Obama meets with the families of the victims in the San Bernardino shooting, Disneyland will no longer sell toy guns in park shops and choreographer Debbie Allen takes on The Nutcracker.
Mass shooting victim's father on preventing the next tragedy
President Obama is in San Bernardino on Friday to meet with families of victims of the mass shooting earlier this month.
For those who lost loved ones on December 2nd, the grief is likely still very raw and very deep.
To what extent private face time with the President can help alleviate that grief is unclear.
For more on how that sorrow feels and what it's like to meet with political leaders in the wake of such a tragedy, we turn to Richard Martinez.
Martinez's 20-year-old son Christopher died in a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California, last year.
The psychology of how police cope with mass shootings and terror threats
It's been a frightening few weeks in Southern California. On the heels of the mass shooting in San Bernardino came an email threat this week that shut down the entire LAUSD school system.
Police deal with violent and stressful situations in their everyday work, but have the recent events made things worse? Or is it just business as usual?
Kevin Jablonski, LAPD's chief psychologist, says events like the San Bernardino massacre increase stressors in a police officer's environment.
"We can't lose sight of the fact that police officers, for all the service that they do to keep communities safe and protect people, they're still human beings," Jablonski says. And in addition to the pressure of the job, they have to deal with the same everyday stresses that the rest of us do.
In the recent aftermath of the incident in San Bernardino and the threats against Los Angeles schools, Jablonski says, "I think that it does bring it home. It makes it, in some regards, more real. It challenges them to the extent that they have to in fact contemplate the number of lives, if you will, that in so many ways they're responsible for rendering aid to."
To hear the full interview with Kevin Jablonksi, click the link above.
Dear JJ Abrams: A Star Wars fan asks for more Muslim characters
"Star Wars: A Force Awakens" smashed opening night records, Thursday - taking more than $57 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada.
While movie-goers rave about the Star Wars reboot, one super fan is asking for a little more from director, J.J. Abrams -- a Muslim character.
In a letter to Abrams in the Washington Post, Haroon Moghul explains how Abrams, and other pop culture leaders, can change the narrative around Islam, following terror attacks in Paris and closer to home in San Bernardino.
Moghul is a senior correspondent with USC's Religious Dispatches. He shared more with Take Two's A Martinez.
Listen to the interview by clicking the blue bar.
Debbie Allen's 'Hot Chocolate Nutcracker' turns the classic tale on its head
Tis the season for the Nutcracker!
The famous ballet set to a score by Tchaikovsky tells the story of a young girl named Clara who receives a nutcracker one Christmas. At night, the toy is transformed into a handsome prince who takes her to a magical land ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy.
You'll find all sorts of renditions of the Nutcracker ballet this month throughout Southern California, but none quite like "The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker."
The performance is now in its sixth year, playing this time at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown L.A.
The force behind it is Debbie Allen, Artistic Director and founder of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.
Allen says she was initially inspired to create her own version after taking her 5-year-old son (who's now 27) to a performance of the traditional "Nutcracker."
"He was just bored to death and he yelled out loud, 'Mom! When is the rat coming?' The audience laughed out loud and I realized you know, kids, boys especially, they want something else," Allen says.
So she decided to write her own version, this time with the rats taking center stage as a sort of "Three Stooges" trio. The traditional Tchaikovsky music has been replaced with original songs (one composed by her son "Thump"), and the ballet dancing is mixed in with hip hop and Bollywood routines.
"I love Tchaikovsky," Allen says, "but if you're going to do it different, you might as well do it different, so that's what we did."
To hear the full interview with Debbie Allen, click the link above.
"The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker" plays December 18-19 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Click here for tickets.
Relive the swinging 70's with "F is for Family"
The new Netflix show F is for Family is getting a lot of early praise. The show follows the life of Frank Murphy, a man who had lots of dreams, but that didn't necessarily go his way. Here's a family friendly clip of the show.
The show was created by comedian Bill Burr and Simpsons writer Michael Price. Alex sat down and talked to Price about the show.
The 'Happiest Place on Earth' beefs up security
The “Happiest Place on Earth” met the real world this week.
Disneyland is one of growing number of theme parks across the country rolling out new security measures. Among them, more metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, and a ban on toy guns and masks.
These changes are especially timely after the two recent major terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
The Southern California killings highlight the challenges of protecting many soft targets across the country. Disneyland, however, where crowds can grow as big as 80,000 people a day, may present a special challenge for security experts.
Jonathan Wackrow is the president of risk-assessment firm i4 Strategies. Before starting the company, he was on the secret service detail for President Obama, protecting the first family at -- among other places -- Disneyland. He explained some of the reasons behind the park's added safety measures.
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
Taking toy guns out of stores may have been part of a bigger security plan at Disneyland, but the decision may also indicate a change in society: one reflecting America’s increasingly complicated relationship with firearms. Today, many parents must decide whether toy guns still have a place in modern childhood.
Margie Sanfilippo is a professor of psychology at Eckerd College in Florida. She’s studied the impact of toy guns in the home.