The World and Everything in It - December 16, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Churches and aid groups are on the ground in Kentucky and other states hit hard by last weekend’s tornadoes.

MRYNA BROWN, HOST: Also: Russia’s threats against Ukraine are met with economic threats by the United States and other G-7 nations. Will that work?

Plus an unusual museum in Texas.

And commentator Cal Thomas on climate change and tornadoes.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, December 16th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden witnesses devastation from deadly tornado outbreak » President Biden witnessed the destruction in two Kentucky towns firsthand on Wednesday.

BIDEN: As you fly over here as I’ve done in the past — I have not seen this tornado—this much damage from a tornado. You know, you think but for the grace of God, why was I not 100 yards outside that line, which makes it so different.

In Dawson Springs, Biden walked through piles of debris. Shattered Christmas decorations were tangled up with shards of furniture and strewn clothing.

Over the sounds of heavy machinery engaged in cleanup just blocks away, the president stopped to speak with storm victims.

He also met with residents in the devastated town of Mayfield and took an aerial tour of the damage.

FEMA Director Deanne Criswell said she’s been inspired by what she’s seen as people work together in the wake of the storm.

CRISWELL: We’re seeing, as you heard, neighbors helping neighbors, businesses helping businesses. I’ve seen community partners cooking on the street, helping to feed those that have been impacted by this.

More than 30 tornadoes tore through Kentucky and seven other states over the weekend, killing at least 88 people and that death toll is expected to rise.

Fed will tighten credit faster and sees 3 rate hikes in 2022 » The Federal Reserve is planning to shrink its support for the economy more quickly  and expects to raise interest rates three times next year.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

POWELL: There's a real risk now that inflation may be more persistent and that may be putting inflation expectations under pressure, and that the risk of higher inflation becoming entrenched has increased.

The Fed will pull back its monthly bond purchases at twice the pace it previously announced and likely end them in March. That puts the Fed on a path to start raising rates as early as the first half of next year.

The Fed's key rate influences many consumer and business loans, including mortgages, car loans and credit cards. And borrowing costs may start to rise in the coming months.

U.S. faces a double coronavirus surge as omicron advances » Top U.S. health officials on Wednesday gave an update on the nation’s COVID-19 response.

They warned of a double coronavirus wave as the delta strain surges once more and the omicron variant takes hold. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky…

WALENSKY: We expect to see the proportion of omicron cases here in the United States continue to grow in the coming weeks. Early data suggest that omicron is more transmissible than delta with a doubling time of about two days.

She said omicron is estimated to represent only about 3 percent of U.S. cases right now, but experts say not for long.

Omicron just overtook delta to become the dominant strain in the U.K. and it’s spreading fast globally.

But White House virus response coordinator Jeff Zients said there is no need for a lockdown.

ZIENTS: We have the tools to fight this virus, including omicron, and we’re in a very different and stronger place than we were a year ago.

He said vaccines still appear to offer strong protection against severe illness from both the delta and omicron strains.

But officials said they are afraid a double surge could strain hospitals. They once again urged Americans to get vaccinated or get a booster shot.

Retail sales rise but short of expectations » Holiday shoppers opened their wallets in November, but not quite as much as expected. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Americans actually slowed their spending from October to November, but still continued to shop despite rising prices and shortages.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales rose a modest, seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in November. That’s down from 1.8 percent the month before.

Last month’s retail numbers were a little softer than economists expected. But many believe more Christmas shoppers got an early start this year, beginning in October.

While revenue dipped at department stores, sales at restaurants rose 1 percent from October, and that was the biggest gain for eateries since July.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights » Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in the death George Floyd changed his plea in court on Wednesday.

Chauvin now says he was guilty of violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he used excessive force against him in May of last year.

Floyd family attorney Jeff Storms told reporters that Chauvin should have pled guilty from the start.

STORMS: He pleaded guilty today after putting this family through a gut wrenching trial.

The guilty plea likely means more time behind bars, but he avoids a separate civil rights trial.

Chauvin is already serving a sentence of more than 22 years in prison. Federal prosecutors agreed to ask the judge to sentence Chauvin to 25 years served concurrently. The deal would allow his time in state prison to count toward his federal sentence.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: picking up the pieces in the tornado-ravaged heartland.

Plus, the climate change blame game.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 16th of December, 2021.

You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad you are! Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up: tornado relief efforts.

Friday’s deadly storm system claimed the lives of at least 88 people in five states—74 of them in Kentucky. The swath of destruction stretched from Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed, to Illinois, where an Amazon distribution center suffered heavy damage.

BROWN: Nearly a week later, recovery efforts are slowly getting started. WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson reports.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Patti Sawyer and her husband own one of the few homes left standing in the Whispering Hills Subdivision in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She lived through harrowing moments as the tornado passed through early Saturday morning, and now she’s living through some tough moments in the aftermath.

Like when bulldozers arrived to deal with all the debris.

SAWYER: There was a state police officer standing there just watching this guy remove debris. And I thought, “Why is he just standing there watching him?” And then it hit me that he was sitting there watching him because he was looking for what could be in the debris, including maybe victims of the tornado. And it just really hit hard, how awful and gruesome that this was.

Still, Sawyer—who now has no vehicles without damage or electricity to even charge her phone—sees some good coming from what Kentucky’s governor has called the most devastating tornado event in the state’s history. She’s seen the value of relationships she built in a church plant and two other congregations. 

SAWYER: You sort of think about these friendships and how maybe they've just gone away, or have you lost some of these friends, because everybody is so busy. And then that day, there were everyone from or someone from one of these three churches in my backyard, and they were helping us remove debris, and they were there and you realize that no one was too busy anymore...

Ten miles outside of hard hit Mayfield, Kentucky, families in Wingo are taking shelter in a community center called “The Way.” John 14:6 is posted on a sign above the door. 

VASQUEZ: They've been really helpful. Clothing us, feeding us, being able to take showers and you know what I mean, stuff like that. Helping us a lot with the baby diapers. We lost all of that stuff: diapers, formula and all that stuff.

That’s Anthony Vasquez. He lost a lot in the tornado, including Christmas gifts. 

VASQUEZ: We had quite a bit of presents for our little son, Michael. Christmas time, you want to be able to be at home, enjoy the family, the holidays and get Christmas lights up and all that good stuff. But I'm just so grateful that I'll be able to have my son for Christmas, you know what I mean?

Samaritan’s Purse has three staging areas set up in the tornado disaster zone. Clay Steelman is overseeing the work in Truman, Arkansas, just south of Jonesboro. There, trees are down, roofs are missing, and homes have been knocked from their foundations. Samaritan’s volunteers have come to work and to give Christian comfort. 

STEELMAN: It's a ministry of presence. You can use platitudes and those type things, but a lot of it comes from just standing beside them. And then jumping in and helping them.

By Sunday a volunteer team from The Rock Church in Jonesboro had joined Steelman. They were working with a woman whose home had slammed into a house next door. 

STEELMAN: She had a mahogany door that I believe her husband gave to her when they got in that home. So a couple of volunteers made it their task to pull it out from underneath the rubble. So they spent an hour or so digging that out and got out some mattresses and a chest of drawers and some keepsakes for her that she wouldn't have been able to get out otherwise. So that’s how you comfort them.

Steelman says volunteer work is especially challenging when the season is supposed to be merry, but instead it’s mournful.

STEELMAN: It's hard, you're seeing Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, just knowing that in two weeks, people are going to be celebrating Christmas. And people here are going to be looking for homes and trying to figure out where they're going to be living. So it's an added gut punch for working around this time.

Red Cross Spokesperson Annette Rowland agrees. She told workers to expect to be away from home for the holidays. 

ROWLAND: That just goes to show the compassion that our volunteers have. They didn't give it a second thought, and they were willing to go help.

Rowland says the Red Cross has 13 shelters in affected areas. The organization has also distributed more than 200 blood products to hospitals there. Shortages affect not only the storm’s trauma patients, but cancer patients and sickle cell patients. 

ROWLAND: So making sure that that supply is not interrupted is one way that the American people can really help right now.

MUSIC: Jesus, There's Something About That Name

But in the midst of all the rubble and sadness, last weekend music rang out from a house destroyed by Kentucky twisters. Jordan Baize sat at his piano in his roofless home and played the Gaither song, “Jesus, There’s Something About That Name.” He told reporters from ABC News why he could do that. 

BAIZE: At the risk of being too preachy, I would say that for me my faith guides me through the good days and the bad days. I would hate to know that I would have to face this storm or any forthcoming without being able to walk through it with Christ. He is the anchor of our lives. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next: heading off a Russian invasion.

The United States and other G7 nations issued another warning to Moscow over the weekend.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Seven of the world’s top democratic economic powers met in Liverpool to discuss a range of issues, but none more pressing than the Russian troop buildup along the Ukrainian border.

Seven years after Russian forces invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin could be plotting another land grab.

REICHARD: The “Group of Seven” nations are threatening tough economic sanctions, but not military action.

Will that be enough to deter Putin from ordering another invasion of Ukraine?

Joining us now to help us understand is Cliff May. He is a former commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and president and founder of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Good morning to you, sir!

CLIFF MAY, GUEST: Good morning to you.

REICHARD: First of all, give us a brief snapshot of what’s happening along the Russian-Ukrainian border. Some would say that Moscow has already invaded Ukraine by proxy with Russian-backed separatists waging war in Ukraine. What’s happening there?

MAY: So, most worrying is you got about 100,000 Russian troops pressing up against the border of Ukraine. But, as you say as well, in the eastern part of Ukraine, the Donbas region, there have long been Russian proxies, separatists, probably Russians who don't wear insignias on their uniform. And there's been a sort of a state of war in eastern Ukraine going on for years now. And then, of course, there’s Crimea, which as you also pointed out, Putin took away from Ukraine entirely a few years ago. So no one knows for sure what Putin is going to do. The smart thinking I've heard is that if he intends to invade, it probably won't happen until January, maybe late January. Why is that? Because that's about the time when Ukraine kind of goes into a deep freeze. The ground is frozen. That means the tanks to be sent in could go anywhere, not just on the roads, and that would be useful for Putin militarily. Again, I'm not predicting that he's going to do that, but I think it's very much a fear in Ukraine and to many of our European friends.

REICHARD: What would Russia stand to gain by invading Ukraine?

MAY: Okay, important point here. And that is, look, I've been following Vladimir Putin for oh, decades, let me say. Interestingly enough, I was actually an exchange student at Leningrad State University when he was a student there. I can't tell you we hung out together and drank brewskis at the pub on Saturday nights., but here's what I think I do know about the guy. He sees himself as a Latter Day tsar. And what is it that a tsar is supposed to do? He is supposed to expand the Russian Empire if he can. In this case, to at least restore the Russian Empire, which by the way, became the Soviet empire, even as the Soviets were saying, ‘Hey, we're anti imperialist.’ Nonetheless, they took over everything that had been part of the Russian Empire. Core to this: if you're a tsar, your title is Tsar of All the Russias. What does that mean? Well Belarus, headed by Lukashenko, but it's sort of a vassal state already of the Kremlin. And then very importantly, I would say, and perhaps most important to Putin is Ukraine, which he sees as part of historic Russia. You know, back in July, he published an article—whether he wrote it himself, it was his article, he signed it, and I think his pen was certainly on it—and it made very clear that it is his view that Ukraine and Russia are one country that Ukraine never should have been separated from Russia, that this was a mistake that Lenin made when he established the Soviet Union. That it simply should not have its independence. It is part of historic Russia. It is where Russia was born—Kievan Rus', as it was called—and he just doesn't recognize it. Now, if he's going to reestablish the Russian Empire, I think he clearly sees Ukraine as key. He is empire-building. And he is angry (over) the loss of the Russian and Soviet empire. And he sees Ukraine as particularly pivotal in this equation.

REICHARD: As we mentioned, the United States and other G7 countries are threatening tough economic sanctions. How would this differ from the global response seven years ago when Russia annexed Crimea?

MAY: Well, I would say that Secretary of State Tony Blinken is saying that the sanctions this time will be much, much more severe. Things like knocking Russia off the SWIFT system, which is sort of the high tech digital banking system. That would be a tremendous blow to the Russian economy, if we were actually to do it. Putin is calculating all this. He's thinking, ‘Well, I know what they can do to me. But I also know what I can do to them.’ Germany, not least perhaps most, relies on Russia already for energy supplies. Nord Stream 2, which Biden blessed early on, I'm not sure we got anything in return. That's a new pipeline for natural gas coming from Russia to Germany. I think Biden would have been well-served not to bless that. American administration's previously had been against that. And at least say, look, here's what we need to get in exchange, if you want us to let this go ahead, because it's going to make Germany and Europe more dependent on Russia. So, Putin may think you want to play this game? Go ahead. At the end of the day, I think when the cards are on the table, I win the hand, I win the pot. But I don't know, he also may just be you know, this could be a bluff. It's very hard to tell with him. He's asking for a couple of things that I don't think the Biden administration can give him. He's saying, I want to guarantee that Ukraine will never be in NATO, that there will never be NATO forces in Ukraine, and not even NATO weapons in Ukraine. I don't see how President Biden can say, ‘Yeah, I promise you that for all times,’ even though—and this is where I disagree with a lot of analysts—a lot of analysts say, ‘Oh, Putin is afraid that Ukraine will join NATO.’ Well, to join NATO, you need unanimous consent from all 30 NATO members. Germany doesn't want Ukraine in NATO at this time. I don't think President Biden wants it and a lot of other countries wouldn’t. The Germans actually have Merkel, Angela Merkel, the outgoing chancellor, she's blocked NATO weapons to Ukraine, which the idea of sending them in was so that the Ukraine can defend itself, which I think it has a right to do.

REICHARD: Okay. So the odds of Ukraine joining NATO are pretty slim.

MAY: Zero, in my view. Again, you need unanimous consent from all the NATO members. That's just not going to happen. And Putin would see that as a red line, by the way, I think and say, ‘Oh, you're going to do that? Then I am going in. Let's see if you stop me. And how would that work to stop me? You really think you’re going to see German troops coming into Ukraine to fight Russians? The biggest military, of course, in NATO is that of the U.S. But the second biggest military is that of Turkey. Do we really expect to see Turkish soldiers fighting Russians in Ukraine? I can't imagine that. And I don't think that's at all plausible. I don't think Putin thinks it’s plausible.

REICHARD: You said earlier that Putin is “empire building.” Talk more about that if you would. Explain what his ultimate endgame here is.

MAY: Yeah, to reestablish the Russian Empire, to make Russia an important and more important power in the world than it has been at following the fall of the Soviet Union, which he sees as a terrible tragedy of the 20th century. Not because he's a communist. He's not. But because it was about Russian power, and Russian power was expressed through the Soviet Union. So he's done other things, too. He sent his troops into the Middle East, into Syria. President Obama said, ‘Oh, you don't want to do that. It's a quagmire.’ He thought, ‘For you it's a quagmire, not for me.’ And what did he achieve? Well, he's got a warm water port in Syria, on the Mediterranean, which he wanted. And he is seen as a power broker in the Middle East by pretty much all of the players. So he's achieved that. He wants Russia to be a major power in the world and he thinks most Russians want that as well. And if he can achieve that, there'll be some more support for him. The economy is not great in that country for lots of reasons. But he is showing that he is a powerful player, and plenty of Russians do like to see that. I don't think he's necessarily wrong in his view. But I think it's also, you know, he's got more money than he could ever spend. He has more power at home than ever. I think he wants to increase his power and Russia's power as much as he can. I think he thinks that's his job and his mission. I firmly believe that.

REICHARD: Cliff May with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has been our guest. Thanks so much!

MAY: Thank you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 16th. This is WORLD Radio, and we thank you for listening.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Mryna Brown.

Effective Compassion Season 3 begins in a little more than a month. This year, all 10 episodes focus on prison ministry. While digging into one story, our reporter stumbled upon an unusual museum.

REICHARD: Before Texas established a state prison system in 1848, each of the states’ counties carried out justice in total. From arrest, to imprisonment, to execution.

But inaccurate portrayals of life behind bars in Texas persist today.

BROWN: One Texas museum tries to tell the whole story—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here’s World reporter Bonnie Pritchett.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, CORRESPONDENT: Leather. It’s the first thing you smell then see upon entering this niche museum in Huntsville, Texas. A lighted, glass display case welcomes visitors with hand-tooled wallets, hand bags, cell phone cases and other specialty-crafted items.

It’s all for sale. And it’s all the work of Texas prison inmates.

Also on display here at the Texas Prison Museum is a paradox—mankind’s creative nature used to build up and tear down.

STACKS: Over the last 90 days, we've had people from 17 different countries, come visit us…

Artifacts, photos, letters, and informative panels facilitate self-guided tours. But this morning, museum director David Stacks walks me through the exhibits.

STACKS: One of the things that we want to make sure here in our museum is that we tell the facts, whether it's a good fact or a bad fact, one of the things that we don't want to do is distort history…

Stacks served 19 years as warden for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. His experience and study of history enriches our conversation.

STACKS: We got our first prisoner in 1849. He was a horse thief from Fayette County. And about a year later he got his first cell partner. And he didn't like it. He tried to escape and he was killed in his escape attempt.

Escape attempts continued to threaten prison safety. In 1934 outlaws Bonnie and Clyde helped five inmates break out of an East Texas prison.

STACKS: And what you see here is a model…

Stacks approaches a large, table-top model of the Huntsville Unit, the first state-run prison, and points to a building inside the compound.

STACKS: The Carrasco siege took place in the education building…

In 1974 Fred Carrasco was serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a police officer when he tried to escape.

REASONER: In the state penitentiary in Huntsville Texas, armed convicts have seized 11 hostages…

STACKS: But Carrasco, he was able to orchestrate his escape attempt by paying an outside trustee money to smuggle in some weapons and some Bandoleros and live weapons and ammunition…

After an 11-day standoff, Carrasco and his two fellow convicts tried to make their way to freedom by using rolling chalkboards and four hostages as shields. During the ensuing shoot-out with authorities, Carrasco and another escapee shot and killed two prison employee hostages. Authorities killed one of those convicts. Carrasco took his own life.

More evidence of mankind’s creativity—for good or ill—fills the museum.

STACKS: They are very ingenious…

Remarkable works of art are all made from the resources at the inmates’ disposal— soap, matchsticks, cigarette packages, coffee grounds and toilet paper.

Scores of homemade knives and assorted weapons reveal darker intentions.

Moving on, Stacks says it wasn’t just the inmates behaving cruelly.

STACKS: So that to me is a very dark way to treat anybody…

Photos of squalid living conditions tell the tale of the inmate leasing system. In 1871 the cash-strapped State of Texas leased prisoners to land owners. Some of them saw the inmates as a cheap, renewable resource.

STACKS: If one died, they’d say, ‘Well, I had this one, I need another one.’ There was no reason for them in their mind to treat them humanely…

Revelations of inhumane treatment brought the system to an end in 1912.

But inmates still work. Stacks moves to a display that appears more suited for an agricultural museum.

STACKS: We do everything from raising our own cotton, our own maize or corn, our own vegetables. We have our own canning plant…

From fields to cattle barns to metal fabrication shops, Texas inmates produce much of what they eat, wear, sleep on and, um, sit on. Stacks describes the toilet-sink combo gracing a replica cell.

STACKS: Our prison systems, our metal fab division makes these. So, the top has a sink. The top also has a fountain where you can drink water out the top of the fountain. And then down below is the bowl for using the restroom…

Clyde Barrows once lived in a cell like this… until he escaped and took up his murderous crime spree with partner Bonnie Parker. Stacks takes me to an artifact taken from the couple’s “death car.”

NEWS REEL: Four of the six officers who brought down Bonnie and Clyde…

A tall, plexiglass case holds one item on loan to the museum – a polished, silvery pistol.

STACKS: Bonnie and Clyde broke into a military installment and broke into their armory. And that gun was taken out of the armory. But it was it was taken off of her in the death car. And here's a picture of Clyde in the in the death car here…

Most criminals don’t meet their fate in a shootout. Actually, the vast majority of convicts are released after serving their time.

For those condemned to die—there’s another exhibit. Stacks said it’s the most popular one in the museum. The sturdy wooden chair with leather straps at the feet, arms, chest and head has a morbid nickname—Old Sparky.

Stacks has witnessed his share of executions, none by electrocution. That ended in 1964 after 40 years. In that time 361 men died in this chair.

Since 1982 Texas has used lethal injection for executions.

STACKS: And we try to give them all the dignity and respect that we believe any human being should have, even though they're being condemned to an execution death...

Even the vilest offender bears God’s image. Stacks recognizes that and his own state of grace.

STACKS: Yeah, most most people that are, when they get to this point in their life, they've done some pretty horrendous things. You know, the greatest thing I can say is that the people that I've witnessed, have confessed their sins. Accepted their fate. Believe in Christ. And I hope to see them in heaven. I mean, why would we not want to. Who wants to wish anybody go to hell? I know I don't…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Huntsville, Texas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mryna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s commentator Cal Thomas on tornadoes and the winds of politics.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Some politicians and government officials can’t let a serious crisis go to waste. In the matter of the tornadoes that devastated Western Kentucky, parts of Tennessee and four other states, restraint was called for, but went unanswered.

Asked about the cause of such devastation, President Biden said, “We all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming.” He later walked back the comment to a “wait and see” position. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell also blamed climate change, saying such disasters will be the "new normal" from now on.

Neither the president, nor Criswell are meteorologists, but Chris Martz is. He writes on his website that there has been “no overall trend in U.S. tornado activity since 1954.” He cites the National Weather Service’s EF scale, used to measure the power of storms. That scale shows tornado intensity is down 50 percent in nearly seven decades. This tornado was a rare event.

But attributing storm devastation to climate change is nothing new.

A 1974 story in the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star blamed severe weather on “global cooling.” It said, quote—“Droughts, floods, blizzards, tornadoes, typhoons, and hurricanes have plagued much of the nation and the world in recent years. Most people considered these weather conditions to be abnormal and temporary, but instead, climatologists now believe the first half of the 20th century was blessed with unusually mild weather and that the global climate has begun returning to a harsher—but more normal—state. For the long run, there is mounting evidence of a worldwide cooling trend.”

The response to those earlier “sky is falling” assertions included demands to alter our way of life to save the planet. More recently we have had ludicrous predictions by nationally known figures that the planet will cease to exist if we don’t follow the advice of politicians and “experts” about climate change. Most of them are associated with growing government and more state control over our lives. These apocalyptic predictions about life on earth range from weeks, to months, to a few years. Some even want to use higher gas prices and other means to force us to give up our cars and take public transportation.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg offers electric cars as alternatives to vehicles fueled by gasoline. He says once families embrace electric cars they will “never have to worry about gas prices again.” Has he noticed that electric bills usually go up, not down?

We never hear about how wrong “experts” have been in the past when they once predicted the opposite of what new “experts” now predict. Could there be a political agenda behind that omission?

As for the current storm devastation, our national focus should be on helping people in need. Leave the politics and questionable science for debate on another day.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet returns for Culture Friday.

And, a review of the latest release from the Marvel Universe.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

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The Bible says: Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Go now in grace and peace.

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