We analyze the pros and cons of hunting mountain lion P45 after it slaughtered 10 pet alpacas belonging to a Malibu resident; why Pasadena City College Trustees might ban themselves from speaking to media without permission from the board president; the debate on what to do with California's massive number of dead trees; plus, could a stress vaccine actually work?
Should mountain lion P-45 be killed?
California State officials gave a Malibu rancher a permit to kill the mountain lion which is suspected of killing ten alpacas, a goat and a sheep. Read more on the story here.
But some say that it's unfair to punish the puma and that the onus is on farmers to protect their livestock. Who should be held responsible?
AirTalk debates the issue.
Guests:
Wendell Phillips, Malibu resident who has owned alpacas killed by a mountain lion; lawyer by trade; operates a small-scale animal rescue program
Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, California Director for the National Wildlife Federation
Pasadena City College Trustees consider banning themselves from talking to media without permission
Tonight the board members of Pasadena City College will consider an unprecedented policy: to require themselves to seek permission from the board president before speaking with the media.
It’s a proposal from the League of City Colleges, and if approved, could gain traction elsewhere. Larry Wilson has been writing about the potential move for the Pasadena Star-News and joins Larry to discuss.
Guest:
Larry Wilson, columnist for the Pasadena Star-News
Ecologists, environmentalists disagree on what to do with California’s 102 million dead trees
Earlier this month, California learned it’s in the midst of an unprecedented, drought-fueled die-off of trees.
The U.S. Forest Service estimates that over 100 million trees have died in California since 2010. This year alone, they counted 62 million dead trees. Normally they see about 1 million. The question now is what to do with those dead trees.
Do they really pose an increased fire risk in the west? Should they be cut down and logged? Experts disagree about that. And any future move could have big implications for the state’s ecology.
Guests:
Ken Pimlott, director, CAL FIRE and a member of California’s Tree Mortality Task Force
Chad Hanson, research ecologist with the John Muir Project and co-author and co-editor of the recent book, “The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix.” He’s written for the Los Angeles Times about the wildfire threat dead trees pose
RIP TPP: How Trump’s proposed trade policies affect Southern California’s economy without sweeping pact
With the election going in Donald Trump’s favor, we now know that the massive, 12 nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership is all but dead.
Truth be told, it would likely have been dead if Hillary Clinton had won, as both presidential candidates had said they did not support TPP becoming law. While six out of the 11 other countries in the deal already have trade agreements in the U.S., there are still questions about how TPP going belly-up could impact Southern California’s economy and the state as a whole. For more on this, read here.
Guests:
Ben Bergman, KPCC senior reporter covering business and the Southern California economy
Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Milken Institute’s California Center and managing economist at the Institute
Michael Camuñez, president and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies, a firm that advises companies doing business in Mexico; he is also a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the International Trade Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce
Could a stress vaccine actually work?
As reported in the November issue of the Atlantic, researchers at Columbia University are developing a treatment to prevent stress. In short, it’s a “stress vaccine.”
While this idea may seem too good to be true, the development team is looking at how mice can be more resilient after exposure to stress, and it’s working. Mice who were given the vaccine showed no changes in behavior after exposure to stressful situations--as if the trauma hadn’t occurred.
Neuroscientists studying ways to bring the vaccine to humans hope it will help prevent mental illnesses like depression and post-traumatic stress. It would be administered to patients prior to a potentially stressful situation, with resistance to trauma lasting weeks or months at a time.
But would this vaccine actually work without damaging other functions of the body such as immunity?
Larry Mantle weighs in with the developer of the stress vaccine to find out more.
Guests:
Rebecca Brachman, neuroscientist at Columbia University; she is working with the university’s Denny Laboratory to develop a preventative treatment for stress.
George Slavich, clinical psychologist and director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research at UCLA