Retailers and business owners across the Southland are feeling the pinch of a work slowdown at the nation’s two busiest ports. Also, the State Water Board is proposing stricter water restrictions that could limit public water used in restaurants, hotels and fountains. Then, sociologist-turned-model Amanda Czerniawski talks plus-size modeling and today's beauty standards.
LA port slowdown’s impact on your wallet
Retailers and business owners across the Southland are feeling the pinch of a work slowdown at the nation’s two busiest ports. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez has been called in to mediate the dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association.
The two sides began negotiations on a new contract in May. Over the weekend, employers locked out workers who they say have intentionally slowed down work to get an upper hand at the bargaining table. Work has resumed since Tuesday. A prolonged port shutdown could cost businesses as much as $7 billion this year, according to one analysis.
If you are a business owner, how has the port dispute affected your business? What impact has it had on consumers?
Guests:
Justin Pritchard, reporter for the Associated Press based in Los Angeles who’s been covering the dispute
Kevin Klowden, economist and managing director of the California Center at the Milken Institute, a nonprofit economic think tank
Local water official weighs in as State Water Board considers drought restrictions
There could be new drought restrictions on the horizon to combat the effects of the drought that is currently wringing California dry.
The State Water Board met on Tuesday to discuss what drought restrictions might entail. The board could limit how public water is used in restaurants, hotels, and public fountains. A spokesman for the California State Water Board told AirTalk that nothing was set in stone at Tuesday’s meeting but board members asked the staff to come back on March 17th with a proposal of what extended or revised water regulations would look like.
The current regulations expire on April 25th. The spokesman said there hasn’t been discussion about when the board would take action or whether the restrictions would be made tougher.
What do you think should be included in drought restrictions, if they are implemented? How would restrictions affect businesses and residents of Southern California?
Guest:
Fiona Sanchez, Director of Water Resources for the Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County. She was at yesterday’s State Water Board meeting.
LAPD Chief Beck on 2015’s homicide spike, 'suicide-by-cop' incidents, and more
Barely two months into a new year, 29 people have been murdered in the city of Los Angeles in 2015, up from 23 at this time last year.
"We're looking at more gang homicides right now particularly in South Los Angeles," LAPD Chief Beck told AirTalk. "Gang homicides being homicides that are either perpetrated by a gang member or the victim is a gang member."
A string of shootings in South L.A. last week even spurred a modified tactical alert on February 10. What could be contributing to the sudden uptick and how is LAPD responding? Another disturbing phenomenon is being tracked by LAPD's Inspector General: "suicide-by-cop" where a person deliberately provokes police officers to shoot.
"We've had a number of incidents, many with replica fire arms, where fire arms are disguised as real fire arms," Chief Beck said.
IG Alex Bustamante reviewed 35 cases in the past 30 months where people appeared to purposely provoke LAPD officers to shoot, and he is calling for more training.
We'll also talk about "suspicious activity reports," police tracking in traffic apps, replica gun incidents and a DUI checkpoint loophole.
Guest:
Charlie Beck, Chief, Los Angeles Police Department
US to relax export restrictions on military drones
The Obama administration will allow the sale of both armed and unarmed drones to allied nations.
The announcement comes after an internal review of the U.S. drone framework and how to ensure that its standards are met as international use of UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) grows. While drones have quickly proliferated our culture and economy, they are most controversial for their military applications, thus making the government’s announcement about their export significant.
To date, the U.S. has only exported armed drones to the United Kingdom as well as unarmed drones to other NATO allies like France and Italy. Drone use abroad for intelligence efforts and military strikes has rapidly increased under the Obama administration, and the technology is now widely seen as an essential part of its counterterrorism strategy across the Middle East and North Africa.
Yet drones are not without its critics. Their arguments range from philosophical objections that the use of drones to kill is wrong to practical concerns about “blowback” from the strikes. Privacy advocates are alarmed at their domestic and international use for mass surveillance. And as the U.S. prepares to export this technology, issues of accountability, transparency, and legitimacy come forth regarding the potential use of drones by foreign nations.
Should the U.S. relax its restrictions on drone exports? Where should the line for exports be between armed and unarmed drones? Will this strengthen or weaken the U.S.?
Guest:
Christopher Harmer, Senior Naval Analyst, Institute for the Study of War - described as a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization dedicated to advancing an informed understanding of U.S. military affairs.
Steve Vladeck, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law; Vladeck has testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary on the subject of presidential powers and drones.
Keepers of history warn digital era could cause material to vanish
Speaking to the country's leading academics last week, a Google innovator, Vint Cerf, warned today's important records are at risk of being forever lost because of technological obsolescence, plus the transitory nature of emails and the like.
Predicting a "forgotten generation, or even a forgotten century," Cerf said "digital vellum" must be developed to preserve old software and hardware so photos, emails and documents can be recovered from floppy disks, for example, or any other soon-to-be obsolete medium. More worrisome is that material with unknown value would disappear. For instance, the as-yet-undiscovered Charles Dickens of today, unlike his/her predecessor, likely is not sending hand-written correspondence to fellow editors and writers - leaving 22nd century students without many clues about process and development.
What else do we risk losing due to digitization? What historical documents do you consider treasures? If you are a content creator, do you take steps to preserve your e-mails, photos and the like?
Guests:
Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian and Founder of the Internet Archive, a non-profit building a free library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form
Sue Hodson, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, The Huntington Library
'Fashioning Fat' author talks being a plus-sized model in an industry obsessed with image
“Size doesn’t matter.” It’s a phrase almost everyone has heard at one point or another during the course of our lifetimes.
However, in the world of professional modeling, size does matter, and it’s something that sociologist-turned-model Amanda Czerniawski knows all too well. As a size 10, she was considered a “plus-sized model” when she first strutted onto the scene. In her book, “Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling,” Czerniawski takes us back through her two and a half years as a professional model from open calls at modeling agencies to the runway at fashion shows.
She also talks to other plus-size models about their lives in the fashion world. Czerniawski’s book seeks to show us the changing meaning of the word “beauty” and how plus-size models challenge us to expand our definition of “beauty.” She argues that while many plus-size models work their entire lives to overcome self-confidence and shame issues with their bodies, they have no control over the social construction or dissemination of beauty.
How do you think plus-size models are redefining what we consider “beautiful?” In what ways has the standard for beauty changed in the last 20 years?
Guest:
Amanda Czerniawski, author of “Fashioning Fat” and a former plus-size model. She is currently an assistant professor of sociology at Temple University.