On Thursday, all six members of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and the superintendent voted to place a new education tax on the June 4 special election ballot. We also check in on drought plans in the West; review this weekend’s new movie releases; and more.
LAUSD board unanimously votes to add parcel tax on June ballot — where would the money go?
On Thursday, all six members of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and the superintendent voted to place a new education tax on the June 4 special election ballot.
According to the district, increased revenue could generate $500 million annually.
The approved version of the tax would ask property owners within L.A. unified to be willing to spend up to $450 more a year to save a district still recovering from the aftermath of a painful, six-day strike.
The bill would require two-thirds approval to pass. We discuss the pros and cons.
Guests:
Ariella Plachta, reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News covering local government, education and culture in the San Fernando Valley; she’s been following this story; she tweets
Mónica García, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
Salvador Rodriguez, opinion editor for the Southern California News Group
San Bernardino County has voted to restrict development of large solar energy projects
San Bernardino’s County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to prohibit construction of large renewable energy projects in certain private areas.
The ban was approved with a 4-1 vote.
The decision comes as many local residents urged the county supervisors to approve the restrictions, suggesting smaller solar installations on parking lots and rooftops instead of large-scaled solar and wind farms. Developers argued that solar projects could benefit the economy by creating jobs and tax revenues.
So how has solar energy evolved in California? And what are some of the challenges solar energy faces today? We discuss the San Bernardino decision and what it means for the state of solar energy in California.
Guests:
Robert Lovingood, San Bernardino Supervisor representing the District 1, which covers the high desert area from the top of the Cajon Pass to the Nevada and Arizona state lines; he tweets
Tim Mason, policy director, Large Scale Solar Association, an industry trade association based in Sacramento
Lucas Davis, energy economist; business and technology professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
Push for Salton Sea restoration stalls drought plans in the West — we get the latest
A Southern California irrigation district with the highest-priority rights to water from a major Western river is using its power to demand federal funds to restore the state’s largest lake, hoping to capitalize on one of its best opportunities yet to tackle a long-standing environmental and human health hazard.
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) wants $200 million for the Salton Sea, a massive, briny lake that straddles Riverside and Imperial counties created when the Colorado River breached a dike in 1905 and flooded a dry lake bed. The money would help create habitat for migratory birds and suppress dust in communities with high rates of asthma and respiratory illnesses.
The district says that if the federal government doesn’t commit to giving California the money, it won’t sign off on a multi-state plan to preserve the river’s two largest reservoirs amid a prolonged drought.
Plus, in the latest turn of events, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has offered up water from its own reserves on behalf of the IID to push the drought contingency plan forward.
We check in on the latest.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Emily C. Dooley, reporter covering California for Bloomberg Environment; she tweets
Tina Shields, manager for Imperial Irrigation District’s Water Department where she focuses on Colorado River resources, planning, water conservation and management functions; she oversees I.I.D.’s Colorado River water supply entitlement
Michael Cohen, senior researcher at the Pacific Institute, a non-profit that focuses on water policy; his areas of expertise and the Colorado river and the Salton Sea
James Eklund, legal counsel at the firm Squire Patton Bogg and Colorado’s state representative on Colorado River issues; he previously served as director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and is the former architect of the Colorado River Plan; he tweets
FilmWeek: ‘How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,’ ‘Greta,’ ‘Apollo 11’ and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Lael Loewenstein, Wade Major and Charles Solomon review this weekend’s new movie releases.
- "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" in wide release
- "Greta" in wide release
- "Apollo 11" in select theaters in IMAX only (check local listings)
- "Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral" in wide release
- "The Wedding Guest" at the Arclight Hollywood & The Landmark Theater
- "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" at Landmark's Regent Theatre & streaming on Netflix
- "The Hole in the Ground" at Laemmle's NoHo
- "This Magnificent Cake" at Laemmle's Glendale
- "Saint Judy" in select theaters (check local listings)
- "Ruben Brandt Collector" at Laemmle's Monica Film Center, Laemmle's Playhouse & University Town Center Cinema
- "Wrestle" at Laemmle's Monica Film Center
- "The Wild Bunch" at Ahrya Fine Arts Center (Saturday March 2nd only)
- "Mapplethorpe" at Landmark's Nuart Theatre
- "Climax" at Arclight Hollywood
- "Touch Me Not" at Laemmle's Glendale
CRITICS' HITS:
Wade: 'Greta,' 'The Wedding Guest' & 'The Wild Bunch'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAEoJkL_8zU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NlJ_Q7EfDc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdy0t_8mQBw
Lael: 'Apollo 11'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Co8Z8BQgWc
Charles: 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' & 'Wrestle'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkcucKDrbOI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVMhjl3fXBY
MIXED FEELINGS:
Wade: 'The Hole in the Ground' & 'Saint Judy'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxY2vnJiByw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8qvdfdQ9xA
Lael: 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPkr9HmglG0
Charles: 'This Magnificent Cake' & 'Ruben Brandt, Collector'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEN_uwQG-Wk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dOZpivfNxw
MISSES:
Wade: 'Climax' & 'Touch Me Not'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi69nL_VrTE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HyzgnKceP0
Charles: 'Mapplethorpe'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvXLMpjyqpU
Guests:
Lael Loewenstein, KPCC film critic; she tweets
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and CineGods.com
Charles Solomon, film critic for KPCC, Animation Scoop and Animation Magazine
Stanley Donen, acclaimed director of ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, dies at 94
Filmmaker Stanley Donen, director and co-director of some of Hollywood’s greatest movie musicals, including “On the Town,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, and what many critics consider to be one of the best-known movie musicals “Singin' in the Rain,” died in New York from heart failure on Thursday February 23rd. He was 94.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1924 Donen fell in love with movies at an early age, viewing them as an escape from the tensions of being teased as one of the few Jews growing up in the rural community. Donen also took tap dancing lessons at an early age, and actually got his start in show business as a performer. Donen had his start on Broadway as a chorus boy, dancing in the original Broadway production of “Pal Joey” at age 16 and it was there that he met actor, singer, and future collaborator, Gene Kelly. Kelly would actually give Donen his first big break in Hollywood, helping him get the job as choreographer on his 1944 film “Cover Girl”.
A little more than 5 years after “Cover Girl” at the age of 25, Donen co-directed his first film with Kelly in 1949’s “On the Town”, but arguably Donen’s biggest film would come three years later when “Singin' in the Rain” was released in 1952 to critical, commercial and cultural acclaim.
Donen’s other directing credits include 1958’s “Indiscreet”, the marital comedy “Two for the Road” starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney, 1978’s “Movie Movie” and his final feature film “Blame It On Rio” from 1984.
Over the years, Donen worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood including George Abbott, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Fred Astaire and his films were known for a certain charm and elegance in a time when movies were known for their glitz and glamour. Although Donen was never nominated for an Oscar for his expansive catalogue of films, the Academy did recognize his contribution to film and gave him the lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1998 Academy Awards “in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.”
Guest:
Stephen M. Silverman, author of “Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and his Movies” (Knopf, 1996); he was a journalist and editor for 20 years with Time, Inc., where he was also a founding editor of People.com; his upcoming book is “The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills, and the Dreamers and Schemers Who Built Them” (Black Dog & Leventhal, May 2019); he tweets