After a three-year freeze on University of California tuition hikes, President Janet Napolitano is proposing a 5 percent hike over the next five years. Also, with marijuana legal in three new states, including the nation's capitol, is California next? Then, we want to hear from you about the best signs in Southern California.
UC push to raise tuition 5 percent every year, for next 5 years
UC President Janet Napolitano is pushing for an end to a tuition freeze, citing growing costs and limited funding throughout the UC system. The proposed plan would end the three year freeze by imposing a 5 percent annual tuition increase. UC leaders support the tuition hike, citing a lack of support from the state, which is giving $460 million less than it did seven years ago. UC tuition and fees have more than doubled in the last decade, to just over $12,000 this year up from $5,700 in 2004, which far outpaces inflation. Senate GOP leader Bob Huff calls this "putting a gun to [the legislature's] head." The Chair of the UC Student Association calls it "putting a gun to students."
Is there a way for UC to live with the 4-percent state increase and avoid ill will? Are there other alternatives to raising money for the UCs, such as revisiting its policy of enrolling many more foreign and out-of-state students who pay higher tuition?
Guests:
H.D. Palmer, California Department of Finance Spokesman
Bruce Varner, chairman of the Board of Regents, University of California school system
Ferguson braces for findings of federal investigation
The Aug. 9 shooting death of the 18-year-old Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson sparked months-long protests and unrest in the St. Louis suburb that captured the nation's attention. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Ferguson a little more than a week after the shooting to talk with city leaders and protest organizers.
At the time, he promised a thorough investigation into whether any federal civil rights laws had been violated in the shooting. There's a high legal bar the Justice Department must meet in order to press civil rights charges in the case. Separately, local officials are set to release the results of a grand jury investigation into possible criminal charges.
How are law enforcement agencies in the St. Louis area preparing for the release of these findings?
Guests:
Reverend Willis Johnson, pastor of Wellspring Church in Ferguson, Missouri
Steve Giegerich, reporter at St. Louis Post Dispatch
Nation's capital legalizes marijuana, emboldens pot lobbyists countrywide
For the first time, marijuana advocates have gained a foothold on the East Coast, in a place that could force Congress to make pot policy for the nation. Voters in the District of Columbia voted 69-31 percent Tuesday to legalize growing, possessing or sharing up to two ounces of pot - a law that will have to be reviewed by Capitol Hill as is standard for all D.C. legislation.
It's debatable whether Congress will use its authority to quash the wishes of D.C. voters. Either way, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance says it will be an education because "[m]embers of Congress are literally going to be witness to these changes." He told the Associated Press, "It's a form of educating the members of Congress in a way that some members would not get educated depending on the states they're from."
Oregon and Alaska also approved legalization initiatives on Tuesday - joining the pioneering states of Colorado and Washington. What were the keys to success for these ballot initiatives? How are opponents to legalization reacting? What are the respective campaigns planning for 2016?
Guests:
Robert Capecchi, Deputy Director of State Policies, Marijuana Policy Project - a D.C. based advocacy organization founded in 1995.
Kevin Sabet, President, Smart Approaches to Marijuana - a group opposed to legalization; Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida; former Advisor of the National Drug Control Strategy for the Obama Administration.
State geologist finds Hollywood project would sit on top of quake fault
Where is the line between growth and safety? Apparently, right on top of a fault. California’s state geologist has concluded that there is an active fault line underneath the location of a planned Hollywood skyscraper project. This new conclusion is set to create a figurative earthquake at City Hall over how to approach the nearly $1 billion endeavor, particularly as private contractors had previously concluded that the location did not lie on top of an active fault.
See a map of the area below.
Related: Active fault under site of proposed Hollywood skyscrapers, state says
The plans included building 35- and 39-story buildings, which would have created up to a million square feet to house stores, restaurants, offices, and apartments. While City Council voted 13-0 last year to approve the Millenium Project, some councilmembers are concerned as safety issues mount.
At the end of the day, one relatively obscure Department could determine the fate of the project: the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. LADBS has many options in front of it, including approving the project, banning it, forcing additional studies, and replanning. But before any of that happens, those behind the Millenium Project must submit their own geological surveys, which they have not done.
With the context of California’s earthquake history in mind, what is the best way to promote economic growth in areas that may be susceptible to geologic damage? Should the city approve the project? If so, should there be any caveats?
Guests:
John Parrish, Chief of the California Geological Survey and California State Geologist since 2005
Mike Reader, CEO of Group Delta Consultant and geotechnical engineer. The firm consults with several developers, including the Millennium Project in Hollywood
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
How did you make the determination that the fault was under one of the buildings?
For the past year we’ve been gathering geological information from historical and academic papers and so forth and there was a lot of information being provided by researchers and consultants and we put all that information together and came out with a preliminary map earlier this year and following up on that with additional data and discussions we have just issued our final map for the area, which adjusts the original fault lines but placed the fault lines through the Millennium project area. There is one line that goes through the project area.
What is the best way to describe the line that goes through that area?
The Hollywood fault is composed of a number of parallel and subparallel fractures and traces. And this is one of the traces of the Hollywood fault zone.
And the concern is that could rupture?
Yes. The Alquist Priolo Act prescribes that we map these zones so that these structures will not be placed across them because of the fear of surface rupture and the destruction of the foundation of the building and that destroys its structural integrity then to withstand earthquake shaking.
What about the recency of activity on the fault? What is the threshold of saying there's a threat or not from a particular fault?
The state mining and geology board considers a fault active if it's moved in the last about 11,000 or 12,000 years. We know from various sites along this particular trace that it moved about 9,000 years ago so that caught our attention as being active. And we've recently gotten some other information from consulting firms and so forth that shows the fault in this area may have been active as late as 4,000 to 4,500 years ago.
That’s a risk number. The hazard is there regardless of the age of the fault. The risk of that hazard being activated is highest when it's been active within the last 11,000 or 12,000 years.
Guest: Mike Reader
What did your investigation of the site show?
Our findings are that there are no active faults at the Millenium site as far down to the bottom of the Holocene (last 10,000 years) as Dr. Parrish described for the age determination.
So you're seeing different things or seeing the same things and interpreting it differently?
With the map the state's required to put out a fault evaluation report … and they described they believed there's a fault there based on borings, primarily the four or five borings done by a previous studier and they’ve used that to reach the conclusion to draw the segment through the Millenium property. Our data shows that even though there might be a deeper structure, it's demonstrably pre-Holocene and we find unbroken sediments in the Holocene period throughout Hollywood. So there may be a fault there, it's definitely not active in our opinion.
Dr. Parrish, what is your response to Mr. Reader's conclusions?
We used a lot of the information on here and we believe, using some of that same information that Mr. Reader is talking about, we do have an active fault on the south end of the trench that was dug.
We also have information from across the street where we have surface expression and to the west where we have other bore holes done by other agencies and so forth that there is a connection between the dots here that would put that active fault through the south part of the Millenium project area.
Is your determination the final word here or is there an appeals process? What comes next for the developers if they disagree with your conclusion?
We are through with the project now. We have placed our zone that says it's mandatory investigation if one is going to build in the area. So from here on it is up to the city planning commission, the people who issue the permits and the developer to discuss the information that is here and make a decision as to whether they need to alter the footprint design of the building to step away from the projected trace there or they can issue a permit on the area.
Handicapping the 2016 presidential field
A shellacking, a thumping, a drubbing. Call it whatever you want, the midterm election results represent a clear sign of voter discontent in the country today. Analysis abound concerning what President Obama's remaining term would look like going forward. How would this week's results reconfigure the presidential election in two years? Would we see big changes in the list of potential candidates interested in running for the country's top post? Who's gaining momentum?
Guests:
Maggie Haberman, senior political reporter for POLITICO
Scot Lehigh, political columnist for the Boston Globe
I mustache you a question: Why are beards growing in popularity?
From hipsters to Hollywood stars, facial hair is all the rage right now. Whether it’s Bradley Cooper’s distinguished five o’clock shadow, Johnny Depp’s signature mustache/goatee combo, or the shaggy, unkempt beard that Leo DiCaprio has been wearing recently, scruff is in and it’s not going anywhere.
No month during the year gives more love to beards and mustaches than November. The Movember movement aims to raise awareness for men’s health issues like prostate and testicular cancer by encouraging participants to grow a mustache for the month of November and use it to create conversations about men’s health issues. Similarly, No-Shave November is another movement that asks participants to forego shaving for the entire month and donate the money that would have been spent on shaving products to the American Cancer Society.
Yet even outside of these campaigns, it seems more and more men are growing beards and mustaches, just because they can. Maybe some just don’t feel like shaving, but those who are gifted with the ability to sprout a burly beard or manly mustache are doing so with gusto. But this trend is also hurting companies that make shaving products. The Washington Post says the amount of money spent on razors and blades fell last year, for the first time since the recession, to $2.3 billion. This could be due in part to the rise in popularity of beards and mustaches as well as the growing acceptability of whiskers in the workplace.
So what is it that makes facial hair so trendy? Why has this image of a rugged, independent, hairy-faced man become so pervasive in society today?
Guest:
Adam Causgrove, Chief Executive Officer, American Mustache Institute