Several shots were fired at a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car in South Los Angeles in what cops called an “unprovoked attack.” Also, the wait for driverless car sales in California will continue. Then, author Barry Day delves into the life of literary great Raymond Chandler.
Tensions rise, LAPD cops encounter ‘unprovoked attack’
Last night, several shots were fired at a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car in South Los Angeles in what cops called an “unprovoked attack.” In the wake of last week’s death of two New York City police by a lone gunman who had posted threats on social media, law enforcement around the country are on alert as copycat killers may begin to emerge.
Multiple people have been arrested in connections with online threats since the deaths of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in a time when the boundary between free speech and online threats has blurred. In their case, rumors have spread that the killer, who shot shot himself in the head after he attacked the officers, may have used a social media app to track their car’s movements.
How should police respond to emerging threats online and on the streets? Has your view of law enforcement changed over the years? Let us know through your comments below and informing us through KPCC’s Public Insight Network!
Guest:
Tim Williams, use of force and police procedure expert Owner, CEO TT Williams Jr. Investigations Inc.
Drought watch: First manual reading of snow levels happening tomorrow
State officials said the first manual reading of snow levels will take place this week. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is a crucial source of water for the state, supplying about 30 percent of the water used in the late spring and early summer.
The snowpack last year was at record low levels. Thanks to a series of winter storms, things are looking a little bit better, but officials say California still need a lot more rain to really put a dent on the drought. A team of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab calculated that the state would need 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from the 3-year drought – that’s about 130,000 Rose Bowls full of water.
Guests:
Doug Carlson, Information Officer, CA Department of Water Resources
Frank Gehrke, Chief, California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program at the Department of Water Resources
Driverless car safety concerns postpone release of new rules for cars of the future
The wait for the green light on driverless car sales in California will continue, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. California’s DMV will miss a year-end deadline to adopt a new set of rules for driverless cars and other cars of the future because there’s still no certainty that driverless vehicles are safe. DMV officials say they first have to know if these cars will obey traffic laws, whether control can be given back to human drivers smoothly, and what happens when the car’s computers freeze or malfunction. Self-driving cars are still several years away from being on new car lots, but several companies are testing prototypes on California’s roads.
As of right now, there seem to be three options for the DMV: following the current U.S. system and allowing manufacturers of driverless cars to self-certify for safety, go the European route and have independent companies verify safety, or the state itself could get into the testing business.
Federal transportation officials say there are no plans to write standards for driverless car safety anytime soon and that they don’t want states to write their own. However, the direction California officials choose could very well influence the path that other states and even the federal government take. California has been able to take the lead on this thanks to one of the state’s signature companies, Google, which has been pushing for laws and regulations on driverless cars for several years.
How high should the safety standards be for self-driving cars? Would you buy one if you were assured that they are as safe, if not safer, than a regular car? What do you think is the future for driverless car safety?
Guest:
Thilo Koslowski, vice president and automotive practice leader at the technology analysis firm Gartner. His work focuses on predicting the future business and technology implications of automotive, connected/autonomous vehicles and mobility innovations.
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The economic outlook for 2015 and what it means to the political landscape
Heading into 2015, it seems economists are generally optimistic about the U.S.’s economic outlook. After suffering the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the U.S. economy rebounded in 2014. While the housing market is still slow, energy and oil prices are plummeting, stocks are on the rise with the Dow Jones Industrial average having just climbed above 18,000 for the first time ever, the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in November (compared to an average of 7.4 percent in 2013), GDP climbed five percent just in the third quarter of this year, and consumer confidence rising. All of this growth is said to be a good sign that the economy is gaining momentum heading into the new year. However, there are still plenty of risks, including slowdowns in Europe and Asia as well as a possible collapse in the Russian economy. A recent L.A. Times article also argues that wage stagnation is hurting ordinary workers as the median net worth of upper-income families rose to nearly seven times what middle-income families are making and nearly 70 times what low-income families are making.
A growing economy in 2015 and 2016, if the economy does indeed grow, could change political strategy down the road in 2016. It will be very hard to criticize Democrats for the “Obama economy” if that economy is growing at anywhere near five percent. While economists don’t expect that five percent rate to continue in 2015, they say a slower pace would be welcome. The improved economic outlook is also helping to quell some of the frequent bickering over spending and the debt limit.
Are you optimistic about your own economic outlook in 2015? How do you think a better economy will affect the 2016 election? How does the political landscape change if the economy doesn’t grow as well as forecasters are suggesting?
Guests:
, Managing Editor, Bloomberg News in DC
David Lazarus, consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Inside the world of Raymond Chandler
“All us tough guys are hopeless sentimentalists at heart,” author Raymond Chandler once wrote. The statement applies to Chandler as well as to his literary alter ego Phillip Marlowe. Readers have come to know about what Chandler thought about Los Angeles and a number of other subjects through his novels and short stories, but there’s one topic he had stayed largely mum on: His own life.
Chandler never wrote a memoir or an autobiography. In “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words,” writer Barry Day culled from Chandler’s writing and interviews he did over the years to give voice to what Chandler thought of his life, his craft, his success.
Guests:
Barry Day, edited the new book, “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words” (Knopf, 2014). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation
Denise Hamilton, crime novelist, journalist and editor of the Edgar-award winning anthologies Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir, 2007) and Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics (Akashic Noir, 2010)