The NRA breaks its silence about gun control and the Sandy Hook shooting. Plus, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is in need of an overhaul. Can Obama deliver? Then, Vintage LA's Alison Martino takes us back in time to how LA used to celebrate the holidays, the story behind Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace,' and much more.
NRA breaks silence about gun control and Sandy Hook
The National Rifle Association broke its week long silence this morning at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
During the talk, after which the organization refused to take questions, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre pointed to violent video games and the media frenzy that follows school shootings as contibuting to the perpetuation of these tragic events.
In addition, he stressed the current "gun-free school zone" policy as opening the door to violent "monsters" who know a school is an easy target. LaPierre and the NRA stress that having armed guards or police in schools can prevent someone like Adam Lanza from getting inside the school.
"The only way, the only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved...the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun," said LaPierre.
LaPierre's speech was interrupted twice by protesters holding signs reading "NRA Is Killing Our Kids," and "NRA - Blood On your Hands." Protesters were promptly removed from the room.
Robert Spitzer, NRA member, chair of the the political science department at the State University of New York-Cortland and author of "The Politics of Gun Control" joins the show with analysis.
Friday Flashback: NRA conference, fiscal cliff, Boehner's blunder and more
Molly Ball, political writer for The Atlantic and Jim Rainey, political columnist for the Los Angeles Times chew on the week's big stories, including the fiscsl cliff, Boehner's blunder, and more.
Vintage LA: How Los Angeles celebrated Christmas in the past
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to Alison Martino, founder of a very popular facebook page Vintage LA. It's a repository of films, photos and memories of a Southern California that once was.
Alison is back for a special look at how Christmas has been celebrated in the City of Angels.
On December 1st, Martino’s Facebook page accumulated 50,000 members, so to commemorate the event, she decided to dedicate the entire month of December to her members’ memories along with her own personal memories of bygone L.A. Christmases.
She was particularly reminded of a now-closed department store Bullocks, where Martino found herself at a young age sitting on Santa’s lap in the store.
“Back when I remember it in the early ‘70s, it was definitely more than just to buy clothes,” said Martino. “They had a lot of events, kids could have a lot of parties there, they had tea rooms and they had diners and home accessories. It was a fancy place. I think, it was a big deal to go to Bullocks.”
When Christmas time would approach, Bullocks was the place to be. Kids would get dressed up and wait in line to see Santa.
The symbols of Los Angeles Christmas tradition that are left, like the Christmas tree atop the Capitol Records building, will likely continue to disappear as time goes on. The Capitol Records building has been sold, so if its new owners don’t continue the tradition, it will join the ranks of many other bygone traditions like fica trees that were put up in the ‘80s along Hollywood Boulevard or the window displays reigning in the season.
However, one unflappable tradition is the ever-present Hollywood Christmas Parade.
“We do still have that parade and I know that that’s a great tradition,” Martino said. “Starting at 5:30 p.m. November the 25th, the parade walked for its 81st time down the streets of Los Angeles. It may slightly differ from parades of the ‘60s, where some of the acts or participants would now be seen as politically incorrect, but the tradition is fervent in its pursuit of bringing holiday cheer.
Another icon of Southern California’s holiday scene was a place called Santa’s Village.
“It was a winter-themed amusement park located near Lake Arrowhead, and it opened on Memorial Day weekend 1955 and it actually opened, I believe, one month before Disneyland,” Martino said. “At the time it drew large crowds throughout the year for its petting zoos, ferris wheels, bobsleds, bakery, candy shops, reindeer, and more. Unfortunately, the park has largely deteriorated over the years and is now closed.”
The LA story behind Aretha Franklin's best-selling album, 'Amazing Grace'
Aretha Franklin was already an international superstar the weekend she stepped into New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in South Central L.A. 40 years ago. Together with gospel giant Reverend James Cleveland, and in front of a live congregation, Aretha recorded what is still her best-selling album ever, 1972's "Amazing Grace." The album is also the best-selling Gospel record of all-time.
Reporter Christopher Johnson recently visited New Temple and spoke with people who still remember Lady Soul’s heavenly performance.
Today, the New Temple choir is doing its best. Only a few singers have shown up for service this Sunday morning.
The pews aren’t looking much better. Even with the few dozen worshippers seated up front, it feels empty, this big space, wide and flat like a dress shirt box. Except it isn’t quite flat. The sanctuary floor slopes down very slightly from the front doors toward the pulpit.
This hasn’t always been a church.
"When i was a kid I used to come here to the movie theater," says congregant John Ford. "Some good cowboy pictures."
John Ford was an ironworker and a member of New Temple when the church moved here in the 1960s. The deacon was here that night, both nights, actually, when Aretha came. He was in the back, where the projector used to be.
This was before the renovations, so mostly everyone else who could get a seat was parked in a flip-up theater chair. That left lots of people standing,along the walls, in the back. It didn’t matter.
Aretha was coming.
Reverend James Cleveland opened things up. By 1972, he’d been a gospel legend for at least as long as Franklin had been making pop hits. More than 10 years her senior, he had also once taught Aretha some piano technique when he lived with the Franklins in Detroit.
For this reunion, Cleveland brought members of his powerful gospel ensemble. Seated behind the pulpit, in their black shirts and silver lamé vests, this choir was looking sharp.
"It was packed! Just to see Aretha Franklin was exciting to me!" said Ford.
John Ford’s daughter Glenda Ford-Favors was 18 years old.
"I was working at Winchell’s at Florence and Vermont, so I left work on purpose. I knew she was going to be there and i hadn’t bought a ticket. So one of the church members said, “Let her in!” said Ford-Favors.
Ten years before he shot “Tootsie,” Sidney Pollack had a crew document the whole thing at New Temple. No movie has been officially released, but there is a trailer. In it, you can see Aretha ease down the aisle, through the standing ovation. Elegant. For sure, a queen - not just of soul, but of this moment, too. Her kaftan like light green sea spray. Sequined.
She’s humble. And she's quiet. Until.
"Aretha is playing, on piano, that’s where you hear ‘doom-toom-doom-toom’ ... That’s Aretha." said Pastor Alexander Hamilton, who directed the choir both nights.
"You look at Aretha, and while you see the artistry and the command of the voice, you also see in her the humility. she was not the Aretha in lights that you see on the stage. She was just Aretha, our sister, singing for the Lord," said Hamilton. "We had just come through the '60s, we were just making the transition from colored to negroes to black. Black is beautiful had just come out in the mid-60s."
Hamilton remembers 1972, and what was in the air among South Central L.A.'s black residents — socially, artistically — when “Amazing Grace” was made.
"Just as there was a new culture emerging among our race, there was a new culture in our church to use some of the other instruments. Drums were still very new," said Hamilton. "As the change was happening, here comes Aretha in '72 and we’re going to use an entire rhythm section, which was rather radical.
Jerry Wexler, the Atlantic Records super producer who helped resuscitate Aretha’s career in the '60s, has written that getting Aretha back into gospel was his idea. Aretha has said it was hers.
"The debate as to who came up with the idea, whether it was Aretha Franklin or Jerry Wexler, is something they’re going to be debating in Heaven 100 years from now." said music journalist Aaron Cohen, whose book "Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace (33 1/3)" details the making of the album. He says there was definitely an opportunity, one Wexler wouldn’t have missed.
"Gospel was becoming a commercial force. "Oh Happy Day," George Harrison’s "My Sweet Lord," so there were white hippie audiences buying gospel music at that time." said Cohen.
Aretha may have had her own strong motivations for returning to her spiritual and artistic home. In the previous few years, she’d lost several close friends and mentors: Mahalia Jackson, Martin Luther King, and her band leader King Curtis who was murdered the summer before she cut “Amazing Grace.”
Gospel great Clara Ward was very sick, but she was there, at the concert. Right in the front row. Just 7 months later, Aretha would sing at her funeral. But Aretha isn’t mourning. Not here. “Amazing Grace” is not a sad album. It’s not a eulogy.
As Ms. Ward watched her friend and student step her whole self up into Ward’s signature gospel standard “How I Got Over,” it was clear: This, folks, was church.
And we cannot forget that force of a choir behind Aretha. Alexander Hamilton had rehearsed them for weeks and weeks before the recording dates. Most of the singers grew up on that music anyway, and the Southern California Community Choir was used to doing very big shows.
"Even though it stands out now as an event, for those of us who love the Lord it was just another day at the office," said Hamilton. "It was really just about the Lord."
But for others, this was an event.
Along with the gospel and soul greats, there were plain old rock stars in the house, too. Film footage shows Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts clapping along with everyone else. John Ford’s daughter Regina was barely a teenager at the time. She is still glowing forty years later that somebody picked New Temple Missionary Baptist to make history.
"I was just excited! i’d never seen nothin' like that in my life. I felt like I was royalty. I talk about it today, 'Remember that ‘Amazing Grace’ album? That was made at our church.' It made me feel like I was somebody!" said Regina Ford.
"They talked about it for months! everybody was going around, 'Aretha Franklin was at our church!' I didn’t have too much chest, but I stuck what I had out!" said John Ford.
These days, things are much quieter at New Temple. Membership has dropped. Attendance is sparse compared to the early '70s. John Ford has an idea that would surely fill the pews, at least for a night. Have Aretha Franklin come back and reminisce about the time she lit that church up. That would be truly amazing.
Special thanks to Aaron Cohen for his help with this story. Cohen's book Amazing Grace details the making of the album.
The continued rise of Mexico's middle class
The great divide between the nation's rich and poor is breaking down as Mexico's middle class is becoming its majority.
William Booth and Nick Miroff, who have been writing about this for the Washington Post, join the show.
For boat captain, rescuing maritime smugglers is part of the job
There's been a rise in maritime smuggling of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico into California. Earlier this month, the stakes were raised when a member of the U.S. Coast Guard was killed by suspected smugglers off the Ventura County coast. From the Fronteras Desk, reporter Jill Replogle has the story.
SAN DIEGO — The sun is dipping below the horizon off the coast of Ocean Beach in San Diego. A tow truck is backed up to a steep cliff that falls 40 feet down to a tiny cove. It's trying to pull a small sport fishing boat out of the sand — the kind of boat you might see out trolling for yellowtail.
The boat is very stuck. Captain Eric Lamb and his boat rescue team have been working to get it out for about 12 hours, and they're not even close.
“At the time, we were in high tide and the boat actually ended up going pretty much all the way under water several times and filled up with sand,” Lamb said. “And then (it) got buried in the sand, so it’s been quite a fiasco to get it out today.”
Lamb works for a company called Vessel Assist. It’s like AAA for boats.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection contracts out with companies like this to pick up abandoned smuggling boats along the Southern California coast.
Law enforcement agents and people who work with them, like Lamb, have seen a spike in illegal traffic here. Authorities documented more than 200 smuggling attempts in 2012 between the U.S.-Mexico border and San Luis Obispo County in Central California.
That makes it a record year. Many more smuggling attempts — successful or not — surely went undetected.
Lamb has dug out, towed, and trailered a lot of the boats that get left behind.
“In the last nine years with this company we’ve probably pulled well over 150 boats off the beach up and down between here and L.A.,” Lamb said, taking a break from trying to dig out the fishing boat.
It would eventually take him and his team more than 15 hours to get the boat off the beach.
Lamb doesn’t just remove beached boats. Ironically enough, some smugglers call Vessel Assist for a tow when they’ve broken down or run out of gas at sea.
Lamb said it’s often easy to tell when a client is in the smuggling business.
“If you get a boat that calls you at three in the morning and they’re five miles off of Imperial Beach, there’s not a lot of people pleasure riding at three in the morning off I.B.,” he said, using the initials commonly used to describe the beach just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Normally they’ve come up from Mexico and so when you get there you start getting all the information together and you pass it on and see what happens,” he said. In other words, he calls the authorities.
Lamb said he’s seen a lot of changes in this business of smuggling by sea. Open-hulled boats called pangas used to be the vessel of choice. The boats take off from Ensenada or elsewhere in Baja California, race up the coast at night, and drop off their cargo —drugs or people —on deserted beaches.
Abandoned or seized pangas used to get auctioned off. But law enforcement agents were seizing the same boats again and again, so now they’re chopped to pieces.
“They’ve managed to just about deplete the fleet in Ensenada,” Lamb said.
These days, smugglers are using a variety of boats, including pleasure craft registered in the U.S. They're going farther out to sea and further up the coast — hundreds of miles from the border.
For coastal law enforcement, it’s getting more dangerous. In early December, Coast Guard member Terrell Horne III was killed when two suspected smugglers rammed his boat off the Santa Barbara coast. The smugglers fled but were captured off San Diego.
The two Mexican nationals arrested in the killing were indicted on December 13 by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
Lieutenant Commander Matthew Jones, chief of enforcement for Coast Guard in San Diego, said Horne's death hadn't led to any major changes in the way the Coast Guard operates.
“I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than before,” he said. “Horne’s death was a tragedy, an absolute tragedy, and it certainly makes us all re-examine what we’re doing to make sure we’re doing it safely and effectively.”
Unlike Coast Guard members, Lamb usually answers calls from stranded boaters alone and unarmed. He said the job has definitely gotten riskier in recent years.
"Quite honestly we realize now there’s nothing stopping them from, you know, I pull up alongside to get ready to get ‘em, and they shoot me, throw me over the side, load everything in my boat and they can go anywhere they want with the boat," Lamb said.
Still, he said, he’s not too worried about his own safety. Most smugglers try to keep their business on the quiet. And if their boat breaks down, Lamb just might save their lives — and their cargo.
“It they’re running drugs, most of the time they’ll tend to just be my best friend at the time,” he said.
Forget the Mayan Apocalypse: 5 ways the world might actually end
As you may know, December 21, is the last day in the Mayan calendar. Many people have interpreted that as a sign of the apocalypse, our last day on Earth.
But even if the world doesn't end today, that doesn't mean we're off the hook. There are plenty of doomsday scenarios still left and our next guest makes it his life's work to think about them.
Stuart Armstrong, a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, joins the show to explain the top five ways the world might actually end:
1) Synthetic biology
2) Nuclear war
3) Artificial intelligence
4) Pandemics and plagues
5) Nanotechnology
Volunteer parents: A key ingredient in Nutcracker productions (Photos)
It’s prime season for the country’s most danced ballet, The Nutcracker. The myriad of moving parts in producing the holiday favorite were in evidence recently at the Anaheim Ballet’s rehearsal: dancers, big and small, costumes, sets, and the signature music coming from the instruments of musicians warming up.
Out of view, in the hallways behind the stage, Ava Gunderson kept a brisk pace checking on volunteers and checking on four women working under a tarp.
They’re altering costumes in less than perfect circumstances: It’s raining and dark. One holds a flashlight to help a seamstress with a needle and thread.
Gunderson is not the ballet’s costume designer; she’s a parent who’s leading a corps of two-dozen volunteers.
“We usually try to have one person who can really operate a machine, in case something rips and we can’t get it sewn fast enough,” she said.
The group will spend hundreds of hours sewing, hammering and driving kids around. Like most productions of the Nutcracker, Anaheim's is put on by a non-profit dance company tied to a ballet schools.
Larry Rosenberg, the Anaheim Ballet’s executive director, said the show simply wouldn’t go on without those parents.
“It just starts from the ground up, from the very first audition, you know there’s going to be costumes, sets, props, music issues, staging, theater, transport issues," Rosenberg said. "Everything we hope you don’t think about when you come see the performance.”
He would know. Rosenberg and his wife, artistic director Samra Rosenberg, have guided sugar plum fairies, mice, and Russian dancers through this most signature of holiday productions for 27 years.
Through all of it, he’s relied on people like Isabel Horsky. She flew in from Denver to help. Her two grandkids and 41-year-old daughter will be performing in the show. Her son-in-law is volunteering, too.
“The family that plies together stays together,” she snickered.
Her son in law, Ray Wyman, is making sure the props stay dry and are ready to go for the Nutcracker’s quick scene changes. He’ll put in nearly 100 hours of free labor in the months leading up to the production’s seven shows to give his kids the experience of a lifetime.
“I can’t think of anything that fortifies a child’s development than standing in front of a group of people waiting to be entertained," Wyman said. "There isn’t an educational opportunity like that on the planet, especially with schools cutting back on their arts programs, we don’t have these experiences."
Anaheim Ballet is the city’s resident ballet company. About 300 students – many of them on reduced or free tuition – enroll in the school’s ballet and jazz classes. It staged two shows at City National Grove of Anaheim and the entire production, including volunteers, is set to travel to Laughlin, Nevada to perform five shows on Christmas week.
Stagehand Dawn Dienes said she will take several unpaid days off from her teaching job for the trip. Her daughter will be performing as a bon bon and mouse.
"I get paid, just by her appreciation for me supporting what she’s doing," Dienes said. "She says, ‘Thanks mom, I’m so glad you’re here.’"
And with that, 12-year old Caitlin hurried onto the stage to hit her mark with the other dancers. Dienes said helping the company reflects what the season is about: spending time with loved ones and appreciating what you have.