The LA County Board of Supervisors voted to place a tax on the November ballot that would redirect revenues from marijuana to help the homeless; new techniques in education to maximize introverts' hidden potential; & you share your summer vacation horror stories.
Should taxes on marijuana businesses help pay for homeless services?
A new ballot measure approved this week by the LA county Board of Supervisors will give voters the decision of whether to tax marijuana businesses to help combat homelessness.
The proposal suggests a tax of up to 10% of gross receipts from businesses that sell marijuana or related products. County analysts speculate that if passed, the measure could garner up to $130 million dollars per year to fund services like rent subsidies, mental health and substance abuse treatments.
The Board’s 3-2 vote last Tuesday included Don Knabe, Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis voting in favor for the marijuana tax while Michael D. Antonovich and Ridley-Thomas voting against the measure.
Solis and Kuehl stated the vote would be a major step toward addressing the pervasive and growing homelessness crisis. Antonovich stated concerns about the impact on public health and safety of legalizing marijuana while Ridley-Thomas expressed a need for more time to analyze the effects of a marijuana tax.
Guests:
Robert "Bob" Solomon, Co-Director of Community & Economic Development Clinic and clinical law professor, University of California, Irvine
Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the Second District
How can you tell if a driver is stoned?
Lebowski doesn’t get hurt, but there are those, such as State Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), who fear an increase in real-life risky driving if on Nov. 8 Californians pass Prop. 64, the initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana.
Lackey, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, wants the state to adopt a legal limit for THC - the mind-altering ingredient in cannabis. Without it, he says, patrol officers must rely mostly on their own subjective judgment as to whether a driver is impaired. That, he says, makes many officers uncomfortable.
"In my own experience I’ve seen this phenomenon," he says. "I’ve seen somebody clearly impaired and I’ve seen officers still hesitant to remove [that person] from the roadway because they’re not a drug recognition expert."
Read the full story here.
Guests:
Stephanie O’Neill, KPCC’s Health Care Correspondent who’s been following the story
Igor Grant, MD., Director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UCSD. He is also the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the school
Cultivating the talents of quiet kids in the classroom
It’s the advent of the introvert.
Author Susan Cain started a movement for the less gregarious among us when her book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” became a bestseller in 2012. Since then, cultivating the talents of people who prefer to work autonomously has gained attention, and not just in the office.
Early childhood educators are finding new techniques to teach quiet kids in the classroom.
So how do we include introverted children when grades may depend on participation? Finding ways to involve students without taking away the choice to work alone may be the key. And recognizing kids who don’t display charisma in a traditional sense may be new for teachers, but it’s also a worthwhile way to uncover the best and brightest who may go otherwise unnoticed.
How do you suggest educators reach out to introverted students? If you were a quiet kid, how did you navigate the landscape of classrooms that rewarded gregarious classmates?
Guest:
Heidi Kasevich, director of Quiet Education, a program that focuses on guiding school communities to cultivate inclusive cultures for introverted students. Quiet Education is based on Susan Cain’s book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”
Beyond Emmys: 2016 Nominations and your under-the-radar gems
Aside from the most celebrated Emmy contenders today such as "Game of Thrones" and “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” the nominations recognize shows from newer content providers including Vimeo, Viceland, even LouisCK.net.
Thanks to streaming platforms and video-on-demand there is too much acclaimed content to watch let alone nominate. On AirTalk we will analyze trends in this year's slate of Emmy nominations, plus we will ask listeners about their under-the-radar gems.
Guest:
Dan Fienberg, Television Critic, The Hollywood Reporter; he tweets from
For more children, puberty starting at younger age
Going through puberty can often be a frustrating and confusing thing for many adolescents, and researchers are finding that the process is beginning earlier for many girls, sometimes as young as 7 years old.
It’s often difficult to determine the underlying cause of what medical practitioners are calling “precocious puberty,” but there are many health consequences, including the risk of developing depression at a younger age for girls.
Guest:
Louise Greenspan, M.D., pediatric endocrinologist at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco and co-author of the book, "The New Puberty: How to Navigate Early Development in Today's Girls" (Rodale Books, 2014)
Your worst summer vacations
How would you describe an ideal summer vacation?
Rays of sunshine, the golden beach, and that intense bubbly drink to cool off. But that image is often far from reality.
Anything could go wrong on the road to that perfect trip: your stomach might disagree with the local cuisine, your flight might decide to stay put because of a little rain, or your back might give out after a couple miles of walking.
We are talking about the worst summer vacation, the one that you spent months planning and dreaming from your cubicle, but ended up breaking your heart (not to mention your bank).