How safe are we if TSA screeners are running drugs? Should kids be prevented from working on family farms? Mad cow disease is discovered in California’s Central Valley. AirTalk Event: The history and future of Hollywood film music. Plus, the latest news.
Following drug smuggling accusations, how effective is the TSA?
Four current and former TSA employees at LAX have been accused of allowing luggage with smuggled drugs to pass through security checkpoints. In a series of coordinated events, Naral Richardson, a former TSA employee, allegedly orchestrated activity between drug couriers and current TSA workers to ensure that these crimes would go unnoticed.
According to reports, one courier was told to get in the back of the line so that he would go through security when John Whitfield, a TSA screener, was manning the X-ray machine. That way, the eight pounds of methamphetamine in the courier’s carry-on would not raise any red flags. Also, the courier indicated he had a pacemaker, which was not true, to receive a pat-down and avoid a random bag search.
Whitfield received $1,200 for his part in this, which he received after the fact in an airport bathroom. Trafficking and bribery charges have been leveled against Whitfield, Richardson and two other TSA employees.
So how does a security breach of this magnitude happen, especially in the wake of 9/11 and more recent attempts at airport-related terrorist attacks?
Jeff Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, Texas says there are a number of factors that can lead to a lapse in security.
"If you want to be a TSA agent… their first bullet is that you'll have the stability of a government job, so that kind of tells you about the mentality here, is they're looking for people who just want the stability of a government job,” said Addicott. “When you're talking about national security, your first motivation should not be ‘oh I want a job,’ it should be you're volunteering to serve your country and to be on the frontline of stopping terrorism,”
In addition, Addicott says the fact that the job is often repetitive and monotonous can lead people to stray and possibly get involved in extracurricular activities. “It's not an exciting job, so when you have a position that obviously can be lucrative to some degree, then the temptation's always going to be there,” said Addicott. “No it’s not an epidemic… in my mind these are just bad apples who are trying to make some money, but I wouldn't say the whole system is rotten.”
Addicott also stresses that most TSA employees are law-abiding and take their jobs seriously. He says this event should not put all TSA employees in a bad light, but that it simply exemplifies a need for change within the organization.
“I think the best way to deal with it is to absolutely throw the book at these people as a deterrent to other TSA agents who might be involved in this or might be thinking of becoming involved of illegal activity,” said Addicott.
Weigh in:
What training is in place at the TSA to avoid situations such as these? What are the internal means of investigating such activity? What, if any, changes will be made to the screening process as a result of this security breach? If drugs are getting through TSA, what else is?
Guest:
Jeff 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; he’s a 20-year JAG officer and was senior legal counsel to the Green Berets.
Should we take children off the farm?
A new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor would change child labor laws in the agriculture industry.
The Department of Labor states:
“The proposed rule would not change any of the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum age standards for agricultural employment. Under the FLSA, the legal age to be employed on a farm without restrictions is 16. The FLSA also allows children between the ages of 12 and 15 years, under certain conditions, to be employed outside of school hours to perform nonhazardous jobs on farms. Children under the age of 12 may be employed with parental permission on very small farms to perform nonhazardous jobs outside of school hours.
"Young people can be employed to perform many jobs on the farm – and this would be true even if the proposed rule were adopted as written. The proposed rule would, however, prohibit the employment of workers under the age of 18 in nonagricultural occupations in the farm-product raw materials wholesale trade industries. Prohibited establishments would include country grain elevators, grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, feed yards, stockyard, livestock exchanges, and livestock auctions not on a farm or used solely by a single farmer.”
Under pressure from some farm groups, the Labor Department says it will exclude children who work on their parents farms.
Nevertheless, the blowback from these proposed regulations has come from both farm owners and youths who have grown up working on farms. Parents and owners still say they will have to hire outside help, which would further shave an already razor thin profit margin; many who have grown up on farms say they learned valuable lessons in responsibility and work ethic.
Under the new rules the government approved safety training taught by youth groups such as 4-H and FFA would be revoked, leaving many to question whether the new laws would bring more harm than good. The main concern from the Department of Labor has been the endangerment of minors in the workplace - a problem that has been well documented in the agricultural industry.
So, are farms simply too dangerous a place for young people? Parents have their children do chores around the house all of the time - how is farm labor any different? What are the ramifications of making youth groups like the 4-H and FFA less certifiable? What will be the effect on the family farm industry?
Guests:
Kristie Boswell, Director of Congressional Relations, American Farm Bureau Federation
Norma Flores López, former child farmworker; Chair of the Child Labor Coalition's Committee on Domestic Issues and Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP)
Should we be concerned about the discovery of mad cow disease in California’s Central Valley?
The fourth case in U.S. history of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, was discovered Tuesday in a dairy cow in California’s Central Valley, setting off a health scare and prompting reassurances from food experts.
The infected animal was discovered in random testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which randomly tests some 40,000 cows a year for the disease. Mad cow disease first received worldwide attention during an epidemic in Britain in the 1980s and '90s in which more than 150 people and 180,000 cattle died.
The outbreak led to a ten-year ban on exports of British beef and prompted the USDA to change the U.S. rules for cattle food in 1997 so that “rendered” cows, animals that are processed for things like tallow and animal feed, could not be used as feed for other cows.
Humans can contract mad cow disease by eating meat from infected cows, but not by ingesting their milk. In this most recent California case, the infected animal "was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health,” according to the USDA’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford, in a statement. Mad cow disease is on the decline due to changes in food safeguards; there were only 29 cases worldwide in 2011, down from a peak of 37,311 in 1992.
Is there reason to be concerned about this most recent example of mad cow disease? What can agricultural experts and farmers do to protect our food sources?
Guests:
Michael Hansen, PhD, senior scientist at Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports
Dr. Tom Talbot is a cattle producer and a veterinarian from Bishop, California; he also serves as the Chairman of National Cattlemen's Beef Association’s Cattle Health and Well-being Committee
The history and future of Hollywood film music
Long before movies could talk, they still had the power to tell a story – with music. In the silent era, Charlie Chaplin not only acted in and directed his own films, he wrote music for them. As film making evolved, so too did the process of scoring for the cinema.
Some of the greatest scores in film history are the product of a shared vision between directors and composers. The legendary pairing of director David Lean and composer Maurice Jarre resulted in some of the most memorable movies and scores of all time, creating a landscape both visual and musical, impossible to separate. Picture Doctor Zhivago and Lara defying the Russian snows with their passion, Lawrence of Arabia rallying his troops from the top of a train – what music do you hear?
When he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, Steven Spielberg hired long-time collaborator John Williams to score the film before even one frame had been shot. But these days, movie budgets are shrinking and composers are feeling the pinch. Film scores generally comprise a very small portion of a film’s budget and are often commissioned so late in the game that the deadlines and demands on composers can be brutal. American films used to be scored by large orchestras; these days, thanks to budget and time constraints and the convenience of electronic music, live scoring is becoming a lost art.
What does all this mean for the future of film music? Are we losing touch with the art? How has technology changed the business? Is there more or less originality in movie music now than 20 or 30 years ago? Is the golden age of film scoring over? How are today’s working composers able to overcome the many challenges?
Guests:
Michael Giacchino is an award-winning composer of films, television shows and video games; his feature film composing credits include Pixar's UP, which earned him an Oscar, The Incredibles, Super 8, John Carter, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, 50/50, Ratatouille, Cars 2, and Star Trek among others, as well as ABC's groundbreaking series, LOST. Giacchino sits on the Advisory Board of Education Through Music Los Angeles.
Randy Newman is a songwriter, singer, pianist, and composer. His solo albums span six decades and include 12 Songs, Sail Away, Good Old Boys, Harps & Angels, and the current Randy Newman Songbook series. Newman began scoring films in the 1980s, with movies such as The Natural, Awakenings, Ragtime, Toy Story 1, 2 & 3, Seabiscuit, James and the Giant Peach, and A Bug’s Life. He has been recognized with six Grammys, three Emmys, and two Academy Awards. Newman is on the Board of Councilors for the USC Thornton School of Music.
David Newman is an award-winning composer and conductor who has scored over a 100 feature films including War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger, Heathers, The Spirit, Serenity, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel among others; his music has also been featured in Brokedown Palace, Hoffa, Norbit, Galaxy Quest, The Nutty Professor, The Flintstones, Throw Momma From the Train, Ice Age, The Brave Little Toaster and Anastasia. Newman also headed the Sundance Institute’s music preservation program in the late 1980s and recently has been touring, conducting the film "West Side Story," live with orchestra.
Trevor Rabin is an award-winning musician and composer who has scored 34 feature films including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Get Smart, I Am Number Four, National Treasure 1 & 2, Bad Boys 1 & 2, Flyboys, Glory Road, Remember the Titans, Armageddon, Con Air, and Enemy of the State among others. Rabin is also well known as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Yes from 1982 to 1994. As a member Yes, Rabin wrote most of the material for the group’s bestselling album 90125, including the number one single “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”