Connecting Disaster Survivors With Radio Waves

Coming up on today’s show:

• Darren Soto is a congressman representing Florida’s 9th district, which has the densest concentration of Puerto Rican residents anywhere in the mainland United States. He’s been outspoken in calling for a faster response to the crisis in Puerto Rico, and he joins The Takeaway today to explain his concerns.

• ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio is sending a group of volunteer ham radio operators to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to connect disaster survivors with family members. Mike Corey, emergency preparedness manager with the ARRL, National Association for Amateur Radio, has the details. 

• On Saturday, funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, otherwise known as CHIP, will expire. The issue was sidelined by Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, and some states could potentially run out of funding by December. Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, explains. 

• On Thursday the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a case that could deal blow to public sector unions. Adam Liptak, Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times, analyzes the case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

• Every Friday, Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday and The Takeaway, drops by to review the new releases hitting the box office. This week, Rafer reviews the drama “Victoria and Abdul,” the action flick “American Made,” and the new Netflix original, “Our Souls at Night.”

• Sunday is Free Speech Day in California, to mark the anniversary of the protest that became the genesis of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley in 1964. Lynne Hollander Savio was part of the Free Speech Movement when she was a student at Cal. She’s also the widow of Mario Savio, one of the leaders of the movement, and she reflects on the state of free speech on colleges campuses today.

• All this week, we’ve been examining how different segments of the American population approach patriotism following the NFL protests. One way to get perspective on one’s home country, though, is to leave it. For journalist Suzy Hansen, her wake up call to what American patriotism stood for was when she began to work as a journalist in Turkey.

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich.