Voter ID Laws Get Supreme Court Review; Two Caltech Scientists Win Macarthur Fellowships; LAUSD Payroll Crisis; Ahmadinejad Said What?; Slips, Stumbles, Verbal Blunders and What They Mean
Voter ID Laws Get Supreme Court Review
The Supreme Court today agreed to review a case over whether states can require voters to show a government- issued photo I.D. before they vote. Larry Mantle discusses the case with David Savage, Supreme Court Reporter for the LA Times, and with Rick Hasen, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, and election law expert.
Two Caltech Scientists Win Macarthur Fellowships
Two Caltech scientist have won the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the MacArthur "genius" award. The Fellowship is awarded yearly by the John D. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation to "individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future." Winners receive five hundred thousand dollars, paid over five years, to spend on whatever they want. Larry talks with two of this year's 24 winners, Michael Elowitz and Paul Rothemund from Cal Tech in Pasadena.
LAUSD Payroll Crisis
Los Angeles Unified School District teachers have not been accurately paid for months now, causing major financial hardship. Larry discusses the LAUSD payroll crisis and the steps that are being taken to correct the problems with A.J. Duffy of United Teachers Los Angeles, and Monica Garcia and David Brewer of LAUSD.
Ahmadinejad Said What?
Larry talks with Jim Walsh of M.I.T. about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech yesterday at Columbia University, his planned speech today at the UN, and the latest news surrounding his controversial visit to New York City.
Slips, Stumbles, Verbal Blunders and What They Mean
Linguist and writer Michael Erard joins Larry talk about how we really speak, and why it's normal for our casual, everyday speech to be filled with verbal blunders - about one in every ten words. Why do these blunders happen? Why can't we control them? What do they tell us about the people who make them? In his new book Um (Pantheon), Erard explains why our attention to some verbal blunders rises and falls. Why was the spoonerism named after Reverend Spooner, not some other absent-minded person? Where did the Freudian slip come from? Why do we prize "umlessness" in speaking? Erard and Larry discuss language in the wild and how to deal with verbal blunders every day speech.