Today on the show we take a look at relief efforts in The Philippines, both from Filipino-Americans and from Team Rubicon. Then, Desert Hot Springs faces bankruptcy, desert solar projects face increased scrutiny for environmental impacts. Photographer Tyler Shields talks about his latest book, "The Dirty Side of Glamour" and more.
Military vets of Team Rubicon join in on typhoon relief effort
Several organizations here in the U.S. are assisting in the relief efforts and gearing up to aid victims of Supertyphoon Haiyan any way they can.
One of these groups is called Team Rubicon.
It's an organization founded and run by military veterans using their skills to help those in the U.S. and overseas recover from natural disasters and conflict. Since its creation in 2010, Team Rubicon has assembled teams to assist in Haiti, Chile and Joplin, Missouri, to name a few.
Operation Seabird, their latest endeavor, is sending teams over to the Philippines to assist in search and rescue and medical assistance. Mike Lee, communications and fundraising coordinator for Team Rubicon joins the show with more.
Filipino-Americans crucial part of aid to typhoon victims
Here in Southern California, Filipino-Americans like Virgie Lyons from El Monte are trying to help by gathering whatever money they can to send their own aid.
For many, this aid money comes on top of regular remittances that they send back to their family members in The Philippines. All this cash may be a major force in what rebuilds the country and people's homes.
Last year, the U.S. sent The Philippines $158 million in development aid. That same year, Filipino-Americans sent their loved ones $9 billion.
For a look now at the effect of Filipino-Americans and their remittances on the recovery effort, we're joined by Jay Gonzalez, a professor and director of the Philippines Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
Desert Hot Springs facing bankruptcy with $3 million defecit
The Coachella Valley town of Desert Hot Springs is running a deficit of more than $3 million, or about 20 percent of its total revenue. Among the solutions are to declare municipal bankruptcy, or dis-incorporate the town, which is home to about 25,000 people.
Dave Nyczepir, a local reporter for The Desert Sun, joins the show to explain.
Desert solar panel projects face increased scrutiny
In San Bernardino County, birds are being found with their flight feathers singed and burned off their wings.
The birds are having a tough time trying to fly through the heat given off by solar thermal projects that have sprung up all over the California desert. With more of these projects looking to get green lit, what will that mean for the birds that are just trying to fly on through?
K Kaufman, reporter for the Palm Springs Desert Sun, joins the show with more.
LAX shooting: What is the Los Angeles Airport Police Division?
It was airport police officers, not the LAPD, who stopped the gunman at LAX a week and a half ago. The suspect killed a Transportation Security Administration agent and wounded others, and it was the first time airport police handled a mass shooting.
KPCC's Erika Aguilar profiles the LAX Airport Police Division, and some of the unique challenges it faces.
Recalls offer glimpse into secret world of Trader Joe's suppliers
Several salads and sandwiches sold at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have been recalled over fears of E. Coli contamination.
More than 180,000 tons of pre-packaged salads and wraps from a Northern California catering company could be affected by the deadly bacterium. It's the third instance of a food recall at Trader Joe's over the last couple years; there was salmonella-tainted peanut butter in 2012.
RELATED: Calif. catering company recalls prepackaged Trader Joe's salads
More recently, the company recalled 240 cartons of its butter chicken with basmati rice over fears of listeria contamination.
While these recalls have been alarming to customers, they do provide a rare glimpse into the often secretive world of Trader Joe's suppliers. Here to tell us more is reporter Amy Westervelt, reporter for Sustainable Industries and Fast Times.
Tuesday Reviewsday: MIA, Yuna, Dam-Funk & Snoopzilla, Run River North
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday, our regular segment in which we talk about the best in new music. This week we're joined by Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com and music supervisor Morgan Rhodes.
Morgan's Picks:
Artist: M.I.A.
Album: Matangi
Release Date: Nov. 5, 2013
Genre: Electronic
Label: Interscope
Songs: "Karmageddon"
This is M.I.A.'s fourth album, a follow up to 2010's Maya. Matangi refers to the Hindu goddess of music and spoken word. This album covers a variety of topics including media, politics, sexuality, and, of course, haters.
Artist: Yuna
Album: Nocturnal
Release Date: Oct 29, 2013
Songs: "Falling" "I Want You Back"
This is the sophomore effort from Malaysian singer, Yuna, and a follow up to her big U.S. hit, "Live Your Life" from her self-titled debut released in 2012.
Oliver's Picks:
Artist: Dam-Funk & Snoopzilla
Album: 7 Days of Funk
Release Date: Dec. 10, 2013
Label: Stones Throw
Songs: "Faden Away"
Pasadena’s own master of funk & boogie styles, teaming up with Snoopzilla aka Snoop Lion aka Snoop Dogg, on an album that makes so much sense, you have to wonder, “how come they didn’t this already”? It’s like one long smoke-out session, scored in syrupy synths and big fat baselines.
Artist: Run River North
Album: Run River North
Release Date: Feb. 24, 2014
Label: Nettwerk
Song: "Fight to Keep"
Six-person, Korean American band, mostly from the Valley (Northridge, holla). They were “discovered” partially by Honda and Jimmy Kimmel after recording this song in their Hondas, and then putting it on YouTube. Debut album is produced by Phil Ek (who’s produced Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Band of Horses, etc.).
Could cloud seeding help relieve drought in the West?
Back in 1946, a scientist working for GE named Bernard Vonnegut (brother of the writer, Kurt Vonnegut) discovered that silver iodide could make clouds produce more rain.
At the time, the idea of making rain was shrouded in magic and often fraud, but more than half a century later, cloud-seeding has been proven to work and be cost-effective. Plus, with so much of the West facing drought conditions, trying to wring a little more moisture out of passing clouds is becoming more and more popular.
For more on this, we reached out to Dudley McFadden, a civil engineer with SMUD - the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Typhoon Haiyan: Local Filipino community desperate for news about survivors
In The Philippines, communications are still down, days after Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the island nation. KPCC's Leslie Berestein-Rojas says families there, and abroad, are becoming desperate for news about loved ones.
What do recent weather patterns tell us about Typhoon Haiyan?
As the Philippines tries to recover from Typhoon Haiyan, scientists are looking more closely at the storm. With wind speeds of more than 190 miles per hour, Haiyan was the most powerful tropical storm to make landfall in recorded history.
At a UN Climate Conference in Warsaw, Poland, The Philippines delegate Yeb Sano delivered a passionate address to the group:
"We are conscious of the state of the science and we do not attribute a single weather event but we also know the trend of typhoons and the shift of our typhoon belt and the implications of what's happening on the ground."
For more on the strength and potential causes of this devastating typhoon, we're joined by Quirin Schiermeier, senior reporter with Nature who writes about extreme weather.
Investigation into candy factory explosion in Juárez ongoing
Authorities in the Mexican border city of Juárez are finalizing their investigation into the cause of a deadly explosion at a candy factory last month. This weekend a seventh person died as a result of his injuries. Seven others remain hospitalized with severe burns.
The factory is one of thousands spread across the border region that manufactures products and components for the United States. Mónica Ortiz Uribe from the Fronteras Desk has more.
California public schools to require students to learn typing
Smartphones, laptops and tablets are ubiquitous today, but it wasn't always that way. It used to be that most learned to communicate via the typewriter.
They've mostly gone the way of VCRs, but the standard typewriter keyboard design is alive and well. In California, a new set of academic standards will require public school kids, as early as kindergarten, to learn how to type. For the California Report, Ana Tintocalis has the story.
Eight-year-old Diane Chi cautiously punches letters on a keyboard with her little fingers as she listens intently to a computer program.
“I usually type the wrong letters. I’m not really used to typing yet so I'm still learning,” Chi says with a grin.
Chi attends school at Ponderosa Elementary located in the Santa Clara Unified School District. She and her classmates are learning how to manipulate that string of letters in the center of a keyboard known as the “home row."
Third grade teacher Lynn Hayes makes her way around the room whispering advice into her students’ ears, helping them reposition their tiny hands.
“These are standard-sized keyboards. They’re not miniaturized keyboards, so with little fingers its hard,” Hayes said.
Keyboard classes are a staple in this district. Instruction begins in kindergarten with students learning the basics of the keyboard.
State educators say Ponderosa students will be ahead of the game once California switches to a new set of academic standards next year called the Common Core.
The standards require students to use keyboarding skills in every grade. Third-graders have to write three short pieces. Fourth-graders will be expected to type out a full page in one sitting.
All students will have to use a keyboard to take California’s new computerized standardized state test.
Jacqui Murray, a veteran technology teacher and blogger, says kids who have technology at home already will have a big advantage over those who don't. She has seen it first-hand with students using their thumbs to type letters on the keyboard.
Murray believes the digital divide will become apparent once testing shows many children have poor typing skills.
“(Students) use what seems to work and then it becomes a habit unless someone intervenes and tells them the right way. Much like (teaching) piano, you’d never tell a child, ‘Sit down and learn piano on (your) own.’”
Many parents are now worried about how their children will satisfy the new standards if they have never received keyboard instruction.
Nettie Atkisson has an 11-year-old daughter in the San Francisco Unified School District who can take two hours plunking out a school report. Atkisson says schools should stop teaching cursive and start teaching keyboard instruction as soon as possible.
“Starting early and giving them time … cramming is where the tears come from and the frustration comes from,” she says.
San Francisco Unified, like most large urban school districts in California, is just beginning to develop a plan to introduce more keyboard classes to the early grades.
Marshall Elementary is one San Francisco public school that voluntarily teaches keyboarding.
Marshall tech teacher Marco Bianchi chooses to use a computer program called BBC Dance Mat developed in the UK because the animated characters have “funny voices and do silly things” to reward children during keyboard drills.
Bianchi says finding these fun, free online programs is “the easy part.” Bianchi says the challenge for all districts will be creating space for new computers and keyboards, as well as maintaining all the hardware.
“On any given day I’ve got one or two computers that are in disrepair,” Bianchi says. “I’ve had to sit children down on the floor because we didn’t have enough seats that worked for all the students.”
Districts have to act fast. The state wants to try out the new computerized state tests this Spring. Test scores won't count against students or their schools.
Educators say that is a good thing because they expect the lack of keyboarding skills to be a big hurdle.
'State of the Entertainment Industry' conference kicks off without Sen. Calderon
Today in Los Angeles, movie moguls and local lawmakers are gathering for a one-day conference to look at the "State of the Entertainment Industry."
The specific focus is on the future of production in southern California and the state tax credit program that's been designed to lure filmmakers into making movies locally.
But one regular player in these kinds of discussions is missing today: State Senator Ron Calderon of Montebello.
He's been a huge booster of TV and film production in L.A. as a member of the California Film Commission's board, but he was removed from that position due to an ongoing FBI investigation involving bribes.
To tell us what -- if any -- implication that investigation will have on the talks today, we turn to KPCC business reporter Brian Watt.
Garden City: Tending to a cultural crossroads in Kansas
The growth of jobs in meat-packing plants in the rural Midwest has created an unexpected challenge: immigrant families in need of food, housing, and education.
Yesterday, we brought you a story about a small town in Missouri whose schools are the safety net for the kids of workers at a Tyson poultry plant. This morning is the second of three reports on children living "In the Shadows of the Slaughterhouse."
Peggy Lowe of Harvest Public Media reports from Garden City, Kansas. City leaders there are embracing the town's cultural change, which is driven by its newest citizens.
Picture This: Tyler Shields and 'The Dirty Side of Glamour'
Photographer Tyler Shields has made a name for himself with celebrity photographs that are definitely not your standard TMZ fare.
He's shot Lindsay Lohan holding a bloody dagger over a corpse in an LA tunnel, and he also convinced actor Gary Busey to sit still, in a straitjacket no less, for another image.
His new book, "Dirty Side of Glamour," documents his life among the stars.
EVENT: See Shields's work on display at the Guy Hepner gallery in West Hollywood