Two Spinner dolphins swim alongside each other in the Pacific Ocean.; Credit: Flickr/Giles Douglas

Swimming with dolphins may be one of the highlights of a Hawaiian vacation, but a new proposal aims to ban the tourist activity.

The National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed federal rules to stop people from swimming and coming within 50 yards of spinner dolphins.

The NOAA argues that the dolphins need rest and sleep during the day, since they do most of their hunting for food at night. This means tourists could be causing unnecessary stress and exhaustion for the animals.

Tourism businesses, large and small, will feel the negative financial impact of the ban if it goes through. Critics of the proposal argue that swimming with dolphins encourages empathy for the animals, and is doing more good than harm.

Ruling on the proposal is expected by next year.

Guests:

Kevin Merrill, owner of Dolphin Discoveries in Kona, Hawaii

Naomi Rose, Ph.D. Marine Mammal Scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute, an animal protection organization based in DC

Southwest Airlines customer service agent Tricia Arrigo assists travelers at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter.

The practice is called “airline reciprocity” and once upon a time it was something airlines actually did of their own accord, which eventually fell out of favor.

Consumer advocates have been urging Transportation Department and Federal Aviation Administration, according to the Washington Post, to persuade airlines to honor the cancelled tickets of other carriers, particularly in situations like the computer system outage experienced by Delta Air Lines in August that stranded tons of travellers.

Guests:

Charlie Leocha, chairman and co-founder of Travelers United, a nonprofit consumer travel organization

Sharon Pinkerton, Senior Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Policy for Airlines for America, an airline industry group

June 7, 2016: A man casts his ballot at a polling station in New Jersey. In California, county voter registration offices are scrambling to make sure polling places will be staffed on Election Day.; Credit: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

As we close in on two months until the November election, county voter registration offices across California are scrambling to make sure polling places in their counties will be staffed on Election Day.

Here in Los Angeles County, registrar-recorder Dean Logan is calling for more than 22,000 people to volunteer on Election Day. What is the need statewide for volunteers? How is the Secretary of State’s office helping county registrars to get the word out?

Monday on AirTalk, Larry will speak with California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to find out what the statewide need for volunteers is, what his office is doing to help local registrars get the word out, and we’ll also get an update on SB 450, a bill that would drastically change the way you vote.

Guest: 

Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State; he tweets from @AlexPadilla4CA

July 7, 2009: US President Barack Obama and then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin shake hands. What will US-Russia relations be like going forward? ; Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

As part of NPR's new series, "A Nation Engaged," AirTalk will look at America's role in the world throughout this week’s programming. On the hustings, one policy issue playing more prominently than anticipated is U.S.-Russia relations.

Characteristically bombastic comments from Republican candidate Donald Trump have raised the profile of America’s strategy towards the Kremlin vis-a-vis the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Last month, Trump told “The New York Times” that as president, he would only fulfill NATO obligations to protect Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia from Russian aggression if the formerly Soviet Baltic states met their financial obligations to NATO. Slashing the sacred cow of NATO was greeted with alarm by many, but some responded with support, questioning whether the alliance has value in a post-Cold War world.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton slammed Trump for abandoning U.S. allies to Putin’s aggression. But flip the script, and Putin’s actions are justified by a NATO that’s reneged on promises not to expand and is now inching towards Russia’s borders.

So is U.S. foreign policy at fault for Russia’s hostility, or is Putin playing this narrative to his advantage? Is NATO obsolete, as Trump claims, or is it as relevant as ever? And where do we go from here?

Guests:

Michał Baranowski, Warsaw office Director at the German Marshall Fund; he tweets @M_Baranowski

Anton Fedyashin, Professor of Russian History, American University

Jeffrey Tayler, author and journalist, Russia correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly; he tweets from @JeffreyTayler1

Series: A Nation Engaged

NPR and KPCC's coverage of critical issues facing the nation before November's presidential election. The stories seek to build a nationwide conversation around focusing on a specific question each time.

Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on Facebook.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada on August 25, 2016.; Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

Despite his recent campaign woes, Donald Trump remains only a few percentage points behind Hillary Clinton in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics’ poll average.

One recent USC/L.A. Times poll showed a virtual tie between the two candidates. As always, polls should be taken with a grain of salt, but the numbers suggest that maybe Trump’s support hasn’t taken much of a hit despite turbulence within his campaign. Mr. Trump, who recently challenged Clinton to release more detailed medical records, is expected to give a speech this week in Arizona on immigration amid questions about his changing stance on undocumented immigrants.

On our weekly political roundtable, AirTalk’s experts dive into all of this and more as we preview the week on the campaign trail and talk about the storylines you need to know this week.

Guests:

Lynn Vavreck, professor of political science at UCLA; she tweets from @vavreck

Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco

September 17, 2013: A mother holds her twin daughters. Parents are increasingly embracing gender-neutral names for their children. ; Credit: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images

The stars are doing it. There’s Harper Beckham, Victoria and David’s daughter. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard named their two daughters Lincoln and Delta, respectively. And Erykah Badu’s daughter’s name is Puma.

Outside of Hollywood, parents are also embracing gender-neutral names for their kids. An analysis done by Nameberry, a website that’s devoted to baby names, found that there’s been a 60 percent increase of post-gender names in the last decade. And BabyCenter, a parenting site, has called 2015 the year of gender-neutral baby.

So why are parents choosing gender-neutral names? What should parents be mindful of when choosing a unisex name?

Guests:

Pamela Redmond Satran, cofounder of the baby naming site, Nameberry; she tweets @prsatran

Linda Murray, editor in chief of the parenting site, BabyCenter

Civil rights activist and commentator Joe Hicks at a 2015 KPCC forum on the Watts riots. He died August 28, 2016, at the age of 75. ; Credit: KPCC

The voice of civil rights activist and community leader Joe Hicks has been silenced.

He died Sunday from post-surgical complications at St. Johns Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 75 years old.

Hicks was a frequent political commentator on KPCC's "AirTalk," and was a guest on the show's 50th anniversary special on the Watts Riots.

There, Hicks recalled the harsh reality for African-Americans in L.A. during the riots, and spoke of an encounter during the unrest in which Coast Guard officers used a racial epithet against him. 

Hicks was born in Southern California in July 1941 and was a militant leftist in the Black Power movement during the Watts Riots, according to an obituary sent out by his organization, Community Advocates.

In the early 1990s, Hicks was executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of civil rights group the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Hicks also co-founded the Multi-Cultural Collaborative, intended to improve ethnic relations in the wake of the L.A. Riots. He debated former Klansman David Duke at Cal State Northridge in 1996.

By the mid-1990s, Hicks' political views had changed; he identified more as an independent conservative.

Read the full story here.

Guest: 

David Pizarro, professor of psychology at Cornell University, whose research focuses on moral judgment, and the role of emotion in politics.

Singer Juan Gabriel accepts the Person of the Year award from singer Enrique Iglesias onstage during the 10th annual Latin GRAMMY Awards held at Mandalay Bay Events Center on November 5, 2009.; Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Juan Gabriel, who died on Sunday, was an unapologetically flamboyant and effeminate musical icon who transcended traditional, deeply embedded Mexican norms, especially machismo.

Machismo has long been associated with numerous Latin American cultures, so it’s reasonable to wonder about the acceptance of musical performers such as Gabriel, who redefined what it means to be macho. Macho men are said to have been seen crying at Gabriel’s concerts alongside women without any regard to his effeminate portrayal.

What will you remember most about Juan Gabriel? Was he the only performer who could captivate a Latino audience, even while his persona ran contradictory to the culture’s widely held beliefs about manhood?

Guest:

Rafael Fernandez, Consultant and reporter covering Mexico, Latin America and U.S. immigration for Fusion; Rafa recently wrote about how Juan Gabriel redefined manhood in Mexican culture; he tweets from @rafafc91

Participants work at their their laptops at the annual Chaos Computer Club (CCC) computer hackers' congress, called 29C3. The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in two states.; Credit: Patrick Lux/Getty Images

The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in two states.

In a confidential "flash" alert from its cyber division, first reported by Yahoo News and posted online by others, the FBI said it's investigating the pair of incidents and advised states to scan their systems for specific signs of hacking.

The FBI didn't name the states that were targeted, but it described a "compromise" of one elections board website and "attempted intrusion activities" in another state's system. State election websites in Illinois and Arizona experienced hack-related shutdowns earlier this summer. In both cases, the parts of the websites affected involved online voter registration.

Yesterday, California's Secretary of State website was down for several hours, but the office says there is no evidence the outage was the result of an intentional hack.

Today, FBI Director James Comey says the FBI puts a high priority on thwarting any hacking effort that might influence U.S. elections. What could this mean for the future of electronic voting? How else could bad actors manipulate voter information, apart from actual ballots?

With files from the Associated Press.

Guests:

Cory Bennett, editor of POLITICO Pro Cybersecurity; he co-wrote the recent article, “FBI alert sparks fears that state voting systems are under digital assault”

David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford University and founder of VerifiedVoting.org, a voting resource organization whose mission is 'Safeguarding Elections in the Digital Age'

People hold signs against the Trans Pacific Partnership during the Democratic National Convention. The TPP has become a hot-button issue. ; Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

With the sixth-largest economy in the world, it’s safe to say that there’s plenty at stake when we talk about the future of free trade in California and what the potential impact of the ratification (or lack thereof) of the massive trade deal known as TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

While it’s currently stalled, waiting for Congressional approval, there has been plenty of discussion of not only the landmark agreement, but also the future of free trade in the global economy and what role the United States will play in it all. Whether or not TPP is ratified will determine a lot about the future of American factory and manufacturing jobs, relations with countries along the Pacific Rim and in South America, what our country imports and exports and in what volume, and what the United States place in world trade will be in the years to come. Here in California, tens of thousands of people and jobs are contingent on goods moving through major ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach.

NPR’s affiliate series ‘A Nation Engaged’ continues today as AirTalk explores what the future of free trade looks like in California and around the world.

What role will the TPP play in determining the future of California’s economy? What would a move away from free trade look like, both locally and nationally? What would happen if trade partners became former trade partners and decided to retaliate?

Guests:

Jock O’Connell, international trade adviser for Beacon Economics

Elsadig Elsheikh, director of the Global Justice Program at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley; he co-authored a study released in May called “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Corporations Before People and Democracy”

Michael Camuñez, president and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies, a firm that advises companies doing business in Mexico; he is also a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the International Trade Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce

Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association

Series: A Nation Engaged

NPR and KPCC's coverage of critical issues facing the nation before November's presidential election. The stories seek to build a nationwide conversation around focusing on a specific question each time.

Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on Facebook.

http://www.npr.org/.

2011: A handler holds a Chihuahua. Researchers at the University of Washington are studying what could be done to increase the life expectancy of dogs.; Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

We humans do all kinds of things to live better and longer, from exercising regularly to supplementing with vitamins.

Taking a page from scholarship in human aging, researchers at the University of Washington are studying what could be done to increase the life expectancy of dogs. Biologist Daniel Promislow and pathologist Matt Kaeberlein at the school have started the Dog Aging Project to understand how dogs age, and to explore how medications could help them live longer. The team is hoping to launch a longitudinal study involving 10,000 dogs from all over the country.

Kaeberlein talks to Patt Morrison about the project, and what he and his team have learned about how dogs age.

Guest:

Matt Kaeberlein, Co-Director of the Dog Aging Project and a Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington; he tweets @mkaeberlein

Tourists walk in Havana. The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday morning,; Credit: YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images

The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday morning, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.  

The flight of JetBlue 387 opens a new era of U.S.-Cuba travel, with about 300 flights a week connecting the U.S. with an island cut off from most Americans by the 55-year-old trade embargo on Cuba and formal ban on U.S. citizens engaging in tourism on the island.

The restart of commercial travel between the two countries is one of the most important steps in President Barack Obama's two-year-old policy of normalizing relations with the island. Historians disagree on the exact date of the last commercial flight but it appears to have been after Cuba banned incoming flights during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

How ready is Cuba for the glut of expected tourists? What are the the country’s infrastructural challenges?

With AP files

Guests:

Deepa Fernandes, KPCC correspondent who has just spent the summer on a reporting trip in Cuba; she lived and reported on Cuba two decades ago; she tweets @deepaKPCC

Christopher P Baker, Cuba travel expert and travel writer and photographer; he tweets @CubaExpert

Andy Gomez, Cuba scholar and former senior fellow and special assistant to the President for International Affairs at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami

A voter fraud sign is seen at Lupica Towers November 4, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio. A new Gallup poll revealed more than half of Republicans are convinced voter fraud is a serious problem.; Credit: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

A new Gallup poll revealed more than half of Republicans are convinced voter fraud is a serious problem –but how many of those surveyed were influenced by Donald Trump’s incessant rigged system cautionary speeches?

Numerous sources, including a report from the Government Accountability Office, recognize that voter fraud does exist, but cases are rare. And even after accounting for the negligible amounts of voter ID fraud at the polls, the few fraudulent in-person ballots cast could not  influence the outcome of an election. President Obama said earlier this month that elections cannot be “rigged,” as Trump suggested, because the federal government does not run the election process.

Guest host Patt Morrison is joined by Andrew Gumbel to discuss the legitimacy of voter fraud conspiracy theories.

Guest:

Andrew Gumbel, award-winning journalist and author of several books including, “Down for the Count: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America” (New Press, 2016); he tweets @AndrewGumbel

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto delivers a speech during the welcoming ceremony in honour of Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove (out of frame) at the National Palace in Mexico City.; Credit: ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is reported to meet with President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto today.

The surprise visit comes just hours before Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on immigration in Arizona. Officially, this trip is Trump’s first visit to a foreign head of state as a nominee, and the facetime could signal a shift in Trump’s hardline immigration stance. President Peña Nieto is criticized domestically for inviting the candidate and the public fears the country will be employed to advance Trump’s political agenda.

Struggling with low approval ratings, the Mexican president is expected to challenge the Republican nominee on a series of proposed policies. How does the American voters, more specifically, Angelenos, feel about this meeting? Guest host Patt Morrison is joined by Washington Post politics reporter to discuss the past, present, and future of US-Mexico relations.

Guests:

Kate Linthicum, reporter for the LA Times covering immigration and politics. She is currently in Mexico City; she tweets from @katelinthicum

Sean Sullivan, politics reporter for the Washington Post, he tweets @WaPoSean    

Agricultural workers in California. Governor Jerry Brown could approve the first bill in the U.S. that would approve overtime pay for farm workers who’ve worked more than 40 hours a week or eight hour days. ; Credit: John Moore/Getty Images

Governor Jerry Brown could approve the first bill in the U.S. that would approve overtime pay for farm workers who’ve worked more than 40 hours a week or eight hour days.

The current rule on overtime states that workers receive extra pay if they’ve worked more than 10 hours a day or more than 60 hours a week.

AB 1066 was passed on Monday by the state legislature and would require farms to phase in  overtime pay for field workers and fruit pickers between 2019 and 2022. Farms that have 25 workers or less would have until 2025 to make the change. But the bill must still be approved by Gov. Brown.

The United Farmworkers Union championed AB 1066. To supporters of the legislation, the transition is long overdue and will be a win for the humane treatment of workers.

But critics of AB 1066 argue the law would hurt both workers and the agricultural economy as a whole, as work is seasonal and farmers may choose to cut worker hours.

What do you think of the bill? Does it support the humane treatment of workers, or will the impact on the agricultural industry be too costly?

Guests:

Roman Pinal, Oxnard coordinator for United Farm Workers of America; his organization has been pushing for the approval of AB 1066 ; he is currently at a Muranaka Farm, a vegetable farm in Moorpark, Calif.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation; the federation has been lobbying against the bill

Jeremy B. White, reporter with the Sacramento Bee; he has been following the story; he tweets from @CapitolAlert

Despite nationwide debate over EpiPen pricing, many sufferers of fatal allergies will still fork out $300 for a two-pack of generic EpiPens. ; Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Despite nationwide debate over EpiPen pricing, many sufferers of fatal allergies will still fork out $300 for a two-pack of generic EpiPens prompting some to ask why patent-owner Mylan does not face either more competition or, failing that, government regulation over its pricing.

Which solution would have the best outcomes? Geoffrey Joyce, an expert in pharmaceutical economics at the University of Southern California, usually takes the position that the government should not be negotiating the cost of drugs.

However, he says Mylan's EpiPen is a special case. "They have not invested billions of dollars in R & D (research and development) to earn a patent and justify the price." Joyce says Mylan lucked out by purchasing the patent rights from Merck as competitors failed to keep pace, which allowed them to increase the price without fear of competition. "This was a pure and simple exercise of monopoly power. So [the government] could tell Mylan, since you're a monopoly, you can charge enough to make a reasonable profit, but you cannot gouge consumers who need a potentially life-saving drug."

Yevgeniy Feyman thinks the government should help spur competition, which should bring the price down.

What do you think is the best solution? 

Guests: 

Geoffrey Joyce, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical & Health Economics, University of Southern California; Joyce co-wrote this commentary “No More Mylan Monopolies”

Yevgeniy Feyman, adjunct fellow and deputy director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress

The Statue of Liberty, one of New York's premiere tourist attractions, is viewed from the Staten Island Ferry on September 30, 2013 in New York City. ; Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The “American Dream” has many faces. To some, it could look like a Norman Rockwell painting. To others, it could be an escape from gang warfare.

No matter how you see it, the “American Dream” has been a proud advertisement to other nations.

But does the rest of the world see us as a place to give “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”?

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study on “America’s Global Image,” 69 percent of the nations surveyed had a favorable opinion of the U.S., while 24 percent had an unfavorable view. And despite Donald Trump’s stance on “building a wall” along the southern U.S. border, Mexican President Peña Nieto agreed to meet with the presidential nominee on Wednesday. Nieto said in a press conference after the meeting that “our countries are very important to each other.”

But beyond the surveys and rhetoric of political leaders, the outlook on the “American Dream” is individual and ever-changing. Previous generations may have a different meaning for the dream than their children do. And in a place as diverse as Los Angeles, what does the “American Dream” look like?

How has the “American Dream” changed in L.A. over the past decade? If you have family outside the country, how do they view the U.S.? If you immigrated from another country, what did you have to give up to become American and has the U.S. lived up to your expectations? Do you see L.A. as a city that welcomes people from other countries?

We want to hear from you. Call us at 866-893-5722.

Series: A Nation Engaged

NPR and KPCC's coverage of critical issues facing the nation before November's presidential election. The stories seek to build a nationwide conversation around focusing on a specific question each time.

Read more in this series and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on Facebook.

2012: A doctor speaks with a patient. A new analysis from Kaiser Family Foundation found that starting in 2017, about a third of U.S. counties will only have one insurance carrier in operation. ; Credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images

A new analysis from Kaiser Family Foundation found that starting in 2017, about a third of U.S. counties will only have one insurance carrier in operation, raising questions over consumer choice, and how a lack of competition will impact how much consumers will pay for health insurance.

The analysis also found that in another 31 percent of U.S. counties, only two insurance carrier options would be available. 

California counties are not impacted by this trend. The study found that 47 percent of counties in the state would have 2 insurers in 2017, and the remaining 53 percent would have 3 or more insurers.

How does shrinking carrier options impact the Affordable Care Act? What could be done to fix the problem? Despite the plethora of insurance carrier options California enjoy, will the state still be impacted by ACA-related instability in other parts of the nation?

Guests:         

Shana Charles, assistant professor in the department of health sciences at Cal State Fullerton

Avik Roy, opinion editor at Forbes, and former policy advisor to Marco Rubio, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney

A traffic light controls the flow of vehicles and pedestrians near downtown Chicago, Illinois.; Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

In a step toward creating a more connected city and helping drivers achieve a more relaxed and efficient commute, Audi will begin equipping select 2017 vehicles with a new traffic light information feature.

Vehicles in select cities will collaborate with city infrastructure, such as traffic light systems, to predict the time remaining until the signal changes to green. Angelenos will have to wait about two more years for the feature to work in Los Angeles because there are so many different light management providers, according to Pom Malhotra, Audi’s director of connected vehicles.

The German automaker sees this new technology as a stepping stone toward connecting vehicles to infrastructure in the future to create a safer, more efficient commute.

Are you looking forward to this new technology?

Guests:

Pom Malhotra, Director of Connected Vehicles, Audi

Juan Matute, Associate Director, Research and Administration, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

Passengers watch in-flight entertainment on a Cathay Pacific plane. Recently, Delta came under fire for cutting kissing scenes between a lesbian couple from the film “Carol.”; Credit: MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images

Have you ever watched a film airborne on the tiny screen attached to the passenger seats? Chances are the film you saw was edited for content.

But in-flight entertainment is not subject to the same federal broadcasting regulations as movies that are currently in theaters. More often than not, airlines provide certain guidelines to editing studios on what is appropriate in-flight content.

Recently, Delta came under fire for cutting kissing scenes between a lesbian couple from the film “Carol.” The backlash from the LGBTQ community highlighted the arbitrary nature of in-flight entertainment censorship. While R-rated violence is often displayed in the semi-public cabins, same-sex affection, plane crash scenes, and even certain food products could be eliminated due to regional and cultural norms. For frequent flyers wishing for more control over their in-flight experience, bringing their own tablets or computers might be a solution.

Does this trend make built-in screens completely obsolete, thus rendering airline censorship irrelevant? What’s your experience with in-flight systems?

Host Larry Mantle sits down with Brian Sumers, airline reporter for SKIFT, and Charisse L’Pree, professor in media communications, to talk about the politics and economics of in-flight entertainment. 

Guests:

Brian Sumers, airline business reporter for SKIFT, a website that covers global travel; he tweets @Briansumers

Charisse L’Pree, an assistant professor at Syracuse University specializing in representation and diversity in media; she tweets @charisseiscool