Local reactions to the President's Hanoi visit, the federal lawsuit alleging California's presidential primary rules are too confusing and California could be updating its history and social studies guidelines soon.
As Obama visits Vietnam, SoCal community watches for signs of change
President Obama is in Hanoi today as part of a three-day visit to Vietnam on his way to the G7 summit in Japan.
This trip comes at a critical moment for both Vietnam and the US – two countries with a long, complex relationship.
"This trip kind of marks the end, at last, for Americans of the Vietnam War and the establishment of a new kind of relationship with Vietnam," said David Brown a long-time US diplomat in the region and contributor to Foreign Affairs magazine.
That new relationship is influenced heavily by China's rising power in the region, including tensions over territorial disputes in the area, and a pending trade deal that is still working its way through US Congress.
The Vietnamese American community in Southern California is also paying close attention to the visit.
"My family – because of our history of being refugees – we're very concerned about the situation in Vietnam regarding human rights," said Tammy Tran, a resident of Garden Grove, whose parents fled Vietnam during the tumult of the Vietnam War era.
The President is scheduled to give a speech Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City, laying out his vision for the next step in US-Vietnam relations. The visit comes amid street protests over the government's handling of a large-scale fishkill incident and criticism about political prisoners.
As presidential candidates converge on LA, Latinos emerge as key voting bloc
Senator Bernie Sanders is in California this week and he's making a big push for the state's Latino voters ahead of the June 7 primary.
The campaign just opened a new office in East LA and the candidate is addressed supporters in Lincoln Park.
A Martinez talks to Bill Velazquez, national director of Latino Outreach for the Sanders campaign and Kevin Johnson, professor of Chicana/Chicano Studies at UC Davis.
To listen to both interviews, click on the players above.
On the Lot: Angry Birds vs superheroes and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Captain America finally has a worthy adversary, a pretty huge Cannes comeback and warp speed to a summer of Star Trek.
Every week we get the latest news coming from Hollywood, we're joined by
, entertainment reporter for the LA Times.
CA moves closer to changing history textbooks to better reflect state's diversity
As the old saying goes, "Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it."
But how do you teach that history, especially in a state that's home to people from all over the world?
It's a tough question and one that's been taken up by an educational advisory body in California.
The state's Instructional Quality Commission decided it's time for some changes when it comes to how history and social studies are taught in California classrooms.
Tom Adams, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction at the California Department of Education, joined Take Two to discuss.
Interview highlights:
Who determines how we teach history in California?
We have some guiding documents, one is our actual standards, and then two, the state legislature at times has passed laws that ask us to pay attention to particular topics. The most recent example is the Fair Education Act which asked us to look at the contributions of the LGBT community and the disabled in terms of how California and the United States developed.
California is home to 6.2 million public school students. Can you tell us about the overall composition of that population in terms of ethnic diversity and what role that plays in how people consider how we teach history here?
One of the important developments in educational practice is to make sure that our curriculum is culturally relevant. And in California that means actually ensuring that every student in the classroom can have someone that they can point to as contributing to the development of the United States or California or a role in world history.
So if you look at California with its rich diversity, we have Korean Americans, we have Persian Americans, we have Indian Americans, Sikh Americans, they've all wanted to participate in this process. And the great thing is we have a participatory process, and they've all come to us and provided suggestions on who should be there and what contributions they've made.
Can you give us some examples of the suggestions particular groups have made for changes to how history is taught in California?
If we take say the issue of World War II and some of the activities in the Pacific theater, one of the things that folks wanted us to pay attention to was the sexual slavery that occurred in World War II, specifically called the "comfort women," and this involved the Japanese army taking Korean women and forcing them to be sex workers during the war. And this was something that we knew about, but the fact that the community wanted to see it portrayed and be part of an 11th grade high school topic, that was important for people to recognize and be able to talk about it honestly.
Another example was what happened in the Philippines during World War II and the Bataan Death March, and how there were many Filipino soldiers who were part of the U.S. Army who wanted to be recognized for their contribution in resisting the Japanese occupation and fighting for American freedom.
Different people have different perspectives on the issue of "comfort women" and how history transpired, and the way that many Japanese people feel about this is very different than the way many Korean people feel about this, so how do you go about striking a balance?
The key here is, one, the curriculum framework has an inquiry approach, which means we really want these students to investigate these historical events, go to the primary sources, draw their own conclusions, do their own reports on this. So in this sense, you often start with the historical question, then search for the relevant evidence, and then come up with an interpretation that could be supported by the evidence.
One thing I just want to make sure [I include] here is while we did have debate about the "comfort women," it wasn't really whether it existed or not, in fact we said it was a historical fact. The question is how many, who, when, where, and who was behind it.
When was the state's teaching framework last updated? Was it in 2000?
Roughly, that's about it. And actually the textbooks in our classes were last approved in 2005, so we're looking at things that are well over 10 years old. And a lot has happened, and our definitions of what is inclusive have changed over time as more people have started to participate in the process.
What are next steps for these changes to be implemented?
The commission, having actually begun the work on this framework in 2008, then will take it to the State Board [of Education], and it's anticipated for action in July of this year. And then assuming that the State Board approves the framework and accompanying edits, we will actually begin the process of preparing for the review of instructional materials (or textbooks). And we actually hope to have a new list of state-reviewed textbooks in November of 2017.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue player above.
Could the Metro lead LA from a car culture to community?
Los Angeles has had its first weekend to enjoy the Metro Expo Line to Santa Monica...
And we've talked a lot about how people's lives will change as LA's public transportation expands.
But we haven't really discussed the identity change LA could have with more options beyond cars
David L. Ulin is the author of a number of books about Los Angeles. The most recent is called "Sidewalking: Coming To Terms With Los Angeles."
Even though many would say that Metro transportation is best served as a way to cut down on traffic, Ulin says that that's not really the point or the intention of what the rails accomplish.
"The illusion that we're going to build say a system like New York or Paris or London that would be extremely self-sufficient and allow people to get all over the city just by using a rail network is an illusion," Ulin said to Take Two's A Martinez.
In actuality, he sees this ending more along the lines of what Chicago has done. "The train fulfills a part of the transportation grid, but it also links in with bus lines, bicycles, pedestrianism. All of those components come together."
Transportation aside, Ulin also sees another net benefit to the build out of LA's Metro system. "There's a way that public transportation works as a kind of civic glue, as a unifier," Ulin said. "Because of the fact that the public is on the transportation, that it's a system that serves everybody, particularly in a city like [Los Angeles]."
There's no secret that LA was built on the idea of the maintenance of your own personal space. But Ulin believes that public transportation leads the move away from this, "fortress mentality," and he thinks it will be a change for the better. "I think cities like this need that. We need a sense of shared public engagement."
Pessimistically, it's easy to think of this as a pie-in-the-sky dream of disrupting this city's love of cars and personal space, but Ulin believes that even though it will be a slow move, it will be beneficial. "The idea of a long term vision for the city is, I think, potentially transformative for how the city operates."
To hear the full conversation, click the blue play button above
Rebuilding a life after prison
In 2012, California amended its “Three Strikes” law—one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country.
It became the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated.
That’s the topic of the new film, The Return.
Take Two speaks with filmmaker Kelly Duane de la Vega and former prisoner Bilal Chatman, who was featured in the film.