Biden Taking Executive Action To Protect Abortion Rights. How Far Can Those Protections Go? And What Are The Legal Questions?

President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion, the White House said, as he faces mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. The White House said Biden will speak Friday morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services.” The actions he was expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide. Biden is expected to formalize instructions to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to access federally approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services.

Today on AirTalk, Larry is joined by professor of law at UC Davis Mary Ziegler, who’s author of "Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment,” and Bernadette Meyler, professor of law at Stanford University, to discuss.

With files from the Associated Press

The Future Of College Football Following USC And UCLA’s Bombshell Decision To Leave The Pac-12

Conference realignment in college sports has been going on since 1984, when the Supreme Court invalidated the NCAA’s national television contract for football.

The conference juggling has gone through ebbs and flows through the years since, from small schools bumping up to bigger leagues to power programs switching to other major conferences. The latest move, Southern California and UCLA bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, could be part of a tectonic shift. Not just because of the marquee schools involved, but because it happened at a time when the NCAA is looking to take a more decentralized approach to governing college athletics, handing more power to schools and conferences. It also foreshadows the potential for big changes to the college football structure. Joining AirTalk to discuss what this means for college football is Kyle Bonagura, college football writer for ESPN, and Andrew Zimbalist, sports economist and professor at Smith College.

California’s Central Valley Faces Many Challenges — How Will They Affect The Area’s Economy?

While California’s ongoing drought has led to watering restrictions in Southern California, the effects in the state’s Central Valley are far more severe. Last year alone, it is estimated that the drought cost farmers $1.2 billion in lost revenue and resulted in the agricultural sector losing 8,700 jobs. On top of the drought, the valley’s almond growers face another problem: congestion at the port of Oakland and falling almond prices have led to 1.3 billion pounds sitting unsold in packing and storing facilities. In other parts of the state, local governments have been grappling with how to fill current and expected funding gaps that a shrinking oil production sector will leave behind.

Today on AirTalk, Larry speaks with reporter for Valley Public Radio, Kerry Klein,water resources economist and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Merced, Josué Medellín-Azuara, and Kern county chief administrative officer Ryan J. Alsop about the environmental and economic challenges the Central Valley is facing, and how they will affect the area's economy in the long term.

FilmWeek: ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ ‘The Sea Beast,’ ‘Fire of Love,’ ‘The King of North Sudan’ And More

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson, Christy Lemire, and Charles Solomon review this weekend’s new movie releases on streaming and on demand platforms.

John Horn’s Interview about ‘Fire of Love’ with director Sara Dosa

Our critics reviewed the explosive documentary 'Fire of Love,' which chronicled the relationship of Katia and Maurice Krafft. They were a couple deeply in love with not only each other, but also the study of volcanos. Today on FilmWeek, KPCC's John Horn speaks with the film's director, Sara Dosa, about the making of the film and the lives of the Kraffts.