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Is your favorite online radio station still webcasting this morning? Maybe not.

Over the weekend, the state of Internet broadcasting changed.

Sunday, the first in a series of Internet royalty-fee increases took hold, which many are predicting will force some or many Internet radio stations to close. However, there is reason to believe that negotiations could save some smaller stations.

The Washington Post explains:

The Copyright Royalty Board, which is part of the Library of Congress, decided in March to almost triple royalty rates by 2010 and impose an annual $500 fee per station or channel. The decision was urged by SoundExchange, an organization created by the recording industry.

In recent months, some smaller Web stations shut down in anticipation of the higher fees. More say they will close as a result of the court decision.

There could be some relief [PDF] on the way for smaller broadcasters. The Post reports:

Michael Huppe, SoundExchange's general counsel, said it was still negotiating with Internet broadcasters to reduce the burden on small and non-commercial webcasters. Yesterday during a meeting of both sides organized by members of Congress, SoundExchange offered an annual fee cap of $50,000, if the broadcaster reports everything that is played and adopts technology that limits the ability of listeners to copy broadcasts. The annual fee can be deducted from the royalties paid to artists and record labels.

Some of the larger Internet-radio providers include Live 365.com, Yahoo Music and Pandora.

Radio-Locator is a site that will help you to find online radio stations in any zip code.

See an Al's Morning Meeting I did in March on this topic for more background.

WFTV in Orlando is on the trail of a problem involving some Chevy minivans whose doors reportedly fly open for no good reason, even while rolling down the highway. The story says:

At least 18 people have filed complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involving 2005 or 2006 Uplander power doors. Four people claim injuries.

WFTV in Orlando also ran a fun story on toll cheaters. The story is complete with photos of people going to amazing lengths to keep from paying tolls. The piece says:

A turnpike tollbooth camera at SR 17-92 caught a man hanging out the back of a trunk to block the view of a license plate. A motorcycle driver got on his stomach and lifted his feet to hide his plate numbers from a camera. A Channel 9 camera caught a swimming pool cleaner running the toll. His pool cleaning equipment hid his license plate.

"(It's) very frustrating because there is nothing we can do," said David Winn, who manages toll operations for the Expressway Authority and is upset over the number of drivers who are getting a free ride.

Eyewitness news discovered 30,000 drivers a day blow through tollbooths without paying. That adds up to at least $450,000 in lost revenue each month. The Florida Turnpike Authority, which is nearly five times the size of Expressway Authority, loses more than seven times as much money ... at least $36 million a year.

The Boston Globe recently did a piece on how easy it is these days to impersonate a cop.

I was walking up to my doctor's office Friday when a well-dressed young lady carrying a bag of drug samples, a sack of baked goodies and a big container of Starbucks coffee joined me on the elevator.

"What are you hustling?" I asked.

She told me she was heading for a doctor's office to chat about the latest neurology and psychotropic drugs.

That conversation made me think of this investigation by my friend Jeff Baillon at KMSP-TV in Minneapolis. Jeff uncovered the dirty little secrets of how drug companies pay doctors to make speeches and phone calls. They even reward them with goodies, like my little elevator friend was about to do. Take a look at the piece. I was so struck by the stand-up way the hospital was looking at these issues. It was the hospital that said, enough is enough -- even if, for now, the drug reps are finding a way around the policy.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has many articles on this issue. An ethics article from Santa Clara University says:

All 10 doctors on each trip were interviewed, and the majority of them insisted that they were in no way influenced in their prescribing habits. Several said, "Maybe I was indirectly influenced by important scientific information that I might not otherwise have heard, but nothing else would influence me."

The study then compared the physicians' prescription patterns for almost two years prior to the trip with their prescriptions for almost a year and a half after the trip. The first group had been hosted by the makers of an intravenous (IV) antibiotic -- Drug A. The second heard about an IV cardiovascular medication -- Drug B.

The prescriptions for Drug A increased from 81 units before the trip to 272 units afterwards; in other words, they more than tripled. Drug B went from 34 units to 87 units, more than doubling. In the case of Drug B, the use those doctors made of the medication went well beyond the nationally agreed-upon standard of care.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.