The buzz from Washington DC on today's vote on the GOP healthcare replacement, Senator Kamala Harris on the issues facing Californians, weed wine tasting parties.
As a House vote approaches, parsing the high stakes of passing the American Health Care Act
Republicans are inching their way toward a House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
And these final hours have become a high stakes game of political chess to pass the Trump Administration's new health care bill, which has been criticized as "Obamacare lite."
But what concessions is the White House making to unite conservatives on the Hill?
POLITICO's health care editor, Adriel Bettleheim spoke to A Martinez about the moving story.
Click the blue player above to hear the full interview.
California Senator Kamala Harris on health care, the national budget, and investigating Russian election interference
It's been just over 4 months since California voters elected former Attorney General Kamala Harris as US Senator. Since then, there's been little time for rest.
Harris serves on four senate committees, including two that have been working overtime. The Intelligence committee has probing allegations of Russian influence in last year's election. And the Budget committee has been going through President Trump's spending proposal which cuts a number of programs dear to many Californian's, including environmental protections.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Senator Harris about how she's taking on the big issues in Washington DC.
Is there one thing within the budget that you're determined to change?
Unfortunately there's not just a number one fix in terms of the items. There are many. For example, after school funding. I want to make sure that we have sufficient after school funding so we can take care of our California's children. I want to make sure Meals on Wheels is not cut in that budget. But we need to completely overhaul what has been submitted. So unfortunately, it's so significant, that there can't be a piecemeal approach if we want to ensure the public health and frankly, the safety of especially vulnerable Californians.
How would you specifically try and overhaul the budget?
The way that we would overhaul it is one, send it back and require a budget that actually is much more in tune with the practical needs. But the other is to create our own budget. I know there's some talk about doing that. And I'm on the budget committee.
If the Affordable Care Act is repealed and replaced with the GOP's plan, the American Health Care Act, how will you respond?
I frankly think that the Republican plan to repeal the ACA is a values statement. And the statement they're making is that they believe that health care is not a right. They think it's a privilege only rich people can have access to. And that's a fundamental problem. When I look at the impact on California, I know it's going to... jeopardize the health of 5 million Californians, but to put it in perspective, we're talking about large numbers of Californians that are also going to lose Medicaid funding and Medicare. One in two California children is supported by Medicaid.
What we're trying to do is basically defeat their attempt to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. It's been interesting to see that as the proponents of this plan that's being floated, as they go home to their districts, they're finding that their constituents are completely unhappy with this proposal. I think that the unfortunate reality is that a lot of the folks playing politics with our public health said they were going to defeat this thing and they were going to get rid of it. They were going to repeal it and by goodness, they're going to get it done. But they're not paying attention to the harm that their political campaign and their political promise will cause their constituents.
How do you advance the cause of California when President Trump has said the state is "out of control"?
I actually met with the governor in my office yesterday so, he and I had a good amount of time to catch up and check in about we can continue to collaborate to make sure California gets its fair share.
There are a number of issues I've been thinking about. For example, I'm on the Environmental Public Works Committee and one of the issues that I'm focused on there is infrastructure and highlighting California's infrastructure needs as it relates to water, but also as it relates to transportation. The president has said that infrastructure is a priority for him so we actually have submitted a proposal for what the infrastructure plan for the country should look like. I'm pleased to tell you that it is a collection of California mayors in particular who helped me submit our thoughts for what that infrastructure plan should be. That's an example of what we can do to make sure that California gets its fair share.
I'm now living in Los Angeles and I can tell you, spending hours on the freeway of Southern California– I think anybody who does that knows that we have real transportation needs.
You tweeted "Americans deserve the full truth about Russia's ties to the Trump campaign". How do you get to the bottom of that?
First, let me just say that on the issue of Russia, I think there's no question that we have to think about the importance and the significance of Russia's role in our election. I take my role on the Senate Intelligence Committee very seriously. The American people deserve to have the truth when it comes to the concern that Russia tampered with our elections and our democratic process. These committees have a role to play. I'm asking a lot of tough questions. I think that the United States Department of Justice needs to appoint a truly independent special counsel to oversee the FBI investigation. The American public has to have some transparency in this system and that there be accountability. As a career prosecutor, I feel so strongly about that so we're doing the work that needs to be done here to make sure that that happens.
Is Twitter an effective way to take on your political opponents and their policies?
Twitter is on effective way but there are so many. But I do believe that communication is critical. I want to do everything I can to share with Californians anything I can about what's going on in Washington DC so that people know what's going on. Then they can have some say in what's going on.
We've got a pretty robust, thriving and very active offices in California. There's one right downtown in LA. We've been doing a lot of interesting and exciting work including after the Muslim ban came out, a bunch of my staff went to LAX to make sure that those refugee families were getting the support they needed. And I get letters every day that I read. All of that is about just keeping an open flow of communication.
Does California need to take a more active role in challenging the Trump administration's travel bans?
I think California is taking a role of leadership. California recently joined a lawsuit on the ban and I thought that was the right and smart thing to do. We have an outside stake in the outcome of these issues. We have the largest number of immigrants documented and undocumented of any state in the country. California does.
I can certainly look at the work that we're doing in terms of holding the folks in DC accountable. These executive orders is a part of that.
To listen to this interview, click on the blue media player above.
HighQ: Should California's pot industry look more or less like the alcohol industry?
Across the state of California right now, there are debates going on about how to regulate the legal marijuana industry. Cities, counties and the state are all deciding what standards to set and how the industry should operate. One of those debates: how pot gets from farm to table.
The Sacramento Bee details fighting between the Teamsters, marijuana industry groups and other labor groups over whether the marijuana industry should follow the independent distribution model the alcohol industry follows.
The debate is over the licensing system. Marijuana industry groups want those who grow to be able to distribute and sell, while the Teamsters and other labor groups want the model to follow the alcohol industry, carving out licenses that can be given to companies whose sole responsibility is distribution.
This debate came about because state regulators are trying to figure out how to combine previously passed medical marijuana laws with those that were put in place after voters passed Proposition 64 in November. Whether we'll see an independent distribution model or one that allows growers to move their own cannabis is unclear.
The expected deadline for these regulations and others is January 2018, but according to Rebecca Forée, communications manager with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, we can expect to start seeing draft regulations starting in early spring.
Series: HighQ: Your California pot questions answered
This story is part of Take Two's look at California's burgeoning marijuana industry, with audience Q&As, explorations of personal narratives and an examination of how cannabis is changing the state.
Read more in this series, call or text us your questions at (929) 344-1948 or
How the Newport-Inglewood fault-line could be worse than the San Andreas... at least for Los Angeles
Everybody's heard of the San Andreas fault, but there may be one that's even more dangerous: the Newport-Inglewood fault line, and it could affect anyone living West of downtown L.A.
The fault was the subject of a new study by UC Riverside's Robert Leeper. He spent nine years with the U.S. Geological Survey. He began by analyzing tsunamis. But, he told Take Two's A Martinez, that eventually led him to earthquakes.
"We started working in a number of California coastal wetlands looking for evidence of ancient tsunamis. Seal beach was one of the wetlands we were working in. The sediment that we saw in Seal Beach was completely different than the sediment we saw in the other California coastal wetlands."
"Buried beneath the Salt Marsh was these vegetation layers that extended across the wetlands. We saw them occurring at three distinct wetlands withing the seal beach salt marsh. Through a set of analysis, we identified that these organic-rich vegetation layers were actually old salt marsh surfaces that subsided or dropped abruptly during a large earthquake on the Newport/Inglewood fault."
On where this fault line lies
"The Newport/Inglewood fault in LA area extends from Beverly Hills, all the way down from Newport beach to the San Diego region. So a magnitude 7.5 earthquake means that the entire region from San Diego to Beverly Hills would experience heavy shaking during this earthquake. Compound that now with the new seismic hazard of the Seal Beach wetlands area, that dropping of the wetlands, it would be a massive earthquake that really would affect Southern California."
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
La Bestia: Art exhibit focuses on train that transports migrants in Mexico
They call it "La Bestia-The Beast." It’s a cargo train that starts at the southern end of the Mexico and ends on the US-Mexico border. For more than a decade, "La Bestia" has been the main transportation for Central American migrants, coming to the U.S. “MONTARlaBestia,” or “To Climb the Beast,” a new exhibit at USC’s Fisher Museum addresses the plight of the migrants, through visual art and poetry.
Mexican poet Mardonio Carballo wrote a poem for the exhibit of the same name, "Montar la Bestia" (Mounting the Beast):
In Oaxaca a leg was left behind, Its owner is in Veracruz.
His bleeding stump bites, It’s not the scab that bites
But the leg rotting by the side of the tracks, taking one of the many beasts passing through...
MONTARlaBestia was created in Mexico City by a collective called "Artists Against Discrimination." Carballo says the main goal of the artist collective is to fight against discrimination in Mexico. First, it was a fight against indigenous language discrimination, through a successful lawsuit against the Mexican government. Now, the Artist Collective is defending immigrants.
“We thought about it and it seems to us, all the blame is put on those who arrive, the one who is different, the one who comes from another place," says Carballo. "So we wanted to do a reflection from an art point of view, about this theme."
That’s how MONTARlaBestia was born.
The collective is made up of about a hundred visual artists and poets from across Mexico. Carballo reached out to poets and his colleague, painter Demián Flores invited visual artists.
“I think art raises questions," Flores explains, "not give answers, and what we’re trying to do with this exhibition is to open up the questions, and from these questions get people to reflect upon this conflict that exists."
The visual pieces of MONTARlaBestia run connected from wall to wall, like cars on a train. The paintings are enhanced by poetry in Spanish and several indigenous languages, installed under each piece. There are images of desolation in the desert, trains covered with U.S. dollar bills, and scenes of violence.
Selma Holo is the director of the USC Fisher Museum of Art. She learned about the exhibition when she was in Mexico City giving a talk, six months ago. She was convinced it should be seen in Los Angeles.
“This train is so dangerous, it’s such a risk to go on it," Holo says. "Most people get hurt in some way on it. They lose a leg, they get robbed, they get raped, terrible things happen to them, as they struggle to get up here."
She continues, "For me, the whole reason for doing MONTARlaBestia is to try to create a sense of empathy in the people who see MONTARlaBestia, to try to understand that these are human beings who simply are trying to improve their lives and for us to see them as fellow human beings.”
Many of those who make the journey on “La Bestia” are children fleeing violence in Central America.
“And if they're lucky enough to survive that trip, what a lot of people don’t know is they find themselves in immigration court defending themselves without the help of a lawyer, trying to make the argument that they have a right to stay," says Hector Villagra, executive director of Southern California’s ACLU. "And the United Nations has actually estimated that maybe 40 or 50 percent of these kids could have a right to some relief, but there’s no way that these kids will ever be able to make that case without the assistance of a lawyer.”
Curator Marco Barrera says it’s especially meaningful for the Artists Collective showing the exhibit for the first time in the US, here in Los Angeles.
“It’s a gesture of gratitude to a city like Los Angeles that is learning how to be a sanctuary of something that at one point it rejected, immigration, and is now finally accepting and understanding the importance of immigration and of Latinos that helped to build and contribute to this state, the seventh power in the world. California would not be what it is without immigrants,” Barrera says.
Museum director Selma Holo is helping to place the exhibition in other cities across the U.S., including Washington D.C.
“My hope is that it does have a trail and that we will be able to follow behind it, and that it will lead us forward into a deeper and more profound humanity,” Holo says.
MONTARlaBestia runs thru April 8th at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. Proceeds from the sale of the art catalog benefit organizations that help migrants along the route of the cargo train, also known as the "Train of Death."