LA labor leaders are seeking an exemption from the city’s minimum wage law for companies with union employees. Also, signs are showing that a strong El Niño this winter could mean an end to California’s extreme drought. Then, seismologist Lucy Jones joins Larry Mantle to fact-check the science behind the disaster flick “San Andreas.”
LA labor leaders seek exemption for unions from city-wide minimum wage hike
LA labor leaders are seeking an exemption from the city’s minimum wage law for companies with union employees.
The city-wide minimum wage increase voted on last week by the City Council would raise wages to $15 an hour by 2020. Labor groups now want to create an exemption to the law that would allow flexibility for companies with unions to negotiate a wage below that required by the law. Labor leaders say the proposed exemption would allow businesses and employees to work together to decide on a wage that works for both parties.
However, opponents of the exemption fear it could put pressure on companies into letting their employees unionize as a way to find relief from the mandated wage increase. City-wide businesses are grappling with how they will increase their minimum wage and continue to keep staff and benefits the same. At this point there is no clear answer on the best way for companies to do this.
Should companies with unions be allowed to let their employees vote on their own minimum wage? What implications would this have on the law?
Guests:
John Logan, Professor of Labor and Employment Studies, San Francisco State University
Ruben Gonzalez, senior vice president for public policy and political affairs with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
The soccer world reacts as Sepp Blatter wins fifth term as FIFA president
Despite the arrests of seven top FIFA officials this week in Zurich, Sepp Blatter has been reelected to a fifth term as the organization’s president.
Although Blatter did not surpass the two-thirds vote threshold necessary to win the election outright, his sole opponent Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan withdrew his candidacy after the first round of ballot casting. Blatter, who only fell seven votes short of winning in the first round, has faced continued calls for his resignation as FIFA and its officials have been accused of decadeslong acts of widespread corruption.
How will the soccer (or rather “football”) world react to Blatter’s re-election? Can he maintain the reins of power as the 14 indictments against top FIFA officials move forward? To what extent will his victory impede reforms at FIFA or of the World Cup?
Guest:
David Wallechinsky, President of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of "The Complete Book of the Olympics" (Aurum Press, 2012)
Opponents of the 710 Freeway extension offer new alternatives to the tunnel plan
Opponents of the 710 Freeway extension presented alternatives to the $5.6 billion tunneling plan this week, proposing better public transportation, improving surface streets and increasing bicycle lanes.
The 710 was created to get motorists more efficiently from Long Beach to Pasadena through the heart of Los Angeles County. In 2013, officials narrowed options to five rail and roadway plans, one of which was a tunnel between Alhambra and South Pasadena. However, this week a community group submitted a new set of ideas, focused primarily on public transportation.
Is improved public transportation a better alternative to the tunnel plan? Which freeway plan are you in favor of?
Guests:
Marina Khubesrian, M.D., vice chair of Beyond the 710, the coalition that proposed the 710 alternative. She is also a member of the South Pasadena City Council.
Steve Placido, D.D.S., Council member, City of Alhambra
El Nino could mean an end to California’s extreme drought conditions
We are seeing more and more extreme storms, massive floods, and longer wet spells across the U.S.
In fact, Southern California is experiencing one of its wettest springs, with Los Angeles seeing four times its average rainfall. This El Nino weather phenomenon is only becoming more prevalent, and it’s likely we’ll see more of it as the climate continues to change.
El Niños have been responsible for two of California's worst rainy seasons: the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98. And now signs are showing that a strong El Niño this winter could mean an end to California’s extreme drought.
What will the El Nino conditions mean for Southern California? Will this wet spell be enough to end the drought?
Guests:
Mike Halpert, Deputy Director of the Climate Prediction Center NOAA
Filmweek: ‘San Andreas,’ ‘Aloha,’ 'The Apu Trilogy' and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig and Peter Rainer review this week’s new film releases, including the blockbuster disaster flick "San Andreas," Cameron Crowe’s ensemble dramedy “Aloha,” the movie(s) Peter Rainer calls among the best of all time, “The Apu Trilogy,” and more.
TGI-Filmweek!
Guests:
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC
Peter Rainer, film critic for KPCC and the Christian Science Monitor
'San Andreas': USGS expert Lucy Jones on things it gets wrong ... and right
"San Andreas" rattles theaters starting Friday with what it says is the story of an earthquake so massive it destroys all of California.
Well, not so fast, says U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. She attended the film's premiere earlier this week and took to Twitter to offer a blow-by-blow critique of the summer disaster film.
She also spoke with AirTalk's Larry Mantle to elaborate on what she thinks the movie got hilariously wrong — and the things it got right.
1. Can the San Andreas fault cause a 9.6 earthquake?
No.
"They have a 7.1 in Nevada that triggers a 9.1 in Southern California that triggers a 9.6 in Northern California. What they’ve done is put us into a sort of different tectonic environment. Here in California on the San Andreas [fault], it’s a completely different type of fault. The biggest we can have is a 8.2."
2. How about giant tsunamis?
No.
"The really big tsunamis — like we saw in Japan and Sumatra — only happen on a subduction zone. To create a tsunami, you need to move a large amount of water out of the way. You do that by having the fault under the ocean push up, and all the water that used to be there then has to go somewhere else. The San Andreas being on land and by moving sideways instead of vertically, it’s just not displacing any water."
3. Can one earthquake create a chain reaction of earthquakes?
Yes.
“It’s pattern we’ve seen before. If you remember, the 1992 Landers earthquake, 7.3 in Southern California, triggers a 5.7 a next day in Nevada. So it could easily go the other way. And the day of the 1906 earthquake that had devastated San Francisco, there was a magnitude 6 in Imperial County near the Mexican border and a magnitude 5 in Santa Monica Bay. So the idea that we have our big San Andreas earthquake here in Southern California, and we trigger a San Andreas event or perhaps a Hayward fault event in Northern California, that part is actually realistic."
4. Can an earthquake in Southern California be felt on the East Coast?
No.
“We don’t see them felt over that large of an area. The San Andreas earthquake in 1906 was felt in Nevada, and that’s as far east as it got. One interesting thing: There was a 7.5 in Missouri in 1811, 1812. ... The 7.5 in Missouri did move furniture in the White House and rang church bells in Boston.”
5. What about the advice in the film to “drop, hold, cover” during a quake?
“That part of [it is] actually very good. And that absolutely is the right thing to do. But [what] you need to worry about in an earthquake is things flying around the room. A table is really good protection for flying objects, and much better than a doorway. ..."
6. What about running away from an earthquake?
"Running during an earthquake is essentially impossible. One part of the movie, they are running off of the Hoover Dam. If you have shaking that can destroy the Hoover Dam, you are not running anywhere.”
You can check out Jones' live tweets from the film below. Will you be seeing "San Andreas" this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.
storify.com/GNAdv/twitter-welcomes-dr-lucy-jones-seismologist