AirTalk brings you the latest in political news after millions across the country took to the streets this weekend in the gun control-focused March for Our Lives. We also dive into 14 state bills looking to make healthcare more affordable for Californians as alternatives to single payer; talk March Madness after the Final Four was determined yesterday; and more.
Week in politics: What’s next following the weekend’s 'March for our Lives,' an update on POTUS’ legal team, the U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats and more
AirTalk’s weekly political roundtable recaps the weekend headlines in politics and looks ahead to what to watch for this week.
Here’s what we’re following:
March for our Lives (read a follow up to the march here)
Stormy Daniels interview with Anderson Cooper
U.S. expels Russian diplomats following nerve agent attack on UK spy
What’s next for POTUS’ legal team after John Dowd and Don McGahn exit The White House, and how new lawyers said to be joining team are now apparently not
McMaster out, Bolton in as national security advisor, and what this means for the N. Korea situation
POTUS signs spending bill after threatening a veto, but calls out Dems for abandoning DACA recipients
Orange County supervisor suggests suing CA over immigration sanctuary law
PPIC poll on gubernatorial, Senate races
Gavin Newsom - 28 percent of likely voters, John Cox - 14 percent, Antonio Villaraigosa - 12 percent, Travis Allen - 10 percent, John Chiang - 6 percent, Delaine Eastin - 5 percent, Undecided - 24 percent
Feinstein leads Kevin de León 42 percent to 16 percent, 39 percent undecided
Schwarzenegger’s suggestion that Kasich run in 2020 and how this reflects the GOP’s shift towards the middle
Guests:
Jeremy Carl, research fellow at the Hoover Institution; served in an advisory capacity Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign
Matt Barreto, professor of political science and Chicano/a Studies at UCLA and co-founder of the research and polling firm Latino Decisions; he worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign running polling and focus groups on Latino voters
In lieu of single-payer, CA lawmakers introduce 14 bills toward universal health care
In lieu of advancing a single-payer health care bill, California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon tasked lawmakers with creating an alternative package of healthcare bills to make universal coverage more attainable.
These 14 bills were released on Friday.
They’re meant to help people pay for insurance premiums, get health insurers to put more money towards patient care and expand Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented immigrants, among other goals. You can see a breakdown of the bills here.
The package of bills has received pushback from both directions. The California Nurses Association, a lead sponsor of the single-payer bill, says this is an impractical alternative to what should be a unified solution. The criticism from the other side is where the money will come from to pay for the proposed programs and coverage. Without a source of funding, it’s unclear whether Governor Jerry brown would approve the bills.
We get an explainer of this alternative plan to single-payer, as well as a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of this package of bills.
Guests:
Michelle Faust, KPCC health care reporter; her recent story on this is “Single-payer healthcare is a giant leap. Here are 14 steps California might take to get there”
Richard Kronick, one of the authors of the report on pathways to universal coverage in California that served as the basis for much of the package of legislations; professor of family medicine and public health at University of California, San Diego
Sally Pipes, health care policy expert; president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based free market think tank
Journey to the Final Four: Sister Jean, Loyola Chicago’s Cinderella run and more
There's plenty of the expected with 1-seed Villanova making it to the Final Four leg of the NCAA college basketball tournament.
The other 1-seed, Kansas, is also not a surprise, and plenty figured No. 3 seed Michigan had a good shot to get to the Final Four.
But Loyola-Chicago? Consider the 11th-seeded Ramblers the representative for all the low seeds - UMBC, Marshall and Buffalo, to name a few - that pulled off the big stunners in an upset-filled and memorable March.
And yes, the Ramblers do have a national championship, won way back in 1963 during the Kennedy administration. And this time around, the team also has as its chaplain Sister Jean, who not only prays for the Loyola-Chicago basketball team before every game, but also complies scouting reports.
AirTalk checks in on the NCAA tournament.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Kerry Miller, national college basketball and college football writer for Bleacher Report who’s been covering March Madness; he tweets
Steve Rosenbloom, sports columnist with the Chicago Tribune