LA Business Council
President of the Los Angeles Business Council, an association of progressive business and community leaders; former Commissioner of the Department of Water and Power under Mayor Jim Hahn and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development under Mayor Riordan; former deputy at the Small Business Administration under President Bill Clinton
Can the LA River Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis? The Army Corps of Engineers has authority over the LA River, and it says cleaning up just 11 miles of the 52-mile long channel will cost a billion dollars. Nobody knows where the money will come from. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles Business Council has issued a report calling the river LA's "Next Frontier ."
Solar Decathlon In the past two weeks 60,000 people went to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine to check out the “Solar Decathlon.” That’s the exhibition of net zero energy houses, designed and built by students for a biannual competition created by the DOE, with the goal of educating people about solar power.
Mayor Villaraigosa's Latest Choice to Lead the DWP In last night's speech on the State of the City , Mayor Villaraigosa said the strain of challenges facing LA have "undermined civic unity." He referred specifically to the battle over increasing utility rates, explained as necessary for the Department of Water and Power to switch from fossil fuels to "green energy." He promised to reform the DWP, an agency he said is known more for secrecy than transparency. This week Villaraigosa appointed Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner to become the DWP's ninth general manager in the past 10 years.
Mayor Announces Housing Bill First, Mayor Villaraigosa’s affordable housing program. The Mayor would mandate what’s now voluntary under state law. In new projects with 20 or more units, up to 22.5 percent would be reserved for low or moderate-income families. The city would put up 200 million dollars a year and hope to leverage up to a billion from private sources. But the proposal comes at a time when banks are crashing and credit is scarce.
What is Trump's plan for Middle East peace? On his first foreign tour, President Trump has promised "peace" between Israel and the Palestinians. Are there any details for re-starting talks that have been stalled for the past three years?
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.