Steve Chiotakis talks to Los Angeles journalists about the week's leading news stories.
This week comes a push to do something about those state agencies that are responsible for regulating and overseeing companies, whose environmental records have been less than stellar… even, perhaps, criminal.
KCRW’s Warren Olney moderated KCRW’s Which Way, LA? for 23 years before wrapping up the program last night. But the question remains… in what direction is this city headed? And how will we get there?
In the past few weeks, the world of music has lost some gentlemen and geniuses. It’s been a sad time for music fans.
The NFL makes a return to the Los Angeles media market with the Rams trekking back west from St- Louis, to a new behemoth facility in Inglewood. Owner Stan Kroenke took to the podium today to introduce himself to L-A fans.
For decades, automakers have looked to the auto shows of L.A., Detroit and others to unveil their latest luxury vehicle and concept cars of the future. But more and more, it’s the Consumer Electronic Show – or CES as it’s called – in Las Vegas where they’re making their big splashes.
Weeks have turned into months of a sulfuric stench in Porter Ranch, a pretty idyllic part of the northern San Fernando Valley.
LAUSD closed all of its campuses and facilities this week because of an emailed terror threat which claimed bombs, nerve gas and automatic weapons were stashed at several schools, and an attack – the threat said – was imminent. Public school officials in New York City received a similar threat, but quickly deemed it a hoax.
Occidental College’s President, Jonathan Vietch, announced some steps he’s taking in the wake of protests on campus over lack of diversity and racism at the school.
The LA City Ethics Commission says it cannot confirm or deny whether there will be an investigation of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, after an official endorsement went out yesterday of Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton. That endorsement came from City Hall. And journalists and watchdogs soon pounced, claiming that the Mayor violated city ethics laws by using city infrastructure for the nod.
This week, the LA City Council passed a measure requiring gun owners to store their weapons under lock and key at home. And earlier this year, Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an new ordinance that restricts the amount of ammunition in high-capacity magazines. Gun rights activists filed suit last week to overturn it – in an interesting way. We get to the bottom of why cities are tackling this issue – and why other governments are not. KCRW's Steve Chiotakis is joined by Emily Alpert Reyes, City Hall r...
Over the past three weeks, the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen yet another uptick in violence. At least 40 Palestinians and nine Israelis have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. And protests and deadly clashes have, once again, become the daily norm. Here in LA, any flare-up in the conflict reverberates through the large diasporic communities that live here.
Jerry Brown signed a number of contentious bills in to law—from climate change, to equal pay and medical-aid-in-dying.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since a jury acquitted Heisman Trophy-winning-football player-turned-TV and movie star OJ Simpson of murdering his wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and a friend at their Brentwood home. The jury’s decision to not convict OJ sent ripples across the country, with some people believing a great injustice had been done, while others saying OJ was set up and deserved to have been set free.
Governor Brown’s push to make California a worldwide leader in fighting climate change suffered two major defeats this week. Joining KCRW's Steve Chiotakis to discuss these developments are Ben Adler, Capitol Bureau Chief at Capital Public Radio, and David Siders, who covers state politics and the Brown administration for The Sacramento Bee .
The Los Angeles Police Department says it’ll send dozens of elite officers into South LA in response to an increase in crime and reported gang violence. The department is highlighting the fact that about half of the 39 killings that happened, in the city as a whole, in the month of August, took place in that area. Will the strategy work? And what’s going on with the crime rate in cities all across the country, and right here in Los Angeles?
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office says Compton’s mayor and council members have been illegally boosting their salaries for years by paying themselves for commission meetings that sometimes last only about a minute. In some cases, officials have been paid whether or not they attended the meetings.
Los Angeles has a lot going for it as the potential host of the 2024 Summer Games. The city hosted the Games back in 1984 and there are stadiums already built for another summer games event. US Olympic officials say there is plenty of local support in the city’s bid to host the Games. But is the fact that taxpayers will be stuck with unexpected costs causing the Olympic flame to dim?
This week marks 70 years since the United States dropped two atomic bombs – within three days of each other – on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, and World War II ended.
Scattered thunderstorms are again battering the mountain and high desert areas with potential for flooding rain, fierce lightning and even hail. An El Niño, as it's known, could mean beneficial rain to combat a four-year drought in the region. But it could also mean some potentially dangerous and damaging weather as well.
Gun sales in California continue to rise and according to the Attorney General’s office, there were close to a million guns sold last year. And of all the people who applied for a background check in 2014, fewer than 9,000 were denied. Less than one percent.
In recent weeks and months, we’ve seen a flurry of coverage from national outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal citing the great weather and the burgeoning gallery scene as reasons why it’s great to be a creative professional in LA. But rents continue to rise – at upwards of twice the national average, according to some statistics – and housing prices are through the roof.
The Los Angeles City Council this week gave the city more power to dismantle homeless encampments. That’s despite the loud objections of homeless advocates. About a dozen protesters disrupted Tuesday’s City Council meeting, calling the rules “criminal” until security officers escorted them out.
Tom Bradley was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1973 with a broad coalition of Jews, Latinos, Asian-Americans and other liberal white voters. A new documentary about Bradley chronicles his life, as the son of Texas sharecroppers and grandson to slaves, to LA Police Lieutenant and, later, City Councilmember and Mayor.
UCLA graduate student Michael LaCour published a study in Science magazine last December, suggesting that people who opposed or were on the fence about same-sex marriage can be convinced to change their minds after having a conversation with a gay or lesbian canvasser. But another doctoral student at UC-Berkeley pointed out irregularities in the research.
Whether or not a movie is made in this company town, Hollywood seems to really like one thing: destroying Los Angeles. The latest iteration of imagination and conflagration on the big screen is San Andreas .
The company that owns the pipeline that ruptured this week off the coast of Santa Barbara now has to go through a series of steps before it can restart that line.
The Los Angeles City Council is moving forward on a plan to raise the citywide minimum wage to $15 by 2020, up from the current $9 an hour. Labor leaders call it a major step forward for lifting workers out of poverty. But some business leaders – particularly restaurant owners – are pushing back.
Emotions ran high at a town hall meeting inside a Venice elementary school auditorium Thursday night. The issue: the killing of an unarmed homeless man by an LAPD officer near the Venice Boardwalk this week.
From Kim Kardashian to the Pope, the cause to recognize the Armenian genocide has gotten vocal support in recent weeks, leading up to today’s centennial anniversary. Armenians point to solid evidence that genocide, at the hands of the Turkish government, indeed took place, in a brutally systematic way.
Look at the term "law enforcement," and you’ll see two words at the center of a debate about policing in America. Law, and force. But how is that force being used?
