VA Secretary Robert McDonald visits L.A. to focus on the issue of homeless vets, Barbie's new bodies, a rare California banana is back after 18 years.
Housing homeless vets tops the VA's long to-do list
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Bob McDonald, is in Los Angeles this week. He's here, in large part, to talk about homeless vets.
It's a problem in cities across the country and one that, in L.A., Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged to end.
As of December last year, there were about 2,500 homeless vets in L.A. County — that's about 5 percent of the total homeless population in the county.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke to Secretary McDonald Thursday to hear his plans to end veteran homelessness.
What's your role in helping cities get homeless veterans off the streets?
"I think one of the most important things we can do is bring the federal aid, whether it's the HUD-VASH voucher that gives the veteran the rent that they need to be in a shelter, or the wrap-around care that we provide ... It's the wraparound care that really is customized to their needs. It gets them back on their feet."
Are the vouchers worth enough, though? Especially in Los Angeles where it's expensive to live?
"After my first trip here ... one of the first things we did is we worked with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. We raised the amount 120 percent for LA, and then yesterday [we] announced ... that we're going to raise it again."
One part of the puzzle to fix veteran homelessness here is to create housing on the VA campus in West Los Angeles. You're going to be there later today with Mayor Eric Garcetti to unveil plans for the area. What is the plan?
"The plan is a very comprehensive master plan to, in a sense, return the campus back to what it was when Carolina Barrie's ancestors gave it to the federal government in the 1880s. [To] return it back to being a community for veterans where they can be proud of that community. Where they can participate in activities, where they can get their medical care, and if they need housing, where they can get [the] permanent supportive housing ... that they may need in order to get back on their feet."
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
Is this the week of prison reform?
Yesterday, California Governor Jerry Brown announced he would be putting his support behind an initiative that could have a dramatic affect on prison sentencing.
This follows a decision by the U-S Supreme Court and an Executive Order by President Obama that all address the issue of prison reform
But will any of these have an impact on how we treat incarcerated young people?
For more we talked to Andrew Cohen, an editor with the Marshall Project - a nonprofit news organization that focuses on the American criminal justice system.
The Wheel Thing: Supercross champ Ryan Dungey makes it on a Wheaties Box
Sure, it's not an Olympic Gold Medal or the Heisman Trophy, but being on a Wheaties box is a pretty big athletic honor.
The latest honoree is a 26-year-old, motocross phenom. Ryan Dungey has been riding dirt bikes since he was five, and he's just the kind of champ a sport looking to build an audience can use - handsome, warm, unassuming and just a nice guy. He is, after all, from Minnesota.
Our Wheel Thing guide, motor critic Susan Carpenter, met Dungey in the cereal aisle of an Orange County Target store, and they talked about the rigors of the indoor, dirt-racing sport of Supercross, Dungey's childhood dreams of being on a Wheaties box, and what it takes to speed around a track filled with hills, dales and obstacles, while trying to avoid colliding with 19 other racers.
The writers of Kung Fu Panda on international appeal
Lately we've been hearing a lot about Hollywood forays into China... the country can be a big box office generator.
American films usually come out domestically first and then eventually make it to Asia.
But tomorrow a major film will be released on the same date in both the US and China.
That film is Kung Fu Panda 3 - the latest in the franchise about Po - a plump bear and somewhat reluctant martial arts master voiced by actor Jack Black.
In this film, Po reunites with his long-lost father who takes him home to a Panda Village.
Po, who's never really seen another panda before, is blown away and now has to figure out how to help his new community from an foe.
For more on the making of this cross cultural production, I spoke to writers and producers Jon Aibel and Glenn Berger.
Before they were writing movies featuring animals who practiced kung fu, Berger said they worked in the... less fun business of finance management.
They'll explain how they found their way into Hollywood and why the Kung Fu Panda series has found so much successs in more than one country.
How big theater chains might be trying to put the indy guys out of business
You probably won't have trouble finding showtimes for Kung Fu Panda when it comes out, especially if you have one of those big, sprawling theater chains near you.
What if, though, the only screens around are in a small, independent theater?
Some of these mom and pop movie houses are claiming that the big boys such as Regal and AMC are using their muscle and pressuring studios not to offer their films to the indy theaters.
Now, the little guys are getting together and taking their case to court. They say the big chains are operating as kind of a monopoly.
A Martinez joins
, Senior Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, for a discussion on the topic.
If you'd like to hear the entire segment click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Lincoln Heights senior gets perfect score on AP Calculus exam
Cedrick Argueta has a new nickname among his high school classmates: “One out of 12.”
That’s because he was one out of 12 students in the world to get a perfect score on last spring’s Advanced Placement Calculus AB exam. A test that, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District, was taken by 302,531 other students.
Argueta told KPCC’s Take Two that a lot of preparation went into his success with the AP exam. The 17-year-old studied up to 4 hours per night the week leading up to the big test.
“I didn’t go into the exam thinking that I would get a perfect score,” Argueta said. “It was just amazing to be able to do that.”
The Abraham Lincoln High School senior also shared that he thought his whole class felt really prepared going into the exam after weeks of staying after school and dedicating some weekends to calculus.
“We knew every type of problem that would be on the test,” Argueta said.
His math teacher Anthony Yom has been teaching AP Calculus for five years, according to LAUSD. During that time, has seen a 100 percent pass rate for his students who take the exam.
When Argueta told Yom the news, he said his teacher was speechless.
“After taking a minute to process it he was really proud of me. He gave me a hug,” Argueta said.
On the horizon for Argueta: He hopes to attend Caltech and become an engineer for NASA.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Barbie makes a progressive leap: offers more body types and skin tones
Barbie has social media buzzing for its latest release. The iconic doll is now offering three different body types and a variety of seven skin tones.
Patrice Grell Yursik, founder of Afrobella and Mattel rep Michelle Chidoni join the show to discuss the impact of this release.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Sir Ian McKellen joins debate about diversity, 'No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar'
When it comes to inclusion of all types, there's been progress in the world of toys, in the world of film, not so much.
There's been a steady stream of outrage over the lack of nominees of color in this year's acting categories at the Oscars. However, race may not be the only arena where Hollywood is falling down. This week, British actor Sir Ian McKellen dinged the Academy for not honoring the work of gay actors.
"No openly gay man has ever won the Oscar," McKellen noted, "I wonder if that is prejudice or chance."
For more on this question, Ray Bradford joins the show. Bradford works for the group GLAAD which works to bring stories from the LGBT community which build support for equality.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
*CORRECTION: The William's institute was identified as being a part of USC's school of law when it is in fact part of the UCLA school of law. We apologize for the mistake.
Ever eat an 'antique' banana?
The bananas you can buy in stores? Blech.
Bananas come in thousands of varieties, just like apples.
But the only one widely available in stores, called the Cavendish, is the equivalent of the Red Delicious – hearty, easy to transport, looks good and is incredibly bland.
All the other delicious varieties were wiped out by diseases decades ago, or are just too hard to grow commercially in big numbers. (There's a great NY Times article about it)
Now at the Santa Monica farmers market, however, is your first chance in years to buy local and "antique" bananas.
At the Kaoae Farms stand is Andy Shaeffer, who's been growing these bunches at his farm in La Conchita in Ventura County.
"They're similar to the bananas that people are used to when they travel to Hawaii or other tropical spots," he says. "A tropical banana has a lot of flavor."
Shaeffer lets them ripen on the tree shortly before trucking them down to the market, meaning that sugars in the fruit have plenty of time to develop.
Conventional bananas are picked when they are deep green before being shipped around the world.
Shaeffer's bananas are much more fragile, too. They're easily prone to bruises or split peels, which can be an aesthetic turn-off to most shoppers.
Look beyond the peel, however, and you're treated to subtle and surprising flavors.
The day KPCC visited, he had on hand rajapuri and dwarf Brazilian bananas. Each fruit is half the length of a store-bought one.
The rajapuri had an aftertaste of lemons or passionfruit. The dwarf Brazilian is known for its apple-like taste: in this case, we thought it had hints of a Golden Delicious hidden away.
Shaeffer was close to not selling these bananas at all, in fact.
He bought a property that used to be renowned in Southern California for selling local bananas up until the early 1990s. A series of bad weather and mudslides hit that farm, however, and the owner Doug Richardson decided to close up shop.
Shaeffer bought that land about five years ago and made a deal with Richardson: try to rehabilitate the hillside to protect the farm, and attempt to grow bananas again.
"We've had mixed results with the weather and the location because they're very sensitive," he says.
They were moving the trees around the property over the course of four years to test which was the best location.
"We were just about to give up on them. I was going to give them one last year to produce, and we found a good spot!" says Shaeffer. "They're thriving right now."
Kaoae Farms sells at the Santa Monica farmers market every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m.