January 10 - 14, 2005
Monday, Jan. 10
The Palestinian Election
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Mahmoud Abbas has declared victory in Sunday’s election. Now he has to get on with the business of making peace with Israel and forging a viable economy for his people. Dan Ephron, Jerusalem correspondent for Newsweek magazine, Daniel Sokatch, Executive Director, Progressive Jewish Alliance, and Rafi Dajani, Executive Director of the American Taskforce on Palestine, join Larry to discuss the ramifications of the election on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Stem-Cell Commission Meets
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The Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee met last week. The 29-member board is responsible for allocating $3 billion of state taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research, over ten years. Larry talks with Joan Samuelson, Founder and President of the Parkinson’s Action Network, Susan V. Bryant, Ph.D. UC Irvine, Dean of the School of Biological Sciences, both committee members, and Terry Francke, General Counsel for Californians Aware, about staffing the new stem cell institute, where it might be located, when research is likely to begin, public access, and the issues of creating a new state agency.
Merit Pay for Teachers
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In his State of the State speech Governor Schwarzenegger called for a merit pay system where teachers, where salary would be linked to performance rather than tenure. This has alarmed teachers groups and unions, who say that a lack of resources is the real reason for poor student performance in California. Larry Mantle talks with Gaynor McCown, Executive Director of the Teachers Commission, Mary Bergen, head of the California Federation of Teachers, and Eloise Lopez Metcalfe, Director of the UCLA Center X Teacher Education Program, a graduate credentialing and Master's program, about the merits of merit pay.
Mentoring
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Eric Liu, a fellow at the New America Foundation, joins Larry to discuss his new book about mentoring, called Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life (Random House). It is the Official Book of National Mentoring Month, sponsored by the Harvard Mentoring Project.
Tuesday, Jan. 11
The State Budget
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Larry Mantle talks with a variety of guests who respond to Governor Schwarzenegger’s just-released 2005-2006 budget. Joining him is H.D. Palmer, Deputy Director External Affairs for the State Department of Finance; Jack Scott, Democratic State Senator representing California’s 21st district; Richard Riordan, State Education Secretary; John Laird, Democratic State Assemblyman representing California’s 27th State District; Rick Keene, Republican State Assemblyman representing California’s 3rd district; J.J. Jelincic, President of the California State Employees Association, and Dr. Jonathan Fielding, Director of Public Health and Health Officer for Los Angeles County.
UN Management of the Tsunami Relief Program
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The United Nations will manage the ongoing tsunami relief effort, with an appeal to donor nations for $977 million. The money will be used for various projects, with allocations to both UN agencies and NGOs. Critical voices have raised concerns about the UN managing this money, after the oil-for-food scandal. Joining Larry to discuss how the UN will manage the money and how public and private aid agencies will work together, is Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations (OCHA), Peter Hall, Hauser Lecturer on nonprofit organizations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Ronald Bailey, Science correspondent for Reason magazine, and Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C.
In the Realms of the Unreal
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Larry Mantle talks with Jessica Wu, Director of the upcoming film, "In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger." Yu won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for BREATHING LESSONS: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARK O’BRIEN, an intimate portrait of the writer who lived for four decades paralyzed by polio and confined to an iron lung. She has directed episodes of TV’s “The West Wing,” “ER,” and “ “The Guardian”.
"In the Realms of the Unreal" opens in LA on Jan. 21st.
Wednesday, Jan. 12
Victims To Sue Gun Manufacturers
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Victims of the 1999 shootings by white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. can now sue Glock Inc. and China North Industries, gun makers who manufactured the guns used by Furrow. The Supreme Court let stand a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the mother of a US Postal Worker, and the families of children killed by Furrow, could sue the gun makers. Experts on both sides of the issue join Larry to discuss the implications of this decision. Larry's guests are: Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America; Josh Horwitz, Executive Director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence; and Robert Pugsley, Professor of Law at Southwestern University School of Law.
National Academy of Sciences Report on Perchlorate
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The National Academy of Sciences released a report on Monday assessing the health implications of perchlorate exposure. The NAS found that “even the most sensitive populations” can ingest daily amounts of up to 20 times the “reference dose” proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, without adversely affecting health. Experts join Larry to discuss what this means for California’s perchlorate drinking water standard. Larry's guests are: Bill Walker, VP of the Environmental Working Group for the west coast and Dr. Richard Corley, a member of the Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion committee for the National Academies of Science’ National Research Council.
Iraqi American Voting
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Larry speaks with Basam Al-Husseini, an Iraqi-American who is training workers to staff polls for expatriate Iraqis for the Iraqi election on January 30th. Who will be able to vote? Where can they go? And how will the expatriate vote affect the Iraqi election ?
The Science of the Southeast Asian Earthquake and Tsunami
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Larry Mantle talks with Caltech scientists studying last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia. Larry asks: Why was the earthquake so large? How was the tsunami created? Could a tragedy of this magnitude happen in the U.S.? Larry's guests are: Lucy Jones, scientist in charge of the USGS in Southern California and Tom Heaton, Professor of Engineering Seismology at Caltech.
Thursday, Jan. 13
Natural Disasters and Personal Responsibility
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Should people who buy or build homes in areas prone to natural disasters be held responsible when one occurs, or should government? Should the residents of La Conchita have been warned? Who should pay for the re-building of La Conchita? Larry Mantle takes your calls.
Term Limits
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Governor Schwarzenegger said this week that he may be interested in loosening term limits in Sacramento. He said “We never really create someone that is an expert in Sacramento, because before you become an expert you are out.” Does the Governor really believe term limits should be thrown aside, or is this a strategy to get Democrats behind his redistricting idea? Joining Larry are Daniel Weintraub, Sacramento Bee columnist, Dennis Mountjoy, Republican State Assemblyman representing the 59th district, and Paul Koretz, Democratic State Assemblyman representing the 42nd district.
The Supreme Court Changes Federal Sentencing Guidelines
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The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal judges no longer have to issue mandatory sentences using federal sentencing guidelines created in 1987. Instead, Federal judges now have more discretion about what sentences to issue. Joining Larry to deconstruct the meaning of this for the American system of justice is Bob Weisberg, professor of criminal law at Stanford Law School, the Honorable Dikran Tevrizian, a US District Court Judge in Los Angeles, and Kent Scheidegger, Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
God on the Quad
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Journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley joins Host Larry Mantle to discuss her new book, God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America (St. Martin’s Press). Schaefer discusses the explosion of religious colleges and attendance at religious universities. She explores how these students integrate faith into academia and how their faith shapes issues such as race relations, feminism, and sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
Friday, Jan. 14
Indictment in the “Pay To Play” Investigation
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On Thursday a federal grand jury handed down an indictment accusing John Stodder, Jr., a former public relations executive at Fleishman-Hillard, of defrauding LA city agencies and private citizens. Larry Mantle talks with James Nash, Staff writer for the Los Angeles Daily News, based at City Hall, and Amanda Bronstad, Staff writer for the Los Angeles Business Journal, about the ramifications of the indictment on city politics and business interests.
Continuing Havoc Caused by Southland Storms, Even After the Rain has Stopped
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Larry Mantle takes a look at the road closures and flooding around the southland caused by the recent storms. Highway 101 is closed in parts; the I-5 is down to one lane through the grapevine, and water is rising behind the Prado Dam in Corona, necessitating a flash flood watch and the evacuation of eight hundred homes. Joining Larry is Jeanne Bonfilio, spokeswoman for CALTRANS, Lance Pugmire, staff writer for the LA Times, and Kathryn Blackwell, Union Pacific Railroad, Assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications.
The Huygens Probe Descends into Titan’s Atmosphere
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On Friday, the Cassini spacecraft’s Huygens probe is scheduled to descend into the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Data from Huygens may offer clues about how life began on earth. Larry Mantle talks with Cassini Deputy Project Scientist Linda Spilker.
FilmWeek
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Larry Mantle with critics
Charles Solomon, animation critic for amazon.com,
Jean Oppenheimer of New Times, and
Henry Sheehan of HenrySheehan.com
discuss the new film releases for this week including
Coach Carter, Elektra, Racing Stripes, Appleseed, Purple Butterfly,
and Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela.
A variety of events happening with the
American Cinematheque
were also highlighted.
