The Daily Dive

As the coronavirus infects more and more people, scientists are constantly asking the question: How is the coronavirus actually killing people? Although there are some hypotheses, there is still no one, clear explanation. My producer, Victor Wright, joins us for more on this story.

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Meth is back, and it is uglier than ever. While the opioid crisis has had its grip on the country for some time now, on the streets of Ohio and Kentucky meth is making a resurgence because of the cheap price, increased purity, and opioid users looking for alternatives. And while communities grapple with how to treat these epidemics, we still must treat the underlying problem of addiction. Terry DeMio, reporter at the Cincinnati Enquirer, joins us for the latest drug problem.

Next, Michael Bloomberg is changing the game on how his campaign is advertising. The latest effort is recruiting “deputy digital organizers” at a cost of $2,500 a month to post pro-Bloomberg messages on their personal social media accounts, but also send texts to everyone in their contacts lists. Georgia Wells, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how they are blurring the lines between traditional campaign organizing and distribution of sponsored content.

Finally, Coronavirus may be on the brink of a global pandemic. As numbers continue to get worse in mainland China, the virus is also spreading in other countries. Many countries have begun to issue travel restrictions, impose quarantines, and also trace the contact of people with known infections. Marisa Fernandez, reporter for Axios, joins us for how COVID-19 keeps spreading.

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There is a facial recognition app called Clearview AI, which law enforcement agencies across the country are using to identify suspects or victims. The crazy part about it is how the app works. It scrubs the internet and sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo for pictures that the app can then use to match against photos submitted to the app. In Florida, the Tampa Bay Times, has found about a dozen police departments that have tried out or bought access to the facial recognition system and with any new system, questions about privacy and accuracy arise. Malena Carollo, reporter at The Tampa Bay Times tells us how it all works and what it costs for these departments to use.

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President Trump on Tuesday handed out a slew of pardons and commutations ranging from former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edwards DeBartolo. Specifically with the former governor, he was sentenced to 14 years for corruption charges including trying to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old senate seat in exchange for campaign contributions. He served a little over half of his sentence and Trump said he had been treated very unfairly. Brett Samuels, White House reporter at The Hill, joins us for more.

Next, we talk about a man named Derek Murphy who has an unusual hobby. He exposes cheaters in marathons and other endurance races. He runs a website called MarathonInvestigations.com and uses a variety of techniques to root out those that have cheated. One such runner that he outed was Frank Meza, 70 year-old doctor who got caught cheating in the Los Angeles Marathon last year. Unfortunately, Meza later killed himself after he was exposed because he could no longer stand the scrutiny. Derek Murphy says he was not targeting Meza just that he wanted to maintain the integrity of the sport. Still his website is filled with many instances of others cheating the system. Gordy Megroz, contributor to Wired, joins us for more on the man that catches marathon cheaters.

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Arby's has started a turf war with McDonald's over fish sandwiches ahead of the Lent season. Arby's is running a series of ads and also taking to social media to get people to question the Filet-O-Fish and and try their new Fish 'N Cheddar Sandwich. It will be a tough lift to dethrone the popularity of McDonald's Filet-O-fish, but after the chicken sandwich wars of last year, it could be anyone's game. My producer Victor Wright joins me for what to know.

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The Department of Justice has been tossed into turmoil once again after Attorney General Bill Barr changed sentencing recommendations for Trump ally Roger Stone and after Barr gave an interview to ABC news saying that President Trump’s constant tweets make it impossible for him to run the DOJ properly. Now, over 1,100 former DOJ officials are calling on Barr to resign. Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters, joins us for this and also how democrats focus is increasingly turning to Michael Bloomberg and the money he is pouring into the race for President.

Next, we are learning about how the CIA and NSA spied on both allies and enemies through a company they owned that made cryptography equipment. The company was called Crypto AG and sold its encryption machines to countries like Iran, India, Pakistan, countries in Latin America, and even the Vatican. What none of the countries knew was that the machines had been rigged by the CIA so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages. It was one of the most audacious operations run by the CIA and provided a wealth of intelligence for the U.S. Greg Miller, reporter for the Washington Post, joins us for more on Operation Rubicon.

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Today we have a true crime story and a yearlong police sting that failed completely. Police used what’s called a Mr. Big sting. It is one of the most controversial tactics used by police that it has been banned in many countries. The way it works is one undercover officer befriends the suspect and lures the suspect into committing increasingly serious crimes. At this point the officer introduces the suspect to the Mr. Big character, who acts as boss or drug kingpin and offers protection in exchange for a confession to the worst thing they ever did… the crime police are trying to charge them with. This story is about Alan Dale Smith, a suspect in the murder of Beverly Smith, whose real murderer has never been found and the botched Mr. Big sting run by a small police department in Canada. Michael Lista, Contributing Editor for Toronto Life, joins us for more on this story.

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This is a compilation of the best stories of the week.

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This is a compilation of the best stories of the week.

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According to a recent survey of 2,000 Americans, the most common nightmares that people have are falling, being chased, and death. Another interesting nightmare that many people are having are dreams about their teeth falling out, Researchers broke down some of the findings by gender as well and found that women tend to have dreams about loved ones dying more often than men, and men usually have dreams about technology breaking down.

My producer Victor Wright and I talk about some of the most common nightmares and also share some of the bad dreams keeping us up at night.

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