Young immigrants protest deportations, risk detention at US-Mexico border; San Jose and unions face off in court over pension reforms; Many farm employers do not comply with heat illness regulations; San Jose State pulls out of Udacity online course partnership; Could smarter forest maintenance keep wildfires in check?; Odd Hollywood Jobs: Set teacher, plus much more.
UPDATE: Young immigrants protesting deportations detained at US-Mexico border
Update Tuesday July 23:
Monday at a border entry point in Nogales, Arizona, 8 young people who were brought to the US illegally tried to re-renter the country without legal papers.
The protesters were detained at the border and are believed to be held at a detention center.
Fronteras reporter Michel Marizco, joins the show again from the Tuscon bureau with an update.
Earlier:
Monday at the border, eight young immigrants are protesting the Obama administrations deportation policies in a unique way. They will cross the border into Mexico, even though the US government might not let them return.
One of the participants is Lizbeth Mateo, who was brought to the U.S. as a child and hasn't seen her family in 15 years.
"I know you’re going to think that I’m crazy for doing this, for leaving the U.S., for coming to Mexico," said Lizbeth Mateo said in a video she made from Oaxaca, Mexico. "But to be honest, I think it’s even crazier that I had to wait for 15 years to see my family. I did it not just for my own family, but I did it for the families that have been deported."
For more on that, we're joined by Fronteras reporter Michel Marizco, live from the pedestrian gate at the Nogales entry point.
Heat wave worrisome for farm worker health
It's been pretty hot this summer with temps hitting triple digits all over the state. Pretty bad even if you work in an air conditioned office, but what if your office was actually outdoors?
State regulators are investigating the deaths of three farm workers to see if their employers violated heat illness prevention laws. The California Report's Lisa Morehouse has the story.*
Even as temperatures in the Central Valley reach near-record-breaking heights, as many as one in four farm employers do not comply with state heat illness prevention regulations, according to data from Cal OSHA, the state’s regulatory agency.
California became the first state, in 2006, to adopt heat illness regulations: employers must provide water and shade as well as allow breaks. They need to train workers and supervisors and have an emergency plan for every location.
In the Central Valley town of Selma, fruit-picker Eduardo Amezcua’s employer complies. Emptying his sack of nectarines, Amezcua poured himself a cup of water from a cooler.
“They tell us to drink every 15 minutes,” he said. “It’s hitting triple digits, so they tell us to work slow or where the shade’s at and drink water frequently.”
The temperature is set to reach 107 degrees, so the crew started at 5:30am in order to finish by 1pm.
Years ago, the workers would have continued to work longer hours.
“But then they got a little more stricter on having people out here, working while it’s too hot,” he said. “So they got more laws to take care of us.”
Ranch manager Drew Kettleson said it makes business sense: workers aren’t very productive if it’s hot or sick. But it also makes moral sense.
“The humanity part comes first,” Kettleson said. “These guys do all the work and get us our product that we need to sell. Without these guys, where are we? We’re nowhere. So we do everything we can to take care of them.”
Many more employers now comply with heat illness regulations, but not all of them.
“[There are] employers who just refuse to do basic things like water and shade -- that’s enormously painful,” said the United Farm Workers’ Giev Kashkooli. “Both the Schwarzenegger and Brown administration have failed in that regard, and large numbers of employers are not complying.”
The UFW blames Cal OSHA, at least in part. The union has filed lawsuits against the agency, arguing the state’s 200 inspectors can’t adequately enforce protections for California’s estimated 600,000 farm workers, who are often undocumented and migratory.
The UFW also wants stricter regulations. One priority is making breaks mandatory, not just recommended.
Ellen Weidess, the chief of Cal OSHA, said the agency sends inspectors out to sites based on work cycles and weather patterns. It also responds to complaints and reports of fatalities.
After one man died in early July, Cal OSHA shut down all outdoor operations at his employer, Etchegaray Farms, citing multiple violations.
While Cal OSHA’s data show a decrease in fatalities since 2006, she knows there is still work to be done.
“We’re concerned where there are violations even if there are no deaths or illnesses because those kinds of violations could lead to illness and death, Weidess said.
Cal OSHA has mounted a major multilingual heat illness awareness campaign on billboards across the state. The agency also partners with growers, universities and labor advocates to train employers and workers.
One of those advocates is Lupe Quintero from California Rural Legal Assistance. She holds workshops to train workers about their rights. Participants role play scenarios such as confronting a crew boss about not having enough water.
Farmworker Ana Reyes says the workshop she attended one hot day in Imperial County taught her about her rights and where to file a complaint about inadequate heat protections, if necessary.
When her employer provided training, it was rushed and hard to hear, she said. Nonetheless, she had to sign a paper saying she’d been educated about heat stress.
“I do have family members that have been victims of it,” Reyes said. “It wasn’t until recent years that proper shade became a requirement.”
Quintero, the workshop organizer, said everyone should try to imagine the same conditions in their own work lives.
“Just think about it: You’re working in an office, somebody tries to stop you from drinking water? Taking a break? I mean, you take those things for granted,” she said. “Well, why not for the farm worker?”
Cal OSHA said it will take about six months to finish investigating this summer’s farmworker fatalities.
*Correction: The online version of this story originally stated that three farm workers had died from heat related illnesses. Those deaths are still being investigated. The headline has also been updated.
San Jose and unions face off in court over pension reforms
Today the city of San Jose and its employee unions will face off in court over pensions. The battle is being watched closely as similar debates over government pensions are playing out throughout the state.
San Jose's pension reform, which has not yet been adopted because of the lawsuit, does not reduce benefits already earned by employees, but would require them to either pay higher contributions to maintain current benefits or receive lower benefits.
It also requires new city employees to split pension contributions evenly with the city. San Jose, which has two pension funds, currently pays $8 toward pension benefits for every $3 contributed by its employees
For more on what's happening and what's at stake, we're joined now by John Woolfolk of the San Jose Mercury News.
San Jose State pulls out of Udacity online course partnership
Earlier this year, San Jose State University announced that the school had teamed up with a startup called Udacity to offer college credit for courses taken online.
The move was heralded as an important step for massive open online courses, otherwise known as MOOCs, but looks like the deal with Udacity didn't pan out quite as planned. San Jose State pulled the plug on the deal late last week.
For more on what happened and what this means for the future of online learning we're joined now by Jeffrey Young, tech reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Could smarter forest maintenance keep wildfires in check?
The mountain fires that raged for days above Palm Springs are nearly contained as of this morning, thanks to the arrival of wet weather. Thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate from Idyllwild and other resort towns are back in their homes, safe and sound.
But some fire ecology experts wonder if their lives ever had to be put at risk.
Richard Minnich, an ecologist at the University of California at Riverside, says smarter forest maintenance could have kept the fire in check.
Increased development in wooded areas may strain US Forest Service budget
The US Forest Service has a lot on its plate when it comes to preventing wildfires. So much so, that fighting fires and protecting buildings may engulf the department's $4.5 billion budget.
Some experts attribute the costs to climate change and expanding development into forestland, an area known called the wildland-urban interface. Encroaching into the area, researchers say, removes a protective buffer from wildfires for populated areas.
Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwater Economics, a non-profit research group joins the show with more.
On The Lot: Comic-Con superheros, box office stinker
The L.A. Times' Rebecca Keegan is still trying to emerge from the stupor created by a full week of long days at nights at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego. She says perhaps the biggest news was the announcement that Warner Bros. will pair two superheros, Batman and Superman, in an upcoming film.
Rebecca gives us the latest on Joss Whedon's new TV series, "The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Proving that just having periods in the title is no guarantee of success, she tells us about what might be the biggest box office disaster of the summer, "R.I.P.D."
Odd Hollywood Jobs: Set teacher
This is one in a series on Odd Hollywood Jobs — not acting or directing, but rather the tasks you haven't heard of. You can read other segments in this series at the links below the story.
Ever wondered where your favorite child actors go to school?
For children in the entertainment industry in California, school comes to them in the form of studio teachers.
Linda Stone has worked as one for 36 years. The native New Yorker discovered the field while working for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
It took seven years for her to get into the union — the easiest place to find work as a studio teacher. Stone says she's had steady work since joining the union 29 years ago. She's one of about 100 members in the state.
"It's just been a fun career. I can't imagine ever retiring," said Stone, who's the business agent for The Studio Teachers Welfare Workers Local 884 union. "There's an enormous reward in seeing kids learn something and the excitement that they feel when they master a concept."
The state of California mandates that studio teachers be on any set where children are working, to monitor child labor laws. They're responsible for ensuring that the students do 15 hours of schoolwork a week, the state requirement for 1st through 12th graders. They're also supposed to keep an eye out for safety practices.
They're hired and paid by production companies and work everywhere from theater productions to big budget Hollywood films. And just like the actors, the gigs come and go.
At the moment, Stone is working for the Disney XD cable TV show "Kickin' It," which wrapped production of its third season last week. Stone and another studio teacher, Cheryl Diamond, work as a team and coordinate schooling for the show's four co-stars under age 18: Dylan Riley Snyder, Olivia Holt, Mateo Arias and Leo Howard. Their actual "school" is an independent study program based in Oak Park.
During a visit to the set earlier this month, Howard sat with Stone as he worked on a short-answer assignment on a laptop about "The Great Gatsby." It was his last assignment of the 10th grade.
"It can be very difficult to get our schoolwork done," Howard said, because of the sometimes hectic production schedule. Sometimes the school day is cut into chunks as small as 2o minutes between shooting.
"It's much different than regular school," he said.
At the Hollywood Center Studios lot where "Kickin' It" tapes, Disney has dedicated a room as a classroom. Each actor has his or her own desk decorated with photos and other personal items.
As a set teacher, Stone said she's traveled with child stars all over the world, sometimes flying in private jets and sleeping at luxe hotels. She accompanied Miley Cyrus during two concert tours.
Among her teaching credits are the films "Air Force One" and "Practical Magic" and the television shows "Family Matters" and "Hannah Montana."
Arias said he first met Stone on the set of "Hannah Montana" when she taught his brother, Moises Arias, who played Rico. He credits Stone with helping him get through high school. He's getting ready to graduate.
"I don't ever call her my teacher. I legitimately introduce her as my second mom," he said. "She helps me with life, problems, anything that's happening in my life."
Stone's taught former students how to play tennis and how to drive. On a recent weekend, she invited "Kickin' It" stars over to her home for a cooking lesson.
Stone said to her, the job is about much more than teaching schoolwork.
"This industry is so fragile — you can be on a hit show on Monday and it can be cancelled on Friday," she said. "I somewhat feel responsible for keeping them grounded, for reminding them that they need more of an identity than just being an actor on a show."
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Bookies anticipate news of royal baby gender, name and time of birth
Early this morning, Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, went to St. Mary's Hospital in central London. Kate is expected to give birth in a private wing of the hospital, the same wing where Princess Diana gave birth to William and his younger brother, Prince Harry.
Royal watchers are anxiously awaiting news of the baby's gender, time of birth, and of course, the name. Bookies are also waiting with bated breath; They've been taking bets on these details for months.
For the latest on the wagers, we're joined now by Rory Scott with the Irish betting firm Paddy Power, and he's currently outside the hospital.
Popular LA chef and South LA teens open '3 Worlds Cafe'
Chef Roy Choi has teamed up with a group of South LA teens to open a new smoothie shop on Central Avenue. The man behind the Kogi food truck wants to provide work experience for kids, along with a taste of healthy eating.
KPCC's Hayley Fox made a visit to the new cafe.
Students feel deep cuts to LA Unified summer school program
SUMMER LEARNING: Education experts say idle summers can put kids behind when they go back to school in the fall. KPCC spoke to teachers, parents and kids across Southern California about what they're learning this summer — or not.
Thousands of kids who wish they could spend their summer in a hammock will instead spend it in a classroom. They failed algebra or English, and need to make up credits to graduate.
Credit Recovery, as it's called, is the only teaching that goes on in LA Unified schools over the summer, and not even all failing students can get it.
In the second part of our "Summer Learning" series, KPCC's Jed Kim says severe budget cuts to the program mean seats are at a premium.
Surf's up! Huntington Beach hosts 20th annual US Open of Surfing
This past weekend kicked off the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing, marking the 20th anniversary of the surfing competition in Huntington Beach. The event brings thousands of surf fans to the shore and millions of dollars to Surf City USA.
A recent report by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association reported over $6 billion in retail sales last year. However, massive cuts and financial losses by surf giants Quiksilver and Billabong show that the industry is starting to struggle.
Jake Howard, an editor for the surf section for ESPN's XGames.com joined us in the studio today.
Australian pro surfers hunt for bigger and better waves in 'Storm Surfers 3D'
Old surfers never die, they just keep putting themselves in potentially lethal situations. That's the moral of a new documentary called "Storm Surfers." The film follows Ross Clarke Jones and Tom Carroll, two Australian pro surfers who continue a pilgrimage for the perfect wave even as they approach middle age.
The pair joined Take Two to talk about what motivates them to put their lives on the line, why they chase bigger surf and how growing older has changed how they view the sport.
Interview Highlights:
Tom on the title, "Storm Surfers 3D":
"First of all, we've got to find the storm, get ourselves right in the middle of it. We're looking for storms out to sea. In "Storm Surfers 3D," we're using our weatherman, Ben Matson, he taps into where the storms are, we figure out how the swells are going to effect a certain reef, and we're trying to hit those specific points of interest where the waves are going to break the biggest. Sometimes, a storm hits us, that's the exciting part of it."
Ross on the constant search for bigger waves:
"Maybe my body will cave in before that desire to do so. I'm not sure. It's an insatiable need for more and for speed, faster, bigger. Tom and I have been doing this for 25 years. It might come naturally and just wind down."
On how aging has affected each one's approach to surfing:
Tom: "It's actually helped me realize that I do need to pull back. There's been some injuries just recently. In 2009, I got an injury that sat me on my butt for about 6 months. Things like that get you to check in on what's really important. I think it's necessary as I get older to understand what the risks I'm taking really are. I want to be around with my kids and my grandkids…These projects I do with Ross, as I'm getting older, that voice is just getting louder. At certain points, it's getting louder."
Ross: "I am three or five years younger than Tom, but even myself, I'm actually beginning to be more calculated, believe it or not. It might not appear that way, but I used to throw myself off buildings, literally, into waves that were impossible to make. And I knew I wasn't going to make them, but I'd go because I wanted to go."
Ross on the possibility of dying while surfing:
"I want to live as long I possibly can, and enjoy living as much as I possibly can. There's one wave in the film where it gets me in the back of the neck at a place called Pedra Branca. I literally thought this could've been the last go. I went into neck surgery the following day and, in my mind, I thought, 'You know what? I'll be fine. I'm going into neck surgery tomorrow, they'll fix it. The car will be in the mechanic's shop tomorrow.'"
Tom on advice for younger surfers:
"Get to know the ocean as best as you possibly can. She's always moving, she'll always surprise you. Never take your eyes off her. And get used to understanding her. The only way you can do that is by spending a lot of time with her. I talk about the ocean as a her because she's got her own way. She'll have her way with us at any moment. Really keep an eye out, and spend a lot of time surfing, doing it, practicing and live it."
Comic-Con: TV overshadows film, female themes proliferate
KPCC's culture maven is back from Comic-Con with tales to tell. He notes that as television is enjoying something of a golden age, its importance has been heightened at Comic-Con. Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead all got lots and lots of attention.
Also getting attention, female-themed shows. From the sequel, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, to TV shows like The Vampire Diaries, women are making a big impact on a conference that was once aimed at lonely fanboys.
And the definition of what's appropriate for Comic-Con continues to expand. Mike notes Roseanne Barr was at the convention, promoting a new TV show, as was the venerable hard rock band, Metalica.
Read more from Mike in his pop culture column, Without A Net.
Van Dyke Parks returns with the long-awaited 'Songs Cycled'
Long before Van Dyke Parks worked with Ringo Starr, The Byrds or Fiona Apple, he worked with two other notable stars: Grace Kelly and Alec Guinness.
When he was just a kid, he was lucky enough to land a role in the 1956 film "The Swan." He appeared as George, a young boy who teaches a prince, played by Guinness, how to play a rustic game with a wooden paddle.
"It was a wonderful adventure. I was very fortunate. I had a great childhood," said Van Dyke Parks.
That childhood began in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but Parks spent several of his adolescent years here in Hollywood, appearing in TV shows like "The Honeymooners." Now 70 years old, Parks is a short man with snow white hair, a neatly trimmed mustache and round spectacles.
He says his early acting gigs helped him afford training for his true calling: Music. Today, Parks plays a Steinway Parlor Grand piano tucked away in the corner of his living room. The instrument is more than a century old, one of two pianos Parks and his siblings grew up with.
He says music is in his family's DNA.
"I played clarinet, my next brother played trumpet, my next brother played french horn and the oldest brother played a double barrel euphonium," said Parks.
Parks fine-tuned his skills at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, then at Carnegie Tech University in Pittsburgh, but eventually, he found his way back to the West Coast: moving to California once again in 1962.
That was the same year The Rolling Stones formed and another British band called The Beatles had their first hit with the song "Love Me Do." Unlike most young people at the time, Parks was less than impressed by the British invasion.
"There was such an antipathy toward all things American. and I thought it would be really squaresville to investigate this, embrace this thing called America," said Parks.
So Parks did just that with his music, bringing traditional Americana sounds and influences to modern pop music, with a twinge of psychedelia. In an era of rock stars, he was turned off by the notion of fame. He was more inspired by the protest music of the time. but perhaps more than anything, Parks was most intrigued by the process of making music.
"I didn't see myself as an artist, I saw myself interested in the studio and wanting to learn what the studio was all about," said Parks. "How I could serve as a person bringing studio technique in the apogee of the analogue recording happening on my watch."
"Apogee of the analog recording" is pretty classic turn of phrase for Van Dyke Parks. His language is peppered with assonance and alliteration and his sentences are closer to poetry than conversation.
These attributes intrigued fellow musician Brian Wilson who asked Parks to write lyrics for the Beach Boys album "Smile" in 1966.
"I chased his musical syllables with words and the idea was I was seeing Brian as a person who was looking for validation," said Parks. "I found validation in his work and wanted the lyrics to reflect that."
They might have been good lyrics, but not everyone in the Beach Boys agreed. Parks clashed with the band's Mike Love and eventually left the project. Soon after Parks put out an album of his own material on the Warner Brothers label, a 1968 work called "Song Cycle."
The album was a clear result of the southern California landscape surrounding him, with songs like Vine Street, Laurel Canyon and this track Palm Desert. The lush orchestrations on the album did not come cheap. "Song Cycle" was one of the most expensive pop recordings made in the '60s.
The album didn't sell so well at the time and reviews were mixed, so Van Dyke Parks used his musical expertise for other endeavors. He worked regularly as a session musician and began making a name for himself as a producer and arranger.
"I don't know the year anymore, but it was the in the '60s when I first ran into Van Dyke on a session," said Grammy-winning musician Ry Cooder. "I thought, who's this fella? He makes the piano sound like a bunch of guitars."
Cooder is just one of many notable musicians Parks has worked with over the years. The list ranges from long time legends like Frank Zappa and Randy Newman to recent indie acts like Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes.
"He walks this fine line between being very traditional and very progressive. And sort of the combination of it is really amazing," said singer-songwriter Inara George, who is known for her solo work and as half of the band The Bird and the Bee. She collaborated with Parks on a 2009 album called "An Invitation."
George says Van Dyke Parks has an uncanny ability to hear a musician's influences and to draw beautiful orchestrations out of the simplest of tunes.
"That's the thing he does in the arranging, not just the sound of it, he's actually commenting," said George. "If you listen to the music, you can hear him making comments about the lyrics."
In addition to his collaborations with artists like George, Parks has kept busy over the years arranging and composing music for dozens of film and television projects. Everything from the kid's show "Harold and the Purple Crayon" to Martin Scorsese's mafia film "The Departed."
Still, even with all these creative outlets, Parks recently found himself itching to make music of his own again.
Parks recently put together a new album called "Songs Cycled," his first album of new material since 1989. In true Van Dyke Parks fashion, "Songs Cycled" sounds cinematic and features complex orchestrations.
But unlike other projects, this album gave the musician the opportunity to speak his mind about issues, from the greed he sees on Wall Street to his grave concerns about the Prestige oil tanker which sank in 2002'
"I read about the sinking of a ship that sank off the bay of Biscay," said Parks. "This article about eco catastrophe was on page 18 of the LA times. I thought there was something really wrong with this picture."
Parks realizes there may not be much of a market for music with this sort of political agenda these days. But he says the need for such songs may be even greater now than when he first started making albums in the 1960s.
"It's time to question authority like never before, and so I think that it's okay to have elements of anarchy in work," said Parks. "I have that in my work, and it makes it dense with thought. I can't help it. This is who I am."