A look at what it might mean for reporters if Trump should become Commander-in-Chief, Sally Field's new role, a photo exhibit showcasing 30 of LA's unsung heroes.
Dueling with "The Donald" over Trump University
Say what you will about GOP front-runner Donald Trump, but one thing he knows how to do is draw attention to himself.
But recently he’s come under fire for one of his past business ventures – Trump University.
Its an enterprise that LA Times reporter David Lazarus knows all too well, because Trump once tried to get Lazarus fired over an article about Trump U.
Lazarus talked to Alex Cohen about it, and he began by explaining what Trump University actually is.
The relationship between the press and the commander-in-chief
Donald Trump frequently refers to the media as "dishonest scum."
Last month, at a rally in Fort Worth Texas, Trump said if elected, he would make big changes to current libel law.
Here's what he said:
"...So when The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected."
Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute joined the show for more on the relationship between the president and the press and what Donald Trump might or might not be able to do to change that.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
What an election year means for those in the political impersonation business
As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
And in a presidential election season, especially an unusual one like this, it pays to be an impersonator.
In fact, there are so many opportunities for those who bear a resemblance to a candidate, that you can actually make a living just booking such impersonators.
That's what Dustin Gold does. He's a talent manager for political impersonators who got into the business back in 2009. The kinds of gigs his clients get booked for include corporate events, late night shows and online sketches.
This election cycle, Gold says, "nobody's calling and asking for Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush." The bulk of his requests have been for Bernie Sanders and, not surprisingly, Donald Trump.
The Trump mania is so great that Tim Watters, a political impersonator probably most well known for his Bill Clinton impersonation, is transforming himself into Donald Trump this year.
Watters got into the impersonation business back in 1992 when he was working as a real estate agent in Tampa, Florida.
"Between my looks and wearing a suit every day I really did resemble him," Watters says. "I was very funny for many many months before I decided to take the plunge, that people would just stare at me in restaurants. I thought my eating habits were really bad, my table manners were bad, and turned out they were all looking at me because I looked so much like Bill Clinton."
And for a natural Bill Clinton look-alike, it's no small feat to pull off a convincing Trump. Gold says the wig is a big help, but it comes at a price.
"As crazy as [Donald Trump's] hair looks," Gold says, "it is one of the most difficult wigs to develop because of the hair moving forward and then flipping backward."
The cost of a professional-grade faux Donald Trump coif? Anywhere from $1,500 to $7,500.
In ‘Doris,’ they like Sally Field, they really like her
The new film "Hello, My Name Is Doris" stars Sally Field as Doris Miller who at 60 years old develops a huge crush on her new, much younger coworker John, played by actor Max Greenfield.
Doris is original but she's also socially awkward. She lives alone on Staten Island in a house chock full of stuff she can't bear to part with. She wears funky, vintage clothes and has a different sort of way about her. But here her young co-worker John sees something in her. Where everyone else sees her as weird, he sees her as good weird.
Doris is someone that Field could relate to on some level, as she explained to Alex Cohen in a recent interview, "Doris and I are very linked in a lot of ways. I'm not as eccentric as she is. But I am horribly shy. I am a notorious hermit. And I have terrible social anxiety... inside I am like screaming. So, certainly I linked to Doris in many ways. But the craft of what acting is is finding those links, but also shaping it so that they fit within all of the confines of what this character [is]."
Alex Cohen recently sat down with Field, and the writer and director, Michael Showalter, to talk about the film, and in particular the love scenes between her and Greenfield's character, who is 30 years her junior.
To hear the entire interview click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Apple turns to Latinos for support in encryption battle
Apple continues its encryption fight with the Federal government.
The tech giant is refusing an FBI request to break into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The government has ordered Apple to create a master key to access the iPhone, but Apple has resisted and filed a court motion to dismiss the request.
Now, in its latest attempt to garner support, Apple is turning to an unexpected ally: the broadcaster Univision.
Apple's top-ranking Latino executive, Eddy Cue, warned viewers that the FBI's demand could give investigators new surveillance powers, including in immigration cases.
We reached out to Ariel Coro, technology expert, author and syndicated columnist, to find out why Apple is looking to Latinos for support.
California one step closer to raising smoking age to 21
California is trying to make it harder for underage kids to smoke cigarettes.
Yesterday, state lawmakers voted to raise the age for both purchasing and using tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21 years old.
The legislation now moves to Governor Jerry Brown's desk, where its fate is unknown. But what impact could this have on smoking rate among younger people?
Joining us for more is Stanton Glantz, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.
Portraits of Compassion: Celebrating ordinary people doing extraordinary things
Los Angeles is known for the glitz and glamor of Hollywood and the famous names that roam our streets.
But it’s no secret L.A. is populated by ordinary individuals doing extraordinary things.
As a result, the California Community Foundation has commissioned a photo exhibit that showcases some of those individual.
It’s called Portraits of Compassion and it features 30 of L.A.’s “unsung heroes”.
The exhibit runs until April 4th at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Noé Montes, lead photographer of the project, and Maria Sipin, one of the unsung heroes spoke to host A Martinez about the exhibit.
While Montes is the lead photographer of the exhibit, the wasn't only storyteller a part of this project. Play the video below to see Montes and some of the other photographers talk about Portraits of Compassion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0ElS6hrtw
To see photos of the heroes and learn more about them, click here.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Hollywood is a verb: Los Angeles Tackles the Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary is a compendium of our language as it is written and spoken around the world.
Nouns, verbs, past participles.
The OED includes the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words. It also features three million quotations.
This month, the LA Public Library is celebrating the famed dictionary with a series of events they're calling "Hollywood Is A Verb: Los Angeles Tackles the Oxford English Dictionary."
For more on this, Ken Brecher, president of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, joined host Alex Cohen to talk about the events.
Audio coming soon.