(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, it is Wednesday, July 17th, National Hot Dog Day. Jill, you're listening to the Mo News podcast. I'm Moshe Wannunu. - And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. - And we read all the news and read between the lines, so you don't have to. Jill, I haven't had a hot dog yet this summer. - Moshe, how do you take your hot dog? Ketchup, mustard, sauerkraut, walk me through it. - I'm glad you asked Jill, because I come from the Chicago area and a big thing Chicagoans know is no ketchup on their hot dog. In fact, it's an insult to Chicagoans when you're like, what, you put ketchup on your hot dog? What are you from Minnesota? This is literally a thing that happens in the Midwest. Now, I will say that myself, I like ketchup and mustard on my hot dog. I also will take pickles. I'm not a big sauerkraut guy though. Jill, over to you. - Mustard all the way, Moshe. But I've only recently partaken in many hot dogs. I haven't had a full hot dog myself this summer either. - All right, Jill, looking historically here, hot dogs have been here in the US for about 150 years. We have German immigrants to thank for them, including one Charles Feldman, who apparently began selling hot dogs out of a stand in Coney Island, New York. And that's sort of where it took off from across the country. - All right, thank you, Charles, we appreciate it. - I'm gonna call him Chuck Feldman. I don't know if he went by Chuck though. - Moshe and the voice of Chandler being, could there be any more news? (both laughing) - You know, we talked about how it was already felt busy for a Monday. Jill, we have a lot to get to in this pod. - Podcast was basically written and done. And then Moshe, I get a text from you. And you're like, we've got a new lead. We've got a new lead in the speed read. We've got a new lead at the top. But such is the current news cycle. - It's coming fast and furious, folks. We'll try to get through it all today. - Okay, here are the headlines, some new details on an apparent separate assassination plot on former President Trump. This one is from Iran. There is no known link to the weekend attempt on his life, but it does raise a number of new questions. Also, some information on how the attempted assassin from this past weekend got the weapon from his father on Saturday. The first US Senator in American history found guilty of acting as a foreign agent. We are talking about Senator Bob Menendez. He was found guilty in a federal corruption trial. What happens next? To the culture wars, California is banning schools from telling parents about their children's gender change. President Biden preparing to announce a major proposal to reform the Supreme Court, including term limits for justices. - Including a fun fact for you, how many countries in the world don't have term limits for their judges, like here in the US? - Most, you have piqued my curiosity. - Jill, if you were countries that use Fahrenheit, that's your clue. (laughing) - Meanwhile, a leaked phone call between RFK Jr. and Donald Trump talking vaccines leads to an apology from the Kennedy campaign. The latest on the heat wave here in the United States, especially for everyone living in cities. And have you heard the national anthem at the Home Run Derby from Ingrid Endress? Well, she's apologizing. She says she was drunk and is checking herself into rehab. But in case you haven't heard it, we'll play it here. - Only a little bit though, it's pretty painful. - And Moshe has on this day in history. - Don't stop believing, Jill. That's your clue. (laughing) - I think that's not the clue. I think that's just what it is. - That's not all your clue. (laughing) - That's just less than not the state in history. (laughing) - Okay, let's start with what we are learning about the assassination attempt of Donald Trump over the weekend. And before we get to what we know or don't know about the shooter's motives and the investigation into what went wrong in terms of security, a new development breaking on Tuesday. US intelligence agencies have been apparently tracking what they considered a potential Iranian assassination plot against former President Trump over the last few weeks. However, wanna be very clear, they do not believe that the threat was related at all to the actual shooting on Saturday. The Trump campaign had been told about the Iran threat not long before Saturday's event. US intelligence officials believe Iran is looking to retaliate for the strike that was ordered by then President Trump in 2020, which killed major general Qasem Soleimani, who was a top Iranian military leader. Notably, the Iran threat had prompted the secret service to increase its security around Trump in recent weeks, including prior to his rally on Saturday. So Moshe, that is a stunning admission, given the massive security laps surrounding the event, which we'll get back to a bit later in the podcast. - Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here, just to take people back. If you remember back in 2020, early January, 2020, Trump ordered that strike to kill Soleimani. He was the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, what's called the IRGC, considered a terror group. They're responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops over the years. And the Iranians vowed revenge for that. A spokesperson for the National Security Council, the current National Security Council, over at the White House, says, as we've said many times, we've been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration. These threats arise from Iran's desire to seek revenge. We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. We've told you about this on the pod before. There were other Trump officials on Iran's target list, Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, former CIA Director, John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor. Both have been facing Iran assassination plots in recent years, have had to get upgraded security. Back in 2022, the US said Iran had plans to kill John Bolton. And it appears Trump was on their list as well. And in fact, the security issues got escalated to the point where earlier this summer, Trump got a larger security team, a larger Secret Service team around him. At one point, the threat was significant enough where they canceled and prompted campaign appearances, what's called Off the Records, where a candidate will stop in a restaurant or a shop to greet people, they canceled those because of the threat. Now, again, really important to emphasize here, the Iranian threat does not appear to be related to the 20-year-old who took aim at Trump over the weekend. This is a separate threat. We should note, by the way, the Iranians were asked about this and they said, no, no, no, we have no plot against Donald Trump. We want to deal with him legally. That's at least what the Iranian mission at the UN had to say when asked about this. Then again, US national security officials say they've been trying to kill several Trump officials, including Donald Trump for a couple of years now. - Okay, now back to what went wrong on Saturday. We are learning more about the security lapses that allowed for that assassination attempt. And most more questions than answers right now, the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheetel, sat down for her first interview with ABC News. As the head of the agency, Cheetel said, it is her responsibility to investigate what went wrong and make sure that nothing like this happens again. You're as a bit of her conversation with ABC's chief justice correspondent, Pierre Thomas. - This is an event that should have never happened. - Who's most responsible for this happening? - What I would say is that the Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president. - So the buck stops with you? - The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service. It was unacceptable, and it's something that shouldn't happen again. But most, there is some finger pointing happening right now between the Secret Service and local law enforcement. Local law enforcement would be the police department in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the rally was being held. Cheetel said the Secret Service was in charge of securing the inner perimeter of the event, and that local police were assigned to safeguard the outer perimeter, which included the building where the shooter had set up on the roof, armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, and then opened fire at the former president while he was addressing the crowd. She even said that there were local police officers in that building, and Thomas asked her why there wasn't an officer stationed on the roof of the building, and she said it was a safety issue for the officers. Take a listen. - That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof, and so the decision was made to secure the building from inside. - So most clearly that is a decision that's gonna be looked at more closely, particularly because analysts say that securing a nearby rooftop would be one of the more basic preparations that would be done before these type of events. - Yeah, it was the highest point in the area. I had line of sight to where Trump was speaking, and so a lot of people are asking questions, Jill. I found it notable in that interview with Cheetel that she said, "The buck stops with me. "I take responsibility." At the same time, it was the locals that should have secured the building, and the locals are saying, "No, no, no. "It was a secret service." They were running the show here. So there's a lot of finger pointing back and forth, and for those of you sending me various conspiracy theories, from the internet, I go back to our typical line here, which is don't blame on some conspiracy. We can blame on indecision, confusion, bad communication, and some incompetence, which appears to be the situation right now as they point fingers at each other. A question about resources, a question about communication here, why security of that building seems to have been outsourced to local police is a big question we told you on yesterday's podcast, that it appears based on video, and based on local reports, that this guy was spotted nearly a half an hour before he ended up opening fire on Trump. There were multiple videos now that have come out of people pointing at the roof, saying there's a guy with a gun on the roof, some from two minutes before, some from further back. One police officer was boosted onto the roof, and we've told you that allegedly the gunman turned his gun on that police officer who then jumped off the roof to reset himself. So where was the communication? Where was the communication to the secret service to say get Trump off the stage? There's a guy with a gun up there, is gonna be one of the many questions that's being asked here about what took place. Now Cheetall says that her agency will fully cooperate with an independent investigation. That's something Joe Biden called for on Sunday. He said that he wants an independent investigation into what went wrong in Pennsylvania. The FBI right now is leading the overall internal investigation into what took place. Cheetall will be testifying next week before the House Oversight Committee. And so you can expect a lot of questions to be asked there. They want that to be done in public, on camera. So US citizens can see what took place. She has said so far she is not planning on resigning, even though there are some calls mainly among Republicans calling for her to resign. She says the secret service is not political. People safety is not political, and that's what we're focused on as an agency. She also reiterated, as has circulated online, that there was no truth to the rumors that the former president that Trump had asked for more resources and that had been rejected. In fact, it was the reverse. He had been given extra resources in recent weeks. And now we know why the aforementioned Iranian assassination plot. - And motion out of the investigation into the shooter himself and a possible motive. Again, officials do not believe that there is any connection to an Iran plot whatsoever. Law enforcement have conducted over 100 interviews in his Bethel Park neighborhood. The shooter, a 20-year-old kitchen worker at a local nursing home. Staff members have said that he passed a background check and raised no concerns. He had just graduated from a local community college with honors. He was set to attend another college in Pittsburgh in the fall. As we reported yesterday, law enforcement have been searching his phone and his online records. But so far, they say there isn't much there that's giving clues as to a possible motive. My old colleague from NBC News, Tom Winter, is their national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent. He said on air on Tuesday morning, that there is a chance that we may never know the real motive. And he echoed something that most you and I have been saying, that people are quick to want this to be politically motivated, but it is very possible that that is just not the case here at all. And there are conflicting reports about his politics and how political he even was. - Obviously, that's the thing that you think about when there's an assassination plot, is that this is somebody who had political issues with the former president. But given so far were several days in, we don't have any sense that he was overtly political, at least not yet. Again, he officially was a registered Republican. He had donated a small amount to a Democratic group. Most of his classmates say he didn't really discuss politics, but we'll wait to hear more as the investigation continues. What we do know is that he was a member of a local shooting club, the Claritin Sportsman's Club for at least a year. And law enforcement says that Crookes used his father's gun in the shooting. ABC News reports late Tuesday, that on the day of the shooting, on Saturday, Crookes apparently told his father that he wanted to go to the shooting range and asked if he could borrow his dad's AR-15. Since his father had occasionally allowed Crookes to go target shooting with the semi-onmic firearm, he didn't think anything of it. Didn't think there was anything suspicious. He said, sure, take the rifle and go to the range. Now Crookes apparently decided to use that rifle in his attempted assassination of Trump. The AP reports that his father bought the gun six months ago, that Crookes purchased a separate box of ammunition containing 50 rounds on the day of the rally. Then separately he had two crude explosives in his car, one in his home. During the shooting, he was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, that's a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. It has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns, explosive devices. But so far, all we know is that, for the most part, at least that's what they've released publicly. They believe he acted alone, but they are continuing to investigate whether he was a company to the rally, looking through surveillance tape and other resources here. As you mentioned, Jill, they've done more than 100 interviews so far, still trying to get to the bottom of all of this. And it all comes as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have warned, in the last 24 hours, about the potential for follow on or retaliatory attacks. They say that there could be what they call DVEs, domestic violence extremism, as a follow up or as a retaliatory or revenge for what took place on Saturday. So they've asked all law enforcement to be on high alert. - All right, Moshe, one thing that we talk about a lot on this podcast, travel trends. And we know that so many of you have travel plans for this summer. And we also know that the experience is that much better if you can speak the language, even say some of the basics. So if that's you, make 2024 the year, that you finally learn to speak a language of somewhere you're gonna travel with Babel. Babel is a language app with quick 10 minute lessons to help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at college. 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Let's start with another big political story that Moshe, I think on any other given day, could have been a lead story, if not for everything else going on, from the Washington Post, New Jersey, Senator Bob Menendez was convicted Tuesday of taking bribes from three businessmen who showered him and his wife with cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes Benz. - Jill, they also got an air purifier and an elliptical machine among the many things. - It couldn't have been a peloton, it had to be an elliptical. And now this was in exchange for help in securing deals with foreign officials. The Democrat who has been in the US Senate for two decades, was also found guilty of trying to derail several criminal investigations. The jury in Manhattan Federal Court found that the lawmaker was guilty on all 16 felony counts. So they include bribery, extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt from 2018 to 2022. He did beat separate bribery charges back in 2017. Moshe's stunning fall from grace for the longtime senator who at one time was the head of the very powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. - Right, and they believe it's from that perch that he used to be able to work with these Egyptian officials and use his power to help them. Now, Jill, as we told you when this trial began, he tried to blame this all on his wife, Nadine, saying he didn't know what she was up to. This is all her. She had expensive taste in cars and clothes. She couldn't keep up with her mortgage. This plot dates back to the time of that she was his girlfriend and they portrayed her as a scheming girlfriend who kept seeing her ex-boyfriend even after she began dating Menendez and then as a secretive wife who never told him that she was receiving gold bars and money from several men. That was what he said. Well, what prosecutor said was she was the go-between, he was aware of everything, and the jury decided they didn't buy the whole, my wife did it, excuse. By the way, separately she faces charges, but she is undergoing currently cancer treatment, so TBD on when her trial is, that said Menendez here, some really concerning things he was doing from his perch as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, he was charged with steering aid and weapons to Egypt, using his clout to help the government of Qatar. He also apparently tried to disrupt multiple criminal investigations in New Jersey on behalf of two allies, and it just goes on and on and on. And as you mentioned, he did it in exchange for these gifts, the car, and then weirdly enough gold bars, literal gold bars, which they tried to claim was just gifts from a friend and people are like, that's not something friends give each other, gold bars that you were keeping in your closet. So the jury didn't buy it here, he's been fun guilty, he faces potentially decades in prison, by the way, he's 70 years old, and so he spoke very briefly outside the courthouse, cameras, avowing to appeal the decision. Take a listen. - I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent, and the decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be. - Jill, he's trying to claim that this is what senators do and all senators should be worried about that, the rest of his colleagues in the Senate say, "No, that's not what we're worried about, "that's not what we do." Even fellow Democrats here now calling on him to resign, including the party leader, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, says in light of the guilty verdict, Menendez must do what's right, he must resign. There's been criticism actually that the Senate has allowed him to keep his job as a Senator. They pushed him out as chairman, but they allowed him to continue as a US Senator despite this trial that's in contrast to what happened in the US House, where George Santos was facing charges and they expelled him when he decided not to resign. Now they've said, "You need to resign." It's unclear whether he'll do that, but clearly they have support here to expel him. So unclear how long he'll have. He is set to be sentenced on October 29th. The most serious charges of extortion and wire fraud, terrorist statutory maximum of 20 years in prison here. We should say Menendez has lived multiple lives here, has faced other corruption charges, got out of those this time, not so much. Though he does have hope that the Supreme Court recently ruled in narrowing federal bribery laws and they hope that that'll help with their appeal here, but does not look great for Menendez. Again, fun, guilty on all counts. - From Bloomberg, California became the first US state to ban school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents about changes to a student's sexual orientation and gender identity. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law following a contentious and emotional debate in the Democratic controlled state legislature. The measure forbids school staff from informing parents or any other person if their child's gender identification changes without permission from the child. It also bars districts from punishing employees who support a student's rights. The legislation was introduced after some conservative California school districts implemented rules that require teachers to inform parents if their child identifies as transgender or goes by a different name or pronoun at school. It comes amid a nationwide debate over the rights of parents and LGBTQ students. - Yeah, advocates here argue that school board policies forcibly out LGBTQ students adversely affecting their mental health. They claim the caucus here, the LGBTQ caucus in the state legislature claims that this is life-saving legislation, especially since fewer than half of transgender and non-binary students find their homes affirming. And that's according to an advocacy group around that cause that is focused on suicide prevention and mental health. At the same time, opponents here say the law is a secrecy policy that infringes on a parents' relationship with their child, promotes what they call radical gender ideology, noosome a Democrat. We should note is considered a future presidential candidate. In fact, his name has been tossed around as a replacement for Biden. Again, that's unlikely. That said, this is certainly something that would come up in a future campaign. And it comes as you're seeing this split between blue states and red states, since 2020 at least eight states, including Idaho, Tennessee, North Carolina, have passed laws of mandating that school staff inform parents about transgender students. Five states, including Florida, Arizona, Montana, encourage it, but don't require it. It all comes, Jill, as we're also watching a big legal case. And that's specifically regarding this, but regarding gender-affirming care, the Supreme Court's taking up a case this fall. We'll get a decision next spring, early summer, on the legality of banning gender-affirming surgery for kids. - Also from the Washington Post, President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks. It will reportedly include proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code. He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders. The announcement would mark a major shift for Biden, the former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls to reform the high court. The potential changes come in response to growing outrage among his supporters about recent ethics scandals surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas and decisions by the new court majority that have changed legal precedent on issues from abortion to federal regulatory powers. - So we should note at the outset here that many of the changes he's considering probably need congressional approval. And remember, Republicans control the House, Democrats control the Senate. He would need the trifecta in the next term. He would need to be reelected. The Dems have to keep a majority of the Senate and Dems would need to win the House for most of this to go down here, including term limits. Now, it all comes, as you mentioned, the Supreme Court has been ruling with a 6-3 conservative majority on a number of issues that have made Democrats very unhappy of late. That includes the ruling earlier this month that Trump was immune from prosecution for official acts during his first term in office. Apparently an hour after that decision, earlier this month, Biden called Lawrence Tribe. He's a constitutional law professor. You've probably seen him on TV. He's from Harvard Law School. And he was discussing the ruling arguments for reforming the court. So it appears here that Biden's turning over a new leaf feels that especially as there has been growing distrust, especially among liberals for the Supreme Court, that he would get some support here for these calls to change some aspects of the court. And Jill, now to our fun fact, how many democracies in the world give judges jobs for life? The answer is one, the United States of America. We're the only one that does not put any sort of age limit or term limit on judges. Even other countries that provide, quote unquote, life tenure for judges have age limits. That includes Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the UK. All judges there must retire by the age of 70. And US states on the state level, with the exception of Rhode Island, also have some form of age or term limit. It's our only our federal judges that have that issue. And Jill, we did a podcast earlier this year on the Monuse Interview podcast about the death of democracy, the concerns about democracy here in the US. And that was among the issues they brought up, which is like the US is the only country that allows judges on their for life. And now that we appoint some Supreme Court justices in their 40s, that can be 30 or 40 years, eventually more on the court these days. And maybe it's time to tweak that. - And Moshe, as an aside, I am still trying to now wrap my head around which countries besides the United States use Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. - Your clue is one of those countries was actually created by the US and Africa. Can you name it? - I know. - The answer is Liberia. Liberia uses Fahrenheit. - So it's just the US and Liberia? - And the Cayman Islands and I think Myanmar until recently. And so there you have it. That's Fahrenheit, Miles, the like. Everyone else has gone to Celsius. And there was actually a law in the US. We were all supposed to go to the metric in the 70s. Gerald Ford signed it. And nobody really abided by it. We didn't want to change. And so here we are. - It's more complicated Moshe, but we are sticking to Fahrenheit. We're going to use heat instead of meters. - Gerald has an amazing SNL sketch from the last couple of years that I like to share. We'll link to it in the show notes about, it shows revolutionary troops talking to George Washington about his vision for a new country. And he's laying out Fahrenheit. It's actually, it's amazingly done. Check it out in the show notes. - You know, why not start at zero? That makes way too much sense. - Why not have it? - You grew in some 10 in a hundred. Easily divisible. No, no, no. - Okay, from the New York Times, we told you yesterday about a report that former President Trump has been trying to get independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to support him. Well, a video of a phone conversation between the two was leaked Tuesday and it tells us more about what they discussed. The video was first posted early on Tuesday morning by Kennedy's oldest son, Bobby Kennedy III. And it was then swiftly deleted, but not before it went viral. The younger Kennedy, again, RFK III, said that he wanted to expose Trump's real opinion on vaccinations. The video does provide a glimpse of the private relationship between Trump and Kennedy who have long been friendly, although Trump has publicly criticized Kennedy during the campaigns. RFK Jr. apologized for the leaked video almost immediately on X, which was the same social media site where the video first appeared, care of his son on Tuesday morning. As for the video over Kennedy's speaker phone, you can hear Trump describing scientifically baseless concerns about vaccinations and issue Kennedy is closely associated with expressing disbelief at the volume of vaccinations given to infants. Take a listen. - And clearly, you've had something stronger that all since then. Yeah, but, you know, how does the doctors just like, come on, I said, I want to do small doses. Small doses. When you, when you see the many babbies, a vaccination that is like carrying different vaccines and it looks like it's been for, or it's not a, you know, 10,000 or 20-pound baby. It looks like you're giving, you should be giving on the horse system, and you do everything the size of it, right? You know, it's just massive. And then you see the baby, all of a sudden, starting to change radically. I've seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn't have an impact, right? But you and I talked about that a long time ago. Anyway, I would be, I would love you to just start. And I think it'll be so good for you and so big for you. And we're gonna win, we're gonna win, we're gonna win, we're gonna win. So you hear him there talk about vaccines and then get into the election. We told you yesterday, you know, that it was part of the conversation where Trump has been trying to get RFK Jr. to a dropout and endorse him. RFK Jr. refuses to do so. The vaccine conversation is interesting, especially since Kennedy and his organization that he co-founded, Children's Health Defense have for years promoted a variety of claims about health risks of childhood vaccines that have repeatedly been debunked and refuted by a variety of studies. You heard Trump say there, then you see the baby, all of a sudden started to change radically. I've seen it too many times. You and I have talked about that a long time ago. It's notable because Trump has tried to play it both ways. Remember, he was a huge advocate for the COVID vaccine. In fact, he wanted to call the COVID vaccine the Trump vaccine 'cause he was so proud of it. Operation Warp Speed, getting that vaccine done, only to then quickly realize that his base, his main party base among Republicans, mainly had become extremely skeptical, not only of the COVID vaccine, but of other vaccines. So you're hearing much less about that. In fact, you hear zero from him on the campaign stump these days, talking about his accomplishment with Operation Warp Speed. So it was an interesting little glimpse into their relationship. Trump's beliefs there. Trump and Kennedy met in person in Milwaukee earlier this week as well. That stirred rumors that Kennedy was dropping out. Again, despite Trump saying, "Hey, listen, I'm gonna beat this guy Biden big. He should come over to our team." Kennedy right now is still pursuing his run. He has between eight and 12% of the vote in a variety of states. Though he's only on the ballot in a handful of states right now. He's fighting right now legal, logistical and cost issues to try to get on the ballot in all 50 states. - Now to the heat for Maxios, heat waves meet heat islands as dangerously high temperatures hit much of the country this summer, a new analysis finds that urban heat islands significantly exacerbate extreme weather. A stifling widespread heat wave is bringing some of the hottest and most perilous temperatures of the summer to more than 40% of the US population this week. Urban heat islands, as they're called UHIs, are boosting temperatures within 65 major US cities. That's according to a recent climate central analysis. Nearly 34 million people live in environments where UHIs could raise temperatures by at least eight degrees Fahrenheit. Heat islands are urban hotspots with higher temperatures compared to the surrounding areas. And they are created when roads, buildings, parking lots, et cetera, trap heat. Often such neighborhoods which tend to be poorer, lack trees and plants that would otherwise help pool the area. - Or you just live in suburbia, the cement, the asphalt. Jill, a notable thing, darker colors, trap heat, lighter colors reflect heat. That's why you see a lot of white top buildings and hotter environments in the Mediterranean and other places. Several million people in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, for example, live in environments where UHIs, these urban heat islands, can amplify summer attempts by at least 10 degrees. That's according to one study. In cities with sprawling heat intensity like Houston, high UHIs index values also are spread across, you know, highly developed area where it's asphalt, and sidewalk, et cetera. There's a lot of strategies right now to combat the heat island effect. Of course, if you can get out to nature, that'll help. In fact, all of us should be walking on grass barefoot these days, Jill, to just deal with the stress of life. That said, cities are trying to deal with heat island effect. They've hired chief climate officers in a number of cities. Jill, I recently did some consulting work on the communication side for a company called Standard Industries. They own a company called GAF that has actually created a reflective paint that they're using across Arizona and Southern California that can lower the temperature where you're standing. So if you're in an area where the asphalt is painted with the specialty paint, it could be several degrees cooler standing on that paint as opposed to standing on the asphalt itself. - That's really important, especially given as we reported a few days ago, that there are exponentially more people getting pavement burns. Just because of how hot the pavement is. From the Associated Press, after a widely panned performance of the US National Anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby, Country Singer, Ingrid, Andress apologized Tuesday and said she was drunk. She wrote on Instagram, "I am checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need." That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, which is Major League Baseball, all the fans. And this country that I love so much for that rendition, the MLB not commenting on Monday night, the four-time Grammy nominee belted an acapella version of the Star Spangled Banner and some clips of her less than popular rendition at the Globe Life Field in Texas went viral. We apologize, but here is a bit of that performance. - Just give 30 seconds if you don't want to hear this. ♪ And the rocket's red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ That our flag was still there ♪ - Moshe, no comment. - Yeah, let's hope that Andress, who's 32, gets the help that she needs. She began her career as a Nashville songwriter. She then signed a deal with Warner Music, Atlantic Records, for her own music, releasing a couple albums. This isn't the first time a performance of National Anthem has been panned. People were joking, there's finally a worse rendition than Fergie's. Fergie gave an infamous edition of the 2018 NBA All-Star game and then going way back, there's Roseanne Barr's rendition at a San Diego Padres game back in the early '90s. - But Roseanne's, I feel like, was meant to be bad. - That's explainable, that's Roseanne. She doesn't have a singing voice. Fergie, you're like, wait, Fergalicious, this is the least Fergalicious Anthem of all time. And then, of course, so I think each of them have their own circumstance. - Right, and then for Andress, she is a professional singer. So if you were in that stadium-- - Like Grammy-nominated-- - Yeah, so if you were in that stadium, you were probably wondering what was going on. And like you said, hopefully she does get the help that she needs. (upbeat music) All right, now time for Andress Day in history, we begin, we've been talking about the heat. Let's begin in 1902, an American mechanical engineer named Willis Carrier, sound familiar, completed the drawings for what would become the first modern air conditioner. All right, Andress Day in 1918, the former Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. Fast forward to the 1980s now, on this day, President Reagan signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that effectively raised the drinking age to 21 in a number of states until then, it was 18. Joe, I remember my mom talking about how she had her first drink at a party, 18 years old, back in the 70s. - I mean, you could argue, you send people to war at 18, you can vote at 18, maybe you can have a drink at 18. I mean, I'm not advocating for it, but I think-- - No, you can see the argument. - You can see the argument at the same time, and they have cited the raising of the drinking age as one of the reasons that we've been able to cut down on traffic deaths in this country, and truck driving. All right, fast forward to 2014. On this day, 10 years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in separatist hell territory in Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board. An investigation would determine that the aircraft was shot down by Russian-made surface-to-air missiles. These are the rebel groups that the Russians have allied with as they've invaded Ukraine. The Russians continue to deny that they had anything to do with it. All right, a bit of pop culture history for you on this day in 1955, Disneyland wasn't veiled in a special live TV broadcast on ABC, and some music history on this day in 1981, turning 43 years old today. ♪ Running in the strangest ♪ ♪ Waiting ♪ - Journeys don't stop believing. It was part of the release of their album Escape, which also included the song "Open Arms." Now, "Don't Stop Believing" has become one of the biggest songs of all time. Joe, I don't think you can do karaoke without somebody trying to belt out a rendition of it. Jill, of course, is also known for the fact that it was the song played in the final episodes of "The Sopranos." And I understand you have Jamie Lynn Seacler coming up on a future edition of this podcast. - I do most. She and I went to high school together, actually. And she has recently been very outspoken about her MS diagnosis, and she has a new podcast. And so we're gonna bring her on and talk all things "Sopranos" and everything else and reminisce about Jericho High School. - Yes. - So I'm looking forward to that. - "The Long Island Life." Growing up, "Long Island," 1990s. I'm looking forward to it. - All right, that is a wrap for this podcast. - Wait, Jill, I got one more. On this day in 1995, turning 29 years old today, I only wanna be with you, Kara Pooty. - How could I miss a '90s hit song? - Jill, you skipped over it. - I mean, it went straight to say goodbye. You wanna end this podcast. It's okay, I'll let you end it now. - Okay, thank you guys. Appreciate everyone for listening to the "Monus" podcast. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. It will help us grow. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the app store. - The reviews make a difference, appreciate it. We also have a new conversation over on the "Monus" interview podcast today. Check it out. It is with Mickey Bergman. He is a behind the scenes hostage negotiator who helped get Brittany Griner out from Russia, out of Wambir from North Korea. He tells us behind the scenes what it's like talking to the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Russians, how it all works. I think you'll find it fascinating. Search right now if you don't already subscribe to the "Monus" interview podcast and listen to it when you got time. - All right, everyone, have a great Wednesday. - We're halfway there. - Oh. (laughing) - Thanks for listening to the "Monus" podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
