The digital divide during an election year, CalTech's 31st annual robot soccer competition, remembering sci-fi and horro legen, Octavia Butler.
Sanders surprise win in Michigan hints at tough race ahead
On the Republican side, Donald Trump came out a big winner, taking three states: Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii. Ted Cruz won in Idaho, continuing a contentious race for the GOP nominee.
For Democrats, Hillary Clinton won by a big margin in Mississippi, but the biggest surprise of the night came in Michigan where rival Bernie Sanders defied polls and took the state. For more on how the race is shaping up, we're joined by two guests:
Keith Laing, Washington Correspondent for The Detroit News
Amber Jamieson, reporter at Guardian US
Digital divide could leave a third of Americans behind this election year
Hot on the heels of his victory in Michigan, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will gather in Miami tonight for another debate-- this one set to simulcast on both Univision and CNN
Florida is a critical state for both campaigns:
246 delegates are at stake.
And there is no second place.
While television continues to play a major role in political campaigns, the internet has become an essential source of political news.
But about a third of Americans don't have a broadband connection in their home.
That's raised new concerns about the gap known as the "digital divide."
For a closer look at the challenges facing voters who don't have easy internet access, senior researcher with Pew Research Center John Horrigan, joined the show to discuss.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Sports roundup: shake up in UFC champ race, Sharapova defends drug use, Clippers mascot takes flight
UFC's Holly Holm stunned the sport just four months ago by beating the dominant Ronda Rousey, but now her reign is over after a stunning loss. Will the Rousey v. Holm rematch still happen? Also, what's next for star tennis player Maria Sharapova after admitting using a recently-banned drug?
For more, we're joined by
.
Robot soccer match at Caltech draws crowds
On Monday, A Martinez previewed the robot soccer match that Caltech put on yesterday. Well, it's time for a followup. A went to the eventful match, which was filled with frustration, fire and destruction.
Click here to see the breakdown.
The life and legacy of Octavia Butler — and 5 stories you should read
It’s been a decade since science fiction writer Octavia Butler passed away.
The California native fell in love with storytelling as a kid at the Pasadena Library, and later grew up to be the only sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Genius Fellowship. She was also the first African American woman in the genre to achieve international fame.
According to her friend and fellow writer Steven Barnes, Butler anticipated the challenges of presenting black characters in her stories.
“In her early novels, they would put green people or aliens on the covers of her books,” Barnes said.
“Or blond, white women,” added Tananarive Due, also a friend of Butler’s.
As a teacher and another African American female author, Due knows firsthand how influential Butler’s work is.
“I wish I had discovered Octavia's work when I was a learning writer,” Due said. “When I wrote my first novel, I had no idea whether or not there would be an audience for speculative fiction — speculative fiction being science fiction, fantasy or horror novel — with black characters, you know, not necessarily intended for black readers.”
Barnes said that science fiction’s paucity of African American writers and its nature of extrapolating where society is going had an impact on Butler’s love for the genre.
“I also think that she had a nutty sense of humor and enjoyed watching aliens kill people,” he said.
Butler published 15 novels and two short story collections over her lifetime. Here are just five of her works that you need to read:
1. "Bloodchild"
Butler’s 1985 novella, a story set in a world where aliens dominate and humans are subjugated, won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
2. "Parable of the Sower"
"If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it’s one written in the past that has already begun to come true. This is what makes The Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published," wrote Gloria Steinem about Butler's Nebula Award-winning novel. It's about the powerful, middle class and homeless coexisting in a future California.
3. "Speech Sounds"
Butler's rise to fame began when she won a Hugo Award for the shorty story "Speech Sound" in 1984.
4. "Kindred"
This time-travel-cum-historical-fiction addresses the theme of slavery. Butler became a full-time writer after the novel was published in 1979.
5. "The Evening and the Morning and the Night"
This won the Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette in 1988.
Butler's life will be celebrated all year by a series of events by Clockshop in Frogtown, starting tomorrow night with a talk at the Los Angeles Public Library: Octavia E. Butler's Los Angeles. Click here for more information, and watch the videos below.
Can immigrants threaten a presidential candidate?
Some people do not like presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Few of them have to leave the U.S. altogether.
Egyptian man Emadeldin Elsayed posted about Trump on Facebook, "I literally don't mind taking a lifetime sentence in jail for killing this guy, I would actually be doing the whole world a favor."
Elsayed was in the U.S. on a student visa for a flight training school in El Monte. But that post led to his arrest by immigration authorities, the threat of deportation and now his decision to leave the country voluntarily.
Michael Kagan, professor of law at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, says there are limits to the First Amendment.
"It is a crime to threaten the President or me, for that matter. But the question is if there's reasonable belief the person will act on it," says Kagan. "Statements like the Egyptian student's may be judged as crass, but it's usually been seen as political hyperbole as opposed to an actual threat by the courts."
Kagan believes Elsayed's post could be defensible in court, had the case progressed that far.
He points out that in 2007, singer Ted Nugent said of then-candidate Barack Obama, "He's a piece of s***. I told him to suck on my machine gun."
Nugent was never arrested.
However, Kagan suspects there is a different reason why Elsayed was detained.
"I actually think that those comments were legal," he argues, "but the fact that it was made by an Arab man made people find it more threatening than say, when a threat is made by Donald Trump or Ted Nugent."
The case is also complicated because Elsayed was neither a U.S. citizen nor a legal permanent resident.
"Free speech is very murky when it comes to immigration," he says. "The Supreme Court has not been crystal clear about the degree to which the First Amendment extends to all immigrants."
They are on shaky ground if they speak out, and Kagan worries that immigrants – legally temporary ones such as Elsayed but also undocumented immigrants – could be punished for being politically active.
"The fact that this person is a foreigner is what allowed the government to push him out and essentially punish him for speech that they probably could not have penalized if it had been said by a citizen."
Senate leader pledges to maintain environmental advancements
The South Coast Air Quality board says it plans to introduce more industry-friendly pollution rules.
And one Senate leader has pledged to combat their intiatives.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León says he will sponsor legislation to prevent a rollback of the environmental gains that California has made in recent years.
For more on this, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Tony Barboza. He covers air quality and the environment for the Los Angeles Times.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
The Styled Side: The growing market for plus-sized women
For larger women, clothes are out there but they're not so great.
That's what they have to say about offerings in the fashion world: 74 percent of plus-sized women say they are "frustrated" with shopping, and 65 percent said they felt "excluded."
By contrast, there are some small cultural movements making these women more visible.
Ashley Graham, a plus-sized model, recently landed a spot in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
"It's a sign that the tipping point has been reached," says Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily. "Plus-size models and fashion are gaining acceptance in the fashion community."
The problem is that acceptance has not kept up with demand.
"The industry isn't known for being inclusive, and plus-size models haven't been considered 'aspirational,'" says Tyree. "Also, designers have long said that creating plus-sizing would be a hit on their bottom line because they would have to create new patterns and samples."
There are a growing number of options, some powered by social media stars.
- Gabi Gregg, the founder of Gabifresh, has been doing incredibly successful swimsuit collaborations with Swimsuits For All for a few seasons. She just launched the 2016 collection earlier this year.
- Hey Gorgeous, started by blogger Aimee Cheshire, is an online multi-brand retailer carrying plus-size lines from size 10-26. Some of the labels they carry include: 17 Sundays, Single, Lauren Moshi, ABS by Allen Schwartz and more.
- Retailers such San Francisco-based Modcloth has its own dedicated section for plus-sized women.
- ASOS Plus is a line from the hugely popular Brit-based retailer ASOS that ships to the U.S.
- Beth Ditto from the band The Gossip launched her own line in February.
Nearly all these lines are available online only, however, and Tyree says a lack of selection from brick-and-mortar stores is a problem for the fashion industry.
"This market really so ripe for the picking and I'm shocked that we haven't seen more from retailers."