The World and Everything in It — February 24, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

President Biden continues to take a sledgehammer to President Trump’s immigration policies.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also World Tour.

Plus tales of endurance from our reporters in Texas.

And WORLD founder Joel Belz on the publishing business, then and now.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, February 24th, 2021. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now here’s Kent Covington with news of the day.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Senate holds first Capitol riot hearing » Law enforcement officers testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol last month.

Steven Sund is the former chief of the Capitol Police. He said some of the intruders clearly plotted the siege. 

SUND: These criminals came prepared for war. They came with their own radio system to coordinate the attack. To defeat the Capitol’s security features. I am sickened by what I saw that day. 

Sund told a Senate panel that no entity, including the FBI provided any intelligence warning about that kind of attack. 

SUND: We properly planned for a mass demonstration with possible violence. What we got was a military-style coordinated assault on my officers and a violent take-over of the Capitol building.

The FBI did send a warning about online posts promising violence, but Sund said he didn’t see it.

Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving also blamed a lack of intel. 

IRVING: Based on the intelligence, we all believed that the plan met the threat and that we were prepared. We now know that we had the wrong plan. 

Irving and Sund disagreed about why the agencies didn’t request help from the National Guard. Sund said Irving was worried about the optics of a large military presence at the Capitol. But Irving insisted the intelligence simply did not support such a strong response.

U.S. Capitol Police Captain Carneysha Mendoza said she didn’t think having more officers on the line would have mattered.

MENDOZA: Of the multitude of events I’ve worked in my nearly 19-year-career in the department, this was by far the worst of the worst. We could have had 10 times the amount of people working with us, and I still believe the battle would have been just as devastating.

The January 6th riot left five people dead and dozens injured.

Congress will hold another hearing on the Capitol breach next week. 

It will focus on the response of the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.

Becerra, Haaland confirmation hearings » Senators grilled President Biden’s nominee for health secretary on Tuesday.

Xavier Becerra told lawmakers he’s ready to help the president tackle COVID-19.

BECERRA: I understand the enormous challenges before us in our solemn responsibility to faithfully steward this agency that touches almost every aspect of our lives.

But Republican concerns about his nomination have little to do with the pandemic. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana spelled out those concerns…

BRAUN: For many of us, your record has been very extreme on abortion issues. Also some issues with religious liberty where you took to court the Little Sisters of the Poor. 

That refers to a case involving Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate.

As Calif. Attorney general Becerra also prosecuted undercover journalist David Deleiden for secretly recording Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies. 

Republicans also raised concerns about his lack of medical experience. 

Becerra still serves as the state’s attorney general. Before that, he spent 24 years in the U.S. House. 

Senators also held a confirmation hearing on Tuesday for President Biden’s pick for Interior secretary. If confirmed, Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico would be the first Native American to head the department that has broad oversight over tribal affairs.

FDA to consider approval of third coronavirus vaccine » The Food and Drug Administration may soon give the green light to a third coronavirus vaccine. WORLD’S Sarah Schweinsberg has more. 

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: FDA advisers will meet Friday to discuss whether to recommend Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine. 

If approved, it would be the first single-dose vaccine. Both Moderna’s and Pfizers’ require two shots for full immunization. 

Also different from Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccine does not use new messenger RNA technology. Instead it uses a harmless common virus to carry COVID-19’s genetic code to cells. 

Company studies showed a single dose protected two-thirds of participants from moderate infections and 85 percent from severe symptoms. 

No one with the vaccine was hospitalized or died. 

Johnson and Johnson says it’s prepared to ship 20 million doses by the end of March. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg. 

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on interest rates and inflation » Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told senators on Tuesday he’s not buying into rosie forecasts for the U.S. economy. 

POWELL: The economic recovery remains uneven and far from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain

Testifying remotely to the Senate Banking Committee, Powell highlighted the toll that the pandemic is taking on small businesses and the job market.

But some lawmakers suggested Powell was shortchanging the recovery. GOP Sen. Pat Toomey noted that in 18 states, unemployment is below 5 percent and that wages, stock, and home prices have recovered.  

TOOMEY: We are well past the point where our economy is collapsing. In fact our economy is growing powerfully. 

But Powell said those gains are fueled by optimism rather than true economic growth. 

Republican lawmakers and some economists worry long-term low interest rates coupled with big spending in another stimulus package could lead to inflation. 

First sound recorded from Mars » AUDIO: [Buzzing, wind blowing]

That is the sound of wind. But it’s not just any breeze. That is the sound of Martian wind! That is the very first sound ever recorded from Mars. 

NASA released the audio on Monday along with footage of the Perseverance rover touching down on the red planet last week.

Dave Gruel is a lead engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

GRUEL: So that gentle whir that happens in the background, that is a noise made by the rover, but yes, what you did hear ten seconds in was an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth.

Perseverance is not the first rover to land on Mars, but it’s the first with a microphone. Scientists hope to capture the sound of the rover’s laser turning martian rocks into plasma. That will give clues about the rocks’ properties, including their density.

NASA engineers will also use the sound to keep tabs on the rover’s condition. Some sounds could alert them to mechanical problems.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: President Biden hammers away at President Trump’s immigration policies.

Plus, Joel Belz on big business and the left’s radical agenda.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 24th of February, 2021. Thanks so much for joining us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up, Washington Wednesday.

Former President Trump made border security and a tough stance on illegal immigration a cornerstone of his campaign and of his presidency. 

TRUMP: And we’re building a wall. We’re building a beautiful wall!

Now President Biden and Democratic lawmakers want to tear down that wall—at least metaphorically, along with the rest of Trump’s policies. 

The White House has been clear about its mission: Erase every trace of Trump’s stamp on immigration and the southern border. Press Secretary Jen Psaki put it this way… 

PSAKI: The president, our entire administration are committed to digging out of the immoral approach to immigration of the prior administration. 

REICHARD: And Biden has been able to reshape certain policies with the stroke of a pen. 

Upon taking office, he immediately stopped construction of the border wall. And earlier this month, he invited cameras into the Oval Office…

BIDEN: Today I’m going to sign a few executive orders to strengthen the immigration system building on the executive actions I took on day one to protect ‘dreamers.’

The first order formed a task force charged with figuring out how to reunite children still separated from their families at the southern border. 

The other two orders called for a top-to-bottom scouring of all Trump immigration policies and a study of the root problems causing people to flee countries in Central America. 

EICHER: Those actions were not controversial. But other moves have triggered strong reactions. 

Last month, President Biden ordered a 100-day freeze on all deportations. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly sued to stop the order. He told Fox News…

PAXTON: These were laws put in place by elected representatives basically requiring that if you come here illegally and you’re caught that you be deported. And he basically said no, we’re not going to do that anymore. The border is open, you can stay and we’re not going to deport you. 

REICHARD: A federal judge issued and later extended a restraining order halting that freeze. 

But last week, the Biden administration announced another move aimed at greatly curbing deportations and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement—or ICE for short.

The guidance instructs ICE to focus on those who pose a clear threat to national security or public safety when deciding who to detain. 

Also this month, the White House announced that DHS will begin unwinding a signature Trump policy. 

PSAKI: The Dept. of Homeland Security will take steps to begin processing individuals, who under the previous administration had been forced to remain in Mexico under the migrant protection protocol. 

EICHER: That too stirred controversy. 

Victor Avila is a retired ICE agent. He argued that humane immigration policies are one thing, but he said the president isn’t just fixing what’s broken, he’s breaking what was fixed. 

AVILA: The migrant protection protocol, also known as the “remain in Mexico” policy, having people seek asylum from their home country or from Mexico has been working. 

In announcing that DHS would allow asylum seekers into the country, Jen Psaki added that “only eligible individuals will be allowed to enter.” 

PSAKI: I will note that this news should not be interpreted as an opening for people to migrate irregularly to the United States. 

But critics say migrants are absolutely interpreting this and other Biden policies as an opening. 

Border officials detained or arrested nearly 80,000 people along the southern border last month. That is the highest figure for the month of January in at least a decade. And it’s more than double the number from the same month last year.

REICHARD: And in a Feb. 9th interview, Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz told the W.I.N. podcast that the numbers are swelling. 

ORTIZ: Our agents over the last 10 days have apprehended over 3,000 aliens every day. Yesterday we had over a thousand “got-aways” along the Southwest border. So yeah, we’re getting to that point where we’re going to start to see an average 3,500, then 4,000 a day. 

Almost everyone in Washington agrees that the U.S. immigration system is broken. But what exactly needs to be fixed? And how to fix it?

On those questions, the parties remain deeply divided. 

Last week, Democrats on Capitol Hill presented their blueprint. The plan would create an eight-year path to citizenship for those living in the country unlawfully.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez told reporters…

MENENDEZ: They live under constant fear of deportation. It’s time to bring all 11 million undocumented out of the shadows, give them the opportunity to pass criminal background and national security checks, secure lawful, prospective immigrant status.

EICHER: Eventually, farm workers, immigrants with temporary protected status, and so-called “dreamers,” could apply for green cards.

Others living in the United States as of the beginning of this year could gain temporary legal status after five years and then pursue citizenship three years later.

Casey Higgins is senior analyst with the Akin Gump firm. She’s also a former congressional staffer who worked on past immigration reform efforts. She said this bill was really more of a statement than anything else. 

HIGGINS: Instead of giving everyone a reason to vote yes, it gives everyone a reason to vote no, and in the past we’ve seen it collapse under its own weight. So while I think this is a great marker for the left and may be indicative of—in an ideal world where the Biden-Harris administration would want to go, I think this is a political exercise to show exactly what their position is, but it’s not necessarily a lawmaking exercise. 

REICHARD: Unlike the ill fated bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration bill of 2013, this bill does not meaningfully address border security. That makes it a complete nonstarter with Republicans. 

Higgins said if Democrats are serious about making another real run at immigration reform, they should start with smaller piecemeal solutions that both sides can agree on. 

HIGGINS: That could break the dam and show that the world isn’t going to end politically because we passed an immigration bill. And I think it will give more confidence to be able to move forward on these issues in the future. 

EICHER: But for now it is more of the same in Washington and no sign of any real reform on the horizon. 

REICHARD: And that’s this week’s Washington Wednesday.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with Africa reporter Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Italian ambassador killed in DRC—We start today here in Africa.

The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo died Monday when attackers ambushed a World Food Programme convoy.

AUDIO: [Sounds of truck engine, talking]

UN peacekeepers and Congolese troops are searching for the attackers in the eastern part of the country. No group has claimed responsibility, but officials are blaming a Rwandan Hutu rebel group. It has plagued the region with violence for more than 25 years.

Ambassador Luca Attanasio was shot in the stomach and later died at a local hospital. An Italian policeman traveling with him and their Congolese driver also died in the attack.

AUDIO: [Woman speaking French]

Marie Tumba Nzeza is foreign minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo. She vowed the government would do everything it could to find those responsible.

Congo’s eastern region is remote and rich in minerals. A US-based monitor says more than 120 armed groups operate in the area. More than 2,000 civilians have died in attacks there since January 2019.

Oil spill blankets Israeli beaches—Next to the Middle East.

AUDIO: [Sounds of tractor, bags, voices]

Thousands of volunteers and soldiers converged on Israel’s coast Sunday to help clean up tar from an oil spill.

AUDIO: For now, it’s the manual labor. We can pick up the big chunks and maybe the first layer of sand. As long as it’s cold, it’s okay. When it’s going to be warm, it’s going to stick, it’s going to liquefied. It’s going to be inside everything.

The sticky globs spread out over about 100 miles of beaches. Israel’s environmental protection ministry says the oil is coming from an offshore ship, but they have not identified the exact source.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the disaster proved the need to switch cargo ships from fossil fuels to natural gas.

China announces changes in Hong Kong—Next we go to Asia.

Chinese officials have announced sweeping changes to the way Hong Kong selects its government representatives.

AUDIO: [Woman speaking Cantonese]

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday that political strife and unrest in the semi-autonomous city showed the need for reforms. 

Under the current system, voters are allowed to pick some of the representatives on the Legislative Council. That has enabled pro-democracy opposition leaders to maintain a presence in the political process.

But under the new rules, only representatives who pledge allegiance to Hong Kong as a special region of China will be allowed to run for office. 

New Zealand marks earthquake anniversary—And finally, we end today in New Zealand.

AUDIO: [Sound of bell tolling]

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern led a memorial service Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake.

ARDERN: The toll could not have been more significant, and daily reminders made it harder, a fractured landscape, aftershocks, struggling friends and neighbors, and children with deep and unseen scars. Ten years on there will be people still living their daily lives with the long shadow of that day.

185 people died in the disaster that destroyed much of downtown Christchurch. The city’s iconic cathedral, built in 1904, remains in ruins. But work to repair the structure has begun. And like other new buildings in the city, the rebuilt cathedral will be much more resistant to earthquakes.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Records were made to be broken and if you don’t believe that, ask Maxine Olive of Belleville, Ontario. 

All by her lonesome, she tackled the world’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle. She lived-streamed her attempt as evidence for the Guiness World Record as she explained to a reporter from Quinte News:

OLIVE: Sat there for the 150 some odd hours and did it. It is a mental game. It is not only the mental issue behind doing the puzzle itself, but then you also run into having the will power of having to sit there through the road blocks.

If the paperwork bears it out, Maxine Olive has an excellent chance of claiming the world record. She beat out the reigning champ and not by a little bit. She out-puzzled the previous record-holder by a whopping 273 hours!

To give you a sense of the effort here, a typical puzzle for adults has around 1,000 pieces. This one? More than 40 times that. Her longest stretch was 34 hours, with just one stop for an hour of sleep. 

Meanwhile, as she awaits word from Guinness, she’s just going to bed.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 24th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad to have you along today. 

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A Southern snowpocalypse. 

Arctic air blew into the Southern United States last week, knocking out power in portions of several states. But Texas bore the brunt. Millions lost power and dozens of municipalities issued boil notices, meaning water needs to be boiled before using.

EICHER: Of course, that was for those whose pipes didn’t freeze or burst. Many didn’t have any water at all. Some still don’t. 

But, the human spirit endures. Today, three Texans—WORLD’s Leigh Jones, Bonnie Pritchett, and Katie Gaultney—offer us a glimpse into what they experienced.

KEZIAH: Ready for the real sledding, mama?

LEIGH JONES, MANAGING EDITOR: My 7-year-old daughter had looked forward to this winter storm for an entire week. She had big plans to pile up snowmen, spread snow angels on our front lawn, and throw snowballs at her unsuspecting Mimi.

We woke up Monday morning to a quasi winter wonderland, and nearly all her dreams were realized.

AUDIO: [Squealing, laughing]

We piled on our layers and headed outside for some fun. But it didn’t last that long. Turns out, snow is cold. And we didn’t have enough of it to build a snowman. Also, it was too icy to form snowballs.

But our neighbor loaned us a sled, and we dug a water skiing rope out of the garage. That gave us everything we needed for a few hours of fun.

AUDIO: [Sounds of scraping and sliding]
LEIGH: Uh oh! [laughing]
KEZIAH: [Squeal!] Awww!!

Picture me running down the road, trying not to tow her into a curb.

Eventually our fingers and toes succumbed to icy numbness. So, we retreated inside to warm up. Only the power had gone out overnight and still hadn’t come back on. 

No matter. We have a gas fireplace, and it did a pretty good job of keeping the living room warm. For a while, anyway.

But as the day dragged on, it got colder and colder inside. 

AUDIO: [Sound of lighter and stove]

We have a gas stove, so we weren’t consigned to eating cold sandwiches for dinner. But shivering kinda spoils the ambiance of meals by candlelight. 

The next day, our church opened for anyone who needed to thaw out and charge up phones and computers. Talk about a godsend! Volunteers made coffee and hot chocolate and set out snacks. The kids watched Superbook on the big screens in the sanctuary.

SONG: “Salvation Song,” Superbook

The adults hung out all afternoon in the fellowship hall. My husband played a board game with friends while I tried to catch up on work. All around us, people took comfort in swapping stories of common hardships.

We’ve never had to weather a winter storm before, but we have survived our share of hurricanes. And the same thread runs through them all: It’s the fellowship of our church family that pulls us through.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones in Pearland, Texas.

BONNIE PRITCHETT, CORRESPONDENT: Roughing it, whether post-hurricane or during a winter storm is all about learning to live without and making due with what you do have.

No electricity? No problem.

The outlet in the cab of your F- 150 pickup will power your coffee bean grinder.

AUDIO: [Truck starting, plugging in grinder, grinding coffee]

Hey. Roughing it doesn’t mean we have to live like barbarians.

And did you know meat thermometers aren’t just for pot roasts anymore? That stroke of genius I stole from colleague Katie Gaultney who used her “is-dinner-ready?” device to measure the arctic chill in her house.

My husband and I just wanted to know if the food in the fridge was going bad.

Temperature in the house? 51 degrees.

Fridge: 43.

AUDIO: [Door opening, placing therm inside, closing door]

Garage 46.

Front porch 36. We relocated the perishables outside.

AUDIO: [Unlock door, open, chest outside, close door, lock it]

When not repurposing kitchen accessories, we checked on our neighbors. And, because misery loves company, I invited one over for hot, fresh-ground, coffee and warm snickerdoodles.

No oven? No problem. Like camping, I could bake dessert outside in the Dutch oven. But taking one look at the sheen of ice covering the patio my husband poured cold water on that idea.

And to all those who asked me: Yes, living in your house without electricity for days is roughing it. But it is NOT camping.

But there is at least one similarity – a sense of community.

Campers often enjoy chatting with their fireside neighbors.

And city neighbors—who speak too infrequently when life is normal—open up when disaster strikes. “Are you guys ok?”

“Do you need extra blankets?”

“Water’s pouring through your bathroom ceiling? Yes, we can show you where to shut off the water to your house!”

And, “I’ll bring you water from my house so you can flush your toilets.”

Remember, we’re not barbarians.

Roughing it is also about sharing what you have.

AUDIO: [Timer sounding]

Which reminds me. Now that the power is back on, I owe a friend a batch of snickerdoodles.

AUDIO: [Oven door opening, removing cookie tray]

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

AUDIO: [Brad and Gaultney kids roughhousing]

KATIE GAULTNEY, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Brad Gaultney is the king of making lemonade out of life’s lemons. So when the power switched off, my husband—like our neighbors’ generators—switched on. Our house dipped below freezing more than once—as evidenced by the aforementioned meat thermometer experiment and a thin sheen of ice floating on the top of the bathtub—but that didn’t stop Brad from initiating a game of musical chairs with our four kiddos. 

AUDIO: [Musical chairs game, laughing]

We set up a tent in the living room so we could trap body heat and huddle for warmth. The kids loved it. We had child-led read-alouds…. 

AUDIO: [Little House on the Prairie, read by Vivi Gaultney]

And even some creative cooking.

AUDIO: … a cup of milk, Ford do you want to add the milk?/ Sure.

No, I’m not talking about the meals of pantry staples I had to throw together. We mostly stayed inside to focus on preserving warmth, but we did venture out—briefly—to make snow candy out of maple syrup, and to gather fresh snow for snow ice cream. 

AUDIO: That looks great!/ Are we gonna eat it?/ Yeah!  

It wasn’t all so sweet, of course. 

AUDIO: [Water leaking]

A pipe burst in our attic, pouring through a light fixture. And I had to do “minor surgery,” removing surgical staples from my 9-year-old’s scalp. Ford had a backyard injury a couple of weeks before, and with ice on the roads and the city more or less shut down, we wouldn’t be able to get them out by a professional as planned. 

AUDIO: Mom, are you gonna yank it?/ It’s out!/ Oh! That didn’t hurt.

But, the days without power or water passed. We fixed the pipe. The power came back on—for good. Brad packed up the tent, much to the kids’ sadness. We’re down a few packages of pasta and cans of chicken—and we’ll have to patch and paint our ceiling. The drone of so many gas generators in our neighborhood may haunt my dreams. 

AUDIO: [Gas generator]

But we really did make lasting memories as a family. That said, after a year of an unprecedented virus, unprecedented elections, and unprecedented winter weather, I’m not the first to quip that it will be nice when we get back to precedented events again. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Katie Gaultney in Dallas, Texas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. WORLD celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. That occasion got founder Joel Belz thinking about the opposition he faced early on and how little things have changed today.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: It was in the early days of WORLD magazine, and we were struggling to stay alive. We knew most successful magazines typically secured two-thirds of their revenue from advertising, with loyal subscribers providing the other third.

But even after several years, WORLD had attracted enough ad revenue to cover no more than 10 or 15 percent of our costs. The ratio was all wrong. A friend of mine, with years of expertise in our field, told us bluntly that we had an “impossible publishing formula.” 

I decided to hit the road. I knew some top executives in half a dozen large companies. A key marketing man with Coca Cola, an ad writer for Chrysler, top man at a big brokerage, and a vice president at Maytag. Wasn’t it reasonable to think they’d see it as a good investment to get some valuable ad space for goods and services along the way, and at the same time be responsive to my appeal that they support a cause like WORLD’s distinctive Bible-shaped journalism?

Not so. One of the men summed things up when, as he leafed through our current issue, he shook his head and said: “I dunno. Looks pretty religious to me. I just don’t see it as a very good fit.” Indeed, it was just such an expression of secularism that tended to characterize every last one of these prospects. 

So why bring all this up now, some 30 years later? Partly because so little has changed. 

Three or four decades ago, I failed to “close the deal” with half a dozen business leaders—mostly because they didn’t want their landscape cluttered with embarrassing “religious” artifacts. “Just keep all that at a distance,” they said. 

Now, though, just keeping a distance isn’t enough. They’ve joined forces with those who want to ensure we have no page from which to withhold their names. That’s why we see the biggest businesses and many corporate giants not so subtly dictating to our culture a radical leftist value system. They often appear bent on weakening or destroying those who dissent.

Think I’m exaggerating? Keep your eyes focused, in the months ahead, on issues like tax exemption and hate speech. Go back and review the pledges offered by all the Democratic candidates. Many of them would explicitly widen the platforms of the LGBT alliance and tighten restrictions on any entity that might be seen as critical of that same alliance. One of those candidates is now president of the United States, and several of those he defeated are now members of his cabinet. 

I didn’t appreciate it 30 years ago when those businessmen turned down my sales pitch. But going from reluctant ad buyers to a threatening president is, in my experience, going severely from bad to worse.

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: child tax credits. Democrats want to expand U.S. welfare support for families with children. We have a report.

And, we’ll talk to an energy system expert about the failure of the power grid in Texas. How and why it happened. 

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

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

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says “blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…” 

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. 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 WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.