Junior's Deli in Westwood is closing after 53 years in business. Plus, will Congress reach a deal to keep us from heading over the so-called fiscal cliff? Health insurance companies plan to hike up rates in 2013, and author Joshua Glenn offers tips on how to keep your kids "Unbored" during the long winter break, and much more.
Will Congress reach a deal on the fiscal cliff by midnight?
It's the last day of 2012 and when the ball drops at midnight we could be headed off that dreaded fiscal cliff that we've all been hearing about incessantly.
Congress is back in session this morning working on a deal to fend off the tax hikes and spending cuts that are supposed to take effect tomorrow. Sources close to the negotiating table say that major progress has been made but there are no signs of a deal yet.
To fill us in on the status of the negotiations, we're joined by Christina Bellantoni, the political editor for PBS NewsHour.
Health insurance companies plan to increase rates in 2013
Hang onto your pocket books for this next story: Your health insurer may be planning double-digit rate increases in 2013.
With more is the California Report's Mina Kim.
Junior's Deli closing after 53 years due to rent dispute
Finding a real Ruben sandwich next year in L.A. is about to get a little harder. Junior's Deli, a Westside institution, is closing its doors today.
For 53 years it's been serving coronary inducing Jewish deli food to everyone from Hollywood stars to retirees. KPCC's Ben Bergman dropped by this morning.
Charles Phoenix on the history and tradition of the Rose Parade
Pasadena is gearing up to play host to the 124th Rose Parade, an annual local tradition that features fantastic floral floats and marching bands from throughout the country.
Host and retro extraordinaire Charles Phoenix — who plans to wear a splatter-painted and rhinestone-laden suit this year — offers some helpful tips on how to see the show and a little history lesson on how it all started.
Give us a quick Rose Parade history lesson
"It started in 1890, the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena was like, 'Let's brag! We've got a sunshiny day, its January 1, let's chop off some roses from our rose bushes and some other flowers , put them on our carriages and parade down the avenue.' Within a couple of years it caught the attention of the press across the United States, and basically it was to brag that we have such incredible weather here."
What can you tell us about the parade route?
"It starts on Orange Grove and it turns the corner and I believe it goes 5 1/2 miles down Colorado Blvd. This is the class route it's been for decades and decades and decades and then it goes up Sierra Madre where it winds up where they collect all the floats and you go see it the day after. It's an amazing display of people."
RELATED: Everything you need to know about the 2013 Rose Parade
What's it like to help build a float?
"A lot of glue on your hands, but it's such an incredible experience. The Downey Rose Float Association is in a big barn in Downey, right now they are still building the float. It's just a giant arts and crafts projects, and the clock is ticking, and everyone's excited and the finishing touches literally go on just 5 seconds before the judges arrive to judge the float."
What tips can you give first-timers who want to see the parade?
"What I do is I go and hang out in front of the Tournament House on Orange Grove where all the floats are lined up. Get there about 6 a.m., you walk up and down and you see all the floats lined up, and then pretty soon you're hanging out at the tournament house and you see the queen and her court, and there's a whole bugle corps. the tradition, the pomp and circumstance, it's magical what can I say. When the parade starts I go right up to the exact corner where it begins. That's where on one street they have the equestrian all lined up … on the other side street right across from them they have all the marching bands. Just to see them up close and turn the corner, then they've got the floats. The whole parade is run with military precision, it is a pinnacle of civilization, it really is, and I think an incredible source of pride for all Southern Californians, because it is our baby and it represents us to the rest of the world because the rest of the world is watching."
Hollywood Monday: 2012's record $10.8 billion box office & Oscar buzz
Rebecca Keegan of the Los Angeles Times joins Take Two to discuss the latest in film industry news.
Topics:
- 2012 was a record year for the box office, with $10.8 billion in sales.
- "Les Miserables" is a hit, unlike many other Broadway adaptations
- Oscar voting is happening online for the first time
The biggest TV trends in 2012
2012 had its share of hit shows from "Homeland" to "Honey Boo-Boo."
Sure, what you watch is important, but networks and advertisers are also focused on how you watch TV. Here to talk about some of the biggest trends in TV watching from the last year is Brian Steinberg, TV editor for the magazine Ad Age.
South Asian community in CA reacts to assault of 23-year-old woman in New Delhi
Now we take a look at how an event thousands of miles away is reverberating in Southern California. Yesterday in New Delhi, a vigil was held for the 23-year-old student who died of internal injuries sustained from a brutal gang rape.
As had been reported by every major news agency in the world, the woman and her male companion were brutally assaulted on a bus on Dec. 16, then thrown off and left for dead. Hours after she passed away on Saturday, police charged the six men held in connection with the attack with murder.
For more on this brutal crime and how it has affected Indian Americans here in Southern California, we're joined now by Anu Jain, the director of operations and outreach at SAHARA, that's an Artesia-based group which provides assistance to domestic violence victims in Southern California's South Asian community.
Correction: A previous draft of this segment stated that the men were arrested on Saturday after the woman's death. They were actually arrested within days of the incident, but were charged with murder, in addition to the previous charges against them on Saturday.
Many Rose Bowl neighbors oppose hosting an NFL team
Visitors from the across the country and the world have converged on Pasadena for the Rose Bowl and Parade. People who live near the stadium love the marching bands and intricate parade floats and at least tolerate the traffic tie-ups and tailgaters.
But not everyone is as warm and fuzzy about a National Football League team adding more big games to the Rose Bowl's schedule.
That became a real possibility last month when the Pasadena City Council passed an ordinance that doubles the number of large events allowed each year at the Rose Bowl in order to possibly accomodate an NFL team.
The ordinance passed by a vote of 7 -1 at a meeting attended by more than a hundred people, most of whom were there in opposition to an NFL team renting the Rose Bowl while a permanent home is built elsewhere in the L.A. region.
The councilman who represents neighborhoods near the stadium, Steve Madison, voted along with the majority, acknowledging that he too endures the game-day hassles of living near the Rose Bowl. Six years ago, Madison cast the swing vote against a plan to bring an NFL team to the Rose Bowl permanently. But that was before the great recession, and before major renovations at the 90-year-old Rose Bowl faced a funding gap of $30 million.
“This is different," Madison explained before the vote. "This is a temporary matter where we have dire financial needs and an opportunity to address those."
Madison and his colleagues who supported the ordinance insisted the vote was not for a deal with an NFL team, but to give Pasadena a chance to negotiate one if a team comes to L.A.
"I know this won’t be popular unanimously in my district," Madison said. He was right: a number of his constituents have launched a campaign to recall Madison. The campaign's web site features a harrowing video of a fistfight breaking out in the stands at an Oakland Raiders game against the San Diego Chargers.
“When you Google 'NFL fights or drunkenness,' you will see an infinite amount of fights and videotape on what happens both in and outside the stadium,” says Mike Vogler, the leader of the recall effort and a major opponent of the NFL at the Rose Bowl.
Vogler, an attorney and accountant by training, lives about a mile from the stadium. He lives with his three young daughters in a beautiful old home on what he likes to call "the loveliest street in America."
The Rose Bowl is already home to UCLA football games. Vogler, a UCLA grad, is OK with those games. But he says NFL games would be too much.
“The NFL brings an element with it that is not particularly conducive nearly every week of large transitory and regional traffic," Vogler says. "It’s no secret that there are often drunken tailgaters at NFL games.”
Vogler dismisses suggestions that he and his affluent West Pasadena neighbors are crying "not-in-my-backyard."
“The NFL is an oligarchy of billionaires. We are the 99 percenters here who live in this community. The NFL isn’t," Vogler insists. "People from all walks of life come down to the Arroyo Seco and utilize it. They hike around it, they bike around it. Kids play soccer and fly kites.”
Indeed, near the stadium in the Arroyo Seco is the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Kidspace Museum, and the Brookside Golf Course. On UCLA game days, and during the Rose Bowl, those facilities are closed. The golf course serves as a parking lot. Two days after this year's UCLA-USC game on a rainy Saturday, tire tracks marked the fairways.
“It’s all muddy, everything’s messed up," said George Andre, who'd taken off early from his marketing job to play a round. "Kinda sucks being out here.”
But Andre said he'd be willing to sacrifice the golf course, or at least its appearance, for an NFL team. He sees pro football as an opportunity to bring more jobs and money to the area.
Andre doesn't live near the Rose Bowl. He lives miles away in Hacienda Heights — not a neighborhood that could be affected should the NFL temporarily use the Rose Bowl. A future NFL team would be based permanently in downtown L.A. or the City of Industry. When reminded of that, Andre changed his tune.
“Keep it here. I don’t want it in Industry," he said, laughing. "That’s too close to me. I have enough traffic on the 60 freeway already. I don’t want anymore.”
If the NFL does come to L.A, it will be in someone’s backyard. But some people living in Pasadena don’t want the NFL to use the Rose Bowl — even temporarily.
Neighborhood Watch groups go online to stop crime
When there's crime where you live, your local neighborhood watch may already be on the streets, watching for suspicious activity and reporting them to authorities. But that's old school.
A growing number of your neighbors are going online, and using social media sites to report anything unusual. Plus, local police departments are using that data, too, to improve their patrols and outreach efforts.
Officer Quinn Fenwick, assistant police chief for Ventura joins the show to discuss how his team has used sites like Facebook and, more recently, NextDoor.
We'll also hear from Darryl Ospring, who uses online networks to help patrol her neighborhood of Coyote Creek in San Jose.