NBA superstar Kobe Bryant fined $100,000 for anti-gay slur. Medical marijuana patients’ right to work. Barry Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice. Mayor Villaraigosa on the State of the City. All he rote: one journalist’s adventure in memorization.
Kobe Bryant’s anti-gay offensive foul
This year’s NBA season has provided no shortage of drama. Tuesday night, during the second-to-last regular season Lakers game against the San Antonio Spurs, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant added to that drama by throwing a tantrum after being called for a technical foul. As Bryant returned to the bench the superstar pushed a chair and muttered an anti-gay slur directed at referee Bennie Adams. Blue language is endemic in professional sports and the NBA has let similar incidents slide without fines in the past. But this time, the NBA slapped Bryant with a $100,000 fine. NBA Commissioner David Stern stated that Bryant’s actions were "offensive and inexcusable.” Bryant has been contrite in the wake of the incident stating that his comment was made during the heat of the game and "should not be taken literally.” Despite Bryant’s apology, gay rights groups have lambasted him over the comment. What do Bryant’s actions say about off-the-cuff comments? Could any of your daily language be considered offensive if you were constantly in the public eye?
Medical marijuana patients’ right to work
What happens if you have a legal medical marijuana prescription and you test positive in a workplace drug test? Currently it’s grounds for dismissal or for not hiring someone in the first place. New legislation that just passed the Senate Judiciary Committee would make it unlawful “for an employer to discriminate against” persons who are authorized under state law to use medical marijuana. It would also declare it unlawful “for an employer to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment or otherwise penalize a person, if the discrimination is based upon the person's status as a qualified patient or a positive drug test for marijuana,” if the drug test result is indicative of previous, off-the-job marijuana use. A similar bill passed the senate and assembly in 2008 but was vetoed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, so is the climate any different now? Business owners are clearly fearful of liability issues, but what other reasons do they have for strongly opposing this legislation? And what about federal drug laws that are already in place?
Guests:
John Kabateck, Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business, California
Joe Elford, Chief Counsel, Americans for Safe Access. He helped state Sen. Mark Leno draft this legislation
Barry Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice
Home-run slugger Barry Bonds was convicted Wednesday of obstruction of justice by a federal jury in San Francisco. But jurors failed to reach agreement on three perjury counts at the heart of the case. The verdict indicates that jurors believe that Bonds lied when he testified to a grand jury in 2003 that his trainer never injected him with a needle. However, they couldn’t agree whether he knowingly lied about using steroids and human growth hormone. Will there be a retrial on the three perjury counts? What kind of sentencing will Bonds face?
Guest:
Michael McCann, Sports Illustrated Legal Expert
Mayor Villaraigosa on the state of education
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa delivered his sixth State of the City address on Wednesday at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. As the choice for venue implies, the mayor is focusing on education reform as the city’s biggest issue this year, calling for less strict regiments and curricula for teachers, higher pay for the top instructors and an overall stronger education system for less fortunate students. Meanwhile, the city faces a deficit of $350 million and Villaraigosa is not explicitly tackling the issue of cutting spending. This is one of the last key moments the mayor will have to write his own legacy before he is out of power in 2013. Is he setting himself up for success or failure? How exactly does he propose to improve education here in Los Angeles? Is he knowingly ignoring the city’s real problems?
Guests:
Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles
A.J. Duffy, President of UTLA
That's all he rote: one journalist’s adventure in memorization
What are all the prime numbers under 10,000? Can you recite Hamlet’s soliloquies verbatim? If asked to memorize the order of a deck of cards in one hour, could you do it? While such requests might seem patently absurd, they are fully within the realm of possibility for the average human being’s brain. In Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, Joshua Foer foregoes the current trend of relying on smartphones and the internet to keep track of information. Instead he focuses on the forgotten art of memorizing and remembering using classic approaches such as visual imagery and mnemonic devices. At first, Foer takes a strictly scientific, journalistic approach to the topic by interviewing various “memory champions”, before deciding to try his hand, or rather his brain, at the seemingly impossible endeavor. What did Foer learn about how the human mind works? How did an average journo become the 2006 U.S. Memory Champion? And will any of this help us remember where we left our keys?
Guest:
Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (Penguin Press)