The Chicago Tribune has endorsed Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, A Martinez's love letter to Vin Scully, the significance of a bulletproof black super hero.
Update: public responds to police shooting of El Cajon black man
Protests continue in the California city of El Cajon, after police fatally shot a black man who pointed a vaping device at officers.
38-year-old Alfred Olango was tasered then shot by police Tuesday after his sister put in a 911 call asking for help for her mentally ill brother.
Take Two spoke with KPBS reporter Erik Anderson about the public's response.
The Chicago Tribune endorses Gary Johnson's presidential bid
The Chicago Tribune has endorsed Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. It's the most prominent paper to endorse Johnson to date.
The Tribune has a long history of supporting Republicans, with the exception of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The editorial, published today, calls Johnson a "principled option," and metes out some sharp critiques of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Take Two talked about the decision with Michael Lev, a member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview
Marvel's Luke Cage and the cultural significance of a bulletproof black man
The long anticipated Netflix series, Luke Cage, is now available to stream.
The character first appeared in comics in 1972, coinciding with the released of blaxploitation films of the era. Also known as Power Man, Cage was created by Archie Goodwin, John Romita, Sr. and George Tuska. Here's the cover of the first issue, Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1.
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Cage was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, but gains superpowers in the form of unbreakable skin and superhuman strength.
The new Netflix version updates many aspects of the original character. Instead of a massive chain around his waist and a steel headband, he wears boots and a hoodie.
We talked about the cultural significance of the character with Adilifu Nama, professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of the book, Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes.
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The character's origins are steeped in social conflicts. After Cage was sent to Seagate Prison in Georgia, he became the target of a brutal and racist white guard. But later, he volunteered for an experiment that would allow him to receive early release, but that same guard tried to sabotage the experiment, hoping to kill Cage. Instead, the treatment have him superhuman strength and durability.
Professor Nama talked about these elements, that reflect historical events like the Tuskegee experiments and prison reform.
In my mind that's what makes Cage an interesting figure ... in many ways he's critiquing the criminal industrial complex of the early 1970s against the backdrop of the prison justice movement that was going on ... [also] the medical experimentation element in which black men and probably women in different categories and situations have been used as medical guinea pigs ... this makes an excellent point. Luke Cage is not just a disposable comic that is for the kiddie crowd, it really has some serious social, political and cultural themes ...
A Martinez asked Professor Nama about the character's power, and the recent shootings involving black men. Does Luke Cage have an especially relevant meaning?
It's extremely relevant but also problematic. There's a way in which - at a time when black men in particular are experiencing this confrontation with the lethal force of policing - where they have proven that they are not bulletproof. To have a black man, where that is his calling card, in some ways is a two sided representation. I see Luke Cage and I wish Trayvon Martin was Luke Cage ... I wish Tamir Rice had bulletproof skin ... but it is also problematic because it reaffirms the notion of the black body and the black man as being over-powered, over-determined ... having to in fact be something to be afraid of ...
Adilifu Nama is a professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of the book, Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes.
Click on the blue arrow to hear the entire interview
Archery, camping... video game design? Girl Scouts gamify their patches
Part of the fun of being a Girl Scout is sporting the patches.
These colorful symbols boldly display to the world what a girl is interested in. Patches can be earned for things like camping, astronomy and even for learning more about Pasadena's annual Tournament of Roses.
Now there's a new patch in town - one for video game design.
For more Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Christine Colvin, STEM and Leadership Program Specialist for Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles. Joining her and sporting her very own patch, was Senior Girl Scout Yasmine Corel.
Interview Highlights
Badge, patch. What's the difference?
Christine: "A badge is something out of the GSUSA (Girl Scouts USA) national curriculum...these are badges, experiences girls across the nation all earn in a similar manner. There are five requirements, three options for each requirement and badges cover the whole gambit of experiences. There are badges for art, there's first aid, there's camping. We have some more for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and the outdoors is the newest...
But what a patch is...it's an experience that does not necessarily align or is not included in a badge curriculum. It can be something specific to each council. Other patches can be earned for things like camps girls go to, we have a walking patch program where girls get a better handle on their fitness and learn about athletics...."
This new video gaming patch is the result of a partnership with a group called Women in Games International and a local subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment called Santa Monica Studios. How did all this come to be?
Christine: "I'll go back even further...our national Girl Scout research studies tell us that girls are interested in STEM and STEAM (the 'A' is for arts) and may not know how to get involved in it. So, they're really interested in these careers but they need more opportunities, so we were able to develop a relationship with WIGI (the Women in Games International) and in 2014 that was the first launch of the video game designer patch program.
Actually, Yasmine, she was a part of the original group, to get girls to meet with these professionals to understand different facets of video game design and how it's built from the ground up. It's not even the technology part of it, it goes to the space, the rules, understanding different components of just the basics of a game. They start with Rock, Paper, Scissors dissecting the rock, the paper, the scissors down into different components and then tying that into the actual digital design of a video game..."
Yasmine, how did this make you feel? Did it make you feel like video game coding and designing is something you could do?
Yasmine: "Yeah, I really like computers...I really want to go into the coding aspect. And so when I saw this, I was like 'Well, at least now I have a better idea of kind of getting close to that stage.' The hardest part for me, was trying to decide what I wanted to do. I had all these different ideas but then when it came down to actually doing it, I was like 'I don't know what I'm going to do!'"
What kind of games would you like to create?
Yasmine: "I kind of want to go towards trying to draw awareness to things so like I've seen that there are games that kind of draw awareness to bullying and stuff like that. So, I kind of want to go towards that end."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
(Answers have been edited for clarity.)
For more information on the patch program, click here.
Vin Scully is the greatest sports broadcaster of all time
Legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully has just a few more hours of airtime in a broadcast career that has spanned 67 years. For him, it all ends on Sunday. But A Martinez, who worked closely with the Dodgers for years and who got to know him personally, wanted to explain why he thinks Scully is the greatest broadcaster of all time.
To understand what makes Vince Scully truly one of the greats, we need to go back in time for some historical context.
In the late 1950s, Los Angeles was already the movie-making capital of the world. But it was also changing. Quickly.
Nowhere did the post-war boom, boom more than in the City of Angeles.
There were more cars produced here than anywhere else outside of Detroit. Aerospace companies provided good, high-paying jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers. Real estate development exploded, and people started to migrate here for the nice homes, the beaches, the mountains, the sunshine and a little slice of the American dream.
But there was one thing missing: a big time professional sports team.
In those days, Major League Baseball was king. If you didn’t have a team you pretty much were considered a minor league town.
That irked a lot of folks in Los Angeles. It was a hard right jab to their civic pride.
Happily, the Brooklyn Dodgers wanted a taste of that good West Coast life, too, and in 1958 they decided to make the big move.
Who would be the first point of contact between the Dodgers and their new city?
Vin Scully.
In 1957, the year before the team moved, Scully was a twenty-something, golden throated, red-head announcer born and raised in New York who, ironically, grew up a die hard Giants fan.
But once he and the team made it out here, they fell in love with the town and the town fell in love with them.
It helped that the Dodgers were a top-flight club. They won the World Series in three of the first eight years they were in Los Angeles.
It helped that they had legendary players such as Sandy Koufax and Maury Wills.
And it also helped that Scully was there to immortalize them.
Scully was a natural at descriptions. You could visualize exactly what was going on without even being at the game.
But to make the argument that he’s the greatest of all time, fast forward to 1988 when no one expected much of the Dodgers.
The team had come off of back-to-back subpar seasons.
But as April turned into May, the Dodgers were leading the division and pretty much stayed in first place the rest of the way. They also had a roster full of players who pretty much no one considered superstars.
The Dodgers were the clear underdogs.
Then they faced the powerful and heavily-favored New York Mets, a team with 100 wins and the 2nd best record in the majors.
A funny thing happened though: the Dodgers wound up beating the Mets to advance to the World Series.
I was an L.A. kid at the time and a Dodgers fan. I remember all of the talk, “Well it was a nice run. They got a little lucky, but now the Cinderella story ends.”
You see, they were going up against the Oakland A’s, the team with the best record in the majors.
The Dodgers had also lost their best player, outfielder Kirk Gibson. He was was all banged up and got pulled from the lineup for the opening game of the World Series.
To no one’s surprise, things didn’t start off well for L.A. The Mets' Jose Canseco hit a grand-slam early to give the A’s the lead.
Then in the bottom of the 9th with a one run lead, the A’s brought in Dennis Eckersley, the best closer in the game, to lock everything up.
For some reason, with two outs and a runner on-base, manager Tommy Lasorda decided to go for a Hail Mary.
He called on the injured Gibson to grab a bat. The outfielder could hardly walk, much less hit a baseball.
But then Gibson hit a home run so glorious that I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
It was in moments like these that Scully showed why he’s one of the greats.
He let the moment breathe for over a minute, allowing the crowd to carry the action and stepping aside when other broadcasters may have felt the need to say something.
Then, in 12 words, Scully summed up an entire season.
"In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened,"
The Gibson call was amazing to hear as a broadcaster and as a fan, but there was one other moment that meant the world to me as a young Latino kid in L.A. who was a obsessed with the Dodgers.
It was two years later in 1990 when Fernando Valenzuela was in his last season as a Dodger.
By then, Valenzuela had pretty much done it all: season after season of total Fernando-mania from the fans, two-time World Series champ, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award winner, multiple All-Star Game appearances.
There was still one thing on his baseball bucket list, however: throw a no-hitter.
He was almost there on June 29, 1990. Just two more outs and he’d have it.
Vin captured the moment in typical Scully fashion.
"If anyone has a sombrero, throw it to the sky!" he belted.
It was a simple acknowledgement to what Valenzuela meant to the Spanish-speaking community of Los Angeles, along with a sense of closure for Valenzuela’s Dodger career.
To me, in that moment and hearing him sum up what my hero meant to us, it meant the world.
That relationship with the audience is something that all broadcasters strive for.
There are so many other ways I could illustrate why I’ll miss Vin Scully and why, for me, he’s on the Mount Rushmore of announcers.
When he leaves, the way we hear the game will never be the same.
Scully worked all by himself. The last solo play-by-play man in baseball. The last guy who – all alone – could connect with you on a personal level with well-told stories and stats sprinkled in between, keeping you engaged all the way through.
I’ll always remember what he said when the Dodgers named their press box after him.
He said he was happy to have his name on the room where the reporters worked because he has always seen himself as just that: a reporter telling the story of the game.
Vin Scully – the eyes and ears of Los Angeles – telling a very long story to a city that will be grateful for a very long time.
In the wake of "toxic" allegations, Yosemite head steps down
Yosemite offers some of the most majestic surroundings you can find in California. Yet it has been described as a hostile work environment by some employees. Under the glare of this criticism, the head of the park, Don Neubacher has retired.
For more, Take Two spoke with Michael Doyle, a reporter covering the National Parks for McClatchy.
Could you climb the 1664 steps of LA's US Bank building?
The U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles is a tall building.... really tall.
The skyscraper is more than 1000 feet high, which is why most people take the elevator. Today many of the bank's visitors will hit the staircase.
The 23rd annual Stair Climb for Los Angeles is a fundraising event for youth and family programs at the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA. So what does it take to climb the building's 1664 stairs?
Alex Cohen spoke with Roger Robles, a wellness coach at the Ketchum-Downtown YMCA about the race and how people prepare for it,
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
For more information on the climb, click here.
An underground market for authentic Chinese cuisine flourishes in LA
There's an illegal market being run through the Chinese messaging app WeChat. The product? Dumplings and other authentic cuisine from China.
The tradition of purchasing home-cooked food that's hard to find commercially isn't a new one, but the advent of social media is changing the landscape.
The sale of home-cooked foods is prohibited by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, but for many, it's a more appealing option. Even if it means going through the sometimes rigorous vetting process of a home-based chef trying to protect herself from legal troubles.
Despite the underground element of the WeChat market, customer demand is so high that some home-based chefs can't keep up with their orders.
Reporter, David Pierson looked into the WeChat home cooked food market for the L.A. Times and joined Take Two with more details.
Click on the blue arrow above to hear the full interview.