Starbucks To Close Six LA Stores Due To Safety Concerns. What Are The Implications?
Starbucks is closing 16 stores around the country because of repeated safety issues, including drug use and other disruptive behaviors that threaten staff. The coffee giant is closing six stores in its hometown of Seattle, six in Los Angeles, two in Portland, Oregon and one each in Philadelphia and Washington. Starbucks said employees at those stores will be given the opportunity to transfer to other stores. Starbucks said Tuesday the closures are part of a larger effort to respond to staff concerns and make sure stores are safe and welcoming. In a letter to employees, Starbucks’ senior vice presidents of operations Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson said the company’s stores aren’t immune from problems like rising drug use and a growing mental health crisis. Today on AirTalk, Wall Street Journal Restaurants Reporter Heather Haddon joins to discuss.
DOJ Plans To Investigate PGA Over Anticompetitive Behavior, How Did We Get Here?
The dispute between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series now has the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the PGA Tour said Monday it was confident it would prevail.
Today on AirTalk, we hear how the golf community has responded to the situation with Wall Street Journal sports reporter Andrew Beaton and talk about legal implications of this with Gabe Feldman, director of the sports law program at Tulane University.
With files from the Associated Press
New Harvey Weinstein Biography ‘Hollywood Ending’ Searches For The Disgraced Former Movie Mogul’s ‘Rosebud’
You’re probably familiar with Ronan Farrow’s 2017 exposé in The New Yorker on Harvey Weinstein and his history of abuse and sexual assault, which followed the reporting of New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey who first broke the story five days before Farrow’s piece was published. But what you might not know is that behind the scenes, Farrow’s New Yorker colleague Ken Auletta was also hard at work digging into the allegations against Weinstein, which he’d heard rumblings about 20 years prior, on a quest to find Weinstein’s “Rosebud” -- that one missing thing that might help explain his personality and behavior. Five years after Farrow’s piece went public, Auletta has released a biography of Weinstein -- but did he ever find that Rosebud?
Today on AirTalk, author and writer for The New Yorker Ken Auletta is with us to talk about his new biography of Harvey Weinstein, which follows the former producer and now convicted felon from his upbringing in Queens through the creation of his production companies and ultimately to his trial and conviction.
UCLA’s New Heat Map Aims To Get Resources To California’s Most Vulnerable Neighborhoods. How Does It Work?
A new online tool from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health aims to show how specific neighborhoods are harmed by extreme heat. The map helps visualize the risks of extreme heat and includes a tutorial video and feedback forms for recommendations on how to improve the tool. The overall goal is to target the most vulnerable neighborhoods and provide them with resources. Today on AirTalk, Larry’s joined by Dr. David Eisenman, Fielding School professor of community health sciences and co-director of the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions and the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, and Marta Segura, director of the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office, to discuss the new tool and how the city is addressing rising temperatures.
Click here to find UCLA’s new heat map tool.
California’s High-Speed Rail Gets An Inspector General – Will That Speed Up The Project?
After a decade of cost, schedule, technical, regulatory, personnel and legal problems, the California high speed rail project will be getting an inspector general soon as part of a deal between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature. The new investigative position is intended to intensify oversight and improve performance of the $105 billion railroad project. Enthusiasm for the change is high, but whether it will fix everything is uncertain, even among state leaders. The law creating the inspector general lists a wide range of authorities the new office will have: full access to all the project’s records; authority to review contracts and change orders; and issuing subpoenas for witnesses and records, among much else.
Today on AirTalk, we’re joined by independent journalist Ralph Vartabedian to discuss when the new inspector position will be filled and how increased oversight will change the course of the project.
With files from the LAist. Read the full article here.
Frequent News Consumption Can Have Negative Consequences. But What's The Root Of That Problem?
Research has shown that consuming a lot of news can have some negative consequences. Surveys show that the news can worsen people's moods, lead to arguments, increase anxiety, and more. These are some of the driving factors leading people to avoid the news. In fact, according to new data from Reuters, the United States has one of the highest rates of news avoidance compared to the rest of the world. Even author and investigative journalist (yes, a journalist) Amanda Ripley found herself actively avoiding the news over the last decade. She questions why in her new piece, "I'm a journalist who stopped reading the news. Is the problem me - or our product?" Ripley joins Larry to discuss.
