Beers Aid Obama’s Peace Plans Over A Race Row

Recently, Henry Louis Gates, a prominent African American Harvard scholar, was arrested for disorderly behaviour outside his home. The police responding to a burglary call, confronted Professor Henry Louis Gates, who appeared to be breaking into the house with the assistance of another person…. also an African American by appearance. The details of what exactly transpired between the Professor and the police officers on duty which subsequently led to the arrest…is sketchy and varied.

After being detained for couple of hours the Professor was released and charges dropped.  The professor however has decided to pursue the matter further and is of the opinion that this is a clear case of racial discrimination.

President Obama finds himself in the midst of this case after he made some comments about the issue and at one point called the particular police department involved to have acted stupidly.

Tom Changarathil spoke to James O Donnel to find out if this was an isolated incident and not outright racism.

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Race Row

Degrading Decency Laws In Sudan

Lubna Hussein, is a former journalist who works for the United Nations. She is Sudanese and is facing the prospect of receiving 40 lashes and a fine as punishment for violating decency laws. Her crime …she was wearing slacks or trousers in public. This is not an isolated case and many other women who were arrested along with Lubna have received their fines and punishment lashes.

Lubna has been spared the punishment thus far as she enjoys legal immunity for working with United Nations. She has however decided to resign from the UN if the need arises and press on with the case so that she can have this law abolished.  Joe Tungeraza & Tom Changarathil discuss the issue in greater detail.

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Decency Laws

Experts say tanning beds are as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas

Experts say tanning beds are as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.

For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as “probable carcinogens”.

An analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 per cent when people start using tanning beds before the age of 30.

Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice and they saythis is proof that radiation is carcinogenic.

The new classification means solariums and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping.

Cancer Council of South Australia Professor Brenda Wilson tells Tom Changarathil the threats of solariums for young Australians.

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Tanning beds

Should Australian high schools provide confidential pregnancy and STD tests for students?

A school in New York has started the new semester by providing students with confidential pregnancy, STD tests and counselling services.

But the decision has not been accepted by everyone and some parents have been concerned about not being able to be informed of their children’s decisions.

Here in Australia the concept is new and  University of South Australia’s Dr Helen Calabretto has a passion for nurses being available for students  in schools around Australia.

She talks to Friday Breakfast presenter Tom Changarathil about a similar system working in Australia.

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Pregnancy tests in Australian schools

Eastern suburbs – leafy but not green

The eastern leafy, affluent area, bounded by Campbelltown, Burnside, Unley, Adelaide and Prospect councils together generate the most greenhouse gas emissions in 12 out of 19 sectors revealed in the State Government’s Trade and Economic Development Statistics. 

Peter asked James Danenberg from the Council of SA what these 12 sectors were…

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BHP to blow out SA’s greenhouse emissions

Environmentalists are concerned over the likely increase in South Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions due to the planned expansion of BHP Billitons Olympic Dam.

The Australian Conservation Foundation says the states emissions will increase by 12% or 4.1 million tonnes, and they believe the company is misleading the public by using inflated ‘business as usual’ growth projections in it’s environmental impact statement.

Climate Change Program Manager from the Australian Conservation Foundation, Tony Mohr explained to Peter what these projections actually mean…

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Repo! The Genetic Opera

A new generation ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ will be showing at the Mercury Cinema this weekend, and you’d be mistaken if you thought it was about the reposession of cars, because in this instance, it’s organs!

Kat tries to sway Peter into the genre by explaining a little bit more about ‘Repo! The Genetic Opera’…

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Equal love

This weekend the pressure will be increased on the Federal Labor government to ‘modernise and update its part platform and amend the marriage act to allow same sex couples to marry.

This week the ALP’s Tasmanian state conference passed a motion calling on the Federal Government to amend the act… and a National Day of Action organised by ‘Equal Love’ on Saturday will echo those calls.

In Adelaide a demonstration commences at 11am on the steps of parliament House, coinciding with similar demonstrations around the country. 

Peter asked Jason Virgo from Equal Love if the Tasmanian government’s actions could be the straw the breaks the camel’s back, or if there is still a lot of work ahead…

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Another Big Issue

Hear Patrick Whitton’s round-up of what the Big Issue has instore for us this week. 

With Kevin Rudd announcing his reform on health care, we wondered if he’d read the latest Big Issue – with its focus on health care.

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big issue – health edition

Media coverage of suicide – part 2

This morning we talked about whether the coverage of suicides, in the media, does more harm than good. And does it, in fact, incite copycat behaviour? It’s a subject that’s being debated at the moment, in light of the suicides in Geelong, involving four children from the same school. 

We spoke with Paul Morgan, Department Director of SANE and asked him if media coverage is a good or bad thing.

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 Suicide part 2