AirTalk walks you through Trump’s first State of the Union speech last night – plus, the Democratic rebuttal from Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy. We also dive into new research suggesting repeated hits to the head could be just as dangerous as concussions in developing CTE; should a teacher’s anti-military comments get him fired?; and more.
AirTalk political analysts break down President Trump’s first State of the Union
President Trump stuck mostly to the script on Tuesday night as he delivered a one hour and 20 minute long State of the Union address to Congress.
Amid calls for unity and bipartisanship, the president turned his focus for 2018 toward two major issues: infrastructure and immigration. Polling showed the message connected with two-thirds of viewers, but Congressional Democrats largely panned the speech.
For more on the State of the Union from NPR’s Domenico Montanaro, click here.
Guests:
Caroline Heldman, associate professor of politics at Occidental College and author of “
” (Cornell University Press, 2017); she tweets
Lanhee Chen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and former policy director for the Romney-Ryan 2012 presidential campaign; he tweets
‘Never Trumper’ David Frum on the Trump presidency
While media coverage continues to batter and bruise every single tweet, statement and on or off-the-record conversation with President Donald J. Trump, conservative writer David Frum has set his attention on Trump’s growing power — both in and outside the White House.
In his latest book, “Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic,” Frum argues that democracy is under irrevocable threat in the United States and that our institutions have failed to protect it against the current administration. Staunch Republican and former speechwriter for George W. Bush, Frum details why Trump’s first year in office has weakened the traditional limits of the presidency with lies, corruption and negligence in a way more subtle and dangerous than most analysts, left or right, have noticed.
Larry Mantle speaks with the longtime journalist about the book and what Frum hopes his study of “Trumpocracy” accomplishes.
Guest:
David Frum, senior editor at the Atlantic and author of many books, including his latest, “Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic” (HarperCollins, 2018); he tweets
Free speech 101: Should a teacher’s anti-military comments get him fired?
A Pico Rivera teacher is in hot water after a video of his anti-military comments in class went viral.
Gregory Salcido, El Rancho High School history and government teacher, berated a student for wearing a military sweatshirt with a Marine logo. Salcido called the military, “lowest of the low” and went on a rant disparaging their intelligence, among other explicit comments. As reported by the SoCal News Group, thousands are calling for Salcido’s firing after seeing the video on Facebook.
This video contains explicit content. Viewer discretion is advised:
Salcido is also a Pico Rivera City Council member. Questions are now rising about whether his job is protected under free speech rights. Larry speaks to a First Amendment expert and a local school superintendent for a discussion on what is and isn’t acceptable as speech in the classroom.
Guests:
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and professor of law at UC Berkeley Law School and expert in Constitutional law
Alex Rojas, Ph.D., chief operations officer for Siembra Mobile Inc, a company offering school districts software to help high school counselors provide support to students; he is the former superintendent of the Bassett Unified School District, located in the San Gabriel Valley and serving some unincorporated parts of L.A. County and portions of the City of Industry, La Puente and Whittier
What a new study is showing us about CTE, and how it might impact youth sports participation
Kimberly Archie, a Los Angeles parent has filed a lawsuit against youth football league Pop Warner, claiming that her son’s participation in the youth sports program lead to damage to his brain.
Archie’s son, Paul Bright, Jr., died in a motorcycle crash when he was 24 years old. After his death, he was diagnosed with brain damage and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
In recent years, as researchers have begun to pay greater attention to traumatic head injuries caused by contact sports like football, concussions have been pointed to as the biggest culprit for the enigmatic neurodegenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. But a new study published in the journal “Brain” pushes back on that, presenting what the authors call “the best evidence to date” that links repeated blows to the head to CTE in athletes who play contact sports.
The study looked at the brains of deceased teen athletes, one group which had documented head injuries within one, two, 10, and 128 days before death and another which did not. The brains of the athletes that had suffered head injuries showed signs of CTE pathology that weren’t present in the brains of the athletes who had not. Researchers also ran lab tests on mice to see whether blast exposure or repeated hits to the head could trigger signs of CTE. They found that CTE can form immediately following a routine blow to the head, even if concussion symptoms don’t immediately present.
Guests:
Michelle Faust, KPCC health care reporter; her report today looks at the lawsuit filed by a parent in Los Angeles against the Pop Warner football league
Lee Goldstein, MD, lead author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry at Boston University’s School of Medicine
Julian Bailes, MD, director of neurosurgery and co-director of NorthShore University HealthSystem Neurological Institute; he is also the volunteer chairman of the medical advisory committee for Pop Warner Youth Football