Warren Olney

Just a few more days before you go to the polls.  Let’s review, shall we?
We’re in the final stretch, so here’s some information you need to know about the candidates and propositions before you punch, pull or bubble-in that ballot.
KCRW’s Warren Olney, host of Which Way, LA? and To The Point joined us, as did KCRW reporter Saul Gonzalez, who’s been covering some of the campaigns …

Top prosecutor. The city attorney’s race came to “Which Way, L.A.?” last night as KCRW’s Warren Olney conducted separate interviews with the candidates in Tuesday’s run-off election. The incumbent, Carmen Trutanich – or “Nuch” as he’s commonly known – finds himself in an uphill battle to keep the job that he won in a surprise victory four years ago.
After pledging not to run for another …

The first Peking to Paris rally was run in 1907. Despite two thousand applicants, only 5 cars actually arrived at the dock in Beijing and the winner was an Italian prince named Scipione Borghese, who drove a 45 horsepower Italia. Apparently, he didn’t endear himself to his fellow competitors when, upon arriving at the first hotel in Mongolia and discovering that it had 5 …

Who will be the next LA mayor? Do you have questions you still want answered?
With just a few weeks left until Election Day, it’s time to get beyond the campaign rhetoric and 30-second commercials in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. Candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti visit Zócalo for a live debate. They’ll take questions—and follow-ups—from Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “Which Way, L.A.?”
It’s a chance to demand specifics …

Just two percent of sex offenders commit more than one crime, according to the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But state law, passed by the voters, requires that they register publicly and sets residential restrictions for the rest of their lives. Four cities in Orange County have recently been sued for ordinances going beyond state law. We hear from attorneys and a registered sex …

The Expo Line trains are expected to roll into in Santa Monica by 2015. But here at the end of 2012, signs of the line’s extension are already popping up all over this city by the sea.
One landmark gallery at Bergamot Station, Track 16,  is closing this week to make way for Expo, an ironic turn of events for Bergamot itself, which once functioned …

New York and New Jersey were not prepared for Superstorm Sandy. That’s costing them tens of billions of dollars for homes and roads, sewer treatment and power plants — on a seashore that will never be the same. As the waters rise and storms get larger, are California’s coastal communities ready for the inevitable? What’s being done in Newport Beach and Ventura? What’s not …

This week’s Hollywood Reporter carries the story, “The Most Sinful Period in Hollywood History,” about that publication’s role in the anti-Communist witch-hunt that led to the blacklisting of movie stars, writers and others who refused to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  Accompanying the story is an apology from Willie Wilkerson, whose father founded the Hollywood Reporter itself — and then used …

Seven million Californians don’t have health insurance, but many will be eligible for coverage in January, 2014. There’s just over a year to prepare for a massive expansion of Medi-Cal for the poor and to set up an exchange, called California Covered, where the uninsured can find out what policies are available and how to apply. We hear from people trying to clear up …

For years, California’s been trying to stem runaway film and TV production to other states and countries. Is the effort a failure? A new report says LA County has lost 16,000 jobs since 2004, the year of peak production. Another study says the state as a whole lost $3 billion in wages from the decline. We get the latest on what’s still a major …

Governor Brown and the Democrats’ legislative majority balanced this year’s budget on the assumption that Proposition 30 would pass. It did — with 54 percent of the vote statewide and 60 percent in Los Angeles. He reminded doubters that he’d run for governor on the pledge that there would be no taxes unless people voted for them, and said he looked forward to being able to …

Education is the subject of two propositions on next week’s ballot. Proposition 30 is supported by Governor Brown. Yesterday, he delivered a campaign speech in support of his “temporary tax for education” at Town Hall Los Angeles in the Biltmore Hotel. “It’s either money into the schools, or money out.  And we’re asking those who have been most blessed, who are most successful, to help us out …

Proposition 37 would require food producers, grocers and other retailers to label genetically engineered food sold in California. If they failed or refused, they could be taken to court. TheOrganic Consumers Fund, Nature’s Path Foods and others have raised about $7 million to support Prop. 37. Opponents, including Monsanto, Dupont, DOW AgroSciences and brand-name food processors have raised $44 million against it. The measure that once led by a margin of …

Three-time LA District Attorney Steve Cooley is stepping down at a time when both crime and public resources are on the decline. In Tuesday’s final election, two veterans of Cooley’s office are running to be his replacement. They are Chief Deputy Jackie Lacey and Alan Jackson, head of the Major Crimes Unit. (They have declined to debate, so we hear from them one at a time, and …

One of this year’s nastiest and most expensive campaigns for Congress is taking place in the West San Fernando Valley. Veteran Democrats Howard Berman and Brad Sherman have been forced to compete for the newly drawn 30th District. They’ve spent more than $10 million, exchanged insults, and, in a now-infamous televised moment, almost come almost to blows. As Berman and Sherman struggle down to the wire, Eric Bauman, …

In 2008, Measure R appeared on the ballot for LA County voters. The measure raised LA County’s sales tax one half cent — from 8.25 cents on the dollar to 8.75 cents — for 30 years, until 2039, to pay for rail, bus, and roadway projects across the county.
Because it was a tax increase, the measure had to be approved by at least two-thirds …

Gasoline rose by 60 cents last week in some places — by 40 cents this weekend alone — setting records all over California. The gasoline industry blames refinery problems, but others accuse them of shipping supplies overseas to keep them tight on the West Coast. Senator Dianne Feinstein wants an investigation. Is this what she calls the “malicious and manipulative trading activity” she’s seen …

Governor Brown has signed legislation to allow some illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, but he’s vetoed new protections for farm workers and a prohibition on County Sheriffs from working closely with federal immigration officials. Is he still the leader Latinos have counted on? Also, LA Sheriff Lee Baca stands accused of allowing brutal violence in county jails. Can the Board of Supervisors …

The LAPD is investigating detective work that put a Los Angeles man in prison 19 years ago—for a murder he did not commit. We talk with him about his new life on the outside. Listen below:

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Mayor Villaraigosa says, “Plan for the worst,” but Metro is already worried that Carmageddon 2 is being anticipated more with complacency than alarm. Despite months of warnings before July of last year, there was no Carmageddon when Metro closed down the 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass from Friday night until Monday morning. Workers took down half of the drive that crossed the freeway on Mulholland Drive, …