What do SoCal veterans want to hear from President Obama?; Got Your 6 aims to help bridge the civilian-military divide; Are summer SAT prep classes worth the investment?; Gov. Jerry Brown finds tough opposition to water plan; California school districts granted No Child Left Behind waiver, plus much more.
What do SoCal veterans want to hear from President Obama?
President Obama continues his trip through Southern California today. Tuesday night he chatted up "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno on everything from the economy to Russian relations.
This morning, he heads down to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County where he'll speak to military members and their families. He's expected to thank them for their service, but Navy veteran Robert Contreras hopes the president will also address challenges facing those who've returned from war.
Contreras served three tours in Iraq and is now pursuing a bachelor's degree at UCLA.
Got Your 6 aims to help bridge the civilian-military divide
A challenge for returning veterans is bridging the divide between the military world and the civilian world. But Hollywood is trying to help out with a public awareness campaign called Got Your 6, a program that promotes employment for returning veterans.
What makes it different from similar campaigns is that it has the financial might of the major film studios, who publicize veteran-related issues through efforts such as public service announcements.
In addition, other entertainment companies like Disney have a made a big push toward hiring veterans.
Got Your 6's managing director, Chris Marvin, joins the show to explain what Got Your 6 hopes to do for veterans.
Will credible fear argument allow 'Dream 9' to seek asylum in US?
Two weeks ago, at a border entry point in Nogales, Arizona, nine young people — now known as the Dream 9 — tried to re-renter the country without legal papers.
They had been brought to the U.S. as children but had crossed the border to protest the Obama administration's deportation policies. They've been detained ever since, but by yesterday afternoon, immigration asylum officers found that all 9 had valid reasons to seek asylum in this country.
Fronteras reporter Michel Marizco joined us to talk about the Dreamers current situation.
Gov. Jerry Brown finds tough opposition to water plan
The basic facts about California's water supply are clear: Northern California has the water, Central and Southern California need it. That's where it stops being simple.
Stakeholders have been fighting for decades about how the water should travel from the top of the state to the bottom. In the meantime, the system has become more unstable.
Governor Jerry Brown tried to tackle the water problem during his first stint as Governor, more than 30 years ago. Now, he's trying again, and finding that the fight is still a fierce one.
Reporter Evan Halper wrote about this issue in today's Los Angeles Times. He joins the show to explain.
California school districts granted No Child Left Behind waiver
Eight California school districts are free of academic and financial sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act this upcoming school year. In an unprecedented move, the districts banded together to secure the federal waiver.
The California Report's Education Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
Pew study finds 70 percent of adults use social media
The latest survey from the Pew Research Center shows more than 70 percent of adults online use social networking sites, with almost 1 in 5 using Twitter.
Twitter's been around for years, but certain segments of society are just now getting around to figuring out its social value. Matthew Cooper writes in National Journal about how Twitter is changing culture inside Washington's beltway.
Sports Roundup: Johnny Manziel, A-Rod suspension and more
A college student sells his autograph, the NCAA sells out it's college students and 1-2-3-4 I declare a Twitter war. That means it's time for sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, brothers who have covered sports for ESPN and the L.A. Times.
Texas A & M quarterback Johnny Manziel made history last season as the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. Since then, we've gotten to know him as young man with a, well, zest for life, so to speak. The NCAA will likely have something to say about this because, remember, these are students, not pro athletes that can be cashed in on.
If you put in Manziel's name in the NCAA's online team store his jersey comes up even though the NCAA is adamant that the value of the product is in the university's name).
Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper returned to practice with the team after a few days in sensitivity training.
The NBA schedule is out and Brian, I understand there are some very juicy, drama packed match-ups lined up for both the Lakers and Clippers?
On to baseball now, and in this social media age usually it's the athletes who get petty on Twitter but last night it was two teams.
The Biogenesis suspensions came down Monday with Alex Rodriguez getting the bulk of the punishment, and now he's getting some words of advice from an interesting source.
Is there a connection between Biogenesis and Latino MLB players?
Baseball is all about statistics, and here's a surprising one: out of the 13 players who were suspended this week for drug use, all are Latino.
Since baseball started suspending major league players for performance-enhancing drugs, more than three-fourths of offenders were born in Latin-American countries.
To further explore the connection between steroid use and the Latino baseball community we turn to Mike Fish, investigative sports reporter for ESPN.
CalPERS faces lawsuit for misleading policyholders
The state's public employee retirement system, CalPERS, is facing yet more backlash from pensioners. A new lawsuit claims the agency "intentionally" misled more than 100,000 policyholders by promising benefits it can't deliver.
Those benefits involve something known as long-term care insurance. Chad Terhune covered this for the Los Angeles Times. He joins the show to explain.
Feds disrupt Mexican Mafia's plan to merge with drug cartels
Federal authorities arrested nearly two dozen people associated with the Mexican Mafia and confiscated about 600 pounds of methamphetamine following a three-year investigation.
Investigators say the move disrupted a plan to merge the Mafia with the Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana. Here to tell us more about these groups is Sylvia Longmire, author of "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars."
App Chat: Tools to make mundane tasks more tolerable
Technology. It can save lives, it can entertain us, and, sometimes, inform us. It can also help us lounge on the couch a little longer while people take care of our mundane daily tasks.
Jacqui Cheng, App Chat regular and editor at large for Ars Technica, tells us about a few new apps that are all about making your life more convenient.
For Groceries:
Peapod and FreshDirect
These two apps go with the two main grocery delivery services here in the US (Peapod is bigger than FreshDirect, but FreshDirect serves NYC, which is obviously a huge market). I use the Peapod app every week, so I'm really familiar with it. It's the awesomest way to grocery shop.
For General Tasks:
TaskRabbit in general is a really useful service if you need a little help here or there. It's good for moving furniture, having people deliver stuff from one location to another, do your gardening for you...Whatever you want, really. The app lets you post new tasks and check on what's around you.
For House Cleaning/Chores:
There are a bunch of chore apps out there, but this one seems to be a favorite among people who have kids. It basically adds a gamification layer to getting your chores done at home, and you can set rewards for getting enough chores done and marking them off within the app. Super useful if you have multiple kids doing different stuff, and maybe even if you're just trying to split up chores between roommates.
Are summer SAT prep classes worth the investment?
More high school kids are spending their summers hunkering down to study for the SAT in the fall. The test plays a big part in helping them get to their dream college.
As KPCC's Adolfo Guzman-Lopez found out, researchers say parents and students may not be getting much of a bang for their financial and time commitment buck.
Study finds warmer climate can trigger increase in human conflict
If summer temperatures have you hot and bothered, you might not be the only one. A new study published in the journal Science finds a link between global warming and human violence ... everything from domestic abuse to large scale civil war.
Here to tell us more is Edward Miguel. He's a co-author of the study and an economics professor at UC Berkeley.
Republicans face competing pressures on immigration
With Congress hanging out at home this month, representatives, especially across the Southwest, will no doubt be talking about immigration reform a lot. Changing demographics mean a rapidly changing constituency for many legislators.
From the Fronteras Desk, Jill Replogle profiles one California district where a Republican congressman finds himself in the hot seat.