The California Supreme Court closed a major ruling on Monday, ordering services like Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. What does this mean for both employee and employer, and will the decision hold up? We also analyze Mueller's 49 questions for President Trump; question the ethics of "mini brains"; and more.
Mueller’s questions for President Trump and what they can tell us about the Russian probe
The New York Times got ahold of nearly fifty questions Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask President Trump.
They relate to the President’s controversial firings, meetings between members of his campaign and Russians, and Trump’s business interests.
What do they reveal about the state of the investigation? What is Mueller trying to find out from President Trump based on the content of his questions? And how is the White House responding to the leak?
Guests:
Josh Gerstein, POLITICO reporter covering the White House
Laurie L. Levenson, former federal prosecutor and a professor of law at Loyola Law School
Jens David Ohlin, vice dean and law professor at Cornell University where he focuses on criminal and international law
Philanthropist Austin Beutner reportedly holds the lead in LAUSD’s race for a superintendent
Austin Beutner – a former investment banker who, having already made his millions, has immersed himself in the civic life of Los Angeles in recent years – will be the next superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District, sources with knowledge of the search process tell KPCC.
For more of Kyle’s story, click here.
Guests:
Kyle Stokes, education reporter at KPCC who is at the LAUSD’s headquarters in Downtown; he tweets
Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of UTLA, the union representing 34,000 teachers and health and human service professionals
Myrna Castrejón, executive director at Great Public Schools Now, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to raising the standards of public schools
California among 17 states suing Trump administration over car emission standards
Multiple states, including California, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plans to scrap gas mileage standards and how much greenhouse gases vehicles can emit, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Tuesday.
The suit takes aim at a plan by the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate standards for vehicles manufactured between 2022 and 2025. The standards would have required vehicles to get 36 miles per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon) by 2025, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standard.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Joining California are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guest:
Sean Hecht, co-executive director of Emmett Institute of Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA Law school
California gig economy thrown for a loop by state Supreme Court ruling
The California Supreme Court served a potential blow to the state’s gig economy with a ruling Monday that would make it tougher for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees.
As reported by the New York Times, the decision will force major players like Uber and Lyft to change their business models, including following overtime, benefits and unemployment employee requirements. Before the ruling, there were approximately 10 factors that went into determining whether a worker was an independent contractor or employee. The court decided on a simpler “ABC” test that is already implemented in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Under the new test, workers would be considered employees if they perform tasks that are the “usual course” of the company’s business.
So what does this mean for Uber and Lyft? If you are an Uber or Lyft driver or an independent contractor, what does this mean for your business?
*We reached out to Uber and Lyft for comments on the state’s ruling. Uber declined our request did not reply to our request in time for the segment.
Guests:
Andrew Hawkins, senior transportation reporter at The Verge where he covers ride-sharing services; he’s been following the story; he tweets
Richard Meneghello, Oregon-based partner at Fisher Phillips, a gig-economy law practice group with offices in L.A. and Orange County; his focus includes California gig economy law; he tweets
Stakeholders share thoughts on California bills aimed at regulating and weeding out predatory practices in 'sober-living facilities'
They’re called “sober-living facilities”— private homes, usually unlicensed, where drug and alcohol addicts can live with others also battling addiction in an environment that is supportive of their recovery efforts.
Some of them even work in conjunction with a 12-step recovery programs. Many of them, patient advocates say, though unlicensed, do good work and are genuinely invested in the recovery of their residents. But there are others, some say, where the very drug and alcohol abuse these homes are designed to prevent runs rampant, or that look to take advantage of a vulnerable population to make a quick buck, putting addicts right back on the street when they can’t afford to pay the rent anymore.
A group of bills currently making their way through the California legislature would introduce new regulations and guidelines that their supporters say will help the state have more control over how these facilities operate. Included among the legislation are proposals that would direct the state to develop guidelines for the state on handling complaints made against unlicensed homes, establish fines for “patient brokering,” a practice in which someone will recruit patients, usually with insurance coverage, and refer them to a treatment center which then pays the recruiter, and allow the state to revoke the license of any facility associated with an unlicensed facility that abuses the system.
For more on this from our sister show Take Two, click here.
GUESTS:
Teri Sforza, Orange County Register reporter and one of the leads into the Southern California News Group’s investigation into the SoCal drug treatment industry; she tweets
Warren Hanselman, member of the steering committee of Advocates for Responsible Treatment, a grassroots volunteer organization comprised of concerned residents of Southern California who want to ensure they have a voice in the future of addiction rehabilitation in our cities
Lauren Kahn, director of public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360, a California safety-net healthcare provider serving 35,000 Californians annually with primary care, substance use disorder treatment, and mental health services
John Dickerson on how the job description for the presidency spiraled out of control
Consoler-in-chief, PR manager, bipartisan dealmaker, savvy campaigner, commander in chief of the armed forces and leader of the free world.
Those are just a few of the tasks in the president’s job description. A job that, as John Dickerson argues in his new Atlantic cover story, was designed by the Framers to be fairly weak but has snowballed through time into an office that’s impossible for one person to successfully occupy. And if that’s the case, can we really blame a president for not shouldering the burden of a position that asks too much?
Dickerson traces the history of the presidential office, exploring its inception, the presidents that moved the needle on presidential power and how television and an extended campaigning process placed new demands on a position that has now ballooned into a job that’s set up for failure.
GUEST:
John Dickerson, journalist and a co-host of CBS This Morning; his cover story for the May issue of The Atlantic is “The Hardest Job in the World”