LAUSD Supt. Michelle King lays out her goals for the school year, City of LA & Kern County's legal battle over LA's waste, how CA could conserve the bluefin tuna.
Police drones worry some in LA. What is the Sheriff's Department's unmanned aircraft up to?
The LAPD wants more eyes in the sky.
The department took a step this week to begin using drones under certain conditions. For years, community pushback has kept unmanned aircraft grounded for law enforcement in Los Angeles.
That resistance continued on Tuesday, when protesters temporarily shut down an L.A. Police Commission meeting after LAPD officials proposed a pilot program to use drones during hostage standoffs and for other tactical purposes.
But a police drone is already in operation in Los Angeles County.
The Sheriff's Department has deployed one several times since January, when Sheriff Jim McDonnell unveiled the unmanned aircraft.
Captain Jack Ewell commands the special operations department that flies the LA County Sheriff's Department drone. He joined A Martinez on Take Two Thursday to discuss the program.
What's the equipment you're working with? What's it look like, sound like?
There's not a lot of sound to it. It's electric, so it's very quiet. It's very small. Maybe a foot or so in diameter, and six or seven inches tall.
Is it just one drone?
Yes it's one, and just to be precise, the FAA term for what we fly is "unmanned aircraft."
It's clearly marked for the public in big red letters. It says "Rescue" on the side and it has a sheriff's insignia so the public would know if they saw it that it does belong to us, and the missions that we use if for, which are rescue-type operations.
What kinds of tactical situations have you used the drone in?
We've used it mainly in search and rescue operations, and we've also used it during armed gunman tactical operations. Once during an active shooter situation. And once just a little over a week ago where a gunman using a protective vest and helmet forced his way into someone's house and shot two people, and then barricaded himself in that house.
The use of the aircraft allowed us to safely handle that situation and be able to check for additional victims or suspects in the house, and ensure our deputies and the public were safe. We had an actual [manned] helicopter at that same scene. But the helicopters are about 500 feet in the air to be safe. And they have to be careful that they don't get shot by the gunman and crash. Also at that altitude they don't get a good view into a structure to be able to see a gunman. So we were able to use the helicopter for kind of a big picture of the whole operation, and the unmanned aircraft we were able to fly 10-15 feet off the ground and be able to watch where the suspect was until we could safely go in and make sure everyone was out of the house and eventually deal directly with that gunman.
Is the Sheriff's Department using this for general surveillance purposes at all?
No. That's strictly forbidden in the policy. Matter of fact, our policy states the UAS shall not be used for random surveillance missions, or any missions that would violate the privacy rights of the public. We're very sensitive to that, and we're very sensitive that we need public support to be able to provide the best public safety to the community.
And because we have such strict regulations, I think that's why we do have the support that we have. We recently conducted a survey of the general public, and 89% of the several thousand responses that we received were in favor of the Sheriff's Department deploying an unmanned aircraft in the strict way that we deploy it.
What about the Sheriff's Department Civilian Oversight panel? They said [last month] they want the Sheriff's Department to stop the drone program, and they also voted against a set of guidelines on how to use the aircraft. Where does this leave the program? What guidelines are you operating under?
We have very strict department policy guidelines, and we also have very strict FAA guidelines. As far as the Civilian Oversight Commission goes, that's an ongoing process. The Civilian Oversight Commission and the Sheriff's Department have the same goal, and that is to provide the best public safety possible to the residents and visitors of Los Angeles County. And we're working with them on that.
The Office of the Inspector General, which has the full-time oversight of the Sheriff's Department, in their report, they concluded recently that there are many valuable uses of this technology that will undoubtedly save lives over time.
When the average person looks up and sees a drone, and knows it's for police or Sheriff purposes, I can see them being unnerved about it. How do you address the privacy concerns the average person might have?
Yes, and we're very sensitive to that. One thing is the public would never look directly up and see this. In our FAA certificate of authorization, we're not allowed to fly this aircraft directly over people. That's not how we deploy it. And again that's an education thing that we need to discuss with someone in the public that would have that concern.
Let's take for instance the incident with the gunman in the house I mentioned. We don't fly the unmanned aircraft to that location over other people's residences or other people to try and view the gunman. We drive it up to a perimeter. Our deputies evacuate an area, and make sure it's safe and no one's in an area...That's being done anyway because there's an active gunman there. So no one's going to see it flying overhead. We drive it into that interior perimeter, and from there we fly it 10-15 feet off the ground to get the view of where a gunman is hiding. It's not used to fly at an altitude like a regular helicopter to get an overview of the whole scene.
In a search and rescue operation, it's used in conjunction with aircraft because the unmanned aircraft can fly into dangerous canyons and under tree canopies to search for people that the regular helicopter either can't do, or it's too dangerous to do.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can listen to the full conversation by clicking on the blue media player above.
City of Los Angeles & Kern County's battle over LA's sewage comes to an end
This week, Kern County supervisors decided to settle a decade-long legal battle with the City of Los Angeles over using treated sewage sludge on farm land.
Since 2000, the City of Los Angeles has owned a sludge farm south of Bakersfield, named Green Acres. The city spreads treated human and industrial waste on the farm as fertilizer.
But, in 2006 Kern County voters overwhelmingly voted in support of Measure E, which banned the application of human and industrial sewage waste, or biosolids, on open farmland. Over 80 percent of the county's voters voted in support of the measure.
Los Angeles and other Southern California sewer treatment agencies sued to block the law, sparking the legal battle that is just now ending this week. Kern County decided to settle to avoid paying further legal costs.
Take Two spoke with James Burger, County Government Reporter for The Bakersfield Californian who has covered this story for the past 11 years.
According to Burger, county residents were initially against the biosolid because it contains some materials that the EPA doesn't regulate, and that could have an unknown health risk.
After the county passed Measure E, Los Angeles and other sewage agencies filed a charge that Kern County overstepped its jurisdiction by banning the spread of these materials on farmland. This placed the onus on the county to prove that the materials posed a risk.
"The problem that the county ran into was that the science isn't well enough advanced. The health impacts have not been proven yet, so the judge said the county hasn't proven that any animal or person has been hurt by the long-standing land application of biosolids in Kern County," he said.
Burger says that some Kern County residents are feeling frustrated after the decision to settle.
"There's some frustration, the concerns that are still lingering here are that these things aren't tested, and that they could impact groundwater... And there's a general feeling from the public, and it was expressed - 83% of the voters voted to create this law that Los Angeles shouldn't be dropping its problems, or its poop, in Kern County. So, that's maybe a more emotional approach to the problem, but those are kind of some of those feelings that were behind this whole 11-year conflict."
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
What are the goals of the LAUSD?
More than 600,000 children attend schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District and next week, they all go back to class.
But the district's head,
, has already laid out some of her goals for the year, one of which was to dramatically increase the graduation rate.
Today I not only say that we are a District on the Move. We are reaching new heights and we will accelerate our pace toward 100% graduation.
— Michelle King (@MichelleKingLA)
Today I not only say that we are a District on the Move. We are reaching new heights and we will accelerate our pace toward 100% graduation.
— Michelle King (@MichelleKingLA) August 8, 2017
We'll talk about King's vision for the LA schools with KPCC's education reporter Kyle Stokes.
The 'Lamborghini of tuna' doesn't make the endangered list — what's next for the bluefin?
A petition to designate the Pacific bluefin tuna was rejected earlier this week. This, despite estimates that the bluefin population is less than 3 percent of what it would be if fishing were curtailed.
Catherine Kilduff is a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. She spoke with A Martinez to break down the efforts to save this fish.
Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Not your basic tuna
"This tuna is the Lamborghini of tuna. Unlike other tuna that you might find in a can, this tuna performs a migration across the Pacific ocean...From the California coast, where it's born, to Japan.
It feeds and can grow up to a thousand pounds and it makes its way back to Japan to spawn tens of millions of eggs. It can go up to 55 mph, even the Navy has looked at its aerodynamics to try to model some of their submarines on it. It's really an amazing fish."
Troubling numbers
"The fishery service that made the decision not to list it, says that there are about 1.6 million bluefin tuna out there. Internationally, we caught a high of six million fish as recently as 2007. Those numbers dropped off to about 1.2 million fish in 2014.
But when you look at how many are mature, meaning that they can reproduce, that's only 140,000. So, our capacity for fishing greatly exceeds how many Pacific bluefin tuna are out there."
California's role
"California plays a really important role in the lifecycle of the Pacific bluefin tuna. If they are able to escape the nets on that side of the Pacific ocean, they come to California to feed...grow up big and fat and then go back to Japan to reproduce.
There's new information that a larger percentage of the Pacific bluefin tuna come to California than originally thought. And this isn't super surprising because a lot of highly migratory, charismatic animals like the Pacific leatherback sea turtle, they also come all the way across the ocean to feed off California. It's an incredibly rich productive resource, and we need to conserve it."
Kilduff's suggestion to help save the bluefin? Stop eating them.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
The Ride: General Motors expands car rental program to gig workers in LA
With a family to support, and a set of wheels to help him do it, Arthur Ortega is like a lot of ride-hail drivers. Looking for some extra cash, he signed up for Lyft, using his personal car.
In a week, he says he racks up 500 to 600 miles, depending on how much he works. That’s usually about 25 hours of towing passengers, says the 34-year-old father of two. Ortega lives in South Pasadena and drives a Nissan Sentra he originally bought for personal use.
But now, Ortega says, "I’m really concerned about the wear and tear on my car because, I mean, eventually, something’s gonna break or get ruined."
It’s for drivers like Ortega that General Motors is launching a new service in L.A. today. It’s called Maven Gig. And it allows drivers to rent cars by the week for a flat fee, with unlimited miles, insurance and maintenance included.
“These guys can do 1,000 miles a week on a car, so this is like tailor made for folks that earn their money in these on-demand platforms," says Jeff Shields, west coast regional manager for Maven.
GM already offers a similar program called Express Drive. It lets ride-hail drivers rent GM cars by the week through Lyft. Maven Gig broadens its scope, through formal partnerships with delivery services GrubHub and Instacart, the moving app Roadie and, of course, ride-hails, including kid-friendly HopSkipDrive.
It's not just for side hustles. Anyone can rent through Maven Gig. Drivers don't need to prove they're doing gig work, Shields says.
Here’s how it goes. Download the Maven app. Sign up and use a smart phone to find and reserve a car, then use the phone to get into the car and drive away. No key is required.
Maven Gig was launched three months ago in San Diego. It's a companion service to GM’s Maven City, which lets drivers rent vehicles by the hour, day or month; the fuel is free but the miles are limited.
Gig turns that around. The miles are unlimited but drivers have to pay for the fuel — unless they drive electric. Book one of Maven Gig’s 100 Bolt EVs, and Maven throws in an RFID card for free refills through EVGo. By the week, a Bolt EV costs $247, including taxes. The Chevrolet Cruze, $204.
That’s a lot, but so is owning a car. The American Automobile Assn. says the average weekly cost of owning and operating a medium sedan is $166.
"Statistics show that there’s gonna be thousands of folks in the sharing economy in the near future, right now," Shields says. "And so we just believe there’s a whole demographic of folks that we can provide vehicles to give them the convenience and flexibility to kind of earn money on their terms. It makes sense for GM to be in that ride share space and connect with a demographic and users that maybe we wouldn’t otherwise; 78 percent of our users are Millennials."
The overall trend for Millennials and up-and-coming Generation Z is less and less car ownership — more of a car-lite or even car-free lifestyle, even in a traditionally car-centric city like L.A., says Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book. KBB is owned by another company offering a similar weekly car rental service. Cox Automotive is piloting something called FlexDrive. It offers cars from a variety of auto makers for $159 per week, including insurance and maintenance. But it's currently only available in Atlanta, Austin and Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Other companies are getting in on short-term car rentals too, like BMW with its ReachNow pilot in Seattle, Portland and Brooklyn, and Hertz Rent-a-Car. It partnered with Uber and offers weekly rentals so drivers can work hard, but their personal cars don’t have to suffer.
Back here in LA, Lyft driver Arthur Ortega has already put about 20,000 miles on his Nissan, and he hasn’t even done ride hail for a year. Still, he's not so sure about Maven Gig.
"Yes and no. For me to say no, I pay only $300 a month for the car, so that saves me money," he says. "$800 that I would probably pay, I could fix the car."
California Canon: Jose Antonio Villarreal's, "Pocho"
All summer, in our series The California Canon, we've brought you great books about the golden state. And our latest installment is Jose Antonio Villarreal's novel, "Pocho."
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51stqHfpjML.jpg
It was one of the very first Chicano novels, and the first to gain widespread recognition.
Take Two contributor and editor David Kipen has his take on it.