House committee weighs tough immigration bill; Many migrants who die crossing US-Mexico border are never ID'd; California officials say 2013 fire season could be state's worst in a century; Apple says iMessage, FaceTime are safe from NSA surveillance; Study: Bullying among siblings as damaging as peer bullying, plus much more.
House committee weighs tough immigration bill
The House Judiciary Committee is holding its markup of an immigration bill that focuses on enforcement. They're rushing to catch up with their counterparts on the Senate on an issue which becomes more contentious each day.
For more on this, we're joined by Politico editor Seung Min Kim.
Many migrants who die crossing US-Mexico border are never ID'd
Hundreds of migrants die every year trying to cross into the U.S., many of which are never identified. A recent article in the American Prospect explores the region where the grim realities are a way of life.
Journalist Brendan Borrell wrote article "Ghosts of the Rio Grande,” which explores why so many bodies along the US/Mexican border are never identified.
Interview Highlights:
So what are the best estimates of the number of people who go missing along the border?
"Well, that is a tough one. I mean, the border control reports numbers every year of the bodies that they find. But, a lot of these numbers are scattered about in county records because there is no national law that requires this stuff to be reported. As far as I could tell, the ACLU has a report that suggests that about 300 to 400 are dying each year on the US side of the border."
There’s a (region from Houston to San Antonio and south to McAllen) people call the “Bermuda Triangle” for bodies. Why is this Texas region hit so hard?
"The number of people dying in Texas has been at about the same level as Arizona. But, where Arizona has only four border counties, and California only two, Texas has about 20 to 25. The way that the system is fractured down there, you have one county doing one thing, another county doing another thing, and there’s not any uniform process by which they’re taking DNA sample or contacting the consulate and so forth. It’s a bit of a mess down there, and that’s why so many people are going unidentified."
What did you learn about the people willing to make this journey?
"It’s dangerous. Their family might not ever see them again, and that’s something they’re going to have to accept when they leave. Those are the hardest stories to hear because they’re stories without an ending. … Even when you have a happy ending in this situation, it’s not a happy ending. You’re finding out: My son or daughter is dead."
California officials say 2013 fire season could be state's worst in a century
This summer could be a scorcher in Southern California. Literally.
Officials say this year's fire season could be the worst in a century, and we've already seen a 75-percent jump in the number of blazes torching the region. But when we know that this year might be the worst on record and wildfires are already a way of life here, is there anything that can be done differently?
Inspector Anthony Akins with the LA County Fire Department joins the show with more.
Apple says iMessage, FaceTime are safe from NSA surveillance
Today NSA director Keith Alexander told the House Intelligence Committee that the government's surveillance programs have thwarted roughly 50 terrorist plots worldwide, including one directed at the New York Stock Exchange.
But there are still plenty of Americans concerned about the government monitoring their phone calls and emails.
Which may be why Apple offers this helpful suggestion: Use iMessage. Apple vows the text messaging service is encrypted and can't be read by anyone by the sender and the receiver.
It's the latest attempt by tech giants to assuage a nervous public. National Journal's technology writer Brian Fung has been looking into this and he joins the show with more.
Budget cuts threaten far-flung courthouses
Over the last five years, California courts have been hit hard by state budget cuts. The new state budget restores some funding, but more than 50 courts have already closed and those still open are delivering slower service and charging higher fees.
As Chris Richard reports, the cuts have hit particularly hard in far flung communities like Blythe, which sits on the border with Arizona.
Study: Bullying among siblings as damaging as peer bullying
A new study finds that some of the worst bullying among kids happens at home. According to a report in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics, bullying and aggressive behavior by a sibling can be as damaging as bullying by a classmate or neighbor.
That bullying can lead to anxiety, anger and depression.
Dr. Allan Kazdin, professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Yale Parenting Center, joins the show with more.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Kanye West, J.Cole and Judith Hill
Is Kanye God? He'd like you to think so with songs with titles like 'I Am A God' on his new album "Yeezus."
Oliver Wang from Soul-Sides.com joins us to talk about the new record as well as new music from J. Cole and Judith Hill.
Artist: Kanye West
Album: Yeezus
Song: "New Slaves"
"For people who love Kanye West, it burnishes his reputation. People that are inclined to dislike him are going to dislike him even more. He's a master at dividing the audiences, but he's a master at courting controversy and drawing attention to himself in the process. "Yeezus" is part of his "chest move" to keep audiences interested in what he's doing."
"It's incredibly industrial. It hammers you over the head. You get a sense of the sonic space this album is in. It's very, very dark."
"It's kind of a misogynist album, and I'll be curious that now that he's the father of a daughter, to what extent his future music may or may not shift to reflect new ideas he has around womanhood and femininity."
Artist: Judith Hill
Album: 20 Feet from Stardom
Song: "Desperation"
"In terms of talent level, the capability of these women in particular to sing and belt is extraordinary. They wouldn't be hired to do that job if they didn't have that capability. The question is: what separates them in that 20 feet from the background to the front of the stage?"
Artist: J. Cole
Song: "Cole Summer"
"The first "summer song" of 2013 I heard this year was J-Cole's "Cole Summer." The best "summer songs" have this dreaminess to it, but that's what summer is. Summer's always over before we want it to be, so we're are left with is this dreamlike memory of what summer was or we want summer to be. In our minds we create an ideal sense of it, and the best songs evoke this dreamlike quality of what we want summer to be regardless of what summer ends up being like."
Taking steps to end homelessness among US war veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs is making the fight against veteran homelessness a top priority, with a goal of putting an end to it over the next two years.
Tommy Sowers is one of the people tasked with making that goal a reality. He was sworn in last summer as the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the US Department of Veteran's Affairs.
Sowers is in Los Angeles today to meet with several veterans organizations, and joins "Take Two" live in studio.
Military women move closer to jobs in combat
The U.S. military will announce today that women will no longer be prevented from holding jobs on the front line. The plans, which were obtained by the Associated Press, indicate the women could begin training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs the next year.
Joining us now for more is Major Mary Jennings Hegar, one of four female veterans who, along with the ACLU, filed a lawsuit to overturn the military's long-standing ban on women in combat.
LA City Council to vote on plastic bag ban
Today the Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote on whether to ban single use plastic bags. The proposed law was first introduced two years ago by Councilmen Paul Koretz and Paul Krekorian.
For more on this we're joined now by KPCC's Environmental Reporter Molly Peterson.
Is Soylent the food of the future?
When you hear the word Soylent, what image pops into your head? A dystopian future where people are recycled into tasty little green treats, perhaps?
For the past few months, talk about a product called Soylent has been making the rounds on the Internet. It's billed as an all-in one nutritional drink that has all of the nutrients that your body needs.
Creator Rob Rhinehart's pitch is that you would potentially never have to eat food again.
"Soylent is all of the essential nutrients required by the body in a more elemental form," said Rhinehart on Take Two. "It's basically a powder — you mix it with water, you drink it, you add flavoring if you'd like — but the primary goal here is efficiency."
Rhinehart, a 24-year-old software developer, developed Soylent after realizing he had a poor diet and didn't have the means to eat better.
"I figured, do we really need the food itself or do we just need the nutrients?" said Rhinehart. "It's not that people don't know what's healthy and what's unhealthy, it's that we haven't created the means necessary to get healthy foods to everyone."
Rhinehart beta-tested the product, first by restricting himself to an all-Soylent diet for 30 days.
"By every objective measure, I got much, much healthier," said Rhinehart. "My gym performance was much improved, my blood work was fantastic, I slept better, had more energy, gave up caffeine, and all the things you would hear from someone who got a lot healthier."
He found that drinking Soylent worked for him 90 percent of the time, saving him money on food and saving him from having to cook and clean dishes. He would allow himself to eat regular meals with friends on the weekends.
The group is currently working on customizing the mixtures for men and women, as well as more targeted concoctions based on a person's weight, level of physical activity, body fat percentage and nutritional goals.
Soylent has been a polarizing product. Some say that their skin has cleared up and they've lost weight since drinking it, but critics find it repulsive and say that it can't accomplish what it claims.
"It is a reasonable concern, 'what if nutrients are not getting absorbed in the proper amount?' That's why I did so much blood testing and so much quantification on myself and some other testers," said Rhinehart. "There have been no deficiencies. As long as the nutrients are bioavailable and safe, which they all are, the body can make use of it. It just has to do less work to extract it as it would from traditional food."
Rhinehart hopes his product will help improve nutrition for people who have a difficult time accessing good food as well as in the developing world, since Soylent doesn't spoil and is easy to transport.
See what Take Two producers think about Soylent:
Should we be drinking Soylent?
Rob Rhinehart's argument for the benefits of Soylent may be convincing, but what do nutritionists think of the stuff?
"This probably falls under a category of meal replacements," said Tracy Anthony, Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University. "On an intermittent basis, adults can drink a lot of things and be ok, but if you're looking to incorporate this as the main component of your sustenance, there are a lot of things lacking in this particular product."
Anthony says the main carbohydrate ingredient in Soylent, Maltodextrin, is a high glycemic sugar, which can cause insulin to spike and set someone up for diabetes later in life. Some people can also have something called reactive hypoglycemia, due to the fast insulin spike that results.
The protein element in Soylent is whey, a fast-digesting protein that delivers amino acids quickly. Bodybuilders often use whey for this reason, but it can also cause an insulin spike compared to other protein sources.
Anthony says it may also missing other key nutritional ingredients.
"I didn't see choline listed on the creator's list. Choline is very important in protecting cell membranes and making neurotransmitters and liver function," said Anthony. "Over time, if this product actually is deficient in choline, you could be setting yourself up for diabetes, fatty liver, and processing problems in memory."
UPDATE 2:47 p.m.: Julio Miles of Soylent points out that Soylent actually does containe choline. Here is a full list of ingredients:
Anthony says that Soylent is a decent option if you're looking for a meal replacement or want to lose weight, but she cautions that it shouldn't be the source of most of your nutrition.
"There are things that you can use to survive, but that's different than saying, 'what do we need to live, and experience the full value that life has to offer?'" said Anthony. "At some point it needs to transition into having a proper relationship with food, and ultimately that's what serves your highest quality of life."
How does 'Man of Steel''s Lois Lane compare to those of the past?
The latest cinematic iteration of the Superman tale, "Man of Steel," is dominating the box office, even if many critics were less than impressed. But most of them had nice words for Amy Adams and her performance as Lois Lane.
Lane, like Superman, is an iconic character. She began as a tough-as-nails reporter, but over the years, she's been portrayed as either skeptical of Clark Kent, or moony over Superman.
Amy Adams's Lois is more than tough. She knows how to handle a gun, take out bad guys, and dress down sources that don't cough up the facts.
Journalist Ashley Fetters recently wrote about Lois Lane from a feminist perspective for the Atlantic. She joins the show to talk about her piece.
Encinitas, Solana Beach leaders propose sand replenishment plan
A quiet crisis is occurring along San Diego's shoreline: The beaches are being literally washed away.
Some homeowners have built sea walls and the US Army Corps of Engineers is working on an ambitious sand replenishment project. From the Fronteras Desk in San Diego, Alison St. John says Solana Beach and Encinitas are on the frontlines over how to deal with eroding shorelines and sea level rise.
Pioneering photojournalist Helen Brush Jenkins dies
Helen Brush Jenkins was a pioneering photojournalist for the old Los Angeles Daily News starting in the early 1940s. She was hired because so many cameramen were away during World War II, but quickly established her credentials in a field where women were rare.
Brush Jenkins died last Wednesday in her Chicago home days after suffering a stroke, she was 94.
In her career, she photographed President Harry Truman, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and movie stars like John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin.
For more, we're joined by Bryan Carmody, director of an upcoming documentary about Helen Brush Jenkins, called "Flashes Of Light."
Flashes of Light - Extended Trailer from Screen Door on Vimeo.