The World and Everything in It: May 15, 2025

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The Colorado legislature passed a new law it says is about affirming minors, but others call it alarming.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also what some states are doing to try to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision that redefined marriage.

And, when disaster strikes the family farm

PRIDGEN: I lost my income and my retirement in one day.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on political theater he says: “no one should be applauding.”

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, May 15th. 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: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump asks for Qatar’s help in Iran talks » President Trump is asking for Qatar’s help… in convincing Iran to give up its nuclear program.

TRUMP: I hope you can help me with the Iran situation because it’s a perilous situation and we want to do the right thing. We want to do something that’s going to save maybe millions of lives.

The president… speaking Wednesday at a state dinner in Qatar, before a gathering that included the country’s top leader. It’s part of Trump’s three-country Middle East swing this week.

The president wants Qatar to use its influence over Iranian leaders to persuade Iran to scale back its nuclear program, which is very close to having nuclear weapons capability.

The U.S. and Iran have been in negotiations since last month. To strike a deal, Trump says Iran will have to stop supporting proxy terror groups across the Middle East.

Qatar’s top leader did not publicly respond to Trump’s appeal, instead saying he’s focused on expanding the U.S. and Qatar’s defense and economic partnerships.

Putin, Trump won’t attend Russia-Ukraine talks » Neither President Trump nor Russian leader Vladimir Putin will attend the next round of peace talks over the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Trump suggested he might mediate the latest negotiating session, scheduled for Friday in Turkey.

But after Russia released its list of delegates Wednesday -and Putin wasn’t on it- the White House said Trump wouldn’t attend either… citing logistical challenges with the president’s Middle East travel schedule.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will be there, says Russia has yet to show it’s serious about wanting peace.

ZELENSKYY: No time for playing games on the technical level, et cetera. It’s been only one thing that we need, to be more strong, [united], and tough on them. And today, I see only one thing: sanctions.

To be a success… Zelenskyy says, at a minimum, the next round of talks needs to result in an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

SC Supreme Court upholds six-week abortion ban » A win for unborn babies! South Carolina's high court is allowing protections for the unborn to stay in place. WORLD's Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled yesterday to uphold a 2023 law protecting unborn babies beginning at around six weeks after conception.

The language of the law states that abortions are prohibited once an ultrasound can detect, quote, "cardiac activity...or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac."

Supporters of the law said that takes place the moment an ultrasound detects any cardiac activity...at about six weeks after conception.

But Planned Parenthood argued for a later interpretation of the language. Under their reading, protections for the unborn would not begin until about nine weeks.

The justices acknowledged that the language of the law was vague. But they ruled unanimously that the intention of the law was to begin the protections at six weeks.

For WORLD...I'm Travis Kircher.

WI judge indicted for aiding illegal immigrant » A grand jury has indicted a judge in Wisconsin… accused of helping an illegal immigrant hide from authorities.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan could face up to six years in prison. She's charged with obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest.

Prosecutors say she stalled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking for an illegal immigrant who had a hearing in her courtroom. They say she helped the migrant escape by leading him out of the courtroom through a private back door.

GOP Senator Josh Hawley told Fox's Ingraham Angle earlier this week that no one—including Dugan—is above the law.

HAWLEY: It is outrageous for a sitting judge to be trying to obstruct justice in the United States of America. That's what this individual was doing.

But in a motion filed this week, Dugan's attorneys argue she’s protected by legal immunity for any official acts she takes as judge. They also say as judge, Dugan is entitled to complete control over her courtroom.

Judge releases Georgetown scholar from ICE detention » A federal judge ordered the release of a Georgetown University visiting scholar from immigration detention Wednesday.

Badar Kahn Suri was arrested in the Trump Administration’s crackdown on foreign college students two months ago. The White House says Kahn Suri is a supporter of Hamas with family ties to the terror group.

A U.S. district court judge ruled the government failed to provide evidence justifying Kahn Suri’s continued detention.

Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh…

SALEH: Hearing the [judge’s] words brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could give her a heartful hug from me and from my three children, who long to see their father.

Khan Suri was being detained in Texas. He’ll now stay with his family in Virginia as he awaits the outcome of deportation proceedings and other legal matters.

This is at least the third release from immigration detention this year of a student or scholar detained by the Trump Administration.

GOP tax bill clears committee, but divisions remain » Republican’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” on taxes has cleared its first hurdle… getting the green light from the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday after lawmakers pulled an all-nighter.

But it’s still facing headwinds… within the GOP. Lawmakers in the conservative Freedom Caucus say the bill’s new Medicaid work requirements don’t do enough to cut costs, and also argue their 2029 phase-in date is too late.

Speaker Mike Johnson, talking to reporters on a walk through the Capitol Building, says he’s open to changes.

REPORTER: Would you be open to moving up the phase [in] for Medicaid work requirements?

JOHNSON: Look, I would like to do that but it’s a matter of what’s possible. So it’s one of the things on the table we’re talking about. We’ll see.

Johnson’s hoping for a final passage vote from the full House before Memorial Day weekend.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Colorado is digging in its heels regarding minors and identity confusion. Plus, how states are hoping to challenge a ten-year old Supreme Court decision.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 15th of May.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

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

First up, a controversial new bill out of Colorado that critics say undermines parental rights.

It’s called Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, also known as the Kelly Loving Act, named after a victim of the Club Q nightclub shooting in 2022.

REICHARD: One section of the original bill—now removed—sparked outrage: it would have allowed the state to take custody from parents who don’t affirm their child’s transgender identity. That included prohibiting parents from calling a child by his or her birth name or biological sex.

The bill labeled those acts as discrimination, even domestic abuse.

BROWN: Other troubling provisions remain: schools can’t enforce “gender-based” clothing rules. And teachers must use a child’s new chosen name—even without the parent’s knowledge.

After intense opposition from Republican lawmakers and concerned families, lawmakers removed the most controversial section, though much of that deleted language is popping up in other bills.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about it is Lori Gimelshteyn, she’s executive director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network and has been campaigning against this bill.

BROWN: Lori, good morning.

LORI GIMELSHTEYN: Thanks so much Myrna. Thanks for the opportunity to join your show.

BROWN: As we just heard, the Colorado Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals bill covers a lot. So many ways we could begin…let’s start with why you’re so concerned about it…

GIMELSHTEYN: Yeah, absolutely. So we have seen egregious bills get passed into law that really undermine the fundamental authority of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children. And when House Bill 25-13-12, which is deceptively titled, Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, we were very alarmed. And a lot of the content that you were describing in regards to the parents losing custody of their children for not gender affirming was really seeking to codify what we're already seeing in practice in Colorado. So that's actually already happening without this law.

We have an incident reporting tool at the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network where families, parents, teachers, students can submit incidents and we help them. We're helping 28 families right now who have lost or have the potential to lose custodial rights because they are not gender affirming of their child's newly declared gender distress and confusion and declared gender identity.

Now we lobbied extremely aggressively against this bill. We received nearly 35,000 signatures on a petition to oppose this bill from Coloradans that we presented, we printed, and hand delivered to all of the senators when it was moved over to the Senate. And we were very just alarmed that when we got to the Senate Judiciary Committee, there was this big announcement: “we're gonna strike these sections of the bill and we're gonna get rid of this coercive control.” And it was, it looked like a win for parent rights, but it wasn't.

BROWN: You mentioned the tens of thousands of signatures what I would call a groundswell of pushback. How did that pushback shape the final version of the bill, you think?

GIMELSHTEYN: Well, it put a lot of not only local statewide attention on this bill, it brought in a lot of national attention on this bill. And what we have uncovered is that what they did is, yes, they did strike that language, but they added language back in. And they also passed another bill, House Bill 25-12-39, which makes significant changes to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

So all the things that they struck in the original bill that seemed so egregious, they struck it, but they moved it into a different bill. So parents are at great risk for losing custodial rights of their children if this bill is signed into law. And there's a lot of pressure on governor Polis right now to not sign the law. He has 30 days since the close of session to sign or not sign it. We are asking him and have a very aggressive campaign to continue to put pressure on him to veto this bill. But this is very alarming.

BROWN: So as I understand it, this bill is on its way to the governor's desk to be signed. Is there anything more you think that can be done to challenge it?

GIMELSHTEYN: I think what this bill has done is it's really gotten people to see the truth. For years, there's been alarm bells going off in parent organizations. The mainstream media has done a really good job of making these claims seem false as if there's some type of propaganda. But now we have real impact. Real families are being impacted by this legislation and these practices. And because of that, people see what's happening and it's happening right in front of them. And they can see that it's coming from the legislature.

BROWN: As we wrap up, tell us a little about Bill 1309 which might protect so-called gender-affirming health care in Colorado…

GIMELSHTEYN: It's being sold as a bill to protect health care. But what it really does is it mandates insurance coverage for extreme procedures for people who self-declare or identify that they are transgender. So this isn't for people that might have a real medical need to have any type of surgery, but this is for somebody that has a feeling that they are transgender.

And so things like facial bone remodeling, breast augmentation, and sex change surgeries, really with zero meaningful safeguards. And it lets doctors just decide what's “medically necessary,” leaving the store kind of wide open for children to receive these life altering treatments without proper oversight. And we already know that's happening. It's happening at Children's Hospital here in Colorado, at their True Center for Gender Diversity. It's happening at Kaiser Permanente and other gender clinics here in Colorado. But what this does is it will mandate that insurances must coverage these extreme procedures.

And one of the other most alarming parts of this bill is it will hide testosterone prescriptions from state tracking systems, which will make it completely impossible to monitor how often or how much is being prescribed. And this is a huge recipe for abuse.

BROWN: Lori Gimelshteyn is executive director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network. Thanks for joining us this morning.

GIMELSHTEYN: Thank you Myrna. I hope you have a blessed day.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: challenging supreme court precedent.

A decade after the US Supreme Court redefined marriage nationwide to include same-sex couples, some lawmakers are pushing to overturn that decision.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: What would it take to change it?

WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has the story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: On February 25th, Michigan State Representative Joshua Schriver approached a press conference microphone. He took a deep breath and said he wouldn’t be taking any questions. Ignoring the protestors chanting outside, he announced a new House resolution.

SCHRIVER: I hereby call on the US Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.

Obergefell is the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision which granted a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Schriver’s resolution claims that right undermines religious liberty and redefines marriage.

SCHRIVER: Michigan Christians follow Christ’s definition of marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman, an institution established to glorify God and produce children.

So far, legislators in six other states have introduced resolutions condemning same-sex marriage. At least two of the resolutions have been rejected.

All of the statements were drafted by MassResistance. That’s a conservative advocacy group committed to supporting traditional understandings of marriage and sexuality.

SCHAPER: By instituting or initiating this resolution effort, we are forcing the conversation back into the public square.

Arthur Schaper is MassResistance’s field director. Longterm, he hopes the resolutions will move beyond simply initiating conversations about same-sex marriage.

SCHAPER: Right now, the legislators that I've been working with, they not only want this resolution, they want to start advancing freedom of conscience provisions so that judges don't have to officiate same-sex weddings or that clerks can refuse to issue the licenses.

These resolutions could help lay the groundwork for state-level protections for religious freedom. But those statements alone can’t threaten Obergefell, that would require a live Supreme Court case.

Daniel Schmid is an attorney with Liberty Counsel, and he hopes to do just that by bringing Kim Davis’ case before the Supreme Court to challenge Obergefell.

Davis is a former Kentucky clerk. In 2015, she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the basis of her religious convictions. That decision came with consequences.

SCHMID: First American I'm aware of in the history of the Republic to be jailed for the exercise of their religious beliefs. That’s rather astounding, but it's what happened to her.

The punishment might be unusual, but similar religious freedom lawsuits have become all too common. From cake bakers to website designers:

SCHMID: Almost every industry that deals with weddings had religious individuals who didn’t want to participate or lend their religious expression to the ceremony, and every single one of them that I’m aware of was sued.

In 2020, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of Davis’ case. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the high court’s denial, but he noted that constitutional protection for same-sex marriage usually comes at the expense of religious freedom.

When Roe v. Wade fell two years later, Justice Thomas suggested that the court should also reexamine cases like Obergefell. Daniel Schmid agrees, arguing that same-sex marriage should return to the states just like abortion.

SCHMID: Now it took 50 years to overturn Roe. I don't think it'll take 50 years to overturn Obergefell, but who knows?

Some legal experts doubt that the Davis case can bring down Obergefell. The number of cases that get to the Supreme Court is already pretty small, and Davis’s case didn’t make it.

ESBECK: The US Supreme Court gets about four or 5000 requests every year for them to take appeals, and they grant only about 65, or 70…

Carl Esbeck is a law professor at the University of Missouri.

ESBECK: So it's very, very difficult to get a live case before the Supreme Court.

He says that even if the court reversed Obergefell, federal law also protects same-sex marriage. Months after the Dobbs decision, former President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act.

BIDEN: And now, the law requires that interracial marriage and same-sex marriage must be recognized as legal in every state in the nation.

Thanks to that law, it would be difficult to send same-sex marriage back to the states.

ESBECK: So somebody wanting to go back to pre-Obergefell would have to not only get the court to reverse itself on Obergefell, but they would have to get Congress to repeal the Respect for Marriage Act. So, sort of a double heavy lift and politically improbable.

Even so, state-level resolutions show that there’s growing pushback to same-sex marriage.

And that likely has to do with concerns about transgenderism.

Jennifer Roback Morse founded the Ruth Institute. It’s a pro-family nonprofit that publishes research on the consequences of the sexual revolution. She says that defining same-sex marriage as a constitutional right paved the way for the transgender movement. She calls it “degendering” marriage.

MORSE: Gay marriage says that male and female don’t matter for marriage and for childbearing. Well, hello, having children is the most gendered thing that we do you know, if you're going to say that doesn't matter, then it doesn't matter on the sporting field, it doesn't matter in the bathroom, it doesn't matter anywhere.

But Morse doesn’t think opposition against same-sex marriage will kick into high gear anytime soon. According to a recent Gallup poll, most people support legally recognized same-sex marriage, even more than they did a decade ago.

And Morse says they also don’t have a right understanding of marriage and family to begin with.

MORSE: So when you say gay marriage is gonna deprive children of one of their parents, they're like, so what? They've already decided so what? Because mom's on her third husband, right? You see the problem?

The problem, according to Morse, is that mainstream culture has redefined marriage as little more than a “government registry of friendship.” And she worries that there isn't much left to safeguard.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: A Chicago-born cardinal walks into a conclave, and well, the jokes write themselves. (We’re Protestants over here but we can still have fun.)

Late night hosts had a ball imagining the new pontiff Leo the Fourteenth as an average Joe from the Windy City! Here’s Jimmy Fallon:

FALLON: It means we're one step closer to Deep Dish communion wafers.

Stephen Colbert did his best impersonation:

COLBERT: From now on, the Pope's going to sound like this: “Hey there. It's your buddy, Leo, the deep dish, Papa.”

There’s still appropriate reverence in all the fun, because no matter how he says mass, he’ll no doubt end by saying:

COLBERT: Da prayers!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 15th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: what it takes to hold on to a family farm.

Last fall, Hurricane Helene carved a destructive path across South Georgia, leaving behind more than five and a half billion dollars in damages to the state’s agricultural industries: cotton, pecans, timber, cattle, poultry and more.

REICHARD: For one father and son, it wasn’t just a storm. It was a turning point. After years of mounting challenges, they now ask, how much more can their farm take? WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has their story.

LINDSAY MAST: Jeffrey Pridgen caught the farming bug early.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: I was driving a tractor in the back of the patch when I was six years old. Just gets in your blood.

He’s in his early 60s now, but he’s still on a tractor today–planting corn to feed his cattle.

His family has lived in this rural area of Coffee County, Georgia for over 200 years. It’s the kind of place where roads, a church, and a cemetery nearby all bear the family name. And all around, acres of farmland.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: So we was taking chicken money and growing hogs, but that didn't work out, so we got out the hog business. So we've been in the chicken business 34, 35 years.

Pridgen grew his poultry in 12 long, skinny houses: Each almost one and a half times the length of a football field but just one-fourth as wide. Each designed to house over 18,000 full grown birds.

Jeffrey’s son Walt caught the farming bug early, as well.

WALT PRIDGEN: There's nothing else I've ever wanted to do, which is nuts. I mean I've got a degree, I went to college, but I just, I like being out here, and I like doing this, and somebody's got to do it.

When he started farming he borrowed money and built four chicken houses of his own.

A little bigger than his dad’s. Newer. With touch screens to control the temperature, the lights, the near-constant feed time.

Then came Hurricane Helene. The family watched the forecast.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: And if you watch that radar, it wasn't turning, the storm wasn't turning. I told my wife, You know that thing's coming right over the top of us. No, it ain't they know what they're talking about.

As the storm worsened, Walt and his wife took their dog to his parent’s house. His wife was pregnant. They all waited in the dark. Walt can still hear the storm’s fury.

WALT PRIDGEN: You hear the thing about, oh, if there's a tornado, it sounds like a train's coming through the yard. There was a train coming through the yard that morning at 2:30. I don't know if it was one train. Don’t know if it was one train or 10 trains, but it was getting it when it was going.

They debated. When could they safely go check on the chickens? Just before sunrise, Walt stepped outside.

WALT PRIDGEN: We got hammered. it looked like a bomb went off around here.

It took them hours to cut a path to the chicken houses. They found four of Jeffrey’s houses, collapsed. Another seven, damaged. Only one remains operational.

LINDSAY: What did you think when you saw it?

JEFFREY: Shock. I mean, just never seen anything like it.

The collapsed houses look like they got tired and laid down to the side to take a nap. Thousands of chickens died.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: Farming is a gamble. No matter what you do farming, it's all a gamble.

But he didn’t anticipate a losing hand so close to retirement age.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: I lost my income and my retirement in one day.

Meanwhile, Walt’s houses sit just a half-mile from his dad’s. They found them virtually untouched. Spared by the storm.

Today, Walt says his houses hold more birds than before to make up for other houses damaged by Helene. This week workers are collecting the chickens in each one for processing.

Those chickens will end up as food on someone’s table. And Walt says: that’s work that matters.

WALT PRIDGEN: Every once in a while in life, you'll need a doctor or a lawyer. Every once in a while, you're gonna need a pharmacist. I believe that you need a preacher. But you're gonna need a farmer, at least once a day.

But it’s hard. Walt says since the storm he’s quit planning things. Before Helene, he’d hoped to take over the entire business in a few years: Pay a lease to his dad so his dad could retire on the payments. But now the damaged houses sit empty. The rebuilding process is uncertain.

WALT PRIDGEN The good Lord is the one that has the end result. So if we get there by whatever means, and he allows it to happen, then, that's the only answer.

Walt says he does plan to keep farming until his infant son can decide if he wants to get into the business.

WALT PRIDGEN: I'm gonna do everything I can do to better agriculture going forward, not only for myself, but for my little boy.

Back on the tractor, Jeffrey shares that vision. He wants his grandson to go to college and then be smart about their land his family has spent their lives farming.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: If you do it right, you can make a living. You just gotta get plenty ahead and save your money. When you do make money.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast in unincorporated Pridgen, Georgia.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 15th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says political theater is nothing new, but it’s time for some players to leave the stage.

CAL THOMAS: Political theater extends back to the Greeks. William Shakespeare wrote about politics in “Coriolanus” and other plays. A personal favorite of mine was “Fiorello!”, a 1959 musical about New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

What happened in Newark last week was political theater at its worst. The cast? New Jersey Democrat Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Together they attempted to conduct an “oversight” visit at a federally contracted building used by ICE to detain undocumented immigrants, including people charged or convicted of crimes. According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, the group had not asked to tour the facility and “that as a bus carrying detainees was entering the facility, ‘a group of protestors,’ including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

Only Mayor Baraka was handcuffed, and arrested. He was later released. Baraka was charged with trespassing, which he denies. I’m sure it is only coincidental that Baraka is one of six major Democrats running for governor of New Jersey. The incident got him free publicity.

The members of Congress claimed they were exercising their “oversight” responsibilities, which apparently included alerting the media and informing a crowd of demonstrators, some carrying signs.

On the social media site “X,” Acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba denied Baraka’s assertion that he was leaving when agents arrested him: The post reads: “The Mayor of Newark … committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state … NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW”

Where have we heard that one before?

Assistant secretary of Public Affairs for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, gave the agency’s version of events after the group of Democrats got through the gate: “…Representatives Robert Menendez, Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman and multiple protestors [were] holed up in a guard shack, the first security checkpoint.

The account continues: “Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”

We can expect to see more stunts and “grandstanding” like the one in Newark because that seems to be all that Democrats have in their toolbox at the moment.

Mayor Baraka might make better use of his time working on Newark’s deplorable public schools where according to Chalkbeat Newark: “Nearly 70% of students in grades 3-9 are falling short of meeting literacy benchmarks, around 82% aren’t meeting math standards, and 93% of fifth graders are below grade-level in science.”

It’s sad to see a once great political party descend into irrelevancy. Democrats are stuck in the mire of bad ideas that go back more than six decades—from claiming Republicans want to do away with Social Security, to denouncing the rich, raising taxes, and increased spending on failed government programs. All they seem to have left is their defense of criminals, open borders, and the ultimate election loser: biological men in women’s sports.

In “Fiorello!,” one song seems to sum up the cynicism many feel about modern politicians:

Politics and poker, politics and poker
Playing for a pot that’s mediocre
Politics and poker, running neck and neck
If politics seems more predictable
That’s because usually you can stack the deck!

Many good Broadway plays and films have been created over the years with politics as their central theme. If what happened last week in Newark was a play, it would have closed before opening night in New York due to bad reviews.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet.

And, WORLD Arts and Culture Editor Collin Garbarino reviews a new documentary—and a little-known student protest you likely haven’t heard of. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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

WORLD’s Bekah McCallum wrote today’s story about state resolutions and Obergefell.

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 Psalmist writes: “May your unfailing love come to me, Lord, your salvation, according to your promise; then I can answer anyone who taunts me, for I trust in your word.” —Psalm 119:41, 42

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.