Can House and Senate agree on an immigration reform plan?; Affordable Care Act may not cover all Native Americans; NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft in jeopardy; Teen cooking show teaches culture, cameras and chopping skills; Joe Mantegna on bringing 'Glengarry Glen Ross' to the stage, plus much more.
Can House and Senate agree on an immigration reform plan?
A proposal by a bi-partisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight is working its way through the legislative process. Many expect it will pass, perhaps with broad support from both sides of the aisle.
Things are not so clear on the other end of Capitol Hill. The House also has a Gang of Eight, made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, who are trying to craft their version of an immigration reform bill.
According to one member of that gang, John Carter of Texas, they've reached agreement on 95 percent of the issues. So, what's that other five percent, and might it be enough to derail the deal?
Rebecca Kaplan, congressional reporter for the National Journal, joins the show to help answer that question and more.
Affordable Care Act may not cover all Native Americans
The Affordable Care Act has faced plenty of criticism, some say it's a breach of the federal government's power. Others say it's too much of a financial burden for businesses and will kill jobs.
Then there are the concerns raised by Native Americans. The ACA takes a rather narrow view of who can be considered American Indian, and therefore be exempt from the requirement to have health insurance.
Currently, the Affordable Care Act is defined to only include those who can document their membership in one of the 566 tribes recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are still hundreds of tribes solely recognized by states, not the federal government. Where they stand in the health care reform plan is unclear.
According to the California Rural Indian Health Board, California alone has 21,000 people who receive free health care through Indian clinics, and who are not recognized by the federal government.
NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft in jeopardy
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of NASA's Spacecraft Kepler. Its four-year mission is to explore strange new worlds, and pretty much the rest of that famous "Star Trek" intro line. But on this week of the big opening of the new movie, there is sadness in actual space science.
The Kepler spacecraft — a giant telescope launched in 2009 — is malfunctioning and may be at the end of its journey.
Charlie Sobeck is the deputy project manager for Kepler at Ames Research Center in Northern California joins the show to explain what's going wrong and what it means for NASA's quest to discover alien planets.
Teen cooking show teaches culture, cameras and chopping skills
Crawford High School in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood is one of the most diverse schools in the nation. Students' families hail from Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico and Somalia, among others.
Just imagine how delicious a school-wide potluck might be. Well, one local university professor dreamed up a way to share some of that culinary richness, while capitalizing on America's obsession with cooking shows. From the Fronteras Desk, Jill Replogle reports.
“So directors, in order to get something going, you say ‘quiet on the set,’” Kristine Diekman shouts across the room to the two high school girls poring over a script. Diekman is a professor of video and new media at Cal State San Marcos.
Mics and cameras are in place; mixing bowls and perfectly-measured ingredients neatly laid out. This group is ready to film a high school cooking show.
“Sweet potato pie, scene six take one,” says Jesse Avilez, a ninth grader at Crawford High School, clapping his slate and then walking off the set.
The actors address the camera:
“Today we’re making a sweet potato and apple pie, which is our version of a traditional soul food dessert. So Dominique, can you tell us what soul food is?”
The show is called "Cooking It Up." It lives as a series of webisodes along with recipes and personal stories behind those recipes.
Diekman directs the program. Her college students serve as mentors and tech support on the show.
For the Crawford High School students who participate, it is an internship where they learn video production, graphic design, nutrition and, of course, cooking.
“A lot of them just wanted to learn how to cook,” Diekman said. “So many of them come from families, very busy families and they are responsible for cooking nutritious foods within their homes.”
The students wanted to learn cooking basics, Diekman said, like how to chop an onion, how to handle and store food safely, and how to make it good for you.
Crystal Gillespie, an eleventh grader at Crawford High, co-directed the sweet potato pie episode.
“I cook a lot at home and, you know, my grandmother runs a daycare so the idea of finding healthy ways to make snacks was really great ‘cause then it’s something else I can do for the kids that’s interesting,” she said.
The students take turns working in different roles in show production: directing, manning the cameras and microphones, and for the brave ones, trying out their best Emeril or “Iron Chef” in front of the camera.
Some of the students are from families who’ve recently arrived as immigrants and refugees. They bring traditional recipes and cooking smarts to the show. And something else: a deep connection to food, through family hardships and joys.
One of the students, Nathan Yau, got the papaya salad recipe from his grandparents, who lived in Cambodia during the bloody rule of the Khmer Rouge. Nathan tells their story on the Cooking It Up website.
“Their long, long friend, he became a monk because his parents were killed during that regime. ... And he really liked papaya salad, so then they just decided to start always bringing papaya salad to him because he didn’t really have nobody, except for us.”
And another thing students from immigrant families bring: generally good eating habits. Researchers have found that immigrants tend to be in better shape when they arrive in the U.S. than Americans. It’s known as the “healthy immigrant effect.”
“Healthy eating practices are still alive here but as the youth become more and more acculturated,” said Diekman, “and I can see it with this group of youth. They're starting to eat more junk food.”
This is the time to encourage them to carry on their kitchen traditions and learn from each other, Diekman said.
In one episode, Avilez, the ninth grader, shows his classmates how to make and eat ceviche — hardly a standard American teenage meal.
The skills these high schoolers are learning — like motion graphics and video editing — could lead to jobs in the digital world. Or, take Avilez, the ceviche master. He actually thinks he might want to become a chef, so he appreciates the kitchen skills he’s picked up.
“Like, you know, the putting your fingers back so you won’t chop off your finger and you know accidentally miss a finger for, probably forever,” Avilez said, demonstrating the technique.
In this fast food world, just getting young people interested in cooking seems like a small victory. In any case, it's probably better than sitting in the classroom.
“You get to cook, and then you get to eat what you cook. I mean, who doesn’t love that?” Avilez said.
Joe Mantegna on bringing 'Glengarry Glen Ross' to the stage
Tonight at UCLA's James Bridges theatre, Joe Mantegna and Richard Dreyfus will take to the stage in a stripped-down production of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," by LA Theatre Works
The play is about four Chicago real estate agents willing to lie, cheat, bribe, and steal. They'll do just about anything to close a deal.
Actor Joe Mantegna knows the material well. He won a Tony for his 1984 Broadway performance of the "Glengarry Glen Ross" character Ricky Roma. During a break, Alex had the chance to sit down with Mantegna and ask him what he loves about playing this sleazy, smooth-talking salesman.
Performances run May 16-19 at UCLA's James Bridges Theatre. The production is by LA Theatre Works, and find out how to attend here.
City Hall Pass: Negative ads, City Attorney Race and more
It's time now for our regular check-in on city politics, City Hall Pass, your ticket to all the latest news out of downtown with KPCC politics reporter Alice Walton and editor Oscar Garza.
Frank Stoltze is checking in with voters at Auntie Em's Kitchen in Eagle Rock for our Dear Mayor series, we'll check in with him later in the hour.
In the last 24 hours, we've seen some really negative ads that seem to specifically target the Latino community. Wendy Greuel held a news conference yesterday to denounce one ad, and this morning Eric Garcetti sent out a Tweet about the ad.
From one nasty race to another, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is trying to hang onto his job as he battles former Assemblyman Mike Feuer. This week there were some interesting endorsements, from Jan Perry and Bernard Parks, and more negative campaigning.
This might be slightly confusing but there's actually a primary race on the runoff ballot next week. It's a special election in the San Fernando Valley's Sixth District. Tony Cardenas was elected to Congress, opening his seat to one of six candidates. Leaders so far are Nury Martinez and Cindy Montanez, and a runoff in July and could get woman back on city council.
Dear Mayor: What do LA residents want from their next mayor?
As you heard a little earlier this hour, the race for LA's next mayor is down to its final days.
As the final part of our series "Dear Mayor," KPCC's political reporter Frank Stoltze and team are out this morning at Auntie Em's Kitchen in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, asking voters about what they want from the next leader of Los Angeles.
Recent Cal State LA biology grad looks ahead to career in medicine
This week we're talking with soon-to-be graduates of some of LA's colleges and universities. We've already heard from students at Cal Tech and Occidental College about the world they're graduating into.
Today we hear from 24-year-old Kathleen Carlos, who spent the last three years studying biology at Cal State LA. We met up with her on the school's Greenlee Plaza, an astroturfed rooftop with a view of the 10 freeway.
The Dunder-Mifflin 'Office' closes shop: Show producer on remaking Scranton in LA
Tonight, after eight years, the hit NBC show "The Office" is finally coming to an end.
Dwight, Pam, Jim, Andy, Kevin, Creed, Darryl, and the rest of the show's motley cast will come together one last time in tonight's finale, airing at 8 p.m. PST. The show is set at the Dunder-Mifflin paper company, located in Scranton, Penn., even though much of the series was shot right here in Southern California.
For what it was like turning a huge sunny city like L.A. into a small, former coal-mining community more than 2,300 miles away, Take Two spoke with one of The Office's producers, Steve Burgess.
Interview Highlights:
How did you make Southern California look like Scranton?
"Strangely enough it doesn't really look like Scranton. Scranton is actually fairly beautiful and has a lot of really nice architecture. We shot a lot around Los Angeles, and what we tried to do is find parts of Los Angeles that didn't have palm trees, that had not really Southern California looking architecture, like red tile roofs and stucco buildings. There are a lot of beautifully landscapes areas that look a lot like Pennsylvania if they don't have palm trees."
But isn't it hard to avoid palm trees in LA?
"It is we actually electronically removed palm trees when we did see them, so our visual effects department removed palm trees almost every week.
Where is the Dunder-MIfflin warehouse located?
The building and the warehouse are actually on a soundstage in Van Nuys. Chandler Valley studios has been our home for the last eight years, the first year they shot in an actual office in Culver City. For the last eight years, this is finishing the 9th season. Its an actual soundstage where we built an entire office and warehouse on."
How did you maintain a northeast feel given our weather here?
"It becomes difficult to shoot in the rain, but any time during the winter when it is raining in California we try to shoot in the rain, to try to give that northeastern part of the country feel to it. We've also for all of our Christmas episodes we have snowed in our parking lot, I know a lot of the fans have seen snowdrifts and things in the parking lot, which really is in California. We bring in tons of ice and an ice chipper and they spray shaved ice all over our parking lot. We try to beat the heat, one of our Christmas episodes was shot when it was 100 degrees out and we had our cast in overcoats. As soon as we hit the pavement with the ice it would melt, but we kept putting more ice down and eventually it looks pretty snowed it."
Can you tell us about some Scranton-specific details in the show?
"The most famous of the Scranton detail is the Froggy 101 sticker that was on Dwight's desk, which is a real country station in Scranton. Basically, when the show was set in Scranton, the Chamber of Commerce and the Scranton businesses have been such a great help to The Office and they send us real business knick-knacks. So all the stuff on the desks, all the magnets on the refrigerator in the kitchen, are all from real Scranton businesses and they've been nice enough to help us out in allowing us to use their names when we mention a steakhouse names Carl Von Lugers, there's a real Carl Von Luger's in Scranton"
What did the city of Scranton think about having "The Office" set in their city?
"I think in the beginning, Scranton was nervous we were going to make fun of the town and they were a little bit leery of helping us to portray Scranton, but then as they found throughout the years that we really didn't make fun of Scranton, one of our story lines was the Jim and Pam storyline of Jim moving to Philly and Pam not wanting to leave Scranton and last week we found out that Jim moved back to Scranton and loves it there. So we actually portrayed Scranton as a pretty cool place to be. It seems that Scranton was happy to have us set there."
What was your favorite episode?
"One of my favorite episodes was Jim and Pam's wedding in Niagara. It was mostly shot on location here around Southern California...It was a challenge to make it look like Niagara Falls, but what we did is we sent John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer with a small crew to Niagara Falls because we actually shot the ceremony on the Maid of the Mistic boat as it traveled under the falls."
'Valley Girl' turns 30: The San Fernando Valley then and now
This year marks the 30th anniversary of a movie that brought a very particular Southern California phenomenon to the rest of the world: The Valley Girl.
In the 1983 film, “Valley Girl," Nicolas Cage stars as a bad boy from the rough streets of Hollywood who falls in love with a San Fernando Valley princess, played by Deborah Foreman.
There’s been talk of a musical remake of “Valley Girl” and its star-crossed Southern California lovers, set to the New Wave hits that made up the original film’s rich soundtrack.
While the "Valley Girl" of the '80s became a cultural phenomenon, the Valley itself is a unique part of the country. Kevin Roderick, editor of LA Observed and the author of “The San Fernando Valley: America’s Suburb," tells us about the evolution of this influential region of Southern California.
Interview Highlights:
On the early days of the San Fernando Valley:
"The San Fernando Valley is 'that place' over the hill from Los Angeles, in a lot of people's minds, but you know a million and a half people live in the valley. It has been attracting people who come looking for the American Dream for decades, since before WWII, the San Fernando Valley has a been a destination location for people."
On the image of the Valley being a suburban wonderland:
"It's a big chunk of Los Angeles, almost 3o percent of the city's area, and over a million people, there's some diversity there between economic levels at one end of the Valley. The movie, and the song that really spawned the whole cultural phenomenon, 'Valley Girl,' by Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of Frank Zappa, was centered around the Sherman Oak's Galleria. The teenagers there like teenagers lots of places had an affected speech. It just sort of took off because so many people in Hollywood and the recording industry live in the San Fernando Valley, and when something happens in the Valley usually it gets noticed."
On how the Valley is now viewed as more affordable than other parts in LA:
"In some ways that's always been true. It's been a mix, the Valley was first settled as ranches and was a place where you could go and buy 10- or 20-acre ranches, and it kinda got that image of being an affluent place. Ever since the end of WWII it has been a place for the masses to go out and sink their little flag in the American Dream of suburbia. But what's different in the Valley, the prices vary, you can buy a house at any level, but you can usually get more land there than you can anywhere else in Los Angeles."
On the Valley's role in the birth of Mall Culture:
"The first big indoor mall [in Southern California] was Topanga Plaza out in Canoga Park, and it came in the middle of the Baby Boom, when it seemed like a gazillion teenagers were around looking for something to do. The malls provided refuge from the heat, a place where you could gather and see kids from other schools other than your own and of course you could do some shopping. I think the mall, as they popped up just became the surrogate community centers for people in lots of places and lots of suburbs but it was really pronounced in the Valley."