LA County's five Supervisors are America's most powerful local elected officials. They both make and administer laws and spend $25 billion a year on crucial services for a population that's bigger than most American states. Despite all that, they operate in the shadows — almost never replaced by election — until now. For the first time, term limits are forcing Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina out of office next year. We hear about candidates, vested interests, big money and demands for better Latino representation. Also, lovers of Thai hot sauce are facing SrirachApocolypse.
On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, peace talks scheduled for Geneva next month would bring Syria's government together with rebel forces. But bloody fighting continues, and there's growing concern that the civil war will finally be decided not at the conference table but on the battlefield.
Banner image: Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky (L) and Gloria Molina (R) will both be termed out in 2014