With a storm on the horizon and many people being forced to scramble out of their homes, we find out if the upcoming storm is something we should prepare for, or is it a case of the people of Los Angeles being overcautious about a little rain.
When you’re grappling with a $212 million deficit there aren’t many areas of the budget are off limits to cuts. But when politics are involved, and the pet projects of politicians are in jeopardy, suddenly budget deficits pale in comparison to things like pedestrian walkways, baseball parks and the other kinds of special projects that are near and dear to the members of L.A.’s City Council. At today’s City Council meeting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went before the 15 members asking to borrow $40 million from their pet projects accounts, which are off the books, to help close the city’s budget shortfall. The Mayor lacks authority to seize the Council members’ accounts and in the past they’ve been closely guarded, but these are desperate times. Would you sacrifice artistic bike racks in Hollywood to help close the city’s deficit?
Every ten years, after the national census, California redraws its legislative districts with the ostensible purpose of more fairly representing voters. For the first time, a citizen commission will set those boundaries, taking the power out of legislators’ hands. But with a long list of regulations for membership to that body, it’s a challenge to make it representative of the state’s diverse population, and then there are the political forces who want to abolish the commission before it even puts pencil to paper. We ask…can the average citizen be heard with the new system?
Pain—100 million Americans say they live with it, it is the leading cause of disability and it is still misunderstood by the medical establishment, especially in women and minorities. Research shows these groups report higher pain severity than men; they suffer more from depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and more of their pain goes unheard and under diagnosed. When doctors do hear their pain, they often make different treatment decisions based on an individual’s demographics. No matter how you slice the data, race and gender are big predictors of how much pain you are in and that difference doesn’t go away, even when you control for socioeconomic factors. Patt talks with a leading researcher in the field about physician variability decision making and how to close the pain gap.
What has been the impetus and inspiration for the democracies of the world? Timothy Ferris argues that it was and is science, explaining how the political and scientific revolutions grew concomitantly, feeding off each other’s victories. Does that mean true democracy doesn’t exist in scientifically-deprived nations? And are the most scientific nations the most democratic? Ferris explores how scientific societies demand liberty and other social benefits.
Patt Morrison is known for its innovative discussions of local politics and culture, as well as its presentation of the effects of national and world news on Southern California.
