Law enforcement did not declare the Las Vegas shooting an act of terrorism - why not? The Measure H quarter-cent sales tax increase took effect October 1. We take a look at where the money will go.
Why the Las Vegas shooting wasn't declared an act of domestic terrorism
The mass shooting in Las Vegas is the worst in modern American history. But law enforcement officials did not call it an act of "domestic terrorism," and they have not labeled the shooter a "terrorist." Why?
"All things that are terrifying that cause great fear and alarm are not necessarily terrorism," says terrorism expert Brian Michael Jenkins from the RAND Corporation. "There has to be a political component for it to fall into that category."
At the moment, the motive of the shooter is not known.
More interview highlights
What is the legal definition of terrorism?
Where the criminal act of violence is intended to coerce government or bring about a fundamental change in public policy.
In other words, the end of the crime is not simply the death or destruction caused by that crime, but the crime is aimed at achieving something else.
Is race a factor? Some say if the shooter wasn't white or if his name sounded Middle Eastern, maybe terrorism wouldn't have been ruled out so quickly.
The investigators take a cautious approach on this and say, there's no immediate evidence that indicates that this is terrorism related but it's an ongoing investigation. ...
Since 9/11, there is a tendency where if this man were named Muhammad, a lot of the news media would say that this must be an act of terrorism.
But that would not necessarily make it one.
Does calling something a "terrorist act" make a difference legally?
In many cases, prosecutors simply prefer to go with the actual crime.
Timothy McVeigh, the man who set off the bomb in 1995 in Oklahoma City, was tried on 168 counts of murder. And that was more than sufficient to get a conviction, and as a matter of fact it led to the death penalty.
It it not specifically that a terrorism statute would necessarily enable a prosecutor to do something he otherwise may not be able to do.
Hear more of the conversation using the blue audio player above.
What California can learn from the Mexico City earthquake
Last month, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City, killing 366 people in and around the city. At least 60 buildings collapsed or were significantly damaged.
"In Mexico City, there's a wealth of people [including aid workers] there," said Ron Lin with the Los Angeles Times.
Lin was recently in Mexico where he reported on the repair efforts both in Mexico City and the surrounding areas.
"In the rural areas, there was a lot more need. In this town Jojutla, near the epicenter of the quake and about two hours south of Mexico City, we encountered people who still hadn't had structural engineers come out and assess their buildings." Lin said.
It all serves as a reminder for California: The state is due for an earthquake of similar magnitude. Lin said there are parts of Southern California that need to get their buildings ready for such an eventuality.
"We're talking about wood apartment buildings and concrete buildings," Lin said.
Los Angeles alone has what Lin estimates to be 1,500 structures that fit this description. Buildings made with these materials need to be retrofitted as soon as possible.
"There's a host of other cities all around California that haven't taken that step [of retrofitting]," Lin said. "So many of the people who died ... in Mexico City were in these buildings. I think it's a warning call to all of these other cities in California that haven't done anything about concrete buildings. If we don't get these retrofitted before the next big earthquake, there could be a high death toll in California."
To hear more about what California can learn from the Mexico City earthquake, click the blue play button above.
Congress missed deadlines, billions at stake for California low-income health programs
You're paying more in sales tax now. Here's how it's helping the homeless.
Shoppers in L.A. County – check your receipts. You'll notice that the sales tax is a little higher.
The rate jumped 1/4 percent starting last Sunday, making it as high as 10.25 percent in some parts of L.A. County.
Voters approved the hike last March to help the homeless, and it's projected to raise as much as $355 million every year to pay for services.
"It's going towards jobs," says the Reverend Andy Bales with Union Rescue Mission, "and counseling, mental health counseling and addiction counseling."
He was part of the committee comprised of private citizens and stakeholders that made recommendations on where the money should go, with county leaders ultimately in charge of the purse strings.
Bales says the group wanted to combine those services with low-cost housing and health care facilities in a model called permanent supportive housing.
"But the challenge," he adds, "is that it can only go towards those things if permanent supportive housing units are allowed into neighborhoods."
In August, for example, Boyle Heights residents and city councilman José Huizar blocked the construction of a 49-unit homeless shelter in the neighborhood.
"We need the political will from all of our elected officials to stand up to the neighborhoods that might be saying, 'not in our backyard,'" says Stephanie Klasky-Gamer from LA Family Housing, which builds housing for the homeless.
Another ballot initiative passed by L.A. city residents in November, measure HHH, created a $1.2 billion bond with a goal of building 10,000 new units over 10 years.
The city is in charge of disbursing that money to private organizations looking to build, and Klasky-Gamer says people like her are looking to sites all over.
"We have a need in every corner of our city," she says.
Bales warns, however, that the pace to approve projects and follow-through on them is probably frustrating Angelenos.
"The public is not going to put up with this slow-rolling plan. They want immediate action," he says. "We need a quick fix."
Hear more about where the money is going and how to convince Angelenos to build homes for the homeless. Click on the blue player above.
Sports Round-up: The championship goals of the Dodgers and Sparks
Seven more wins. That's all the Dodgers need to reach their first World Series in 29 years. For their millennial fans, that's an entire lifetime. That handful of playoff victories has been hard to come by for the Dodgers lately, but this year could be different.
The Boys in Blue won 104 games, which is the most of any team in Major League Baseball. It's also the most they've ever won since coming to Los Angeles. That gives them the home-field advantage all the way through the World Series. But they have to get there first.
Brian Kamenetzky on how the Dodgers made history on their road to the play-offs.
They went on a streak where they won 43 of 50 [games] in the middle of the year after a somewhat slow start. At that point, everyone said this has the potential to be the greatest team of all time. Then they turned around and lost 16 of 17 and 20 of 25 and everybody freaked out. They have become the first team in baseball history to win a division with those kinds of streaks. No good team is ever so bad to lose 16 of 17 and still win their division.
Los Angeles could be in to take another title. The WNBA's Sparks are in Minnesota to play the Lynx for the Women's basketball championship. For the Sparks, that would mean back-to-back titles and a WNBA record-tying fourth overall.
Andy Kamenetzky on why he's looking forward to the upcoming Sparks-Lynx game.
This game tonight between the Sparks and the Lynx should be terrific. It's actually a rematch of last year's finals, which came down to the wire in Game 5. Sparks won 77 to 76. They're really well matched teams. Since the start of last year's finals, the combined score of the last 12 Sparks-Lynx games is 908 to 908. And during this series, neither team has won two games in a row and two of the games were decided by two points or less.
Scientists confirm the existence of gravitational waves
Thursday morning was a pivotal time in the science community. While in Washington D.C., scientists from Cal Tech scientists confirmed the existence of gravitational waves.
Only existing in theory for almost 100 years, these waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time. Scientists at LIGO say they offer a new way of observing the universe and will give us more information about the cosmos that we would never have been able to see without them.
"This gives us a new window to the universe," explained KPCC science reporter Sanden Totten. "One scientist from USC explained it to me this way: you walk into an art gallery and you're only allowed to see yellow. You may pick up some of the paintings, you may be able to see some of the images but you're missing a lot, right? And then you add the color blue and you get a little bit more. Well, gravitational waves are like adding another filter to our ability to look at the universe."
So now that we have this new tool to look further into the universe, what are we going to look for? Totten broke it down in layman's terms for Take Two's Deepa Fernandes:
"Scientists today said, 'We may see things we've never even thought to look for before.' There's a chance that these black holes and neutron stars are just the beginning but there's a whole wild wooly universe out there that we've never been able to experience and now that we have the ears for it, these gravitational wave detectors, we might find out about them."
To better understand the implications of this announcement, click the blue play button above.
Update: LIGO's Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 for confirming the existence of gravitational waves.