Last April's PG&E power grid assault is causing energy security concerns. Twitter's first earnings report leads to drops in stock prices. What does this mean for the company's future? It's FilmWeek on AirTalk! We take a look at The Monuments Men, The Lego Movie, A Field in England and more!
PG&E power grid assault raises energy security concerns
In April 2013, snipers disabled 17 powerful transformers that send power to Silicon Valley. After cutting telephone lines, the shooters went on a 19 minute shooting spree to knock out the power grid, then escaped just before police arrived on the scene.
Electric-grid officials rerouted power around the site and asked Silicon Valley plants to produce more electricity, but the substation remained down for 27 days following the attack. Fearing copycat crimes, power plant investigators and federal agencies decided to keep the situation quiet -- the news was reported in only a few local publications.
But former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jon Wellinghoff called the attack "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" in the U.S., and went public with his fears that the power grid is not sufficiently protected.
As cyber security becomes a more prevalent issue in protecting energy resources, has the U.S. neglected physical threats to the power grid? Is the power grid vulnerable, or is this assault an outlier? What should be done to address concerns about similar attacks in the future?
Guests:
Rebecca Smith, energy reporter for the Wall Street Journal who broke the piece this week
Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior adviser to the president of the RAND corporation and author of a number of books on terrorism including ‘Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?’
GOP bill expanding flextime for California workers gets killed in Sacramento
A Republican bill aimed at expanding opportunities for flextime was recently killed in the state Capitol. Labor unions and some Democratic lawmakers viewed the effort as a way for employers to get around having to pay overtime.
Flextime refers to the ability of an employee to work four 10-hour days and have three days off, rather than working a full five-day work week at eight hours a day. California law now mandates that a workday consists of eight hours, and anything over that is subject to overtime pay of time and a half.
The only exception is for nurses and farm hands. Opponents of the bill argue that current law already allows for adequate flexibility (i.e. employees can work out scheduling issues with their managers).
The bill’s author, Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway of Tulare, said in a statement: “Assembly Bill 907 would have allowed Californians to work more than eight hours in a day without overtime in exchange for additional time off.” Forty-seven other states currently allow for flextime.
California had similar flextime rules in the early 1990s, under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. His successor, Gov. Gray Davis, signed the current eight-hour work week into law in 1999.
Is flextime an option most working parents need these days? Is it crucial that people only work 8 hours a day? Would you like the option to work a four-day week if it meant longer hours?
Guests:
Connie Conway (R-Tulare), California State Assemblywoman representing the 26th Assembly District, including Tulare, Visalia and Mountain Park. She sponsored Assembly Bill 907, which would have allowed Californians to work more than 8 hours in a day without overtime in exchange for additional time off. The bill was voted down in January
Barry Broad, lobbyist for a number of unions in California, including Teamsters. He is a former member of the California Industrial Welfare Commission, and helped reinstate regulations for overtime pay after eight hours worked in one day under Governor Gray Davis.
Twitter’s first earnings report shows signs of trouble
Twitter’s stock fell on hard times yesterday, falling down 21% to $52.11 and at one point sank as low as $50. This comes after Twitter released their fourth-quarter report which revealed that although revenue was better-than-expected, the company’s user growth was at its slowest pace yet.
Twitter’s stock has grown rapidly since its IPO in November 2013. The company’s stock was introduced at $26 and quickly rose to a high of $74.73 in December. Even as Twitter’s stock prices soared financial analysts argued that the stock was overpriced and that Twitter didn’t match the broad appeal of Facebook, which boasts five-times as many users.
What does this mean for the future of Twitter? What are Twitter’s long-term prospects? How can the company attract new users? Will it stay a niche social-media or grow into something larger?
Guest:
Sarah Frier, Technology reporter for Bloomberg News based in San Francisco
Filmweek: The Monuments Men, The Lego Movie, Vampire Academy and more
Larry and KPCC film critics Wade Major, Tim Cogshell and Charles Solomon review this week’s releases, including The Monuments Men, The Lego Movie, Vampire Academy and more. TGI-Filmweek!
The Monuments Men
The Lego Movie
Vampire Academy
Guests:
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and producer and host for IGN’s DigiGods.com
Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Alt Film Guide
Charles Solomon, animation film critic for KPCC and Indiewire’s ‘Animation Scoop’
Runaway production has cost LA County 9,000 jobs since 2007
Filming in Los Angeles has been on the decline in recent years, as production companies are lured to other states by generous tax incentives. Now a new report by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation shows that the entertainment industry in the city has lost more than 9,000 jobs since 2007.
Specifically, film/video production is down 7,800 jobs. Some of the loss can be blamed on the recession during that time period, but another large factor is the loss of productions in the area. According to the report, there were 132,900 jobs in the entertainment industry in 2012, a drop of 6.6 percent over five years.
In 2012, Governor Brown extended a tax credit for California television and film productions for another two years. The $100 million annual subsidy was designed to put the breaks on runaway productions.
The report is not all negative. Radio stations added 350 jobs, television broadcasting added 1,700 and post-production jobs rose by 530.
What does this report say about the state of the entertainment industry? What is being done to help keep productions local?
Guest:
Kimberly Ritter-Martinez, Associate Economist for the LA County Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit organization that works to create jobs in LA.
Amy Lemisch, Director of the California Film Commission
Yusef Robb, Director of Communications, Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti