Decision On State Self-Insurance, Women’s March On Washington, Trump And Generals

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• Group Insurance Board Announces Decision About Self-Insurance For State Workers

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  Earlier this year, Governor Scott Walker asked the Group Insurance Board to consider a potential switch to self-insurance for state workers. On Tuesday, the Board, which oversees health insurance for Wisconsin state workers, will meet and announce their decision on self-insurance. We talk to a health reporter about this decision and what it could mean for the state.

• Understanding The Upcoming Women's March On Washington

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  In response to Donald Trump’s victory and upcoming inauguration, more than 100,000 people say they plan to attend a women’s march on Washington on January 21st. Our guest explains the origins of the march and the goals of the participants.

• Women's March On Washington Could Make History

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  It’s thought to have started the day after the election with one grandmother in Hawaii who invited 40 of her friends to march alongside each other in the nation’s capital in response to president-elect Donald Trump’s victory and upcoming inauguration.

  The small gathering quickly became a full-blown march after the call to action went viral on the popular pro-Hillary Clinton Facebook group Pantsuit Nation.

  Trump will be sworn into office on Friday, Jan. 20. The following day may be the day of the biggest mobilization this country has ever seen in response to a presidential inauguration.

  The planned Women’s March on Washington is all set to follow Inauguration Day on Saturday, Jan. 21 and already has more than 200,000 people who have indicated on Facebook that they will attend.

  Organizers say, the march is a rally, not a protest, making the point that women’s rights are human rights, a line borrowed from a speech Clinton delivered in China back in 1995.

  “A lot of women fear for their civil liberties in a Trump administration,” said Emily Crockett, a staff writer at Vox who recently wrote about the march. “He is an alleged serial sexual predator. It’s not clear that he will do much if anything for women’s rights, and that he might roll them back, whether it’s reproductive rights or protections for women in the workplace.”

  The positive framing of the event, Crockett added, is intended to “send a message to the Trump administration that if it wasn’t planning to prioritize women’s rights and women’s lives before, it should definitely consider doing so now.”

  Crockett said the upcoming march could be one of the biggest mobilization efforts centered around a presidential inauguration that the United States has seen.

  “There were tens of thousands of protesters against (Richard) Nixon in the heyday of the Vietnam (War) era. There were also a number of protestors at President George W. Bush’s first inauguration over the Supreme Court issue,” she said, referring to the decision not to seek a vote recount in Florida.

  In the early planning stages of the march, Crockett said organizers grappled with naming the event. They were reluctant to call it the “Million Women March” over fears of appropriating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous gathering at the nation’s capital. She added that woman of color have emerged as lead organizers of the march in order to make sure it represents a wider message.

• Trump And The Generals: What The Appointment Of High Ranking Military Officials Means For The Cabinet

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  President-elect Donald Trump has named at least three generals to top advisory positions within his Cabinet. We’ll speak with Nora Bensahel of American University about the precedent of naming generals to the Cabinet and why Trump is keen on having them as advisors.