What we know about the university shooting; Meet the Candidates: Loretta Sanchez talks about the changes she would make if voted California Senator; and can digital devices like Pavlok help break bad habits?
2 dead in UCLA murder-suicide, including professor
Meet the US Senate candidates: Loretta Sanchez
AirTalk’s U.S. Senate race coverage continues with the top candidates vying to fill Barbara Boxer’s seat.
With the June 7 primary looming, Larry Mantle has welcomed Republican candidates Ron Unz, Duf Sundheim and most recently, Tom Del Beccaro to share their vision for California. Loretta Sanchez and Kamala Harris, both Democrats, are frontrunners in the last weeks before the Senate election. Today, we speak to Sanchez, who remains second to Harris in the race.
Sanchez may be most notable as a Congresswoman from Orange County. At last month’s final U.S. Senate debate, she promoted her roots as part of a “working-class, bilingual Southern California family.”
Throughout her campaign, Sanchez has emphasized the need for immigration reform and raising the minimum wage, correlating her experience as the daughter of Mexican immigrants to the plight of those who are undocumented and seeking work and educational opportunities in the U.S.
Sanchez has also served on the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees and has touted herself as the only candidate with national security experience. Her other platforms include support of the Affordable Care Act and raising the maximum award for the Federal Pell Grant Program for college students.
Sanchez’s struggles during the Senate race have included separating herself from Kamala Harris. Both candidates are for raising the minimum wage, access to education for undocumented immigrants and reproductive rights for women. Larry Mantle speaks with Sanchez today on what makes her plans for California unique and how she intends to implement her policies, should she win the Senatorial seat.
Guest:
Loretta Sanchez, U.S. Senate candidate and Congresswoman representing California’s 46th District, which includes Santa Ana, Anaheim and parts of Garden Grove and Orange in Orange County
Metro Board watchers say CA Senate reform bill rife with bad consequences
In an effort to increase representation for certain areas on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors, State Senator Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) has proposed a bill that would add eight seats to the board.
“Adding two more public members will ensure that Metro fairly represents the entire County of Los Angeles. Doing this will improve Metro’s ability to develop a regional transit plan that meets the needs of all county residents,” Mendoza said. The bill would require the two additional members be residents of L.A. County and not live in the same city as any other Metro Board member when they are appointed.
Some who are wary of the impact of this bill say it has the potential to sink Metro’s long term plans for expanding public transit access. In an L.A. Times op-ed, former Metro Board members Zev Yaroslavsky and Richard Katz say Senator Mendoza is mainly upset that a project in his district isn’t a top priority for Metro and that if passed, the bill would not only detrimentally dilute L.A. County’s influence on the board but also slow Metro’s recent progress to a halt.
Guests:
Tony Mendoza, California Democratic Senator for Artesia; Author of SB 1472 that would increase the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors from 14 to 16 members
Zev Yaroslavsky, former Los Angeles County Supervisor, and is now affiliated with the UCLA’s history department, and the Luskin School of Public Affairs; he tweets from
Addiction expert explains the buzz surrounding shock therapy wearables
Are you a nail biter? Maybe you’re trying to quit smoking and normal cessation techniques aren’t working?
A new wearable wants to help you kick those bad habits using Pavlovian conditioning to make the person associate the bad habit with a negative action. The device, called Pavlok, is worn around the wrist like a watch.
Any time a user wants to engage in the bad habit, a tap of the device administers a shock, and you can even choose how strong it is. The product’s website claims you can see results in as little as five days and shows videos of people who claim to have broken nail biting, smoking, and junk food-eating habits by using the device.
Pavlok is not the first wearable of its kind, as other companies have created technology that can be worn to help condition patients out of bad habits or to reach goals. However, many of the other products simply vibrate as a reminder, where Pavlok actually shocks you with the intent of making you associate your bad habit with a negative feeling.
The jury is still out in the medical community on exactly how useful this technology will be, but there are doctors and psychiatrists who are interested in supplementing their patients’ treatment with a device like Pavlok, and even some who have used it and claim success.
Would you ever consider using a wearable like Pavlok?
Guest:
Michelle Freedland, psychiatric nurse practitioner at Union Square Practice