Why sexual harassment whistleblower legislation may finally pass, California is failing to keep up with home demands, gas prices continue to climb...here's why.
Homeless arrests are on the rise, mostly for failing to pay tickets
There’s been a "huge increase" in homeless arrests in L.A. over the past several years, despite a decrease in overall arrests in the city. That's according to a new report from the Los Angeles Times.
Most of the arrests stem from minor violations of L.A.’s "quality-of-life" laws, which restrict the homeless from sleeping on sidewalks, pitching tents during specific hours or keeping over-sized storage on the streets.
Breaking any of these codes can lead to a citation, and failure to pay that citation and appear in court can lead to an arrest warrant. The Times analyzed L.A. Police Department jail bookings from 2011 and 2016 and found that failure to appear in court for an unpaid ticket was the main reason for the uptick in homeless arrests, which increased 31 percent over six years.
The base penalty for sleeping on an L.A. sidewalk is $35, but additional fees rack up the total fine to $238, creating a revolving door of debt and jail time for the homeless. As a result, a number of judges in the state have chosen to cancel these debts and arrest warrants.
Gale Holland covers homelessness and poverty for the L.A. Times. She spoke with Take Two about her reporting.
"The police feel that they are constantly called in with complaints about these encampments, that the encampments have been linked to a rise in crime, although we didn't see that in the arrest statistics," Holland said. "Officials say they don't want to criminalize people, but I haven't heard a robust discussion of this at city hall."
We reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment but did not receive a response at the time of this interview.
Whistleblower protection bill likely resurrected by #MeToo movement
Each year for the past four years, California Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (AD-67) has introduced a bill to protect whistleblowers working in the legislature. Each year it passed the Assembly, just to be shelved by the Senate's Appropriations Committee. That is, until recently.
Last month, the Committee released it and, last Thursday, the Senate passed the bill unanimously. It now heads back to the Assembly where a vote could happen as early as Monday.
It took a long time for the bill to get this far. So why the sudden change?
The bill's author, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, says the recent discussions about harassment in the workplace, including the #MeToo movement, may have helped fuel the decision.
This year, when we had all these women saying 'you have no idea what's going on in the Capitol,' or 'some of you know what's going on, but you're not doing anything about it, and we're not going to put up with it anymore,' it was the perfect opportunity — unfortunate circumstances, however — to bring the bill forward and say look, we owe this to the people who work for us, to protect them under the law just like we do everyone else.
UPDATE: The bill passed the Assembly on Monday afternoon. It now heads to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown.
Why rising gas prices could help an effort to repeal the gas tax
If you've driven by a gas station recently, you've probably noticed: Gas prices are going up again. In L.A., they're about 55 cents per gallon higher right now compared with this time last year.
The current average for the state is $3.31 per gallon. In L.A., it's $3.45, with some area gas stations already hitting prices over $4. And prices are expected to continue going up over the next few months.
Patrick DeHaan, an analyst with the web site GasBuddy.com, said the price increase is driven by California's gas tax increase and the state's stringent summer blend of gas, which is more expensive to make. Additionally, DeHaan said oil prices are the highest they've been since 2015.
"That is because of OPEC's production cuts that have led U.S. oil inventories to be 77 million barrels lower than a year ago. All this adds up to higher gas prices, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better."
Those rising gas prices will likely provide even more fuel for an effort to repeal California's state gas tax.
Last November, Californians started paying 12 cents per gallon more as part of SB1 -- the transportation funding package the state passed last year. Now that tax is the target of a campaign Republicans are leading to put the issue before voters this fall.
The initiative needs 587,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot in November. Thad Kousser, professor of political science at the University of California in San Diego, said money will determine whether or not the gas tax repeal gets to the ballot.
As voters become more upset about high gas prices and polls show support for a gas tax repeal, fundraising for the initiative will only get easier, Kousser said.
Some of the donors backing the California gas tax repeal are well-known Republicans at the national level, including Devin Nunes and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Lowering taxes follows the Republican platform, but the repeal could also be a good way for the party to encourage its voters to turn out to the polls this fall, Kousser said.
"Republicans are trying desperately to hold 7 of those 14 Republican-held Congressional seats in this election. That's key to Kevin McCarthy's majority, and in all of those districts they want to give Republicans something to get energized and excited about in order to mobilize them in November."
If the initiative makes the November ballot, Kousser said it could pass because almost all Republicans will support lowering taxes; Democrats, however, are divided on the gas tax issue so some of them will support the repeal, too.
"There are Democrats who want to see gas prices go up because that correctly prices the real, true cost of gas in terms of contributing to local smog, local climate change and a lot of those Democrats are already driving Teslas and Priuses anyway. And then there are other Democrats who see this as a regressive tax. [Those with] more limited income perhaps have cars that get worse mileage, and that $50 gas bill really hits those voters."
If the gas tax is repealed, the state would have $5 billion less to spend on transportation and infrastructure.
Nearly all CA cities fail to build enough homes to meet demand
California requires every community in the state to build a certain number of housing units every year to keep up with demand. But nearly all of the state's cities and counties fell short, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
About 98 percent of them did not reach their goals. Beverly Hills and San Fernando were among the 2 percent that did.
"It's very normal," says Richard Green, director and chair of the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate. "Unless somebody is willing to sue their community over their non-compliance, there's just not a lot that can be done about this."
The goals are calculated by using a number of factors, such as jobs created in a city and a city's projected population growth over time.
However if few cities meet those benchmarks, it can further exacerbate the current housing crisis.
"That means we don't have enough housing, and the price goes up," Green says.
'Solo: A Star Wars Story' finally gets a teaser trailer
Though it's only three and a half months away, audiences are just now seeing the first "Solo: A Star Wars" story teaser. It isn't even a full-length trailer. On Sunday, football fans saw the 30-second T.V. spot that gave a sneak peek of the teaser which dropped Monday morning.
The film has been somewhat shrouded in mystery. Not much is known other than some production problems that happened last year. Vanity Fair's Rebecca Keegan explained:
"It was originally directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys who made 'The Lego Movie.' Quite late in the process, Lucasfilm president Kathy Kennedy replaced them with Ron Howard. It seemed like their improvisational style of directing didn't fly totally with the way Lucasfilm likes to make movies.
So, that has sort of left it shrouded in mystery. What is the movie we're actually going to see? Is it the Phil Lord and Chris Miller movie? Is it a Ron Howard movie? Is it going to be good?"
Plus, Rotten Tomatoes is fighting back against trolls. The aggregator site released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter over the weekend detailing their intention to remain vigilant against hate groups targeting Marvel's new "Black Panther" film set for release next Friday, February 16th.
"We at Rotten Tomatoes are proud to have become a platform for passionate fans to debate and discuss entertainment and we take that responsibility seriously. While we respect our fans’ diverse opinions, we do not condone hate speech. Our team of security, network and social experts continue to closely monitor our platforms and any users who engage in such activities will be blocked from our site and their comments removed as quickly as possible."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBMJkFwl1Jw
Meanwhile, Netflix "pulled a Beyonce" over the weekend, when it released the latest installment of the "Cloverfield" saga, "Cloverfield Paradox." This move was super surprising on the count that it wasn't even known Netflix had acquired the title from Paramount. It definitely may have worked in their favor on the count that it's not getting the best reviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOVAA6PWc8E
Keegan also talked about Uma Thurman's disturbing history with Harvey Weinstein and a dangerous incident that happened on the set of "Kill Bill" that shines a light on the importance of safety on set.
Hulu Live TV and Playstation Vue fumble the Super Bowl
Some sports fans got sacked with dead air while watching the Super Bowl Sunday. Subscribers to Hulu Live TV and Playstation Vue missed the last few minutes of the game because of an outage in various markets at 7 p.m. Pacific time.
"There is currently no content to play," said the error message.
Both companies tweeted out their apologies to customers for the technical glitch.
If there was ever a time not to have a technical problem, it was during the biggest sporting event of the year. But viewers might be willing to give these services a second chance.
"I actually don't think this is going to hurt them very much," says Dominic Patten with Deadline Hollywood. "These services are making their first steps into this, and sometimes you drop the ball."
The market for streaming services keeps growing, with Hulu pulling in 17 million subscribers by the end of 2017 and Netflix with 52 million American homes signed up.
"These are big numbers," he says, "but this is something people are still moving into."
And as long as there is a big game, people will be willing to sign up for services, however new or novel, to catch it.
No Place Like LA: Ben, who isn't phased by crime
NO PLACE LIKE L.A. IS OUR SERIES THAT ASKS L.A. TRANSPLANTS AND IMMIGRANTS: "WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELT THAT LOS ANGELES WAS TRULY HOME?"
THIS IS THE STORY OF Ben Phen from Virgil Village.
I moved here from Indiana, a place called Fort Wayne.
I remember for a while feeling just kind of like an outsider – foreigner – in town just because it was very new and culture shock. There was a lot to it.
But one time I was calling my mom, just letting her know how I was doing.
I just remember walking down the street talking to her casually, then looking behind me and just realizing I had walked directly through an arrest scene.
Some guy was getting handcuffed and wrestled to the ground. There was a little scuffle behind me.
I think I just kind of stepped over – I don't know even know if it was the person – just kind of tip-toeing around. Like, oh this is in my way and I'm just going to keep on walking while talking on the phone.
I would've never done that in my hometown. It would've been a "stop and get out of the way and pay attention [moment]."
But okay, I've changed. I've become one of those people who lives here now.