9.21 | Seized livelihood

The World and Everything In It

The episode covers a diverse array of global and domestic news, ranging from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Ukraine to significant

Key takeaways

• Ken Jopi's $95,000 Cessna was seized by Alaska authorities following a misdemeanor conviction for transporting beer to a dry village.
• President Trump is reportedly weighing renewed military strikes against Iran as part of an economic pressure strategy.

Main topics

• US-Iran Geopolitics
• Eighth Amendment and Asset Forfeiture

Notable quotes

It pretty much put me out of business.

Conclusion

The episode illustrates how historical legal structures and modern eco

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:05) Good morning. Today on Legal Docket, a state seizes a man's airplane for transporting a passenger carrying three cases of beer. At the Supreme Court, the question is how much punishment is too much? Well, Speaker 6 (0:17) it pretty much put me out of business. That was my main source of income was that airplane. Speaker 1 (0:21) Also today, the Monday Money Beat with economist David Bonson and the World History Book, how the first Congress filled in some constitutional blanks. So the Judiciary Act of 1789 Speaker 8 (0:32) said there will be six Supreme Court justices. Speaker 7 (0:42) It's Monday, September 21st. This is The World and Everything In It from listeners supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichard. Speaker 1 (0:49) And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning. Speaker 7 (0:53) Time now for the news with Kent Covington. Speaker 5 (0:56) President Trump is reportedly weighing renewed strikes against Iran. According to Fox News, Trump says he is in, quote, deciding mode on the war with Iran, adding that very big things are going to happen in the near future regarding the war. Reuters reports Iran's military says it's already been told the U.S. is preparing to attack again, and it is threatening American bases in the region in response. Trump says letting Iran simply rot economically is an option. And U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz says that's because economic pressure is working. Speaker 4 (1:28) And we're seeing the results of Operation Economic Outcast. The Iranian rial, their currency, just tanked below two million rials to the dollar. Inflation is spiking. Their foreign currency reserves are down. Speaker 5 (1:41) Meantime, in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia says it shot down a missile over Riyadh Saturday, fired by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Ambassador Waltz says President Trump takes Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, very seriously, but he would not comment on any potential U.S. strike against the Houthis. I Speaker 4 (2:00) won't get ahead of him in terms of our... response. But this is not something new necessarily. As you know, the first Trump administration declared the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization. And we took decisive action against the Houthis last year. Speaker 5 (2:18) Trump says the Houthis have promised not to fight Americans. He turned down a Saudi request for strikes earlier this month. Ukraine launched scores of drones into Russia in a massive weekend strike. World's Benjamin Eicher Speaker 4 (2:32) reports. Russia says its air defenses shot down more than 1,600 drones since Saturday, including 450 aimed at Moscow. The city's mayor calls it the biggest drone attack on the capital since the war began. President Volodymyr Zelensky says the strike hit a key oil facility and military supply depot, dealing a significant blow to Russia's war machine. The attack came six days after President Trump said Ukraine and Russia had both agreed to stop hitting energy targets. But Ukraine never confirmed that deal. Trump blames the refinery strikes for triggering a global shortage of diesel fuel. For World, I'm Benjamin Eicher. Leaders in Denmark Speaker 5 (3:17) say they are cautiously optimistic about an agreement with the United States over Greenland that President Trump announced on Friday. The deal would let the U.S. build up its military on the island, but it will not be a takeover. For many months, Trump insisted that the U.S. must acquire Greenland. That is not happening. It will remain a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Leke Rasmussen says the waiting is nearly over. And some Greenland residents are hopeful as well. Speaker 8 (3:45) I hope it's a good agreement and that it's a sustainable agreement. I feel that we have been looking forward to that conclusion, decision for a long time now. I Speaker 4 (3:58) think it's always a relief whenever we are able to settle things in a friendly manner. Speaker 5 (4:03) The three governments are expected to sign the deal tomorrow in New York, but lawmakers in Denmark and Greenland still have to vote to approve it. Details of the deal are scarce. One U.S. official reportedly said it keeps Chinese and Russian troops off the island and their money out of anything sensitive. Trump called it a, quote, infinite life agreement with no end at no cost to the United States. And in Washington, three major left-leaning news organizations are covering the White House from the sidewalk this morning. That after the president barred CNN, Politico and MSNOW, formerly MSNBC, from the White House grounds. Akayla Gardner covers the White House for MSNOW. Speaker 4 (4:45) Inside where we have magnetometers, I attempted to scan my badge, which we have to do, and able to get into the White House grounds. It did not work. There was a red beeping light. And so the officer asked me to hand over my badge. Speaker 5 (4:59) Trump did not point to any single story, but he called the three outlets coverage his words, fiction and lies, and says others could be next. Democratic Senator Cory Booker told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. This president has no regard for the First Amendment. He's going after reporters, and this ban just doubles down. But Republican Senator John Barrasso on the same program disagreed and said he sees a Democrat double standard. Speaker 4 (5:24) The president, remember in his first term, he was banned from Twitter. He was banned from Facebook. And I didn't see people come to his defense. So it goes both ways. The press has an obligation to report fairly. And the president doesn't see it happening that way. All Speaker 5 (5:41) three news outlets say they will fight the ban. The Associated Press sued over a similar ban last year. That case is still ongoing. Speaker 5 (5:50) Authorities in Congo have started vaccinating health workers against Ebola, but the shot those health workers are receiving was not made for the strain that is driving this outbreak called Bundabugyo. There is no approved vaccine yet for this strain. So officials are using one made for the strain that drove an Ebola outbreak a decade ago in West Africa. Experts say the two strains of the virus are related and that the shot gave lab animals some protection and people, however, nobody knows. So it is now going to health workers, the most exposed, inside a research study they consented to. The UN said last month about 160 health workers had been infected, more than 40 killed. Overall, more than 3,600 people have died so far in this outbreak. It is the fastest growing Ebola outbreak on record. Speaker 5 (6:42) I'm Kent Covington, and coming up, the Federal Reserve raises its target interest rate, David Bonson will be along to talk about it, and later on History Book, the creation of the U.S. Judiciary. This is The World and Everything In It. Speaker 1 (7:14) Fifteen years of the world and everything in it, and after all these mornings, there is still only one way to do this, and that's one day at a time. So today is Monday, September 21st. Good morning. I'm Nick Eicher. Speaker 7 (7:27) And I'm Mary Reichard. Time now for Legal Docket, and today you'll meet a man whose case is before the U.S. Supreme Court. His case began with beer packed among a passenger's groceries. The woman had chartered a flight with him to a remote village in Alaska. One six-pack that was visible among the grocery bags would eventually become the center of a constitutional fight. The Speaker 1 (7:51) state sought forfeiture of the Bush pilot's $95,000 Cessna. The case is Jopi v. Alaska, and the question now before the Supreme Court is how judges decide when a fine becomes excessive under the Eighth Amendment. Do they judge the offense in general, or do they judge a defendant's actual wrongdoing? Speaker 7 (8:12) Long before that flight, Ken Jopi was just a little boy in northern Minnesota, obsessed with airplanes. Speaker 6 (8:19) My dad was a logger in northern Minnesota. So I grew up around equipment and logging, basically. And he had a plane. I would have been like three years old. He bought right after the war ended and he could buy small planes again and learn to fly. But I don't think that was such a big factor. It's something that I think you're born with. Most professional pilots that I know have been interested in airplanes as long as they can remember. And I was one of those. If I saw a picture of an airplane in a magazine, I'd get a thrill out of it, and it just never goes away. Speaker 7 (8:53) Jopi joined the Air Force and worked on bombers. He