Patt Morrison for Friday, February 11, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, February 11, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:39

Creationism, religious intolerance & the First Amendment go on trial at Capistrano Valley High

 

Guests:

UNCONFIRMED

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Irvine Law School

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30

Sunny prospects for solar-powered cars?

In President Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union address, he boasted “At the California Institute of Technology, they’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars.”  What he is referring to is the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), a team of scientists from Caltech and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who were awarded $122 million in July from the Department of Energy after wining a national competition.  Their idea is simple: to recreate the process by which all the trees and plants on this planet create their energy—photosynthesis.  They hope to be able to take the ingredients that plants use—sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide—and produce energy ten times more efficiently than common crops.  Being able to store this energy in chemical fuel would get around the small dilemma with solar energy—that the sun goes out every night.  Chemical fuel is the most dense way to store energy, and it can make our cars run.  Creating artificial photosynthesis is the scientific challenge of scientific challenges—where physics, chemistry, and engineering come face to face.  If it comes to fruition, will your hybrid, natural gas, or biodiesel-powered vehicle be outdated and out-greened by a plant-like, solar-powered car?

 

Guests:

Harry A. Atwater, Jr., Ph.D., Caltech Howard Hughes professor and professor of applied physics and materials science; founding member, Kavli Nanoscience Institute; director of the Resnick Institute

IN STUDIO

 

Michael R. Hoffmann, Ph.D., Caltech James Irvine professor of environmental science at W. M. Keck Laboratories

IN STUIO

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

How is it that California can afford to give away $2 billion to struggling homeowners?

Well it’s not exactly giving it away, but improbably the state of California does have $2 billion stashed away with the goal of helping more than 100,000 struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.  The $2 billion comes from the federal government, stashed away by California in 2008, as part of the TARP financial bailout and is only now being rolled out under a state program called “Keep Your Home California.”  The program relies on banks working with the state and homeowners to help renegotiate mortgage terms in return for a generous incentive, but similar ideas have been tried in the past three years with little success.  California’s plan is actually four separate approaches, the biggest part allocating $875 million in temporary financial help to people who have lost their jobs to help them cover their home payments.  Another part of the plan would provide as much as $15,000 per homeowner to help them get current on mortgages.  It’s ambitious and it sounds promising but there’s a lot of uncertainty—can “Keep Your Home California” actually keep Californians in their homes?

 

Guest:

Rep. of the California Housing Finance Agency (CHFA)

 

CONFIRMED:

Lisa Sitkin, staff attorney for Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, a California statewide, not-for-profit legal service and advocacy organization. Their core practice areas are predatory or unfair mortgage lending, foreclosure prevention and fair housing.

CALL HER:

 

• HERA provides direct legal representation services primarily in Northern California, with technical assistance, training and counseling services available by telephone statewide.

 

 

2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

2:41 – 2:58:30

The Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo falls up

Jaime Gomez aka “Taboo,” one of the founding members of the hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas, describes his path from East L.A. to on top of the world in his book Fallin’ Up. His father was absent during his childhood, his mother and grandmother raised him, and at the age of 17 he became a father himself. Taboo's pursuit of music, encouraged by his grandmother, turned his life around. After more than a decade of churning out ear-candy, racking up top-10 hits and a few number-one songs, as well as performing on the most high-profile stages like at Super Bowl XLV, Taboo has proved that his motto of “keep it on the positive” pays off in more ways than one. He married in 2008, and he is now expecting his third child, which is his second child with his new wife. In addition, this year he celebrated four years of sobriety, kicking his addictions to both drugs and alcohol to the curb.

 

Guest:

Taboo, American rapper and actor best known as a member of the hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas; author of “Fallin’ Up: My Story”

IN STUDIO

 

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org