What's next for Californians now that the tax bill is law? Cyclists and hikers are butting heads over a new bill. Take Two listeners share their holiday traditions.
State of Affairs: Looming backlash for GOP lawmakers, rough week for Dems
This week on State of Affairs:
- Republicans celebrate after passing a massive tax overhaul. But local lawmakers could face a backlash in 2018.
- Democratic leaders from California were under a lot of pressure to secure a long-term fix for dreamers. But they come home empty-handed. With a stopgap now in place, what's next for dreamers?
- An $81 billion disaster aid bill cleared the House but got stuck in the Senate. Among other things, the bill would have provided wildfire relief for California. What held up the bill?
Celebrate uniqueness: Your personal holiday traditions
The holidays are a special time of year when people come together to celebrate. However, not everyone celebrates the same way, especially here in SoCal. So we asked you — our listeners — to share your unique holiday traditions.
The holiday card
Hilary Hattenbach describes herself as "a bonafide Christmas nut." Her husband, Jared, didn't share the same enthusiasm when they got together 15 years ago until they created their own special tradition.
It all started when Hattenbach convinced her husband to pose for a silly Christmas photo.
"Since then this has become a tradition that we do every year, much to Jared's chagrin," Hattenbach said. "But the cards have become way more elaborate, because Jared is a Photoshop master."
There is one downside. The cards have become a bit of a source of stress and anxiety, particularly for Jared.
"He's a perfectionist, so he spends hours laying out the card and finding the right photo and this year we got a really late start, so he was particularly beleaguered," Hattenbach said. "I didn't think we were going to make it."
But they did, and Jared came up with the fun and original card featuring the couple's dog on the cover of Time Magazine.
"What I love about these cards is that we can look back on them and see where we were in our lives. See what we were into. What our interests were. And even Jared and his 'bah-humbug' ways has to admit that there were some cards he really loves."
The fusion
Bob Bittner of Lawndale has his own take on tradition: A little bit of everything.
"An amalgamation of Germanic, Hispanic and other family traditions" is how Bob describes his Christmastime celebrations, which all kick off around mid-November.
"Tamale making around Thanksgiving usually sets the mood as we gather with friends and family to make a few hundred ... and argue over what the right amount of maza and filling should be."
"By December 6, St. Nicholas day rolls around. Our children place a shoe out the night before, hoping for an indicator of what Christmas may bring."
As the Bittner holiday tradition goes, treats or gifts in the shoe means they've been good and can expect great things on Christmas day, while rocks or sticks means they better get their act together.
"The day after Christmas varies. Some years it's a drop in on Boxing Day to catch up with friends while others we simply need to go to Santa Anita, grab a few drinks and chill out with the ponies."
A South American dish
Take Two producer Lori Galarreta has a tradition of her own, which revolves around a special dish from her parents' native country, Peru.
In the Galarreta household, Christmas mornings are filled with the sounds of chopping, frying and mashing. It's the only way to prepare the Peruvian dish known as tacacho.
"Tacacho is platano macho, cut up into thick slices," explained Ruth Galarreta, Lori's mom, "which are then fried and mashed."
Tacacho is a traditional dish in the Amazonian region of Peru, but versions of these fried plantains are found in other Latin American countries under different names.
To Puerto Ricans it's mofongo, and to Ecuadorians, it's bolon.
"Tacacho is important to me because it reminds me of my childhood," said Ruth, "The smell ... sounds ... brings me happy memories."
It's a tradition the Galarretas brought with them when they immigrated to the United States more than 30 years ago.
"When we came to the United States, I wanted this part of my culture, this tradition to continue to with my children," Ruth said.
And for the Galarretas, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without tacacho.
If you've got a holiday story you'd like to share with us, we'd love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below, tweet us or leave us a comment on Facebook.
'Year of extremes': SoCal rides climate coaster in 2017
US House proposes bill to allow mountain bikes in wilderness areas
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a bill that would allow bicycles in designated wilderness areas. And that's pitting groups that have typically been allies against one another.
Can conservation and recreation coexist? KPCC's Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Outside magazine contributing editor Christopher Solomon about the Wilderness Act and what, exactly, the new legislation is proposing.
Interview Highlights
The Wilderness Act of 1964 and the proposed bill to alter it
It is the highest level of land protection that we offer in the United States, and it has very strict rules about what can and can not happen on a parcel of land. Wilderness designation is applied to about 109 million acres of the public estate in the U.S. Right now, there is a bill in the House that would alter the Wilderness Act to allow bicycling, which sounds modest but has all sorts of interesting and problematic implications.
Can conservationists and mountain bikers coexist?
That's one of the things that's intriguing about this and also perhaps kind of nefarious is that it is pitting some historic allies against each other. There are some schisms in the recreation community at the moment which are pretty unhealthy. Some mountain bikers, a small but vocal minority, are very interested in cracking open the Wilderness Act to be able to bicycle in the wilderness preservation system. The International Mountain Bike Assn. has come out against it, but there's a very vocal minority pushed by the Sustainable Trails Coalition.
Why hikers object to mountain bikes on these trails
Some people who are hikers have a beef with mountain bikes generally. Mountain bikes go fast, they can come seemingly out of nowhere. Some people feel like they do things like erode the trails more, but the jury's still out if mountain bikes are that much worse for trails than say horses which are allowed in wilderness.
The debate over the future of public lands under the Republication administration
These mountain bikers who want access to wilderness are being co-opted in this larger war over public lands right now, and this desire to get what they want, which is access to wilderness on bikes, they're becoming a pawn in this struggle to weaken environmental laws; 2017 has been one of the worst for the environment in the U.S. in modern American history. Mountain bikers who want access to wilderness are very reluctant to acknowledge that.
The future of the Wilderness Act if bicycles are allowed
It is the camel's nose under the tent. There's the bill itself, which is only about four sentences long, and the bill just says without qualification that bikes will be allowed in the wilderness preservation system. Proponents say it will give land mangers a chance to pick and choose where they go, but the bill doesn't say that. There's a question of once you start tinkering with some of the most bedrock laws that protect our environment, what does that open for the future. Bikes are not mentioned in the Wilderness Act of 1964 per se. The prospect of people biking 35, 40 miles deep into back country on trails was not thought of then. So they say, 'We want in.' The founders of the Wilderness Act drew a line, and you may not like where the line was drawn, but that's where they drew it. They tried to hold it for the future to keep these places as they were, and we can't keep moving that line for every generation's entertainment.
Nature Conservancy gets 24,000-acre Point Conception land donation
Thanks to the generosity of one couple, the Nature Conservancy acquired about 24,000 acres of coastal land in Santa Barbara County on Thursday. Local entrepreneurs Jack and Laura Dangermond, gave the Conservancy a gift of $165 million to buy the Cojo-Jalama Ranches, which include sacred Chumash sites, a cattle ranch, coastal prairies and beaches.
The purchase is intended to protect the area from development. Take Two host A Martinez spoke with Nature Conservancy executive director Mike Sweeney to learn more about the land's history and plans for its future.
Sick of Jingle Bells? Here's some music that better fits Christmas in LA
The lack of snow makes Southern California an unconventional place to celebrate the holidays. The music on the radio this time of year focuses on snowmen and sleigh rides, not sun and the Santa Anas. But there are still a few holiday songs out there with Los Angeles in mind.
One of them is the classic "White Christmas."
The sun is shining, the grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
There’s never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L. A.
But it’s December the 24th
And I am longing to be up north….
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…
It's often ignored, but the beginning of the track makes it clear. "White Christmas" is a song about Los Angeles.
"White Christmas was written by Irving Berlin when he was working in Los Angeles," Mitchell Kezin said. He's the creator of "Jingle Bell Rocks," a documentary about underground Christmas music.
Kezin believes that to remove that line from "White Christmas" is to deprive it of its intended meaning.
"That first verse, which is seldom sung, was dropped from the most famous recording, that Bing Crosby made, of the song," Kezin said. "But it's the whole context in which Irving Berlin wrote the song. The whole point of it was that he was longing for a different kind of holiday himself."
Why so little mainstream holiday music acknowledges Southern California
"Generally speaking, sunny skies and palm trees don't conjure up that old-fashioned, warm, white holiday that we all seem to long for. It's expressed in countless movies, made in Hollywood. But they conjure up and celebrate a Christmas that not too many people have anymore. I suppose we all want escapism at Christmastime.
"You certainly don't need fluffy white snow to have a good Christmas and to celebrate what's important about the holidays, which is togetherness, love, sharing, compassion. All those things are part of a holiday no matter where you are in the world.
"Sitting on the sunny, warm deck drinking a Mai Thai and listening to Christmas music. That's my idea of a great holiday."