Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and former Governor Mike Huckabee are throwing their hats into the Republican presidential race. Also, we recap the big weekend in sports. Then, author and journalist Sam Quinones discusses big pharmaceutical companies' role in staggering Heroin-related deaths in the U.S.
Republican contenders launch bids for presidential race
Carly Fiorina, former CEO of tech giant, Hewlett Packard, Ben Carson, illustrious pediatric neurosurgeon and former Governor Mike Huckabee are throwing their hats into the Republican presidential race.
Fiorina, once named the most powerful woman in business by “Fortune” magazine, is remembered in California for her senate bid in 2010 to unseat incumbent Barbara Boxer. Ben Carson is African-American and was born poor to a single mother. He went on to graduate from Yale and University of Michigan medical school, rising to the position of director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Former Governor Mike Huckabee is known to be popular with the evangelical right.
Do any of these candidates have a shot at breaking away from the pack?
Guests:
Carla Marinucci, Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle
Philip Bump, Writer for The Washington Post's politics blog, The Fix
Both attackers of Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas are dead, extra ammunition found
On Sunday, two gunmen shot a security guard protecting a building housing a cartoon convention seeking the best depiction of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad.
Elton Simpson is one, the identity of the other attacker is currently unknown. In 2010, Simpson was found guilty of making false statements to the FBI about going to Somalia. Extra ammunition was found in their car, but no bombs.
Read the full story here
Guests:
Eric Aasen, digital news editor at KERA, the NPR affiliate in Dallas, Texas, who is reporting on the shootings in Garland
David Schanzer, professor of Public Policy, Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Clips clinch, Ducks dominate...wasn’t there an important fight, too? Recapping the weekend in sports
If you weren’t paying attention to the epic sports weekend that was, you might be surprised to find out that the “Fight of the Century” between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao didn’t quite live up to the hype for many fans.
However, sports fanatics here in Los Angeles had plenty to celebrate as the Ducks, Clippers, and Dodgers all continued to roll.
There was plenty on tap even before Saturday night’s mega-fight. You had the running of the fastest two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby, where we saw American Pharaoh sprint to an exciting finish to win legendary trainer Bob Baffert his fourth-ever victory in that race. The L.A. Clippers faced the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs for an exciting game seven, which featured a Chris Paul buzzer-beater that propelled the Clips to a 111-109 win and on to the next round of the playoffs to face the Houston Rockets. Finally, the NFL draft wrapped up on Saturday, as quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota were picked, as expected, at numbers one and two, respectively.
Sunday featured the Anaheim Ducks remained undefeated in the postseason with a 3-0 win over the Calgary Flames that puts Anaheim up 2-0 in the series as it returns to Calgary. Finally, Dodgers wrapped up a three game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 1-0 win, maintaining their three game lead over the Padres in the NL West.
Do you think this was the greatest overall weekend in sports? Did the events live up to the hype? What do you think was the best moment of the weekend?
Guests:
A. Martinez, co-host of KPCC’s Take Two
Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation and Host of Edge of Sports Radio for Sirius/XM.
‘Freakonomics’ co-author’s warped suggestions on cheating, guns and more
“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” “When to rob a bank.” “More sex please, we’re economists.”
These are among the provocatively comic chapter titles from the newest book of economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner.
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the best-selling layman’s guide to wacky ‘Freakonomics,’ the book is a compilation of 131 blog posts from their website www.freakonomics.com. With rants ranging from criticizing the penny to advocating for internet poker, these authors make it clear that they know how to think like a freak.
If you have kept up with Freakonomics through the book series or various media, what are some of your favorite theories? Do you have an odd economic theory that explains a social phenomenon?
Guest:
Stephen J. Dubner, co-author with Steven D. Levitt of “When to Rob a Bank...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants” (William Morrow, 2015). Dubner and Levitt also hosts Freakonomics Radio and the site www.freakonomics.com.
RAND study finds high correlation between sexual harassment and assault in the military
The study was sponsored by the Pentagon, based on the response from about 170,000 active and reserve service members.
It finds that an estimated 18,900 soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force members said they had experienced some form of “unwanted sexual contact” in 2014.
The report finds a high correlation between sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military. A woman service member in the military who is sexually harassed is 14 times more likely to be sexually assaulted; by the same token, a man who is sexually harassed in the military is 50 times more likely to be assaulted.
Kristie Gore, a behavioral scientist and co-author of the study at the RAND corporation, will join Larry to discuss the report’s findings and policy implications.
Guest:
Kristie Gore, Senior Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation, and coauthor of the report on “Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military,” which Rand released Friday
Study author of ‘1 in 5’ number on the difficulty of arriving at a national campus rape stat
Campus sexual violence has garnered unprecedented national attention in the last few years. While sexual assault on campus is a serious problem, there’s been widespread disagreement between sexual violence prevention advocates and critics on how prevalent the issue really is.
One stat that gets cited repeatedly by the news media and government officials is that 1 in 5 women in college are victims of sexual assault. That number is from a 2007 study that used data collected for two universities, and even its author says that it should never be treated as nationally representative.
Over the years, other studies have arrived at different numbers to provide a snapshot of how serious the issue is, but their results have also been disputed.
Why is it so difficult to come up with a national statistic?
Guests:
Jake New, reporter at the education publication Inside Higher Ed, who writes frequently about rape on campus
Christopher Krebs, Senior Research Social Scientist at the North Carolina-based research institution RTI International. He is the co-author of the 2007 “The Campus Assault Study,” which found that “1 in 5” women on two university campuses were victims of sexual violence
From OxyContin to heroin: Behind America’s deadly addiction
Heroin-related deaths tripled in the U.S. between 2010 and 2013, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Author and journalist Sam Quinones blames big pharma.
In his new book, “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” Quinones exposes a troubling trend in the States. He theorizes that doctors, working closely with the producers of prescription opiates like Vicodin, OxyContin and morphine, have helped create a nation of addicts.
Though many drugs in the opioid family are prescribed for legitimate reasons, Quinones contends that there may be just as many that aren’t. When doctors work too closely with powerful drug corporations, he says that financial motivations lead many physicians to over-prescribe powerful pills.
Digging deeper into the issue, he links the deaths of suburban young men at the hands of black tar heroin to the doctors who enabled their addictions.
Guest:
Sam Quinones, author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic” (Bloomsbury Press, 2015). He was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to 2014