Fracking efforts in the Monterey shale hits a snag; Millions of Japanese cars recalled because of faulty air bags; Indio city leaders are eager to capitalize on the Coachella festival’s succes; Fashion designer Trina Turk mines the Coachella festival for inspiration, and much more.
Millions of Japanese cars recalled due to air bags
Millions of Japanese cars are getting recalled because of air bags made by the Takata Corporation.
But while you might not know that name, you are probably more familiar with the car makers that install their products: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Those Japanese automakers are recalling many of their post-2000 vehicles because of those faulty air bags.
For a company like Toyota, it's another hit to its reputation following another large recall a few years ago because of faulty brakes and gas pedals.
However Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Edmunds, explains why it might not be as damaging in the long run.
Fracking efforts in the Monterey shale hit a snag
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, in the Monterey shale may not be possible anymore, as earthquakes have left the area too unstable for companies to turn a profit and now the shale may go untapped.
A study out of USC last month projected as many as 2.8 million jobs and more that $24 billion in state and local tax revenue in the next 7 years from developing the oil shale.
Here to explain is Amy Myers-Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at the University of California, Davis.
Coachella 2013: Cash-strapped Indio wants to share in music festival's success
When concert promoter Goldenvoice started the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 14 years ago, the event hemorrhaged money – and Goldenvoice teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.
At the same time, Coachella's hometown of Indio was prospering as the housing boom began to take off.
But during the past few years, the fortunes of Indio and Coachella have gone in opposite directions – and now Indio city leaders are tired of chopping budgets and are eager to capitalize on the music festival’s success.
How to best do that has been the source of considerable debate.
The most hated man in Indio?
A plumber by day and Indio city councilman by night, Ascencion "Sam" Torres said last summer he was prepared to become the most hated man in the Coachella Valley.
He very well may have achieved that goal. His offense? Proposing a 6 percent tax on Coachella tickets, which average $368.
“I didn’t look at these guys as the first source of money to buy sofas for city hall,” said Torres. “I looked at these guys as a way to maintain our city.”
Like many other California cities hit hard by the housing crisis, Indio has raised taxes and ordered steep cutbacks to stave off bankruptcy. In the past few years, the city’s laid off dozens of workers, including police and firefighters.
“We have gone through some hard times,” said Torres. “The real estate boom and bust, oh, my gosh, we were almost like Las Vegas. You grew by 25 percent from 2000 to 2007 – and then you saw the bottom drop out of the housing market.”
Coachella: The highest-earning music festival in the world
Sipping a beer on the 90-acre plus polo fields where crews are finishing building the stages for this year’s event, Torres says he looks at Coachella with a mix of awe and envy.
A festival that used to worry its checks would clear is now a cultural juggernaut and a cash cow, bringing tens of millions of dollars to its parent company AEG.
Coachella is far and away the highest-grossing festival in the world, according to Billboard. The 80,000 music fans who attend the show make the festival grounds more populous than Indio itself.
“For 12 years, we collected nearly nothing except reimbursement for costs, so we helped grow up the music festival,” said Torres.
But despite that early support and the fact the festival basically shuts down his city for two weeks a year, Torres says Indio doesn’t get to share in the wealth.
RELATED: Coachella 2013: What you need (Line-ups, venues, maps)
It doesn’t help that most attendees overnight in more affluent cities like Palm Springs or Indian Wells and are whisked to Coachella on shuttle buses, or they camp on the polo fields.
“Looking at this concert and their business model, I said, ‘We had to step up to the plate like a business-minded community,’” said Torres. “Everyone says government has to be more like business, but when a government acts like a business, everyone says, ‘What’s wrong you?' You’re supposed to be like Mother Teresa and sponsor these events and get nothing in return.”
Goldenvoice – known for its secrecy – refused to comment for this story.
When Torres brought the idea of a bigger cut of the Coachella pie to the Indio city council, his council colleagues wouldn’t bring the proposal to a vote.
Torres didn't leave it there. He said he would bring the ticket tax directly voters – and that's when Goldenvoice’s president, Paul Tollett, threatened to leave Indio after this year’s festival.
That comment prompted panic and national headlines.
Indio’s city manager, Dan Martinez, doubts Tollett was bluffing.
“The thing about Goldenvoice is that when they make a promise to us, they always follow through,” said Martinez. “So I had no reason to think they weren’t going to follow through with that comment.”
Mayor says a ticket tax is ‘not where I wanted to go’
One of the biggest opponents to the ticket tax was Elaine Holmes, who’s now Indio’s mayor.
“Granted budget shortfalls are an issue for many cities," said Holmes. “We work through it. I’m a small business person, so to add tax is not where I wanted to go, particularly since Goldenvoice is very generous in what they provide the city.”
The company contributes to many local nonprofits, including sponsoring a free medical clinic for residents with no health insurance last week.
And they give more than charity.
A Goldenvoice-commissioned study showed that its festivals bring more than $90 million dollars in economic impact to Indio and $254.4 million to the Coachella Valley.
Starting last year, Indio started receiving a hotel occupancy tax for everyone who camps at the festival. That brought in about $330,000. The city also started getting a cut of every ticket sold –though a much smaller one than Torres would have liked.
This year and last, Indio received $2.33 on every ticket, which works out to about half a million dollars a year – no small chunk of change for a city with a $49 million dollar annual budget. The fee is set to double starting next year, under a new 17-year agreement the city approved last week that also adds two fall festivals and expands the festival’s capacity.
“Increases like that really help us balance our budget,” said Martinez.
Torres was among the council members who unanimously voted for the new agreement with Goldenvoice. (Holmes abstained because she owns land near the polo grounds)
“I’m grateful that they came to the table and gave up something for the city of Indio,” said Torres.
Indio’s first new hotel in 28 years
Standing on a nearly deserted street outside city hall, Holmes says the long-term economic boost that the city’s new agreement with Goldenvoice provides – not an expensive ticket tax – is what will help bring Indio back.
“This is a several-block area that is expanding now with local arts and culture and hopefully a few restaurants," said Holmes. “Certainly [Coachella] is putting Indio on the map. It’s pretty quiet, but it’s less quiet than it was a few years ago.”
The Holiday Inn Express recently announced plans to build a new location in Indio. It’s the first hotel to be built in the city in almost three decades.
Designer Trina Turk mines Coachella festival fashion for inspiration
Area communities aren't the only ones trying to capitalize on the popularity of Coachella. Fashion designers are also jumping on the opportunity to get their brands in front of the tens of thousands of Coachella-goers.
RELATED: Check out Trina Turk's Instagram
Armani Exchange and H&M are sponsors of the event, and other designers say they are going for inspiration and to pick up on fashion trends including local women's clothing designer, Trina Turk.
To find out what attracts her to Coachella, we paid a visit to Trina at her offices in Alhambra.
The Christian Gerhartsreiter murder trial comes to an end
Now a look at a man we've been talking about for some time on this show, Christian Gerhartsreiter. For years, the German immigrant took on other identities from a 13th baronet of England to a member of the wealthy Rockefeller clan.
In the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter passed himself off as Chris Chichester and lived in San Marino. There, he came to know John Sohus, a computer programmer. In 1985, John and his wife disappeared and eventually the case went cold. But then in 1994, when a pit was being dug for a pool at the former Sohus residence, bones were discovered and the case was reopened.
Yesterday, Christian Gerharstreiter was found guilty of first-degree murder and he'll be sentenced on June 26. Linda Deutsch from the Associated Press covered this fascinating trial and she joins us here in studio.
Then, Jan Eldnor knows Christian Gerhartsreiter, or, at least he thought he did. Eldnor is the owner of Jann of Sweden barbershop in San Marino, and back in the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter was one of his regular customers.
CA's High-Speed Rail Authority needs loan to mitigate legal delays
At home, a state Assembly budget committee has approved a one-time loan for the agency building California's bullet train. The High-Speed Rail Authority reportedly wanted $26 million to cover the costs of fighting lawsuits filed against the agency. KPCC's Sacramento reporter Julie Small has the story.
City Hall Pass: Education, first mayoral debate, and more
KPCC's political team Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton join the show for a regular roundup of the latest political news.
On tap today, education takes a front seat in the Mayor's race, Garcetti and Greuel face off in the first one-on-one debate of the race, KPCC launches the Dear Mayor project.
RELATED: What do you think LA's next Mayor should do first? Join our Dear Mayor project
Zuckerberg, tech leaders launch multimillion-dollar PAC
In other political news, there's been a lot of rumor in recent weeks about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launching a new high-tech super pac. Well, today is the big day.
Head to FWD.us, and you'll be greeted by an invitation to join the tech community in passing immigration reform. That URL stands for Forward US , the name of Zuckerberg's political action committee.
Michelle Quinn has been reporting on this for Politico, she joins the show with more.
Gov. Brown signs investment deal with China
Governor Jerry Brown continues his trip in China today, along with about 100 other Californians. They're in the middle of a trade mission designed to convince Chinese business people that the Golden State is a great place to invest some of their wealth.
The trip has already produced one big headline: A $1.5 billion Chinese investment in a massive waterfront development project in Oakland. The Governor is also promoting California's green energy technologies as a solution for China's pollution problems.
He also hopes to get some help for his pet project, the high speed train between L.A. and San Francisco.
Reporter John Myers of the Sacramento ABC affiliate is traveling with the Governor. When we caught up with him, he was on a train bound for Shanghai.
Amid reported sale, a look at the legacy of LA hip-hop station KDAY
According to FCC documents, the LA-based hip-hop radio station KDAY is in the process of being sold. News of the sale resulted in speculation that the station might shift from old school rap to Mandarin-language talk radio.
KDAY has been an L.A. institution for years, launching the LA rap scene in the '80s and early '90s, helping then little-known artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg get noticed.
Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com joins the show with more.
Will you miss KDAY if it changes format? Tell us why in the comments!
Nature lovers and off-roaders clash over state park
We've heard a lot over the last couple of years about all the money troubles the California state parks have been having, but not all state parks are starved for cash. Eight off-highway vehicle parks get a steady stream money from the taxes we all pay when we buy gas.
Their funds are guaranteed by state law, and these parks are a different breed than the rest. They're even run by a separate division within State Parks. In many ways, "off roaders" struggle with Californians who have a very different idea of what a park should be.
The California Report's Rachel Myrow has the story from Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area in San Joaquin County
Picture This: Alexandra Avakian's revolutionary photography
Now it's time for another installment of our continuing series of talks with photographers, Picture This. Alexandra Avakian has followed conflicts around the globe, from the Gaza Strip to Somalia, the Sudan and Haiti.
Her photos from several decades covering civil wars, uprisings and revolutions are currently featured in the Annenberg Space for Photography, War/Photography Exhibition, on display now in Los Angeles.
Though her work has led her to some of the rougher corners of the world, her journey started right here, where she grew up in Malibu.
Interview Highlights:
On her background as a photographer of war and refugees:
"Well my father taught me photography very young, Aaron Avakian, he was a film editor and film director. He taught me how to make images and tell stories from when I was eight or nine years old, and trained me as a photographer. By the time I was nine he was dissecting Life magazine with me and these were stories on the Vietnam war and very very tough places. At the same time I also learned about what happened to my family: half of them are Armenian and how they fled the genocide, and another portion disappeared entirely under Stalin, and all this pain that they had lived through. So I really reacted very strongly to that, and wanted to engage and to find out what it was like to be a refugee, what is it like to be a person trying to save your family in war."
On being a woman in a male dominated field:
"Well, I think more and more women are doing this kind of work now. When I started out there were not a whole lot of us, you know I was just one of the boys and I never really thought about my vulnerability as woman or anything like that, if anything I worked against that. I think that sometimes being a woman helps when you're working with women for example, you will be able to see all they want to share and in conservative societies such as conservative Middle Eastern societies you're going to be really taken much more easily. I also think that because some of these societies are patriarchal that women are not considered able to be that critical, they're not as afraid of you. But other times people will stop you from doing your work because you're a woman and they think physically it will be easier for them to do that."
The story behind the photo taken on the beach:
"When you're in some of these countries, people carry weapons in prosaic situations, and it's surprising to the American eye. This was an Israeli settlement beach, where I used to go because I could wear a bathing suit. On the Palestinian beaches because Hamas was ruling the social life at that time, as a woman you had to swim in full Islamic dress, which was very difficult and unpleasant for me, so i used to go to the Israeli settlement beach to swim. That's how I got to know these guys who are off-duty navy personel who are just wired to pick up those guns and fight if they have to."
On covering muslim communities in America after 9/11:
"It was a great way to come back to America because I traveled the entire country with various populations from New York to LA to Michigan and Texas. It's also like every immigrant community in this country, you take some of the old country and the new country and it becomes uniquely american. That's what the story of this country is all about."
Millions of Japanese cars recalled due to air bags
Millions of Japanese cars are getting recalled because of air bags made by the Takata Corporation.
But while you might not know that name, you are probably more familiar with the car makers that install their products: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Those Japanese automakers are recalling many of their post-2000 vehicles because of those faulty air bags.
For a company like Toyota, it's another hit to its reputation following another large recall a few years ago because of faulty brakes and gas pedals.
However Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Edmunds, explains why it might not be as damaging in the long run.
Fracking efforts in the Monterey shale hit a snag
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, in the Monterey shale may not be possible anymore, as earthquakes have left the area too unstable for companies to turn a profit and now the shale may go untapped.
A study out of USC last month projected as many as 2.8 million jobs and more that $24 billion in state and local tax revenue in the next 7 years from developing the oil shale.
Here to explain is Amy Myers-Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at the University of California, Davis.
Coachella 2013: Cash-strapped Indio wants to share in music festival's success
When concert promoter Goldenvoice started the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 14 years ago, the event hemorrhaged money – and Goldenvoice teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.
At the same time, Coachella's hometown of Indio was prospering as the housing boom began to take off.
But during the past few years, the fortunes of Indio and Coachella have gone in opposite directions – and now Indio city leaders are tired of chopping budgets and are eager to capitalize on the music festival’s success.
How to best do that has been the source of considerable debate.
The most hated man in Indio?
A plumber by day and Indio city councilman by night, Ascencion "Sam" Torres said last summer he was prepared to become the most hated man in the Coachella Valley.
He very well may have achieved that goal. His offense? Proposing a 6 percent tax on Coachella tickets, which average $368.
“I didn’t look at these guys as the first source of money to buy sofas for city hall,” said Torres. “I looked at these guys as a way to maintain our city.”
Like many other California cities hit hard by the housing crisis, Indio has raised taxes and ordered steep cutbacks to stave off bankruptcy. In the past few years, the city’s laid off dozens of workers, including police and firefighters.
“We have gone through some hard times,” said Torres. “The real estate boom and bust, oh, my gosh, we were almost like Las Vegas. You grew by 25 percent from 2000 to 2007 – and then you saw the bottom drop out of the housing market.”
Coachella: The highest-earning music festival in the world
Sipping a beer on the 90-acre plus polo fields where crews are finishing building the stages for this year’s event, Torres says he looks at Coachella with a mix of awe and envy.
A festival that used to worry its checks would clear is now a cultural juggernaut and a cash cow, bringing tens of millions of dollars to its parent company AEG.
Coachella is far and away the highest-grossing festival in the world, according to Billboard. The 80,000 music fans who attend the show make the festival grounds more populous than Indio itself.
“For 12 years, we collected nearly nothing except reimbursement for costs, so we helped grow up the music festival,” said Torres.
But despite that early support and the fact the festival basically shuts down his city for two weeks a year, Torres says Indio doesn’t get to share in the wealth.
RELATED: Coachella 2013: What you need (Line-ups, venues, maps)
It doesn’t help that most attendees overnight in more affluent cities like Palm Springs or Indian Wells and are whisked to Coachella on shuttle buses, or they camp on the polo fields.
“Looking at this concert and their business model, I said, ‘We had to step up to the plate like a business-minded community,’” said Torres. “Everyone says government has to be more like business, but when a government acts like a business, everyone says, ‘What’s wrong you?' You’re supposed to be like Mother Teresa and sponsor these events and get nothing in return.”
Goldenvoice – known for its secrecy – refused to comment for this story.
When Torres brought the idea of a bigger cut of the Coachella pie to the Indio city council, his council colleagues wouldn’t bring the proposal to a vote.
Torres didn't leave it there. He said he would bring the ticket tax directly voters – and that's when Goldenvoice’s president, Paul Tollett, threatened to leave Indio after this year’s festival.
That comment prompted panic and national headlines.
Indio’s city manager, Dan Martinez, doubts Tollett was bluffing.
“The thing about Goldenvoice is that when they make a promise to us, they always follow through,” said Martinez. “So I had no reason to think they weren’t going to follow through with that comment.”
Mayor says a ticket tax is ‘not where I wanted to go’
One of the biggest opponents to the ticket tax was Elaine Holmes, who’s now Indio’s mayor.
“Granted budget shortfalls are an issue for many cities," said Holmes. “We work through it. I’m a small business person, so to add tax is not where I wanted to go, particularly since Goldenvoice is very generous in what they provide the city.”
The company contributes to many local nonprofits, including sponsoring a free medical clinic for residents with no health insurance last week.
And they give more than charity.
A Goldenvoice-commissioned study showed that its festivals bring more than $90 million dollars in economic impact to Indio and $254.4 million to the Coachella Valley.
Starting last year, Indio started receiving a hotel occupancy tax for everyone who camps at the festival. That brought in about $330,000. The city also started getting a cut of every ticket sold –though a much smaller one than Torres would have liked.
This year and last, Indio received $2.33 on every ticket, which works out to about half a million dollars a year – no small chunk of change for a city with a $49 million dollar annual budget. The fee is set to double starting next year, under a new 17-year agreement the city approved last week that also adds two fall festivals and expands the festival’s capacity.
“Increases like that really help us balance our budget,” said Martinez.
Torres was among the council members who unanimously voted for the new agreement with Goldenvoice. (Holmes abstained because she owns land near the polo grounds)
“I’m grateful that they came to the table and gave up something for the city of Indio,” said Torres.
Indio’s first new hotel in 28 years
Standing on a nearly deserted street outside city hall, Holmes says the long-term economic boost that the city’s new agreement with Goldenvoice provides – not an expensive ticket tax – is what will help bring Indio back.
“This is a several-block area that is expanding now with local arts and culture and hopefully a few restaurants," said Holmes. “Certainly [Coachella] is putting Indio on the map. It’s pretty quiet, but it’s less quiet than it was a few years ago.”
The Holiday Inn Express recently announced plans to build a new location in Indio. It’s the first hotel to be built in the city in almost three decades.
Designer Trina Turk mines Coachella festival fashion for inspiration
Area communities aren't the only ones trying to capitalize on the popularity of Coachella. Fashion designers are also jumping on the opportunity to get their brands in front of the tens of thousands of Coachella-goers.
RELATED: Check out Trina Turk's Instagram
Armani Exchange and H&M are sponsors of the event, and other designers say they are going for inspiration and to pick up on fashion trends including local women's clothing designer, Trina Turk.
To find out what attracts her to Coachella, we paid a visit to Trina at her offices in Alhambra.
The Christian Gerhartsreiter murder trial comes to an end
Now a look at a man we've been talking about for some time on this show, Christian Gerhartsreiter. For years, the German immigrant took on other identities from a 13th baronet of England to a member of the wealthy Rockefeller clan.
In the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter passed himself off as Chris Chichester and lived in San Marino. There, he came to know John Sohus, a computer programmer. In 1985, John and his wife disappeared and eventually the case went cold. But then in 1994, when a pit was being dug for a pool at the former Sohus residence, bones were discovered and the case was reopened.
Yesterday, Christian Gerharstreiter was found guilty of first-degree murder and he'll be sentenced on June 26. Linda Deutsch from the Associated Press covered this fascinating trial and she joins us here in studio.
Then, Jan Eldnor knows Christian Gerhartsreiter, or, at least he thought he did. Eldnor is the owner of Jann of Sweden barbershop in San Marino, and back in the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter was one of his regular customers.
CA's High-Speed Rail Authority needs loan to mitigate legal delays
At home, a state Assembly budget committee has approved a one-time loan for the agency building California's bullet train. The High-Speed Rail Authority reportedly wanted $26 million to cover the costs of fighting lawsuits filed against the agency. KPCC's Sacramento reporter Julie Small has the story.
City Hall Pass: Education, first mayoral debate, and more
KPCC's political team Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton join the show for a regular roundup of the latest political news.
On tap today, education takes a front seat in the Mayor's race, Garcetti and Greuel face off in the first one-on-one debate of the race, KPCC launches the Dear Mayor project.
RELATED: What do you think LA's next Mayor should do first? Join our Dear Mayor project
Zuckerberg, tech leaders launch multimillion-dollar PAC
In other political news, there's been a lot of rumor in recent weeks about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launching a new high-tech super pac. Well, today is the big day.
Head to FWD.us, and you'll be greeted by an invitation to join the tech community in passing immigration reform. That URL stands for Forward US , the name of Zuckerberg's political action committee.
Michelle Quinn has been reporting on this for Politico, she joins the show with more.
Gov. Brown signs investment deal with China
Governor Jerry Brown continues his trip in China today, along with about 100 other Californians. They're in the middle of a trade mission designed to convince Chinese business people that the Golden State is a great place to invest some of their wealth.
The trip has already produced one big headline: A $1.5 billion Chinese investment in a massive waterfront development project in Oakland. The Governor is also promoting California's green energy technologies as a solution for China's pollution problems.
He also hopes to get some help for his pet project, the high speed train between L.A. and San Francisco.
Reporter John Myers of the Sacramento ABC affiliate is traveling with the Governor. When we caught up with him, he was on a train bound for Shanghai.
Amid reported sale, a look at the legacy of LA hip-hop station KDAY
According to FCC documents, the LA-based hip-hop radio station KDAY is in the process of being sold. News of the sale resulted in speculation that the station might shift from old school rap to Mandarin-language talk radio.
KDAY has been an L.A. institution for years, launching the LA rap scene in the '80s and early '90s, helping then little-known artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg get noticed.
Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com joins the show with more.
Will you miss KDAY if it changes format? Tell us why in the comments!
Nature lovers and off-roaders clash over state park
We've heard a lot over the last couple of years about all the money troubles the California state parks have been having, but not all state parks are starved for cash. Eight off-highway vehicle parks get a steady stream money from the taxes we all pay when we buy gas.
Their funds are guaranteed by state law, and these parks are a different breed than the rest. They're even run by a separate division within State Parks. In many ways, "off roaders" struggle with Californians who have a very different idea of what a park should be.
The California Report's Rachel Myrow has the story from Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area in San Joaquin County
Picture This: Alexandra Avakian's revolutionary photography
Now it's time for another installment of our continuing series of talks with photographers, Picture This. Alexandra Avakian has followed conflicts around the globe, from the Gaza Strip to Somalia, the Sudan and Haiti.
Her photos from several decades covering civil wars, uprisings and revolutions are currently featured in the Annenberg Space for Photography, War/Photography Exhibition, on display now in Los Angeles.
Though her work has led her to some of the rougher corners of the world, her journey started right here, where she grew up in Malibu.
Interview Highlights:
On her background as a photographer of war and refugees:
"Well my father taught me photography very young, Aaron Avakian, he was a film editor and film director. He taught me how to make images and tell stories from when I was eight or nine years old, and trained me as a photographer. By the time I was nine he was dissecting Life magazine with me and these were stories on the Vietnam war and very very tough places. At the same time I also learned about what happened to my family: half of them are Armenian and how they fled the genocide, and another portion disappeared entirely under Stalin, and all this pain that they had lived through. So I really reacted very strongly to that, and wanted to engage and to find out what it was like to be a refugee, what is it like to be a person trying to save your family in war."
On being a woman in a male dominated field:
"Well, I think more and more women are doing this kind of work now. When I started out there were not a whole lot of us, you know I was just one of the boys and I never really thought about my vulnerability as woman or anything like that, if anything I worked against that. I think that sometimes being a woman helps when you're working with women for example, you will be able to see all they want to share and in conservative societies such as conservative Middle Eastern societies you're going to be really taken much more easily. I also think that because some of these societies are patriarchal that women are not considered able to be that critical, they're not as afraid of you. But other times people will stop you from doing your work because you're a woman and they think physically it will be easier for them to do that."
The story behind the photo taken on the beach:
"When you're in some of these countries, people carry weapons in prosaic situations, and it's surprising to the American eye. This was an Israeli settlement beach, where I used to go because I could wear a bathing suit. On the Palestinian beaches because Hamas was ruling the social life at that time, as a woman you had to swim in full Islamic dress, which was very difficult and unpleasant for me, so i used to go to the Israeli settlement beach to swim. That's how I got to know these guys who are off-duty navy personel who are just wired to pick up those guns and fight if they have to."
On covering muslim communities in America after 9/11:
"It was a great way to come back to America because I traveled the entire country with various populations from New York to LA to Michigan and Texas. It's also like every immigrant community in this country, you take some of the old country and the new country and it becomes uniquely american. That's what the story of this country is all about."