Dutch cartoonist Tjeerd Royards discusses the threats cartoonists face around the world. How the music was chosen for 'Selma,' and the impact it has in the film. Plus, remember when the VCR and CD player were big deals? We take a look back at the technology that has been debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show.
France's complicated history with Muslims
The suspects in the recent massacre at French magazine Charlie Hebdo are still at large.
Officials say they have ties to a larger to a terrorist group, possibly al-Qaeda.
But the incident has prompted violence against Muslims -- there were gun and grenade attacks on Thursday outside two mosques, for example, and community leaders told veiled women to avoid going out alone for their own safety.
Mayanthi Fernando, professor of anthropology at UC-Santa Cruz and author of "The Republic Unsettled: Islam, Secularism, and the Future of France," explains France's complicated history with its Muslim population -- one that's rife with tension, discrimination and, in this case, the scapegoating of a whole culture.
Remember the late gospel singer Andrae Crouch
Andrae Crouch was one of the biggest names in gospel music, winning seven Grammys during his career. He worked with the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna, and on iconic movies like "The Color Purple" and "The Lion King."
But, he was also a pastor at the New Christ Memorial Church - located in The San Fernando Valley. Crouch died yesterday of complications following a heart attack, at the age of 72.
Gospel singer and friend - Cece Winans - joins Deepa Fernandez on the line.
In the audio version of this story, it’s incorrectly stated that Andrae Crouch won seven Emmy Awards, when he actually won seven Grammy Awards. KPCC regrets the error.
Missing in Mexico: An LA woman searches for her lost brother
Against the backdrop of missing people in Mexico, a Los Angeles woman has been searching for her brother who disappeared more than a year ago in Jalisco, just one example of thousands of relatives who are dealing with the frustration of seeking answers and finding none.
Nansi Cisneros spends most of her time traveling between Mexico and L.A. trying to discover what happened to her younger brother, Javier, who disappeared in October 2013.
"You walk in and everyone is broken, everyone is destroyed," said Cisneros, on seeking her family the day after her brother went missing. "You can't even ask how you feel because you don't want to know the answer."
Cisneros' situation echoes that of relatives in the ongoing case of the 43 students who disappeared in Mexico last September, sparking protests on both sides of the border. (Cisneros' brother is not one of the 43.)
A phone call, a sudden change
Nansi Cisneros grew up in L.A., taking classes at Santa Monica College and dreaming of studying literature. Life changed the night she got the call saying her younger brother in Mexico had been taken by armed men after a bloody struggle outside their Jalisco home.
So desperate was Nansi's mother not to lose her child, she pleaded with the intruders to kill her son on the spot so she could keep his body and bury him. This was better than seeing her boy disappear into the unknown.
The cries of a mother did nothing. The gunmen bundled her son into a car. He's been missing ever since.
"At that moment, everything around me, my world, just crumbled," said Nansi Cisneros of getting the call. "I just wanted to be there. I wanted to close my eyes and be next to my mom."
She left L.A. by plane that night and arrived at her family's home in Tala, Jalisco, hours later. She found a household deeply traumatized by the events, still struggling to make sense of the sudden loss.
Javier Cisneros is one of thousands in Mexico whose disappearances remain unsolved. Recently, the case of 43 missing students in the state of Guerrero prompted widespread protests throughout Mexico and in some U.S. cities.
It has also presented Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto with the deepest challenge of his two-year-old presidency by highlighting a problem the country has been grappling with for years.
More than 26,000 people went missing in Mexico from 2006-2012, according to the Mexican government. In December, Peña Nieto announced a plan to reform the justice system and put local law enforcement under federal control. But there are questions about close ties between government officials and drug cartels.
A 2013 study looking at 152 incidents of missing persons found evidence of government involvement in over half of the cases.
Civilian forensic team
"We don't trust the government," said Graciela Perez Rodriguez, who helps run a citizen-led forensic team from her home in San Luis Potosí, north of Mexico City.
So far the group, called Ciencia Forense Ciudadana, has registered some 300 families in Mexico, said Rodriguez, including families of the missing students from Iguala, Guerrero. It gathers evidence and tracks clues to the cases.
"If we waited for them [the government] to do something, there would be nothing," said Rodriguez. "Your family member will remain a piece of paper at the public prosecutor's office."
Meanwhile, Nansi Cisneros and her family continue their search for Javier nearly 15 months after his disappearance.
Javier's case remains open and ongoing, according to the Fiscalía General del Jalisco, or the State Prosecutor's Office in Jalisco, who provided a written confirmation of his date of disappearance and tracking number.
Reached by phone, local investigators in Tala declined to provide details of the case to KPCC, citing privacy concerns.
The Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles said it only pursues cases of Mexican nationals who go missing within the U.S. and is not aware of Javier's specific case.
Nansi Cisneros said her family has gotten multiple threats by phone since she started pursuing the case. But she said that she plans to continue pushing.
"This situation is bigger than my brother. It's bigger than my family," said Cisneros. "We have a lot of people missing, so it's about finding everyone."
'The Test' examines history, pitfalls of high-stakes testing in schools
High-stakes standardized tests have become the way we gauge student academic achievement. It all comes down to the test, which can be anxiety-causing for students, teachers and even parents. What if your child is a terrible test taker? Or English is their second language? And when teachers are evaluated based on how well their students do, teaching to tests becomes the top priority.
Some hoped the move to the new Common Core system would alleviate the focus on testing ushered in with No Child Left Behind. But as NPR Education Blogger Anya Kamentz says, the reverse might be true.
Kamentz's new book "The Test," looks at the history and pitfalls of high-stakes testing.
"What I've found is what might seem benign in an upper-middle class setting, which is the fretting over and the prepping for testing, when you extrapolate that out over the whole school system, you’ve got some really serious problems," she said.
One of those big problems includes how much is riding on these tests, like who will continue on to the next grade, how a teacher's effectiveness in the classroom will be judged, or even whether a school could be closed. This makes the test a weaker way to measure an entire school, Kamentz said.
"The more consequences you hang on these tests, the weaker they become as actual objective measures. Because in fact, the more you're going to kind of distort the whole process of school and make it into a form of trying to game the test," she said.
President Obama proposes free community college
In a Facebook video message posted yesterday, President Obama announced a new proposal that would make community college free for two years:
Post by The White House.
There aren't too many details yet, but the President emphasized it would serve those "willing to work hard."
The White House says students would have to attend community college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing their program. Federal funding would cover three quarters of the cost and states would have to chip in the rest.
President of Long Beach City College, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, joins Take Two to talk about a similar program at Long Beach City College.
The music of 'Selma': scoring the civil rights movement
The new film "Selma" looks at a crucial chapter in the civil rights movement. The film chronicles the time that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent in the city of Selma, Alabama, campaigning for voting rights.
But, how does a filmmaker choose the music to represent one of the most important historical events in U.S. history?
That's a question "Selma" music supervisor, and Take Two regular,
, wrestled with when she was wading through thousands of tracks.
"I really feel like I didn't find these artists, these artists found me... I probably listened to a couple of thousand songs, and narrowed it down to about 300, and from 300, we chose about a dozen."
1965, the year of the Selma march, was also a key time in music, so Morgan had a lot to choose from. But "Selma's" director - Ava DuVernay - explained to her early on that she wanted to focus on using B-sides and underground hits.
"It allowed me to dig in the crates, to look for things that people may not have heard, or may not associate with the time, even if they associate the artists with the time. People always talk about the wall of sound, but what I associate with the '60s is the warmth of sound. Every single song sounded like there was a full orchestra in there with the artists."
She also found herself wanting to honor those who paved the way for her.
"In 1965, my parents were recent... college graduates, but in the deep South. So, I wanted to honor what I thought they might have experienced on a daily level. I just wanted to do right by them and you know, I think I've heard my mother say over and over again, we want you to learn from our lessons. And I wanted to let them know that they weren't lost on me. That the sacrifices weren't lost. So, seeing that, I thought I wasn't there, I wasn't born when this happened, I couldn't sound track it then. And there are great songs from that time, but I'm here now, and to be able to contribute in this way is a blessing and an honor and a dream."
So, she decided on tracks, including "I Got The New World In My View" by Sister Gertrude Morgan from 1957.
http://open.spotify.com/track/7nSx3Hht0uppoAOuy5yu8X
When the song is playing in the film, there's a group of black Selma residents, marching together to the courthouse in an attempt to vote.
"We found this song on a project called "Let's Make A Record." I like it because, just her story. She left her husband because she was answering a calling to preach. And became sort of a street evangelist, so it was just her and her tambourine. She's also an artist, a painter and all of her paintings reflected her love for a book in the Bible, Revelations. So, all of them speak to the new world, new Jerusalem. And I thought it tied in well, because people were marching for rights that they did not yet enjoy, but had a vision of the world that they wanted. And I thought that it was really a good fit."
One of the most harrowing scenes in "Selma" depicts what is known as Bloody Sunday, which took place on March 7, 1965. 600 protesters set out to march from Selma, to the capitol of Alabama, Montgomery. When they got to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, law enforcement officers ordered them to turn around. The protesters refused. The officers shot tear gas and stormed into the crowd, beating non-violent protesters, brutally.
For that scene in the movie, Morgan picked "Walk With Me" by Martha Bass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evh-n66--Tc
"I was attracted to the words "tedious journey" in this song. Because nothing was more tedious than that march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. You could describe it in a lot of ways, tedious, perilous, uncertain... This song, started out as a negro spiritual. So, I wanted something that belonged to generations of freedom fighters. And generations of struggle. Getting to that song was tough because... it's such a critical moment in the film, and it's such a historical moment in time, that I really really struggled with it."
Morgan turned to prayer.
"I actually called my mother one night because I was really struggling with this particular cue. And I said, "Pray for me, because I need to find this." And she said, "Remember that book that I gave you?" She'd given me a sort of daily journal that had some scriptures in the end. And so, I didn't read it that night, but when I woke up, I read the scripture for the day, and part of it said, "I am your strength and your song." And right after I read that, I got on line and I found this song on YouTube. And I started crying. I knew that this was the song. Not just a good song, but the right song. And I liked it, like I said, because it had traveled over the generations. From slaves singing it, to now, this critical moment in civil rights history."
At the end of the film, Morgan used a version of "This Little Light of Mine" performed by Selma Workers at a mass for Jimmie Lee Jackson and recorded by a documentarian at the time.
https://play.spotify.com/track/1udC3ExRJCyACNWj90LwFi
"I thought it was a good way to end over credits, so that you remember that there was a time... a significant time in 1965, even throughout all the songs that you hear, that the core of this movement was also faith. The faith and the humanity behind this movement. So, I thought This Little Light of Mine, it just had such resonance to me in my journey. And it gets into your spirit and it just gives you chills, because you're transported back to that time."
Political cartoonists frequently on front lines of political violence
The attack against the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo in Paris is just the latest in the threats faced by cartoonists around the world.
Internationally, cartoons have been a powerful tool in fomenting social movements and challenging power. But that has made cartoonists vulnerable to attack and violence.
Tjeerd Royaards, who edits the website Cartoon Movement, discusses what is done to protect these artists in parts of the world where they are routinely threatened.
Cartoonist contributed to this story.
Fox's 'Empire' sees hit TV debut with minority cast
The Fox television show "Empire" stars Terence Howard as a dying hip-hop mogul battling for control of his music empire with his ex-wife, played by Taraji B. Henson.
The show debuted Wednesday night to almost 10 million viewers, a number that ties it with ABC's "How To Get Away with Murder" as the most watched show debut of the season.
"Empire" has a largely African American cast, and the show, along with "How To Get Away with Murder," "Blackish" and "Jane the Virgin" headlines a season of successful programs with minority actors in lead roles.
Brian Lowry, TV critic and columnist for Variety, has more on this television trend.
Weekend on the cheap: psychedelic art, Cheeseburger week and learn to beekeep
We're less than 24 hours from the weekend ... so it's time to get your body ready.
Every Friday, our social media producer Kristen Lepore brings in her list of things in Southern California to relax or entertain you ... on the cheap! And she's here to help plan your your weekend.
Some highlights: trip out to art inspired by the book/movie "Inherent Vice," a roundtable of Golden Globe nominees for Best Foreign-Language film and a workshop to be an urban beekeeper.
Free weekend? '80s rock, graffiti art and Cheeseburger Week
Paris attacks: Two hostage sieges end, gunmen killed after police raids
Three gunmen, including the two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, were killed today as police ended two separate hostage sieges in and around Paris.
, Paris bureau chief for Bloomberg News, joined Take Two for an update on the latest news.