The Dodgers broke hearts all over LA when they lost the World Series to the Astros, exercise in a pill, how the Day of the Dead has become profit oriented.
How the GOP tax plan hits Southern California
We've been waiting for it all week, but early Thursday morning republican lawmakers proposed a sweeping rewrite of the tax code.
It calls for $1.51 trillion dollars in tax cuts for corporations and some middle-class families. If you are living in Southern California, here is a quick snapshot of what you need to know, courtesy of EA Eva Rosenberg, otherwise known as the Tax Mama.
The Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, will go away.
"That is a good thing," says tax expert Eva Rosenberg. "The bad thing is that we lose our state, or sales tax, deductions, and we know we will have a lot of those in Southern California, and our property tax deduction will be limited to a maximum of $10, 000, which doesn't affect most of us unless we own more than one property."
The mortgage interest deduction will be capped
If your are a current homeowner, you're essentially grandfathered in and can use the deduction. For future home purchases, however, the deduction will be capped at loans worth no more than $500,000 dollars. "For most people [in Southern California] that will really be a hardship because, really, it does cost more than $500,000 to buy a three-bedroom house," says Rosenberg.
The standard deduction roughly doubles
The standard deduction goes up to $24,000 for married couples, from $12,700, and would be set at $12,000 for individuals, from $6,530.
The child tax credit will also expand to $1,600 from $1,000 and there will be an added $300 credit for each parent and non-child dependent, such as older family members. "We're losing the personal exemptions, which were worth over $4000, and they're replacing them with a child tax credit worth $1600, which breaks even on these numbers," said Rosenberg.
The big picture
"Some of this stuff will balance out, but part of the bad news is that we lose the zero percent tax bracket we had," said Rosenberg. "Lower income people may find themselves facing more taxes, middle income people might break even, as long as their mortgages aren't too high, and the wealthy will come out a little bit ahead."
*Quotes were edited for clarity*
To listen to the interview with Eva Rosenberg, please click on the blue player above
Fire and rain: Wine country storm could cause toxic runoff in burn zones
Officials in Northern California are bracing for the area's first storm this weekend. A cold front from Canada is expected to bring rain as early as Friday.
And that's cause for concern for many in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, where last month's fires scorched thousands of acres. Now, local agencies are facing new challenges, including potentially toxic runoff from burn zones.
Everyday contaminants like propane, paint, and household cleaners have already been a concern for cleanup crews. As for the exact chemicals that could show up in storm runoff, "It's really unknown," says Josh Curtis, environmental program manager for the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. "We don't know what things are in those homes."
He continues:
The big effort we're looking at is trying to mitigate any ability of those materials to leave those sites and go into our storm drains, which, as everyone knows, leads to our streams and our oceans.
We're working with the local communities to ensure that street sweeping happens, that storm drains are plugged.
We're looking at a plan to collect stormwater and see about disposing of it in a way that doesn't put it back in the stormwater system and then to our creeks.
It's really about trying to make sure that the stuff that is there can't make it to our streams and we're doing that work as fast as we can.
Press the blue play button above to hear more about efforts to limit the flow of toxic runoff.
Can the Day of the Dead survive commercialization?
Thursday marks the last day of the Día de los Muertos – Day of the Dead – celebration. Even if you don't know much about it, you're probably familiar with the holiday's colorful sugar skull make-up. Or maybe you've seen some Día de los Muertos merchandise at Target or Party City.
Day of the Dead is becoming a part of the whirlwind of commercialization that now defines Halloween. That begs the question: Can the Day of the Dead survive as its own distinct holiday?
Helping Take Two answer that question is Charlene Villasenor Black, who was in Mexico City celebrating the Day of the Dead. She's a Chicano Studies professor at UCLA.
Understanding the holiday
Although this holiday has really been growing in popularity in recent years, a lot of people still don't exactly know what it's about. Black broke it down:
"Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday, celebrated actually two days, November 1 and 2. It's a holiday that remembers, celebrates and honors our ancestors. What's really interesting is how hybrid it is ... meaning it has roots in both Spanish Catholic and pre-Columbian (before Christopher Columbus) indigenous Mexican cultures.
It combines the celebration of two Catholic holidays, All Saints and All Souls day, with pre-Columbian traditions. So, it's not Halloween, but Halloween is related."
Is it being gentrified?
It's been happening in the past few years. Movies like "Spectre" and Disney's upcoming "Coco" have been featuring Day of the Dead either subtly or prominently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbqv1kbsNUY
Slowly, large-scale retailers have been including more and more merchandise on their store shelves.
As with anything that gets pulled from the culture of a minority, the question of whether it's being appropriated or gentrified arises.
"What does it mean to culturally appropriate Day of the Dead? For me, this would mean people picking up aspects of the culture without really understanding it. Or people who are able to pick up aspects of the culture and still retain their privilege.
So, I think there's a way in which outsiders can pick up certain traits of Day of the Dead and celebrate it, without perhaps understanding it, but they also escape the oppressive side of being Mexican. So, they can act like they're Mexican easily and move about the world easily when there are Mexican people, Latino people in the United States who have trouble simply being at this moment."
Can Day of the Dead survive commercialization?
The appearance of Día de los Muertos merchandise in big retail chains such as Target and Party City have made some of those who celebrate it uneasy. Is it being sucked into the commercial vortex known as the Halloween holiday or can it survive on its own?
"I think there are enough Latinos and I think it's important enough to us that we're going to keep knowledge about the holiday present in people's minds ...
These are big corporations making a profit off of the Latino population. Are these the kinds of decorations I want to have at my offrenda? No, I’m not going to be buying things from Target or Party City for that. I feel conflicted about it."
To hear more about Día de los Muertos and how its become popular in the recent years, click the blue play button above.
Dodgers fall short in World Series
The 2017 World Series between the LA Dodgers and the Houston Astros has been one of the most thrilling and exciting match-ups in recent history.
The series had many record moments, including home runs hit by both teams (25 combined) and home runs by one player. Astros' Jerry Springer tied the record of 5 held by Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley, and, unfortunately for the Dodgers, first baseman Cody Bellinger had a record 17 strike outs.
But in the end, the final score was 5-1 for the Astros.
We spoke about it with ESPN baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza.
Can you really skip the treadmill with the exercise pill?
Southern Californians love to exercise, but working out can be a drag. Even for those of us who crave a good sweat in a spin class, it always takes up valuable time and sometimes results in injury.
But what if you could get all the benefits of exercise just by taking a pill? A number of scientists are working on such a drug, including biologist Ron Evans at San Diego's Salk Institute.
Take Two sits down with Nicola Twilley, who wrote about the 'miracle' pill in the New Yorker this week.
Interview Highlights
Benefit of the drug
It's mostly an endurance benefit. You could run further, faster, longer. It helps with your insulin levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, and muscle composition. You'll start to develop muscles like that of an endurance runner. It's what happens naturally during exercise, but this drug can make that happen too.
Couch potato mouse vs. Lance Armstrong mouse
Two sets of mice were fed the laboratory standard Western diet. One set was the controlled group - the couch potatoes. Another was given this drug - the Lance Armstrongs. The couch potato mouse was greasy, its hair was thinning, and it was clearly not in the best shape. On the other hand, the Lance Armstrong mouse was lean, tense, and tout. It twitched, and its eyes were shiny.
Who's the right audience
This is mostly developed for people who really need it, people like Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. It's a terrible muscle wasting disease with no cure, and the average age of death is 26. If this helps the patients, it may be really worth it. Other candidates in the future include people recovering from surgery, people on a ventilator, maybe even astronauts who lose an tremendous amount of muscle in space.
Does it replace real exercise?
No, no, no, no, no! Exercise clears your mind. It gives you space to think, it takes your mind off of your other problems. There's the serotonin and the boost to your well-being. There's a social aspect of exercise. There are so many benefits of working out no single chemical can provide. One scientist wants to make exercise more compelling. If it's as compelling as video games, more people will do it.
(Interview has been edited for clarity)
To hear when the drug will become available on the market, click on the blue media player above.
L.A. bans glass bottles, pepper spray and other items at protests
Protest in L.A., and you'll be fine as long as you don't bring things like pepper spray, stun guns or anything else on a new list of banned items.
The L.A. City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance designed to protect protesters and police at rallies like the ones in Berkeley or Charlottesville, Virginia.
"It really is an effort to make sure people's freedoms and liberties to protected, but also their well-being," says city councilman Mitch Englander, who spearheaded the new law.
But civil rights organizations like the ACLU of Southern California have their concerns.
"I'm really worried. There's a lot of talk about how there will be a lot of discretion," says chief council Peter Eliasberg, "but unfortunately, there's some pretty bad history in the city of Los Angeles with police and protests."
The full list of banned items includes:
- Planks of wood thicker than 1/2 inch and wider than 2 inches, and those that do not have blunt ends
- Any length of metal or metal or plastic pipe
- Signs, posters, banners, plaques or notices not constructed out of soft material
- Baseball or softball bats, unless made of soft materials like cardboard or foam
- Any aerosol spray, tear gas, mace, pepper spray or bear repellant
- Catapults, wrist rockets or any other device capable of launching an object
- Weapons such as firearms, knives, axes, ice pics, nunchucks, BB guns, or stun guns
- Balloons, bottles or other containers filled with flammable or biohazarous matter
- Glass bottles, whether empty or filled
- Open flame torches that use fuels like gasoline or kerosene
- Shields made of metal, wood or hard plastic
- Bricks, rocks, pieces of asphalt and the like
Hear more of the arguments in support of and against this new law. Click the blue audio player above.
The Ride: Tesla Model 3 production is three months behind, Ford launches car subscriptions in L.A.
Tesla gave its latest update on Model 3 production Wednesday, and it continues to be delayed. Most of the half a million people who've put down $1,000 deposits won't get their cars until well into 2018.
"The initial phase of manufacturing any new vehicle is always challenging, and the Model 3 production ramp is no exception," Tesla said in its third quarter 2017 update released Wednesday.
In July, when the Model 3 first went into production, Elon Musk said the company would be making 5,000 cars a week by the end of 2017. This week, Tesla revised that estimate, saying the company would hit that target by the end of the first quarter of 2018.
Tesla attributed the delay to the level of automation the company is attempting to pull off in building the Model 3, which is more automated than the production of the Model S or X.
Also on Wednesday, Ford announced an expansion of its car subscription service, Canvas. Instead of buying or leasing a car, Canvas allows drivers to rent cars by the month at an average cost of $400 to$500, including insurance, maintenance, registration, roadside assistance and delivery. Launched in San Francisco earlier this year, it is now available in West L.A. operating from Pacific Palisades to Marina Del Rey.
Earlier this year, Cadillac launched a similar car subscription service called Book. Volvo and Hyundai also offer car subscriptions.