Pope Francis will allow priests to forgive women who've had abortions. Also, in his first bid for the U.S. presidency, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won eight states and the Iowa Caucuses. How is Huckabee’s campaign different this time around? Then, 18-year-old Michelle Carter is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for allegedly convincing her former boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to kill himself last summer.
Pope tells priests to forgive abortion, limited time only
Pope Francis will allow priests to forgive women who've had abortions.
He's designated next year as the Year of Mercy. Women who've had abortions are now included, despite abortion being considered a grave sin -- grounds for excommunication.
That's not changing, despite the absolution offered next year. However, the offer of forgiveness is for a limited time only, starting when the Holy Jubilee kicks off on December 8, 2015 and ending November 20, 2016.
While more Catholics are leaving the Church than joining, is this an effective way to bring back Catholic women, who were excommunicated from the church?
Guest:
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a professor of Anthropology and director of the program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley
Jay Tolson, has written about religion for U.S. News and World Report and is now editor of Hedgehog review for the Institute for Advanced Studies in culture at University of Virginia
GOP 2016: The Mike Huckabee presidential campaign 2.0
In his first bid for the U.S. presidency, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won eight states and the Iowa Caucuses.
But that wasn’t enough to land him the GOP nomination, as he came in third behind Mitt Romney and eventual nominee John McCain.
How is Huckabee’s campaign different this time around? What issues is he focusing on?
Guests:
Steve Hendrix, reporter at Washington Post. He is the author of an e-book on Mike Huckabee published by the Washington Post that is part of the paper’s coverage of the presidential candidates for the 2016 race
Steve Shepard, campaigns and elections editor for POLITICO
Jacob Kaufman, reporter covering the state legislature and politics for NPR affiliate KUAR in Little Rock, Arkansas
The real reason straight, college-educated women are having a hard time finding a date
There’s a man deficit in the U.S.
So says Jon Birger, author of the new book, Date-onomics. At a rate of 1.05 boys to every girl, by the time these children are adults, the dating pool is swimming with more men than women.
But by the time they get to college, for every three men, there are four women. These straight, college-educated women are presumably looking for straight, college-educated men, and then the pickings get even slimmer, especially depending on where you live.
In LA, there’s 37 percent more female college grads under the age of 25 than college-grad men, according to Birger's data. It’s a combination of the birth control pill, Title IX, and developmental differences between boys and girls that’s causing the chasm.
One solution Birger posits, is to red shirt boys in first grade. That is, hold them back a year, giving them a chance to mature, bettering their chances to attend higher education.
Los Angeles ladies, is it tough to find a good man to date in this city? Is it tough finding college educated men in LA? If you’ve had success dating in LA, what’s your advice?
Guest:
Jon Birger, author of “Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game” (Workman Publishing Company, 2015), and a former senior writer at Fortune and Money
Is teen who urged boyfriend to commit suicide responsible for his death?
A court case out of Massachusetts that depicts a disturbing picture of young love gone horribly wrong is gaining national attention as it raises questions about whether encouraging someone to commit suicide makes you legally responsible for that person’s death.
18-year-old Michelle Carter is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for allegedly convincing her former boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to kill himself last summer.
Roy was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a K-Mart parking lot. He had used a gas-powered water pump to filter the fumes into his truck. The two teens had met in 2012 while visiting relatives in Florida, and had maintained a romantic relationship via phone and the Internet.
Prosecutors say Roy had spoken of his desire to kill himself several times, and that Carter would encourage him to do so, texting him things like “You’re finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain,” in one message, and even gave him suggestions for how to kill himself by hanging or carbon monoxide poisoning.
They also say the day that Roy killed himself, Carter told Roy to stay in the truck as the fumes began to overtake him. Adding to the suspicion that Carter knew what she was doing is the text she sent to a friend after Roy’s death expressing concern that police might go through his phone, see the messages she sent him, and come after her.
Carter’s attorney argues that his client’s messages are protected by the First Amendment as free speech, and that Roy was completely responsible for his own death because Carter took no physical actions to make him kill himself.
This isn’t the first time the issue of whether encouraging someone to commit suicide counts as assisted suicide has been in focus. Last year, a former nurse was convicted of assisting suicide for going on suicide chat forums and encouraging people to kill themselves. The decision was ultimately reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, which ruled that while assisting suicide is illegal, advising and encouraging suicide were not illegal under the law.
Do you think Carter’s messages are protected as free speech? Should encouraging or convincing someone to commit suicide be against the law?
Commonwealth's Response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss and Certificate of Service
Guests:
Daniel Medwed, professor of criminal law, procedure, and evidence at Northeastern University in Boston
Larry Rosenthal, professor of law at Chapman School of Law in Orange
What's next after LA's City Council unanimously approves city’s 2024 Olympic bid?
In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council today granted approval for the city to compete for the 2024 Olympics.
The 15-0 vote allows Mayor Garcetti to begin negotiations with the U.S. Olympic Committee, but it doesn’t financially obligate the city to anything just yet. It remains to be seen how much money the city could be on the hook for, what backing might come from the state and what LA’s chance even are of beating out other contenders like Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest.
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK -- YOU CAN JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON TWITTER UNDER THE HASHTAG LA2024
Guests:
Brian Watt, KPCC reporter covering the local economy and workforce; he’s at the Mayor’s press conference
Zev Yaroslavsky, former Los Angeles County Supervisor, and is now affiliated with the UCLA’s history department, and the Luskin School of Public Affairs
Andrew Zimbalist, Professor of Economics at Smith College and author of the new book, “Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015)
David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians
Ed Hula, Editor in Chief, Around the Rings, a publication based in Atlanta, Georgia devoted to covering the Olympics