LAUSD board members meet today to vote on how best to handle some of the district's lowest-performing schools. Frustrated parents have played an active role in the development of a plan, and we discuss their concerns as well as possible outcomes. We also debrief on the Singapore summit; question why Uber wants to know its passengers' sobriety statuses; and more.
After historic US-North Korea summit, mapping out the diplomatic road ahead and a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of denuclearization
History was made with a handshake on Tuesday morning Singapore time as President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un met and signed an agreement last night at the conclusion of their historic summit.
The agreement calls for a denuclearized Korean peninsula in exchange for security assurances from the U.S. government, which also agreed to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea. But the agreement does not get into much detail as to what exactly “denuclearization” means for North Korea or any timetable for how long that might take.
Perhaps more notable than the non-specific agreement, was the sight of both men behaving so cordially to each other after the bellicose back and forth. The man with the bigger nuclear button and so-called “Rocket Man” were seemingly fast friends.
What’s the immediate result of the summit? What should our expectations be moving forward? And what actually goes into the process of denuclearizing a country?
Guests:
Sung-Yoon Lee, an expert on the Koreas and professor in Korean Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University
Abraham Denmark, Asia program director at the Wilson Center in D.C.; former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for East Asia (2015-2017), where he worked with the Secretary of Defense and other U.S. leaders in developing North Korea national security strategies
Celeste Arrington, political science and international affairs professor at George Washington University in D.C., where her speciality is on the Koreas and Japan
Today’s big AT&T / TimeWarner decision could decide how you pay for your favorite TV programs
The fate of the AT&T-Time Warner merger, a massive media deal opposed by the government that could shape how much consumers pay for streaming TV and movies, rests in the hands of a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon is expected to announce in court Tuesday his decision in the biggest antitrust trial in years. The Trump Justice Department sued to block the $85 billion merger, arguing that it would hurt competition in pay TV and cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars more to stream TV and movies.
The decision is expected at around 1:00pm Pacific today. Larry speaks with Reuter’s media columnist Jennifer Saba on the potential outcome, and how it might impact the mega media takeover of 21st Century Fox.
With files from the Associated Press
Guest:
Jennifer Saba, New York-based business and media columnist with Reuters Breakingviews, the op-ed arm of Reuters; she’s been following the merger
Keep the day job: Why folks aren’t quitting their conventional 9 to 5 despite the rise of the gig economy
Despite the rise of Uber and Lyft, a new survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the full-time gig economy isn’t actually growing.
As reported by the Washington Post, rideshare drivers may be changing the face of the transportation industry, but not the gig economy as a whole. U.S. workers in flexible jobs were down to 6.9 percent in 2017 from 7.4 percent in 2005. Traditional jobs are still the bread and butter of the economy, but that doesn’t mean people are shying away from the side hustle.
But the report didn’t count subcontracting and other gigs outside of the conventional work day. And companies are continuing to outsource jobs like janitorial work, computer programming and other positions in order to mitigate costs.
So why aren’t more people ditching the 9 to 5 to be their own bosses? Larry speaks to economists today to break down the numbers. We also want to hear from you. Did you ditch your office job to cobble together full-time “gig” work? Are you working outside your eight-hour day to make ends meet?
Guests:
Heidi Shierholz, economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based, liberal policy think-tank; she is also a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor (2014 to 2016)
Will Rinehart, director of technology and innovation policy at the American Action Forum, a Washington D.C.-based, conservative policy think-tank
DoJ drops asylum protection for victims of crime and domestic violence
Immigration judges generally cannot consider domestic and gang violence as grounds for asylum, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday in a ruling that could affect large numbers of Central Americans who have increasingly turned to the United States for protection.
"Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-government actors will not qualify for asylum," Sessions wrote in 31-page decision. "The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes - such as domestic violence or gang violence - or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim."
The widely expected move overruled a Board of Immigration Appeals decision in 2016 that gave asylum status to a woman from El Salvador who fled her husband. Sessions reopened the case for his review in March as the administration stepped up criticism of asylum practices. Sessions took aim at one of five categories to qualify for asylum - persecution for membership in a social group - calling it "inherently ambiguous."
The other categories are for race, religion, nationality and political affiliation. Domestic violence is a "particularly difficult crime to prevent and prosecute, even in the United States," Sessions wrote, but its prevalence in El Salvador doesn't mean that its government was unwilling or unable to protect victims any less so than the United States. Sessions said the woman obtained restraining orders against her husband and had him arrested at least once. "No country provides its citizens with complete security from private criminal activity, and perfect protection is not required," he wrote.
The government does not say how many asylum claims are for domestic or gang violence but their advocates said there could be tens of thousands of domestic violence cases in the current immigration court backlog.
So what do you think, should the government drop asylum protections for victims of domestic violence?
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization; she tweets
Bill Hing, immigration law expert; professor of law and director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, a program at University of San Francisco School of Law that represents unaccompanied immigrant children and women with children who arrive at the southern border
LAUSD board voting on ambitious school performance goal plan — but is it setting up schools for failure?
The LAUSD school board is voting today on a plan that would set goals to improve school performance, graduation rates and college and career readiness.
The resolution is called “Realizing the Promise for All: Close the Gap by 2023,” and goals include that all eighth-graders should pass math and English with at least a C grade and that every graduating student be eligible for a four year public university.
The plan has been criticized for being too pie-in-the-sky – for setting too many 100 percent goals and thereby setting up schools for failure.
What would this plan actually achieve? Would it have a counterproductive effect? If you’re a teacher or parent, what do you think of the resolution?
Guests:
Kyle Stokes, K-12 education reporter for KPCC; he tweets
Elise Buik, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles; United Way is part of Communities for Los Angeles Student Success (CLASS), the coalition which is a sponsor of the “Close the Gap” resolution; she tweets from
Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of UTLA, the union representing 34,000 educators and health and human service professionals
Think twice before drinking and...riding? Uber wants to develop AI to determine if a passenger is drunk
Among the many upsides of using rideshare services like Uber and Lyft is the ability to call yourself a car when you find yourself in a situation where driving would earn you a DUI... The $20 cost of a rideshare is a small price to pay when you compare it to the tens of thousands of dollars it often costs to deal with a DUI charge.
But what if the app where you order your car could tell if you’ve been drinking and tailor its response accordingly?
In a patent filed in 2016 and published last week, Uber says it’s exploring how to develop AI technology that could determine whether someone using the app to order a car is under the influence of alcohol. The feature would rely on an algorithm that would look for things like how long it takes a user to navigate the app and request a ride, walking speed, precision when pressing buttons, and even typos. The app could then decide to, for example, send a driver who is experienced with intoxicated riders or has indicated a willingness to drive them, or to simply not send a driver at all.
If you’re a driver or rider for a rideshare service, what do you think of this idea? Do you think there should be incentives for drivers to pick up intoxicated riders? As a driver, how much of a strain is driving intoxicated passengers?
AirTalk contacted Uber and invited them to participate in our discussion. They declined our invitation but a spokeswoman for Uber sent us the following statement:
“We are always exploring ways that our technology can help improve the Uber experience for riders and drivers. We file patent applications on many ideas, but not all of them actually become products or features.”
Guest:
Harry Campbell, Los Angeles-based Uber and Lyft driver, founder of the rideshare blog and podcast ‘The Rideshare Guy,’ and author of the book “The Rideshare Guide: Everything You Need to Know about Driving for Uber, Lyft and Other Ridesharing Companies” (Skyhorse, April 2018); he tweets