The World and Everything in It: September 4, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is brought to you by listeners like me. I'm Beverly Roberts from Houston, Texas. I'm preparing to leave for our annual Concerned Women for America Conference for leaders in Washington DC. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Big changes to the military justice system are underway. The army’s top defense lawyer tells us what the changes mean for soldiers charged with sexual assault.

COL. MCGARRY: In the military system, if you find yourself as an accused, you have the whole weight of the entire United States Government bearing down on you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Part two of that story ahead on Legal Docket. Also today: the Monday Moneybeat. On this Labor Day economist David Bahnsen will talk about the jobs report and a biblical view on work.

And the WORLD History Book: today the search for the Loch Ness monster.

AUDIO: To believers, Lochness is the home of the world’s most famous monster. To skeptics, just a monster sized myth

REICHARD: It’s Monday, September 4th. 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: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane aftermath update » Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, many residents are still sifting through shattered lumber and hauling off debris. It’s just the beginning of a long rebuilding process in the wake of Hurricane Idalia.

President Biden surveyed the damage over the the weekend:

BIDEN: Here in Live Oak, massive trees were uprooted from intense hurricane force winds,  flooding and severe damage of homes and businesses.

He said the federal government is committed to providing whatever help state and local governments need.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday visited the coastal community of Yankeetown. He said storm waters completely washed away many homes along the water.

DESANTIS: Others had 4 or 5 feet of water in them. They’re not liveable right now. You probably can salvage them, but you’ve got to gut the drywall. You’ve got to do all that, and that just takes a lot of time.

Moody’s says the price tag for Hurricane Idalia’s destruction could reach $20 billion dollars.

McCarthy in Maui » House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited the Hawaiian island of Maui over the weekend, where a deadly wildfire incinerated an entire town.

McCARTHY: We want to get the resources to individuals they could rebuild their life we've got to focus on the children for the schools get them back into the education so they don't miss out.

He promised federal help for those who lost their homes, jobs or even family members in the blaze.

More than 100 people are confirmed dead, but nearly 400 others remain missing.

Erdogan meets with Putin on grain deal » The president of Turkey will meet with Vladimir Putin today, hoping to revive a grain deal with Russia and Ukraine. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sitting down with Putin today in Sochi on Russia’s southern coast.

He’s hoping to persuade the Russian leader to re-join the Black Sea grain deal after Putin pulled the plug on that pact in July.

The agreement allowed Ukraine to safely ship grain out of its Black Sea ports to countries around the world.

The Kremlin refused to renew the agreement six weeks ago and has since bombarded Ukrainian ports and grain supplies with air attacks.

The United Nations said Russia’s withdrawal hurt millions in developing countries already struggling to stave off famine.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

GOP politics » Republican White House hopefuls continue to pound the pavement in early voting states.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has fallen to fifth place in recent GOP polls, just behind former Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. But Pence says his campaign’s internal numbers in Iowa are solid.

PENCE: There’s plenty of time between now and the Iowa caucuses and when these primaries get underway.

Republican presidential polls continue to show that the ongoing legal drama swirling around Donald Trump isn’t hurting him a bit with GOP voters.

In March, an average of primary polls showed Trump with 43% support. But after a series of criminal indictments, he is now polling at 54%.

It’s less clear what his legal troubles might mean in a general election rematch against President Biden. Head-to-head polls show Trump in a virtual tie with the incumbent.

Jimmy Buffett obit » Jimmy Buffett has died.

MUSIC: “Margaritaville”

The singer of hits like “Margaritaville” battled a rare form of skin cancer for several years.

The 76-year-old was known for his Carribean-flavored pop music and barefoot live performances.

While his biggest hit was a song about beach bumming and alcohol, friends say behind the scenes, he was a workaholic. He wrote several novels and opened a series of “Margaritaville” resorts.

Bill Richardson obit » Bill Richardson also died over the weekend. The two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico also held several national offices, including that of Energy Secretary under President Bill Clinton.

RICHARDSON: Mr. President, thank you for honoring me by nominating me to a second cabinet position.

Richardson heard there in 1998 after serving as Clinton’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations following 14 years in Congress.

He also launched an unsuccessful campaign for president in 2008.

Richardson died in his sleep at his summer home in Massachusetts. He was 75.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: The impact of changes to the military justice system on Legal Docket. Plus, the WORLD History Book.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Monday morning September 4th. Happy Labor Day and good morning! I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time for Legal Docket. Today, part two in our report on big changes in the military.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand posted this voice mail clip from President Biden. She put it up on Facebook back in July:

BIDEN: Kirsten, it’s Joe Biden in the Oval Office. I wish you were here, because I’m about to sign the bill you’re totally responsible for which the New York Times says is the biggest change in the modern military system since 1950. Um. And you deserve all the credit. All the credit. I just called to say congratulations. Look forward to seeing you soon.

EICHER: That was the night before he signed an Executive Order that changed how the military handles sexual assault cases. It implemented the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. The biggest change is that starting December 28th, Commanders will no longer decide when sexual assault cases go to trial. Those decisions are now in the hands military lawyers.

REICHARD: Last week we heard from the Army’s top prosecutor, called the Lead Special Trial Counsel. Today, we hear from the Army’s top Defense Counsel, Colonel Sean McGarry, as to what the changes mean for Army lawyers who defend soldiers in sexual assault cases.

EICHER: World Associate Correspondent Jeff Palomino talked with Colonel McGarry and is here to tell us.

JEFF PALOMINO, REPORTER: Good morning, Nick and Mary!

EICHER: We know from last week that a military court-martial looks a lot like a regular criminal trial, with some differences. Describe that for us?

PALOMINO: Well, on one side, there’s the prosecution whose job is to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and get a conviction. On the other side, there’s the defendant, called the accused in the military. Next to every accused military member is a military defense counsel.

Colonel McGarry is the head of Army Trial Defense Services. It’s a unit within the Army JAG Corps. It has about 140 defense attorneys, plus paralegals and legal administrators. Colonel McGarry describes what they do:

COL. MCGARRY: If you find yourself as an accused, you have the whole weight of the entire United States Government bearing down on you and that can be significant. So we think it's important to balance that a little bit with somebody who has your interests at heart and only your interests at heart. We have military defense attorneys that have an attorney client relationship with an individual, and they're not beholden to the larger government overall.

Army defense attorneys come into the service like other JAGs. They come in as military officers, licensed to practice law and they’re members of the bar in good standing. But that’s not all:

MCGARRY: Typically, we like to have somebody be a prosecutor first. So you go forward of the bar for a criminal proceeding, we try to have the most experienced attorney outside of the judge, be the defense counsel.

When an Army attorney switches from prosecuting soldiers to defending them, their ethical obligations change.

MCGARRY: Army defense counsel, just like like civilian defense counsel, they have a professional obligation to that individual client to the person who is accused. And sometimes it's, that's not immediately obvious to people who are not familiar with the system, they'll see their defense counsel wears a uniform, very similar to a prosecutor, they both get paid by the government. But defense counsel has an obligation to look out for zealous advocacy and for the rights of that individual accused.

To make that zealous advocacy happen, the Army and the other military branches give defense attorneys their own chain of command—it’s separate and independent from the prosecutor’s.

MCGARRY: That's very important to us, that there be that independence so [19:54] Again, go back to any system of justice that’s going to be legitimate has to have that appearance of fairness. And if you had defense counsel working for the same person who is making an allegation and proceeding on an allegation and sentencing after a guilty finding, I think whether it is or is not unfair, it would appear unfair.

In a court-martial, the accused is entitled to a military defense counsel. This is provided at no cost to the servicemember. Colonel McGarry is the one who assigns this attorney for the Army. He may assign one, two or even three lawyers, depending on the seriousness of the case. An accused can also hire a civilian lawyer, but that comes at no expense to the government, and even so, military defense counsel usually stay on the case. But, military defense lawyers do more than just represent soldiers in courts-martial.

MCGARRY: We're not limited to just a criminal proceeding that is guilty or, or not guilty. We also have in the military system, we have mechanisms, a forum, to address misconduct, short of a criminal proceeding. So we have administrative actions, we have things to do with your evaluation, we can separate people, we can fire them with particular characterization of service, can present impact for an individual well beyond their time in the military.

In other words, Army lawyers defend soldiers in the full range of adverse actions the Army can take against them. They also represent all ranks— from young privates all the way to generals.

And there’s also something else that makes military defense counsel unique from, say, a public defender.

MCGARRY: Unlike the civilian system, where an attorney might be provided for them based on their financial need, in the military, that's not a requirement. You're a service member. So you're entitled. And we will assign you based on just your service status.

Colonel McGarry and his team are following the changes in who decides what offenses are prosecuted. Soon, those decisions won’t be made by commanders. They’ll be made by the Army’s Lead Special Trial Counsel. Remember, that’s the lead prosecutor.

But will this big change mean much for Army defense attorneys? Those defending against sexual assault and other victim-oriented charges? The short answer is not really

MCGARRY: The change has the biggest impact on the government side, because we have two paths, by which cases might get into a criminal forum. There's general crimes, those uncovered crimes, and then those the more serious ones that go through the Lead special trial counsel process. But in terms of responding to that, the interests of an individual client, I don't think there is significant change for the defense bar. It's the same rules of evidence, and it's the same standard of proof. So I think we are going to handle our responsibilities in a way that's shockingly similar to the way that we did it before this was this bifurcated system.

Still, Colonel McGarry expects his unit will get increased resources and more defense attorneys. The law that created the Lead Special Trial Counsel forces the Army into a large prosecution enterprise. So if the prosecution side increases, ought not the defense side as well?

MCGARRY: We put a lot of thought into that very question, making sure that we are resourcing and staffing with the relative parity. How would you feel if your son or daughter were sitting at a table with one lonely defense counsel, and the government had multiple field grade officers lined up with all the resources of the United States bearing down on them? Even if it was fair, it just doesn't look fair. So both are important to our system.

But Colonel McGarry says something else is also important. Most of the soldiers charged with sexual assault are among the most junior ranks.

Think college-aged soldiers. Young people who may be away from home for the first time without much life experience. Now, they face significant jeopardy.

MCGARRY: Some of the consequences for that type of allegation are significant beyond what you might see for theft, or a drug use, because of sex offender registration requirements that can impact the most basic things, where you live, even for the rest of your life, potentially.

These cases can also involve mistakes of fact, misunderstandings where each person thought something different about what happened.

MCGARRY: And especially if it was a miscommunication that is an accused might be feeling that they didn't do anything wrong, but yet the line has been drawn behind them. And this, this incredible amount of stress can weigh heavy on somebody, whether they they end up being guilty or not just going through the process. But it is hugely satisfying to know that you've defended somebody's rights, and you've made sure that the process is fair.

EICHER: Jeff, you’re a retired Air Force lawyer with many years of experience. So based on all that: what’s your sense of how these changes will work. Will they turn out as expected or as hoped?

PALOMINO: I’ll answer that by responding to what Senator Ted Cruz said about the changes in the law. He said he supported it because “We all want to stop sexual assault in the military.” I’ll say that won’t happen. Just taking authority over sexual assault cases away from commanders won’t end sexual assault, because it doesn’t change the facts of these cases.

These tend to have common fact patterns: heavy alcohol consumption in the context of hook-up culture combined with lack of memory and recall to truly say whether consent was given or received. Most military sexual assaults just aren’t cases you’d see prosecuted in civilian court, and that’s not going to change regardless of who decided to send the case to court. So, no, this won’t stop sexual assault in the military. Only thoughtful prevention will.

REICHARD: And you think that even as the White House said the changes,  and I’ll quote the statement directly, namely that they will: “significantly strengthen how the military handles sexual assault cases?”

PALOMINO: I think the answer is yes for some because they’ll know their chain of command had no influence on the case. The reality, though, is probably not, because the outcomes of these cases will remain the same. First, the defense will still get high numbers of acquittals. Second, the new system still includes prosecutorial discretion. Experienced and even compassionate decisions on which sexual assault cases get prosecuted simply may not be enough. I don’t believe it will be. Angry voices that want to tear the system down will continue. We’re just one headline-grabbing acquittal or one unprosecuted case away from someone saying, “See? This isn’t working.” So, I think in the next five to ten years Congress will say this new system has also failed, that the military itself can’t be trusted to do these cases. Then there will be calls to reform it again, and I predict it’ll mean putting decision making into the hands of civilians in the Defense Department.

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: Alright, time now to talk business, markets, and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen. He is head of the wealth management firm, the Bahnsen Group, and he is here now from Southern California. David, good morning to you.

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

EICHER: Well, David, let's kick off Labor Day by talking about jobs. The new jobs report is out from the government 187,000 new jobs added. But the headline unemployment number ticked up, it went up to 3.8%. So what did you see in the jobs report for August?

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I mean, I think that the headline kind of captured most of the basics, the fact that from a cosmetic standpoint, the unemployment rate jumped up, even as new payrolls were added. I think all things being equal, the Biden administration would prefer a 3.5% versus 3.8%. But that just you know, it really has more to do with the labor participation rate than anything else, the denominator changing. Average hourly earnings were up 2.2% for the month, and so they're up 4.3% year over year, I think that's a really good number in the sense that you want wage growth and wage growth over 4% is a good number. But it is most certainly not inflationary and adding to this idea of what they call the wage price spiral. I think we're now going on about six months or more of that whole theory being heavily disproven. And so it was mild improvement, it does give the Fed I think, no reason to, within their silly model of worrying about too many people having jobs in a red hot labor market and other things like that. The data was soft enough that I don't see any reason to think that the Fed changed their mind about not hiking rates again here in September. At this point, that looks to be pretty much a foregone conclusion. So I think you want to look at small business startups that there continues to be activity of employment on the self-employed side, small business startup, that number was good in August. But where you, you know, see things softening or some of the other areas where they had been really high. So a little bit of something for everybody in this month's report, Nick.

EICHER: Alright, David. Well, I know this subject is near and dear to you. We've touched on this before. But I do think it bears repeating, particularly on this day that we set aside to honor work and those who do it. Talk a bit about your theological commitments, David, and what they have to say about labor and vocation, and our responsibility that God gives to us to work.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, I always think it's nice people have a Monday Holiday like this going into the new school year. And the fall is sort of like officially, the end of summer is what Labor Day has become for American culture. In the Christian work ethic every day except for Sunday is a Labor Day. For God Himself, who created the world by working for six days and then rested on the seventh, every day but one is Labor Day. So I almost wish we didn't have to have a holiday. But I get it, it's to kind of celebrate the idea of work. But my view of work theologically is it's what God made us for. That he made us to work he made us to cultivate the creation to extract the potential out of the creation, to do so with the creativity and the innovation, the entrepreneurialism, the productivity that only mankind was created with that only mankind possesses unique from the other elements of creation, unique from the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, that there's a dignity that we have by nature of being made in the image of God. And that one of the areas in which this is most manifest is our capacity for work. And I do have a book coming out on the subject. So it's all done. It's at the publisher, it's up on Amazon now. But I talk more about this subject in ways that I think will surprise people in the book, the website, by the way, it's fulltimebook.com. And what the argument I'm going to make, Nick, is not just that we have been created for work, but that we're living in a time where a lot of people are very isolated, very alienated. We talk a lot about despair that has taken over society, there's a high amount of suicide, a high amount of drug and alcohol addiction, other things that are just awful social epidemics that have gotten much worse. And this is undeniably true. And I believe that work is the primary solution on the table that not only is no one talking about, if they are talking about it, it is presented as one of the causes of the problems instead of the solutions to the problems that people are so stressed because they work so much. And I think this isn't major flaw major fallacy and that we have things happening that we can address that the Christian work ethic properly understood, properly restored from biblical teaching that a Christian work ethic would represent a world of good for this troubled society.

EICHER: Well, David, our Commerce Secretary was in China last week, several days, Secretary Gina Raimondo, she warned that American businesses and she was speaking to the Chinese officials. She said American businesses could decide that doing business in China is simply too big of a risk. She said that if China does not take action to address these risks, that American businesses may come to consider China un-investable. That was her term, un-investable. And when she says that she means things like the Chinese government hitting Western owned firms with unexplained finds and stealing their technology and even sometimes raiding their offices without cause. I did not expect to hear that from her this go round.

BAHNSEN: Yeah, so you have an interesting situation at play for the Chinese markets. When you're talking about investing in Chinese business, it's important to distinguish between public companies and private companies. The biggest thing that makes China un-investable for American investors is capital controls. And to the extent the Commerce Secretary is just reiterating, like hey, China, you would really help yourself if people were allowed to get money out of your country. You know, that would be a pretty obvious statement, and hopefully, one that people never stop uttering. And China's not going to change it anytime soon. But that's the biggest issue that keeps people from investing in China from foreign countries is the money can get in but it can't get out. Now, when you talk about public equities, American investors have the ability to not have to put the money in China, they can invest in Chinese companies, and do so through the New York Stock Exchange and do so through American vehicles that keeps the money from ever being under the control of Chinese regulators, CCP, etc. I think probably what the Secretary is referring to, though, is that even that American investors are gun shy because the reputation China has for these controls for intervention and so forth. And I am sympathetic to what she is saying. I would just like to say that, hey, America, Secretary of Commerce under the Biden administration, Secretary of Treasury under the Biden administration, regulators at the FTC, the FEC, all across the board, government interventions, discourage investment. And so if we want to make the obvious statement that what the Chinese Communist Party does discourages investment, I agree. And obviously, that's a message that most Americans agree with. But I would add the same principle she's alluding to, in a lecture in the Chinese Communist Party, you could apply the same principle here in the United States, you discourage investment with more intervention. And maybe we should be doing less of it within our own domestic economic administration as well. But yeah, I think that the whole issue of investing in China and any other geopolitical region, by the way that there are risks that you take on based on what the political atmosphere of that country may be. So there's there's kind of a lot to chew on in there, Nick, I hope I hope some of that was helpful.

EICHER: Yeah. Well, just real quick and before we go, should have brought this up last week. David, speaking of China, the expansion of the economic union, known as BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, it's an anti-Western alliance, and it's becoming more anti-Western growing still further adding a rogue nation, Iran and several others. And at least one of the goals, I understand is to try to move away from the US dollar and try to avoid Western sanctions. Any concerns you have there?

BAHNSEN: Well, no. Okay, so I just addressed this in Dividend Cafe on Friday. And so it's a topic near and dear to my heart, because I think that people misunderstand how a currency works. So frequently, you have a number of countries, some of which have strong economic growth, and some of which are, are barely functioning as civilized nations. And then they've extended invitations, which will be accepted and everything will be, you know, simulated with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Argentina, and Ethiopia. So you are going to have some large energy producers in there along with some very large energy consumers on the margin enhances the ability of some of these countries to transact. But the idea of them dropping the dollar as a reserve currency is just utterly absurd. To the extent that there's been about two transactions done so far in Chinese yuan, they still were converted into dollars post transaction, because these countries cannot hold the Ethiopian currency as a medium of stability. The currency of a third world country does not become strong by other countries wishing it so. Currencies are a reflection of a country being strong, a country's economic situation and leadership and, and trade reliability and monetary policy and so forth. And so I think that that distinction between a trading currency and a reserve currency is very important. There's no question that the motive of these countries is to be able to get around things like sanctions. I don't know what anyone believes we are supposed to do about that. These countries are going to operate in their self interest. And I would say it's imperative that the Americans operate in their own self interest. And fortunately for America, there's a population of 330 million people, and an economic powerhouse that the world has never seen, that still operates well beneath its own capacity because of our own silly decisions and excessive indebtedness. We could be so much stronger. But do I think that combining a number of weak economic countries, some of which are essentially third world countries that have come in and out of sovereign bankruptcy themselves? Argentina, Iran, Ethiopia that the combination of these countries is a threat to the world reserve currency of the dollar. I simply don't at all, but on the margin. Do I think it gives them better trading leverage? Yeah, I certainly think it does.

EICHER: Alright. Well, David Bahnson is founder managing partner and chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group. You can keep up with David at his personal website, bahnsen.com. His weekly Dividend Cafe is at dividendcafe.com. David, thank you so much. I hope you have a terrific Labor Day. And we will talk to you next time.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much Nick.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, September 4th. 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. Next up: the WORLD History Book. Today, the backstory of a word we often use to describe what is ailing our malfunctioning computers. Also, the ongoing search for the Loch Ness monster. But first, an international crime fighting organization marks a significant milestone this week.

Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization. It celebrates 100 years of global crime-fighting this week. The International Criminal Police Commission formed on September 7th, 1923, in Vienna the goal was to be a politically neutral data-sharing group for police.

But in 1938, Germany’s Third Reich seized control of the organization—using it to strengthen its influence and coordinate intelligence. After the war, the International Commission was essentially defunct. But it reorganized in 1956 and changed its name, dubbing themselves the International Criminal Police Organization. It adopted the abbreviation ‘Interpol’ because that’s how telegraphs identified the group.

AUDIO: Meanwhile, I have been summoned to help on a case with Interpol. You know the one. From the DVDs?

Despite how movies and TV shows like this episode of Psych characterize Interpol, the group primarily works as a criminal database. Their employees don’t have the authority to arrest anyone or conduct independent investigations, and they don’t have undercover agents. They do contribute by managing crime-fighting information and operating 19 different forensic databases—accessed by police internationally about 16 million times a day.

MAIL & GUARDIAN: The verdict is finally in: the former head of police is guilty of corruption.

Interpol has come under scrutiny in the past fifteen years for corrupt officials and violating their political neutrality.

In 2010, former Interpol president Jackie Selebi was found guilty of accepting bribes. It wasn’t an isolated incident, happening in leadership again in 2019.

CNN: Meng Hongwei, who also was a vice minister of public security in China, has been accused by the Chinese government of accepting bribes and committing unspecified crimes.

Authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, and Iran are suspected of using Interpol to target their political opponents. Russia is currently responsible for flagging 38% of the nearly 7 thousand most wanted individuals and entities in the database.

Next, we head to Scotland's Loch Ness.

90 years ago, a well-to-do businessman and his wife are driving along the north shore of the loch when something catches their eye.

As the couple watches, an enormous whale-like creature heaves above the waves, then disappears, leaving a turbulent wake behind. A local newspaper publishes their account, describing the waves as “cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron.” A year later, a British surgeon snaps a grainy picture of the supposed sea serpent, looking like a plesiosaur. He later admits it was a hoax.

Many nearby Inverness residents are skeptical, yet the legend grows year by year. Audio here from the History Channel:

History, Loch Ness Monster: We all want monsters. We want things that are bigger than we are, frightening and hidden. But to be hidden, they have to be in Lost Worlds. And to some extent Loch Ness is a lost world.

In October 1987, marine biologist Adrian Shine leads a weeklong search of the loch—dubbed Operation Deepscan.

ITV COVERAGE OF DEEPSCAN: To believers, Lochness is the home of the world’s most famous monster. To skeptics, just a monster sized myth.

A flotilla of 24 boats use sonar to map the entire lake. The data includes three unknown contacts that can’t be explained. Skeptics claim it’s likely a seal or group of salmon, while believers see what they want to see.

Recently, a large group of volunteers descended upon the large body of water with more sophisticated tools—hoping to settle the debate once and for all. Audio here from NPR:

NPR: Hundreds of Monster Hunters have gathered in the Scottish Highlands to carry out what's probably the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster in 50 years. It’s dubbed, The Quest.

Armed with thermal scanners, infrared cameras, and an underwater hydrophone, volunteers from Loch Ness Exploration searched the waters from 17 observation points.

ANC: Things have happened over the centuries at Loch Ness that we can’t explain.

No official word yet if they found anything conclusive. Regardless of what they do find—or don’t find—the legend is sure to continue…if for no other reason than the search itself is good for local business.

And finally today, a little history behind a common phrase.

MONTAGE: The threat of losing the internet is a very real concern whether that's by a computer bug | the danger lies in the so-called millennium bug | researchers discovered a new internet bug | the year 2038 bug could wipe out computers.

When computers fail, we typically attribute the problem to a “bug in the system.” It’s really just an unknown failure in the code or hardware. Well, this week marks the anniversary of one of the first times the phrase was used. It happened on September 9th, 1947.

The Harvard Mark II was a massive computing system. It took up over four thousand square feet—about the size of 6 tennis courts.

One day, the computer repeatedly failed to start. So operators began inspecting the 50,000 pound computer and soon discovered the problem. It was an actual computer bug. A tiny moth was stuck in the hardware. While the term “bug” had been previously used in mechanical engineering, it became a playful computer reference for how the tiniest of things can cause an entire system to fail.

My thanks to WORLD interns Emma Perley and Noah Burgdorf for their help researching and writing this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: A legal battle over workplace diversity training in Florida, to ban or not to ban, that is the question, and legal reporter Steve West will join us to talk about it.

And, the Classic Book of the month for September. This time, a book of life lessons from the football field. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1: 1-3.

Go now in grace and peace.

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