US actor and director Dustin Hoffman waves to the audience at the Japan premiere of 'Quartet' in Tokyo on April 8, 2013.; Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

Actor and now director Dustin Hoffman joins AirTalk to discuss his new projects. This veteran actor took a shot at directing in his new movie, “Quartet,” a film about retired opera singers living together in a retirement home. As the movie explores aging musicians, how did Hoffman feel about his new venture as a director after decades of acting? Also, Hoffman will be the honorary chairman of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 24th annual Silent Film event. The event will present Walt Disney’s "Hungry Hobos" and Buster Keaton’s "Our Hospitality" with live orchestral accompaniment. How did Hoffman get involved with the Chamber Orchestra and become an honorary chairman?

Guest:

Dustin Hoffman, legendary film actor and honorary chairman of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 24th annual Silent Film event this Saturday, June 8th

The 24th annual Silent Film event will be at 7 P.M. on Saturday, June 8th in Royce Hall. Click here for more information.

David West #21 of the Indiana Pacers attempts a shot in the second half against Chris Andersen #11 of the Miami Heat during Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs on June 3, 2013 in Miami, Florida.; Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane changed the way professional baseball recruits and builds teams. Now, a 20-something medical student at Stanford is looking to bring the same magic of statistical analytics to basketball.

Muthu Alagappan was interning at Ayasdi, a Palo-Alto-based startup when, on a whim, decided to feed the company’s proprietary data analysis software with NBA stats. The results led to him to the discovery that there are actually 13 player positions in basketball, as opposed to the standard 5. So instead of point guards or centers, you have "low-usage ball-handlers" or “mid-range big men”—more sophisticated and precise designations of what players do on the court. Better and more information, Alagappan believes, could help general managers and coaches curate better and more well-rounded teams.

Alagappan unveiled his discovery at MIT's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in 2012, and took home first prize. NBA teams like the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers have come knocking, wanting to find out more about what Alagappan has to offer.

Guest:
Muthu Alagappan, medical school student at Stanford School of Medicine at Stanford University who  came up with these 13 new basketball player positions

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech for Mexican and Chinese businessmen during a meeting in Mexico City, on June 5, 2013.; Credit: YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Tomorrow, President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a two-day meeting in Rancho Mirage. On the top of the agenda will be cyber-espionage. The US Defense Department, for the first time, has named the Chinese government as the culprit behind a series of major cyber attacks on the US government and businesses, prompting China's top internet security chief to say he has plenty of evidence indicating that China has been the victim of extensive US hacking.

Guests:
Jeff Carr, CEO of Taia Global, a boutique security firm specializing in the protection of critical data at risk for espionage or theft

David Damato, Director of Mandiant, a cyber-security firm that protect data from targeted cyber attacks

Daniel Bergner's "What Do Women Want: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire" explores women's sexuality.

When it comes to sex, society teaches us that men and women are just different. Men are driven by lust, while women crave emotional connections. Plain and simple. But in “What Do Women Want: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire,” Daniel Bergner re-examines those societal assumptions about female sexuality.

Through years of research including interviews with sexologists, sex therapists and even orgasmic researchers, Bergner found that what society says about women’s desires may be very different from reality. While we tend to believe women are more drawn to monogamy, Bergner says women may be just as promiscuous as men innately, perhaps even more so.

So while there have been movies, songs and books devoted to answering the question, Bergner’s book may serve as a breakthrough in figuring out what it is that women really want.

Guest:

Daniel Bergner, author of “What Do Women Want: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire”

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT by Daniel Bergner

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss speak to members of the media about the National Security Agency (NSA) collecting phone records June 6.; Credit: Getty Images

On Wednesday, the UK newspaper The Guardian published this headline: "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily." Under an on-going top-secret court order requested by the FBI, it turns out, the National Security Agency requires Verizon's business division to give the NSA the records of all the phone calls made in its system everyday.

An unnamed official in the Obama administration defended the program, telling the media that the order does not give NSA the right to listen in on phone calls but instead to collect massive amounts of "metadata," including phone numbers and lengths of calls. In a press conference this morning, California Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) told reporters, "There have been approximately 100 plots and also arrests made since 2009 by the FBI. I do not know to what extent metadata was used or if it was used, but I do know this: That terrorists will come after us if they can, and the only thing we have to deter this is good intelligence."

Feinstein also indicated that the program to gather this metadata has been in place for seven years. Republican Senator from Georgia, Saxby Chambliss, confirmed that lawmakers have known about the program for a while now, adding, "The information that they’re really looking for is on the other end of the call. It’s are they in contact, is somebody in contact with somebody that we know to be a known terrorist. And that’s why it’s metadata only." Neither senator could say whether or not the secret program extended to other phone companies.

But not everyone is on board with the program. Former Vice President Al Gore tweeted: "In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" Privacy groups are up in arms, concerned that the records of millions of Americans are being indiscriminately collected, regardless of whether they're suspected of wrongdoing or not. Regardless, the revelation about the NSA program opens a Pandora's box of questions about privacy and security.

What is the NSA doing with the data collected? How is it processed? Where is it stored? How far-reaching is the program? Are Americans comfortable giving up this level of privacy in exchange for protection against terrorism?

Guests:
Kenneth Cukier, Co-Author, “Big Data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think” (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013); he is also the Data Editor at the Economist magazine.

Robert Turner, Law Professor and Associate Director of the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia

Mike Thompson, Democratic Congressman for California’s Fifth District (district includes all of Napa and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Solano and Sonoma Counties); member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence

Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney with ACLU Southern California

(L-R) Actor Owen Wilson, Lorraine Twohill, VP Marketing, Google, and actor Vince Vaughn are seen at "The Internship" Googler Premiere on May 30, 2013 in San Francisco, California.; Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for 20th Century Fo

Larry and KPCC critics Tim Cogshell and Andy Klein review this week’s releases, including The Internship, The Purge, Rapture-Palooza and more. TGI-Filmweek!

The Internship

The Purge

Rapture-Palooza

Guests:

Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Alt Film Guide

Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC and the L.A. Times Community Papers chain

Southern California Edison announced Friday that it plans to permanently shut down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The nuclear plant has been offline since a radioactive steam leak in January 2012.; Credit: Ed Joyce/KPCC

Southern California Edison decided to permanently shut down the San Onofre nuclear power plant today after a 16 month debate over whether or not it would be re-opened. The plant closed nearly a year and a half ago because of damaged steam generators that caused leakage of radioactive steam. The utility company had expected to restart the plant, but the chairman of Edison International said the uncertainty over whether it would re-open was not good for customers or investors. Before its closure, the 40-year-old nuclear plant provided power to about 1.4 million homes in southern California. It is one of just two nuclear power plants in California.

How much will the plant’s closure cost customers? Where will the replacement power come from?

Guests:
Mark Pocta, program manager of the Division of Ratepayer Advocates at the CA Public Utilities Commission

Coral Davenport, energy and environment correspondent for the National Journal

U.S. Attorney André Birotte, Jr.

At a time when the Justice Department is facing scrutiny for its surveillance of journalists, now the entire Obama Administration is under fire for revelations that the National Security Agency has been storing phone records of Americans and tapping into servers of major Internet companies.

Yesterday, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) criticized the surveillance in a statement: "As the author of the Patriot Act, I'm extremely troubled by the FBI's interpretation of this legislation." Last year, lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee complained about "overbroad" surveillance in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, stating, "We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act."

We'll ask the Justice Department's André Birotte about how far he goes in using the Patriot Act and how he balances national security with civil liberties. Birotte’s office has also been the main investigating body into the Ron Calderon affair. On Tuesday, the California Senator's offices were searched by the FBI. When will investigators disclose what's behind the search?

Birotte's office is also in charge of executing the federal policy on marijuana laws. Exactly what those policies are has shifted to and fro under President Obama and AG Holder. What is Birotte's reaction to Los Angeles voters approving a ballot for 100-plus medical marijuana dispensaries.

In other Justice news, Birotte's office has worked diligently on insider trading crimes at KPMG, as well as tracking child pornography traffickers. And, last but not least, last month Birotte's office charged Walmart with dumping hazardous waste. The company was fined $82 million for violating the Clean Water Act. What other questions do you have for André  Birotte?

Guest:
André Birotte, Jr., United States Attorney for the Central District of California; As US Attorney, Birotte oversees 260-plus attorneys for the Department of Justice; Sworn in March 2010, Birotte is a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee’s Civil Rights, Cyber/Intellectual Property, Terrorism/National Security, Violent and Organized Crime, and Border and Immigration Law Enforcement Sub-Committees; and Co-Chair, Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force’s Consumer Protection Working Group; Former LAPD Inspector General

The NSA's data mining includes the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

Wednesday brought the revelation that, by request of the FBI, the NSA was monitoring the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. And then yesterday afternoon, it emerged that the same government agencies have gained secret access to the audio and video chats, photographs, emails, and documents of countless numbers of Americans directly from the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple, according to documents posted on the websites of both The Guardian and The Washington Post.

National Intelligence James R. Clapper said in a statement: “Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats.” An unnamed source from inside the intelligence community told Washington Post reporters, “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type.” The Obama Administration has reacted by saying that Prism is legal, highly effective, and aimed at non-U.S. citizens.

Is collection of data on this big a scale a violation of our rights to privacy or a necessary evil that keeps us safe from terrorist attacks? How is this data culled and used? And will this breach of trust between government and average Americans hurt Obama’s second-term agenda?

Guest:
Robert O’Harrow, Washington Post Investigative Reporter and author of a seminal 2005 book about data profiling and national security titled “No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society”

Los Angeles Police Department Officers block the entrance to Santa Monica College after multiple shootings were reported.; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Officials at UCLA Medical Center confirmed one person has died after a gunman fired shots near Santa Monica College today. The school was put on lockdown and six people were taken to the hospital, three of whom were in critical condition. President Barack Obama was in Santa Monica today for a fundraiser a few blocks away from the campus, but the shooting was not thought to be related.

Click here for more of KPCC’s coverage of the shooting.

Guests:

Mary Plummer, Grant Slater, Brian Watt, Rina Palta, KPCC reporters

Ming-Yang Hsu, CHP officer

Witness accounts from: Carolyn Tschopik, Kate Linthicum, Adolfo Arqueta, Noke Taumalolo, Ben Hellwarth, Avishay Artsy, Joe Orcutt, Kate Linthicum, Suja Lowenthal

US Register Of Copyright Office Maria Pallante speaks at World Creators Summit on June 4 in Washington, DC.; Credit: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for BMI

The Obama administration has issued legislative recommendations in a growing debate in the world of high tech intellectual property. At the heart of the debate are “patent assertion entities” (PAE’s), more commonly known as "patent trolls." These companies do not develop or manufacture products, but rather engage in buying and asserting patents against companies that often have developed the patented technologies long before on their own.

Critics of patent trolls point to the fact that patents can be filed in very broad language, which has allowed some patent trolls to claim ownership of such ubiquitous technologies as wireless e-mail and podcasting. They also point to the recent upswing in patent lawsuits, which, according to one Boston University report, cost defendants $29 billion in legal fees in 2011, a 400 percent increase from 2005.

The White House has come down pretty strongly against patent trolls, saying that the companies exist to “essentially leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.” But not everyone is so unanimously on board. Proponents of PAE’s argue that they promote liquidity in patent markets, which can enhance investment in start-ups and promote innovation, and that they serve to protect smaller businesses from larger ones that may steal their ideas without consequence.

Guest:

James Bessen, Lecturer at Boston University School of Law, Fellow at Berkman Center on Internet and Society at Harvard, he studies economics of innovation and patents.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the National Defense University May 23, 2013 in Washington, DC. ; Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The recent exposure of national security documents relating to the NSA and PRISM spying scandals is putting even more pressure on the relationship between Washington and the media.That relationship has already been strained after it emerged last month that the Department of Justice subpoenaed Associated Press reporters' phone records and tracked the comings and goings of Fox News reporter James Rosen at the State Department.

National security reporters have indicated that trusted sources are now keeping quiet over concerns they'll be targeted by the Justice Department as the source of any leaks. That kind of chill could undermine the kind of investigative journalism that keeps Washington accountable.

Will the new revelations about Edward Snowden make the government even more careful about targeting leakers? Doesn't the release of the NSA documents show that the free press is still working as intended? The Obama administration is still kicking around the idea of a press shield law to protect journalists. Would that type of law work?

Guest:
Andrew Beaujon, covers the media for Poynter Online

; Credit: Michael Chavarria/Flickr

After holding a series of technical jobs with the CIA, Edward Snowden began working with Booz Allen Hamilton, a private consulting firm in Virginia. According to a 2010 investigation by The Washington Post, Booz Allen is among the most prominent intelligence contractors for the government. They were contracted to do top-secret work with 26 of the 45 government agencies engaged in intelligence activities, and the AP reports that last year the company earned $1.3 billion dollars from intelligence work. And they are not alone.

While the government has spent heavily on intelligence since September 2011, cutbacks in government funding have paved the way for thousands of private contracting firms. Tens of thousands of workers have moved from government jobs to private jobs, and many of these workers, including at Booz Allen Hamilton, continue to work side by side with government employees and often still hold access to classified information.

Of Booz Allen Hamilton’s 25,000 employees, almost half hold security clearances that provide “access to information that would cause ‘exceptionally grave damage’ to national security if disclosed to the public,” according to a company securities filing. And while the government has saved money by outsourcing huge chunks of the intelligence industry, it has also acknowledged that there is insufficient oversight of these private firms.

What’s the true cost of outsourcing the intelligence industry? How many more people are out there like Edward Snowden?

Guest:
James Bamford, investigative journalist who’s written extensively on the NSA; his most recent book is “The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.”

Chinatown at night; Credit: Flickr/jshyun

A Chinatown institution is no more. After close to a quarter of a century, the dim sum palace located in Bamboo Plaza on Hill Street has shut down. The owners told the Los Angeles Times that they were evicted last Sunday by the plaza’s landlord after having fallen behind on rent.

The 600-seat restaurant opened in April 1989 and was once the byword for dim sum in Los Angeles.

"When it opened, it really was unique," says Lisa See, author of "Shanghai Girls, who frequented the Empress Pavilion. "There were some places in Chinatown where you could get dim sum, but this was the first Hong Kong-style dim sum restaurant with those push carts. People could point and say I want to try that."

That’s no longer the case, however, as folks began flocking to the San Gabriel Valley for authentic Asian grub. In a way, the closure of Empress Pavilion is about Chinatown as well.  

The original Chinatown in Los Angeles was established in 1880 and centered around Alameda and Macy streets. The Chinatown most of us know now, officially dubbed the “New Chinatown,” was rebuilt and relocated to make room for the construction of Union Station. From there, the fortunes of this historical district rose and dipped.

Its latest renaissance came courtesy of an unlikely group of people: artists and gallerists who moved into the area around the late 1990s, congregating specifically on and around Chung King Road, attracted by its cheap rent and plethora of available spaces.

"Even though there are all those new galleries there, even though some place like the Empress Pavilion closes, or some of the old shops that were owned by the pioneer families are gone, it still is a place for new immigrants," said See.

And See says that's because of Chinatown's history, in which Chinese-Americans had to live there because of the land laws — not the case for the San Gabriel Valley. 

"Those people were coming in a very different way than the early immigrants had come, and they didn't have to ever live in Chinatown," See says. "They didn't have to shop there; they didn't have to work there; they didn't have to go to school there. So, the San Gabriel Valley developed in a very different way than our Chinatown or Chinatowns in other cities."

See says that even today, ethnic Chinese coming from Cambodia, Laos and Thailand use Chinatown much like it was used 50 years ago.

Guest:

Lisa See, novelist; her latest novel is “Shanghai Girls” (Random House, 2009)

Nuran Alteir contributed to this online article

; Credit: Yuichi Kosio/Flickr

Americans are losing out on 105 million hours of digital time when they have to turn off their iPads and smartphones during takeoff and landing, according to a new study by DePaul University. Current rules say that anything with an on/off switch must be turned off when the plane is below 10,000 feet. The FAA has considered lifting that ban but has yet to change the rule.

The same study estimates that 35% of travelers use gadgets like electronic tablets and smartphones at some point in a flight, up from 28% in 2012 and 17.6% in 2010. Passengers may just be playing Words With Friends but the ban is still costing them valuable digital time.

Is it really dangerous to use electronic devices during takeoff and landing? Why is it taking the FAA so long to reconsider its ban on electronic devices? If the FAA gives the green light to electronic devices, will cellphones be far behind? As an airline passenger, do you want to be able to use your phone or will the thought of your seatmate chatting away on the phone make you want to keep the ban?

Guest:

Patrick Smith, former commercial airline pilot and columnist. He has a new book out called "cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel"

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 2013.; Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post has found that Americans’ attitudes toward government surveillance has largely stayed the same in the last decade, with 56% of those surveyed finding the National Security Agency’s tracking of phone records an acceptable means to thwart potential terrorist attacks. Support was just slightly lower in January 2006, when 51% of respondents backed the Bush administration’s surveillance program weeks after it came to light.

The data is more telling once you take political affiliation into account. Today, only 52% of Republicans say it’s ok for the NSA to track phone calls of Americans, versus 75% in January 2006. The same trend goes for Democrats: 64% now supports the program, compared to just 36% in 2006. While civil libertarians, privacy advocates, and supporters of limited government are outraged by the Obama administration’s domestic surveillance program, the response from the American public has been somewhat muted.

Is your attitude on the privacy swayed by who is in the White House?

Guests:
Carroll Doherty, Associate Director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Julian Zelizer, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and editor of “The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment”

George Zimmerman sits in a Seminole County courtroom during his bond hearing on June 29, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.; Credit: Pool/Getty Images

Jury selection at the murder trial of George Zimmerman continued for a second day Tuesday. Zimmerman admitted to shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. last February but claims it was in self defense after Martin attacked him. Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda and Zimmerman's lawyers Mark O'Mara and Don West are quizzing potential jurors about how much they know about the case, whether they had formed an opinion and whether they could give Zimmerman a fair trial. The makeup of the jury could have a huge impact on the outcome of this high-profile trial.

So what type of juror is each side looking for? How does the court keep jurors from following media coverage? Are jurors ever totally impartial?

Guest:

Richard Gabriel, the President of Decision Analysis, Inc. a national trial consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Yes, Prime Minster is based the original British show, Yes Minister

What do the American and British governments have in common? Jonathan Lynn says one similarity is that they’re both based on the same principle: “if no one knows what you’re doing, no one knows what you’re doing wrong.” Lynn is the co-writer and director of the play Yes, Prime Minister, which follows the lives of a few “morally confused” British government employees over the course of one hectic weekend; they try to solve a debt crisis, resolve the country’s energy crisis, sand save the Euro from collapsing. The play is based off of an 80’s BBC television series with the same name.

Guests:

Jonathan Lynn, co-writer and director of Yes, Prime Minister

Michael McKean, actor, plays Jim Hacker in Yes, Prime Minister

In this copy of a photograph on display at Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School in Wichita, Kan., a wounded soldier is helped by Army chaplain Emil Kapaun (on the soldier's left) during the Korean War. The Kansas native died a prisoner of war in 1951.; Credit: Mike Hutmacher/MCT/Landov

When the Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC aired footage of American casualties in Vietnam it became the subject of intense debate. Is it ok to air graphic images as long as those images aren’t of Americans? The program also aired the NBC footage of a South Vietnamese general executing a soldier of the North Vietnamese Army. Many of these segments were preceded with a warning that people might want to send their children out of the room.

The much celebrated civil war photographer Matthew Brady’s photos showed mostly dead Confederates. Similar debates have arisen about Iraq war, including civilian Iraqi children hurt and maimed, 9/11 victims, and the Boston marathon bombing. Across the Atlantic, European media freely displayed graphic pictures of Madrid bombing victims.

Are Europeans less squeamish? Is there some particular reluctance by American news media, something in our character or psychology, or in our business model, that resists this? And in a digital world, where images circle the globe at the speed of fiber-optic light, is our handling of these upsetting and powerful images any different?

Guests:

Al Tompkins, senior faculty for broadcasting and online journalism at the Poynter Institute, and the author of “Aim for the Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters”

Kenny Irby, founder of the Poynter Institute’s photojournalism program and former deputy director of photography at Newsday

A rendering of the interior of the BiblioTech library.

Say goodbye to the printed page and hello to a new library with no books. An all-digital "bookless" library is set to open this fall in Texas’ Bexar County. The library will look more like an Apple store and give the community access to 10,000 digital titles. The $1.5 million facility will not house a single printed book, but will offer 150 e-readers on loan that patrons can use in their home. Budget cuts are causing libraries across the country to close.

Is converting them to digital a way to save community libraries? Would you still go to a library that had only e-readers? They can be cheaper and make technology accessible to rural or low income areas but what are we losing by giving up the printed book?

Guests:

Laura Cole, project coordinator for Bexar County and the BiblioTech

Susan Neuman, professor at University of Michigan's school of education and researcher in the field of child literacy