What’s on MPR News – 4/5/19

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

9 a.m. – 1A with Joshua Johnson
Domestic news roundup. House Democrats have asked the IRS to release the last six years of President Trump’s tax returns. What happens next? Joe Biden has been told to join the ‘straight arm club’ and mayoral history is made in Chicago.

10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
International news roundup. Ethiopian crash investigators call for an inquiry into Boeing. The New Zealand shooting prompts Australia to pass new laws targeting violent videos on social media. And why was a Chinese woman at Mar-A-Lago with four cell phones, an external hard drive & a thumb drive?

11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis (Mike Mulcahy hosts)
On the heels of his first State of the State address, DFL Gov. Tim Walz joins MPR’s Mike Mulcahy in the studio to talk about his term so far and how he’ll come to an agreement with Senate Republicans on the state’s next two-year budget.

12 p.m. – The Takeaway
Slay the Dragon,” chronicles the challenges to congressional maps in several states that have been accused of partisan gerrymandering including Michigan and Wisconsin. The film also follows the legal team involved in Gill v. Whitford as that case from Wisconsin makes its way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Scott Walker was the governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure, Republican lawmakers created new congressional districts which he then signed into law. Since then, he has repeatedly been accused by critics of partisan gerrymandering. Yet now, Scott Walker is the Finance Chairman of The National Republican Redistricting Trust.

Eric Holder, the attorney general under President Obama, recently wrote an editorial for The Washington Post in which he announced that he will not be running for president, and instead will focus his energies on the “fight to end gerrymandering.” The Takeaway speaks to Holder about why he thinks this is a such an important issue for Democrats to combat right now.

On March 26th the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in this term’s gerrymandering case. What happened and what comes next?

1 p.m. – Science Friday
Spring is here, and the sap is flowing in trees of all kinds. But how does all that fluid move? Plus: the loss of precious topsoil in flooded Midwest farms, a peek inside the American Chemical Society meeting, and how one of the longest-lived tree species is holding up against climate change.

2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
Brexit postponed again? The British prime minister asks the European Union for a delay until the end of June; another bizarre twist in the Ukrainian election campaign; why Japan is blowing holes in a distant asteroid.

3 p.m. – All Things Considered
The latest from the Noor trial; the week in politics; Facebook and the white extremist “ban”; parity in men’s college basketball; a review of “Shazam”

6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
A conversation with a data scientist who’s trying to crack the code on the three point shot.In the NBA, three point shots are popular game-changers, if you’re good at them. But while players are attempting more three-pointers than ever, the odds are not in their favor.

6:30 p.m. – The Daily
Through his media empire, Rupert Murdoch has reshaped the politics of countries across the English-speaking world, pushing their governments to the right. We look inside the struggle over who will control that empire once he’s gone.

Guest: Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, who spent six months investigating the Murdoch family for The New York Times Magazine.

7 p.m. – The World
President Trump says an “epic” trade deal with China is near completion. Meanwhile, the US and China continue to engage in tit-for-tat tariff war, and new research shows that the tariffs are taking a clear toll on American consumers. The World’s Jason Margolis has that story.

Also, authorities in Saudi Arabia have reportedly detained several people linked to women’s rights activists in the kingdom. The World’s Shirin Jafaari has the latest in this ongoing Saudi crackdown on dissent.

Plus, Brazilians here in the US supported far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in large numbers last year. Now that Bolsonaro is Brazil’s president, many are upset at his recent anti-immigrant comments. We’ll hear from a group of Brazilian voters here in Massachusetts who are determined to be heard by their government.

And Eritrean communities all over the world are holding vigils today and this weekend, to honor the slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.

8 p.m. – Fresh Air
The program marks the centennial of the birth of choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, one of the most influential figures in 20th century dance. He pioneered an approach to choreography in which movement did not coincide with the rhythms of music.