Today on AirTalk, we discuss the latest on Georgia's fetal heartbeat bill. We also take a look back at the biggest cases of the recent Supreme Court term; examine whether releasing CEO-to-median pay ratios causes confusion or keeps companies accountable; and more.
Georgia passes legislation banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy
Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has signed legislation banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That can be as early as six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant.
The signing Tuesday morning caps weeks of protests at the state Capitol and marks the beginning of a possibly costly legal battle.
Several GOP-controlled states are pushing abortion bans in an attack on the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Similar bans have been signed into law in Mississippi, Kentucky and Ohio, and are being considered elsewhere.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guest:
Maya T. Prabhu, statehouse reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; she tweets
As SCOTUS term winds down, we recap the biggest cases
The 2018-2019 Supreme Court terms had some major cases on the docket.
Big issues taken up include: the 2020 census citizenship question, the case about partisan gerrymandering, LGBTQ workplace discrimination and even the price of apps on your iPhone.
The term will wrap up in late June. Meanwhile, we look back and the biggest cases of the term.
Guests:
Amy Howe, co-founder of SCOTUSBlog and author of the blog Howe on the Courts; she tweets
Greg Stohr, reporter covering the Supreme Court for Bloomberg News; he tweets
Facebook, other messaging apps set to debut cryptocurrency systems in the next year
Facebook is getting into the cryptocurrency business.
The social media company is recruiting dozens of financial firms and online merchants to launch a cryptocurrency-based system, reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook's secretive plans code-named Project Libra include a digital coin that Facebook users can send each other and make purchases on the platform.
Telegram and Signal are companies that are planning to roll out new cryptocurrencies over the next year.
Would you use a cryptocurrency service by Facebook? Do you currently use cryptocurrency elsewhere?
Call us at 866-893-5722 or leave a comment down below.
Guests:
Nathaniel Popper, New York Times reporter covering finance and technology from San Francisco
Richard Ma, co-founder and CEO of Quantstamp, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity company for blockchain
Eric Meltzer, partner at Primitive Ventures, a venture capitalist firm and early-stage investor in the cryptocurrency space
Legal experts debate whether releasing CEO-to-median pay ratios causes confusion or keeps companies accountable
Since the Dodd-Frank Act was passed in 2010 during the financial crisis, CEO-to-worker pay ratios have been under the microscope.
The legislation requires publicly traded companies to report their median employee pay and CEO pay ratio.
Subsequent legislation has begun to take shape across the country in response to such drastically imbalanced ratios, including the city of Portland, OR, which imposed a penalty business tax on firms where the pay ratio exceeds 100 to 1.
While some experts have suggested companies release even more financial data to hold them accountable as the pay ratio can be misleading, others say that more financial information could cause further confusion.
Guests:
Steven A. Bank, professor of business law at UCLA.
Michael Guttentag, professor of law at LMU's Loyola Law School where his expertise includes corporate law and securities regulation
As Morning Edition changes its theme song, listeners chime in and share some of their favorite tunes
For the first time in 40 years, NPR’s Morning Edition has changed its tune.
The classic B.J. Leiderman theme has been replaced on Monday with a new jingle, intended to sound younger and more diverse, according to the program’s executive producer Kenya Young.
As might be expected, listeners had some thoughts -- not all of them, positive. But that got us thinking about show themes that we love, the themes that are classics and the themes that have now been forgotten.
Whether it’s the Today show, or another NPR theme, we want to hear your stories of beloved anthems.
Call us at 866-893-5722. You can listen to the old Morning Edition theme and the new one here.