The World and Everything in It: June 10, 2024

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Hey, good morning, today we’re kicking off our June Giving Drive and I hope you’ll give prayerful thought this month to the value you place on this program each day.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’re here for you but only because of you. It’s the giving of WORLD listeners that makes this program possible: wng.org/donate.

REICHARD: Hope you enjoy today’s program!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Biden administration rewrote Title IX, putting girls and women at a disadvantage that law meant to fix.

ROULEAU: And we've seen the danger of what happens when males are allowed to compete on women's sports teams. 

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Legal Docket.

Also today: The Monday Moneybeat: Texas takes on Wall Street. Economist David Bahnsen will be along in just a few minutes.

Later: the WORLD History Book: today the 50th anniversary of legendary baseball slugger Hank Aaron speaking before Congress.

HANK AARON: Since my first game in Oakland, I’ve been aiming at the flag in more ways than one…

REICHARD: It’s Monday, June 10th. 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 news with Kent Covington.

SOUND: [Rescue gunfire]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hostages freed in Gaza » Israeli special forces engaged Hamas terrorists in a gun battle over the weekend during a daring hostage rescue mission in central Gaza.

Military spokesman Peter Lerner:

LERNER: The forces came under extensive attack in an attempt to kill both them and the hostages.

Israeli troops reportedly stormed two buildings in a refugee camp in broad daylight where they eventually rescued four hostages. Lerner said it was a high risk and complex mission based on precise intelligence.

One Israeli officer was killed during the operation.

The hostages, after more than 8 months in captivity, reunited with their loved ones at a Tel Aviv hospital.

The uncle of one of the freed Israelis says his nephew was able to communicate with two other hostages, and that helped keep his spirit strong.

MEIR:  They supported one [another] and they are very good friends now.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry reports that hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed during the rescue mission.

Benny Gantz quitting Israeli war Cabinet » Meantime, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet, says he’s resigning. Gantz was the top political rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before joining the war Cabinet.

GANTZ: [Speaking Hebrew]

He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs.

GANTZ: [Speaking Hebrew]

Gantz previously said he would leave the government in early June if Netanyahu didn't formulate a plan for postwar Gaza.

On Sunday, he called on Netanyahu to set a date for the country’s next election, adding— “Don't let our people be torn apart.”

The Prime Minister reacted on X, asking Gantz in his words not to “give up” the battle.

SOUND: [WWI ceremony]

Biden WWI cemetery » President Joe Biden has closed out his trip to France by paying his respects at an American military cemetery.

Biden's stop Sunday at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris was a solemn end to five days.

BIDEN:  Every Marine I know knows about the Battle of Yellow Woods. There are over 2, 229 buried here. Inside that chapel, there's names of a thousand missing. They never recovered the bodies.

Biden placed a wreath at the cemetery chapel before an expanse of white headstones.

On the trip, the president marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day and celebrated the alliance between the United States and France.

Trump Vegas rally/poll numbers » Meantime, former President Trump was on the campaign trail at the end of a swing through multiple Western states.

TRUMP: It’s great to be back in the beautiful state — you know the state, and you always have to say it correctly — Nevada! 

He also campaigned in Arizona in recent days. An average of recent polls has him leading in both that state and Nevada by more than 4 points.

And if his recent conviction on business fraud charges in New York damaged him politically it’s not showing up in the polls. In surveys conducted since then, the numbers haven’t really budged. He still leads nationally by about 1 point and enjoys a lead in every major battleground state.

Border debate » During his Las Vegas campaign stop, Trump took aim at President Biden on the border crisis.

Democrats say there’s not much the president can do, because Republicans opposed a recent Senate border bill. Sen. Chris Coons:

COONS:  Former President Trump intervened to stop it because former President Trump actually wants a problem to solve through his election rather than a solution.

But Trump said if the president really wants to solve the problem.

TRUMP:  Right now, all he needs to do is say, I hereby immediately reinstate every single border policy of a gentleman named Donald J. Trump.

President Biden last week insisted that his new executive order would put an end to illegal migrants being released inside the country. However, Fox News reports that it has obtained a new border patrol memo … that instructs border patrol agents to continue mass releasing single adult migrants into the United States from all but six countries in the Eastern Hemisphere.

MODI: [Speaking Hindi]

Modi sworn in for another term » Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the oath of office in New Delhi Sunday as he was sworn in for a rare third consecutive term.

He’s relying on his coalition partners in Parliament after his party — somewhat surprisingly — failed to win a majority for the first time in a decade. The 73-year-old popular but polarizing leader is only the second Indian prime minister to retain power for a third term.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: New challenges to Title IX protections for women and girls on Legal Docket.  Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s The World and Everything in It for this 6th day of June, 2024. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning! I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First, before we get started: If you were one of the many brand-new WORLD Movers who joined us during the weeklong drive in May, welcome aboard and thank you! We were happy to welcome hundreds of first-time WORLD Movers who gave thousands of dollars to help drive forward the mission of WORLD.

And I want you to know the long-time WORLD Movers who supplied that triple match for the week are offering a double match all this month for any new WORLD Mover gifts during our June Giving Drive!

REICHARD: So if you are a new WORLD Mover this month, be sure to use the address wng.org/newdonor and that makes the accounting easier. That’s your special address if you decide to become a WORLD Mover for the first time this month and take advantage of the offer to double the impact of your gift.

EICHER: So this month is our June Giving Drive and we’ll keep the reminders to a minimum, but we’re making a simple proposition: we say multiple times a day, every day, this is listener-supported WORLD Radio. And so as part of that, we have a concentrated drive twice a year: once at the end of the year, and once at the end of our fiscal year which is now. And we ask that you prayerfully think about what kind of value you place on the work we do, and then within the boundaries of your own family budget put a dollar figure on that.

REICHARD: The question of budgeting, Nick, reminds me what we were talking about off-air, and I’d like to share this: I was amazed at the number of new WORLD Movers who committed to a recurring gift, and that’s certainly one good way to carve out a spot in your budget, rather than giving lump sums once or twice a year. And that seems like a great option, too.

EICHER: wng.org/donate is the place to go to make a secure online gift and I hope you’ll do that today as we kick off our June Giving Drive!

REICHARD: Alright, time now for Legal Docket.

Today, Title IX. It’s been in the news lately because of the changes made by the Biden Administration.

Title IX goes back more than 50 years, to 1972 when President Richard Nixon made it federal law. It prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.

That propelled girls and women into sports in a way they’d never before been allowed to do.

EICHER: To take just one example: Before Title IX, female participation in high school sports was only around 300,000 students. It’s grown more than ten-fold and today, more than 3 million female students have stepped off the sidelines and on to the field.

Except, now female athletes are being sidelined once again.

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines knows all about that. In 2022 she swam for the University of Kentucky in the 200-yard freestyle championship.

But then along came a middling male swimmer named William Thomas who dropped the “will” and the “em,” took on the name Lia, began competing as a woman, and promptly tied Gaines’s performance.

REICHARD: That experience inspired Gaines to speak up against males in female sports. But her speech came at yet another cost: upon invitation to speak at San Francisco State University last April, trans activists shouted her down, and then some:

AUDIO: [Chanting]

The ordeal lasted for hours. Gaines explained what happened on the Megyn Kelly show last month:

GAINES: I was ambushed, I mean, I was being shoved. I was being pushed. I was punched in the face by these men wearing dresses…They held me for ransom throughout the night, I mean four hours, held me for ransom, demanding that if I wanted to make it home to see my family safely again, I had to pay them money.

Gaines was there to state the original purpose of Title IX, to uphold female sports, and speak up against males taking away opportunities meant for women:

GAINES: My message from the beginning has been that there are two sexes. You can't change your sex, and each sex is deserving of equal opportunity, privacy and safety. Nothing controversial, nothing hateful. I mean, it's really the bare minimum…

Here’s what the law says:

”No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

That’s the full 37 words of the relevant part of Title IX.

EICHER: Straightforward enough.

But four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case called Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC. That 6-3 decision with the majority opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch elevated the legal status of gender identity. With the Harris decision, gender identity acquired protected-class status under Title VII, a law that deals with employment discrimination. Another ruling elevated homosexuality to protected status on the job. That was Bostock v Clayton County.

And that’s in part how Lia Thomas winds up in the swim lane next to Riley Gaines.

Listen to Justice Gorsuch during oral arguments in Harris back in fall of 2019:

GORSUCH: When a case is really close … on the textual evidence and I—assume for the moment I'm with you on the textual evidence. It's close, okay? … A judge finds it very close. At the end of the day, should he or she take into consideration the massive social upheaval that would be entailed in such a decision …

REICHARD: Massive social upheaval aside, the Biden administration took that ruling and ran with it.

In April, the administration announced changes to Title IX that redefine sex in such a way that will lead to further male involvement in women’s sports. A Biden administration official has said that a more specific rule to require schools to allow so-called trans athletes to compete on their “preferred” teams is in the works.

That education official explained the rationale. This is Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhaman, speaking at the Aspen Institute in 2022:

CATHERINE LHAMAN: …our view is that the rule against discriminating against on the basis of sex includes a prohibition on discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. …

EICHER: In other words, biology has no place in the legal analysis.

And so now, several groups are suing the administration, saying it’s unlawfully rewritten Title IX.

One of those groups is Alliance Defending Freedom. It’s filed five federal lawsuits so far.

And today is an important day in the courts. ADF lawyer Rachel Rouleau:

RACHEL ROULEAU: This is the first hearing we have in any of our Title IX cases, and right now we're arguing that the court should not let this law go into effect on August 1. So we're asking the court to stay the rule during this litigation, and so while this case precedes, women and girls can be protected.

This first hearing is in a case against the government by six states along with the Christian Educators Association International.

A young athlete from West Virginia named Adaleia Cross and her mother have also intervened.

REICHARD: I spoke to the mom Abby Cross last week. She told me what happened:

ABBY CROSS: My daughter Adeleia made her middle school track team in the 2021- 2022 season her seventh grade year. At the same time, a male student joined the girls track team. And by her eighth grade year, things had kind of progressed and she not only lost her competition spot to this male student, but he was also regularly sexually harassing her.

Court documents reveal that harassment included lewd requests for sex acts and threats to carry those out against her will. This happened several times per week, including in the locker room she was forced to share with that male student.

CROSS: Our daughter had told us these things, but the school, the coaches, no one told parents that this was going on. So our daughter came home and told us. And she would actually go change in the bathrooms before track so she didn't have to change in the locker room.

ADF lawyer Rouleau elaborates on the current Supreme Court precedent:

ROULEAU: Even in that court opinion, Justice Gorsuch says that it doesn't apply to Title IX, it won't apply to those areas, and we're specifically saying that in Title IX you need to have sex distinctions, which is why Title IX was passed— to show that males and females cannot compete equally in sports. Males have a 10 to 50% athletic advantage over females, and we've seen that play out. And we've seen the danger of what happens when males are allowed to compete on women's sports teams. There's been a girl in North Carolina who received a concussion playing volleyball against a biological male, and then also in Massachusetts, a high school girl had her teeth knocked out by playing against a male in field hockey. And we do not want that to go across the country.

As these lawsuits proceed, other female athletes are raising alarms.

A bus tour going coast to coast throughout the summer has more than 7,000 female athletes demanding protection for women’s sports. It’s called Our Bodies, Our Sports, Take Back Title IX.

This is bipartisan. Former Democrat U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is part of it, as is tennis great Martina Navratilova who identifies as lesbian, and many other young athletes like Riley Gaines and former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan.

Penn was Lia Thomas’s school, and Scanlan swam with him as a teammate. So I called her up and she explained that swimming is a limited roster sport, so that every time he competed, a girl was left behind, and lost her chance to compete.

PAULA SCANLAN: And I watched this go on the entire season, and through the whole process, the administration at the University of Pennsylvania, the NCAA, all of these different organizations that I expected to stand up for us chose not to, and they told us that him being on the team was a non negotiable, and that if we ever spoke out against it, we would regret it, and that we would never be able to find a job, and our lives would forever be tainted by this. And finally, they told us, if we continue to object, they told us to seek therapy, and they gave us the contact for Psychological Services at school. This is something we have to fight back against…because the adults in the room did not do these things, the NCAA, University of Pennsylvania, all these different organizations that had the power to stop this did not.

EICHER: Some female athletes support the idea of what they call transwomen in female sports. Former U.S. women’s soccer star Meghan Rapinoe for one. But Scanlan points out that for Rapinoe, it’s purely theory. She never had to face male competition.

REICHARD: So we’ll end where we began, with swimmer Riley Gaines. She says the ongoing chaos is no surprise —when even a prospective Supreme Court justice refused to answer the question of “what is a woman?” A reminder from Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Senator Marsha Blackburn asks the questions.

SENATOR BLACKBURN: Can you provide a definition for the word woman?

JUSTICE JACKSON: Can I provide a definition? Mm-hmm. I can't.

SEN. BLACKBURN: You can't?

JUSTICE JACKSON: Not in this context. I’m not a biologist.

SEN. BLACKBURN: The word woman is so unclear and controversial that you can't give me a definition?

JUSTICE JACKSON: Senator, in my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there's a dispute about a definition, people make arguments and I look at the law and I decide. So I'm not …

SEN. BLACKBURN: The fact that you can't give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers.

That moment is forever etched in the mind of Gaines:

GAINES: Well, guess what, Ketanji Brown Jackson? I'm not a biologist…Thinking of an analogy here, I'm not a veterinarian either, but I know what a dog is. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to talk business, markets, and the economy with financial analyst and adviser David Bahnsen. He’s head of the wealth management firm The Bahnsen Group and he’s here now.

David, good morning!

DAVID BAHNSEN: Well, good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

EICHER: Alright, so not just a better-than-expected jobs report for May, but way better.

BAHNSEN: Well, we've seen this now for a number of months, where on an individual month you're getting a number that is higher than expected, and then the last month, it was much lower than expected. And I'm kind of back into the framework with the month-to-month jobs numbers that I've been for years with the weekly unemployment claims numbers. And that is trying to look at three average, three in a row averages, kind of a rolling average. In the case of the jobs report, three months, in the case of jobless claims, three weeks. 

But it's smoothing out a lot of the volatility in the numbers, because this volatility here is pretty extreme. To have had such a big miss last month, and then to be at 272,000 that we show that we saw on Friday morning, a good 100,000 higher than expected. And so obviously, a lot of it is unavoidable. It's a tough thing to capture the jobs data of a population of 335 million people, and there's models and there's assumptions and things that go into it, and it's going to have some lumpiness. But clearly, the trend has been this way for some time. No matter how bothered some people get when I say it, it's a pretty good jobs market.

EICHER: One of our perennial topics is labor force participation rate. What’d you see there?

BAHNSEN: The participation rate fell two tenths,  and so it's back at 62-and-a-half. And 62-and-a-half is, you know, exactly where I do not want it to be. 66-and-a-half is where I'd love it to be. I don't think it's going back there, Nick. If it does, it's going to take a very, very, very long time. But a month-to-month number on labor participation is not necessarily something I'm as concerned with. That's more structural. That's more of a secular thing. The month-to-month data is more the new jobs created, new jobs lost, what sectors. You know, a lot of people were looking at some of the big jobs number months and saying, oh, a lot of them are government jobs. That doesn't count. Which, of course, it does. 

Government jobs are, unfortunately, I would say, 20 something percent of the economy, but it speaks to just the relative nature of employment versus unemployment. But this particular month, the exact number was 100, and let me get this right, it was 100, and 165,000 expected, 229,000 actual. So of the 272,000 jobs, 229,000 of them were in the private sector. So yeah, that element, clearly, I think, confounds some of the critics this month. Labor participation rate was not good, but it's not going to be good anytime soon. And I'm very sad to say that.

EICHER: Saw this story in The Wall Street Journal about an effort to stand up called the TXSE, the Texas Stock Exchange, as a competitor to the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. How seriously do you take this?

BAHNSEN: I think it's a real thing. I think that you do see some of the real players that trade a lot of volume going along with it. Do I think it's going to be a major culture shifting, market shifting, paradigm shifting, moment? I don't, but I also don't think it's a publicity stunt. There is something behind it. I'm a big free market guy who loves competition, and so if there are more exchanges, I'd see that as a positive thing. What I think it ended up being is this Texas Stock Exchange making a message to the New York Stock Exchange to not do what the NASDAQ Stock Exchange did. 

What the NASDAQ did is say you're not gonna be able to list with our exchange if you don't meet certain diversity and equity type quotas in your board and in your hiring. And this type of proactive and preemptive move could just sort of force the hand of the big board, which the New York Stock Exchange is exponentially more significant than NASDAQ to say, don't be acting like NASDAQ, because what NASDAQ did was very, very stupid, very counterproductive, and this Texas Stock Exchange might just serve as a good governor—no pun intended—to others from behaving in the same kind of woke, very, I think, counterproductive, anti meritocratic way.

EICHER: Well, David anything. We missed last week that you think is worthy of note?

BAHNSEN: Well, I think that when you look into the market, it's become almost the story. One could argue. I talked about this a lot in my dividend cafe over the weekend, that what's happening with Nvidia and what's happening with two or three technology companies is becoming the story of the market. And I do not say that as a good thing. Nvidia, right now is worth more than Walmart, Amazon and Netflix put together. It is trading 89% above its own 200-day moving average, something no company has ever come close to doing. You know, Apple at one point for like 24 hours, traded 60% above its own 200-day moving average; Nvidia has been above 89% for—I mean, this is just it's something you've never seen before. So I think the market is setting itself up for a real danger zone. Three companies are 20% of the market, five companies are 28% of the market. So there, there's a top heavy thing going on right now. And yet, when I talk about the market being so expensive, Nick, those 10 companies are trading at 31-and-a-half times earnings, and the rest of the market is trading below 18 times earnings. And so I still think there's plenty of really good value out there in the market, but right now, we're kind of in this zone that looks very 1990s to me.

EICHER: Well, David, by reminder, when you say things start looking like the 1990s, what does that say to you?

BAHNSEN: Well, it doesn't say anything about timing. It just simply says that these things don't generally end well. And in the famous tech boom of the late 1990s we now, with the gift of hindsight, know that it peaked in ’99 and then it crashed in 2000. And that a very profitable and successful technology sector went down 70% for the next 15 years. I'm not expecting things, the famous line about history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes, I think is appropriate here. I'm not expecting things to play out exactly the same. But I would say that a lot of these things, Nick, are more than just the 1990s. They're tulip mania from hundreds of years ago. They're Nifty 50 from the 1970s. They're dot com from the 1990s. They're the housing bubble that ended so violently in 2008. Booms are part of human nature. Bubbles that come out of booms are part of human nature. And, yeah, they don't end well.

EICHER: Well, David, let me go back to the Texas Stock Exchange. The Journal said that the major feature of the Texas exchange is that it's all going to be virtual. So maybe for defining terms this week, talk about the meaning of that in comparison to say, the historic New York Stock Exchange, physical space on Wall Street.

BAHNSEN: Well, the New York Stock Exchange is completely virtual—I assure you. It's a museum now, but it wasn't for a couple 100 years. You know, my wife and I toured the New York Stock Exchange a year after 911 on the floor of the exchange, and there were still hundreds of people on the floor, passing tickets, writing orders on a piece of paper, handing them off to what are called specialists who make a market in given stocks, and they're there to facilitate orderly trading. And that was, you know, little bit more than 20 years ago. A few years after that, it was obsolete. Now, I'm on the floor of the stock exchange quite a bit, because I do television appearances there, and it exists for people like me to go do television appearances. It's literally just a museum. I mean, the entire stock trading has been electronified for over 20 years. You still need orderly making a market, but these specialists that are there to help facilitate, and it's something called a specialist who's making a market, versus with the NASDAQ, it's over the counter, so it's a different mechanism, but it's still computerized. It still does not involve a person. Now there's people behind the computers, but what was physically happening on the floors of exchanges has long been quite different. So, I'm sure the Texas Stock Exchange will seek to implement a lot of the technological efficiencies that the New York Stock Exchange has long had.

EICHER: Ok, David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group.

David is author of  Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, fulltimebook.com is where you can find out more.

Thank you, David!

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, June 10th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today, a baseball great addresses the U.S. House. And, legal accountability for an oil spill disaster lingers in a courtroom for almost 20 years.

EICHER: But first, the Republican National Convention is held in Cleveland, Ohio, 100 years ago. Here’s WORLD Radio Reporter Emma Perley:

EMMA PERLEY: On June 10th, 1924, thousands of people cram into a public auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio.

They are eager to find out who will be named the presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention, or RNC—although they know that there’s no competition. At home, families gather around their radios to tune in as the event will be broadcast through local radio stations for the first time, though no recording exists of the event.

Republican representative Theodore Burton delivers a keynote address endorsing presidential candidate Calvin Coolidge. Voice actor Ed Phillips reads from his speech.

BURTON/PHILLIPS: The People—and all the people— have confidence in Calvin Coolidge. In the great array of rulers, kings and prime ministers entrusted with power, there is none who can surpass him in honesty of purpose, in courage, or in high devotion to the welfare of his country.

After the death of former president Warren G. Harding in August of 1923, vice president Calvin Coolidge took office. Known as “Silent Cal” for his quiet demeanor, Coolidge kept a low profile as president and continued to implement Harding’s policies. Once again, Ed Phillips reading from Coolidge’s State of the Union broadcast address in December of 1923.

COOLIDGE/PHILLIPS: The world has had enough of the curse of hatred and selfishness, of destruction and war. It has had enough of the wrongful use of material power. For the healing of the nations there must be good will and charity, confidence and peace. The time has come for a more practical use of moral power, and more reliance upon the principle that right makes its own might.

During his presidential campaign, Coolidge did not attend the RNC but insisted that it be held in Ohio in honor of former president Harding.

Coolidge won the nomination by a landslide, and was elected president by 54% of the popular vote. He soon established himself as a radio pioneer, and “Silent Cal” made more than 60 radio broadcasts during his presidency. Audio from his 1924 speech on taxation and the economy on the White House lawn.

COOLIDGE: I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.

Next, fifty years ago, baseball star Henry “Hank” Aaron rises to speak at the House of Representatives on June 13th, one day before National Flag day. Members burst into applause and give a standing ovation as he takes the floor. Audio here from Old Radio World.

HANK AARON: To me the flag has been more than merely an inspiration …

Alabama-born “Hammerin’ Hank” grew up in a poor neighborhood and began his foray into baseball by hitting bottle caps with a broom handle. The Boston Braves signed him at just 18 years-old after several months in the minor leagues.

AARON: God had given me the ability to play baseball, and he had given me something that lots of players, I mean lots of ‘em, black and white, was hoping that they could do the same thing that I was doing.

Aaron in an interview with Atlanta News First three years ago. Hank batted his 715th homer against the L.A. Dodgers in April 1974, cementing him as the record holder for the next 30 years. Audio courtesy of Major League Baseball.

ANNOUNCER: One ball and no strikes, Aaron waiting, the outfield deep and straight away, fastball is a high drive into deep left center field, Butler goes back to the fence, it is gone! [crowd cheering]

At the House of Representatives, Aaron reflects on how Congressmen and baseball players have something in common: the question of what they can do for the country—and for fans—in the years to come.

AARON: Ever since my first game at Oakland in the Northern League in 1952, I have been aiming at the flag, in more ways than one.

The next day, on National Flag Day, Aaron leads the Braves to victory against the St. Louis Cardinals. He is also eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom before his death in 2021.

Finally, June 14th, 1994, a Federal jury moves to deliver a verdict on the Exxon Valdez oil spill, one of the worst in history. They find that Exxon recklessly caused the spill with an inebriated captain at the helm. The class action lawsuit began 5 years earlier in 1989. Audio from Project Jukebox.

CLIP: Officials are trying to contain a major oil spill in central Alaska. Over 100,000 gallons of north slope crude oil spilled into the port of Valdez last night after a tanker ran aground…

On the morning of March 23rd of that year, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker sets sail from Valdez, Alaska, to California carrying 53 million gallons of crude oil. The tanker cruises through Prince William Sound when it crashes into Bligh Reef at midnight. Captain Joseph Hazelwood radios in the disaster. Audio from Project Jukebox.

CLIP: Exxon-Valdez, this is the captain of the fourth command, do you have any more of an estimate as to your situation at this time, over?

Though Hazelwood appears calm on the radio, the extent of the damage is far worse than he lets on. Almost 11 million gallons of oil flow through the battered hull of the ship into the ocean, spreading as far as 1,300 miles. Many Alaskan fishermen lose their livelihoods as the fish population rapidly dwindles. And Hazelwood is accused of drinking heavily that night, resulting in poor judgment. Audio here from an interview with attorney Brian O’Neill from C-SPAN.

BRIAN O’NEILL: If you put a drunk in charge of a supertanker, what’s going to happen? He’s going to run aground. There’s a great Emerson line, that, ‘drunken captains trust in God, but God runs drunken captains aground.’

Hazelwood is eventually only charged for a misdemeanor, and still denies that he was intoxicated that fateful evening.

And a 2008 Supreme Court settlement awards $500 million in punitive damages to the victims of the spill. The shoreline along Prince William Sound recovered in several years, but some marine life populations are still slowly climbing back to normal numbers since the accident.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Emma Perley.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: China marked the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre by jailing pro-democracy activists and smothering signs of dissent in Hong Kong. We’ll have a report. And how former inmates are getting help finding jobs. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

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