Today, we start with a discussion about the conditions deported youth face in Honduras. Then, grooming remains one of the most resilient industries despite the recession. Plus, Edan Lepucki's debut novel 'California' builds buzz before release, a new free 'Good and Cheap' cookbook for the $4 a day SNAP budget, shark attacks on the rise in Southern California, and much more.
In Honduras, after a perilous journey, deported youth return to harsh conditions
This week, President Obama is expected to ask congress for an additional $2 billion in funds to respond to the sharp rise in migrant children from Central America.
The request is part of a federal response to the rise in unaccompanied minors crossing the US southern border. Some 50,000 children have been apprehended since last October.
Part of that response is ask to streamline deportations of youth, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
"Our message to those who come here illegally: our border is not open to illegal migration and we are taking a number of steps to address it, including turning people around faster," said Johnson on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. "We've already dramatically reduced the turn around time, the deportation time for adults. We're asking this week for supplemental from congress to build on additional capacity and we're cracking down on the smuggling organization."
But what happens to youth when they are deported back to their home countries? And what are the conditions on the ground driving this surge?
For more, we’re joined by Aaron Nelsen, reporter for the San Antonio Express News. We reach him in Honduras, where many of the recent migrants are from.
You can read Nelsen's stories from Honduras here.
Attorneys concerned about legal access for migrant kids
So far the federal government has not allowed volunteer attorneys to visit the Nogales facility housing close to a thousand unaccompanied migrant children. Now, attorneys say upcoming changes could make it even harder for these children to get legal counsel before they are returned to their home countries. From the Fronteras Desk in Phoenix Jude Joffe-Block explains.
Since October, more than 50,000 migrant children, mostly from Central America, have crossed the border illegally without parents. Many surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol agents and now face an uncertain fate in this country.
When Phoenix-based immigration attorney Ruben Reyes heard some were being housed temporarily in a Nogales warehouse, he had an idea.
“What I was hoping to do is get attorneys who are willing to donate their time to go and offer these children housed in Nogales to give them a very basic legal education,” Reyes said.
Reyes got about 25 Arizona attorneys to volunteer to do “Know Your Rights” presentations at the facility.
They planned to explain to the children the basics of what is in store for them in deportation proceedings. Reyes said there is critical information these children must understand, such as the consequences of not appearing for their immigration court hearings and details about immigration law.
“If there is real fear, they need to express it,” Reyes said. “If they were victims of crime coming through or on this side of the border, they need to express that. All of these things could be avenues to immigration relief.”
But Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Nogales warehouse, ultimately denied Reyes and other attorneys access.
“I was contacted by CBP saying that that facility was pretty much off-limits,” Reyes said.
Customs and Border Protection would not comment for this story. An official speaking on background confirmed that attorneys generally aren’t allowed to visit with migrants in the agency’s custody.
The same official said attorneys have an opportunity to meet with children later in the process, once they are transferred to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
But those shelters are much smaller than the Nogales facility, making it harder for attorneys to address a big group of children at once.
Meanwhile, attorneys in other states have been gaining access to emergency shelters set up on military bases for child migrants. Those facilities are run by HHS, rather than CBP.
On Monday, the Oklahoma City branch of Catholic Charities is set to begin conducting legal training for about 1,200 children housed at Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla. The Texas nonprofit RAICES has been doing legal trainings and screenings for a similar number of children housed at Lackland Air Force Base for the past month.
“We have identified that a majority of children we have screened are eligible for a relief from deportation pursuant to our humanitarian law,” said Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of RAICES.
But Ryan says that doesn’t mean they’ll win their cases.
“The hurdle that will in many cases prevent children from accessing that justice is they are unable to connect with an attorney or representative who is competent and affordable in order to allow them to prepare those requests for humanitarian protection," Ryan said.
There are usually no government-funded attorneys available to represent immigrants in immigration court. But last month, the Department of Justice announced it would begin a program with AmeriCorps to hire about 100 attorneys and paralegals to provide free legal help to the most vulnerable migrant children.
While many advocates applauded that effort, they also expressed concern the new initiative would only help a fraction of the tens of thousands of children in need of legal counsel.
Now Ryan and others are concerned that a new set of proposals by the Obama administration could make it even harder for some kids to consult with attorneys or get a fair shake at arguing their case.
When Congress comes back from its recess this week, the Obama administration is expected to ask to change a statute so the deportation process for Central American children can be sped up.
It’s not clear yet what those changes will be, though President Barack Obama provided some hints in a letter he wrote to Congress on June 30.
The changes could mean children arriving at the border from Central American countries would be screened early by border agents. If agents are not convinced the children have a fear of persecution at home or were trafficked, those children could be sent back to their home countries quickly without seeing a judge.
That is currently the process in place for children arriving from Mexico, but has not been the procedure for children from non-contiguous countries.
Reyes said if this change in procedure goes through, it will be all the more critical that attorneys be allowed into the Nogales facility so they can talk to children early in the process to explain their rights.
“Denying them any kind of legal information to me is kind of like denying them food and water, because they are going to need this,” Reyes said. “It may determine whether they stay here or whether they return to their country and who knows what happens, whether they live and die there.”
Reyes said child migrants may not be forthcoming when they speak to those border agents because they don’t want to speak about the trauma they’ve endured.
“Maybe because they want to be tough, maybe because they don't want to expose what happened in their home country,” Reyes said. He said that means the government could send back children who are in need of protection.
But some on the other side of the debate argue that a long, drawn-out court process which can take years only serves to encourage more illegal migration.
“It’s possible to do due process quickly without abusing anybody’s rights,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.
Vaughan would welcome changes to speed up and streamline the deportation process for kids arriving at the border — even if it means they don’t all see a judge.
“The constitution does not necessarily provide all of these illegal crossers with full access to our immigration courts to their hearts' content,” Vaughan said.
The Obama administration will also be asking Congress for additional funding to address the child migrant crisis. Those efforts include cracking down on the smuggling rings bringing the children over.
Groom Boom: Male-centric nail salon in LA thrives despite recession
The labor department announced the employment numbers for June last week to significant gains. There were 288,000 new jobs added in June and unemployment is down to 6.1 percent.
Among one of the industries that has seen consist net growth is grooming.
Michael Elliot is owner and founder of the new Hammer & Nails, an L.A.-based nail salon that caters specifically to men. He opened his salon in November 2013 after noticing a need for a more male-centric salon experience and finding that the industry was growing rapidly.
Elliot joins Take Two to talk about why he started the salon and how business has been since opening in November 2013.
Free 'Good and Cheap' cookbook for the $4 a day SNAP budget
Imagine trying to spend just $4 a day on everything you eat.
That may sound like an impossible feat, but it's the reality for the more than 46 million Americans who rely on food stamp programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. With a new free cookbook called "Good and Cheap," author Leanne Brown hopes to prove that eating on a budget doesn't need to mean living without taste or sacrificing nutrition.
Brown put together the cookbook as a masters project at NYU, where she recently graduated from the food studies program. She has since raised nearly $100,000 via a Kickstarter to bring printed versions to needy families and nonprofits.
View the full cookbook below and download a version for yourself HERE:
Few Exide neighbors have been tested for lead
It's been three months since L.A. County started offering free blood tests for neighbors of the Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon.
Exide's footing the bill for the effort, which started because the plant has emitted unsafe amounts of lead into the environment. The facility is currently closed while regulators decide whether to let it reopen.
KPCC's Adrian Florido checked into the blood screening program, and found that very few people have been tested.
On The Lot: Box office slump, horror marketing, 'Midnight Rider' and more
Hollywood has a pretty lackluster 4th of July weekend. Theirs was the equivalent of the drunk uncle shooting off fireworks and setting the yard on fire.
But there could be a bright spot on the horizon, and it involves some damn dirty apes. It's time for On the Lot, our weekly discussion of the film biz with Rebecca Keegan of the Los Angeles Times.
First we'll talk about why this weekend's box office numbers were so dismal.
Then, the horror genre is having a tough time. The new film, "Deliver Us From Evil," with Eric Bana and Olivia Munn didn't do too well in the box office. What happened?
How did horror movies, like "Saw," manage to successfully advertise themselves in the past?
Our audience might remember that back in February a camera assist and was killed by a train while working on the film, "Midnight Rider." Several producers were indicted as a result, late last week. We'll catch up on the case. This incident has brought together crew members to talk about the problems they frequently face.
It's notoriously difficult work in reality television. Eventually, folks that work on those shows were able to unionize and improve working conditions. Could we see any sort of reform here as a result of this accident?
Speaking of unions, Actors that appear in shows on places like Netflix and Amazon haven't been getting the same benefits as actors on broadcast and cable TV shows. Why were they seen as different?
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" opens this Friday. There's a lot of talk about the film, but it's not about the "human" actors. You recently wrote about the experience of the actors that played the apes in the new film.
What sort of preparation did the actors have to go through to play the apes? Did they all go hang out at zoos and imitate what the animals were doing there?
The apes are computer generated, but the actors set the scene using motion capture equipment. How much of what the actors did in terms of movements and sounds actually ended up in the film?
LAUSD teachers use 'art integration' to teach science, other subjects
As testing pressure in public schools increases, finding time to teach subjects like health and the arts isn't easy. Southern California Public Radio's Mary Plummer brings us this look at an unusual teaching strategy that squeezes more time out of the standard school day.
Donald Sterling trial delayed, banned owner nowhere to be found
Update 3:45 p.m.:
A judge has refused to shift the Donald Sterling trial to federal court.
Monday's ruling means the trial can now begin in state court on whether Sterling's estranged wife had authority to negotiate a $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Shelly Sterling struck the deal with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer after Donald Sterling's racist remarks to a girlfriend were publicized and the NBA moved to oust him as team owner.
Two doctors declared her husband mentally incapacitated — and thus unable to take a role in the sale.
But his lawyers claimed there were medical privacy violations and asked for the change of venue. His wife's lawyers claim that was just a tactic to run out the clock on the Clippers sale.
NBA owners are supposed to vote on the deal on July 15.
Previously: A jurisdictional issue has delayed the start of a Los Angeles County Superior Court trial over whether the estranged wife of Donald Sterling has the authority to sell the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
The 80-year-old banned owner of the NBA franchise did not appear in court on Monday and his whereabouts are unknown. Now attorneys for Donald Sterling filed a motion seeking to move the case to federal court.
The Superior Court judge agreed the case must await a decision by a federal judge on the motion. Parties have been told to return to court at 11 a.m. PDT.
Shelly Sterling negotiated the team's sale after doctors examined her 80-year-old husband and declared him mentally incapacitated, ousting him as a trustee of the family trust that owns the Clippers.
KPCC Business Reporter Ben Bergman joins Take Two to share an update on where the case stands and what is currently at stake.
With contributions from The Associated Press.
Nitt Witt Ridge: The poor man's Hearst Castle
On the central coast in the town of Cambria, just a few miles from San Simeon, there's a place called Nitt Witt Ridge. Some locals call it "the poor man's Hearst Castle," but it's every bit as fascinating.
We stop by to discover this little-known California historical landmark, and the man who brought it to life. The California Report's Diane Bock brings us his story.
Back in the '20s, carpenters, stonemasons and plasterers flocked to the Central Coast. They came to build William Randolph Hearst’s La Cuesta Encantada — you might know it as Hearst Castle. At the same time, a man named Art Beal began to single-handedly create his own enchanted castle. Today, like Hearst Castle, Nitt Witt Ridge is a state historic landmark. But the similarities end there.
The striking three-story structure is a quirky hodgepodge of beach stones and beer cans, tire rims and toilet seats — castoffs Beal collected during his stint as Cambria’s garbageman. His folk art masterpiece sits behind a locked gate in a quiet residential neighborhood.
Vicki Hogue is visiting the area with her friend, Mary Bestgen. “Actually, we just happened upon it because we were driving by,” Hogue says.
Both women are intrigued by the house. “Something creative had gone on here,” Bestgen exclaims. “I gotta found out what this is!”
A clock hanging on the gate shows the next tour at 1 o’clock. At 1 on the dot, Mike O’Malley appears.
“If you ladies like, I can start the tour for you,” he says. “Now my name’s Mike. I’ll be giving you the tour. But just watch your step.”
O’Malley bought Nitt Witt Ridge 15 years ago. He doesn’t live on the property, but he’s here every single day just in case someone stops by.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he says. “I thought I’d be sick of it by now. There’s just a feeling in there!”
O’Malley maintains that feeling by keeping Nitt Witt Ridge in a state of arrested decay. Uneven concrete steps lined with abalone shells lead us through stone-covered arches to a jumble of rooms lined with flaking plaster and peeling wallpaper. Some rooms are like time capsules — nearly untouched.
“This is probably my favorite room, and this is actually the kitchen,” O’Malley explains. “Now it was kind of eerie. I came in here in ‘99, I felt like I was breaking into his house. His canned goods are still in here.”
Beal was born in Oakland in 1896. He never knew his father, and his mother, a Klamath Indian, was killed in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Beal was then sent to an orphanage. When he was 17, he joined the merchant marines. He went on to become an award-winning long distance swimmer, a vaudevillian, a sous chef and a poet.
Beal moved to Cambria in 1928. Legend has it that he arrived with a woman named Gloria. When she left a few years later, it broke Beal’s heart, and he threw himself into constructing his dream home.
In 1977, Beal was featured on the television show "Real People," and O’Malley plays the tape as part of the tour. He switches on a small TV and VHS player that’s powered by his car battery, and suddenly Beal is in the room with us. The four-minute segment portrays Beal as equal parts cantankerous crackpot and creative free spirit. It ends with Beal reading one of his poems.
Give me a heart, with sweet smiles round me reading
with truthful and loving affections beating
Give me a heart of a pal of tested worth
I want a heart to dream upon, not just mirth
Give me a heart of love, with fondness creating
A heart that flutters when our lips are meeting
Mike O’Malley is committed to keeping Beal’s legacy alive. “This man was content and happy,” he says. “Even though he didn’t have any family or anything, I feel like he loved himself.” He smiles. “Like he could, you know, like he could live with himself. He was Art Beal!”
Beal died in a Morro Bay rest home in 1992. He was 96. His ashes were scattered beneath a redwood tree on Nitt Witt Ridge.
Can't we just sit with our own thoughts? One study's 'shocking' results
With all the craziness of life — running around, checking email constantly, tweeting about the latest news, planning your next get-together — it seems like a quiet, personal moment to sit alone with your thoughts would be welcome.
It seems like we all say we want and need a moment like that here or there. But do we really?
Timothy D. Wilson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, and he had a hunch that, because of modern technology, people were becoming less comfortable being left alone with their thoughts. What he found is shocking.
Many people actually preferred receiving an electric shock to being left alone with their own thoughts. Professor Wilson joins Take Two to talk about his research.
Swimmer awareness is crucial as shark populations in California increase
You might've heard by now that there was a shark attack off the coast of Manhattan Beach, just South of L.A., yesterday. It's been reported that a shark had been hooked by a fisherman on the pier, was agitated and bit swimmer Steven Robles as he passed by.
Luckily, Steven Robles survived, as he was pulled from the water by other swimmers, and a paddle boarder.
Shark expert Chris Lowe said that he was surprised.
"Shark incidents with people are rare..." said Lowe. "So, I mean your chances of being killed driving to the beach so far exceed your chances of being bitten by a shark. It's almost crazy to worry about."
Lowe is with Cal State Long Beach's Shark Lab, and he notes that great white shark population is actually on the rise.
"As the shark population grows, these sorts of possibilities are going to increase," said Lowe. "Basically, we have to have people get used to being in the water with big marine animals again."
In the audio, Deepa Fernandes speaks with Chris about the dangers of swimming around those who are fishing, why this happened and what it means that the shark bit and released the swimmer, rather than hanging on to kill him.
Can Botox be used to treat depression?
If you are one of those few self-reflective types and you're suffering from depression, you might want to consider Botox. Wait a second, don't frown at the thought just yet.
The injectable cosmetic aid is now being explored as an alternative to alleviate depression. Joining
Take Two to explain more about this is Dr. Eric Finzi, dermasurgeon at the Chevy Chase Cosmetic Center in Maryland.
World Cup 2014: Brazil's Neymar out of tournament, Argentina takes on the Netherlands
The 32 nations that began the World Cup are now down to just four: Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands and Argentina. By the end of the weekend, a champion will raise the trophy.
Brazilian journalist Mauricio Savarese tells Take Two that the loss of Neymar to a back injury is a massive blow to the host country.
"This is a very big hill to climb," said Saverese from Belo Horizonte. "Brazilians are very scared about what's going to happen tomorrow. It could be the end of World Cup hopes for Brazil."
Still, with a team loaded with talent, other players, such as Oscar and Dante, could step up to fill the gap. What does he think about a championship game between two South American soccer giants?
"Everyone wants a Brazil-Argentina final," says Savarese. "Except for the the Dutch and the Germans!"
Off the field, concern has continued to be raised about construction issues after the deadly collapse of an overpass in Belo Horizonte last week. At least two died and 19 were injured in the accident. That could be part of the post-tournament discussion about the high spending and social priorities of the World Cup in Brazil, says Saverese.
The first semi-final game between Brazil and Germany will take place at 1pm PST at Belo Horizonte. Argentina and the Netherlands will then face off Wednesday, 1pm PST in Sao Paulo.
The winners will play the final game July 13 at the famed Maracana stadium in Rio de Janerio.
Edan Lepucki's debut novel 'California' builds buzz before release
The new book "California" has been hailed by Amazon as one of the best books of July. That said, the online retailer wouldn't let customers pre-order the novel.
That's because Amazon has been locked in a heated battle with Hachette, the publishing house behind "California." The two businesses have been bitterly feuding over pricing and profits for e-books.
But it turns out this battle may have been the best thing possible for Edan Lepucki, the author of "California." Take Two's Alex Cohen speaks with Lepucki about the novel and the buzz swirling around it.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On the wild ride Lepucki has been on, thanks, in part, to Stephen Colbert
"My book had been getting on best of the summer lists and the early review stuff seemed really great. It seemed liked it was getting some ‘buzz,’ but then the Colbert thing happened and everything changed. I sort of had no idea how much it would change everything…I don’t think I realized how powerful Stephen Colbert is and how powerful the television is as a mode of getting across information."
On what's changed since the Colbert plug
"Well, just to give you an example, I just got back from Powell’s in Portland where I signed 10,000 pre-orders. And my original print-run was, I think, around 10,000-12,000 and now they’ve printed 60,000 copies of the book. All these independent bookstores are getting behind 'the movement', it’s being called sometimes. I just had a profile in the New York Times, which, let’s be honest, would not have happened otherwise. I keep saying, it’s outside of the realm of any authorial/author fantasy that I ever had and I’ve had all kinds of author fantasies, including dancing with Ellen Degeneres on TV.
"It’s just so outside the normal template for how things work, not only for a literary novelist, but especially for a debut novelist who, you know, I have a weird name and nobody knows it, so that was just really outside of my expectation."
On what inspired Lepucki to write about this very grim, post-apocalyptic world
"I was flirting with the idea of a husband and wife domestic drama, but which took place in the future, a speculative dystopian future. But I didn’t really have anything planned beyond that."
"And then I went to a place called Ucross, which is a writing residency, or an artists residency, in Wyoming, and it’s just this miraculously beautiful place where animals trot by your studio windows…but that landscape really inspired me to think about what it would be like to really be out in the elements and kind of soaking up the landscape.
"I don’t really know where the seed of the idea is, I just know that the phrase post-apocalyptic domestic drama kind of stumbled into my brain and took hold of me and I went from there."
On why she created a slow deterioration for the world in California
"I didn’t want to do something that felt too futuristic or two sudden because then I think it’s not as scary because the reader is not complicit. And I think in the universe that I created, I simply just extrapolated from our present with the degradation of our environment, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, I just took all of those things and multiplied them.
"I purposely wanted to make it feel familiar, or this is not too far off. And if we don’t think about this then we really will end up in the world that I’ve created."
On how long Lepucki herself would last in that world
[Laughs] "Two hours, tops, then I’d be dead as a bug. I don’t have too much faith in myself. I mean, I would like to think that I’d be emotionally resilient in this kind of environment, but I have no skills that are marketable to any community."
Read an excerpt from "California" here:
See Edan Lepucki at the following book readings:
July 8 | Skylight Books @ 7:30 PM
July 9 | Vroman's @ 7:00 PM