What impact is ICE presence having on LA’s restaurants?

Los Angeles has long been a culinary hub, from high-end restaurants to no-frills food trucks, many of which rely on immigrant and undocumented labor. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity continues throughout the city, many restaurant employees are not showing up to work in fear of possible immigration sweeps. Patrons are also limiting their time outside. This new challenge comes as the restaurant industry in LA still reels from recent wildfires and the effects of the pandemic. Today on AirTalk, we discuss how restaurants are responding to the ICE activity and what the federal immigration policies may mean for L.A.'s economy. Joining us are Karla Marie Sanford, staff writer at the LA Times, Brittney Valles-Gordon, founding board member of the Independent Hospitality Coalition, and Kevin Klowden, an executive director at the Milken Institute Finance.

More batteries = fewer problems for California's electric grid?

Take a walk back in time to 2019, and you'll find that California's electric grid had about 770 Megawatts worth of battery storage capacity. After some regulating and the invisible hand of the market having its way, that number has exploded to over 15,000 MW — enough power to over 10 million homes for a few hours at a time. These batteries help even out our daily power demand, which trends down when we're all at work (and the sun is up) and grows in the evening when we get home (and the sun is down). This massive battery expansion is one reason, according to the state's electric grid manager, the California Independent System Operator, that blackouts aren't in the forecast this summer. But can this rapid expansion keep pace, and are there drawbacks to the use of these battery systems? Joining Larry to discuss how these battery systems operate as we head deeper into the summer months is Severin Borenstein, professor and faculty director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and chair of the California Independent System Operator Board of Governors, and William Walsh, vice president of the energy procurement and management organization at Southern California Edison, and Rajit Gadh, UCLA professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering and director of its Smart Grid Energy Research Center.

New book tells story of the record studio that birthed 'Hotel California' & 'Electric Ladyland'

A new book by music journalists Martin Porter and David Goggin digs into the Record Plant Studios — best known as the place that helped produce some of the biggest American studio albums of the 1970s. With its locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Sausalito, the record studio served a role in producing Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, the Eagles' Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. The new book, titled Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios, tells the record production from this studio, which began in 1968 and quickly rose to prominence in the following decade. Today on AirTalk, Porter and Goggin join the program to talk about their book and the renowned studio at its center.

US won’t send some weapons pledged to Ukraine following a Pentagon review of military aid

The U.S. is halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said Tuesday, in a setback for the country as it tries to fend off escalating attacks from Russia. Certain munitions were previously promised to Ukraine under the Biden administration to aid its defenses during the more than three-year-old war. The pause reflects a new set of priorities under President Donald Trump and came after Defense Department officials scrutinized current U.S. stockpiles and raised concerns. The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some weapons previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public. Joining us today on AirTalk to discuss is Nick Schifrin, foreign affairs and defense correspondent with PBS NewsHour and Brian Taylor, Syracuse University professor of political science.

TV Latest: NASA+ finds greater distribution, C-SPAN looks for a future post-cable

In an effort to get its programming to a wider audience, NASA’s television service “NASA+” is now going to be available to Netflix users. Although the service is free through the space organization’s various online platforms, its deal with the popular streaming service will allow for more viewers to learn about NASA’s television programming. In turn, the deal also allows Netflix to house more live programming on its service. This comes at a time where other publicly available services, such as C-SPAN, struggle to build a sustainable pathway for its programming. In the case of a non-profit service like C-SPAN, it’s public affairs programming was sustainable as a result of top cable providers investing into the service, which may dwindle as consumers transition away from traditional television to online streaming. So what does the future hold for not-for-profit television programming as it seeks out users and a sustainable future? Joining us to round up these headlines is Todd Spangler, business editor for Variety.

TV Talk: ‘Countdown,’ ‘The Sandman,’ ‘All the Sharks,’ and more

Have you felt completely overwhelmed when deciding what new show to watch these days? Us too. There’s just so much content out there between network TV and numerous streaming platforms. Each week, we will try to break through the noise with TV watchers who can point us to the must-sees and steer us clear of the shows that maybe don’t live up to the hype. This week, listeners will get the latest scoop on what’s worth watching with Liz Shannon-Miller, senior entertainment editor at Consequence and Melanie McFarland, tv critic for Salon.

TV shows:

• Countdown (Amazon Prime Video)
• The Sandman (Netflix)
• Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (BBC)
• Outrageous (BritBox)
• All the Sharks (Netflix)
• Murderbot (Apple TV+)
• Squid Game (Netflix)