with The Christian Science Monitor have completed an investigative report on carbon offset programs. If you pay a company to plant a tree for you to offset the pollution caused by your lifestyle, you might want to tune in and hear how some offsetting operations aren't what they claim. 

And as Louise Story continues her downright outstanding investigative reporting on the suspect dealings at Goldman Sachs for our partner The New York Times and joins us tomorrow to discuss Goldman's earnings and its reaction to allegations of fraud. Good, hard news times as always, on The Takeaway. 

Yesterday, at several bus stations and other locations around Arizona, more than 800 law enforcement officials carried out the largest operation against human smuggling in ICE history. The targets were shuttle bus operations that allegedly carry illegal immigrants around the region and across the border. The tactic of targeting the networks of traffickers rather than carrying out workplace raids reveals a shift in strategy under Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Obama from the policies of the Bush era.

Today is tax day. (So go mail in your paperwork or file for an automatic extension, folks.) It's no surprise that today is the day Tea Party activists have chosen to rally, across the country, against what they call, unnecessary government largess. There will be hundreds of small rallies in cities from Walla Walla, Wash. to Niceville, Fla. They are all loosely related to the Tea Party Express, which arrives in Washington, D.C. at 11:00 a.m., revved up after a speech from Sarah Palin in Boston yesterday.

UPDATED 5:30 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here for the evening stretch. So far segments are swimming along smoothly and the sun is streaming in steadily to our WNYC office. Yes, that is cause for excessive alteration. Here are your updates to the plans for tomorrow's show.

While President Obama is meeting with world leaders in Washington about nuclear non-proliferation. The latest news is that Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are in talks about teaming up to come up with stronger sanctions. We'll talk about some of the dangers of a nukes tomorrow, specifically dirty bombs that could result in the excess nuclear materials from deactivated military arsenals. How dangerous is active non-proliferation in an age of terrorism? 

The White House has floated a new prospect as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court to fill the coming vacancy of Justice John Paul Stevens. We have our Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich looking into this previously under the radar federal judge from Montana. Who exactly is Sidney Thomas? And why is President Obama letting out an extra name now when some people expected a predictable nomination announcement?

Chinese exports are cheap, but it's not all lower wages or efficient production. The cost of exports has been held down in recent years because the Chinese government has pegged the Yuan to the dropping dollar. But that may be changing. Murmurs within the halls of China's central bank, and central government, are pointing to an announcement in the coming days that the Yuan may move to a more flexible exchange rate against the dollar. This has big implications for trade, for President Obama, and for American consumers. 

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is holding hearings today to ascertain who's to blame for the sub-prime lending mess. Yesterday they heard Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve say it wasn't him. At the same time Goldman Sachs issued a statement that they weren't responsible for the financial crisis by betting against their clients. So how do we get to the bottom of this mess?

UPDATED 5:30 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark here on the evening shift. 

We are continuing to watch news out of West Virginia where rescue operations to find four missing miners are halted. Though news is just hitting the wires now that progress is being made drilling ventilation holes to let out the toxic gas. So there might be news yet. We'll be on top of any developments tomorrow. 

Net neutrality and the FCC's plan to set the ground rules for the internet took a legal hit today. Tomorrow we'll explain the business implications of an internet potentially outside the regulatory authority of the FCC. And while we're at it, we'll try to find out what President Obama's FCC can do next, now that they've lost this court battle. 

The favorite segment for techies tomorrow, though, may turn out to be our business takeout, in which we'll consider the choice to buy your own cell phone tower. It's actually a lot like paying to bring bags on airplanes. If it doesn't make sense, we'll explain tomorrow. 

UPDATED 10:30 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here with a late night update. We're calling everyone we can in West Virginia about the deadly mine explosion that has killed seven and trapped nineteen miners. Tomorrow morning we'll have an update for you on the status of the trapped men and on the conditions that led to the disaster. 

We're also, watching, literally at this moment, the NCAA men's basketball finals. So you can count on a recap of the game, which so far is pretty exciting. We also want to find out how Butler's Cinderella run will benefit their bottom line - will Butler black replace Carolina blue in the cash cow color wheel of jerseys and college merchandise? 

We're also following a stories on Toyota, legalized marijuana and yes, Tiger Woods. So, its a good mix tomorrow. 

The NCAA final four begins on Sunday in Indianapolis. To get you ready for some great games we take a look at where great players come from. Several of the hotshots from Duke and Butler cut their teeth, not on the urban blacktop, but in the dirt roads of rural America. How common is this? Very! 

UPDATED 6:15 p.m

Alex Goldmark here picking up the evening shift. 

We're watching a few different stories in the running for tomorrow's show. First up, is a nagging curiosity we've had for a few days now. A smattering of local press a few days back labelled Memphis the hunger capital of America. We're finding out why Memphis stands out. 

It occured to us that if it is such an enormous undertaking to pull off the US census, what is it like in India where they have more than a billion people? Well it takes more than two million census workers for one. 

And we'll have  another installment of our value series with Farai Chideya looking at how the changing economy has changed people's moral outlook in some way. 

UPDATED 7:30 PM

Noel King, on The Takeaway’s evening shift, with a few stories we’re following for tomorrow.

Half of all babies born in developing nations today will live to be one hundred years old. We ask Duke University professor James Vaupel and documentarian Neenah Ellis to imagine a future where mid-life crises happen at fifty, “kids” move away from home at thirty and “teenage” rebellion lasts for two decades. Producer Chang Lin is combing our rolodex to try and find a centenarian.  

In Philadelphia flash mobs – a type of performance art where big groups of people meet up and do something in unison – have turned violent, forcing the city to enforce an existing curfew. What’s to blame? Teenage boredom? Or something deeper? New York Times reporter Ian Urbina has the story and Kevin Bethel from the Philadelphia Police force tells us how Philly PD is responding. And producer Arwa Gunja has booked a young pizza deliveryman from Philadelphia who was caught in one of the mobs.

Plus, Palestinian Islamic group Hamas has become suspicious of Facebook and Twitter, ex-Goldman Sachs’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s charitable donations have come under scrutiny and Takeaway producer Anna Sale, who has spent a week with a medical mission in Haiti, joins us with another report from her trip.

POSTED 12:30 p.m. Alex Goldmark here planning our next show. 

We are still quite shocked by The New York Times report on how the Vatican failed to defrock an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who sexually abused as many as 200 deaf boys. So we're looking into the reaction from Rev.. Murphy's old parish in Wisconsin. We're also checking in with a few reporters at the Vatican about how (or if) the Catholic Church is reacting.

When Pope Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he did not defrock a priest who allegedly molested as many as 200 deaf boys over the course of decades, according to records obtained by The New York Times. 

UPDATED 12:25 a.m.

Arwa Gunja here on the night shift.

It’s been nearly 12 hours since Alex checked in with you, and a lot has changed in the show. Most importantly, The New York Times is breaking a story (now up on its website) about a priest from Wisconsin who molested as many as 200 deaf boys. And though top Vatican officials, including the current Pope, knew about it, they did not defrock the priest. The Times says their “highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.” The reporter, Laurie Goodstein, joins us in the morning to give us the details of the astonishing case.

We’ll also be bringing you an interesting technology conversation. Has technology eliminated the element of surprise? With caller ID we know whose calling before we pick up, can get answers instantly on the internet, and know any and all details about basically everyone through social networking sites. Or does technology create more surprises than ever, because we never know what’s next?

And I’m just getting word from our Washington Correspondent, Todd Zwillich, that the Senate could be in session all night voting as the reconciliation process carries on. Will it all be over by morning? It's still uncertain, but we’ll find out.