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February 14 - 18, 2005
Monday, Feb. 14
Future of Light Rail in Orange County
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The Orange County Transportation Authority meets this morning to take its first vote on moving ahead with plans for the $1 billion 9.3-mile CenterLine project. The board could choose to turn its attention and funding elsewhere, dooming the Orange County light rail system that took shape after voters passed a transportation tax in 1990. Guest host Jon Beaupre gets the latest from KPCC Orange County reporter Rob Schmitz and Bill Campbell, chairman of the OCTA Board of Directors.
UCI Chancellor named President of the National Academy of Sciences
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Ralph J. Cicerone, chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, has been elected the 21st president of the National Academy of Sciences. Guest host Jon Beaupre sits down with Cicerone to talk about his new position, effective July 1.
Visual Effects: Spider-Man 2
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In today's blockbuster movie world, the bigger the bang, the better the movie - and the more complicated the visual effects. Spider-Man 2 has been nominated for an Academy award for visual effects, competing against I, Robot and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Guest host Jon Beaupre sits down with Scott Stokdyk, Visual Effects Supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks, who worked on Spider-Man 2, to talk about the business of effects.
Bruce Wagner
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Bruce Wagner, a former ambulance driver and screenwriter turned novelist is probably best known for chronicling the dark world of bizzaro LA. He was raised in Beverly Hills where he observed his friends struggle to create their own identities as children of celebrity parents. He chronicles this exquisite burden in his latest novel, Chrysanthemum Palace (Simon and Schuster).
Dana Delany, Beverly D'Angelo and James Ellroy will be doing dramatic readings with Bruce Wagner from his book, Chrysanthemum Palace, tomorrow, February 15 at 7 PM at Vroman's Books in Pasadena and Friday, February 18, at 7 PM at Brentano's Book Store in Century City.
Tuesday, Feb. 15
Sacramento Update
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Friday is the formal deadline for the California legislature to introduce bills for the 2005 session. But Dan Walters, columnist for the Sacramento Bee, says the budget and the Governor’s reform plans will make any proposed legislation pale in comparison.
Mayor Hahn on Hollywood
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Talk of the City kicks off a series of discussions with the five main candidates for Mayor. We've asked each candidate to identify an issue or problem in Los Angeles and then share what they would do to fix that problem if elected Mayor. First up, the incumbent, Mayor Jim Hahn. Kitty sat down with Mayor Hahn at the Hollywood and Vine diner to talk about redevelopment in the neighborhood.
Point and Click Divorce
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These days, breaking up is easier to do. In fact, cheap and cheerful divorces are just a point and click away. Lynne Diamond, a professional mediator, licensed legal document assistant, and problem solver will talk with Kitty about the latest development in e-commerce -- online divorce.
Wednesday, Feb. 16
Mark Ridley Thomas on Upcoming Days of Dialogue
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An innovative community forum is reviving its format tomorrow and on February 26th to focus on LAPD reforms. Kitty speaks with Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas to learn more.
Tomorrow’s Days of Dialogue will discuss the findings from 2004 Police Reform Dialogues and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s decision regarding the Stanley Miller case: California African American Museum(Exposition Park); 600 State Drive 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Acupuncture to Aromatherapy – What are the alternatives for treating infertility?
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In anticipation of tonight's Health Dialogues, a special monthly report airing at 7PM as part of KQED's statewide news program The California Report, Talk of the City looks at non-traditional ways of addressing infertility, including yoga, massage, and acupuncture. Kitty speaks with Licensed Acupuncturist Dr. Dao-Shing Ni, Dr. Martin Cousineau, Chief of Anesthesia and Pain Services at Roxbury surgery center in Beverly Hills, Dr. Laurel Kline, clinical psychologist and Director of the Mind/Body Institute at UCLA, and Larry Wurn, LMT, founder of Clear Passages (Massage Therapy).
KQED's Health Dialogues on infertility airs tonight at 7 p.m. on KPCC
A People’s History of Los Angeles
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The current mayoral race could be one of the defining moments in LA's development according to Peter Dreier, Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy program at Occidental College. Dreier's book recounts more than a century's worth of struggles by workers and their unions, civil rights activists, environmentalists, suffragists and feminists and other progressives, as well as attempts to revise the "conventional wisdom" of LA as a bastion of conservatism.
Peter Dreier will be signing copies of his book The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City tonight (Wednesday) at 7p.m. at Vroman’s in Pasadena, 695 E. Colorado Blvd. For more information: (626) 449-5320.
Thursday, Feb. 17
Schwarzenegger in D.C.
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Washington, D.C. today asking fellow Republicans for more money for California. Joining the Governor on the trip are members of the California legislation, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. He joins Kitty along with U.S. Congressman Ken Calvert of Riverside and Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Nicholas.
Compassionate Choice
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The Compassionate Choice Act, authored by Assembly members Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, is being introduced today, reigniting the debate over the government's role in end of life decision-making. Modeled after Oregon's landmark legislation, Death with Dignity, enacted in 1997, this new bill could make California the second state in the union to give terminally ill residents the right to seek physician-assisted suicide. Kitty talks with Assembly member Patty Berg, a Democrat representing Eureka.
Beirut Update
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Amid accusations that Syria assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Hariri family has called upon the international community to investigate his murder. NPR Reporter Kate Seelye joins Kitty from a candlelight vigil in Beirut.
How to Become a TV-Ready Partisan Jerk
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Rich Master’s classroom is a studio jammed with state-of-the-art cameras, teleprompters, video monitors, and plasma-screen televisions. He teaches pundits-in-training everything from the basics (look straight into the camera, don’t slouch) to the finer points of partisan punditry, including the art of “filibustering.” Atlantic Monthly journalist Joshua Green recently took a lesson, and he writes about the experience in the March 2005 Atlantic. Masters joins Kitty for a civilized discussion.
The Loh Life
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Sandra ponders life without the Los Angeles Times.
You can hear the Loh Life every Thursday morning at 7:05 and again at 2:55 and 6:55 pm.
Friday, Feb. 18
What’s up with the Rain?
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Rain is spreading across the Southland again, bringing some flooding and setting the stage for a soggy weekend. Our record winter precipitation has also left our wetlands and marshes at near capacity and producing mosquitoes, causing evidence of West Nile Virus transmission earlier than in 2004. Fritz Coleman, Channel 4 News’ weather guru, gives us an update on the storms and Mike Hearst, from the Orange County Vector Control District, tells us how the rains affect the spread of West Nile.
Robert MacNeil asks Do You Speak American?
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In an age that some complain has become too homogenized by overexposure to shared information and idealized standards, Robert MacNeil and William Cran decided to test this assumption. They set out across the United States to listen to the language of Americans and recorded their findings in the new book, Do You Speak American?, published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. Robert MacNeil debunks myths about our language and culture with Kitty today on Talk of the City.
Robert MacNeil will talk about language with Amy Heckerling for a Writers Bloc event on Friday, 2/18, at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. at 7:30 PM. For reservations, call 310-335-0917.
The Man Behind the Numb3rs
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Gary Lorden, Head of the Mathematics Department at Caltech, serves as consultant to CBS’s new drama, Numb3rs. Lorden is responsible for deriving the formulas that aid the show’s investigators in a range of scenarios, from stopping viral attacks on Los Angeles to pinpointing locations of criminals.
Women Proposing
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Monica did it on Friends. So did Miranda on Sex in the City. Apparently, real women are popping the question too. Have we really come that far baby? Psychotherapist and relationship expert, Tina B. Tessina talks with Kitty about women taking the initiative and proposing marriage themselves.
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