Today on AirTalk Larry Mantle is joined by a panel of guests to learn more about the rise in private firefighters. We'll also discuss what the LA County Sheriff Department may look like under new head Alex Villanueva; and more.
A House (and Senate) divided: What a split legislature could look like when the 116th U.S. Congress convenes in 2019
We’re just over a month away from the start of the next session of Congress and Democrats have taken a commanding majority of the House. Republicans, meanwhile, strengthened their majority in the Senate.
House Democrats caucus tomorrow over the party’s leadership and potential rules for moving legislation. It’s expected to highlight factional differences between recently elected progressives and more moderate Democrats. Bipartisanship was hard to come by during the last two years with a Republican-controlled House and Senate, and the outlook for more agreement across the aisle in the coming two years doesn’t look much rosier for a legislature whose two houses will be split along party lines when the 116th Congress convenes in January of 2019.
House Democrats have vowed to push back against the president’s legislative agenda and even called for further investigation into President Trump and his administration. They sit in somewhat of a position of power from a fiscal standpoint, as congressional rules require most spending measures to originate in the House.
For their part, Republicans are likely to block most legislation that would come out of the House, like any changes to Medicare for All or the ACA. President Trump has said he’s willing to work with House Democrats on some issues but warned that subpoenas or investigations would close off any avenue for cooperation.
With a split Congress, what’s the potential for passing major legislation, particularly on health care? Are there any policy areas where there could be bipartisan cooperation?
Guests:
Jennifer Haberkorn, congressional reporter for the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C. bureau; she tweets
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies. He is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets
Pete Peterson, dean of the School of Public Policy and senior fellow at The Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University; he tweets
2020 Presidential Hopefuls: Which Democrats are poised to run and who has the best chance?
The Democratic party got a boost of confidence this midterm election.
It comes just in time for the 2020 presidential election — which is still about a year and a half away, but top-tier potential candidates only have until the end of December to announce they’re making a run. The ever-evolving list of Democratic presidential hopefuls looking to unseat President Trump includes LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, California Senator Kamala Harris, former Vice President Joe Biden and many more. But who has the best chance at a successful bid? Is it a progressive candidate that’ll try to mobilize non-traditional voters or a candidate that’ll try to appeal to middle-of-the-road voters?
Guests:
Alex Roarty, political correspondent covering Democrats for McClatchy Newspapers’ Washington, D.C. bureau and co-host of McClatchy’s “
” politics podcast; he tweets
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic political strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies. He is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets
Marj Halperin, Democratic political strategist and partner at Hawthorne Strategy Group, a Chicago-based strategic communications and public affairs firm; she tweets
Woolsey Fire exposes a new insurance trend: private, for-hire firefighters
Wildfire season is year-round in California. In November alone, dozens of lives have been claimed, more than a hundred thousand acres have been burned and thousands of structures have been destroyed between the Camp and the Woolsey fires.
City and county firefighters are tasked with protecting life and property during these natural disasters, but now, a new privatized sector of firefighters is on the rise. Crews are typically paid for by insurance companies, which isn’t unusual in other parts of the world.
Earlier this month, private firefighters successfully battled the Woolsey fire flames that were encroaching on Kim Kardashian West’s home. But that crew also broke state guidelines by not obtaining permission to enter a mandatory evacuation zone, and therefore potentially putting putting other firefighters at risk.
Larry Mantle is joined by a panel of guests to learn more about the rise in private firefighters.
Guests:
Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles-based reporter for BuzzFeed News; he’s been following the story; he tweets
David Torgerson, president of Montana-based Wildfire Defense Systems, which contracts with the U.S. Forest Service and insurance companies across 20 states to increase the survivability of homes
Carroll Wills, communications director at California Professional Firefighters, the state union representing professional firefighters and departments throughout California
Bill Stewart, forestry specialist and co-director of Center for Fire Research and Outreach at University of California, Berkeley
AirTalk interview: Outgoing LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell on loss to Alex Villanueva
Alex Villanueva scored an upset win Monday in the race for Los Angeles County sheriff, making Jim McDonnell the first incumbent to lose the seat in more than a century.
Villanueva, a retired sheriff’s lieutenant, proclaimed victory last week. But McDonnell had declined to concede, saying he would wait for all the votes to be counted in the contest to lead the nation’s largest sheriff’s department. He finally admitted defeat Monday after updated election results showed Villanueva leading by nearly 126,000 votes with only 100,000 ballots left to be counted, according to City News Service.
McDonnell promised an orderly transition of power in a statement released Monday, nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election. “The honor of serving as the LA County Sheriff is one like no other in law enforcement,” the statement said. “The Sheriff will be immediately faced with a range of very complex issues that go to the heart of maintaining public safety and public trust.” Villanueva is expected to be sworn in next week. So what will the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department look like under new head Alex Villanueva? You can read more about the sheriff’s race at LAist.com
With files from the Associated Press
We reached out to Alex Villanueva for an interview, who has not responded to our request by air time
Guests:
Jim McDonnell, outgoing Los Angeles County Sheriff
Ron Hernandez, president of the board of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), the union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies which endorsement Alex Villanueva
Robert Bonner, member of the Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence, which was established in 2011 to examine deputy use of force in the jails; former United States District Judge; former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration