Two were killed during a 16 hour standoff at a café in Sydney after Han Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee took hostages at gun point. Also, should drone operators be required to be licensed under the pending FAA regulations? Then, people suffering from severe depression are using ketamine as a treatment, but is it safe?
Sydney hostage situation ends with police storming café
16 hours after an armed man took hostages at gunpoint at the Lindt Chocolate Café in Sydney, Australia, police stormed the building and brought the standoff to an end on Monday morning. Reports this morning suggest that two people were killed during the standoff along with the gunman.
Media reports suggest there were about 10 staff members in the cafe when the gunman went in. Five people were seen running from the fire exit over the course of the standoff. It is thought that the suspect chose this particular cafe because it is a stone’s throw away from the newsroom of Channel Seven, Australia’s most-watched commercial broadcaster.
Australian media have identified the gunman as Han Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee who had been convicted previously of sending threatening letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. He was also charged last year with being an accessory to his ex-wife’s murder.
How can the U.S. prepare itself for lone wolf attacks like this? Are suspects in these incidents usually the same kind of person: a troubled outsider with little or nothing to lose? What can individuals and businesses do to protect themselves?
Guests:
Lisa Davies, Deputy News Editor, Sydney Morning Herald who's been following the story for the paper. She tweets
Jay Kopstein, former Deputy Chief for the New York Police Department (NYPD) who retired in 2010 after 37 years of police service; for the last 12 years of his police career he was assigned to Operations Division and was involved in the planning and coordination of most large special events and significant incidents in New York City
How should drones be regulated for commercial use?
Movie studios, retailers, agriculture interests, and more are all trying to get their hands on drones. The problem is that the Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t written any rules for how drones would be allowed to operate commercially in the United States. Congress told the FAA in 2012 that regulations needed to be rolled out, and they set a September 2015 deadline. Until that deadline, there will be plenty of speculation as to how commercial drone use will be regulated in the U.S. Privacy is certainly a concern for many advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who are concerned about the surveillance implications of commercial drone use.
Sources say that the FAA is considering requiring drone users to get a license, to only fly drones during the day and only as far as the operator could see them. Commercial groups argue those rules are way too restrictive. Amazon, for instance, would likely not be able to use drones to deliver packages if they could only be flown as far as the operator could see them.
Another drone issue plaguing the FAA is the increasing number of reports from pilots who have seen unmanned aircraft operating near their planes. The results could be disastrous if a drone or unmanned aircraft were to be sucked into a plane engine.
Should drone operators be required to be licensed under the pending FAA regulations? What about operators having to stay within sight of their drone? What regulations do you think should be included when the FAA rolls them out? Where does privacy factor in to this issue?
Guests:
Mark Dombroff, Partner at the Virginia-based law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. He concentrates his practice on the aviation and transportation industry, including litigation, regulatory, administrative and enforcement matters, security, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigations and employee related issues.
Michael Drobac, Executive director of the Small UAV Coalition, they advocate for law and policy changes to permit the operation of small unmanned aerial vehicles for commercial, consumer, recreational, and philanthropic purposes. The Small UAV Coalition includes companies like Google, Amazon, and GoPro.
Parker Higgins, Activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focuses on privacy and rights issues pertaining to drones
Is it ethical to use ketamine to treat acute depression?
Ketamine, or “Special K,” as it’s referred to on the street, is a drug that’s been used since the 1960s as a painkiller and an anesthetic during surgery for humans and animals. But these days, psychiatrists and clinics are turning to it to treat the most extreme cases of depression -- for those with symptoms that don’t respond to any other treatment. Some sufferers that use ketamine report an almost immediate alleviation of symptoms that might have been plaguing them for decades. The kind of quick relief this offers to depression-stricken people seems positive.
But some docs criticize its use, saying that long-term effects are unknown and some psychiatrists and clinics don’t understand the drug well enough to administer it properly. But advocates say the drug is approved by the FDA as an anesthetic and it’s giving people in crippling emotional pain the help they need -- now. Critics have concerns about ketamine being addictive, since it’s an opiate. But supporters say, the dosage received by patients battling depression are in far lower dosages than what a drug addict, using “Special K,” might take-in. Supporters also say, pharmaceutical companies stand to gain if ketamine use is discouraged; the companies would then have the ability to capitalize on making a new drug. Ketamine is expensive though. Clinics might charge somewhere between $300 and over $1000 per treatment, and there’s no guarantee an insurance company will cover it.
What happens to patients who have positive reactions to the drug, but then can no longer afford it? For how long is depression alleviated? Is the drug addictive? Should there be more clinical trials to prove its safety and efficacy for depression related cases?
Guests:
Dennis Hartman, founder of the Ketamine Advocacy Network -- an informational site for those suffering from chronic and treatment-resistant depression. He had used ketamine for the last two years, and says it saved his life.
Dr. David Feifel, MD, psychiatrist and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences Program at UC, San Diego
Dr. Alan Schatzberg, MD, psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University
Fourth anniversary of the influential Tunisian revolution that sparked the 'Arab Spring'
Four years after a fruit vendor's self-immolation sparked the Tunisian revolution, also known as the Jasmine Revolution, there is hope and reform for the North African nation. It has a constitution, a parliament and a run-off presidential election later this month, with money placed on the victory of a prominent human-rights activist. However, that 2009 revolt against the Ben Ali dictatorship launched uprisings across the Arab world that came to be known as the "Arab Spring."
Egypt, Syria and Libya were torn asunder. Thousands have died in the Syrian civil war as Bashar al-Assad retains his government. The Egyptian people brought down the decades-old presidency of Hosni Mubarak, but after a series of elections, military chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi reigns over a crippled economy while activists sit in jail.
What about Tunisia or its revolutionaries created a more promising future? What will be the staying power of the "Arab Winter?" Why is it so challenging for democracy to take hold in Arab countries? Or, what is it that allows authoritarian regimes to persist?
Guests:
Borzou Daragahi, covers North Africa and the Middle East for the Financial Times. He joins us from Morocco.
Bechir Blagui, Angeleno who co-founded Free Tunisia, an advocacy organization for human rights, political freedom and economic development in Tunisia; Blagui also organized a Los Angeles polling station for the Tunisian election
Frederic Wehrey, Specializes in political reform issues in the Middle East for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - an international think tank founded in 1910
Congress grants California ⅓ of the funding it needs for earthquake warning system
Through the recently passed 2015 budget bill, Congress appropriated $5 million dollars to help fund California’s statewide earthquake warning system, however, the funding is only a ⅓ of the $16.1 million needed per year to establish and maintain for California, Oregon, and Washington state as the system is expected to cost $80 million in the first five years of its operation.
The system has already been created and shown its success following early warnings sent out after multiple moderate earthquakes throughout the state. While the system cannot predict earthquakes before they occur, the system is beneficial for those who live far away from an earthquake’s epicenter but will still experience its effects. For example, a 6.0 earthquake hit the town of Napa on August 24, and officials in San Francisco had eight seconds of warning before they were hit by the seismic shifts due to the early warning system.
Thus, the issue at hand is not whether or not the early warning system works but rather if it can garner enough funding to be implemented across California. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has called the $5 million “a down payment,” and she also said “more funding is needed to complete the system.” Yet as Republicans take control of the Senate and entrench their control over the House of Representatives, future Congressional appropriations to the earthquake warning system remain unclear.
Where will the rest of the money for the earthquake warning system come from? Should Californians prioritize earthquake safety over other pressing issues such as the drought?
Guest:
Sanden Totten, KPCC Science reporter
A Wearables Christmas: The latest health and medical devices blurring physical boundaries
For the early adopters on your gift list, forget smartphones and tablets, think biometric shirts and life-trackers. As DigitalTrends.com shows in its wearable tech gift guide, the future can be found now with the Hexoskin biometric shirt, for instance. It collects heart rate variability and recovery, breath rate, step count, VO2 max, and more, then connects it to your smartphone via Bluetooth in real time for you or even a remote trainer.
For less serious athletes, the price points and fashion design of wrist-worn wearables are becoming truly accessible for any consumer. Most track your activity level and sleep patterns and synchronize with apps on your phone. These fast-moving tech trends have been recognized by USC's Center for Body Computing. The school is developing ways to translate wearables into better doctor-patient communication and more responsive treatment. Are you ready for wearables? If you use them already, has it benefited you?
Guests:
Jeremy Kaplan, Editor-in-chief, DigitalTrends.com - news and review site focused on technology; Digital Trends Wearables Holiday Gift Guide;
Dr. Leslie Saxon, Executive Director, University of Southern California Center for Body Computing; Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine; Professor of Medicine and Clinical Scholar, Keck School of Medicine of USC