As 14 large wildfires burn in California and the drought continues, two California members of Congress are working respectively to help the state combat both. Also, a study shows same-sex couples might be more effective when it comes to divvying up the chores. Then, as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this week we look at the latest tech helping those with disabilities.
Fires, drought and drones — all you need to know about June’s water numbers, Feinstein’s drought bill, Schiff’s drone mitigation plan, and the state’s raging wildfires
As 14 large wildfires burn in California and the drought continues, two California members of Congress are working respectively to help the state combat both.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has filed a bill that would allocate $1.3 billion over the next 10 years to desalination, storage, and other water projects. Meanwhile, Burbank Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff says he and other members of California’s Congressional Delegation are looking into drone mitigation technology that would prevent drones from being operated in a way that interferes with first responders.
Firefighters battling wildfires in the San Bernardino National Forest and elsewhere have been plagued by people flying drones in the area where they’re working. All this comes on the same day the State Water Board is set to release data from June on whether water districts are meeting their respective cutback levels. It will be a strong indicator of the progress many Southern California communities have made since the cutbacks were mandated, and certainly will light a fire under any water districts that are falling behind in conservation.
Today, we’ll check in with Cal Fire’s director on the wildfire fighting effort, talk to Congressman Adam Schiff about keeping drones out of first responders’ way with ‘geo-fencing,’ and talk with the managers at several water districts across the South Coast about how they’re doing with meeting the mandated cutback levels.
California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014
Guests:
Chief Ken Pimlott, Director, Cal Fire
Rep. Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman for California’s 28th District (Stretching from West Hollywood to the eastern border of Pasadena, and from Echo Park to the Angeles National Forest) and a member of the House Appropriations Committee
Joe Del Bosque, farmer and owner of Del Bosque Farms in the city of Firebaugh in Fresno County
Doug Obegi, Water Program staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Steve Gregory, KPCC environment and science editor
Tom Tait, director of Public Works Services for the City of Arcadia
Chad Blais, Deputy Director of Public Works, City of Compton
Joe Berg, Director of Water Use Efficiency for the Municipal Water District of Orange County
Impact of dividing household labor on coexisting with your significant other
Chores are...well...a chore. And when you’re in a relationship, getting stuff done around the house usually means dividing up the chores somehow.
It’s easy to divide household labor based on gender roles -- it’s what many families have done for years, when men were traditionally the primary breadwinner, did the yard work, fixed the house/car/appliances, etc., while women did the cooking, cleaning, childcare, and shopping. But in a time when more couples are waiting to get married and are both working full time, the way labor is divided is changing.
As it turns out, same-sex couples might be more effective when it comes to divvying up the chores.
A recent article in the Washington Post referenced a study from the Families and Work Institute and PriceWaterhouseCoopers that showed same-sex couples divide up work based on preference rather than gender roles or power position in the relationship. It also showed that in straight couples, those who earn or work less were often responsible for the more stereotypically female jobs like cooking and cleaning.
How do you divide labor in your house? Do you tend to fall into gender roles when it comes to chores or do you decide with your significant other? Do straight couples divide up labor differently than same-sex couples do? What are the results? How big an impact does division of labor in the household have on the relationship?
You can listen back to Larry's interview with Andrew Solomon back in 2012 here.
Guest:
Andrew Solomon, author of “Far from the Tree: Children, Parents, and the Search for Identity” (Scribner, 2013). He’s also a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University
As ADA turns 25, a look at how technology has changed what it means to have a physical disability
Technology has brought unimaginable changes to how we live – a fact that perhaps rings truer for those living with a disability than most.
Bionic limbs have extended greater mobility to those living with physical disabilities. Self-driving cars could one day provide greater autonomy to those with vision problems. 3D printing technology has made prosthetic hands an inexpensive reality for many amputees.
Underlying these advancements is the question of access – who can afford it and who can’t. What are the latest advancements in bionic technology? Technology will no doubt play a role in changing how a physical disability is perceived or defined, but can it eradicate the social stigma associated with it?
Our panel of experts join Larry to discuss these questions and more, as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this week.
Guests:
Jennifer French, founder of Neurotech Network of The Society to Increase Mobility, a non-profit organization focusing to improve the education of and the advocacy to access neurotechnology devices, like bionic limbs for persons with impairments
Nathan Harding, CEO of Ekso Bionics, a company that builds exoskeleton technology for those that are disabled based in Richmond, California. He is also a co-inventor of the company’s core exoskeleton technology
Ivan Owen, manages the Makerspace Lab at the University of Washington, which focuses on 3-d printing and other experimental tech innovations. He is the co-inventor of the first printable prosthetic hand and a member of e-Nable, a community of scientists and volunteers working to provide affordable 3-d printed hands for those that need them
Gregor Wolbring, Associate Professor of Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies at the University of Calgary in Canada
'Best of Enemies' shows how ABC's 1968 political coverage fomented rabid TV news punditry
A new documentary from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville uses powerful, nostalgic 1960s television footage to show us how two men, Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, altered forever the media as we know it today.
In 1968, ABC News' ratings were so bad, people used to joke that if the network started broadcasting the Vietnam War, it would have been canceled in 13 weeks.
Desperate for a turnaround, the network hired conservative thinker and showman, William F. Buckley, and famed leftist novelist, Gore Vidal, to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican conventions. Their mutual enmity, deep-seated distrust, and magnetic personalities caused a ratings boom and marked the dawn of pundit television (and radio). Do Vidal and Buckley deserve praise or blame for their influence?
Guests:
Morgan Neville, Co-Director/Co-Producer, "Best of Enemies;" Neville's past films include "Twenty Feet from Stardom," "Johnny Cash's America"
Robert Gordon, Co-Director/Co-Producer, "Best of Enemies;" Gordon is a Grammy Award-winning writer and filmmaker