Sheriff Lee Baca has announced that he will retire at the end of this month. What will his legacy be? Is drinking a small amount of alcohol in pregnancy safe? We discuss new study out of Denmark that says it is. Later, Actress Julie Delpy, discusses reality, romance, and relationships in her new film "Before Midnight."
Sheriff Lee Baca stuns with sudden retirement announcement
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced Tuesday morning that he will retire at the end of the month and confirmed that he would not run for re-election. His term was supposed to last until December and Baca recommended that that Assistant Sheriff Terri McDonald serve as sheriff until the upcoming election. Sheriff Baca said he had personal reasons for not wanting to seek re-election but also cited the "negative perception" the upcoming campaign for sheriff has reflected on the department.
The sheriff's department has suffered a number of scandals during Baca's four-term tenure including incidence of racial profiling in the Antelope Valley and charges have been filed against several deputies for allegations of physical violence against inmates, unjustified detentions and attempting to obstruct an FBI investigation into the Sheriff's Department.
Baca was also praised for his push to increase education and rehabilitation programs inside the county jails and for outreach to the Muslim community after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His surprise announcement leave the race for LA County Sheriff wide open. What was the motivation for Sheriff Baca to retire? What candidates might appear in the sheriff’s race now that Baca is out?
Guest:
Zev Yaroslavsky, LA County Supervisor, 3rd District, which encompasses Malibu, Hollywood, and parts of the San Fernando Valley
Miriam Krinsky, Executive Director of Los Angeles County’s Citizens’ Jail Commission on Jail Violence. She also serves as a Lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Policy
Peter Eliasberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California
Brian Moriguchi, President, Professional Peace Officers Association
Is a small amount of alcohol in pregnancy safe?
Pregnant women are used to hearing the list of things they're not allowed to do for nine months. At the top of that list is usually drinking alcohol. Official recommendations in the US are that pregnant women should abstain from alcohol since no amount has proven to be safe. But is that really true?
A new study is adding to the evidence that some light drinking in pregnancy might not actually be harmful. This study out of Denmark actually concludes women who drank moderately, equalling about two drinks a week, had children with better mental health than those who abstained from alcohol completely.
Many physicians still don't see that as a pass for the occasional cocktail. There are several competing studies that say even small amounts of alcohol can be harmful. Studies are conclusive that heavy drinking during pregnancy can seriously damage a child's physical and mental health but will a glass of wine now and then cause any harm? With so much conflicting information, how can women know which information to trust? Is the US too cautious when it comes to pregnancy recommendations or is it better to not take the risk?
Guests:
Emily Oster, Economics professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Author of “Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong.”
Tom Donaldson, President of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Los Angeles community groups offer very different reactions to Sheriff Lee Baca’s legacy
In the post-9/11 backlash against the Muslim-American community, Sheriff Baca made a name for himself as an advocate of outreach and understanding towards members of the Muslim community. While his newly announced retirement has brought with it a slew of issues, Baca’s aid for American followers of Islam has been a relatively strong point. What does his retirement mean for the Muslim-American community?
As for some sectors of the Latino community, Baca's resignation is being applauded. "Sheriff Baca leaves behind a terrible record on immigration," says Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. That organization is critical of LA County's deportations under the federal Secure Communities program. How will the current political conversation about immigration play into the coming campaign for LA Sheriff?
Guest:
Salam Al-Marayati, Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council
Chris Newman, Legal Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network
Using data to improve your life: Lifelogging and the Quantified Self
Forget living the examined life. Technophiles nowadays are turning to their smartphones and apps and wearable computers to achieve a better self.
The idea is called lifelogging--tracking and recording every aspects of your life digitally and analyzing those data so you could become healthier and happier--and a nascent movement has emerged called Quantified Self predicated precisely on this incessant documentation. And companies from sports giant Nike to tech behemoth Google to no-name startups like Saga have taken note, producing gadgets and products that help us become more actualized.
Guest:
Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine and co-founder of the Quantified Self Labs in Northern California, a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in gaining self knowledge through self-tracking. He is author the author of “Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities” (Cool Tools Lab, 2013)
Mark Krynsky, blogger and founder of Lifestream Blog, a blog on lifelogging among other things
Actress Julie Delpy on the romance, reality and relationships in 'Before Midnight'
Richard Linklater’s 1995 "Before Sunrise" was a cult classic romantic drama that took a real, sometimes uncomfortably close look at the birth of a relationship between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy).
Two sequels later, Linklater’s 2013 "Before Midnight" shows that 18 years on, the story of these two characters, like their relationship, is surviving the test of time.
We talk to actress Julie Delpy about the film, and how it feels to be a part of the classic romantic movie trilogy.
What are the aspects that make the "Before" series so durable? How is it that Delpy and her co-writers can keep getting the stark realities of relationships right, 18 years after their first success?
Guest:
Julie Delpy, Actress, currently Golden-Globe nominated for her role in “Before Midnight” (Sony Classics) - the third film in director Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, co-starring Ethan Hawke; Delpy, Hawke and Linklater were co-writers of the film
Why are most movies terrible at conveying the true drama of romantic relationships?
We’ve all heard the same old complaints about romantic comedies; they give women unrealistic expectations, the plots always work out unreasonably well, and the relationships in them just don’t feel real. It’s not just the romantic comedy that’s tended to be guilty of this, and throughout films, depictions of relationships tend to feature a lot more of the relationship action, and a lot less of the relationship everyday.
Why is it that movies have such a difficult time depicting the everyday drama that makes relationships such a complicated part of people’s lives? And what can we learn from those rare films that get this balancing act right?
Guest:
Dr. Mary-Lou Galician, professor of media analysis and criticism at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, author of ‘Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media: Analysis and Criticism of Unrealistic Portrayals and Their Influence’
Julie Delpy, Actress, currently Golden-Globe nominated for her role in “Before Midnight” (Sony Classics) - the third film in director Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, co-starring Ethan Hawke; Delpy, Hawke and Linklater were co-writers of the film