On Wednesday, Take Two will discuss the military using a $70 billion F-22 fighter jet in Syria, a prize for solving the problem of stray cats and dogs, The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore on new show "Blackish," the possible soccer and brain trauma connection, a climate change report, new film "Boxtrolls" and more.
How does a minimum wage hike hurt or help a city?
The Los Angeles city council could vote as early as Wednesday on a plan to hike the minimum wage.
It would specifically be for workers in big hotels, and it would boost their hourly pay to $15.37. Right now, hotel staff start anywhere from $9 to $12 an hour.
Some business owners say they wouldn't be able to stay afloat with a wage hike.
Chris Thornberg, principal at Beacon Economic, explains the impact an increased minimum wage has on a local economy.
What happened when one business owner hiked his workers' wages
Not all business owners object to raising the minimum wage. But when incomes do go up, there are some unexpected surprises.
Small business owner Darryl Lima knows all about that. He's the president of DJL Audio Video Specialist in San Dimas.
He told us his story on Southern California Public Radio's Public Insight Network.
How much did you increase minimum wage? And when?
We increased our starting pay from $12 and hour to $14 an hour in 2012.
How has your business changed since it increased minimum wage?
It simply made it much harder to make payroll these days, especially since we did not anticipate how much our tax burden would increase along with the wages.
How did employees react to the increase? Did you notice a difference in the quality of work or employees hired?
Employees were happy for about one week. After that, the talk went right back to how hard it is to make ends meet in the California economy. Everybody's broke all the time. New employees are still asking for cash under the table so they can continue to get any benefits they are collecting. When we refuse, most refuse the job and move on.
F-22 Raptor fighter jet makes its combat debut in Syria
The F-22 fighter jet took decades and almost $70 billion to develop. While it's been considered combat ready since 2005, the F-22 had never been used in combat until air strikes began in Syria this week.
The use of the F-22 came as a surprise to avid military aviation watchers and details of the stealth jet's location is kept tightly under wraps.
Rebecca Grant, president of IRIS Independent Research and a regular contributor to Air Force Magazine, says there are many reasons why the F-22 was well-suited to this mission, "The number one reason being that it's a stealth aircraft, has a better ability to survive against sophisticated air defenses, and Syria does have a more sophisticated air defense."
You could win $25 million by fixing stray dogs and cats problem
Stray cats and dogs have been an age-old problem for cities around the world.
Millions wander the streets and alleys of the Los Angeles area alone.
Southern California Public Radio's Jed Kim reports on a group working to reduce those numbers drastically using a staple of reality TV -- a cash prize.
The Found Animals Foundation is administering a $25 million prize that would be given to any person or group that can develop a single drug treatment that would permanently and safely sterilize both male and female cats and dogs.
Related: You could win $25 million by fixing dogs and cats
Larry Wilmore talks ABC's new comedy 'black-ish' tackling racial identity in today's world
This week the new ABC show "Black-ish" debuts.
It's about an African American family living in Southern California.
The father, played by Anthony Anderson, has everything he needs--financial success, beautiful family--but something is missing. He starts to worry that maybe his kids are a little too color-blind. Here's a trailer for the show:
One of the show's original creators and executive producer is Larry Wilmore, who most people know from his time as senior black correspondent on the Daily Show.
He stopped by the studio recently to talk about the show and his new project, the upcoming comedy show "The Minority Report" that will replace "The Colbert Report" when Stephen Colbert leaves to host "The Late Show."
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
What does the word "black-ish" mean?
It has kind of different meanings. In the show the father means it as a funny kind of negative. He feels their children have lost some of their identity. But it also plays to the positive that culture is sort of black-ish these days. It's appropriated black culture in so many ways … from music to style to speech.
Bill Cosby made a point about race in "The Cosby Show" by not talking about race. With "black-ish" you are making race front and center. Why go that route?
That's certainly what the pilot is but the show is really about identity. And race is the first step in that identity ladder. When Cosby came around all the discussion had been race up to that point. He was called the best black Jewish black comedian when he was first coming up at the Friar's Club.
And he wanted to make a point about black privilege in those days too. He thought if you're going to have these people why talk about race? But now we've come kind of full circle so we are not shying away from that—it's not going to be every story, but we're also not running away from it.
I often wonder what it's like, as a black man, when racist stories break like Donald Sterling. Yet it gives you a lot of grist for the comedic mill.
It's one of those ironies of doing socially conscious comedy. When Ferguson broke I was right in the middle of doing "black-ish" and told "The Daily Show" I wasn't going to be able to do anything during the summer. But I told the "black-ish" executive producer, 'I can't do Monday, I have to talk about this.' Oh no, it was the New York thing, the guy who died from the chokehold. And by the way I didn’t find anything funny about it.
Do you ever have a hard time finding something funny to say about these racist news events?
I had no idea what I was going to say on that one but I knew I had to say something and when I got there we found it. We only had a day but after we did that the Ferguson thing happened.
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In your opinion how can we, all jokes aside, really get an honest dialogue about race to move us forward?
The reality is we will never be finished. I think all you can do is keep talking because there will always be new issues about something. And some issues pop up that you didn't even know were still there, like this Adrian Peterson thing with his children. Who would have thought that was an issue right now? It's amazing to me as we see all the different layers of the race dialogue too. But I think we need a healthy dose of the talk that you do and the comedy I do because I think we should laugh about some of these things if we can.
Could soccer be linked to brain injury?: A study on the late player Bellini
Usually head injuries are associated with contact sports like football, boxing or hockey. But there's growing evidence that there are risks in soccer, too.
Take the example of former Brazilian star Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini, known simply as Bellini to soccer fans. He played on the nation's first World Cup champion team in 1958 and was known for his acrobatic leaps and fearless headers. When he died earlier this year, an obituary from the Guardian called Bellini "a powerful, resolute, and sometimes abrasive central marker."
His death came after more than a decade of showing signs of what doctors and his family initially thought was Alzheimer's.
But new evidence suggests Bellini was instead suffering from a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE.
"When I looked at his brain I found strong evidence of these changes," said Lea Grinberg, who led the team which studied Bellini's brain. She said she was asked by his family to do the study and make the findings public.
One issue in years past was the heavier ball, which was traditionally made of leather.
"When it was wet it would absorb the water and it was like a brick coming on the head," she said. Today, the ball is much lighter, but the game is more physical and athletes are stronger and faster, posing risks, especially to young athletes whose neck muscles are not yet fully developed, said Grinberg.
Her study, she said, showed association between CTE and Bellini's injuries, but stopped short of providing clear causation. Grinberg said more research will be needed in the field to determine clearly what kinds of effect collisions and headers have on soccer players.
Sports Roundup: Shorter baseball games, Derek Jeter's last game, Kershaw's MVP chances, NFL and Ray Rice
For the latest in sports, sports writer Brian Kamenetzky joins Take Two. His brother Andy, who usually joins him, is away on assignment and will return next week.
Kamenetzky gives his take on:
Brain injuries and soccer: FIFA is looking to implement a 3-minute break during games to evaluate a player suspected of having a concussion and then it will be up to the doctor, not the player, to decide if he can stay in the match.
Shortening baseball games: Sticking with more clocks in sports, MLB has put together a committee to pick up the pace and shorten the overall length of a game. There is already a rule in place that says a pitcher has to make a pitch within 12 seconds of getting the ball but it's never enforced (23 seconds average). Also, the average age of the 7-person committee is 62. For a sport trying to appeal to younger fans why not find someone under 40 to make changes?
Derek Jeter's career: Thursday night is Derek Jeter's last game in Yankee Stadium. He'll end his career this weekend in Boston's Fenway Park. Will baseball miss Derek Jeter? What does Jeter represent, if anything at all?
Payroll's role in the World Series: Dodgers and Angels are both in the playoffs, seeding is really the only thing up in the air. Angels have the 6th highest payroll, the Dodgers the highest. Could it buy them a World Series?
Kershaw and MVP: Kershaw has 20 wins and earned run average which would be the lowest in 15 years. He looks like a lock to win his 3rd Cy Young but what are his chances of winning the MVP, something a National League pitcher has not done since 1968?
NFL and Ray Rice: Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Biscotti spent 45 minutes Monday defending his team against an ESPN report that questioned the team's handling of Ray Rice's arrest. He says ESPN was misled by Rice's friends and agent. This followed a Friday press conference by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that did not come off well. How has the NFL's attitude come off during this scandal?
What is the legal basis for a climate change deal?
At the UN climate summit this week in New York, there's been no shortage of bold pledges. India doubling its wind and solar output by 2020. A 30-year-plan to protect forests in Myanmar. And President Obama acknowledging the US role as one of the top producers of CO2 emissions, along with China, in the world.
"We recognize our role in creating this problem. We embrace our responsibility to combat it," said Obama Tuesday. "We will do our part and we will help developing nations do theirs. But we can only succeed in combatting climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation, developed and developing alike. Nobody gets a pass.”
But what role does the law play in all this? How do we ensure that all nations agree to the abide by rules intended to protect the planet?
For a look at the details, Cara Horowitz, co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law, joins Take Two.
Wind patterns to blame for warmer Northwest, not humans
Sea temperatures off the West Coast have changed in the last century and it has long been argued that humans are to blame for the variability.
But a recent study out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests shifting wind patters are to blame for much of the warming on land and sea.
From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website:
What’s especially interesting and new about this work is that independently measured atmospheric sea level pressures over the past century show that circulation changes account for nearly all of the year to year, decade to decade, and century long surface temperature changes in the northeast Pacific Ocean and West Coast states since 1900.
Joining Take Two to explain more is co-author of the study Nate Mantua, research scientist with the NOAA Fisheries Service.
Natural disaster survivors: Mayor talks life after Oso landslide
Six months ago, a mountain collapsed near the Washington town of Oso.
Forty-three people died, entire neighborhoods were destroyed and the community was changed, forever.
Seattle public stations KUOW and KCTS joined together to produce follow-up stories of survivors in the aftermath of the slide.
One of them is the mayor of Darrington, which is 16 miles east of Oso on Highway 530. His name is Dan Rankin.
KCTS and KUOW report:
In the days following the landslide, Mayor Rankin recalls, he did not stop moving. Meeting with government officials, familes, and the media, a once part-time job became round-the-clock. With an air of humility, he reflects, "I had to make sure that things weren't falling through the cracks, people weren't falling through the cracks. But, you still don't feel like you've done enough."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHhy3myjUNo#t=49
App Chat: Phablets, not so 'phat'?
This week, Apple announced that it set a new iPhone sales record, pushing more than 10 million units into the palms of eager consumers in one weekend.
But it was the bigger model, the iPhone 6 Plus, that made news with its five-and-a-half inch screen -- much bigger than anything Apple has released before.
So it would appear that size does matter when it comes to phones and phablets.
Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor of Mobile at Venture Beat shares more.
Google cuts ties with American Legislative Exchange Council over environmental differences
Recently the head of Google, company chairman Eric Schmidt, admitted that it was a mistake to fund the controversial group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Many environmentalists have said that ALEC, a free-market lobbying group, has worked against efforts at renewable energy programs.
Silicon Valley firms, which are relatively new to politics, have supported both liberal and conservative candidates and groups, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. But public pressure on such issues as global warming is forcing tech companies to rethink their strategies.
ALEC’s executive director, Lisa B. Nelson, said in the Chronicle:
“it is unfortunate to learn Google has ended its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a result of public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizations who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial.”
Reporter Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle shares more.
Indian tribe vowing to stop major project at Shasta Dam
A small Indian tribe vows to stop a major project at Shasta Dam in Northern California.
The idea: add height to the 70-year-old dam. That would enlarge Shasta Lake, which has lost a lot of its volume to the drought.
Dan Brekke of the California Report says the trouble is, the federal government doesn't even recognize the tribe.
'Boxtrolls' directors talk long, 'peculiar style' of production
The new film "The Boxtrolls" is the biggest production ever to be done in stop-motion animation.
Each adorable character was carefully built by hand and every gesture and facial expression requires its own set up, which means it typically took an animator an entire week to complete just four seconds worth of footage.
For more on this painstaking labor of love, the film's directors, Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, joined Take Two in studio.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
A film like this must take a very long time to make…
Graham Annable:
Each project is unique and different and follows it’s only special journey, and I’d say from actual concept to the finish line for the Boxtrolls took almost eight years. It was a long haul.
A lot of that was preproduction and figuring out how to adapt Alan Snow’s amazing “Here Be Monsters” book into a film. It’s a huge book and it was a huge task to figure out how we were going to make a movie out of it.
On picking a book you could commit so many years of your life to:
Anthony Stacchi:
Well you really just look for the confluence of a lot of different things. You know, you want to think that the possibility is there to do something with a really great story, with a great heart, and then also to make a movie that nobody's ever seen before with a distinctive look.
I immediately cottoned on to really liking these box troll characters that were Alan Snow's, I think, the most unique creation that's in the book. And I loved this core story about a little boy who had grown up underground, who comes above ground to find his place in the world.
And I felt like here was a studio [Laika], that we could make a big film. You know, a bigger stop-motion film than you're used to seeing in the past. You know, an action-adventure comedy that wouldn't feel like you're trapped on a little, tiny model train set like some stop-motion films, that we could really open it up.
On creating more than 1.4 million facial expressions for the main character, Eggs:
Graham Annable:
We used this peculiar style of RP-production, where we print physical faces out of a 3D-printer. You know, we create the faces digitally in a computer, and we look at them and we get all the nuance and performance we want out of the faces there and then we hit the print button and print out thousands of faces that actually get applied to the puppets on the sets while the animators are working on them.