USC Faces Continued Backlash Over Handling Of Student Protests
At the University of Southern California, student protesters set up an encampment at Alumni Park for the second time over the weekend after their first one was broken up by law enforcement last week. Ninety-three people were arrested. The campus remains closed to the public and access to the campus is limited to those with a valid campus ID. The university is also facing criticism from various groups of faculty including from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies for their handling of the student protests. Booker Prize-nominated author C Pam Zhang and UCLA professor and MacArthur Fellow Safiya Noble have withdrawn as speakers of USC's Rossier School of Education satellite commencement ceremony. President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman are set to attend the school’s Academic Executive Board meeting on Wednesday where some faculty are calling on the senate to censure Folt and Guzman for their handling of the valedictorian speech and pro-Palestinian in-camp demonstration. Joining us to discuss is LAist reporter Yusra Farzan and Jody Armour, professor of law at the University of Southern California.
We reached out to USC President Carol Folt to join the conversation, but did not hear back before the airing of this segment. We also reached out to Provost Andrew T. Guzman, but he was not available.
With files from LAist. Read the full story here.
New York Times Investigation Offers Insight On NPR’s Future, Challenges
Following layoffs in the last year and a critical opinion piece by former editor Uri Berliner, the New York Times has offered more context into the issues the major radio outlet is dealing with. In a world where television and radio are declining in audience size, news outlets invested in these mediums like NPR are having trouble finding innovative ways to stay afloat. Along with its own issues, financially or socially, the news broadcaster also is having issues such as with its relationship to local member stations.
Today on AirTalk, we’re joined by New York Times media reporter Benjamin Mullin, who’ll give us the rundown behind NPR’s recent internal issues and future financial problems as radio listenership begins to decline.
LA County Superior Court Upholds Single-Family Zoning, Strikes Down SB 9
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has struck down Senate Bill 9, a piece of legislation that ended single-family zoning, upholding cities’ right to dictate local zoning ordinances. This result follows legal action taken by 5 cities in the county: Carson, Del Mar, Redondo Beach, Torrance, and Whittier.
Today on AirTalk, we discuss the LA County Superior Court’s ruling on single-family zoning laws and what about the original law conception that led it to get struck down in the courts. Joining us this morning is Pam Lee, an attorney with Aleshire & Wynder, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, and Christopher Elmendorf, professor of law at UC Davis.
The Future Of Coffee: Are We Ready For A Beanless Cup Of Joe?
For those of us who drink coffee, our daily rituals might soon be disrupted. Climate change is profoundly impacting global coffee production. As the climate becomes more unpredictable, forcing coffee farmers to contend with erratic rain, warming temperatures and pests, their yields are diminishing. This is happening as the demand for coffee worldwide grows. To keep up with demand and address another massive concern – deforestation – some startups are testing a “beanless” coffee made out of everything from upcycle date pits to fermented roots and seeds. Joining us today on AirTalk to discuss the future of coffee production and why we might want to consider options is Vern Long, CEO of World Coffee Research, a global agricultural research organization and Andy Kleitsch, CEO of Atomo Coffee, a Seattle-based beanless coffee start up.
The Changing Makeup Of The Republican Party
It’s not an overstatement to say that Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the 2016 presidential election. From pundits to pollsters to longtime campaign trail veterans, a lot of people got the election wrong. One of those was GOP Pollster Patrick Ruffini, who spent the following years trying to figure out how he and so many other political experts missed the mark. The result of that investigation is his recent book Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP. In it, Ruffini investigates the shifting makeup of the Republican electorate in an effort to explain how, despite the ongoing battle for the identity of the GOP between Trump’s supporters and what many would now call more “traditional” conservatives in the vein of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Trump was able to win in 2016. Or how, according to Ruffini, Trump was able to assemble the most diverse GOP presidential coalition ever in 2020, despite losing the election to Joe Biden.
Today on AirTalk, Ruffini joins Larry to talk about his book.
