President Trump says yes but a California lawmaker says no to the National Guard's presence on the border, both sides of the LA Weekly debate, the cost of wine tariffs.
When Republicans resist: Sanctuary state edition
State of Affairs is Take Two's weekly peek at politics in the Golden State.
This week:
- Republicans resist: Several are taking aim at state sanctuary laws. And Cal State LA's Raphael Sonenshein says having something to rally against can be valuable in an election year:
It's always better to have something to be against. Once the government passed a state sanctuary, I had this instinct that told me this was going to create some local Republican heroes, because now they had something to resist.
When it was just cities that were pursuing it, Orange County cities could say, "Well, we don't want to do that," and then it's kind of just a mild a debate. [Sanctuary laws] created heroes that President Trump could ally with. Even though they were carefully crafted, to the political arena, it's just California doing something that's going to be fought against.
I do think that against mobilizes both parties. I think that's just the nature of politics.
Also on State of Affairs:
- Could the National Guard end up on California's southern border? President Trump says yes, but some California lawmakers say no.
- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has served 15 terms in Congress. This year, however, he faces more than a half-dozen challengers, as his support among Republicans seems to be waning.
Guests:
- Christina Bellantoni, assistant managing editor of politics for the LA Times
- Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA
As a Central American caravan reaches Mexico, migrants face tough choices
A caravan of migrants is moving from Central America through Mexico, and some of them have to make life-changing decisions.
They can either stay in Mexico, or take their chances at the U.S. border, possibly facing the National Guard.
Delphine Schrank is Reuters' chief correspondent for Mexico and Central America.
She’s been talking to people from the caravan and is on location in Mexico City, reporting on how their faring on the trek.
What the National Guard can and can't do at the California-Mexico border
President Trump announced this week he wants to send American troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal crossings and drug smuggling.
At a press conference Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the nation’s current immigration system "rewards bad behavior" and "it's time to act."
So far the White House hasn’t said how many members of the National Guard will be deployed, or for how long, and how much the whole operation will cost.
When asked about the number of troops, Nielsen said, “it will be strong. It will be as many as needed to fill the gaps we have today...we do hope the deployment will begin immediately.”
While the game of wait-and-see happens with troops, questions are surfacing about about the effectiveness of the National Guard in securing the border.
Everard Meade directs the Trans Border Institute at the University of San Diego. He explained what the troops can and can't do there.
Meade: They could do things like man guard towers, provide aerial surveillance. They could do some administrative processing for homeland security or border patrol, like paperwork processing, and provide logistical support for pending infrastructure projects.
Read the full story here.
California wineries brace for bottle shock as US-China trade war escalates
All week, the United States and China have been going back forth, threatening to impose tariffs on each other's goods. Friday morning, the trade war escalated once again, with China saying it was ready to strike back "forcefully" at the new U.S. tariffs.
Among the products that could feel the burn of a 25 percent tax in China are California exports, including fruits and wine. It's just a proposal at this point, but already it's shaking up the market.
"We have been working very hard and growing our presence and educating people on wine and Napa Valley and our brand for over ten years now," said Stephanie Honig, who is in charge of international sales at Honig Wines in Napa Valley. "We go about once a year and work with our importer and try to get the brand visible in the Chinese market."
Honig Wines markets a premium Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chinese clientele they go after are what they call "aspirational buyers," someone who, as Honig described, flies coach but is looking to fly business class. Or drives a BMW but is looking to trade up to a Rolls-Royce. "Someone who steps out and says, 'Okay, I want to buy a nice bottle of wine, but it's not nothing. I'm spending money on it,'" Honig said.
While the size of the market is small, the appetite there is sizable.
"People are very interested. It's still a small portion of the market, and there's a lot of room for growth," Honig explained. "Our wine, for example, our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, is our most widely sold wine in China. And if you purchase it here in our tasting room, you would pay $50 a bottle. If you purchase it in China, it's about $100 a bottle."
If the threatened tariffs go through, China would see the cost of those bottles increase to $115 to $120. Honig said that would be quite a blow for her winery and other vineyards like it, especially considering the competition.
"It's a huge problem because obviously China is open to wines from all over the world, and people from Australia and New Zealand are very connected to that market. So, as those tariffs go to zero and ours increase, the gap just widens so much more and we become so much less competitive in that market, so it's a step back."
But despite the hardships the possible tariff may bring on, Honig said there are no plans to de-emphasize the company's focus on its Chinese clients.
"You don't want to leave a market or discontinue your presence because it's very hard to get back in," Honig said. "You want to keep your relationships, keep your presence. Some people have loyalty and have the means to continue to support. We'll all be there when we come out on the other side."
Inside the fight between LA Weekly’s past and present
When Semanal Media bought LA Weekly last year, most of the paper's editorial staff were let go. Emotions ran high, and a group opposing the new ownership quickly formed, calling itself "Boycott LA Weekly."
This week the alt-weekly launched its own campaign, called "#Speaktruth," defending the paper and its new ownership. Last month, the Weekly canceled their food event, The Essentials, just two days before it was scheduled to take place. The event was cancelled because, after being pressured by the Boycott LA Weekly supporters, restaurants that were going to participate were dropping out.
The Boycott group has also been encouraging advertisers and businesses to withdraw their support from the LA Weekly and its events.
Brian Calle, the current CEO and publisher of LA Weekly, said this pressure was the reason the #Speaktruth campaign was started.
The straw that broke the camel's back was that many of my partners in the community, like the restaurants, felt that they were being bullied and threatened. Freelance writers felt that they were being bullied and threatened. I just said enough is enough, this is not acceptable.
The #Speaktruth site says, "A small but aggressive and deceitful group of bullies is using harassment and intimidation to spread lies about LA Weekly. They are intent on limiting free speech and attempting to shutter our publication."
Haley Potiker, who is part of the Boycott group, said those allegations are unfair.
To call us bullies is just so cynical and manipulative. What a boycott really is is free speech in action... The real attack on free speech is the dismantling of a local news source that Angelenos have relied on for decades.
The Boycott LA Weekly movement started as a response to the firing of many of the editorial staff and the secrecy surrounding the paper's new owners just after the buyout, Potiker said. But once the owners were revealed, the boycott group's concerns grew because of the owners conservative ties, she said.
At first we were very hesitant to support this new group who seemed to be a part of a wave of media takeovers across the United States, and who also had let go a lot of the journalists who we trusted to accurately cover the news.
One of Calle's previous positions was Vice President of the conservative think tank, the Claremont Institute, and the L.A. Times reported two of the new owners had donated heavily to Republican campaigns.
However, Calle said some of the things being said about the new LA Weekly owners, simply are not true.
There's been credible journalists... who've said, 'I can't believe that this is an all-white, all-heterosexual group of men that bought the LA Weekly.' That narrative is false. I'm half-Latino, I'm also gay so obviously we're not all white, we're not all heterosexual, one of our investors is African- American, one of our investors is Asian- American. They also want to paint us all as Trump supporters. Of the investment group I think one or two supported Trump, the rest of us did not.
As for the staff that was let go, Calle said that was a purely financial decision; staff were let go because the paper could not afford to keep them, not because of the quality of their work or their views. Calle also said that in revealing all the owners just after the Weekly's sale, the paper was actually being much more transparent than other publications, which often choose to keep some investors secret.
But could things have gone more smoothly? Calle said, yes, of course.
Would I have done some things differently? Yeah, I most certainly would've done things differently...We would've had a greater public relations and communications campaign leading up the takeover just so that people felt a little more comfortable with who everyone was.
This fight is not just about the way the sale was handled, however. Potiker said it's about the changes that readers like her have seen in the LA Weekly under the new ownership.
There were special elections in three districts in L.A. County two days ago. They did not cover that. I.C.E. raids have been happening all over the city, and hundreds of folks have been deported. They haven't reported on that at all. When a fire was threatening to burn down our city, they didn't say anything about it until maybe a week later when they posted an opinion piece about how that fire made one of the writers feel.
Calle said anyone who doubts his skills in a newsroom, or those of his staff, only has to look at their track records. Calle was previously opinion editor of the Southern California News Group, which includes the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News, and he has worked on radio and television news programs.
LA Weekly now is as strong as ever, Calle said, pointing out the paper recently broke stories about sexual harassment allegations in the Lynwood city government.
For Potiker and the Boycott group, the goal of their efforts is to be an example of how frustrated readers can try to take control of their local publications.
This takeover of the LA Weekly is part of a pattern that's playing out across the country and what we really want to do is build a model of effective organizing that other city's can follow and [start] to envision the future of what an alt-weekly could look like and should look like.
Calle said he understands concerns that Angelenos might have about the state of local, and national media, but that doesn't mean that he and the LA Weekly are to blame.
There's been a lot of tumult in media nationwide, and I understand people are upset. I understand there's resentment about the state of media in our city, and in our community and in our nation, but I didn't create the problems that journalism is facing. I didn't create the budgetary issues at the LA Weekly. I'm just trying to fix them because I want a strong LA Weekly that does what it's always done best.
We can't say where this fight will take the LA Weekly, but the paper is getting ready for another transition as its offices move from Culver City to downtown L.A.
California unauthorized immigrant license program issues over 1 million cards