Federal regulators act to curb big banks' payday lending; US Congressman Tom McClintock joins the show to explain the challenges facing the GOP; Nevada creates policy to prevent out-of-state busing of mentally ill patients; Rocker Graham Nash captures 50 years of 'Visual Harmony'; Isabel Allende tells a tale of grief, drugs and homelessness in 'Maya's Notebook,' plus much more.
Federal regulators act to restrict banks' payday lending
This week, federal regulators are expected to issue new guidance to banks related to loans that resemble the much criticized payday loan. Many feel that the new rules may mandate that banks evaluate a consumers' ability to repay a loan and limit how often they can get one.
We'll speak with Alan Zibel from the Wall Street Journal.
Nevada creates policy to prevent out-of-state busing of mentally ill patients
An update, now, on a story we brought you last week.
For over five years, a Nevada psychiatric hospital bused more than 1,500 mentally ill patients out of state. About a third of them were dumped right here in California, some without any friends or family to care for them. But just yesterday, Nevada health officials announced a new policy to halt that flow.
Joining us is Dan Morain, opinion editor for the Sacramento Bee, which first broke this story.
Law holding parents accountable for kids truancy applied differently
Last week, six parents in Orange County who had let their kids miss up to 22 days from school were charged with two misdemeanors: contributing to the delinquency of a minor and failure to reasonably supervise or encourage school attendance. This last charge was born from a new law targeting parents who can’t seem to get their kids to school.
“It’s unfortunate in a lot of senses that we have to resort to prosecution," said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Frank Acosta. "But a lot of the time it’s the message that has to be sent, that there is a violation of the law and we have to follow the law.”
Acosta also said parents need to hear that they could go to jail for one year and pay a $2,000 fine if they continually refuse help getting their kids to class. Five Orange County parents arrested two years ago received probation.
“We’re not asking for jail in these cases,” Acosta said.
It’s widely accepted that a child who repeatedly misses school is more likely to commit a crime or get into more serious trouble later in life. That’s the cycle the 2010 law aims to stop.
But it’s not clear how well it’s doing that – and not all prosecutors are embracing it.
David Kopperud of the California Department of Education said the law is applied differently depending on the prosecutor’s philosophy of prevention.
“Some DAs don’t want to prosecute until the crime is pretty severe,” Kopperud said. “?But there’s other DAs that say: 'you know, if we can be more preventative and stop this kid from being a juvenile delinquent we’re better off,'”
He said doesn’t know of a statewide tally for parents arrested each year.
“We don’t prosecute people to send a message,” said Lydia Bodin, head of the L.A. County District Attorney’s Abolish Chronic Truancy program. "We prosecute people because something has gone radically wrong and a crime has occurred."
She would not file charges against parents for 22 unexcused absences. Last year, her office handled truancy problems for 5,000 elementary school children. She filed charges against three parents or guardians, mostly for absences between 90 and 120 days – that’s between half to two-thirds of the school year. Bodin said most cases were solved after parents sat down with school officials, prosecutors, and social workers.
“We want to, as much as we can, work with families, with students, to address those barriers and we are largely successful at doing that because we’re paying attention to the family and what their specific needs are,” Bodin said.
California school districts have another option short of prosecution: School Attendance Review Boards. They bring together parents whose kids aren’t attending school with prosecutors and social workers. Kopperud said that’s where the most important work in truancy prevention takes place.
Orange County officials said they tried the boards first and only arrested parents last week after they failed to respond.
But California isn’t the only state using the courthouse to battle truancy. Last year in Dayton, Ohio a court issued arrest warrants for 16 parents because their kids were chronically missing school.
US Congressman Tom McClintock on challenges facing the GOP
Republican Congressman Tom McClintock voted against sequestration and now his constituents are feeling its crunch with cuts to the FAA. He's also opposed the need for immigration reform.
A Martinez talks with Congressman McClintock about those issues and previews this weekend's convention of the California Republican Assembly, an activist group that bills itself as California's oldest grassroots organization and which Ronald Reagan once called the "conscience of the Republican Party," where McClintock will speak.
Isabel Allende tells a tale of grief, drugs and homelessness in 'Maya's Notebook'
We've all seen them — teenagers out on the street, begging for change — and wondered how their lives got to this place. Author Isabel Allende explores this in her new novel, "Maya's Notebook."
It's a coming of age story about Maya Vidal, a young girl who loses herself in grief and drugs after her grandfather dies. She ends up a petty criminal, strung out on the streets and on the run from both criminals and the police. Allende joins the show to talk about her latest work.
See Allende in conversation with KPCC's Patt Morrison at a Live Talks LA event in Beverly Hills on May 16. Click here for more information.
Excerpt from MAYA'S NOTEBOOK by Isabel Allende
Apple stock rallies, but remains volatile
Apple has long been a Wall Street darling, with shares topping at more more than $700 a piece last year. The stock has been rallying today, but has recently been hovering around $400.
With more is Paddy Hirsch, senior producer of personal finance at Marketplace.
ITunes Turns 10: How Apple revolutionized the music industry
Regardless of how you feel about Apple or iTunes, one thing that's certain is it changed the face of the music industry when it's popular online store was introduced ten years ago.
Steve Knopper, contributing editor for Rolling Stone and author of "Appetite for Self Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age."
City Hall Pass: Mayor's race, LAX runway project, LA Convention Center
KPCC's political team Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton join the show for a regular roundup of the latest political news.
This week, absentee ballots of the upcoming Mayoral election have already gone out. The most recent polling data from an LA Times/USC poll shows that Eric Garcetti has a pretty comfortable lead over Wendy Greuel, up by 10 points. What does this mean for the remaining four weeks until election day?
Looking ahead to next week, the LA City Council is set to consider the LAX runway project, and they voted to solicit a new round of bids to operate the LA Convention Center.
Picture This: Rocker Graham Nash captures 50 years of 'Visual Harmony'
As co-founder of the 1960s rock supergroup Crosby, Stills and Nash, musician Graham Nash has traveled the world, spent his life among legends and has left an indelible mark on music with hits like "Our House" and "Teach Your Children."
But throughout his 50-year career in rock, Nash was almost always taking pictures. A collection of some of his photos, called "Visual Harmony," is currently on view at the Morrison Hotel Gallery at the Sunset Marquis in Los Angeles.
Nash joined Take Two to talk about his love of photography, how he captures such intimate images, and he explains the stories behind some of his most interesting portraits.
Interview Highlights:
On how he got into photography at an early age:
"[My father] would take pictures of us. One day he had some photographic equipment on a ledge and he said, 'See this blank piece of paper? I'm going to put it into this colorless liquid, and watch,' I'm waiting, then, oh my God, the picture I saw my father take of us in Belleville Zoo came floating into space and my life has never been the same. It was magic."
The story behind his photo of Dennis Hopper (Slide 2):
"That was taken May 4th, which is my wedding anniversary at the Kentucky Derby, and we had both backed the same horse, War Emblem, which won, and that's the moment that Dennis discovered that the horse won."
On his philosophy as a photographer:
"I like the moment. I'm not one to take picture of puppies with kittens or landscapes. I'm not that kind of a photographer. I love the moment whenever that moment is, and I've been lucky in my life to be witness to many many moments. I like to be invisible as a photographer, I don't like people knowing that they're taking pictures. Having had millions of pictures of myself, I know when a camera is pointing at me, I can feel it. I want to look like James Dean, I want to look cool, and that ruins the moment."
On his photo of Joni Mitchell (Slide 4):
"What she was doing was listening to an acetate of her album, Clouds. As a musician, it's not enough to create and then record and then mix and then master, you have to then check the acetates to make sure there's no clicks and pops. This was in the era of vinyl. She was checking her acetate to make sure that it was perfect for the people that love her music. I was photographing through a hole in the kitchen chair. Once again, I was invisible."
On his photo of Judy Collins and Stephen Stills (Slide 6):
"Judy had a wonderful relationship with Stephen, he wrote many songs about her, of course Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, etc. That was a moment in Sag Harbor in Long Island when we were rehearsing the first Crosby, Stills and Nash record. That was Judy when she came to visit Stephen, she did kiss him gently on the cheek and whispered into his ear something magical, because look at the expression on Stephen's face."
Data on who gives gifts to politicians is now more accessible
California has some of the toughest ethics rules in the nation. Politicians can only accept $440 in gifts from a specific person or company each year, and officials need to document everything they receive. The idea is that transparency prevents the corrupting influence of money in government, but what good is that information if its buried deep in the internet's version of a file cabinet?
The California Report's Scott Detrow looked into a new program to make this financial data more accessible.
Phoenix sports teams look to Mexico for fans
Phoenix-based professional sports teams have long reached out to the metro area's large Latino population to cultivate new fans. But now they are going even farther, they're looking across the border. That ties into a bigger strategy to bring Mexican tourists to Phoenix. From the Fronteras Desk, Jude Joffe-Block reports.
Phoenix-based professional sports teams have long reached out to the metro area’s large Latino population to cultivate new fans. But now they are seeking supporters across the border.
At a recent Phoenix Suns game, the US Airways arena is fairly full. Yet team president Jason Rowley says the Suns can do more to grow its international fan base.
“If you really look at where we are positioned geographically, that is something that I think we can really move the needle on,” Rowley said.
Particularly on the other side of the border, where the economy is growing and there are reports of a growing middle class.
“There are people in Mexico with a lot of money to spend,” Rowley said. “Who are sports fans, who like to go on vacations, who like to come to travel up here to the states.”
Basketball is increasingly a global sport, and Rowley is angling for the Suns to be the team to capture fans in Mexico and even Central America.
The Suns launched a new Spanish-language website this season, and the team is hoping to bring the Mexican national team to Arizona for an exhibition game, which would raise the Suns' profile back in Mexico.
They aren’t the only Phoenix-based professional team thinking about this audience.
“We’ve just introduced a Sonoran hot dog at our ballpark, which is very popular in Mexico,” said Luis Gonzalez, one of the shining stars in Diamondbacks history who now works for the baseball team’s front office.
The new menu item comes with bacon beans and all the trimmings. The team is also giving away the audio broadcasts of weekend games to six Sonoran radio stations. An office in Sonora’s capitol, Hermosillo, sells Diamondbacks tickets.
Representatives of the team say a big part of the strategy is long-term: if they can win over young fans in Mexico now, they will buy some merchandise, and one day, eventually, attend a game.
Sports business analyst Maury Brown said there is a push for all the major sports leagues to grow internationally.
“And if it is something easily reachable from countries nearby, border states, that would make the most logical sense for any sports league to look at,” Brown said.
American sports have a strong following in Mexico, particularly the NFL. Some teams, such as the Dallas Cowboys, have managed to make deep inroads with Mexican fans.
The L.A. Dodgers won over a loyal Mexican following in the 1980s due to the famed Mexican pitcher,Fernando Valenzuela. The Diamondbacks in turn say they are keeping their eyes peeled for the next Valenzuela.
But analyst Maury Brown says even teams without big stars can build support by courting fans who have never been courted before.
“We kind of look at this as a ‘land grab’ from a marketing perspective,” Brown said. “The one that is there first has the ability to entrench brand loyalty.”
Earlier this month the Diamondbacks and the Suns joined a Phoenix trade mission to Mexico City. Also in attendance was David Rousseau, president of the Salt River Project, who is chairing the committee in charge of bringing the Super Bowl to Glendale, Ariz. in 2015.
One purpose of the mission was to repair tensions caused by the state’s immigration enforcement law, SB 1070, and gain back Mexican tourists — who account for the second biggest group of tourists to the United States.
The three-day trip included a meeting with Mexican travel agents to discuss selling Phoenix vacation packages centered around sporting events.
At a press conference in Mexico City, the Diamondbacks’ Luis Gonzalez told Mexican sports reporters that Mexicans are welcome in Phoenix. Gonzalez, who is Cuban-American, gave some remarks in Spanish.
"We want Mexicans to follow our teams," he said.
Sports reporter Juan Pablo Sanchez with the Mexican newspaper Milenio appreciated the message.
“I have never been in a press conference like this,” Sanchez said. “And I think it is very cool, because we the media we can spread the message that Phoenix is open for the Mexicans, and not always closed like the news said.”
Still, Sanchez said, here in Mexico City, far from the border, the Diamondbacks and the Suns will have to do more to get their brand out.
He said the world-famous American teams — like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or the Chicago Bulls — still seem to hold the most sway here in the Mexican capitol.
The Dinner Party: Science test, Iceland dating app, birth of workout videos
Every week we get your weekend conversation starters with Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam, the hosts of the Dinner Party podcast and radio show.
On tap this week: Testing your science knowledge, an unusual dating app from Iceland and looking in back at the birth of the workout video.