Local Mayor Urges Gun Reform, First Confirmed Measles Case, Summer Music Series

Speaker 1: 00:00 In the light of recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton, more than 200 members of the United Conference of mayors have written a letter to u s Senate leaders urging action on gun safety legislation. Many of the mayors who've signed onto the request are from California, including the mayors of Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco. However, the only city leader in San Diego County to sign the petition is to La Vista. Mayor Mary Salus, who joins me now. And Mayor Salus welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:29 Thank you so much. Speaker 1: 00:31 This letter is addressed to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. What kind of action are you in the other mayors hoping for? Speaker 2: 00:41 Well, we want to make sure that they understand that the American public is demanding that legislation that is already passed the house be taken to the Senate and action taken on it. And um, so we really believe firmly that it's the will of the people that we tighten up our, our gun control laws while protecting the second amendment rights, but that we have comprehensive and common sense gun control laws. We've seen too much slaughter in the United States. Speaker 1: 01:12 What legislation do you want them to take up Speaker 2: 01:15 in particularly we want h, r, h, h, h, r eight, which is the bipartisan background checked active 2019, as well as HR 1112. That uh, enhanced background checks act of 2019. Speaker 1: 01:30 Those two pieces of legislation have already passed in the house and I'm wondering what kind of background checks do these bills require? Speaker 2: 01:40 Well, we want to make sure that the background checks are really thorough and that they're not just cosmetic type of, of uh, action or that they're, they're, uh, just pandering to, uh, the minimum. I think that's really important that we have thorough background checks that undergo an ics background check. Speaker 1: 02:00 Do you think either of these bills actually goes far enough? Speaker 2: 02:04 No, actually in the city of Chula Vista, what I'm going to be asking my council to do is actually pass a resolution that goes further in particularly, we want to make sure that there's, uh, the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban and also that the passing a national extreme risk law and often referred to as a red flag law. And I think that that's extremely important as well. Speaker 1: 02:31 You know, California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. What do you think this house legislation, if it were passed by the Senate, what could it do for us here in California? Speaker 2: 02:42 Well, I think that here in California reacting to the will of the people. The legislature is enacted, um, further measures and uh, you know, I can point to one example is the requirement of background checks. Now when people buy ammunition and the report that many felons have been, um, actually apprehended because of these background checks that shouldn't be allowed to have ammunition nor guns. So I'm really proud of the state of California for their progressive and proactive action. And I'm also proud of the city of Chula Vista that also supports that. Speaker 1: 03:18 Do you think stricter national gun safety laws would make us safer here in California? Speaker 2: 03:25 It's not about making a safer here in California, it's about implementing the national policies and laws that are uniform throughout the country that will make it a lot more difficult for these masters shootings to occur. Mass shootings. And by the way, suicides as well. Speaker 1: 03:42 Now you're the only San Diego County mayor to sign onto this letter. Why did you decide to, Speaker 2: 03:48 well, first of all, I am a member of the conference of mayors and second of all is that I, I just am really sick and by the continuing slaughter of innocent people in the United States of America. And I think that we have the ability to pass laws that will promote more safety within our community and also the safety of our law enforcement people as well. You know, sometimes the weapons that are being directed at our law enforcement personnel is a lot more, um, a lot more deadly than the, the firearms that they have. Speaker 1: 04:24 You talked about the kinds of legislation that you want to see Chulavista pass when it comes to gun regulation? Speaker 2: 04:30 Actually Chil Avista can't pass gun regulations. However, we do want to make sure that we, uh, put in our voice in support of, um, stronger gun gun control laws in the United States. Speaker 1: 04:43 Well, uh, the San Diego City Council recently voted to require gun owners to store guns in lockboxes sort of regulations like that. Is that something you would support for two of the Vista? Speaker 2: 04:54 I would definitely. Speaker 1: 04:56 And what other kinds of measures like that that the city might be able to enact, would you be in favor of? Speaker 2: 05:02 Well, I'm not sure. You know, I'd have to talk to the chief of police to make sure that whatever we're going to propose is, it makes sense and is enforceable. Yeah. Speaker 1: 05:10 Given the gridlock in Washington, do you think this letter that you signed from the United Conference of mayors could make a difference? Speaker 2: 05:18 I think so. And the reason that I think so is that we're hearing from the public that the public is demanding this. And I think that, you know, that the, um, the Senate and the Congress, they can only remain tone deaf for so long. I think that, you know, this last round of mass shootings and where you saw the public just, um, spontaneously shouting, do something, do something. And that's exactly what we're hearing from, you know, our community here in Chula Vista. Do something, take a stand. We can't let this go on any further. Speaker 1: 05:53 I've been speaking with Chula Vista, Mayor Mary Salus, Mayor Salus. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: 05:58 Okay, thank you. And my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people that have been affected by this. And my heart also goes out to the mayor of El Paso, but for all community members that have been affected by this Speaker 3: 06:13 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 Land and water resources across the planet are being exploited as never before. That dire pressure combined with climate change threatens the ability of humans to feed themselves. This frightening conclusion is from a United Nations report by more than 100 experts from 52 countries released today, it warns a half billion people are already living in places turning into deserts and mass migration already seen in North America, Europe and other places will only be exacerbated as part of coverage from the KPBS climate change desk. Reporter Christopher Flavio, who covers climate adaptation for the New York Times joins me now. Welcome to midday edition as have me on, well, what does this new UN report have to say about the factors driving a looming food shortage? Sure. Speaker 2: 00:47 The point of the report is to, is to go through and summarize existing research showing the variety of threats facing our foods, apply it that includes lower crop yields, lower nutritional contents, disruptions, and food supply. The problem with climate change as it pertains to agriculture is you've got all this barrage of events hitting at unpredictable times and having sort of a cumulative effect. And that effect is to make it harder and harder to grow enough food in the right places, in the right way, at the right time to feed a growing population. Speaker 1: 01:25 And how has that already playing out politically as we're seeing here on our southern border with hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly from Central America. Speaker 2: 01:33 So I spoke with some of the authors of the report and one of the questions I asked was, what's the message here for people in developed countries, the US, Europe, Canada, et Cetera, because you've got enough money, enough wealth in those countries that people will certainly experience the effects of higher prices, but it shouldn't necessarily lead to food shortages, at least not in the near term. So I said, what, in what way might those people in wealthy countries feel these effects? And the message I got from the authors was they might not feel it economically when they buy a food, but they will notice when the number people trying to leave their homes and enter those countries goes up because whether it's Latin America or Africa or parts of Asia, these, these pressure points will hit poor areas first. And when they do, the result will probably be people trying to leave those areas that they can't produce enough food in and go somewhere that isn't as bad off. Uh, and so the probably the way you'll feel this in richer countries won't be through the food market and food prices right away, but we probably need more, more migration and more attempts by people in poor areas struggling through these problems to live somewhere else. Speaker 1: 02:45 And how does the report specifically say that climate change is going to accelerate the danger of severe food shortages? Speaker 2: 02:51 So again, it's a, it's a variety of things. I think that you can divide this into acute and chronic problems. Acute problems would be flash floods, droughts, heat waves, storms, things that happen suddenly and can either destroy a farmer's yield. In an area or make that make farming harder all of a sudden. And then you get chronic events, higher temperatures over time, higher CO2 levels, more pasts. And the result is overtime. Even if farmers can figure out ways to deal with those sudden shocks, higher temperatures generally mean, uh, it's more of a struggle to produce the same kinds of crops and higher CO2 levels generally mean lower nutritional levels. So even the food you do produce isn't as healthy and as nourishing. So really it's a, it's the report paints a picture of an industry under attack from different directions at the same time. Speaker 1: 03:46 Now the report states that already 10% of the world's population is undernourished. Explain the risk that researchers warn of regarding food crises that could develop on several continents at once. Speaker 2: 03:57 Yeah. One of the themes I heard was it's the unpredictable nature of these threats, not just that you know, that the food supply we threatened, it's that you can't really guess in any given year when or where those threats might happen. And you could certainly have situation where you have food supplies in one area knocked out, but it's not just that area. For example, droughts in the u s like this year, but you could also have some other sort of catastrophe hitting productive areas elsewhere in the world and the result would be a situation that is perhaps manageable at a global level. If it's located in just one part of the world. If it spreads through a lot of events happening at the same time, it's much harder for the supply chain to keep up and to people who don't live in those areas might still feel the effects because they had a harder time buying the food they want. Speaker 1: 04:46 Now dire is, it is the report does offer hope, explain some of the main things needed according to the authors to address the looming food crisis. Speaker 2: 04:54 It's important with a report whose, whose headline findings are so dire to stress. The fact that the authors really seemed keen on getting across this idea that it's not too late. There's still steps that we can take as a society to try and shield ourselves in these effects. And even change direction a little bit. Those include making farm lands more productive. They include wasting less food. The number using the report is that at least one quarter of all food produced is wasted. They include changing diets. Um, the point was made to me that the amount of land required to produce a kilogram of say beef is multiples more than the land required to produce a kilogram of grains or vegetables. So they say any of these changes can make a big impact in terms of protecting us from food shortages. And also at the same time reduce emissions, which will make global warming less of a pressing threat. It might not be enough by itself to change direction, but it can help. But the point they made is that the window for those things closing and as temperatures rise, it won't, it'll get harder and harder to use those changes to make a meaningful difference. So if we want to prevent some sort of really painful shift in the food supply, we have to do it soon. Speaker 1: 06:11 Now, Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Cory booker have put forth plans to address major shortcomings within American agriculture. Some of the things you're talking about here, you expect this to be a major issue in the 2020 campaign? Speaker 2: 06:23 I'd be a fool to make predictions. The one thing that is clear from my reporting is climate change is sort of a steady flood of bad news. And the one thing that may be different about this report is I think people can easily conceptualize what it means if they can't buy the food they want, one they wanted. And so the, I think the nature of this threat, unlike sort of more distant climate threats like sea level rise or gradual increase in temperature is you don't have to struggle to think of what it might mean to you and how unpleasant it would be. So you could imagine a world where the fact that this information is getting out there and the UN is making these warnings about food in particular might sort of motivate people to take this more seriously. But that, you know, that prediction has been made before about people becoming more concerned about climate change. Uh, and it's, it's hard to tell whether any one thing will change minds. Uh, but certainly the warnings and this are quite dire, um, and not hard to understand why they'd be so problematic. Speaker 1: 07:25 I've been speaking with reporter Christopher [inaudible] of the New York Times. Thanks for joining us. Speaker 2: 07:29 Thank you so much. Speaker 3: 07:32 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 County health officials are not wasting any time in their response to the first reported case of measles in San Diego this year. An 11 month old child was diagnosed with a highly contagious disease. Early this week. Officials believe the child may have been infected during a family trip to the Philippines where there's been an outbreak of the disease. The county has not released information about the condition of the infant health officials are now working to track down those exposed to the sick child to avert the kind of outbreak seen in several areas of the u s this year. Joining me by Skype is Dr. Mark Sawyer and infectious disease specialist and professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego and Dr. Sorry, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:41 Thanks. It's great to join you. Speaker 1: 00:43 There really have been significant measles outbreaks in the country this year. Is that largely in New York? Speaker 2: 00:50 The biggest outbreak has been in New York, but across the country we have had more than 1000 cases of measles this year, which is many more than we've seen in the last 20 years. So we're really starting to become afraid that we've got a growing problem of pockets of our population that are susceptible to measles and once it gets into a community, it really spreads quickly. Speaker 1: 01:13 Can you remind us how contagious measles is? Speaker 2: 01:17 Oh, measles is perhaps the most contagious of all infectious diseases in a household. If one child gets measles, it's almost guaranteed that every other susceptible child will also get the measles Speaker 1: 01:29 and it's an airborne illness, isn't it? Speaker 2: 01:32 Yes. It literally spread through the air. So if you, if you don't have to have direct contact with someone to become infected. In fact, if someone was in a, an exam room, for example, in a medical setting with measles and had already left the room, if you went into that room for a period of one to two hours, you could still get the measles simply by breathing the air in that room. Speaker 1: 01:56 What are the symptoms of measles? Speaker 2: 01:59 The most typical symptoms are fever and rash, and the rash is characteristic in that it starts on the face usually and moves down the body. It lasts a period of five to seven days total. Most children are pretty irritable when they get the measles because they don't feel well and have high fever. Speaker 1: 02:16 And how soon after exposured can symptoms appear? Speaker 2: 02:21 The standard incubation period is a 10 to 21 days. So if you want to keep one number in mind, it's basically two weeks after the exposure is when you would expect to see disease if it's going to happen. Speaker 1: 02:34 How dangerous is the disease? Speaker 2: 02:37 Well that's the thing people forget about. Since we haven't seen much measles, the community is sort of been lulled into complacency and thinking that it's not a serious disease. But when we had widespread measles, uh, around one or two children per thousand who got measles actually died from the measles and several more and were put in hospital with either pneumonia or a brain infection and encephalitis that measles can cause. So it's a serious infection that you really want to avoid Speaker 1: 03:08 considering how contagious this diseases, Dr Soria, the baby who was admitted to Kaiser Hospital earlier this week, what measures does a hospital have to take one of measles patient shows up? Speaker 2: 03:20 Yes. Hospitals are especially equipped with rooms that contain the airflow so that the an airborne infection like measles cannot spread inside of the hospital. The other thing that all health providers are being alerted to do by the county is to screen people to try to intercept them before they come into a waiting room or a group setting when they made have the measles. So anybody with fever and rash, particularly if they've traveled internationally and may have been an increased risk of exposure, then we need to worry that they might have the measles and, and isolate them until we figure it out. Speaker 1: 03:58 And what's the significance of this baby's age? 11 months in terms of being vaccinated? Speaker 2: 04:05 Well, yeah, that's the trouble. We don't start giving measles vaccine until 12 months of age. It's not as effective in younger children. So the standards age for getting backs in Adrian is 12 to 15 months of age. So this baby was too young to get immunized. And this is exactly the group that we worry the most about when there's an outbreak of measles, because we can't really protect infants under a year of age in any way except to keep everybody around them immunized so they don't get the measles and bring it home to the babies. Speaker 1: 04:38 And if you have been vaccinated for measles eye, which I believe most people have, does that give you complete immunity? Speaker 2: 04:46 The vaccine is very, very effective. It's one of our best vaccines, but you really need two doses, or at least children need two doses to be fully protected. So that is the recommendation. And if people are concerned about possible exposure or, or if we start to see more cases in San Diego, they should just make sure that everybody has had two doses of the measles vaccine. Speaker 1: 05:08 An older adults can check by having a, what's called a tighter, Speaker 2: 05:13 the other is a titer is a blood test that can detect prior immunity to measles. And that can be done, uh, in, I think anyone who's wondering if they're at risk, who just consult with their physician. Sometimes it's simpler just to go ahead and get another dose of the vaccine if you're unsure. But it is certainly possible to test somebody's blood to see if there are immune already. Speaker 1: 05:36 When will San Diego County know that it's out of the woods as far as an outbreak goes? Speaker 2: 05:41 Well, the maximum incubation period is three weeks after measles. So if we don't see any more cases after three weeks from now, then I think we've dodged the bullet. But it's inevitable that more cases will show up in San Diego as well as you started with, there's outbreak ongoing in New York, and there are international outbreaks in many countries, and people travel, especially in the summer. So if you come, go to a country where measles is spreading and you're not protected, you may bring it back unexpectedly and then develop it here in San Diego. I've been speaking with Dr. Mark Sawyer and infectious disease specialist and professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego. Dr. Sawyer. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3: 06:27 [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 00:00 There are lots of stories of people in prison for murders. They say they didn't commit, but one of the core degrees, the person didn't take part in the killing, but sentences him for murder. Anyway, that was the reality for California prisoners under the felony murder rule. A new law this year was supposed to change that, but KPBS investigative reporter Claire Traeger, Sir says that change is on hold. Speaker 2: 00:24 Hi. Uh, I was some other kids in my neighborhood, but I thought they were going to burglarize at home. Speaker 1: 00:30 This is Sean Khalifa describing the biggest mistake of his life. Speaker 2: 00:35 I thought maybe I could go steal something from the house. Speaker 1: 00:38 It was January, 2004 and Sean was just a few days past his 15th birthday. He and a friend acted as lookouts while the other two boys went into the house according to court documents Speaker 2: 00:51 and a few seconds later the door opens and the 18 year old kid, one Pena. He grabs me by the shirt and pulls me in the house and he's yelling. He's like, is this what you wanted to see? Is this what she wanted to see? [inaudible]. I look over to where he's pointing and Mr Levin is is dead on his living room floor. Speaker 1: 01:09 The two boys had savagely tortured and beat 77 year old Hubert love to death. According to court documents, Khalifa swears he had no idea his friends could commit such heinous acts. However, he also takes responsibility for getting into that situation. Looking back, Khalifa admits he was a thief and ran with a bad crowd Speaker 2: 01:33 for me to be comfortable with the point of leaving Mr. Love on his floor. Clearly something was wrong with me and I had a criminal way of thinking. Speaker 1: 01:41 Khalifa was convicted of first degree murder even though he had no prior knowledge of the killings and wasn't in the house when they were committed. He was sentenced to 25 years to life and spent three years in juvenile hall. Then was transferred to Donovan State Prison in San Diego. He is serving the sentence because of California's felony murder rule, which allows a defendant to be charged with murder for a killing that happened during a dangerous felony. Even if the defendant is not the killer one participant goes off arc. These are her out and kill her buddy. All participants are equally liable for first degree murder. Kate Chatfield is an adviser at the Criminal Justice Advocacy Organization, the justice collaborative. She says, a new California law limited the rule. It says people can't be convicted of murder unless they were the actual killer. Helped the killer or quote acted with reckless indifference to human life. Speaker 1: 02:42 For example, someone who participates in a robbery where a clerk is killed and let's say that young man takes out his gun and shoots it a bunch of times or waves it around, fires it off, and you know Mrs the clerk, the new law says people sentenced under the felony murder rule can apply for re-sentencing as you towards 37 is not just a get out of jail free card. For people who are in prison, they have to petition the Superior Court. Chatfield says there isn't a good tracking system, but she estimates up to 800 people in California could be eligible for reduced sentences under the law, but the law has powerful opponents who are challenging it in court, essentially allows people to get away with murder and the more sophisticated they are of a killer, the more they're going to get away with murder. San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan is one of several California das contesting the law in court. Speaker 1: 03:42 If they all wear masks and you can determine who shot the gun, then all three or four or two will get away with murder, but this doesn't describe what Khalifa did. He helped a robbery that turned into a murder. Stephan says there are other ways people like him can get reduced sentences when they could petition for re sentencing if they truly had a lesser role. But Khalifa has asked the Riverside courts for a lesser sentence multiple times and has been denied. Tomorrow we'll talk about what it has been like to grow from a boy into a man while behind bars. Joining me is KPBS investigative reporter Claire Traeger, Sir and Claire, welcome. Thank you. Why was the old felony murder law changed by the state legislature? Well, it's part of a broader push toward criminal justice reform that's going on at a nationwide level and in the state. Speaker 1: 04:42 Um, and I think legislators were just looking for laws on the books that they feel key people in prison unjustly or maybe for too long. And so this law was proposed by Nancy Skinner, who is a Democrat from Berkeley, and she says it's unfair to have people like Sean Khalifa who are maybe serving life sentences, are very long sentences for murders, that they didn't participate in the killing and Skinner stress that the law doesn't apply to people who are accessories to murder. She says if people helped in the killing in any way, then this new law doesn't apply to them and they can't get lesser sentences. You were telling the story of a young man who was caught up under the old law. Did Sean have no defense back then by saying he just waited outside when the murder was committed? Well, he did. I think there's a few things to keep in mind. Speaker 1: 05:32 One is that he was 15 years old and he was interviewed without a parent or without a lawyer. And the other part is that under the felony murder rule, it actually didn't matter that he was outside because he was part of this violent felony, the home invasion and someone was killed. That's really all you need to then be charged with felony murder. So his admission that he was there was pretty much enough for that. And I should also note that he did not agree to testify against that. The other teenagers who were involved and the other boy who was with him did, and he got a much lesser sentence. Okay. So for someone to qualify for recent and saying, now that the law has changed, what do they have to show? So they petition their local court system for resentencing and then there's what amounts to basically a new trial where both sides can present evidence, even new evidence that wasn't in the original trial. Speaker 1: 06:28 And prosecutors provide their version of what happened. And then they have the chance to argue that maybe the defendant was more involved in the murder. So, so the new law wouldn't apply to them. And I believe the way the law is written is that the burden is on the prosecutors to prove that and who makes the final decision. So then the court makes the final decision about whether the law change applies to the person and they can get a reduced sentence. Now Apparently San Diego County da Summer Stephan doesn't like this new law, SB 1437 what does she say is the advantage to society of convicting people of first degree murder who didn't kill anybody? Yeah, so she really focused her argument against the, the new law on what she says is this loophole that it creates. Basically she says if there's a group of people there and one person is killed and you can't tell who did the killing, the new law means that they won't be able to convict anyone of murder. Speaker 1: 07:26 And she has this example of a group of people who are all wearing masks and eye witnesses can't tell who actually fired the gun or did the killing. But I should point out that Nancy Skinner, the lawmaker who wrote the law says, if your only evidence is one person's eye witness testimony, that's not a very strong case to begin with. Um, and then in cases like Shawn Khalifa's summer stuff and says that there are other ways for people like him to get reduced sentences. Is Her office challenging this new law in any way? Yes. So they are saying the new law violates the state constitution, violates a California's mandatory minimum sentencing law. And so they have filed seven petitions with the Fourth District Court of Appeals and the court took two of those cases and is expected to hold oral arguments on them in the coming months. Now today's report is the first of two focusing on the change and the felony murder law and the story of Shawn Khalifa. Speaker 1: 08:23 Give us a preview of tomorrow's report. Okay, so tomorrow I'll talk more about the broader changes to criminal justice reform and how this law fits in. And we'll also hear more from Sean Khalifa and his family about what it's been like to ride. Basically this roller coaster of ups and downs as they hope that he will be released. Um, and we'll also talk to a scientist about human brain development and the differences in juvenile brains and how their decision making is, is very different from adult decision-making. I'd been speaking with KPBS investigative reporter, Claire Targus or Claire. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3: 09:03 Okay. Speaker 1: 00:00 Summertime brings up the music in San Diego. Today we're bringing you another installment of our summer music series. Here is midday edition cohost Jane Heideman, Speaker 2: 00:11 Rebecca Jade and the cold fat have a funk infused soul sound that hearkens back to the 1970s Motown and stax record era with an all star band from the redwoods music collective. They focus their chops on in the pocket grooves with a hint of blues. Their last album received multiple San Diego music awards and they join us today in studio to share some of their brand new songs from their upcoming album running out of time. Here they are with their song. Nothing left for us, Speaker 3: 00:53 Huh? Speaker 4: 00:55 [inaudible] today to one in the U K back. I would say too with my, I hate [inaudible] money then. Either way too. My friend is his thing. So is the thing. Hello? Oh, hello. Ah. [inaudible] the pan a plate to in this glass we can go to things was no, no real, no key when the photograph do here. Your laugh. But you know [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] this guy. Speaker 5: 03:49 Whoa. Speaker 4: 04:13 [inaudible]. Speaker 2: 04:21 That was Rebecca jade in the cold fact performing their new song. Nothing left for us. And that is from their upcoming album running out of time. The musicians are Rebecca jade on the vocals. Al Howard on percussion, Jake nature on drums, Jason Littlefield on Bass, Daniel Shreyer on keys and Ian Owen on guitar. How you guys doing today? Wonderful. Fabulous. We appreciate you being here. Rebecca. I'll start with you. You've had a busy couple of years, just got San Diego Music Award, best jazz album for your album, planet Cole Porter with Guitars, Peter Sprague, uh, you play in sirens crush and several other groups. How did you learn to be such a versatile singer? I would probably say a lot of is my upbringing. My mom is a singer and a, so she exposed me to lots of different styles of music. Jazz was probably my first influence. She also exposed me to Patty labelle and Michael McDonald and three dog night and Chaka Khan and Roberta flack. Speaker 2: 05:18 So it varied from rock and soul and R and B. And so I just kind of adapted those styles to me as much as I could. It's like this, the music we grew up on, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And, and you've been for the last couple of years touring with Sheila e, correct? Yes. What's most memorable from, from that experience? Everything. Every moment. I'm just soaking up how it's done in the big leagues and she's been at it since she was 15 she started touring when she was 15 and she was going to be 62 this year. So that just goes to show. She has lots of experience. So it's been, it's been an incredible journey and I'm just trying to soak it up, learn and try to incorporate anything I can from that experience. Our you, you not only perform percussion over there, you also write a lot of lyrics and music. Speaker 2: 06:06 What draws you to this type of music? Oh, I'd say the same thing. My mom, I got my record collection started from my mom, sort of, I can use the term borrowing, but I guess I took her records, you know, when she had tons of great old soul. And a jazz, everything now I moved out here, I got a job at a record store and I just hear different music every day and I want to find my way to impact music. But I'm not a singer like Rebecca is and you know. But I could write lyrics. So that was me finding my voice and he writes amazing lyrics. I wanted to ask you about that, cause you ride a lot of lyrics but how do you take them and make them your own? Rebecca? I just try to make them my own story somehow. You know, I envision it put myself in a story to make it my own. If I'm doing my job as a songwriter, it shouldn't sound like it's someone else's lyrics when she's singing them and these are her songs and that's what they sound like when I hear them. And before you guys get out of dodge, you're going to play us out with, I only smoke when I drink. Thanks so much for coming in you guys. Thank you so much. Speaker 3: 07:12 [inaudible] Speaker 4: 07:27 it's still a picture of it. So the y, it's just a number and a name since like the last one, not the bedroom. Speaker 3: 07:57 [inaudible] Speaker 4: 08:11 it's just memory. Ben. We learn to strip away. What's the cost of Mondex? What's the price of all this back? [inaudible] better route. Not the fall. Maybe it's solely Healy. We put on, it's too wavy. We have to stop [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 3: 10:24 stay [inaudible] Speaker 4: 11:20 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 11:27 [inaudible] Speaker 6: 11:49 that was Rebecca jade and the cold fact to hear more and see a of their performance. Speaker 1: 11:54 Go to kpbs.org/summer music series, Rebecca jade and the cold fact. We'll hold an album release party and perform at the Casbah on September 13th there's a link on our website and our summer music series continues next Thursday with a performance by the San Diego family rockabilly band. The see monks.