Childhood obesity rates are inching down in Los Angeles and other major cities. Plus, SCOTUS will rule on key provision in the Voting Rights Act, Florida universities may freeze tuition for in-demand STEM majors, SpongeBob Squarepants joins the show to talk about his new Christmas album, and much more.
Childhood obesity rates edge downward in LA
Childhood obesity rates have shot up over the last three decades. Today, about one in three kids is overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk for diabetes and other medical conditions.
But there are inklings of a trend reversal. Several cities, including Los Angeles, are reporting drops in obesity rates among kids.
New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise joins the show to help explain this drop in obesity rates.
Is the Voting Rights Act out of date?
When it comes to the Supreme Court, many Californians are closely watching the case involving proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban. But there's another crucial civil rights case the court will consider, one that observers say could be, "One of the most significant rulings of the current term."
The justices will consider eliminating a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law that has been on the books for decades and is credited with fighting racial discrimination at the polls. Some argue a critical part of the law is out of date, even though the law was used this year to block voter ID requirements.
Nathaniel Persily professor of law and political science at Columbia University joins the show to talk about the implications of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act.
Florida universities mull plan to freeze tuition for in-demand majors
Imagine you're about to go to college. You've got two things on your mind: First you want an education you can afford, and second, you want a good job when you graduate.
In Florida, the governor's office is proposing a bold new plan that freezes tuition for in-demand fields like science, technology and health care, leaving prices higher for majors in English and History.
Could something like this work in California? More importantly, is it a good idea?
Michael Vasquez, education reporter for the Miami Herald, joins the show to talk about the plan and what people in Florida are saying.
New survey offers a peek at university president salaries
A new survey from the Chronicle of Higher Education looked at compensation for the countries highest paid college presidents. Of the private universities, USC's president Steven Sample was the 6th highest-paid president.
While many college presidents do not earn the same salary as their corporate counterparts, they have plenty of perks and special benefits that add to their overall wealth. Many of those added forms of compensation are given in a way that hides their value.
Joining the show with more is Jack Stripling of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Could student IDs with 'locator' chips become the norm?
Next week, a federal judge in Texas will consider whether a San Antonio high school can require a student to wear a badge containing a SmartID locator microchip.
The schools says it helps them keep track of students and account for attendance, but 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez says the badge is a "mark of the beast," and wearing it violates her Christian beliefs.
However, according to school officials, if the program works as expected it could mean an additional $1.7 million in funding for the school district suffering from budget cuts.
For more on this case and why microchips could be headed to a school near you, we're joined by Declan Mccullagh, chief political correspondent & senior writer at CNET.
SpongeBob SquarePants soaks up the Christmas spirit with new album
It's almost a rite of passage for cartoon characters: the holiday album. Songs about Santa and Christmas cheer have been heard from the likes of the Peanuts gang to Alvin and the Chipmunks.
And now, a hero from the Nickelodeon channel has his day in the snow: SpongeBob SquarePants. The cartoon hero has a new album called "Its a Spongebob Christmas," and we speak with Tom Kinney, the voice of SpongeBob, and musician Andy Paley.
Interview Highlights:
SpongeBob has been on air for 13 years now, what took so long to make a Christmas album?
"We pitched Nickelodeon on the idea of doing a holiday album a few years ago, and we wrote a song called 'Don’t Be A Jerk, It’s Christmas.' We left it around on a few peoples’ desks kind of as a holiday gift before the holiday break, leaving burned cds around, and that little chicken of the sea actually came home to roost.”
What was the idea that you were aiming towards with these lyrics?
"SpongeBob is such a positive character, so when he is making a plea for us to be nice to each other it is all inclusive, like let's not drop bombs on each other and lets not take 11 items into the ten item or less line. It’s all the same to him, lets be nice. We wrote this in 2009 at a time when bad public behavior by celebrities and public figures was at an all-time high and it was like, is there something in the water? So when they asked us to come up with a SpongeBob Christmas special we came up with our explanation for the rash of bad behavior which is that there is an element called 'Jerktonium' and its radiation causes you to be come this pugnacious, spoiling for fight, rude, jerk… it's baked into a fruit cake that is re-gifted and re-gifted so every time someone gets it they are contaminated.”
What were some of the inspirations behind this album?
"This whole thing is an homage to Christmas albums that we loved growing up, the Phil Spector Christmas record, Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, the Carpenters… they are so well played and so warm we kind of wanted to invoke some of that, to the point that we actually used some of the session musicians that worked on a lot of those classic Christmas records we talked about and we are really proud to use flesh and blood musician that are strumming and blowing on real instruments; no samples are used.”
California GOP looks to Jim Brulte to lead party rebound
In California, Democrats have a powerful two-thirds majority in the state legislature for the first time since the 1880s, while Republicans hold no statewide offices. Plus, last month GOP officials suffered a net loss of four congressional seats.
So what's the Republican Party of California to do? That question may fall squarely into the lap of a former legislator from San Bernardino County: Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga).
John Myers, chief political editor for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento, joins the show with more.
What's ahead for a post-Hugo Chavez Venezuela?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing surgery today in Cuba in order to remove cancerous cells in areas he previously had tumors. This is Chavez’s third cancer related surgery in approximately a year and a half.
Just a month ago, right before winning the election for Venezuela’s presidency, Chavez had announced that he was cancer free. Critics argue that maybe it wasn’t the wisest decision to run again, given his recent health issues.
“He has been very closed all along on the nature of his illness. People in Venezuela don’t even know what kind of cancer he has; they don’t know what his prognosis is,” said Jeffrey Davidow, Senior counselor at the Cohen Group and former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela and Mexico. “It is very difficult for politicians to acknowledge the possibility they wont be around forever but Chavez is taking that to extremes.”
This time however, Chavez is concerned enough about his health to name a successor. In the instance that his illness cuts his term as President short, he says that Vice President Nicolas Maduro should take over.
Maduro wasn’t associated with Chavez at the time of his first coup d'état in 1992, and generally isn’t as militaristic as Chavez. He has however, been an ardent Chavez supporter in more recent years, and he’s been given more responsibility within the Venezuelan government.
Maduro as successor isn’t a sure thing though, according to Davidow. The Venezuelan constitution states that 30 days after a successor becomes acting President, another election must take place.
“There are other people in Chavez’s own political party, perhaps in the military, that would have their own views on who becomes the next President,” said Davidow.
If Chavez were to pass away, one of the main challenges for the next government would be what decision to make on continuing to support other Caribbean countries with Venezuela’s oil money.
“Currently this money is very important for Cuba and Nicaragua, but Chavez has also spread his largess around to other governments, particularly in the Caribbean and Central America which are generally poor government and have no oil of there own,” said Davidow. “The challenge will be to continue or diminish its support of other countries without wrecking the economies of those places.”
Chavez is also known for building himself up on a very anti-American platform. There are questions as to what a new government in Venezuela would mean for United States-Venezuelan relations. It isn’t necessarily true that the next government will view United States hostility as importantly as Chavez did.
This depends, of course, on how the situation develops within Venezuela itself, and whether the country can install a new leader who maintains order.
“Chaos anywhere in the Caribbean is certainly not in the interest of the U.S. or other countries,” said Davidow.
Alan Sepinwall on how shows like 'The Wire' revolutionized TV storytelling
According to HitFix.com TV critic Alan Sepinwall, we're currently living in a golden era of television.
His new book is called "The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever," describes how a dozen high-profile dramas from "The Wire" to "Breaking Bad" have redefined the way television is used to tell stories.
These shows broke the mold of traditional one-hour drama by extending storylines over entire seasons. They also introduced us to morally ambiguous characters: a gangster in therapy, a teacher-turned meth dealer.
The difficulties of being gay and Latino
Recent polls show increasing support for same-sex marriage, even among groups traditionally opposed to it. For instance, a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center shows a majority of Latinos now support same-sex unions.
Still, many young people say it's not easy being Latino and gay. Veronica Zaragovia of the Fronteras Desk reports from Las Vegas.
Mobile health apps undergo scrutiny by the FDA
Mobile health apps are becoming more sophisticated. Some can take an EKG of your heart, measure your blood sugar level, and send the data to doctor. But who's making sure these apps are accurate and safe? The Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at mobile health devices and applications.
At the company AliveCor in downtown San Francisco, CEO Judy Wade turns her Apple iPhone sideways and presses her fingertips against the back of her phone case, where there are two sensors embedded in the case. Seconds later, an app on her phone begins measuring her heart rate as a series of wavy lines parade across her screen.
Wade's iPhone has become an EKG machine.
"[An EKG machine] is used to detect irregular heartbeats, as well as specific forms of heart issues like arrhythmia," Wade said. "What I think is one of the most amazing things about this is as soon as you're done, it's instantly transmitted to the cloud and available anywhere in the world to be analyzed and reviewed and read."
RELATED: iPhone, Android calorie tracking apps may boost weight loss
Wade said a cardiologist who was testing the device, used it to treat a passenger on an airplane who was having chest pains.
"He actually used our device to detect that a person was having myocardial infarction," Wade said. "And they landed the plane, they did an emergency landing. The passenger survived."
Wade's app is exactly the kind of thing officials with the Food and Drug Administration think needs federal oversight before being allowed on the market. In other words, software that's used to diagnose patients or prescribe treatment says Bakul Patel. He's a senior policy advisor for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health which began regulating mobile health applications last year.
"When a technology could actually harm patients when it's not working right, we would be concerned about that," Patel said.
Patel says the agency will clarify what that means with final guidelines it aims to publish by early 2013. He says the FDA has no plans to regulate wellness apps that do things like count calories, remind you to take your pills, or measure the number of steps you've walked in a day.
"We're excited about the fact that such technologies are going to change behavior and eventually help patients manage their own health," Patel said. "So we are actually encouraging that."
Patel's reassurances haven't stopped app developers -- or their investors -- from worrying that FDA regulation could stifle innovation. Especially among start-ups that run on shoestring budgets.
San Francisco's Chinatown is where Rock Health has its headquarters. The group provides seed money, mentorship and other resources to promising mobile and web health entrepreneurs.
"A lot of entrepreneurs may be hesitant to invest their time and money into a product that they don't know will be regulated or not," Rock Health CEO Halle Tecco said. "It's very risky."
Tecco said developers overall, are happy with draft guidelines the FDA put out last year. She says they're hoping the FDA's final rules are clear and concise.
"And [won't] resemble what a drug would have to go through, but something that is more suitable for a software application," Tecco said.
That concern is shared by Silicon Valley Congressman Mike Honda. On Monday, Honda introduced legislation that would create a separate FDA office of wireless health technologies, to help ensure what he called "reasonable" regulation of mobile medical apps.
The FDA's Baruk Patel wouldn't comment on Honda's pending legislation, but says the agency has been taking steps to more efficiently process approvals.
"We're trying to be smart about this," Patel said. "We recognize the growth and we recognize the potential of mobile technologies."
Back at AliveCor, the company has just learned the FDA has approved its device for sale to medical professionals. Michael Righter handled AliveCor's application.
"I'm able to go on the FDA's website and register the device," Righter said. "From there, you're a real medical device company."
Righter said the FDA's response to his application came sooner than expected. Though preparing to submit the application took months of clinical trials and meeting other federal requirements.
"I've had experiences where it's gone beyond 90 days," Righter said. "This once came in I'm guessing, 75 days or so."
Doctors can now order AliveCor's-FDA approved-heart monitor. The company is hoping to get its next FDA clearance to sell the device over-the-counter in April.
Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi breaks 40-year record with 86th goal
Is 25-year-old Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi the greatest soccer player in the world?
Pele fans might disagree, but last weekend the Barcelona forward beat German Gerd Mueller's 40-year record by scoring his 86th goal in 2012. Plus, there are three more games left which may cause Messi's tally to tick up even further.
John Carlin, writer for the Spanish Daily, El Pais, joins the show to talk about Messi's talent.