A look at what a judicial position entails, what's the future of mobile video? How popular culture feeds into our fears around ghosts and ghouls.
The role of the Hatch Act in the upcoming election
Talk is swirling again about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails after FBI Director James Comey notified Congress his agency is reviewing new emails that might be linked to Clinton's private server.
Over the weekend, Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada suggested that the latest move by Comey may have been in violation of the Hatch Act.
Alex Cohen checks in with Michael McConnell, director of Stanford Constitutional Law Center and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, on how the Hatch Act may or may not come into play in this election.
The Depression-era law prohibits federal employees from actively engaging in political campaign. McConnell argues that it may not apply in the case of James Comey but it's ultimately up to the attorney general, Comey's boss.
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.
Human Voter Guide: Vote by mail ballot deadline and tips for election day
On The Lot: Madea owns the box office, 'Inferno' burns and 'Loving' gets buzz
This week on On The Lot we've got news about Tyler Perry's box office domination, the failure of Ron Howard's "Inferno," the beauty of "Moonlight," and the buzz around "Loving." John Horn, from KPCC's show The Frame, is in for Rebecca Keegan to update us on the latest in the film business.
To hear the entire conversation click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Going car free in L.A. has its ups and downs
Ask anyone currently stuck in their cars on Interstate 5 -- or 10 or 15: Southern California traffic is getting worse. And with L.A.'s population projected to increase significantly over the next decade, that's a trend that's likely to continue.
Unless more Angelenos voluntarily opt out of using their cars.
How easy is it to forego getting behind the wheel in a city as sprawling as L.A.? And how does the cost and convenience of a personal vehicle compare with other ways of getting around? That's what I wanted to find out when I spent the month of October without using my daily driver. Instead, I took Metro and ride hails and Zipcars. I walked. And I bicycled.
What I learned from taking Metro is that its system of trains and buses could get me everywhere I needed to go really easily. Google Maps and the Go LA app made it simple to figure out how to navigate a system I had never used more than occasionally.
On the plus side, it was inexpensive and convenient to where I live. It was satisfying to know I wasn't contributing to traffic. And I was getting more exercise walking to, from and between trains and buses.
Unfortunately, it also took me about three times as long to get anywhere as it did when I traveled by car. It took more advanced planning than I was accustomed to. And there were still occasions when I needed a personal vehicle.
Ubers and Lyfts were an enormous help when I needed to shuttle my kid (who's temporarily on crutches) to and from school, but using those services daily to travel just eight miles, the costs outweighed driving him myself.
The expense of frequent ride hailing led me to try car-sharing for the one aspect of my life that really demands a personal vehicle: being a parent of a child whose school is not within walking distance. Renting a car by the hour through a service like Zipcar was more affordable than being driven in a ride hail. It still required putting a car on the road, however.
What I learned from going car free is that the only time I really do need my car is to shuttle my kid and to get groceries. The rest of the time I'm driving is optional. It's just as easy to get to my work at KPCC by train as it is to drive. It's just as easy to get my dog to the park by walking. And most of my other errands I can also accomplish on foot or via bicycle.
I just wasn't because it was so easy to use my own car.
Going car free forced me to really think about my options for getting places and to select the best tool for the job. Between Metro, occasional ride hails and car shares, a bicycle and my own two feet, there were a lot more tools at my disposal than I was considering when my car was parked just a few steps away in my driveway and the keys were within easy reach.
Having given up my car for a month, I've learned that a personal car isn't always the best choice. It's just the easiest. For a lot of us, it's an unconscious habit.
A look at LA County's judicial races: 'These are important decisions that impact everyone'
Here in LA County, you'll find eight candidates vying for a seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court on next week's ballot.
Each judicial candidate is seeking a six-year term on the bench.
During that time they'll hear criminal and civil cases–everything from contract disputes to homicides to family conflicts.
"These are important decisions that impact everyone today," said Paul Bacigalupo, a current judge on LA's Superior Court who also serves on the executive board of the California Judges Association. "Judges need to act in a way that people who come to the courts feel that they are being heard in a fair and impartial way."
With such a packed ballot–and during such a busy election season–making an informed decision can be tough, said Bacigalupo, but he had some tips on what to look for in candidates.
"You want to look at their judicial temperament, their ability to remain objective, be patient, and remain impartial," said Bacigalupo.
This series is a part of our voter game plan, in which we make it easier for you to vote. To read more about the LA County Superior Court Judge candidates, and for a digital version of your personalized ballot, visit kpcc.org/votergameplan. (Don't see all of the judicial candidates at that link? They'll be on Take Two starting Tuesday, Nov. 1 through the election, so check back for more!)
As Vine is cut, a look back at consumer video through the decades
Last week, Twitter announced it would be killing off video site Vine. The San Francisco-based social media company bought Vine for $30 million in 2012.
Once the digital platform of choice for millennials seeking their 6-seconds of fame, Vine quickly fell behind in the market: competitors offered longer videos and special effects. Some analysts contend that Twitter didn't have a clear plan for their purchase to begin with.
Vine is just the latest casualty in the rapidly changing world of consumer video.
As a eulogy to the dearly departed Vine, Take Two looked back at the video tech that was once cutting edge back in its day, and ahead to what consumers might expect from technology companies in the not-so-distant future.
Techwalla Editor-In-Chief Dave Johnson guided A Martinez on the journey through the decades.
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.
Koreans in SoCal glued to political drama in Seoul
South Korea's president is going through what some are calling the worst crisis of power in the country for decades. It involves a secret confidant, close family ties and questions of influence and favors at the highest level of the government. It all has the Korean community in Southern California closely watching developments.
"It's a very strange situation," said David Kang, director of the Korean Studies Institute at the University of Southern California. "They [the Korean community L.A.] are reacting like Koreans in Korea are reacting: with bafflement and in many cases with just outrage."
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.
Farmworkers are toiling at night to avoid the heat, but at a cost
Farmworkers in California are increasingly heading out into the fields at night to avoid the climbing temperatures and blistering sun during the day.
But shifting those work hours to night comes at a dangerous cost, with 1,500 reported injuries during 2011 to 2014, according to a Gustavo Solis, a journalist for the Desert Sun, who reported the story.
There are no regulations that require growers to provide adequate lighting, so some workers buy their own headlamps and have developed their own system to avoid being hurt.
A Martinez spoke with Solis about his story in the Desert Sun.
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.
Anaheim, other OC cities could see major political changes with district elections
The group behind Knott's Scary Farm's signature sliding scare tactic
Imagine you're walking through Knott's Scary Farm. It's nighttime, and you're in Ghost Town.
A werewolf growls at you. A zombie staggers past.
But then...out of nowhere, you hear a whoosh and a crack, and a creepy clown skids across your path.
It's gone before you're even done screaming.
This method of scaring is called sliding, and it has become a trademark of Knott's Scary Farm and other Halloween events.
The Decayed Brigade is the group that came up with the technique. Producer Lori Galarreta joined them for one of their practices leading up to the big Halloween weekend.
Members Stephen Pedersen, Chase McCullough and Eric Saunders spoke about the inception of the scare tactic, the gear required for it and the importance of safety.
The origins of sliding
Chase: "Sliding started back at Knott's Scary Farm, back in the late 80's, by monsters just fooling around in Ghost Town and then eventually from there just started evolving into gear. Some people used catcher's gear, catcher's shin guards to slide on. Some people used duct tape all over them and eventually would harden to the point it became plastic and that's what they would use on their gloves, until somebody came out and found out wire conduit works the best."
Gear
Chase: "The gloves themselves were pretty much any work gloves, a lot of us use motorcycle gloves. Take a piece of metal off of wire conduit out of the electrical department, glue it onto your fingertips, what we use on our fingertips for the noise and then our palms some people use flat plated washers or dance tap shoes which make a loud noise.
Down to our knee pads, you're probably looking at any ramp pads for halfpipe skating. Any type of tennis shoe will work. We actually take the steel of the steel toe boot, rip it out and actually glue it on top of the toes of that shoe, so that's when you slide everything is either plastic or metal that's touching the ground, that's what makes you go the distance."
Sliding and safety
Stephen: "A lot of people have the conception that sliding is very simple. Working Halloween events you have guests who come in and they'll say 'Oh, I can do that. Oh, cool bro. Oh, you're throwing yourself on the ground.' And yeah, to an extent that's what we're doing. When you're sliding in an amusement park full of 30,000 plus people, there's not a lot of room, so it's important to be on top of your game. You should be able to stop, you should be able to change direction, you should be able to stop with both feet.
...When we're doing some of these stunts, they may seem trivial. They may seem silly. We're just running around throwing ourselves on the ground, but some of them can be very dangerous. To do something like this with somebody you don't completely trust with this activity makes it that much more dangerous, so everybody who becomes a part of this is vetted very carefully..."
"We are group!"
Eric: "After a few years of Decayed Brigade, we started developing more social media and one of those was an Instagram and after posting pictures, this one lady commented on one of the pictures and completely messed up her sentence and she's like 'Oh, I love the Decayed Brigade. They are group!'
We just totally completely embraced it and we were like 'Guys! We are group!' It went from an inside joke, to a chant to now like a thing that's kind of turned into a tradition."
Chase: "We all come from different kind of haunt backgrounds and sliding backgrounds to the point where we're not just higher than anybody. We're all together. We're not...'this is his team, that's his team.' No, it's all of our team. So it kind of helped out when we started chanting the ritual of 'we are group' before we go out and do our shows, we all unite together, we all become family. And that's what Decayed Brigade is all about, is family."
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.
How pop culture defines, and responds to, our fears
Why is the thought of vampires horrifying to some and not scary to others?
Why have zombies been popular lately?
Take Two looks at how pop culture has defined our fears with Leo Braudy, author of "Haunted: On ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies and other monsters of the natural and supernatural worlds."
Click the blue audio player above to hear the full interview.