One week out, we'll take a look at the status of the race for Los Angeles Mayor and find out how difficult it is to run a city as large as LA; California health exchange to hand out millions in outreach grants; Some in California want tougher gun background checks; LA's housing market tightens as number of available homes drop; Design school publishes anti-gun violence children’s books; Report: College may not be a smart investment for everyone, plus much more.
LA Mayor's Race: Which candidate can run the city efficiently?
With just a week left, LA Mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel are in the home stretch of this election and they were criss-crossing the city again this weekend. For an update on the race we're joined in studio by our senior politics reporter Alice Walton and editor Oscar Garza.
Then, underscoring all the debate in the mayor's race has been one central question: Which candidate will do a better job of running the city efficiently?
And it's a big city, with almost 4,800 employees and an annual payroll that's well over $4 billion.
KPCC's Steve Proffitt has been looking at some metrics that help illustrate how Los Angeles compares to other California cities when it comes to efficiency.
Refugee escapes North Korea for a new life in California
For decades, North Korea has been known for its bold political statements and illicit military operations. But it’s also known for their human rights violations. Grassroots organizations like Liberty in North Korea help refugees escape the Hermit Kingdom and provide resettlement opportunities for them in other countries.
Davey Kim reports on one such refugee who has made California his home.
News about North Korea may be quiet now, but the humanitarian crises continue. In the last 10 years, almost 22,000 North Korean refugees have fled to South Korea and about 150 refugees have received have settled in the United States.
Danny Lee is one such refugee, who left North Korean behind and is quickly adapting to life in California.
So far he likes In-N-Out Hamburger, California Pizza Kitchen, basketball, baseball and hip hop, but most of all, Danny enjoys his freedom. It hasn’t been an easy transition for him. When Danny first escaped to the United States, it was tough.
"I did not know anything about American culture because I could not speak English. I finally found a job at a Korean dry cleaner but I worked ten hours everyday," said Lee.
He still struggles with English, but it’s getting better and soon hopes get his GED and the hope of someday becoming a nurse to help other refugees. When Lee was growing up in North Korea, these aspirations never crossed his mind. He was more concerned with surviving the traumas of daily life.
"When I was a little boy, I saw something that I will never forget. I saw a man shot by a firing squad in front of my entire village," said Lee. "I can still remember each person."
That was the first of ten public executions Danny was forced to watch during his childhood. In addition to violence, Lee also had to deal with famine in North Korea. It wasn't easy for Lee and his mother to keep themselves fed. His mother sold her wedding gifts and she snuck across the border to China to find food while Lee stayed behind with his grandmother and waited.
But one week turned into a month and then into five months, and finally he was so worried that he risked execution and crossed the Tumen River into China to find her. He eventually found his mother, but later he learned that his grandmother back home had starved to death.
"When I heard about that, when she passed away, I’m really sorry for that because I wasn’t next to her when she closed her eyes," said Lee.
There was not a lot of time to reflect on his grandmother’s death. Chinese authorities conducted frequent searches for refugees and sent them back to an almost certain death. To get out of the country, Lee and his mother were referred to an underground organization called Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK.
"After I found a LiNK shelter, they offered me an opportunity to escape China," said Lee
Lee's mother chose to go to South Korea, but he was feeling more adventurous and decided to come to the United States.
LiNK is a grassroots organization founded in the US that focuses on the North Korean humanitarian crises. Since 2006, LiNK has helped 141 other North Korean refugees escape. Through the collaboration of LiNK rescue teams, brokers, NGOs, and missionaries in China, North Korean refugees have been smuggled out of the country, but rescue missions and escapes have become harder due to tightened border security. It’s not an easy road to freedom, as Hannah Song, the CEO and President of LiNK explains.
"The modern day underground railroad that North Korean refugees are utilizing today begins from the border of NK and China and it goes all the way down to Southeast Asia. It is approximately 3,500 miles from border to border," said Song. "In 2012, the official number of North Koreans who made it to South Korea was actually down by almost 50 percent."
LiNK has recently produced a documentary on Danny Lee’s life to help raise awareness. It depicts his childhood, his escape, and a recent high point in his life.
"On Friday September 21, 2012, I became a United States citizen. I still cannot believe that today that I am an American. I feel so happy because I never thought I could ever vote for my own leader," said Lee. My hope for Korea is that long separated friends and families will reunite, and that one day Korea will become a prosperous nation."
In the meantime, he is thankful for his new life in California, and continues helping other refugees like himself.
LA's housing market tightens as number of available homes drops
A friend of Tess Vigeland's who works in real estate here in Pasadena posted a chart recently that caught her eye. It compared the numbers of single-family homes for sale this month in eight foothill communities to the number for sale in May of last year.
In Pasadena, for example, 326 homes were on the market this time last year. Today? 130.
In Highland Park last year, 65 homes were on the market. Today? 29.
Arcadia last year, 171. Today, 66.
That seems a lot like a comeback for the housing market, but does it reflect the LA market overall? We'll check in again with Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics to get some answers.
Arizona scientists pinpoint birthplace of plague
Northern Arizona University biologists have pinpointed the source of one of the deadliest plagues of all time. The discovery not only solves some ancient mysteries about the first pandemic, but could also provide answers in the event of a bioterrorism threat.
Their results were just published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS Pathogens. From the Fronteras Desk in Flagstaff, Laurel Morales reports.
Northern Arizona University biologists have pinpointed the source of one of the deadliest plagues of all time. The discovery not only solves some ancient mysteries about the first pandemic, but could also provide answers in the event of a bioterrorism threat. Their results were justpublished in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS Pathogens.
First a brief history lesson: There were three pandemics associated with plague. The most recent began around 1850 and it’s still killing people in some places today. The second one going back in time began in the 14th century and included an epidemic called the Black Death that wiped out about 20 percent of Europe’s population. The oldest pandemic started in the 6th century (about 1,500 years ago) and likely caused the fall of the early Roman Empire.
We didn’t know much about it until recently when Northern Arizona University biologist Dave Wagner got involved.
"I started working on plague because we have it here in northern Arizona in native ground squirrels," Wagner said.
About five years ago he changed his focus from squirrels to humans. Wagner and some other scientists mapped out what they call the global family tree of plague to show how it spread around the world.
At about the same time some homebuilders developing a new subdivision in Munich dug up some ancient skeletons. By German law they have to stop and let archaeologists inspect the remains.
"They found certain burials where it wasn’t just a single individual, it was multiple individuals in the same grave," Wagner said. "And traditionally that’s thought to be indicative of an infectious disease coming through and killing a large number of people."
The skeletons were about 1,500 years old so the best way to find DNA was in their teeth. German scientists ground down the teeth, extracted the DNA, then Wagner and his colleagues isolated and studied the DNA.
"Now most of the DNA that’s going to come out of that tooth is human DNA and so we were sort of looking for a needle in a haystack. We’re looking for plague DNA inside all that human DNA," Wagner said.
And keep in mind that it’s ancient DNA, so it’s been degraded and fragmented over time.
Biologist Dawn Birdsell was the one who first confirmed the teeth had the plague bacterium called yersinia pestis. She couldn’t wait to tell Wagner.
"I was extremely excited," Birsell said. "It was very late at night though, so Dave was asleep. But he got the email at 4 in the morning when he wakes up."
They then repeated the process several times in different labs to ensure the results were the same. The Arizona and German scientists confirmed the plague bacterium caused the first pandemic. Their discovery dispels many other theories. The team then took their study a step further using molecular technology to develop a DNA fingerprint. This enabled them to locate the likely source of the first pandemic to China where they found a similar strain.
"Plague perhaps like maybe no other disease has changed the course of human history multiple times," said David Engelthaler, director of programs and operations at TGen North in Flagstaff. So what these researchers found really advanced our understanding of the history of plague. It’s also helped explain the human history as well so it’s fairly significant.
Now you may be wondering why we don’t see major pandemics today. Two reasons: Our hygiene has improved and we’ve cleaned up our cities. And Dave Wagner says antibiotics pretty much take care of the first sign of plague.
"But in places where those things aren’t as well established, for example Madagascar and other places in Africa, there’s still hundreds if not thousands of human cases every year," Wagner said.
Plague may not be an infectious disease that many people are concerned about today but the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has been very interested in these results. Wagner says if there was a bioterrorism event, the agency would want to detect it quickly and develop a DNA fingerprint to determine the source.
"And so we see this as the ultimate validation of those approaches that we’ve developed for DHS," Wagner said. "Because if you can do this on a strain from 500 A.D. then you should be able to do it on contemporary material that might be used in a bioterrorism event."
Wagner and his team’s next step is to piece together the genome to try to learn what made the strain so deadly.
California health exchange to hand out millions in outreach grants
Tomorrow in Los Angeles, nearly $30 million worth of federal grants will be awarded to various California groups to help get out the word about health insurance. The grants will be awarded by Covered California, the state's health care exchange which has been hard at work establishing a marketplace to compare coverage plans.
For more on this we're joined now by Dana Howard, a spokesperson with Covered California.
On the Lot: Disney/Marvel, Women in Hollywood and more
Disney and Marvel team up on an animated feature, plus charges of sexism and liberal bias in Hollywood. For more on this and the latest in Hollywood, we're joined once again by Los Angeles Times reporter Rebecca Keegan.
There's another Disney/Marvel animated film in the pipeline, that features songs from "The Book of Mormon" composer, and, rare for animation, a female co-director.
Keegan talks about a new, and frankly, pretty depressing story about the quantity and quality of roles for women in Hollywood movies. There have been a number of female-driven movies that have been big hits in the past few years — "Bridesmaids," "The Hunger Games" — But does that make up for all the Spidermans and Batmans and Iron Mans?
Then, charges of liberal bias in the Motion Picture Academy. The producer of a documentary released last year about President Obama is complaining that his film was overlooked for an award, because it's controlled by left wing partisans.
James Tolbert, pioneering Hollywood lawyer and civil rights activist, dies at 86
This morning, we're marking the passing of a Hollywood pioneer, whose name you've probably never heard. James Tolbert was an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles who called Red Fox, Lou Rawls and the Tuskegee Airmen were among his clients.
In the civil rights era, he set out to help integrate Hollywood behind the scenes. It was the summer of 1963 and Tolbert was the president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP. The organization chose a TV series, "Hazel" starring Shirley Booth as a rowdy, live-in maid, as a target to break the color barrier.
For "Hazel," James Tolbert and the NAACP demanded that producers hire at least one black member of the technical staff, threatening sanctions against the show's sponsor, the Ford Motor Company. The campaign worked.
At the same time, Tolbert also campaigned in the world of advertising, trying to convince Madison Avenue to stop ignoring African-Americans. James Tolbert founded a law firm, raised three children with his wife of 57 years, Marie.
In later life, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and died last month at the age of 86.
Design school publishes anti-gun violence children’s books
The Art Center College of Design, usually known for graduating hotshot illustrators and car designers, has inserted itself into one of the most pressing issues facing this country: Gun violence.
The Pasadena institution recently published a series of children's books that illustrate what a gun-free world could look like. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman Lopez reports.
Some in California want tougher gun background checks
California has one of the toughest gun background check systems in the country, but that's not stopping people from buying more and more firearms.
KQED's Sacramento Bureau Chief Scott Detrow takes us through the screening process that some lawmakers want to make even tougher.
Report: College may not be a smart investment for everyone
The more you learn, the more you earn. That's a notion we've been taught for years, and for many of us it's true. For most of the last several decades, getting a college degree was the best way to secure a place in the middle class
But recently the idea of college, and whether its always a good option, has seen renewed debate. Maybe it's better to save that money you'd use for the diploma and put it toward something else.
A recent report is adding wood to that bonfire. Isabelle Sawhill, co-director for the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, joins the show to explain the findings of the report.
Graduating college students talk about the value of a college degree:
College presidents' pay rises despite state budget cuts
Whenever the topic of college tuition comes up, the conversation often turns to the pay of the men and women running those institutions. The Chronicle of Higher Education looked at the salaries and overall compensation of 212 presidents at public universities.
Their report found that a few of them — including former Penn State president Graham Spanier —made almost $2 million last year. But, if it's any consolation, only one California University head made the top 10.
According to the report, Mark Yudof, the head of the University of California System, earned more than $800,000 in total compensation.
Jack Stripling, a senior reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, joins the show with more.
Frontier Airlines to charge for drinks and carry-on bags
If you're planning to fly the friendly skies this summer, get ready for some kinda unfriendly nickel-and-diming.
Last week, Frontier Airlines announced it will start charging as much as $100 for a carry-on bag. Oh, and hopefully you won't get thirsty, because that in-flight soda or coffee is now going for $1.99. Cheaper than Starbucks, but still.
Joining us to give us an idea of whether these fees will catch on industry-wide is Barbara Peterson, senior aviation correspondent for Conde Nast Traveler.
Budget cuts force large airlines to pull out of smaller airports
While airline fees may be on the rise, the number of flights taking off is heading in the opposite direction. It's especially true at LA's smaller airports, like the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.
In the past five years, small airports have lost more than a quarter of their flights on average, according to a new MIT study.
Victor Gill, spokesman for the Bob Hope Airport, says that airlines like American struggled, especially during the economic downtown.
"Even though they were flying planes that were well over 90 percent full out of Burbank to Dallas, they were unfortunately were operating in an environment that every flight lost money," said Gill.
Now with the economy rebounding, how do you get airlines to come back? There's a kind of chicken-and-the-egg scenario happening: You can lure back airlines if you show that there are a lot of passengers coming through.
But you can only get a lot of passengers if you have airlines offering more flights. And Gill says it's also a problem when an airport named after Bob Hope struggles for some name recognition in 2013.
"It turns out that everybody in southern California knows who Bob Hope was and what Bob Hope Airport is, but if you're out of town and out of state, it becomes a little more vague," said Gill. "One of the things we're doing is a lot of Facebook promotions, and we're doing some local things, too. We've got the outlets at Camarillo cross-promoting with us, and just last week we've gone into a three-year deal to be the official airport of the Rose Bowl stadium and of UCLA athletics."
Didn't know the Rose Bowl needed an "official airport," did you?
Some frequent flyers will also get the benefit of a faster security screening process, too. Gill hopes all these strategies will get you thinking about passing through their gates.
But you tell us -- what's your strategy for flying? And what's your preference between flying out of LAX and one of the smaller airports in the region?
Difficult fire season looms for Southern California
An update now on what looks to be a difficult fire season here in the West. The secretaries of agriculture and the interior — Tom Vilsack and Sally Jewell — just finished a briefing about what to expect this year. KPCC's Sanden Totten joins the show with more.