Lawmakers in the House and Senate's plan to forgive California National Guard debt, doing away with self-checkout registers, the EPA's aggressive plan to reduce auto emissions.
Local mountain lion P-45 may have escaped the death penalty - for now
A gruesome scene was discovered in the Malibu Hills last weekend. Ten alpacas were found dead at a ranch along Mulholland Highway. Another Alpaca and a goat were also killed in the area.
According to Jordan Traverso, a spokesperson with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, it was the culprit is believed to be one of LA's favorite animal celebrities, the mountain lion known as P-45.
Although, it should be made clear, the identity of the lion has not yet been confirmed. Traverso said that at the time of the killings, he was in the general vicinity because of information associated with the animal's tracker.
In response, state officials issued a special permit to the land owner who lost the 10 Alpacas, which allows her to hunt down and kill the mountain lion she believes to be responsible for the deaths of the animals. Traverso explained this is standard practice in the case of farm animals killed by the big cats.
Given the possibility that P-45 did the killing, the cat's celebrity status could be what saves it. There's been a public uproar over the idea of him being killed, with nearly 300 people showing up at a meeting in Agoura Hills to largely oppose the depredation. In response, the land owner, Victoria Vaughn-Perling has said that she's interested in saving the big cat, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to Traverso, it's up to Vaughn-Perling whether she wants to kill the mountain lion that killed her alpacas. But that if she wants to trap and save it, she won't be so lucky.
"The permit doesn't allow for capture and relocation. It doesn't allow for putting the animal in captivity. That permit is specifically for land owners suffering property damage to kill the offending animal," Traverso said. "Nobody can go out and capture that animal. That actually is against the law right now."
Defense bill may give relief to National Guard veterans asked to repay bonuses
Last month, news broke that thousands of California National Guard troops were being asked to repay enlistment bonuses and benefits they had received. These generous incentives had been doled out as a way to retain soldiers during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Audits revealed that the contracts promising the bonuses and benefits were improperly issued. Investigators found fraud and mismanagement by National Guard recruiters who were under pressure to meet enlistment targets.
Soldiers who refused to repay these bonuses were warned they could be fined with interest charges, wage garnishments, and tax liens.
Now, there's potential relief for the affected veterans in the form of "debt" forgiveness included in a must-pass defense policy bill filed yesterday. It goes to the House tomorrow and on to the Senate next week.
The deal is being characterized as "compromise" and to some, it doesn't go far enough.
Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Bryan Strother who served in the National Guard for almost 20 years. Strother was one of the thousands of veterans asked to repay their bonuses. He also did not receive student loan payment as promised in his re-enlistment contract. His experiences led him to file a class action lawsuit.
To hear the full interview, click on the Blue Arrow above.
Colombia's FARC deal could leave many war criminals unpunished
Colombia's Congress has approved a revised peace deal with the rebel group known as FARC. Members of the militants will have 150 days to disarm.
It's an accord that the country's president, Juan Manuel Santos, hopes will close the chapter on a conflict that has spanned over five decades and has left more that 200,000 people dead.
For more on what this new deal could mean, Take Two spoke to Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
State of Affairs: Rep. Xavier Becerra named CA attorney general
On this week's State of Affairs, Governor Jerry Brown picks Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) for California Attorney General, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) narrowly wins re-election, and California Democrats secure a supermajority in both houses of the state legislature.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- Carla Marinucci, Politico's California Playbook reporter
- Marisa Lagos, political reporter for KQED
The Ride: EPA officials act on auto emissions ahead of Trump
The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that is was sticking with a plan to aggressively limit greenhouse gas emissions in new cars.
Automakers agreed to the plan back in 2012. It sets strict standards they must meet by 2025.
But the action by EPA officials may set them off on a collision course with the incoming Trump administration. The President-elect appointed a critic of climate change, Myron Ebell, as head of his EPA transition team, and a leading candidate to run the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has been a vocal critic of the agency.
Our motor critic Sue Carpenter notes that the auto industry is still trying to figure out what its relationship will be with the new administration. And she points out that regardless of what happens to US emissions standards, the auto business is a global one, and with many other nations pushing for cleaner cars, it seems unlikely car makers will abandon their emission reduction efforts.
Click the blue bar to hear the full discussion.
Self-checkouts are getting sacked at Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions
Would you like paper or plastic?
How about a human?
Self-checkout lanes will disappear at a quarter of the Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions throughout Southern California, with the chains' parent company saying customers will get better service with a shift back to in-person cashiers.
"They're eliminating them because there's shopper dissatisfaction," says grocery analyst Burt Flickinger from the firm Strategic Resource Group.
Self-checkouts were most effective in understaffed stores, but customers had several issues with them including coupons not scanning and longer wait times when there were issues.
Plus, they just preferred a human interaction.
"Customers definitely missed people," says Flickinger.
Machines were not always as effective as manned registers, either.
"The chains that do not have self-checkout – CostCo, Smart & Final, etc – have always gotten good grades for having staffed cash registers and being more efficient with people," he says.
He believes other grocery chains in Southern California may follow suit.
To hear the whole interview, click on the audio player above
Young Central American migrants flee to US, settle for Mexico
More than 400,000 people were apprehended at the southern border of the US during this past fiscal year... most of them were fleeing Central America.
Because of the greater risks trying to get into the US, many of these migrants are opting to settle in Mexico instead.
Asylum applications in that country have nearly tripled over the past three years.
LA Times reporter Kate Linthicum has been exploring how that trend is affecting Mexico. She spoke with Take Two's Alex Cohen from Mexico City.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above
Chilean director of 'Jackie' on Natalie Portman's portrayal of First Lady: It's 'mysterious, beautiful'
It's an exciting time when you are a film director and a movie you've worked on for years is about to hit the theaters. But Director Pablo Larraín has two films coming out – about two weeks apart.
The first is Jackie. It's out this Friday and stars Natalie Portman playing Jaqueline Kennedy dealing with the tragedy of her husband's assassination. Jackie has gotten good early reviews - and it's on a lot of Oscar handicappers' short lists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pW3B8Ycc4
The second is called Neruda, and its about the iconic Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and stars Gael Garcia Bernal. That comes out on December 16.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdB_ZrjlO08
Director Larraín said the timing of having two movies out nearly at the same time is exciting and demanding.
"It's not something that I really planned – it's something that I think would be insane to plan," said Larraín. "I'm very proud and happy, but I tell you, I wouldn't do it again."
To hear the whole interview, click on the audio player above
"Phantom Atlas" book explores legendary inaccuracies in the history of maps
There was a time when if you needed to go somewhere you weren't familiar with, you had to look at a map. In the today's digital age, where we are accustomed to the convenience of a GPS, it's easy to forget the importance of paper maps.
For the most part, maps were accurate but throughout history, mapmakers took some pretty amazing liberties with geography. A new book, "The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps" explores the errors, imaginings, and downright dishonest moments in the history of map making.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with the book's author, Edward Brooke-Hitching.
Highlights
How maps were historically created
Every line you see on an antique map is an adventure that someone took. It's information that a sailor or an explorer or a gold hunter headed out into the darkness and this unknown to try and track down— this little bit of information— and start to fill in the blanks on the maps. The cartographers, mainly of Europe, that we study in the book, would collect scraps of information brought back from these sailors who would also bring back a huge amount of rumors and mythology and theories of their own. And they'd try and piece together what was real and what was perhaps, slightly hysterical and imaginative.
The blunder of mapping California
When it was first drawn by the Spanish, they drew it correctly. Then something really bizarre happened in 1600, where a Spanish priest, Antonio de la Ascensión, was on a journey up the coast. For some reason, he recorded this peninsula as being divided by something he called the Sea of California. But his ship was hijacked by the Dutch as so often the way that the greatest treasures that pirates might steal, it wasn't just jewels, it was information. It was these maps and data. And his mistake was copied. It was taken as gospel truth and it was reproduced. At least for 150 years, everyone thought that California was an island drifting freely from North America. Even to the extent that the king of Spain in 1747 had to issue a national proclamation to clear it up which specifically said, California is not an island.
To hear the full interview, click on the Blue Arrow above.