State Budget Debacle; Majority Of Californians Support More Drilling; Israeli Prime Minister Resigns; Grandmaster Flash
State Budget Debacle
Today Governor Schwarzenegger is expected to cut the pay or temporarily lay off over 200,000 state employees, until a state budget is passed. The governor issued the threat last week after he grew frustrated with lawmakers' inability to reach a budget deal for the fiscal year that started July 1. Larry Mantle gets the latest from KPCC's State Capitol Reporter, Julie Small, and talks with Cindy Fonseca, member SEIU, local 1000.
Majority Of Californians Support More Drilling
A new report reveals that a surprising number of Californians now favor more off-shore drilling. The shift in public opinion appears to be, in part, a reaction to soaring gas prices. But is increasing supply the best solution? Could there be an upside to the current market pressures? Perhaps higher prices might force us to speed up the hunt for viable alternatives. Or is our lagging economy too dependent on oil to wait? Larry talks with Sonja Petek, Research Associate, Public Policy Institute of California, Craig Noble, California Communications Director, Natural Resources Defense Council, Severin Borenstein, Director of the University of California Energy Institute, and Dan Holler, Deputy Director, US Senate Relations, Heritage Foundation, about off-shore drilling, possible alternatives, and the ongoing debate about how to respond to rising energy costs.
Israeli Prime Minister Resigns
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, announced Wednesday that he will step down in September. Olmert's resignation comes as his popularity continues to plummet and he faces allegations of corruption. Larry talks with Joshua Mitnick, Middle East correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Tel Aviv, Steven Cook, Senior Fellow of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Paul Scham, Adjunct Scholar with the Middle East Institute, about what this change in leadership will mean for Israel, the peace talks, and Israel's relationship with the U.S. and other countries.
Grandmaster Flash
Larry Mantle talks with pioneering Hip Hop musician Grandmaster Flash about his new memoir, co-authored with David Ritz, "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats." Grandmaster Flash is the famed DJ of Hip-Hop collective Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The group was one of the first to strike it big during Hip-Hop's infancy in the early 80s with MC Melle Mel's socially conscious lyrics. But it was Flash who orchestrated the group and provided a backbone of technique for future DJs with his creation of break-beat DJing that included "scratching" vinyl records over a beat, re-mixing, turntables, cutting, rubbing, and backspinning.