AIRLINES INDUSTRY - The Not So Friendly Skys

"How did United Airlines' startling passenger confrontation happen?" PBS NewsHour 4/11/2017

NOTE:  There was a policy change announced a few days later.  Employees needing to board a flight must show up 60 minutes BEFORE the flight, therefore they would be seated prior to other passengers boarding.  Not that is an excellent fix.

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SUMMARY:  The forced removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight Sunday has caused an international uproar.  Video posted via social media showed passenger Dr. David Dao being dragged from his seat by officers.  How could this have happened?  Ben Mutzabaugh of USA Today joins Jeffrey Brown to discuss what airlines are allowed to do and what United could have done differently.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The international uproar continued over the forced removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight.

Today, the airline's CEO, Oscar Munoz, issued an apology, saying — quote — “No one should ever be mistreated this way.  I want you to know that we take full responsibility, and we will work to make it right.”

Along with the outrage, many were asking, how could this happen?

Our Jeffrey Brown picks up the story.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Well, by now, the video has been watched hundreds of millions of times, including more than 270 million on social media in China, where many wondered if the passenger had been singled out because he is of Asian descent.

The cell phone video shows a bloodied man identified as Dr. David Dao being pulled from his seat on a plane set to depart from Chicago on Sunday night.  The flight was sold out, and passengers were first offered vouchers to take another flight, so members of a United crew could board.  When that didn't work, Dao and three other passengers were asked to leave.

Questions remain about what happened, and what's supposed to happen in a situation like this.

Ben Mutzabaugh is covering it for USA Today, and joins me now.

And welcome to you.

BEN MUTZABAUGH, USA Today:  Thanks for having me.

JEFFREY BROWN:  One thing that was clarified today was that the flight was actually not overbooked, but oversold, right, sold out?

BEN MUTZABAUGH:  Right.  That's correct.

So, it won't move the needle a whole lot, given the video that we saw, but what technically happened was, the plane was full.  United had four employees of their affiliate Republic Airlines that needed to make it to Louisville so more flights didn't end up getting canceled down the line.

They had to make space for them.  They needed four volunteers.  Three were OK with being voluntarily kicked off the plane.  One wasn't, and here we are.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT - Dissent in the Ranks

"State Department officials push for military intervention in Syria" PBS NewsHour 6/17/2016

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SUMMARY:  The question of how to end the devastating five-year Syrian Civil War has split the United States foreign service.  Recently, a group of State Department officials signed an internal memo protesting U.S. policy in Syria and calling for military intervention to destroy the Islamic State and force the Assad regime into peace negotiations.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  How do you end the war in Syria?  It is a question that has plagued world leaders since the start of the devastating civil conflict there.

Today, we learned more about the extent of disagreement inside the U.S. State Department about the course set by President Obama.

Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  For five years, the savage Syria conflict has killed some 400,000 and put millions more to flight.

Now 51 mid-level diplomatic officials have gone on record advocating a dramatic shift in U.S. strategy.  They have signed an internal so-called dissent letter, calling for targeted military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The dissenters argue it would help bring Assad to the negotiating table and deal a major blow to ISIS.  The document remains secret, but Andrew Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is familiar with the document's contents.

ANDREW TABLER, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy:  If the Assad regime violates the cessation of hostilities and uses it to further its position on the battlefield, in such cases, military force could be used.  Second, if humanitarian assistance is not provided or is impeded in some way, military force could be used.

MARGARET WARNER:  In Copenhagen today, Secretary of State John Kerry said he had not yet seen the memo, but welcomed it.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State:  I think it's an important statement, and I respect the process very, very much, and I will probably meet with people or have a chance to talk with them when we get back.

MARGARET WARNER:  The memo came through a channel created for State Department employees to register policy disagreements without retaliation.  When conflict first broke out in 2011, President Obama called for ousting Assad.  And in 2012, he threatened military action.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  A red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.  That would change my calculus.

MARGARET WARNER:  But after a regime chemical attack killed more than 1,000 Syrians in August 2013, the President didn't launch military strikes, nor step up arming the Syrian rebels.

More recently, he's launched U.S. airstrikes in Syria, but only against ISIS.  Instead, Russia intervened last fall on Assad's behalf, bolstering him.  Today, Russian air attacks hit anti-Assad rebels battling is in Southern Syria.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin warned today any U.S. move targeting Assad's forces would plunge the region into total chaos.

Andrew Tabler's response?

ANDREW TABLER:  If you look at this, over time, whether it's the United States and the threat of use of military force in 2013 or Israel's continued use of strikes inside of Syria, this is something that the Assad regime is known to respond to.

MARGARET WARNER:  All of this comes as a February cease-fire has largely dissolved.  It did let humanitarian aid reach some Syrian communities, but others remain cut off by Assad loyalists.  And peace talks backed by Secretary of State Kerry and the Russians have shown no progress.

An August 1 deadline for a political transition won't be met.  Plans now are only to resume talks then.

MILITARY TRANSITION - Transgender Soldiers

"Transgender soldiers gain ground as U.S. military transitions" PBS NewsHour 5/11/2016

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SUMMARY:  Last July, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the policy of discharging soldiers who change their gender identity, and began drafting a plan for transgender soldiers to serve openly.  With a greater proportion of transgender people in the armed forces as compared to the general public, supporters and critics alike are preparing for big changes.  The NewsHour's William Brangham and P.J. Tobia report.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  In 2014, Lieutenant Blake Dremann was going to be one of the first women to serve on a U.S. Navy submarine.

LT. BLAKE DREMANN, U.S. Navy:  We got invited to the White House, and this is me with the President and the first 24 females on a submarine.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  But by the time that vessel launched in late 2013, Blake was physically transitioning to the male gender, and giving himself weekly hormone injections.

LT. BLAKE DREMANN:  I took my first shot the week before we got under way, and I took them under way with us.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  Blake is a transgender man.  His sex at birth was female, but he's long identified himself as male.

LT. BLAKE DREMANN:  I probably knew when I was like 5, right, that something was amiss. But you grow up in the church, you grow up in Bible college, that type of environment, and you just learn to ignore it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  Blake is now stationed at the Pentagon.  He says most of the other officers treat him like any another colleague.

LT. BLAKE DREMANN:  The senior officers have been very receptive about it.  And I have talked to all kinds of them for sometimes an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time just kind of answering questions.  And if you ask, I'm very open.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  The tide has slowly been turning for transgender service members like Blake.  Until last year, if a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine changed their gender identity, Pentagon policy was to give them a medical disqualification and discharge them from service.

This was policy, but it wasn't always strictly enforced.  But last July, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter stopped these dismissals, and ordered the Pentagon to draft plans to allow transgender people to serve openly.

HOSTAGES - President Obama and an Insider's View

"Shifting policy, Obama pledges U.S. will ‘stand by’ families of hostages" PBS NewsHour 6/24/2015

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SUMMARY:  As the number of American hostage deaths have surged in the past year, some families have spoken out about being threatened with prosecution for considering paying ransom and feeling stonewalled by the government.  Judy Woodruff reports on the White House’s efforts today to change the policy for families.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  After coming under fire over the handling of American hostage cases abroad, President Obama today announced a change in policy.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  We’re not going to abandon you.  We will stand by you.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  The President’s pledge to hostage families follows a surge in deaths in the past 12 months.  Six Americans have died in captivity in Syria, Yemen and Pakistan since last summer.  Three of them were beheaded by Islamic State militants in Syria.

Some of the families say they were threatened with prosecution if they had tried to pay ransoms, but Mr. Obama promised today that will change.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  The last thing that we should ever do is to add to a family’s pain with threats like that.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  The U.S. government will maintain its policy against official concessions to terror groups, although, Washington did negotiate last year’s release of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan.  He had been held five years by the Taliban. And many European countries routinely pay ransoms for captives.

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, Foundation for Defense of Democracies:  This is a huge mistake.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  But some, like Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, argue the practice only encourages hostage-taking.

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS:  These organizations make hundreds of millions of dollars, when you look at the sum total of them, from hostages.  They will nab a person, they will demand a payment, and then it will strengthen their military capacity and allow them to take further hostages.  This is an enormous problem.

"Refusing to pay ransom won’t stop kidnapping, says former hostage" PBS NewsHour 6/24/2015

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SUMMARY:  The White House cleared the path for the families of hostages to be able to pay ransom, and offered other changes for how the government handles hostage cases.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner gets reaction from Michael Scott Moore, a former hostage who was held in Somalia.

SYRIA - U.S. Policy Has Not Worked

"Former U.S. ambassador says he could ‘no longer defend’ Obama administration’s Syria policy" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Our chief foreign affairs correspondent, Margaret Warner sat down with Ford today, on the first day he has agreed to be interviewed on television since his departure, to discuss the election and what he sees as the failures of U.S. policy.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  Ambassador Ford, thank you for joining us.

ROBERT FORD, Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria:  It’s my pleasure to be here.

MARGARET WARNER:  So, President Assad seems to be coasting to another victory in an election.  What’s going to be the impact of that, both on the political situation and the battlefield situation?

ROBERT FORD:  I don’t think it will have much impact on the battlefield.  I have no indication that the opposition and the armed opposition groups are going to stop fighting, so I think the election will have no result on that.

Politically, it will cheer Assad’s supporters.  I have seen pictures today of celebrations in Syria.  But it really is simply a signal.  The election is a signal to us to, to other countries in the region, to Europe, et cetera, that Assad is not leaving, he is staying, deeply entrenched in the capital in Syria, even as other parts of the country remain outside his control.

MARGARET WARNER:  And so is it time for us to recognize that, in fact, he’s going to be there a long time, that the whole strategy both of the opposition and the Western- and Gulf- and neighbor-backed efforts has not worked?

CLIMATE CHANGE - Can the U.S. Take Its Head Out of the Sand?

"As another report urges action, how can U.S. overcome obstacles to effective climate policy?" PBS NewsHour 4/15/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This week’s latest U.N. report on climate change warns of the urgent need for global action in the next five to 15 years, if countries want to ward off the worst impacts of rising emissions.

It also lays out numerous scenarios of what could be done.  But those options come with different costs, and in the U.S., there’s been opposition in Congress and often reluctance among much of the public to some big changes.

We look at the economic and political challenges with Robert Stavins.  He’s a lead co-author of the report.  He’s an environmental economist at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  And Maura Cowley, she’s the executive director of the Energy Action Coalition, which includes 30 youth-led groups.

And we thank you both for being with us.

Robert Stavins, let me start with you.

This report stresses the urgency of doing something now, implementing new policies.  Give us an example of a policy that the United States needs to implement in the near term.

ROBERT STAVINS, Harvard Kennedy School of Government:  Well, Judy, what’s become clear is that, for this country, for the United States, the only approach that conceivably would achieve meaningful emissions reductions, such as those that are talked about in the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, would be an economy-wide carbon pricing system.

That might be a cap-and-trade system, as has been denigrated, and obviously passed the House, but not the Senate, or it could perhaps a revenue-neutral carbon tax, but something that would be pervasive throughout the economy and send the right price signals.