On the show, we have noted and decried the lack of investigative journalism in American today. We aren’t the only people to have noticed; a group of concerned citizens with resources started ProPublica in 2007 and it has done great work. Partnering with commercial news organizations, ProPublica does investigative stories that are not economically viable […]

We have done several BTN segments on energy drinks; their safety, popularity and more. In today’s segment, I give those prior dates, for additional listening, if you choose! However, we do recap (to save you time!) and now have the very first jury trial result in one of these cases. There are also major developments […]

California just got blasted – literally – with massive fires that killed dozens of people, destroyed thousands of homes, buildings and businesses, and ruined many lives. The cost of the cleanup will be enormous, but the actual process of the cleanup itself is gargantuan. I began researching and what I saw; the story is eye-popping […]

California is starting a program – subject to pending litigation – that is similar to a state bank: A state-sponsored program that creates retirement-savings plans for workers not covered by employer-sponsored programs. There is this court challenge and that is a big part of the BTN today, but can a sovereign state start a program that […]

We use the phrase so many times per day, it makes “absolutely” seem underused! We even have two different funny clips of “O.K.” that we use regularly on the show! But, have you ever wondered where it came from? How it came to signify what it means? How long it has been in use? How […]

A doctor uses his own sperm to impregnate dozens of women. While he has many children, the women are violated in the most fundamental way. And the children have to live life knowing the circumstances of their creation. Then, there are children born with genetic conditions that were undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and the claims of […]

That California and much of the American West is in drought is now reasonably well known. How to deal with it is another matter. Conservation has been effective but without new water sources, conservation alone won’t get the job done. So, while casting about for new water sources, the ‘toilet-to-tap’ discussion has reemerged – in […]

Way back in history, people did not live long. Disease, war, unhygienic conditions, lots of reasons existed to keep people from living for many years. That all changed, of course, in recent centuries, but now, we are starting to see a backslide – especially in the United States. So, today, when we go Beyond The […]

It’s been a big story in the news lately and we covered it on the show, but the topic deserves further study: GM announced massive layoffs and plant closures, due to its shift of strategy to electric cars and SUV’s/light trucks. While it’s easy to get lost in the numbers (there’s some math death for […]

To some doctors, cancer treatment is barbaric; indiscriminate, it kills far more tissue than it needs to, to kill the cancer. The chemotherapy and radiation also have a lot of side effects, it’s brutal on the patient. For years now, there has been an effort to do ‘personalized medicine’ or ‘precision medicine’ where drugs are […]