Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is back in the spotlight for sexting, should this impact his political career? Then, what's next for MOCA after Jeffrey Deitch left. Next, why are more women drinking than ever before? Then, City Council plans on voting for the Hollywood Skyscrapers, do you think it should be built? Next, can avoiding conflicts actually lead to a happier marriage? Last, we're talking the biggest car failures, and how the LA Auto Show plans to revamp its show.
Would you vote for Anthony Weiner to be the mayor of your city?
New York City Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner vowed to stay in the race after revelations of additional sexual text messages sent after the original sexting scandal two years ago. In a press conference Tuesday, Weiner admitted to sending the messages and apologized for his inappropriate behavior. But unlike his previous sexting press conference, wife Huma Abedin stood by her husband’s side and even spoke on his behalf. She said she’s forgiven her husband and that she believes in him. Abedin was a top aide to former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and pregnant with Weiner’s child when the original scandal broke.
This latest episode leaves many wondering, why Abedin has chosen to stand by Weiner’s side? Why does Weiner continue to sabotage his political career? Does having Abedin there help save the campaign? Or does it make everyone hate Weiner more? Will his campaign survive this latest revelation?
Guests:
Glenn Thrush, Senior White House Reporter, Politico
Nando Pelusi, practicing clinical psychologist in New York City; Contributing Editor, Psychology Today
What's next for MOCA if Jeffrey Deitch resigns?
After months of speculation, the Museum of Contemporary Art is expected to announce the departure of the museum’s director Jeffrey Deitch Wednesday. Deitch’s three year tenure has been a rocky one. With a background as an art dealer and New York gallery owner, Deitch’s appointment was an out-of-the-box pick. Museum gallery directors typically come up through the ranks of academia.
But, MOCA was on the brink of financial collapse when Deitch took over and framed their decision as an adventurous risk.
Deitch began his directorship of MOCA promoting the intersection of visual art and pop culture. His projects included a retrospective on the art of actor Dennis Hopper and a collaboration with actor James Franco. In today’s meeting the board is also expected to announce that it’s close to completing a fundraising drive announced in March to raise the museum’s endowment from $20 million to $100 million.
How did Deitch influence the museum? What was his role in increasing the museum’s endowment? What’s next for MOCA?
Guest:
Christopher Knight, LA Times Art Critic
Why are women drinking more?
For many women, wine is an indulgence for busy mothers who want a break, but they are not the only ones indulging. More women are drinking now than anytime in history, according to recent health studies. Women buy the majority of the wine sold in the U.S. annually, according to the wine institute.
Between 1998 and 2007, the number of women arrested for drunk driven rose 30%, while male dropped more than 7%. This is not just limited to young adults and college students, a recent Gallup poll found 10% of women 45 and 64 binge drink. Groups like, “Moms who Need Wine,” and “OMG, I So Need a Glass of Wine or I’m Gonna Sell My kids,” have thousands of fans on facebook. Drinks are often linked to female targeted shows like the women on ‘Real Housewives.”
But why the massive growth? Some believe the rise in female drinking is due to the changing social role of women. Some social scientists link the growth to the rise in female college attendance, and women then leaving their careers to be at home.
Why are women drinking more? Is there a greater stigma on male alcoholics than female? Do television shows impact women’s desire to drink? Is there a stigma with moms drinking?
Guests:
Gabrielle Glaser, journalist and author “Her Best Kept Secret, Why Women Drink-And How They Can Regain Control”
Christine Trice, Founder, OMG I So Need A Glass Of Wine or I’m gonna sell my kids
LA City Council approves Millennium Hollywood skyscraper project
Despite vociferous objections from some people who live in the neighborhood, the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday unanimously approved the Millennium Hollywood development, which will include a pair of skyscrapers flanking the famous Capitol Records building. The vote was 13-0.
“This project will act as the gateway to Hollywood and brings great economic development,” said City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the area. The project will produce 2,900 construction jobs, 1,257 full-time permanent jobs, and an estimated $4.3 million in new tax revenue annually for the city, according to O’Farrell.
“It’s a game-changer for Hollywood,” he said. The council’s 15 members often defer to the local councilman when considering projects. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who used to represent Hollywood on the council, said he would sign off on the project.
Some residents urged the council to reject the massive development, which includes one million square feet of office, retail, apartment and hotel space inside two towers 39 and 35 stories tall. They argued it would create more traffic congestion.
“I’m all for the re-gentrification of Hollywood, but not a project of this magnitude,” said Shelley Kiah, who lives in Whitely Heights. Residents of that neighborhood would see their views partially blocked by the towers.
Other opponents urged the council to delay its vote until there is resolution to concerns that the project would sit on an active earthquake fault.
“The developer’s engineers distorted their technical reports to hide the existence of the Hollywood earthquake fault running directly through this property,” said attorney Robert Silverstein, who represents homeowners groups. He pointed to new concerns about the fault raised by a USC professor.
Millennium Partners co-founder Philip Aarons, who came from New York to attend the council vote, said any seismic worries would be addressed.
“We would not, and will not, build a project that puts anyone in any seismic safety issues,” he told reporters. “We expect there to be more studies on the site itself to indicate whether or not there is an earthquake fault there.”
The city has asked the developer to conduct new seismic tests, and the California Geological Survey has begun to examine whether the well-known Hollywood fault remains active.
But officials from the city Department of Building and Safety told the city council they believe the site is safe.
“At this point, we feel like that the approval for the tentative tract is still a valid approval,” said Dana Prevost, chief of the department’s Grading Division. He acknowledged the city has asked the Millennium Partners to conduct more studies “to satisfy the concerns that have been raised.”
“We will address the seismic issues as we move toward the building permit process,” Philips said. “We believe this will be a spectacular project toward the revitalization of Hollywood.”
Labor unions and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce hailed the council’s vote approving the project, which could break ground as early as next year.
Opponents vowed to file a lawsuit to stop the project, citing the earthquake issues. Their attorney said he would allege the developer failed to conduct an adequate environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act. He also said he would accuse the city planning commission of a conflict of interest because one of its members allegedly has performed work for the developer.
“This is not only a horrific project, but also a horrific abuse of the process,” Silverstein said.
Letting things go is key to a longer, happier marriage
Negotiation is at the heart of how we as a culture like to deal with conflicts. From your work life to your home life, how often has the saying "let's talk about it" come up when things hit a snag? But this collective impulse runs counter to the findings of a new study.
San Francisco State University psychologist Sarah Holley followed over 100 couples for 13 years to see how they approach conflict resolution and finds that for older married couples at least, avoiding talking about conflicts actually leads to happier marriages.
Why is this the case? How do you deal with conflicts in your relationship? Does avoiding a persistently thorny issue work for you and your partner?
Guest:
Sarah Holley, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of the Relationships, Emotion, and Health Lab at the San Francisco State University and author of the study.
Edmunds.com's top 10 biggest auto failures of the past decade (photos)
The folks at Edmunds.com recently listed the top 10 auto failures of the past decade, using criteria like sales performance, design, and practicality.
They stayed away from the easy task of simply listing the most aesthetically challenged vehicles, instead taking into account sales data from April 2013 to judge which cars didn't quite live up to the hype. Scott Oldham of Edmunds.com says it wasn't difficult to come up with a list of auto failures.
"Car companies are always trying new things, and in the last 20 years there's been a real trend to try and find some white space in the market and launch a niche car," said Oldham on AirTalk. "It doesn't work out too well. There are a lot of examples of this kind of thing, and ten is really just scraping the tip of the iceberg."
Scroll down for the full list of auto failures and read what Oldham says qualified each for a spot on this the not-so-coveted list.
10.) Honda Insight (67,128 sold)
"This is an interesting case, the first Insight was sort of a two-seat little hatchback sports car, which prevented it from really catching on despite its high mileage. It was just too impractical to really capture the heart of the market. Then of course the Prius came out and showed the world that there is a market for a hybrid if its in a body style that is also useful, practical and universal.
Then they came out with the second generation Insight that basically mimics that package. But it had other problems and it just wasn't as good as the Prius. Therefore the Insight has been relegated to a very distant second place, and it really isn't a factor anymore."
9.) Ford Thunderbird (59,200 sold)
"This is a great looking car. If you see one on the freeway they still do look good. The problem with this car was its price, it was expensive, but also the interior didn't really reinforce the retro high style design like the exterior did. Once you got inside it was kind of generic Ford, that just kept it from being desirable. Plus, honestly, it didn't drive very well."
8.) Chrystler Crossfire (52,217 sold)
"This was one of these cars like the Thunderbird that was just really cool to look at, kind of a design exercise that everybody said you've got to build it, so they did. The issue with this car is that it was built on an old Mercedes SLK platform, which meant it was extremely cramped on the inside and it cost a lot of money.
It was a very expensive car, especially with the Chrystler brand on it. And while they never really expected to sell many of these, it was sort of a small, little sporty car product, it did even worse than that. So they moved on pretty quickly and there was no second generation of a Crossfire."
7.) Chevrolet SSR (23,479 sold)
"I always call this the margarita method of car building, where you just throw a bunch of stuff into a blender, you hit puree and hope something that comes out it cool. Some people like the SSRs, but those people probably have never driven one. They are big, heavy, cumbersome. A convertible pick up trucks with two seats is a problem nobody asked for the answer to. One of those things where you wonder what they were thinking."
6.) Lexus HS 250H (20,875 sold)
"This is Toyota saying, 'Everyone wants a Prius, why don't we take the Prius and turn it into a Lexus?' They did that, but in the execution it became one of the worst-driving, hideously ugly vehicles of all time. Surprise, nobody wants one. They sit on dealer lots for quite a while and they've only sold 20,000 of them over several years now. Again, it's an exercise in spreadsheet car design that just didn't really pan out."
5.) Cadillac XLR (13,302 sold)
"It's not a bad-looking vehicle. The problem with this is there's so much better product out in the market, especially the Mercedes SL, which has obviously dominated that luxury two-seat convertible space since the 60s.
Cadillac said how could we make our own so they took a Corvette and they made it into a Cadillac is what they did there. Surprise, when you do something half-in, then you get half the success and it just didn't really work for them."
4.) Acura ZDX (5,828 sold)
"They made an incredibly ugly crossover with no utility. You can't fit anything or anyone in it, and its disgusting to look at. I'm pretty sure they don't remember what they were thinking either."
3.) Lexus LS 600h L (2,055 sold)
"This is a hybrid version of the LS 460, it's supposed to compete with the 12-cylinder versions of the BMW 7-series and Audi A8, the problem with this is it doesn't perform as well as them, and it gets worse fuel mileage than the LS 460 without the hybrid. And it costs a ton of money. So this is one of those vehicles that I think the marketing team got ahead of the engineering team and it just didn't turn into a very good product."
2.) Mitsubishi i MiEV (1,420 sold)
"It's actually pronounces "Meev", which is one of the problems. This is a tiny little electrically powered pod that is hard to believe anyone would want it, all you need to do is take a look at a photo of it and it's not hard to figure out why people weren't clamoring to buy these things. Essentially its a little electric car with very little range. It doesn't go very far on a charge and that would make it sales proof regardless of its styling."
1.) Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet (1,078 sold)
"I was up in the San Jose area a month ago and I actually saw one of these driving down the road. I saw the guy that bought one. It was quite a moment. This is a strange vehicle, and its not the first time a company has experimented with a convertible version of a crossover SUV, but it is sort of the latest. There are parts of this vehicle that are actually pretty cool. It drives very well, the interior is beautiful.
What's held it back, besides that it's just an oddity, that you've got to wonder do you really want an SUV with very little utility? It is very unattractive. I don't think anyone would tell you that this is a beautiful car, they obviously took a four-door crossover and turned it into a two-door convertible, and it just didn't work in translation. Worse than that it is very expensive, because they only did plan on selling not that many, it is over $50,000 for one of these things. I don't think anyone at Nissan thought that this was going to be the best selling vehicle in America, but I think they thought they were going to find a little niche for it."