A doctor lays out the flu situation on the ground, how businesses affected by both fire and mudslides are managing, are eSports the next big LA pastime?
How flu season got so bad this year
Medical centers across California have seen a surge of patients in recent months dealing with influenza A. Flu season is at its halfway point, but the bug continues to spread at a rapid pace.
"It was right around just before Christmas that we had some days where it was entirely clear... that we were in the middle of a major flu epidemic," Dr. Brian Prestwich tells Take Two.
Prestwich is the lead physician at UCLA Health in Century City.
To date, the epidemic has sent thousands of Californians to the hospital. According to officials, 42 people under the age of 65 have died.
So why is this year's flu season so bad? And what's the situation on the ground?
Dr. Prestwich points to vaccines.
Influenza comes around every year, and it circulates the globe. The best way that we have to prevent illness from influenza from year to year during the flu season is by preparing vaccinations that are likely to be protective against the flu that arrives in the northern hemisphere in the early winter.
Unfortunately this year, the guessing on the part of the experts, with regards to which strain of the flu would be affecting the population was not as accurate as in other years, and so, the vaccine that we've been giving people is not as effective as we had hoped.
(Answers have been edited for clarity.)
Montecito mudslides: A story of luck, loss and narrow escapes
Amtrak Surfliner to Santa Barbara is a hot ticket following 101 closure
Several miles of the 101 freeway remain closed in the Montecito area following last week's devastating mudslides. One of the only ways to get to Santa Barbara right now is by train. Take Two went to Union Station yesterday and talked with some of the people taking the Amtrak Surfliner up the coast. Here's what they had to say:
We couldn't get him home during the fires. I had to pull him out of school. They drove through burning fires on both sides of the freeway. We got him home. Then he went back and then the 101 closed, so he had to take the ferry home and then he had to take the train back. It's a little nerve wracking to have your kid stranded in the middle of fires and mudslides. -- Cynthia Mort, of Los Angeles, whose son was taking Amtrak to get back to UC-Santa Barbara
We came down to LA to buy a van, and we got a van, but with the roads closed, the only way for us to get it up there was to drive up and around. My father in law lives down here, so it's still down here, but I've got to get back to work. I missed work today. -- Tyler Miller, of Santa Barbara
I go to UCSB. I was here just on vacation, but you know how the mud slides are affecting the roads. This is the easiest way to get back, so I was supposed to catch the train yesterday but it was all sold out. I actually have class at 3, so I don't know if I'm going to make it. -- Roberto Chavez, of Santa Barbara
We had a doctor's appointment at Children's Hospital and we had to get down for it, so we had to take the train. We came down last week and ended up having to drive back the long way around because the freeways were closed. It's busy. We had no problem coming down. We could do business class on the way down, but it might be different going back. I heard it's standing room only. -- Alyssa Simonsen, of Goleta
Businesses take a hit after disasters close the 101
More than a week after devastating mudslides ravaged the town of Montecito, communities up and down the coast are struggling to recover. A lot of it has to do with highway 101, part of which is shut down until next Monday.
Many shops and restaurants can't thrive without tourist traffic.
"It's not good at all. It's a nightmare," says Pierre Henry, owner of the bakery Bree'osh just off the 101 near Montecito. "The business is usually busy to mid January, so right now there is no way to do business because everything was closed."
Henry adds that just months ago, he invested in things like a new delivery van and upgraded equipment. Without an income, it'll be hard for him to pay it off.
Then there's the added irony that his restaurant was just outside the mandatory evacuation zone.
"It means if we ask for the insurance to get covered, it's not going to happen because if you're not [inside an evacuation zone], there is nothing to ask and there is nothing to cover," he says.
Farther south on the 101 is A-Frame Surf Shop.
"It's been terrible," says owner Sam Holcombe, "really, really bad."
He lives nearby in Summerland, which was completely cut off from his shop because of the 101 shutdown.
"I couldn't even get to my business until Friday, and then I got here and it was just a total ghost town," he says.
And the lack of tourist traffic during prime surfing time this winter has washed out his income.
"This year, if the slide hadn't happened, you know I think we would've been super busy," he says. "I can tell you that in sales we lost probably about $40,000, which is typically about half of my December sales."
There is a silver lining in the tourist beach town of Carpinteria, though, where Sal Lucido owns the clothing shop Island Outfitters on Linden.
"I had $0 day and a $49 day," he says, "but I gotta say it sprang back pretty strong."
Christmas came after the fires, and he said the community shopped like crazy to support local businesses like his.
And Lucido added something surprising about the recent connection between towns affected by the fires and mudslides.
"I'm having this unique bounce because Montecito is evacuated, and I'm getting Montecito people who've moved to [Carpinteria] temporarily and they didn't have time to get their clothes out," he says. "They're coming in and they're buying clothes because they don't have any."
The worries are still there for others along the coast, though.
Henry says he will start a GoFundMe page, soon, asking for donations from people to help keep his business alive until customers can come again.
Holcombe has a specific message to tourists: please come back.
"Hopefully people will support local businesses a little bit more, and eBay and Amazon a little bit less," he says.
Uber deactivates dozens of drivers for cheating on LAX rides
Uber said Wednesday it will deactivate some drivers' accounts here in Los Angeles as it acknowledged a couple dozen of them have been gaming the system at Los Angeles International Airport, using apps that provide fake location data to jump them to the front of the line for pickups.
Megan Prichard, Uber's general manager for Southern California, joined Take Two's A Martinez to talk about the latest with Uber and airport pickups.
What drivers were doing at LAX that got them deactivated
We deactivated a couple dozen drivers. We found drivers using apps that provide fake location data to try and take advantage of a queue system we have at LAX to match riders with drivers who've been waiting in a line. These apps hold a driver's place in the queue and bump down other drivers on a list, directly hurting our honest drivers who are patiently waiting their turn for a ride.
How passengers are affected by drivers gaming the LAX system
We want to create a community of Uber riders and drivers respecting our community guidelines, which prohibit any type of fraudulent behavior. So we do this to create a better experience for everyone. This means more drivers will come to the airport, there will be shorter lines generally and shorter wait times.
Rematch system at LAX shortens wait times
We've made some recent changes that cut the drop-off-to-pickup time for drivers by 95 percent. So drivers can drop off at Terminal 1 and be immediately matched to a pickup in Terminal 2, reducing their next trip wait time to just two minutes. If another rider is immediately available, we have a queue system where drivers are waiting in a remote line, but it takes sometimes five to 10 minutes for the drivers to get into LAX when they're coming in from the remote lot, and we want to make sure that the drivers who are coming in have a fair opportunity to be connected with a trip at the airport.
Minimum payments for Uber drivers at LAX
We at Uber have invested in giving drivers a $10 minimum payout for any trip related to LAX. We know traffic can sometime be very, very heavy there, so any trip below $10, let's say you're going to the airport Sheraton as a rider. The Uber service will now cover the difference to give the driver a $10 minimum payout for those shorter trips.
California bullet train budget hits "worst case scenario"
The California bullet train is supposed to go from LA to San Francisco when it's finished. The problem is how expensive it's going to be and how to pay for it.
New reports estimate that the 119 miles of track in the central valley will cost $10.6 billion. That's up by more than $2 billion from the current budget. WSP, the leading consultation firm on the project, said that the increase could be attributed to higher costs for land acquisition, issues in relocating utility systems and the need for safety barriers where the bullet trains would operate.
James Moore, director of USC's Transportation Engineering Program, joined Take Two to discuss the budget problems of California's high-speed rail project.
"They're never going to cover all the costs. They may build the system. That, in my opinion, is the worst case scenario because it's never going to recover its cost of operations ... Gasoline is very inexpensive. Aircraft has a large share of the short trips. There's just not enough space in between those two for high-speed rail to compete. Even if the system costs exactly what it's supposed to cost, it will never pay for itself."
Why LA is the early home of professional eSports
America's unofficial national holiday is the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter what teams are playing, the majority of us are giving the event attention one way or another.
Today, football is America's passion, but it wasn't always that way. A hundred years ago there was no such thing as the NFL. And considering how fast things change nowadays, 100 years from now something else might be at the top of America's sports pyramid -- like eSports, or video game competitions. They've gained a lot of traction in recent years.
Brian Kamenetzky on what eSports are:
"Put most simply, it's video games played professionally. Particularly video games played professionally for an audience, whether it's a live audience televised or streaming over the net. The most popular being sports games like 'FIFA,' 'NBA,' '2K,' you have your first-person shooter games like 'Call of Duty' and 'Halo.' Then there are multiplayer battle games. Things like 'League of Legends' or 'Heroes of the Storm.' These are the types of games that have launched eSports. It's teams of players playing against each other in these big video game competitions."
Andy Kamenetzky on why LA is such a popular eSports town:
"Because Blizzard Entertainment kicked off the first season of the Overwatch League competitive video-game league. It will be the first of its kind in a broadcast facility in Burbank. It seats about 450 people in 50,000 square feet of space and the Overwatch League will run from January through June featuring 12 leagues that will represent cities inside and outside of America. There will be eventual playoffs after the regular season. there's a total prize pool of $3.5 million and all the players are guaranteed at least $50,000 salary and a retirement plan.
"Overwatch is modeling itself in many ways like a traditional sports league. Because there will be two teams repping LA: The LA Outlaws and the LA Valiants. So along with two NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and soon MLS teams, Los Angeles will be a two eSports team city and Angelenos will have to decide which jersey to wear."
Answers have been edited for clarity.
To hear more about the Burbank eSports venue, click here.
Save the presses! Southern California news is in danger
For weeks now, there have been rumors of major layoffs at Southern California News Group publications. That's the company that owns the Orange County Register, the L.A. Daily News, the Daily Breeze and other local newspapers.
On Tuesday, company executives confirmed those rumored staff cuts to KPCC. Although cuts like this have taken place in the past, the scope of these new cuts reflects a national phenomenon that is troubling. Ken Doctor has been analyzing the local media landscape for 15 years. He spoke with A Martinez on the latest in a series of blows to longstanding SoCal news outlets.
Why is this happening?
These layoffs at the Register and Daily News and Daily Breeze seem to be part of a larger trend. In November, the website LAist was abruptly shut down. The L.A. weekly was also acquired by a new owner that proceeded to lay off most of its staff. And now this. So, what's driving it?
"Print advertising. That is the number one cause. Certainly, reader habits have changed over time. We're all using our phones and using digital a lot more, but some companies have adjusted...print advertising in this industry is just going away. It's going away more quickly now and digital advertising is dominated, hugely dominated by Google and Facebook."
Together, Google and Facebook take more than 60 percent of all the digital advertisement in the country. The only problem is, neither of those companies produces any kind of news, especially local news.
What does this mean for Angelenos hungry for local news coverage?
"You have the 11 papers you noted, there are journalists at those papers doing good work, it's just less work than it was. You have the L.A. Times which is still the third largest daily newsroom in the country, and so they're producing a lot of content, it's just much more spotty."
There are plenty of sources, Doctor explained, also pointing out the large news staff at KPCC. However, these sources are more scarce. Now more than ever, it's on the news consumer to seek them out.
Any possible solutions?
Doctor pointed to privately owned papers like the Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, or The Boston Globe, owned by billionaire Red Sox owner John Henry.
"The history of American daily journalism is to go out there, get a whole bunch of news, put it into a product and sell it to people and keep the opinions to the opinion page. The editorial pages. In general and in places like Los Angeles and even the Bay area we haven't seen that kind of investment yet."
But private ownership is still a possibility.
No Place Like LA: Brent, who hated LA since he's from SF
NO PLACE LIKE L.A. IS OUR SERIES THAT ASKS L.A. TRANSPLANTS AND IMMIGRANTS: "WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELT THAT LOS ANGELES WAS TRULY HOME?"
This is the story of Brent Saunders in Grenada Hills.
I lived in San Francisco for ten years.
I was one of those insufferable San Franciscans and hated how superficial Los Angeles seemed.
Moved here for work, and one year I was sent to Cincinnati for training.
As I was landing at LAX, I thought to myself, I'm home now.
And it just dawned on me, "Oh no! I'm an Angeleno now!"