Your Call

On this edition of Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the role the banking industry and its lobbyists play in weakening regulations.

Every federal lobbyist that has registered to work on behalf of Silicon Valley Bank swung through the revolving door between the federal government and private sector, according to OpenSecrets. They also found that the cryptocurrency industry vastly expanded its political influence web with federal lobbying spending exploding to a whopping $21.6 million in 2022.

Before Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, its former CEO Greg Becker backed two tech industry lobbying groups that tried to influence the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and pushed to cut corporate taxes, according to records reviewed by CNBC.

On this edition of Your Call, best-selling author Dan Buettner discusses his new book, The Blue Zones American Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100.

As the pandemic set in, Buettner and National Geographic photographer David McLain traveled the country to uncover the traditional roots of plant-forward cuisine. Along the way, they met Indigenous, African American, Latin American, and Asian American chefs, cooks, and gardeners who've learned from their ancestors and are passing on recipes to the next generation. The result is The Blue Zones American Kitchen, a celebration of a uniquely American, but largely overlooked diet.

Blue Zones Project Cities have demonstrated that eating the Blue Zones way can alleviate obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and more.

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss a court decision that could reverse FDA approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in over half of abortions. By 2021, over half of abortions in the US were medication abortions.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointed conservative judge with deep anti-abortion views, is hearing the case this morning in Amarillo, Texas.

A coalition led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion group, filed the lawsuit challenging the FDA's two decades old approval of mifepristone, despite documented evidence that it is a safe and effective method of pregnancy termination.

Some legal scholars argue that Judge Kacsmaryk does not have the authority to force the FDA to withdraw approval of the drug.

On this edition of Your Call, we get the latest on the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Shortly after the disaster, local officials decided to drain nearly 116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride into a ditch and set it on fire in a "controlled burn," in order to avoid an explosion. Two days after the burn, residents were allowed back into their homes, before any testing for carcinogenic dioxins and other poisonous chemicals had been done.

In a recent New York Times opinion piece, former EPA official Judith Enck asks: Why has the EPA allowed the horrific situation in Ohio to continue?

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss why public advocate Gigi Sohn asked President Biden to withdraw her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission.

In a statement, she wrote, “When I accepted this nomination over 16 months ago, I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought and paid for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies."

“I hope the President swiftly nominates an individual who puts the American people first over all other interests. The country deserves nothing less."

Advocates also blame Democrats for failing to defend Sohn.

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss California’s ongoing storm, which is still wreaking havoc across many parts of the state. 

On Saturday, a levee broke along the Pajaro River in Monterey County forcing 1,700 people to flee their homes. An aerial view of the area shows neighborhood after neighborhood submerged in flood waters.

More than half of Parajo's residents are primarily low-income Spanish speaking. Many are farmworkers.

For decades, officials knew that the levee was vulnerable, but never prioritized repairs, in part, because they believed it did not make financial sense to protect the low-income area, according to the Los Angeles Times.

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we discuss the historic UN High Seas Treaty, which provides a legal framework to protect the biodiversity of the world's oceans.

The ocean covers about 71 percent of the earth's surface and produces half of the oxygen we breathe, but almost two-thirds of this vast body lies outside international boundaries.

The agreement is critical to enforcing the pledge made during last year's UN Biodiversity Conference to protect 30 percent of land and sea by 2030. The treaty still needs to be ratified.

Dominion's $1.6B defamation lawsuit against Fox reveals that top executives and hosts did not believe the 2020 election lies they were pushing night after night.

On this edition Your Call, animal shelters are overwhelmed with pets that have been abandoned or turned in by owners. Inflation, evictions, and economic struggles have made caring for a pet unaffordable for many.

There are 100,000 more pets in animal shelters nationwide than there were last year, according to Best Friends, an animal welfare organization. Some shelters are considering euthanasia for the first time in years. If you'd like to adopt or foster a pet, contact a shelter in your area. Some are waiving adoption fees.

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss Amazon’s empire. Global sales were nearly $150 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. Fifty to seventy percent of online retail sales are made through Amazon.

In the US, Amazon owns 110 warehouses and employs more than one million people. After years of organizing and speaking out about a number of abusive practices, including the use of surveillance technology to monitor their productivity, workers still say they are disposable.

The Open Markets Institute says Amazon's web of control must be broken.