How the insurance claims process will proceed for those displaced by NorCal wildfires, the difficulty with enforcing sexual harassment laws, responding to a crisis.
4 things to know about sexual harassment laws
It's been more than a week since reports surfaced that producer Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or abused dozens of women. Since then, victims from all walks of life have been coming forward with the hashtag #Me Too.
This morning, female political players in California, from lobbyists to legislators, are adding their voices to the outcry. More than 140 women have signed a letter highlighting sexual harassment and misconduct that occurs in their arena.
Federal and state labor laws that say it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender, and that applies to allegations of sexual harassment. The guidelines are clear, but it isn't always easy to recognize or even prove that it's happened.
To find out what the laws are and where they may fall short, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Gowri Ramachandran, professor at Southwestern Law School.
1. There are two types of sexual harassment in the workplace, as defined by state and federal laws.
Quid Quo Pro Harassment - A supervisor or employer might ask an employee or a perspective hire for some kind of sexual favor in return for the job or a promotion. The idea is, you give me this, I'll give you that.
Hostile Work Environment Harassment- It involves making the working conditions for somebody different because of gender. It could be in a sexual manner so it could be groping, assault, those sorts of things. Language can constitute a hostile work environment. But a lot of laypersons believe that it constitutes sexual harassment under the law if you tell an off-color joke in the workplace, but most courts wouldn't really count that as a legal violation. Most courts would require something more pervasive, more severe. But certainly, if someone is using language that's harassing every day, that's going to change the other person's conditions of work.
2. Workplace laws don't apply to everyone in the workplace.
Those laws only apply to employment relationships, so if someone truly is an independent contractor, they actually wouldn't be protected by those laws. You can sue someone for assaulting you. You can call the police and potentially press charges. So there are other avenues for independent contractors but unfortunately, the mechanism we have set up under the Civil Rights Act doesn't cover independent contractors.
And if you are working in an industry that has a culture of silence around this issue, and a culture of not hearing victims, then it may be that a lawsuit is all one can do and all one can resort to.
3. Those legally required workplace harassment training videos won't always tell you the whole story.
Some of those training seminars don't actually state the law correctly. Usually, I think the firms that create those training videos are trying to simplify things for the employees which is definitely a good thing to do, but they often get the law wrong. Sometimes they say more things are covered by law than are, and sometimes they leave things out.
4. It can be difficult to provide proof of harassment in any workplace, but creative industries offer an additional loophole.
I think retaliation in particular is probably a very strong fear for people who work in the entertainment industry because employers will always have an excuse to explain why they didn't give you the job. And that excuse would be, I just had creative differences with her, or I just saw a different script and so it's very hard to really prove that the reason someone was denied a job or an opportunity in a creative industry is because they're being retaliated against.
To hear the full interview with Gowri Ramachandran, of the Southwestern Law School, click on the media player above.
How the insurance process works for wildfire victims
Rebuilding after a fire often starts with a call to an insurance agent. But the wildfires in Northern California are unprecedented. Tens of thousands of Californians lost their homes at the same time. The price to replace everything can be high, and the process to get through it all can be long. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones joined Take Two to explain the process.
Is fire damage covered in the average homeowner's policy?
Yes, almost all homeowner's policies cover fire.
But one of the challenges we've been facing in California is more dry conditions, more unpredictable and severe fires.
As a result in some cases, insurers are deciding the risk is too much for some homes and not writing.
There is a fire insurer of last resort, though, that's been established by the state called the FAIR plan.
If for some reason you're in an area where traditional writers of homeowner's insurance are unwilling to write, then you can get fire insurance from the FAIR plan.
Are people eligible for claims even if their homes did not burn?
Even if their house did not burn, [people] may be eligible for assistance.
There's what's called Additional Living Expense coverage, which covers your food, lodging, transportation and other out-of-pocket costs associated with being evacuated. ...
In addition, if your home suffers damage due to smoke or debris, you may be eligible for coverage as well.
What about people who don't have homeowner's, renter's or fire insurance?
There is limited disaster assistance available from FEMA upwards, I think, up to roughly $30,o00 per individual and homeowner. But again, it's very limited.
There are also some home loans available, I think up to a couple hundred thousand dollars, to help you rebuild.
But the sad reality is that if you don't have insurance, you're going to have some real challenges.
There really isn't a lot of assistance from the federal government or state government to help you rebuild, and that's why we encourage everyone to get insurance.
Hear more advice from California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on how to rebuild after a fire. Use the blue audio player above.
Transgender troops face uncertainty as Pentagon decides their fate
The Department of Defense is required to develop a new policy on whether transgender people will be allowed to enlist and serve in the armed forces.
The policy review comes after President Trump directed the military to ban transgender individuals from joining the military. However, the President left it up to Defense Secretary James Mattis to decide whether to discharge those who are currently serving.
President Trump first weighed in on the issue in a July tweet, which caught military leaders and service members off guard. He followed that with more formal guidance in August. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Trump concluded that allowing transgender people to serve is "costly" and "disruptive."
"And based on consultation that (the President) has had with his national security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion," Huckabee Sanders said.
'They would fight to the end with me'
It's not clear how many transgender troops are currently serving. Estimates range from 2,150 to 15,500.
Despite the uncertainty of the situation, some transgender service members say they're receiving support from their fellow troops.
"I've had a lot of people who've already walked up to me and said I'd go to battle with you, and that they would fight to the end for me," said one current service member, who transitioned from a woman to a man while already in the military. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because he didn't get permission from his higher-ups to do an interview.
For most of his life, the service member had lived as a woman. But he struggled with his identity, and his wife suggested he start trying out what it might feel like to be a man.
"We started small, just using pronouns in the house; she would say husband," the service member said. "It felt like this huge weight was lifted from my shoulders and everything in my life just kind of started making sense."
At that point, he wanted to transition. But he had to figure out how to navigate his identity at work.
"Once we decided that this was what we wanted to do, I notified my department head of the branch that I'm in," he recalled. "He basically told me it could be a career ender or we could make it work."
He got an official diagnosis and started taking testosterone. His body changed. Because his job had strict health requirements, he had to tell his peers before he felt he was ready.
"I felt like all of a sudden there was a spotlight on me everywhere I went," he said. "When I came out as transgender, it seemed like everyone was just waiting for me to mess up and give them a reason I shouldn't be serving."
His solution: double down and work harder. He moved to a new duty station. And though it took his new leaders a while, they now use male pronouns and see him as full member of their team.
"I didn't demand anything from my unit, I didn't demand acceptance," he said. "I just showed up and did my job, and I think they really respected that I put the mission first before myself."
Advocates seek to derail policy with lawsuits
Advocate Sasha Buchert says she's heard from a lot of trans service members since President Trump's initial tweet, and many say they're hearing support from the troops with which they serve.
Buchert is a lawyer for Lamda Legal, an LGBTQ advocacy group that's suing the government over the transgender ban. It's one of four lawsuits challenging the policy. Buchert is a trans woman and a Marine vet, so this suit is personal for her.
"There were a lot of moments where I was very worried that I would be discovered and purged and drummed out of the military," Buchert recalled.
"Unfortunately, the President wants to return us to that era where people had to hide who they are and live in fear, but we're not going to let him do it."
The Justice Department recently asked a federal court to dismiss one of the four suits, arguing that "that challenge is premature several times over."
The service member we spoke to wants to have a long military career. He says that if transgender people get kicked out of the armed forces, it'll be tough. But he's confident he'll find a job somewhere else. And he's not too worried yet.
"It takes a lot more than a tweet to make a change," he said of President Trump's initial statement.
"They took so long and so much money and so much research to say yes, transgender people are qualified to serve in the military, that for him to tweet that we weren't, honestly didn't phase me," he said.
Until the policy changes, he plans to keep doing his job.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans. Funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
Contradictory information makes crises more stressful
Whether it's a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, information is crucial during a crisis. People need to know the facts about what is happening and what they need to do.
But these days, there's almost too much information available - and it isn't always accurate. And that can cause even more chaos in an already stressful situation, according to a new study from the University of California in Irvine.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with doctoral student, Nickolas Jones. He studies human responses to crises and was part of the UCI project that looked at how mixed messages affect those who are receiving them. The study will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jones explained that the study's findings reflected that participants who use used Twitter as their primary source of information reported more conflicting information than others.
"The speculation that gets embedded in these kinds of situations, especially when there's a lack of information from officials, that increases uncertainty even more," Jones said. "That's the chain we think is happening here, and probably explains the increased distress responses we observed in our survey and we observed in the Twitter data."
The study inspired recommendations on how to dispel rumors during an emergency. Jones urged officials to monitor social media for false information and immediately put out clarifications. But for individuals, he recommends taking what you see with a grain of salt.
"If people are going to use social media to get their information during crisis events, it's just important that they keep a skeptical mind about the information they're getting."
To hear the full interview, click on the media player above.
How the Golden State Warriors used science and data to become a powerhouse
The Golden State Warriors are one of the most dominant NBA teams in history with their star player, Steph Curry, regarded as one of the best shooters of all time.
But that wasn't always the case. In fact, when you look back to the 2006–07 season, the team held the record for the most consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance, and even as recently as five years ago, they were one of the worst teams in the NBA. But that all changed starting after the 2013/2014 season when they won 51 games. The next year, they won it all.
So what happened? Veteran sports writer
believes part of it is due to the team's embrace of the Oakland A's analytics system.
His new book is called "Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History." Here's Erik reading the opening section of his book, courtesy of Simon and Schuster.
https://soundcloud.com/stephen-95/betaball
Malinowski joined Take Two host A Martinez, who asked when and why the Warriors began to embrace data:
At that time, the Warriors were a horribly dreadful franchise. They had missed the playoffs in 16 of the 17 preceding seasons, but this new ownership group came in and they decided to rebuild it in the form of a Silicon Valley startup. And that comes from Joe Lacob. The main co-owner was a longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist and decided that this would be a pretty good case study ...
Malinowski explained what kind of answers you can get, in terms of basketball decisions, from looking at data:
You can analyze how many dribbles a player is taking per possession in a game ... you can literally analyze how fast are they running on the court, so if you can do that you can do things like measure things like energy and fatigue
Click on the blue arrow to hear the entire interview with Erik Malinowski about his book, Betaball.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Nai Palm's future soul and the emerging superstar, Rapsody
Tuesday Reviewsday is our weekly new music segment, and this week Morgan Rhodes join A Martinez to talk about the latest releases. Here are her picks:
Cécile McLorin Salvant
DREAMS AND DAGGERS
Cécile McLorin Salvant was born and raised in Miami, Florida and started studying classical piano at the age of 5. Three years later she began singing in the Miami Choral Society.
In 2007, she moved to France to study law, but discovered jazz, and sang with her first band. In 2009, after a series of concerts in Paris, she recorded her first album "Cécile", with Jean-François Bonnel's Paris Quintet. A year later, she won the Thelonious Monk competition in Washington D.C.
Her new album is called Dreams and Daggers, and we heard the song, "Nothing Like You."
Nai Palm
NEEDLE PAW
Nai Palm is better known as the lead singer of the Australian band, Hiatus Kaiyote. A two-time Grammy nominated singer, she has been described as a self taught singer/songwriter and musician who has an powerful presence on stage. Her new solo debut is called "Needle Paw," and we heard the song, Homebody.
She's due to perform live at the El Rey theatre next week ... and seeing her perform is unlike anything you're likely to see.
Rapsody
LAILA'S WISDOM
Rapsody has previously collaborated with several performers, but her breakout moment perhaps came with her section on the Kendrick Lamar track "Complexion (A Zulu Love)," from his 2015 album, To Pimp a Butterfly. Here she is performing her verse ... it's definitely worth your time.
And here she is performing at NPR's Tiny Desk Series