The United Way LA's new report takes an in-depth work at the status of women in LA county, the importance of California's open U.S. senate seat, U.S. politics through the Game of Thrones lens.
A preview of the first US Senate race debate
Five candidates will meet on the debate stage tonight.
No, they're not the presidential hopefuls you've been hearing so much from, they're the candidates for another big 2016 race, this one for U.S. Senate.
It's the first time in more than two decades that there's been an open Senate seat in California. The winner will succeed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who's retiring after serving four terms.
Los Angeles Times political reporter Phil Willon joined Take Two for a preview of tonight's dual-party debate.
To hear the full interview with Phil Willon, click the blue player above.
The 90 minute debate will be live-streamed here at 6pm and will air on My 13 KCOP in Los Angeles at 8pm PT.
3 ways the landscape is changing for women in LA
Women in Los Angeles County are 5 million strong. Some own businesses, others are unemployed. Some are healthy, others sick. Some live in spectacular homes, while others have no idea where they will sleep tonight.
A new report out Monday delves into the shifting demographics, education levels and outlook for women in L.A. County.
The report was released by United Way LA in conjunction with a summit planned for Monday night in Beverly Hills.
Here’s a quick look at what UWLA found:
1. LA’s women are increasingly Latina
Latinas make up a larger percentage of the women — in particular younger women — in Los Angeles County.
“In terms of demographics, nearly half of the county’s women are Latinas. So we are seeing a shift in the population in terms of ethnicity,” United Way spokeswoman Taulene Kagan told KPCC.
Kagan said that poses a new challenge, as Latinas are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college, which could make it more difficult for them to raise their wages and become more independent.
“If Latinas are going to be a majority of the population, we do have a challenge in front of us, because they also statistically-showing have the least amount of high school graduates,” she said. “So that’s a concern and something we want to talk about.”
But there is some good news: the report finds Latinas in L.A. have made great strides in preparing for college over the last decade.
2. Women at all education levels are still being being paid less than men
The report found that across the income spectrum, L.A. women are still paid less for the work they do. In fact, when comparing women’s income to men’s, women who haven’t graduated high school make only slightly less proportionally (71 percent of what men earn) than women who attained a graduate-level education or above (75 percent).
Still, the report found higher levels of education corresponded to higher income and a better chance at escaping poverty.
“Education is critical. Higher education provides the income,” Kagan said. “If you have, say, less than a high school education, you’re going to fall below the poverty level. And we’re seeing 46 percent of women who have less than a high school education [and live in L.A. County] are in extreme poverty…compared to 10 percent of college graduates.”
3. Women are finding work in nontraditional industries
The report finds that women in L.A. County have increasingly gained a foothold in industries where they have traditionally not been employed.
“We’re seeing this transition into these male-dominated industries,” said Kagan. “And that is surprising, and that was a new finding.”
Some professions that were traditionally male are now dominated by women, Kagan added.
“For example, we now have 55 percent of pharmacists are women, compared to 5 percent in 1970,” she said. “Sixty percent of accountants are women compared to 25 percent back in 1970.”
Elise Buik, CEO of United Way LA, joins Take Two to talk more about the report, which you can read below:
Byron Scott and Kobe Bryant are gone, what does the future hold for the Lakers?
The Los Angeles Lakers were experiencing their worst season in franchise history three years ago. As a result, they hired former Lakers champion Byron Scott to be their head coach.
They went on to have the two worst seasons ever, each one getting more terrible than the one before.
Last night the Lakers fired Scott, who still has one year left on his contract, and that puts them in the market for their 6th head coach in the last 6 years.
John Ireland is the Lakers play by play man and host of the Mason and Ireland Show on ESPN LA. He joined the show to discuss what the removal Byron Scott and the what the future can hold for the Lakers.
Interview Highlights
On Byron Scott being in a no-win situation:
"Maybe...he had a unique bond with Kobe, in that in his last year as a player, Kobe was a rookie and the two hung out a lot together and they knew each other. So, the Lakers thought he was the perfect guy to shepherd the end of Kobe's career and that part did work out...but what doomed him in the end was his wins and losses. Only winning something like 38 games in two years."
On possible replacements:
"That is the...in the old days we'd say 64 thousand dollar question...these days we would probably have to say 64 million. But, a lot of it may have to do with what coach can attract free agents. The Lakers have an extraordinary amount of what we call cap room in the NBA...there's a salary cap in the NBA and you can only spend up to a certain amount of money. The Lakers have over 60 million dollars in cap space. So if they can convince a great player to come to Los Angeles, they can slide him right into that spot."
On Luke Walton being the next head coach:
"That is my personal favorite to get this job. I think if you made me bet everything I own on who's going to be the next Laker coach, that would be my answer...He played for the Lakers for eight years, so he's tied to Phil Jackson. He's also been an assistant at Golden State for the past two seasons...he went 39 and 4 including a 25 game winning streak. I think A, if they offer it to Luke, he can't turn it down."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Game of Thrones politics: Presidential candidates and their Westerosi counterparts
In case you had not heard, the HBO juggernaut, Game of Thrones is back.
Gruesome battle scenes and a tendency to kill off fan favorites are all hallmarks of the show.
Yet, could Game of Thrones also offer some insight into our country's current political landscape?
One professor seems to think so.
Stephen Dyson is the author of "Otherworldly Politics: The International Relations of Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica". He joined the show to discuss.
Donald Trump/ The Night King
"He's a hard guy to categorize, the nature of his candidacy is that the stands outside of the existing political order. It did occur to me that Donald Trump might actually be the Night King, this sort of supernatural figure who leads others beyond the wall. The Night King in the show is this figure is sort of almost literally pounding on the wall of the established order and threatens to blow it all away."
Ted Cruz/ Roose Bolton
"He's another really interesting one...the spin I would take on Ted Cruz is to think about the degree to which Ted Cruz has risen based upon not following the established rules of the Republican party and in particular not following the established rules of the senate...In the show, you'd be looking for a character who was not following the established rules and you'd be wondering whether that character was going to pay a cost for that in the future. So I thought about either Walder Frey or Roose Bolton, those two characters had in common that they'd betrayed the Starks and they didn't follow norms in the show..."
John Kasich/ Jon Snow
"He's not as popular as Jon Snow in the show, but he does seem to require a similarly supernatural intervention in order to be resurrected...Jon Snow will still require an act of the supernatural to be resurrected. Is the Cruz-Kasich deal that kind of supernatural intervention that will resurrect John Kasich? I'm not sure, I think there's a greater chance that we'll see Jon Snow walking around in the show than we'll see John Kasich as the Republican nominee."
Hillary Clinton/Daenarys Targaryen or Cersei Lannister
"Some of Hillary Clinton's supporters see her as Daenarys Targaryen, the mother of Dragons the venging, wise, badass female ruler who's going to come in and set things to right. Opponents or those who are a bit ambivalent towards Hillary might look at the parallel with Cersei Lannister."
Bernie Sanders/ Mance Rayder
"Bernie I think does have a clear analog in the show, the wildling king, Mance Rayder...wildling's don't believe that there should be a system where the nobility, the one percent, make all the decisions and the common folk kind of do what the one percent say. And Mance Rayder was a revolutionary in that regard, he did believe that that order should be overturned..."
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Cruz and Kasich team up to stop Trump's presidential run
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich have come together over a mutual enemy: Donald Trump.
The former rivals have announced they are now buddies with a strategy that denies Trump from securing the nomination.
The basic idea: I'll let you win this state if you let me win this one. and that way Trump doesn't get any of them!"
But could this idea really succeed? Republican strategist Mike Madrid joins Take Two.
Have $400 to spare? Federal Reserve Board survey finds most Americans don't
There's a financial rule of thumb; always have some money available for a rainy day
Yet half of those polled in a Federal Reserve Board survey said they could not cover a 400 dollar emergency with their own money
In a recent piece for The Atlantic, author Neal Gabler detailed how he is part of that group -- and why people are too embarrassed to talk about this type of financial short-coming.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Take Two's Alex Cohen and A Martinez remember Steve Julian
This program is a news program... which means it's our duty to report when people of note pass away. It's with very heavy hearts that we mark the passing of a member of the KPCC family.
Longtime Morning Edition anchor Steve Julian died yesterday from complications from brain cancer.
He was 57 years old.
He made so many of our lives that much better each morning, hosting out of the studio just across the hall... which has been renamed - The Steve Julian studio.
Listeners have been weighing in with their memories of Steve at our website and there's a recurring sentiment there: I never met Steve - listeners write -- but I feel like I knew him.
That's the beautiful part of this deeply intimate medium. You may not know what we look like, you may never have been introduced to us face to face and yet, we become part of your regular routine.
Though Steve actually was a tremendous theatrical talent, that avuncular nature, that feeling that Steve was the kind of guy you'd just want to hang out with...that was no act.
He WAS that guy.
Warm and wise, with an acerbic wit. We encourage you to share your thoughts online at kpcc.org.
Listener, Natalie Windsor put it quite well:
"He's been with us as we emerged nude and dripping from the shower, gently authoritative before we had our coffee, and genially protective as he warned us about traffic snags and news events... KPCC can replace Steve Julian's function, but not his wit and warmth".
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
After Prince's death, LA record store sees rush for vinyls
When a musician dies, the music they made quickly becomes in-demand. Prince was no exception.
His digital music sales surged on iTunes and Amazon over the weekend. But as it turns out, his vinyl sales are doing well, too, at least for one record shop in L.A. Rockaway Records in Silver Lake sold out of their Prince merchandise within the first few hours of the singer's death.
Dave Kent, general manager for Rockaway Records, joined host Alex Cohen to tell more about how vinyl lovers reacted to Prince's death.
Musical inheritance: Why we pass our favorite music to the next generation
This weekend, many Prince fans likely dusted off their LPs, tapes or CDs to play a cut for the kids.
Passing on music is a global tradition as old as music itself. But why do we bequeath the songs of our youth? And what does this musical inheritance mean to the next generation?
Take Two put that question to Shauna Redmond, associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC.