Republican National Convention Rules Committee member talks challenging Trump at the upcoming convention; activists want to end LAUSD's two-decade-long policy; and can Pulse still function as a nightclub or should it be turned into a memorial in remembrance of the 49 lives lost?
RNC delegate outlines plans to oust Trump in Cleveland, plus his money woes
In recent days Donald Trump's campaign has been rocked by staffing drama and roiled by reports of funding shortfalls which is giving renewed hope to opponents attempting to challenge his nomination at the Republican Convention.
Some of those opponents hold key positions on the Republican National Committee, including Kendal Unruh, a member of the rules committee and an outspoken Colorado delegate pushing for changes that might be able to oust Trump. She plans to “unbind” and not vote for Trump on the first ballot.
“We as Republican delegates now have a job to do,” said Unruh, “and that is to guarantee that our choice reflects what we feel is best for the party.”
Unruh hopes to convince her colleagues in the rules committee, which will meet the week before the convention to draft its regulations, to include a conscience clause. This would inform delegates that they not strictly bound to any one candidate, especially if they take issue with a candidate’s morality or divergence from the party’s platform.
“The delegates already have the power to unbind, they just don’t know that they have it,” said Unruh.
Unruh’s movement appears to be gaining momentum, and she claims at least 400 delegates across committees are looking to “dump Trump.”
This comes at a trying time for the prospective Republican nominee. A recent financial report revealed that Trump had only $1.3 million cash on hand at the end of last month, less than Mayor Eric Garcetti has in his re-election campaign.
Isaac Arnsdorf, a Politico reporter specializing in money in politics, says the low cash on hand number is not the only startling part of the report.
“You didn’t see any of the evidence that you would ordinarily see from a professional sophisticated national campaign of building a fundraising operation,” Arnsdorf said.
Guests:
Kendal Unruh, RNC Rules Committee member and a Republican Delegate from Colorado strategizing a rules change for delegate voters
Isaac Arnsdorf, Reporter covering money in politics for POLITICO; he tweets from
Activists, parents, teachers want LAUSD to end random weapon searches
Amid heightened awareness over gun violence in the country, a group of activists comprised of teachers, students and parents are calling for the LAUSD to end daily random weapons searches in middle and high schools.
A meeting was held at LAUSD on Tuesday to discuss the issue, and the school board vowed to review the two-decade-long policy that has been in place since 1993, after a student was gunned down at Fairfax High. A debate over the practice was recently reignited, after charter schools in the area were asked to adopt the policy.
They refused, arguing that these random searches contribute to racial profiling and create an adverse learning environment.In addition to charter schools, the ACLU and teachers union UTLA also support shelving the practice.
Guests:
David Holmquist, General Counsel, LAUSD
Cristina de Jesus, President and Chief Executive Officer, Green Dot Public Schools California
The new meaning of ‘office attire’
It’s no secret that office dress codes have evolved since the 1962 inception of Casual Friday.
New rules on the way we dress for work have been adopted by both private companies and government organizations, with a twist that leans more toward Chuck Taylors and T-shirts than suits and ties.
Tech giants like Facebook have famously put the casual in business casual, but some changes address more than independence from a business suit.
Last year, the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced new guidelines that prohibited different dress code requirements based on sex or gender.
And company leaders aren’t the only ones deciding what to wear to work. How employees dress has become an interpretation of their individualities. But that can be a double edged sword. What’s appropriate to one person may be unprofessional to another, and how do these new wardrobe choices reflect on the image of the workplace?
Who should determine workforce dress code; the institution or the employee? What purpose does dress code serve? Are employees more productive when they get to choose their attire?
Guest:
Susan Scafidi, Founder & Academic Director, Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School
After Pulse nightclub owner vows to reopen, exploring best ways to help community cope
Since an armed man burst through its doors and murdered 49 people earlier this month, Pulse Nightclub in Orlando has been a crime scene and backdrop for TV live shots.
In the days following the shooting, club owner Barbara Poma promised to reopen the club because she refuses to let fear take a special place away from her patrons. The timeframe for the club’s reopening is unclear, but Poma’s vow to open Pulse’s doors again has started a discussion about whether the club should ever reopen.
Some say that there’s no question it should, because it will be seen as a symbol of strength not only for Orlando’s LGBT community, but for Orlando as a whole. Closing the club down, they argue, would mean that fear wins. Others caution that trauma manifests itself differently in different people, and that while the experience of returning to the club may be therapeutic for some, it could also further traumatize others because of the memories and emotions it invokes of the night of the shooting.
Do you think Pulse should reopen as a nightclub? Why or why not? Should it be gutted and renovated or simply reopened with a memorial to the victims?
Guest:
Charles Figley, Ph.D., founder and director of the Traumatology Institute at Tulane University, where he is also a professor in the School of Social Work; he is an expert in disaster mental health
Debate grows among progressives over whether to recall judge in Stanford rape case
The official campaign to oust Aaron Persky, the judge who sentenced a former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault to six months in jail has intensified as of late, and the online Change.org petition has collected more than 1,200,000 signatures.
But a debate is brewing among progressives about whether recall efforts are a fair tactic. Some even compare it to efforts by Republicans in the 1980s to successfully oust three justices from the California Supreme Court.
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, argues against the Persky’s removal. He instead advocates for a prosecutorial appeal, suggesting that a recall would jeopardize judicial independence.
What do you think about recalling Judge Persky? Is it deserved punishment, or something else?
Guest:
Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the School of Law at UC Irvine and an expert on constitutional law
How a librarian beat Al Qaeda and became a cultural hero
Librarians aren’t often thought of as the world’s most daring citizens. But when one librarian came face-to-face with Al Qaeda in the 1980s, he began a quest to protect and preserve ancient manuscripts that were surely facing doom.
It sounds like something out of a Hollywood screenplay, but the story of Abdel Kader Haidara is real. His experience is now the subject of Joshua Hammer’s latest book, “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts.” Hammer joins Patt Morrison.
Guest:
Joshua Hammer, former bureau chief for Newsweek and the author of “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts”