FBI agents paid a surprise visit to the Los Angeles Unified School District on Monday, taking away 20 boxes of documents related to the school district's troubled iPad project. Also, the Pentagon and State Department are reacting to the ongoing violence in Iraq and Syria by renewing old contracts to private-sector security contractors. Then, a look at the controversy around the upcoming comedy “The Interview.”
FBI visits LAUSD headquarters and leaves with iPad documents
FBI agents paid a surprise visit to the Los Angeles Unified School District on Monday, taking away 20 boxes of documents related to the school district's troubled iPad project, the Los Angeles Times reports. Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines told the Times agents stopped by late Monday afternoon and he alerted the district's general counsel to notify the board of education. KPCC has independently confirmed the information. The district has been under fire over the iPad program, which launched last school year with the aim of giving every student and teacher a personal tablet. The district chose Apple and textbook publisher Pearson to provide the devices.
It was expected to cost $1.3 billion. An investigation from KPCC revealed that the district had been in talks with Apple and Pearson long before the bidding process was formally opened - and that some bid specifications closely resembled the iPad and Pearson's proposed software, which was still under development. Former superintendent John Deasy canceled the contract and resigned under intense pressure after those stories aired and were published.
Guests:
Annie Gilbertson, KPCC education reporter
Laurie Levenson, former federal prosecutor and a professor at Loyola Law School
Teaching our teachers: U.S. Department of Education rolls out plan for regulations on teacher preparedness programs
Thanks to a new plan from the U.S. Department of Education, teachers across the country could be getting report cards of their own before they get to hand out any to students in the classroom.
The recently-unveiled proposal would require states to give report cards for teacher evaluation programs in each state. This would include not only public and private colleges and universities, but also alternative programs run by school districts or nonprofits like Teach for America. The Education Department would have to approve the new ratings systems, which would consider, for the first time, how teacher candidates perform after they graduate. The ratings would be based on things like whether they land a job within their subject field, how long they stay in that job, and how well their students do on standardized tests and other academic achievement measures. It will be several years before the ratings systems are actually put into use and any changes take effect. The Education Department will hear public comments for 60 days and plans to issue the new regulations by September of 2015. However, report cards wouldn’t be issued until April 2019.
How do you think these regulations will change the way teachers are prepared for the classroom? Do you think enough is done to prepare new teachers or is more required? How will these new regulations affect the way teachers teach and the way students learn?
Guests:
Beverly Young, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Teacher Education and Public School Programs for the Cal State University system
Evan Stone, co-founder and co-CEO of Educators 4 Excellence, a teacher-led organization in New York City that works to give teachers a voice in the policies that impact their profession
Deborah Koolbeck, director of government relations for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
Rise of Islamic State fighters could spur resurgence of private military contractors
The Pentagon and State Department are reacting to the ongoing extremist violence in Iraq and Syria by reaching out to private-sector security contractors for new roles and renewing old contracts. According to a new feature report by CQ Roll Call, the Army posted an "expansive announcement for 'Security Assistance Mentors and Advisors' in Iraq...to help the Baghdad government" in a wide variety of positions.
Underscoring the desperate situation for Iraqi leaders, yesterday in Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi launched sweeping changed to the country's security forces by retiring 24 officials who failed to confront the IS crisis, according to the government. Meanwhile yesterday, 15 Iraqi policemen were killed by the extremist jihadi group. The bold assault happened at a checkpoint near the Syrian border. In the same region, more than 55 airstrikes were launched by U.S.-led forces over the weekend, according to U.S. Central Command.
With little desire for foreign boots on the ground, what role will a new batch of military contractors play?
Guests:
Laura Dickinson, Professor of Law, George Washington University; Author, “Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs;” Future of War Fellow with the New America Foundation's International Security Program
Sean McFate, Associate Professor, National Defense University, which provides Joint Professional Military Education to members of the U.S. Armed Forces; former U.S. Army officer and former project manager for military contractor DynCorp International; Author, “The Modern Mercenary and What They Mean for World Order” to be published January 2, 2015
Costs & benefits of police wearing video cameras
President Obama has proposed a new program to fund body-worn cameras (BWCs) for 50,000 police officers as part of a broader effort to address tensions between communities and the police that serve in them. While the plan would need Congressional approval, the goal is to appropriate $263 million in funding over a three-year period to create a 50% match for dollars spent on BWCs by local police departments.
As Obama is poised to set up a larger task force will focus on establishing a system for “21st century policing” to “examine how to promote effective crime reduction while building public trust,” some have questioned how effective the BWC program could be. Much of the criticism comes from those who believe the action does not go far enough, with significant attention being placed on the federal government’s program of transferring military weapons and equipment to local police departments such as assault rifles, heavily armed vehicles, and full body armor. In addition, the President has continued to resist calls by civil rights leaders and some in the Ferguson community to visit the town, a move that would be viewed as symbolic as when President Kennedy invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to the White House after a bombing in Birmingham killed four black girls.
Will cameras placed on the police make them act in a more accountable manner? Does the presence of BWCs create a new objectivity for interactions between citizens and law enforcement? Will the placement of BWCs be enough to stem the tensions between minority communities and the criminal justice system?
Guests:
Sergeant Daniel (Dan) Gomez, Lead officer in the information technology division, LAPD
Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst with the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at The American Civil Liberties Union; Stanley authored the ACLU's white paper on police body-worn cameras.
'The Interview' — political satire or a regurgitation of racial stereotypes?
Controversy has followed the upcoming James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy, “The Interview,” since the project was first announced. The latest dustup it finds itself in goes well beyond the typical Hollywood tabloid fodder. Over Thanksgiving weekend, rumor started swirling that the cyber-attack that Sony had been a target of was perpetrated by North Korean hackers unhappy about the film’s premise. The comedy is about a successful TV interview show (produced by the Rogen character, and hosted by the Franco character) that’s been invited to do a one-on-one with Kim Jong Un. The CIA soon comes knocking, asking the two to use the opportunity to assassinate the North Korean dictator.
The North Korean government has made its displeasure on the film known and has threatened to retaliate. "Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated," an unnamed spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs apparently said.
Is “The Interview” politically problematic? What kind of reaction would there be if another country was to make a film premised on an attempted assassination on another world leader? Can the film be considered a political satire which lessens its offense?
“The Interview” is scheduled to drop on Christmas day.
Guests:
Dominic Patten, Legal Editor and Chief TV critic at the entertainment industry news website, Deadline, who's been following the story
Hye Seung Chung, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, specializing in race and ethnicity in American pop culture, at Colorado State University. She is the author of “Hollywood Asian: Philip Ahn and the Politics of Cross-Ethnic Performance” (Temple University Press, 2006) and Kim Ki-duk (University of Illinois Press, 2012)
'Hands up, don’t Shoot:' Why certain symbols stick with protests
Symbols have long been part of protests, from the Guy Fawkes masks that were adopted by Occupy protesters, to the umbrellas donned by students in Hong Kong -- in what we now refer to as the “umbrella revolution,” to the three-finger-salute seen in protests this summer against the Thai government and hoodies for Trayvon Martin. This week in the wake of the Ferguson grand jury decision, 5 players on the St. Louis Rams football team came out onto the field with their hands up, echoing the calls of protesters in the streets chanting “hands up, don’t shoot.” How and why do certain symbols become icons of protest? And do some symbols attract people to the cause?
Guests:
Anthony Kammas, Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at USC
Movindri Reddy, Associate Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College