LA Sheriff’s Deputies Search Home Of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies searched County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s house Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into a contract between L.A. Metro and a nonprofit run by a Kuehl appointee to the civilian panel that oversees the sheriff. Kuehl called the episode “part of a … bogus, non-investigation.” The search occurs more than a year after the department searched the offices of Metro and Peace Over Violence, a nonprofit it contracted with that is run by Patti Giggans, a member of the Civilian Oversight Commission and one of Sheriff Alex Villanueva's fiercest critics. The search warrant said investigators wanted to inspect any and all electronic records "related to the Peace Over Violence contract acquisition." Frank Stoltze, KPCC/LAist reporter covering civics and democracy, and LA County supervisor Sheila Kuhl, join Larry to discuss the latest.
With files from LAist. Read the full story that continues to be updated here
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Official Statement:
Today, detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Public Corruption Unit served search warrants at multiple locations in connection with an ongoing public corruption investigation. Those locations included the homes of Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commissioner Patricia “Patti” Giggans. Also searched were offices located at: Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, Peace Over Violence Headquarters, and LA Metro Headquarters. The investigation has been shared with a federal agency and they continue to monitor.
This remains an active investigation and we are unable to comment further at this time, although in full transparency the search warrant has been posted online at LASD.org..
Gas Prices Are Falling Throughout The Country. California, Not So Much. Why?
Gas prices throughout the country are finally going down, but prices in California still remain above $5 a gallon. Some experts blame challenges with refineries supplying the state as well as higher taxes and regulations. While California gas prices peaked around $6 in June, some are wondering when real relief will come. Severin Borenstein, professor and faculty director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, member of the California ISO Board of Governors, joins Larry to discuss prices.
Tony-Winning Broadway Producer On The Return Of Major Theatre Productions To Los Angeles
Like so many industries, live theater was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Companies big and small halted productions as venues shut down and seats gathered dust while the world grappled with COVID-19. But as the world has emerged from lockdowns and quarantines and slowly started to return to a modicum of normalcy, so has the live theater industry, and here in Los Angeles we’re starting to see major productions returning to the stage. The 2020 Tony winner for Best Musical, “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” just wrapped up its L.A. premiere at the Pantages Theater and is slated to return to the stage in November at the Center Theatre Group’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts. CTG also just dropped the curtain on its final performance in a run of six-time Tony nominee “The Prom,” at its Ahmanson Theatre. And if that wasn’t enough, Saturday Night Live fans can check out Cecily Strong starring in lauded playwright Jane Wagner’s one woman show “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” later this month at the Mark Taper Forum.
The through line for all three of those shows? Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Bill Damashke, who is with us today on AirTalk along with Center Theatre Group Managing Director and CEO Meghan Pressman, to talk about the state of live performances in Los Angeles, the challenges of returning them to the stage as the world emerged from COVID lockdowns and how theater companies and venues large and small in Southern California are ramping up productions again.
How A Barrage Of Ads For California Sports Betting Props 26 & 27 Are Targeting Voters
Online sports betting has exploded over the past several years, in large part due the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that states can allow sports betting. Now, two California bills are bringing sports betting to the fore – Props 26 and 27. The bills are opposing, with the former focusing on in person betting, which is favored by dozens of Native American tribes, and the latter focusing on online betting, which is supported by big-name companies. Both measures, if passed, would usher in a new wave of sports betting, which is already a $7 billion dollar industry.
Joining us today on AirTalk to discuss these two propositions, their differences, and how they would change the landscape of sports betting in California if passed is economy reporter for CalMatters, Grace Gedye, and associate professor who teaches political communications at UC Berkeley and USC, Dan Schnur.
FDA Advisory Panel Endorses ALS Drug In Phase 3 Testing, What Could This Mean For ALS Patients?
Last Week, the Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisory committee for Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs voted 7-2 to recommend approval for an ALS treatment drug called AMX0035. The Amylyx drug, which is still in its Phase 3 trial in Europe and Canada, could be approved prior to its final results through a process called regulatory flexibility. Despite the recommendation approval, the topic has still been controversial, with some fearing that not enough testing has been done to show the long-term effects of the drug. Others, however, like many in the advisory panel, retort that even the potential risk of this drug outweighs the guaranteed risk of a degenerative disease like ALS.
Today on AirTalk, we talk about Amylyx’s ALS drug with Dr. Kenneth Fischbeck, distinguished investigator at National Institutes of Health (NIH) who serves in the advisory committee, and Sabrina Paganoni, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Art ‘Made’ By AI Is Here, What Are The Potential Consequences?
What “is” and “isn’t” art is a philosophical debate just as much as it is a question. But works up for consideration in this taxonomical debate all tend to have at least one thing in common: they are created by humans. But just how much of a role does a human really have to play in the process of creation for something to be considered art? If you ask the judges of the Colorado State Fair fine arts competition: not much of one. Jason Allen entered the “Digital Arts / Digitally-Manipulated Photography” category of the competition with his piece “Theatre d’Opera Spatial.” His win stirred up controversy online due to the fact that he didn’t actually create the winning artwork, but rather utilized a popular AI tool that can generate images using just a simple text prompt.
AI tools that can turn simple sentences into images have been in development for some time, but have recently become available to the general public. The most popular of these tools are Midjourney, DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion. These AI work by taking in huge amounts of pictures called data sets, and “learning” from them. They learn how to differentiate objects from one another, colors, and how to reflect different words or sentences visually. Then, when a user types in a prompt, the AI “diffuses” the information it has learned to churn out an image it thinks best represents the user's desired result. While the art these tools produce can be impressive, artists have been vocal about the current and potential consequences of these tools. For instance, artists such as Karla Ortiz have found their own copyrighted art inside the data set used by Stable Diffusion. Other artists are contesting with users of these tools who are specifically prompting the AI to copy their style.
Joining Larry to explain how exactly these AI tools work, and how they could potentially alter the art landscape is concept artist, fine artist, and board member of the Concept Art Association Karla Ortiz, and Head of AI & Media Integrity at the Partnership on AI Claire Leibowicz.