Slowly but surely, construction on California’s high-speed rail system is chugging along. We also examine the first trial from the Mueller investigation; discuss the controversial effort to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; and more.
Jury selection begins for Manafort trial
The first trial from the Mueller investigation is underway with jury selection in suburban DC.
Paul Manafort is accused of failing to report millions from Ukrainian political consulting fees. Though the prosecution isn’t related to Manafort’s former job as Trump campaign chairman, it’s a big test of Mueller’s ability to prosecute a complex case.
Guests:
Daniel Lippman, co-author of POLITICO Playbook; DC-based reporter for POLITICO; he tweets
Andrew Propkop, senior politics reporter covering the Mueller investigation for the news site, Vox; he tweets
David Joachim, legal editor with Bloomberg
After director James Gunn’s decade-old tweets got him fired, how should HR handle previous inappropriate content on social media?
In the last few weeks, old offensive tweets of public figures ranging from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to various MLB players have surfaced, creating backlash and sometimes consequences years after the user hit “send.”
In the case of Gunn, the cast of “Guardians of the Galaxy” has come to the defense of ousted director James Gunn. He’d tongue-in-cheek tweeted about pedophilia, rape, AIDS, and the 9/11 attacks. In the past week, three MLB players have had unearthed racist language in social media posts from a few years ago. They’ve profusely apologized and claimed the words don’t depict their current beliefs.
We’ll look at the reasons people post content that could damage their reputations years later.
Guests:
Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of ‘iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood’ (Simon and Schuster, August 2017);
Carrie Cecil, social media educator and CEO of Social Media Sports Management (SM2), a company that consults with and educates professional and collegiate-level athletes and coaching staffs on brand reputation management and social media education
The controversial effort to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In March, research revealed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch floating between California and Hawaii was 1.6 million square kilometers in size – more than twice as large as Texas and much bigger than previous estimates.
The study was carried out over the course of three years by Netherlands-based nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup, which is also behind a major effort to reduce the Garbage Patch by half in the next five years.
The nonprofit, founded by 24-year-old Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, has developed a 2,000 foot long trash-catching invention to attract the waste in the rotating ocean gyre as if it were a drain. It’s scheduled to be released from Alameda this September, and if it survives the elements and successfully traps plastic, the organization plans to deploy 60 others to help with the clean up effort. But many scientists say Slat is simplifying a much more complicated problem.
Larry sits down with the lead scientist from The Ocean Cleanup, a reporter following the story and the local oceanographer who originally discovered the garbage patch more than 20 years ago to talk about the nature of the Patch and the effort to clean it up.
Guests:
Laurent Lebreton, lead scientist at The Ocean Cleanup and lead author of the study showing the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch published in Scientific Reports in March
James Rainey, LA-based reporter at NBC News digital who interviewed The Ocean Cleanup founder and CEO Boyan Slat in June; he tweets
Charles Moore, oceanographer and founder of the Algalita Marine Research and Education, a Long Beach-based nonprofit committed to solving the plastic pollution crisis through research and education; he discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997; he co-wrote the book “Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans” (Avery, 2011)
Multiple states file a lawsuit against the distribution of 3D gun prints
Eight states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a recent decision by the Department of Justice to settle a lawsuit with a Texas company that was making available on the internet blueprints for a 3D-printed gun.
The settlement would allow the Texas company, Defense Distributed, to resume distributing the instructions online for anyone to download.
Democratic attorneys general in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia filed the suit. Separately, attorneys general in 21 states urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday to withdraw from the settlement with Defense Distributed, saying it "creates an imminent risk to public safety."
People can use the blueprints to manufacture a plastic gun using a 3D printer. But gun industry experts have expressed doubt that criminals would go to the trouble, since the printers needed to make the guns are very expensive, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by.
Unlike traditional firearms that can fire thousands of rounds in their lifetime, experts say the 3D-printed guns normally only last a few rounds before they fall apart. They don't have magazines that allow the usual nine or 15 rounds to be carried; instead, they usually hold a bullet or two and then must be manually loaded afterward. And they're not usually very accurate.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Polly Mosendz, Bloomberg firearms industry reporter; she’s been following the story; she tweets
Michael Hammond, legislative counsel at Gun Owners of America, a gun rights organization based in Springfield, VA
Avery W. Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; a nonprofit in DC that advocates for gun control
Checking in on the status and future of California’s controversial bullet train project
Slowly but surely, construction on California’s high-speed rail system is chugging along.
The New York Times reports construction sites are up in 21 locations across Central California with 2,000 workers on the job and two weeks ago, work began on a freeway overpass for the train in Fresno. Construction is expected to begin on three more viaducts in the next couple of months.
But while progress is progress if you’re an advocate of the project, many of the same concerns that have dogged the bullet train since it was proposed still exist in the minds of critics— ballooning cost to the taxpayer, logistical issues surrounding where and how the train is built to run through existing landscape and cities, and fears of bad return on investment.
Adding to those concerns is the fact that it’s unclear whether California’s new governor, whomever that may be, will continue being a vocal supporter of the project, which has been a high priority for Governor Jerry Brown during his administration. Democratic gubernatorial candidate and current California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has given mixed signals about his stance on the project Republican candidate John Cox has said he would halt the project if elected.
Is it time for the state of California to consider walking away from the bullet train project? Or has the state already gone too far to turn back?
Guests:
Dan Richard, chair of the Board of Directors for the California High Speed Rail Authority
James Moore, professor of industrial, systems and civil engineering and director of the Transportation Engineering Program at USC
Magic historians pull back the curtain on the secrets behind deceptive art
We’ve all seen magic tricks and wondered, “How do they do that?”
And in the clandestine world of magicians, the art of deception runs deep. You can actually trace back the roots of magic to ancient Egypt and the Victorian age. While sleight of hand can fascinate the audience, it’s the people behind those illusions that can blow your mind.
In the new book, “The Secret History of Magic: The True Story of the Deceptive Art,” stage magic historians Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer reveal the roots of the trade. They dig deep into the changing beliefs about magic throughout the years, as well as how some of the world’s most famous magicians got their start. And if there’s any doubt that our skeptical world has no need for magic, Lamont and Steinmeyer have a few words to buck that idea too.
Larry speaks to the Steinmeyer today, for more on the world of magic, and why we all need a little wonder in our lives.
Guest:
Jim Steinmeyer, magic designer and co-author of “The Secret History of Magic: The True Story of the Deceptive Art” (TarcherPerigee, 2018)