Cal State University opens doors to all eligible students, LA County votes on fund to fight deportations, hundreds of historic shipwrecks lay off California coast.
California State University System will soon admit all qualified students
All qualified applicants will now be admitted.
The California State University System has announced if you have the required scores, they'll make sure you can attend one of the 23 schools in their system. But with all the news of CSU's being over capacity, will they be able to swing it?
Maggie White is the incoming president of the California State Student Association and a member of the CSU board of trustees. She spoke to A Martinez about the CSU system's undertaking.
What are the base qualifications to be admitted into a Cal State School?
"That's going to be a little different for each of our different groups who are applying. For incoming freshmen applicants....we combine their high school graduating GPA their SAT or ACT scores and we're hoping to have about 3.0 average for the students for admitting, so they may have had lower than, a 2.0 or a 2.5 in high school but if they do great on the SAT or ACT, they're able to raise their overall calculated score and they'll be admitted to the CSU.
...But if you're a transfer student, you only need about a 2.0 GPA as long as you're in good standing with your community college.
As it stands now, about 30,000 students meet these requirements but get turned away from CSUs because of over capacity.
Where's the money coming from?
"We're set to receive about $20 million dollars in the upcoming budget that will allow us to have 2,500 new full-time students every year. But when you think about that overall number of 30,000 eligible students being turned away....it's just one bite out of this large problem. And so, while we're saying that we'll redirect students out of that number of 30,000 to one of our campuses, that doesn't mean that they're getting into the campus they want or that's accessible to them where they live."
Can it work?
"I think it's really with great intentions that the state asks the CSU to put this policy together and have it ready to be presented to the state by next May 2018. But my concern is always the funding. I think that Cal State would love to admit every single eligible student, our mission in CSU is to be accessible, affordable, high quality and be able to be completed in four years or whatever timeline works best for the individual student. But the fact is we don't have the tenure-track faculty, we don't have the buildings and we just don't have the seats in the classroom to serve those students right now."
To listen to the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Deported veterans try to return to the country they fought for
LA County supervisors weighing who should get immigrant legal defense help
How California could step up to fight the deportation of veterans
In a two-part series, KPCC's Dorian Merina took an in-depth look at military veterans who have been convicted of a crime and deported.
It's an issue that hits home for many right here in Southern California.
The Golden State has the largest number of vets in the nation and, of course, a large immigrant population.
Merina sat down with Take Two's A Martinez to share some ways that the government might step up to prevent more veterans from getting deported.
You shared in your story how some veterans are having trouble getting their citizenship. Is the government addressing that issue?
The current policy is that military service can speed up the process, but there's nothing automatic. President Bush signed an order after 9/11 that made it easier for soldiers serving during times of hostility to get their citizenship. That's still in effect.
In 2015, there were 7,500 service members who were naturalized, and the number goes even higher when you include children or spouses.
The breakdown comes when servicemembers are headed off to military installations or they're deployed. They tell me that their priority is fulfilling their duties. They don't keep track of a naturalization application.
Are there any changes coming?
Many are pointing to a state measure here in California that has the best chances of becoming law. That bill is called AB386. That would set up a legal fund for deported veterans. It got bipartisan support and it cleared the Assembly. It's now before the Senate. Backers say they're hoping for a vote before this summer.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Black and Latino drivers searched more often during traffic stops, Stanford study finds
Researchers at Stanford have been analyzing data from millions of traffic stops around the country. They call it the "Open Policing Project." This week, they've found evidence that black and Latino drivers are searched during stops more often than white drivers.
No big surprise there. But what IS interesting is how much LESS suspicion it took for police to search black and Latino drivers.
Sharad Goel is an Assistant Professor at Stanford in the Department of Management Science & Engineering and works with the "Open Policing Project." He spoke with A Martinez to discuss the findings.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Cracking ice shelf in Antarctica could create largest iceberg ever
A giant crack in the Antarctic ice is getting bigger. A lot bigger.
The miles-long break is in an area known as the Larsen C Ice Shelf.
Eric Rignot is UC Irvine professor and a senior scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He's been tracking the crack and says that once this crack cuts all the way through the shelf, an iceberg the size of a small state could break off into the sea.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Rignot to get put this situation into context.
To hear the full interview with Eric Rignot, click on the media player above.
Hundreds of shipwrecks line California's coastal seafloor
Think of Santa Barbara, and visions of beaches and fine dining come to mind but there's a surprising attraction in the area — a shipwreck graveyard.
The waters of the Channel Islands are over 100 sunken ships, including a recent discovery dating back to the Spanish American War. The Cutter ship McCulloch sank exactly a century ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09IGmiz-Rc
So, for a deep dive into Santa Barbara shipwreck history, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Robert Schwemmer. He's the West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association Office of Marine Sanctuaries.
Interview Highlights
The McCulloch meets its fate
The McCulloch was involved in a collision off Point Conception on June 13, 1917. They were headed from San Pedro to Mare Island – it's a Navy yard because this was WWI. There was also a passenger ship, the USS Governor. It has 429 passengers and crew on board. They were moving very slowly through fog, sounding their steam whistles to alert other vessels in the area. The officer on watch on the McCulloch heard the steam whistle from the Governor and slowed down. And all of the sudden there was a second blast and they realized that they were about to collide. And the Governor just plowed into the McCulloch, fatally wounding her and she sank 35 minutes later.
Santa Barbara coast is an underwater graveyard for ships
Between Point Sal and wrapping around Point Conception, including the offshore Channel Islands, down to Point Mugu, we're talking 700 ship and also aircraft losses. Not all total losses.
Point Conception is the Cape Horn of the Pacific and this was nicknamed by past explorers. It lies at the western entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel. Mariners encounter huge swells, northwest winds... But I would say the single largest contributor to shipwrecks in the area is that persistent fog.
Ecosystems make sunken ships their home
Shipwrecks provide a great habitat. And this what we're actually found at the site of the McCulloch. Off Point Conception, generally, the seafloor is pretty barren out there. And so with the McCulloch, it serves as this oasis in this underwater desert. The wreck has been down there 100 years so there's various species of marine life including Lingcod. Vermillion and Copper Rockfish – they're everywhere and very large. The marine growth is primarily Metridium Anemones and these are very large, white plumes. They tend to be up on a structure where it's exposed to prevailing currents.
Quotes edited for clarity
To hear the full interview with Robert Schwemmer, click on the media player above.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Daniel Cesar, Zara McFarlane and Jill Scott.
Need something new to refresh your music playlist? Lucky for you, every week we hear from our experts on what's the best new music for the week.
Music supervisor Morgan Rhodes joins us this week with for her reviews, here are her selections:
What I've come to expect from Daniel Caesar is future soul music with gospel references and double entendres. The 21-year-old Toronto native has already made a name as a R&B/Soul singer with influences coming from gospel and rock. Here's a video of him performing one of his earlier releases, Get You.
Almost 10 years after the death of composer Max Roach, Zara McFarlane reimagines a track from his 1960 seminal album "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" expanding its spiritual jazz bones.
Jill Scott with Nils Wulker,
"Worth The Wait" (Mark De Clive Lowe Remix)
Jilly from Philly collaborates with Nils Wulker on his latest project ON. The track, "Worth The Wait" gets a house music reboot that speeds up the tempo without losing any of the soulfulness.