Today on the show, we talk to California insurance commissioner Dave Jones about policy cancellations. Then, Kate Sheehy of the Fronteras Desk reports about the suburbs and America's new poor. Slate's Emily Yoffe joins the show with advice on how to deal with rude people, plus much more.
California's insurance commissioner addresses policy cancellations
Today, President Obama is taking his health insurance message to Texas, the state with the highest rate of uninsured Americans.
He's there to convince people to give healthcare.gov a try a day after after his administration reported improvements with the troubled website. Meanwhile, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is back on Capitol Hill answering more questions about the site.
Here in California, problems with our own state rollout persist, where close to one million Californians have learned their policies will be cancelled because they don't meet basic requirements. However, Blue Shield announced it will give a 90-day extension to about 115,000 Californians whose policies are slated to be cancelled.
For more on this, we spoke with state insurance commissioner Dave Jones, who has been a supporter of the ACA, but critical of the rollout.
How are Latinos faring with ACA open enrollment?
If you go to the Health and Human Service's website there is a page dedicated to the Affordable Care Act and Latinos.
It states that for, "Latinos, like other racial and ethnic minorities, the law will address inequities and increase access to quality, affordable health coverage." More than 10 million uninsured Latinos is this country stand to benefit from the the ACA and could get access to healthcare next year, according to the HHS.
But what if they can't sign up?
There has been a huge push to educate Latinos about the ACA and get them to enroll all across the country, but with all the problems swirling around the government's healthcare website and just a general disappointment with the process among all Americans.
Reports this week have suggested that enthusiasm among Latinos is dwindling.
Hidden in the suburbs: America's new poor
Poverty in the U.S. is no longer relegated to the ghettos and barrios of the inner cities. Today, more poor people can be found living in the suburbs than the cities.
The 'burbs of Las Vegas is one glaring example Between 2000 and 2012 the number of people living below the poverty line has doubled.
In part 2 of the Fronteras Desk's series on hidden pockets of poverty, reporter Kate Sheehy took a look at this hard to find population.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about new book 'The Bully Pulpit'
Theodore Roosevelt was famous for manipulating the media to get what he wanted but also gave them unprecedented access to the internal machinations of government.
How are things different under President Obama?
Pulitzer-prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin joins Take Two to talk about the Progressive Era and her sixth book, "The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism."
Sports Roundup: Dolphins drama, wacky injuries and more
Bullying culture in the NFL might be more deeply entrenched than we thought, there are some strange ways to get injured and if you can believe it marriage and tasers might not be a good mix.
For more on all this we're joined by Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, who have covered sports for ESPN and the L.A.Times.
The biggest story in sports is still the charges of bullying on the Miami Dolphins. Jonathan Martin claims his teammate Richie Incognito sent him threatening and racist text and voicemail messages over the last couple of years which has sparked debate over the culture of football. Incognito has been suspended pending an NFL investigation.
There seems to be a polar opposite difference in the way football people see this in comparison to most media and the public. A recent report in the Sun Sentinel does not paint a flattering picture of Dolphins coaches.
There is someone in Jonathan Martin's past that is not surprised he was target of bullying. Considering how image sensitive the NFL is, how do you guys think this will play out?
Injuries happen to athletes all the time but U.S. Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte has one for the record books, Brian.
While injuries are nothing to make fun of, what are some of your favorite wacky sports injuries.
Laying a bet down on a game has been going on since sports have been a thing. But a husband and wife in Wisconsin have one that neither will be able to live down.
World Series of Poker wrapped up last night and 23-year old Ryan Riess won $8.4 million after a 3.5-hour session. Have these poker competitions kind of played themselves out?
Etiquette Lesson: How do you deal with rude behavior?
Whether its in the workplace or out on the town, chances are you'll have to deal with someone's rude behavior.
Maybe its the woman in the movie theater trying to save an entire row, or a coworker who's gossiping about you. Or perhaps your neighbor insists on driving his Harley at full speed down your quiet street?
To help us navigate the people in our lives who lack some important social graces is Slate's Emily Yoffe, best known for her Dear Prudence advice column.
Washington voters take to the polls to decide on GMO labeling
To label or not to label genetically modified foods, that is the question Washington state voters were asked to decide in yesterday's election.
Early returns indicate that ballot initiative 522 is failing by about 10 percentage points. The measure would require any food that contains genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such.
Californians narrowly rejected a similar measure in 2012, but a national debate over GMO labeling is far from over. New York Times reporter Amy Harmon joins the show with more.
Where are all the women in LA's City Hall?
There's been a lot of talk about whether or not Hillary Clinton will run again for president in 2016.
She's not saying just yet, but Clinton is in town this week and will attend a fundraiser tonight that's expected to raise thousands of dollars for a super PAC that's pushing her to run. Several of the city's top politicians are slated to speak, including Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez and former city Controller Wendy Greuel.
Both Greuel and Martinez were here at KPCC last night as part of a panel about why there are so few women in politics in this town.
KPCC political reporter Alice Walton, who moderated the event, joins the show to talk about the event.
Would-be candidates get a boost onto the political ladder
While most any citizen can become a candidate, it's a challenge to recruit supporters and raise the money to run a winning campaign. But help is available to get a leg up on the political ladder.
Emily's List — the progressive Democratic political action committee that supports women candidates — recently brought potential office-seekers to a training program at a downtown L.A. hotel.
KPCC political reporter Sharon McNary reports.
This story is part of KPCC's "Project Citizen" series, which looks at the responsibilities, traditions, and privileges that come with citizenship.
Border Patrol rejects limits to use of deadly force policies
The U.S. Border Patrol recently reviewed its use of force policies, and concluded that agents will still be able to use deadly force against people throwing rocks.
This decision comes in spite of the reported recommendations of an advisory board to end that tactic. From Tucson, Fronteras Desk correspondent Michel Marizco explains.
Graton Resort and Casino in Northern California opens with a packed house
Yesterday in the Northern California town of Rohnert Park , the Graton Resort and Casino opened its doors for the very first time. The $800 million Vegas-style casino was soon packed to the gills.
By mid-day there was a 200-person wait list for one of the casino's 13 restaurants.
For more on what is now one of the largest gaming operations in the country, we're joined now by Jeremy Hay, staff writer for the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa.
Santa Monica Airport: Business asset or too close for comfort?
Last week, the city of Santa Monica sued the Federal Aviation Administration, seeking control over the Santa Monica Airport.
The city wants authority over the land, and, in two years, to end its obligation to keep the airport running. KPCC's Brian Watt has the story.
Music supervisor Randall Poster talks 'Love To Love You Donna'
If you've like a soundtrack well enough to buy it after seeing the movie, there is a very good chance that soundtrack was put together by Randall Poster.
He's got 99 music department credits on IMDB ranging from the "Hangover" trilogy to "Boardwalk Empire" to every Wes Anderson film ever made.
But he doesn't just work on movie music, he also keeps busy producing records, the latest is a tribute to Donna Summer called "Love to Love You Donna". For more on this remix version of one of disco's heroines, Randall Poster joins host Alex Cohen from New York.
Interview Highlights:
I am curious what the draw is for you to disco?
"Growing up in New York City, as a teenager I was really sort of caught in those twin worlds of punk rock and disco. I spent some of my adolescence on a dance floor. So to me it was sort of a magnet that I could not avoid the draw to Donna Summer and her legacy."
You went more for the dance strain?
"We decided we did not want to do covers of the songs. That we wanted to basically remix the original Donna Summer tracks and just feeling that that was really the most current way to pay tribute to the living values of the music and to keep it alive." So put together the trilogy here of "I feel loved," (the original by Donna Summer, the remix by Afrojack and the remix by Benga) what do you hear?
"I think that what has happened is that this digital revolution has happened. There is more for these producers and artist to do with computers to sort of provoke and massage these original recordings. Time has marched on in terms of what is available to a remixer and I think that the fruit of that is on this record."
In doing these remixes did you learn something new about Donna Summer?
"I think really what I was constantly reminded of when these remixes would come in is how timeless the Donna Summer spirit is and why she captivated so many people over the course of her career. It really is music that you surrender to and she invites a certain kind of rhapsody and revelry that we as urbanites kind of yearn for. "I was reminded constantly in the course of making this record, and talking to the artists about it, just how she somehow trumped time and transcended an era. What made this more relevant is that there has been such an incredible explosion in dance music over the last number of years and she manages to be still be the first lady of the dance floor."
Can you talk to us about your approach in how you put together the perfect playlist for a project?
"Every movie is different in that it has different musical requirements either at the outset or the course of the process. Obviously, you read a script and if it calls for a big band to be playing in a scene you have to sort of gather material in get that altogether before production starts or otherwise you find the music mood as the picture comes together.
"One of the benefits of the working relationships I have with certain directors is that there is a lot of musical back-and-forth between the movies. And that is most notable in my working relationship with Wes Anderson. Once we started working together on the music for "Rushmore," I don't think we have ever stopped working and often times we have a pretty good sense of what we want to draw from the music as we go into making these movies by virtue of the work that we have done before there is even a script."
There is a lot of music out there in the world, how do you stay on top of it all. How do you pick the right one?
"I work very hard at it. There is a lot of detective work that goes on in terms of, not only finding the song, but at certain points finding out who owns the songs and how you are able to do all that needs to be done to use the music in a film. Whether it is researching, archives at a university to find what were the great broadway show tunes of 1920 or tracing through the markets of Kolkata looking for old vinyl recordings of Indian film scores, it is a bit of an archeological exploration that goes on."