KPCC News In Brief

October 2008 Archives

• 27 fake contractors get arrested in So Cal sting

  Authorities arrested more than two-dozen handymen posing as contractors in a Los Angeles-area sting. They face charges for working without a license. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario has the details.

  Patricia Nazario: Investigators staged the undercover operation in Atwater Village. They requested home-improvement bids from unlicensed handymen who they suspected were passing themselves off as the real deal.

  California State License Board spokeswoman Melanie Bedwell says consumers can easily avoid falling in with fly-by-night contractors. When in doubt, she says, go to the state’s consumer affairs website and plug in the contractor’s license number or name.

  Melanie Bedwell: … and they can see if that person is in good standing. If there are any complaints against them.

  Nazario: Or, if they have a license at all. Bedwell says a legitimate contractor should always carry a pocket license that looks like a credit card. Consumers should always ask for references and get at least three bids from competing contractors.

  Bedwell: There’s no reason why people can’t say, “Hey, ya know, can I have some references? And, I’m gonna get three bids and compare them.”

  Nazario: Also, she counsels, be stingy with your money. By state law, contractors can only ask for deposits of 10 percent – or no more than $1,000 – on any job.

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  • October 31, 2008 5:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education, Health

• Pollworker trainer explains what happens if you wear campaign merchandise to vote

  There have been reports of e-mails circulating that warn voters not to wear their Obama or McCain buttons and t-shirts to the polls for fear they’ll be turned away and not allowed to vote. Fact or urban myth? KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde has the answer.

  Kitty Felde: Campaign t-shirts and buttons have become almost a fashion statement this election. But not at the polls. That’s because the state of California forbids electioneering within a hundred feet of a polling place.

  Laurie Dunlap, who trains pollworkers for L.A. County, has instructed workers what to do if someone shows up wearing political paraphernalia.

  Laurie Dunlap: We would ask them to remove the item while they are voting in the polling place, but we are not turning voters away and all voters will be accommodated.
  Felde: Suppose somebody refuses to take off their button or refuses to turn their t-shirt around. What do you do?
  Dunlap: That really shouldn’t be a big problem because the majority of voters are not intending to electioneer and almost all of them comply with a request when they find out it’s illegal. We will not turn voters away. We will process all voters and everyone will be able to cast their ballot.

  Felde: Dunlap told pollworkers if a voter refuses to remove a political button, just let them vote and leave the polling place as quickly as possible.

  Tools

  • October 31, 2008 5:10 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County mailed out last of vote-by-mail ballots Friday

  Los Angeles County voters who applied for Vote-by-Mail ballots by last Tuesday’s deadline, listen up: if you haven’t received your ballot yet, it might still be on the way. County Registrar/Recorder Dean Logan says his office is mailing the last batch of mail-in-ballots today.

  Dean Logan: “If you receive it over the weekend, our advice is to vote your ballot but to return the voted ballot in person, either here at our office or at a poll site on election day. Because it does have to physically be back here by the time the polls close on Tuesday. So you probably don’t want to chance putting it back in the mail at that point.”

  Logan’s office in Norwalk is open from 8 in the morning to 8 at night today and tomorrow, from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday. On Election Day, you can drop off a completed mail-in ballot at any polling place in the county – not only your own. Make sure, though, that you’ve signed it in all the right places. More information is available online at lavote.net.

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  • October 31, 2008 5:05 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Items recovered in burglary investigation on view

  Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives are inviting burglary victims to reclaim their property tomorrow during a display of more than 1,000 items.

  Detective Roger Burt says the department recovered the stolen goods last month during an investigation of a burglary ring that targeted upscale homes in La Canada, La Crescenta, Monrovia, Chatsworth, and Glendale.

  Roger Burt: “There’s lots of ways that they can get rid of items on the black market, so it isn’t very often that we come across 1,300 items.”

  The goods range from jewelry and sports memorabilia to collectible coins and computers. Deputies arrested two men. But detective Burt says he doesn’t expect a big drop in home burglaries.

  Burt: “We’re looking at it getting a little bit worse as people are losing their jobs and have no other sources of income. So we need people to be vigilant. And these two gentlemen were caught because an alert neighbor had looked out her window and saw them breaking into another house.”

  The stolen goods will be on display at the L.A. Sheriff’s Crescenta Valley Station on Briggs Avenue. To claim items, you’ll need a detailed police report – as well as serial numbers and photos of the items, if you have them.

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  • October 31, 2008 5:02 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• 27 fake contractors get arrested in Southern California sting

  A two-day undercover sting in the Southland has ended in the arrests of 27 handymen charged with contracting without a license. Authorities summoned them to Atwater Village to give estimates on landscaping, flooring, and fencing projects. California State License Board spokeswoman Melanie Bedwell says that’s where contractors falsely vouched for their good standing with the state.

  Melanie Bedwell: “They were requesting for a large amount of money for the down payment. By state law, they can only ask for 10 percent or $1,000 on any job and that includes both the labor and materials.”

  Bedwell says her office conducts weekly stings in Southern and Northern California. The state’s consumer affairs Web site offers a search so you can check out whether general contractors are legit. Just type in his or her name or license number.

  Link: Contractors State License Board
  Link: California Department of Consumer Affairs
  Link: Check a License

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  • October 31, 2008 4:03 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Criminal Justice

• LA County voters line up at Norwalk office to cast early ballots

  Because early voting is in vogue this election cycle, the Registrar’s office in Los Angeles County is doing its best to make it easy. The Norwalk location is staying open until 8 tonight, opening tomorrow from 8 to 8, and on Sunday from 8 in the morning to 4 p.m. KPCC’s Brian Watt says it’s the only place people in L.A. County can vote early in person.

  Brian Watt: Yep. Sorry. The big building on Imperial Highway is L.A. County’s only early option. That’s not sitting well with people who’ve sat under a tent outside – and waited 2 hours or more – like Marcie Martin of South Los Angeles.

  Marcie Martin: Santa Monica, the Valley, Hollywood, Compton, Carson, Long Beach. Everybody gotta vote in one place? And then what if people can’t get to Norwalk?

  Watt: Those are fair questions to Dean Logan, the L.A. County registrar/recorder. He says L.A. County voters used to be able to vote early on touch-screen machines in many locations. But Logan says California’s Secretary of State has toughened the rules governing their use.

  Dean Logan: If we were to use that equipment, we would be required to do a 100 percent manual count, which is just not logistically feasible.

  Logan says it’s even more difficult to make paper ballots available early in multiple locations – because there are more than 700 different ballot types in Los Angeles County.

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  • October 31, 2008 3:48 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Presidential campaign representatives talk about GOTV: 'Get Out The Vote'

  The final weekend of a very long presidential campaign is upon us, and the major candidates are trying to inspire the biggest possible turnout between now and Tuesday. Rick Gorka, a spokesman for Republican Senator John McCain, used the acronym GOTV – political jargon for Get Out The Vote.

  Rick Gorka: “The volunteers that we’ve had across this country are turning out record numbers of voter contacts and GOTV phone calls and door knocks. We are more than capable and more than excited about our chances on Tuesday.”

  So, in his way, is Gabriel Sanchez, state communications director for Democratic Senator Barack Obama’s campaign.

  Gabriel Sanchez: “You never take anything for granted. You don’t ever think the election is over before Election Day. And you get out there, and you get out the vote. And that’s what we are focused on. That’s what we are energized to do. Everyone here, the energy is incredible, the people are focused. It’s a tremendous thing to see.”

  The campaign representatives spoke with KPCC’s “AirTalk.”

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  • October 31, 2008 3:40 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Pollworker trainer explains what to do with an absentee ballot if it's too late to mail it

  A record number of Californians are voting by mail this election. But what happens if your absentee ballot arrives too late to get it in the mail before Election Day? What do you do? KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde answers some more questions from KPCC listeners.

  Kitty Felde: You can always drop off your signed, filled out absentee ballot at any polling precinct in your county. But suppose you live in Orange County and work in L.A. County. Can you drop off that O.C. ballot at an L.A. County precinct? Laurie Dunlap, who trains pollworkers for L.A. County, says yes, but…

  Laurie Dunlap: It is not a recommended practice because since Los Angeles County is such a large county, and it takes a long time to process our votes; their vote may not reach their county in time to be counted. So if at all possible, we would recommend you returning in your own county. If at all feasible, we will accept it and endeavor to get it back to your county in a timely manner.
  Felde: When you say “would never get counted” – ever? I mean, eventually you’d get around to sending that out to Orange County, wouldn’t you?
  Dunlap: Yes, but Orange County may have certified their election before they received that ballot that we submitted. It is possible.

  Felde: Polling stations in all California counties are open election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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  • October 31, 2008 3:36 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• True crime writer on why we're fascinated by 'real' monsters

  The new film “The Changeling” opens today. Based on a true story about a mother searching for her missing child, the movie also tells the story of Riverside County killer Stewart Northcott. In the late 1920s Northcott abducted and sexually enslaved more than 20 children. He killed at least four of them, one with the help of his mother.

  A new book documents the killer’s sensational trial and his final days on death row. Author James Jeffrey Paul says there are reasons we’re as fascinated with real-life monsters like Stewart Northcott as we are with fictional ones like Frankenstein or the Wolfman.

  James Jeffrey Paul: “Stewart, well criminals in general, are just an extreme manifestation of this little raging demon inside all of us. These elements: human egoism, motherly love, and all these very human ordinarily elements were there in the story But, you could see them so clearly because they were carried to a nightmare extreme.”

  That’s true crime writer James Jeffrey Paul. The title of his new book about killer Stewart Northcott is “Nothing is Strange with You.”

  Link: The Changeling

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  • October 31, 2008 3:31 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Criminal Justice, History

• Chevron's 3rd quarter earnings double due to record oil prices

  Oil giant Chevron Corporation’s third-quarter earnings more than doubled on the back of record crude oil prices this summer. KPCC’s Steve Julian says the nation’s second-largest oil company beat analysts’ expectations.

  Steve Julian: Analysts were expecting average earnings of $3.25 per share, but Chevron says it made nearly $7.9 billion, or $3.85 a share. Revenue shot up between July 1st and September 30th 43 percent to more than $78 billion.

  Yesterday, Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, shattered its own profit record. It earned $14.8 billion in the third quarter. Yet numbers contained in the company’s most recent financial report showed production numbers that continue to sag.

  The company got a boost of $1.6 billion from selling a natural gas transportation business in Germany. It also took a special, after-tax charge for punitive damages related to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

  Tools

  • October 31, 2008 3:24 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Pollworkers prepare for election day

  Pollworkers in L.A. County spent two hours in Election Day training sessions in various locations across the county today. Voter turnout is expected to be quite heavy. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde spoke to one veteran pollworker who’s looking forward to the crush.

  Kitty Felde: Voters aren’t the only ones excited about this election. Alma Augustus is a clerk-typist for L.A. County. For the past two years, she’s also been a pollworker. And Alma Augustus can hardly wait to open the polls Tuesday morning.

  Alma Augustus: We as black people have not had the right to vote for a long time. We haven’t even had it for a hundred years. Too many people have died for me to have the right to walk into a poll place and cast a vote. Yes, I would have done it and they wouldn’t have had to pay me a dime.

  Felde: Augustus says she’s not nervous about the expected crowds. She cites election policy that says everybody still in line when the polls officially close at 8 o’clock will be allowed to cast a ballot.

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  • October 31, 2008 3:18 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Large bones found near explorer Steve Fossett's crash site

  Two large bones have been found a half-mile from where explorer Steve Fossett crashed his airplane a year ago. These bones will be analyzed to see if they are part of his remains. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: Fossett took off 13 months ago on a leisure flight out of Nevada. He was never heard from again. A massive search turned up nothing and a judge early this year declared Fossett legally dead. A hiker found Steve Fossett’s pilot card a few weeks ago, and his plane’s wreckage was found soon after.

  Searchers this week found not only the two large bones, but also Fossett’s Illinois driver’s license and tennis shoes – both of which had animal bite marks in them. Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said the bite marks may prove the theory that Fossett’s remains were dragged a half-mile away. Fossett’s widow, Peggy, said the discovery of bones was yet another step in completing the investigation into “the tragic accident that took Steve’s life.”

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  • October 31, 2008 10:23 AM
  • Categories: Transportation

• Searchers find bones near crash site of explorer Steve Fossett

  Searchers have found two large bones half a mile from the crash site of explorer Steve Fossett’s plane. Fossett crashed into a California mountainside just over a year ago. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: The bones will be analyzed at a Department of Justice testing lab. Madera County Sheriff John Anderson says they should know within a week whether the bones are part of Fossett’s remains. If they are, Anderson says it reinforces the theory that animals dragged Fossett’s body away. A judge declared Fossett legally dead early this year after a search of 20,000 square miles turned up nothing.

  A hiker near Mammoth Lakes earlier this month found Fossett’s pilot identification cards and a weathered pile of money. Wreckage was then found nearby. Fossett made a fortune in the Chicago commodities market, and in 2002 gained worldwide fame for becoming the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon.

  Tools

  • October 31, 2008 10:11 AM
  • Categories: Transportation

• LA County voters line up at Norwalk office to cast early ballots

  A record number of early voters in Tuesday’s election meant a long line today at the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorders Office in Norwalk. KPCC’s Brian Watt was there.

  Brian Watt: The staff at the Norwalk location on Imperial Highway raised tents and brought in 500 chairs so that early voters didn’t have to stand in the sun.

  Steve Logan: If you go in there without your paperwork, you’ll be sent back out here, and you will not probably get back in the same place that you were in. So I’m just letting you know now…

  Watt: That’s veteran staffer Steve Logan making sure everyone got to vote in order. Many voters showed up to avoid a long wait on Election Day. But, like 45-year-old Lisa Hamilton, they discovered that others had the same idea.

  Lisa Hamilton: You know, it’s a long line, but it’s just too important not to – not to wait.

  Watt: Hamilton drove from Carson with her mother, Helen Lee. They waited at least two hours.

  Helen Lee: I would have gotten off my death bed to come and do this voting… and early!

  Watt: The Norwalk location is the only place Los Angeles County voters may cast their early ballots in person.

  NOTE: The Norwalk office will be open Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m.

  LINK: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder

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  • October 30, 2008 6:43 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Two senior L.A. Unified board members won't seek reelection

  The two most senior members of the L.A. Unified Board of Education say they’re calling it quits. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Julie Korenstein’s represented the San Fernando Valley on the school board for 22 years. She’s been a teachers’ union advocate, and she’s pushed for early childhood education and class size reduction. Korenstein, a grandmother of four children, said the time’s right to retire.

  Marlene Canter’s also leaving the school board. She’s represented the Tarzana and Westchester district for almost eight years. She scored a knockout against junk foods on campus a few years ago by banning high-calorie food and beverage sales in vending machines. Canter said she’s leaving L.A. Unified to pursue other work.

  The departures could realign the school board in favor of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s education proposals. He helped elect three of seven current school board members.

  Whoever runs next will need a thick wallet. Last year one school board candidate spent about $1 million to get elected. The L.A. City Clerk’s office is accepting applications Monday through Saturday of next week for the March election to fill the two open seats.

  LINK: LAUSD Board of Education

  LINK: L.A. City Clerk

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  • October 30, 2008 6:34 PM
  • Categories: Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Fullerton economists say economy recovery won't begin until mid-2009

  Economists at Cal State Fullerton predict the U.S. economy will continue to decline through the middle of next year. That’s assuming credit markets loosen up, the housing market starts to recover and the federal government’s $700 billion bank bailout works.

  At today’s release of his annual economic forecast, economist Anil Puri said the country’s already in a recession. He says that means consumers have to change the way they think.

  Anil Puri: “Well, you know, the everyday person has to be careful in where they invest and how they spend. Jobs are going to be lost. We have already heard so many layoff announcements. As the economy weakens in the fourth quarter and early part of next year, unfortunately there will be more layoffs. Credit is going to be squeezed, so I think borrowing is going to be not relied upon as much as we have relied upon in the past.”

  Puri says Orange County and Southern California will continue to suffer job losses through at least the middle of next year. Finance and construction are among the harder-hit industries. But Puri says health care and education jobs will help the economy recover.

  Tools

  • October 30, 2008 5:26 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Long lines for early voting at LA County registar/recorder's office in Norwalk

  Record numbers of people are voting early in Tuesday’s election. That meant a long line today at the Los Angeles County Registar/Recorder’s office in Norwalk. The staff there raised tents so hundreds of voters wouldn’t have to wait in the sun. Lisa Hamilton drove with her mother from Carson to wait for at least two hours.

  Lisa Hamilton: “I thought that Tuesday was going to be, you know, really, really crowded, and I just didn’t want anything to stop me from getting my vote in. So I decided to come early in case, you know, anything were to come up. I just wanted to make sure that my vote counted. I’m not sure if the early votes are one of the first votes to be counted, so I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard… and heard early.”

  The Norwalk office is the only place Los Angeles County voters may cast ballots early in person. It’s open from 8 in the morning to 8 at night on Friday and Saturday, and from 8 to 4 in the afternoon on Sunday. More information is available online at LAVote.net.

  Tools

  • October 30, 2008 5:02 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County pollworker trainer says new voters should bring ID

  We’ve been getting e-mails from KPCC listeners about what might happen on Election Day. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde took some of your questions to the experts.

  Kitty Felde: One listener asked whether anyone has to show an ID – like a driver’s license or a passport – to vote. Laurie Dunlap – who trains pollworkers for L.A. County – says if this is your first time voting, bring an ID.

  Laurie Dunlap: In the state of California, we do not ask for ID – identification from voters – unless they are a new voter who did not show or establish ID at the time that they registered to vote.
  Felde: So if I was a new voter, I registered by mail, I would be asked by what – the pollworker? How would they know I was a new voter?
  Dunlap: On our voter registration form, there is a voter status column next to their names and it says what status that voter is in. And if there’s an “N” next to their name, that means they are a new voter. And they have a list of acceptable identification forms, it does not necessarily mean for example, a driver’s license. We would accept a utility bill, a gas bill, their official sample ballot would be an excellent ID for them to use.

  Felde: Remember that the ID request only goes for new voters and only if you didn’t show an ID when you registered. If you’ve voted before and your name is on the list at the polling place, all you need to do is sign in. The pollworkers will trust that you are who you say you are.

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  • October 30, 2008 5:00 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Protesters protest LA Times' decision to not release Obama/Khalidi video

  Outside the Los Angeles Times’ downtown headquarters today, protesters demanded that the newspaper release a video. A Times reporter obtained the recording of a farewell dinner five years ago for Rashid Khalidi, a former University of Chicago professor and a former colleague of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

  Khalidi, who teaches at Columbia University now, has been an advocate for Palestinian sovereignty and a controversial figure among supporters of Israel.

  Demonstrator Rebecca Simon of Palos Verdes says people should know about Obama’s relationship to Khalidi. Simon supports Republican candidate John McCain.

  [Chanting “Show me the Tape! Show me the tape! Show me the tape!”]

  Rebecca Simon: “If the other side is saying this is campaign tactics, OK, just prove us wrong, expose the tape, release it for the whole world to see, that how despicable Republicans are, and so just put us to shame, why don’t you do that?”

  The L.A. Times ran an article about about Obama’s connection to Rashid Khalidi in April. Newspaper officials say they won’t release the video because the reporter promised to keep it confidential and is ethically obliged to keep that promise.

  Tools

  • October 30, 2008 4:17 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger announces bipartisan commission to study ways to improve California's revenue flow

  Governor Schwarzenegger is forming a bipartisan commission that will study ways to improve California’s revenue flow. The governor signed an executive order this morning to create the Commission on the 21st Century Economy.

  Governor Schwarzenegger said California’s current revenue system relies too much on income tax.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Instead of being diverse it depends on just 1 percent of our taxpayers providing 50 percent of our income taxes. And to make things worse, that 1 percent is actually relying on Wall Street for their income.”

  Schwarzenegger said the commission will examine ways to improve California’s tax code. The commission will include 12 members. The governor will appoint six of them. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and her counterpart in the State Senate will pick the other six. Commissioners will have to report back to the governor and the legislature with their findings by next April.

  Link: Press release on Commission on the 21st Century Economy

  Tools

  • October 30, 2008 2:29 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger to campaign in Ohio for McCain

  Governor Schwarzenegger plans to visit Ohio tomorrow to campaign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The governor will introduce McCain at an event in Columbus.

  Polls have shown McCain trailing Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race. Today, a reporter asked Schwarzenegger what he thought of McCain’s chances.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Well I’m not a fortune teller. So I know this is going to be a very tough uphill battle for him. And I contribute my help. You know I’m a big believer in him. And so I’m going to campaign – it’s something I promised him several months ago.”

  Schwarzenegger was supposed to speak at the Republican National Convention last month, but he cancelled because of the state budget impasse.

  Link: JohnMcCain.com – McCain-Palin 2008
  Link: Office of the Governor

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  • October 30, 2008 2:26 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Federal officials consider guaranteeing $500 billion in restructured mortgages

  Federal officials are considering a plan that would guarantee as much as $500 billion in mortgages that lenders have agreed to restructure.

  James Wilcox teaches business at UC Berkeley. He says there’s no doubt that type of plan will unfairly exclude some homeowners. But he says helping homeowners isn’t the goal.

  James Wilcox: “Remember, we’re mostly interested in getting these markets as a whole working better and not necessarily trying to bail out any individual homeowner or any individual lender.”

  Policymakers are still working out details of the plan – and it’s unclear who would qualify for it. But Wilcox says it’s unlikely the plan would be based on whether a homeowner is delinquent. He says it will more likely be other factors such as how large the mortgage payment is relative to a person’s income.

  James A. Wilcox, UC Berkeley

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  • October 30, 2008 2:19 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Public education leaders condemn Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal to close deficit by cutting school budgets

  Public education leaders are condemning Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to close a ballooning state deficit by slashing school district budgets.

  Maria Ott, Superintendent of the San Gabriel Valley’s Rowland Unified School District, says she doesn’t want budget cuts to disrupt education now that the school year’s started.

  Maria Ott: “If you would have to do any kind of reduction in employees mid-year, that would have a huge impact. That certainly is a fear any district would have, is can they meet their payroll requirements for the remainder of the year.”

  Ott says a committee of Rowland Unified’s staff and neighborhood leaders is meeting every month to brainstorm on how they can save money. She supports a tax hike to help close the budget deficit and spare schools. Governor Schwarzenegger told educators at a private meeting this week he’ll also back a tax increase.

  Office of the Governor

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  • October 30, 2008 2:12 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Federal agency going to court to black parts of Clean Trucks Program

  A federal agency says it will go to court to block some elements of the Clean Trucks Program at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. KPCC’s Molly Peterson reports.

  Molly Peterson: Since the first of this month, the San Pedro harbor complex has begun phasing out the dirtiest diesel trucks under new agreements cargo carriers signed to keep working at the ports. Last month the Federal Maritime Commission made waves when it asked the ports for more information about the plans.

  But port managers took it as a good sign when the commission allowed the program to proceed on schedule. Now the agency says it will ask a federal court to block some provisions of the program it deems “anti-competitive.”

  A notice on its Web site didn’t specify much about what “anti-competitive” means. The agency did single out a requirement at the Port of Los Angeles that cargo drivers are employees, not simply contractors for companies that serve the port. A national trucking association is already fighting that provision in court.

  The Federal Maritime Commission says it will only seek to invalidate the offending provisions. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air, and the Sierra Club have appealed the agency’s decision.

  Link: San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan: Clean Trucks
  Link: Federal Maritime Commission

  Tools

  • October 30, 2008 2:08 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Environment

• California Mortgage Bankers Association chairman talks about housing market, mortgage bankers' image

  It’s hard out there for a mortgage banker. Politicians and policymakers have blamed the entire profession for the country’s economic meltdown. KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” spoke with Robert Satnick, chairman of the California Mortgage Bankers Association, about how his business can rehabilitate its image – and help resurrect the housing market.

  Robert Satnick: “It was too easy for many people to get into the industry. And there are now new regulations that have been put into place and we embrace, and with the licensing requirements that now will take effect on a national basis. And that right there alone is one great step that we work close with the Legislature to put into place.”

  Link: California Mortgage Bankers Association

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  • October 30, 2008 2:04 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Federal Mediator sits down with Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers

  Contract talks between the Screen Actors Guild and The Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers have been at a standstill for more than three months.

  The SAGa continues tomorrow when a federal mediator is scheduled to meet with the producers alliance. KPCC’s Brian Watt has this update.

  Brian Watt: SAG called for the federal mediator, and a few days later, the producers said, “of course.” But they also said they’re being realistic about how the mediation process will go.

  Not so well, the producers said, if SAG continues to insist on driving a harder bargain than the writers, directors, and the other actors union, AFTRA. And, the producers point out, they reached deals with those unions during better economic times.

  Federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez met with SAG’s leaders late last week. Now, it’s the producers’ turn. The most recent feature film and primetime TV contract between the two expired June 30th, but SAG members continue to work under its terms.

  SAG’s board has decided that if mediation doesn’t work, it’ll put the strike question to the guild’s members. If that happens, three- quarters of the voters would have to authorize a strike.

  Tools

  • October 29, 2008 4:38 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Business/Economy

• Canadian check scam falsifies checks from LA County

  In an elaborate scam, thieves are targeting senior citizens with realistic-looking fake checks that appear to be from Los Angeles County. L.A. Consumer Affairs Director Pastor Herrera says the thieves would convince their unsuspecting targets to deposit the checks to cover customs fees so they could claim a prize from a Canadian lottery.

  Pastor Herrera: “Telling them that in order to get the winnings of $50,000, they had to pay fees of approximately $2,200. But they had to wire this money to this individual in British Columbia.”

  Herrera says at least six people in different parts of California lost that $2,200. Investigators urge people to think twice before they respond to any sweepstakes, magazine sale, or free gift offers that appear in their mailboxes.

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  • October 29, 2008 4:03 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Health

• Prosecutors play recorded conversations of former OC sheriff Mike Carona in corruption case

  Federal prosecutors in Santa Ana today began laying out their corruption case against former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. The highlight of the prosecution’s opening were recorded excerpts from conversations between Carona and his assistant sheriff Don Haidl.

  Haidl and another Carona aide – George Jaramillo – are cooperating with federal authorities. KPCC’s Susan Valot was in the courtroom when the conversations were played for the jury.

  Susan Valot: “The prosecutor was saying that Don Haidl was looking to buy power, and Mike Carona and George Jaramillo were selling it. And that it started before Carona even became sheriff. It started, according to prosecutors, when he was starting to campaign for sheriff.”

  Carona’s attorney says the trial is part of a smear campaign that’s ruined Carona’s 30-year career in law enforcement. The first witnesses could testify before the day is over.

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  • October 29, 2008 3:24 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Former OC sheriff Mike Carona's co-defendant says she shouldn't be part of this case

  The corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona got underway today in Santa Ana – with Carona’s co-defendant arguing that she shouldn’t be a part of this case.

  Prosecutors say Debra Hoffman – as Carona’s longtime mistress – benefited from the cash and gifts he accepted while sheriff. But KPCC’s Susan Valot says Hoffman’s attorney claims her client is a victim.

  Susan Valot: “Hoffman’s attorney said that Hoffman shouldn’t even be here, that she’s just collateral damage in a prosecutor’s case trying to take down ‘America’s Sheriff.’”

  Carona picked up the “America’s Sheriff” nickname after frequent TV appearances during the investigation into the kidnap and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion. Susan Valot also says Hoffman has confirmed her affair with Carona.

  Valot: “Hoffman’s attorney did say that, yes, Hoffman did have a romantic relationship with Mike Carona. But she was not involved in conspiracy or fraud, which is what she’s charged with.”

  The first witnesses in the trial are testifying this afternoon. One of those witnesses could be a tailor who fitted Carona with suits that prosecutors say were among the illegal gifts the ex-sheriff accepted.

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  • October 29, 2008 3:23 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Governor Schwarzenegger floats idea of mid-year school budget cuts

  The budget state lawmakers approved a few weeks ago is already at least $5 billion in the red. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with public school leaders yesterday to warn about the consequences. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Governor told educators to prepare for 2 to 4 billion dollars in mid-year cuts.

  L.A. Unified, by far the largest school district in the state, would take the biggest hit. Its superintendent, David Brewer, told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” he’s preparing for far-reaching cuts.

  David Brewer: “We’re supposed to keep our schools open the equivalent of 180 days every year and obviously if they impose some budgets like that in the middle of the school year, it will be almost impossible for us to basically to maintain, keep schools open and do all the things we’re supposed to do.”

  Brewer said cuts could force L.A. Unified to shut some campuses. Previous budget cuts and dropping enrollment have already forced some Southland districts to close schools. State Senator George Runner said schools could withstand cuts if Sacramento removes some limits on they way they can spend state education money.

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  • October 29, 2008 2:44 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Former White House chief of staff Panetta talks about lack of leadership in California and DC

  Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta says he’s eager for calm heads to prevail in government. The co-director of the institute named after him at Cal State Monterey Bay spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

  Leon Panetta: “I often tell the students at my institute that we govern either by leadership or crisis. If leadership is there and willing to make the tough decisions then hopefully you can avoid crisis, or certainly control it. But now, in the absence of leadership, crisis is driving policy, and that’s true for the state.”

  He says the partisan gridlock in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. is the worst he’s seen during a long career in public service. You can hear Patt’s full interview with Leon Panetta tomorrow at 1.

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  • October 29, 2008 2:23 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Board of Supervisors candidates support reopening Martin Luther King Medical Center

  The rivals for a rare open seat on Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors both support the idea of reopening Martin Luther King Medical Center. But State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks differ about how to make that happen. Ridley-Thomas told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that the facility should not operate strictly as a public hospital.

  Mark Ridley-Thomas: “On the matter of health care, specifically as it relates to the Martin Luther King Medical Center, I believe a public/private partnership is the order of the day.”

  Although Parks agreed that South L.A. County needs a reopened hospital – complete with a trauma center – he proposed a different operating model.

  Bernard Parks: “We need to, as I’ve already done, work with the governor’s office and the board to bring the UC system in for immediate credibility, and to be part of the clinical and the issue of dealing with the education.”

  The hospital – once affiliated with Drew University of Medicine – closed a year and a half ago after it failed several inspections. Now it operates as an urgent care facility. Its future is a key issue in the campaign for L.A. County’s second district seat that represents Compton, Watts, and surrounding areas.

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  • October 29, 2008 2:13 PM
  • Categories: Health, Politics/Public Affairs

• Opening statements begin in former OC County sheriff Mike Carona's trial

  Attorneys have started their opening statements in the federal corruption trial of former Orange County sheriff Mike Carona. Prosecutors say Carona used his office to enrich himself by accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and cash in exchange for political favors. KPCC Orange County reporter Susan Valot says attorneys conducted a long process to select the jury.

  Susan Valot: “They finally came out with a jury of 11 men and one woman – there are six alternatives. Three of them women, three of them men. And their identities are pretty much being kept under seal right now, but we’ll probably be able to see them today once we get into court.”

  Carona has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A Newport Beach attorney whom prosecutors have said was Carona’s former mistress is also standing trial with Carona.

  Prosecutors say Debra Hoffman took part in the conspiracy. The trial is expected to last two months. Carona’s wife has also been charged in the case. Her trial begins later.

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  • October 29, 2008 11:34 AM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• UC president says budget cuts are challenging its position as best public university system

  The new president of the University of California says budget cuts are challenging its mission. Mark Yudof says he believes the UC system is the finest public university system in the world. But he told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that a lack of investment is jeopardizing that status.

  Mark Yudof: “The biggest risk, a gradual diminution in quality – a silent set of cuts that make you less competitive with faculty, less competitive for the best students, less competitive for graduate students who do the research.”

  Yudof – who came from the University of Texas four months ago – compared UC’s situation to that of an employee whose salary stays the same while the rent and gas bills keep climbing.

  He said the university’s dealing with more students and inflated costs at the same time it’s getting less money from the state. In the last state budget, the UC system received $48 million less than the year before.

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  • October 29, 2008 11:31 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education

• Plan to test California 8th graders in algebra put on hold

  A plan to force 8th graders in California to be tested in algebra has been put on hold. KPCC’s Steve Julian says a judge yesterday ordered the state to shelf the idea until another court hearing in mid-December.

  Steve Julian: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nudged the Board of Education to approve the plan in July. The plan to test 8th graders in algebra would be the first of its kind in the country.

  But those against the idea, including the state schools superintendent Jack O’Connell, believe students at that age aren’t yet ready, and the added pressure could increase dropout rates. California was under pressure from the U.S. Department of Education to change its current 8th grade math test or face losing up to $4 million dollars in funding.

  Superintendent O’Connell had proposed measuring some algebra standards, but not all. He said it would cost California billions of dollars to implement the plan – money the state doesn’t have. California currently has a $3 billion budget deficit.

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  • October 29, 2008 11:28 AM
  • Categories: Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Labor leaders announce opposition to Proposition 8

  Los Angeles labor leaders have announced their opposition to Proposition 8. The measure would outlaw same-sex marriage in California. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor represents 300 unions with more than 800,000 members. Maria Elena Durazo is its secretary-treasurer.

  Maria Elena Durazo: The working men and women in this county are united in strong opposition to Proposition 8.

  Stoltze: Just down the hall from the press conference, one phone bank volunteer on another union campaign loudly remarked that only men and women should be allowed to marry – and that she’d vote for Prop 8.

  Union leaders argue that the issue is about equality under the law, and labor rights. T. Santora heads the Communications Workers of America in L.A.

  T. Santora: If our members are allowed to be discriminated against, that is going to infiltrate into the workplace. Even though our contracts have very good language to protect people and provide equal benefits, it is difficult every time we go to the bargaining table when the law has a lower standard for our members when they go home at night.

  Stoltze: A spokeswoman for “No on 8” said labor unions statewide had contributed one-and-a-half million dollars to the campaign.

  LINK: Los Angeles County Federation of Labor

  LINK: No on 8

  LINK: Yes on 8

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  • October 28, 2008 7:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• OC supervisors change leadership structure of county crime lab

  The Orange County sheriff will no longer have sole control over the county’s crime lab. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the Orange County Board of Supervisors today put a trio in charge.

  Susan Valot: The decision by the supervisors was unanimous: responsibility for the Orange County Crime Lab will be shared by the sheriff, the district attorney, and the county CEO. County Public Defender Deborah Kwast says she’ll go with the recommendation to put the three department heads in charge.

  Deborah Kwast: We do, however, continue to have the concern that there is a conflict of interest and that that can influence the results and the analysis of DNA in this county.

  Valot: Here’s why the public defender is worried: DNA testing, along with other analyses done at the crime lab, provides the evidence that helps put people behind bars – and now the district attorney has some say over how those tests are done.

  D.A. Tony Rackauckas says he won’t interfere with the science of the crime lab. The supervisors’ decision ends what some have called a “turf war” between the D.A. and Sheriff’s Department over who should run the crime lab. The Board of Supervisors says it’ll revisit the issue in a year, to see how things are going.

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  • October 28, 2008 5:27 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• OC Sheriff's Department wants to cut back overtime

  Over the past 10 years, overtime pay in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has doubled. County supervisors want to cut that back – and KPCC’s Susan Valot says the sheriff today promised to try.

  Susan Valot: The Sheriff’s Department pays about $48 million a year in overtime pay. That seems like a lot – but the Orange County performance auditor says hiring, training, and paying for new deputies costs more than paying extra overtime to the ones the county has. But Sheriff Sandra Hutchens says she’s already making changes to resolve the situation.

  Sheriff Sandra Hutchens: We had employees who were working a significant amount of overtime, a few. And we have put in place a limit of 48 hours in a pay period of overtime that they can work. And we’re holding them accountable for that. We’re concerned about the fatigue factor.

  Valot: Hutchens says it’s a matter of finding the right balance between overtime and fatigue. The auditor says making changes could save the county some $3 million a year… and putting correctional officers in place of deputies in the county jails could save even more. The sheriff’s jail audit team is due to make recommendations about that when it issues its first audit of the jails later this month.

  Link: Overtime audit of OC Sheriff’s Department

  Link: OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ written response to overtime audit

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  • October 28, 2008 4:32 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Scientists now believe there was water on Mars 1 billion years later than earlier believed

  It’s hot and dry in southern California this week, so if you want to find someplace wet and cold… try Mars. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde offers this climate report.

  Kitty Felde: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been scouting for evidence of water as it zips around the red planet. It’s discovered evidence of hydrated silica, otherwise known as opal. Scientists believe cold acidic water helped form the opaline silica found in and around what are now dry river channels.

  That means there was water on Mars a billion years later than scientists earlier believed, allowing more time and more places that could support life in what appears to be a hostile environment. But present day Mars is a hostile environment for the man-made explorers on the planet’s surface.

  NASA engineers are shutting down some of the Phoenix Lander’s instruments and heaters to conserve energy and extend its life. The Phoenix was only built to last 90 days on Mars. It just completed its fifth month on the red planet.

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  • October 28, 2008 4:28 PM
  • Categories: Science/Technology

• Preliminary numbers indicate record number of registered voters in California

  Next month’s presidential election will be historic for many reasons, including this: a record number of voters in California. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde reports.

  Kitty Felde: California’s Secretary of State doesn’t have to report the final tally until Friday. But preliminary numbers indicate a record number of Californians have registered to vote for next week’s presidential election.

  More than 17 million people have registered to vote, breaking the previous California record of just over 16-and-a-half million. One in three California voters chose Republican as their party of choice. That’s the lowest percentage of GOP voters in any of the last four presidential elections. Nearly 44 percent of voters checked the Democratic box.

  The number of voters who decline to state a party choice continues to grow in California. One in five California voters now considers him or herself an independent. Even in this record year, though, Secretary of State Debra Bowen says more than 30 percent of eligible Californians are not registered to vote.

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  • October 28, 2008 4:14 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• 16 museums announce collaborative exhibitions in 2011

  Sixteen Southland museums and cultural institutions announced today a major collaboration that’ll lead to a series of exhibitions on Southern California contemporary art. L.A.’s Getty Foundation granted nearly $3 million to mount the shows in two-and-a-half years. Deborah Marrow is the foundation’s director.

  Deborah Marrow: “We cared so much about our home region, and yet here’s an area in which our home region was in the vanguard of international art movements, and yet not that many people know that.”

  The shows will focus on the groundbreaking work of painters, commercial designers, and video and other artists who worked in Southern California between 1945 and 1980. Each institution will highlight a different topic or set of artists. UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center and the California African American Museum will focus on contributions by black and Latino artists.

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  • October 28, 2008 3:46 PM
  • Categories: Arts, History

• Democratic and Republican operatives talk about California state Congress

  A week before the November 4th election, plenty could happen to shift the results. But for now, said Democratic political strategist Chris Lehane, undecided voters may hold the key in contested campaigns for California Senate and Assembly seats.

  Chris Lehane: “Historically, in challenged elections where you really do get a tidal wave, what ends up happening in these races is that the undecided voters by 60, 70, 80 percent break for the challenger. And virtually all these features that we’re talking about is the Democrats are the challenger. And so that would certainly suggest by historical trends that they stand to benefit.”

  Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum reluctantly agreed.

  Allan Hoffenblum: “It looks like again… I hate to say, the Republicans are deep trouble. It looks like the Democrats are actually going after six assembly districts currently held by a Republican, all of which one is opened because the incumbent termed out.”

  Hoffenblum and Lehane spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

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  • October 28, 2008 3:24 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Survivor of the Great Depression worries about another economic crisis

  A week before the November 4th election, the economy is on Southland voters’ minds. Seventy-seven-year-old Betty Phillips is a widow and retired homemaker living in the San Fernando Valley. Phillips said she’s been so nervous about the economy, last month she seriously considered liquidating all her assets to stuff the money under her mattress.

  Betty Phillips: “I thought sure enough we’d have another depression. I was in the other depression, I remember when I was little as they were coming out of it, and that was a horrible thing. I didn’t even have a pair of shoes.”

  We’ll keep bringing you voters’ voices and concerns through Election Day.

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  • October 28, 2008 2:56 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• California lawmakers convene for special session on state deficit

  State lawmakers plan to convene in Sacramento a week from tomorrow for a special session on the state’s growing deficit. Governor Schwarzenegger issued the call yesterday.

  Democratic state senator Denise Ducheny chairs the senate’s budget committee. She’s skeptical that the session will accomplish much, since it’ll include legislators whose terms will expire at the end of November.

  Denise Ducheny: “While we can start a session on the 5th – and that looks like the agreement that we have is that we will open a session – you know it will be very difficult to try to reach agreement in a two to three week period before Thanksgiivng.”

  Ducheny spoke with KPCC’s Larry Mantle. A new set of lawmakers will begin their terms in December. But Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders decided the state can’t wait until then.

  The downturn in the stock market has depressed state revenues. The governor said California’s facing a much worse deficit than the $3 billion that state officials estimated earlier this month.

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  • October 28, 2008 12:44 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• State legislature returns on November 5th for special session on state's deficit

  The state legislature will return to Sacramento on November 5th for a special session. Lawmakers were supposed to convene in December, but Governor Schwarzenegger says the earlier session is necessary to tackle the state’s growing deficit. Republican state senator George Runner told KPCC’s Larry Mantle he doubts the session will accomplish much.

  George Runner: “I mean, you get two very strong opposing philosophies. I mean, we’re very strong on the fact that during a time of recession, during a time of high unemployment, during a time when people are already having to pay phenomenal costs, it’s not the time to go ahead and raise taxes.”

  Instead, Republicans are calling for more tax breaks. State officials have estimated that the state’s deficit will be $3 billion for the current fiscal year. Governor Schwarzenegger says he thinks it will be much higher.

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  • October 28, 2008 12:32 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• L.A. Department of Water and Power settles in overcharging lawsuit

  The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has agreed to pay out $160 million for overcharging public agencies. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: The DWP decided to settle the lawsuit in part because of a tentative court decision earlier this year that said the utility had imposed “illegal and unjustified overcharges” on public agencies.

  Eight years ago, the state attorney general’s office sued the utility for overcharging Los Angeles County, the L.A. Unified School District, UCLA, and other state agencies. State law says municipal power authorities can only charge governmental agencies their proportionate share of what it cost to build the electric facilities that provide their energy.

  The school district will get the largest share of the settlement – $25 million, plus another $28 million for energy upgrades.

  While the DWP fought the lawsuit for years, General Manager David Nahai said the settlement was the result of “good faith” discussions under his administration.

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  • October 27, 2008 6:20 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Seal Beach voter says parents' financial concerns affect her vote

  Researchers suggest that parents’ political leanings help shape voters’ decisions at the ballot box. That’s the case for Seal Beach resident Christina Strunk.

  Christina Strunk: My family owns small businesses and just like, the tax stuff goes better with my family’s businesses. And right now my parents support me, so whatever’s best for them is best for me.

  Strunk, a college student who was filling up her Porsche at a Long Beach gas station, says she’s thinking about the economy and gas prices as she prepares to vote next Tuesday.

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  • October 27, 2008 5:50 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Tuesday, October 28th is last day to request vote by mail ballot

  If you prefer to vote in the privacy of your home, tomorrow is the last day to request a “vote by mail” ballot in California. If you want your vote to be counted first on election night, KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde tells you how.

  Kitty Felde: On election night, absentee ballots are the first votes counted. That means if you vote by mail and you remembered to return your ballot early, your vote could be among the first in California to be tallied. But most people who vote by mail are, shall we say, procrastinators.

  Stephen Wier is registrar of voters in Contra Costa County near San Francisco. He says that two years ago, more than one in five California ballots arrived so late, offices like his didn’t count them until after the election.

  Stephen Wier: In the first three weeks of absentee voting – we have 29 days, call it 4 weeks – first three weeks, about half come back. In the last week, about half come back. And now it’s heavily loaded the last four days.

  Felde: Wier predicts the number of so called “unvoted ballots” will be much higher this election. So if you want your vote counted on election night, get it in the mail pronto! Of course, if you’re determined to wait until the last minute, you can turn your absentee ballot in at any polling place until 8 o’clock election night.

  Clarification: You can drop your ballot off at any polling station within the county in which you’re registered to vote.

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  • October 27, 2008 5:34 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Conference in Los Angeles focuses on experimental writing

  Technology’s changed the way authors transmit their creative work to readers. A group of writers gathered in Los Angeles during the weekend to talk about how writers are pushing the medium. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has the story.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Fifty years ago, abstract expressionist and minimalist artists destroyed existing definitions of painting. Mattias Viegener, a Cal Arts writing professor and organizer of the writing conference, says a group of writers is doing the same in that field. He presents Exhibit A: the Korean and American writers who comprise the creative team Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.

  Mattias Viegener: One of the things they do is they produce these fabulous animated texts, these flash texts. It’s both a kind of writing and a kind of cinema because they’re mostly on video or easy to see online but the text flashes by your eyes almost at the exact pace at which you can read it, word by word and sometimes letter by letter.

  Guzman-Lopez: Viegener says experimental writers aren’t fighting for space at the bookstore in your locale. Their innovations, though, are turning up in the works of authors with books on bestseller lists.

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  • October 27, 2008 5:25 PM
  • Categories: Arts

• Southland newspapers cut staff

  It’s a lean day for Southland newspapers. A new report says circulation continues to dwindle. KPCC’s Cheryl Devall says that as of today, so does the staff of the region’s biggest daily.

  Cheryl Devall: From April through September, the Los Angeles Times’ circulation dropped about 5 percent on weekdays and Sundays. The Audit Bureau of Circulations says the Orange County Register took a bigger proportional hit – its circulation was 15 percent smaller on weekdays and 8 percent off on Sundays.

  Fewer readers leads to fewer advertisers and less revenue. That’s caused both papers to cut staff. The latest round of layoffs at the L.A. Times involves 100 people in marketing, circulation, production, and other departments, and 75 on the journalism side.

  Some of the better-known bylines to go include film critic Carina Chocano, Calendar writers Augustin Gurza and Lynell George, L.A. Now blogger Veronique de Turenne, and Metro reporter John Mitchell. In a memo to staff, Times editor Russ Stanton said the continuing economic downturn necessitated the cuts.

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  • October 27, 2008 5:17 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• California attorney general sues 3 trucking companies as part of working conditions investigation

  California attorney general Jerry Brown says he’s suing three trucking companies working the San Pedro ports. KPCC’s Molly Peterson reports the cases are part of a continuing investigation about working conditions.

  Molly Peterson: Complaints filed in Los Angeles Superior Court allege that Moreno Trucking, Guasimal Trucking, and Edmund Jose Lira all hired drivers they treated illegally as contractors. The state claims the trucking companies control all aspects of the drivers’ work, own the trucks they drive, and pay the drivers’ hourly wages – often for 60 or more hours a week.

  But since they treat those workers as contractors, the lawsuit says, the companies pay less payroll tax to the state, skirt employee benefits, and grant the drivers fewer labor protections than legitimate operators.

  Since February, a task force in the attorney general’s office has looked into allegations of labor violations in California’s trucking industry. Last month the state hauled two other companies into court on similar charges.

  An estimated 16,000 drivers serve the ports of Long Beach and L.A. Labor activists say more than 90 percent of those drivers work as independent contractors, not as employees.

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  • October 27, 2008 2:08 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Criminal Justice

• Treasury Department gives $400 million to Beverly Hills-based City National Bank

  The federal Treasury Department has chosen Beverly Hills-based City National Bank as one of the first financial institutions to get an infusion of cash. City National’s portion of the taxpayer-funded bailout package amounts to almost $400 million.

  Los Angeles Times financial writer Michael Hiltzik explained to KPCC’s Larry Mantle why the government directed money toward a bank that’s turned a consistent profit for more than 15 years.

  Michael Hiltzik: “City National has done very well and it’s a fairly solid bank, but I think Treasury’s calculation is that with this extra money, it will be even stronger. And I think Treasury probably has it in its mind that City National will be in a position to fund some more acquisitions of weaker banks and thus make the regional banking system somewhat stronger.”

  City National’s the second-largest independent bank in the state. Its officials say they don’t yet know what they’ll do with the cash, but they have the option of acquiring another bank or bolstering what its chief executive called “one of the healthiest balance sheets in the United States.”

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  • October 27, 2008 2:05 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Ted Stevens found guilty in corruption case

  By Matt Apuzzo and Jesse J. Holland Associated Press Writers

  WASHINGTON (AP) – Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that tainted the 40-year Senate career of Alaska’s political patriarch.

  The verdict, coming just days before Election Day, adds further uncertainty to a closely watched Senate race. Democrats hope to seize the once reliably Republican seat as part of their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

  Stevens, 84, was convicted of all seven charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor. Jurors began deliberating Wednesday at noon.

  Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Jan. 26, but under federal sentencing guidelines, he is likely to receive much less prison time, if any.

  The monthlong trial revealed that employees for oil services company VECO Corp. transformed the senator’s modest mountain cabin into a modern, two-story home with wraparound porches, a sauna and a wine cellar. Stevens never paid for VECO’s work.

  The Senate’s longest-serving Republican, Stevens said he had no idea he was getting freebies. He said he paid $160,000 for the project and said he believed that covered everything.

  Stevens asked for an unusually speedy trial, hoping he’d be exonerated in time to return to Alaska and win re-election. He kept his campaign going and gave no indication that he had a contingency plan in case of conviction.

  Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to hold his seat because there is no rule barring felons from serving in Congress. The Senate could vote to expel Stevens on a two-thirds vote.

  “Put this down: That will never happen – ever, OK?” Stevens said in the weeks leading up to his trial. “I am not stepping down. I’m going to run through and I’m going to win this election.

  Democrats, who are hoping to capture a filibuster-proof Senate majority, have jumped at the chance to seize the once reliably Republican seat. They have invested heavily in the race, running television advertisements starring fictional FBI agents and featuring excerpts from wiretaps.

  Stevens’ conviction hinged on the testimony of Bill Allen, the senator’s longtime drinking and fishing buddy. Allen, the founder of VECO, testified that he never billed his friend for the work on the house and that Stevens knew he was getting a deal.

  Stevens spent three days on the witness stand, vehemently denying that allegation. He said his wife, Catherine, paid every bill they received.

  Living in Washington, thousands of miles away, made it impossible to monitor the project every day. Stevens relied on Allen to oversee the renovations, he said, and his friend deceived him by not forwarding all the bills.

  Stevens is a legendary figure in Alaska, where he has wielded political influence since before statehood. His knack for steering billions of dollars in federal money to his home state has drawn praise from his constituents and consternation from budget hawks.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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  • October 27, 2008 1:13 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Federal judge intends to pursue holding governor, state controller in contempt over prison health care

  At a hearing in San Francisco today a federal judge made it clear he intends to pursue holding the governor and state controller in contempt. That’s for failing to comply with a court order to say when and how the state will pay $250 million to improve prison medical care. KPCC’s Julie Small was in the courtroom.

  Julie Small: U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson had ordered California officials to present a plan to pay millions to the federal receiver in charge of fixing the state’s broken prison medical system. But late last week, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a court brief challenging the court’s order.

  The judge didn’t appear to buy any of Brown’s arguments. Henderson said he’d consider whether to hold the governor and state controller in contempt.

  The judge has presided over the case for 7 years. He also appointed the federal receiver to do what the state has failed to do: prevent inmate deaths from treatable conditions, including asthma and tuberculosis. From the bench, Henderson told attorneys for the state, “we cannot afford any more delays.”

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  • October 27, 2008 12:48 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Health, Politics/Public Affairs

• Court showdown takes place over plan to improve state prison health care

  There’s another court showdown this morning over a plan to improve medical care in the state’s prisons. Federal receiver Clark Kelso has requested an initial $250 million from the state so he could build prison hospitals – and a federal judge had ordered the state to come up with a plan for turning over the money.

  But on Friday attorney General Jerry Brown said the state would not pay. Kelso’s chief of staff John Hagar said Brown’s response surprised him.

  John Hagar: “This is truly an extraordinary filing and I think it demonstrates why the receiver had to move forward and seek to hold the state, the governor, and the controller in contempt.”

  Brown argues that Kelso hasn’t provided enough details about his plan. The attorney general also contends there’s no evidence the state needs the projects.

  Kelso has asked the judge to hold Governor Schwarzenegger and state controller John Chiang in contempt of court if the state doesn’t turn over the money. This morning the judge is deciding the next step in the contempt proceedings.

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  • October 27, 2008 12:30 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Health, Politics/Public Affairs

• City National Bank receiving $400 million capital infusion from federal government

  City National Bank in Beverly Hills is receiving a capital infusion of nearly $400 million from the federal government. It’s part of the government’s plan to restart the flow of credit by investing money in banks.

  City National’s CEO Russell Goldsmith told KPCC’s Larry Mantle the additional cash will give the bank a “fortress balance sheet.”

  Russell Goldsmith: “So it expands our capacity to lend and it expands our ability, as this economy rides through very choppy waters, it expands our ability to absorb that and to serve the communities that we are in.”

  Goldsmith said bank officials haven’t decided how to direct the money. City National could use it to acquire other banks.

  The Treasury Department is distributing $125 billion to nine major American banks this week.

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  • October 27, 2008 12:27 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Beverly Hills voters will decide whether they want an overhaul of the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel complex

  Next month, Beverly Hills voters will decide whether they want a planned overhaul of the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel complex. After the city council approved the project at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, opponents placed a challenge called Measure H on the local ballot.

  It will determine whether the project’s developer will build a 12-story Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel and two condo complexes on the site. Ted Kahan, president of the company that owns the Beverly Hilton, told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that the project will be good for the city.

  Ted Kahan: “Measure H provides the largest economic benefit in the history of Beverly Hills.”

  Larry Larson of the Citizens’ Right to Decide Committee, the group that gathered signatures to put the measure on the ballot, begged to differ.

  Larry Larson: “Scale it down; it’s simply too big at the moment. It will create more traffic. Beverly Hills does not need 18-story condos.”

  The vote a week from Tuesday could conclude two years of very public controversy over the fate of the 9-acre parcel.

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  • October 24, 2008 12:57 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Restaurants paying higher prices for food and energy as revenues drop

  The economic downturn is putting the squeeze on restaurants. Dan Conway of the California Restaurant Association said eateries are paying higher prices for food and energy, even as their revenues drop.

  Dan Conway: “You’re seeing restaurant closures, you’re seeing restaurants having to raise prices, you’re seeing declines in customer traffic and customer spending, so it’s been a very challenging year for our industry.”

  Conway told KPCC’s Larry Mantle that a lot of fast food chains and high end restaurants seem to be doing okay. But, he said, casual dining and independent restaurants are having more trouble amid the economic slump.

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  • October 24, 2008 12:37 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Metrolink sues company that staffs its trains with engineers over September 12th crash

  Metrolink is suing the company that staffs its trains with engineers. KPCC’s Brian Watt tells us the commuter rail service’s board of directors is meeting today to discuss the lawsuit.

  Brian Watt: The lawsuit, filed this week, names Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of Veolia Transportation. For four years, Connex has contracted with engineers and crew members for Metrolink.

  One of them was driving the Metrolink train last month that collided with an oncoming freight train. The crash killed 25 people. Federal investigators have confirmed that engineer Robert Sanchez sent a text message 22 seconds before the crash.

  Metrolink Board member Keith Millhouse told the Los Angeles Times that on-duty engineers who even carry cell phones in a locomotive violate Metrolink policy. Millhouse and his fellow board members aren’t talking about the lawsuit in public, but they added “anticipated litigation” to the closed session portion of their meeting agenda. A spokeswoman for Veolia Transportation would not comment on a pending lawsuit.

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  • October 24, 2008 12:31 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Transportation

• Voter, lawyer, father of two concerned about college costs

  Southland voters are weighing in on the issues that’ll influence who they vote for on Election Day.

  Ed Farrell is an attorney from La Crescenta.

  Ed Farrell: “I’m concerned about affordable health care and affordable college costs for my kids. I have two; one is in college and one’s about to go to college. And the one who’s in college, the tuition’s killing me… It’s quite a burden on any family, I would think, to do a college education.”

  While Farrell has medical insurance through his job, he realizes that a lot of people struggle to get good coverage for their families. He said the next president needs to focus on the middle class, because they’re the people who scrimp to cover these costs.

  We’ll keep bringing you voters’ voices through November 4.

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  • October 23, 2008 5:42 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Fire Department representative says fires so far have underscored importance of brush clearing

  Los Angeles City and County firefighters knocked down a brush fire in the Sepulveda Pass within 8-and-a-half hours. Red flag weather conditions prompted extra fire companies to position themselves in a vulnerable area ahead of time.

  The wind helped out by staying calm. Cecco Secci of the L.A. City Fire Department says that fire, and earlier ones, showed how important it is that people who live in fire-prone areas clear the brush around their homes.

  Cecco Secci: “Those houses that have the brush clearance around always come out ahead. They have an incredible advantage over those that have, you know… even the ornamental vegetation, which is, things like cypress trees or eucalyptus trees. They have oils in them which turn them into a blow torch, basically.”

  Secci says clearing dry vegetation from a defensible area around buildings has helped firefighters and saved some homes. But many people don’t realize that until it’s too late.

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  • October 23, 2008 4:25 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• LA County registrar expects more than 4 million voters this year

  Voter registration, and voter interest, in Los Angeles County is higher than ever. Skye Rohde has more on the ways county elections officials are getting ready for November 4th.

  Skye Rohde: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan says his office is ready to handle the high turnout he expects this Election Day. The county’s deploying 26,000 poll workers at more than 4,300 polling locations. Many more are already handling the ballots absentee voters have mailed in.

  Logan’s office received almost 20,000 voter registration forms on Monday – the final day voters could register for the upcoming election. He expects that more than 4 million voters will submit ballots in time for November 4th. That’s a record-setting turnout. Logan said many of them have already called his office with questions.

  Dean Logan: “There was one day, I think it was Tuesday, where we had over 30,000 calls in a 3 to 4 hour period. It was phenomenal.”

  Rohde: Logan recommends that voters with questions visit his office’s Web site, LAVote.net.

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  • October 23, 2008 4:20 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Firefighters knock down blaze in Sepulveda pass in 7.5 hours

  Los Angeles City and County firefighters will stay on guard this afternoon in the Sepulveda Pass to make sure an overnight brushfire doesn’t spark up again.

  The fire broke out just after midnight and burned about 100 acres near the 405 Freeway. Nighttime drops by a squadron of 10 helicopters knocked down the flames by 8 o’clock. L.A. Fire Captain Tina Haro said fire units were already in position in response to “Red Flag” weather conditions.

  Tina Haro: “So we had extra companies out in this area already, so we were able to deploy a very quick attack with a whole bunch of resources – more than the normal amount that would have been responding for this area. The helicopters came right in: a lot of excellent water drops from the beginning. They of course hit the areas that we can’t access by foot because of the terrain.”

  Two evacuation centers were opened – but fire officials did not order mandatory evacuations. They did close down the 405 before rush hour. That set off a giant traffic jam that took hours to clear. The Getty Center and the Skirball Center also closed for the day.

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  • October 23, 2008 4:15 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Riverside County puts call out for biannual homeless count

  Riverside County is looking for a thousand volunteers for its homeless count in January. They’re needed to ensure a complete count – even from the most remote desert enclaves. Riverside County’s homeless programs manager Ron Stewart says the street census helps the county get the money it needs for homeless services.

  Ron Stewart: “So that we have good coverage around the county to make sure people are being served. So by having all the continuum of care and the local jurisdictions reporting back Congress, through this count, it then helps to establish the policy that then guides the federal appropriation that goes to the U.S. Department of Housing to help with homelessness.”

  Riverside County’s Ron Stewart says he believes the economic crisis has pushed people onto the street. He says shelters are nearly full. Homeless counts will be conducted across the Southland in January.

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  • October 23, 2008 3:55 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Health

• LAPD Chief Bratton warns of potential terrorist attack before election

  LAPD Chief Bill Bratton says prudence, not proof, inspires his view that an al-Qaida attack is possible in the days before the November election. Bratton co-authored an opinion piece in the “New York Daily News” that said the circumstances seem right for al-Qaida operatives to try to sway American opinion.

  Chief Bill Bratton: “Back on 9/11, the country was going along quite well. Good economy. We were not in two wars at that time. And at this time, the economy’s a mess. We’re engaged in two wars and we’re in the last two weeks of a bitterly-fought national election. What better time to try and inject yourself into that process?”

  Bratton told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that there are no intelligence reports that show an attack is imminent. But the LAPD Chief says it’s good to be cautious – and he says he’s reminded his commanders of that, too.

  Bratton: “There is some degree of heightened attention to certain of our critical sites in the city. We’re bearing on the side of caution, if you will.”

  Terror attacks days before Spain’s elections four years ago killed 191 people.

  Link: Opinion: “Osama Bin Laden wants a vote, so beware a late October suprise”

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  • October 23, 2008 3:50 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• California Children's Hospital Association president explains importance of Proposition 3

  The dozen statewide initiatives on next month’s ballot include one that would authorize close to $1 billion in bonds for the expansion and renovation of children’s hospitals. Diana Dooley, president of the California Children’s Hospital Association, told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that Proposition 3 would help these facilities meet the needs of children with the most serious and life-threatening diseases.

  Diana Dooley: “These hospitals treat a very disproportionate share of the children that are supported by Medicaid. And as we all know from the collapse of the health care reform effort last year, the state doesn’t give its fair share for the care of these kids.”

  Opponents to Prop 3 say the time isn’t right for California to add more bond debt.

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  • October 23, 2008 3:46 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Health, Politics/Public Affairs

• Downey Savings' 3rd quarter loss of $81 million not as bad as expected

  It’s not often that losing $81 million is good news, but it is for the parent company of Downey Savings. Some analysts had expected the Newport Beach-based thrift to lose nearly twice as much during the third quarter. It’s been hammered by bad loans – but Downey’s held off deeper trouble by selling off real estate to raise cash.

  L.A. Observed business editor Mark Lacter told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that Downey’s efforts have apparently worked – for now.

  Mark Lacter: “The not-so-good news is that Downey has had to set aside a bunch of money to cover the bad loans that it has made. Also, its operating expenses jumped because it had to pay a lot more for deposit insurance, and because it has a bunch of foreclosed homes to deal with, and those can be very expensive to maintain.”

  Lacter calls Downey “the third that would not die” – but he says the next few months will be tricky.

  Lacter: “Downey has to continue to raise capital, and at the same time, limit the amount of deposits being taken out by its customers who are nervous about its future. And that’s kind of a tough thing to do.”

  Mark Lacter of L.A. Observed says, despite Downey’s losses, its network of 175 branches in California and Arizona might attract a buyer.

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  • October 23, 2008 3:43 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Representative Waxman says Congress will consider tighter regulation to avert future financial crises

  After former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan addressed his congressional committee, Representative Henry Waxman told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that he and his colleagues will consider how tighter regulation of the markets might help avert future economic crises. Waxman added that, in his opinion, the number one job for Congress and the next Presidential administration is to overhaul current economic policy.

  Henry Waxman: “We can’t operate as the Bush administration has for the last eight years, where they have this blind faith in the markets and people end up getting hurt.”

  Waxman chairs the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Both major party candidates for president have echoed his rhetoric in response to the financial meltdown.

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  • October 23, 2008 2:28 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Former Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan concedes he was wrong about markets regulating themselves

  During a four-hour committee hearing on Capitol Hill, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan conceded to lawmakers that he mistakenly believed the financial markets could regulate themselves. Congressman Henry Waxman, who presided over the hearing, told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that he was less than impressed.

  Henry Waxman: “Alan Greenspan gave us a concession, not a consensus, but a concession that more regulation might have been appropriate. And that he didn’t see it at the time, but he certainly sees it now. He relied on his decades-long philosophy of ‘the markets know best,’ and he’s quite struck by the fact that he was wrong.”

  Waxman – a Democrat who represents parts of West Los Angeles, Malibu, and the San Fernando Valley – chairs the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

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  • October 23, 2008 2:14 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies to House Oversight Committee about economic crisis

  The former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, testified to the U.S. House Oversight Committee today about his shock and disbelief over the country’s economic meltdown. The chair of that committee, Southland Congressman Henry Waxman, told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that he’s skeptical about Greenspan’s belief that the market always knows best.

  Henry Waxman: “The Federal Reserve had the authority to stop the irresponsible lending practices that fueled the subprime mortgage market, but Chairman Greenspan rejected pleas that he intervene because he didn’t think government should intervene in the operations of the market itself.”

  During the four-hour hearing, Waxman and his colleagues tried to determine how regulatory lapses might have contributed to the financial crisis.

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  • October 23, 2008 1:39 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Proposition 8 activists argue about public school instruction on gay marriage

  Public school instruction has emerged as an issue in the battle over Proposition 8. The measure would amend California’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage, after the state supreme court legalized it this year.

  In campaign ads, supporters contend that if Prop 8 fails, teachers will instruct schoolchildren about gay marriage. Kate Kendell is executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She told KPCC’s Larry Mantle that children are already learning about families with two moms or two dads.

  Kate Kendell: “Nothing about Prop 8 will change what children are taught in schools, whether Prop 8 passes or whether it fails. Of course, there is diversity education in schools now; California’s the most diverse state in the country.”

  In an ad opposing Prop 8, state education superintendent Jack O’Connell says schools aren’t required to teach anything about marriage. Law professor Richard Peterson told KPCC that’s beside the point.

  Richard Peterson: “See, what they say is that it’s not mandated. And if you hit me in the head, the fact that you’re not required to do so doesn’t make me feel it any less. And this is the absurdity of the argument that Proposition 8 has nothing to do with that.”

  Peterson, a supporter of Prop 8, says its failure at the polls would make it harder for parents to object to such a discussion. He and other supporters point to a legal decision in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal. Courts there ruled that a public school district did not have to notify parents ahead of time when a teacher read a children’s book about a prince who marries another prince.

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  • October 23, 2008 1:28 PM
  • Categories: Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Scripps Oceanography researchers find more of greenhouse gas used to make flast screen TV's in atmosphere

  New research from Scripps Oceanography in San Diego indicates that a chemical compound used to make flat screen TV’s is turning up more often as a potent greenhouse gas. KPCC’s Molly Peterson explains.

  Molly Peterson: The chemical compound is called nitrogen trifluoride, or NF3, and it contains thousands of times the global warming potential of an equal amount of carbon dioxide. It hangs around longer in the atmosphere too.

  Manufacturers considered NF3 a less-harmful alternative to chemicals that get into the atmosphere. But until Scripps scientist Ray Weiss set out to measure NF3, researchers have just been estimating how much of that gas the atmosphere holds. It turns out those estimates were low; Weiss says as much in a study he’ll publish later this month.

  His team found that NF3 in the atmosphere is growing at about 11 percent a year. A lot of that may originate from rising production of flat screen TV’s, thin film solar panels, and other electronics.

  Eleven years ago, NF3 wasn’t even thought important enough to be listed in the Kyoto Protocol as a greenhouse gas to cut down on. But scientists who’ve conducted research on it, including the Scripps team, say maybe we should start keeping tabs on this greenhouse gas as we already do with better-known culprits.

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  • October 23, 2008 12:34 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• LAPD chief warns of terrorist attack in editorial

  Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton says American law enforcement officials should be on high alert for terrorism in the run up to the presidential election. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports that Bratton wrote the comments in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News.

  Frank Stoltze: Bratton wrote the article with R.P. Eddy, senior fellow for counter-terrorism at the New York-based Manhattan Institute. They argue that al-Qaida has a history of trying to influence elections.

  Four years ago, it launched bomb attacks on Spain that helped influence Spaniards to elect a critic of U.S. foreign policy as prime minister. Osama bin Laden also released a video four years ago that appeared to support John Kerry for president.

  Bratton and Eddy wrote that this is a “critical election for al-Qaida” and that bin Laden might try to sway voters toward John McCain – mainly because of the international popularity of Barack Obama.

  The authors contend that bin Laden probably realizes it would become harder to paint the United States as the “Great Satan” with a new president who’s widely admired abroad. They say the remaining days before the election “should be seen as a time of high threat, and state and local police should be on high alert.”

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  • October 23, 2008 12:29 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Walt Disney Concert Hall celebrates 5th anniversary

  One of the most distinctive buildings in Los Angeles marks its fifth birthday today. Skye Rohde says the Walt Disney Concert Hall first opened its doors to the public on October 23rd, 2003.

  Skye Rohde: Since its gala opening, Walt Disney Concert Hall has offered great acoustics, a diverse selection of live music, and a distinctive building to explore.

  Steve Roundtree is president and CEO of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, owner of the facility. He describes it as a pinnacle of the Southland arts landscape.

  Steve Roundtree: Disney Hall played central role in revitalizing Grand Avenue and leading to being a catalyst for the Grand Avenue Project. And tourism. We have 40 to 50 thousand people a year who arrive here just to see Disney Hall, not to go to a concert.

  Rohde: The place hasn’t scheduled any big events to mark this birthday. The L.A. Philharmonic isn’t even in town right now – it’s on tour in Asia. The Music Center is focusing on its next big transition, when Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel takes up the baton from longtime L.A. Phil music director Esa-Pekka Salonen next season.

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  • October 23, 2008 12:12 PM
  • Categories: Arts

• Congresswomen speak of brother lost in boating accident

  Earlier this month, the brother of congresswomen Linda and Loretta Sanchez was killed when a barge ran over his boat outside of L.A. harbor. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde spoke with the two congresswomen about their late brother.

  Kitty Felde: Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of Garden Grove describes her late brother Henry as an artist and a philosopher. She remembers his advice when he called on her birthday the year she studied in Rome.

  Loretta Sanchez: You have to stop being so materialistic, Loretta. Here I am doing my MBA. And he said, “You know, you have the Mother Earth and the Father Sun, and the babbling brook.” (laugh) Just like, whatever, Henry. He just was a different spirit. And he always thought tomorrow was going to be a better day.

  Felde: Younger sister Linda Sanchez – the congresswoman from Cerritos – says Henry’s trust in the goodness of people was almost naive.

  Linda Sanchez: I just hope that he’s sort of living the dream of, you know, the place where he always imagined where people were nice to each other, and people thought the best of one another, and people trusted each other.

  Felde: Tuesday would have been Henry Sanchez’s 52nd birthday.

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  • October 22, 2008 5:15 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• American Banking Institute reports consumer bankruptcy filings up 30 percent

  The American Banking Institute reports that consumer bankruptcy filings rose by close to 30 percent over this time last year. Bankruptcy protection can get creditors off your back. But it’s expensive, and it can leave a scar on your credit record for up to 10 years.

  Amy Kleinpeter is a Pasadena-based bankruptcy lawyer. She told KPCC that some people who call her office are taking months to decide whether filing for bankruptcy protection is the right option.

  Amy Kleinpeter: “Another thing I think that I’ve been seeing is a lot people that are calling to explore their options, these are people that are homeowners, they are middle class and they don’t, they are really, really reluctant to go into bankruptcy.”

  To qualify for bankruptcy in California, a person must live below the state median income level of $47,000 per year – or must report a special circumstance such as losing a job.

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  • October 22, 2008 5:08 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy president talks about current economic crisis

  The economic slump is taking a toll beyond banking. Across the country consumer bankruptcy filings rose in the last year by almost one-third. Henry Sommer – president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys – told KPCC:

  Henry Sommer: “So many people are living right at the edge of their financial means. They are barely keeping up with their payments so it doesn’t take much, whether it’s a medical problem or a short period of unemployment or some emergency household repair, to push them over the edge. And then all the late charges and other kinds of charges sort of spiral to where they can’t possibly pay their debts anymore.”

  Sommer recommends that borrowers in trouble consult with a bankruptcy lawyer before they file for bankruptcy protection. He also suggests that people seek credit counseling, and begin paying down their debts now – starting with credit cards that charge the highest interest rates.

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  • October 22, 2008 5:05 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Surviving veterans of 'bracero' program eligible for payments starting today

  Some surviving veterans of the bracero program – a guest worker arrangement between the United States and Mexico – are eligible to apply for long-delayed payments starting today. Details from KPCC’s Cheryl Devall.

  Cheryl Devall: During World War II, a shortage of agricultural labor in this country prompted the U.S. government to arrange contracts between growers and Mexican workers. Hundreds of thousands of men traveled north to plant, maintain, and harvest crops.

  At that time, the Mexican government withheld a portion of the workers’ pay in a savings fund. The idea was to reimburse the men when they returned home. But in many cases, the government never paid that money. Ex-braceros brought a federal class action lawsuit eight years ago, and that’s resulted in a proposed settlement with the Mexican government.

  Former braceros from the first four years of the program – from 1942 through 1946 – their spouses and children are eligible to apply for a one-time payment of about 2,800 U.S. dollars. They have two months to file their claims to Mexican consulates or embassies in the United States.

  Link: Braceros Class Actions Lawsuit Settlement (English)
  Link: Braceros Class Actions Lawsuit Settlement (Spanish)

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  • October 22, 2008 2:23 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, History

• USC launches university-level degree program in popular music

  Pop goes the conservatory. USC’s Thornton School of Music is launching one of the first university-level degree programs in the country to concentrate on popular song. More on the story from KPCC’s Cheryl Devall.

  Cheryl Devall: Most universities that offer music degrees focus on classical theory, composition, and performance. Jazz has also made its way into the academy. But rock, country, and rhythm and blues have had a harder time winning higher-ed respect.

  The Thornton School at USC is about to change that. Starting next academic year, the music school will offer a bachelor’s degree in popular music. It’s designed to help would-be performers and producers make their way in the hotly competitive, rapidly changing music business, department officials say.

  The faculty will include songwriters and performers from Motown, Nashville, and, of course, Hollywood. USC will audition applicants for the program in January.

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  • October 22, 2008 1:23 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Education

• Cherie Blair talks about fallout from former prime minister Tony Blair's decision to commit troops to Iraq

  Unlike the prolonged presidential contest in the United States, Great Britain keeps its political campaign season relatively short. But that doesn’t mean officials – and their families – are immune to lively public discourse about issues, Cherie Blair told KPCC’s “AirTalk.” After her husband, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, committed troops to the war in Iraq six years ago, she and her high-school age children had to weather the civic fallout.

  Cherie Blair: “They were also coming in and out of Downing Street and seeing the banners outside calling their father a murder. They would do this thing with ‘Blair’ so they turn in into B-Liar. And, clearly, there were times when we would be sitting in our flat in Downing Street and, you know, you could hear the crowds outside shouting. So I wanted to convey something of how it was like to live through that.”

  Cherie Blair, who’s also an attorney, is the author of a new memoir about her years as the prime minister’s spouse. It’s called “Speaking for Myself.”

  Link: Speaking for Myself: The Autobiography

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  • October 22, 2008 1:07 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Former prime minister Blair's wife talks about problems women face in tough economic times

  The progress women have made in education, the professions, and other realms is under threat during difficult economic times, Cherie Blair told KPCC’s “AirTalk.” The wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it’ll be challenging but necessary to keep elevating the social equality of women.

  Cherie Blair: “The important thing is to not let that momentum that women are starting to find across the world fall back again. And often, you know, when things get tough, it’s the weakest who go to the wall first, and in the world, women are among the weakest because of the way across the world societies view women as not being as valuable as men.”

  Blair is in the Southland to promote her new memoir, “Speaking for Myself,” and to attend the annual women’s conference organized by California first lady, Maria Shriver.

  Link: Speaking for Myself: The Autobiography

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  • October 22, 2008 12:43 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Proposition 6 advocate explains his support

  One of the people behind California’s “Three Strikes” law that requires stiff penalties for repeat offenders also backs a measure on next month’s statewide ballot. Mike Reynolds told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that Proposition 6 is aimed at juvenile offenders early in their criminal careers.

  Mike Reynolds: “There’s no big secret here. Juvenile offenders go on to become adult offenders, low-level offenders go on to become high level offenders. And what we’re trying to do is if there’s any chance of stopping this cycle, the best chance is to stop it at the earliest possible time.”

  The measure that supporters call the “Safe Neighborhoods Act” would allocate $365 million from the state’s general fund to law enforcement and incarceration targeted at gang and related criminal activity. Opponents say it’s an expensive overreaction that would divert money from other priorities like education.

  Link: No on Prop 6
  Link: Yes on Proposition 6

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  • October 22, 2008 12:28 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Proposition 6 activists explain their positions

  In less than two weeks, voters will be considering several crime-related ballot measures including Proposition 6. That one would toughen the penalties on certain gang-related crimes. It also would allocate an extra $365 million dollars from California’s general fund for new and existing criminal justice programs.

  Loyola Law school professor Kyne Yamashiro opposes the measure. He told KPCC’s “AirTalk” it would cost too much, and would require the state to expand its prison capacity.

  Kyne Yamashiro: “We are going to be arresting a lot more people, we will be prosecuting a lot more people, many of the enhancements that are proposed in this bill require state prison commitments for something as simple as possession of methamphetamines – so it’s going to sweep up many more people into the prison system without a budget to build prisons.”

  Yamashiro contends that would force California to divert money from other budget priorities like education. But Mike Reynolds, who co-wrote the measure, argues that it won’t hurt funding for the schools. Reynolds also says the tougher penalties would deter people from committing crimes – and would result in fewer incarcerations.

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  • October 22, 2008 12:22 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Authorities arrest 61 members of Southland-based motorcycle gang

  Federal authorities say members of a Southland-based motorcycle gang have committed crimes including murder, drug trafficking, and hate crimes against African-Americans. KPCC’s Brian Watt says police arrested 61 members of the “Mongols” gang today and executed search warrants in six more states including Oregon, Ohio, and Florida.

  Brian Watt: To emphasize the scope of their take-down, police blocked off a street in downtown Los Angeles and lined it with some of the more than 70 motorcycles they seized from the Mongols. They also displayed some of the 71 firearms they’d taken.

  The Mongols started during the 1970s in Montebello. John Torres of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms says their history is filled with bombings, shootings, and murder. Torres ran an investigation in which eight agents went undercover for three years to infiltrate the Mongols. He said they recruited members from Latino street gangs.

  John Torres: Eighteenth Street. Street gang members from San Gabriel, who were violent gang members before. But once they got that patch… once they got that “Mongols” patch, it was almost like a license to be more violent than they already were.

  Watt: The Mongols have trademarked the logo on that patch. The federal indictment requires the gang to forfeit the trademark. That would prohibit any gang member from wearing the patch from now on.

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  • October 21, 2008 5:09 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Federal authorities take down Mongols motorcycle gang; arrest 61 members

  Federal authorities have arrested 61 members of the Southland-based “Mongols” motorcycle gang. An indictment calls the gang a criminal enterprise involved in murder, assaults, hate crimes against African-Americans, and drug trafficking. Michael Sullivan is director of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

  Michael Sullivan: “The crimes are most serious and capture how violent and dangerous this organization was. I say ‘was’ because this is one of those celebrated investigations in which the organization from top to bottom has been charged and targeted. This indictment does much more than disrupt a violent criminal organization. We believe it puts a stake in the heart of the Mongols.”

  Eight agents – four men and four women – went undercover for three years to infiltrate the gang. Authorities say the Mongols started in Montebello during the 1970s. Now, they say, it has 600 members across the country. They also say the gang has recruited violent members of Latino street gangs.

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  • October 21, 2008 3:28 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Orange County uses drive-through voting for 1st time

  For seven hours in Santa Ana last night, voters in Orange County got their chance to cast their ballots in the presidential election from their cars. The county registrar says it’s the first time drive-through voting has ever been used in California.

  Nathalie Kohls of Fullerton will be a poll worker Election Day, but she decided to cast her own ballot in the drive-through.

  Nathalie Kohls: “It’s convenient, helps people maybe who can’t get out and walk as easy to be able to do it, so I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

  Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley says drive-through voting fits with Southern California’s car culture. He says he hopes it’ll get more people out to vote. Kelley says if it’s successful, he’ll try it again before another election.

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  • October 21, 2008 3:21 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• September home sales figures offer mixed news

  The home sales figures for last month offered a classic good news-bad news scenario: September sales in the Southland jumped by 65 percent over the same time last year. But half the properties that sold were foreclosures. Peter Viles – who writes the L.A. Land real estate blog for the Los Angeles Times – told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that the sales figures don’t translate into an economic reversal.

  Peter Viles: “It’s hard to see through any prism that what happened in the last month is good for the housing market, or will lead to a recovery. You know we probably, the next things we’re going to learn about the economy for the next couple of months are probably going to be bad. So we’re in another wave of economic downturn against to which the housing market is trying to recover.”

  Viles says that sales of non-foreclosed properties are as slow as ever.

  Link: L.A. Land

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  • October 21, 2008 2:40 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• LAPD chief addresses audit that finds LAPD missed legal evidence deadline in over 200 rape cases

  LAPD Chief Bill Bratton says it’ll take his department years to address a massive backlog of DNA evidence in rape cases. His comments followed a city controller’s audit that found the department has missed the legal deadline to test that evidence in more than 200 rape cases. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

  Frank Stoltze: Bratton says the LAPD’s crime lab is overwhelmed with DNA evidence from rape cases.

  Bill Bratton: We have developed an almost 7,000 case backlog of rape kits in our lab. And that has grown by several thousand cases since the time I arrived here in 2002.

  Stoltze: Bratton says the City Council has authorized 16 new lab technicians, but hasn’t provided the money to hire them because of a budget deficit. Police Commission President Anthony Pacheco:

  Anthony Pacheco: It is a resource issue. It is a priority with this commission.

  Stoltze: But a city controller’s audit found the LAPD had received $4 million in grants in recent years to address the backlog. And Bratton concedes the department recently failed to secure a $500,000 federal grant for DNA testing.

  Bratton: We screwed up. But I’m very comfortable that we can recoup those monies in future grant years.

  Stoltze: City Councilman Jack Weiss told the Los Angeles Times the department needs to understand that it’s just as important to hire DNA scientists as it is to add police officers. Bratton estimated it’ll be five years before the LAPD’s able to catch up on testing DNA evidence.

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  • October 21, 2008 2:08 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• LA County supervisors seek new brush-clearing rules in wake of Sesnon Fire

  The discovery that a privately-owned power line sparked last week’s Sesnon Fire has prompted L.A. County Supervisors to seek new brush-clearing rules. More on the story from KPCC’s Cheryl Devall.

  Cheryl Devall: The California Public Utilities Commission already requires utility companies to clear dry vegetation near electrical poles and lines. But that doesn’t apply to private power facilities like the Southern California Gas Company.

  Investigators traced a downed power line on its property near Porter Ranch as the origin of last week’s fire. It destroyed 15 homes, burned more than 14,000 acres, and prompted mandatory evacuations.

  The L.A. County Board of Supervisors wants to amend the county’s fire code so it’ll apply to all transmission lines and poles – even those that belong to non-electric utilities on private land. The county’s legal staff and fire department will work on the rule change and present it to the supervisors for approval.

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  • October 21, 2008 1:55 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Yes on Proposition 9 spokesperson talks about what Proposition 9 would do

  Next month, California voters will consider Proposition 9. It’s a constitutional amendment that would give crime victims more rights and tighten parole standards for inmates serving life sentences.

  Nina Salarno-Ashford is spokeswoman for Yes on Proposition 9. She told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that Prop 9 expands on the “Victims’ Bill of Rights” that gave crime victims in California the right to attend and speak at sentencing and parole hearings.

  Nina Salarno-Ashford: “What this would do – there is statutory authority. However statutory authority is not mandatory for victims’ rights and there is no enforcement mechanism. By making it a constitutional amendment, a victim has an absolute right to be heard. That is not currently true.”

  Ashford’s sister was murdered almost 30 years ago. Proposition 9 would require judges to consider victims’ safety when they set bail. The measure would also expand the time between parole hearings for inmates sentenced to life in prison. Opponents insist that the measure would cost the state too much because it would keep more people behind bars.

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  • October 21, 2008 1:52 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• California Tax Reform Association president explains opposition to Proposition 9

  In two weeks, voters will consider Proposition 9. The measure would incorporate crime victims’ rights into the California constitution. Among other things, the measure would extend the time between parole hearings for inmates serving life sentences. Roy Ulrich, president of the California Tax Reform Association, opposes Prop 9.

  Roy Ulrich: “We just went through this horrific budget crisis in California – and we ought to be clear about the fact that the monies that this is going to cost will take away money from our schools, from health care, from nursing home care for seniors, from firefighting. It will increase spending on corrections, but it will be on autopilot because it can’t be changed. It will be in the California constitution.”

  Ulrich told KPCC’s Larry Mantle that it would cost the state more to keep inmates behind bars longer. Supporters say Prop 9 would only affect about 10 percent of the prison population, so the cost wouldn’t be as significant as opponents contend. The measure would also extend more rights to crime victims and their families – including the right to know in advance about various criminal proceedings, and to confer with prosecutors about charges.

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  • October 21, 2008 12:20 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• LAPD misses legal deadlines for DNA evidence in over 200 rape cases, chief promises changes in DNA lab

  In response to a scathing audit by L.A.’s city controller, LAPD Chief Bill Bratton is promising to work through a backlog of DNA evidence in rape cases. The audit found the LAPD’s missed legal deadlines to test DNA evidence in more than 200 rape cases. Bratton blamed a lack of money and personnel.

  Bill Bratton: “This is an extraordinarily labor-intensive, complex issue. It is not CSI, that in 30 seconds you pop it into a machine and it’s all done. I wish it were that easy. But what has happened here is that there are just not enough people in the crime lab to do the work that is necessary. And we have repeatedly sought to increase that.”

  The chief said the Los Angeles City Council had authorized the hiring of 16 new lab technicians, but had not allocated the money. Bratton conceded that his department also failed to secure $500,000 in federal funding because of a clerical error.

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  • October 21, 2008 12:12 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• LAPD says at least 2 people wrongly arrested due to faulty fingerprint analysis

  The Los Angeles Police Department says at least two people were wrongly arrested because of faulty fingerprint analyses. KPCC’s Steve Julian says the department is looking for outside help.

  Steve Julian: Police Chief Bill Bratton says he will apply for a half-million dollar grant to hire an outside firm to review the way fingerprints are analyzed. He’ll also convene a multi-agency task force, including members of the FBI and District Attorneys Office.

  The two people who were wrongly arrested have had charges against them dropped, and the chief says he doesn’t know yet how many other victims there may be. A hundred people work in the scientific investigations unit. One analyst was fired; several others were disciplined or replaced.

  The unit also analyzes ballistics and DNA evidence. The audit comes on the same day another review found the LAPD has failed to process evidence in thousands of sexual assault cases – evidence in at least 200 rape cases is now too old to be used in court.

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  • October 21, 2008 9:57 AM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• LAPD asks FBI to help fix fingerprint analysis unit

  The Los Angeles Police Department has asked the FBI to help fix its fingerprint analysis unit. KPCC’s Steve Julian says the request follows word that innocent people were arrested.

  Steve Julian: L.A. police say at least two innocent people were arrested on faulty fingerprint analyses. Charges have been dropped against them, but Chief Bill Bratton said he doesn’t know how many other cases may have been affected by similar mistakes. Bratton said several people in the fingerprint unit were to blame: one analyst was fired, three others were suspended, and two supervisors were replaced.

  Bratton intends to form a task force comprised of experts from various agencies to audit cases. He’ll also put the unit under the supervision of the detective bureau for better oversight. The scientific investigations unit handles fingerprint, ballistics, and DNA evidence.

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  • October 21, 2008 9:50 AM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Report: California home building industry has lost more than 200,000 jobs

  Home builders in California say the industry has lost more than 220,000 jobs in two years. A report from the California Homebuilding Foundation and the Sacramento Regional Research Institute says the slowdown in homebuilding also resulted in a nearly $30 billion loss to the state’s economy.

  Robert Ravinius with the California Building Industry Association says it’s been a painful downturn.

  Robert Ravinius: “We have many employers who have laid off three quarters of their employees; we’ve had a few companies go bankrupt; we’ve had people who have closed down projects. It’s really been a tough time for the industry…”

  Ravinius says it took about three years for the industry to recover after another homebuilding decline in the mid-1990s. Right now, he says, credit is scarce and it’s hard to hold onto workers. Ravinius says tax credits for homebuyers would help.

  LINK: California Homebuilding Foundation

  LINK: Sacramento Regional Research Institute

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  • October 20, 2008 6:27 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• LA controller concerned about LAPD's growing backlog of untested rape kits

  A new audit from the Los Angeles City Controller’s office contends that evidence that could help put rapists behind bars has been lost. Controller Laura Chick says a lot more will be lost if the LAPD doesn’t find a way to process rape kits faster. KPCC’s Nick Roman reports.

  Nick Roman: The Controller’s audit says the LAPD’s backlog of untested rape kits stands at more than 7,000. It’s doubled in the last five years. There’s no statute of limitations when it comes to rape. So why does it matter that a kit goes untested for a few years?

  Here’s why: State law says rape kits must be tested for DNA within two years of the alleged crime. If they’re not, a 10-year countdown starts. That’s how long authorities have to test the kit so the DNA evidence obtained can be used in court. Once the 10 years runs out, the evidence is useless.

  Controller Laura Chick says more than 200 untested rape kits are out. That still leaves nearly 7,000 kits that can be used in court if they are tested.

  But Chick says the clock is ticking on 80 percent of those. She says rape kits close to the 10-year expiration date should be tested first. And, she adds, the LAPD needs more money to hire more DNA lab technicians to get the job done.

  LINK: LAPD

  LINK: City Controller Laura Chick

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  • October 20, 2008 6:23 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Parks and Ridley-Thomas debate LAPD racial profiling allegations

  The contenders for the open L.A. County supervisor seat weighed in on allegations that the LAPD engages in racial profiling. State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas accused City Councilman Bernard Parks – a former LAPD chief – of offering a “textbook” defense of the practice while he was in command of the LAPD. Parks blamed the department’s current chief, Bill Bratton, for allowing racial profiling to happen on his watch. Bratton and the Police Protective League have endorsed Ridley-Thomas.

  Bernard Parks: “Racial profiling report that came out today, I think it covers the area of his endorser chief Bratton and also the era of the protective league that is endorsing him and showing that they have been…”
  Mark Ridley-Thomas: “And I’m proud of those endorsements.”
  Parks: “Please don’t interrupt me! That they are clearly not done their job as it relates to dealing with racial profiling –over a thousand complaints, no substantive finding.”

  The candidates spoke on KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.” They were responding to a report the American Civil Liberties Union commissioned on suspected racial profiling in the LAPD. That study indicated that police in Los Angeles disproportionately stop and search blacks and Latinos.

  Tools

  • October 20, 2008 5:21 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• New study finds LAPD officers more likely to stop and frisk blacks and Hispanics

  A new study has found that police officers in Los Angeles are more likely to stop and frisk blacks and Hispanics than they are whites. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

  Frank Stoltze: Yale Law School Professor Ian Ayres conducted the study using LAPD data. He said LAPD officers disproportionately stop and frisk blacks and Hispanics, relative to whites, even when the crime rates in different neighborhoods are factored in.

  Ian Ayres: African-Americans and Hispanics are over-stopped, over-frisked and searched, and ultimately over-arrested.

  Stoltze: Ayres said that because officers so often stop and frisk blacks and Hispanics, cops proportionately find more weapons or drugs when they stop whites. The American Civil Liberties Union commissioned the study. ACLU legal director Mark Rosenbaum:

  Mark Rosenbaum: What this report does is give substance to the anecdotal evidence that racial profiling exists within the Los Angeles Police Department.

  Stoltze: The report indicated that the LAPD has received almost 1,200 complaints alleging racial profiling in five years, and that the department hasn’t disciplined a single officer over those complaints. LAPD Chief Bill Bratton has denied there’s a systemic problem with racial profiling.

  Tools

  • October 20, 2008 5:20 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Record number of county employees and students working polls in San Bernardino County this year

  Throughout the Southland, election officials are anticipating a big turnout two weeks from tomorrow. San Bernardino County Registrar-Recorder Kari Verjil says that 800,000 people are registered in her jurisdiction – and that plenty of people will be available to help scan the paper ballots come Election Day.

  Kari Verjil: “We have a record number of county employees helping us for this election, also a record number of college students and high school students that will be working at the polls this year.”

  Verjil spoke with KPCC’s “AirTalk.” This is the deadline to register if you want to vote in next month’s election.

  Tools

  • October 20, 2008 4:00 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County supervisor candidates Parks and Ridley-Thomas square off

  Just over two weeks before the voters decide, the candidates for supervisor Los Angeles County’s second district squared off on KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.” L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks – a former L.A. police chief – said his range of experience qualifies him for the county position.

  Bernard Parks: “The issue is, I think, honest, integrity. These are the things that’s important. Bringing forth 40 years of experience, knowing the issues, being out in the public, not serving myself but serving the public are the kinds of things that I’m looking forward to.”

  State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas – who used to represent the L.A. City Council’s eighth district as Parks does now – suggested that a broad spectrum of citizens supports his candidacy.

  Mark Ridley-Thomas: “I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race endorsed by the Los Angles County Democratic Party, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – that means teachers, nurses, firefighters, probation officers. I am endorsed by the Sierra Club, by the National Association of Woman Business Owners, and I’m the candidate who is prepared to roll up my sleeves and go to work.”

  Ridley-Thomas and Parks are after the supervisor’s job Yvonne Burke will relinquish when she retires later this year. It’s the first time in 16 years there’s been a vacancy for a seat on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

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  • October 20, 2008 3:57 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• California's first lady Maria Shriver hosts annual Women's Conference

  California’s first lady Maria Shriver is hosting her annual Women’s Conference this week in Long Beach. Scheduled speakers include former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and investor/businessman Warren Buffett. Shriver told KPCC’s AirTalk that she expects 14,000 people from all walks of life to attend.

  Maria Shriver: “We try to find the most interesting people, men and woman, to come and talk about finance, spirituality, life choices, business, entrepreneurship, and I think we put together an amazing day-and-a-half, and it culminates with the prestigious Minerva awards, and Bono will speak about his efforts to fight global poverty, and it will end with a concert with Bonnie Raitt.”

  The conference presents Minerva Awards, named for the Greek goddess in the state seal, to women who have made extraordinary contributions in their fields. Wednesday’s event will be streamed live online at CaliforniaWomen.org.

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  • October 20, 2008 1:24 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Orange County offers drive-through service on last day of voter registration

  On this last day to register before next month’s election, Orange County’s offering convenience. Registrar-recorder Neal Kelly told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that his office is extending its hours and its services before the deadline.

  Neal Kelly: “We have a unique event tonight in anticipation of that close of registration and that is drive-through voting opportunity in Orange County, as well as drive-through registration. And the idea there is to get the word out to as many people as we can that this is your last chance to register to vote so you don’t miss out on November 4th.”

  Kelly anticipates a large voter turnout two weeks from tomorrow. To find out where you can register today in Orange County, go online to OCVote.com.

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  • October 20, 2008 1:20 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Mother and daughter disagree on parental notification bill

  The parent notification bill, Proposition 4, could split families along generational lines. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario spoke with a mom who was dropping off her 16-year-old daughter at school… and got the student’s take, too.

  [Baby crying]

  Patricia Nazario: With her baby boy in the car, Carmen Carmona drops off her oldest daughter at San Fernando High School.

  Nazario: Are you registered to vote?
  Carmen Carmona: Yes.

  Nazario: Carmona says she plans to vote yes on the parent notification bill. She doubts she’ll ever have to face the abortion issue with her 10th grader daughter, because she says they have an open-door policy.

  Carmen Carmona: We talk sex. She’s aware of all the sickness, disease that’s going around. We talk a lot about the things that she does, the kind of guys that she meets.

  Nazario: Good parental relationship or not, the 16-year-old said she would vote “No,” if she were old enough.

  Mariely Cuevas: Because I feel that maybe some other kids don’t have the same communication with their parents as me.

  Nazario: Proposition 4 would require doctors to notify a parent or another adult family member before performing an abortion on an underage girl. Supporters say it’ll save lives. Those who oppose the bill say it’ll make teens seek riskier illegal abortions.

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  • October 20, 2008 12:44 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County hits record number of registered voters

  On this voter registration deadline, Southland election officials say they’re expecting major participation by absentee ballot and at the polls two weeks from tomorrow. Dean Logan is registrar-recorder for Los Angeles County.

  Dean Logan: “We hit, last week, a record number of registered voters for the county historically. We are close to 4.2 million registered votes now and we expect thousands of new registrations to come into today by the time we shut things down at midnight tonight.”

  Logan spoke with KPCC’s “AirTalk.” Many registrars are extending their hours at selected locations until midnight. You can find information about registration in your county at the League of Women Voters’ SmartVoter.org Web site.

  Tools

  • October 20, 2008 12:20 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• SAG board of directors meets, talks about federal mediation, potential strike

  The national board of directors for SAG – the Screen Actors Guild – met over the weekend. KPCC’s Brian Watt says the board hopes its decisions will jumpstart contract talks that have stalled with film and television producers.

  Brian Watt:The Guild will first call for a federal mediator in its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV producers. The two sides negotiated for about a month and a half and couldn’t reach a deal. SAG members have been working under the terms of a film and primetime TV contract that expired at the end of June.

  If a federal mediator can’t broker a deal, then SAG’s rank and file members get to decide whether they’re ready to go on strike. SAG’s board voted nearly unanimously, 96 to 3 percent, to call a strike authorization vote, if SAG’s Negotiating Committee decides federal mediation isn’t working. If such a vote takes place, it would take 75 percent of members who vote to authorize a strike.

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  • October 20, 2008 12:17 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Business/Economy

• Mr. Blackwell, fashion critic, dies at age 86

  The world’s best known fashion critic has died. Mr. Blackwell spent the last 40 years decrying the clothes worn by top celebrities. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: Mr. Blackwell once said Meryl Streep looked like “a gypsy abandoned by a caravan.” He described Ann Margret as “a Hells Angel escapee who invaded the Ziegfeld Follies on a rainy night.” And of Sharon Stone, Mr. Blackwell said she looked like “an over-the-hill Cruella DeVille.”

  As to critics who said he was too cruel, Mr. Blackwell claimed it was never his intention to hurt the feelings of the people he judged, but to put down the clothes they wore. His annual list of the worst-dressed dates back to 1960. It brought him the celebrity he craved, but couldn’t generate as an actor. Richard Blackwell recounted in his autobiography a troubled, poor childhood in which he was a truant, thief, and prostitute.

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  • October 20, 2008 10:26 AM
  • Categories: Arts, History

• Fashion critic Mr. Blackwell dies at 86

  Mr. Blackwell has died in Los Angeles. The fashion critic was best known for his annual list of the worst-dressed celebrities. KPCC’s Steve Julian reports.

  Steve Julian: Mr. Blackwell was born Richard Sylvan Selzer in 1922. He’d hoped to be an actor, but gave up that pursuit in 1958 when he turned to fashion. In 1960, he issued his first faux pas list of fashion, and the celebrity he long coveted was his.

  Mr. Blackwell became a regular on the talk show circuit, appearing many times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, whom he sued in 1992 after Carson claimed Blackwell had put Mother Theresa on his list. Among the celebrities he did skewer are Barbra Streisand, saying she looked like a “masculine Bride of Frankenstein,” and Madonna, calling her the “bare-bottomed bore of Babylon.” Richard Blackwell died of an intestinal infection. He was 86.

  Tools

  • October 20, 2008 10:23 AM
  • Categories: Arts, History

• Acclaimed French organist to perform on new organ in Costa Mesa Sunday

  One of the world’s most distinguished organists will perform in Costa Mesa Sunday. Olivier Latry, a titular organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dam in Paris, will present the first complete solo recital on the new pipe organ at Segerstrom Concert Hall. More from KPCC’s Debra Baer.

  Debra Baer: It’s a 30-ton instrument with more than 4,000 pipes. Who better to break it in than Olivier Latry? He plays one of the world’s oldest and most famous cathedral organs, which boasts nearly 8,000 pipes. He’ll perform a little Bach, then the music of French composers, and end the concert with improvisation in the French organist tradition.

  Olivier Latry: French music is really, really colorful and quite actual. I think they will have a good time if they come, because they will see the work of the organist, which is also very nice because we work with the hand and feet. This is sports to play the organ.
  Baer: You’re saying it’s very physical?
  Latry: Yes. It’s a real performance in any way. I think it’s nice to see as much as to hear.

  Baer: To prepare, Latry says, he stretches vigorously and eats a lot of pasta or other carbs.

  The concert at the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts begins Sunday at 2. For ticket information, visit their Web site

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  • October 17, 2008 6:27 PM
  • Categories: Arts

• Family of homeless man burned to death pleads for help in finding killers

  The family of a homeless man assailants doused with gasoline and set on fire last week have asked help in finding two men believed to be responsible for the killing. Susanne McGraham-Paisley is John Robert McGraham’s sister.

  Susanne McGraham-Paisley: “Whoever did this thought about this way in advance. And they got the gas can and they went all the way over to our brother. And he was the kind of person who was pretty passive, and this is a guy who never hurt anybody. He was just innocent sitting there. And it could be anybody. It could be somebody next if we don’t catch who it is.”

  The crime happened last Thursday at Third Street and New Hampshire Avenue, west of Downtown Los Angeles. Police said they’re unsure of the motive for the attack by suspects they describe as two Hispanic men in their late twenties. Investigators said McGraham had been living on the streets in the mid-Wilshire area for a long time.

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  • October 17, 2008 6:16 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• California faces big drop in revenue, looming budget deficit

  California’s successful bond sale last week solves just one of the state’s fiscal problems. It’ll generate enough cash to pay the bills until the end of the year. But KPCC’s Julie Small says it won’t help California bridge a huge drop in revenues that’s thrown the state budget into a deficit just weeks after lawmakers passed the spending plan.

  Julie Small: With California’s cash problem solved for now, state officials are turning their attention to a much bigger problem. State revenues have dropped by $1billion this fiscal year.

  H.D. Palmer: And that’s a continuation of the problems we’re seeing in the economy and how it’s rolling over onto the revenue side.

  Small: That’s H.D. Palmer with the governor’s finance department. He says the state’s pulling in less money from taxes because people and corporations are making and spending less.

  If that doesn’t improve, the state could face a $3 billion shortfall by the end of the fiscal year. H.D. Palmer says finance staffers are already crunching numbers to find ways to close that gap.

  HD Palmer: We’re working right now on a range of options and scenarios to take to the governor for the decisions that he has to make for the January budget. At the same time, a number of those decisions or options could be put into play perhaps earlier, if there’s a decision by the governor and by the legislators to come back into session before schedule.

  Small: For now, the governor and the legislative leaders have opted to monitor the state’s economy during a weekly meeting. If things get much worse, they may call a special session to cut state spending.

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  • October 17, 2008 6:09 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Los Angeles city officials seek review of LAPD fingerprint analysis unit

  Public officials in Los Angeles are seeking a review of the L.A. police department’s fingerprint analysis unit, following reports that workers there made mistakes that led to false arrests.

  L.A. city councilman Jack Weiss is chair of the Council’s public safety committee, which has jurisdiction over the LAPD. He told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that he wonders whether the mistaken identity problem is limited to the two known cases.

  Councilman Jack Weiss: “I don’t want to blow it up beyond what it is, because it’s a very big department and it’s a big city, and you know as I’ve said on your show previously, bad things happen in police departments in big cities. It doesn’t mean you throw the rest of the baby with the bath water.”

  Weiss said he plans to address the issue at his committee’s next meeting.

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  • October 17, 2008 6:04 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Proposition 4 advocates on both sides talk about the measure

  Proposition 4 would require doctors to notify a parent or another adult family member before they perform an abortion on an underage girl. It’s gaining traction with adults in the San Fernando Valley. Sixty-four year old Ruth Polk’s already mailed in her absentee ballot.

  Ruth Polk: “I voted for let the parents know, because if something happens to your daughter and they’re laying up on a table, you wanna know. So, I wanna be out there with them.”

  Some students at San Fernando High School oppose the measure on privacy grounds. Eighteen-year-old Frank, who declined to give his last name, says none of his girlfriends have ever had an abortion. But he thinks he could handle the responsibility without his parents.

  Frank: “It’s all in the process of growing up. You live and you learn. Everything’s gonna happen. You’re gonna learn everything sooner or later, so might as well let them be aware of everything now. Let them learn about sex. Let them learn about the kind of diseases they can get and everything.”

  Prop 4 organizers call the measure “Sarah’s Law.” It’s named after a 15-year-old girl who had an abortion in Texas and died from related complications. The Parental Notification Bill is one of a dozen propositions Californians will vote on November 4th.

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  • October 17, 2008 4:03 PM
  • Categories: Health, Politics/Public Affairs

• Mervyns to close all of its remaining stores

  If you have a Mervyns gift card, you better get to a store and use it quick. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the department store is getting ready to close its doors for good.

  Susan Valot: Mervyns filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. Back then, the department store chain said it would keep its stores open while it reorganized. But sales sank even further. So now, the Hayward-based company says it’ll hold a “going out of business” sale at its remaining 149 stores during the holiday season.

  The bosses at Mervyns hope shoppers will give the store one last financial gasp. After that, they’ll close the doors. So far, company officials haven’t announced an official closing date. They say it’s an “extremely challenging retail market” and they’ve “exhausted all other possibilities” to avoid closing.

  Other store chains are facing a similar fate. Linens-N-Things this week started store closing sales at its remaining locations. Barbecues Galore has filed for bankruptcy. Circuit City reportedly is on the brink of bankruptcy if it doesn’t have a good holiday season.

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  • October 17, 2008 3:49 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• LAPD report cites mistakes by fingerprint analysts

  L.A. County prosecutors might end up back in court to fight some old cases. An internal LAPD report says some fingerprint analysts didn’t properly identify prints in criminal cases. The “L.A. Times,” which got a copy of the report, says charges against at least two people were dropped when the fingerprint mistakes were disclosed.

  The newspaper says the LAPD fired one fingerprint analyst, and three others were suspended. L.A. County Public Defender Michael Judge says he wants to know who the fingerprint analysts are – and which cases they handled. He told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” their mistakes might be grounds for appeal by some of the defendants his office defended in court.

  Michael Judge: “We will review those cases to see if the client was denying guilt, but ended up either taking a deal in the face of the fingerprint evidence or went to trial, in which we believe the fingerprint evidence was the predominate cause of the conviction. Then we’ll reinvestigate those cases.”

  L.A. City councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, says he plans to hold hearings into the fingerprint mistakes next month.

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  • October 17, 2008 3:41 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Former UCLA willed body director found guilty of profiting from donated cadaver parts

  The man who used to run the willed body program at UCLA pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court today to charges he’d profited from donated cadaver parts. More on the story from KPCC’s Cheryl Devall.

  Cheryl Devall: Prosecutors had charged that former program director Henry Reid had sold hundreds of specimens to a dealer who supplied body parts to pharmaceutical, research, and medical supply companies. Those sales allegedly took place during five years and ended in 2004.

  That’s also when authorities arrested Reid and the dealer, and UCLA suspended its willed body program for a year. At the time, campus officials apologized to donors’ families and pledged to correct problems with the once-prestigious program. Henry Reid pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft.

  The plea includes a special allegation that he damaged or destroyed more than $1 million worth of school property by trafficking in the cadavers and body parts. Reid will have to repay at least some of the money to the University of California, and he faces more than four years in state prison when a judge sentences him in January.

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  • October 17, 2008 3:34 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Health

• LA City Council considers 1 year ban on electronic billboard conversions

  The Los Angeles City Council will decide soon whether to temporarily ban billboard companies from converting their signs into electronic displays. The city planning commission recommended the one-year moratorium yesterday. Commission chief Jane Usher told KPCC’s Larry Mantle that the moratorium would give the city time to reconsider some of the billboard ordinances it enacted during the 1990s and earlier this decade.

  Jane Usher: “Those regulations were developed without the sensitivity of the modern questioner, who wants to know about the environmental issues, who wants to know about the consumption of energy, the motorists – the resident – who want to know about the visual blight, the light pollution, etcetera. And these are questions that every city is grappling with, and we need to answer smartly.”

  Opponents of the electronic billboards have complained that they contribute to visual blight and create a traffic hazard. The city faces lawsuits over its previous efforts to govern billboards. City officials are hoping to adopt a comprehensive new billboard policy.

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  • October 17, 2008 3:25 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger issues executive order to help in wake of recent wildfires

  Three wildfires in Southern California are mostly out as Santa Ana winds have dissipated. The loss of two lives and more than 50 homes has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue an executive order. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: The order will make it easier for the thousands who had to flee their homes to get debris around their homes cleaned up. Those who are unemployed can begin collecting benefits immediately, and the order also waives the usual fees they would have to pay to replace driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, and birth/death/and marriage certificates.

  Investigators say the 14,000 acre Porter Ranch fire began when strong Santa Ana winds blew down a gas company power line. The brush ignited, and the winds quickly moved the fire west. The fires killed one man directly and another in a freeway accident when smoke obscured visibility.

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  • October 17, 2008 9:37 AM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger waives records fees for fire victims

  California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has set aside certain requirements for people affected by this week’s wildfires that killed two people and destroyed more than 50 homes near Los Angeles. KPCC’s Steve Julian reports.

  Steve Julian: Schwarzenegger’s executive order suspends fees people usually would have to pay to replace important records that were lost in the fires. He also set aside late fees on such things as vehicle registrations. People who apply for unemployment insurance now won’t have a waiting period.

  Combined, the three worst fires in Southern California burned more than 35 square miles this week. Investigators found the cause of the fire in the northwestern San Fernando Valley: a gas company power line fell into a ditch and ignited brush. Howling Santa Ana winds then pushed the fire west into Simi Valley. The winds have now died down and the fires are mostly contained, but humidity will remain low today.

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  • October 17, 2008 9:35 AM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Forbes reporter: Some California cities hit hard financially

  While the chairman of the Federal Reserve has yet to declare a recession, economic observers including Forbes Magazine declare that the big slump has begun in California cities, including Riverside.

  Joshua Zumbrun, Washington correspondent for Forbes.com, explained the criteria.

  Joshua Zumbrun: “In the cities where you’re feeling the most pain is where you have the most people who were getting into homes they couldn’t afford or were pulling, you know, second mortgages, home equity loans, out of houses that they weren’t in a position to get back.”

  Zumbrun spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.” The other California cities on the magazine’s top 10 worst cities to ride out the recession were San Diego, Bakersfield, and Fresno.

  LINK: Forbes.com

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  • October 16, 2008 6:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• U.S. Treasury rep talks about assisting small businesses during downturn

  Americans are spending less and manufacturing less. That economic news caused stock markets to yo-yo. U.S. Treasury spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccahrelli told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that the agency is trying, amid the uncertainty, to assist the people who need help the most.

  Jennifer Zuccahrelli: “We’re not concerned with specific financial institutions. What we’re concerned about is the way that this is affecting small business. This is affecting the employees of the businesses. They’re not getting the credit they need to keep their business running. And we’re very concerned about how this is could impact the real economy.”

  While Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson conceded that his agency and others made mistakes that helped trigger the crisis, he added that the Bush administration is taking the right steps now to resolve it.

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  • October 16, 2008 6:14 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Public Policy Institute of California says voters feel this November's statewide propositions miss the mark

  The presidential election’s generating a lot of interest. Not so with the dozen statewide propositions on next month’s ballot. That’s the word from Public Policy Institute of California. Its chief, Mark Baldassare, says the number one issue in this election is the economy, and voters may feel all those ballot measures have missed the mark.

  Mark Baldassare: “I think people are looking at this ballot and struggling to find out what’s going to give them some satisfaction, what’s going to move public policy in a direction that’s going to make them feel better about the current fiscal and political circumstances, and at this point in time, people aren’t really seeing anything.”

  Baldassare predicts a record turnout for the general election. Often, he says, people so mistrust politicians they don’t turn out to vote. But this year he says dissatisfaction with the way the state and nation are going seems to be driving citizens to the ballot box.

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  • October 16, 2008 3:51 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• USC-based group begins 5 year effort to digitize Holocaust testimonials

  A group founded by filmmaker Steven Spielberg has begun a 5-year, $10 million effort to digitize the videotaped testimonies of thousands of Holocaust survivors. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: The Shoah Foundation’s primary focus has been the preservation and dissemination of survivors’ stories, says the group’s Sam Gustman.

  Sam Gustman: From 1994 through 2000, we collected 52,000 interviews from Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 56 countries around the world, and in 32 different languages.

  Guzman-Lopez: They’re stories of death and survival during Nazi Germany’s effort to exterminate Europe’s Jews. The foundation had recorded survivors’ voices and faces on analog videotape that degrades over time.

  Converting those 235,000 videotapes to digital files is a massive job, even with the purchase of two $1 million machines to automate the conversion. Gustman says the work’s necessary to fulfill the foundation’s educational efforts. The Shoah Foundation is already making lower-quality digital versions available, at a charge, to institutions around the world.

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  • October 16, 2008 3:49 PM
  • Categories: History, Science/Technology

• Governor Schwarzenegger signs executive order to waive fees for replacement documents for fire victims

  People who lost vital records in the recent wildfires won’t have to pay to get replacement copies. KPCC’s Molly Peterson explains.

  Molly Peterson: Almost half a million people had to leave their houses under evacuation orders, some with very short notice, in the last week. Now Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an executive order to waive fees for people who left behind state-issued records when they fled fire areas. California will replace birth, death, marriage, and divorce records for free. The state Department of Motor Vehicles will also waive fees for drivers’ licenses, car registrations, and other vehicle records.

  The American Red Cross advises people who may live in fire zones to prepare for evacuation with a “grab and go” box of important documents, like state-issued records, financial and insurance information, and a photo or video inventory of their belongings. The governor’s order also waived the waiting period for unemployment assistance: people who live in fire-affected areas can immediately start collecting unemployment.

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  • October 16, 2008 3:44 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Quiz show host Jack Narz dies at age 85

  The TV quiz show scandals of a half-century ago failed to tarnish the reputation of host Jack Narz. KPCC’s Cheryl Devall has more on the durable personality, who died yesterday in Los Angeles.

  Cheryl Devall: Fifty years back, Jack Narz was the host of “Dotto,” a connect-the-dots quiz that was so popular CBS ran it in daytime while a primetime version aired on NBC. About a year into the show’s run, a contestant went to authorities with his suspicion that some competitors were getting the answers in advance.

  The networks quickly dropped the show, and Narz took a lie detector test that proved to a grand jury he hadn’t known the game was rigged. The brother and brother-in-law of game show hosts went on to emcee a succession of programs through the 1970s, including “Beat the Clock” and “Concentration.”

  Years after he left the spotlight, Jack Narz surfaced at celebrity golf tournaments and in documentaries about the game show scandals of the 1950s. He lived to see those shows regain their popularity in network prime time. Narz was 85 years old when he died from complications of a stroke.

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  • October 16, 2008 3:42 PM
  • Categories: Arts, History

• Realtors predict at least a few more months of unstable home prices

  These are tough time for realtors, but things are starting to look up… a little. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the California Association of Realtors in Long Beach yesterday released its 2009 California Housing Market Forecast.

  Susan Valot: The chief economist of the California Association of Realtors says there are so many wild cards in the real estate market right now that you could make a full deck. Home sales in California are up 12 percent this year, perhaps because home values are down sharply from last year. Robert Kleinhenz is the deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

  Robert Kleinhenz: The real key though, what everybody is waiting for, is when prices will stabilize. And based on our outlook for the economy, based on an assumption that the financial system situation is going to be worked out in the next couple of months, we think that the first half of next year will continue to see some weakness in prices, but that the second half of the year, we’re likely to see prices stabilize.

  Valot: Kleinhenz says that could happen in some parts of California before others. He says the inland areas, like Riverside and San Bernardino counties, took the biggest hits to their housing prices. But because of that, they’ve made more of a rebound, with lots of sales as investors swoop in.

  Kleinhenz predicts those inland areas are probably pretty close to hitting the price bottom. Overall, the California Association of Realtors expects another 12-and-a-half-percent increase in sales over next year, as sales of distressed properties peak early next year.

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  • October 16, 2008 12:26 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Senson Fire now 70 percent contained, no longer threatening homes

  The Sesnon Fire that began near Porter Ranch on Monday is now 70 percent contained. L.A. County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla says the fire is no longer threatening any homes at this point because it’s burning in a remote area.

  Sam Padilla: “We just have opened the fire line, meaning that there’s just pockets of this fire in the southwest, and also on the Simi Valley end.”

  The fire has burned more than 14,000 acres. Firefighters hope to fully surround it by tomorrow. Investigators say it began when a privately-owned power line fell on dry brush. The Marek Fire that’s been burning in the eastern part of the San Fernando Valley could be fully contained later today. It’s burned 4,800 acres. At Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, a 4,000 acre wildfire is 90 percent contained.

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  • October 16, 2008 12:19 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• California wildfire danger eases as winds fade

  By Jacob Adelman
  Associated Press Writer

  LOS ANGELES (AP) – Like thousands of residents, Tanya Valdivia was allowed back in her neighborhood after firefighters began to surround the remnants of three major wildfires that forced widespread evacuations this week in Southern California.

  The news for Valdivia wasn’t good: Her home was among 54 lost in one of two big fires that erupted in suburban Los Angeles neighborhoods that border brush and forest lands.

  “I’ve been crying for days,” said Valdivia, 32, as she searched the remains of her burned mobile home in the northern San Fernando Valley. “I guess it’s just a natural thing, but when you’ve lost everything, you’re going to be upset.”

  Authorities found that the biggest of the region’s fires – which started near the community of Porter Ranch – was caused by a downed electrical line.

  Combined, the three major fires had scorched more than 34 square miles, aided by Santa Ana winds that whipped through the region’s canyons and passes.

  Despite a decline of the Santa Anas, the National Weather Service extended warnings of risky conditions through Friday because of low humidity, which makes vegetation easier to burn.

  Fire officials said a 13,285-acre blaze at the northwest end of the valley was 50 percent contained. The fire, which began near Porter Ranch on Monday, destroyed 15 homes and 47 other structures. Another six homes were damaged.

  “The winds seem like they’re going to cooperate,” said Michael Pittman, a Los Angeles County fire supervising dispatcher. He said there’s no estimate on when the fire will be contained.

  Fire officials said there were about 3,000 homes in the vicinity and though some areas of the fire appeared to be extinguished, firefighters were digging into debris to make sure nothing was still burning under the surface.

  With no smoke to obscure visibility, the fire’s hopscotch path through the hills above the valley could be easily seen – blackened swaths and patches here and there where the winds hurled embers. Some houses stood unscathed next to the charred remnants of others.

  Deborah Schwartz held back tears as firefighters walked her six horses down Browns Canyon Road near Porter Ranch and loaded them into trailers. Firefighters rescued them from a burning stable on Monday, but a friend’s horse did not survive, she said.

  “When I close my eyes that’s all I see – not being able to help him,” she said. “I lost everything I had, every saddle. My horses are like homeless people.”

  Two other large fires were almost completely contained: A 4,026-acre blaze at the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, and a 4,824-acre fire which destroyed 38 mobile homes and a house on the edge of Angeles National Forest.

  But in a sign that the danger was not over, a fire that broke out on the fringe of the Cleveland National Forest on the line separating Orange and Riverside counties Wednesday afternoon grew to about 30 acres by Thursday morning.

  In the Twin Lakes neighborhood at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, Mark McReynolds vowed that his next house will be fireproof.

  “I don’t want this to happen to us again,” he said Wednesday, standing near the twisted metal and charred wood that remains of his 1,200-square-foot house.

  Like many of his neighbors, McReynolds understands that living in Twin Lakes means living with the strong Santa Ana winds.

  “After we bought our house, we changed our way of life because of the winds. We learned to bring in the patio furniture. We tied down the tables, we did everything we had to,” said McReynolds.

  Still, bad luck struck. McReynolds said he makes a modest living in the movie industry, but in his garage was a side business that he lost entirely. The expensive video equipment and computers he used to create bar mitzvah and wedding packages were totally lost.

  “We managed to find some personal things, family things,” said McReynolds. “My son’s handprint thing, the cremated ashes of our dog that died, some pictures.”

  Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Robert Jablon and Solvej Schou contributed to this report.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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  • October 16, 2008 9:10 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• New report: Temperatures continue to rise in California

  Throughout California, temperatures continued to rise last year. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Environment California that analyzes climate trends around the United States. More on the results from KPCC’s Molly Peterson.

  Molly Peterson: Fresno residents felt much warmer weather last year, and it was a bit warmer in Bakersfield… but people in Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles actually got a little break – a slight dip downward in average temperature.

  Still, California’s consistent with a national trend: its statewide average temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit was above normal, as in 43 other of the lower 48 states. NASA says seven of the eight warmest years on record worldwide have happened since 2001.

  In California, last year was only the 11th hottest in the state’s recorded history. But federal data indicate that statewide, summers have gotten about one degree warmer in the last decade. The report arrives just as the state’s air resources board releases its draft plan for enacting the Global Warming Solutions Act. The board will have to vote yea or nay on that by the end of the year.

  LINK: Environment California

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  • October 15, 2008 6:18 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Guard planes not yet equipped to fight wildfires

  By Michael R. Blood Associated Press Writer

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Despite pressure from elected officials and the military, the Bush administration has yet to equip some California National Guard planes for firefighting - a delay that could have grave implications during the worst of the wildfire season.

  After last year’s devastating blazes killed 10 people, charred 800 square miles and destroyed nearly 2,200 homes in the state, the head of the military’s Northern Command said he would push to get the C-130 aircraft into the sky.

  And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned President Bush in April that it “would be reckless” to face another fire season without the planes, which are among the state’s most powerful aerial firefighting weapons.

  Of eight C-130s based at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station on the Pacific Coast northwest of Los Angeles, none is equipped yet to fight fires.

  The firefighting gear “is still under testing and validation,” said Lt. Col. Jon R. Siepmann, a Guard spokesman.

  “Lives are always on the line when you are dealing with this kind of public safety issue,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly, a Republican whose district stretches from the Los Angeles suburbs to Santa Barbara wine country.

  Gallegly said he was assured as far back as 2003 that the planes would be flying. “My frustration is at an all-time high,” he said.

  During last year’s fires, the lack of firefighting C-130s forced Schwarzenegger to ask the Pentagon to call in six older C-130s from states as far away as North Carolina. While other planes were flown in, the flames grew.

  California’s firefighting C-130 unit is one of four the Pentagon has positioned across the country to respond to fire disasters. When they are equipped for firefighting, the C-130 will be added to the fleet of firefighting aircraft flown by state and federal agencies and private contractors.

  In fact, about 30 helicopters and planes have already been used to attack the state’s most recent round of wildfires.

  The grounded planes are typically called in when firefighters and other aircraft get overwhelmed by the flames. The aircraft have not yet been a factor in this week’s wildfires, which have been far less severe than in 2007, when simultaneous fires burned from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border.

  But the fear is that conditions could soon worsen. October and November are considered the riskiest months for wildfires in Southern California because that’s when powerful Santa Ana winds kick up after months of bone-dry weather.

  “As the climate warms and wild land fires become bigger and more intense, a rapid response is critical to prevent the spread of fires,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who has pressed the administration to get the planes ready for firefighting action.

  The Bush administration assured state officials that the C-130s would be outfitted with the gear by July. Then the Department of Agriculture said the planes could be ready by September if test flights were successful. The agency oversees the Forest Service, which owns the firefighting equipment.

  Scott Fisher, the project manager for the Forest Service, said that a contract calls for the eight California planes to be ready by the end of December but that some could be in the air sooner. Among other advantages, the tanks being tested for the newer planes can load retardant faster than older models. But the design and testing delays have dragged on for years.

  The Forest Service and a contractor have also been wrestling with several other issues, including a faulty emergency switch and problems with the way retardant disperses after it is dropped by the plane, according to internal records obtained by The Associated Press.

  Even without the C-130s in California, Bush administration officials have said firefighters will have enough aircraft to protect lives and property. Large tankers can be brought in from other states, in advance of predicted high winds that could spark fires.

  Because of the delays with the Guard planes, Feinstein’s office said the administration will station two P-3 Orion air tankers in the state. But the P-3s are about half the size of the C-130s. State officials are not satisfied.

  “We are anxious to receive those (C-130s) in California and make them available,” said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “It’s a little too early to tell how this season is going to end.”

  Siepmann, the Guard spokesman, said Schwarzenegger recommended that the state buy its own gear for the planes, but the request was rejected by the Legislature in a year when California faced a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

  The Department of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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  • October 15, 2008 6:13 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Fire department strike team patrols looking for hotspots or flare-ups from Sesnon Fire

  A strike team of 10 units from the Alameda County Fire Department in Northern California patrolled the Chatsworth area today. They were looking for hotspots or flare-ups from the Sesnon Fire. Battalion chief John Walsh said the effort’s beginning to pay off.

  John Walsh: “I imagine they’ll send some units back within a day or so, or sooner. But historically, this fire can go to the ocean. So they built out enough resources to handle a bigger fire, to get ahead of the curve. They got ahead of it, and caught it, and now they can start releasing people.”

  Those people include more than 1,200 firefighters from California and Nevada.

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  • October 15, 2008 4:41 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Fire Department strike team patrols Chatsworth area for remnants of Sesnon Fire

  Firefighters from all over the state and Nevada helped to battle the Sesnon fire. The Alameda County Fire Department in Northern California sent 10 units. They patrolled the Chatsworth area south of the 118 Freeway, looking for hotspots or flare-ups. John Walsh is their battalion chief.

  John Walsh: “We’re here to, if we see anything, call for more assistance. Regroup and then attack it. We don’t anticipate that happening, but if it does, we’re here. We’re also here for the public. Answer any questions they have and take care of their needs. And it gives them a sense of comfort knowing that that if something happens – to them, a wisp of smoke is a big deal, so… We take of the little things here, and calm ‘em down and get people back to normal.”

  Walsh said that crews continue to make progress toward containing the fire; some out-of-town units could start heading home in a day or two.

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  • October 15, 2008 4:38 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Governor Schwarzenegger pushes redistricting proposition with New York Mayor Bloomberg

  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stumped with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today in Los Angeles for Proposition 11, the statewide redistricting measure. The November 4th ballot initiative would remove from state lawmakers the power to draw their own electoral districts and hand it to a multi-partisan commission. Bloomberg said the way it’s done now leads to rigged elections in California and in his home state of New York.

  Michael Bloomberg: “Legislators are now using high tech mapping software to find out where exactly their fellow party members live. Which party members vote and which race and ethnicity and age they are, and then they draw zigzag lines through neighborhoods in order to manipulate the political character of their districts.”

  Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger spoke with reporters from the steps of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, flanked by L.A. County’s district attorney and sheriff, and a couple of dozen other supporters. Prop 11’s opponents say it would give too much power to a commission that doesn’t answer to California voters.

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  • October 15, 2008 4:35 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County Department of Mental Health treats fire evacuees for mental trauma

  Los Angeles County’s Department of Mental Health is treating some fire evacuees for symptoms of depression: agitated feelings, anxiousness, or crying. Program director Karen Gean says mental health workers move quickly to treat trauma before those early signs turn into deeper problems.

  Karen Gean: “We provide them at least six sessions where they can come in. We help problem-solve. Who can they call? Do they have family? Do they have friends? What is the way the community can offer them support?”

  L.A. County is extending counseling services to evacuated adults and children in San Fernando Valley. Firefighters are allowing some families to return to their homes near the Marek fire’s perimeter. That one is almost completely under control, while the Sesnon fire near Porter Ranch is about 20 percent contained. The American Red Cross says about 50 evacuees remain in its shelters.

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  • October 15, 2008 4:20 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Health

• Economist Paul Krugman wins Nobel Prize for economics work on globalization and trade

  This week, the Swedish Nobel committee awarded Paul Krugman its economics prize for his work explaining the relationship between globalization and trade. Krugman is a public intellectual – a Princeton economics professor who also writes about current affairs in his twice-weekly New York Times column. He talked about the evolution of his thinking with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

  Paul Krugman: “When I was younger I was more idealistic, believing that good ideas translated into good policy. And now I’ve seen a little bit more about the way the political world works, and I have a healthy dose of cynicism.”

  You can hear Patt’s full interview with Paul Krugman at 1 tomorrow afternoon on KPCC.

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  • October 15, 2008 4:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Economist/New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wins Nobel Prize for economics

  Princeton University economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman this week won the Nobel Prize for economics. The prize committee honored Krugman’s theories about economies of scale and global markets. He discussed his thinking with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

  Paul Krugman: “The benefits from international trade are even bigger than the economic orthodoxy had, but there are places where it can go wrong; you can end up with stuff in the wrong place.”

  You can hear Patt’s full interview with Nobel economics winner Paul Krugman tomorrow afternoon on KPCC.

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  • October 15, 2008 3:53 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Wind, tensions around Los Angeles fires diminish

  By Jacob Adelman, Associated Press Writer

  LOS ANGELES (AP) – Residents of the San Fernando Valley breathed air free of smoke and ash for the first time in four days Wednesday under brilliant blue skies.

  Gone were the convulsive winds that at times reached gale force. Nowhere could Los Angeles police be found using bullhorns to order residents out of homes and away from deadly fires that have blackened more than 34 square miles and destroyed more than 50 homes.

  The last evacuation orders for two big fire areas at opposite ends of the valley were lifted, though some locations were open just to residents. Some of those who returned found only rubble.

  “I’ve been crying for days,” said Tanya Valdivia, 32, as she searched what was left of her mobile home. “I guess it’s just a natural thing, but when you’ve lost everything, you’re going to be upset.”

  The winds that helped spread the flames were slack Wednesday, though temperatures were rising and the largest fire, which has consumed more than 20 square miles near Porter Ranch, remained only 20 percent contained. Incident commander Scott Poster said there were places where no fire lines had been established, “so if the wind hits it, it could move.”

  Helicopters and air tankers were still attacking the flames. Fire officials said there were about 3,000 homes in the vicinity, and though some areas of the fire appeared to be extinguished, firefighters were digging into debris to make sure nothing was still burning.

  With humidity low, the National Weather Service extended warnings of risky fire conditions from Wednesday evening through Friday in many areas along the Southern California coast and east of Los Angeles.

  The fires forced thousands of people to evacuate and were blamed for two deaths. One man died in the flames, and a motorist was killed in a crash as a fire neared a freeway.

  Fifteen homes and 47 outbuildings were destroyed in the Porter Ranch area, and another six homes were damaged, said Los Angeles County fire Inspector Ron Haralson.

  Ten miles away, there was major progress against Los Angeles’ other big wildfire. A 7-square-mile fire in the northeastern San Fernando Valley was 80 percent contained, and some evacuees were allowed to go home.

  Thirty-eight mobile homes and a house were destroyed there. Valdivia and her husband got out of their home early Sunday, taking their wedding photos and two dogs, Chico and Oreo. After returning, one of the few items she could find was a ceramic bride figure – now headless – from the top of her wedding cake.

  “This was all I ever had,” she said. “This was my first home, and God knows when I’ll be able to afford another one.”

  Southwest of the San Fernando Valley fires in Ventura County, a blaze erupted in Point Mugu State Park’s La Jolla Canyon and grew to 20 acres just above Pacific Coast Highway; it was 70 percent contained. A 6-square-mile fire at the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton in San Diego County was 75 percent surrounded.

  The outbreak of fires followed the weekend arrival of the first significant Santa Ana winds of the fall. The notorious Santa Anas usually sweep in between October and February as cold, dry air descending over the Great Basin flows toward Southern California and squeezes through mountain passes and canyons.

  Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Robert Jablon and Solvej Schou contributed to this report.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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  • October 15, 2008 3:28 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Opponent of Measure R says it wouldn't distribute money fairly across LA County

  A measure on next month’s ballot, Measure R, would enact a half-cent sales tax for Los Angeles County transportation projects. Michael Cano is a deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who opposes Measure R. Cano says that’s because it wouldn’t distribute the money fairly across the county.

  Michael Cano: “This is a sales tax that is going to lock in people for 30 years to support transportation projects and the sales tax, the way it’s structured right now is not seen as either fair or equitable for all parts of the county to buy into.”

  Cano spoke with KPCC’s “AirTalk.” Supporters of Measure R say it would allow L.A. County to plan ahead so it can accommodate its growing population.

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  • October 15, 2008 2:51 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• LA assemblyman explains his support for Measure R

  Los Angeles County voters will vote next month on Measure R. It would raise the county’s sales tax by a half-cent to fund transportation projects, including freeway improvements and the Purple Line subway extension to Santa Monica. Los Angeles Assemblyman Michael Feuer supports the measure. He told KPCC’s Larry Mantle the region needs to prepare for its future.

  Michael Feuer: “We’re going to have a major infusion of people into the L.A. County area for the next 20 years or so; another couple million people are going to be here. We need to plan for that right now. This is an opportunity to shape Los Angeles forever by cleaning up our air, and cutting through the gridlock that stalls our economy and prevents people from being home with their families.”

  Opponents, including L.A. County supervisor Mike Antonovich, say that Measure R would shortchange the San Gabriel Valley because it wouldn’t distribute the money to every population area. The higher sales tax would stay in effect for 30 years. The measure needs a two-thirds majority of “yes” votes to pass.

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  • October 15, 2008 2:46 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Porter Ranch church opens doors to evacuees, their pets as evacuation center during Sesnon Fire

  The Shepherd of the Hills Christian Church is slowly returning to normal, after authorities designated it as an evacuation center for the Sesnon Fire. Volunteer Mike Johnson says the church assumed its new role on Monday as flames bore down on Porter Ranch.

  Mike Johnson: “The very first night we opened our doors at 2:45, and by 7 o’clock we were serving dinner to about a thousand people with the help of several restaurants around the community.”
  Frank Stoltze: “What prompted you guys to do this?”
  Johnson: “We were just approached by the Red Cross and we couldn’t say no. It’s what we do. We try to be the hands and feet of God, and the only way you can do that is to open your doors and help everybody. We had everybody from parrots, rats, and snakes; the very first night we probably had a hundred pets total, so it was kinda like a zoo in here.”
  Stoltze: “Did you let them inside the sanctuary?”
  Johnson: “Red Cross was against it, but with the laws of the land, if you just say it’s a comfort animal or a service animal of any sort, they can’t stop ya, so we did have animals in the sanctuary as well.”

  Hiller says that on the first two days of this week, 350 people ended up sleeping at the church.

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  • October 15, 2008 12:08 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Browns Canyon man tells story of staying behind to protect home

  Robert Hiller is one of the people returning home above the San Fernando Valley today. He lives in Browns Canyon. Hiller told KPCC’s Frank Stoltze he’d waited too long to evacuate yesterday, so he fought the fire on his own for a short time.

  Robert Hiller: “When the flames were approaching, the only thing that came to my mind was what the heck did I just do, and also, am I going to be able to survive this?”
  Frank Stoltze: “How were you able to make it as the flames passed by?”
  Hiller: “I had my fire hose and I was at the entrance of my building and as the flames were approaching, it was about 40 or 50 foot high flames and wind driven; if the smoke or the flames got too overwhelming, I would have put down my hose, ducked into my building and rode it out.”
  Stoltze: “The building could have burned though.”
  Hiller: “That’s correct but usually the fast moving flames takes it awhile to get the building going because the building was made of block and a flat roof.”

  Hiller said he suffered minor burns on his hands and went to the hospital after he inhaled smoke. Otherwise, he said, he’s fine.

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  • October 15, 2008 11:19 AM

• People and pets return home after Sesnon Fire

  People and their pets are returning home in the northeastern San Fernando Valley today, now that the Sesnon Fire had died down. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze spoke with Lois Becker at Sheppard of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, where she stayed with her cat the last couple of days.

  Lois Becker: Her name is Dixie and she’s a long-haired caleco and she’s beautiful.
  Frank Stoltze: And how did she fare through all of this?
  Becker: She’s traumatized, I mean like most animals. Well, cats in particular. The dogs seem to be having a wonderful time. Everybody is petting them. Cats don’t fare very well in situations like this. They’re not that kind of a social animal, so she’ll punish me when we get home. She won’t speak for a few days. (chuckles)

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  • October 15, 2008 10:45 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Porter Ranch family ends shelter stay after fire

  Lighter winds are allowing many people are returning home today after fleeing the Sesnon Fire in the northwestern San Fernando Valley. Michelle Johnson of Porter Ranch spoke with KPCC’s Frank Stoltze at Sheppard of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch.

  Frank Stoltze: “These are your two kids.
  Michelle Johnson: “Yes, my daughter is going to be 13 and my son is going to be nine. They told us we had to evacuate, so we came over to the Sheppard of the Hills, and we’ve been here since Monday.”
  Stoltze: “And do you know what happened to your home?”
  Michelle Johnson: “Everything is fine. Our neighbors called us and told us everything is fine so we’re good. We’re very happy. We know one of our neighbors, one of their home is completely destroyed.”

  Megan Johnson: “I’m Megan and I’m 13. We came home from school and my mom told us we were going to get evacuated, so we came over here.”
  Stoltze: “Were you scared?”
  Megan Johnson: “Uh, a little bit. I didn’t want my stuff to get ruined so yeah, kind of. But I knew that I was safe here, so.”
  Stoltze: “What’s been the most interesting experience staying here?”
  Megan Johnson: “Just like to see all the people that got evacuated, and to see how many people are just like what happened to us.”
  Stoltze: “You’re not alone.”
  Megan Johnson: “Yeah, exactly.”

  Michelle and Megan Johnson spoke with KPCC’s Frank Stoltze.

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  • October 15, 2008 10:43 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Porter Ranch residents return to homes after fire danger subsides

  Porter Ranch residents are returning to their homes today. Grace Siodora-Magno was among several dozen people who spent last night at Sheppard of the Hills Church.

  Grace Siodora-Magno: “I had the option to bring my kids to a friends house, but I have chosen to have them experience what it means to stand in line, to stand in line for food, stand in line for showers, sleep in cots. All of this brought the good things out of this tragedy. My son decided to volunteer. And I have heard so much about American spirit, but it’s only now that I have experience what is American spirit. It has enriched our lives.”

  At the height of the fire, Sheppard of the Hills Church housed more than 300 people and served more than a thousand meals to people who fled their homes.

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  • October 15, 2008 10:38 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Firefighters take advantage of lesser winds in combating Sesnon fire

  Firefighters in the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley are taking advantage of lesser winds today. The Sesnon fire has burned more than 13,000 acres. KPCC’s Steve Julian says firefighters still face a daunting challenge.

  Steve Julian: It’ll be in the mid-90s today and tomorrow. That kind of heat only adds to the fatigue firefighters from throughout California and Nevada face, but the strong Santa Ana winds that have been pushing the fires are dying down. Curt Kaplan is with the National Weather Service.

  Curt Kaplan: “I think we’re going to look at winds, northeast winds, still that offshore flow, but it will be 15 to 25 miles per hour, and that will be really in the more favored canyons as far as the strongest winds go. And then by the afternoon hours it really should taper off to very, very slight winds.”

  Throughout California, firefighters are also battling a 4,000 acre fire at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in San Diego County, and have fully contained a 400 acre fire on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.

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  • October 15, 2008 10:30 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Valley resident who lost dream home in fire begins reconstructing her life

  The Sky Terrace Mobile Home Park in the northeast San Fernando Valley suffered the most damage during the Marek Fire. Thirty-six of the park’s 60 mobile homes were scorched. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario caught up with one homeowner today in the Red Cross Shelter at San Fernando High School.

  Patricia Nazario: Even though she’d just lost the roof over her head, 76-year-old Celi Garrett seemed extraordinarily upbeat.

  Celi Garrett: That was my dream home. My heaven on earth. I absolutely loved it.

  Nazario: Garrett said she lived at the Sky Terrace Mobile Home Park almost 22 years. She’d spent Saturday night at a friend’s house, so when flames bombarded the place early Sunday morning, she wasn’t home to grab anything.

  Garrett: No checkbook, no bills, no clothes.

  Nazario: Garrett said she’s already begun reconstructing her life. That included a phone call to her homeowner’s insurance company.

  Garrett: …And you don’t know what they’re going to do. I hope it’ll be all right.
  Nazario: What did they say to you?
  Garrett: They ask the questions; “How long have you lived there?” So, I gave them all the information. You know how it is. “We’ll get back to you in two weeks,” or whatever it is.

  Nazario: Until then, Garrett said she plans to stay at her best girlfriend’s house.

  Other families whose trailers withstood the flames aren’t sure they’ll have homes to return to. Up the road from the mobile home park is the Valley Crest Tree Company. Its neighbors worry that burnt pesticide residues and smoke damage from that business might make their homes unlivable.

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  • October 14, 2008 7:06 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Society/Culture

• Ten days ahead of deadline, L.A. County breaking records in voter registration

  Los Angeles County’s registered a record number of voter registrations in advance of next month’s election. KPCC’s Cheryl Devall has the details.

  Cheryl Devall: Six years after L.A. County’s voter rolls surpassed four million people for the first time, the registrar-recorder’s office beat that record. As of this week, 4,149,229 registrants are eligible to vote in November.

  L.A. County’s election chief Dean Logan said the numbers reflect an historic level of interest in the presidential contest. A dozen statewide ballot measures and a hotly-contested county supervisors’ race are also on voters’ radar screens this year.

  Fifty-one percent of registered voters in Los Angeles County are Democrats. One quarter are Republicans, and another 20 percent have declined to state a party preference. The partisan breakdown isn’t very surprising, but other factors are. Half the voters who registered in the last three months are between 18 and 25 years old.

  On average, L.A. County’s registering three times the number of voters every day than it did the year it established the previous record.

  Note: You have 10 days left, until Monday, October 20, to register to vote in California in the November 4 election.

  LINK: L.A. County Registrar

  LINK: California Secretary of State Voter Registration page

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  • October 14, 2008 6:52 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County expedites Section 8 housing applications for some fire victims

  Los Angeles County’s housing authority plans to speed up the process to obtain federal Section Eight housing assistance for some fire victims.

  Property owners from the Sky Terrace Mobile Home Park are getting first dibs on 50 vouchers. Fia Phillips, a manager with the county agency that administers the program, said there won’t be a waiting list.

  Fia Phillips: “Because of the situation they’re in, we can expedite their applications. Hopefully their criminal background comes back okay. Everything goes through all right with their eligibility; we’re looking at two weeks.”

  Phillips said it usually takes twice as long to process applications. She added that people can wait as long as 10 years for a Section 8 vacancy in Los Angeles.

  The Sky Terrace Mobile Home Park suffered the most fire damage during the Marek Fire in the northeastern San Fernando Valley. The fire destroyed 36 of the park’s 60 mobile homes.

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  • October 14, 2008 6:02 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Governor Schwarzenegger promises resources for fires

  Governor Schwarzenegger told a San Fernando Valley news conference today that California will provide any resources necessary to fight the wildfires.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: Even though we have had budget problems in our state and we have an economic slowdown. But we spare not one single dollar when it comes to fighting fires. We are going to use all the money, even if we need to take it from somewhere else. We always will make public safety, and protecting the people’s lives, and protecting the people’s property our number one priority.”

  Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

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  • October 14, 2008 3:56 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger visits LA fire areas

  Governor Schwarzenegger visited the fire area in the San Fernando Valley today.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “We have declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles County and Ventura County, and that will continue to ensure our brave men and women in uniform and our rescue workers and first responders get everything that they need for putting out those fires. We have also activated the state operations center in Sacramento to improve our coordination and response to these fire and all the other fires burning across this state – if it is Camp Pendleton Fire in San Diego County, or if it is the Angel Island Fire in Marin County, or the Sesnon Fire right here in Los Angeles County.”

  Schwarzenegger urged people who live in fire-affected areas to follow evacuation orders.

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  • October 14, 2008 3:46 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• American Lung Association warns about air quality due to wildfires

  The American Lung Association’s Terry Roberts says that smoke and particles from the wildfires are polluting the air. She advises everyone to close windows at home and in the car, and to consider wearing a mask outdoors if you’re near the fires.

  Terry Roberts: “If you’re going to wear a mask, they do have specific masks that will protect you for particulate matter. They’re M-95 or P-100 masks, and they need to be fitted properly. They don’t protect you from everything, but for particulate matter, it will help protect you. But some people think that just any masks will work, but they will not.”

  Roberts says children and older adults are especially at risk of illness if they breathe smoky air.

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  • October 14, 2008 3:18 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Health

• American Lung Association warns about breathing smoke caused by fires

  The fires prompted smoke warnings from Terry Roberts of the American Lung Association.

  Terry Roberts: “It’s advised that you should have your air conditioning running at home and close off the outdoor so you’re not venting in from outside, and keep your windows closed. And also in your car, close the outdoor air and just recycle the air from the inside to protect yourself.”

  Roberts told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that children and elderly people are especially at risk when there’s smoke in the air. She suggested that if you want to exercise, do it indoors for the next few days.

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  • October 14, 2008 2:56 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Health

• Series of smaller fires hit San Bernardino

  As firefighters battled the Sesnon Fire in the western San Fernando Valley, smaller fires flared up in San Bernardino County. KPCC’s Inland Empire reporter Steven Cuevas is there.

  Steven Cuevas: “A series of brush fires started alongside the 215 Freeway. They quickly got out of control and scorched several commercial buildings and at least one home; a couple of the buildings are a total loss. Then early this morning another fire started up near Cal State San Bernardino and came dangerously close to a neighborhood there. Firefighters, because they were already on scene, they were able to get to this fire quite quickly and were able to control it by about 11:15. So no losses there.”

  Steven Cuevas spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

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  • October 14, 2008 2:49 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• State prison inmates help fight Sesnon Fire

  State prison inmates are helping to fight the Sesnon Fire. KFI radio reporter Eric Leonard described their role to KPCC’s Patt Morrison.

  Eric Leonard: “Hand crews from the California Department of Corrections using chain saws and pickaxes are now climbing scorched hillsides just behind these homes on Joliet Street in Granada Hills trying to cut a fire break or, as they call, it cold-trailing, making sure that there’s no opportunity for the areas that have burned to reignite new brush and threaten these homes. At one point this morning, giant flames fueled by pretty ferocious winds, 40 to 50 mile per hour winds here, kissed up against the backyard of many of these homes up here.”

  Eric Leonard spoke with KPCC’s Patt Morrison.

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  • October 14, 2008 2:15 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Median LA County home price lowest in 4 years

  The median price for a home in Los Angeles County last month was the lowest in four years. The L.A. Business Journal reports that price fell to $380,000, more than a $20,000 drop compared to the month before. KPCC’s Business Analyst Mark Lacter says sales of foreclosed properties are driving home prices down.

  Mark Lacter: “The problem with so many foreclosure sales is that they bring down overall prices. And that brings down property values of neighboring homes. Could actually lead to more foreclosures.”

  In August, sales of foreclosed homes accounted for more than one-third of all the residential sales in L.A. County. Lacter says most of the foreclosure activity is still concentrated in the Inland Empire and the Antelope Valley.

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  • October 14, 2008 2:09 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Water-dropping helicopters play key role in saving homes from fire

  Water-dropping helicopters are helping crews save homes in the Sesnon Fire. Eric Leonard is a news reporter with KFI Radio. He spoke with KPCC’s Patt Morrison from Granada Hills.

  Eric Leonard: “I’m a helicopter pilot myself and I can tell you that the things that they do with the aircraft are really death-defying; there’s no other word for it. They come in with a load of water and on the small helicopters I believe its several hundred gallons, and they go full throttle ahead and almost nose dive the helicopter to the ground, and then, at the very last minute, they pull the nose up, and just as they start to climb, they dump the water out.

  “The helicopter loses all that weight, continues up the hill and doesn’t hit the hill obviously, and then the pilot makes a very, very sharp turn at the top of the hill and goes back and gets more water. It is an absolute nail biter to watch them do it, but the neighbors who’ve stayed behind, who’ve ignored the evacuation orders, say there’s no question those pilots saved their homes by stopping the advance of these flames.”

  Eric Leonard spoke with KPCC’s Patt Morrison.

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  • October 14, 2008 2:07 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Clean-up continues after 215 freeway fires

  Mop-up efforts continue along a scorched section of Interstate 215 in San Bernardino. Brushfires that exploded along the roadway last night destroyed several downtown buildings. Authorities shut down one stretch of the freeway for hours.

  Home and business owners spent the morning assessing the damage. A storage facility along the 215 was an almost total loss. Danielle Seckler’s locker is ok. But smoke and water damaged a lot of her stuff. She’d already lost her Big Bear home in the foreclosure crisis earlier this year.

  Danielle Seckler: “Jesus! Ya know? But my grandfather’s stamps survived, so I guess I’m grateful for what I do have. And my little nephew, it was his birthday yesterday, and he was all upset for me, and I said ‘honey; it’s just stuff. I got you.’ Gotta keep looking forward, ya know? So I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I may just say boy, this is enough! I may move.”

  Early estimates gauged damage from fires along the 215 corridor at around $6 million. Yesterday police arrested a homeless man who may have accidentally started an earlier brushfire in the same area. It’s not clear whether embers from that incident sparked last night’s structure fires.

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  • October 14, 2008 1:58 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Transportation

• Governor Schwarzenegger speaks at fire command post

  People are starting to return home after firefighters reached 70 percent containment of the Marek Fire in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger updated reporters with that and more information this morning at the Hansen Dam Recreation Center. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario attended the briefing.

  Patricia Nazario: The Lake View Terrace Park has become home base for firefighters, their trucks, and the equipment they’re using to fight the Marek Fire. The flames have charred 4,800 acres. Despite fire crews’ best efforts, the fire destroyed 44 buildings.

  At least one person died, and another 1,800 had to evacuate their homes. Schwarzenegger credited men and women on the front lines with nearly defeating the flames last night, but the governor said the firefighting effort is far from over.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: This is a new ballgame now. This is not anymore where we have one fire season and then it’s over. There’s no fire season. It’s fire season all year around.

  Nazario: As its most menacing point, the Marek fire threatened 3,800 structures. Despite California’s budget problems, Schwarzenegger called public safety priority one. He said the state’s one-and-a-half billion dollar reserve fund should be more than enough to cover all fire-related expenses. If not, he said, California will do whatever it takes to get the money fire agencies need.

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  • October 14, 2008 12:21 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Governor Schwarzenegger pledges to find money to fight fires

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger updated reporters today on the Marek Fire in the northeast San Fernando Valley. He said public safety is the top priority despite the state’s budget problems, and he pledged to find the money to fight fires without jeopardizing other state functions.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “It cost us last year almost half a billion dollars to fight the fires, and there were almost a million acres that burned. So, we’re gonna find the money this time. I don’t think we need to touch anybody else’s money, or any program’s money, because we have a reserve of $1.5 billion.”

  That reserve is three times more than the total cost of combating last year’s fires. Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pointed out that this year’s fire season is just getting started.

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  • October 14, 2008 12:03 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Marek Fire evacuations still in place for occupants of Lopez Canyon, Porter Ranch

  Fire officials have lifted some evacuation orders on the Marek Fire near Sylmar. People who live in Kagel Canyon can go home if they show identification. But evacuations are still in place for occupants of Lopez Canyon. Many other people still can’t go home because of the fire near Porter Ranch. One of them is Chris Irons. He’s a former L.A. Fire captain who lives in Porter Ranch. Irons said he’s not sure when he’ll be able to return.

  Chris Irons: “It will depend upon the winds, and as long as the winds are still gusting like they’re doing, which creates the spark problem. And the embers that do fly, and they fly for quite some distance, as soon as that dies down, then I can see where the evacuation order would be partially lifted.”

  Irons said he doesn’t know whether his house survived the fire. He hopes that someone who didn’t evacuate can check on it.

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  • October 14, 2008 12:01 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• State Insurance Commissioner Poizner warns fire victims about scam artists

  State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is warning fire victims to be on the lookout for scam artists.

  Steve Poizner: “Fact is, these scam artists tend to show up at these natural disasters like clockwork. People tending to be claims adjustors or these fly-by-night contractors. My fraud investigators working with local law enforcement officials, we’ve arrested dozens of these folks over the last couple years. And once again, we will be on the lookout to make sure that victims of these fires are not victims twice.”

  Along with Governor Schwarzenegger and other officials, Poizner spoke at a news conference this morning. He urged Californians who haven’t suffered fire damage to make sure their insurance policies are up to date. Poizner also advised homeowners and renters to create an inventory of their belongings using a digital camera or video recorder.

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  • October 14, 2008 12:00 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Environment

• Evacuations partly lifted in deadly LA fire

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Fire officials have partially lifted evacuation orders at the site of a deadly San Fernando Valley wildfire.

  Residents of Kagel Canyon in the northeastern valley are being allowed back home if they can show identification. However, Lopez Canyon - where 38 mobile homes and one other home burned - is still closed.

  The evacuation covered about 3,000 homes. Los Angeles County fire Inspector Paul Hartwell says he doesn’t know how many remain under mandatory evacuation.

  The Marek fire is blamed for one death. It began Monday and has burned about 4,800 acres. However, gusty Santa Ana winds that were driving the flames have subsided and the blaze is 70 percent contained.

  But the winds are blowing erratically just 10 miles away where a second fire in Porter Ranch is uncontained. That fire doubled in size overnight to nearly 9,900 acres.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

  Latest updates: L.A. Fire Department blog

  Slideshow of Marek Wildland Fire

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  • October 14, 2008 9:46 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Fires in northern LA County burn 10,000 acres, more than 40 homes

  A couple thousand firefighters are battling the wind, which continues to push along two out of control fires in northern Los Angeles County. KPCC’s Steve Julian says the fires have burned a combined 10,000 acres and more than 40 homes.

  Steve Julian: Los Angeles is known for its urban sprawl, and these two fires are burning in foothills and canyons at the edge of that sprawl. Santa Ana winds out of the desert yesterday prompted a couple thousand evacuations in Porter Ranch, west of Interstate 5, and Sylmar, to the east, where the winds died down last night. Los Angeles County Fire Captain Mark Savage:

  Mark Savage: “The huge break that we needed as firefighters happened last night where we did not get the severe winds up to 70 miles an hour that was predicted. And that’s a huge break. I’m not saying we are out of the woods; we are not.”

  Julian: Forecasters predict humidity ranging between 10 and 15 percent. The fires are burning through horse country, and all of the local equestrian centers are now full of rescued horses. Two people died yesterday as a result of the fires.

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  • October 14, 2008 9:39 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Evacuation orders, school and road closures, and public transportation schedule changes resulting from the Sesnon and Marek fires

  Evacuations

  The following neighborhoods and locations are under mandatory evacuation orders:

  • Box Canyon

  • Bell Canyon

  • Woolsey Canyon

  • Lake Manor

  • Dayton Canyon

  • Brown Canyon

  • Twin Lakes

  • Lopez Canyon

  • Kagel Canyon residents can return to their homes with identification after 9 a.m. But livestock will not be allowed back at this time.

  —

  Evacuations are recommended for the following areas:

  • L.A., west of Valley Circle Boulevard and north of Bell Canyon

  Authorities are also recommending horse and large animal evacuations for the following areas.

  • Hidden Hills

  • Agoura Hills

  • Bell Canyon

  Authorities report the only available horse and large animal shelters are located at Ventura County Fairgrounds, 10 West Harbor Boulevard, Ventura CA 91371 and the Peter J Pitchess Honor Farm, 2933 Old Road, Castaic, CA 91384.

  —

  Schools

  The Los Angeles Unified School District has closed the following schools for today:

  • El Oro Way Elementary School in Granada Hills

  • Frost Middle School in Granada Hills

  • Van Gogh Elementary School in Granada Hills

  • Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima

  • Harding Elementary School in Sylmar

  • Hubbard Elementary School in Sylmar

  • Castle Bay Lane Elementary School in Northridge

  The following Charter Schools are closed today:

  • Fenton Avenue Elementary Charter in Lakeview Terrace

  • Fenton Primary Center Charter in Lakeview Terrace

  • Triumph Academy Charter in San Fernando

  • Lakeview Charter Academy in Lakeview Terrace

  • Community Middle Charter in Lakeview Terrace

  • Community High Charter in Lakeview Terrace

  • Pacoima Charter Elementary in Pacoima

  • Discovery Prep Charter School in Pacoima

  The following private school is closed today:

  • Our Lady of Peace School in North Hills

  Information on LAUSD school closures will be updated on the school district’s information line at (213) 241-4500 and on its Web site www.lausd.net.

  —

  Road Closures

  The Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the California Highway Patrol have closed the following streets and freeways until further notice:

  • Corbin Avenue northbound at Porter Ranch Drive

  • Corbin Avenue closed at Santa Rosa Drive

  • Porter Ranch Drive closed at Santa Rosa Drive

  • Porter Ranch Drive at Sesnon

  • Sesnon closed between Porter Ranch Drive and Tampa

  • Rinaldi closed between Reseda and Zelzah

  • The following streets — Hubbard, Maclay, Arroyo, Paxton, Van Nuys Boulevard, Terra Bella, Vaughn, Filmore, Sayre, Polk, Bledsoe, Roxford, Glenoaks at Sombrero, Yarnell and Filbert — are closed to northbound traffic, just north of Foothill Boulevard. Southbound lanes are open as evacuation routes.

  • The following streets — Mason, Porter Ranch, Corbin, Tampa and Wilbur — are closed to northbound traffic at Rinaldi Avenue.

  • All previously closed on and off-ramps along the Foothill (210) Freeway and the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway will be reopened after 9 a.m.

  For updated information on road closures, check the Web site www.updatela.com.

  —

  Public Transportation

  The following changes have been made to public transportation service:

  • Metro Service has been canceled into Porter Ranch until further notice.

  • The Metrolink Ventura line northbound service will end at the Van Nuys station until further notice.

  For updated public transportation information and route changes, call the toll-free number (800) COMMUTE.

  —

  Shelter Locations

  The following sites are currently being used as active and standby shelter sites for those displaced by the fires:

  • Sylmar High School, 13050 Borden Avenue, Sylmar, CA 91342

  • San Fernando High School, 11133 O’Melveny Avenue, San Fernando, CA 91340

  • Shepherd of the Hills, 19700 Rinaldi Street, Porter Ranch, CA 91326

  • Canoga Park High School, 6580 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Canoga Park, CA 91303

  • Palisades Senior high School (STANDBY LOCATION), 15777 Bowdoin Street, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

  • Calabasas High School (STANDBY LOCATION) 22855 Mulholland Highway, Calabasas, CA 91302

  —

  Tools

  • October 14, 2008 9:20 AM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs, Transportation

• Wildfires force frantic evacuations near LA; 2 die

  By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER Associated Press Writer

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two huge wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned into neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, forcing frantic evacuations on smoke- and traffic-choked highways, destroying homes and causing at least two deaths.

  Around sunset, residents were warned to stay on alert during the night and winds more than 60 mph were forecast.

  More than 1,000 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft battled the 4,700-acre Marek Fire at the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley, and the 5,000-acre Sesnon Fire at the west end. Winds blew up to 45 mph with gusts reaching 70 mph at midday. They were forecast to diminish in the evening before roaring over 60 mph after 11 p.m.

  “This fire has the real potential of moving from where it is now … as far as Pacific Coast (Highway),” said Los Angles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

  Residents downwind were warned to remain alert into the night. “It can go from here to the ocean in a matter of two to three hours,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. Authorities confirmed more than three-dozen mobile homes burned at the Marek Fire and TV news helicopter crews counted about 10 homes destroyed by the Sesnon Fire. More than 15 square miles were charred by both flames combined.

  “It is a blowtorch we can’t get in front of,” said Los Angeles County fire Inspector Frank Garrido.

  Fire officials alerted other communities to the west in the Ventura County city of Simi Valley and south to Malibu, 20 miles away, as an ominous plume streamed over neighborhoods and far out to sea.

  Residents were not allowed to drive into one of Porter Ranch’s gated communities because officials wanted to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. Instead they parked their cars, ran to their homes and carried out whatever they could carry in pillow cases, in their arms, sacks and suitcases. Some ran out clutching paintings. Freeman warned people not to stay home after evacuation orders had been given. “You may not be able to even outrun this fire,” he said.

  A man was killed in four-vehicle crash on the nearby 118 Freeway. California Highway Patrol Officer Leland Tang said traffic had stopped because firefighters were going by as fire neared the route. At some point, motorists stopped on the freeway because of the flames and CHP officers turned them around to use an on-ramp as an exit, said CHP Capt. J.D. Goodwin.

  Earlier, a fatality was discovered at the Marek Fire, an area where neighborhoods abut rugged canyonlands below the mountainous Angeles National forest. The man appeared to have been a transient living in a makeshift shelter, officials said.

  About 1,200 people evacuated due to the Marek Fire, which was just 5 percent contained.

  “We could have had an army there and it would not have stopped it,” Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Mario Rueda said. “Wind is king here, it’s dictating everything we are doing.”

  Mobile home park resident Glenn Bell said he and another park resident broke a padlock on an emergency exit gate to escape at daybreak. “If we hadn’t broke open that gate, there would be people dead up there,” he said.

  Olive View-UCLA Medical Center moved five of its most fragile patients to other hospitals. Spokeswoman Carla Nino said the four newborns and the fifth patient were on ventilators and were the most difficult to transport. Some other patients were discharged but the hospital decided it was not necessary to evacuate about 180 others.

  The dry and warm Santa Ana winds typically blow between October and February. As they whistle through Southern California canyons and valleys, they accelerate, drying out vegetation and hastening the spread of any fires that erupt.

  “This is what we feared the most,” Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage said. “The winds that were expected - they have arrived.”

  Flames jumped the Foothill Freeway, which was closed in both directions for about a three-mile stretch in northern Los Angeles between the 118 Freeway and Interstate 5 amid the morning rush hour, officials said.

  “That was quite a jump. That’s an eight-lane fire break,” said fire spokesman Inspector Paul Hartwell.

  The South Coast Air Quality Management District advised Monday that air quality may be unhealthful due to the fires and urged people to avoid outdoor activities.

  The Red Cross said about 500 people registered at an evacuation center at San Fernando High School. Agency spokesman Nick Samaniego said some evacuees had seen news footage of their homes burning.

  “You can imagine, it’s a devastating situation,” he said. “A lot of people on pins and needles waiting to hear news about their communities.”

  Most schools in the area were closed Monday.

  In San Diego County, a wildfire that began on an explosives training range at Camp Pendleton forced the evacuation of a military housing area and 100 nearby homes in Oceanside. Firefighters also contained smaller blazes elsewhere in southern California.

  In northern California, a blaze charred more than half of Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but spared historical structures on the island, including an immigration station that was the first stop for millions of immigrants, mostly from China, in the early 1900s.

  Associated Press writers Greg Risling, Thomas Watkins, Alicia Chang, Christina Hoag and John Rogers contributed to this report.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

  LINK: L.A. Fire Department’s blog

  PHOTOS: Slideshow of Marek Wildland Fire

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 7:00 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Fire chief warns that arsonists are likely to continue setting fires

  As firefighters work to contain two major fires, authorities are warning that arsonists may want to set more. Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman:

  Michael Freeman: “When we get these conditions and as much coverage as you have provided, and we appreciate that – there are situations where people will set fires deliberately. And we’ve had indications… we’ve probably had five different fires in the county, not counting the Sesnon Fire; some of these fires are very suspicious. And so I would ask everyone in the public to please be on the lookout.”

  Freeman said an arsonist may have set several small fires along the 14 Freeway.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 6:56 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Environment

• As governor declares state of emergency, residents are forced to leave homes

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency today for Los Angeles and Ventura counties. In Bonita Canyon, an area of Newport Beach, Brett Jones was watching TV when police knocked on his door ordering everyone to evacuate.

  Brett Jones: “We got everybody out of the house, and I got my dog and my laptop and I went outside and started hosing down the backyard and tried to hose down the roof. And they made us get out; I did my best.”

  Jones is safe with his family now. He hopes to return home soon. Two bigger fires have kept crews busy in the San Fernando Valley. In Porter Ranch, a fire has burned more than 3,000 acres. Yet another fire has consumed over 5300 acres in Lake View Terrace.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 6:54 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Society/Culture

• Coroner believes man found dead Sylmar fire was likely homeless

  Authorities say the Marek Fire killed one man near a freeway overpass in Sylmar this morning. Ed Winter is with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

  Ed Winter: “It’s a male that was found in a make-shift shelter at the area of Paxton and Foothill. Also found what appears to be a dog; probably his pet. The shelter was overcome by both smoke and flame. He appeared to be a transient homeless living in a wooden and cardboard structure.”

  Another person died in a head-on collision along the traffic-snarled 118 freeway. Officials later closed parts of that road near the fire area.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 6:50 PM

• Heal the Bay founder Dorothy Green dead at 79

  The founder of the environmental group Heal the Bay has died after a long illness. KPCC’s Cheryl Devall has more about Dorothy Green.

  Cheryl Devall: For more than 32 of her 79 years, Dorothy Green made waves to help ensure cleaner waters. She took up the cause during the campaign for Proposition 20, the ballot measure that created the California Coastal Commission.

  From there, Green continued her activism through organizations including the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, the L.A. League of Conservation Voters and the California Water Policy Conference. The head of the organization she helped establish 23 years ago, Heal the Bay, called her “The most influential water quality activist in California.”

  That group’s forced sewage treatment plants to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, and it launched an annual report card that grades the cleanliness of the state’s beaches. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hailed Green’s passion, commitment and brilliance, even during her final days in hospice care. Green died of complications from melanoma.

  LINK: Heal the Bay

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 6:46 PM
  • Categories: Environment, History, Politics/Public Affairs

• Local sheep owner tries to find out how herd is faring during fires

  KPCC’s Frank Stoltze is in Sylmar near an emergency responders’ staging area. He caught up with Ron Vanderford, who was handing out doughnuts to firefighters.

  Ron Vanderford: Reason for my being up here is number one, I like to do something for the firefighters and police, but my wife has a flock of about 55 sheep up the canyon and I can’t get up there to water or feed them, so I’m trying to find out if the sheep are okay or not. And the only way I know is to come and ask.
  Frank Stoltze: So you’re hoping to ply some information with the doughnuts?
  Vanderford: Well, ya know, you got to kinda bribe your way past the cops.
  Stoltze: Where exactly do you live?
  Vanderford: We live in Burbank, but my wife teaches sheep dog herding. We have trailers and we can get the sheep out. But only if it’s safe to go in and get them out.

  That’s KPCC’s Frank Stoltze with concerned sheep owner Ron Vanderford.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 5:11 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Society/Culture

• Ambulance operator describes process of evacuating assisted care facility

  The fires have forced hundreds of people to evacuate. Mike Summers is the owner of Ameri-Care Ambulance Service. He spoke with KPCC’s Frank Stoltze outside the San Fernando Post Acute Hospital, an assisted care facility on Foothill Boulevard near the Marek Fire.

  Mike Summers: We have two full strike teams and we have another one arriving for a third full strike team, which is 15 ambulances and three supervisors. We’re on standby for this area to do any evacuations from the fire that are needed.
  Frank Stoltze: What’s the most difficult thing in moving elderly patients like this?
  Summers: Confusion for the patient, is what I’ve found. You need to make sure that you keep the compassion. These patients have, in some cases, been in the same place for years. Some of them hardly see the sun. And now all of a sudden they are being moved to a new facility. It’s very, very confusing for them. It’s very hard on them mentally.
  

  Stoltze: As a precaution, authorities also evacuated about 15 patients with respiratory problems from UCLA-Olive View Medical Center today.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 4:31 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Health

• Number of registered Democrats overtakes Republicans in San Bernardino County

  For the first time in a decade, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in San Bernardino County. Numbers the county registrar released this morning show there are now more than 314,000 Democrats. That’s almost 3,000 more than Republicans. Democratic Party co-chairman Patrick Kahlor says the economy, the appeal of Barack Obama, and an aggressive voter registration campaign helped the county surge into the “blue.”

  Patrick Kahlor: “You know, people, they usually head to the top; I’m tired Bush, tired of the war, tired of gas prices. During the month of June and July we literally added about 10 to 12 thousand voters. During the months of June and July you see certain events that correlate with certain voter registration peaks.”

  “Blue” or not, Republicans are likely to hang on to a number of key congressional and state assembly seats in the county. A little farther south in San Diego County, Democrats are about 18,000 voters shy of a majority. That county’s been a GOP stronghold for almost 25 years. More than 60,000 people have signed on as Democrats this year. That’s two-and-a-half times the number of people who’ve registered for the GOP.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 3:14 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• UCLA-Olive View Medical Center begins transferring patients due to wildfire

  In anticipation of the encroaching wildfire, UCLA-Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar began today to transfer some of its most vulnerable patients. Karla Niño, a hospital administrator, spoke with KPCC.

  Karla Niño: “Right now we are in our disaster preparedness mode. We are not evacuating patients. We are taking precautionary action, basically. We have transferred the medically fragile intubated patients. They are going to our sister hospitals at LAC, USC, and Harbor UCLA Medical Center.”

  Niño said she expects the fire to reach the facility around 3 this afternoon. The hospital stopped admitting new patients this morning.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 2:26 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Health

• Not everyone wants to evacuate from Marek fire

  Authorities evacuated homes in Sylmar this morning after the Marek fire jumped a containment line. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario spoke with Robert Kelly, who decided to ignore the evacuation order and stay.

  Robert Kelly: “I have three garden hoses already laid out and ladders already up on the roof.”
  Patricia Nazario: “But when you see these supercranes overhead and these firehawks, I mean these helicopters, are capable of dropping a thousand gallons or 2,000 gallons of water at a time, how menacing is that for you as you stand here in front of your house?”
  Kelly: “It don’t bother me in the slightest. They gotta do what they gotta do.”

  Kelly has lived in the neighborhood for 36 years. He said he’s seen fire creep over the mountain at least four other times, and every one of those times, he’s stayed put.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 12:56 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Santa Ana winds aggravate wildfire in San Fernando Valley

  Strong Santa Ana winds in Southern California whipped up a wildfire in the San Fernando Valley. KPCC’s Julie Small reports the state’s firefighting agencies sent additional staff and equipment to help fight the fire.

  Julie Small: The National Weather Service forecast Santa Ana conditions in Southern California late last week. So by the weekend, state agencies that fight fires had already bolstered equipment and staff in the region. The U.S. Forest Service sent nine additional air tankers. The California National Guard offered extra hand crews and aircraft.

  And the Office of Emergency Service sent dozens of trailers to a regional operations center in Los Alamitos, packed with thousands of cots, blankets, pillows, and toiletries, for people forced to flee their homes. Evacuation centers have been set up at San Fernando and Sylmar High Schools.

  Link: L.A. Fire Department blog

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 12:15 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• Families simplify to make ends meet during economic downturn

  Some families are finding the need to simplify their lives to make ends meet in this economy. One San Fernando Valley couple discovered that one and a half incomes is better than two. Maria Llamas says she and her husband recently decided that she would save money by quitting her full-time job as a Los Angeles County clerk. She’s now working part time and doing more around the house.

  Maria Lllamas: “Having a part-time job helps me, like, having more time with the kids. not paying babysitter, being able to do what I have to do at home, not paying somebody to come clean your house, and things like that.”

  Llamas says last month she and her husband traded in their gas-guzzling SUV for a four-cylinder sedan to increase their spending power at the grocery store.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 11:30 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Salvation Army campaigns for donations as need for assistance increases

  Officials with the Salvation Army of Southern California say they still hope to meet their fundraising goal by the end of the year. In June, the charity appealed to the public for donations after 36 food pantries reported dwindling supplies and a dramatic increase in need. Spokesman Robert Brennan says the Operation Feed Our Families campaign has raised more than $350,000 so far. At the same time, more people are asking for help.

  Robert Brennan: “In Simi Valley we’ve gone from servicing 200 families at our food pantries there to 600 families. We’re at over 150 new families in the San Fernando Valley region, over 260 in Long Beach. So it’s quite widespread, and with all the economic news that’s coming down the line, this is a problem that’s going to be with us for a while.”

  Brennan says the Salvation Army hopes to raise a million dollars by the end of the year.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 11:27 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Dodgers/Phillies series continues today with game 4

  Baseball’s league championship series continues today with two games, including one in Los Angeles. KPCC’s Steve Julian has this update.

  Steve Julian: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez tied a league championship series record yesterday by driving in a run for the seventh consecutive game, including four games with the Boston Red Sox last year. L.A. went on to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7 to 2, capped off by a 5-run first inning.

  The early onslaught knocked out Phillies’ pitcher Jamie Moyer in the second inning. Philadelphia now leads the best of seven series 2 games to 1; game 4 is tonight in Los Angeles. L.A. sends Derek Lowe to the mound after 3 days rest; the Phillies counter with Joe Blanton. The Boston Red Sox, meanwhile, host the Tampa Bay Rays tonight in game 3 of the American League Championship Series, which is tied at one game apiece.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 10:42 AM
  • Categories: Sports/Recreation

• LA Dodgers win National League Championship Series game Sunday

  The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday in Los Angeles. It was L.A.’s first victory in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: The Phillies sent Jamie Moyer to the mound as the second oldest pitcher to ever start a post-season baseball game. Moyer, who turns 46 next month, gave up 5 runs in the first inning, capped off by rookie Blake DeWitt’s bases-loaded triple. Before the second inning was over, Moyer was gone.

  The umpires had to warn both teams against throwing at batters after Dodgers catcher Russell Martin was hit by a pitch in the first, and Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda later sailed a ball over Shane Victorino’s head. Philadelphia now leads the series two games to one; game four is tonight in L.A. The Boston Red Sox, meanwhile, resume their American League series against the Tampa Bay Rays in Boston. That series is tied at one game apiece.

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 10:33 AM
  • Categories: Sports/Recreation

• Wildfire north of Los Angeles growing due to Santa Ana winds; at least one killed

  A wildfire north of Los Angeles has burned more than 2,000 acres and has crept close to a neighborhood in suburban Sylmar. KPCC’s Steve Julian says today’s worry is Santa Ana winds.

  Steve Julian: These winds blow out of the desert. They’re a staple of every fall in southern California. With the winds come low humidity and very dry conditions, so fire crews this morning couldn’t keep flames from jumping a perimeter line and starting a secondary fire. And because the winds are so intense, water-dropping helicopters were kept on the ground.

  Hundreds of canyon residents have been evacuated and there’s no indication yet when they’ll be allowed back in. A “fire weather watch” is in effect for all of southern California, except the deserts. There’s also a fire burning on San Francisco’s Angel Island; campers were told to leave, and several historic buildings are threatened.

  UPDATE 12:04 p.m.

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says one person has been killed in one of the two wildfires burning on the edges of the city.

  The mayor says it may be some time before the victim can be identified.

  Authorities have not released any of the circumstances of the death, which occurred Monday in a 3,700-acre blaze in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

  LINK: L.A. Fire Department Blog

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 10:29 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Marek Wildland Fire burns 3,700 acres; area evacuated; at least one dead

  A wildfire burning near Sylmar and San Fernando, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, has scorched 3,700 acres and forced a couple thousand people to evacuate. Many mobile homes and industrial buildings have burned. KPCC’s Steve Julian has more.

  Steve Julian: The fire began yesterday in Little Tujunga Canyon and laid down pretty well overnight. Then the Santa Ana winds kicked up early this morning. An L.A. County Fire official said wind gusts of 65 miles per hour are acting like a blowtorch.

  County Fire has sent in water-dropping helicopters, despite the wind, in an aggressive effort to douse spot fires. Wind advisories and a Red Flag warning are in effect today. Santa Ana winds are common every fall in southern California. They blow in from the desert – warm, strong winds that remind local residents they’re in the middle of a drought.

  (Story updated 12:15 p.m. 10/13/08)

  UPDATE 12:15 p.m.

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says one person has been killed in one of the two wildfires burning on the edges of the city.

  The mayor says it may be some time before the victim can be identified.

  Authorities have not released any of the circumstances of the death, which occurred Monday in a 3,700-acre blaze in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

  LINK: L.A. Fire Department Blog

  PHOTOS: Slideshow of Marek Wildland Fire

  Tools

  • October 13, 2008 9:46 AM
  • Categories: Environment

• Local plumber sees a loss in business as economy slows

  As more families cope with the slowing economy by cutting back on spending, some independent contractors are being forced to think about alternative ways to earn a living.

  Avetis Alepin is a San Fernando Valley-based plumber. He says his clientele has been shrinking over the last year.

  Avetis Alepin: “People, they have broken stuff, faucets, ya’ know, Jacuzzis, and they don’t have the money to pay for it. To get it fixed. That means I’m going to be out of a job. No business.”

  Alepin says he’s considering taking a job with a big company, and former competitor, to weather the hard times.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 7:11 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Society/Culture

• Southern California couple reconsiders life choices in face of economics

  Stretching the same paycheck to make ends meet has some families reconsidering what they drive.

  Maria Llamas has four young children. Just last month, she says, she and her husband traded in their eight-cylinder SUV for a four-cylinder sedan.

  Maria Llamas: “Because it would save me money on gas. It would save me money while doing other stuff. I could buy more groceries than from before.”

  Llamas says as part of her family’s money-saving plans, she actually quit her full time job. After adding up the numbers, she found that she could save on child-care costs by working part time.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 6:47 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Society/Culture

• Orange County sheriff Hutchens revokes concealed weapons permits

  Dozens of people with permits to carry concealed weapons in Orange County may soon have to go weapon-free. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the sheriff has started sending out letters that revoke those permits.

  Susan Valot: Sheriff Sandra Hutchens decided to review the county’s 1,024 concealed weapons permits after allegations that previous Sheriff Mike Carona may have handed them out as political favors. Carona will soon go on trial on federal corruption charges.

  Hutchens says Carona’s administration stretched “good cause” for carrying a concealed weapon to such a degree that she’s not comfortable with the permits that are out there. A decade ago, 38 people had concealed weapons permits in Orange County. Two years ago, that number had grown to 1400.

  Sheriff’s Department officials say they’ve sent revocation letters to 146 permit holders. Earlier this week, some county supervisors expressed concern that there’s no appeal process for revoked permits. They’ve asked the sheriff to report back to them with whether such an appeals process is feasible.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 6:38 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Low-income residents feel trickle-down effect of economic woes

  These tough economic times are making it even tougher for folks who were already down on their luck.

  Wendy Avalos and her husband Michael live in a van. They wash cars for tips to get by, but say car owners are giving less.

  Wendy Avalos: “They’re really tight on what they give you, because of the economy. So, they don’t have enough money to spend, so they’ll basically say, ‘No, I’ll wash it myself.’ Or, ‘No it’s okay,’ or… you know?”

  Avalos says she has an associate’s degree in criminal justice but hasn’t been able to find a job for a year.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 6:35 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Society/Culture

• Long Beach water conservation rules have reduced demand

  Conservation rules and higher water rates are paying off in Long Beach. Water use in the city has dropped to a 10-year low. More from KPCC’s Debra Baer.

  Debra Baer: Last September, Long Beach declared an imminent water shortage and announced voluntary conservation measures. A new report by the Long Beach Water Department shows those efforts worked.

  So far this fiscal year, households in Long Beach have dropped their water use by nearly 6400 acre-feet below last year’s rate. Overall, demand has dropped about nine percent below the 10-year average. An acre-foot is the amount a family of four uses in a year.

  The city limits lawn watering to certain days of the week, and it prohibits residents from washing down their driveways with garden hoses. Restaurants aren’t allowed to serve water unless a customer asks for it.

  The Long Beach Water Department also raised its rates. That’s one surefire way to get folks to turn off the faucet.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 6:31 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• LA County breaks record for registered voters; fewer Republicans registering

  L.A. County just broke its own record for the largest number of registered voters. And the deadline for registration is still 10 days away. Who are these new voters? KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde has some clues.

  Kitty Felde: L.A. County Registrar Recorder Dean Logan says it’s no surprise that L.A. County is largely Democratic.

  Dean Logan: County wide, the voter profile in L.A. County is that about 51 percent of the voters are registered as Democrats, about 25 percent as Republican, and then 20 percent are registered as decline to state.

  Felde: Logan says the flood of new voters generally follows that profile, with some shifts. Nearly 57 percent are registering as Democrats, 15 percent as Republicans, and nearly 28 percent as decline to state. L.A. County is the largest election jurisdiction in the U.S. More voters are registered here than in 30 other states.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 6:28 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Long Beach leaders looks for ways to jump-start area business

  As the economy shifts down a gear or two, business leaders are trying to come up with ways to entice customers to keep on shopping. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Second Street, in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore neighborhood is a pedestrian friendly 14 block strip of boutiques, restaurants, and beauty salons. Nancy Buchanan, with the Belmont Shore Business Association, says some of the shops are hurting.

  Nancy Buchanan: You can tell if you go up and down Second Street that things are changing, there are more banners up, sales, all different types of sales. You can also notice that there are a few more stores that are closed on Monday.

  Guzman-Lopez: The association is brainstorming ideas to attract business. One is to send out coupon packs to new residents. Eating out in Long Beach has increased in recent years. Sales tax revenue from eating and drinking establishments constituted the second largest source of that kind of income for the city.

  Tools

  • October 10, 2008 5:58 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• LA County breaks record for registered voters

  It’s official. Los Angeles County now has more registered voters than any other county in the country. Today, L.A. County Registrar Recorder Dean Logun announced that with 10 days still to go before the deadline, the county’s already broken its own record for voter registration.

  Dean Logun: “I think this is a sign that we’ve topped the all time record this week, so I think we’re going to go even higher, and I think all signs point to a potential historic high turnout on November 4th.”

  More than 4,149,000 people are registered to vote in L.A. County. If that doesn’t include you, it’s not too late. The deadline to register is October 20th.

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  • October 10, 2008 2:47 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Proposition 2 opponents explain their position

  Voters in California will decide next month whether to set new standards for the treatment of farm animals. Prop 2 prohibits confining animals in ways that don’t allow them to turn around, lie down, stand up, and extend their limbs. No on Prop 2 spokeswoman Julie Buckner says the measure will put family farmers in California out of work and compromise food safety.

  Julie Buckner: “I gotta tell you, I’m not a farmer and I’m not a veterinarian. You know, I’m a mom. I’m a consumer and I gotta tell you, my greatest concern about Proposition 2 is the cost of eggs going up and our food safety being compromised.”

  Buckner appeared on KPCC’s “Airtalk.” She argued that Prop 2 would force California to import eggs from other states and Mexico where conditions might be less hygienic. Backers of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act say that current practices are inhumane.

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  • October 10, 2008 2:44 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Annual Bow-Wows and Meows Pet Fair to be held Sunday morning

  If you’re looking for something to do Sunday morning that the whole family can enjoy, the Bow-Wows and Meows Pet Fair starts at 11 o’clock. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario says you might get a good laugh from the popular dog talent show.

  Patricia Nazario: The event is open to all dogs, and they just have to show up for some categories, like Biggest/Smallest, Longest Tail/Largest Ears, and Most Spots. But Fido will actually have to work to compete in some other categories: “Best Vocalist,” the anything-goes “Silly Pet Tricks.”

  The 8th Annual Bow-Wows and Meows Pet Fair will have dozens of vendors’ tents with tables set up selling everything from pet food to pet services, low-cost vaccines, and spay/neuter referrals. Organizers also set aside a grassy area with jumpers for the kids.

  The event at Newhall’s William S. Hark Park is open from 11 to 4 o’clock, and admission is free. Los Angeles County Animal Shelter officials also hope people will also open up their hearts and adopt a pet. Shelter officials placed more than 600 homeless animals at the last seven pet fairs.

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  • October 10, 2008 2:39 PM
  • Categories: Society/Culture

• New maritime pollution standards might reduce emissions

  Oceangoing ships may soon cut their air pollution after the International Maritime Organization voted to set strict new standards. KPCC’s Molly Peterson says that means the federal government will now decide where the rules apply.

  Molly Peterson: At sea, big ships use “bunker fuel.” High in sulfur, it’s cheap energy, and burns dirty – and that fuel releases lots of particulate matter into the air, which can cause heart and respiratory problems.

  The international vote will limit bunker fuel use at mid-sea. And near shore, new pollution limits will cut emissions by 63 percent in two years, and 95 percent in seven years. To make that happen, each country will decide where the rules apply in their national waters.

  Shipping interests will push for smaller boundaries, environmental groups will push for bigger ones. California and its ports have been pushing for cleaner-burning fuel for oceangoing vessels. In San Pedro and Long Beach, big ships can plug in dockside rather than burn bunker fuel to keep the lights on. But shippers, the federal government, and some other states have long argued for uniform rules around the world.

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  • October 10, 2008 2:36 PM
  • Categories: Environment

• San Fernando Valley residents gear up for new overlay area code

  If you live in the San Fernando Valley, get your fingers ready to do a little extra dialing. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the Valley’s gearing up for its first overlay area code.

  Susan Valot: Usually, 747s are the planes you see jetting out of Burbank Airport and over the Valley.

  Now, 747 is landing in the San Fernando Valley as its newest area code. It’ll be laid over the current 818 area.

  Phone company officials suggest people who live in the Valley get used to the new 11-digit dialing this weekend. Dial one, plus the area code, plus the phone number for all calls, even in the same area code.

  This is the practice period. They’ll start handing out the new 747 numbers in May. Then, if you don’t dial 11 digits in the Valley, your call won’t go through.

  San Fernando Valley is the latest Southern California region to get an overlay area code. Two years ago, the 310 region of the South Bay and L.A.’s Westside became the first in the state to get an overlay area code when it added the 424. Orange County added an overlay this year.

  Phone companies say they need the new area codes because they’re running out of phone numbers.

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  • October 10, 2008 1:36 PM

• Proponents, opponents debate California Proposition 2 regarding treatment of farm animals

  Proposition 2 on the November ballot would prohibit ranchers from keeping egg-producing hens, pigs, and veal calves in cages that are too confining. The measure requires enough room for animals to stand up, turn around, and fully extend their legs.

  Opponents of Prop 2 claim that the method of using so-called “battery cages” is the most efficient way to produce eggs, and say the new rules would decimate California’s egg industry.

  Humane Society president and CEO Wayne Pacelle told KPCC’s Larry Mantle he thinks that argument is ridiculous.

  Wayne Pacelle: “The fact is almost all of these producers who have the factory farm type… battery cages that don’t allow the animals to even fully extend their wings, they also do cage-free. And the market for cage-free is expected to increase by up to 50 percent in the next five to 10 years.”

  If approved, California’s Prop 2 would set the strictest standards in the nation with regard to the humane treatment of farm animals.

  The new rules would take effect in 2015. Violators would be fined $1000.

  LINK: Yes on Prop 2

  LINK: No on Prop 2

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  • October 10, 2008 1:27 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Irvine doctors will appeal to city council to prevent hospital closure

  Doctors from Irvine Regional Hospital this week plan to go to the Irvine City Council to try to prevent the hospital from closing. KPCC’s Susan Valot says it comes after Tenet Healthcare announced last week it’ll close the hospital.

  Susan Valot: Irvine Regional Hospital was decades in the making before it finally opened in 1990. It now has 176 private rooms, plus an emergency room. But Tenet Healthcare says it’ll close Irvine Regional in January.

  Earlier this year, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach said it would take over the lease. But Hoag said it’ll first spend a year or two renovating the Irvine facility. In the meantime, Tenet says it’ll reassign doctors and staff to its other hospitals.

  But Irvine Regional doctor Robert Freed, who’s worked there since it opened, says he and other doctors will go to the Irvine City Council Tuesday to see what they can do to keep the hospital open.

  Freed says closing it would have a “life-threatening” affect on local health care. He hopes an “outpouring of community support” might help keep the Irvine facility open.

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  • October 10, 2008 1:21 PM
  • Categories: Health

• Political science professors convene to discuss study on race as a factor in the election

  The role of race in the presidential election is the topic of a meeting going on right now at UCLA. KPCC’s Brian Watt has been listening in.

  Brian Watt: Political scientists from UCLA and Stanford are collaborating on a project that studies how voters make their decisions. They’ve interviewed 20,000 voters nationwide several times since last December.

  Stanford professor Simon Jackman says their most recent data show that for about 11 percent of people who don’t support Barack Obama, race is a factor.

  Simon Jackman: …Not the factor, but a factor. But when you ask them flat out, just flat out naively walk up to them and ask them, you get zero or one percent at most, right?

  Watt: But Jackman took issue with a recent poll from his colleagues at Stanford that said Obama’s race could cost him six percentage points on election day. Jackman puts the number closer to two or three percent. He believes the economic crisis will trump race in the minds of most voters.

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  • October 10, 2008 1:19 PM

• Man released from LA city gang injunction for the first time ever

  Los Angeles city officials say they’ve removed a man’s name from a gang injunction for the first time ever. Civil rights groups have long complained the injunctions sweep up young men with little or no gang affiliation. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

  Frank Stoltze: Injunctions cover 37 gangs and more than 11,000 gang members in Los Angeles. The court orders typically prohibit people from associating with each other in specific areas.

  Councilman Tony Cardenas: Until today, we could not honestly tell the people of this city, of this community, that there was an avenue to be removed from a gang injunction list. But the first person has been removed from a gang injunction list.

  Stoltze: City Councilman Tony Cardenas says gang members who clean up their lives can now petition the City Attorney. Kim McGill of the Youth Justice Coalition welcomes the move, but worries non-gang members still won’t be able to get off of the injunctions.

  Kim McGill: Most people, if you’re associating at all with other gang members or family members who are in gangs or neighbors who are in gangs, it’s going to be very hard for people to get off.

  Stoltze: People named in gang injunctions face increased scrutiny by police. They also face jail time for violating the court orders and increased penalties for other violations of the law.

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  • October 9, 2008 5:30 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• More than 500,000 new California voters registered so far

  The deadline to register to vote in the November election is October 20th. Statewide, more than a half-a-million new voters have registered so far. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde has this look at the rookie voters getting ready for their first election.

  Kitty Felde: If you take a snapshot of voters who show up on Election Day, it wouldn’t look like America as a whole. Most are wealthier and better educated. Mike Slater with the nonprofit group Project Vote says those who cast ballots are usually older, too.

  Mike Slater: People over 30 make up 79 percent of the voting eligible population, but are 89 percent of the electorate; fully half of eligible people under the age 30 do not participate, or didn’t in 2006.

  Felde: In California’s Presidential primary last February, more than 850,000 voters under 30 cast ballots. That’s far more than in the last two presidential primaries. Mike Slater says since minorities are overrepresented in that under-30 demographic, more young voters also means more black and Latino voters.

  Slater: If people of color were voting at the same rates as whites, there’d be an additional 7-and-a-half million voters in 2006.

  Felde: The question is how many of those newly-registered voters will turn out to cast ballots in November.

  Link: Project Vote

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  • October 9, 2008 4:37 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• 1 in 6 homeowners owes more on mortgage than house is worth

  The Wall Street Journal says one out of six American homeowners owes more on their mortgage than the house is worth. Amy Botinski with the real estate research web site Zillow.com says that only matters if you have to sell your house right now.

  Amy Botinski: “If there’s no way you have to sell in the next five years, if you have what you think is a stable job, or you have savings that if someone lost a job you can keep up with your mortgage. It’s a little like looking at your 401K now, but you’re not retiring for 15 or 20 years. It’s scary, it’s a sock to the gut, but your probably can ride it out, and you’re going to be OK in this.”

  Botinski told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that renters who’d like to get into the housing market can get a boost from the government.

  Botinski: “There’s incentives for first-time buyers with 3 percent down. You can get an FHA backed home loan, and that’s an incentive for first-time home buyers to get out there. And that’s certainly going to make it easier for people to get these loans, so first-time buyers can look into that.”

  For those facing foreclosure, there’s also a Home for Home Owners program through the federal government. It asks banks to agree to refinance at 90 percent of the home’s current value.

  Link: Zillow Real Estate

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  • October 9, 2008 4:04 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Proponent explains support for Prop 5, ballot initiative on drug rehabilitation

  One of the measures on the November ballot is Proposition 5. It would provide $460 million a year in treatment programs for those convicted of drug offenses. Dave Fratello of the “Yes on 5” campaign told KPCC’s “Airtalk” that the ballot measure answers a need.

  Dave Fratello: “There’s no treatment available for at-risk youth, for kids who start down that path of addiction, basically, unless they’re in the criminal justice system, and that’s a tragedy; it’s short-sighted. So we start with Prop 5 by creating a system of care for treatment for young people.”

  The measure also shortens parole time for some drug offenses, but increases it for serious and violent felonies. Prop 5’s opponents say too many drug offenders who start treatment programs won’t finish them. They say that’s what happened with Prop 36, which called for drug treatment for first-time drug offenders.

  Link: Yes on Proposition 5: The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act
  Link: No on Proposition 5

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  • October 9, 2008 2:43 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• LA city officials announce first person removed from gang injunction

  Los Angeles city officials did something today they’ve never done before: removed a person from a gang injunction. Officials refused to name the individual, but Police Commission President Anthony Pacheco said it represents an important step forward.

  Anthony Pacheco: “This removal process really is an acknowledgement by city leaders that individuals can make bad judgments and engage in wrongful conduct, but with hard work, they can right themselves, and they can find redemption, and this process will permit that to happen so that they can exit the burdens of a gang injunction.”

  Civil rights activists have long complained that injunctions sweep up innocent young men. While activists praised the new process, they said police continue to target innocent black and Latino youths who happen to live in gang areas and end up associating with gang members.

  Link: LAPD Police Commission

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  • October 9, 2008 2:22 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• National Weather Service forecasts 50 miles per hour winds in high desert

  Look out for gusty desert this afternoon. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde has the forecast.

  Kitty Felde: When you get to October, the Santa Ana winds put everyone in Southern California on edge, and today is no different. Strong winds will blow across the Antelope Valley starting this afternoon. The worry isn’t fire. It’s dust.

  The National Weather Service forecasts winds gusting to 50 miles an hour in the high desert. They’ll churn up plenty of sand and dirt that will blow near Lancaster and Palmdale. Visibility on the highways could fall below a mile.

  Remember when those dust storms happened last October? Nearly 20 cars and trucks rammed together in a series of crashes on Highway 14 just west of Edwards Air Force Base, and four people were killed. If you’re headed to the high desert from now until Friday morning, keep your speed down, and your head up.

  Link: KPCC Weather

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  • October 9, 2008 1:32 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Transportation

• State assemblyman says Republicans won't raise taxes to make up for budget shortfall

  California revenues are taking a hit with the ongoing housing problems and the turbulent stock market. New projections show that California could take in $3 billion less than anticipated during this fiscal year. Even so, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine told KPCC’s “AirTalk” that Republicans will not consider raising taxes to make up the revenue.

  Assemblyman Chuck DeVore: “Every economist from the beginning of time acknowledges that when you raise taxes on something, you slow down that activity. And now that we have the third highest unemployment rate in the country, why would we want to increase taxes on hard working Californians precisely at the time that the economy is slowing down? That’s the worst thing that we could do.”

  A worst case scenario by the state Department of Finance shows California coming in 4 and a half billion dollars short during the fiscal year. That takes into account the money that California may have to put toward prison health care. A judge yesterday ordered California officials to come up with a plan to pay a quarter billion dollars to improve prison medical care.

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  • October 9, 2008 12:59 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Two Orange County toll roads will gain additional lanes

  A couple of Orange County toll roads will be getting wider. KPCC’s Susan Valot says the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which oversees the county’s toll roads, is expanding parts of the 73 and 241 toll roads.

  [Sound of wind and traffic]

  Susan Valot: A hot wind whips through the canyon at the Windy Ridge Toll Road Plaza on the 241, north of Irvine. Cars and trucks fly by on the ribbon of road that links the 91 Freeway and Rancho Santa Margarita.

  Starting this month, crews will begin adding a third Fast Track lane on each side of the 241, between the 91 and Windy Ridge. That’s about a three-mile stretch.

  Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante, who chairs the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency, says the widening is part of a larger plan to keep traffic moving on Orange County’s toll roads.

  Mayor Jerry Amante: They’re a model of how we’re going to build infrastructure these days. We know the federal government is deeply in debt. Our state government has its own financial woes that are certainly renowned these days. And it’s very difficult for them to find the money necessary to build infrastructure. But if you can go out and build them as toll roads and have them done without taxpayer dollars, done by the user fees of those who actually use the roads, they’re subsidizing the freeway system that ultimately becomes theirs and all their neighbors.

  Valot: Amante says the nearly $10 million for the Windy Ridge widening is built into the agency’s budget. And he says it won’t change toll fees for the 59,000 drivers who pass through Windy Ridge each day.

  Another $14 million will go toward adding a fourth northbound lane on the 73 Toll Road in South Orange County.

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  • October 8, 2008 6:29 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Transportation

• New documentary by LA filmmaker explores Latino vote

  A new documentary by a Los Angeles filmmaker questions the impact of Latino voters in U.S. politics. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: In his one hour documentary, “Latinos ‘08” filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez dismantles the idea that there’s a Latino voting bloc in American politics.

  Phillip Rodriguez: There’s a lot of misinformation about Latinos that floats out there. A lot of people have a lot to say about these people, and many of them do it purely out of self-interest. And because these people are such, kind of an enigma, and because perhaps they don’t constitute a people at all, I feel like there’s a lot of spin, and exaggeration, and a lot of hyperbole, when people talk about this so-called group.

  Guzman-Lopez: In other words, recent Mexican and Central American immigrants, Spanish-speaking Caribbeans and assimilated Americans with Latino roots often have little in common, other than Spanish surnames. John F. Kennedy was the first to directly appeal to Latinos for their votes. In his documentary, Rodriguez dissects the efforts of John McCain and Barack Obama to woo the Latino vote in ‘08.

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  • October 8, 2008 4:34 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Senator Dianne Feinstein testifies at Metrolink train crash hearing

  The state Senate Transportation and Housing Committee convened a hearing on the Metrolink train crash today in Van Nuys. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said, despite the nation’s shaky finances, lawmakers must invest more money in commuter train safety.

  Senator Dianne Feinstein: “The only way it can live up to its potential is if it’s safe; if the cars are safe, if the track is safe, if the people are adequate and well-trained, and that the systems involved are safe.”

  The Metrolink’s crash last month killed 25 passengers and hurt dozens more. Feinstein helped push the Rail Safety Improvement Act through Congress and onto President Bush’s desk, where it awaits his signature. It requires rail companies to install an automatic track breaking system by 2015.

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  • October 8, 2008 4:11 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Transportation

• Washington Post economy correspondent discusses financial crisis

  As part of KPCC’s continuing coverage of the financial crisis, Patt Morrison spoke with the Washington Post’s national economy correspondent today. Like most business journalists, he’s amazed at what’s happening. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: Neal Irwin’s been writing about the economy for years, none like the last.

  Neal Irwin: Seems like every week for the last year, they’ve come up with some new tool, some new intervention in the financial markets, each at the time more shocking than the last, and each one revolutionary and representing a profound escalation in the crisis.

  Stoltze: Irwin ticked off what he’s witnessed for KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

  Irwin: Back in March, the Federal Reserve was, can you believe it, they’re actually going to lend money to investment banks. Well, now, the U.S. government owns the world’s biggest insurance company, more or less. And that happened a month ago, and now they’re essentially lending money to ordinary business through buying this commercial paper.

  Stoltze: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the financial turmoil won’t be over any time soon, and wouldn’t reveal what other tools he might employ. Irwin says nothing would surprise him.

  Irwin: I don’t know what’s next, but it has been a steady escalation that is really changing the nature of global capitalism, possibly forever.

  Stoltze: Neal Irwin is national economy correspondent for The Washington Post.

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  • October 8, 2008 4:08 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• San Bernardino County approves new fire ordinances in mountain area

  San Bernardino County supervisors have approved a pair of strict new fire ordinances for mountain residents. KPCC’s Steven Cuevas has details.

  Steven Cuevas: The first ordinance takes effect in 30 days, in time for the tail end of the fire season. It requires homeowners in Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, and other mountain towns to thin certain types of live trees and shrubs within 100 feet of houses and other buildings. Current rules only require cutting back dead and dry vegetation.

  The other ordinance requires homeowners to replace wood shingle roofs with fire-resistant roofs. The new rule covers about 4,000 mountain area homes. Those homeowners have to get the work done by July 2014. A previous ordinance barred wood shingles on new homes or as replacement roofs. Now wood shingles are out, period.

  Critics say more emphasis should be put on forest thinning efforts and creating defensible spaces around mountain homes. They say dozens of homes that burned in last year’s Slide and Grass fires in the San Bernardino Mountains had roofs made of something other than wood shingles.

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  • October 8, 2008 3:43 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Environment

• Undecided voters give their thoughts on second presidential debate

  If you’re a true-blue Democrat or a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, last night’s second presidential debate probably didn’t change your mind. But voters still on the fence were looking for something to nudge them one way or the other.

  KPCC’s Larry Mantle asked some of those undecideds to call “AirTalk” this morning and score the candidates’ answers to questions about the faltering economy and America’s foreign policy challenges. Here’s a sampling of their thoughts.

  Larry Mantle: Connor in Hollywood, you’re on “AirTalk.”
  Connor: I didn’t hear anything, anything really new that grabbed me either way. Honestly, I just thought it was a lot of posturing.
  Mantle: Let’s talk with Sushma in Pasadena. You’re on “AirTalk.”
  Sushma: I was an undecided voter and I’m still an undecided, but I’m definitely leaning towards Obama. Obama, I think, will be a big change for the better for America, and that will help us.
  Mantle: Darrell in Pomona. You’re on “AirTalk.”
  Darrell: Y’know, for McCain to say that the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were the match that started this problem, I really think he’s out of touch with what’s really going on.
  Mantle: So did that… after seeing last night’s debate, are you settled on Barack Obama?
  Darrell: No, I settled on Obama. I feel that McCain’s just out of touch.

  Just a few of the undecided voters who called “AirTalk” to give their spin on the second presidential debate. Debate number 3 is a week from tonight, and KPCC will again carry live coverage from NPR.

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  • October 8, 2008 3:40 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• American Planning Association names Echo Park one of '10 Great Neighborhoods' 2008

  One of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods and one of its best beaches have both won national acclaim. Details from KPCC’s Hettie Lynne Hurtes:

  Hettie Lynne Hurtes: Each year, the American Planning Association picks 30 places in the U.S. that are the kind of places where people want to be. The association says they represent a sense of “place,” and a vision for tomorrow. Echo Park, just west of downtown Los Angeles, was picked to be one of the “10 Great Neighborhoods” in 2008.

  The association cited Echo Park’s annual Lotus Festival, its famous lake, its myriad of craftsman-style homes, and its hilly terrain with more than two-dozen public stairways. Santa Monica got kudos as one of the country’s “10 Great Public Spaces.” The American Planning Association hailed its colorful beach culture, but also noted that Santa Monica Beach offers bike paths, wheelchair access, and native landscaping.

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  • October 8, 2008 3:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Federal judge orders California to pay for prison health care improvements

  A federal judge today ordered California officials to come up with a plan to pay $250 million for improvements to prison medical care. This order is an interim step. KPCC’s Julie Small reports the next step could be swift and expensive.

  Julie Small: Judge Thelton Henderson ordered state officials to be in his San Francisco courtroom in two weeks. He wants to see a plan that will “explicitly explain how and when” California will pay $250 million to fix prison medical care. The quarter-of-a-billion is just a down payment. Federal receiver Clark Kelso’s plan to construct new prison hospitals and renovate existing ones will eventually cost California $8 billion.

  Judge Henderson signed off on that plan, but four times, state lawmakers defeated a bill to pay for it. That’s why Kelso asked the judge to order state officials to pay up, and to hold the governor and the state controller in contempt if they don’t.

  Judge Henderson instead chose “an intermediate step.” He wants to see a plan before he starts issuing contempt citations. Along those lines, he’s given federal receiver Kelso the OK to depose the governors’ finance director on how the state will pay $8 billion for prison hospitals.

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  • October 8, 2008 3:15 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• CalPERS spokesperson says the California pension fund's members will see no interruption in benefits

  The turbulence in the stock market has left many wondering about their retirement plans. Pat Macht is a spokeswoman for the California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension fund. Macht told KPCC’s AirTalk that CalPERS members will see no interruption in their benefits.

  Pat Macht: “We have what is known as a ‘pre-funded’ retirement plan, unlike Social Security, where it’s kind of a ‘pay as you go system.’ The federal government puts it on their line item budget and they pay it out. We actually have the money in the bank. If everybody were to retire today, we’d be able to meet those benefit payments.”

  Macht said the fund has seen double-digit growth during the last four years. She says CalPERS has been putting some of those gains into a “rainy day fund” to prepare for downturns like this one. The administrators for L.A. County’s employee retirement fund announced yesterday that more than $80 million of its investments could be at risk because of the downturn.

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  • October 8, 2008 2:48 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• USC business and economics students and faculty gather to watch presidential town hall debate

  Call it a debate watching party with a twist. Several hundred students and faculty from USC’s business and economics departments met to watch the second presidential candidates’ debate, and talk about the economy. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde was there and has the story.

  Kitty Felde: It was a quiet crowd. There was no applause until the end. No one wore political buttons. And unlike other debate watching parties, it was 15 minutes before anyone talked back to the TV screen.

  That was when Barack Obama said he had to correct something said by John McCain. Public policy grad student Abigail Goldstein describes herself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. But she didn’t appreciate McCain’s reference to her favorite president.

  Abigail Goldstein: I wasn’t really sure that throwing in “speak softly and carry a big stick” was relevant. I wasn’t really sure what he meant by that. It just sort of seemed like something he wanted to do to grab the audience’s attention and that kind of annoyed me a little bit.

  Felde: The biggest laughs of the night came whenever Tom Brokaw pleaded with candidates to keep their answers to under a minute.

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  • October 8, 2008 11:29 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Business and economics students gather to watch presidential town hall

  Politics may not be the number one topic for USC students these days, what with the norovirus that made several hundred Trojans sick to their stomach, and the financial crisis that’s making everybody else sick. But more than two hundred people showed up at the Davidson Conference Center to watch Barack Obama and John McCain talk about the bailout, debt, and unfunded entitlements. Students’ reaction to the debate was mixed.

  Adeola Adedoson: I feel it’s really hard for me to choose right now. It seems kind of close. Like, they’re pretty much saying similar things. I don’t see so many differences.
  David Sobieraj: I was surprised actually with McCain. I mean, he was coming off like, very sarcastic. It was something we didn’t see from him in the first debate at all, you know.
  Rahul Bhati: I think no one won, but it was like a stimulating view from both of the candidates.

  Barack Obama and John McCain meet again for their third and final debate a week from tonight, and we’ll carry it live right here on KPCC.

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  • October 8, 2008 11:25 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• LA county retirement association hit hard by financial crisis

  The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association could face millions of dollars in losses as a result of the financial crisis. The association administers retirement plans for county employees. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: In a memo to the Board of Supervisors, the association says more than $80 million in its investments are at risk. City News Service reports the association says there’s a potential for a $57 million loss related to the failure of Lehman Brothers, and a $24 million loss related to the collapse of American International Group.

  The retirement fund says it had more than half a million shares of Lehman stock on Sept. 12… shares that are now virtually worthless.

  County Treasurer Mark Saladino says investments made by the county’s Investment Office are more stable. He says less than $30 million of the county’s $18 billion in investments are considered to be at risk.

  Saladino says office staff avoided buying sub-prime mortgage securities and other risky vehicles, preferring instead a high level of liquidity.

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  • October 7, 2008 7:28 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Director Oliver Stone on why it's a good time for a movie about George W. Bush

  Filmmaker Oliver Stone spoke to KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” today about his new movie about President Bush.

  Oliver Stone: “We’re at war in two countries; really three countries. We have war on terrorism is declared, plus there is an economic global financial impact to all these policies. This is a huge, huge change in the last eight years. So if we don’t make a movie about what’s going on right now, I think… you know we’re ignoring it; we’re ignoring what’s happening.”

  The movie stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney. Stone told the Los Angeles Times that it’s a “human portrait of a man; not meant to insult people who believe in what Bush believes in.”

  Stone’s movie opens next week in Los Angeles.

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  • October 7, 2008 6:43 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Politics/Public Affairs

• Proponents, opponents of CA gay marriage ban proposition raise large amounts of money

  Proposition 8 is surely the highest profile ballot measure before California voters this November. KPCC’s Brian Watt tells us the campaigns for and against it are bringing in a lot of cash.

  Brian Watt: Prop 8 would amend California’s constitution to recognize marriages only between men and women.

  Its chief supporter, the “Protect Marriage Coalition,” has raised $25 million so far. On its Web site, the coalition points out that 95 percent of its contributors are in California.

  A group called “Equality for All” leads the opposition to Prop 8. It’s raised about $16 million.
  Both sides are running television ads, and in California, that’s an expensive proposition of its own. So it’s no surprise that the campaign over same-sex marriage is costing more in the Golden State than it has anywhere else.

  Twenty-four states have put the issue to their voters in the last four years. California’s battle has already brought in more cash than all those states combined.

  LINK: Protect Marriage Coalition

  LINK: Equality for All

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  • October 7, 2008 6:34 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Oliver Stone discusses his new movie about George W. Bush

  Oliver Stone’s movie about President Bush opens in Los Angeles next week. Stone spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.”

  Oliver Stone: “Because this man has changed this world for all, for us, for the world. It’s may… I mean we’re in a position when he goes in January, well, whoever becomes president is gonna be living in the shadow of what Bush Jr. W. did.”

  Stone told the Los Angeles Times that the movie is a “comedy only in the sense of tragic comedy.” Stone said, “You laugh in your mind because Bush is a goof-ball, because he’s awkward, but at the same time he has a stubbornness, a John Wayne ethos.”

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  • October 7, 2008 6:22 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Politics/Public Affairs

• Activists from across country gather in Los Angeles for black-Latino summit

  A summit that drew about 500 black and Latino activists from around the country wrapped up today in Downtown Los Angeles. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez was there and asked organizer Angela Glover Blackwell if participants discussed racial tensions between blacks and Latinos.

  Angela Glover Blackwell: This summit is meant to address one thing that came out strongly, and that is that the media has made a bigger deal and drawn more attention to the negative than it has lifted up the positive. While people acknowledge that tensions exist, we think the media has made it look disproportionate.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Give me an example of the people who attended and what they’re saying is happening in their neighborhoods, and how the discussions came about in the summit.

  Blackwell: The list is really endless, whether we’re talking about the Bus Riders Union here in Los Angeles, black and Latino coming together to deal with the issue of transportation, or whether we’re talking about groups in Oakland, California working to bring in a grocery store to serve underserved communities.

  This summit was called the Black Latino Summit, Solidarity for American’s Future. We really hope that as the demographics begin to shift that we can model, that the stewardship that will be brought in will not just repeat the past but it will really demonstrate to the nation that we can build a truly inclusive society with a vibrant democracy.

  Guzman-Lopez: At the conclusion of the National Black and Latino Summit, I’m Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, 89.3 KPCC

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  • October 7, 2008 5:26 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Governor Schwarzenegger meets with legislative leaders tomorrow to address state credit crunch

  Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders will meet tomorrow to address California’s mounting budget crisis. Credit markets are struggling, and that’s made it difficult to for the state to borrow some badly-needed cash. H.D. Palmer with the state’s Department of Finance told KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” that stock market woes account for much of the disruption in California’s cash flow.

  H.D. Palmer: “Roughly 1 percent of the taxpayers in California pay about 51 percent of the personal income tax. That is a huge concentration, and a lot of that personal income tax revenue comes from capital gains and stock options, and that is very volatile on a year-to-year basis. In good years, like when the dot-com boom was in full flower in 2000, California was rolling in dough.”

  Palmer says the state’s cash flow problem is worse than usual.

  Palmer: “We do this kind of cash-flow borrowing as a normal course of business even in good budget years, and that’s because the months when we get our revenue don’t line up neatly with the times during the fiscal year that we have to pay our bills. So to smooth out that imbalance between when we get our money and when we have to pay our bills, this is a normal course of business for California. If we hadn’t had this credit lockup right now, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. We would’ve had the budget, we would’ve sold the notes, end of issue. The wrinkled issue, obviously, is that we’ve got a complete lockup in the credit markets.”

  The plan may also require the state legislature to open an emergency session. Schwarzenegger and state leaders are set to discuss the issue in Sacramento tomorrow.

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  • October 7, 2008 4:02 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Activists gather in Los Angeles for black-Latino summit

  A two-day “National Black and Latino Summit” concluded in downtown Los Angeles today. The event attracted activists from around the country. Summit organizer Angela Glover Blackwell said the idea came out of a social equity conference earlier this year in New Orleans.

  Angela Glover Blackwell: “We decided that we needed to start focusing on the alliance-building part of the equation, and therefore we had this summit to really be able to come together, talk about policy, share some cultural and artistic experiences, and spend most of the time talking about how we build strong alliances across black/Latino communities.”

  Monday, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told summit participants that lifting blacks and Latinos out of poverty would go a long way toward easing social tensions between the two groups. Other participants included state senator and candidate for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Latino voting expert Antonio Gonzalez. Organizers plan a follow up event in Washington, D.C. this spring.

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  • October 7, 2008 2:59 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• LA County-USC Medical Center delays inpatient move

  Southern California’s number one trauma hospital is pushing back its moving date. KPCC’s Patricia Nazario explains the latest holdup at Los Angeles County USC Hospital.

  Patricia Nazario: About a month ago, officials at L.A. County-USC Medical Center announced its big move to a new facility would happen next week. They said dozens of volunteers, including first responders and members of the U.S. Air Force, had signed up to help. Now they’re postponing the delicate procedure to November 7th. Hospital officials say scheduling conflicts forced state inspectors to call for the delay.

  Regional health care providers have long been concerned over the move. They say there’s a bed shortage at the new billion dollar facility, which has 224 fewer acute-care beds than the current county facility. Hospital officials say one way they plan to address that is by referring less critically ill patients to outpatient clinics.

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  • October 7, 2008 2:31 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Health

• California agriculture officials concerned about fruit flies

  Agricultural officials in Los Angeles say they’ve discovered four more Oriental fruit flies in Lakewood, and plan expanded eradication efforts in the region. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: Officials with the California Department of Food and Agriculture plan to double the area under treatment to 16 square miles. The area includes Lakewood, Long Beach, Cerritos, Artesia, and Hawaiian Gardens. They’re also now restricting the movement of fruit and vegetables in the 100 square miles around Lakewood.

  State officials recently emerged victorious after a long battle with the Mediterranean fruit fly and now move quickly to protect the state’s $32 billion agricultural industry. Officials use pesticide-laced bait to attract and kill male fruit flies.

  Agricultural experts describe the fruit fly as one of the world’s most destructive insect pests. Mated females lay eggs inside a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The maggots that hatch from those eggs, then feed on the flesh of the produce, rendering it unfit to eat.

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  • October 7, 2008 2:15 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Environment

• Police seek help in rash of copper wire thefts

  Los Angeles police are seeking help solving a rash of copper wire thefts. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

  Frank Stoltze: Police say over the past month, thieves ripped the copper wire from eight city light poles in the Boyle Heights area. It’s an increasingly common crime as copper prices soar. A few years ago, the metal sold for about a dollar a pound on world markets. It fetches four times that now. LAPD Captain Blake Chow called copper thefts an “alarming epidemic.” Thieves are lifting manhole covers, freeway signs, and gardening tools too, assteel prices climb.

  Last month, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill by State Senator Ron Calderon of Montebello. It requires those selling metals to recycling yards to provide their thumbprint and photo identification. Yard operators must also wait three days before paying them. Junk dealers face fines up to $4,000 if they don’t comply, and could eventually be shut down for multiple offenses.

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  • October 7, 2008 2:01 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Criminal Justice

• Southern California tourism likely to decline

  Earlier this year, Southern California saw an increase in international tourism with the decline of the dollar. But KPCC’s business analyst Mark Lacter says things have changed.

  Mark Lacter: “The dollar has gained in value, in part because so many European central banks are trying to shore up their own financial problems. And overseas economies are fading fast, so suddenly there’s a lot less interest in traveling to the U.S.”

  Lacter says it’s unlikely that domestic tourists will pick up the slack. Economists believe that consumer spending shrank during the third quarter. That would be the first time that’s happened since 1990. The government releases the official consumer spending figures later this month.

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  • October 7, 2008 1:49 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Green construction measures up for vote at LA County Board of Supervisors meeting

  A trio of environmental measures aimed at greening new construction in Los Angeles County are up for a vote today at the L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting. KPCCs Molly Peterson reports.

  Molly Peterson: The package is part of a special project by county planners to develop green building standards. One measure would require new buildings to use 15 percent less energy than state standards, and big buildings would need to meet national, independently-certified energy and green design standards. Another proposal looks at landscaping; the county would require builders to use less grass and more drought tolerant plants on properties.

  The third focus: stormwater runoff. Property owners would have to develop land in ways that don’t radically change natural runoff flows from rainfall. County planners think a low impact development rule like this would limit runoff pollution and beef up groundwater supplies. New projects would include gravel or dirt rather than corner to corner paving. The ordinances would have strongest effect in the unincorporated, and less developed, parts of the county, like the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita.

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  • October 7, 2008 1:43 PM
  • Categories: Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Police says man killed self, family, over financial troubles

  Los Angeles police say a man facing financial troubles killed his wife, three children, and mother-in-law in an upscale San Fernando Valley neighborhood over the weekend. It happened in a gated community in Porter Ranch. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports officers made the discovery this morning.

  Frank Stoltze: LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Moore says officers went to the home after a neighbor called police concerned the wife hadn’t shown up to go to work.

  Deputy Chief Michael Moore: Upon entering the home behind me, they found the remains of an entire family; six people dead in what we have now determined to be a murder-suicide.

  Stoltze: Moore says the husband and father shot to death his three sons, ages 19, 12 and 7, his 39-year-old wife, and his 69-year-old mother-in-law, before turning the gun on himself. Police found two letters.

  Moore: First was a suicide letter addressed to law enforcement. In it, the suspect alluded to having a string of financial difficulties and confessed that he killed his family because of those difficulties.

  A second letter was addressed to friends. Police said the man held a Masters of Business Administration in finance and formerly worked for PriceWaterhouseCooper and Sony Pictures, but had been unemployed for several months. The family had lived in the house for about a year, but did not own it. Police say the man bought the handgun last month and apparently had been planning the murder suicide for several weeks.

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  • October 6, 2008 6:59 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Society/Culture

• LAUSD administrator charged with felony in sex abuse case

  A dean on paid leave from a Los Angeles Unified school was convicted of a felony today for concealing an improper sexual relationship between a colleague and an underage student. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Prosecutors say Foshay Learning Center Dean Alan Hubbard broke the law when he didn’t tell anyone one of his teachers was having sex with a 14-year-old female student. Hubbard pleaded “no contest.” Prosecutors dropped a second charge that he tried to dissuade the student from testifying.

  The judge sentenced Hubbard to three years probation and two months of CalTrans clean up duty. In a statement, L.A. Unified said it continues to investigate Hubbard and the probe “could result in discipline including termination.”

  The teacher, Steven Rooney, pled not guilty to allegations of improper sexual relations with three underage female students. One was a Foshay student. Two were students at the Watts middle school where Rooney’s supervisors transferred him. He resigned from the school district in May.

  Last month the L.A. County District Attorney charged Rooney with having sex with a fourth Foshay Learning Center student who was 15 at the time. Rooney’s scheduled to enter a plea in that case later this month.

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  • October 6, 2008 6:54 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Education

• California vote by mail ballots begin to arrive tomorrow

  Watch your mailbox! If you’ve elected to vote by mail, you could cast your ballot as early as tomorrow. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde reports ballots went out in the mail today.

  Kitty Felde: If you’ve decided to vote by mail, you’re not alone. The number of voters who want to avoid hassles or lines at the polling place has been steadily rising. Four years ago, during the last presidential election, about one in three voted absentee.

  By the June state primary, more than half of Californians, nearly 59 percent, cast their ballots via the U.S. Postal Service. It’s not too late to join the crowd. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 28th. In fact, it’s still not too late to register to vote. That deadline is a bit sooner: October 20th.

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  • October 6, 2008 4:17 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Thousands of cops in Ontario for annual convention

  Several thousand cops from across the Western U.S. are in Ontario this week for what’s billed as the biggest law enforcement convention in the country. KPCC’s Steven Cuevas has more about the annual “Cops West.”

  Steven Cuevas: It’s a chance for cops to test shop the latest in crime busting technology, weaponry, and safety gear. Hundreds of firms will be hawking their wares to departments from over two dozen states. The L.A. County and San Bernardino County sheriff’s departments will also host vehicle tests and firearms demonstrations.

  Along with the usual “show-and-tell,” the cops convention gives local law enforcement agencies a chance to find new recruits. The Riverside County Sheriff’s department recently launched an ambitious drive to recruit more than a thousand new deputies over the next three years. The Cops West convention at the Ontario Convention Center concludes Wednesday.

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  • October 6, 2008 4:15 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• States settle with Bank of America, $8.4 billion deal to help borrowers with high-risk mortgages

  California and 10 other states have reached a settlement with Bank of America that could keep thousands of homeowners from losing their homes. The $8.4 billion deal calls on B of A to help borrowers modify high-risk mortgages from Countrywide Financial. Bank of America bought California-based Countrywide after it collapsed last summer. California Attorney General Jerry Brown says B of A had good reason to settle the case fast.

  Jerry Brown: “Their new entity, Countrywide, was guilty of massive irregularities, putting people in mortgages that were so complex that people couldn’t understand them. In some cases people were outright lied to. So the liability was clear. And therefore, the only question is, ‘What’s the remedy?’”

  In California, the remedy is debt relief for about 125,000 homeowners. Brown says B of A knew what it was getting into when it bought Countrywide.

  Brown: “Bank of America obviously bought this company at a discount. They’re getting tremendous benefit, but there are liabilities that the bank has to assume. So I think they’re stepping up to the plate. Luckily, they’re one of the financial institutions that still have some money.”

  California and Illinois sued Countrywide for deceptive business practices on June 25th, the same day the failing lender’s stockholders agreed to a B of A takeover.

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  • October 6, 2008 4:12 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy

• Man despondent over financial problems kills self, 5 family members

  Los Angeles police today said an unemployed man despondent over financial problems killed his wife, three children, and mother-in-law before committing suicide. It happened in a gated community in Porter Ranch, in the San Fernando Valley. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: Police said the man left a suicide note that talked about his “financial difficulties” and took responsibility for killing his family. The children were ages 19, 12, and 7, the wife 43, and the mother-in-law 70 years old. The father was 45. Police said all were shot to death. Officers found the bodies after a neighbor called police worried that the wife hadn’t shown up to go to work.

  Police said the father held a Masters of Business Administration in finance and formerly worked for PriceWaterhouseCooper and Sony Pictures, but had been unemployed for several months. Police said the family had lived in the house in the gated community of Sorrento Pointe in Porter Ranch for about a year, but did not own it.

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  • October 6, 2008 4:09 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Criminal Justice

• USC officials: 200 students caught virus, not food-borne

  About 200 students at USC have now received treatment for a nasty stomach virus. Late Friday, the campus health facility started seeing dozens of students complaining of nausea, cramps, and diarrhea. Dr. Larry Neinstein runs the University Park Health Center.

  Dr. Larry Neinstein: “The main prevention is very good handwashing, and keeping students who are sick away from students who are not sick, and vice versa. Public Health has not advised us to have any kind of a quarantine on campus, or really at this time restrict any of our activities.”

  Neinstein says the virus isn’t life threatening and takes a day or two to shake off. Campus officials are telling students who aren’t feeling well, or who’ve had contact with other sick students, to stay away from class for now. USC is also handing out free hand-sanitizing gels and wipes to students and faculty.

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  • October 6, 2008 3:56 PM
  • Categories: Education, Health

• LA County moves to reform student worker program

  L.A. County administrators are moving to reform a job classification that critics say exploits student workers. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: For years the county’s advertised temporary “student worker” jobs as an introduction to the world of civil service. About a thousand people work under this classification in many county departments including public health, firefighting, and the district attorney’s office. Elizabeth Brennan, a spokeswoman for the union that represents student workers and is negotiating their contract, says the classification has soured many people to working for county government.

  Elizabeth Brennan: What it’s evolved into is a sort of a sub-classification of county employees that can be fired at any time, no vacation time, no benefits, health care, no retirement, and make slightly over minimum wage.

  Guzman-Lopez: Sixty-four people, Brennan says, have been student workers for more than six years with no benefits and no chance to advance. L.A. County’s chief of human resources admits some missteps and proposes limiting student jobs to six years for those currently taking classes and getting a C average. County supervisors are expected to hear about the topic at their regular Tuesday board meeting.

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  • October 6, 2008 3:52 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education, Politics/Public Affairs

• Pasadena police tout gang crackdown

  Pasadena police today said a crackdown on gangs and drugs has resulted in a dramatic decrease in homicides in the city. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: Pasadena had 11 homicides last year, nine gang-related. It’s had two so far this year. Assaults and robberies are also down. Police spokeswoman Janet Pope Givens credits two multi-agency investigations, including one that targeted two brothers.

  Janet Pope Givens: They were moving narcotics from Pasadena all the way back to Pittsburgh, with stops in Detroit and Cleveland and distributions to Indiana and Atlanta, and cash was coming back to Pasadena. In addition to cash, there were weapons that were also being shipped between Pasadena and the other cities.

  Stoltze: Givens says Pasadena police worked with federal investigators to make nearly 90 arrests over the past three years. Twenty-eight people face federal indictments. Police also seized 36 guns and half a million dollars worth of methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana.

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  • October 6, 2008 3:42 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• Palin draws big crowd in Carson

  Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin mixed sharp attacks on Democrat Barack Obama with folksy anecdotes aimed at women voters during a rally at Home Depot Center’s tennis stadium in Carson Saturday.

  Sarah Palin: “I’m reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, OK, the quote of the day. You’ll never believe what the quote was. It was Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state and U.N. ambassador. She said there’s a place in hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.” [crowd cheers]

  More than 10,000 people attended the rally. The Alaska governor held a fundraiser later at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Another was scheduled for Sunday in Burlingame in Northern California.

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  • October 6, 2008 1:00 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Palin draws more than 10,000 to Carson rally

  Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drew more than 10,000 people to a rally at Home Depot Center’s tennis stadium Saturday. She told the crowd the gloves are off in the campaign, and accused Democrat Barack Obama of “palling around” with terrorists. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

  Frank Stoltze: Palin referred to Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, who helped found the Weather Underground. That was a 1960s group that took credit for a number of domestic bombings.

  Sarah Palin: Our opponent is somebody who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

  Stoltze: The Associated Press reported that while it is known that Obama and Ayers served on a Chicago charity board together and had a fleeting political connection, there is no evidence that they ever “palled around.” And, said the AP, it’s wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.

  Obama was 8 years old at the time. While an Obama spokesman called Palin’s speech full of distortions, more than 10,000 people wildly cheered the Alaska governor, including Carol Robbins and her father Dick Walker.

  Carol Robbins: She’s smart, intellectual, believes in small government.
  Dick Walker: Washington’s got to be clean up.

  Walker said, like most people, he’s only known Palin for four or five weeks. But he said she comes across as honest, and believes she and John McCain would “clean up” Washington.

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  • October 6, 2008 12:58 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Vouchers available to help Angelenos spay/neuter pets

  Los Angeles pet owners who can’t afford the cost of spaying or neutering their cat or dog will get help from the city. The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services offers vouchers for free or discounted sterilization procedures.

  The program is part of a new law requiring that most dogs and cats over four months of age be spayed or neutered. Ordinance co-author L.A. City Councilman Tony Cardenas says the vouchers will help L.A. become a city that euthanizes as few pets as possible.

  Councilman Tony Cardenas: “We show compassion for the animal community by having them spayed and neutered so we can get to a ‘no-kill’ city. And at the same time, I want to make sure that this ordinance factors in families of all communities. I want people to be able to comply with the law, not just worry about it.”

  Seniors, permanently disabled people, and those who earn less than $40,000 a year may obtain certificates for free service. For other pet-owners, there’s a $30 discount coupon.

  More information is available online at laanimalservices.com.

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  • October 3, 2008 6:11 PM
  • Categories: Society/Culture

• Traffic congestion expected near downtown LA Saturday

  Woe to those who travel in and through the downtown Los Angeles area tomorrow, especially on the 110 freeway. KPCC’s Debra Baer says unless you’ve already got a ticket to one of the many events planned, or unless gridlock is your favorite form of entertainment, you’ll want to stay away.

  Debra Baer: At least a couple hundred thousand people are planning to attend three big sporting events Saturday evening: USC’s football Trojans meet Oregon at the Coliseum starting at 5. UCLA faces off against Washington State at the Rose Bowl at 7. And in the National League baseball playoffs, the Dodgers host the Cubs, also at 7.

  At the same time, fans of the enduringly popular and enduring crooner Neil Diamond will be making their pilgrimage to Staples Center. The concert starts at 8. Also Saturday night, the Oscar-winning singing duo from the indie film “Once” is performing at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. Oh, and there’s a fundraiser for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton is the star attraction, if she can manage to make her way downtown to 2nd Street.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:57 PM
  • Categories: Society/Culture, Transportation

• Republican VP nominee Palin visits Southern California, headlines fundraisers, rally

  Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin visits Southern California tomorrow. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze has more.

  Frank Stoltze: The Alaska governor is the main attraction at an afternoon rally in Home Depot Center’s tennis stadium. The Carson venue holds 8,000 people. USC Political Scientist Dan Schnur says the free event isn’t really about winning support in heavily Democratic California. Instead, it’s about getting national media coverage.

  Dan Schnur: For the McCain campaign, getting footage of Palin with an enthusiastic group of supporters may not matter a whole lot in the Los Angeles television market, but in Columbus, and in Harrisburg, and in Tallahassee, it’s very, very valuable.

  Stoltze: Those cities reside in key presidential swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Schnur says the bigger reason Palin’s in California is money. Senator John McCain’s running mate will appear at a fundraiser at the Orange County Performing Arts Center after her rally, and at another Sunday in Burlingame, in Northern California.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:46 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Coast Guard calls off search for congresswomen's missing brother

  The Coast Guard has called off the search for a missing boat that carried the brother of Congresswomen Loretta and Linda Sanchez. The Coast Guard suspects a collision at sea. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde has the story.

  Kitty Felde: Henry Sanchez and his girlfriend were on a 26 foot boat headed from Long Beach to Catalina Island. The couple never arrived. The Coast Guard searched more than 300 square miles south of the entrance of the Port of Los Angeles, and found pieces of a boat with a California vessel number that matches the one of the boat carrying Sanchez.

  The Coast Guard also found a broken ice chest and several toy swords. Catalina celebrates its annual Buccaneer Days festival in Two Harbors this weekend. The working theory is that around midnight Thursday, the boat Sanchez was on collided with a much larger vessel and sank.

  The Coast Guard is trying to locate the other vessel. In a statement from Capitol Hill, the Sanchez sisters say they “pray and hope” their brother Henry and his girlfriend are found alive and well.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:43 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Palin headlines rally, fundraiser in Southern California this weekend

  Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin headlines a rally at Home Depot Center’s tennis stadium in Carson tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow night, she’ll host a fundraiser at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. USC political scientist Dan Schnur worked on John McCain’s run for president eight years ago.

  Dan Schnur: “Even though this state is not likely to be competitive in terms of outcome on election day this year, there’s an awful lot of money to be raised here for candidates of both parties. And just as Obama had that event at Barbra Streisand’s house a few weeks back, this isn’t as much about votes as it is about fundraising.”

  Schnur says the Alaska governor’s rally is probably intended to generate free media coverage across the country, particularly in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:36 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Pasadena police announce online crime reporting system

  Pasadena police are inviting people in that city to report some non-emergency crimes online. More from KPCC’s Debra Baer.

  Debra Baer: When he introduced the new computerized crime reporting system, Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian cautioned that the department won’t use it for emergencies, and that it does not replace 911. Pasadena’s been testing the “automated report writing system” for about six months. Melekian said the city is pleased enough with the results to launch it full-time.

  People may use the system to report car burglaries, vandalism, minor hit-and-runs, and thefts of items worth less than $5,000. To make a report, go to the police department’s home page and click “file a report online.” The Pasadena department also will continue to take reports by phone and in person.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:33 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice

• UC Riverside scientists win grant to study transparent worms

  Researchers at UC Riverside just got a million dollar grant to do something millions of kids do in backyards every day: dig for worms. KPCC’s Steven Cuevas more.

  Steven Cuevas: The grant from the National Science Foundation will get the three-year project off the ground. Maybe not “off the ground,” because UC Riverside researchers will be digging around to identify and catalog a type of worm called a “nematode.”

  Scientists say there are millions of different kinds of nematodes, but they’ve only identified about 26,000 species. And because they’re transparent, a lot of nematodes can only be seen with a microscope. But even though they’re small, some nematodes can cause big trouble.

  They can ruin crops and spread disease in humans. Head researcher Paul De Ley says Southern California is a good place to start such research, because the diverse region is home to a rich variety of nematodes. He says digging up and studying some of these “invisible” worms will help us protect our fields, and our health.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:25 PM
  • Categories: Education, Environment, Science/Technology

• California treasurer working on $7 billion loan package for state government

  State Treasurer Bill Lockyer is negotiating the terms of the $7 billion loan package the state government needs. He says he’s working with Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, and Lockyer says he expects an answer soon on whether the state can borrow the money.

  Bill Lockyer: “We’ll probably know that pretty soon, you know, a matter of days or a week, whether the market is hospitable and we can borrow perhaps as much as 7 billion. We may have to break that down into smaller increments and do it in more bite-size chunks, but we’re certainly going to be out there testing it. This is just the short-term financing, which in the past has been very, very routine. But because of this frozen situation in the national and international credit markets, that’s what’s causing the problem in this instance. Hopefully, there’ll be a thaw. If so, we can make the deadlines and pay the bills.”

  State Treasurer Bill Lockyer speaking on KPCC’s “Patt Morrison.” The state will ask for $7 billion, but Lockyer says California might need as little as $3 billion to meet its cash needs until new tax revenue comes in.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:21 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• California State University shortens application window due to lack of funding

  California’s high school graduating class grows each year, so the 23 campus Cal State University system usually opens up about 10,000 additional seats a year. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez reports there’s no money from the state to do that this year, and Cal State officials worry that many qualified students will be shut out of California’s largest public university system.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: The problem: same supply, more demand. The university’s solution is to limit the college application window. Cal State enrollment director Jim Blackburn says it used to be as long as eight months, from October to August, on some campuses. It’s been cut to two months, October and November, at popular campuses, including Long Beach, Fullerton, and Pomona.

  Jim Blackburn: We just want to make sure that as many students as we can are aware that they should not tarry on this, because sometimes it’s the students who are least fortunate who make the latest applications.

  Guzman-Lopez: Blackburn says blacks, Latinos, and students from poor families are often the ones who apply late in the cycle, so the university’s begun a campaign to let them know about this year’s narrower application window.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:18 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Education

• Economist Thornberg criticizes $150 billion of 'pork' in bailout bill

  President Bush signed a $700 billion rescue package for the country’s financial services industry today, shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives approved the measure. It passed the Senate on Wednesday.

  Congressional leaders and federal economic officials insisted that this intervention in the financial sector was necessary to free up credit and restore confidence in the markets. But not everyone is happy about it. Economist Chris Thornberg told KPCC’s AirTalk that he’s appalled the House approved the bill on its second go-round.

  Chris Thornberg: “This is the same exact bill as what they passed, as what they didn’t pass on Monday. What got them to pass it, all these fiscally prudent folks, well $150 billion of pork were shoved in there and gee, suddenly it becomes palatable.”

  The House vote was 263 to 171. The revised measure included provisions that weren’t in the version lawmakers rejected earlier, including one that encourages film and TV production within the United States.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:15 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Jury selection begins in former OC sheriff's corruption trial

  Jury selection is getting underway at Santa Ana’s federal courthouse today in the corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. KPCC’s Susan Valot reports.

  Susan Valot: Several hundred potential jurors will hear the charges against Carona and then fill out a 14 page questionnaire. It asks them if they’ve heard about the corruption case federal prosecutors are pursuing against the county’s ex-sheriff and if they have opinions about it.

  There are many other questions, too. The judge and the attorneys will study those questionnaires, and on October 22nd, they’ll return to court to start questioning potential jurors in-person. Carona’s accused of granting political favors in exchange for cash and gifts. He resigned as sheriff in January to fight the charges. Carona’s trial is scheduled to get underway at the end of the month.

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  • October 3, 2008 4:10 PM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• Economist Thornberg talks about rising California unemployment

  The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to approve a monumental $700 billion rescue of the nation’s financial services industry. The Senate approved the measure yesterday. It’s the biggest federal intervention in the economy since the Great Depression.

  Quickly and without ceremony, President Bush signed the bill. Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics told KPCC’s AirTalk that California’s unemployment rate rose by more than 2 percentage points between August of this year and the same month last year.

  Chris Thornberg: “We are deep into a recession, and that is why Wall Street is having these problems. It’s not the other way around. It’s amazing to me that these various legislative bodies and policy maker are suddenly saying they are trying to save the economy when they have been ignoring the fact that we have been dipping into a recession for well over the last year.”

  New unemployment figures indicate that the United States lost 159,000 jobs in last month.

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  • October 3, 2008 12:49 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Economist Chris Thornberg criticizes $700 billion bailout plan

  President Bush has signed the $700 billion plan to rescue the battered financial industry. The U.S. House passed it this morning, two days after the Senate approved it. Economist Chris Thornberg has criticized the plan since it surfaced late last month. He told KPCC’s AirTalk he doesn’t think the new version is much different from the plan that the House rejected on Monday.

  Chris Thornberg: “Doing public policy on the basis of the drama queen known as the stock is a recipe for a disaster. All right. The market dropped on Monday, it popped back up on Tuesday, it went back down on Wednesday. I mean you can’t run a nation like that, it’s ridiculous.”

  California officials have been calling on Congress to pass the plan. The state’s cash flow is running dry and the credit crunch has left its government unable to secure short-term loans. Governor Schwarzenegger notified federal Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson yesterday that the state may need to borrow from the federal government if the credit market doesn’t loosen up soon.

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  • October 3, 2008 12:44 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Writers Guild targets Tyler Perry show for unfair labor practice

  Tyler Perry’s TV show “House of Payne” has caused some pain for four of its writers. As KPCC’s Brian Watt tells us, the Writers Guild is now fighting back.

  Brian Watt: The Writers Guild has been trying to negotiate a contract to cover the scribes on “House of Payne” and Perry’s program “Meet the Browns.” It says Perry’s production company, also called House of Payne, has been bargaining in bad faith.

  The Guild also alleges the company fired four writers, including “House of Payne“‘s head writer Kellie Griffin, in retaliation for participating in the organizing effort. The Guild has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

  A lawyer for Tyler Perry told the Hollywood Reporter the four writers lost their jobs due to poor work performance. Tyler Perry plans to hold a grand opening for new production studios this weekend in Atlanta. The four writers say they’ll be there with supporters to picket the event.

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  • October 3, 2008 12:41 PM
  • Categories: Arts, Business/Economy

• Dodgers bring playoffs back to LA this weekend

  The Dodgers bring the playoffs home to Los Angeles this weekend. Dodger owner Frank McCourt says the team has learned from its mistakes in previous seasons. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde reports.

  Kitty Felde: It’s been 20 years since the Dodgers won the World Series. The team only managed to win one game in the post-season since that championship year. One. Until this week. Dodger owner Frank McCourt says the team has grown up.

  Frank McCourt: Sometimes it does take failing in order to succeed. And I think quite frankly, on that point, last year was very important. I mean, there we were again in September with the brass ring right within our reach, and it slipped away.

  And I think that failure last year in a way helped us this year because I sense that our young players in particular were more determined and weren’t going to let it slip away. And of course we’ve made some additions to the club this year.

  Felde: One of those additions just happens to own the record for the most home runs ever in post-season play: Manny Ramirez. He’s hit homers in both playoff games against the Cubs.

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  • October 3, 2008 12:05 PM
  • Categories: Sports/Recreation

• Schwarzenegger says California may need to borrow $7 billion from federal government

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says California may need to borrow from the federal government if the credit market doesn’t loosen up soon. Schwarzenegger made the comments in a letter yesterday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The House this morning passed an economic rescue plan, but State Treasurer Bill Lockyer told KPCC it’s unclear whether it will solve California’s cash shortage.

  Bill Lockyer: “Now maybe this congressional enactment will do something to relieve that, and credit will begin flowing again, and we can do our short term borrowing. But if not, someone seriously told me yesterday, ‘Bill, get on a plane to China!’ I mean that’s the kind of thing that we’re thinking about.”

  California typically has to rely on short-term loans at this time of year so it can send money to school districts and make other payments. But the credit crunch has locked California out of the bond market. California has a scheduled $3 billion payment to schools at the end of the month.

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  • October 3, 2008 11:58 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• US House Speaker Pelosi pushed for bailout approval before vote

  Before the U.S. House of Representatives voted today on the federal plan to rescue the financial sector, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the significance of the vote.

  Nancy Pelosi: “In my home state of California, officials including the governor are urgently calling for federal legislation to avoid economic catastrophe, catastrophe. Those urgent calls are being echoed by Democratic and Republican governors from across the country. While the focus has been on the Dow Jones and Wall Street, we are addressing the real pain felt by Mrs. and Mr. Jones on Main Street. They are the reason we must to pass this legislation today.”

  Today’s vote was 263 in favor, to 171 opposed.

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  • October 3, 2008 11:53 AM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Republicans gather to cheer Palin in VP debate

  This election year has generated more excitement than any in recent memory. Who knew a vice presidential debate could outdraw a Dodger playoff game at a local bar? Nearly 100 Republicans gathered at a mid-Wilshire watering hole called “Life” to cheer on their favorite candidate and hiss at the other guy. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde was there; she spoke with Dan Stumpus of L.A.

  Dan Stumpus: “It was a good debate. I thought it was better than the presidential, than the two presidential candidates.”
  Kitty Felde: “Why?”
  Stumpus: “Partly because each of them was more charming, I think. They’re both charming and humorous. And Palin, I mean, she sort of has this little movie star quality to her. It’s hard to put out of your mind, even though you should be looking at the facts. And Biden is charming, too. I just thought it was more entertaining, there was more real connection, they were looking at the camera, they were looking at each other.”
  Felde: “Was there a clear winner?”
  Stumpus: “I thought… I was worried about Palin. I was pleasantly surprised, I’m a conservative, I was pleasantly surprised she really held her own and came out swinging. And I thought she did just fine.”

  The Republican majority at this bar told a handful of Democrats to “shut up” when they cheered for their candidate, Joe Biden, too loudly. KPCC will carry the next presidential candidates’ debate live, starting at 6 o’clock Tuesday night.

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  • October 3, 2008 10:33 AM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Republicans gather to watch VP debate at LA bar

  It was perhaps the most anticipated debate of this election year. Several dozen Republicans gathered at a bar called “Life” near the L.A. County Art Museum to cheer on their vice presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. KPCC’s Special Correspondent Kitty Felde reports that a handful of Democrats crashed the party, too.

  Kitty Felde: “Life” is the kind of bar where baseball is usually the sport of choice on the big screen. Not last night. It was all politics. Nearly 100 Sarah Palin fans dropped in. But so did about a dozen Joe Biden fans.

  That meant the cheers for Palin’s “drill, baby, drill” to explain her energy policy were countered by applause when Biden called Dick Cheney the most dangerous vice president in American history. Still, Louie Eisenstein says Palin raised goosebumps when she talked about how much she loved America.

  Louie Eisenstein: I was kind of nervous that she was going to flub up. I mean that’s what I heard on talk radio all day; all those conservative talk show hosts were saying how she’s going to screw up, but I thought she won the debate, and I thought Obama won the last debate. I thought she did a good job.

  Felde: This was the only debate scheduled between the vice presidential candidates. Barack Obama and John McCain meet for their second presidential debate Tuesday night.

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  • October 3, 2008 10:21 AM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Metrolink chairman tells US Senate time and money needed to ensure passenger safety

  KPCC has obtained audio of one of Metrolink’s top executives speaking at a U.S. Senate briefing. The hearing took place shortly after the deadly commuter train collision in Chatsworth last month. Reading from a prepared statement, Metrolink Chairman Ron Roberts said it will take time and money to ensure passenger safety, and that it won’t magically happen after the National Transportation Safety Board releases its conclusions about the crash.

  Ron Roberts: “As chairman of Metrolink, I want to extend my sincerest regret for this situation. However, the collision is not just what the NTSB determines to be the cause, it’s about our nation’s lack of investment in passenger investment as a whole.”

  Roberts told lawmakers that public-private investments could improve rail safety in several ways, including building dual tracks in the Southland’s high-freight areas. He added that about 15 percent more passengers than last year are riding Metrolink, and that the system expects steady increases in ridership.

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  • October 3, 2008 10:16 AM
  • Categories: Health, Transportation

• California legislature holds hearings on Proposition 8

  Proposition 8 would amend California’s constitution to only recognize marriages between men and women. The ballot measure was the focus of a hearing today in downtown Los Angeles. Members of the California Assembly and Senate’s judiciary committees were there. So was KPCC’s Brian Watt.

  Brian Watt: The lawmakers gave equal time to panelists and activists on both sides. Prop 8 would overturn this year’s California Supreme Court decision that granted same-sex couples the right to marry. Panelist Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute said the measure has united supporters from every ethnic group and all major religions behind two ideas.

  Jennifer Roback Morse: First, we believe that mothers and fathers are not interchangeable. Second, we believe that children are entitled to be born into a family of a mother and father who brought them into being through an act of love.

  Watt: Union organizer and state assembly candidate John Perez called that kind of talk a slap in the face to single parents, and to gay couples raising kids.

  John Perez: I think that what we all want for children is for them to be able to grow up in a world that offers them the same opportunity and freedom, for everybody, regardless gender, wealth, or origin.

  Watt: The legislators present all opposed Proposition 8. They said they invited their colleagues who support it, but none showed up at the hearing.

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  • October 3, 2008 9:57 AM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Study estimates economic benefits of proposed high-speed rail system

  A new study estimates that California’s proposed high-speed rail system could direct billions of dollars in economic benefits to the Central Valley.

  The state’s High Speed Rail Authority commissioned the study by Shawn Kantor of UC Merced. Kantor says people in the Central Valley would save $3 billion if the rail system was built.

  Shawn Kantor: “That’s direct savings in terms of saving time, gas, parking, commuting cost, increasing people’s productivity associated with not having to sit in traffic congestion.”

  Kantor says the rail system would also lead to more construction work, and would boost the region’s economy by making it easier for goods and workers to get where they need to go.

  The study arrives as voters decide whether to approve Proposition 1-A. The measure on next month’s statewide ballot would authorize almost $10 billion dollars in bonds to start the project.

  Prop 1-A opponents say the state would do better to spend that money on highway construction and regional transit systems.

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  • October 2, 2008 6:05 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs, Transportation

• Democratic congressmen angry over record number of vetoes by Governor Schwarzenegger

  Sacramento Democrats are seething over the record number of bills Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed this year. Some are threatening a backlash. Schwarzenegger rejected 35 percent of the bills that reached his desk. Many included a stock veto message. It said that, given the historic budget delay, the governor was only signing bills of “highest priority.” Democratic Assemblyman Alberto Torrico called that appalling.

  Alberto Torrico: “Let me tell you something. The veto messages are instructive for us, because if there are some specific concerns that he voices in the veto messages, we can address those in the next legislative cycle and fix the bills, but without that guidance, it’s as if we have lost an entire legislative cycle.”

  Torrico wants lawmakers to override some of the governor’s vetoes. The Office of the Secretary of the Senate says the body could reconvene before the new session starts in December to do that. But legislative aides say that’s unlikely. Governor Schwarzenegger has maintained that he fully considered each and every bill.

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  • October 2, 2008 4:44 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Funeral mass for Mexican-American activist known as 'urban Cesar Chavez'

  A public memorial is scheduled tomorrow morning at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles for the man known as the “urban Cesar Chavez.” KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.

  Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: Activist Dionisio Morales knew the patchwork of farms around Moorpark in Ventura County like the back of his hand. He helped his parents work the fields there, graduated from Moorpark High, and helped farm workers when he worked for a government agency.

  In 1963 he founded the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation. His garage in Pico Rivera was the organization’s first office. To reduce the sting of racial discrimination and improve their job prospects, Morales believed, Mexican-Americans needed training, quality child care, and medical care.

  Now, the foundation he started operates in more than two dozen California cities and serves about 100,000 people through its children’s day care, senior centers, and job training classes. Over the decades Dionicio Morales nurtured budding politicians, and many sought his counsel. Morales died two weeks ago of natural causes in Montebello. He was 89 years old.

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  • October 2, 2008 4:41 PM
  • Categories: History

• State legislators hold hearing on proposition 8

  Proposition 8 was the focus of a hearing today in downtown Los Angeles. The ballot measure would amend the state’s constitution to recognize only marriages between men and women. Members of the judiciary committees of California’s Assembly and Senate heard from panelists and voters on both sides of the issue. Sonia Brown told the lawmakers that Prop 8 protects the interests of children.

  Sonia Brown: “That’s one of the major strengths behind this proposition. We don’t want to deny anyone, least of all me, any rights of marriage. I’ve worked in Hollywood 20 years as a producer, and I care very much about the gay community, but we must put children’s rights first.”

  Judy Chiasson, who works in the human relations office of the L.A. Unified School District, opposes Prop 8. She offered a different take on the way it could affect kids.

  Judy Chiasson: “In kindergarten, we teach them their letters and their numbers. We teach them shapes and colors. We teach them to make new friends, to share and to be nice to one another. And I think as adults, as teachers and parents, we need to do the same.”

  Prop 8 would overturn this year’s California Supreme Court decision that granted same sex couples the right to marry. California voters will have their say next month.

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  • October 2, 2008 4:38 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• Gender and communication scholar previews Biden/Palin debate

  For only the second time in American history, a woman and a man will debate one another in the vice presidential forum. Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware faces off against Alaska’s Republican Governor Sarah Palin tonight in St. Louis. A popular scholar of gender and communication, Deborah Tannen, spoke with KPCC’s “Patt Morrison” about the dynamics of this debate.

  Deborah Tannen: “What’s gonna be going on tonight that’s so interesting is that people are going to be watching it through the gendered lens as much as the way they behave will reflect a gendered lens.”

  Tannen teaches in Georgetown University’s linguistics department. You can catch the Palin-Biden debate live tonight at 6 on KPCC

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  • October 2, 2008 4:11 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs, Society/Culture

• Stakes high in vice presidential debate

  What could be the most-watched vice presidential debate ever is scheduled to start in about two-and-a-half hours. Republican nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin squares off against Democratic Senator Joseph Biden tonight in St. Louis. Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza, author of “The Fix” political blog on the paper’s Web site, told KPCC’s Patt Morrison that the stakes are high in this matchup.

  Chris Cillizza: “I think that this is a crucial time for the McCain campaign. They have to have a good showing from Sarah Palin tonight. What that good showing entails, I don’t really know.”

  KPCC will carry NPR’s live coverage of the debate, beginning at 6 o’clock tonight.

  Link: The Fix

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  • October 2, 2008 3:34 PM
  • Categories: Politics/Public Affairs

• San Fernando Valley Congressman Sherman says he'll vote 'no' again, believes others will too

  The U.S. House votes tomorrow on a modified version of the federal financial rescue plan. The Senate approved the modified plan yesterday after the House rejected an earlier version on Monday. Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman of the San Fernando Valley has opposed the plan. He told KPCC’s AirTalk he’ll cast a “no” vote again. He believes others in the House will do the same.

  Brad Sherman: “I’m sure there will be a few votes that change. One of the reasons for change will be that the true ‘sky is falling’ panic mongers turned out to be wrong. We had people, senior members of Congress, talking to others on the floor saying look, if we don’t pass this bill, the markets going to drop two, three-thousand points, they’re going to declare martial law.”

  The new plan includes $110 billion in tax breaks, including incentives for movie and TV studios that shoot in the United States. The new plan also raises the limit on federal deposit insurance to $250,000.

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  • October 2, 2008 3:10 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Governor Schwarzenegger offers advice on getting bailout plan passed

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s offering some advice for Washington lawmakers trying to push through the federal economic rescue plan: change your sales strategy and discuss it as a way to salvage Main Street, not Wall Street.

  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “And I think they all should take, you know, a marketing 101, go back to school so we can start again with this whole thing.”

  Schwarzenegger sent a letter to each member of California’s congressional delegation, urging them to pass the $700 billion plan. The U.S. Senate approved it yesterday, and the House is scheduled to vote tomorrow. California’s treasurer has warned that without the federal bailout, the state may not be able to borrow money, and could run out of cash. California typically takes out a loan this time of year to help pay its bills.

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  • October 2, 2008 2:59 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• LA City Parks Department lays off almost 140 temporary workers

  The city of Los Angeles is laying off almost 140 temporary workers in its parks and recreation department, and it’s cutting back the hours of hundreds of others. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports the staff reductions are prompting warnings from city park rangers.

  Frank Stoltze: Rangers in Griffith Park say the layoffs will result in reduced security at the observatory and fewer patrols throughout the sprawling open space, just as the dangerous fall fire season arrives. Recreation and Parks Department spokeswoman Regina Adams concedes the agency’s laying off part-time security officers at the observatory.

  She says rangers will have to do some of that work instead of patrolling the park. She says it’s all part of City Hall belt tightening, necessitated by the bad economy and falling tax revenues. The department is terminating or reducing hours for workers at more than 175 parks and recreation centers across the city. Among other changes, bathrooms will get cleaned less often and the city will offer fewer exercise and arts classes.

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  • October 2, 2008 2:56 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Environment, Politics/Public Affairs

• Long Beach nurses work out tentative new contract

  Nurses at one of the region’s biggest private hospitals have worked out a tentative contract with management. KPCC’s Cheryl Devall has more about the labor picture at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

  Cheryl Devall: The proposed three-year contract includes higher wages, along with increased nurse-to-patient ratios at the hospital. The agreement would affect about 1800 registered nurses.

  A statement from their union, the California Nurses Association, said the tentative contract would ensure that new technology at the hospital would supplement, not supplant, nurses’ professional judgment in determining what’s best for patients.

  The contract includes average salary increases of 18 percent over three years. A hospital statement read in part: “We are hopeful our nurses at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center will ratify this new contract so that we might move forward together and provide the best healthcare available.”

  Long Beach Memorial has had a history of tension with its union nurses. Six years ago, following stalled contract talks, they walked out on strike twice over pension benefits, salaries for more experienced nurses, and staffing ratios.

  The present nursing staff plans to vote on whether to ratify the contract next week.

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  • October 2, 2008 2:52 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Health

• Orange County Congressman Campbell says new bailout plan stands better chance with House Republicans

  The U.S. House votes again tomorrow morning on a $700 billion economic rescue plan. The House rejected the federal plan earlier this week, but the Senate passed a new version yesterday. Orange County Republican Congressman John Campbell told KPCC’s AirTalk that the new plan may stand a better chance with some House Republicans.

  John Campbell: “I have talked to at least a couple of Republicans who I believe will be changing their votes from no to yes. But I don’t think the outcome of this vote is in the bag yet by any means.”

  Campbell said some conservative Democrats who voted for the earlier plan may switch their votes to “no.” The new version includes $110 billion in tax breaks. Campbell says the so-called “Blue Dog Democrats” contend that tax increases should have accompanied those tax breaks.

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  • October 2, 2008 1:07 PM
  • Categories: Business/Economy, Politics/Public Affairs

• Federal grand jury issues indictment over Latino mailer

  Former Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen is set to answer a federal obstruction of justice charge later this month. KPCC Orange County Reporter Susan Valot says it’s connected to a letter his campaign sent to Latino voters two years ago.

  Susan Valot: The Spanish-language mailer warned “immigrants” about voting in the election in which Nguyen, a Republican, faced Democrat Loretta Sanchez. Nguyen initially denied having anything to do with the letter. Then he blamed a campaign worker.

  But later, Nguyen said the mailer was simply translated incorrectly into Spanish. He said he’d meant to say illegal immigrants can’t vote. Federal prosecutors accuse Nguyen of intentionally misleading investigators as they looked into the letter.

  Because of that, a federal grand jury in Santa Ana has indicted Nguyen. Nguyen’s attorney has said he plans to fight the obstruction of justice charge, and expects Nguyen to be fully exonerated. If a jury convicts him, Nguyen could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He’s scheduled for arraignment in a couple of weeks.

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  • October 2, 2008 11:30 AM
  • Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs

• SAG's negotiating committee passes motion on strike authorization vote

  The Screen Actors Guild’s negotiating committee has decided to make the first move towards a strike against film and television producers. KPCC’s Brian Watt has the story.

  Brian Watt: SAG’s negotiating committee passed a motion late yesterday advising the Guild’s national board to call for a strike authorization vote. SAG represents more than 120,000 members, and three quarters of voters would have to approve a strike.

  But first, SAG’s national board has to go for it, with a simple majority. The 71 member body is scheduled to meet in about 2 weeks. A recent election has changed the composition of the board to give a more conciliatory faction of the union, Unite for Strength, more power. But the more confrontational “Membership First” faction still controls the negotiating committee.

  Its motion not only calls for the vote, but prods the National Board to strongly support strike authorization. The Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers began its statement in response with a question: “Is this really the time for anyone associated with the entertainment business to be talking about going on strike?”

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  • October 2, 2008 10:51 AM
  • Categories: Arts, Business/Economy

• L.A. spay/neuter law's grace period ends

  Starting tod