The Mixer

For many Californians, Tax Day this year means writing a check to Uncle Sam. President Donald Trump, and the GOP’s new tax laws, are hitting high tax states, such as California and New York, extremely hard. Is there anything you can do?

Alex Villanueva has a mandate and he does not care who – or what – gets in his way. At least, that’s how the newly minted Sheriff of L.A. County has positioned himself during his first few months in office. Villanueva won in an election last November and that political victory has given him an awful lot of autonomy when it comes to running his department. But he's not free from scrutiny, and there’s been plenty of it this year.

In less than a week from now, Disney and 20th Century-Fox will be one. It is by far the biggest entertainment merger in recent memory, and anxiety is high on the Fox lot.  There are jobs in accounting, marketing and beyond that could soon be rendered redundant under a Disney umbrella.  What will happen to those employees and the Fox brand? 

Bernie Sanders and his 2016 campaign helped usher in a new generation of politicians and brought several progressive ideas to the Democratic Party platform. But that's not enough for the Vermont Senator. He has his eyes on 2020.

Plans for the high-speed rail project originally meant to connect L.A. and San Francisco - are now derailed. At least, so it seems. Governor Gavin Newsom said in his State of the State address this week that he was going to shorten its construction to connect only Merced and Bakersfield. But the Governor is now resisting how most news outlets - and President Trump - have characterizes his plans.

There’s another big awards show this weekend in Los Angeles. And this one, like some others, is trying to move past controversy that concerns inclusion. The Grammy Awards actually expanded the number of nominees competing in the 4 big categories, all in hopes of getting more gender and racial diversity. But will that work?

President Trump’s intelligence team went to Capitol Hill this week for their yearly update to the Congress. But Trump did not like what they said and how it was covered. So he contradicted them and blamed the media for mischaracterizing their comments.

Some parts of Southern California got more than five inches of rain this week, in a series of storm systems that hit the area one after the other. What climate scientists describe as an atmospheric river is behind the weather pattern that brought those torrents of rains and even unusual blizzard conditions in higher elevations. The rain put a big dent in the drought. But, as you’re probably well-aware, the rain can stop for months and months and – voila! – here we are, in a big drought again. So what’s behind this pendulum swing, and what can state officials do about capitalizing on the precious water that falls?

Higher salaries, larger class sizes, more counselors, librarians and nurses. Those are just some of the demands that members of United Teachers, Los Angeles - the union that represents teachers' at LAUSD - are asking for. And if you think those demands sound familiar, that is because they are the same things teachers in other parts of the country have asked for in the past few years. But now a strike seems imminent and that is raising concerns about how students will be affected.

Jerry Brown is still the Governor of California. But not for long. He’s termed out – and on his way out – in January, when Gavin Newsom is set to take over as the state’s chief executive. Brown has been in public service for nearly half a century and when you service that long, you build a reputation for yourself. He’s known as being fiscally responsible. However, his legacy infrastructure projects – from high speed rail to water tunnels – have been mired in controversy, so far. So, when it comes to criminal justice reform, just how will the Governor be remembered?