President Obama makes an appearance on Spanish-language TV, and the latest in immigration news; Critics protest Obama's "protection" of Monsanto; A Judge rules that private Manson tapes can be released to authorities; Derek Cianfrance joins the show to talk about "The Place Beyond The Pines," plus much more.
Immigration news: Obama on Univision, Don Young's racial slur, and more
From the use of a racial slur to a trip to the border to appearances by the President on Spanish language tv, it's been an interesting week in immigration issues. For more we're joined by Fawn Johnson, who covers immigration for the National Journal.
President Obama on Univision:
Critics protest President Obama's 'protection' of Monsanto
On Tuesday, President Obama signed into a law the spending bill Congress had approved last Friday, but his swipe of the pen sparked protests outside the White House.
Part of the reason for the clamor was a provision that protects agricultural biotech firms, like Monsanto, from lawsuits over possible health risks posed by crops that started as GMO, or genetically engineered seeds. Opponents have gone as far as calling the bill the Monsanto Protection Act.
Some groups like the Center for Food Safety have directed their anger toward Congress for approving a bill including language that did not get reviewed by agricultural or judicial committees.
Here to explain is Bill Lambrecht, the Washington bureau chief for the St Louis Post-Dispatch. He's also the author of, "Dinner at the New Gene Cafe: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food."
Friday Flashback: Prop 8, DOMA, gun control and more
We'll talk about the week that was with our regular political roundtables. On tap this week, the Heidi Moore with The Guardian and James Rainey from the Los Angeles Times.
Pitchess Detention Center has its first graduation ceremony
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department marked a milestone Thursday, the first time the facility has had enough participants in educational programs to stage a graduation ceremony.
For many of the 59 men completing 12-week programs in things like computer training and art, it was their first time experiencing the classic graduation ceremony: music, inside jokes that only the students understand, and of course, walking across stage to receive a certificate.
"Actually, it meant a lot," said Mario Munoz, graduating from computer class. "It kind of feels good. I'm proud of myself."
Munoz, 20, says he was in and out of juvenile halls and jails throughout his teens. When he was in the general population in places like Twin Towers, Munoz says, he was doing what most jail inmates do: "pretty much, you'd just be in your boxers, watch t.v., you play card games, you tell your little war stories. It's a waste of time."
Transferring to Pitchess, he was put in a dorm that's exclusively men participating in educational programming, and Munoz said it feels completely different.
"We try to keep it as respectful as we can," Munoz said. "You bump into somebody, you say 'excuse me,' little respectful things you just got to have in mind."
If L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca has his way, the entire jail system will someday look like these educational wings—it's the cornerstone of Baca's philosophy of jailing.
For the 150 years or so that the sheriff's department has been responsible for incarcerating people in Los Angeles County, said program Director Brant Choate, that philosophy has changed.
"We’ve had chain gangs, we’ve had honor ranches, we’ve had maximum security facilities," he said. "And now, we have EBI.
Currently, such programs are up and running in each jail, with over 40 percent of the jail population participating in some manner.
James Beard, a life skills instructor at Pitchess, says that's unusual for a jail system.
"It's unheard of," he said.
That's because it's typically difficult to start programs in jails, which have highly fluctuating populations. But as more inmates are serving longer sentences in jails, there's more and more interest in finding positive ways for them to spend their time.
Jesse Mejia is in on a 17-month sentence. He said when sheriff's deputies approached him about taking classes, he said yes, but only because he thought he’d get access to paper and pencils, and other things that are coveted behind bars.
“I was thinking of ways to manipulate the system to get free things so I could sell it, make it through here and whatnot," Mejia said.
Mejia says at first, he didn’t adapt well to the full day of classes, sitting still, and taking directions from deputies. But he says he realized he couldn’t just sit around wasting years behind bars.
“To be able to learn something and accomplish something daily is another important thing to me," Mejia said. "And this place has helped me to realize that.”
Mejia gest out in May. He says he’s "a little nervous" about getting out, with no job and no place to live lined up. But, he says he’s sure that this time, he’s not coming back.
Director Derek Cianfrance on 'The Place Beyond The Pines'
The Place Beyond the Pines, stars Ryan Gosling as Luke, a wandering soul who makes his living performing motorcycle tricks at a traveling carnival. How Gosling's character chooses to take care of a newly discovered family and how those choices affect the lives of others is the basis of the film.
We’ll speak to Derek Cianfrance who is the writer and director.
Judge rules that police can access private Charles Manson tapes
Charles Manson and several of his followers were found guilty in the murder of seven people more than four decades ago, but now there could be some new information in the case.
L.A. police detectives might soon be able to review the audio of taped conversations between Manson follower Charles "Tex" Watson and his attorney. The judge ruled that Watson waived his attorney-client privileges when he allowed the private tapes to be sold to a writer.
For more on these tapes and what they could reveal, we're joined now by Richard Winton (@LACrimes) with the L.A. Times.
Eaton Canyon: Teen deaths highlight dangers of going off trail near waterfalls (MAP)
The latest death of a hiker in Eaton Canyon has again raised the issue of how dangerous it is in parts of this popular Angeles National Forest destination, situated above Pasadena and Altadena. (See map at the end of this story.)
In particular, hikers ignore warning signs and go off the official trail to climb the canyon's crumbling walls in search of the picturesque second waterfall, enticed by YouTube videos and social media accounts. Official warnings don't seem to dissuade hikers. But they can find themselves stranded. Or worse.
A week ago, 17-year-old Esther Suen of Alhambra fell to her death while hiking there. She was the fifth person to die in Eaton Canyon in the past two years.
Natalie Lindeman, 17, was one of those who learned the hard way about the canyon's perils. While on a first date last summer, she and her companion headed to the canyon's first waterfall. An older hiker coming down the trail told them of a second waterfall, and pointed the way up the cliffs.
Lindeman thought: "We’re athletic, we’re good hikers, we’re wearing Converse, but we can handle it, you know?"
RELATED: After teen's death, hikers say popular trail should have better warnings
It’s a steep scramble up the shale. Lindeman says in one spot, past hikers have tied a rope into a tree. It’s the only way to drop into the second waterfall’s quieter, deeper pool. Lindeman says going off trail appealed to her and other teenagers for a simple reason: "We don’t want to be with everyone else."
The way back down was tortuous. Her face pressed against the rock, her hands up by her face, Lindeman reached out with one foot – and missed. She remembers her date’s eyes, and his scream.
"When I woke up on the canyon floor I had to figure out if it was as dream or not," she says. "Because it was really, really beautiful, and we were the only ones up there."
Lindeman was lucky. She only broke her back, but she survived.
Mike McIntyre is the U.S. Forest Service ranger for this part of the national forest. He says he’s never hiked to the second water fall, "but I’ve seen the goat paths that people choose to use, and it’s amazing that people think this path is safe to use."
In warm weather, authorities have to rescue someone from the second waterfall almost every weekend. The Forest Service has placed several warning signs, but McIntyre says it’s up to hikers to be prepared and stay safe.
"If we signed every point in because we’re a wildland area, all you would see is signs," he says.
McIntyre says more people have been drawn to the second waterfall by videos on YouTube and social media. So last year, L.A. County and the Forest Service put a public service announcement on YouTube.
"You may have heard of trails leading to mountaintop waterfalls," says the PSA. "The truth is, there is no safe trail to the second waterfall. You put yourself in danger and the rescuers in danger who are responsible for rescuing you." (Story continues below video window.)
One of those rescuers is Rod Kubly with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Air 5 team. He says it’s not just Eaton Canyon that has gone viral.
"I’ve seen different hotspots," he says. Several years will go by without a rescue call, "and all of a sudden we get seven or eight rescue calls in a short period of time."
Kubly grew up in the foothills below the national forest. He says that gave him a respect for the backcountry and its risks. He believes education about hazards can change people’s choices.
Natalie Lindeman isn’t sure she agrees. She loves hiking. She loves the boy she went on that first date with. She knows she ran a risk. She says that’s part of life.
"You can’t decide if you’re going to run into that hiker," she says. "And you can’t decide if you’re going to slip and you can’t decide if you’re going to fall in love. And you have to just go to beautiful places and do things that are fun and be as alive as you can for however long you have."
Six weeks after her fall, Lindeman went back to Eaton Canyon with her boyfriend and her father – this time inside a hard plastic brace. A group of guys approached them and asked the way to the second waterfall.
"My dad got so upset with them – 'You can’t go up there, look at her, this is what happened, she fell 100 feet, it's so dangerous, and you’re not going to make it, you’ll get hurt.' And they were still like, 'Do you know how to get up there?'" she said.
Lindemann, her dad and her boyfriend refused to tell the other hikers the way to the second waterfall. But she says they went off the trail and up towards it anyway.
Do you hike Eaton Canyon? Do you think officials have done enough to keep it safe? Or do you think more can be done? Let us know in the comment section.
Trail map
Follow the red path from the trailhead at the parking lot of the Eaton Canyon Natural Center, through the Angeles National Forest to the waterfall. The colored map areas indicate city and park jurisdictions, from the Eaton Canyon Natural Area park, Angeles National Forest, city of Pasadena and the unincorporated Los Angeles county area of Altadena. The trail path is a general outline, not an exact route.
| Trail | Eaton Canyon Natural Area | Angeles National Forest | City of Pasadena | Unincorporated county area |
Sources: LA County GIS Data Portal (municipalities and forest boundaries), LA County Office of Parks and Recreation (Jeremy Bok, landscape architect associate), ColorBrewer.org
View Trail to waterfall at Eaton Canyon in a larger map
One man's quest to get off Nevada's Black Book banned list
In Las Vegas, plenty of people are trying to get on one list or another, at clubs, bars, restaurants and the like. But one list that no one wants to be on is the so-called "Black Book."
It's an actual list of people blacklisted by Las Vegas casinos, and being on that list means you can't own, manage or even frequent a casino in the state. The only way to get off the list is to die, but one man is trying what's never been done before: get his name removed before he leaves this mortal coil.
Frank Citro, Jr. is 68, and has been on the blacklist for 23 years after being convicted of bookmaking and loan sharking in California and Las Vegas. He served two years in prison and has stayed out of trouble ever since. He's even no longer on probation.
Las Vegas bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, John Glionna, wrote a column about Citro.
Charles Phoenix's guide to a California Easter celebration
This weekend there will be Easter celebrations throughout Los Angeles, from the Blessing of the Animals at Olvera Street and an egg hunt for kids at the the LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Plus, there are Easter Sunday services at LA Live and the Hollywood Bowl.
But if you are looking some other ways to celebrate with a little southern California flair, oh, have we got suggestions for you!
Charles Phoenix's Easter Meatloaf of Lamb:
The great Red Car conspiracy of Los Angeles: Is it real?
Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the end of all streetcars in L.A., including the Red Car transit system, which ran on 1,100 miles of track. The story that most people believe about the end of the Red Car is that a car company bought it, dismantled it, and forced a dependency on freeways. But that isn't entirely accurate.
Roman Mars and Eric Molinsky of 99% Invisible tell the real story about what happened to L.A.'s Red Car system.
Ride the last Red Car, Los Angeles, April 1961:
California craft distilleries want to offer tastings, sales on site, like breweries and wineries
Greenbar Collective is the first distillery to open up shop in Los Angeles since Prohibition. In an old warehouse on the outskirts of downtown, owner Melkon Khosrovian oversees the production of a range of hand-crafted spirits – all made from locally sourced organic ingredients.
“Our lemon vodka, like many of the spirits here is painfully handmade. We buy lemons from local farms. Right now we’re pulling lemons from Malibu. Then we hand zest 2,000 whole lemons."
But the average customer coming in to take a tour cannot taste it.
In California, distilleries like Greenbar are not allowed to offer paid tastings or sell bottles of their products on site. California is part of a tiny minority of four states that have such laws on the books.
The reason goes way back to the Prohibition era. When the ban was repealed in 1933, many states tried to limit the power of big liquor companies by instituting strict separations between producers, like Greenbar, wholesalers that distribute alcohol and retailers that sell it.
But there are some pretty big exceptions to the law. Just blocks away at Angel City Brewery – the tap room was buzzing on a Saturday afternoon. Breweries and wineries in California managed to get exemptions and have been selling on site for decades.
Angel City brewmaster John Carpenter said that business has been crucial to the success of the craft beer movement.
“It’s really nice for us to not only make it here but when somebody comes here to take a tour and see the equipment and meet the people who make, at the end to be able to share with them exactly what they’re taking a tour of," he said.
Now California’s craft distillers are trying to get a piece of the action.
“We just want the same privileges that wineries and breweries currently have and that about 350 distillers in other states currently have. That’s all," said Arthur Hartunian, the president of the California Artisanal Distillers Guild.
Last month the organization successfully lobbied to get a bill introduced in the state Assembly that would change the law. AB 933, as it’s known, would allow distilleries to charge for tastings if it passes, but it stops short of allowing them to sell bottles of their product.
The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of California object to the idea of distillers selling directly to consumers and they’ve got some influence to back that up. Over the last four years, their lobby has contributed almost $600,000 to Sacramento lawmakers.
But Hartounian stresses – the distributors have nothing to fear from craft distillers.
“We want distributors, we need distributors. I certainly don’t expect anybody to back up a truck and buy a pallet of vodka from my facility. It’s not about that. We are not liquor stores, we are artisans who simply want the chance to showcase our product in the marketplace.”
Hartounian’s lobbyist will continue to work with the distributors to try to craft a bill that everyone can agree to before it heads to a hearing in mid-April.
Meanwhile back at Greenbar distillery, Melkon Khosrovian is hopeful things will go his way. He's already built a swanky post-industrial tasting room at the location.
"I have built it if only they will come.”