Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) wants to force companies like Apple to help the government gain access to encrypted data; UC Davis tests how much an online reputation is worth; and we look at how Southern California's museums are adapting to the digital age.
Feinstein-backed bill to mandate Apple and others to help FBI access encrypted data
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) unveiled a proposal that would force companies like Apple to help the government gain access to encrypted data on a computer or mobile device with a court order.
The draft proposal comes less than a month after the federal government dropped its lawsuit against Apple over encrypted data housed on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The Senators could introduce the bill as early as this week. Its chances at passage seem questionable, though, after the White House declined to give its support. Critics say the proposal would roll back privacy rights of consumers and leave data vulnerable to attack.
Guests:
Patrick Howell O’Neill, reporter at the Daily Dot, an online publication that covers tech- and internet-related issues. He’s been reporting on the encryption debate
Jeffrey Addicott, professor of law at St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio, where he is the director of the Center for Terrorism Law
Nate Cardozo, Senior Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world
As L.A. Olympic bid progresses, local State Senator proposes bill to create contingency fund for Games
Four cities remain in the hunt for the right to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Hamburg, Germany, dropped from the race in November, which leaves Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Los Angeles in contention.
Here in L.A., the city and the bid committee are hard at work figuring out logistical issues like where athletes will stay and how they’ll get around, where venues will be and, maybe most importantly, how to pay for it all. Los Angeles State Senator Kevin de Leon is looking to make the bid more palatable financially. He’s introduced a bill that would create a $250 million contingency fund that would cover revenue shortfalls.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll check in on the city’s bid for the 2024 Games, talk about what impact Senator de Leon’s bill could have on it, and dig into exactly how the city plans to cover the cost of the Olympics.
Guests:
Ed Hula, editor in chief of Around the Rings, a publication devoted to covering the Olympics
Zev Yaroslavsky, former Los Angeles County Supervisor; he tweets from
Debating UC Davis' attempt to scrub its reputation on the Internet
To clean up its online reputation, the University of California, Davis paid $175,000 for an attempt to minimize negative search engine results about a November 2011 pepper spray incident between UC Davis police and student protesters.
An investigation by The Sacramento Bee shows the public university hired two online reputation management firms to minimize negative search engine results that flooded the Internet.
The program was funded by the UC Davis’ communications department in efforts to highlight positive search results about the university and its Chancellor Linda Katehi. Speaking in defense of the strategy, UC Davis spokeswoman Dana Topousis told The Bee, “We have worked to ensure that the reputation of the university, which the chancellor leads, is fairly portrayed.... We wanted to promote and advance the important teaching, research and public service done by our students, faculty and staff, which is the core mission of our university.”
Communications experts say the actions by UC Davis were executed terribly.
Guests:
Ira Kalb, Assistant Professor of Clinical Marketing, USC's Marshall School of Business; President, Kalb & Associates, a consulting firm
Doug Elmets, President of Elmets Communications - public affairs consultants in Sacramento
With new audiences and tech, LA's museums evolving to stay relevant
The Natural History Museum announced this morning that they’re launching an urban biodiversity center.
It’s part of a larger movement among museums big and small to become less of a museum of past artifacts and more of a living research institution through which to understand our current world.
Civic engagement is a big part of it as these living museums ask people to help amass this data by being the eyes and ears on the ground. Museums to varying degrees are experimenting with their own apps, tablets, virtual reality and other tech to increase curiosity and draw in the ever-coveted millennial audience. But it can be a fine line between reaching new audiences and alienating an older, more traditional one.
We talk with museum curators and watchers about how museums are changing in the digital age. What are your favorite museums? Why? Are there things you’d like to see your local museums do? What made you decide to become a museum member if you have?
Guests:
Susana Smith Bautista, director of public engagement at the USC Pacific Asia Museum and author of "Museums in the Digital Age: Changing Meanings of Place, Community, and Culture"
Rob Stein, Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer, American Alliance of Museums
The place of the conservative professor in left-leaning academe
The American university is by and large a left-leaning place. So where does it leave conservative professors whose beliefs run counter to the progressive climate of academia?
That’s the question Claremont McKenna professor Jon Shields and University of Colorado professor Joshua Dunn sought to answer in their new book, “Passing on the Right.”
Shields and Dunn spoke to a number of conservative professors for the first-ever book-length study on the topic, and what they found might surprise most people.
Most conservative professors say that the university is a far more tolerant place than its right-wing critics imagine. Some say they feel more comfortable in academia than in the Republican Party. Still, many professors admit to hiding what they believe from others at the university before they get tenure. Some openly conservative professors even say they were badly mistreated because of their politics.
Guest:
Jon Shields, co-author of the book, “Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progress University” (Oxford University Press, 2016). He is an associate professor in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College