New guidelines for mammograms are out, monitoring how long children spend on mobile devices, the dos and don'ts in the event of a mudslide.
New mammogram guidelines: A women's health specialist gives the big picture
A new report from the American Cancer Society makes some new recommendations about how often women should get screened for breast cancer. It also challenges the accuracy of clinical breast exams.
Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of death among women in the U.S. Experts say 40,000 women in the U.S. will die of breast cancer this year. What could these new guidelines mean for women?
Dr. Lydia Pace, who specializes in women's health at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, joined the show to weigh in on the new guidelines.
Press the play button above to hear more.
The Brood: Pediatricians to revise guidelines for kids and screen time
How much time, if any, should kids spend with digital devices?
For some time now, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has offered the following guidelines: For children under the age of 2, screen time is discouraged. For children age 2 and older, a limit of two hours of screen time per day is recommended.
But the last time those guidelines were updated was in 2011. As pediatrician Ari Brown noted in a recent AAP News article, the policy "was drafted prior to the first generation iPad and explosion of apps aimed at young children."
So Brown and her colleagues are taking another look at the screen time regulations, with an aim to announce their revised guidelines in the fall of 2016. One of the biggest questions they're looking to answer is how exactly to define "screen time."
When the AAP's policy statements first came out on this topic, Brown says "screen time" just meant time watching television. Now, "screen time" means time spent on a tablet, smartphone, computer or TV.
Another complicating factor in updating the recommendations is the fact that time spent on a digital device can mean so many different things today. Kids may be using tablets in school or using Skype or FaceTime to work with a tutor. They're also of course using devices to watch YouTube videos and play video games.
While parents wait for the revised guidelines to come out, Brown says the key thing to remember is that you want to encourage moderation and balance in your child's life.
"If your child is spending several hours a day with a screen in front of their face or in their hands, no matter how they use it, they're obviously not doing something else," Brown says. "We want kids running out and playing, and we want kids sitting down at the dinner table and talking with their family, and we want kids going to sleep when they need to go to sleep."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
One LA mom tells why we should #CelebrateStarWarsVII
A new trailer for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" debuted during Monday Night Football's halftime break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE
The film's diverse cast has been news for a while, as it stars black actor John Boyega and Guatemalan-born Oscar Isaac.
The trailer is chock-full of juicy plot possibilities, but one of the biggest story lines has turned out to be a pair of dueling hashtags. One group started #BoycottStarWarsVII, claiming the film is anti-white. The backlash to that hashtag made it all go viral, but it also inspired "Selma" filmmaker Ava DuVernay to start her own hashtag in response: #CelebrateStarWarsVII.
is an African-American novelist/screenwriter and lecturer at UCLA who joined in the Twitter conversation. She is also a mom who posted a picture of her son holding a Finn action figure, the character played by John Boyega.
About to go live on @KPcc href="https://twitter.com/KPCC">@KPcc
"The point is here, for children of color, for boys of color, girls of color, it can be so life changing," said Due. "The way I saw Lt. Uhura in the 1960s when she was on 'Star Trek,' that was hugely meaningful to me. So yes, it's very meaningful to my son to identify with such a strong character in a film."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
New music from Son Little, Los Cenzontles, Nicole Mitchell and more
If you love new music, but you don't have the time to keep up with what's hip and new, we've got the perfect segment for you: Tuesday Reviewsday. Every week our music experts bring in their top picks, which we promise, will keep you and your musical tastes relevant. This week music journalist
Artist: Son Little
Album: "Son Little"
Songs: "O Mother," "The River"
This is a golden age of contemplative, powerful, sonically inventive, for-lack-of-a-better-term soul music — young men (and it’s mostly, though not exclusively, men) describing their struggles to find their place in the world, set in poetic words and arresting, often somber sounds: Kendrick Lamar, Miguel, Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, Benjamin Clementine, the Weekend, D’Angelo (he being the veteran and, arguably, inspiration of the crop) among those in the last couple of years to show themselves as true artists of note.
Now comes Son Little with a debut album full of the dark mystique evoked by his nom-de-tune, intentionally or otherwise recalling ‘30s bluesman Son House. Son House sung of his struggle between flesh and spirit — and lived it, quitting music at one point to become a traveling preacher. Son Little, coincidentally or otherwise, is the son of an L.A. preacher. His real name is Aaron Livingston, and relocated to New York he developed an approach that moved beyond genres, or ignored them, in the interest of expression. It was introduced last year on a tantalizing EP, and is fully realized here on is debut album.
It’s striking from the very first notes of the opening song, "I’m Gone," a chorus of his own layered, auto-tuned vocals making a declaration of independence/isolation that starts with the statement, "You get what you get and don’t expect a thing," It’s as if he’s holding us off at arms length, but with his hand waving us in to join him. And the music is spare — a slow, steady bass line, occasional off-center guitar lines and some odd sound effects, the soundtrack of a disorienting dream. The real statement song, though, is "O Mother," a classic case of a boy pushing away to prove he’s a man as he navigates a confusing, troubling world.
That remains the emotional motif throughout. "Your Love Will Blow Me Away" on the surface has a tone of romantic R&B, but he sings of being afraid of that kind of love, of being consumed. Even the smoldering seduction of "Lay Down" has elements of a power struggle, of tension that’s not all sexual.
Whatever the insecurities of the lyrics, the music is confident and assured at all turns. And there are turns indeed, from the subdued soul to guitar-spiked rock ("Toes") to modernized blues ("Doctor’s In"). With "The River" he goes full into churning, pulsating quasi-gospel, perhaps drawing on his church upbringing as he seeks his own way in life. Of course, the song that follows is "About a Flood," so there’s that too.
There’s a touch of Marvin Gaye here, a touch of Prince there, but they just seem starting points for Livingston/Little’s exploration. It could be a very interesting journey as this Son grows into a man.
Artist: Los Cenzontles
Album: "Alma Campirana"
Songs: "Pelo De Oro," "El Polvorete"
The song "Pelo de Oro" ("Golden Haired") was sung to Fabiola Trujillo by her grandfathers when she was a little girl. It’s a perfect song for a child, a sweet corrido about a woman undone by her ambition, betrayed by her drug-lord lover. Uh…
Content aside, this is exactly what the ensemble Los Cenzontles is all about — traditions of Mexican culture passed down from generation to generation. Well, content too. These tunes and tales, cautionary or otherwise, are the fabric of culture, woven strongest when passed along in the home like this.
If Trujillos’ grandfathers are only with her in spirit in her role as featured vocalist in Los Cenzontles — "the Mockingbirds" — the group does contain a father and son in Eugene and Emiliano Rodriguez. And Trujillo has been part of it since she was 15, as has the fourth musician on this album, Luciana Rodriguez (no relation). And the band, founded by the senior Rodriguez 25 years ago, is just one part of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, the non-profit Bay Area institution that grew out of it, dedicated to the exploration, teaching and promotion of Mexican-rooted arts and culture.
In the course of nearly two dozen albums, three documentary films and thousands of concert presentations, Los Cenzontles’ musical mission has been a wide-ranging one, from the very traditional, drawing on music from various Mexican and Latin American regions, to more updated hybrids, including collaborations with Ry Cooder and Los Lobos, among others. This album returns the venture to the traditional side of things. It’s just the four core musicians, in very straightforward vocals-and-string-band settings — not even an accordion or horn in earshot, let alone rock instruments. And the material is all of the nature of "Pelo de Oro" in terms of its venerable, folk nature.
The title, "Alma Campirana," roughly translates as "Country Soul," though not in the sense of country music as we know it. This is rural music, corridos and rancheras, tales of love and woe, even bits of history ("El Sepulcro de Zapata" — "The Grave of Zapata") and adventure distilled into colorful, passionate verse for transmission through the ages. Some have been kept alive through popular renditions by stars from Lydia Mendoza to Vicente Fernandez to Linda Ronstadt, while others have survived in mountain villages and, well, via grandfathers singing to their heirs.
"El Polvorete," a song with Colombian origins, was made famous by Fernandez in a full mariachi arrangement. Los Cenzontles, though, strips that away to present it as a son abajeño, a style associated with coastal Michoacan and Guerrero, here using traditional guitars, vihuela and bass.
For all the adherence to tradition, there is a sense of new voices being added, strong new threads to the tapestry.
Los Cenzontles will be performing Oct. 24 at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes downtown.
Artist: Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Mike Reed
Album: "Artifacts"
Songs: "Jo Jar," "Composition B23"
A friend really dislikes flute jazz. She loves jazz, but just doesn’t take to the floating, trilling, airy tones of this particular instrument in this particular context. Well, we respectfully disagree.
Nicole Mitchell is one of the leading jazz flutists… uh, flautists… uh, flute players today, and one of the most consistently creative and often challenging leaders in contemporary jazz. Her music is often ambitious, sprawling, heavy on improvisation both individual and collective in varieties of settings, most notably her ambitious Black Earth Ensemble. Of course, to many those are code words for "difficult" and even "unapproachable," affirmed by her leadership role in recent ears within the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the Chicago-originated movement that has given us some of the essential figures of modern jazz, notably the always-challenging Art Ensemble of Chicago.
With this album in which she leads a trio also featuring cellist Tomeka Reid and percussionist Mike Reed, though, the music is unfailingly delightful, even charming. These are almost chamber-music miniatures, often tuneful, playful and sparkling with a real warmth. Ironically, perhaps to some, the album celebrates the AACM’s 50th anniversary, and is made up of compositions by some of the great figures in that organization’s history: Roscoe Mitchell and Muhal Richard Abrams (both of the Art Ensemble), Anthony Braxton, Fred Anderson, Amina Claudine Myers and the trio Air, among them.
With Mitchell’s "Jo Jar," from 1966 and pre-dating the Art Ensemble’s formation, there’s a nimbleness and innocence to the playing, three butterflies cavorting in the sun. Yet at the same time it would fit right in a beatnik cafe of the early ‘60s. It’s the light side of noir. Dig?
Which isn’t to say there aren’t challenging, even difficult pieces here. The album opens with Braxton’s "Composition 23B" — he has a habit of titles such as this, as if it’s a structure rather than music, and some performances of his works reflect that. But this trio injects great deals of humanity into it, the unison playing that occurs in much of it requiring great precision, but the feelings of it never restricted to, or by, that precision. On Leroy Jenkins’ abstract "The Clowns," the three make the most of their considerable improv skills, sensitive and responsive to each other. Myers’ "Have Mercy on Us," with Mitchell chanting the title line a few times, is a prayerful echo of John Coltrane’s "A Love Supreme." And "Munkt Munk," written by Abrams, is described in the liner notes as "angular." It is that, but in these hands the turns are not mathematical, but the switchbacks of an invigorating trail hike.
If that all sounds inviting and friendly, well, it is. That’s the point this trio is making: This music is not unapproachable. It’s just a matter of how you approach it. Musician and listener.
Hot weather thins out apple crop for local apple farm
Everyone is looking forward to the different weather patterns El Niño will bring: rain, cooler temperatures, an actual season in Southern California. But until El Niño does arrive, there are still some pretty warm days ahead of us.
It's something Dennis Riley, owner of Riley's Apple Farm, has had to deal with. While the heat is contributing to an occurrence called apple drop, which thins out the crop, people aren't being scared away by the warm conditions.
Riley joined the show to tell more.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
The California Governor's Mansion will be home sweet home for Jerry Brown
California Gov. Jerry Brown recently announced that he and his wife will be moving into the historic Governor's Mansion after extensive renovations are complete.
Those renovations include a number of purchases, like a $16,000 Sub-Zero fridge and nearly $35,000 worth of new cabinets, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Reporter David Siders covered this story for the Bee, and he joined the show with more.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
What to do when you're downhill of a mudslide
When El Niño finally arrives, the rain it brings might bring some relief to the drought. But all that water may trigger another disaster altogether: Mudslides.
Just last week, a flash flood triggered one north of Los Angeles that trapped drivers on the I-5.
Chris Ipsen with the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department gives some advice on how to prepare yourself if you're caught downhill of a mudslide.
How to outsmart fake reviews online
Amazon announced this week that it's suing more than 1,000 people who were offering to write fake reviews for pay online. It's a big problem for the retailer, as well as sites like Yelp, and research has suggested that as much as 20 percent of reviews are fake.
Given so many of us depend on reviews to help us choose our purchases, how can we shop smartly? David Lazarus, who writes the Consumer Confidential column for the LA Times, explained why Amazon has gone after the fraudsters, and gives us ways to outsmart them.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.