Month: August 2017

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Bay Curious - What Gets Shipped Through the Port of Oakland?

Oakland is home to the fifth-busiest container port in the country and all around it, containers are stacked sky high like colorful, life-size Lego bricks. Listener Ajith Kumar asked Bay Curious: “Why are there millions of containers in West Oakland? How much trade is happening via those containers every month?” Bay Curious gets the answer. Credits: Jessica Placzek, Olivia Allen-Price, Vinnee Tong, Paul Lancour and Julia McEvoy.

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Serious Inquiries Only - SIO66: North Korea and the REAL Trump

This episode is brought to you by Hello Fresh! Go to hellofresh.com and enter promo code seriouspod30 for $30 off! With the leak of some phone call transcripts we discover that the REAL Trump is...... the same Trump we've seen this entire time. There's no real Trump, there's just Trump. I go over some of the absolutely horrific details of these phones calls, then I talk about how Tillerson has gutted the State Department at the worst possible time, and all that is just as we face a nuclear North Korea! Fun times! Links: The Call Transcripts; Understanding Trade Deficits; Australia-US Refugee Deal; Gutted State Department Source 1, 2, 3 Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email thomas@seriouspod.com Direct Download
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The Gist - Muhammad Ali’s Biggest Fight

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, but he didn’t spend his entire life in the ring. During the Vietnam War, he spent his time trying to avoid the draft as a conscientious objector. Journalist Leigh Montville says the struggle changed Ali’s life—and the country. Montville’s new book is Sting Like a Bee. 

In the Spiel, a closer look at the CV of the most important soil-health civil servant in the news.

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SCOTUScast - California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court decided California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities. Between 2007 and 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings raised capital through a number of public securities offerings. California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) purchased some of these securities. In 2008, a putative class action alleging federal securities law violations was filed against respondents--various financial firms involved in underwriting the offerings--in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Because the complaint was filed on behalf of all persons who purchased the identified securities, petitioner CalPERS fell within the putative class. In 2011, however, CalPERS filed a separate action, alleging identical violations against respondent firms in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. That suit was then transferred and consolidated with other related litigation in the Southern District of New York. The New York class action then settled, but CalPERS opted out of the settlement. Respondents thereafter moved to dismiss CalPERS’ separate suit based on Securities Act language providing that “[i]n no event shall any such action be brought … more than three years after the security was bona fide offered to the public,” the CalPERS suit having fallen outside the three-year limit. CalPERS argued that the time limit was equitably tolled during the pendency of the class action, but the district court rejected the claim and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed. -- By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Second Circuit. In an opinion by Justice Kennedy, the Court held that CalPERS’ untimely filing of its individual complaint more than three years after the relevant securities offering was grounds for dismissal. The three-year limitation in the Securities Act, the Court indicated, is a “statute of repose” and therefore not subject to equitable tolling. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion was joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. Justice Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan joined. -- And now, to discuss the case, we have Mark Chenoweth, who is General Counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation.