AirTalk brings you the latest on the first 24 hours of SoCal’s storm, including new evacuation orders and flood warnings. We also dive into a new study on the promises of a male birth control pill; as SF becomes latest California city to ban fur sale, what was the impact of WeHo’s fur ban?; and more.
Live updates: SoCal storm and impact on fire-ravaged areas
A powerful Pacific storm is moving across central and southern parts of California, drenching communities previously ravaged by wildfires and mudslides.
Thousands of residents evacuated their homes ahead of the weather while others were waiting it out and hoping for the best.
KPCC is covering the impact of the storm as it continues to drench Santa Barbara to Los Angeles counties on Thursday. For the latest updates, click here.
Guests:
Mark Jackson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in LA, who is in Santa Barbara now
Stephanie O’Neill, reporter in Ojai covering the storm
Sharon McNary, KPCC reporter on La Tuna Canyon Road in Sunland, one of the areas affected by the La Tuna Fire
Emily Guerin, KPCC reporter at the city of Santa Barbara
Not your grandparents' political parties: How the makeup of Republican, Democratic voter bases have changed over decades
Voter makeups for both the Democratic and Republican parties are more different today than they ever have been in the past generation.
That’s the big takeaway from a new Pew Research Center study that analyzed more than 10,000 interviews from last year looking at party identification among registered voters. Among the major findings were that Democrats had changed in makeup more than Republicans in the last generation.
Today, Democrats are less-white, more liberal, younger than in the past generation, and have seen big upticks in the number of college grads and women who identify with their party. Democrats have also become more liberal in the past generation. 10 years ago, 44 percent of Democrats identified their views as “moderate,” and that was the largest group of them. Currently, the largest group is 46 percent who say their views are “liberal” to 37 percent who say their views are “moderate.”
By contrast, Pew found, Republicans are still largely white, Christian, and less likely today than a decade ago to be college-educated. Republicans also still largely identify as conservative, with two thirds of those surveyed describing their views as such to just 27 percent who say they’re “moderate,” and they also have an advantage in the number of white voters without a college degree, the demographic making up the largest group in the electorate.
What do you make of the results of this survey? Do you see these changes reflected in your own personal circles? How do you think the voter bases of each party will continue to change over time?
Guests:
Carroll Doherty, director of political research at Pew Research Center
Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush
John Iadarola, host of ThinkTank, part of The Young Turks Network; he also serves as a weekly co-host for The Young Turks weekly live show; he tweets
As SF becomes latest California city to ban fur sale, we check in on impact of WeHo’s own fur ban
San Francisco supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban the sale of fur, boosting the city’s animal-loving reputation as it becomes the largest U.S. city to approve the prohibition.
But West Hollywood was the first city in the country to ban the sale of wearable fur in retail stores in 2013. City council members passed the law by unanimous vote with a first of its kind ban that applied to all articles of clothing - anything made to be worn - but not to furniture items, blankets, or leather products.
The Berkeley City Council soon followed. While the San Francisco ban was supported by numerous advocates, it frustrated many business owners. A survey of retailers by the Chamber of Commerce and the Union Square Business Improvement District put the loss to the estimated 50 retailers in San Francisco that carry fur clothing at $45 million a year. A report by the city controller estimated the potential loss at about $11 million a year.
With such a projected influence on businesses in the northern California city, we put the spotlight back on West Hollywood to evaluate the economic impact on local businesses in the area.
Guests:
John D’Amico, council member and lead sponsor of the ordinance that banned the sale of fur in West Hollywood; he tweets
Keith Kaplan, communications director, Fur Information Council of America (FICA) and chairman of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
Promising step in the development of a male birth control pill
For over 60 years, women have taken “the pill” – and now there’s some promising science on the potential for a male version.
Besides vasectomy and condoms, the options for male birth control are fairly limited, which is what a team of researchers testing this new hormone-based pill are trying to change. The participants who took the pill gained a few pounds and had a small drop in HDL, the so-called “good” cholesterol, but experienced no major side effects.The results of the four-week trial found that men taking this pill had lowered levels of testosterone, as well as two other hormones that are involved in sperm production. However, the study did not measure sperm count.
Researchers say a longer trial is needed, but the current results are promising.
We talk to Dr. Christina Wang, who lead the Los Angeles-based part of the study, about the methodology, the obstacles to creating a male birth control pill and what kind of research will be done in the future.
Guest:
Christina Wang M.D., lead investigator of the part of the study that took place at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (another portion of the study was conducted at the University of Washington); she is an andrologist, endocrinologist and professor of medicine at UCLA