Today we start with a look at the Comcast/Time Warner merger and what it may mean for your Internet service. Then, the business of e-cigs is booming, but the industry braces for FDA regulation. Plus, local restaurant causes a stir by adding a 3% healthcare surcharge to customers' tabs, Slate's Emily Yoffe joins us with some etiquette lessons for Valentine's Day, plus much more.
The Comcast/Time Warner merger and what it means for your Internet service
Let's talk about the future of the Internet in the U.S. Or more specifically, the future of the Internet for about 30 million people.
That's the number of customers that Comcast will likely end up with if it's allowed to merge with Time Warner. Comcast announced the merger this morning, and if they pass all of the regulatory hurdles, they would become the largest cable provider in the U.S., giving them control of around 30 percent of the market.
Here to talk about the future of the internet in the US is Brooks Boliek, technology reporter at Politico.
With news of the cable company merger, some are saying access to the Internet should be treated like a public utility. Take Two speaks to Susan Crawford, John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.
We also asked listeners what they think about their cable service:
Ask Emily: What happens if your income changes?
It's time now for our regular explainer on health care, which we call Ask Emily. That's Emily Bazar, senior writer for the California Healthcare Foundation Center for Health Reporting.
She joins us to answer questions about the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
The $1.5 billion e-cigarette industry faces FDA regulation
If you've been out and about lately you may have noticed the not so new trend of e-cigarettes.
You'll see people with hand held vaporizers, some with blue tip, some look like futuristic pipes, and some look just like cigarettes, but instead of smoke they emit an almost odorless vapor.
It's a fast growing industry worth more than $1.5 billion, and as of right now it's largely unregulated. But that might change soon. For more on that, we're joined by Megan McArdle who wrote about this for Bloomberg Businessweek.
LA City Council takes step to allow urban beekeeping
Yesterday, the LA city council voted unanimously to allow beekeeping in the city, which, as you can imagine, has created some buzz. For more, we're joined by Rob McFarland, He’s a beekeeper in L.A. and co-founder of Honey Love.
In Oakland, using video games to build a bridge to Silicon Valley
The high-tech industry does not look like the rest of California. There are very few African-Americans or Latinos working at tech companies.
A small but important step toward changing that is happening this weekend in Oakland. An event billed as a global hackathon will bring together young students of color with techies to mentor them.
Another effort to diversify the high-tech workforce is Project A Game. We head to East Oakland, where kids are learning how to make their own video games.
For the California Report, Sam Harnett has the story.
Health care surcharge riles customers at top LA eatery
The French-inspired Bistro and bakery, Republique, in Hancock Park has been open for less than three months, but it's been packed every night.
It's been called LA's hottest new restaurant, but it also might be the most controversial because of a little surcharge they've instituted. And it has nothing to do with the gratuity. KPCC's Ben Bergman reports.
Poll: What do you think about the surcharge? Let us know:
Etiquette Lesson: The dos and don'ts of Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is upon us, and while February 14th is usually a time for grand expressions of love, what should you do if you're in a new relationship? Or what should you do if you've been married for decades? And how to do not alienate your single friends?
RELATED: #KPCCLove: Melt your sweetie's public radio heart with these e-cards
To help us out with some dos and don'ts for Valentine's Day, we're joined by Emily Yoffe of Slate's Dear Prudence advice column.
State of Affairs: Death penalty proposal, Kamala Harris, beekeeping and more
It's Thursday, and that means it's time for State of Affairs, our look at politics and government throughout California. To help us with that today, we're joined in studio by KPCC political reporters Alice Walton and Frank Stoltze.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush delivered the Distinguished Speakers Series talk at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium last night. What did he have to say about running for president?
Three former governors are announcing a new ballot initiative today that would speed death penalty appeals, and potentially executions in California. What's the initiative all about?
This week, a Sacramento lobbyist got hit with the largest fine ever for violating California's lobbying laws. Kevin Sloat will pay more than $133,000. What happened here?
Staying in Sacramento for a moment, state Attorney General Kamala Harris officially announced her reelection campaign Wednesday. That wasn't a surprise, but what can we expect from this campaign?
California's longest-serving member of the state Supreme Court is stepping down. Justice Joyce Kennard will retire in April after 25-years on the high court. How big of an opportunity is this for Governor Jerry Brown to name his second appointment to the court?
While we're on retirements, San Bernardino Republican Congressman Gary Miller announced yesterday that he won't seek reelection. What's the future look like for this district?
We talked a few weeks ago about Congressman Henry Waxman retiring. Former L.A. mayoral candidate and Democrat Wendy Greuel has stepped in to run, as well as spiritual guru Marianne Williamson. Now a Republican, Elan Carr, has jumped in the race. What do we know about him?
Last week, Alice broke the story that the city of L.A. spends a million dollars a year for nine police officers to work full time for their union. What's been the reaction down at City Hall?
It's not just for LAUSD kids anymore -- Los Angeles fire fighters are using iPads! They're supposed to replace old paper maps that firefighters used to find their way to disaster sites. How is this working?
Speaking of fires, Frank reported this week that 60 old high rise apartment and condo buildings in L.A. are exempt from having to have fire sprinklers, thanks to a legal loophole. Are there plans to change that?
Finally, the topic that will bring us to our clip of the week: The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to support urban beekeeping. Why did the council take up this issue?
Ex-governors of California push for death penalty reform
Former California Governors Gray Davis, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson are announcing an effort today to place a death penalty reform initiative on the statewide ballot.
The initiative would reform the appeals process for death row inmates and change what these prisoners do while behind bars. If approved, it could mean big changes for the more than 700 inmates now on death row.
On a 2012 ballot, 53 percent of California voters rejected an initiative that would have repealed the death penalty.
Nonetheless, executions have been halted since 2006 because of lawsuits in federal and state courts over the three-drug lethal-injection method that had been used to carry out death sentences.
Here to discuss the current state of capital punishment in California is Ellen Kreitzberg, professor of law at Santa Clara University.
Winter storm shakes up the East Coast with 'frost quakes'
As another winter storm creeps up the Northeast and Midwest, people are bracing themselves for the snowy roads, canceled flights and power outages. But this winter storm is also bringing something east coast natives aren't used to: quakes!
No, they're not earthquakes, but frost quakes, or Cryoseism. That's right, the phenomenon is not confined to California. To talk more about these quakes, we're joined by Laurence Becker, Vermont State Geologist and Director Vermont Geological Survey.
What's trending on the final day of New York Fashion Week?
Fashion week is wrapping up in snowy New York City, and for more on this year's trends, we're joined by Booth Moore, fashion critic for the Los Angeles Times. She's been on the ground there this week.
UCLA poetry professor says Kristen Stewart's 'embarrassing' poem isn't that bad
Valentine's Day is tomorrow, which is a time for fancy dinners, chocolates and if you are really romantic poetry. But before you think about writing a love poem know that writing a good one is no easy feat. Just look what happened to actress Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame.
She recently shared a poem she penned, titled "My Heart Is A Wiffle Ball/Freedom Pole," with the magazine Marie Claire:
My Heart Is A Wiffle Ball/Freedom Pole by Kristen Stewart
I reared digital moonlight
You read its clock, scrawled neon across that black
Kismetly … ubiquitously crest fallen
Thrown down to strafe your foothills
…I'll suck the bones pretty.
Your nature perforated the abrasive organ pumps
Spray painted everything known to man,
Stream rushed through and all out into
Something Whilst the crackling stare down sun snuck
Through our windows boarded up
He hit your flint face and it sparked.
And I bellowed and you parked
We reached Marfa.
One honest day up on this freedom pole
Devils not done digging
He's speaking in tongues all along the pan handle
And this pining erosion is getting dust in
My eyes
And I'm drunk on your morsels
And so I look down the line
Your every twitch hand drum salute
Salutes mine …
Some critics have dubbed it the worst poem ever, but one poet believes Stewart's work shows some promise, and above all bravery. Brian Kim Stefans, a UCLA assistant professor of poetry, joins the show with his review of her work.
Palm Springs Modernism Week: What to do when you get into town
Modernism Week kicks off this Thursday in Palm Springs. The 10-day celebration of mid-century architecture and design features more than 100 events from home tours to a vintage travel trailer exhibition.
Our friend Charles Phoenix is a part of the festivities with a slide show celebrating Palms Springs wackier attractions. But he's got a list of great, unusual things you can see and do once you arrive.
"They have cactus, cactus, cactus EVERYWHERE!" says Phoenix. "The Cactorium is off the charts. It's basically a 1940's Quonset hut that is full of cactus."
(Credit: Flickr/Shoot into the sun)
"It's still like super-fun scary," says Phoenix. "It's one of those moments where you go, like, 'Are we going to die, here?'"
(Credit: Flickr/Kansas Sebastian)
"I'm very, very excited because Palm Springs is getting a new tiki bar," says Phoenix. "It's an offshoot of the Tonga Hut, which is in North Hollywood. I believe they're opening the night of the 15th."
(Credit: Tonga Hut)