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February 5 - 9, 2007
Monday, Feb. 5
Afghanistan: Tipping Point?
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With so much attention focused on the military escalation in Iraq, it's easy to forget the other war -- the war to secure Afghanistan. Analysts fear a coming offensive from the Taliban this spring. Meanwhile, attacks continue from across the Pakistan border. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of many voices asking for a "surge" in Afghanistan instead of Iraq. On a recent trip to that country, Pelosi spoke with the NATO commander in Afghanistan who said that we could very well lose the war there. Are we approaching a tipping point in the war in Afghanistan? Or is it possible that we have already passed it?
- Carlotta Gall, New York Times, reporter in Kabul, Afghanistan
- John Gastright, deputy assistant secretary, South and Central Asian Affairs, U. S. State Department
- Larry Goodson, Director of Middle East Studies, Army War College, in the Department of National Security and Strategy
- Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
- Congressman Tom Lantos, (D-CA) 12th District (San Mateo). Chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Tuesday, Feb. 6
Hollywood Goes to Washington
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Actors, directors, producers and other Hollywood heavy hitters are on Capitol Hill today, holding a symposium for lawmakers and other federal government employees. The event features panels on how movies are made and distributed as well as industry concerns over copyright protection and other challenges of the digital age.
Homicide Blog
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Jill Leovy has been covering murder in LA County for years, all the while knowing that for every homicide that captures the media eye there are many others that pass unacknowledged. Starting today that will change as her new Homicide Blog, begins at LATimes.com, where she will try to record at least some of the facts about every murder in the county, every week.
Bastards of the Party
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Cle "Bone" Sloan was a longtime member of the Bloods who became curious about the history of his gang. His research ultimately led him to direct the new documentary, Bastards of the Party, which premieres tonight (Tuesday) on HBO. Through interviews with gang members, historians, law enforcement, and former Black Panther Party members, Sloan (now an inactive member of the Bloods) chronicles the development of black gangs in L.A., from the 1940s through the period following the Rodney King riots in 1992. Patt talks with Sloan and the documentary's producer, Antoine Fuqua.
- Cle "Bone" Sloan, director, producer, narrator, Bastards of the Party
- Antoine Fuqua, producer, Bastards of the Party
Bastards of the Party premieres on HBO tonight at 10 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 7
The Gang is All Here
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Efforts to curb the city's gang violence aren't going well so far in 2007. But today, law enforcement officials from around the nation and Latin America will meet for a three-day summit in Los Angeles. They plan to talk about transnational gang activity and ways to share information and fight organized crime. We'll check in on the conversation.
Space Litter gets Lethal
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A bullet leaves the muzzle of a gun at 2,000 miles per hour. Now imagine how much damage you can do with a piece of metal, or even something as small as a paint chip, traveling at 17,000 miles per hour? That's what NASA is contending with as it attempts to track some 1,000 potentially lethal bits of metal and leftovers from spacecraft and military tests. The situation got much worse last month, when China blew up an old satellite as part of a weapons test, scattering even more bits of high-speed shrapnel into low-earth orbit. NASA scientists are concerned that a piece of this flying space junk will one day take out an expensive satellite or, worse, a manned space craft. Patt talks with NASA experts about this frightening prospect.
- Donald Kessler, former senior scientist for NASA's orbital debris program
- Geoffrey E. Forden, a researcher at MIT and an expert on space and anti-satellite weapons
Thursday, Feb. 8
Going After Gangs
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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief Bill Bratton launched a plan today targeting the city's most dangerous gangs. In an unusual and controversial move, they named the 11 worst gangs and promised to go after them with teams of police, federal agents, probation officers, and prosecutors. We speak with guests about the positives and pitfalls of announcing this list.
Orange County's Special Election
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Trung Nguyen has been declared the winner - by a slim seven-vote margin - for the open seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The runner-up, Janet Nguyen, is expected to request a re-count next week. But the real winner in this special election is the Vietnamese-American community, who flexed their political muscle and turned out in record numbers at the polls to vote for their Vietnamese-American candidates. We speak with the winning Nguyen and other guests about this special election.
Bohemian LA
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In the book Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics, Daniel Hurewitz chronicles 40 years of Edendale, a historical neighborhood near downtown. The area was populated by gay men and women, artists and Communists, whose vibrant social life and social activism made the personal political and left an indelible mark on the way Americans talk about identity.
Friday, Feb. 9
The Party's Somber Party
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California Republicans will gather this weekend in Sacramento to prepare for new leadership and debate new directions in the face of a governor who is pursuing "post-partisanship." State GOP leaders are at odds with their party's top elected official over taxes, health care and other policies. They'll also hear from presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Sunday.
- Carla Marinucci, political writer for San Francisco Chronicle
- Senator Tom McClintock, (R-19) Santa Barbara, Ventura, and a portion of Los Angeles
- Arnold Steinberg, veteran political strategist and analyst who works with Republican candidates and conservative causes
My Name is Iran
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In a story about three generations of women moving back and forth between Iran and the United States, Davar Ardalan details her life growing up in two nations at cultural polar opposites. Her memoir, My Name is Iran (Henry Holt and Co.), details three women's ordeals with love, revolution and the search for understanding two societies. Beginning with her American grandmother's love affair with an Iranian physician in the early 20th Century and subsequent migration to Iran, she later recounts her Iranian-American parents' decision to move from San Francisco to rural Iran, and continues through Ardalan's own experiences living in two very different worlds. She joins Patt today to share her experiences.
- Davar Ardalan, Author of My Name is Iran and an NPR Producer
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