The Mixer

The measure that’s raked in the most money on California's November ballot is not over rent control or the state’s recently passed gas tax – it's about kidney dialysis

The U.S. border with Mexico has become a linchpin in American politics under the administration of Donald Trump.

With key votes expected by Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins and West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, Brett Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed as the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Two Senators who don’t support Kavanaugh represent California: Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. And both have played pivotal, if limited, roles in the confirmation and hearing process up to this point.

Ten years ago this month, Wall Street – and every other economic barometer – was in free fall. And that financial crisis was also a housing crisis. Some of the worst areas hit were communities all along Southern California’s I-15 freeway, from Rancho Cucamonga in the north… to Lake Elsinore in the south. So what happened, and how's life along the 'Foreclosure Alley' now?

How has Trump been able to - so effectively - dance around scandal after scandal?

The acreage keeps ticking up on a stubborn wildfire burning in a part of California that hasn’t in several decades. At last check, the Holy Fire has charred more than 18,000 acres. And with containment sitting in the single digits, it’s not looking like this will be put out soon. The fire is threatening homes and causing a host of other problems for residents living near the flames and downwind.

The LAPD has shot and killed 2 innocent people in the past several weeks during police activity. The tragedies have prompted apologies from the Chief of Police and possible legal action. They have also spurred a broader conversation around when police officers should use their weapons, especially when there are a lot of people around.

Facebook and Twitter took some big losses this week after reporting some less-than-projected earnings. The numbers coincide some recent changes made by both social media giants, including the beginnings of a crackdown on who can post and what they can say. Is being the adult in the room bad for business?

Just a couple of weeks ago, temperatures hit all-time record highs in a number of places and, with heat, comes the possibility of ignition.

Twelve Russian military intelligence officers hacked into the Clinton presidential campaign and Democratic Party and released tens of thousands of private communications in a sweeping conspiracy by the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election. That is according to an indictment announced days before President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. All of this comes on the same day that California's top election official certified the results of last month's election.

The World Cup is easily the most-watched sporting event on earth and here in Los Angeles, there has been plenty of attention to what’s happening half a world away.

This week featured a narrative coming out of the White House that, if you take all the punditry and analysis out, flies in the face of logic.

California-based automaker Tesla announced this week that it will be laying off a slice of its workforce. It comes amid concerns about the production levels of their newer Model 3 sedan, ordered by hundreds of thousands, yet produced at a snail’s pace. Can CEO Elon Musk turn things around?

House Republicans came up short, again, in an effort to produce some sort of immigration compromise. It is an issue that united Democrats, but has split conservative and moderate factions of the GOP. For the second time this week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy gathered the factions, and emerged without a deal. There could be a vote on the issue, whether Speaker Paul Ryan wants it or not and it comes as immigration policies are having profound effects at the border.

California Democrats are banking that the anti-Trump movement will thrust their candidates into seats that have not been blue in decades. But in recent weeks, there has been some push back to that push back. What does it all mean for myriad Congressional races, heading into the primary?

The race to replace retiring LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is coming down to the wire. This week, the L-A Police Commission named its three finalists. All have ties to the department and all come from diverse backgrounds. But not in the way that many City Hall insiders had hoped.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti invited a handful of journalists to City Hall to talk about... anything. No format. No rules. KCRW's Saul Gonzalez was one of those invited. He joins Steve Chiotakis this week on The Friday Mixer.

There is little debate that the character 'Apu' from The Simpsons is a stereotype of an Indian immigrant shop owner. But recently, that character has come under renewed criticism, and the man who voices him says he is even willing to stop doing it. Should he?

It’s been nearly 5 months since sales of recreational marijuana became legal in California. And the business of pot is slowly coming into its own. But there are a lot of things that are dragging, not at all helped by the fact that marijuana is still listed as a schedule one substance that is open to federal criminal prosecution.

This week, Facebook said it would stop spending money to fight a possible initiative aimed at increasing data privacy in California. Backers are gathering signatures to put a proposal on the November ballot. The social media giant’s statement comes after the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, took a grilling from Congress over the company’s handling of user data. How much will really change?