Race and the Presidential Campaign; Debate On Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97 - Indian Gaming; The Return of Sunnis to the Iraqi Government; How Four Capitalists Created California
Race and the Presidential Campaign
Larry Mantle takes listener calls about race and the presidential campaign.
Debate On Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97 - Indian Gaming
Larry talks to pundits both for and against the propositions, which would allow expansion to existing Indian casinos.
The Return of Sunnis to the Iraqi Government
A bill passed the Iraqi Parliament on Saturday that would allow some former officials of Saddam Hussein's Baathist Party to regain jobs they held before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Larry Mantle and guests talk about the significance of this law and its prospect for mending the deep rifts between Sunni Arabs who once controlled the government under Saddam Hussein and Shiites who currently dominate politics in Iraq.
How Four Capitalists Created California
One hundred forty years ago, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins, four men known as "The Big Four" or "The Associates," rose from their position as middle-class merchants in Sacramento, California, to become the force behind the transcontinental railroad. Through this endeavor, they became wealthy beyond any measure but in order to sustain their power, they had to lie, bribe, wheedle, and, when necessary, arrange for obstacles, both human and legal, to disappear. Their legacy is a university, public gardens, museums, mansions, banks, and libraries -- and to a large degree California itself, a state that even today owes its aura of "can-do" and limitless possibilities to The Associates. Author Richard Rayner joins Larry Mantle to examine the lives of The Big Four whose stories Rayner chronicles in his new book The Associates.