Shuttle Grounded; Mexican Elections; Supreme Court Wrap-Up; The Golden Era of Charitable Giving; The Life of Harper Lee
Shuttle Grounded
Inspectors found a 5-inch-long crack in the foam insulation covering the shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank, and NASA managers were deciding Monday whether to call off the scheduled Fourth of July launch. The crack was spotted during an overnight inspection. NASA had scrubbed launch plans Saturday and Sunday because of poor weather and had removed fuel from the tank. NASA found the crack, which was an eighth- to quarter-inch wide, in the foam on a bracket about two thirds of the way up on the side of the external fuel tank, facing the orbiter. That location would make it easy to hit the shuttle if a piece of foam came off. Officials were trying to determine whether it could be fixed for a Tuesday liftoff. Guest host Judy Muller talks about the latest developments in the launch of Discovery.
Mexican Elections
On Sunday, Mexican voters went to the polls to elect a new President to succeed Vicente Fox. The two leading candidates, conservative Felipe Calderon and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, both declared themselves Mexico's next president Monday, as a preliminary tally showed the ruling-party candidate with a razor-thin lead. The two candidates were separated by less than half a million votes, with more than 36 million counted in a preliminary tally. An official count was expected to take days. Guest host Judy Muller analyzes the close results, and what effect the uncertainty could have on Mexico's economy and maturing democracy.
Supreme Court Wrap-Up
AirTalk guest host Judy Muller talks with constitutional law experts about the Supreme Court's 2006 term, which just concluded, and gives a preview of the next term.
The Golden Era of Charitable Giving
Judy Muller talks with guests about Warren Buffett's recent gift of billions of dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the impact it may have on private charitable giving and public funding for the world's most intractable problems.
The Life of Harper Lee
Judy Muller speaks with Charles Shields about his new biography of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Shields interviewed hundreds of Lee's acquaintances and researched the papers of her childhood friend Truman Capote. The reclusive Lee never published a second novel, and has not granted interviews since the mid-1960s. The book is full of anecdotes about Lee's childhood in rural Alabama, but fails to answer the key question of why Lee never wrote a follow-up to her brilliant and celebrated novel. Shields' book is called Mockingbird.