--:-- Georgia Howe: You know your credit score, even your Uber rating, but did you know you've likely been assigned an ESG score as well? Is the U.S. quietly adopting China's social credit scoring system?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's April 6th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: More women are turning to social media to report being assaulted in New York City. I was literally just walking, and then a man came up and punched me in the face. I just got punched in the face walking home. I was with my co-workers walking in Times Square, so be safe out there. What's causing the violent attacks and what's being done to the perpetrators? And are your Eclipse viewing glasses ready? We have all the details on where, when, and how to watch Monday's total solar eclipse.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wall Street has used ESG scores for a number of years to pressure big companies to prioritize progressive social goals over financial returns. Now some investment firms have begun giving ESG scores to individuals and small businesses. something critics warn is akin to China's social credit system. Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, you've covered ESG at length on this show. It's basically a social credit score for big businesses. But now there's evidence that financial institutions are rating customers?
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, I'd say it's only beginning to develop, but we do have some examples of where it is already happening. So in 2021, for instance, Merrill Lynch, which is a wealth management division of Bank of America, started assigning customers personal ESG scores.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, we have to remember that big money managers like BlackRock and Vanguard were deciding whether to invest clients' money in companies based on how well the companies prioritized issues like, say, climate change or diversity. And they argued that this was for the benefit of their investors.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, now Merrill Lynch is rating customers based on which companies the customers choose to invest in, with higher scores going to clients who invest in preferred companies, again, based on those social goals.
--:-- Megan Basham: So does this apply primarily to very high net worth individuals?
--:-- Megan Basham: No, not at all, actually. The Heartland Institute, which is a conservative think tank that favors free markets, found that Merrill Lynch has given the vast majority of its individual investment accounts these scores, including those that are worth less than $1,000. So that would be just about everybody.
--:-- Megan Basham: And there are a lot of research and analysis companies offering to essentially screen individuals for certain values and then sell that data to corporations. For example, one of these companies, No ESG, stresses that lenders shouldn't rely just on credit history anymore when making loan decisions.
--:-- Megan Basham: They suggest that ESG scores, based on things like what kind of car you drive and how responsible, quote unquote, your purchase history is, should be used in hiring and promotion decisions as well.
--:-- Megan Basham: I'm just gonna quote a little bit directly from their published information. Many companies now believe that only individuals who prioritize corporate sustainability can be trusted with high responsibility tasks.
--:-- Megan Basham: As a result, individuals with high personal ESG scores are more likely to receive employment, partnership investment and other corporate opportunities close quote
--:-- Megan Basham: Now to go along with that in 2021 a FICO analyst predicted that these personal ESG scores would eventually be used in making lending decisions.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I spoke to Dr. Paul Mueller, who is an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, and he tells me he's heard of this happening more in Europe, but that it's not surprising that ESG is moving in this direction here.
--:-- Megan Basham: This has already happened with firearms. J.P. Morgan has been very restrictive on what you can purchase, like whether you can use a J.P. Morgan credit card to purchase firearms. They've been very restrictive in that regard.
--:-- Megan Basham: But it bleeds over into other areas as well. So again, I'm not as sure about how far they've pushed this at the individual level, but they certainly have done it.
--:-- Megan Basham: So imagine you're a small business person who wants to start a lawn care company or a restaurant and you need a loan to buy equipment. A bad ESG score might mean that some banks don't want to lend to you, even though you're a low financial risk.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, you mentioned Merrill Lynch is already doing this. What about other banks?
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, it's really hard to tell because these scores would be internal. So it wouldn't necessarily be public information, meaning people wouldn't even necessarily know that they're being negatively impacted by a low score.
--:-- Megan Basham: But as I said, as I dug into this topic, I found a number of data analysis companies like Digenex that are already selling this kind of analysis to financial institutions. So clearly someone is buying it.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, some people would say, though, that private businesses have the right to choose their customers.
--:-- Megan Basham: Right. Well, Mueller told me that the issue is these financial institutions that would be using these scores aren't private businesses. It isn't their money that they're lending out.
--:-- Megan Basham: Just because you work at J.P. Morgan doesn't mean JP Morgan is your company, right? You don't own it. The shareholders own it.
--:-- Megan Basham: And so this idea, this is where a lot of attorney generals have really pushed back and state legislatures have said, hey, you know what? Your company, even if it's a big company, even if you work there, it's not your personal playground, right?
--:-- Megan Basham: It's not your house. It's not your small business. Like, you are a public company with fiduciary responsibilities to your shareholders.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, very similar to the argument that red states have been making about BlackRock and their pension funds.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yep. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime. In just the past two weeks, two Hollywood actors and two female TikTokers each reported being punched, hit, or mugged while traveling in New York City.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The attacks come as assaults have risen in the Big Apple compared to last year, along with a growing sense of danger in the city.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here with the latest is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: So Ash, let's start with the female victims. What do we know?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, these were two separate attacks, both occurring on March 25th, on two women who each had large followings on TikTok.
--:-- Ash Short: These actually weren't the only two attacks of this nature, but they were the most publicized due to the size of their social media platforms.
--:-- Ash Short: They both report being punched in the face by a random stranger while walking in New York City, and their videos show their faces with obvious injuries as they explain a similar situation.
--:-- Ash Short: Each was walking alone and a random man came up and punched them in the face and kept walking.
--:-- Ash Short: One of the victims is Haley McGookin, who has more than one million followers. Police have said an arrest was made in her case.
--:-- Ash Short: The other victim, Michaela Toninato, was diagnosed with a concussion and had a black eye and chipped tooth as a result of her attack.
--:-- Ash Short: The New York Times confirmed that she went to the hospital for her injuries.
--:-- Ash Short: So were the two attacks connected?
--:-- Ash Short: Well initially people on social media were calling the attacker one man after several women reported very similar crimes But since then there have actually been three separate arrests and there no direct evidence they were connected
--:-- Ash Short: Police also won call it a trim but New York City Mayor Eric Adams did say there were a troubling number of random acts of violence in the city.
--:-- Ash Short: Just last week, a 57-year-old woman was sucker-punched in broad daylight by a man with a history of similar crimes in a seemingly unrelated incident.
--:-- Ash Short: 33-year-old Franz Judy broke the woman's jaw and knocked out several of her teeth.
--:-- Ash Short: And even after the attack, he was released from jail on supervised release.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, he has two other assault charges on his rap sheet and a history of mental illness.
--:-- Ash Short: But while these attacks on women receive the most media coverage, men in general are far more likely to be the victim of physical assaults.
--:-- Ash Short: Has there been a rise in assaults in general in New York?
--:-- Ash Short: Police statistics show that felony assaults are up 3% from the same time last year, and misdemeanor assaults are up 10%.
--:-- Ash Short: The increase in felony assaults against women seems to have ramped up over time, with a 40% increase in the past four years.
--:-- Ash Short: So speaking of male victims, which you mentioned earlier, on Sunday there were two male actors who were also assaulted.
--:-- Ash Short: What do we know about their cases?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, 30-year-old Broadway actor John Cardoza, who plays younger Noah in a Broadway production of The Notebook, told followers on Instagram that he was robbed at gunpoint at a Harlem Dunkin' Donuts shop around 2 p.m. on Sunday.
--:-- Ash Short: Cardoza says he offered to buy the assailant lunch because he didn't have cash, but the situation, quote, escalated from there pretty quickly.
--:-- Ash Short: Police say the man, who had his hand in his pocket, told the actor, I have a gun.
--:-- Ash Short: According to police, the man ended up taking off with the Broadway actor's wallet containing personal items and $9 in cash.
--:-- Ash Short: No arrest has been made yet.
--:-- Ash Short: And that robbery happened on the same day Boardwalk Empire actor Michael Stolberg was attacked while in Central Park.
--:-- Ash Short: Stolberg was reportedly out running in the park around 7.45 p.m. on Sunday when he was struck in the back of the head by a rock.
--:-- Ash Short: Police later arrested a man named Xavier Israel who has an arrest history for assaults in the area.
--:-- Ash Short: Fortunately, Stolberg wasn't seriously injured.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, are police taking any specific action to get the assault numbers down?
--:-- Ash Short: It's not necessarily the cops that are failing in these instances. In both cases where arrests were made, the perpetrators had previous histories of similar crimes or a history of mental illness.
--:-- Ash Short: And instead of being sent to prison or receiving treatment, they were released back onto the streets.
--:-- Ash Short: And the bail reform laws that allow that to happen are still in place.
--:-- Ash Short: In the past month, Governor Kathy Hochul brought in the state police and National Guard to help make the city's subway system safer.
--:-- Ash Short: But even with the National Guard presence, a man was still pushed to his death in front of a subway car last week.
--:-- Ash Short: And again, if criminals don't receive penalties, they'll go back on the streets no matter how many police are in the subway.
--:-- Ash Short: Well, dangerous time to be walking in New York, it sounds like.
--:-- Ash Short: Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime. time. On April 8th, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to view a total solar eclipse.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The event is expected to cause a massive spike in travel as millions of eclipse chasers flock to the narrow path of totality to experience the phenomenon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss is meteorologist and member of the Capital Weather Gang, Matthew Capucci.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Matthew, thanks so much for coming on.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: My pleasure.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Now, first of all, what is a total solar eclipse and how often do they occur?
--:-- Matthew Capucci: So a total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth every 18 months or so But your odds of seeing one at your location are on average once every about 375 years so they really are a once thing
--:-- Matthew Capucci: They occur when the moon passes in front of the sun. Now, the sun is 400 times wider than the moon, but is also 400 times farther away.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: And so it's this perfect, incredible overlap that only lasts for seconds on the minute, and during that, day turns to night over a very narrow swath of Earth.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: It looks completely like dusk. The animals start to fall asleep.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: But the most amazing thing is that when all the light from the sun is fully blocked, you can see the sun's corona or the atmosphere.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: And that's the only time those of us on Earth can actually see it.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: So where is the path that this eclipse is going to travel across the U.S.?
--:-- Matthew Capucci: The path begins in Mexico and then passes near San Antonio, Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Little Rock, Arkansas, and then eventually towards places like Indianapolis, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Vermont, and near Presque Isle, Maine.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: So it's a pretty widespread swath of the U.S. in terms of population. Big name cities are in the path.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Unfortunately, weather will be a limiting factor for many folks across the southern plains and even the Ozarks.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: I'm more optimistic in better conditions across the northeast.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Now, every time this happens, you hear about people getting permanent blindness. What causes that?
--:-- Matthew Capucci: So I feel like that's almost a warning that we sort of overemphasize. But realistically, we wouldn't ordinarily stare at the sun, so we shouldn't during an eclipse.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: The only time it's safe to directly look at the sun is when the moon is fully covering it during those fleeting moments of totality.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Otherwise, if you're going to try to observe the sun, you have to do it indirectly. So looking in the shadows of trees, or you could do it by wearing special eclipse glasses that filter out about 200,000 times the normal sunlight.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: So you need special eclipse glasses or welding goggles of shade 14 or greater.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: And the important thing, too, make sure whatever you do is ISO or AAS certified.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: If you're buying eclipse glasses, look in the little side, the arm thing, and you'll see the ISO or AAS logo.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Those are folks who specially certify glasses to make sure they are safe and they're not counterfeit glasses, which was an issue back in 2017.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Now, if you are near the path of the solar eclipse, but not precisely in it, will you get a partial view?
--:-- Matthew Capucci: You will, but partiality and totality are literally night and day.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: During totality, you're fully in darkness. It's nighttime for just a few quick seconds.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: You see things that are unlike anything else experienced on Earth.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: If you're even a mile outside that path, it doesn't get dark.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: You can't see the corona, the sun's atmosphere. You won't have the sudden nightfall.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: And the experience will just be interesting, but not the kind of awe-evoking experience that happens in totality.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: It'll be cool, but you have to be in the path.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: I've been begging all my friends to go. I'm actually bringing 18 people into the path of totality.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: I'm renting a bus and we're all going to go do it.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: It's one of those things that everybody has to experience in their lifetime.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: And until someone does, there's no way to actually understand why it's so special.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: It's one of those things that is ineffable. You have to see it, to believe it, to understand it, and to understand why people have such an emotional, visceral response to it.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Well, I actually traveled to spray Oregon in 2017, so I know what you mean.
--:-- Matthew Capucci: Matthew, thanks so much for coming on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back early tomorrow with another edition of Morning Wire.
