Foreign leaders find NSA spying by US 'an abuse of trust'; Mexico puts a stop to GMO corn production; California issues largest campaign donor violation fine to two groups; Sriracha hot sauce gets its place at the table; Alan Weisman's 'Countdown' explores Earth's population capacity, plus much more. Elizabeth Mitchell takes a new twist on the Christmas album with 'The Sounding Joy', plus much more.
California issues largest campaign donor violation fine to two groups
A California watchdog agency has announced the largest fine in its history for campaign donor violations.
The Fair Political Practices Commission has ordered two groups to pay the state $15 million for failing to accurately report the source of donor money in the 2012 election.
Chairwoman of the FPPC, Ann Ravel, joins the show to tell us more about these two groups — the Small Business Action Committee and the California Future Fund for Free Markets — and what exactly they did that got them into trouble.
911 dispatchers take desperate calls from migrants in an unforgiving desert
This past year, the number of migrants that have been rescued trying to cross the border there has spiked. From the Fronteras Desk in Phoenix, Jude Joffe-Block has this report on what it's like to answer those 9-1-1 calls.
The Arizona desert is a killer.
Every year it claims the lives of migrants who cross the border illegally and try to make their way north. In the past year, the number of migrants rescued by the U.S. Border Patrol grew, according to recently released data.
That’s despite the fact that the number of people apprehended while crossing the Arizona border illegally has been falling in recent years and has basically flatlined relative to last year.
911 dispatchers say most calls from migrants typically begin the same way: I’m lost in the desert and I haven’t had water in days.
The callers are usually Spanish speakers, and their phone reception can be poor.
One man, who said his name was Joel, called for help in the middle of a June day when the temperature was in the triple digits with this message:
“We are dying,” he said in a quick, panicked voice in Spanish. “We need help.”
Because of his location, his call was answered by a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher, who looped in a Border Patrol agent.
The two agencies frequently work in coordination to rescue migrants. But the geography of the cell phone towers and the kind of phones migrants typically use make it hard to precisely trace their location.
Joel couldn’t see any identifying landmarks near him, either.
He said he just saw low hills made of rock.
Michelle Busch, a 911 dispatcher for Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, said that’s typical.
“North, south, east, west, they are like, have no clue,” Busch said. “[They say] ‘all I see is mountains.’”
Busch works in Phoenix, far from the border, but has fielded plenty of these calls.
Some migrants, in an effort to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints, walk for long stretches through the Arizona desert. For many, their destination is the the east-west artery, Interstate 8, which is some 80 miles north of the border.
But too often they become dehydrated or fall victim to heat stroke first. It’s not uncommon for them to call for help when they are just south of the highway, in the area near Gila Bend in the southwestern portion of Maricopa County.
“I don't intend to ask, 'Are you an illegal?' or 'Were you dropped there,'” Busch said. “My job is to find out where they are.”
Rescue missions can take hours and can cost thousands of dollars.
Last fiscal year, Maricopa County spent at least $100,000 on official search and rescue missions, with $85,242 reimbursed by Arizona’s Division of Emergency Management.
The Sheriff’s Office has only just started to track what portion of that is used on migrant rescues.
One reason migrants are able to make these calls is because of expanding cell phone coverage in remote parts of the desert.
Busch said they typically are using phones that are not activated to make regular calls.
“It can only dial 911,” Busch said. “It can’t receive in calls, or they can’t make out calls.”
This summer, Busch’s agency rescued more than 30 people in the southwestern part of the county, south of I-8.
Newly released stats from Border Patrol show the number of migrant rescues in the state in the first eleven months of the last fiscal year was 20 percent higher than in 2012, and 50 percent higher than in 2011.
There are also indications that the portion of migrants who die in the desert relative to the number who cross is growing. One explanation for the trend may be that migrants are now be walking longer distances to avoid detection, making the journey riskier. Furthermore, this past summer one of the hottest on record in parts of Arizona.
That same day in June when the migrant named Joel called for help, Busch got a call from another group a little while later.
They were already sick and passing out from the heat. Busch had to give one man in his early 20s named Heliberto a pep talk.
“Listen to me,” Busch said. “I know you think you can’t make it, that you are in bad shape.”
She went on to promise them that she wouldn't fail them, that she was sending a helicopter.
“Do they know where we are?” Heliberto asked. “Do you swear to me?”
Busch gave her word.
“I thank you with all my heart,” Heliberto said.
Yet when the helicopter got to the area, it located a different group of lost border crossers and rescued them first.
One of the men called Busch back desperate, convinced he was going to die there.
“He wanted to give me numbers, addresses, his wife’s name, his kids',” Busch said. “And I’m like, no, that is not what I do. I am not going to do that because you are going to survive.”
Busch does check see what happens at the end of a rescue, after she is no longer on the phone.
That particular rescue took more than seven hours, and ultimately wound up locating over a dozen migrants who had called for help.
“They did make it to Border Patrol,” Busch said. “They got medical help. And from there, you know, I’m sure they were taken back. But they all made it. Thankfully.”
Not everyone does.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office recovered 17 bodies in the same area this summer. Border Patrol discovered more than 160 bodies in Arizona in the first eleven months of the past fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the calls for help continue.
Just this week, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office 911 dispatchers took in another call for a rescue south of I-8.
Foreign leaders find NSA spying by US 'an abuse of trust'
News emerged this week that the NSA monitored the phone calls of 35 world leaders. Apparently this surveillance produced little in the way of intelligence, but it certainly sparked a lot of outrage worldwide.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that spying between friends is unacceptable. Meanwhile Mexico's foreign secretary Jose Antonio Meade called it, "an abuse of trust."
For a look at the fallout from this we're joined by Richard Betts, director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Friday Flashback: Obamacare fallout, immigration reform, and more
It's time for our weekly analysis of the big stories making news, the Friday Flashback. Joining us to discuss healthcare.gov and other stories is Nancy Cook of National Journal, and James Rainey of the LA Times.
Three weeks after its launch, and the healthcare site is still buggy, people say they can't sign up for insurance, the word train wreck is being thrown around. Let's start with the basic question. How did the White House let this happen?
Yesterday, there was the first in what will be a whole series of hearings in Congress. Tech companies execs claimed they did their jobs, and the government agency overseeing this was to blame. Some Democrats objected to the entire process. But even if some Democrats protest, isn't this a real opportunity for Republicans to continue their fight against Obamacare?
May Republicans be able to use the healthcare.gov problems as a way to neutralize the damage done to them by the shutdown? Do you think all this means it's time for the government to establish a cabinet-level department of digital technology?
Even without the website problems, there are lots of anecdotes rolling in about Obamacare. Most of them are not good. People complaining they have to purchase policies that will be more expensive than what they had before. Young people who say they have no intention of enrolling. Healthcare reform is considered President Obama's legacy achievement, but could it actually tarnish his legacy?
Meanwhile, leaders from both parties began talking about immigration reform again. The President was out pushing for it this week, and the House Speaker, John Boehner said he's hopeful reform will happen. What are the chances he can get Republicans in line to support something that Democrats in the Senate will also get behind?
Here in California, there is talk of trying to organize recall elections that target officials who support gun control. You'll remember there was a similar, and successful effort to do this in Colorado. But California?
Mexico puts a stop to GMO corn production
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Mexico issued a ban on growing genetically modified corn.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed last year by activists. They claim that the genetically modified corn would ruin Mexico's diverse corn crop by homogenizing it. But advocates say that the GMO corn is necessary for Mexico to feed its citizens.
Erick de la Barrera, a professor and an ecologist for the Scientific Advisory Council of the GMO Biosafety Comission in Mexico, joins the show with more.
Elizabeth Mitchell's 'The Sounding Joy' give the Christmas album a new twist
Singer and songwriter Elizabeth Mitchell has always loved Christmas. Sure she loved the gifts and the food, but she was mostly in love with the holiday because of the music.
Her new album, "The Sounding Joy", is a collection of songs for the holiday, but it's definitely not your typical Christmas record.
Elizabeth Mitchell joins Take Two from New York, and begins by telling us what inspired her to make this record.
The Atlantic lists the 50 greatest tech breakthroughs of all time
It's safe to say that fire and the wheel top the list of innovations that have done the most to shape life for humans on Earth. However, as the old saying goes, what have you done for me lately?
Our friends at The Atlantic were wondering that, too, so they gathered scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and historians of technology to rank the top 50 breakthroughs that have shaped modern times.
James Fallows from the Atlantic joins the show with more.
California pushes to increase number of zero-emission vehicles in use
This week, there was a push to dramatically increase the number of zero-emission cars on the roads. California and New York are among eight states that have vowed to improve the infrastructure to power clean cars.
Alan Ohnsman, reporter for Bloomberg, joins the show with more.
Sriracha hot sauce gets its place at the table
Excuse the pun, but Sriracha is totally hot right now.
It's the bright red sauce that comes in the bottle with rooster logo on the front and the green squeeze top found on restaurant tables across the city, Lays even uses Sriracha as a flavoring in its potato chips.
Event:Click here for more info on the L.A. Sriracha Festival happening Oct. 27 from 3-6 p.m.
Now the spicy stuff is getting its own festival. The first annual Los Angeles Sriracha festival happens this Sunday. Festival cofounder and "The Sriracha Cookbook" author Randy Clemens joins the show with more.
Interview Highlights:
Randy Clemens on the differenced between Sriracha here and in Thailand:
"The one most people know and love is the Huy Fong Foods version that's made here in SoCal. It's the one with the rooster on the bottle and the green cap, and I think that's what most people know as Sriracha. But there's actually Thai versions as well.
"There's a town in Thailand called Sriracha and it's made a little differently there. The one we have here is spicy. It's a fermented chili sauce that's got a little bit of garlic, sugar, salt and vinegar added. Same base ingredients there used in Thailand, but the version here is quite a bit thicker. It's used more as a condiment versus a dipping sauce, whereas in Thailand it's more of a dipping sauce. But essentially the recipe is the same but they use different peppers in Thailand and end up being a little different.”
On some of his favorite ways to use the sauce in his cooking:
"I think buffalo wings were kind of my first where I looked around and didn't really have more Frank's Red Hot and I thought, 'well I'll try Sriracha and that was kind of my first foray into it. As far as crazier, I've definitely had a lot of fun in the breakfast and dessert categories and even drinks. I've got a watermelon Sriracha sangria that's better than it should be."
On using Sriracha in desserts:
"The weirdest one is definitely the pineapple upside down cake and where you'd normally have the cherries, it's little puddles of Sriracha. I found some Fresno and serrano chiles and mixed those up and blended up a batch myself. there is a recipe in both books for how to make your own homemade Sriracha."
On what to expect from the Sriracha Festival:
"Beachwood BBQ and Brewing from Long Beach, besides pouring some of their beers, they will also have a Sriracha brazed and glazed spare rib with spicy sweet vegetable slaw. Gorrilla Tacos is going to be there and they're going to be making cauliflower, honey date, olive taco with cashew Sriracha salsa negro. Those are two of the dishes I'm excited about, but there are a bunch of others. Scoops is going to be there with ice cream the year. They're doing a lemongrass ginger Sriracha burnt sugar ice cream and a mango Sriracha sorbet.”
RECIPE:
Burning Thai Bruschetta from "The Veggie Lover's Sriracha Cookbook
Makes 4 to 6 servings
• 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise
• 3 green onions, white and green parts, sliced on the diagonal
• 2 tablespoons Sriracha
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• 8 large leaves Thai basil, chiffonade
• Zest and juice of 1 large lime
• 2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos, or low-sodium soy sauce
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 baguette
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Instructions:
In a large, non-reactive bowl, mix together the tomatoes, green onions, Sriracha, ginger, brown sugar, basil, lime juice and Liquid Aminos. Mince 3 cloves of the garlic, and add them to the mixture. Season with just a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and let sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven and prepare the baguette.
(This can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and stored in the refrigerator.)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Slice the baguette into 1-inch thick slices on the diagonal.
Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
Toast in the oven until golden, but not quite brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from the oven, and scrape the remaining clove of garlic across the top of each warm slice of toast. The coarse texture of the just-crisped bread will actually act like a grater, getting little flecks of garlicky glory onto each piece.
Season the tomato mixture with additional salt and pepper, to taste. Give an additional stir and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve alongside the toasted baguette, allowing guests to spoon on their own tomato topping, family style.
Contest:
We want to see your most creative or outrageous Sriracha recipes! Send us a recipe and we'll pick a winner at random to win 5 bottles of Sriracha hot sauce. Post your recipes in the comments, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us at TakeTwoShow@scpr.org. Good luck!
Exploring LA's wealth of international cuisine
It's well documented that Los Angeles brings cultures from all over the world together - especially when it comes to food. The November issue of LA Magazine explores LA's very international food scene, sampling 80 different cuisines in the city.
Dine Editor Lesley Bargar Suter joins the show with more.
Halloween showdown: 2 OC neighbors stage fierce haunted house rivalry
An annual Halloween showdown is about to take place between two Orange County families.
They have spent thousands of dollars to transform their suburban homes into their darkest nightmares. This year, Donald Julson is building a haunted maze on his parents’ driveway, while across the street, Clay Stevens and his daughters will blow up a huge circus tent filled with nefarious clowns.
Hundreds of visitors are expected to visit the spectacle on the night of Oct. 31. It's part of an annual tradition on Loganberry Lane in Lake Forest. Over the years, it’s become a playful rivalry between the families, each vying to see who can get the most screams in the neighborhood.
'Orange Slime' use in fighting fires debated (photos)
Today is the 10th anniversary of the so-called "Firestorm of 2003m" when more than a dozen wildfires raged across Southern California from Simi Valley to San Diego.
The frequency and intensity of wildfires have risen over the years, and one of the weapons used to fight those fires is that bright orange liquid dumped from planes above the flames: fire retardant.
Turns out fire retardant is made here in Southern California. As KPCC's Science Reporter Sanden Totten explains, not everyone thinks it works when it matters most.
Alan Weisman's 'Countdown' explores Earth's population capacity
In his last book, "The World Without Us", author Alan Weisman imagined what the Earth would be like if humans suddenly disappeared. Now he explores a world with us.
His new book "Countdown" explores the "optimum population" to make sure we can stick around on this planet. Alan Weisman joins us in the studio with more.