Protesting offshore drilling, some of the legislation that could impact the state the most, Ed O'Bannon's most important win was on a different type of court.
'Dangerous' people could get guns taken under proposed bill
Say you have a family member who you believe to be a danger to themselves or others. Under a California law that went into effect in 2016, you can petition a court to take away their guns and prevent them from buying new ones for up to 21 days. It's known as the "gun violence restraining order" system.
Now, a new bill could extend this right to report to school staff, mental health workers, and even your colleagues.
The bill is the brainchild of Assemblyman Phil Ting and was initially proposed in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks that left 14 dead. Gov. Jerry Brown ultimately rejected the proposal, saying that the initial gun restraining order had yet to be tested.
Since then, though, there's more information about how the restraining order system has worked: courts in California issued 86 orders in 2016. Now, just days after another deadly shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Asm. Ting is proposing his legislation again.
If the bill makes it to Gov. Brown's desk, how might he act? Capital Public Radio's Ben Adler says it's hard to know which way he might lean.
Jerry Brown has tended to go to his typical "paddle a little to the left, paddle a little to the right" political methodology with gun bills.
He often will get a package of them landing on his desk all at once. He will sign some, he will veto some, he'll go through one-by-one, and when he vetoes some of the measures, he says 'I just don't see how this is really going to make a difference in preventing criminals from having guns as opposed to only law-abiding citizens.' He tends to pick things up one-by-one.
This is his final year in office. I don't expect him to depart from that philosophy. I'm sure he'll find out how the 2016 law has been going, and if he feels it needs to be expanded then he'll sign it, and if not then he won't.
California lawmakers push back against more offshore drilling
Last month, the U.S. Interior Department proposed opening nearly all of the country's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, including here in California.
The announcement has inspired protests from environmentalists and state lawmakers, including Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who represents several beachside cities in Southern California.
The state has also said it will deny permits for transporting oil from new leases off the pacific coast. Muratsuchi said the state had the right to do this because the state controls the first three miles of ocean extending from the coastline.
Muratsuchi is one of the Assembly members introducing a bill banning new infrastructure, like pipelines, that would prevent offshore drilling in those three miles of state waters.
"I certainly cannot predict what this president is going do next, but I can say that California is united in fighting back, including the legislation that I have authored to prevent any new infrastructure, any new pipelines to be built in the state waters so that we can effectively cut off any new oil and gas that is proposed to be developed thereby cutting off the economic incentive to bring that inland and thereby protecting our coast."
What California deserves, according to Muratsuchi, is the same exemption from the extended offshore drilling proposal that Florida was given.
LA's notorious Locke High School is improving. Is it still 'failing'?
Ed O'Bannon and his fight against the NCAA
In the 1990s, the name Ed O'Bannon was as well known around Los Angeles as Kobe Bryant or LeBron James. He was a superstar forward for the UCLA Bruins, and in 1995 he led the team to victory in the NCAA Championship, in the process scoring 30 points and being named the tournament MVP.
But his biggest win might not have happened on the basketball court but in the courtroom. As part of the class action lawsuit, O'Bannon v. the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., he and his fellow plaintiffs challenged that the NCAA's use of a student's likeness or image violated the law. It argued that upon graduation, former student athletes should be financially compensated for future commercial uses of their image or likeness.
O'Bannon has a book about that experience titled, "Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA." He joined Take Two to talk about it, and he said that the suit stemmed from a wildly popular video game series, NCAA March Madness by EA Sports, a game he first became aware of in 2009 when he went to a friend's house after an afternoon of golf.
We were just really kind of hanging out that day, and he told me that his son was playing a video game, with me in it. I was pretty amazed, and flattered, and I was thrilled to be on it ... and then my friend said, we payed X amount of dollars for it, and you didn't get a penny. And he sort of said it jokingly, but he was sort of serious, and I laughed, but then I got serious.
Here's an excerpt from his book where he talked about what he was feeling when his friend told him that his likeness was in a video game.
I'm not a gamer. My prime years as a video game player occurred back in the early 1980s when my brother Charles and I would spend hours on our Atari 2600 moving PAC-MAN through a maze or blasting asteroids. I realized that games had evolved quite a bit since then, but why the heck would I be in a game? I'm no Pitfall Harry jumping over crocodiles. I'm not Frogger trying to avoid becoming roadkill. I'm just Ed.
The lawsuit argued that upon graduation, a former student athlete should become entitled to financial compensation for future commercial uses of his or her image by the NCAA. It made its way through the legal system for years leading to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2015 in favor of O’Bannon. We spoke to him about the case, and what he hopes is his legacy.
Here's a digital preview of the book, courtesy of his publisher, Diversion Books.
New music from LA's Sy Smith and more
Every week on KPCC's Take Two, host A Martinez runs through the latest in new music offerings coming to - and out of - Southern California. This week music supervisor Morgan Rhodes shared her picks.
Beatchild & The Slakadeliqs
Album: Heavy Rockin' Steady
After a decade in the business and six years after their debut project (The Other Side of Tomorrow), Beatchild, the audio engineer turned maestro, is back with a fresh take on a familiar sound.
Sy Smith
Album: Sometimes A Rose Will Grow In Concrete
Morgan calls Sy Smith a singer's singer, a touring/traveling musician and sought after background vocalist. For the last several years she has been on the road with Chris Botti. Morgan says her long-awaited project is here and well worth the wait.
Ravyn Lenae
Album: Crush EP
Chicago and Los Angeles team up to produce one of the best new stars on the alt R&B scene - Ravyn Lenae.