LA Dodgers management looks ahead to next season; What is the status of the House's immigration reform effort?; BART strike in Bay Area enters its fourth day; How depictions of slavery in film have evolved; Even the smallest pests can wreak havoc on your car; Charles Phoenix uncovers retro gems in Sacramento; How climate change may transform the Bay Area's landscape, plus much more.
Bay Area BART strike enters its fourth day
Today in the San Francisco Bay Area, the BART strike enters its fourth day.
The two sides involved in the transit strike have mostly agreed on economic issues but have reached an impasse over work rules. For more on this and a fatal train accident over the weekend, we're joined by Dan Brekke, news editor at NPR member station KQED in San Francisco.
Obama says there's 'no excuse' for glitches in healthcare exchange websites
This morning, President Obama's spoke from the White House about the Affordable Care Act.
Since the healthcare exchanges opened up on October first, there have been a lot of complaints about the many glitches people have encountered trying to check out healthcare options on the government run website. The president acknowledged that the technical side of things hasn't exactly been up to snuff.
RELATED: Obama addresses widespread health care problems
KPCC's healthcare reporter Stephanie O'Neill joins the show with more.
LA Dodgers management looks ahead to next season
Many Dodger fans are still no doubt hurting from Friday's meltdown in St. Louis.
The 9-0 pounding was an ugly way to end the season, but what a season it was for the first full one under new ownership.
For more on how the Dodgers did off the field, and their prospects for next season, host A Martinez speaks with KPCC Business Reporter Ben Bergman.
How depictions of slavery in film have evolved
This weekend the film "12 Years A Slave" opened in theaters here in Southern California.
The film is based on the autobiography of a man named Solomon Northrup, who was born a free man and was well-educated, but was kidnapped, sold into slavery and spent 12 years working for various masters on plantations in Louisiana, going by the name Platt.
"12 Years A Slave" is the latest cinematic representation of one of the most shameful chapters in our nation's past. For more on the history of slavery in film and the effect it has on our cultural understanding of the subject, we're joined by Brenda Stevenson, professor of history at UCLA.
On The Lot: Box office winners, Benedict Cumberbatch and more
Time for On The Lot, our weekly look at the business of entertainment with Nicole Sperling of the LA Times.
How did "12 Years A Slave" do at the box office? Wasn't there a concern that the film was going to be too dark for audiences?
Another film based on real events came out last Friday, "The Fifth Estate," the story of Wikileaks' Julian Assange. Benedict Cumberbatch is the lead character. Was he a big draw for this movie? How'd he become so popular? He's also in "12 Years A Slave," what is his character like?
Let's move onto a new movie with an unlikely star, rapper Ja Rule. It's called "I'm In Love With A Church Girl." What's it about?
Ja Rule did just get out of prison for weapon possession and tax evasion. Was there a concern that he wouldn't be received by the religious community?
There's another movie about religion coming out, "Noah," directed by Darren Aronofsky. Now he's running into some issues with studio execs after the film tested poorly. Was it because its a bad film or because it might not be 100 percent biblically accurate. If you don't stick to the centuries old script don't you run the risk of ticking off potentially your biggest audience?
How important is the religious audience for films like this? Aronofsky has never gotten into bed with a big studio before. First of all, could he be regretting his decision and second who's going to win this creative tug of war?
Charles Phoenix uncovers retro gems in Sacramento
Our state capitol is a town known for politics, but there's plenty of fun to be had there, too. That's something our favorite King of Kitsch, Charles Phoenix, recently discovered.
He drops by from time to time to tell us about cultural gems here in southern California. Lately he's been spending a lot of time on the road, finding retro-themed entertainment in all sorts of places.
Charles joins us now to tell us about what he discovered in Sacramento.
Recent Field Trip: Sacramento
- Breakfast with local clown club at Pancake Circus
- City of great neon
- Crest Theater, a restored 1949 downtown Movie Palace
- Iceland reopens after the devastating fire, landmark 1940 ice rink comes back
- Gunther's Ice Cream Shop, Undiscovered mid-century modern masterpiece
- Chance meeting of 100-year-old Curly Bunfill with his cherry 1956 Cadillac in the parking lot of Sam's
- Alex's recommendation: Delta King
RELATED: Event: Charles Phoenix on architecture in Claremont, Ca.
What is the status of the House's immigration reform effort?
Today, Washington is back to work for the first full week since the government shutdown.
Now that there's at least a temporary solution to the budget and debt crises, immigration reform advocates are pushing hard for a vote on immigration reform this year.
Prior to the government shutdown, the Senate passed legislation to overhaul border security, require employer verification of workers' status and create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
House Republicans decided to tackle smaller pieces of immigration legislation, and the House's so-called "Gang of Eight" congresspeople working on legislation has dwindled to just five members.
Joining us now for more on this is House member Mark Takano, a Democrat from Riverside, and for the view from the other side of the aisle, we're joined by Republican Congressman Jeff Denham of California's Central Valley.
Where did all the big-city Republican mayors go?
The website Politico recently pointed out that in 2000, Republican mayors governed half of the nation's dozen most populous cities. Today, the biggest city with a Republican mayor is Indianapolis.
For more on this and what it means for the GOP, we're joined by Mike Zapler, Political editor of Politico.
Guerrilla beekeeping in LA
Commercial honeybee colonies around the world are collapsing, and scientists are trying to figure out why. The good news? Bees are thriving in urban areas.
In California, San Francisco, San Jose, and other big cities have laws that allow beekeeping. Los Angeles could be next, if a coalition of amateur beekeepers has anything to say about it. Colin Berry reports.
Deep in a sunny backyard in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake district, a colony of 50,000 Western honeybees is getting oriented to its new surroundings. Yesterday, the swarm was living under the eaves of a house in Whittier, some 20 miles away. But they’re here today because Walker Rollins and Kirk Anderson took the time to remove them -- humanely.
Anderson and Rollins are members of a club called Backwards Beekeepers, which relocates bee swarms and colonies in L.A. several times a week. Yet in doing so, they’re breaking the law, because beekeeping here is illegal, and the city’s most common tactic in dealing with feral bees is to exterminate them.
Anderson says most people with a bad opinion about feral bees have barely any experience working with them. “Bees are like people,” he said. “Everybody has a bad day. If a beehive has a bad day, people want to have it destroyed. If a person has a bad day, they put them on Oprah.”
But many Angelenos are frightened of bees, and might be uneasy with the thought of 50,000 of them living next door. Ron Lorenzen, an urban forestry manager for the city, says that while he wouldn’t oppose a law allowing beekeeping in residential areas, his own agency’s rationale for eradicating bees on public property is based on evidence of a dangerous new hybrid.
“I’m not a bee professional, but a pest control adviser [in our office] said that 80 percent of the hives they’re finding are actually Africanized colonies. Evidently the bees are becoming more homogenous.”
Africanized bee colonies have been associated with the “killer” bees that have recently attacked people and animals, causing some fatalities. Western honeybees are considered less aggressive.
Backwards Beekeeper co-founder Kirk Anderson, who’s raised bees for 45 years, thinks what Lorenzen says is nonsense. Bees aren’t pests, Anderson says, and relying on pest experts to determine a city’s bee policy is ludicrous.
“All bees are defensive,” he explained. “There’s always been mean bees, and they can be mean for different reasons. By understanding them, you can do things so you don’t trigger their meanness or their defensive actions.”
Across the city, Rob and Chelsea McFarland run a nonprofit called Honey Love. After piloting feasibility studies and launching petitions, the McFarlands have begun lobbying the city’s 95 neighborhood councils to make beekeeping legal in L.A.
“We go on right after the ordinances for much heavier topics like gangs and drugs,” Chelsea said. “We go up and we’re like, ‘Yay bees!’ and they’re like, ‘You guys are the most delightful ordinance we’ve ever had to vote on.’”
These guerrilla beekeepers believe that cities, with their diverse vegetation and lack of agricultural pesticides, are the bees’ best bet for countering colony collapse disorder (CCD), and that legalizing bees in L.A. would be a big win for everybody. (CCD is a phenomenon where honeybees abandon their hives; it has been on the increase in recent years and is significant economically because many crops worldwide are pollinated by honeybees.)
Rob McFarland says that encouraging people to keep honeybees in cities makes them safer from factors that are endangering the insects commercially.
Rob and Chelsea McFarland have the support of 11th District city council member Mike Bonin. His proposal -- allowing beekeeping in single-family neighborhoods -- is moving through the Planning Commission and could be up for a vote in as few as five months.
“Currently, we allow single-family homes to do truck gardening -- growing berries, flowers, fruits, herbs, mushrooms and nuts for private use or for sale at farmers’ markets,” Bonin explained. “This proposal would afford the same opportunity for beekeeping.”
Beekeeping is legal in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento. Russell Bates, who founded Backwards Beekeepers with his wife, Amy Seidenwurm, and Kirk Anderson, says interest in beekeeping is rising all over California, especially in urban areas where people are passionate about local agriculture and sustainability.
“We’ve seen it on the rise in Arcata and Berkeley and Oakland,” he said. “It bubbles up wherever people are curious about how to be more in tune with nature.”
Officials estimate there are 10 colonies of feral bees in every square mile of L.A. With support for the new law beginning to swarm, the state’s biggest city could be bee-friendly by this time next year.
Toyota recalls more than 850,000 cars due to spiders
Toyota has issued a recall that affects more than 850,000 cars on the road.
The models affected are 2012 and 2013 Camrys, Venzas and Avalons, including hybrid models. These vehicles have had issues with power steering, warning lights and worse, airbags randomly deploying.
The main culprit? Spiders. Owners of Toyotas affected by this recall will be notified by mail and will be able to take their vehicle to a Toyota dealer where the necessary work will be performed at no cost to them.
Megan Garber, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins the show to explain the recall, and to give us more of a perspective under the hood, we bring in Paul Meeker, owner of Lextech in Silver Lake.
How climate change may transform the Bay Area's landscape
California has a long history of preserving its open lands.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, about a quarter of the nine-county region is permanently protected from development. But what might those parks and open spaces look like decades from now, as climate change transforms the landscape?
KQED Science reporter Lauren Sommer says scientists and land managers are grappling with how to plan for a Bay Area that one day could look more like Southern California.
10 years later: Remembering musician Elliot Smith
Believe it or not, its been 10 years since LA-based musician Elliott Smith died violently at his home in Echo Park.
Despite his immense success in an industry in which very few people make it, Smith suffered from depression and drug abuse, ultimately leading to his death at just 34 years old. He left behind a canon of music that was incredibly beautiful, and often incredibly sad.
"Torment Saint" is the title of a new book about the life, work and tragic death of Elliott Smith by William Todd Schultz. He joins the show to tell us more about Smith's life and music.
Interview Highlights:
On the first time he heard Smith's music:
"I wandered into the study of our home in Portland, Oregon, and my daughter had I think it was "Waltz No. 2" playing on the computer. My daughter went to Lincoln High School where Elliott also went, and it was just one of those "eureka!" moments where I was like 'Who is this guy? This music is spectacular.' From then it was a pretty short step from thinking I might want to do a book about him."
On Smith's earliest foray into music:
"He was a little bit of a prodigy, I believe. I do believe he was a songwriting genius. In sixth-grade when he was about 13 or so he started to become friends with this group of guys that he knew from band in Texas. Band is really huge in Texas. Elliott played clarinet and they played other instruments.
"One of his friends, a guy named Steve Pickering, who went by the nickname "Pickle," his dad had a four-track reel to reel setup. So they just started writing songs together. About 90 percent of them were Elliott compositions, but they started writing songs together and they just got into this recording mania. I've been lucky enough to listen to a lot of those songs from sixth-grade, seventh-grade, eighth-grade, really ambitious, fairly complex compositions for a 13-,14-, 15-year-old."
Smith was in a band in Portland called Heatmiser, which was pretty successful, but he decided to go out on his own. Why did do you think he left that band?
"One thing he didn't like was the way his voice sounded in Heatmiser. He didn't feel like it was authentic or it was the best way for him to express what he wanted to express musically. A lot of the songs that ended up on his first couple of records, "Roman Candle" and the self-titled record "Elliott Smith," they were actually made when Elliott was still in Heatmiser.
"He would just record these songs as a sort of form of note taking because he had them written, he had them in his head. He didn't always feel they would be appropriate for the Heatmiser format so he would be recording all of these songs at the same time that he was in Heatmiser, and I think those songs just became more artistically satisfying."