Senate poised to pass bipartisan immigration reform bill; What the defeat of DOMA means for gay couples with foreign-born spouses; How is LA County preparing for potential influx of gay marriages?; Prop 8 decision a likely boon for wedding vendors; Picture This: Pej Behdarvand and the world of African body builders; Non-Mexican migrants increasing at the border
Senate poised to pass bipartisan immigration reform bill
For the first time in more than 25 years, the Senate seems ready to pass a bipartisan reform bill. A vote is expected later today or tomorrow, but the legislation may stall when it gets to the House.
For more on this, we're joined by Fawn Johnson, Senate reporter for the National Journal.
What the defeat of DOMA means for gay couples with foreign-born spouses
Yesterday's Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act also had an effect on part of the immigration bill pertaining to whether gay U.S. citizens could petition citizenship for their foreign-born spouses.
It was a contentious piece of the legislation, but with yesterday's ruling, gay married couples in twelve states and the District of Columbia now have a faster path to a green card. An estimated 36,000 same-sex couples could stand to benefit.
Here to explain is Ally Bolour, an immigration lawyer based in L.A.
How is LA County preparing for potential influx of gay marriages?
This week's decision by the Supreme Court on Proposition 8 has cleared the way for gay marriage in California, but same-sex couples hoping to wed will need to wait a bit longer before they can walk down the aisle.
Governor Brown said California counties will begin issuing marriage licenses as soon as the Ninth Circuit lifts the stay imposed during the legal battle. That's expected to happen sometime during the next few weeks.
So, how is Los Angeles county preparing to deal with a potential influx of couples looking to get hitched? For more on that we're joined now by Dean Logan, L.A. County Registrar Recorder County Clerk.
Prop 8 decision a likely boon for wedding vendors, economy
The Supreme Court decision on Prop 8 isn't just good news for gay couples in California, but also wedding vendors. Couples often spend tens of thousands of dollars on their wedding, on everything from flowers to food to photographers.
With gay marriage set to resume in California, vendors will have a whole new group of customers.
Scott Coatsworth and his husband Mark Guzman are creators of the site PurpleUnions.com, which is a directory of LGBT-friendly wedding vendors around the world.
Of course, yesterday's decision is certainly a boon for the vendors who specialize in same-sex weddings, but how might gay marriage affect the economy overall?
For more on this we're joined by an expert on marriage and the economy, Professor Lee Badgett, professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a research director at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
New book reveals the legacy of LA's 'Operation Fly Trap' drug bust
Today marks a decade since the FBI led a major drug bust in South Los Angeles known as Operation Fly Trap. The task force was set up to root out crime in a neighborhood plagued by rampant gang violence.
They targeted a couple dozen members of a local drug network and systematically took them down. The operation was hailed as a huge success for law enforcement, but over the last decade, the real legacy of Operation Fly Trap has become less clear.
Author Susan Phillips looks into the unintended consequences of this approach to the war on drugs in her book, "Operation Fly Trap: LA Gangs, Drugs and the Law."
Picture This: Pej Behdarvand and the world of African bodybuilders
Pej Behdarvand is an L.A.-based photographer best-known for his studio portraits of celebrities such as Beck and Quincy Jones, but his latest project was a bit of a departure for him.
RELATED: See more pics from Pej Behdarvand on KPCC's AudioVision site
Behdarvand stumbled upon the world of bodybuilders in Africa during research for another project. He decided to travel to Africa to document the pastime of bodybuilding. His photos are being shown at the DRKRM gallery through the end of this week. For our latest installment of our series on photography called Picture This, we talk to Behdarvand about what drew him to this topic.
RELATED: See Behdarvand's full photo series at his website
Interview Highlights
On how the project got started:
"I had a commercial assignment where I had to find a bodybuilder for a background shot. I went on Google and I researched bodybuilders, and I saw this website that's no longer in existence of these bodybuilders in Africa. Their environment looked very interesting, their weights looked very interesting. Their weights looked, quite bluntly, very primitive looking. They were made out of stone and rocks, and they used car parts for weights, like tire rods and gear. The rooms were interesting because they were kind of dilapidated. There were holes in a wall, and you could see that these men didn't have much money but yet they still had this drive for fitness."
On the bodybuilding culture in Uganda/Kenya:
"I would say it's pretty small. We live in Los Angeles, and it's nothing like it is here. These places are very out of the way. It's not like you'd walk down the street and find a gym. One of them was in this very dark mall, and most of them were these out of the way places with a small wooden sign where you'd never know that there was this bodybuilding going on here."
On the atmosphere of the gyms he visited in Africa:
"When you're in the gyms, they're very quiet. There's no loud music. It felt almost like a very internal world."
On the desire to body build in Africa:
"What I wanted to capture in this was the passion involved. The drive of these men to do what they wanted to do, despite their limited means and ability. There's a form of self-expression desired here, because there really aren't many outlets in some countries to express oneself. I think there's a certain amount of desire for strength and vitality that they maybe don't have in their day-to-day life, and I imagine there's a certain amount of vanity involved too. What I knew I had going for me going on was that bodybuilders like to be seen. They're always standing in front of the mirror checking themselves out, posing just like here."
On the primitive stone and metal weights used:
"They're definitely beautiful. They're definitely pieces of art, I think, in how they fabricated it. Using the metal rods and the tire gears and the way they were set up in the workout rooms, it was just visually stunning."
SoCal Politics: Eric Garcetti, new councilmembers and more
Time for our look at politics here in Southern California with KPCC political reporters Frank Stoltze and Alice Walton.
L.A.'s new mayor Eric Garcetti will be sworn in on Sunday, but he's already meeting with stakeholders across the city. One of those meetings was with studio executives to talk about runaway production. What did he have to say about that? What's in store for this Sunday's inauguration ceremony?
Of course, it's also Mayor Villaraigosa's final week in office. How is he spending his last day as Mayor?
On Monday, Los Angeles will also have six new city councilmembers. How have the newly-elected been spending the last month and a half preparing for office?
Yesterday we spent a lot of time talking about Proposition 8 and what the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings meant for same-sex couples. But the rulings could greatly affect something else in California: the initiative system.
How could the court's decision impact future ballot initiatives?
In a less talked-about ruling, the United States Supreme Court declined to lift an order that prevents city crews in Los Angeles from removing the possessions of homeless people on Skid Row. Why was this such a controversial issue and what happens next?
One of L.A.'s new councilmembers will be Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, which has a major impact in Sacramento since it means the Democrats will lose their supermajority in the lower house.What does this mean for the party?
How climate change is fueling changes in the insurance industry
What sort of effect does climate change have on insurance policies? We'll talk to California's insurance commissioner Dave Jones about how the changing environment might impact the future of coverage.
RELATED: UCS Forum on Insurance in an Era of Climate Change Takes Place on June 28 in Pasadena
SB 606 seeks to protect celebrity children from paparazzi
Halle Berry's latest role has her playing an angry mother seeking to make a change in the world. Who is she playing? Herself.
Earlier this week, the actress testified before lawmakers in Sacramento on behalf of a bill which would protect the children of celebrities and public officials from the paparazzi. Berry spoke on the negative effect these photographers have on her 5-year-old daughter, Nahla.
"My daughter doesn't want to go to school because she knows 'the men' are watching for her," she told the Assembly Committee on Public Safety. "They jump out of the bushes and from behind cars and who knows where else, besieging these children just to get a photo."
Senate Bill 606 was written by Democratic senator Kevin De Leon of Los Angeles, who joined the show today.
Investigating a magic mushroom murder mystery
Back in 1980, Dr. Steven Pollock was found dead in his San Antonio home, shot through the head.
He was a physician and something of a magic mushroom kingpin. Pollock did pioneering research on the therapeutic uses of psychedelic mushrooms, and grew and sold mushrooms in massive quantities.
His murder remains unsolved, but conspiracy theories abound involve everyone from local pimps to the federal government. Writer Hamilton Morris delves into the case in a new article in the current issue of Harper's Magazine, and joins the show today to talk about what he found.
Non-Mexican migrants increasing at the border
While Mexicans still make up the vast majority of illegal immigration cases in the United States, there are a growing number of people from other countries sneaking across the border.
One particular smuggling case that originated along the Arizona border, is surprising even veteran law enforcement officials. From the Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Michel Marizco takes a close look.
The older man is nervous and won't give his name. He fears for his life, he says, but is willing to talk. Up until early June, he worked as a guard outside a smuggling stash house in a Nogales, Sonora, neighborhood.
The smugglers paid this man to keep an eye on things along the city block. He wasn’t allowed inside the high white walls of the safe house. He didn’t know who was being kept hidden inside.
Then Mexican federal agents came. They brought a bus and took those inside. The guard walked away.
Mexican officials said they arrested 58 people. They were mostly Central Americans from Guatemala but also 11 people from India.
But the story didn’t end there.
Across the border in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, the smuggling ring had some success.
Enough to surprise Sheriff Tony Estrada who described the situation from his office.
"We had something that obviously we had not experienced before. Between June 9 and 11, we had a total of 24 people from India. In the next following days, there were 11 more," Estrada said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection held the 35 Indians in the county jail here. But it has given very few details about when the arrests happened or how they happened.
"In my 45 years here and in my 20 years as sheriff, I’ve never seen something like this before. These numbers were striking in a lot of ways," Estrada said.
A quick look at the numbers shows a pervasive pattern in the arrests of what the Border Patrol calls "Other Than Mexicans" or "Exotics."
Nationwide, 91,000 people from countries besides Mexico were arrested at the border last year. Those nearly tripled since 2001. That’s even as arrests overall declined along the border.
Last year, 12 people from Afghanistan were arrested, eight from Iran, eight more from France, seven from Ireland. In fact, the population of immigrants spans the globe, including three from Zimbabwe.
While it's not known why the immigrants from India tried to come to this country, attorney John Messing believes they may have come to seek asylum for religious persecution. He describes the enduring process of seeking asylum.
"They’re put into a proceeding for a credible fear determination. That’s what it’s called," Messing said.
But here’s the catch: To start that process, they had to be captured on U.S. soil first.
"Someone has briefed them on how the U.S. system works before they left their country or origin, before they reached the U.S.," Messing said.
That is to say, someone knew that all they had to do was get those people across the border into Arizona. And if Mexico caught the ringleaders in Nogales, Sonora, that day in June, the government isn’t saying.
NPR's 'Tell Me More' is coming to KPCC
Evenings on KPCC are about to get a lot more exciting. Come July 1st, KPCC will be airing a bonus hour of Take Two at 8 p.m. At 9 p.m. you can tune into the award-winning NPR program "Tell Me More."
The show is hosted by Michel Martin, who joins the show from NPR in Washington DC.
Meet 'Ask Me Another' host Ophira Eisenberg
You may have heard that KPCC is making some changes to its lineup. There's going to be a bonus hour of Take Two airing at 8pm on July 1st.
Another addition we're excited about is a new game show called "Ask Me Another," which will be on Saturdays at 9 p.m. and there's nothing quite like it on the radio right now. It's been described as a "blend of brainteasers and local pub trivia" with a big dollop of comedy and music.
Host Ophira Eisenberg joins us now from New York, where the show is recorded live.
Dinner Party Download: Youth reading, cutlery, first typewriter
This edition of the Dinner Party Download looks into how the food we eat is affected by the tools we use to eat it, how younger Americans are more likely to read a book than their elders, the first modern prototype for the typewriter, and an update over whether Captain Crunch is an actual captain or not.
Cutlery's Effect On How We Taste
"Cheese tastes saltier, the study found, when eaten from a knife rather than a fork. Yogurt was perceived as denser and more expensive when tasted from a lighter plastic spoon."
Young Americans Actually More Likely To Read A Book
"It turns out that younger Americans, people under 30, are more likely than older Americans to have read a book in print last year. Seventy-five percent of people under 30 surveyed have read a book in the past year, compared with 64 percent of people over 30."
The Trials And Tribulations Of The Typewriter
"It's primary inventor, Christopher Latham Sholes, was inspired by a machine called a 'pterotype,' which typed on the underside of the paper so you couldn’t see what you were typing. At first, the keys jammed a lot because they were right next to each other and would get caught up in each other. He (Sholes) split the keys, so that common letter pairings were at different parts of the keyboard, resulting in the 'QWERTY' keyboard."