President Obama promotes health care reform at community college in Maryland; House bill threatens federal food stamp program; Ask Emily: Navigating the new Medi-Cal expansion; Rep. John Campbell joins the show to discuss the battle over Obamacare; Plan to raise Shasta Lake may hinge on Sacred River, plus much more.
Obama promotes health care reform in Maryland
President Obama spent the morning in Maryland today, talking about the Affordable Care Act. The president appeared at Prince George's Community College to help explain how Obama care works.
The six month enrollment period begins Tuesday. For more on what was said today, we turn now to Jonathan Allen of Politico.
Ask Emily: Navigating the new Medi-Cal expansion
On October 1, the healthcare exchange - Covered California - will open enrollment. That date also marks enrollment for the newly expanded Medicaid - or MediCal here in California - the state-sponsored health insurance for low-income people.
So it's time for another in our regular series of explainers on healthcare, "Ask Emily" - Emily Bazar, senior writer for the California Healthcare Foundation Center for Health Reporting.
She joins us biweekly to answer questions about the Affordable Care Act - also known as Obamacare.
If you have questions for Emily about the ACA, leave them in the comments or tweet us, @TakeTwo.
House bill threatens federal food stamp program
Thousands of needy Californians could lose food stamps under a House Republican bill that cuts $40 billion dollars from the federal program. Senate Democrats have vowed to fight the cuts. But advocates for the poor are concerned and say veterans and young people leaving foster care will be especially hard hit.
The California Report's Elaine Korry has more.
Rep. John Campbell on the battle over Obamacare
Last night, the Senate struck a deal to speed up a vote on the House spending bill, which contains language that would defund Obamacare.
The Senate's expected to strike that language and send it back to the House for a vote before next Tuesday. That's when the government could shut down unless some action is taken.
For more on averting that crisis, we're joined now by Republican Congressman John Campbell, who represents the 45th district, which covers most of Irvine and he sits on the House Budget Committee.
NASA tests new disaster recovery device that tracks human heartbeats
This week, at least 355 people died when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Pakistan. Rescue crews continue to search for survivors trapped in the rubble. The first and often most challenging step in recovering people from such situations is determining whether there is anyone to rescue.
A new device called the FINDER developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory aims to help by detecting heart beats underneath huge piles of rubble. The devices designer JPL's Jim Lux.
For refugee doctors, journey back to practicing medicine is the longest
Medical professionals who've come to the U.S. as refugees have had a tough time. Many have had to swap their stethoscopes for a license to drive a taxi cab despite the need for more doctors and nurses. From the Fronteras Desk, Megan Burks has more.
Southern California community struggles to provide aid across border
In the wake of two hurricanes slamming into Mexico, migrant communities here in California have mobilized to send aid back to their home towns, many of them small, remote, and hard hit. But the ad hoc groups are hitting a roadblock at the border. The California Report's Amy Isackson has this story.
Should it be legal for women to go topless in public? (Poll)
Here in California, public nudity is legal as long as those in the buff aren't engaging in lewd or indecent behavior, but that's not the case everywhere.
In August, a 33-year-old woman named Phoenix Feely spent 16 days in a New Jersey jail for refusing to pay fines after being arrested for sunbathing topless at a Spring Lake beach in 2008. In 2005, she was arrested for walking topless in New York, where it's officially legal to do so. She won a $29,000 settlement after suing the NYPD, and she's now part of the women's advocacy group Go Topless.
"Most of the state laws, it's not that they specifically protect a woman's right to do it, it's that they don't specifically outlaw it, which takes the burden of having this issue on the plate on a state level," said The Atlantic's Jessica Blankenship on Take Two. "It opens the door for local governments to have different statutes that do outlaw it."
Such as in LA County, where under section 43 of ordinance 17.12.360, bans female toplessness on L.A. beaches:
No person shall appear, bathe, sunbathe, walk, change clothes, disrobe or |be on any beach in such manner that the genitals, vulva, pubis, pubic symphysis, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anus, anal region or pubic hair region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any female person, is exposed to public view, except in those portions of a comfort station, if| any, expressly set aside for such purpose.
Should women in this country be allowed to go topless in public anywhere men are allowed? If guys can do it, so why can't women? It's a heated debate, one in which both sides argue that they're fighting against the objectification of women.
Topless advocates argue that not allowing women to be topless where men are allowed is one of the most prevalent instances of gender discrimination in law.
"It basically says that women's bodies are inherently indecent whereas men's are not," said Blankenship. "Men are still subjected to laws against lewd behavior and public indecency, but for them, what determines their indecency is what they are doing with their bodies, rather than just the existence of their bodies, period. So the argument is that by saying that a woman's body, no matter what she's doing, is automatically sexual and therefore unfit to be seen in public."
On the other side, the argument is that having laws against letting women bare their chest in public is protecting them from harassment and abuse.
"Nobody sits down in support of these laws and says 'I can't wait to objectify women today,' the goal is always to protect public safety," said Blankenship. "I think that it comes down to…do we protect women from preexisting negative influences? Or do we try to start passing laws and taking an institutionalized and official viewpoint to challenge those things."
KPCC's online polls are not scientific surveys of local or national opinion. Rather, they are designed as a way for our audience members to engage with each other and share their views. Let us know what you think on our Facebook page, facebook.com/kpcc, or in the comments below
How Susan Orlean unraveled the horse_ebooks Twitter mystery
Fans of the irreverent Twitter account
got some shocking news on Tuesday.
It was revealed that the account, originally thought to be spam, was actually an elaborate conceptual art project maintained by Buzzfeed employee Jacob Bakkila and Thomas Bender, formerly of Howcast. Writer Susan Orlean broke the news in a short blog post on the New Yorker's website, and she's working on a longer feature for the magazine.
"I became a big fan of it just because [the tweets] were so weird and funny...it's like found art," said Orlean on Take Two.
The site was thought to have been a spam account that tweeted random passages it culled from various ebooks. The nonsensical sentence fragments would often take on a zen-like quality:
Everything happens so much
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks)
Everything happens so much
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) June 28, 2012
Inside every dog there exists a perfect
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks)
Inside every dog there exists a perfect
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) April 3, 2013
Avoid situations
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks)
Avoid situations
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) July 17, 2013
Dear Reader, You are reading
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks)
Dear Reader,
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) February 10, 2012
You are reading
"Rather than people running away from the account, which is usually what happens with any sort of spam, this began developing hundreds of thousands of followers and fan fiction and admirers around the world," said Orlean.
Orlean joins Take Two to talk about why horse_ebooks was so popular, what message the creators are trying to send and how she came to know who was behind the whole thing.
Interview Highlights:
On why horse_ebooks became such a phenomenon:
"The stuff was generally funny and weird, and funny and weird is a home run on the Internet. Anything like that, with that combination of seeming to be absolutely folk art combined with something ironic and strange, that is the slam dunk.
"In addition to people liking the content of it, it became a bit of a parlor game on Twitter, to try and figure out who really owned this. Who is operating this? Was it a Russian spammer who didn't even realize how crazy and wonderful these tweets were? Many people began speculating that it was a promotional campaign being done very cleverly, which has happened online."
On how she found out that there were two people behind it:
"About a year ago I was contacted by someone claiming to be the person behind horse_ebooks, of course I was doubtful, but he proved that he was in fact in charge of the account. They are two 29-year-old guys who are conceptual artists, very interested in Internet art. Art that sort of takes advantage of the world we live in now where data and communication is this entirely new universe. The two guys, Jacob Bakkila and Thomas Bender stepped out from behind the curtain and presented themselves as did a performance."
On the pair's performance at New York's Fitzroy Gallery:
"I posted my story at 10 a.m. and that was when they posted on their accounts the link to a phone number and a location in downtown Manhattan. The phone began ringing at 10:10. Tom and Jacob answered as many of the phone calls as they could, which was nonstop, with lines of spam that they had culled from the Internet."
On what the reaction to the news was like:
"The response was swift and in some cases very, very upset and emotional. A few people were mad at me. Somebody said 'You ruined the Internet for me.' and I thought, really? Honestly? OK. That gives me a whole lot more power than I think I really have. I can compare it to how people feel when a beloved television show has its finale.
"In the case of a television show, you sort of take the characters as being real. In the case of horse_ebooks, I think people just loved this strange mystery. There's no outcome that I think people would have greeted warmly. Nobody wants an end to something that had an almost innocent, ingenuous appeal."
On the legacy of horse_ebooks:
"I think that the magic is gone, even though the fact is that Jacob deserves a lot of credit for having crafted this rather amazing product. The thinking behind it and the way that it rifts on the world of spam is genius. I think once the emotion of losing the Easter Bunny passes, I think there will be appreciation. That's why I'm looking forward to writing this longer piece."
On the message of this project:
"Just realizing that the Internet engages us in a way that is emotional as well as simply data-driven. Seeing people saying, I'm crying to find out that there's a real person behind horse_ebooks made me think, well, we're still people here."
State Of Affairs: DWP, Proposition 13 and more
It's Thursday and that means it's time for State of Affairs, our look at politics and government throughout California. To help us with that we're joined in studio now by KPCC political reporters Alice Walton and Frank Stoltze.
Let's start today with the Department of Water and Power. The utility has been funding two nonprofit groups with $40 million tax payer dollars spent on them. What are these groups?
There's now a lot of questions about how that money is being used. Neither the DWP nor the union can explain where the $40 million has gone and yet leaders from both groups are on the board of these non profits.
This week the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors discussed a ballot measure that would allow the city of Los Angeles to create its own health department. The County, of course, already has its own health department.
Gov. Jerry Brown was busy signing bills this week. One of them had to do with the paparazzi. What's going to change here in Hollywood?
Proposition 13 is always a hot button issue. KPCC's Frank Stoltze reported that Brookfield Office Properties has come under fire from activists who say the company is trying to get out of paying millions in property taxes. What's happening here?
A Los Angeles Times editorial knocked Mayor Eric Garcetti this week for taking too long to announce his commission appointments. The newspaper also argued that the commissions are not as independent as they once were. Do they have a fair point? Who is getting on these panels and what's their role like in City Hall?
Finally, there's some talk about the "Time for Hillary" super PAC and just who is really behind this. What can you tell us about the group?
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's candid obsession with Twitter
Movie stars use it, comedians test their jokes on it, and politicians depend on it to reach out to voters.
We're talking about Twitter, and just as celebrities use it to connect with their fans, elected officials have found it's a good way to stay in touch with their constituents. Most members of Congress tweet here and there, or more likely someone on their staff does it for them.
But a few in Congress are devoted, maybe even a little obsessed with Twitter. Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is among those devotees.
He seems to love mixing it up with users, engaging in Twitter debates on health care, climate change, veterans benefits. National Journal writer Shane Goldmacher has been reviewing Rohrabacher's twitter stream, and talked to the Congressman about his tweeting habit.
How Judith Patterson discovered she was 'The Oilman's Daughter'
Imagine waking up one day in your 30s and finding out you weren't exactly who you thought you were. That's what happened to Judith Patterson.
Judith knew she was adopted, but what she didn't know, for decades, was that her biological father was an incredibly wealthy oil tycoon. The discovery split her life in two. There was Judith, before she knew, and Judith after.
Her efforts to reconnect with her father is the subject of a fascinating piece which appears in the multimedia storytelling platform The Atavist. I recently spoke with the story's author, Evan Ratliff, who began by telling me a bit about Judith's childhood.
Plan to raise Shasta Lake may hinge on Sacred River
Moving forward with a proposal to raise the water level of California's biggest reservoir will have an array of spillover effects, not the least of which are on the rivers flowing into Shasta Lake, and the people who live, play and pray along them.
The McCloud River could be the key to whether the plan goes forward. The California Report's Craig Miller has the story.
Dinner Party Download: Legless lizards, new $100 bill 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:
Legless Lizard Species Discovered in California
A New $100 bill Could Be Worth Way More Than That
This week in 1956, One Heck of A Bar Bet
This week back in 1956 a guy won a crazy bar bet, which involved landing a stolen plane on a NYC boulevard. Then two years later he did it again.