The food stamp nation? Do business signs uglify Glendale? The search for extra terrestrials is back on! Where did the money go? Is there a growing threat of a military attack on the U.S. from Iran? Pico Iyer on the man in his head.
The food stamp nation?
You may recall a few weeks ago during Newt Gingrich’s campaign when he referred to Barack Obama as “the food stamp president.” While this remark rubbed most liberals and progressives the wrong way, not to mention President Obama, it did speak to the fact that the issue of food stamps is a reliably divisive political issue.
Those on the right side of the spectrum distrust state solutions to social problems, and thus look at food stamps and other welfare programs as wasteful spending that doesn’t really make a positive difference. On the other hand, those on the left look at this aversion to helping the downtrodden as a lack of empathy.
Currently, state Senator Ronda Storms of Florida is introducing a bill that wouldn’t allow food stamp recipients to buy foods containing trans fats, sugary beverages, sweets like doughnuts, jello and candy, salty snacks and anything else deemed “unhealthy.” Her reasoning is that, if people are receiving assistance, they shouldn’t be able to eat premade food that would be bad for them or their children. These families can eat cake and other sweets, sure, but they must be made from scratch.
Storms’s opponents complain that she doesn’t understand the fact that most people receiving food stamps simply don’t have the time, resources or ability to cook, and that this places an infantilizing and unnecessary restriction on human beings. This basic argument is playing out in other states as well, including California, although the corresponding bill has stalled in the legislature.
Nationally, the use of food stamps is indeed on the rise. In May of last year, the numbers had reached nearly 46 million individuals and 21 million households on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rate of those receiving food stamps is climbing as well. From April to May, for instance, over a million individuals enrolled in the program. At this point, almost 15% of the entire country’s population receives food stamps.
Is Barack Obama really “the food stamp president”? He batted away Gingrich’s criticisms by saying he doesn’t put people on food stamps, they merely gain eligibility. Besides, he adds, it was President George W. Bush who signed off on the original extension of SNAP.
WEIGH IN:
How has this welfare program gotten so large? Are the requirements for enrollment too broad? Is it a sign of the weak economy? Should food be regulated for those on food stamps? Would doing so be constitutional? Are you on food stamps? How would you feel if someone restricted what exactly you could provide to your family?
Guests:
Scott Graves, Senior Policy Analyst, California Budget Project. Specializes in health and human services
Tad DeHaven, Budget Analyst, Cato Institute; named to Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Economic Advisory Council in 2010
Do business signs uglify Glendale?
Tonight, the Glendale City Council will revisit a proposal to limit the size of business signs. Enforcement of an old city code has been lax for decades. Some signs reach 25 feet in height and 200 square feet in surface area.
"It's a matter of aesthetics," said council member Ara Najarian. As the Glendale News Press reported, Najarian says big signs do not fit in with Glendale's look, "These signs are something you see in East L.A."
One small business owner affected is Lucy Kasparian, managing attorney of the California Lemon Law Center. She told KPCC that mom-and-pop shops attract new customers with storefront shingles. Moreover, in what may have been an oversight by city council, the new code would not have much affect on signage of corporate chains. Reason being, businesses will only have to take down their signs when ownership changes or when they apply for a variance to amend their signs. Most big box retailers rarely give up long-term leases or change their signs.
WEIGH IN:
How big is too big for a storefront sign? How much business might be lost if proprietors have to shrink their visual footprint? Are the people of Glendale more sensitive to visual blight than other parts of Los Angeles? Why wouldn't the new restrictions apply to major chains in the area? Are bigger corporations given special treatment by the city?
Guests:
Lucy Kasparian, Managing Attorney, California Lemon Law Center on West Glenoaks Blvd in Glendale
Tom Lorenz, Public Information Officer, City of Glendale
The search for extra terrestrials is back on!
Since 1960, scientists here in the United States and elsewhere has been combing the skies, trying to find out if we’re alone in the universe. The project has been called SETI or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and since 2008 one of the major components of the project has been the Allan Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California.
The ATA is an array of 42 telescopes, trained on the sky, scanning for radio waves from beyond our solar system. SETI has had its fair share of funding ups and downs with NASA pulling funding for the project in the 90’s and UC Berkley cutting back on the project in the last couple of years. But in April of 2011 things were looking bad for SETI and the ATA. Lack of funding had led the SETI Institute to put the Allan Telescope Array into “hibernation.” The telescopes were put safe mode and all the scientists left the lab. If E.T did send us a radio signal, no one was there to pick it up. But you can’t keep a good project down for long! SETI scientists started looking for alternative sources of income. They found some in the form of donors and government contractors and in December the array was back in business.
WEIGH IN:
But for how long? SETI received a couple hundred thousand dollars in donations, enough the run the project for a couple months at most. What will they do when the money runs out? And, in a time of unprecedented financial strife, is the search for extraterrestrial life a valid form of scientific exploration?
Guest:
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute
Where did the money go?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in 2009 to stimulate the economy and save the U.S from falling into a depression. But was it money well spent? ProPublica investigative reporter Michael Grabell takes on that question in his new book "Money Well Spent: What Really Happened to the Trillion-dollar Stimulus Plan," an expansive account of how the trillion dollar stimulus program came about.
Grabell travelled to more than a dozen states, scouring records to determine how the stimulus money was spent and to assess whether, as many Republicans contend, the plan paid for silly and wasteful projects like “a tunnel for turtles in Florida.” But critics of the stimulus come in a variety of political hues.
Progressives argue that the President Obama should have asked for more money from Congress to stimulate the economy. They claim that the recession would have been less severe if the stimulus had been bigger. According to Grabell, a bigger stimulus was politically untenable.
Was it money well spent? Did the stimulus save the American economy from an even deeper economic crisis than the one we are now recovering from? Was it a wasteful, costly exercise that increased the national debt but didn’t fix our economic problems? Or was is too little to late?
Guest:
Michael Grabell, author of "Money Well Spent: The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History" (PublicAffairs)
Is there a growing threat of a military attack on the U.S. from Iran?
The annual U.S. intelligence community’s threat assessment alleges that Iran is more willing to attack the United States and American interests overseas. James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, cites, in a prepared testimony to Congress, the suspected Iranian plot to kill Saudi Ambassador last year as evidence about “Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests.”
The report, however, does not specify whether Iran will build a nuclear weapon. "We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons." Instead, it claims that “Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.”
The report says that Iran is likely to use missiles to launch nuclear weapons saying the country has “the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.” This assessment comes a few weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law sanctions on Iran’s central bank. There has also been a continuous push from the U.S. on other countries, like Russia, India and China, to cease economic relations with Iran as well.
WEIGH IN
What does this aggressive direction in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran signify? How does it affect both sides? What are the facts? How will Iran, and other countries, respond to U.S. pressure? Will the U.S. likely engage in a preemptive strike, should it find that Iran is building weapons? Why single Iran out?
Guest:
Brian Bennett, staff writer in the Los Angeles Times DC Bureau, covering Homeland Security.
Pico Iyer on the man in his head
Everyone has the voice they hear in their head. Maybe it’s a nagging mother or a stern teacher. While there are probably less conventional versions out there, one that would definitely cause ears to prick up would be the voice of English writer Graham Greene. Well, when Pico Iyer set out to write his recent book, “The Man Within My Head,” that’s exactly who he heard.
Iyer describes Greene as his adoptive father, as he has long been fascinated by the man and his work. Iyer, a travel writer, often found himself not trying to emulate Greene, but haunted by his focus on “the foreigner” as a character who goes from land to land, never quite living in reality. Iyer tracks Greene’s progress from his first novel onward, and expounds on the commonalities of and kinship between himself and Greene.
The further he goes into his own consciousness and life, however, the more he questions who the man in his head really is. Could it be Iyer’s actual father? Or even just an abstraction of his own self? What did Iyer learn while writing this book? How does his life align with Graham Greene’s? How does his prowess as a travel writer translate to a book that’s far more personal and incisive in nature?
Guest:
Pico Iyer, author of “The Man Within My Head” (Knopf), writer of nonfiction books, travel writer for the Financial Times, literature writer for The New York Review of Books and other pieces for Time, The New York Times and more
Iyer will be in conversation with Tom Curwen of the Los Angeles Times tonight at 7 p.m. The event takes place at the Los Angeles Central Library. For more information, click here.