Black Lives Matter teams up with a CA charity to receive grants and donations, the Laotian reaction from LA, Paralympians are harnessing their power to motivate kids to live healthier lives.
Dallas paper's Clinton endorsement is 'huge,' but little surprise to Texans
There was a notable nod to Hillary Clinton this morning. The Dallas Morning News, a major paper in Texas, has endorsed the Democratic nominee.
It's the first time the publication has given a thumbs-up to a Democratic candidate since the start of World-War-Two — more than 75 years.
For more on what the paper's approval means in the Lone Star State, Take Two spoke to Edward Harpham; he's a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Dallas and author of the book "Governing Texas."
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Black Lives Matter partners with charity in sign of growth
Black Lives Matter has teamed up with a California charity to handle its financial matters and receive grants and donations.
Michael R. Blood with the Associated Press reports that the San Francisco-based International Development Exchange’s partnership with the national Black Lives Matter movement is a sign of the movement’s growth and expanding ambition.
Here’s more from the AP story:
Since November, the nonprofit charity also known as IDEX has been acting as a mostly unseen financial arm of Black Lives Matter, with the ability to receive grants and tax-deductible donations on the group’s behalf. More recently, the relationship evolved into a contractual partnership that will run through at least mid–2017.
IDEX is managing the group’s financial affairs, allowing Black Lives Matter to focus on its mission, including building local chapters and experimenting with its organizational structure.
IDEX is a small charity that has worked with the needy on several continents, while Black Lives Matter has chapters in nearly 40 U.S. cities and several abroad, Blood reports. The idea is that the two organizations will together seek social change both in the U.S. and abroad.
Here’s more from AP on how that might look:
A key aspect of the agreement involves exchanging information and building potential alliances between Black Lives Matter and IDEX’s partners overseas. The idea is for the groups and movements to learn from each other.
Black Lives Matter has agreed to make donations to IDEX’s partners in Zimbabwe and South Africa, in lieu of an administrative fee for the charity’s services, [IDEX Executive Director Rajasvini] Bhansali said.
Part of the tie between the groups is personal: Bhansali has known Garza and fellow Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors for about a decade through their work, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She said Black Lives Matter has a strong interest in learning from social and cultural movements around the globe, which makes it a natural fit with IDEX and its work in needy communities in Africa, Asia and South America, where IDEX has supported more than 500 projects since 1985.
Blood reports that the agreement is one of several steps Black Lives Matter appears to be taking in response to criticism that it lacks direction and purpose.
An umbrella group known as the Movement for Black Lives, which includes Black Lives Matter, has published a detailed agenda of goals, including channeling more money into poverty programs, raising taxes on the wealthy, obtaining reparations for past racial injustices and spending as much as $4 trillion on jobs for black workers, Blood reports.
Phil Buchanan, president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy, says when you look back at other social movements in U.S. history-- from the civil rights movement to more recent efforts for marriage equality-- "it's not surprising to see that what starts as an organic, spontaneous reaction of outrage and concern would end up taking on a more organized form over time through some kind of non-profit organization."
"As the Black Lives Matter movement gets clearer about their policy objectives," Buchanan says, "they will then need resources to pursue those objectives. And I think the backing of major foundations like the Ford Foundation [which hopes to raise $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives] and others, if that ends up coming to fruition, that could be very very powerful."
AP political writer Michael Blood and Phil Buchanan, president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy, joined Alex Cohen to discuss the story. To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
Football fans burn Kaepernick's jersey in protest of his protest
Right now the number one selling item at NFL.com is Colin Kaepernick's jersey, which started selling like hotcakes after the quarterback sat during the national anthem.
Presumably some people are buying the shirts to show solidarity with his message, but others have been critical. Some have gone as far as to burn their purchases and posting their videos online.
For some the debate surrounding Kaepernick's choices raises tough questions about the behavior of NFL players and that of football fans.
ESPN's Jane McManus explores those questions with Alex Cohen.
Airbnb sues Santa Monica over short-term rental laws
If you've tried to rent an Airbnb in Santa Monica some time in the past few months it would've been tough to find a spot and that's because short term rentals have effectively been banned by the city for more than a year now. But now, Airbnb is fighting back.
Late last week they decided to sue the city of Santa Monica. As both sides prepare for the battle we thought we'd check in with KPCC's Ben Bergman on why this is a big deal and why it's so hard for cities to regulate the sharing economy.
To hear the conversation click on the link embedded at the top of the post.
Sports roundup: Rams gear up for opening day, Kershaw returns to Dodgers line-up
The L.A. Rams get ready for their opening game for the NFL season in their new home, but why isn't quarterback Jared Goff in the starting line-up? USC suffers one of its worst defeats to Alabama to start the Fall – can the team recover with a tough schedule ahead? And Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw returns to the mound as the team continues a string of wins.
We're joined by Andy and Brian Kamanetzky.
Why is the New York Times so interested in California?
The New York Times is a national newspaper, but the East Coast company seems to have a long-distance love affair with California.
(There's no end in sight to the lavish praise that the NYT sends our way, even if some of it is ridiculed).
The Times is taking it a step further this week by debuting a newsletter, "California Today."
The daily email will tell California stories for a California audience.
Take Two talks with NYT editor Julie Bloom about why the East Coast publication is so interested in catering to Golden State readers.
LAUSD program pairs students with Olympians, Paralympians to promote fitness
The 2016 Paralympics begin Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. For the next eleven days, more than four thousand athletes from around the world will compete for gold.
And here in Los Angeles, young athletes will be watching closely. The group Ready, Set, Gold! pairs up medalists from the Paralympic and Olympic games with students in Los Angeles Unified schools to help motivate kids to live a healthier life.
Alex Cohen spoke to Ready, Set, Gold! director Bernadine Bednarz about the relationships students form with athletes.
Click the blue audio player to hear the full interview.
The Los Angeles Laotian reaction to President Obama's visit
President Obama is in Laos this week. He is the first sitting American president to visit the Southeast Asian nation. Throughout his trip, President Obama lamented that few Americans know much about the secret nine-year war the U.S. waged there more than 40 years ago.
During the Vietnam war, an average of eight bombs a minute was dropped on Laos. Not all of them exploded -- in fact, tens of millions were left unexploded in the countryside.
This week, Obama announced about ninety million dollars will be spent to clean up the remaining mines, calling in a "profound moral and humanitarian obligation." For more on the Laotian American response here in Southern California, we have Leslie Chantaphaasouk. She's a writer with the Laotian diaspora blog, Little Laos on the Prairie.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
The Styled Side: Female sports fans want cool clothes, too
For NFL fans out there, the season kicks off tomorrow – so you've got your fantasy draft in order, the chips and dips all laid out, and your Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays blocked off, right?
But what about your wardrobe?
For guys and kids, the answer was easy: just get a team jersey.
Women, however, were traditionally ignored by the multi-million dollar merchandising business.
"For years, the industry had a 'pink it and shrink it' mentality," says Michelle Dalton Tyree of Fashion Trends Daily. "That means, take your favorite team T-shirt, make it pink and make it smaller and – voila! But the thing is, we don't all love pink."
That began to change with actress Alyssa Milano – a huge sports fan herself.
Milano had season tickets to the Dodgers. She was at the game one night and was cold, so she decided to buy something from a merch shop to wear.
All her choices were pink and not flattering, so an a-ha moment hit her to pitch the idea of a fashion-forward female fan apparel line.
Her agent secured a meeting with reps from Major League Baseball.
"I don't think that they really understood what I was talking about as far as the line was concerned," she recalls, "but I do think that they responded to how passionate I was about the sport of baseball and how strongly I felt that female fans weren't given a strong enough voice in the sport."
They eventually gave her a licensing deal, and her line Touch was born.
Touch uses clothing patterns specifically for women, and also find inspiration from the latest runway styles.
"We really look at fashion trends to design the line, so we look at what's going in Fashion Week and try to adapt those trends to sports apparel," she says.
Touch had touched a nerve with the increasing number of female sports fans, and has grown to a $100 million business with ties to all the major sports leagues.
Many more retailers are also tapping into the female sports fan market.
Junk Food Clothing, based in LA, has an extensive NFL collection for women and men.
"They do cool and ridiculously soft Jerseys and T-shirts," says Tyree, "and I love their LA Rams jerseys, some of which you can only get online."
Another biggie is Miss Fanatic, a company started by former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Tiffany Pearl.
"Women's wear is an enormous piece of the pie in fan wear, and now we're only just seeing that grow," says Tyree.