Month: January 2017

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Bay Curious - Is Air Quality in the Bay Area Getting Worse?

Listener Jenny Wread has noticed the Bay Area's smog on her commute. And she's hearing more Spare the Air alerts. How is the air quality doing in the Bay Area as the population grows?


Reported by Matt Beagle. Produced and edited by Olivia Allen-Price, Vinnee Tong, Paul Lancour and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.


Ask us a question at BayCurious.org. Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.

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The Gist - Don’t Mind Us, We’re Just Collapsing

The Dow hitting 20,000 might sounds like great news to you, but to anthropologist Arthur Demarest, it’s an ominous echo of what he’s seen befall the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Inca: a spectacular apogee followed by collapse. Demarest studies the decline of civilizations. He says his research has shown that societies that avoid total disintegration undergo some other kind of major political or economic crisis.

For the Spiel, good news. We’ve fixed the Oscars. 

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The Gist - The Problem With Tracking Hate

The Southern Poverty Law Center rushed to track the surge in reported hate incidents after the election—a surge that appears to have died down. Heidi Beirich explains the SPLC’s plans to weed any hoaxes out of its data and why it’s a bad idea to minimize incidents of hate just because they don’t rise to the level of a crime.

For the Spiel, getting acquainted with Canada’s Trump(s).

Today’s sponsor:

Points of Courage, a podcast from Hiscox Insurance about the adventure of starting up a business. Check out Points of Courage wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more about how Hiscox Insurance can help protect your business by going to Hiscox.com.

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Opening Arguments - OA37: FLSA and Exempt Employees, Part 1

Today's episode is part one of a two-part series on pending changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").  As we've previously mentioned, in 2016, the Obama Department of Labor promulgated new rules requiring that employees who are "exempt" from the FLSA's overtime requirements must earn at least $47,476 per year.  A district court judge issued an injunction blocking those rules from going into effect; that decision is currently pending on expedited review before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.  In this episode, Andrew explains why he thinks those rules are going to eventually go into effect and what that means for employers and employees. We begin, however, with a listener correction regarding the FLSA and tipped employees.  As it turns out, Andrew mis-spoke on a prior episode and employers must ensure that an employee's total compensation (including tips) meets the federal minimum wage. After our main segment on the FLSA, the much-beloved "Are You A Cop?" segment returns with a myth about President Trump revoking the commutation of Chelsea Manning's prison sentence. Finally, we end with the answer to Thomas Takes the Bar Exam question #7 about hearsay.  Remember that TTTBE issues a new question every Friday, followed by the answer on next Tuesday's show.  Don't forget to play along by following our Twitter feed (@Openargs) and/or our Facebook Page and quoting the Tweet or Facebook Post that announces this episode along with your guess and reason(s)! Show Notes & Links
  1. The relevant provisions of the FLSA for this episode are 29 USC § 207 (maximum hours) and 29 USC § 213 (exempt employees).
  2. The DOL Fact Sheet #15 referred to listener Victoria McNair is here.
  3. This is the original rule promulgated by Obama's Department of Labor.
  4. Here is the judicial injunction blocking the implementation of the rule.
  5. And here is the judge's decision not to overturn his own injunction after a motion for reconsideration.
  6. Finally, here's the New York Times story about President Obama commuting Chelsea Manning's sentence.
Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/law Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/ And email us at openarguments@gmail.com  
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The Gist - The Truth About Vitamin C

New Yorker staff writer Maria Konnikova returns to play “Is That Bullshit?” This week, the persistent nutritional myth about vitamin C. The actual vitamin, not the singer. Maria’s most recent book is The Confidence Game.  Plus, one of Barack Obama’s dreams has finally been realized: a plain white t-shirt store is open in Hawaii.

Sponsors:

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