February 2, 2018

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Entertainment February 2, 2018

The Week in Movie News: Best of Sundance, 'Ant-Man and the Wasp' Trailer and More

Need a quick recap on the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:

BIG NEWS

Tom Hanks to Play “Mister Rogers”: Hollywood nice guy Tom Hanks is set to portray PBS nice guy Fred Rogers in a biopic about the children’s television icon, who hosted Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Read more here.

GREAT NEWS

F. Gary Gray to direct Men in Black sequel: Following his success with Straight Outta Compton and The Fate of the Furious, F. Gary Gray has been tapped to direct the next Men in Black movie, which will involve new characters. Read more here.

FESTIVAL BUZZ

The best of Sundance 2018: We went to Sundance and now have a lot of new movies to recommend, so we compiled a guide to what you need to put on your must-watch list from this year’s festival. Check out our picks here.

AWARDS BUZZ

Where to watch the Oscar nominees: We compiled a guide to help you catch up with all of this year’s Oscar nominees before the big awards show next month. Check out our exclusive listing here.

COOL CULTURE

Ant-Man and the Wasp Easter eggs: The folks at ScreenCrush pored through the new Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer for hidden Easter eggs and offer explanation for those details and more. Watch the video below.

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MUST-WATCH TRAILERS

Ant-Man and the Wasp promises some humorous action: The first trailer for the Marvel sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp showcases Evangeline Lily’s promotion to badass costumed hero while reminding us of the comedic elements to look forward to. Watch it here:

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The 2018 Oscar-nominated shorts have big appeal: This year’s Oscar nominees in the three short film categories will be playing together on the big screen this month, and there’s a new trailer spotlighting them all. Watch it here:

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The First Purge teases the beginning: The first teaser for the next Purge movie, a prequel going back to the start, debuted as a fake political ad. Check it out here:

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Business February 2, 2018

Stock Market Sees Its Worst Weekly Performance In 2 Years

The stock market took a big dive on Friday amid growing worries about inflation. The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 666 points, or 2.54 percent. The market saw its worst weekly performance in two years.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

It has been a long time since the stock market has seen a day as bad as this one. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 666 points. That is a 2 and a half percent drop. And it caps off a pretty bad week on Wall Street. NPR’s Jim Zarroli is going to explain to us what’s happening. Hi, Jim.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: The story all year has been record highs in the stock market. What’s going on?

ZARROLI: Yeah. The stock market has been on a tear. I mean, the Dow is up 25 percent last year. Then it just kept blowing past, you know, 24,000, 25,000, 26,000. President Trump is bragging about how well the stock market has done. And this week, it just seemed like, you know, this giant bucket of cold water was thrown in everybody’s face. And that really intensified today. All these big stocks like ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, Apple – they were all down. And it wasn’t just stocks. It was bonds. It was commodities like oil. It was just – you know, it was your basic bloodbath.

SHAPIRO: And one of the things that makes it so weird is that the day started with pretty good economic news – employers adding jobs, average hourly earnings rising. So can you explain what accounts for the steep drop-off?

ZARROLI: Yeah. I think the jobs report was actually part of the problem today, not that it was bad. I mean, it was actually solid. But the wage gains were a problem. They have a lot of investors wondering, you know, are we going too fast? Are we going to see more inflation? You know, the Fed is already raising interest rates. Does that mean it’s going to raise them even faster?

Then you have these big tax cuts taking effect, which means people could be spending more. The government’s going to have to borrow more. What’s that going to mean? So I think there’s just this more cautious outlook at least about inflation and that the jobs report just poured gasoline on the fire.

SHAPIRO: It’s kind of counterintuitive that for a long time people have been saying, yeah, the stock market’s great, but wages aren’t going up. And now wages go up. And the stock market drops.

ZARROLI: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: Could political events have any impact on this, be part of the reason behind it? Of course this memo story is just blowing up Washington today. Could that be one of the factors?

ZARROLI: I don’t think so. I mean, the memo was released in the morning. And the real – the drop today in the stocks really intensified later in the day, in the afternoon. So if there’s a connection, it’s hard to see. In fact, you know, you could say the markets have generally been shrugging off this Russia investigation. The markets are supposed to hate instability. You always hear that. And of course this is nothing if not an unpredictable time. But, you know, this investigation has been going on for months, and stock prices have just been going up and up and up almost regardless of that.

SHAPIRO: Put this in perspective for us. We said it was a 666-point drop. That sounds like a lot – 2 and a half percentage points. How bad is this?

ZARROLI: Well, you know, we need to keep it in perspective. This is one bad week. Stocks are still up for the year. The stock market was really due to come down anyway. I mean, we have these corrections. They’re normal. You can’t have stocks rising at these levels all the time. The economy is still growing. We have a very tight job market. Companies are reporting good profits.

But we are – you know, as I said, we’re starting to see the mood shift a little bit. Interest rates have come up. They rose quite a bit today. The yield on the 10-year bond was up a lot. They’re still not high in historic terms, but they are rising, and that does have an effect on the economy. That affects people’s mortgages and auto loans. It affects credit cards. So, you know, people have been feeling really optimistic for a long time about where the economy is going, especially in the past year. But I think days like this are just kind of a reminder, you know, the sky is not the limit.

SHAPIRO: A reality check there from NPR’s Jim Zarroli. Thanks a lot.

ZARROLI: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2018 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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Sports February 2, 2018

How The Quarterbacks From The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles Compare

The two starting quarterbacks in Sunday’s Super Bowl couldn’t be more different. The New England Patriots have Tom Brady a five-time champion and global icon. The Philadelphia Eagles have Nick Foles, who doesn’t have such a long list of accomplishments.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Sunday’s Super Bowl has one big mismatch – the quarterbacks. On the defending champion, New England Patriots, you have Tom Brady. On the short list of all-time greatest quarterbacks, he is also obscenely rich and husband to Gisele Bundchen, one of the most famous supermodels in the world. The Philadelphia Eagles have Nick Foles. A sportswriter once described him as, quote, “contrite, non-charismatic, cautious, churchgoing.” Personality aside, Foles was playing backup quarterback only two months ago. Before signing with the Eagles this season, he was considering retiring.

So is it as big a mismatch as that might sound? Well for more on that, we turn to Bob Ford. He is sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hello, there.

BOB FORD: Hello, Mary Louise, great to be with you.

KELLY: Great to have you with us. Who is Nick Foles? Tell us a little bit about him.

FORD: Well, up to this point, he’s been sort of a quarterback that’s bounced around a little bit – really didn’t have a great career. In some ways, he doesn’t have a past. In some ways, he might not have a future after this game. So this is really his moment. And whether he’s going to be remembered or not is going to be largely accountable to what happens in the game on Sunday. So that’s quite a spot he’s in.

KELLY: You’re saying potentially he could win the Super Bowl as quarterback for the Eagles, and you’re not sure he has a future in the sport?

FORD: Well, I think he has a future as a backup again. I think the Eagles are very much committed to keeping Carson Wentz as their young, up-and-coming quarterback. And he’ll get the job back once he recovers from surgery. And Nick Foles will return to his role in the shadows.

KELLY: Now he is known for having had one magic year. He killed it in 2013. He was playing for the Eagles. What happened?

FORD: Well, they had a new coach that year, Chip Kelly. And Chip Kelly brought a lot of different methods to the game. And it took a little bit of time for the defenses around the league to catch up with what those were – and catch up they did. But in the interim, as you said, Nick Foles won 8 out of 10 games. He threw 27 touchdowns – only two interceptions. It was magical. But I also think that was a bit of a mirage given what came afterward.

KELLY: And what came afterward?

FORD: Well, the next season they didn’t do quite as well. Nick broke his collarbone. He got traded to the St. Louis Rams. He was a disaster there. And he rebounded as a backup last year in Kansas City before coming back to Philadelphia. So at 29, having had contemplated retirement, he was probably just going to be a career guy who stood on the sideline in a baseball hat and clapped his hands until Carson Wentz got hurt.

KELLY: Wow, and here he is in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Well, let me ask you this. Does he enjoy the advantage of being the underdog? I mean, the expectations are low compared to what Tom Brady is up against.

FORD: Well, I think Nick is used to being the underdog. He was, you know, lightly recruited for college. He was certainly lightly thought of coming out of college. He was only a third round pick of the Eagles. No one has ever been overwhelmed by his athleticism. So I think for Nick being an underdog, this is nothing new. And the fact that he’s an underdog in the Super Bowl to Tom Brady is not only a comfortable place for him, but it’s expected.

KELLY: How have fans in Philadelphia taken to him?

FORD: Well, it’s a little like finding out that your garage mechanic can also do open heart surgery if you really needed him to…

(LAUGHTER)

FORD: …Because they didn’t think all that much of Nick when he came back. And they love, love, love Carson Wentz. So when Carson Wentz tore his knee ligament, was lost for the season, there was certainly a sense of, OK, it’s not about this season anymore. We’re just going to build for the future. And then all of a sudden, Nick Foles won two playoff games. And here they are in the Super Bowl. And as I said, it’s unexpected. But for a town that has not had all that many championships recently, they’ll take any shot they can get.

KELLY: And what do you think? How big a shot is it? Can he and the Eagles beat Tom Brady and the Patriots on Sunday?

FORD: Let me put it this way. The hardest thing about winning the Super Bowl, Mary Louise, is getting into it. Once you’re in it, you have a puncher’s chance. I think if they played this game ten times, the Patriots would win seven. But they’re only going to play at once, so it could it could be one of those three. So they certainly have a chance. Funny things happen in this game. The ball bounces around funny. And, yeah, they certainly have a chance.

KELLY: Bob Ford, thanks very much.

FORD: Mary Louise, my pleasure.

KELLY: Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer talking about Nick Foles, quarterback for the Eagles, and what kind of shot he has at a Super Bowl ring come Sunday.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOUTHERN CREEK PLAYERS’ “FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS”)

Copyright © 2018 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 February 2, 2018

Indiana Adds Work Requirement To Medicaid, Will Block Coverage If Paperwork Is Late

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced federal approval for changes to Indiana’s Medicaid program Friday in Indianapolis.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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Indiana on Friday became the second state to win federal approval to add a work requirement for adult Medicaid recipients who gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act. A less debated provision in the state’s new plan could lead to tens of thousands of people losing coverage if they fail to complete paperwork documenting their eligibility for the program.

The federal approval was announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in Indianapolis.

Medicaid participants who fail to promptly submit paperwork showing they still qualify for the program will be locked out of enrollment for three months, according to updated rules.

Since November 2015, more than 91,000 enrollees in Indiana have been kicked off Medicaid for failing to complete the eligibility redetermination process, according to state records. The process requires applicants to show proof of income and family size, among other things, to see whether they still qualify for the coverage.

Until now, these enrollees could simply reapply anytime. Although many of those people very likely weren’t eligible anymore, state officials estimate about half of those who failed to comply with its re-enrollment rules still qualified for Medicaid coverage.

Indiana expanded Medicaid starting in February 2015, providing coverage to 240,000 people who were previously uninsured. The change helped lower the state’s uninsured rate from 14 percent in 2013 to 8 percent last year.

The HHS approval of the state’s waiver extends the program, which was expiring this month, through 2020.

The new lockout builds on one Indiana already had in place for people who failed to pay monthly premiums and had annual incomes above the federal poverty level, or about $12,200 for an individual. Locked-out people are barred for six months from coverage. During the first two years of the experiment, about 10,000 Indiana Medicaid enrollees were subject to the lockout for failing to pay the premium for two months in a row, according to state data. In addition, more than 25,000 enrollees were dropped from the program when they failed to make the payments, although half of them found another source of coverage — usually through their jobs.

An additional 46,000 were blocked from coverage because they failed to make the initial payment.

“The ‘lockout’ is one of the worst policies to hit Medicaid in a long time,” says Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “Forcing people to remain uninsured for months because they missed a paperwork deadline or missed a premium payment is too high a price to pay. From a health policy perspective it makes no sense because during that six-month period, chronic health conditions such as hypertension or diabetes are just likely to worsen.”

Indiana’s Medicaid expansion is being closely watched in part because it was spearheaded by then-Gov. Mike Pence, now vice president, and his top health consultant, Seema Verma, who heads the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The expansion, known as Healthy Indiana, enabled nondisabled adults access to Medicaid. It has elicited criticism from patient advocates for complex and onerous rules that require these poor adults to make payments ranging from $1 to $27 per month into health savings accounts or risk losing their vision and dental benefits — or even all their coverage, depending on their income level.

Indiana Medicaid officials say they added the newest lockout provision in an effort to prompt enrollees to get their paperwork submitted on time. The state initially requested a six-month lockout.

“Enforcement may encourage better compliance,” the state officials wrote in their waiver application to CMS in July.

The new rule will lead to a 1 percent cut in Medicaid enrollment in the first year, state officials said. It will also lead to a $15 million reduction in Medicaid costs in 2018 and about $32 million in savings in 2019, the state estimated.

The number of Medicaid enrollees losing coverage for failing to comply with redetermining their eligibility has varied dramatically each quarter from a peak of 19,197 from February 2016-April 2017 to 1,165 from November 2015-January 2016, state reports show. In the latest state report, 12,470 enrollees lost coverage from August to October 2017.

The Kentucky Medicaid waiver approved by the Trump administration in January included a similar lockout provision for failing to pay the monthly premiums or providing paperwork on time. Penalties there are six months for both measures. But the provision was overshadowed because of the attention to the first federal approval for a Medicaid work requirement.

Like Kentucky’s, the Indiana Medicaid waiver work requirements, which mandate adult enrollees to work an average of 20 hours a month, go into effect in 2019. But Indiana’s waiver is more lenient. It exempts people age 60 and over and its work-hour requirements are gradually phased in over 18 months. For example, enrollees need to work only five hours per week until their 10th month in the program.

Most adult Medicaid enrollees do work or go to school or are too sick to work, studies show.

Indiana also has a long list of exemptions and alternatives to employment. This includes attending school or job training, volunteering, or caring for a dependent child or disabled parent. Nurses, doctors and physician assistants can give enrollees an exemption for illness or injury.

Three patient advocacy groups have filed suit in federal court seeking to block the work requirements.

Kaiser Health News is a national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Phil Galewitz is a senior correspondent for KHN.

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