Today on the show we'll talk about President Obama's meeting with tech CEOS. Then, a judge says that NSA spying campaign is likely unconstitutional, a new report shows that mental patients bussed out of state by a Nevada hospital committed crimes, the LA Lakers put their players on a diet, Tuesday Reviewsday covers new tunes by Beyonce, Mac Miller and more.
President Obama to talk health care, NSA with tech giants
President Obama is currently meeting with 15 of the nation's top technology chiefs. Topic number one is the long suffering website healthcare.gov.
But, there will be no getting around another big tech topic: surveillance. Yesterday, a federal judge ruled that the NSA's program likely violates the 4th amendment.
To get a sense what a fly of the wall might glean from the gathering we turn to Tony Romm, the technology reporter for Politico.
Judge says NSA spying likely violated 4th Amendment
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the NSA's collection of phone records and other data most likely violates the constitution.
Judge Richard Leon for the Federal District Court of Washington, DC halted the practice for plaintiffs in the case. The ruling refocuses attention on the balance of privacy and national security and was the first successful legal challenge to the government's surveillance program.
For more, we're joined by Barry Friedman, expert in constitutional law and professor at New York University's School of Law.
GlaxoSmithKline will stop paying doctors for drug promotion
In what appears to be a first, the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline said it will stop paying doctors to promote its products.
CEO Andrew Witty released a statement yesterday. In it he noted the company aims "To bring greater clarity and confidence that whenever we talk to a doctor, nurse or other prescriber, it is in the patients' interests that always come first."
For more on the significance of the announcement, we turn to the New York Times Katie Thomas.
New report shows bussed Nevada mental patients committed crimes
For years, mental patients at the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas were being placed on buses and sent out of state.
Oftentimes, they would be in an unfamiliar city with no money, and no family nearby. The practice was only revealed last April by the Sacramento Bee. By that time, 1,500 patients were sent across state lines.
What happened to them is being discovered right now, and it includes one patient who's now on trial for attempted murder, another found dead in the river, and a convicted child molester who ended up missing.
To tell us more about what happened to these patients after they left Rawson-Neal is Philip Reese, reporter for the Sacramento Bee.
Calif. faces acute shortage of hospital beds for psychiatric emergencies
There's an acute shortage of hospital beds for psychiatric emergencies. Long gone are the days of housing the seriously mentally ill in state hospitals. Reform came, but not the money.
The California Report's Elaine Korry has the first of three stories.
Project Giving Kids matches young people with volunteer opportunities
Christmas is just eight days away, and kids are eagerly awaiting the latest goodies from Santa.
But the holidays are more than just about gifts. For parents who want to get young children involved with volunteering, there's a new website helping make those connections.
Project Giving Kids maps out activities like making card for seniors to planning a dog biscuit sale to raise money for animals in need. The website right now only services the Boston area, but gives parents in other cities some ideas on how to involve kids in charity work.
Creator Molly Yuska joins the show to talk about how to get your kids involved in charity work.
Interview Highlights:
Why it was important to get kids involved with community projects?
"For me it was a very personal thing. I have three kids under the age of ten and as parent I think it's my responsibility to teach them that the world is bigger than what they see out there on the front door. And I think one of the best ways to do that as a parent is to expose them to people whose lives are very different than their own, and so for me it started with trying to find ways for my kids to connect with organizations and opportunities in our local area and realize how hard it was to do that when you're a busy parent. So Project Giving Kids is really an outgrowth of that personal quest to find that information and trying to make that more readily available for kids and for parents."
What activities can they get involved with even when they have busy schedules?
"I'm so glad you asked that because that was part of the reality I was seeing for myself and for my friends with small children is that time is hard to come by, especially when you have little kids and so when we built out Project Giving Kids there's an activity section that allows families to filter by time so if you are looking for an activity that you can execute in 30 minutes or you're looking for something that's a little bit more involved, you can find something that would work for your family given where you are on that day with the constraints that you have around your busy schedule.
"So I think that's part of it, is making it actionable for people where they are and I think there are some great things, especially for young kids. It doesn't have to be a really profound moment of engagement. It can be as simple as making cards for elderly folks at holiday times and taking those to the nursing home and handing those out or doing something tied to their birthday, whether it's a book instead of a gift for kids at a local shelter, whatever the case may be. There are ways to make actionable, it's just a matter of figuring out what those are and finding things that fit within the busy family lifestyle."
On navigating the website:
"We set it up so kids could actually be the drivers of that conversation in dialogue within the family structure. So kids can get to ideas based on areas of interest like aid the animals, comfort the sick, help other kids and there's a pass to get to activity projects based upon that. There's also an ability to go into the activities tab and filter both based on cause as well as time as well as where those activities can be done from. Whether there's things you can do from home, whether there are things you do out in the community and so there are really filters there that allow people to pick and choose based upon what's more important to them or what's most practical to them."
How do you get kids involved in something so big?
"It's making it seem like an actionable, everyday part of life and I think what I have witness with my own children is that those opportunities where they have really been able to see the impact of what they have done has resonated in a way that has made them naturally long for more of that, and yes, do you have to facilitate as a parent? Of course.
"But I do think that on our side we're looking for fun things that things are going to want to do and we have also set up a way for kids to join teams and score points for doing service projects and there's no culminating prize for the kid other than the gratitude and excitement of being a part of winning team and then a donation when we hit that point will go to a charity on our site so I think you have to be creative. We have tried to do that through the website experience, but as a parent you have to be sure you're picking things that you know your kids are going to find enjoyable."
Any idea when the site will expand to other cities?
"I wish I knew the answer to that. It's really going to be a function of interest and of our own financial reality. We're looking for donors who are interested in bringing us to new communities and it's certainly part of our strategic plan. I think all technology, especially technology that's serving a greater good, should be leveraged to the greatest exempt possible and that's certainly part of what we're aiming for. Don't have an exact answer for you on that because it really is a function of interest and financing."
LAX Proud Bird restaurant gets 1-year reprieve
The almost 50-year-old LAX-adjacent eatery, Proud Bird, was slated to close at the end of this year, but a last-minute lease deal and overwhelming community support has given the place a one-year reprieve.
Take Two Host Alex Cohen talks to John Tallichet about keeping his aviation-themed restaurant, Proud Bird, opened for another year.
Changing NBA superstars' surprisingly bad eating habits
Back in 2009, the Lakers were on their way to the first of back-to-back NBA championships. During the season it was revealed that forward Lamar Odom ate lots of candy, all the time.
It got to a point where he began boasting that his ingredient for success was a pre-game bowl of Starbursts. Some were dismayed over the message it sent, others had a good laugh over it.
But it raised an interesting point: that many of the game's top superstars eat a lot of sugar. This prompted Ken Berger CBS Sports NBA Insider to delve into the sport's sugar culture. In his three-part series, he also looked at a diet revolution that is sweeping the league.
delivers in the clutch!
— Tim DiFrancesco (@tdathletesedge)
@heartandtrotter delivers in the clutch! #GrassFedHeaven #LakersCow @Bobby_Sacre @ChrisKaman pic.twitter.com/CvByV4f9BY
— Tim DiFrancesco (@tdathletesedge) October 21, 2013
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.
Arguments wrap up in legal fight over Warhol's Farrah Fawcett portrait
An Andy Warhol portrait of the late actress Farrah Fawcett is at the center of bitter legal fight that has wrapped up legal argument phase this week.
The silkscreen on canvas piece by Pop Art luminary Andy Warhol has attracted celebrity testimony from Fawcett's friends and a tearful plea by actor Ryan O'Neal, but it's also raised questions about artistic control and academic access.
The University of Texas, where Fawcett attended, says the portrait belongs to the institution, along with the rest of Fawcett's art collection, but O'Neal says the portrait holds sentimental value and it should be with him.
For more, we're joined by AP reporter Anthony McCartney, who has been covering the case.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Beyonce, Mac Miller, Hayden Panettiere and more
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday our weekly new music segment. This week we're going to be talking about rock with Shirley Halperin from The Hollywood Reporter and Chris Martins from Spin Magazine.
Chris's Picks:
Artist: Mac Miller
Album: Live From Space
Release Date: December 17
Songs: "S.D.S." "Youforia"
On June's Watching Movies With the Sound Off, "S.D.S" was produced by Flying Lotus, but here it comes to life thanks to Odd Future's in-house neo-soul band the Internet — heady, spangly soul-jazz for Miller's Mos Def-style rap sing-song. The album offers pleasant throwback to The Roots Come Alive, from 1999, but it's also further evidence of this 21-year-old Pittsburgh MC's striking transformation this year.
Thanks to early songs like "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza," he's been huge with the college crowd, but written off by critics as frat fodder. But then his new album arrived and we suddenly see the names of folks like Lotus, Odd Future members Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator, and Kendrick Lamar's colleagues ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul. It was a record-scratch moment, so much so that SPIN's profile on the guy was called "Mac Miller Is Cool Now."
As it turns out, Mac visited Los Angeles, felt freed from his relentless work schedule, and decided to stay. Then he made a bunch of druggy, brainy, spiritual, skillful, and totally fun backpack rap. In speaking to SPIN's Jordan Sargent on his former self, even Miller said, "I would make fun of me now." Turns out he can sing too.
Artist: LIZ
Album: "All Them Boys" single
Release Date: December 12
Songs: "Stop Me Cold" "All Them Boys"
A genuine Valley Girl, this 26-year-old singer/writer hails from Tarzana. At 13 she tried out for a JIVE Records girl group, but didn't make the cut. Now, she's getting the last melismatic laugh. Her song "Stop Me Cold" falls firmly into the greater #aaliyahwave movement — as I'm trying to coin — which is throwing back to '90s New Jack Swing and Y2K pop primarily. That song reminds me of "My Boo" by Ghost Town DJs.
She also gets compared to Mandy Moore, and has tweeted that she's working with N SYNC's JC Chasez on something. This year, though, LIZ has been sneaking out free singles one by one via Mad Decent, the tastemaking electronic label run by Diplo, a leader in EDM/pop writing and production.
"All Them Boys" came out last week and hews closer to the house and dance-pop of big 2013 artists like Disclosure and Rudimental. She's got a proper EP, and maybe an LP, due in 2014, and the label says the sound is closer to this.
Shirley's Picks:
Artist: Beyonce
Album Self-Titled
Release Date: Dec. 12
Songs: "Pretty Hurts" "Superpower"
By now, everybody and their mother knows that Beyonce, aka Queen Bey, dropped an album on iTunes in the wee hours of Thursday night -- and it not only became an instant hit but nearly broke the internet in the process. The self-titled Beyonce is her fifth album and you can only get it that way – as an album. But for your $15.99, you also get 17 high quality videos of Bey in all her royalness – a bargain considering the many hundreds of thousands of dollars that were spent styling these elaborate shoots.
This is probably the most pop song on the album – it was co-written by Sia, who’s developed quite a reputation for herself as the go-to hookmaker – but it falls in line with the rest of the record which is that it’s mid-tempo and the ideal showcase for Beyonce’s soaring vocals. Still, 15 explicitly non-banger tracks would have a hard time at radio. Beyonce would like us to think that passion not vanity inspired this collection – and it’s a noble notion in this age where the album is slowly becoming a lost artform.
Then again, Beyonce doesn’t have anything to worry about as far as seeing profit on this album – it’s already sold more than 550,000 copies according to Billboard, and is on track to be the biggest opening week by a female artist for 2013. Which brings us to my second pick, “Superpower.” Featuring Frank Ocean and produced by Pharrell Williams, it’s almost like what those guys would have done with a 50s R&B singer. And without referencing the cold war, it is mildly political. Of course, the real superpower here is Beyonce herself who seemingly can do anything.
Artist: Various
Album: The Music Of Nashville, Season 2, Vol. 1
Release Date: Dec. 10
Songs: "Can't Say No To You" "Share With You"
The third soundtrack to accompany the ABC hit is a really lovely compendium of where country music is at right now. After all, this is a show about the backstage and back room goings on in Nashville and the music tells the story as much as the characters and plot.
The show gets some heat for being maybe more of a soap opera than a show about music, which is their prerogative as a major broadcast network (Dallas, anyone?), but nevertheless millions are tuning in to hear songs like "Can't Say No To You."
That was sung by Hayden Panettiere and Chris Carmack (Juliette Barnes and Will) and it’s typical of the big arena-country numbers on the show — how they managed to get the words sweet tea and bullets into the same verse simply boggles the mind. But then the show also has these really sweet moments, where they may whip out an old folk tune, like they do on this soundtrack with “Wayfaring Stranger,” a song whose roots go back to the 19th century, or this little ditty sung by Lennon and Maisy Stella, who play the two young daughters of the show’s lead superstar, Rayna James (played by Connie Britton).
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
Blogger's post angers OC Latino community for mocking vigil tradition
The city of Anaheim in Orange County is world famous as the home of the so-called happiest place on earth, Disneyland. But recently it's been making headlines for different reasons: reports of racial tension, police shootings, riots.
Now a post from a conservative blogger has become a lightning rod for community outrage. Reporter Adam Elmahrek wrote about it for the Voice of OC, a nonprofit online news publication.
Lorde's Asian boyfriend is target of racist Twitter rants
Lorde is a young and talented singer from New Zealand who's hit, "Royals", has been nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year. But lately there's been almost as much buzz about her dating life as there is her music.
RELATED: Lorde's Asian boyfriend upends stereotypes: The Internet responds
KPCC's Josie Huang wrote about this at KPCC.org and she joins us now.