A decisive day for all presidential hopefuls, Jazz pianist attempts to capture the essence of presidential aspirants, the plans to put a park over the 134 freeway.
Fed panel calls for major reforms in Border Patrol use of force, anti-corruption policies
Rooting out corruption and abuse among the nation's border patrol agents is so ineffective as to pose a national security threat to the country, according to a report out this week from the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Advisory Council.
The border patrol makes up the nation's largest law enforcement agency, with some 44,000 armed agents.
The agency has come under increased scrutiny after several high-profile shootings of unarmed people and with the presence of powerful drug cartels and smugglers operating along the border.
Los Angeles Times reporter Brian Bennett joins us for more.
Take Two's primary election preview
It's a decisive day in the race for the White House.
Voters in five states head to the polls today: Missouri, North Carolina, Illinois, Florida and Ohio.
A whole lot of points are at stake, and, before the sun sets, one candidate may have to wave goodbye to his presidential aspirations.
When the dust settles, Democrats and Republicans could have their heir apparent. The day might also signal that the race is far from over.
Take Two previewed the day with three analysts:
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Lisa Garcia Bedolla, professor of political science and Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley
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Mark Sawyer, professor of political science and African-American studies at UCLA
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Jack Wright, professor of political science at Ohio State University in Columbus
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
NFL official acknowledges football's link to brain disease
After years of denial, an NFL senior official confirmed that there is a connection between playing football and the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president of health and safety policy, made the statement at a roundtable discussion on concussions yesterday.
After months of the league denying any correlation between football and CTE, this admission could mean some big changes for players and concussion-related lawsuits in place against the league.
For more, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with A.J. Perez. He writes on sports news for USA Today.
'Screenagers': Parents, teens and the battle over tech time
Kids spend an average of 6.5 hours looking at screens each day.
Sound like a lot? That's not even counting the screen time spent at school or using a tablet or computer to do homework.
Sure, social media and video games aren't all bad, but how much is too much? And how can parents get their kids to cut back on screen time, especially when so many of us are glued to our devices too?
These are some of the questions tackled in the new documentary "Screenagers":
Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston joined Take Two to talk about some solutions for parents struggling to negotiate screen time with their kids.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue player above.
New music from Sunflower Bean, Mexrrissey and Mint Royale
If you love new music, but you don't have the time to keep up with what's hip and new, we've got the perfect segment for you: Tuesday Reviewsday. Every week our music experts bring in their top picks, which we promise, will keep you and your musical tastes relevant. This week, music journalist joins host A Martinez in the studio to talk about his selections.
Artist: Sunflower Bean
Album: "Human Ceremony"
Songs: "Human Ceremony," "Wall Watcher"
Artist: Mexrrissey
Album: "No Manchester"
Songs: "International Playgirl (The Last of the Famous International Playboys)," "El Primero Del Gang"
Artist: Mint Royale
Song: "Time"
To hear why Nic's a huge fan of the above songs, click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Teenage sexting: when the photos fall into the wrong hands
We've all heard about the trend of teenage sexting.
Young people sending nude pictures of themselves to their friends.
But there's a growing worry that these photos may find their way online into the wrong hands...
Predators who may use these photos for extortion or even as a means to initiate meet-ups.
LA Sheriff Jim McDonnell sent an open letter on Facebook to parents Sunday warning of the trend.
Host A Martinez spoke with him earlier, and he said his officers are investigating scores of cases involving photos of underage children that have found their way online.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
LA residents may have to pay for their own sidewalk repairs
To deal with crumbling sidewalks in Los Angeles, city lawmakers have an idea: property owners should fit the bill for future repairs, themselves.
Tree roots have affected L.A. sidewalks so much that it would take upwards of $1.5 billion to fix.
The joint proposal spearheaded by several councilmen including Joe Buscaino would work in several stages:
- Property owners can hire contractors to fix sidewalks adjoining their property, and in return the city will offer a 50 percent cash rebate.
- Alternatively, owners can request a no-cost repair from the city with a 20 year warranty for residential property and a 5 year warranty for commercial property. The city will offer a one-time fix if the sidewalk breaks during that time.
- After that warranty period, owners are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of that sidewalk.
- Each council district office will also be allocated a certain set of funds to prioritize fixing sidewalks for disabled residents.
Buscaino tells Take Two that over 40 years ago Los Angeles pledged to maintain sidewalks on behalf of residents, going above and beyond a California state law that said sidewalks are the responsibility of property owners.
However, the federal money that covered those costs dried out.
"We don't have the capacity of fixing all these sidewalks that have been impacted by tree roots," he says.
If a property owner decides to not maintain their sidewalk, there will be penalties, too.
"We will have a number of inspectors as part of this plan, and they will cite the property owner." If the owner does nothing to fix the sidewalk, "a lien will be placed on their property," he says.
The proposal passed several city committees and will now head to the full council by the end of March.
A park on top of a freeway? The plans for Glendale's Space 134
Looking to create more friendly spaces for pedestrians, the city of Glendale is considering a plan to plop a park literally on top of a freeway.
The project, Space 134, envisions 24 acres of walking trails, event space and greenery.
The cap freeway park is merely a proposal as of now, giving the city an opportunity to gauge community support. As outlined in the vision plan, the park would be built over the downtown Glendale portion of the 134 freeway.
While building a park over a freeway seems gimmicky, it does have many benefits like access to Metro and state and transportation funding that would otherwise be unavailable for a regular open space park.
As of now, the park is in Phase 3 — project engineering — which focuses on engineering analysis, technical studies and the effort to continue to build support.
Phase 4 — funding and construction — would begin in 2020 and beyond.
For more on the project, Alan Loomis, Glendale's deputy director of Urban Design & Mobility, joined the show to discuss.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Coalinga could turn former prison into pot oil factory
The Central Valley town of Coalinga is considering turning a former prison into a factory to produce cannabis oil, but the proposal has some locals up in arms.
Fresno Bee reporter Rory Appleton has been covering the story and he joins Alex Cohen to talk about it.
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of the post.
Presidential campaign rhetoric is music to this blind jazz virtuoso’s ears
By this point in the presidential election, we’ve heard all the stump speeches. We’ve also heard the fights. But pianist Marcus Roberts hears something else when he turns on the news: music.
Marcus Roberts went blind at age five, nearly 50 years ago. Now, as a world renowned musician, he makes his living playing America’s national inheritance, Jazz. So it might make sense that his new EP, titled “Race for the White House,” is based on the people hoping to inherit the presidency. Marcus Roberts joined Take Two’s A Martinez for a look at the current candidates and the music they inspired.
Bernie Sanders
“I call the piece ‘Feel the Bern.’ That’s why you hear that little three-note motif,” Roberts said. “It’s contrasted later by a slow, mellow kind of mood, so I guess if Bernie wins, he’ll be all relaxed and chill. Everybody will have gotten free education and all these other things he says we’ll get.”
Donald Trump
“The whistling and the trumpet represent two things: the whistling is Donald is looking over his vast empire holdings, all his rich friends, he’s like ‘Yeah, things are working out really well,’,” Roberts said. “[The trumpet] represents ‘I’m gonna make America great again all by myself. I’m going to get it all hooked up,’ and it has like a superhero feeling like superman or batman.”
At the end of the song, a sinister laugh can be heard. Roberts says this is another reference to the GOP frontrunner’s wealth.
“It’s basically just saying ‘it really doesn’t matter. I’m going to be rich anyway, so win or lose I’m going to be good.’”
Hillary Clinton
“The piece starts off in a minor key which kinda represents some of the controversy. It seems like Hillary is often attacked no matter what she does or says,” Roberts said. “But then it goes into a major key, a very happy kind sound — kind of upbeat because she seems to be very resilient. She’s re-created herself several times, and she’s managed to build — despite everything — a pretty big following for herself.”
Roberts says he originally had a different title planned for the piece, but eventually he settled on “It’s My Turn.”
“I was originally gonna call this piece, ‘I Guess I’m Just Overqualified.’ If you look at all of the candidates, she’s really the only one that has the traditional qualifications that you need to be president of the country,” Roberts said. “But it’s interesting how right now that seems to work against you, and I can’t think of a job where your argument for getting the job is ‘I have no experience at the job.’”
Roberts admits that some have asserted that his songs take a political stance, but he disagrees. He contends that jazz music is just his way of interpreting candidates he cannot see.
“Music brings you into an experience that goes beyond even the topic,” Roberts said. “Jazz music has a relevance that speaks to the very core of our best values because it requires cooperation and dignity and tolerance and virtuosity to be played well. And it’s not ultimately about the individual; it ’s really about the individual celebration to represent the best of the whole group of people.”