After passing the state Assembly Wednesday, a bill that would let doctors prescribe life-ending medications to terminally-ill patients is heading to the Senate. Also, submitted for your approval: what if we served the last person in line first instead of serving the first person in line first? Then, men and woman often aren’t sure how to act around each other at work. But what’s the alternative?
As doctor-assisted suicide bill heads to CA Senate, looking at its odds at becoming law
After passing the state Assembly Wednesday, a bill that would let doctors prescribe life-ending medications to terminally-ill patients is heading to the Senate.
It’s highly likely that the Senate would pass the bill, but it’s another matter whether Governor Jerry Brown would sign it into law.
Under ABx2-15, patients would be required to submit three separate requests to a physician -- two oral and one written -- with at least 15 days between each request.
Guests:
Christal Smith, Southern California State Director of Compassion and Choices, an advocacy organization supporting ABx2-15, and its previous incarnation, SB 128 (Full disclosure: Christal used to work on the show, and also on Talk of the City on KPCC)
Margaret Hall, a disability rights advocate for the Californians Against Assisted Suicide, an organization dedicated to preventing legalization of doctor assisted suicide in California. She is a person with disability
‘Queue’ the eye-rolling: Danish study finds serving last person in line first is most efficient
Submitted for your approval: what if we served the last person in line first instead of serving the first person in line first?
While this may sound like something out of the Twilight Zone, a new study out from researchers at the University of Southern Denmark suggests that a last-come-first-serve system for serving lines is actually more efficient.
To do this, the researchers made two assumptions: those in line want to be served as quickly as possible and want to spend the least amount of time possible waiting in line. They then analyzed three different systems of serving lines: the traditional first-come-first-served, randomly selecting the order in which people are served, and last-come-first-served.
When they crunched all the numbers, they concluded that the last-come-first-served system is most efficient because it doesn’t incentivize waiting in line like the first-come-first-served system does.
So instead of being rewarded for waiting in line the longest, researchers say that people would be more inclined to come intermittently instead of all at once when there isn’t capacity to serve everyone.
The study authors acknowledge that we’re not likely to see this method put into practice anytime soon because of the practical challenges it creates. Research suggests that people are more concerned about fairness than they are about being efficient, even if there’s a personal cost attached.
What do you think about employing a last-come-first-served system for lines? Do you mind waiting in line? Is it worth it? When? Why?
The curse of the first-in-first-out queue discipline
Guest:
Martin Lariviere, professor of managerial economics & decision sciences at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. You can read Professor Lariviere’s blog post on this study here
2015 NFL season to feature longer PATs, a female referee, and a rugby star
Are you ready for some football?
The 2015 NFL season kicks off tonight as the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots look to put their a tumultuous offseason behind them as they welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers to town. Aside from a likely increase in the amount of attention referees pay to the PSI of game footballs, there are plenty of other new features that fans should be aware of before kickoff.
1. Extra points aren’t a gimme anymore. Instead of an 18 yard field goal kicked from the 2-yard line, the ball will be placed at the 15 for PATs, making for a 33-yard field goal. Two point conversion attempts will stay at the 2-yard line.
2. The NFL is welcoming its first full-time female official. Sarah Thomas was the first woman to ref a college football game in 2007, and she’ll be a line judge on an NFL crew this year.
3. Super Bowl L? Try Super Bowl 50. Don’t be alarmed this coming February when the Super Bowl rolls around and you don’t see its logo adorned with the traditional Roman numerals. The NFL has decided that it will use the number ‘50’ instead of L, the Roman numeral for 50, in celebration of the game’s 50th anniversary. Teams will commemorate the anniversary with gold 50-yard-line numerals.
4. Rugby league meets the NFL, and San Francisco 49ers fans could be in for an extra treat this season if rookie running back Jarryd Hayne is as good as he was in the preseason. ‘The Hayne Train’ is a former NRL (National Rugby League) star who turned down big money in Australia to chase his dream of playing in the NFL. The best part? He plays like he’s in a rugby league game, and the results are incredible. Hayne, who had only played American football on his PlayStation before suiting up with San Francisco, was second among NFL running backs in the preseason with 175 yards, though it’s unclear at this point what his role with San Francisco will actually be.
Guest:
Mike Tanier, NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report
Bill requiring police departments to report race, age, gender of everyone they stop advances
The state legislature is poised to pass a bill that will require law enforcement officers to report the perceived age, race and gender of everyone they stop.
AB 953 passed the State Senate yesterday -- it now heads to the Assembly for final approval, and after that will head to Governor Jerry Brown.
The bill's designed to look for disproportionate stops between different groups. But what's not clear is how the collected info will be used -- and how much filing it all would cost.
Can we even agree on what evenhanded stops would look like? Do we expect police stops to be in line with the local population, or with the composition of those being convicted of crimes?
Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015
Guests:
Peter Bibring, Director of Police Practices at the ACLU of Southern California
Chief David Bejarano, Police Cheif at Chula Vista Police Department. He’s also the President of the California Police Chiefs Association.
NC teens hit with felonies for sexting. So what are the laws in CA?
A high school student in North Carolina who was caught sexting with his teen girlfriend faces multiple felony charges for disseminating sexually explicit photos of minors -- even though those photos were of themselves.
Both Cormega Copening and his girlfriend Brianna Denson were 16 at the time the alleged crime took place.
Under North Carolina law, a 16-year-old is charged as an adult. And one has to be over 18 to be able to send or receive sexually explicit texts, photos or videos.
If convicted, Copening could face up to 10 years in prison. His girlfriend, Brianna Denson, took a plea deal.
What are the laws governing sexting in California?
Guests:
William Weinberg, an Irvine-based attorney specializing in criminal and juvenile defense. One of his areas of expertise is sexting between minors
Mary Anne Franks, Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law; Legislative & Tech Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (that advocates on behalf of victims of nonconsensual porn); Her research and teaching interests include cyberlaw and privacy
Climbing over the sex partition: How sexual harassment policies create a rift between men and women in the office
Kim Elsesser starts her new book “Sex and the Office” with a hypothetical.
There’s an entry-level go-getter at a consulting firm – we’ll call him Joe. He’s taking the elevator with a senior manager when they discover a shared love of long-distance running. Later that day, that senior manager swings by Joe’s desk and asks if he wants to grab a beer, while also dropping a tidy little tip about a potential client. That senior manager winds up becoming Joe’s mentor – and eventually recommends him for a higher level job.
Now, imagine how that first exchange would’ve gone if Joe was actually a woman named Josephine. Would that manager have felt comfortable bonding in the elevator? Would he be comfortable asking Josephine to join him for a drink? What if she thinks it’s a date? What if she considers it sexual harassment?
Kim Elsesser calls this the “sex partition” – the barrier that springs up between male and female coworkers thanks to organizational policies on workplace relationships and sexual harassment. She says men and woman often aren’t sure how to act around each other at work … And that older men in positions of power are particularly aware of how expressions of support for young women could be misinterpreted as something more devious.
That means women have less access than their male counterparts – it’s harder for them to network, which means it’s harder for them to get promoted, to get a raise and to get recognition for their work.
But what’s the alternative? Should sexual harassment policies be less stringent? Should they be clearer? Or is the answer more women in positions of power who can mentor the female up-and-comers?
Guest:
Kim Elsesser, author of “Sex and the Office” (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2015). She is also a research scholar at UCLA, where she teaches courses on gender in the workplace