How battlefield medicine has been crucial in helping Boston bombing victims; Why Internet vigilantism can hurt, not help, the Boston bombing case; Muslims fear a backlash after Boston bombings; Chris Nichols of LA Magazine shares some souvenirs from Tijuana's long-lost Agua Caliente Casino, plus much more.
Battlefield medicine crucial in helping Boston bombing victims
The carnage at the Boston Marathon bombing had many observers saying it looked like a war zone. Medical advances from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan have actually been crucial in helping victims of the Boston blasts.
Here to tell us more about how military medicine has is being used is Doctor David Dromsky, an orthopedic surgeon at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego.
Muslims fear a backlash after Boston bombings
The culprit(s) behind Boston's deadly bombing is still at large, but Khaled Beydoun had one thought running through his mind: please don't let that person be an Arab or Muslim. For those communities in the US, there's a very real fear of a cultural backlash against them after a suspected terrorist attack.
Khaled Beydoun is himself an Arab-American and a fellow at UCLA.
Why Internet vigilantism can hurt, not help, the Boston Marathon case
Federal investigators are combing through a number of leads in the Boston Marathon bombing case, including a surveillance image of a man putting down a backpack near one of the bombing sites, captured before the blasts.
Meanwhile a couple of news and image-sharing websites, Reddit and 4Chan, have been overrun with users trying to do their own parallel investigation. Amateur digital-forensic analysts are going through much of the same data as investigators, circling suspicious people in backpacks and swapping theories about who did it and how.
These people want to solve the case, and maybe they can, but in the crude world of internet crime-solving, could they be doing more harm than good?
Joining us to explain is Alexis Madrigal, Senior Editor at The Atlantic.
How and why the media can get a breaking news events wrong
When there's a big news event like the Boston marathon blast, how exactly is the media supposed to report quickly, yet maintain accuracy. We’ll speak to Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute.
City Hall Pass: Mayoral debate, city budget, LA Convention Center
KPCC's political team Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton join the show for a regular roundup of the latest political news.
This week, the gloves come off. A knife fight. An out and out brawl. Pick your cliché to describe last night's debate between LA mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti.
LA reacts to the Boston Marathon bombing. The LAPD has already announced they'll be beefing up presence at high profile events. Meanwhile, just down the street from City Hall, the LA County CEO presented his budget plan, and it looks like the county is doing better than the city, at least when it comes to funding operations.
There was a complicated plan for the LA Convention Center that would have the developer, AEG, paying for improvements, in return for being allowed to build a football stadium next door. Now, all that is pretty much in shambles.
Both LA pro-basketball teams make the playoffs
Back in late February, the Lakers had a losing record. They were dealing with injuries, inconsistent play, a new coach and their revered owner Doctor Jerry Buss passed away.
The playoffs seemed like a pipe dream, and then Kobe Bryant put himself out there. He guaranteed the Lakers would make the playoffs and virtually put the team on his back. Bryant was playing full games with no rest and the Lakers kept inching up the standings.
Last Friday, however, Bryant tore his Achilles tendon in the Lakers win over the Golden State Warriors ending his season. While the Lakers were in control of their playoff destiny, things were doubt because they would have go on without their captian and leading scorer.
Last night, the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets to end the regular season and will take on the San Antonio Spurs in the first round starting Sunday. Not that Lakers fans leaving the game had any doubt:
While the Lakers certainly had all the drama, the Clippers had gotten in to the playoffs weeks ago.
They wrapped their best season in franchise history and will open the playoffs Saturday verses the Memphis Grizzlies in Staples Center.
God is in the garden: a conversation with Shaykh Mustafa Umar
To mark Earth Day this year, we’ve been exploring how the faith of Southern Californians shapes their attitude towards nature. We’re calling our series, “God is in the garden,” inspired by a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there."
RELATED: See more reporting from our God is in the Garden series
On Tuesday I profiled Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino. On Wednesday, it was Father Christian Mondor of Saints Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Huntington Beach. Today it's Shaykh Mustafa Umar, head of education at the Islamic Institute of Orange County.
Report: Air quality in California improving, but challenges remain
A new report out from the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association finds that air quality statewide has improved over the past 12 years.
For more on this and on an interesting study on how pollution travels, we're joined now by Suzanne Paulson, a professor at UCLA's Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Hollywood producer Bryan Zuriff charged in Russian mob gambling ring
Hollywood producer, Bryan Zuriff, the executive behind Showtime's new drama "Ray Donovan," has been charged in a gambling scandal that's tied to the Russian Mob.
Zuriff is one of 34 people charged in an operation that has allegedly laundered more than $100 million. Zuriff has denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer.
Joining us is Deadline Hollywood's TV Editor, Nellie Andreeva.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club pays tribute to The Call
The song "The Walls Came Down," was a big hit in 1983 for The Call, a band from Santa Cruz. The Call's lead singer and guitarist, Michael Been, died in the summer of 2010. He was 60 years old.
At the time, he was at a music festival in Belgium, doing sound for his son, Robert Levon Been, the bassist of another California band, The Black Motorcycle Rebel Club.
Tonight, Been will join his dad's fellow band mates from The Call at a show in San Francisco, and tomorrow, they're in LA with a gig at the Troubadour. Been recently joined us in the studio to talk about BRMC's new album, and what it was like growing up with a rockstar as a father.
Listen to BRMC's new album, Specter at the Feast:
Chris' Collection: Souvenirs from Tijuana's Agua Caliente Casino
Where did Southern California residents in the 1920s and '30s go to sow their wild oats? Remember, this was a time long before Las Vegas became Sin City, the place where people for years have traveled to drink, gamble and engage in any number of prohibited vices.
"When drinking, gambling and racing horses was not legal in LA, people decided that they needed to build a place to do that," said LA Magazine's Chris Nichols. "They went just a mile over the border and built a lavish resort city there with a hotel, a spa, an airport, with a racetrack, and the racetrack became very famous."
Agua Caliente Casino and Resort in Tijuana was a desert oasis where LA residents and Hollywood stars flocked to escape the rules and law enforcement of the U.S. The resort opened in June 1928, and quickly established itself as a destination for important people. Even mobster Bugsy Siegel found inspiration in Agua Caliente, which he used to build a similar resort on the Las Vegas strip.
"Caliente was an amazingly complex and beautiful place, with fine materials from all over the world, with architectural styles from all over the world," said Nichols. "It attracted anybody that wanted to drink and gamble and mingle with these people and it was a really big deal in its day and completely forgotten now."
The resort was closed in 1935 after Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas outlawed gambling.
Chris Nichols, who is quite the collector, brought in some mementos from the resort:
Image 1: "A piece of ladies' jewelry with silver hammer designs and the Aqua Caliente logo design. That was something in the gift shop, but when celebrities went, and well-known people went, they would gift them things, and so I've seen Caliente jewelry that was given to starlets that would go down and get photographed in it," said Nichols.
Image 2: "A large yellow felt pennant with a race horse and Caliente logo, and on the back, it has a sticker with the date 1932 I think." said Nichols. "It is just a souvenir that I guess you would tie on to your car or tote around on a stick and root for your favorite horses down on the track."
Image 3: "It's a silver bowl from the hotel, it's got their stamp on it and I think its for wine or champagne maybe?" said Nichols.