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Saturday Sports: College Basketball, Baseball Begins, NFL Pass Interference Rule

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We look at the season openings of Major League Baseball, the NCAA tournaments and all the latest sports news.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Going to take a deep breath because it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Spring has sprung. The flowers bloom but not in Chapel Hill this morning. Not only did UNC lose, but Duke won. NPR’s Tom Goldman joins us. Good morning, Tom.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hey there, Scott.

SIMON: Auburn, seeded five, defeated the No. 1 seeded Tar Heels, and they didn’t have to sweat too much either, did they?

GOLDMAN: They really didn’t. And No. 1 fan and former star and March Madness broadcaster Charles Barkley – that’s a lot of titles – gets happier and happier. Auburn need…

SIMON: He’s also bald, too. OK. But go ahead.

GOLDMAN: (Laughter) Four titles.

SIMON: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: Auburn was the lower seed (laughter), but they were the better team, surged pass the Tar Heels in the second half for a 97-80 win. But there is a lot of concerns, Scott, about the team’s best player. Forward Chuma Okeke – his knee buckled on a drive to the hoop in the second half. He had to be helped off. And it looks like a serious injury.

SIMON: And Duke won, but they barely held on against Virginia Tech.

GOLDMAN: Man, for a second straight game, Virginia Tech had a chance to tie at the end of regulation, missed a point-blank shot, I mean, from a foot. And Duke escaped – reminiscent of that second round game, a classic versus Central Florida. Remember that when Central Florida had two chances to win at the end, but the ball just would not go in?

Last night, Duke also had to deal with an injury issue. One of its star freshmen, Cam Reddish, didn’t play because of a sore knee. So Duke’s other super freshmen, including the superest (ph) of them all, Zion Williamson, did just enough to move this team to the Elite Eight versus Michigan State. Scott, I should say this Duke team may be a bunch of one-and-done players, you know, in college for a year before moving on to the pros, but they’re getting a college career’s worth of NCAA tournament experience.

SIMON: Over on the women’s side, UConn got a scare against UCLA, didn’t they?

GOLDMAN: Yeah, the Huskies did. UCLA’s a good team, and UConn held on for an 8-point win. You know, there was some surprise going into the tournament that UConn was only a 2 seed. UConn had been a 1 seed every year since 2006, but the Huskies haven’t looked as strong as this tournament’s No. 1s. Louisville, Mississippi State, Baylor, Notre Dame, those teams have – they’ve been cruising, winning easily by double digits each game – each of their games. You know, there’s no real March Madness in the women’s tournament – meaning major upsets in the women’s tournaments so far.

SIMON: Yes. March method it seems to be.

GOLDMAN: Right. Right. Exactly. But, you know, that just means the excitement comes in the later rounds when all of the best, the 1s and the 2s, get together and start to play each other.

SIMON: Major League Baseball started again this week on North American soil.

GOLDMAN: Yeah.

SIMON: Chicago Cubs are undefeated after two games. I’m willing to call it a season right now.

GOLDMAN: Sure, Scott. At 1-0, the Cubs already have a death lock on the NL Central division. Even though they’re tied with Cincinnati, no way the Reds keep up as Chicago builds to its inevitable 162-0 record this season, right?

SIMON: San Diego Padres might be for real this year – right? – not just moving to Montreal or Mexico, but they might be a real factor.

GOLDMAN: The Padres are off to their best start since 2011, and here’s what’s to like about them. A small market team that’s made it clear it wants to win now, which is not always the case with major league teams these days. In fact, it’s a real sore point between management and the union. The players say a number of teams aren’t spending enough on rosters. But they’re doing that in San Diego. They paid Manny Machado $300 million over 10 years. They want to win now, and the Padres should be fun to watch.

SIMON: NPR’s Tom Goldman, thanks so much.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Friday News Roundup – International

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So. Brexit. Will it happen?

Yesterday, members of Parliament voted down eight different options for Brexit — including a no-deal Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May also said she would resign once Parliament accepted a deal.

Will the members of Parliament and the European Union be able to agree on a deal? And if they don’t, and a hard Brexit happens, what could be the economic effects?

Facebook banned white nationalist and white separatist rhetoric this week, following a livestreamed massacre at two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques.

More details from Vice’s Motherboard:

Specifically, Facebook will now ban content that includes explicit praise, support, or representation of white nationalism or separatism. Phrases such as “I am a proud white nationalist” and “Immigration is tearing this country apart; white separatism is the only answer” will now be banned, according to the company. Implicit and coded white nationalism and white separatism will not be banned immediately, in part because the company said it’s harder to detect and remove.

Motherboard also learned that the social platform would “begin directing users who try to post content associated with those ideologies to a nonprofit that helps people leave hate groups.”

How will Facebook enforce this ban?

Ahead of the Israeli presidential election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at AIPAC. He’s experienced a boost from President Donald Trump recently, after Trump changed decades-old American foreign policy by recognizing the Israeli claim over the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu is embattled at home due to a sweeping federal investigation. The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief analyzed his position in the upcoming election this way:

Running as Israel’s indispensable man, Mr. Netanyahu argues that he is the only one who can keep Israel safe when Iran is making aggressive moves from nearly every direction. Because of him, he says, Israel’s tech sector has become the envy of much of the world, formerly hostile capitals have opened to Israeli diplomats, and a thorough debunking has been administered to the idea that Israel, with its brutal treatment of the Palestinians, had to choose between its security and international acceptance.

But on Thursday, the attorney general announced plans to indict Mr. Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He is accused of trading lucrative official favors for positive news coverage and gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including cigars, jewelry and pink Champagne.

With the corruption case hanging over his head and a stiff challenge from Benny Gantz, a retired army chief of staff whose security credentials rival Mr. Netanyahu’s, Israelis are starting to ask whether Israel can not only survive, but thrive, without the man who has come to dominate their national self-image.

What are Bibi’s chances to win the election?

And the fallout from a devastating cyclone in southern Africa continues. At least 460 people in Mozambique are confirmed dead, with the death toll expected to rise. In addition, the mayor of Beira, a city in Mozambique, said the government failed to warn the people in the hardest hit areas.

We’re wrapping up the busy week in international news.

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Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson On Medicaid Work Requirement

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NPR’s Rachel Martin talks with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson about a federal judge’s decision this week that blocked his state’s Medicaid work requirement rules.



RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Should some Medicaid recipients be required to work to get coverage? Some Republican leaders say yes, that the requirement encourages those who can work to find it. But this week, a federal judge said no. That means that Arkansas and Kentucky, two states that want to implement Medicaid work requirements – and in Arkansas, did – they have to stop or at least pause.

That’s a relief for people like Leland Moore (ph). He says he’s a Medicaid recipient in Arkansas whose benefits were in jeopardy because of the work requirement.

LELAND MOORE: I was required to work to keep my insurance – even though I was basically unable to work.

MARTIN: Moore is a former factory worker and says he hasn’t been able to work for seven years.

MOORE: I have arthrosis, asthma, spina bifida, acute exasperation (ph) COPD. When I was 41, I had a hip implant from arthrosis. I’m on 10 different medications.

MARTIN: Asa Hutchinson is the governor of Arkansas. He is a Republican, and he has urged the Trump administration to appeal this week’s ruling. And he joins us now.

Governor, thank you so much for being here.

ASA HUTCHINSON: I am glad to be with you today.

MARTIN: The judge in this case said your state’s work requirements undermine the very purpose of Medicaid, which is to give medical care to low-income people. What’s your response to that?

HUTCHINSON: Well, the judge’s ruling did away with our work requirement. And it’s called a work requirement, but it’s also called a community engagement, which requires somebody who is able-bodied to either work or to seek a job or to be in training or, if a job is unavailable, to volunteer for some community organization for 20 hours and to report that. That was the essence of our work requirement. The judge struck it down. And the gentleman who was on the program before me – sounds like he would qualify to be medically frail, which would be exempt from the work requirement automatically. And so…

MARTIN: He says he was kicked off the rolls and had to work through Legal Aid in order to restore his Medicaid benefits. I mean, is there a problem with the reporting process, which many people have said is really onerous? So even if you’d qualify for a medical exemption, it’s really hard to do that.

HUTCHINSON: It could be. It could be that his issue was that he simply failed to report or to identify himself as medically frail. And so the judge did not reach, in his decision, the issue of whether the reporting required – requirement was too onerous or not. And of course, to report your work, you can use a telephone, you can do it in person, you can do it by online portal – many different ways. And we try to provide as much assistance as possible for those to have the help that they needed to comply with that reporting requirement.

He didn’t even reach the reporting requirement because the judge fundamentally disagreed that any aspect of Medicaid cannot include any work requirement that might result in someone losing coverage. Well…

MARTIN: So why do you think that’s wrong? I mean, why do you think this work requirement is necessary for someone who is already hurting because life has thrown a bunch of stuff at them and the only way they can get coverage is through Medicaid? So they’re already struggling, and then this makes it harder for them.

HUTCHINSON: Well, again, these are able-bodied individuals that we’re speaking of. That’s part of the criteria. This is not the Medicaid for the disabled that we’re speaking of a work requirement. It is – this is the expanded Medicaid. And the whole purpose of the Affordable Care Act and the expanded Medicaid was to help people get to work. So work is a fundamental part of that expanded Medicaid program. The judge based his decision on the original Medicaid Act, that the purpose is all health care and there’s not any responsibility that goes with it. It is…

MARTIN: Although we should just point out, the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare did not include a work requirement.

HUTCHINSON: That’s true. That’s why we have a waiver, which is a demonstration project, and permission to see how this works in a state like Arkansas. We asked for flexibility to implement the program. And the judge says you have no flexibility. The judge says it’s an entitlement program that you cannot put additional requirements on that might lead to a loss of coverage. So what that means for us is that we have to go back to a voluntary referral with no consequence to it, which is what our previous waiver was.

And here in Arkansas, because we had it mandatory and there was a consequence to losing it, we moved over 11,000 – actually, over 12,000 people from dependency into work where they had employment and they were able to move off of coverage. That is what our goal is – is not to – we want them to have the health care coverage. We want them and we help them to comply. But we also want to help them to get to work and to show them where the path is so that they can have an income. Now, this is…

MARTIN: Let me ask – sorry to interrupt you. Just with seconds remaining – what does happen now? I mean, first of all, with any appeal, and secondly, with the people who were kicked off rolls because of the work requirement. Can they get back on now during this stay?

HUTCHINSON: Absolutely. Well, first of all, they could have got back on even before the judge’s ruling because under our Medicaid work requirement program, you had a – if you failed to comply, you lost your coverage last year, but you can re-enroll this year. Eighteen thousand lost their coverage last year. Only 2,000 have re-enrolled this year, but all of them can re-enroll.

Now with the judge’s decision – of course, we’re not going to be removing anybody from the roll; the judge has prohibited us from doing that. We are going to appeal the decision because we believe in the fundamental principle of a work requirement, a community engagement requirement. And we’re going to ask a higher court to review that and ask the Justice Department to handle that.

MARTIN: Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas.

Governor, thank you very much for your time.

HUTCHINSON: Great to be with you.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Federal Judge Again Blocks States' Work Requirements For Medicaid

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Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, speaking to state legislators in 2018. Bevin, who is running for re-election this fall, asked the federal government to impose work requirements on many people who receive Medicaid. Bevin’s predecessor, a Democrat, did not seek these requirements when he expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act.

Timothy D. Easley/AP


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Timothy D. Easley/AP

For a second time in nine months, the same federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s plan to force some Medicaid recipients to work to maintain benefits.

The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocks Kentucky from implementing the work requirements and Arkansas from continuing its program. More than 18,000 Arkansas enrollees have lost Medicaid coverage since the state began the mandate last summer.

Boasberg said that the approval of work requirements by the Department of Health and Human Services “is arbitrary and capricious because it did not address … how the project would implicate the ‘core’ objective of Medicaid: the provision of medical coverage to the needy.”

The decision could have repercussions nationally. The Trump administration has approved a total of eight states for work requirements, and seven more states are pending.

Still, health experts say it’s likely the decision won’t stop the administration or conservative states from moving forward. Many predict the issue will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, has threatened to scrap the Medicaid expansion unless his state is allowed to proceed with the new rules; if he follows through with that threat, more than 400,000 new enrollees would lose their health coverage. He said the work requirement would help move some adults off the program so the state has enough money to help other enrollees.

Bevin, who is running for re-election this fall, had threatened to end the Medicaid expansion during his last campaign but backed off that pledge after his victory.

Arkansas officials have not said what they plan to do.

In his decision on Kentucky, Boasberg criticized HHS officials for approving the state’s second effort to institute work requirements partly because Bevin threatened to end the Medicaid expansion without it.

Under this reasoning, the judge said, states could threaten to end their expansion or do away with Medicaid “if the Secretary does not approve whatever waiver of whatever Medicaid requirements they wish to obtain. The Secretary could then always approve those waivers, no matter how few people remain on Medicaid thereafter because any waiver would be coverage-promoting, compared to a world in which the state offers no coverage at all.”

The decision by federal officials in 2018 to link work or other activities such as schooling or caregiving to eligibility for benefits is a historic change for Medicaid, which is designed to provide safety-net care for low-income individuals.

Top Trump administration officials have promoted work requirements, saying they incentivize beneficiaries to lead healthier lives. Democrats and advocates for the poor decry the effort as a way to curtail enrollment in the state-federal health insurance entitlement program that covers 72 million Americans.

Despite the full-court press by conservatives, most Medicaid enrollees already work, are seeking work or go to school or care for a loved one, studies show.

Critics of the work policy hailed the latest ruling, which many expected since Boasberg last June stopped Kentucky from moving ahead with an earlier plan for work requirements. The judge then also blasted HHS Secretary Alex Azar for failing to adequately consider the effects the policy.

“This is a historic decision and a major victory for Medicaid beneficiaries,” said Joan Alker, executive director for the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “The message to other states considering work requirements is clear — they are not compatible with the objectives of the Medicaid program.”

Sally Pipes, president of the conservative San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute, called the ruling “a major blow” to the Trump administration but said this won’t end its efforts.

“The Department of Health and Human Services is very committed to work requirements under Medicaid,” Pipes said.

“It is my feeling that those who are on Medicaid who are capable of working should be required to work, volunteer, or take classes to help them become qualified to work,” she added. “Then there will be more funding available for those who truly need the program and less pressure on state budgets.”

Several states, including Virginia and Kentucky, have used the prospect of work rules to build support among conservatives to support Medicaid expansion, which was one of the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. That expansion has added more than 15 million adults to the program since 2014.

Previously the program mainly covered children, parents and the disabled.

Particularly irksome to advocates for the poor: Some states, including Alabama, which didn’t expand Medicaid, are seeking work requirements in the traditional Medicaid program for parents who have incomes as low as $4,000 a year.

The legal battle centers on two issues — whether the requirements are permissible under the Medicaid program and whether the administration overstepped its authority on allowing states to test new ways of operating the program.

Alker said that state requests for Medicare waivers in the past have involved experiments that would expand coverage or make the program more efficient. The work requirements mark the first time a waiver explicitly let states reduce the number of people covered by the program.

States such as Kentucky have predicted its new work requirement would lead to tens of thousands of enrollees losing Medicaid benefits, though states argued some of them would get coverage from new jobs.

Under the work requirements — which vary among the states in terms of what age groups are exempt and how many hours are required — enrollees generally have to prove they have a job, go to school or are volunteers. There are exceptions for people who are ill or taking care of a family member.

In Arkansas, thousands of adults failed to tell the state their work status for three consecutive months, which led to disenrollment. For the first several months last year, Arkansas allowed Medicaid recipients to report their work hours only online. Advocates for the poor said the state’s website was confusing to navigate, particularly for people with limited computer skills.

While the administration said it wanted to test the work requirements, none of the states that have been cleared to begin have a plan to track whether enrollees find jobs or improve their health — the key goals of the program, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

Craig Wilson, director of health policy at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a nonpartisan health research group, said he believes policymakers will appeal court rulings all the way to the Supreme Court.

“As long as they hold on to hope that some judge will rule in their favor, states will continue to pursue work requirements,” Wilson said.

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service and editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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