Despite the good economic news, the government is about to enter its third week of a partial shutdown. We get the latest. We also debate whether or not the California bar exam cut score should be lowered; review this weekend’s new movie releases; and more.
Partial government shutdown enters day 14, how to square today’s rosy jobs numbers with continued market volatility and more
U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.
The jolt in hiring offers a dose of reassurance after a tumultuous few months as the outlook from the financial markets has turned decidedly bleaker. Job growth at this pace is a sign that the economy will continue to expand for a 10th straight year, even if overall growth slows somewhat because of the waning stimulus from President Donald Trump's tax cuts.
Despite the good economic news, the government is about to enter its third week of a partial shutdown, with negotiations stalled over President Donald Trump's insistence that Democrats agree on funding for a wall along the border with Mexico. And attacks by Trump on the Federal Reserve over its rate increases have raised doubts about Chairman Jay Powell's status - a concern for both the markets and the economy.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Josh Boak, economics reporter for the Associated Press; he tweets
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies. He is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets
Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush
After CA Supreme Court Chief Justice calls state bar exam pass rate ‘frightening,’ exploring the arguments for and against lowering the cut score
The California bar exam is notorious in the legal community for being one the toughest in the nation to pass, due in part to its so-called ‘cut score,’ which is the second highest in the nation at 144 (Delaware’s is the only one that’s higher).
This past year marked a milestone in the test’s history. When the State Bar of California released the scores for the 2018 test, an all-time low of 40 percent of those who took the bar, which all would-be attorneys must take before being able to practice law, passed it.
The debate over whether to lower the cut score has been going on for years in California. Some argue that the 144 mark is out of line with the rest of the nation, which has a median cut score of 135, and that requiring applicants to achieve such a high score means they risk potentially losing their job if they don’t pass, or will struggle to find work if they’re not already employed. Not to mention the amount of money a potential lawyer sinks into law school, test prep, and application fees.
But others say that the reason passage rates are so low is because law schools have lowered their LSAT and GPA standards for admitting students in order to keep tuition dollars flowing, and that making the bar easier to pass will produce inadequately-prepared lawyers, and that unemployed law school grads might accept a job with a disreputable firm that pays nothing or try and strike out on their own and set up their own firm, creating even more financial and career risk.
Should the California bar exam cut score be lowered? Why or why not? What would the potential outcomes be if the State Supreme Court, which determines the cut score, decided at some point to lower the cut score?
Guests:
Jennifer Mnookin, dean of UCLA School of Law, who has co-written an op-ed in the LA Times published recently on why the “cut score” should be lowered
Stephen Chung, tax attorney based in Cerritos and a weekly columnist for the legal blog “Above the Law,” where he has written several articles about keeping the current cut score
FilmWeek: ‘Escape Room,’ ‘Communion,’ ‘The Vanishing’ and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson and Wade Major review this weekend’s new movie releases.
- "Escape Room" in wide release
- "Communion" at Laemmle's Playhouse & Laemmle's Monica Film Center (January 5th only) & Laemmle's Glendale (through January 10th)
- "The Vanishing" at AMC universal CityWalk
- "The Distant Barking of Dogs" at Laemmle's Royal Theater (January 5th & 6th and January 12th & 13th) & AMC Sunset (January 5th and January 8th)
- "State Like Sleep" at Laemmle's Music Hall
- "Mojinn:The Worm Valley" at AMC Atlantic Times Square & AMC Puente Hills
- "American Hangman" at Galaxy Mission Grove
CRITICS' HITS:
Amy: "Escape Room" & "The Distant Barking of Dogs"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dSKUoV0SNI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dsnRsybtXM
Wade: "Communion"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNmTaJc6sw
MIXED FEELINGS
Amy: "The Vanishing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyFlfN4dD14
Wade: "American Hangman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jhMTs7RDxg
MISSES
Amy: "State Like Sleep"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwzwmc2AZYg&t=
Wade: "Mojin: The Worm Valley"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgmj92dAyoQ
Guests:
Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The Guardian and host of the podcasts ‘The Canon’ and ‘Unspooled’; she tweets
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and CineGods.com
FilmWeek Screening Series: A conversation on ‘The Artist’
The era of the silent film made way for sound and talkies in 1929, which was the first and last year a silent film won best picture at the Academy Awards.
That is until Michel Hazanavicius’s 2011 film “The Artist,” a love letter in the style of those black-and-white silent movies, won best picture – along with four other Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs, and a slew of other critical honors. How poetic that a silent movie depicting the end of the silent film era would win such a distinction more than 80 years later.
Audiences joined Larry Mantle on December 2 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel for another installment of FilmWeek Screenings, where he showcased the movie and hosted a post-screening conversation with special guests. The FilmWeek Screenings series – selected and hosted by Mantle – is dedicated to movies set in Southern California.
“The Artist” takes place in Hollywood in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and is shot entirely in Los Angeles. It follows silent film star George Valentin as he copes with a career that is fading along with the silent film era. Along the way, he encounters and develops a relationship with actress Peppy Miller, whose own star is rising along with the talking picture.
Today on FilmWeek, we’ll play an excerpt from our post-screening conversation about the making of the film with FilmWeek critics Lael Loewenstein and Wade Major as well as film historian Marc Wanamaker, who consulted on “The Artist.”
Guests:
Lael Loewenstein, KPCC film critic; she tweets
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and CineGods.com
Marc Wanamaker, film historian and consultant on “The Artist”