Students across the U.S. are staging walkouts today in protest of gun violence and policies. The 17-minute walkouts are set to begin at 10 A.M. in Los Angeles. Listen in as AirTalk provides live coverage. We also dive into Connor Lamb's surprising congressional win in Pennsylvania; debate the ACLU's most recent lawsuit against the Trump Administration; and more.
SoCal students and the National School Walkout
One month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Florida, high school students across the nation are planning to stage walkouts today to protest gun violence.
Organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Students from the elementary to college level are taking up the call in a variety of ways. Some planned roadside rallies to honor shooting victims and protest violence. Others were to hold demonstrations in school gyms or on football fields. In Massachusetts and Ohio, students said they'll head to the statehouse to lobby for new gun regulations.
The coordinated walkout was organized by Empower, the youth wing of the Women's March, which brought thousands to Washington, D.C., last year. The group urged students to leave class at 10 a.m. local time for 17 minutes - one minute for each victim in the Florida shooting.
AirTalk checks in with KPCC reporters stationed at two SoCal high schools covering the walkout. We’ll also look at gun legislations that the CA lawmakers are planning to introduce in the state after the Parkland shooting.
With files from Associated Press.
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guests:
Matt Dangelantonio, AirTalk producer covering the walkouts at Blair Middle School and Blair High School in Pasadena; he tweets
Patrick McGreevy, reporter for the Los Angeles Times who covers the California Legislature out of the Sacramento bureau
Red to blue? Dems claim victory in Pennsylvania 18’s special election
After a long night of counting ballots in Pennsylvania’s District 18 special House election, Democrat Connor Lamb claimed an upset victory against GOP congressman Rick Saccone.
But the votes were so close on Tuesday night that even the Associated Press decided to sleep on making a final call, with absentee ballots still coming in.
As of Wednesday morning, Lamb holds a lead by 627 votes and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has also declared victory.
In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump won the district by double digits. Now, Pennsylvania's results echo Republican Roy Moore’s stunning loss to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate special election last December.
Has District 18 really gone blue? Or is it a purple flap? And what does this mean for midterm elections in November? We get the latest from POLITICO reporter Gabriel Debenedetti.
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guest:
Gabriel Debenedetti, national political reporter at POLITICO who’s been following the story; he tweets
As National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage, will other media follow suit?
As part of its April issue focusing on race, National Geographic made the bold move to acknowledge past racist coverage.
To explain the magazine’s decision, Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg wrote, “we thought we should examine our own history before turning our reportorial gaze to others.” The list of past missteps included a slavery-era slur being used to describe California cotton workers and a 1916 story on Australia with a photo caption that read, “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
While this admittance is unexpected, the content is not surprising given that National Geographic has been around for over 100 years, and they certainly aren’t alone in their offensive past. For instance, the New York Times reported that it retroactively wrote obituaries for women who were initially overlooked, and in 2016, Louisville, Ky.’s The Courier-Journal apologized for continuing to publish Muhammad Ali’s name as Cassius Clay, after the boxer changed his name in 1964.
National Geographic’s move has been
on social media, and whether or not the response around it has been positive, it’s definitely been a conversation starter. What do you think National Geographic’s acknowledgement of past racist coverage? Do you think it will prompt other media publications to do the same? Are you more apt to read the magazine now, or does this hinder you from supporting it?
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guest:
Hub Brown, associate professor of broadcast and digital journalism and associate dean for Research, Creativity, International Initiatives & Diversity at Syracuse University
Trump blocks Broadcom’s $117 billion Qualcomm bid
President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom's $117 billion bid for Qualcomm on Monday citing national security concerns.
Broadcom said in a statement that it is reviewing the order and that it "strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns.” In a presidential order, President Trump said “credible evidence” had led him to believe that if Singapore-based Broadcom were to acquire control of Qualcomm, it “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
The acquisition, if it had gone through, would have been the largest technology deal in history.
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guests:
Cecilia Kang, technology reporter based in Washington D.C. for the New York Times who has been following the story; she tweets
Ed Hammond, senior deals reporter at Bloomberg who has been following the story; he tweets
ACLU sues Trump administration over separation of asylum-seeking families
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class-action lawsuit on Friday against federal government agencies over the practice of separating asylum-seeking parents from their young children.
The suit, filed on behalf of two plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, is naming multiple government agencies as defendants including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, as well as top officials at the agencies. ACLU accuses the government of a “nationwide unlawful practice of separating parents and children absent any showing that the parent presents a danger to the child.”
Reports arose in December that the Trump administration was considering a new policy to separate border-crossing parents from their children as a way to scare others from seeking refuge in the U.S.
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guests:
Stanley Goldman, professor of law at Loyola Law School specializing in criminal law and procedure; he is also former deputy public defender for Los Angeles County in the Downtown Los Angeles office
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at Center for Immigration Studies
Hit TV show ‘Queer Eye’ is back – but it’s not just about makeovers anymore
Netflix rebooted Bravo’s hit show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” – but the new season is about more than setting up straight guys for success with women.
The original show premiered in 2003, five years after “Will & Grace” introduced gay leading men to primetime television. And though “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was inherently significant for starring five openly gay men on cable TV, it focused solely on heterosexual romance and avoided diving into societal tensions surrounding sexuality.
Now titled only “Queer Eye,” the Netflix reboot has broadened its scope to include its first gay contestant, who works with the Fab Five in a heartwarming episode to finally come out to his stepmother after his father passed away. (He’s now engaged to his long-time boyfriend.) Though it’s still a makeover show at its core, the reboot features genuine conversations about masculinity, race and self-acceptance.
If you are a member of the LGBTQ community, what did “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” mean to you when it premiered in 2003? How do you feel about the Netflix reboot? Call us at 866-893-5722.
With guest host Libby Denkmann.
Guest:
Julia Himberg, assistant professor of film and media studies at Arizona State University; her new book is “The New Gay For Pay: The Sexual Politics of American Television Production” (University of Texas Press, 2017); she tweets