After a decade-long decline, criminal activity in Los Angeles spiked for the first half of this year by 12.7 % across nearly every category. Also, the LADWP wants to raise rates over the next five years to encourage water conservation and expand infrastructural repairs. Then, Donald Trump? Amy Schumer? What racial humor is acceptable today and how does that compare to what was acceptable in the past?
Criminologist asks if LA crime spike worthy trade-off for fair sentencing policies
After a decade-long decline, criminal activity in Los Angeles spiked for the first half of this year by 12.7 % across nearly every category.
Analysts say it is too soon to determine the cause for upswings in aggravated assaults, robberies, gang shootings, domestic violence and property crime, but Mayor Eric Garcetti said there may be a link to Proposition 47. Last year's ballot measure downgraded felony drug possession and thefts to misdemeanors spurring the release of a few thousand California inmates.
Peter Moskos, former police officer and associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says, "While I’m not convinced these stats on property crime can justify - or are even linked to - policy changes in fair sentencing, I think it’s disingenuous to believe we can achieve a utopia of lower crime and more just sentencing." He says it's worth asking what strikes the right balance.
Acknowledging that the correlation of this crime spike and the implementation of sentencing reforms does not prove causality, what trade-off would Californians bear to achieve less punitive sentencing for minor offenses?
Guests:
Peter Moskos, Associate professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, former police officer
New documentary examines the stereotype of ‘sounding gay’
The documentary is appropriately titled, “Do I Sound Gay?,” where filmmaker David Thorpe explores the cultural and sociological meanings behind the linguistic phenomenon known as the “gay voice.”
The film features conversations between Thorpe and a range of people, including gay cultural icons George Takei and Dan Savage, to linguists, to a speech pathologist to total strangers. Some say the gay voice is an affectation, some say it’s an expression of one’s sexual identity, some say they have no idea why the gay voice exists.
Is there a fundamental “gay voice?” What are the features of a gay voice?
Guests:
Benjamin Munson, Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences at the University of Minnesota. One of his research foci is on gay speech styles, and he is featured in the documentary, “Do I Sound Gay?”
Squaring LADWP's proposed price hike with recent Juan Capistrano tiered pricing ruling
The LADWP wants to raise rates over the next five years to encourage water conservation and expand infrastructural repairs.
Under the proposal, the heaviest water users would see the biggest price increases, to the tune of 34 percent more by 2021.
The proposal comes in the recent wake of a court decision earlier this year in which a state appellate court ruled that the tiered pricing rate structure used by San Juan Capistrano was unfair to consumers. Although tier-pricing isn't illegal in and of itself, the court ruled that the tiers have to be justified by the actual cost of the water to the district.
Does the LADWP's proposal satisfy the condition laid out in the earlier court decision?
Read on for more coverage
Guests:
Sanjay Gaur, Senior Manager, Raftelis Financial Consultants, a utility consulting firm
Tim Quinn, Director of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), which filed an amicus brief on behalf of the appellant, the City of San Juan Capistrano
Former Caltech researcher confirms: Just how loud is your hood?
The campaign is called HowLoud, and they want to give every location in Southern California a score based on the sound profile of the location.
That means taking into account multiple factors, from intensity and volume to frequency and duration. With a databank of scores, HowLoud then makes a heatmap of noise across the region. Currently the campaign is focused on Los Angeles and Orange County, but the project hopes to map across the country.
Would you factor sound into considerations of real estate and commercial property purchases? How important is sound to you when exploring a neighborhood? What potential is there for such data to become widely used across the country?
Guest:
Brendan Farrell, former researcher at Caltech and founder of the Kickstarter campaign HowLoud
As Amy Schumer controversy swirls, a deeper look at race and racism in comedy
Comedians have long grappled with how to joke about race.
While strides have been made socially in how we talk about race, racism is still present in our media and comedy, consciously and not.
Recently comedian Amy Schumer took heat for jokes she made in her early stand up career about hispanic men as well as some jokes she made at this year’s MTV Awards about Latina women. Just this week, Schumer apologized for what she called “dumb jokes” and said she does not consider herself a racist.
A Washington Post article compared Schumer’s jokes to comments made by Donald Trump about Mexican immigrants during his presidential campaign.
What racial humor is acceptable today and how does that compare to what was acceptable in the past?
Guests:
Stacey Patton, a contributor to PostEverything at The Washington Post, where she recently co-authored the piece "Don’t believe her defenders. Amy Schumer’s jokes are racist."
Andrew Wallenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Variety, where he recently authored the piece "Amy Schumer Says She's Sorry. Don't Believe It."
Alonzo Bodden, comedian and winner of the third season of the reality television series, Last Comic Standing