Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Guatanamo Detainees; LAUSD School Reform; LA Times/Bloomberg Political Poll; ACLU Lawsuit; Iris Chang
Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Guatanamo Detainees
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether the more than 300 foreigners detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba can go to U.S. courts to challenge their confinement. The foreigners are considered enemy combatants by the Bush administration, but have not been charged with crimes. Many have been there more than 5 years. Larry and his guests John Eastman, Dean of the Chapman University Law School, and Jonathan Hafetz, attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice discuss the case before the court.
LAUSD School Reform
A delegation of teachers and UTLA union officers have drafted a reform plan that would give instructors more latitude to formulate curricula and also calls for local control over schools. Larry discusses the teachers' proposals with A.J. Duffy, of UTLA, and William Ouchi of UCLA's Anderson School.
LA Times/Bloomberg Political Poll
The latest LA Times/Bloomberg Poll of Republican-leaning voters shows that Governor Mike Huckabee has pulled into second place, close behind former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Huckabee was preferred by 17% of likely GOP voters, a 10% gain from a similar survey taken in October. Support for Giuliani, who once enjoyed a commanding lead in national polls, slid 9 percentage points over the last two months. Larry and his guest discuss the results of the survey.
ACLU Lawsuit
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have satisfied the requirements to become U.S. citizens are left in limbo for months or years due to the slow processing of FBI name checks. The ACLU of Southern California, and other organizations, filed a class action lawsuit yesterday in federal court asking that the time limits on name checks for people in the naturalization process be enforced. Larry and his guests Ranjana Natarajan of the ACLU staff attorney, and Abbas Amirichimeh, Plaintiff in ACLU lawsuit discuss the delays and the lawsuit.
Iris Chang
Larry talks with author Paula Kamen about her new book, Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of An Extraordinary Mind that discusses the events that lead to the suicide of journalist and author, Iris Chang.