Climate change and immigration top the docket at Gov. Brown's last State of the State, California will get a new earthquake alert system this year, UC regents consider a tuition increase
Jerry Brown's legacy in California: From 'Moonbeam' to mainstream
Governor Jerry Brown has won many fans over the years. He's also gained a fair share of critics. But regardless of how Californians might feel about Brown in his final year, one thing rings true: California's never seen a governor like Brown, and it isn't likely to see one again anytime soon.
So how will California historians remember Edmund Gerald Brown Jr.?
Jack Pitney, the Roy P. Crocker professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, puts it in three words:
Restraint. Recovery. Stability. Some of that is the product of circumstances, and some of that is Jerry Brown's doing. In general, he's been a very good, competent governor, and to use the words that Reagan used to describe his own tenure: "Not bad, not bad at all."
Guests:
- Jack Pitney, Roy P Crocker professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College
- Carla Marinucci, senior editor for Politico's California Playbook
How much does college really cost? California wants to find out
University of California students can breathe a sigh of relief. The UC Board of Regents postponed a vote until May that would raise annual tuition by $342. However, a lot of college students across the state still struggle to afford school. To find out the true cost of getting a higher education in the state, the California Student Aid Commission is sponsoring a survey this year.
The Student Expense and Resources Survey will reach out to 100,000 students at as many as 380 campuses. Lupita Cortez Alcalá is the executive director of the Student Aid Commission. She led the charge on bringing back the survey after it was dormant for 12 years due to budget cuts.
Alcalá spoke with Take Two's A Martinez about how the survey will help paint a more accurate picture of today's student's needs and cost of living.
How cost has been measured since 2006
Educational institutions have been trying to keep up by releasing surveys every few years that probe students on housing, food, technology, etc. But overall, the cost of being a California student has been assessed with a blanket method for 12 years.
"We've been using the consumer price index and just adding a small increase to it every year, and we just don't know that's the true cost because now you're seeing a resurgence of food insecurity and housing insecurity. Students are living on other people's couches. They're having to go to food pantries on campuses, they're having to get emergency loans on campus for things that are unexpected..."
This method does not give an accurate portrayal of student's housing, food and technology costs. So the goal of the SEAR survey is to figure out what the actual cost is so financial aid programs can meet it.
It's a new era
In the old days, it was a paper survey done on a scantron. To usher in the new era, the survey will use technology.
"Well, we're definitely doing an online platform..." Alcala said. "Now it'll be a mobile-friendly app that they can do at home or in the library. They don't have to go to a particular computer so that's definitely evolved."
By making the survey more accessible, the student aid commission hopes it will encourage more responses and by extension more aid to those who truly need it.
Means of obtaining this information aren't the only things that are changing, questions about living situations and necessities are being updated as well.
- Food and housing—"There will be more deep questions about housing and food and in particular how much they're spending purchasing food at a grocery store versus buying out."
- Work—"There will be more questions about work. How many hours are they working? why aren't they working? Are they trying to look for a job? Sometimes the area doesn't lend itself to employment for students."
- Technology and healthcare, etc.—Questions will also focus on the cost of technology, cell phones, internet, etc., as well as the cost of healthcare and car insurance which were not factors in the past.
The overall goal is to increase aid
The survey is set to be administered in late March or April with the goal of having the results and analysis take place through summer and be applied in the 2019-20 school year.
"What we hope to do is shed some light on the true cost of attendance and hopefully continue a policy discussion on the state focusing on tuition and fees as our main assistance, which is very generous...but it doesn't really focus on living and the tuition and room and board..."
Honda teams up with Forever 21 to lure new, younger motorcycle riders
It's an admittedly unusual pairing. Forever 21 -- LA's most iconic purveyor of fast fashion -- has partnered with American Honda on a new clothing line that features vintage motorcycle dirt bike images from the '80s and '90s.
"They wanted to use our racing heritage, which is something we have a good history with," said Ben Hoang, with American Honda in Torrance. "It's kind of what was old is new again... The '80s and '90s style is in. We're going back into those hyper colors and those big starter jackets, so that's where the fashion is driving towards."
How that translates into clothing is, for the guys, long-sleeved t-shirts that look like motocross jerseys. Eye-popping, color-blocked jackets that incorporate black and white checkers lifted from racing flags. And, of course, graphic tees with dirt bikes catching air. For the ladies, there's a variety of pieces with vintage Honda logos striping their way across crop tops and skirts.
The Forever 21 x Honda Racing capsule collection arrived in stores Tuesday. Forever 21 says working with Honda is a result of its hunt for "new and unexpected partnerships." Racing and motorsport designs, according to its press statement, are especially popular right now.
Honda's involvement has more to do with cultivating a new ridership.
"We've kind of taken on this new direction of collaborating with more youthful brands specifically because we're looking to expand the motorcycle industry," Hoang said. "We've noticed a trend toward our customer base getting a little bit older. We wanted to bring in a more youthful audience."
Honda's Forever 21 collaboration is its second with a youth fashion brand. Last year it partnered with the California surfwear company, Aviator Nation.
"Hearing that Honda wanted to work with Aviator Nation really got us excited," said Paige Mycoskie, founder of Aviator Nation, in a YouTube video that came out last year. "The brand is all about living life to the fullest."
The average motorcycle rider right now is middle-aged and male. Compare that with Forever 21's target audience, which is 13 to 30, and mostly female.
Honda says partnering with these types of brands isn't about selling motorcycles but exposing young people to the culture -- the coolness of motorcycling -- to start them thinking that someday they'll throw a leg over.
Because right now - they just aren't. The motorcycle industry never recovered from the Great Recession. New bike sales today are less than half of what they were at their peak, back in 2006.
USGS plans to launch earthquake early alert system in 2018
Earthquakes are a constant for people who live in California. And on Thursday morning, there were two. One was a 4.0 magnitude roughly ten miles east of Anaheim. The other was a 5.8 magnitude temblor off the coast of Northern California.
Both earthquakes occurred only hours before the U.S. Geological Survey's planned public lecture Thursday afternoon.
"At the public lecture today we'll be talking about the development of an earthquake early warning system called ShakeAlert,'" said Elizabeth Cochran, seismologist for the U.S.G.S.
ShakeAlert will be used for the West coast of the country. U.S.G.S. said it could offer valuable time ahead of shaking that could save lives and property.
"When an earthquake starts, we have lots of instruments around the state of California, as well as in the Pacific Northwest," Cochran said. "We use these to really quickly detect when an earthquake begins and then we send an alert out to people who might experience shaking from that earthquake."
The system will not use the standard alert emergency alert system that appears as a notification on phones at first. It will use radio and television alerts until that function is ready.
While there are concerns with the amount of seismic activity that's occurred around the Pacific Rim in recent months, Cochran is not concerned.
"We've seen this type of clustering happen every so often, every few years. And it's normal activity that just happens to be occurring around the same time," she said.
To see the U.S.G.S. public lecture on ShakeAlert, click here when the event starts at noon.
No Place Like LA: Simone found and lost her heart in LA
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 Simone Kussatz in West Los Angeles.
I'm originally from Germany, and I always had that dream of coming to America because I loved to watch these classic Hollywood movies.
It was in 1986 that I came to San Francisco as an au pair, and I met Eric.
He said, when you ever come to Los Angeles, please come and visit me. I visited Eric for three days.
In those three days, we were driving up the 118 freeway. He had a red Alfa Romeo convertible.
He allowed me to drive, and as I was driving my hair was blowing in the wind. He tried to hold it back because it was blowing in my face!
I said to him, the man who wants to marry me needs to give me flowers every Friday.
I returned to San Francisco for another week before I returned to Germany, and it was a Friday when I open the door and there was a huge bouquet of flowers.
Then I was back in Germany and it was a Friday, and once again I had another bouquet of flowers sitting in front of our door.
It went on for two months.
In those two months, I received postcards and letters, and he would describe that it was so hot during the day due to the Santa Ana winds. And he would sit in a swimming pool at night, and the airplanes flying above him.
It was May in Germany and it was still not really green yet.
Hearing those descriptions about the warm weather just made me, I don't know, it made me want to come back here.
He wanted me to move in with him right away and I did that, and it was home for me.
But it always looks different in my dreams when I wake up. The person actually passed away.
I don't regret it.
But whenever I look at a plane, I still have that same feeling as I had when I was really young and had those descriptions in those letter. I still get that same feeling.
It's true love, I have to say.