It was a powerful statement for LA residents who feel powerless: A city council committee voted 4-to-1 for the incumbent against a new operator for the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. Also, Jeffrey Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted Monday for leaking classified information about a secret operation to foil Iran’s nuclear program to a New York Times reporter. Then, after the concentration camps were liberated from Nazi control, army filmmakers took extensive footage of Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Auschwitz, and others in an attempt to document what had happened.
Is Los Feliz Neighborhood association victory over Live Nation a harbinger of community clout?
It was a powerful statement for LA residents who feel powerless: A city council committee voted 4-to-1 for the incumbent against a new operator for the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park.
A Department of Recreation and Parks committee had unanimously recommended the company Live Nation over the present operator, Nederlander, but Los Feliz-area residents fought the recommendation, and were heard. In the end Nederlander joined forces with AEG to try to hold on.
The full council now takes it up. Similarly, Boyle Heights residents staved off a $49-million shopping center project at Mariachi Plaza. They didn't like the design, and sent it back to the drawing board.
Are these examples of neighborhood groups growing in political clout? And what are the implications for other neighborhood groups?
Guests:
Richard Close, President, Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association
Dave Brooks, Founder of Amplify, a new-media company in the events business. He was at the council committee meeting yesterday.
Former CIA officer convicted for exposing Operation Merlin
Jeffrey Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted Monday for leaking classified information about a secret operation to foil Iran’s nuclear program to a New York Times reporter.
Known as “Operation Merlin,” the covert mission tasked a Russian scientist with providing Iran with a deliberately flawed design plan for a nuclear weapon, in the hopes of sabotaging the country’s nuclear program. Sterling was found guilty for giving information about the program to New York Times reporter James Risen, who wrote about it in his 2006 book, “State of War.”
Supporters of Sterling call him a whistleblower, who voiced his concerns about Operation Merlin to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003. But the Justice Department and the C.I.A said Sterling’s motivations weren’t noble, that he was driven by resentment over what he perceived was racial discrimination and his firing by the C.I.A.
Sterling will be sentenced in April.
What is a whistleblower? Should the designation be determined by someone’s motivations? Should Sterling be considered a whistleblower?
Guests:
Matt Apuzzo, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the New York Times who’s been covering the case and the trial
Richard Moberly, Professor of Law, University of Nebraska; Co-Editor of “The International Handbook on Whistleblower Research” (2014)
The Internet of Things: How close are we to connecting our entire world to the Web?
Can you imagine a world in which everything in our daily lives is connected to the Internet? What if you could sit down at a piano and find out, with just a few button pushes, who had played that piano before you and what songs he or she had played? This idea of universal connectivity is often referred to as “The Internet of Things,” and it’s a notion that some say could be reality in the not-too-distant future. It was one of the biggest topics of discussion this year
Already, we’re seeing new products and technology emerging that are bringing us closer and closer to a completely connected world. Things like smartphones, smart watches, and even smart homes are already on the market and if this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was any indication, tech companies are salivating at the opportunity to take advantage of a new, and potentially very lucrative, market.
As awesome as it may sound to some to have a world that is constantly connected, others aren’t convinced it’s possible just yet. Concerns still exist about the actual technology it would require to have an “Internet of Things,” as well as the price and privacy of the technology. Others worry that many of these smart devices won’t actually make life more convenient for the users. On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission released a report saying that lawmakers need to pass rules that lay out when companies have to admit they’ve been hacked. It also gives manufacturers recommendations on how to protect the smart products they sell to consumers and encourages them to limit the amount of data they collect and retain on users. While the report doesn’t ask Congress to write legislation about the Internet of Things, it does begin to lay out what companies should be thinking about when designing and selling smart devices.
What is the Internet of Things as we understand it today and what role(s) could it play in society? Is there a point we reach at which humanity is too connected? How close are we to the Internet of Things being a reality?
Guests:
John Barrett, Ph.D., head of academic studies at the Nimbus Centre for Embedded Systems Research at the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland.
Leah Lievrouw, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, specializes in new media and social change.
Law-enforcement safety concerns prompt call for Google to disable Waze app’s police tracking feature
If you’ve ever used Google’s GPS app “Waze” to help you get around, you’ve probably seen the feature it has that notifies you when a police officer has been reported along a roadway. Some members of the law-enforcement community are concerned that this feature could pose a safety threat to law-enforcement officers, and are urging Google to turn off that feature.
Waze combines social networking with GPS to inform users of traffic congestion in real time. Users can also report in when they see a police officer on the road and specify whether the officer was visible or hidden, and then other users can then confirm or deny that officer’s existence at that location. For drivers, it sounds like a great way to make sure you don’t get pulled over (assuming user reports are accurate), but for others in the policing community, it’s no more than a way for would-be criminals to stalk police activity. Even LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has weighed in on the issue, writing a letter to Google’s CEO at the end of December saying that the app could be “misused by those with criminal intent to endanger police officers and the community.”
Guests:
Tim Williams, founder of TT Williams Investigations, a private investigation firm in Los Angeles; Retired LAPD Senior Detective Supervisor (Robbery-Homicide Division), 1974-2003; Expert on police procedure and use-of-force for state and federal court
Commander Andy Smith, Media Relations and Community Affairs Group, LAPD
Philip Stinson, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Program, Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is a former police officer.
New documentary revisits Nazi concentration camps with restored and never-before-seen footage
Unlike the present when most Americans are aware of the Nazi concentration camps and the millions who were killed, very few Americans at the time had any idea of the camps despite the massive war effort on the part of the United States after 1941. After the camps were liberated from Nazi control, army filmmakers took extensive footage of Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Auschwitz, and others in an attempt to document what had happened.
Yet despite a serious attempt by prolific industry men such as Alfred Hitchcock and Richard Crossman to document the footage, particularly in a film entitled, "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey," the project never fully got off the ground. Without being widely seen, the footage has been held for decades, and it had even been put together with a commentary by Trevor Howard. Yet that project was also limited, and moreover the final reel of footage had not been included in the film.
Now, the footage will be released again, this time with narration by actress Helena Bonham Carter, behind-the-scenes interviews from Alfred Hitchcock and others, and the complete footage. Directed by Andre Singer, the film is called "Night Will Fall," and it will be released by HBO Documentary Films.
"Night Will Fall" will air tonight, January 27, on HBO2, in conjunction with a global event and telecast to commemorate international Holocaust Remembrance.
Guest:
Sally Angel, Producer, “Night Will Fall”
Impossible choices face adult children of estranged, abusive, and aging parents
In a thought-provoking article, writer Emily Yoffe asks, "When terrible, abusive parents come crawling back, what do their grown children owe them?"
Psychologists are torn on the matter -- not just because each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way -- rather because scant research has been done on the subject despite the pervasiveness of child abuse and abusers.
If you have faced this issue in your family, how did you make your decision? Is there any way to know in advance whether it will cause more harm than good?
Guest:
Janice Kinter, Licensed family and marriage therapist based in West LA