Reducing California's Prison Population A three-judge panel ruled Monday that California has two more years to reduce the state's prison population by about 5,000 inmates. The time frame makes the reduction an easy target, although many of the quicker options for easing prison overcrowding -like shifting the burden to county jails, or realignment- have already been used. The next phase of solutions will need to focus on sentencing reform and programs that keep criminals from returning to prison once they're released. McGeorge School of Law professor and expert on California sentencing reform, Michael Vitiello, joins us to explain how California’s prisons initially became overcrowded, and what needs to be done to ensure prison populations continually decrease.

 

 

Olympics Update Women made history at the Winter Olympics in Sochi this year, competing for the first time in the ski jump. NPR's Tamara Keith is covering the games and was there to witness history. We'll talk with her about what she saw and what it's been like covering the 2014 Winter Games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poet Stephen Dunn Sacramento will be the site of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn's premier west coast reading from his new book, "Lines of Defense." In this recorded segment, we talk with author and professor about his work and his time playing basketball, and we'll hear a couple of poems from "Lines of Defense."

 

 

 

 

 

Kushman by the Bottle In this week's installment of Kushman by the Bottle, wine expert and occasional guest host Rick Kushman joins us to talk about how the drought in California might effect wine grapes in our region. He'll also offers advice on finding a perfect bottle of bubbly for Valentine's Day.