Rupert Murdoch will be stepping down and is expected to appoint his son James as the next chief executive at 21st Century Fox. Also, the Los Angeles Unified School District board unanimously agreed to ease high school graduation requirements, no longer requiring a “C” grade or better in college prep classes. Then, new, smaller standards for carry-on luggage may be a new guideline for air travel.
Forecasting FOX’s future as founder Murdoch expected to fork over control to sons
The man who has been at the helm of 21st Century Fox since its founding is apparently planning to begin the company’s transfer of power to his sons.
CNBC broke the story Thursday, reporting that on the agenda at Fox’s next board meeting is the matter of succession in the company. Murdoch’s son James is expected to be appointed the next chief executive at 21st Century Fox, and his older brother, Lachlan, will have a larger role as executive chairman. It is believed that the elder Murdoch will remain an active part of the company as executive co-chairman, alongside Lachlan.
Fox’s chief operating officer, Chase Carey, is also expected to hand over operational control of Fox but still stay on in an advisory role through 2016. This may not sit well with some investors, who have long enjoyed having someone outside the Murdoch family in a senior role at the company.
21st Century Fox, known simply as Fox, is one of two companies created when Fox’s parent company, News Corporation, spun off its publishing arms in 2013. Included in 21st Century Fox’s holdings is Fox Entertainment Group, which owns the film studio 20th Century Fox and the Fox television network.
Does this pending transfer of power signal big changes coming to FOX? Do you think Murdoch’s sons will do business significantly different from their father or will they simply continue his legacy?
Guests:
Steve Hewlett, Presenter of "The Media Show" on BBC Radio 4 and columnist for "The Guardian"
Cynthia Littleton, Television Editor, Variety
State lawmakers give Prop. 13 reform another go
Democratic state senators Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) have introduced a measure aimed at reforming Proposition 13, which has been called the "third rail" of California politics.
The latest proposal concerns commercial and industrial properties only. Under the measure, offices, factories and other buildings would be reappraised periodically to make sure that they are taxed at current market value. Right now, commercial buildings are reassessed only when they are sold.
The measure needs a two-thirds vote in the Legislature before it'd qualify for the 2016 ballot. A previous, albeit narrower, attempt to overhaul Prop. 13 never made it out of the Legislature last year.
Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 5
Guests:
Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), state senator representing District 9, which include the cities of Richmond, Berkeley, and Oakland. She is a co-sponsor of the measure.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an organization dedicated to the advancement of taxpayers’ rights
Study looks at 4 ways carnivores justify eating meat
Climate change, a lack of investment in agricultural infrastructure and food wastage are a few reasons behind the persistence of global hunger.
But more and more research is pointing to the world's insatiable hunger for meat as another factor. In her book "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows," psychology Melanie Joy named three ways carnivores justify their meat consumption: that eating meat is normal, natural, and necessary. A team of researchers behind a new study published in the journal Appetite has added another N to the list: that eating meat just feels nice.
Here to talk about the new research is one its coauthors Hanne M. Watkins, and Melanie Joy, whose book provided the foundation for the new work.
Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns
Guests:
Hanne M. Watkins, co-author of the new study, “Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns” published in the journal Appetite. She is a PhD candidate in social psychology at The University of Melbourne in Australia
Melanie Joy, author of “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.” She is a professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
You now need a ‘D,’ not a ‘C,’ to get an LAUSD diploma
This week the Los Angeles Unified School District board unanimously agreed to ease high school graduation requirements, no longer requiring a “C” grade or better in college prep classes.
The school board is modifying a commitment made a decade ago to require so-called A-G courses, the classes required to become eligible for University of California and California State University entry, to earn a high school diploma.
Critics reject the idea that a “D” could be a passing grade and say that standard is ultimately failing students. But simply raising the standard to a “C” grade a decade ago didn’t dramatically improve student outcomes: more than 22,000 LAUSD students in the Class of 2017 risked losing out on a diploma they may have been eligible for in a neighboring district or nearby charter school.
Supporters of this week’s move say it’s acknowledging that college isn’t right for everyone and that the LAUSD shouldn’t be penalizing students in the district by holding them to a higher standard than their peers in neighboring districts. Despite that argument, LAUSD has recently cut back on trade school training but is for the first time in several years guaranteeing summer school at every LAUSD school.
What is the value of a high school diploma? And how should LAUSD be preparing students for life after high school?
Guests:
Annie Gilbertson, KPCC education reporter
Steve Zimmer, LAUSD Board Member, District 4
Maria Brenes, executive director of the advocacy group InnerCity Struggle
Airlines cracking down on carry-ons & online bookings; plus that new paparazzi-proof LAX terminal
This week, airlines around the world are weighing whether to adopt a new suggested guideline from the International Air Transport Association calling for a new, smaller standard for carry-on luggage.
Major American airlines typically allow bags up to 22 inches tall by 14 inches wide and 9 inches deep. The IATA suggests 21.5 inches by 13.5 by 7.5 would be more optimal for ensuring all passengers' bags find a spot. Several international airlines will adopt the rule soon including Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific.
No U.S. airlines have signed on yet, but Air Canada says it will not adopt the guidelines. That news from Canada's major airline comes after a different kind of clamp down: staff have been stationed at checkpoints at Toronto's Pearson International Airport measuring carry-on bags to ensure compliance.
If more airliners adopt new baggage rules, will you check your old, fat bags, or upgrade to new, skinny ones?
Also this week, The New York Times reported on a trend by airlines to limit third-party travel sites that show their fares and steer fliers to airliner websites. For instance, last week Lufthansa announced starting in September it would charge passengers about $18 for booking tickets at another website.
Have you noticed fewer choices when browsing travel sites?
Last but least in this travel news round-up, yesterday saw the ribbon-cutting opening of Delta's Terminal Five refurbishment at LAX. The three-year Delta project cost $229-million dollars in partnership with the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). The airline is branding its terminal as "a more premium airport experience, from check-in to take-off" - complete with a service that would help celebrities avoid paparazzi entirely with Porsche pick-ups from the tarmac.
What can less famous Angelenos look forward to at T5?
Guest:
Brian Sumers, Journalist based in LA covering airlines for Aviation Week
What scientists are learning about the link between birth month and disease risk
Babies born in July and October have a higher risk of asthma than babies born in other months.
This is just one of the findings of a new study published in the Journal of American Informatics Association, in which researchers say they’ve found a computational method to explore the relationship between birth month and risk of disease.
The study’s authors say they hope the research will help other scientists identify new disease risk factors. Scientists and looked at data from 1.7 million patients treated at Columbia University Medical Center between 1985 and 2013. Out of the nearly 1,700 disease associations compared, the researchers were able to rule out more than 1,600 of them, uncovered 16 new associations (including nine types of heart disease), and checked that the 55 diseases for which they did find associations didn’t just come about by chance.
Researchers say it’s important not to get too concerned about the study’s findings, because the risk of disease related to birth month is significantly less than the risk of disease related to diet or exercise.
What could this new data mean for doctors and researchers looking to prevent things like heart disease and asthma? Do you think it will cause people to plan out the month in which their child is born? Should this cause for concern for parents?
Birth Month Affects Lifetime Disease Risk: A Phenome-Wide Method
Guest:
Nicholas Tatonetti, Ph.D., senior lead author of the study “Birth Month Affects Lifetime Disease Risk: A Phenome-Wide Method.” He’s also an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia’s Data Science Institute