Superintendent of Schools Ramon Cortines (C) and other members of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meet to discuss a proposal to eliminate thousands of jobs in hopes of closing a $718 million budget gap April 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. ; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

One of the biggest stories in education this year is the resignation of former LAUSD superintendent John Deasey. Deasey was on the job 3 ½ years, which according to an analysis done by the education news site Ed Source, was in keeping with the average length of the tenure of a school superintendent in California.  

EdSource finds that two-thirds of the superintendents of the 30 largest school districts in California have been in their roles for three years or less. Ten have been on the job for less than a year. Only three California school superintendents have a tenure of more than 5 years – from Long Beach Unified, Fresno Unified, and Chino Valley Unified.

What are the challenges that school superintendents face? How has high turnover impacted public education in the state? What can be done about it? How has the job of the superintendent changed over the years?

Guests:

Louis Freedberg, executive director of EdSource a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley that provides data tools and research on education issues

Christopher Steinhauser, Superintendent of Schools, Long Beach Unified School District. He has been in the post since 2002

Responding to criticism over the handling of The Interview, Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton says his studio "very much wanted to keep the picture in release."; Credit: DAVID MCNEW/Reuters /Landov

The Sony breach started off as a piracy story. Five new movies from the studio were stolen by hackers and shared on the internet. The purloined films, including Brad Pitt’s “Fury” and the then still-unreleased “Annie,” were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. The true extent of the hack would only be felt weeks later. Along with the films, hackers also leaked troves of documents, including Sony work emails, salary history, employee data.

The North Koreans were rumored to be behind the attack, allegedly in retaliation for being made fun of in the Sony comedy “The Interview.” In mid-December, theater chains in North America announced that they won’t carry the Seth Rogen film after hackers threatened violence. The FBI were called in, which identified North Korea as the culprit of the attack Dec. 19. Sony, which earlier cancelled the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” announced today that it has secured a limited release for the film.  

In the span of 6 weeks, the Sony breach has turned into a story about national security, cyber-terrorism, and creativity freedom. In this hour of AirTalk, we’ll look at the cultural, political and business implications of the breach.

Guest:

Tatiana Siegel, Senior Film Writer,  The Hollywood Reporter; 
THR: Executives Now "Afraid" to Send Emails

Stewart Baker, a partner at the law firm, Steptoe & Johnson. He is the former first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security where he set cybersecurity policy

Kim Zetter, senior reporter at WIRED and author of the book, “Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon” (Crown, 2014)

Scott Borg, Director and Chief Economist of The United States Cyber Consequences Unit, which was founded at the request of senior government officials, who wanted an independent, economically-oriented source of cyber-security research

Stowe Boyd, Social Analyst for GigaOm Research - which provides analysis of emerging technologies for individual and corporate subscribers;

Neurologist Farrah Daly (L) speaks with 74-year-old patient Alton Hlavin (R), who is suffering from cortical basal degeneration, similar to Parkinson's disease, which gradually attacks nerve cells, causing debilitating muscle pain and shrinking parts of the brain until the patient can no longer walk or talk, as his wife Martha (C) looks on during a visit at their home in Vienna, Virginia, on December 10, 2010.; Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who truly wants to die lying in a hospital bed in an ICU hooked up to a bunch of machines. Most who reach the stage of their life where they require round-the-clock care would rather die peacefully, surrounded by family and friends, in the comfort of their homes. For those who choose to receive home hospice care instead of being hospitalized, it is a struggle with the complete loss of independence and being able to allow someone else to care for you completely. For the caregiver, it is a struggle with watching a fellow human, who may be a friend or family member, wither away, and also taking care of that person while not completely depriving him or her of a sense of independence.

L.A. Times staff photographer Francine Orr wanted to document the emotional impact of caregiving on families. She had been a caregiver for her father, Frank, for three decades while he suffered from chronic illnesses. Through her work, she met a woman named Evelyn Corsini, who had been paralyzed on her left side from a stroke and removal of a brain tumor. In a recent article published in the L.A. Times, Orr shares the lessons she learned as a caregiver to her father and from Evelyn Corsini’s caregivers.

View slideshow: Caregivers

Have you ever had to care for a friend or family member receiving home hospice care? What impact did it have on you? How did you cope with some of the more emotionally-draining aspects of home hospice care?

Guests:

Francine Orr, staff photographer at the L.A. Times; she wrote the recent piece, “Nearing death, two people offer a journalist and caregiver life lessons”

Patty Watson-Wood, BSN, RN, Supervisor of Community Nursing at the Huntington Hospital Senior Care Network

A physiotherapist (L) assists obese patients with exercises in an obesity unit at the CHU Angers teaching hospital in Angers, western France, on October 23, 2013. ; Credit: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images

Europe’s highest court ruled last week that under certain circumstances, obesity can be considered a disability. The ruling came after a Danish man, Karsten Kaltoft, sued the local authority he was working for when he was fired. He claimed he was a victim of discrimination due to his weight.

How does the EU decision impact US policy -- if at all?  In the US, over a third of adults are obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Obesity is defined as any adult who has a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher.  There is no federal policy that protects people from discrimination against obesity, although certain types of obesity are considered a disability in the US, and protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Should all types of obesity be considered a disability?

Guest: 

Christopher Conover, a Research Scholar in the the Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research at Duke University

A physiotherapist (L) assists obese patients with exercises in an obesity unit at the CHU Angers teaching hospital in Angers, western France, on October 23, 2013. ; Credit: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images

Europe’s highest court ruled last week that under certain circumstances, obesity can be considered a disability. The ruling came after a Danish man, Karsten Kaltoft, sued the local authority he was working for when he was fired. He claimed he was a victim of discrimination due to his weight.

How does the EU decision impact US policy -- if at all?  In the US, over a third of adults are obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Obesity is defined as any adult who has a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher.  There is no federal policy that protects people from discrimination against obesity, although certain types of obesity are considered a disability in the US, and protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Should all types of obesity be considered a disability?

Guest: 

Christopher Conover, a Research Scholar in the the Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research at Duke University

A Delta airlines plane is seen at the gate in LaGuardia Airport as passangers travel on the day before Thanksgiving on November 21, 2012 in New York, United States. ; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

It’s being called one of the worst airline security breaches since September 11, 2001. A total of five people were arrested earlier this month on charges of conspiracy, trafficking, and illegally selling firearms after authorities uncovered a gun smuggling plot that resulted in more than 150 firearms being flown on commercial airliners from Atlanta to New York City. The guns that were smuggled included 9mm handguns and AK-47 assault weapons and were taken from Georgia to New York between May and December of this year.

Eugene Henry, a baggage handler with Delta who has been fired since his arrest, is accused of using his employee status to smuggle guns through airport security, where he would hand them off to a former Delta employee, Mark Quentin Henry. According to an FBI affidavit, the exchange took place in an airport bathroom. Henry would then take the guns on a flight from Atlanta to New York, where he then sold the guns. The undercover NYPD officer who bought the firearms allegedly purchased 129 guns in total over the seven month period. Brooklyn’s district attorney says that Henry boarded 20 domestic flights with guns during that time.

What does an incident like this say about the state of airport security in the post 9/11 world? How can we continue to feel safe while flying when it’s not terrorists we have to worry about, but airline employees? What should be changed about security measures for airline employees to prevent this from happening in the future?

Guest:

Jeff Price, Professor of Aviation, Metropolitan State University in Denver and aviation security expert. 

Lila Crawford stars as Little Red Riding Hood in "Into The Woods"; Credit: Into The Woods/Buena Vista

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Wade Major and Lael Loewenstein review this week’s releases, including “Selma,” “Into the Woods,” “American Sniper” and more. If you’d rather curl up at  home, we have the latest blu-ray and DVD releases. Boutique distributor Twilight Time has put out “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “The Fortune” (1975), “Yentl” (1983) and more.

Warner Bros. has released “Stanley Kubrick: The Masterpiece Collection.” And Criterion has a new disc of “Tootsie” (1982). TGI-Filmweek!

Guests:

Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and host for IGN’s DigiGods.com

Lael Loewenstein, film critic for KPCC and Variety

A man opened fire on a police car in South Los Angeles Sunday night, but no one was hurt. The suspect was eventually arrested, and police searched for a second suspect without success.; Credit: NBC4

Last night, several shots were fired at a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car in South Los Angeles in what cops called an “unprovoked attack.” In the wake of last week’s death of two New York City police by a lone gunman who had posted threats on social media, law enforcement around the country are on alert as copycat killers may begin to emerge.

Multiple people have been arrested in connections with online threats since the deaths of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in a time when the boundary between free speech and online threats has blurred. In their case, rumors have spread that the killer, who shot shot himself in the head after he attacked the officers, may have used a social media app to track their car’s movements.

How should police respond to emerging threats online and on the streets? Has your view of law enforcement changed over the years? Let us know through your comments below and informing us through KPCC’s Public Insight Network!

Guest:

Tim Williams, use of force and police procedure expert Owner, CEO TT Williams Jr. Investigations Inc.

; Credit: Photo by Anirudh Rao via Flickr Creative

State officials said the first manual reading of snow levels will take place this week. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is a crucial source of water for the state, supplying about 30 percent of the water used in the late spring and early summer.

The snowpack last year was at record low levels. Thanks to a series of winter storms, things are looking a little bit better, but officials say California still need a lot more rain to really put a  dent on the drought. A team of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab calculated that the state would need 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from the 3-year drought– that’s about 130,000 Rose Bowls full of water.

Guests:

Doug Carlson, Information Officer, CA Department of Water Resources

Frank Gehrke, Chief, California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program at the Department of Water Resources

A Google self-driving car is displayed at the Google headquarters on September 25, 2012 in Mountain View, California. ; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The wait for the green light on driverless car sales in California will continue, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. California’s DMV will miss a year-end deadline to adopt a new set of rules for driverless cars and other cars of the future because there’s still no certainty that driverless vehicles are safe. DMV officials say they first have to know if these cars will obey traffic laws, whether control can be given back to human drivers smoothly, and what happens when the car’s computers freeze or malfunction. Self-driving cars are still several years away from being on new car lots, but several companies are testing prototypes on California’s roads.

As of right now, there seem to be three options for the DMV: following the current U.S. system and allowing manufacturers of driverless cars to self-certify for safety, go the European route and have independent companies verify safety, or the state itself could get into the testing business.

Federal transportation officials say there are no plans to write standards for driverless car safety anytime soon and that they don’t want states to write their own. However, the direction California officials choose could very well influence the path that other states and even the federal government take. California has been able to take the lead on this thanks to one of the state’s signature companies, Google, which has been pushing for laws and regulations on driverless cars for several years.

How high should the safety standards be for self-driving cars? Would you buy one if you were assured that they are as safe, if not safer, than a regular car? What do you think is the future for driverless car safety?

Guest:

Thilo Koslowski, vice president and automotive practice leader at the technology analysis firm Gartner. His work focuses on predicting the future business and technology implications of automotive, connected/autonomous vehicles and mobility innovations.

To hear this segment, click on "Listen Now" above.

24th June 1958: American thriller writer Raymond Chandler (1888 - 1959), centre, at a party in Portman Square, London. On either side of him are publisher Anthony Blond (1928 - 2008) and Blond's wife Charlotte. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images); Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images

“All us tough guys are hopeless sentimentalists at heart,” author Raymond Chandler once wrote. The statement applies to Chandler as well as to his literary alter ego Phillip Marlowe. Readers have come to know about what Chandler thought about Los Angeles and a number of other subjects through his novels and short stories, but there’s one topic he had stayed largely mum on: His own life.

Chandler never wrote a memoir or an autobiography. In “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words,” writer Barry Day culled from Chandler’s writing and interviews he did over the years to give voice to what Chandler thought of his life, his craft, his success. 

Guests:

Barry Day, edited the new book, “The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words” (Knopf, 2014). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation

Denise Hamilton, crime novelist, journalist and editor of the Edgar-award winning anthologies Los Angeles Noir (Akashic Noir, 2007) and Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics (Akashic Noir, 2010)

St. Jude patient, Mary Browder, age 11 and St. Jude National Outreach Director, Marlo Thomas check out shopping carts full of Kmart Fab 15 toys while on a shopping spree to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital patients as part of Kmart's 11th annual St. Jude Thanks and Giving fundraising campaign on December 15, 2014 in New York City. ; Credit: Astrid Stawiarz

Heading into 2015, it seems economists are generally optimistic about the U.S.’s economic outlook. After suffering the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the U.S. economy rebounded in 2014. While the housing market is still slow, energy and oil prices are plummeting, stocks are on the rise with the Dow Jones Industrial average having just climbed above 18,000 for the first time ever, the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in November (compared to an average of 7.4 percent in 2013), GDP climbed five percent just in the third quarter of this year, and consumer confidence rising. All of this growth is said to be a good sign that the economy is gaining momentum heading into the new year. However, there are still plenty of risks, including slowdowns in Europe and Asia as well as a possible collapse in the Russian economy. A recent L.A. Times article also argues that wage stagnation is hurting ordinary workers as the median net worth of upper-income families rose to nearly seven times what middle-income families are making and nearly 70 times what low-income families are making.

A growing economy in 2015 and 2016, if the economy does indeed grow, could change political strategy down the road in 2016. It will be very hard to criticize Democrats for the “Obama economy” if that economy is growing at anywhere near five percent. While economists don’t expect that five percent rate to continue in 2015, they say a slower pace would be welcome. The improved economic outlook is also helping to quell some of the frequent bickering over spending and the debt limit.

Are you optimistic about your own economic outlook in 2015? How do you think a better economy will affect the 2016 election? How does the political landscape change if the economy doesn’t grow as well as forecasters are suggesting?

Guests:

Craig Gordon, Managing Editor, Bloomberg News in DC

David Lazarus, consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times

A watch tower is seen in the currently closed Camp X-Ray which was the first detention facility to hold 'enemy combatants' at the U.S. Naval Station on June 27, 2013 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Detainee transfers out of Guantanamo Bay grinded to a virtual stop between 2011 and 2013. And the Obama administration is planning to kick start efforts to drastically cut down the Gitmo population in 2015, reports the Washington Post.

Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is one of the Obama’s national security goals, and the President has taken a more active role in making sure that happens. Accordingly to the Post, has called several heads of state to see if they’d be willing to accept the transfers. The administration is pinning its hopes particularly on Latin American countries after Uruguay agreed to take six detainees this month.

What are the obstacles facing the administration to closing Guantanamo Bay?

Guest: 

Missy Ryan, Pentagon reporter for the Washington Post who has been following the story

Lisa Saxon was one of only three women covering covering Major League Baseball full time in the late '70s for the LA Daily News.

The world of sports writing has long been a male-dominated field of journalism, though it’s significantly more common to find a female beat writer today than it was in 1979 when Lisa Saxon got her start. During the four years she worked as a beat writer for the L.A. Daily News covering baseball and football, she was one of only three women covering Major League Baseball full time.

However, society was much more closed-minded then, and Saxon had to deal with degradation and sexual harassment on a daily basis from those who felt a woman had no business being a sports writer. An article by Vice Sports alleges that when Saxon would go into a locker room, players would yell, spit, throw their jock straps at her, expose themselves, or worse. She also had a troubled relationship with former Yankees star Reggie Jackson, who Saxon says was particularly difficult during locker room interactions. Through the adversity, Saxon proved that she was as good a reporter, if not better, than any man doing the same job. Over her 20-year career, she covered World Series, NBA Finals, Super Bowls, Rose Bowls, and NCAA Finals. But most importantly, she cleared the way for other women into sports journalism, thanks to her success and skill as a journalist in the face of adversity, discrimination and hatred.

Today, Saxon is seen by many to be a trailblazer for women in sports writing. Her perseverance and resolve earned her several awards, including two AP Sports’ Editors awards and a lifetime achievement award nomination from the National Association of Women in Sports Media. She is now a teacher at Pacific Palisades high School, where she also advises Tideline, the school’s student-run magazine.

Guest:

Lisa Saxon, award-winning sportswriter, beats she covered include the then-California Angels, the Dodgers, and the then-L.A. Raiders for the L.A. Daily News. She also covered the NBA and NCAA football and basketball.

Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.; Credit: Prayitno/Flickr

In New York City, the ball drops at midnight in Times Square. But three hours later, when 2015 arrives in Southern California, where do we convene? Los Angeles is the city of private pools and private parties, not massive public gatherings in a civic center. Until last year, anyway, when 10,000 people were expected to show up in Downtown LA’s Grand Park, and 25,000 came out. The gates were shut before midnight to keep the park at capacity.

Grand Park played host to the summer’s massive Made in America festival. And now another New Year’s Eve, with triple the expected attendance, and the DJs, food trucks and 3D video projections on City Hall to keep the crowd lively. Has LA arrived with a New Year’s party befitting its megalopolis status?

Perhaps. But why does it close down at 12:30am? Before you go, here are the basics. Metro runs free until 2am, and service continues at normal rates until dawn. A bike valet will be located at Hill and 2nd Street. No alcohol will be sold on site and no outside booze is permitted in.

For the night owls, there are many other parties around town. Where are you headed? Let us know in the poll.

Ranker - Lists About Everythingvar RNKRW = RNKRW || {};RNKRW.pref = {};

Guest:

Jean Trinh, associate editor for the website LAist

Tritobia Ford lights candles at a memorial for her son, Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old mentally ill black man, at the site where he was shot and killed by two LAPD officers in August, on December 29, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. The long-awaited autopsy report, which was put on a security hold at the request of police and ordered by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti to be made public before the end of 2014, was released December 29. ; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

The August 11th shooting of mentally ill black man Ezell Ford by LAPD officers has led local civil rights figures to speak out about the use of deadly force against the unarmed 25-year-old. The results of the autopsy are now public, raising more questions about the tactics employed by officers that day.

The autopsy reveals Ford was shot three times — once in the right side, once in the back and once in the right arm. The shots to his back and right side are what ultimately led to his death. Additionally, a “muzzle imprint” on Fords back appears to indicate that Ford was shot from behind at a relatively close range.

The two policemen involved allege that Ford tackled one of them during a routine stop, and attempted to grab one officer’s gun. That officer claims he then called out to his partner, who shot Ford in the back. The downed officer then pulled his back-up weapon and fired. The LA Times reports that no witnesses have spoken to police, and now civil rights activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson is now calling upon L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey to explore the possibility of filing charges against the policemen responsible for the death of Ezell Ford.

Does your opinion of the incident change now with the release of the autopsy?

Shortly following the shooting, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the release of the results by the end of the year. Do you feel more confident that the investigation will be impartial?

AirTalk guest host Patt Morrison was joined by civil rights attorney Connie Rice and attorney and former cop Harry Stern to discuss. (The transcript below has been edited for brevity.)

MORRISON: What did you read into the findings? Do you think they’re consistent with the police account or is there still more investigation to be done?

RICE: Well, I don’t see anything earth shattering here. It’s consistent with what we’ve heard before, and it’s what we expected to find. I guess the thing that I’m more interested in is why did they stop him in the first place?

For me, the question is always: was this encounter truly necessary? And did police have enough cause to stop him in the first place?

MORRISON: And that of course isn’t explored by any of this?

RICE: Exactly. That’s the question, because if the police had no business stopping him anyhow, then you’ve got a very different kind of inquiry. The investigation looks entirely different.

If they had a good reason to stop him and things got out of hand and he panicked and did something to cause them to defend themselves, well you know how that story goes.

But if they had no reason to be in contact with him, then the question is: was this at all, was any of this necessary? And the answer might be no.

MORRISON: Harry Stern joins us as well, an attorney at the law firm Rains, Lucia, Stern based in San Francisco. He’s a former police officer. In your reading and understanding of this, are the findings consistent with what the police officer's account was?

STERN: They are, and I think naturally the public’s going to have questions and maybe even concerns about a shot in the back, that doesn’t sound good.

However, in this context, when you’re talking about an officer who goes to their backup weapon, which is a very unusual circumstance, really a last resort, it is consistent with what the officers said and that is that the officer on the ground was struggling for his duty weapon, the weapon in his holster. The fact that that officer then went to his backup weapon, the weapon of last resort, and fired it, seems to confirm what their account of events was.

MORRISON: Can you speak to the concerns in African American communities that something that may be nothing triggers a great deal?

RICE: Well, yes I know. My brothers, my mother and I were very, very worried about my brothers, who are African American men. And every Air Force base we moved to, my mother would take her sons to the air police and say these are my sons; don’t kill them.

MORRISON: Even if this shooting is found to be in policy, do you agree that it’s likely that it will raise some of the larger questions about why this stop was initiated in the first place and the procedures for dealing with the mentally ill?

STERN: Well to answer the first part of your question, absolutely. I mean that’s an ongoing debate and discussion in light of everything that’s been going on within the last six months in the country.

And I look at it like this: there is a tension that’s developed between what I call “proactive police work” and “reactive police work.”

On one side of the coin is de-policing, where the police really respond — no offense, but — like firefighters. They wait in their station to be called and only respond to things after the fact.

The other way to do police work is proactively; to stop people within the confines of the Constitution, which gives officers wide latitude in doing investigative stops and trying to identify crime and criminals before other people are victimized.

So that’s really the tension as I see it, where the debate is.

MORRISON: And Connie Rice, in that debate there is an awful lot of latitude not only as a policy but in terms of how it's practiced on the street.

RICE: Absolutely. I’ll tell you there are units within LAPD that I think do this job beautifully. They don't make unnecessary stops. They know folks in the community. They know everybody’s name. They know everybody’s problems. They know who has a mental illness, and they know who is schizophrenic. So when they go out, when these cops go out, they really are part of the community, and they don't make unnecessary stops. And they really are only after stopping people to stop real crime, not small petty stuff, but stuff that has a chance of endangering other people. And those cops do a really, really good job Pat.

Now, my question, and I don't know this unit... I don't know these cops personally. I have nothing to say about them. But you do have to ask the question: What are they doing stopping a citizen? Police can't just stop you because they think you look funny or because they have a whim and a prayer. They have to have a good solid reason and good cause for stopping you.

And that's where I start my inquiry, is why did they stop the guy in the first place? And what were they trying to accomplish?

It's tricky work. It's a tricky inquiry, but I think you do have to make it in order to be able to get the full picture here of what was going on.

Guests:

Frank Stoltze, KPCC’s Crime and Politics Reporter who’s been following the story

Connie Rice, Civil rights attorney and member of the Board of Directors at the Advancement Project​, a civil rights organization. She’s also an honorary trustee at KPCC.

Harry Stern, attorney at the law firm Rains, Lucia, Stern based in San Francisco. He’s a former police officer.

This post has been updated.

; Credit: Photo by Guian Bolisay via Flickr Creative Commons

There’s lots of ways to get parking tickets. You forgot to feed your meter or you parked in a red zone while running into the store. The LA Times crunched the numbers and the highest proportion of tickets paid -- those pesky red and white envelopes that spell $73 vanishing from your wallet -- were not to meters or other violations, but instead for parking in a restricted zone on street sweeping day. Residents in dense neighborhoods like Hollywood and Koreatown are issued the most street sweeping violations by far, even as the city has cut back on the total amount of street cleaning. Meanwhile, neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley receive very little street sweeping, and very few tickets.  

Officials have tried to make it easier, by relaxing rules on certain days that the street cleaning isn’t coming, by posting those routes to a city website. A CBS investigation earlier this year found that enforcement issued citations even on some of those routes. Mayor Eric Garcetti apologized and promised refunds.

Revenue from parking tickets goes to the city’s general fund, which keeps residents wary of which neighborhoods get cited, and how often. Not to mention the large-scale apartment buildings in densely-populated areas often lack off-street parking.

Do you have a complicated routine to avoid tickets on street sweeping days? 

If you feel you have been given a parking citation incorrectly, you can call 866-561-9742.

Guests:

Ben Poston, LA Times writer and data editor

Richard Willson, professor of Urban Planning at Cal Poly Pomona

Bruce Gillman, Communications Director for the L.A. Department of Transportation

The Los Angeles Police Department and the National Insurance Crime Bureau have partnered to raise awareness of "bandit" tow truck operators who tow cars away from accident scenes claiming to be affiliated with insurance providers and hold cars for hefty ransoms. ; Credit: Rosa Say/Flickr

Traffic and car accidents in LA County are as common as sunshine and palm trees with over 6,000 reported within the first three months of 2014. For people involved in a fender bender, holding up traffic, car damages and possible injuries are all enough to stress over. Falling victim to a tow truck scam is now another stressor to add to the list, according to the LAPD and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

They’ve partnered to raise awareness of “bandit” tow truck operators who show up to the scene of an accident, before law enforcement, to tow cars and charge outrageous prices to the owners who want to retrieve it. Scammers use police scanners to find recent car accidents, claim to be affiliated with insurance providers and exhort drivers to sign paperwork unknowingly authorizing their financial demise. Owners have shelled out up to $4,000 to reclaim their cars.

Since California law now has stricter guidelines for tow truck operators impounding cars from private lots, more are preying on accident victims. Once they’ve towed a car from an accident scene, cars are taken to body shops, tacking on hefty charges for repairs and holding and towing fees.

What strategies are being put in place to prevent these scams from continuing? 

The LAPD and NICB recommend the following in a press release:

• If you are in a non-injury accident, contact police and your insurance company or motor club to request an authorized tow truck.
• Your insurance company or road side service should provide the name of the tow truck company and expected arrival time. If a tow truck arrives unexpectedly, a call back to the road side service center should be considered to confirm the tow company is the correct company dispatched.
• Do not be pressured or intimidated into dealing with a tow truck driver that was not requested.
• Do not sign any towing release form that does not clearly spell out the charges involved and the exact location where you want the vehicle taken.
• Use your cell phone to take pictures of any tow truck operator and equipment that shows up on the scene.
• Take pictures of the damage to the vehicles. Some unscrupulous body shops will enhance the damage once they get the vehicle to inflate the repair charges.
• If you are injured in the accident, do not be forced into signing a release. Let the police handle the tow.

Guests:

Frank Scafidi, Director of public affairs, National Insurance Crime Bureau

Benjamin Jones, LAPD detective, oversees enforcement section of Police Commission Investigation Division

Moviegoers watch "Back to the Future" from the comfort of the vehicles at The Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In on October 11, 2013 in Miami, Florida. ; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Capitalizing on the success of the first Back to the Future movie, which was released in 1985, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and most of the original cast returned to the silver screen just four years later for a sequel set in the far off year of 2015.

While some of the movie’s predictions about future technology are laughable to us future-dwellers, Adrienne LaFrance with The Atlantic contends that, “... examining how the real world advanced … is far more revealing.” Hover-boards, instant re-hydrators and flying cars? No. But what the movie was able to pinpoint is a few key technologies, variations of which are still in use today.

Today, AirTalk takes a look back at our favorite gadgets from Back to the Future, and examines the technology that will shape 2015 and beyond.

Guests: 

Adrienne LaFrance, reporter with The Atlantic

Jefferson Graham, technology columnist for USA Today, and host of the Talking Tech video podcast series

A Doctors Without Borders (MSF), health worker in protective clothing holds a child suspected of having Ebola in the MSF treatment center on October 5, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. The girl and her mother, showing symptoms of the deadly disease, were awaiting test results for the virus.; Credit: John Moore/Getty Images

In 2014, President Obama announced sweeping legislation reform and the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba, Sony backpedaled after a hack exposed some less-than-flattering emails from company executives and came under more scrutiny after they chose to pull their Christmas Day release of The Interview due to threats of violence at theaters that showed the film, Republicans took control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, and protests erupted across the country after grand juries did not indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. And that is just in the last two months of the year.

2014 also saw the advent of legal pot use after four states and Washington D.C. voted to allow marijuana to be used recreationally, a deadly outbreak of Ebola in West Africa that led to a couple of cases in the U.S., the shocking deaths of celebrities like Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the still-unsolved disappearance of a massive commercial airliner carrying more than 200 people aboard.

What do you think was the biggest story of 2014? Be sure to vote in our poll below and add a story if you think we missed one!

Guests: 

Jim Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine and the author of ten books, most recently China Airborne (Vintage, 2013). He was also once the chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

Bob Thompson, professor of television, radio, and film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University.