AirTalk’s political experts recap last week in political news and look ahead to what you should be watching for this week in Washington D.C. We also examine employment standards regarding registered sex offenders in light of the Olivia Munn ‘Predator’ controversy; discuss a new study regarding teens and social media; and more.
Week in politics: How effective former President Obama will be for Dems on the campaign trail, who gets credit for recent U.S. economic success & more
AirTalk’s political experts recap last week in political news and look ahead to what you should be watching for this week in Washington D.C. Here are a few of the stories we’re following:
President Obama in OC on Saturday, spoke in Illinois on Friday
Economic check-in: Friday jobs numbers, rising wages & Trump says he’s prepping tariffs on further $267 billion in Chinese imports
Kavanaugh hearing recap
U.S. officials met with Venezuelan military officers plotting coup
Trump admin looking to close Palestinian Liberation Organization office
Trump urges Sessions to launch probe to find out who wrote op-ed
Woodward book & response recap
Sweden election & rise of nationalist party
North Korea’s parade missing ICBMs
Many employees leaving EPA
Guests:
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies. He is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets
Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College; he tweets
After ‘Predator’ controversy, we look at the intersection of workplace safety and equal opportunity
Ahead of the release of the upcoming Predator sequel, “The Predator,” star Olivia Munn flagged that an actor she shared a scene with, Steven Wilder Striegel, was a registered sex offender.
The film is out in theaters this Friday. Fox Studios responded by cutting the actor’s scene from the and denied knowledge of Striegel's criminal history. The film's director, Shane Black, a personal friend of Striegel, was aware of his status. Black has issued an apology for bringing Striegel on board and Munn has stopped press promotions for the film. But the production’s choices regarding Striegel beg the question of how employers can balance the “Ban the Box” initiative while protecting their employees from potential harm?
What are the employment standards regarding registered sex offenders under California’s Fair Choice Act? Where does an employer draw the line between equal opportunity and creating a safe working environment?
Guest:
Robert Eassa, chair of the employment law group at Duane Morris LLP in San Francisco; his expertise includes discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination in the area of employment
High school football game in OC ends in accusations of racism
The players at Friday night’s football game between Santa Ana and Aliso Niguel weren’t the only ones butting heads – accusations of racist signage among the crowd sparked conflict off the field and into the weekend.
Santa Ana high’s principal, Jeff Bishop was made aware of alleged signs on the Aliso Niguel side that expressed support for Trump and the building of a border wall. Bishop expressed on Facebook over the weekend that he believed the signs to be racist against his school, which is almost 99% Latino, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bishop’s post sparked an online debate between parents in both districts. Deni Christensen, principal of Aliso Niguel High School, countered in a later statement to the Orange County Register that she and other administrators removed three signs, none of which mentioned a border wall, but stated that “ it’s not outside the realm of possibility that there were students in the parking lot with signs we did not see.”
We discuss the events at the game, and analyze the legal arguments regarding political signage at public high school events.
AirTalk reached out to both principles and school districts. Santa Ana declined to comment on air at this time, and Aliso Niguel did not return a statement in time for the show.
Guests:
Steve Fryer, reporter for the OC register who covers high school sports; he was at the game on Friday and has been following the story; he tweets
Jody Armour, professor of law at USC; he tweets
Aaron Caplan, professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, his focus includes constitutional law and First Amendment law
What teens are really getting out of social media, according to a new study
There’s a long and growing list of research on how social media consumption impacts adolescence, but at least one thing is clear — our social media landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years.
On Monday, Common Sense Media released a comprehensive follow up to its 2012 report, “Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences.” The independent nonprofit surveyed 1,141 teens across the United States age 13 to 17 on their interactions and perceptions of social media use, and the updated findings may surprise or challenge our notions of how constant screen time affects today’s teenagers.
For one, teens are fully aware of how distracting their devices are, a more nuanced takeaway than what was previously believed before, and the ways in which they choose to engage with multiple platforms have also drastically changed. Youngsters opened up about the more serious problems they face online as well, including cyber bullying, racism, sexism and hate speech.
We dive into the results and welcome your comments and questions. Call us at 866-893-5722 or comment below.
Guest:
James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit working to minimize the harmful effects of media and technology on kids and parents which released the report today