President-elect claims voter fraud in CA, SoCal Cubans remember Fidel Castro, 111 things to do in LA

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President-elect claims voter fraud in California, Fidel Castro's death and its impact on Cubans in SoCal, exploring 111 things to do in Los Angeles

President-elect claims voter fraud in CA, SoCal Cubans remember Fidel Castro, 111 things to do in LA

President-elect claims voter fraud in California, Fidel Castro's death and its impact on Cubans in SoCal, exploring 111 things to do in Los Angeles

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President-elect claims voter fraud in California, Fidel Castro's death and its impact on Cubans in SoCal, exploring 111 things to do in Los Angeles 

Donald Trump's California voter fraud claims, debunked

Sunday on Twitter, President-elect Donald Trump alleged that there was "serious" 

. He went on to ask, "why isn't the media reporting on this?"

Well, because, for California at least, there was none to speak of, according to the secretary of state.

Trump took to Twitter to blast efforts by the Green Party to recount votes in Wisconsin. The Clinton campaign announced its plans to participate in the process to ensure the recount "proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides."

In an interview with Take Two's A Martinez, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla minced no words when asked about claims of voter fraud in the state:

"The answer is absolutely not," Padilla said.

The Secretary calls the allegations "frustrating" and says that both he and his office went out of their way to let voters know in the weeks leading up to the election that "rigging" was impossible in the state. Padilla went on to issue a challenge to the president-elect.

"If he has evidence to back up his claim, then bring it, because we do take voter fraud seriously... we pride ourselves on free and fair elections, and the results are the results," Padilla said.

Ballots are still being counted, but Padilla says that, at last check, Hillary Clinton won California by more than 3 million votes.

"Clearly, she won big in California," he said.

Prior to alleging voter fraud, President-elect Trump also claimed that, in addition to winning the Electoral College, he would have also won the popular vote — 

Louis DeSipio, professor of political science and Chicano Studies at UC Irvine, says the motivation behind this assertion may be rooted in pride. 

"I think his ego is bruised by the fact that he lost the popular vote," DeSipio said. "Picking on immigrants and asserting that they're massively violating the U.S. law, I think, echoes the rhetoric of his campaign when he demonized immigrants for all kinds of things. Now, he's demonizing them for his losing the [popular vote]."

Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.

How the presidential vote recount process works

A recount of presidential votes is expected to begin in Wisconsin this Thursday.

The move comes after a request from Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who was troubled by reports of voting anomalies.

In some Wisconsin counties, for example, more votes were recorded than registered voters.

Stein has also pledged to pursue recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Today is the deadline to file for a recount in Pennsylvania, and Michigan's deadline comes up Wednesday.

Constitutional attorney

joined Take Two to explain the recount effort and how it will work. Bonifaz has been advising the recount effort lead by Jill Stein and is co-founder and president of the legal advocacy group Free Speech for People.

To hear the full interview, click the blue player above. 

Cubans in SoCal look for change after Castro

Cuba is in the midst of a nine-day mourning period after long-time leader and revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. His death was announced last Friday.

It's brought up strong emotions from Cubans both inside the island-country and across the U.S. And that's also true for those in Southern California.

"The ideals of the revolution have never been realized," said Marissa Chibás, a writer and performer at the Theater School faculty at CalArts. Her solo performance, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, was based on her own family's legacy and involvement in the country's dramatic history. "So those ideals of social democracy were never fully realized and I feel like that's what I'm mourning and many of my family members are mourning, what was lost, what was never fully realized."

But now with Castro gone, there may be an opportunity for a shift in how Cubans envision their own history and their future, said Chibás, particularly for the youth.

"To be able to express their hopes and their desires for their future, what they want it to look like," said Chibás. "And that can certainly be something completely different from what they've experienced – that's my hope."

To listen to the interview, click on the blue media player above 

SF Municipal Transportation victim of malware this past weekend

Over the weekend, riders of San Francisco's public transit system got a nice treat...they didn't pay a cent to ride on Friday or Saturday.

Unfortunately this was not a charitable holiday promotion, but rather the result of malware which infected more than 2000 computers belonging to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

For more on the outage, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Kevin Montgomery; he wrote about the incident for Hoodline, a San Francisco focused publication, along with cybersecurity expert Clifford Neuman, director of USC Center for Computer Systems Security.

How William Shakespeare won the West

Long before there were films, there were plays,  some of the best of them written by William Shakespeare. 

This year marks the 400th anniversary of his death and the Los Angeles Public Library is commemorating this anniversary with a new exhibition titled "America's Shakespeare - The Bard Goes West."

The show demonstrates the influence the famous British playwright has had on California's history and culture.

Ken Brecher is president of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. He took Take Two's Alex Cohen on a tour of the exhibit.

To listen to the interview, click on the blue media player above. 

Don't waste your time looking for something to stream, check out The Binge

Every month we take a look at all of the options you have to stream, from Hulu and Netflix to Amazon Prime, HBO Now and Showtime Anytime. Our very own

offers three great new picks.

• Fleabag (Amazon Prime)

Fleabag focuses on a single woman living in London – she’s a bit lost, dealing with a lot of emotional issues and the whole series is a tour de force for the lead actress and creator of the show, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.  She  first presented this as a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival back in 2013 and then adapted it into this wickedly funny, yet poignant television series.

Mark calls this TV series perfect, even though it is a comedy – it is one of the most honest portrayals about grief. And it is definitely not for children. 

• Halt and Catch Fire (Netflix)

The show is set in the early personal computer days of the 1980s – it focuses on the men and women tech geniuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who were pioneers in getting computers into people’s homes and also the early days of the World Wide Web. 

It also captures the blatant sexism that many women in this field had to deal with, and the whole series is full of sharp writing, superb acting and it is a fascinating look at the early days of the personal computer era.

• Humans (Amazon Prime) 

Adapted from a Swedish TV series, this BBC sci-fi program is set in the near future where robots, which they call synthetic humans,  are now affordable and being used in factories as common labor, and in households as maids, nannies and health care workers.

The series captures how this would affect society.  It is thought provoking and filled with superb performances.

If you want to catch up on past installments of The Binge, click here. 

To listen to Mark's recommendations, click on the blue media player above. 

Los Angeles and the 111 places you must not miss

There is no shortage of places to see and things to do in Los Angeles; from museums and parks to eateries and even the chance to take a selfie with a polar bear.

Now a new book written with Angelenos and visitors in mind aims to uncover some of the hidden corners of L.A. not to be missed.

Laurel Moglen and Julia Posey, authors of  "111 places in Los Angeles That You Must Not Miss" joined Take Two with more.

To listen to the interview, click on the blue media player above.