Today on AirTalk, we examine a proposed bill that would protect homeless people living in their vehicles by preventing cities from impounding cars that have received five or more unpaid parking tickets or out of date registration. We also discuss how using GPS impacts your brain and sense of place; and more.
LA City Council Voted Against Loosening Car Impounding Restrictions
Skyrocketing rents and stagnant wages have left California in an unprecedented housing crisis.
There are about 60,000 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles alone, of which 16,500 live out of their vehicles.
On Tuesday, Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) proposed a bill in Sacramento that would prevent cities from impounding cars that have received five or more unpaid parking tickets or registration that is six months out of date.
Supporters of AB-516 argue that those who are forced to live out of their cars miss ticket and registration payments because they cannot afford them, rather than out of neglect.
The City Council, who opposed the bill on a 12-1 vote, made the argument that there are mechanisms for homeless individuals to retrieve their cars if they are towed, like working off their fees.
We hear both sides of the debate and want to hear from you.
Have you had to live out of your car and had it impounded? Or have impounding fees been too expensive for you to afford to retrieve your car?
Call us at 866-893-5722 to weigh in.
Guests:
Chris Roth, community organizer with Ground Game Los Angeles, a not-for-profit organization that builds civic engagement in Los Angeles; he is also running for the California State Assembly in 2020; he tweets
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Los Angeles City Councilmember representing the 8th District, which encompasses parts of South Los Angeles and spans from Baldwin Hills to the border of Watts; he opposes the bill; he tweets
Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association
Sure, It’ll Get You From A To B, But How Does GPS Impact Your Brain And Sense Of Place
If you ask someone for directions to a location, they’ll probably look at you with puzzlement and give you an address you can plug in to your GPS instead.
While GPS technology was fully operational for military use in 1995, it became commonplace in the mass market over the last fifteen years or so.
Since then, millions around the world have become reliant on the technology to get around.
According to neuroscientists, regular GPS use has taken a toll on perception and judgement, and even on engagement with our physical environment.
Larry sits down with a researcher who studies the effect of GPS use to discuss how regular use can impact the brain.
Guest:
Véronique D. Bohbot, cognitive neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and professor in the department of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal; she uses navigation to study different types of memory
Guess Which State First Passed A Chemical Castration Law That Alabama Is Copying? California
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law legislation that would require certain sex offenders to be chemically castrated before their parole.
Gov. Kay Ivey’s press office said Monday that she had signed the bill, which is to take effect later this year. The measure applies to sex offenders convicted of certain crimes involving children younger than 13.
Chemical castration involves injection of medication that blocks testosterone production. Under the measure, certain offenders must receive the medication before they are paroled from prison. A judge would decide when the medication could be stopped.
Long before Alabama’s law, California passed a similar piece of legislation in the 1990s requiring repeat sex offenders to be chemically castrated. A handful of other states have also authorized chemical castration, though in most places it’s optional for offenders, usually allowing them to expedite their parole.
In regards to Alabama’s new law, some legal groups have raised concerns about the use of forced medication.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Justin Levitt, professor of law at Loyola Law School and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under President Obama; he tweets
Dmitry Gorin, a former sex crime prosecutor in the Los Angeles DA’s office and a criminal defense attorney at the Eisner Gorin Law Firm; he tweets
Elizabeth Deane, associate attorney with the Las Vegas office of the law firm of Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara, LLP; she has written about the constitutionality of the law for the Chapman Law Review in 2009; the piece is titled, “Chemical Castration for Child Predators: Practical, Effective, and Constitutional”
The Navy’s Draft Guidelines On Reporting UFOs — And No, They’re Not Necessarily From Outer Space
In April, it was reported that the U.S. Navy was creating guidelines for pilots for how to report sightings of unidentified aircrafts, or UFOs.
In a statement to POLITICO, the Navy said that this effort to formalize this process is a response to a spate of recent sightings.
Despite being synonymous in many people’s minds with extraterrestrial life, a UFO is not necessarily a spaceship. In fact, there are many common explanations for such sightings, such as planes, birds or natural phenomena. But their existence does leave open the possibility of alien life.
We get the latest on the Navy’s draft guidelines, as well as the common explanations for UFOs, the government’s history of dealing with them and the likelihood that they may be alien matter.
Guests:
Mike Wall, senior writer at Space.com; his recent book is "Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel (For the Cosmically Curious)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018)
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California
The Best Museums You Have Ever Visited
We’ve all heard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. and the Louvre in Paris – but there are plenty of museums that don’t gain international recognition, and they might just be worth a visit.
There’s a Newseum, a MOOseum, and two Brewseums. There’s a Museum of Death, a Museum of Broken Relationships and a Museum of Ice Cream. There’s even a Museum of Bad Art if you want to feel a little better about your own artistic capabilities.
What is the most specific or strange museum you’ve ever been to? Which museum is your favorite? And are there any you’ve heard of that you’re dying to visit? Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guest:
Mike Roe, arts & entertainment editor at LAist.com; he tweets