On Wednesday, the Health and Human Services secretary refused to allow emergency contraception to be sold over-the-counter for women under the age of 16, publicly rejecting a Food and Drug Administration request for the first time ever.
A new study by liberal organization CalPIRG looked at the effective tax rate for Fortune 500 companies and found that they largely avoid taxes through loopholes. States are loosing billions of dollars to crafty corporations that work the system. An example is McKesson, the health care company, they paid no taxes yet had profits of $3.1 billion over the last three years. Intel had profits of $23 billion yet also paid no taxes. KPCC's Steve Proffitt will explain the new report.
Scott Wallace – a veteran foreign correspondent - received a call one day in 2002 from an editor at National Geographic. Would he be interested in profiling a Brazilian explorer who was leading an expedition in search of the last uncontacted tribes in the world? Yes, he was. And within days Wallace left Manhattan to spend three harrowing months trekking into the heart of the Amazon jungle. The result is a new book called, “The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes.”
John Moe of The Marketplace Tech Report joins Madeleine as he does every Thursday to run down the top tech stories of the week: Amazon is launching a new smartphone app, called Price Check. You go into a store — an actual physical bricks-and-mortar store — find an item, scan it and the app will show you the price on Amazon.com. Then, Amazon will knock an additional 5 percent off that price if you buy it using the app. Hulu is looking at adding facial recognition technology, so you can click on an actor's face and get a pop up of their Wikipedia entry so you can learn more about them and find their big roles. And twitter's top hashtags of the year.
'Tis the season for giving, and it's a time when many charitable organizations set up their annual clothing, toy and food drives to catch some of the festive cheer. While donators can drop off secondhand apparel and used toys, they often have to shell out money to purchase canned goods. Slate magazine writer Matthew Yglesias is no Grinch, but he said that for that reason, "food drives are a terrible idea."
The comedy duo - Randy and Jason Sklar - join the show to discuss the week's sports news. Albert Pujols signs a 10 year deal with the Angels for $250 million. Bob Vander Weide, outgoing CEO of the Orlando Magic, may have drunk dialed one of his players. And, Wayne Gretsky has a problem with his daughter tweeting.
