Senate approves 5-year farm bill while House readies its own; Payday lenders find ways to skirt Military Lending Act; National Transportation Safety Board recommends lowering DUI limit to 0.05 percent; Are political-minded tech moguls America's new oligarchs?; Women lose political footing at Los Angeles City Hall; Can Mexico's booming tech industry last? Plus much more.
Senate approves 5-year farm bill while House readies its own
Between immigration and gun control, Congress has had plenty to keep busy with. But there are plenty of other contentious issues to address, including the farm bill.
Yesterday, the Senate Agriculture Commission approved a five-year farm bill which would cost almost $100 billion annually. Today, the House Agriculture Committee is set to consider its own version. This legislation could have big implications for California farmers.
Representative Jeff Denham of Turlock, one of the six Californians on the House committee, joins the show with more.
Comparing Senate and House Farm Bills:
A look at some similarities and differences between the Senate and House versions of the legislation:
OVERALL COST: Both five-year bills would cost almost $100 billion annually, with almost $80 billion of that annual total going to domestic food aid. The Senate bill would save about $2.4 billion yearly from current spending, and the House bill would save almost $4 billion, including about $600 million saved in each bill due to across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in earlier this year.
FOOD STAMPS: Food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, have for decades been part of the farm bill in an effort to garner urban lawmakers' votes for rural programs. The Senate farm bill would cut about $400 million from the $80 billion annual total by targeting states that give people who don't have heating bills very small amounts of heating assistance so they can automatically qualify for higher food stamp benefits. The House bill would cut $2 billion yearly by making similar changes and eliminating "broad-based categorical eligibility," or automatic food stamp benefits when people are signed up for certain other programs.
DIRECT PAYMENTS: Direct payments, which cost the government around $5 billion annually, would be phased out in both bills, with the savings split between other subsidy programs and deficit reduction. Those subsidies have been controversial because they are paid out every year regardless of crop prices or crop yield. The Senate bill would eliminate the program immediately, while the House bill would phase it out over the next two years for cotton farmers who rely on the program.
CROP INSURANCE: Both bills would increase subsidies for federally subsidized crop insurance and create a new crop insurance program that covers smaller revenue losses on planted crops. This revenue protection program favors Midwestern corn and soybean farmers and would be more generous in the Senate bill.
PRICE PROTECTION: Both bills would raise "target prices" for some crops. Certain subsidies kick in if prices drop to those targets, meaning farmers will only receive them if prices are low. While many of these programs haven't been used for the last several years because crop prices have been at unprecedented highs, these subsidies exist as a safety net. Both the House and Senate bills would raise target prices for rice and peanuts, since those also often depend on direct payments that would be eliminated. The House bill would raise those target prices higher than the Senate bill would, making it easier for the subsidies to kick in.
FOOD AID: Neither bill includes an Obama administration proposal to shift the way food aid is sent abroad. Much of the food aid program now includes U.S.-grown food overseas, but the Obama budget last month proposed shifting the aid to more flexible accounts, which would allow cash purchases abroad or from U.S. farmers, saying such a move would be more efficient. Both House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have sided withfarm groups against the proposal.
With contributions by the Associated Press.
Payday lenders find ways to skirt Military Lending Act
A federal law that went into effect in 2007 was meant to protect members of the US military from predatory loans. These payday loans charged sky-high interest rates – up to 400 percent and more. The Military Lending Act capped short-term loans with a 36-percent APR.
But a new investigation from ProPublica and Marketplace finds that lenders have found ways around those regulations. Paul Kiel, a reporter with ProPublica who co-wrote the story, joins the show with more.
Are political-minded tech moguls America's new oligarchs?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently joined Take Two to talk about a book he'd written with a company colleague on the future of digital technology. But while we had him on the line, we also asked him about his recent lobbying efforts.
He and several other tech moguls have been trying to persuade Congress to increase the number of visas available for foreign tech workers.
Here's what Eric Schmidt had to say about the current limitations of H-One-B visas.
"I would argue that the H-1B rule in America is the single stupidest policy ever invented by the US government. To take you through its reasoning, here at a brilliant university, a top graduate at UCLA or UC Berkeley, foreign born, has a Ph.D, we kick them out of the country, they go to their own country, they found a company to steal our jobs and to take profits away from America. If they stayed in America, they'd found a company in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, and the rest is history. There is broad support for fixing this H-1B cap, it will cause more economic growth than you can possibly imagine."
That's the point of view of Google's Eric Schmidt, but for a radically different view of the tech companies and their role in creating jobs in America, we've reached out to Joel Kotkin, a prolific writer about politics and the economy, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.
Can Mexico's booming tech industry last?
Over the last decade, Mexico's tech industry has flourished, growing grew three times faster than the global average. Most of that expansion is fueled by demand from the United States, but there are questions about how long the surge can last.
Mónica Ortiz Uribe from the Fronteras Desk reports.
Bike Week LA: How the city is working to make cycling safer
This week is Bike Week LA, an annual event designed to remind Angelenos of the joys of two wheels and to encourage us to ditch our cars and pedal instead. Yesterday, cyclists attended workshops for those interested in building a new bike or fixing an old one, and this morning marked the 10th annual Blessing of the Bicycles at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Los Angeles has some long-term plans to make this city more friendly to cyclists.
Tim Fremeux, Department Of Transportation bikeways engineer, joins the show to fill us in on how LA is working to make city streets safer for bicyclists.
Sacramento Kings owners to vote on potential move
A few months ago, our state capital was on the verge of losing its lone big league professional sports team to the Pacific Northwest, but now it looks like Sacramento might be keeping its Kings after all.
The NBA team's owners, the Maloof family, had agreed to sell to a group of investors in Seattle, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but this game isn't over just yet. Owners will vote on a potential move at a meeting in Dallas today.
David Carter, executive director of the USC Marshall Sports Business Institute, joins the show with more on what might happen next.
Sports Roundup: Sacramento arena drama, Golden State Warriors and more
While the Sacramento Kings wait to hear about their future, taxpayers in Sacramento have sued the city over the downtown arena deal and attempted to start a ballot initiative which could block the construction of a new arena.
For more on this — as well as other sports news — we're joined by our own sports authorities, Andy and Brian Kamenetzky.
NTSB recommends lowering DUI limit to 0.05 percent (Poll)
This week the National Transportation Safety Board laid out a series of new recommendations related to drunk driving. The most significant was that states reduce the blood-alcohol limit by more than a third, from 0.08 to 0.05 percent.
RELATED: AirTalk: Should states follow NTSB advice and lower DUI limit to 0.05?
Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety in Washington DC joins the show to talk about the recommendation.
What do you think? Weigh in:
Reaching Zero: Actions to Eliminate Alcohol-Impaired Driving
LA's Vision y Compromiso wins $1 million health exchange grant
Yesterday, nearly 50 organizations throughout California found themselves a bit richer after winning grants from a $43 million pool of federal money to help spread the word about health insurance.
Those grants were awarded by Covered California, the state's new health care exchange. Among the winners was a group here in LA called Vision y Compromiso, which won a $1 million grant.
Melinda Cordero-Barzaga is the group's associate director and she joins the show to tell us how they plan to use the money.
Women lose political footing at Los Angeles City Hall
With Wendy Greuel on this year's mayoral ticket, it may seem like Los Angeles is moving forward on gender equality. But you may be surprised to learn the city actually has gone backward in how women are represented.
KPCC's Alice Walton reports on the state of women at City Hall.
RELATED: Check out KPCC's printable voter guide
Paul Krekorian calls for better oversight of LA city funds
Jerry Brown isn't the only California politician finding a budget surplus this year. This month, the City of Los Angeles found almost $43 million in a special transportation fund. The money had gone undetected for almost 20 years and while it's good news for the city, it has officials worried about the possibility of other hidden money.
Yesterday, City Councilman Paul Krekorian called for more transparency of these funds.
Arizona retirement home's progressive approach to caring for dementia patients
Dementia is one of the most devastating neurological condition, for individuals and families, but the Beatitudes Campus retirement home in Arizona is working on creating a new way to care for patients diagnosed with dementia, and others are beginning to take notice.
Rebecca Mead from the New Yorker joins the show with more.
Bidding war for St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica intensifies
Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica is at the center of a bidding war, and the stakes just got a little higher today. Billionaire doctor and businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong is expected to make a formal bid for the hospital today, according to the Los Angeles Times. To do so, he has joined up the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of LA.
LA Times reporter Chad Terhune joins the show to fill us in on the details.
Recent Occidental College grad reflects on challenge ahead
This week we're talking with soon-to-be graduates of some of LA's colleges and universities.
Yesterday we visited with a Cal Tech student who's going on to work at Elon Musk's Space X company in Torrance. Today we hear from 22-year-old Cameron Westbury, who spent the last four years studying economics at Occidental College in Eagle Rock.
We met up with him outside the campus library, under the shade of a giant oak.