Office of California state senator Ron Calderon raided by FBI; Maxine Waters embraces role as top Democrat on powerful financial committee; Ex-NRC chief not confident in Edison's San Onofre restart plan; Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' gets a 'ReRite' on its 100th anniversary; How has religion's view of homosexuality changed over the years? Plus much more.
Office of California state Sen. Ron Calderon raided by FBI
Yesterday the FBI raided the Sacramento offices of state senator Ron Calderon. The agency remains mum on why they conducted this search, the first of its kind at a senator's office in 30 years.
For more on this we're joined now by KPCC's Frank Stoltze.
Correction: Contrary to earlier reports, the Legislative Offices of the Latino Caucus were not searched Tuesday. The FBI searched two offices but, according to a statement released Wednesday, officials from the California State Senate said that one of them was misidentified as belonging to the caucus due to an outdated roster of room numbers. Both offices that were searched belong to Senator Calderon.
Maxine Waters embraces role as top Democrat on powerful financial committee
Maxine Waters has settled into her new job. The LA congresswoman became the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Banking Committee.
As KPCC's Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde reports, the post comes after a three-year fight to clear her name on banking-related ethics charges.
Ex-NRC chief not confident in Edison's San Onofre restart plan
Recently Senator Barbara Boxer admonished the Justice Department to open an investigation into the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant. There are many critics of the plant, and the continued reliance on nuclear power, but one emerging critic has been Naoto Kan, the former prime minister of Japan.
Kan was Japan's PM at the time of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, and after intense criticism of how his administration handled the crisis, made a public apology and has since claimed to have a change of heart regarding the use of nuclear power.
Speaking on Tuesday at an anti-nuclear conference in San Diego, former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory B. Jaczko expressed serious doubts about Southern California Edison's proposal to restart the San Onofre nuclear plant at 70 percent power for five months.
“The approach does not instill a lot of confidence in me,” he said Tuesday. “It’s a fairly novel idea to allow a plant to operate at a reduced power level because of a safety issue.”
KPCC's Ben Bergman, who sat down afterwards for an exclusive interview with Jaczko, joins the show with more.
Sports Roundup: Puig-mania, LA Kings, NBA Finals
The Dodgers have a new phenom in Yasiel Puig, Lakers fans might have to pick between the lesser of two evils and Major League Baseball could be looking to suspend some players.
For more we turn to our high-flying sports bro tandem Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, who've covered sports for the L.A. Times and ESPN.
US Forest Service can now use night-flying helicopters to fight fires
The Powerhouse Fire east of Castaic Lake has burned more than 32,000 acres and is currently 65 percent contained. Thankfully firefighters have a new weapon to tackle wildfires like this: night-flying aircraft.
The U.S. Forest Service hasn't used nighttime aerial firefighting operations since the 1970s due to reasons of safety and cost. The agency relied on other local agencies for these firefighting tools when available.
“We will never know for certain if night flying could have extinguished the Station Fire in those critical early hours, but adding this capability will give us a better chance in future wildfires to protect residents’ houses, precious natural resources and, most importantly, lives,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, in a statement. “The restoration of this capability by the Forest Service – though long overdue – could not come at a more critical time, with one wildfire burning across Southern California and more expected throughout the summer."
Congressman Adam Schiff joins the show to explain how this new tool will allow firefighters to be more productive against fires during the crucial nighttime hours.
Meet urban planner Aja Brown, Compton's new mayor
The city of Compton has a new mayor for the first time in 12 years. Urban planner Aja Brown has defeated former mayor Omar Bradley in a landslide: 64 percent to 37 percent, according to preliminary numbers.
As mayor, Brown will lead a city that teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the last year.
Interview highlights:
On her top priorities for the city:
"Definitely on good government. I think the City of Compton has suffered for quite some time from the lack of innovative policies, really collaborative efforts with the federal, state and regional elected officials and government agencies. Compton has been on an island fiscally so I look forward to really collaborating in order to move our visions forward: to go back to basics, to implement strategic plans, capital improvements plans that really lay out the infrastructure improvements in our community. My heart is really in building coalitions. The city of Compton has over 200 churches, 100 non-profits, small business communities and really large corporations and so we have an opportunity to really bridge the gap between those sectors and be able to provide a higher level of service to our residents."
"When I am actually sworn in, the budget will be already approved for this year so I can just really focus on the strategic planning effort which will be a city-wide game plan in place for the city of Compton to move forward. We have a lot of support and a lot of coalitions that are ready to move forward and so it will really be a lot of ground work so we're ready and I have a great team."
On Compton's crime and media perception:
"The crime in Compton has continued to get better ever since the sheriff came into contract with our local law enforcement agencies. Over the past ten years, crime has been reduced about 55 percent. Compton is a much safer Compton than it was in the '80s. People play in parks. People aren't afraid to be out at night. The crime is still a real issue so I look forward to partnering with the sheriffs to really bring back some community policing to the city of Compton and to enhance their efforts that are already instituted here in the city of Compton."
On how Compton's image costs the city:
"Just working to brand and market the city as a practitioner - the perception is very real. It has economic impacts. I think having new leadership that's fresh and young and even the gender change will definitely open up a new perspective I believe of the outside community of what Compton can be and what it will be in the future."
"I really plan on being strategic on how we re-market our community not only to the outside world but also to the inside world. We have so many great things going on here but we don't have that central platform to really share whats going on in our community so in order for us to attack that perception and to make it better, we have to tell our own story and I look forward to doing that."
"When we look at the investment decisions into the city of Compton, the small business community and global corporations and retailers and all of those types of services that decide to come into the community to serve it, they look at the perception, how does the brand work with the local community. And I've worked for several communities. Inglewood is similar to Compton in some ways and certain brands won't come into quote-on-quote urban communities because they feel that the perception doesn't mesh well with their brand. So I think we've missed out on some opportunities to provide the basic goods and services to our community. But I think that there is an opportunity to really build relationships and say, "Hey - Compton is new. We're moving forward. And we definitely have a community that is economically-viable to serve." So I think we have a big challenge but also a huge opportunity."
On being a young, female mayor:
"I think [being young and female] will help. I think every thing just in the political realm - women are usually perceived to be more trustworthy and compassionate. And they usually fare well against their male counterpart. I think they will be an asset to especially to a community like Compton that's really suffered from neglect and despair in terms of leadership that we've had in the past. The community is really excited and I think it will serve as a great platform to continue to provide the type of services that are geared towards families and youth and kids and our seniors. So I think it will be an asset as we move the city of Compton forward."
On Compton's newly-elected council member Isaac Galvan, the first Latino council member:
"Compton has changed for quite some time. We are now approximately 63% Latino. And I think that having a diverse council is necessary in order to make sure that all constituents are represented well. He's also young and I think he'll continue to grow and be able to be a great asset to the community."
Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' gets a 'ReRite' on its 100th anniversary
This month marks the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's revolutionary composition, "The Rite of Spring." When it first premiered as part of a ballet a century ago in Paris, audiences were scandalized by its bold rhythms, risqué costumes and allusions to a pagan sacrifice. Today the work is celebrated as a musical masterpiece.
Starting tomorrow the Pacific Symphony in Santa Ana will commemorate the landmark anniversary with a series of orchestral performances. Recently, the symphony asked the public to submit their own interpretations of Stravinsky's work for a project they're calling the "ReRite of Spring."
"This piece changed the arts in the 20th century. It was sort of the first shot of Modernism," said Kurt Mortensen, Director of Audience Engagement for the Pacific Symphony. "This was a ballet, and it as a combination of both visual arts and music. It wasn't just about Stravinsky's music."
That first performance incorporated Stravinsky's revolutionary music with the costumes and set design of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, who also came up with the concept for the ballet, a pagan sacrifice. Vaskav Nijinsky choreographed the ballet, pushing boundaries of traditional dance.
"No one had danced like this before," said Mortensen. "Then you have Stravinsky's revolutionary music and doing things we had not heard musically before, most famously the opening bassoon line where people didn't recognize what that even was. People couldn't understand what instrument was making that sound."
The Pacific Symphony's "ReRite of Spring" project garnered works ranging from musical remixes, to paintings and Internet memes.
"We tried not to put anybody in a box, we just said, 'Hey, this is an important piece, it's not just about music, its about visual arts and anything else you could possibly imagine,'" said Mortensen. "We just tried to be very open about what people could do."
How has religion's view of homosexuality changed over the years?
On June 7, ten years ago, the Episcopalian church elected the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop. This extraordinary step came at a time when support for homosexuality remained controversial in most major U.S. religions.
The recent documentary, "Love Free or Die" tells the story of his life. The KPCC Crawford Family Forum is hosting a free screening of the movie at the Crawford Family Forum tonight at 7 p.m.
But where are homosexuality and religion are today, a decade later? Diane Winston, Knight Chair in media and religion at USC's Annenberg school for communication and journalism, joins the show with more.