The lives of Porter Ranch residents a year after the Aliso Canyon gas leak, why women are reclaiming the word 'nasty', Shepard Fairey makes 'Noise' with his new album
Your guide to Measure JJJ: How it might change LA
NSA contractor accused of stealing government documents
The US Attorney will prosecute a former NSA contractor for what could be the largest theft of classified government material ever.
Harold T. Martin III was first given access to classified data in 1996. The US Attorney alleges that, over the next 20 years, Martin made off with about 50 terabytes of that data.
He appeared today at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court. For more, Take Two spoke to Ellen Nakashima, national security reporter for the Washington Post.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Nasty woman: a feminist battle cry
The internet is still being flooded with memes following this moment in Wednesday night's final presidential debate:
Little did Donald Trump know he was creating a feminist rallying cry for Hillary Clinton. It didn't take long for the women of the internet to take back the word. Within minutes #NastyWomen and #IAmANastyWoman were trending on social media.
"My name isn't Crooked, it's Hillary. Madame Prezzie, if ya nasty."
— Alana Massey (@AlanaMassey) October 20, 2016
You know what a #NastyWoman is good at? Voting. #debate pic.twitter.com/T4DDbNC8cY
— Alanna Vagianos (@AlannaVagianos) October 20, 2016
However, it turns out "Nasty" has long been a useful word for feminists.
To tell us more, Take Two's Libby Denkmann spoke with feminist writer Roxane Gay. She's a novelist and the author of the essay collection "Bad Feminist."
Interview Highlights
How has 'nasty' been used in the past, specifically against women?
"I think it's been used when men are intimidated by women when they can't have a woman that they want and they decide that women are disgusting. We're these unknowable creatures that become untouchable and revolting and so they use the word nasty to sort of remind us of what they think of us and to put us in our place."
How has it started to shift in the minds of people who use that word 'nasty'?
"Part of it is that the word nasty began to become reclaimed, I mean I don't know that it's the grand reclamation of a word in feminist history but certainly Janet Jackson and her song "" really helped a lot of women reclaim that word and Janet Jackson actually wrote that song in response to sexual harassment and then it became sort of empowering. Even though we overuse the word empowering, there is something to be said for saying 'Oh, what? You think I'm nasty? You're damn right I'm nasty.' and owning that word and therefore disallowing these men from taking something from us by using that word. I mean, you can call us whatever you want but we're going to get there first and we're going to mean something positive when we use the word."
Why do you think it took Trump saying something like this to get this reaction from young women and from people who are really clued into Internet culture?
"...I think for those millennial women who were on the fence and ambivalent about Hillary Clinton, I think that they felt some connection to Hillary, that if this woman at the height of the career could be called a nasty woman on a televised debate on the national stage, that she too endures what a lot of women deal with in their daily lives. And I think they started to see the significance of what it will mean to have a woman as president and what that might mean for the changing culture of women."
Roxane also spoke about the current state of feminism and the future of the word 'nasty'.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Santa Monica debates: should the public vote on big new developments?
New developments and homes are cropping up all over Santa Monica.
And some in the city are saying, "Hold on a minute. This is happening TOO fast!"
So on the November ballot, residents are being asked to make this decision: should every big development in the city be approved in a public vote before it can break ground?
That's the crux of initiative LV – or "LUVE" by its supporters.
Take Two hosts a debate about LV's impact on Santa Monica's skylines and neighborhoods.
Guests:
- Armen Melkonians, founder of Residocracy, a coalition of Santa Monica residents that worked to get LV on the ballot. Melkonians is also a candidate for Santa Monica City Council.
- Jay Trisler, campaign organizer with Housing and Opportunity for a Modern Economy (HOME).
Interview highlights
Melkonians: LV will help preserve the low-rise character of Santa Monica
We've been getting a lot of density – buildings and construction and developments – and residents are just rebelling at the amount of growth and the amount of traffic that's being added to our city. It's about quality of life, and about keeping Santa Monica what it is: a gem for the Southland.
Trisler: Santa Monica should create more homes as it grows to be a pedestrian-friendly destination
Santa Monica is becoming a place where people walk, they ride bicycles, they use mass transit to get around. That's how I see the future of Santa Monica. The city of Santa Monica needs to look at more affordable housing, housing that's affordable and market-rate housing.
Melkonians: City Hall is not paying attention to what people want, so LV would place power back in residents' hands
What we're seeing is developers coming in with sky-is-the-limit and trying to negotiate for very little community benefits. We just don't trust our city council to make the correct decision anymore from past experiences. The voters are rebelling and saying that they need the final say.
Trisler: If you don't restrict construction, then more people could live and work in Santa Monica. That means less traffic.
Santa Monica is a pass-through: people are driving into Santa Monica to work, and they're driving home at the end of the day. Can you imagine if we actually had people lived in Santa Monica and worked in Santa Monica? You wouldn't see traffic on the Cloverfield off-ramp. You'd be able to walk or take the train to the Bergamot station and get off. That's where I see the future is.
Melkonians: The LV initiative will encourage the development of affordable housing
We've created a new class of housing called "moderate-income housing," tied to 120 percent of the area median income. So our initiative will create more affordable housing.
Trisler: LV will hurt the quality of life and trajectory of growth in Santa Monica.
Seeing how Santa Monica used to be back in the mid-80s, we used to be known as "Skid Row by the sea." When you look at it today, we're known as Silicon Beach. That is the result of development: people come here, they visit here, they want to live here. Development is necessary to be able to provide a quality of life for people to live.
Shepard Fairey calls on his friends to help him create new EP
Artist Shepard Fairey is best known for his brand Obey and for creating the iconic Obama "Hope" poster that made the rounds during the 2008 election. However, in recent years he's decided to dip his toe into the musical pool as well, recently releasing an EP called "Little Lions" with his band NØISE. That's surprising, considering Fairey doesn't sing or play an instrument.
"I pulled together a lot of ideas. [Bandmate John Goff] played some guitar stuff. You know, there's a zillion different bass and drum sounds that you can get for a cheap licensing fee or free that you can then manipulate to create your own sound," Fairey told Take Two's Alex Cohen.
He and Goff then joined up with singer Merritt Lear and musician Joe Cassidy who added the necessary musical bonafides. And eventually the collaboration paid off, resulting in the two tracks "Little Lions" and "Automatic."
For their EP, they then sent those songs out to their friends to remix. In turn they got back tracks from artists, including Moby, The Crystal Method and Phil Hartnoll. The result is eight completely unique takes on the same two songs.
Fairy and Lear came to the studio to talk to Alex Cohen about the album. To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Report: half of US adults are in facial recognition databases used by police
A new report finds images of more than half of adults living in the US are stored in a series of police facial recognition databases, in many cases without any prior contact with police.
That's according to a new report that raising concerns and inconsistencies about privacy.
A Martinez spoke with Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology, who authored the report.
Click the blue audio player to hear the full interview.
Director Ti West on embracing and subverting the Western genre
The new film "In a Valley of Violence" is a Western, starring Ethan Hawke as a former soldier, traveling to the Mexican border with his dog.
At the start, his character Paul runs into trouble in a small town called Denton. He gets into a brawl with the local deputy whose father, played by John Travolta, happens to be the Town Marshal:
West first made a name for himself as a director with horror films like "The House of the Devil" and "The Sacrament." But he says his real first love was the Western genre.
In both genres, violence plays a big role. But West says that in either case-- a horror film or a Western-- he's looking to help the audience see violence on screen in a different way.
"Violence on screen is often exploited and it's often escapism and it's generally fetishized and it's very fun," West says. "But then there's something interesting about reminding everybody what it's like in real life. Because people often love to see violence in movies, and hate to see violence in real life."
To hear the full interview with Ti West click the blue player above.
"In a Valley of Violence" opens in theaters October 21st.