We debate Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal to cut state dollars from local governments that don’t build enough housing. We also check in on day two of the LAUSD strike; examine the complexity of measuring pain; and more.
Day 2 of the LAUSD strike
The LAUSD teacher strikes continues today.
Ten of thousands of teachers are walking off the job to fight for higher pay and smaller class sizes, among other things. Despite work stoppage, schools in the district were open, staffed by some 400 substitute teachers and volunteers.
AirTalk checks in on Day 2 of the strike with KPCC education reporter Kyle Stokes, and we talk to LAUSD parents about the situation.
Guest:
Kyle Stokes, education reporter for KPCC; he tweets
With Brexit vote set to be cast, a look at the possible outcomes and what each could mean for the future of the UK and EU
Two and a half years after citizens of the United Kingdom voted in favor of leaving the European Union, we will finally learn whether or not the so-called “Brexit” will actually be happening.
British Parliament will cast votes in London today on whether or not to approve Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit agreement that was crafted with E.U. officials after the June 2016 countrywide referendum that passed by a thin margin. Word on the street is that today’s vote is expected to go heavily against approving the Brexit deal, and that is likely to trigger a no-confidence vote in May.
If the vote does go against May’s deal, the margin by which it loses is important. Fewer than 100 votes could mean Parliament might try to update the current deal, but more than 100 votes could be a sign that Parliament is more interested in drastic changes to the deal or even nixing it altogether. This is all happening against the backdrop of the March 29 deadline the U.K. set for leaving the E.U.
For more, Larry Mantle speaks with a reporter who has been following the Brexit saga and is at British Parliament covering the vote.
Guest:
Max Colchester, reporter covering Britain, Brexit and U.K. politics for the Wall Street Journal who is at British Parliament covering the vote; he tweets
Newsom’s controversial housing fix? Pulling state money from cities that don’t build enough
In his Thursday budget proposal, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed cutting state dollars from local governments that don’t build enough housing.
The governor said he would create new housing targets for every region and withhold transportation revenue for cities that didn’t clear the bar. His budget also included about $2 billion in funding for various homelessness and housing initiatives.
Proponents said it made sense for Newsom to tie transportation funds to housing and are lauding the creation of an enforcement mechanism. Opponents argue that there are too many variables in homebuilding that are outside of local control, and that cities shouldn’t be punished for circumstances created by market forces.
Newsom wasn’t clear about which specific money would be leveraged, initially saying during his presser that it might be gas tax generated revenue. This sparked backlash from both proponents and opponents of the tax, who argued that repurposing or withholding funds would disregard the will of the voters. According to the LA Times, Newsom then said that general state transportation money would be used instead -- so the specific money source is still unclear.
What do you think of Newsom’s plan to leverage transportation funds to incentivize cities to build more housing? Is this fair to areas like the Inland Empire or Central Valley, where the funds for housing projects are tighter?
Guests:
Alan Greenlee, executive director of Southern California Association of Non Profit Housing, a member organization that represents the affordable housing industry
Chris Lee, legislative representative in Housing, Land Use and Transportation for the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), an advocacy organization that represents county governments at the state level
David Garcia, policy director at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation
Citizenship question has been barred from the 2020 Census. What happens now?
A federal judge in New York on Tuesday has barred the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman didn’t push back against the constitutionality of the question. Rather, Furman argued that the question was added arbitrarily and did not follow proper procedure. A dozen immigrant rights groups, states and certain cities also criticize the question, saying that it may hinder immigrant households from participating in the federally mandated census. This decision isn’t final, however. A separate suit on the same issue, filed by the state of California, is underway in San Francisco. The U.S. Supreme Court is also poised to address the issue in February.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Steven Shepard, chief polling analyst for POLITICO; he’s been following the story.
Jonathan Entin, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio
Will stripping the Mongols motorcycle club logo violate First Amendment rights?
A Santa Ana jury ruled Friday that the L.A.-based Mongols motorcycle club would be stripped of its trademark as part of its punishment in a racketeering case.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, this trademark war has been the headliner of a decade-long fight between federal prosecutors and the L.A.-based Mongols Motorcycle Club, which has been pegged as inciting violence and drug dealing. Prosecutors are hoping that getting rid of the logo will stifle the gang’s status and stop them from selling their merchandise with the trademark. The Mongols MC was founded in Montebello in 1969, and is said to have been started by a group of men who were rejected by Hell’s Angels.
The trademark, a sunglasses-clad figure resembling Genghis Khan riding a motorcycle beneath the club’s name, is seen on leather vests and jackets of certain ranks of Mongol members, as well as the club’s merchandise. A federal judge is set next month to address whether stripping the Mongols logo will violate First Amendment rights. On AirTalk today, we debate just that: Is the motorcycle club’s trademark protected under free speech? Larry Mantle discusses with constitutional law professors in a lively debate.
Guests:
Aaron Caplan, professor of law at Loyola Law School specializing in First Amendment law
Lawrence Rosenthal, former federal prosecutor and Professor of Law at Chapman University specializing in constitutional and criminal law
How your eyeballs could be the key to helping physicians develop an objective benchmark for pain
“On a scale of one to ten, with one being the least and ten being the most, how much pain would you say you’re in?”
Chances are good that if you’ve been to a doctor during your lifetime, you’ve had to respond to this question at some point. The pain scale and accompanying wincing-face drawings have long been a main tool, along with physician observation, in determining exactly how much a particular patient is hurting. But while time-tested, this method has the potential to be inaccurate. Almost everyone handles pain in different ways -- some have a higher tolerance than others, and some people respond differently to certain pain treatments than others. Currently, no method exists that doctors can use to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt exactly how much someone is hurting or what kind of pain they’re in. And even if there were, would it be able to distinguish one patient’s pain from another’s?
Enter Dr. Julia Finkel, a pediatric anesthesiologist based in Washington, D.C. who has developed an experimental device that tracks reactions in the patient’s pupil to light and non-painful stimulation of particular nerves. While the device is still in development, and Dr. Finkel and her team are still seeking FDA approval, the hope is that this device or one like it will eventually be able to help physicians determine not only how much pain a patient is in, but what the best way to treat that pain is. Maybe a patient is experiencing a kind of pain that would be better treated with a drug that simply numbs the person’s perception of the pain instead of a drug that actually stops the physical transmission of pain from nerves to the brain.
How important would it be to the field of medicine to develop an objective way to measure pain? What are the challenges in trying to boil down the complexity of pain to a single measurement?
Guests:
Brent Yeung, M.D., assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology at UC Irvine; he worked with Dr. Finkel
Shalini Shah M.D., associate clinical professor of anesthesiology and director of pain management at UC Irvine Health
Lynn Webster, M.D., former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and author of the book “The Painful Truth: What Chronic Pain is Really Like and Why It Matters to Each of Us” (Oxford University Press, 2016)