The constitutionality of withholding federal funding from sanctuary cities, artificial meniscus may prevent knee arthritis, Drake's new release takes global tour
Santa Ana is prepared to fight Sessions over sanctuary city status
In the face of threats from the U.S. Justice Department, Santa Ana leaders say they will not back down on their policy for dealing with undocumented immigrants.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday that his department will withhold federal funds from any community that doesn't voluntarily cooperate with immigration officials.
Santa Ana is one of those cities — a so-called sanctuary city.
"It came as no surprise," Councilman Sal Tinajero said. "I think [the administration's announcement] was a political reaction to a major loss that the president had the week before."
Tinajero said Santa Ana gives the federal government information about specific undocumented immigrants if federal agency asks for it, as is required by U.S. law.
But that same law doesn't compel cities to provide voluntarily any information it has on someone in the country illegally.
"That's what makes us a sanctuary city," Tinajero said. "You have to prove that we have not been in compliance with that law, and the city of Santa Ana has been in compliance from Day 1."
Legal expert Hiroshi Motomura from UCLA agreed.
"I'm sure the administration would wish that a stronger law had been written, but it wasn't," Motomura said.
But if the federal government decides to pull grants from Santa Ana, Tinajero said the city will be ready for a legal fight.
"It would be about a $7 million hit," he said, noting that it would affect things like gang prevention programs and prison staffing.
However, the city has about $51 million in reserves to help fund those programs during a protracted court battle.
"So, we're prepared to offset some of those costs," Tinajero said.
Hear more of the interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
Trump's climate policy order challenges California's clean-air efforts
Declaring "the start of a new era" in energy production, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he claimed would revive the coal industry and create jobs.
The move makes good on his campaign pledge to unravel former President Barack Obama's plan to curb global warming — the Clean Power Plan. The order seeks to suspend, rescind or flag for review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.
Environmental activists denounced the plan. But Trump said the effort would allow workers to "succeed on a level playing field for the first time in a long time."
According to an Energy Department analysis released in January, coal mining now accounts for fewer than 75,000 U.S. jobs. By contrast, renewable energy — including wind, solar and biofuels — now accounts for more than 650,000 U.S. jobs.
California has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gases, and made progress toward them. So, what will the impact of these changes be on the Golden State?
In a statement released shortly after Trump signed the order, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said:
“The administration is taking clear steps to undermine not only the federal government's commitment to meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, but also U.S. leadership on public health and growing the clean energy economy. ... No matter what happens in Washington, we will work to meet our Sustainable City pLAn goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, move toward zero emissions transportation, and pursue our vision of a 100 percent clean energy future."
On KPCC's Take Two, host A Martinez spoke to UCLA environmental lawyer Cara Horowitz, who broke it all down.
Interview Highlights
This new order exercises two different kinds of power:
"First, it undoes some of the climate orders that President Obama had enacted by executive order. For example, it undoes a coal leasing moratorium on federal lands. It undoes an executive order that had told agencies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and to help communities become more resilient to climate impacts.
And then there's a second category of things the executive order does. It directs the federal Environmental Protection Agency to begin a process of backtracking from some of the more formal rules that President Obama's administration had put into effect on climate.
For example, backtracking off the Clean Power Plan, which was the rule reducing emissions from existing power plants."
What kinds of legal roadblocks are likely as the administration tries to enforce these types of policies?
"Undoing EPA rules, it turns out, it takes time and resources and it's really complicated. So let's take the Clean Power Plan, for example. It was enacted after years of public comment. There was a draft rule issued. There were hearings and notices and then there was a final rule issued, and that final rule is in litigation before the [federal] D.C. circuit [court] right now.
And EPA will have to go through that same process if it wants to undo the Clean Power Plan. So, it has to issue a notice that it wants to undo the plan, and then a proposed rule and then some drafts and take public comment. And that new rule will be subject to litigation, almost certainly.
States like California and environmental organizations will take EPA to court and say, "Look, EPA can't undo this rule just based on a political whim, it needs a strong administrative record justifying why it's changing its mind after spending so much time and energy justifying the first rule, you know, in the first place.
That's all litigation to come and it's really unclear how it will be resolved."
Associated Press contributed to this story.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Meet the man behind the new artificial meniscus
The meniscus is a crescent of cartilage that cushions the knee joint.
But it can wear down over time, especially if you're active. And that means pain and - maybe - arthritis.
Now, a team of San Diego researchers has developed artificial meniscus that could be a fix.
Doctor Darryl D'Lima is the director of orthopedic research at Scripps Clinic and led the development of this lab-grown knee-fixer.
"Knee meniscal injury is very common," Dr. D'Lima told Take Two's A Martinez.
"Surgery to either repair or replace or reconstruct the meniscus is one of the most common, if not the most common, orthopedic operations. The estimates are over a million procedures being done every year in the U.S. alone."
There are some solutions that are already in place, including removal of the damaged part of the meniscus. But even though that results in immediate relief from the painful symptoms, Dr. D'Lima said that that comes with a downside.
"For 50 percent of these patients, ten years down the road, they will get osteoarthritis. That's what we've not been able to prevent from happening. So coming up with an alternative to removing the meniscus; either repairing it more consistently or coming up with a biological replacement would be better."
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Drake, Moonchild and more
Every week we get a look at the new music you should be listening to. This week music supervisor Morgan Rhodes offers her take. Here are her picks:
- DRAKE
Album: MORE LIFE
Toronto's finest is back from what appears sonically to be a trip around the globe. He calls it a playlist - Morgan calls it a travel itinerary - with beats.
- MOONCHILD
Album: VOYAGER
This new single, Cure, featured on their forthcoming album, the second since signing with Tru Thoughts Records is more of what fans have come to expect of this musical trio from right here in Southern California.
Jazz inflected future soul and pretty layered vocals. Well worth the wait. The arrangement of the song sounds similar to arrangements by another very cool Southern California alt- soul band.
- THE CACTUS CHANNEL AND SAM CROMACK
Album: DO IT FOR NOTHING - EP
Australian singer Sam Cromack, with the bands Ball Park Music and My Own Pet Radio, teamed up recently with the soul-funk collective, The Cactus Channel.
(click on the blue arrow to hear the entire interview)