Anti-Muslim attacks are up 122 percent in CA, how LA County Sheriff's are training to handle situations involving individuals with autism, Bel Air homeowners million gallon club.
Wells Fargo CEO apologizes to Senate committee, promises changes
The CEO of Wells Fargo apologized Tuesday morning, amid allegations that employees opened up millions of fraudulent accounts to boost sales numbers.
Speaking in front of the Senate Banking Committee, longtime chairman John Stumpf said he accepts full responsibility for what happened, but maintained that it was not a scheme organized at the top.
The testimony comes on the heels of a $185 million settlement between the San Francisco bank and regulators.
For more on the hearing, Take Two spoke to Ken Sweet, banking and consumer financial issues writer for the Associated Press.
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes rise sharply in California
Across the nation, hate crimes against Muslim Americans have risen sharply and California tops a list of 20 states, according to a study released by California State University, San Bernardino. Nationwide, attacks rose by 78 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year and in California that increase surged to 122 percent.
"The rhetoric with regard to immigration seems to have touched a nerve here and in some other states in the West more so than the rest of the country as a whole," said Brian Levin, director at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino and author of the report.
The study gathers data from federal and local law enforcement agencies and found 196 reported incidents of hate crime last year, a number not seen since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The reason behind the rise is complex, said Levin, but some clues could come from public polling, which shows a lack of social acceptance for Muslims from some Americans amid harsh political rhetoric in the election season.
"Muslims are derided negatively more than virtually any other socially categorized group," said Levin, referring to the results of surveys. "This prejudice, which is very widely dispersed, is also very deep."
The report also charted a rise in hate crimes against transgender people, with 27 attacks in 2015 in California.
Police and autism, teaching police officers how to de-escalate
Police officers go through years of training before they hit the streets and get a badge, but some LA County Sheriffs have been training in a very unusual program.
The test seems basic, ask ten easy questions in 60 seconds, but while the clock is ticking down music is blasting, they're asked to write using their non-dominant hand and to make it just a little tougher - 3D glasses obscure their view.
The test is designed to give officers a sense of what people suffering from autism might be feeling in stressful situations.
We talked about it with Kate Movius of Autism Interaction Solutions, the organization that oversees the training.
Self-driving cars get the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy they've been waiting for
Love the idea or hate it, self-driving cars rolled a step closer to reality Monday when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. Designed to establish uniform rules for quickly evolving autonomous driving technology, the policy attempts to strike a balance between innovation and public safety.
The policy represents the first time NHTSA regulations have addressed self-driving cars. Prior regulations were established before self-driving cars were even considered possible. Its primary focus is on so-called Highly Automated Vehicles, or HAVs, that can take over driving in certain situations. Well-known HAVs include the Tesla Model S and Model X with Autopilot and Google's self-driving car, among others.
Among the policy's guidelines is a 15-point safety assessment that sets clear expectations for manufacturers including guidelines for testing and validation, data recording to help reconstruct and understand crashes, privacy protections for users and consumer education and training.
As much as autonomous cars "hold enormous potential benefits for safety, mobility and sustainability," according to a NHTSA statement, self-driving technology is also a work in progress, even as multiple auto makers have said they will make self-driving cars available to the public before 2021.
“There’s an interesting dichotomy between the potential safety benefits of autonomous technology and the potential risk we’ll be facing as this tech goes from the trial-and-error to ready-for-prime-time," said Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "The DOT's guidelines clearly attempt to balance these issues by creating a far more responsive system for monitoring self-driving technology while allowing for quick course corrections as needed. The government doesn’t want to stifle autonomous innovation, particularly in an era when human-caused traffic fatalities are rising again."
Traffic fatalities are on track to reach 40,000 in the U.S. this year, according to the National Safety Council -- the highest level since 2008.
Applicable to passenger cars, as well as trucks and buses, the policy distinguishes between federal and state responsibilities for the regulation of HAVs. And it allows more flexibility in granting exemptions that would allow for timely testing of new technologies. It used to take several months to several years for NHTSA to grant such exemptions; under the new policy, manufacturers are guaranteed a response within six months.
California, Nevada, Florida and Michigan are among just seven states with laws about self-driving cars in the U.S. But the new federal policy includes a so-called model state policy for additional states that want to regulate the testing, deployment and operation of HAVs on public roads.
In response to the federal policy, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a statement saying it "welcomes the NHTSA release of the Federal Automated Vehicle Policy" and supports NHTSA's goal of creating a consistent approach and national framework for testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles.
The California DMV is currently reviewing its own self-driving policy and plans to release revised draft regulations in the next few weeks.
The biggest water users in Bel Air
You'd have to burying your head in the dirt not to know that California is going through a bad drought, but there's at least one neighborhood in L.A. that's got plenty of green in both their yards and their wallets: Bel Air.
It turns out it's home to some of the area's most expensive real estate and home to the area's most flagrant water hogs.
One estate there poured almost twelve million gallons of water on its grounds in a single year. And it's not alone in that multi-million gallon club.
Lance Williams is a reporter with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and he reported on the topic.
If you want to hear the entire conversation click on the audio at the top of the post.
The new show 'Speechless' strikes a chord with parents of kids with disabilities
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in five Americans live with a disability.
Half of those describe their condition as severe. But you don't see those numbers reflected on the small screen.
Few TV families feature kids with disabilities, and shows that do tend to be dramas.
This week marks the debut of a new comedy on ABC called "Speechless"about a 16-year-old named J.J., who has cerebral palsy and is non-verbal.
The show struck a chord with Neil Genzlinger, TV critic with the New York Times.
Genzlinger's daughter has Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that leads to loss of speech, movement, and cognitive processing ability.
"It's hard, really, to think of any characters with disabilities from the first 50 years of television," Genzlinger says. "So for half a century, it's as if families like mine and people like my daughter just absolutely didn't exist, if television was your gauge of what real life was like."
That's begun to change in recent years, with more characters with disabilities showing up on television. But often the characters are in secondary roles, not leading ones.
What makes "Speechless" even more unique is that the show is a comedy, and not a drama. Genzlinger says that's another thing he loves about the show.
"In a scripted TV show it's very tempting to use a disability as the peg for a show that's about suffering and loss and sorrow," Genzlinger says. "But I don't view my life or my child's life or our family's life as nonstop suffering and sorrow. It's hard, but we do laugh occasionally. Almost every day in fact."
To hear the full interview with Neil Genzlinger, click the blue player above.
New music from The Beatles, Macy Gray, The Greer Brothers and more
If you love music, but don't have the time to keep up with what's new, you should listen to Tuesday Reviewsday. Every week our critics join our hosts in the studio to talk about what you should be listening to in one short segment. This week Alex Cohen is joined by music supervisor Morgan Rhodes and Oliver Wang from Soul-Sides.com.
Morgan Rhodes
Artist: Le Son
Song: "Without A Sound"
Artist: Tall Black Guy
Song: "You Will Never Know feat. Moonchild"
Artist: Macy Gray
Album: "Stripped"
Song: "Lucy"
Oliver Wang
Artist: The Beatles
Album: "Live at the Hollywood Bowl 1965"
Songs: "Twist and Shout," "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
Artist: The Greer Brothers
Album: "Afterschool Special: the 123s of Kid Soul"
Song: "We Don’t Dig No Busing"
Artist: The Frightnrs
Album: "Nothing More to Say"
Song: "Till Then"
Why aren't more CA doctors participating in the aid-in-dying law?
Assisted suicide became legal in California this June, when the End of Life Option Act officially went into effect.
The law makes it possible for doctors in California to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who've been given at most six months to live.
But there's a big difference between making something legal and making something possible.
Tracy Seipel, a health reporter with The San Jose Mercury News, joined Take Two to discuss why it's so difficult to find a physician willing to prescribe lethal medication.
Dr. Lonny Shavelson, a physician who has started a practice devoted to people who want to end their lives, joined the program as well.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.