Governor Brown signed legislature extending the state's tax credit to 2025. Though many in the industry are pleased with the move, some argue that these credits are economically flawed. We debate. We also look at why a major medical convention cancelled their San Francisco event; discuss the closing of CA prison's Special Needs Yards; and more.
Sorry, businesses: California high court rules Yelp can’t be forced to remove negative reviews
Online review site Yelp.com cannot be ordered to remove posts against a San Francisco law firm that a judge determined were defamatory, a divided California Supreme Court ruled Monday in a closely watched case that internet companies had warned could be used to silence online speech.
Justices agreed in a 4-3 opinion, saying removal orders such as the one attorney Dawn Hassell obtained against Yelp "could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform." The decision overturned a lower court ruling that Yelp had said could lead to the removal of negative reviews from the popular website and leave consumers with a skewed assessment of restaurants and other businesses.
Hassell said Yelp was exaggerating the stakes of her legal effort. Her attorney, Monique Olivier, said in a statement that the ruling "stands as an invitation to spread falsehoods on the internet without consequence." She said her client was considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Bob Egelko, courts reporters with the San Francisco Chronicle who has been covering the case
Aaron H. Caplan, professor of law at Loyola Law School who specializes in constitutional law, civil procedure and First Amendment law
Checking in on the state of California film tax credit program after newly-inked 5 year extension
Feature films and TV shows shot and produced in California will continue to qualify for tax breaks thanks to an extension to the state’s film and TV tax incentive program’s recent extension as part of the state budget Governor Jerry Brown signed into law last week.
Under the extension, the program will stretch five years past its original sunset date of 2020 to 2025. The program keeps its $330 million in annual tax credits that are handed out to select productions chosen by the California Film Commission, but there are some notable changes as well. Independent films will be eligible for more credits under the extension language, which also promotes increased diversity in casting and production as well as increased transparency on the part of employers about their harassment policies and reporting procedures. The extension also offers extra tax credits for hiring local crew members when the production is being shot outside a 30 mile radius of Los Angeles.
Critics, however, argue that the public benefit of programs like these does not offset the taxpayer money spent on the tax credits, and that the money could be better used on other initiatives that have a more direct benefit to the public at large.
How successful has California’s film tax credit program been since it was created? And what how will some of the changes made in the extension impact the program?
Guests:
Nancy Rae Stone, film and TV tax credit program director at the California Film Commission, the agency in charge of choosing productions that receive tax credits
Matthew Mitchell, senior research fellow and director of the Project for the Study of American Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; he has written about the impact of film tax credit programs on state economies
San Francisco is feeling the impact of homelessness on tourism; should LA worry?
This week, a medical association withdrew its yearly convention from San Francisco, citing that its members didn’t feel safe because of the homeless population, drug use and mental illness in the surrounding area.
Tourism is the biggest industry in San Francisco, so there’s concern from businesses, such as hotels, that this might be a bellwether.
The situation in San Francisco is similar to what’s happening in Los Angeles. So how are conference spaces and the tourism industry negotiating the rising homeless population in our city? If you work in these industries, how is this impacting your clients and business decisions?
Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guests:
Kevin Fagan, reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle who writes about homeless issues for the paper
Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
Tracy Hernandez, founding CEO of the Los Angeles Business Federation, a grassroots alliance of business associations representing 390,000 L.A. County employers and advocating for public policy
CA is integrating ‘vulnerable’ inmates with the general prison population – will they be safer?
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is starting to integrate prisoners who were separately housed in protective custody, or “sensitive needs yards,” with the general inmate population.
These separate prison units were created to house inmates who would’ve been in physical danger in the general prison population – former cops, sex offenders and gang informants, for example.
But these separate units had become almost as, if not more, dangerous than the conditions of the less secure facilities. Currently, lower-security inmates are being integrated into the general population. The main hospital and mental health units are already integrated.
Here’s a statement from CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Vicky Waters:
California has made many criminal justice reforms in recent years, including an evolution in the way we run the state’s prison. Our department continues to expand rehabilitative opportunities for inmates, in order to help prepare them for greater personal success as they return to their communities. We offer education, job training, work experience, self-help programs and other opportunities that reward positive behavior. We also safely incarcerate individuals in the least-restrictive housing possible and in locations – known as non-designated programming facilities - where they have the opportunity and requirement to interact positively with a range of other inmates. A committee rigorously reviews inmates on a case-by-case basis to determine if they should be assigned to such a facility. We have transitioned some of our lower security level yards to non-designated programming facilities, and the safety and security of both our staff and our inmates are our first priority. We also continue to operate sensitive needs yards.
Some advocates hope that this will lead to safer overall conditions, while others fear that the integration process will lead to issues.
Guests:
Sharon Dolovich, professor of law at UCLA and director of the UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program
Joshua Mason, street and prison gang expert and former inmate within the California’s prison system; owner of JMasonConsulting, which evaluates and produces reports and testimonies for federal and state cases involving gangs
Don Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office, non-profit public interest law firm that provides legal services to prisoners, based out of Berkeley
Power in numbers? Not so when it comes to changing the mainstream
A new study published last month in the journal, Science, looked at the power of minorities in shifting conventional thinking.
With movements like #MeToo, we have seen how minority views can influence majority ones. So how many people does it take to start a revolution? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania conducted an online experiment to evaluate how small groups committed to a cause can impact and overturn established social norms in a population. The result – only 25 percent contrarians were needed in order to “convert” anywhere from 72 to 100 percent of the population of their respective groups.
According to the study, prior to the influence of the minority, the population had been in 100 percent agreement about their original position.
Damon Centola, lead author of the study talks to Larry about the tipping point at which minority groups can reverse a majority viewpoint.
Guest:
Damon Centola, lead author of a study on the power of minorities to shift conventional thinking published last month in the journal, Science; associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania whose research looks at how social networks impact human behaviors