One deputy. Two missing men. What went wrong?

Plus, how a new school in Texas is igniting a passion for teaching in its students. [View this email online]( [NPR Up First Newsletter]( by Suzanne Nuyen April 30, 2023 Good morning. This week, [Tucker Carlson was fired]( [Bed Bath & Beyond went bankrupt]( and "[Dark Brandon]( joined the presidential race. Plus, Scott Simon muses on the EU's beef with Miller High Life. Best of NPR Two young men of color disappeared in Naples, Fla., three months apart, from the same street. They were last seen with Steven Calkins, a white sheriff's deputy, who became the only person of interest in both cases. Nearly two decades later, no one has ever been charged. What went wrong? [Cpl. Steven Calkins is seen on Monday morning, Sept. 13, 1999, at the scene where a boat fell off a trailer and blocked traffic.]( Michel Fortier/Naples Daily News NPR, WGCU Public Media, the Naples Daily News and The Fort Myers News-Press have [teamed up to revisit this case]( in The Last Ride, a new true crime podcast. Catch up now before the last three episodes air: 🚨 Join civil rights attorney Ben Crump and filmmaker Tyler Perry in the first episode to [explore the main details of the case](. 🚨 Hear more about Felipe Santos' story next. Calkins says he gave Santos a ride to a Circle K gas station in 2003. [He was never seen again](. 🚨 In 2004, Terrence Williams became the second man to go missing after a similar encounter with Calkins. His mother and stepfather [began their own investigation]( after the sheriff's office was unresponsive. 🚨 Next, Explore the inconsistencies between the [three polygraph tests]( Calkins took after the disappearances. 🚨 Then, listen to friends from Calkins' past shed more information on his life before moving to Florida. [Was he a good guy or a bad cop]( Catch new episodes of The Last Ride on Tuesdays. Participate in Public Media Giving Days Next week, we are celebrating Public Media Giving Days. Our work is only possible through the help of listeners, readers and supporters like you. We don’t have investors, owners, or shareholders. We hold ourselves accountable to you. If public media has ever made a positive impact in your life, we hope you’ll consider donating and supporting our mission. Every single gift makes a difference. [Donate today](. subscriberid%%--> --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- The Week That Was [ Christopher Olivarez, 15, helps students build model bottle rockets in Patrice Bravo's STEM lab at Nora Forester Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas.]( Kaylee Greenlee Beal for NPR This high school in San Antonio, Texas, has a bold experiment for raising the next generation of educators. The teens here all want to become teachers someday, and they're [practicing their skills]( on students at the nearby elementary school. 🎧 Listen to [why they're so passionate]( about the classroom. Oklahoma currently has three overlapping abortion bans, with different and sometimes contradictory definitions and exceptions. This means patients like Jaci Statton are given confusing information when they seek medical treatment for their pregnancies. Statton's molar pregnancy wasn't viable — and it was cancerous. But doctors told her they couldn't give her a medical abortion [unless she was much sicker]( and "crashing" in front of them. The possibilities for your WFH office are endless if you're an employee at Airbnb. The company implemented its "[Live and Work Anywhere]( policy a year ago. Workers are happier, and it's working out for Airbnb, too: Its attrition rate is at an all-time low and falling, and the company has hired more women and underrepresented minorities. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of people in prison or jail in the developed world, and experts say incarceration can have severe health impacts. Recent data shows a 46% jump in federal and state prison deaths in 202 from the year before. Research suggests prison could accelerate aging, and many who make it out are [released with conditions like cancer]( heart disease, and infectious diseases they developed while incarcerated. --------------------------------------------------------------- Podcast Picks [ An illustration of a hand holding out a bouquet of yellow flowers.]( Planet Flem Throughline: The past is never the past, and every headline has a history. Go back in time to understand the present with hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. 🎧 What makes an apology real? In this episode, listen to the stories of [three apologies throughout history]( explore how they worked, and decide whether they were effective. Seeking a Scientist from KCUR: There's no need to fear the future with Kate the Chemist on your side. Host Kate Biberdorf talks to scientists who guide us into the great unknown. 🎧 Kate's first episode tackles one of the scariest aspects of the future: aging. Is [getting older inevitable]( or is it something we can control? And if we could live forever, should we? The Sounds of America, from WAMU and NPR: 1A's award-winning series is an [annual collaboration with the Library of Congress]( showcasing recordings that are being preserved at the National Recording Registry. 🎧 Listen to Carla Hayden, America's 14th librarian of Congress, [discuss this year's inductees](. WAMU will highlight a [special artist or recording]( every week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Scott's Thoughts [A worker dumps empty cans of Miller High Life beer into a machine to be crushed at the Westlandia plant in Ypres, Belgium, on Monday.]( Comite Champagne via AP Bureaucrats are not known for metaphors. That’s probably good. Government regulations should read, “The tread of a tire shall be at least 2/32 of an inch in depth,” not, “The tread of a tire should be as deep as a falcon’s eyelash.” But I was surprised when I learned more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life Beer were intercepted at the port of Antwerp, Belgium. They were drained, then crushed (metaphor alert!) like ping-pong balls by a bulldozer. Miller High Life’s slogan has been "The Champagne of Beers" for more than a century. But EU officials saw that as some kind of a spurious claim that this Milwaukee brewski is trying to pass itself off champagne. It’s tempting to mock EU regulators as tedious desk jockeys. But I wonder if they haven’t opened a whole new line of bureaucratic engagement. The next time Shakespeare is performed in the EU and a love-struck Romeo exclaims, “But soft! What light through younger window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” an EU regulator could leap onstage to say, “Hold up here. Juliet is a 13-year-old girl. She is not the sun. That's a ball of fiery plasma about 93 million miles from the Earth, depending on the time of year. Go on, Romeo.” And Katy Perry might have a new hit in the EU if she sings, “Baby, you’re a device containing combustible chemicals.” How lyrical! On our show this week: a farewell to, and from, [Harry Belafonte](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. 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