Today, we'll start the show with a look into the suspected LAX shooter's belief in the "New World Order" conspiracy. Then, LGBT workplace rights bill moves forward in the Senate, Jezebel founded Anna Holmes joins the show to talk about her new book. Then, our Tuesday Reviewsday critics talk about new tunes by Eminem, Sky Ferreira and more.
FBI looks into suspected LAX shooter's belief in 'New World Order' conspiracy
The FBI was granted a warrant to search what is believed to be the cell phone of accused LAX shooter Paul Ciancia.
KPCC's crime reporter Erika Aguilar says the agency confirms it found evidence suggesting Ciancia believed in a conspiracy theory about a global government takeover called the New World Order.
For more on this prophet of paranoia we're joined by Alex Zaitchik, a freelance journalist who profiled Alex Jones for Rolling Stone magazine.
LGBT workplace rights bill moves forward in Senate
Last night, the Senate ended debate on a bill prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. A full vote on the measure is expected to take place later this week, and most observers believe it will pass.
But the Employment Non Discrimination Act still faces an uphill battle in the House.
For more on this legislation and what the Senate's move means in terms of progress on gay rights, we're joined now by Brad Sears, executive director of UCLA's Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy.
Can Gov. Brown's water tunnel plan solve central California's water problems?
It was on this day in 1913 when William Mulholland stood at the end of the L.A. Aqueduct, bringing the end to what was a massive engineering feat that brought water from the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains hundreds of miles to the city.
As the water began to flow into Los Angeles, he said those infamous words: "There it is, take it." The city did take it, and the more it took, the more it grew. Until the aqueduct wasn't enough.
Today, the water from the Owens Valley makes up only about a third of LA's water supply. A good portion of the rest comes from the Sacramento bay Delta through the state water project.
That source also serves millions of acres of farmland in the central valley, but aging infrastructure and concerns over environmental effects in the Delta have made it unreliable in recent years.
Governor Jerry Brown has been pushing a plan to make water supply both more reliable and more environmentally sound: The water tunnels. Here to tell us more is Lauren Sommer, environment reporter for KQED public radio in San Francisco.
Why 1913 was a big year for the City of Los Angeles
1913 was a big year for Los Angeles. The LA Aqueduct brought water to the San Fernando Valley and the La Brea Tar Pits were discovered. The Lincoln highway — the first transcontinental highway — opened, allowing cars to cross the country.
In addition, the Federal Reserve was created and Charlie Chaplin signed on with his first Hollywood studio, and World War I was just on the horizon.
We'll take a look at a formative year in Los Angeles history.
Writer Anna Holmes takes Jezebel from blog to book
In 2006, writer Anna Holmes was tapped to start the feminist blog, Jezebel.
Coming from a background of writing for women's magazines like Glamour, InStyle and Star, Holmes set out to subvert what she saw as a media landscape that perpetuated consumerism and women's negative views of themselves.
By the time she left in 2010, she had built one of the most successful sites in the world garnering 32 million page views a month.
Now Holmes has released "The Book of Jezebel," an encyclopedic collection of history, culture and all things important to the modern, Internet-savvy woman.
She joins the show in studio all the way from her home in New York to talk to us about her career, starting Jezebel and why she decided to take on this book project.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Eminem, Sky Ferreira, Luscious Jackson and more
Now it's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our weekly new music segment. Joining us this week are Shirley Halperin, music editor at The Hollywood Reporter, and Chris Martins, senior writer at spin magazine.
Chris's Picks
Artist: Eminem
Title: Marshall Mathers LP 2
Release Date: Nov. 5
Songs: "Rhyme Or Reason", "Headlights"
Success, fame, money none of these things appear to have made Eminem any happier because here we are on his 8th studio album and Marshall Mathers is still mad as hell.
On a song called “So Much Better,” Em raps, “ my life would be so much better if you just dropped dead.” On “Survival,” which he performed on SNL this past weekend, the tone is aggressive, featuring hard drums and anthemic guitar chords that almost a harken a return to the height of rap-rock circa the year 2000.
Indeed, in songs like “Berserk,” Em gives a nod to old-school hip-hop by sampling the Beastie Boys' ("The New Style" and "Fight for Your Right") and enlisting Rick Rubin to man the decks and the boards.
But there’s also a lot of variety on this album, and a few unexpected turns, like the track “Rhyme or Reason” which samples a familiar '60s tune.
That was the Zombies “Time of the Season” (1968) converted to an anti-parent rant that caps it all off with the line “There’s no rhyme or no reason for nothing.”
The song “Headlights” has another curious chorus. That would be Nate Ruess from fun delivering the hook in what sounds like it could have come out of Nashville as easily as Detroit.
Perhaps most fascinating is the overarching story here, a "revisitation" of the first Marshall Mathers album. The cover art shows the same house where Em spent his teen years and where he had posed for 2000’s The Marshal Mathers LP. Giving it the same name with a #2 is a bold move, but don’t call it a sequel. It’s more like the soundtrack to closure.
About the house: The house was purchased for $19,900 in 1987 by Eminem’s mom Debbie Nelson, but was foreclosed in 2001. A past owner unsuccessfully tried to sell the house on eBay for $500,000, but the Detroit News quotes the house’s actual value at $44,400 and yes, it’s still for sale. -- Chris Martins
Artist: Luscious Jackson
Title: Magic Hour
Release Date: Nov. 5
Songs: "You and Me", "3 Seconds to Cross"
Before there was Icona Pop, M.I.A. and even Lorde, there was this all-girl trio that helped define the indie rock sound back in 1991. Jill Cunniff, Gabby Glaser and Kate Schellenbach had a good run of nine years but decided to call it quits in 2000, probably right around the time that the aforementioned rap-rock took off.
Now it's been almost a decade since they last made a go of it and the girls are back with Magic Hour – an album that does, in fact, possess some pop magic in the form of songs like “You and Me."
On the mellower tip, take a listen to “3 Seconds to Cross,” which really showcases the harmonious blend of these three singers’ voices . There’s so much vibe in that. -- Chris Martins
Shirley's Picks
Artist: Sky Ferreira
Album: Night Time, My Time
Release Date: October 29
Songs: "You're Not the One", "Ain't Your Right"
Artist: Cut Copy
Album: Free Your Mind
Release Date: November 5
Songs: "Free Your Mind", "Take Me Higher"
A peek inside the LA Natural History Museum's whale warehouse
There's a collection at LA County's Natural History Museum that most don't get to see: The Marine Mammal Laboratory, otherwise known as the whale warehouse. It's 16,000 square feet of floor space and even more animal specimens, some of them way too big to even get into the museum.
RELATED: AudioVision: The Whale Warehouse
The Large Mammal Warehouse is in Vernon, not far from downtown Los Angeles, and its home to bones, organs and other parts helpful in understanding more about these animals and their habitats. Jim Dines is a mammalogist for the Natural History.
College town struggles to keep low income housing
In a growing college town like Flagstaff it’s often a struggle to find both low income housing and student housing. A new project for off campus housing at Northern Arizona University may result in the eviction of more than 50 families at a nearby trailer park. And they say they have no place to go.
Other college towns like Berkeley and Santa Barbara in California and Santa Fe, N.M., face similar problems. From the Fronteras Desk, Laurel Morales reports.
Many of the Ponderosa pine trees on Northern Arizona University’s campus have been recently replaced with new buildings as NAU tries to keep up with the flood of new students.
“Northern Arizona University has seen tremendous growth in its student population,” said Public Affairs Director Tom Bauer. “Just over the last six years or so we’re up 34 percent. So we are actually beyond what our normal capacity would be and we don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
The college has recently converted common areas and workout rooms in old residence halls into dorm rooms. Bauer said major out-of-state developers are paying attention to this growth trend and proposing student housing projects in neighborhoods surrounding the university.
Bauer did not want to comment on whether the university approves of the project that may shut down the trailer park. But he did say NAU brings a lot of money to Flagstaff.
“NAU is an economic driver,” Bauer said. “We’re the largest employer right now. We have 3,000 employees. We have 18,000 students just at our Flagstaff campus. These people live in town. They shop in town. We pay taxes. Many of our students are employed in the area.”
But Coral Evans, the vice mayor of Flagstaff, said there’s another problem here.
“There seems to be a devaluing of the people most impacted by the students and by NAU,” Evans said. “No one has considered, in my mind, their economic value.”
She said many people who live and work in Flagstaff can barely afford to live here. More than 20 percent live below the federal poverty level, according to the U.S. Census.
“What is the economic value of the 56 families that are doing quite frankly a lot of the service type of work that the NAU students benefit from?” Evans said.
People like Susan Ontiveros, a teacher’s aide. She puts her hand over her heart as she talks.
“I haven’t slept good anymore,” Ontiveros said. “I’m very upset.”
Ontiveros has lived in the Arrowhead Village trailer park for 25 years. She was devastated when the Georgia-based developerLandmark Properties told her and her neighbors they would have to leave.
“One of my boys was born there,” she said. “My other two boys were raised there. So it’s sad because they’re like we’re not going to go to our house anymore.”
A representative from Landmark Properties, who didn’t return calls for comment, met with Ontiveros and about 70 other residents — janitors, child care providers, restaurant workers. The proposal is still pending zoning approval from the city. He told them if they get it, the company would give them each $3,500 to move.
“We expect more money,” Ontiveros said. “I mean they’re trying to give us $3,500 to move? Not in Flagstaff. It’s not going to happen.”
Ontiveros said she has a decent job and will likely find a place to rent. Many of her neighbors won’t be so lucky.
A young mother who was afraid to use her name said she and her husband don’t have the legal documents needed to rent an apartment. She said they will likely move their family of six back to Mexico.
Community organizer Michelle Thomas recently met with the trailer park residents to help them bring attention to their problem. In a full elementary school gym, Thomas encouraged them to ask city council for an ordinance to protect residents like them and ensure that their payment would match what they need.
“They can do that,” Thomas said. “You can ask them to do that! And you should ask them to do that!”
Several cities in California, Texas and around the country have ordinances that give residents a detailed explanation of their rights to public participation, how to file a grievance and relocation assistance.
Such an ordinance could protect people in the future, and as Thomas pointed out this will likely happen again as NAU keeps growing.
Researchers find 52.2 million-year-old tomatillo fossil
A 52.2-million-year-old tomatillo was discovered in Laguna del Hunco, Argentina. Paleobotanist and Penn State professor Peter Wilf presented the findings recently at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.
How much bullying goes on in the NFL?
Last week, Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin abruptly left the team for what was then termed as a non-football related illness. Since then, reports have surfaced that his teammate Richie Incognito was the ringleader of years of intimidation and harassment.
That allegedly involved voicemail and text messages including threats on Martin's life and multiple use of the N-word. The Dolphins have indefinitely suspended Incognito, and the NFL is investigating.
But is all this just part of life in an NFL locker room, and is Incognito just part of a time honored century old jock culture in a sport where violence and extreme pain are the norm?
For more on the inner workings of the NFL we're joined by two-time Super Bowl winning wide-receiver Billy Davis. Billy played 6 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens. Welcome.
Football coaches hope 'Heads Up' tackling technique will make the sport safer
The issue of head injuries and sports has become a heated topic. Researchers are learning that even seemingly moderate impacts to the head can have far more lasting effects than previously thought.
That's causing many to wonder if one of the most violent sports, football, can change and become safer.
Because of this, across the U.S., coaches at the youth and high school level are learning and teaching a new tackling technique, known as “Heads Up Football,” geared to have players tackle with heads up, instead of using the helmet as a battering ram.
Take Two's A Martinez met one of these Heads Up coaches on the gridiron to see what goes into these new techniques.
'Johnny Cash: The Life' sheds new light on the Man in Black
Johnny Cash wrote more than a thousand songs during the span of his 50-year career. The new, 600-page biography, "Johnny Cash: The Life," by former LA Times music critic Robert Hilburn sheds new light on the Man in Black.
The Wall Street Journal calls it "The most authoritative and revealing portrait to date of the most chronicled figure in country-music history."
Hilburn first met Cash in 1968, and he was present for the famous live recording of Folsom Prison Blues. He interviewed the singer many times over the years, but Hilburn says he soon realized how little he actually knew about Johnny Cash when he began researching his book.
Hilburn joins the show to talk about his memories of Johnny Cash and what he learned while writing the book.
Interview Highlights:
What did you think was missing from previous bios of Johnny Cash?
"I thought I knew Johnny Cash to begin with. I thought all I was going to have to do was sit down and write the Johnny Cash that I knew, but when I started interviewing people around him, I interviewed probably more than hundred, I found his story was much different than I thought. I was not within 50 miles of knowing Johnny Cash, and it thought me that as much as we think we know celebrities, we don't. We know what they choose to tell us and what may happen in public, but we don't know really know the story. The story of Johnny Cash is much darker than anybody imagined and he is a much more important artist that anyone imagined."
How was the death of his brother a turning point?
"I did not want a happy picture because Johnny Cash was not particularly a happy man much of his life. He was troubled, and that was one of the things, the death of his beloved brother. He gets killed in a tragic accident. A saw in a school workshop cuts his stomach open and it is just agony for Johnny. And that is the beginning of the sadness in his eyes. Now there is many many things that contribute to it."
"It is certainly the drugs, he feels guilty over that. He gets arrested, he abandons his children, he felt guilty about that his whole life and it took decades before his children forgave him for that, the resentment of that. The fact that he was not the Christian man he wanted to be, all those things began multiplying and music became his only salvation, his refugee. That was the shelter from the storm. He would sit down and work weeks and weeks on that music and that is what made him so intense, so powerful and so artful."
There is also this song he writes called "Understand Your Man." This is pretty reminiscent of Bob Dylan's "Don't think twice."
"Bob Dylan loved Johnny Cash. Woody Guthrie was his great influence. But Bod Dylan did not know if he could be like Woody Guthrie in the 1950s and '60s. He saw Johnny Cash, and he is a Guthrie-like person, doing his own music, talking about real things.
"At the same time, Cash looks at Dylan, 'These songs are magnificent.' And John's not above stealing melodies. He wrote mostly words, he was a wordsman. He takes Dylan's message, but this message is directed at his first wife: Understand your man. At the end of the song, he is leaving. It is goodbye. Can you imagine, Vivian in Memphis when John first starts making records has the radio on all the time, trying to listen to Johnny Cash. By the time this record comes out, she is in California, she does not put the radio on at all. She does want to hear this song."
One of other great visions that Rick Rubin had was to bring songs that other people had written to Johnny Cash, including the song "Hurt" by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. There is a great backstory to which you talk about in this book."
"John's health was deteriorating. They both thought he had one album left to make and Rick wanted to find the ultimate song that would be his crowning achievement. He finds "Hurt," which is about heroin addiction. John changes it to be a song about false values and how they all go away in the end.
"So they make the record, they film a video of it, and in the video one of the most haunting scenes, John looks like he is almost dying in the video. His wife June Carter comes down and looks at him and she looks so sad and you think when you watched that video that she is thinking, 'What am I going to do without John?'
"What really happened, and I found this out in the research, the night before she had talked to a doctor. She had a terrible heart valve. She thought she was going to die because she was going to the hospital. So when she is looking at him she is really thinking, 'What is he going to do without me?' It is the most touching thing imaginable."
Event: Book discussion with "Johnny Cash: The Life" author Robert Hilburn at the Grammy Museum