MONDAY, JANUARY 21.

PROGRAM # 6877 12:00 PM PT

CIVIL RIGHTS TODAY. This special, Holiday edition on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day includes an exclusive interview with Martín Castro, chair of the United States Civil Rights Commission, about the most pressing civil rights issues of our times, including hate crimes, violations of immigrants’ civil rights in Alabama and other states that have passed strict anti-immigration laws, the Latino dropout crisis, and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Guest: Martín Castro, Chairman, United States Civil Rights Commission, Chicago, IL, www.usccr.gov.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 22.

PROGRAM # 6878 12:00 PM PT

IMMIGRATION EDITION: REDUCED SEPARATION. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published the final regulations that allow undocumented immigrants with immediate relatives who are U.S. citizens to apply for a waiver of inadmissibility before leaving the country for their visa interviews. The rule is supposed to reduce the amount of time that U.S. citizens have to be separated from their loved ones while they are applying for a visa. Immigration attorney Rosalba Piña hosts this edition from Chicago.

Guests: Laura Vázquez, Legislative Analyst, Immigration Policy Project, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Washington, D.C., www.nclr.org.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23.

PROGRAM # 6879 12:00 PM PT

PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION. The first Latino keynote speaker at a commemorative service for Martin Luther King, Jr. is Reverend Samuel Rodríguez. The conservative religious leader, who has been outspoken in favor of immigration reform, had also been invited to speak in President Obama’s inauguration, but he opted for his pre-arranged keynote speech. This edition includes an interview with the orator, to share his views about King's thought and his take about the presidential inauguration.

Guest: Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Sacramento, CA, www.nhclc.org.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24.

PROGRAM # 6880 12:00 PM PT

GUN CONTROL. Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, are reintroducing a bill to ban military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. The bill, “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013”, would stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacture of certain firearms and semi-automatic rifles, and high-capacity magazines. A Democratic congressmember and a peace advocate join this edition to comment the topic.

Guests: Rep. Xavier Becerra, D – Los Angeles, Washington, DC; Medea Benjamin, Co-founder, Global Exchange and CodePink: Women for Peace,, Washington, DC. www.codepink4peace.org/ ; www.globalexchange.org/

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 25.

PROGRAM # 6881 12:00 PM PT

MEXICO EDITION. Environmentalists will sue the application of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to stop the transnational company Monsanto from planting genetically engineered corn in Mexico. According to Silvia Ribeiro, a researcher from the Erosion, Technology and Concentration Group, the former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, authorized the planting of genetically engineered corn in the states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, after meeting with the directors of Monsanto at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A moratorium had previously been in place against genetically engineered corn in Mexico since 1999. Mexico is the center of origin of corn in the world and has 57 kinds of the grain, with more than 30,000 varieties. Researchers say this diverse resource could be in danger in the presence of genetically engineered corn. Martha Elena Ramírez hosts Voz Pública from Mexico City.

Guest: Silvia Ribeiro, Researcher, Grupo Erosión, Tecnología, y Concentración (ETC), Tepoztlán, México, www.etcgroup.org .

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Funds for Línea Abierta are provided in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, The California Endowment, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, The Ford Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.