We take a look at two separate studies on exactly how a minimum wage hike would affect the Los Angeles economy. Also, Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders today proposed more than $1 billion in drought-relief spending for California. Then, The Federal Reserve is finally ready to hike interest rates, that could happen as soon as June. What does a rate hike mean for your wallet?
Debating dueling data on the effect of a minimum wage hike on the LA economy
Raising the minimum wage has been a hot topic of national debate in recent months, and now we’re getting a look at two separate studies on exactly how a minimum wage hike would affect the Los Angeles economy.
The L.A. City Council commissioned labor-friendly UC Berkeley to run a study that looked at the economic effects of raising minimum wage from $9 an hour to $13.25 an hour by 2017, and then to $15.25 an hour by 2019. However, because it was the second study of this kind done by a UC Berkeley team, the Chamber of Commerce decided to commission its own study on behalf of the local business community.
Some business leaders oppose the wage hike, saying it could lead to layoffs or increased costs for products and services. City Council’s Economic Development Committee will be holding meetings in the coming weeks to review the studies’ results.
What will the economic effects of a minimum wage hike be? How will Los Angeles residents interpret the results? Do you support or oppose the plan to raise minimum wage?
Guests:
Chris Thornberg, principal at Beacon Economics. Author of report, “Cost-Benefit Analysis: Los Angeles Minimum Wage Proposal,” commissioned by the LA Chamber of Commerce
Dan Flaming, President of the Economic Roundtable and author of the report, “Los Angeles Rising: A City That Works for Everyone”
Sacramento releases details on $1 billion drought-relief proposal
Governor Jerry Brown and leading Democratic legislators in Sacramento have proposed a $1 billion proposal to provide California with additional funding for drought-relief.
Among other details, the proposal would accelerate access to bond money, fund programs for water recycling, and support local drought relief and infrastructure projects. The core of the legislation would accelerate the roll-out of various portions of last year’s $7.5 billion water bond measure.
Join us on AirTalk, where we get the latest details.
Guest:
John Myers, KQED's senior editor for California Politics and Government
LA County Fire Dept. damage control over cheating, nepotism
Firefighters who cheated on LA County Fire Department (LACFD) tests could be fired or suspended, in a new proposal from Daryl Osby, Chief of LACFD.
He made the announcement as thousands of aspiring firefighters took a new test yesterday that arrived in Brinks armored trucks in Pomona to underscore the added scrutiny. Last year, an LA Times investigation into nepotism at the department revealed evidence of cheating on at least nine different tests that had been circulated among employees. They included exams for fire captains and tests for driving and emergency medical skills.
The earlier Times investigation found the county department had hired at least 183 sons of current or former firefighters since the start of 2012. Now, Osby says current LACFD staff will be prohibited from aiding the hiring of any family members or friends. (Similar malfeasance has occurred at the Los Angeles Fire Department [LAFD], which has spurred ongoing reforms.)
Is it certain that cheating fire fighters will face discipline? How will the department whittle down thousands of applicants?
Guest:
Daryl Osby, L.A. County Fire Chief
Physicists talk firing up CERN’s Large Hadron Collider after two year hiatus
For the last two years, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (known as CERN), has been hibernating while scientists tinkered with and worked on upgrading the massive machine, which sports a 17-mile circumference that particle beams are fired around, with the hope being that the resulting collision will produce elusive particles that will tell physicists more about the makeup of the universe.
Now, the upgrades are done, and scientists are turning the LHC back on to continue their research.
The upgrades to the LHC will allow it to accelerate particle beams at more than double the speed of what it was previously capable of, which physicists hope will allow them to find out more about things like why the cosmos are full of dark matter and where all the universe’s anti-matter went.
How could the experiments being conducted using the LHC at CERN change the way we understand the universe? Specifically, what kinds of new experiments will scientists be able to conduct with the upgrades to the LHC?
Guests:
Maria Spiropulu, Professor of Physics in the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Department at Caltech. She’s also a former senior research physicist at CERN.
Jean-Roch Vlimant, postdoctoral research scientist with Caltech who is stationed at CERN.
What an interest rate hike might mean for your wallet
Interest rates have remained historically low since the recession, but probably not for much longer.
The Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that the central bank is finally ready to hike rates, leading to speculation that the move could happen as soon as June.
What does a rate hike mean for your wallet? How would a rate hike affect the economy?
Guest:
Jeff Kearns, Federal Reserve reporter at Bloomberg News. He tweets
City struggles with preserving controversial Parker Center
As Los Angeles ages, it’s grappling with whether to preserve parts of its history or to do away with outdated buildings.
You might fondly recognize the Parker Center from the 1950s TV police drama Dragnet, but the LAPD’s fractious relationship with some communities clouds the image of the building. The City of Los Angeles is currently looking at possibly demolishing and replacing it with a redevelopment project despite complaints from The L.A. Conservancy, which argues that Parker Center should be preserved and integrated into new construction. But opponents point to the cost and some bad memories from the community.
Should Parker Center be demolished or preserved? What are some of the viable preservation alternatives? AirTalk wants to hear from you: How can L.A. keep its history and defining characteristics intact while still being open to progress? What are some other L.A. landmarks you want to see preserved or done away with?
Guests:
Glynn Martin, retired LAPD Sergeant and Executive Director of the Los Angeles Police Museum
Alan Hess, architect, historian, and author of nineteen books on modernism
Correction: This story's photo was mislabeled in a previous version of this story. KPCC regrets the error.
Consumer attorney, wine industry advocate debate lawsuit filed over high levels of arsenic in wine (correction)
Have you ever wondered what’s really in that $5 bottle of wine you’re drinking?
Researchers at a lab in Denver decided to find out, since there aren’t federal labeling requirements telling you what’s actually in wine. What did they find? Very high levels of arsenic, they claim - high enough to launch a class action lawsuit that accuses over 24 California winemakers and sellers of saying their wine is safe when it could be dangerous.
More than a quarter of the 1,300 bottles of wine that Kevin Hicks and his team tested at the wine analysis lab BeverageGrades had arsenic levels higher than the EPA’s maximum amount allowed in drinking water, which is 10 parts per billion. Hicks says he noticed a pattern: the cheaper the per-liter price of the wine, the higher the level of arsenic. The attorneys who launched the suit claim the defendants - including makers of Trader Joe’s famous “Charles Shaw” two-buck chuck, Franzia, Sutter Home, Cupcake, and others - produce and market wines containing dangerously high levels of inorganic arsenic. The experts say that even though “parts per billion” sounds like a small amount, 50 parts per billion of arsenic in wine could be deadly over time.
A spokesperson for The Wine Group, one of the companies that was named in the lawsuit, told CBS News that it would be inaccurate and irresponsible to use the drinking water standard as the benchmark, since people generally don't drink as much wine as they do water. He added that the highest arsenic level referenced in the lawsuit is still only half of Canada's standard for arsenic in wine, which is 100 parts per billion.
Is there a potential health threat to heavy wine drinkers? Should there be more transparency for what actually goes into wine? Will you stop buying certain kinds of wine due to concerns about arsenic levels? How much wine would an individual have to consume for it to be risky?
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated the lawsuit identified arsenic levels in Charles Shaw and Franzia wines. The claim does not include toxicology results.
Guest:
Michael Burg, Trial attorney with Burg Simpson based in Denver; Co-counsel filing suit against a dozen California wineries over arsenic levels in wine
Nancy Light, Vice President of Communications, The Wine Institute - a California industry organization representing more than 1,000 wineries