A look at economic opportunity in two different parts of CA, the Sea Otter population is back and reaching record numbers, how big a business are "ugly shoes”?
What's made fighting the Soberanes Fire so expensive?
Over the past two months, a wildfire in Northern California has ripped through almost 125,000 acres around Big Sur. It's also burned through more than 200 million dollars.
Fighting fires is not cheap. And California fires, according to the U.S. Forest Service, are particularly expensive.
The Soberanes Fire in Big Sur is turning out be be one of the costliest to fight in U.S. history. That's according to data out this week from the National Interagency Fire Center.
And that $200 million and counting? That's just the cost of extinguishing and containing the fire, not the cost of damage done to structures and woodlands.
Char Miller, professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College and author of "Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. The California Dream," joined Take Two to talk about what makes firefighting so expensive.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
Using psychology to stop the next terrorist attack
According to criminal complaints filed in federal court, Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old suspect in last weekend's attacks in New York and New Jersey, took inspiration from Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists and alluded to plans for revenge in a journal he kept.
That, according to some psychologists, follows a pattern of other attackers.
"There used to be the notion among the public that somehow these acts were spontaneous, just a reaction or highly emotionally-charged and very impulsive," said forensic psychologist J. Reid Meloy, a consultant with the FBI's behavior analysis unit and a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
"It turns out that they're not. These [plots] typically unfold over a period of time. There's lots of planning and preparation," said Meloy.
Along with a team of psychologists, Meloy has developed a guide of 8 warning signs of would-be terrorists, called "proximal warning behaviors" due to the close proximity in time in which they can usually be observed. They include: pathway, fixation, identification, novel aggression, and four other signs.
"The warning behaviors are there for law enforcement agencies to be able to look at and study and perhaps incorporate into their work," said Meloy.
Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould 'makes sense' of life as an aging icon
Punk Rockers never die, they just stand in the back.
And one might see a lot of them standing in the back of the Hollywood Bowl this weekend when legendary guitarist Bob Mould takes the stage.
Mould has been performing for nearly four decades now. He got his start with the seminal punk band Husker Du, known widely for their hit "Makes No Sense at All."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1sYN0PuRs4
At 55, Mould is able to make a lot more 'sense of it all.' He recently sat down with Take Two's Alex Cohen to reflect on the trajectory of his career: from a young man making an angry brand of music in the Midwest with a bunch of other guys to a solo artist who sequestered himself away in Northern California to record a solo album released earlier this year.
What was going on in your world when you penned "Makes No Sense At All?"
In 1984, 1985, the music landscape was starting to change. It was almost as if what we were doing with hardcore punk and alternative music, you know, creating new venues for people to play, independent labels, fanzines, it was quickly becoming co-opted by the mainstream.
That co-opting coincided with me as a songwriter starting to mature, starting to put a lot more emphasis on melody, more introspective lyrics. That was one of my favorite songs from that band — I think that was a real turning point for the band.
You were a young guy at the time. When you're a young punk rocker, do you even think about what your life is going to look like when you're in your 50s?
Not in my early 20s — I was just hoping to make it to 30. But I think as all of us get closer to 30, we go 'oh, maybe I'll make it to 40,' and by the time you get to 30 you realize 'oh, I'm probably going to make it a long time if I'd like to.'
As far as being a lifetime musician, I was pretty short-sighted then. As the band got more popular and my writing got better, I started to hope for a future.
I'd like to listen to a song your most recent album. This is a track called "The End of Things."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwXHgs212ns
This is a song off of an album you released earlier this year called "Patch the Sky," and it was written during a pretty difficult time in your life. Can you share just a little about what was happening at the time and how it influenced the title?
The last five years have been really, really busy for me. I was out touring, and my dad passed in fall of 2012, so that was best of times at work, worst of times personally. That informed a lot of the writing for an album called "Beauty & Ruin" that came out in 2014. As I think happens to a lot of us who lose one parent, the second parent is not far behind.
So at the beginning of 2015, when it was time to have some quiet, I went home to San Francisco and just spent six months at home writing music and words and rebuilding myself and gathering thoughts.
So with this record, I think the stories are somewhat darker than normal. I think the music is a lot brighter. In my work, I think one of the techniques that I've used is that contrast of bright melodies with darker lyrics. With this record, it was pretty clear that I should turn up the musical brightness as much as possible.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Start of LAUSD's school year changes, but remains controversial
Next year, LAUSD students will head back to class a week later than this year. In 2018, the first day of school will be delayed even more.
The LAUSD board on Tuesday voted 5-2 to push back the start of school, marking the end of an experiment with earlier start dates that began just a few years ago.
LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer says while the topic is not without controversy, the decision is an appropriate compromise for early start lovers and loathers. But Sarah Auerswald, who runs the blog Moms LA and has two kids in LAUSD schools, says it puts more pressure on students.
They both joined host Alex Cohen to share their sides.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
Sports roundup: Paterno's controversial legacy, more NFL protests during national anthem
Penn State University honored former coach Joe Paterno on Saturday, but reports revealing that he knew of sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky as early as 1976 have cast troubling questions about the University and Paterno's legacy.
Also, more protests by NFL athletes during the national anthem have drawn both support and bitter criticism – we look at how the debate has broadened in the past week.
We're joined by Andy and Brian Kamanetzky.
How technology could shield high risk children from abuse
34 pounds. That's how much 11-year-old Yonatan Aguilar weighed when he was found dead - battered and malnourished - in a closet in Echo Park in August. Aguilar's risk of abuse was marked as "high" four times between 2009 and 2012 by the LA Department of Child and Family Services.
That risk was determined by an assessment program called Structured Decision Making or SDM. This week, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to revamp the program.
For a look at the alternatives to SDM and challenges of investigating child abuse cases, Alex Cohen spoke with Daniel Heimpel founder of the Chronicle of Social Change, an online publication that covers child welfare issues and Emily Putnam-Hornstein, an associate professor at the USC School of Social Work. She's also director of the Children's Data Network.
A tale of 2 Californias: Hmong farmers flounder, Silicon Beach flourishes
Are economic opportunities in this nation growing or shrinking?
The answer? Yes.
For some, especially those in the tech sector, things have never been better. But, then there are struggling industries, like farming.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, net farm income is at the lowest level since 2009. California is the central hub to both of these industries, so one might infer that it's the best of times and the worst of times in the Golden State.
To get a better sense of what the landscape of economic opportunity looks like, Take Two spoke to two people at the center of the action:
- Chukou Thao, founder of Hmong resource group, National Hmong American Farmers
- Derek Smith, digital marketing evangelist and founder of Plug-in South LA, a workspace where startups meet
Interview highlights
Chukou Thao, you grew up on a farm in Central California. Can you tell us about who the Hmong farmers are in this state?
The Hmong people came from Laos. They're part of the group that helped support the United States during the Vietnam War. And after the war they came to the United States as refugees — refugees coming without choice. It was either come to the United States or be killed.
They came to the Central Valley for the opportunity to farm because many of them do not have the language skills, the job skills or the tools to be successful in the mainstream workforce.
What are some of the biggest challenges that Hmong farmers are facing?
Four years of drought. Now that it's off the front page of the newspaper everybody thinks we're in good hands — but we're not.
It's like a savings account, Alex. They begin at the beginning of the year: $300 bucks to plow the land, another hundred dollars for the seed and they're hoping that at the end of the year they can collect all that back plus a little bit more. They're basically, in American terms, living paycheck-to-paycheck, day-by-day.
When you have a drought, that's when farmers start to realize that this is it: this was their present and future.
Derek Smith — this scenario that we just heard from Chukou Thao — it seems like the exact opposite of what we're seeing in your world, the tech world. To me, it seems like technology is the place to be. Is that consistent with what you're seeing?
Absolutely. This is an exciting time to be in Los Angeles. With the growth of high tech in our local economy, it's changed areas drastically. Playa Vista is now an extension of Silicon Beach and just in two years the growth that we've seen in high-tech jobs and companies moving into the area has been incredible.
What is interesting, though, even though the story for Los Angeles is on the opposite side of what we see in Central California, when you drill down, and you look at some of the surrounding communities like South LA, or Watts or East Los Angeles, there's a huge gap in terms of how some of these communities are benefiting from the innovation community in Los Angeles.
The average salary for someone coming out of college in this day and age here in California going into the tech world — how much can a person make?
Derek Smith: The sky is the limit. If you have the right skills, and there's demand for those skills, you could make in the six-figures. Easily, an entry level developer or programmer could make $75-thousand a year starting out.
Chukou Thao: Derek's number? $75-thousand? Take away one zero and then times it by two. That's about the average income of a small family farm — about $15-thousand a year. That's for the whole family. We, the Hmong people came here, it was like time travel. There was no running water; there was no electricity. So coming here is 100-times better than what they have in the homeland, but compared to what's happening in Los Angeles? It's still two different worlds.
Derek, what do you think when you hear that?
It's interesting. I think technology is indirectly connected to our food issues. I don't think there's a solution or an app that can solve the drought in California, unfortunately, but I think there are other cases where technology may help and support farmers down the road.
I make the case that when you can create innovation in underserved areas or where there is a lack of or presence of innovation driven by technology, you can increase and change the dynamics of food.
Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
To hear more of the conversation with Derek Smith and Chukou Thao, press the blue play button above.
Series: A Nation Engaged
Much of the anger and anxiety in the 2016 election are fueled by the sense that economic opportunity is slipping away for many Americans. As part of our collaborative project with NPR called "A Nation Engaged," this week we're asking: What can be done to create economic opportunity for more Americans?
Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on Facebook.
Brian Helgeland reflects on writing 'LA Confidential' with Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the 1997 noir thriller "L.A. Confidential," died Tuesday at his Hollywood Hills Home at the age of 71.
Hanson had also directed films including "8 Mile" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," but the iconic Los Angeles noir helped cement his success in Hollywood. He won an Oscar for writing the film alongside Brian Helgeland, who joined take Two to remember his late friend.
Their relationship began around the making of "L.A. Confidential," of which Helgeland had been trying to convince Warner Brothers to let him make. However, he was spurned by the company, who hired Hanson instead of him. Lucky for Helgeland, Hanson took a chance on the young writer and brought him on to the project.
"Curtis started out as a screen writer and had done horror films in his younger days, as I had," said Helgeland in an interview with Take Two's A Martinez. "In a funny sort of way, Curtis saw a younger version of himself in me."
The two ended up working together to create the movie.
But things didn't go well. Warner Brothers didn't take the movie seriously and were indifferent to the drafts that they'd turn in, said Helgeland, "We basically worked on our own dime a lot of it. I did a lot of drafts that I didn't get paid for, but Curtis was always this cheerleader for the film. Not rah rah, just this kind of grim cheerleader and wouldn't take no for an answer, so it was kind of, that was his big thing was to just put this thing on his shoulders and not put it down till he got it made."
Warner Brothers remained unenthusiastic about the film even after it was finished. They had assigned a bad release date for it, said Helgeland, and they wouldn't send it to any festivals. But Hanson pushed and eventually got it into Cannes, where it was a resounding success. From there, it began to pick up awards, until finally, they the writers walked away with an Oscar.
When asked which character Hanson would've associated the most with in "L.A. Confidential," Helgeland said, "I think ironically, he associated more with Kevin Spacey's character, [Jack] Vincennes, because Vincennes had sort of existed on the fringes of Hollywood. And not that Curtis was on the fringes of Hollywood, but he wasn't an A-list go to guy at the time. And I think he had a lot to prove cause he loved Hollywood so much and he loved movies so much. And he knew he had this great movie in him, but...he had to give himself the chance to make it. It wasn't going to be given to him."
Besides Helgeland, others from the film also took time to remember the late filmmaker.
Actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, who starred in the movie, tweeted about Hanson's death Tuesday evening:
RIP Curtis Hansen . Thank you for believing in me & standing your ground. In reality you made my job a career. Love & respect my friend.
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) September 21, 2016
So sad to lose Curtis Hanson. No one taught me as much about film acting as this man. A father figure and mentor. I will miss you my friend pic.twitter.com/RLIl7OedqW
— Guy Pearce (@TheGuyPearce) September 21, 2016