Do cheaper flights and increased efficiency spell trouble for Southwest planes? The near assassination of Ronald Reagan. Government shutdown on the horizon? The latest in Libya. Can peer pressure solve as many problems as it creates?
Do cheaper flights and increased efficiency spell trouble for Southwest planes?
Southwest Airlines has canceled hundreds of flights after a Phoenix to Sacramento plane on Friday was forced to make an emergency landing when a ceiling panel ripped open, showing wide-open sky to the terrified passengers inside. Inspections are finding that 3 more planes have cracks developing where the metal skin of the fuselage overlaps and is riveted together. Experts tell NPR News that Southwest has a history of problems with the roofs and fuselages of their aircraft, but the question is why? The answer may be that Southwest is a victim of their own success. They have a reputation as an extremely efficient airline, meaning they turn around flights faster. Their planes are taking off and landing more often which could stress the planes past the breaking point. Is that what happened here? If so, are new safety standards needed for airlines that work their planes harder?
Guest:
Peter Goelz, Aviation Expert, Former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, Senior vice president at O’Neill and Associates
The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan
Where were you the day that Ronald Reagan was shot? It was thirty years ago last week, when President Ronald Reagan was barely two months into his first term, that he walked out of a hotel in Washington DC into a series of gunshots fired by John Hinckley Jr. The president was wounded, closer to dying than the public ever knew at the time. Also shot were his press secretary, a secret service agent and a DC police officer. For the thirty year anniversary of this historic attempt, Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilbur has assembled the definitive account of that day and its aftermath. Wilbur and retired Secret Service agent Jerry Parr join host David Lazarus to recount how Parr actually saved Regan's twice that day, just how the president's true condition was kept from the public, and what it is like to hold the gun that Hinckley had trained on Reagan that day.
Guest:
Del Quentin Wilber, author of Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan
Jerry Parr, Secret Service agent (retired)
Entitlement cuts are on the table!
Republican Congressman, Paul Ryan, is set to release his 2012 budget blueprint tomorrow and it includes overhauls of Medicare and Medicaid as well as 4 trillion in cuts over the next ten years. Cuts to entitlement spending are politically risky, but republicans say necessary to fixing our budget problems. The plan comes at a time when the house is bitterly divided down party lines and a possible shutdown is still on the horizon. We’ll talk to lawmakers on both sides of aisle to find out if the budget process is hopelessly stalled. When the government shut down in 1995 because of a budget impasse the Republicans came out the unequivocal losers. Even Newt Gingrich is warning them not to do it again. But many Republicans look like they’re digging in, especially a group of freshmen with Tea Party backing. Are the republicans backed into a corner with the Tea Party on one side and a government shutdown on the other? And if a shutdown happens, what do both sides have to lose and who takes the blame?
Guests:
Gail Russell Chaddock, Congressional Correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor
Xavier Becerra, Democratic Congressman representing California’s 31st District
Brian Bilbray, Republican Congressmen representing California’s 50th District, which covers San Diego County
Libya update
Ghaddafi's army is still fighting fiercely against the rebel-held eastern part of Libya. However, a series of unfolding events have shown the solidity of the government cracking further. Ghaddafi's close ally Moussa Koussa defected to London late last week and now two of his sons are reportedly offering to oversee a transition to a constitutional democracy. The rebels have rejected the Ghaddafis’ sons offer, but is it signaling good news for the rebel army, the end of fighting, and Libya's transition to a true democracy?
Guest:
Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, currently in Tripoli
Can peer pressure solve as many problems as it creates?
We often think of peer pressure as a motivator of bad behavior, but what about harnessing it for positive ends? In the new book "Join The Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform The World," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tina Rosenberg examines the power of peer groups to shape personal and social action in areas as diverse as anti-smoking campaigns, AIDS awareness efforts, and pro-democracy movements. Rosenberg argues that in-group lifestyle advocacy can be far more effective than traditional information-dispersing approaches in promoting positive changes in people’s lives, and provides a wealth of examples in the process.
Guest:
Tina Rosenberg, author of Join The Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform The World