Surprisingly stable chicken meat prices, a lawsuit threat against the Gulf of Mexico's name change, and the Trump administration's false claims about Social Security beyond the grave are all under the microscope on this edition of Indicators of the Week.
The feds want millions of businesses and other corporations to turn over sensitive information so they can snoop for evidence of crimes. It’s an affront to financial privacy, anonymous association, and other liberties. The requirement is laid out in the Corporate Transparency Act, now the subject of litgation at the Fifth Circuit. Caleb Kruckenberg represents the Texas Top Cop Shop and others in the case.
When Illinois legalized recreational use of marijuana five years ago, it came with a goal to right the wrongs of the war on drugs. “We’re addressing the past harms of discriminatory prosecution of drug laws,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said at the time. Many low level cannabis charges would automatically be expunged and legal aid would be made available.
Last episode, we looked at two areas where the state spent the largest share of its $500 million in marijuana sales tax revenue: the state budget and R3 funding, a program to invest in communities that have been harmed by violence, excessive incarceration and economic disinvestment.
Some of that sales tax revenue also goes toward social programs, like legal aid for cannabis record expungement. Today, we’re looking at how well Illinois’ expungement program is working. Advocates and people getting their records expunged tell us that “automatic” doesn’t apply to everything and the process itself is “too complicated.”
Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health has driven the biomedical research industry in cities across America including Birmingham, Alabama. It's helped support research into life-saving treatments for cancers, strokes and Parkinson's. But, the Trump Administration says the NIH is getting ripped off in how those grants are calculated. We take a look.
Related episodes: The gutting of USAID (Apple / Spotify) A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Lawmakers wouldn't truly change current federal fentanyl policy with the HALT Fentanyl Act; they'd simply continue a framework that has failed over the past seven years to stop sellers of illicit fentanyl from meeting market demand. Jeff Singer explains.
The state has made about $500 million in marijuana tax revenue since the state legalized recreational use. Social programs have benefited from those funds, but experts say it won’t last forever.
The ties between U.S. foreign aid and American agriculture run deep — or at least used to. The U.S. International Agency for Development, or USAID, is the largest provider of humanitarian food aid in the world. Much of that aid comes from U.S. farmers, whose corn, wheat and rice is sold in bulk to the government for USAID's programs. What happens now if those programs end?
Related episodes: The gutting of USAID (Apple / Spotify) A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify) Trump threatens the grim trigger (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
