The World and Everything in It: January 9, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

China’s been hacking into American cyberspace, possibly to include your text messages. What can be done about it?

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, a man named Or Levy is one of the hostages still held by Hamas. His brother tells of his efforts to get him back home.

And a steelworker from Pittsburgh on the history and future of the American steel industry:

KASUNICK: During the 90s. The early 90s. I could tell you the steel industry was starting to change.

And WORLD commentary from Cal Thomas who says dumbing down standards for teachers isn’t good for students.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, January 9th. 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 news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: California fires » In greater Los Angeles this morning, massive clouds of black smoke loom over the city against orange skies, as wildfires continue to tear through the region.

Los Angeles County supervisor Kathryn Barger:

BARGER:  It is surreal. It is without words that I can even explain to you what is taking place. My heart is heavy.

Thousands of firefighters were battling at least three separate blazes … fueled by ferocious Santa Ana winds. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley remarked:

CROWLEY:  High, high, high winds. I've never seen the winds in my 25 year career.  

One of those, the Pacific Palisades fire, now the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, destroying well over 10,000 acres, and more than 1,000 structures.

The flames drove residents to make desperate escapes from burning homes.

Actor Steve Guttenberg described chaos as many residents tried to evacuate:

GUTTENBERG:  They started evacuating people. But what happened was there's no way to get out. No way to get down Palisades Drive — two miles of just gridlock. So what happened was the fire got so huge and so big on both sides that they told people to abandon their cars.

The LA area wildfires are now blamed for at least five deaths.

Winter weather » Meantime, southern states are bracing for the expected arrival of freezing rain and snow today and tomorrow.

Peter Mullinax with the National Service:

MULLINAX:  There are over 23 million people that are under winter storm watches that stretch from north Texas all the way to the southern Appalachians.

That includes major cities like Dallas and Atlanta, which could both receive up to 4 inches of snow.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned residents:

ABBOTT:  Be careful. Be cautious. Make sure that you're protecting your own life. If you do get out on the road, drive safely. If you don't need to be out on the road, if you're one of the parts of the state that's going to have icy roads, stay home for the next day or so.

The weather could wreak havoc on travel, and not just on the highways. Atlanta and Dallas-Ft.Worth are home to the two busiest airports in the nation.

Trump meeting with GOP leaders » President-elect Donald Trump met with GOP lawmakers at the Capitol on Wednesday. He’s pressing Republicans to get his agenda moving in Congress.

Trump has asked Republicans to craft one giant bill to include tax cuts as well as border security and energy policy. But some have advised that Republicans could get those measures passed sooner if broken into multiple bills.

TRUMP:  We're looking at a one bill versus two bills. And, uh, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. We're going to get the result. And, uh, we're going to make America great again.

Sen. Roger Marshall said he things Republicans will build momentum on Trump’s agenda quickly.

MARSHALL:  I think that the president is practicing the art of the deal. He's listening to both sides. He's going to measure twice and cut once here. I think it will end up being one bill. I think that's the only thing that gets through the House, so we need to get this right.

Trump, along with the former and future first lady Melania, also paid tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter. His flag-draped casket lay in state in the Capitol rotunda ahead of today’s national funeral.

Trump legal » Lawyers for Donald Trump are asking the Supreme Court to call off tomorrow’s sentencing in his business fraud case in New York.

That appeal comes after state courts refused to postpone the sentencing.

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin says for Trump, it may be more about clearing his name than anything else.

SOMIN:  I think probably it will not succeed, though I can't be sure about that, but I also think whether it succeeds or not is not going to make much difference because the judge in the case has already signaled that he's probably not actually going to inflict any, uh, any actual penalty on Trump.

A Manhattan jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. It was an unusual case involving infractions usually prosecuted as misdemeanors, if at all.

Trump maintains his innocence in the case.

Ukraine » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Germany today, where he’s expected to announce another $500 million dollars in US military aid to Ukraine.

The weapons will be pulled from existing stockpiles as the Biden administration works to get as much military aid to Ukraine as possible before the president leaves office.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that ahead of possible negotiations to end the war:

BLINKEN: We want to make sure, and I think we are making sure, that the incoming administration will be able, if it's going to oversee such a negotiation, to make sure it's doing it from a position of strength and that President Trump could get the strongest possible deal.

Defense Secretary Austin is meeting at Ramstein air base, with dozens of allies backing Ukraine against Russian invaders.

Israel latest » Tragic news in Israel.

Citizens gathered in the Israeli town of Rahat yesterday after news that one of the residents was found dead in Gaza, and his son is also likely deceased.

Israeli military said soldiers had found the body of 53-year-old Yosef AlZayadni in an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip. Authorities are working to identify additional remains they believe to be Yosef's son, 22-year-old Hamzah.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: China’s hacking program targets US companies and the government. Plus, the rise and fall of U.S. steel.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 9th of January.

Thanks for listening to WORLD Radio! Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown

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

First up on The World and Everything in It: Chinese cyber hacking.

Last week, reports came out that Chinese hackers had infiltrated the U.S. Treasury Department, possibly accessing information about sanction plans and data about the American economy.

BROWN:  But that’s just the latest in a year of Chinese hacking operations. So far, they’ve planted malware in infrastructure and gathered data from the biggest phone companies for months without anyone noticing, and those are just the ones in public record.

How should the U.S. respond? Here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy.

GLENN GERSTELL: This isn't a case of just a burglar going down a block trying every front door handle.

MARY MUNCY: Glenn Gerstell works with the Center for Strategic Studies and has served as the General Counsel of the National Security Agency.

GERSTELL: This instead, is very sophisticated.

Over the past year, maybe year and a half, Gerstell says China has been upping its cyber maliciousness. And three big hacks stand out.

GERSTELL: The Salt Typhoon attack on the telecom systems and the so called Volt Typhoon, which was the attacks on infrastructure in Guam.

And of course, the hack on the U.S. Treasury Department.

In the case of Salt Typhoon, hackers got into U.S. telecom agencies, stealing data from thousands of Americans, but two of their main targets were President-elect Donald Trump and his vice president.

Gerstell says that to be 100 percent sure they removed the hackers, they’d have to remove the physical piece of equipment and replace it with something new. But if the hackers are smart, they’ll cover their tracks and hide their code in a router or modem somewhere, where no one will look.

GERSTELL: If you think of a burglar breaking into your house and then sort of tracing the steps and dusting it back so you can't figure out the footprints or fingerprints. Well, they did the cyber equivalent of that in a very, very sophisticated way.

It’s the same thing in Volt Typhoon. Where hackers infiltrated American infrastructure and planted malware, but as far as we know, haven’t done anything with it.

It’s like breaking into a house only to unlock the back door and leave.

GERSTELL: They just lay low and came back every few months to make sure that the door was still open.

And that creates the conditions for an even more sophisticated kind of operation.

GERSTELL: Supply chain attacks.

That’s how the hackers got into the Treasury Department. They infiltrated a third-party vendor, and when they interacted with the Treasury, the hackers got in with very few warning signs.

The bad news is, no one is sure whether the hackers are still in the system or not… especially in the case of the telecom agencies.

GERSTELL: Maybe you heard one or two strange noises in the attic, but when you went up to check there was no one there. But on the other hand, you didn't really see anyone leave the house.

The FBI’s cyber unit has assured officials that no other federal agencies were hacked, at least as far as they know.

And so far, the Chinese government says they haven’t sanctioned or helped any of these hacks.

GERSTELL: And the question is, what is our counter-response?

In the past, the U.S. has imposed sanctions and maybe expelled a diplomat. After the recent treasury hack, the government did levy sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity company.

GERSTELL: But we have to be really careful. We don't want to escalate, we don't want to provoke, we don't want to get into a full, full out cyber war.

Gerstell says hacking on some level is a tit-for-tat operation. Yes, the Chinese likely have access to our energy grid. But we also have access to theirs. Yes, there are a lot of spying operations going on, but we’re doing the same thing, and we may be more vulnerable than they are.

GERSTELL: The argument is, if you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw stones.

But some believe throwing stones may be the only way to fix the problem.

FURCHTGOTT-ROTH: If we're a nation of laws, we ought to hold wrongdoers accountable.

Harold Furchtgott-Roth is a fellow with the Hudson Institute. He says that instead of punishing the wrongdoer, the US has been telling companies to create better security systems.

FURCHTGOTT-ROTH: What I would call blaming the victim.

He believes the government should start imposing sanctions on China or allow reprisals from US law enforcement.

The Supreme Court has taken up a few cases this term over whether the US has jurisdiction over crimes committed against U.S. citizens abroad and whether U.S. citizens can sue bad actors abroad. Depending on how they rule, it could open the door to prosecuting crimes like hacking committed against the U.S. from other countries.

FURCHTGOTT-ROTH: Taking cybersecurity measures by themselves is not going to solve this problem. We are all vulnerable.

And to that end, the FBI is warning the public not to take any chances.

FOX: The FBI is warning Android and iPhone users to be careful when texting one another

NEWS4JAX: These hackers could potentially intercept text messages, they could even listen to your conversations on your phone.

NBC NEWS: The head of homeland security calling the threat very very serious.

Basically, the FBI is saying not to text sensitive information online without end-to-end encryption. Texting between iPhones or between Android phones has a few more hoops for hackers to jump through than basic SMS texting. Some apps also claim to be more secure.

But is that enough?

ERIC COLE: I'm Dr Eric Cole. I'm a cybersecurity professional and I am founder of Secure-Anchor.

Cole says cyber security for the average person is not about being the most secure, it’s about being just a little more secure than everyone else.

ERIC COLE: What we we call that in security, is the faster than the bear syndrome.

Basically, if two people are trying to outrun a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other guy.

Cole says for someone like President-elect Trump, it makes sense to have a cyber security team, but for lower-profile people, the odds of being targeted directly are pretty low, so just taking some basic encryption precautions makes sense.

Switching analogies:

COLE: It's always what we call the game of leapfrog.

The bad guys are going to find a hole in the wall and exploit it. The good guys will patch it and tell others to do the same, and then the bad guys will go looking for a new hole.

COLE: It's inevitable that this will continue to happen short term because we don't have any international laws on cyber security.

It’s legal in China to hack a US company and Cole says until there are incentives to stop, whether from their own government or ours, hacking will continue.

Cyber expert Glenn Gerstell agrees and says in the meantime we need to figure out how to live with it, kind of like a chronic disease.

GERSTELL: It's never really perfect, but you can manage it and live with it and go about and have a successful life. And my guess is that we'll probably end up in some kind of, I'll sort of say, equilibrium. It's not a happy solution. I wish we could wave a magic wand and fix it, but that's just not realistic.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: looking out for a younger brother.

This is a story with details that may not be appropriate for children, so you may want to skip ahead about 6 minutes.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Negotiators within the Biden administration are still trying to secure release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Earlier this week, the terror group published a list of 34 hostages it says it’s willing to release, if a deal can be reached. One of those names is Or Levy.

REICHARD: WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher spoke with Or’s older brother, Michael, about his abduction, and about Michael’s own efforts to bring his brother home.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Michael Levy is the oldest of three brothers. As they grew up, Michael admits, his parents had their hands full.

LEVY: So as you can imagine, there was a lot of mess at my parents' house. We always broke pretty much everything. We used to play every kind of ballgame you can imagine in the living room when our parents weren't around…

Michael says he’s always felt a sense of responsibility for his youngest brother, Or.

LEVY: I knew I am the big brother. I also felt I have a mission, or I have a job to do, which is protecting him.

A second mission has been to watch out for Or’s happiness. That’s why he says he’s glad Or met someone like Eynav. The two became friends when Or was 18 and Eynav was 17. Michael says both he and his mother knew immediately there was something special between the two…but Or insisted going out with her would be like dating his sister. But Michael was right.

SOUND: [WEDDING ACTIVITY]

Audio here from Or and Eynav’s wedding in August of 2018. Michael says, Eynav—a dancer—was the perfect match for his brother. She was happy. And always smiling.

LEVY: She was one of those just good people—people you want to be around. People you know that will help you if you need anything.

Three years later, Or and Eynav had a son…Almog.

SOUND: [MENORAH LIGHTING]

A video shot by Eynav in their home, shows the three of them singing—well, Almog is trying to sing—as they light the last menorah candle during Hanukkah.

LEVY: They were never apart. They loved the same things. They loved traveling and music and music festivals.

Which is why on October 7th, 2023, Or and Eynav drove to the Supernova music festival outside of Gaza. They arrived just nine minutes before the Hamas attacks began.

LEVY: Or texted my mother when the missile attack started at 6:29, he told her that they are heading back...and about 20 minutes after, he texted her again and told that they are hiding in a bomb shelter.

Michael has since been to that bomb shelter. It’s above ground. He describes it as a concrete bus stop without a door that can fit three people in a tight squeeze. But Michael says 29 people tried to seek shelter in and around it that day—including Or and Eynav. Or phoned his mother again.

LEVY: He was completely terrified. He just kept repeating the sentence, "Mom, you don't want to know what's going on here."

Hamas terrorists attacked the shelter with grenades and gunfire. Michael says they threw nine grenades inside. A brave man was able to throw eight of them out…but it was to no avail. Terrorists quickly overran the shelter.

LEVY: They killed 18 out of the 29 that were inside, including Eynav. Or had to watch Eynav being killed in front of him.

SOUND: [TERRORIST VIDEO]

A graphic video taken by the terrorists shows Or, covered in his wife’s blood, loaded onto the back of a pickup truck with fellow hostages Eliya Cohen and Hersh Goldberg. All of them are injured. Goldberg is missing part of his arm. The terrorists are seen shouting to each other and cheering as they drive the hostages into Gaza.

LEVY: I have another video of him begging them not to take him. But that's it.

Michael hasn’t seen his little brother since. 

LEVY: The assumption of the Army—of the IDF—is that he's still alive. So I choose to trust them, because that's what keeps me going.

Since his little brother’s abduction, Michael says his life has been turned upside down. He doesn’t work anymore. He doesn’t go out or be with friends. His sole purpose is to bring his brother home.

Just over two weeks ago, Michael remotely addressed the United Nations Security Council. He was the first hostage family member invited to speak to the council since just after the October 7th massacre took place.

LEVY: Your silence is deafening. Your inaction is suffocating. For every day this council fails to act, the message to the world is clear: that some lives are worth saving, and others are not.

Michael doesn’t think he changed many minds, but he says it was worth it.

LEVY: I wanted them to look at me and to hear my voice and to hear the pain and to hear what It's like to have your brother held by those monsters…and I wanted them to remind them that that's their job.

But amidst the anguish, Michael sees a ray of hope. Shortly after winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump issued a threat to Hamas: release the hostages before his inauguration day, or face severe consequences. It’s a threat Trump reiterated on Tuesday.

TRUMP: And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good—frankly—for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.

LEVY: He doesn't play around, he doesn't joke when he said those things. For the first time in 15 months, I actually feel that I have hope. I have hope that someone will make Hamas release the hostages.

SOUND: [MENORAH LIGHTING]

Hope that 3-year-old Almogwho has already lost one parent, will be reunited with another.

Shortly after we spoke with Michael earlier this week, Hamas released a list of 34 hostages it says it would be willing to release if a ceasefire deal is reached. Or’s name is on that list.

LEVY: I'll do everything to bring him back. I will not rest. I will not stop until Or and the rest of the hostages are back.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

REICHARD: And another name on that list is Keith Siegel. Listeners of the program may recall that we spoke with his wife, Aviva Siegel, just a few weeks ago. We’ll be praying that both Or and Keith—and all of the hostages—are released soon.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, January 9th..

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A steel deal gone wrong.

The Biden administration recently blocked the sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Japanese-owned Nippon Steel. Economists and steelworkers are wondering what this will mean for the future of the industry.

BROWN: The “steel city” is losing its identity as its steel mills go out of business. But some steelworkers in Pittsburgh saw the Nippon Steel acquisition as a new hope.

WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher brings us that story:

AMBIENT: [Sound of a welding torch turning on]

KASUNICK: That’s not on enough. Turn that up.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Ken Kasunick has worked with machines since the 60s. He started with repairing equipment on the family farm. Then got into welding when he was 19.

KASUNICK: I have a degree in metallurgy and welding technology from Ohio State University, and I used to teach welding for almost 10 years. I was head of the welding department at Dean Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.

Now, he owns Kasunick Manufacturing, a steel manufacturing plant in Pittsburgh.

KASUNICK: I started this business in 1972.

For years his company specialized in manufacturing steel equipment for the Heinz food company headquartered in Pittsburgh. And in its heyday the company employed more than 50 people. Today, it only employs 3, Kasunick, his son, and one other employee who’s still learning the tricks of the trade.

AMBI: Welding and talking about welding

Kasunick has seen, first hand, the ups and downs of Pittsburgh’s steel industry. He’s had to diversify his business. 30 years ago, he started working for the aviation industry.

KASUNICK: During the 90s, early 90s, I can tell you that the steel industry was starting to change…

So called “mini mills” sprung up around America and started producing more specialized steel products for less than the big mills were charging. And then on December 8th, 1993 …

BILL CLINTON: Thank you, thank you very much.

Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA with the intended goal of eliminating trade barriers between Canada and Latin America.

KASUNICK: NAFTA was probably one of the worst, and it, I still, to this day, still it's the worst trade deal that the United States ever entered into … we weren't competitive anymore in manufacturing anything. And it was a globalist deal where most of our manufacturing was slowly being outsourced globally.

Kasunick is not a globalist. He wants to protect American workers and the steel industry from what he calls unfair trade agreements like NAFTA.

KASUNICK: It was cheaper to buy foreign steel than it was to buy domestic steel. It kept the United, the steel manufacturers in the United States, from spending money improving their steel mills. They just couldn't afford it. That was really the downfall of American manufacturing…

Pittsburgh is known around the world as the “steel city” even their football team, the Steelers, get their name from steel production. But in the early 2000s the city started shutting their steel mills down. Mills like Homestead Steel:

KASUNICK: They shut that mill down. American Bridge, which was a big steel fabricator, they built bridges. They closed their factory down. The writing was on the wall.

The last few presidential administrations have enacted policies to protect American jobs like President Donald Trump’s 2018 tariffs on foreign steel. Less than a week ago, the Biden administration blocked a proposed deal: A 14 billion dollar deal between Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel.

Biden claimed that part of his reason for blocking the sale was that Nippon Steel posed a threat to U.S. national security and our domestic economy.

PACKARD: I'm rather dubious that any kind of Japanese investment in the United States poses any kind of national security risk…

Clark Packard is a research fellow at the Cato Institute. He focuses on U.S. international trade and investment policy–specifically in Asia.

PACKARD: This might be a different calculus if this were a Chinese based steel company that wanted to invest in the US. But that's not the case. Japan is clearly one of the U.S. strongest allies.

Much of Biden’s efforts to protect American steelmaking has been aimed at China. And legitimate national security concerns that justify Biden’s caution.

PACKARD: I come at this from a pretty pro-trade bent, international trade, pro-international investment. But I do think that there are very serious challenges posed by Chinese investment and Chinese trade worth addressing.

But there’s a major difference between American investment with Japan versus China. Packard warns against the effect this political meddling may have on future business deals.

PACKARD: It potentially chills foreign investment, particularly from Japan, right, like if Japanese investors are going to see how poorly they've been treated on this particular case, you know, they might not be willing to continue to invest. And to be clear, Japanese companies are the largest investors, foreign investors in the United States.

And Packard argues that not only is this not a security risk, it’s counterproductive to Biden’s other intended goal of being more competitive with China.

PACKARD: Something like 50-60 percent of all imports into the United States are actually intermediate inputs, like products that a company in the U.S. is gonna buy from abroad to make their products in U.S. more competitive. … And now by raising my costs of production costs, I’m not nearly as competitive to reach global markets.

The deal may still go through, as both steel companies filed lawsuits against the U.S. government. Steel manufacturer Kasunick shares Packard’s views.

KASUNICK: Probably not a bad deal, in my opinion. It's going to keep people working here in the Pittsburgh area, if you renovate the steel mill to the state of the art mill, whether most of the companies right now are huge international conglomerates, so it’s not like they’re domestic companies anyway …

Kasunick is still watching the downward trajectory of the American steel industry. He’s retired but has “unretired” three times to keep his business afloat. And to train his son, who’ll soon take over. Kasunick says it’s hard to find workers who can keep the fires going:

KASUNICK: I just, I can't find any welders. I can't find any machinists that know this type of business. We've been machine builders all our lives. Build machinery for people, and I'm not complaining. It's been very good to me, you know …

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, January 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas now on the folly of low standards in education, and he’s not just talking about students.

CAL THOMAS: Among the many laws that took effect at the beginning of this new year is one in New Jersey that will astound and should anger people with children in the state’s public schools. It’s called Act 16-69 and it removes a requirement that teachers pass a basic reading, writing and math test to be eligible to teach. The law was signed by Democrat Governor Phil Murphy last June.

The rationale, if one can call it rational, is that New Jersey is not attracting enough teachers to the profession and so standards must be lowered so more will apply. This reminds me of what the Army has done for physical fitness requirements. In 2022, the Army lowered the standards for women and older troops in its annual physical fitness exam to attract more enlistees. Where did the idea come from that lowering standards might produce higher achievement?

The Pew Research Center notes that U.S. students ranked 28th out of 37 OECD member countries in math. Science was a little better. We placed 12th. In both subjects, Japanese students scored the highest. It isn’t a matter of money, as some Democrats like to claim when they campaign for increased education spending for public schools. Japan spends two-thirds what the U.S. does.

If spending on students and teachers were directly related to enhanced performance, New Jersey and the rest of the country would be at or near the top in positive education outcomes. New Jersey is third in the nation in what it spends on public education, amounting to $25,099 per student, far exceeding the tuition cost for most private schools.

Since the 1960s the U.S. appears to have been on a downward path, attacking wealth, success, and people taking personal responsibility for their actions. We once promoted such things as examples of what one could be with the right attitude and practices that were thought to be universal and proven right by history. We say we don’t like the outcome of today’s practices but appear unwilling to change direction in too many cases. The result is we get less of what we claim to want more of, and more of what we claim to want less of.

President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to change this way of thinking, especially when it comes to education. He has announced plans to eliminate the Department of Education and return power to the states where it belongs. It is a worthy goal, one that Ronald Reagan sought to achieve, but failed. Entrenched interests in Washington are difficult to remove.

New Jersey has partial school choice options, but only for public schools that include charter and magnet schools. It also allows for parents who wish to instruct their children at home. But parents who want their children to have an education with the moral values that a religious foundation brings are out of luck. They must pay twice – their high New Jersey taxes and private school tuition. Many can’t afford it and so especially poor and even middle-class students are trapped in a system that will now include teachers who wouldn’t qualify to teach under the previous standard.

Would a universal school choice program help attract more qualified teachers so the bar could be raised to the previous level, instead of lowered? It should be worth a try.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday.

And, reviewer Max Belz returns to a classic Spaghetti Western.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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.

Jesus said: “ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” —Matthew 11:28-30.

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.