Alex Goldmark

UPDATED 7:00 p.m. Arwa Gunja here on the night shift, putting the final touches on tomorrow's show. Takeaway producer Anna Sale is in Haiti all this week, and tomorrow she’ll talk about how local Haitians have been an extending a helping hand to those in need. She’s profiling a young Haitian man who has been regularly visiting a hospital to help an orphaned toddler  (whom he had never met before) badly injured after the earthquake.

We’ll also check in with Andrea Bernstein, the director of The Takeaway’s Transportation Nation project. She spoke with Ronald Simms, the deputy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It may come as a surprise that only a third of America’s neighborhoods are actually affordable when you factor in the cost of transportation.

And we’re still following the latest with Google’s pull out of mainland China. Tomorrow we’re asking listeners what is more important in THEIR lives: Google or China? If you look around your house, how many products are made in China? Which could you more easily give up? Leave a comment below or call in: 877-8-MY-TAKE (877-869-8253)

UPDATED 6:30 p.m.

Arwa Gunja here on the night shift.

Not much has changed for tomorrow’s show.  We learned this afternoon that Google has decided to shut down its operation in China. The company made this decision after it learned Gmail accounts were being hacked by the Chinese and after months of talks over China’s censorship rules. Internet users in China will now be redirected to the Hong Kong version of the search engine. Who wins and who loses in this deal? China is the largest and fastest-growing internet market, but Google is the most popular search engine. And what does this mean for China’s role as an emerging powerhouse in the global market?

We also take a look at disabled employees in the workforce. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is at 14 percent, compared to 10 percent in the general population. We’ll ask what can be done to narrow that gap.

UPDATED 7:25 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here.  

Now that the health care bill is out, we're put our man in Washington on the case. Todd Zwillich is hunting for changes in this, likely final, version of the legislation that might change your mind on reform, either in support or against it. He'll have the most persuasive pieces of the plan ready to go by tomorrow morning. 

A couple interesting stories out of the science section of The New York Times got our curiosity twitching. We'll bring you the connection between mummies in China and ancient dogs in the Middle East. They both reveal something about the roots of humanity - and how some of our historical assumptions might be wrong. 

We'll also talk with a young woman who rowed across the Atlantic, check in on the flooding in North Dakota and play a little movie trivia. It is Friday, after all. 

UPDATED: 8:10 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer, here on the evening shift. 

We continue to follow the developments in health care reform, clashes in Israel, and of course the NCAA tournament. Our curiosity was also piqued by a recent study on women of color and wealth. They found: 

"Single black and Hispanic women have one penny of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by their male counterparts and a tiny fraction of a penny for every dollar of wealth owned by white women."

We'll find out how bad it is, and why. Also as part of our DIY bailout series, we'll have some suggestions for building your own wealth. 

We'll also check in on the fiscal health of our nation as Moody's hints at lowering America's bond rating and the Federal Reserve plans to keep interest rates low based on moderate economic expectations.  

Posted 1:00 - On tomorrow's show: FCC national broadband plan; Border violence in Juarez, Mexico; The view from the stage at South by Southwest, and more ...

This Saturday night, boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao will defend his WBO Welterweight title in Texas. And his chances are pretty good. Meanwhile, back in his home country, the Philippines, he's chasing long shot chance to win another fight. He's running for political office. 

Governor David Paterson is under investigation for potentially misusing his power. A representative just resigned (after allegations that he groped a male staffer). Another representative has stepped down from his committee post because of an ethics investigation. And to top it all off, the state government seems paralyzed in the face of an upcoming budget deadline. But how bad is it really?

It may be a swing state, but Miami Herald columnist and author Carl Hiaasen says that if the nation's politics follow the same path as his home state of Florida, we all might as well move to the Bahamas. It's hard to argue against the assertion that Florida's political climate is getting weird — just this week, Governor Charlie Crist took a swipe at his competitor for senate Marco Rubio by accusing him of back-waxing. Hiaasen explains why Florida is on the cutting edge of political innovation when it comes to gall, graft and gripes. 

UPDATED: 8:00 p.m.  

Alex here on the night shift. 

Not much has changed. We're still eager to find out about Iran-Afghan relations and to check in on the status of aid getting to Haiti.So that's leading the show tomorrow. 

Though we did get curious once we dove in a little deeper into a study on Americans and retirement. It reveals another sector of society living hand to mouth in part because of the recession. Shockingly few American workers have saved for old age, which means that they are working longer and longer into their "golden" years. So what does that mean for the younger generation waiting to get into, and move up in, the workforce. By showtime tomorrow we will have a hopeful answer for you. 

And we'll eat some jellyfish live on air, because that is an environmentally friendly food. Tune in tomorrow to find out what other sumptuous meals are good for the planet, and what large rodent makes for a good chili! 

UPDATED 5:45 p.m.

Alex Goldmark here. 

We're monitoring the media blitz of Rep. Eric Massa tonight as he heads for the cable news channels to defend himself against ethics accusations. And also to throw a few more parting shots at President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. It's an inside story for Washington, but some valuable insights might come out on how work gets done in the Obama White House. Our partners at The New York Times are covering that here. 

Also, it is python hunting season in Florida. We'll bring you a sharp shooter. 

UPDATED: 5:15 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer, here. 

All is still rolling along smoothly today. We're still planning on covering the elections in Iraq, and to bring you a slew of entertainment and movie coverage tomorrow ahead of this weekend's Oscars. 

With American manufacturing taking an especially big hit this recession, we want to check in on some one-company towns around the country. We'll hear from the Mayors of three small towns that are having different experiences with plant shutdowns, cutbacks and similar dangers to their fragile economies. 

UPDATED 8:00 PM

Noel King here on the night shift.

The Gates Foundation has just released a survey of 40,000 public school teachers who shared their thoughts on how to improve our nation's schools. We'll be speaking Jane Hannaway from the Urban Institute who says that right now, it's just impossible to determine what makes a good teacher. Producer Marine Olivesi spent the afternoon trying to track down teachers to join us for their thoughts on improving education - and ended up with dozens of interested folks from across the country. We've narrowed it down to a public high school teacher from Fresno, California and a young man who works at a charter school in Brooklyn, New York.

 
A striking new government statistic crossed our radar earlier in the day: 1 in 5 people in the U.S. over the age of 65 live in poverty. New York Times reporter Sam Roberts explains why. And of course, we'll go right to the source with 74-year-old Delores Miller who is about to be evicted from her apartment in New York.

And producer Chang Lin has used old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting to track down Bill Bunten, the Mayor of Topeka, Kansas. Bunten is changing the name of the city, at least for a little while, to Google, Kansas. Google's "Fiber for Communities" program is going to give some U.S. cities free broadband internet and Bunten wants Topeka, um, Google, to be in the running.

UPDATED 7:15 p. m. 

Alex Goldmark here with the night shift update. 

We've lined up our live reporter interviews from Chile for tomorrow morning. We'll get a sense of how the curfews and looting has unfolded as the hunt for water and gas gets more desperate in some areas. But we will stick with our plans to find out the science behind tsunamis and quakes and also the construction techniques that kept the death toll so low. 

Other than that, not much has changed, which means that here on the night shift we can get into long debates about the meaning of "999 dead in Operation Enduring Freedom." And should we consider a fallen CIA agent in Afghanistan differently than a troop killed in Somalia? Or across the Afghan border in Uzbekistan? It's all part of Operation Enduring Freedom so what's a radio show to do when covering "The War in Afghanistan."  Here's the official count from the DoD with little explanation on how the number is derived. We will hear from the mother of one of the first troops to be killed in Afghanistan on how she marks her loss eight years later.

UPDATED 7:00 p.m

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer here. The heavy snow here in New York City has knocked our our satellite links; we have no TV, no wire services, but hey, we can blog and make phone calls. 

One new addition to the show deals with the shootings after Hurricane Katrina. We're following up on the disturbing revelations out of New Orleans about a police cover-up of shootings. There has been some great reporting from Pro-Publica and The Times Picayune, so we'll hear from one of the reporters and find out what the local reaction has been with a chat with a leader from the local NAACP. 

In lighter news, we're compiling a list of Olympic highlights - and lowlights too - to share with you tomorrow. If you have some of your own, leave a comment, or call us at 877-8-MY-TAKE. See which ones we pick tomorrow morning. We'll also have a little number on why curling is all the rage ... on Wall Street.

It's still Friday, so yes, we will have a movie segment a week ahead of the Oscars. We'll tell you what you need to do (instead of watching) to come up to speed on all the nominations by the time the big show hits the stage/screen/etc. 

UPDATED at 5:10 p.m.  

Alex Goldmark here, coming up to speed for the night shift on a day of congressional hearings, winter sports and a Sea World tragedy.  

We have a producer mining the Akio Toyoda hearings for the best and most telling moments from today's congressional oversight hearings on Toyota and highway safety (see below). Since this is the first time the CEO of Toyota has testified on Capitol Hill we wonder what it might mean for him, his company or their share price back in Japan. So that's one thing we're looking into. 

Some Haitians are getting scammed here in the US as they seek help applying to immigrate to America. We're finding out who is doing it and who is cracking down, including the New York City District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, who will join us tomorrow. 

And my personal favorite, we continue our daily Olympic updates as the sports fade from the speed of skiing to the grace of women's figure skating, among other athletic treats. I am such a smitten fan on this. I have to stop. 

UPDATED 7:30 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark here on the Sunday shift. We're rolling ahead and getting excited about our Frustration Nation series (see below for details).

We're watching a few different stories that might make it into tomorrow's show or later in the week. For one, the U.S. casualty count in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan has reached 999 according to icasualties.org. We've always felt very strongly on The Takeaway about supporting our troops and giving voice to the military community. Before that number hits the tragic four digit mark we are opening our airwaves to vets, servicemen and families of the fallen (and anyone else, too) to leave a tribute message to someone who has served in Afghanistan. Call and leave a message at 877-8-MY-TAKE and we'll play them on-air soon. 

In Washington, governors from around the country met today and are trying to push the White House to let them in on health care negotiations. If that looks like it might change the game in any major way, we're ready to cover that too. 

We'll have our usual Olympic update from Vancouver, which tomorrow might involve the gold medal win of Bode Miller, and possibly an answer to the question how many of the little kids spinning around their living rooms faux figure skating, will actually hit the ice and practice ... or maybe how in the world I can practice curling in New York City.

And finally, we will learn about the modern Brady Bunch family and what new research has to say about blended families and raising healthy and happy step children.

UPDATED 6:00

Alex Goldmark here from the night shift, hitting the ground running today. 

A few announcements are planned out of Washington that we want to be sure we're ready for. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, is set to comment on rising health care premiums. We're getting responses from some of the health insurance companies most criticized for upping their rates. And, as we are wont to do on this radio show, we're putting out lines to everyday folk about how their lives have been or might be changed by increased health costs and by any potential actions from HHS. 

The second political tidbit to keep an eye on is President Obama's new fiscal commission. The Senate wouldn't pass it so he's making it happen by executive order, but still trying to keep the bipartisan mission of debt reduction. What does this new executive style of bipartisanship show us about Washington right now? And will it work? 

We would have checked in on the Olympic news anyway, but now that Lindsey Vonn has become the first American to win downhill gold, we will do it with renewed aplomb and national pride. Or love of sport and international fraternity. Or maybe it's just me that has an Olympic obsession this week and the rest of the editorial team will finally tell me to stop watching TV in the office. 

UPDATED: 10:25 p.m.

Alex Goldmark (Senior Producer) here, with what's changed recently for tomorrow's Takeaway. 

We got to thinking about President Obama's announcement to fund the construction of new nuclear plants that would be the first since the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979. What we started wondering as we always do, is what is the local impact of this national policy. So we'll check in with the Mayor of Waynesboro, Georgia, near a nuclear plant set to expand.

We've got plenty of Olympic coverage lined up too, from the latest medal count to an expert take on the finer side of sport: the fashion of figure skating. Yes, really. And it will be interesting. Trust us. 

Then we'll give you some Chinese new year recipes for a lucky year. Who doesn't want delicious luck? 

UPDATED: 8:35 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark here on the holiday night shift. 

Tomorrow we'll continue our ongoing effort to understand as many ripple effects of the Haitian earthquake as possible. We will hear from two doctors, one of them Haitian-American, about the strains and stresses on the medical community and the medical workers administering necessary care in the battered country. 

On an uplifting note, it is Mardi Gras time. We'll get Grammy award winning musician Terence Blanchard to tell us about his favorite carnival time music. Good listening will abound. 

UPDATED 7:45 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer here ... 

Blizzard shmizzard. We've got a great show set for tomorrow.

The Haitian government has been putting out some changing figures on death toll today. But by any account at least 170,000 people have been buried in mass graves already. It is almost certain that the final death toll will match or surpass the Asian Tsunami of 2004. On the occasion of this grim revelation, we going to check in with a United Nations official in Haiti about the scale and scope of the damage. Each time we have an interview like this we do learn of new hopes and new horrors, don't we? 

Besides that, most of the major interviews and planning laid out this morning has held up. (That usually means no breaking news during the day, so maybe the snow actually helped us by smothering the news cycle.) On a weather note, we have booked a snow expert. He literally wrote the history book on weather. But he's also stranded in his West Virginia house without power and no working phone because of the weather. So hopefully we'll get his stormy insight topped off with a touch of his personal snow saga. 

For you techies wondering what that new doohickey in gmail is, we're gonna give you the lowdown on Google Buzz. Rumors are already flying about some privacy concerns.