Today on the show we host an immigration reform roundtable with Ruben Barrales and Teresa Hernandez. Then, undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia's fight to practice law in the U.S.; Dumpling house Din Tai Fung expands to Glendale, Costa Mesa; Chris's Collection: Celebrating 232 years of historical LA objects; Advocate for Tijuana deportees dies at 67, plus much more.
Sen. Rand Paul becomes vocal opposition to US intervention in Syria
Dominating the news today: Syria, and the debate over taking military action.
President Obama is in Sweden today meeting with leaders of Nordic countries. He told reporters there he has high confidence in evidence showing the Syrian regime used chemical weapons. He also said a military response is "the moral thing to do."
But here at home, Americans - and their representatives in Congress - don't seem so sure.
The Senate Foreign Relations committee drafted a resolution giving the President "limited and tailored" authority for a mission of less than 90 days, with no troops on the ground. It's not clear if such a measure can pass the Senate, or the House.
A junior Senator from Kentucky has become the key spokesperson for the opposition to Syrian involvement. He also happens to be considered among the early front-runners for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination.
Republican Senator Rand Paul has become among the loudest voices questioning the wisdom of intervening in Syria, chemical weapons or not. It's a position that might be based on pragmatism, or even moral grounds. But it's creating some interesting politics, too.
We're joined by Beth Reinhard, who has been writing about Rand Paul and Syria for the National Journal.
Undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia's fight to practice law in the US
Today the California Supreme Court will hear the case of Sergio Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who wants to become a lawyer here in California.
RELATED: A lawyer without a green card? California justices weigh a landmark case
The case could set a new precedent in the ongoing conflict between state and federal governments over immigration law. Mr. Garcia, joins the show to talk about his effort.
The GOP and the future of immigration reform
When Congress left for recess, the biggest news was that immigration reform had stalled in the House. For some Republicans, that isn't a problem.
More than 100 House districts across the country have almost no Latino voters and opposing immigration reform won't make a difference to those candidates.
But for others, especially here in California, it's a simple game of numbers; they know they can't go on winning elections for long without Latino support.
For more on this, we're joined by Republican political consultant with Ruben Barrales, president of the political action committee Grow Elect, which focuses on Latino voter outreach and recruiting Latino Republican candidates for office.
Also joining us is Teresa Hernandez, Chairman of the Lincoln Club Immigration Reform Subcommittee.
Advocate for Tijuana deportees dies at 67
Men and women who land in Tijuana after being deported from the U.S. lost a great friend this week. Micaela Saucedo was one of the city's most vocal advocates for that city's vulnerable deportee population, and she died Sept. 1 after a battle with cancer.
Saucedo was a founder and executive director of the Casa Refugio Elvira, which began in 2007 as a shelter for women and children who found themselves stranded in Tijuana after being deported from the U.S. More recently, she had moved her old ten-bed shelter into a larger building, and began housing men, who make up most of the deportee population on the streets of Tijuana.
The idea for the shelter was sparked when a Mexican immigrant named Elvira Arellano left the Chicago church where, for a year, she'd been seeking safe harbor from deportation. She traveled to Los Angeles, but was arrested there and deported to Tijuana.
It was Saucedo, a retired nurse and activist, who greeted Arellano at the border. The shelter ultimately bore Arellano's first name.
As the shelter's director, Saucedo tried to differentiate Casa Refugio Elvira from others. She placed no limit on how long people could stay, realizing it often takes much longer than a week or two for a recent deportee to figure out what to do next.
"She saw a wrong, and she tried to fix it right away," said Enrique Morones, a border activist who worked with Saucedo and La Hermandad Mexicana, a pro-migrant nonprofit, to establish the shelter.
Saucedo often went to the border crossing where deportees filed off of buses. She knew most of them would arrive disoriented, knowing nothing about Tijuana, and she personally invited families to her shelter.
It was through this work that she learned of the hundreds, at times thousands of deported migrants who lived in abject poverty in the concrete canal that lines the Tijuana River as it runs along the border fence. Some have drug habits, others are simply unable to pay the dollar a day charged by most shelters.
Saucedo was a slight woman who wore glasses and graying hair. She visited the canal almost every day, talking with deportees and offering them food. She soon realized her ten-bed shelter was not enough.
Earlier this year, she moved it into a large abandoned building. She said she wanted to be closer to the canal because deportees often ran to find her when police were harassing canal residents. She also wanted to house more people, including men.
When I first met Saucedo in April, she had been arranging for the body of a young man who had been killed in the canal to be flown back to his hometown in southern Mexico. The government agreed to pay for that trip.
But for Saucedo, it was a tragedy that this man's only ticket home was in a casket. When he was first deported, the government wouldn't buy his bus ticket.
"There's no money," she said. "That's why you see so many people who want to return to their hometowns, but there's no money."
It was this large, stranded population to which Micaela Saucedo devoted the last seven years of her life, often spending her own retirement income on shelter utilities and rent, even as her health deteriorated following a diagnosis of cervical cancer two years ago.
"She struggled so much trying to make sure that there were the resources necessary in order for her to actually make a difference," said Mar Cardenas, who runs a community center in Tijuana's Playas neighborhood.
When I last visited the shelter's new location in April, it needed a lot of work. Its paint was peeling, there were exposed wires and no beds -- only blankets on the floor.
Apart from the lack of money, improvements were slow because Saucedo had been busy trying to convince police officials that raiding the canal and burning people's possessions -- a common practice -- would not solve the drug and public safety problems they were concerned about in the canal.
"They treat them poorly and they jail them, and they're beginning to see that doesn't work," she said. "Let's try to help them, ask them what they need. I can solve their problems of hunger, cold, and shelter. But when it comes to their larger problems, we need to work together."
Saucedo died early Sunday at her son's home in Chula Vista, after her health took a turn for the worse in recent weeks. She was 67. Because she was its main driving force, it's unclear whether her shelter will continue to operate.
Sports Roundup: Dodgers winning streak, LeBron James, and more
The hottest team in baseball could soon have a big problem on their hands, another team has accomplished something they haven't done since Michael Keaton was Batman and are you ready for some football?
That means it's time for sports with Andy and Brian Kamenetzky, who have covered sports for the L.A. Times and ESPN.
The Dodgers are on another winning streak. This is one stands at six and they're all but a lock to win the National League West, but Andy tells us why they could soon have an overcrowding problem on their hands.
Sometimes teams lose their best player, rally together, succeed, and then have to deal with his return. For the Dodgers, is this going to a blessing or curse?
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are not going to make the playoffs, but might be changing their name yet again?
The Pittsburgh Pirates have accomplished something they have not been able to do in 20 years.
Lebron James has many revenue avenues. He's got that little basketball player job, he's pitchman for Nike, Coke, McDonald's just to name a few. Now he's added another title to his business card.
64-year old Diana Nyad swam 110 miles between Cuba and Florida without a shark cage. Wouldn't this have to go down as one of the most impressive athletic feats of all-time?
The NFL season kicks off tomorrow in Denver when the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens visit the Broncos. Before we get some predictions for the upcoming season, guys once the games begin the NFL just has a way of getting all it's seedier stories out of the headlines. Aaron Hernandez, the concussion lawsuit settlement — it all seems to just go away because we have games now.
Since the season is starting tomorrow, which two teams do Andy and Brian predict to make it to the Super Bowl?
When the final two teams meet in the Super Bowl, it'll be Feb 2 in an outdoor stadium in New York. Last February 2 in New York, the high temperature was 29 degrees. Is this a disaster waiting to happen?
New California bill aims to ban ticket-buying bots
For you sports fans out there hoping to catch a game, or for people hoping to see a concert or watch a play, you know you've got to buy a ticket.
But you've probably had the experience of trying to get a ticket as soon as they go on sale, only to find that they're instantly sold out.
The cause isn't just other fans like you racing to get seats, but ticket-buying bots. Those are computer programs that buy up whole blocks of tickets and then scalpers resell them at a mark-up.
On Tuesday, California's Assembly Judiciary Committee approved AB 329, a new bill combatting ticket-buying bots in an 8-0 vote. The bill aims to strengthen existing laws against scalping, and will impose fines on organizations caught using computer programs to purchase multiple tickets. The bill is currently on its way to the Governor's desk.
"There's a fanclub presale, a credit card presale, then the artists, the promoter, the venue, they all get a big chunk of tickets," said Christopher Grimm, spokesperson for Fan Freedom, a consumer rights group for ticket buyers. "We're starting off with a smaller supply than anyone actually thinks."
After the various presales and comp tickets issued to talent, just a small percentage of total tickets are left for fans.
The bots work by bypassing the "CAPTCHA" login and bombarding the box office with hundreds of ticket requests. In a matter of seconds these bots can buy up all the available seats to be sold for a markup by scalpers later.
Grimm says part of the problem is that ticketing companies never disclose how many tickets are being snatched up by bots.
"We don't know the number, because ticket sellers like Ticketmaster have never actually reported how many tickets are bought with bots, but they blame bots a lot for these instant sellouts," said Grimm. "The bill...is a good first step. It gets everyone in agreement that bots are bad for consumers and that something needs to be done to prevent folks from using them in California."
Report: Abortion clinics close quickly when states tighten regulations
A new report from Bloomberg finds that clinics that provide abortions are closing at a record rate. For more on why this is and what it means for women looking to terminate pregnancies, we turn to Bloomberg reporter Esme DePrez.
Gov. Brown declares September officially California wine month
Raise a glass: September is now officially California Wine Month.
Governor Jerry Brown declared it so yesterday. He issued a lengthy proclamation explaining the rich tradition of viticulture in the state. Here to give us a little history lesson is Axel Borg, the reference librarian at UC Davis.
App Chat: Tools to help you chill out when you're stressed
One thing you might not have done over Labor Day weekend is de-stress.
Even though most people know meditating is healthy, it can be difficult to find the motivation to just sit there and "ommmm."
In this week's App Chat we're going to work on all of that, because we're going to be talking about meditation apps. Jacqui Cheng, editor at large for Ars Technica, joins the show to explain how we can use our usually distracting electronic devices to learn to meditate.
Headspace
The first 10 guided meditations are free on this app,with videos and audio that walks you through it. Then there are nine more that you can purchase from within the app for specific uses. They offer different kinds of meditations, some for sleep, some for stress, eating, that kind of stuff. You can see how far you've gotten and then how much left you have to go in each series.
Lift
This one if free, but it's more of a general fitness app. Unlike a lot of other fitness apps, it incorporates a lot of other things: yoga, stretching, meditation, so it might be good for someone who does a lot of different activities and wants to consolidate in one single app and not use a lot of different things. There are channels on the app called "habits," so when you subscribe to these habits, you're basically adding yourself to a group. For example, if you added yourself to mindfulness meditation, there is a community of people who are doing that, and you see everyone's posts about it whenever they do it. You can add friends if you want to, so even if you don't like interfacing with strangers, you can add your friends and then your friends can comment on your daily practice.
Equanimity
This one is $4.99, but if you're really into meditation, this is like the advanced version if you can get into it. It allows you to take notes about your meditation practice then you can export those notes if you want to. You can email them to yourself or export them as a spreadsheet. The app also tells you how many days its been since your last meditation. You can add practices if you did them without the app, like f you went on a meditation retreat, you can still enter them in.
Computer Jay's 'Savage Planet Discotheque Volume Two'
Computer Jay is well known for his work with bands like The Pharcyde and I'm A Robot, but one of the most impressive things about Jay is that he builds his own music equipment out of old video game systems.
He joins us in the studio to talk about his new album "Savage Planet Discotheque Volume Two."
Second LA porn actor reveals HIV-positive status
There's news this week of another HIV positive performer in the adult entertainment industry. The actor, who uses the screen name Rod Daily, tweeted that he contracted the disease within the past month.
Drumroll please!! I'm 32 years old and I'm HIV positive. Acute HIV, which means I recently was infected. For that I am blessed
— Rod Daily (@Rod_Daily)Drumroll please!! I'm 32 years old and I'm HIV positive. Acute HIV, which means I recently was infected. For that I am blessed
— Rod Daily (@Rod_Daily) September 3, 2013
Daily allegedly had an off-screen relationship with another performer named Cameron Bay. Bay has also tested positive for HIV, and that announcement triggered a moratorium on porn production earlier this month.
For more on these cases and what they mean for the ongoing debate over the use of condoms in adult film production, we're joined now by Mark Kernes, senior editor at the trade publication AVN. Welcome.
Note: Given the nature of the conversation, it may not be suitable for all ears.
Chris's Collection: Objects that represent LA's 232 years
Today is a very special birthday. Our fair city of Los Angeles officially turns 232 today.
That makes the city of Angels older than Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington DC.
To mark the occasion, Los Angeles Magazine has been celebrating with a virtual collection of objects that represents LA. in a feature they're calling Display Case.
Editor Chris Nichols is curating the collection, and he stopped by recently with a few of the objects
Dumpling house Din Tai Fung expands to Glendale, Costa Mesa
Asian restaurants headquartered overseas are expanding into Southern California. Their growth is fueled by an increasing Asian American population that wants a taste of home.
Taiwan-based dumpling house, Din Tai Fung, is the latest example of this trend. KPCC's business reporter Wendy Lee brings us this profile.
'Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives' and the lesser-known world of domestic suspense
Crime thrillers are populated by hard-boiled detectives and wiseguys, the domain of male writers like Raymond Chandler, and a sprinkling of women.
But female writers dominate a lesser-known corner of the crime genre , called domestic suspense. These stories of intrigue played out in the home.
In her new book, "Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense," editor Sarah Weinman introduces readers to 14 women authors who you may not have heard of.
Weinman joins the show from New York to tell us how domestic suspense movies thrived during a period of social change for women.