Today, we begin with the latest on the Malaysian Airlines crash site in eastern Ukraine. We also take a look at President Obama's call for a ceasefire after two weeks of conflict in Gaza and Israel. Plus, 'The Book of Unknown Americans': A novel about the immigrant story and much more.
In Gaza, strikes hinder access to wounded, say health workers
The regular shelling of Gaza has made it difficult to get medical attention to the wounded, say health workers.
Women and children accounted for most of the wounded people arriving on Sunday morning in the emergency room in Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said the group Doctors Without Borders, or MSF. The group said its team continued working, following heavy shelling overnight and in the morning in the city’s Ash Shuja’iyeh neighborhood.
"We've already had a few families that have come to the clinic to stay there because their areas are not safe," Sarah Wozniack, a nurse with MSF, told Take Two.
Wozniack has been working in Gaza for the past six months and joined Take Two via Skype from Jerusalem.
"Just two days ago, I received a call from one of our physiotherapists, who said, 'I can't come in to work. My home was just hit by a rocket.'"
Civilian casualties rise in Gaza, Israel conflict
Today President Obama called for an immediate cease fire as casualties mount after two weeks of conflict in Gaza and Israel.
More than 500 Palestinians have died so far, many of them civilians. The Israelis have lost 18 soldiers and two civilians, including Max Steinberg, a volunteer in the Israeli Defense Force from Southern California.
While the President reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself from rockets attacks and tunnel infiltrations conducted by the Islamist group Hamas, he called for an immediate end to the fighting to "stop the deaths of innocent civilians both in Gaza and in Israel. "
For more, we're joined by Thomas Hill who teaches Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley.
MH17: What are investigators looking for?
Turning now to the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, which U.S. officials suspect was shot down by pro-Russian separatists.
Dutch forensic experts have gained access today to the remains of the victims and international investigators are on the ground, but have not been able to gain full access to the plane crash site.
As time wears on, concerns are mounting that some of the vital evidence has been tampered with or removed. This morning, President Obama directly accused Russian-backed separatists of blocking access to the crash site:
"They've repeatedly prevented international investigators from gaining full access to the wreckage. As investigators approached, they fired their weapons into the air,the separatists are removing evidence from the crash site, all of which begs the question, what exactly are they trying to hide?"
Retired chief pilot and former plane crash investigator John Ransom joins Take Two for more on what the investigators will be looking for. He is currently with Safety Operating Systems, an aviation consulting firm.
CA lawmakers visit Central America to discuss surge in child migrants
For weeks now we've covered the story of children from Central America crossing into the U.S. alone.
The Obama Administration has been working on this side of the border to deal with the surge, Vice President Biden has traveled south, asking governments there to tell people not to send their kids north.
And now California lawmakers are in Central America expressing their concern about the influx of child migrants.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is in Guatemala today and joins Take Two to talk about the issues he's discussing with government leaders in Central America.
'The Book of Unknown Americans': A novel about the immigrant story
When we talk about immigration, what's often lost are the stories of the real people who have come to this country in hopes of a better life: their aspirations, losses, frustrations and joys.
These day to day experiences are what writer Cristina Henríquez captures in her new novel The Book of Unknown Americans.
The book is about a group of immigrants who came to the U.S. from Latin America for various reasons. It incorporates the stories of 11 different characters, all of whom at some point speak in their own voice, and all of whose journeys to the U.S. have led them to the same apartment building in Delaware where their lives and destinies intertwine.
Author Cristina Henríquez joins Take Two to discuss The Book of Unknown Americans.
EXCERPT:
Mayor
We heard they were from México.
“Definitely,” my mom said, staring at them through our front window as they moved in. “Look at how short they are.” She let the curtain fall back in place and walked to the kitchen, wiping her hands on the dish towel slung over her shoulder.
I looked, but all I saw was three people moving through the dark, carrying stuff from a pickup truck to unit 2D. They cut across the headlights of the truck a few times, and I made out their faces, but only long enough to see a mom, a dad, and a girl about my age.
“So?” my dad asked when I joined him and my mom at the dinner table.
“I couldn’t really see anything,” I said.
“Do they have a car?”
I shook my head. “The truck’s just dropping them off, I think.”
My dad sawed off a piece of chicken and stuffed it in his mouth. “Do they have a lot of things?” he asked.
“It didn’t seem like it.”
“Good,” my dad said. “Maybe they are like us, then.”
We heard from Quisqueya Solís that their last name was Rivera.
“And they’re legal,” she reported to my mom over coffee one afternoon. “All of them have visas.
“How do you know?” my mom asked.
“That’s what Nelia told me. She heard it from Fito. Apparently the mushroom farm is sponsoring them.”
“Of course,” my mom said.
I was in the living room, eavesdropping, even though I was supposed to be doing my geometry homework.
“Well,” my mom went on, clearing her throat, “it will be nice to have another family in the building. They’ll be a good addition.”
Quisqueya took a quick look at me before turning back to my mom and hunching over her coffee mug. “Except . . . ,” she said.
My mom leaned forward. “What?”
Quisqueya said, “The girl . . .” She looked at me again.
My mom peered over Quisqueya’s shoulder. “Mayor, are you listening to us?”
I tried to act surprised. “Huh? Me?”
My mom knew me too well, though. She shook her head at Quisqueya to signal that whatever Quisqueya was going to say, she’d better save it if she didn’t want me to hear it.
“Bueno, we don’t need to talk about it, then,” Quisqueya said. “You’ll see for yourself eventually, I’m sure.”
My mom narrowed her eyes, but instead of pressing, she sat back in her chair and said loudly, “Well.” And then, “More coffee?”
We heard a lot of things, but who knew how much of it was true? It didn’t take long before the details about the Riversa began to seem far- fetched. They had tried to come into the United States once before but had been turned back. They were only staying for a few weeks. They were working undercover for the Department of Homeland Security. They were personal friends with the governor. They were running a safe house for illegals. They had connections to a Mexican narco ring. They were loaded. They were poor. They were traveling with the circus.
I tuned it all out after a while. School had started two weeks earlier, and even though I had told myself that this would be the year the other kids stopped picking on me, the year that I actually fi t in for once in my life, things already weren’t going exactly as planned. During the first week of school, I was in the locker room, changing into my gym shorts, when Julius Olsen tucked his hands into his armpits and started flapping his arms like wings. “Bwwaak!” he said, looking at me.
I ignored him and cinched the drawstring on my shorts. Actually, they were my older brother Enrique’s shorts that had been handed down to me, but I wore them because I thought that maybe they would make me seem cooler than I was, like maybe some of Enrique’s popularity was trapped in the fibers and would rub off on me. He’d been a senior the year before, when I was a freshman, and every single person in the school had adored him. Soccer stud. Girlfriends by the dozen. Homecoming king. So opposite of me that when I tried to earn points with Shandie Lewis, who I would have given just about anything to hook up with, by telling her that I was Enrique Toro’s brother, she said that was a really stupid thing to lie about.
“Bwwaaaak!” Julius said louder, jutting his neck toward me.
I balled up my jeans and shoved them into my locker.
Garrett Miller, who had basically made picking on me last year his special project, pointed at me, laughed, and said, “Fucking chicken legs.” He flung his boot at my chest.
Julius snorted.
I took a deep breath and shut my locker. I was used to this kind of abuse. Last year, whenever Enrique caught wind of it, he’d tell me to stand up for myself. “I know you don’t want to fight,” he said once. “But at least have the balls to tell them to fuck off.” And in my head I did. In my head, I was Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer or James Bond or all three of them combined. But beyond my head, the most I ever did was ignore it and walk away.
“How do you say ‘chicken’ in Spanish?” Garrett asked.
“Pollo,” someone answered.
“Major Pollo,” Garrett said.
The kids at my school loved changing my first name to English and then tacking insults onto it. Major Pan (short for Panamanian). Major Pan in the Ass. Major Cocksucker.
Julius started cracking up, and he squawked at me again. A few of the other guys in the locker room snickered.
I started walking— I just wanted to get out of there— but when I did, I bumped Garrett’s boot, which was on the floor in front of me.
“Don’t touch my shoe, Pollo,” Garrett said.
“Kick it over here,” Julius said.
“Fuck you,” Garrett snapped. “Don’t tell him to kick my shoe.”
“Don’t worry,” Julius said. “He can’t kick for shit. Haven’t you seen him out there after school trying to play soccer? He’s a total fuckup.”
“Major fuckup,” Garrett said, stepping in front of me to block any hope I had of leaving.
Garrett was thin, but he was tall. He wore a green army coat every single day, no matter what the weather was, and had a tattoo of an eagle on his neck. The year before, he’d spent a few months in juvenile detention at Ferris because he beat up Angelo Puente so bad that by the end of it, Angelo had two broken arms and blood pouring out of his nose. There was no way I was going to mess with him.
But when the bell rang and the other kids started fi ling out into the gym, Garrett still didn’t budge. The locker room was in the school basement and it was so quiet right then that I could hear water coursing through the pipes. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go. Garrett took a step closer. I didn’t know what he was going to do. And then Mr. Samuels, the gym teacher, poked his head into the room.
“You boys are supposed to be out in the gym,” he said.
Garrett didn’t move. Neither did I.
“Now!” he barked.
So that was one thing. The other thing, as Julius had pointed out, was soccer. The only reason I’d gone out for the team in the first place was because my dad had forced me into it. For him, the logic went something like: I was Latino and male and not a cripple, therefore I should play soccer. Soccer was for Latinos, basketball for blacks, and the whites could keep their tennis and golf as far as he was concerned. He’d applied the same reasoning to my brother, too, except that in Enrique’s case, it had actually worked out. Enrique had been the fi rst player in the history of our school to make varsity as a freshman, and when he got a full- ride soccer scholarship to Maryland, it was like my dad had been vindicated. “See?” he’d said, waving around the offer letter when it came in the mail. “You were meant to do this! The next Pelé! And this one,” he’d said, pointing at me, “the next Maradona!”
Enrique might have been the next Pelé, but I wasn’t even in the same galaxy as Maradona. Two weeks into practice, I had bruised shins, a scabby knee, and a scraped elbow. Coach even pulled me aside once to ask whether I was wearing the right size cleats. I told him they were size seven, which was my size, and he patted my shoulder and said, “Okay, then. Maybe you should just sit it out for a while,” and directed me to the sidelines.
In the past few days, a flock of girls had started coming to our practices, sitting in the empty stands and pointing at us while they texted and talked. Word got around that they were new freshmen. They didn’t look like any freshmen I knew, in their skimpy tank tops and lacy black bras they wore underneath, but what I did know was that our team got a hell of a lot better after those girls showed up. Everyone was running faster and kicking harder than before. I felt like a loser, hanging around the sidelines all the time. Whenever the girls broke out in laughter,
I was sure they were laughing at me. One day, I asked Coach if I could go back in, even if just for a few drills. When he looked ambivalent, I lied and said, “I’ve been practicing with my dad at home. Even he thinks I’m getting better.” Coach worked his jaw from side to side like he was thinking about it. “Please?” I said. Finally he gave in. “Okay. Let’s see what you got.”
We set up a star drill where guys spread out into a circle and dribbled the ball a few paces into the middle before passing to a teammate who took the ball and repeated the sequence. Each time I ran through and got back in line, I looked up at the girls in the stands, who weren’t laughing anymore, just watching. Maybe I got overconfident. Maybe there was a divot in the grass. The next time I ran into the middle to get the ball, my ankle turned. Ethan Weisberg was stepping toward me, waiting for me to pass to him. I was so eager to get the dribble going again that when I went for the ball with my other foot, I rolled my cleat up over it instead. The ball was still spinning, and I stumbled again just as Ethan, impatient and frustrated, finally came at me and tried to spear his foot in to swipe the ball out for himself. When he did, I fell. His leg caught under mine. And before either of us knew it, I had taken him down, both of us landing on top of each other in the middle of the field. “What the fuck, Mayor!” Ethan yelled. My hip throbbed. Coach blew his whistle and jogged in to untangle us. The girls erupted in laughter.
________________________________
Excerpted from The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez Copyright © 2014 by Cristina Henriquez. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Why you might be paying more for you individual health insurance
Recent national surveys suggest a majority of Americans who bought health insurance for the first time under the Affordable Care Act are happy they did so. The polls also indicate most are happy with what they're paying for their coverage.
But as Southern California Public Radio's Stephanie O'Neill discovered, there are many who aren't so pleased, thanks to an unwelcome increase in their insurance costs.
On the Lot: Comic-Con, Beyonce teases '50 Shades of Grey,' and Brangelina's new gig
Rebecca Keegan of the Los Angeles Times joins us for her weekly wrap up of the film biz.
This week: big films like the Hobbit, the new Mad Max and TV favorites, "Game of Thrones" and "The Walking Dead" will be at Comic-Con in San Diego.
Odessa, Ukraine holds a film festival in the midst of war.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named a new board of governors.
The Weinstein Company makes a deal with Yahoo to release the new film, "One Chance" on its Video On Demand service 10 days ahead of theaters.
Brangelina will star in a new film together and Jolie will write and direct the father of her children.
And Beyonce releases a steamy teaser for the official "50 Shades of Grey" film.
How Shakira became the queen of Facebook
Think the musician who rules the Internet is Queen Bey? Nope. Turns out Shakira runs the online empire.
The Colombian singer has become the first celebrity to gain more than 100 million fans on Facebook, which is more than any fan page except for Facebook itself.
The Wall Street Journal's technology writer Jeff Elder told A Martinez that she surpasses artists like Lady Gaga and Madonna because of her global appeal.
"Only 11 percent of her Facebook fans are in the U.S.," says Elder. He explains that Shakira's Colombian nationality, belly-dancing prowess and Lebanese father all make her loved by many cultures.
It helps that Shakira has a team of two people and a supervisor who are dedicated social media gurus. They post in English, Spanish, German, French and more to make sure that she connects with her fans around the world.
There is a lesson for all of us in her success: She garners attention online because she doesn't just show herself looking polished and happy. Shakira posts content that demonstrates her vulnerability, too.
"She posts photos of her in the studio looking surprisingly unglamorous," says Elder. "I think people want that. They want that personal access to somebody who seems remote and so far away."
It's a strategy that pays off. While she gets people's attention with these posts, her page also becomes a platform to showcase her new videos, sell merchandise and promote music.
For Shakira, Facebook has become a clever tool to increase her brand and her own stardom. Want in on the party? You can follow her here.
When pot is legal, what happens to "Just Say No"?
For decades in films, PSAs and schools, the message was pretty clear: Pot. Is. Bad.
But in the past several years, the political message has slowly shifted from, "Maybe there are some medicinal benefits," to outright legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana in states like Washington and Colorado.
It leaves drug educators in programs like DARE in an awkward position: how do you teach kids about pot when, just a few years ago, you were saying it was dangerous and illegal?
Deputy Chad Williams runs the anti-drug education program for the Mesa County Sheriff's office in Colorado, and he tells A Martinez that demonizing marijuana was never effective.
"Many times what we found is that the kids left those types of presentations with more questions than they had answers," he says. "I think it had a lot to do that it wasn't information-based but was more rhetoric-based. Teens just don't respond well to that."
The science of marijuana and its effects has also rapidly evolved as more research is published.
"[Teens] really want to know what is it doing to them in those adolescent years," says Williams, "We're moving into the, 'How does it affect development, especially in the teen years?' When you can bring that to the table and show them the differences, I think it makes an impact."
Meanwhile, Williams says the education also extends to parents who grew up in that time of "Just Say No," and who argue that officers like him should still promote that message.
"That is one of the hurdles we have to go over. A lot of times, we'll have to do it with the parents at the same time we're working with the teens."
What Officer Williams now teaches instead abstaining from marijuana, but addressing the root causes of why children would want to use it in the first place -- a message borrowed from programs to warn against underage drinking.
"Whether it be thrill seeking, trying to fit in, if it's a socialization thing: there many causes for it," he says.
To that end, Williams created his own program, Neural Activity, as an alternative program that uses the outdoors to create teen mentors who can find fun in activities other than drugs or alcohol.
But this is a message that may remain muddy for a while: even though marijuana is legal where he is, children across the state border may still be mired in older messages against drug use because it's still illegal where they live.
Making marijuana infused meals with a professional chef
Once Colorado residents are of age to consume marijuana recreationally, one of the more popular ways to do so is edibles. What was once a field dominated by brownies has now expanded to everything from baked goods to olive oil to Swedish meatballs. But pot is not your average ingredient, which is why many people have been taking marijuana cooking classes from Blaine Alexandr-Hein, a private chef who teaches for My420Tours.com out of Colorado.
Alexandr-Hein says his goal is to keep the integrity and flavors of the food without overwhelming them with the flavor of pot. The secret to that is the tincture that he makes, chronicled below.
Chef Blaine provided us with a series of recipes that he gives to the folks who take his class.
Chef Blaine's Recipes
Gluten-Free Trail Mix
Yield-20 servings
- 5 cups oats
- 1/2 cup Coconut
- 1 tablespoon of Cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of Dried Ginger
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Coconut Oil-Infused (see below)
- 1/4 cup Almond Oil
- 2 tablespoons of Almond Extract
- 2 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 6 tablespoons of Frozen Apple Juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Take brown sugar, coconut and almond oil, almond & vanilla extract, honey and apple juice mix in medium size sauce pot. Stir until smooth and blended. In separate mixing bowl mix oats, dried ginger, and cinnamon. Coat oats with honey mix. Bake for 20- 25 minutes. Check and mix every 10 minutes to flip the oats. When finished mix with other desired ingredients.
Cannabis Tincture
Equipment Needed
- Desired amount of dried cannabis
- 2 mason jars w/ screw on lids
- Everclear 95% alcohol
- 1 coffee filter
- Smashing device
- Double Boiler
Directions:
Stage I
Smash dry cannabis flower or leafs in to mason jar A. Cover with solvent about 1-inch above matter, we will be using Everclear. Decarboxylase cannabis (bring up to boil in double boiler). Allow to set in dark cool place from 72 hours up to 30 days.
Stage II
Bring back up to boil (make sure if just using a pot you have a rack in the bottom. Exposing mason jars to direct heat could cause jars to break). Cover mason jar B with coffee filter, screw on the ring for the lid of jar so the filter is held in place, and begin to pour slowly. Once all liquid has be filtered out, place jar back in boiling water and let the Everclear begin to simmer. Remember not too hot, you can burn the cannabis over 165 degrees. Check every 15 minutes. Very little liquid will remain when getting close to completion. When at this state if making a bulk tincture and you want to use it in several different carries, now is the time to measure out the extract equally into as many jars as you choose. Lower temperature of water when that happens and watch very closely. When finished you will not be able to smell any alcohol, just a floral scent and the liquid will have turned into a thick black reduction. Incorporate into oils, honeys, butters, etc.
Dosages:
- 1 gram hash = 3 treats
- 1 gram flower = 2 treats
- 1 gram trim/ leaves = 1 treat
If you make your reduction with 100 grams of trim and mix that with 1 cup of coconut oil, every ¼ cup will equal 25 grams or 25 treats.
Infusing cooking oils with the marijuana tincture
With some basic math we can figure out how to make each piece of what we’re making dosed properly and accurately. When working with bulk tincture it's often easier to dedicate your extraction you have made following Tincture A’s contents to one type of carrier.
For instance, if you made 1 ounce worth of extract there are 28 grams in play. That means if you used trim there are 28, 1 gram doses available. If you used all flower there are about 56, 1 gram doses. If you used hash there are about 84, 1 gram doses.
You need to understand that if a recipe makes 8 - 9 pieces and calls for ½ cup of oil you, have three recipes worth of tincture made so you will need 1 ½ cups of you carrier mixed into the jar and you will have 3 recipes worth of infused oil, butter, etc. After the carrier is introduced to your cannabis extract it is important to put it back into the double boiler on medium for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Coconut oil — step by step breakdown
- Starting with finished cannabis extract following Tincture A’s guidelines:
- Measure out your coconut oil
- Mix with cannabis extract
- Bring up to temperature in double boiler
- Stir occasionally
Disclaimer: KPCC does not endorse Chef Blaine's recipes.
Everything you wanted to know about bats in Los Angeles
Let's talk about bats, those winged mammals of the night. They are very difficult to track and not a lot is known about the population that flies around Southern California.
So biologists are using a newly-expanded research project to learn where they go at night and what they do. Southern California Public Radio's Jed Kim bring us more.
Running 135 miles through heat and mountains for bragging rights
Nearly 100 runners set off this morning on the run of their lives, racing to cover 135 miles of desert and mountain within two days - all for a belt buckle and bragging rights that they finished the infamous Badwater 135 Ultramarathon.
But this year, runners won't start at Badwater Basin in Death Valley, as they've been barred from Death Valley National Park. So, today they started in Lone Pine, 3,000 feet up a mountain in Inyo County, very different location and terrain.
Why were they barred from Death Valley? Well, there's a new boss in town. Late last year, the new superintendent at Death Valley National Park Service announced that they would issue no permits for about ten extreme sporting events held there this year, including Badwater 135.
The ban was announced in October, a month after a Park Service employee died out in the desert heat. The park management says there is no connection between that worker's death and the ban on endurance sporting events, rather, they want to underline the need to make visitor safety a top priority in that extreme environment.
During the one-year moratorium on permits, the park service is writing new safety rules for event managers, athletes and their support teams. For example: in past races, every runner in the Badwater race has one or two escort vehicles following them, and those vehicles will stop every mile or so to tend to the athletes.
The park service says all those cars and vans make for a dicey traffic situation pulling over on narrow roads or blind turns on what's normally a 55 mph roadway. The new safety rules aren't yet public, but they are likely to address this and other safety issues.
But don't think that this is an easy race by any means. The race director - Chris Kostman - tweeted that the new course is, "Much tougher, more scenic, ghost town, high altitudes, and far less troublesome desk-jockey bureaucrats. Still plenty hot."
Kostman's been outspoken in his opposition to the Park Service refusal to issue permits for sporting events this year. Those are the desk jockeys he's criticizing. His company, AdventureCorps, organized a letter-writing campaign to the park service complaining about the moratorium.
But, Badwater is as much a brand and business as an athletic event, and the show must go on, so he designed this new course outside Death Valley.
Runners on the new course started on Monday in Lone Pine and take four out-and-back runs up and down mountain roads. The new route goes through Cerro Gordo, a Gold Rush-era ghost town. A lot of the runners will be there after dark, so the race director is lighting up some of the old buildings for runners to see. What stays the same is that last long slog up the mountain from Lone Pine to Mt. Whitney Portal. And anybody completing this race will run up about 17,000 vertical feet. That's about 4,000 more feet of elevation than the old course. So it's not Badwater-Lite
Race director Kostman says he expects a greater percentage of the athlete field to drop out this year than usual, just because of the elevation gain, altitude, and near constant uphill and downhill running. Those who finish within 48 hours get a Badwater belt buckle.
Esquire article praising 42-year-old women sparks backlash
Every now and then, the men's magazine Esquire decides to honor women of a certain age. Recently, they released a piece titled "In Praise of 42 Year Old Women." The piece explained that 42 year old women today are quite different from how we perceived them in the past, and that 42 is still sexy.
All that sounds well and good, but the way the writer made his case did not go over too well with many women, including Annabelle Gurwitch. She's an actress and the author of the New York Times Bestseller, "I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50," and she joins Take Two host, Alex Cohen, to discuss her reaction to the piece.
Pediatrician Paul Fleiss, noted for his unconventional approach, dies at 80
It's not too often that we air an obituary of a pediatrician, but Paul Fleiss was no ordinary doctor.
He was known for his incredibly kind bedside manner, making house calls, and embracing what many saw as an unconventional approach to medicine. He was also known for treating the children of many Hollywood celebrities and even taking in patients whose family could not afford to pay. Fleiss was the father of convicted "Hollywood madam" Heidi Fleiss.
He passed away over the weekend at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80 years old.
For more on his life and work we're joined by fellow pediatrician, Dr. Jay Gordon. Welcome.