CNN Radio News Day: June 24, 2013
You don’t have to be at this blog to listen, we want you to take us with you! Click the download button in the SoundCloud player and put us on your smart phone or tablet and bring us with you in the car, on the train or while you’re working out.
(CNN) – Today's show goes in-depth on a key SCOTUS decision, the health of a civil rights icon, and the search for an NSA leaker the U.S. wants to find:
- SCOTUS reveals
The Supreme Court handed-down a decision on affirmative action – kind of. A Texas case involving the use of race-conscious school admission policies got thrown back to the lower courts for further review. CNN's Lisa Dejardins breaks it down and tells us what this all means.
- Mandela vigil
The condition of former South African president Nelson Mandela worsened over the weekend. The government announced that the 94-year-old civil rights icon's condition was downgraded to critical. Mandela's daughter talks to CNN about how the family is holding-up, and why they're uncomfortable with the media attention.
- Snowden flight
Edward Snowden is apparently on the move. Russian officials confirmed the NSA leaker had flown to Moscow from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Ecuadorian officials say Snowden is pleading for asylum from its country to avoid a "life of inhumane treatment, even death, if he's returned to the U.S." CNN's Barbara Hall unravels a story getting more complex by the day.
CNN Radio News Day: June 21, 2013
You don’t have to be at this blog to listen, we want you to take us with you! Click the download button in the SoundCloud player and put us on your smart phone or tablet and bring us with you in the car, on the train or while you’re working out.
(CNN) – It's been a day of waiting, unrest, and champions. In today's show, you'll find:
- SCOTUS rising
Next week will be a big one for the Supreme Court. Decisions both large and small will be handed down. CNN's Steve Kastenbaum has a preview of what should be an important week.
- Big protests in Brazil
It started when Brazil's government raised bus fares by nine cents. Chaos ensued and continues to. We'll tell you why.
- How to watch hockey, a user's guide
During one of the most exciting Stanley Cup finals ever, we're devoting this week's CNN Profile to better understanding hockey with the game's premier historian, Stanley Fischler.
12-year-old tackles 'gross' problem
By Emma Lacey-Bordeaux, CNN
Follow on Twitter: @CNNEmma
Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.
Kelsey Hirsch was 11 years old when her parents sat her down and told her about a scandal gripping their beloved alma mater. Charles Hirsch and his wife graduated from Penn State University and like many alumni, they felt a strong connection to the place. So when allegations surfaced that coach Jerry Sandusky abused boys in his care, the Hirsch's knew they'd need to explain the story to their children.
[1:25] "We made the decision as parents that it was important that our children knew first hand what was going on versus hearing it from their friends and kind of getting misinformation."
They explained what happened and how to spot red flags in her own community, they live just outside Atlanta. Kelsey listened, and couldn't imagine why someone would harm another person that way. She wanted to help.
[0:32] "I decided to do Bands for RAINN, " she says fiddling with one such blue and white band for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network on her own wrist.
Each band sells for $3. The proceeds help fund the RAINN online hotline, a resource for those impacted by sexual violence.
[0:50] "It helps them like feel like feel like survivors instead of victims," Kelsey says.
So far, the project has raised $18,000. That's enough to provide support to 1,800 survivors, Kathrine Hull a RAINN spokeswoman said. That's impressive for someone not yet in high school.
Hull also praises Kelsey's commitment to raise awareness. They call her frank pitch on the bracelets "a gamechanger." That's because sexual violence, though widespread, is still taboo. That's something the pint-sized activist has run into.
[3:29] "Some people are just really horrible about it," she says. Some of her classmates, they ask her to stop talking about sexual violence entirely. Why? "I just think that they feel uncomfortable about it. So like, they think it's gross."
But that's just the minority, she says, and she's not deterred. She's set a new goal of $100,000 which means a lot more talking. Her dad supports her the whole way.
[3:57] "I think Kelsey's right, the more you talk about it the better. It shouldn't be a taboo topic."
With each blue and white band and the sales pitch behind it they're chipping away at that taboo.
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Living with nature: the Endangered Species Act "gone wild"
By Jim Roope, CNN
Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.
(CNN) – Forty years after the introduction of the Endangered Species Act, the California Condor is trying to reclaim its home. The problem is, humans have moved in.
[0:51] "There are about 420 birds in the world and a little over half of that population are in the wild."
Joseph Brandt, biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service's condor recovery program, said for the second year in a row, California condors have come back to roost in the mountain community of Bear Valley Springs, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Residents say the curious scavenger birds are wreaking havoc.
[1:26] "They’ll take apart anything plastic or canvas and just shred it. They shred screen doors."
These birds, that stand four-feet tall with wing spans of up to eight feet, can create quite a mess. One woman called the Bear Valley Springs police department to say her car was vandalized. The vandals it turns out, were condors and the graffiti painted all over the car was…not paint.
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