On today's Air Talk we'll discuss the new report on the Jerry Sandusky case and what that means for Penn State officials, a conversation with Martine Ehrenclou, author of The Take-Charge Patient: How YOU Can Get the Best Medical Care, a look at families moving across state lines to avoid paying higher taxes, whether or not families should vacation with or without the kids and an interview with Deanne Stillman, author of Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, a Mojave Hermit and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History. Plus, the latest news.
Disturbing details emerge in Penn State sex abuse scandal
Top officials at Penn State University have been criticized for turning a blind eye to sex abuse allegations against football coach Jerry Sandusky. An eight-month investigation led by former FBI Director, Louis Freeh, concluded that former Penn State president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz "failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."
In a key discovery, the report also states that as far back as 1998 Penn State's head football coach, Joe Paterno knew about concerns surrounding Sandusky's possible inappropriate interactions with children. Paterno insists he was not aware of any issues at the time. Freeh's report says that Penn State's powerful leaders acted "in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity."
As a parent, how do you discuss the possible dangers of sexual predators? Do you think this kind of conversation could cause more harm and make children unnecessarily watchful of adults? Should children, as part of their development, be left to develop their own sense of intuition when dealing with adults and other people?
GUEST
Christine Carter, Ph.D., Director of Greater Good Parents at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center; Author of “Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for more Joyful Kids and Happier Parents, (Ballantine Books, Jan. 2010); best known for her popular website “Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids.”
Taking charge of your medical care
Health care as a team sport? That’s how it should be, says patient advocate Martine Ehrenclou.
Your doctors are part of the team that keeps you healthy, and to play the game effectively you need expert coaching – which you’ll find in Ehrenclou’s new book, “The Take-Charge Patient.” Taking charge of your medical care means being your own patient advocate: finding the right doctors and communicating with them effectively, knowing the ropes on how to navigate your insurance policy, find more affordable care, and prevent medication mistakes.
Being skilled -- or at least informed – in these areas turns you from a medical victim to a “take-charge patient.”
GUEST
Martine Ehrenclou, author of The Take-Charge Patient: How YOU Can Get the Best Medical Care (Lemon Grove Press); award-winning author, patient advocate and speaker. Her previous books include Critical Conditions: The Essential Guide to Get Your Loved One Out Alive.
Do higher taxes cause people to move?
While most Americans these days feel that any tax is too high, some could be taking such resentment to the next level.
In a Maryland study, researchers found a net loss of 31,000 residents moving elsewhere between 2007 and 2010. This decrease coincided with a “millionaire’s tax” put forth by Governor Martin O’Malley. Change Maryland, the anti-tax group which released the study, claims that the tax, which imposed a 6.25 rate on those with incomes exceeding $1 million, is partly to blame for this exodus. Essentially, critics of such taxes assert that wealthy individuals and families are moving to states with lower income taxes. The group claims that Florida, which has no state income tax, has especially benefited from the fleeing Marylanders.
But others don’t feel this claim has any weight. For instance, people every year all across the country move to Florida for the weather, too. And what about here in California? The marginal rate for the wealthy is already fairly high, and could increase. Will we see an exodus in our state? Due to Maryland’s irregular size and borders, it has easy access to several states with the same basic geography and climate. That can’t exactly be said here. A move would be drastic.
You hear about NBA players avoiding certain teams due to high taxes, but do non-professional athletes have the same luxury of choice? Have you ever moved because of taxes? Would you ever give up the weather of the Southland for, heaven forbid, Arizona?
GUESTS
Bill Watkins, Executive Director, Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks
Kirk Stark, Vice Dean and Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and faculty coordinator of the UCLA Colloquium on Tax Policy & Public Finance, an interdisciplinary workshop designed to explore leading research on taxation
Family vacations: Best with or without the kids?
You probably remember them well: those hot summer days spent fighting with siblings and incurring sunburns while being herded by parents from cars to campgrounds, hotel rooms to historic sites.
Family vacations might seem like a good idea at first. They certainly provide time for families to grow closer, share adventures and build memories to last a lifetime.
But sometimes, the competing agendas (“Turn off that Game Boy!”) and stress, outweigh the benefits for parents as well as kids. Mom and Dad might feel guilty leaving the kids at home, but let’s face it, quality grownup time is important too.
So what’s the ideal family vacation? A romantic getaway focused on strengthening a couple’s relationship? Or a trip that includes the whole family? Does it depend on the family or couple? How do you balance time with the kids and time with your spouse?
From the phones
Steven, Mid-City:
“The greatest thing I ever did was a 2-week camping trip with my two sons and my wife. The first two days my boys were mad they didn’t have their cellphones and all that junk but then they got over it and it was the most wonderful family time we’ve had together.”
As for vacations for just the wife and him? “Oh no, that’s for when [the kids] are in college!”
P.J., Marina del Rey:
“I believe if parents focus on spending quality time with their kids rather than spending a lot of money, it simplifies everything and you have a better vacation. [Kids] are gonna have fun in what they’re gonna have fun in, not what we adults think they’ll have fun [doing]. Not Disneyland, not those things -- instead, do they just want to be on the playground? Do they just want to play fort inside the house all day? And even though [the house] is a mess, in the end we clean it up, the kids have a blast, and no money spent.” And quality time with the spouse? “Big vacations with the kids, mini-vacations with the spouse.”
Phylline, Ontario: “For years, my mother took me [on vacation]...in the middle of August, and it was always extremely hot, so I made sure when I grow up I would never do that. So the other day my 19-year-old son said, ‘Do you know that every vacation we ever took was in the depths of winter?’ So I did the same thing, just at a different time of year!”
David, Miracle Mile:
“Every vacation as a kid, before cell phones and GPS, would practically end in a divorce of my parents. It wasn’t necessarily that everything went wrong, but it was just the driving and my dad didn’t know where he was going and that could result in a ‘divorce.’ Or, you know, we’re just in close-quarters together and everyone wants to do different things. It travels through the family dynamic but now, we just typically don’t travel together. But my parents are together, they made it through our vacations. … Everything was done with a bit of trepidation -- do we really have to get in the car? Do we really have to go to Stratford-upon-Avon, can we just stay in London where we can all walk around and go where we want to go separately?”
Megan, Long Beach:
“My husband and I have been having the same conversation. We’ve been married two years and people keep asking us when we are going to have kids, but we really want to go on a trip to the Virgin Islands. So we keep telling everyone, ‘We’re not having kids until after we do our trip so we won’t have to worry about getting a babysitter or leaving them behind and things like that,’ so people can either quit asking us or they can give us money for our trip and speed up the process.”
Debbie, West Covina:
“Our vacations have always been camping because we don’t have a lot of money and camping is not that expensive and we all do love being outdoors. I still do the things I do at home -- I cook, I clean, I make beds -- but because it’s a different environment, it’s outside, I still get such a wonderful vacation. It’s a treat being out there. I don’t mind. It’s such a good thing for your family because you do have a wonderful time but you have trials, you have to solve problems together, everybody needs to pitch in to help, and it’s a wonderful growing time for everyone.”
Elaine, Hollywood:
“A best vacation ever is a cruise with children because they have cruise directors for children during the day and you get together at night and you’re finding each other to tell what a wonderful day you had.”
Angela, at La Brea and Olympic:
“I don’t know how any family travels with small children, I have to hand it to them. I lived in Vegas about four years ago and I had two little kids in diapers and I would have to drive to California and back all the time, and when they were not in the car it was like getting in a massage. It was like a spa on wheels. I don’t know how people take little babies on the plane. My family we’re going -- really for the first time -- to Hawaii but they’re six and eight now. I kind of held off going to a lot of places when they were younger.”
Maria, Studio City:
“My sister had taken road trips with her two boys and had problems, so at one point, my husband and I had invited them to go to British Columbia, to Victoria, with us. We said the only thing you have to do is research it, find out what you want to do, and they were great because the dynamic was a little different. We were uncle and aunt, so they were themselves but they were a little bit better behaved and we just had a great time with us and they enjoyed it.”
J.R., on I-80 in Southern Wyoming, returning to California:
“We’re having a great road trip. We’re at 2,346 miles right now. We’re actually heading back from our week road trip we do every year to South Dakota. We pack up the kids and we hit the road. It’s been a great trip, we had one little car incident, other than that it was a great trip. We spend short trips on the road so we can stop at all the points and show the kids the sights and interest.”
A true tale of the modern west
The Wild West is not dead – it lives on in the vast Mojave desert north of Los Angeles. This modern wild west is peopled by ranchers, cowboys, bikers, squatters, felons and a host of iconoclasts who shun civilization, preferring the outlier lifestyle.
One such iconoclast was Donald Kueck, a brilliant scientist and desert hermit who lived in a trailer on remote patch of land. On an August day in 2003, Deputy Sheriff Steve Sorenson was gunned down by Kueck after approaching his trailer. Kueck’s subsequent flight into the desert set off the biggest manhunt in California history, marshalling the efforts of the DEA, the FBI, the Air Force, an L.A. SWAT team and a Gulf-war era tank nicknamed the BEAR.
Somehow, Kueck managed to elude this 21st-century posse for a full week, using survival skills perfected over years of desert life. The final, fiery denouement is worthy of a John Ford movie. Deanne Stillman has written extensively about the California desert and its denizens. In telling this story, she has crafted an epic and compelling modern Western.
GUEST
Deanne Stillman, author of Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, a Mojave Hermit and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History (Nation Books), and faculty member at UC Riverside-Palm Desert Low Residency MFA Creative Writing Program. Her previous books are Mustang and Twentynine Palms.
Stillman has a book signing on July 14th. For more information, click here.