Today on Take Two: California legislature is trying to clean up its image after several high-profile scandals by implementing tougher ethical guidelines for politicians, KPCC’s Adrian Florido takes a look at the thousands of low income Angelenos left without health coverage due to a mix up; we talk to UC researcher Paul Gents to help us trace the origins of the domesticated pepper and more.
California's legislatures to implement tougher ethical guidelines following scandals
California's legislature is trying to clean up its image after several high-profile scandals. Yesterday, lawmakers pushed eleven measures through committee that would set tougher ethical guidelines for politicians.
This comes just weeks after several state senators were charged with corruption. To fill us in on these bills is Patrick McGreevy. He's the Capitol reporter for the LA Times, and he joins us from Sacramento.
Black Caucus seeks poverty dialogue with Rep. Paul Ryan
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan made some waves last month when he attributed American poverty to a “tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.”
After initially denouncing those comments, the Congressional Black Caucus has now invited Ryan to a closed-door meeting to discuss strategies for alleviating poverty. That meeting is slated for a week from today.
For more on this, we spoke with Frank Gilliam. He's Dean of the Luskin School of Public Policy at UCLA.
Low income Angelenos left out of Medi-Cal because of mix-up
Hundreds of thousands of low-income Angelenos became newly-eligible for Medi-Cal on January first. The idea under the Affordable Care Act was to switch them away from a transitional program that LA County started a few years ago. But, as KPCC's Adrian Florido reports, a few thousand of those people fell through the bureaucratic cracks.
Kern County water agency hopes to run extra groundwater back up the Calif. aqueduct
If desperate times call for desperate measures, then California's severe drought is sure to inspire some unusual efforts. Water districts in the San Joaquin Valley are proposing something that's never been tried before during a drought: They want to reverse the state's plumbing by running the California Aqueduct backwards.
Read the article by California Report's Lauren Sommer for more.
New research pinpoints geographic origin of chili pepper
New research out of UC Davis traces the family tree of the domesticated chili pepper back to a region of east central Mexico. In modern cuisine around the globe, the chili pepper figures prominently in varieties from sichuan to habanero. But all have a common ancestor cultivated by the ancient peoples of Mexico.
A team of scientists used genetic data, archaeological clues, ecological evidence and a new approach involving linguistic study of ancient languages, to pinpoint the region where the chili likely originated. Lead study author Paul Gepts, a professor of plant sciences at UC Davis, joins the show to explain.
Sports Roundup: Chris Paul booed at Dodger Stadium, University of Texas hires new football coach and more
It's hip to Clip except if you're a Dodger fan, the Southern California hockey war may be on ice and and Manchester United is down a manager. This means it's time for sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky. They've covered sports for ESPN and Los Angeles Times.
Tomorrow night in Oakland, the L.A. Clippers and Golden State Warriors play Game 3 of their series that's tied at one. The Clippers are having the best season they have ever had after decades of losing. They've been in L.A. for 30 years but lately something strange is happening. Chris Paul is one of their stars. Likeable, great player and funny. Twice now at Dodger Stadium he has been booed. Then Monday when the Clippers score was posted on the big screen at Dodger game, fans booed. We find out what's going on.
Next, all around Staples Center there are statues of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Hall of Fame Lakers announcer Chick Hearn. Over the weekend these statues had balloons tied to them in Clippers colors. Did they go too far?
Now to two other area playoff teams, this time hockey, the Kings and Ducks. The Kings who lost last night to the San Jose Sharks and are now down 3-zip in their best of 7 series. The Ducks lead the Dallas Stars 2-1 with game 4 tonight. Is a Ducks vs. Kings playoff series dead?
The University of Texas has a new head coach in Charlie Strong. Texas football fans always have high hopes for the Longhorns but Strong told the Austin American-Statesman that while there's no reason why they can't be successful, they will not be in the national championship game this season.
Arguably the most recognizable brand in soccer is Manchester United. Last year they replaced legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson with David Moyes, a man who got Ferguson's blessing. Now Man U is looking for a new manager. We'll find out if being at the helm of Manchester United the toughest sports job in the world.
What's the future of wearable technology?
We're taking a look at personal fitness and the technologies designed to help you stay on track.
Nike reportedly laid off a significant chunk of the the team responsible for its fitness tracker, FuelBand. This brings us to the question: What's the future of such wearable technologies?
For more on this, we spoke with Scott Stein, Senior Editor with CNET.
Supreme Court upholds Michigan ban on affirmative action
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on using race as a factor in college admissions Tuesday.
African Americans currently make up just 4.6 percent of University of Michigan's undergraduates, but they comprise 14 percent of the state's population. At California's most selective campuses, that divide is similar: at UC Berkeley, 11 percent of freshman in 2011 were Hispanic, though Hispanics make up 49 percent of the state's college-aged residents; at UCLA, 3 percent of incoming freshman were African American, despite making up 9 percent of the state's population.
So if not through affirmative action, how can universities better achieve racial equality on campus?
For more on this, we're joined by Peter Schmidt, senior writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
UCLA approves creation of African American Studies Department
Now to UCLA where changes are being made to its African American Studies program. For forty years, the school had an interdepartmental program that offered classes in the field and a degree program. Now its become a full-fledged department.
For more about the move we turn to UCLA history professor Brenda Stevenson. She helped draft early proposals for the department and was chair of the interdepartmental program from 2004-2010.
NYPD asks Twitter to submit photos with cops. Guess what happened next
Snap a photo with a police officer and post it on Twitter. That was the concept behind the New York Police Department's #myNYPD social media campaign Tuesday.
It worked ... for a little bit.
my photo from my ride along with the boys from the 90th pct
— Lindsay Dixon (@poshwonderwoman)
@NYPDnews my photo from my ride along with the boys from the 90th pct #myNYPD pic.twitter.com/vwv7KQjLFD
— Lindsay Dixon (@poshwonderwoman) April 22, 2014
The hashtag went viral — but the photos weren't friendly. Things took a turn when several users hijacked the hashtag including Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Here the
engages with its community members, changing hearts and minds one baton at a time.
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC)
Here the #NYPD engages with its community members, changing hearts and minds one baton at a time. #myNYPD pic.twitter.com/GErbiFFDvY
— #GeneralStrike (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 22, 2014
The trend soon spread to L.A. where people created #myLAPD with examples of alleged abuse by officers.
at MacArthur Park on
2007. pic.twitter.com/LKbflD10sI
— LA CAN (@LACANetwork)
#myLAPD at MacArthur Park on #MayDay 2007. pic.twitter.com/LKbflD10sI
— LA CAN (@LACANetwork) April 22, 2014
well, it's
in L.A. county so it counts. Watch your dogs! Your police force working for you. pic.twitter.com/5i05gl5kxT
— Gaga Cheat (@MissStef0318)
Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Broderick joins Take Two to explain how police departments use social media to improve community relations, and how it could have been used better in this case. To listen to the segment, click on "Listen Now" to the left of this article.
App Chat: 3 apps that want to save you from jet lag, sketchy situations and your bad memory
Perhaps you and your family just finished up spring break, or maybe you are already dreaming ahead to your summer vacation. We here at Take Two would like to help you make that next trip a little better... through technology. Yes, it's time for the next installment in our regular segment App Chat.
While there are tons of different travel apps - these are ones that I'm loving right now.
1) Entrain - Claims to fix jet lag.
Graduate students from the University of Michigan have developed a way that they say can help you beat jet lag. The rule of thumb is that for adjusting your schedule, you can expect a day of adjustment for each hour you shifted. This app hopes to help you adjust slowly, over several days or weeks to the change. And it does that by telling you when to expose yourself to light and dark to help shift your circadian rhythm.
First, you put in the time zone you're going to be headed to, how many days until you arrive there and it sets a schedule for when you should expose yourself to light and dark. The hope is that it helps you shift slowly over time to help you adjust, rather than just throwing you into a circadian tailspin.
We haven't tried it, so I don't know if it works, but the researchers published a paper in PLOS Computational Biology in support of the app. If you try it out and it does work, let us know!
2) Rove - A digital journal for those who don't want to be on their phone all of the time.
When you arrive in a new place it can be totally overwhelming... but since you've spent all of this time saving up money and vacation days, you want to get the most out of your trip. So, when arrive somewhere you feel compelled to document everything. Well, this app wants to make that easier.
It tracks where you've been, maps out your day and assigns photos to each location, so that you don't have to worry about jotting notes down about each photo.
3) Kitestring - Wants to make you feel safer in sketchy situations.
This app was made for people who might feel unsafe walking alone, whether they're traveling or at home. I've spent time on the phone with my girlfriend on the phone while she's made her way through some sketchy areas. But something like that might not always be possible.
So, what this app does is it lets you set the certain time that it'll take you to get from point A to point B. It then checks in with you when that time is up, and if you don't message the app back that you're OK - it sends a duress signal to whoever you assign as your emergency contact. You can assign a custom message, or you can also kick off the duress signal on your own by texting the app a certain word that you specify.
It seems like the app could be improved by working as a phone app to provide GPS coordinates to someone in case something does happen to you. It would also be nice if it automatically called your emergency contact so that if someone feels like their in an unsafe situation, they don't have to spend time fiddling with their phone.
Honorable Mention - Monument Valley - Like if M.C. Escher made a videogame.
Full of puzzles that make you guide your little character from one area on the map to another, with mind bending physics (staircases that flip, walls that turn). And with its beautiful graphics and music, it's absolutely worth the few bucks it costs.
Amazon announces deal to stream HBO shows
Today, Amazon announced that they had struck a deal with HBO to make old seasons of several of their series available for Amazon Prime subscribers to view. They include shows like "The Sopranos," "The Wire," "Deadwood," and "Treme," among a couple of others.
This could be exciting news for those who have wanted to access HBO shows, but haven't been able to afford a cable subscription. Amazon Prime, however, goes for between $79 and $99 dollars for the whole year.
More as this story develops.
Menu psychology: How food tricks our brains
New studies out this month in the Journal of Consumer Research look at the relationship between our brains and our food. We may not realize it but everything around us, from lighting to smells to menu organization can affect how much food we eat. For more on this, we're joined by Derek Thompson. He wrote about this for The Atlantic.
Travel agency could be sending tourists to space soon
Before you book your next vacation, consider outer space. Virgin Galactic says it could start sending tourists into near-Earth orbit as early as next year. KPCC's Sanden Totten spoke to the travel agent who's sold more tickets in the US than anyone else.
New exhibit at the Architecture and Design Museum showcases history of bowling alleys
And now to the great American pastime: Bowling.
Not only is bowling a great way to spend time with family and friends, it's also one of the only sports to launch a great tradition of mid-century architecture.
A new exhibit at the A&D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles celebrates the glory of bowling alley architecture. It's called Bowlarama.
To find out more about it, host Alex Cohen recently met with the exhibit's curator—Los Angeles Magazine Editor Chris Nichols at PINZ bowling alley in Studio City.
Looking for historic bowling alleys to visit? Here's a list from Chris Nichols:
Bay Shore Lanes
234 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica
Bowlium
4666 Holt Blvd., Montclair
Covina Bowl
1060 San Bernardino Rd., Covina
Friendly Hills Lanes
15545 Whittier Blvd., Whittier
Linbrook Bowl
201 S. Brookhurst, Anaheim
Mar Vista Lanes
12125 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles
Palos Verdes Bowl
24600 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
PINZ
12655 Ventura Blvd., Studio City
Shatto 39 Lanes
3255 W. 4th St., Los Angeles
Zodo’s
5925 Calle Real, Goleta