Actor Robert Downey, Jr. (L) and Jeremy Renner Join Marvel Entertainment Executives Ring The NYSE Opening Bell In Celebration Of "Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron" at New York Stock Exchange on April 27, 2015 in New York City. ; Credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Lael Loewenstein, Tim Cogshell, and Charles Solomon review this week’s releases, including the blockbuster sequel, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Carey Mulligan in the period drama "Far from the Madding Crowd," the Albert Maysles documentary "Iris," and more.

TGI-Filmweek!

Guests:

Lael Loewenstein, film critic for KPCC and Variety

Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Alt Film Guide

Charles Solomon, film critic for KPCC and Animation Scoop and Animation Magazine

Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announces that criminal charges will be filed against Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray on May 1, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray died in police custody after being arrested on April 12, 2015. ; Credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Promising justice for Freddie Gray, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced this morning that the 25-year-old’s death in police custody was a homicide, and that six Baltimore officers would be charged criminally.

Mosby’s speech was pointed, yet emotional. In it, she said she heard protesters cries for “no justice, no peace” and urged them to remain peaceful while she pursues justice. She thanked the Baltimore Police Department for its hard work, and noted that the charges on the six officers shouldn’t be an indictment on the entire department.

Officer Caesar Goodson, Jr., who drove the police van that carried Freddie Gray, is charged with second-degree murder, the most serious of any of the charges the six officers face. Others include involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office, and false imprisonment. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also held a press conference this morning to announce that five of the six officers charged were in custody.  

How is the city of Baltimore reacting to the news of the criminal charges filed? What are the next steps for the prosecution in the investigation into Freddie Gray’s death? Are the officers responsible for Freddie Gray’s death?

Guests:

Peter Moskos, associate professor in the Department of Law and Police Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He was a Baltimore City Police Officer from 1999-2001.

Dr. Michael Baden, M.D., former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and former chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police; Last year, Dr. Baden performed an independent autopsy on Michael Brown at the request of Brown’s family.

David A. Harris, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, where he studies, writes and teaches about police behavior and regulation. He’s the author of “Good Cops: The Case for Preventive Policing” (The New Press, 2005)

Michael Schwartz, Partner at the law firm Rains Lucia Stern, who specializes in defending police officers. He defended one of the officers in the Kelly Thomas trial

Lance Lucas, President of the Greater Baltimore Black Chamber of Commerce

Actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo attends the 2014 Stand Up For Pits Benefit at Gotham Comedy Club on April 23, 2014 in New York City. ; Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

The new documentary "Misery Loves Comedy," featuring a long list of funny people such as Janeane Garofalo and Christopher Guest, explores the oft-debated idea that comics are depressives who have led unhappy lives.

Take Larry David, for example - the beloved creator of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. David's personality is famously discontented, pessimistic, and side-splitting. So to know that he's described as a comic's comic indicates what a dark bunch of fools dedicate themselves to making people laugh.

Joel Warner studied comics for his recent book, "The Humor Code." Warner says personality tests conducted on comics shows they are no more sad nor more happy the rest of humanity.

Do you see a connection between misery and comedy? Assuming you're funny, what inspires your humor?

Guests:

Jamie Masada, Founder and Owner, The Laugh Factory

Joel Warner, Co-Author, "The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny." (2015; Simon & Schuster)

Soldiers, officers and civilian employees attend the commencement ceremony for the U.S. Army's annual observance of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in the Pentagon Center Courtyard March 31, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia.; Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The study was sponsored by the Pentagon, based on the response from about 170,000 active and reserve service members.

It finds that an estimated 18,900 soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force members said they had experienced some form of “unwanted sexual contact” in 2014.

The report finds a high correlation between sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military. A woman service member in the military who is sexually harassed is 14 times more likely to be sexually assaulted; by the same token, a man who is sexually harassed in the military is 50 times more likely to be assaulted.

Kristie Gore, a behavioral scientist and co-author of the study at the RAND corporation, will join Larry to discuss the report’s findings and policy implications.

Guest:

Kristie Gore, Senior Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation, and coauthor of the report on “Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military,” which Rand released Friday

1 in 5 women and 1 out of every 16 men will become a survivor of sexual assault in college. "Each pair of shoes on this lawn represents 7 survivors." An action put on by the Sororities and Fraternities of the University of Oregon.; Credit: Wolfram Burner/Flickr

Campus sexual violence has garnered unprecedented national attention in the last few years. While sexual assault on campus is a serious problem, there’s been widespread disagreement between sexual violence prevention advocates and critics on how prevalent the issue really is.

One stat that gets cited repeatedly by the news media and government officials is that 1 in 5 women in college are victims of sexual assault.  That number is from a 2007 study that used data collected for two universities, and even its author says that it should never be treated as nationally representative.

Over the years, other studies have arrived at different numbers to provide a snapshot of how serious the issue is, but their results have also been disputed.

Why is it so difficult to come up with a national statistic?

Guests:

Jake New, reporter at the education publication Inside Higher Ed, who writes frequently about rape on campus

Christopher Krebs, Senior Research Social Scientist at the North Carolina-based research institution RTI International. He is the co-author of the 2007 “The Campus Assault Study,” which found that “1 in 5” women on two university campuses were victims of sexual violence

Drugs are prepared to shoot intravenously by a user addicted to heroin on February 6, 2014 in St. Johnsbury Vermont.; Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Heroin-related deaths tripled in the U.S. between 2010 and 2013, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Author and journalist Sam Quinones blames big pharma.

In his new book, “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” Quinones exposes a troubling trend in the States. He theorizes that doctors, working closely with the producers of prescription opiates like Vicodin, OxyContin and morphine, have helped create a nation of addicts.

Though many drugs in the opioid family are prescribed for legitimate reasons, Quinones contends that there may be just as many that aren’t. When doctors work too closely with powerful drug corporations, he says that financial motivations lead many physicians to over-prescribe powerful pills.

Digging deeper into the issue, he links the deaths of suburban young men at the hands of black tar heroin to the doctors who enabled their addictions.

Guest:

Sam Quinones, author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic” (Bloomsbury Press, 2015). He was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to 2014

Former business executive Carly Fiorina speaks to guests gathered at the Point of Grace Church for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition 2015 Spring Kickoff on April 25, 2015 in Waukee, Iowa. ; Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of tech giant, Hewlett Packard, Ben Carson, illustrious pediatric neurosurgeon and former Governor Mike Huckabee are throwing their hats into the Republican presidential race.

Fiorina, once named the most powerful woman in business by “Fortune” magazine, is remembered in California for her senate bid in 2010 to unseat incumbent Barbara Boxer. Ben Carson is African-American and was born poor to a single mother. He went on to graduate from Yale and University of Michigan medical school, rising to the position of  director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Former Governor Mike Huckabee is known to be popular with the evangelical right.

Do any of these candidates have a shot at breaking away from the pack?

Guests:

Carla Marinucci, Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle

Philip Bump, Writer for The Washington Post's politics blog, The Fix

Stephen J. Dubner

“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” “When to rob a bank.” “More sex please, we’re economists.”

These are among the provocatively comic chapter titles from the newest book of economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the best-selling layman’s guide to wacky ‘Freakonomics,’ the book is a compilation of 131 blog posts from their website www.freakonomics.com. With rants ranging from criticizing the penny to advocating for internet poker, these authors make it clear that they know how to think like a freak.

If you have kept up with Freakonomics through the book series or various media, what are some of your favorite theories? Do you have an odd economic theory that explains a social phenomenon?

Guest:

Stephen J. Dubner, co-author with Steven Levitt of “When to Rob a Bank: And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants” (William Morrow, 2015). Dubner and Levitt also hosts Freakonomics Radio and the site www.freakonomics.com.

Investigators remove a body as they work a crime scene outside the Curtis Culwell Center after a shooting occurred the day before May 04, 2015 in Garland, Texas. During the "Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest," an anti-Islam event, on May 03, Elton Simpson of Phoenix, Arizonia and another man opend fire, wounding a security guard . Police officers shot and killed Simpson at the scene. ; Credit: Ben Torres/Getty Images

On Sunday, two gunmen shot a security guard protecting a building housing a cartoon convention seeking the best depiction of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad.

Elton Simpson is one, the identity of the other attacker is currently unknown. In 2010, Simpson was found guilty of making false statements to the FBI about going to Somalia. Extra ammunition was found in their car, but no bombs.

Read the full story here

Guests:

Eric Aasen, digital news editor at KERA, the NPR affiliate in Dallas, Texas, who is reporting on the shootings in Garland

David Schanzer, professor of Public Policy, Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Blake Griffin #32 and Matt Barnes #22 of the Los Angeles Clippers embrace at the final buzzer against the San Antonio Spurs during Game Seven of the Western Conference quarterfinals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at Staples Center on May 2, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. ; Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

If you weren’t paying attention to the epic sports weekend that was, you might be surprised to find out that the “Fight of the Century” between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao didn’t quite live up to the hype for many fans.

However, sports fanatics here in Los Angeles had plenty to celebrate as the Ducks, Clippers, and Dodgers all continued to roll.

There was plenty on tap even before Saturday night’s mega-fight. You had the running of the fastest two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby, where we saw American Pharaoh sprint to an exciting finish to win legendary trainer Bob Baffert his fourth-ever victory in that race. The L.A. Clippers faced the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs for an exciting game seven, which featured a Chris Paul buzzer-beater that propelled the Clips to a 111-109 win and on to the next round of the playoffs to face the Houston Rockets.  Finally, the NFL draft wrapped up on Saturday, as quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota were picked, as expected, at numbers one and two, respectively.

Sunday featured the Anaheim Ducks remained undefeated in the postseason with a 3-0 win over the Calgary Flames that puts Anaheim up 2-0 in the series as it returns to Calgary. Finally, Dodgers wrapped up a three game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 1-0 win, maintaining their three game lead over the Padres in the NL West. 

Do you think this was the greatest overall weekend in sports? Did the events live up to the hype? What do you think was the best moment of the weekend?

Guests:

A. Martinez, co-host of KPCC’s Take Two

Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation and Host of Edge of Sports Radio for Sirius/XM.

Atmosphere at the Bud Light Lime "Lime-A-Rita" Cinco de Mayo party on May 5, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.; Credit: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for Bud Light

On Cinco de Mayo, if tequila is your drink instead of beer, in most of America you'll have a harder time finding a restaurant or store that sells Don Julio instead of just Corona.

Full liquor licenses are more limited and more expensive than beer & wine licenses, plus some states still observe "Sunday laws" - that restrict the sale of all alcohol, but are more restrictive of alcohol containing more than four percent alcohol by weight. Experts in the booze business say there is a leftover stigma from the days of prohibition.

For most of the 20th Century, companies making hard liquor followed a self-imposed ban on advertising. That meant commercials for beer and wine flooded American culture in a way that whiskey, vodka and the like did not.

Arthur Shapiro, a former marketing chief of Seagram who blogs at Booze Business, says that distinction was dangerous and caused Americans to perceive the consumption of a few bottles of beer as harmless compared to a few shots of bourbon. He writes "In my view, any restrictions - voluntary or imposed - on liquor remain hypercritical, in as much as wine and beer (mainly) do not face comparable constraints in the US."

Should full liquor licenses be more accessible for restaurant and bar proprietors in California? How have craft and artisanal cocktails changed your perception of booze?

Guests:

Arthur Shapiro, blogs at boozebusiness.com; former head of marketing for the U.S. at Seagram Spirits and Wine - now defunct, Seagram was once the largest alcohol distiller in the world.

Allison Evanow, Owner of Square One Organic Spirits

O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Calif., is encouraging uninsured patients to sign up for coverage in the emergency room.; Credit: Sarah Varney for NPR

A poll of emergency room doctors, released Monday, finds that visits to the ER have increased since January 2014, when the Affordable Care Act came into effect.

Reducing ER visits, costs, and wait times was one of the main arguments by Obamacare’s supporters in pushing for the legislation.

It’s not the first indication that ER visits may go up after Medicaid expands. A Harvard study looked at Oregon’s expanding Medicaid pool from 2008-2011 and found a similar jump.

Health policy experts are divided on the reasons why. Proponents of the health care reform law say that there’s pent-up demand, and with time, the ER numbers will fall. Opponents see it as a sign of Obamacare’s failure.

The latest poll tracked physician perception, not the statistics kept by hospitals, but Oregon’s experience may be instructive for other states and the federal exchanges.

How well is Obamacare working to control ER visits?

2015 ACEP Poll Affordable Care Act Research Results

Guests:

Katherine Baicker, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of a 2014 study that found a jump in ER visits following Oregon’s Medicaid expansion.

Dylan Roby, Director of Health Economics and evaluation Research at the UCLA Center for Health Policy

Yevgeniy Feyman, fellow at the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute

A woman walks by a damaged Wells Fargo branch in downtown Oakland, California on May 02, 2015. ; Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

The city of Los Angeles is suing Wells Fargo Bank for allegedly fostering a culture in which employees frequently opened bogus customer accounts.

The suit alleges Wells put so much pressure on its staff that quotas were met by signing up customers for additional accounts they never authorized.

If you are a Wells Fargo customer and have noticed unusual activity with your account, call the City Attorney’s office at 213 978 8359.

Guests:

Mike Feuer, City Attorney of Los Angeles

Jay Walk with Cellphone; Credit: Elvert Barnes via Flickr

If you enter a crosswalk when the red hand is flashing you could be fined a whopping $197 ticket.

In downtown LA, where the neighborhood is experiencing a boom of new residents and building, more and more people are walking, making them more susceptible to jaywalking tickets. The issue caught the attention of the LA city council, and a motion by Councilmember Mike Bonin, seconded by Councilmember Jose Huizar, asks the Los Angeles Police Department to give them more information about why vehicle code section #21456, increases pedestrian safety.

Critics of the code say it favors cars, making it archaic. Supporters say it makes pedestrians safer.

Could police use more discretion when giving out jaywalking tickets? Is it a one size fits all law? Are pedestrians made safer by not stepping into the crosswalk when the red hand is flashing? Have you recently gotten a jaywalking ticket for this offense?

Guest:

Mike Bonin, Councilmember for district 11 which encompasses Brentwood, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, West LA, and Westchester

Floyd Mayweather Jr. exchange punches with Manny Pacquiao during their welterweight unification championship bout, May 2, 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.; Credit: JOHN GURZINSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather was over in less than an hour. But the battle over how fans watched the fight will continue for months.

It cost $100, in theory, in order to see the “fight of the century” between Mayweather and Pacquiao but for those who didn’t or couldn’t afford to pay, they had another option: watch live streams of the events via rival smartphone apps, Meerkat and the Twitter-owned Periscope. At one point, 10,000 people tuned into one Periscope video stream. Most viewers admit the quality of the footage wasn’t great, but it allowed them to take part in a very hyped event.

The promoters of the fight demanded the streams be taken down and have threatened legal action, but that's a game of whack-a-mole. The apps are being compared to Napster, the peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that encoded audio files in MP3 format. Of course, Meerkat and Periscope are different: they let users livestream, not upload content after it's been recorded.

How are providers of live events going to adapt to these new streaming apps? Are some piracy offenses worse than others? 

Guests:

Andrew Wallenstein, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Variety

Lance Ulanoff, Chief Correspondent, Mashable

The location where Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo was shot on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014.; Credit: Erika Aguilar/KPCC

The son of murdered Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo told a police officer that his mother shot his father three times in the side last fall during an argument that he tried to break up but couldn't after his father punched him in the eye, according to grand jury testimony revealed yesterday.

Last month, the wife of Crespo pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors claim Lyvette Crespo shot her husband three times in the chest during an argument at their home in Bell Gardens.  Her attorney, Eber Bayona, told reporters, "I want to ask the public to maintain an open mind and to wait until all the evidence has been presented before they make a final opinion about what happened. I'm asking you not to try Ms. Crespo in the media."

However, more sordid details about the couple's marriage emerged yesterday. Text messages show the mayor bragged to his co-workers and his wife about extramarital affairs and held a "faux wedding" for a girlfriend in Las Vegas last year.

Could these revelations taint jury selection? What are the right types of jurors to try a case with a seemingly unsympathetic victim?

Protesters holding placards reading "Stop to mass surveillance" take part on May 4, 2015 in Paris in a demonstration against the government's controversial bill giving spies sweeping new surveillance powers, deemed "heavily intrusive" by critics. ; Credit: ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images

France is close to approving a controversial new surveillance law that would allow intelligence agencies to place cameras and recording devices in suspects' homes and cars without authorization from a judge.

Instead, with the exception of immediate threats, they would need to request permission from an independent nine-person panel composed of magistrates, lawmakers and a communication expert. Another controversial measure would force communication and Internet firms to allow intelligence services to install electronic "lock-boxes" to record metadata from all Internet users in the country.

The metadata would then be subject to algorithmic analysis for potentially suspicious behavior. Hundreds of people protested the proposed law Monday. Opponents say the bill legalizes highly intrusive surveillance methods without guarantees for individual freedom and privacy. Reporters Without Borders said the bill "poses a grave new threat to the confidentiality of journalists' sources."

With files from Associated Press

Guests:

Gary Schmitt, director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank; former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and author most recently of Safety, Liberty, and Islamist Terrorism: American and European Approaches to Domestic Counterterrorism

Axel Simon, works with La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), a French digital activist organization that opposes the proposed law

Medical marijuana advocates hold signs as they demonstrate outside the site where U.S. President Barack Obama was holding a fundraiser on February 16, 2012 in San Francisco, California. ; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The time is right for big tobacco to exploit business opportunities in the production of marijuana-based products, according to new analysis from Bloomberg Intelligence.

Ken Shea of Bloomberg says, “U.S. medical and recreational marijuana sales may climb to $8 billion by 2019, up sharply from about $2.4 billion in 2014, according to the Marijuana Business Factbook 2015. Potential federal legalization of marijuana for recreational use could present large opportunities for major U.S. tobacco companies, given their cigarette manufacturing scale, knowledge of managing similar regulatory and legal risks and possible similar production supply chain."

With supply and demand on a sharp and steady climb, policy makers are wringing their hands to deal with implications of more stoned citizenry. One bill that failed in Sacramento yesterday sought to authorize roadside drug tests to help police officers identify high drivers. The bill did not meet resistance from marijuana advocates and enjoyed support of law enforcement, however experts say the science is not advanced enough to determine whether a high driver is an impaired driver.

Guests:

Ken Shea,  Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst

Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Andrzej Listowski, manager of water and energy at Sydney Olympic Park, holds a flask of clean water which has been recycled from sewage November 17, 2006, in Sydney, Australia. ; Credit: Ian Waldie/Getty Images

Orange County has successfully been treating wastewater to be used as drinking water since 2008, and has plans to expand its Groundwater Replenishment System so that by the end of 2015, it will create 100 million gallons of potable water a day -- at half the cost of imported water.

While many stakeholders might find it hard to swallow, the need to recycle water might just be impossible to avoid with California facing one of its most extreme droughts on record.

Read the full story here

Guests:

Mike Wehner, Assistant General Manager of Orange County Water District

Brent M. Haddad, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz

Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduates in Corona, CA.; Credit: Crystal Marie Lopez/Flickr

LAUSD’s plan to prepare students for four-year colleges has had some unintended consequences.

The LA Times reports that 75 percent of 10th-graders in the district could be denied their diplomas, because they didn’t meet the plan’s requirements.

Introduced in 2005, the plan was dubbed “A-G” and was designed to prepare students for 21st century workplaces. The policy upped the math and English requirement to three and four years, respectively. It also raised the minimum passing grade to a “C.”

Superintendent Ramon Cortines tells the L.A. Times that the goal was a good one, but “not practical, realistic or fair to the students of 2017.”

Today on AirTalk, we take a look at what went wrong, and what the LAUSD must do now.

Guests:

Monica Ratliff, chair of the curriculum assessment committee for LAUSD District 6

Elmer Roldan, education program officer with the United Way; he also is the parent of a 9th grader in the LAUSD