California illegal gun confiscation initiative gains notice nationwide. Plus, how much does it cost to get an Academy Award nomination? KCET's Chris Clarke reports that solar energy has its own set of toxic side effects, Somali-Americans plan to return home to help rebuild, and much more.
California illegal gun confiscation initiative gains notice
Armed agents from the California Department of Justice are traveling across the state looking to confiscate legally purchased guns from people who have become disqualified from having them.
California is the only state with a law governing the seizure of guns from people who are no longer allowed to possess them due to criminal convictions. There are still 19,700 people (totaling 39,000 guns) on the state's Armed Prohibited Persons database, despite regular sweeps for firearms.
However, while there are limits on how far these agents can go to get their hands on the guns, the program is being closely watched nationwide as gun control laws remain a top issue for lawmakers.
Joining us with more is Jessica Garrison who writes about the program for the L.A. Times.
The toxic side of solar energy
Solar power is often hailed as one of the cleanest available sources of energy, but that claim may not be entirely true.
Numbers provided by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control show that solar panel manufacturers in the state produced more than 46-million pounds of hazardous waste between 2007 and 2011.
For more on this, we're joined now by Dustin Mulvaney, a San Jose State professor who studies waste created by solar industry.
Prop 39: Where will the money for energy efficiency go?
California is set to create the nation’s most ambitious energy makeover for public buildings. That’s because Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 39, which closes a corporate tax loophole and funnels much of the money to energy efficiency upgrades.
The details, however, have been left to state lawmakers and, not surprisingly, there's disagreement over where the funds will go.
The California Report's Rachel Dornhelm has the story.
California regulators open discussion on unprecedented rules for oil and gas fracking
A controversial technique for extracting oil and gas from California’s shale reserves is facing new scrutiny in California. But it’s easier to describe what current rules for fracking are not, rather than what they are.
Fracking, or more formally, hydraulic fracturing, is a practice by which oil and gas explorers drive fluid into fissures in sediment and rock in order to force the fossil fuels out. The fluid’s usually water, at least 90 percent of it, mixed with a “proppant” – sand or grit to “prop” open the space in the rock – and chemicals usually making up less than 1 percent of the mix.
In California, oil and gas producers don’t need a special permit to frack a well, just an initial permit to drill or rework a site. The state’s Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, asks companies to disclose the practice, voluntarily, but doesn’t require that. Nor does DOGGR, as it’s called, require companies to say where they’re fracking, what chemicals they’re using and in what volume, how much water the practice requires, or what happens with the water that’s used.
Activists say that’s shocking, especially since historic records show fracking has happened in California for 60 years.
Now DOGGR is circulating what it calls a “discussion draft” of regulations – an informal set of rules meant to prompt public discussion. The discussion draft is a precursor to draft regulations, which will undergo formal scrutiny in order to be approved.
Defenders of the practice point out that, after all, it’s been happening in California since the 1960s. A limited industry-reported analysis of California fracking practices compared to those in the Marcellus Shale has found that less water is necessary for fracking in California. California’s geology, in which seismic faults fold, raise and lower rock strata, may limit the kind of techniques that work.
Regulators are holding three public hearings, in Los Angeles, in Bakersfield, and in Monterey, to “workshop” the rules.
Somali-Americans consider returning to their homeland to help rebuild
The United States government officially recognized Somalia’s government last week for the first time since 1991. Somalia has been called the world’s most failed state, enduring deadly famines and more than two decades of civil war with al Shabab militants. Now the nation is rebuilding under a newly elected president, and Somalis here in San Diego are eager to help. KPBS reporter Megan Burks spoke to a young refugee who says he can’t wait to go back permanently.
Somalia is rebuilding under a newly elected president, who recently urged refugees at a speech in Minnesota, home to the nation’s largest population of Somali refugees, to return to Somalia to help.
But will Somalis who have spent more than 20 years away – some even beginning life outside of their family’s homeland – make the move to Africa?
“The conversation, it’s already among the community,” said Mohamed Ahmed, a 23-year-old Somali living in City Heights. “People have already been back. People are planning to go back. And some people are a bit skeptical about going back and they’re not really comfortable about the situation back home.”
Ahmed left Somalia with his family when he was two months old and came to the U.S. at age of 4. He’s about to graduate from San Diego State University, alongside other East Africans who arrived in America in the 1990s.
He says the timing for a revived Somali state couldn’t be better. Many members of the Somali diaspora are poised to graduate from American and European universities, if they haven’t already.
Ahmed said Somalis who grew up in Europe are returning to work in their native country – at a rate of about 1,000 per month, according to some reports. Flights in and out of Mogadishu have multiplied. Rent has climbed. Last year, young Somali professionals hosted a TEDxMogadishu talk.
Ahmed says a friend of his moved back and already has a job in the Ministry of Planning.
Ahmed could follow a similar path.
He’ll graduate with a degree in international security and conflict resolution in May. He already owns two suits. His demeanor is at once measured and passionate, like any good politician’s.
Over winter break, he and his colleagues in the SDSU-based group C.U.R.E. Africa (Communities United in Reviving East Africa) visited Somalia to survey existing schools and get to work building a new one in the rural countryside.
In his photos from the trip, Ahmed is shown talking with dignitaries and posing with bright-eyed school children.
He returned to the U.S. Jan. 21 and already has a school census compiled that reads like a government report.
Ahmed said he plans to return after graduation to cut the ribbon at the opening. And he said that’s not the last he’ll see of his country.
“As of right now, I want to continue my education, further my education. But will there be a time I will live in Somalia permanently? Yes,” Ahmed said. “And in fact, I can’t wait for that day.”
Abdi Mohamoud, executive director of Horn of Africa, a San Diego nonprofit that provides support for local East African refugees, said Ahmed’s drive is common among children of refugees.
“With the tragedy of having so many refugees flee from Somalia, the advantage has become that many of those refugees went to other developed countries and many of them were able to get very high-quality educations,” Mohamoud said. “They’re very eager to try to improve the devastation that their parents have fled.”
But Mohamoud said he’s not convinced many young Somalis will actually make the move to Africa.
Though Somalia is rebounding, its peace is fragile. Al Shabaab still controls a significant swath of land in the center of the country. And there is some dispute among minority clans about the structure their new government has taken – an eventual parliamentary democracy in which elders chose the transitional leaders.
Malnutrtion is still a concern as world leaders try to work out how to prevent another famine in Somalia.
And Somalia's economy has a long way to go. Currently, remittances from Somali families in City Heights and throughout the world account for about half the nation's gross domestic product.
“It’s still a country that’s one of the least-developed countries in the world, and certainly the life that they’re going to have in Somalia is not going to be comparable to the life they’re going to have in the United States,” Mohamoud said. “So you’ll see about 95 percent of those youth, they’re going to make the United States their home. This is the only home that they know.”
Yousef Abraham cofounded C.U.R.E. Africa with Ahmed. He's also an SDSU student and was born in America to Eritrean parents who fled military conflict in Eritrea. He's one of Mohamoud's 95 percent.
"My home is here in America, so I think I’ll be here permanently," Abraham said.
Ahmed admitted he’d miss watching the Chargers play. But he insists Somalia is home.
“I felt when I was in Somalia, I was at home,” Ahmed said. “I felt like I was at peace, I felt like I was reunited with my country and my people. I was very emotional leaving. I didn’t want to leave that quick.”
The mosque where Ahmed attends Friday Prayers sits one lot in from a busy street corner in City Heights. It’s an area locals call “Little Mogadishu” because of the Somali shops and restaurants clustered there.
The imam, the Somali cab drivers, the shop owners – they all seem to know Ahmed. If they don’t know him personally, they at least know he's “the boy building a school.”
“To me, I feel like I have the best of two worlds,” Ahmed said. “I have the Somali culture and I have the American culture. My parents worked very hard to keep my Somali heritage in place with me.”
And Ahmed said that blended upbringing has prepared him for a future in a changing Somalia.
“This American culture gave me the ability to live alongside people from different walks of life,” Ahmed said.
I asked Abraham whether he plans to one day work in his family’s homeland.
“Yes, definitely,” Abraham said.
But if a growing group of young East Africans do return to the Horn of Africa, it may have less to do with a president's plea and more to do with that personal desire to make an impact on the world so many find in college.
"My major is actually in criminal justice and originally when I went into that field I wanted to do something with law enforcement," Abraham said. "But since I started C.U.R.E. Africa, my focus has kind of shifted a little bit. And I think I found what I really want to do in my heart and it’s doing humanitarian work.”
Oscars 2013: How much does it cost to get to the Academy Awards?
Hollywood’s elite has spent the past few weeks on the awards circuit, picking up prizes and gladhanding at fancy parties. Of course, the biggest award night is still to come – the Oscars. Getting there takes a lot more than just making a good movie. As Gina Delvac reports, it can cost a lot to get your name into the envelope.
Before you start thanking the Academy and crying over the swelling music, know that it’s going cost you to get to that Oscar stage. More than long hours on the set. More than press conferences and screenings. And more than the punishing diet and workout routine required to look fabulous.
It will cost time, and it will cost money. But how much?
"My initial rule is thumb is through the nominating process that you have to spend a minimum of – I would venture to guess — $200,000. That’s the minimum," says longtime Hollywood publicist Ziggy Kozlowski at Block Korenbrot, a PR firm.
That $200,000 is what you, as a writer or director, say, might spend just trying to get nominated. That could be out of pocket, especially if your studio isn’t backing you.
The studios and distributors who are really in it to win big on Oscar night?
"Hollywood spends on average about $150 million dollars a year to win an Oscar that costs $400 to manufacture. Now that’s proof that Hollywood is crazy right there," says Tom O’Neil, editor of the awards-tracking website GoldDerby.com.
O’Neil points to "The Hurt Locker," the gritty Iraq war film that won in the Best Picture category in 2010. Producers say they spent $3-5 million on their Oscars campaign. But their competitors say, triple that.
"The Hurt Locker"’s distributor, Summit Entertainment, was flush with money from another movie you might’ve heard of.
?
"The vampire movie makers wanted to be the big boys in town," O'Neil says. Summit used the money from "Twilight" to mount a full-scale campaign for "The Hurt Locker." That Best Picture Oscar seems to indicate that their campaign paid off.
Whether it costs $200,000 dollars or $15 million, the bulk of the money in any Oscar campaign is spent on advertising.
Marc Malkin is senior editor at E! Online and E! News.
"You know you look at something like the New York Times. An ad for a movie could cost anywhere between $50,000-100,000. That’s a lot of money, but you’re going to hit that audience. You’re going to hit that older Academy member who’s reading the New York Times," says Malkin.
Then there are DVD mailers: $3 bucks a piece, if the movie’s been out a while, and as much as $14 if it has be hand delivered. Plus, tens of thousands of potential recipients when you tally up the Screen Actors, Writers, and Directors’ Guilds.
Not to mention special screenings so that Academy members can actually see the movies in a theater. Those screenings aren’t cheap. Cast and crew often fly all over the place to attend in-person Q&A sessions, racking up hotel bills and travel expenses along the way.
And of course, there are the parties.
Marc Malkin at E! showed up at one party hosted by The Weinstein Company to celebrate their contenders this year, including "Django Unchained," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Master." It was sponsored by a champagne company.
"And you see a lot of the celebrities posing with the bottle of champagne. Then you see the champagne girls who are just models to look pretty and hold the champagne. And obviously the champagne has nothing, nothing to do with the movie, but it’s probably gonna save them a lot of money. Because probably the champagne company’s going to pay for it before the film company does," Malkin says.
Whether it’s the sponsor or the studio that’s paying, there’s little doubt that money makes the Oscar circuit go ‘round. Yet, even after spending all that time and all that money, there’s still no guarantee that your movie will win.
Remember... "The Alamo"?
John Wayne starred in and directed the 1960 epic, and ran a massive advertising campaign that devolved into name-calling. In Wayne’s eyes, you were unpatriotic if you voted for anyone else.
"The Alamo" won one Oscar: best sound.
New Music Tuesday: DJ Day, Lady, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
It's that time again! Tuesday, the day when record companies release new music. Today, music critics Oliver Wang (Soul-Sides.com) and Ann Powers (NPR Music) join the show to talk about new tunes by DJ Day, Lady, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Apples and Three Oranges, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, and Holly Williams.
DJ Day (Song played on the show was "Partir")
Lady - "Money" (Song played on the show was "Sweet Lady")
Apples and Three Oranges (Song played on the show was "What Goes Around Comes Around")
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside - "Do Me Right"
Holly Williams - "The Highway"
LAPD holds press conference on Dorner investigation
Today LAPD Chief Charlie Beck will hold a press conference to update the public on the Dorner case and investigation.
In addition, two LAPD members who were under protection during the Dorner manhunt will give a statement and answer media questions. KPCC’s Rina Palta joins the show with more information.
After shootings and unrest, Anaheim police chief tries to restore trust with community. Has he done enough?
Before last summer, Anaheim was famous for one thing: Disneyland. A few weeks into summer, the city became infamous for police killings.
Much of the blame was directed at John Welter, who’s been Anaheim’s chief of police for nine years.
In July, the online political activist group Anonymous posted Welter's personal information online, and The Onion posted his picture, with the headline: “Look, Our Job is to Shoot People.”
The Onion is a satirical newspaper, but Welter took the article seriously.
“When I saw that hit my desk one morning, naturally I was not very happy at all,” remembered Welter in a recent interview at Anaheim Police headquarters.
“To say something like our officers are expected to shoot people regularly, and if they don’t they’re not doing their duty? I’ve gone my entire career and never fired my handgun,” said Welter.
Welter said for “99 percent" of Anaheim's police officers, it's the same.
"When you consider 350,000 residents, 20 million visitors, hundreds of thousands of contacts we make and then six shootings?" said Welter. "It’s not as if any number of shootings are good, but it’s not like we’re just shooting at people running down alleys because they’re afraid of the police.”
Rioting started after 2 young men shot by police in one weekend
During the first half of last year, Anaheim had six officer-involved shootings. Five were fatal, including back-to-back deaths that set off the July’s rioting.
Manuel Diaz was shot as he ran away from officers. He was unarmed.
The next day, Joel Acevedo was killed after allegedly firing a gun at police.
Welter says it’s too early to comment on the specific incidents.
The District Attorney, U.S. Attorney, the FBI and the Los Angeles-based Office of Independent Review are investigating the shootings. The Anaheim Police Department has begun an internal investigation.
“I’m waiting for the investigations to be concluded," said Welter. “When we’re wrong, I’m the first one to say we need to prosecute, take care of business, or terminate the employees. Probably 15 employees over the last eight, nine years have been terminated as a result of misconduct, including excessive force. But we also need to change behavior.”
Mayor wants civilian oversight, which Welter says can create a wedge
Changing behavior, training, procedures, and even uniforms has been Welter’s focus the past few months. It’s all part of an effort to change the way Anaheim citizens see police.
“The perception of many, too many, in the community is that they’re afraid of us,” said Welter.
It was a perception, Welter now admits, that was made worse by his department’s militarized response to the riots last summer. What should have been crowd control was handled like a SWAT operation.
Now Welter directs officers to avoid wearing camouflage, except when necessary.
He’s expanded an effort to have cops involved with after-school programs, so they’re not just showing up in neighborhoods when something goes wrong.
“It’s kind of like a silver lining in a very dark cloud,” said Welter. “We hate to see unrest or we certainly hate to use any kind of force. But it also unfortunately brings to light some issues that need to be addressed.”
Every month Welter meets with community leaders on his Chief’s Advisory Council. But is that enough? Should there be a citizens review board to give not just advice, but oversight? Anaheim’s mayor is among those who say yes. The police union is opposed.
The city is studying the issue, but Welter says he’s already well-acquainted with review boards. He worked under one as deputy chief in San Diego.
“Citizens review boards serve a purpose for some communities," said Welter. "But in others, they can divide and drive a wedge between the police and the community, depending on how they’re structured and how they’re implemented."
Anaheim resident: 'No trust' with police
Until recently, Anaheim resident Theresa Smith led a small group that has protested in front of police headquarters every week since 2009.
That’s long before most people were paying attention to the Anaheim police. Smith has little regard for the Anaheim Police Department.
“They keep saying that they could get killed, but there hasn’t been an officer shot,” said Smith. “It’s all been young men who’ve been shot, some of them unarmed. My son was shot in the back.”
Her son, Caesar Cruz, was fatally shot by officers four years ago. She said she’s only received a few paragraphs of information about what happened.
Smith acknowledged the department is doing better at providing information. Families now have access to highly detailed reports about any officer-involved shooting.
But she thinks everything else has gotten worse.
“Back in the day, if the police came into your neighborhood, they knew everybody who lived there, and they said 'Hello,'” said Smith. “There’s none of that anymore. There is no trust.”
That trust needs to be restored, said Smith. On that point, she and Chief Welter agree.
Meteorologist wins first-ever America's Science Idol competition
This year, the first ever America's Science Idol competition was held as part of the the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. Contestants had 3 minutes to give a compelling presentation on the topic of their choice.
There was a crowd, there were judges, competition was fierce, and then there was a winner:
, a meteorologist who gave a presentation about the difficulties of making a proper weather forecast.
Bunim/Murray hopes to corner Latino reality show audience
American Idol is one of the many reality programs on the dial, a lot of which come from the production company Bunim/Murray.
It's behind hits like The Real World, Paris Hilton's The Simple Life and Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and has become the go to hit-maker for the 18 to 34 demographic. Now Bunim/Murray hopes to conquer a new slice of the industry: Hispanic audiences.
Gabriela Cocco- Sanchez, vice president of Bunim/Murray productions' brand new Latin division, joins the show to explain the new initiative.
California sees large bumper grape crop in 2012
Some good news for wine drinkers here in California. A new report on the annual grape crush shows that 2012 was a bumper year for grape-growing in the state. More than 4 million tons of wine grapes were grown, and they fetched record high prices.
Here with more is our resident booze news hound, producer Meghan McCarty.
'Drinking With Men': A drink writer's homage to memorable watering holes
Writer Rosie Schaap has spent a lot of time in bars – 13,000 hours by her calculations. But she's got a great reason, she's the "Drink" columnist for the New York Times Magazine. Her new memoir, Drinking with Men is an homage to the many bars, pubs and taverns she's loved and lost along the way.
Take Two cocktail by Rosie Schaap (Variation on a Gin Gimlet)
1 part Gin (should be a bright, floral Gin)
1 part Lime and Grapefruit juice
Shake well and serve up or on the rocks.