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Sports January 21, 2019

An Insurance Crisis Is Quietly Growing For Football In America

Football is still king in America, but almost nobody wants to insure it. NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with ESPN’s Steve Fainaru about the growing crisis that could topple the U.S.’s most popular sport.



AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The NFL has, over the last decade, been rocked by lawsuits over traumatic brain injuries, allegations of player domestic violence off the field and rule changes of their own. But according to an ESPN investigation, the sport is facing a problem that could threaten its very survival – lack of insurance. The NFL no longer has general liability insurance covering head trauma. And only one carrier is willing to cover teams for workman’s comp. In short, if there’s no insurance, there’s no football. Steve Fainaru co-wrote the story with Mark Fainaru-Wada for ESPN’s Outside the Lines. He joins me now. Welcome to the program.

STEVE FAINARU: Thank you.

CORNISH: So help us understand right now what the NFL is dealing with when it comes to insurance.

FAINARU: It started with the resolution of the class-action suit against the NFL that was over concussions. You had thousands of former players that were accusing the league of covering up the link between football and neurodegenerative disease. The NFL settled that suit for an estimated $1 billion. And since then, the insurance industry has been taking a look at the litigation that’s been proliferating since then. And it’s hitting the sport at all levels – from Pop Warner all the way up to the league. And the result has been that many of the companies have just been taking a pass. They’ve been getting out of the industry. So if the league was sued under its general liability policy on this issue in the future, they’re on their own. They ultimately have to pay it.

CORNISH: It’s interesting. So, basically, no matter what the NFL says or anyone attempting to debate the science of what’s going on, insurers have made a call already, which is, like, they’re out.

FAINARU: Yeah, I think this is one of the things that is so striking about this issue – is that it’s a market issue. And so for all the issues that the NFL has been doing to try to mitigate this problem, to try to – putting money into the research and changing the rules – that the insurance industry is making its own judgments about where this is going. And I think that what they’re seeing is that there’s just still a tremendous amount of uncertainty. There’s been so much litigation that’s proliferated since the NFL settled the class-action suit in 2013 that it really gives the insurance industry pause. The NFL’s insurance broker, Alex Fairly, spoke with us. And he said bluntly that if you are football or other contact sports, the insurance industry basically doesn’t want you right now.

CORNISH: So your reporting shows that we’re already starting to see the impact of this – smaller programs shutting down because of insurance costs. Can you describe one or two stories that stuck out to you?

FAINARU: The problem is especially acute at the lower levels, at the nonrevenue-producing sports. So Pop Warner, for example, was told by its longtime insurer that it would no longer cover the organization for any neurological injury. And they found that there was only one company that was able to provide them that coverage. And the executive director of Pop Warner, Jon Butler, told us there’s only, really, two solutions for Pop Warner if they can’t get insurance. They either have to declare bankruptcy, or they go out of business.

So that would obviously pose incredible problems for the 250,000 youth players that are involved in Pop Warner. We followed a case in Maricopa County, Ariz., where a junior college district decided to eliminate football for four teams. They found that the cost of insuring 358 football players represented one-third of the entire costs of the 200,000 students that were in the system. And they decided that was just too much. And they had to get out of it.

CORNISH: In the long run, as more and more insurers get out and get out at the level you were talking about – Pop Warner – right? – people’s early introduction to playing the sport, could that have a long-term effect on football itself?

FAINARU: I think we’ll have to see. But I think it’s obvious – if you can’t get insurance with all the litigation that’s out there, it becomes essentially impossible to field a team. And so for youth sports in particular – and then when you get into the high-school level, there is an enormous amount of complexity around it. But it is sort of a basic thing – that if you can’t get insurance, it becomes very difficult to stage the sport.

CORNISH: Steve Fainaru reports for ESPN’s Outside the Lines. Thank you for sharing your reporting with us.

FAINARU: Thanks, Audie.

Copyright © 2019 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 January 21, 2019

Analysis: How The Rise Of The Far Right Threatens Democracy Worldwide

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president, is among a wave of far-right leaders who have risen on the world stage. On Tuesday, Bolsonaro will headline the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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A new president is elected. Within days of being sworn in, he pulls his country out of a U.N. migration pact. His path to power has been pockmarked by disparaging comments about women, including a congresswoman. His preferred choice for top posts are members of the armed forces. When he appoints a fifth military official to his cabinet, he makes the announcement via Twitter, his favored means of communications.

Sound familiar?

These are the tactics of Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who was sworn in to office on Jan. 1, 2019.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro will headline the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an annual gathering that attracts heads of state — 65 of them this year — corporate CEOs and billionaire investors. Bolsonaro’s nationalistic rhetoric is in sharp contrast to a gathering that has long stood for globalization and has pushed to strengthen international ties.

His tactics may remind many of the American president’s. But it is actually symptomatic of a global wave that started almost a decade ago and has only strengthened in recent years. From Turkey and Hungary, to India and the Philippines, the voices of nationalism and the far right have become dominant forces that begin with the election of a charismatic, influential and powerful man.

Hungary, for instance, was once a leader in the drive for democracy in East Europe. But after strongman Viktor Orban rose to power as prime minister in 2010, Hungary’s democratic institutions have been dramatically weakened.

In his first year in office, Orban’s party amended the constitution 10 times. A wholly new constitution was put in place. It whittled down the power of courts, changed how elections are supervised and dramatically curbed media. New positions were created and filled with Orban allies. The moves have been broadly condemned, including by the European Parliament and the United States.

Orban is one of the strongest symbols of this shift. He was one of the first Western leaders to endorse Donald Trump and pursue friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last year, Orban won a third term in a landslide victory after pledging to create a “Christian homeland.”

Similarly, in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power in 2016, promising to be tough on drug criminals. As he carried out that promise, it resulted in the deaths of thousands of alleged drug dealers across the country. Human rights groups say the innocent poor have borne the brunt of these killings. Duterte uses profanities with abandon, he has compared himself to Hitler and has insulted world leaders. He too wants to change the constitution in Philippines.

And Turkey, once a bastion of secularism, today is rife with religious conflict. Its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president since 2014, has crushed dissent and jailed journalists. Last year, the government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs ordered all of Turkey’s nearly 90,000 mosques to broadcast a verse from the Koran through loudspeakers on their minarets. The move led Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, to declare that Sharia is gradually taking over long-secular Turkey.

And then there’s India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the world’s largest democracy. Under his Hindu nationalist party, the country has pursued laws that hurt the minority Muslim population. For instance, his party declared that eating beef is “against the idea of India.” This led to a ban in the sale of cows for slaughter. While beef is taboo for Hindus, it isn’t so for Muslims and the decree led to the closing of many slaughterhouses and meat shops, traditionally owned by Muslims in India.

The nationalist zeal has also led to curbing of charities operating in India. Tens of thousands of foreign-funded non-government organizations, like Greenpeace India, Ford Foundation and Amnesty International, were either put on notice or had their licenses revoked. Amnesty, which often accuses the Indian government of human rights violations, said a raid of its offices was aimed at silencing critics.

In Brazil, President Bolsonaro pushed forth an almost identical move after taking office earlier this month. He used an executive order that gave his government far-reaching and restrictive powers over non-governmental organizations working in Brazil.

Ultimately, it is moves like these that have global hackles rising for proponents of democratic values.

In almost each of these instances, the leaders have swept into power on a promise to accelerate economic growth and create new opportunities for those left behind by globalization. But the promises are often laced with undercurrents of nationalism that harp on race or religion and closing borders.

These leaders often have a strong base of support. And often they have a pro-business agenda, which stock markets cheer. The American stock market has been on a roller coaster — calmer now after a rough ride at the end of the year. But for many months after Trump’s election, investors gave the U.S. president a clear thumbs up. Brazil’s investors are doing the same, and Bolsonaro has tweeted about it.

Last year, Trump told the crowd at Davos: “I’m here to deliver a simple message: There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States. America is open for business.” Bolsonaro will likely echo the same sentiments.

Trump also said: “America First does not mean America alone.” Undoubtedly, Bolsonaro believes in Brazil First. And Orban in Hungary First. Likewise, Erdogan for Turkey and Modi for India. But if it is everyone for himself, and keep the others out, who really wins?

Pallavi Gogoi is NPR’s chief business editor.

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Sports January 20, 2019

The Rams And The Patriots Will Face Off For Super Bowl LIII

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay celebrates with Greg Zuerlein after a game-winning field goal during overtime of the NFL’s NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

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The Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots will face off in this year’s Super Bowl after winning the NFC and AFC conference championships, respectively, on Sunday.

The Rams, who overcame a 13-point deficit to beat the Saints, last played in the Super Bowl in 2002 — against none other than the Patriots. The St. Louis Rams won the NFL title two years before that.

The Patriots defeated the Chiefs to return to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive year.

Los Angeles Rams beat New Orleans Saints

Two field goals, a crucial interception and a widely contested pass interference call from officials, helped the Rams oust the Saints.

What the team lacked offensively, Greg Zuerlein made up for with timely kicking. In the final 15 seconds of regulation, the placekicker booted a tying 48-yard kick, sending the game into overtime. In the extra period, Zuerlein nailed a 57-yard field goal to seal a 26-23 victory.

On the first drive of overtime, the Saints lost possession after safety John Johnson III picked off Drew Brees’ lofty pass meant for wide receiver Michael Thomas.

“It’s unbelievable, man. I can’t put it into words,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff told The Associated Press. “The defense played the way they did to force it to overtime. The defense gets a pick and Greg makes a 57-yarder to win it. That was good from about 70. Unbelievable.”

One call cast a long shadow over the game. Referees failed to call what both Saints supporters and sports analysts overwhelmingly perceived as a pass interference penalty against the Rams. With the score at 20-20 in the fourth quarter, Drew Brees’ pass to Tommylee Lewis fell to the ground after he was hit by Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman.

“I don’t know if there was ever [a] more obvious pass interference,” New Orleans coach Sean Payton told reporters after the game.

After the game the NFL confirmed in a call to Payton that referees made the wrong call, according to USA Today.

As the AP reports, “It was the first home playoff loss for the Saints with Brees and coach Sean Payton, who had been 6-0 in those games since their pairing began in 2006.”

The Rams will now play against the Patriots for the NFL title.

New England Patriots beat Kansas City Chiefs

In another playoff game settled in overtime, the Patriots held off the Chiefs to grab a spot in the Super Bowl for the third straight season.

After New England dominated the first half in a frigid Kansas City, the Chiefs took the lead thanks to Damien Williams’ third touchdown run of the game, forcing a frantic fourth quarter.

With 39 seconds left, running back Rex Burkhead was able to lift the Patriots ahead 31-28 — the fourth lead change of the fourth quarter.

Down to 8 seconds, Harrison Butker wrestled back the points for the Chiefs with a 39-yard field goal, taking the rally into overtime at 31-31.

The Patriots then won the coin toss to start overtime. It was the final boost New England needed for a shot at defending their NFL title. Quarterback Tom Brady kicked off a game-winning drive as Rex Burkhead took the ball for a touchdown, sealing a 37-31 victory over the Chiefs.

“Overtime, on the road against a great team,” Brady told the AP. “They had no quit. Neither did we. We played our best football at the end. I don’t know, man, I’m tired. That was a hell of a game.”

The Big Game

The Rams and the Patriots will contend for the title of Super Bowl LIII champs at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Sunday, Feb. 3, airing on CBS.

Gladys Knight is scheduled to sing the national anthem. As for the intermission from nail-biting plays, pop band Maroon 5, rapper Travis Scott and Atlanta’s own Big Boi will perform at halftime.

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Business January 20, 2019

Lack Of Data Processing During Government Shutdown Compounds Economic Effects

As the partial government shutdown drags on, more people, organizations and entire state governments are feeling the pain. The trickle-down in places like Texas blossoms as the shutdown continues.



MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

With both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump seemingly locked into their positions on the government shutdown, state leaders are increasingly grappling with the shutdown’s impact. NPR’s Wade Goodwyn reports now on the shutdown’s trickle-down effect on Texas.

WADE GOODWYN, BYLINE: It’s probably not the first thing that pops into one’s mind when asked to name a couple of the biggest impacts the shutdown has on the economy. You might think airline travel or the national park system. But one of the biggest economic effects has to do with information, research that the federal government produces monthly or quarterly.

PATRICK JANKOWSKI: My biggest concern right now is that with the – so many federal agencies shut down, we’re not getting the data we need to understand what’s going on with the economy.

GOODWYN: Patrick Jankowski is the senior vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership and the chief economist for the fourth largest city in the country.

JANKOWSKI: If you’re trying to make hiring decisions and you want to find out whether the economy is expanding, contracting or what rate it is expanding, you need the regular reports to understand that.

GOODWYN: The impact of the shutdown on the economy radiates out from the absence of federal employees. For example, more than $200 billion a year in trade moves through Texas seaports. But without the review of important paperwork by the Coast Guard – for example, the required certificates of financial responsibility – that ship’s not coming into U.S. waters.

Switch gears. Texas has a hundred billion-dollar-a-year agriculture sector. Right now is the time when farmers decide what crops and how much of each crop to plant. Luis Ribera is a professor and agricultural economist at Texas A&M University.

LUIS RIBERA: The different agencies in USDA – they collect a lot if information, which – we use it to analyze and forecast. They’re very reliable. They’re unbiased.

GOODWYN: Ribera says it says if farmers are now playing poker blindfolded. They’re going to have to make their bets, but they have to guess what cards they’re holding. Take soybeans, for example. Texas is the largest producer, and soybean farmers want and need to know how much China’s been buying or not buying.

RIBERA: Usually, the Foreign Agricultural Service data comes about two months behind, so we should’ve gotten information by the first week in January. Well, we didn’t. So we really don’t know. By October, we were down by quite a bit. But now, we have a truce, and we wanted to see how much more soybeans we’re sending. And, of course, that’s going to impact the price of the products, not only soybeans, all different products.

GOODWYN: The oil and gas industry in Texas remains sound. Projects under review have been slowed. But, with the cost of a barrel of oil in the low 50s, producers are making money. With both American and Southwest Airlines based in Dallas-Fort Worth, the state is host to two powerhouse carriers. And analysts agree the industry’s weak point in relation to the shutdown is TSA airport security. It’s one of the lowest-paying federal agencies, and a second missed paycheck is certain. Joseph DeNardi is the airline’s analyst for Stifel Financial.

JOSEPH DENARDI: Yeah. I’m sure, at some point, you can’t expect people to show up for work if they’re not being paid. That would be the biggest risk, that, at some point, you have staffing challenges at some of the agencies that directly affect customers’ ability to fly. I don’t think we’re seeing any of that yet.

GOODWYN: Delta announced it would lose $25 million in revenue in January. The industry is expected to have another excellent year. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. The length of the shutdown could decide.

Wade Goodwyn, NPR News, Dallas.

Copyright © 2019 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 January 20, 2019

Medical Students Push For More LGBT Health Training To Address Disparities

Sarah Spiegel, a third-year student at New York Medical College, pushed for more education on LGBT health issues for students.

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When Sarah Spiegel was in her first year at New York Medical College in 2016, she sat in a lecture hall watching a BuzzFeed video about what it’s like to be an intersex or a transgender person.

“It was a good video, but it felt inadequate for the education of a class of medical students, soon to be doctors,” says Spiegel, now in her third year of medical school.

The video, paired with a 30-minute lecture on sexual orientation, was the only LGBT-focused information Spiegel and her fellow classmates received in their foundational course.

“It’s not adequate,” Spiegel remembers thinking. By her second year, after she became president of the school’s LGBT Advocacy in Medicine Club, she rallied a group of her peers to approach the administration about the lack of LGBT content in the curriculum.

Spiegel and her friends created an LGBTQI health board of information which hangs in a hallway on campus at New York Medical College.

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Spiegel says administrators were “amazingly receptive” to her presentation, and she quickly gained student and faculty allies. As a result, the school went from one and a half hours of LGBT-focused content in the curriculum to seven hours within a matter of two years, according to Spiegel. Spiegel says she doesn’t think the change would have happened had the students not pushed for it.

According to a number of studies, medical schools do a poor job of preparing future doctors to understand the LGBT population’s unique needs and health risks. And, a 2017 survey of students at Boston University School of Medicine found their knowledge of transgender and intersex health to be lesser than that of LGB health.

Meanwhile, LGBT people — and transgender people in particular – face disproportionately high rates of mental illness, HIV, unemployment, poverty, and harassment, according to Healthy People 2020, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found 1 in 5 LGBT adults has avoided medical care due to fear of discrimination.

“The health of disparity populations is something that really should be the focus of health profession students,” says Dr. Madeline Deutsch, an associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Deutsch directs UCSF’s Transgender Care program, and she says medical schools already do a fairly good job of addressing some disparities, like those based on race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.

But, she says, “Sexual and gender minorities have historically been not viewed as a key population, and that’s unfortunate because of the size of the population, and because of the extent of the disparities that the population faces.” (About 0.6 percent of the U.S. population – or 1.4 million adults – identifies as transgender.)

The extent of LGBT education medical students receive varies greatly, but a 2011 study found that the median time spent on LGBT health was five hours. The topics most frequently addressed include sexual orientation, safe sex, and gender identity, whereas transgender-specific issues, including gender transitioning, were most often ignored. And some medical students receive no LGBT education at all.

“There’s not really a consistent curriculum that exists around this content,” says Deutsch.

As a result, physicians often feel inadequately trained to care for LGBT patients. In a 2018 survey sent out to 658 students at New England medical schools, around 80 percent of respondents said they felt “not competent” or “somewhat not competent” with the medical treatment of gender and sexual minority patients.

Even at UCSF, which has long been at the forefront of LGBT health care, Deutsch says there’s still a need to insert more transgender health care into the mandatory curriculum. Right now, when medical schools teach about LGBT health issues, it’s usually through special elective courses or lectures taught at night or during lunch, and often by the students themselves.

“How do we take it out of the lunchtime unit?” asks Jessica Halem, the LGBT program director at Harvard Medical School. That question drives Harvard Medical School’s new Sexual and Gender Minorities Health Equity Initiative, a three-year plan to assess the core medical school curriculum and to identify opportunities to better instruct on the health of sexual and gender minorities.

“Students are getting the information. But some of them are having to do a lot of extra work to get that during their medical school experience,” says Halem.

The Harvard initiative, announced in December 2018, has been ongoing for about six months, says Halem, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from Perry Cohen, a transgender man. According to Halem, Cohen hopes that Harvard’s learnings will be shared with medical schools across the country, especially with ones with less robust LGBT health education programs.

Studies have shown that when medical students learn about transgender health issues, they feel better equipped to treat transgender patients. For example, when Boston University School of Medicine added transgender health content to a second-year endocrinology course, students reported a nearly 70 percent decrease in discomfort with providing transgender care.

And now, Halem says, each incoming class at Harvard Medical School is increasingly adamant that they learn about LGBT health.

“The main first driver truly was medical students organizing and saying ‘Hey, I need the curriculum to reflect the kind of medicine that I came here to study,’ ” Halem says.

The amount of LGBT education medical students receive varies greatly. A 2015 study found that, on average, medical students receive five hours of LGBT-focused education. The curriculum at New York Medical College went from an hour and a half of LGBT topics in health care to over seven hours.

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Those were the thoughts running through Spiegel’s head in her own preclinical years at New York Medical College. Shortly after becoming the president of her school’s LGBT health club, she joined The American Medical Student Association’s Gender and Sexuality Committee as the LGBTQ Advocacy Coordinator to bring curricular change to other medical schools in the New York area.

Conversations with her transgender partner also inspired Spiegel to introduce more trans-specific topics into her school’s curriculum.

“His experience definitely varied by how much providers knew,” Spiegel says. It was often as simple as getting his pronouns correct, she says, and even then, the same doctors’ office would mess that up again and again.

Spiegel says in the past couple of years, certain disciplines have added trans-focused topics into their specialties. In the school’s behavioral health unit, for example, professors have started to address how doctors can diagnose gender dysphoria – when a person feels their assigned gender does not align with their gender identity – in their lectures.

By contrast, some disciplines have been more hesitant to change, or add content to, their existing curriculum. Spiegel’s student task-force had more difficulty influencing the pharmacology department, for example. That’s the content area where hormone therapy might be taught, Spiegel says.

One course includes a lecture about the endocrine system, Spiegel says, when the professor talks about a drug to treat precocious, or early puberty. That drug can also be used for kids undergoing transgender hormone therapy. Therefore, Spiegel says, including transgender health in the lecture might be a matter of just saying an extra sentence.

“There’s an opportunity there – they would just have to mention that it could also be used for transgender kids,” says Spiegel.

But the professor says this secondary use of the drug was “off the book,” and thus, he wouldn’t include it in his lecture. So Spiegel researched the drug herself, and sent the professor the Endocrine Society’s guidebook that talked about how the drug can be used for transgender patients. He began including the information in his lectures.

Spiegel says her interactions with this professor exemplify the challenges that medical students all over the country face when trying to introduce changes to their schools’ curricula.

“We’re getting there, but it’s slow,” says Spiegel.

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Sports January 19, 2019

Rams-Saints, Patriots-Chiefs Will Set Super Bowl LIII

Scott Simon speaks with sports correspondent Tom Goldman about the NFL conference championship games on Sunday, and how concussions are limiting insurance options in the league.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: We are so close to the Super Bowl now that we can smell the nachos. The NFL’s conference championship games are tomorrow. We’re joined now by NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Not eating nachos this early but hello, Scott.

SIMON: Let’s start with the early game – Rams-Saints. They met earlier this season. The Saints handed the Rams their first loss of the season. It was a high-scoring game – 45-35. But I gather tomorrow’s match, as so often happens in the playoffs, comes down to defense.

GOLDMAN: Yes, it may. And I’m going to throw out a couple of names of defensive players who could have significant impact. May and could, Scott. I’m feeling bold today.

SIMON: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: Aqib Talib – a veteran defensive back for the Rams who was missing from that earlier game you talked about, and the Saints had a field day throwing and catching the ball in his half since he’s back for this game. And then Sheldon Rankins for the Saints – he’s an excellent run-stopping defensive lineman. He’s out with an injury. The Rams have a great running attack that can only benefit from his absence. So I’m not going to say these situations the Rams win because of him, but they do help LA.

SIMON: Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback, is 40, and he has been so accurate this year. Tom, he could split an apple in two off of your head with the point of his football if he wanted to.

GOLDMAN: (Laughter) You know, that’s about the only thing he didn’t do this season. He set an NFL record, completing nearly 75 percent of his passes. Now, The Wall Street Journal studied all of his incomplete passes, and there weren’t many. And it found…

SIMON: Two.

GOLDMAN: Yeah, exactly. And they found most were not his fault, meaning receivers dropped them or caught them and then defenders jarred the ball loose. Only about 9 percent of Brees’ total passes were bad throws. So if the Rams want to beat New Orleans, put an apple on someone’s head. No, I’m sorry. They can’t rely on Brees beating himself.

SIMON: And then, of course, there’s Tom Brady. I’m not going to call him old. He’s 41. He’s a vet. Kansas City quarterback, a great one, is young – Patrick Mahomes. And last time they met, the Pats stole the game in the final seconds. You think tomorrow’s game going to be as close?

GOLDMAN: Absolutely, unless it’s not. Can you tell I’m hedging my bets this time, Scott?

SIMON: Time will tell. Time will tell, yeah.

GOLDMAN: Right, right. But both quarterbacks can create offense so well, so whoever falls behind, there’s a good chance of catching up. Mahomes is great at eluding pass rushers. He does amazing things when he’s forced to run for his life. Brady needs solid protection to do his thing because he’s not as mobile, and he’ll need that protection against a very good Kansas City pass rush. Scott, Kansas City is a slight favorite, and I think they win this one.

SIMON: All right, a prediction. I – news I have to ask you about this week around the NFL actually might be more important long term. We’ve actually got a film clip from the film “Concussion.”

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “CONCUSSION”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As actor) If just 10 percent of the mothers in America decide that football is too dangerous for their sons to play, that is it. It is the end of football. Kids, colleges and eventually, it’s just a matter of time, the professional game.

SIMON: May not be the mothers, though, right, Tom?

GOLDMAN: That’s right. Turns out, in this age of concussion awareness, it may be insurance companies that decide the fate of football. This week, a report by ESPN’s “Outside The Lines,” a comprehensive report, said insurance companies are getting out of the business of insuring football because they’re afraid, you know, they’re going to have to pay out billions in legal and medical costs. Already some programs at community colleges and city rec departments have been eliminated because of the lack of insurance or rising insurance costs. The head of Pop Warner’s youth football program is quoted as saying “people say football will never go away, but if we can’t get insurance, it will.” Scott, it’s a fascinating read and a scary scenario for those who love the game, which is still this country’s most popular sport. But the question is, for how long?

SIMON: And of course – but for those who love the players, it’s also important to read.

GOLDMAN: Absolutely.

SIMON: NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOE.’S “SILVER SUN”)

Copyright © 2019 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 January 19, 2019

Rams-Saints, Patriots-Chiefs Will Set Super Bowl LIII

Scott Simon speaks with sports correspondent Tom Goldman about the NFL conference championship games on Sunday, and how concussions are limiting insurance options in the league.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: We are so close to the Super Bowl now that we can smell the nachos. The NFL’s conference championship games are tomorrow. We’re joined now by NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Not eating nachos this early but hello, Scott.

SIMON: Let’s start with the early game – Rams-Saints. They met earlier this season. The Saints handed the Rams their first loss of the season. It was a high-scoring game – 45-35. But I gather tomorrow’s match, as so often happens in the playoffs, comes down to defense.

GOLDMAN: Yes, it may. And I’m going to throw out a couple of names of defensive players who could have significant impact. May and could, Scott. I’m feeling bold today.

SIMON: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: Aqib Talib – a veteran defensive back for the Rams who was missing from that earlier game you talked about, and the Saints had a field day throwing and catching the ball in his half since he’s back for this game. And then Sheldon Rankins for the Saints – he’s an excellent run-stopping defensive lineman. He’s out with an injury. The Rams have a great running attack that can only benefit from his absence. So I’m not going to say these situations the Rams win because of him, but they do help LA.

SIMON: Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback, is 40, and he has been so accurate this year. Tom, he could split an apple in two off of your head with the point of his football if he wanted to.

GOLDMAN: (Laughter) You know, that’s about the only thing he didn’t do this season. He set an NFL record, completing nearly 75 percent of his passes. Now, The Wall Street Journal studied all of his incomplete passes, and there weren’t many. And it found…

SIMON: Two.

GOLDMAN: Yeah, exactly. And they found most were not his fault, meaning receivers dropped them or caught them and then defenders jarred the ball loose. Only about 9 percent of Brees’ total passes were bad throws. So if the Rams want to beat New Orleans, put an apple on someone’s head. No, I’m sorry. They can’t rely on Brees beating himself.

SIMON: And then, of course, there’s Tom Brady. I’m not going to call him old. He’s 41. He’s a vet. Kansas City quarterback, a great one, is young – Patrick Mahomes. And last time they met, the Pats stole the game in the final seconds. You think tomorrow’s game going to be as close?

GOLDMAN: Absolutely, unless it’s not. Can you tell I’m hedging my bets this time, Scott?

SIMON: Time will tell. Time will tell, yeah.

GOLDMAN: Right, right. But both quarterbacks can create offense so well, so whoever falls behind, there’s a good chance of catching up. Mahomes is great at eluding pass rushers. He does amazing things when he’s forced to run for his life. Brady needs solid protection to do his thing because he’s not as mobile, and he’ll need that protection against a very good Kansas City pass rush. Scott, Kansas City is a slight favorite, and I think they win this one.

SIMON: All right, a prediction. I – news I have to ask you about this week around the NFL actually might be more important long term. We’ve actually got a film clip from the film “Concussion.”

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “CONCUSSION”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As actor) If just 10 percent of the mothers in America decide that football is too dangerous for their sons to play, that is it. It is the end of football. Kids, colleges and eventually, it’s just a matter of time, the professional game.

SIMON: May not be the mothers, though, right, Tom?

GOLDMAN: That’s right. Turns out, in this age of concussion awareness, it may be insurance companies that decide the fate of football. This week, a report by ESPN’s “Outside The Lines,” a comprehensive report, said insurance companies are getting out of the business of insuring football because they’re afraid, you know, they’re going to have to pay out billions in legal and medical costs. Already some programs at community colleges and city rec departments have been eliminated because of the lack of insurance or rising insurance costs. The head of Pop Warner’s youth football program is quoted as saying “people say football will never go away, but if we can’t get insurance, it will.” Scott, it’s a fascinating read and a scary scenario for those who love the game, which is still this country’s most popular sport. But the question is, for how long?

SIMON: And of course – but for those who love the players, it’s also important to read.

GOLDMAN: Absolutely.

SIMON: NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOE.’S “SILVER SUN”)

Copyright © 2019 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 January 18, 2019

South Korea's Sports Prestige Gets Eclipsed By Sexual Abuse Against Female Athletes

Two-time Olympic gold medal speed skater Shim Suk-hee revealed earlier this month she was repeatedly raped by her coach. Now, South Korea’s governing sports body has promised a crackdown on coaches.



MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

From tae kawan do and baseball to skating and golf, South Korea has established itself in recent years as a sports powerhouse. Its medal counts have been in the Top 10 in recent Summer and Winter Olympics. But that glory and prestige has been eclipsed by the shadow of violence and sexual abuse against female athletes. NPR’s Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: With just weeks to go before last year’s Pyongyang Winter Olympics, short-track speed skater Shim Suk-hee went missing from the national team’s training camp. A sports ministry investigation found that Shim, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was beaten by her coach, Cho Jae-bom, the day she went missing. Cho was sacked and convicted of abusing four athletes, including Shim. He was sentenced to 10 months in jail last September. Cho has denied the charges through his lawyer. Shim testified at Cho’s appeal hearing last month and spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHIM SUK-HEE: (Through interpreter) I mustered my courage to come here today because I hope there will be no more victims like myself in the sports world and because I want to do what I can, not just for myself, but for the future.

KUHN: This month, Shim went further, accusing Cho of repeatedly raping her since she was 17. She’s now 21. As the scandal grabbed headlines, a petition on the presidential office’s website calling for harsher sentencing of Cho got over a quarter of a million signatures. Government ministries and lawmakers promised to get tough on sexual abuse in sports. In a meeting with his aides this week, President Moon Jae-in called for thorough investigations and stiff punishment.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT MOON JAE-IN: (Speaking Korean).

KUHN: Recent allegations of physical and sexual violence in sports, he said, reveal a shameful side hidden beneath the shiny facade of South Korea as a sports powerhouse. Also this week, a former judo athlete and a tae kwan do trainee stepped up to accuse their coaches of physical and sexual violence, but some observers say it’s just a drop in the bucket.

CHUNG YONGCHUL: Still, the numbers are low, and we all know why – because of all the threat they have. They’re afraid to talk about it.

KUHN: Chung Yongchul is a professor of sport psychology at Seoul’s so gone University and an activist against abuse in sports. He says the government’s been promising to crack down on cases of abuse for the past decade, but thanks to a stubborn culture of impunity, very little has changed. Some of that, he notes, has roots in South Korea’s Confucian traditions in which a teacher’s authority is just like a father’s. It must be obeyed and not challenged.

CHUNG: That’s part of the reason why this is so hard for the athlete to speak up because you’re actually accusing, like, a father-like figure – accusing him as an aggressor.

KUHN: That’s also why sports authorities who have the power to punish abusers often shield them, Chung says. And help centers and hotlines set up for the athletes often side against them. But Chung adds that the strength of public outrage in South Korea at the abuse of skater Shim Suk-hee could mean this time is different.

CHUNG: So I think this could be the last chance for the Korean sport to actually eradicate all the problems.

KUHN: And if South Korea comes home from next year’s Tokyo Olympics with a reduced haul of medals but an increase in athletes’ human rights, Chung says that’s definitely something Koreans can live with. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

Copyright © 2019 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 January 18, 2019

'The Forward,' Storied Jewish Paper, Shutters Print Edition After 121 Years

A plaque from the original Daily Forward office, seen adorning its Lower Manhattan headquarters in 2013.

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It has been a long, long time since New York City’s newsstands have been bereft of copies of The Forward. Founded as a Yiddish-language daily in 1897, the newspaper once known as The Jewish Daily Forward endured a host of major changes over its long life span — but through them all, the small publication reliably went to press with news that its predominantly American Jewish audience often couldn’t find elsewhere.

But that will change come springtime.

The paper announced Thursday that it is ending its print operation to “become a digitally focused publisher,” laying off 10 jobs — or nearly 30 percent of its staff — in the process. That includes The Forward‘s editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner.

“The Forward has never stagnated. Over our 121-year history, we have changed our format many times, launching new sections, publishing in new languages (Yiddish, English, Russian), and embracing change in our community,” the publication’s CEO and publisher, Rachel Fishman Feddersen, said in a letter to readers.

“Whereas our readers once went to the newsstand with a nickel to read the news of the day, today, the vast majority of our community connects through the digital world. That is where the Forward is and will be.”

Founded by Yiddish-speaking socialist champions of trade unions, the traditionally muckraking newspaper reached its zenith back in the early 1930s, when the paper had a nationwide circulation of upwards of 275,000 At various times it boasted the writings of future Nobel laureates Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel. In recent decades, it has adopted an English-language version and cut back to a weekly schedule as its circulation declined to the tens of thousands.

Still, despite its diminishing physical reach, The Forward has maintained an outsize impact, both among its dedicated following and occasionally with major scoops — as it did in 2017, when the paper dropped a bombshell story about President Trump’s then-counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka.

“We understand that the American Jewish story is really intertwined with so many other things that are going on across this country today,” Eisner told NPR’s David Folkenflik days after the Gorka story dropped. “And so we think we are continuing this rich journalistic heritage, but we’re writing for a much broader audience.”

Its digital reach remains sizable as well, according to Feddersen, who said in a statement emailed to NPR that more than 2 million readers a month find the publication’s work online. She said it is that audience the paper wants to focus on serving now.

“We’ve always been truth tellers at the Forward,” she added, “recognizing reality and not sugar-coating it, and knowing what it takes to serve the community.”

Still, the NewsGuild of New York, a union representing some of the staff at The Forward, isn’t buying the explanation that the move is motivated by a shift to digital.

“This is simply an excuse to justify these layoffs,” the union said in a statement released Thursday. “Our members have already been serving as a digital team, ensuring that the beloved brand remains relevant regardless of the platform, and they have been instrumental in creating a robust digital presence for the organization.”

We are demanding transparency, including evidence of reported financial losses and the strategy that will “complete its evolution.” Guild members will continue to hold management accountable as we fight for the future of The Forward. pic.twitter.com/mS3v2MQ7XW

— NewsGuild of NY (@nyguild) January 17, 2019

“We are demanding transparency,” the NewsGuild added, “including evidence of reported financial losses and the strategy they claim will ‘complete its evolution’ to digital.”

The Forward‘s digital director, Dave Goldiner, who is not a NewsGuild member, also found himself among this week’s layoffs.

“I’m not an accountant, I’m not a bean counter, I’m not a businessperson, so it’s hard for me to know what they’re looking at when they looked at this,” he told NPR. “Certainly some of the things don’t make sense on the face of it.”

But Goldiner, who spent seven years with the paper, said he is willing to give its management the benefit of the doubt. “It’s a sad day,” he said, “but I do see the logic in what they are trying to do, which is to try and move faster to a bigger audience online, and to try and keep what The Forward does alive.”

And he said the storied publication’s survival, ultimately, is worth fighting for — and courting investors and donors for, too.

“If there’s someone out there listening or reading this that has a couple of million dollars in their pocket,” he added, “I can’t think of a better place to invest in the future of the truth, in the future of decency, diversity and all those values that The Forward has stood for, for 121 years — and hopefully will continue to.”

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Health January 18, 2019

Federal Shutdown Has Meant Steep Health Bills For Some Families

Demonstrators affiliated with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association protested the federal shutdown at a Capitol Hill rally earlier this month in Washington, D.C.

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Updated at 3:14 p.m. EST.

Joseph Daskalakis’ son Oliver was born on New Year’s Eve, a little over a week into the current government shutdown, and about 10 weeks before he was expected.

The prematurely born baby ended up in a specialized neonatal intensive care unit, the only one near the family’s home in Lakeville, Minn., that could care for him.

But Daskalakis, who works as an air traffic controller outside Minneapolis, has an additional worry: The hospital where his newborn son is being treated is not part of his current insurer’s network and the partial government shutdown prevents Daskalakis from filing the paperwork necessary to switch insurers, as he would otherwise be allowed to do.

As a result, he could be on the hook for a hefty bill — all the while not receiving pay. Daskalakis is just one example of federal employees for whom being unable to make changes to their health plans really matters.

Although the estimated 800,000 government workers affected by the shutdown won’t lose their health insurance, an unknown number are in limbo like Daskalakis — unable to add family members such as spouses, newborns or adopted children to an existing health plan; unable to change insurers because of unforeseen circumstances; or unable deal with other issues that might arise.

“With 800,000 employees out there, I imagine that this is not a one-off event,” says Dan Blair, who served as both acting director and deputy director of the federal Office of Personnel Management during the early 2000s and is now senior counselor at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “The longer this goes on, the more we will see these types of occurrences.”

While little Oliver Daskalakis is getting stronger every day — he’s now out of the ICU, according to his father’s local air traffic union representative — it’s unclear how the situation will affect his family’s finances.

That’s because out-of-network charges are generally far higher than being in-network, and NICU care is enormously expensive,no matter what. Those bills could add up, especially as the family’s current insurance plan has an out-of-pocket maximum of $12,000 annually. Because Oliver was born before the new year, the family could face that amount twice — for 2018 and for 2019.

And Daskalakis still isn’t getting paid.

“I don’t know when I’ll be able to change my insurance, or when I’ll get paid again,” Daskalakis wrote to Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., who shared the letter on Facebook and before her Senate colleagues last week.

Other families are also worried about paperwork delays, and the financial and medical effects a prolonged shutdown could cause.

Dania Palanker, a health policy researcher at Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, studies what happens when families face insurance difficulties. Now she’s also living it.

After arranging to reduce her work hours because of health problems, Palanker knew her family would not qualify for coverage through her university job. No problem, she thought, as she began the process in December of enrolling her family in coverage offered by her husband’s job with the federal government.

But there was a hitch.

“We could not get the paperwork in time to apply for special enrollment through the government and get it processed before the shutdown,” Palanker says.

Georgetown allowed her to boost her work hours this month to keep the family insured through January, but Georgetown’s share of her coverage will end in February.

Palanker’s treatments are expensive, so she is likely to hit or exceed her annual $2,000 deductible in January — then start over with another annual deductible once the family secures new health coverage.

“I’m postponing treatment in hopes that it is just a month and I’m back on the federal plan in February,” says Palanker, who has an autoimmune disease that causes nerve damage. “But I can’t postpone indefinitely, as my condition will get worse.”

Overseeing federal health benefits programs is within the purview of the Office of Personnel Management, whose data hub is operational, according to a spokeswoman. But getting information to that data hub to make the kind of changes Daskalakis, Palanker and others need depends on the individual agencies that employ government workers.

The OPM has told government agencies “that they should have [human resources] staff available during the lapse, specifically to process” such requests, which are called “qualifying life events,” the spokeswoman says.

Workers enrolled in plans under the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which covers about 5 million federal workers and retirees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, can make qualifying life event changes directly with the insurer if they can’t get it processed by their workplace, an association spokesman said Friday.

In a written statement Wednesday, Smith said: “Oliver’s story is a powerful reminder that hundreds of thousands of real families have had their financial and personal lives turned upside down by this unnecessary shutdown.” The Minnesota senator called on the president to come back to the negotiating table.

For Daskalakis, there’s been some recent good news.

His union representative, Tony Walsh, says both the OPM website and Daskalakis’ insurer now indicate that the family’s request to change to an insurance plan that classifies the hospital as “in-network” will be retroactive to Oliver’s birthday — so the out-of-network charges may not play a role.

Just to be safe, “Joe is currently working on an insurance appeal based on no in-network care [being available],” Walsh reports in an emailed statement.

Still, the family has already received an initial $6,000 bill from the hospital, Walsh notes. He says that $6,000 does not include costs associated with Oliver’s birth or his stay in the intensive care unit — those charges likely are still to come.

Walsh says the shutdown is affecting a broad swath of employees in ways many lawmakers never anticipated.

The workers “are essential to the system,” he says, “and it’s unfair they are being treated this way.”

Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service, is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation and not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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