Taking a look at the mental health picture for California's homeless, the Apple Watch, actors Sophia Takal and Lawrence Michael Levine talk 'Wild Canaries.'
Mental health remains challenge for California's homeless population
Dozens marched over the weekend in Los Angeles to protest the fatal shooting of a homeless man in Skid Row last week. The incident has prompted scrutiny of how such incidents are handled by law enforcement.
RELATED: Police and the mentally ill: LAPD unit praised as model for nation
Around 30-40 percent of the homeless in California are estimated to have mental illness issues, according to Dr. Robert Okin, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco and former commissioner of mental health for the states of Vermont and Massachusetts.
One of the primary issues driving homelessness is the rising cost of housing in the region, said Okin.
"That just pushes people who are economically vulnerable off the cliff into homelessness," said Okin, whose latest book is Silent Voices: People with Mental Disorders on the Street. Another factor, said Okin, is the high number of veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"That's a population that's also at risk for real mental health problems and homelessness," he said.
State university budgets, students still taking financial hit
As other sectors of the economy show signs of recovery from the recession, spending on colleges is down, and states across the country are proposing even deeper cuts. Esme Deprez, national reporter for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek, explains the impacts.
The Forecast - the GOP wants a peek at Hillary's emails and Wisconsin becomes a right to work state
It's the Forecast! Take Two's look at the week in news.
Joining us this week, Robin Abcarian - columnist with the LA Times and Alexia Fernandez Campbell, staff correspondent with National Journal.
'Midnight Rider' director accepts plea deal in movie death
Director Randal Miller entered a guilty plea today in a case that was closely watched in Hollywood, especially among rank and file workers.
Two years ago, Randall was in Georgia, filming "Midnight Rambler," a bio-pic about Gregg Allman. A young camera assistant was killed, and several other crew members were injured in an accident with a train.
SCPR's John Horn, host of The Frame, and the LA Times' Rebecca Keegan offer background on the story, and discuss the history of safety issues in Hollywood.
Old battery likely complicated search for MH 370
It’s been a year since the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 and there are still far more questions than there are answers. Now a new report could explain why the plane’s in-flight recorders have not been found.
An investigation into the flight’s maintenance logs revealed that the battery for the box’s locating beacon had expired in December of 2012.
“The underwater locator beacon is actually attached to the front or the rear of the black box, and when that box hits water, a charge goes off and it starts emitting an acoustical signal that can be picked up by the military or anyone actually searching for it,” explains Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Underwater locators are designed to emit a “ping” for about 30 days, but Brickhouse says an old battery makes that possibility dubious: “What came out of the report this weekend was that the battery actually had expired about a year or so before the event took place, so that would definitely lessen the chances of that pinger actually emitting a signal if it hit the water. “
While much is known about the events on the ground leading up to and following the loss of MH 370, nothing is known about the plane’s final minutes. Brickhouse says that the in-flight recorder is the most important part of the puzzle in this investigation.
“On an aircraft like this, you’re going to have the cockpit voice recorder and also the flight data recorder, and both of these boxes have the potential to give you a wealth of information about what was happening on the aircraft in the minutes and seconds before it crashed. Finding these boxes can unlock a lot of the mysteries that could possibly be out there.”
The outdated battery was noted in the plane’s maintenance log, but it was never replaced. Now other technologies like sonar must be used to comb the ocean floor for wreckage--a time-consuming and costly endeavor because the possible crash zone is so wide.
“It’s not that we’re looking for needle in a haystack right now,” Brickhouse says. “We are actually still trying to find the haystack, and that’s what’s complicating matters.”
Anaheim considers 2/3 majority for tax measures on ballots
The Anaheim City Council will consider a proposal to increase the number of council votes required to put tax measures on ballots. Adam Elmahrek, a reporter with the Voice of OC, tells us more.
A photographer covered models in buckets of honey. Take a look
Looking at photographer Blake Little's portraits - you'd think that his subjects were encased in amber. The models, big and small, are posed like Greek statues, and they look like they're preserved for the rest of time.
But, as it turns out, Little didn't use amber... he used honey. Thousands of pounds of the sticky stuff.
And he recently joined A Martinez in the studio to talk about his new photography exhibition and book, titled "Preservation."
For an insiders look at his process this video gives a good idea of what it was like to be covered in a ton of honey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVRClZhYxA
'Wild Canaries': A murder mystery that's 'life or death' in more ways than one
The new film "Wild Canaries" is about Barri and Noah, a newly engaged couple living in Brooklyn. As with most couples living together, they love each other, but that doesn't mean they don't quibble from time to time. Some of their arguments, though, are a little more unusual than most.
When their elderly neighbor dies of a heart attack, Barri automatically assumes it has to be foul play and wants to investigate, but Noah is not as convinced. Cue the bickering (and the laughs) as they set out to solve the mystery:
from
on Vimeo.
Sophia Takal and Lawrence Michael Levine play Barri and Noah. Lawrence wrote and directed the film and Takal produced it. They're also married in real life.
So what's it like to play a soon to be married couple as an actual married couple?
Takal says, "[Lawrence] just said something really interesting today which is that the dynamic between Barri and Noah doesn't reflect our married dynamic as much as it reflects our dynamic when we're making movies together. Because for us, that's the life or death thing. We make a movie and it feels so high stakes the way the murder mystery feels so high stakes for Barri."
To hear the full interview with Lawrence Michael Levine and Sophia Takal, click the link above.
"Wild Canaries" is currently playing at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood.