Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear look at protestors in the streets around Leimert Park following a prayer vigil against the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin on July 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

A plan was introduced this week that would require mandatory reporting by police departments to the department of justice in cases of officer involved shootings.

Introduced by U.S. Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Cory Booker, the bill requires law enforcement agencies nationwide to report to the Justice Department on any incident in which a law enforcement officer is involved in a shooting, and any circumstance that the use of force by or against a law enforcement officer or civilian results in a serious injury or death.

The federal government currently does not collect detailed records of people killed by police forces throughout the US. This bill aims to collect data about the people involved in the shootings so that law enforcement agencies can create better policies to protect police officers and the public. With police involved shootings on the rise, should this kind of reporting be mandatory? How much reporting is already done by police departments?

Guests:

Wesley Lowery, Reporter for the Washington Post who’s been looking in the statistics behind officer-involved shootings

David Klinger, author of Into the Kill Zone: A Cop’s Eye View of Deadly Force, and professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; Former LAPD patrol officer

Tim Lynch, director of Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice and editor of PoliceMisconduct.net 

An investigation by the Associate Press found that many small planes flying low over neighborhoods are part of an FBI civilian air patrol. The FBI created fake companies in order to obscure the true purpose of the aircraft and pilots, and to prevent suspects from being able to identify them.; Credit: Sherwood 411/KPCC

Those single-engine planes that sometimes fly low over your neighborhood might be more than just a pilot tooling around in the local skies.

An AP investigation found that many small planes like this are part of an FBI civilian air patrol that gives air support ground operations. The investigation tracked at least 50 planes back to the Bureau, and also found over 100 flights in 11 different states during a 30 day period since late April. In addition, the FBI created fake companies in order to obscure the true purpose of the aircraft and pilots, and to prevent suspects from being able to identify them.

The news came the same day that President Obama signed a new law into effect that takes authority to collect millions of Americans’ phone records away from the National Security Agency. While the FBI program may raise questions for some about government surveillance, the FBI says that its aviation program is not a secret and that the planes used are not built for bulk data collection.

What do you think of the FBI aviation program? Were you already aware it existed? Do you think this is necessary for the FBI to conduct operations or does it give too much authority to surveil?

Guests:

Hanni Fakhoury, Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ron Hosko, the former head of the FBI’s criminal investigative division; President, Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund

Larry Mantle hosts a discussion on the future of LA’s ports at the Queen Mary in Long Beach on June 2, 2015.; Credit: Louis Felix/KPCC

Most Americans don't realize just how much of an impact ports like those in L.A. and Long Beach have on their everyday life. Many of the things we rely on daily came through one of the twin ports before finding their way to American homes and businesses.

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are still the largest in the country — about 1/3 of the shipping comes through the ports. That's more than 4,400 ships annually. Still, their combined share of U.S. shipping cargo has been dropping recently.

In addition, the congested ports face the prospect of larger ships and more cargo, grinding labor issues, more strict environmental standards, and evolving technology that is changing how shipping companies and ports handle cargo.

As part of AirTalk's 30th anniversary series, we put together a panel of seven major stakeholders in the ports’ future aboard the historic Queen Mary in Long Beach. There, they discussed the economic, environmental, logistical, and social challenges facing Southern California's ports in the years to come.  

Economic challenges

In Long Beach, a well-functioning port can mean the difference between a thriving and struggling local economy, said Port of Long Beach CEO Jon Slangerup.

“For the city, which is about 500,000 people, we employ, through the port, about 1 out of 8 jobs, so it’s a significant impact on our community. And, of course, regionally there’s about 300,000 jobs that are directly affected by the work that goes on at the Port of Long Beach.”

“This is a hub for economic growth, particularly here in Southern California,” added Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners vice president Dave Arian. “Millions of people throughout the United States work as a result of these two ports. So this is an important thing. For example, just in wages alone, the longshoreman invest nearly $1.2 billion in the Southern California economy.”

Manufacturing has been on the decline in Southern California, and UCLA economist Goetz Wolff said that decline and the growth of the ports are impacting Southern California's economy.

“Ironically, the ports have allowed more products manufactured offshore to come in, in a sense to undermine manufacturing, which is a tragedy," Wolff said. "On the other hand, the fact that the industry as a whole provides so many jobs for the region really is important.”

Wolff also cautions that people should differentiate between the jobs that the ports create. On one side are longshoremen who are paid well and get benefits. On the other, you have workers like the port truckers and warehouse workers, whose jobs aren’t nearly as desirable.

Port truckers’ struggle

One of the biggest challenges facing the ports is how to work with the truck drivers who carry cargo to and from the ports. Unlike the longshore workers, the port truckers don’t have a union, and are still fighting for better wages and more backing from the companies for which they haul.

“Over the last several years, there’s been huge unemployment in this country,” said Nick Weiner, national campaign director for Justice for Port Drivers.

“There aren’t choices for these truck drivers," he said. "These are the jobs that exist, and they’re a necessary job. Cargo from the ports here, I think, go to every Congressional district in the country. Everyone in this nation depends on the ports, including these truck drivers, so they should be good jobs.”

UCLA economist Goetz Wolff added that most truckers are paid based on the load they carry, not the hours they work.

“The nature of the port trucking system is one which has relied on a legal fiction that the truck drivers are independent owner-operators, which makes them seem as if they were totally entrepreneurs and businessmen," Wolff said. "But really, they are, in effect, captive workers responding to the immediate demands of the various trucking companies that hire them.”

The result? Drivers who work 20-30 hours more each week that most Americans and bring home a fraction of the pay, Weiner said.

"I've seen too many paychecks from too many drivers…where they work 60 or 70 hours a week, haul many containers and bring home $100 at the end of the week," he added. "I’ve seen paychecks where they owe their employer because of the deductions taken out of their paycheck for fuel, for insurance.”

Environmental challenges

Making Southern California’s ports greener is one of the most daunting challenges facing the complex in the years to come. While environmentalists said both ports have made efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Morgan Wyenn said efforts haven't gone far enough. 

“I think it’s definitely a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ sort of situation," she said. "No one can deny that both ports have shown incredible leadership and are a model for many ports around the world, and we have applauded them and supported a lot of their efforts. On the other hand, there’s a huge amount of work left to go. The port environmental pollution problem is complicated and very expensive to fix, and I think we’re still a long way from the solution.”

Wyenn said the next big step for the ports must be to transition to zero-emission technology. While initiatives like the clean truck program — which sets higher environmental standards for the trucks used to haul cargo into and out of the ports — have made some progress, she’d also like to see more equipment used to move containers switch over to electric power instead of gas. She added that truck drivers are often forced to pay to fix their own trucks, and the clean diesel technology used in some of the newer vehicles can make that incredibly expensive.

“Truck drivers are often left footing the bill to maintain these trucks," Wyenn said, "which is a very expensive endeavor, so often maintenance is not done properly, both for safety and environmental issues. So we don’t have the filters working the way they should, so the trucks are not as clean as we hoped that they were going to be. Transitioning them to be zero-emission trucks is going to be a huge financial investment and we’re going to need incentives and grants from every level of government and new incentive programs.”

Wyenn said she has high hopes for the future of the port complex, and while she’s confident that progress can be made, it will rely on the ports’ leadership.

With ‘monster ships’ come monster issues

As demand for goods increases, the port has had to adapt to larger and larger vessels. Cargo ships today can be twice as large as those constructed just four years ago. Dredging, new canals, and new technology have all been introduced to ease the ports and their staff into the transition, but work remains.

“The big ships have fundamentally changed everything,” said Slangerup, “but we have not yet responded holistically to that challenge. We’ve been preparing for years for this and we have invested billions of dollars to do it, so I don’t want people to think that we’re sitting here waiting for these big ships to come and not be prepared. We’re totally prepared.”

“Obviously there’s interaction that goes on between the terminal operators, the shipping lines, and the ports to make sure that when their vessel arrives, it can be accommodated,” added Pacific Merchant Shipping Association vice president T.L. Garrett. “One of the factors with the newer generations of vessels is they haven’t necessarily needed deeper channels than previous generations, so some of the work that had been done prior to this already accommodates those newer, larger ships.”

Not everyone agrees that enough has been done to ready the ports and their employees for the monster ships. International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 13 President Bobby Olvera, Jr. said that the ports have known for years that the bigger ships were coming, and instead of investing in more manpower, threw their money at outdated technology.

“It’s greed," he said. "I think they’d rather spend their money on unproven technologies. Even in recent days, we’ve had marine terminal operators come to us and say ‘Our technology isn’t working. We can’t say it publicly, but it’s not working. Help us.'”  

Dave Arian with the Port of L.A. said when you can build a monster ship that moves 100 times as much cargo as before within one year, there’s no way to adjust to that overnight.

“It’s been created by the industry itself," he added. "The blame always goes on labor, it goes on ports, but it was created by the industry itself to be more competitive, to lower the cost of shipping a container, and that’s really what’s created by the industry. How do we solve it? We’re working on it.”

Shipping and supply chain challenges

Another hurdle facing the port complex is how to best streamline the supply chain so that products move from manufacturer to port to store shelves in as quickly and efficiently as possible. Pacific Merchant Shipping Association in Long Beach Vice President T.L. Garrett said when his members consider ports, they look for good infrastructure that will allow them to move their cargo quickly to the marketplace.

“You have to view my members, the shipping lines and the terminal operators as kind of a UPS," he said. "We don’t own the cargo that’s in the boxes but we’re responsible for getting it to the customer on time. So, from our perspective, what’s most important is having the facilities at the ports that can meet those needs so that we can efficiently move the cargo.”

Jon Slangerup with the Port of Long Beach said that can be an struggle; the entire supply chain — including the ocean carriers and terminal operators — are part of very disparate systems.

“It’s not a connected, integrated supply chain," he said. "Because of that, there’s a dearth of information that drives visibility of the move of a container from origin all the way through to destination.”

Garrett added that the process to upgrade can take an excruciatingly long time, and that frustrates member companies.

“It’s ever-ongoing in both of these ports," he said. "They continue to evolve, but some of the processes take an exceedingly long time to enable us to take full advantage of the modernization. There are projects that, by the time they’re actually constructed, some of the technologies are already obsolete.”

Bobby Olvera, Jr. of the ILWU Local 13 disagreed, saying he believes the ports and terminal operators invested in failed technology instead of a larger workforce.

“What we’ve done is gone back to a traditional sense of working on the waterfront. It’s more labor-intensive," he said. "I think they invested in the wrong thing. They should’ve invested in human capital, hiring people, providing more full time workers so that, when we do hit peak, the people are there to work. ”

The big picture

While progress has been made in the modernization of L.A.'s port and streamlining its supply chain, a lot of work still has to be done in order to bring the ports into the 21st Century.

ILWU's Olvera said the future of the ports will impact the communities that surround them most heavily.

“I think, for the individuals that work in the ports, they’ve invested in this community," he said. "The wages they earn here in the port get spent in the community. And they have a unique perspective, because they live here, so the environment is important to them and congestion on the highways is important to them, but the ability to have a good middle-class income, put their kids through college, pay their taxes, I think that’s foremost in their minds.”

“If we’re looking to the future, we’re looking at a different model,” said the Port of L.A.’s Dave Arian. "We’re looking at a model where a container comes into a terminal and it stays there no more than 24 hours. You create satellite terminals where you can move the containers more efficiently, and the question of efficiency is going to be the determination of where cargo flows, because that determines cost. For the Port of L.A. and for the Port of Long Beach, it’s a question of efficiency and how we get there.”

You can hear the broadcast audio for today's segment above. As an extra, we're including the fascinating question-and-answer session that followed it below.

Guests

Jon Slangerup, president and CEO of the Port of Long Beach

Nick Weiner, campaign director for Justice for Port Drivers/Teamsters Port Division

Bobby Olvera, Jr., president of the Local 13 of the International Longshore Warehouse Union, which represents 7,000 members in the Southern California area

Goetz Wolff, economist and lecturer of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Dave Arian, vice president of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, which oversees the Port of Los Angeles

Morgan Wyenn, staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council

T.L. Garrett, vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association in Long Beach

Project 365 #190 - "A Screever in our Midst"; Credit: Pete via Flickr

Creativity is something that's become as valued in the arts as it is in disciplines as far afield as business, medicine and technology.

But how exactly do you measure creativity? How do you teach it?  It’s a perennial question that neuroscience has been called upon in recent years to answer.

A new study from Stanford is the latest to employ neuroscience to try to answer the question. The study asked participants to engage in a game similar to Pictionary while hooked up to an MRI machine. The results show an increase in activity in the cerebellum, which is typically tied to motor control. The study claims to be the first to find a direct evidence that that part of the brain in involved in creativity.

What are the implications of the study? Is creativity something that can be tested, replicated, and taught like a science?

Pictionary-based fMRI paradigm to study the neural correlates of spontaneous improvisation and figural creativity

Guests:

Manish Saggar, Instructor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University. He is the lead author of the study, which has just been published in the online journal Scientific Reports

Grace Hawthorne,  Consulting Associate Professor at the Stanford D.School, the university’s design school. She is one of the co-authors of the study

Former Long Beach Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell became the first non-LASD member to head of the department in 100 years. McDonnell was sworn in on December 1 as Los Angeles County’s 32nd Sheriff.; Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC

The Los Angeles’ Sheriff’s Department says it wants to leave no questions when it comes to what the department’s internal ‘honesty policy’ means.

L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell announced planned enhancements to LASD's internal policy on honesty during KPCC’s “AirTalk with Larry Mantle” Wednesday after an internal memo went out to LASD employees earlier that morning.

“We put that out this morning to all of our staff to make clear the highest standard is expected in all that we do. Just as I hold myself to these high standards, I hold everyone else in the department to them as well.”

LASD didn’t provide specific details regarding what changes will be coming to the policy on honesty, as the proposal is still in a final draft form and must be reviewed and greenlit by the police unions before it can go into effect.  Sheriff McDonnell says he'll also be taking a more proactive role in internal discipline, which was not the case before.

Also, the Los Angeles Times published a story that suggested staffing shortages could delay Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s plans for a sweeping overhaul of the way the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department conducts business.

Sheriff McDonnell ran on a platform of reforming the department, promising to weed out corruption and increase department transparency. About a month earlier, former LASD Undersheriff Paul Tanaka and another former high-ranking LASD official were indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiring to do so.

Larry asks Sheriff McDonnell about his plans to bring in more deputies and fill the recruiting gap as well as the indictment against former Undersheriff Tanaka. He’ll also talk with Larry about the fictitous “Masonic Fraternal Police Department,” which was run, in part, by a former aide to California attorney general Kamala Harris.

Have questions for Sheriff McDonnell? Call us at 866-893-5722, post them in the comment section below, or our Facebook page or tweet @AirTalk using #AskTheSheriff.

Guest:

Jim McDonnell, Sheriff of Los Angeles County

Rais Bhuiyan

In September of 2001 Rais Bhuiyan was working at a gas station convenience store in Dallas Texas when a day laborer named Mark Stroman walked into the store and shot Bhuiyan in the face with a shotgun.

Stroman was seeking revenge on people who he viewed as Arab for the 9/11 attacks that had occurred just weeks earlier. Stroman’s killing-spree left two South Asian convenience store workers dead and seriously injured Bhuiyan.

A year later, Mark Stroman was put on trial for his crimes. At the trial Stroman dubbed himself the "Arab slayer" and called the shootings "patriotic" retribution for the terror attacks. Stroman  was given the death penalty for his crimes, and a decade later he was executed by lethal injection.

However, before his execution, Stroman  had a change of heart for his crimes, saying in his final moments that "hate is going on in the world and it has to stop." A main reason for Stroman's drastically altered point of view was the effort made to spare his life by Rais Bhuiyan.

Bhuiyan joins us to share his story and how he was not only able to forgive the man who tried to kill him, but also his efforts to spare Stroman’s life.

Bhuiyan’s story was told in Anand Giridharadas’ book “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas,” and is the subject of an upcoming film by Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow.

Guest:

Rais Bhuiyan, victim of an attack by Mark Anthony Stroman, whose death sentence he later advocated to overturn; he’s the subject of Anand Giridharadas’ book “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas,” which is being made into a movie by Kathryn Bigelow.

How much are you paying for health care services? KPCC and KQED want to know.; Credit: Tax Credit/Flickr

Just Ask is a new collaboration between KPCC and KQED. The goal is to empower consumers to learn about the costs of their health care. 

Why? There’s a veil of secrecy surrounding the prices of health care services. For a long time, consumers  might not have minded, if they had good insurance plans that covered most of these services. So doctors and patients aren’t accustomed to talking about health care costs. But now, more and more people are responsible for more of their health care bills, through high-deductible health plans and other forms of cost-sharing.

Several recent studies have shown that many people with insurance can’t afford their deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, and that’s deterring them from getting needed care. So now, people have more incentive to find out what a medical procedure costs – BEFORE they get it.

Guests:

Rebecca Plevin, KPCC Health Reporter

Lisa Aliferis, KQED Health Reporter

California lawmakers are pushing through an ambitious climate change package, part of Gov. Jerry Brown's call to curb greenhouse gas emissions by setting what the administration calls the most aggressive benchmark in North America.; Credit: Ben Amstutz/Flickr

Today is the deadline to pass bills out of the State Assembly and State Senate, so lawmakers are powering through bills to make the cut.

 Among the more high profile bills moving through the legislative process are: SB 128, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients; AB 226, which would sanction the creation of a framework and regulatory structure for medical marijuana; and a raft a bills that would increase the use of renewable energy in the state to 50% by 2030.

Because both houses of the state legislature are held by Democratic majorities, Democrats are largely the ones proposing, drafting, and corralling the necessary support for what is viewed as a very liberal agenda. Some of these bills would: collect data on police stops to address alleged racial profiling by police, increase the age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21, and expand Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants.

More than 500 bills are in the works, although it is unlikely that all of them will pass their respective house today and even more unlikely that all that do will receive Governor Brown’s support.

What bills would you like to see move forward for debate?

Guest:

Dan Walters, Columnist, Sacramento Bee; "Opinion: An illusion of action in California’s Capitol"

A man and woman smoke cigarettes on January 17, 2014 in Times Square in New York City. ; Credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

The state Senate this week approved a bill that would raise California’s minimum age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21.

Sen. Ed Hernandez introduced the bill in an effort to reduce smoking and tobacco use by the state’s young people. Tobacco use among California’s youth is a major problem with nearly 36,000 youth who start smoking each year. Hawaii is the only other state attempting to raise its smoking age, which is currently under consideration. However, other states such as Alabama, Alaska, Utah and New Jersey have set their smoking age to 19.

Does raising the smoking age solve the tobacco use problem among youth? Is it a realistic deterrent, is 21 too high? Should we also raise the minimum age for other things, like joining the military or voting? The bill now heads to the Assembly for consideration. If signed into law California would be one of the first states in the U.S. to increase the smoking age to 21. 

Guests:

Tom Briant, Executive Director, National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO), a national trade association for tobacco retailers based in Minnesota 

call us with your opinion on raising the tobacco age to 21 at 866-893-5722

Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven star in "Entourage," based on the HBO Comedy series. ; Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures (via YouTube)

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Lael Loewenstein and Tim Cogshell review this week’s new film releases, including the TV-hit turned film "Entourage," Melissa McCarthy’s comedic “Spy,” the horror prequel “Insidious: Chapter 3” and more. TGI-Filmweek!

Guests:

Lael Loewenstein, film critic for KPCC and Variety

Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Alt Film Guide

American Pharoah #1 ridden by Victor Espinoza crosses the finish line to win the 140th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 16, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland.; Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

In June of 1978, the average price of gas was around 65 cents per gallon, L.A. still had a football team, ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ sat atop the box office movie list, and Affirmed won the Triple Crown in horse racing.

Since then, 13 horses have won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes only to come up short or not even race in the Belmont Stakes, the Triple Crown’s third and final leg. California Chrome looked strong in 2014 after winning the first two legs, but finished fourth at Belmont after suffering an injury at the start of the race. In 2012, I’ll Have Another was scratched the day before Belmont due to injury.

American Pharoah is the latest horse to have a shot at racing immortality after wins at Churchill Downs and Pimlico this year. If he can outlast all of his opponents during the grueling 1.5 mile stretch at Belmont Park, he’ll become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and the twelfth in horse racing history.

Do you think American Pharoah has what it takes to win the Triple Crown? How significant would it be to see a Triple Crown winner for the first time in 37 years?

Guests:

Steve Andersen, Southern California Correspondent for Daily Racing Form

Mike Willman, Director of Publicity at Santa Anita Racetrack

Icebergs are seen floating in the water on July 30, 2013 in Narsaq, Greenland. ; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The new study, conducted by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Whether the earth experienced a break in rising temperature has been a point of contention in the debate over whether climate change is a man-made phenomenon.

The 14-year hiatus is thought to have taken place between around 1998 to 2012, when the earth experienced very little change in surface temperatures despite a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

Analyzing new data that wasn’t previously available, the NOAA study now says the pause might not have happened at all. “The notion that there was a slowdown in global warming, or a hiatus, was based on the best information we had available at the time,” Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Centers for Environmental Information, a NOAA unit in Asheville, N.C., told the New York Times. “Science is always working to improve.”

The new results quickly drew condemnation from climate change skeptics, but also questions from climate change proponents.

Possible artifacts of data biases in the recent global surface warming hiatus

Guests:

Steve Gregory, KPCC's Environment and Science Editor

William Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest answers questions on the massive cyber-attack on the personal data of government employees June 5, 2015 during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. The US government on Thursday admitted hackers accessed the personal data of at least four million current and former federal employees, in a vast cyber-attack suspected to have originated in China.; Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

4 million federal employees’ data may have been compromised after a cybersecurity breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and intelligence officials say the hack leads back to the Chinese.

This isn’t the first time the OPM has been hacked. In July of last year, Department of Homeland Security officials reported a possible breach on the OPM’s network that was traced back to China. It was unclear at the time whether that also meant the Chinese government was involved.

The Chineses have vehemently denied any part in the breach, calling the U.S.’s allegations “baseless” in an editorial that ran Friday in the Chinese state-run news agency.

If hackers can breach government networks and access employee data, how serious is the threat to other Americans’ information? How and why are these hacks happening? If China is involved, what are they hoping to do with the data they took? How are officials in Washington, D.C. responding to the breach?

Guests:

Tal Kopan, cybersecurity reporter for POLITICO. She tweets @TalKopan

Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chief technology officer of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Previously, he was a Vice President of Threat Research at the security software company McAfee.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry (C) testifies as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (L) listen during a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill October 19, 2005 in Washington, DC.; Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Hoping second time’s the charm, former Texas governor Rick Perry is the latest GOP candidate to throw his hat in the ring. He first tried his hand in 2012 and ultimately dropped out of the race two days before the South Carolina primary.

Joining Perry and an already crowded GOP field will be former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has announced that he’ll formalize his plans for the 2016 election on June 15.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is getting another two challengers in the form of erstwhile Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee.  Last month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders officially kicked off his presidential campaign. 

Guests:

Beth Reinhard, national politics reporter at the Wall Street Journal who’s covering the 2016 presidential campaign

David Mark, co-author of “Dog Whistles, Walk-Backs, and Washington Handshakes (ForeEdge, 2014), and co-author of a weekly political language column for the Christian Science Monitor

Elisa Sednaoui, Zoe Cassavetes and Ana Girardot attend the Closing and Award Ceremony during 14th Marrakech International Film Festival at on December 13, 2014 in Marrakech, Morocco. ; Credit: Dominique Charriau/Getty Images

Promising the most unique, diverse, and entertaining lineup, plus master classes, live performances and more at L.A. Live downtown.

One of the more successful themed programs at the fest last year was LA Muse, with movies that feature the city of Angels. This year's LA Muse includes a Zoe Cassavetes feature about a struggling actress, "Day of Days," and "The Drew: No Excuse, Just Produce" - fast-paced documentary about a storied, competitive basketball league in South Central Los Angeles.

Those features also highlight another unique aspect of LAFF - an exceptional number of female and minority filmmakers. How did the curators find and choose a ton of first-time and second-time directors? Is LAFF on its way to rivalling Sundance?

The LA Film Festival runs from June 10-18.

Guest:

John Horn, host of KPCC’s “The Frame”

Republican presidential hopeful Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at a Roast and Ride event hosted by freshman Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) on June 6, 2015 in Boone, Iowa.; Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Lindsey Graham has served in both chambers of Congress, but one detail of his private life is threatening to overshadow other aspects of his campaign: the fact that he’s never been married.

Only two bachelors—James Buchanan and Grover Cleveland—have ever been elected U.S. president.

Graham's considered a long shot, to be fair. But does it matter that he is a lifelong bachelor? Does this part of his private life have any bearing on his ability to become a sound world leader? Would you vote for someone running for the presidency or other high office who’s a bachelor or a bachelorette?

Guest:

Julian Zelizer, Professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of many books on American political history, including his latest, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society.” (Penguin Press, 2015)

One of the best training programs for paramedics in the world is at UCLA. A graduate of that program, Kevin Grange, has written a new memoir detailing his training and his work in the field.; Credit: Atomic Hot Links/Flickr

Kevin Grange was 36 and working as a real estate agent. He wanted a change and decided to apply to UCLA's Daniel Freeman Paramedic Program--one of the best paramedic training programs in the world.

The UCLA program requires nine months of classroom instruction with ER rotations and a field internship with the Los Angeles Fire Department, where stress, trauma and drama are all in a day’s work.

It would turn out to be the hardest thing Grange has ever done--an experience he’s detailed in the new memoir “Lights and Sirens.”

Guests:

Kevin Grange, author of the memoir, “Lights and Sirens” (Berkley Trade Paperback, 2015) and freelance writer whose writing has appeared in Backpacker Magazine, The Orange County Register and other publications.

Brian Wheeler, Senior Lecturer and Clinical Specialist at the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care, and an instructor at the UCLA’s Daniel Freeman Paramedic Program [Who’s cited frequently in the book]

California Highway Patrol officer Mike Robinson gives a sobriety test to a man in car at a sobriety checkpoint December 26, 2004 in San Francisco, California. ; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For the first time ever, California drivers who get traffic tickets won’t have to pay their fine before fighting the ticket in court.

Thanks to a unanimous vote this morning from the Judicial Council, which decides on policies for the state court system, courts will now have to change their notices to the public to say that those who wish to fight a traffic ticket won’t be required to pay the fine up front in order to do so. Under the previous rule, drivers were required to pay the fine before they were able to fight the ticket in court.

Supporters of the new rule say this is a step in the right direction, and will be a relief for thousands of drivers who have had their licenses suspended or racked up huge fines because they couldn’t afford to pay. A basic traffic ticket in California now costs around $500, and spikes rapidly if not paid on time. Opponents say the new rule will further weigh down the already overburdened court systems and make it more difficult for drivers to actually get to their day in court.

Guests:

Mike Herald, legislative advocate at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. He was also a co-author on a report issued earlier this year titled “Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California.”

Jessica Levinson, professor of law at Loyola Law School

Michelle (L) and Jim Bob Duggar of The Learning Channel TV show "19 Kids and Counting" speak at the Values Voter Summit on September 17, 2010 in Washington, DC.; Credit: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

In an exclusive interview this weekend, Jill and Jessa Duggar-famous as kids in the TLC family show "19 Kids and Counting"-said they didn't know their older brother Josh fondled them in their sleep until he confessed to the Duggar parents.

Immediately after the incidents, the Duggar sisters said their parents restricted hide-and-seek games and added locks to bedroom doors and took Josh for counselling.

Jessa Duggar said that her brother was "a young boy in puberty" who was "a little too curious about girls."

Far from reality TV, real parents find kids from around age 5 and up "playing doctor" and have to determine whether children are sexually curious or seeking gratification. How do they determine that? How should parents react when they learn children have been touching private parts?

Guest:

Betsy Brown Braun, child development and behavior specialist; best-selling author of "Just Tell Me What to Say: Sensible Tips and Scripts for Perplexed Parents" (HarperCollins); 

In 2012, Shena Hardin was ordered to carry a sign that labeled her an "idiot" instead of time in jail for a serious traffic offense; Credit: via NPR Media

A Cleveland judge ordered a “slumlord” who violated housing regulations to live in his own dilapidated rental for six months; another justice in Ontario forbid a domestic abuser from having a girlfriend for three years; and last week, a Michigan judge banned a distracted driver who killed a bicyclist from owning a mobile phone for two years.

As sentencing for criminal actions has changed over the centuries from stoning and stocks to phone bans and public shaming, what are some of the more creative punishments you have heard of for convicted felons? What latitude do (and should) judges have for punishing offenders and deterring them from breaking the law? Are creative sentences more effective than time in jail or prison? And if you were a judge, what sentences would you give for what crimes?

Guests:

Jody David Armour, Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law