0018 24

IN THE NEWS WITH ANN AND ANDY (taped 1-6-16)

Happy New Year!

As state legislatures kick off the 2016 term, some are determined to roll back LGBT rights in the face of 2015 gains in the courts.

A lesbian widow in California sues FedEx for her late wife’s pension benefits.

Police in San Diego **shoot and kill a man in a domestic dispute with his boyfriend.

Minneapolis gay activist and publisher Tim Campbell dies at 76.

Atlanta gets set to open a private LGBT school this fall.

Cross-dressing Dame Edna goes off on transgender people.

ISIS executes a 15-year old boy accused of being gay.

A lesbian bar in Moscow is shut down.

Texas slashes HIV prevention to punish Planned Parenthood.

Andy reviews a new movie about a sexy teen Christian birthday pool party. (HENRY GAMBLE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY is at the IFC in NY Jan. 8-14)

And a cast member of WICKED is surprised with a proposal at his curtain call.

LINKS:

“The Saint of Dry Creek” at www.storycorps.org

In cinemas worldwide this month:

THE WINTER'S TALE from the Garrick Theatre in London with Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench: www.branaghtheatrelive.com

JANE EYRE from the National Theatre in London: www.ntlive.com

Sports reporter from Think Progress, Lindsay Gibbs talks about her about her story about Tyler Sash, a former New York Giants safety who died last September from an accidental overdose. Sash, Gibbs says, had been displaying erratic behavior before he died. Sash's is the latest story to surface about the damaging effects of head injuries from football. It begs the question: where does the NFL and football in general go from here?

Miss an episode of Bill Press? Click the link for our on-demand library of full episodes from The Bill Press Show: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

In the news this week:

The action on LGBT rights in the U.S. is in our state legislatures and most of it is not good. To track the bills in your state, go to these websites:
PROTECT THY NEIGHBOR www.protectthyneighbor.org
EQUALITY FEDERATION www.equalityfederation.org/lac

Bitter conflict at the Task Force’s Creating Change conference in Chicago over Israel and Palestine.

An out lesbian high court judge in Minnesota and transgender judge in Canada.

A NYC Council Member comes out and is praised for it by some remaining in the closet.

Rand Paul has an out gay Democratic opponent for US Senate from Kentucky.

Disturbing details in police killing of a gay man in San Diego.

Pope fights civil unions in Italy after supporting them in unsuccessful effort to stop same-sex marriage in Argentina.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) revises guidelines for transgender athletes.

Movies in the works on Alexander McQueen and Robert Mapplethorpe.

The late folk artist Pete Seeger was a musical and political icon who helped create the modern American folk music movement. Now there’s some new pages to add to his songbook—the government has released nearly 1,800 pages that reveal the FBI spied on him for nearly 30 years. The surveillance began when Seeger protested the targeting of Japanese Americans during World War II. It continued until the early 1970s as he wrote some of the most famous anti-war songs of the 20th century.

Full episodes of Democracy Now! can be viewed at the link: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

Family members and supporters are demanding justice for Sandra Bland after a grand jury failed to indict anyone for her death. Bland, an African-American woman, was arrested on July 10 in Prairie View, Texas, after she allegedly failed to signal a lane change. She was jailed with bond set at $5,000. Three days later, she was found dead in her jail cell. Authorities say she committed suicide, a claim her family rejects. The family has filed a wrongful death suit and wants charges against the officer who arrested her. Will anyone be held to account for Sandra Bland’s death?

Click the link to continue watching full episodes of Democracy Now! https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

Former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has endorsed Donald Trump for president, marking the highest-profile endorsement of a Republican candidate in the 2016 race. Palin made the announcement in Iowa, a state where her backing could give Trump a boost less than two weeks before the caucus.

Sarah Palin: "He, better than anyone—isn’t he known for being able to command, fire? Are you ready for a commander-in-chief? You ready for a commander-in-chief who will let our warriors do their job and go kick ISIS ass? Ready for someone who will secure our borders, to secure our jobs and to secure our homes? Ready to make America great again? Are you ready to stump for Trump?"

Today’s New York Daily News cover shows a photo of Palin and Trump pointing at each other with the headline "I’m with Stupid." Less than 24 hours before she endorsed Trump, Palin’s 26-year-old son, Track, was arrested for allegedly hitting and kicking his girlfriend and pointing an AR-15 assault rifle at her.

Full episodes of Democracy Now! can be viewed at the link: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

Igor Volsky talks with Bill Press about the bogus videos that sought to expose Planned Parenthood for buying and selling fetal tissue. Although Planned Parenthood has been cleared, and the videographers have been indicted, Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio refuse to acknowledge it.

Miss an episode of Bill Press? Click the link for our on-demand library of full episodes from The Bill Press Show: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

Steve Phillips, Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress talks about his new book, "Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority."

Miss an episode of Bill Press? Click the link for our on-demand library of full episodes from The Bill Press Show: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....

Ken Hall, General Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters joins Bill Press to discuss what it really means to be a "right to work" state.

Miss an episode of Bill Press? Click the link for our on-demand library of full episodes from The Bill Press Show: https://www.freespeech.org/collection....