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It's around dinner time at Honeygrow, a casual restaurant in central Philadelphia.

Erin Campbell was on her way here to meet a friend when she realized, with panic, that her cellphone battery was dying.

"I noticed I only had 14 percent [battery] left, and I actually texted her on my way in to see if she could bring a charger with her," Campbell says.

But Campbell's friend told her there was no need to bring a charger — just inside the door of Honeygrow is a kiosk where customers can charge their phones.

To use a kiosk at Honeygrow, a customer picks an empty pod from the kiosk and opens a tiny door with a key that's in the lock. Inside, there are power cords for iPhones 4 and 5, BlackBerries and Androids. Customers plug in their phones, lay the phone on the shelf and lock the door with the key.

Campbell charges her phone here during dinner. After eating, she stops to unlock the little door and unplug her phone. Success: The battery is up to 66 percent.

Charging The Lifeline

Philadelphia entrepreneur Doug Baldasare founded ChargeItSpot after his own brush with phone battery death a few years ago when he was out with friends.

"All of our phones were dead so we were saying, you know, 'How are we going to find each other?' " he says. "I pointed to a store — it happened to be an Urban Outfitters — and I said, 'Why can't I walk in there and charge my phone?' "

Now Baldasare's company has phone-charging kiosks in some Urban Outfitters locations, as well as Whole Foods, a ski resort in Colorado and other retailers and restaurants in a half-dozen states.

"We need our phones so much every day in our lives — we clutch them like it's part of us; it's a lifeline," he says. "When our phones run low, we're really anxious."

All Tech Considered

Innovation: A Portable Generator Charges Devices With Fire

Enrolling in HealthCare.gov is not easy, and it's been particularly difficult in Alaska. Just 53 people enrolled in the first month.

Anchorage hair stylist Lara Imler is one of the few who got through, as we previously reported. But Imler discovered problems with her application, and now she wants to cancel her enrollment.

"I don't even know how to feel about the whole thing anymore because I can't even get anyone who has an answer to help," she says. "It's just such a lost cause at this point."

A few things went wrong with Imler's HealthCare.gov application. First, according to the website, she successfully enrolled in a health plan. But her new insurance company, Moda Health, didn't have her application. When she called the HealthCare.gov hotline, no one could help her figure out what went wrong.

Then, she found out the website miscalculated her subsidy. She was supposed to receive a monthly subsidy of $366, but the website only let her use $315.

"The subsidy issue is weird," she says. "If you look at my profile on the website it shows my full subsidy, but it says I'm only using part of it. So they know I've got a screwed up subsidy but they don't know what to do with it. There's no one directly you can talk to, to say, 'Hey my subsidy is on there. How do I apply for all of it?'"

Shots - Health News

Persistence Pays Off For Uninsured Alaskan

So, a uniformed Marine walks into a convenience store, and says to the clerk, "Pack of Marlboro Reds, in a box — and some matches."

The clerk gives the Marine the once over and says, "Sorry, son, but you look a bit young to be buying smokes. You 21?"

That potential scenario, in a nutshell, is the most common argument against a small but nascent movement to increase the minimum age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21.

You can fight in a war at age 18, and vote in elections, but you can't buy cigarettes until your 21st birthday?

In Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York City and on Hawaii's Big Island, that's now the case. And Utah, one of four states that had already hiked the minimum sale age to 19, is also considering bumping it up to 21.

Three New York counties and three communities in Massachusetts have passed minimum sale ages of 19; and in 2005, Needham, Mass., became the first and — until New York passed its regulation last week — the only municipality to approve a "21 law."

Needham has reported that since 2005, it has seen a drop of more than 50 percent in its youth smoking rate.

The scattered push for 21 laws is being welcomed by anti-tobacco groups, which point to research that shows cigarette addiction typically takes hold during a person's late teens and early 20s.

But the embrace of such age hikes comes with a caveat: Don't let this new battlefront divert attention from proven anti-smoking efforts.

"While we're enthusiastic about the 21 laws, we don't want them to replace what we have in place already," says Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research at The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "It's not a substitute for things we know are effective — increasing cigarette prices by raising taxes, funding evidence-based tobacco cessation programs, and passing smoke-free laws."

Nonsmoking advocates like McGoldrick call the combination of those efforts the winning trifecta.

Big Tobacco argues that increasing the minimum age would drive buyers across state lines, leading to a loss in tax revenue.

Both sides of the smoking issue are also more focused on another, much bigger battle — pushing for federal regulation of the relatively new electronic cigarettes, battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution and create vapor that users inhale.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulating e-cigarettes as it does other tobacco products, which would subject them to the same age-based limits on sales and marketing as well as other restrictions that apply to traditional cigarettes.

Big Tobacco is arguing for a separate classification for the product, which is increasingly popular among young adults and seen as a growth industry for the diminished domestic tobacco sector. While that debate plays out (the White House is reviewing the FDA's proposal to regulate e-cigarettes), the 21 law effort, while limited, continues.

New Jersey state Sen. Richard Codey has been pushing for the increase in his state, and in Washington, D.C., city councilman Kenyan McDuffie has introduced legislation to raise the age to buy cigarettes in the nation's capital from 18 to 21.

"We have an obligation to stay on the leading edge of smoking prevention strategies here in the District," McDuffie said in a release. "By restricting tobacco sales to young people, we can prevent many of our youth from acquiring a terrible, deadly addiction. Research shows that delaying access to tobacco products is an effective means of long-term smoking prevention."

Officials in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac, Wash., say the town's voters have approved a $15 minimum wage for workers in and around its international airport, by a margin of just 77 votes, according to local government data.

Placed on the ballot by a citizen's initiative, Proposition 1 would raise Washington's minimum wage of $9.19 — already the highest in the nation. The measure still faces several challenges, including calls for a hand recount. If it stands, it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

From Seattle, NPR's Martin Kaste reports for our Newscast desk:

"The election was three weeks ago, but the vote was so close that it's taken this long to call a winner. Opponents say they'll pay for a recount. Alaska Airlines is the airport's primary carrier; spokesman Paul McElroy says the company is concerned about wage inequality, but he says it has to stay competitive.

"'The number one factor that air travelers look at when buying a ticket is low airfares,' McElroy says. 'And as our costs go up, that does affect our ability to offer the best value and low-cost airfare to our customers.'"

"Alaska Airlines and some other affected businesses are suing to block the wage, arguing that it conflicts with state and federal laws."