California's Growing Deficit; LAPD Plan to Map the Muslim Community Scrapped; Inland Empire Journalists Roundtable; Airline Security and Merger Concerns; Gil Garcetti on Safe Water for West Africans; Monkey Embryos Cloned
California's Growing Deficit
California's deficit has grown dramatically since the housing market began to slow last summer. According to State Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, the state's revenue shortfall has grown to $10 billion dollars, and without immediate spending cuts or other fixes, California's $4.1 billion reserve will evaporate. Larry talks with Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, and with H.D. Palmer of the State's Department of Finance, about how this happened, and how it may affect you.
LAPD Plan to Map the Muslim Community Scrapped
In Europe and on the East Cost, Muslim enclaves were targeted by terrorist groups as a place to recruit members. So Southland law enforcement set out to anticipate this move by tracking the location of target populations. However, members of the Muslim community and civil liberties groups likened this strategy to racial and religious profiling. Some argued that the Islamic population in Southern California is too diffuse to map successfully. Larry talks with LAPD Chief Bratton, and Salam S. Al-Maryati, of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, about the pull back.
Inland Empire Journalists Roundtable
Larry talks with Steven Cuevas, KPCC's Inland Empire Reporter, and Cassie MacDuff, columnist with The Press Enterprise, about the latest news, events, and developments in the Inland Empire.
Airline Security and Merger Concerns
A report released Wednesday says government investigators have exposed a dangerous hole in the nation's airport security. The Government Accountability Office says its investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past airport screeners. Covert tests were conducted at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at 19 airports in March, May and June of this year. In response to the GAO report, a TSA spokeswoman said that the investigators only tested one of the agencies 19 layers of security. Larry discusses the TSA's shortcomings with Congressman Henry Waxman, and Michael Boyd, of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm. Larry also discusses a possible consolidation between major airline carriers and what that will mean for the airline industry and for passenger choices.
Gil Garcetti on Safe Water for West Africans
Unclean water is the biggest public health crisis in the world and the second biggest killer of children under five. 1.8 million children die each year from diarrhea and other diseases. It also has devastating economic consequences. Women and girls spend their days walking miles in search of clean water, instead of earning money for their families or going to school. The plight of more than one billion people around the world with no access to clean water is the subject of a new book by Gil Garcetti, photographer and former Los Angeles District Attorney. Water is Key (Balcony Press), Garcetti's fifth photographic book, captures the struggles of villagers in West Africa with no access to clean water, as well as the dramatic transformation that occurs when communities finally receive safe water. Gil Garcetti joins Larry to talk about finding access to safe water in West Africa.
Monkey Embryos Cloned
American scientists cloned embryos from a 9-year-old male monkey and were able to extract stem cells from them. This breakthrough could hold promise for humans because researchers hope to someday be able to make transplant tissue that matches genetically to patients and make rejection of organs a thing of the past. Larry talks with Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center about his research.