2019
January
08
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

January 08, 2019
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Here are three true stories that might just challenge your assumptions about the homeless and integrity.

A year ago, Elmer Alvarez found a $10,000 check. He didn’t try to cash it, he searched for its owner and found her. In gratitude, New Haven, Conn., real estate broker Roberta Hoskie put a roof over his head for seven months and put him through real estate school.

When Kevin Booth found $17,000 in cash in a paper bag outside a food bank in Sumner, Wash., he didn’t pocket the cash. The homeless man turned it in. Police investigated, found no evidence of a crime and no one claimed it. The money was given to the food bank last month. After Mr. Booth was praised by police for his honesty, a GoFundMe campaign collected more than $14,000 for him.

In Milan, Italy, a vlogger who stages “Candid Camera”-style ethics tests, dressed as a homeless man in a park. After people walked by, he ran after them saying he’d just found a €20 bill on the ground. Was it theirs? The final honesty score: 11 took the bill, only five said the bill wasn’t theirs.

Would you pass that integrity test? Is your honesty worth €20 or $10,000?

Mr. Alvarez, the man who returned the $10,000 check, recently told CBS News that just because a person is without a home, it doesn't mean they're without character.

Now to our five selected stories, including a look at justice for those affected by sex trafficking, at collaboration with Canada, and at the power of play in Mexico.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) holds a news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi at the start of a Middle East tour in Amman, Jordan, Jan. 8.

A deeper look

Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean/AP
Trafficking survivor Cyntoia Brown appeared in court during a clemency hearing at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville in May. State Democratic lawmakers were among those urging Republican Gov. Bill Haslam to grant her clemency for killing the man who bought her for sex when she was 16; he did so in January 2019.
Whitney Eulich
Suri Amaizani Gonzalez Peña meets with a physical therapist at the Federico Gómez Children’s Hospital in Mexico City in August. Suri, 5, is part of a pilot program in public health centers and preschools across Mexico that ‘prescribes’ play to improve early childhood development.

The Monitor's View

Reuters
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a military parade in Caracas Dec. 17.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Eurokinissi/AP
Snow covered parts of the ancient Acropolis in Athens Jan. 8. Schools in the Greek capital and many surrounding areas were to remain closed due to rare weather conditions after snowfall blanketed the city, with temperatures in some parts of the country plunging well below freezing.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a story about a global trend inspired by the Swedish pastime of plogging – that’s picking up litter as you jog.

More issues

2019
January
08
Tuesday
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