Patt Morrison for Tuesday, May 24, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

LA OPINION POLITICAL REPORTER PILAR MARRERO FILLS FOR PATT MORRISON

 

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

 

1:21:30 – 1:39

Secure Communities up for review: is the program deporting the right people?

It was a big part of the enforcement side of President Obama’s immigration policy that was intended to target hardened criminals amongst the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country.  Secure Communities is designed to identify and deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes—the fingerprints of people booked into a jail are sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and if they are found to be undocumented, they face deportation.  The problem is that, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security itself, over half of those deporting under Secure Communities had minor or no criminal convictions.  The program was further muddled when there was confusion about whether it was voluntary or mandatory for states and local law enforcement agencies to participate.  States across the country, including California, are moving to opt-out of the program and last week DHS agreed to conduct an internal review.  Is this the right way to go about deporting illegal immigrants?

 

Guests:

TBD

 

 

 

1:41:30 – 1:58:30

Rating California (for the first time). Are we special, or just adequate?  

Have you ever speculated about whether the quality of life is better in San Francisco or Los Angeles?  Well now we have some empirical evidence (not based solely on who won the World Series) that gives Northern California bragging rights. A first-ever study called A Portrait of California conducted by the American Human Development Project took a close look at well-being and access to opportunity in the Golden State and ranked cities based on issues like health, education and standard of living.  The results? San Francisco scored a 6.97, Los Angeles a 5.52 and the Silicon Valley was the big winner earning a 9.35.  The study notes that some residents in California are so far ahead of the other states in the nation that they won't catch up until 2060, while others are experiencing "health, education and earnings levels that characterized the U.S. in the 1960s."  California's can expect to live a longer life than those living in other states in the nation, but "100 of California's  nearly 2,500 high schools account for nearly half of the state's dropouts" and "men earn more than women in every racial and ethnic group." What does the evidence show about your city?

 

Guests:
Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-director of the American Human Development Project and co-author of A Portrait of California 2011
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Elise Buik, president and CEO of The United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
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2:06 – 2:30

Genetically test your kids for “sports gene?”

As parents feel more and more pressure to give their children as many competitive advantages as possible, a couple companies are now offering, for just $200 a genetic test to determine which sports your child will be best at. Coming in the form of an online order and mail-in cheek swab, these tests tell you which percentile your child is in with regard to his or her potential for endurance training versus for speed and strength training. The results also reveal whether or not your child is genetically predisposed to be at risk for concussions and cardiac failure. However, geneticists are skeptical of just how accurate these readings are. Are genetic tests such as this sports gene test ready to be on the market? As mail-order and Internet DNA scans become more in demand, is it possible that more damage than good is being done with hard-to-read and possibly misleading test results? Could these sports gene tests help kids move towards success in sports more quickly and safely? Or will they mislead, mislabel, and possibly discourage kids who have athletic aspirations or who just want to have fun?

 

Guests:

Bill Miller, chief executive of American International Biotechnology Services in Virginia, which began selling genetic testing for sports genes two weeks ago

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Vishy Iyer, assistant professor, molecular genetics University of Texas at Austin

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2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Forget the blood-type diet; bring on the bacteria-type diet!

A new Nature study looking at bacteria systems growing in the gut divides people into three groups. Similar to the way blood types divide people into four groups, the new research finds there are three distinct bacteria ecosystems that transcend sex, weight, health, age and race. It’s not clear yet whether these bacteria types are hereditary or whether they randomly colonize our guts as infants and stick around for the rest of our lives, but they could hold some big keys to personalized medicine. Understanding our bacteria type could aid in more precisely predicting a patient’s disease susceptibility and drug efficacy, to more accurately tailoring our diets.

 

Guest:

Rob Knight, associate professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Computer Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute early career scientist

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Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org