AirTalk looks at John McCain's history as an important voice in Congress after the senator's diagnosis of brain cancer. We also dive into this year's Clean Air Action Plan for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach; what makes an ‘ineffective teacher?’; and more.
Looking at John McCain’s singular role in the Senate and US politics
War hero. Maverick Republican. John McCain is a politician like no other.
The senator from Arizona has been diagnosed with a brain tumor after doctors removed a blood clot above his left eye last week, his office said in a statement Wednesday. The 80-year-old Republican has glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
Doctors say McCain is recovering from his surgery amazingly well and his underlying health is excellent, according to the statement. On AirTalk today, a look at McCain’s career and role in the Senate.
With AP files.
Guests:
Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times congressional reporter; she tweets
Bill Jones, former California Secretary of State and former Republican Assembly Minority Leader; he was John McCain’s campaign chair for California in 2008; he was also worked as one of the chairs on McCain’s 2000 campaign
Dan Schnur, director of AJC Los Angeles, a Jewish advocacy group; he was the communications director for Sen. John McCain in 2000
Porter Ranch residents react to state’s decision to reopen Aliso Canyon gas facility
Two state agencies cleared the Aliso Canyon gas storage field to resume operations on Wednesday, while the same afternoon Governor Jerry Brown called for it to eventually close.
It's an odd juxtaposition of different state entities acting simultaneously on the controversial gas storage field, where a well ruptured in late 2015 and drove thousands of people from their homes.
The well could soon resume operations, according to a joint announcement by officials of the California Public Utilities Commission and the state Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.
Read the full story here.
Guest:
Sharon McNary, KPCC’s infrastructure reporter who’s been following the story
'Ineffective': The quandary of quantifying a teacher's performance
In an attempt to remedy the gap for disadvantaged students under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, each state is required to report whether disadvantaged students have less qualified teachers.
In response, California may have a new definition for effective teaching, defining an “ineffective teacher” as someone who is improperly assigned or does not have proper credentials. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the plan, which was approved last week by the Board of Education, is raising controversy over quantifying performance based on these criteria, and leaving little room for interpretation. The board has less than two months before a deadline to submit its plan to the federal government. The proposal to define “ineffective teacher” in the state was drawn using language from a California Teachers Assn. union proposal. Critics of the new definition argue that it doesn’t quantify educators impact on students or hold ineffective credentialed teachers responsible.
Larry speaks to two education experts today to find out the pros and cons of using credentials as a barometer for teaching effectiveness.
Correction: We originally stated that we reached out to the California Board of Education. We incorrectly reached out to the California Dept. of Education. KPCC regrets the error.
Guests:
Joy Resmovits, education reporter for the Los Angeles Times; she has been following the story
Pedro Noguera, Ph.D., distinguished professor of education at the UCLA Graduate School of Education
Stakeholders weigh in on goals of zero-emissions proposal to clean up the air at ports of LA and Long Beach
The largest port complex in the United States has released a draft of a plan to modernize port technology to help clean up the air and combat climate change at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The projected cost of the Clean Air Action Plan is $14 billion in public and private funding, and some following the story have said they expect that number to increase. The plan has the ports switching to zero-emission technology for handling cargo by 2030 and zero-emission trucks by 2035. It also sets a goal of emissions below 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.
While many involved stakeholders like environmentalists, the trucking lines, port truckers and the shipping lines have highlighted things they like in the draft, like the fact that it's a major statement to the rest of the country from the largest port complex in the U.S., they also say there is room for improvement. Concerns range from the timeline being too ambitious to questions about whether the zero-emissions technology will be ready by 2030 and what this means for port truckers, many of whom operate independently and could have to shoulder the cost of getting and maintaining a zero-emissions truck.
For more on this story from KPCC's Emily Guerin, click here.
Guests:
Chris Cannon, director of environmental management for the Port of Los Angeles
Rick Cameron, managing director of planning and environmental affairs for the Port of Long Beach
Melissa Lin Perella, co-director of the Environmental Justice program for the Natural Resources Defense Council
Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association
Fred Potter, international vice president and director of the ports division for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents port truck drivers
In the context of the opioid crisis, doctors discuss the future of chronic pain treatment
Opioid addiction has reached the level of public health crisis in America, necessitating a shift in how medical professionals approach their patient’s pain.
The recent Vox article “The opioid crisis changed how doctors think about pain” traces the push in the 1990’s for doctors to take their patient’s pain more seriously, even elevating it to a vital sign, which coincided with pharmaceutical companies pushing opioids.
The subsequent opioid crisis has reversed the thinking about this painkiller’s efficacy and safety, but it has also spurred larger questions about the medical profession’s approach to pain.
In 2015, Dr. Jane Ballantyne co-wrote a controversial article that argued for a more pragmatic paint treatment approach, with a focus on a person’s function rather than the elimination of their pain.
As argued in the aforementioned Vox article, the medical profession has largely shifted towards her thinking. Subsequently, there have been calls for more transparency regarding medication, for changing patients’ overly-optimistic expectations regarding pain treatment and for more holistic approaches to pain, as well as concern that pain won’t be treated as effectively now.
Against the backdrop of the opioid crisis, we sit down with three doctors to explore the rise of opiates, and how pain treatment can move past them. What roles did a shifting approach to pain play in the rise of the opioid crisis? How should patients and doctors approach chronic pain treatment? And listeners, what conversations have you had with doctors and which approaches have you undertaken regarding chronic pain?
Guests:
Anna Lembke, M.D., program director for the Stanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic; her latest book is “Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop” (Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2016)
Jane C. Ballantyne, M.D., Professor, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington; she co-wrote the 2015 New England Journal of Medicine Article “Intensity of Chronic Pain – The Wrong Metric?”
Michael Clark, M.D., vice chair for clinical affairs and director of the pain treatment program in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins Hospital