We check in on the Holy Fire in Orange and Riverside counties ignited on Monday; We also discuss the lawsuit against the city of Santa Monica, impact of electric cars on CA power grid; and more.
A check in on the Holy Fire in Orange and Riverside counties
The Holy Fire in Orange County ignited Monday, but it’s already burned over 10,000 acres, forcing more than 21,000 people to evacuate by Thursday night.
Earlier in the week, law enforcement arrested a suspect on counts of felony arson. Meanwhile, some residents have chosen to stay in their homes, despite evacuation orders. We check in on the latest from Lake Elsinore.
Guest:
Jill Replogle, KPCC’s Orange County reporter; she tweets
Santa Monica is on trial over voting rights lawsuit
The city of Santa Monica is being sued for violating California’s Voting Rights Act, according to plaintiff Maria Loya.
The lawsuit comes after Maria Loya lost elections for City Council and the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees back in 2004 and 2014. Loya claims her loss was a result of the at-large election and is now asking the court to switch the city to a district-election system.
The city’s attorneys, however, say that changing to a district-based system would not solve the problem. Because the Latino population is spread throughout the city, a representative for each district may not be the best solution.
Meanwhile, a conservative legal foundation is taking California’s Voting Rights Act to federal court, saying that it is putting too much emphasis on race as a factor in elections. What are the parallels between these two suits and have they created unusual bedfellows?
Guests:
Kate Cagle, senior reporter for the Santa Monica Daily Press; she tweets
Andrea Alarcon, civil rights attorney for Shenkman Hughes, a Los Angeles-based law firm representing Maria Loya, who is suing the city of Santa Monica over its voting system
Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., LA-based attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, which was hired by Santa Monica to work with the city attorney’s office and represent the city; he is an appellate and constitutional law expert; he is one of the lead attorneys defending Santa Monica
Rick Hasen, professor specializing in election law at UC Irvine; he tweets
Plug it in, plug it in: Assessing the impact of charging EVs on California’s power grid
Cleaner and more fuel efficient than fossil fuel-powered cars, electric vehicles, or EVs, are believed by many to be the automobiles of the future.
The state of California has already jumped on making this a reality, offering a rebate to those who decide to buy one. Despite the incentive, according to the DMV, only about 342,000 of California’s 30.6 million registered cars and trucks are battery-electric or plug-in hybrid EVs. But if that day comes when EVs stop being the future and become the present, how will California’s power grid withstand the strain of potentially millions of cars being plugged into charging stations across the state?
New analysis out from researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a federally-funded lab that’s part of the U.S. Department of Energy, suggests that if EVs become the norm for drivers in California, the state’s power infrastructure might not be equipped to handle the strain. They say that construction of charging stations has not kept up with vehicle deployment, and while that might not be a problem now while there are relatively few on the road, it could be if demand for EVs continues to grow. They cite evening charging after drivers return from work as an area of particular concern, warning of the potential for disruption to power lines and transformers in neighborhoods where multiple homes have EVs.
How can the state prepare its power infrastructure to handle the growing number of EVs on the road that need charging? What improvements would need to be made to the grid? And how long will it be before there are enough EVs on the road to put a strain on the power grid?
Guests:
Anand Gopal, lead author of the report “The Growth of Distributed Energy: Implications for California's Grid” from non-partisan think-tank Next 10; he is a research scientist in clean energy and transportation at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, one of 17 U.S. Department of Energy labs
Janea A. Scott, lead Commissioner on transportation for the California Energy Commission
Should California extend hours of sale for alcoholic beverages?
Lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would allow bars and clubs in some parts of California to serve alcoholic beverages until 4 a.m. SB 905 would give local communities the option to extend operating hours of service.
The bill, if passed, would affect Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Palm Springs and three Northern California cities. Currently, closing time for bars at these cities is 2 a.m. The proposal would give the Department of Alcoholic Beverages Control authority to issue additional hours for licensees in qualified cities that would allow the selling or purchasing of alcohol between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. The bill was introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who says the state should not have a one-size-fits-all closing time.
Supports of the bill say limiting the serving of alcoholic beverages put some California cities at an economic disadvantage. Meanwhile, critics argue that extending those hours will come at a high price, citing health and safety concerns. So should California extend hours of sale for alcoholic beverages? We debate.
Guests:
Miguel Santiago, California state assemblyman, representing the 53rd district which encompasses Los Angeles, including downtown and parts of the eastside; coauthor of SB-905 that would extend hours of sale for alcoholic beverages; he tweets
Sara Cooley, advocacy manager for Alcohol Justice, a national advocacy organization that campaigns against the influence of the alcohol industry
FilmWeek: ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ ‘The Meg,’ ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson, Peter Rainer and Tim Cogshell review this weekend’s new movie releases.
"BlacKkKlansman" in wide release
"The Meg" in wide release
"The Miseducation of Cameron Post" at Laemmle's Playhouse, ArcLight Hollywood & Edwards University Town Center (Irvine)
"Dog Days" in wide release
"Elizabeth Harvest" at Arena Cinelounge Sunset
"Slender Man" in wide release
"The Captain" at Nuart Theatre
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" streaming on Netflix
"Gavagai" at Laemmle’s Music Hall
CRITICS' HITS
Amy: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" & "Elizabeth Harvest"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP9eDmX0ow0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrPaMJWF1tg
Tim: "BlacKkKlansmen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNZhs0QKq0
Peter: "The Miseducation of Cameron Post"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXBb638n2Y
MIXED FEELINGS
Tim: "Dog Days" & "The Meg"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bPTj2TFXo8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udm5jUA-2bs
Peter: "The Captain" & "Gavagai"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaBrpyObVtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNOH5AagobM
MISSES
Amy: "Slender Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySy8mcceTno
Guests:
Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The Guardian and host of the podcasts The Canon and Unspooled; she tweets
Peter Rainer, film critic for KPCC and the Christian Science Monitor
Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC, Alt-Film Guide and CineGods.com; he tweets
Discussing the Oscar-winning screenplay of ‘Chinatown’ with its screenwriter, Robert Towne
The 1974 classic film “Chinatown” tops some of the most prestigious “best film” lists and is studied for everything from its score to its cinematography. But at the time it was released, it won only one Oscar: for best screenplay.
Last Saturday, after the FilmWeek screening of the film at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, we sat down with Robert Towne, the screenwriter of “Chinatown,” as well as KPCC film critic Claudia Puig, to discuss the process of writing the script, the casting and and where the film got its title.
Guests:
Robert Towne, screenwriter of “Chinatown”
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; she tweets