Today we start with an update on the ACA's enrollment efforts. Then, the Senate is supposed to confirm Janet Yellen as next chief of the Federal Reserve. Plus, we'll get an update on what's happening in Hollywood and learn how new mothers can cope with postpartum body issues, plus much more.
What challenges remain for health care exchange enrollment?
The U.S. needs 7 million people to enroll in health insurance by the end of the first open enrollment period that ends on March 31.
There was some good news for California, where there's been a surge of people signing up for the Affordable Care Act online.
For more on the big picture — and who might still be left out — we're joined by Kavita Patel, a practicing physician and the Managing Director for Clinical Transformation and Delivery at the Brookings Institution. She was formerly director of policy for the White House Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs, where she played a key role in designing the Affordable Care Act.
Senate expected to name Janet Yellen as chair of Federal Reserve
Sometime this week, the Senate is expected to confirm Janet Yellen as the next chief of the Federal Reserve. Once in office, will her leadership be more of the same, following in Ben Bernanke's footsteps? Or will she put her own stamp on the job?
For more, we turn to Michael Hirsch who wrote about Yellen's agenda today for National Journal.
How new mothers can cope with postpartum body issues
A Norwegian fitness trainer recently stirred up lots of controversy by posting a selfie taken four days after she gave birth. Caroline Berg Eriksen was wearing a hot pink bra and black panties in the selfie, showing a post-partum belly that looked like a bikini model's:
Earlier this year, another fitness blogger posted a very fit picture of herself surrounded by her three sons ranging from 8 months to 3 years, challenging other women with the declaration, "What's your excuse?"
Some call these photos inspirational, while others saying the pictures put tremendous and unfair pressure on new mothers who aren't able to achieve six pack abs. For more we've reached out to Dr. Jessica Zucker is a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women's health with a focus on reproductive and maternal mental well-being.
Picture This: 4th Trimester Bodies project celebrates motherhood
After photographer Ashlee Wells Jackson had her first child, she bounced back pretty quickly. But the second time she got pregnant — this time with twins — it was a very different story.
She faced a number of complications and lost one of her twin girls before giving birth. Ashlee's surviving baby was born premature and weighed less than two pounds. Between the loss of her baby, a cesarean birth and a few surgeries, Ashlee was left with both physical and emotional scars.
"I felt like less of a woman, I think is the best way to put it," she said on Take Two. "I felt like I had done something wrong and logically I knew that it was out of my hands, but it didn't stop those feelings."
She decided to work through those feelings by taking pictures of new mothers with their new babies. A series she calls the 4th Trimester Bodies Project. Wells Jackson joins the show to talk about her her work.
Interview Highlights:
On photographing herself for this project:
"I didn't think it was fair to ask other people to participate in this project without first doing it myself, so the photo that kicked off the project is myself and my surviving twin daughter, Nova. We set up the shot, my husband helped make sure that everything was OK and did a little bit of a self-portrait, so the image is myself standing there, in my underwear, topless, nursing my daughter, very stark. And it shows my scar, which was one of the biggest things I was having trouble with and we put that out there and the project has really just exploded from there."
About the mothers and the photographs:
"To date, we are just around 150 images and it's really hard to pull examples because everybody's story is so amazing. One mother that stands out to me is a biological adoptive mother of nine. Her photo is her breastfeeding her youngest, which are twin girls. We have pictures of mother with very traditional presentations. You know, a normal pregnancy, a normal hospital birth, a normal baby at home, no hiccups along the way. And I absolutely love those images and those stories just as much as the ones that are a little more tragic or heartfelt."
On documenting the difficulties of motherhood:
"We have been able to capture breastfeeding struggles. One of our first pictures that deviated slightly from the concept we started with was this very stark torso kind-of-shot of a woman, sometimes with her face cropped out, so you're really focused on the body. One of the first images we deviated from that was a mother who was having a lot of breastfeeding struggles and she ended up sitting down on the floor in the middle of the session and I just kept shooting."
On capturing the beauty of postpartum bodies:
"People ask all the time how we find our models and how we get to that effortless photograph at the end of the day and we don't do any prescreening. We accept women, especially here in Chicago, as they come to us. In fact, we try not to learn much about them before they come into our studio. Once they arrive, we sit down and we talk with them. We spend a little bit of time. They're treated to hair and makeup, which isn't really essential to the project, but let's them be pampered a little bit. Disarms them, so to speak, and let us to get to know each other a little bit more."
On the "Stop Censoring Motherhood" message:
"I really do feel like motherhood is censored. I feel like we embrace pregnancy to a degree. Maternity photos are such the rage right now and everybody loves them and I think since Demi Moore stepped in front of the camera and created such controversy years ago, it has become a normal thing. But throughout the pregnancy process, and when it comes to the postpartum period and motherhood starts, we brush so much under the rug. We're told to bounce back, we're told that we're not allowed to be different, we're told that our babies are suddenly more important than we are. I always put my children first, but we are important and we are in a period then where we should celebrate what we just did."
Response from women photographed:
"I feel like women are always nervous. I don't think we have had anybody walk into our studio and take their clothes off and say, "Yeah! I'm excited about this!" But it's very transformative. We often see our women at the end of their sessions tear up as they look at their photos. We had clients not identify with the woman in the picture as the woman they see in the mirror simply because they see their picture as beautiful, but they have had different feelings about the way that they see themselves. We've seen that change shift further as they go out into the world and their friends and family see their pictures on our website or on their Facebook page."
On the response from others:
"It's been amazing and some of our more difficult stories, putting them online, and having comments come in and emails come in from women who haven't had a chance to shoot with us, but are viewing the project and following the project, them reaching out to us and saying, "That's my story, that's my body, I look exactly like that woman. Thank you." At the end of the day it is why this exists and is something that I hope continues."
On The Lot: 'The Hobbit', awards season, Peter O'Toole and more
This weekend, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" was number one at the box office, bringing in more than $73 million. Movie moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein believe that some of that money should go to them. For more on that and all the latest Hollywood news, we're joined by Rebecca Keegan of the LA Times for our weekly On The Lot segment.
How do the Weinsteins figure they're owed money on a movie that Warner Brothers made? This is not the first time the brothers Weinstein have faced off with the Brothers Warner?
"The Hobbit" fits pretty neatly in the fantasy category, but a lot of films out this month don't fit neatly into any one category.
What does this mean for awards, especially the Golden Globes, which break it down in terms of drama, comedy, musical?
Speaking of awards, the Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild nominations came out next week. What do these say if anything about the Oscars?
It's going to be tough competition for best supporting actor in this year's Oscars, but some think James Franco deserves a nod for his performance in the film "Spring Breakers". What's behind this odd campaign?
Every year at the Oscars, there is the in memoriam segment where they highlight the work of actors and other hollywood types who have passed during the previous year. This weekend we lost actress Joan Fontaine, who appeared in the film "Rebecca". We also lost actor Peter O'Toole, who was nominated for an Oscar many times but never won.
RELATED: Museum of Tolerance screening of Philomena on Thurs. Dec. 19
Umami Burger plots global expansion
Think of burgers and California - and many people think of In-N-Out. There's another restaurant chain, though, with an upscale version of this classic fast food.
KPCC's Ben Bergman says while In-N-Out has resisted expansion, Umami Burger is fixated on it.
Holiday Travel: Airline industry packs in potential new policies, fees
As the busiest travel season approaches, your local airport may be flying in a few new changes in security, fees and phones. Barbara Peterson is a contributor for Conde Nast Traveler and joins us to discuss everything you should know before boarding.
The case for quiet, digital media-free spaces
Not everyone is excited by the FCC's proposal to lift the ban on cell calls mid-flight. Though it might be convenient for some, the thought of a plane full of people gabbing relentlessly is creating some criticism of the plan.
Lawmakers agree, too. Three of them, including California Senator Dianne Feinstein, have introduced bills to keep a form of the ban in place. If you think about it, there are very few public spaces where you're still able to enjoy the quiet away from cell conversations.
Perhaps there's an argument in trying to preserve them, wherever they are.
Here to explain is Levi Felix, the co-founder of Digital Detox, an organization that offers workshops, seminars, and activities that teach people how to live off-line.
The search for a new Los Angeles Fire Department chief
Late last week, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed with KPCC that his office is conducting a nationwide search for the next chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department. This will be the first time since the 1950s that a new LAFD head will not be hired from within the ranks.
KPCC politics reporter Frank Stoltze joins the show with more.
The role that universities play in student athletes' diets
While reports circulate about the poor eating habits of professional athletes, collegiate sports stars are often fed by the colleges and universities they represent.
But how much is invested into their diet by dietitians and school budgets?
At colleges across the country, nutritionists are working with athletes to teach better eating habits. Becci Twombley, a sports dietician at USC, joins the show to talk about what her program is doing.
Rise in spending on border security shows mixed results
Detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border are down and spending on border security is on the rise, but it's not clear that all that money is making a difference.
A review of the estimated $100 billion that the U.S. has already spent on border security in the past decade reveals mixed results.
For more, we turn to investigative reporter Greg Moran with the San Diego Union Tribune. He investigated audits of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and joins us to talk about his findings.
Somalis convicted of aiding terrorist group seek new trial following NSA revelations
NSA director Keith Alexander recently said he doesn’t know how to ferret out terrorist plots on U.S. soil without collecting and examining phone records. The public outcry was predictably angry, but that fallout may benefit a group convicted of sending money to a terrorist organization in San Diego.
KPBS reporter Amita Sharma reports.
Wins and losses seen in New Mexico's efforts to reduce drug use
For almost two decades, New Mexico has led the nation in drug overdose deaths. In 2012, nearly 500 New Mexicans died from drug overdoses. For many, opioids — like prescription painkillers and heroin — are the drugs of choice, and they’re easy to find and often cheap.For the Fronteras Desk, Tristan Ahtone reports.
It’s a Friday night in Española. A small town in northern New Mexico often pegged as the heroin capital of the state.
“We get a lot of Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycodone, there’s so many out there, I can’t name them all, but they do it,” said Española Police Officer Dustin Chavez. “They crush it up and they snort it and then when they run out, they lead to other things.”
Chavez says in his experience with addicts, prescription drugs and heroin are usually interchangeable to users. And when the town is awash in either, he says it always manifests itself.
“I’m not sure if the shipment comes in or if they’re low on the shipment, then you can tell there’s more pills,” said Chavez. “If there’s a bad shipment you see more ODs. It depends what comes in.”
For almost two decades, New Mexico has led the nation in drug overdose deaths. In 2012, nearly 500 New Mexicans died from drug overdoses. For many, opioids — like prescription painkillers and heroin — are the drugs of choice, and they’re easy to find and often cheap.
Since 2007, prescription drug overdoses in New Mexico have surpassed illicit drug deaths, said epidemiologist Michael Landen of the New Mexico Department of Health.
“The good news is we’ve had a 7 percent decrease from 2011- 2012 in number of drug overdose deaths, and seven percent decrease in the volume of prescription opioids sold in the state,” said Landen. “It’s probably not a coincidence that those trends are basically related.”
Besides tightening up on prescriptions, another way the state has dealt with its overdoses has been through its harm reduction program.
“Over a long period of time we’ve worked using Naloxone primarily for the injection drug-using population,” said Landen. “Now we’re starting to see how we can best use Naloxone for this new population at risk for overdose, those using high risk prescriptions of opioids.”
Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a drug that reverses overdoses by covering receptors in the brain that accept opioids.
In 2010 and 2011, the Department of Health says there were nearly 300 people whose overdoses were reversed in just three counties thanks to Naloxone.
“That’s why we’re trying to get Naloxone stocked in every single commercial pharmacy in the state,” said Landen. “We want to be able to basically have people get prescriptions for it.”
Or even get it over the counter. But the next step is something a little more radical.
"Supervised injection sites for example, we’ve seen strong evidence out of Canada that they really work,” said Olivia Sloan of the New Mexico Drug Policy Alliance. “The idea is that, you have a facility or location, and it actually has little areas where a drug user can come. There would be medical staff there — nursing staff in a lot of the places we’ve heard of in Canada — people will bring their own drugs, they’re not provided, but there’s access to clean needles, other sort of paraphernalia that drug users use. So clean water, clean cotton balls, all of that’s there, and then the medical staff can also make recommendations on their veins.”
In 2012 the state legislature passed a memoriam to study the prospect, and a feasibility study is likely to begin soon.
“A lot of injection drug users are stigmatized, sort of disenfranchised parts of the population, and that’s not the way to treat them by alienating them,” said Sloan. “If you can actually open the conversation, you have a way to talk about health, and their health, and their well-being and quality of life.”
Yet despite increased restrictions on prescription drugs, Naloxone’s growing availability in New Mexico, and serious consideration of ideas like supervised injection sites, something isn’t working. Which is what Española Officer Dustin Chavez continues to see in his nightly work.
“You would think the state of New Mexico would say, ‘okay, this is the heart of the problem, why don’t we just pound this town full of money to get these programs started,’ yet they’re ignoring the fact that we are number one in the country for injectable drug use, why aren’t they doing anything about it?”
Chavez says more money, more rehab, and more cops are a good start. Until then, his department is armed with Naloxone to deal with overdoses when they find them
The best holiday gift? A pardon from Governor Brown
Governor Jerry Brown is handing out holiday presents to a few lucky strangers: pardons for one-time criminals who've stayed out of jail, turned their lives around and made positive contributions to their communities. Most governors hand out these pardons from time to time -- but Gov. Brown is handing out far more than his recent predecessors did.
For The California Report, Scott Detrow has the story.
Sacramento, like most state capitals, is filled with holiday traditions. Chief among them: Thursday evening’s Capitol Christmas tree lighting, which featured carolers and a barking Sutter Brown.
But the Brown administration has created another holiday tradition, as well: the announcement of pardons for onetime criminals who have stayed out of jail, turned their lives around and made positive contributions to their communities.
Brown has handed out far more pardons -- 214 to-date – than any other recent California governor.
“You got your pardon yet?”
It was two days before Christmas last year when Ken Benedict got the surprise phone call: He had been pardoned by the governor. “I just kind of got the call out of the blue,” Benedict recalled this week. “I was surprised, I was happy.”
More than 20 years ago, when he was just out of high school, Benedict got caught buying supplies for a methamphetamine dealer. “It was ephedrine, which it isn’t against the law to buy ephedrine,” he said. “But if you’re going to make drugs with it, it is. I got in trouble. Rightly so. I deserved to go to jail for that.”
Sitting outside a Folsom coffee shop, Benedict called it a dumb mistake. He spent two years in prison, and once he got out he put it behind him. He has worked for years as a technical architect and volunteers as a high school mentor. Iin 2007, Benedict decided to try to formally close the book on the crime he committed, and began the pardon application process.
Then he waited. And waited some more. It took five years for the pardon application to make its way from the Sacramento County Courthouse to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to the governor’s desk. “There’s a lot of span of time went by that you always wonder what was going on,” Benedict said. “My mom would always call me, ‘You got your pardon yet? You got your pardon?'‘ And you tell people, ‘Hey I’m going to get a pardon.’ And they say, ‘Yeah, whatever. No one gives pardons.’”
But Gov. Brown does. Benedict is one of 214 people Brown has pardoned since taking office in 2011. Most of them are like Benedict – convicted of drug-related crimes. The pardons are often announced around Christmas or Easter.
Brown’s spokesman, Evan Westrup, said the governor takes a “thoughtful” approach to the grants. “Recognizing that individuals make mistakes,” he said. “And if they’ve paid their debt to society and served their time, and are now serving their communities, that should be recognized. And that’s what this does.”
Brown reverses recent pardon trend
Clemency is always politically tricky territory for governors. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger caught heat on his last day in office for reducing the manslaughter sentence of the son of a former Assembly speaker.
But in California, pardons are much different than clemency.
Sentences aren’t reduced. In fact, applicants need to be out of prison and off parole for at least 10 years, and maintain a spotless record during that time. They also need to get what’s called a certificate of rehabilitation from the county court. That process involves a background check.
“And that makes, I think, offering a pardon under those conditions fairly safe,” said Santa Clara University law professor Cookie Ridolphi, who has studied California’s clemency process. “Because this is not a person who is high-risk.”
Pardons are mostly symbolic and don’t expunge a record, though they do restore some rights that felons had lost, including the right to own a firearm. Still, recent governors have avoided pardons. Schwarzenegger only handed out 16. Republican Pete Wilson granted 13. And Democrat Gray Davis didn’t grant a single pardon.
That makes Brown look like a very aggressive pardoner. But Brown’s spokesman Westrup argued it was the other governors who were out of step with the typical pardon rate. “Now the Wilson, Schwarzenegger and Davis administration certainly veered away from that history,” he said. “But if you look back at Ronald Reagan, of all people — Gov. Reagan pardoned nearly 600 people. Deukmejian, over 300."
Ken Benedict is happy the trend has reversed itself. “I’m grateful for this process. And I think for people that meet the criteria, that you can be granted a pardon under, I think that opportunity should be available to them,” he said.
Benedict said when you’re pardoned you receive a certificate from the governor’s office. He proudly displays his in his house.