Attorneys with the District Attorney’s Offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against ride-sharing service, Uber, saying that the company misrepresents its safety and background check practices and overcharges customers for rides. Also, on NPR this week, correspondent Ina Jaffe reported on an alarming trend taking place in many nursing homes nationwide: Patients are being overly medicated with antipsychotic drugs. Then, the identity of Los Angeles Chinatown has been always been changing.
What you need to know about the latest Uber lawsuit and how to protect yourself
Attorneys with the District Attorney’s Offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the popular ride-sharing service, Uber, saying that the company misrepresents its safety and background check practices and overcharges customers for rides. The DA’s offices are also accusing Uber of fraud for charging a $4 fee for customers who request a ride to the airport even when the drivers weren’t paying the toll.
Another popular ride-sharing service, Lyft, settled with prosecutors and agreed to “play by the rules.” They will also have to pay a $500,000 fine and have said they will stop picking up customers from the airport until they get the permits and approvals needed.
Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey said in a press conference this week that their aim is not to shut Uber down, but to get them to change their advertising, which the DA’s office says is false. Despite the lawsuit, Uber will be allowed to keep operating as normal. Uber said in a statement that it is in negotiations with the district attorneys' offices, but Los Angeles D.A. Jackie Lacey told KPCC's Take Two that Uber is not in contact with the D.A.'s offices and that she hopes they do reach out.
How much do you think ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft should be regulated? Do you think Uber is misleading its customers about the safety of its service and drivers? How do you keep yourself safe when using ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft?
Guests:
George Gascón, District Attorney, City & County of San Francisco which filed a lawsuit yesterday against Uber
Carolyn Said, business and technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, she covers the so-called “sharing economy” and has been following the Uber saga as it has unfolded
Thilo Koslowski, vice president and automotive practice leader at the technology analysis firm Gartner.
How is California doing in the national fight to curb over-medication of nursing home patients?
On NPR this week, correspondent Ina Jaffe reported on an alarming trend taking place in many nursing homes across the nation: Patients are being overly medicated with antipsychotic drugs when they don’t necessarily need them. Antipsychotics are approved primarily to treat serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but increasingly, nursing home residents suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia are being given the drugs.
For the piece, Jaffe talked to one family who decided to put their 73-year-old mom who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s in a nursing home. Soon after her arrival, the family said that the medical staff started putting her on antipsychotic drugs. The facility did obtain what’s known as “informed consent” from the father, still the family found her to be overly medicated.
One study in 2010 found that 71 percent of Medicaid residents in Florida nursing homes were getting some sort of psychoactive drugs, and study author says the problem is not confined to just one state. The government is aware of the problem and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a government agency, has been working to curb the issue at nursing homes nationwide—with definite success. Still, Jaffe’s reporting, based on data analysis of government data undertaken by NPR, found that states that allow nursing homes to continue the questionable practice rarely get punished. Texas is one of the nation’s worst offenders.
How is California doing when it comes to addressing this problem? What mechanisms in California are in place to prevent over-medication to take place? If you have family members in a nursing home facility in Southern California, what have your experience been?
Guests:
Dr. Karl E. Steinberg, past president and current secretary, the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine; board member, American Medical Directors Association. He’s been a nursing home and hospice medical director for near 20 years in San Diego County
Alice Bonner, former director of the Division of Nursing Homes for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She is currently a part-time contractor for CMS. She is also an associate professor at the School of Nursing at Northeastern University
Hermosa Beach’s 2-pet limit put to the test
Hermosa Beach has a limit of two cats or dogs per household, and it is enforcing it by ordering Betty Starr and Steve Fry to remove two of their four cats, citing the city's municipal code. Similar to various nearby cities such as Manhattan Beach and El Segundo, which limit cats and dogs at 5 and 3 per household, respectively, Hermosa Beach has instituted the ordinance because of the city's density.
City Manager Tom Bakaly says "The city has ordinances limiting the number of pets owned is to protect the owners', the neighbors', and animals' well-being." But Starr and Fry have compared the decision they now face to Sophie's Choice, because two of the four cats are elderly and will most likely be euthanized if taken to a shelter. The issue arose when one of Starr and Fry’s neighbors, Mike Balzer, repeatedly complained about the cat's defecating in his yard. Balzer told the city council, "I've attempted to deal with this for four years...You get to the point where you say: 'How long can you pick up someone's poop from their pets?' This is an owner issue. They're not taking care of their animals, they're just letting them go wherever they want."
What recourse do neighbors have when people keep more pets than legally allowed? Are there extenuating circumstances where residents have a legal basis for exceeding the limit?
Guests:
Tom Bakaly, City Manager, Hermosa Beach
Sharon Papa, Chief of Police, Hermosa Beach
The changing meaning of Chinatown Los Angeles
Immortalization is one thing Los Angeles Chinatown can claim over its other iterations in the country. The 1974 Roman Polanski noir put this Los Angeles landmark in our collective imagination. It's Hollywood myth-making, and exemplifies one way the idea of Chinatown is figured in American culture.
Read: Curbed LA's The Ultimate Chinatown Filming Location Map of Los Angeles
The identity of Los Angeles Chinatown has been always changing. It began as simply put a place where Chinese railroad workers who went southward from San Francisco to Los Angeles gathered and lived. That area, centered on Calle de Los Negros between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street, was torn down to make way for the construction of Union Station. It'd eventually re-establish itself at its current location at Cesar Chavez and North Broadway.
Listen: NPR's Code Switch team explains the origin of the so-called "Oriental Riff"
Read: Wiki entry on the "Oriental Riff"
The new Chinatown, as is common known, was built in the 1930s. The look and feel was design to evoke the Orient and conceived to bring in local Chinese residents as well as American tourists. At the time, only the well-to-do had the opportunity to travel to exotic places abroad. For a taste of the good life, the rest of populace went to local destinations like Los Angeles Chinatown.
View: LA Times photo feature on old and new Chinatowns
Read: UCLA's "The State of Chinatown Los Angeles" report
New shopping centers and buildings sprung up along Broadway in the 1980s. But by the late 1990s, Chinatown had fallen on hard times. Increasingly, new Chinese immigrants were flocking to burgeoning enclaves like Alhambra and Monterey Park in the San Gabriel Valley. Today, about 15,000 people live in Chinatown and about a quarter of them is Latino. Asians (from Vietnam, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian countries) make up about 64 percent of the population. The average year income for a family of three is under $20,000.
Read: Chinatown tour map
Read: Chinatown art gallery guide
Local artists taking advantage of cheap rent and the availability of empty storefronts began moving into Chinatown, establishing art galleries and art spaces and ushering in a renaissance of sorts for the area. The impact of the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles is beginning to be felt in Chinatown. The Jia Apartments, the $93 million, 280-unit luxury apartment complex, was completed earlier this year. Another mega shopping/housing complex called Blossom Plaza is expected to finish construction in 2015.
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In this special AirTalk segment, we’ll take a look at the past, present and future of Los Angeles Chinatown. To hear it, click on "Listen Now" above.
Guests:
Linda Chong, writer and historian and a volunteer and docent for the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California who gives guided tours of Chinatown
Bonnie Chen, development coordinator at Chinatown Service Center. She also co-authored the demographic profile “The State of Chinatown Los Angeles” for the Asian American Studies Center and the Urban Planning Department at UCLA
Yong Chen, history professor at UC Irvine and author of “Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America” (Columbia University Press, 2014)