OC police are still looking into the reasons why a 20-year-old OC resident went on a shooting spree on Tuesday. Then, closing arguments begin in the Bell corruption trial, environmental experts ask whether we should learn to adapt to climate change rather than change it, Pakistanis take issue with cultural inaccuracies in 'Zero Dark Thirty', how much is an Oscar worth for an actor's career, and much more.
OC police still searching for motive in recent OC shootings by student
Police still don’t know why a 20-year-old man went on a deadly shooting rampage in Orange County yesterday morning, killing three and wounding at least two others.
We’ll talk with KPCC’s Ben Bergman, who’s been covering the story.
Closing arguments begin in Bell corruption trial
Closing arguments began Wednesday for the trial of the six Bell officials charged with corruption.
Oscar Hernandez, the city’s former mayor, and ex-council members Teresa Jacobo, George Mirabal, Luis Artiga, George Cole and Victor Bello are accused of misappropriating public money in a scandal that cost the small working class city millions of dollars and nearly bankrupted it.
Prosecutor Ed Miller said Thursday during his closing argument that the Los Angeles suburb was turned upside down by corrupt city officials who collected paychecks for jobs that didn't exist.
Legally, the officials could have paid themselves $673 a month for what was a part-time job, since they didn't actually run the city, Miller said. But in addition to their council salaries of as much as $80,000 a year, the officials appointed each other to commissions that did nothing and often met yearly just to increase their pay, he said.
The most blatant was the creation of the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, which Miller called "a fiction" designed to line the officials' pockets. "They gave themselves raises which were not even drafted by a lawyer," he said. "Somebody just made this up out of the blue."
Authorities say the defendants stole more than $300,000 during a two-minute meeting in which they voted themselves salary raises for their sham positions. Testimony during the monthlong trial also revealed evidence of falsified salaries and a city clerk who signed minutes for meetings she didn't attend.
Most of the defendants testified, saying they earned their salaries through long hours of work.
"They claim they were working for it, they've all described being available 24/7 to constituents and being at various meetings," said L.A. Times reporter Jeff Gottlieb on Take Two. "This is what their claim is. The DA has pointed out that ... some of these boards weren't even authorized to meet, so this is something that the jury is going to have to sort out."
During Cole's testimony, the prosecutor pointed out that the councilman had a chauffeur and car to get around the city, which spans just 2 1/2 miles.
An audit by the state controller's office determined Bell had illegally raised property taxes, business license fees and other sources of revenue to pay the salaries and ordered the money repaid.
Defense attorneys were scheduled to present counter-arguments later Wednesday. City Manager Robert Rizzo and his assistant city manager, Angela Spazzio, face a trial later in the year.
Should we learn to adapt to climate change?
Climate change has been getting a lot of attention lately. It was blamed for last year's extreme heat and for Super-storm Sandy.
President Obama raised the issue of climate change in his State of the Union address, and California just held its second cap and trade auction for greenhouse gas emission permits.
But what if we're already past the point of no return on climate change? What if a better use of our time and resources is figuring out how to adapt?
That's the question that New York Times environmental writer Andrew Revkin, UCLA climate scientist Alex Hall, and environmental historian Jon Christensen hope to address tonight at an event in Culver City.
Environmental historian Jon Christensen joins the show with more.
Pakistanis take issue with cultural inaccuracies in 'Zero Dark Thirty'
"Zero Dark Thirty" is up for a Best Picture Oscar this Sunday, but the movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden has been condemned by some politicians who say it misrepresents the U.S. government's use of torture.
The film is also getting little love in Pakistan, where "zero Dark Thirty" is set. Pakistanis are upset, they say, because the film gets so much wrong about their country.
Here to explain is Rebecca Santana, an Associated Press reporter based in Islamabad.
Oscars 2013: What is an Academy Award really worth for an actor's career?
Michael Jackson bought the best picture Oscar for Gone with the Wind for $1.5 million. An anonymous bidder picked up the award that Orson Welles won for writing Citizen Kane for $862,000.
If you follow the rules and give the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences a chance to buy it back? They're offering a flat rate of $1. But to figure out what an Oscar is really worth, you must start by winning one.
RELATED: Oscars 2013: Peek behind the curtain of the Academy Awards
So let's say that you’re hanging out with some friends at 6 a.m. one morning in January, and you get word that, yes, you’re nominated for an Academy Award. You might start thinking about what designer you’ll wear, or who to mention in your acceptance speech. You might also start thinking about money. Big money.
"There’s definitely a boost to getting nominated for Best Picture. Just getting nominated is [linked to] about a $23.2 million in box office revenue," says Agata Kaczanowska, an entertainment industry analyst with IBIS World.
And that boost doesn’t even count box office revenue from abroad or DVD sales down the line.
After the nominations come out, audiences usually go to see as many movies as they can before Oscar night. That means producers put their film into as many theaters as possible to keep up with the surge in demand.
Jim Berk is the CEO of Participant Media, one of the production companies behind the Academy Award-nominated film Lincoln. For him, awards season gives good work a longer life in theaters.
"It’s a way to market the film. People think it’s a campaign to win; it’s really a campaign to get exposure for the film," Berk says.
That exposure brings prestige to the films’ directors and stars, and cash for the producers. Tom O’Neil runs the awards tracking site, GoldDerby.com.
"The payoff can be huge. How much money do you think The King’s Speech would’ve made in theaters if it hadn’t been for the Oscars? It ended up with $414 million worldwide."
But it’s the smaller films that stand to gain the most. According to industry analyst Kaczanowska, the smaller the budget, the bigger boost the Oscar stage provides. By that measure, Beasts of the Southern Wild stands to gain the most from the Oscar bump this year.
For an individual, an Oscar nomination can unlock more work, and more Oscars. Marc Malkin is senior editor for E! Online and E! News.
"You look at someone like Jennifer Lawrence. She had a tiny career before Winter’s Bone. She gets nominated for Winter’s Bone. She becomes the hottest in Hollywood. She gets X-Men then she gets Hunger Games. Then she gets Silver Linings and she’s nominated again," Malkin says, adding, "There’s no doubt that that Winter’s Bone nomination completely changed her career."
An Oscar nod can improve the fortunes of everyone involved in a movie – even those with less glamorous roles.
Ziggy Kozlowski is the director of publicity for Block Korenbrot, a Hollywood PR firm. He recalled reading an interview with actor Jason Bateman, who played a supporting role in Juno, and said he got a lot of work from its Oscar run, even though Bateman wasn't nominated.
"You have all these studio executives seeing the film and thinking to themselves, oh yeah, we should get somebody like Jason Bateman," Kozlowski says. So there’s money, exposure, and of course, validation.
"These are people that have fame, money, everything in the world that you’d think that they want. But what they really really want is the approval of their peers," says O'Neil of GoldDerby.com
In addition, studies show that Oscar winners actually tend to live longer. Donald Redelmeier is a physician and researcher at the University of Toronto who’s looked at the longevity of Oscar nominees and winners.
"Winning an Academy Award in acting was associated with about a 3- to 4-year gain in life expectancy," he says.
For comparison’s sake, Dr. Redelmeier looked at it like a public health question. What would it take to boost the average lifespan that much for all people?
"If you cure all cancers in all people for all time, you add about 3.5 years to life expectancy in North America," says Redelmeier.
However, that winning effect appears only to help directors and actors. The habits that often keep writers going — late nights, coffee and cigarettes — might lead to a golden statuette, but doesn’t guarantee that final Oscar bump.
'Sellebrity' offers portrait of celebrity photography industry
From Oscar obsessions to celebrity obsession. The public's seemingly insatiable appetite for celebrity news has emboldened the photographers who snap their pics.
Paparazzi are going to increasingly risky lengths to get their shots. Last month, a paparazzo was fatally hit by a car while trying to get a picture of Justin Bieber's car. Such incidents are leading some lawmakers to push for restrictions on paparazzi.
Kevin Mazur is the director and producer of a new documentary about paparazzi called "Sellebrity." Mazur joins the show to talk about his film and the phenomenon of celebrity photography.
Medi-Cal expansion bill would add coverage for 1 million more people
Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid, already provides help to nearly 8 million residents. This week, the State Assembly is considering a bill which could add more than a million new people to Medi-Cal's rosters. In particular, this would include people at 158 percent of the poverty line, or $15,415 a year.
Despite uncertainty about the costs of expansion, a recent report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says the benefits of this plan far outweigh the costs.
For more, we're joined by Shana Alex Lavarreda, Director of Health Insurance Studies at UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Hitting the streets with Gil Cedillo and Jose Gardea in LA's Council District 1 (Photos)
The March 5th Los Angeles city election pits two very different candidates against each other in the race for Council District 1, which stretches diagonally from Northeast L.A. to the Pico-Union neighborhood. One is a detail-oriented city staffer who knows the district from 12 years of hands-on contact, the other a longtime Sacramento lawmaker who promises to wield his political know-how to get things done.
Given the choice to showcase their interaction with voters in any neighborhood in the sprawling First District, both candidates chose the Pico-Union area. Not just the same neighborhood, but the same streets.
On separate days, former State Senator Gil Cedillo, 58, and First Council District Chief of Staff Jose Gardea, 44, walked by the same barking dogs, rattled the same fence gates and fielded complaints of cars zooming through the same side streets.
This neighborhood – among the oldest and poorest in the city – is dense with immigrants from Mexico and Central America, so registered voters are few and they mostly prefer Spanish.
RELATED: KPCC's March 5 voter guide: Create your ballot
Gardea grew up speaking Spanish at home and English in school within a few miles of the Pico-Union area. When voters greet him at their front door or gate, he tells voters he's there "en carne y hueso." Translation: "in the flesh."
His message: "I am the community candidate that has the endorsement of our current councilman and hundreds of community leaders. I was born and raised in the neighborhoods of this district and have never left and if you allow me to serve, I will serve the full 12 years on city council."
As the top staffer to Councilman Ed Reyes, who is being termed out of office, Gardea accepts praise for what's been accomplished under his boss. Gardea has even published an online map claiming credit for 129 different improvements in the district. At the same time, he deflects complaints about what's not been done.
"Hay mucho que hacer," he says often to residents. Translation: "There's much left to do."
Cedillo describes himself as "an All-American boy" who grew up in Boyle Heights, played football and ran track in high school and attended UCLA. He learned Spanish 15 years ago after his election to the state legislature in 1998.
He likes to remind people of the laws he authored to give young undocumented immigrants access to schools and scholarships via the state's Dream Act. About a half-million of those young immigrants will be able to get state drivers' licenses. He often mentions his as-yet unsuccessful struggle to issue drivers licenses to all undocumented Californians, introducing the legislation so consistently that he was nicknamed "One Bill Gil."
Guadalupe Vasquez Gonzalez stopped Cedillo on the street to thank him for that effort. Another man called out from his pickup truck: "Licencias! Licensias!" Cedillo stopped at a burrito shop on Pico Boulevard and chatted about the legislation with the cooks.
Cedillo says his work on behalf of immigrant residents is one thing that sets him apart from Gardea.
About half the first district's voters are Latino, about 15 percent are Asian. Of about 40,000 registered voters, maybe 14,000 will go to the polls. Walking precincts in a neighborhood like Pico-Union is less about changing minds and more about connecting with supporters and urging them to vote.
This corner of the district is flat, with grid streets, but the First District's geography has rugged hillsides and busy commercial districts. The Los Angeles River runs through it, as does the Arroyo Seco.
Jon Regardie lives in the district and covers it as executive editor of the Los Angeles Downtown News. He says voters in the district's diverse neighborhoods must choose between Cedillo, the political player and Gardea, a master of details.
"Gil Cedillo will get up and answer a question by talking about who he knows and which endorsements he has and how he will tap his relationships with state individuals to make things happen," Regardie said. "On the other hand, when you ask Jose Gardea those same questions, he'll respond with a more localized and even wonky aspect."
The difference shows in the ways they respond to residents of Pico-Union complaining about cars cutting too quickly through the neighborhood.
Gardea told a resident to circulate a petition, and if he gets a majority to sign, he'll get his speed bumps.
Cedillo said he'd take the same problem to staffers and tell them to make it happen. But what if some of the neighbors don't want speed bumps?
"Well, if they don't want a speed bump, we have to figure out what is the resolution," Cedillo said. "No one wants people racing up and down the street when they have kids ... they want their street treated like a neighborhood street, not like a freeway."
The candidates differ also on the state Legislature killing off redevelopment agencies in California last year.
Gardea calls it: "The single most tragic public policy decision in the last twenty years."
The decision put in limbo proposals for affordable housing and economic development projects in Pico-Union, Westlake, MacArthur Park and Chinatown. But Gardea does not directly blame Cedillo: "I lay it at the door of every state legislator and the governor."
Cedillo does, however, blame L.A . city politicians, including Gardea's boss, Councilman Ed Reyes, for the demise of the Community Redevelopment Agency, saying CRAs refused to negotiate giving redevelopment dollars to fund state services for the poor.
"When you have to weigh that ... the state's dollars were being taken for economic development that turns out to be empty lots – property that's being paid for that produces nothing under the CRA and under the failed leadership of Ed Reyes – we can't afford that," Cedillo said.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Gov. Jerry Brown and a host of state legislators have endorsed Cedillo, as have many others among L.A.'s Latino and labor establishment – nurses, firefighters, teachers, electricians and public employees.
Gardea is endorsed by Reyes, mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, Congresswoman Judy Chu and a few other council members and state legislators. He's also got endorsements from utility, food and communication workers' unions.
Cedillo has raised $230,000 for his run, Gardea about $60,000 more. Cedillo has spent more heavily in the primary, so Gardea has more cash on hand, but Cedillo has more support from independent committees – mostly labor-oriented – that are spending on his behalf.
A third name is on the ballot, perennial candidate Jesse Rosas. His campaign isn't well-funded, but his presence on the ballot, along with write-in candidate William Morrison, might keep Cedillo or Gardea from winning outright in the primary. If that happens, these two candidates can be expected to battle door-to-door until the general election in May.
What's behind the success and popularity of the Vine app?
Meet Vine. The mobile app is a cross between YouTube and Instagram and it lets users create and post six second video clips. Vine debuted less than a month ago but it's already being used for commercials and movie releases.
It's even suffered from a porn scandal. Here with more on Vine is Angela Watercutter, who covers pop culture for Wired.
LA chefs cook up multiple James Beard Award nominations
Well its not news to anyone who lives here that LA has a fantastic food scene, but now it seems the accolades are catching up.
The James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for their 2013 Restaurant Awards yesterday, and for once LA chefs are generously represented.
Here to talk about some of the contenders is Patric Kuh, a recipient of a James Beard award for his food writing at Los Angeles magazine.
Northgate Gonzalez market chain banks on Latinos' appetite for traditional foods
The collective buying power of the Latino population in the U.S. will reach an estimated $1.5 trillion in 2015. Not surprisingly, researchers say that much of that money will be going to buying food.
From the Fronteras Desk, Jill Replogle tells us about one family business who is banking on Latinos' love for traditional foods from their home country.
How and why did video games get so violent?
Violent video games are getting more bad press this week after the revelation that Newtown shooter Adam Lanza had thousands of dollars worth of such games and played them regularly.
And while there is no proven link between violent games and violent behavior, many of the top selling titles, like Call of Duty and Halo, are built around the use of guns. It's a vastly different game culture than the one many people grew up with, where characters ate power pellets or jumped over barrels.
Todd Martens, a critic for the LA Times who has recently written about violent video games, joins the show.