Major Storms Coming To The Southland; They're Baaaaack: Late Night Comedy Returns To T.V.; Iowa Update; Justice Department Investigates CIA Torture Tape Destruction; The Global Race To Fuel The Car Of The Future
Major Storms Coming To The Southland
Larry Mantle talks with Eric Boldt, of the Los Angeles Office of the National Weather Service, Jeff Jennings, Mayor of Malibu, and KPCC Reporter Susan Valot about preparation for the storms that are heading toward Southern California.
They're Baaaaack: Late Night Comedy Returns To T.V.
Wednesday night several late-night talk show hosts including Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night TV without writers after a two month hiatus caused by the WGA strike. Larry Mantle and guests Patric Verrone, President of the WGA West, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times staff writer, and Tom Hollihan, professor of communication at USC's Annenberg School for Communication talk about how late-night hosts managed the shows without the aid of writers. He also talks about how the dearth of political humor may have affected the opinions of possible voters.
Iowa Update
Larry Mantle is joined by Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Political Analyst for KNBC and senior scholar at the USC's School of Policy, Planning and Development, and Mark Barabak, L.A. Times Staff Writer to set the scene and provide analysis of today's Iowa Caucuses.
Justice Department Investigates CIA Torture Tape Destruction
On Wednesday the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced that he was appointing John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee the investigation after the CIA acknowledged last month that in 2005 it destroyed videos of officers using harsh interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. Larry Mantle and guest Loch Johnson, Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, discuss the investigation and how the case has challenged the Bush administration's controversial handling of terrorism suspects.
The Global Race To Fuel The Car Of The Future
In their new book Zoom, Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, award-winning correspondents for The Economist, show why and how geopolitical and economic forces are compelling the linked industries of oil and autos to change as never before. Drawing on years of industry research-including dozens of interviews with motor and energy executives and top policymakers, the authors explain how Toyota became the world's largest automaker through innovation and superior performance and why American politicians have for decades failed to address our energy issues and global warming. Zoom co-author Vijay Vaitheeswaran joins Larry Mantle to offer a lucid and visionary portrait of what our energy, environmental and economic future could be.