On Today's AirTalk we'll take a look at entertainment giant and Staples Center owner AEG who recently went up for sale and who may be interested in acquiring the company, cover the latest polls in the Presidential race with a keen look at swing state numbers, a conversation with Producer/ Director Robert Lorenz about his new movie "Trouble With The Curve", the newest budget proposal from the City of L.A. administrators and what they have planned for pension plans for their employees and Patt Morrison will sit in the drivers seat and have a conversation with LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. Plus, the latest news.
L.A.’s premiere sports and entertainment giant is on the market
It could be the end of an era for professional sports in Los Angeles. Philip Anschutz, head of the Denver-based Anschutz Co., announced that he will be selling off the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) subsidiary.
AEG is the company behind local sport franchises the Kings and the Galaxy, minority holder of the Lakers, and owner and operator of Staples Center and the rest of the L.A. Live complex. Additionally, AEG owns real estate and entertainment venues all over the globe, which is further supported by the world’s second-largest concert promotion business behind Live Nation.
The bidding war will kick off soon, and will certainly generate the same enthusiasm and interest that occurred with the recent sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While it is certain that the deal will end up with a ticket price in the billions, what’s less certain is who or what entity will be up to the task of taking on the huge sports and entertainment empire.
Will it be a group of wealthy investors, or a private-equity firm that could buy it all up and then sell it off in discriminate pieces? The details of the impending sale aside, this could also pose an obstacle to getting an NFL team in L.A., as AEG was serving as that cause’s primary cheerleader. How will the effort to get a team in L.A. be affected by this news? And what about the face of L.A.’s downtown? What is the future for L.A. Live?
Guests:
Jan Perry, L.A. City Councilmember, 9th District (includes downtown Los Angeles)
Andrew Zimbalist, Sports Economist; Professor of Economics, Smith College in Massachusetts
Brian Watt, KPCC Reporter
New polls show Obama gaining ground in swing states
With a month and a half left before the presidential election, new polls are showing President Barack Obama is widening his lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Analysts are pointing to a post -convention bump along with some gaffes made by Mr. Romney as to why the President is gaining support.
According to a new CBS/New York Times poll, the president is reportedly holding a 3 to 5 percent lead in swing states such as Virginia and Wisconsin, which hold crucial electoral college votes.
Conversely, the most recent Rasmussen Reports daily poll suggests Romney has taken the lead in some swing states including New Hampshire and is eking out a 1 percent lead against the incumbent president. There has also been speculation that the former governor of Massachusetts could win the popular vote, but fail to win in the electoral college.
With so many polls being published on a weekly basis, which ones should we believe? Does one poll have more credibility than another? What does this all mean come November?
Guest:
Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and adjunct faculty at USC Annenberg School
Director Robert Lorenz steps out of Eastwood’s shadow for ‘Trouble with the Curve’
Filmmaker Robert Lorenz’ name has rolled past in the credits at the end of many movies that millions of people have seen.
Lorenz is best known for assistant directing and producing movies with his partner, iconic actor and director Clint Eastwood. His partnership with Eastwood has been a fruitful one, yielding such movies as “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Space Cowboys” and “Gran Torino.” Some of their collaborations have also been recognized by the industry - “Mystic River” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” earned them a pair of Academy Award nominations.
Lorenz has been widely regarded as Eastwood’s right-hand man for years, and now, with Eastwood winding down his career, Lorenz has stepped into the director’s chair for the upcoming “Trouble with the Curve.” The new movie stars Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake and the tells the story of an aging baseball scout who is coming to terms with the twilight of his career working in the sport to which he has dedicated his life and reconnecting with is his semi-estranged daughter along the way.
What can a first time director learn from an icon like Eastwood? What are other successful Hollywood producing teams?
Guest:
Robert Lorenz, director of “Trouble with the Curve”; also worked with Clint Eastwood as a producer and assistant director on “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Space Cowboys,” “Gran Torino,” “Mystic River,” “Letters from Iwo Jima” and others
L.A. City Council considers new pension plan that raises retirement age and cuts pension benefits
Following Governor Brown’s signing of state pension reform legislation last week, the Los Angeles City Council is considering a plan for cutting pension benefits of newly hired civilian employees, which half a dozen unions will likely oppose.
City administrative Officer Miguel Santana, a top budget official at City Hall, released the proposal yesterday (Tuesday) suggesting the normal retirement age be raised from 55 to 65 and that maximum pensions be reduced from 2.16 percent of a worker’s salary, multiplied by the number of years worked, to 2 percent. Santana stated the changes would save up to $70 million within five years and as much as $309 million over a decade. The retirement ages for newly hired police officers and firefighters would not be changed under the proposal.
The newly announced plan has already been denounced by Bob Schoonover, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721, who said his organization was even prepared to go to court to fight it.
How fair or unfair is it to require newly hired civilian employees to wait until the age of 65 to retire?
Guests:
Dennis Zine, Los Angeles City Councilmember, District 3
Julie Butcher, senior organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 721
Frank Stoltze, KPCC Reporter
Patt Morrison with the Big Man on Campus: LAUSD’s John Deasy
It’s about one month into the new school year, but LAUSD has already come under fire for a variety of issues.
In a UCLA study released in April, it was revealed that black male LAUSD students had the highest risk of suspension in the state, with over 20 percent of students being suspended at some point in their LAUSD academic career.
LAUSD and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles recently announced a tentative one-year agreement will incorporate student test data as a factor in evaluating principals and assistant principals. Is that an effective way to rate teacher performance?
The Miramonte scandal that rocked the school is still ongoing, two lawsuits filed by Miramonte Elementary parents against LAUSD are on hold. Is LAUSD sending too many kids to court for minor offenses? In the last three years, school police issued more than 33,000 tickets for vandalism, tardiness and disrupting the peace.
Patt Morrison will chat with LAUSD’s Superintendent John Deasy about all of these issues and your questions.
Highlights from the interview:
On what the Chicago teachers strike has to do with L.A.:
"I don't think it has anything directly to do, but there are really important lessons and observations that we take because they are the 3rd largest school system in the United States."
"The very, very difficult issues are really not money any longer. They're actually how we deal with employees in terms of helping them get better, helping them understand their performance, accountability. I think the very, very thorny issue is [if] seniority is the only way that we have to make decisions when we close schools or downsize."
On how LAUSD has handled Obama administration's decision to stop deporting younger undocumented immigrants:
"I personally and professionally am very thrilled with the opportunity that students are both thinking about the opportunities in front of them with this act, which means come back to school, complete through-adult education or otherwise."
"This Monday, we launched the entire online opportunity for this, and in the three short days, we already have 400 through our new online application."
"We already know there is an entire process beyond LAUSD which is expensive, that's why we have done this for no charge, for our former students who need their documentation."
On how deferred action is getting funding despite other cuts:
"This is a situation that we face in LAUSD along, I would imagine, every other school district, which is the funding comes from the state. I can't get more, so people are doing less of one job in order to help the other, and at the moment, making sure that everybody has their transcript was key."
On funding arts education in the district:
"This is a problem across California and inside LAUSD, as the state has made draconian cuts in funding for public education ... We have had a number of incredibly generous philanthropy and artists donate, but we are at a really critical point about maintaining arts education."
On Prop. 30 and Prop. 38:
"If they pass, the free fall of the bottom falling out stops. It will be awhile, over years, but we will get additional funding. The first funding that comes back to us in 30 ... pays us back for the deficit of the IOUs the state has been giving us. We are owed nearly a billion dollars from the state of California in IOUs."
"The state gives you, by formula, how much you get per student, but they're not able to afford to give it all to you. So they tell you they give you a portion of it, and then we go to Wall Street and borrow the rest and pay interest on that. Over the years, that has added up to a billion dollars, and that has to be paid back to us first."
On minorities being targeted for criminal arrests by the LAPD:
"We had great concern ... around the suspension of students. We put an effort into place to really take a look at dropping the number of days students were suspended. We had some 46,000 days over the course of the year that students were suspended, and we had targeted a 5 percent decrease. We actually were able to see about a 47 percent decrease."
"The difference is very much being responsible for finding other ways to deal with, particularly, this infraction called 'defiance.' If you ... bring a weapon to campus and you sell drugs, you're going to be suspended and expelled, but that is a minority of the suspensions that were taking place. The majority were for this issue called 'defiance.'"
"There are other ways to help students learn that coming to class without pencils and notebooks is not a suspendable act. Defiance was not defined by the district."
"It's made a difference in their grades, big time. We saw more students graduate last year than had ever happened in LAUSD history, way beyond our target for increasing four-year cohort graduation rate. State test scores at every single grade and at every single subject are at the highest point in LAUSD's history."
On how LAUSD is attracting the best-qualified school teachers for the system:
"It is a huge issue, because one is, when we have to downsize, we must be forced to do that only on the issue of seniority, and we can't actually contribute anything to that decision about how the teacher has done ... However, on the other side, for every position we have hundreds and hundreds of applications. People want to teach, and they want to teach in LAUSD."
Guest:
John Deasy, LAUSD Superintendent