A look at Latino republicans and their representation at this year's national convention, a closer look at the sewage spill in Long Beach, Tesla's new 'master plan'.
'I've got nothing but acceptance from the party,' says Latino Trump delegate
Four years ago, the GOP convention was in Tampa, and Latinos occupied prime time slots on the speaker's stage.
Viewers then were introduced to New Mexico, Governor Susana Martinez, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval spoke along with Puerto Rico's governor Luis Fortuno.
Senator Ted Cruz also got to say some words, albeit under different circumstances than his speech Wednesday night.
Marco Rubio got to introduce Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romey on the last night of the convention.
This time around, however, Latinos weren't as visible. So where does this leave Latinos in the Republican party?
Take Two put that question to two guests:
- Gonzalo J. Ferrer, chairperson for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly
- Felix Viega, Southern California real estate developer and delegate for Donald Trump
Latinos and the GOP
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence accepted his party's nomination for vice president last night to cheers from Republican delegates in Cleveland.
But there were also boos when Texas Senator Ted Cruz refused to endorse the GOP ticket.
So maybe the party isn't as unified as some Republicans believe. And according to a new poll, a majority of conservative Latino voters have a poor opinion of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Joining us with one view of last night's session of the convention,
She's covering the 2016 Presidential elections for Impremedia newspapers, which includes La Opinion in LA and others across the country
How 'good' immigrants and 'bad' immigrants fit into Donald Trump's rhetoric
Thursday's theme at the Republican National Convention is Make America One Again. The idea of unifying this nation may seem daunting at this particular juncture in time, especially seeing the many differing notions of who deserves to be an American.
While Donald Trump rallied to "build a wall" at the U.S./Mexico border and to "ban" Muslims here, there was no issue when his wife, Melania, touted her own immigration story about 5 minutes into her speech at the RNC this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_9yb4FSYA
Lisa Garcia Bedolla, a chancellor's professor of education and political science at UC Berkeley, explains the country's shifting understanding of immigration, and how that might be affecting current politics.
Electric trucks, car sharing part of Tesla Master Plan "Part Deux"
Integrating rooftop solar power with storage is one of four parts to Tesla’s Master Plan “Part Deux,” CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday evening.
The plan also includes expanding Tesla’s electric vehicle product line with pickup trucks and heavy-duty vehicles, developing a self-driving system that is "significantly safer" than humans behind the wheel and enabling owners to make money off their cars by sharing them.
Individuals will be their own utility companies
Integrating rooftop solar with storage means individuals would be “empowered” to be their own utility companies. Seamlessly integrating solar panels with battery storage means customers would have “one ordering experience, one installation, one service contract, one phone app,” Musk wrote in a blog posted to the company’s recently renamed website, Tesla.com.
To achieve that goal, Musk said Tesla and SolarCity need to be combined into a single company. Musk announced last month that he intended to purchase the So Cal solar-energy provider.
All-electric pickup truck, heavy-duty truck, high-density transport in the works
In addition to the premium Model S sedan, Model X SUV and compact Model 3 sedan Tesla will begin producing next year, Musk said Tesla will also make a compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck to “address most of the consumer market.”
But he also announced two other types of Tesla EVs: heavy-duty trucks and high-passenger density urban transport. Musk said Tesla is currently working on both and may reveal them as early as next year.
Autonomous car technology will continue
All Tesla vehicles will be built with the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving, though Musk acknowledged that the software still needs refinement and that regulatory hurdles need to be overcome.
Defending Tesla’s decision to deploy its partially autonomous system, in light of a May 7 crash that killed the driver, Musk said Autopilot is significantly safer than a person driving himself when used correctly.
“It would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability,” he explained.
Tesla owners can rent their cars for money
Once cars are fully autonomous, Musk said Tesla owners will be able to add their vehicles to the Tesla shared fleet. Doing so would allow Tesla vehicle owners to earn money from their cars while they are not in use — a system similar to the car-sharing service, Turo.
Most cars are only in use by their owner 5 to 10 percent of the day, Musk said.
Tesla car sharing “dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla,” Musk said.
In areas where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Musk sad Tesla will operate its own fleet of shared vehicles.
Musk introduced his Master Plan Part Deux by explaining that “we must at some point achieve a sustainable energy economy or we will run out of fossil fuels to burn and civilization will collapse. Given that we must get off fossil fuels anyway and that virtually all scientists agree that dramatically increasing atmospheric and oceanic carbon levels is insane, the faster we achieve sustainability, the better.”
Part Deux comes 10 years after Musk’s Master Plan Part 1. Released in 2006 and pretty much followed to a T, it consisted of four basic components: Create a low-volume high-cost car, use that money to develop a medium-volume car at a lower price, use that money to create an affordable high-volume car and provide solar power.
Tesla's first master plan was to “defend against the inevitable attacks Tesla would face accusing us of just caring about making cars for rich people, implying that we felt there was a shortage of sports car companies,” Musk wrote, adding that he failed in that goal.
LAPD community outreach cops: Level of tension seems 'unprecedented' around the country
The shooting deaths earlier this month of two African American men in Minnesota and Louisiana and the killing of cops in Dallas and Baton Rouge has left the country reeling. Tensions have been running especially high here in Southern California.
On this program, we've heard from cops talking about how the public doesn't understand how difficult it is for them to do their jobs. We've heard from activists calling for the resignation of LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
Now, a look to another community activist who believes now more than ever, it's important to show support for law enforcement.
Jerry Hoffman is co-chair of the community police advisory board for the LAPD's Northeast division. Ruben Arellano, Sergeant at the Northeast division, also joined the show to discuss.
Interview Highlights
The basic understanding is that we the public pay taxes and part of those taxes support law enforcement. And that cops are paid to protect the public. Beyond that... nothing about this relationship is really defined. What do you think this relationship SHOULD look like?
Sgt. Arellano: "The community advisory board, they get a better perception as to what we do, they have a closer contact with us. And we want to pass that word out that our job is to go out and protect the community, serve the public and provide a service where they feel safe within their community. That's our goal. Our goal is to reach out to the public and show them what we can do, how we can work together and make it a better safer place, so that they're comfortable in their neighborhoods."
I can only imagine how much of a strain current events have put on this relationship.When things like the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and when cops were killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge - how did that affect you and the relationship between cops and community as you seen it?
Jerry Hoffman: "My first response was...I was practically speechless because it just seems unprecedented that the level of this happening around the country right now and it does create a lot of anxiety and fear in all of our neighborhoods about how people start thinking about law enforcement, especially when you see everything happening on the news and social media and I think it's really important for people to remember that most of the time when the video cameras come on, you're seeing what happens in the middle and the end of the incident but you're not seeing the beginning of how it all began and I think we're missing the real story. So, when we see these videos, a lot of people have reactions to what they're seeing but they're not getting the whole story."
Sgt. Arellano: "One of the things that we do, we hold what we call a community citizen's academy and it's a 10 week program where people come for three hours a night, one night a week and they get an opportunity to go through and see the different aspects of police work...so it gives them a better perspective. Those are the important things. I wish more people would come and try things like that before they go out and get an opinion without really understanding the big picture."
What do you say to those who have reservations toward police officers and don't support the community gestures of support?
Jerry Hoffman: "Well I would say, we're a pro-police group and there's groups out there that are more on the borderline or might be negative towards the police and that's perfectly okay, too because it creates a dialogue and it's important to know what the concerns are from those in the community that feel that they've been picked on or victimized in any of those matters. But, there are ways for people to reach out to the police and talk and share these concerns..."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
State of Affairs: CA delegates angry with Cruz and Peter Thiel to speak at RNC
On this week's State of Affairs, Ted Cruz gets booed at the Republican National Convention, an openly gay billionaire from Silicon Valley takes the RNC stage, and what CA delegates want to hear tonight from Donald Trump.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- Ben Adler, Capitol Bureau Chief with Capital Public Radio
- Jack Pitney, Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College
- Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC
2.4 million gallons of sewage later: is LA’s sewage system up to snuff?
Sun lovers are still waiting to get back into the water in the South Bay following Monday’s sewage spill. Beaches remain closed after another round of tests show a presence of sewage remains.
In the aftermath of the 2.4 million gallon sewage spill, Take Two’s A Martinez talks with Bruce Reznik, Executive Director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper- an environmental organization advocating for water quality in the Los Angeles waterways.
A Martinez and Bruce Reznik discuss Monday’s spill and the current state of LA’s sewage system.
Bruce Reznik:
You need consistent monitoring to show no high bacteria counts over a period of days before you can reopen so probably best to stay out for a little bit and let things run their course.
It’s not only just an annoyance obviously for locals, but for businesses that rely on tourism and folks coming out to the beach, it has a tremendous economic impact as well. You’re talking in our region, tens of millions of people that come out to our beaches and bay every year.
This was an old sewer line that has been identified as a problem out around the Boyle Heights area that crumbled. That’s where you see a lot of sewage spills happening, is with aging infrastructure and pipes that are beyond their life expectancy. This is a 1929 pipe- nearly one hundred years old. Most pipes, you expect them to last around fifty to seventy years… but despite some serious, significant efforts and investment over the last decade or more by the city but there are still a lot of older pipes and that was the problem here.
There’s been a lot of investment made over the last twenty years and you’ve seen a dramatic increase - 85% reduction of spills over the last twenty years but you still have a lot of pipes that are older. So far, this is an aberration. The city has done a good job. They’ve gone from being a fairly bad agency... to really one of best in the region and kind of a model but certainly this is an eye opener for us...we’ve got to stay on top of our infrastructure.
In the end, not only are they a public health threat, an environmental threat but also an economic threat is we go back to the bad old days when we were averaging a couple of spills a day and closing our beached regularly.
Comic-con 2016: Virtual reality, revisiting its roots and more
A look ahead to the BIG convention. No, no no, not the RNC in Ohio, we're talking about that intersection of movie studios, superheroes and so many things pop culture known as Comic-con.
The convention begins today in San Diego and Southern California Public Radio’s hippest employee Mike Roe is there.
He joined us from the convention floor to talk about the history of the convention, how it's going back to its roots and what people are most looking forward to.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.