UC Berkeley study shows nearly 3/4 of working families rely on public assistance, a survey on race relations in L.A., the MLK-inspired play, 'Never Givin' Up.'
CA race relations strong, says USC report
A poll conducted by the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences reveals some surprising thoughts from Californians on the subject of race. Two-thirds of study participants claim that race relations in California are better than anywhere else in the country. In addition, most of those polled believe racial conditions are improving, while fewer than 25 percent said things seem to be getting worse.
Dan Schnur is the director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and he directed the poll. He says that the level of optimism about race relations varied depending on the race of the study participant.
“While the general feeling among all Californians was that race relations within their own communities were better, not surprisingly, white Californians and to a slightly lesser-extent Asian Americans were more positive,” he explained.
Though not every racial group had the same outlook on the state of race relations, Schnur says there was one thing that there was one thing that every group seemed to agree on: “Across the board, regardless of a person’s race or ethnicity, they pointed to African American relationships with the police as a particular trouble spot.”
Because of California’s natural diversity, daily interactions with various ethnicities are inevitable. Schnur says that, as a result of of these mandatory interactions, people are less likely to believe stereotypes or see groups other than their own as caricatures. This is good, he says, but it’s not optimal. “Even while Californians are more likely to happen to interact with people from different backgrounds, they do still tend to lag in terms of their intentional interaction,” he says.
The good news is that with each new generation of Californians, instances of intentional inclusion go up; in other words, Californians increasingly are going out of their way to hang out with a variety of people from different backgrounds. But even if numbers indicate that race relations have and will continue to improve, Schnur says that progress will only happen if community leaders make an effort. “Rather than waiting for it to happen, it’s to our community leaders’ credit that they’re trying to push the discussion forward.”
Press the play button above to hear more about the report’s findings. Afterward, weigh in with you think about diversity in California in the comment section below.
UC Berkeley study calculates cost to taxpayers for low-wage workers
A new study out Monday from the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, funded by the Service Employees International Union, finds that nearly three-quarters of the people who rely on public assistance programs are members of working families.
Ken Jacobs, co-author of the study and chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, joins Take Two to discuss.
Clinton and Rubio throw their hats into the Presidential ring
Hillary makes it official, but where are the other Democrats? Could she be a shoo in to go against an ever growing field of Republican challengers?
Its some of the topics we're covering today in the Forecast, our look ahead at the week in news
Joining us this week, Emma Roller, staff correspondent for National Journal and NPR reporter
Obama, Castro break decades-old freeze to talk US-Cuba relations
President Barack Obama met with Cuba's Raul Castro in the first formal meeting between Cuban and American heads of state in more than 55 years.
It happened during the Summit of the Americas in Panama.
AP correspondent Josh Lederman, who just returned from Panama City where he was covering the Summit, joins Take Two.
On the Lot: Media Moguls rake it in, often even in the face of dwindling business
It's no surprise to anyone who pays attention that CEO pay continues to climb to the stratosphere and beyond. Still, investigations by the New York Times and LA Times show some leaders of media firms are getting enormous paydays, even as their stock prices decline, and their companies' futures become clouded by the changing media landscape.
ITEM: Discovery CEO David Zaslav took in $156 million in 2014. By comparison, Jamie Dimon, head of the country's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, was paid $20 million. Discovery stock holders have watched the value of their shares decline by 23% over the last year.
ITEM: CBS honcho Leslie Moonves actually took a pay cut last year, receiving about $57 million in compensation. That was about $8 million less than he took in the year before. Revenues at the Tiffany network have been flat.
ITEM: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the world's largest firm when measured by market capitalization, made less than 1/10th of what Moonves made at CBS.
ITEM: The highest paid female executives in media companies lag well behind their male counterparts. Sony's former motion picture chair, Amy Pascal, earned about $3 million last year. Mindy Grossman, who runs the very successful shopping network, HSN, took in about $5 million.
On the Lot is our weekly look at the business of entertainment.
Forest Service to review Nestlé's expired water permit near San Bernardino
The U.S. Forest Service says it's examining an expired permit from water bottling giant Nestlé that has allowed the company to pump water out of a national forest for years.
Officials took the action after an investigation by the Desert Sun, which found the permit expired in 1988.
"Actually, there are a number of permits that are expired," said Desert Sun reporter Ian James. "The Forest Service says it's now making it a priority to look into these permits, especially now that it's a drought."
The issue has sparked an online petition calling on Nestlé to stop bottling operations in California during the drought.
The petition from the Courage Campaign says: "While California is facing record drought conditions, it is unconscionable that Nestlé would continue to bottle the state's precious water, export it, and sell it for profit."
But Nestlé says stopping bottling is not the way to go.
"It's a misnomer to think that it would drop the water use," said Larry Lawrence, the Natural Resource Manager for Nestlé Waters North America. "In fact we'd probably see more water use in the state simply because people would go to more intensive beverages, like soda or tea."
Lawrence said Nestlé is monitoring the flow rate downstream of the operations in Strawberry and Deer Canyons and that last year the company drew about 28 million gallons from the area.
A review of the expired permit will include an environmental analysis of the operation, according to the Forest Service.
The Delta Smelt may be nearing extinction
A recent survey shows the notorious Delta Smelt, a tiny fish no bigger than the size of a finger, may be almost completely extinct.
Peter Moyle, a biologist at UC Davis who is an expert on the Delta Smelt, joins Take Two with more.
Surf Air offers private flights for $1,750 a month
For a mere $1750 a month, you can fly without dealing with lengthy TSA lines, expensive parking and two-plus hour waits at the gate.
The company is called Surf Air, and CEO Jeff Potter tells host Alex Cohen all about it.
Youth and homelessness and the new film 'The Homestretch'
More than a million children in the United States are without a home.
Some are on the streets. Others couch surf and rely on the kindness of strangers.
A new PBS documentary "The Homestretch" shares the stories of three homeless teens in Chicago.
from
on Vimeo.
Host A Martinez talked with filmmaker Anne De Mare and one of the film's featured subjects, a young man named Roque.