Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced an ambitious plan to outfit LAPD officers with body cameras. Plus, the Sony hack got a lot more serious with a threat against theaters that show "The Interview," plus the return of actress Gena Rowlands.
Former Sony cyber consultant offers perspective on hack
Tensions ratcheted up Tuesday with a threat by the Sony hackers to attack theaters that screen the Seth Rogan/James Franco political comedy, "The Interview." The film is at the center of the controversy.
This comes on top of mounting lawsuits filed by former Sony workers against the studio for failing to protect private employee information.
Ralph Echemendia, chief executive of cyber security firm Red E-Digital, previously consulted for Sony Corporation on cyber security issues, and he offered his perspective.
"I'd say this is probably the largest hack against a corporation that we've ever seen," Echemendia said.
Echemendia was hired as a consultant for Sony in 2011 when the company's Playstation network was hacked, and consumer financial information was compromised. He said the activist group Anonymous was believed to be behind the incident, because of a message that was left at Sony.
It usually takes about one to two months to uncover the identities of hackers, Echemendia says. But the Sony hackers are believed to have been inside Sony's systems possibly for six months, which will make identifying them harder.
Whoever the hackers may be, Echemendia believes Sony, and other organizations, can do a lot more to protect themselves.
"It's not so much that you can prevent the hack -- that's a misconception. The truth is, everyone is going to get hacked. You, me, and everybody else is going to get hacked one way or another. The question is, how quickly can we detected that this has happened."
Small stores beefed up their own security after the Target hack
Big retailers had to put many new security measures in place when hackers stole the personal info of millions of their customers, last year.
But mom and pop stores shouldered a lot of the burden, too.
"I started thinking, 'How do we safeguard ourselves?'" says Mike Daniel, owner of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Co. store in Long Beach. "How do we take those same types of steps to make sure we're not at risk for the same types of problems that Target's having?"
Security expert Mary Ann Miller from the firm NICE Actimize says small stores around the country had to install new card readers.
"The expense for updating every terminal," she says, "that's a big expense for all the retailers and all of the banks, especially the small businesses."
On the other hand, Miller says things can be more nimble with change.
"They have one checkout terminal and they have one or two highly trained staff," she says. That means less training involved to get employees up to speed.
Daniel says his store also changed some key ways they operate to make them less liable if a customer's info is stolen.
"We've stopped taking phone orders where we're taking down credit card numbers," he says. His store also installed a card reader at the counter so customers swipe their own card instead of an employee: it means that the card doesn't change hands.
"Definitely, it has affected our business," says Daniel. However, the risk of being at the center of a hack is too great for a small business like his.
You can also read previous installments of the series on identity theft, how a credit union deals with security and a company that hunts down hackers.
Police and body cameras
Yesterday Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan to outfit thousands of LAPD officers with body cameras by next summer.
While it would make the LAPD the largest one in the nation to utilize the technology, it's hardly the first department to give it a try.
In 2012 the small city of Rialto started to use body cameras on police as part of a study into the technology. We talk to the person responsible for the program, Rialto Chief of Police - Tony Farrar.
US to return embassy to Havana as part of new relations with Cuba
President Obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic ties with Cuba and an easing of economic and travel restrictions.
The president called it the "most significant changes in US policy toward Cuba in 50 years.
"Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunties for the American and Cuban people and begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas," said the President this morning.
This move follows the release of two Americans who had been in custody in Cuba. And the release of three Cubans by the United States.
For more on what this could mean, we're joined by Edwin Smith, professor of Law, political science and International Relations at USC's Gould School .
Little-known program offers compensation for vaccine injury
For some parents, the idea of vaccines does not sit well, for fear it could harm their kids.
Research has disproved the notion that vaccines cause autism. But vaccines aren't entirely without risk, which is one of the reason there is a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
KPCC health reporter Rebecca Plevin recently wrote about the program for Southern California Public Radio's health blog, Impatient.
Read Rebecca Plevin’s full post: The government compensates those injured by vaccines. Who knew?
Rarely seen species spotted off the coast of California
A team of researchers from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration found some fascinating changes in marine life off the coast of California. The team spent four months surveying the waters and spotted pygmy killer whales, logger head turtles, as well as a surge in the whale population.
The survey's main goal is to measure how different species are responding to changes in the ecosystem. Chief scientist Jay Barlow shares what he found.
You had the flight from hell over the holidays. Now what?
Tis the season for air travel, and over the coming weeks millions will take to the skies to see their loved ones.
But sometimes, that journey becomes the trip from hell.
So if your flight is delayed because of snow, or you're bumped when the plane is overbooked, or you make it to your destination but your luggage doesn't, do YOU know what you're entitled to from the airlines?
Barbara Peterson, senior aviation correspondent for Conde Nast Traveler, has some advice.
Let's say my flight is delayed for any reason. Can I get something in return for the inconvenience?
Legally, they don't owe you anything because most delays are out of their control caused by weather, an air traffic control or anything like that. But you can ask the airline, especially if it's a long delay, if they can give you money for food or maybe put you up in a hotel if that's necessary.
Does the answer change if I'm flying domestic versus internationally?
Actually, if you're flying from an international destination -- namely Europe back to the United States -- then you would have a completely different scenario because their consumer protection rules are much stronger. If you are delayed more than just a few hours, you are automatically entitled to compensation.
What benefits are there if the plane's delayed because of something within the airline's control, like mechanical repairs?
That still doesn't get you anything, and the reason is actually a fairly good one, I think, which is it has to do with safety. The airlines have successfully argued, really, we have to put safety first and if we're worried about paying a lot of compensation because we're trying to fix something, that's going to add another element in there which we really don't want to have to be considering at a time like that.
Getting bumped from a flight because it's overbooked can happen, too. What are the rules here?
They definitely owe you something. You are entitled up to $1,300 in addition to your fare depending how long it takes them to get you to your destination.
What if my bag is lost or delayed? There are already a lot of fees to get them on the flight in the first place, so if my luggage isn't with me do I get my money back?
If your bag is declared lost, then, yes, they will refund that fee that they charged you but in addition they do owe you up to $3,300. However, if it's delayed by just a day or two, they don't owe you that fee back. They don't really owe you anything. Most airlines will give you pocket money to get a few essential items, however, you're really not going to get any satisfaction if you want that fee back.
Is it worth buying travel insurance, too, just to make sure I'm not out of money when something happens?
I think increasingly people are looking at that as a very good option. Anything can go wrong. There's a couple of new options out there that are really reasonably priced. There's one for $25 that will cover you for all manner of situations and you don't have to wait to be stuck on the tarmac for three hours to get some sort of compensation.
Let's say one of these things happen to me, but I don't remember what I'm entitled to at the time. Can I go back to the airline and get compensation in the end?
You might be able to, but you would probably have to file a complaint first. The Department of Transportation has kept a whole log of complains on exactly that because what they've found is that a lot of people working the airlines' counters at the airport may not fully be aware of what the rules are, or maybe they've just been encouraged to give low-ball offers. If you realize later that perhaps you were given short shrift, you should go to the Department of Transportation, file a complaint, and go back to the airline. In a number of cases that has been successful.
LA rain brings benefits, challenges to LA River
Besides the Pacific Ocean, there is another major body of water: The L.A. River.
Thanks to the recent rains, it's actually looking like a real river again, a swiftly flowing one.
Lewis MacAdams, co-founder and president of Friends of the L.A. River, tells more about the benefits -- and challenges -- of all this new water.
Gena Rowlands on her new film 'Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks'
There are not too many leading roles for 84-year-old actresses in Hollywood these days. So, when Emmy and Golden Globe winner Gena Rowlands discovered she was the main contender to be the star of a new feature film, her curiosity was piqued.
The movie, "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks," is set in Florida and focuses on a retired widow named Lily. Lily enrolls in a series of in-home, ballroom dance lessons with a handsome private instructor, played by Cheyenne Jackson. Over the course of six weeks, the two wind up revealing a lot to each other - including the fact that Michael, the dance teacher, is gay.
Alex Cohen recently sat down with the two stars in a hotel in Beverly Hills to talk about the film.