Severe flooding in Mexico leaves dozens missing; The Dodgers clinch the National League West division title; 'Generation Iron': The modern-day bodybuilder's quest for the Mr. Olympia title; The Village People return with a new single, "Let's Go Back to the Dance Floor"; Professor says he has ID'd slave woman who wrote 'A Bondwoman's Narrative', plus much more.
Severe flooding in Mexico leaves dozens missing
Mexico has been battered by twin storms this week.
While Hurricane Ingrid hit the eastern Gulf Coast, tropical storm Manuel drenched the Pacific coast, bringing floods and devastation to the resort city of Acapulco and surrounding areas.
Yesterday, the military searched for victims after a mud slide buried nearly the entire town of La Pintada in the western state of Guerrero. There are still dozens of people missing there and the official death toll has risen to 97.
Here to tell us more is Nicholas Casey, reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
Recent deluge in Colorado a drop in the bucket
Now an update on the deluge that hit Colorado. Some residents are being allowed back in Boulder and Larimer Counties, the damage spans nearly 2,000 square miles and the death toll rose to seven.
As Colorado evacuees return home after the flood, water managers along rivers downstream are watching reservoirs rise. From the Fronteras Desk, Laurel Morales maps out where the water went.
Dodgers come back to snag early spot in the playoffs
It was all joy and smiles in Dodgers stadium, last night. The team won the NL West division title, with a 7-to-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. That makes them the first major league team this year to clinch their spot in the playoffs.
Joining us for more is Bill Plunkett, Dodgers reporter for the OC Register.
Friday Flashback: Federal budget, Obamacare and more
Time now for the harvest moon edition of the Friday Flashback, our weekly analysis of some of the big stories making news. Happy to be joined again today by Nancy Cook of National Journal and by James Rainey of the L.A. Times.
Let's start with the looming government shut-down. The Congress needs to pass legislation to fund the government. They've got one more week to do it, and it's all wrapped up in the GOP's determination to kill what many believe is President Obama's greatest achievement.
The House passed a funding bill today that does just that, eliminates money for Obamacare, and will keep the government running until mid-December. What might happen when it gets to the Senate?
Republicans in general don't like Obamacare, but there are some in the GOP who seem to think it's more dangerous than the ebola virus. Why do Republican's focus so much attention on Obamacare? Is it more about ideology, or politics?
The President has vowed to veto any bill that tries to gut the health care reform, and as we noted, it's not clear this could get through the Senate anyway. But even if the House backs down, they'll soon have another chance.
House Speaker John Boehner is gearing up for that fight, and he produced a little Web ad that tries to make a specific point: The President says he won't negotiate with Congress over the debt ceiling, but he will negotiate with Russia over Syria.
Meanwhile the House passed a measure cutting billions of dollars from the food stamp program. That means almost 4-million Americans wouldn't qualify for food aid. As several have pointed out, this is ironic because the vast majority of food stamp recipients are from red states, GOP strongholds. What's going on here?
There are reports today that, after President Obama and the new president of Iran exchanged letters, that Iran is now interested in talking about dismantling its nuclear program. That's a rare bit of good news for a President who has not had a good few months.
Probably most disturbing to the White House is that some of this traditional supporters seem to be turning on him. Loyal Democrats are distancing themselves.
Meanwhile, the administration might have made some environmentalists happy, and some industrialists pretty grumpy. Yesterday it announced aggressive new regulations that will limit carbon emissions on new natural gas and coal fired power plants.
In the aftermath of Monday's mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington there has been a lot of talk about security, and about the failure of our mental health system, but not really any talk of reforming gun laws. Why not?
There was lots of criticism of the media for making more than a major mistakes in the breaking news coverage. We've seen this a lot, lately. The traditional media rushing to get things out before they've done the kind of confirmation they would have done in the past.
Google may stop using 'cookies' for ad tracking
When you're online - shopping, browsing, playing games - advertisers are watching your every move. They want to know what you're doing so they can target ads directly to you.
Traditionally, they use little bits of code known as third-party cookies, but Google is considering something completely different.
For more we turn to Alistair Barr, he's the senior technology reporter for USA Today.
The Village People return with a new single
In the 1970s, there were few musical acts that summed up the era better than the Village People. The name of the band referred to New York City's Greenwich Village, at the time known for its large gay population.
The band is still touring, and have released their first single in 25 years, "Let's Go Back to the Dance Floor."
Two of the original members of the band, Felipe Rose and Alex Briley (the Native American and the G.I.) talked with Alex Cohen about their career and their time at the top.
Sen. Feinstein faces off against Obama on tribal casino plans
California is currently home to about 50 Indian casinos. If Senator Dianne Feinstein has her way, there won't be another one built here any time soon.
The Democratic senator's opposition to gaming has her facing off against President Obama, and stymying the plans Indian tribes have for new casinos in other states.
Derek Wallbank, reporter for Bloomberg News, joins the show with a story about a tribal casino project that is being proposed across the country.
Where is the debris from the Japanese tsunami?
All up and down California, an estimated 70,000 people will join together this Saturday for the state's annual coastal cleanup, picking up trash on beaches, near creeks and in rivers.
But contrary to what was expected, 2.5 years after the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan, very little of that debris has ended up on our coasts.
San Jose Mercury News environmental reporter Paul Rogers asks, 'where has it gone?'
Volunteers are still needed for the annual coastal cleanup on Sept. 21, which runs from 9 a.m. to noon. To volunteer, call 800-COAST-4U or visit the California Coastal Commission website.
Texas Reps. Johnson, Carter resign from House 'Gang of Seven'
The bipartisan Gang of Seven in the House has lost two more members. Republican representatives Sam Johnson and John Carter — both of Texas — announced they were resigning from the group.
Another Republican, Raul Labrador of Idaho, left the group in June. This comes after four years of trying to hammer out an agreement in the House. For more we're joined now by Fawn Johnson of National Journal.
New doc celebrates the life of reclusive writer JD Salinger
His work has been banned, glorified and enshrined in high school reading lists around the world. Now the reclusive writer J.D. Salinger is the subject of documentary and companion book exploring his career and personal life.
Our literary contributor David Kipen joins the show with a review.
Professor IDs slave woman who wrote 'A Bondwoman's Narrative'
In 2001 Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates came across a 300-page, handwritten manuscript titled "The Bondwoman's Narrative."
It told the life story of house slave Hannah Crafts and her dramatic escape from a southern plantation by masquerading as a man. What made it so unique was that it was supposedly written during the time of slavery, and written by a woman that was herself, a fugitive slave.
If it were a true story, it would be the first known work of its kind, a full length novel, written by an African American woman. The first known female African-American writer is Phillis Wheatley, who wrote poetry in the 18th century.
But there was one big problem. The author went by the pseudonym Hannah Crafts, and the true identity of the author couldn't be verified. The book was published soon after Gates acquired it and it became a best seller, but the mystery lingered and continued to confound literary scholars.
Now English Professor Gregg Hecimovich from Winthrop University in Rock Hill South Carolina thinks he may have found the answer.
"She was a slave named Hannah Bond, who served in the Wheeler family, both in their plantation in Murfreesboro in North Carolina, and in the Wheeler household in Washington, DC between 1854 and 1857," said Hecimovich on Take Two.
Hecimovich took the immense research that Gates did on authenticating the fictional work, and used his locational advantage — he was working in North Carolina at the time — to interview descendants of the Wheelers and other primary sources available.
"Most scholars, especially at the big universities, they're not around smaller libraries, courthouses, that are far flung from the centers of academic capital," said Hecimovich. "The way I pieced the story together has a lot to do with private papers, details from courthouse records and my connections and friendships I've made."
The community in which Hannah Bond lived in Murfreesboro was home to two female finishing schools. Students from one of the institutes boarded at the Wheeler plantation. The girls were studying works like Charles Dickens's "Bleakhouse," reading the stories aloud.
Hecimovich thinks Bond learned how to craft her own stories from being in proximity of these young students.
"Bond would have been listening and waiting on the young ladies who were boarding at the Wheeler family plantation while they're practicing," said Hecimovich. "Ahe would have intuited, like other slaves we have record of, when she came to write her own stories she could tell her story in the way that she heard the other stories."
Though Hecimovich is credited with uncovering the true identity of the mysterious author, he says his research would have been impossible without the efforts of Gates.
"He did Herculean service in authenticating it, placing it, finding the historical circumstances that my work builds on," said Hecimovich. "I don't even come close to finding the story if Gates didn't set up the entire foundation."
Dinner Party Download: Self-healing polymer, sad yuppies and more
Every week we get your weekend conversation starters with Rico Gagliano and Brendan Newnam, the hosts of the Dinner Party Download podcast and radio show.
On tap this week:
Spanish Scientists Create Self-Healing Polymer
Scientists in Spain have developed what they call "the Terminator 2 polymer." Like the deadly robot in that movie, when you damage this polymer, IT CAN "HEAL" ITSELF. The above article includes a video showing a cylinder of this polymer being cut in half with a razor, then stuck back together, and within 2 hours of just sitting there, it has fused itself whole, 97% as strong as it was before.
I predict that in the future, someone is going to be sent back to today to destroy this polymer and save our species. Meanwhile, start hoarding grenade launchers and liquid nitrogen to protect yourself against it. You might also want to construct a big vat of molten metal in which to dunk the polymer when it attacks.
Why Are Generation Y Yuppies Unhappy?
For a great dinner party fracas, drop this topic into a conversation between a group of folks who come from different generations:
Late last week, the above post from the blog "wait but why" -- also published in the HuffPo -- went viral. It claims to explain why Generation Y yuppies are unhappy. What it boils down to: They've been told their whole lives to expect not just a successful career, but a fulfilling one (this is due to their boomer parents having grown up in an economic boom in which they way outperformed their own expectations).
Then they've each been told they are super-special, so their fulfilling career should be even more fulfilling than their peers'. Then social media makes it seems like all their friends have actually achieved this special fulfilling life (not true -- people don't post on Facebook about their failures, generally), which makes the Gen Yer feel like they're falling short.
Wide-Faced Men Make Others Act Selfishly
Several studies have shown wide-faced men (that is, guys who have a higher width-to-height ratio in their faces) tend to be more aggressive and deceptive (and also tend to run more successful businesses than thin-faced men).
But a new study shows it's not necessarily biological -- that people tend to behave more selfishly when interacting with wide-faced men, which may cause them to respond with aggression and deception.
Lesson I'm gleaning from this: be nice to the wide-faces and maybe their companies will stop outperforming yours.
'Generation Iron': The modern-day bodybuilder's quest for the Mr. Olympia title
In 1977, the documentary "Pumping Iron" introduced moviegoers to the world of bodybuilding.
The film showcased the events leading up to the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition, focusing on then 5-time champ Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Hulk Lou Ferrigno.
A lot has changed since then, as Americans have become more interested in fitness and exercise. But what about bodybuilding?
"Generation Iron" is a new film from director Vlad Yudin. It follows a new generation of bodybuilders in their quest to be crowned Mr. Olympia. We're joined by the film's director Vlad Yudin.