CALIFORNIA PRISONS END POLICY OF RACIAL SEPARATION; THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA VS. CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS; CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO DENIES CHARTER TO CHRISTIAN GROUP; JUDGE RULES “INTELLIGENT DESIGN” NOT SCIENCE; NEW TSA REGULATIONS; MEDIA BIAS
CALIFORNIA PRISONS END POLICY OF RACIAL SEPARATION
Ending a long-standing practice, California prison officials have agreed to stop using race as a principal criteria for segregating inmates. The prison system's settlement of a case filed by a black inmate comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that California prisons cannot automatically house inmates by race, even temporarily. The settlement between the inmate and the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was filed last week with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was made public Monday. Starting in March, prison officials will end their use of an unwritten policy that dates back a quarter century, whereby inmates arriving at the state's 11 reception centers had been bunked automatically with inmates of the same race for 60 days, a measure taken in part to reduce the risk of racial violence. Larry Mantle talks with guests about the significance of this settlement and how prison authorities will handle this change in policy.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA VS. CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Larry Mantle discusses the law suit brought by Calvary Chapel Christian School of Murietta and ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) against the University of California system for discriminating against them by setting admissions rules that violate their rights to freedom of speech and religion.
CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO DENIES CHARTER TO CHRISTIAN GROUP
A Christian student group at Cal State San Bernardino was denied a charter by the University. The student group, called the Christian Student Association, agreed in its constitution not to discriminate on the basis of “race, color, national origin, gender or physical disability.” However the Association excluded “sexual orientation and religion” from the statement. Cal State San Bernardino says every student organization must include the full, anti-discrimination statement in its charter to be officially sanctioned by the school. The question is, is the student group discriminating against gays and non-Christians, or is Cal State San Bernardino discriminating against Christians? Larry talks with Ryan Sorba, the President of the Christian Student Association, and others.
JUDGE RULES “INTELLIGENT DESIGN” NOT SCIENCE
A Pennsylvania public school district will abandon its practice of teaching ``intelligent design'' before lessons on evolution after a federal judge ruled that the concept is ``the progeny of creationism.'' U.S. District Judge John E. Jones denounced the Dover Area School Board in a ruling Tuesday, saying its first-in-the-nation decision to introduce intelligent design into the science curriculum violates the constitutional separation of church and state. The ruling was a major setback to the intelligent design movement, which is also waging battles in Georgia and Kansas. Intelligent design, or ID, holds that living organisms are so complex that a higher force must have created them. (AP)
NEW TSA REGULATIONS
Revised Transportation Security Administration (TSA) passenger screening procedures go into affect on Thursday. Airline passengers will be allowed to carry on certain items that are currently prohibited on flights. Larry talks with a Christopher White of the TSA and Rand terrorism expert, Brian Michael Jenkins, about what the government hopes to accomplish with the new regulations.
MEDIA BIAS
Larry talks with one of the author’s of a new UCLA-led study that objectively quantifies bias in a range of media outlets and ranks them accordingly.