Today on the show, we'll start with a discussion about the new bill that would close a loophole in Prop 13. Then, this hot weather can be good and bad for business owners. Plus, how young is too young to be suspended from school? New research says swearing is good for you, Granny the 103-year-old orca spotted off Pacific Coast plus much more.
New bill proposes closing loophole in Propsition 13
More than 30 years ago, California voters approved Proposition 13 in an election known as the Tax Revolt. The measure drastically reduced property taxes on homes, businesses and farms.
For decades, those trying to tinker with it have met with staunch opposition from a group called the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association. But now the group says it won't interfere with a bill to close a loophole in Prop 13.
As one lawmaker put it, "It must be a cold day in hell. The cow jumped over the moon. And pigs are flying somewhere."
For more on this surprising move, we turn now to Dan Walters, political columnist for the Sacramento Bee.
SoCal Heat Wave: Good and bad for business?
With temperatures in Southern California reaching triple digits today and tomorrow, how are local businesses dealing with the heat?
For those who have to work outside-- mail carriers, construction workers, pavers, and roofers-- there's no real way to escape the scorching temperatures. But as we learned from John Navarro, owner of Navarro Roofing in Covina, the high temperatures and dry weather can in some ways make the job a little easier.
While you'd think that 100-degree weather would be great for sales at an ice cream shop, Matthew Kang, owner of Scoops Westside, says that's not always the case.
How young is too young to be suspended from school?
A national debate has raged for years over whether suspensions are the right solution when kids misbehave in high school, middle school, or even elementary school. But, what happens when 4-year-olds throw things or won't sit still? Certainly they're not suspended from preschool, right? Wrong.
KPCC's Deepa Fernandes explains.
'Casebook': Mona Simpson's latest novel explores the family dynamic
Author Mona Simpson's latest novel "Casebook," follows the life of 9-year-old Miles and his family living in Los Angeles. Like many young people, he's mystified by his parents, but devastated when his spying on them reveals grownup truths he has difficulty processing.
Mona Simpson recently stopped by Take Two to talk with host A Martinez about her work and writing about Los Angeles.
Excerpt of "Casebook":
1 • Under the Bed
I was a snoop, but a peculiar kind. I only discovered what I most didn’t want to know.
The first time it happened, I was nine. I’d snaked underneath my parents’ bed when the room was empty to rig up a walkie-talkie. Then they strolled in and flopped down. So I was stuck. Under their bed. Until they got up.
I’d wanted to eavesdrop on her, not them. She decided my life. Just then, the moms were debating weeknight television. I needed, I believed I absolutely needed to understand Survivor. You had to, to talk to people at school. The moms yakked about it for hours in serious voices. The only thing I liked that my mother approved of that year was chess. And every other kid, every single other kid in fourth grade, owned a Game Boy. I thought maybe Charlie’s mom could talk sense to her. She listened to Charlie’s mom.
On top of the bed, my dad was saying that he didn’t think of her that way anymore either. What way? And why either? I could hardly breathe. The box spring made a gauzy opening to gray dust towers, in globular, fantastic formations. The sound of dribbling somewhere came in through open windows. My dad stood and locked the door from inside, shoving a chair up under the knob. Before, when he did that, I’d always been on the other side. Where I belonged. And it hurt not to move.
“Down,” my mother said. “Left.” Which meant he was rubbing her back.
All my life, I’d been aware of him wanting something from her. And of her going sideways in his spotlight, a deer at the sight of a human. The three of us, the originals, were together locked in a room.
My mom was nice enough looking, for a smart woman. “Pretty for a mathematician,” I’d heard her once say about herself, with an air of apology. Small, with glasses, she was the kind of person you didn’t notice. I’d seen pictures, though, of her holding me as a baby. Then, her hair fell over her cheek and she’d been pretty. My dad was always handsome. Simon’s mom, a jealous type, said that my mother had the best husband, the best job, the best everything. I thought she had the best everything, too. We did. But Simon’s mom never said my mother had the best son.
The bed went quiet and it seemed then that both my parents were falling asleep. My dad napped weekends.
NOOO, I begged telepathically, my left leg pinned and needled.
Plus I really had to pee.
But my mother, never one to let something go when she could pick it apart, asked if he was attracted to other people. He said he hadn’t ever been, but lately, for the first time, he felt aware of opportunities. He used that word.
“Like who?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. I knew my dad: he was about to blab and I couldn’t stop him. And sure enough, idiotically, he named a name. By second grade everyone I knew had understood never to name a name.
“Holland Emerson,” he said. What kind of name was that? Was she Dutch?
“Oh,” the Mims said. “You’ve always kind of liked her.”
“I guess so,” he said, as if he hadn’t thought of it until she told him.
Then the mattress dipped, like a whale, to squash me, and I scooched over to the other side as the undulation rolled.
“I didn’t do anything, Reen!”
She got up. Then I heard him follow her out of the room.
“I’m not going to do anything! You know me!”
But he’d started it. He’d said opportunities. He’d named a name. I bellied out, skidded to the bathroom, missing the toilet by a blurt. A framed picture of them taken after he’d proposed hung on the wall; her holding the four-inch diamond ring from the party-supply shop. On the silvery photograph, he’d written I promise to always make you unhappy.
I’d grown up with his jokes.
By the time I sluffed to the kitchen he sat eating a bowl of Special K. He lifted the box. “Want some?”
“Don’t fill up.” She stood next to the wall phone. “We’re having the Audreys for dinner.”
“Tonight?” he said. “Can we cancel? I think I’m coming down with something.”
“We canceled them twice already.”
The doorbell rang. It was the dork guy who came to run whenever she called him. He worked for the National Science Foundation and liked to run and talk about pattern formation.
Excerpted from Casebook by Mona Simpson. Copyright © 2014 by Mona Simpson. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Sports Roundup: Magic on Sterling, Clippers in playoffs, Michael Sam and more
It's time for sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky. They've covered sports for ESPN and Los Angeles Times.
The back and forth between Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson continued last night as it was Magic's turn with CNN's Anderson Cooper. He responded to Sterling's comments that he was a unfit role model for kids because he has "AIDS" and questioned what he's done for the African American community.
"I don't know this Donald ... you know, we had basketball conversations, we didn't have life conversations ...I didn't know that he would take it to this level."
It seems as if Sterling is out of control, but what does Magic get out of going on national TV to respond?
Clippers coach Doc Rivers didn't think much of Sterling's televised mea culpa and after last night the Clippers lost to the Thunder. They're not one game away from being eliminated from the playoffs. If they get knocked out, can they blame it all on Sterling?
While the NBA seems to be in the process of ousting Donald Sterling, the players union has hinted that they might take a bold step if Sterling continues to own the team.
Michael Sam made history as the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team when the Rams took him the 7th round.
Even though his jersey is a top seller and he's got an endorsement deal with VISA, Michael Sam still has a lot to overcome, as he till has to make the team and there's no guarantee for a 7th round pick.
Do you think there will be any added pressure for the Rams to find a place for him even if he underperforms?
The NCAA gets a lot of negative press for their stringent rules. Now a story out of Boise, Idaho is putting the microscope on them again.
Regardless of which MLB ballpark you visit, if you buy ballpark food you are taking your chances.
'Million Dollar Arm' director on bringing JB Bernstein's story to the big screen
At one point, sports agent JB Bernstein had an all-star client roster, but as big names like slugger Barry Bonds retired, Bernstein found himself down on his luck.
Until he came up with a crazy idea: to run a nationwide reality contest, a la "American Idol," to search for the next great Major League Baseball pitcher In India.
Bernstein figured with all the cricket played there, someone was bound to have a really fast arm.
That's actor Jon Hamm playing JB Bernstein in the new film "Million Dollar Arm," which opens later this week. The story focuses on Bernstein and two young potential Indian pitchers he brings back to the U.S.
The film's director Craig Gillespie came to the U.S. from Australia, and he says he can relate to the idea of a young foreigner coming to the states.
What you need to know about net neutrality
Tomorrow, the FCC is going to vote on new rules related to how to regulate traffic online.
It's part of the decade-long battle between internet providers, tech companies and the FCC over what's called net neutrality. Wall Street Journal tech reporter Gautham Nagesh joins the show to explain what this vote could mean for your online access
Report: Students in California more segregated than ever
Sixty years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But, it looks like not much has changed since Brown vs Board of Education, at least not in California.
Today, UCLA released a report revealing that students in California are more segregated than ever. In particular, the study finds that California is the third worst state when it comes to school segregation for African Americans, and is the state in which Latino students are most segregated.
The report's author Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, joins the show to explain the findings.
Has California's lone wolf OR-7 found a mate in Oregon?
Remember OR-7? He's the 5-year-old wolf who roamed around Northern California for several months before heading back into Oregon last year. Since separating from his pack, he's been on a solitary journey, but now it seems he might have a lady friend.
Sean Stevens, Executive Director of Oregon Wild, joins the show to tell us more about this wolf's journey.
Granny the 103-year-old orca spotted off Pacific Coast
A killer whale named Granny is the oldest known member of its species at 103 years old. To give a little perspective, she was swimming the seas even before the Titanic sank in the icy waters of the Atlantic.
Granny is a member of the Southern Resident orca population, which swims the waters of the North Pacific between Northern California and British Columbia.
Biologist Ken Balcombe, executive director of the Center for Whale Research, has been tracking her since 1977. He joins the show to talk about this elderly orca.
Interview Highlights:
How can you be sure she's 103 years old?
"In her case, when we began the study, there were many whales that already had matured and already had mature babies, so we did not know the exact date of anybody's birth at that time. We base that age upon her being the probably mother of J-1, who lived to his 60th year and was born around 1951. We believe that he was Granny's last offspring. These whales, like people, they have a reproductive senescence of about age 40 and she was probably about 40 in 1951, so we put her birth year right around 1911."
How long do orcas live in captivity, compared to in the wild?
"There are some there that were caught in 1970, in the late '60s. There are two of them that are still alive, but the average lifespan in captivity, if we take the whole captive era, is 20 years approximately. Of course, there are some that are still alive after 40-45 years, so we don't know and they don't know, but we do know our wild whales, there are a lot of them that are 70-80 years old."
Have you ever heard of a whale this old before?
"There's a bowhead whale up off the coast of Greenland that was 180. There are a lot of octogenarians here in the population, 70-, 80-, 90-year-old whales. She just happens to be one of the ones that is setting the record books for us."
To listen to the full interview, click on "Listen Now" in the upper left.
Oil creates new demand in water-stressed New Mexico
In Southeast New Mexico water is scarce and oil is plentiful, yet both are in high demand. A barrel of oil will fetch a handsome profit at today's prices and producing it creates plenty of well-paid jobs, but it also takes a lot of water.
In the last of a three part Fronteras series on the growth of the oil industry, Mónica Ortiz Uribe reports on the competition for a finite resource.
5 LAPD officers down: Colleagues struggle to cope
There's another LAPD funeral today. Officer Roberto Sanchez died in a car crash while on patrol in Harbor City. Five officers have died this year, four of them in car accidents.
KPCC's Erika Aguilar checked in with the rank and file.
Let The F-bombs Drop: Science says swearing is good for you
If you work in an office, you're probably familiar with frustrating moments like these: The copier runs out of ink, the phone system goes haywire, or the printer jams.
Well, it turns out there's a good way to deal with that frustration: swearing. At least according to psychologists at England's Keele University, who found that expressing profane feelings is good for you.
They found that cursing is, "a harmless emotional release," and can make you feel stronger and more resilient.
"It's a coping mechanism...You build up sort of an arousal level with whatever that emotion you're feeling and then, when you release that by swearing, it vents that emotion, whatever that emotion is," said Dr. Timothy Jay, a psychologist and the author of the book, "Why We Curse." "From an evolutionary point of view, it's much better than resorting to some type of physical violence."
Dr. Jay says that as long as you're not harassing people, if you're just blowing off steam, swearing should be fine. He believes that cursing should alert management to possible stress issues for their employees.
"The workplace can't be governed by the person with the thinnest skin," said Dr. Jay. "I also think they should examine why people feel stressed on the job. I think in any case you need some type of recognition of what the standards are, how to deal with emotion in the workplace and I think also an acknowledgement that some jobs are a lot more stressful than others."