How climate change has affected this year's fires, LAFD deploys drones in firefighting efforts, and LA issues new recreational pot regulations.
State of Affairs: CA Lawmakers request fire relief, fire funding fights in Congress
This week on State of Affairs:
- U.S. Congress members from California are asking for more than $4 billion dollars in fire relief.
- When it comes to fighting fires, a lot of the burden has been put on the Forest Service — but they're having trouble paying for it all. Why?
- The state Assembly is rocked by yet another accusation of sexual misconduct.
Guests:
- Marisa Lagos, political reporter for KQED
- Carla Marinucci, senior editor for Politico's California Playbook
Press the blue play button above to hear the full conversation.
LA firefighters using drones for the first time
Southern California is burning. Is climate change to blame?
LA City Council approves rules for recreational pot
Enforcing stoned driving still poses challenges as recreational pot looms
Law enforcement agencies are preparing for what they fear will be an increase in the number of people driving under the influence of recreational marijuana as California preps for the sale of the drug in the new year.
Unlike laws governing alcohol use and driving, there will be no set legal limit for THC in the body under Proposition 64, partly because there is little scientific evidence linking THC levels and level of impairment, and partly because there is still no reliable biological way to test for the drug.
"Alcohol is kind of a special case, because with alcohol the amount you drink and the amount of alcohol in your blood are very closely related," said Dr. Igor Grant, head of the UC San Diego Center for Medical Cannabis Research.
But while alcohol is water soluble, THC – the active compound in marijuana – is fat-soluble and it is metabolized very differently.
When a person smokes cannabis, they get a very high level of THC in the blood and body fluids within 30 second to a minute, but they likely won't be impaired yet.
By the time they are, most of the THC has gone into the tissues and organs like the brain where it has its psychoactive effects. Very little will remain in the body fluids.
"So there can be a disconnect between the actual blood levels and how impaired you really are," said Dr. Grant.
Experience level with the drug also affects one's THC level, with habitual users retaining persistent low levels in the blood even when they have no impairment. That's why drivers arrested in Colorado over that state's legal limit have been able to successfully argue they weren't actually high at the time.
On the other hand, an inexperienced user could experience a great deal of impairment and still have very low THC levels.
The degree to which THC impairs driving has also been contested. THC has certainly been shown to affect skills needed for safe driving – automatic functioning, perception of speed and depth, divided attention and distractibility.
But driving simulations have shown many users are able to compensate for those effects, often by driving more slowly and cautiously. Unlike alcohol, which increases risky behavior, cannabis tends to make users more risk-averse and aware of their impairment.
Dr. Grant adds there's no doubt that impairment from cannabis is a danger on the road. One study suggested it doubles one's risk of crashing, although compare that to alcohol use where drivers were seven times more likely to crash.
Because of THC's non-linear metabolism and low levels in body fluid, it is much harder to test for than alcohol. In states that do currently have a legal limit, it is defined as a level in the blood.
But blood testing presents challenges in timing since it requires subjects to go to a lab potentially hours after they were pulled over, and it is very difficult to extrapolate from the results when the cannabis was actually used and whether it was causing impairment at the time.
Some law enforcement agencies have been experimenting with a roadside saliva test such as the Draeger 5000, but it shares many of the same problems with blood testing in terms of correlating THC levels to impairment. Other factors such as mouth dryness can also affect the test.
Several companies are now developing a roadside breathylizer test which is sensitive enough to detect very small amounts of THC in the breath. The benefit would be that because THC is present in breath for a much shorter time than blood or saliva, it correlates more closely to the period when impairment is likely: in the first hour or two after smoking.
But Dr. Grant cautioned that technology has not been tested yet. He believes it may be more helpful to improve behavior-based testing, a modification of the standard Field Sobriety Test.
"Could you develop like an iPad app or something that actually would be a better indicator of impairment than, say, having you walk in a straight line or see how much you sway and those kinds of things?" he said.
Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol is putting its emphasis on training officers to spot the signs of impairment. The agency says it will have all 7,000 officers trained in basic roadside drug evaluation by the end of the year, and it's upping its more advanced drug recognition expert trainings throughout the state.
The L.A. Sheriff's Department is also stressing increased training, but it believes the most important piece will be a public safety campaign by the state Office of Traffic Safety.
"If we can educate the drivers out there that high driving is impaired driving that will get the word out," said LASD Sgt. Robert Hill.
Hill and others in law enforcement are particularly concerned about a potential increase in new cannabis users who may not be as familiar with the effects.
"You have all these people that always wanted to try it, but it's been illegal so they haven’t. So now they will have the ability to buy marijuana and see what it’s all about," he said. "You’re going to have first time users using and getting behind the wheel not knowing how it’s going to affect them."
Officer Glen Glaser, a drug recognition expert with the California Highway Patrol, also worries about the effects of combining cannabis with other substances, especially alcohol.
"In some cases one plus one equals two, but when you mix cannabis and alcohol it's like one plus one equals five," he said. "When you get a low amount of alcohol and a low amount of THC, it's very synergistic and it compounds the person’s impairment."
California will use a portion of the revenues generated by taxing recreational marijuana to further study the issue and develop best practices around traffic enforcement and cannabis.
29Rooms debuts in downtown LA with musical punching bags and more
Piera Gelardi put on boxing gloves and took aim. She landed a first punch, then another, each hit creating a sound. These musical punching bags are part of the Future is Female room at the new 29Rooms pop-up art house opening in downtown L.A. this weekend. The more people hit the bags, the more this cacophony sounds like a symphony.
“You're basically transforming your aggression and your energy into music,” Gelardi said. She’s the executive creative director and co-founder of Refinery29, the company behind this playful event. “When you go in there and you kinda punch it out, you come out feeling really different and we like that. We really want to create transformative experiences.”
Refinery29 is a media company based in New York that focuses on young women. They publish online and put on live events about style, culture and health. It’s all designed to empower women, celebrate their individuality and promote an inclusive and diverse idea of beauty; 29Rooms is the group's L.A. debut, and 25% of its artists are based here.
“We're really excited to be in L.A. because we feel that L.A. right now is having such a strong gravitational pull. It’s such a rich creative community with all these different industries converging of art, music, Hollywood, technology and media, so it seems like the perfect grounds for an event that's all about that mash-up,” Gelardi said.
The 29Rooms exhibit is certainly a mash-up. Each one of the individually curated rooms has its own narrative that pairs different art forms like music and painting with immersive or interactive experiences. Its roster of creators is also a mash-up. Celebrities rub shoulders alongside brands and non-profits. Janelle Monae’s room challenges visitors to examine surveillance in our culture as they walk through a disco of mannequins with TV heads that are watching them.
Demi Lovato’s room invites participants to get empowering temporary tattoos that mimic the pop star's own ink. These rooms are next to Google’s, which consists of an adult playground that people can climb all over. Directly in front of it is Planned Parenthood’s neon jungle gym of birth control pills and IUDS.
Many of these spaces blend technology, art, sculpture and music to create unusual sensory experiences like Maisie Cousins’ Erotica in Bloom room. The room is delineated by a thick wall of hanging flowers, and inside it’s filled with more hanging flowers and a few person-sized orchid pods. Visitors stick their head inside one of the flowers to see and hear PG-rated erotic video art.
Sounds pretty strange, right? Unusual interactive experience is what 29Rooms is all about. There's rooms where guests can paint lanterns, dance, recycle books and write letters to express their opinions to their government representatives.
There’s even a replica of a high school bathroom by Emmy-winning director Jill Soloway of "Transparent" and artist Xavier Schipani. Participants can sit on the toilet and listen through headphones to first-person accounts of gender awareness.
29Rooms has been running in New York for three years now. This year’s theme in LA -- "turn it into art" -- was inspired by the famous Carrie Fisher quote, “Take that broken heart and turn it art.” It was also inspired by audience feedback. Refinery29 fans skew progressive, female, millennial or Gen Z, and a lot of them are frustrated by the current social climate.
“We were thinking about the ways that art can heal…how it can incite new conversations, how it can catalyze people into action, and so we wanted to explore that in the space,” Gelardi said.
Gelardi hopes the exhibit will highlight the different ways people can be transformed by art. Lately, a lot of immersive spaces in L.A. have been accused of being more about Instagram than thought-provoking art, but Gelardi isn't really worried about that.
“We're not trying to create MoMA; we're trying to create something new that is joyful, playful, fun and where people can actually experience art in a way that they're ready to consume. We want to create a space that is healing for people, where they walk away feeling transformed, where they walk away feeling a sense of possibility, positivity,” Gelardi said.
Whether people walk away from 29Rooms with a sense of positivity remains to be seen, but there is clearly a demand for pop-up installations like 29Rooms. It sold out in just 24 hours. Refinery29 said it’s exploring plans to expand with more LA events in the future.
CLICK ON THE BLUE MEDIA PLAYER ABOVE FOR TO HEAR A TOUR OF 29ROOMS AND THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH PIERA GELARDI.
Things to do this weekend in SoCal
It's been a tough and trying week in Southern California, but there are still ways to enjoy the weekend with friends and family. KPCC's Leo Duran and Marielle Wakim from Los Angeles Magazine have some great ideas.
Marielle pick: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 7 - Sunday, Dec. 10, various times
WHERE: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center MAP
COST: $50 - $110
You’ve never seen "The Nutcracker" like this before. Legendary choreographer Debbie Allen returns with her annual "Hot Chocolate Nutcracker," which takes the classic tale and puts a spin on it. Written, directed and choreographed by Allen herself, it features an original score involving Mariah Carey. There will be some hip-hop, some Bollywood dancing, ballet (of course) and three wise-cracking rats who narrate the whole thing.
Leo pick: Winter Wonderland Holiday Event
WHEN: Sunday, Dec. 10, 12 - 4 p.m.
WHERE: Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza MAP
COST: free
Winter is in full effect at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, where, despite warm SoCal temps, there will be a snow area for sledding and playing. You can warm up to some toasty s'mores, too, and sit in Santa's lap. Plus if you're hoping to stuff your stocking, there will be giveaways to lucky attendees.
Marielle pick: Pee Cast Blast
WHEN: Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m.
WHERE: The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA MAP
COST: $50 - $125
If you’re looking for a few hours of lightheartedness, head to the Theater at the Ace Hotel for this Monsters of Rock style smorgasbord of hilarious podcasts. There will be performances from Comedy Bang Bang, How Did This Get Made, Improv4Humans and more.
That means you’ll see the likes of Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas – all of whom will be doing their best to make you laugh for several hours
Leo pick: Artisanal L.A. Holiday Market
WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
WHERE: Downtown Arcadia MAP
COST: free
Treat yourself and all the people you love with lovely, local gifts. Independent shops and restaurants will gather together to show off their latest and coolest stuff. Plus, Santa will be there, as will crafts, face painting for kids, music, food trucks and more. Bring your pooch, too. It's a dog-friendly event.