What does it take to run a big city school district, Latino political power, fun and almost-free weekend events and Ebola panic on the Friday Flashback.
Wanted: New LAUSD superintendent
Boy, do we have a great job opportunity for you that just opened up.
It's high-profile, comes with a great salary and benefits and is perfect if you love working with kids.
The downside: it's a bit of a troubled position.
So, do you want to be the next superintendent of the LAUSD system?
John Deasy tendered his resignation yesterday. He's the fourth California superintendent to be ousted in the last two years, so obviously his successor will have a tough balancing act in making people happy.
There's a lot of vested interests who have a stake in our children's schools.
From SCPR's Public Insight Network, parent Manuel Urrutia and Sujata Bhatt, teacher and founder of Incubator School, explain what they'd be looking for in a new head of the LAUSD system.
Friday Flashback: Ebola, elections and what you might have missed
Ebola Ebola Ebola.
It's grabbed all the headlines this week and the topic has become a political football in Washington DC.
And speaking of politics, we are now just two and a half weeks away from the midterm elections.
Host Alex Cohen will talk with Flashback contributors Jim Rainey of the LA Times and Emily Schultheis of the National Journal and then drill down two important news stories we likely missed.
William H. Macy makes directorial debut with 'Rudderless'
William H. Macy has been a working actor for five decades. He made a name for himself in films like "Fargo" and "Magnolia," but he says nothing was as exhausting, intense and overwhelming as his latest project: a film about a band called "Rudderless."
The film focuses on Sam, played by Billy Crudup, a father whose life falls apart when he loses his son Josh to gun violence. After Sam discovers a box of his son's demo tapes and lyrics, his life sets off in a whole new direction.
After acting for so many years, Macy says, he had gotten to a point in his career where something new had to happen.
"And I think I wanted to be in charge," he says. "I’ve always fancied myself a raconteur, and I can tell a joke, and I love music, and this script came along, and it checked all the boxes I was looking for.”
He threw himself into the music-making process of the film, he says, because he loves music, but also because it's such an important aspect of the story.
"The music speaks for the son who died. We see him in about three scenes at the beginning of the film," Macy says, "but that's Josh's voice."
"Rudderless" opens in theaters October 17th.
Latinos could be voting Republican now if it weren't for immigration
It makes sense to believe that Latinos are a growing political force in California: more than a quarter of all eligible voters are Latino.
But it's also true in states that you wouldn't expect like Massachusetts and Ohio.
At the moment, they only make-up single digit percentages in several southern and midwestern places, all brought there by manufacturing and agricultural jobs and a better quality of life.
"But in a year with a lot of particularly close contests, places like Kansas and Georgia, it is possible -- even likely -- that Latino voters could provide the margin of victory," says Gary Segura, professor of political science at Stanford University and co-author of the new book, "Latino America."
It's a lesson for politicians in those parts of the country: what can they learn from California's own boom in the Latino population, and how can they capitalize on that as the faces of their own constituents change?
"Between 1980 and 1994, every year the Latino population in California was getting more Republican," says Segura. He says that as they achieved economic mobility and entered the middle-class, Latinos tended to vote for the GOP.
However in 1994 Prop 187 hit the scene, which would have blocked off social services from those who entered the country illegally.
In response to the overwhelming anti-immigrant and sometimes-racist sentiment by the measure's supporters, Latinos of different nationalities and age-groups banded together and overwhelming became democratic.
"Second, there was a huge boom in Latino voter registration that fundamentally changed politics in the state," says Segura, "so the Republicans really shot themselves in the foot on this issue. The Republicans could be doing better than they are now."
In states where Latinos currently make up just a sliver of the population, he says politicians need to pay attention right now to the tone they're setting on immigration reform measures.
That's because millions will become eligible to vote in the years to come: some second-generation immigrants will turn 18, while others who are already eligible to vote will become older and more likely to head to the polls.
"It's too late for 2014, it's probably too late for 2016, but the first step to rebuilding the GOP's brand among Latinos is to do no more harm," says Segura.
Amid fracking bans, Colorado discusses the controversial practice
This summer, the United States overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest oil producer.
And that's all due to one thing: the rise of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
It's a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling down into the earth, where a high-pressure water mixture is injected into the rock to release the gas inside.
Fracking has allowed oil and gas firms to tap new supplies, and has led to a boom in some U.S. states like North Dakota and Pennsylvania.
But it has also drawn controversy, with environmentalists warning about negative health consequences.
That has led some towns to ban the practice.
The BBC's Kim Gittleson went to Colorado to find out more.
She begins her report at a public meeting about fracking in Denver.
US, Mexico ranchers experiment with hardy seeds for harsh landscape
Bare ground is a rancher's enemy.
Drought, overgrazing and oil and gas development have devastated vast tracts of ranchland across Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in recent years.
Recently ranchers from the southwest and Mexico gathered in the high desert of west Texas to review results of an experiment to raise new, hardy grass seeds that can flourish in a harsh, demanding landscape.
Reporter Lorne Matalon of Fronteras Desk has the story.
Former LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy speaks
Former LAUSD head John Deasy has vigorously defended his recent decisions regarding the school district, despite his decision to step down Thursday.
Southern California Public Radio education reporter Mary Plummer shares more.
Related: After LA schools resignation, Deasy talks about what he's considering next
Weekend on the cheap: Zombies and carbs and Sriracha, oh my!
It finally feels like fall in Los Angeles. We hope you've picked out your Halloween costume.
SCPR's social media producer, Kristen Lepore, writes a weekly column on cheap things to do in LA and she's here to help us plan our weekend.
Among the highlights: Pancakes and Booze in DTLA, the Monterey Night Market with a zombie twist, and the 2nd Annual LA Sriracha Festival in Chinatown.
12th Home Movie Day comes to LA this weekend
Technology has made capturing our lives on video simple. Ranging from a kid's first day at school to family gathering and even those embarrassing moments you wish would just go away. Not too long ago they were captured on old home video cameras, not the portable hi-tech gadgets we have today, but the images are just as compelling.
This weekend Los Angeles plays host to its 12th Home Movie Day, which will be held at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile. It's an event where you can share in the collective shame of bad home videos with like-minded souls.
Kate Dollenmayer, audiovisual archivist at the Wende Museum, and Dino Everett, archivist of the Hugh Hefner Moving Image Archive at USC and home movie enthusiast, join Take Two to talk a little more about the event.
What: 12th Annual Home Movie Day
Where: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile.
Price: Free!