The Olympic torch; China's PR Problem; Polygamist Sect Raided In Texas; The Race To Own Las Vegas: What Makes Las Vegas The Place It Is Today?
The Olympic torch
Larry talks with Scott Schafer, KQED reporter, and Tseten Panucharas, past president of LA Friends of Tibet about the Olympic torch's arrival yesterday in San Francisco, and about the protests.
China's PR Problem
While the Olympic torch makes its way to Beijing people around the world are protesting many of China's practices. Larry and his guests discuss how China is dealing with the negative publicity it's receiving because of their relations with Tibet and Taiwan, their citizens' lack of individual freedoms, and their choice to do business with Sudan. Will the bad PR affect China's business practices, human rights policies, diplomatic relations, and the Olympics themselves? Larry's guests include David Wallechinsky, Vice President of the International Society of Olympic Historians, Jeffrey Bader, Senior Fellow and Director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, General John Fugh, Chairman of the Committee of 100, and Susan Shirk, Director of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
Polygamist Sect Raided In Texas
Texas authorities have removed over 400 children from the YFZ Ranch, a polygamist compound in West Texas. The raid was made after a 16 year-old girl made an anonymous call from the Ranch complaining of physical and sexual abuse. The YFZ ranch is part of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, known as FLDS, a polygamous sect that broke from the Mormon Church in 1935. The 1700 acre compound was built 4 years ago by now-jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs, who moved the group to Texas from Utah and Arizona to escape scrutiny from law enforcement. Larry Mantle talks with local reporter Matt Phinney, Texas State Representative Harvey Hildebran, and Brenda Jensen about why the group chose Texas as their new home, and about what lies in the sect's future.
The Race To Own Las Vegas: What Makes Las Vegas The Place It Is Today?
In her new book, "Winner Takes All," Wall Street Journal columnist Christina Binkley chronicles how a world-renowned art collector, an aging billionaire and an economist from Harvard Business School came to battle one another for the Vegas Strip. After eight years reporting on Las Vegas for the WSJ, Binkley focuses her book on Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian and Gary Loveman, three very dissimilar visionaries who have made Sin City more glamorous, more luxurious and more outrageous than it's been in decades. Christina Binkley joins Larry Mantle to talk about the men who have helped to make Las Vegas one of the most popular destinations in the world.