Press Play with Madeleine Brand
The Russian side of Trump Jr.'s meeting
A B-list pop star, his billionaire father, and a bull-dog lawyer have become players in a story that is throwing the White House into crisis. We learn more about the Russian side of the Donald Trump Jr. story.
By Madeleine Brand • • 51m ListenPhoto: Donald Trump kisses his son Donald, Jr. at a campaign event at Regents University in Virginia Beach, Virginia February 24, 2016. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
In this episode
5 storiesWho was the Russian lawyer Donald Trump. Jr was going to meet?
Donald Trump Jr. recently tweeted an email exchange in which he was promised incriminating information on Hillary Clinton via the Russian government. Those emails lay out plans for a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya. She’s been described as both a Kremlin insider and also a low-level one-issue activist.
Read the story10 minLos Angeles tries fixing a really complicated problem: Homelessness
The latest numbers show homelessness is up more than 20 percent in LA. We meet a woman who lives in a motel with her 11-year-old son -- if she can earn enough cleaning the motel to afford a room each night. Anna Scott and Saul Gonzalez are reporting on LA housing issues for an upcoming podcast called “There Goes the Neighborhood.”
Read the story10 minSuburban poverty is getting worse
Homelessness and poverty are also problems outside the city. The growth of poverty in American suburbs is one of the most important, and overlooked, demographic changes in the last 40 years, according to one scholar.
Read the story10 minLAPD's K-9 unit makes policing safer
The LAPD has one of the worst records for officer-involved shootings in the U.S., but it’s actually done a lot to avoid potentially fatal encounters between armed police and suspects on the run. Their strategy is to release the dogs. Police departments nationwide admire the LAPD for is its K-9 unit.
Read the story12 minInside LA's last two porn theaters
We have an appreciation --- if that’s the right word -- for the last two porn theaters in Los Angeles.
Read the story10 min
