Weapons inspectors in Syria face many dangers, challenges; LA Sheriff Lee Baca found liable in inmate abuse case; LA County Probation Department understaffed amidst growing responsibilities; 'Birth of the Living Dead' looks at the rise of zombies in pop culture; The Bay Delta Conservation Plan: A solution for the Delta's future?; Study: Eating popcorn makes you immune to in-theater ads, and more.
Weapons inspectors in Syria face many dangers, challenges
While we've been focused on our own government's problems here in the U.S., just a few short weeks ago all eyes were on Syria.
You might have missed it, but weapons inspectors have been in the country since the first of October. While they've inspected at least 11 chemical weapons sites so far, there are a few sites that remain inaccessible because of security reasons.
Here to get us caught up with the news on Syria is Jane Arraf, an Al Jazeera America reporter based in Jordan.
LA Sheriff Lee Baca liable in inmate abuse case
In an unusual decision, a federal jury in Los Angeles has held Sheriff Lee Baca personally liable for the excessive use of force against a jail inmate.
RELATED: LA Sheriff Baca held liable in jail inmate abuse case
The jury found his conduct, and that of four other jail officials, was "malicious, oppressive or in reckless disregard," of inmate Tyler Willis during a 2009 incident in which deputies severely beat him.
The decision comes as the United States Justice Department conducts a wide ranging investigation of abuse of inmates in the LA County jail system.
KPCC's Frank Stoltze joins the show with more.
Rural New Mexico faces water supply crisis
For years now, the Southwestern United States has been crippled by drought. At the beginning of summer in New Mexico that meant dry, brittle landscapes. Several communities there ran out of water.
KUNM's Rita Daniels reports that now hundreds of vulnerable towns are trying to avoid that from ever happening again.
Friday Flashback: Shutdown hangover, John Boehner and more
At the end of a week when Washington got just about as strange as it ever gets, it's time for our analysis of the news, The Friday Flashback. This week we're joined by reporter Shane Goldmacher of National Journal and Ken Rudin, former political editor for NPR.
In a political environment where brinksmanship is standard operating procedure, it seems like this week set a new high. What do our panelists say about the whole shut-down drama and its reverberations?
Let's talk about the 87 Republicans in the House who voted for the bill to re-open the government. Who are some of these representatives, and will they suffer consequences for essentially being part of a surrender?
What about the Tea Party-affiliated House members who were willing to shut the government unless they could crush Obamacare? Can they just go back to their districts and say they fought the good fight?
One of the most important, and best funded groups in this battle is Heritage Action. Who are they and how big of a defeat was this for Heritage Action?
The conventional wisdom is that if House GOP members don't toe the line, conservative groups like Heritage Action will back more conservative candidates to run against them. Is there the possibility they'll see candidates coming at them from the center?
Could one argue that Speaker of the House, John Boehner, actually came out of this better than might have been expected?
Leaders from both parties have a couple of months to hammer out some sort of budget agreement. How is this going to work, and who are the players we should be watching?
What are the odds these negotiations will result in anything that could be considered a bipartisan agreement?
Does the fever of the past few weeks change the outlook for other things on the agenda, like the farm bill, and immigration reform?
Overall, are you optimistic that lawmakers learned something from the shut down experience, and that we won't be seeing this again early next year?
'Birth of the Living Dead' looks at the rise of zombies in pop culture
Last weekend, 16 million viewers tuned in for the season premiere of "The Walking Dead."
Nearly 10.5 million of them were young adults, more than any other show in the new TV season. "The Walking Dead"'s main attraction? Hordes of flesh-eating zombies, and the brave band of survivors who battle against them.
Zombies are all the rage now, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, we might never have known zombies as we do today were it not for a 1968 film directed by a college drop out, "Night of the Living Dead."
A new documentary looks at how this remarkable film was made and the effect its had on both the cinema and our modern culture. "Birth of the Living Dead" executive producer Larry Fessenden joins us now to talk about it.
"Birth of the Living Dead" trailer
Study: Eating popcorn makes you immune to in-theater ads
As moviegoers flock to the theaters this weekend, there's no doubt most of them will be grabbing popcorn on the way to their seat. And while the butter and salt drenched snack may not be great for our health, or our wallets, it does have one interesting benefit.
It makes us immune to advertising.
Those commercials that air before the movie previews have no chance against a tub of popcorn, according to a series of studies conducted at Cologne University in Germany.
In the studies, one group of participants were given popcorn and the other a sugar cube. Those that ate popcorn were not subjected to the effects of advertising in their preferred product selection.
Dr. Sascha Topolinski is one of the researchers for the study. He joins the show with more.
LA County Probation Department understaffed amidst growing responsibilities
Los Angeles County's probation department has nearly 1,200 vacant positions out of a total of 6,500 employees.
As KPCC's Rina Palta reports, the vacancies have some county officials asking if the department's new, rigid hiring standards are the issue and whether that's compromising public safety.
Would you buy stock in a professional athlete?
The company FanTex Holdings will allow fans and Wall Street gurus alike to invest individual athletes as if they were stocks. Houston Texans running back Arian Foster is the first player to join this market.
For more on Fantex and how it will work, we're joined now by Peter Lattman of the New York Times, who co-wrote an article about this new company.
Should all states have an official sport?
Every state in the union has its own flag. There are state birds, some even have their own song. So why not a state sport?
That's what the folks over at Slate were wondering when they put together the United Sports of America. Executive editor Josh Levin hand-selected an official sport for each of the 50 states. He joins the show to explain how he came up with the list.
Here's are some of his picks. Check out the Slate page to see the map and full list:
Arizona (spring training baseball)
California (skateboarding)
Colorado (mountain climbing)
Hawaii (surfing)
Idaho (whitewater kayaking)
Iowa (wrestling)
Montana (fly fishing)
Nebraska (college baseball)
Nevada (boxing)
New Mexico (hot-air ballooning)
Oregon (track and field)
Utah (church basketball)
Washington (pro soccer)
New energy storage rules in California aim to aid grid
A new set of rules passed yesterday by the state's public utilities commission have put energy storage in the spotlight.
The rules require the big utility companies — including Southern California Edison — to invest big in storing energy for later use. That includes creating enough storage to power almost a million homes by 2020.
Dana Hull, energy and clean technology reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, joins the show to explain.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan: A solution for the Delta's future?
This is part V in a 5-part piece series by Amy Quinton at Capital Public Radio. Read/hear part I, part II, part III, and part IV of the series here.
On Bolden Island in the central Delta, excavators are filling trucks with dirt for a levee improvement project. The Delta has 1,100 miles of levees.
Joel Dudas, a senior engineer with the California Department of Water Resources, says subsidence, where the level of land drops, is a constant threat.
“We’re probably 20 to 25 feet below sea level right here,” says Dudas. “We’ve had in some places 30 feet of subsidence, that’s what’s increasing the stress on these levees.”
Levees are also vulnerable to sea level rise, extreme floods and the big fear – an earthquake.
“You will find a range of opinions on the seismic risk. In my opinion if we get the wrong earthquake in the wrong place the amount of money to basically protect the levees against that threat doesn’t exist and won’t exist,” says Dudas. “That’s my fear is that we wind up with a Delta that’s basically good for nothing. It’s basically an inland sea.”
Saltwater would seep in. The pumps that export water would shut down. California’s agriculture and 25 million people who depend on the Delta’s water would lose it. For how long is unclear.
“At that point, the luxury of planning and doing something smart will be taken out of our hands,” says Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. They’re the largest water contractor in the state.
“We’ll be in emergency mode, we’ll be in post-Katrina mode and we’ll just be bulldozing and not worrying about the environment,” says Kightlinger.
Kightlinger says the Bay Delta Conservation Plan hedges against that scenario.
The BDCP seeks to provide both a reliable water supply and improve the environment for 57 species of fish and wildlife. It proposes building two 30-mile long tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter. They would divert water from the Sacramento River using state of the art fish screens.
The estimated price tag for the tunnels and the restoration: $25 billion.
“We’re opposed to the tunnels because it’s bad for the Delta, it’s bad for the fisheries, it’s bad for Delta communities and it’s bad for California ratepayers and taxpayers,” says Barbara Barrigan Parilla with the group Restore the Delta.
We’re at a Walnut Grove coffee shop where the group’s “Stop the Tunnels” signs are everywhere. One of the group’s biggest concerns is that the tunnels have a 9-thousand cubic foot per second capacity.
“The proposed tunnels with the three intakes right now have the capability of taking away almost 70 percent of the water, of what flows through the Sacramento River,” says Barrigan Parilla.
But tunnel proponents say moving the intakes to the Sacramento River will prevent reverse flows at the south Delta pumps that kill fish.
Secretary John Laird with the California Department of Natural Resources says there is a difference between capacity and actual operation.
“That is something that’s lost is that people focus on what the absolute capacity might be.” says Laird. “In the 40 plus years that the State Water Project has been there, the capacity has always been much greater than what legally or permit wise can be pumped,” he says.
Recently the footprint of the project shrunk by half and its proposed path shifted away from some private lands to public, in part to placate Delta residents. Instead, the changes created a new battleground.
On Staten Island, Dawit Zeleke with The Nature Conservancy looks over a flooded corn field. The island is a permanent wildlife refuge the Conservancy manages to protect the threatened Sandhill cranes.
“15-percent of the Sandhill cranes that come down the Pacific flyway from Canada, Alaska come down here to overwinter,” says Zeleke.
Under the revised BDCP, the tunnels would pass under the island.
“There’s no question about it, construction of a tunnel under this island is going to be disruptive,” he says.
Zeleke says the Sandhill cranes bond to one location every year. State agencies say they could manage construction when the cranes aren’t migrating. But Zeleke isn’t convinced.
“They’re going to need a power line in here, they’re going to need a construction pad, there’s going to be boring equipment. And we don’t know what they’re going to pull out of the ground once they start excavating,” he says.
The Nature Conservancy believes it could support the BDCP if the project improves all habitat types for all threatened species.
When asked if he was hopeful that the BDCP is the solution, Jay Ziegler, policy director at the Nature Conservancy just sighed.
“It’s the consummate challenge in California’s water equation,” says Ziegler.
The Department of Water Resources says there is no scientific certainty about how to best operate the proposed tunnels to recover fish species and maintain an adequate water supply.
California Natural Resources Department Secretary John Laird says ultimately restoring the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and making the BDCP a success will require trust.
“I think that we are closer to getting something good done than we have been in many years,” says Laird. “I think there is a broader acceptance that the status quo is unacceptable.”
Draft environmental documents will be available for public comment in November.
New money creates new worries for Oakland Unified
Governor Jerry Brown's new education funding formula sets aside additional money for districts serving large numbers of at-risk students. Now it's up to parents, teachers and principals to help figure out how to spend it.
They must create a plan that will improve the outcomes for students who are low income, English learners or in foster care. At Oakland Unified School District, 80 percent of students fit into these categories and the extra revenue will be significant.
The California Report's Education Reporter Ana Tintocalis has the story.
The Head and the Heart on 'Let's Be Still'
The Pacific Northwest is known for indie folk bands like The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, and now, The Head and the Heart.
The latest album from the six-member outfit is called Let's Be Still. The music is complex and lush, and a big step up from where the band started out. Frontman Josiah Johnson, originally a native of Orange County, says the Head and the Heart began with him and fellow guitarist Jon Russell performing on the streets of Seattle.
The Head and the Heart - "Another Story"