UC Berkeley & Pomona College settle respective complaints tied to alleged antisemitism

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Today on AirTalk: CA colleges settlements; AI Disney characters? Giving up gifts; Mayor Karen Bass; LA County inspector general retires; More water for CA farms; and TV Talk.

UC Berkeley & Pomona College settle respective complaints tied to alleged antisemitism

Today on AirTalk: CA colleges settlements; AI Disney characters? Giving up gifts; Mayor Karen Bass; LA County inspector general retires; More water for CA farms; and TV Talk.

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UC Berkeley & Pomona College settle respective complaints tied to alleged antisemitism

Two California colleges said on Wednesday that they had reached settlement agreements tied to complaints about alleged antisemitism on their campuses. UC Berkeley said it had agreed to pay an instructor some $60,000 as compensation after the campus declined to renew her class, she says, due to her Israeli nationality. Pomona College has also put in for a nonmonetary settlement over a federal complaint from the Education Department alleging civil rights violations during pro-Palestinian campus protests over the last two years. Both settlements come at a time of heightened scrutiny of higher education from the Trump Administration for their handling of pro-Palestinian protests. Today on AirTalk, we hear more about these settlements and how higher education overall is handling this situation with Jaweed Kaleem, higher education reporter at the Los Angeles Times and Gabi Starr, President of Pomona College.

Disney’s big investment in OpenAI

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Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Luke Skywalker to the AI company’s Sora video generation tool, in a licensing deal that the two companies announced on Thursday. The agreement makes the Walt Disney Co. the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos. Under the three-year licensing deal, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters. Today on AirTalk, we’ll dig into the deal and what it means for interest in AI platforms with Erik Barmack, AI Columnist for The Ankler.

With files from the Associated Press

No gifts this Christmas?

The holiday season is supposed to be a joyous time. A time for expressing gratitude to loved ones in your life, and of course, doing that by giving them a gift. Or at least that’s what we’ve been led to believe because for a lot of adults, gift-giving has become a stress-filled marathon of shopping lists, shipping deadlines, and the nerve-racking pressure to find just the perfect thing. But are we at a point where we’ve just gifted each other enough? This year, a growing number of people say they want to opt out of exchanging gifts among adults — not because they’re against the holidays, but because they’re stressed, stretched thin, or just feel like the tradition has gotten out of hand. Kids still get gifts, of course. And when you’re early in a relationship, a holiday present might still matter. But what about spouses, siblings, coworkers, or extended family? Today on AirTalk, we talk with Rene Lynch, senior editor for Orange County at LAist to talk about how to navigate gift giving alternatives.

LA Mayor Karen Bass Calls for allocating more money to police department hiring

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is urging the city council to allocate $4.4 million in funding to the Los Angeles Police Department for the hiring of more officers. According to Bass, without the additional funding the department will stop hiring new officers come January. The $4.4 million request would fund the hiring of 410 more officers in the current fiscal year. The department currently has roughly 8,300 officers, a number the mayor says is too low for the nation's second largest city. Today on AirTalk, L.A. city mayor Karen Bass joins the program to explain her view. We’re also joined by LAist watchdog correspondent, Jordan Rynning.

LA County inspector general on why he’s retiring from overseeing the Sheriff's Department

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to Max Huntsman, the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job. In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job. Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022. “My requests for investigation were rejected,” Huntsman’s letter reads. “Even after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff’s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.” Joining us to talk about the Sheriff's Department and the reasons for his retirement is LA County Inspector General, Max Huntsman.

AirTalk reached out to the Sheriff’s Department for this conversation, but a representative was not made available; a statement was made available to AirTalk, you can read it in full here. With files from LAist.

Trump administration to direct more water to California farms

The Trump administration is making good on a promise to send more water to California farmers in the state’s crop-rich Central Valley. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday announced a new plan for operating the Central Valley Project, a vast system of pumps, dams and canals that direct water southward from the state’s wetter north. It follows an executive order President Donald Trump signed in January calling for more water to flow to farmers, arguing the state was wasting the precious resource in the name of protecting endangered fish species. California officials and environmental groups blasted the move, saying sending significantly more water to farmlands could threaten water delivery to the rest of the state and would harm salmon and other fish. Joining us on AirTalk to discuss us is Felicia Marcus, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program and Joe del Bosque, owner and president of the family-owned Del Bosque Farms..

With files from the Associated Press.

TV Talk: ‘The New Years,’ ‘Spartacus: House of Ashur,’ and more!

Have you felt completely overwhelmed when deciding what new show to watch these days? Us too. There’s just so much content out there between network TV and numerous streaming platforms. Each week, we will try to break through the noise with TV watchers who can point us to the must-sees and steer us clear of the shows that maybe don’t live up to the hype. This week, listeners will get the latest scoop on what’s worth watching with

TV Shows:

• The New Years (Mubi)
• Spartacus: House of Ashur (Starz)
• North of North (Netflix)
• Su Majestad (Amazon Prime)
• Common Side Effects (Adult Swim)
• Women Wearing Shoulder Pads (Adult Swim)
• Mr. Loverman (BritBox)