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November 13 - 17, 2006
Monday, Nov. 13
Quack, Quack...it's the Lame Duck Congress
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With some 24 Republicans defeated last week, the Republican congress returned today for a glum lame-duck session as Democrats prepare to take over. Republicans have only weeks to push items on their agenda. The scramble is on. The main order of House business planned for Monday is consideration of a free-trade bill with Vietnam, ahead of Bush's scheduled visit there Friday. Also planned are orientation meetings for more than 50 incoming House freshmen. Patt talks with NPR senior Washington editor Ron Elving about the business of legislating amidst a pending power shift.
- Ron Elving, senior Washington editor, NPR
What Terrorists Want
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After growing up in rural Ireland and watching her friends join the Irish Republican Army, Harvard professor Louise Richardson knows about the nature of terrorism from first-hand experience. Since then she has devoted her career to explaining terrorist movements worldwide and her new book, What Terrorists Want (Random House), explores its origins, its goals, what's to come and what's to be done about it.
Half-Life of a Zealot
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Once former Ambassador to Austria under the Clinton Administration, Swanee Hunt has also played many other roles in her life including heiress, philanthropist, mother, and advocate for women's leadership around the world. Her new book Half-Life of a Zealot (Duke University Press), details the triumphs and tragedy of her life and work over the years.
- Swanee Hunt, author, Half-Life of a Zealot
Tuesday, Nov. 14
Lights! Camera! ...Cough.
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The film industry is best associated with glamour and, especially in Southern California, jobs. But a UCLA study shows that there's a smokier side to Hollywood: pollution. Turns out all the trucks, generators and pyrotechnics used in film production also generate some 140,000 tons of ozone and diesel particulates in the LA basin. Patt talks with guests about this unfortunate side effect of LA's best-known industry.
Traveling for Treatment
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Americans frustrated by HMOs, rising health costs and slow regulatory procedures are going overseas to seek treatment. Welcoming them with open arms is a booming industry of "medical tourism" travel agents and hospitals with four-star services and U.S. trained doctors. We'll talk to a Southern California patient just back from surgery in India and others about the experience, what regulatory framework exists and how much it costs.
- Rick Thues, patient recovering from having his hip resurfaced in India about one month ago
- Karen Timmons, President & CEO, Joint Commission International, an American organization that accredits hospitals and doctors worldwide
- Jeff Schult, author of "Beauty from Afar: A Medical Tourist's Guide to Affordable and Quality Cosmetic Care Outside the U.S."
If you'd like to learn more about overseas medical care and attitudes in California about it, this month's "Health Dialogues" airs tomorrow at 7PM KPCC. Among the guests are the CEO of Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, one of the most popular medical facilities among Americans seeking care overseas and the president of the California Medical Association.
Destined For Destiny
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In an unprecedented and unauthorized biography, writers Scott Dikkers, editor-in-chief of The Onion, and Peter Hilleren have written a comical account of the life and leadership of President George W. Bush.
Wednesday, Nov. 15
Ask the Chief
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The uses of the Web site You Tube are exponentially exploding. The latest headline-grabbing application seems to be people posting videos of LAPD arrests, where officers have been seen in two different snippets punching and pepper spraying men they have arrested. We'll ask Chief Bratton about the videos, as well as the department's debate over a three-day work week, calls for more cops in the Valley and the concerns of listeners.
Thursday, Nov. 16
California Agriculture in the 21st Century
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California leads the nation in agriculture - but it isn't easy being green. New crops of condos and subdivisions crowd out farmlands. Small farmers are struggling against big agriculture. In a live broadcast from the Farm Store at Kellogg Ranch on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona, Patt Morrison and her guests explore this mega-business with farmers, educators, and the young people who are the future of agriculture.
Friday, Nov. 17
Downtown Park Development Gets a Visionary
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State Parks officials selected a designer for the 32-acre site on the edge of downtown L.A. known as "The Cornfield" today. That firm is Hargreaves and Associates, a San Francisco-based company, which recently completed a celebrated redesign of a section of that city's waterfront. Over the next year, a design for the former L.A. rail yard space will be perfected, with high expectations that a new park downtown can draw crowds and create useful new open space along the banks of the L.A. River. Patt talks with the design director of the winning firm, as well as Thomas Mayne, a Pritzker Prize-winning designer, whose plan to demolish Dodger Stadium was not chosen.
Sentencing: a Talk with a Judge and a Legal Scholar
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There are two important phases in a homicide case. The first is deciding guilt or innocence. The second, equally important part is deciding the sentence. In the case of George Weller, the elderly man who killed ten people when he drove his car through a Santa Monica farmer's market, a judge has to weigh his age and other extenuating circumstances. Also in the news was the high profile case of Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, members of the "Aryan Brotherhood." A U.S. District Court convicted them of orchestrating multiple murders from prison. In that case, the jury deadlocked on whether or not to invoke the death penalty. Sentences in both cases are due next week. Patt talks about the process of sentencing. How is it done? What does it involve? And what does a court and judge consider when making these life-and-death decisions?
O.J. Simpson Book Backlash
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In O.J. Simpson's new book, I Did It (ReganBooks), he describes how he could have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. The families of Brown and Goldman have condemned the work. Now, bookstores are weighing in. Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena says it will donate all proceeds from sales to the Nicole Brown Foundation, an organization dedicated to preventing domestic abuse. Dutton's bookstore in Brentwood banned the title from its shelves.
Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrivé!
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Each November, a French wine is released at the first moment it can be drunk. Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine that rarely gets better with age. Oenophiles around the world rush to taste it at the moment the bottles can be opened. We'll talk about this year's crop and the spirit behind this wine.
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