Le Show; 2017-08-27

From deep inside your audio device of choice first of all ladies and gentlemen it's it's not a obligatory and I don't do it because it's obligatory but because as a New Orleansian and adopted New Orleansian I know what the people in Texas some of the people in Texas are going through right now and my personal hopes and support are with them this program is being recorded a few hours before you hear it if you're hearing it remotely like live so I don't know exactly how bad it's been but those of us in Louisiana who who live through 2005 know how bad it can be and so as I say my my hopes for strength and safety are with the people in Texas now something a little more

personal something you know just a little bit about the media and about show business and who can resist those two topics apparently nobody in the United States of America you know by now this happened since we last spoke and by we I mean me that legendary comedian Jerry Lewis passed away this past week the age of 91 the obituaries I'll I'll take any of those I'll say you know if if you're gonna forget everything remotely negative that I've done in the same way you did with Jerry I'll take that right now anyway that's that's beside the point if there is a point no there is a point point is that a few of the pieces that have come out since Jerry Lewis is passing mentioned a somewhat legendary film he made legendary because it's never

been publicly released it was his it to be his first dramatic work after a lifetime of comedy and it was called the day the clown cried the movie about a clown in a concentration camp I know I know you're you're not laughing already my point being some of the folks who have reported on the existence of that film and its legendary status use the following verbiage Harry Scherer they say quote claims unquote to have seen the day the clown cried claims now I've said I've written an article for a the late limited spy magazine going in great detail into my response to having seen the film but that some years later now reduces to claims to having seen it

all right then I I have never lied under oath yet you know there's still time James Clapper the former director of national intelligence has so he's more credible than me because when he said the Russians hacked the election everybody said well that's true so let me just borrow his language to say ladies and gentlemen I assess with a high degree of confidence that I have seen the day the clown cried thank you hello welcome to let's show some of the sweet and so is she spending in the city as a bloomer it's like you do no one ever told

her that someday maybe she'd have to give in thought you'd take the time and did you quite a lesson but soon she's feeling down it's really quite depressing now that no one else thinks she was born to win because we are all the night all the night then we're given yes we are all the night all the night then we're given we're getting we're getting the summer's hot but she still spins it in the city triple jobs for slabs who don't know much of anything one day she's had enough she gives up she gives it to me to men who can because he's got the money has some kids and says it's his she'd get the house when she wants out she's got the

lifestyle now without the worry because we are all the night all the night then we're given hmm yes we are all the night all the night then we're given we're getting don't go judging now we're taking to the high road hmm because the stone you're on your own because in this dirty world no one's perfect because we are all the night all the night then we're given yes we are all the night all the night then we're given it no yes we are all the night then we're given we're getting we're getting we're getting

this is La Show and there was a time when there was a vogue in the early post-watergate era of investigative journalism in local television that time you may have noticed this past except in certain places and at certain stations and we're lucky here in New Orleans once the show is originating that we have investigative journalism still going on of a pretty high order I should say and our guest today is one of the chief practitioners of that he's investigative reporter for Fox 8 but don't get the wrong idea it's not Fox news it's the local Fox affiliate here in New Orleans Lee Zurich who's been at this for a while now Lee thank you for coming in Harry great to be here with you and you know yeah I'm fortunate

enough to work for a TV station that is committed to investigative reporting and you know there are others in the country that are like that but I'm definitely fortunate to work at one of them yeah it's pretty amazing in this day and age when reporting of any kind is being cut back to you know rewrite eight stories before noon exactly so let's talk about the the project you've been on that attracted my attention this year still ongoing I guess called cracking the code and I thought when it first appeared this was going to get national attention because it's not a local story it's a national story and one reason I invited you here today is to try to give it to national attention because I think it's important cracking the code explain what cracking the codes about please cracking the code was the largest project investigative project I believe that we've ever undertaken as a unit and we did it in partnership with our partners at the local paper here Noah.com and then also clear health costs which is a company that looks at health care cost transparency

it's run by Jeannie Pinder who's a long time New York Times journalist who left the Times a few years ago and started this company and and she was really she essentially what the project is is gathering health care cost prices in your area so we focused on the New Orleans area and think about this Harry you go buy a TV you go buy a car before you go in you you have an idea of what it's going to cost before you certainly make the purchase you know what it's going to cost you you can shop around before to see who has the best deals in health care you can't do that there's nowhere for you to go and we're not used to asking these questions so in health care costs are rising significantly for everyone so so this investigative series was really trying to bring transparency to health care pricing in our area now the codes the title of the series refers to

are the actual codes that hospitals use to identify different procedures different processes that what they build for right yeah they call it a CCPT code so if you have an MRI of the knee it would have a code that's specific just for an MRI of the knee an MRI of the back has a different CPT code a a blood test you know a thyroid to check every every test every procedure you have has a different code to it and as I understand as I recall you reporting one thing that's going on is and you can tell me how widespread it is a practice called upcoding and we've found that some and we found that with some of the people we talked to where there is you know upcoding or you know miscoding not coding for the right thing we had a doctor actually who

someone coded him for a blood test and when he went went back and looked at his his EOB form his explanation of benefits he said I didn't have this test and most of us never even look at that never check it out he's a doctor fortunately he did and he got the cost removed so there's there's a lot of that going on but what upcoding would wouldn't specifically you found that there were some some deliberate upcoding right well it's hard to prove it's hard to prove deliberate yes I mean we don't know that is there a lot of downcoding what do you think okay yeah I guess that answers that question but upcoding would involve changing the the definition of a procedure to a more serious a more significant thing yes which would have a higher higher cost so I mean it could be you know a lot of is if you go in for regular doctors visit you know they're different

codes for how long you're in there with the doctor or things like that you know those are certainly easier to upcode than others and then you you go into to just these comparative prices and there's you found wild just I think wild would be wild yeah disparities yes and this is this is this is not a New Orleans story and anyone listening to this who's not in the New Orleans area don't think this does not apply to you because it does 100% and clear health costs our partner Jeannie Pender can tell you she's done this pricing in other markets and it is everywhere but you can literally go get an MRI at one facility and it can cost you $800 and you can go across the street or down the street a few blocks and it can be half the price or even less and it is all over if you're not pricing this information you could be getting ripped off and I believe you reported

that there's a disparity even from the price that is charged to the insurance company as opposed to if you go in and for God's sake pay cash for your and that's why I you should always ask the cash price because we actually we had a producer at our TV station okay we have insurance it's a good insurance policy he goes to that is it the fox insurance yeah no it's not through fox it's not through fox it's through our look that's great insurance we but he goes and gets an MRI at a facility here he was charged a thousand dollars I tell him afterwards say sorry bud but if you would have paid cash and not gone through your insurance company would have cost you $500 he would have saved $400 $500 wow now who even thinks about paying cash for him I know you should you should ask or if you go in for blood work or whatever I mean the the the lesson from this series and this is a lesson again for everyone is you have to take control of healthcare you have

to take control of your healthcare you have to ask questions we're not used to asking these questions they're uncomfortable for some of us but if you if you want to save money you have to ask these questions what is the cash price before what is your price let me compare that to other facilities let me call my insurance company to see what is this actually going to cost me but now people are trained to at least in the recent past to the fact that there are facilities that are in network or practitioners that are in network and people ones that are out of network and out of network is always going to cost them more yes so you have to know if you're shopping whether the the alternatives are in network or out of network because the cheaper alternative might end up being more expensive right yes but that and that's why you're asking them the true price so you're finding out if they're in network and if they are then you're asking the price but we

found examples I don't know if you saw this story what's called balance billing yeah I was going to get to that okay well you want to be able to wait a second oh go ahead so that that may be one of the most unbelievable things we discovered in here so you can go to the emergency room this is an in network provider as you said or for example the insurance commissioner in Louisiana his daughter his doctor daughter went to go deliver a baby at an in network facility well she didn't know the anesthesiologist took care of her everything's fine the anesthesiologist turned out to be an out of network anesthesiologist at an in network facility the anesthesiologist builds the insurance company the out of network anesthesiologist gets whatever cost well the anesthesiologist saying well I deserve more money so I am going to also bill separately the insurance commissioner's daughter who had the baby and have her cover the balance that the insurance company wouldn't pick up the balance billing we had a tourist from Oklahoma who came to Louisiana had to go to the emergency

room as throat was swelling up got treated for 15 minutes by the doctor got balanced build a thousand dollars by this third party doctor in network facility out of network provider at the office yeah when you say out of network doctor I learned something in that report that I didn't know which is what's reporting is always good yeah which is that a lot of emergency rooms use a lot of independent contractors and that's where balance billing comes in is they independent contractors are not covered by whatever deal the their the emergency room makes with the insurance company their third party contractors and it's cheaper for the emergency room it's obviously better that these doctors can make a lot of money I mean the insurance commissioner told us that some of these doctors are making sick seven figures because they're billing these rates balance billing is actually against the law in several states it's not in Louisiana and they're obviously many of your listeners and states it's not against the law I mean in the problem with

this here is when you go to an emergency room you don't have time to ask those questions of course not so by by by definition of why you're going there you don't have time so you're stuck the insurance commissioner said is the most unconscionable thing going on in healthcare today because you're vulnerable you're going to an emergency room and they're sticking you with it and you have no idea it's happening to you why is it cheaper for emergency rooms to use contractors they're not paying salaries they're not you know benefits all of that kind of stuff the staffing issue it's all third party yeah an emergency an emergency rooms are expensive to operate and and I think that's an important piece to add to the other side that they are very expensive to operate yeah you have to have them staff 24 years exactly and there's some serious these the serious stuff that happens when people go there yeah um is that a common practice in states outside

Louisiana balance billing no well I mean we did the third party yeah yes I believe it is yes and then that is not just Louisiana and balance billing is as well yes in the states where it is legal and in most states it is legal yes in the states where it's been made illegal what was the argument for making it illegal because it's unfair to you who's going to the emergency room and and didn't the hospital industry lobby yes they have tried to change the law in Louisiana for a decade the insurance commissioner gave up because the hospital the doctors and quite frankly the insurance lobby all pack because it's better for the insurance company too because they don't have to pay the cost just pass it on to the patient so they all fought hard against it now you name what we'd like to call in the modern era the stakeholders yes doctors hospitals insurance companies the only stake important stakeholder you left out was pharmaceutical companies

they're not involved in that particular product not in that but that's a pretty good example of how the stakeholders operate in the system isn't it yes there's and there's there there I mean in Louisiana I mean there's some lawmakers who told me the amount of money they were spending on lobbyists he he's never seen I mean they're very few times where he's seen that many lobbyists gathered to be hired on an issue like that so there there's a lot of money involved there and there's a lot of money being poured in to stop things like that let's go back to the codes for a second is there a place on the internet where first of all are these codes consistent across state lines yes it's a national code so yes so is there a place did you guys put together a database of of all these codes so we have it locally like if you're in the New Orleans area you can go to our website you can go to Fox 8 live dot com slash

crashing cracking the code Fox 8 live dot com slash cracking the code and you can search those or if you're elsewhere I would go to a clear health cost dot com who I mentioned earlier and they have a great site and they actually have prices for some of the metro areas they have some in California some in Florida I think the Philadelphia area so they have some areas where they do have some good pricing data where you get but if you even if you're not there I would go search it because it gives you an idea of the wild as you said just disparity of prices for simple different procedures can you also just see a list of codes and what procedures they describe so you can check your bail and see oh this code describes the procedure what you could do is type in your code or type in the procedure in these lists to see oh well that's different than what I had yes that that exists and on the clear health and our site as well too based on what you you saw here what's what's the percentage basis of miss coding upcoding that goes on I don't know that's hard

to quantify I wouldn't feel comfortable answering that I don't think I don't know it's a good question though do you know whether this this whole system of code obviously balance billing is doesn't exist in a system where there's an insurance is coding per say used in countries that don't have this kind of system that we do I mean I think each procedure needs to have a code have something that goes with it just to make the computer happy just to make the computer happy so I mean I don't think that's the issue as much as you know the cost for the code if I will and you know did the code actually cover what you were doing as you've talked about though are you still is the series still ongoing yeah we're still ongoing we plan to do some more and we continue to get feedback from our viewers I mean this was really a project where a lot of

our stories and our data came from people who read and watched our stories and they contributed their pricing and and that's how we that's what led us to the stories that that we we aired and wrote about wow the biggest lesson from this I think is if if if you're going to have a procedure this is the biggest lesson I learned from this if you're going to have a procedure at a hospital just be careful because if you're if you're going to have a routine MRI just just in big picture most of us what we do blood tests MRIs that kind of thing probably the majority of us have if your doctor prescribes you to go to a hospital I would say wait and ask if you can go to another facility instead and price out another facility because those routine those routine procedures blood work MRIs things like that are much higher typically at a hospital than at some imaging center or you know facility that specializes in blood work that's away from a hospital and that's

where we found a lot of our viewers we're paying a lot more than they do so it's it's the absorption of the of the hospital overhead that yes increasing the cost yes significantly too and should should one have any concerns or doubts about the quality of the the technicians or the the people who are performing this procedures in these little and I think that's a valid question I'll answer that two ways first of all you know most of the most of the facilities that we saw that we solicited information from had just as good a machines and actually we had a couple of savvy viewers call and ask the type of machine they had versus the type in the hospital and they were the same but you should check and ask that quite possibly and then the other was entering a couple of the hospitals told us well you're not measuring quality of care you're not measuring that here which is hard to do but we actually had a couple of doctors send us a study that says

you really quality that's not a good you're basically going to get the same quality of care wherever you go for the most part and studies show that the music played in the MRI is going to be as good in the little exactly places in the hospital is the hospital yes now the other question that occurs to me when you're telling people this is if you call up a hospital and ask for the price of an MRI how many hours should you set aside for that conversation and that's in that that is the toughest part because there I mean one of the hospitals actually had a training seminar we heard after we started this because they were getting bombarded with calls and they needed to figure out how to answer it and it's a pain in the butt I'll be honest with you it is it took us a while to get answers sometimes they didn't want to give us answers but I think the more people do this that get hospitals and providers and the habit of doing this the better it is for all of this but then you just got to decide I mean is it worth an hour of your time to call around

to save five hundred six hundred a thousand two thousand dollars I mean you have to decide that for me it is but you're working for Fox who writes your paycheck I get I gather from what you've said earlier that you would not describe this as rampant with abuse but rather a system or an environment in which wide discrepancies in prices can be charged yes I think it's and I think it all leads back to sunshine to transparency if if if you don't know when you're going to buy the TV what it's going to cost you until you buy it if you don't know competitor a cost this competitor b cost this they can price it whatever they want and you're stuck with it right but once you know those prices it's a competitive environment it's that they're going to have to price them the same come down things like that so it's it's a it's a it's a

transparency issue I mean there were there were hospitals public hospitals taxpayers you own them they were public hospitals that would not tell us their prices they would not tell us how much they charge for an MRI of the knee with cash that's absurd yeah wow Lee um I think we've met once or twice before but it's a pleasure to see you again and it's good to spend time together yeah yeah and congratulations on the series uh it caught my attention I hope it now catches more people's attention and and people in other communities follow up on this thanks thanks for the kind words and and thanks for you know you know taking a look at this work which I think is important for for everyone health care prices are going up and and people can save some money cool thanks again thanks harry long daddy green is an old old friend he hangs around the rainbow's and dealer in dreams whispering a fortune and fame fanning the flame here him calling your name

long daddy green is a fly by night you turn around he's out of sight it seems he's your fair-weather friend your foul weather full the wind starts to blow daddy green starts to go the lies he tells our new to you you're not naive you know he won't be true to you still you believe you believe on daddy green chops you down to size with slow hello and fast goodbyes he comes around when you feel

about ten feet tall to make you feel small just like nothing at all you try to tug his sleeve one day your hopes are high you turn around and walk away but still you try still you try long daddy green likes to disappear pretend that he is nowhere near then he'll come tap at your window scratch at your screen he sure can be mean long daddy green

you sure know how to treat your friends mean long daddy green from Santa Monica the home of the homeless I'm Harry Scherer this is Lesho and now ladies and gentlemen news of the Olympic movement produced as always by Jim Meversall Jr do you know what parkour is it's a street-running sport global organizers of it have given the

International Gymnastics Federation a deadline to end their attempts to control their sport and give it Olympic status isn't that what we all want Olympic status damn I do parkour earth see that's not a guy the organization asked the Gymnastic Federation president Mordonati Watanabe in an open letter this week for an urgent meeting by the middle of next month to formalize its right to govern the sixth nation group seeks the federation's commitment to make take no further steps to implement your purported encroachment their words the latest dispute involving Olympic sports bodies for control of popular youth oriented events you got to get the youth parkour of a combines running climbing and acrobatics across an obstacle course of urban architecture it's like what grompry without wheels it is featured in

scenes from the action movies the boring ultimatum and casino rail the International Gymnastics Federation or FIG don't ask is working with some French founders of parkour to launch a world tour of events next year leading up to the first world championship in 2020 I can see it from here after the International Olympic Committee added youth oriented urban events did you know about this the IOC added youth oriented urban events such as 3 on 3 basketball I play that skateboarding and sport climbing to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics parkour seems a likely target for the 2024 Paris Olympics 3 on 3 basketball it's like that's what people play when they don't have enough to make five organizers recognized in France Britain and Australia say Olympic ambitions are

unwanted as the International Federation for parkour will henceforth be the recognized custodians of the philosophy integrity and sovereignty of our sport art discipline internationally the group said it's an art it's a discipline it's a sport the open letter was signed by parkour earth's independent chairman the gymnastics federation is based in the IOC's home city of Lausanne Switzerland it did not succeed in getting a form of parkour added to the Tokyo Olympics the same day the group issued its news release explaining its vision for parkour it's battling visions everybody the gymnastics body said some parkour officials were responsible for bias and misinformation indiscriminately conveyed on social media to convey a negative reaction the federation would like to specify its approach has never been to unilaterally appropriate a

discipline let's just have the the sponsoring bodies fight it out make that Olympic event would you watch who knows they got it it's the Olympics it's a movement and we all need one every day ladies gentlemen we got a little fish the big fish may get away but they got a little fish an engineer who helped develop the engines at the center of the Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal was sentenced this week in federal court in Detroit to 40 months in prison he's the first person in the scandal to face a prison term the engineer James Liang was not the

mastermind behind vw's scheme authority said he was a key player who was involved throughout the years long effort to cheat us emissions tests and the subsequent cover up liang sentence was more than the three years prosecutors had recommended less than a possible five-year sentence the judge appeared intent on sending a message to others in the auto industry he called liang a an important member of a massive and stunning fraud the judge Sean Cox cited the potential impact on america's economy this crime is a very serious and troubling crime against our economic system he said he noted what liang and Volkswagen had done was to undermine the trust between buyers and sellers that happened recently the judge admitted he found it difficult to impose the prison sentence in part because the gang appeared to be a good father who'd worked hard to build a life he said liang was arguably a brilliant engineer but one who had been arguably too loyal to Volkswagen that's right he's doing hard time for being

too loyal to his employer he was a sucker just to note he was a player not the key player not the mastermind behind a program by Volkswagen to cheat us environmental authorities about the degree of emissions emitted by the Volkswagen diesel cars just as a comparison the guys who were the masterminds behind the us program to torture detainees haven't even been charged with a criminal offense the little fish ladies and gentlemen one reason to to get them is because they really are delicious now the president president trump delivered a speech this week that was notable because a he read it off the teleprompter b it preceded a bizarre off the cuff

non teleprompter speech or set of remarks in Arizona the following night during which he hinted at the decision which became public late in the week his decision to pardon tough hard line press sheriff Joe our pile of Arizona but that Monday night speech was a president trumps attempt to explain his new policy regarding the war in Afghanistan as a candidate he had invade against staying in Afghanistan during the speech he said that was his instinct he usually trusted his instincts but his generals had told him otherwise so the new policy involves putting some more troops in Afghanistan because that worked so well the last on and calling out Pakistan for its long known but never acknowledged by the United States role

in supporting the Taliban supporting the Afghan Taliban via its intelligence agency the ISI that was not accompanied by any particular measures against the Pakistan were it not to end that support the president also distinguished his policy from that of his predecessor by saying it would not be bound by deadlines or timelines but it would be conditions based that is to say based on what was happening on the ground he also said which was probably the most provocative part of the speech that the United States would invite India Pakistan's regional adversary the reason that Pakistan got nuclear weapons is because India got him first they of course used to be one country before secular division occurred and the Muslims were packed off to Pakistan and the

Hindus were kept in India the president would invite India into Afghanistan to increase its involvement in the rebuilding of the country which the national security advisor general McMaster said the the goal of which was not to make Afghanistan more like the United States but victory he said would consist in Afghanistan being allowed to be Afghanistan that's how it looks from here how does it look from over there from a Afghanistan public radio where the tote bags get smaller but the mugs stay the same from the steel abandon the American television truck and downtown Kabul where corruption isn't a problem it's a way of life I'm

Mahmoud and I'm Hamid we're Prakhan Schmuck the out of work brothers welcome to another edition of Karzai Talk today's program comes to you with the assistance of the Afghan fund for their study of America we go where the money lives well my younger brother this week we stepped into a new era in a great country's history ah you mean an era where foreign country wants to put more troops into Afghanistan to help us be more like Afghanistan personally I've thought that for the past couple of thousand years we've been doing a fairly convincing imitation of ourselves you could fool me hello you're on Karzai talk hello this is Donald J Trump first time president long time caller but uh not to your show hello mr president I I once shared your title that's possible but uh I don't think you shared my lifestyle oh perhaps you missed all the issues of Karzai the

magazine okay okay but I'm betting if it did have Karzai stakes they were probably yak meat and almost certainly not prime yak meat mr president I don't know either of us wants to spend this conversation on so trivial subject he's saying enough yak about yaks no I know what he's saying I'm very perceptive about people probably the most perceptive you've ever met and we've never met I was just told I should call your show and clear up on your Afghanistan policy oh for our listeners now for me I read the whole speech on TV I still don't understand half but it goes against my instincts but here goes my generals tell me when I'm winning we have to win and you know why because it beats losing because we're winners may I say mr president we know the feeling every time an invader has come to our country we have been the winners and so the

strategy for you to win in our country would be to leave no no no no the strategy is no deadlines no time table with totally conditioned space so if conditions get a little worse we stay to turn it around and if conditions get a little better we stay to make it even better so uh what's the condition under which the Americans would leave let me tell you this when the tabel band no longer pose a threat to our country by the way it's not a real band mr president yes I meant the real world mr president what about the poppy trade look here's the story I haven't followed it but I think if we're lucky it's the kind of trade that makes both teams better which we love we love win win listen fellas I almost left out the most important part more money for us in the speech which I don't know if you saw it but most people say it was the best speech on foreign policy that

ever seen I made it clear to the Pakistanis they have to stop supporting the terrorists in your country are else or else what are else they don't wish everybody knows they should and I could tell you this we're inviting the Indians in yes and everybody says the Pakistanis don't like that so this is a warning that there's there's a lot more of that to come more Indians that's the easy part mr president let me ask you one last question because I know at least one of us is pretty busy right now that's right live radio in a truck is no picnic well I'm calling from camp David I can tell you this this place is a dump of course I'm not supposed to say that but hey I'm the president and you're not well I used to be great and talk to me when I used to be all right in the meantime this last question when your army and your army don't forget them the terrific we needed the step up and be so much more terrific the likes of which you've never seen when both armies

defeat the Taliban yeah where should the Taliban go here's a deal and this is a policy about the bad people in your country and in our country they should go back where the hell they came from about the Taliban are from here you know my friend Sheriff Joe would say just round them up and put them in pink underwear it worked extremely well for him I can tell you that extreme working I coined that listen fellas that telling me I gotta go tweet some more so so so thanks very much for the call you got it well my younger brother looks like I shouldn't give up the Toyota franchise just yet just tell you how much our country is like Las Vegas to act and drive visitors can't afford to leave and they can't afford to stay hello you're on cars I talk hello I'm Navas former Pakistani from minister first time caller who we're getting a higher caliber of color since we stopped giving out our number on the air hello Navas you know who he is yes and I remember who he was

if you can stop playing weird games with my name I wanted to say that of course I no longer speak for the Pakistani government since I was forced to resign from it but I do speak on good authority about the position of my successor who happens to be your brother these things happen I know the feeling so you have an opinion about how your country will react to president Trump speech well first of all we take great pride in it oh and why is that some of the components of the high end teleprompter are made in Pakistan well and secondly we totally reject the idea that Pakistan has served as a haven for Afghani Taliban who they don't cross the border and receive aid in assistance from your intelligence service they may do what they do but once in our country

we view them as fellow Pakistanis we're not like America but I was you mean Navas I was wondering how do you view the American invitation to India to deepen its involvement in Afghanistan where just as a friendly neighbor I'd say you people might just have enough foreigners hanging around already thanks for the call we had helped today from the Afghanistan army it's not just a job it's a paycheck legal services for Karzatok from the law firm of Ketchum and Nukum I'm Hamid and I'm Mahmoud join us again next time when we connect up the phones for another edition of Karzatok this is APR of Afghanistan public radio and now ladies and gentlemen the apologies of the week

they're so sorry not that not that many people sorry this week you know at summertime not that much to apologize for deadline goose creek south carolina the principle of stratford high school is apologize for comments made during a school assembly this week that set of comments caused outrage among parents and some students quote yesterday in this morning I met with each class of the stat stratford high school student body stratford principal Heather Tavlo wrote I addressed a comment made during a 10th grade assembly and shared from my heart that my intention was not to hurt or offend any of my students in any way unquote principal tailor in the statement did not give details about what comment was made but a parent of a stratford student claims that while addressing the dress code principal tailor made a comment concerning leggings quote she went on to say that

unless you're a size zero one or two leggings made girls look fat or like sausages and should not be warned the parent claims post on Facebook by the parent went on to say she doesn't have a problem with the dress code but was concerned with body shaming or calling any person fat it's weird the opposite I hate dress codes but the Calgary airport authority in canada canada is returning disabled parking spaces after it was criticized for converting them to more lucrative lexas only spaces as part of a marketing campaign a marketing campaigns can't hurt you it received a complaint after a family with access needs pulled into the short term section of the park aid it's a Canadian word I guess define the five accessible parking spaces they usually use were gone the airport had sold the space to lexas so the car firm could paint its logo on the floor and allow its customers to enjoy the prime location exclusively lexas canada

now says it was unaware the marketing campaign would involve the removal of parking spaces for travelers with a disability lexas canada would like to offer our heartfelt apologies to anyone who may have been offended or affected by a recent marketing campaign at the Calgary airport we were not aware that accessible parking spaces would be used for this campaign and have asked the airport to correct the situation as quickly as possible by returning those parking spaces to their intended use in the future we will more carefully scrutinize the details of these types of marketing campaigns we were truly embarrassed by this mistake it shouldn't have happened and we're taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again as part of our relentless pursuit of apology the airport unquote the airport last part wasn't a quote the airport also released a statement saying it would reverse the decision and return the spots to accessible parking Calgary international airport would like to apologize to our passengers impacted by the decision to change the location of the accessible parking stalls at the airport it's clearly out of touch

with our commitment to being an accessible facility the Calgary airport authority would also like to apologize to lexas canada everybody's covered a prominent imam in orange cowty california has retracted comments he made during a june sermon in which he stated that i says and other terrorist groups were supported by israelian intelligence is imam saved mustafa al-Khazmi kazwini has drawn the ira of southern california jewish leaders for those statements which were released by a washington based nonprofit al-Khazwini said he made the statements based on information he'd received from iraqi government officials during a trip to musl in 2014 i blame musl quote after careful reflection on the reliability of these sources and on the realization of the extent to which these comments have offended and hurt members of the jewish community i've decided to rescind my comments he said posting traction on his twitter feed and

his mosques website al-Khazwini said he understands the insensitivity of his statements and apologizes for the pain he has caused especially to his jewish friends quote i appreciate the importance of engaging in genuine interfaith relations and solidarity with members of all faith traditions based on mutual respect and trust i pray that all communities can come together in peace and solidarity to overcome the challenges of our time unquote the imam had made the statements in june addressing his congregation at the islamic education center of orange county mosque in coastamasa it's so weird there's no history of religious goofiness in orange county and a french company offering invisible pc spy software has been criticized after it said its product could be used quote to find out if your son is gay unquote listing a series of clues the company fireworld suggested that hacking his facebook account and seeing if he's had visited gay websites

could confirm apparent suspicions the company has since taken down the article in that article the firm said family is fundamental that's why the sexual orientation of your children there's directly responsible for the continuation of your family is very important to you unquote the article went on to list the clues that might cause a parent to suspect her son might be gay the article makes no mention of female homosexuality they clues include quote taking good care of himself unquote being more interested in reading and theater than in football being shy as a young boy having certain piercings and liking female singers and divas in response to online criticism fireworld vote the article had the sole aim of improving search engine optimization and was never intended to be read by humans unquote continuing to quote we regret not having reflected on the consequences of this type of content we sincerely apologize

to all of those who may have felt offended by this content unquote it is not legal in France to install spyware on someone else's computer or to monitor it without their knowledge fireworld points out to customers they must comply with the law while using their products it says however installing this product to make sure your children are not endangering themselves on the internet or on social networks comes closer to being legal unquote that's what we all want just to be close to being legal the apologies of the week ladies and gentlemen copyrighted feature this broadcast now news of the godly one quick item of former priest in Holmes Dale Pennsylvania has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of downloading child pornography is explanation for why he did so raised eyebrows Kevin Gugliata a 55 year old priest was arrested last year after a month long investigation he was eventually charged with 20 counts of child porn 20 counts of

disseminating images of children involved in sexual acts he pleaded guilty to one in return for the other 39 counts being dismissed he downloaded the child pornography he said to authorities because of poker specifically he Gugliata who told probation officers he's a poker player fault that god was attacking him when he lost games and tournaments by downloading the pornography Gugliata told officers he felt he was getting revenge against god news of the godly his gentleman a copyrighted feature of this broadcast on the subject of god and Jerry Lewis this from telephone memories now for those that were offended because i said the man upstairs goofed i'm not going to come out and apologize to you because that's what i believe i'm a very religious man and for those gods hearing people that think that i might have put down god by saying he goofed if you are indeed religious and if you indeed believe in god then you must believe that he's fallible

then you must believe he can in fact make an error you must believe if there is a god and i believe there is he's got to have a lot on his mind too well so of course you can take a revenge on it ladies and gentlemen this concludes this week's edition of the show the program it turns next week at the same time over the same station so for NPR worldwide throughout Europe on the use and 440 cable system in Japan around the world through the facilities of the American forces that were cupping down the east coast of North America by the shortwave giant WBCQ the planet on the mighty 104 in Berlin on soho radio in London

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chicago in exile in hawaita thanks as always the pampholstead and jenny lost in the wwano new orlands and also to jeffrey talbot at audio works in new orlands for assistance with today's project the show comes to you from century of progress productions and originates through the facilities of wwano new orlands flagship station of the change is easy radio network so long from the home of the homies