President Obama gives his final speech as president, research finds that the toughest time for a mom is when children are in middle school, and U2's iconic album "The Joshua Tree" turns 30.
How Trump's pick to head Justice Department could affect immigration in CA
The Senate kicks off confirmation hearings today for top posts in the Trump Administration, including at the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security.
Those two positions – Trump has nominated Sen. Jeff Sessions for the DOJ and retired Gen. John Kelly for DHS – could have a big influence on many issues, from civil rights investigations and cybersecurity to voting rights. But for California, one of the most contentious fights could come over immigration.
"U.S. Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer, so the Attorney General has tremendous authority over the enforcement of immigration law," said Emily Ryo, associate professor of law and sociology at the USC's Gould School of Law. That includes appointing judges and reviewing rulings at the nation's immigration courts – a key step in determining deportation proceedings and asylum claims.
California political leaders – from Governor Brown to Attorney General Xavier Becerra to state lawmakers – have vowed to fight federal efforts to weaken what they say are state and local polices that protect immigrant rights.
That all could lead to a showdown in the coming months.
"California I expect will be at the forefront of that movement to challenge Donald Trump's changes in immigration policy," said Ryo.
2 ways President Obama will leave his mark on California
As the sun rises on the Trump tenure, so too must it set on the incumbent.
President Obama is scheduled to deliver the final address of his presidency this evening from Chicago: his adopted home and the place where it all began.
Much has been said about the legacy of the man who saw the nation through some of its toughest days.
In the Golden State, where the president found some of his strongest support, his legacy will continue to ripple up and down the golden coast.
For a look back and a look ahead, Take Two spoke with three guests:
Lynn Vavreck, professor of political science at UCLA
Jeremy Carl, research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution
And Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, professor of gender studies and political science at USC
Here are the top 2 areas in which President Obama will leave his mark:
1. The Environment
Experts disagree over whether President Obama's efforts to champion green energy were ultimately positive for California. Here are two different takes.
Positive:
Ange-Marie Hancock-Alfaro,: I think one of the key areas where Obama has tried to have that impact is this notion of green jobs. For example, we are a place where there is tons of sun, so we know that solar energy is one of the most important things. What the Obama Administration has done is think about how that leveraging of solar energy can benefit working-class folks in terms of actually getting them jobs.
You have people in community college systems; you have people without degrees who then get trained vocationally to do things like install solar energy panels. Part of those 15.4 million jobs that were created since 2010 in this country has to do with those green jobs.
Less-positive
Jeremy Carl: There's a lot of facets to his energy legacy. One of them is, and this is not just Obama, but we're paying twice as much for electricity than some of our neighbors out here in the West.
We've got Solyndra and failed crony capitalism [and] it's been an unfriendly environment for oil and gas exploration here due to both federal and state regulations.
In the interest of being fair, unlike many areas, we've had Silicon Valley as the nexus of clean tech growth, and I think we will see some very promising developments that will eventually potentially be some interesting market solutions. But I think the way that we've gotten there has been very sub-optimal and more concerned with what's politically correct than what's effective.
2. The Affordable Care Act
Senate efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare, stalled last night. While the future of healthcare is uncertain, few would deny that the ACA has had a significant impact in the Golden State. Since its implementation, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services estimates that 54 percent of uninsured Californians now have coverage.
USC's Ange-Marie Hancock-Alfaro tells Take Two's A Martinez that the ACA was a victory for women here and across the country, whether or not they participated in the health exchanges. The extra coverage afforded to women by Obamacare could now be rolled back entirely:
There are going be very specific rollbacks that will affect women.
For example, the idea of having support for nursing moms, gestational diabetes, resources that were attributed to women who are affected by domestic violence, coverage for all of those things — even for women who may have had insurance before the ACA — goes away.
Employers will no longer be mandated to have this sort of coverage for female employees if that repeal goes through in its entirety.
What to expect tonight:
Lynn Vavreck: I doubt that there will be a lot of looking back. It's not in his nature. He's much more of a hopeful optimist, forward-looking thinker, and speaker.
The tradition is the important feature here, and it's a chance for Barack Obama to do the thing he loves to do and, quite frankly, the thing that he's better at doing than most human beings.
It's a little bit like letting Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Aaron Rogers throw one last long touchdown pass. This is what he's really good at.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity. To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
The Brood: Why moms of middle schoolers have it the hardest
"Don't worry, it gets better."
Those reassuring words are often used to comfort new moms who are stressed out, or maybe depressed.
It turns out though, it may be more accurate to say, "It gets better, then it gets even worse, then it gets better again." While that advice might not be as comforting to hear, it's rooted in research.
A study published last year in the journal Developmental Psychology found that the hardest time for mothers isn't when they're new moms, but later, when their kids are in middle school.
The researchers— psychology professor Suniya Luthar at Arizona State University and Lucia Ciciolla, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University— surveyed 2,247 well-educated mothers about various factors related to their personal well-being, and found that moms of middle schoolers were the most stressed and unhappy.
As kids reach middle school and approach their tween years, Luthar says, "kids are bringing home this humongous amount of stress that they themselves are experiencing, and therefore that we, as first responders to them, are experiencing." At the same time, moms are dealing with getting older and also approaching the peaks of their careers, which may mean a lot more demands on their time.
As for what moms should do with this information, Luthar says, the first thing is just to understand that there will be challenges ahead. She suggests keeping up with support networks-- those friends who you can turn to for advice when you need it.
Her other piece of advice for surviving the middle-school years is to have a lots of open communication with your kids.
"Of course, wherever we draw the line, they will test one step further," Luthar says. "But that is the single most important thing-- have that loving, honest, open communication with your child."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Latin American music from Café Tacuba, Diana Fuentes, David Bisbal and more
If you don't have the time to keep up with the latest in new music, we've got the perfect solution for you: Tuesday Reviewsday. Every week our music experts come in to talk about the best new tunes in one short segment. This week, Billboard's Leila Cobo and music journalist Justino Aguila join A Martinez with their top picks. To hear the full discussion click on the audio embedded above.
Leila Cobo
Artist: Café Tacuba
Single: Futuro (Future)
Artist: Diana Fuentes feat. Tommy Torres
Single: Meantime
Justino Aguila
Artist: Julion Alvarez
Single: Afuera Está Lloviendo (It’s Raining Outside)
Artist: David Bisbal
Album: Hijos del Mar
Songs: Antes Que No (Before No);
The search for a lost city began with Pasadena
To find lost cities and civilizations, sometimes you don't have to start in the wilderness.
You just have to go to Pasadena.
Two decades ago, filmmaker Steve Elkins assembled a team to chase down a legendary city thought to be somewhere in a Central American rain forest.
It's known as La Ciudad Blanca, The White City, a place Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes looked for but never found. Aviator Charles Lindbergh claimed to have seen it when flew over the region.
Elkins started his search from a lower altitude: Sequoyah School.
His son's teacher at the time had a lawyer friend. That lawyer was working with a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a different search.
Elkins heard about it, and reached out to that same scientist to see if he could use satellite data to help find La Ciudad Blanca.
Elkins talks with Take Two, along with Doug Preston who chronicled the search in his new book, "The Lost City of The Monkey God."
Is NASA focusing too much on asteroid missions?
Since it was established in 1958, NASA has had its fair share of exciting and memorable missions.
Early on, the Mercury program sent the first Americans into space and Apollo put the first human on the moon. More recently, the Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars.
Lately though, it seems like NASA has developed a thing for rocks, asteroids actually...so much so that it sparked one scientist to tweet:
It is...somewhat depressing personally that we have no missions on the books to anywhere that has an atmosphere for the next...15 years....
— Dr./Prof. Sarah Hörst (@PlanetDr) January 4, 2017
Well, we've got out own scientist to talk to about this. Doctor Bruce Betts is Director of Science and Technology for the Planetary Society, he spoke to A Martinez about why the space agency is going 'asteroid crazy.'