The Daily Dive

We are five days away from the midterm elections! Finally! It seems like we are on our way to split control of Congress and the Senate. The GOP is set to retain the Senate and Democrats might flip control of the House. But, hey… you never know. Shannon Vavra, reporter for Axios, joins us to talk about the midterms, it’s all about voter turnout and the president is on a blitz of rallies. Next, that Big Mac and Coke now comes with a side of inflation. US companies are raising prices on everything from plane tickets to paint, to your favorite fast food. They are passing on higher costs for fuel, metal, and labor costs after years of low inflation. Annie Gasparro, food reporter for the WSJ, joins us to talk about why prices are going up and why you might not mind it, or even notice. Finally, a gruesome end to notorious Boston crime boss and snitch, Whitey Bulger. Within hours of being moved to a high security federal prison in West Virginia, he was killed… beaten to death and his eyes gouged out. Reports say he was beaten so badly, he was unrecognizable. The top suspect in his prison killing, another mafia hit man. My producer Miranda joins us for all the gory details.

President Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would remove the birthright citizenship for some US-born babies. His order would be aimed at babies born to non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants, and almost certainly sets up a standoff with the courts and a constitutional debate over the 14th amendment, as many legal scholars say that it is not within the powers of the president to take this action. However there are those that say it is possible. Stef Kight, immigration reporter for Axios, joins us to discuss the President’s plans. Next, just in time for Halloween… how do you get rid of that haunted house? Selling your house may pose some interesting challenges if it is occupied by ghosts or if a death has occurred in there. According to a new survey, 49% of people said that under no circumstances, would they buy a haunted house. Jeff Andrews, data reporter for Curbed.com, joins us for some spooky stories about houses and how realtors sell these stigmatized houses. Finally, be careful out there when partying and trick or treating. Halloween can be a scary night to be a pedestrian. A new study has found that 43% more pedestrians die on Halloween night than on other autumn nights. It’s darker and spookier and more people are out and about on Halloween so be careful when getting around watch out for people darting across the street. Rachel Becker, reporter for the Verge, joins us for the concerning numbers.

This last week proved that there is still plenty of hate in America and also that there continues to be a place for it on social media. Many social media platforms have become amplifiers of hate speech and in many cases, tech companies have shown that they don’t have a handle on this. With the case of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter, little known Gab.com has come into the spotlight. Ina Fried, Chief Technology Correspondent for Axios, joins us to talk about the role of social media in recent violent events. Next, the U.S. Military is planning to deploy over 5,000 troops to the southern border in a mission called Operation Faithful Patriot. As news of a migrant caravan headed toward the U.S. continues, the president is calling it an invasion that will be met by the military. Alicia Caldwell, Immigration Reporter for the WSJ, joins us for the details of the deployment and the backlog of asylum cases in the U.S. Finally, a woman is locked in a legal battle with her ex-husband over the fate of her frozen embryos. In this particular case, it sparked the creation of an Arizona law that sides with the party willing to carry the embryos to term. Critics say it could create a legal precedent defining embryos as “life” in order to chip away at abortion rights. Azeen Ghorayshi, Science Reporter at Buzzfeed News, joins us for this story which is one of the subjects of a new Netflix special called “Follow This.”

Another tragedy strikes the country as the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh was attacked Saturday by a man who had been posting anti-Semitic statements on social media as recently as five minutes before he attacked. In all, 11 people are dead ranging from ages 54-97, several others including officers were injured. Megan Guza, reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, joins us for more details and community reaction. Next, after a week of being on edge with several pipe bombs traveling through the postal system targeting prominent Democrats, federal authorities arrested Cesar Sayoc as the pipe bomb suspect. A fervent supporter of President Trump, the FBI was able to track him down because of a fingerprint on one of the packages and DNA on two of the pipe bombs. Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters, joins us for what to expect in the case against Cesar Sayoc. Finally, a big shift in credit score calculations is coming in early 2019. Get ready for the Ultra FICO score. Millions of Americans could see a possible 20 point boost in their credit scores. Some of the new factors that will be considered will be how consumers manage the cash in their checking accounts and savings. This is all an effort to boost the number of approvals for credit cards and personal loans. My producer Miranda joins us for the details on how you can increase your Ultra FICO score.

Welcome to the Daily Dive: WEEKEND EDITION. This is a compilation of the best stories of the week

Welcome to the Daily Dive: WEEKEND EDITION. This is a compilation of the best stories of the week

Investigators are plowing through clues and looking for motives in the latest pipe bomb scare that has targeted prominent Democrats and critics of the president. Officials warn that more bombs may be found and are still trying to determine if they were capable of detonating. Lauren Meier, reporter for Axios, joins us to discuss the latest details and where investigators think they may have originated from… Florida. Next, Disney World has a big secret they don’t want you to know about, it is a favorite spot for people to scatter family ashes. Disney fans say treating the park as a final resting place is the ultimate tribute and some say it could happen at least once a month! Erich Schwartzel, reporter for the WSJ, joins us for details on how people sneak in the ashes and what the most popular ride to spread them is. Hint: it’s the spookiest ride in the park. Finally, it seems that Megyn Kelly’s time at NBC is over. After doing a segment about offensive Halloween costumes on her show, she defended wearing blackface as not racist, saying that when she was a kid, it was okay as long as you were dressing up like a character. The backlash was quick and she apologized. My producer Miranda joins me for what happens next, the fight over millions in her contract.

Suspicious packages reportedly containing functioning explosive devices were sent to a group of prominent Democrats including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, George Soros and John Brennan at the CNN building in NY. The packages seemed to be pipe bombs and officers said they looked like if they similarly constructed. Daniel Lippman, co-author of the Politico Playbook, joins us for all the details. Next, all the mail bombs that were sent out luckily never made it to their intended targets and were intercepted before they could harm anyone. But how does the mail screening for the Secret Service and the US Postal Service work? My producer Miranda joins us for some of the standard procedures that mail rooms and security companies go through to sniff out potential explosives and even biological threats. Finally, as the midterm elections get closer, you may have noticed a new way campaigns are reaching out to you. The most popular way isn’t on social media or on TV anymore, it’s flooding your cellphone with personalized text messages. Campaigns are manually sending text messages to voters one at a time and are skirting regulations with this Peer 2 Peer messages. David McCabe, tech reporter at Axios, joins us to for why this is the new way to target voters… you open it 90% of the time and usually read it within 5 minutes.

International furor continues as new details emerge in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Turkish President Erdogan accused a Saudi Team of a savage and premeditated murder saying that a team landed in Istanbul ahead of Khashoggi to to background work and prepare to intercept him. There were also reports of a body double who exited the rear of the consulate wearing Khashoggi’s clothes. Greg Hellman, defense reporter for Politico, joins us for more, including reports that some body parts have been found. Next, one of the transportation visionaries of our time is at it again as Elon Musk has announced that a test tunnel that will whisk cars underground at speeds of 130 mph will open in December in Los Angeles. His company has been at work quietly drilling a tunnel under the city of Hawthorne, CA and tests could be coming soon. Laura Nelson, transportation reporter for the LA Times joins us for what the project is about and is Musk can deliver on his ambitious plan. Finally, hostels are back in a new and trendy way, but don’t call them hostels. The hospitality industry is putting a new focus on youth travelers with smaller private rooms and dorm room settings with bunk beds. Youth travelers account for about a quarter of international travelers and companies are taking notice. My producer Miranda joins us for a breakdown of the new hotel hostel hybrid… focusing on higher end food and drink options with cheap beds.

The migrant caravan from Central America continues to make its way north on its way to the US/Mexico border. President Trump also continues to express his displeasure and push his immigration policy blaming the caravan on Democrats, calling some of the migrant’s criminals and unknown Middle Easterners, and vowing to cut financial aid to the countries they are fleeing from. Ted Hesson, Immigration Reporter for Politico, joins us to discuss the caravan and its impact just before the midterm elections. Next, the health and wellness industry is booming, but the problem is, we are still fatter than ever. Despite promises made by gyms, fitness programs, and fad foods, Americans diets are still terrible. Stef Kight, demographics reporter for Axios, joins us to talk about how much fast food we eat and how our bodies are living in an environment that really supports obesity. Finally, that hack that Facebook announced last month, was not done by some nefarious nation-state, rather it was done by spammers looking to make money through deceptive advertising. The problem is, you shouldn’t rest any easier knowing it was spammers. My producer Miranda joins us to talk about how all of your personal data will only increase scams and spamming campaigns and make them more profitable.

The Saudi foreign minister says that the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was 'tremendous mistake.' The story from Saudi officials is that Khashoggi was strangled after a fistfight, but it still doesn’t explain why he was dismembered. As one Senator said, you don’t bring a bone saw to an accidental fist fight. Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters joins us for how President Trump is reacting to all of this, and we also discuss the migrant caravan headed toward the US, now said to have more than 5,000 people marching. Next, we get a little Black Mirror on you. As Google has announced that its phone calling AI assistant Duplex, is headed to some phones before the end of the year. Emily Dreyfus, senior writer at WIRED, joins us for a look into how AI is changing the way offload everyday tasks to technology and interact with other people. We also reminisce about the good ol' day of AOL instant messenger when you only had to worry about creeps on the other side of the chat, now we have to worry about bots too. Finally, Lotto fever continues to grip the country. Nobody won the Mega Millions or the Powerball over the weekend. This pushes the Megan Millions to a record $1.6 Billion dollars and can only go higher before the next drawing on Tuesday. My producer Miranda joins us for how the people behind Mega Millions changed the odds and tweaked the game to create record setting jackpots!

Welcome to the Daily Dive: WEEKEND EDITION. This is a compilation of the best stories of the week

Welcome to the Daily Dive: WEEKEND EDITION. This is a compilation of the best stories of the week

It looks like we might be in for it again with another migrant caravan headed toward the US. According to reports, more than 3,000 migrants from Honduras have made it into Guatemala and are headed north. It might take several weeks for them to reach the US, but President Trump is already putting pressure on Honduras and Mexico to stop them. Stef Kight, immigration reporter for Axios, joins us for the latest immigration news and what it means for the midterms. Next, the largest Mega Millions jackpot ever is up for grabs tonight and a large Powerball jackpot is up on Saturday. Good Luck! But what do you do if you actually win? Who do you call first? Experts say the first person you should call is a lawyer. Rodrigo Torrejon, reporter for the Record in New Jersey, joins us for what you should do first after you hit it big to avoid the lottery curse. Finally, just in time for Halloween, archaeologists have found a vampire burial ground. In it they found the skeleton of a 10 yr old child with a stone stuffed in its mouth. The child died of malaria, but people feared that it would rise from the dead and continue to spread the disease. My producer Miranda joins me to talk about what else they found at this site and more on “deviant burials.”

We are starting to get gruesome details about what might have happened to Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi. According to Turkish officials, audio recordings show that Khashoggi was dead within minutes of stepping into the Saudi Consulate, he had his fingers severed, was beheaded and dismembered. Daniel Lippman, reporter at Politico, joins us for some of the gory details and how President Trump is reacting to the whole situation. Next, we talk about the awkward etiquette of iPad tipping. As more business are using services such as Square to easily process credit card payments, it is turning tipping into a public ordeal. What if the store clerk only handed you a muffin, when you pay the pre-set tip amounts are set at 18%, 20%, and 25%, what do you do? Give less of a tip, give no tip? Jennifer Levitz, Reporter for the WSJ joins us to talk about how to handling tipping. Finally, while Halloween is a time for scares and candy, it all comes at a price. This year Americans will spend nearly $9 billion on everything from costumes to candy to decorations. But hidden in that cost is the fact that 31 million Americans will spend $480 million on costumes for their pets! My producer Miranda will joins us for all the scary numbers and top costumes for pets.