Today we find out what California Dems can do with their regained supermajority in the state legislature. Then, we visit a high school for teen parents, we hear what's next in the Miramonte School child abuse case, and much more.
What can California Democrats do with regained supermajority?
California Democrats are celebrating this morning. Last night they eked by in the polls to reclaim their Supermajority in the state senate.
Joining us to talk about what Democrats can do with their Supermajority is John Myers, Political Editor for KXTV in Sacramento.
Teen parents learn reading, writing and diaper changing at Baldwin Park high school (Photos)
Teenager Michelle Zamora has big dreams to become a civil engineer.
“Since 4th grade,” Zamora says, “I told myself I want to go to Stanford University.”
Zamora would be the first in her family to go to college, and as a self-described “smart kid,” Stanford never seemed too far-fetched an idea.
But at age 15, Michelle Zamora made a mistake: she got pregnant. And her dreams of college seemed to vanish.
Like thousands of other California teens, Zamora dropped out of high school.
She is among the majority of the state's teen moms --83%-- that come from low-income households. According to the California Department of Education, the state ranks number one nationwide with its rate of pregnancy among teens.
The worst part, she said, was the way most people assumed she was condemned to future that she didn’t want. People told her “well, you’re just going to be another teenager on welfare,” or “you’re not going to make it.” Zamora started to believe them.
And then she found out about a program in Baldwin Park that has given her renewed hope.
In the late 1990s, officials in the Baldwin Park Unified School District worried that they were losing too many students due to pregnancy. Using federal Early Head Start funds, the district launched an innovative program to ensure teen moms could stay in school.
When Zamora’s daughter was born in 2011, a friend told her about North Park high school which provides on-site daycare so teen moms and dads can complete coursework.
A Continuation high school, North Park enrolls students who failed or dropped out, but now want to finish high school. Its child care program is one of 18 at high schools across Los Angeles county that cater to teen parents. Since 1999, about 60% of North Park students have graduated and gone on to higher education.
Principal Sergio Canal plans his student’s schedules to include in a parenting class -- not required to graduate, but required to qualify for free childcare-- as well as what is known as a “practicum” period. Canal says the practicum, which occurs with their child in the nursery, is critical for a young parent to “practice what they actually learn in the classroom alongside the other teacher and their child.”
Zamora and other teen parents get something many adult parents would enjoy: the chance to eat lunch and reading a naptime story to their child.
The staff of the childcare centers at North Park high school each have a Bachelor’s degree. According to Jeanette Peinado, a teacher in the infant room, staff members guide new parents as well as care for the children.
“We make sure that the parents are aware of the progressions that their children are making,” Peinado says. Teenage parents don’t know many things about parenting a new born, Peinado adds, and that can lead to frustration. The staff tries to help the teens understand what their children are doing.
It might seem unusual for a K-12 school district to provide infant and toddler childcare programs. But Deborah Staveley, who runs the Early Childhood programs for the Baldwin Park school district, says the do it because the children are “our future kindergartners” and they want to make sure they are prepared for that challenge.
Because it's funded in part from federal Early Head Start grants, the program is facing a 5-8% cut due to federal sequestration. Ricardo Rivera, Director for early childhood education programs, said the school district will absorb the immediate cuts in areas such as professional development for staff and basic supplies.
But he's worried that will “dilute some of the quality” of the programs. Worse, he says, the district may have to consider additional cuts, “whether its staffing cuts, cutting in terms of the number of children served or just offering less services to the students.”
Zamora is worried. If she loses services, she will have to drop out of school right when she was beginning to believe that her 4th grade dream of going to college might still happen.
California bill seeks on-campus credit for online courses
A bill being introduced today could have huge implications for higher education in California.
The legislation would require the state's public colleges and university to give credit to students when they take online courses, substituting for on campus classes they couldn't register for.
For more on this we're joined by Jeffrey Young, who covers technology for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Welcome back to the program.
Multimillion-dollar settlements begin in Miramonte school abuse case
Yesterday the The Los Angeles Unified School District announced a settlement with several former Miramonte Elementary School students and parents.
The suit stems from the scandal involving students and former Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt, who’s accused of sexually molesting students at the school over several years.
The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Tuesday that it settled 58 lawsuits over Berndt's alleged misconduct. But nearly two-thirds of the 191 civil suits filed against the nation's second-largest school district in the case remain unresolved.
We talk to KPCC’s Vanessa Romo about the settlement and what happens next.
Sports Roundup: Lakers comeback, Iditarod winner and more
It's time to get a get a little exercise and take a run through the world of sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky. They've covered the Los Angeles sports scene for over a decade for the Times and ESPN.
Chris' Collection: Designing Disneyland with Bob Gurr
Take Two's new recurring feature with Chris Nichols, editor at Los Angeles Magazine.
Chris is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Southern California's history, and every week he'll bring some of his wonderful treasures into the studio to give us the back story.
On tap this week, ex-Disney Imagineer and amusement park designer Bob Gurr.
RELATED: Gurr will speak Wednesday, March 13 at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Click here for tickets.
Veterans' wait times for benefits skyrockets under Obama
A new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting shows wait times for benefit checks have skyrocketed under the Obama administration. The number of veterans waiting longer than a year to receive compensation has grown by 2,000 percent. A Senate committee is meeting this morning to address the problem.
Aaron Glantz, a reporter for the Center for Investigative Reporting, joins the show with more.
UCLA program pairs injured vets with Los Angeles families to ease recovery (Photos)
"Party in DT's room!"
A family of four beams at Israel "DT" Del Toro as he opens the door of his hotel room.
The Schwimmers of Sherman Oaks are his "buddy" family - Flavia, her TV executive husband Michael, son Jonah, daughter Hannah. They provide support during his trips from his home in Texas to Los Angeles to receive free reconstructive surgery at UCLA through a program called Operation Mend.
Del Toro survived a roadside bomb attack while serving as an Air Force Tech Sgt. in Afghanistan, suffering burns over 80 percent of his body.
Del Toro's made some 15 visits to UCLA's medical center, often for multiple surgeries at a time. Over that period, the Schwimmers have come to know Del Toro well -- how he loves to go to the movies, how his favorite foods are Pringles and Reese's Pieces. But he still manages to surprise them, like when he shows 15-year-old Jonah a photo of the gun he built.
"Wow, you built that?" said Jonah.
"You own a gun?" Flavia Schwimmer asked in a hushed voice.
Made-for-TV
The percentage of Americans serving in the U.S. military is the smallest it's ever been: Less than 1 percent. Surveys have found the military and the civilian population feel less of a connection to one another than in past decades.
The buddy program for Operation Mend aims to bridge the gap. Since the program began in 2007, Katz has matched military patients with more than 50 "buddy" families, mostly from west L.A. and the Valley.
"There is no question that it has the makings of the sitcom," Katz said.
Katz said that a lot of the patients are from small towns, and experience culture clash.
"They joke that there's one stop light and two bars, so when they come to Los Angeles and they see some of the homes of the buddy families and it can be overwhelming," Katz said. "It can actually at the beginning make a patient uncomfortable if they have a buddy family whose house is fancy."
There's other tricky areas to navigate.
"We don't talk politics and don't talk religion until you really know each other," Katz said. "Most of our patients have guns, they love to hunt. This is not the culture in Los Angeles."
But Katz said over the patients' multiple visits to L.A., they bond with their buddy families, who keep them company in a city where many are friendless, and help to monitor their recovery from surgery.
"People outside of Los Angeles in the military don't think we care about them," Katz said. "So they come here and then they go home and they say wow, you know what? The country does care about us. Those people in Hollywood, in Beverly Hills, they care about us."
In turn, military members share war experiences that families living in L.A. only read about. Over dinner at an upscale Italian restaurant near UCLA, Del Toro tells the Schwimmers about the hand surgeries he's in town for. He's missing fingers on both hands.
"They're going to cut deeper into here to give me fingers and straighten out these two, the index finger, and the middle finger and straighten them out and pin them," said Del Toro. "That's going to give more of a space so I can grab onto a glass."
Shrinking military, shrinking connections to the public
Being able to get to know a veteran is becoming less common. The U.S. armed forces have shrunk in the 40 years since the end of the military draft. So have the connections between the military and the public.
D'vera Cohn of the Pew Research Center said a 2011 survey found three-quarters of Americans over 50 have had a relative in the military.
But, "only a third of adults under age 30 do so, so it's maybe that people who don't have a family connection to the military would be less likely to have an understanding of the issues that people in the military face," Cohn said.
Some politicians worry decreasing exposure to the military means future generations will be less apt to join it, or advocate for it. Still, others, such as Michael O' Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, are more troubled that a tiny portion of the population is doing the fighting for the other 99 percent.
"What you have is an all-volunteer force lot with lots of individuals doing two and three, four tours while most of the rest of us, including yours truly, and that's the hard part," O'Hanlon said.
A "Star Wars" age
Thing is, Del Toro says he would deploy again if the military would let him. In 2010, he re-enlisted in the Air Force, the first 100 percent disabled airman to do so. In the audience was Michael Schwimmer.
Three years later, over dinner, Del Toro was telling Schwimmer about his job training new Air Force recruits at Lackland Air Force Base outside San Antonio. He also competes in the Paralympics, throwing the javelin, discus and shot put. But what he wouldn't give for new fingers. Schwimmer, who doesn't see out of his left eye, nodded.
"It's the same with the eye, still can't do an eye transplant," Schwimmer said.
Del Toro joked, "Until we get to the 'Star Wars' age, then I can be like Darth Vader."
Del Toro breathes heavily for effect, as Schwimmer laughed. Sometimes you find common ground where you least expect it.
What do new US patent laws mean for inventors?
If you were to invent a viable alternative to an e-book, you might want to patent it. For the past 200 years, that patent filing process has remained pretty much unchanged, but this Saturday the system is shifting from first to invent to first to file.
Even though patent law doesn't sound like the most exciting topic, it will undoubtedly change how you protect your next life changing billion dollar invention.
Eric Talley, professor of law and the faculty co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law Business and the Economy, joins the show with more.
How much should authors get from used ebook sales?
It's a brave new world, and we're not talking about the Aldous Huxley novel. How much authors should get off of used eBooks is up in the air, and Take Two examines how the digital world is affecting the publishing world.
We’ll speak with Jenny Shank who wrote about this topic for PBS's MediaShift blog.
President Enrique Peña Nieto moves to reform Mexican telecom industry
President Enrique Peña Nieto on Monday touted proposed new reforms to boost competition in Mexico's highly concentrated telecommunications sector, moves that could weaken the influence of billionaire Carlos Slim and television giant Televisa.
We’ll speak with Tim Johnson, the Mexico City bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers.
In the shadow of SXSW, Austin's other fest explores Mexican-American music
Can't get a ticket to one of the hundreds of bands at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas? Well, it's not the only music fest in town. The 3rd annual Mexican-American Experience kicks off today, and and just like SXSW, the two-day event brings together acts from all over the world.
Organizer Leonard Davila admits, "We're the chihuahua and they're the pit bull in this town." Regardless, last year's fest drew thousands of music lovers.
Davila joined A Martinez to talk about some of the can't-miss acts, and the trouble with getting attention when SXSW is drawing much of the hype.
Listen to a sampling of some of this year's performers:
Mariachi Los Toros:
Joe Posada:
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Mariachi las Tejanitas: