President Obama has unveiled new gun control requirements; the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against Dignity Health Center for refusing to let doctors perform a post-partum tubal ligation; members of the California State Senate proposed spending more than $2 billion dollars to prevent and address homelessness across the state and the discussing the new meaning of friendship in the age of social media.
Gun rights activists and foes react to President Obama’s executive action
President Obama laid out his case today for taking executive action on gun control.
His White House address was in front of a friendly audience that cheered him on.
However, he faces a much tougher sell among Republicans. Every GOP presidential candidate has blasted his action. Ahead on AT, legal questions about the President's actions, whether they'd have a positive effect, and how they factor into the Presidential race.
President Obama has unveiled new requirements that all gun sellers to register as dealers - even those who sell at gun shows and online - and to run background checks on all prospective purchasers, aiming to curb a scourge of gun violence despite unyielding opposition to new gun laws in Congress.
In a bid to narrow the so-called gun show loophole, the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will issue updated guidance that says the government can consider someone a gun dealer regardless of where he or she sells the guns, officials said. Only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on buyers, and gun control advocates say people who sell guns outside of gun stores exploit that provision to skirt the background check requirement.
We’ll look at the legal viability of the president’s proposed executive action, how advocates on both sides of the issue feel about the measures, and put the political messaging in some larger perspective.
With Files from AP
Guests:
Sam Paredes, Executive Director of Gun Owners of California
Amanda Wilcox, attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Adam Winkler, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Ben Tulchin, democratic pollster and strategist with Tulchin Research and Bernie Sanders’ pollster
Lisa Camooso Miller, Republican strategist and partner at Blueprint Communications, public affairs firm based in D.C.
ACLU files lawsuit against Catholic hospital
A San Francisco Superior Court will hear The American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit against Dignity Health today.
The ACLU’s lawsuit was prompted when the Catholic hospital denied a patient’s request for a tubal ligation. According to The Sacramento Bee, the hospital’s reason for denying Rebeca Chamorro’s request for the procedure was based on the religion’s stance on sterilization.
Elizabeth Gill, a senior ACLU staff attorney, has said that this is an example of denying a woman access to basic health care.
Should this case be considered discriminatory? Or should faith-based hospitals hold the right to deny procedures that are inconsistent with their values?
Guest:
Ruth Dawson, Staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. She tweets from
Bob Destro, Professor of law and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law
Weighing efficacy, oversight of $2-billion aid proposed for California homeless
Speaking from Skid Row in LA Monday, members of the California State Senate proposed spending more than $2 billion dollars to prevent and address homelessness across the state.
“This bipartisan legislative package will help secure progress in tackling homelessness and provide a key to health and hope for many Californians who have no place to go.” said Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles).
The legislative package includes a $2-billion bond to construct permanent housing for chronically homeless persons with mental illness; short-term housing in the meanwhile; and an increase in income support for the aged, blind, and disabled poor who cannot work. The senators emphasized that unsheltered individuals cost too much for taxpayers due to emergency room visits, hospital stays, law enforcement, and other social services.
To what degree would this proposal alleviate California's homeless problem? What oversight would be necessary to ensure success of the package? Is this the best solution to the growing problem of homelessness in LA and beyond?
Guest:
Holly Mitchell, California Democratic Senator, Mitchell’s district includes Culver City and Ladera Heights
Kevin Corinth, Research fellow in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on homelessness and the programs and policies put in place to assist the homeless
How has social media changed the way you define a friend?
Facebook allows us to claim hundreds and hundreds of people as our “Friends.”
But has that in any way changed how you define your friends? From Aristotle to Facebook, what does friendship mean to you? How do you define it? And do you think that social media allows you to have more friends or fewer? Are they better or worse friends?
Guests:
Irene Levine, Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine; Author of "Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend" and producer of www.TheFriendshipBlog.com
Geoffrey Greif, Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work and author of the book, Buddy System: Understanding Male Friendships (Oxford University Press)