April 22, 2017

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Sports April 22, 2017

Saturday Sports: Serena Williams Is Pregnant

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine about tennis and Serena Williams’ pregnancy.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

And it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KELLY: Twenty weeks – that was the caption of a photo Serena Williams shared on Snapchat on Wednesday. Her spokeswoman confirmed the news that night. She’s pregnant. I’m joined now by Howard Bryant of ESPN and ESPN The Magazine. Hi there, Howard.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, how are you?

KELLY: I am well, thank you. I’m sitting here doing some back of the envelope math. Serena – she won the Australian Open back in January, less than 20 weeks ago, which means when she won it – when she dominated it, by the way – she didn’t drop a set – she was two months pregnant.

BRYANT: She was, which was – technically, it was a doubles tournament.

(LAUGHTER)

KELLY: On one side of the net at least.

BRYANT: On one side of the net, yes. Who knew that that final between Venus and Serena was actually a family affair – mother, child and aunt.

KELLY: More than we knew. Yeah, I mean…

BRYANT: She’s incredible. It’s absolutely an incredible story for her. And once again, I think when we were on this program, Scott and I talked about this before the Australian Open began, and we took a lot – well, I took a lot of criticism for this because people were asking about what Serena’s prospects for the year were going to be. And I thought that we were going to see a major change. And we were criticized, at least the show was criticized, because she had gotten engaged. And we don’t do that for men.

We don’t say that because a man is being – is about to get married that, suddenly, their entire life is going to change. But if you watch Serena over the past couple of seasons, especially last year, she’d only played eight tournaments. She played the majors. She played the Olympics, and she played a couple of smaller tournaments. And then this year, she gets engaged, and now it turns out that she was pregnant. She has been signaling for a while that there’s a new chapter for her, that this is – that tennis is not forever for her. And she’s made it very clear in a lot of sort of vague ways. But if you’re paying attention to her, you can sort of understand where she’s coming from.

KELLY: OK. But I got to – I’m got a jump on you there because she is 35. As you said, you wouldn’t say this about a man. She’s going to have take maternity leave, but has she said she’s not coming back?

BRYANT: Well, she said she is planning on coming back. However, the difference is that Roger Federer has four children. He never took any time off. Of course, you have to take time off if you want to start a family, and that is the difference. But the one thing that’s been really interesting about Serena is that she hasn’t really hidden the fact that there’s life after tennis for her, and there’s life during tennis for her.

I mean, one of the interesting things for a female tennis player is – Victoria Azarenka is another example who actually did take time off. She had a baby boy, and she’s supposed to come back this year. At 35…

KELLY: Which is what Serena is, yeah.

BRYANT: Which is what Serena’s going to be 36 after having done everything that you could possibly do. Let’s have a little perspective about her, too. She’s been playing tennis since she was four years old. She turned pro in 1995. She’s been doing this her entire life. And my attitude has been that if, indeed, Serena comes back, then it would be an amazing story.

She could be like Kim Clijsters who had a baby at 23, 24 and came back and won two majors. She came back and won the U.S. Open back to back. But if she doesn’t, look at what Serena Williams has done for tennis and for the American story. She has given everybody everything they could ask for and more.

KELLY: We’ve just got a few seconds left. But in those few seconds, Howard, what’s this going to mean for the women’s tour? I mean, Serena has been the ticket – the people – the person people come to see.

BRYANT: Yeah, she’s the main draw, and that’s the big thing. Obviously, Maria Sharapova coming back from suspension – I think the WTA could use that. But let’s face it, both American tennis and the WTA has been dreading the day that Venus and Serena are no longer there because they are what makes the game go. But it’s a great sport.

KELLY: Yeah, we’ll see if there’s baby pics (ph) at the (unintelligible) in a few years. Howard Bryant…

BRYANT: Wouldn’t that be something?

KELLY: Yeah, it would be. Howard Bryant of ESPN, thank you.

BRYANT: Thank you.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health April 22, 2017

Rep. Dan Donovan On The New GOP Health Care Overhaul Effort

House Republicans failed to coalesce around a health care overhaul in March. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly asks Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., if the party’s conservative and moderate wings can compromise.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

We begin this hour with rumblings that a health care bill may be back on the table. You’ll recall that didn’t go so well back in March. Last month, Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That would be President Obama’s signature health care law. But conservative Freedom Caucus Republicans could not reach a compromise with their more moderate colleagues, so might this new push fare better? Republican Congressman Dan Donovan is on the line. He represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn. And he opposed the March bill, saying it wouldn’t negatively affect his constituents. Congressman, good morning.

DAN DONOVAN: Good morning, Mary Louise. Thanks for having me on today.

KELLY: We are glad to have you on today. Have you seen this new health care proposal? Is it clear to you what’s different?

DONOVAN: We haven’t seen all of it. There was an amendment that was dropped by a member of the Freedom Caucus and a member of the more moderate Tuesday Group on Thursday. But I am sure there’s other modifications, tweaks, amendments that the staff has been working on to try to get this to a 216 vote.

KELLY: OK, so the 216 that would be needed to get it out of the House. Well, from what you have seen, has it changed enough from the March version to win your vote?

DONOVAN: It hasn’t, Mary Louise. It maybe…

KELLY: It has not.

DONOVAN: There may be other people who these modifications help get them from a no vote to a yes vote, but for the people I represent – I’m the only Republican member of New York City. This is a very harmful bill to New York City. It’s going to add tax burdens to city residents without receiving any further benefits. What it was going to do to seniors – allowing insurance companies to charge seniors five times as much as they charge a young healthy person. Right now, the law’s three times as much, so – at a time when seniors are working, living on a more moderate and limited income at a time in their lives when they probably need the health care more than they need in their early years. I think this is going to be harmful to them.

KELLY: So those are – and these are the same concerns that you were expressing back in March – that you thought this would be harmful to your constituents. Based on the parts you’ve seen, does this new version address some of the concerns that the Freedom Caucus Republicans had?

DONOVAN: It may have. I think it’s going to give states some more freedoms to waive out of allowing companies to give affordable and essential health care benefits. They’re going to need more wiggle room for the states to decide what’s best for people in their states. And essential benefits was one of the sticking points, so now states can opt out of covering those. I think some of the folks who were no votes may become yes votes just for that one issue.

KELLY: It sounds like this newest plan to overhaul health care is very much a moving target. Like, you’re going to have an interesting week coming up.

DONOVAN: I believe so. We also have to deal with this – the federal – the continuing resolution that’s keeping the federal government running.

KELLY: This is…

DONOVAN: We return to Congress on Tuesday and that expires on Friday, so I suspect that’s going to be the first thing on the plate to continue our government running after Friday. But the president has an ambitious agenda. He wants to do health care. He wants to do tax reform. He wants to get the infrastructure, which I’m sure is a priority of his. And so we’re going to go back to work. And I’m sure Congress could do more than one thing at a time, but I just want to get it right rather than getting it passed.

KELLY: And as you mentioned, you’ve got four days next week – these two huge things looming on the horizon – trying to keep the federal government from running out of money and putting a health care plan back on the table – which prompts the question – why try this health care overhaul again now?

DONOVAN: I think, Mary Louise, that to get to some of the other items, we’ve been told that you have to do health care first. There’s tax ramifications and any kind of repeal of the Affordable Care Act – eliminating the individual mandate and that employer mandate that’s going to have tax implications, so you have to do health care before you get to tax reform.

And I also think that when you look at a congressional year, when you look at a Congress, you really have two years to get things done. The entire House will be up for re-election next year. A third of Senate will be up next year. And although I’ve only been there for two years now, I suspect more work gets done during the first year than the second year in a Congress. And so I think the president realizes this and wants to get these three huge items done. And we really don’t have time to delay any of them.

KELLY: In just a few seconds, cynics might wonder whether part of getting health care back on the table is that the president’s 100-day mark is coming up. Is this – is this, in some way, a push to get a big, visible win out on the table in advance of that?

DONOVAN: That may be a part of it. Every president in recent history’s been measuring their accomplishments in their first hundred days. I think the president really wants to get this done with. He has three things to do in one calendar year. He knows how difficult that is. And so I think part of it may be the hundred-day review of his successes so far. But I really think you must get these three things done before we start to – we get these done in this calendar year.

KELLY: That’s Congressman Dan Donovan. He represents part of New York City, and, Congressmen – in Congress. Congressman, thanks so much.

DONOVAN: Thank you.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Business April 22, 2017

Buy A 3-Pack Of Wedding Rings, In Case You Lose One

Brighton Jones co-founded Enso rings — they’re squishy, stretchy and colorful. His is one of many companies now making alternatives to metal wedding bands.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Close your eyes and imagine this scene – you’re out for an evening walk with your beloved when they stop and drop to one knee and ask you to spend eternity with them. A little velvet box appears, and you pull out a purple plastic band?

BRIGHTON JONES: We get a lot of blowback from people finding this morally reprehensible that we would even suggest anything other than a $20,000 diamond.

KELLY: Brighton Jones co-founded Enso Rings. They’re squishy, stretchy, colorful. His is one of many companies now making alternatives to metal wedding bands. They pitch them to weightlifters, to nurses who don’t want to rip their latex gloves and to lovers of the great outdoors like Jones himself.

JONES: So a few years ago, I was rock climbing and I fell. And on the way down, my wedding ring got cut on the rock face. And there was that split second, you know, where, oh, I’m going to lose the finger. And fortunately, the rock actually broke off. And so when I landed on the ground, though, my body was trembling. And it was a very sobering experience, and my resolve at that point was to not wear my wedding ring anymore. It just wasn’t worth it.

KELLY: Eventually, his wife started to wonder why he wasn’t publicly showing his commitment to her – enter the soft $10 polymer ring. You can buy them in three packs. Jones says they are not meant to replace a traditional metal band just something you can slip on when you’re headed to the gym. Still, a little weird to buy a three pack of wedding rings.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE CLAW PHILHARMONIC SONG, “PACHELBEL CANON IN D”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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