LAUSD board to make decisions on breakfast in classroom, suspensions; NJ Gov. Chris Christie gets big money from California donors; Gov. Brown readies updated budget with $4.5 billion in new revenue; Green card lottery would be axed under Gang of Eight immigration bill; TV Upfronts: Which shows got axed and which are coming back?; Tuesday Reviewsday: Huey Lewis, Frank Turner, She & Him, plus much more.
Gov. Brown readies updated budget with $4.5 billion in new revenue
Well it's a rite of spring here in California, Governor Jerry Brown releases his May revised budget today. For the first time in seven years there's no red ink. In fact, the Governor is dealing with an unexpected additional $4.5 billion in tax revenue. How will he spend that money?
Here with a preview of the proposal is John Myers, political editor for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento.
LAUSD board to make decisions on breakfast in classroom, suspensions
While schools across the state wait to hear what's in store for them budgetwise, schools here in LA County are deciding the fate of a program designed to tackle child hunger.
For more than a year now, LA Unified schools have been serving up breakfast in the classroom, but the program has come under fire from teachers.
RELATED: LA Unified school board to vote on free breakfast program, school suspensions
With more on this and other issues the school board will be addressing this afternoon, we're joined now by KPCC's education reporter Adolfo Guzman Lopez.
NJ Gov. Chris Christie gets big money from California donors
California is first in the nation when it comes to political contributions, but the money isn't all staying here. In fact, plenty of out-of-state candidates have been traveling West, in search of cash.
One big winner recently is the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who's been raking in contributions in California, for his re-election campaign. Wall Street Journal reporter Heather Haddon followed the money, and she joins the show to explain.
Green card lottery would be axed under Gang of Eight immigration bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee is hard at work again today, amending the immigration bill proposed by the Gang of Eight. Tucked away in that legislation is a provision to drop The Green Card Lottery.
Every year that lottery gives roughly 55,000 lucky people from around the world a shot at coming to the US. Last year the program was so popular, almost 8 million people applied.
However, under a Senate compromise, the program would be cut and its available slots would go to a system that looks at skills, education and other criteria for entry into the States.
To understand a little but more about how it works and what's at stake if it goes away, we're joined by Madeleine Sumption, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
Farmers use social media to reduce food waste, increase profits
Piles of early blueberries and cherries at local farmer’s markets are a tip-off: peak season for California farmers is just around the corner. But while agriculture may provide some of California's most famous exports, the latest farm census from the USDA found that over half of the state's small farms don't even turn a profit.
Rachel Dornhelm visited one family farm in Sonoma County that's using social media to try and change that, while reducing food waste at the same time.
TV Upfronts: Which shows got axed and which are coming back?
The television upfronts continue today as networks present their new programming to advertisers.
We check in with Jace Lacob, West Coast Deputy Bureau Chief for The Newsweek Daily Beast Company to find out the fates of our favorite shows.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Huey Lewis, Frank Turner, She & Him
Now it's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, where we talk about what's new in music. Joining us today is Shirley Halperin, music editor at The Hollywood Reporter.
Artist: Huey Lewis
Album: Sports: 30th Anniversary Edition
Release Date: May 14
Songs: "Heart and Soul," "If This Is It"
Artist: Frank Turner
Album: Tape Deck Heart
Release Date: Out now
Songs: "Recovery" "Oh Brother"
Artist: She & Him
Album: Volume 3
Song: "Baby"
How might federal budget cuts impact California's fire season?
Yesterday on the program we told you about the challenges ahead this year as the West braces for a fire season with fewer firefighters , thanks to federal budget cuts. So, what does this mean for firefighters here in Southern California and how are they bracing for future battles?
For more on that we're joined once again by Bill Nash, public information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department
NASA's before/after images of burn scars in Southern California:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
Angelina Jolie's difficult choice to prevent breast cancer
Angelina Jolie sent waves through the health-care world with her announcement that she had undergone a double mastectomy.
The Oscar winning actress explained, in a New York Times op-ed piece today, that she carries a gene, BRCA1, that gives her an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer. She decided to have both breasts removed as a preventative measure.
Dr. Catherine Dang, associate director of Cedars-Sinai's Wasserman Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Program, joins the show with more information on Jolie's decision.
Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen envision a 'New Digital Age'
It's almost an understatement to say digital technology pervades our existence. We can't run our businesses — or our family lives — without it, and it's hard for us to imagine how we managed to survive without email, texting, smart phones, and Google.
Digital technology is there to answer our questions, guide us to our destinations, and help us find the very best price on the absolutely most energy-efficient handheld vacuum cleaner. But what are some possible challenges we face as our lives become increasingly dependent on it? And how can the U.S. maintain its spot at the top when it comes to innovation and development?
Google executives and authors Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen join the show to talk about these issues and more, as well as their new book, "The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business."
Interview Highlights:
On digital media's permanence:
Eric Schmidt: "Another five billion people are going to join the conversation because of the prevalence of mobile phones. They're going to be talking, this brings education, entertainment, medicine to everyone. Along the way there are some issues, and one of the issues that comes along is information once published on the web is typically not deletable or at least only partially deletable. Everyone will have it, everyone will record things. That by the way is very important. Let's say that you're a woman in an impoverished country and you're treated very poorly by the men around you. That phone is a safety mechanism. Let's say you're investigating corruption, that phone is a detector. So there are many positives to this, but some of these negatives as well."
Jared Cohen: "Whether its a concert, a revolution, or a birthday gathering, the image of an individual holding up a phone to take a picture or take video will be the image that transcends culture, transcends socioeconomic divides and transcends national divides."
Schmidt on the biggest problem facing American innovation:
"We have a skills gap problem in America, which is largely the failure of our education system. I would argue that the H-1B rule in America is the single stupidest policy ever invented by the US government. To take you through its reasoning, here at a brilliant university, a top graduate at UCLA or UC Berkeley, foreign born, has a Ph.D, we kick them out of the country, they go to their own country, they found a company to steal our jobs and to take profits away from America. if they stayed in America, they'd found a company in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, and the rest is history. There is broad support for fixing this H-1B cap, it will cause more economic growth than you can possibly imagine."
Schmidt on the relationship between the entertainment industry and Silicon Valley:
"We had a big fight over SOPA/PIPA a year ago, which is essentially an intellectual property argument, and ultimately the Bay Area-centric tech industry won that, but it's important that we respect the concerns that the Southern California industries had and address their concerns over time."
On the importance of human curiosity:
Eric Schmidt: "Human curiosity and human wonder are core to the human experience, and I would say even stronger that to some degree there's a race going forward between automation and curiosity. Automation is the replacement of people by machines doing manufacturing tasks, that kind of stuff, but curiosity is something that humans do that computers will be a long long time doing. We need to amp up our wonder, our curiosity, our education systems, our critical thinking, because that is how human progress will be made and that's how growth with occur."
Jared Cohen: "We argue in 'The New Digital Age' that humans and computers will split duties in the future according to what they're both good at. Emotion, curiosity, sensitivity, these are things that cannot be replicated. If you got rid of the 'I Wonder" feeling in the world then dating would not be as fun. Because humans are always going to be curious what the person across the table from them is thinking."
Is Eric Holder's tenure at the Justice Dept. coming to an end?
First, the terrorist attack on the US embassy in Benghazi that lead to the deaths of four Americans. Then, the IRS scandal that claims the agency targeted Tea Party groups to extra scrutiny, and now the news that the Department of Justice secretly obtained phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.
Will Attorney General Eric Holder take the fall?
For more on this and what it means for President Obama in his second term, we're joined now by Marketplace's Washington DC reporter David Gura
Despite big name, Shakespeare school still feels cuts
For decades, superstar teacher Rafe Esquith has staged Shakespeare plays with students from Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in LA's Koreatown. Most of the kids come from low-income families and English isn't their first language.
His success has been very public. He's written several books, been featured in a PBS documentary, and counts Oprah Winfrey and Sir Ian McKellen among his fans. But the notoriety hasn't spared Hobart Elementary from statewide cuts to school arts programs.