Talk of the Nation on KTTZ HD2

Over half of U.S. states will have to close a combined budget gap of 55 billion dollars, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in the 2013 fiscal year. To avoid raising taxes, most states are implementing continued cuts to deal with budget shortfalls.

Transcript

JENNIFER LUDDEN, HOST:

It's Tuesday and time to read from your comments. Our conversation about downward mobility in the millions of Americans forced to adjust their ambitions and career goals due to the bad economy brought this email from Steve Krute(ph) in Valley Village, California: I moved back to the San Fernando Valley from Oregon hoping for a job. My handyman business died in 2008, but I haven't found anything that pays a livable wage and I arrived back in August of last year.

Making close friends after college can be challenging. As the days of dorm life, dining halls and synchronized schedules fade, it can be tough to form solid bonds. Once marriage and children enter the scene, adults have even less say in choosing friends.

In a piece for The New York Times, writer Alex Williams explores his own changing friendships and his sometimes failed efforts to connect.

High-tech gadgets, like smartphones, keep us connected at all hours and are making it more difficult to get a good night's sleep. But several new smartphone apps claim to help users sleep better. New York Times health and fitness reporter Anahad O'Connor explains the science behind apps.

More than 5.85 million Americans are not allowed to vote because they have committed felonies, according to a report from The Sentencing Project. While some states require complex processes for ex-felons to request restoration of voting rights, others permit felons to vote from prison.

In an op-ed piece for the Daily Beast, sports columnist Buzz Bissinger writes that an "insidious culture of sports in America" helped cover up the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State. He argues that the NCAA should ban the university's football program for five years.

As you sweat during hot-weather exercise, the body's temperature inches up, and heatstroke can result. Douglas Casa, of the Korey Stringer Institute, explains the best way to stay safely hydrated during summer activity--and why too much water can be a bad thing too.

Reporting in Science, two teams of scientists say they were unable to replicate the results of a 2010 study claiming to have found 'alien life' on Earth--a bacterium that could build its DNA using arsenic. Science journalist Carl Zimmer talks about how the controversy played out online, and how science corrects itself.