L.A. garment districts underpaid undocumented immigrants, 2017 kicks off with a bunch of small quakes, a look at 'Ear hustle' the podcast out of San Quentin prison.
Violent crime in LA rises for third straight year
For the third consecutive year, violent crime was up in Los Angeles.
The latest stats from the Los Angeles Police Department show an increase in homicides and gang related shootings. This upward trend stands in stark contrast with a steady decline in violent crime that began in the 90s.
For more on the numbers and what they mean, Alex Cohen spoke with Charis Kubrin, professor of criminology at the University of California at Irvine.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Good clothing sales can mean bad labor practices
Perhaps you've spent some of the holidays doing a little shopping, picking up some new clothes to sport in 2017.
These days, you can buy all sorts of items at deep discounts. But have you ever stopped to wonder why some garments are priced so low?
A recent report from the Department of Labor discovered a widespread practice of garment workers being paid well below the legal minimum wage. Many of these employees are undocumented immigrants and their status makes them reluctant to speak out about being underpaid.
For more, Alex Cohen spoke with Chico Harlan of the Washington Post who has been covering this story and talking to many of those garment workers here in Los Angeles.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
2017 kicks off with a swarm of earthquakes
2017 started not with a bang but with a quake — a whole lot of quakes to be exact — near the California-Mexico border.
More than 250 small earthquakes have rumbled through the area since New Year's Eve. What, if anything, does this portend for the year to come?
For answers, Alex Cohen spoke with seismologist Lucy Jones, formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Binge on the best of 2016: 10 shows to catch up on
Every month we take a look at all of the options you have to stream, from Hulu and Netflix to Amazon Prime, HBO Now and Showtime Anytime. Our very own Mark Jordan Legan offers his top picks for 2016.
- Atlanta (FX NOW)
Mark's first pick is what he calls an entertaining and thought provoking show. Donald Glover plays a young man struggling to find himself, and he tries to create a career by helping his cousin, who's found a level of fame as a rapper named Paper Boi.
- Rectify (Netflix)
Originally on the Sundance Channel, Rectify is now streaming. It tells the story of an innocent man, Daniel Holden, on death row freed after almost 20 years. The show follows the effect this has Holden and his family but also the community, the local police and the prosecutors who put him away. Full of deep, complex characters, the show tackles such issues as injustice and the power of forgiveness.
- Orange is the New Black (Netflix)
This series has been on for four years and the most recent season was one of its best. When the show first started, it followed the story of a young privileged white girl named Piper who is incarcerated in a women’s prison on drug charges. But as the show progressed, it would slowly reveal the backstory to many of the other characters – both the prisoners and the guards. Like a great American novel, it takes its time unravelling the complex psychology of the many multi-ethnic characters who inhabit Litchfield prison.
- The Night Of (HBO Go)
A loose remake of a British crime series, the show follows a young Pakistani-American, who meets a girl and after a night of sex and partying he awakes to find her murdered. He doesn't remember what happened, so he runs from the scene but is later arrested. The whole production is mesmerizing and superbly done – it really shines a light on race relations and immigration and the fact that there are still people in the legal system that will fight for what they know is right – no matter what.
THE BINGE LIST - THE TOP TEN STREAMING TV SHOWS OF 2016
1. THE NIGHT OF (HBO Go)
2. FLEABAG (Amazon Prime)
3. ATLANTA (FX Now)
4. HUMANS (Netflix)
5. THE AMERICANS (FX Now/ Amazon Prime)
6. RECTIFY (Netflix)
7. BETTER CALL SAUL (Netflix)
8. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)
9. BLACK MIRROR (Netflix)
10. UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMITT (Netflix)
Catch up on past installments of The Binge here.
To listen to Mark's recommendations, click on the blue media player above.
The Ride's auto predictions for 2017: Car sharing, electric vehicles and luxury automatons
There was no lack of news in the mobility world in 2016. Perhaps the biggest story: the VW emissions scandal. But it was also a year when autonomous cars began to look inevitable, and when the world's big automakers began to rethink their future as "mobility companies."
So, what's in store for 2017? Our motor critic, Sue Carpenter, identified a few areas and trends.
Car sharing takes off
GM is expanding its Maven service, which allows people to rent cars by the hour and is focused on linking them to public transportation. It's now available at Union Station and will continue rolling out at Metro stations during the coming year.
And Waivecar is growing, too. It offers free "rentals" by wrapping its electric cars in advertising. After gaining a foothold in Santa Monica, Waivecar is expanding its fleet to 150 cars available across L.A.
Electrics are here to stay
Analysts covering Tesla are convinced the company will keep its promise and begin delivering the first of its Model 3s in the second half of 2017. Meanwhile, GM will beat Tesla to the market with its Chevy Bolt, which offers 270 miles on a charge. And Faraday Future, a local company backed by Chinese investors, says it will have its luxury electric in production this year as well.
Some hot and sexy new stuff
Alfa Romeo is joining luxury car makers like Bentley and Porsche in offering a very high-end SUV, the Stelvio. Audi goes autonomous with its A8 luxury sedan. For the first time, BMW will offer an electric version of its popular 3 series. And for anyone who ever wanted a Toyota RAV, but smaller, the Japanese company offers the C-H4.
Click on the blue bar to listen to the full conversation.
Déjà vu: Donald Trump's Nixonian relationship with the press
President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to meet with reporters, editors and the publisher of the New York Times Tuesday. Then, a little after three this morning, Trump tweeted that he was canceling his appointment, claiming that terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last minute.
I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
A spokeswoman for the Times insisted that no changes had been made. Trump later met with the New York Times after all.
The scuffle comes on the heels of a Monday summit at the Trump Tower with several prominent tv personalities, during which time the President-elect reportedly excoriated the press.
Based on the President-elect's interactions with journalists this week, what one predict about his relationship with the press in the future?
Take Two put that question to Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
Highlights
What has been the standard when it comes to the relationship between the Commander-in-Chief, the President-elect, and the news media?
It's always been adversarial. We should remember that — going back early into our history with newspapers — newspapers were very partisan in the early republic. The kinds of things they said about Thomas Jefferson for example, or John Adams were pretty colorful.
It's the case that we've had this controversial and sometimes adversarial relationship all the way through. We're seeing that play out, but probably at a higher level with Donald Trump than we ever had before.
When you look back, are there any presidents that might offer parallel examples here? Maybe relationships to bear in mind?
Nixon comes to mind immediately. Most people think of him in light of all of the conflicts that he had with the media and with the press.
Very famously, he said as he lost the California governor's race in 1962 that he was bowing out of politics; he was retiring. Then he said as he left the stage that the press wouldn't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore. So he carried that right on through and at the end that was his downfall in the Watergate scandal — the investigative reporting of Woodward and Bernstein for the Washington Post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9FlPeKKzA
Of course, if you feel 'kicked-around' you could see where the press might not necessarily be considered your greatest ally, but in general what is in it for the president? Why would you want to foster a solid and open relationship with the news media?
It's always beneficial for the White House and the President and the presidency as an office to court the press. Access, though, which is what the press wants, means that the president then does not have complete control of his message and all presidents want to have that.
Unless he can control the access, which obviously Donald Trump is trying to do, it defeats the purpose of having the access in the first place. It's a real fine line that has to be walked. Some presidents do it with style and grace — FDR, JFK, Reagan — certainly Nixon and Donald Trump seem not so much.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.)
How Photoshop helped ex-gang members gain a new sense of identity
You might have heard of Homeboy Industries, the downtown L.A. based group that helps at-risk youth and former gang members. Homeboy offers a variety of free programs such as mental health counseling, work-readiness training and even tattoo removal.
How those tattoos can change someone's self-image is the subject of a book project that turns the tables on gang life. "Skin Deep" features photographs of heavily tattooed ex-gang members before and after their ink has been removed using Photoshop.
When the subjects see the images of their tattoo-free skin, their reaction is emotional and powerful.
Steven Burton is a photographer and the mind behind the project, which features the photographs of 27 homeboys and homegirls.
Francisco Flores is one of them.
Speaking with Take Two's A Martinez, Flores recalled his life before all the ink. "I grew up in South Central. It was a rough life. Both parents were addicts so I kind of had to fend for myself for most of my life," Flores said, "So, at a young age I got in trouble...then I went to prison. Once I got out of prison my parole officer was adamant about me going to Homeboy industries to get tattoo removal and that's how I started..."
Before he began the removal process, Flores speculates he had over a thousand tattoos all over his body including his face. His eyebrows, eyelids, lips, jawline and cheeks were all covered with ink. He said the sight of him would put people on edge.
"I wouldn't be able to walk up to people," Flores laughed, "I'd be walking on the street and I'll have somebody just jump away from me and grab their purse or grab their kids....I'm like, 'I'm not going to do nothing to your kid, I'm just like you.'"
It was around this time that photographer Steven Burton came into the picture. He was at Homeboy Industries to view a documentary about the organization's founder when he became drawn to the tattoo removal program. He set out to photograph as many 'homeboys' and 'homegirls' as he could.
"The actual photographs themselves didn't take too long, it was like a couple of days. The Photoshop took a long time depending on who I was Photoshopping," Burton said of the project's timeline, "If you could actually see any skin...a lot of times I'd have to take parts of my own skin and then Photoshop them onto him...so in total it took around 400 hours, but then after that the hardest thing was actually to find people again."
Once everyone was tracked down, they were shown the photographs and the reactions were raw and insightful.
In Francisco's initial reaction video, he says he'd rather be labeled a fat guy than a cholo. 'Cholo' is Spanish slang for thug or gangster, and a term that Francisco wants nothing to do with any longer.
"Cholo is just...I'm not that no more. It was my past, but it's not me no more and I still get labeled as that gang member, and it's like...I'm not a gang member no more, I'm a father...."
The tattoo-less images of Francisco had the most impact on his children. He has five, and he explained why they are the main motivation for the tattoo removal.
"I just want to show my kids something different. I just don't want them to see the gang side and be like 'Oh, what's that?' and have them go through it again and be like 'Oh I was gone for so many years out of your life, ' Francisco explained, "And they remember that and then it puts them in a place I don't want them to be. I want them to be happy and remember the good times and not go back and reminisce about the past and all the harsh things that I did and...I wasn't a good person."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
One professor says that most of Trump's border wall is already built
Back to that notion of a wall between Mexico and the US.
We heard a lot of talk about plans to build a wall during the presidential campaign.
Now the election is over -- what happens to those plans?
Our next guest insists not only will that border wall BE built... he says much of it, in fact, is already there.
Peter Andreas wrote a column on this for the Washington Post.
He's a political science professor at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Relations.
Andreas spoke with Take Two's Alex Cohen
On the slippery definition of the word "wall"
At first glance the term wall seems very solid, in fact that's precisely why many Trump supporters like it. Because it seems very clear and solid and something formidable, but if you actually look up definitions of what a wall is, it's amazing how fuzzy the term can be.
For example, the Oxford dictionary says it's any high vertical surface especially one that is vertical in scale. By that definition it seems like there's a lot of wiggle room. It could be fencing, concrete, metal barriers of various sorts.
And then you look at what already have along the border: A 2,000 mile long border of which there's some form of barriers along almost 700 miles of it. Portions of it look like a pretty formidable metal wall. The polite word used in the pre-Trump world was a, "fence," or a, "barrier," but many people could also describe it as a wall.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
Ear Hustle - the podcast produced inside San Quentin State Prison
Earlier this year Radiotopia, a podcast network run by Public Radio Exchange (PRX), launched an open call for new podcast ideas.
More than 1,500 people from more than 50 countries submitted ideas ... like "The Difference Between," which dives into the world of “information doppelgängers” or "Do Over," a podcast about how your life could have turned out if you’d just done that one thing differently.
But the winner perhaps had the most unusual circumstances. "Ear Hustle," is a podcast produced by a team of three people, Earlonne Woods (left) , Antwan Williams (right) and Nigel Poor (center). Woods and Poor are the co-creators and co-hosts and Williams is the co-creator, co-host and sound designer.
https://blog.prx.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ear-hustle.jpg
What makes it so unusual is that Woods and Williams are both inmates at San Quentin State Prison in Northern California ... and the podcast is about life behind bars. Here's a promo clip provided by the producers:
https://soundcloud.com/stephen-95/2-min-1
We talked about the podcast with Nigel Poor, and how she got involved.
To listen to more, click on the blue bar above.