LA Podcast - The Tracks of My Palantirs

Mike, Rachel, and guest co-host TV writer Olga Lexell discuss censorship in Hollywood and how unions rallied to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live. How ICE is using Palantir’s data to track you, and how rapid response groups are fighting back. Plus a recap of LA’s divisive convention center vote and how Mayor Karen Bass saved city worker jobs, but not city services.

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SHOW NOTES

LA’s convention center expansion was, indeed, passed 11-2. As the Los Angeles Times notes, we just finished paying off the 1990s expansion, now we have three more decades of debt

Alissa published Katy Yaroslavsky’s remarks in full; you can also watch them here

"There are boondoggles, there are big boondoggles, and then there are public development disasters. Los Angeles has just embarked on a disaster," writes convention center expert Heywood Sanders. Read Alissa’s interview with him for a true LA horror story

Mayor Karen Bass is celebrating averting layoffs — even though the budget committee did most of the actual work — but sadly LA’s service levels will still suck, as Yaroslavsky noted in council

California lawmakers from the local to federal level joined unions on Hollywood Boulevard on Monday to rally for free speech. Jimmy Kimmel Live was reinstated by Disney moments after the press conference ended and returned to the air the following night — except in a handful of cities. Over the weekend, Sinclair brought the show back to the remaining markets

LA Times: “Hollywood writers were already struggling. Now they fear censorship”

This New York Times column by Thomas Edsall is the most comprehensive — and chilling — explanation of the media mergers

Rapid response groups are shifting to new ways to track ICE including setting up their own cameras and operating their own “liberty vans” as part of the Save America Movement

License plate readers continue to collect information all over LA, although LA County is trying to keep the data away from ICE

“For years, little was known about the multibillion-dollar company that handles data for the U.S. immigration enforcement agency. Now, a cache of emails, training documents and reports sheds light on how Palantir helps ICE with investigations and on-the-ground enforcement,” The Guardian reports

There have been many protests at Palantir’s West Hollywood office

Doug Smith of Inclusive Action writes about the Trump administration's illegal use of IRS data to supercharge ICE raids on Think Forward

Olga joined Ed Begley Jr., Adam Conover, and Bill Wolkoff on the Transit and Hollywood panel moderated by Alissa for SoCal Transit Month

In addition to wrapping up SoCal Transit Month, this is the national Week Without Driving. Ride free transit on Wednesday, October 1 for Clean Air Day!

This week’s episode is produced by Olive Greenspan

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward