FEMA'S FATE; ORANGE COUNTY JOURNALISTS ROUNDTABLE; GUANTANAMO UPDATE; AMERICA'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
FEMA'S FATE
A report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee says that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is crippled and beyond repair and should be replaced with a new agency to plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters. FEMA is supposed to handle emergency preparedness and response, but Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman says the agency failed on both counts after Hurricane Katrina -- with deadly results and should be abolished. A recommendation to scrap what a final report calls a ''symbol of bumbling bureaucracy'' tops a slate of recommendations from senators who spent seven months investigating the storm response. Larry Mantle speaks with guests about FEMA's possible demise, what might replace it and how well we are prepared for another disaster like Katrina.
ORANGE COUNTY JOURNALISTS ROUNDTABLE
Larry Mantle talks with Los Angeles Times staff writer Jean Pasco and Orange County Register op-ed column editor Steven Greenhut.
GUANTANAMO UPDATE
There are nearly 500 alleged "enemy combatants" currently detained at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The military recently announced it will release 141 of them. Larry talks with experts about this development at the controversial prison.
AMERICA'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
Author Rich Cohen joins Larry Mantle to tell the story of his grandfather, Ben Eisenstadt, a short order cook who after World War II created a mixture of tartar, dextrose and saccharin that became Sweet'N Low and made him a huge fortune. Riding the wave of the diet craze in America, Eisenstadt converted his Brooklyn cafeteria into a factory but when he died in 1996 he left millions for his family to squabble over and Cohen's side of the family was disinherited. In the book Sweet and Low, the author recounts a colorful and rancorous family history about entrepreneurial greed, corruption and the sweet tooth that inspired it.