Why would Univision cancel the popular "Piolín Por La Manana" show?; Tuesday Reviewsday: Edward Sharpe, Wallpaper, Tech N9ne and more; Natural History Museum of LA discovers the true origin of a mysterious gold ring; Having a baby in the US can cost parents royally; Smithsonian spotlights fusion of Latino and Asian cultures; Chris's Collection: Retro tissue box, plus much more.
Why would Univision cancel the popular 'Piolín Por La Manana' show?
A voice popular with millions of Spanish-language listeners is off the air. Yesterday, Univision announced the cancellation of "Piolín Por La Manana," a nationally-syndicated show produced right here in Los Angeles.
A Martinez interviewed host Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo just a week-and-a-half ago about his induction into the Radio Hall of Fame. He gave no clue that this might happen.
Piolín's show had been one of the top-rated Spanish-language shows in the country. And while it was just displaced as number one, it was still heard by three-and-a-half-million people every morning.
So what happened? Both Univision and Piolín have not responded for interview requests, but we speak with journalist Veronica Villafañe about what's possibly behind the sudden cancellation.
Pope Francis travels to Brazil during World Youth Day
Pope Francis is visiting Brazil this week. It's his first official trip since becoming pope in March.
His visit coincides with World Youth Day, an annual gathering of young Catholics and thousands of pilgrims have flocked to Rio de Janeiro to catch a glimpse of him. Although many are thrilled just to see him, there are also a lot of high expectations for this pope, and faith in the region is fading.
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro joins the show with more.
What's it like to grow up as a royal baby
In the past, royal children led extremely cloistered lives. They were raised by nannies, schooled by private tutors, and rarely if ever had any contact with "commoners."
That began to change with the current Queen, Elizabeth. She grew up in a relatively modest house in London, and had what could be considered a fairly normal childhood.
And what for the new royal baby. William and Kate are known for being somewhat casual, and many expect their child-rearing style to reflect that.
The Atlantic's Olga Khazan has delved into the history of royal children, and shares some history, and some predictions for the newest generation of royals.
Having a baby in the US can cost parents royally
The royal baby has yet to move into his luxurious quarters at Buckingham palace, but his digs at the hospital aren't too shabby. The duchess gave birth in the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's hospital in London, which is the maternity ward of choice for royals.
Princes William and Harry were born there, and it boasts every conceivable comfort for royal new moms, including a specially compiled wine list with all of the best champagnes. The cost of a suite in the Lindo wing is up to £10,000, or about $15,000.
But before you get too jealous, you should know that's actually not too much more extravagant than the average cost of child birth here in America. The U.S. is the most expensive country in the world to have a baby in.
Elisabeth Rosenthal, who covered this topic in June for a New York Times special report, joins the show with more.
The 1930s song 'Chiapanecas' and its Olvera Street connection
This summer we've been telling you about a project called Songs in the Key of L.A., the multi-platform collaboration between the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, the L.A. Public Library and USC professor Josh Kun.
Kun and his students culled through thousands of pieces of sheet music to find songs about the Golden State.
Today, Kun introduces us to the 1930s song "Chiapanecas," which became known during that time as the Mexican hand-clapping song.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Edward Sharpe, Wallpaper, Tech N9ne and more
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment. Joining us is Chris Martins senior writer at Spin and Shirley Halperin music editor at Hollywood Reporter.
Shirley's Picks
Artist: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Album: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Songs: "Remember to Remember", "Better Days"
Artist: Tech N9ne
Album: Something Else
Songs: "Fragile"
Artist: The Krayolas
Album: Tormenta
Songs: "Corrido - Twelve Heads in a Bag", "Quiero Ser Tu Novio" (Ramones cover)
Chris's Picks:
Artist: F*ck Buttons
Album: Slow Focus
Songs: "The Red Wing"
Artist: Wallpaper
Album: Ricky Reed Is Real
Songs: "RRiR"
Artist: Hunx & His Punx
Album: Street Punk
Songs: "You Think You're Tough"
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.
Immigration rhetoric worries some California Republicans
As comprehensive immigration reform stalls in the U.S. House of Representatives, some Golden State Republicans back home are wringing their hands. They say the rhetoric they’re hearing from GOP Congressmen threatens an already floundering California Republican Party.
KPCC's Franks Stoltze reports.
Ruben Barrales and the business of immigration reform
Ruben Barrales is the president of the political action committee Grow Elect, a group focused on reaching out to Latino voters and recruiting Latino Republican candidates for office.
He joins us to discuss immigration reform and the hold this issue has on the House of Representatives.
Hollywood's odd mix of culture and crime still popular among tourists
Last week, a mob of young marauders stormed Hollywood, stealing cell phones and knocking people over.
Last month, a 23-year-old woman refused to give money to a guy after taking a picture of him. The man fatally stabbed her and left her bleeding on the sidewalk in front of the American Eagle Outfitters store, not far from the legendary intersection of Hollywood and Highland.
Still, Hollywood, with its odd mix of glamour and despair, is one of the top U.S. destinations for tourists from around the world.
Marisa Gerber has been writing about this strange mix for the L.A. Times and joins the show with more.
Smithsonian spotlights fusion of Latino and Asian cultures
Starting this week, the Smithsonian is showcasing the fusion of Latino and Asian cultures across the U.S.
The Smithsonian Asian-Latino Festival will feature the way the two cultures intersect in food, art and beyond. Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, joins the show with more.
Congress considers expanding Yosemite by 1,600 acres
Congress is considering legislation to expand Yosemite National Park by about 1,600 acres. The area — on the western edge of Yosemite — includes rolling foothills and a view that takes in the great Central Valley and even the Coast Range. The California Report's Alice Daniel has the story.
Laurie Wayburn walks briskly along an old logging road she hopes one day soon will become a trail in Yosemite National Park.
Congress is considering legislation to expand the national park by about 1,600 acres. The area -- on the western edge of Yosemite -- includes rolling foothills and a view that takes in the great Central Valley and even the Coast Range.
As Wayburn walks through a lush forest on the land up for consideration, she sees some trees in the distance. “We’re about to approach some beautiful dogwoods in full bloom,” she says. “Those white blossoms just hanging in the air there are the dogwood.”
Wayburn is co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust, which owns a big chunk of the 1,600 acres. A group of private landholders owns the rest and also supports the acquisition.
“As we’ve been walking along this trail, we can see many other creatures use this trail too,” she says. “You can see deer tracks. There was some bear scat back there.”
The legislation, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jim Costa, could result in a timely tribute to the park, Wayburn says.
The year “2014 is the 150th anniversary of the original Yosemite Grant by President Lincoln,” she says. “Abraham Lincoln was planning to come out West to visit Yosemite when he was assassinated. But this harkens back to the extraordinary value of Yosemite. In the midst of the Civil War, he signed the legislation for the Yosemite Grant.”
In fact, the land Wayburn is on was originally included in the Yosemite Grant but Congress removed it and thousands more acres, conceding to timber interests in 1906 when Yosemite became a national park. The nearby Yosemite West housing development, a cluster of about 100 homes, grew out of that concession. There are concerns that more land could be developed if it doesn’t go to the park.
At the top of a high ridge that looks out over the foothills, Wayburn says the expansion would prevent further development, protect the Merced River watershed and preserve a vital migration corridor for deer.
“That deer migration corridor is really critical for that herd, but it’s also for all the things that eat deer,” she says. “Mountain lion come up through here following the deer.”
Costa, a Democrat who introduced the bill in Congress, says he hopes the legislation will be included in a larger package of bills poised to move fast.
“There’s a good bipartisan support of legislators both in Sacramento and Washington who support the effort,” he says.
He, too, thinks 2014 is an important year.
“It’s one that I’m very mindful of,” he says. “It’s kind of fitting and appropriate as we look at the 150th anniversary.”
There’s widespread enthusiasm for the addition, he says, but at least one legislator is still undecided. That’s Republican Rep.Tom McClintock, whose district includes Yosemite. His office didn’t respond to requests for an interview, but McClintock has said in the past that he wants to be sure this isn’t just another federal land grab.
The state assemblyman for the district, Republican Frank Bigelow, co-authored a resolution unanimously passed by the state Senate to support the expansion. He says he’s not a big fan of having more land in the public trust, but this addition is a no-brainer because regulations don’t make development easy.
“So it makes sense to incorporate this land within the boundaries of Yosemite and allow people to enjoy it as a whole, as part of Yosemite’s bountiful wonders,” says Bigelow.
Wayburn of the Pacific Forest Trust revels in those wonders. She gingerly steps along the edge of a marsh, a feeding ground for wildlife.
“And these are actually giant sequoias right here, young giant sequoias,” she says. “And over here is the flowering currant.”
Wayburn says the Pacific Forest Trust would donate some of this land to the National Park Service. The National Park Service would buy the rest with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The land here, she says, offers some stunning views. “People can come up and see the topography going down into the great Central Valley,” she says. “You can really get a sense of why Muir wanted this to be part of the park.”
She’s talking about John Muir, of course -- the naturalist who had included this land in his vision of Yosemite National Park. Frank Helling, who has portrayed John Muir in schools and national parks for 30 years, shares one of Muir’s journals that describes Yosemite.
“Yosemite Park is a place of rest, a refuge from the roar and dust and weary nervous wasting work of the lowlands,” Helling says, reading from a page in the journal. “Government protection should be thrown around every wild grove and forest on the mountains.”
Whether government protection is thrown around these 1,600 acres is a question that its supporters hope will be answered with a yes -- soon.
Natural History Museum of LA discovers the true origin of a mysterious gold ring
There is some real-life royal intrigue going on at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
About 40 years ago, a mysterious gold ring with blue enamel and rose cut diamonds was donated to the museum's gem collection. At the time, it was thought to have belonged to the Russian empress, Catherine the Great. Now, museum staff have traced the real origin of the ring.
"It was donated by a couple from Santa Monica, very random almost, it's the type of object that we don't really have in our collection at all," said Alyssa Morgan, collections manager for the Mineral Sciences department at the museum. "It came in out of the blue and they were happy to accept it and put it on display with a label based on what the donors had told them. So it's been that way since the early 70s."
The label that accompanied the ring upon donation claimed that it was a gift from Catherine The Great of Russia to one of the maids of honor in her court. The label came with a note from a Russian woman in Paris, the former owner of the ring, to the American who purchased it from her. The Russian woman had to sell the ring in the 1920s due to financial hardship.
The note reads:
"The little sale-girl who sold you my ring faithfully gived me your writing card with your kind words. I must tell you Madame, how touched I was to receive that mark of your appreciation. It is very seldom that American ladies think of the unhappiness of the people who have to sale their family's jewelry. I hope Madame Catherine's ring will bring you happiness and good luck which good luck you deserve certainly. Thank you again."
No one questioned the origin of the ring until a volunteer at the museum, who also happened to be a gemologist, insisted that the "E" insignia on the ring wasn't an "E" at all (Catherine in Russian is Ekaterina). Morgan and her team began reaching out to historians and other experts who might be able to offer more clues.
"Eventually it started to reach some people who wrote back to us...Someone at a museum in DC said 'That's not Russian and it's not 18th century, it's clearly younger...the Russians never used Gothic letters for their cipher," said Morgan.
Hints began to flood in. Someone mentioned the ring was likely from the 19th century, another person claimed the crown on the ring was Prussian. After that, Morgan took to Wikipedia to check through several Prussian ciphers, otherwise known as monograms, until they found a match.
"It was an 'E' but it was a Gothic style, so it wasn't immediately recognizable as an E," said Morgan. "We ended up with Elizabeth of Prussia, instead of Catherine the Great. A little bit of a downgrade."
Queen Elizabeth of Prussia was born in Munich in 1801, the daughter of King Maximilian Joseph I of Bavaria. A member of the Wittelsbach family, she became queen after marrying Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who ruled as King of Prussia from 1840-1861.
Silk pictures with the portraits of Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his consort Elisabeth.
Even though the ring did not belong to Catherine the Great, Morgan and her team are still satisfied that the diamond-encrusted piece of jewelry did once belong to a real European queen. Still, there is a mystery behind the Russian woman who sold the ring.
"If you go back to the letter with the story that came with the ring, it doesn't make sense," said Morgan. "We don't know the age of the woman who wrote the letter in Paris, but if she was an older lady, someone who's almost the same age as this ring, she should have been very close to whoever received it from the queen."
ESPN's Matthew Berry traces the rise of fantasy sports in 'Fantasy Life'
For most teams, NFL training camps begin this week. It's a time when pro football's super stars get ready for the season and everyone else is jockeying for positions on the roster.
It's also a time when millions start to analyze every piece of information they can to get ready for their fantasy football draft. No longer the solely the realm of jocks and nerds, fantasy sports has become the great equalizer.
From CEOs to students, politicians to citizens, regardless of race, gender or age, fantasy sports puts everyone in the same same room, on equal footing, all for the sheer fun it. And maybe for the bragging rights.
Matthew Berry is the senior fantasy sports analyst for ESPN and has written a new book, "Fantasy Life: The Outrageous, Uplifting and Heartbreaking World of Fantasy Sports From the Guy Who's Lived It."
Interview Highlights:
On fantasy sports as the original social media:
"I always say that before Facebook or MySpace, fantasy football was the original online community. I talk about this in the book. I've been playing since I was fourteen years old. My very first league is still together to this day. I'm 43 now. Next April will be the 30th anniversary of the Fat Dog Rotisserie League out of College Station, TX, which is where I grew up. It's still going to this day. Six of the original ten members are still there, two others have been it for 20+ years. I fly back every year for it."
On the importance of the fantasy draft:
"Draft day is the most important day of the year. If you don't have a good draft, you're in for a long season. So, no question about it, people will do whatever it takes. I know people who have braved hurricanes, that have braved brushfires. I have a guy that was in Afghanistan serving overseas, and literally, he was getting bombed. There was an attack on his station. He was still drafting."
The financial impact of fantasy sports:
"There have been studies that have shown that the average sports fan watches about three hours of football per week. The average fantasy sports player watches six hours. There have been studies that show that fantasy football players are more likely to buy tickets, more likely to watch games, more likely to buy jerseys, more likely to buy shoulder programming like NFL Sunday Ticket, that sort of thing. So owners love that because it's more revenue for them."
On finding a balance between fantasy and reality:
"I've known people that are in 50 leagues, in 70 leagues, that are just...hardcore. My take on fantasy, like anything, look, everything in moderation. Nothing is good in excess...I'll do between eight and ten. Last year I was in eight. It's really fun. I try to limit it; there was a time when I was in as many leagues as you are and it's too much, with the job. I have five kids and a wife, so there's only so many hours in the day.