What's at stake in Mexico's upcoming elections, a teacher in Hayward, California, asks Steph Curry not to go to his school, Crown and the M.O.B.
Drought will cost agriculture sector billions this year
The historic drought is now in its fourth year here in California. Farmers are among the hardest-hit at this point, and a new report shows the industry is heading for more tough times. Researchers at UC Davis say the state's agriculture sector will lose nearly $2 billion this year.
Jay Lund is Director for the Center for Watershed Sciences at Davis and one of the report's authors. He joined the show for more.
NBA Finals: How the Golden State Warriors have changed since 1975
Game 1 of the NBA Finals kicks off Thursday in Oakland, as the Golden State Warriors host Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the best of 7 series.
The last time the Warriors were in the Finals was 1975, and they won it all. But, the NBA and Bay Area sports were much different then, than they are now.
Kevin Arnovitz covers the NBA for ESPN, and he tells more.
Why a Hayward teacher asked Stephen Curry not to visit his school
Athletes have long been role models for young people to look up to. Athletes like Stephen Curry, guard of the Golden State Warriors.
Curry has been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player for the 2014-2015 season, and his team is heading into the NBA Finals Thursday night.
But one high school teacher in Northern California has asked Curry NOT to visit his high school.
Matthew Amaral teaches English at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward. He wrote the letter on his blog this week, and it has since gone viral. In the post, he explains that he wouldn't want Curry to show up, because he doesn't think he'd be honest with students about their dreams.
"...The worst thing you won’t tell them Steph, is that they can’t do it. You won’t tell them that will you? You won’t be able to bring yourself to tell them it is already too late. You won’t tell them about all those years when you were playing in top competitive leagues as a child. You won’t tell them that if they haven’t played organized basketball by the age of sixteen (twelve, really), they have no chance of going pro. You see, the kids I am talking about do not play year-round, they are not in a travelling league, and they have never even heard of a McDonald’s All-American; they just eat McDonald’s two meals a day and have Hot Cheetos in between."
As it turns out, the post was part of a class assignment that Amaral and his students wrote together, and Curry was never actually invited to visit the school.
"This really began in my own classroom, talking about argumentation, and how do you make an argument?" Amaral said. "If you take something like Steph Curry, and let's say you want him to visit your high school, well, sure, you could write a letter to him saying, 'We're really great people, would you like coming here?' Or, what's a harder argument to make -- What if you tell him not to come? And can you make an argument for that?"
Amaral says the letter is about more than Steph Curry -- whom Amaral openly admires, and says so in the letter. It's really about teaching teens who face challenges to be successful by being prepared.
"I'm getting a lot of criticism. I'm being accused of killing dreams ... Our schools are a place where we're not hired to help them dream about being in the NBA, we're hired to give them other routes," Amaral said. "They're very good at dreaming big already, and I think that it's our job to help foster those dreams, but in the school setting, it's also our job to show them the real alternatives in case that dream doesn't happen."
Listen to host A Martinez's full interview with Matthew Amaral by clicking the blue audio player above.
LA's Crown and the M.O.B. talk beginnings, inspiration
The Los Angeles-area band Crown and the M.O.B. (Message of the Blues) has been getting a lot of positive buzz as of late.
The alt/hip-hop band recently released their first full-length LP "All Rise." Critics have called their music infectious and inspiring.
The band's style comes from many sources, and the members have played with a host of industry heavyweights, from Dr. Dre to Justin Timberlake. Bassist Colin Wolfe best described it as "gumbo."
Here's their newest video from the single titled "Roam":
The band's frontman, Wilfredo Williams, better known as the rapper Crown, joined Colin Wolfe in the studio and talked to host Alex Cohen about their new album.
Alex began by asking Crown where and how he got his start:
CROWN: I grew up in Brooklyn, so you know hip hop was a heavy influence. I remember my older two brothers and their friends, they used to have cyphers and freestyles, we're talking about the early 80s, but they would't allow me to rap …
COHEN: Why not?
CROWN: I was too little, so at that point they said, you know what - you get on the cardboard. So I started out breakdancing. Eventually got better with writing … well, rapping actually, I used to steal my brother's lyrics ... and rap them at school ... and they were like, wait he can rap!
The band will be performing this Friday, June 5, at the Abbott Kinney First Friday in Venice.
CIR reporter explains how California is sinking
On top of a drought, California has just been told its troubles could actually get worse.
According to Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, all the groundwater pumping being done to stave off effects of the drought is making the ground sink at alarming rates. If this becomes widespread, the sinking could threaten the state's infrastructure.
Nathan Halvorsen wrote all about it, and he joined the show to explain more.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue player above.
State of Affairs: Drought, taxes, and the state budget
On this week's State of Affairs, a new state-wide poll finds the drought has replaced the economy as the top issue for California voters, the California legislature decides on hundreds of bills, and the deadline looms for the final state budget.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, USC Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Communication, and John Myers, KQED's senior editor for California Politics and Government, join Take Two.
Are you ending your email the right way?
Email sign-offs are a part of every day life. Chances are you've ended a message with "best" or "sincerely." Nothing wrong with that, right? It's polite, safe, but is it even necessary? A recent Bloomberg Business article made the argument we should stop using it altogether.
But not everyone agrees. Like Barbara Pachter. She teaches business writing and is author of 'The Essentials of Business Etiquette: How to Greet, Eat, and Tweet Your Way to Success,' and she joned the show for more.