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Saving Birds With Economics
California Rice

The Indicator from Planet Money

Saving Birds With Economics

The Pacific Flyway, one of the major bird migration routes in North America, has lost over 90% of its original wetland habitat in California. Purchasing and restoring these lands would cost a lot of money. But one economist had an idea: What if we paid rice farmers to flood their fields?

Saving Birds With Economics

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Wednesday

Friday

California Turned Pandemic Rentals Into Permanent Housing For Homeless People

Joshua Ray, a social worker with the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, inside one of the apartments of the building tribal leaders bought in Lakeport, Calif., through Homekey. Beth LaBerge/KQED hide caption

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Beth LaBerge/KQED

National

California Turned Pandemic Rentals Into Permanent Housing For Homeless People

KQED

California leased hotel rooms for unhoused residents during the pandemic to move them out of crowded shelters. Then it bought some of those hotels to create long-term homes for them.

Thursday

LA County Will Require People To Wear Masks Indoors, Even If They've Been Vaccinated

Visitors wear masks as they walk in a shopping district, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on July 1. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption

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Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The Coronavirus Crisis

LA County Will Require People To Wear Masks Indoors, Even If They've Been Vaccinated

A rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases requires a return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors, the county's public health officer says. He didn't detail what he said would be some exceptions.

Friday

On Our Watch: Under Color of Law

Rev. Wanda Johnson's son, Oscar Grant, was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer on January 1, 2009. The recordings of the internal investigation were not released until this year, when NPR member station KQED forced BART to comply with California's "The Right to Know Act," a 2019 police transparency law. Nicole Xu for NPR hide caption

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Nicole Xu for NPR

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On Our Watch: Under Color of Law

One of the first police shootings to be captured on cell phone, millions saw Bay Area Rapid Transit police Officer Johannes Mehserle fire a single, fatal gunshot into Oscar Grant's back as the 22-year-old lay face down on the train station platform. Now, a lawsuit filed by NPR member station KQED has forced BART to comply with California's 2019 police transparency law, and release never-before-heard tapes from inside that investigation.

On Our Watch: Under Color of Law

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Friday

On Our Watch: The Brady Rule
Nicole Xu for NPR

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On Our Watch: The Brady Rule

Fellow officers long suspected a veteran detective in Antioch, Calif., was leaking operational police secrets to a drug dealer. For years, the department didn't act on their concerns. Even after the detective was finally fired in 2017, his record remained secret. In episode six of On Our Watch we look at the incentives departments have to investigate dishonest cops and what the secrecy around police misconduct means for criminal defendants who are prosecuted on their testimony.

On Our Watch: The Brady Rule

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Thursday

Illegal Fireworks Explode In Los Angeles Bomb Squad Truck, Hurting 17

A cache of 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks seized at a South Los Angeles home exploded and destroyed an armored Los Angeles Police Department tractor-trailer, damaging nearby homes and cars and causing injuries, authorities said. Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP hide caption

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Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP

Law

Illegal Fireworks Explode In Los Angeles Bomb Squad Truck, Hurting 17

Los Angeles Police bomb squad officers were in the process of seizing more than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks at a home in South Los Angeles at the time of the explosion.

Thursday

Wednesday

A College Grad Honored Her Parents With A Photo Shoot In The Fields Where They Worked

When relaying why she chose the farm fields for her college graduation photo shoot, Jennifer Rocha explained it's because that's where her parents "sacrificed their backs, their sweat, their early mornings, late afternoons, working cold winters, hot summers just to give me and my sisters an education." Branden Rodriguez/Instagram @branden.shoots hide caption

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Branden Rodriguez/Instagram @branden.shoots

Education

A College Grad Honored Her Parents With A Photo Shoot In The Fields Where They Worked

"The whole reason I wanted to go back to the fields with my parents is because I wouldn't have the degree and the diploma if it wasn't for them," says Jennifer Rocha, recent graduate of UC San Diego.

Thursday

A Nun Stole $835,000 From A School To Feed A Gambling Habit, Prosecutors Say

Prosecutors say Mary Margaret Kreuper, the 79-year-old former principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif., has agreed to plead guilty to stealing $835,339 from a Catholic elementary school where she was the principal — in part to fund her gambling habit. Scott Varley/MediaNews Group via Getty Images hide caption

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Scott Varley/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Law

A Nun Stole $835,000 From A School To Feed A Gambling Habit, Prosecutors Say

Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, agreed to plead guilty to one count of money laundering and one count of wire fraud. The federal charges carry a maximum prison term of 40 years.

Friday

On Our Watch: Conduct Unbecoming
Nicole Xu for NPR

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On Our Watch: Conduct Unbecoming

A police officer in Los Angeles told women he'd let their cars pass inspection if they had sex with him. In the San Francisco, Bay Area, another woman says an officer used police resources to harass and stalk her. The California Highway Patrol quietly fired both men for sexual harassment, but never looked into whether their misconduct was criminal. The second episode of the NPR series On Our Watch examines the system of accountability for officers who abuse their power for sex and exposes where that system falls short.

On Our Watch: Conduct Unbecoming

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Tuesday

Louder Than A Riot

Presenting: On Our Watch

What happens to police officers who use excessive force, tamper with evidence or sexually harass someone? In California, internal affairs investigations were kept secret from the public — until a recent transparency law unsealed thousands of files. On Our Watch is a limited-run podcast from NPR and KQED that brings you into the rooms where officers are interrogated and witnesses are questioned to find out who the system of police accountability really serves, and who it protects.

Presenting: On Our Watch

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Friday

On Our Watch: In Good Faith
Nicole Xu/for NPR

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On Our Watch: In Good Faith

In the small Northern California town of Rio Vista, a woman named Katheryn Jenks calls 911 for help. But after the police arrive, she ends up injured and inside a jail cell, facing serious charges. That same day, California Governor Jerry Brown signs a new law, State Senate Bill 1421, that opens up long hidden records of police misconduct, including files that might change the outcome of Jenks' case. This story is from the new NPR series, On Our Watch.

On Our Watch: In Good Faith

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