Should Governor Brown's budget do more to green up California?; UCLA predicts 40 percent drop in LA-area snowfall by mid-century due to climate change; California faces unique obstacles in implementing Affordable Care Act; Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock on the 'dark side' of the Web; ProPublica launches investigation into unpaid internships; LA Unified philanthropy helps students and superintendent
California lawmakers to vote on $96 billion budget
Today in Sacramento the budget will be at the top of the docket. California lawmakers are set to vote on a new ninety six Billion dollar plan negotiated by Governor Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators. The California Report's Scott Detrow has a quick preview.
LA Unified philanthropy helps students and superintendent
When Supt. John Deasy put up to a board vote whether students should be fed breakfast in the classroom, he was also putting up to scrutiny a new push for L.A. schools: philanthropic contributions.
The L.A. Fund raises money for a number of initiatives and Breakfast in the Classroom was its first big push. We'll take a look at what it hopes to do and what lies ahead. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman Lopez reports.
UCLA predicts 40 percent drop in LA-area snowfall by mid-century due to climate change
Los Angeles could lose 40 percent of its snowfall by the middle of this century to climate change, predicts a new study from researchers at UCLA.
Lead researcher Alex Hall and his team used global climate models to project dramatic drops in snowfall in the region’s low-elevation mountains within 30 years – whether humans cut carbon emissions significantly or not.
In a scenario where global carbon emissions slow, the study predicts snowfall at 69% of present rates by the mid-21st Century.
If anthropomorphic contributions to greenhouse gases continue unchecked, snowfall will drop to 58% of present rates. “Areas of particularly noticeable loss [of snow] include the northern hills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the areas between the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains,” write the authors.
UCLA researcher Alex Hall says the numbers are a bit "fuzzy" - that is, different global climate models predict slightly diverse outcomes - but added together, they paint a picture of significant loss of snow in southern California.
"That loss may not be quite as great as the most likely estimate, or it might be quite a bit greater, but there definitely will be some kind of a loss, and it will probably be pretty significant," he says.
The study is the second in which the UCLA team relies on complex calculations to forecast the impact of climate change on LA’s geography with deep precision. Meandering and jagged coastlines, mountains and canyons are represented in the analysis. By looking more closely at “micro” climate zones, researchers say they can create more accurate and more useful predictions on which southern Californians can rely.
"Anyone who has explored the landscape in the Los Angeles region can tell you there’s a lot of climate variety here," says Hall. "The goal is to take into account all of that complexity and make a comprehensive assessment of climate change."
For southern California mountain areas, winter’s snow sports bring tourists, money and jobs.
"It’s really great to hear about the study, because it’s just another tool that we can have to raise awareness of climate change when it comes to winter sports and recreation,” says Chris Steinkamp, with the group Protect Our Winters, which lobbies Congress on behalf of snow sport enthusiasts to take action on climate change.
Steinkamp says UCLA’s study demonstrates how vulnerable resort towns like Big Bear are. “We work with a lot of professional athletes that ride up there, and we have friends that work in restaurants and small businesses up there,” Steinkamp says. “So when it doesn’t snow, those jobs are at stake. And it’s a really terrible situation in terms of the economy up there.”
Snowpack also melts into streams and rivers and becomes water supply.
Celeste Cantu of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority says UCLA’s snowfall study confirms the authority’s own predictions about precipitation. Relying on this research, Cantu says, southern California’s water managers can adapt the ways they store rain and snowmelt.
“So we are looking at, how do we operate differently to respond to that changed dynamic?” Cantu says. “And we can do it.”
UCLA’s study does offer some enticement for cutting carbon. It suggests that by century’s end, slowing human contributions to global warming would keep more snow on the mountain longer. In contrast, business as usual could push snowpack down to a third what it is now within 100 years.
Alex Hall emphasizes that he and the other authors make no policy recommendations in the new study. "It’s meant to be empowering," Hall says. "It’s putting the decision-making ability into the hands of the people of Los Angeles. It’s giving them the information they need to make informed decisions."
Friday Flashback: NSA, Snowden, Murdoch split and more
The dark side of technology, a big gamble on Syria, and the dissolution of a media mogul's marriage. Some of the big stories of the week we'll look at this morning on this week's edition of the Friday Flashback with David Gura of Marketplace and James Rainey of the LA Times.
The news was dominated this week by stories about snooping at the NSA and questions about the role of the country's intelligence services. Officials have been testifying before Congress and are trying to explain why they were collecting information about Americans, when laws regulating intelligence agencies seem to forbid that. Here's FBI director Robert Mueller on Capitol Hill earlier this week.
According to California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who's chair of the Senate intelligence committee, the NSA will provide evidence that surveillance on Americans has prevented terrorist attacks. That could come as early as next week.
Edward Snowden is holed up in Hong Kong. According to reports, he has details of American efforts to hack into Chinese computer systems. There's some speculation he might offer the Chinese this information in return for protection, or asylum.
Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have been critical of the NSA, and others have supported the gathering of data on Americans. Is this a non-partisan, or even maybe a post-partisan issue? What's the appropriate response here? Does Congress need to revamp intelligence laws, and maybe take another look at the Patriot Act?
Following what they say is confirmation that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against rebels there, the White House now says they'll supply insurgents there with weapons. But by most accounts, the Syrian government now has the upper hand in the struggle.
Hillary Clinton made a speech in Chicago yesterday in her first big appearance since she stepped down as Secretary of State. She sounded a lot like someone planning a Presidential run. It's a long way out, but she has to be the front runner among Democrats at this point. Who among the prospective Republicans might be the most formidable opponent?
Let's take a bit of time for some dish. Rupert and Wendy Murdock. Splitsville.
Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock on the 'dark side' of the Web
Given the news about the PRISM program, Take Two checks in with an early pioneer of the internet - Leonard Kleinrock, who's credited with the first internet transmission.
He never anticipated what he calls the "dark side" of the Internet when he sent the first host to host message from UCLA to Stanford Research Institute in 1969.
Portugal. The Man and their 'Evil Friends'
Although the name would suggest otherwise, the band Portugal. The Man originated from Portland, Oregon, but most of the recording for their newest record was done right here in LA. We talk with bassist Zach Carothers about the new record, "Evil Friends."
California faces unique obstacles in implementing Affordable Care Act
During his visit to California last week, President Obama hailed the state’s leading role in implementing the Affordable Care Act. Among the achievements he highlighted was the recent announcement that 13 health plans would be providing Californians affordable health insurance in the soon-to-open state-run marketplace called, Covered California.
But as KPCC’s Stephanie O’Neill tells us, California still faces challenges in implementing the law, including some that are unique to the Golden State.
It’s widely accepted that the biggest hurdle facing successful implementation of the federal health law in California is rampant confusion about it among pretty much everybody.
The Affordable Care Act takes full effect on January 1, 2014 and requires nearly every American to have health insurance. Those who don't have to pay a penalty, which starts out $95 a year in 2014 or 1 percent of income then grows to $695 a year or 2.5 percent of income.
RELATED: Obamacare and California: You have questions, AirTalk will get the answers
"The immediate challenge is educating people and having people become aware that if you’re uninsured or underinsured, you now have an opportunity to get health insurance coverage and you’re actually mandated to get it as well," said Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), chairman of the Assembly Health Committee.
But informing the masses won’t be easy. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found four out of 10 Americans have no idea that President Obama’s health care law is the law.
Health policy Analyst Jeff Goldsmith, president of Health Futures, Inc. says getting the word out in a state as large and diverse as California — where an estimated 5.3 million uninsured people will be required to buy health coverage — poses a unique challenge.
"This is an incredibly diverse complex state," said Goldsmith. "All the complexities of a large industrial nation resides here. You’ve got all of the language issues, you’ve got the tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity…There’s no such thing as 'a' Californian."
Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, agrees. To begin addressing that he last month announced $37 million in federal grants to fund grass-roots education of consumers and small businesses. The goal, he says, is to reach everyone from non-English speakers to people who are geographically isolated.
"Because what it’s going to take on January one 2014 is partnership," said Lee. "It's going to be a huge task, but it's a task that's doable because Californians are coming together to make this change happen."
It’s also going to take translating the basics of the new law into the more than 100 languages spoken statewide.
"We have a lot of people who are spending a lot of time going through those details and planning to make sure we have language interpretation services available," said Andrea Rosen, interim health plan management director for Covered California.
Rosen says she's confident that no matter what language a person speaks they’ll have the help they need in choosing a health plan when the statewide marketplace open on October 1.
While that won’t be an easy task, far more challenging will be getting the young and healthy to buy health insurance.
"One of the things that we need to be sure happens is that we have actually a sufficient pool of healthy people to sign up for these insurance products because if it’s just the sick people who go in then that’s going to drive the costs up," said Pan.
Encouraging the young and healthy to buy insurance is going to take some innovative marketing.
Step one requires helping the "Young Invincibles" – as they’re coming to be known – to understand that even though they may not need day-to-day health care, the risk of accident or disease is always present.
Susan Dentzer, senior policy advisor for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says one way to reach the estimated two million uninsured Californians between the ages of 19 and 34 is by marketing to women.
"To have their mothers and their aunts and their grandmothers talk to them about it," said Dentzer. "Because we know most of the health care decisions, frankly, are made in the country by women on behalf of their families and their loved ones."
As these broad challenges take center stage in California, many more subtle ones are percolating to the surface. Doctors groups and hospitals, for instance, are anxiously awaiting word on who among them will be included as providers in the 13 health plans chosen by Covered California.
There’s also concern about whether there are going to be enough doctors. California already faces a shortage of primary care physicians, and the massive influx of newly-insured patients is certain to make things even worse.
Lawmakers in Sacramento are responding by trying to expand what nurse practitioners and others can do. But it’s not clear those efforts will succeed, and even if they do, there still may not be enough medical practitioners to go around come January first.
ProPublica investigates unpaid internships with help of ex-interns
For a lot of college students, unpaid internships are a way to get experience and a foot in the door.
But lately, the value of these work arrangements for interns has been coming under harsh scrutiny.
This week a U.S. District judge ruled Fox Searchlight violated the law by not paying interns who worked on the film "Black Swan." Two former interns at Conde Nast filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the media company for lack of payment.
Sensing a pattern, ProPublica, the non-profit news organization, has launched an investigation into unpaid internships. Reporters there are asking interns past and present, to tell them their stories.
Blair Hickman, ProPublica's community editor, joins the show with more.
The state of women in the video game world
The annual behemoth gaming conference known as E3 was held in downtown L.A. this week. It's a chance for companies to show off their new games and generate buzz, but for Microsoft, things didn't go quite according to plan.
In an onstage demonstration of their fighting game "Killer Instinct," a male developer of the game faced off against a woman who had never played the game before. The guy quickly trounced the female gamer and at the end of the match, she started to express her frustration.
"I can't even block correctly and you're too fast," said the female gamer.
To which the developer replied, "Just let it happen, it'll be over soon." Many in the audience were seriously offended by that comment.
Microsoft has since issued the a statement apologizing for the ad-libbed joke. But it got many people wondering how well are women faring in the world of videogames.
Fore more on this, we're joined now by Katherine Cross, a PHD candidate at City University of New York who's studying the impact of gender in online gaming.
Scientists urge use of contraception to control wild horse population
For centuries, wild mustangs and burros have roamed the West in states like Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is charged with controlling their population.
Each year they use helicopters to corral a select number of wild horses that are then put up for adoption. But since the economic downturn, fewer people are adopting. Meanwhile more horses are being born each year.
Recently, a 14-member National Research Council released a report saying the BLM should stop rounding up the horses and depend more on contraception. Committee member and wildlife birth control expert Cheryl Asa joins the show to explain how this new plan could work.
How facelifts could fuel Nicaragua’s economy
Power brokers in Nicaragua want a foothold in the lucrative medical tourism industry. In the 1980s, civil war destroyed the country's economy, but now hospital administrators and influential businessmen think the country is stable enough to lure foreign visitors looking for cheap surgeries. From the Fronteras Desk, Peter O'Dowd reports.
The nascent industry here of selling Americans gastric sleeves and artificial knees began at Managua’s Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas about a year ago. The hospital’s medical tourism director, Arlen Perez, walked the bleach-white hallways recently and explained why drawing foreign customers to Nicaragua’s capital is hard work.
“The educated patients won’t take risks,” she said.
Metropolitano opened in 2004 with the backing of the Pellas family — arguably the most influential business titans in all of Nicaragua. Recently, the hospital became the country’s first to get a coveted Joint Commission International certification, which ensures the building and its doctors meet certain safety standards. Without its high-powered family name and that stamp of approval, the medical tourism project might have a hard time getting off the ground.
As it is, Perez says only about 10 patients a month come from the United States and Canada.
“We’re trying to get 50 patients per month,” she said. “We believe that’s a good number for the following two years at least.”
So the hospital is starting out with ads targeting Latinos in the U.S. The basic message is that a hip replacement might cost $25,000 in the states, but “here we do it for $9,000,” Perez said.
Perez and her team are trying to sink their teeth into an industry that’s spreading across the globe. The accounting firm Deloitte predicted more than 1.5 million Americans would travel outside the U.S. for medical care last year. Places like Mexico and Costa Rica have long been popular, but Nicaragua has more or less been off the map.
“The nice thing about the medical tourism is that they’re here for a week or so, and that’s a more profitable situation for me as the owner,” said Mike Quinn, who is encouraging the industry to inch into his business.
Quinn owns a bed and breakfast that doubles as a working farm. Quinn has teamed up Perez at with the Hospital Metropolitano. Some patients go straight from its operating room to Quinn’s hotel.
He recently rented a room to a man with a new knee who couldn’t walk very well at first, “but he could certainly get in that pool and just relax in that gravity free-environment. That felt really good for him,” Quinn said.
Quinn sees enough growth potential in medical tourism here that he’s invested about $3,000 to build a new concrete ramp into to the pool.
A few years ago, this could not have happened. A decade of fighting between the U.S.-backed Contras and the socialist Sandinistas crushed Nicaragua’s economy.
“We’re trying to catch up, but we’re still way behind,” said Carlos Muniz, who heads the Nicaraguan economic development organization FUNIDES.
Muiz said the country still needs better roads, better education, and a stronger judicial system to catch up with neighbors like Costa Rica. But there is promise. According to its Central Bank, foreign investment in Nicaragua grew nearly 30 percent since 2008.
That’s one reason Nelson Estrada sees an opportunity on a mountaintop that overlooks a popular surfing town and a shimmering Pacific Ocean.
“This is one of the most beautiful views that we can have in San Juan del Sur,” Estrada said, with the wind whipping his back. “Wow, a dream.”
Estrada wants to put a $16 million resort-hospital on this mountain, and he has the clout to do it. He comes from the family of three former Nicaraguan presidents, and his sons grew up with a son of the powerful Pellas family.
Estrada said he’s raised most of the money he needs to break ground on the resort — a place where foreigners go to get a nose job, and then recover in luxury.
“You’re talking about wrinkles, eyes, the chin, the breast reduction and augmentation,” he said.
According to Estrada’s plan, every surgeon who works here will be trained in the U.S.
But Estrada said he’s looking beyond this project. If it gains traction, other investors may start new projects. If the medical infrastructure is strong, it might open the market for a wave of American Baby Boomer retirees to move here for good.
Estrada says there’s a saying in Spanish that explains this idea.
“One particular bird alone doesn’t make a summer,” he said. “If we were alone — and we expect to be alone for a long time — this is not going to work.”
There’s a model for all this just south of here. From the mountaintop you can almost see Costa Rica, a country that has figured out how political and economic stability has a way of luring Americans with money.
How Wal-Mart's sourcing, pricing challenges neighborhoods (poll, photos)
The nation's largest retailer Wal-Mart is opening more grocery stores in Southern California, one of which is in Altadena. Its no surprise that the smaller businesses worry about competing.
In another story in our continuing series on Wal-Mart's impact in Southern California, KPCC's Wendy Lee reports the size of Wal-Mart isn't the only reason the mega-retailer can price items much lower than other stores.
Wal-Mart is expanding its grocery business in Southern California, opening smaller stores inside buildings that have been vacant for years. As a result, communities previously untouched by Wal-Mart are trying to compete in a pricing war with the nation’s largest retailer.
Part of Wal-Mart’s advantage is size—the retailer has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., including 154 locations in California that sell groceries. That equates to a lot of buying power with suppliers, who are willing to cut Wal-Mart a discount in exchange for the larger volume of sales, said USC professor Jenny Schuetz.
Farmers are among the suppliers contracting with Wal-Mart. During peak season, Santa Maria farmer Juan Cisneros delivers 1.5 million to 2.7 million strawberries a day to the retailer, his biggest customer. Half of his roughly 600 acres for strawberries are dedicated to growing three varieties for the company.
“We can get more money because we get a long-term commitment and [that] helps me grow my business so I can make money,” Cisneros said.
Related: How Wal-Mart distributes strawberries to 200 stores
Cisneros said he's been selling produce to Wal-Mart directly for two years, allowing him to hire 100 additional workers to deliver more strawberries for the retail giant.
The situation is different in Altadena, where Leticia Vega struggles to keep her small convenience store in business. When her store, Nuevo Poncitlan Meat Market, opened in 1992, it was the only grocery store in the area. But several years ago, a Super King opened across the street and a new Walmart Neighborhood Market opened in March.
“As much as I would want to lower my price, it’s pretty much impossible,” Vega said.
Her market used to sell vegetables like zucchinis, carrots and potatoes, but last spring, Vega took out the produce shelf because she couldn't compete.
"Because they purchase bulk, they may be getting it at 25 cents a pound and I may be getting it at $1.40," Vega said. " I wish I had the power to actually compete, but I don't."
In the past, more farmers sold their fruit to middlemen, who took a cut of the profits. (Story continues below poll window.)
But Wal-Mart is so large it can buy half of a farm's entire crop. The farmers cut out the middleman and share the savings with Wal-Mart, which pays less.
USC professor Jenny Schuetz said when it comes to pricing, Wal-Mart is super-sized.
"So they have these big warehouses in central locations and then they can send shipments out from there and the network of distribution centers allows them to serve the entire market area pretty efficiently," Schuetz said.
Wal-Mart said in February that it has more than 40 centers to distribute groceries nationwide.
Strawberries picked one day, in Walmart stores the next day
Workers start at 6 a.m. gathering strawberries in the field at Juan Cisneros' farm, Better Produce. Once loaded, a truck takes the fruit to the farm's cooling facility, where the berries are dropped to a lower temperature. Later, the strawberries are taken to Wal-Mart's distribution center in Riverside. The berries are delivered to Walmart stores in California the next day.
And once their inside stores, managers can drop the prices on the strawberries below cost - if they spot competitors selling the berries for less.
Shelly Wallace, who works at the Santa Maria Walmart Neighborhood Market, said every Wednesday she checks the ads of other stores and sends an employee to check shelf prices at those stores.
“We can reset (the price) immediately as soon as we see something that somebody may be competitive with us,” Wallace said. “We can go out within five or ten minutes of looking at the ad and immediately drop the price.”
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart uses its own team of produce buyers located strategically across the country, like Yolanda Ramirez.
"We can actually go look at the product. We can taste the product. We have that direct relationship rather than have someone fly to Bentonville, to have the conversation with the buyer," Ramirez said. "I'm literally strategically placed three to four hours away from any growing region in California."
Ramirez tracks all the berries Wal-Mart buys from farmers.
She's based in the Valencia office, one of eight global and local buying offices in the U.S.
Ramirez was once a farmer herself. She said dealing directly with chain stores is the only way to make money in the business.
But she said it's hard for small farmers to get their foot in the door.
"So you rely on selling to brokers, wholesalers and you know that when you do that, the product ends up selling to the chains anyway," Ramirez said. "You're just not seeing the end result or the end return."
Ramirez said Wal-Mart pays competitive prices for strawberries, but declined to say exactly what that price may be.
She said Wal-Mart lets the farmers know in advance how much they need. If the berries don't meet the company's quality standards, the farmers' berries will get rejected.
“We will give out, ‘Here’s what we’re going to take in terms of volume for the next eight weeks,’ where a typical chain store might look at you and say, ‘Here’s what I want for the next two weeks,’” Ramirez said.
That system works for farmer Santa Maria farmer Juan Cisneros.
"I know what I'm going to sell and for how much I'm going to sell," Cisneros said. "That's the difference--the long-term comittment."
But sometimes a deal with Wal-Mart can come at a cost, said Charles Fishman, author of "The Wal-Mart Effect." If Cisneros were to lose Wal-Mart's business, he would have to reduce the acres he farms.
"It's always a cheery relationship in the beginning, but Wal-Mart's mission is very closely focused," Fishman said. "Whatever product they are delivering, they want it to be reasonable quality and they want it to be cheap."
Altadena market owner Leticia Vega is making adjustments to compete with the new Walmart Neighborhood Market and its lower prices.
“They’re too big. You can’t compete,” Vega said. “They will wipe you out. People will want to get their money’s worth. Why buy a pound of tomatoes at $1.29 or $1.39, when you can get four pounds for $1?”
Bruce Peterson, a produce consultant and former senior vice president of perishables at Wal-Mart, said Vega can't match Wal-Mart's prices.
"You can't take Wal-Mart head-on with exactly the same thing they do," said Peterson. "If you're going to sell the same zucchini that Wal-Mart sells, it's highly likely they are going to sell it cheaper than you, so sell a different zucchini."
Vega gave up on selling produce at her small Altadena market last spring. She now plans to focus on expanding the sales of her homemade tacos and burritos. But, she'll be competing with another big retail chain nearby - Taco Bell.
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Closure of Ralphs in South LA highlights continuing food desert issues
Residents and community activist gathered last night to protest the scheduled closure of the Ralph's at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Western Avenue. Fresh food advocates say this will be a serious blow to the community, but there have been efforts underway to get more healthy affordable food to residents in south Los Angeles.
Here to tell us more is Charles Fields from the California Endowment.
The role of fathers in the new modern family
As more father step up and take on a larger role in the family, many wonder if the stereotype of the bumbling Dad is dying. Writer Drew Magary knows just how tough it can be to be a father. He has three kids and he's recently chronicled his experiences in a new book called Someone Could Get Hurt - A Memoir of Twenty First Century Parenthood. He stopped by to talk about shopping, cooking, breaking up fights and all the other aspects of modern day fatherhood