July 8, 2015

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Sports July 8, 2015

Former University Of Illinois Athletes File $10 Million Lawsuit

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NPR’s Robert Siegel speaks with Shannon Ryan, a Chicago Tribune sports reporter, about the allegations that the women’s basketball coach and assistant created a racially hostile environment.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A $10 million federal lawsuit filed this week in Urbana, Ill., charges there was a racially hostile environment on the University of Illinois women’s basketball team. A group of former players says their coach and former assistant coach engaged in racial stereotyping and made derogatory racial statements. It holds the university’s athletic director responsible for not addressing their claims. The chancellor at U of I said she is disappointed the lawsuit went forward before an external review is completed. All this has been reported by Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, who joins us now. Welcome to the program.

SHANNON RYAN: Thank you for having me.

SIEGEL: And give us a sense of the kind of behavior the former basketball players allege in this suit.

RYAN: Right. So there’s seven players who have joined this lawsuit – there’s an eighth player who may be added as a plaintiff – who have all described a racially hostile environment. They claim that there was racial segregation and practices and that black players would have a separate practice than white players sometimes and that African-American players were punished more severely at times. And even when they traveled on the road, they said that white players were prohibited from rooming with black players.

SIEGEL: To what extent were players voting with their scholarships or with their feet and leaving – going to other universities?

RYAN: Right. So there were five transfers in two years, and for any basketball team, that’s a pretty high number. There’s a limited number of scholarships in basketball. We’re not talking football that has, you know, 80-some scholarships available. This is a pretty small team, so it’s uncommon in basketball. It’s really uncommon women’s basketball to see that number of transfers. And I think it starts to raise some red flags. Like, what’s going on in this program that players are so disgruntled that they want to transfer?

SIEGEL: After these complaints were brought, University of Illinois did part ways with the assistant coach for the women’s basketball team, who’s accused of being central to all of this. Was that a way of addressing the problem?

RYAN: I think in a minor way, and maybe initially, that seemed like the way to handle this to Illinois. Assistant Coach Mike Divilbiss this was described as kind of main culprit by these players, the one who was launching most of the racially derogatory terms and segregating players. But I think this is a bigger problem than an assistant coach.

SIEGEL: Yes, as you – as you’ve reported, this isn’t the only complaint that the Illinois athletic department is dealing with. It’s the second lawsuit in a month, and there have been complaints there from the football team. Who else is claiming mistreatment of what sort here?

RYAN: Right. So there was a women’s soccer player, Casey Conine, who filed a suit in early June, claiming that the athletic medical staff mishandled a concussion she suffered and that she’s had long-lasting effects from that. And maybe – locally, one of the most high profile, at least, was a football player, Simon Cvijanovic, who kind of went on this Twitter rampage with hundreds of tweets, alleging mishandling of injuries by the coaches and by the medical staff. And other players have echoed that concern, too. And not just of the medical mistreatment, but similar harassment – not racially motivated, it doesn’t sound like on the football side, by claims of trying to force football players to give up their scholarships and just harass them to leave the team.

SIEGEL: Well, the Chancellor of the University of Illinois says that this, I assume, is being addressed by the external review that she says we should wait for. What review is that? Who’s doing it?

RYAN: Right. So there’s two law firms, but it’s been ongoing for two months now with no revealing of what they’ve discovered at all or where they are in that point of it. So for Illinois alumni and fans of the program – players – there’s this level of anxiety, I think, and just fans feeling like the program’s a bit of a mess there.

SIEGEL: That’s reporter Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune. Thanks for talking with us.

RYAN: Thank you.

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Health July 8, 2015

Tools ease choice of health insurance

As the number of people with higher-deducible health insurance plans increases, and consumers clamor for a better understanding of costs, more insurance providers are providing tools to aid in transparency. An annual census by the…

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Business July 8, 2015

Greece By The Numbers

The drachma was Greece's currency before it joined the eurozone in 2001. There's now talk that Greece could leave the euro and return to its old currency, though economists say the transition would be difficult and the drachma would likely be extremely weak.

The drachma was Greece’s currency before it joined the eurozone in 2001. There’s now talk that Greece could leave the euro and return to its old currency, though economists say the transition would be difficult and the drachma would likely be extremely weak. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Greek crisis is messy and complicated, filled with nebulous terms being casually tossed around. Most every story has obligatory mentions of “austerity,” “bailouts” and “capital controls,” but it can be difficult to determine what, precisely, all that jargon means.

So let’s stick to the numbers. Here’s a primer on some of the most important ones in the unfolding Greek drama:

2009: The year the crisis began. As the entire global economy reeled, Greece announced it had been understating its budget deficits for years. This upset its European partners, though at the time, it seemed like just one more financial problem among many. But more than five years and two bailouts later, Greece’s economic problems are more dire today than when this all began.

25: The percentage by which the Greek economy has contracted over the past five years. It’s an extraordinary figure for a country at peace, comparable to the U.S. Great Depression in the early 1930s.

25 (again): The Greek unemployment rate, in percent. That may actually understate the problem. The country’s critics say far too many workers are on the government payroll and should be let go. And the unemployment rate for those under 25 is staggering — it has been around 50 percent for several years now.

92: The actual income earned by a typical Greek citizen is 92 percent higher than the income reported to the government, according to a 2012 study. Tax evasion is endemic in Greece and a major contributor to the government’s budget shortfalls. Creditors are demanding this be addressed in return for a new rescue package.

60: The maximum number of euros that Greeks can withdraw from their bank accounts each day. That works out to about $66. However, ATMs are starting to run out of cash and the banks have now been closed for more than a week. It’s still not clear when they will reopen, and even more importantly, whether Greeks will respond by making a run on the banks and withdrawing all of their money immediately.

240 billion: The euros that international lenders have provided to Greece in recent years as part of the bailouts (around $264 billion at the current exchange rates). That’s a lot for a country of just 11 million people. But Greeks say much of the bailout money has simply gone to pay off earlier lenders and has not been used to rebuild the Greek economy. Hence the term “extend and pretend,” that’s often used to describe the process.

2: Percent of economic output that Greece contributes to the 19-country eurozone. Some European leaders and economists say that because Greece’s economy is small and the troubles have dragged on for so long, the country’s problems are unlikely to cause a broader contagion in Europe or beyond.

81: Percent of Greeks who say they want to remain in the eurozone, according to one recent poll. This may sound contradictory given Greece’s vote in Sunday’s referendum, where it rejected the terms proposed by its creditors. However, many Greeks say they want to keep close links to Europe but are tired of deals that inflict pain without leading to a solution. Critics say this shows Greece’s desire to have it both ways — it wants large sums of aid from Europe and other lenders without meeting the same standards of others in the eurozone.

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