Under new rules proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prison officials would be allowed to manufacture barbiturates to carry out the death penalty; how we're experiencing the effects of climate change and what political satire means during this year's election.
California considers making its own lethal drugs for the death penalty
Under new rules proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prison officials would be allowed to manufacture barbituates to carry out the death penalty at its own compounding pharmacies, immunizing prison officials from the growing problem of pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell lethal drugs for the purpose of killing the condemned.
Last week, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it would no longer allow states to buy its drugs to put people to death.
Pfizer’s decision won’t affect California because it does not manufacture the four drugs prison officials propose to use in the new regime now under consideration.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Notice of Proposed Regulations by scprweb
Guests:
Frank Stoltze, Correspondent for KPCC who’s been reporting on this story.
Linda Lye, Senior Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
Predicting the effects of climate change… while experiencing them in real time
Since the 1970s, climate change has been looked at and talked about as something happening in the future, that our kids will have to deal with.
Well, forty years later those kids are definitely grown and over the weekend NASA released data marking April as the seventh straight month that global temperatures have surpassed previous high records. 2016 is poised to be the hottest our Earth has experienced in a very, very long time and we can already feel it.
Guests:
Jeremy Miller, environmental reporter, most recent is “Droughtlandia” in Pacific Standard
Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist, director of Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia Univeristy
Life is not a Disney movie and wild animals do not want to be your friend
Tourists in Yellowstone made the worst kind of international headlines last week when they hoisted a lone baby bison into the back of their car in a misguided attempt to rescue it.
The calf was then put down when rangers could not get the herd to accept its return.
Despite literal signs and continued headlines about the dangers of approaching wildlife, why do some humans still get up close and personal with animals?
Guests:
Paul Brinkmann, senior digital reporter for business at the Orlando Sentinel where he’s been following entertainment’s impact on wildlife
David Mizejewski, naturalist and media spokesperson, National Wildlife Federation
Teresa Telecky, Director of Wildlife for Humane Society International
Unions in heated split over inclusion of Californian Tom Steyer in Super PAC
In an open, heated letter to Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, a fellow union head has blasted Trumka's alliance with California environmental philanthropist Tom Steyer calling it "political bullshit."
For the 2016 election year, Steyer has joined forces with other large Democratic organizations including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations to increase voter turnout for their party. The clash is over Steyer's opposition to oil and gas projects such as the Keystone pipeline, which undercuts American job creation seen as central to some unions' missions. The letter from LIUNA (Laborers' International Union of North America) states that Steyer's "'Leave it in the Ground' [position] is not a viable energy policy."
Historically, other unions have come to include environmental planks in their missions (for more on that see Blue-Green Alliance).
Will Trumka disavow his alliance with Steyer? Could this rift harm the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts?
Guests:
Steven Greenhouse, Former labor and workplace reporter for “The New York Times,” Working on a new book about the future of the American worker and labor unions
Brian Mahoney, Labor and employment reporter, POLITICO Pro
Political satire in the 2016 election
Past presidential elections have included a much less interesting group of candidates, making satire much easier to deliver.
But with so many hot personalities vying for presidency in the current election, has political satire become ineffective? Donald Trump, for example, has been a popular choice for the media, but has been able to persevere with the help of his stance against political correctness.
Given the state of the election, what purpose does satire serve?
Guest:
Sophia A. McClennen, Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University; Co-author, "Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American Politics" (Palgrave Macmillan; 2014)
Mary Karr on our conflicted relationship with and the hazards of high heels
Crippled feet, podiatrist visits and shooting pains up the legs -- are high heels worth the lovely lengthening of the legs?
In The New Yorker, Mary Karr writes of her conflicted relationship with the stiletto and what it represents. Karr says that while women stand tall in sky-high pumps, the coveted shoe ultimately brings them down.
Do you continue to wear heels even after learning about the possible consequences?
Guest:
Mary Karr, contributing writer, The New Yorker; her newest memoir is "The Art of Memoir"