PROGRAM #10343 12:00 PM PT
Tax Day. On Tax Day, financial advisors share news and last-minute tips on tax returns. Also, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched the new Direct File Pilot Program, to file their taxes directly with the IRS, including a new Spanish version of the free tax filing service. Direct File is announced as a simple, easy to use, no junk fees, tool made possible by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Guests: Yviand Serbones Hernandez, IRS Media Relations, San Antonio, TX; Lisette Orellana Engel, Director of Economic Policy, UnidosUS, Germantown, MD.
Latinos, Banks and Trust. Latino families are facing huge barriers to access financial services. Analysts found that distrust towards financial service providers, negative experience with banks, and racial discrimination are some of the issues keeping Latinos out of the financial system. Do Latinos need to change their attitudes or the system needs to fix their issues? A researcher discusses findings and policies.
Guest: Dr. Luisa Godinez-Puig, Senior Research Associate, Office of Race and Equity Research, Urban Institute, Washington, DC.
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TUESDAY, APRIL 16
PROGRAM #10344 11:00 AM PT
Extra Edition: Helping People Enroll and Stay in Medi-Cal. Community health organizations in California are ramping up activities to reach out to people who could benefit from a new state law that gives all immigrants access to full scope Medi-Cal. Many are facing challenges to enroll people in Medi-Cal because of the lack of healthcare navigators to help people one-on-one. A news reporter gives details about those efforts. On another story, in order to stop the ongoing wave of Medi-Cal disenrollments, children advocates are urging legislators to pass a bill known as Protecting Medi-Cal Coverage for Californians Act, to allow adults enrolled in Medi-Cal to keep their coverage as they used to under the pandemic-era safeguards.
Guests: Christian De Jesús Betancourt, Reporter, The Merced Focus/El Enfoque de Merced, Merced, CA; Mayra E. Alvarez, President, The Children’s Partnership, Los Angeles, CA.
PROGRAM #10345 12:00 PM PT
Immigration Edition. USCIS announced it is extending work permits for 360 days for many immigrants while renewals are pending. Meantime, members of Congress, immigrant activists and business leaders are calling on President Biden to use use his authority to unite families and extend work permits to the spouses of U.S. citizens and other long-term undocumented immigrants. Calls intensified after the tragic deaths of a group of immigrant workers at the Baltimore Bridge disaster. On more news: beginning this month, low-income immigrants who can not afford to pay the full naturalization filing fee are now able to apply for a reduced (half price) naturalization fee. These and other news are discussed with immigration law experts.
Guests: Laura Mendoza, Community Organizer, The Resurrection Project, Chicago, IL; Thaís Carrero, Director of Policy and Advocacy, National Partnership for New Americans-NPNA , Chicago, IL.
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17
PROGRAM #10346 12:00 PM PT
Conservation Agriculture. Given the impact of climate change that affects the binational basin of the Colorado River, farmers in the Mexicali Valley, where the highest temperatures in the country and the lowest rainfall are recorded, reorient their work towards more sustainable and resilient agriculture. Agroecologists are looking for different options to traditional crops as well as developing new and more efficient irrigation technologies, silvopastoral projects, and other plans.
Guest: Dr. Carolina Sánchez Gastélum, Gof Agroecology, Restauremos El Colorado A.C. / Restoring The Colorado, Mexicali, Baja California, MX.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 18
PROGRAM #10347 11:00 AM PT
Extra Edition: Immigration Edition. (Program Repeat). As the election season unfolds, political candidates are more and more filling their campaign rhetoric with claims of a “migrant crime wave” and a “border bloodbath.” Social media and brochures are flooded with news and messages about “illegal immigrants” who are committing violent crimes and “killing our country.” In another common claim, politicians are blaming health insurance programs expanded to immigrants in some states for “creating perverse incentives for illegal immigration.” Why are immigrants the target of these campaigns? What’s behind those claims? Who is generating them? How are those claims impacting public opinion and the electorate? This archival program was originally aired on April 9, 2024.
Guests: Gerardo Guzmán, Program Host and Reporter, Atlanta, GA; Michael A. Rodriguez, Executive Director, California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity and Faculty Associate, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Los Angeles, CA; Santiago Pérez, Associate Professor of Economics, UC Davis, Davis, CA.
PROGRAM #10348 12:00 PM PT
“Exit Wounds.” The dominant electoral narrative in the US is that the southern border is a danger zone because of the drugs and violence in Mexico and Central America. A social researcher countered that the violence we fear is caused by policies, actions and guns exported from the US and set out to follow the trail of US weapons sent to the south. In her just released book, “Exit Wounds,” she explains the extent of the damage those “iron rivers” are causing to Mexican society.
Guest: Ieva Jusionyte, Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Security, Brown University; Author of the Book “Exit Wounds: How America’s Weapons Fuel Violence on the Other Side of the Border”; and Member of the Global Action Advisory Committee on Gun Violence and the Research Network to Prevent Gun Violence in the Americas, Boston, MA.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 19
PROGRAM #10349 12:00 PM PT
Mexico Edition. Just weeks away from the largest election in Mexico’s history, three presidential candidates are in the race to succeed popular President López Obrador. They are Claudia Sheinbaum, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Alvarez Máynez. What are their proposals? How much traction are their promises getting? Top representatives from the three campaigns are invited to discuss their platforms.
