Today on the show, we'll begin by talking about what happens to the constituents when a senator is scandalized. Then, we announce the winner of this year's Public Radio Bracket Madness. Plus, an Afghan girl who lost arm in war learns to paint in Los Angeles, how accurate is HBO's 'Silicon Valley' when it comes to the tech scene? How do you make biking and taking the Metro cool? Plus much more.
Leland Yee Investigation: What happens to his constituents?
The California senate recently voted to suspend three democratic senators, all of whom are embroiled in criminal cases.
San Francisco senator Leland Yee was indicted on charges of illegal arms deals, Montebello senator Ron Calderon on charges of taking bribes, and Baldwin Hills senator Rod Wright was convicted for lying about where he lives.
Though all three have been suspended, none of them have resigned from their posts. So what happens to the millions of constituents living in their districts?
For more on that, we're joined by Mindy Romero, the director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of California, Davis.
Open streets organizers seek CicLAvia's know-how
Tens of thousands of people walked, jogged and biked along a closed six-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard on Sunday for the first CicLAvia of 2014. Several of the participants were representatives from other cities and countries, hoping to take lessons from the event back to their hometowns.
They came from six other countries and a total of 30 cities -- from Cape Town to Columbus, Ohio -- to attend the second Open Streets National Summit. The weekend conference featured panels and workshops that shared best practices of successful open streets initiatives.
How do you make biking and public transit cool?
While CicLAvia is a great way for people to take to their bikes, how do you convince people to do it more than the three times of year it happens?
Because when it's all said and done and the helmets are put away, L.A. is still a place where car is king. However, the city is in the middle of developing hundreds of miles of bike lanes. It's also fast at work to expand the Purple and Expo rail lines and create a new light rail line on Crenshaw Boulevard.
With an increasing number of alternative transportation options like these, we wanted to look at how to sell people on the idea to use them on a regular basis and ditch their car.
Dave Sotero is a spokesperson for the LA Metro.
What's behind Obama's deportation numbers?
Immigrant rights groups rallied in cities and in front of deportation centers across the U.S. this weekend, marking what they called an historic moment: 2 million deportations under the Obama Administration.
But some have questioned that figure and have pointed to data that shows that deportations are actually down in certain parts of the country and among certain groups.
For a look behind the numbers, we’re joined by Manuel Pastor, director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the University of Southern California.
Some key findings:
- According to a New York Times analysis of deportation data, two-thirds of deportation cases involved people who have committed only minor infractions.
- Since the "prosecutorial discretion" policy began in 2011, enforcement activity in the interior of the country declined by 40 percent, according to analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies.
- The charge in prosecutions that showed the greatest increase in early 2014, compared to the same period last year, was related to improper entry to the US, according to Syracuse University's TRAC Immigration Program.
Tech experts make HBO's 'Silicon Valley' a bit more real
The new show "Silicon Valley" from writer Mike Judge premiered on HBO Sunday night. This satire about the hub of the tech universe is filled of socially awkward engineers with too much money to burn, developing products no one really understands.
"I love Goolybib's integrated multi platform functionality. Yeah!" is one of the lines in the opening scenes of the series. The overly excited engineer is over the moon because he just sold something called Goolybib to Google for $200 million.
To help writers and actors get the Silicon Valley lingo and vibe just right, the show's creators turned to people like Vin Mishra, a graduate student and information theorist at Stanford.
"I like to think that they were looking for both a data compression expert and a penis-joke expert and they found that!" said Mishra.
The show initially contacted Mishra's advisor, who eventually brought him on to work for the project.
"It was a fairly fluid kind of strange role. I mean it ranged anywhere from coming up with believable compression algorithms... All the way to performing an elaborate mathematical analysis of a penis joke, which by the way is scientifically sound," he said.
The show's main characters have a compression algorithm that a couple of companies want to buy for a lot of money.
An example of compression would be putting a bunch of files in a .ZIP. Those files sizes shrink a little bit, as they're compressed. The same thing goes for images across the Internet. And that's where "Lenna" comes in.
"It turns out that the standard image that's used in image compression research... I mean it's like every single paper, is actually a Playboy centerfold from 1972," said Mishra. "If you look carefully during the show, you'll actually...see her picture on Richard's wall. And that was something that the producers didn't know about until I started talking to one of them."
So, Mishra helped keep the science straight, but how accurate is the show's portrayal of Silicon Valley culture?
"I mean, so many details they just get right. The fact that random people will pitch you their start up," said Mishra. "Like, everyone! From your physical therapist to the person you meet at Trader Joe's. It's definitely got the culture of Silicon Valley just right."
Some of the tech elite feel differently, however.
According to Recode.net, Tesla owner Elon Musk had this to say the show's premiere:
“None of those characters were software engineers. Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter. They’re weird, but not in the same way... I was just having a meeting with my information security team, and they’re great, but they’re pretty f***ing weird — one used to be a dude, one’s super small, one’s hyper-smart — that’s actually what it is.”
Silicon Valley service workers at risk of eviction
The show "Silicon Valley" addresses some of the challenges of living among millionaires and billionaires. The main character rents a room in a suburban ranch house with five other guys, the only option on his modest beginning programmer salary.
But what about those who don't even make that? The cooks and housekeepers who staff the mansions of the Silicon Valley rich? For them, the options are even more limited.
Reporter Heather Perlberg recently wrote about this in Bloomberg News and joins the show to discuss.
On The Lot: 'Captain America,' Lupita Nyong'o, Mickey Rooney and more
The big news in Hollywood today is sad news: Mickey Rooney has died. In just a bit we'll be looking back at his career with a film historian, but I'm curious if you have a favorite Mickey Rooney movie or moment?
The weekend box office saw a superhero smashing the record for an April release in the sequel to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." How well did it do? What contributed to this success?
This has actually had pretty good critical reception, with the notable exception of L.A. Times critic, Kenneth Turan. What was his beef?
Now to a movie that would probably be a critics darling, if it were actually being made: Quentin Tarantino's script for a Western called "the Hateful Eight." Rather than directing it as a movie, he'll be directing a staged reading at LACMA later this month. Do we know who's slated to be involved with this reading? How much are tickets?
Some exciting news for actress Lupita Nyong'o. t's not quite as big as winning as winning an Oscar, which she did for her role in "12 Years A Slave," but she's been named the new face of Lancome cosmetics. Why is this such a big deal? Where and when will we start seeing her ads for Lancome?
There's a fun new attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood called Minion Mayhem.
Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney dies at 93
Hollywood is mourning the loss of one of its most prolific performers. Academy Award-winning actor Mickey Rooney died last night at his North Hollywood home. He was 93 years old.
Laurence Olivier once called him, "The greatest actor of them all." Rooney was known for his high-energy performances. and became famous for his roles in the Andy Hardy movies, "Boys Town" and "The Human Comedy."
His life off-screen garnered a lot of attention too. He was married eight times during his lifetime and became a spokesperson against elder abuse. For more on Mickey Rooney's career, we're joined by Jeanine Basinger, chairman of the film studies department at Wesleyan University.
Announcing KPCC's Public Radio Bracket Madness 2014 winner
This years epic competition, Public Radio Bracket Madness, has finally come to an end.
The annual tradition is KPCC's version of the NCAA college basketball tournament, and an opportunity for listeners to vote for their favorite shows.
The battle was neck and neck between "Radiolab" and "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" for much of the week — Friday afternoon, "Radiolab" was trailing by mere votes.
Here to tell us all about it, and announce the winner, is Mike Roe, keeper of KPCC's blog Without A Net.
Who will win next year? Who would you like to see return, and what shows haven't had the chance to compete in the tournament yet that'd you'd like to see given a chance? Let us know in the comments.
The 2014 bracket:
Afghanistan's opium crop booming despite efforts to stem trade
In Afghanistan, the vote counting continues from this weekend's elections. Officials say turn out was high on Saturday despite threats from the Taliban to disrupt the elections and heavy security at polling stations.
Regardless of the outcome, one issue that will loom large in the coming years is the country's booming opium trade. According to the UN, overall opium production in the country rose by 50 percent in 2013 from the previous year and more than half of the country's 34 provinces are opium growers.
Some of that makes it to the U.S., fueling a heroin epidemic that is claiming lives in the country's cities and towns. For more, we're joined by Fariba Nawa, a journalist who has reported extensively in Afghanistan and is the author of the book Opium Nation.
Afghan girl who lost arm in war learns to paint in Los Angeles
The U.S. is reducing its military role in Afghanistan, but philanthropic groups continue to make positive change.
A local group called Children of War Foundation recently brought a 7-year-old girl named Shah Bibi Tarakhail to Southern California to get her fitted with a prosthetic arm. She lost her right arm and right eye after picking up a grenade in her village last year. The blast also killed her brother.
Since being fitted with her prosthetic arm, Shah Bibi has picked up painting, impressing her doctors, L.A. artist Dayvd Whaley and Galerie Michael owner Michael Schwartz.
With more on this story is David Kraft, a technician at Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles who worked closely with Shah Bibi. He also has a prosthetic arm similar to the one given to Shah Bibi.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Can you tell us a bit more about this young girl? How did she come to be injured?
She apparently was picking up an explosive device and I think she was throwing or playing with it and it ended up exploding, and that’s how she lost her arm and she also lost her eye. That caused a lot of facial skin damage and damage to her legs, too.
I understand that this explosion killed her brother, correct?
Yes, one of her siblings was killed.
What were some of your impressions when you met this girl traveling a long way from Afghanistan to Southern California?
She was a little scared…there was a language barrier. But after a while — after we worked with her and fitted her — she opened up and started smiling more. It was a very positive thing.
You worked with her to give a new prosthetic arm. Can you tell us about this new arm?
The prosthesis is more intended to be an assist. She would still be able to eat and write with her other side. The prosthesis is if she were to hold an object...let’s say she was cutting a piece of paper, she can hold the paper in her prosthesis.
One of the things she's been able to do is paint. Can you tell us about her painting?
I kind of saw her painting and she actually likes to use the brush in the prosthetic side, which is interesting. I’m guessing it's because she was right hand dominant before she lost her arm. She seems to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. It kind of brings her back to life. She really comes to life when she's painting.
What will happen next for Shah Bibi Tarkhail?
They're going to do something with her right eye. I don’t know if that involves plastic surgery or what, but they will be doing some reconstruction and fitting her with an artificial eye.
What will you miss most about working with her?
[…] She seemed very appreciative of what we did. I worry about her going to Afghanistan – I know it’s a pretty hard place, especially for someone with a disability like that.
Drug Smuggling Twist: Innocent Mexicans allegedly duped by Mennonite suspect
Federal prosecutors in Texas and New Mexico are dealing with an unusual case. Ten drug smuggling crimes have been traced to a man from a Mennonite community in Mexico who is alleged to have duped the victims.
Fronteras reporter Lorne Matalon has more from Chihuahua.
Federal prosecutors in Texas and New Mexico are dealing with a series of unusual cases.
Ten drug smuggling crimes have been traced to a man from a Mennonite community in Mexico who is alleged to have duped the victims.
The seduction starts with a classified ad in the paper, one that 23-year-old named Juan was drawn to. He asks that his last name not be revealed; he's frightened there may be retribution if the man who placed the ad — identified by U.S. attorneys and the victims as David Giesprecht Fehr — finds him.
The ad reads, "Si tienes visa laser recienmente americano, contratación inmediata.” Translated, "If you have a recent U.S. visa known as a laser visa, there's immediate work available."
The man who placed the ad is from the Ciudad Cuauhtémoc area, a 40,000-strong Mennonite community of ranchers and farmers in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.
They’re members of a conservative Christian church with European roots. Mennonites were invited by Mexico's post-revolutionary government to settle here in the 1920s in part to populate Mexico's border twith the United States.
The Mennonites in Chihuahua today trace their ancestry to Canada, and prior to that Germany and the Netherlands.
Juan answered the ad. And a man called back.
"The man said ‘I’ll pay you $500 a week to drive my truck to the U.S. and back,’" Juan was making $70 a week as a security guard.
The would-be employer, David Giesbrecht Fehr, goes by different aliases and imports American farm equipment. It’s now alleged he ran narcotics.
He pitches non-Mennonite Mexicans who respond to his ad by saying that he imports farm equipment from the United States.
What he allegedly did not add is that the trucks he gave people to enter the U.S. with were loaded with large quantities of marijuana.
Juan thought the job offer was too good to be true. The caller was offering to quadruple his salary and give Juan steady work with health benefits.
So he told the caller he needed time to consider the offer.
The same offer was made to Juan's father. They discussed it together. The father declined while Juan accepted, to his enduring dismay.
Liz Rogers was the federal defender in West Texas whose office represented Juan and five other Mexicans. The other three were arrested crossing into New Mexico.
“Whenever the person that is a Mennonite that the government has identified, whenever he showed up he could talk to them very professionally over exporting and importing farm equipment," Rogers said. "And so it would be no wonder that they’d believe it was a legitimate job.”
It was anything but. When Juan hit the Texas border at Presidio, a customs agent told him to get out of the truck.
"They didn’t tell me what was happening," he said in Spanish. Then another customs officer approached.
The officer said a DEA agent would explain everything. When that agent arrived, the conversation continued.
"Are you carrying drugs?" the agent asked Juan. 'Absolutely not,' he replied. He couldn’t digest what he heard next.
"The DEA agent told me I had 57 kilograms (125 pounds) of marijuana in the gas tank," Juan related. "I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe."
Rogers says one of the cases showed how sophisticated the operation was.
“The marijuana was hidden very professionally in an I-beam," she recounted. "It was welded into the I-beam of this big flatbed. And the government found it is because there’s x-ray equipment that can find very well hidden marijuana.”
At least seven of the people allegedly duped by Giesprecht, including Juan, live near a cluster of Mennonite villages near Ciudad Cuauhtémoc located about 60 miles southwest of the state capital, Ciudad de Chihuahua.
One non-Mennonite I spoke with outside Ciudad Cuauhtémoc — a man who says he greatly who respects the Mennonite culture — says his neighbors are hard-working farmers. But he says there are exceptions.
“They plant corn. Sometimes plant some marijuana too," he said in English.
For Juan, arrested with 125 pounds of drugs, and the others in New Mexico and Texas, the prospect of serious jail time was real. But as evidence tied to David Giesbrecht Fehr mounted, the state of New Mexico dismissed all the cases.
In Texas, three defendants were allowed to plead guilty to time served and immediately deported. The defendants' visas were revoked, and that revocation lasts for three years.
As a practical matter, however, none of the now-former defendants will find it easy to return to the United States, even for a visit with family. Juan, for example has aunts and cousins in Denver and Los Angleles.
If Juan to present himself at a border crossing, a computer check of his documents would show that he faced serious drug charges and accepted a plea deal which included immediate deportation.
But Juan’s just happy to be home.
“They treated me well in the U.S.," he said in Spanish. "No one pressured me, no one attacked me. I have nothing against the U.S. prosecutors or police."
The alleged drug trafficker, David Giesprecht Fehr, remains at-large.
New study shows promise in slowing advanced breast cancer in patients
Research on a new drug to fight cancer, called Palbociclib, has been shown to slow cancer cells in advanced breast cancer.
Dr. Richard Finn is an oncologist at UCLA and the lead author of this study. He joins the show to talk about how the drug works, its side effects and the next steps in pushing this medication forward.
You can find out more on this study and current ones involving Palbociclib here or get information on participating in a future study by contacting Dr. Richard Finn at 310-586-2091.
The need for glasses is great, but many kids go without
There are thousands of kids in Southern California's poor neighborhoods have problems seeing, but it's not that easy for them to get glasses. Even the help provided by private groups isn't always enough.
KPCC's Elizabeth Aguilera has the story.
Petaluma slaughterhouse set to reopen, but local ranchers still reeling
Small-scale ranchers and dairy farmers north of the San Francisco Bay Area are heaving a sigh of relief. The one meat processing plant in their region that shut down after a massive beef recall is reopening today, under new management.
But for at least one respected beef rancher the damage may be too great.
For The California Report, Mina Kim has the story.
New Mexico's ancient irrigation systems help protect scarce water supply
The major rivers of the Southwest are suffering as snow becomes increasingly scarce in the Rocky Mountains. Scientists who study climate change warn such conditions are the new normal. But there’s encouraging news in northern New Mexico.
In the first of a two-part report from the Changing America Desk, Mónica Ortiz Uribe tells us about an ancient irrigation system.
Spring marks an annual ritual on the farms of the upper Rio Grand Valley in New Mexico. It's when communities gather to clean out their local irrigation canals. In the town of Dixon a team of 32 workers in bandanas and work boots shovel dry grass and leaves from the bottom of a dirt ditch. A supervisor stands above them and hollers a roll call.
These hand-dug ditches are called acequias. It's a style of irrigation that has survived since the arrival of the first Spanish settlers. The network of canals branch out from neighboring rivers like arteries. Cottonwood trees taller than telephone poles grow beside them. Workers clear out debris the same way their ancestors did, with shovels and biceps.
Once clean, the acequias can receive river water. This year, supervisor Donald Atencio says the preparation is happening two to four weeks earlier than usual.
"We are one of the last acequias cleaning out this year already," Atencio said. "The other seven ditches already have water."
The reason for the early start is the early snow melt. Crowning this arid valley are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These silent giants feed the rivers below, but lately the rivers are going hungry. A quick trip up a nearby peak reveals why.
On a mountainside west of Taos in the center of New Mexico ski country the ground is more brown than white. This is one of many sites visited by Wayne Sleep, a hydrologic technician with the Natural Resource Conservation Service. A major part of his job is to measure snow pack.
"The 2013 snow season was terrible," he said. "Normally this time of year the canyon would still be snow-packed."
The last three years in New Mexico have been the driest on record, with snowpack readings at 30 percent of normal. And it's not just this state — snowpack is down across the Southwest
"We look at 30-year periods of records for our averages," Sleep said. "There's been some good years in there but the overall trend is dry."
Climate studies show the rate of global warming has accelerated in the last 30 years. In the Southwest, mountain snow melts into rivers like the Rio Grande and the Colorado and ends up in open air reservoirs like Elephant Butte in New Mexico or Lake Mead in Nevada. On hot, windy days these reservoirs act like a pot of boiling water.
"We measure evaporation directly from the surface of the water," said Salim Bawazir, an engineering professor at New Mexico State University. He and a team of students study evaporation at Elephant Butte reservoir.
"We can say we are losing about five feet per year," Bawazir said.
Five acre feet of water is enough to grow an acre of alfalfa. In times of drought, Bawazir said, reservoirs are not the ideal place to store water.
This is where the acequias of northern New Mexico may provide some relief. Because they are dug into the earth, they allow water to seep underground where it can be stored for up to three months.
"Hydrologically it's better to store water underground in northern areas because it's cooler and, you don't have evaporation," said Sam Fernald of New Mexico State University.
Fernald teaches water management and is currently leading an ongoing study of acequias that shows they are helping mitigate the effects of climate change.
"We can learn from these systems that have been adapted to water scarcity for hundreds of years how to have our own sustainable water management," he said.
Fernald and his team of researchers have installed water monitors in multiple acequia sites. Their data shows that crops use only 7 percent of acequia water. The rest eventually returns to the river through surface run-off or groundwater. In parts of northern New Mexico the groundwater and rivers are connected, Fernald said. That's no longer the case in other parts of the state.
But despite their potential benefits, the future of acequias is not guaranteed. Many farmers are struggling to make a living off the land. To survive, farmers are finding new ways to market their produce and ensure the future of their beloved irrigation system.
Debate flares over giving wildlife artificial water sources
The ongoing drought has many agencies in California reevaluating how they use water. The Mojave National Preserve in the southeastern part of the state is developing a new water management plan.
But, Katherine Davis reports the process has reignited debate about whether to keep giving wildlife artificial sources of drinking water.
Drought: Desert-dwelling animals face an increasingly harsh environment
With warm winters and less water, many across California are feeling the effects of climate change and a lingering drought. One group in particular may not be as obvious as farmers, ranchers or reservoirs, most likely because they already live in the dry desert.
Dr. Jeff Lovich of the U.S. Geological Survey joins us to describe the conditions many animals in the Mojave Desert face in our current drought.