Anna Sale

Arwa Gunja here, on the night shift.

Our partners over at The New York Times are working on an exclusive story about the mine explosion in West Virginia that left 29 people dead. The story will shed new light on what exactly went so wrong and the different safety violations that led to the tragedy. National correspondent Ian Urbina joins us in the morning to share his reporting.

Today, President Obama visited Wall Street to push for greater oversight of the financial industry. This got us wondering whether oversight is enough to stop dirty dealings. Do we behave differently if we know we are being watched? Tomorrow we’ll talk with Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University. And we want to ask you, our listeners, if you spend your money differently when there is someone monitoring your spending. If you share a credit card bill or bank account with a spouse or loved one, how does that affect the choices you make a shopping mall, for example? Call us at 1-877-8-MYTAKE or leave us a comment here on our website.

UPDATED 7:34pm

Arwa Gunja here, on the night shift.

Who owns our genetic makeup? We’ve talked about this on The Takeaway before, when a Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that a biopharmaceutical company could no longer hold the patent on several genes. But this topic is resurfacing this week in a very different context. The Havasupai Indians gave their DNA to Arizona State University so researchers could find out why there is such a high rate of diabetes in the tribe. But, tribal members claim the university used their genetic makeup for much more, including looking at mental illness and tracing the tribe’s geographic origins, which contradict their own traditional stories. Now the university has settled with the Havasupai Indians at the price of $700,000, the first time individuals have been paid after claims their DNA was misused. We’ll take a look at the ethics of testing DNA and ask whether vulnerable communities in particular are taken advantage of when it comes to medical research.

We’re also having a two-part conversation about the role of Google after the company made public censorship requests from different governments. Tomorrow we’ll talk with Jeff Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, about whether Google has its own foreign policy agenda, much like a nation would. Then on Friday we’ll talk with Nicole Wong. If Google were a country, Wong would be their secretary of state.

And the NFL draft starts tomorrow night. Even if you support a losing team, is the draft a time when hope springs eternal? The St. Louis Rams get the first pick, and we’ll talk with an ardent fan.

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. 

Anna Sale here on the day shift.

This ash cloud story continues to have us talking around here. We talked this morning about the impact on the economy and global shipping, but we're also interested in how this transportation disruption has affected the way we understand the world. For starters, is this changing the way we perceive distance and time? We're also looking back in history at other times Mother Nature reared her head and caused large-scale disruptions to the normal course of civilization.

UPDATED 8:05pm

Arwa Gunja here, wrapping up the day’s production.

Tomorrow we are going to lead the second hour of our show with a story about possibly expanding the role of nurse practitioners. Twenty-eight states are considering giving these nurses with higher degrees more authority, including prescribing narcotics. This is due to a shortage of primary care physicians. We’ll hear from a doctor who is against this expansion and a nurse practitioner who says the expansion would benefit patients and pocketbooks. It is cheaper to see a nurse practitioner and often, they have more time to spend with patients. But some doctors argue it could put patients in harm’s way by putting their care in the hands of a less qualified medical professional.

And today, the Library of Congress announced they will start archiving tweets going all the way back to 2006 when Twitter was started.  This means that along with history books and great works of literature, tweets will live forever in our nation’s most prestigious library. We’ll talk with a "library and archivist groupie" about how this changes the way we look up history. If you’re on Twitter, will this change the way you tweet? Are there any tweets from your past that you would want to be archived in history? You can call us at 877-8-MYTAKE, leave us a message on our website, or better yet, tweet it.

Anna Sale here on the day shift.

We had a great conversation this morning about President Obama's charge to secure the world's nuclear material in four years, but we still have more questions. Which countries possess unsecured nuclear material? Where is that material located, which groups want to get their hands on it — and which groups already have their hands on it? We’re hoping to answer some of these questions with Sharon Squassoni, an expert on nuclear proliferation and prevention with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And we’re on the hunt for an investigator who works to track down stolen nukes for some insight into what kind of detective work goes into finding and securing dangerous nuclear material.

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?

UPDATED 8:22pm

Arwa Gunja here on the night shift.

Not too much has changed for tomorrow’s show. We’re asking you, our listeners, how you would proposing trimming the budget for your local city or town. If you were the mayor, what cuts would you make? Send us your responses and we’ll use them tomorrow morning in a conversation we're having about struggling cities. We’ll be focusing on Baltimore and Detroit, but we know communities across the country are hurting. Send us your stories and suggestions by calling 1-877-8-MYTAKE or leaving us your comments here on our website.

We will also be joined by mine safety expert Ellen Smith for a closer look at Massey Energy. This is the company that owns and operates the West Virginia mine where at least 25 people were killed after an explosion earlier this week. The rescue efforts have been stalled because conditions have been deemed too unsafe for workers to move forward, though four miners remain trapped underground. Massey is the sixth largest coal company in the US. Tomorrow we’ll get a profile of both the company and its controversial CEO, Don Blakenship.

And every Friday we - and our partners at The Week Magazine - bring you a series we call, “Good Week, Bad Week,”  to determine who had a good week and who had a bad week. Send us your nominees. Again, you can call us at 1-877-8-MYTAKE or leave us a message right here on our website.

UPDATED 7:00pm

Arwa Gunja here on the evening shift.

As many of our listeners may already know, our host, John Hockenberry, is in Denver all week this week broadcasting from member station KUVO. He got a chance to meet up with Bill Reinert, national manager of the Advanced Technology Group for Toyota USA. Mr. Reinert helped design the Prius. Tomorrow we’ll bring you a conversation about how cars are getting more complex and technologically advanced - and what that means for you, the consumer.

We also want to take a moment to address a concern raised by a listener about a segment today on Wikileaks, a website that leaks sensitive information while keeping its sources anonymous.  This week, the controversial website posted a classified video that showed the deaths of 12 Iraqi men, including two employees of the Reuters News Agency, during a 2007 incident in Iraq. The video appeared to show Americans in an Apache helicopter firing on unarmed men. Two listeners wrote to us to express frustration that we hadn’t mentioned a report released by the Pentagon late Monday, which said that some of the Iraqis involved in that incident were indeed carrying weapons. We called US Central Command to ask what their report found. We’ll tell you what they had to say tomorrow on the show.

We’re also closely following the uprising in Kyrgyzstan, where protesters have overthrown the government. Kyrgyzstan is one the most important US allies in Central Asia and home to an American air base used for missions in nearby Afghanistan. We'll keep you posted with the latest tomorrow in the show.

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. 

I remember the waiting.

It's been more than four years since I stood on the mouth of a coal mine, waiting for word on the fate of two missing miners. It was January 2006, at the Aracoma Mine in southern West Virginia. I was covering the story for West Virginia Public Radio. A fire had broken out in an underground mine and two men were missing. That alone was tragic enough, but it came just a few weeks after the Sago Mine Disaster, where 12 men died –  11 of them after they were poisoned by bad air while they waited for rescue.

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. 

President Obama takes to the mound tonight in the stadium of the Washington Nationals to throw the ceremonial first pitch. It's a tradition started 100 years ago this month by President William Howard Taft.

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. 

Anna Sale back on the dayside producing shift.

I'm just back from a week reporting at a hospital in rural Haiti, where one question kept coming up from patients and local residents alike: what's next for Haiti? There weren't a lot of answers where I was, but tomorrow in New York, representatives from Haiti, the United Nations, United States, and several other nations will discuss their plans to spend $34 billion there over the next 10 years. We're reaching out to reporters and international development experts to see what the latest thinking is on where the effort should start, and who will be in charge.

UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has urged international aid groups to help rebuild Haiti's government yesterday. But as Takeaway producer Anna Sale reports, some Haitians don't think their government should be trusted with the job.

I spent an hour or so yesterday learning Creole in one of the tents that house earthquake patients. We went over the basics — "What is your name?" "Where do you live?" "Are you married?" "Do you have any kids?" And of course, there's the key question that usually comes about third in any introduction — when are you leaving? These patients are used to foreigners coming in for a week or two, and knowing how long each one will be around is a vital statistic.

After the earthquake, injured Haitians flooded the hospital. Now, some of them are cured, but like the 700,000 other homeless Haitians, they have nowhere to go. So they turn to their doctors for help, adding to the overstretched workload of the medical staff.

Emil is going to Baltimore this morning.

The 12-year-old boy has a pelvis fracture that needs extensive rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University, but his trip got caught in bureaucratic limbo, and for most of the day yesterday, his doctor wasn't sure it would happen. Emil needed one last paper to add to the stack of authorizing documents: A form from a local official to allow his entrance into the United States.

All week, Takeaway producer Anna Sale is accompanying a medical mission in rural Haiti. At a hospital in Milot, 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince, many of the injured have been transferred from the capital. For the locals, even those without medical skills, it provides an opportunity for them to help. They change bedpans, braid the hair of patients, and offer comfort to those who are far from home and family.