KCET's Award-Winning Weekly Series 'SOCAL CONNECTED' Profiles the Crusaders Who Are Battling Exorbitant Parking Tickets Fines

Award-winning series looks at one of the many challenges of life in Los

Angeles: parking. When you are lucky enough to find a spot, look out if you stay in it too long. Ticket fines are skyrocketing

to what many people consider outrageous rates. SOCAL CONNECTED profiles

two activists who are taking the battle against high ticket prices to City

Hall. Reporter Jennifer Sabih looks at how they're trying to reform parking

policy.

The story airs on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at 8 p.m.

This week's SOCAL CONNECTED also features:

The Right Stuff -

Southern California is filled with material girls -- and boys. But it's hard to

get a true picture of just how much stuff we have. UCLA researchers spent years

visiting people's homes and recording startling pictures of how much families

actually accumulate. Even they were shocked. Val Zavala takes a peek inside

California's cluttered homes.

L.A. Mudpeople -

They look like a tribe of misplaced primitives - bodies smeared with mud, faces

obscured by masks. They are really a non-performance art troupe based in Los

Angeles. In this story, drawn from KCET's Artbound, Nick Hardcastle

joins the Mudpeople on a slow walk through Atwater Village to see how the

public reacts to this strange crew. 

End of Watch -

Observers at Mt. Wilson's solar tower have been drawing sunspots "every clear

day since 1912." For the past 28 years, UCLA's Stephen Padilla has been part of

that team, enjoying the panoramic vistas and faithfully recording solar

activity. Now Padilla's job is being eliminated. We take the long ride up the

150-foot tower with him on his last payday.

Broadcast Premiere Date:  Wednesday,

August 27 at 8 p.m.

Repeated: Friday,

August 29 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, August 31 at 6:30 p.m.

SOCAL CONNECTED is anchored by 15-time

Emmy®-Award winner, Val Zavala. Contributors include science journalist

Cara Santa Maria, reporters Derrick Shore and Jennifer Sabih, documentary

filmmaker Nic Cha Kim and writer Nick Hardcastle.

The television broadcast executive producer for SOCAL CONNECTED is

Val Zavala; digital executive producer is Zach Behrens; and Linda Burns is

senior producer.

ABOUT SOCAL CONNECTED

SOCAL CONNECTED, winner of a Peabody® and two

duPont Awards, 23 Emmy® Awards, 24 Golden Mikes, 48 LA Press Club Awards, two

Gracie Awards, and four regional and one national Edward R. Murrow Awards,

including Best News Documentary and Los Angeles Magazine's "Best

New Local TV Program" of 2009, airs exclusively on KCET. For more

Foundation, Chapman University and the MaddocksBrown Foundation.

ABOUT KCET

On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital

role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central

California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well

as the finest public television programs from around the world. Throughout its

50-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and

regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and

documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's

programs, its outreach and community services and its website, kcet.org. KCET

is a donor-supported community institution. For additional information about

KCET productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community

events, please visit kcet.org. KCET is a service of KCETLink.

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