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The World and Everything In It
11.11.25 School content and policy battles, border biometrics, end of the government shutdown, and beekeeping at the airport
00:37:19
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichard
Good morning.
- [00:07]
Religious liberty disputes continue in our public schools. We have an update on that and other cases. Also today, expanding biometric data collection. What's being done to prevent abuse?
- [00:18]
Our privacy laws are first and foremost for protection of US Citizens.
- [00:23]
Nick Eicher
Later, an airport nuisance becomes a fruitful mission.
- [00:26]
Kent Covington
When we started the program, we actually became at one point the largest apiary program entirely on an airport property.
- [00:34]
Nick Eicher
And a reminder the joy of learning may not always be so enjoyable. Commentary from Maria Baer.
- [00:47]
Mary Reichard
It's Veterans Day, November 11th. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichard.
- [00:54]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.
- [00:58]
Mary Reichard
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.
- [01:02]
Kent Covington
The government shutdown finally appears to be nearing an end. The Senate took its final vote last night on a spending package that would fund the government through January. On this vote, the ayes are 60, the nays are 40.
- [01:14]
Benjamin Eicher
The bill, as amended, is passed.
- [01:17]
Kent Covington
That sends the amended legislation back to the House for approval. And hours earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would be ready to move quickly on a vote to reopen the government. With the House in recess, he urged members to get a head start and begin returning to Washington immediately.
- [01:33]
Nick Eicher
At the very moment that they do.
- [01:35]
Benjamin Eicher
That final vote, I will call all.
- [01:37]
Mary Reichard
House members to return to Washington as quickly as possible. We'll give a 36 hour formal and official notice so that we can vote as soon as possible.
- [01:47]
Kent Covington
Until this past Sunday, nearly all Senate Democrats had said they would not agree to reopen the government until Republicans agreed to extend Obamacare tax credits. But eight senators crossed the aisle to break a filibuster and move ahead with a stopgap funding package. Angus King was among them, technically not a Democrat, but the independent caucuses with the party and he explained the question.
- [02:10]
Mary Reichard
Was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the.
- [02:17]
Kent Covington
Extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was it would not produce that result. Those eight senators settled for a guarantee that the Senate will take up the matter and vote on it next month. During the longest ever government shutdown, air traffic controllers have been among those asked to work without paychecks for now. And President Trump says he's looking at possible $10,000 bonuses for those controllers who did not call out sick. And when asked where the money would come from, he responded, I don't know. I'll get it from someplace I'll get it from.
- [02:50]
Mary Reichard
I always get the money from someplace. Regardless, it doesn't matter. We did a lot of, I do.
- [02:54]
Benjamin Eicher
A lot of bonus bonuses for people.
- [02:55]
Mary Reichard
Because it's really something that it's like the American way when you think about it.
- [03:00]
Kent Covington
Thousands of flights have been canceled each day for the past several days, with thousands more delayed. That followed the FAA's order to reduce the number of flights to ensure safety due to staffing shortages in air traffic control towers tied to the government shutdown. The Supreme Court has rejected a new challenge to its 2015 decision legalizing same sex marriage. World's Benjamin Eicher has more.
- [03:24]
Benjamin Eicher
The justices on Monday declined to hear an appeal from former Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis without giving any explanation. Davis made headlines in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples after the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. She was jailed for five days and later ordered to pay $100,000 in damages. In her latest petition, Davis asked the court to overturn the judgment against her, refund roughly $260,000 in legal fees and to revisit the Obergefell decision itself. While many conservatives have urged the justices to reconsider that precedent, the high court's refusal leaves that 2015 ruling firmly in place for now.
- [04:10]
Kent Covington
For World I'm Benjamin Eicher, President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, serving as an unofficial special envoy, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, spokeswoman for the Prime Minister Shosh Bhadrashin said. They discussed phase one of Israel's ceasefire.
- [04:26]
Mary Reichard
With Hamas, which we are currently still in, to bring our remaining hostages, and the future of phase two of this plan, which includes the disarming of Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza and ensuring Hamas will have no role in the future of Gaza ever again.
- [04:42]
Kent Covington
Meantime, along the country's northern border with Lebanon, Israeli tanks were once again on the move. Israel is pushing Lebanon's army to be more aggressive in disarming the Hezbollah terror group inside its borders. The Food and Drug Administration says it will remove a long standing warning label from hormone based drugs used to treat menopause symptoms in women. For more than 20 years, the drugs have carried the FDA's most severe warning label. But FDA Commissioner Marty Makari and some other doctors have long criticized the current warning as outdated and unnecessary, Makari said. Not only are such treatments generally not harmful by a large body of evidence.
- [05:24]
Mary Reichard
There are now recognized to be profound long term health benefits that few people even physicians know about.
- [05:32]
Kent Covington
There are still some experts, however, that maintain that the warning label carries important information about actual risks. Federal authorities have arrested a man after he allegedly opened fire on Border Patrol agents in Chicago over the weekend officials say the suspect, reportedly a Mexican national, pulled up in a black Jeep in the city's Little Village neighborhood and fired several shots before speeding away. No one was hurt. Investigators recovered shell casings and surveillance video from the scene. CBP Chief Patrol Agent Greg Bevino called out Illinois's governor and Chicago's mayor following the arrest.
- [06:07]
Mary Reichard
This individual should have never been walking the streets of Chicago.
- [06:10]
Nick Eicher
This is what you get with a.
- [06:12]
Mary Reichard
JB Pritzer or a Mayor Johnson and that crazy rhetoric.
- [06:18]
Kent Covington
This individual should not have been in this country. He said the suspect is an illegal alien who had a prior felony conviction for firearms. The Department of Homeland Security also says four federal vehicles were rammed during weekend operations and warns that attacks on ICE and Border Patrol agents are up more than 1,000% since January. I'm Kent Covington. And straight ahead, a conversation with world's Steve west about a handful of religious liberty cases, plus how the Pittsburgh airport took care of a recurring pesky flight delay. This is the world and everything in it.
- [07:07]
Mary Reichard
It's Tuesday, the 11th of Novemb. This is World Radio. We're so glad you've joined us today. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichardt.
- [07:14]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. First up, legal disputes over religious liberty, parental rights and gender identity. Joining us now, Steve West. He's an attorney who writes about religious liberty issues for world.
- [07:27]
Mary Reichard
Steve, good morning.
- [07:28]
Benjamin Eicher
Good morning, Mary.
- [07:30]
Mary Reichard
Well, let's begin in Chicago where the Moody Bible Institute is suing the Chicago Board of Education because the school district won't let Moody Education students participate in its student teacher program. Now that's a big deal because the program gives future teachers classroom experience and Illinois does require completion of that program to get certified to teach. So what's going on there?
- [07:53]
Benjamin Eicher
Well, the board excluded Moody and its nearly 2,300 students because the school follows biblical beliefs on human sexuality and marriage. And that's at odds with Chicago public school policy prohibiting what they call discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Moody says hiring people aligned with its religious beliefs is essential to forming its faith community and to advance its ministerial mission. In other words, to be able to live out the community's Christian faith. And it points out that the school system already struggles to fill hundreds of teaching positions each year.
- [08:27]
Mary Reichard
You know, hasn't the Supreme Court already addressed this? I'm thinking of cases like Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza Carson. Those decisions clearly said government cannot exclude faith based organizations in things like tuition assistance and playgrounds. So why isn't this resolved by now?
- [08:43]
Benjamin Eicher
It really should be solved by now. But there are holdouts who can't quite accommodate themselves to the fact that what they call non discrimination is really religious discrimination. The principle from those Supreme Court cases is common sense and fair. If you're going to offer a governmental benefit, you can't exclude some individuals or organizations simply because they have religious beliefs you don't agree with. Because the Chicago public school system is one of the largest in the country, what happens here will impact smaller school districts around the country.
- [09:13]
Mary Reichard
Well, moving now to California, this is another public school story. 2 Christian Middle School teachers sued over California's very secretive gender transition policies, and it's now a class action lawsuit. Steve, remind us of the details.
- [09:27]
Benjamin Eicher
Well, it's really about secrecy versus transparency, and it's not a news story, but one that's popped up all over the country. The lawsuit challenges a California school district policy that requires teachers to use new names or pronouns for students engaging in a social transition. But teachers can't tell parents about this transition unless the student permits it. Instead, they're instructed to conceal the transition if parents ask and to merely say that the, quote, inquiry is outside of the scope of the intent of their interaction. I mean, who talks like that anyway?
- [09:59]
Mary Reichard
Not to mention everybody in the school knows it. Well, as I recall, these two teachers sought religious accommodation, and the school did allow them to call students by name instead of chosen pronouns during the school day. But they. They still couldn't tell parents the truth. So this really is a fight over the authority of parents versus the autonomy of a school district. Steve, what's next for this case?
- [10:22]
Benjamin Eicher
There's a hearing on the teacher's motion for summary judgment on November 17th. And so the judge grants that motion. And there's a good chance he will since he's already ruled once in their favor. That could end the case, and that would impact over 5 million students and 300,000 California public school teachers. Nevertheless, it's an issue that likely won't go away until the Supreme Court takes a case involving the issue. And in the last year, it's twice declined to rule on cases that brought up the issue, with Justice Samuel Alito calling it an issue of, quote, great and growing national importance. But there's others percolating in the lower courts.
- [10:58]
Mary Reichard
Okay, just one more story to touch on this morning. Steve, this one's different from the other two. Jews and Christians in the San Diego area have sued an anti Semitic group that has disrupted worship services. What's caught your att about this story?
- [11:12]
Benjamin Eicher
Well, I think the first thing is just the visceral reaction any of us would have to what occurred here. I mean, these weren't just people protesting against the church and against the Jewish and Christian interfaith group that filed the lawsuit. They entered worship services, shouted obscenities we can't repeat here, refused to leave, and blocked exits. One woman attempting to leave the scene in her own car was accosted by a man who jumped on the hood of her car and beat on her windshield.
- [11:38]
Mary Reichard
Well, that sounds like a matter for the police.
- [11:41]
Benjamin Eicher
It is. But what's also interesting is that a claim is also brought under a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act, or the FACE act, as you might gather from the title. It's historically been used to prosecute pro life advocates accused of blocking abortion center entrances and intimidating women employees who seek to enter. But it also bars the same kind of intimidation, harassment or blocking of entrances at places of worship. I don't think most people know that. In fact, before this case I had not recalled that. So it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
- [12:16]
Mary Reichard
To learn more about each of these stories or to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter called Liberties, just visit wng.org Steve west, always good to have you on. Thanks so much.
- [12:27]
Benjamin Eicher
Thank you, Mary.
- [12:33]
Nick Eicher
Coming up next on the World and everything in it Biometrics and Borders Europe is launching a new security system that scans faces and fingerprints from non citizens at all of its border crossings.
- [12:46]
Mary Reichard
The US Is close to completing a similar program. The US Customs and Border Protection says it's finalizing its biometric exit program in the works for nearly 25 years. Why are governments updating their systems now and do travelers have a reason to worry about how their data is used? World's Mary Muncie reports.
- [13:06]
Mary Muncie
On October 12, the first EU airports started using their new biometric data collection kiosks.
- [13:13]
Mary Reichard
New rules are coming for non EU citizens traveling to the eu.
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Mary Muncie
The EU Council shared this informational video on Instagram.
- [13:20]
Mary Reichard
It replaces the old passport stamping with.
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A fast and safe digital check in. The new system will help police and border guards track who comes in and.
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Out of the the Schengen area and spot overstays.
- [13:32]
Mary Muncie
The Schengen area includes most European countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland and allows passport free travel within the zone. The kiosks collect a traveler's photo and fingerprints and ask a few questions. Border agents still stamp passports for now, but the government is planning on phasing that out by April. The EU has been working towards implementing this system since 2017 when the block recorded the most terrorist attacks in the last 15 years. About half of those arrested on suspicion of planning an attack were non citizens.
- [14:10]
Mary Reichard
The governments of Europe very much want to bring their system into the 21st century.
- [14:17]
Mary Muncie
Jessica Vaughan is the director of Policy Studies at the center for Immigration Studies.
- [14:21]
Mary Reichard
There have been too many bad actors who have been able to exploit weak immigration controls and carry out terrorist attacks, organized crime, or even simply abuse immigration laws.
- [14:39]
Mary Muncie
The EU is not the only one leveraging the technology. The US started collecting biometric data upon entry after 911 and last month the Department of Homeland Security issued an order to implement exit tracking at every crossing by December 26th. Now, as a traveler boards an airplane out of the US or approaches a land border, they'll find a camera or a border agent taking photos of every person leaving the country. Citizens data is supposed to be deleted within 12 hours. Vaughn says the biometric data collection changes are happening now because the technology has progressed. But critics say these systems don't do enough to protect non citizens privacy.
- [15:24]
Mary Reichard
This system essentially entails mass surveillance of huge numbers of travelers.
- [15:31]
Mary Muncie
Novi Vavola is an associate professor of cybersecurity at the University of Luxembourg. What the governments do with the data varies. The EU says it will hold it in a Central database for 3 years, 5 years if a traveler overstays their visa.
- [15:48]
Mary Reichard
Overall, there are reasons to believe that there are risks to data protection because the data can be used for various purposes purposes not only for immigration purposes, but also for law enforcement and police authorities or even intelligence services may have access to the data.
- [16:05]
Mary Muncie
Vavila worries that law abiding travelers or asylum seekers are being surveilled without due cause. The system and rules are similar to the biometric border regulations that the US and Australia have had in place for years, with one big exception. The US keeps noncitizens data for much longer, up to 75 years.
- [16:28]
Mary Reichard
We don't always know if somebody's a person of concern when they enter the United States, and we may find out information later.
- [16:34]
Mary Muncie
Teresa Brown is a senior advisor at the Bipartisan Policy center and was the director of Immigration policy at the U.S. chamber of Commerce from 2001 to 2005.
- [16:44]
Mary Reichard
Our privacy laws are first and foremost for protection of US citizens privacy data.
- [16:50]
Mary Muncie
In contrast, Europe's privacy protections extend extend to non citizens, though they're not as strong.
- [16:56]
Mary Reichard
Europe starts from forbidden unless justified, while the US starts from allowed unless restricted.
- [17:05]
Mary Muncie
Gianclaudio Maggieri is an associate professor of law and technology at Leiden University. He says the difference in values is especially apparent in the private sector.
- [17:16]
Mary Reichard
The protection in the US Is a bit of a patchwork. I would say that the most advanced protection is the Illinois bipa, which is the toughest law but applies just to Illinois.
- [17:29]
Mary Muncie
The Biometric Information Privacy act requires companies to gain consent before collecting or storing biometric data. Some other states, like California and Texas, have similar laws, but as Of March, only 13 states have proposed or implemented privacy protections, and this leaves the door open for abuse. Within the past five years, Meta has settled lawsuits in Texas and Illinois over their use of biometric data, costing the company more than $2 billion combined. The lawsuits allege that Meta didn't get consent to collect users data for a now discontinued feature that used AI to find photos a user might be in. The Texas suit claimed that Meta sold that biometric data to third parties and didn't destroy it within a reasonable time. Maggiori says that biometric data in the hands of an unconstrained government could be worse than data going to a third party company.
- [18:32]
Benjamin Eicher
The general problem with biometrics is that we usually don't choose our biometrics.
- [18:38]
Mary Reichard
We cannot change them. They follow us everywhere.
- [18:41]
Mary Muncie
If your data is connected to something the government deems a concern, it would be hard to correct the issue. Malgiari says that this should add an extra layer of pressure on governments and companies to use that data properly and keep it secure. Cybersecurity professor Niovi Vavula says she's going to be watching the EU rollout over the next few months. She wants to see exactly how the EU's plans to balance privacy and security take shape. In actuality, we will have to wait.
- [19:14]
Mary Reichard
And see how it plays out in terms of data, in terms of how individuals interact with the system and what problems they may have in the future in entering and exiting.
- [19:25]
Mary Muncie
Reporting for World, I'm Mary Muncie.
- [19:36]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Cedarville University, equipping students for professional excellence and gospel impact. Cedar from His Words Abiding in you, a Bible memorization podcast designed for truck drivers. His words Abiding in you on all podcast apps and from Asbury University's Honors program, where rigorous academics meet, deep thinking and spiritual growth. Asbury Eduardo.
- [20:16]
Mary Reichard
Up next, the deal to end the government shutdown. Eight Democrats joined Republicans to back a bipartisan plan to fund the government through the end of January. Sixty senators voted to move the deal forward, breaking a Democratic filibuster and sending it to the House and ultimately the president for approval.
- [20:35]
Nick Eicher
From World's Washington bureau, Carolina Lumeta reports.
- [20:39]
Benjamin Eicher
They say, oh, it's Red versus Blue.
- [20:41]
Mary Reichard
It's not. It's blue versus blue right now.
- [20:43]
Carolina Lumeta
Within hours of Senate Democrats agreeing to a deal to fund the government, media personalities like under the Desk News took to social media to call them out.
- [20:52]
Mary Reichard
The Democrats who made a 40 day shutdown completely worthless. Durbin, Rosen, Cortez, Masto, King, Kaine, Fetterman, Shaheen and Hassan.
- [21:01]
Carolina Lumeta
The test vote on Sunday night was over the same deal that Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered last month. It includes a new continuing resolution to fund the government through January, hold a future vote on enhanced health care subsidies and guarantee back pay for furloughed federal employees, but no new concessions for Democrats. Kate de Gruyter, a senior communications director with the centrist think tank Third Way, says the deal falls short of what Democrats have been demanding.
- [21:29]
Maria Baer
I think that the outcome that Democrats.
- [21:32]
Mary Muncie
Were seeking was we need to have something tangible for the American people about.
- [21:38]
Mary Reichard
How we are going to help address skyrocketing health care costs.
- [21:42]
Maria Baer
And right now this deal doesn't deliver.
- [21:45]
Mary Muncie
Anything on that priority.
- [21:47]
Carolina Lumeta
Since the start of the shutdown, Senate Democrats have said they would hold the line until they get an extension of the expiring subsidies. But now some Democrats have backtracked. That's not a winning play for others in the caucus, including Wisconsin Senator Tammy.
- [22:01]
Mary Reichard
Baldwin, because I believe strongly that we need to both reopen the government and lower health care costs simultaneously. My concern is even if we do get 60 votes in the Senate on a vote in December, that we have no guarantee that the House will take up such a freestanding measure.
- [22:22]
Carolina Lumeta
Baldwin also opposed the CR extension. She says with open enrollment already in motion, many Americans could drop insurance coverage well before the issue is resolved in Congress. Meanwhile, members of the House are rushing back to Washington.
- [22:36]
Mary Reichard
To all my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats in the House, you need to begin right now.
- [22:41]
Benjamin Eicher
Returning to the Hill, we have to do this as quickly as possible.
- [22:44]
Carolina Lumeta
House Speaker Mike Johnson says the chamber could start considering the funding deal as early as Wednesday. Once the Rules Committee checks it out. The bill will need 218 votes to pass. Even if Democrats delay, the deal is all but guaranteed to land on President Trump's desk soon, meaning the Democrats could leave the historically long government shutdown with nothing. Colorado Senator Michael Bennett reckoned with this on the Senate floor yesterday.
- [23:10]
Mary Reichard
Apparently President Trump is going to get.
- [23:12]
Kent Covington
His way and those tax credits are.
- [23:17]
Mary Reichard
Not going to be extended by the majority.
- [23:21]
Carolina Lumeta
Once the CR passes, Congress will have just over two months to pass nine more appropriations bills, or else another shutdown awaits in February. Reporting for World I'm Carolina Lumeta in Washington.
- [23:50]
Nick Eicher
Messages in a bottle from World War I have turned up on a beach in Western Australia. Inside were two notes written in pencil from 1916 by Australian soldiers headed for Europe. Deb Brown's family found the bottle. The sound from ABC Australia.
- [24:07]
Mary Reichard
This poor darling had gone off not.
- [24:09]
Knowing what he was about to face.
- [24:11]
And he seemed quite chipper in the letter.
- [24:14]
Nick Eicher
Private Malcolm Neville would die on the front a year later. But surviving the war was shipmate William Harley, who also added a note. The finder of these messages in a bottle tracked down their descendants, like Harley's granddaughter, Ann Turner.
- [24:29]
Mary Reichard
And we just can't believe it.
- [24:30]
It really does feel like a miracle.
- [24:31]
Like our grandfather has reached out to us.
- [24:34]
Nick Eicher
A simple message in a bottle deliver. More than a century later, it's the world and everything in it.
- [24:56]
Mary Reichard
Today is Tuesday, November 11th. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I'm Mary Reigerd.
- [25:03]
Nick Eicher
And I'm Nick Eicher. Next up on THE WORLD and everything in it, a sweet solution to a sticky problem. Flights at airports get delayed for a host of reasons. Weather or technical problems, and sometimes very small problems.
- [25:18]
Mary Reichard
Turns out honeybees can cause delays. It happens when a hive lands on a jet and then won't leave. That's where pest control usually comes in. But an airport in Pennsylvania came up with a clever way to prevent these bee swarms on planes in the first place. World's Emma Eicher reports.
- [25:43]
Emma Eicher
Steve Rapacki holds a metal can with smoke billowing out of it, starting up the smoker. Here, the air smells like toasted pine shavings.
- [25:50]
Kent Covington
This is our safety harness when we go into the bees. So when you disturb bees, they can release an alarm pheromone, which can cause them to get a little aggravated. The smoke actually masks the alarm pheromone so that when we do open up a colony, it just calms them down, so to speak. So it's just like a jacket.
- [26:08]
Emma Eicher
Rapasky zips us both into thick jackets with netting around the face. He's been a beekeeper since he was four years old, helping his dad tend their own hives at home. How often have you been stung?
- [26:21]
Kent Covington
Not as often as I get asked that question.
- [26:24]
Emma Eicher
At the Pittsburgh International Air, there are airplanes and acres of tarmac. There are also millions of honeybees buzzing around fields of goldenrod and butterfly weed. The airport owns 8,800 acres and Rapasky is allowed to use 6,000 of them for his apiaries. He also Calls them bee yards, the more colloquial beekeeper term.
- [26:47]
Kent Covington
Every mile, mile and a half, there's a bee yard somewhere. And when they're tucked back in, like you wouldn't see, all these other yards are kind of kept out of sight, out of mind, doing what they do best, which is producing nectar and honey.
- [26:59]
Emma Eicher
It all began in 2012, when a swarm of honeybees landed on a Delta jet, causing a flight delay. A swarm begins when a queen bee leaves the hive to start a new colony, and about half the bees follow her. Sometimes the bees land when they're tired. Then they cluster around the queen and until scout bees find a new place to build a hive. The Pittsburgh airport used to get about a dozen swarms a year, and that's where Ripaski comes in.
- [27:27]
Kent Covington
And I was called in to remove the bees and relocate them. And over the next several years, we were catching swarms here and there, and I started inquiring about keeping bees on the property. And here we are.
- [27:43]
Emma Eicher
According to him, the solution to the bee swarm problem was simply to lean into it.
- [27:49]
Kent Covington
We have fewer swarms on the airfield now than we did prior to bees getting here, and you'd think it would be the opposite, where there's more bees on the outside, so you can get more swarms. But because we manage these colonies better, you're not getting those swarms on the airfield.
- [28:05]
Emma Eicher
Nowadays, the airport only gets one or two swarms a year. In 2015, Pittsburgh was the first city to start keeping bees on airport property to prevent swarms. Then, at least four other major cities followed. Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and St. Louis.
- [28:23]
Kent Covington
When we started the program, we actually became, at one point, we were the largest apiary programs entirely on an airport property.
- [28:31]
Emma Eicher
But it's a tricky undertaking. The job is mostly about just trying to keep the people bees alive, and that's pretty difficult.
- [28:39]
Kent Covington
Typically, we lose anywhere from 10 to 40% of our colonies. It's agriculture, and we're dealing with mother Nature. And you could only predict or do so much.
- [28:52]
Emma Eicher
Every day is a challenge, mostly with what Rapacki calls the four pesticides, poor nutrition, pathogens, and pests. Honeybees are vulnerable to all of them. Fortunately, the airport property is a safe haven with limited pesticide use and plenty of pollen from wildflowers. But even the best environment doesn't guarantee success.
- [29:16]
Kent Covington
We're fortunate out here. We have the space. The biggest thing is, year to year, what mother Nature is going to bring.
- [29:22]
Emma Eicher
When he's not tending the hives. Rapacki works at his own pest control Company for stinging insects.
- [29:28]
Kent Covington
Part of the agreement was if you allow me to keep bees here on the property, my services are available to the airport that when they do get swarms, I just come out and take.
- [29:36]
Emma Eicher
Care of them for a part time job. It keeps him busy with 150 colonies to look after. In this particular bee yard overlooking the Runway, there are at least 40 hives in wooden boxes. Rapacki opens a box to peer inside and the bees seem curious, buzzing around us. To get a good look, let me.
- [29:55]
Kent Covington
Smoke them and see if that gets them out.
- [29:59]
Emma Eicher
The sticky combs in the middle of the hive are packed with honey, but the outer cells are bare. The weather has a lot to do with how much honey a hive makes. And honey production is also a foreshadowing for winter food stores. A dry hive is a dead hive.
- [30:16]
Kent Covington
In a good year we might harvest anywhere between 2, 2 and 3 tons of honey out here. This year, not so much because it's been a dry year.
- [30:26]
Emma Eicher
That's the hard part about working in agriculture. It's unpredictable. So why do you like beekeeping so much?
- [30:35]
Kent Covington
Who said I like it? Keeping honeybees is kind of like playing a game that you'll never win, right? So there's so many different levels and every time you think you beat a level or find a shortcut, the bees kind of put you in your place and say, eh, nope, try again.
- [30:50]
Emma Eicher
And the advice he gives to amateur beekeepers applies to his job too.
- [30:54]
Kent Covington
What we tell people is your bees are going to die. They're going to die the first year, they're going to die the second year. They might even die the third, fourth and fifth year, but that's part of it.
- [31:02]
Emma Eicher
But Rapacki says God sustains his work for him. He's just glad to do his share, caring for a small part of creation.
- [31:11]
Kent Covington
We're just happy to provide a place for the bees to live. And we're happy that the airport allows us to have that place. I think it was Aristotle that said, in all things of nature, there's something of the marvelous.
- [31:23]
Emma Eicher
Reporting for World, I'm Emma Eicher in Pittsburgh.
- [31:39]
Nick Eicher
Today is Tuesday, November 11th. Good morning the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Nick Icker.
- [31:47]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reichardt. Finally today, World Opinions contributor Maria Baer says Harvard's undergraduate grade inflation defeats the purpose of education.
- [31:58]
Maria Baer
A couple years ago, my second grade daughter left me a note. She'd drawn two eyes, a nose and a mouth with angry eyebrows. A reverse smiley face and These words with no punctuation. I do not like what is happening. As many parents often must, I had to stifle a burst of laughter. It was such an earnest, understated description of a universal human experience. I wasn't even sure what it was referring to. But I eventually traced the note back in time to violin practice. Both my daughters have been studying the violin since they were five years old, respectively. It takes a long time to see progress, which makes motivating very young ones to practice even more difficult. But that is one of the primary reasons I want my girls to learn it. I'm starting to think that even more than playing the violin itself, this skill building a will to master an unforgiving challenge is going to distinguish them from their peers more and more as they grow. Consider, for example, a new report out of Harvard University. Grade inflation there has reached an absurd fever pitch. A full 60% of marks given to Harvard undergraduates are now A's. Harvard's dean of undergraduate education writes, our grading no longer performs its primary functions and is undermining our academic mission, end quote. Harvard, in other words, has officially entered its participation trophy era. In response, students at the Harvard Crimson published what can only be comprehended as unintentional self parody. A freshman named Sophie reported her very soul was crushed not by the implication that her grades, and by extension, her entire education are completely meaningless, but by the foreboding that professors might raise their standards. In response, another student named Katya said, quote, I was looking forward to being fulfilled by my studies rather than being killed by them, end quote. Their classmate Zara felt similarly worried that she won't be able to, quote, reach her maximum level of enjoyment if her schoolwork starts to be, like, hard quote if that standard is raised even more. It's unrealistic to assume that people will enjoy their classes, zara said. Zara, Katya, and Sophie do not like what is happening when my daughters don't want to practice the violin, I don't plead with them to try to enjoy it more, especially when the weight of what they have yet to learn is so much greater than what they've learned already. Instead, I tell them the truth, that learning is good by itself, that it is good despite and because of how hard it is. I don't know why or how young people are somehow achieving acceptance into Harvard University with the impression that the central purpose is to enjoy themselves. It shocks me that these students, supposedly the brightest minds in the country, literally cannot imagine that obtaining a degree in a subject ought to correspond to actually learning that subject. Proverbs 9 says that wisdom is as a woman who builds her house and then invites all who are simple to enter and learn. It's a brilliantly surgical metaphor. The only price for wisdom is number one, wanting it and number two admitting you don't have it yet. If young people are heading to Harvard with no appetite for wisdom, but rather to play lacrosse, join clubs and hunger strike from nine to five for Gaza ahead of bikini season, of course they'll bemoan whatever threatens to deflate that balloon. But as much as any of us can influence the culture around us, we should do our best to inoculate ourselves and our own kids from such a truly soul crushing worldview. We should remind ourselves that knowledge is valuable by itself, that difficult undertakings build character, and that comfort is a temptress who will make us dumber if we worship her. I'm Maria Barrett.
- [36:21]
Nick Eicher
Tomorrow, a full Washington Wednesday, we will talk about government shutdown winners and losers, also the constitutionality of the filibuster and presidential pardons. Hunter Baker joins us and helping moms to teach confidently the basics of the faith to their children. That and more tomorrow. I'm Nick Iker.
- [36:40]
Mary Reichard
And I'm Mary Reicher. 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 Apostle Paul wrote, since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his promises. Presence. Verses 13 and 14 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4 go now in grace and peace.