Your Call

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the humanitarian crisis in war-torn Syria, following the deadly earthquakes in Turkey. The death toll has topped 47,000.

The local civil defense in northwestern Syria, known as The White Helmets, said thousands of children and tens of thousands of families have taken shelter in cars and tents "fearing they would face a repeat of the earthquake," according PBS.

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we discuss a ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigation revealing that despite decades of mass shootings in Texas, legislators have failed to pass meaningful gun control laws.

The majority of the state’s 19 mass shootings over the past six decades were carried out by men who legally possessed firearms.

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss Murder in Big Horn, a three-part docuseries on Showtime featuring stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Montana.

Over the past decade, dozens of Indigenous women and girls from the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations have been murdered or gone missing in Big Horn County. Native families and journalists unravel a violent crisis set in motion almost 200 years ago during colonization.

What will it take to end this epidemic?

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the end of the COVID emergency increase to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on March 1.

The cuts will impact more than 30 million people in 32 states, including California and Texas. Household benefits will drop by at least $95 a month, with some seeing reductions of $250 a month or more, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Separately, Republicans are proposing tougher work requirements and even deeper cuts for some recipients.

How will families cope? What can we do to ensure everyone has access to healthy food?

Guests:

Jared Call, senior advocate with Nourish California

Ellen Vollinger, SNAP director for the Food Research and Action Center

Gabrielle Jones-Radtke, SNAP recipient from El Paso, Texas, whose benefits will be reduced from $800 a month to $185 a month on March 1

On this edition of Your Call, law professor Daniel Hatcher discusses his new book, Inju$tice, Inc: How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor.

He exposes how the US juvenile, family, and criminal justice systems exploit racial and economic inequality to profit on a massive scale.

What will it take to end these predatory practices?

Guest:

Daniel Hatcher, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and author of Inju$tice, Inc: How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor and The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America's Most Vulnerable Citizens

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we discuss the environmental and health impacts of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and our growing reliance on plastics.

Derailed train cars were carrying several petrochemicals, including vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen. Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer, primary liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Guests:

Angela Slitt, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island

Judith Enck, senior fellow and visiting faculty member in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, president of Beyond Plastics, and former EPA Regional Administrator with the Obama administration

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we discuss the Norfolk Southern toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which has raised major concerns about the environmental and health impacts of hazardous materials released into the ground, water and air.

According to the EPA, about 20 of the rail cars were carrying highly toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, and ethylhexyl acrylate. Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risks of liver, brain, and lunger cancers, and lymphoma, and leukemia, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Documents show that when current transportation safety rules were first created, a federal agency sided with industry lobbyists and limited regulations governing the transport of hazardous compounds. The decision effectively exempted many trains hauling dangerous materials — including the one in Ohio — from the "high-hazard" classification and its more stringent safety requirements, according to an investigation by The Lever.

Guest:

Matthew Cunningham-Cook, reporter at The Lever

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria. More than 44,000 people have been killed and an estimated two million have been left homeless.

People are expressing anger and frustration about the slow pace of help from the government in rescuing people and providing shelter and food. Many people are also blaming the government for faulty construction and failing to enforce construction codes.

Guest:

Adnan Khan, independent journalist based in Turkey

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the tragic death of Jen Angel, a Bay Area activist and owner of Angel Cakes bakery, who died last Thursday after she was robbed in downtown Oakland.

Her family is calling for restorative justice, not jail, for the perpetrators.

What questions do you have about the restorative justice process and alternatives to the prison system? How should society respond to violent crimes and the root causes of crime?

Guests:

Garry "Malachi" Scott, re-entry and community restorative justice coordinator for Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, and co-founder of Atunse Justice League and North Oakland Restorative Justice Council. After taking a plea bargain of 15 years to life for second degree murder at age 15, he was incarcerated for 16 years at San Quentin State Prison, from 1998 until his parole in 2014

Kevin Martin, restorative practices strategist at Community Works West

On this edition of Your Call, artist George McCalman discusses his new book, Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen.

During Black History Month in 2016, McCalman challenged himself to paint, research, and write about one Black pioneer every day for a month. That challenge resulted in his beautiful new book, which includes 145 portraits of Black luminaries you’re familiar with and some you’ve probably never heard of.

Guest:

George McCalman, artist, creative director of McCalman.Co, and author of Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen