California Senate, Assembly issue budget proposals; Sen. Barbara Boxer calls for probe of San Onofre power plant; Congressman Jeff Denham explains criticism of high speed rail plan; Imperial Valley farmer worries about how drought will affect his livelihood; Sequester cuts hit Monrovia Head Start program, others soon to follow; How an election in a small Washington town could change the planet, plus much more.
California Senate, Assembly issue budget proposals
Two weeks ago Governor Brown released his $96.4 billion dollar budget proposal. Now the State Senate and Assembly have outlined their plans. Which budget will prevail?
For more on this we're joined by John Myers, political editor for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento.
Sequester cuts hit Monrovia Head Start program, others soon to follow
Washington's sequester cuts have begun to reach local families. Head Start programs, which serve 110,ooo Californians, are starting to cut back. In the San Gabriel Valley, a Head Start agency will be forced to eliminate an afternoon preschool class in Monrovia because its funding was reduced.
In part two of our series on the across-the-board cuts to federal programs, KPCC's Deepa Fernandes visited the preschool class that won't exist come August.
SEE PART ONE: The sequester budget cuts: Southern California's needy begin to feel the effects
Sen. Barbara Boxer calls for probe of San Onofre power plant
Senator Barbara Boxer is asking the Justice Department to investigate whether Southern California Edison lied to regulators and the public about the San Onofre nuclear plant. Boxer says she has a letter proving the utility knew about potential problems at the plant back in 2004.
KPCC's Ben Bergman has been following this story for months, and joins us now with more.
Congressman Jeff Denham explains criticism of high speed rail plan
We reported yesterday about a Congressional High Speed rail hearing in Madera, California.
Congressman Jeff Denham called that hearing to determine how one company, Tutor Perini, was selected to build the first phase of California's bullet train, despite having the worst-rated safety plan of all the competing bids.
Congressman Denham, who chairs the House Subcommittee on rail, joins the show to explain why he called the hearing.
Sports Roundup: Freeway Series, LA Kings, Rutgers woes and more
Time to run through sports with our pair of aces Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, who have covered sports for ESPN and the L.A. Times.
Last night, the Dodgers beat the Angels for the second straight night, and the Freeway Series continues tonight. At the Staples Center, the Kings beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 to advance to the Western Conference finals. They'll play the winner of tonight's game between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.
The Kings are four wins away from heading back to Stanley Cup finals and chance to go back to back. In many other NHL cities, these guys would be super stars, but A says the average L.A. sports fan probably wouldn't be able to recognize goaltender Jonathon Quick or Kings captain Dustin Brown if they were standing in front of them. Why is that?
Rutgers University is having a rough few months. Former basketball coach Mike Rice fired for being abusive, and his replacement Eddie Jordan was believed to be a Rutgers alum, but never actually graduated. Newly hired athletic director Julie Hermann is accused of being abusive when she coached volleyball at Tennessee.
In the NBA playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs are in the NBA Finals waiting to play the winner of the Indiana Pacers/Miami Heat series, which tied at two games apiece.
The Spurs have been accused of being boring, even though all they ever seem to do is win. Why is tough for them to get respect?
Brittney Griner and the future of the WNBA
WNBA rookie Brittney Griner made a spectacular set of plays earlier this week when she dunked twice in one game during her professional debut.
While many think that this is just the thing the WNBA needs to thrive, but others are less convinced.
Recently the firm 24/7 Wall St. put out its annual list of companies and brands that are headed for extinction. Its list included poor performing brands like Nook, Volvo and Martha Stewart Living, but the WNBA also made that list, coming in at number seven.
To talk about the business future of the WNBA we talk with David Carter, principal with the Sports Business Group.
Without careful research, retirement abroad could be difficult
Yesterday we talked about how many Americans are ditching the U.S. and living out their golden years in Costa Rica. With the warm climate and low cost of living, who can blame them?
However, without careful research, that quiet paradise could turn into a nightmare. Jim Paluzzi from the Fronteras Desk reports.
Imperial Valley farmer worries about how drought will affect his livelihood
Federal officials met yesterday to address the drought in the Colorado River. The river is an important source of water for the Southwest, serving 40 million people in seven different states.
It also irrigates about 4 million acres of farmland. Much of it in California's Imperial Valley. Farmer Al Kalin has a 2,000-acre farm there. He says he's worried about how the drought will affect his ability to grow more water-intensive crops.
"All my crops are fairly water intensive. Carrots and sugar beets are a long term crop; it takes a long time to grow them, so they use more water," said Kalin. "But the majority of the acreage here is in alfalfa and bermuda grass, which are both fairly water intensive. We have to use that water as beneficially as possible for the next year or two years because we overran our allotment. We are under stricter regulations and have to use less water."
Farmers in California have the ability to grow year-round, which makes them especially susceptible to water shortages. As farmers are forced to forego planting certain crops, Kalin says the cost of those products will continue to rise.
"Historically, we've done everything we can to be as efficient as possible with our water. We've been working with Imperial Irrigation District to conserve water," said Kalin. "As water becomes more scarce, people will begin to look towards us because we have the biggest share of the water and try to figure out ways to, more or less, take it from us. That's a real concern."
Can California farmers benefit from dry farming methods?
One option farmers worried about the effects of drought might look into is a method called dry farming. As you might have guessed, it involves growing crops without using irrigation systems.
Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, joins the show to tell us how dry farming works.
Graduation Day: Student poet finds freedom in expression
As the school year winds down, many students are preparing for the next steps, be it travel or jobs or college. It's an exciting time but it can also raise feelings of anxiety and loneliness. As part of the California Report's Graduation Day series, we hear from Los Angeles student Kenzie Givens, a straight-A high school senior who navigates questions of race and isolation through poetry.
The last year of high school can be exciting, but for even the brightest students, it can be lonely. Today as part of our Graduation Day series, we'll meet high school senior Kenzie Givens, a straight-A student from Los Angeles who uses poetry to navigate questions of race and isolation.
It’s a chilly night in South L.A. and more than 100 young people have packed into a small theater for an open-mike poetry reading. Onstage is a tough-looking teenager—she’s dressed in a leather jacket, mini-skirt and combat boots, and her hair is done up in dreads.
But this young African-American poet, Kenzie Givens, doesn’t always feel so confident. She writes poetry because she often can’t connect with other students her age.
“When I’m at school I’m usually pretty shy,” said Kenzie, who is 17. “I have this little place where I sit off. It’s actually behind this little shrubbery thing—and that’s usually where I go and eat my lunch. If people are around me, my head tends to be in a book.”
Kenzie doesn’t go to school in her own African-American neighborhood. In the third grade, her parents chose to start sending her to charter schools in mostly wealthy white neighborhoods. Now she attends high school in the Palisades, an isolated beach neighborhood known to be one of the richest in the state.
“I tried to make friends with people and tried to ingratiate myself into different groups and stuff, but I found out that in order to do that I’d have to be someone that I was not,” she said. ”And that didn’t appeal to me. So I just kind of decided to be stubborn, and stick it out alone.”
Kenzie occupies a very different world when she’s away from school. The Crenshaw neighborhood in central Los Angeles is more than 70 percent African American. Signs on shop doors say “Black Owned” and “Support the Hood.” In a tiny hair salon, Kenzie gets her dreads done while her father, Darren Givens, chats with the other fathers assembled there.
“It was important to us to be in an environment where, one, they would be safe," Givens said. "But they’d be around their own people as well, able to go outside and play, drive around, participate in the neighborhood, go to their own stores, and different things.”
Caroline Givens, Kenzie’s mother, is a teacher in an urban South Central school. She said it was important to send Kenzie to a school that would prepare her for college, even though it was difficult sending her so far each day.
“I would have liked her to have more African American friends, which I think she doesn’t have as many. Does she have any?" she asked her husband.
"I don’t think she has any African American friends. No.”
Kenzie agreed it isn’t easy.
“I’m certain there’s someone at my school that I could have really great conversations with, but I’m so focused on my books and exploring topics on my own, I never get to talk about it with anyone," she said. "I’ve never had a boyfriend, or maybe my boyfriend is a book. I’m not sure.”
As the final days of high school tick away, Kenzie finds ways of connecting with other poets. Recently, she started a poetry club at her charter high school. It isn’t popular, but its members are dedicated to the craft.
During a drizzly lunch period, four teenagers assemble in a classroom to read their poems. There are no notebooks here, no scribbled journals. The students write and read their poems on their cell phone screens, their fingers scrolling the words. The poetry club members all agree that poetry is misunderstood at their school.
“When you tell people you’re a poet, they think you’re all sad and depressed, when it really isn’t like that,” one poet, Daniel, explains.
Kenzie expands on why poetry is so important to her.
“I write what feels most real at any moment. It can be any experience that is so moving that it demands to be written down," she said. "I think my biggest fear is probably a very common one, and that is of disappearing entirely. I‘d like to know that I mattered.”
On the night of her first open-mike reading, Kenzie’s nervousness melts away. She looks grounded, confident about her future. This fall, she’s heading to Reed College in Portland, where she has secured early admission and a scholarship. She is certain that the open environment at Reed will be accepting of her poetry -- and of her identity.
Meanwhile, here in this crowded theater full of poets and performance artists, she’s no outsider. Onstage, Kenzie Givens is at home.
How Colorado plans to regulate the legal use of marijuana
Yesterday, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a set of bills into law that will regulate the legal production, distribution and taxation of marijuana in the state. Last year voters approved a constitutional amendment allow adults to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana.
Colorado Public Radio's Ben Markus fills us in on how the state plans to control the legal use of pot.
How an election in a small Washington town could change the planet
A tiny political race in a tiny county is on the verge of making a big decision for the American coal industry. Whatcom County in northwest Washington State is the possible future home of a shipping port that would send 48 million tons of coal a year from the American West to China.
But the fate of the giant port hinges on a local race for four seats on the county council. As the nation's appetite for coal shrinks, this shipping port could have a huge impact on the coal industry, the environment and even trade relations across the Pacific.
Coral Davenport covers energy and the environment for the National Journal, she joins the show to explain.
Massive 1.7-mile long asteroid to sail 'close' to Earth
Have you ever wanted to see what the dinosaurs saw right before they became extinct?
Probably not, but if you have a very big telescope, you can look to the sky on Friday night to safely catch a glimpse of Asteroid 1998 QE2. It's 1.7 miles long — about the same size of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs — and it's flying close to Earth.
But no need to start rapidly checking things off your bucket list. The asteroid is expected to miss Earth by about 3.6 million miles, which is roughly 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon. At that distance it's not of much interest to astronomers and scientists who monitor threatening asteroids, but those with a 230-foot or larger radar telescope will be watching and taking notes.
"Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin," said Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise."
Asteroid 1998 QE2 was discovered in 1998 by MIT's Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program near Socorro, New Mexico. The asteroid will make its closest approach May 31 at 1:50 p.m. PSD. This is the closest it will be for at least two centuries.
"You still need a moderate-sized telescope to see this one," said Paul Chodas, a scientist with NASA's near earth object program office at JPL. "You still need an 8-inch telescope or so. It's in the Southern skies right now, so it's not particularly well situated. But after the close approach it will be pretty bright."
Radar astronomers using NASA's 230-foot-wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, are planning to monitor the asteroid and take an extensive number of observations.
"We don't know what it's made of, but we will know in a couple days. We'll know its shape and size, how fast it's rotating, we'll know about the boulders on it, craters possibly," said Chodas. "It's a dark asteroid from the depths of space. It's a very primitive body, probably consisting of blackish rock. It would have the same color as the bottom of your barbeque grill, but think of it as just a black rock."
What the Hitler teapot debacle says about the power of suggestion
This week a billboard high above a Culver City intersection got a lot more attention than was intended.
The seemingly innocent JC Penney billboard pictured a silver, whistling teapot that sort of looked like Adolf Hitler. It was one of those things that if you looked at it, maybe you'd only see a teapot. However, as soon as you mention that it looks like Hitler, that's all you can see. JC Penney has since taken down the ad and the teapot is sold out online.
That got us thinking about what's actually going on in your brain when just a mere suggestion can influence the way you see an object?
Leonard Mlodinow, author of "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior," says it's about the push and pull of our unconscious and conscious vision. Much like we have unconscious minds that are beyond our control, we also have an unconscious level of vision that works the same way.
"There are people who've had strokes that obliterate a certain part of the brain that's responsible for conscious vision...These people have something called blind sight: they can walk down a hallway and have no sensation of seeing anything, but still avoid obstacles instinctively as they walk because there unconscious mind is feeding them the information," said Mlodinow.
The human mind is built to find patterns. Our brains are constantly taking in information and employing context, prior knowledge and our experiences to make sense of the world around us. Mlodinow says that the addition of words, or someone suggesting a pattern, makes it even more difficult to erase from our unconscious minds.
"If you saw the billboard and no one mentioned Hitler you probably wouldn't think it looked like Hitler," said Mlodinow. "Once you hear the suggestion of Hitler you can't avoid seeing it."