LA Judge Temporarily Limits Cash Bail Requirement
A superior court judge issued a preliminary injunction against Los Angeles County’s practice of requiring cash bail from jailed people who have yet to be arraigned, dealing a major blow to a system long criticized as favoring the wealthy and doing little to make the public safer. Judge Lawrence Riff called the practice “a clear, pervasive and serious constitutional violation.” He issued the ruling after a lawsuit was filed that seeked to end the use of cash bail. However, cash bail is still required for people accused of serious or violent felonies and select misdemeanors, including domestic violence. During the pandemic, a similar order was issued to reduce the jail population. So, what's different about this new order? And what significant impact will it cause? Joining Airtalk to discuss the latest in this case is LAist civics & democracy reporter Frank Stoltze, who has been covering this, and Rowley Rice, attorney with Munger, Tolles, and Olson, LLP, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs.
Read the full story from LAist here
Why Online Retailers Are Tightening Up Their Return Policies, And What It Means For Consumers
For years, customers have been used to free returns of online purchases. Free returns make it easy to order three sizes of the same pair of pants to see which one fits best, or get rid of that lava lamp you impulse-bought after one too many glasses of wine. But, as Amanda Mull writes in her new piece in The Atlantic, the free return is on its way out, with retailers buckling under the sheer volume of them. Returns cost retailers a lot of money and present a significant logistical challenge, so many stores are exploring changes to their policies to make it more difficult to return a product, like charging a return shipping fee, or limiting the time frame in which an item can go back to the store. Joining us to discuss this trend is Amanda Mull, staff writer at The Atlantic, Necati Ertekin, Assistant Professor, Supply Chain & Operations at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and David Morin, vice president of client & retail Strategy at Narvar, a post-purchase-logistics company that helps retailers facilitate returns.
With MTV News Shutting Down For Good, Its First-Ever News Director Looks Back On How People Will Remember It
Gen Xers and Millennials who grew up on MTV News programming got some nostalgically disappointing news last week when news broke that Paramount would be nixing the network as part of a 25 percent reduction in workforce. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the Kurt Loder-hosted show “The Week in Rock,” and went on to carve out a place as an intersection of news, politics and pop culture. Sure, there was the music news you’d expect, but MTV News also convened town halls with presidential candidates, and broke major stories like the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain
Today on AirTalk, we’re joined by the man who started it all at MTV News -- its first ever news director, Doug Herzog. Doug came into the role in 1984 with a small budget and a big task -- turn MTV’s news operation from ripping headlines from other music publications into a household name in music and pop culture news. His success with MTV News helped vault him to executive positions running networks like Comedy Central, where he helped launch South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, as well as FOX and USA Network. He tells us about what it took to get MTV News off the ground, how he and his team carved out the network’s niche at the center of music and news, and what made it such a cultural lodestar for children of the 80s and 90s.
Homeless Services Workers In LA County Rarely Make A Living Wage
Workers on the frontlines of solving the worsening homelessness crisis gripping Los Angeles are often struggling to stay housed themselves. That’s because, according to a new research paper published last Wednesday by the RAND Corporation, the region’s homeless services sector rarely pays these workers a living wage.
Lisa Abraham, a RAND associate economist who co-authored the study, said, “These are the workers who are interacting directly with the homeless population,” such as social workers, case managers, outreach workers, shelter staff and housing navigators. Abraham and her colleagues used data on local rents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to conclude that a living wage for a worker renting a basic one-bedroom L.A. apartment is $64,000 per year. Abraham, along with
Jennifer Hark-Dietz, CEO of PATH (People Assisting The Homeless), a statewide homeless housing and services agency, join Larry to discuss the challenges and potential solutions.
Read the full story from LAist here
The Art (And Science) Of Motivating Your Kids When It Seems Like They’re Disconnecting
Few things are more frustrating to a parent than watching as your smart, enthusiastic kid becomes a disinterested, unmotivated teen. A new book by Ellen Braaten, Executive Director of the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, helps parents move beyond words like “lazy” and “slacker” to get at the deep-seated, complicated reasons a child might be unengaged. How can parents understand their kids better? And what are some tools parents can use to motivate their kids?
Today on AirTalk, Larry speaks to author Ellen Braaten about her new book, Bright Kids Who Couldn't Care Less: How to Rekindle Your Child's Motivation.