Trayvon Martin rallies spur vandalism, arrests; Top Zetas cartel leader captured in Mexico; Is Gavin Newsom stuck in political purgatory as California's lt. governor?; Tracing Oscar Grant's last day in 'Fruitvale Station'; Why aren't quinoa growers keeping up with rising demand? Plus much more.
Trayvon Martin rallies spur vandalism, arrests
Fourteen people were arrested last night after a peaceful protest turned violent in South L.A. Demonstrators in Leimert Park had been protesting the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, but a smaller group broke away from the gathering and went on to break windows and stomp on cars.
The Zimmerman verdict also sparked unruly demonstrations in Oakland. Protestors there briefly blocked a freeway, spray painted graffiti, burned an American flag and set off illegal fireworks.
Meanwhile, there have been no such violent outbursts in Sanford Florida, where Trayvon Martin was fatally shot.
KPCC's Erika Aguilar joins the show with an update on the latest, and L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, who represents the Crenshaw area, and has been among the many official voices urging calm.
Tracing Oscar Grant's last day in 'Fruitvale Station'
It was early in the morning on New Year's Day in 2009, a young man, Oscar Grant III, was shot in the back by a transit officer on the platform of Oakland's Fruitvale BART station.
"Fruitvale Station," is 27-year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler's fictionalized account of Grant's last day. Coogler joins Take Two to talk about the what inspired him to make the film and how the Grant incident affected him personally.
Interview Highlights:
On why the shooting motivated him to make the film:
"It was all about humanity. I was in the Bay Area when the incident happened, and how everybody was introduced to it was video footage. Watching that footage of what happened to Oscar Grant brought everyone a little closer to the incident. It made us witness to it."
On how the Oscar Grant story affected him:
"For me, it triggered a variety of emotions, from frustration to shock to madness to helplessness. All these things were compounded because I felt close to Oscar. He was the same age as me, an African-American male from the East Bay area, his friends looked like my friends, he wore the same type of clothes I wore. I wanted to bring people in close proximity to Oscar and show them his relationships. Through those relationships, I hope that people will see a little of themselves in the character. I hope that the thought process in leaving that is people thinking about the way they treat the people they love and people they don't know."
On compiling Oscar Grant's last day:
His day was pretty simple. It was a really domestic day, which in many ways played to what we were trying to show. We wanted to show who he was through the lens of the people who mattered the most to him. In that hierarchy, it came to his daughter, his girlfriend and his mom. These three women in his life.
On filming the scene depicting Grant's shooting:
"It was hard after seeing this man shot so many times, re-watching the cell phone video over and over. We tried to do our due diligence in terms of research. BART was very open to us with the project, they didn't want to be a blockade. They let us shoot in the actual facilities. It was a very difficult shoot. We had to shoot when the train wasn't running, so we had to break it up over three or four-hour days. We basically had from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m."
Top Zetas cartel leader captured in Mexico
A major blow to has been dealt to the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico. On Monday, Mexican naval special forces captured that group's leader: Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, known by his street name Z-40.
Here to tell us more about what his capture means is Sylvia Longmire, author of "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars"
What happens in the brain of someone suffering from amnesia?
You've seen it in the movies: A man wakes up and has no idea who he is or how he got there.
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Total Recall" and Hitchcock's "Spellbound" are just a few films that deal with amnesia. But in real life, amnesia is rare.
Earlier this year, a man was found unconscious in Palm Springs Motel. He was speaking Swedish and called himself Johan Ek, but a Florida ID listed him as Michael Boatwright.
He has no idea how he got to Palm Springs and has no recollection of his previous life. Doctors have diagnosed him with Transient Global Amnesia, but after four months, he still has no recall.
To explain what is happening in his brain, we turn to Jason Brandt, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Jay-Z, Killer Mike with El-P, and Boogaloo Assassin
It's time for Tuesday Reviewsday our weekly new music segment. This week we're joined by music critic Oliver Wang from Soul-Sides.com.
Artist: Jay-Z
Album: Magna Carta Holy Grail
Songs: "Picasso Baby," "Somewhere in America"
Jay-Z's new album, part of that Samsung Galaxy 4 deal that was marred with tech problems the day of the album's supposed release. The album's gotten "ok" reviews but the general feeling is that there's isn't much — musically — that Jay-Z has left to do and his albums are kind of snoozy as a result.
Hip-hop needs some level of hunger and when you're Jay-Z, how hungry could you possibly be at this point? Also, he recently did a six hour video shoot/performance art piece at PACE in New York, basically rapping "Picasso Baby" over and over with invited guests and gawkers, Marina Abramovic style. -- Oliver Wang
Artist: Killer Mike with El-P
Album: "Run The Jewels"
Song: "Banana Clipper"
Maybe one of the best pairings since the days in which Chuck D and the Bomb Squad were rolling together, Killer Mike and El-P have worked together before (El-P produced Mike's excellent "Rap Music" album from last year), but this is the first time the two share equal billing and mic time. Loud, angry, brash, chaotic…all adjectives to describe their sound. Very politically infused at a time where this feels very rare amongst other rap artists. -- Oliver Wang
Artist: Boogaloo Assassin
Album: "Old Loves Dies Hard"
Song: "No No No"
Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes for the group's album (their debut) but I've been fans of them since first hearing them about 5-6 years ago when they used to do a regular gig at The Mint in mid-city. Despite being from the Westside, the Assassins have really nailed the sound of East Harlem's Latin boogaloo sound from the mid 1960s. It's a sound that artists around the country, including in New Orleans and New York, have been steadily rediscovering and resurrecting. "No No No" takes Dawn Penn's classic reggae ballad and gives it the Latin soul makeover. -- Oliver Wang
Senate compromises to avoid changing filibuster rules
In today's check-in on Capitol Hill, it looks like there is a deal in the Senate to avoid a showdown vote that would change the filibuster rules.
This would shoot down a nuclear option that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has been threatening to invoke. He and other Democrats say Republicans have used Senate rules to unfairly deny approving people President Obama has appointed to executive positions.
Shane Goldmacher covers Congress for the National Journal, and joins the show from Washington.
Is Gavin Newsom stuck in political purgatory as California's lt. governor?
For the next two weeks, Gavin Newsom is in charge while Governor Jerry Brown goes on vacation in Europe. Filling in while the head honcho is away is one of the top duties of the lieutenant governor.
In fact, it's one of the only things a lieutenant governor does. That may mean Gavin Newsom feels a bit bored, to say the least.
The former mayor of San Francisco was once seen as a rising star in the Democratic party, but these days, he seems stuck in political purgatory. L.A. Times reporter Michael Mishak joins the show to tell us why.
The impact of Fuller Theological Seminary's sanctioned LGBT group
LGBT clubs are quite common on university campuses, unless your university is a religious one.
Nick Palacios of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena is hoping to change that. He is the incoming president of a group called One Table, the first LGBT student club sanctioned by a major evangelical seminary.
Palacios joins Take Two to talk about One Table's goal, his views on how the church is handling the gay rights movement and how his group reconciles the church's beliefs with LGBT issues.
Interview Highlights:
On how One Table came about:
"It started in the 2011-2012 school year, when a couple of students in conjunction with a few faculty and staff decided now is the time to provide a more safe, generous space in order for the entire Fuller community to really engage this conversation -- to really get the heart of the issues that are going on."
On what makes this group at a religious school different from others at non-religious college campuses:
"One Table doesn't necessarily exist to promote the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people. What we really exist to do is to bring multiple people from across the spectrum of religion to the table in order to engage in conversation about what it looks like to reconcile faith and sexuality and gender identity."
On how the group's members reconcile Fuller's policies with their core beliefs:
"With the existing policies that Fuller has, we absolutely respect those. We respect people, both students and Fuller staff, as they continue to have dialogue around these issues -- whether or not that means the policy changes or it doesn't. That's not what One Table seeks to do. We seek to continue to remain in that tension in conversing about one another's lives and what that looks like to seek after God and seek after community — seeking after the poor and the oppressed and how we can do that together even when we disagree."
On the difficulties of balancing the school's beliefs with LGBT issues:
"It's not always easy to look across the table at somebody who doesn't affirm some of your core beliefs. I think, for me, it's about whether or not somebody the hermeneutic and the way that I've approached sort of reconciling my own faith-journey with my own sexual orientation. That can sometimes be discouraging. The same goes for the person who's straight, who is demonized by the LGBT person. What that means to suffer, it's not just unique to the LGBT. It really is an experience that all of our members and faculty and staff experience. Being implicated into each other's suffering really goes a long way of bridging one another's conversation."
On whether he's worried about potential backlash from evangelical churches:
"I do believe that the church is not called to be a hostile environment. Similarly, religious institutions I believe should be where multiple opinions and scholarship are welcome. I believe that One Table has postured itself as a model in framing the conversation in a different way. And, I hope that as the wider church continues to go down paths of conversation that can often end in enmity and polarity -- that they can really prioritize the relationship and they can really prioritize seeking God together and seeking those on the margins together, and that will really draw them in."
On how the church is weighing in on homosexuality right now:
"I think the fact that the church is weighing in is the most significant event that's taking place as of late. As one person, I can't speak on behalf of the wider Christendom because (there are) definitely ebbs and flows in every community ... But, what I am encouraged by is the fact that more and more people are coming to the table for conversation."
Discovering religion and anti-homosexualism in 'God Loves Uganda'
The Outfest film festival is an annual event where filmmakers show movies that, according to the event's organizers, promote equality and understanding. One of this year's most talked-about films is "God Loves Uganda," which profiles American evangelicalism and anti-homosexualism in Uganda.
Filmmaker Roger Williams traveled to Uganda expecting homophobia in the religious community there, but found out the issue was much more complex. He joins the show to talk about his discoveries.
Study: Health advice websites may track, share searches with third parties
People think nothing of running to the Internet to investigate aches and pains, but what they may not know is that health websites can track their searches and share them with third parties.
Concerns about medical privacy have led the Illinois Attorney General to open an inquiry into the data-mining practices of health sites like WebMD and health.com. With more is Marco Huesch, who teaches health care policy at the University of Southern California and did a study about privacy on these health sites, using himself as the test subject.
Between December 2012 and January 2013, Huesch used freely available privacy tools to detect traffic to third party sites while he browsed 20 free medical advice websites. Huesch found that every single site had at least one third-party element, the average being six or seven. Thirteen of the websites had one or more tracking elements, but no tracking elements were found on doctor-oriented sites connected to professional groups.
"Failure to address these concerns may diminish trust in health-related websites and reduce the willingness of some people to access health-related information online," the study concludes.
Huesch also found that searches were leaked to third-party tracking groups by seven of the 20 websites. Interestingly, search terms were not leaked when done on U.S. government sites or four of the five physician-oriented sites, according to the study results.
Huesch said you don't have to quit your health sites. Web surfers can protect their privacy through freely available tools such as DoNotTrackMe and Ghostery.
New Mexico’s colonial history offers clues to a rare genetic disease
In the Southwest, a rare genetic disorder known as the common Hispanic mutation has haunted those of Spanish descent for nearly 400 years. Its nickname is "El Frio", or the cold.
For the first time, researchers are looking into the genealogy of the disease and hoping for treatment. Tristan Ahtone from the Fronteras Desk has this report.
Why aren't quinoa growers keeping up with rising demand?
Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, protein-rich grain-like seed that has become quite popular among healthy eaters in the U.S.
But the high demand is having some unintended consequences worldwide. Business reporter Lydia DePillis, who wrote about the quinoa problem in the Washington Post, joins the show with more.