First on AirTalk, Best practices for using craigslist! Also, debating Proposition 46: medical-malpractice damages and drug-testing doctors. Then, Chapman University looks at what Americans fear most, just in time for Halloween.
After Craigslist murder, what are the best practices for the peer-to-peer economy?
"Avoid scams, deal locally! DO NOT wire funds (e.g. Western Union), or buy/rent site unseen."
This is the warning that appears at the bottom of every posting on Craigslist. Today, it's one of the most popular online forums for people to buy and sell things like cars, furniture, electronics and apartments. But do you really know who you're dealing with when you click on one of those links?
On its site, Craigslist says that 99 percent of scams can be avoided by dealing locally and face-to-face. It also warns against paying anyone you haven't met in person, giving out financial information like bank account or social security numbers, and refusing background or credit checks until you've met the landlord, seller, or employer in person.
Twenty three-year-old Cal-State Northridge student Abdullah Alkadi is the latest victim of a Craigslist transaction gone wrong. Police say a man who was interested in buying Alkadi's car, which he listed on Craigslist, killed Alkadi and left his body along the 10 Freeway in Palm Desert. The man, 28-year-old Agustin Fernandez, has been charged with murder.
We spoke with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carolyn Said, who offered up five helpful tips that can help you navigate the online platform.
1. Read the post CAREFULLY
You can figure out early on whether or not a Craigslist posting is legitimate simply by reading the post. If you’re looking to buy something or rent an apartment, make sure to pay careful attention to the spelling, grammar and general command of the English language in the posting. We’ve all made a typo or two in our lives, but if you’re seeing frequent misspellings, recurring bad grammar or poorly worded sentences, it might be a red flag that the post isn’t what it seems.
2. Arrange a phone conversation with seller or renter
This is important especially if you’re not planning to meet in a public place or if you’re dealing with large amounts of cash. It’s easy to conduct everything via the Internet and text messages today, but having a phone conversation with the person you’re dealing with and hearing his or her voice can give you an early insight into whether the deal you’re about to make is legitimate or a scam. However, don’t EVER give out any personal or financial information (social security, bank account number, etc.) over the phone.
3. Meet the potential buyer or seller somewhere public and secure
The more witnesses and security cameras in the area where you meet, the better. Bank lobbies or police stations are just two suggestions for locations because they are populated, public and often more secure than a coffee shop or restaurant. Meeting in a bank lobby gives you an advantage because you can withdraw and deposit cash without having it on you.
4. Bring someone with you
This is true especially if you’re making a transaction involving a large amount of money. Bring your brother, sister, girlfriend, boyfriend, mom, dad, roommate or whomever you can convince to tag along. You’re much safer with someone than if you go alone. You should also never get into a car with a buyer or seller or let one get into your car.
5. Use common sense
Using common sense when it comes to evaluating Craigslist posts will save you from being taken advantage of almost every time. Trust your instincts. Think about who and what you’re dealing with. If something about the buyer or seller seems wrong or off, don't risk it. If you set up a meeting with someone, do some research on the person beforehand. If a post seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Guest:
Carolyn Said, Business and technology reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. She covers the so-called “sharing economy” for the paper. She tweets at @CSaid.
To hear this segment, click on "Listen Now" above.
Debating Proposition 46: Medical-malpractice damages, drug-testing docs
A hotly contested ballot issue this November is Proposition 46 focusing on medical malpractice suits and doctor drug-testing, pushed forward by Robert and Carmen Pack. The couple's two children, Troy and Alana, were killed by an intoxicated driver who'd been prescribed a plethora of narcotics.
The Packs say they were powerless to hold doctors accountable because of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA).When MICRA was signed in 1975, the signature at the bottom was none other than that of Governor Jerry Brown. Brown's approval limited medical malpractice damages to $250,000. That cap has remained in place for three decades. Proposition 46 seeks to raise that ceiling, bringing it up to $1,105,260 -- or approximately what the cap would be when adjusted for inflation. In addition to this raise, Prop 46 would require doctors to consult a patient's prescription history, before dispensing controlled substances. Finally, 46 would subject medical practitioners to random drug screenings, requiring the California Medical Board to suspend doctors while any positive test results are investigated. Those voicing support for 46 include Consumer Watchdog and the Consumer Attorneys of California, who have collectively donated $1,375,148 to the campaign.
Meanwhile, the "No on 46" campaign represents a series of medical associations including the California Medical Association, labor unions and insurance providers. The campaign claims the ballot initiative only serves trial lawyers, leaving patients stuck to pay the extra costs necessary to compensate for higher malpractice insurance. As of last month, the Yes campaign raised $6.2 million and the No campaign raised $53.5 million, according to Voter’s Edge and MapLight, non-profit organizations dedicated to campaign transparency. What is a fair limit on lawsuits over medical negligence? Can this ballot initiative help with prescription drug abuse? Where do you stand on Prop. 46?
Prop 46 FAQ: What it will do, who's funding it and more
Guests:
Bob Pack, Author of Proposition 46; Father of victims of medical negligence, Troy and Alana Pack
Dr. Hector Flores, MD, Co-Founder and Medical Director, Family Care Specialists Medical Group in East L.A.; Chairman of White Memorial Medical Center’s (WMMC) Dept. of Family Medicine
Digging deeper on an Ebola vaccine
Two potential Ebola vaccines are being tested for safety in clinical trials in the US and Mali. It appears that a full randomized and controlled human study could begin in West Africa early next year. The effort to speed up the trials is unprecedented in vaccine development. The challenges of carrying it out in Africa is huge.
One such vaccine might come from Dr. Nancy J. Sullivan, who works at the National Institute of Health Vaccine Research Center. Before she started working on a potential Ebola vaccine, Dr. Sullivan was doing what many other researchers were doing in the late 90s: Attempting to find a cure for HIV. Believing there were too many biologists focusing on the disease, Sullivan decided to take up a cause in which she believed that she could make a “real difference.” Nearly two decades later, Dr. Sullivan finds her work thrust into the public spotlight after fears of a global pandemic. The only problem: The potential vaccine has yet to be cleared for human testing.
The average vaccine might spend between five and 10 years being tested on animals before getting cleared for human trials. But now circumstances require Dr. Sullivan to ready her potential vaccine for testing by early 2015. The goal: stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa before the disease becomes unstoppable. Naturally, this expedited timetable introduces several ethical questions that must be faced if Dr. Sullivan’s team wishes to make their deadline:
Would vaccines be tested on West Africans? The average test pool must consist of anywhere between 5,000 and 30,000 participants. If so, how many people will researchers really be able to monitor? In a land where electricity is a rare luxury and paved roads are equally scarce, is the region even ready to take on such a test?
Compounding the controversy is perhaps the most important question of all: Does the vaccine even work? Early tests conducted on lab monkeys have yielded encouraging results, but that doesn’t guarantee the drug will produce the same result when injected into humans.
Do you think more caution is necessary in the race to develop an Ebola vaccine? Is it ethical to inject some test subjects with placebos in order to control the study? Check out KPCC's FAQ on Ebola!
Guest:
Tom Burton, Wall Street Journal reporter covering medicine and the FDA for the publication. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 2004.
Firefighter or doctor: which one is more likely a homeowner?
Researchers at Ancestry.com, the popular genealogy website, have crunched Census data from as far back as 1900 to find out the relationship between occupation and homeownership from then and now.
According to its analysis, firefighters (84 percent) today are more likely be homeowners than surgeons (78 percent). Interestingly, there are more teachers (74 percent) who are homeowners than economists (64 percent). Waiters, and dancers are two professions that rank the lowest in terms of homeownership rates. Reporters and editors, for those interested, come in at 62 percent.
Take a look at Ancestry.com’s list below:
Guest:
Todd Godfrey, Sr. Director of US Content Acquisition at Ancestry.com
Chapman University looks at what Americans fear most, just in time for Halloween
If the American public's attitude toward the Ebola outbreak is any indication, fear is a very powerful thing. It can keep us up at night and haunt us during the day. What we fear collectively as Americans has changed over time, informed by larger political and cultural conversations. While fear of Communism was prevalent in the 1950s, our fear today revolves more around US government snooping and the loss of our personal privacy.
Chapman University has conducted an inaugural poll surveying 1,500 people to find out what they are most afraid of. The study also studied various characteristics to see what correlated with being afraid, including: age, gender, race, work status, education, income, geographic region, urban vs. rural living, political preference, religion, TV viewing, and gun ownership.
Guest:
Ed Day, Director of the Earl Babbie Research Center and the chair of the Department of Sociology at Chapman University. He’s part of a team of researcher behind the inaugural “Chapman Survey on American Fears”