Today on Air Talk we'll take a look at the realignment proposal by LA county jails to relieve overcrowding, whether or not the NBA-Olympic dream team will continue, a new controversy in Eagle Rock has sparked the debate over the benefits of naming a Valedictorian, a massive cell-phone surveillance plan by law enforcement, a look at the latest heat wave across the country and what, if any of it is the result of Global Warming and an interview with Brian Fagan, author of Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans. Plus, the latest news
Kern County targeted to alleviate LA County jail overcrowding
The Los Angeles County jail system currently holds 18,600 inmates – up from around 15,000 a year ago -- making it the country’s largest. Part of that number is due to the city’s high population, but the recent spike in jail numbers is due to California’s “realignment” program.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that conditions must be improved in overcrowded California state prisons, California’s response was to move inmates from state facilities to county jails. The Sheriff’s Department predicts that they will run out of space for housing by Christmas, so officials are currently in talks with other parts of the state to deal with the overflow.
Shafter and Taft, two cities in Kern County with currently empty jails, could conceivably house 1,000 of L.A. county’s low-level offenders. This plan may even extend all the way to the Central Valley, with Coalinga and Delano taking on another thousand. The cost of housing a prisoner in one of these jails is around $61 a day – around half the cost in the L.A. facility.
Law enforcement officials are dedicated to making sure every class of criminal serves at least the minimum allotted time, and they hope for a deal to be struck in the fall, before the system begins to overflow.
Does this proposal make sense for L.A. County? If overcrowding is what got all these prisoners here in the first place, is the problem with the jails or with the entire prison system? What steps are being taken within and outside of jails to combat the flow of criminals inside?
GUESTS
Steve Whitmore, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department spokesman
Celeste Fremon, Editor of WitnessLA.com; Senior fellow at the USC Institute for Justice and Journalism
NBA-Olympic partnership: The end of a dream?
It was a basketball fan’s dream back in 1992, when Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan led the U.S. to Olympic gold in Barcelona.
For the first time, Team USA featured NBA players, creating what is arguably the greatest team of athletes ever assembled. The U.S. has dominated the court in nearly every Olympic contest since, thanks to a steady supply of NBA ringers. Now, NBA commissioner David Stern has proposed an age limit of 23 and under for the Olympics that would effectively end the “dream team” tradition after London.
His reasons? Team owners worry that summer injuries could sideline their best players when NBA season comes around. The players and the league don’t make any money on the Olympics. And the NBA no longer needs the international publicity it gained from the original dream team; NBA games are now seen in over 200 countries around the world. Since the NBA includes many foreign players who are free to play for their home countries during the Olympics, barring American pro-ballers puts us at big disadvantage – unless Stern can succeed in establishing the age limit.
Should senior NBA players stay out of the Olympics? What would a younger version of Team USA look like? Can the U.S. win the gold without a “dream team”?
GUEST
Mike Bresnahan, Lakers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times
Is it time to hang up the valedictorian cap?
At Eagle Rock High School, this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian were separated by a mere five hundredths of a point in their grade point averages. While obtaining the rank of salutatorian is still an impressive feat, don’t tell that to the parents of Elisha Marquez. Marquez, whose 4.5 GPA was edged out by the valedictorian’s 4.55, is headed to Stanford next year for college. Her parents, meanwhile, are threatening to take their child’s high school to court.
They claim Marquez’s late nights studying were all for naught and that they didn’t want Elisha to be “a loser.” (Apparently, Stanford University decided to settle on the poor girl…) While their legal argument is flimsy at best, this does raise the issue of whether or not it makes sense to keep the traditional valedictorian system in place. After all, the word comes from the Latin form of saying farewell, not cramming for tests. The proliferation of AP and honors courses has seriously skewed the GPA system, so that “regular” classes are shunned and avoided.
Is this really what education is all about? What’s a better alternative? Is there a way to reach a compromise so that both parents and students are happy?
Carol and Nelson Marquez, parents of Eagle Rock High School Class of 2012 Salutatorian Elisha Marquez, talk about the media attention they are getting. Video credit Ajay Singh.
'Massive' cellphone surveillance by law enforcement
Privacy is a thing of the past — according to statistics on cell phone surveillance. In the first measure of its kind, cell phone carriers reported just how often law enforcement seeks information on mobile phone users.
In 2011 alone, at least 1.3 million requests were made for cell records, according to Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass) who queried wireless companies for the data. Markey calls the number "startling."
He adds, "We cannot allow privacy protections to be swept aside with the sweeping nature of these information requests, especially for innocent consumers." Information shared with police and FBI includes data such as a geolocation information, text messages, wiretaps and "cell tower dumps." Those dumps show all the phone numbers that connected to a cell tower during a specific period of time. (It's unclear how long officials keep that information.)
Wireless companies devote significant resources to gathering the data and have concerns about the process. Sprint explains: "There is no statute that directly addresses the provision of location data of a mobile device to the government. … Given the importance of this issue and the competing and at times contradictory legal standards, Sprint believes that Congress should clarify the legal requirements for disclosure of all types of location information to law enforcement personnel."
The American Civil Liberties Union says there is a remedy: "Fortunately there are two bipartisan bills in Congress (one in the House and one in the Senate) that do just that, by requiring law enforcement to secure a warrant based on probable cause before obtaining location information. They are both called the GPS Act...."
How invasive is this type of surveillance? Do consumers have a right to privacy in cell use? When are subpoenas or search warrants required? How does this square with the recent Supreme Court case on GPS monitoring by police?
GUESTS
Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union
Joseph Cassilly, past President of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA); current State’s Attorney for Harford County, Maryland; In May, Cassily testified at the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security in opposition to the GPS Act
Can individual heat waves be blamed on global warming?
Summer is the time for sunshine, but with heatwaves sweeping the nation, it's a little too hot to handle. In the last week, more than two thousand U.S. heat records have been broken, with temperatures in the triple digits.
The extreme weather has exacerbated wildfires and power outages, and focused attention once again on the impact of climate change. Yet climatologists are at odds over whether the extreme weather can be solely blamed on global warming.
Do you think there is a direct link between climate change and extreme weather? In your own life, how have you seen the weather change? Are you concerned about the changes in weather? Or do you see it as part of the natural evolution of the planet?
GUESTS
Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeler at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies
John Abraham, Assoc. Professor of Engineering, University of St. Thomas
Ancient mariners and the quest to master the ocean
Long before Columbus, land-bound civilizations stood on the shore and gazed across the waters, wondering what lay beyond. Over 50,000 years ago the first explorers set out for those distant shores, piloting bamboo canoes across the Java Sea, guided by nothing but the stars.
The urge to go to sea has become a rite of passage for every coastal civilization since then; to set foot on a new land, bring home its treasures, conquer the waves and live to tell the tale. Brian Fagan’s new book takes us along on those ancient journeys, mapping centuries of water routes, letting us hear the creak of the mast and feel the slap of water against our boat. From Aleut seal hunters to Phoenician traders, from Chinese merchants to Norse fishermen, all succumbed to the urge to see what’s over the horizon.
How did ancient mariners find their way before navigational instruments? How did they perfect their vessels and develop their seafaring skills? What led them to risk everything in the search for new worlds?
GUEST
Brian Fagan, author of "Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans" (Bloomsbury Press); emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His previous books include "Elixir: A History of Water" and "Cro-Magnon."