Today on the show, we'll start with a look at Mayor Garcetti's new budget. Then, in San Diego, deportation holds drop after TRUST Act goes into effect. Plus, the Colorado River can turn deadly for self-guided adventurers, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps comes out of retirement, A new city mapping project by MIT looks at which city streets have the most bike accidents, plus much more.
Breaking down the new LA City and County budgets
This week both LA County and the city released their budgets for the year. We'll look at the increase of tax revenues and what they mean for the L.A. County budget, while Mayor Eric Garcetti is focuses on cutting some taxes for businesses.
For a look at some of the details, we're joined by KPCC's Crime and Politics Reporter Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton, KPCC's politics reporter.
Updated: LA second graders tell Mayor Garcetti what needs fixing in their communities
Update 4/15:
Take Two has learned from Mayor Garcetti's office that they received the letters last week. The External Affairs department has reviewed the letters and given them to the Mayor to draft a reply. The Mayor's office says the students will receive a response.
Earlier:
Some elementary school kids are getting their first lesson in civic engagement.
When Maria Migliore, a 2nd grade teacher at 93rd Street Elementary in South Central Los Angeles, asked her students what they wanted fixed in their neighborhood, hands shot in the air. Old furniture and other junk laying on the streets for days, constant tagging, and unsafe play areas were just some of their complaints.
So she and her students wrote letters to Mayor Garcetti, voicing their concerns. That was about a month ago, and they haven't heard back. Migliore joins host Shereen Marisol Meraji to talk about the assignment.
In San Diego, deportation holds drop after TRUST Act goes into effect
In California, the number of people that local law enforcement turns over for deportation is on a sharp decline, most recently after a state law went into effect in January.
That law, known as the TRUST Act, stops local law enforcement from holding those without serious criminal records for extended periods of time.
Before the law, suspects would often be turned over to federal agencies for deportation.
Numbers have been dropping across the state. According to a recent AP report, the average drop in 15 counties was about 44 percent, but in some places, that's even higher. That's the case in San Diego and we're joined by the county's Sheriff Bill Gore.
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps comes out of retirement
Now for some big news in sports. The most decorated Olympic athlete history announced he's coming out of retirement. Michael Phelps, the 22-time Olympic medalist, is set to compete at the Arena Grand Prix Series in Arizona in less than two weeks.
And if that goes well, he'll be in Southern California this summer at the U.S. National Championships. Amy Van Dyken, an Olympic swimmer and 6-time gold medalist joins us to talk more about this
Google gets into the drone business with purchase of Titan Aerospace
Google. They're on the web, on our phones, they're in our glasses... and soon they could be taking over our skies.
The company announced yesterday that they bought Titan Aerospace, a company that makes high-altitude drones. But what could Google possibly be planning to do with them?
According to
at the Wall Street Journal, Google is interested in supplying Internet access to areas that are currently without. Theoretically, the drones will be able to fly for up to five years without service, surviving on solar power. While in the sky they'll be able to wirelessly connect people to the Internet.
A big issue for the company? Titan Aerospace hasn't been able to keep a drone in the air for more than a few hours.
Facebook is also looking into drones. At first one of those companies was Titan Aerospace, but they eventually moved on to purchase Ascenta, another drone company. They're interested in drones for the same reason that Google is, says Albergotti.
If the two companies are able to pull this off, then they'll potentially have access to about a billion more users. And that could mean big returns in terms of advertising revenue and user data.
What business leaders might learn from the NFL's Wonderlic test
The NFL Draft is coming up in less than a month.
Teams will put years of scouting, interviews and evaluations on the line and select college players they hope will develop into productive pros...or maybe into stars. These athletes will not only have had their speed and strength measured, but also their cognitive ability. The oft-scorned Wonderlic Test is given to nearly every draft-eligible football player.
It's supposed to access a person's learning and problem solving aptitude and it's used by a number of companies. But how good of a predictor is it in terms of success?
For more we'll talk to Brian Lyons, professor of business management at Wright State University.
Tax Day: You can't fool the IRS, no matter how hard you try
Today is the last day taxpayers can submit their taxes. Although there have been reports of the IRS cutting down on audits, it doesn’t mean that they won’t come after you.
Reporter Kelsey Snell recently wrote about this for Politico and joins us to explain how the IRS is going after the average Joe.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey, Glen David Andrews, Santana and David Bisbal
It's Tuesday, which means it's time for some new music on Take Two. This week we're joined by music critic Steve Hochman and Justino Aguila associate editor of Latin at Billboard magazine.
Steve Hochman
Artist: Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey
Album: Going Back Home
Songs: “Going Back Home,” “I Keep It To Myself”
Johnson is a much-loved English rock cult figure, a guitarist who with the band Dr. Feelgood was the torchbearer for traditional rock 'n' roll values - both musical and in lifestyle - bridging the '60s spirit and punk (and arguably helping ignite the latter). Last year he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given just months to live. But he's still around and kicking, hard it seems, and the Who's Roger Daltrey (both an inspiration to Johnson and a fan of his) stepped forward to help him make a valedictory album. It may be sentimental in its echoes of the past, though it's anything but maudlin.
Most of the material is remade from Johnson's catalog and sounds like it could have come from even earlier, yet much of it could have been written for his current situation. The title song in particular, though coming from the ‘70s, references the mutual love for the straight-ahead, searing rock of Daltrey’s and Johnson’s respective youths, but also takes on a poignant quality given its writer is now facing his end.
Most meaningfully, this rocks sure and hard, a perfect eulogy for Johnson - and even better, one he gets to deliver himself. And he still is - he's still playing concerts, and will as long as he's able.
Artist: Glen David Andrews
Album: Redemption
Songs: “NY to NOLA,” “Movin’ Up”
Trombonist-singer Andrews is one of New Orleans' most dynamic young-ish artists, and perhaps its most maddeningly erratic, reflecting his own well-documented struggles with, well, let's call them personal demons. His shows can be indulgently unfocused displays of bravura or gripping tours de force -- sometimes both at once.
This album is very much on the tour de force side. Part of a vast New Orleans musical family that includes cousin Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, the biggest young star to emerge from the city in recent years.
Glen David matches ambition with reach and a forceful personality here, mixing rock, funk and gospel sounds and attitudes freely and convincingly, the gospel often serving as the thread tying it all together -- but not in a self-satisfied way, but as source of striving self-awareness, at once content and questioning.
His last few JazzFest performances have been at times astounding. His next, in a couple of weeks, promises to top them all.
“NY to NOLA” puts his own spin on some musical recombinant splicing, a show of confidence. There’s still plenty of evidence of struggle in what are in many cases very personal songs — the wittily titled “Lower Power” takes on the pull of temptations and weaknesses. But with a version of “Didn’t It Rain” (featuring a sample of the classic Mahalia Jackson recording) and his own with “Movin’ Up,” his higher powers seem to be winning out. And with this album so are we.
Justino Aguila
Artist: Santana
Album: Corazón
Songs: "Saideira (feat. Samuel Rosa)," "Iron Lion Zion (feat. Ziggy Marley & ChocQuibTown)"
Santana is back with a new album, but this is his first Latin music album and it's chockfull of surprises such as collaborations with ChocQuibTown, Lila Downs, Gloria Estefan and Samuel Rosa of Skank.
The ten-time Grammy-winning rock icon Santana brings it with this album that takes you back with that Santana signature sound, but also provides a bit of a new vibe with inspiring collaborations.
In Santana's "Seideira," who he performs with Rosa, the song opens with that classic sound that takes us to the sublime. And with the vocals of Rosa, the song is rich, even in the Spanish version. However, for many purists the Portuguese version of the song is simply the track that works best. Nonetheless, the song that translates to "nightcap" is charming in Spanish and still manages to make you want to move as Santana's guitar work also takes the song to new heights.
A different vibe comes into play with the Bob Marley's "Iron Lion Zion" featuring Ziggy Marley vocals and a stealth rap from Colombia's ChocQuibTown. It's that reggae soul that gives the track life, while Colombia's ChocQuibTown delivers poetic verses in Spanish. "Nobody stops us, nor separates us" we hear in those raps allowing the song to build in melody, style and composition wrapped around Santana's masterful guitar work.
Artist: David Bisbal
Album: Tú y Yo
Songs: "Olvidé Respirar (feat. India Martinez)," "Diez Mil Maneras"
Spanish pop singer David Bisbal returns with a new album and a return to his pop roots. Bisbal, who this time had Grammy-winning music producer Sebastian Krys work on the entire album, takes this new project to new heights by showing us that signature Bisbal sound takes it to the next level vocally and through the orchestrations that make the tracks work. The pair have an undeniable chemistry musically without compromising Bisbal's body of work.
Bisbal, who is supreme when he performs solo, also takes it to another level when he collaborates with other singers. This album includes Spanish crooner Antonio Orozco and Marco Mexican balladeer Marco Antonio Solis, who can be heard in the deluxe version of the album.
In the case of the song "Olvidé Respirar" (feat. India Martinez), the pair have recorded a song that is beautifully produced without sacrificing the vocal richness of their voices, which mesh well together an outstanding pop ballad. Martinez, whose unmistakable voice, flamenco-style, allows the track to breathe in a way that connects beautifully with Bisbal.
In "Diez Mil Maneras" Bisbal shows what he does best as a vocalist whose versatility in the track is much faster in cadence, but also allows the singer to show his strength vocally and in a song that shows he's taking it up a notch. The song is both radio friendly and a pop ballad that stands on it's own on any day.
The title track, "Tú y Yo," is also a Bisbal anthem that illustrates the power of his voice and impressive range. On an international tour currently, the Spanish singer is spending the rest of 2014 promoting the album, which has a new sound that comes through thanks to the collaboration with Krys who has worked with everyone from Shakira to Ricky Martin.
LA's 2,043 annual bike accidents on a single map
It's no secret that L.A. streets can be dangerous for bike riders, but are there certain roadways that pose more of a risk than others? Researchers at MIT's Media Lab want to help answer that question through a new city mapping project called You Are Here.
Launched just a week ago, the project will release one map per day for the next year, with the ultimate goal of having 100 different maps for 100 different cities. The team's first installment maps police bike accident data from 2012 in cities like Los Angeles (click on the map for the full version):
The map then pairs accident data with Google Maps street view images in an effort to highlight potential hazards and danger areas within the city's bike infrastructure.
Sep Kamvar, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and head of the project, says he first conceived of this idea after moving from San Francisco to Cambridge, Mass. In particular, he noticed that the sidewalks in San Francisco were much wider and more comfortable to walk on than sidewalks in Cambridge.
"I felt like when I was walking along these narrow sidewalks, I was shoulder to shoulder with cars, and I felt that I was just a little bit more stressed out. I realized that there are thousands of little, subtle design decisions that happen in a city, and those effect city life," Kamvar told Take Two. "I thought it would be nice to map all of these little stories that make up the entirety of life in a city."
RELATED: Tell us: Where are the most dangerous intersections in Los Angeles?
The team chose to tackle bike accident data first, because of the demographic trends occurring in cities throughout the U.S. as more people choose to make their homes within the city.
"As you see more density in urban cores, the private automobile becomes more problematic. There’s been investment into traditional public transportation systems, but by and large they've been expensive and a lot of time to put into place,"said Kamvar. "So what you've seen organically is you've seen a rise in car share programs or ride share programs and an increase in biking as a mode of transportation. We were just interested in seeing how the current infrastructure has been supporting this increase in number of bike commuters and what it can do to make things safer."
What can this data tell us about L.A. bike safety?
While the data show which streets have the most bike accidents — Olympic Boulevard has the most, 72 accidents, followed by Venice Boulevard, with 63, and Sunset Boulevard, with 55 — there are still many questions that remain.
For one, why do certain streets have a higher number of accidents? Is it an issue with infrastructure, or are there just more people using the bike lanes?
Eric Bruins of the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition said that, despite these unanswered questions, data visualization projects like You Are Here help distill dense city data into consumable bits for the community.
"These types of maps are really helpful tools to help us tell a story of how we move around Los Angeles," Bruins told Take Two. "The crash data is definitely one part of that story, although what we don't necessarily have is a good idea of how many people are riding on these streets."
For example, why does Olympic have the most bike accidents?
"Olympic is kind of an intimidating street. It's big, it's wide, and it's fast. But one of the interesting things is that it was actually one of the few major streets that was not included in the city's Bike Master Plan," said Bruins. "I don't know whether that's a function of not that many people ride it or whether it's one of the few streets the city decided to leave to the cars."
It's unlikely that this map will push city officials to reexamine their bike plans for Olympic Boulevard, but it could help advocacy groups and cyclists understand where the accidents tend to happen. That can lead to more focused outreach efforts to raise awareness for bike safety and alternate routes.
"Los Angeles is really a gridded system, so sometimes the best route isn't necessarily on the major streets, but there might be one or two blocks over," said Bruins. "One of the key things the city is about to start working on is a network of neighborhood streets that connect with each other to create citywide bike routes that are on the side streets that are really comfortable for families and kids to ride."
In addition, the city is implementing a comprehensive signage effort for bike routes. The signs are in production now and should be going on the streets in a few months.
What do you think of this map of bike accidents? Where do you think the most dangerous streets are? You can add a pin to this KPCC map and mention it in the comments below.
Bell administrator Robert Rizzo sentenced on federal tax charges
Robert Rizzo, the man who became infamous in the City of Bell corruption scandal, was sentenced yesterday to 33 months in federal prison on tax fraud charges.
Earlier, Rizzo, a former Bell city administrator, pleaded no contest to state charges stemming from a scheme that took millions of dollars from the small blue-collar city and used it to boost his salary.
But the federal sentence isn't the end of the line for him. On Wednesday, he faces sentencing related to the corruption-related charges. He could spent 10 years behind bars.
Take Two speaks to L.A. Times reporter Jeff Gottlieb, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Bell scandal and is credited as one half of the reporting team that broke the story.
Centinela Valley school board to appoint interim superintendent during investigation
Last week, the Centinela Valley school board placed district superintendent Jose Fernandez on paid leave after The Daily Breeze reported that his contract brought his 2013 earnings to a whopping $663,000.
Rob Kuznia broke the story for The Daily Breeze and joins Take Two to discuss how the contract in question compares to neighboring school districts and possible interim superintendents as the Centinela Valley school board investigates Jose Fernandez.
Should California lawmakers be allowed to work a second job?
The suspension last month of three Democrats from the California Senate has put a new focus on ethics inside the capitol. Lawmakers have proposed dozens of new bills, and staffers have taken more ethics training.
There's one issue hardly anyone is talking about: four-in-10 state lawmakers have some sort of outside job or income. The California Report's Scott Detrow looks at the potential conflicts of interest.
Colorado River can turn deadly for self-guided adventurers
Last month a 31-year-old Oregon man died when his kayak capsized on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. He was one of about seven thousand river runners who each year opt to go without a guide.
The last 10 river fatalities in the Grand Canyon were on self-supported trips. From KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk in Flagstaff, Laurel Morales looks at the risks they take.
Tom's River: An all too-familiar story of industrial pollution with a twist
Corporation X pollutes Town Y.
Townspeople get sick.
But the story of Tom's River, NJ is a little different. The people living along the river, did some sleuthing and connected the dots between the polluter and the illnesses.
Environmental journalist Dan Fagin has written about this in a new book. It's called Tom's River: A Story of Science and Salvation.
Altadena Walmart a year later: Some small competitors thrive, others fail
It's been a year since Walmart opened a market in a working class neighborhood in Altadena. A lot of small business owners were concerned about what low-priced competition would bring.
KPCC's Wendy Lee began following the story before the walls went up.