Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is working for the California Legislature, a state lawmaker talks about a controversial article he wrote, how humility helps leaders
Eric Holder hired to fight California's legal battles against Donald Trump
Democratic leaders in California announced Wednesday they've hired an attorney to represent them in any legal battles with the federal government down the line.
The legislature didn't just pick any lawyer. They chose Eric Holder, who served as President Obama's attorney general.
He was the first black man to serve in that position and he held that post from 2009 through 2015.
For more on this hire, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke to Loyola Law School's Laurie Levinson.
On what Holder was known for as an Attorney General.
I think that Attorney General Holder would point to the fact that he was very involved in civil rights; Trying to deal with issues involving the police across the nation; environmental laws, immigration laws, the DACA laws, voting rights. Some of the key issues that the Obama administration wanted to have across the nation, the Attorney General was taking a lead on it.
On how rare a hire such as this is.
It's fairly rare but, frankly, we live in rather rare times. And they do often hire outside consultants. So the fact that it was a former attorney general of the United States, that's quite rare. But the fact that the need a consultant in these difficult times, I'm not surprised by it.
On what cases Holder and his firm, Covington and Burling, might take on for California's legislature.
First off, I'm not sure that they're going to bring cases. I think, rather, he's going to be involved in consulting with the legislature. As to what laws California can pass that will keep the federal government out of our back yard and will withstand challenges from the federal government. Now if there are lawsuits and enforcement actions by the federal government, we'll be ready to go by having a firm like Covington and Burling-- and it is absolutely the go-to firm-- available to defend those.
In terms of lawsuits to be brought by California, those are going to be ones where the legislature can point to what we call state's rights; That as a state, we're not bound by everything the federal government wants to do and we're ready to take actions to protect our rights.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
OC Assemblyman stands by claim that California just legalized child prostitution
One California politician is receiving a lot of backlash after asserting that the state effectively legalized child prostitution when it passed a bill aiming to treat minors caught up in the sex trade as victims of abuse and neglect, rather than as perpetrators.
SB 1322, which was approved last fall and went into effect Jan. 1, creates a special exception for children under 18 when it comes to certain activities that would otherwise be considered criminal when committed by an adult, including soliciting, engaging in or loitering with the intent to commit prostitution.
In an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner, a conservative news outlet, Orange County Assemblyman Travis Allen criticized the law as heavily misguided, writing that "teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution."
His critics say that's not the reality and that Allen is spreading fake news and creating confusion. The authors of the recently passed law say it was designed to treat child prostitutes as victims of trafficking.
The article was shared on the Internet and social media, and many are talking about its ripple effects. The Republican Assemblyman spoke with "Take Two's" A Martinez about his op-ed.
The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity and length.
Interview highlights:
Do you really think that the state has said it’s OK for adults to have sex with minors?
That is an incorrect statement. What the law that was just signed into law and passed, which is now in effect as of Jan. 1, is that for minors under age 18 it is now no longer a crime for them to loiter with the intent to prostitute themselves or actually commit the act of prostitution for money in the state of California.
Excerpt from the piece: "Teenage girls and boys in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution." Do you think that’s a rational thing to say or write?
Well, I got to tell you, it’s the truth. This law is absolutely shocking, and it’s entirely true. I really hope that none of our minors will ever be so foolish as to ever want to do something like this. Clearly, anyone engaged in this are victims, but the bottom line is that the California Democrats did just pass this law. Child prostitution is no longer a crime in California for the minor.
Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if a child is having sex for money that an adult is forcing them to do this?
That’s really a question for the court, in terms of where the coercion is, but if anyone is having sex with a minor, that would be statutory rape.
I’m talking about the child here.
That doesn’t necessarily follow. The act of prostitution — solicitation of sex for money — that’s what this law allows. Clearly stated, regardless of the intent of the adult, if there is a minor involved in the act of prostitution, it’s now legal in the state of California. Law enforcement can’t do anything about it.
They can put them in custody and they do have to report it.
The reporting is limited to essentially either taking the child into child services if they feel the child is an immediate danger... or the law enforcement takes down their information and sends in a report. Hardly something [that] is going to stop someone on a street corner soliciting themselves.
The law though is supposed to decriminalize kids caught up in prostitution rings. Isn’t that the intent of this law?
Clearly, I think that people who are in favor of this law think that it’s going to help, but they’re seriously misguided. The law simply states that it is no longer a crime. Something that’s gone unreported is that it is now also legal for minors to pimp prostitution if they’re under 18. So now, not only do you have minors who are free to engage in selling sex for money, but now there are minors who are able to engage in pimping for money.
This only incentivizes pimps and others to further exploit our youth. This was a concept designed to help people and instead it’s going to have disastrous consequences.
How would you go about changing the law where kids aren’t victims, without making them criminals?
I’m actually going to be introducing legislation to repeal this law. What we actually need, is we need more and better enforcement. We need to have the police and our law enforcement agencies stop this activity. And the problem with this law is it takes out all of that ability. There’s a massive benefit when a police officer can apprehend, let's say, a 16-year-old on a street corner, and book them and take them in. They can now be taken off the streets, away from their pimp, away from a bad circumstance. They can actually put them into rehabilitative services.
If they're being taken away from their pimp, being charged with a crime and being made a criminal, how does that help?
In many of these cases, what will happen is these charges will get dropped and will get dropped in a plea bargain by a district attorney. They’ll say, "Look, we’re after your pimps. If you will testify against them, we will drop the charges." And this happens all the time.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Sports roundup: The Rams, the race of running backs and player vacations
Seattle defensive lineman Michael Bennett shares his thoughts on Lions running back Zach Zenner:
"There's not many white running backs in the NFL, but he has to be the best right now. That surprises me a lot because you don't see a lot of running backs in the NFL. There's a couple of them, but right now he's really, really good," Bennett said. "He does a lot of great things."
Plus, Monday was an off-day for the Giants before they had to be back at practice Tuesday to get ready for their playoff game this weekend in Green Bay against the Packers.
So a few Giants players decided to head to Miami for the day, they hung out with Bieber and took a picture on a boat. The internet is losing its mind in condemnation and defense of the players' playoff week mini-vacation.
And the Rams ended their first season back in LA at 4-12 and fired their head coach. They were the lowest scoring team in the NFL (by 2 and half points). Now they might get another team in the market as the Chargers are on the clock (Jan. 15) to decide whether they'll move to LA, and they are also looking for a coach.
Andy and Brian Kamenetzky joined the show for the weekly update from the world of sports.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
3 things humble leaders do that make them more effective
Head to the website TrumpInOneWord.com and you'll find all sorts of words users have submitted to define our president-elect.
There's WINNER and RICH, ARROGANT and DANGEROUS, and others we can't say on the radio.
And, then there's the word HUMBLE which has 66 votes.
If our new leader wants to fare well in the years to come, he may want to try to bump those numbers up a bit. That's according to new research on how humble leaders are better at what they do. Ashley Merryman, co-author of the books NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children and Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing, wrote about recent studies on humility for The Washington Post.
"Humble people do it completely differently," Merryman told Alex Cohen. Merryman listed qualities are practices of humble leaders and how it helps their businesses.
- Minimize disparity in pay. "The humble leader flattens pay disparity. They're not getting $100 million when their second-in-command is getting $5 or their secretary is getting pennies."
- Build a leadership team and delegate. "They hire a larger leadership team and diffuse responsibilities from them and throughout the company."
- Encourage personal development. "The focus for the humble leader is on improvement, recognizing their flaws, and saying, 'okay, what do I need to do to be better?' and because they put this priority then on improvement, they tell the people who are working for them, 'hey, I'm getting better, I recognize my weaknesses — what are you doing to get better?' They will actively then encourage others, solicit other's opinions and value them: 'I'm counting on you because I know I'm not really good at this, so can you do this?" People who work for someone who says that really step up and rise to the challenge."
"All of that catalyzes better bottom lines," Merryman said. "Companies with humble CEOs actually make more money. They have less employee turnover and more consistency."
Being an arrogant leader can be detrimental to a leader and his or her goals. "The arrogance or the humility actually become leadership social contagions," Merryman says. "If the leader is never willing to admit he does anything wrong, no one around him ever does everything wrong either. It all becomes about blame and diffusion and doubling down on mistakes rather than admitting there was a problem."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
San Ysidro revamp could breathe new life into border town
If you've ever taken a road trip to Mexico, chances are you've passed the city of San Ysidro — a small town located just north of the US-Mexico border.
An urban district of San Diego, San Ysidro faces some unique challenges: incomes are low, housing is crowded, and it's next to one of the busiest border crossings in the world.
Those are just a few of the hurdles city planners hope to target with a new proposal that could transform the struggling suburb into a tourist hot-spot.
For more, Take Two spoke to David Garrick. He wrote about it for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Do extreme temperatures affect endurance?
When it comes to getting in shape, most people focus on eating better, maybe exercising a little bit more. But what if there was another missing piece to that puzzle?
That's the premise of the new book, "What Doesn’t Kill Us - How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditions will renew our lost evolutionary Strength."
Journalist Scott Carney delved into a technique called the Wim Hof method, named after a Dutch health guru known as "The Iceman." Hof claims that by subjecting the body to extreme conditions, he could teach people to gain strength and increase endurance.
Here's a trailer for the book.
We spoke to Scott Carney about the book. To hear the complete interview, click on the blue arrow above.
Majority of California National Guard soldiers off the hook for bonus repayment
Thousands of California National Guard soldiers will not have to pay back re-enlistment bonuses, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The bonuses were given out as financial incentives at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many accepted, only to receive letters later demanding the bonuses be payed back. Some were even issued tax liens as a result of the unexpected debt.
As it turned out, many of the bonuses awarded in California were done so improperly. Now, action is being taken to relieve the debt owed by National Guard soldiers who completed their enlistment contracts in good faith.
For a closer look at the Pentagon's decision, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with David Cloud who has written on the subject for the Los Angeles Times.
Highlights
What went wrong with the bonuses in the first place?
They were offering fairly large incentives for people to sign up for re-enlistments lasting 6 years or more— $15,000. They were also offering to repay student loans. Some of those went up to $50,000 a year, even $80,000 in some cases. And people took them in good faith. Many of the people who did take them didn't qualify under the terms to get them for various reasons. This went on for years from 2004 to 2010 at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And then only later, did the Pentagon or the California Guard discover that these had been handed out in this way. And then went about trying to get the money back.
What does the Pentagon's announcement mean?
The vast majority of the soldiers who got the bonuses will not have to pay the money back. Roughly 17,000 soldiers got bonuses in this period. Some of them were eligible for those. Roughly 10,000, maybe as much as 14,000 soldiers, were facing the possibility that they would have to pay it back. All but about fewer than 1,000, the Pentagon said yesterday, will now be off the hook. The 1,000 who have to pay them back are people who, for whatever reason, did not qualify for them ever, and didn't fulfill their enlistment contracts. For example, someone may have taken out $15,000 to enlist for 6 years and in some cases, people didn't fulfill that 6 year commitment. Those people will still likely have to pay the money back.
How will soldiers know if their debt has been waived?
The Pentagon says that they will send a letter over the next 4-5 months to everyone affected here. And will tell them their status and will right off the bat, tell the vast majority of them that they're off the hook. The portion of the several hundred people who still may have to pay it back will be told to go through an appeals process with something called the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. They'll look at each individual case and decide whether it's warranted to forgive the debts of those people.
Quotes edited for clarity.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
The connected home is huge this year at CES 2017
The 2018 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas this week and so far there have been plenty of devices for the connected home.
LG rolled out a whole line of appliances that are connected to the internet. From their refrigerator to their washing machine, everything can be communicated with via WiFi. Samsung is in the same boat, as they just released their own fridge that you can talk to.
Other items are getting Google Home and Amazon Alex integration, which means that you can command your appliances to do things.
Ashley Esqueda is with CNET and she joins Alex Cohen for a discussion about the power of the connected home at CES.
To hear the entire conversation click on the link embedded at the top of this post.
Santa Monica teen paints custom shoes for pro athletes
Wes Burton is a high school sophomore in Santa Monica.
He's a typical high school kid — he plays baseball and has a part-time job. But the work he does is pretty out of the ordinary. Burton has his own business painting custom shoes and cleats, and he paints them for professional athletes.
A Martinez visited Burton in his garage, which serves as his art studio, to find out how he started his business.
As a baseball player himself, Burton says, he'd always been into the latest gear and cleats. The New Balance cleats he'd always worn, until recently, weren't available with any sort of custom designs or colors.
"I wanted to be kind of different," Burton says. "I had seen people had been painting regular shoes, and so I figured why not try and take that to a cleat canvass."
His gigs for major leaguers started when he sent Enrique ("Kiké") Hernández of the Los Angeles Dodgers a message on Instagram.
"I just reached out to him, I told him I was a huge Dodger fan and that I just wanted to try painting a pair of cleats for him," Burton says. "He responded in a couple days and invited me down to Dodger stadium."
Luckily Hernández was impressed. He asked Burton to paint another pair for him, and helped him get in contact with other major leaguers.
After a start-up loan from his mom Sabrina, Burton's business, Wes Custom Kicks, was soon up and running.
In the summer, Burton has a lot of free time available to devote to painting cleats, but in the off-season (and when school is in session) he has to set some limits on his orders.
There's school to focus on, along with his own baseball team "that I need to give as much time as I can to," Burton says. "Cause that's my major dream is to be a professional baseball player myself. So, it's a balancing act."