The aftermath of LAist's shutdown, a program that hires the homeless to pick up trash, remembering Selena Quintanilla.
State of Affairs: Harassment in the capital gets called out
This week on State of Affairs:
- PG&E is facing scrutiny in the wake of the devastating fires in Northern California. Investigators are trying to determine if their power lines sparked them. Now, four lawmakers are working on a bill that would prevent the company from passing on future legal costs to customers in the form of rate hikes.
- A new report shows the state legislature has shelled out at least $580,000 to settle claims ranging from harassment to racism, but specifics remain shrouded.
- Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra is facing calls to step down after revelations that he groped a longtime aide.
Christina Bellantoni, assistant managing editor of politics for the LA Times, says that harassment in the political world has persisted for years.
"I covered Washington for many years. I lived there for 13 years, and certainly, the nation's capital is not immune to this at all," Bellantoni says.
You start to go back and think about those stories — people talking about other people engaging in sexual activity after hours and gossiping. That's one of the cultures of a state house town. It just happens.
Then there's actual unwanted action. They would tell young staffers: 'make sure not to get in an elevator with Strom Thurmond' because he was touchy or he would say something to you that would make you uncomfortable. That's something that I think for a long time was just not talked about. People accepted it as one of the things that just happens.
I think this entire movement has just brought up that people want to say that we shouldn't accept it anymore.
Guests:
- Christina Bellantoni, assistant managing editor of politics for the LA Times
- Ben Adler, capitol bureau chief for Capitol Public Radio
Press the blue play button above to hear more.
LAist shuts down, and a former writer reflects
The local news web site LAist abruptly shut down yesterday afternoon, along with its New York City sister site Gothamist.
When visitors log on to the site, there's now a letter from CEO Joe Ricketts saying it was a difficult decision to shut the company down, but "at the end of the day...businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure."
The New York office voted to unionize last week, and it's unclear whether that decision had any impact on the sites shutting down.
But to many of its fans, the information LAist provided was priceless.
"It was a curator and creator of local news and local content," says KPCC digital producer Lisa Brenner, who wrote for LAist at one point in her career. "It felt like a community. It spoke to the community."
Listen to more of Brenner's reflections on LAist's impact. Click the audio player above.
LA wants to hire the homeless to help pick up trash — will it work?
Anyone living in L.A. sees it: fast food wrappers, plastic grocery bags and everything else thrown onto the ground instead of in a garbage can.
But trash is more than just a nuisance for residents. The Department of Public Works' Sanitation Bureau receives nearly 200 requests per day to clear up litter, illegal dumping and other debris blocking the streets — and they're running out of staff to do the job.
So, why not hire from a pool of employees in closer proximity: the homeless?
That's the idea behind a pilot program proposed by L.A. City Councilmember Joe Buscaino of District 15.
"It's an innovative solution to one, address the trash issue facing our city, [and] second, gives us opportunity to get the homeless individuals off the streets and provide them with an opportunity to self-sustainability," Buscaino said.
Buscaino's office is working together with Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Nury Martinez in what they hope will be a win-win solution after hearing success stories from similar initiatives on the local level.
"Clean Streets, Clean Starts" is one such initiative created by The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission in Northridge last year.
"It's much more than picking up trash," said Wade Trimmer, director of the Rescue Mission. "It's light landscaping, it's beautifying the community, and what we saw [was] that the community was really rallying and coming around these folks — the grocery stores bringing bottles of water, [the] coffee shop [giving] free breakfasts. It's a community effort, but the really critical piece in that is that all of a sudden people who are marginalized are brought back into community, and that's huge."
Trimmer hopes that a county-wide initiative will create a faster pipeline of opportunities and help residents to see the homeless population as a community with assets — not just a liability.
To hear more about how the "Clean Streets, Clean Starts" program operates, click the blue play button above.
The 100-year-old telescope at Mt. Wilson that changed cosmology forever
The Mt. Wilson's Hooker telescope has contributed to some of the most significant discoveries in the history of astronomy. But as its centennial approached, a fire almost prevented anyone on site from being able to celebrate.
"Things got scrambled a little bit last week as we had the Wilson fire," said Dan Kohne, Mt. Wilson Board of Trustees member. All the workers at the facility had planned all year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Hooker telescope. But when the blaze broke out in mid October, it complicated things.
"Everyone had to be evacuated," Kohne said. "They're dropping in the water and those fire retardants. But it's always scary. You never know."
Responders were eventually able to extinguish the blaze and an evacuation order was lifted, which meant guests could go to the observatory to get a first-hand look at the Hooker telescope.
The Hooker telescope and its 100-inch lens have contributed to many major discoveries in the scientific community.
Evidence for the expansion of the universe, dark matter, and moons of Jupiter have all been documented thanks to the pictures taken with its 100-inch reflector.
"The biggest breakthroughs of the last century that still define our cosmology today were discovered on this very telescope," Kohne said.
On Saturday, Kohne and other staffers will lead people into the dome housing the telescope. The roof will be opened to give the telescope its view of the sky.
While the telescope is stationary, Kohne is able to rotate the entire dome around it, including the floor of the central area.
Kohne wants this experience to help bring the big concepts of astronomy back down to Earth for attendees. "If you go through the process, people can understand it," he said. "If you have to try to decipher it through words, it becomes too mysterious or you give up. But it's totally understandable."
Click here to find out more about Saturday's celebration at the Mt. Wilson Observatory.
To hear more about the 100th anniversary of Mt. Wilson's Hooker telescope, click the blue player above.
These 4 OC districts will be fierce battlegrounds in the 2018 midterms
LA commemorates Mexican-American music icon, Selena Quintanilla
It's official. Nov. 3 is now Selena Day in Los Angeles. The iconic Mexican American singer, Selena Quintanilla, is getting her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Friday night, 22 years after her death.
Known as the "Queen of Tejano Music," Selena rose to fame in the early nineties as a Spanish language singer. Her crossover into English pop was cut short when she was killed by the former president of her fan club. She was only 23 years old.
Today, Selena's memory is alive and well, Justino Aguila of Billboard magazine told Take Two. He was joined by Deborah Paredez, author of "Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory," and KPCC listeners Angelica Reyes, Lorena Bernal Cowell, Victor Lomeli, Lauren Romero, Silvia Nevarez, Claudia Pena and Valeria Sanchez.
"Selena was definitely somebody who changed the game," Aguila said. "The '90s was also a time when I think Latin music was trying to figure it out. What do we want? Who’s our base? Is to going to expand? Is it English? Is it bilingual? And so her influence I think helped carry Latin music to a different place where it was accessible."
Selena was someone I tried to emulate growing up as a Chicana in the Valley because she was so relatable. I remember watching her and somehow feeling connected to her thinking to myself, "Wow, she’s just like me."
Although her initial rise to fame was within the Spanish language genre, Selena didn't speak Spanish fluently as a child. "Like a lot of Tejanas who grew up in the United States, she struggled with Spanish and this produced a tentativeness with the language and a feeling of insecurity sometimes around our place as Latinos," Paredez said. "What was so amazing about Selena is that she performed publicly that struggle with Spanish saying, ‘Estoy muy excited.’ And that moment of endearing vulnerability provided, for so many of us like her, this opportunity to say, it’s okay that we share this linguistic neither-here-nor-there-ness with regards to Spanish and English."
I was introduced to this clunky but confident combination of two languages known as Spanglish. And I was soon using it as a way to express my Mexican American-ness.
Hearing that Selena was not a native Spanish speaker like myself just really showed, just because I can't speak the Spanish well, doesn't mean I can't be involved with my culture or with the singing.
Selena was especially meaningful to Latino audiences in the U.S. for providing a positive and empowered representation in the media. Listener Lauren Romero remembers a famous scene from the Selena biopic starring Jennifer Lopez. Edward James Olmos played Selena's father and manager, Abraham Quintanilla, Sr.
Romero thought that Olmos said it the best. "You have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans. Nobody knows how tough it is be a Mexican-American."
Selena's untimely death hit her fans hard. Deborah Paredez thinks that in part, "Selena’s death, and her life, provided an opportunity for many of us to celebrate some of the promises that our future might hold. But also to have a kind of sanctioned space to grieve. Not just for the loss we felt with her absence but the many losses that our lives were marked by."
It mostly reminds me of my sister, Julia who passed away a year ago. So when I listen to her now, it makes me think of the good memories that we shared together. But sometimes it’s fun to imagine that my sister and Selena are in the next world together. And maybe they’re dancing to Techno Cumbia or singing Como la Flor together. It makes it hurt a little less.
Paredez also thinks that Selena continues to stay relevant as a public figure because Latinos continue to face the same challenges in the U.S.
"Part of her legacy and her resurgence I think at this particular moment has a lot to do with the similarities to the particular political moment we’re living in now – between now and the 1990s," Paredez said. "It’s a moment of extreme anti-immigrant and especially anti-Latino rhetoric in mainstream political culture. Being drawn to Selena give us this opportunity to mourn that ongoing and very resurgent situation."
It's true, Selena's fans still look to her as a role model all these years later.
I want to be able to show that to my daughter. You can be that great powerhouse just like Selena.
Thank you, Selena for being a remarkable role model. Your spirit will live on in our hearts forever.
The dedication ceremony for Selena's star is Friday at 6:30 p.m. in front of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.
Daylight Saving Time: Love it or hate it?
This Sunday, Daylight Saving Time ends and we’ll be falling back an hour.
The U.S. implemented the practice in 1918, in an effort to conserve energy and make the best use of daylight. But even though it’s been introduced for over 100 years, it’s one of those little things that stir up big feelings in people.
You either love the time change or you hate it. So, we asked our listeners on Twitter how they feel.
It makes it much better. Standard Time is BEST time. It should be noon when it's noon. Like AZ, we really should stop with the DST nonsense.
— KoHoSo™🌻 (@KoHoSo) November 2, 2017
While Mike Mike Carpentier of Long Beach is all for it, because...SLEEP.
One more hour of sweet sweet weekend
— Loud Mic ☮️ (@the_LoudMic) November 2, 2017
Carpentier elaborated:
Nobody addresses the time change until we go to work Monday morning...Monday morning comes, I get to sleep in for that one extra glorious hour before I start hitting that snooze button.
Seems like humans aren’t the only ones that have opinions on DST. Twitter user Cranky Cat Lady tweeted:
It upsets the cat. She's fed on a schedule, she's old, and she doesn't take well to changes in routine. The rest of us adjust faster.
— Cranky Old Cat Lady 😾🐾 🇺🇦 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈💖 (@anne_d13) November 2, 2017
Well, regardless of how you feel, prepare to have your clocks set back one hour this Sunday, November 5.