A proposed agreement between a community organization and Los Angeles World Airports could stop years of litigation; after a scandal at the Orange County DA's office, lawmakers in Sacramento are getting closer to passing a bill that could make it a felony for prosecutors to withhold evidence; plus, the author of 'Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon' traces the political trajectory of the former Senator and presidential candidate.
New agreement could clear way for LAX connection to Metro
A formal agreement announced earlier this week could finally allow LAX to connect to L.A. Metro, and free up funds for other projects that have been stalled in litigation for years.
The proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion (ARSAC), a community group against capacity expansion at LAX, would free up funds for projects that have been stalled in litigation for years.
The agreement would allow LAWA to build a People Mover to connect the airport to the forthcoming Crenshaw/LAX Metro light rail line. A new rental car center, two transport facilities, and roads to access the new infrastructure are also included in the plan.
Councilmember Mike Bonin represents the 11th district, which includes Pacific Palisades, Venice, West Los Angeles, and Brentwood. He helped announce the agreement Wednesday, and says that it allows the airport to make meaningful improvements without ignoring its neighbors.
“It removes all the roadblocks to everything we’ve wanted to do at that airport for a long time, and that’s hugely important to Los Angeles,” Bonin said.
“What we discovered during these negotiations is that essentially there was nothing the airport really wanted and needed and could do over the next fifteen years that the neighbors found objectionable. There’s nothing that the neighbors really didn’t want to see happen that the airport was planning or hoping to do.”
ARSAC will agree to not take legal action to delay these projects, which together would cost $5.5 billion.
Denny Schneider, who is the president of ARSAC, said that this sort of cooperation between LAWA and the communities surrounding LAX is unprecedented.
“This is the first time in forty years that the community has been on the same wavelength as the airport, and we are thrilled,” Schneider said. “It makes this airport an airport we can all be proud of. It’s going to be safe, secure, and convenient for everyone.”
A proposed shift of LAX’s northernmost runway toward the communities of Westchester and Playa del Rey has been scrapped. ARSAC sued in 2013 to block that project. Instead, airport officials would have three years to make several safety upgrades to the runway.
Bonin said safety and speed are top priorities for those backing the agreement.
“What this does is allow us to do airfield improvements right now...We get safety more quickly, more efficiently, and less costly -- more bang for our buck. This is a really good plan to get safety there right now.”
Still, Schneider warns that this agreement will not fix all of Southern California’s airport troubles.
“[LAX] is going to grow,” he said. “It’s important to this community and the whole region. But even more important is that we need a whole network of airports around Southern California.”
Los Angeles' City Council will review the MOU at a meeting next Wednesday.
These interviews have been edited for clarity.
Guests:
Mike Bonin, Los Angeles City Councilman representing Council District 11, which includes Venice, West Los Angeles, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades
Denny Schneider, member of the Westchester Neighborhood Association and president of Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion (ARSAC); ARSAC and the City of Los Angeles reached an agreement to halt lawsuits over LAX’s modernization
Sacramento debating felony status for prosecutorial misconduct
California lawmakers are getting closer to passing a bill that would throw the book at prosecutors who withhold evidence in criminal trials.
Assembly Bill 1909 (Lopez) would make prosecutorial misconduct a felony, instead of a misdemeanor, punishable by up to three years in jail.
The main sponsor of the bill, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, writes: "In 2014, prominent 9th Circuit Justice, Alex Kozinski, stated that prosecutorial misconduct is an epidemic in our criminal justice system. Nationwide, we've seen stories of innocent persons being sent to prison for decades because of a bad-acting prosecutor placing their self-interest and conviction rate ahead of seeking justice."
The primary opponent of the bill is the Orange County Deputy District Attorneys Association. Those prosecutors argue current law allows for sanctions against prosecutors who withhold evidence.
Is the current law being used effectively? How widespread is the problem of prosecutorial misconduct?
Guests:
Ignacio Hernandez, Legislative Director, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice; Sponsors of AB-1909
Cyril Yu, Chair of Civic Action Committee, Orange County Deputy District Attorneys Association; Not speaking in his role as an OC Deputy DA.
Will cosmetic regulation kill independent beauty brands?
A new bill has been proposed to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to test cosmetic ingredients, as well as recall products that prove to be unsafe for consumers.
Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Susan Collins, R-Maine have co-authored the Personal Care Products Safety Act. In addition to adding regulations to a virtually unregulated industry, the bill would require cosmetic brands to pay roughly $20 million in annual fees. This would contribute to the total cost of making sure certain ingredients are safe.
According to a New York Times article, these fees are causing a split between industry heavyweights like Estee Lauder and Johnson & Johnson, and smaller, independent brands like Mary Kay. A counter-bill has been proposed by Texas Congressman Pete Sessions. His bill would require cosmetic companies to report any “adverse events” as a result of product use, without recalls or annual fees.
What do you think of the Personal Care Products Safety Act? Should cosmetics companies be regulated at the cost of potentially hurting independent businesses?
Guests:
Jamie Court, President and Chairman of the Board, Consumer Watchdog
Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies
Amateur shrinks and professional psychiatrists analyze Trump, Clinton
Amateur shrinks AKA average voters have every right to analyze the minds of presidential candidates - and during this cycle, it can be too tempting to resist.
However, professional psychiatrists who cannot restrain themselves from diagnosing Donald Trump's id and ego are violating the "Goldwater Rule" established by the American Psychiatry Association. As Benedict Carey recounts in "The New York Times," the Republican presidential candidate of 1964, Barry Goldwater, similarly inspired diagnoses from shrinks across the land.
At the time, more than 1,000 psychiatrists surveyed said Goldwater was psychologically unfit for the presidency. The news stoked controversy and later was deemed unethical by the aforementioned association.
How skilled do you think you are in diagnosing public figures? Looking back on Presidents Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, for instance, how did their behavior get analyzed at the time?
Guest:
Benedict Carey, Science Reporter for The New York Times; Author, “How We Learn” (Random House; 2014)
Is Netflix the future of television?
Sci-fi mystery show “Stranger Things” has become the latest Netflix darling. Since the debut of “House of Cards” in 2013, Netflix has put considerable resources in developing a slate of original scripted series.
Its slate of original programming – from “Orange is the New Black” to “Lady Dynamite” – has won industry accolades as well as praise from both viewers and critics.
Netflix is rolling out with 600 hours of original content this year. The move might be great for cord-cutters and fans, but it has incurred the wrath of at least one person. At a recent Television Critics Association event, FX Networks chief John Landgraf slammed Netflix for exercising too much of a “monopoly” over good scripts and the television production community. He went on to question whether the streaming site can handle the challenges of creating so many shows and still maintain quality.
Is Landgraf’s charge fair? Is Netflix’s all-in push into original programming sustainable as a business model? Can Netflix become the Airbnb, or the Uber of its industry, with Hulu and Amazon and others nipping at its heels.
Guests:
Dominic Patten, Senior editor and chief television critic, Deadline. He tweets from @DeadlineDominic
Ben Bajarin, principal analyst at the Silicon Valley-based market research firm, Creative Strategies, where he focuses on research in consumer technology; he tweets from
Author explains how Bobby Kennedy became a ‘Liberal Icon’
Robert F. Kennedy is a progressive icon, but as as a new book suggests, he wasn’t always a champion of liberal values.
Former Boston Globe journalist Larry Tye’s political biography, “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon,” follows the complex political development of the New York Senator and presidential candidate, who was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in what is now Koreatown.
Long before his tragically-shortened 1968 presidential run, Kennedy was a legal counsel for the notorious anti-Communist Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy. While this complicated friendship has been widely scrutinized in other biographies, Tye refrains from repeating the usual narrative. Rather than suggesting he righted any previous wrongs by becoming an advocate for the underprivileged, Tye tries to subtly recreate Kennedy’s contradictory political evolution.
Drawing on previously unpublished written material and interviews with Kennedy’s widow, Tye creates both a glowing personal portrait and a history of a tumultuous time in America.
Larry Tye is in-studio with Larry Mantle, discussing his book and explaining how Bobby Kennedy turned from a Cold War firebrand into an exemplar of American progressive values.
Larry is giving a lecture and signing copies of his book tonight at 7 p.m. PT at the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda. Click here for more information and to RSVP.
Guest:
Larry Tye, author of the book “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon” (Random House, 2016)