AG Sessions immigration battle with California wages on, tariffs may have a disproportionate impact locally, Barbara Carrasco on display at Natural History Museum.
What to expect when you're expecting President Trump
Today on State of Affairs:
- Scathing words and a lawsuit: These are two things U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought with him on his trip to Sacramento this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4VznRD16aw
Lawmakers here? Well, they're firing back too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfJG-YF5M-g
There's been a lot of tough-talk, but where do things go from here?
Raphe Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA, says the real fight may be yet to come:
From the legal standpoint, the consensus is that this is going to be kind of a fair fight in the courts. Both sides have a strong case. The state's case is very strong on SB54 — the overall sanctuary law. [It was] very carefully designed, as all three were, but the state may have to fight harder for the restrictions on private employers and the inspections of private prisons.
The real issue is: can the administration in Washington win an injunction as early as April to block all three laws. They're asking to have all three laws blocked while the case works its way through the courts. In a way, in my view, that's the ballgame, because if this works its way through the courts, nothing's going to happen to these laws for probably two years.
Meanwhile...
- It's official: President Trump is coming to California next week. What can Californians expect?
Christina Bellantoni, assistant managing editor of politics for the L.A. Times, says that Californians likely won't keep quiet.
There are going to be protests. He's coming to look at their border wall prototypes. He's going to be in a Democratic Congressional district; he's going to be talking about an issue that really inflamed a lot of passion on the campaign trail and has continued to be something he pushes. All the same, just after suing the state of California on this very issue. That's going to invite a lot of activists and people who are attempting to seize the moment of opposing the President.
Note:
Whoops! Mixed up my primary and general election countdowns on @KPCC
— Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni) March 9, 2018
Actually just 241 days to go ...
Tariffs and a potential trade war are bad news for California
The new import tariffs on steel and aluminum, and the potential trade war that may result, could have a disproportionate impact on California.
California has a higher ratio of the kind of jobs that could be affected by these tariffs, according to Kadee Russ, a professor of economics at UC-Davis and a former adviser on international trade to the Obama Administration.
In California, we have more than 100,000 jobs in industries that use steel intensively. I define “intensively” as an industry [that] has 5% or more of their total [input] requirements that comes from steel or products made from steel. So that outnumbers the number of jobs in the steel-producing industry by about 20 to 1.
Russ also identified California ports as vulnerable to negative effects from the new tariffs. The Port of Los Angeles anticipates that the tariffs could affect up to 8,000 jobs in the area.
One of the reasons people import steel [to California] is that otherwise, you often have to ship it over the Rocky Mountains, so there are real cost issues involved in having to source steel over land as opposed to by sea.
The effects on individuals might not be easy to identify but could have a large cumulative effect.
Those costs are going to look very diffuse … it’s just a little bit here, a little bit there. If you buy a car, it might be a bigger punch. People are talking about a $175 increase in the cost of a car due to increased steel costs.
But, when you add all of this up, day to day, over a year, it may in fact be enough to counteract the increase you might have felt in your paycheck from the tax cuts. So, it’s small here and there, it’s hard to identify in any one particular product, but it's so diffuse it really does have the potential to add up for a lot of families.
Another concern is the growing possibility of a trade war featuring tariffs from other countries targeted at American industries and even specific companies.
“If there is a trade war, everybody loses,” Russ said.
California could experience unique effects of a trade war, too; the European Union has already identified Levi's, a clothing company headquartered in San Francisco.
"We would also see tariffs probably on citrus," Russ said, "according to the list that they put out."
Russ also identified agriculture and a variety of manufactured goods as potential targets, but also noted that it is too early to do much more than speculate.
If these tariffs stay in place, if countries outside of the United States follow through on their threats to levy retaliatory tariffs, then … I think we could have a big problem on our hands. We could have a really big blow to rules-based commerce in the world as we know it. But I think that is the extreme case.
"Everyone is still in wait and see mode," Russ said.
Mark Hamill finally gets his star
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....Star Wars burst on to the big screen. That "long time ago," by the way, was 1977.
Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker -- they're all household names at this point. Huge, huge stars. But it was only yesterday that the actor who played Luke Skywalker -- Mark Hamill -- got a star to match his status on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Harrison Ford got emotional remembering Carrie Fisher as Mark Hamill received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“When thinking about today, I was really sorry that we don't have the other member of our trio here to celebrate with us. But I feel her presence."
— ABC News (@ABC)
Harrison Ford got emotional remembering Carrie Fisher as Mark Hamill received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
— ABC News (@ABC) March 9, 2018
“When thinking about today, I was really sorry that we don't have the other member of our trio here to celebrate with us. But I feel her presence." pic.twitter.com/tnYBT2CpgN
"Words truly fail me," Hamill told the crowd. "It's hard to convey my gratitude, the joy, my exhiliration of being recognized this way. I haven't been this speechless since 'Force Awakens.'"
If you're wondering why it took so long for him o get a star, a method to the madness, there is. It's not the Jedi but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce that oversees the process.
An honoree has to be nominated -- anyone can do that, by the way -- and once the Chamber approves of the star, whomever made the nomination needs to kick in $30,000. Half of that is to actually make the star. The rest is for maintenance.
So finally, the force seemed to be with the 66-year-old actor, who had some friends along for the occasion. R2D2 was there. So was his equally legendary co star, Harrison Ford, who got his star on the Walk of Fame 15 years ago.
"There's a lot more people than showed up for my star," Ford said. "A lot more."
Star Wars creator George Lucas was there too.
"Mark Hamill is a character that cannot be written," he said.
If you want to visit Hamill's new cement-framed star, it's got some pretty prime placement. It's near the intersection of Hollywood and Highland.
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