Both Obama and Romney focus on job numbers and economy as their campaigns close in on the final stretch. Plus, new drug policy for racehorses affects The Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park, we fact check the large number of campaign radio ads running this election cycle, and much more.
Obama and Romney campaigns turn focus to job numbers, economy
Both campaigns jumped on the news this morning that employers added 171,000 jobs in October.
The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9 percent. At a campaign rally in Hillard Ohio, President Obama welcomed the news, but said there is more work to do.
Mitt Romney appeared before voters in Wisconsin and warned that re electing the President would be harmful to the recovery.
For more analysis on the state of the economy, we're joined by David Jackson, professor of political science at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
How redistricting is changing California's political landscape
By now, you've probably heard about the contentious race between Congressmen Brad Sherman and Howard Berman. The two Democratic incumbents were pushed into a re-election contest because of redistricting.
That's just one of many examples of how new boundaries are affecting this election.
KPCC's Alice Walton maps out California's new political landscape.
Super-storm Sandy and our relationship with the ocean
Humans have lived by the shoreline for thousands of years but now that relationship is changing.
Author John R. Gillis's new book,"The Human Shore," tells us the history of human's relationship with the shore and how we can protect its future.
(Photos) Breeders' Cup rolls out Lasix ban for racehorses at Santa Anita Park
On Friday, one of the biggest events in international horse racing returns to Santa Anita Park in Arcadia. The two-day Breeders’ Cup encompasses 15 races for a combined purse of more than $25 million. The grand finale - The Classic - will be televised in prime time for the first time in the event’s history.
But it’s a new drug policy for thoroughbreds, and a debate over who knows what’s best for the horses, that’s creating buzz at the track.
Lasix: Performance-enhancing or not?
It’s about 5:30 in the morning and pitch dark out at Santa Anita Park, but there are dozens of racehorses jogging on and off the track.
Racing fans and horsemen crowd near the starting gate for a chance to see their favorites out exercising ahead of the big Breeders' Cup race.
But racing buffs can’t help but notice that the field of racers seems thinner, and that a couple of the racecards are barely half-full. Ask why, and you get the response: "No Lasix."
Lasix is a drug the Breeders’ Cup is banning from its five races for two-year-olds, or juveniles. It's a move that has angered much of the racing community. One trainer even announced a boycott of the event because of the ban.
Pasadena trainer Gary Stute says if he were lucky enough to have a horse at the Breeders’ Cup, he’d sure want it to receive Lasix, a diuretic.
“Horses, when they try too hard, they’ll rupture a blood vessel, and blood will come out their nose and it hinders their breathing,” Stute said. “So this basically makes them urinate so their blood thickens and it makes it harder for them to bleed.”
Like almost all trainers in the U.S., Stute injects his horses with Lasix several hours before a race. So did his dad, Melvin, who’s trained a couple Breeders’ Cup champs.
“If you had a child and he had nosebleeds, wouldn’t you give him something to help him? I mean it’s just got too fine for me,” Melvin Stute said.
A guard for every horse
Some horse experts say Lasix is a performance-enhancing drug that can act as a masking agent for other drugs. Critics say it also weakens horses, making them more vulnerable to breakdowns. The drug’s supporters dispute all of those claims.
Executives at the Breeders’ Cup insist that by banning Lasix in the juveniles races, they’re not taking sides. Chief operating officer Bob Elliston says his board is just trying to align American horse-racing policy with that of other countries, where race-day use of the drug is barred.
“If you’re going to be an international championship conducting yourself at the highest level,” Elliston said, “you’ve got to take forward steps like this and you have to be willing to have conviction in what you believe.”
Elliston says tight security will ensure that everybody sticks to the new Lasix rules. Each horse gets a round-the-clock guard starting 72-hours before the race.
That way, Elliston said, “We know exactly who’s touching the horse, we know exactly what medicines the horse is getting prior to race day. We are ensured that nothing for those two-year-olds is being administered on the race day itself.”
From frog secretions to "milkshakes"
Lasix is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to drugs in horse racing. A U.S. Senate committee took up the issue at a hearing this summer. Leading the questioning was Tom Udall, a Democrat from New Mexico who’s sponsoring legislation to ban performance-enhancing drugs from horseracing.
The hearing covered a painkiller made from frog secretions. Then there’s the practice of “milkshaking.” That’s when a horse is fed a baking soda-sugar concoction through the nose to raise carbon dioxide levels and reduce fatigue.
Lasix, because it’s so widely and openly used, sparks particularly heated debate. Kent Stirling of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association said at the hearing that the drug is therapeutic.
“Lasix is not performance-enhancing,” Stirling said. “It does not make a horse run faster than it's God-given natural talent. On the other hand, bleeding in the lungs does make a horse run slower and may stop a horse outright.”
But others say that Lasix is definitely a performance-enhancer.
“Frankly, if a lie is told long enough over and over, it begins to sound like the truth,” said Sheila Lyons, founder and director of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Lyons testified that Lasix robs horses of important electrolytes, and she said it does nothing to cure habitual bleeding from the lungs, which can be caused by things other than overexertion.
“I can't justify it,” Lyons said. “Especially in the fact that it not only does not effectively treat a disease that my patient probably doesn't even have, but is going to harm my patient at the same time.”
From anger to reluctant acceptance
Many horsemen reject such statements. But some – among them the most prominent critics of a Lasix ban – are easing their stance.
“I don’t think I have a choice if I want to run," said U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has entered several juveniles in the Breeders’ Cup. He says his horses are good enough that they can win without Lasix — at least for one day.
Baffert’s juvenile filly Executiveprivilege is the favorite in her race.
But how will she and others run without Lasix? No matter -- Breeders’ Cup officials already plan to expand the ban to all races when the event comes back to Santa Anita again next year.
What's next now that Farmer's Field has the green light?
Yesterday, AEG, the developer of a proposed National Football League stadium, cleared the last legal obstacle that stood in the way of construction. So when will they actually break ground at Farmer's Field, the proposed site at the downtown convention center? And when's kickoff?
We've got KPCC's business reporter Matt DeBord here to fill us in.
In Bilbray-Peters race, immigrant activists try making their mark
A Congressional race in San Diego is getting a lot of attention from immigration reform advocates around the country. On one side: Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray, on the other, Democratic challenger Scott Peters.
Bilbray holds a post that gives him big influence over national immigration policy and young immigrant activists are among the people hoping to influence this race's outcome.
From the Fronteras Desk, reporter Adrian Florido has this story about the race for California's 52nd district
The Dinner Party: How to stop a hurricane, Big Bella and more
The Dinner Party guys are back. This week Brendan Francis Newnam talks about some ingenious ways to stop a hurricane, Philadelphia's largest T-shirt canon named Big Bella and much more.
The tricky business of analyzing poll data
Today, the Washington Post calls the presidential race a contest "as close as any in recent history." NPR reported this morning on some potential nightmare outcomes, including an electoral college tie.
Looking around at all this with a little amusement is Princeton neuro-scientist Sam Wang. His day job is studying the cerebellum, but his hobby is analyzing poll data.
Wang publishes the Princeton Election Consortium, a blog that's popular with "poll geeks" and is now getting a lot of attention from general political junkies. And he has a great track record.
In the 2008 election, his calculation missed the actual electoral vote count by...one electoral vote. Sam Wang joins us from Princeton.
Props To You: Prop 33 wants to expand car insurance loyalty discounts
Let's go back to 1988: Tom Hanks is starring in the movie "Big." George Michael's "Faith" is topping charts, and here in California, voters passed proposition 103. That prop put limits on the ways insurance companies could set rates. Currently there are 16 factors insurance companies can use to price your policy: A driver's safety record, how long he/she has been driving, and the number of miles he/she drives a year.
You can also get a lower rate if you've been with your insurance provider for a long time. However, if you switch providers that's gone. Prop 33 would let you keep that "continuous coverage discount" even if you change from say Geico to Progressive.
"We think that consumers should be able to own their own history of being responsible and maintaining car insurance," said Rachel Hooper of the Yes on 33 campaign. "And shop that discount with the insurance company they choose. And by doing that it will make the insurance industry much more robust and competitive. It will lowers rater and ultimately insure more Californians."
Hooper says that supporters of 33 include the California Association of Highway Patrolmen. And because it doesn't penalize members of the military who drop insurance when they are serving, it also has support from the American Legion and other veterans groups.
However, plenty of groups have also come out against 33, including the California Labor Federation, the California Federation of Teachers and groups like Consumer Watchdog.
Some critics argue that the measure would allow car companies to charge more to folks who haven't been insured continuously. For example, people whose covered lapsed for some reason or are getting insurance for the first time could be hurt.
"They are going to be charged a lot more for their auto insurance. You have people who stop driving because they go to do foreign service in an embassy. They use mass transit because they lived in New York or they go to college. All these people would pay a very large surcharge," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.
According to Court, this surcharge will price out some drivers who just won't be able to afford insurance. That would mean more uninsured drivers on the road, which, he says, would raise what people pay to protect themselves in case of an accident with an uninsured driver.
So far, the No On 33 groups have raised around $200,000, but the largest chunk of money has gone to the Yes on 33 side, most of it from 91-year-old Mercury Insurance founder George Joseph. He has already poured over $16 million of his own money into the Yes on 33 campaign.
This isn't the first time Joseph has tried to get something like Prop 33 this passed. In 2010, Jospeh spent big on Prop 17, which was a similar to rop 33. Voters rejected it then, but he's made some changes to the new measure, including the addition of exemption for members of the military, and now it's back on the ballot.
There's not a lot polling on this one, it's not getting as much attention as the education measures or the GMO labeling propositions. A recent poll by Pepperdine and The California Business Roundtable has support for 33 at 48 percent, with 37 percent against it.
Damage from Hurricane Sandy estimated to cost $50 billion
Hurricane Sandy's damage is estimated to cost $50 billion, which could make it the second most expensive storm in U.S. history.
That $50 billion number came out yesterday from a company called Eqecat. For more on how firms like Eqecat come up with these figures, we're joined by John Osteraas, Vice President of Exponent Failure Analysis Associates in Menlo Park
Alternatives to tequila and mezcal, Mexico's most-popular alcoholic exports
Today is the second day of the two-day celebration Dia de Los Muertos. For the past 24 hours, those who celebrate the holiday have been honoring the dead with shrines, parties, food and drink.
Two of the most popular alcoholic drinks being Mezcal and Tequila, but there are other agave alcohols that are making their way out of small towns in Mexico and into the glasses of people celebrating in the U.S.
They include alcohols like Sotol, Bacanora and Raicilla, which all come from different regions in Mexico. To find out more about these alternatives, I recently reached out to Bricia Lopez, an agave-distillate expert and one of the co-owners of the Oaxacan restaurant La Guelagetza in Korea Town.
Bricia's Recommendations:
Del Maguey Arroqueno Mezcal Blanco
Tequila Ocho Plata 2011 Vintage
Friday Flashback: Job numbers, New York marathon, and more
Once again we have our fearless Friday Flashback duo: James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian's Heidi Moore, here to talk about the news of the week.