Today on AirTalk, we take a look at the rollbacks pushing back reopening in counties across the state. Also on the show, SCOTUS struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics; our weekly political roundtable discusses the week's headlines; and more.
SCOTUS Decisions: Louisiana Abortion And Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
A divided Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era.
Chief Justice John Roberts and his four more liberal colleagues ruled that the law requiring doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals violates the abortion rights the court first announced in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
The Louisiana law is virtually identical to one in Texas that the court struck down in 2016.
The Supreme Court also made it easier for the president to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday.
The justices struck down restrictions on when the president can remove the bureau’s director.
The court’s five conservative justices agreed that restrictions Congress imposed on when the president can fire the agency's director violated the Constitution. But they disagreed on what to do as a result. Roberts and fellow conservative justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh said the restrictions could be stricken from the law. The court’s four liberals agreed, though they disagreed the restrictions were improper.
The decision doesn’t have a big impact on the current head of the agency. Kathy Kraninger, who was nominated to her current post by the president in 2018, had said she believed the president could fire her at any time.
With files from the Associated Press
Guest:
Greg Stohr, Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg News; he tweets
COVID-19: Newsom Orders Bars To Close In Several Counties, Rising Cases Impacting Mask Supplies
In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry speaks with Richard Riggs, M.D., chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Robert J. Kim-Farley, M.D., professor of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Today’s topics include:
Newsom orders bars to close in LA county
Long term symptoms and the stress to health care systems
Many COVID-19 patients have terrifying delirium
Rising cases impacting mask supplies
Study: How COVID-19 attacks the immune system
Public transit study
American Airlines to start booking full planes
Coronavirus treatment remdesivir cost
Guests:
Richard Riggs, M.D., senior vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Dr. Robert J. Kim-Farley, professor of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, he previously served as director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at the LA County Department of Public Health and worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO)
Environmental, Trucking Industry Stakeholders Weigh In On California’s First-Of-Its-Kind Electric Truck Sales Rule
California regulators approved new rules on Thursday that would force automakers to sell more electric work trucks and delivery vans, a first-of-its-kind rule aimed at helping the nation’s most populous state clean up its worst-in-the-nation air quality.
The rules require a certain percentage of work truck sales each year to be zero emission vehicles. By the time its fully implemented in 2035, the board estimates at least 15% of the 1.2 million trucks on the road would run on electricity and that it would create thousands of new jobs. Over 100 people called into the California Air Resources Board’s meeting Thursday, mostly offering their support during hours-long public comment. Dozens said their neighborhoods were choking on air pollution from diesel fuel, particularly threatening the lung health of poor and minority communities, which has gained more prominence amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Supporters included a group representing environmental agencies from eight states in the Northeast, from New York to Maine, whose officials said it would create a road map for reducing emissions on trucking routes and propel the market toward electrification. Regulators said they were determined to quickly address fears electric trucks would go unsold, aiming to establish rules next year that would require companies to purchase zero emission trucks from manufacturers, meant to ensure there is demand for the supply. The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association argued the new rule would eventually “collapse” because there are not enough charging stations. Critics argue requiring the industry to sell more electric trucks won’t succeed without first requiring companies to buy more of them. Staff for the board said work on such rules is ongoing and added that demand already exists for bulk orders of electric trucks.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll hear from a panel of guests who each have a stake in this first-of-its-kind rule.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Jimmy O’Dea, senior vehicles analyst in the Clean Vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists; he tweets
Anthony Victoria-Midence, communications director with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, a nonprofit organization advocating for policies that work toward a zero-emission future and environmentally sustainable communities; he tweets
Fred Johring, president of Golden State Logistics and chairman of the Harbor Trucking Association, a coalition of intermodal freight carriers serving America’s West Coast Ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach; he tweets
Tim Blubaugh, executive vice president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, a group that represents worldwide manufacturers of internal combustion engines and on-highway medium- and heavy-duty trucks
Week In Politics: Russian Bounties On American Troops, VP Pick And More
AirTalk’s weekly political roundtable recaps the major headlines you might’ve missed in politics news over the weekend and looks ahead to the week to come. Here are the headlines that we’re following this week:
American Intelligence found that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. According to the New York Times, this was known months ago and was briefed to President Trump. Trump says he was not informed
2020
VP Pick: There are 13 women under consideration right now. Who is Biden’s ideal running mate?
Polls don’t look good for President Trump in battleground states. They also don’t look good when it comes to the black vote
Trump continues to attack vote by mail
Biden said he would mandate mask wearing as president. We talk COVID-19 through the lens of November
The Trump administration asked SCOTUS to strike down the ACA
Mississippi voted to remove the Confederate flag symbol from their state flag
The House passed a bill that would make D.C. a state. Should it? What would be the effects?
House passed Dem policing bill, but it will likely go no farther
Guests:
Aaron David Miller, senior fellow focusing on U.S. foreign policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a foreign-policy think tank; former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic Administrations; he tweets
Lanhee Chen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; he was an adviser for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as policy director for the Romney-Ryan 2012 presidential campaign; he tweets
Melissa R. Michelson, political science professor at Menlo College in Atherton, California; her latest book is “Transforming Prejudice: Fear, Identity, and Transgender Rights” (March 2020, Oxford University Press); she tweets