A US plan will expand airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and train and arm Syrian rebels to do the fighting on the ground needs the approval of Congress to obtain funding. Also, Airbnb hosts in Los Angeles will soon receive online warnings about tax payment for short term leases. Then, why are millennialls terrified of credit cards?
Weighing Obama’s strategy to defeat Islamic militants
President Obama delivered a national address outlining his strategy to defeat Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria calling themselves the Islamic State. Under the plan, the US will expand airstrikes in Syria and Iraq and train and arm Syrian rebels to do the fighting on the ground. In order for the plan to work, Congress needs to approve million of dollars in funding for the training program and the US must get buy-in from its European allies and key players in the Middle East.
How feasible is the President’s ISIS strategy? Is it risk for the US to train and arm Syrian rebels? A network of alliances between the US and the Middle East has to be established in order for the plan to work, what’s the motivation driving different Middle East stakeholders to join the cause?
Guests:
Brian Katulis, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where his work focuses on U.S. national security policy in the Middle East and South Asia
Leila Hilal, a Senior Fellow for the International Security Program and the former director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation. She focuses on Syria, and issues related to U.S. foreign policy
Can NFL's Roger Goodell repair the tarnished shield?
According to an Associated Press source, the video showing NFL player Ray Rice punching his now-wife was delivered to an NFL executive from a law enforcement officer in April. Since release of the tape by TMZ this week, NFL CEO Roger Goodell has maintained the league did not have video inside the casino elevator, just the tape showing Rice dragging out his unconscious fiancee.
Today, the NFL has hired former FBI director Robert Mueller for an internal examination of its handling of the Ray Rice investigation.
If NFL executives had the visceral video since April, should they have made different business decisions? How does image matter in this case? Did Goodell fail in his primary task he often describes as “protecting the shield?”
Despite the pressure, Goodell's job is secure, Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based consulting firm SportsCorp and a confidant of many NFL owners, told the AP.
"Roger Goodell is the best leader of any sports league on the planet today," Ganis said. "The NFL that he runs is managed better than any sports league - ever. The people that know this best are those who pay his contract, the owners."
"There is not any chance that they will ask him to step down. Not in this life or the next."
What if sponsors start to bristle? Will Roger Goodell and team ownership ride out this scandal? Will they change domestic-violence policies yet again? Should they?
Guest:
Steve Adelman, Sports and Entertainment lawyer based in Scottsdale, Arizona
Andrew Zimbalist, Coauthor, “The Sabremetric Revolution: Assessing The Growth of Analytics in Baseball” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014); Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College, a frequent sports industry consultant and media commentator, and author of many books, including “In the Best Interests of Baseball? Governing the National Pastime”
Primetime nudity: Tired titillation or genuine story-telling device?
There is a blur of body-parts on reality television shows of late. The original sin started with Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid.” For the hit show about survivalists struggling to brave the elements without food, water, shelter or clothes, the nudity has a context for each episode’s version of Adam and Eve.
Another successful foray into stripped unscripted is VH-1’s “Dating Naked.” The premise is akin to “Temptation Island” (in the archives of reality TV) meets “Blind Date” - but with extra visuals. Now, Fox’s new show “Utopia” is trying to capitalize on the trend - allowing cast members to shower and swim in the buff. According to AdWeek magazine, “TV executives say they are getting a steady stream of pitches for naked reality shows, as Hollywood looks to ride the current wave of series that push the envelope by baring bums.”
Since the cast members cannot be fully nude on network and regular cable, why are viewers captivated? Is the tension between the nude characters enough of an interesting dynamic? How long will this trend last? Will American viewers become impervious to it a la the Europeans?
Guest:
Robert Thompson, Director, Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University
Should LA Airbnb hosts pay hotel taxes?
Airbnb hosts in Los Angeles will soon receive online warnings about tax payment for short term leases. City officials will send notification about collecting and paying city hotel taxes to people advertising rentals on Airbnb and similar sites.
Although sharing-economy rentals are technically supposed to charge and pay some of the same taxes for hotels, enforcing and collecting tax code has proven difficult: as Airbnb and other sites make finding exact addresses more difficult, city officials have a harder time tracking down the people renting properties. As Airbnb becomes more popular and legitimized as a reliable resource for travelers, more people have signed up as hosts, inspiring complaints about neighborhood disruption and property owners who evict tenants to turn apartment buildings into de facto hotels. Other cities, including San Francisco, have begun to enforce hotel taxes for Airbnb rentals with compliance from Airbnb and local hosts.
How should L.A. proceed in its relationship with Airbnb and other short term rental sites? Should L.A. hosts collect and pay hotel taxes? Should there be a crackdown on properties turned into pseudo-hotels?
Guests:
David Owen, regional head of public policy at Airbnb
Paul Krekorian, LA City Councilmember for the 2nd District, including Studio City, North Hollywood, and Van Nuys
Why millennials are terrified of credit cards
The conventional methods of building credit are being thrown out the window, as 6 out of every 10 millennials do not own a credit card, according to a new poll conducted by Bankrate.
Financial analysts say that millennials have a continued mistrust of bank systems in place, as they enter higher rates of unemployment and debt after college. Additionally, half of millennials admit to not paying their full balance off at the end of each month, which may be prompting them to opt out of a credit system that will further put them down the hole.
Why are millennials opting out of credit cards and opting for cash instead? How can they prepare for their financial future without the use of credit cards?
Guests:
Michelle Singletary, Personal finance columnist at the Washington Post
Kerri Anne Renzulli, Money reporter at Time, Inc. and a millennial