Penn State sex abuse scandal rocks sports world and beyond. Praise and doubt from the LAO. Kill bill? Is doing away with the dollar a money maker or poorly conceived fiscal policy? Surprising election results in Ohio, Arizona and Mississippi. Who's the boss when it comes to lunch breaks and coffee time?
Penn State sex abuse scandal rocks sports world and beyond
For 23 years, Jerry Sandusky helped well-respected Pennsylvania State head coach, Joe Paterno, lead their football team to victory after victory. For 23 years, Sandusky was a major player in the high-profile world of college sports. Now, he’s been brought low by sex abuse allegations from eight young boys that he allegedly recruited through a charity that he founded to help troubled youth.
According to a Grand Jury report on the case, Sandusky was caught on several different occasions having inappropriate contact with boys. But the instance that could bring down head coach Paterno as well as other officials at Penn State is one in which a graduate assistant allegedly caught Sandusky assaulting a 10-year-old boy at the campus football building. The graduate assistant reported what he saw to Paterno, who called athletic director Tim Curley. Curley and a senior vice president of finance, Gary Schultz, assured the graduate assistant that they’d take care of the matter. The police were never contacted.
Now Curley and Shultz have been charged with failure to report child abuse and perjury before a grand jury. Both men have left their positions at Penn State but are fighting the charges. Grand jury testimony also indicates that Penn State President Graham Spanier also knew of the allegations; now calls for his ouster are mounting.
WEIGH IN:
How could these men have ignored something this serious? Is there a psychological element at play? Does the will to win, and to keep the big paydays coming, overwhelm the will to do right by eight young boys? And how does the culture of high-profile sports teams play into this case? As a sports fan how are you feeling about the Penn State scandal? We’ve seen predatory coaches in many sports, so as a parent what can you do to keep your child safe?
Guests:
Scott Detrow, reporter for WITF in Harrisburg, PA
Casey Cooper, licensed sports psychologist
Praise and doubt from the LAO
California's non partisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) just released a report that both praises and criticizes Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to reform public pension benefits. Brown’s proposals to combine the existing guaranteed benefits with a 401(k) type plan and to raise the retirement age for future employees from 55 to 67 was lauded by the LAO.
The LAO was less pleased with the governor's plan to require existing workers to pay more into their own pension funds. They called that "a legal and collective bargaining minefield," and pointed out that altering benefits for current works would be "difficult, perhaps impossible" to do.
Whether existing public pension benefits can be modified is a question that remains unanswered. Republican activists who want to curb the cost of public employee benefits have proposed two possible ballot measures that would address this issue. Both would require current workers to pay more into their retirement plans. The governor’s plan will be reviewed by the legislature on Dec. 1.
WEIGH IN:
What impact will this report have on lawmakers' assessment of the Brown plan? And how likely is it that any plan can make it past the voters?
Guest:
Jason Sisney, deputy legislative analyst with the Legislative Analyst Office, and author of the report.
Kill bill: Is doing away with the dollar a money maker or poorly conceived fiscal policy?
Controversy brews over whether or not to eliminate the one dollar bill in favor of the fairly unpopular dollar coin.
Proponents, like Arizona Republican representative David Schweikert, say converting to the coin is a money maker for the country.
According to a recent study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the government could save $5.5 billion over the next 30 years if they make the switch. The report says coins cost a bit more up front to make, but they can stay in circulation much longer. Because coins circulate through the economy slower, the government would have to make more of them, which increases the amount they’ll make on the coins.
That’s why Schweikert has introduced a bill in the house to do away with the dollar bill. But the dollar coin hasn’t really been the hit government officials had hoped it would be. When the coins first came out a couple decades ago they confused people because their size and color closely resembled the quarter. There have been big changes since then, but that hasn’t increased their popularity.
Right now the government has well over a billion dollar coins sitting in a Federal Reserve vault because no one wants them. Dollar bill advocates insist that the media is missing the point on that GAO study.
WEIGH IN:
The coins cost more to manufacture and we’ll need more of them to fulfill demand...so where are the savings? They also point out that businesses will have to buy new equipment to deal with the coins. So, in the battle over bill versus coin, how do both sides stack up? Is there any political will to kill the dollar bill? And with both sides offering dueling economic outlooks, whose numbers are looking a little green?
Guests:
Erica Gordon, director of policy & government affairs at the Citizens Against Government Waste, one of the organizations that make up the Dollar Coin Alliance, a pro-dollar coin organization
Tom Ferguson, spokesman for The Americans for George Coalition, a pro-dollar bill organization
Surprising election results in Ohio, Arizona and Mississippi
“Off-year” elections, without big-ticket presidential appeal, aren’t generally big news. But yesterday’s voting yielded surprising results for high-profile ballot measures in three states.
In Ohio, voters turned out to overturn a bill that had restricted the power of labor unions. The bill, spearheaded by Republican Governor John Kasich, was signed into law in March and immediately spurred a backlash from the state’s 350,000 public employee union members. Yesterday the law was overturned with over 60 percent of the vote, and labor leaders are declaring that the victory will serve as a model for union battles throughout the nation.
Meanwhile, voters in Mississippi went thumbs down on Proposition 26, a controversial measure that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person in an effort to outlaw abortion. Backers of the bill hoped that a victory would rekindle a national abortion debate. Opponents felt it went too far, and would have had repercussions for doctors performing any medical procedure on a pregnant woman. The measure was defeated by a margin of 58 to 42 percentage points.
Finally, in the state’s first recall election, Arizonans voted to oust State Senate President Russell Pearce (R), the author of that state’s controversial immigration law. Fellow Republican Jerry Lewis, who doesn’t support the immigration crackdown, took the seat instead.
WEIGH IN:
Could these results point to a national backlash against treasured Republican issues? Have right-wing extremists pushed voters too far? Could we be seeing a sea change in attitudes? What do these results mean for the 2012 elections?
Guest:
Ron Elving, NPR Senior Washington Editor
Who's the boss when it comes to lunch breaks and coffee time?
The California Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that will have far-reaching implications for workers across the state. Five restaurant workers are suing Brinker International – owner of Chili's and other chain restaurants – claiming the company made it impossible to take meal and rest breaks.
One plaintiff, Santana Alvarado, worked at Chili's restaurant in Concord for several years. He testified that it was tough to get his bosses to give him time away from dish washing to eat. And that he and co-workers "were forced to eat in the storage room."
Labor-rights lawyers say employers should be forced to carve out time for workers. Brinker's attorneys don't deny that workers ought to have opportunities for taking requisite breaks, but that controlling the exact timing is unmanageable and should be left to the discretion of employees.
The Court's decision is due in three months and will impact numerous class-action lawsuits and one-off employee claims against employers.
The California Restaurant Association's CEO, Jot Condie, told The Mercury News, "It's big to our membership ... We hear daily from companies and independent restaurants being sued because of the unclear nature of the law."
WEIGH IN:
Will the court clear things up? How should breaks be managed in your workplace? Do you get time off during your day? Would you want it set in stone to avoid employers taking advantage, or do you prefer flexibility?
Guests:
Fernando Flores, Staff Attorney in the Wage and Hour Litigation Program, Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center based in San Francisco, California
Daniel Conway, Legislative and Public Affairs Director, California Restaurant Association