First, we'll hear about the changes President Obama wants to make to the NSA. Can he get Congress to agree? Then, we'll hear more about the Target fraud case and whether they could have done more to prevent a cyberattack. Plus, we take a look at California's earthquake warning system, we discuss last night's Golden Globes show and more.
President Obama to announce changes to NSA program
On Friday, President Obama is expected to unveil changes to the government's surveillance program. His speech comes in response to questions raised about the balance of national security and privacy concerns.
But how much can the president actually do without congressional action? For more, we're joined by Edward-Isaac Dovere, senior White House reporter for Politico.
Mexico: Drug cartels are working with Central American gangs
Mexico's justice department recently released a report about the growing links between Mexico's violent drug cartels and Central American gangs like Mara Salvatrucha. The two groups have historically had different territories and objectives, but according to the report, they're now working together.
Mexico City-based Global Post reporter Dudley Althaus joins the show with more.
The best and worst of the 2014 Golden Globes Awards
Much of Hollywood is waking up with a bit of a hangover this morning. The wine flowed at the Golden Globe awards last night. The well-lubricated event marks the beginning of the awards season that culminates with the Oscars on March 2.
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For more on last night's Globe's, we spoke a little earlier with Meeta Agrawal, assistant managing editor for Entertainment Weekly.
Could Target have done more to stop hackers from stealing customer data?
Last week, Target reported that hackers could've gotten a hold of confidential data for at least 110 million customers, including names, home and e-mail addresses. On top of that, at least 40 million people had their credit and debit card data stolen.
In addition to Target, word came last week that Neiman Marcus also had a data breach, where customers payment information was stolen. There's the possibility that these are just part of a larger attack on major retailers.
Ironically, one of the people affected by the Target breach was LA Times consumer columnist David Lazarus, who had just completed a piece advocating for more consumer protection. He joins the show to talk about his experience.
But is there really anything these companies can do to stop sophisticated attacks like these? William J. Kresse, Director at the Center for the Study of Fraud and Corruption at St. Xavier University, joins the show to discuss.
On The Lot: Golden Globes, Hollywood money and more
Time for On The Lot, our weekly look at the business of entertainment with Rebecca Keegan of the LA Times
The Golden Globes were last night. What stood out to you about the ceremony last night and how it might bode for the Oscars?
The film "12 Years A Slave" did end up winning the globe for best film drama, but not a lot else. Was that a surprise? There have been some comments that maybe the foreign press just doesn't "get" a movie about slavery. Could the Oscars be different?
What about the Woody Allen tribute? Despite many people's love and devotion for Woody, he is not without his detractors.
How did Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do as hosts?
Jennifer Lawrence won a supporting actress globe for her role in "American Hustle," but one of her other current films also just hit a milestone.
Governor Jerry Brown's new California state budget does not have a lot of love for Hollywood. Nothing about tax credits or money going into keeping film production local. What's the reaction been in Hollywood? Is Jerry Brown making enemies for his reelection campaign?
Odd Hollywood Jobs: The magic behind the music of Disney's 'Frozen'
Last night, Disney's "Frozen" took home the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. It's a musical about a princess named Anna and her sister queen Elsa.
Elsa has a magical ability to create ice and snow , but she doesn't know how to control her powers. It's something she sings about in the song, "Let It Go."
That song and seven others in "Frozen" were written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who have also had a hand in penning the songs for, "Avenue Q," "The Book of Mormon," and the 2011 film, "Winnie the Pooh."
They recently joined Alex Cohen to talk about the songwriting process, and how the entire story of "Frozen," happened to revolve around the creation of, "Let It Go."
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Northridge: CA's quake warning system runs on shoe-string budget
This is one in a weeklong series of stories on KPCC leading up to Friday's 20th anniversary of the devastating 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The series will explore the quake's history, its effects and its legacy. You can view more stories on our Northridge Anniversary page. Let us know what you think on our Facebook page, on Twitter ("@" mention @KPCC) and in the comments below.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake came as a total surprise: That magnitude 6.7 temblor shook on a previously unidentified fault and caused at least 57 deaths and more than 9,000 injuries.
Twenty years later, how close are we to predicting the next earthquake?
In the future, Californians may get a warning — as much as a minute or more — before certain kinds of earthquakes start to shake their homes and offices, but only if the state can find a way to expand the bare-bones early warning system currently being developed.
RELATED: Timeline: Northridge Earthquake devastates L.A. in 1994
Caltech, UC Berkeley and the U.S. Geological Survey are testing an earthquake early warning system that relies on sensors placed around the state. These sensors can detect the tiniest of vibrations. KPCC's Sanden Totten reports.
Rep. Alex Padilla on California's earthquake early warning system
A new law that took effect this year requires the state to develop a comprehensive earthquake early warning system. For more on what the alert system will include we're joined by the man who sponsored the bill, Senator Alex Padilla.
California ballot propositions could boost usually lackluster midterm voter turnout
It's just five months until primary day in California's mid-term elections. Voters typically don't turn out for these contests the way they do when choosing a president.
But KPCC's Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde says conventional wisdom about low voter turnout in midterm elections may be turned on its ear in the Golden State this year.
As delta water plan inches ahead, could funding run dry?
With California's snow pack at just 17 percent of normal, Governor Brown is under growing pressure to declare an official statewide drought.
As he noted this week, "governors can't make it rain," but governors can propose massive public works projects. The Brown administration is pushing a $25 billion water plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Officials say it would help secure the state's water supply, but even in a dry year with little rain, finding the money for it is no sure thing. Reporter Lauren Sommer has the story.
Which water-saving measures are the most effective?
The last year has been one of the driest on record for the state of California. Now many water districts around the state are beginning to impose restrictions on residential and commercial water use.
Hydrologist Jay Famiglietti joins the show to talk about what types of measure and campaigns actually work to put a dent in large-scale water use during droughts.
New Mexico's senators propose a national monument near the border
Southern New Mexicans are caught in a debate over preserving a stretch of borderland as a national monument. The state's two senators and a congressman are pushing separate bills that set different boundaries for the monument. One of the issues at stake is border security. From our Fronteras Desk, Mónica Ortiz Uribe reports.
The land that stretches south from Interstate 10 outside the city of Las Cruces is a desolate expanse of desert that from a distance looks unremarkable. But those who know the land also know its hidden treasures.
"It seems every time we come we find either a new petroglyph or a new ceramic tide or a cool new arrowhead," said Angel Peña, a graduate student at New Mexico State University.
On a recent afternoon Peña prances across a mini rock mountain known as Providence Cone. He comes here often to do research for his master's thesis, a study of the ancient pottery typical of this region.
Providence Cone is littered with chiseled images of lizards, snakes and four-legged fish. It was the site of a settlement dating back some 1,400 years.
"In the morning right when the sun isn't directly over here, these petroglyphs shine like they're brand new, like they were carved yesterday," Peña said.
This site is within the boundaries of a proposed national monument that would be called Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. It would include four separate chunks of land within Doña Ana County that together total 500,000 acres. Part of the land reaches down to the Mexican border. The details are outlined in a bill co-sponsored by Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich.
"You have these incredible landscapes and mountains…that have some really important wildlife habitat for southern New Mexico as well as a cultural tapestry, a story of who we are as a country," said Heinrich.
The most identifiable landmark is the craggy Organ Mountain range, which towers above the city of Las Cruces like the pipes of its namesake instrument. West of those mountains, across the Rio Grande River, are sections of land that travel across time. There are volcanic craters and ancient animal tracks. There are battle scars from Apache raids and World War II aerial target sites.
"One of the great things about New Mexico is we have this incredible history of conservation," Heinrich said. "We have 68,000 New Mexico jobs that are directly tied to public lands, from outfitter guides to jobs in tourism and many other facets."
But those jobs mean little to local rancher Dudley Williams. He lives within the proposed monument boundaries north of the border where he leases federal land for his cattle. When he first moved to New Mexico, he was blunt with his real estate agent.
"I said, 'I don't want any rivers, I don't want any trees and I don't want any scenic boulders. I want cattle grazing land,'" Williams said.
Over the years Williams said he’s seen evidence of illegal smuggling on his land, including bundles of drugs. He fears a national monument designation would attract more illicit traffic.
"I don't go out of the house without a pistol, even to go over to feed the horses or walk the dog," he said.
Even so, U.S. Border Patrol statistics show that in recent years New Mexico has among the lowest apprehension rates in the southern border.
But that’s of no comfort to local law enforcement. They fear national monument status may reduce their access to the area.
“The types of crimes that we’ve see were homicide victims to stolen vehicles, narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, weapons smuggling," said Capt. Manion Long of the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department. "Our concern is if we're not allowed to provide that basic type of patrol then these instances will become more frequent."
As written, the Senate bill specifically states law enforcement will have access inside the monument, even within designated wilderness areas. But Long remains wary of those promises. The sheriff's department supports an alternative bill filed by New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce which excludes borderlands from the proposed monument.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in neighboring Arizona, is an existing park located along the Mexican border. Parts of it are closed due to the amount of illegal traffic that comes through. Visitors can still request to tour the closed sections, but must be accompanied by law enforcement.
Sue Walter, public information officer at the park, said both Border Patrol and local law enforcement have full access to the monument land.
"There have been no negative encounters between visitors and the illegal traffic," she said. "We are slowly opening the closed sections back up again."
Back in Las Cruces, at a local coffee shop, engineer David Soules sat sipping his favorite brew. He's been a lifelong hiker and hunter in Southern New Mexico and supports including the borderlands in a national monument proposal. He said it's area rich with wildlife and history.
"When I joined the Boy Scouts, the first camping that I did was in these areas," Soules said. "Now I'll do some star gazing and take a telescope and maybe see the moons of Jupiter the rings of Saturn.”
Soules said the beauty and character of the Southwest is inextricably tied to these wide open spaces.
Contra Costa County managing realignment with split sentencing
In the last two years, California counties have enjoyed a fairly free hand managing an influx of tens of thousands of state prisoners that are now serving their sentences in county jails. One strategy is called "split sentencing."
Low level criminals do part of their time in jail; the rest under supervised probation. The California Report's Sara Hossaini reports from Contra Costa County, where officials have embraced the split-sentencing idea.
'Archer' star Aisha Tyler on comedy, awkwardness and voicing Lana Kane
Tonight marks the premiere of season 5 of the hit TV show "Archer," the raunchy, animated comedy about a spy agency called ISIS.
The head spy is Sterling Archer, a heavy drinking, philandering, smart alec voiced by H. Jon Benjamin. His foil is fellow spy Lana Kane, a gorgeous, talented and whip smart woman played by our guest Aisha Tyler.
In addition to her role on "Archer", you can also see Tyler a host on the CBS show "The Talk", and the reboot of the improv game show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway? Some of you may recall her role as Ross' paleontologist love interest on "Friends."
Tyler joins Take Two to talk about "Archer," and what else she has on the horizon.
Interview Highlights:
On the inspiration for her character Lana on "Archer":
"She was not modeled after me. She was fully drawn when I got the job. They actually hired another actress and she wasn't working out and then I just got a call, "Do you want to do this pilot?" And I didn't have to audition. I just kind of read eight pages of that pilot script and it was so funny and it was so dirty, and I thought, "This is never getting on television so I'll just take this check and spend it on what hollywood people spend it on, champagne and edible diamonds. Yes, whatever we do when we're running around Hollywood"…She was modeled on a Hooters waitress, which just goes to show you what Matt and Adam do on their spare time."
On seeing the character for the first time:
"I just remember thinking she was really pretty and that she needed a longer skirt. There's really nothing in there to see. It's just kind of void in the uncanny valley so I shouldn't be worried about her modesty since she clearly has none. But what I love about her is that she's just so matter-of-fact and her sexuality is really an after thought to her and she rarely uses it.
On going from Darthmouth to comedy:
"I just had a deep-seated desire to cruelly disappoint my parents. I was always a theatrical kid. I acted out a lot, I was very nerdy, I was very isolated, which I made up for by kind of talking and trying to entertain people and get them to like me, so I did theatre and improv in high school and college, but always as a hobby. Then I graduated and I realized that didn't want to have the career equivalent of being an attorney, even an environmental attorney…That was like the first ten years of my career. I ate day-old chicken wings that I had stolen from a comedy club. And my husband went into law and one attorney in the family is plenty."
On where she mines her comedic material:
"I've always been an outsider. People remark on my height. I'm six-feet-tall now, but I've been this tall since, I was like 5'8 in the third grade. I'm just a giant from a very young age and I was also the only black kid in my school. Not only was I the only black kid and the only poor kid, but my parents were transcendental meditation devotees and I live in an ashram for a good portion of my childhood…I think that when you're an outsider, it makes you a good observer. It makes you that kind of steamy, nose-pressed-against-the-glass kind of watching what people are doing. But I'm also incredibly self-deprecating, which also comes from kind of being a little bit of a loner."