Los Angeles Times
Reporter for the Los Angeles Times
PROFILE
Ben Welsh
Guest
FROM Ben Welsh
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Tenants vs. Landlords in Long Beach Long Beach renter Larry Watson hasn’t had running water in his apartment for at least two years. To use the toilet, his friends and neighbors carry in water and to take a shower he has to check into a motel. No, it’s not the drought... it’s landlord negligence. And this kind of story is not unusual for Long Beach, where more than half its residents are renters. Last night, the Long Beach City Council took the first step in approving a plan that would give renters more leverage over their landlords. Tenants, though, say the proposal doesn’t go far enough.
Which Way, L.A.?
A Culture of Bias in the Los Angeles Fire Department Mayor Garcetti has vowed to change the culture of the LA Fire Department. It's a major consideration as he searches for the city's next fire chief . In November a Superior Court awarded a little over a million dollars to a black firefighter, Jabari Jumaane, in compensation for the 30 years of discrimination he said he endured on the job. Over the previous year the agency paid out another million and a half dollars in bias cases, and from 2006 to 2010 LA Fire Department discrimination and harassment payouts cost taxpayers $17 million. Over the years these settlements have sparked reforms, including monitoring by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and a voter mandated independent assessor to oversee handling of misconduct complaints.
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To the Point
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
To the Point
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.