--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, April 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how the surge in oil prices is affecting way more than what you pay at the pump, why some cities are getting rid of parking spaces, and the surprising case for brushing your dog's teeth. But first, let's take a quick look at several stories we're watching today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Idaho's Republican governor has signed a new anti-abortion bill into law. It makes it a crime for an adult to help a minor get an abortion or abortion pills out of state without parental permission. This matters a lot there because Idaho has some of America's strictest restrictions. It's the first abortion ban on interstate travel to be signed into law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwan's president in a show of support. China, unsurprisingly, is denouncing the meeting. It considers Taiwan part of its territory. McCarthy is the highest-ranking American politician to meet with a Taiwanese president while in the U.S.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Maryland's Attorney General says Baltimore's Catholic Church abused at least 600 children over six decades. This new report comes after a four-year investigation, which concludes there are probably way more victims it didn't uncover. Baltimore's Archbishop calls the report, quote, "shocking and soul-searing, a painful reminder of the harm caused by some ministers of the church."
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, let's go to Texas, where there are several new developments in the reckoning with gun violence. Dozens of high school students in Uvalde walked off their campus yesterday calling for better gun safety laws. The San Antonio Express News covered the protest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Next month marks one year since 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School. In Sutherland Springs Texas a new settlement deal has been reached in the case regarding the 2017 shooting at a Baptist church where a gunman killed 26 people. Survivors and victims families will get more than a million dollars. A judge assigned much of the blame for the shooting to the U.S. government for failing to report the gunman's troubled history to the FBI's background check system. He had been kicked out of the Air Force years before because of his violent history.
--:-- Jamal Al-Safar: Getting this type of closure for them, I think, solidifies and justifies the courage they showed in taking on the federal government, but also making the country safer by proving that background checks work. And when they're implemented, they can and will keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And when we come back, we'll talk about the economy and how the surprise cut in oil production is affecting the conversation about inflation and the broader economy.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: This week, the economy was dealt a giant wildcard. We thought we were gearing up for a week about jobs, with a big monthly report coming out tomorrow, and data earlier this week pointing to a possible slowdown in the labor market. But then OPEC leaders and their partners announced a major cut in oil production that nobody saw coming.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can hear just what a shock it was to experts in how the news broke on Bloomberg. The cut caught people off guard, but nobody was surprised by what happened next. Oil prices shot up. And just like that, the whole conversation about inflation and the broader economy changed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg brought in St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard. This was a surprise, the OPEC decision, but whether it will have a lasting impact I think is an open question. The Fed's job has two big goals, keep prices stable and maximize sustainable employment. The oil surprise adds yet another tricky factor that makes it hard to see what's around the corner.
--:-- Jim Bullard: Oil prices fluctuate around. It's hard to track exactly. Some of that might feed into inflation and make our job a little bit more difficult. It's pretty easy to understand the connection between oil prices and gasoline prices, because people see it every day when they drive by a gas station.
--:-- Jim Bullard: But higher oil prices can drive inflation in many other ways. Think about the added cost for transporting goods across the country that end up on store shelves. And oil is used to make plastics in all kinds of things that we use every day. And that all gets us back to the enduring issue that we feel at the grocery store and the best minds in economics still haven't figured out how to beat inflation. It did dip a bit recently, but it's still way too high for economists to feel good.
--:-- Jim Bullard: This OPEC move could help send inflation right back up. And you could feel it even if you don't have a car.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So for this next story, let's say you do have a car. Maybe you've spent what seems like hours circling a city block, searching for a parking spot. At times like that, it can feel like there are never enough spaces. But the Wall Street Journal reports on how many urban planners believe lots of American cities actually have the opposite problem. Way too much parking.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One estimate says there could be up to seven parking spaces for every registered vehicle in America. And research shows parking garages in most cities are often at least 20 percent empty. Many cities are now rethinking all of those parking spots and using them instead for developing housing, offices and stores.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The journal explains America's parking glut dates back to zoning laws from the 1950s. As car ownership boomed, planners worried that there wouldn't be enough spots. So cities and towns across the country impose these hyper-detailed parking spot rules. In Los Angeles, for example, churches must include one parking spot for every five seats in the pews. Hospitals must provide two spaces per bed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But in recent decades, researchers started to challenge the rationale of those rules. Studies show many spots are rarely used, and a parking garage in a building can make the rent about 17% more expensive, even for renters who don't have cars. Developers say that when they build buildings with less parking, they can fit more units in, charge lower rents, and still make more money.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 2017 Buffalo New York became one of the first big cities to eliminate minimum parking requirements. New construction flourished. These places still had parking just a little bit less of it since developers were forced to set aside space for cars. Recently many other cities have removed some minimum parking requirements, too, including New York and San Francisco, as well as smaller cities like Norman, Oklahoma and Bend, Oregon.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Experts say these changes could help reduce traffic congestion and cut down the national housing shortage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's end with a story about dogs that I read from top to bottom, even though I don't have a dog. It hooked me with the question, when did people start brushing their dog's teeth? Feels like it didn't used to be a thing, and now vets recommend it daily. And the answer, as The Atlantic explains it, was way more interesting than I expected.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are some more obvious reasons, like the growing market for doggy dental products. Also, the changing relationship between Americans and their pets. For many, a dog is more like a family member. And the more time that owners spend snuggled with their pets, the more likely they are to catch a whiff of bad breath, a potential symptom of gum disease.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the biggest factors are from changes in veterinary medicine. The majority of vet schools today have dentistry curriculums. And that wasn't always the case, even though gum disease is common among dogs. Across the board, there's now more focus on preventative care. Just like for humans, canine dental care isn't cheap. So daily brushing can save people money while helping your dog's health, even if most of them hate every single second of it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. We'll also have coverage of the first round of the Masters today. If you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article from GQ to get you in the golf spirit. It goes inside the Netflix series Full Swing. The show is way more dramatic now that the pro golf world is split between the PGA Tour and the controversial Saudi-backed Liv Golf. That's queued up to play for you next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
