New restrictions on stem cell research. Are Americans intolerant of Islam? Republican Congressman from the 48th District in Orange County John Campbell. LA drivers don't have it so bad - a 60-mile, 10-day-and-counting traffic jam in China. Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr. And the latest news.
New ban on federal funding for stem cell research
A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, essentially overriding the Obama administration's 2009 executive order which expanded federal funding for human stem cell research. The judge’s decision left many scientists confused and scrambling Monday night as to the status of their research as the ruling could be interpreted to render all scientific work on stem cells illegal – including research previously allowed under the restrictions imposed by the Bush administration in 2001. Should stem cell research be regulated so specifically? Do you think the legal wrangling is hindering the progress of scientists’ work?
John Campbell is in the House
The Republican Congressman from Orange County joins David Lazarus to talk about a variety of topics including jobs, the economy, immigration, California’s gubernatorial and senate races, the wind-down in the Iraq war, the situation in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks, mid-east peace talks and the ground zero mosque controversy.
Guest:
John Campbell, Republican Congressman, 48th District in Orange County
Islamophobia in America: how tolerant are we?
As Americans, we pride ourselves on our commitment to religious freedom. Yet, from furor over the so-called ‘Ground Zero mosque’ to a mosque building project in Temecula, there is a growing sense that Islamophobia is on the rise in the United States, as splashed across the cover of this week's Time. Is the U.S. a place where religious pluralism can thrive? How tolerant are we?
Guests:
Steven Cuevas, KPCC Inland Empire Reporter
Mark Potok, Director of the Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Zareena Grewal, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies, and Director of the Center for the Study of American Muslims for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, Yale University
I won’t be home for dinner – China’s staggering traffic jam
China’s incredible economic expansion is causing some growing pains. The latest symptom is a 62-mile traffic jam that is at its 10th day and counting. Officials say that it could last until… mid-September. The usual factors are at work: construction, road closures, population growth and a rapidly growing number of cars on the road - Chinese bought 13.6 million new vehicles in 2009. Chinese authorities have dispatched police to help speed things up – currently a glacial third of a mile per day. To pass the time drivers are playing cards and exercising capitalism by setting up vending stands on the road. Are these sorts of titanic traffic jams the shape of things to come? What can cities do to solve the problem of growing traffic congestion?
Guest:
John Fischer, Assistant General Manager in charge of Transportation Operations, Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT)
The Kindergarten Congressman
Harold Ford, Jr.’s political journey began at age 4, when he appeared in a commercial for his father’s congressional campaign. Harold, Sr. went on to become the first African-American to represent Tennessee in Congress, an office he held for more than two decades, and his son followed in his footsteps to the House of Representatives. A bitter and controversial fight for the Senate in 2006 ended in defeat. But that loss did nothing to weaken Ford’s commitment to public service, or to the core values and principals forged by his Baptist childhood. In his new memoir, Harold Ford, Jr. articulates the deep values and beliefs that led Bill Clinton to call him “the walking, living embodiment of where American ought to go in the twenty-first century.”
Guest:
Harold Ford, Jr., former U. S. Congressman from Tennessee and author of More Davids Than Goliaths: A Political Education