Just how much water did we lose due yesterday's UCLA busted water main? Also, a federal appeals court ruled last week that Florida legally can discourage physicians from asking patients about their gun ownership. Then, are skin whitening products dangerous and should they be banned? Finally, Eric Liu talks about his new book, 'A Chinaman's Chance.'
Putting the UCLA water main break in context
UCLA’s busted water main is the water cooler talk of today. The 30-foot geyser sent 10 million gallons of water into the streets of Westwood and UCLA’s campus in the course of the 3 hours it took the DWP to shut off the valves. UCLA is the big story of the day, but this is actually the 4th water main break of this month, after ones in Koreatown, Venice and Highland Park.
Could they all be related? We’ll take a deeper look at the region’s antiquated water system and also try to answer the question on many water-conserving angelenos’ minds: just how much water is 10 million gallons? We’ll put that in some perspective.
Guests:
Mike Miller, District Superintendent for DWP
Yazdan Emrani, Vice President / Principal at Hall & Foreman, an engineering and land planning services firm in Valencia, California. As part of the American Society of Civil Engineers, he helped launch the first ever comprehensive infrastructure report card for California
Ellen Hanak, economist with the Public Policy Institute of California and author of the recent report “Paying for Water in California”
Jon Christensen, assistant professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and editor of Boom: A Journal of California
Court upholds Florida's controversial 'docs and glocks' law
A federal appeals court ruled last week that Florida legally can discourage physicians from asking patients about their gun ownership. Florida passed the law in 2011 that cautions against such a question "when doing so would be irrelevant to patients' medical care" and doing so could lead to disciplinary measures. The law was challenged by several doctors organizations who argue gun safety is a medical issue. Statistics show 80 percent of unintentional firearm deaths of children under the age of 15 happen in a home.
The National Rifle Association lobbied for the law and applauded the recent ruling, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. "It is not a physician's business whether his or her patient chooses to exercise their fundamental, individual right to own a firearm," said Chris Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.
Will the NRA pursue similar laws across the land? If you own a gun, would you be offended or okay with your doctor speaking about it with you?
Guests:
Dr. Mobeen H. Rathore, MD, Practicing Physician and President of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Sam Paredes, Executive Director and Chief Lobbyist, Gun Owners of California
The confounding popularity of skin whitening creams
While people across California are lathering on sunblocks and tanning lotions to step into the summer sun, some are concerned solely with how not to get tan. For many people of color, especially women, light skin is a large part of looking beautiful. In countries like China, Korea, Japan, and India, skin whitening is a normal part of beauty routines.
Dermatologists and other health experts come down on different sides of the issue -- while some argue that the ingredients in skin lightening products are dangerous and should be banned, others say that these creams are less toxic than hair dyes, and that people with naturally dark skin should have access to treatments which may be used to help fade a scar or dark mark.
Are skin whitening products dangerous? Should they be banned?
Guests:
Eric Li, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He has researched extensively on the cultural phenomenon of skin whitening cream in Asian cultures
Virginia Lee,
at Euromonitor, a global market research firm. Lee has followed the skin whitening cream market
Sharing startups may get legitimacy boost from new business partnerships
Airbnb and Uber both announced this week that they would be partnering with Concur, a business travel and expense reporting company.
Airbnb’s collaboration with Concur is part of the launch of its business travel site, which includes partnerships with Lyft, Eventbrite, and Facebook, and is intended to streamline business travel for professional groups.
Easing the process of expense reports may add credibility to sharing startups like Airbnb and Uber -- for Concur, who might receive the reports anyway as business consumers continue to utilize these companies, the partnership is more about good customer service and keeping pace with the changing market.
Does teaming up with a large professional service company legitimize companies like Airbnb and Uber? How does the sharing economy’s breakthrough into the professional market compare to other shifts in that direction? Would you use Airbnb, Uber, or other sharing startups as part of business travel?
Guest:
Ryan Lawler, staff writer at TechCrunch
Former Clinton speechwriter Eric Liu on redefining Chinese-American identity
In “A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream,” Eric Liu redefines what it means to be Chinese-American in contemporary times.
Liu argues that the molding of Chinese Americans began with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act forbidding admittance to Chinese immigrants into the United States. Despite racism and xenophobia, Liu writes that Chinese Americans success grew in parallel with the rise of China, redefining what constitutes as success, virtue and identity in uncertain times.
As an author, columnist for Time.com, contributor to the Atlantic and former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, Liu draws on his professional and personal life experiences as well as essays and history to explain the Chinese-American experience.
Guest:
Eric Liu, author of “A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream”