April 2, 2017

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Business April 2, 2017

Xi Jinping Seeks Cooperation With U.S. Ahead Of China's Leadership Transition

A look at what President Donald Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping looks like from Beijing.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now we’re going to get a different view of the summit this time from Beijing. We turn to NPR’s Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn. Anthony, greetings. Thanks so much for talking with us.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: You’re very welcome, Michel.

MARTIN: So what does China want to get out of the summit?

KUHN: Well, remember, Michel, that this is a political transition year for China. President Xi Jinping is due to get a second five-year term this fall, so they do not want ties with Washington blowing up or getting in the way of that. They want high-level contacts with Washington to be regular, and they want more stability in their relationship than they’ve had so far under this administration.

Also remember Donald Trump was the candidate that I think most Chinese wanted to see win, and many Chinese like the fact that he’s a businessman. And they think they can negotiate with him. Some believe that he may even give China a chance to advance its global interests, perhaps, at the U.S.’s expense.

MARTIN: That actually leads me to where I wanted to go next. I mean, on the one hand, both Xi Jinping and Trump think of themselves as different from their predecessors. On the other hand, Trump had very strong language about China over the course of the campaign, and, you know, does any of that affect the chemistry at this meeting – or what do you think about that?

KUHN: Right. Well, you could, I suppose, argue that both of these men consider themselves sort of political strongmen, really stronger than men who came before them. They’ve both tried to increase the power of their offices and demanded loyalty from their subordinates. But I don’t think that’s necessarily enough to spark a budding bromance. Just because they have these ambitions it doesn’t mean that either of them will succeed in achieving them.

MARTIN: And Xi Jinping has made comments suggesting that China is poised to fill the vacuum that the U.S. says it wants to leave by pulling out of international commitments. What does he mean by that?

KUHN: Well, on a couple of occasions, you know, President Xi Jinping has spoken out for free trade, open markets, globalization, the Paris agreement on climate change, and Xi has been using these opportunities to show China as a heavyweight in global governance, providing public goods for the international community and defending the international order.

One thing I think that is pretty clear is that many people in China believe that the U.S. is losing soft power and moral high ground. So when the U.S. government hammers China over issues like torture, press freedoms, treatment of ethnic minorities, nepotism, corruption and conflict of interest in government, it rings pretty hollow. And we know this because we’ve been reading months worth of sort of crowing, jeering commentaries to that effect in China’s state-run media.

MARTIN: OK. So North Korea – nuclear weapons, wouldn’t that be a shared item of interest and a very pressing issue on the agenda for both countries? Is there anything that they can really hope to accomplish in this meeting?

KUHN: Well, they’ve got to do something about it because time is really running out before North Korea will get missiles with nuclear warheads capable of targeting U.S. territory. The problem is there is so much daylight between the U.S.’s and China’s positions. Both sides think the other side has to do the heavy lifting on this problem.

As far as Beijing is concerned, it wants the U.S. to provide North Korea with some sort of security guarantee in exchange for either freezing its nuclear programs or denuclearizing, as it’s already promised to do. The other problem is that both sides realize that the North Korean nuclear issue is tied into so many other things. So if Washington and Beijing get into a spat over trade, over Taiwan, over the South China Sea, the chances of cooperation on the North Korean nuclear issue will be very slim.

MARTIN: That was NPR’s Beijing correspondent Anthony Kuhn joining us from Beijing. Anthony, thanks so much for speaking with us.

KUHN: You bet, Michel.

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Sports April 2, 2017

South Carolina Takes Its First Women's NCAA Basketball Title

South Carolina forward A’ja Wilson (22) and her teammates celebrate their win over Mississippi State in the final of the NCAA women’s college basketball tournament on Sunday.

Eric Gay/AP

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Eric Gay/AP

Last updated at 9:30 p.m. ET

By now, it’s fair to say South Carolina is a better team than Mississippi State. The Gamecocks’ 67-55 win in the title game Sunday was South Carolina’s third — and most convincing — win over the Bulldogs this season.

The women’s first basketball championship is all the more impressive since the team lost senior center Alaina Coates to an ankle injury before the tournament started.

A’ja Wilson, the tournament’s deserving MOP (Most Outstanding Player), led the Gamecocks’ fourth quarter surge that put the game away. Six-foot-five-inch Wilson, who scored eight of her game-high 23 points that final quarter, came out in force with rebounds and blocked shots.

But Wilson certainly wasn’t the only South Carolina player of note. Shooting guards Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis made their usual contributions: Gray scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Davis scored 10 points.

The Gamecocks, as usual, played very good defense. Special mention should go to 5-foot-6-inches point guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore. She guarded Mississippi State point guard Morgan William, the Bulldogs star of the tournament, who hit the shot at the buzzer to beat UConn. Cuevas-Moore did a fantastic job of denying the ball from William, noticeably taking William out of her game.

The TV broadcasters reported that Mississippi State head coach Vic Shaefer yelled at William in the huddle, asking her if she was going to put in the maximum effort. Schaefer benched William for the entire fourth quarter — a painful moment for a player who came into the game as the tournament darling.

“William was upset, but answered questions with class, grace” tweeted ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel. “She’s still one of the big heroes in NCAA women’s tournament history.”

Asked if Vic Schaefer explained why she was out all 4th quarter, Morgan William showed total respect: “He doesn’t have to, he’s the coach.”

— Mechelle Voepel (@MechelleV) April 3, 2017

Not only was this South Carolina’s first ever women’s championship, it’s the first for head coach Dawn Staley. Staley was a highly decorated player in high school, college and the Olympics. She made several Final Fours playing for Virginia, but never won. She finally did, tonight, aThe lady Gamecocks earned their first national basketball title with a 67-55 win over Mississippi State. It’s also a first for former college player, Coach Dawn Staley, who had made several Final Fours for Virginia.s a coach.

Our original post follows:

Mississippi State plays South Carolina today for the championship of women’s Division I college basketball and no, that is not a typo. Four-time defending champion UConn is not playing for a fifth straight title because, of course, Mississippi State upset the Huskies Friday night in a national semifinal game.

What’s being called the greatest upset in the history of women’s college basketball delivered impressive TV ratings and was, according to ESPN, the most-streamed Women’s Final Four game ever, based on total viewers.

Will it be a hard act to follow? Definitely. But for fans who marveled at the way Mississippi State outplayed UConn for most of the game, they can expect more of the same great basketball today.

“To make it this far and not finish it off, that would be tough,” Bulldogs point guard Morgan William told the Washington Post yesterday.

“We’d just be the underdogs who got lucky.”

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley.

Rich Pedroncelli/AP

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Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Morgan and more

Finishing it off means beating a South Carolina team that won both of its matchups with Mississippi State this season — the most recent, a 10-point win in last month’s Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game.

But as the Bulldogs showed Friday, they are a talented, driven group that has every reason to believe the sports adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times.

William, of course, is the Bulldog of the moment — the 5–foot-5-inch player nicknamed “Itty Bitty,” sank the winning jump shot at the buzzer against UConn. It was her second straight spectacular performance. She scored 41 points in Mississippi State’s win over number one seed Baylor in the Elite Eight.

“I feel like with her and with us it’s heart over height,” Bulldogs forward Breanna Richardson said in the Washington Post. “You can’t dictate the play of someone based on how short they are. You have to take them for who they are, and I feel like Morgan is making a statement for that across the world.”

“Heart over height” is a nice motto. But in fact, height also is one of the reasons Mississippi State is playing for the championship. Six-foot-7-inch sophomore center Teaira McCowan gave UConn fits inside. Senior post player Chinwe Okorie is 6 feet 5 inches tall.

Junior guard Victoria Vivians is another important part of this team. ESPN.com women’s basketball writer Mechelle Voepel says Vivians was the recruit head coach Vic Schaefer pursued the hardest when he took over the program in 2012.

“She was a scoring sensation as a schoolgirl in Mississippi,” Voepel says, “and [Schaefer] felt that if Mississippi State was going to have a chance to be a great program, it was going to have to keep [Vivians] in state.”

Voepel says Vivians has struggled at times this season with her scoring. Schaefer took her out of the starting lineup at the start of the NCAA tournament, but put her back in before the Regional final against Baylor. Vivians responded and, Voepel says, “She’s been a really crucial factor in the wins over Baylor and UConn.”

But while Mississippi state has the talent, heart and a sudden national following, the Bulldogs face an extremely tough opponent in South Carolina.

Third time a charm? Maybe not

Yes, it’s hard to beat a team three times –- but there are a number of reasons why the Gamecocks could do that with Mississippi State.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley is past her playing prime but the former college, pro and Olympic star has her Gamecocks poised to make the most of their first-ever appearance in the championship game.

Morgan William darts like a waterbug on the court, but South Carolina guards have a lot of speed as well, particularly the Gamecock’s itty bitty, 5-foot-6-inch point guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore.

Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) and Connecticut guard Kia Nurse (11) dive attempting to win control of a loose ball during an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women’s Final Four, Friday March 31, 2017, in Dallas.

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As is often the case with South Carolina, a big factor in Sunday’s game is how well A’ja Wilson plays. Wilson is a 6-foot-5-inch first team All American. She doesn’t have her counterpart, senior center Alaina Coates, to share duties around the basket. Coates has been out with an ankle injury for the entire tournament and Wilson’s had to carry the load inside. How she battles Mississippi State’s “bigs” could play a big role in the game’s outcome.

Even if the Bulldogs contain Wilson, South Carolina can rely on offense from shooting guards Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis and defense. Always defense with the Gamecocks, who, in the two games against Mississippi State this season, held Bulldogs top scorer Vivians under her season average.

Don’t forget the Huskies

This will be the first time since 2012 that women’s Division I college basketball crowns a champion not named UConn. But don’t shed a tear for the Huskies – it appears they’ll be back in the title picture very soon.

All the key players who went 36-0 this season before losing Friday night, will be back next season. UConn signed the top incoming high school player in the country, high-scoring 6-foot-1-inch guard Megan Walker and the Huskies have two top transfers, both post players, including 6-foot-6-inch Azura Stevens who played two seasons at Duke and whose transfer prompted criticism of UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. Friday, his critics had a measure of satisfaction. But anti-UConn gloaters beware. The Huskies now have the best talent, again, and an edge. Losing makes a team cranky even if the losses are several years apart.

And as ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel points out, the last time UConn lost in the NCAA tournament was 2012. Notre Dame beat the Huskies in overtime, in a national semifinal game.

UConn went on to win the next four national championships.

Meaning, perhaps, Mississippi State, or South Carolina — enjoy tonight while you can.

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Health April 2, 2017

With Obamacare Here to Stay, Some States Revive Medicaid Expansion

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback opposes legislative efforts to expand the state’s Medicaid program.

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Kansas state Sen. Barbara Bollier is a Republican who has been fighting for years to get her colleagues to agree to expand Medicaid.

For years she pushed against what she described as a “Tea Party-ish” Senate and a governor who wouldn’t consider the issue. In return for her efforts, she was stripped of her committee assignments and sidelined.

But in last November’s election, the makeup of the Kansas legislature moved decidedly to the center. And last week, the state’s Senate joined the House in agreeing to expand eligibility for Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, to about 150,000 more Kansans.

“This has been a long time and a hard road,” Bollier said in an interview shortly after the vote.

The vote had reverberations back in Washington, D.C., because it came just days after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives failed in their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. That failure breathed new life into efforts in the states expand Medicaid as the law allows.

In all, 31 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. The majority acted so that the expansion went into effect in 2014. A handful of states, including Louisiana and Montana, that first rejected the expansion have since embraced it.

But those efforts face the same political and ideological fights that have plagued health care policy in Washington,

You could hear the echoes in Topeka last week.

State Sen. Ty Masterson, a Republican, urged his colleagues to reject expanding Medicaid because it was part of the Affordable Care Act. He likened the federal health law to a broken amusement park ride.

“We’re standing at an amusement park ride that’s closed. It’s broken. And we’re saying we want to go ahead and get on the ride,” Masterson said. “There is a reason there is nobody in line behind us. Sign’s up: ‘Out of Order.’ I don’t want to be first in that line. I want to get out of that line.”

But Bollier says the Affordable Care Act is here to stay, and that makes taking federal money to expand health care to the poor, which has overwhelming support in the public, a no-brainer.

“I’ve never had anything like that in the legislature,” she said. “It was just overwhelming support. Not just support; begging, pleading, ‘Please, we desperately need this in place.’ “

Bollier is a doctor, the daughter of a doctor and a nurse. She says getting health care to the working poor shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

“I have yet to meet a patient who comes in and says, ‘I’m a Republican,’ or ‘I’m Democrat, so mete out my care accordingly,’ ” she said.

The law allows states to offer Medicaid coverage to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,400 for a single adult. It also extended eligibility to “able-bodied” adults with no children for the first time.

But Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback didn’t see it that way. On Thursday, he vetoed the bill.

“It fails to serve the truly vulnerable before the able-bodied, lacks work requirements to help able-bodied Kansans escape poverty, and burdens the state budget with unrestrainable entitlement costs,” he said in a statement. Brownback said he also opposed it because it allowed government money to go the what he called “the abortion industry.”

Bollier calls the governor’s’ arguments “disingenuous.”

“He keeps claiming we just can’t afford this,” she says. “You afford what you choose. Where you place your money is a reflection of your value system.”

Now Bollier and other proponents are working furiously to change just two of their colleagues’ minds in hopes of overriding that veto — perhaps as soon as Monday.

About 1,200 miles due east from the fight in Topeka is Richmond, Va.

When it comes to Medicaid expansion, the two capital cities are mirror images.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is a Democrat pushing his Republican legislature to expand Medicaid.

“I have had more excuses out of our Republican general assembly, none of them correct,” McAuliffe tells Shots. “The most recent argument was this was going to be repealed. Well, now it’s not. It’s not going away.”

McAuliffe says about 400,000 Virginians could be eligible for Medicaid under an expansion. And the Federal government would send $2.4 billion a year to the state to cover the costs.

But the legislature in Richmond isn’t buying it.

In a statement, Virginia’s Republicans said they’re still against the proposal.

“The House Republican majority remains strongly opposed to implementing ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion in Virginia,” the statement said. “Virginia can barely afford our current program, much less an expansion. Every dollar spent on Medicaid is one less that can be spent on education, transportation or public safety.”

McAuliffe says the barrier is political. Among Virginia Republicans, the specter of U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor unexpectedly losing his primary battle two years ago looms large.

“My legislature is terrified of the Tea Party,” McAuliffe says. “That’s the only reason they’re not voting for it. Because they’re afraid they’ll get taken out in the primary, plain and simple.”

So in Virginia, expanding Medicaid remains a long shot.

But up north, in Augusta, Maine, lawmakers have handed the question to the people after that state’s governor vetoed measures passed by the legislature five different times.

Tom Saviello is that state’s representative for Franklin County, a poor rural district where many people have no health care coverage.

Expanding Medicaid would make people healthier, bring in federal money and help the local hospital that’s struggling to care for all the people who can’t pay, he says.

“To me it was a no-brainer, absolutely a no-brainer,” says Saviello, a Republican, in an interview.

He sponsored bills to expand Medicaid in the past that were vetoed by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. Then on Election Day, a citizens group collected enough signatures — 67,000 — in a single day to put the question to a referendum. Saviello says he withdrew his latest bill in order to let the public decide.

“Because we have the citizens’ petition, we’re putting it in the citizens’ hands,” he says.

Polls show that 60 percent of Mainers want to expand Medicaid, Saviello says.

So come November, he predicts: “It’s going to happen. It’s coming.”

James McLean from member station KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

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