Verizon hands over phone records to NSA under court order; Senate approves new license to expedite Mexico-US border crossing; Taking the stage with comic legend Lily Tomlin; What's behind the sometimes strange rules in the NCAA?; City Hall Pass; Dinner Party Download and more.
Verizon hands over phone records to NSA under court order
Yesterday the Guardian released top secret information that the National Security Administration has been collecting all of the telephone metadata of Verizon customers across the U.S. Information about every phone call made between April 25 to June 6 is supposedly in the hands of the government.
That includes the numbers of the people on a call, unique identifiers, call duration and the location of the call. They report that the order continues until July 19.
James Bamford, who covers intelligence and national security issues, joins the show to explain how the government is using the records and what it means for the average person.
Authority to access the records was reportedly granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. National security expert David Cole of Georgetown University joins the show to explain how the government got permission to access so many phone records.
Delays at the border equal delays for businesses in US and Mexico
When it comes to the southern border, Congress wants to put up a stoplight: Stop the flow of drugs, stop illegal immigration and stop the terrorists. Last year the U.S. spent more on securing the border than it did on all federal law enforcement combined. Some argue that needs to change. Fronteras Desk reporter Mónica Ortiz Uribe has the story.
Alejandro Rivera is a big rig trucker who chauffeurs goods between the U.S.-Mexico border for an American logistics company based in El Paso, Texas. On a good day he'll accomplish two round-trips, rarely adding more than 70 miles to his odometer.
"Since the 9/11 everything changed," Rivera said. "Before we used to cross in five minutes, ten minutes. Now it takes us about three hours, two hours, because of the long lines."
Rivera referred to long lines at the border crossing. It's a complaint echoed from San Diego to Brownsville. Some five million trucks per year are subject to costly delays as a result of rigorous security measures put in place in the last decade. These delays affect the timeliness of a trucker’s delivery.
"These big lines have economic costs. Billions of dollars a year in lost growth for the United States and Mexico," said Chris Wilson, who studies the economics of trade for the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C.
Wilson said trade between the U.S. and Mexico quintupled in the last 20 years. Some 6 million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico. That includes companies like Dell and Ford as well as smaller businesses that make medical devices or auto parts.
Just how long are the wait times? A trip across the border with Rivera provided some insight.
Rivera began his daily routine at a factory in the Mexican border city of Juárez. Before departing he called his dispatcher and noted the time.
On this particular trip Rivera carried a load of plastic mannequins. They're made by factory workers in Juárez who earn $10 a day. Rivera's job is to transport them to a warehouse in El Paso about 20 miles away. From there the mannequins will ship across the U.S. to stores like Nike and JCPenney.
When Rivera reached U.S. Customs on the American side of the border bridge, an officer ordered his truck to be X-Rayed. Afterward an officer unloaded half his cargo and inspected the trailer for anything illegal.
The company Rivera works for has a special certification calledC-TPAT that usually allows their trucks expedited passage. Only about 1 percent of the company's cargo goes through lengthy searches. Before, when Rivera worked for a non-certified company, he said he faced prolonged inspections everyday.
All commercial traffic at this particular crossing must clear four separate agencies: Mexican customs, American customs, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Public Safety. In total Rivera clocked in two and half hours at the bridge.
"Sometimes the customer doesn't understand all the process that we have to make," Rivera said. "They want their load.”
Californians may soon have an easier time crossing the Mexico border
If you've driven back across the Mexican border lately, you know the wait can sometimes take up to three hours. Officials have talked about speeding up this process by adding more lanes or more border agents, but San Diego Senator Ben Hueso hopes to change that with a new enhanced driver's license program for California drivers.
Senate Bill 397, which just cleared the state senate this week, would allow drivers in possession of the enhanced licenses to cross in and out of Mexico from California using special "ready lanes." Similar programs in Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington have been successful in expediting border crossing into Canada.
The new licenses, which are similar to standard driver's licenses, will be equipped with a radio frequency chip that will relay a driver's information to the customs agent at the border crossing. The chip relays information like the driver's name, photo, and citizenship to the border agent who can then wave the driver on through.
"It will be a simple number that can be translated to a federal databank — that only the federal government has — that will have information relating to who the person is," said Hueso. "The driver's license will be contained in a custom sheath will prevent it from sending out the frequency until its removed at the time that someone is crossing the border."
Hueso estimates that the new licenses will reduce wait times at the border by 30 percent, possibly injecting billions of dollars into the economy.
"Our economy could grow and this is something that made me more interested in pushing this idea forward in that its also an economic development initiative," said Hueso.
But there are critics of the plan, including the ACLU, which is concerned that identity theft would be an issue, and that someone would be able to get access to the information contained in the federal databank that will house driver information. Hueso says that will not be an issue.
"There has never been an incident in that area where federal documents have been stolen for the purposes of stealing somebody's identity," said Hueso. "We're very confident that people's identities will be protected."
Senator Ben Hueso represents the 40th Senate District, which includes the cities of Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, Coronado a portion of the City of San Diego, Imperial County, and the southern part of Riverside.
Taking the stage with comic legend Lily Tomlin
Comic entertainer Lily Tomlin will be one of the guest stars on Friday's performance of Prairie Home Companion at the Greek Theater. We'll talk about her love of the radio show, and take a look back at her career, from her work on the classic TV show, "Laugh-In" to movies such as "9 to 5."
City Hall Pass: Mayor's party, Ron Calderon raid and more
It's time now for City Hall Pass, our look at California politics. KPCC's political reporter Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton join the show to give us the lowdown on LA city politics.
This week there are a lot of questions about the nature of the investigation into Ron Calderon and the authorities aren't saying much. Do we have any sense of why the authorities may be looking into Ron Calderon?
Some other news out of Sacramento this past week came from Treasurer Bill Lockyer. He's announced that he will not seek another office when his current term is up. What's behind this decision?
There is a big party Friday night for outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Former President Bill Clinton and even Ryan Seacrest are expected to be there, but there are lingering questions about the costs of the party. Who is picking up the tab for this shindig?
After 28 years, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts gets its own home
The Los Angeles High School for the Arts, or LACHSA has an impressive list of alumni, including singer Josh Groban and actress Jenna Elfman of ABC's sitcom "Dharma and Greg." The school started in 1985 and ever since, it has borrowed classroom space from Cal State LA, near Alhambra.
But as KPCC's Mary Plummer reports, this year its students got one thing they've always wanted.
Hundreds of California communities rely on contaminated water
More than 600 communities in California rely on contaminated groundwater. The problem is especially acute in the Tulare River Basin and the Salinas Valley. About a quarter of a million people — some of the poorest in California — rely on groundwater contaminated with nitrates.
From Capital Public Radio, Amy Quinton explains how one community struggles to deal with the problem.
Legendary actress and swimmer Esther Williams dies at 91
Famed actress and swimmer Esther Williams died today at 91 years of age.
Williams was famous for her aquatic acrobatics in the film musical spectaculars of the 1940s and 50s, like "Million Dollar Mermaid."
Williams had been a well-known champion swimmer before her celluloid career. But here's a little something you may not know: she first got her feet wet in a pool not far from here in Inglewood.
Her older sister taught her to swim and they paid the fee to use the pool by counting towels. By her teens, Williams was setting records as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team.
Dinner Party Download: Japanese prison food, Lionel Richie's head and more
Every week we get your weekend conversation starters with Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam, the hosts of the Dinner Party Download podcast and radio show.
Japanese Restaurant Offers a Taste of Prison
Party in Lionel Richie's Head at Bestival
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This Week in 1932, Yankee Hitter Tony Lazari Accomplishes a Natural Cycle
A natural cycle is when a baseball player bats a single, double, triple, and homer in a row, in a that order. It has only happened 13 times in baseball history, plus he’s the only player in history to cap his natural cycle with a grand slam. Sadly for him, his career day is often overlooked because it was the same game in which his teammate Lou Gehrig hit four home runs – the first time that had happened in modern baseball history. Basically, this is one of the most statistically improbable baseball games ever.
What's behind some of the NCAA's strangest rules? (Quiz)
Who knew washing your car could be so controversial? It became an issue recently when a West Coast Conference college athlete — a golfer — used the water from a hose on her school's campus to clean up her car.
The school reported the incident because the water and the hose were deemed an "extra benefit" not available to regular students, this in violation of NCAA rules saying that athletes cannot accept special gifts. The guidelines are sometimes so complex and confusing that it's impossible for athletes and schools to know what's OK and what isn't.
"The WCC opted to penalize the golfer initially $20, which is what they deemed the cost of the water and the hose involved. They have since said this shouldn't have been a violation and that nothing should have happened in this case." said Jeff Eisenberg, college basketball blogger for Yahoo Sports, on Take Two. "Just the very fact time was spent on the idea of a carwash potentially being a violation, speaks to some of the flaws in the rule book and the complicated level of these extra benefits violations."
At one time athletic departments could provide bagels for their student athletes, but could not provide anything extra like cream cheese or shmear.
"The rules were all put in place for a good reason, initially, but you have schools that go to such great lengths to bend them that you get more clauses put in," said Eisenberg. "Pretty soon you have a rulebook that's thicker than the encyclopedia. I wish we could get some common sense here and take care of the bigger stuff."
Quiz: Can you guess which NCAA rules are true or false?