What to make of Morsi's overthrow in Egypt; Pope John Paul II becomes a saint; Friday Flashback: Crisis in Egypt, U.S. jobs and more; Edward Snowden's hacker training; A tool to prevent sexual assault in Egypt; Preparing for the royal baby; Congress' plan to increase student loan interest rates.
Egyptian government protests marred by gunfire and violence
Large groups of demonstrators took to the streets Friday in Cairo in support of Egypt's overthrown Islamist government.
Supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi marched to the building where it's believed Morsi is being held, and there are reports of gunfire and violent skirmishes between them and the country's military.
Amira Ahmed is the deputy editor of the online news site MadaMasr. She joins the show from Cairo.
How does Egypt's military control the government's future?
Amid the tumultuous backdrop in Egypt is the reality that, for several months, public support for President Mohamed Morsi had been waning. Meanwhile, the popularity of the country's military has been on the rise.
But by exerting its force over the country's fragile political system, these actions put into question whether any Egyptian government could be truly independent from the military's power.
Joining Take Two is Michael Wahid Hanna, an Egyptian-born researcher and senior fellow at the Century Foundation.
Edward Snowden's training to become an ethical hacker
It’s time for another Edward Snowden update.
The man who leaked information on the NSA is still believed to be holed up at a Moscow airport. He recently asked for permanent citizenship from Iceland, and some lawmakers are considering giving it to him.
The world is asking how one man could manage to get a hold of and release so much classified information without getting caught.
First off, he had training. The New York Times reports that in 2010, he had learned to become a certified ethical hacker. Christopher Drew co-wrote the story for the Times, and joins the show today.
Friday Flashback: Crisis in Egypt, U.S. jobs and more
The week is coming to a close, and it’s time for a look back at the biggest news stories of the week. Joining the show today is Matt Cooper of the National Journal and faithful Flashbackian James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times.
A pressing topic to start with is the situation in Egypt. From one perspective, this was an example of the people expressing their will by overthrowing an unpopular government. But some are calling it a coup, with the military deposing a democratically elected leader. Either way, it leaves the United States in a pretty sticky situation.
Back at home, the U.S. added nearly 200,000 jobs in June. The rate is not as strong as earlier in 2013, but it was a better improvement than expected. Still, 20 million workers are unemployed or under-employed, and Congress is doing little right now to fix that issue.
Congress returns to work, for at least a little while, next week. The onus is on the House to pass an immigration reform package already sent through the Senate, while in the White House, President Obama backed off a bit on health care reform.
Finally, there’s the George Zimmerman trial. He's the Florida man accused of killing Trayvon Martin, and Cooper and other journalists’ coverage of the trial has served as a sort of case study in the state of our culture.
Patt Morrison speaks with retired British ex-pats on Kate Middleton's anticipated baby
With Kate Middleton's due date drawing near, KPCC's Patt Morrison sat down with some British ex-patriots at ''The British Home in California," a retirement community in Sierra Madre, and asked them about their predictions for the the Dutchess of Cambridge's highly anticipated baby.
Looking into the life and music of Myron Glasper
Over the past five years there's been a resurgence of Soul as a musical genre, with some of the more notable acts including Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
But there's a retro soul album with a uniquely California sound that came out this week from two natives of the state — Myron and E.
Myron Glasper joined Take Two recently to talk about his career, and about growing up in South Central from a musical standpoint.
Future saint Pope John Paul II and his L.A. legacy
On Friday morning, the Vatican announced that the late Pope John Paul II will be made a saint.
This is especially rare, since it takes most people hundreds of years to reach sainthood, while Pope John Paul II passed away in 2005.
For more on what Pope John Paul II meant to Los Angeles, and his path to sainthood, we're joined by Father Thomas Rausch, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University.
Oregon's innovative plan to eliminate student loan debt
Earlier this week advocates for students of higher education lamented Congress's inability to halt a rise on student loan rates. The rates for federally subsidized Stafford student loans rose from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.
Maybe federal lawmakers should look west of D.C. to Oregon for some inspiration.
The same day of the loan rate increase, the state's legislature approved an unusual bill that could eliminate the need for student loans.
The bill is called "Pay It Forward, Pay It Back," and it would eliminate tuition, instead allowing students to pay a percentage of their future income into a special education fund.
But how it arrived on the state floor is almost as interesting as the concept itself, as it was part of a college class on the economics and policy concerns of student loan debt. Dr. Mary C. King is a professor of economics at Portland State University, and joins the show to talk about the plan.
Online map charts sexual assaults in Egypt
Wednesday's overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was preceded by angry, often violent, protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Women protesters in particular were at risk for sexual assault, which was a persistent feature of the anti-government protests in 2012.
Enter Harrassmap, an interactive tool for reporting abuse via Twitter, emails and messaging. It maps out locations where users have reported sexual attacks and harassment. We’re joined by Harrassmap’s co-founder, Rebecca Chiao.
Scientists turn to public to combat reduced federal funding
Developing a new drug, exploring space or mapping the human brain can cost millions of dollars.
But recently there's been a drop in federal funding for this kind of research, resulting in more scientists competing for what money there is.
KPCC's Science Reporter Sanden Totten investigated, and found that some researchers are turning to the public. Read the full story here.
What does global warming sound like?
We've seen what some of the effects of global warming look like: shrinking glaciers, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. But what does global warming sound like?
University of Minnesota student Daniel Crawford created a tune titled "Song of Our Warming Planet" to try to create that sound. He took the yearly average global temperatures from the last 130 years from NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and translated each temperature into a musical note which he plays on the cello.
He joins the show today.
A Song of Our Warming Planet from Ensia on Vimeo.
Statue of Liberty officially reopens after Superstorm Sandy damage
Liberty Island has been closed the last eight months due to damages caused by Superstorm Sandy. But with the help of service rangers all the way from Alaska and California, the Statue of Liberty reopened to the public just in time for yesterday's Fourth of July celebrations.
Park Service Ranger John Warren joins the show today.
Part 2: New Mexico worker's compensation laws may exploit dairy workers
Dairy workers endure long hours. They operate heavy machinery and tend to huge animals. But when workers are injured in New Mexico, they’re not entitled to worker's compensation. Advocates say these practices exploit a politically powerless workforce, and Tristan Ahtone has more from the Fronteras Desk.
The injury occurred on the job. A bull mounted a cow, and the worker was pinned against the stall. That led to a bloody and severe shoulder injury, surgery, and an inability to work.
"I went almost one month without work, and then after that, they called me back but I was in no condition to work," said a worker who asked us not to use his name because it could jeopardize his ability to find future work in the small New Mexico town of Portales.
"I would bleed at work, and that's how they had me working at their dairy."
Doctors told him not to work after his first and second surgery, but he claims his employer told him he would lose his job if he didn’t come back. However, shortly after his return, he was fired anyway.
“Every day I have the same pain in my shoulder,” he says. “The last time I saw the doctor he said he’d need to do another surgery, but they took away my job and i couldn’t do anything.”
In cases like this, there’s a few key points to keep in mind: the Agriculture industry is grouped into the Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing sector. It has a fatality rate about eight times the national average for all industries, and the rates of non-fatal injuries are also high. It’s estimated that just under 90 percent of dairy workers in the country are a mix of documented and undocumented, non-English speaking laborers. And in New Mexico, dairies aren’t paying workers compensation because state law exempts agricultural workers from getting it.
“It’s a big question why they’re just not willing to pay it,” says Gail Evans, legal director at the Center on Law and Poverty, the group that’s handling the lawsuit in the dairy workers case. “To provide workers comp insurance to all agricultural workers in the state would cost between five and seven million dollars for the industry overall.”
As the dairy industry struggles with high costs and low milk prices, this expense is not an attractive option. In 2011, a district court in New Mexico ruled that the workers comp exemption for dairy workers was unconstitutional. Since then, the issue of whether or not dairy employees have the right to workers comp has been stuck in the court system.
“In the dairy industry, we cannot get insured on these big facilities without carrying some mind of liability coverage,” says Beverly Idsinga, Executive Director of Dairy Producers New Mexico. “So we feel that our workers are currently covered under the insurance practices that our producers carry.”
Idsinga also says carrying workers comp would cost too much. And since producers already pay liability insurance, the industry shouldn’t have to pay double.
“Right now you probably know the dairy industry cannot cover anymore costs,” says Idsinga. “We don't set the prices for the milk, those are decided by the federal government, so any additional costs we can't pass on.”
Idsinga didn’t have estimates for how much it would cost the industry to provide workers comp, or how much producers pay for liability insurance.
“One thing that almost everybody agrees on is anyone who works in New Mexico should be covered by some form of insurance, and provided medical care if they’re injured,” says Van Cravens, with the states Workers Compensation Administration. “That’s about the only thing they agree on.”
And so the debate continues: should the state’s dairy industry pay full fledged workers compensation to its workers? Or is providing insurance through private carriers enough? Private insurance allows for little tracking or enforcement when a worker is injured. But actual data on how many people are injured on the job in the state’s dairies are almost non-existent.
“It’s a situation that has existed for a long time, that a lot of good people on both sides are trying to do the right thing,” says Cravens. “But we’re really dealing with a national issue here. Basically you’re talking about a national social issue, and it goes way beyond New Mexico or what our statutes do or don’t do.”
In large dairy communities like Portales, signs of worker problems are only really visible when workers are willing to speak up, like the injured worker we met at the beginning of this story who now faces unemployment.
“A supervisor told me ‘don’t even look for work here, go to another state, because here they’re not going to give you work, anywhere’,” says the worker in Portales. “’Just like I know about your injury, many others know.’ Since it’s a small town here, it’s very hard for me to find work.”
He says between his injury and finances, he’s stuck in Portales for the foreseeable future.