Today on the show, we'll start with a discussion about how the FDA wants to regulate electronic cigarettes. Then, how is California's new Transitional Kindergarten plan shaping up? Then, NOAA researchers find a 19th Century shipwreck near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Filipino gun culture has deep roots in Los Angeles, and much more.
FDA moves to regulate e-cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration proposed a new rule today regarding the regulation of e-cigarettes. Under the new rule, the FDA would mandate the following.
- Register with the FDA and report product and ingredient listings;
- Only market new tobacco products after FDA review;
- Only make direct and implied claims of reduced risk if the FDA confirms that scientific evidence supports the claim and that marketing the product will benefit public health as a whole; and
- Not distribute free samples.
In addition, under the proposed rule, the following provisions would apply to newly “deemed” tobacco products:
- Minimum age and identification restrictions to prevent sales to underage youth;
- Requirements to include health warnings; and
- Prohibition of vending machine sales, unless in a facility that never admits youth.
Whether this will actually go into effect or not is up in the air. The rule is now open for public comment for 75 days, so things could possibly change.
Megan McArdle covers the industry for Bloomberg View and she joins the show with more.
RELATED: LA's e-cigarette ban: What you need to know
This is not the first time the FDA has taken up the issue of e-cigarettes and it certainly won't be the last, but what authority does the Food and Drug Administration have when it comes to regulating these products? For more on that, we turn to Jessica Levinson professor of law at Loyola University.
California's Transitional Kindergarten plan gets its first report card
Transitional Kindergarten is a brand new grade that the state of California created for 4-year-olds who would miss out on starting kindergarten in the Fall because they would turn 5 just after September 1. It began in 2012 and is currently in its second year.
It's not every day that a brand new school grade is created, and many in the world of education have been asking how Transitional Kindergarten is doing. To date there has been little other than anecdotal evidence from teachers and principals to evaluate it on.
RELATED: New studies laud California preschools, transitional kindergarten
Until yesterday, when the first comprehensive analysis of Transitional Kindergarten was released. Here to break it down for us is KPCC's early childhood development correspondent, Deepa Fernandes.
LA County's most vulnerable foster children are having trouble finding homes
There are nearly 18,000 children in LA County's foster care system, and 300 of them have serious behavioral and mental health problems. These kids become vulnerable to poverty, incarceration, and substance abuse as adults.
They also have the most difficult time finding proper housing. KPCC's Rina Palta looks at a new plan to recruit families for the system's most challenging kids.
Anniversary of Rana Plaza collapse sheds light on garment industry issues that remain
Today marks the one year anniversary of the devastating building collapse in Bangladesh that killed over 1,100 people and left thousands more injured. The building, Rana Plaza, was a massive garment factory that produced clothing and had already been deemed unsafe for workers the day before the tragedy.
Susan Berfield is a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek and joins us to discuss the progress that's been made over the past year and the challenges that continue for those working in garment factories in Bangladesh.
19th century shipwreck located near Golden Gate Bridge
In 1888, a passenger steamship called the City of Chester set out from San Francisco with 90 passengers headed to Eureka. The ship never reached its destination.
Obscured by fog, the City of Chester was hit by another ship and sank, killing 16 people — including two children — in what would become one of San Francisco's worst maritime disasters. Now, more than a century later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has located the shipwreck , near the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay.
Jim Delgado, director of maritime heritage at NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, joins the show to talk about the discovery.
Impulse Records, with historic ties to LA, seeks to revitalize jazz genre with relaunch
Impulse Records is the jazz label that brought many of the classic modern jazz tunes to a wider audience, including a 1968 re-issue of John Coltrane’s classic 1961 song, "My Favorite Things." On its roster of talents include other legends, such as Charles Mingus, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman and Duke Ellington.
This week, the legendary jazz label announced it is relaunching with an ambitious plan to revitalize the jazz scene. It’s a turnaround for a label that was first born during a vibrant time in West Coast jazz in the early 1960s.
For more, we’re joined by Scott Yanow, jazz historian and journalist and author of "Jazz on Record, the First Sixty Years."
State of Affairs: Ethics refresher, State Senate race, California voters and more
It's Thursday, which means it's time for State of Affairs, our weekly roundup of politics and government news in the golden state. For that we're joined by KPCC's political reporter Alice Walton and editor Oscar Garza.
Over the last weeks and months, we've been talking a lot about all the scandals going on in the state Senate: We had Leland Yee, Ron Calderon and Rod Wright all getting indicted. Yesterday the state senate held a day of reflection to get a refresher on ethics. Is this really going to help?
Leland Yee dropped out of the race for California secretary of state, though his name will still appear on the ballot. Four of the candidates appeared at a forum in Sacramento last night. How is this race shaping up?
Senator Dianne Feinstein endorsed Alex Padilla in the race on Tuesday. How significant is this?
Now to the current secretary of state, Debra Bowen. She released the number of California voters this week, totaling 17.6 million. The data also shows there's fewer Republicans and more independent voters. What do you think this will mean for state politics?
The union that represents employees at the Department of Water and Power announced that it will appeal a judge's decision that it turn over financial records on how public money was spent. What does this mean for Controller Ron Galperin's efforts to audit these records?
The long-time policy aide to the Los Angeles City Council announced this week he will retire in August. Gerry Miller has spent 30 years with the city government. What does this mean for the city council?
There's an update to the sexual harassment lawsuit against LA City Councilman Jose Huizar brought by the former aide who brought these allegations last year.
Mayor Eric Garcetti made some housing news this week. The Garcetti family home in Silver Lake will be rented out while the mayor is living in Getty House. How can someone get into this place?
U.S. Representative Tony Cardenas made an appearance on the Colbert Report yesterday for the show's "Better know a district segment." Colbert had some fun with one of the signature industries of this San Fernando Valley district:
The Colbert Report
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How California's drought is impacting food banks
A recent study from Arizona State University found that prices for fresh fruit and vegetables are expected to rise on account of the drought in California. Topping the list is the cost of lettuce which could jump by 34 percent, followed by avocados with 28 percent and broccoli by 22 percent.
Higher food prices hit us all but they're especially hard for food banks. To find out how much they're being affected, we turn to Sue Sigler, executive director at California Association of Food Banks.
Mexican border town hit hard as migration patterns shift
In recent decades, a flood of migrants passing through the Northern Mexican town of Altar has fueled the local economy, but migration patterns to the U.S. have shifted.
As a result, the government says two thirds of the restaurants and half the convenience stores in this desert town south of Arizona have closed. From the Fronteras Desk, Jude Joffe-Block reports.
On a recent afternoon, the rain poured down in the Northern Mexican town of Altar. Local priest Padre Prisciliano Peraza drove down a bumpy dirt road that leads out of town.
Peraza has been the priest here in Altar, Sonora, for a decade. In that period this small town boomed as a staging area for migrants preparing to cross the border. But now it appears on the verge of a bust.
This dirt road leads to the border town of Sasabe, some 60 miles away. This very route is also what drove Altar’s growth.
Local businesses sprouted up to feed, house and sell supplies to migrants on their way up to the Arizona desert.
Peraza said among those entrepreneurial endeavours are van businesses that drive migrants on this very road.
“They use old vans, and have taken out the seats so they can fit more people,” Peraza said in Spanish.
Much of this business is controlled by organized crime, which has a strong grip on this town.
But the number of migrants making the harrowing trek across Arizona's border has been falling. It reflects the fact that migration from Mexico has been on a downward trend for the last several years, and that smuggling routes have been changing.
For the first time in 16 years, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson sector – which covers Southern Arizona – lost its designation as the busiest place to catch migrants last year.
It was surpassed by Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where agents made almost 155,000 apprehensions last year, a 58 percent uptick from the year before. Tucson Sector made 120,939 apprehensions last year, down from 491,771 ten years ago.
“Before, many more people used to come through here,” said local pharmacist Maria Jaime Peña. She has been selling migrants items like caffeine pills and electrolyte packets for years.
Altar’s local government estimates that four years ago, several thousand migrants came through a day. Now? A couple hundred.
“There’s a lot of Central Americans,” Jaime Peña said of the migrants she’s seen lately. “And I’ve seen women some come through with their babies.”
Those are the same recent trends the Border Patrol has reported, too.
The local government here said about two thirds of Altar’s restaurants and half the convenience stores have closed in the past four years.
Jaime Peña’s store still shows some evidence of the force behind the migrant economy. Like the gallon-size black water jugs she sells for about a dollar.
She says when migrants used the regular clear water jugs they reflected in the moonlight, and made it easier for Border Patrol to spot them. And voila – a business opportunity was born.
A local water bottling company came out with a black water jug and that is what most migrants use, Jaime Peña said.
But now that bottling company says it’s had to diversify its clientele.
On the outskirts of Altar, local families gathered to celebrate a quinceañera, a girl's 15th birthday. A band played in spite of the rain. Many here are worried about the town’s future.
“It’s as if we’re waiting adrift for something miraculous to happen,” said Juan José Corona Moreno, a doctor at the party. “And really if we as citizens don’t do something, this isn’t going to change.”
Corona Moreno thinks the town should return to its roots in ranching and agriculture.
The local government is trying to recruit a maquiladora to provide manufacturing jobs.
That could be the only chance for new employment here, unless another wave of migration picks up.
Consultant proposes $2 billion overhaul of LA prison facilities
LA County jails may be in store for a big makeover. A consultant hired by the county has laid out grand plans for a $2 billion overhaul of the jail system. It's in need of it, because the buildings are aging and incredibly overcrowded.
For more on yesterday's proposal to revamp the system, we are joined by KPCC crime and safety reporter Rina Palta.
Interview Highlights:
What are the conditions of the county jails?
"I don't think there's anyone in the county that would tell you that men's Central Jail in downtown LA where they house a lot of the men is in good shape. It was built in the '60s/'70s, but it looks like it could be 100 years old. It's a really old style jail, lines of cells and a deputy walking down the blocks. It's considered really unsafe, it's been the source of a lot of these federal investigations that you've heard about with the Sheriff's Department. I don't think there's anybody in the County that would say that that jail does not need to be shut down, the question is just what to do next."
What can you tell us about this consultant?
"I know it's Vanir Construction Management company; some activists in the County who are not in favor of building a new jail have made a big deal about that. They're saying of course the construction company is going to tell you to build more jails to solve your crime problem instead of investing in social services and doing some of the other things you could do to bring your jail population down."
What has this construction company proposed?
"They have a range of options, I believe five options for the county, in the ballpark of $2 billion that would basically add a new women's jail at the Mira Loma Detention facility, which used to be for housing immigrant detainees for the federal government, they shut that down. The other thing is to replace Men's Central jail with a new facility that would be devoted primarily to inmates with mental health issues and inmates with substance abuse issues."
So they would just knock down the Men's jail all together and start fresh?
"I'm not sure if all the proposals call for that, but there's no rehabbing of Men's Central Jail, this is a new facility…I think the issue is having the right kinds of beds for people. Right now the mental health facilities in both the women's jail in Lynwood and the men's jail in Twin Towers are really overcrowded.
"There's not enough treatment space for the inmates that have mental health needs, a lot of our jail inmates have mental health needs. There's also stacking of beds in bad places. Day rooms in gyms are having stacks of bunkbeds instead of being available for programming space, so I think the idea is to replace all of those beds with better beds. Beds designed to house the kinds of people that we actually have in jail."
Any sense of how long it would take to follow through with these plans?
"It would take years. This is not a problem that is going to be solved very quickly with construction. Construction takes a long time, this is just the initial planning phase and the Board of Supervisors hasn't even said that they're necessarily committed to building a jail yet."
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Vanir Construction Management in a quote.
Filipino gun culture in Los Angeles has deep roots
At an outdoor shooting range in a houseless expanse of Corona, wind whips dust into the air. A bright sun beats down on necks. Brian Urbano doesn’t mind the conditions. He’s enjoying his favorite pastime.
"We — my culture, my heritage, my roots — we do embrace firearms," Urbano said.
Urbano is a member of the Norco Running Gun club, a predominantly Filipino-American group of more than 500 shooters from all over Southern California. About 80 have shown up today at the range housed at Raahauge's Shooting Enterprises for a weekly competition that has shooters running through obstacle courses, shooting at paper and metal targets.
In the U.S., the vast majority of gun owners are white and male. The picture is very different at the Norco club where the president is a Filipino immigrant and members banter in Tagalog about technique and gun models.
From KPCC's Immigration and Emerging Communities Desk, reporter Josie Huang has the story.