We check in on the youth vote, and why there's less excitement about the Obama campaign than there was in 2008. Plus, is the Great Recession defining retirement? Then, Deepa Fernandes reports on some Southland employers that are trying to make "work-family balance" more than an empty phrase, and we look at the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning sports writer Jim Murray, who elevated the art of sports journalism, and much more.
Youth vote excitement over Obama campaign dimmer compared to 2008
President Obama is winning the youth vote, but excitement over his campaign has dimmed compared to 2008, and his lead over Gov. Romney is slightly smaller in places where it counts most, the swing states.
Lena Dunham recorded a promotional video to support Barack Obama:
Take Two talks to Rock the Vote’s Heather Smith about the mood on campuses, and how much the candidates need younger voters.
Is the Great Recession redefining retirement?
College students are struggling to get a job is this economy, in part because baby boomers are delaying retirement.
A third of middle-class Americans surveyed by Wells Fargo say they plan to work until they're 80 years old. The problem with that is the current average life expectancy in this country is 78.
We all know it's tough to save for retirement in this economy when so many people are living paycheck to paycheck
So the question is: has the Great Recession redefined "retirement"?
For more on that we're joined Marci Alboher, vice president of Encore.org, a non-profit group that encourages people to do social good instead of retirement.
Two candidates vie in San Gabriel Valley for state's first Asian-American district
There are 11 Asian-Americans in the California State Legislature, that's a little less than 10 percent, but that number's about to get a little higher.
Thats because there are two Asian Americans competing in the West San Gabriel Valley's 49th district. It's the state's first district where Asians are the majority of the population
KPCC's Alice Walton takes a look at the race.
Two candidates in the San Gabriel Valley are fighting to represent the state Assembly’s first Asian-American majority district.
Matthew Lin, a physician, and engineer Edwin Chau will face each other in the Nov. 6 election.
While the San Gabriel Valley has long been home to immigrants from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, the latest round of redistricting created a seat where Asian-Americans represent 53 percent of the population. It’s the first of its kind in California. About half of the residents there were born outside of the United States and three-quarters speak a language other than English, according to the U.S. Census.
“The area has become a gateway for a lot of Asian-American immigrants and it has been that way for 30, 40 years now,” said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.
The California Citizens Redistricting Commission created the new 49th District, in part, because Asian-American voters share similar concerns about immigration, language services, and financial fraud. Protections against hate crimes and discrimination have also been a trademark of the district, according to Feng.
“That’s partly in response to the reality that a lot of people are living with, which is we’ve got a very heterogeneous population and people are learning to live together in learned harmony,” Feng said.
Though the district has more registered Democrats than Republicans, about 40 percent to 25 percent, Republican Matthew Lin won the June primary by more than 15 points. Part of that win can be attributed to the 30 percent of voters who do not identify with a political party.
“They’re very guarded about what their political affiliation is," said Feng, "perhaps because of the countries that they’ve come from and their experience in being careful about allowing their political preferences to be known to the public."
Lin is hoping that voters relate to his own immigration story. He moved to America from Taiwan in 1973. He eventually founded the Pacific Orthopedic Medical Center and Pacific Independent Physician Association. He was also a member of the San Marino City Council.
“They feel that, like I do, everybody should have the opportunity, same opportunity that we do to succeed at the American dream,” Lin said.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune endorsed Lin, calling him “a rare bird — a party moderate with some even liberal moments.”
Meanwhile, Chau is hoping that Democrats will have a better showing at the polls in November. His campaign, just like Lin’s, is making calls to voters in Mandarin, English and Spanish. Current 49th District Assemblyman Mike Eng and Congresswoman Judy Chu, who held this Assembly seat from 2001 to 2006, endorsed Chau.
“As far as the primary result was concerned, it was one of the lowest voter turnout races in the history of the district,” Chau said. “We believe that the November electorate is going to be much different and [turnout] is going to be pretty high.”
Chau, who also holds a law degree, is a member of the Montebello Unified School District Board of Education.
Weekend Alias: How to update your old Halloween costume this year
As we do every Friday, we turn now to producer Meghan McCarty and her Weekend Alibi. But we're doing things a little different this week.
Meghan joins A in studio to give some tips about how to update your old Halloween costumes this year.
Is your costume racist? Be sure to consult this checklist!
Family friendly companies make parenting a little easier
It’s not news to parents that it costs a lot to raise kids today. But now a U.S. Department of Agriculture report, from the Center for Nutrition Policy Promotion, has put a dollar amount on this seemingly endless expense. The total for a middle income family to raise one child from birth to 18 years old? $235,000.
With transportation, child care, education and food being the largest, recurring, child related expenses, it is any wonder that three of five families with children under 18 are dual-income households? With both parents employed, it is an increasing challenge for working mothers and fathers to balance work commitments and schedules with that of their children. What happens when a child is sick, or the child finishes school earlier than the parent’s work day?
At Hollywood based start-up, Scorebig.com, co-founder Joel Milne realized early on that as a 30-some father, he had a desire for quality family time. “When I started the company I told my investors, well on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I leave at 3.30 and until my kids go to bed I’m not available.” Milne says it was critical that he was open about his family’s needs from the outset, “so I set that up from day one.”
The family friendly perks trickle down at Scorebig.com, according to Milne. He describes how some employees are able to “time-shift” and work flexible hours based on their family needs. “If you hire good quality people then they don’t need to be policed,” says Milne, “they’re going to have the motivation and drive to do good work.“ Milne recognizes that in this era of smartphones and laptops, “people are always working and thinking about the problems they need to solve and the issues they’re facing. So from our standpoint if you hire the right people it's just not an issue.”
Yet the downside of working at a 24-7 operation that many start-ups tend to be, says Aja Hashian, the Customer Service Manager at Scorebig.com, is that “I tend to never to fully disconnect from work.” So when Hashian leaves work and goes home to her one year-old son, her Blackberry is constantly buzzing with work issues she needs to deal with. While Hashian can rush off on a moments notice if her son needs her, the tradeoff is that she is always accessible. Says Hashian, “I find it really challenging.”
Not far from Scorebig.com is another family friendly workplace, Loyola Marymount University. Set on an idyllic campus, with stunning ocean views, it might seem that Loyola employees already have it good. Yet after a thirty year struggle by faculty and staff, the Catholic university opened a full-time child care center on campus. One of the faculty members who campaigned for the “Children’s Center” is Management Professor, Cathleen McGrath. “We really tried to highlight to the administration and the community in general that having a children’s center doesn’t just help the children in the center it enriches the life of the entire university.”
Loyola’s center has now been open ten years, and it employs best practices in child care, utilizing methodologies emanating from it’s own School of Education professors. Students of early childhood education complete internships at the center, but best of all, says center director, Ani Shabazian, parents can come by anytime to nurse or visit with children. She says this “peace of mind” is a big perk that all parents take advantage of. “I know a number of staff members have said this is a huge part in their retention at the university and in their decision to come to the university,” according to Shabazian.
So how many workplaces are there like Loyola or Scorebig that make it easier to be a working parent? According to Stanford economist and researcher, Nick Bloom, not many in the U.S. Bloom’s research has compared family-friendly policies of U.S. companies to similar sized firms in the U.K., Germany and France.
Bloom says his study looked at “practices around letting people work part time, work from home, job share and flexibility for childcare.” The results showed that U.S. companies, while leading in how well managed they are, lag well behind their European counterparts in terms of how family-friendly they are. “In terms of job-sharing, part time work, making it easy for women with kids to take the day off if their kid is sick, the American’s were bottom of the class. And the Europeans were a lot better, especially the French were extremely nice to their employees in terms of being very flexible.”
In the radio feature, hear Professor Bloom talk more about his research and results. Bloom says while his study found that family-friendly companies did not increase in profitability, nor did it cost them anything to allow this flexibility to employees with children. Also hear UPS chief executive, Noel Massie, describe why it makes economic sense for his parcel delivery company to be as family friendly as possible.
New book looks at the legacy of sports writer Jim Murray
The Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray is a legend among sports writers. He's covered everything: baseball, football, horse racing. You name it, he's covered it.
He was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame and won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary before his death in 1998.
Over the years, Murray's sharp, biting wit produced many memorable lines. Of legendary UCLA Bruins basketball coach John Wooden he wrote: "John Wooden is so square, he's divisible by four."
Or this one: "Show me a man who's a good loser and I'll show you a man playing golf with his boss."
Ted Geltner is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Valdosta State University in Georgia. He's just written the book, "Last King of the Sports Page, The Life and Career of Jim Murray"
PHOTOS: LA High school football fans prepare for the East LA Classic
High school football stadiums will be packed with big crowds tonight. It's the final game of the season for many schools. What happens this evening will determine which teams go on to the playoffs.
And then there's the Garfield—Roosevelt game — The East L.A. Classic — the biggest and best-known football game in Los Angeles. KPCC's Vanessa Romo reports on the rivalry that's become an L.A. institution.
Pretty much every open space on Roosevelt High School’s Boyle Heights campus is a makeshift dance studio on this day. A group of lanky boys and girls is in near hysterics practicing their faux horse-ridings moves set to Gangnam-style.
All 35 girls are trying to nail perfectly synchronizing their head turns with their red and gold pom-poms shaking, and 10 yards away, you have the cheerleaders practicing what they call a Miami Flip. It’s a pyramid that involves throwing three girls up in the air — each one holding a leg up high when they’re at the top. Coach Robert steps back as they go through it for the umpteenth time.
It’s loud and chaotic - and emotions run high as more than a hundred students get ready for the biggest half-time show of the year. Still, the drill team, the cheerleaders, and the marching band are just one part of the huge spectacle that’ll be the 78th annual East L.A. Classic. It’s a game so big and so old it’s got its own name.
Organizers say the Classic is the biggest game west of the Mississippi River. More than 20-thousand fans show up to watch the Roosevelt Roughriders and Garfield Bulldogs go at it on the field. I’m told anyone with a ticket should guard it closely.
"You better protect that somebody might take it from you. That’s a hot ticket in town right now. It really is," said Javier Cid, Roosevelt's head coach. Cid is in his seventh year of coaching. He grew up in Boyle Heights and graduated from Roosevelt class of ‘84.
He’s in a hot, cramped office, surrounded by his musky smelling offensive line. "Right now we are doing some mental preparation. A lot of this, this time of year, it’s all mental," said Cid.
The team is on an 8-game winning streak, but for the last two years, the Rough Riders have lost to the Bulldogs. One was a heartbreaker.
"We had one yard to go to score and that score, with the extra point would have put us in a tie. But they stopped us and they did a good job," said Cid.
If you’re keeping score — and who isn’t? — Roosevelt has taken the trophy 39 times to Garfield’s 31. There have been six ties. But today, the boys are pumped about the game, especially the 2nd generation players like Arturo Nunez, number 68. His dad was a Rough Rider, too, and he remembers running through the tunnel and onto the field at Weingart Stadium at East L.A. College. The only place big enough to hold such a big die-hard crowd.
"He’s really putting a good amount of pressure cause he grew up in a family of 6 or 7 and they all went to Roosevelt. So I’m the only one that was a boy and the second generation to come back to Roosevelt and to play football," said Nunez. "I’m also wearing his number so that makes it even more intense for me I guess"
Nunez says about 25 relatives will watch the game. It’s the same on the Garfield side.
"I had a lady that came in today, which I’ve known for a number of years and she bought 11 adult tickets and seven student tickets and that’s just for her family alone.," said Ruby Solares, who's been at every Classic since she was a Garfield sophomore in 1963. Her commitment to the school runs so deep that she’s been working there for almost 30 years, selling tickets to the game. Her boys were in the marching band, and when her husband, a college counselor went to work for Roosevelt, he wasn’t allowed to sit next to her during the game.
"On that day everybody sits on their opposite side, which is really funny," said Solares.
She says back in the day the neighborhood had Russians, Armenians, black and Mexicans. The neighborhood she describes sounds like a Technicolor montage of scenes from “American Graffiti” and “Grease.” But maybe you don’t picture them in East L.A. starring a bunch of kids named Armendariz, Rodriguez or Pena.
"We used to go down Whittier Boulevard onboard cars and throw eggs at each other, and there was a restaurant where we would get a root beer float for a nickel," said Solares.
Billy Gutierrez, class of ‘68, says he’s a “Bulldog aaaalll night long”
But when Ruby asks Billy if the “Bulldog aaaalll night long” ever dated a Roosevelt Rough Rider girl back in the ‘60s...
"I ain’t going to lie, I probably did. I probably did. And I would tell them sometimes, where do you live? They would live on Indiana sometimes, somewhere in Boyle Heights, don’t tell me what school you went to cause you’re going to blow it right here," said Gutierrez. "Don’t tell me. I didn’t want to know cause I wouldn’t date them. I don’t care how pretty they are. I’m diehard 'Garfillian.'"
It’s obvious that this exchange is the equivalent of verbal tailgating before the game. An integral part of the East L.A. Classic tradition and what the old timers enjoy most about coming back year after year.
"It’s something like when you have a family outing. Like Christmas? And you get together? I guess you can say this is like Christmas for all the students. From the beginning ‘til now," said Gutierrez.
Christmas comes but once a year. And it kicks off at 7:30 tonight at East L.A. College ... if you’ve got a ticket.
CA election watchdog group sues Arizona nonprofit over secret donors
The Fair Political Practices Commission—a California election watchdog group—is filing suit with an Arizona based non-profit in an attempt to reveal who donated $11 million to influence Props 30 and 32 on the California ballot this November.
'Brooklyn Castle' doc follows inner-city middle school chess champions
Remember cheering on the students in the documentary "Spellbound," and wincing in pain during the ballet film "First Position"?
Now you can furrow your brow and slam a time clock along with the young champion chess players featured in the new movie, "Brooklyn Castle."
BROOKLYN CASTLE from Rescued Media on Vimeo.
The new documentary profiles the remarkable chess program at Brooklyn I.S. 318, an inner city New York middle school where it’s cool to play chess.
Director Katie DellaMaggiore follows a group of students through a year of triumphs and challenges as the formidable chess team seeks to win the National championship, despite cuts to afterschool programs prompted by the great recession. Many of their families are living below the poverty line, and their school has been hit with a million dollar budget cut. In the meantime, these kids have won more chess titles than any school in the country.
We're joined by the film's director Katie DellaMaggiore, and one of the subjects of the film, Alexis Paredes.
Brooklyn Castle opens in theaters in Los Angeles today, and other venues nationwide.
Teachers in Los Angeles and New York can see the film for free this weekend:
Click here for more info.
Friday Flashback: Final debate, falling sharks, and why women can’t do pull-ups
James Rainey, political columnist for the LA Times, and Heidi Moore, U.S. economics editor for the Guardian wrap up the big stories of the week and look ahead to the final week before the presidential election.