Surfing, baseball/softball, skateboarding and more make the cut for the 2020 Games, LA2024 updates from Rio, taxing drivers per mile instead of per gallon.
Young blacks, Latinos familiar with police violence, poll shows
A new poll released Thursday from the University of Chicago and the Associated Press finds that two-thirds of young African-Americans and 4 in 10 Hispanics say they or someone they know has experienced violence or harassment at the hands of the police.
For a deeper look at the numbers in this survey, Take Two spoke to Emily Swanson, polling editor with the AP.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
LA's bid for the Olympics: Venue renderings, new sports and more
The 2020 games will be held in Tokyo but we still don't know where the summer games after that will take place. A group called LA 2024 has been working since August 2015 to bring those Olympics here to Southern California.
Jeff Millman, LA 2024's communications officer, spoke with Take Two's Alex Cohen from Brazil. When they spoke, Millman was outside eagerly waiting for the torch to pass by. Millman shed some light on the new sports that have been added to the 2020 games and how it would affect the 2024 bid, the LA's new venue renderings, why the LA 2024 committee was in Rio and more.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Softball makes it back to the Olympics
Yesterday the International Olympic Committee made the announcement that five new events will be added to the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Surfing, sport climbing, karate, and skateboarding all made the cut, as well as baseball/softball.
We talk about it with Aubry Munro, she's a California native, a newly minted graduate from the University of Florida and also the catcher for Team USA softball.
The Ride: Road charge vs. gas tax
Anyone who’s wrecked a tire in a pothole knows California’s infrastructure is in dire shape. The average Californian spends $762 each year to repair damage caused by poorly maintained roads, according to the state's Department of Transportation.
The reason they’re so poorly maintained: California's coffers are $60 billion short to fund badly needed road maintenance. Those repairs have traditionally been paid with a gas tax charged every time a driver fills up his tank, but that tax hasn’t increased in more than two decades. Meanwhile, the state's roads and bridges continue to crumble.
Paying by the mile v. paying by the gallon
But California is experimenting with a new system that would fund repairs with fees based on the number of miles a person drives — not the amount of fuel he uses. It’s called the Road Charge pilot program.
Launched this summer with 5,000 volunteers, 50 of which are freight trucks, Road Charge is designed to test various methods for charging drivers by the mile. The funds would be used to help repair infrastructure.
Billions needed to fund repairs
Nationally, the U.S. needs $3.6 trillion in infrastructure improvements, according to the web site, InfrastructureReportCard.org; the site gives California's transportation system a grade of C-. The Federal Highway Administration underscored the severity of the problem this week when it said per-capita highway spend is 25 percent lower today than it was in 1970 in dollars adjusted for inflation.
Established to fund transportation projects, the gas tax has existed in most states since 1928, but as cars have become more fuel efficient, the amount of monies collected through the gas tax has decreased.
It's likely to continue decreasing in states like California, where Governor Jerry Brown has called for the majority of cars sold in the state to be low or no emissions, i.e. gasoline- and gas-tax-free, by 2030. CalTrans estimates that half of the revenue it could have collected from the gas tax will be lost to fuel efficiency in 14 years.
How the Road Charge works
The Road Charge pilot is studying five different types of monitoring systems:
- A time permit that allows unlimited road use for a set period of time;
- A mileage permit that allows drivers to prepay for a set number of miles;
- An odometer charge so drivers pay a fee per mile based on periodic odometer readings;
- And automated mileage reporting offered with or without general location data.
Each system offered through the pilot program is free; no actual money is being charged to drivers, although during the sign-up process the pilot's volunteers are walked through a mock payment screen.
Some of the monitoring systems use an OBD, or On-Board Diagnostics, device that plugs in to the car to track miles; others use an app that allow drivers to register their cars and occasionally submit odometer readings.
Privacy is a matter of choice
While some of the systems track the driver's movements, the California Senate Bill that established the pilot program made sure at least one alternative was available that does not rely on electronic vehicle location data. It also makes sure that the data gathering system collects the minimum amount of personal information necessary to understand miles driven.
In Oregon state, which launched a similar pilot program last summer, drivers voluntarily signed up to pay 1.5 cents per mile instead of paying a fuel tax. Drivers had the option of installing either a tracking device on their vehicles that reported their mileage or prepaying a set amount based on their mileage and agreeing to have their odometers checked on a regular basis.
What it will cost drivers
A 2015 study from U.S. Department of Transportation found no statistically significant difference in the cost of the two programs to California households.
Electric vehicle drivers, however, will no longer be immune from paying for road repairs by virtue of using electricity as a fuel. Electricity isn't taxed for road repairs. According to CalTrans, the idea of the road charge is that all vehicles, regardless of fuel source, damage the roads.
When the Road Charge might take effect
The Road Charge pilot is slated to last nine months, after which the data will be analyzed and presented to the California Legislature during its 2017 session for a vote on whether to replace the state's gas tax with a road charge.
Trump troubles for CA GOP, Meg Whitman endorses Clinton, and CA lawmakers reconvene
On this week's State of Affairs, Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman's surprise endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the "Trump Effect" on races down the ticket, and the California legislature gets back to work.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- Carla Marinucci, POLITICO's California Playbook Reporter
- Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC
Fines for right-on-red-light tickets could fall if state bill passes
A bill in the California Senate aims to reduce the fines for drivers who are cited for red light violations when making a right turn.
State Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) introduced the bill, SB 986, earlier this year after a constituent suggested it. Current fines can climb as high as $500—the same fine for running straight through a red light in the middle of an intersection—from a base $100, and Hill's bill would reduce the base fine to $35. He says that will bring it in line with other similar road offenses.
Road safety advocates say dropping the fines would make crosswalks less safe for pedestrians and cyclists, and they also say a small change the bill proposes to the language of the California Vehicle Code could legalize the rolling "California stop."
The bill passed the state senate with bi-partisan support and is now in the appropriations. The deadline for a vote on the bill is Aug. 31.
Libby Denkmann spoke with Sen. Hill about his bill, and we checked in with a sergeant with the LAPD Central Traffic Division about the "California stop" question. To hear the interview, click the blue audio player above.
The 2016 election: Is history repeating itself?
The country divided by two divisive presidential candidates, social unrest at home and abroad, and technology that's made it easier to catch campaign slip-ups and broadcast it around the country.
Sound familiar?
No, it's not the 2016 election – it's politics in the 1800s.
As the adage says, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
UC Santa Barbara historian John Majewski joined Take Two to talk about how political polarization has happened before in American politics, and how it's happening again.
'Tiempo de Morir' is the Mexican western you probably didn't know about
Here in Southern California, there are plenty of opportunities to see movies under the stars during the summer. But few like the one happening Friday night at the re-opened Ford Theatre.
That's where you can see a 50-year-old film written by the legendary author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's a Mexican western called "Tiempo de Morir," or "Time to Die."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPvMB0XLUXQ
The screening is taking place courtesy of the Libros Schmibros lending library in Boyle Heights.
Libros Schmibros founder David Kipen dropped by the studio with Rodrigo Garcia, son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to tell more about the film, and the event.
Rodrigo Garcia will kick off the night with a discussion about the film. For more information and tickets, click here.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
LA outdoor summer concert series: Skirball celebrates 20th anniversary sunset concerts
This summer Take Two is exploring the rich array of opportunities to enjoy music outside with a look at various summer concert series throughout town. This year, the Skirball Cultural Center is celebrating their 20th anniversary of sunset concert shows.
For more on the series, Andy Horwitz, Director of Programs at the Skirball spoke with Take Two host Alex Cohen about this summer's line-up, the history of the series and more.
Brazilian singer Thalma de Freitas, who is a featured artist on the Sunset Concerts line-up, also dropped by to talk about her music, and why performing at the Skirball is so special. For more info on the Sunset Concerts series, visit the Skirball's page here.
For more on Take Two's outdoor summer concert series, check out The Autry's Sizzling Summer nights here and Jazz at LACMA here.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.