The Daily Dive

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end the DACA program. While the court agrees that Trump can end the program, the decision written by Chief Justice Roberts said they did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections. Stef Kight, reporter for Axios, joins us for the decision on DACA.

Next, some more good news in the fight against COVID-19. A study out of the U.K. has found that dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, used to reduce inflammation, reduced death rates by about a third in the most severely ill COVID-19 patients that were on ventilators. The drug however did not provide any benefit for those that didn’t need respiratory support. Jeremy Olson, healthcare reporter at the Star Tribune, joins us for more.

Finally, despite what your local rules around facemasks are, you’ll want to make sure you have one if you are going to be flying. Air travel is starting to pick up and most airlines require that you wear a mask, but if you want to be difficult, it could land you on an airline no-fly list. Scott McCartney, Middle Seat columnist at the WSJ, joins us for flying in the pandemic.

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Senate Republicans led by Sen. Tim Scott have introduced their police reform bill called the JUSTICE Act. The bill aims to improve data collection about police use-of-force and “no knock” warrants, document police misconduct, and direct the DOJ to establish de-escalation guidelines. Li Zhou, politics reporter at Vox, joins us for more on the GOP’s police reform bill.

Next, as we continue to reopen the country many eyes will be on Europe as they begin to roll out contact tracing apps across various countries there. Germany just became the latest to release their app, but its effectiveness will depend on how many people actually download and use it.  Bojan Pancevski, Germany correspondent for the WSJ, joins us for how the apps work and privacy concerns.

Finally, as we learn more about the virus, some good news for policymakers facing tough decisions about how to reopen schools and daycare centers. A recent study finds that children and teenagers are only half as likely to get infected with the coronavirus as adults aged 20 and older. They also don’t usually develop harsh symptoms even if they get infected. Joel Achenbach, science writer at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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President Trump has signed an executive order on police reform that calls on police departments to increase training on use of force, limit the use of chokeholds, and create a national database for police misconduct. While falling short of the sweeping changes that activists are calling for, it does signal that the president is willing to work with Congress on police reforms. Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

Next, lawyers in the Golden State Killer case have reached a deal for Joseph James DeAngelo to plead guilty to charges of murder and rape and avoid a death penalty trial and instead impose a life sentence. Victims of some of the crimes have expressed both relief and anger at this outcome. Sam Stanton, reporter at the Sacramento Bee, joins us for this new deal for the Golden State Killer.

Finally, many people have a problem with tech companies tracking your location in order to send you ads, but during the coronavirus pandemic, some governments are OK with it. Public health officials are setting aside privacy concerns as they use location data to track the movement of people to help inform them on how to reopen economies. Patience Haggin, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how we are always being tracked.

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Can people who are asymptomatic spread COVID-19? The WHO last week said it was “very rare” and then had to walk it back clarifying that the error was confusion due to a muddling of scientific jargon and that there is a difference between asymptomatic and presymptomatic people. Either way, the virus can be spread whether the person exhibits symptoms or not. Greg Barber, staff writer at Wired, joins us for more on the COVID confusion.

Next, we have a conversation with MSNBC analyst, former U.S. Attorney, and former acting head of the DEA, Chuck Rosenberg about his podcast, The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg. In one of his latest episodes he spoke with civil rights activist Maya Wiley about policing in America. They discuss the possibility of real change within law enforcement and also the culture of silence in the police force. Chuck will also tell me about his time as acting head of the DEA and speaking out against President Trump, saying he appeared to have “condoned police misconduct” back in 2017.

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While the majority of people who contract COVID-19 only develop mild symptoms, there are those extreme cases where the virus wreaks havoc on the body. In one such story, we are hearing of a patient in her 20s who received a double lung transplant, the first of its kind in the U.S. since the pandemic began. Tests confirmed that her lungs were beyond repair and she would not survive without a transplant. She is now recovering, but faces a long rehabilitation. Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

Next, as calls intensify for officials to defund police departments and reallocate that money to other community services, there are some cities that can offer ideas with programs they have implemented already. One such pilot program which has led to a drop in arrests is called “RIGHT Care” in Dallas. On calls responding to mental health issues, they send out a team that includes an officer, a paramedic, and a social worker, an attempt to get people help without an arrest to violent confrontation. Jon Shuppe, reporter at NBC News Digital, joins us for some of these programs that don’t rely completely on law enforcement.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

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You’ve heard the rallying cry to “defund the police,” but while many local officials and law enforcement experts disagree with the idea of dismantling police departments, they do say however, that some of the duties police perform could be better handled by others. The idea of taking funds away from police budgets and redirecting that money into resources that support homeless housing, mental health, addiction, and employment services is gaining steam. Kim Hart, cities reporter at Axios, joins us for where it might make sense to cut police budgets.

Next, when the country shut down to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, it was also thrust into the learning experiment of mass remote learning. As the end of the school year approaches, the results are in: It didn’t work. The problems quickly stacked up in school districts ill equipped to make such drastic changes. Some students lacked access to computers or internet, teachers had no experience with remote learning, and some parents were unavailable to help. Lee Hawkins, education reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how the remote learning experiment went and what’s on deck for next year.

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This summer will be very important in the fight against COVID-19. Three coronavirus vaccine candidates will be entering phase 3 of clinical trials in the race for an effective treatment. Each of these trials will involve tens of thousands of people and researchers hope to get some results within six to eight months. Peter Loftus, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for the race to a vaccine.

Next, news that we did not want to hear… several states have seen an increase of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations following Memorial Day. Data from the states that are reporting some of their highest seven-day averages of new cases also suggests that the increases are not just due to more testing. What is more concerning is that some states are nearing hospital bed capacity. Jacqueline Dupree, who keeps track of coronavirus numbers for the Washington Post, joins us for more.

Finally, amid the pandemic and protests against police brutality, there are still elections happening… and in Georgia, Tuesday was a mess. People were waiting in lines over 4 hours to cast ballots, some voting machines didn’t work, there were provisional ballot shortages, and all this happened while trying to social distance. Zach Montellaro, campaign reporter at Politico, joins us for the chaos in Georgia and why people are concerned for November.

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One thing that has eluded the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic is accurate counting of cases and deaths. Every state counts the numbers differently, despite guidelines from the CDC to count both lab confirmed cases and “probable” cases of COVID-19. The goal is to get accurate national statistics that inform public health decision making. Beth Reinhard, investigative reporter at the Washington Post joins us for how cases are counted.

Next, the pandemic has led to the fastest rise in food prices in more than 40 years and consumers are on the hunt for more value. Shutdowns at meat processing plants, increased costs for labor and transportation, and a pullback on promotions at grocery stores all contributed to the price raises. Annie Gasparro, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for why your grocery bill is so high.

Finally, as all eyes are on police departments to enact some type of reforms to end police brutality. Some departments have already begun to ban chokeholds and require authorization to use crowd control measures with “less than lethal” weapons. Louise Matsakis, writer at Wired, joins us for more on these nonlethal weapons and the serious harm they can do.

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