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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Rampant crime at Walmart has local police fed up. Who’s to blame?

    Walmart stores around the country have become magnets for crime – from fights and kidnappings to meth production on Walmart property. Local police are feeling the strain, and they’re putting the blame on Walmart executives.

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    By Madeleine Brand • Aug 18, 2016 • 52m Listen

    Walmart stores around the country have become magnets for crime – from fights, stabbings, and kidnappings to an entire meth lab under a Walmart parking lot in Amherst, New York. Local police departments are feeling the strain, and they’re putting the blame on Walmart executives.

    In this episode

    5 stories
    1. 0:30

      Rampant crime at Walmart has local police fed up. Who’s to blame?

      Walmart stores around the country have become magnets for crime. From Oklahoma to Indiana to Texas, the discount retailer is plagued by more than shoplifting. There have also been fights, stabbings, and kidnappings. An entire meth lab was discovered under a Walmart parking lot in Amherst, New York.

      Read the story
      9 min
    2. 9:14

      The NSA and NPR in web news this week

      The hack of the DNC made headlines recently, and now security experts say the NSA has been hacked . In other web news, Univision will buy Gawker and will shut down the snarky gossip website next week. And NPR has announced that soon listeners won’t be able to comment on their website.

      Read the story
      9 min
    3. 18:59

      ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ podcast brings realtalk to live audiences

      Two girlfriends, one in LA and the other in San Francisco, maintain their friendship by chatting every week. It’s a podcast called “ Call Your Girlfriend ”, and listeners are like flies on the wall, eavesdropping on a conversation between long-distance besties.

      Read the story
      10 min
    4. 28:48

      Was Patty Hearst a brainwashed captive or a true believer?

      Forty years ago, the country was riveted by the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst. She was 19 years old, a student at UC Berkeley, and the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who inspired the movie “Citizen Kane.” In 1974, Patricia’s life took its own cinematic turn, but it was a lot weirder than any Hollywood classic.

      Read the story
      16 min
    5. 45:37

      Warren Olney recalls the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shootout

      On May 17, 1974, police got word that the Symbionese Liberation Army were hiding out in a house in Compton. Five hundred LAPD officers sieged the house, firing an estimated 1,200 rounds of ammunition on the house, and killing six SLA members. The incident was the first police shootout captured on live television.

      Read the story
      6 min
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Matt Holzman

      Producer, 'The Document'

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Anna Scott

      Former KCRW Housing and Homelessness Reporter

    • KCRW placeholder

      Jolie Myers

      Managing Producer, 'Press Play'

      News

    In this episode

    5 stories
    1. 0:309 min

      Rampant crime at Walmart has local police fed up. Who’s to blame?

    2. 9:149 min

      The NSA and NPR in web news this week

    3. 18:5910 min

      ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ podcast brings realtalk to live audiences

    4. 28:4816 min

      Was Patty Hearst a brainwashed captive or a true believer?

    5. 45:376 min

      Warren Olney recalls the 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shootout

    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand