We check in on the status of Hurricane Sandy, and survey the destruction in New Jersey, New York and in the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Haiti. Plus, Molly Peterson reports on rising sea levels and whether California is prepared for a storm like Sandy. Then, music critic Drew Tewksbury gives us a playlist for Halloween, we fact check political ads and much more.
Update on the direction and destruction of Hurricane Sandy
The mega storm that pounded the Northeast overnight continues to take its toll. The Associated Press is reporting that 33 people have died, and dozens of homes have been destroyed and millions of people from Maine down to the Carolinas have no power.
First, Dave Samuel, a meterologist from AccuWeather.com joins the show to give us the latest on the path of Hurricane Sandy.
New Jersey hit hard by flooding due to Hurricane Sandy
Across the Hudson River from New York City, New Jersey was pounded by the storm. A levee broke in northern New Jersey, submerging the entire town of Moonachie, with more than 1,000 people being evacuated as of this morning.
And last night, Atlantic City was cut off from the mainland by the rising tide of water. Throughout the state, millions of home are still without power and at least three people have been killed.
For an on-the-ground look at the devastation, we're joined by Bob Hennelly, reporter for New York Public Radio and New Jersey Public Radio.
Presidential campaign update, one week away from election day
Today, Mitt Romney is holding a "storm relief event" in Kettering Ohio, while President Obama remains in Washington, D.C. where he's been talking to mayors of New York, Jersey City and Newark.
For more on how the superstorm has been affecting politics, we're joined by NPR's Washington Editor Ron Elving.
Hurricane Sandy wreaks havoc in Caribbean islands
Superstorm Sandy set records in the damage it wreaked as it churned up the East Coast. The storm is now heading inland and even though it still poses a flooding threat, its winds are diminishing.
But last week, when Sandy was still a hurricane, it ran roughshod through the Caribbean, causing extensive damage in Cuba and Haiti.
11 people died in Cuba, and the state-run media said at least 150,000 homes were damaged. The interior of the country suffered major flooding and a major effort was underway to ship food and building materials to the areas that were hardest hit.
In Haiti the situation is potentially more dire with at least 52 people already dead from storm-related causes. Even though the impoverished island didn't suffer a direct hit from the hurricane, rains there caused major flooding and destroyed many crops.
We reached Dr. Megan Coffee, an infectious disease specialist who operates a government clinic in Port au Prince, Haiti's capital.
Could Hurricane Sandy affect the outcome of the election?
Hurricane Sandy isn’t the first natural disaster to affect an election. Research has shown that when disaster strikes, it’s not good news for the incumbent.
We’ll look at how severe weather can influence the electorate.
Is California prepared for the impact of rising sea levels?
Superstorm Sandy put much of the eastern seaboard underwater as record storm surges batter the shore.
A thirteen-foot bulge of water hit lower Manhattan yesterday, flooding the subway and the financial district.
It's the highest water level recorded in a century.
What does climate change have to do with Sandy?
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character named Bill asks the protagonist, Mike, “How did you go bankrupt?” Mike says, “Two ways…gradually, then suddenly.”
The world's oceans have swelled by at least eight inches over the last century; in one sense, climate change has had a gradual impact on how this storm hit places in New York like the Battery.
But it’s sudden too, as when an extreme weather event like a “superstorm” hits. Scientists this year at the UK Met Office and the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration found heightened probabilities of extreme weather events, like storms, flooding, and drought; their unprecedented results were published in peer-reviewed studies this summer.
The year’s biggest climate news was the record observed low for Arctic polar ice. The Arctic isn’t connected to extreme weather directly; you can’t say that melting ice means bigger storms in New Jersey. But melting polar ice does warm up seawater; warmer sea water has greater volume. Temperature and water volume are among the elements of a storm forming over the Atlantic, for example; changing them changes the storm’s recipe.
How are coastal cities vulnerable to Sandy-like storms, especially, you know, California’s cities?
American cities along all coasts are vulnerable the way New York has been. Sandy revealed it: subways flooded, electricity lines blown up or down, salt water flooding into pumping and power equipment.
California doesn’t have the population density that puts New York at risk, and it’s not as low-lying as a place like New Orleans. But research funded by the state’s Ocean Protection Council shows that a 55-inch sea-level rise coupled with a 100-year storm event places almost half a million people and $100 billion in property along the coast at risk.
In the Golden State (and Oregon and Washington), the National Research Council amassed a team of scientists who say that sea level rise up to 6 feet is possible with the century.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is inland, but its land is subsiding faster than other places in California, raising its risk from rising seas. In the Bay Area, the San Francisco and Oakland airports adjoin the bay waters.
Along Southern California’s coast, areas where development crowds the Pacific, like Newport, Huntington Beach, and Malibu, are talking about sea level rise in local public meetings.
Is anyone doing anything about the risks from sea level rise?
Three broad categories of policies address climate risk from rising seas. You can build sea walls, to guard against water. You can raise coastal structures, to try to place them out of water’s way. Or you can move your community inland. None of these options is politically expedient; all are costly.
Four years ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order directing state agencies to develop a climate adaptation strategy and consider a range of sea-level rise scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100.
California now has 16 state agencies and other entities on a task force. Together they’ve created a planning document, to outline how to respond to climate risk. Separately, they’re figuring out their responsibilities. Like a lot of other people and groups, California officials working on this problem are anticipating the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th assessment report, about physical science, slated to come out next year.
Nationally, the picture is murky, too. There’s no agreement among authorities about whether climate risk is a federal, state or local responsibility. It’s easier to convene a blue ribbon panel of experts to study an issue than it is to apportion responsibility, political and financial, for a problem. Legislation, like the climate bill a few years ago, that provides funding for managing climate risk tends to get turned back.
As a result, federal and state agencies have been assessing climate change impacts on sea levels for 25 years. When something like a Superstorm Sandy hits, nobody wants them to stop. But counting, at least, the producers at Take Two, some people start asking questions about what else those agencies can do.
Social media keeps families connected during Hurricane Sandy
Around the world, people are watching Hurricane Sandy on TV, listening to coverage on the radio, but for many, social media has been the best way to keep up to date with the storm and those affected by it.
FEMA sent out a tweet to its 157,000 followers urging those in the storm's path to use texts and social media instead of phone lines to let friends and family know they're okay.
For more on how sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have been used during the storm, we're joined by Brian Stelter, media reporter with the New York Times.
LAUSD fails to gain union support for Race To The Top grant application
Hurricane Sandy may have brought one small benefit, the shutdown of government offices gave school districts around the country a few extra days to finish their applications for Race to the Top grants.
That's a federal competition for education funding. The awards are based on adhering to a set of reforms and total about $40 million for large districts, but it looks like Los Angeles public schools are out of the running.
The L.A. teachers union has decided not to sign off on the district's application.
Here to tell us more is KPCC's education reporter Tami Abdollah.
Trial begins for 12-year-old boy who allegedly killed neo-nazi father in 2010
Opening statements in the trial for 12-year-old Joseph Hall begins today. Hall is accused of killing his father, Riverside resident Jeff Hall, a prominent neo-Nazi. We'll talk to KPCC's Steven Cuevas for the latest on the hearing.
Fact checking California’s political TV ads
Lest you forget that we are week out from an election. Depending on your location, if you turn on your TV there will likely be an endless stream of ads telling you how you should vote.
Here in California, that means spots for and against the 11 different propositions on the ballot. So far, campaigns have raised over $350 million to support their causes.
Leading the pack in terms of spending are propositions 30, 32, 37 and 38. But what to make of all the claims we are hearing?
To help us sort through some of the ads we're joined by Tom Hollihan. He's a professor of communication at USC's Annenberg School.
Las Vegas hit hard by political TV ads In Spanish
The number of ads running in Las Vegas has reached an all-time high, and in this final stretch of the race, one of the biggest pitches of all is to Latino voters who may hold the key to victory.
From the Fronteras Desk in Las Vegas, Veronica Zaragovia reports.
Nevada’s Latinos make up about 15 percent of registered voters. And because Las Vegas is a small television market, ads are cheap here. So campaigns, PACs and political committees are throwing millions of dollars at ads to sway Latino voters.
Ads like a pro-Mitt Romney spot criticizing Barack Obama’s immigration reform. Or another one with Obama speaking in Spanish as he praises immigrant students.
This year in Las Vegas alone, at least $4 million has been spent on Spanish-language TV ads at two stations -- Univision and Telemundo. That’s according to analyst firm Kantar Media. In 2008 only $600,000 was spent at the same two stations.
Some voters are fed up with it all. Miguel Funes moved here 15 years ago from Honduras. He says he’s tired of the mailers, the robocalls and the incessant barrage of political ads on TV.
“Usually when I turn on the TV, I want to watch something else,” Funes said, who works as an air conditioning technician. If there’s a moment you don’t want to watch the same thing -- especially when you already decided who you’re going to vote for. Oh, and calls. Ugh -- my phone at home is always ringing. Ring, ring, ring!”
But others like Alicia Alcuna, who moved to the U.S. from Argentina, likes the attention. She’s on medical leave from her job sewing uniforms at the Hard Rock Casino.
She says politicians make a first impression and cover important issues in these spots.
“Seeing these ads is important,” Alcuna said in Spanish. “It’s the first point of contact when I think ‘oh that interests me.' But it’s the fact that I saw it on television that first provoked my interest.”
But does the Spanish spoken in these ads matter?
Republican Dean Heller is campaigning for a Senate seat in Nevada. In one of his ads, his wife Lynne speaks in Spanish, praising Heller for being a good father, husband and grandfather.
In the ad, we see a pastoral scene -- Heller walking with Lynne, and leading a horse. Professor Federico Subervi gives this one a failing grade.
“Her Spanish doesn’t overcome the disconnect with that particular image,” said Subervi, who leads the Center for the Study of Latino Media and Markets at Texas State University in San Marcos.
“Showing him with a horse is kind of way out of social class for most Latinos,” Subervi added. “About being someone who takes care of a nice private horse in a nice private ranch -- that’s class beyond connection with Latinos.”
Subervi said campaigns should make these ads in English as well so that Latinos who don’t speak Spanish can refer to the same ad when discussing the campaigns.
But no matter the language, the common reference for Latino voters will be a candidate who speaks to their needs.
Take voter Alfonso Razo, who works at the Las Vegas Convention Center. He's not paying attention to the bad Spanish accents, but on who is going to follow through for the Latino community.
‘When they get elected, it would be good if they not only speak in Spanish but they actually put the effort to help us,” Razo said in Spanish, after voting at the East Las Vegas Community Center. “If they want our help, they shouldn’t forget Spanish once elected.”
In these last few days leading up to Election Day, Univision and its sister station TeleFutura say they have more than a thousand Spanish-language political ads lined up to air in Las Vegas.
Democrats have dominated the Spanish-language ads for the last year, but TV station management says for this home stretch, Republicans have outspent the rivals.
Mixing up your Halloween party playlist
Heard “Monster Mash” one too many times? Wish Halloween was over already? We can’t make time move any faster, but we can offer up some more interesting Halloween music.
Drew Tewksbury chats with Alex about his top Halloween music picks.
Well, before I tell you some great tunes for this Halloween. I have to make a quick confession. I love heavy metal. I adore songs that sound like horror movies, but for this list, i refrained from putting a single Slayer or Gwar song on here. Instead, I've compiled a list of a couple songs that could work for whatever kind of Halloween party you will be throwing. So if you're throwing one of those classic Halloween parties, with the bobbing for apples, all that, I've picked a classic staple: Screamin Jay Hawkin's I put a spell on you:
This may seem like an obvious choice, but to me Screamin' Jay Hawkins is the epitome of Halloween. He was the original shock rocker, before Alice Cooper, before Ozzy, before KISS. He'd be wheeled out in a coffin on stage, and dressed like a voodoo spirit too. In the 90s he had something of a resurgence too, he appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film "Mystery Train," he covered Tom Waits songs. But my favorite piece of Screamin' Jay trivia is his attempt to meet all of his illegitimate kids.
He was apparently very busy while on the road. His biographer set up a website called Jay's Kids, and urged people who thought Jay might be their father to write in. 33 people were identified, and they all met up with him at the House of Blues in L.A.
If Screamin' Jay Hawkins isn't quite creepy enough for you, maybe a Murder Ballad would spook up your party. Here's "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the bad seeds :
I love Nick Cave, and this era from the mid-90s was his best. I met him a few years back, and in person, he really looks like a vampire, or just needed a transfusion for something. Nick's gone on to write some great films lately too, like "The Proposition" and "Lawless," which just came out.
Speaking of movies, if you have friends who are serious movie nerds but also like to get down, this song from Busta Rhymes mixes the Bernard Herman's great soundtrack for "Psycho" with some killer beats:
I would love to imagine this party of super movie geeks and hip-hop heads mingling together. Busta has kind of fallen off the radar in the last few years, he has been trying to transition into the movie world. And not very successfully. But there's one actor who has made a song that should be part of the new canon of Halloween songs.
It's Ryan Gosling. yes, the Gos. Typically the idea of actors-turned-musicians yields terrible results, but Gosling collaboration with Zach Sheilds was actually pretty great. It was called Deadman's Bones, and here's their song "My Body's A Zombie For You":
This would be a good song for any Halloween party with some kids around. For this song, they enlisted the Silverlake Children's Choir to sing backup. I spoke with their label last week, and they said there's no sequel for this cute and spooky project in the future, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Here are some additional tracks you can add to your list: