The Blue Cut Fire is burning out of control off Interstate 15 in San Bernardino, what drought and fires mean for CA's future, making comic books for the blind.
Four years after DACA, Asian immigrant youth face uncertain future
After four years, the Obama Administration's program for immigrant youth, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, has granted temporary relief from deportation for some 700,000 young people, but advocates in Southern California say Asian immigrants lag far behind others in benefitting from the program.
"We don’t talk about undocumented-ness in our communities," said Anthony Ng, 27, a DACA recepient and policy advocate with Asian Americans Advancing Justice. "I feel like a lot of members of our communities don’t necessarily connect the idea of being undocumented with an Asian face or a Pacific Islander face."
That stigma has led to some big disparities in who is applying for the program. Only 20 percent of eligible Asian youth have applied, compared to over 80 percent of eligible Latino youth, according to estimates from AAAJ.
This week marks the four-year-anniversary of when the government first started processing applications in August 2012.
Ng was one of the first to apply, shortly after graduating from the University of California, Irvine.
"For the longest time, I didn't know what was going to happen with my life," recalled Ng, who said he went through depression after graduating.
"DACA really helped me get out of that, knowing that I would get a work permit and a stay from deportation and be able to do things that I could never do before, like get a drivers license," said Ng, who went on to help found an L.A.-based youth group for undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders, called UPLIFT.
But the DACA program relies on executive authority from President Obama and with a change of Administration coming early next year, it's unclear what the future of the program will be. An effort to expand the program to more youth and their parents was blocked by the Supreme Court in June after a challenge from 26 states, led by Texas.
"I hope that candidates from all parties talk about immigrants in a positive way, how we contribute to the country, how we really shape the future of the nation," said Ng.
The divisive, heated rhetoric often misses a central point, he said.
"All of us come for a better life, wanting to provide for ourselves and our families."
Sports roundup: has the Olympics revealed a sexist streak in media coverage?
The Olympic games in Rio will wrap up this Sunday with some memorable performances, high drama and a much-followed medal race, but have comments and coverage revealed a sexist bias in some media?
For more, we're joined by
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Comics Empower brings comic books alive for the blind
If you're a fan of comic books, you can easily take in the sight of the bright red suit that The Flash wears; the sleek, dark look of the Bat mobile; or how webs jet out from the palms of Spider Man.
But for those who are blind, reading and enjoying comic books can't happen the same way. One comic book lover is now helping to change that. His name is Guy Hasson, and he's the creator of Comics Empower.
It's a comic book store that lives on the web. If you're a person with vision, you'll see this when you visit the site.
But for people who are blind, the site is active and waiting to be explored with assistive technology. This was partly intentional on Hasson's part. He says it's a way for sighted people to know what it's like to visit a comic book store — and not actually see what's inside.
The Comics Empower team includes people from all over the world, including a sound artist in Norway (who is blind), and writers in India and California. Comics Empower offers indie comic books right now, but Hasson hopes to eventually expand the selection to Marvel and DC.
Hasson joined Take Two host A Martinez to tell more about how he came up with the idea.
Interview Highlights
Guy Hasson is not blind himself, but he has always loved comic books:
"I grew up in Israel before I moved to the States, and there weren't any comic books. I had heard of comic books, I had heard of Spider Man, and Super Man and so on, but there were only two, really bad comic books in black and white: One was Tarzan, and the other was a Tarzan rip-off. I got to the States at age 11, and I bought two things on the first day. One was TV Guide, because you had more channels than we did, and the other one was a Spider Man comic book."
Where the idea for Comics Empower came from:
"I created an independent comic book company called New Worlds Comics, and about a year and a half into it, I suddenly had a thought, why are there no comic books for the blind? And there was no reason to think that. I didn't have any blind friends, I didn't have any visually impaired friends. But dominoes started falling in my head, and I figured out, OK, it should be done like this, and then the website can go up like this, and the first stage should be this, and then so on and so on. In half an hour, I had a plan, and a month and a half later, we were on the air with comicsempower.com with three comic books as a test, because you don't want to do 50 comic books and do them wrong. You have to test them, and you have to test the website. Do the comic books even work when there's no visuals? Because most people would automatically tell you, they don't."
How he translated comics from a visual medium, to strictly audio:
"I think it's about the story. The main thing is that you have to remember that every panel in a comic book, that's one picture, every panel may fill many things, but the eye is always drawn to one thing, and that's the story in the panel. So the main thing is to tell the story in that panel, and everything else — if it's important we should mention it, and if not, we shouldn't."
What's next for Comics Empower?
"I'm really hoping that every comic book that ever existed will eventually be on the website. Right now we're actually growing, so I do think I can approach Marvel or DC safely in a month or two and then start that process."
43: that's how many ballot measures there are in SF
Besides the next president, there are a lot of things to vote on this November. And we mean a lot.
There are 17 statewide ballot measures to vote on, and in San Francisco there's an extra 26 local and county measures, too.
By comparison, SoCal voters will have, at most, six more measures to decide depending on where they live.
Scott Shafer from the Bay Area's KQED joined Take Two to explain how they're keeping their heads straight around it all.
Google launches new feature for 'how to vote' searches
There's a lot for California voters to keep track of this election year.
Not only all the local races and statewide ballot measures, but also things like how to vote by mail and when you can vote.
If you're confused, fret not. Google wants to help.
Yesterday the search engine unveiled a new tool to help voters out.
Type in a query about voting (something like "how to vote") and you'll automatically see a pop up box with information tailored to the state you're clicking away in.
Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, joined Take Two to talk about how technology could affect voter habits in an election year that's exciting, but also pretty confusing.
Kim's picks for other online resources:
- Ballotpedia.org/California
- CalVoter.org
- VotersEdge.org/CA
- The Secretary of State's website
The Styled Side: A+ back-to-school fashions
Kids are heading back to school at about this time of year.
That means new teachers, new friends and new wardrobes.
The Styled Side looks into the big business of back-to-school shopping and what's in style.
"Back-to-school shopping ranks second only to the winter holidays," says Michelle Dalton Tyree of Fashion Trends Daily. "It's expected to reach $75.8 billion this year."
Clothing is the biggest piece of the budget pie with parents spending an average of $239, followed by electronics, shoes and finally supplies.
"What's in is denim, denim, denim," says Tyree. "Frayed hems, patchwork-style and button-down denim skirts are big."
Also trendy are platform sneakers and athletic slides – those are flip-flips with the single horizontal band across the toes.
Backpacks are also making big-statements that mirrors a lot of the fashion trends happening right now, with everything from Southwestern-style prints and tropical prints to shiny metallic and ones with lots of zippers and hardware.
When it comes to supplies, fans of Lisa Frank will have to step aside for the new iconic folder-maker out there: Ban-do.
"Lifestyle brand Ban-do, is basically the Lisa Frank of this generation for its uber cool kitschy products-from floats to beach bags-has started a little frenzy with its new day planners," says Tyree.