Road Repairs After the Storms; Incarcerating Mentally Ill Kids; Iyad Allawi; The Fight to Free An Empire’s Slaves; 2004 Academy Award Nominations
Road Repairs After the Storms
The repair of California’s roads after the recent storms is expected to cost well over $43 million. Getting all the damaged roads fixed and open may take months in some cases, as mudslides and sinkholes have caused considerable damage. Joe Cassmassi, Senior Meterologist for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Mike Miles, Caltrans Deputy Director for Maintenance for Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, join Guest Host Patt Morrison to talk about the extent of the damage and the plans for repair.
Incarcerating Mentally Ill Kids
A new report commissioned by California congressman Henry Waxman (D- Los Angeles) finds that over half of the mentally ill juveniles held in detention centers in California are not receiving the services they need. Patt Morrison talks with David Steinhart, California attorney and director of the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program, about the report and the conditions in detention centers for mentally ill children between the ages of 8 and 12.
Iyad Allawi
The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson talks with AirTalk guest host Patt Morrison about his profile of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Allawi, a candidate for the new Transitional National Assembly, has been involved in Iraqi politics for nearly 50 years. Anderson’s article titled “A Man of the Shadows: Can Iyad Allawi Hold Iraq Together?” appears in this week’s issue of the New Yorker.
The Fight to Free An Empire’s Slaves
Adam Hochschild joins Patt Morrison to talk about his new book Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in a Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves (Houghton Mifflin), the story of the world’s first human rights campaign, the grassroots battle started by a small group of men in London to rid the British Empire of slavery.
2004 Academy Award Nominations
Critics Jean Oppenheimer, film critic of New Times, Andy Klein, film editor and chief critic of both CityBeat and ValleyBeat, and F.X. Feeney, film critic of the L.A. Weekly, join Patt to discuss the 2004 Oscar nominations, which were announced this morning.