Grab that grilled cheese-taco-dumpling! LA City Council weighs regulation for food trucks. Is the Swiss bank account whistleblower a hero or a felon? New data on children of illegal immigrants from Pew Research Center. Later, what's a life coach and who are they to tell us how to live?
City Council’s Transportation Committee to hear proposed food truck regulations
The Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee will hold public hearings today to discuss how and where LA’s mobile eateries should operate. Councilman Tom LaBonge will introduce two motions that could result in new, tougher restrictions. That’s the fear anyway, of passionate food truck vendors and the insatiable street eaters who love them. Should LA enact new rules to regulate restaurants on wheels? If so, what should they be?
Full agenda for today's committee meeting, including different food truck proposals, can be found here [PDF]. The meeting begins at 2pm today and will include a public comment period.
Guests:
Leron Gubler, President & CEO, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
Matthew Geller, Chief Executive Officer, SoCal Mobile Food Vendors' Association (SCMVA)
Tom LaBonge, Los Angeles City Councilman; representing the 4th district which includes Griffith Park
Swiss secrets and one banker’s betrayal
For billionaires with an aversion to paying taxes, the Swiss bank account has long been the parking spot of choice. The seemingly impermeable system of numbers is designed to shield their wealth from the IRS. But the decades-old code of silence was recently broken when UBS insider Bradley Birkenfeld blew the whistle, turning over the names and bank balances of his wealthiest clients to US officials. But rather than hailing him as a hero, the Department of Justice slapped Birkenfeld with an indictment, accusing him of plotting to defraud the government even as he cooperated with prosecutors. Public outcry was swift. The New York Times wrote that Birkenfeld deserved “a statue on Wall Street, not a prison sentence.” But the judge gave him 40 months in federal prison. It’s rare for the DOJ to indict such a valuable informant – so why did they do it in this case?
Guest:
Michael Bronner, correspondent for the international news site GlobalPost; his five-part series about Bradley Birkenfeld and Swiss Banks is online at GlobalPost.com
Unauthorized immigrants and their US-born children
A study released today by the Pew Hispanic Center estimates the number of babies born in the United States to at least one unauthorized immigrant parent--340,000 of the 4.3 million newborns in 2008. The study, the first of its kind, also estimates that 8% of newborns and 7% of children in 2008 had a least one illegal immigrant parent. The estimate is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2009 Current Population Survey. It is augmented with an analysis of the characteristics of unauthorized immigrants. In total, 4 million U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants resided in the United States in 2009.
Read the full report here.
Guest:
Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center
Life coaches - who are they to tell us how to live?
As a distinct profession, life coaching is relatively new. But since its early nineties beginnings, the coaching business has been booming. According to the International Coaching Federation, there are now 16,000 coaches worldwide, specializing in everything from gardening and sewing to parenting and career help. There are also hundreds of schools offering training, but the business remains largely unregulated – which begs the question: How qualified are these people to dole out advice? What’s the credentialing criteria? And can coaching really help?
Guests:
DP Waldman, is credentialed with the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) based in San Diego, CA
Tamara Keefe, Leadership and Life Coach based in Alexandria, VA