What does the voting hack mean for the future of electronic voting?; forecasting the future of free trade in California and the potential statewide impact of TPP; and why are more parents choosing gender-neutral names?
What the FBI’s election systems “alert” means for the future of electronic voting
The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in two states.
In a confidential "flash" alert from its cyber division, first reported by Yahoo News and posted online by others, the FBI said it's investigating the pair of incidents and advised states to scan their systems for specific signs of hacking.
The FBI didn't name the states that were targeted, but it described a "compromise" of one elections board website and "attempted intrusion activities" in another state's system. State election websites in Illinois and Arizona experienced hack-related shutdowns earlier this summer. In both cases, the parts of the websites affected involved online voter registration.
Yesterday, California's Secretary of State website was down for several hours, but the office says there is no evidence the outage was the result of an intentional hack.
Today, FBI Director James Comey says the FBI puts a high priority on thwarting any hacking effort that might influence U.S. elections. What could this mean for the future of electronic voting? How else could bad actors manipulate voter information, apart from actual ballots?
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Cory Bennett, editor of POLITICO Pro Cybersecurity; he co-wrote the recent article, “FBI alert sparks fears that state voting systems are under digital assault”
David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford University and founder of VerifiedVoting.org, a voting resource organization whose mission is 'Safeguarding Elections in the Digital Age'
On Joe Hicks and his path from radical left to conservatism
The voice of civil rights activist and community leader Joe Hicks has been silenced.
He died Sunday from post-surgical complications at St. Johns Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 75 years old.
Hicks was a frequent political commentator on KPCC's "AirTalk," and was a guest on the show's 50th anniversary special on the Watts Riots.
There, Hicks recalled the harsh reality for African-Americans in L.A. during the riots, and spoke of an encounter during the unrest in which Coast Guard officers used a racial epithet against him.
Hicks was born in Southern California in July 1941 and was a militant leftist in the Black Power movement during the Watts Riots, according to an obituary sent out by his organization, Community Advocates.
In the early 1990s, Hicks was executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of civil rights group the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Hicks also co-founded the Multi-Cultural Collaborative, intended to improve ethnic relations in the wake of the L.A. Riots. He debated former Klansman David Duke at Cal State Northridge in 1996.
By the mid-1990s, Hicks' political views had changed; he identified more as an independent conservative.
Read the full story here.
Guest:
David Pizarro, professor of psychology at Cornell University, whose research focuses on moral judgment, and the role of emotion in politics.
Remembering Juan Gabriel as a man who transcended Mexico’s machismo culture
Juan Gabriel, who died on Sunday, was an unapologetically flamboyant and effeminate musical icon who transcended traditional, deeply embedded Mexican norms, especially machismo.
Machismo has long been associated with numerous Latin American cultures, so it’s reasonable to wonder about the acceptance of musical performers such as Gabriel, who redefined what it means to be macho. Macho men are said to have been seen crying at Gabriel’s concerts alongside women without any regard to his effeminate portrayal.
What will you remember most about Juan Gabriel? Was he the only performer who could captivate a Latino audience, even while his persona ran contradictory to the culture’s widely held beliefs about manhood?
Guest:
Rafael Fernandez, Consultant and reporter covering Mexico, Latin America and U.S. immigration for Fusion; Rafa recently wrote about how Juan Gabriel redefined manhood in Mexican culture; he tweets from
Forecasting the future of free trade in California and the potential statewide impact of TPP
With the sixth-largest economy in the world, it’s safe to say that there’s plenty at stake when we talk about the future of free trade in California and what the potential impact of the ratification (or lack thereof) of the massive trade deal known as TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
While it’s currently stalled, waiting for Congressional approval, there has been plenty of discussion of not only the landmark agreement, but also the future of free trade in the global economy and what role the United States will play in it all. Whether or not TPP is ratified will determine a lot about the future of American factory and manufacturing jobs, relations with countries along the Pacific Rim and in South America, what our country imports and exports and in what volume, and what the United States place in world trade will be in the years to come. Here in California, tens of thousands of people and jobs are contingent on goods moving through major ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach.
NPR’s affiliate series ‘A Nation Engaged’ continues today as AirTalk explores what the future of free trade looks like in California and around the world.
What role will the TPP play in determining the future of California’s economy? What would a move away from free trade look like, both locally and nationally? What would happen if trade partners became former trade partners and decided to retaliate?
Guests:
Jock O’Connell, international trade adviser for Beacon Economics
Elsadig Elsheikh, director of the Global Justice Program at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley; he co-authored a study released in May called “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Corporations Before People and Democracy”
Michael Camuñez, president and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies, a firm that advises companies doing business in Mexico; he is also a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the International Trade Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce
Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association
Series: A Nation Engaged
NPR and KPCC's coverage of critical issues facing the nation before November's presidential election. The stories seek to build a nationwide conversation around these issues, focusing on a specific question each time.
Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on Facebook.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.9(MDA1OTI3MjQ5MDEyODUwMTE2MzM1YzNmZA004))
From Bailey to Taylor: why gender-neutral baby names are on the rise
The stars are doing it. There’s Harper Beckham, Victoria and David’s daughter. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard named their two daughters Lincoln and Delta, respectively. And Erykah Badu’s daughter’s name is Puma.
Outside of Hollywood, parents are also embracing gender-neutral names for their kids. An analysis done by Nameberry, a website that’s devoted to baby names, found that there’s been a 60 percent increase of post-gender names in the last decade. And BabyCenter, a parenting site, has called 2015 the year of gender-neutral baby.
So why are parents choosing gender-neutral names? What should parents be mindful of when choosing a unisex name?
Guests:
Pamela Redmond Satran, cofounder of the baby naming site, Nameberry; she tweets
Linda Murray, editor in chief of the parenting site, BabyCenter