What’s on MPR News – 3/15/19

Friday March 15, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)

9 a.m. -1A with Joshua Johnson
Domestic news roundup. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all Boeing 737 Max planes operated by American companies or flying in U.S. territory, after a deadly crash involving a 737 Max aircraft in Ethiopia. Why did the FAA wait so long to ground these jets?

That’s only one of several investigations we’ve been following this week. On Wednesday, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison – an additional 43 months on top of his original sentence for charges of federal conspiracy and obstruction. Meanwhile, Andrew Weissmann, a prominent member of Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into the 2016 election, will leave the team and the Justice Department, according to two sources who spoke to NPR’s Carrie Johnson. Does this mean the Mueller investigation is wrapping up? And if so, will the report be made available to the public?

And in 2020 campaign news, Beto O’Rourke – former Texas congressman and senatorial candidate – has thrown his hat in the presidential ring.

Guests: Abby Phillip, White House correspondent, CNN; Reid Wilson, national correspondent, The Hill; Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief, The Associated Press.

10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
International news roundup. The Brexit legislative boondoggle dominated the global news headlines this week. Members of Parliament voted this week against the idea of leaving the European Union without a deal, and on March 12 they voted against a new withdrawal deal for the second time since January. Prime Minister Theresa May is under increased pressure with the March 29 deadline looming.

In Northern Ireland, one former British solider will be prosecuted in connection to the killing of unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday. The massacre “became one of the main flash points in the Troubles, the 30-year struggle over the status of Northern Ireland that claimed at least 3,500 lives,” according to The New York Times.

And students in 40 countries planned to protest government inaction on climate change this week. Reuters reported that this Friday’s demonstrations are expected to be the largest yet.

Guests: Uri Friedman, staff writer, The Atlantic, covering global affairs; Emily Tamkin, freelance foreign affairs reporter; Paul Danahar, Washington bureau chief of the BBC.

11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis
Minnesota’s new Human Rights commissioner, Rebecca Lucero, says that human rights should be accessible to everyone. This belief is based on injustices she witnessed at an early age. She now runs the department that looks at discrimination in the workplace, along with other key human rights issues.

Commissioner Lucero will join Angela Davis to talk about how the Department of Human Rights works and how it works with Minnesotans to fight discrimination.

12 p.m. – The Takeaway
his week President Trump faced a rebuke by Senate Republicans first in a vote calling for the end of U.S. support for the war in Yemen, and then on Thursday when the Senate voted 59 to 41 block the emergency declaration Trump invoked to fund the border wall. What does this mean for the relationship between the president and Republicans in Congress?

A look at the murmurs among the Republican Party about several potential primary challengers taking on President Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020. So far, the most vocal has been former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld.

And an interview with presidential hopeful Jay Inslee about the costs of combating climate change.

1 p.m. – Science Friday
The teenagers from this years Regeneron Science Talent Search share their winning projects. From the hunt for exoplanets to HIV therapies. Plus Ira Flatow talks to youth striking against climate change.

2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
We hear from a man who hid under a table inside the Mosque attacked in Christchurch, and had to watch as dozens of people were killed and wounded around him. We talk to Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

3 p.m. – All Things Considered
The terrorist attack on a New Zealand mosque; the week in politics;a history of grounding planes; weaponizing civility.

6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
Between grounded planes and the national spotlight falling on the college admissions process, this week in the economy has been a busy one.

6:30 p.m. – The Daily
The family that built its fortune on the opioid painkiller OxyContin has never been held legally accountable for the epidemic that the drug helped unleash. Here’s why that could change.

Guest: Barry Meier, the author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” who has reported on the opioid crisis for The New York Times.

7 p.m. – The World
Still coping with the Hiroshima bomb in Japan. Before Etsuko Nakatani was born, her father got radiation sickness from the Hiroshima atomic bomb. She fears that she could still get sick because of it too, and she’s suing the Japanese government for help. It’s an uphill battle because science doesn’t support her claim.

8 p.m. – Fresh Air
We remember studio drummer Hal Blaine who died Monday at the age of 90. His distinctive sound could be heard on thousands of recordings from the late 1950s and on for 25 years. He was part of the studio session band, The Wrecking Crew. Blaine played on the hit records, “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes, “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys, “I Got You Babe,” by Sony & Cher, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” by The Byrds, “Monday, Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas, “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra, and many many more. (REBROADCAST from 5/9/01)

8:30 p.m. – Chef Lidia Bastianich is known for her Italian restaurants and her popular cooking show on Public broadcasting. Her memoir My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food (now out in paperback) details her early life in Italy on a farm where they grew and raised their own food. When communist Yugoslavia took over the area of Italy where her family lived, they fled, became refugees, and eventually ended up in America.