Budget proposal aims to provide better childcare options, new Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on his new gig, presidential campaign awkward moments.
LA county proposes childcare vouchers to help struggling foster parents
A new report from the Chronicle for Social Change finds the cost of childcare as a primary hardship for working foster parents.
In response, LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl is proposing $31 million of child welfare funds to aid in the care of infants and toddlers. She said child care is one of the top barriers to placing children in this age group.
Kuehl said the vouchers will also help in recruiting new parents into the state's overburdened foster care system.
"Over the past decade, we lost almost half of the number of applicants we used to have," Kuehl told Take Two's Alex Cohen.
Kuehl said funds will come from Assembly Bill 403, known as California’s Child Welfare Continuum of Care Reform, which will keep counties from relying on group homes, and instead, place children in relative care or foster care homes.
The burden on foster parents include long waiting lists for spots in government subsidized daycare centers or early childhood education programs. And sometimes, fosters are left scrambling during an emergency when a child is placed in a foster home late at night.
"The truth is, Alex, almost all of our families have two parents working," said Kuehl, crediting the recession for the trend.
The money will go to six-month emergency childcare vouchers for foster parents to purchase childcare from both licensed and license-exempt providers. Navigators would help foster parents negotiate government subsidized childcare systems, along with training on childhood trauma.
The plan heads to the California Assembly and Senate for budget subcommittee hearings in April.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
LAUSD simplifies its application process to boost enrollment
Amidst a dizzying array of school choices available to families living in the Los Angeles Unified School District, keeping track of the various deadlines and forms when application time rolls around can be overwhelming, to say the least. But now, the district is considering ways to make it easier to enroll.
Southern California Public Radio’s Kyle Stokes joined Alex Cohen to answer some questions about the early stages of this plan.
What schools are we talking about?
Things like magnet schools and permits to go to schools that are outside of your school area, your resident area, your open enrollment choices, your zones of choice- which is a different kind of option for getting into secondary schools- all of which have online applications, but then there’s yet more choices that don’t have online applications. Schools of advance studies, which are for gifted students or dual language immersion schools…those are not online and you got a whole bunch of different choices.
What makes this process so difficult?
It’s a whole bunch of different applications, and again your talking about a whole bunch of different places to put them. Some of these are available online and some are not, and the thing that is just as important as the information that you have to put down are the deadlines. All of them have these different deadlines.
What’s the plan?
The key is that they’re talking about it, but a lot of really important people are doing the talking and what they want to do is take this kind of balkanized system and consolidate it, bring it into one place. They want to create something like one-stop shopping, one online portal where parents can apply to most of the district's choice options in one place, with one application and again critically with one deadline.
When will this common application roll out?
It’s very early stages in this process…They’re not putting this on a timeline yet, but they’re really pushing because they’ve lost over 200,000 student over the past 13 years, and the enrollment piece is a big part of that.
Will charter schools be included in the "one-stop-shop" application?
That’s not the plan at this point…it’s not being framed in so many words but it’s a response to the charter school movement…100,000 students have enrolled in character schools so I think that the district sees and is acknowledging in a sideways way that when they don't make the choices clear, parents go to where the choice is clear and that might be to a charter school.
To learn more, check out this link to Kyle's article.
Series: Good Schools
As part of its Good Schools series, Take Two looks at the education landscape in the Los Angeles area. That includes its public schools, magnets, charters, private institutions and dual-language programs. You’ll hear from parents, academics, teachers, kids and even a couple of TV show producers.
Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts on Facebook, or tweet us
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with the hashtag #goodschools.
Rookie Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sets his eyes on the 2016 World Series
The Dodgers open their 2016 season Monday in San Diego against the Padres.
While they've won their division the last three years, the playoffs have not been kind to them. Their World Series drought stands at 27 years.
The team went through some changes during the off-season, but none bigger than at the top. With only one game of experience under his belt, Dave Roberts was hired as the new team manager.
It was a notable hire for the team that broke baseball's color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in the major league. Roberts is now the first African-American manager in the franchise's history.
He was also a former Dodgers outfielder from 2002 to 2004. That's when Take Two's A Martinez was traveling with the team doing Dodger Talk.
A caught up with Roberts while he was still in Arizona for Spring Training and talked to him about the new gig.
Interview highlights:
On being the Dodgers' first African-American manager:
"It means a lot for me to be named the first African-American manager. My mom is Japanese, my father African-American. It's a responsibility. It's something that I don't think about too often because I try to approach every day to teach and get guys better. And for me, I definitely don't look at myself in that capacity, but I think people outside of my immediate family might."
On being a past Dodgers player:
"The Dodger way and the certain style of play and the way that Dodgers in years past carried themselves on the field, off the field. When you put this Dodger uniform, that says a lot. That says a lot to the people that wore it and as opponents when they come into Dodger stadium or when they're playing against the Dodgers — teams find a way to bring out their best. It brings out the best in opponents."
On the Dodgers' lack of championships:
"You look at the last three years, and the goal is to win the division and they've done that. They've done a lot of good things. And once you get to the post season there's a lot of different variables and also, luck plays into it a little bit. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to get this team and this organization and for the fans to get back to the World Series, let alone win another world championship... So for me, in 2016, we're going to do everything we can to win the division and win the World Series."
The Los Angeles Dodgers home opener is Tuesday, April 12.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
As opening day approaches, Dodgers fans might have to switch cable providers to watch
If you're a Direct TV customer you will have to be taken out to a ballgame to see the Dodgers play.
The stalemate between Direct TV and Time Warner Cable has reached a point where one side won't respond and the other is giving up.
What that means is with the Dodgers just a few days away from starting Vin Scully's final season, a big chunk of LA will be caught looking at strike three.
We turned to Cynthia Littleton, managing editor for Television at Variety, for the latest update.
The Wheel Thing: Tesla Model 3 drums up excitement, thousands of pre-orders
Crowds lined up for hours before Tesla’s big reveal of the new Model S on Thursday night, and apparently they weren’t let down.
By 9 p.m. Tesla said buyers had already reserved more than 115,000 of the sedans, according to the Associated Press.
The Los Angeles Times reported early Friday that the number had already risen to more than 130,000.
For comparison, BMW reported it sold a total of about 95,000 of its similarly priced 3 series in the U.S. last year.
The Model 3 will start at $35,000, making it the lowest-priced Tesla yet. The new model features a panoramic glass roof and a semi-autonomous “autopilot” feature to help keep the vehicle in lanes.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised it would deliver zero to 60 mph acceleration in under 6 seconds and a range of 215 miles on a single charge.
The car is also expected to earn a 5-star safety rating in all categories. Its older cousin, the Model S, boasts the highest safety rating in America, according to the company. In 2013, Tesla announced the S had achieved the highest rating for any car ever tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Model S provides a longer range of up to 270 miles per charge, but it starts at $71,000. As AP reports, a lower-priced car has been Musk's longtime goal.
The company is still taking reservations on its website for $1,000.
The Heavy's Kelvin Swaby on a new album and hit song 'How You Like Me Now'
If you've watched The Fighter, Ted, The Transporter Refueled, Horrible Bosses, or Horrible Bosses 2, odds are you've heard music from The Heavy.
Their song "How You Like Me Now" has been licensed for something like 30 movies, television shows and commercials. "That song was pretty much written in 10 minutes," said lead singer Kelvin Swaby. "At the time I was, you know, kind of going through a bad patch with my children's mother. And so, you know, it just kind of fell out."
Now, the British band is releasing a new album called "Hurt and the Merciless," and they're showing it off at Coachella later this month.
And on this new album, as on ones prior, Swaby said, he found inspiration from emotional situations, as audiences can hear in their song "Since You Been Gone."
"It's about dealing with toxicity within my life at this point that I actually wrote that song. And you know, we all deal with toxic situations within our life. It's just being drawn to a fire... you know it's bad, you know it's going to burn you, but... oh man! I just got to keep on touching it."
Alex Cohen recently sat down with Swaby to talk about the new album, the success of "How You Like Me Now" and the inspiration behind "Since You've Been Gone."
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
That awkward moment: 4 campaign trail gaffes that stymied White House bids
It was the gaffe heard round the political world: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was in a one-on-one interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews when this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Jpoecf0xY
The Trump campaign was quick to dial back the candidate’s controversial remarks, releasing a statement just hours later attempting to clarify.
But in the digital age, even 60 minutes is more than enough time to assemble a media mob — and assemble they did. Trump’s assertions sparked quick condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike.
This is hardly the first time a presidential hopeful has slipped up on the campaign trail. For a look back at some of the more notable blunders, Take Two spoke to Sam Popkin, professor of political science at UC San Diego, and author of the book, “The Candidate: What It Takes to Win - and Hold - the White House.”
Awkward Moment 1: “I didn’t inhale.”
CANDIDATE: Bill Clinton
election: 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXGnSpjgNM
Awkward Moment 2: “Yeeeeeah!” (Yeah, no)
candidate: Howard Dean
election: 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwkNnMrsx7Q
Awkward Moment 3: “Oops.”
candidate: Rick Perry
election: 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyMosJdIfdo
Awkward Moment 4: “Special Gifts”
candidate: Mitt Romney
election: 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gvY2wqI7M