Congress convenes today with a newly Republican majority. Also, a member of the grand jury that declined to indict Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown is suing St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch for the right to speak out about the controversial case. Then, as the economic collapse of the last decade begins to fade, questions remain: What are the lessons to learn from the crisis, and have we implemented them to avoid the next one?
Congress kicks off for GOP majorities: A test for both parties
The 114th United States Congress convenes today with a much different look than it had last year. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are now under Republican control, setting up what will most likely be a very contentious final two years for President Obama’s White House.
While the GOP was once riding high after the landslide victory in November’s elections, the shine from that win has worn off considerably leading up to the start of today’s session, thanks in part to news that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise attended a white nationalist rally in 2002. There is also pushback from some rank-and-file House members who want to see Speaker of the House John Boehner removed from his seat. The Republican Party’s challenge will be to facilitate a productive Congress despite some in-party discord and hopefully raise Congressional approval ratings, which have been holding steady at abysmally low levels in recent years.
Some of the early priorities for Republicans include the Keystone XL oil pipeline that Republicans have been advocating because of the potential they say it brings for job creation. However, Democrats aren’t convinced that those jobs will be permanent. There’s also the issue of President Obama’s recent executive action giving millions of undocumented immigrants legal status. It’s also likely that Republicans will work to whittle away at Obamacare.
How confident are you about Congress’ ability to be productive now that it is under Republican control? How can the GOP ensure that progress is made during the 114th Congress? What kind of cooperation can we expect to see between the Republican House and Senate and the White House?
Guests:
Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the Flashreport.org; Former Vice Chair of the California Republican Party
Ed Espinoza, Executive Director of strategy firm, Progress Texas; From 2009-2011, Espinoza served as Western States Director at the Democratic National Committee; California Superdelegate for Barack Obama in 200
Dish to launch streaming service, game changer for cable, satellite, broadband providers
Sports fans on a budget can rejoice with Dish’s new streaming service offering all of ESPN for $20 a month. The satellite provider announced the new service dubbed Sling TV at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday, happening in Las Vegas this week.
Appealing to more than just sports fans, Sling TV will also include 10 other channels including the Travel Channel, CNN and Food Network plus more at additional fees.
Sound too good to be true?
Recode mentions the drawbacks: Unlike Netflix or Hulu, Sling TV only works on one device at a time and the service doesn’t offer local broadcast stations or networks. Watching on an actual TV may take a few steps since it’s not being offered on Apple TV because of its strict interface rules.
Dish will be joining the ranks of Sony, HBO and Showtime who also have forthcoming Internet streaming services who are all desperately trying to get back the growing number of “cable-cutters.” The New York Times reports that the number of American households paying for Internet rather than cable subscriptions increased 16 percent in the last two years.
Will you make the switch? How big of an impact does streaming really have on the cable business?
Guest:
Cecilia Kang, staff writer covering the business of media and entertainment for the Washington Post
Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production
It has long been the belief of environmentalists that livestock, cattle especially, are the scourge of the earth, polluting air and water, eroding soil, and destroying wildlife populations. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization even said in a 2007 report that livestock were the single largest contributor to human-generated climate-change emissions.
In her book, ‘Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production,’ environmental lawyer and vegetarian turned cattle rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman makes the case that cattle are not as bad for the Earth as they are made out to be. Ms. Niman joins AirTalk to discuss her book and what led her from practicing environmental law to raising cattle in California.
Guest:
Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of “Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production”
Ferguson grand juror sues to break silence
An unnamed member of the grand jury that declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown is suing St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch for the right to speak out about the controversial case.
Represented by the Missouri branch of the ACLU, the juror claims the 12-person jury was misrepresented in case files that were later made public by McCulloch. Washington University professor Peter Joy tells the LA Times that the fascinating part of the complaint was that “the prosecutor claimed to speak on behalf of the grand jury as a whole, and this particular grand juror is saying, ‘Wait a second, that’s not true, he mischaracterized the way I was thinking.’”
Representatives for McCulloch have declined to comment, but criminal defense specialist Steve Cron tells KPCC, “If this one juror whose suing is successful, other jurors will think ‘I want to talk, too’ and the whole thing will become a circus and be tried by the media.”
Do you think the Ferguson grand jury should be allowed to speak out? What difference would it make if they could?
Guests:
Tony Rothert, legal director ACLU Missouri
Steve Cron, Santa Monica criminal defense attorney, adjunct professor of law at Pepperdine University
With more patients and less money for doctors, what’s the future of Medi-Cal?
With the new year comes a new step for the Affordable Care Act: doctors who treat Medicaid patients will see a smaller paycheck. One of the key ways the health care law provided insurance to more people was by relaxing the restrictions on who can qualify for government-sponsored health care programs. Doctors get a pretty good reimbursement for treating patients on Medicare, like elderly Americans and people with disabilities, a little over $45 for a straightforward visit. In contrast, lower income people who receive Medicaid (or Medi-Cal in California), net doctors just $18 a visit.
Lawmakers were worried that doctors wouldn’t want to take Medi-Cal insurance, so they boosted the pay for doctors to smooth over the transition. That changes this year. An analysis by the Urban Institute finds that doctors will receive 58.8% less than last year for treating Medi-Cal patients.
The expansion of Medi-Cal has insured 2.2 million more Californians. With lower rates, many advocates are concerned that primary care physicians will stop seeing Medi-Cal patients. Meanwhile, physicians and patient advocates agree that the subsidy was so complicated, that many doctors didn’t succeed in receiving the better reimbursements for the two years they were available. Maintaining the subsidies -- which, like all Medicaid costs, are split between the state and federal governments -- would cost $1.8 billion per year.
What will health care access look like in California this year? And how will doctors react?
Guests:
Christopher Perrone, researcher at the California HealthCare Foundation who has studied Medi-Cal access
Dr. Richard Thorp, a primary care physician in Paradise, California (near Chico) and former president of the California Medical Association
Wine vineyards need new strategy to maintain flavors threatened by climate change, study says
Wine producers globally have to change harvest patterns to maintain the sugars and acids in chardonnay, pinot noir and the like, according to a new study. Kimberly Nicholas, study author and wine consultant, said flavors of your favorite wines are changing already. Unusually high temperatures in France, Spain and Italy mean greater grape yields and faster growth, which leads to vineyards struggling over the right time to pick before the sugars rises too sharply and the acidity drops too precipitously.
What does it mean for California wine production (and Oregon and Washington for that matter)? After all, who wants to face global warming without a bottle of wine handy.
Guest:
Kimberly Nicholas, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University in Sweden; Nicholas’ family has a small vineyard in Sonoma County, growing Cabernet grapes
Lessons to learn from the Great Depression and the Great Recession
As the economic collapse of the last decade begins to fade from view, there are two questions scholars continue to ask: what are the lessons to learn from the crisis, and have we implemented them to avoid the next one? In his new book, "Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses - And Misuses - of History," Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen examines the history of both the Great Depression and the Great Recession as well as the policy lessons the country should take from them.
As one might expect, many similarities exist between the two crises: a housing boom, the advent of new financial instruments and forms of lending, Ponzi schemes, an increase in the general population's investment in the stock market, problematic monetary policy, and more.
The lead-up to each crisis, while contextually different, had many of the same properties. Yet because of our experience with the Great Depression, the fundamental restructuring of the financial system and the lessons learned about fiscal and monetary policies held for over half a century, and the difference between the crises lay in the response. Eichengreen proposes that our success in root-and-branch reform after the Great Depression hindered another effort at radical reform after the Great Recession, leading to a system that has exacerbated many of the structural issues that caused the latter economic downturn. The key is which lessons to take from history and how to correctly use (and not misuse) them.
Have the problems that led to the Great Recession been resolved? With the stock market booming and the economy as a whole growing, can fundamental reform be done?
Guest:
Barry Eichengreen, Author, “Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses- and Misuses-of History;” (Oxford University Press, January 2015); George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley