independent truckers, many who are owner/operators. >> this law is bad because we're going to be forced to be employees when we can grow as a small business. >> reporter: companies like ride share provider lyft has said the law will force drivers to operate differently. >> it would impact the ability of drivers to work whenever and wherever they want. they would likely be required to work on scheduled shifts. >> reporter: still, some gig economy experts say the law could have a significant impact on companies, adding potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in labor costs. >> this is very much a scare tactic from the platforms as a way to convince workers that they should operate against what would actually be something in their best interests. regulations are not always the answer, but when it comes to the gig economy, some regulation is definitely the answer. >> reporter: now in a statement, uber said it joined the lawsuit to ensure all workers are

equally protected under the law and can freely choose the way they want to work. postmates meanwhile says it's not trying to seek an exemption from the law, but instead is calling for labor talks with california lawmakers. k-pop is one of the fastest growing segments of the music industry. teen heartthrobs are playing out to sold out arenas and even stadiums and scoring millions of downloads and album sales. but it's not all flashbulbs and fawning fans. k-pop has a darker side as well. ramy inocencio has the story from south korea. ♪ >> reporter: k-pop, korean pop music is a worldwide phenomenon. ♪ from heartthrob boy bands like bts ♪ to girl groups like black cape, it's a multibillion industry that dazzles. but the apparent suicides of two female k-pop stars in less than two months have revealed a

darker side. first in october, 25-year-old choi gin ri known as sully. then in november, her close friend, 28-year-old ku hara. together they amassed millions of views on their music videos. but despite their international fame, both women were long-time targets of cyber bullying. in k-pop, perfection is a must, in discipline, performance, and in looks. >> if you aren't under a certain weight, you can definitely get cut. >> reporter: no one understands that better than k-pop artist amber liu says there is an expectation in the industry to be perfect. >> you'll told what to do, what to say, what to think. >> reporter: she was a former fan and friend. she said she can see what cyber bullying can take. >> when they hear you're getting help, they're what? why are you getting help? that's weird. and that stigma against mental health is so strong.

>> reporter: there's a nationwide mental health crisis in south korea where the subject is still taboo and there is limited resources for those seeking help. according to the world health organization, south korea has one of the highest suicide rates of any country. nearly double the u.s. sully, who died in october, was an outspoken mental health activist and feminist, an anomaly in the industry. aging is yet another stress. k-pop stars already have a short shelf life. retirement age is 30, if not earlier. and young rising idols like alexandria christine snyderman, stage name alexa can add to that. >> that's why they're called idols, because they're put on this pedestal of untouchable perfection in the public's eyes, in the consumer's eyes. >> reporter: the 22-year-old korean-american from tulsa, oklahoma debuted her first single "bomb" in october.

9.5 million youtube views and rising. >> the music video took two days to film, two days to film, 24 hours each day almost. >> reporter: wow. you were up filming, dancing, retaking for 24 hours? >> yes. with like six costume changes, six or seven set changes. and whenever i'm performing, i always get this adrenaline rush. >> reporter: in two days cbs news followed alexa's busy schedule from hair and make upton a late night filming of a christmas video for social media. >> i myself have struggled with self-confidence for years. and finding the capability to love myself. but i have recently stumbled upon that. >> reporter: south korean society is slow to change there, but is hope. after sully's death in october, the korea entertainment management association announced its plans to try and stop cyber violence, saying it will root out malicious commenters online and seek to have them punished. ♪ why can't you see it's killing us ♪ >> reporter: liu thinks that's a good start. she says sometimes she thinks about why she is still in the

business, but keeps going for her friends who are now gone. >> i feel like the easiest thing that we all can do, everybody can do is just try to be kind

when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. downy and it's done. ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. new puffs have more lotion... and soothing softness to relieve. a nose in need, deserves puffs, indeed. all right. here's a question for you. how far would you go to create your own adult cocktail? would you go picking weeds in denmark? seth doane did just that.

>> reporter: we're on the hunt, foraging for new flavors, searching for something unexpected. >> wow. >> reporter: wow, it's really strong. and finding plenty of contenders at this organic farm in denmark. >> actually, a beautiful field of white asparagus. >> reporter: as a chef, lars williams has some experience pushing culinary boundaries, but he's not simply searching for a new garnish. rather, he is trying to totally reimagine not food, but alcohol. you don't think of going into a bar and wanting to order something like this. >> not yet. >> reporter: we met at soren's farm where they wondered if this beach crest might provide a peppery finish infused in an alcoholic beverage. how different is it to think about food and alcohol? >> the difference is being able to create a flavor and then preserve it in the alcohol and then compose the dish in the same way we compose a dish of food, but composing it in the

bottle. >> reporter: williams, from new york city, came to denmark ten years ago where he climbed to the pinnacle of the food world as the head of research and development at the famed nomo restaurant in copenhagen. that's where he met his now business partner mark hermanson. what do you take from the best restaurant in the world? >> that nothing is impossible. >> reporter: that sentiment, nothing is impossible, pushed them to leave nomo two and a half years ago to start empirical spirits, a sort of mad scientist laboratory of distillation where they asked the question if agave can become tequila, and juniper berries can flavor jbegin, what other spiris are yet to be discovered? >> you're trying to take some of your lessons from nomo and stick it in a bottle? >> essentially. taking that approach of very focused, very rigorous craft and apply it into something that you can spread to a lot more people than 40 people in a dining room.

>> what do you call these? baby combs? >> reporter: their quest not just to preserve the individual ingredients, but to bottle the essence of a place has taken them to zimbabwe, brazil, mexico, and this beach on the danish coast. >> smell the seaweed, that's something you can invoke and i think is always like very stirring to people somehow. >> reporter: you want to captures the flavors of the sea in a way? >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: here we meet up with xenia samuelson, a full-time forager for clients, including nomo. he showed the delicate beach blooms and pinecones that might be instilled into a one-of-a-kind spirit. try it. >> it's pretty incredible. >> and then we'll just break one. >> reporter: wow. you think this is alcohol? >> yeah. we should booze it. >> reporter: booze it.

so these are traditional fermenters. >> reporter: that happens in the giant stills at empirical spirits. they operate at unusually low temperature, instead of the typical high heat, which can destroy the delicate flavors along the way. this is kind of like a giant science experiment. >> in a lot of ways. i mean in a lot of way, this is what the inside of my head looks like. >> reporter: he built some of the machines himself, incorporating a range of brewing and distillation techniques from around the world. it's where he tested blending those pinecones. and the beach pansies. how many do you try versus how many actually work? what's the percentage of error? >> as high as possible, really. >> if you're not putting yourself out on a limb, then you're never going to do something new. we're also trying to show that alcohol can be more than a gin and tonic at the end of a hard work day, because it's such an amazing vehicle for capturing and preserving flavor that it

has a lot of potential that we're just sort of scraping the surface on. >> reporter: all of that testing and the unique ingredients mean the finished product comes at a price, upwards of $70 a bottle, mostly sold to high-end bars and restaurants or direct to consumers who are drawn to something unusual. >> shall we give this a shot? >> let's do it. am i supposed to -- cheers. >> skoal. >> reporter: we tried one flavored with quince. wow. this would be tclosest to a gin. another juniper wood. then we moved on to the plastic containers, works in progress. this one made of distilled jerusalem artichoke. >> oh, that's nice. i like that one. i might advance it from the plastic. >> reporter: spurred on by the challenge of trying to create something you never knew you were missing.

>> yeah. i think this one has legs. >> reporter: for me, this is my favorite of all

finally this half hour, the heartwarming story of a young man who is on a mission to brighten the lives of kids who can't see colors. michelle miller has the story. >> reporter: when 11-year-old tate reminger slipped on a pair of these special glasses, his reaction said it all. >> it changed just everything looks different. >> reporter: the glasses are designed to bring color into a drab world. they allow the color-blind to see the vivid hues they've been missing. >> i just like to see what everybody else sees. >> reporter: tate can do that now thanks in part to seventh grader jonathan jones and his mom carol. >> they're all yours. >> reporter: back in november, jonathan got the chance to try out these glasses as part of his science collapsed. and when the video of his

tearful reaction to seeing colors went viral, offers to help started pouring in. >> so many people, both people we knew and people we'd never heard from in our lives were reaching out to us and sending me dms, asking me to give money towards jonathan's glasses. >> reporter: jonathan's family eset up a gofundme page not to pay for his glasses, but to buy a pair for another child. they asked for $350. >> before we went to bed that night, we were at a thousand dollars. and we're currently at -- >> 32. >> 32. >> reporter: that's right. jonathan and his family raised nearly 100 times more than they had asked, over $32,000. and when the company that makes the glasses enchroma heard about it, they committed to match the donation, which can provide at least 130 pairs more. >> i wear these glasses 24/7 because, you know, color is amazing. >> reporter: so on a cold morning just before christmas in cottonwood, minnesota, a small

group of kids gathered in the gym at the lakeview school to get thei glasses, enabling them to see color for the first time like 9-year-old brendan carols. >> amazing, and it's also really a new experience for me to see the actual colors to things. and it's just really nice to see that other people can see that too. >> oh my god! >> reporter: watching other people discover color for the first time. >> holy crap! >> this is what you see? >> yeah. >> reporter: is an emotional exrience of its own. >> it's just little things that i notice throughout the day like driving down the street, the green sign, the red stop signs. there is a red house in our backyard, and i put them on and i was washing my hands at the kitchen sink and i was wow, that is red! >> and that's the "overnight news" for this friday. from the cbs news broadcast center in new york city, i'm tom

hanson. have a great day. it's friday, january 3rd, 2020. this is the "cbs morning news." a call for vengeance. iran vows to take, quote, crushing revenge after the united states kills one of its top military officials overnight. the world is on high alert as tensions rise in the middle east. another democrat drops out of the 2020 presidential race. why julian castro says it just wasn't his time. and a disturbing attack is caught on home surveillance video. what the woman said on camera that led police to her alleged that led police to her alleged attacker. captioning funded by cbs good morning from the studio 57 newsroom at cbs headquarters here in new york. good to be with you.