Egypt unrest continues as Muslim Brotherhood's 'day of rage' claims more lives; Mono Indian tribe approved to build casino off reservation land; Obama administration sides with opponents of shark fin ban; White House begins installation of American-made solar panels; Where does LA Unified keep supplies for 650,000 kids? Musician Sam Phillips is back with 'Push Any Button', plus much more.
Egypt unrest continues as Muslim Brotherhood's 'day of rage' claims more lives
Today in Egypt, gunfire rang out across Cairo as thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters took to the streets. At least 17 people have died.
Violence was sparked by outrage over the deaths of at least 638 people on Wednesday. Supporters of ousted-president Mohamed Morsi's called for a “Day of Rage” in the wake of the deadly military crackdown.
For more on what's going on, we're joined now by Tarek Radwan, associate director at the Washington-based think tank, the Atlantic Council.
Mono Indian tribe approved to build casino off reservation land
For years now, California Indian tribes have been operating gaming casinos on land that was considered part of their reservation territory.
Recently one Indian tribe received approval for a different sort of casino. One that was not on reservation land, but on land owned by the tribe.
Against much resistance from politicians and other Indian tribes, the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians was approved to build a casino on land that is off the reservation.
But it seems future off reservation casinos might encounter some difficulty getting approval. John Myers, Political Editor for KXTV ABC Sacramento joins the show to explain.
Friday Flashback: NSA audit, Egypt unrest, Bob Filner and more
It's Friday! Time for the Friday Flashback, our recap of the week's biggest news stories. Joining us is Lizzie O'Leary who's hosting the show Marketplace this week, and National Journal's Shane Goldmacher.
On tap this week:
We begin with the NSA. This week there was a revelation from an internal audit that the NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times a year since 2008.
It has been a very tumultuous week in Egypt. Yesterday President Obama suspended a joint military exercise between Egypt and the US. How will U.S. Egypt relations factor in President Obama's legacy?
There's been no progress on a budget and that the government will run out of money on October 1st unless Congress raises the debt ceiling. What's the latest there?
Congress is still on August recess. They're facing their constituents empty-handed when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform.
Rumor has it that Hillary Clinton is fielding offers from a number of distinguished universities including Harvard and Yale.
A 67-year-old great-grandmother became the latest of 16 women to publicly accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment. She worked at the Senior Citizens' Desk in San Diego City Hall and says Filner repeatedly asked her out on dates, would caress her hand and once grabbed her and kissed her.
Here's the woman — Peggy Shannon — speaking at a press conference:
"On the day that Mayor Filner came by my desk and asked me if I thought he could go 8 hours in one night, I was shocked that he would say that to me. On July 12th, the day after I saw the first media coverage, when the mayor walked by my desk and motioned for me to be quiet, I was blown away."
San Diegans have kicked off the effort to recall him. It's getting even more difficult for a lot of people to understand why this man doesn't resign. Is it something specific to Bob Filner, or is the instinct to hold onto office at all costs just a common trait for politicians?
Poll: Only 40 percent of whites have friends outside their race
Here's an experiment: pull up your own Facebook page, and take a look at your list of friends. As you scroll through, do you see something familiar? Perhaps people who overwhelmingly look like you?
If you're white, chances are the answer is, "yes."
A new poll by Reuters shows 40 percent of white Americans said they had a friend of another race. Meanwhile, 75 percent of non-white Americans could say the same.
When someone tries to even back up a statement by saying, "Some of my best friends are...," it's more of a punchline. Tanner Colby used to be one of those people. He's the author of "Some of My Best Friends are Black," and he looks into why, like most Americans, his own group of friends tended to look like him.
Where does LA Unified keep supplies for 650,000 kids? Think big.
Parents know how difficult it can be to stock up on everything your student needs for going back to school. Imagine what it'd be like to supply 650,000 students.
KPCC's Jed Kim visited L.A. Unified's Procurement Services Center to see how the second largest school district in the nation gets the job done.
White House begins installation of American-made solar panels
The White House is soon to become even more powerful...with solar that is.
Officials announced yesterday that installation of solar panels has begun at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The move delivers on a promise the Obama administration made almost three years ago.
National Journal energy reporter Amy Harder joins the show to explain.
Obama administration sides with opponents of shark fin ban
Here in California, a controversy is stirring — yet again — around shark fin soup.
A ban on the sale of the soup went into effect in California last month, but several Chinese-American businesses and suppliers of shark fins are protesting, citing ethnic discrimination.
They've asked a federal appeals court to overturn the ban, and this week, their cause got a boost from the Obama administration, which states the state law interferes with commercial shark fishing.
With more on this is food writer Francis Lam.
How online crime ushered in the age of the 'Internet Police'
The Internet has brought us all sorts of wonderful things, but it also has a dark side.
Spam, identity theft, and child pornography, to name a few. Preventing crime online is a tremendously difficult task. Nate Anderson of Ars Technica, and author of "Internet Police: How Crime Went Online and the Cops Followed," joins the show to explain how law enforcement agencies evolved online.
Even privacy apps can't guarantee your privacy
More and more services have cropped up to help people conduct business on the Internet without being tracked. They've grown more popular partly due to revelations about the NSA's data gathering programs.
But since that conversation two of the three applications we discussed have experienced some serious privacy issues. KPCC's Jacob Margolis gives us an update.
Epic aims to help magazine writers turn articles into films
Some real-life stories seem stranger than fiction, and many times those stories make excellent movies.
The film "Argo," for example, looked at the plan to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran by pretending they were a film crew. "Argo" won a Best Picture Oscar, and it was based in large part on a magazine piece written by Joshuah Bearman.
After having a number of pieces optioned by Hollywood for possible film projects, Bearman and fellow magazine writer Josh Davis started Epic, a new project that helps other magazine writers get their work up on the big screen. Between the two of them, Bearman and Davis have optioned 18 of their pieces for film.
"We wanted to create a publishing venue for the narrative stories that we tell...there's only so many slots for those types of stories," said Bearman. "Now we sort of see how to navigate both worlds and we wanted to basically provide a way for us to do that with more stories and for other writers to do the same."
Davis says the point of their new venture is to help writers not only find new outlets for their stories, but also to help writers finance narrative non-fiction pieces, which can be time consuming and often expensive to produce.
"Film is just another distribution platform, is how we view it…We write these stories and we can publish them in national magazines, online and they can be adapted into films," said Davis. "All of that is revenue that can finance the process of doing this thing, which is to some extent, under pressure. Long-form narrative nonfiction hasn't faired well in the past 10 years."
Bearman and Davis are not alone in recognizing an opportunity. Publishing giant Conde Nast has a division devoted to adapting print content into film and television. Typically, in the past, magazine writers retained the rights to their stories, but now Conde Nast hopes to get a piece of the action.
"To some extent, this monolithic huge institution is thinking entrepreneurially, which is good," said Bearman. "But I think for an individual writer who is going to face the pressure of, I wrote this great story that actually could be some income for me, to have to split it they may be a little less happy."
But it's not all bad. The chances of a magazine piece being turned into a film, or even just optioned, is incredibly small. Having a division of a publishing company focused on shepherding these projects may make it easier for writers to strike deals.
Musician Sam Phillips is back with 'Push Any Button'
This week, musician Sam Phillips released her latest album, "Push Any Button." The name was inspired by the notion of a jukebox, that you could push any button and find a different, delightful song.
When she dropped by the Take Two studios earlier, Sam Phillips said this album was inspired in large part by the music she grew up with in the 60s. Her other influence? Growing up in Southern California.
Sam Phillips will perform her only show in 2013 at Largo on November 9. Grab tickets here.