State Revenues Have Fallen Off a Cliff, Massive Budget Cuts Loom Without Federal Help (0:31)

Guest: Elizabeth McNichol, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Democrats in the US House of Representatives are pressing for another pandemic relief package that would include as much as $700 billion for states, cities and towns facing budget crises. But Senate Republican leaders and President Trump say the proposal is a ploy to bail out states led by Democrats that spent too much before the pandemic. The National Governors Association – which consists of both Democrats and Republicans – has urged Congress to send assistance to states, regardless of politics.

 

What Tips Do Astronauts Have for Self-Isolating? (15:20)

Guest: Gregory Chamitoff, Former NASA Astronaut, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University

If any profession is familiar with isolation and social distancing, it’s astronauts who spend months in confined quarters on the International Space Station. We wanted to know what that’s like and if it compares at all to the isolation so many people are enduring on Earth right now.

 

Deepwater Horizon Spill 10 Years Ago Is Still Affecting the Gulf Ecosystem (34:25)

Guest: Steven Murawski, Marine Ecologist, University of South Florida, Director of the Center for Integrated Analysis and Modeling of Gulf Ecosystems

Ten years ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers, injuring 17 and triggering a well blowout that gushed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, nonstop for nearly three months. Scientists are still trying to figure what effect that had on marine life. What effect it’s still having, a decade on.

 

The US Loopholes That Allows Captive Tigers to Proliferate in America (50:42)

Guest: Carney Anne Nasser, Director, Animal Welfare Clinic, Michigan State University College of Law 

Roy Horn, who was one-half of America’s most famous tiger magic act Siegfried and Roy, died of coronavirus over the weekend. In 2003, Horn was nearly mauled to death on stage by one of the duo’s famed Royal White Tigers. Their Las Vegas act helped to perpetuate the myth that white tigers are an exotic subspecies, when, in fact, all the result of in-breeding in captivity. They and other captive tigers are so plentiful in the United States, they now far outnumber tigers actually found in the wild, all because two loopholes in US law that allowed people to breed and sell tigers with very little oversight for nearly 20 years.

 

How Debt Collectors Are Transforming the Business of State Courts (1:11:04)

Guest: Erika Rickard, Project Director, Civil Legal System Modernization Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Lawsuits going after consumers for outstanding debt have come to dominate state civil courts in recent years. Part of that is because Americans keep going further into debt. But it’s also because of the rise of the “debt-buying” industry and the fact that state courts are not designed to deal with the realities of debt claims.

 

How to Steer Your Kids Toward Science Books They’ll Love (1:28:02)

Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU

Rachel talks about STEM-themed books.