Today on the show, we'll talk about President Obama's new initiative to empower young men and boys of color. Find out how schools use financial aid as a strategy. Get your weekly recap of major headlines and news during Friday Flashback. Next, we'll take a look at popular venues for watching the Oscars this Sunday, as well as a look back at some of the most memorable Academy Awards bloopers.
My Brother's Keeper: New initiative to empower young men of color
My Brother's Keeper is the name of a new initiative recently announced by President Barack Obama.
The mission of this five-year, $200 million dollar plan is to empower boys and young men of color throughout the country.
The Obama administration hopes to do this by partnering with businesses, nonprofits and foundations, including two local organizations: the Magic Johnson Foundation and the California Endowment.
For more, we're joined now by a Jorja Leap, a researcher with the California Endowment. She is also an adjunct professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
More people applying for federal financial aid in California
With the cost of college tuition on the rise, financial aid has become a necessity for many students and their families.
In California, the number of people applying for federal financial aid has risen almost 74 percent over the last six years.
But the financial aid process can be a confusing one, made even more difficult to navigate because colleges rarely provide specific information about how exactly they dole out their financial aid dollars.
What kind of information are students looking for that they aren't getting? How do schools use financial aid as a strategy? What kind of students are universities trying to attract with their financial aid strategy?
ProPublica reporter Marian Wang joins us on the show.
Friday Flashback: Arizona governor vetoes religious freedom bill, Gov. Brown announces run for re-election, more
It's the end of another week and time for the Friday Flashback, Take Two's look at the week in news. This morning we're joined in-studio by Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey, and we welcome back Jamelle Bouie of The Daily Beast.
Let's talk first about the news out of Arizona, where Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill which would have allowed businesses to refuse service to homosexuals on religious grounds.
And interestingly, the NFL and MLB threw around a lot of weight in this decision. How so and what do you make of those moves?
The bill seemed to rattle a lot of politicians in the Republican party who consider themselves fiscally conservative and are wary of legislating polarizing social issues. How do you think these political stances are going to play out in the midterm elections?
We also had the news out of Texas where a judge struck down the state's ban on gay marriage and in Kentucky, where a federal judge signed an order directing the state to recognize gay marriages performed in other states even though Kentucky does not allow them. What's left at this point? Where does this leave the movement legislating same-sex marriage?
This week President Obama announced a new initiative—My Brothers Keeper—aimed at helping young men of color succeed. We just heard about how it will be rolled out here in L.A., but President Obama has been criticized for not prioritizing issues within the African American community enough in the past, so how do you think this will fit into his legacy? Is it too little too late? How will his critics receive it?
On to another big story this week: The Guardian published another leak from Edward Snowden, this time about the UK's surveillance agency—the GCHQ—which has intercepted millions of Yahoo webcam images, and many of them scantily clad ones.
And to another perhaps equally unsurprising story—but a big one here in California—Governor Jerry Brown has officially announced he's running for reelection. He made the announcement on Twitter, nonchalantly, slid in just a cool week before the deadline. What can we expect this race to look like?
The FDA this week proposed a facelift for the nutrition label. The new ones have more realistic serving sizes and make the calories MUCH larger. And, the Oscars are this Sunday. Who are you rooting for?
Oscars 2014: Women, minorities changing the look of the Academy — slowly
The Oscars are just two days away. Among those attending will be members of the newest and one of the most diverse classes of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
KPCC's Josie Huang meets some of the new members
Crispin Glover chats about role in 'The Bag Man'
The new film "The Bag Man" stars John Cusack as a tough guy named Jack, hired by a legendary crime boss played by Robert DeNiro.
Jack's job? To bring a mysterious bag to a seedy motel. Along the way, Jack meets a host of shady characters and a very odd motel manager who asks a lot of questions.
That manager is played by our next guest. You also know him for his performances in films like "Back to the Future," "River's Edge" and Tim Burton's recent adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland."
Crispin Glover joins us from New York to discuss the film and his own directorial efforts.
Glover has directed two films in what he is calling his "It" trilogy. He will exhibit them in a traveling show at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas on March 7 and 8.
"What It Is and How It Is Done"
California ski resorts prepare for busy weekend
Ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada mountains are hoping to capture some business this weekend.
The first in a pair of snowstorms has finally dumped some fresh snow on the slopes.
It's the first significant precipitation in three months. In fact it's been so dry that many resorts have had to shut down some or ALL of their slopes.
About a month ago we called up the family-owned Donner Ski Ranch in Truckee. We received a message, and found that the Donner Ski Ranch WILL be opening this weekend.
Lincoln Kauffman, general manager for Donner Ski Ranch in Truckee, California, joins us on the show.
Three ways to capture rainwater in your backyard
You've probably noticed the rain falling in Southern California today. And even more is expected going into the weekend. Some of that water will be lost as runoff—a big waste given the drought situation here.
But there are ways to collect these precious droplets, even in your own backyard. That's what Orange County reporter Susan Carpenter has found.
She's spent two years experimenting with how to make her Los Angeles home more water efficient and she joins us to talk about three different strategies: water walls, earthworks and rain barrels.
Where the effort to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants stands
Almost a quarter of King City, CA's police force were arrested earlier this week. They were implicated in a scheme that targeted undocumented Latino immigrants.
It worked like this: they would impound the cars of mostly unlicensed drivers. When the owners weren't able to pay the fees, officers would sell the cars and keep the cash.
But one way this could all have been avoided was if the owners had driver's licenses and avoid having their cars impounded in the first place.
Starting next year, that will become a reality with undocumented immigrants being eligible for licenses in California.
To look at the status of that effort State Representative Luis Alejo joins Take Two. He's the man who pushed this law forward through passage.
Iditarod: 'Last great race on earth'
It's called the "Last Great Race on Earth."
The world famous Iditarod begins Saturday, but there is one small hitch: Not enough snow.This year is proving to be one of the warmest on record in Alaska.
Monica Zappa is a musher competing in the Iditarod for her very first time on Saturday.She also happens to be a trained meteorologist.
She joined the show to talk about how the weather has impacted her training, gear and other preparation heading into the big race.
The science to bring back the extinct
The movie "Jurassic Park" came out more than 20 years ago, and you would think - two decades later - that we'd be a lot closer to accomplishing what the scientists in that movie had done: revive extinct species.
RELATED: Woolly Mammoth may return to Earth after 10,000-year-extinction
But there's a growing effort to bring back species like the woolly mammoth and the passenger pigeon, among many others.
Nathaniel Rich explains in his new Sunday New York Times Magazine cover story, "The Mammoth Cometh."
AMC's Emily Kinney talks zombies, music and more
AMC's show "The Walking Dead" is a monster success.
Now in its fourth season, the zombie drama continues to be the top rated show on cable with an average of 13 million viewers every week.
Our next guest Emily Kinney started out as a bit player on the show, but her role has grown with the series.
She plays a young woman named Beth who keeps a journal where she writes about trying to make the best of a very bad situation.
When she's not fighting off zombies, Emily Kinney writes music. She'll be performing at the Mint tonight in Los Angeles, so we thought we'd talk to her while she's in town.
When we chatted earlier this week, I asked her what it felt like—as an actress just starting out— to land her part in "Walking Dead."
Watching the Oscars at the Million Dollar Theatre
The Oscars are this Sunday, and its safe to say that millions of people all over the world will tune into to see the winners, the losers and what people wore on the red carpet.
But if you're looking for a cool venue to watch the awards, you might want to go downtown to the venerable Million Dollar Movie Theatre.
The theatre, which opened in 1918, will be the main star in its first ever Oscar viewing party.
Take Two contributor and Los Angeles Magazine editor Chris Nichols will be hosting the event, and he stopped by recently to give Alex Cohen a preview of what's in store.
This weekend's Oscars viewing party at the Million Dollar Theatre is a benefit for the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation. For more details, click here.
Oscars 2014: A look back at the most memorable Academy Awards bloopers
The Academy Awards are the classiest awards show in Tinseltown, but sometimes even the best in show business can't hide their shortcomings. Reporter Sasa Woodruff has a look back at some memorable Oscar bloopers, fiascos and flops.
It's an evening of gold statues, film tributes and speeches, but sometimes, it's about picking yourself up and moving on, like Jennifer Lawrence did after falling on the stairs on her way to accept the award for Best Actress last year.
The shows are carefully choreographed and timed, but mistakes still happen, and it’s the unexpected that can make or break a show.
“I know this is hard to believe, but the Oscars ended early and so they told Jerry Lewis who was the emcee just to keep going," said Steve Pond, awards editor for TheWrap.com, about the 1959 Academy Awards.
He did what he was told, even bringing the audience on stage to sing and dance:
But Lewis' proverbial tap-dancing couldn’t match the comeback host David Niven had to make in 1974 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Hall.
“He came out to give the best picture award and to introduce Elizabeth Taylor, who was going to be his co-presenter," said Pond.
The audience went wild, but it wasn't because Dame Elizabeth Taylor appeared. At that moment a naked man ran on stage flashing the peace sign.
Without missing a beat, Niven quipped back:
“Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings."
Then there were the 1989 Oscars.
That was the year that a breathy actress playing Snow White showed up on stage.
“Over the top doesn't even begin to describe what this production number was, it was 15 solid minutes of just gaudy chintz," said Hollywood Reporter's senior writer, Seth Abramovitch. "They threw everything but the kitchen sink at you, including Rob Lowe, who came on as her date for the evening, Prince Charming, unfortunately Rob Lowe couldn't sing."
This was just the opening number, and by all accounts, the show just got worse. Bad news for the show's producer, Allan Carr , who was well-known in Hollywood for his extravagant parties and producing the film version of the musical "Grease."
But his Broadway vision did not translate to the Oscar stage, and Carr never worked again. Abramovitch says there's always a little guilty pleasure when it comes to watching live TV for Hollywood's most important night.
“It definitely is the one that has you know the most pomp and serious award, the most important awards, so of course you want to see things go wrong because that's what you really want to talk about," said Abramovitch.
When things don't go as planned we hope as Snow White sang in '89 that they keep those cameras rolling.