Today on the show, Superintendent John Deasy pulls the plug on the $1 billion iPad program, but the bidding process continues. Plus, Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto is in town and meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown, we'll have more on their meeting. Then, we look at what one cemetery is doing to be more water-friendly amidst concerns of the drought and 'Breaking Bad' sweeps several Emmys Awards. All this and more.
About the LAUSD's iPad contract cancellation
L.A.Unified School District's iPad program has received much criticism. Superintendent John Deasy, however, vowed to get a tablet into the hand of every student and teacher. But questions have been raised about the way the program has been rolled out.
Fourteen months ago, the district awarded Apple and publisher Pearson a contract to provide iPads and software to students and teachers. Last week, Southern California Public Radio obtained emails from LA Unified officials indicating that the road to that deal wasn't entirely transparent. Now LAUSD is cancelling those contracts. For more, we're joined by Southern California Public Radio's Annie Gilberstson.
Is technology in classrooms a good idea?
On Monday, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy canceled the district’s $1 billion iPad program. The news comes just days after KPCC published internal emails showing top L.A. Unified officials and executives from Pearson and Apple met before the bidding began.
Joining the program to talk more about the benefits and drawbacks of implementing technology in the classroom is Patricia Burch, associate professor at the Rossier School of Education at University of Southern California.
In earthquake country, most Californians lack insurance to cover damage
The latest cost estimate of the damage from the magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Napa, California is $1 billion. That includes damage to city buildings, business like wineries, and homes.
For those living in Napa, the clean up costs will likely be paid out of pocket. According to the California Earthquake Authority, only six percent of homeowners and renters in Napa have earthquake insurance.
Lynne McChristian with the Insurance Information Institute says the numbers statewide aren't much better. While eight of the 10 costliest earthquakes in U.S. history have occurred in California, only about 10 percent of Californians have earthquake insurance.
How the rich avoid the drought in Montecito, California
Recently in the central California town of Porterville, the Office of Emergency Services delivered 12-gallon-per person rations of bottled water to at least 180 residents who couldn't get drinking water. Their home taps had run dry because the drought has dried up their individual wells.
Meanwhile, about one hundred miles southwest of Porterville, it's a very different story in the tiny coastal community of Montecito. According to the Montecito Water District, under strict conservation orders, residents there have cut their water use by nearly fifty percent. But that doesn't account for the thousands of gallons wealthy residents are trucking in to keep their lawns plush and their polo fields green.
Journalist Ann Louise Bardach wrote about the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Parched: How the Golden State's 1 percenters are avoiding the drought" for Politico Magazine. According to Bardach, that trucked-in water is being sold to the very wealthy, like Oprah, by neighboring farmers and ranchers -- and it's water normally used for agriculture.
But many wealthy residents who aren't trucking in enough water to sate their appetites are just defying water restrictions and racking up fines instead -- month after month, as the drought goes on. The Montecito Water District confirms that they expect to bring in nearly $4 million in penalties this year.
LA County cemetery's plan to beat the drought: let the grass go brown, return to its roots
Cemeteries rely on a lot of water to keep grounds nice for the departed. But when a water main thief shut the water off at a historic memorial park in Rosemead, California last year, the groundskeepers, fearing a worsening drought on the horizon, decided to leave the water off and let the grass go brown.
Joanne Russell Chavez is the President of the Board of Directors of the Savannah Memorial Park. It's the oldest non-sectarian cemetery in Southern California, and was established by some of the first settlers in the San Gabriel Valley.
The cemetery's Board is implementing plans to beat the drought by decreasing grass on the property by at least fifty percent. They're bringing in native and drought-tolerant plants, more trees, and mulch instead. In the process, the board of the non- profit park believes it will cut the water bill by 60-70 percent.
Don't people expect to see green, plush lawns at cemeteries, though? Yes, says Russell Chavez, but looking to the future, "if we no longer have any water, what can we do to still have a beautiful cemetery and preserve its historical value?"
Amazon gets a Twitch, buys video game streaming service for $970 million
If you were sitting on a couch at home, playing video games, how much do you think someone would pay to watch you game? $10 a month? $5? If we had to guess, it would probably be around... $0.
Well, Amazon thinks that streaming video game matches online is worth about a billion dollars. That's about how much they paid for the site Twitch.TV, which does just that. Twitch has about 50 million monthly viewers who watch other gamers play each against other in everything from "Call of Duty: Ghosts" to "StarCraft II."
What's Amazon going to do with the service now that it has it? Well, they haven't said, but
- Senior Writer with CNET has some thoughts. He joins A Martinez to discuss the future of streaming video games online.
Listen to our other coverage of the business of professional online video game matches on Take Two, here.
Emmy winners are filled with reruns
Many hoped some new names would make waves onstage at last night's Emmys but, in the end, familiar faces wound up making the biggest splash.
"Breaking Bad" took home the honors in drama, lead actor, supporting actor and actress, and writing -- maybe it's not a surprise given voters probably wanted to honor the show and its last season.
Meanwhile "Modern Family" tied "Frasier's" record as being the only show to take home the Best Comedy award every year in its first five years. But it also caused an upset in a year when its polish seems to fade in comparison to newer comedies like "Veep" and "Orange is the New Black."
Deadline Hollywood's awards columnist Pete Hammond explained that the Emmys may have lacked spunk, but that many winners got their due.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Helado Negro, Max Capote, Rocco DeLuca and Benjamin Booker
, associate editor of Latin at Billboard Magazine, and music critic
join the show for another edition of our music segment, Tuesday Reviewsday.
Here are the artists we're talking about this week:
Justino Aguila
Artist: Max Capote
Album: Aperitivo de Moda
Songs: “Sin Mentirte," "Ana"
Summary: Max Capote wears black shades. He also has a cool swagger that adds to his ‘60s Motown sound.
Back with a new album, Aperitivo de Moda, Copote continues to thrill with his retro style of music with his upcoming project of original Latin pop compositions.
The work features 10 tracks including “Sin Mentirte,” which was written by Capote. The song is upbeat and works well with the vocals of Sie7e, the Puerto Rican Grammy winning singer/songwriter who in 2011 took home the trophy for best new artist. Capote was also nominated in the same category that same year and since then the two have become friends.
The new project also features covers such as Ana, which was written by the Peruvian band Los Saicos. Capote’s version also lends itself to a familiar sound in a new, fresh and innovative way.
Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Copote grew up in an area riddled with gangs and drugs and as an escape began listening to a local radio show called “Golden Hits.” James Brown is one of his musical heroes.
Artist: Helado Negro (Roberto Carlos Lange)
Album: Double Youth
Songs: "I Krill You," "Ojos Que No Ven"
Summary: The new Helado Negro (Black Ice Cream) album features 10 tracks from the artist known as Roberto Carlos Lange.
A producer of electronic and experimental music, Lange creates music that’s universal both in sound and composition. The bilingual singer's fourth full-length album Double Youth was recorded at his home studio with his own equipment. The base drum machines play a major role in these recordings.
The album’s first single, “I Krill You,” comes alive with its mid-tempo pacing and synth-looped beats and Lange’s voice giving the track a soulful feel.
The son of Ecuadorian immigrants, Lange honors his roots with his ability to sing in English and Spanish, often within the same song in an album that provides poetic lyrics and an intimate experience for the listener.
Double Youth was written, mixed and produced by Lange. The Helado Negro name was inspired by Lange’s favorite foods and day dreams.
“The pseudonym creates something for me and people who listen to the music,” Lang says. “It's a bond that seems to rely on it not being anything other than what it is.”
Steve Hochman
Artist: Benjamin Booker
Album Benjamin Booker
Songs: “Violent Shiver,” “Have You Seen My Son”
Summary: Opening with a quasi-Chuck Berry lick, “Violent Shiver” announces one of the most-buzzed-about debuts of the summer with an almost casual sense of confidence. This, it seems to say, is the real deal.
And nothing that happens in the next 45 minutes that make up this album changes that impression, the buzz growing louder as the 24-year-old’s been on tour opening for Jack White and blowing away crowds at the Newport Folk Festival and just now the FYFest here in L.A.
The perilous thing is that people almost want to make too much of this kid, who was raised in Tampa, Fla, but has recently relocated to New Orleans. The term punk-blues has been applied, but that’s not really right. Comparisons have been made to Howlin’ Wolf and Ben Harper, but those don’t really get it. Ditto Dinosaur Jr., Conor Oberst and even Bruce Springsteen. He has cited blue great Blind Willie Johnson, glam icon T.Rex and, yes, L.A.’s ‘80s punk-blues band the Gun Club as influences.
So maybe punk-blues is what we’ve got here. Heck, looking back, that’s a pretty good term for Chuck Berry’s best as well. What he shares with Berry is that the music isn’t really that fancy. It’s boiled town to a rock essence, straight-forward chords, contagious energy — even the slower, moodier, bluesier songs (“Slow Coming,” “I Thought I Heard You Screaming”) have a burning intensity in the relatively gentler touch. And if you often can’t really make out the words he’s singing, the feeling and commitment come through clearly.
“Have You Seen My Son,” an NPR favorite when released ahead of the album, has Booker with a tale of a desperate father, churning away like the Ramones and growling like Kurt Cobain. If he can build on that impeccable, enticing foundation, well, as we said: real deal.
Artist: Rocco DeLuca
Album: Rocco DeLuca
Songs: “Colors of the Cold,” “Through the Fire”
Summary: For his record release concert at a Fairfax hotspot the other day, in front of a roomful of some rather beautiful young people (and No. 1 fan Kiefer Sutherland, who signed him to his label some years back), Rocco DeLuca took a seat facing his drummer Jonathan Wright at the side of the small stage, plugged in his lap-steel guitar and launched into the gospel chestnut “Jesus Can Do Anything But Fail.” That evolved into half an hour of distorted atmospheres, ebbing and flowing between dark beauty and harrowing fury — just two songs, no pause between them — with a voice and sensibility each suggesting at times a combination of Tim Buckley and Jack White.
And it had almost nothing to do with the music on the new album. Or so it may have seemed to some. Really, it wasn’t that different, just different atmospheres. That the term atmospheres comes to mind is no surprise, given that the album was largely co-produced by Daniel Lanois (his other No. 1 fan). It’s a word often associated with him. You’ve heard what he can do with U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, those kind of people. But for the last half-dozen years or so, he’s formed a strong mentor-collaborator bond with young Silver Lake musician DeLuca,
This is the second album (of DeLuca’s four overall) they’ve done together, following up their teaming on 2009’s Mercy. It’s a fruitful pairing for both, achieved in this case by DeLuca recording basic tracks at home and Lanois then processing and reworking them in his own fashion. Lanois enhances DeLuca’s raw talents with a variety of settings and sonic tricks and helps shape it all into compelling songs, while letting the rawness come through in the full range of dynamics shown in that record release performance. It’s not so much contained as compressed, as in pressurized.
The opening “Colors of the Cold” go heavy on the atmospheres and sonic manipulations, Lanois applying what he’s called his Black Dub techniques to form rippling waves of sound from DeLuca’s slide guitar and voice. On “The World,” rumbling drums, handclaps and acoustic slide back DeLuca chanting “There’s a world of hurt coming down on me.” On other songs the music is less adorned, notably the acoustic, almost country “Thief in the Moon” and “Will Strike,” the latter a duet with a woman calling herself Soko.
It’s on “Through the Fire” — one of the several not produced by Lanois — that he gets close to the recent live sound, producer Simon Katz boosting the low end of the block-chording on the lap-steel, an earthy echo to DeLuca’s sky-high wails for a one-man Jimmy Page-Robert Plant effect. Or, more accurately, a new ghost of the Delta sounds that inspired Page and Plant in the first place.
What new music are you listening to this week? Let us know in comments.
Mexican president highlights immigration in visit to California
This week, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is making his first official visit to California since taking office two years ago. On Tuesday, he addressed the California State Legislature in Sacramento. In addition to increased trade and commerce between Mexico and California, Sacramento Bee's David Siders says immigration has been a big topic of discussion during his trip.
Rosarito desalination plant could bring water from ocean to Mexico to US taps
A plan is moving forward to build a massive desalination plant in Rosarito Beach, Mexico which could serve both sides of the border.
Reporter Sandra Dibble wrote about this recently for the San Diego Union Tribune.
She said this wouldn't be the first time a resource like water was shared cross-border. Things like natural gas and energy production are already shared across the border.
The proposed private desalination plant would be twice as big as the one currently being constructed in San Diego.
Teen's science project helps track a fungus deadly to AIDS patients
A 13-year-old's science project helped solve the mystery of where fungi deadly to AIDS patients has been breeding in Southern California.
One-third of all AIDS patients in the world die from complications of an infection by the fungus Cryptococcus gattii. Its spores can affect that person's immune system, causing flu-like symptoms, pneumonia and even death.
However its source in Southern California has been unknown for more than four decades.
But three years ago, when then-13-year-old Elan Filler needed a science project, she reached out to researchers at Duke University who've been looking into where the fungi grows.
"We have known in many other areas around the world that Cryptococcus is associated with trees," says researcher Deborah Springer. However the tree that most scientists focused on -- eucalyptus -- proved inconclusive in tests.
Elan traveled around Los Angeles collecting samples from a variety of trees to have them tested for spores, "which was a huge help," says Springer, "because finding people to go out and sample is a limitation in these kind of studies."
What they found is that the fungi had been growing on Canary Island pine, American sweetgum and New Zealand Christmas trees.
Not every tree of those species is host to Cryptococcus, but Springer says this new information is helpful for those with compromised immune systems.
"I don't believe you should be scared of trees or anything in the environment," says Springer, "but with anything if you develop a cough and not feel good and it sticks around for a long period of time, then you should be concerned and have a discussion with your doctor that potentially you were in an area that put you at risk for a certain type of infection."
Forest recovery five years after the Station Fire
The Station Fire began five years ago today. It swept through the Angeles National Forest and is considered the largest in LA County history. Southern California Public Radio's Jed Kim takes a look at how the forest has recovered, and what challenges remain.
You can read his full story here.
NASA spacecraft passes Neptune's orbit on its way to Pluto
Pluto - the solar system's loneliest dwarf planet - is getting a friend. NASA's New Horizons probe is on track to meet up with the freezing cold chunk of rock after having traveled over 3 billion miles. And while it's not quite there yet, it'll have traveled about ten years by the time it gets there.
Yesterday - it passed Neptune's orbit.
The reason they sent it out in 2006? To help us learn more about Pluto, because, as it turns out, we don't know much. A Martinez speaks with
- a Senior Editor with the Planetary Society about the New Horizons probe.
Dead trees left by Rim Fire spark logging debate
Last year's Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park was another record-breaking fire. It burned a quarter of a million acres and left a lot of dead trees in its wake. Now the U.S. Forest Service is releasing plans to let logging companies cut down some of those trees. The California Report's Lauren Sommer says environmental groups claim that would destroy wildlife habitat.
Berkeley family camp destroyed by Rim Fire looks to rebuild
The Rim Fire was one of the largest in California history. And one year later, its devastating impact is still being felt. For more than 90 years, the Berkeley Tuolomne Family Camp was a place for parents and kids to explore nature, but the camp was destroyed by the fire.
Scott Gelfand, a board member of the non-profit Friends of the Berkeley Tuolomne Camp, says camp this year was held at the smaller Echo Lake Camp near Lake Tahoe and efforts are underway to rebuild the camp at the original location.
Michael Brown: Mourning in the public eye
On Monday, mourners in St. Louis, Missouri turned out to grieve Michael Brown. The unarmed teenager was fatally shot by a police officer multiple times. His death has sparked protests and heated conversations about the police, the use of force and about the state of racial relations in this country.
But what about Michael Brown's parents? How do they say goodbye to their son when his death is one of the biggest stories in the nation? Russell Friedman is an executive director at the Grief Recovery Institute and he joins us to talk more how media attention and legal process could be hindering the grieving process.