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.
The Voting is Over, but the Campaign Continues Women had a major impact on the midterm elections. So did $5 billion in campaign spending. Meantime, Democrats now lead the House while Republicans dominate the Senate, and the politics of division continues on Capitol Hill. We’ll hear how former House Speaker Newt Gingrich helped start an era of gridlock and perpetual campaigning.
How Did We Get Here? California used to be red. West Virginia used to be blue. We look at the political history of both states.
The art and science of fixing faulty genes UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues say they can edit any organism’s DNA using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. This technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, could redefine the possibilities for editing human and non-human genes, opening the door to societal and ethical implications.
Measure B and municipal banking After the 2008 financial crisis, an activist movement rose up in opposition to the big Wall Street banks that caused the subprime mortgage collapse. They camped out in a park at the base of Wall Street, called themselves Occupy Wall street and eventually the movement spread to other cities. And here in LA there is a measure on the ballot for this Tuesday that has its roots in the Occupy LA movement.