Today, we talk about the underrepresentation of minorities in groups that support environmental causes. Then we discuss the variety of weaponry being used in Gaza and why experts believe collateral damage was unavoidable. Later on, we talk about the week in music, and much more.
Study: 'Green ceiling' keeps minorities from advancing in environmental organizations
We're all familiar with the glass ceiling, the one that keeps women from advancing to the highest echelons of the workplace.
What about a green ceiling?
A report released by the University of Michigan states that minorities are woefully underrepresented in the ranks of environmental organizations, despite the fact that people of color tend to outnumber whites when it comes to supporting environmental issues. The study says green organizations tend to be overwhelmingly white.
"Some of the reasons are cultural, they are really based on stereotypes rather than reality," said Dorceta Taylor, who authored the study, to Take Two this morning. "For instance, there is an ongoing perception that people of color, particularly African-Americans, are not qualified to work in the environmental organizations. There's a sense that if minorities are hired, they won't stay long within the organization."
Taylor also mentioned the lack of good mentoring within environmental organizations, so even when people from diverse walks of life get in the door, they still face a closed, informal culture. That leads to a feeling of alienation, Taylor said, and therefore they leave.
Sierra Club board member Michael Dorsey, who was part of the group who commissioned Taylor's study, said he wasn't surprised about the results of the study, which built on two decades' worth of data.
"We've known for many, many years that the environmental movement, the environmental professional field, is lacking tremendously when it comes to diversity, when it comes to promotion of non-white men in the ranks," he said. "There's much less commitment to diversity than even the military, or many for-profit corporations."
Dorsey said there's more than enough empirical evidence to counter the stereotype mentioned in Taylor's study that people of color lack the commitment to excel in the environmental field.
"Not only are people of color committed to the environment, but people of all walks and ilks of race and faith and class are overwhelmingly committed to the environment," he said. "The data has been bearing this out for decades."
Examining the weaponry in Gaza
In Gaza, a 72-hour cease fire began early today. Israel says it has withdrawn its troops. Hamas says it will participate in talks to secure a lasting peace. It remains to be seen if the latest truce will hold.
Fighting in the Middle East is, unfortunately, not new. But how the fighting is taking place, and especially what kinds of weapons are used, is always changing. That's having a profound effect on the ground.
Avner Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, discussed this aspect of weaponry with Take Two. Cohen mentioned the "basic" nature of the Hamas rockets, which are comprised of low-tech elements with generally short range.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On the use of artillery and its effect on civilians:
"Artillery is not very accurate, it covers an area. Inherently, if you use it in urban areas - and much of the Gaza Strip is an urban area - that's not going to be a discriminate weapon. At the same time, there are people who say, 'Look, with 28 days of fighting, the number 1,800 is relatively not a bad number. It could have been much, much larger. And it is true that the Israeli troops had strong guidance to do the minimum harm to civilians and try to be discriminant."
On whether he thinks the cease fire will hold:
"I hope so. I think all sides at the present time have good reasons to hold a truce. I think that Hamas is very much close to full exhaustion. The blows that they have absorbed are very, very serious. They lost hundreds of their soldiers, they may have used 60 percent or so of their rocket arsenal, they lost many of their top commanders, and I think very, very badly they needed the cease fire."
Dioceses call upon international priests to serve more Catholics
The Catholic population continues to grow in the U.S. at a steady one percent per year, but the number of priests has been declining for decades. There are only around 38,000 priests to serve nearly 77 million Catholics.
To fill this gap, dioceses are increasingly inviting priests from around the world to serve their congregations. Reporter Kate Sheehy has the story.
Gaza proves a minefield for Hollywood's hashtag activists
While the volley of weaponry may have stopped with the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the war of words is still very much alive.
In Hollywood, celebrities of all political persuasion are known to chime in with their opinion on all manner of topics. But the situation in Gaza has proven to be a minefield for Hollywood's hashtag activists.
Tatiana Siegel with the Hollywood Reporter said people in the film industry are loathe to weigh in on topics as controversial and divisive as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for fear of alienating any group of potential movie-goers.
But several stars have spoken out, with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem among the most visible. They signed a letter, along with other Spanish film luminaries, condemning the "genocide" in Gaza.
That brought a strong reaction from staunch Israel supporter Jon Voight, who wrote a guest column in the Hollywood Reporter calling them to "hang their heads in shame."
Cruz eventually walked back the "genocide" wording, and many celebrities have been forced to backpedal in the face of negative reaction. Rihanna tweeted "#FreePalestine" only to delete the tweet seven minutes later and call it a "mistake." Basketball player Dwight Howard did almost the exact same thing, deleting his "#FreePalestine" tweet and apologized, saying he never comments on international politics.
"The publicists quickly intervenes and says, 'What are you thinking going on the record on this?'" said Siegel. "It's just too radioactive."
Whether taking a controversial stance actually hurts these stars' careers is doubtful, according to Siegel.
"That's something that probably will be debated as long as the Middle East conflict will be debated."
American ebola patients receive experimental serum
The second American health worker infected with the deadly ebola virus in Liberia arrived in the U.S. today. Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantley are both being treated at an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
As part of their treatment, both received an experimental serum before they left Liberia.
, an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, joined Take Two for more.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On the serum itself:
"It sounds like this is one of a new category of treatments, where antibodies against the virus are produced in plant cells, so you can get high amounts of very pure antibody and then you can give those antibodies to a patient. Usually, that is an effective way of getting the virus to replicate less efficiently and then allowing your immune system to catch up and clear the infection completely. From what I understand, it has been tested in animal models and so the approach has been proven to be feasible. But, there have been no human clinical trials of this done to date."
On how the serum works:
"Tobacco cells turn out to be very easy to transfect with pieces of human DNA and express large amounts of proteins. So basically, what people have done is they've worked out ways to express a whole range of human proteins in tobacco cells, antibodies being one of the largest class of proteins. So you can introduce the gene for a particular antibody into the plant cells, as the plant grows, it produces this protein, and to simply harvest the protein, you simply clip the leaves off, put it in the blender, and in a relatively simple manner you can purify large amounts of this antibody away from the plant proteins. "
Marijuana store still closed? In Washington state, you can call for delivery
It's been a month since Washington State started issuing licenses to sell recreational marijuana, but in Seattle, storefronts selling pot are hard to find.
The state held a lottery for the licenses, and some of the winners say they have no idea when they'll open their doors. However, where there's a would-be stoner, there's a way. Delivery services, which are technically illegal, are filling the gap.
From Seattle public station KUOW, Amy Radil had this report.
Segregation in Colorado's marijuana black market
Legal pot dealers in Washington state and Colorado are handing out the green and raking it in.
In just the first five months of this year, recreational pot sales brought in $23.6 million to Colorado alone.
But behind the scenes, a black market still exists in that state.
"If you're buying a $30 eighth of Trinity, you're going to pay more than $7 in taxes," says Washington Post reporter Tina Griego. "People are not really willing to pay that much money in taxes when they can still get it pretty easily on the street."
Plus, buying marijuana in Colorado can yield nice profits once it's taken across state lines.
"If you can buy a pound of marijuana in Colorado for $2,200," says Griego, "The farther east you travel, the more valuable it becomes. By the time you're hitting the East Coast, you're looking at about $5,000 a pound."
This black market also thrives because of the growers and dealers who've been at the business for years. But they've been shut out of the legal market, and they see that divide along color lines.
"These are Chicano people who will say, 'We were in many ways unfairly stigmatized for the use of marijuana,'" Griego explains, "'And now that it's legal, we have been shut out because now we have criminal records, we don't have the money to invest, we don't have the credit scores that are required.'"
Meanwhile, she says those same people see legal markets as the place where white, middle-class suburbanites shop for their marijuana, not themselves.
Griego says these black markets may continue to exist so as long as higher taxes and the demand for pot outside the state exist, too -- it's a way for them to continue their practices.
"That black market that operates beneath the camouflage of the legal market: that's a tough nut to crack," says Griego.
California looking into digitizing medical records
It's not unusual for patients to have to track down their medical records as they move from one doctor to another, or if they end up in the emergency room.
However, two of California's largest insurers are collaborating to solve that problem. They're launching what could be the largest electronic medical record base in the country.
Southern California Public Radio's healthcare reporter Stephanie O'Neill joined us to discuss the difficulties behind digitization and the impact these online medical records could have on healthcare.
What role do wildfires play in warming the planet?
The idea that a warming planet means more wildfires has been around for some time, but new research suggests smoke from wildfires may also play a role in contributing to climate change.
That's the finding of a new study from scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Montana published this week in the journal "Nature Geoscience."
Neil Donahue, professor of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, joins Take Two for more.
California's smoke jumpers hunt down hard-to-reach blazes
So far this year, wildfires in California have scorched more than 100 square miles. Some meteorologists say the coming weeks could bring a lot of lightning, which often hits in remote places, far from access roads.
A special unit of firefighters is one of the only groups that can reach those wildfires quickly enough to preventing them from spreading.
The California Report's Alex Helmick caught up with California's only smoke jumping crew.
California's state archives running low on space
Ever since California became a state in 1850, the state archives has been the official repository of public records. From maps to legislation, one can find contains every imaginable kind of document. But now, the state archives are running out of space.
And, by law, it can't throw anything out, no matter how useless some of the documents can be.
The California Report's Scott Detrow looks at a possible solution: A bill in front of the Assembly that would allow the chief archivist and her team to begin weeding out gubernatorial records.
Online information about assisted living facilities hard to find
It’s a topic few of us think about: How to care for senior citizens, maybe your parent or your grandparent, when they're no longer able to live alone, but aren't sick enough for a nursing home.
Many times, the only choice is an assisted living facility, but finding reliable information about a particular assisted living facility can be hard to come by in California. Lawmakers will vote on a bill this month that could change that.
The California Report's April Dembosky had this story.
Staying in Rancho Mirage? Better have a 30-year-old with you
Oh hey, keep it down over there, wouldja?!?!
That's the rallying cry around a new ordinance passed last week by the city of Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs. It requires that all vacation rentals have at least one person staying there who is at least 30 years old.
"There is no magic at that number," says city councilman Dana Hobart. "Twenty-one was the prior number and that didn't work, so we picked another number."
Hobart says that year-round residents have been steadily complaining about more incidents involving young people in vacation homes.
One neighbor told him the home next door was blaring loud music up until 3 a.m. during the past weekend, while another complained that visitors of the house behind them were climbing on top of the roof to jump into the pool.
"It's this type of conduct, this lack of concern for the rights of people next door, that we as members of the council are determined to address," says Hobart.
The idea of the new ordinance is that those noisy kids may be a little more respectful with an adult around.
It will be policed through complaints from residents, and fines could range up to $500 per incident.
While the desert cities southeast of LA are, of course, a hot destination for events like Coachella, the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the White Party, the prospect of losing the business of those attendees isn't a major concern for Rancho Mirage, says Hobart.
"We've got 95 percent of the residents who'd like to see us ban [vacation rentals] entirely," he says. "The amount of income that the city derives from short-term rentals is not enough to motivate us to encourage these rentals. So if it does deter some, so be it."
Some critics of the new ordinance say it could violate the state's civil rights law, which prevents discrimination for factors like age.
"We're not outlawing from anybody from being in attendance," argues Hobart, "We don't see it as discriminatory at all. Our option is, if we can't make this work, is to ban them altogether."
Tuesday Reviewsday: Shabazz Palaces, Common, James Brown, Fonseca and Viento Callejero
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment. Joining A Martinez in studio this week is
- Associate Editor of Latin at Billboard Magazine and
from Soul-Sides.com.
Justino Aguila
Artist:
Album: Viento Callejero
Songs: "La Burrita," "Cariñito"
Summary: Viento Callejero has arrived and in their debut album the trio of friends have managed to create music that's a nod to the past with cumbias at the core of their repertoire.
The band consists of Gloria Estrada (guitar), formerly of La Santa Cecilia; Federico Zuniga (bass) and Gabriel Villa (drums).
Founded in 2013, the group raised funds from a Kickstarter campaign to produce the album independently. The project takes on an urban tropical approach, which represents several musical styles from Cumbia Colombiana to merengue and dancehall.
Originally influenced by Big Band cumbia and artists such as Colombian legend Lucho Bermudez, Viento Callejero’s mission is to create a big sound with danceable music.
Four songs on the album are penned by the group and the rest are classics from the cumbia world from artists such as Lucho Bermudez (Tolu), Alvaro Cifuentes (Cariñito) and Eliseo Herrera (La Burrita).
Artist: Fonseca
Album: Fonseca Sinfonico
Songs: “Te Mando Flores,” “Prometo”
Summary: He was born Juan Fernando Fonseca, but he’s simply known as Fonseca—the “tropipop” singer/songwriter from Colombia known for his accordion-driven music known as the vallenato.
Fonseca’s latest album, Fonseca Sinfonico, features 11 compositions and three covers as heard with a 70-piece orchestra.
The latest project takes Fonseca into a new direction and allows the music to shine in a different way. The orchestration is epic, the reimagining of the music is poetic and vocally, Fonseca continues to illustrate his command of his artistic vision.
“Te Mando Flores” and “Prometo,” like the entire album, are beautifully remade with the support of the orchestra, allowing each composition to build lyrically and musically.
Born in Bogota, Fonseca fell in love with music as a child and was part of a rock band right before he studied music in college. He has called this album the most important project of his career, and we agree.
Oliver Wang
Artist: Shabazz Palaces
Album: Lese Majesty
Song: "They Come In Gold," "#Cake"
Summary: This is the second full-length LP from Seattle's Shabazz Palaces, which is fronted by Ishamael Butler, aka Butterfly from Digable Planets, joined by multi-instrumentalist Tendai Maraire . If you've never heard their music, Shabazz Palaces is difficult to describe in any consistent way since their approach is incredibly eclectic and experimental. I call it "wading into someone else's fever dream" and I've found that the reaction to their music is somewhat polarized. People either love the eccentricity of it or they find it unlistenable. Put me in the former category.
Artist: Common
Album: Nobody's Smiling
Song: "Rewind That," "Speak My Piece"
Summary: The first new album from Common in three years and possibly his best album in at least seven years. It seems odd to describe Common as being "mid career" considering he's been recording now for over 20 years but as his Hollywood career has grown over the last 10 years, it can feel like his presence in music has taken a back seat. To me, Nobody's Smiling is partially an attempt at staying contemporary - I hear influences from Kanye West's last album creeping in here, but it's also a return to form in terms of Common and his long-time producer No ID working with the kind of soulful, jazzy samples that originally brought the rapper to prominence.
Artist: James Brown
Album: In the Jungle Groove
Song: "Give It Up Or Turn It Loose"
Summary: With the new James Brown bio-pic out, it's never a bad time to revisit the music of James Brown. The soundtrack to the film is fine if you really absolutely need some basic primer on Brown, but I always recommend people pick up "In the Jungle Groove," which came out in the mid-1980s and became one of the most influential releases of the decade, not just because it helped reintroduce people to the height of Brown's funky greatness, but because it coincided with the beginning of the golden age of sampling in hip-hop. Whether they'd admit it or not, a ton of rap producers used this anthology as the basis for countless hip-hop tracks that emerged in that era.
Forget e-mail, California lawmaker prefers old-school snail mail
Most politicians, and their spokespeople, prefer email to communicate with their constituents and the press. Some even use Twitter as a means to get the word out.
However, California Representative Paul Cook prefers the old-fashioned way: He sends out more snail mail than anyone else in the House of Representatives.
Southern California Public Radio's Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde looked into Cook's mail habits.