A 30-member UC task force unveiled new guidelines for fighting campus sexual misconduct. Also, tomorrow, members of the House Armed Services Committee will focus on a Pentagon program that sends surplus military equipment to local police forces, include school district police. Then, an annual poll finds that Americans are again losing confidence in the mass media.
How the UC system will fight sexual misconduct
A 29-member UC task force unveiled new guidelines for fighting campus sexual misconduct. Their recommendations include education for students, faculty, and staff, a system-wide website for information and reporting, and a confidential, independent, advocacy office with counselors available to victims.
UC President Janet Napolitano said that the message is simple, “We will not tolerate sexual assault on our campuses.” The UC guidelines have been praised by advocates, who cite high rates of assault on college campuses in California and nationwide as an issue that needs more attention.
A bill from California Senator Barbara Boxer makes similar recommendations that would extend to all colleges and universities that receive any federal funding -- most campuses nationwide. "We call for establishing an independent, on-campus advocate to support survivors of sexual assault at every UC campus and frankly every campus in California, and the country," said Boxer.
Boxer honed in on what she describes as "an epidemic," highlighting the fact that "one in five women is assaulted in her lifetime, one in 20 men." She also expressed the need for better prevention and the end of the epidemic, but said that a campus advocate will fill a necessary role in the interim.
Senator Boxer also argued that there is no need to provide an advocate or counselor to the accused, saying, "This is for victims, I don't want to spend taxpayer money giving an advocate to someone who has assaulted someone." Boxer focused on wellness treatment, crisis counseling, and medical resources as part of what the campus advocate would provide for survivors.
But critics of the new recommendations argue that it is unfair not to offer the same education, counseling, or resources to the accused. Los Angeles defense attorney Mark Hathaway has represented college and university students accused of sexual assault, and said that, "it's very important that we not use the government, whether it's the Senator or California law, to take away important civil rights of the accused."
Hathaway argued that there's frequently an assumption when someone is accused of sexual assault that they are guilty. Hathaway said that because UC system is publicly funded, resources should be used equally.
Task force member and UCLA Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Badalich disagrees. She said that the task force determined that the thing more glaringly lacking from the UC system's ability to handle sexual misconduct on its campuses was a campus advocate.
"When I was assaulted," she said, "I Googled sexual assault at UCLA and I had nowhere to go." There was just a website with information, and a convoluted instruction to visit a counseling office. Badalich said many students don't report assaults, and cited fear of being blamed for the assault as a main reason why.
Badalich also argued that the current education model related to alcohol needs to be changed. She said mandatory education for students about alcohol and binge drinking and uses sexual assault "as a side note," making the point that, "if you don't binge drink, and if you don't go out at night, you won't be sexually assaulted."
"We should not be conflating alcohol education and sexual assault prevention, but in consent education you should be definitely talking about how you can not give consent if you're inebriated," Badalich said.
Badalich added that risk reduction techniques don't work and don't address the heart of the problem: "alcohol doesn't cause sexual assault, assaulters cause sexual assault."
Mark Hathaway contended that alcohol should be a part of the dialogue. He said most of the cases he sees involve two students who were inebriated, with only one bearing the risk of a sexual assault charge.
Alongside alcohol education, Hathaway stressed the importance of increasing awareness about the benefits of reporting, "Days or weeks later isn't really a problem, you have witnesses who are still around, text messages, video cameras that can be obtained, the evidence really isn't lost. The problem becomes six months, a year [...] I think part of the education process should be to encourage men and women and others who are victims to come forward immediately and have a safe place to do that, which I think the UC system is attempting to do here."
Hathaway made the point that early reporting is crucial to the cases of both the survivor and the accused, who have better access to key evidence and witnesses.
Savannah Badalich is optimistic about the new guidelines and the continued process of evaluation. The second phase of recommendations from the UC task force are expected to be released in July 2015.
How will the UC’s recommendations change campus culture? What are the most effective ways to address campus sexual misconduct?
Guests:
Barbara Boxer, democratic senator from California
Mark Hathaway, private defense attorney in Los Angeles who has represented students and others accused of sexual misconduct
Savannah Badalich, UC task force member, Student Wellness Commissioner at UCLA, founder of advocacy group 7,000 in Solidarity, and sexual assault survivor
Apple will not unveil personal smartphone, tablet data to help police investigations
Apple announced new privacy policy on Wednesday and it will no longer be able to share private data stored on iPhones and iPads running on the new iOS8 operating system – even at the request of a law enforcement agency carrying a search warrant.
A new passcode encryption technology built in to iOS8 prevents anyone but the user of the device from accessing its photos, messages, emails, contacts and call history. It bars even Apple from getting its hands on that information. This level of protection, however, does not extend to what’s stored on iCloud.
“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data,” Apple said on its Web site. “So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”
Do you applaud this decision? Is the passcode really indestructible? A recent Supreme Court decision ruled a search warrant is needed in most cases before police can access data on phones. How would Apple’s new privacy feature impact police work?
Guest:
Nathan Wessler, an attorney in the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
Karen Kruger, Attorney with Funk and Bolton law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland; Kruger concentrates on law enforcement matters, advising chief law enforcement executives in all aspects of managing police agencies
Ronald T. Hosko, the former head of the FBI’s criminal investigative division
Military surplus sent to schools under examination
Tomorrow, members of the House Armed Services Committee will focus on a Pentagon program that sends surplus military equipment to local police forces, including school district police.
This week, LAUSD's police Chief Steve Zipperman decided the district will remove from its arsenal three 40mm less-lethal weapons (sometimes characterized as grenade launchers) it received through the "1033" program. It will retain a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, because it "is a life-saving piece of equipment that would be utilized under extraordinary circumstances," according to an LAUSD statement.
Why did the district request the equipment initially? In what scenarios would the district police need the 40mm less-lethal weapons?
Guests:
Kelly B. Huston, Deputy Director, Crisis Communications and Media Relations, Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalEOS) - the state office that coordinates military surplus equipment redistribution
Sergeant Joe Grubbs, President of the California School Resource Officers' Association - comprised of peace officers and educators focused on school safety; Sergeant with the Bakersfield Police Department
New poll finds uptick in Americans who say US media is too conservative
The annual poll conducted by Gallup finds that Americans are again losing confidence in the mass media’s ability to report news " fully, accurately, and fairly." Only 40 percent of overall respondents think the media is doing a commendable job.
The level of trust has dipped in both democrats and republicans: 54 percent of democrats and 27 percent of republicans claim to have confidence in the media, down 6 and 1 percent, respectively, for each group.
The poll also shows a sharp uptick in the number of Americans who feel that the mass media is “too conservative.” Nearly one in five people surveyed think so, the highest percentage since 2006. It’s also up 6 points from 2013 – the biggest bump since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.
A little over 1,000 adults in the US were surveyed in the poll.
Guest:
Frank Newport, Editor-in-chief, Gallup
Sizing up Alibaba’s growth potential outside of China ahead of its IPO
The company generating the latest IPO buzz isn’t based in Silicon Valley, but in Hangzhou, a city in China most folks probably have never heard of. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange Sept. 18, and could end up being the world's largest initial public offering with the potential of generating over $25 billion for the company. Due to demand, the company has recently risen the price of a share to between $66 to $68.
E-commerce sites under Alibaba currently accounts for 90 percent of online sales in China, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. While the company has a captive audience at home, founder Jack Ma has said he wants to expand the company agressively in the US and Europe.
What is the growth potential of Alibaba overseas?
Guests:
Praveen Menon, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence
Joel Backaler, director at Frontier Strategy Group, which provides market intelligence for businesses. He’s the author of China Goes West: Everything You Need to Know About Chinese Companies Going Global (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
Analysis finds overwhelming underuse of LAUSD iPads
In the first formal evaluation of LAUSD’s iPad program, analysis found that only 1 in 245 teachers used the curriculum purchased to accompany the devices, and four out of five schools rarely used the tablets.
The review, conducted by Washington D.C.-based American Institutes for Research, reported that some schools said they prefered the district’s curriculum in certain subjects, and many reported having problems accessing or finding the curriculum on the iP6ads. The report attributes problems with the program to it’s size and scope, saying the launch of the iPad program may have been too hurried and the program too large and ambitious. LAUSD has so far purchased 109,000 iPads, 62,000 of which have the Pearson curriculum installed. The total cost, to date, is $61 million.
How should LAUSD approach reforms for the iPad program? Can teachers and schools adapt to use the devices effectively, or is this a lost cause in a district facing other concerns?
Guest:
Annie Gilbertson, KPCC education reporter who’s been following the LAUSD iPAD controversy