Los Angeles County law enforcement is developing a system to retain an increasing amount of biometric data that it collects for longer periods of time. Also, Los Angeles County supervisor Gloria Molina's talks about her candidacy for city council against incumbent Jose Huizar. Then, the Orange County Transportation Authority has approved to widen a portion of the 405 freeway to possibly make room for toll lanes.
LA County plans to keep personal data like iris scan, voice recording for up to 99 years
Unbeknownst to the public, Los Angeles County law enforcement is developing a system to retain an increasing amount of biometric data that it collects for longer periods of time. Following the FBI’s lead and its recent development of the Next Generation Identification System, the county is working on a multimodal biometric identification system that would collect fingerprints, iris scans, mugshots, palm prints, and even voice recordings. Controversy arises as oversight, transparency, accountability, and security have become issues for the program. In addition, the LA County program has come under fire because of reports that the data will be held indefinitely. Because biometric data is unchangeable, privacy advocates see this as a significant issue as data collection expands and people cannot escape identification by law enforcement. They also say that the program has illegally avoided an impact review on privacy, an action that is required by federal law. The system isn’t expected to be fully functional for another three years, and it will collect data on up to an estimated 15 million individuals who are processed by law enforcement in the county. What do you think of law enforcement collecting data on individuals and holding it indefinitely? Is there a potential for misuse? Should security concerns trump privacy rights?
Guests:
Ali Winston, Center for Investigative Reporting who wrote the piece on the expansion of this new program to LA
Tim Williams, founder of TT Williams Investigations, a private investigation firm in Los Angeles. He is a retired LAPD senior detective supervisor
Peter Bibring, Director of Police Practices” for the ACLU of California and senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California
Gloria Molina opens up about why there aren’t more women in local politics
Los Angeles County supervisor Gloria Molina shocked many when she announced her candidacy for city council against incumbent Jose Huizar earlier this month.
Molina is only three months away from being termed out of office as supervisor, a position she has held for over two decades. She was the first Latina to serve in the California legislature, the Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Board. The supervisor has publicly expressed her concern over the lack of female representation in city hall. Still, some argue that Molina has made a radical choice in choosing to run against the popular Huizar instead of following her initial plan of retirement. Molina joins AirTalk to speak more on her candidacy, her legacy and her plans for the near future.
Guest:
Gloria Molina, outgoing Los Angeles County supervisor and candidate for LA City Council
Now 'time outs' are 'emotionally harmful' to kids, so what’s left?
All moms and dads know that parenting feels less a science than an art. Parenting styles have evolved over time, and the strict disciplinary mode favored by parents generations ago has now given way to a more connective, gentle approach. In a piece for Time magazine, Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson, authors of a new book on parenting, argue that the tried-and-true method that many parents rely on today – the time-out – might actually be emotionally harmful to a child.
“On top of everything, time-outs are usually ineffective in accomplishing the goals of discipline: to change behavior and build skills. Parents may think that time-outs cause children to calm down and reflect on their behavior. But instead, time-outs frequently make children angrier and more disregulated, leaving them even less able to control themselves or think about what they’ve done, and more focused on how mean their parents are to have punished them,” Siegel and Bryson write.
What are the alternatives to time outs? For parents who have used time outs, have they been effective?
Guest:
Tina Bryson, co-author of the new book, “No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind” (Bantam, 2014). She’s a psychotherapist at Pediatric and Adolescent Psychology Associates in Arcadia.
Attorney General Holder's resignation opens coveted, powerful Cabinet post
As one of President Barack Obama's longest serving cabinet members, critics of Attorney General Eric Holder have been on tenterhooks awaiting his resignation for many months. So today's news that he will step down means sharp political obituaries are seeing the light.
Constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute writes, "From politicizing Justice Department hiring beyond the wildest accusations against the Bush administration, to running a bizarre guns-to-gangs operation that even Alberto Gonzales couldn’t have concocted, to advocating a racial spoils system at all levels of government, Holder has tarnished the nation’s highest law enforcement office more even than Nixon’s AG John Mitchell."
So how did Holder survive such disdain? As Glenn Thrush wrote in POLITICO magazine: "Holder has been willing to say the things Obama couldn’t or wouldn’t say about race," and for that reason, he had a protector in the oval office. For the New Yorker, legal scholar Jeffrey Toobin tells a tale of two Holders whose best side shone in recent years: "[After Obama's reelection, Holder] decided to embrace civil rights as his cause. His civil-rights division filed lawsuits against the voting restrictions... He began the process of reducing the number of nonviolent offenders in the federal prison population."
What stands out for you in the tenure of AG Holder? Who are the possible successors?
Guest:
Tim Phelps, Justice Department reporter for the Los Angeles Times
Blake Hounshell, deputy editor of POLITICO Magazine
OC moves forward with more toll lanes
Despite opposition from some city leaders and residents, the Orange County Transportation Authority has approved to widen a portion of the 405 freeway to possibly make room for toll lanes.
Dubbed the “Lexus lanes,” by critics that say tolls only help more affluent drivers, the approved space would create room for an additional carpool or toll lane in each direction of the freeway. The plan is a part of the $1.3 billion plan to widen the 405 and is also a component of Caltrans’ $400 million toll lane proposal.
Should the newly acquired space be used for a toll lane or a carpool lane? Which would be more beneficial to the city overall? Would either of these help lessen congestion on the 405 freeway?
Guests:
Shawn Nelson, Chairman of Orange County Transportation Authority
Diana Carey, Councilwoman, City of Westminster, represents corridor cities and is an advocate opposing toll lanes
Why do so many millennials keep kosher?
Kosher food may bring to mind Grandma’s kugel and overly sweet Manischewitz wine, but for the younger generation, things are changing.
Millennial American Jews keep kosher at nearly twice the rate of baby boomers -- 27 percent of Jews 18-29 keep kosher as opposed to 16 percent of Jews age 50 and up. For younger Jews, keeping kosher may be less about religion and more about culture: Jewish deli food has become increasingly popular, just visit the new Wexler’s Deli in Grand Central Market or the roving Canter’s truck to see the evidence.
The high rate of kosher keeping may also reflect the growing numbers of young Orthodox Jews, a broader return to religiosity, or a general societal focus on food-related mindfulness.
What role does food play in cultural and religious observances? What draws millennial Jews to kosher food?
Guests:
Brie Loskota, managing director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California
Jeffrey Yoskowitz, food entrepreneur, pickler and food writer, co-owner of The Gefilteria