Today on AirTalk, we'll discuss prison realignment in relation to property crime, consider the S&P, and weigh the benefits and downsides of rave culture. Later, the candidates for city attorney debate, and Larry speaks with Roman Coppola about his Oscar-nominated "Moonrise Kingdom."
Has realignment caused a spike in property crimes?
In 2011, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 109, which was called “realignment” and was designed to help reduce costs, ease overcrowding, and close the revolving door of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons, which for a long time have been far beyond capacity. Offenders are ending up back on the street faster than before, and watchers of this phenomenon are wondering if realignment isn’t to blame. Could this attempt to lessen our prison population be putting a strain on police departments and local communities?
Guests:
Frank Stoltze, KPCC Crime and Politics Reporter
Tyler Izen
, president, Los Angeles Police Protective LeagueStandard & Poor’s slammed with lawsuits over subprime mortgages
The California and U.S. governments have filed suit against credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's over its ratings of subprime mortgage investments. The suits claim S & P knowingly gave favorable ratings to high-risk investments so as to increase its market share and revenue. "When the housing bubble burst, S&P's house of cards collapsed and California paid the price - in billions," said California Attorney General Kamala Harris in a statement.
Was the agency just incompetent or willfully negligent? Why has the Justice Department pursued the same legal action against other credit rating groups such as Moody's? Are there political motivations behind these suits? Could the suits lead to positive change or unintended adverse consequences?
Guest:
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Alex Pollock, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Are raves worth the economic boost, or are they too dangerous to justify?
Since 2006, 14 people have died from overdoses or other drug related deaths in Southern California raves. In the past decade, rave culture has been a boon to the Southern California economy – events like the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles can bring in tens of millions of dollars yearly.
Some argue that events that involve drug culture should not be encouraged, even if they do bring in cash. Raves boost local revenue, filling hotels and providing local businesses with a steady stream of income in the days around the event. But raves also carry the risk of drug overdoses. Many participants bring drugs like ecstasy into the concert with them, and many rave-goers are high on arrival. Even though accommodations are made to help prevent the escalation of a dangerous situation (free water, long hours of public transportation), risk of injury and death is implicit when it comes to illegal drugs.
Music promoters Pasquale Rotella and Reza Gerami, of Insomniac Inc. and Go Ventures, respectively, face charges for bribery in connection to their raves at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Dissenters think that stricter enforcement of anti-drug laws and age restrictions could prevent rave-related injuries and deaths.
Should raves be banned altogether? Would banning raves put an end to drug overdoses, or could it potentially drive rave culture underground and make it more unsafe? What would be the best way to moderate these events in order to keep people safe?
Guest:
Ron Lin, metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times, has been following the fallout of rave deaths in the L.A. area and across the country
Listen: City Attorney candidates face off in Airtalk debate
There is a dogged battle in the race for L.A. city attorney. The defending incumbent, Carmen Trutanich, is facing ambitious challengers. Mike Feuer, former state assemblyman and past L.A. City Council member, has raised nearly $1 million to aggressively take on Trutanich as a known quantity.
Also funding a tough campaign is Greg Smith. The private attorney has a formidable war chest of several hundred thousand dollars. He's using some of it to fund TV ads - the only campaign to do so. It's all in an effort to be the city's number one attorney: counsel to the mayor and city leadership; defender in court cases and prosecutor of misdemeanors.
What kind of city attorney do Angelenos need? How can he balance the interests of citizens with the interests of city leadership? What's your question for the candidates?
Guests:
Carmen Trutanich, Incumbent City Attorney for Los Angeles
Mike Feuer, Candidate for City Attorney of Los Angeles; Former State Assemblyman; Former L.A. City Council member
Greg Smith, Candidate for City Attorney of Los Angeles; Attorney in private practice
Baby Boomers less healthy than their parents
With all their obsession over yoga, exercise, attention to alcohol consumption and the evils of smoking, you’d think baby boomers would be the healthiest generation ever. Not true, says a new study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers surveyed a sample of the nearly 80 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 and compared their overall health to that of their parents at the same age. Surprisingly, the survey showed higher rates of hypertension, diabetese, obesity and high cholesterol than that of the previous generation. Similarly aged Americans in 1988 to 1994 - from 46 to 64 years old - were actually in better overall health.
Currently, only 13 percent of boomers rate themselves in ‘excellent’ health; 32 percent of their parents in the same age bracket gave themselves that rating. There have been major advances in medical care, awareness campaigns and public health policy since then - so what accounts for the difference?
Guest:
Linda Martin, senior fellow at the RAND Corporation who has conducted research on population aging in the United States for 30 years
The fantastic Mr. Coppola
The field of nominations for the original screenplay Oscar this year is rife with darkness, violence and psychodrama - from the gratuitous shoot-em-ups and racial slurs in Django Unchained to the all-too-real, moment to moment hunt for Bin Laden depicted in Zero Dark Thirty.
Thank goodness for Moonrise Kingdom, which brings a lightness and charm to the field that make it stand out among the other, more serious entries. The film, a first-love fairy tale between two misfit pre-teens, is set on a windswept New England outpost in 1965. Its co-authors are Wes Anderson, (Bottle Rocket, The Fantastic Mr. Fox), and Roman Coppola. Coppola entered the family business portraying the young Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, Part II, directed by his father, Francis Ford Coppola.
Along the way he’s served as a cinematographer, producer, director of music videos and second-unit director to his sister, writer/director Sofia Coppola. He both wrote and directed his next release, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, which stars Charlie Sheen, Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette and yet another member of la familia Coppola, Jason Schwartzman. Anderson and Coppola previously teamed up to write The Darjeeling Limited.
In their latest collaboration, the writers have managed to create an authentically off-kilter world, buoyed by whimsy but grounded by a very real love story with very real consequences for its protagonists.
Guest:
Roman Coppola, producer, director and writer. His screenplay for Moonrise Kingdom, co-written with director Wes Anderson, is nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay