first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about free expression, the arts, and america. i'm ken paulson, the executive director of the first amendment center. our guest once described rap as "america's black radio station." if that's the case, we're joined today by the program director of an entire movement. please welcome the founder of public enemy, chuck d. [applause] you're a man of opinions. what i didn't know until reading a bit more about you was that your folks were both activists, that you grew up in a household of opinions. did that shape the way you look at the world? yup, 'cause my parents kind of, like, raised me to be independent and have independent thoughts, not so much as follow my peers, and to challenge information. so, i mean, to be an activist just means that they were conscious of certain facts that were circulating. and in the '60s, they were in their 20s, late 20s, so that was a time where you had a conscious movement where

first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about the first amendment and free expression. i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center, and this is a special edition of the program in recognition of banned books week. it features three very special guests. they include judy blume, one of this country's most popular and most frequently censored authors, carolivia herron, whose critically-acclaimed book, nappy hair, was challenged in a brooklyn school, and cammie mannino, a bookseller who took a stand against censorship. welcome to all of you. i have to begin with judy. you know, there are these lists every year about the most banned books. each and every year, you're in the top five. you're sort of the beatles of banned books. how did you obtain this status, and what are you doing wrong? uh-oh, you know, you're asking the wrong person. it's never the-- the person who wrote the books is always surprised. you have to ask the people who ban the books. i can go

the center collects information from police agencies and corporations and the general public with no regard to first amendment or privacy safeguards and then forwarded to the fbi. a coalition for a safe berkeley is working with our city council to ensure our relationship other police departments through mutual aid, and our own police department's criminal intelligence work all are governed by strict adherence to constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and assembly and equal protection under the law and california's constitutional right to privacy. i urge you to pass the save san francisco civil rights ordinance. your positive vote will be a message to leaders in berkeley and run the state and nation at the era of racial, political, please profiling is over. and the civilian leadership will step up and decree the progressive dollars for police work that will truly provide safety and security for us all. thank you. [applause] supervisor mar: i does wanted to thank george -- we miss you from san francisco in berkeley. thank you for your support for an immigrant communities in the 1990's, the social ju

amendments to the state budget proposal. the first slot machines arrive at the maryland live casino and a celebration of all things pie at the maryland science centern the news this morning rick santorum pulling off major wins in two southern primaries. what is next in the race for the gop presidential nomination. >>> here the governor set to plead his case for raising taxes on gasoline but will rising prices derail that plan? >>> and new details on the high tech police operation to track down a potentially deadly threat at the university of maryland college park. >>> more news, first warning weather and your first traffic report of the morning in a couple of minutes. ,,,, hey, you made your own lunch. yep! (mom) i'm so proud of you. the bus is here, gotta go mom. okay hunny, have a great day. look in your bag, made you something. (announcer) it's more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. >>> this is wjz tv, wjz hd, and wjz.com, baltimore. >> good morning, maryland, now don scott, marty bass, and the latest breaking news, from wjz's news team, your first warning

center discovered agents didn't just come to socialize. >> what we learned they were documenting people's first amendment protected activities, their religious practices, their associations. >> reporter: the documents show between 2004 and 2008 agents attended meetings and events at dozens of mosques across the area. the documented name, ethnicity, conversation, even noting fruit was sold outside one mosque. >> we feel we have been betrayed by the fbi. we invited our doors, invited them in and they were using this information, for what purpose we don't know. >> the aclu was among the groups requesting the documents. julia says she is disturbed the fbi shared the files with other agencies. >> what's happening as shown in these documents is the fbi is using the guise of community outreach to get into mosques and then reporting benign information about people practicing their religion. >> reporter: the fbi said it was collected within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity. the community outreach program from investigation. many in the muslim community, the revelations have caused a chill. >> it certainly will, absolutely. people w

first time tonight. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> republicans are kicking off women's history month by bringing the blunt amendment to the floor in the united states senate. >> the war on women takes center stage in the senate, as 48 senators voted to roll back women's rights. >> we have men on the other side of the aisle here, for the most part, telling women what their rights should be. >> new hampshire senator jeanne shaheen will weigh in. what will it take for republicans to denounce their leading voice, as he attacks college student sandra fluke. >> it makes her a slut, right? it makes her a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. >> tonight, sandra fluke is here exclusively to respond to rush limbaugh's disturbing comments. plus, reaction with "now's" terry o'neil and professor caroline heldman. >>> a federal judge in montana is under fire for sending a despicable racist anti-obama e-mail. dr. michael eric dyson is here to talk racism in the republican party. >>> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. the first battle may be over, but republicans are vowing to continue the war. today, the senate voted to table the blunt amendment, 51 to 48. the measure

amendment would do. first, the house bill would allow companies to advertise risky, less regulated, unregistered private offerings to the general public using billboards, cold calls to senior living centers, other mass marketing methods. do you know what this means? this means that -- let's say an elderly living in a senior living center or maybe going there for recreation, all of a sudden they are in a room and they are giving -- a lecture is given to them about how they can take their 401-k money. maybe they have got $100,000 in their 401-k. here you can take some of the 401-k and put it into this small business start-up, and guess what? it's going to be just like the beginning of -- of apple computers, see, or it's going to be the beginning of microsoft or something. this is a small company, and if you invest -- if you just invested a few hundred dollars, why, you can quadruple your money probably in four or five years. that's what they can do under the house bill. they can make cold calls, anything. the reed-landrieu amendment would allow firms to advertise only to investors with appropriate resources and sophistication to bear the risks. the house bill would tear down protections pu

pregnancy care centers will have to provide and pay for such coverage for their employees regardless of their religious beliefs. mr. speaker, that's a direct violation of the first amendment to the constitution. the first amendment to the constitution provides that government shall establish no religion and that you should have the freedom to practice religion in any way you see fit. we've seen this played out over the many years of this country. for instance, the amish are against war. it's against their conscious to fight in a war. and if indeed an amish person is asked to join the military, to pick up a rifle and go fight, if he declares it's against his religious conscious, then he's not forced to fight. and that is a well-respected, well-observed from a digs, and it's certainly right down to the beginning of the core of the constitution. but for some reason we're suspending that constitutional right. that is to say that a hospital owner, an insurance company owner, a physician even or nurse who may choose not to provide abortion-inducing pills, certainly provide abortions themselves or perhaps for whatever fundamental religious reasons such as in catholicism not prac

first amendment and free expression. hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center captioning by captionmax www.captionmax.com