Local Californians who have family in The Philippines talk about the relief efforts here | An explainer on how a court decision on net neutrality could slow down the Internet | We go behind the scenes and behind the mic with voiceover artist Ben Patrick Johnson | Thousands of letters written by service members and veterans arrive today at Chapman University | The quandary for Fresno State's football team which shares a mascot with a local gang, and much more.
Local pastor reaches out to friends and family in the Philippines
Five months ago, Jeffrey Ilegan left his home in the Philippines to pursue ministry opportunities in the United States. He left his wife and three kids in the hopes of creating a better life not only for himself, but for those he hoped to serve. When the massive typhoon devastated the Philippines Friday, his loved ones seemed very far away.
Ilegan is the associate pastor of Filipino Disciples Christian Church here in Los Angeles and shared his story.
Odd Hollywood Jobs: Voiceover artist Ben Patrick Johnson
Chances are you've heard Ben Patrick Johnson's voice before, but you've never realized it.
Johnson is one of less than a dozen people who are major voiceover artists in Hollywood, and you know his voice. Take a listen.
Johnson was actually born with this gift.
"When I was a small child, they sent me in for some hearing testing," he says. "Sometimes, when little kids have a big voice that they kind of push, it can be an indication that there's hearing loss."
But his hearing was fine -- he just had a deep, resonant voice. By his early teens, he was getting the kind of work in radio that college-age kids would hope for.
It wasn't until a professional set-back put his career in motion to do voiceover work.
"In 1994, I was hired to be the first host of the TV show Extra," says Johnson, but, "it didn't work out quite as planned: just before the show went on the air, they found out that I gay. They didn't like that."
He was demoted to Senior Correspondent for the rest of his one-year contract. During that time, he cultivated relationships with the cast and crew of the show.
Once those people moved elsewhere in Hollywood, they kept him in mind ... and gave him voiceover work. Eventually he got so much that it became his full-time gig.
And it's a pretty nice set-up.
"We voiceover actors have home studios," says Johnson, and they connect to their clients via ISDN (think of it like a really high-quality phone line -- KPCC uses the technology, too, to talk to guests all around the world and make them sound like they're in studio).
"I might get a call or text from an agent saying, hey, 'we've got a booking for you in a half-hour at 1:30,'" he explains. "At about 1:28, I'll get an email with a script."
Then he pretty much reads the script cold -- and to be on Johnson's level, you need to get it right the first time.
"Clients are paying $300-$400 an hour for studio time, and there's a lot of people in the room, typically, and it's a matter of nailing it very quickly and moving on."
Take a look at this short documentary for more on how Ben does his job, and listen for more of what he told A Martinez on Take Two.
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Traveling teacher serves 350 LA Unified students (photos)
For most kids attending public schools in Los Angeles, arts instruction makes up a tiny part of their week. The L.A. Unified School District wants to increase arts offerings for students, saying there simply isn't enough of it.
Elementary school principals say they have to lobby hard for a share of the district's arts teachers - and often find themselves wanting more.
A few years ago, the district had nearly 400 traveling arts teachers. Today, there are slightly more than 200 for the district's 272,000 elementary school students.
KPCC's Mary Plummer spent the day with Linda Mouradian—the sole music teacher for hundreds of students in the San Fernando Valley. She's a "traveling music teacher" who drives to different elementary schools in the valley where she teaches strings, woodwind and brass after bringing out her handy rolling cart stuffed with sheet music, lesson plans and attendance records.
New computer system reduces backlog for veterans waiting on benefits
In March, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed serious delays in providing health care to more than 250,000 veterans.
Some had been stuck on waiting lists for more than a year. The news brought national attention to the problem.
For the California Report, Aaron Glantz explains what the VA has done in recent months to reduce its backlog.
On The Lot: Britain's film industry, Hunger Games theme park and more
Time for On the Lot, our weekly summary of news from the movie business with LA Times reporter Rebecca Keegan.
We start off with Britain's film industry, which has boomed over the years thanks to government policy promoting and two very successful movies that helped cement the relationship between Hollywood and Britain, The Harry Potter and James Bond series. There's also another fad catching on at these film studios, the more extravagant Hollywood practices such as fancy meals.
And speaking of James Bond, we take a look at the Youtube video of Judi Dench, M from the James Bond series, as she goes after the MPAA which gave her new movie "Philomena" an R-rating.
The release of the much anticipated "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" has prompted talks of a Hunger Games theme park. The original movie grossed almost $700 million.
Small towns struggle to provide social services to immigrant meatpacking population
For centuries, immigrants in search of a better life have settled in America's largest cities.
Now, thanks in part to the meat-packing industry, small, rural towns have become a key frontier. But these small towns struggle to provide the social services needed by such a diverse population.
One that's largely invisible to most Americans. It's the subject of a new series called "In the Shadows of the Slaughterhouse." Reporter Abbie Fentress Swanson of Harvest Public Media has the first story.
A judge could soon change how you use the internet
Net Neutrality.
You've probably heard that phrase from time to time - and you're about to hear it again.
In short - it's the idea that Internet service providers should allow equal access to all online content. The issue of net neutrality has popped up in a U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit Court. A judge will decide soon whether net neutrality is a viable law. And depending on the decision - it could completely change the way that you browse websites.
Brooks Boliek is technology reporter for Politico and he speaks with A Martinez about the case.
Remembering our nation's veterans through their letters
It's hard to understand what life on the battlefield is like if you've never been there. Or what being on the frontlines looks like from the vantage point of our service members, shuddering with each explosion and flinching at each flare.
But you CAN get a glimpse of that life through the letters written by those who have been to war.
Thousands of personal letters are being collected starting today at Chapman University's new Center for American War Letters -- a center that could not have happened without Andrew Carroll.
For 15 years, Carroll has been collecting and curating these letters by service members and their families for The Legacy Project.
He's now giving that collection to the Center where it will be used to teach about wartime life. And this idea to gather these letters all started with a fire.
"Before Christmas of 1989, my house here in Washington DC burned down," says Carroll, burning up a wealth of family memorabilia.
A distant relative then decided to forward him a letter that he wrote during World War II when he was going through a former Nazi concentration camp.
"He said, 'Keep it. I was going to throw it out anyway.'"
That gesture made Carroll realize the wealth of other personalized letters that are out there -- some might that go misplaced or discarded.
"What I want these letters to do is give us a better sense of sacrifice by these men and women, and humanize them."
If you'd like to contribute to the collection, send your letters here:
The Center for American War Letters
c/o Char Williams - SMC
One University Drive
Orange, CA 92866
Are company initiatives to hire more veterans working?
Corporate America has been on a mission to hire unemployed veterans. Chains from Starbucks to Walmart have rolled out special veteran hiring programs.
Anthony Wayne Ford, a veteran from the Vietnam War era who was laid off from his job painting apartments earlier this year, is skeptical about companies targeting veterans. He believes that certain initiatives targeting veterans are simply "good PR for their companies."
But some corporate executives disagree, saying publicity isn't the main factor driving these hiring campaigns. "This is about good business," says one corporate executive.
This year, major corporations like Walmart have announced the hiring of 100,00 veterans in the next five years. Starbucks also recently announced that it would hire 10,000 veterans.
Do veteran hiring programs make a difference? What are some advantages or fall backs of such initiatives? Are veterans in the same boat as other Americans when it comes to jobs and the unemployment rate? What are your thoughts on veteran hiring programs?
KPCC's Josie Huang examines the impact of these initiatives.
Typhoon Haiyan leaves thousands begging for aid in Tacloban
In the central Philippines, stunned survivors have been picking through the remains of their homes and pleading for food and medicine as Typhoon Haiyan makes its way.
The typhoon is thought to have killed thousands of people in one city alone, Tacloban.
The BBC's Jon Donnison reports from the Tacloban.
The Fresno State football team vies with a notorious gang for its bulldog logo
Football reigns supreme in the San Joaquin valley, and this year the Fresno State Bulldogs college football team is 9-0 and ranked in the top 20 nationally. But for years, gang violence has dampened team spirit. That's because the team shares its muscled cartoon bulldog mascot with the notorious Bulldogs gang, which law enforcement officials consider to be the largest independent street gang in the country, boasting an estimated 30,000 members. Confusing the team with the gang has proven deadly; at their height in 2006, the Bulldogs gang was responsible for 70% of the shootings in Fresno and schools banned bulldog attire in response. The violence has left Fresno State school administrators in an awkward position as sales of Fresno State bulldog merchandise has grown tenfold since the gang's appropriation of the log0. Valley Public Radios' Joe Moore joins Take Two to discuss.
Joshua Dubois and 'The President's Devotional'
Spirituality can come in all forms, but for one man, facing some incredibly huge challenges, faith came in the form of a daily email.
That man was none other than Barack Obama.
And those emails came from Joshua Dubois, who served as the President's spiritual advisor and led the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Alex talked to him about his new book, The President's Devotional.