Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will represent California in any legal fights against the Trump administration; the Pew Research Center found the 115th Congress to be overwhelmingly Christian, despite fewer adults identifying as Christian in the United States; will words like "woke," "lit" and "on fleek" survive in 2017?; and more.
California's Holder hire: Will it hurt or help the state's defense against potential Trump policies?
The California Legislature is lawyering up in preparation for the next four years under Donald Trump - and the person they’ve hired is a familiar name: Eric H. Holder Jr.
Holder, who served as attorney general under President Obama, is now a big-time Washington lawyer. He's been tapped to represent California in any legal fights against the Trump administration, as the liberal state braces itself against the new administration over a number of issues, including the environment and illegal immigration.
California Senate President Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) says Holder was chosen to serve California’s legal counsel at a time when the state faces extraordinary threats requiring extraordinary action.
“The more legal super fire power that you have, the better,” says de Leon. “Eric Holder and his team at Covington will be working very closely with the attorney general as well as the governor, Jerry Brown, but remember one thing Larry - these are three separate branches, co-equal branches of government, and the more legal power that we have necessary to protect values of Californians, the better.”
But Shawn Steel, California National Committeeman of the Republican National Committee, says it’s bizarre for the legislature to create a separate law firm at this level in Washington, D.C., before there’s even a lawsuit or specific case.
“It’s a huge slap in the face of Xavier Becerra,” says Steel. “It basically says, ‘Xavier, you’re the attorney general, you may be bright and sharp, you have the largest attorney general’s office in the United States, you have a tremendous reputation of a long standing reputation, but you’re not good enough to deal with what may or may not come from the Trump administration, therefore we’re gonna hire our own personal lawyers’…[but] as a lawyer practicing myself, often times the more lawyers you bring to a case, the less gets done, the more muddled it becomes, and then you have factions even among your own side.”
No word yet on how much the state is spending on retaining Holder’s service.
To hear more of this discussion, click the blue playhead above.
Guests:
Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), California Senate President and State Senator representing the state’s 24th District
Shawn Steel, California National Committeeman, Republican National Committee; he tweets
CA supreme court takes up Banning Ranch coastal land case
New Congress identifies as far more Christian than the rest of the country
The Pew Research Center recently analyzed the religious composition of the newly-elected 115th Congress.
The research found that even though there are fewer adults today who call themselves Christian, Congress remains overwhelmingly Christian. Approximately 91 percent of Congress described themselves as Christian, while just 71 percent of surveyed adults used the same description. Researchers found that both chambers are heavily Christian and reflect about the same percentages as was recorded in 1961.
What do these numbers tell us? Is congressional religious affiliation important to you as a voter?
Read the full report below:
Faith on the Hill by Southern California Public Radio on Scribd
Guest:
Greg Smith, Associate Director of Religion Research at the Pew Research Center
South Bay awaits Environmental Impact Report on first Desalination plant
For years, desalination, or the process of turning salty seawater into drinking water, has struggled to gain acceptance as a solution to drought.
Critics say it’s prohibitively expensive and has the potential to harm sea life. But now, more than a dozen desal projects are under consideration along California’s coastline.
Larry Mantle and guests debate the latest developments here in Southern California.
Guests:
Shivaji Deshmukh, assistant general manager of the West Basin Municipal Water District
Bruce Reznik, executive director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper, a water conservancy group based in Santa Monica
'Woke?' 'Lit?' 'High-Key?' Choosing slang to stay and go in 2017
In the midst of a presidential election year, it's no surprise one of the trendiest slang terms of 2016 was political: "woke" (adj.) defined as being aware of racism and social injustice.
However, when the Internet gets its grubby little keystrokes on a new trend, the reappropriation is rapid. So, now "woke" is also defined on Urban Dictionary as "a state of perceived intellectual superiority one gains by reading 'The Huffington Post.'" With the bastardization of the term, it's likely no one will wear the "woke" label by this time next year.
The power of slang lies either in its newness or its irony. So which words are still fresh for 2017 and which ones can make a retro comeback?
Can we highkey get rid of “on fleek? Has “suh?” replaced “sup?” What’s your favorite, current synonym for “cool?" Do people say “RT” out loud now? And do you know what “mom” and “dad” means right now?
Guest:
Emmy Favilla, Global Copy Chief at BuzzFeed
NYT food critic’s zero-star rating of Roy Choi’s Locol raises questions about the modern critic
Locol, the fast food brainchild of chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, just got a blow from the New York Times’ food critic Pete Wells – a zero-star rating.
Choi responded via Instagram, writing that Locol “hit a nerve,” compelling Wells to write something that “would hurt a community that is already born from a lot of pain and struggle.”
The fast food chain was created with an idealist mission, to bring nutritious food to underserved communities, such as Watts in Los Angeles and Oakland in the Bay area.
Should Wells have taken this mission into account when reviewing Locol? Should he have reviewed it via the context of nearby fast food offerings? What is the role of the food critic in a landscape of food advocacy, superstar chefs and food trucks?
Guests:
Farley Elliott, Senior Editor, EaterLA; Author, “Los Angeles Street Food” (Arcadia; 2015)
Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize winning restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times