Breaking Down the Vote

The first in-person vote centers will open in a couple of weeks in L.A. and Orange Counties ... while many people started to get their mail-in ballots last week. Where to drop them off if you'd rather not mail them in, however? There are some shenanigans afoot. Every Tuesday leading up to election day we check in with Senior Politics Reporter Libby Denkmann on the latest, and yesterday, Libby, Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent cease-and-desist letters to the State Republican Party.

Guest:

• Libby Denkmann, Senior Politics Reporter 

Understanding Proposition 15 

Proposition 15 on the November ballot aims to raise about 11 billion dollars a year for California schools and local governments. That money would come from raising taxes on commercial properties — especially ones that haven’t changed hands for years. KPCC’s David Wagner wanted to know what this would mean for one well-known and long-held business in Orange County. So, he takes us on a trip to the South Coast Plaza.

Coronavirus: L.A. County Officials Say Crackdowns at Workplaces Have Saved Black and Latino Lives 

Los Angeles County officials attribute a dramatic decline in COVID-19 death and case rates among Blacks and Latinos over the past two months to aggressive workplace health enforcement and the opening of tip lines to report violations. Now, officials intend to cement those gains by creating workplace councils that would recruit and train employees to look for COVID-19 prevention violations and correct or report them — without fear of being fired or punished.

Guest:

• Anna Almendrala, California Correspondent for Kaiser Health News 

Californians in Texas

Pushed by the high cost of living, more than 700,000 Californians have moved to Texas since 2008. It’s part of the reason historically bright red Texas has turned surprisingly purple in 2020--polls show President Trump with only a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Matt Levin of the nonprofit news site CalMatters catches up with one L.A. expat tilting Texas more blue.

L.A. Comic Con Postponed

 After saying it would hold its annual convention at the L.A. Convention Center, in person, in December, the organizers of LA Comic Con said they will now push it to NEXT September. So what happened?

Guest:

• Mike Roe, LAist Arts and Entertainment Editor

Vertical Farming 

Let’s head to Compton… where a 95,000 square-foot vertical farming facility is underway. The operation will be home to rows and rows of leafy greens, LED lights and even some robots. So if you’re wondering how it’s all going to worK, we have some answers. 

Guests: 

• Stefan Slater, a freelance writer who recently wrote a piece about the vertical farming facility for our website, LAist
• Rachel Surls, the sustainable food systems advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in L.A. County