Iran elects Hassan Rouhani as new president; DreamWorks and NetFlix join forces on new TV programs; LA job training program threatened by federal budget cuts; Are beach fire pits hazardous to your health and environment? (Photos, Poll), plus more.
DreamWorks and Netflix join forces on new TV programs
Pop another feather in the cap for Netflix and chalk up another challenge to television as we've known it. DreamWorks Animation announced today it will forgo cable TV, and distribute content on Netflix, the internet streaming service. The deal calls for 300 hours of programming.
Todd Spangler, digital editor for Variety joins the show to explain the implications of this new deal.
Google to take aggressive action to fight child porn
Recently, there has been a startling surge of child pornography online. In 2011, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it received 17.3 million images and videos of suspected child abuse, which is four times more than what they saw in 2007.
Over the weekend, Google announced ambitious plans to wipe the web clean of such images. Here to tell us more about this is Larry Magid, tech writer with Forbes. He's also a board member with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Iran elects Hassan Rouhani as new president
Iranians on Friday elected a new president, Hassan Rouhani.
He was billed as the most moderate of the six candidates, but in Los Angeles (home to the country's largest concentration of Iranian immigrants), those who want regime change say they are cautiously optimistic.
To find out why, we reached out to host Siamak Kalhor from Iranian language radio station KIRN 670 AM.
SCOTUS strikes down Arizona's voter ID law
No Prop 8 decision yet today, court watchers, but the Supreme Court did decide a case next door in Arizona. The Supreme Court struck down the state's voter ID law in a 7-2 decision. The case is called Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council, with a majority written by Justice Antonin Scalia.
Here to tell us more is Richard Hasen, a professor specializing in election law at UC Irvine and the author of the forthcoming book "The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown."
Pew Study: Media coverage shows momentum for same-sex marriage
As we await the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, there has been no shortage of coverage on the issue. Much of that coverage has focused on support of same sex couples, according to a new study conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Among the study's findings is that news stories with statements supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those with opposing statements by 5-to-1 margin.
Amy Mitchell is acting director for the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, joins the show to explain the study's findings.
Are beach fire pits hazardous to your health and environment? (Photos, Poll)
How harmful to your health are beach fires? That question has been at the center of an intense debate in several Southern California cities.
After first proposing an outright ban, the South Coast Air Quality Management District — or AQMD — is now considering restrictions it says will make beach fires safer. But as KPCC's Ben Bergman reports, there's disagreement about just how unhealthy the fires really are.
On The Lot: 'Man Of Steel,' talent agency fight and more
LA Times reporter Rebecca Keegan joins us for our weekly segment, On the Lot, with everything you need to know about what's up in Tinsel Town.
It was another pretty good weekend for Hollywood. One of the blockbusters in the age of blockbusters: "Man of Steel." It brought in almost $200 million globally, and Fast & Furious 6 is well over $600 million. Action and adventure are paying off, but really what everyone has been talking about isn't box office. It's a little kerfuffle between the number one and number two talent agencies in town, WME and CAA.
Sometimes it gets a little bare knuckle in Hollywood and sometimes the industry shows its muscle in other ways. There's a new report by the LA City Ethics Commission that shows several entertainment firms spending big money to lobby at City Hall.
A new film about the reclusive author J. D. Salinger doesn't open until next fall, but the trailer is creating some real buzz.
Now available on YouTube, for a small fee are full versions of such classics as "Attack of the Crab Monsters," "Brain Dead" and "Eat My Dust." All films by the legend of low-budget, Roger Corman.
Film producer Linda Obst on being 'Sleepless In Hollywood'
Movie producer Linda Obst has made movies that have a way of staying with you. Some of her more famous credits include "Sleepless in Seattle," "Contact," "Flashdance," "The Fisher King," among others.
Throughout her decades-long career in the movie business, Obst has been witness to the dramatic shift in the industry, especially as the way we consume media has changed. As consumers moved from DVD sales to Netflix and the international market gained prominence over the domestic market, the way Hollywood green lights films has changed.
So much so that Obst, in her new book, "Sleepless In Hollywood," says many of the films she's produced probably wouldn't see the light of day today.
RELATED: Read an excerpt from "Sleepless In Hollywood"
"I absolutely know they would not make the inside of a theater," said Obst on Take Two. "There's about two of them which I'm certain would: 'Contact' and maybe 'Sleepless in Seattle'. Nora Ephron could get movies made because she made a lot of hits and Tom Hanks could get a movie made."
Her new book chronicles major changes afoot in the industry, and her belief that television is the new bastion for experimentation, creativity and character development.
Interview Highlights:
On which kinds of movies get made today:
"A movie has to have pre-awareness. It has to be based on something that is already familiar around the world, like 'Batman', 'Spiderman', 'Pirates of the Caribbean-man'. I call them man movies. It wants to be based on an intellectual property, what we used to call a 'book.' So, if this property has pre-awareness, that means it doesn't have to be marketed from scratch. We don't have to create its awareness as an original property--particularly to the international audience. That is the most successful kind of movie you can make, which is why we see so many sequels in our theaters…. The notion that 'Casablanca' wouldn't have been made if you couldn't make 'Casablanca 2' is what we call the New Abnormal. I know it's grim, so I tried to make the book really funny."
On the moment she realized the old way of making movies was over:
"There was an actual moment. I was having dinner with my son (my son is a manager), and I was trying to get a movie made about the intelligent design case going on in Pennsylvania, which was just like the Scopes trial. I had a terrific script, I had movie stars interested in it and I was trying to get the studio to green light it. I said to Ollie, 'I can't figure out why I can't get this movie made. It's so good.' And Ollie, who is, needless to say, in the younger generation, looked at me and said, 'Mom, trying to get a movie made because it's good is so 2003.' I was stunned. Something clearly had gone horribly awry."
On what happens with great scripts that don't have:
"I can get a great script made, but it's going to be starved. I have to make it for a price. And how can I get it made? I can get it made because movie stars and directors are our allies in this fight to great movies made. But, it's a struggle. Yesterday, Stephen Spielberg said that he almost didn't get 'Lincoln' made because 'Lincoln' doesn't appeal to the global audience. And Russia and China, who are driving the decisions bing made because they are the profit margin, they don't care about 'Lincoln'. That is a domestic film, and movies aren't made for the domestic market anymore. Therefore, it was tough for even Stephen Spielberg to get that movie made."
On the influence of the international market today:
"When I came into this business, the international market was 20 percent. Right now, it's reversed, and 80 percent of the profits come from the global market. When I came into the business, 50 percent of our profits came from DVDs. The money that helped get 'Fisher King' made, and all my romantic comedies, came from the profits from the DVD business. That's where the cushion for making these, what we called, interstitial movies, the movies between the tent poles."
On her belief that the future is in television:
"Those of us who loved writing, those of us who like movies like 'Fisher King', we started saying, 'Well, where are characters?' We looked, and we found ourselves watching 'Homeland' and 'Madmen' and the 'The Sopranos'. Where were all the great characters being developed? On television. What was the water cooler talk about? Television. Things that we could never do in movies, we could suddenly do in television, so all the great writers that could sell their wares in this new market created a diaspora, what I call the diaspora in the book, and moved to television."
Update on California's budget and other recent legislation
Voting began Friday on California's $96 billion budget and wrapped up over the weekend, delivered on time and on budget. Additionally, the legislature passed a major piece of the Federal Affordable Care Act that would expand Medicaid coverage to more than a million low-income and uninsured Californians.
For more on the highlights we are joined by John Myers, political editor for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento
Is Governor Brown doing enough to keep California green?
Governor Brown has been lauded for getting California's finances back on track, but some have raised concerns about his environmental record. Several critics are worried that the Governor is putting the planet on the back burner as he focuses on the state's economy.
For more on this, we're joined now by Paul Rogers, environmental editor at member station KQED and he joins us now from San Francisco.
What happens when you give money to a bad charity
Americans give over $200 billion to charity each year, but new investigative series conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times finds that much of that money is never seen by the people and causes its meant to benefit.
Of the 50 worst charities they investigated, they discovered that less than four cents from the dollar, on average, goes to the intended recipients.
LA job training program threatened by federal budget cuts
One of the biggest challenges facing the Los Angeles economy is the caliber of its workers. Economists say too much of the potential workforce just doesn't match the needs of the region's employers. The City of L.A. has sought a remedy by partnering on job training programs.
KPCC's Frank Stoltze reports that effort is threatened as federal workforce dollars dry up.
Survey: Eating disorders among teen boys in LA are on the rise
Startling new research finds that boys and young men in L.A. are struggling with eating disorders. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the LA Unified School District, boys here are twice as likely as young men in the rest of the country to induce vomiting or use laxatives to control their weight.
These numbers shatter the stereotype of eating disorders as a problem that only plagues girls and women. LA Times writer Emily Alpert joins the show with more.
Class for foster youth teaches life skills and eases isolation
There's one group of California students that will be greatly underrepresented during upcoming high school graduation ceremonies. Less than 50 percent of students in foster care earn a high school diploma, leaving them few opportunities for jobs that pay a living wage.
A program in Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento is improving the odds for foster youth. Kathryn Baron, a reporter with EdSource Today has the story.
One student who benefited from the program, an 18-year-old we’re calling Sarah to protect her identity, just graduated from Elk Grove’s Monterey Trail High School.
Sarah has been in foster care on and off since she was 4, and figures she’s attended at least one school a year during that time. She never expected to make it out of high school.
“I didn’t want to go to school. I was cutting school,” Sarah said. “My grades were really, really low. I just wanted to ditch school and hang out with my friends, boyfriend, you know, be the wild child basically.”
She was admittedly a bit out of control back then. It didn’t take much to push her buttons and she got into a lot of fights at school. Her foster mom moved to get Sarah out of that high school and told her, “You’re not going back.”
Slim with light brown hair, Sarah is soft-spoken, but with a raw, sad quality about her. She said she and her brothers and sisters were removed from their home due to physical and emotional abuse. She was separated from her siblings and felt angry and alone.
Her grief started to lift when she arrived at Monterey Trail. There, Sarah found a community of other students just like her in a life skills class for foster youth taught by Mike Jones.
Once a week, about 20 foster youth in grades 9 through 12 meet with him to learn study skills, start developing a plan for success after high school and talk about whatever is on their mind in a safe, nonjudgmental place.
“Once I got here I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone, these are people who are in the same situation as me,’ ” Sarah said. “So it made me feel good that I had someone to talk to if I needed to. We could all support each other in a time of need.”
On one sunny spring day, as Jones took his familiar place leaning on a low bookshelf in the school library, the mood in the class was upbeat. The school year was almost over and, for the seniors, there was some good news on the college front. One student had just received two acceptances, including one to Notre Dame.
“That’s a very prestigious school,” Jones told her as the other students congratulated her.
Then Jones moved to other matters. On an upcoming weekend they were planning a “stupid fun day” for all the foster youth from area schools. “It’s just going to be kind of an excuse to barbecue, have some fun, get away from your placements and your houses, and just do something kind of silly,” he said.
Jones already had piloted the foster youth class in another Elk Grove high school -- where it was the first of its kind in the state. They are now at five schools in the district.
He had overseen discipline at his other school, and noticed that many of the students who had been repeatedly referred to his in-school suspension class were foster youth who, like Sarah, had a lot going on in their lives and no place to share it.
“A kid doesn’t wear a sign that says, ‘I’m in foster care, I don’t have family or something’s wrong,’ ” Jones said. By meeting with them every week, he can see when something’s up and intervene, find out what’s going on and how he can help.
“When we see some of our foster youth and we know last week you were great, this week something’s up, we know something happened outside and that student needs to be sat down and vent,” he said.
There are about 500 foster youth in Elk Grove Unified’s 64 schools, more than in most districts. Statewide, there are nearly 60,000 foster youth, and they often struggle academically. By 11th grade, nearly half of foster youth drop out. That’s twice as high as other students.
Given their instability, Jones said, it’s not surprising.
“It’s hard to care about algebra or biology or English when you’re not really sure where your head is going to be in five days,” he said. “You don’t know if you’re going to be sleeping in your bed, or a group home bed, or some strange place.”
Along with the big challenges, the class also addresses the small ones, with tangible support that allows foster youth to participate in all aspects of school. Jones makes sure that students who can’t afford it can still get yearbooks, student activity cards, backpacks, shampoo, and even prom tickets and prom clothes.
The district won’t know for a few months how successful the classes are. But at the school that piloted the program, foster students earn better grades and have fewer discipline problems and higher attendance rates.
At Monterey Trail High School, all five seniors in the class made it to graduation, Jones said.
Sarah said the program changed her attitude and her goals.
“I don’t want what happened to me to define my future. I don’t want to be that girl I used to be,” she said. “I just want to make my siblings proud, I want to make myself proud. I want to make my grandma and my grandpa proud.”
Sarah now has a 3.0 grade-point average, and after graduation plans to attend community college and then transfer to a well regarded medical assistant program at an East Coast university.
- See more at: http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201306170850/b#sthash.9mNXGaLk.dpuf
Should students get cars, iPads as rewards for perfect attendance?
Two Southern California high school students walked away from graduation last week with more than just a diploma. They took home brand new cars.
As part of LA Unified's attendance program, dubbed "I'm In," students throughout the district won cars, iPads and cash gifts just for showing up to school. But is rewarding perfect attendance with big prizes really the right way to motivate kids to learn?
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, assistant professor at USC's Rossier School of Education, says this method has a good and bad consequences.
"There are two sides to this. One is that it does bring people's attention to the importance of attendance in school. You can't do well in school if you're not there, and the school districts don't get their funding if the kids aren't there, on the one hand," said Immordino-Yang. "On the other hand, we also know in educational psychology that giving kids what we call extrinsic rewards, things that you give somebody for their performance, actually undermines the way in which they learn."
Giving young people financial rewards for doing something they're supposed to do anyway changes the focus from understanding, memory and integration of knowledge and critical thinking to a focus on the reward. Once the student accomplishes the reward, they often don't feel the need to continue that behavior.
"You're focusing them on the short-term extrinsic reward at the expense of long term memory," said Immordino-Yang. "The kids who won these awards could very well be still intrinsically interested in the subjects…All they're thinking about right now is the car that they want. That's what is going to be the most salient memory for them in the future, not the chemistry they learned in order to get it."
Plus, once these students go to college, there will no longer be immediate, tangible rewards to work toward.
"It's true that when you go to college and do well, you have a better chance at a good job, you have a better lifestyle and you can make a higher salary," said Immordino-Yang. "In that sense, it's not that our extrinsic rewards are completely divorced from the things that we do and learn, but when they're most salient, biggest most immediate reward for doing well, it really undermines the way in which you think about the purpose of learning."
Body Glove co-founder Bob Meistrell dies
If you've ever surfed or donned a mask and snorkel to scuba dive off the California coast you probably know the name Bob Meistrell. He and his twin brother co-founded the Body Glove clothing company and are credited with developing the first neoprene wetsuit.
Meistrell died Sunday of a heart attack while on his boat at the age of 84.
Joining us to talk about Meistrell's contribution to the surf and scuba world is Dr. Bill Bushing, a marine ecologist, avid scuba diver and a friend of Bob Meistrell's.