Department Of Transportation Plans To Require Airlines To Compensate Stranded Passengers

The Biden administration is working on new regulations that would require airlines to compensate passengers and cover their meals and hotel rooms if they are stranded for reasons within the airline’s control. The White House said President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg would announce the start of the rulemaking process some time today. This follows a travel season that left a lot of passengers stuck at the airport as flights were either canceled by the time they got there or too packed for them to enter.

Today on AirTalk, we discuss the upcoming announcement with CNBC airlines reporter Leslie Josephs and Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), who released a report on airline complaints back in March. Have you dealt with the issue of being a stranded passenger? Do you plan to travel more as a result of these consumer-centric measures? Join the conversation, call us at 866-893-5722 or email us at atcomments@LAist.com.

With files from the Associated Press

Women’s Health Series: Misdiagnoses, Gender Bias, And The Psychologizing Of Pain

Going back to ancient Greece, women’s medical issues have been met with doubt and discrimination, even though chronic pain affects women at higher numbers than men. There is a gender bias in health care, with one study finding that in nearly three-quarters of the cases where a disease afflicts primarily one gender, the funding pattern favors males. Either the disease affects more women and is underfunded or, as the study points out, the disease affects more men and is overfunded. Studies have also shown that women have longer wait times in hospitals than men, are underdiagnosed for medical issues and are more frequently not given pain medication. This week on AirTalk with Larry Mantle we’re talking about women’s health. Today, we begin our Women’s Health Series with a discussion about gender bias and the state of women’s health with Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick, Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist, chair of the OB GYN department at Cedars-Sinai, and co-chair of their Center for Research in Women’s Health and Sex Differences (CREWHS), Maya Dusenbery, journalist and author of the book “Doing Harm: The Truth about how Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick,” and Anushay Hossein, journalist and author of  “The Pain Gap: How Sexism, Racism, and Healthcare Kill Women.”

The Biggest Obstacle To California's Renewable Future May Be Our Aging Power Lines Infrastructure, What Can Be Done About It?

Seen everywhere but not usually given a second thought are the massive farms of power lines blanketing every part of California. As it turns out these eyesores are an integral section of our energy infrastructure, and they're outdated, making our efforts towards clean energy with wind and solar effectively moot. The California Independent Systems Operator in its draft report Transmission Plan for this year notes California will need to spend at least $7.5 billion on transmission projects, with another $1.8 billion on projects to prevent blackouts. These will only be made worse by longer heat waves and an increased use in air conditioning. Additionally, constructing power lines can be a regulatory headache as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shares authority over their approval and construction with state and local authorities. CAISO envisions more than doubling California's electricity generating capacity which would be a boon to our energy troubles, but getting to that point and how long it could take remain the biggest questions. Today on AirTalk, LA Times energy reporter Sammy Roth and Severin Borenstein, faculty director of the Energy Institute at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley join us to discuss what can be done about California's aging power line infrastructure.

Chuckawalla Valley State Prison Is Closing, But Not If These Mayors Have Their Way

Chuckawalla Valley State Prison houses over 2,000 inmates and employs 850 people in the city of Blythe on the California/Arizona border on the eastern edge of Riverside County. Residents of the city see the prison as a vital piece of their local economy. But last year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Chuckawalla will close in March, 2025. Meanwhile, in western Riverside County, residents of the town of Norco are much more ambivalent about their local prison, the California Rehabilitation Center, which is slated to remain open. In a recent editorial, the mayors of Blythe and Norco teamed up to make a proposal: Keep Chuckawalla, and close the CRC. Joining us to explain their proposal are Joseph DeConinck, mayor of Blythe, and Robin Grundmeyer, mayor of Norco.

How Fernando Valenzuela Reignited The Love Of The Dodgers Among Los Angeles Mexican-American Community

When Fernando Valenzuela toed the rubber on Opening Day in 1981, less than two years after first arriving in the U.S., he was an unknown entity, for all intents and purposes. But it wouldn’t take long for the screwball-throwing lefty with a herky-jerky windup from Etchohuaquila, Mexico to carve out his place in Dodger history as one of the most influential and beloved players of all time. All he did that rookie year in 1981 was win the National League Rookie of the Year Award, the NL Cy Young Award, and a World Series ring over the hated New York Yankees. But Valenzuela did more than just win baseball games and earn prestigious hardware, as baseball historian Erik Sherman writes in his new book “Daybreak at Chavez Ravine: Fernandomania and the Remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers” -- he also repaired a nearly three-decade old rift between the team and Los Angeles’ Mexican-American community that began in the late 1950s when the Dodgers first moved to L.A. At the time, families who lived in Chavez Ravine, where Dodger Stadium now sits, were evicted from their homes so the land could be sold to the Dodgers’ owner to build the stadium.

Today on AirTalk, Erik Sherman is with us to talk about his new book and the role Fernando Valenzuela had in not only increasing the popularity of the Dodgers in L.A. and across the U.S., but also in repairing the team’s strained relationship with Los Angeles’ Mexican-American community. Share your favorite Fernando Valenzuela memories or tell us how Fernandomania helped bring your family back to Dodger baseball by calling us at 866-893-5722, or by emailing us at atcomments@laist.com.