We'll hear from Californians who are struggling with unemployment; Is the US entering its own era of austerity?; The Senate votes to end air traffic controller furloughs; Producer Joe Boyd releases 'Way to Blue,' a tribute to late musician Nick Drake; State, federal officials meet to discuss restoration plan for the Salton Sea; Can online gaming company Zynga survive? plus much more.
Voices of California's unemployed
More than 400,000 Californians looking for work will find themselves struggling even more, starting this Sunday. That's the number of people in the state collecting federal unemployment benefits, and sequestration means the benefit on new filings will be cut by nearly 18 percent.
If you're already living with a tightened belt, it'll have you thinking, "What else can I possibly cut back on?"
Take Two reached out to Californians collecting federal unemployment benefits, and asked what this cut means for them.
Elizabeth Pineda, 34, has been on unemployment for 14 months. Jack Hodges, 54, has been out of work since last November. And Maria Casas, 50, has collected unemployment benefits since February 2012.
Is the US entering its own era of austerity?
Economists and policymakers have for years shirked the austerity measures deployed by Europe to deal with the recession. But now the U.S. is making the same type of spending cuts in a weak economy that European leaders are now distancing themselves from.
Friday Flashback: Economy outlook, Bush approval rating, and more
We talk about the week that was with our regular journalists in-the-know. On tap this week, the Marketplace reporter David Gura in Washington and James Rainey from the Los Angeles Times.
Can online gaming company Zynga survive?
The mobile gaming company Zynga releases its earnings today, and all eyes are on the company who was once lauded as the future of gaming. While they have had hits like FarmVille and Words With Friends, overall the company has become a failure since it went public.
'Way to Blue' pays tribute to late musician Nick Drake
Musician Nick Drake had a short and tragic career. He made three albums, each sold only a few thousand copies, and in 1974 when he was just 26, he died from an overdose of an antidepressant. However, his music lived on and eventually became quite popular.
In the year 2000, the track, Pink Moon, was featured in a Volkswagen commercial.
Not long after, his final album of the same name made it to Amazon's top five list of best selling albums.
Record producer Joe Boyd worked with Drake and he recently produced a new tribute album about his friend and colleague called "Way To Blue: The songs of Nick Drake." Musicians like Robyn Hitchcock, Teddy Thompson, Vashti Bunyan, Danny Thompson, Lisa Hannigan, among others, contribute songs to the record.
Boyd joins the show from NPR studios in New York.
Interview Highlights:
On how he didn't want to produce a typical tribute album:
"Tribute albums don't have the best reputation in the music industry, I think there have been a lot of them over the years, and most of them involved artists producing their own tracks and sending them in then somebody assembling them all into an order. They don't really cohere in a way."
On how he wanted to make the Nick Drake tribute different:
"I had this vision a long time ago of doing a record of Nick Drake's songs in which we'd take a studio in the country for a week and we'd get a rhythm section and we'd get all these different singers to come sing harmony on each other's tracks…So it'd have a real continuous feel as a unified projects. Of course logistics made that almost impossible to achieve."
How the project just fell into his lap:
"I got asked to do these concerts in Britain, called Way To Blue, and somehow the concert just worked, everybody loved it and the musicians loves being part of it...I started recording some of the concerts and then I figured, well this sounds pretty good. I mixed it and played it for the singers involved and they all said, great, put it out. So it's kind of coming into it backwards, but we got there in the end."
On how he chose the artists featured on the album:
"I had no desire at any point in this project to have people involved who sounded like Nick. To me, the point of doing a project like this is to bring different voices, different approaches to these songs, because I think Nick's versions are so wonderful that as a vocal approach we wanted to be as different as possible from Nick, because I think it shows the strength of the songs, and just removes it from the idea that we're trying to compare to Nick's own versions."
Oh how Vashti Bunyan's career mirrors Drakes:
"Vashti is the one musician besides Danny Thompson who played bass on the record, that did know Nick. I was working with Vashti in the 60s at the same time I was working with Nick. I introduced them to each other in the hope that they might collaborate and write some songs together, but they're both so painfully shy that when they met not much happened. You could look at the arc of [Vashti's] career has been quite similar because she put out a record which I produced in the 60s that didn't sell, and then after years of pushing that side of her life to one side, remarrying and moving to Edinburgh, eventually the internet, she just Googled her name and discovered that there's this huge network of fans out there and she had this new career."
Senate and Gov. Brown spar over education funding plan
In Sacramento this week Democratic leaders went toe to toe with Governor Jerry Brown over his plan to change how California funds public schools. The rhetoric got pretty heated-with the governor vowing to give his own party, "the fight of their lives."
KPCC's state capital reporter Julie Small has been following the theatrics and joins us now to talk about it.
Providers concerned about changes in coverage for chronically ill patients
All across the country health care providers are scrambling to get ready for changes because of the Affordable Care Act, what most call Obamacare. Among other things, they're keen to ensure Californians with chronic health conditions don't suffer a coverage hiccup during the changeover. Especially those with contagious conditions like HIV.
Reporter Mina Kim has the story.
Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren grieving via Twitter, Facebook after son's suicide
Since the death of his son April 5, Orange County-based Pastor Rick Warren has not led a sermon at his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. But, he's been talking to his congregation through
and Facebook.
His online, or social media, grieving has a message. Read some of this tweets below.
"Jesus started with the original twelve, he called them his disciples. Disciple just means follower or learner," Rick Warren preached at an Easter Sunday sermon at the Saddleback Church.
It was the last time the popular evangelist preached to his 22,000 member congregation before his adult son, Matthew, took his own life.
Warren, the best-selling author of "The Purpose-Driven Life" has nearly one-million Twitter followers.
Since his son's death, Warren is more visible online than in the pulpit. He tweets - sometimes more than 10 times a day - short, reflective messages thanking followers for their condolences.
"Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our broken hearts," is one recent tweet from Warren.
"I think we're going to be seeing more and more of this, not only for celebrities, but our everyday lives," said religious history professor Gary Laderman of Emory University in Atlanta.
Laderman writes about how people grieve. He said Warren's long reach through social media is therapeutic for others grieving, too.
"To really affect people, and to help bring not closure, but to help people work through the process of dealing with something as difficult as this," said Laderman.
Matthew Warren, 27, shot himself at his Mission Viejo home. He suffered from mental illness and depression.
The Warrens say Matthew was one of about eleven-million American adults afflicted with severe forms of mental illness in the past year.
Matthew's mother Kay tweeted last week that one book in particular helped the family cope with the illness.
"They tried so hard to help him, the whole family tried so hard and yet they hit the brick wall of the illness," said Valerie Porr, author of "Overcoming Borderline Personality Disorder, a Family Guide for Healing and Change."
Porr said she was overwhelmed by a phone call she received from Kay Warren, shortly after Matthew Warren's death.
"I could not believe this woman said this to me," Porr said. " She said 'don't worry, you're not going to lose me. You're still going to come out here and do a workshop, so this doesn't happen to other people.' How do you say this to people after your son just died?"
Porr believes it is that kind of compassion which recently led Rick and Kay Warren to launch a petition to raise awareness of mental illness.
The couple is urging educators, lawmakers, healthcare professionals and church congregations to shine a light on the issue of mental health.
People are sharing news about the petition through Facebook and Twitter.
Rick Warren continues to tweet about his son this week.
"No death nor life, angels nor demons, nor anything else (like mental illness) can separate us from God's love in Jesus," Warren tweeted Thursday, April 25.
A Warren family spokeswoman says Rick Warren will likely not preach at the Saddleback Church until August.
In the meantime, he recently tweeted that the sale of his son's home will fund what Warren wrote is a new "Mental Illness Ministry."
Read more of his tweets below:
When haters wrote on Matt's death Psalm 18:18 helped:“They attacked me at the moment I was weakest,but the Lord upheld me!"
“No death nor life,angels nor demons, nor ANYTHING else (like mental illness)can separate us from God's love in Jesus” Rom.8
The ultimate test of faith is not how loudly you praise God in happy times but how deeply you trust him in dark times.
We can't grow without change. We can't change without letting go. We can't let go without some loss, and that brings grief.
I hope one day I can repay each of you for the healing kindnesses you've shown Kay and me in our darkest days.#
Grief comes in waves.When a big wave hits, you cant ignore it.You surf it and ride it out. My surfboard is talking to Jesus.
Every time my heart shatters I take the pieces to Jesus for repair.
"Mental illness" is a poor term, sounding like "It's just your mind." But a broken brain is as physical as a broken bone.
Many ask “How can I help?” Help @KayWarren1 and me end the #stigma of mental illness! Join our team: http://t.co/B2LDPvl2Pl
Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.
State, federal leaders discuss restoration plan for the Salton Sea
In its heyday, The Salton Sea was considered the Lake Tahoe of Southern California, a glamorous destination for vacations. But today, it has a reputation for being something of a toxic wasteland.
For years, politicians have debated how to restore what is really California's largest lake. In his last budget, President Obama put aside $200,000 for an environmental study on how to restore it. This morning, state and federal officials are meeting at the Salton Sea to determine what the best restoration plan might be.
For more on that we're joined by KPCC's environmental reporter Molly Peterson.
Big renewable energy projects threaten Mojave desert wildlife
Right nextdoor to the Salton Sea is another focus for conservationists: the Mojave desert. It spans 25,000 square miles over California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and it contains the national parks Death Valley and Joshua Tree, among other attractions.
The are is home to thousands of different plant and animal species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. But this vast wilderness could be threatened by another environmental interest, renewable energy.
In recent years, the Mojave desert has become a hot spot for the development of solar and wind power plants. Reporter Judith Mernit, who wrote about this for High Country News, joins the show with more.
Trampoline park oversight bill advances in State Senate
A State Senate committee in Sacramento has unanimously approved a first-of-its-kind measure requiring stricter oversight of trampoline parks.
It would require the parks to have the same sort of safety standards as amusement park rides—like regular inspections and reporting of accidents to Cal-OSHA, the state's workplace safety agency.
The bill's author is Senator Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). He chairs the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, the panel that passed the bill on Wednesday.
If you’re wondering what a trampoline park is, you’re not alone.
“Many people you tell them about this and they’re like, ‘What?’” said Tom Paper, president of Think Before You Bounce, a trampoline park safety advocacy group. “And you say, ‘Well, they put all these trampolines together. It’s trampolines on steroids.”’
Trampolines have mostly used as backyard recreation, except for a brief commercial stint in the 1960s. The sport has bounced back big time recently.
“Trampoline parks are relatively new,” said Paper. “We didn’t see any in California five years ago.”
Companies with lofty names like Sky Zone, Sky High Sports, and Jump Street operate or franchise dozens of parks. Many more are on the way. Sky Zone is soon opening five more Southern California locations. But despite its growing popularity, the industry is unregulated.
“Parents are sending their kids to birthday parties at trampoline parks and they have no idea of the risks,” said Paper.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics there were almost 98,000 trampoline-related injuries in the U.S in 2009. Many of accidents are minor, but not all.
Ty Thomasson broke his neck and died last year after landing in a foam pit that was too shallow at an Arizona trampoline park. His mother Maureen Kerley says the family is still grieving.
“We’re devastated and it’s hard for us to talk about it,” said Kerley “But I honestly believe the public needs to know.”
Kerley, who now lives near San Diego, is making it her mission to go state-to-state to advocate for trampoline parks inspections and regulations.
“You can make them safe,” said Kerley. “Not 100 percent safe, but still safe in terms of the design, construction and materials.”
Some trampoline park operators have complained the new rules would put them out of business—but Greg Briggs isn't one of them. His company just opened a 25,000 square-foot trampoline park in Laguna Hills called Big Air. He welcomes the possibility of oversight.
“I think it makes us a little bit better, although it is quite expensive to deal with the state on these kinds of things," said Briggs. “But it is a cost we are willing to absorb.”
The bill to regulate trampoline parks – SB 256 – moves next to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Stagecoach Music Fest kicks off in Indio
If two weekends of Coachella weren't enough for you, perhaps you want to check out the StageCoach Music Festival, happening this weekend at the Empire Polo Fields. It's the other big desert music festival this Spring, and it's rooted in country music, bluegrass and folk.
Randy Lewis, who covers the event for the Los Angeles Times, joins the show with more.