Survivor of sexual assault in Jehovah’s Witnesses is suing, says insular policies allowed abuse

On today’s episode of The Confluence:

On Friday, the Pa. Attorney General’s Office announced that five men who are members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been charged with sexual assault and exploitation of children. These charges are the latest since the AG began investigating the organization in 2019. David Gambacorta, a writer at large for the Philadelphia Inquirer, recently published the story of one survivor who is suing the organization, accusing leaders of destroying records and ignoring the state’s Child Protective Services Law. (0:00 -7:22)

Last month, the Pennsylvania House passed a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 dollars incrementally by 2026, while the Allegheny County Council voted to enact a minimum wage for county workers that would start at $18 dollar an hour next year. Felix Koenig, an assistant professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, has studied minimum wage and explains how raising it has historically affected employment. (7:25 - 14:20)

Before someone goes into surgery, they’ll meet with doctors and nurses to discuss the procedure and the recovery. According to the CDC, more than 48 million surgeries are performed each year. In up to 15% of cases, complications develop within a month. At 20 UPMC hospitals, a machine learning model was deployed to help identify patients at high risk for complications. Lead study researcher Dr. Aman Mahajan tells us more. (14:24 - 22:30)