Today we take a look at what's next in the wake of a fiscal cliff deal. Plus, an economist theorizes that the U.S. is nearing an end to a period of growth that began in the 18th century; LA County animal shelters managed to not euthanize any healthy animals in December; Scientists are working to save endangered frogs from a deadly fungus, plus much more.
The political repercussions of the fiscal cliff deal
It seems that the dreaded tumble over the fiscal cliff was avoided. Though the House didn't vote until after the Monday deadline, but there is a deal. It avoids cuts to defense and other programs, and prevents an income tax increase for all but the richest Americans, but it's still a short-term deal.
RELATED: It's not over: Big budget battles ahead even after 'fiscal cliff' deal
Joining us with more on the political repercussions and the next round of fiscal crises, Molly Ball, political reporter for The Atlantic.
Economist theorizes that America's period of growth may be ending
KPCC's Matt DeBord talks about economist Robert Gordon's theory that the period of economic growth that began in the 18th century may be drawing to an end.
City of Los Angeles animal shelters celebrate a no-kill December
December 2012 was the first month on record that no adoptable healthy animals were euthanized by City of Los Angeles animal shelters. It’s a huge accomplishment for a shelter system that takes in thousands of cats and dogs each month.
Dubbed "No-Kill December," the initiative was conceived by No-Kill Los Angeles, a coalition of animal rescue groups, shelters and individuals, working to prevent adoptable animals from being euthanized in L.A. shelters.
"This is a whole community effort and it's being helped by the large national groups as well as the people here," said Brenda Barnette, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. "We realized our goal for the first year was to euthanize 3,000 less animals and at the end of October we were already at 3,800, so we'd gone over the goal for the year and we said: 'Well, let's see what we can do for December.'"
The Found Animals Foundation launched the "12 Pets of Christmas" campaign to help the No-Kill Coalition encourage people hoping to add a pet to their homes during the holidays to adopt from a shelter, rather than from a pet store or breeder.
"It used to be that people said, 'Oh, don't do those impulse adoptions,' but that's when people are going to get pets, so it's better that they come and get them from the shelter, that they help the shelter animals than it is that they go buy a pet," said Barnette. "If you're ready to add a companion animal then this is the time to do it."
The group also changed how they decide whether or not animals with behavioral issues get put down. Instead of one person recognizing a behavior issue and deciding to euthanize, now three people must observe a behavior issue three different times before an animal is branded as unadoptable.
"We put some criterion on, and that worked amazingly well," said Barnette. "This year there were 25 animals euthanized for serious behavior issues compared to 119 same time last year."
Scientists race to save endangered frogs from lethal fungus
All over the world, frogs are dying at an alarming rate. From the basins of the Sierra Nevada to Panama, and even extending to Australia and Europe, frog populations have declined as much as 95 percent since 2004 due to a deadly fungus.
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which scientists call “Bd,” is a contagious, lethal fungus that has spread around the globe. The fungus clogs the frogs pores and causes them to die from a heart attack.
Washington Post reporter William Booth – who's reporting on this story as a foreign correspondent – talks about what the fungus is and what biologists are doing to try and stop frogs from becoming extinct.
On how the fungus spread throughout the world:
"Bd has a slow spread, so we don't know exactly when it entered North America, but for example when they went back and looked at samples in Mexico, they realized that the fungus was already there in the 1970s. So if you just look at the Americas it slowly worked its way from Mexico down through Guatemala through the isthmus, then it was in Costa Rica 10 years ago, then it was in Panama 2002, 2003, and now its headed down and has almost reached the Darian pass which is what connects Panama to Colombia. It also has leap frogged down into South America, they've found it in the Amazon and Chile and other places."
On what the fungus does to the frogs:
"The fungus interrupts the movement of electrolytes and other things across the frog's skin. Frogs are very sensitive animals and their skin is very important, it helps them perspire, many frogs don't drink water they take in water through their skin, so it interferes with their ability to move vitamins and electrolytes and other things across their skin and eventually they'll die of cardiac arrest. So the biologists see really weird things, they'll actually see tens or dozens or hundreds of dead frogs, and in the jungle in Panama you would never see like a bunch of dead frogs, nature would take care of it and you wouldn't find them all along the stream bank. So when it hits a population it hits it quite hard."
On how the fungus has evolved over time:
"There were a couple of papers within the past few months that said the genetics of the Bd organism have been changing, so they co-combine with other funguses they meet, in nature a bacteria or virus or fungus is sort of changing and evolving, so they've found some evidence of that might increase the lethality of the fungus, and they also did some studies where they found that the temperature variation swings up and down more, it tends to be more lethal for frogs, and that temperature variability is what people are seeing from climate change, hotter days, colder days, so it swings up and down."
On what biologists are doing to help stop frog extinction:
"One of the big scientists involved in this is from Berkley, who was one of the people who identified the mechanism of how this fungus actually kills the frog. They call these amphibian arcs and they ran around as fast as they could in 2006, in 2007 and 2008, grabbing frog species that they were seeing being wiped out from the jungle, so they were pulling in several dozen species of frogs,…then pulling them into this laboratory and putting them into what might look like your 12-year-old son's dirty fish tank, so there they are for the last 5 or 6 or 7 years, and they've been trying to figure out how to encourage them to breed and also to keep them alive, since there's no Purina Frog Chow that you can shovel at them. So there's a whole parallel facility raising the stuff to keep these guys alive."
On the difficult road ahead for biologists working on saving frogs from the fungus:
"They need to successfully breed up several hundreds of frogs for each species before they would even attempt to put them back into the wild. We can't put precious, really expensive frogs back into the habitat simply to feed this Bd virus, and have it kill the frogs. There's been some thought of maybe they have a vaccination, there's been some idea that some frogs seem to survive when Bd comes through and maybe its a behavioral thing. Maybe the frog basks in the sun and the Bd fungus can't get going on him or her and so maybe you would take a bunch of frogs and do animal husbandry. You would challenge them with Bd fungus, some would die and some would live, the survivors you would go through a couple of generations to breed them, there's something about them that can beat back the fungus then you would put them back in the wild."
Remembering the Korean War after 60 years
It was nearly 60 years ago that Americans fighting a grueling war in Korea saw an end in sight. The armistice to end the war was signed in July 1953, but since then, the Korean War has often been called, "The Forgotten War."
At the Rose Parade yesterday a float by the Defense Department commemorated the veterans of that war. It's the first time the Pentagon sponsored a float, and it's one lead-up to events this July marking the 60th anniversary to the end of the fighting.
But how are Americans remembering the work of those who fought in "The Forgotten War"?
Joining us is James Matray, professor of history at the University of California, Chico, and the author of, "Korea Divided: The 38th Parallel And The Demilitarized Zone."
How to keep your kids 'Unbored' during the long winter break
You've done a lot this holiday season. You've gone to see some movies, went up to the mountains for a day in the snow, maybe even headed to the mall for some post-holiday sales.
So now what?
If you've got kids at home for winter break and are looking for creative ways to keep them occupied, you'll want to check out a new book called "Unbored: The Essential Field Guide To Serious Fun."
Author Joshua Glenn joins the show.
Why Guantanamo Bay remains in operation
Shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, he vowed that he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year. But as of now it remains open.
Joining us once again to talk about what's been happening of late at Gitmo is Mattathias Schwartz, a contributor for the New Yorker magazine who has been covering Guantanamo.
Is the US all-volunteer military system developing a warrior class?
The draft ended almost 40 years ago, and even though the U.S. population has grown, the size of the military has declined.
The service is now all-volunteer and often staffed by members of so-called "military families." According to a Department of Defense 2011 Status of Forces survey, 57 percent of active troops today are the children of members of the armed forces.
Reporter Matthew Schofield joins the show with a look at how all this is changing how the country sees its military.
Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon face off to escalate in 2013
Google is facing off against Apple, Facebook and Amazon in a tech rumble that's promising to heat up this year.
Greg Bensinger has been writing about this for the Wall Street Journal and he joins us now.
Driverless car development making aggressive progress
If your New Year's Eve plans involve going out on the town, maybe having a drink — or two, or three — Lets hope you've got a designated driver on board to shuttle you around.
Well, what if that designated driver was your car? Driverless cars are not just the stuff of '80s TV shows like "Knight Rider." In fact, they could be making it to the mainstream sooner than you think.
Here to talk about developments in autonomous vehicles is Drew Winter. He's the senior editor at Wards Auto World Magazine, which covers the auto industry.
'The Little Book of Heartbreak' takes a look at love lost through the ages
We've all been there before... dumped. Broken hearted. Certain that you will never find love again.
Well, if you think that's bad, just be glad you weren't dumped by Ernest Hemingway. The famous writer, and serial cheater, stole his wife's job as their marriage was on the brinks.
Writer Meghan Laslocky writes about that and hundreds of other examples of love gone wrong through the ages in a new work called, "The Little Book of Heartbreak."