Hours an hour the company's senior vice president Dave Clark says the pay raise will affect all workers full and part time as well as seasonal employees we said $15.00 is the place we want to be but we want to go now so we decided to votes November 1st just in time for the holiday for our employees Amazon is among N.P.R.'s financial supporters astronomers have discovered a dwarf planet in the furthest reaches of our solar system as N.P.R.'s Joe Palca explains the new object seems to confirm the existence of an as yet undiscovered giant planet astronomers from the Carnegie Institution for science 1st spotted the mini planet nicknamed the Goblin in 2015 it's only about 200 miles across it took 3 years of observations to determine its orbit and a strange orbit it is it's highly along gaited and somewhat tilted out of the Plain of the rest of the planets and asteroids it's also way way out there at its closest approach the goblin is still 6000000000 miles from the sun and it takes 40000 years to complete a single orbit many astronomers think the gravitational tug of a giant undiscovered planet is the best explanation for the unusual orbit of the Goblin and similar objects that have been found Joe Palca n.p.r. News the Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Physics Prize to 3 scientists today for their work in advancing laser technology the winners include American Arthur Ashkan for his work on using lasers as tweezers to move tiny objects and French minister and Canadian Donna Strickland for creating super fast laser pulses Strickland is only the 3rd woman to win a physics Nobel Prize on Wall Street the Dow is up 20 points at 26672 You're listening to n.p.r. It's 8 o 4 I'm Abigail Backman with 91.5 k. R.c.c. News a program that supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects across. The country has expired Congress couldn't agree on language to extend the Land and Water Conservation Fund yesterday despite backing from both parties a Senate panel is set to vote today on a bipartisan bill to permanently reauthorize the fund and ensure it's fully paid for one lawmaker described the fund as the quote key tool Congress uses to help preserve recreation opportunities and make cost effective use of public lands a tight rental market and a dwindling supply of affordable housing are putting a strain on renters in Colorado Springs with that in mind the city is hosting workshops to help tenants understand their rights 42 percent of Colorado Springs residents are renters of those nearly a 3rd spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent Catherine Duarte with the city's Community Development Office says rising prices make it especially important that renters know of their rights you know education like this can keep people in their homes longer we have in Colorado Springs a rather high eviction rate according 226000 numbers we had over 8 of it and per day on average the workshops will focus on leases even actions fair housing protections and other aspects of the law that apply to renters the 1st workshop is at 530 this evening at 1st Congregational Church in downtown Colorado Springs you are listening to 91.5 k. r C c News I'm Abigail Beckman support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Baird providing global financial resources and market expertise to clients the world over our w. Baird dot com has more information and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at our w j f dot org. Now you can tune into 91.5 k. R.c.c. Without lifting a finger just down your smart speaker to tune in. And you can also listen on our free mobile app it's available in the i Tunes store and at Google Play just search for k r c c. Coming up in Lebanon many people rely on Fortune Tellers for information on what's coming next they like to see that he wants to leave if it's because he would have too much stress than live on the more on how fortune telling provides a sort of therapy for people living in this politically unpretty Dick Dibble place that's coming up in 15 minutes on Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station 91.5 k. R.c.c. Insula It is 51 degrees a high today of 74 chance for thunderstorms in the Hunter It is 56 the high of 88 should be partly sunny today in Colorado Springs It's 56 degrees a high today of 77 in a slight chance for some afternoon thunderstorms. Yes you can have a great music 7 nights a week from 7 to midnight a 91.5 k. Or c c. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm Steve Inskeep Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is promising Republicans their moment the Kentucky senator has spent years leading the way in Republican efforts to dominate the courts Senate Republicans held many judgeships open for long periods during President Obama's administration even including a Supreme Court nomination that was blocked until after the 2016 election now a Republican Supreme Court nominee has been delayed and McConnell is determined to proceed for al of the land of structure of Congo quote. Georgetown of romanization it out of committee we're considering it here on the floor. And Mr President will be voting this way this week that means the f.b.i. Has a few days left to vet the nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces accusations of sexual misconduct an assault from decades ago the White House insists that agents now have the freedom to question anyone they want about those allegations those following the story include Chris Swecker assistant director of the f.b.i. From 2004 to 2006 Good morning Good morning Steve do you know I have confidence the bureau can go where it wants and speak to who ever wants to I do it's important or Stan what what this is this is a special inquiry that's a term of art within the f.b.i. And within their manuals of procedures and within the Justice Department it says it's a background check essentially for a presidential appointee. Has done thousands of these background checks for circuit court judges district court judges and cabinet level appointees so they're very accustomed to short deadlines the general usual deadline is $21.00 days to do the comprehensive check which they've already done 6 different times on Judge Kavanaugh so they have they're focusing in on the allegations Ok so it sounds like you think even though the there might normally have been more time a week is enough is that correct. Yes It's there's plenty of time to do what they need to do because again they're focusing in on specific allegations what we would call derogatory information that's come up during a spin which is the acronym for the special inquiry they have and we're not on limited resources but they have plenty of resources to get this done they'll send it there they have a command post at headquarters they're shooting leads all over the country agents will rush out immediately and do an interview or grab a record or do whatever they are assigned to do by the coordinator at have f.b.i. Headquarters so they're used to getting this done and they'll have something to report by Friday I guess they've already got some work they've already got some material to work with you've had the 2 principals testify under oath and on television we have names of other possible witnesses like Mark judge a man who was described as being in the room when Cavanagh was alleged to have been committing this assault who else would you want to hear from any of the any of the witnesses who who were just I mean excuse me Dr Ford said we're in the room or at the party or the mayor made it and anyone may they may have confided in to look for any record for example Dr forementioned Safeway employment records try to get their hands on that they'll try to identify the house interview the parents they'll be very comprehensive in the in the do it very quickly now we're referring of course here to Christine glossy Ford who was the principal accuser there are other accusers at least one other of whom it's believed to have been interviewed by the f.b.i. Is it normal in a background check like this to try to reconstruct events from more than 30 years ago. Now most background checks according to the manual go back 18 years so this is twice the time span that these these spins usually go but it's not finding derogatory information is not unusual No if the eye has done thousands of these the way to insulate themselves from being caught in the political storm is to do them the way they've always done them now you just said the political storm how difficult would that be at this moment for the f.b.i. When it's been under so much political pressure already. It complicates things I mean for one thing the not to be beat make a political statement but the delay caused some complications because if it had the complaint come in 6 weeks ago the f.b.i. Could have discreetly interviewed witnesses and been assured that they weren't getting details from the press and were you using their own independent recall as opposed to finding details in the press or having details imbedded in reporters' questions or your family your your noting that Dianne Feinstein the California senator along with another lawmaker had a letter from Christine Lahti Ford back in July we think but did not reveal it at 1st because of concerns about confidentiality and that that has taken things out of order I'd like to ask you just your gut sense in the end would you expect in a few days for f.b.i. Agents to come up with conclusive proof that that event did or did not happen in the early 1980 s. Or in the end is it more likely that senators are just going to have to look at a little better information and make a gut judgment I think it's that they're going to get a little better information maybe a lot better information but no conclusions will come out of it they don't make conclusions in these reports in that sense Joe Biden was correct they report the information they report any corroborating information that they have obtained or any contradicting information and then they provide the report to the president who will share it with the Senate that's the way they've always done these and that's why this was going to be done I guess people are being professionally questioned in a methodical way rather than hearing about one allegation then another allegation which is what's happening right now in the media. Correct and the sequencing of the interview will be that I believe Dr Ford and Brett Kavanaugh will be the last to be interviewed don't have as many answers in their hands as possible. To test out you know the details that will come out of those 2 interviews and I know they've been interviewed before but not by f.b.i. Agents so that it will be a very thorough interview they will have these people narrate and not provide them answers in the questions imbedded in the questions Ok Chris Swecker former assistant director of the f.b.i. Thanks very much thank you Steve. Right there was some big news out of one of the world's biggest companies today the Seattle based company Amazon announced that it plans to raise wages to $15.00 an hour that is for all full time part time and seasonal workers are going to start this next month it's a bold move for a company that's been in the spotlight lately and not in a good way necessarily hen p.r.s. Willing to sell you because here in the studio to talk through what this change means high and I Good morning and just a note here Amazon is one of N.P.R.'s financial supporter So Alina what other details can you share right so they should press release and here a few takes away from that take away from that you mentioned the $15.00 minimum wage will apply to full time part time and seasonal workers also importantly temporary workers of contract workers which is where a lot of the scrutiny has been for Amazon specifically they issued a number a few months ago saying that the median wage at Amazon was less than $29000.00 a year which is a very interesting contrast to the fact that the company also this year topped one trillion dollars and worse and so for the contract workers that $15.00 minimum wage will mean a lot also the number of employees that will be affected by this is pretty staggering it's more than 250000 homes on it well I mean I noted that you just talked about Amazon has been under a lot of very public scrutiny for how it. Treats its employees not just the median wage which you outline but just the conditions of workers this is this change a result of public scrutiny Well it's clear you know if you follow Amazon if you wait kind of long enough there will inevitably be some kind of a story in the news about. A specific it's usually specific warehouse in a specific location where some criticism comes up about the way that the employees were being monitored or how much money they make and in general Amazon usually comes back to that to say well actually all of our full time workers in warehouses as well do make $15.00 to begin with if you count all the benefits and things like that but the interesting thing is that this has become kind of a rallying cry Senator Bernie Sanders is going after Amazon for this c.e.o. Jeff Bezos came to speak in Washington a few weeks ago and I went to that and outside of the hotel there was a small group of protesters they describe themselves as socialists and mainly what they did talk about was specifically that optical kind of contrast of Jeff Bezos not just the wealthiest man in the world but the wealthiest man and history running a company where the employees were not making a huge amount of money and they had little signs talking specifically about that and the other thing to remember is just how she how vast Amazon has become in a few months recently right I mean the larger business context for this Amazon clearly is doing well in this moment so they're feeling like they can afford the change it's I think that's part of it and you know Amazon c.e.o. Jeff Bezos gets asked a lot about you know do you think your company's to big they did buy Whole Foods recently they have a variety of businesses getting into cloud services getting into deliveries I mean we're talking truck fleets of truck drivers fleets of warehouse workers fleets of you know call service people and he often turns it into a bit of a philosophical conversation about you know large institutions should be scrutinized You know it's not. When a large institutions anywhere should be scrutinized but the fact that they now do you have sort of this interesting span of workers in retail and on the business side kind of does make it an interesting development that that they're raising minimum wage I mean lawmakers on Capitol Hill you mentioned Bernie Sanders but others have been pushing for a federal minimum wage of $15.00 an hour how is this move now by Amazon such an important company how is that going to affect that effort well there's a really big thing in that press release that Amazon issued which is they're saying they are going to quote working to gain congressional support for an increase in the federal minimum wage which could be huge if you have one of the most valuable American companies now lobbying for a $15.00 minimum wage federally that could be really huge it's important to know that other companies have been moving toward this a lot of the states have been moving toward those target as one example I can offer of a company that is going for $15.00 by 2020 and also importantly in this moment the timing of this is interesting we're about to go into the holiday season and Amazon says it will pay its seasonal workers $15.00 This is perfectly timed for that that creates a lot of pressure on a lot of the other retailers that are battling in this really tight labor market for the exact same types of people who might be looking for employment during the holiday season all right create explainer n.p.r. Business reporter Alina cellular for us on this announcement that Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15.00 an hour thanks so much Alina thank you. This is n.p.r. News. On the next fresh air Michael Lewis author of the best selling books The Big Short and Moneyball tops about his new book The 5th risk it looks of the federal government under President Trump by focusing on Trump's departments of energy agriculture and commerce and how unprepared they are now to deal with urgent risks join us. Fresh air is today at noon this is Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station $91.00 k. R.c.c. The new traded agreement with Canada and Mexico would require automakers to boost the percentage of auto parts made in North America there are some parts that now have to be made with workers that are earning higher wages and that just means that the costs for automobiles are likely going to go up coming up at $830.00 potential impacts of the trade deal that's ahead in 10 minutes in Canyon City it is 60 degrees a high today of 84 slight chance for some rain in Pueblo 57 a high of 84 should be partly sunny today and in Colorado Springs it is 56 degrees a high today of 77 slight chance for some afternoon thunderstorms should be a little bit warmer for your Wednesday as well as mostly dry it is 821 and you are listening to Morning Edition on Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station 91.5 k. R.c.c. Stay with us. $91.00 k. R.c.c. 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News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm Steve Inskeep Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison faces an accusation of domestic abuse at least one investigation says the claim cannot be substantiated all though that investigation was paid for by the Minnesota Democratic Party Republicans have called it a sham and called for a probe by the Minnesota attorney general Brian backs to Minnesota Public Radio has more given the intense focus on assault allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh the Ellison situation is far from ideal for Democrats who want to cues are taken at face value Congressman Ellison his deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and want to crowded primary for Minnesota attorney general just days after the abuse allegations surfaced his ex-girlfriend care Monahan says he tried to polar from a bed by her feet 2 years ago while swearing at her she says she captured it on a cell phone video that she hasn't released it's not on 'd you'll keep try to keep proving to people this happened that was Monaghan in August speaking to Minnesota Public Radio about why putting out the footage would cause her more harm it's humiliating it's traumatizing for everyone's family involved and for me she wouldn't turn the video over to the party contracted investigator either it was the main reason the lawyer examining the case called the abuse claim unsubstantiated Ellison says there's no video because it didn't happen in a written statement he praised the investigator for a fair review and said he's ready to focus on more pressing issues last week he accused opponents of fixatin