Switzerland denies the U.S. extradition request for Roman Polanski. A look at the future of the music industry and its fight for survival. Day 83 of the BP oil spill. Later, medical overtreatment: when does more care mean less?
Roman Polanski freed as Swiss reject extradition request
Swiss authorities announced today that the country will not extradite film director Roman Polanski to Los Angeles because of a fault in the U.S. extradition request. Polanski fled the United States in 1978 on the eve of being sentenced for having unlawful sex with a minor. In a statement, the Swiss Justice Ministry said that its decision does not reflect a determination of Polanski's guilt or innocence, but instead comes from the failure of American authorities to provide confidential testimony from Polanski's original sentencing procedure. Now that the director is free to leave Switzerland and return to his home in France, is there any legal recourse left for Los Angeles County authorities to pursue their case? Swiss statement rejecting U.S. extradition request
Guest:
Jean Rosenbluth, Professor, USC School of Law. Rosenbluth served for seven years a federal prosecutor at the US Attorney's office in Los Angeles.
The Day the Music Died: selling music in the digital age
The first commercial media business to be devastated by the internet was the record industry. Since 1999 when the first MP3 file swapping site Napster appeared, album sales have plummeted 45% and the music industry has shrunk by one-third. How can the industry survive when illegal music downloads outnumber legal ones 19 to 1? In his new book Fortune’s Fool, industry expert Fred Goodman writes about the music industry’s fight for survival and how Edgar Bronfman, the controversial corporate magnate, may be its only savior. What's Bronfman's approach? Are there any viable models to monetize music? And, who should get the cash--how, and how much?
Guests:
Fred Goodman, author of Fortune’s Fool: Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warner Music and an Industry in Crisis (Simon & Schuster)
Daniel Stein, Chairman and CEO, eMusic
Day 83: recapping the gushing BP well in the Gulf
BP plans to place a new 30-foot cap on the leaking oil well today that could temporarily stop oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The old cap was successfully removed Saturday. After the new cap is in place, it will undergo a 48 hour pressure test in order to see if it will be reliable in containing oil. Engineers will gradually decrease the flow of the well and, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles says, if the cap can withstand high pressures of oil, that’s good news. If this solution is effective, BP could then permanently plug the leak with two relief wells, the first of which should be finished by mid-August. After 83 days since the explosion, is (somewhat) good news finally coming to the Gulf of Mexico?
Guests:
Richard Harris, correspondent, NPR News Science Desk
John Curry, a BP spokesman in New Orleans
David Pettit, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council and director of NRDC's Southern California Air Program
Overtreated: how too much medical care is bad for your heath
Americans spend 50-percent more on health care than any other country. But if you look at the numbers, it isn’t buying us better health. Medical overtreatment isn’t new. Most people know it’s a challenge in end-of-life care, emergency room medicine, back pain and cancer treatment, where it’s especially difficult to broach with patients. And when it comes to CT scans, the crisis is growing. The causes are as complex as the problem is pervasive. Doctors, patients and insurance companies are all to blame. But what can be done about it? What efforts are underway to address overtreatment? What should patients do to educate themselves? And what, if anything, does the new health care law do to fix all this?
Guests:
Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical writer
Dr. Bernard M. Rosof, Chair Board of Directors, Huntington Hospital (North Shore LIJ Health System); Board of Directors National Quality Forum; Chair, Overuse Committee National Priorities Partnership (NQF)
Shannon Brownlee, author, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making us Sicker and Poorer (Bloomsbury); Senior Research Fellow, Economic Growth Program, New America Foundation