A DAILY PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAM FEATURING NEWS ANALYSIS OF THE DAY'S TOP ISSUES
February 3 – A Brazen Attack on the CFPB by the Banking Lobby’s Hirelings; The Secular/Religious Divide in Israel and Egypt; The NFL’s Legacy of Brain-damage
We begin with the latest brazen attack on the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with an apparent collusion between the DC Circuit’s Republican judiciary and the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell who sent the president a letter on Friday vowing to block the re-nomination of the current head of the CFPB Richard Cordray until Congress passes a bill to neuter the bureau. Jeff Connaugton, the author of “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins" joins us to discuss whether the banking lobby’s Republican hirelings and the court’s judicial activists will succeed in eliminating any consumer protection from an industry that all but destroyed the economy.
Then we speak with investigative journalistMax Blumenthalwho just returned from covering the elections in Israel and the riots in Egypt. We discuss the secular and religious divide in Israel that was reflected in the elections and in the current horse-trading going on now as a coalition government is being formed. And the same divide in Egypt between the secular youth who propelled the revolution now battling in the streets against the religious government that stole the revolution.
Then finally, with today’s Super Bowl celebrations underway in New Orleans, we look into the future of the increasingly violent game of football that has led to over 4,000 lawsuits from NFL players seeking damages blaming the league for minimizing brain-damage and its long-term effects. Veteran sportswriterRobert Lipsyte joins us to discuss whether the brutal collisions in football can be minimized without losing fans of this multi-billion dollar spectator sport.
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The Society of Professional Journalistsrecently honoredIan Masters and Background Briefing with the Distinguished Journalist for Audio award.