2018
June
07
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 07, 2018
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Yvonne Zipp
Features Editor

Tuesday’s primaries brought more than political signposts for November’s midterm elections. In two races, thousands of miles apart, voters also once again showed their power to remove officials for behavior they consider unfit for public office.

In California, voters recalled Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Stanford student Brock Turner to six months in jail in 2016 for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. At the time, Judge Persky said he was concerned “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on Mr. Turner. He did not mention the young woman, known as Emily Doe, at all. It was the first time in 80 years that Californians voted to recall a judge. This is and should remain a rare tactic, but leaders of the recall effort say Persky demonstrated a pattern of leniency toward those who abused and assaulted women.

In Alabama, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin, who admitted to pocketing $750,000 intended to feed inmates in the jail he oversaw, was voted out of a job. Alabama law allows sheriffs to keep any taxpayer dollars left over from their intended purposes. Mr. Entrekin is one of 49 sheriffs accused of abusing the law in a civil rights suit brought by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the Southern Center for Human Rights. They also argue that it creates a “perverse incentive” for sheriffs to spend as little as possible to feed the inmates in their care.

Both are indicators that voters can take a stand – and that when it comes to demanding principled behavior of elected officials, every vote matters.

Now here are our stories of the day, including the latest astrobiological detective work from the Red Planet and a staple of summer whose place is being reconsidered.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Breakthroughs

Ideas that drive change

One of the biggest mysteries of the universe is whether life may be possible beyond our home planet. Two announcements from NASA today represent major steps forward in cracking that case.

If unverified information is linked to government investigations or other actions, should the media be allowed to publish it? A critical libel suit involving the "Trump dossier" and allegations about hacking of Democratic emails tests that premise. (P.S. Read to the bottom of the article if you’d like to see an example of journalism’s fair report privilege in action.)

Khalil Hamra/AP
Yahya Sinwar (c., in blue shirt), Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, was joined by protesters April 20 at the border with Israel.

On both sides of the Mideast conflict, the hard-line viewpoint appears to be the future of politics – in contrast to compromise and a two-state solution. Yesterday, we profiled Benjamin Netanyahu's heir apparent, who does not believe in a Palestinian state. Today, we look at a son of refugees who emerged from 22 years in prison committed to Israel's destruction.

Lack of consent is increasingly seen as a core element of rape. But less than a third of European countries have made it law, despite high-profile cases around the issue. Why is change so slow going?

Erik De Castro/Reuters
Police collect trash in the waters off the beach at the holiday island of Boracay in the Philippines. Nearly 8 million metric tons of plastic enters the oceans from land every year.

When it comes to pollution, it can be difficult to imagine how any one individual's efforts can make a difference. But in the case of disposable plastics, activists insist that every choice carries weight.


The Monitor's View

AP Photo
Famous investor Warren Buffett (l) and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon are encouraging public companies to stop predicting their quarterly earnings and focus on long-term goals, part of a broader plea from the Business Roundtable.

In a June 7 statement, nearly 200 chief executives of major American firms put out a special plea through a group called the Business Roundtable. In essence, these titans of industry and finance gave their support to companies that are patient in growing their underlying value rather than continually panicked about producing quick results.

Specifically, they suggested executives not provide stock analysts with “guidance” every three months about expectations for the company’s earnings and instead think more about the families and others who invest for retirement and expect profits over decades.

“Public companies should be managed for long-term prosperity, not to meet the latest forecast,” the statement said. “Such short-termism is unhealthy for America’s public companies and financial markets – which are critical to economic growth and financial prosperity.”

One “unhealthy” aspect of so-called quarterly capitalism is that executives sometimes distort or even lie about their company’s activities. They neglect investments in research or employee training. They don’t take the time to recruit top talent or create a consensus among all stakeholders about long-term goals.

The practice of offering earnings guidance really took off two decades ago. But as its downsides have become better known through studies, more companies have moved away from it. Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, says only about 20 percent of Business Roundtable members still do quarterly guidance while about 60 percent now provide annual targets. The rest do something in-between.

A recent study of about 600 firms by the McKinsey Global Institute found that 73 percent of public companies are short-termist. Firms that are long-termist saw profits that were 36 percent higher between 2001 and 2014.

Investors are often told to be patient about a company’s stock, focusing more on fundamentals like innovative research than a stock’s volatility or temporary disruptions in a market. Now that virtue is being touted by America’s business elite. “Patient capitalism” is difficult to measure or put in a financial report. Yet here’s a tip from some of the most successful companies: It works.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

For today’s contributor, who had a passion for dance, limitations fell away as she came to understand God as the source of limitless good.


A message of love

Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend his annual call-in show in Moscow June 7. It would last about 4-1/2 hours and cover topics ranging from succession (he said he is 'always thinking' about who will follow him when his term ends) to Russia's plan not to ban Facebook or Instagram. Mr. Putin hosts call-in shows every year. They provide a platform for Russians to appeal to the president on issues ranging from foreign policy to utilities.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks so much for joining us! Come back tomorrow. We're working on a story about why natural disasters often hit poor communities hardest – as in Guatemala – highlighting the difficulty of securing safe, legal land.

More issues

2018
June
07
Thursday

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