Travel Design, Death Debates, The Best and Worst of Sex Ed

Coming up on today’s show:

• Over the weekend, Maine Governor Paul LePage invoked some racist, xenophobic rhetoric when he declared that people of color were “the enemy” in the state’s drug war, something that caused outrage in The Pine Tree State and across the nation. Who is LePage, and what does the future hold for Maine politics? Cynthia Dill, a former Maine state senator, lawyer, and columnist, weighs in.

• Polls in Florida are open today for primary races across the state. Two Democratic representatives are battling to take on Senator Marco Rubio, who is hoping to win a second term in the U.S. Senate; Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz is facing a tough primary challenge from a Bernie Sanders-backed candidate; and former Governor Charlie Christ is hoping to restart his political career in the House of Representatives. Craig Pittman, politics reporter at The Tampa Bay Times, has the latest on the primary.

• At her impeachment trial in the Senate on Monday, Brazil’s suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, defended her record and said she had a clean conscience. Today, lawmakers are expected to vote on whether she will stay or be forced to officially leave office. Alex Cuadros, a reporter and author of “Brazillionaires: Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an American Country,” explains what’s ahead. 

• As America’s Muslim population continues to grow, more and more communities are struggling to find places to bury their dead. Several communities across the country have balked at proposals to build Muslim cemeteries, and are using zoning regulations as a way to prevent cemeteries from being developed. Dr. Amjad Bahnassi, a psychiatrist and chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, has experienced this firsthand, and shares his story today on The Takeaway. 

• One million people have fled countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq for Europe over the past year. Sweden and Finland have seen a record number of asylum seekers, and as the pressure of how to deal with these refugees mounts, the tech industry is hoping to create some relief through LinkedIn-style networking apps. Laura Hautala, a cybersecurity and privacy reporter for CNET, explains. 

• In recent weeks, false reports of security threats have thrown Los Angeles and John F. Kennedy International Airports into chaos. Today, The Takeaway explores how airport design in post-9/11 American fails to account for both perceived and real terrorism threats with Terence Young, an aviation and transportation design director at Gensler. 

• A recent study has found that high school students in Australia who used robot babies in a school sex ed program were more likely to become pregnant when compared to girls who received a less realistic education. With school starting, what works and what doesn’t when it comes to modern sex education? Nicole Cushman, executive director at Answer, a sex ed advisory program at Rutgers, weighs in.