Today on AirTalk we'll discuss former Rutgers coach Mice Rice's behavior on and off the court, examine a California hemp farming bill, and consider whether college athletes should be paid. Later, we'll talk about the Affordable Care Act as it applies to healthcare for seniors, look at changes to the housing market, and weigh the implications of AP style changes.
Rutgers fires basketball coach Mike Rice after controversial video goes viral
How far should a coach go to motivate players? According to Rutgers University, men’s basketball coach Mike Rice went way too far. The university fired Rice today, a day after a video of his vitriolic coaching style was put online. The footage, taken from the team’s practices between 2010 and 2012, shows Rice shoving and kicking his players, as well as shouting obscenities and sexually discriminatory slurs.
This is not the first time Rice has run into problems with his questionable coaching tactics. In December, Rice was suspended by Tim Pernetti, Rutger’s athletic director, for three games and was fined $50,000. ESPN’s Outside the Lines, which broke the story, is reporting that the suspension came after Pernetti viewed a 30-minute video of the team’s practices.
Rice’s dismissal was announced by Rutgers via Twitter. The tweet said: “Based upon recently revealed information and a review of previously discovered issues, Rutgers has terminated the contract of Mike Rice.”
Guest:
Chris Dufresne, college basketball & football columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Will this be the hemp bill that Brown doesn’t veto?
Yesterday in Sacramento, a Senate committee passed a new bill that could legalize hemp production in California if - and that's a big “if” - the federal government ever changes hemp’s illicit status. The fight over hemp cultivation has been going for years across the country. Law enforcement worry the plant can be used to camouflage recreational, illegal marijuana. Some businesses say the economics make enforcement worth our while. In the meantime, those textile, soap and food businesses import hemp legally from countries including Canada and China.
Nearly a dozen states have passed mostly symbolic legislation supporting hemp farming. However federal law still prohibits the business. This new bill includes language that recognizes that fact, potentially avoiding veto by Governor Jerry Brown.
How else could legalized hemp complicate law enforcement efforts? Is the fate of hemp forever tied to the legal status of marijuana? Would importing hemp still be cheaper even if it were legal to grow in California?
Guests:
Patrick Goggin, California Legal Counsel for Vote Hemp
John Lovell, Government Relations Manager, California Police Chiefs Association
College sports are big business, but should college athletes be paid?
As we watch the Final Four of both men’s and women’s NCAA basketball this weekend, during commercial breaks we can debate whether student athletes should be paid or if they should play for the pure love of the game and their school.
Former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon and others who’ve joined him in what could end up being a class-action lawsuit know how they feel on the topic. With all the money being made from their talents and their likenesses, they feel like athletes deserve a cut of the money schools get from the NCAA. O’Bannon isn’t alone. Many experts and fans think that, as lawyer and Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College Warren Zola writes, “NCAA amateurism is an illusion, and quite likely an antitrust violation.”
Do you think college athletes should get a cut of the money they help bring into schools? Or should scholarships, opportunities, and love of university be enough?
Guests:
Warren Zola, lawyer and Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College
Andrew Zimbalist, Robert A. Woods Professor of economics at Smith College and author of “Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports” (Princeton University Press, 1999)
What the Affordable Care Act means for seniors
Call it Obamacare, call it health care reform, call it whatever you want. The overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act just had its third birthday. Some provisions are already in place and by 2014, major parts of the law are supposed to be up and running.
Still, many people are confused as to how the law will impact them personally. Take one group for example: seniors. Reimbursement for Medicare Advantage, which provides care for seniors who opt to get their Medicare benefits through private insurance plans, was supposed to be slashed under health care reform. But the government said on April 1 that it is actually going to raise the program’s payment rate for 2014 as opposed to cutting it. California is among 15 states that will start a pilot program to enroll “dual eligibles” – seniors with both Medicare and Medi-Cal – into a managed care plan this year.
How would health care reform affect seniors? How would proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage impact seniors with Medicare? Is the “dual eligibles” program beneficial for low-income seniors?
Guests:
Gerald Kominski, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Avik Roy, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for Forbes and National Review
Does the recovering housing market keep away investment buyers?
After seven years, the housing market is finally recovering and sale prices are finally up again, according to a recent report by analytics firm CoreLogic. In February, sale prices rose by 10.2 percent compared to last year, the highest annual gain since March 2006. CoreLogic also projects that sale prices will steadily rise. The report shows this is a national trend, but the states topping the list are Nevada, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Idaho.
Interestingly, do these numbers keep away real estate investors? MoneyWatch reported that the number of institutional investors and investment properties are decreasing. When the housing market was low, investors seized the opportunity to buy foreclosures and flip them or rent them out, but with sale prices on the upswing, the properties are no longer lucrative investments.
How do these two factors affect the economy? Will traditional sales make up the loss from investment purchases? Why is the housing market changing?
Guest:
Paddy Hirsch, Senior Producer of Personal Finance at Marketplace; author of “Man vs. Markets: Economics Explained (Plain and Simple)" (HarperBusiness, 2012)
AP to media: Drop the I-word
Times change and so, thankfully, does the use of outmoded, inaccurate or offensive terms. Associated Press, long the arbiter of style for journalists, has revised its Stylebook year after year, ultimately shedding archaic terms like “Oriental,” “mentally retarded” and “homophobia.” The latest language to go under the knife is “illegal immigrant” when referring to someone who is living or immigrating to a country illegally. It’s a change that’s long overdue, say immigrant advocates.
They’ve long maintained that these terms, used either as adjectives or as nouns, reduce the complicated gradations of immigration status to a black-and-white, either-or issue. For example, many immigrants described as “undocumented” actually do have papers that allow them to be living in the country legally. From now on, AP instructs writers to use these words to refer to actions, rather than descriptions:
“illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.”
The AP admits that the new language may be awkward for writers. But eventually, accuracy should win out over facility – just in time for the big immigration policy battle heating up in Congress, and the slew of news coverage it will inevitably bring.
Have you been bothered by the term “illegal” to describe immigrants? Does changing the way media refers to a class of people lead to change in public attitudes? Are there archaic or offensive labels still out there in common use that you’d like to see retired for good?
Guest:
Phuong Ly, executive director, The Institute for Justice and Journalism; founder of Gateway California, a nonprofit that connects journalists and immigrants