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 Jim Howard. At least two people are dead in a large bomb

blast in Oslo Norway. NPR's Philip Reeves reports damage is widespread in the middle of the city. The blast happened outside the main government building that contains the office of the prime minister a U.N. Stoltenberg a government spokesman says he's unhurt. It scattered wreckage over a wide area and sent a plume of smoke about the famously peaceful capital. Islamist extremists have made threats against Norway. It belongs to NATO. NATO's carrying out operations in Afghanistan and Libya. There's been a string of attacks in Scandinavia after the 2005 publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. A few months back a suicide bomber attacked Stockholm in Sweden killing only himself and security police intercepted the alleged plot from Mumbai style assault on a newspaper in Denmark. Philip Reeves NPR News London. President Obama today renewed his call for a balanced approach to deficit reduction. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Mr. Obama says that should include increased tax revenues as well as spending cuts.

At a town hall meeting just outside Washington the president said he's pleased that at least some Republicans in the Senate have shown a willingness to accept tax increases as part of a broad deficit cutting package. He acknowledged the Republican controlled House is not yet sold but said he still sees an opportunity for some kind of compromise. In 2010 Americans chose a divided government. But they didn't choose a dysfunctional government. Mr. Obama has been negotiating with Republican House Speaker John Boehner but Boehner stressed so far there's no agreement. Scott Horsley NPR News the White House. Meanwhile in the Democratically controlled Senate lawmakers there have rejected a House GOP plan that would have cut nearly six trillion dollars out of the deficit over the next 10 years. The house's so-called Cut Cap and Balance plan would require that Congress pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sharply criticized the measure. President Obama is set to meet with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen this afternoon to discuss ending the

17 year old policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell the military's ban on gays serving openly. Secretary Panetta is expected to certify that policy change would not hamper the military's ability to fight. Once the president certifies the decision the repeal would take place within 60 days or by the end of September and satisfy one of Mr. Obama's campaign promises. The Labor Department says unemployment rates went up last month in twenty eight states and the District of Columbia. The department says that evidence shows that slower hiring is affecting many parts of the country and that the economy is being hampered by high gas prices and low factory output. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 27 points at twelve thousand six ninety seven and the Nasdaq is up 19 points at twenty eight fifty four. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi should be tried in an international criminal court according to a spokesman for the rebels challenging to Duffy's government. Ali Saif made his comments in Rome with meetings that government officials had had Piers. There is a growing consensus that Khadafi

be allowed to remain in Libya if he gives up power. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has been dealt another setback in an attempted media takeover. As Stuart Cohen reports from Sydney the Australian Government has put a stop to the company's plans to buy a rival pay TV service and Murdoch's native Australia. The Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire News Ltd already owns a 25 percent stake in the country's only cable TV service Foxtel. The company provides pay TV to all of Australia as major metropolitan areas. News Ltd also wants to buy all stock Foxtel only competition that provides satellite services to Australia's vast and sparsely populated rural areas. But the country's competition watchdog agency says the proposed takeover would create a near monopoly over subscription TV. Murdoch is a dominant media player in his native country his company owns nearly three quarters of Australia's newspapers and its only cable news channel. The phone hacking scandal in the UK has sparked growing calls for a review of media ownership regulations. For NPR News I'm Stuart Cohen in Sydney.

From the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic and New England high temperatures and high humidity are making life difficult and in some cases dangerous. Many cities across the region are seeing heat indexes above 100 degrees. Cooling centers are open in several communities and heat advisories have been issued in dozens of states with humidity. Boston's 99 degrees feels like 105 and Washington D.C. is 103 temperature feels like 116. I'm Jim Howard NPR News in Washington. Support for NPR comes from Carnegie Corp. of New York a foundation created to do what Andrew Carnegie called a real and permanent good celebrating 100 years of philanthropy. Good afternoon. I'm Kalee Crossley. This is the Calla Crossley Show. Today we're taking a hyper local look at the week's news with Sue O'Connell co publisher of bay windows in the south and news John Rouche editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette. And Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix Welcome everyone.

Well Peter I'm starting with you because you have this story that a lot of people be talking about for a while and that is Boston trying to shine itself up for the Urban League Convention the bigger openly convention which lands here next week with all kinds of national folks and thousands of other attendees. Well this is a tremendous opportunity as City Hall sees for Boston to shine and most people recognize that. Boston sort of racial profile is a bit schizo oid on the surface where you know the home of the abolitionists. But in fact you know we were also the place during the busing crisis where Ted Leonsis Mark was assaulted with an American flag in front of Boston City Hall where by the way to step aside for Mayor Menino wants to put the statue of Bill Russell dead right. So there was a lot of concern that the Urban League wasn't

maximizing the opportunities to get their convention goers into the city to see to see the neighborhoods and to cross-pollinate in get the neighborhoods in to meet with. The intent is there. Yeah. And this became a big behind the scenes political issue you know not just Mayor Menino But Governor Deval Patrick got actively involved here. And people seem to think that these sort of ready to go I mean have just sort of one maybe off the wall comment. I wonder when conventions come here you know do they really want to get out my neighborhood dog and they want to go the Mortons and have seafood. No matter what it is that intends on who's paying. Well I just wonder I just wonder if we have you know I'm very glad that the city is doing this and that the state has stepped in.

But could this be a little east coast but then ski as a mid-morning. I don't know I mean I think you know how much the residents care about conventioneers I don't know we see them in the duck boat so that's probably enough. I'm never familiar of a convention coming here I mean I never hear about it. I think the last convention I became aware of being here was because I was downtown crossing in a Men's Warehouse you know picking up a jacket or something and there's three guys in there being like oh I lost my luggage you know and I'm here for the seafood marketers convention or something and you know if they had to buy a whole new outfit. That's about the depth of knowledge we you know I mean I had the opportunity of sitting in some of the planning meetings for the minority architects of America meeting convention which I think was two years ago here in Boston and the idea of marketing Boston you know out to the community at large is a definite reality but the other reality Peter was that nobody was making plans to go visit Roxbury or Dorchester or historic areas in the abolitionist March. And Ted Landsberg to your

point last March and March which would be landmark was the president of the Boston architectural. Call it call me what you know that the founders didn't even really understand the significance that he had in this city regarding where we were or where we are where we want to be. So but to your point I mean I don't know. I think interest in the story Peter mentions that there are many minority faces around the area where the convention is and that's because it's basically whoever the convention is you know it depends on the bases there at all. Anyway that's a dead zone this sort of island of itself but I think it's a good af. I mean it all with I think it's a good habit I also think that it reflects an interesting divide within the African-American community. You know that's a quite natural one. In other words that you have the sort of call a DJ educated professional often living in the suburbs executive class African-American class. Represent

who are active in the Urban League and then you have the more grass roots still in the Boston neighborhood. Now this isn't to disparage either group in some ways it's not in some ways it's a very definite sign of richness that the political the activist communities have sort of different. But I don't say this is the fact but I wonder if if that might just reflect a bit of it a bit of a threat but the reality is that if all the attendees get on the bus and go to South Boston Carson beach if people are going to think it's a riot or if they all get in line to go to a nightclub down in the theater district people are going to not let them in because they think they're gangbangers even though they might be 52 year old mares. You know I thought though I mean isn't the real coup here just getting this convention to come here in the first months and you guys yeah you know you still need to be the much bigger hurdle to get over than sort of what people do and how are they saying listen we learn this from the

DNC with the Democratic National Convention when people come to any convention they stay in the hotel. Well OK let me let me add something as a huge convention to go or be today of the year and going to a variety of different kinds of conventions. If I go to a conference that has at its base and ethnic. Foundation. Almost always there some kind of cultural connection community too or talk or whatever. So it's not unusual in fact to be unusual not to have that for the Urban League attendees to come and not have it no matter where the organizers are living. That's just something that's expected to happen. And given that the Urban League's entire mission and focus is jobs in the economy these people want to see what are we talking about again in a community that's got double digits as are many other minority communities have across the country so I think that's important. And that's of course coupled with

Boston's history you know. And let me tell you something I think you know this is coming from a black person. I know every black person I know that comes to Boston for the first time says to me what about. People. Well. This is the way we had it we had a game publishers convention here and there were 15 white gay men sitting at club cafe in Columbus Avenue and they all looked around they said were you black people. Why don't you have any black people and I'm. Of course what he said were all you know he was here at the state house they were in my neighborhood in Jamaica. So it's enjoyable although yes I am a very good teacher it's a where you black people think well it's just an on you boss is an unusual thing. So that's so. So I thought I was going to sting that your piece talked about these behind the scenes negotiations because people are sensitive and you know I did I saw the tongue in cheek made fun of city hall by calling it Boston but the NCAA some you know really is a credit to city hall that the mayor is a natural sensitivity. It's not feign right you know. It's the real thing

and it may come from the fact that heaven forbid the A be an incident. Yeah. And all it takes is a long kid somewhere to prompt an incident. Well I think that's a question too there's sensitivity and then I sense anxiety. Yes I think you know is Boston different you know we're here saying are we going to market how different Boston is is. Is Boston that different I think it's certainly different from the busing era but. Is everything Welsh I mean I think bringing up the Cure lounge incident is you know that yeah right in our backyard something that just happened recently and for those who don't remember this is was a Latin that was is a nightclub downtown law students just to be clear. Larmer and Yale law students who happen to be every other American dangerous scary party there and they plan it weeks in advance and they had a guest list at the door and all of this stuff and it just turned into a whole thing where people online were accused of being gang mates and eventually had

to settle to a settlement because this law students did what they do are learning to do they sue. So you don't want to have that because that's that's that was last year. I mean that's not that's not. Yeah the second part about the divisions of neighborhoods and and Boston. I live in the suburbs and I live in the Greater Boston loop and I'm you know I'm old enough to be surprised and happy when I see minority faces in the Braintree mall and in the Natick Mall and it's always so striking to me how different it is in Boston than it is in in Braintree or in Natick or in Framingham and it's almost like the Boston roots of division are just so and I don't necessarily even mean racism I just mean a vision right you know are just so deeply rooted it I don't know what it will take to change it. I should also mention that the other reason why it is extremely important that they these attendees get out into the neighborhoods and make connections is that at this conference

they're really releasing and highlighting the state of black Boston report. We did a story on it some months ago when James Jennings was just put meant to go putting that together so these attendees are like OK if you're talking about let me go look at it. See what's going on so in a way that's a reason to do it and it should be said that they are going to see a lot of different things and from the 1970s so it'll be interesting Absolutely. All right you are listing the eighty nine point seven WGBH an online at WGBH dot org. I'm Kelly Crossley and we're talking about the stories that went under the radar with Peter Katz of the Boston Phoenix. So O'Connell from the south in news and bay windows and John from the Jamaica Plain because it got to go to you now sue this story about the owner of crude. Yeah it's really it's it's a fascinating story its crew is or was a liquor store mostly a wine store a high end wine store on Washington Street in the south and the way the

story is playing out seems like it's a bit of a plot from Breaking Bad the television show Breaking Bad. Of course everyone in the story is a legend and certainly it's just sort of developing but the owner of crew wine and spirits Bridwell Lee who is the co owner is being held. He was arrested after an action back in June 29 when federal agents came in and closed down the store did an investigation and charged a number of people with drug offenses and well Lee and his sister Bridget were charged with the charge of money laundering. And it's a fascinating investigation. About whether or not this this this crew fine wine and spirits store was was opened with drug money. If it was a front for laundering money the investigation into into broad Brandt's home you know he had some guns but they were all legal he had a lot of ammunition but it was all legal. And the story that comes out from what

people in the community know as is a community someone who's very invested in the south and he certainly hosted and I attended a fundraiser that he held for self and baseball Little League which is huge in the south end and so important and what the prosecutors are painting which is a man who was involved. They allege in money laundering and has been very involved in this drug business. So it's it's a fascinating story and it will just keep developing. Let me just add a couple things from your piece that they found in his residence a money multiple cell phones pills a bulletproof vest nearly 600 rounds of ammunition and 12 guns but as you say he has no criminal record no criminal record and nothing that he owned or that they they saw it was illegal the guns were licensed the ammunition was license the pills remain to they could have been prescription drugs it was nothing really of a distribution or abuse. The bulletproof vest you know I mean all of this is suspicious within this context but again none of it was illegals. The issue was about whether or not

he could be released too which is again the his defense is painting him as a man who's the head of his family. He's the eldest in his family and has many many obligations and would not run out on them and the prosecution saying he had all these guns all his ammunition and appears to be involved in this and should also be noted that crew was a very high tone very high store I mean very highly touted when it opened there as one of the best places right around. And may I add in a sort of opinion aside and you rarely saw anybody in there. You know I mean you know the crew was telling these guys Peter and John in the green room you would wonder how they kept in business I mean if you have if you're in the advertising side of life you know that sometimes people have family money or they're married to family money and they're given a hobby. You know they're here it's an art store for you or here's a clothing store for you. And it was really always kind of like here's. It's a great environment to buy wine but you could also go to the wine pour him over on Columbus and Clare and

Dartmouth and buy the same wine there for a little bit cheaper What is the What's the allure of coming in here and they never advertise very much. So it was always sort of like what's you know. I would I would not have that opinion if something had happened here. Yeah. Now when you look back you're sort of like well what was going on why were you in that location on the Washington Street. You know that's the area that everyone keeps hoping will get more developed. Yeah. You know the Washington Street on the way to Chinatown So it's fascinating and you know obviously in the south and it's heartbreaking if the allegations turn out to be true and this person who was a supporter of the neighborhood and certainly invested in the youth of the neighborhood. God you know we can only hope that they're all wrong and it was just a terrible misunderstanding. OK John and Peter I'll let you comment on the other side of this break but we're right up against it. I'm Kelli Crossley were looking at hyper local news will be back after this break. Stay with us. Support for WGBH comes from you.

And from the New England mobile book fair in Newton presenting a book signing event with Red Sox star Tim Wakefield this Saturday from 12 noon until 1:30. You can find more details online at any book fair dot com. And from masterpiece on WGBH to Detective Aurelio Zen must outwit prosecutors politicians and mobsters alike to get at the truth. Watch Zan on Masterpiece Mystery Sunday night at 9:00 on WGBH too. If the only kind of encounter are the ones that might invade your picnic consider yourself lucky Explorer and biologist Mark Moffett tells us about the army ants which swarm and overwhelm many many times their size their capacity for destruction is immense.

That's why you do not tie up your cattle in Africa. Join us. This afternoon at two point seven. You and your family can enjoy a personal island retreat without leaving New England. Register to win a trip to the beautiful star island retreat center. As featured in Yankee magazine's best viewing. Enjoy a round trip ferry transportation from Portsmouth a three night stay with meals included for four people. Explore the island take a swim or just relax. It's easy to do online at WGBH dot org arts culture and entertainment. We feature in-depth conversations about the latest cultural trends and the 9.7. I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. If you're just tuning in we're looking at news through a hyper local lens. Joining me to talk between the headlines are

Sue O'Connell of bay windows in the south in news John Rouche editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette. And Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. And before we went to break we were talking about your story about the rest or accusations because everything's alleged against this guy John Welty who used to run the now closed crew wine and spirits he's accused of money laundering It's a beautiful place. And John and Peter didn't get a chance to weigh in so John what do you think. Well I think it's interesting every neighborhood has some of these businesses that you wonder if they're empty what's going on with them there was one in Jamaica Plain near where I live for many years it was a clothing store that always had about 10 guys hanging out in it and just a few shirts and stuff and the inventory got smaller and smaller and smaller till there was just there were just three belts hanging on a rack up there. Well the OK well to me yeah. Do you know about it. I feel like I should go in there and try to buy a belt. See what happens and then it ended up getting ready you know the day you

go into the grocery stores that don't have any food but will take your food stamps and they all day. No I don't remember that oh yeah that's what turned out to be a cocaine money laundering etc. etc.. I mean you know what's going on with this guy. I will say one of the things that intrigues me about this is that there's all these allegations of ties to drug dealing drug money and stuff. You know he's certainly running a legal drug business of alcohol and you know I won't go into social policy issues necessarily but you know in 1929 this guy would have been considered a good member of the community legal drug dealing can be beneficial if you know obviously it's getting harder and harder in this electronic world to launder money. I mean you know it really is the idea that you take this illegal money and then you put it through a store so that you can claim taxes on it so you can say that you have money that's how laundering works for those of you who may not know. I didn't know. Yeah. So you know that possibly what happens is they have all this revenue coming in and not enough inventory going out and you know with

the world with paying with your a.m. and receipts and all that it's really a difficult world for the money laundering but you know reading this I had. An idea for all of us in journalism we need to have a box that has the whitey factor. Oh yeah. How many guns does this guy have versus how many guns Whitey had you know the it's no other neutral Goodnow in again as Kelly pointed out this is all just alleged but for it is not unknown for people who might be considered gangsters by law enforcement officials to be good citizens by people I mean heaven knows the years I worked in Providence Rhode Island. All right Raymond patriotic I was on the Hill. You know people he's a good rapper or other. It was you know when some people would say hey what do you want this organized crime. You know I'm going to you know and also not in the story and also alleged But you know we've all been talking about mobsters and we all think of Whitey and we think I should tell you but there are

some allegations that it's the Asian mob that was involved in this and you know so just because you get one person off the books doesn't mean that the organized crime is you know just just working along you know with the crew the criminals that are sensitive to diversity diversity right. OK well see how this ends up I'll be very interested to see what happens there. Anyway over to you John because speaking of money yeah but I don't know about this trend of universities and colleges importing it seems. Yeah corporations onto their property and then making some money off of it. It's amazing so this is the Longwood medical area which we cover with our Mission Hill newspaper and it's where you have Children's Hospital Brigham and Women's Beth Israel Deaconess Harvard Medical School Harvard School of Public Health manto a college. There's all sorts of institutions mash together in about one square mile of Boston. It's

essentially. You can be grandfathered in there a little. It's essentially a gigantic a labyrinth of institutions of all almost literally interconnected with bridges and so on and so forth and somehow they're they're all finding ways to continue expanding. But some of them can't necessarily pay for all of it some of these smaller colleges such as Emanuel College. So what they have started is this trend of what they call the endowment campus which I think as real fraidy and implications as what this means is essentially leasing some of their property to build a giant tower and fill it up with wealthy tenants which are often in medical research labs. Emanuel has done that with Merck the pharmaceutical company that many years ago now they're looking to do it again to fund a dormant a library project. But it's interesting how this is filtering down. You know this is started with some of the larger colleges now it's down to sort of smaller scale colleges

such as Emanuel and now it's going down even farther the Windsor school which is also there in the Longwood medical area is now doing it they're going to build a research tower and this is just a private girls school basically that they're going to be running a research lab. I think there's also some interesting side issues. This gets into of you know when there are kind of in the business of renting medical research lab space is not really their business at all. One thing our coverage is noted is with a manual it's a Catholic school. We have the question of do they have ethical issues religious issues over what kinds of research can be done in there and indeed they do nothing. Abortion related. I'm not sure what the scope of that means exactly. They would really go into detail but you know are there restrictions on stem cell research things like this so. So I think there's going to be issues of academic freedom there's going to be issues. How many more of

these things you can fill. But it's a fascinating strategy that allows you know some smaller schools to do things they couldn't do otherwise. The strategy was born of saying look we don't have a lot of them looking at their assets and saying you know at the time when the stock market was overheated and it was I think it's a very shrewd and smart one where it was let's use our underperforming assets land. And when that lease with Mark is up you know which will be it's a long term lease. They really they've come across a way for you know a relatively affluent you know small woman's Catholic school too. Bolster their finances. I didn't know about the Windsor school which is interesting. I mean I just picture everyone going into this high rise like wearing pleated skirts and stuff but yeah a lot less and invest in what they're

doing is investing in real estate rather than stocks and bonds and by the way that was something that Columbia University to this day has most of its portfolio invested in real estate in the Fenway community health center in the Fenway which is the largest gay and lesbian health center in the country. It's 10 stories high but they rent out floors to residential and to other businesses Well you know it's a lot like the Starbucks opening up at the target. You know you're just sort of monetizing your you or your real estate so that you can make more money I mean some of the big box stores not to get totally off topic but the big box stores that are still surviving but are worried are looking at bringing in more retailers within the store so that they can drive more drive but is there something different about a school. And let's let's go back to John's point about Emanuel College being a Catholic school so let's say whatever the abortion related research is as they see it is ferreted out. So I can imagine a scenario that the scientists they're working on the

HPV vaccine now for those who don't know that's human papillomavirus. That's a sexually related disease. It's epidemic in young people. Now that's not abortion related but and it's a. In fact it leads to cancer which is one of the reasons why this vaccine was developed. And there's also still a lot of controversy about whether or not this drug should be given to young girls as a Manton way of prevention. So what happens there. Yeah I do. You know I think there are there are there are handcuffs put on everybody who moves into a space regardless of who the landlord is. And I'm you know I don't worry so much that Mark is only got one spot where they can go and there are in all sorts of research you know you look at the bio lab in the south and then I look at the problems that are around that because it's in a residential section. So I mean I might be naive about it but I think that there's enough opportunity out there that if they have something they can't do like work on something that's abortion related in any way they can do it somewhere else.

Well that I mentioned the negative thing now the positive would be if this was a these were larger institutions that there may be a way of retaining some of their star scientists star. I don't know psychologist that whatever working on certain kinds of research that these medical research companies are very much interested in. But these are small school so I don't know if they have that kind of personnel that they're trying to retain but that could be a way of also helping in this you know this is a smart I mean the Windsor school although there's a private school for well-off school girls teenagers most women's institutions are relative to previously old man was relatively poor. Whether that be a manual relative to Boston College Law Windsor you know relative to Roxbury Latin School say and I don't know to me it strikes me as a you know a very shrewd investment strategy where these women's institutions rather than looking at the stock market saying hey let's use the land we are on to bolster our. Yeah well I hate that it's sort of like selling the garden name

and stuff right I mean you know what you get you know wanted to monetize. Yeah all right. OK well moving over to you Sue. This was an interesting piece so I had to read it a couple times to realize this is about Northampton City Council passing a resolution in support of the transgender equal rights bill but the same city council passed its own transgender ordinance in 2005 so why are they doing this. Well because the bill that's moving through the State House which is the transgender rights bill which would just guarantee that transgender folk get added to the same laundry list that the rest of us are on women and ethnic minorities and religious and veterans. And there's been a lot of challenge against this bill. The detractors are calling it the bathroom bill and trying to make as much hay as they can about how terrible this is going to be if someone who is a female to male uses the men's room or male to female uses the women's room that you'll have these transgender people among you in the bathrooms. So cities and towns are coming

out supporting and showing their support that a town like North Hampton which is crunchy granola and lesbian feel U.S.A. if you must know I don't know. OK thank you. OK. All right here when you say actual inquiry. OK well OK no more call it's lesbian really OK. That much about it you know that that they've had this ordinance and it's made no difference I mean it's this is the next civil rights effort. And it's very difficult because people have a very hard time harder than I think even understanding that about gays and lesbians that there are people who are born where their brain is one gender and their body is the other. And people who are fearful that a man a man who's become a woman is using the ladies room is there to attack them when this minority is by far the most beaten and the most killed minority and the most harassed by already in the United States and it's it's just another step forward where towns and people are coming

forward to express their support of this bill. The the cover story on the latest issue of The New Republic is about that. Transgender rights is the next of them predicting the next chapter the next wave in the civil rights movement and the challenge around this is that the folks who are adults who are transgender you know they're just they have so many challenges that so many of us can't even even relate to from our own minority standpoints I mean they're just been left by their families the medical profession all sorts of challenges that it's hard for them to speak up for themselves as other minorities have. But the bright light on this is that many parents are finding that their children are transgender and are working to advocate for their children and this may be one of those instances where you know straight couples who for the most part fits the bill of the suburban mom and dad and are saying well their son was born the wrong gender and they're fighting for those rights. It's a tiny

tiny tiny minority but such an important issue. John you want to weigh in John. Yeah well yeah it is interesting to see this level of support I think. You know it hasn't been and this quickly I want to say it's not you know it's never quick enough I guess. But in the grand scheme of things it's happening pretty quickly. To be accepted certainly by Boston City Council is a huge step. You know but at the same time I think that part of the dialogue of gay and lesbian civil rights has made this difficult I think because it's been a binary discussion still now we have straight gay alliance and so on is a but it remains binary and I think I think that's been part of the secret success is it still keeps the polls whereas transgender people bisexual people you know both gender and orientation if you fall between the cracks which frankly I think most people do if we're honest you know nobody's extremely with very few people are

extremely one thing or another. I think you know that's that's much tougher and it's a much tougher dialogue to to have it. The bathroom argument. You know it's a nasty one. But I can understand it. We have men in women's bathrooms right. We bake in very polar Why do we do that. You know in the challenge do within the gay community has been one of acceptance of the trans community that's been a longstanding effort and I think only now the younger generation of gays and lesbians understand that much of the discrimination that we feel is based on our gender expression. You know if you're a straight passing lesbian old style lipstick lesbian you're going to get a lot less harassment than an old style butch lesbian and that's about gender expression it's not about actually your sexual orientation. And this generation gets it in a way that my generation didn't and I think that that's that's parting part of helping the transgender effort move more quickly than prior efforts.

OK. Making a turn to a totally different turn to John. Fascinating story in the Jamaica Plain as that about the Boston police academy graduates first class to be trained on bicycles. Talk about moving into a 21st century generation. Yeah I think they should have been a better story they oddly didn't want to talk about this or I think they didn't know how to talk about this. Because this came this came upon them in the form of a woman leaving the money leaving the police department money in her will. And we're still not sure why but she left a very large amount of money that has been dedicated to training this year's class of police cadets about 65 cadets in bicycle patrols and they bought them all bicycles and these which came from a Jamaica Plain shop so that's that was my angle that so I went to the shop and saw 65 police bikes crammed in there and they looked like cop cars except their bikes so they're black and they have lights on the back and they you know they're not armor plated but they are police bikes. But I think the training is the

more important part of it so all of the cadets will be trained or have been trained in you know in how to drive and how to relate with the community because this puts you on the street as actually it's a community policing effort probably more than anything which is very important these days. Very important. And what it will allow them to do this used to be specialized training. Now they all have it. They will all rotate through bicycle patrols as part of their training and it's it's it's becoming a mainstream part of Boston policing now. Essentially you know listen this is a JP rest of them. I think it's great. We have seen police. It's terrific. Right. You know one of my highlights of 1993 was seeing a bicycle officer bring down a biker and arrest him. And it was it was great fun to watch equal to a lot of life. Bicyclist or motorcyclists are a cyclist. We're leaving it there right. Or this week we've been talking local news with Sue O'Connell co-publisher of bay windows in the south in news John Roche editor of the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Peter Katz is executive editor of The Boston Phoenix. Thanks for joining me today. Thanks so much.

Coming up we're taking a turn from the serious to the sublimely ridiculous with a tour of this week's tabloids. We'll be back after this break stay tuned to eighty nine point seven. The. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Ellis insurance offering personal and business insurance plus financial planning and their online insurance tune up identifying timely and relevant Risk Management Solutions. Exceptional service intelligent

insurance Ellice insurance dot com and from Orchard cove the independent senior community in Canton 12 miles from Boston is making exciting changes that will inspire residents to engage explore and live a healthier life. Special savings for new depositors at Orchard Gold live dot org. Next time on the new legislation limiting free speech in Israel has inspired protests if. The bill was voted down but not without public outcry against right wing politicians the Israeli left hopes public opinion will swing back its way polarized politics in Israel next time in the world. Coming up at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven WGBH. Can you put a value on public broadcasting soldier David Nash can. I

was in a Frontline documentary called The World Building frontline and The Invisible War. Before our. First talk to frontline people I was last right after the broadcast. The V.A. called me and they're like hey we'd like to start the process of getting you your health benefits back because of that we GBH in front on Seymour. When you download the free WGBH i-Pad app on iTunes. I'm Brooke Gladstone co-host of NPR's ON THE MEDIA. Each week join Bob Garfield and me as we take a closer look at how the media sausage is made. That's on the media Sundays at 3:00 here on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. It's rag time. A view of the week's pop culture happenings. It's an examination of the salacious the ridiculous and everything in between. But 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 Dr. Michael Rodriguez. Rachel Rubin is the chair of the department of American studies at UMass Boston. And Dr. Michael Rodriguez is a full time lecturer in the C.S. writing program at Boston University. Welcome. Thank you very much as well here. I'm glad to have you both as we have so much to talk about and I think we want to start off in a very patriotic way. Captain America is coming out right. Listen Dunkin Donuts would let me know that if I didn't know anything else. I see the right the special right there. So before we jump in on it here's a trailer to the new movie This is Captain America The First Avenger. Our goal is to create a new breed. Of super soldier. He wrote a 90 pound asthmatic on the mile army base I let it slide. I am looking for qualities that on the physical. Wars. You still give me.

Whatever happens to you all. Not. Just the same. With. Me. OK Dr. Rodriguez you know I'm just not a big comic book person I write and I'm good I'm going to get the bad e-mail. So this is like OK why is that different from Transformers or anything else I guess that's a comic book too. But why this why Captain America now. I think our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is a good place to start and it's actually got interesting history the coming and going back to 1941 which is when the United States entered World War Two and it was originally conceived to be a patriotic character that would ratchet up American patriotism against the Axis powers during that time. And I can't help but wonder if there's a connection given our current presence in the Middle East. You know how much they were influenced by that concept that idea. And I was just reading online at Comic-Con this extraordinary conference going on in San Diego that there were some cheerleaders who had red white and blue.

Really somebody who was was asking whether or not that was an ethical thing to do to use patriotism for commercial purposes. I think we I think your goal is to see the barn Rachel. What do you think. Well Michael's absolutely right about that the history of Captain America. But you know after World War 2 the comic book continued and during the Cold War era or era is many became so i was so anti-communist you know not just at the Soviet but sort of red baiting of Americans that people started to accuse its creators scantily of being a crypto fascist wow you know it just was not interesting considering that it began at this sort of World War Two figure and so it will be you know interesting to see the other and that part of him is still alive or how much the you know ramping down or up it. I agree that we do need to think about our historical moment and say well why do we need this now. That's always the best question to ask. But on a more commercial level he

said she raised it. You know that clearly it's Bush but the war came out recently you know they're setting up for the big Avengers movie by introducing all the characters who became members of the you know. Is that yours. One last question Michael. We have real heroes from Afghanistan and Iraq so how is Captain America going to do for me that I can't. I could see it in the real heroes. Well I would hope that it would make this country appreciate its real life heroes if you will in a way that we haven't which is one of the big ironies I guess of of all of these all of these wars that we've gotten ourselves into is that we have lost touch with the hundreds and thousands of men and women on a daily basis who do extraordinary things and are forgotten or not paid attention to because we are so sort of obsessed and you know just sort of interested in the salacious and and all of the

reality TV shows that take our attention away from the issues that really matter. All right well from the sublime to the ridiculous as we say here the new fad is owling. You pretend to be an owl and sit in various locations and people take pictures of you. I just tried it. And so there's a picture of me online because I wanted to see you know I should experience this. It's rather. Really you just killed it. Why. I'm sorry but you know this this this this habit is over you know once I made it actually it's not you. You're part of it you know I looked and I saw photographs of the AOL News Team howling around their studio and I thought OK that's it. So I saw that. So you think it's done to Michael I don't know this I guess it's a new incarnation of what was called planking. Yes and this is something that has a surreal element to it and you know you wonder how how seriously we should take it but I don't know I maybe it's you know it's a new fad that's catching on and.

I don't get it but I write I try and I just like I said well I'm the president did I want to be limited to someone who had not I don't think I don't think we're supposed to get it. Exactly. OK I got you. But I'd like an actual you know 22 year old. What's up with that. Ricky Gervais's comedian well known for poking fun at everything that's just coming out with a comedy about atheism and I think he's if there's anybody who can do it I guess he's the guy. So here's Ricky Gervais's back in 2009 describing how he came to atheism. Bob was by my brother musta been 19. He came in once and I was doing some work from the Bible and I said why didn't you go join Jesus and then when he. Was Jesus I said well he was it was a Son of God he went Why do you believe in God. I my mom went Bob. And I knew she had some of the hides and I worked out when I was my theist in Iowa. I

wish that wasn't on. I wish there was a big right. Well I've heard he's brilliant you know. But also if there is a God why you might be and I think yes. All right Michael would you watch it. I would I would I'm impressed with Ricky Gervais's and I He certainly likes to shock his gold and gold Globes appearance I guess is a good example of that. But you know if it gets people thinking about and talking about and having a serious conversation a debate about religious topics I think it's a it's a great thing. That would be a cultural boon. Rachel Yeah I'm just. Fascinated again about your spanking Michael because you know you say he likes to shock which he does and why is it so shocking to talk about atheism. Right because it is and you know when I when I've spoken with people about this you know this show when the possibility of the show. People have been using the language of coming out to talk about you know publicly being an atheist that in time you

know I'm human even though and this was also quite a quite a shocking thing when it did in his inauguration President Obama included nonbelievers you know in his list of different groups of people who make up you know make up the United States. So you know he's like one of the very very few people who are big in the entertainment world who you know is always saying that he's an atheist. Now that said the show has somewhat of a built in contradiction because it's about an 8. I think it was to have to try and get a challenge about you know some of that stuff and write yeah you know if you feel like there's hope for a lot of well it'll certainly have a satirical undertone. If you know they want to write. That's right. I just know that I'm for people who never if you if you watched xtra show that Ricky Gervais's was on on HBO one of the best episodes was when he pretended to be an evangelical to date a beautiful woman and he get out it at a meeting you know I think it's really pretty funny.

All right. Great great like. Exactly. Speaking of shows that are different. One by Ryan Seacrest the host of American Idol most people know him but he's really a media mogul in many ways and is now proposing a show called Shahs of Sunset which will focus on the Persian American community in Los Angeles. What do you think Michael. I'm actually absolutely fascinated by this topic and in fact I e-mailed one of my old students who's Persian about this very story and wanted to get her perspective she has many family members in L.A. And apparently there is an enormous Persian American community you know at Los Angeles that is very wealthy and is involved in many. Wonderful business pursuits and in the medical fields and things like that. But they were focusing on that. But I don't think so I don't know and I can't say for sure but my my my guess is that they would focus on the negative aspects of that

particular stereotypical culture. And she actually had this student idea mentioned 9 0 2 1 0 which apparently the new series has a Persian character on the show. His father is very wealthy but gets his money through pornography. So he has many sort of he this character has has some negative attributes but it's also she was saying has some positive attributes is what she was hoping that this new show would highlight the positive attributes of the culture rather than the negative ones. So I fear that it would fall into that trap of Oriental is of a baking sort of a stereotypical this group of stereotypical other that Americans don't need right now given how suspect we are in ours you know phobia of other outside cultures and specifically about Iran and that our rights. I mean that's really very interesting you just want to ever use a Persian. Yes Iran. Exactly right so you know which I think not many Americans would know.

No they don't. Yeah you're right about that. Sort of an important point to underscore itself right. Right so you know what will that mean for those of us watching and you're actually right we have this tradition of I mean even more directly I would say we have a tradition of you know first of all crow like creating something you know good brown people you know as opposed to the bad brown people. But we also have this tradition of you know the image of the rich arab sort of taking over precious American Exactly and I went back to read Alan kino and the sheik but I'm thinking Cali with particular pain of Sex And The City too. Yeah. Which right. Talked about that like that which I watched the last movie are as they say right now you have to sort of similar focus like on the wealth and the glitter and the ultimate untrustworthiness actually of what I fear will come out of this. I do too and given the other kinds of reality TV shows that we have I can imagine although I again I would hate to predict because I don't know for sure but I imagine that it would it would follow a less than laudable Avenue.

There are 800000 Persian Americans in L.A. and the article from Huffington Post says the show is likely to focus on their preoccupation with status symbol so I think we're headed in that direction. You're in for some right finally I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE this new TPSAC I'm going to get this one. Here's a sample of the Darth Vader Jeep Yes right. Let's go. Impressive most impressive light speed is not permitted in this system. After 200 yards turn right the left the dockside for recall destination. The force is with you. But you are not a good guy yet. LOVE IT MICHAEL love it I love it too I gotta tell you I'm a little skeptical because when I'm using my GP which I do faithfully I'm really just trying to make the right turn and I really don't want to be entertained at those times but it is it does sound like a lot of fun. What do you do with us.

Would you go that may tell you how it matches I'd be shouting matches with the GPL. You know she scolds you if you go above the speed limit which I never do. But anyway it's interesting. It's hard to find a game to play just think about who you would like to have direct action from I don't know if you remember but there were rumors a year or two ago that that they were going to make up a CPS with Dylan hitting you with Bob Dylan get directions that seemed like a very poor idea and then I thought OK what about Bugs Bunny because he will give you the wrong directions. It's funny he will say as he often did turn left at Albuquerque said I got all excited I think it's hilarious I think it's funny and then up you know the cynical part of me caught up and said wow you know just you know always new frontiers of cross marketing and that sort of you know put a tiny little bit of a damper on it for me but you know. Well there you go and I wouldn't I think I'll hold out for my Yoda. Yeah ok yeah that you know you don't know do you notice them and I think that's going to get you some wisdom when I'm driving if I may take a page from your book. I would say that this is people looking for a little authority at a time of uncertainty out there. I look at it. Great way to look at it. You know me I'm hurting on the complaint KELLY

Right. There you go very well we got to go. People never say that me that like Rachel we got to go. That wraps up another edition of ragtime. A review of this week's pop culture knows Professor Rachel Rubin thank you Dr. Michael Rodriguez thank you for joining us. My pleasure thank you. MARTIN keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter or become a fan of the Kalak Rossley show on Facebook. Today Show was interviewed by Jane pipit produced by Chelsea hers will Rose live and Abbey Ruzicka hour in turn is Sara Ward Kelly Crossley Show is a production of WGBH radio.