WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're hitting the rewind button on this week's news from the great lady's front pages to the stories on the small screen. And the reporting that went under the radar. It's a hyper local look at the news that was and wasn't. We'll be dropping in on online communities and alternative presses. For a look at the big stories from the small papers where today's neighborhood news becomes tomorrow's mainstream headlines. Well top of the hour venturing from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with Greg time on tour of the tabloids and a roundup of this week's pop culture. Up next on the callee Crossley Show from gumshoe reporting the gossip rags. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying Colorado officials

facing a deadly wildfire this hour say they're investigating reports that an emergency alert system failed to notify some residents who had signed up for the service. Now it started out as a controlled burn to avert a fiery outbreak has grown into a massive blaze that has killed at least two people. Jefferson County Sheriff Spokesperson Mark tech Meyer says crews are out again searching for a third person. The search and rescue team will be Allen begin today. Their goal is to hit another 80 acres to look for and see if they can have any any progress there so they're still working on it hard. The fire has burned about six square miles hundreds of firefighters are working to contain it but they're bracing for strong winds this weekend which could make battling the blaze much more difficult. The latest numbers on the U.S. economy are out from the Commerce Department. NPR's Chris Arnold reports. Personal income and spending rose in February spending rose point eight percent last month which is twice the increase of the month before and the largest increase since

July. Personal income rose more modestly a point two percent. I think it's very encouraging. The outlook for the economy. John riding is the chief economist of arty economics in New York. He says this better than expected spending data follows a pickup in consumer confidence as well as stronger job creation. Those trends leave the economy well placed to grow at around 3 percent this year. That's the hope anyway. Other economists and the Federal Reserve are concerned that growth might be weakening and that the stronger job gains might not last. Chris Arnold NPR News. The FBI top cyber cop is retiring after nearly 25 years on the job. Shawn Henry has overseen investigations of computer intruders and vigilante groups such as anonymous and law. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports Henry will keep fighting hackers in the private sector. Shawn Henry started looking into cyber issues during the run up to Y2K more than a decade

ago. Since then he's been on the front lines at the FBI trying to uncover hacking by foreign governments criminal rings and vigilante groups. It is one of the most significant threats we faced in our nation's history Henry says people in companies need to do more to protect themselves from cyber thieves. And the current setup leaves too many secrets exposed he says he'll keep working on the issues when he joins corporate America. Carrie Johnson NPR News Washington. There is word of more military shelling in northern Syria despite the government's public commitment to negotiated peace with anti-government activists. The U.N. and Arab League's envoy to Syria Kofi Annan is urging President Bashar al-Assad to implement the six point peace plan which calls for a cease fire in the year old conflict. Dow's up more than 50 points. This is NPR News. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with the local stories we're following. Governor Deval Patrick has suspended the head of the Massachusetts National Guard pending an investigation into the alleged rape of a subordinate nearly 30 years ago. The Army

opened an investigation into Adjutant General Joseph Carter recently because he is under consideration for promotion from one star to two star general. The alleged rape occurred in Florida in 1984 when Carter was a lieutenant and Army investigator at the time recommended the alleged victim. A private go to police but the victim said she was afraid to press charges. Carter said in a statement that he had no recollection of the woman who made the accusation. A small Catholic college in Massachusetts has withdrawn its invitation to the widow of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy to speak at graduation after the bishop of the Worcester diocese raised concerns about her views. Victoria Kennedy was scheduled to speak at Annamaria colleges make commencement a diocese spokesman says Bishop Robert McManus has followed directions that Catholic institutions should not honor Catholics who take positions contrary to Church principles. In a statement to The Globe Kennedy called it a sad day for her and an even sadder one for the church she loves. The Wampanoag tribe of a Quinta is stepping up efforts to develop a casino in southeastern Massachusetts. The Tribe says it has secured options on two attached tracts of land one in Freetown and the other in

neighboring Lakeville Freetown officials have scheduled a May 20 night referendum on the proposed casino and tonight's Mega Millions lottery jackpot has grown to an estimated 640 million dollars. The jackpot had already broken the record Thursday for the largest lottery prize in history. The Globe reports that over the past three days nearly nine million dollars in tickets have been sold in Massachusetts and as of noon the total for the day was approaching three million dollars. In sports the Celtics play the Timberwolves in Minnesota tonight and right now we have scattered clouds in the Boston area with a temperature of 40 degrees. Tonight we partly cloudy in the evening then cloudy with a chance of snow after midnight lows in the mid 30s Support for NPR comes from the William and Flora here at Foundation making grants to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. On the Web at Hulot dot org. This is WGBH. Good afternoon I'm Cally Crossley today we're going over the week's local news with Sue O'Connell co publisher of the South in news and bay windows. Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. And Seth Daniel senior reporter of the independent news group which

includes the Revere Journal. Welcome back everyone. Thank you. To be here. Peter we're going to start with you because though our focus is local news and as hyper local as we can get it. Sometimes it's national stories cross over into local in the Trayvon Martin case through the Stand Your Ground law in Florida has. Is one there to the surprise of many of us is a Stand Your Ground bill in the legislature in Massachusetts. That's right they state some of the from Barre Massachusetts a very dangerous place has introduced one. And the good news is that it has little chance of getting out of committee this year. The bad news is that every year he files that he gets more and more support. This is all part of a national trend at least 24 states have adopted Stand Your Ground laws. You know my take on these laws is if it's the perfect first of all they are supported by the National Rifle

Association. They're also sort of perfect examples of Republican thinking. No matter who introduces them. You know a stand your ground law as a market based solution. It's very efficient. It cuts out the police. It cuts prosecutors and it makes every citizen a judge or even ex executioner all rolled into one. I mean the essence of the law is that if you feel physically threatened in your home or in your car or on the street you can shoot the Soka dead by standing your ground up. I want to be clear that the guy who drafted created push through the bill in Florida now at the center of the Trayvon Martin case and has been quite clear that what happened in that case as we understand it is not the way the law is supposed to work. You can stand your ground but you're not supposed to be moving around chasing anybody. No I'm not part of it. You know your ground there I go again and also who was the threatened person here was

that 17 year old Trayvon or was it Mr. Zimmerman. What's also interesting here too is the way these stories you know just sort of pop up out of Florida you know floor there is the nightmare from which America just cannot seem to awake. And I think part of the reason for that is that the floor of the population is transient there's rednecks there's old money. But beneath the surface there are all these tensions that exist in the rest of the country. Maybe it's the tropical heat but they explode with regularity. Look at the Terri Schiavo case saw the bizarro case of the 2000 election you know. So the fact that this is coming out of Florida you know makes of the national story but it has local implications everywhere. I mean the Boston Globe had an excellent story on the front page today a picture of a young man you know who they and they went out and interviewed you know young kids from the Navy

the horde I guess and you know all the kids were saying well yeah we feel like this. Well I'm just a dude before you say anything so just put on the table also there are many other stand your ground laws already in place in other states right and I need to confess that in 1078 I was a member of the National Rifle Association and a nationally recognized high school expert sharpshooter. And I say that because I was taught through the NRA group I was in that if you were going to carry a gun for protection. Not a rifle for target shooting that you had to be prepared to shoot someone that you just don't carry a gun because you want to have a gun that you are carrying a responsibility. And I think that somewhere in these discussions that just gets totally lost that having a gun that you think you're going to use just to defend yourself for some reason is an awesome awesome responsibility that does not get communicated down and at the same time you know any any parent will tell you what you teach your kid is that you should run.

You know if you feel in danger you leave. You know if someone is grabbing you or trying to abduct you or kidnap you or beat you up. Run. And somewhere in this discussion there's also you know we've been talking a lot about it in this case from Florida. You know when does it change from you trying to protect yourself and call the police and hide and get out of the way to charging after someone and shooting them. You know I mean there are a lot of responsibility aspects to this discussion that I think have to be had in households and in town and city levels. Well I come from the same school yes ASU. You know I grew up with guns. I was taught to respect them in the same way you talk about I was into sharp shooting and hunting who I see a match. But anyway she's right. This is all been lost it's all about emotional reaction or something and you know we had a guy who taught in Massachusetts you have to go through a course to get a permit.

And there's a guy in Revere Hood who teaches that and he would not teach that at least the concealed weapon permit unless you went through a class first with him where he teaches you to disarm somebody without a weapon. Oh interesting. Where he teaches you to defend yourself with no weapon. And then if you still are interested after that he'll go ahead with the other. I mean it's about it's just like you said it's about thinking and realizing the responsibility. Before you go passing you know your people is not you know as much as you can make an argument in some of these terrible mass shootings that if someone had a gun it would be different I can't even imagine. You know idiots with guns. Listen the ultimate sanction of the state is the application of force. And you know taking of life. That state power in its essence and to sub contract them out to you and me and my neighbors is just a very very dangerous thing to do.

So at this point though your assessment is that the bill would not pass this year not this year. No I think it's unlikely as the sponsor himself would say to make it out of make it out of committee. But the number of people supporting it grows and you know what I've sensed is a real division between these bills a popular with suburban legislators but very unpopular with urban legends and such as states some of us on your ideas. So you see our own that may not be a red blue divide in Massachusetts but that's a Suburban. A city a city suburb divide. Interesting. All right well over to you sass. Housing prices statistics are causing some concern. This is very interesting. Naturally I didn't know this Boston magazine revealed this if you will have taken a deeper look at it. Yeah well our elected officials too and a lot of the real estate agents in the area especially taking a look at it. Boston magazine's best places to live has never been

kind to our area. Chelsea Riviera I mean but the numbers don't lie. In the last five years they're there spread that they put out this month showed that just about every community where we have a paper has dropped 60 percent. This is median single family home in the last five years 60 percent and it's only five years. Especially considering there's been a lot of turnover in the last 10 years. So there's a lot of new owners who all the sudden immediately have lost 60 percent of the value of their home and it's going down it's not like oh there's a quick rebound this year last year in Revere it was almost 10 percent down. So yes people are looking at it. There's there's really it's being linked to quality of life in a lot of ways. So when people see that their house has gone down this much their home or they just bought it or they've been there a long time they want to sell it but they can't. They tend to strike back at the cracked sidewalk or you know the fire hydrant that hasn't been painted in 30 years. Anything else really around them to try to make their their home their

nest whatever a little more powerful. Wow. Yeah it's frightening when it is this is you could suggest this is the worst drop in the overall in any in the other community or to the other communities. Well there are some that are worse I think you could go to to Lawrence revere I know was was seventh worst in the state. I mean all of all of our communities you can count them that they got to be at least the fifth you know. You know when one through five at the bottom there I think like maybe Lawrence and a few others were worse. But it really was a point where those inner urban suburbs were very popular and homes you know simple ranch homes were $500000 down a great school system close to Boston and then boom. It's very surprising to the people who live there. Well the housing stats they tell me who are coming back now so yeah it's going to maybe change yeah it will change at some point I mean I think we're now still in the world or back in the world where you don't buy a home in order to make money on it or think

you're going to sell it you buy a home to live in it you know kind of like what our parents probably did they didn't think they're going to turn this over and buy a new house. This is where we're going to live a right to live here for a long time so I think that's happening there's a lot of. Just inventory on the market another community I know that was spotlighted a couple of months ago was Athel where you can buy a three bedroom home for $25000 less than a car you know. So you know where do you want to live what's the school system like what's the police response fire response you know the South End is is starting you know definitely to come back. It didn't drop as far as other places did. But you know there's still a big inventory issue out there. Well the South End is like a zillion dollars. Yes but I think you get to land OK. Right now it's only August and Peter you're in JP That's another gazillion dollar community. Well not quite how often has it but no one. We we moved in like it seems like weeks before the

boom seven before and prices have helped. Jamaica Plain is one of the communities in Massachusetts hybrid mass being another for example in Wellesley big enough all the while houses and nowhere near that same price range with the price of the House has declined less than those of the three communities have declined less than anywhere else and if we were to resell now we wouldn't have made as much as we would have several years ago but we still would have made still would make a heck of a lot more than we paid. The disturbing trend here though is this fits into the whole idea of the poor getting poorer. The working poor getting really screwed and the middle class seeing their position. You know there are economic and social position decline. It is all pot and Possehl of this shakedown that began with

Ronald Reagan. I think you're absolutely right. Well we've got much more food trucks and. Some secret documents revealed I'm callin Crosley we're looking at local news with Sue O'Connell of the South in news in bay windows. Peter Katz is of the Boston Phoenix and said Daniel of the Revere Journal. You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston Public Radio. Funding for our programs comes from you. And the Harvard innovation lab a university wide center for innovation where entrepreneurs from Harvard the Austin Community Boston and beyond engage in teaching and learning about entrepreneurship. Information at I lab at Harvard dot edu. And direct Tire and Auto Service. The listener's expectations of an underwriter are very high as far as a service to receive at that number. Barry Steinberg president they

feel that we're discriminating about where we spend our money and they feel that when they walk in the door they're not going to be disappointed and we always base our service on student or expectation to learn more visit. WGBH dot org slash sponsorship on the next FRESH AIR we listen back to our interview with Earl Scruggs He died Wednesday at the age of 88. He developed his famous three finger style while absent mindedly playing the banjo one day when I realized when I was due him I would play him the way the play now. A lot come in and dream and waking up he was actually playing with to join us. This afternoon. At 2:00 you are on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Every good report NPR News Tokyo. NPR news Washington every GBH Boston Public Radio depends on the kindness of your support. Help Public Radio keep you connected by staying current with your WGBH membership. Make an online gift right now and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing for a brand new Apple iPod. Use

it to go behind the scenes of WGBH radio and television with our new digital members guide. Entry and full rules at WGBH dot org slash itat. Brian O'Donovan Come join me every Saturday at 3:00 for the good old fashioned session on a Celtic sojourn on any 9.7 WGBH. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're going over the week's local news that went under the radar. Joining me to talk between the headlines are Sue O'Connell co-publisher of bay windows in the south in news. Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. And Seth Daniel senior reporter of the independent news group which includes the Revere Journal. Now Sue you have a story that I am very interested in I'm very frustrated about just as the people that you are profiling in your story does about food drug addicts. Drug The food truck people are mad in the restaurant people are May everybody is a lightning rod for

conversation in Boston a food truck so of course the food truck season starts April 1st and the South End neighborhood has some food trucks not a lot coming so far in April we actually only have a couple I think we have three positions and only one of them is filled but and as you may not know in the South and for lunch it's not like there's a ton of choices open to restaurants although we don't have a lot of lunch choices. So you could actually you know you can have talk. You go to Francesca's you can have a white tablecloth over it you know. But this is not all those restaurants aren't serving lunch so you might think. Yeah the food trucks are coming we're going to get some fun variety everyone loves the food trucks. Not so much the pizza places and not so much how the selection the choice was made on where to put the the food trucks so you've got a bunch of local pizza guys coming together for the first time ever. Upset about where the food trucks are going to be how it's going to affect their businesses for lunch which is primarily something they get the benefit of because of the lack of real big choices and basically just feel like they were

not heard when it came to you know where the foot to where the trucks would be placed based on foot traffic which again is another kind of funny thing in the south and we don't have a lot of foot traffic. Every When I asked you you know you got Columbus Avenue which has a lot of foot traffic. Washington tram you know not so much actually as people are walking around from place to place so the place where the lunch spots are the pizza places are where the food trucks are going. So you know the guys at the pizza places just feel really put on like they've been taken a little bit of advantage of you know on the other side you know hey what's wrong with food trucks. Would we be arguing that much about a restaurant opening up near them you know serving the same food so is there anything wrong with food trucks I love food. Yeah but I think I'm just going to play the restaurant. Yeah yeah. You know perspective right now and say that food trucks are generally much cheaper. True and you know it's a you know it's kind of a fun thing you get a little bit of

variety you know a pizza is a pizza and let's you know if you had that. So for the next time people are funny food eaters. You know so you can go for like five months doing the quirky thing and then maybe you'll go back to the pizza place I don't know I'm just saying that so they have a they're at risk I would think you know you know the pizza guys have to pay your taxes. I mean you know they they have to have overhead you have overhead they have their brands are they own the building and they have to pay taxes to the city. It's an interesting it's an interesting conundrum. I mean the pizza guys obviously should have contributed more to them in the you know campaign. Yeah they are upset that there's just a handful of guys from city hall who pick the locations. You know once again you kind of have the where's you know pick up the curtain at City Hall how did this process happen. At the same time you know I don't know that they were as much of an advocate for themselves as they needed to be in the process. You know suddenly the food trucks show up and it's like oh food trucks are here what are we going to do about it. So I mean I'm I'm

sort of a fair competition sort of. If it if it's if it's cheaper and better than the pizza better be cheaper and better. So Seth This always gets back to who makes good decisions anyway. Well you know that's a very good question of fact. There's a Rivera family that was one of the first to have a food truck here last year or could be here before and it was last year. And they make grilled cheese is going to go all right. Oh yeah. Oh yeah those people and we know rocks that you have to be there for your guys even if you're owner several times put up had to put up quite a fight just to be able to go to Boston College where the college kids really wanted it and he had to fight them in the you know Administration tooth and nail. You know they gave him for this very issue they gave him certain hours certain days. Maybe after midnight you know it was crazy. And then of course TV popularity came a food trucks and the Menino administration seemed to think it was very very popular something really nice that the city should do and all of a sudden he was

approved and he actually went on TV he was one of the networks Yeah yeah he was on the food it was in the food truck race. That's right yeah I think I am just as well you know we have Mike Ross had to fight hard to get you know he's got leading the charge on the food I mean it's just you know there are restaurants on wheels like and here's what I don't understand. Here we are look at that look out on the street you know you see a restaurant no one wants a stockyard over here we are food truck ready. PLEASE I'M BEGGIN Somebody roll over here so many people here we're in a food truck desert I guess we would be fighting Jason would you my bag do whatever. I don't understand how this is going to go. This clearly is an area that could benefit the stockyard has such a loyal clientele and a lot of people are going to go there no matter what. So they're in a good position to withstand some competition on the street at lunchtime. I mean they really are. Yeah you know the other thing about it is there's a there's an advantage for the pizza places or the stockyard in that what happens if it rains of course you know then we only have four months of nice weather.

So what do you do when you're a food truck and it's snowing you know. I'm not standing outside here you know and also you can get a you can get an adult beverage at the store. So anyway moving on you know not such a great story but it's not just happy story but Seth this is one I really had not heard about. Adults with physical and mental disabilities Yes that are living on their own or trying to. Being attacked a lot and now hopefully getting some help in defending themselves. You know this is an interesting story because about 10 years ago they really started moving adults with physical and mental disabilities out of institutions especially nursing homes. They were really it was really a terrible existence for them and they began going into group homes other settings like that some lived in apartments two together. And the thing that wasn't realize is that while they also get jobs along that with this set CBS

now they have to get to CBS or go to places where they need to go and they often take the bus or they wait for somebody outside and it becomes a situation where they're very vulnerable and they do get preyed upon and no one really likes to talk about it because it's it's uncomfortable even for the police it's uncomfortable because of the nature of it. And I think this statistic that I got was especially for men the men are the ones that really get preyed upon three times as likely as a able bodied female which was surprising to me and there is this one group out of Malden that services our whole area called Triangle and they they started teaching self-defense classes. It's very remedial I mean they're not doing karate or anything like that but yes they are being loud learning how to report something that's wrong. Telling people to get away you're too close to me. And it's effective if it does work. The one problem is that there is no state money for any of this. This is all private donations because the state has yet to see that this is happening.

Wow. You know and they'd also doesn't have any money. Well that's the other I mean I know that like very droopy it and the thing about it is private donors do not want to fund efforts for men. Oh interesting here because I run into that a lot. There are very few that will do these sorts of self-defense classes for men and whether they're handicapped or not. And yet Peter this is the kind of program when you want people to get out and try to live on their own so they can contribute to society. So we you know reduces the costs overall it's you know supportive of whatever existing mental health services are out there. You know this just makes you crazy. You know we have a house. Well you know in my neighborhood that's probably about oh about five or six houses up across the street very quiet. You know there is never any trouble there. See a number of people coming and going leaving sort of quiet existence. You know when I read the story it really made me my stomach a little sick. And

I think maybe what the reasonable way they do with is to try to fold programs like this into the whole process of being initiated. To the house. It's still going to cost money but that to me I would never have thought about it. Why man. Just you know that's a very good question that's just are the statistics bore themselves out maybe they're more likely to take transportation themselves that you know maybe they're more likely available. You know if you look at the statistics of the people beating up on homeless people are usually men that's a given so there could be some correlation with this assumption. You know just be that in terms of reprehensible behavior you know beating up on a handicapped woman is too reprehensible even for. Yeah these bad guys. Yeah you know and I know you're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH an on line at WGBH dot org I'm Kalee Crossley. We're looking at local news that went under the radar with Sue O'Connell of the South Dade News and bay windows. Peter Katz of the Boston Phoenix. And Seth

Daniel of the Revere Journal. So soon exposing the National Organization for Marriage this is interesting. Some documents public and suddenly we see the strategy. Well speak. Well suddenly in some ways I mean speaking of reprehensible This is one of the things that the gay and lesbian community has been saying since I mean we say it every time someone quotes a bad survey or bad science about gay and lesbian people and this in terms of the marriage the fight for marriage equality where we knew that people on the other side were lying and we knew that people were tricking people we talked about the petition years ago to bring the same sex marriage to a vote in Massachusetts and the anti-gay marriage people had had hired people to trick people to think they were signing a petition. On one hand too. Make dog racing illegal. Oh and then they would take their name and put it on the anti-gay marriage initiative. But

mainstream media didn't pay that much attention to it. You know I've had a conversation back in 1980 with Jim Rappaport who was the former Republican state party committee director who told me the strategy was to get in front of African-Americans and tell them that gay marriage was bad for them and that you needed to vote Republican. And as reprehensible as that is it gets worse with the National Organization of Marriage where Frank Gardner who is the openly gay Republican running for president there and was behind a lot of them here in New Hampshire and was behind the strategy with California and same sex marriage there has filed a suit to bring a lot of the things that the National Organization for Marriage was doing forward and these documents were released last week. And Human Rights Campaign got right on it and publicized that the strategy for the National Organization of Marriage spelled out very clearly was to pit gays against blacks and Latino's and this is a list by the way Israel is a right yeah. In the documents you know make an opposition to gay marriage a key

identity badge for African-Americans Latino's interrupt the equation of gay with Black give blacks to object to calling gay marriage a civil right. So now where we see what a lot and some of it was indeed. Natural emergence of what people thought we now see that it was also a strategy and a plan that the National Organization for Marriage most of whom are white were using to use the African-American and Latino population and to move them towards being against gay marriage. And it's it's pretty reprehensible I mean I got in. So the news this week tons of e-mails about how awful Starbucks was because Starbucks was supporting Washington state same sex marriage and I asked some of the readers of the letter writers if I could print the letters. And they said no no I didn't know that it was going to you I'm in New Hampshire why did it say that. So I went to the National Organization of Marriage Web site says it will go to your local paper.

Well you know I'm not so the news is not the local paper to New Hampshire you know and it's just this whole shifty bad actor stuff that the anti-gay marriage people are doing which totally you know we've been saying for years and finally there's some national coverage some national media coverage on on how they operate. What's been the response. Well it got some national play. Again the gay community were like Yeah you know we've been telling you this the end. The leaders have come out again saying that this is this is not this is what we knew. This is why we need to be aware of how we're being used and where our grass roots language comes from. And generally for the gay community it's an opportunity for us to point out to the mainstream media listen we're not making this stuff up. Well also you know the Republican Party is such a friend of the African-American community. Yeah I mean they do so much right. Sarcasm signs you know that's what I challenge Rapoport on of the time I said you know well is that it you're just going to stand in front of black people and say gay marriage is bad vote

Republican. You know when he said well if we could make it a big enough issue for them yeah that's what we're going to do well for him to be working in some of this is it. So if you want to weigh in on this. Well I think you know the thing I when I read this just the organizations and how it has these these plans to manipulate us in whatever way it might be and I think it's so widespread and just if you're sitting you're a regular person sitting at home you know and you're one of these organizations is trying to manipulate you in some way it's just so tiring I think. And I think people can see through it. I really do. Maybe not always. No I don't read memos like this I agree with that. You know when when these inside what's what's awful about this you know we've all seen the inside memos from political campaigns and stuff and they're they're crude sometimes and you feel like you're cattle. But what's what we were struck by this is it's like they're trying to start a race war to stop same sex marriage you know which is if they're so pro-family if they're so

pro-traditional marriage is it really worth you know getting races ethnic groups against each other around an issue just to protect marriage I mean it just seems crazy. I don't think we've heard the last of this reverberation would be interesting because I imagine it'll play out a little bit more as election campaign goes on and speaking of the presidential election. Peter you have a piece with David Bernstein talking about the Romney Etch a Sketch gaffe but it's really more about Eric Finnstrom for instance and his importance to the campaign and how no matter what I don't care what kind of gaffe he makes he's not going away. Well yeah we all know that this city is very important and master Texan Eric Fehrnstrom has said that's the age of maybe being the only Swede actively involved you know I mean there's a couple of points here. First of all I think first I'm got a bit of a bum rap. I think others thought

that you know so the Gingrich when he made those comments about Paul Ryans. So it's Santorum with his comments about Romney all three of these cases the press has ripped it out of context. But anyway these guys are all knuckleheads so I'm not going to sleep all right. But nevertheless no fur instrument is you know he sort of ran these evil genius and very good example of David points out in this story is that when Romney went on Fox News several months ago and didn't like the way his interview went he chided the FOX interview her and this resulted in all sorts of bad press for Romney. Well these were the days when firster wasn't working for I mean to they first would go in and chew the guy in new ear hole or something. French seems a very very combative guy. I mean some of us may remember

back in the governor's race I mean he allegedly almost came to blows with the mayor of North Adams on the tv set i mean. So here's the distaff Rahm Emanuel so to speak. Yeah. Yes you know me on a manual look like kind of you know Ron is an elected official you know. So he's got to he's going to be me he's got to walk but for instruments. I mean we dealt with him at bay windows when Romney was governor. Quite a bit and it was you know it. Everything Peter said is true and he's the guy I mean it's Romney can't succeed without him. So it just gets gaffe or not it's a blip in the screen because he's. If Romney did everything I think that friends from told him to do it would be a very different campaign you know you know by by the way has banned political David David Bernstein from you know he's been banned from his Twitter feed. Oh well the people give him the stuff. And I know you sort of I mean this is an old fashioned

knuckle politics about him. Just if you have any interactions Yeah we did when he was when Romney was the governor and he was the point person you know our issues are certainly different than the what we're talking about now but I always found him to be very professional although rushed I mean it's like when you talked with him it was like OK what do you need. Here it is like a party you know. Oh he's very professional you know he's very good at what he does and he his job is you know to be nasty. So he was very he was very protective of Mitt when he came out to revere he would always you know make sure the pictures look just right you know it was a lot of them don't do that well but I think this rolled right off his back and you know he went on about his business so well then Hance is a legend. OK thanks will go all right. Well thanks so much to all three of you for helping us go under the radar very well we've been talking local news with Sue O'Connell of bay windows in the south in news. Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston

Phoenix. And Seth Daniels senior reporter of the independent news group which includes the Revier Journal. Thank you all for joining me today. Coming up we look at this week's pop culture headlines and ragtime. You're listening to WGBH Boston Public Radio. We love our contributors. That means you. And Bank of America lending and investing to help strengthen local communities and support the people who call Massachusetts home. For more information you can visit them online at Bank of America dot com slash Boston. And Davis mom and Dee Augustine P.S. attorneys at law at Davis mall may make your business their business on the web at Davis mom dot com. D A V I ass a l am dot com. And for members of the

Great Blue Hill society who's a state and planned giving arrangements to WGBH create a lasting legacy and ensure public media for generations to come. What will your legacy be. Next time on the world. The winners of Burma's 1900 parliamentary elections never took office. They went from an election victory as he said Stack. They fled Burma and formed a government in exile. Today reform is happening inside Burma and the government in exile may soon be obsolete. Burmese go to the polls on Sunday. That's next time on the world. Coming up at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. Join Brian O'Donovan host of a Celtic sojourn and singer songwriter Robbie O'Connell for the exciting John through Ireland southern counties immerse yourself in Ireland's natural beauty and rich history by day and enjoy traditional Irish music sessions by night. It's an Irish summer during a nine day journey

this September through some of the most historic and scenic places in the Emerald Isle to register or to learn more. Who's at WGBH dot org slash learning tool. Great question has a great question and that's a great question. It's a great question. Rick great question. You'll hear unexpected questions and unexpected answers this afternoon at 2:00 here on eighty nine point seven. It's Bragg time. A view of the week's pop culture happenings. It's an examination of the salacious the ridiculous and everything in between this being public radio. We'll conduct our review with the help of some highbrow analysts are pointy head of pop culture Rachel Ruben and Thomas Connelly. Rachel Rubin is the chair of the department of American studies at UMass Boston and Thomas Connelly is a professor of English at Suffolk University. Welcome back you to go again.

So we start off with the story that you know supposed to be a comedy but it didn't is on controversy happening nationwide that's the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida so that's a very serious story which is unfolding continues to go forward. Twentieth Century-Fox found in the. Itself in the uncomfortable position of promoting or beginning to promote a movie called Neighborhood Watch and as you know one of the people involved in that controversy was a neighborhood watch person. So they have pulled all of their early promotional materials first in Florida where the incident took place and now going to be phased out through the rest of the nation. So let's hear a bit of the trailer for the upcoming comedy and it is a comedy called Neighborhood Watch. So should. You salted us with thanks. Oh look at me. Look at me. Look at him and listen listen to his words and look at my face. Look at him while he's talking look at my toes. Listen to my words and hear his face. All right so the film star has been Stiller Vince Vaughn and Oscar nominee Jonah Hill as a suburban

dad who becomes neighborhood watch volunteers and eventually battle aliens downtown that's as far away from the Trayvon Martin situation as possible but still I think they were wise to pull these ads. Yes yes and some of the graphics were obviously you know reminiscent of the hoodie that Trayvon is you know identified with. This is a difficult issue because the film is definitely in the genre that's so popular right now of these sort of you know frat boys grown up you know moving out of the suburbs. But the whole issue of you know what is a neighborhood watch has taken on a whole new twist now and where you know a month or so ago this would have seemed completely harmless and fair game. Now suddenly has a real edge to it and I'm afraid people when if the trailer is any proof of what the movie is going to be like are going to wonder how can they be laughing at us how can they make such a joke about this. But you know neighborhood watch is this if you I think it's been

about 10 years since the original neighborhood watch logo was the lone white mysterious figure with a trench coat pulled up. To me there's always been something kind of eerie about it the idea of you know neighbors watching neighbors and what are you up to. It's along the lines of people who you know turn to the local newspaper The first thing they read is the police report. It feeds into this idea of you know suburban paranoia you know metropolitan newspapers don't do this. And I just I think it's the whole thing is a cheap shot and it's a kind of comedy I wish would just go away. Do you think it's not going to do well now Rachel. I don't know but I do want to say I sort of first of all I disagree that it's as far away as possible the movie is about an invasion and all movies about alien invasions are actually about other invasions and so you know what culture is for and on. And I also sort of yeah I think movie Laughter is very serious. So I think that it's directly connected I agree neighborhood

watch is what they're about is people learning to tell who are decided who doesn't belong. And so you know it's all about keeping some people out. And it's very interesting. You know the way we have right now to do two kinds of gated communities we have gated communities that keep the wrong people out and we have super maxes that keep those people in. And so I think that you know the movie while it seems to be you know just light and while it does try to make the audiences laugh that that's a very serious project. And I think Tom's point about the overgrown frat boy thing I don't know how it's going to play given the context now the national context of this other very serious conversation going on it will be very and it might take a while. I think so I'll be interested maybe they might've delayed the movie but it doesn't seem like they're going to do that all they've done is pulled. All right well moving on last week was a much anticipated debut of the Mad Men premier returning to the air after 17 months. And when you know they've already started a trend

a song sung in that first premier episode is just gone gigantic So they're not going to make the song available as a limited edition 7 inch vinyl single. And the song is called Zuby Zuby zoo and this is from Mad Men. DO DO DO DO DO. And you can. See Rachel your music person had you heard of the song before. No. And I as a music person I thought you know there's nothing nothing about my relationship with music that has a lot of room for I already know. So that's just personal I have this kind of thing makes my skin crawl. But it is interesting because it it sort of lays bare the project that that television this is a product delivery system now Mad Men. You know it might have had a

critique at the beginning it might still have some in there now but a lot of it is given over to the delivery of products. And the reason this one works is because you know because it's being issued in this obsolescence obsolete form you know so technology I think is used to mark the passage of time which that that actually does interest me. Quite a bit about it it's a little bit rarefied though. Right I mean most people don't have turntables anymore and the ones that are being made you know I sort of lost after them their had their top you know their their expensive. So you know I don't know how far the jokes and be able to go in terms of of generating much income. Oh I don't think it's a joke I think it's very serious. The people who can host a quote madman unquote party with the ability to play this record will bring tremendous cachet the sort of people who go to those things. Also it's interesting an aspect of the 60s that I think people have forgotten is this kind of totally airheaded pop music that was going on in

addition to surf music the Beatles and acid rock and so forth. I mean I remember in French class listening to songs like this the girl France was a D and there's a whole range of them but there is a song Lulu set a lollipop which was dripping with sexual irony and that was the sort of thing we laughed about ripping you know. Well. It's appropriate for the Sun Micro as you know 13 when we got what the song was about. We were shocked. But this this number that she put Don misses the new Mrs Draper the way she performs it is performed in such a way as this is a full pot shall we say she really stepped over the line. Dawn is uncomfortable. Everyone is uncomfortable and it the way the show is going now with the finally brought in something about you know racial problems effectively and I think this is starting to bring it more effectively women's problems because her position now in the form she's actually in the in the I don't defend OK and the

proper proper behavior for a woman is now more multilayer than it has been I mean it's not saying too much for the show so far but they're trying to break new ground. And you know every television show is a product delivery system Rachel I think I absolutely but this lays it a little more bare and you know some of the time. Well we should say that the tune was as as Tom said a French puppet loosely translates to oh kiss kiss. It's a top trending topic on Twitter right now. It was originally sung in English by Sophia Loren and then sung in French and became popular you know in French You're pretty badass and you get a hit. And Peter Sellers did a duet with Sophia Loren. See who knew I had you know all that stuff. Well now speaking of songs that may or may not get people in trouble and a very what should have been an uplifting moment for a young athlete turned into something of a huge international FOPA when the wrong anthem was played after a young woman who

was awarded a gold medal at an Arab shooting championship in Kuwait. The anthem that was played was the fake anthem for her can I just say I stand which was written by Sasha Cohen for his movie Borat So here is the hymn to Kaka Stan which is from the satirical film Borat. All right we're going to play a lot of it because it's got some you know particular lyrics that are not appropriate for the family airwaves. But one line says all cars expand greatest country in the world. All other countries are run by little girls. Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region I mean we're talkin told Lee this is just

so inappropriate Rachel. They found the anthem online. Someone there who go ahead and write about this was a correct you see that all the accidents listening please take note of the one serious thing about it is it reminds us that we learn from popular culture about other countries and that all of that stuff then becomes the lens through which we see it. You know and so in this case right and that was somebody as a reference point for Kazakhstan and you know even even before Kazakhstan was a country at least in our memory it was it tended to be sort of forgotten because at that time we just referred to the whole Soviet Union as Russia because that's what we learned from our popular culture as well. So it just reminds us of I think the seriousness of that lands even if the you know the the the this you know this it's like. Sort of exaggeratedly hard to believe incident but it's something that I think is if you just think about like the faulty knowledge we have about all kinds of cultures if you only say learned about Africa from watching movies

that you know all of us come from that's right. Yeah lumped together as so. What I find disturbing about it is it represents truly international Wikipedia zation because this did not happen in the United States this is happening everywhere now where people you know very often know people you know American students can't find Canada on a globe. But this idea of just you know typing it in and Google will do it for me. I mean I'm surprised this hasn't become a more serious international incident. Well they did redo the ceremony because a young woman standing on the awards platform was embarrassed and then when they realized it was you know horrible that they redid it so that did happen because they knew that it could blow up into something bigger. All right so the word comes that Jane Fonda she Many people think of as left leaning is been selected to play Nancy Reagan as many people understand the wife of the former president not left leaning. What do you think about this Ken I think Jane Fonda was born to play Nancy Reagan.

The fading memories will not for some people the idea of quote unquote Hanoi Jane. There's always been a rigid streak in her there's always been a proper streak in her she writes about it in her autobiography that she fought against and she talks about trying to overcome the stiffness that her father instilled in her and so forth. But to me her self righteousness and her attitude of I know what's best for you by my video you know whatever condition you're in as a woman or as a human being I can fix it I can solve it seems to me absolutely appropriate it isn't really that far from just say no to drugs to just say no to high cholesterol food just say no to the wrong workout. I mean this is perfect I mean let's not forget that this is someone who when she first went to Vassar before she dropped out was delighted to show up in pearls and white gloves at a luncheon. Wow. Right. Yeah. You know.

I think it's not bad casting and you know that my favorite my favorite movie that Shane Fonda is in his 95 and if you sort of think about the presentation of her character in there it isn't that far. It's interesting people and it just sort of this moment where we we like to sort of depict album political figures. It's like half verisimilitude and half irony or parody. You know if you think about all of the various iterations of Sarah Palin this is sort of along those lines right. So partly it's like yes she does look a little bit right for the part and partly you know it's hilarious because we know she has left politics and Nancy Reagan didn't. All right well from that to a new exercise good humor which is just fascinated me called Zombies Run. Apparently zombies are enough incentive to get people to exercise. So here's a little clip from the Apple App zombies room. With. Us.

We're going to buy. It. Just. Like it was it. Now the customer reviews that I read said this thing is help them actually get back to running or start running. Yeah it's a you play the game like it's like a wee thing when it gets you involved in it and you feel you know you're you're you're paying attention to all of the zombies as they move around and they ended up at some point you have to you have to run it's for runners it's to you put it are you put your buds in your ears and you take off down the street here. But the way that it's described is quite different from what you actually listen to reading the description it sounds like you're going to be in this intense soundscape you will literally feel the breath of the zombie on the back of your neck. But when we heard the dialogue you know it sounds like a throwback. I mean to me the sound is almost at the Pac-Man level you know sector 5 we thought we could come out it does not deliver what it

promises. Well I think it gets to that I thought I'd like to think but no I can't I mean it's interesting. I really think that zombies and the sort of proliferation of zombie movies and zombie comic books and so forth they're about consumption right it's about what happens when people eat too much or you know consume too much and can't stop consuming. So we're supposed to now have this critique of consuming consuming too much and we consume in order to have to take it's an iPhone app you know so. After a nap it's pretty expensive that a no words no way. Here's something to have good words about we're going to thank you to and we're going to go out with the late great Earl Scruggs has taken us out this is this Foggy Mountain Breakdown He was 88 years old when he died last week and he created the three finger picking and the fastest banjo player I think in anywhere. This wraps up another edition of ragtime a review of this week's pop culture news. Rachel Lubin is the chair of the department of American studies at UMass Boston. Thomas Connelly professor of English at Suffolk University. You keep on top of the Callon crossed me show at WGBH dot org slash Cali cross-link. Follow us

on Twitter. Become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook. The tally crossed the show is a production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.