What’s on MPR News – 3/5/19

Tuesday March 5, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)

9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
Americans spend more on prescription drugs than anyone else in the world. While we do have a lot of prescriptions, the main culprit is the cost. For some medicines, prices have tripled in the last few years.

Americans aren’t happy about it. A survey last week shows more than 75% of Americans say drug prices are unreasonable. But during a Congressional hearing last week, pharmaceutical executives said their hands are tied by the current healthcare system, and that they need profits to fund new research.

Guests: Dr. Walid Gellad, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing; David Mitchell, founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs and a patient who relies on drugs daily to fight his incurable blood cancer.

10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is getting “bold with education reform.” Her latest proposal is a $5 billion tax credit to fund private school scholarships and other tuition programs. DeVos’s federal support for school choice is sure to face opposition from Democrats. Is she ready for a fight?

Guests: Jim Blew, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development, U.S. Department of Education; Erica Green, education policy reporter, The New York Times; Andrew Kreighbaum, federal policy reporter, Inside Higher Ed; Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott, (D-Va), chairman, House Committee for Education and Labor.

11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis
(Today’s broadcast originates from Duluth)
People have described Duluth as a small city/big town at the tip of Lake Superior, but it’s more than that. It’s also an international port, home to a large population of students attending one of the six colleges either in town or nearby, and the center of a thriving arts scene.

Guests: Bob Sterner, director of the Large Lakes Observatory and a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Tony Barrett, professor of economics; Brittany Lind, The Current.

12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
Chris Farrell’s “Conversations on the Creative Economy.” This time his guest is Minnesota restaurateur Kim Bartmann, whose career started with one coffee shop and grew to nine restaurants. As her business has grown, so has her activism: from supporting women chefs to embracing sustainability and green design. (Recorded in February at the Food Building in Northeast Minneapolis.)

1 p.m. – The Takeaway
After deadly tornadoes tear through Lee County, Alabama, we hear from the community. Also: Oakland educators are back at work, the latest victory for striking teachers across the U.S. But how are states finding the cash?

2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
A UK patient is ‘free’ of HIV after receiving stem cell treatment. Is it too early to speak of a cure for the disease?

President Trump targets India in a trade crackdown.

And another Canadian minister resigns over the government’s handling of a corruption inquiry.

3 p.m. – All Things Considered
Lindsey Graham on supporting Trump’s emergency declaration; pipeline safety; floods, race, and FEMA; Grand Canyon harassment.

6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
The Netflix reboot of “Queer Eye” was an instant hit. But for Queer Eye star Karamo Brown, it didn’t exactly feel that way. A conversation on economics, culture and reality TV.

6:30 p.m. – The Daily
There have only been a handful of investigations into possible criminal conduct by a sitting president of the United States. Each time, an outside investigator has been appointed under a set of rules to ensure independence and accountability — and those rules have changed with each inquiry. Now, the latest set of rules is being tested as the special counsel, Robert Mueller, prepares to release his report.

Guest: Neal Katyal, a lawyer who drafted the regulations that govern the special counsel investigation.

7 p.m. – The World
How in 2020, the census plans to protect our privacy better. Is our data safe? To find out, census officials ran a test that failed.

8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Terry Gross talks with Alex Kotlowitz, who followed the lives of two boys in a Chicago housing project for his 1991 book There Are No Children Here. In his new book, An America Summer, he writes about how the constant threat of murder and gun violence affects people in Chicago’s poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. He compares what children growing up there experience, with the trauma of war vets.