How the LAPD and other agencies investigate allegations of biased policing, how social media has changed, a look at whether consumer boycotts work or not.
3 things to know about police bias and the LAPD
The molecules on your phone can tell people a lot about you
Forget about politics, and all our social and economic challenges for a few moments and take a second to think about all of the places your phone's been.
Restaurants, your bedroom...the bathroom. And then you put it up against your face. Disgusting.
When was the last time you cleaned that thing?
As it turns out when you take it all of those different places, molecules build up on your device and when they're studied, researchers can learn a whole lot about you.
Pieter Dorrestein is a professor at UC San Diego and he studied the molecules on phones to see what they can tell us about people. He recently had a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about it.
He recently spoke with Take Two's A Martinez about the topic.
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Did the presidential election's outcome affect LA's 2024 Olympic bid?
Tuesday marked the first serious step in the two-year process to name a host city for the 2024 Olympic games. Committees representing Paris, Budapest and L.A. traveled to Qatar to make the case for their cities to the International Olympic Committee or IOC.
Because the IOC is made up of 98 members, who represent a wide range of countries, cultural and religious backgrounds it was unknown whether president-elect Trump's remarks regarding Mexicans, Muslims and foreign policy, would affect L.A.'s chances at hosting the games.
For more on the L.A.'s presentation, and how these concerns were addressed, A Martinez spoke with vice-chair and director of athlete relations for LA2024, Janet Evans.
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Sports: Lebron James, Phil Jackson spar over 'posse,' Kaepernick protest and the election
Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James responded strongly against comments from Phil Jackson in which the former Lakers coach referred to James' "posse" that travels with him. And how much does it matter if sports figures vote?
We're joined by Andy and Brian Kamanetzky.
Social media continues to shape the world in troubling new ways
Remember when social media was young, and new?
When you reunited with that old buddy of yours from elementary school on Facebook or discovered the electric thrill of being retweeted?
At first, social media offered hope and promise as a way to connect people all around the world. Now, things are beginning to look a little different. In fact, as Farhad Manjoo with the New York Times writes, technology is having a profound impact on cultures and societies around the globe, and that impact isn't always positive.
Manjoo shared his thoughts with Take Two's Alex Cohen.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
LA makes up 20 percent of the nation's traffic congestion?
We know traffic is bad in L.A. But could we really be responsible for one-fifth of all the congestion in the entire United States?
That's a claim made by Ford CEO Mark Fields at AutoMobility LA, a big conference on the future of automobiles and transportation. Fields also claimed that jammed traffic costs L.A. $23 billion a year.
On the brighter side, an amalgam of transportation and urban planners, techies and auto execs painted a future that offers some relief, as cars and the roads they drive on get smarter, and new alternatives to personal car ownership become more accessible.
Our motor critic Sue Carpenter attended the conference, which kicks off the roll up to the LA Auto Show. It opens to the public this weekend.
Click on the blue bar above to listen to Sue's story.
The Styled Side: how Trump could affect LA's fashion industry
Southern California's fashion and apparel industry is chewing its manicured nails over the incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump promised during the campaign that he would renegotiate or withdraw from trade deals like NAFTA and would find ways to increase manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
If he follows through on both, it could have a huge impact on the fashion industry.
A hit to trade could hit your wallet
"The retail industry strongly supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Donald Trump opposes," says Michelle Dalton Tyree of Fashion Trends Daily. "Strong trade agreements are vital to retailers because high tariffs mean they can't be as competitive with their prices. For those who manufacture overseas, which is the majority, this is huge potential problem."
Consumers will notice the difference on shelves.
With trade deals in place, many American stores and designers are able to offer low prices on clothes because they are made in high volume overseas and shipped to the U.S.
If the deals go away, then tariffs will be slapped on goods and that cost would pass to consumers.
"Big L.A. brands that rely on overseas production could be hard hit," says Tyree. "Think of fast-fashion retailers such as L.A.-based Forever 21. One of the reasons they're able to turn around trends so quickly is because they're making clothes overseas."
That means big retailers that people rely on for big savings – like Zappos and Walmart – wouldn't have as many great deals, anymore.
Lines that manufacture in L.A. are more optimistic of President Trump
L.A. has the most manufacturing workers in the country, and more than 1 in 8 are employed by the apparel industry.
"Those apparel lines that make their clothes here are less concerned about what Trump has said about trade," says Tyree.
Some of them are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"I didn't get caught up in his hairdo, his personality. I'm looking for results," says L.A.-based designer and Trump supporter Allen Schwartz of the line ABS by Allen Schwartz. "Obama didn't deliver."
"Until you start seeing what Trump's policies are, it's kind of the boogeyman in the closet," adds Mike Palermo of Junk Food, an LA-based brand.
However, they are keeping an eye on President-elect Trump's movements on local manufacturing and wages.
For example, if the minimum wage goes up to entice Americans back into factory jobs, then the increased cost to produce clothes will be paid for by consumers.
"When people try and push the value of what 'Made in the U.S.A.' means, everyone in L.A. is in support of that," says Palermo, "but when challenged to vote with their pocketbook, consumers don't come through."
Trump could also have a huge impact on the apparel industry's workforce in Los Angeles.
"There's an estimated 45,000 garment works in L.A. and majority are undocumented," says Tyree.
If Trump follows through on his promise to deport up to three million undocumented immigrants while in office, the local workforce would be decimated.
What this means for holiday shopping
Whatever President Trump does with trade and manufacturing probably won't have an effect on this upcoming holiday shopping season.
But consumers can expect that retailers will be pushing a "positivity" message in the coming weeks.
"They're eager to get on with it as well," says Tyree, "so expect great deals and a lot more selling slogans than usual referring to togetherness, family, shopping with your heart first."