Mayor Garcetti discusses Los Angeles earthquake preparedness. Then, should it be mandatory for old buildings in the city to be retrofitted in case of earthquakes? Next, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Michigan's banning of race-based university admissions. How could this ruling impact California students? Then, a new survey shows most Americans are not in the political center, and should there be open enrollment for advanced placement classes? Lastly, we're talking with author Jesse Bering about the sexual deviant in all of us.
Should we require earthquake retrofitting of concrete buildings in Los Angeles?
An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 1,000 buildings in LA County could be at risk of falling in a major earthquake. The buildings include residences, high rise office buildings and factories in an range of different neighborhoods, some of which are nearly a century old.
The report also says Los Angeles officials have known of the risks, but haven’t required owners of buildings to make them safer. The cost of failing to make the buildings safe could be thousands of lives in the case of a major earthquake. But the financial cost of retrofitting a building is often more than the building’s worth. Owners would have to spend as much as $100,000 to even find out if a structure needed retrofitting, a price owners say they shouldn’t have to pay.
Should it be mandatory for old buildings to be retrofitted? Would it be worth the money to do so? What kind of requirements would be reasonable for building owners considering the expense?
Guests:
Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles
Charles Tan, principal structural engineer at Charles Tan + Associates in Downtown Los Angeles. He has helped retrofit many downtown buildings.
Martha Cox-Nitikman, Senior Director of Public Policy & Education at the Building Owners and Managers Association - Greater Los Angeles.
Mayor Eric Garcetti will be at the Crawford Family Forum for a conversation with KPCC's veteran political reporter Frank Stoltze Monday Oct. 21 from 8-9PM.
SCOTUS takes up Michigan’s affirmative action ban
The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today on Michigan’s law banning race-based university admissions . In past affirmative action cases the Court has stopped short of outlawing affirmative action. Michigan and five other states including California have laws outlawing the use of racial preferences in college admissions. The Michigan law was modeled after California’s Prop 209.
If the Court rules against the Michigan law what impact could it have on California students?
Guests:
David Savage, Supreme Court Reporter, Los Angeles Times
John Eastman, Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and former Dean at Chapman University School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky, is the founding dean and distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science.
Survey says Americans are less polarized than we think
It’s day 15 of the federal shutdown in D.C. and lawmakers are still duking it out over various proposals to fund and reopen the government by Thursday’s deadline. It’s still anyone’s guess when Republicans and Democrats will strike a deal – but one thing is clear – Congress is more divided than ever.
How representative of American voters are the two parties? Not very, according to a new national survey commissioned by Esquire and NBC News called “The New American Center.”
Contrary to conventional wisdom about our polarized nation, the survey finds that the left and right are smaller than we believe and the center is much larger. Not only that, but the survey of 2400 people reveals that the current makeup of Congress leaves more than a third of those in the center feeling unrepresented in Washington.
Interestingly, the center is filled with folks who don’t consider themselves centrists: 20% identify as liberal and 24% identify as conservative – but their beliefs plant them right in the middle. The poll takes on another contentious issue, affirmative action, being considered by the Supreme Court today.
As hotly debated as this one is, the poll reveals that 57% of respondents support ending affirmative action in hiring decisions and college admissions.
With pundits and lawmakers asserting that the center is eroding and Americans are taking sides, what should we make of these findings? Are we less polarized than we think? Do you identify as being on the left, right or middle? And do your representatives represent you?
Guests:
Daniel Franklin, Principal at the Benenson Strategy Group; lead pollster on “The New American Center” survey, commissioned by Esquire and NBC News
Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and adjunct faculty at USC Annenberg School
Open enrollment for high school advanced placement classes
Advanced placement classes are no longer just nice to have on your high school transcript they are a must have for competitive college applications. In an effort to give more students an opportunity many schools are getting rid of some of the barriers to getting into AP classes. Some critics say it will dilute the standard and content of AP classes.Others say that it gives students who would otherwise not be encouraged a chance to take part in the advanced classes.
With many Southern California schools moving toward open enrollment and even lottery systems are the standards of AP Classes in danger? What impact will it have on students?
Guests:
Michael Petrilli,Executive Vice- President, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based educational policy organization.
Chris Eftychiou, Public Information Director, Long Beach Unified School District
The sexual deviant in all of us
How do you follow up with a book titled, “Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?” How about by looking at all manners of sexual perversions. In “Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us,” author Jesse Bering has delved into the world of kink, pecadillos, and odd forms of turn-ons to examine the morality of sexual deviance, with the ultimate goal of getting us to stop asking what is “normal” or “natural,” but instead to look at outlying sexual desires in terms of which ones are harmful.
Guest:
Jesse Bering, author of the book “Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us.” (Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013). He is also the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Jesse Bering will be at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center tonight at 7:30.