Thursday, February 05 2009

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Thursday, February 05, 2009

Wall Street salary caps breaking ground, making waves

Yesterday President Obama announced that companies receiving federal bailout money must cap their executives no more than $500,000 a year. Is a pay limit helping the economy? Or is it simply a PR move? Compensation experts Nell Minow, editor and co-founder of The Corporate Library, and Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, join Adaora and John to debate the merits of the measure.

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Energy's Little Black Box

If you knew where all the energy zooming into your house was being used and wasted, would you change the way you consume power? One company is banking on it. Our Power Trip heads to Redwood City, California to talk to Joe Polastre, CTO and co-founder of Sentilla. The company has invented an unassuming rectangular box that tracks —dollar by dollar, watt by watt—how much energy the appliances in your home are using. Clothes dryers and air conditioners beware: your energy guzzling ways are secrets no more.

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Gov. Paterson fighting to keep New York solvent in face of Wall St. struggles

Wall Street's woes have been well reported and as the White House looks to cap executive salaries and denounces bonuses, the nation has been keeping an eye on New York's financial center. But as earnings on Wall Street suffer, so does the budget of New York State. With a deficit of 1.6 billion looming, Governor David Paterson is fighting to keep the state solvent. He joins us now to talk about New York's efforts to survive the fiscal crisis.

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Guantanamo may be closing but ethnic Uighurs stuck in limbo

President Obama may have ordered that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba be closed by the end of the year and the detainees either tried or freed. But for some inmates being set free does not mean being able to go home. One population in particular is stuck in limbo. Seventeen ethnic Chinese Uighurs can not be sent back to China for fears they would face persecution by their home government. But China doesn’t want them to go anywhere else, either. The Takeaway talks to George Clarke, lawyer with Miller & Chevalier, who is representing two of the 17 Chinese Uighurs in custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Calling Gil Grissom: Science in crime investigation found lacking

Despite what you see on television shows like CSI, forensic evidence does not always create hard facts. Even things so seemingly commonplace as fingerprinting and blood splatter analysis may be way less reliable than believed. A draft report from the National Academy of Science contains sweeping criticism for the application of forensic science in crime labs across the nation. The report may radically change the American criminal justice system. Our partner, the New York Times, has an exclusive on this paper and we are joined by the reporter, Solomon Moore.

For more, read Solomon Moore's article, Science Found Wanting in Nation’s Crime Labs, in today's New York Times.

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The Green Googleplex

Just how power hungry is internet giant Google? The Takeaway's Power Trip heads to the Google campuses in Mountain View, California to find out. John Hockenberry sits down with Bill Weihl, the company's green energy czar (that's his title, no joke). On the interview agenda: the company's top picks for which alt-energy sources will rule the future clean energy economy, including solar with a twist. Plus, Weihl talks about the need for government energy subsidies, and why the company still ain't talking about the power consumed by a Google search

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ShovelWatch: Is the stimulus bill truly earmark free?

There's no bridge to nowhere or teapot museum in the economic stimulus package, but that doesn't mean that it's free of earmarks, pet projects, or favors to special interests. As part of the ShovelWatch joint project of the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica, The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, ProPublica's Michael Grabell and WNYC's Matthew Schuerman join us to take a look at some examples of stimulus funds that are being allocated according to local, not national, priorities.

ShovelWatching: We're asking you, Takeaway listeners and readers, to help us report on the stimulus dollars as they travel from Washington, D.C., to your neighborhood. Tell us how the stimulus plan is playing out in your community and we'll share your stories online and on air, and we'll continue the investigation with your help.

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Hollywood has a Napster moment over piracy issues

Hollywood production companies are waging a war against Internet pirates who rip, stream and swap millions of copies of movies like Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire, often when the movie has just debuted. But, as our next guest, Brian Stelter, a media reporter for the New York Times, will tell us, they’re losing.

For more, read Brian Stelter's article, Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios in today's New York Times.

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Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz on the Obama stimulus plan

As the President makes his case for his economic stimulus bill, we were wondering what economists thought of the plan to dump $800 billion into the economy. Will it work? What would Keynes think? So many questions! For answers we turn to Nobel Prize winning economist and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz for his thoughts on the pros and cons of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan.

President Barack Obama discusses his view of the $800 billion stimulus bill.

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The results trickle in for Iraqi elections

Iraqi election authorities are due to give the first official results today of last week's provincial council election. The results are expected to show gains for the law-and-order bloc of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. For more on what's ahead in Iraq, we talk to Magdi Abdelhadi, Arab Affairs Analyst, at our partner the BBC.

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Our listeners' bright ideas on how to save energy

While we are on our Power Trip exploring new energy sources, we asked our listeners what they do to conserve energy. We've gotten a lot of responses. Add yours below!

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