Bell residents and Council call for resignations of six-figure city employees. Previewing Comic-Con. Tesla's partnership with Toyota. Tea Party vs. NAACP, round 2. Later, is a cure for AIDS around the courner? We talk with Nobel-Prize winning Caltech researcher David Baltimore; Paula Cannon of USC; and Jerome Zack of UCLA.
Bell residents say BASTA! to overpaid city officials
The Council meeting in the City of Bell overflowed with protestors, Monday, calling for the resignation of three city employees whose salaries have provoked outrage in the working class city of 38,000. The Los Angeles Times revealed last week that City Manager Robert Rizzo makes nearly $800,000—plus annual raises—his assistant manager makes $376,000, and the Chief of Police takes home $457,000, exceeding LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s pay. How will Bell respond? Will nearby Maywood stop outsourcing its city services to Bell? What efforts are underway by city government and concerned residents? Whether you’re a resident or not, what would you do about high pay for officials in cash-strapped cities?
Guests:
Denisse Rodarte, lifelong resident of Bell; member of The Bell Association to Stop The Abuse (BASTA); administrator for a non-profit in the medical field
Christina Garcia, resident of Bell Gardens; member of The Bell Association to Stop The Abuse; adjunct Professor of statistics at University of Southern California
Comic-Con Preview
Geeks and freaks are flocking to San Diego once again to attend Comic-Con, the country’s biggest celebration of pop art, comics and fantasy. No longer strictly the domain of nerds and fanboys, San Diego's pop-culture festival promises film and TV fodder for fans of all kinds, plus video games, toys, collectibles and costumes galore. The preview is Wednesday, and the show officially starts Thursday. The new Tron movie and The Green Hornet are on the agenda. What else is in store?
Guest:
David Glanzer, Comic-Con International's director of marketing and public relations
Tesla deal with Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation and auto-upstart Tesla Motors say they'll work together to develop an all-electric version of Toyota's RAV4 SUV. The plan is to make the car at the Nummi plant in Freemont, which Tesla purchased for $42 million. Tesla, the brainchild of Elon Musk, an engineer and computer programmer who made his fortune as co-founder of PayPal, has already developed a proto-type electric drive train for the RAV4. Meanwhile, GM has its Volt coming out, Nissan has the Leaf, and a slew of other electric cars are on the horizon…does this Tesla-Toyota deal put them in the lead in the race to develop technology that can replace the gasoline engine?
Guest:
Diarmuid O’Connell, VP for Business Development, Tesla
Rush to judgment?: Sherrod forced to resign
Shirley Sherrod, the former USDA director of rural development for Georgia, was forced to resign Monday when a video surfaced of her telling an NAACP audience that she could not give aid to a white farmer. The incident is fueling Tea Party allegations that the NAACP and Sherrod’s remarks are racist. But, it appears the video of her speech was edited and taken out of context, and the farmer, Roger Spooner, has come forward announcing Sherrod actually helped save his farm. Now the NAACP has retracted its criticisms of Sherrod and is asking the USDA to rehire her. To Sherrod, this news is “bittersweet.” The White House is intervening and has requested that an official review be done of the case. Did the USDA overreact and was the media quick to pass judgment? Will Sherrod get her job back?
Guest:
Jim Rainey, On the Media columnist for the Los Angeles Times
Stem Cell Research Aimed at Curing AIDS
In light of President Obama’s new HIV/AIDS strategy, today we’re talking with a trio of local researchers, including Nobel Prize winning Caltech AIDS researcher Dr. David Baltimore, about new, cutting edge work being using stem cells and gene therapy to treat – and possibly one day cure – HIV/AIDS. This research focuses on engineering blood producing stems cells to resist HIV or takes super-charged HIV antibodies and puts them into stem cells which then target and attack HIV. Are engineered stem cells the answer to curing HIV?
Guests:
David Baltimore, PhD., Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech. In 1975, at the age of 37 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Howard Temin and Renato Dulbecco.
Paula Cannon, PhD., Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Pediatrics, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the USC Keck School of Medicine
Jerome (Jerry) Zack, PhD., Director, UCLA AIDS Institute and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.