After last night's Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, there’s little doubt today that it was Carly Fiorina’s night in Simi Valley. Also, proposed retrofitting laws to upgrade buildings most vulnerable to earthquake damage may mean requiring even higher rents in some of the city’s oldest buildings. Then, we ask Dr. Coyne how he came to his hardline approach on religion… and what the harm is in having a little faith.
Fiorina shines on main debate stage in GOP debate, strong showings for Rubio and Jeb as well
While much of the media focus in the lead up to last night’s Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library was on Donald Trump, there’s little doubt today that it was Carly Fiorina’s night in Simi Valley.
The former CEO of Hewlett Packard looked confident and prepared on stage with the 10 other male candidates, and the general consensus this morning seems to be that she had the strongest showing of any of the candidates last night. She was firm but detailed in explaining how she would tackle some of the big campaign issues, she held her own against the others, and she delivered probably the most memorable comment of the evening when responding to remarks Donald Trump made about her face.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, had a middling night, at least by his standards. The other candidates were much more prepared to attack him this time around, and it showed during the debate. The result was a few highlights here and there, but otherwise it was status quo for the billionaire real estate mogul. Trump even told MSNBC after the debate that he felt bad for his fellow candidates because the whole show focused too much on him.
Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush also had strong showings last night while others like Rand Paul and Ben Carson struggled to stay in the foreground. Chris Christie may have also won some points last night as he tried to place himself above the other candidates by calling attention to the fact that they were bickering about their track records while the American middle class is suffering.
Who were the winners and losers in your mind? What did you learn about the candidates that you didn’t know before? Have your allegiances changed because of anything that happened last night?
Guests:
Reed Galen, Republican political strategist and owner of Jedburghs, LLC., a public affairs and campaign consultancy firm in Orange County
Erikka Knuti, Democratic political strategist with Purple Strategies, a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
Is 2040 too little, too late for rules about pumping groundwater in the Golden State?
It’s been one year since Governor Jerry Brown signed the state’s first-ever groundwater regulations into law.
Groundwater is the water that’s found underground… It’s still not clear how much California has, since efforts to calculate the amount separately from surface water (lakes and rivers) have been resisted for decades.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act asks each basin and aquifer throughout California to craft its own plan for managing groundwater use. That means the plan for a basin in the parched Central Valley could be drastically different from one in the Bay. But the deadline for these regulations isn’t until 2040 -- and the unchecked pumping of groundwater is already causing parts of California to literally sink.
Last month, 21 of the state’s groundwater basins and sub-basins were deemed “critically overdrafted” by the State Water Resources Board. That means a ton of water is going out -- and very little is coming back in.
Governor Jerry Brown is already threatening to implement pumping restrictions ahead of schedule… So what are the basins going to do? And how soon are they going to do it?
Guests:
Tim Ross, Groundwater Section Chief for the Southern Region Office of the Department of Water Resources
Chris Scheuring, environmental attorney for the California Farm Bureau
Peter Gleick, President and Co-founder of the Pacific Institute
Debating whether landlords and tenants share the cost of apartment retrofits
A new proposal at L.A. City Hall says the cost of retrofitting buildings vulnerable to earthquakes should be a shared financial burden of tenants and property owners.
According to an L.A. Times article, Councilman Gil Cedello said the way costs ought to be shared required further review. Officials from the Los Angeles Housing Department recommend a cap for rent hikes at $38 a month for five or more years to cover the costs of retrofitting.
How do you think the cost should be handled among tenants and property owners?
KPCC's online polls are not scientific surveys of local or national opinion. Rather, they are designed as a way for our audience members to engage with each other and share their views.
Guests:
Larry Gross, executive director Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenant advocacy group
Jim Clarke, Executive Vice President of Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
Is there a winner in the fight between science and religion? Dr Jerry Coyne says yes
Popular, contemporary atheists such as Richard Dawkins have prompted a backlash among some intellectuals who say there is some room for faith alongside science. In a new book, “Faith vs. Fact,” such intellectuals are branded as “accommodationists” who are irresponsible for protecting religious beliefs in the same breath as scientific principles.
From Galileo’s house arrest to the Scopes monkey trial religion and science have long butted heads – and the fight has sometimes led to imprisonment, murder and factually inaccurate textbooks. At this point, most scientists – and members of the clergy – say they’re willing to let bygones be bygones. Not Dr. Jerry Coyne.
The evolutionary biologist’s latest book “Faith Versus Fact” argues that not only are religion and science fundamentally incompatible, using religion to understand the world is straight-up dangerous. He says faith keeps people from questioning the world around them, and religious dogma leads to incorrect, untestable and conflicting conclusions.
We ask Dr. Coyne how he came to his hardline approach on religion… and what the harm is in having a little faith.
Guest:
Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago professor of Ecology and Evolution, Author of “Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible” (Viking, 2015).