We take a look at Mitt Romney's campaign and how the Obama campaign is handling his momentum in the polls. Plus, a small farming town of on the border of Mexico and Imperial Valley is a hotbed for professional baseball players, Kevin Ferguson reports on Monarch The Bear, the iconic symbol on the California flag, the use of "illegal immigrant" versus "undocumented immigrant" is being debated by the media and much more.
Romney emphasizes middle-ground stance to appeal to more voters
Today, President Obama visits Iowa, makes a stop here in Los Angeles, and will end his day Las Vegas. Governor Romney begins his day in Vegas, then heads east to Iowa and Ohio.
Romney's campaign is trying to build on a surge that began with his strong performance in the first debate early this month. The governor showed a somewhat gentler side in the most recent debate, and like most candidates for President, he's been moving toward the center, and away from some of the more strident positions he took during the primaries.
To help us assess how he's doing that Scott Helman joins the show. He's a writer for the Boston Globe, and the co-author of the book "The Real Romney," a biography of the candidate.
Obama campaign's reaction to Romney's momentum in the polls
Edward-Isaac Dovere, Deputy White House Editor for POLITICO, joins the show to discuss how the Obama campaign has reacted to Gov. Romney’s momentum in the polls.
Farm town near Mexican border is home for many baseball players
Tonight, the San Francisco Giants play the first game of the World Series, after winning the National League title Monday night against the St Louis Cardinals.
That last, triumphant pitch in Game Seven was thrown by Giants closer Sergio Romo, and it so happens he's a native of California's Imperial Valley.
The California Report's Valerie Hamilton takes us to a farm town near the Mexican border that's growing baseball giants.
Nine players in World Series hail from baseball-loving Venezuela
There's a place much farther south of the border that produces lots of good baseball players: Venezuela
A record nine of the players in tonight's World Series opener between the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants are from Venezuela. The Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, is baseball's first Triple Crown winner in 45 years. He's led the league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in.
To talk about Venezuela's success in sending players to the majors we reached Efrain Zavarce in Caracas, where he's a sportscaster for Union Radio.
Monarch: The sad, amazing story of the bear on California's state flag
We might be biased — but California has one of the best state flags, no? The bold star on the left, the green patch of land… and — of course — the California grizzly bear, our state animal, forever trudging along.
But why a bear? Where did it come from? Does it have a name?
KPCC's Kevin Ferguson asked those same questions.
The study of flags — their history, meanings, and symbols — is a little known practice known as vexillology, named after the Latin word for flag, vexillum. To learn more about the bear on our state flag, I called the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) and talked with William Trinkle. He's a former director of NAVA and runs the Bear Flag Museum.
He said the flag’s story goes back to 1846, when California was still a territory of Mexico.
"Once upon a time there were a number of Americans who had come to what was then Mexican California," said Trinkle. "There was at that point in time the possibility of a war between the United States and Mexico."
And one particular group of American settlers, based in Northern California, took matters into their own hands. They banded together and captured the city of Sonoma from the Mexican Government.
The Republic of California was formed and it needed a flag. On their hastily made banner was an uneven red star, a red line and a crudely drawn animal that in theory was supposed to be a grizzly bear.
"These were farmers and ranchers and adventurers, and they did not have great artistic skill," said Trinkle. "The grizzly bear at that point in time was extraordinarily common. It was described as you couldn't ride on a horse for a mile without seeing ten grizzly bears. And they could be dangerous. So the idea was to put an emblem on the flag that would scare the Mexican authorities, that these people were serious."
Serious as they were, the flag flew for just under a month. Once the settlers found out the U.S. had declared war with Mexico, they swapped out the bear flag for the stars and stripes.
In 1850, California was declared a state. As the population grew, the number of California Grizzlies declined. Habitat destruction, gold miners and hunting brought the bear to the brink of extinction.
But in 1889, an up-and-coming newspaper mogul decided to bring the bear back into the spotlight. William Randolph Hearst, in one his very first publicity stunts, wanted to bring a live California Grizzly Bear to San Francisco.
Hearst sent Allen Kelly, one of his own journalists, to find a grizzly.
"Kelly had no hunting experience, so it was an odd choice," said Susan Snyder, a librarian and author of the book Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly. "But he was game and went down to Ventura County, because that was one of the last strongholds of wild grizzlies in California."
It took Kelly months to find his grizzly: he hired help, fired help, had several close calls. Finally he found the assistance he needed in a group of hired Mexican hunters.
Once he had the bear, it was time for the glamour. Hearst put the bear on display in Golden Gate Park and named him Monarch. At more than 1,200 pounds, Monarch was the largest bear ever held captive.
"It's interesting, because when he first arrived, Hearst reported that 20,000 people showed up for his arrival," said Snyder. "But then, five years later… we have photographs in the library of him later on. He looks very despondent, and he's in his concrete cage. And I guess not very many people came to see him at all, he was kind of passé."
Monarch died in 1911. His skeleton was taken to the Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, his pelt stuffed and put on display at the California Academy of Sciences. That same year, though, California at last adopted a state flag.
Taking a cue from the Sonoma revolt in 1846, the state again decided to make the California Grizzly the flag's focal point. Only this time they wanted a bear that actually looked like a bear.
Illustrators used the recently deceased Monarch as the model for the bear on our state flag.
In San Francisco is one of the world's only experts on Monarch: Psychologist Rodney Karr. He runs a website called the Monarch Bear Institute and, for Karr, Monarch is more than just a bear. "The story of my own developing relationship with him is very magical and strange," said Karr.
Karr first learned of the bear and his story in the early 90s. He was depressed and taking walks in Golden Gate park to deal with it — he said he was seeking a spiritual connection. "I wandered through the National AIDS Memorial Grove and up to this hill next to it," said Karr. "Which I subsequently was told by the gardners in Golden Gate Park is Monarch Bear Hill."
The more he learned about Monarch, the more fascinated he became. Now, to get the message out, he's working on an eight-part documentary about Monarch and his history in California, complete with interviews of researchers, authors and footage of druid rituals.
After weeks of research, I needed to meet to the bear. He’s still at Golden Gate Park—but now he’s at the California Academy of Sciences. Moe Flannery, the Collections Manager for birds and mammals met me in the Academy’s basement, where he’s housed.
After 100 years on display, it's clear that Monarch has seen better days. Monarch was originally a very dark grizzly, almost black. Today, the sun has faded and bleached his fur into a medium brown.
Walking around the stuffed bear, Flannery points to Monarch's face. "We assume he had fur on his nose when he was first mounted," she said. "We think that over the years when he was first on display, people were able to touch him.
Flannery says that now the mission is to preserve as much of the bear as they possibly can. She and the Academy hope to show Monarch again someday.
Rodney Karr, the operator of the Monarch Bear Institute says that Monarch is still a potent symbol.
"We need heroes," he said. "And we need a connection to how powerful nature is, and how beautiful it is. This bear really epitomizes that. And also epitomizes the dark and the light. I mean, here's the last bear and he was kept in a cage for 22 years. I also saw some writing from Allen Kelly, who caught the bear, that much later he'd go visit the bear. And that he'd regretted and would apologize to the bear. He felt badly for that the bear went through. I think that's a beautiful thing."
Audra Ang's debut book is a love story about China's food and its people
Audra Ang spent seven years as a reporter in China where she fell in love with its food and its people.
She has just published a book called “To the People, Food is Heaven: Stories Of Food And Life In A Changing China,” and she talks to A Martinez about how she connected with the Chinese people through their cuisine.
POLL: Media companies debate the use of the term 'illegal immigrant'
Is it “illegal immigrant” or “undocumented immigrant”?
The choice to use one of these terms to describe the same person has been called a political act by some, but news organizations like the AP and the New York Times stand by the choice to use “illegal immigrant.”
Take Two examines what’s at stake in the fight over a word.
Guests:
Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, founder of the site Define American, and an undocumented immigrant, and Julia Preston, immigration reporter for The New York Times.
Romney sees Latin America, not China, as land of opportunity
Mitt Romney described Latin America as a land of opportunity in the last presidential debate, calling its economy almost as big as China’s.
But is it? And why should our spotlight be turned South? Financial Times reporter Vivianne Rodrigues explains to Take Two.
Former AEG, Dodgers employee now heads a firm that manages corporate tickets
Tickets to sporting events are a tool for companies to develop new business.
Nice seats on the 50 yard line – or in a luxury sky-box – offer a chance to romance a potential client or customer when they’re having fun.
Corporate tickets are big business: $16 billion a year, by some estimates. Spotlight Ticket Management Services opened up shop five years ago in Calabasas to help companies manage their tickets.
On the walls of Spotlight's offices are jerseys of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and other pro sports teams. The jerseys represent accomplishments for the company.
“We have all of the team partners, with the year that they signed with us,” said Spotlight CEO Tony Knopp.
But wall space for more jerseys is limited. The company now has partnerships with more than 50 teams and venues, and more than 1,000 companies now use Spotlight's ticket management software.
At age 33, Tony Knopp is already a veteran of the Los Angeles sports scene. Straight out of college at USC - where he played volleyball - he worked for News Corporation, selling Los Angeles Dodgers season ticket packages.
At the time of the last pro hockey lockout in 2004, Knopp was working for Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), selling corporate tickets and sponsorships to the L.A. Kings.
“This is a much different lockout than it was in 2004," Knopp remembered. "Unemployment then was 5 percent, and back then, it was dropping down to the mid-4s the next year. February rolled around, and they cancelled the season. I got a call from a start-up in San Francisco called StubHub."
He left AEG and the lockout-idled L.A. Kings for StubHub.
Knopp's job was to convince corporations to use StubHub to buy all their sports tickets. As he made his rounds to corporate executives he said they had the same response: Great idea, but the company already owns millions of dollars in sports tickets.
That was when the light bulb went on in Knopp’s head. Five-years ago, he turned it into Spotlight. Knopp said his software allows a company to see if its tickets are leading to more business – or being used at all.
“If that means you have 20 games for the Lakers, and you use all of them and you need to go out and buy 14 more, then maybe I should just buy 14 more games at the beginning of the year from the Lakers," Knopp explained. "And maybe I own a bunch of tickets for the Springfield Isotopes (a fictional team from the "The Simpsons" TV comedy) but we don’t use any of them. Maybe we should drop those and put them into the Lakers.”
The focus on corporate tickets means Spotlight is not competing with the better-known ticketing services based in the L.A. area such as Ticketmaster.
Another service, Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com has even used Spotlight to manage its own company tickets.
Tami Fox, senior sales analyst for Tickets.com, said she used to manage her company's tickets in stadiums across the country with a spreadsheet.
“It was extremely cumbersome and a big time-suck quite frankly," said Fox.
Fox said the Spotlight system has saved a lot of time for her – and her sales reps across the country - who are always booking company tickets for prospective clients.
“They need that flexibility to do it on the fly, from their cell phone," said Fox.
Tony Knopp started Spotlight with a handful of employees right before the recession. When businesses began to cut jobs, perks like luxury suites at sports events, were expendable.
Spotlight’s Matt Huff is in charge of helping new customers run the ticketing software. As one of the first people hired, he worked without a salary for a few months.
“When we started, we did not have that many customers," Huff said. "But we were able to create and sustain that momentum so that eventually, it was not us selling the product, it was our customers selling the product based on the experience that they had with us.”
Spotlight now employs more than 30 people. Scores of major companies like Google, NBC, Wells Fargo and Nike use its software. Spotlight also helps businesses with transparency, and compliance with tax and financial laws.
Spotlight Founder Tony Knopp said some companies continue to consider reducing their use of tickets and luxury suites as a tool for generating new business, and his firm helps them answer that question.
"Sometimes it’s not that simple," said Knopp. "Though it seems easy to point your finger at the fat cat, and the boondoggle, most of the companies we have doing this have really dramatic return numbers on their tickets. It’s really impressive.”
It also serves the success of Knopp’s company if it can continue to spotlight the benefits of using tickets to woo customers.
POLL: Black cats are 'bad luck' and how fur-color stereotypes affect adoption rates
Do you prefer black cats? Orange cats? What about tortoiseshell-colored cats?
A new University of California, Berkeley study looks at the stereotypes humans attribute to domestic cats and their coloring, as well as how that applies to adoption rates.
KPCC producer Meghan McCarty has more.
Tell us why it's unlucky to be a black cat:
"Well, this is a story that a listener alerted us to. About a year ago a woman named Erica Hagen called me. She worked for a cat rescue program at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City and she told me that there's a big problem this time of year with black cats being stolen and abused. That's because people want an accessory for their Halloween parties or they think black cats are evil, that kind of thing. In fact, many shelters actually won't adopt out black cats during the month of October because of these fears that people are just adopting them for the novelty and won't really provide a good lasting home for them. But Erica also told me that, 'A lot of people for whatever reason just do not like the black kittens or black cats,' said Hagen.
Now this is a phenomenon that's been well-documented, not just for cats but for dog adoptions too. It's called Black Cat Syndrome. In fact, it's such an issue that shelters go to all kinds of lengths to try to make these darker animals more appealing. They'll try special lighting in their enclosures, give them colorful blankets, and even dress them in colorful collars and clothing."
Why don't other people want a black cat?
"The answer to that may lie in a new study that's just been published by UC Berkeley. A researcher in the psychology department found that cats are often judged by their color of their coats. I talked to the lead author of the study Mikal Delgado, she asked the participants to rate the personalities of different color cats.
"We found a few significant differences to how people would assign personality traits to different colors so they were more likely to say orange cats were friendly and less likely to say white and tricolor cats were friendly. They were more likely to say white and tricolor cats were aloof and less likely to say orange cats were aloof," said Delgado.
That's orange and white cats, but what about black cats, what do people think about them?
"Well, the interesting thing was that people didn't really have strong negative or positive feelings about black cats. I mean, in general they were considered to be more antisocial than orange cats, which were the real winner in this survey. But black cats were rated as fairly neutral. So why aren't they adopted more? Delgado has a theory about that.
'You know, some people believe that they're not adopted because people think they're appearance is boring,' said Delgado. 'It may be that if people don't think they have much personality on top of the fact that they look boring, then it could be that people don't think black cats are mean so much as they're not visually appealing.'"
So is there any lesson in this for how to combat Black Cat Syndrome and get more of these animals adopted?
"Yeah, a lot of shelters are getting more pro-active when it come to profiling the personalities of their cats. So when people come to adopt, they're not just judging by the color of the coat, they actually have some kind of reference to go by. So hopefully the next time a black cat crosses your path. Maybe at the very least you'll be less scared of it and, who knows, maybe provide it a nice loving home?
Author Mark Helprin on his new novel 'In Sunlight and In Shadow'
Writer and political commentator Mark Helprin talks to us about his new book “In Sunlight and In Shadow," a tale set in the post-World War II New York City.
The book chronicles the love story between Catherine, the actress, and Harry, a war vet. The city itself is such a huge part of the book it stands in as another character.
In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helprin