Today we'll check in on the status of the Yarnell fire and those mourning the loss of 19 firefighters, four of which were from California. Many of the men used fire tents to try and shelter themselves from the fire, but how do they work? Then, SoCal defense contractors may get big payday with border security deal, tattoo legend Ed Hardy inks his life story in 'Wear Your Dreams' and much more.
SoCal defense contractors may get big payday with border security deal
A big payday could be in store for some Southern California defense contractors. A Senate bill on border security contains a $46 billion border security package, which is in the House to be approved as part of the Senate's plan for immigration reform.
As Matea Gold of the Washington Post reported, the legislation contains some very specific and unusual language. She joins the show today to discuss the provisions included as part of the massive deal.
Update on the Yarnell fire in Arizona
At last count, the Yarnell Fire in Arizona has burned more than 13 square miles and remains at zero percent containment. Yesterday, we spoke about the fire with journalist Michael Kodas. He joins the show again with an update.
Firefighters killed in Arizona fire remembered, mourned
Nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, based in Prescott, Ariz., were killed Sunday when a windblown wildfire overtook them north of Phoenix. It was the deadliest single day for U.S. firefighters since Sept. 11.
Fourteen of the victims were in their 20s, and four were from California. Sanden Totten reports.
(UPDATE: Grant McKee, 21, was the fifth Southern California native to be discovered among the 19 fallen firefighters this Sunday, and the second from Orange County.)
For many, firefighting is often a family affair
Firefighting is a dangerous profession, but it can also be a family affair. Like military families and those who go into law enforcement, many young firefighters follow in their parents' footsteps. So as a firefighter, when one of your own dies, there's a chance that person may be your son or daughter, mother or father.
Mel Enslow is the retired fire chief of Redlands, CA. His son Kenny was also a firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1990. According to Chief Enslow, Kenny was "20 and 4 days."
Interview Highlights:
How did Kenny pass away?
"He went to the Riverside County Fire Department and they took him immediately. While he was there, he was dispatched to the Recer wildfire. He was manning a hose that led up to the hillside. An oak tree at the top burned and fell, and hit him in the head. Kenny died a day later in the hospital."
Did you ever encourage or discourage Kenny from becoming a firefighter, himself?
"I never encouraged or discouraged him. You do everything you can to help him follow his dream. I had a mixed reaction when I first heard he wanted to become one. I was happy when he wanted to follow in my footsteps, but knowing what the job consists of, I was concerned about his well-being."
Being a fire chief, I'm sure you were proud of your son's service. But as a father, do you wish he never became a firefighter?"If I knew then what I knew now, I would have insisted he do something else. When any holiday comes around, it brings all those feelings to the surface. I see that empty chair at the table, I think of him."
As a firefighter, how do you prepare yourself for tragedy to strike at any time?
"You’re never prepared for it, and when it strikes, your family never expects it. Even when I saw the Twin Towers collapse, I knew exactly what those firefighters were doing. You get this empty feeling thinking about what they were doing at that moment. Firefighters are used to controlling chaos. They are not used to being engulfed by that chaos."
As a fire chief, you've probably had to attend to the deaths of several members of your own company. How much harder is it when that person is your son?
"In the service, you start off by consoling the family members of people who’ve died in fires, and then the families of uniformed members. It’s really tough to do. My older brother was a Baptist preacher, and when we heard my son was in a hospital, my brother was right by my side.
"It’s all you can do to do things to keep things together, seeing your son on life support. After my son died, my brother said, I’d like to preach at his funeral. I don’t know how he did it. So then when I was put into that position, speaking to others whose loved ones passed, I hold onto that and look for inspiration."
What advice would you give to the family members of the 19 firefighters who died in Arizona?
"People will say 'time heals all wounds.' That's not true. It's been all this time since Kenny's passed, and it feels just like yesterday. And so all I just all I can tell them is that time will not heal the wound, but time will allow you to accept it and learn how to deal with it. It will never get better, but you learn to cope."
For more information on how to help the families of fallen firefighters, visit the California Fire Foundation.
How firefighters use fire tents as a last resort
Fire tents are tightly packed cubes of folded aluminum, fiberglass and fabric that can reflect 95 percent of fire's radiant heat. Firefighters carry them on their belts, and are trained to only use these tents as a last resort.
Bill Streever has been embedded with fire crews and is the author of "Heat: Adventures In The World's Fiery Places." He joins the show today to talk more on how fire tents work in the field.
Tattoo legend Ed Hardy inks his life story in 'Wear Your Dreams'
Mention Ed Hardy, and it could conjure up an image of the ornate and gaudy apparel that bears his insignia. But not everyone knows that Hardy is a respected tattoo artist who inspired many other artists to take up the needle.
When Hardy first entered the business, having a tattoo was considered taboo, sometimes even illegal. He was offered a full scholarship to Yale's Master in Fine Arts programs, but turned it down and started his shop.
More than 40 years later, one in three American adults under 40 has a tattoo, bringing mainstream an art form once reserved only for a distinct minority.
"I never, never dreamed of this," Hardy said. "It's become so widespread, and I think it's going to be the most significant cultural change as an earmark of the late 20th and early 21st century, because there are millions and millions of people worldwide and all these cultures are tattooing."
He sets the record straight in his new memoir "Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos." He took the time to sit with Alex Cohen to talk about his life's work behind the needle and what he thinks about tattoo culture today.
Interview Highlights
On developing his passion for tattooing at a young age:
"My best friend's dad had some tattoos from World War II. We really focused on them one day in 1955. I was ten years old, and I thought this was the most incredible art I'd ever seen: the idea of putting pictures on people. I was drawing avidly, as my mother encouraged me since the age of three. It's all I knew how to do, all I wanted to do, and that's what got me started."
On giving a tattoo:
"It's very intense, and of course you get into the groove. You just do it, but you have to be so hyper-aware that you're working on a person. The sensitivity of them on a physical level, and the fact that you're doing something that's on forever. It's extremely complicated, and a lot of it has to do with not only formal things, like working on skin, but the temperament of the person and all the psychology. There's a whole lot of baggage attached to it."
On the global emergence of Ed Hardy merchandise:
"It was triggered for me by a cover article in Juxtapoz Magazine about a painting show of mine, Track 16, in Santa Monica. Two guys who had a small clothing company approached me and wanted to use my images. I said 'yeah, let's go for it'. Within a couple of years, it began generating a lot of attention in the garment industry and (Christian) Audigier saw this work and said 'oh, I must have the master license'. And it went from there.
He (Audigier) was true to his word. He ramped it up instantly into this enormous international thing. He had contacts with everybody in celebrity culture, which is not my world, and I opted to be completely in the background, which is why nobody knows Ed Hardy is a real person. At one point, there were 70 sub-licensees. We ran into some legal problems with it, got all that ironed out, and now Christian's out of the picture, and my wife and I co-own with a big brand management group in New York. I'm much more hands-on, and we're reconfiguring the domestic approach of it. It's huge in China, Brazil, [and] India."
Tuesday Reviewsday: Beck, Serengeti, Jon Brion and more
Beck is back! The artist recently released a new single, which is a pretty big musical departure from what he's done before. Jon Brion also has new music that he composed for a Pixar short called "The Blue Umbrella." He's better known for his work with Fiona Apple, Kanye West and the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" soundtrack.
We chat with Chris Martins from Spin Magazine and Shirley Halperin from The Hollywood Reporter about these releases and more on Tuesday Reviewsday.
Shirley's Picks
Artist: Beck
Release: Out now
Song: "Defriended" (single)
"With the exception of his song reader experiment, a book of sheet music that you literally had to play along to in order to hear what it sounded like, It’s been five years since we got new music from one of L.A.’s most revered and respected local artists, but he’s gearing up for a big return – two albums, one acoustic, one – not. Neither of which will feature this song.
"No, Beck navigates the road less traveled yet again in this standalone single, blending a folksy, acoustic feel with heavy electronic hues that feels a little animal collective-y. Whether the song has a social media subtext is not entirely clear (chorus refrain: “Why are you so unavailable?”), a 14-minute remix available on iTunes should give you plenty of time to ponder. Out now." -- Shirley Halperin
Artist: Courtyard Hounds
Release: July 16
Song: "Amelita"
"The Courtyard Hounds are 2/3rds of the Dixie Chicks — sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire – who, like their third member Natalie Maines, are venturing out on their own. Natalie’s album Mother came out on May 7 and was received very positively by critics and radio. And here we are just two months later with another Chicks offshoot, this one more upbeat.
"The first single, “Amelita,” has a breezy tex-mex feeling about it with a hint of Sheryl Crow as it rumbles along. The rest of the album isn’t as line dance-ready, but you could see this being a big encore number – maybe even for the future Chicks are back tour. And I hate to say it, but Natalie would sound great on this song. Album of the same name out July 16" -- Shirley Halperin
Artist: Jon Brion
Release: July 9
Song: "The Umbrella Suite"
"This incredibly sweet suite is the score to the Pixar short “The Blue Umbrella,” which served as the opening act to the animated feature “Monsters University.” Composed by Jon Brion, who’s best known for his work with Fiona Apple, Kanye West “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Punch Drunk Love,” it's the soundtrack to a six-minute film about two umbrellas who fall in love, are separated by inclement weather, and find their way back to each other. The music features vocals by singer/songwriter Sarah Jaffe that are equally sugary. Considering the weather out here, well, maybe if we all listen enough, we can make it rain." -- Shirley Halperin
Chris's Picks
Artist: Serengeti
Album: Kenny Dennis LP
Song: "Crush 'Em"
Artist: Rose Windows
Album: The Sun Dogs
Song: "Wartime Lovers"
Antelope Valley ordered to pay $12.5 million in racial bias case
The federal government has demanded that L.A. County and two Antelope Valley cities pay $12.5 million to victims of racial harassment. The order came following last week's accusations by the US Department of Justice that LA County Sheriff's deputies were abusing their authority.
Specifically, the deputies were discriminating and harassing African Americans who lived in subsidized, low-income housing known as Section 8.
Richard Winton, who has been reporting on this for the Los Angeles Times, joins the show with more.
Could Amazon find success in online sales of fine art?
Buying high-end art usually means browsing through high-end galleries, but that soon may change.
Galleries like Artsy and Saatchi are selling fine art online, and rumor has it that Amazon has plans to become a virtual dealer of paintings, scultptures and prints, too.
To get a sense of how the art world is taking this news, we turn to Francine Ellman, president of the art consulting firm ArtSource LA in Santa Monica.
Winklevoss twins plan IPO for Bitcoin trading
Call Mark Zuckerberg, the Winklevoss twins are back. As you may remember, the Winklevosses were made famous by the movie "The Social Network." It detailed their lawsuit against Zuckerberg for ownership of Facebook.
Since then, the twins have become venture capitalists, investing in tech companies, and now they're trying to get into another business: trading Bitcoin.
Here to talk about that is Nathaniel Popper, financial reporter for the New York Times.
California judge says yoga in classrooms not like teaching religion
A California judge this week rejected a lawsuit from San Diego parents who argued that yoga was inherently religious and that teaching in the classroom was a violation of the principle separating church and state.
The judge said that while Yoga has religious roots, the Encinitas School District, where classes are taught, had stripped all cultural and religious references.
Tony Perry, reporter for the LA Times has been following this. He joins the show with more.
Meditation is Silicon Valley's newest business strategy
In the fast-moving world of Silicon Valley it seems there's a hot new trend every minute. Google Glass, 3-D printing, and smart watches are already last week's news. Now, the latest buzz word on the lips of the tech savvy is "Om."
Meditation practice has become de rigeuer among the entrepreneurial set. But this is not your hippie uncle's brand of Buddhism, at least not according to a piece in Wired by Noah Shactman.
100 years ago: A Gettysburg reunion and a second Gettysburg address
One hundred fifty years ago this week, one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Over the course of three days, more than 50,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed, wounded, captured or reported missing.
Several months after the battle, Abraham Lincoln spoke those six famous words, "Four score and seven years ago," but that wasn't the only Gettysburg Address. There was a second one delivered by Woodrow Wilson 50 years later.
For more on this, we're joined by Brian Resnick, an editor for National Journal.
California bill aims to honor Buffalo Soldiers' role in parks
Buffalo Soldiers were members of America's first all-black Army regiments. After the Civil War ended, they were dispatched to patrol wilderness areas like California's Sierra Nevada.
Now, Congress has moved to formally recognize their contributions. A bill to create a commemorative trail honoring California's Buffalo Soldiers has already passed in the House and will soon be introduced in the Senate.
Shelton Johnson, a park ranger and historian at Yosemite National Park, joins the show to tell us more of the history of these men.