Yesterday, Trump fired VA Secretary David Shulkin, an announcement that comes in the wake of an unflattering inspector general's report accusing Shulkin of misusing government funds. We discuss the latest. We also sit down for an MLB preview in celebration of Opening Day; debate whether science has found a loophole for kosher foods; and more.
On the heels of Veterans Affairs Secretary firing, we discuss the possibility of privatizing the VA
On Wednesday, Trump fired Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin and announced that he will nominate his White House physician, Admiral Ronny Jackson, to fill the vacancy.
In February, Shulkin was criticized in an inspector general’s report for using public funds for a trip to Europe with his wife. But Shulkin has said the trip was mischaracterized, that it was a work trip and all expenses were approved in advance by an internal ethics committee.
After being criticized in the report, Shulkin wrote a personal check to cover those expenditures. He says the trip is being used as an excuse, and that his firing is likely due to his clashes with officials in the White House who want to privatize the V.A. Shulkin, who released an op-ed in the New York Times Wednesday, opposes privatization and says the private sector isn’t equipped to provide V.A. care.
We get the latest on Shulkin’s departure, Admiral Jackson’s nomination and the history and future of the privatization conversation surround the V.A.
Guest:
Nikki Wentling, reporter covering veterans for Stars and Stripes, an American military newspaper based in Washington, D.C.; she tweets
California bill to let student athletes to sign endorsement deals
California Assemblyman Chris Holden has introduced a bill that would allow student athletes in the state to sign endorsement deals.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which governs college sports, reported more than $1 billion in revenue for the 2017 fiscal year. Meanwhile, college athletes, many argue, are playing in an exploitive system, subjecting themselves to injuries without getting adequate compensation.
Should college athletes be paid like their professional counterparts?
Guests:
Ramogi Huma, executive director of the National College Players Association who is sponsoring the bill; he is president of the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA), a non-profit organization that advocates for college athletes’ rights
John Acquaviva, professor of exercise science at Wingate University in North Carolina who has written on the debate over paying student athletes
CA High Court: schools should protect students, UCLA stabbing case will move forward
The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that public colleges and universities have a duty to protect their students from foreseeable acts of violence.
This decision reverses a 2015 ruling by a lower court that UCLA did not have a duty to protect a student who was attacked by a classmate.
Katherine Rosen was stabbed with a knife by Damon Thompson in 2009 at a UCLA chemistry lab. Thompson had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and possible schizophrenia. Now, nearly nine years after the stabbing, the State’s High Court decided Rosen's lawsuit could move forward and that the University of California can be held liable for failing to protect the student.
The victim survived her life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, Thompson was charged and found not guilty by reason by insanity.
Guests:
Gregory Keating, professor of law at USC Gould School and an expert on accident law
Steve Newman, attorney specializing in defending class actions; he is a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in Century City
It’s Major League Baseball Opening Day: we preview the season
For the first time since 1968, all 30 Major League Baseball teams will begin playing on the same day today, the earliest ever start date to the domestic games.
In this season, the Dodgers will be trying for another NL West title and, Dodger fans hope, another run for the World Series after coming up just short in last year's Fall Classic. Meanwhile, the Angels are welcoming Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani, who makes his debut in the Major Leagues. The 23-year-old phenom garnered a lot of attention during the offseason race to sign him. During his career in Japan, he doubled as a pitcher with nearly unhittable stuff and a batter who could launch towering home runs, but it remains to be seen whether he will have similar success in the U.S. It’ll be a tough slog to the top of the AL West for the Halos, who will look to dethrone their division rival and defending World Series champion Houston Astros.
Larry Mantle talks with Bill Shaikin, baseball writer for the Los Angeles Times, to get a preview of the season.
Guest:
Bill Shaikin, baseball writer for the Los Angeles Times
Leviticus didn’t mention anything about cell agriculture: Could lab-grown pork be kosher?
According to Book of Leviticus, animals fit for human consumption must fit two categories: they have a completely split hoof and they chew their cud.
Pigs, though they have split hooves, don’t chew cud and therefore, “You shall not eat of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.” But what about lab-grown pork?
As science makes progress on developing cell-cultured or “clean meat,” the question of whether this meat, and its pork variant, would be considered kosher, is up for debate among Rabbis and Jewish thinkers.
This lab-grown meat is created through a process by which a type of cell is reverted to a different stage in its development and tricked into becoming a different kind of cell, which then proliferates if placed in a nutrient-rich environment. And voila: meat. The process still has a ways to go and currently is more apt to producing ground meat than a rib-eye. But there are eight companies working on perfecting the method, three of which are in Silicon Valley, California.
Which leads us to the question of whether “clean meat” is kosher?
That might depend on the way the cells used in the lab-grown meat are obtained. For example, Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the kosher division at the Orthodox Union, one of Jewish groups that certifies foods as kosher in the U.S., has said that lab-grown chicken could be kosher if the cells were taken from a chicken that was slaughtered in accordance with kosher rules. But what does that mean in the case of clean pork?
If you keep kosher or halal, would you ever consider eating lab-grown meat? What about pork?
Guests:
Chase Purdy, business reporter for Quartz; he is writing book on the future of meat
Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the kosher division at the Orthodox Union, one of Jewish groups that certifies foods as kosher in the U.S.