The animal park is throwing it's killer whale breeding program overboard, more to El Chapo's story, a look at the photo series that highlights LA's 'sleeping cars'.
SeaWorld announces it will end its Orca captivity program
There has officially been a sea change at SeaWorld.
The ocean animal park is throwing its killer whale breeding program overboard to, in their words, "take a new direction."
The announcement came from SeaWorld's CEO Joel Manby in an LA Times op-ed article.
SeaWorld's decision comes after years of declining attendance numbers and pressure from advocacy groups. Perhaps the most famous of this pressure came from the documentary "Blackfish" which directly criticized the Park's killer whale performances as harmful and dangerous.
For more on what this announcement means, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Lisa Halverstadt from the Voice of San Diego.
On why it was time for SeaWorld to make this change
SeaWorld has faced a lot of backlash since 2013 since [Blackfish'] came out. That documentary raised a lot of questions about the treatment of killer whales in captivity and kind of led to not only a lot of folks who had been maybe going to SeaWorld... to question the company. But also state legislators and lawmakers have stepped in. Their attendance has been down. Their revenues have been crashing. They faced a lot of backlash and struggles the last few years.
On what will happen to the Orcas currently in captivity.
Those killer whales will actually remain at SeaWorld. There's also a calf that's supposed to be born soon. PETA had suggested that the whales should be put into sea pens. But SeaWorld and the Humane Society chief... were both adamant that experience has shown that that would not be safe for these Orcas. So they will continue to live in captivity. They just won't be performing in captivity any more or continuing to breed the Orcas.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
State of Affairs: Big tobacco's big threat, gig economy reforms, homeless sue LA city
On this week's State of Affairs:
- Big Tobacco responds in a big way to a new slate of anti-smoking laws
- An attempt to limit out-of-state students at UC schools fails
- A plan that would allow workers in the so-called "gig economy" to organize and form unions
Guests
Ben Adler, Capital Public Radio capitol bureau chief
Jack Pitney, Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College
Wanted: new hires for Mexico's drug cartel empire (Christmas bonus included)
Fliers promising high wages and good benefits have been showing up in some cities in Mexico.
But these aren't just your standard ads. If you take a closer look, the ads are recruiting for a fake company backed by a notorious drug cartel, the Jalisco New Generation.
That's according to government prosecutors in Mexico's Western state of Jalisco, who also say that it's an indication of a power struggle between rival cartels in the wake of the recent capture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán.
The ads prey on a vulnerable and jobless group of workers, who are often caught between the violent cartels and an inept, corrupt government, said journalist Ioan Grillo.
"They're given some kind of training and they're given a gun and then they realize that this is a cartel they're working for and they're selling drugs on the street or they're protecting drug lords," said Grillo, speaking from Mexico City. He's the author of Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America. "But by then, most of them realize that they're too scared to back out of it."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
The Wheel Thing: Beyond Uber and Lyft — on-demand services focus on moving stuff
It's hard to believe that only five years ago there was no way to Uber home from a party, or Lyft back from the airport. The ride hailing services have successfully disrupted the taxi cab industry and inserted themselves into our life and culture.
Now that we're using our smartphones to move ourselves around, a lot of entrepreneurs are betting we are going to want to use them to move our stuff around, too. A host of start-ups are offering a variety of specific delivery services, and the big guys are playing too.
Roadie connects people who are driving places with people who have stuff that needs to get to those places. It takes advantage of the extra space most people have in their car on road trips, and provides a cheap way for senders to ship things, and for drivers to pick up a little extra dough.
Bought a couch, or a big screen TV on Craigslist, and need a way to get it home. Enter BringPro, based in Orange County. They promise delivery within two hours for a minimum fee of $29.
Hungry, but too lazy to cook or go out? Lots of options there including Postmates, DoorDash, and the new UberEATS, which promises meals delivered in as little as ten minutes.
Sleeping Cars: A photographer's love letter to LA
At the end of 2015, there were almost eight million cars registered in Los Angeles County...
But where do they all go to rest at night?
That's the question that inspired National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig to shoot the photo series 'Sleeping cars'. Ludwig has brought stories from around the world to life through his images but in his latest project, he turns his lens on the classic vehicles that live on L.A.'s streets.
The series highlights old and classic cars 'resting' on streets and driveways. Some cars are covered, others are completely exposed but all of the photos are portraits to tell a story.
The collection of photos, seven years in the making, is on view at the Fahey/Klein Gallery located in L.A.'s Miracle Mile district through Saturday, March 19th.
Can't make the exhibition but want more sleeping cars? Ludwig has no plans to stop. You can follow the 'Sleeping Cars' Instagram for more:
Glowing in the night, a car sleeps in the Hollywood Hills.
A VW sleeps under a canopy of trees in the Hollywood Hills.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
How Kate Del Castillo met Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman
The story of how Mexican actress Kate Del Castillo met Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is a story made for Hollywood. It involves journalism, lust and one of the world's most notorious drug lords, but more than anything, it's a story about the wonderful intricacies of human behavior.
You might recall that El Chapo was captured earlier this year in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Officials say they were able to track the fugitive thanks, in part, to a meeting Guzman had with Sean Penn and Castillo.
Penn wrote about that meeting in a piece for Rolling Stone Magazine, but that's his side of the story. It was Castillo's side that journalist Robert Draper looked into for an article in the New Yorker. And he joins Alex Cohen to talk about it.
To hear the conversation click on the link embedded at the top of the post.
The 25th anniversary of the murder of Latasha Harlins
On March 16, 1991, a Korean-born shopkeeper shot 15-year-old Latasha Harlins in the back of her head. The two had been fighting over a bottle of orange juice.
Last night, a vigil was held in Los Angeles to mark the 25th anniversary of her death.
Her aunt, Denise, remarked that were Latasha alive, she would have turned 40 this year.
For more on her death and how this story resonates in today's Los Angeles, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with UCLA Professor Brenda Stevenson.
She wrote a book in 2013 entitled "The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots."
Audio coming soon.