How California shaped Nancy Reagan and her influence on the Golden State, virtual reality and roller coasters, should young immigrants represent themselves in court?
Nancy Reagan's legacy — inside the White House and out of it
Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday in Los Angeles at 94, saw her share of controversies — and not just during her time in the White House.
Coming from Sacramento, she and her husband brought national attention to California. But her early years as the state's first lady didn't start smoothly.
After Ronald Reagan's election as governor of California in 1967, she persuaded her husband to move into a private residence in a wealthy Sacramento neighborhood instead of living in the Victorian house where previous governors had lived.
That upset many people, said Wesley Hussey, a professor at California State University, Sacramento. But the first lady slowly won them over.
“It made it seem like this Hollywood couple came in and the cow town of Sacramento wasn’t good enough for them,” said Wesley. “But Nancy Reagan worked really hard to win people over. She had open houses and she had parties. She'd invite local kids from the area. Movie stars would come up and as time went on, people liked the idea that the Reagans socialized and mixed with people.”
Controversies involving redecorating, astrology, AIDS and the war on drugs hounded the first lady in the White House. Following her husband’s death in 2004 from Alzheimer’s, she broke with the Republican Party and supported stem cell research.
Time medical reporter Alice Park explains: “[It] took many people by surprise when she actually came out in support of the research, and I think her words at that point were very telling. She said it was getting harder and harder to sort of watch the president as he struggled with Alzheimer's and no longer recognize her or remembered the life that they had shared together. And you know, she said given the promise of stem cell research I don't see how we can turn our backs on this.”
Park added, “What was so impactful was that she was doing that really from a more personal perspective than a political one.”
For more about the former first lady’s impact on California politics and stem cell research, listen to the full conversation above.
Can minors represent themselves in Federal immigration court?
It's the headline that's been blowing up on the Internet: "This judge says toddlers can defend themselves in immigration court."
The source of that statement, a Federal Assistant Chief Immigration judge named Jack Weil.
His incendiary remarks came about last fall as part of a deposition in a court case brought by advocates seeking government-appointed attorneys for young immigrants.
Needless to say, it hasn't gone over well with many.
Kevin Johnson, Dean of the UC Davis school of law, joined the show for more.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
On the Lot: Zootopia hits with kids and adults
Disney's latest animation feature, Zootopia, looks like just another talking animal movie. But it trounced everything else at the box office this weekend, and one reason was its cross-generational appeal.
It's always tough to make a movie that kids will like and adults can stomach, but Zootopia manages to go well beyond that, offering wry social commentary and sharp cultural references while entertaining everyone from toddlers to toddling boomers.
It also solidifies Disney's comeback as the undisputed heavyweight champion of animation. Ten years ago, the studio was moribund, and they shelled out $7.4 billion to purchase Pixar. Since then, the "Pixar Way," has been adopted by the studios legacy animation division. Filmgoers and stock holders are both happy with the results.
Run River North’s new sound came with growing pains
A little over two years ago we did an interview with the Los Angeles based band Run River North, a six person outfit from the San Fernando Valley. One of the things that made them stand out on their first album is that they filmed a music video, instruments and all, stuffed inside a moving Honda.
After their music video was released, they blew up. It got Honda's attention, so the car company booked the band a gig on Jimmy Kimmel, and then recorded it as an ad.
It's been a few years, but they're back with a new album "Drinking From A Salt Pond" and it's different than what they did before. It's no surprise that the evolution of a young band can be a fraught one... especially when there are six young people involved.
Recently Alex Hwang and Daniel Chae joined A Martinez to talk about that evolving relationship and what it's meant for their music.
To hear the entire interview click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall like a 'Third World country prison,' says new report
Los Angeles County's Juvenile Hall system has been described as a leaderless operation with conditions similar to a "Third World country prison."
That's according to a damning report about the system, written about in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.
The report was compiled by Azael "Sal" Martinez, a Boyle Heights community leader, who was tasked, as part of the 15-member Probation Commission, to look into the three Juvenile Hall campuses in LA. Martinez is himself a product of the system and was incarcerated at juvenile hall as a teenager, according to the Times.
His findings at the Boyle Heights site highlight problems not only with the poor conditions in the building, but also with staff accountability.
Alex Cohen spoke to Times' Garret Theroff about the report and what officials are saying about the deplorable conditions the kids in juvenile hall are living in.
To hear the whole interview, please click on the blue player above
Scientists, volunteers hope to boost water for bighorn sheep at Marine base
At the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, scientists and volunteers have installed guzzlers, a kind of water trough, to give Bighorn sheep and some of the other critters who live on the base a way to find a drink.
It's all part of a bigger five-year natural resource plan for the base.
Bighorn sheep have called the California desert home for thousands of years and recent conservation efforts have helped the population bounce back by 80 percent, according to the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep. Still, wildlife officials say the animals are vulnerable to loss of habitat, urbanization and disease.
Joining us with more is Andrew Haughan, information officer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Robots and Soccer: A match made in tech-heaven
At Caltech last year, robots dueled it out over buckyballs on water. On Tuesday, a new set of droids will battle over soccer balls.
The 31st annual Engineering Design Competition pits teams of student-made robots against each other in a soccer match at Caltech. They'll be competing for the Tridroid Cup.
"First of all, we should say that the word 'soccer' is a proxy here for something far more complex," explained Caltech instructor Michael Mello. "Each team is tasked to create a small fleet of robotic vehicles and there are a number of obstacles in the field. There are at least 12 soccer balls at one given time."
Shiela Lo was part of last year's winning team, when competitors had to build robots that could collect as many floating buckyballs on a pond and bring them to designated scoring zones.
This year, she's helping other students compete. What wisdom could she impart?
"[I learned] how to get back up on your feet," said Lo. "I think that just because your robot sinks, at least in our case, it doesn't necessarily mean that you know you should give up completely. It means that you need to come up with a better solution to a very, very difficult problem. Last year, after we figured out that we won the competition, it was quite a shock to us because the round previously we actually sank."
Is robot soccer as awesome as it sounds? Tune in on Tuesday as A Martinez reports from the match. For now, you can learn more about the competition when you listen to the full conversation above.
Research team creates stretchable luminescent 'skin' that could be used to help robots feel
A scientific development inspired by an octopus.
A research team at Cornell University has created an extremely stretchable luminescent fabric or "skin," as the group has called it, that could be used to help robots feel.
It could also lead to advancements in areas like healthcare and transportation.
Rob Shepherd is an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell and leads the group that developed it. He joined the show explain the project and what octopuses have to do with it.
Interview highlights:
What can it do?
"It can do two things at the same time, which is what is new. It can feel it's strain, so if you push on it, it can sense that. And it can also emit light from the same areas it feels with."
Describe the 'skin' that your team created ?
"Well, it feels a lot like silicon caulking that you might put in your bathroom. It's a really soft rubber that you can stretch to 600% of it's initial shape."
Explain how the Octopus helped inspire the idea for this "skin?"
"An octopus has the same problem our robots do. They're really sensitive to predators and they're made up of a wholly soft tissue. So, they really need to disguise themselves quite a bit. And to do that they use three mechanisms, obviously they change their color but they also change their posture...and they change their skin texture...Our soft robots, also stretch a lot and so if Ocotopuses can stretch a lot and change their colors, then maybe our soft robots can too and that's where the analogy came from."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSq8nghQZqA
How far away are we from seeing any of this stuff, be common?
"In terms of a soft robotic caregiver that changes it's skin color, that's still a far way away. But in the near term we're focusing on wearable displays and what we're calling vanishing interfaces."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Get ready for virtual reality on a roller coaster
On March 26, The New Revolution will go boldly where no roller coaster in Los Angeles has gone before: into the realm of virtual reality.
It's part of Samsung's recently announced partnership to pair its VR technology with various roller coasters at Six Flags theme parks.
The goal is to transport users, who will wear a virtual reality headset while they're strapped into the stomach-churning coaster, to another world.
"You're moving like you would move on a roller coaster, but in this case you're also doing something like fighting to save earth from aliens, or in the case of a few roller coasters, fighting Lex Luther and sort of acting as Superman in a Superman-themed world," Lindsey Turrentine, editor-in-chief of CNET, tells A Martinez.
"On a roller coaster when that roller coaster action and movement is actually baked into the experience, it's kind of this cool use of motion married with story telling."
This is a big year for VR as more technology companies work to make the technology appealing and affordable for a general audience.
Gear VR is one of the first headsets released by a large company and Samsung hopes the theme park tie-in will help put the product on the map. Turrentine says that Samsung wants to introduce its cheaper headset before more powerful and expensive models arrive from companies like Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, and Sony.
In addition to video games and roller coasters, consumers can also expect to see VR experiences paired with live sports, travel and professional training.
If you're like A Martinez and you're turned off by the idea of hundreds of sweaty people wearing a VR headset before you, Turrentine offers reassurance: "Six Flags says that they have enough for these select roller coasters that they'll be able to clean them between rides."
To hear the entire conversation between A Martinez and Lindsey Turrentine click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot': Finding comedy in war reporting
The new film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is about a television producer, played by Tina Fey, who toils away at her job at a major network. One day her boss calls her and some of her colleagues in to talk about a plan to cover the war in Afghanistan.
At first it's a world she finds impossible to navigate, eventually it becomes a place she finds nearly impossible to leave.
The film is based on the book "The Taliban Shuffle" by journalist Kim Barker, about her time reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Chicago Tribune.
Barker says the movie is accurate with what goes on behind the scenes when reporting war, but there is a major difference between Barker and Fey's character.
"She tends to run towards explosions," Barker tells Take Two's Alex Cohen, "I tend to run away from them and cower in the corner."
Interview Highlights
On how Barker grabbed the opportunity to go overseas
Barker: I swear you know myself and another female reporter, we went out one night and plotted. We wrote down how many people were being sent out and whether they were men or women, and overwhelmingly men were getting sent out and women weren't getting the chance.
Our editor at the time Ann Marie Lipinski said in a meeting, "Why aren't we trying out more women overseas?" That's when I said, "Yeah, my name is Kim Barker, I'm a metro reporter, I'm single, I'm childless and therefore expendable, and I'll go anywhere you want to send me.
On how to cope with war while on the ground
Barker: I don't know if there was ever a world outside of being a reporter over there, you were pretty much reporting 24/7. I mean even if you're out in a social situation. It's like when you're dealing with such stressful things as a journalist -- covering suicide bombs, covering kids who get addicted to heroin -- you're dealing with these stories and there's no real way to have release, it's not like you can go to the gym...you constantly feel you've got this really constricted restrictive life.
So yeah we had parties, a lot of people would let loose at these parties. We drink to forget, you'd drink to numb out. You'd drink just because you drank at night. You know the next day was rinse and repeat, and you would do it all over again.
On the portrayal of female journalists in movies
Barker: I mean take a look at [Netflix's] House of Cards, you know she's sleeping around with sources to get a story. Female journalists are often portrayed like that, like we're not serious journalists.
But some of the best journalism that has come out of Afghanistan since 9/11 was done by women -- Carlotta Goll of the New York Times, Pam Constable from the Washington Post, Cathy Gannon at AP, and I think that's in large part because women have access to the entire population in a way that male reporters just don't. We talk to the women, and tell women's stories in a way that men will never get them to tell...