Midday

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision declaring Bible reading in public schools unconstitutional. At the center of the case was Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the famous atheist.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wants to attract 10,000 new families to Baltimore by 2020. How’s that going, and what can be done to accelerate the economic investment that creates job and recruits new residents? Members of regional Federal Reserve banks are meeting in Baltimore this week to hear and share strategies.

In Bea Johnson’s household, there are no prepackaged snacks, no small plastic bottles of shampoo, and no disposable paper towels. In fact, she doesn’t even own a trash can, preferring instead to run a home that operates under the principles of “zero waste.” Johnson joins Midday to discuss her book, Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste, and her personal journey towards a low impact lifestyle.

A look back 50 years to the civil rights demonstrations and riots that erupted in Cambridge, Maryland in mid-June 1963. Among our guests: Gloria Richardson Dandridge, the leader of the demonstrators, and WYPR's own senior news analyst, C. Fraser Smith, author of a history of civil rights in Maryland.

Can we live sustainably on this planet, and if so, for how long? Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Ken Weiss of The Los Angeles Times spent a year investigating those questions as he traveled the globe for a five-part series called “Beyond 7 Billion.” He joins us to talk about the cultural, economic and environmental consequences of population growth.

In our first hour we’ll hear from two families that have traveled divergent paths through the international adoption process. Brian and Erica Finkelstein Parker waited two and a half years to complete the adoption of their daughter Emmalee from India only to lose her five years after they got her home because of complications from the measles virus she contracted during the adoption process. The Parkers are currently awaiting the adoption of a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This hour, we continue to look at adoption through three adoption sub-topics: single-parent adoption, same-sex adoption, and foster care adoption. Guests include Sherry Fine, a psychotherapist and the co-author of Single Adoptive Parents: Our Stories; Janice Goldwater, founder and executive director of Adoptions Together, a regional nonprofit adoption agency; and Molly McGrath Tierney, director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services.

Although studies have shown that females are just as competent as their male counterparts in math and science, they represent only a small fraction of the U.S. science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce.

Science historian and author George Dyson discusses his most recent book Turing’s Cathedral, a national bestseller about the origins of the digital universe. Original air date: 01/16/13

A look at the top stories of the region with the reporters who covered them. This week's guests include: Andy Green, opinion editor forThe Baltimore Sun; Midday on the Law contributor Jim Astrachan; Baltimore Sun reporter Tricia Bishop; Don Sincell, editor for The Republican; Mark Reutter of the Baltimore Brew; and KJ Mohr, curator of the Charm City LGBT Film Festival.