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Sports March 29, 2016

World Cup Qualifying: U.S. Men's Team — And Its Coach — Get Much-Needed Win

United States players celebrate a goal against Guatemala during the second half of a World Cup qualifying soccer match Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. The United States beat Guatemala 4-0. Jay LaPrete/AP hide caption

toggle caption Jay LaPrete/AP

The U.S. men’s national soccer team beat Guatemala 4-0 Tuesday night in a crucial World Cup qualifying game in Columbus, Ohio. With the victory, the U.S. will advance to the next round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Striker Clint Dempsey scored in the 12th minute to give the U.S. the early lead. Defender Geoff Cameron then managed to get on the end of a free kick from midfielder Michael Bradley to head the second goal home in the 35th minute.

U.S. coach Jürgen Klinsmann studies the play during a World Cup qualifier between his squad and Trinidad and Tobago in November in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Ashley Allen/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Ashley Allen/Getty Images

Just after halftime, midfielder Graham Zusi leveled a low shot to the left corner to give the U.S. a comfortable 3-0 lead. But the U.S. wasn’t letting up.

In the 85 minute, it looked like the U.S. had scored again when forward Jozy Altidore slid a pass to a streaking Ethan Finlay who hammered it home, but the play was called offside — a dubious call upon examination of the replay.

Altidore made up for it, burying a shot in the top left corner just before the final whistle.

Overall, the U.S. played like a completely different team than the one that was trounced 2-0 in by Guatemala in Guatemala City on Friday, in a performance that soccer commentator Craig Burley called “an utter shambles.”

Friday’s loss was the first time that the United States had lost to Guatemala in 21 games, and the latest in a number of disappointments for the U.S. while playing teams such as Jamaica, Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica. A loss Tuesday would’ve all but kept the U.S. out of the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

Much of the blame for the team’s spotty performance has been laid at the feet of coach Jürgen Klinsmann, one of the most famous names in international soccer. He was part of the German team that won the World Cup in 1990, and played for some of the world’s top teams — including AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich. As a manager, he coached the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup.

So it seemed like quite a coup when U.S. Soccer Federation signed Klinsmann to coach the men’s national team in July 2011. Although the U.S. made it to the Round of 16 in the World Cup in Brazil two years ago, his tenure has been controversial. Klinsmann has many defenders, but even some of those, such as SB Nation’s Bill Connelly, admit the overall record has been mixed.

Commentators like Graham Parker blame frequent changes in lineup and strategy. “The team feels as if it exists in a permanently provisional state,” he wrote in The Guardian on Saturday, and a number of others agree with the sentiment in this LA Times headline today: “Another loss to Guatemala could spell the end for U.S. soccer coach Jürgen Klinsmann”

In fact, before Tuesday night’s game, a banner flew over the stadium calling for Klinsmann to be fired. According to ESPN, the banner read “#FIREKLINSMANN HE’S A TINY LITTLE BIT BEHIND,” a mocking reference to Klinsmann’s explanation for why he left some players, like former U.S.-team captain Landon Donovan, off the 2014 World Cup roster.

The decisive win for the U.S. may give Klinsmann some breathing room for the final round of regional qualifying, which will begin in November.

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Entertainment March 28, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: Ash v Batman v Superman Poster, 'Jurassic Park' as a Disneynature Documentary and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Mashup Poster of the Day:

Bruce Campbell tweeted this poster for the movie he’d like to see follow Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:

Character History of the Day:

Did everyone like Jeremy Irons in Batman v Superman? Here’s a tribute to the movie versions of his character, Alfred Pennyworth (via The Playlist):

Reworked Trailer of the Day:

Now that Batman v Superman has proven successful enough, imagine if Marvel rethought Captain American: Civil War as darker. Here’s the “DC Edit” of the new trailer:

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

This kid dressed as BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens at WonderCon has gone viral. The guy dressed as the Matt the radar technician parody of Kylo Ren is pretty good, too (via Nerdist):

Classic Cartoon of the Day:

Today is the 80th anniversary of Disney‘s Silly Symphonies animated short Elmer Elephant. Watch the classic cartoon in full below.

[embedded content]

Reimagined Movie of the Day:

Here’s what Jurassic Park would look like as a Disneynature documentary about raptors (via Mashable):

[embedded content]

Trailer Redo of the Day:

You’ve seen the new trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse. Now watch it again re-created with footage from the ’90s X-Men cartoon (via Geek Tyrant):

[embedded content]

Film Studies Lesson of the Day:

Vox thinks lens flare has reached its peak but shares a history and explanation of the meaning of its use:

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Filmmaker in Focus:

Speaking of lens flares, here’s a mashup trailer of Steven Spielberg movies that go together with the teaser for his latest, The BFG (via Cinematic Montage Creators):

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 30th anniversary of Lucas. Watch the original trailer for the teen movie, which stars Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen, Kerri Green and a young Winona Ryder:

[embedded content]

and

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Business March 28, 2016

How To Build A Better Job

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Why do you work? Are you just in it for the money or do you do it for a greater purpose? Popular wisdom says your answer depends on what your job is. But psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski at Yale University finds it may have more to do with how we think about our work. Across groups such as secretaries and custodians and computer programmers, Wrzesniewski finds people about equally split in whether they say they have a “job,” a “career” or a “calling.” This week on Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam talks with Wrzesniewski about how we find meaning and purpose at work.

The Hidden Brain Podcast is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Kara McGuirk-Alison, Maggie Penman and Max Nesterak. To subscribe to our newsletter, click here. You can also follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain, @karamcguirk, @maggiepenman and @maxnesterak, and listen for Hidden Brain stories every week on your local public radio station.

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Sports March 28, 2016

In Vast FIFA Scandal, Ex-President Of Honduras Pleads Guilty To Taking Bribes

Former Honduran President Rafael Callejas leaves federal court in New York City on Monday after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in a wide-ranging FIFA soccer scandal. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

toggle caption Richard Drew/AP

In the latest development in the FIFA soccer scandal, Rafael Callejas, a former president of Honduras and the head of the country’s soccer federation from 2002 to 2015, pleaded guilty to corruption charges. He had been accused of taking bribes in steering lucrative broadcast rights.

According to the Department of Justice, Callejas “negotiated and accepted bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for his agreement to exercise his influence as the president of [the Honduran soccer federation] to award contracts to Media World, a Florida sports marketing company.”

The contracts covered the “media and marketing rights to the Honduran national soccer team’s home World Cup qualifier matches for the 2014, 2018, and 2022 editions of the World Cup,” the DOJ said in a statement.

In federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday, Callejas pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports that Callejas faces up to four decades in prison and has agreed to forfeit $650,000. Callejas is set to be sentenced in August.

According to The Associated Press, Callejas “told the judge that he had accepted bribes and distributed some of the money to others. He said he knew it was wrong.”

The disgraced leader, who was president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994, also agreed to forfeit $650,000.

His guilty plea is the latest victory in the fight against corruption in the world soccer governing body. Last May, the U.S. indicted 14 FIFA officials, seven of whom were arrested at a hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Then in December, the U.S. indicted an additional 16 defendants. As the Two-Way reported at the time:

“Seven officials named in [the] announcement are from North America’s soccer federation, CONCACAF, and nine are from South America’s federation, CONMEBOL. Of the 16 new defendants, all of whom are facing charges including racketeering, five are current or former members of the FIFA executive committee.”

In the December crackdown, the AP notes, those five current and former members of the executive committee were arrested at the same Zurich hotel where the arrest of the seven FIFA officials occurred six months earlier.

The news service adds that “the Justice Department has said that numerous guilty pleas in the case have resulted in agreements to forfeit over $190 million, and another $100 million has been restrained in the U.S. and abroad.”

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Health March 28, 2016

A Crisis With Scant Data: States Move To Count Drug-Dependent Babies

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Annette Elizabeth Allen for NPR

How do you fix a problem if you don’t know its size?

Many states — including some that have been hardest hit by the opioid crisis — don’t know how many of their youngest residents each year are born physically dependent on those drugs. They rely on estimates.

Pennsylvania is one of those states. Ted Dallas, head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, calls the information he’s working with “reasonably good.”

“Data is never pristine when you’re dealing with 2.7 million people,” he says. “Do I think it gives you a good picture of the issues that are out there? Yes.”

Between 2013 and 2014 in Pennsylvania, Dallas says, about 3,700 of the babies on Medicaid, the government’s health insurance for the poor and disabled, were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Statistics show that 31 died before their first birthday — and neonatal abstinence syndrome likely played a role in some of those deaths.

Still, it’s not all the data Dallas would like to have. The statistics are two years old, he says, and only count babies who are covered by Medicaid. That’s just a slice of Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million people. More comprehensive, statewide numbers would have to come from Pennsylvania’s Department of Health — and that agency isn’t keeping track.

With more complete information, Dallas says, the state would be able to better deploy resources as it tries to solve a health problem that’s getting worse. With the right resources, there is an upside to this aspect of the opioid crisis: Babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome who get the right care usually do recover. But their care is expensive, and takes time.

“These babies are very work-intensive,” says Dr. David Wolf, who works in the neonatal intensive care unit in PinnacleHealth’s Harrisburg Hospital. “Our nurses are on the front lines. They have to deal with the minute-to-minute symptoms.”

Cuddling or rocking the babies nearly nonstop is key to successful treatment, Wolf says, along with adjusting medication doses frequently in the first 48 hours of the child’s life, to start the process of weaning these newborns off opioids.

Each infant’s stay in the hospital can stretch past two or three weeks, and can cost $10,000 or much more. Then the babies need follow-up visits.

Pediatricians say that if the right agencies get real-time information, the babies are likely to get better care, and it’s more likely that hidden roots of the epidemic can be identified and addressed.

To make good decisions, health officials need basic information: Which infants are affected? How many, where, and why?

Pennsylvania might look to Tennessee’s tracking efforts. Tennessee reacted quickly when doctors started seeing a lot more cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome in 2012, recalls Dr. Michael Warren, a pediatrician and public health specialist with Tennessee’s Department of Health.

“We were hearing from hospitals across the state, that they were really, really full,” he says, “and in some cases, bursting at the seams.”

It’s now mandatory for doctors and hospitals to report cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome within 30 days, and Tennessee made it simple for them to do so.

“If you’ve ordered from Amazon or an online service and you’ve been able to do that, you can navigate this system with ease,” Warren says. “And truly, at the end of it, you click ‘submit’ and that case is reported to us at the Department of Health.”

The data that started rolling in shattered a number of stereotypes.

“I think sometimes there’s a tendency to say these are just those moms who are using illicit drugs or buying those drugs on the street,” Warren says. “But what the surveillance system has actually allowed us to see is that — in the majority of our cases — Mom is getting at least one substance that is prescribed to her by a health care provider.”

As a result, the state alerted doctors to the issue, recommending they try to change their prescribing habits, and offer alternatives to opioids, especially to pregnant patients. The evidence-based shift in prescribing recommendations only came about because health officials had solid data they could share.

When a public health crisis emerges, real-time data are especially important. Policymakers can use the information just as Tennessee did — to tailor solutions to the root causes. Otherwise solutions may miss the mark, or, if the data are old, come after the problem has festered and grown.

According to a 2014 report by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, at least a handful of other states have taken steps to get better, systematic data on babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Secretary Ted Dallas acknowledges his state is missing out.

“If we had better data generally, my theory would be we could make better decisions,” he says.

Just as I was wrapping up this story, the Pennsylvania Department of Health department called. Starting in July, officials there plan to start collecting data about all babies who are born dependent on opioids.

The system to collect the information is still being developed, officials there say, but neonatal abstinence syndrome will be added to the Pennsylvania’s list of reportable diseases, meaning that every time doctors diagnose a baby with the condition, they’ll be required to notify the state.

This story is the fourth of a four-part series Treating the Tiniest Opioid Patients, produced by NPR’s National and Science Desks, local member stations, and Kaiser Health News.

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Business March 27, 2016

Lawmakers, Unions Reach Deal To Raise California's Minimum Wage To $15

Lawmakers and labor unions in California have reached a deal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The tentative agreement would end a lengthy dispute between California Gov. Jerry Brown and unions, Danielle Karson reports for NPR.

Under the new deal — which still needs to go before the state legislature — the minimum wage would increase gradually over the next six years.

The minimum wage in the state increased to $10 in January, under legislation passed in 2013.

Labor unions in California have been pushing for another increase, but lawmakers weren’t biting. Then the unions led a campaign to put the question of a wage hike before state voters in November — and days ago, one such initiative qualified for the ballot.

That initiative would gradually raise wages by a dollar a year for the next five years, and “impose future increases with inflation,” The Los Angeles Times reports.

Gov. Brown hopes the new deal between legislators and unions will “preempt the need for putting a wage initiative on a ballot,” Danielle Karson reports.

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Business March 26, 2016

Music Streaming Takes Dominant Role In Industry

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The latest numbers from the Recording Industry Association of America show that streaming music brought in more money than digital downloads and physical releases for the first time last year.

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Health March 26, 2016

To Help Newborns Dependent On Opioids, Hospitals Rethink Mom's Role

Carolyn Rossi, a registered nurse at the Hospital of Central Connecticut, says the opioid epidemic has required nurses who used to specialize in care for infants gain insights into caring for addicted mothers, as well. Rusty Kimball/Courtesy of Hartford HealthCare hide caption

toggle caption Rusty Kimball/Courtesy of Hartford HealthCare

Carolyn Rossi has been a registered nurse for 27 years, and she’s been fiercely protective of infants in her intensive care unit — babies born too soon, babies born with physical and cognitive abnormalities and, increasingly, babies born dependent on opioids.

As clinical manager of the nurseries at the Hospital of Central Connecticut, Rossi works in the neonatal intensive care unit. Like many hospitals across the country, the facility near Hartford has seen a dramatic rise in recent years in the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The National Institute of Drug Abuse reports that more than 21,000 infants born in the U.S. in 2012 (the most recent year for which data are available) experienced symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The hospital says each such baby in its care costs roughly $50,000 to treat.

These fragile and fitful newborns present new challenges for hospitals. Some research suggests the children do best when they can be held for hours at a time, preferably by their mothers, in quiet, private rooms, as they go through the process of being weaned off the drugs.

But delivering care that way requires changing the attitudes of many doctors and nurses about addiction.

Rossi, for example, says her initial training in the best ways to care for newborns in withdrawal was very different from what the research now suggests.

“You know, we looked at it like, ‘They are drug addicts and the baby is born a drug addict and we’re trying to protect the baby from the mother,’ ” Rossi says. “Like we were going to cure the baby, but not cure the mother and the family. So it was a lot about taking babies away from moms.”

That turns out not to be a useful strategy if you’re hoping to engage the help and support of a mother who already feels stigmatized by her drug habit, says Kate Sims, who directs women’s and children’s services at the hospital.

“She’s feeling guilt herself,” Sims says. “And then [she] comes in here and, unfortunately, as best as we are as providers and nurses, we’re also judgmental. And so it’s felt.”

A lack of trust between mother and a nurse makes treating the baby even harder, Sims says.

So the hospital is now trying to make sure everyone in patient care sees the addicted mother first as a mom. In some cases that means getting care providers to understand that addiction isn’t a moral failure, and that many people who are addicted come from a lifetime of trauma. Rossi says it’s been hard for nurses who have been trained to be baby specialists to become mom specialists, too.

“It’s a big culture change for me personally, and I know for the NICU nurses that are in here,” she says. “You really do believe you’re doing the right thing until something like this comes along.”

The hospital’s approach to caring for these infants is changing, in other ways, too. Dr. Annmarie Golioto, chief of pediatrics and the head of the hospital’s nursery, says a bright, loud and bustling intensive care unit is a hard environment for a baby going through withdrawal. So she’s gotten approval to use a few rooms just outside the intensive care unit as a quiet, monitored space for a baby and mother to stay for as long as the baby needs it.

“We’ve had to figure out: ‘How can we use our rooms differently?’ ” says Golioto. “How can we use our space differently? And how we can partner with mom differently to have that relationship with her, to say, ‘We expect you to stay here with your baby and take care of the baby after you’ve been discharged.’ “

Golioto hopes the new setting will shorten recovery times for the children and decrease the amount of morphine a baby needs to ease withdrawal. She’s also hopeful these moves will inspire some mothers to think differently about their newborns.

“The thinking was, ‘My baby is being taken care of. There are nurses there. There are doctors there. I don’t need to be here. They’re getting everything they need,’ ” says Golioto. “We’re trying to change the thinking — ‘no, they’re not getting everything they need if you’re not here. Because they need you.’ “

Rossi says she recognized the value in this new nursing approach the very first time she saw it in action. It was last December, she recalls. Rossi gave a mother a hospital room to stay in for more than a month while her baby went through withdrawal.

“She was just thrilled,” Rossi says. Though the mother couldn’t be at the hospital 24/7, “she was here as much as she could be,” the nurse says, “and just knowing that she had the flexibility helped me understand that she is a mom. She is a great mom. She wants to be a better mom.”

Nearly every aspect of the opioid epidemic worsened in 2014, according to the federal government’s latest figures. And even though the Hospital of Central Connecticut’s programs are just a few months old, health care workers there hope the changes they’ve made in their culture of care will, at the very least, give vulnerable moms and babies a better start.

This story is second in our four-part series Treating the Tiniest Opioid Patients, a collaboration produced by NPR’s National & Science Desks, local member stations and Kaiser Health News.

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Sports March 26, 2016

Is March Losing Its Madness?

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The Elite Eight of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is set, and this year’s games have been as exciting as usual. But ESPN’s Howard Bryant tells NPR’s Scott Simon the meaning of the tournament may be changing.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

You know what I missed when I was away for a few weeks? The chance to say time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Actually, I said it a lot, but people on the subway just looked away. Listen, we’re deep into March Madness – and not just the presidential campaign. Last night in the men’s NCAA tournament, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Virginia and Syracuse advanced. Tonight, the round of eight begins. We’re joined now by Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. Howard, so good to hear your voice, my friend.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. It’s been a while.

SIMON: Four big games last night, with Virginia and North Carolina winning. They join Kansas and Oregon in the Elite Eight. That means all four No. 1 seeds are still alive. We don’t see that a lot, do we?

BRYANT: Well, I think what we don’t see is a lot of the top, top seeds making it. We don’t see the 2s and the 3s getting there as well the way you had a 1 and a 2 play. And, like, the way you’re going to have a 1 and a 2 in Villanova and Kansas play today. But the top seeds seem to get there a little more often, which tells you about the gap between the very, very good teams and the – and the rest of the field.

But those – those 2 and 15 and 3 and 14 upsets seem to be coming more and more and more common. However, I am very much looking forward to when you see North Carolina last night beating Indiana by 15.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: They scored 100 points. And I think that Villanova and North Carolina are the best teams. But the top team in the country, Kansas, is playing Villanova today…

SIMON: Yes.

BRYANT: …A game that I’m really looking forward to.

SIMON: And of course, Oregon versus Oklahoma – what do you see there?

BRYANT: In Oregon-Oklahoma – Oregon is a great team, and they’re fun to watch. And they took out Duke, which is one of the great blue-chip – Oregon, you know, one of the great blue-chip programs. But a West Coast team taking on one of the big dogs like that is also something new. Let’s see if they can keep it going too. A lot of people like that team a lot. I didn’t think that they were national championship material. But they – they shoot the ball well enough, and they played a lot of good defense, and they’re big. And so it’ll be fun to see what they do as well.

SIMON: You mentioned Duke having one of the blue-chip programs. And I want to get you – I want to draw you out something. I’ll confess, you and I were chatting yesterday afternoon. There have been big moments and buzzer beaters in this tournament, but has the tournament lost a lot of its character?

BRYANT: Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and especially when I think about Ben Simmons, the purported No. 1 – the projected No. 1 coming out of LSU. He’s supposed to be the best player in the country. His team didn’t even make the tournament. It’s the first time in a quarter century that the projected number one player didn’t even play in the NCAA tournament. And it made me think more and more about the changing nature of this tournament. It’s that we remember – I remember, obviously, as do you, when the tournament wasn’t just about buzzer beaters. It was also about looking at the great, great players and how they were going to translate into the NBA – when you had Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon playing for championships and the Fab Five Michigan teams and the Duke teams – that’s all gone now. Because now, the best players in the game – they’re gone after one year.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: You see that in Kentucky John Calipari encouraged his entire team to go pro. Every player that was eligible to go to the NBA – he said that they should go pro, so that changes everything. You’re not going to get those great two – three-year rivalries like you did with UNLV and Duke. It’s all different now. And so the tournament is sort of sensation. Is that enough for most fans? I think people filling out their brackets, it’s plenty. But for me, as someone who likes to watch the game as well as project some of these great players, it’s not the same as it used to be because these – these top, top players – you’re only going to see them one year. It’s not like you’re going to see Ralph Sampson and James Worthy play each other two or three years, that – those days are over.

SIMON: Well, that – and that’s why we can – we can take another 15 seconds. Great programs are a harder thing to achieve now because the personnel is gone within a year.

BRYANT: That’s right. And no – and then when you see that, you don’t have upsets anymore because the great teams aren’t as great as they used to be.

SIMON: Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine – Howard, thanks. By the way, you know who writes our theme music?

BRYANT: (Laughter) Yes, we do.

SIMON: OK, go ahead. Say the name.

BRYANT: It’s BJ, isn’t it?

SIMON: BJ Leiderman.

BRYANT: That’s right.

SIMON: All right. You’re listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

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Entertainment March 25, 2016