A roundup of key takeaways from President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address. The Silicon Valley is attempting to draw more diversity to the tech world with courses at Howard University. And, how Facebook plans to crack down on the news hoaxes that pollute our news feeds.
KPCC reporters break down the SOTU and its California connection
The President's State of the Union speech last night was full of hope and promise to help out the middle class, with proposals for everything from paid family leave to free community college.
Southern California Public Radio's education reporter, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and business reporter Ben Bergman break down what the President's proposals might mean for California.
White House revives Big Block of Cheese Day for 2nd year
White House officials took questions Wednesday from all across the nation via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr on the heels of the State of the Union address. It's an effort called Big Block of Cheese Day, which was inspired by an event that took place at the White House back in 1837 that involved a lot of cheese.
On February 22, President Andrew Jackson hosted an open house in the main foyer of the White House where his staff and thousands of citizens feasted on a 1,400-pound block of cheese while they discussed the issues of the day.
NBC's political drama, "The West Wing," paid tribute to President Jackson's act of populism in its first season.
Obama has turned the event into a tradition. Back for the second year in a row, "The West Wing" cast reunited to help promote the online town hall.
Video: 2nd annual Big Block of Cheese Day West Wing promo
Lindsey Tepe, policy analyst with the New America Foundation, tells more about the event.
Tech firms reach to historically black colleges, universities to diversify
At America's largest technology firms, the percentage of women, African Americans and Latinos among the armies of coders, developers, and software engineers remains small.
If places like Google, Intel and Microsoft are having trouble recruiting diverse tech talent, how can much smaller firms or nonprofits like KPCC compete?
Reporter Brian Watt checked in with KPCC's own tech team to see how different kinds of companies are facing the challenge.
In response, tech firms have started to partner with some of the top historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, in order to fill the gap.
At Howard University in Washington, D.C., Yahoo has sponsored a data center for engineering students. Google helped to shape the school's computer science curriculum, which meant an accelerated pace in the classroom.
"We could increase the rigor, bring it a little bit faster [for students]," said Legand Burge, professor and chair of Howard University's Department of Systems and Computer Science program.
But the deeper challenge starts even before the university level, said Burge, when a lack of role models in the tech industry for African American students presents an added obstacle.
That and a lack of preparation in the lower grades makes things harder for incoming students.
"Many of the students that said they knew what computer science was, really were getting keyboarding," said Burge, of a survey Howard did of recent high school students from the Washington, D.C. area. "They really weren't getting algorithmic or programming experience."
The new curriculum at Howard aims to change that by better preparing graduates to compete in the growing tech field, said Burge.
AP investigation finds concerns over security of HealthCare.gov
Sony's costly data hack has put the spotlight on cyber-security, even causing President Obama to warn Americans to tighten up their privacy protections. But an investigation by the Associated Press has highlighted new concerns over the security of one of the government's own websites, HealthCare.gov.
AP investigative reporters found that certain personal details of visitors to the federal health insurance website — including age, income and smoking habits — are being passed along, likely without consumers' knowledge, to third party sites.
Obama administration officials insist that the data collected is needed to improve the consumer experience and that outside firms are prohibited from using the data to further their own business interests. However, the findings have raised privacy concerns.
For more on what data is being collected and whom is collecting it, AP's Technology and Surveillance Reporter Jack Gillum joins Take Two.
Republicans flirt with raising the gas tax -- but don't call it a tax
Fuel prices might be falling, but something else is close to running out of gas: the roads, themselves.
Federal funding to maintain the country's highways runs out in May, and Republicans who control Congress are looking for ideas on how to stop that from happening.
One possibility is to raise the gas tax. But, please: don't call it a tax. "User fees," anyone?
Fawn Johnson with the National Journal reports how GOP lawmakers are hoping to keep the roads funded without saying they raised taxes.
Joe Peep's 5,969-calorie pizzas aren't for faint of heart
There's been a lot of buzz around a new study published this week in the journal Pediatrics that found pizza plays a major role in weight gain among kids.
Researchers discovered that when kids eat pizza, which they do often, they eat a lot more calories, fat and sodium than they normally would.
Given that, you would think pizzerias would keep mum about just how many calories are in an average pie. But not Joe Peep's NY Pizza.
The North Hollywood eatery proudly boasts that their pies are a whopping 5,969 calories.
Marvin Cardenas, a manager at Joe Peep's, has more on the bold way the shop advertises their pizza.
New Facebook feature lets users weed out fake news
Social media has made it so much easier for people to share news and information. It's also made the spread of fake news and hoaxes a lot more likely. But it could now be a little tougher for misinformation to spread on Facebook, thanks to a new feature the company announced Tuesday.
Will Oremus, senior technology writer for Slate, joined Take Two to explain how it works.
The psychology behind kids' obsession with Disney's 'Frozen'
The Disney film "Frozen" earned more than $1.2 billion at the box office, making it the number one animated film of all time. But why was the story of a queen with icy powers and her younger sister so successful?
Two California psychologists -- who also happen to be sisters -- recently decided to analyze what makes "Frozen" more appealing to kids than other princess fairytales.
Yalda T. Uhls is a Senior Scientific Researcher at UCLA, and her younger sister Maryam Kia-Keating is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at UC Santa Barbara. They joined Take Two to breakdown the psychology behind kids' obsession with the film. And, it's not just the catchy songs.
Click on "Listen Now" above to hear the interview.