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Crime and Corruption in The Charm City

The Takeaway

Coming up on today’s show:

  • It’s been three months since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. The storm wiped out structures across the island and caused massive flooding. Now, the death toll for the deadly storm is being called into question. Frances Robles, a reporter for the New York Times, has the details. Ricardo Ramos Gonzalez, a professor with the Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Law, looks at the foreclosure crisis that’s overcome the island. 

  • Ohio Governor John Kasich has been in office since 2011. He discusses his plans after 2018, and his future in politics, and the changing shape and nature of the Republican Party.  
  • An Amtrak train on inaugural trip from Seattle, Washington to Portland, Oregon derailed on Monday, spilling over the track and onto Interstate 5 killing at least three people. John Ryan, a reporter with Seattle public radio station KUOW, brings us the latest. 

  • One smaller element of the Republican tax bill includes a plan to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and drilling. It’s something lawmakers in Alaska have wanted for decades, but environmental groups are fighting back. Andrew Kitchenman, state government and politics reporter at KTOO and Alaska Public Media, explains. 

  • Last week, the Navajo Nation announced that it’s suing Wells Fargo for engaging in predatory lending and unlawful banking practices that specifically target tribal members, including the opening of unauthorized savings and credit accounts. Ethel Branch, attorney general of the Navajo Nation, has the details. 

  • In the conclusion of our policing series, “Life Behind the Blue Line,” we talk to Michael Wood Jr., who served in the Baltimore Police Department for 13 years, from 2001 to 2014. He said he saw a corrupt system when he was on the job. 

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich

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