Recent Shows

Los Angeles is historically horizontal, but it’s becoming increasingly vertical with a host of new projects going up from downtown to Santa Monica.  Many large building projects, on hold since the Great Recession, are not just back on the drawing boards but under construction.
So-called “smart growth” dictates that high-rise work space and housing is the best ways to accommodate increased growth within the region. A …

In 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled that overcrowding in California’s prisons was “cruel and unusual punishment” with suicidal inmates held in cages without toilets and with treatment unavailable to the one-third who are mentally ill. The population was 200 percent larger than the prisons were designed for, and the court gave Governor Brown two years to reduce that to 137.5 percent. He created …

Electric-car maker Fisker is headquartered in Anaheim… if it can stay in business.  CODA was lured from Santa Monica to Los Angeles—but it, too, may be on the edge of collapse.  We’ll hear about what looks likes the failed promise of a new “clean” industry subsidized by local and federal taxpayers. Also, a battery recycler in Vernon is shut down after accusations of risks …

Southern California’s received 5.14 inches of rain so far this year compared to the normal 14. It was just enough for grass to spring up, providing fuel for what could be an epic fire season. We hear what’s in store and what it’s like to fight fast-moving blazes on steep hills where the last resort is a portable tent compared to tin foil on …

UCLA, UC Berkeley and the rest of the university system have been a boon to California’s economy. For decades, admission was guaranteed for qualified state high-school graduates—at an affordable price. Not any more. Tuition and fees have gone through the roof—and so have admissions of students from out of state, who pay even more. Are in-state students are being pushed aside?  What about the …

This coming Sunday, Venice Boulevard Westbound will be free of cars from downtown Los Angeles to Venice Beach from 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. It’s another CicLAvia, designed to encourage commuting by bicycle in the car capital of the world. We visit a city that really makes way for pedal power by physically separating bicycle traffic from cars, trucks and …

Last night, Antonio Villaraigosa made his last State-of-the-City address as Mayor of Los Angeles. He took credit for declining crime, reduced air pollution, new light rail lines and paved bikeways. He also took aim at the campaigns of Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, one of whom will replace him in June. Today, he’s making more news by saying that city workers should contribute 20 percent of their salaries …

Jerry Brown probably could’ve picked a better time to head across the Pacific for meetings in China, given the roiling political showdown underway on the Korean peninsula. Nevertheless he and a cohort of 90 business and policy leaders are in Beijing on a mission to increase trade ties between China and the Golden State. The California Governor will spend six days traveling across China in …

Bluebird Liquors in Hawthorne sold 8000 tickets in its first five hours of business today, as California became the 43rd state in the Union to offer Powerball. The California Lotteryinvested big money to promote Powerball on radio and TV. “California Dreamin’” is the background music over pictures of people looking delighted as little white lottery balls drift from above, ending up with a red ball drifting …

Stockton may be showing other cities how to battle their way through bankruptcy. San Bernardino, Compton, San Jose and Watsonville are among those watching closely as Stockton residents cope with massive cuts in police and fire services with crime on the rise and resources on the decline. Will CalPERS, the state pension system, have to wait in line with other creditors? Also, the Los …

The city of Lancaster, in the Antelope Valley, basks in sun for a good portion of the year. Now it’s become the first city in the nation to mandate that homeowners take advantage of all that sun with solar roofing. Guest host Tess Vigeland speaks with the city’s mayor tonight and asks how he’s planning to make it affordable for residents. Also, more endorsements in the …

At a major intersection in Hollywood, KCRW’s Saul Gonzalez talked with Adrian Glick Kudler, editor of Curbed LA, about Millennium Hollywood, a horizontal city going vertical. City Councilman and mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti is opposed. So is the other Hollywood councilman, Tom LaBonge. But the city planning commission — to Mayor Villaraigosa’s applause — has approved more than one million square feet of offices, apartments, condos and retail …

The Major League Baseball season begins on Monday and the first exhibition game in newly renovated Dodger Stadium is getting under way tonight. We get a preview of the upcoming season and the new look at Dodger Stadium, renovated to emphasize fan comfort, Dodger Blue and Restroom Green.

Council members in the City of Bell were recently convicted of crimes for inflating their salaries by taking money for work on city commissions that hardly ever met. Next door in the City of Compton, something similar has been going on. That’s according to a report tonight on KCET’s SoCal Connected.

Five years ago, voters passed Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in California.  A federal judge in San Francisco declared it unconstitutional, and his decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Tomorrow, the issue will be argued before US Supreme Court in Washington. We hear from an opponent and a gay male wife with two children. (We also hear from other supporters of same-sex …

Much has changed since Proposition 8 passed in 2008 and polls show that if it were on the California ballot now, it would be likely to fail. Today, at the US Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decider between his four liberal and four conservative colleagues, acknowledged that Prop 8 has taken the court into “uncharted waters.” Liberal Justice Sonya Sotomayor posed the question, …

Last fall a blue-ribbon commission blamed Sheriff Lee Baca for violence against inmates at LA County jails. The general counsel said, “If he doesn’t fix the jails, [Baca] should not be re-elected.” Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who ran the jails, has announced his retirement, and Baca has appointed an outsider to assume responsibility for nine facilities that house more than 18,000 inmates. Terri McDonald, formerly with the California Department …

The raft of multiple shootings around the country has LA County Supervisors asking the legislature to expand what’s called “Laura’s Law.” It’s named for a woman who worked at a mental health clinic in Nevada County and who was killed by a patient. The purpose of Laura’s Law is to medicate mentally ill people who’ve been refusing treatment before they commit any crime. The legislature has not …

The war in Iraq is a local story in Southern California. Octavio Sanchez was a Marine staff sergeant deployed to Iraq from Camp Pendleton. In July of 2005, while on patrol in Ramadi, his vehicle struck a roadside bomb. Two comrades died in the incident, but Sanchez survived to undergo 40 surgeries at Veterans’ facilities and at UCLA. He’s the married father of four, …

After eight years of controversy, the LA City Harbor Commission has unanimously approved a new cargo facility to transfer containers from ships to train cars instead of trucks using the Alameda Corridor. Bob Foster, the Mayor of Long Beach, calls it a threat to the lives of school kids on his side of the border.