Political roundtable dissects the CA primary outcome, WeHo's Pride festival divides LGBT community, does Tarantula venom hold the key to better pain medication?
The great big California primary roundtable
Six states went to the polls yesterday. When the dust settled, four of them, including California, went to Hillary Clinton, helping her secure the Democratic nomination
Clinton claimed victory in a speech last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI50qgYYqMM
Despite this, her opponent, Bernie Sanders, told supporters last night, "The struggle continues." He has vowed to stay in the race.
Meanwhile in California, Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez are the last women standing in the race to replace Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate.
For an in-depth look at yesterday's events and what it all means going forward, Take Two assembled a special panel:
- Louis DeSipio, professor of political science and Chicano studies at UC Irvine
- Bill Whalen, research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
- Lisa Garcia Bedolla, Chancellor's Professor of Education and Political Science at UC Berkeley
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview
Young voters react to a historic California primary
Politicians in all parties want to appeal to young voters.
Two Two checked in with two who have followed the campaigns closely this election season:
- Mary Perez, political science student at the University of Southern California. She's also the new vice president for the USC GOP.
- Kelsey Brewer, recent political science graduate from Cal. State Fullerton
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Making history: Hillary Clinton becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee
Despite some problems voters faced at the polls and Bernie Sanders' pledge to stay in the race, for Hillary Clinton and her supporters, it's a moment to pause and take note that history has been made.
With last night's achievement, Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, making her the first woman in American history to claim the nomination of a major political party.
For more on this historic moment, Nancy L. Cohen, author of "Breakthrough: The Making of America's First Female President" joined the show.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
For more on Nancy's book, please find the excerpt below.
BREAKTHROUGH: The Making of America's 1st Woman President
Sports Roundup: Sharapova suspended and the NBA Finals continue
In Take Two's weekly round up of sports news, Andy and Brian Kamanetzky discuss the NBA championship, transparency in basketball and the two-year suspension of tennis star Maria Sharapova. She tested positive for the banned substance, meldonium back in January.
Changes to LA Pride festival divide West Hollywood community
It's National Pride Month, and the LA Pride festival is this weekend in West Hollywood.
But the festival, organized by local non-profit Christopher Street West, has drawn some less-than-positive community reaction this year. The festival was rebranded this year as a music festival, ticket prices are higher, and a couple of events were canceled.
Some community members were not pleased with the changes. They approached the West Hollywood City Council in the spring with concerns. Christopher Street West did make changes to this year’s festival after community feedback. And earlier this week, the council decided to hold two community meetings this summer to collect input and explore further changes to the festival.
“I brought the item to the city council because the community members had come to council and were not happy about what Pride was looking like, and we decided to have these forums come summer so that we would have more time to evaluate what Pride should look like in the future,” said West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister.
Henry Scott, publisher of Wehoville.com, joined us for more.
Take Two reached out to Christopher Street West but representatives did not respond before airtime. They did get in touch after the show and they sent this statement:
"LA PRIDE continues to focus on creating an experience for the entire LGBTQ community, to honor our past and to celebrate our future through our three-day Festival and signature Sunday Parade. Our events celebrate the LGBTQ community through music, arts, culture and programming from free events to ticketed experiences. While there has been some controversy surrounding changes made to this year, Christopher Street West’s (CSW) goal has always been to foster a sense of community, to educate the community on current social issues and to entertain all.
Despite Mr. Scott’s inaccurate comments on the organization’s tax records and Board Membership information being public, CSW has in fact made public its tax returns from previous years up through 2014 as well as providing a list of all current Board Members. We also regularly engage both City Council as well as community leaders and organizations in planning out each year’s events and encourage the public to continue to be involved in this planning process. Our Board is made up of a diverse collection of Volunteers who reflect our diverse community and work tirelessly on creating the best Pride experience each year. We look forward to having you join us in celebrating this diversity from June 10th-June 12th."
Did voter turnout live up to expectations in CA?
There were some high hopes for voter turnout in California's presidential primary election on Tuesday.
That's because of the massive late surge of registered voters this primary election season.
The California Secretary of State's office reported that the state's voter rolls grew by almost 650,000 in the last six weeks before the deadline. That brought California's total voter registration count to nearly 18 million.
A statewide Field Poll released this Monday estimated that 45 percent of those registered voters would show up to the polls across California.
Preliminary data shows that turnout in L.A. County did improve, but still fell short of that 45 percent prediction.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- Chris Keller, KPCC Data Editor
- Kim Alexander, President of the California Voter Foundation
Here's how tarantula venom can help make better pain meds
Here are two words that don't usually go together: Venom and library. Venom library.
Somewhere in Australia, the venom of some creepy, crawly critters like snakes, spiders and scorpions, is being housed in the name of science and research.
In fact, this venom library has been extremely helpful to scientists right here in California. The team at UC San Francisco's David Julius Lab has discovered that the tarantula, of all creatures, could actually help improve pain medication.
David Julius, who runs the lab, says that understanding how toxins target pain mechanisms inside the body, could lead to the development of new pain meds.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
The Styled Side: making s'mores and skirts at fashion camp
Summer is here, and that means summer vacation for some of us.
But how does is sound to head out to the woods to Camp Givenchy?
That doesn't really exist, but Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily says summer camps in SoCal have gone couture.
"There are fashion camps where kids can indulge their inner fashion designer," she says. "There are mini-workshops for kids to create, cut and sew, and they work on projects like skirts and bags from start to finish."
One of the original fashion camps is, appropriately, Fashion Camp in Orange County.
Started in 2010 by Erin Bianchi Hibbert, a former executive for Bloomingdale's, it's grown exponentially every year in part because of shows like Project Runway that have fueled kids' interests.
There is also Fashion Camp Los Angeles, started by former Parson alum Courtney Alexander, which looks at camp as way for kids to explore the fashion industry deeper and see whether or not it's something they might like to do as a career.
Retailer Mood Fabrics, which many Project Runway watchers recognize as the spot contestants go for materials, offers everything from sketch classes to fashion camps and sewing classes.
"This trend is here to stay: people want to make their own things, kids and adults," says Tyree.