A look inside the Sanders rally and at what California means to each candidate, dual language school options, the rise and business of fertility apps.
Dems come to SoCal: Sanders rallies in K-Town, Clinton raises cash in Santa Monica
Democratic presidential candidates converged on California this week.
Hillary Clinton was in Silicon Valley Wednesday, speaking at Stanford University and raising money. She attends fundraisers in Santa Monica and Hollywood today.
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders rallied in San Diego before coming to the City of Angels Wednesday for a slightly more intimate event at The Wiltern in Koreatown.
Michelle Manos is a founding member of the new Bernie Sanders Los Angeles Volunteer Office. She was at the event and set the scene for Take Two.
I understand there was a bit of a ticket fiasco heading into the evening. What happened?
“Late the night before the rally, LA Weekly announced the rally was going to happen … There were only supposed to be a limited number of tickets issued and [there] must have been some kind of glitch in the issuing of the tickets because there were unlimited tickets issued. Yesterday morning, many people got emails saying their tickets were canceled. All over social media, people started saying, 'well, I’m going to go anyway and see if I can get in.' The crowd was massive; the line snaked around the entire block, and they changed it [to] a first-come-first-served event.”
Did Sanders speak to the importance of California for him?
“Absolutely. He mentioned that it’s clear now that California is going to be a major player in this election and that we need to try to deliver as many delegates to him as we can. One line that I loved was, ‘for Bernie Sanders, the road to the White House goes right through California' — another big applause line.”
Did Sanders speak to the issues we’re facing in the state?
“He did. I’m sure you know that he’s been continuing to speak about the Flint water crisis … and he did parlay that into the drought and the unique water issues that we face here in the west. And he mentioned that we need to come together as a country to support what’s going on out here in the west and try to figure out the best way to move forward and solve some of these problems we’re experiencing.”
For Bernie Sanders, the road to the White House runs straight through California, but the Golden State may also be a critical clinch for Hillary Clinton if she wants to squeeze Sanders out of the race.
Thad Kousser, professor of political science at UC San Diego, says a Sanders win in California would be a historic political comeback, but he adds that Sanders may be after more than delegates at this stage in the race.
“I think what he’s trying to do is continue to run a very strong second in case something happens with Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has pretty high negatives nationally, [as well as within] his very liberal and very young base, so he’s just waiting for her to stumble through a scandal, more emails, an indictment — that would be his road to the White House.”
Press the blue play button above to hear the interviews.
7 things to know about dual-language schools in LA
This week on Take Two, we've been talking through the various school options here in Southern California.
Today, we're tackling dual-language schools.
If you speak another language at home, or would love for your child to be able to converse in French, Mandarin or Spanish, these campuses, also known as two-way immersion schools, could be a great option.
Southern California Public Radio's Early Childhood Education correspondent Deepa Fernandes shared a variety of viewpoints on dual language learning, and here are a few of them:
Everything is taught in the language of that school. Whatever you would normally do in a kindergarten day (or in a traditional kindergarten day), you’ll could be doing completely if the school is a 90-10 model. That means 90 percent of the teaching will be done in the immersion language, which won’t be English … it could be Spanish, Mandarin, or something else.
The amount of dual language schools in Southern California numbers in the hundreds, and that number is growing. School districts each year are announcing new programs. Most of them are in Spanish, but programs in Mandarin, Korean, German and even Vietnamese are starting to be established.
There are different approaches to immersion. One is the aforementioned 90-10 model, but there’s also a 50-50 model where half of the learning day is in English, and the other is in the target language.
Research has pointed to a variety of benefits, especially when it comes to the cognitive benefits to the executive function — this doesn’t mean one becomes simply smarter, but could be more adept at mentally switching from one thing to the other. There’s also research pointing to the social benefits of biligualism, such as honing the ability to understand intent.
In public schools, if your school district has open enrollment, you can likely go to any campus and find a dual language program. One thing to note — because of the growth in popularity, there are now more parents than ever who want in. Some have even moved to be closer to a dual language program. This means waiting lists.
If you’re trying to pick a program, ask if there are two teachers, or a teacher and an aide, who are fluent, native in the target language. That way, children can see how the language is applied in conversation.
Be prepared for some extra commitment. This kind of learning can call for more involvement to see if your child is on track.
Series: Good Schools
As part of its Good Schools series, Take Two looks at the education landscape in the Los Angeles area. That includes its public schools, magnets, charters, private institutions and dual-language programs. You’ll hear from parents, academics, teachers, kids and even a couple of TV show producers.
Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts on Facebook, or tweet us
and
with the hashtag #goodschools.
Fertility apps are changing how women understand their bodies
Seems like there's an app for just about everything these days, especially in the world of health.
Apps can help you track your calories, workouts, your heart rate, and these days a mobile phone can also be a staunch ally in tracking a woman's fertility.
Moira Weigel wrote about this for The Guardian. Her piece is titled "Fitbit for your period: The rise of Fertility Tracking."
She joins Alex Cohen for a conversation on why fertility apps have become so popular and whether they're scientifically sound.
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio link embedded at the top of the post.
The Wheel Thing: 6 months later, no fix in VW emissions scandal
Today was supposed to be D-Day for VW. A federal judge set a March 24th deadline for the auto maker to present a plan to fix the some 600,000 diesel-powered cars it sold in the US with so-called defeat devices.
Last fall, Volkswagen admitted it had used a software cheat that only kicked in pollution controls when vehicles were in test situations. Out on the open road, cars powered by VW's TDI diesel actually produced up to 40 times the allowable level of some pollutants.
This morning, lawyers for the company met with US District Judge Charles Bryer. He's handling a consolidated case that includes hundreds of plantiffs suing Volkswagen, as well as suits filed by the government. Bryer gave the automaker one more month to craft a solution. He said there was evidence VW had made progress, but he tempered his patience with a threat – have a concrete plan in place by April 21, or he would order the case to trial.
Both the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board have rejected previous fixes offered by Volkswagen. And legal and technical observers differ on how, and even if VW can modify its diesels to comply with US pollution standards. Some believe the company will have to buy back some or all of the vehicles. Others say fixes could be achieved, but that they will come at the price of a cut in performance, fuel efficiency or both.
Most agree whatever the outcome, the dollar cost to Volkswagen will be in the billions. Meanwhile, most of the 600,000 cars with defeat devices are still tooling around on US roads, belching pollutants and occupied by owners who are very likely very unhappy with their cars, and with Volkswagen.
Jay and Mark Duplass on the origins of the LA schools storyline on 'Togetherness'
The show "Togetherness" on HBO centers on the characters Brett and Michelle Pierson, two L.A. parents working through a bit of a rough patch in their marriage.
Brett's best friend Alex and Michelle's sister Tina round out the cast of characters who are all in some way unhappy with the current state of their lives and on a mission to change things.
Dissatisfied with the choice of schools available to her, mom Michelle is inspired to join a movement looking to start a charter school:
Brothers Mark and Jay Duplass are the executive directors of "Togetherness," and Mark plays the character Brett in the show.
In some ways the show is a bit of art imitating life— like Brett Pierson, both Duplass brothers work in the entertainment industry. Both are parents, living in L.A., and they've struggled with school choices.
They joined Take Two to discuss the inspiration behind the school choice storyline just before the launch of season 2.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Where you ever concerned that this storyline would hit too close to home?
Jay Duplass: We didn't really have any trepidation about sharing our lives, I mean pretty much everything that happens in the show is a thing that's happened to someone that we know. If anything, it kind of motivates us and inspires us to make the show because when you know it's real it just gives you the material and the courage to come out with the specific details of the pains and the joys and the tragedies and the comedies of your life.
How did you come up with the idea to tackle the school choice storyline on the show? And how was it influenced by the setting of Los Angeles?
Mark Duplass: Finding a good school for your kids is obviously important to everybody, but it's very specific depending on where you live. And I think for us, in Los Angeles, particularly on the east side of LA, you've got a lot of people who don't quite feel comfortable in this large city, and they kind of have one foot in and one foot out. And what we find amongst ourselves and our peers is you're trying to establish a sense of community that's meaningful inside of this massive metropolis that makes you feel a little only and isolated.
So I think Michelle's quest to find the right school for her children is also a quest for herself to be a part of a community of people that she can see in the neighborhood and know their names and feel comfortable sending her kids to their home. And longing for that sense of a small community that quite frankly Jay and I had growing up in the suburbs of New Orleans where we knew everyone. And that to us is very very specific to where we live.
How did your own experience with L.A. schools fit into this arc in the show?
Mark Duplass: I think the way that it struck us is like, there's three or four public schools in your neighborhood, two of which are awesome, one of which is not so great and one of which kind of sucks, is what it comes down to. And depending on what street you live on you get a little lucky or not. We happened to be in a place where like we didn't really score with the street we were living on and we faced some similar issues that Michelle faces about like how can we educate our children but not put them in a place where it's going to feel like just you know a unilateral cultural or financial group of people that is just not reflective of the world. And it's impossible to get right, so we felt like it was fun to kind of put it in the show.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue player above.
Series: Good Schools
As part of its Good Schools series, Take Two looks at the education landscape in the Los Angeles area. That includes its public schools, magnets, charters, private institutions and dual-language programs. You’ll hear from parents, academics, teachers, kids and even a couple of TV show producers.
Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts on Facebook, or tweet us
and
with the hashtag #goodschools.
State of Affairs: Clinton and Sanders in CA, Brussels attacks, and the minimum wage
On this week's State of Affairs, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaign in CA, the presidential candidates respond to the Brussels attacks, and an initiative to raise the minimum wage qualifies for the November ballot.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- , POLITICO's California Playbook reporter
- , senior political writer at The San Francisco Chronicle