Closing Guantanamo; City's First Gang Czar; Director Lajos Koltai; FilmWeek Reviews
Closing Guantanamo
The Bush administration wants to close the Cuban detention center at Guantanamo Bay and send its terror suspects to prisons elsewhere, but President Bush denies that a plan to close the prison is imminent. The U.S. is currently building a prison in Afghanistan where it hopes to transfer several dozen Afghan detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Senior administration officials said yesterday that a consensus is building for a plan to shut the detention center and transfer detainees to Defense Department facilities. The White House says 80 of some 375 detainees have been released. Guest host Ted Chen discusses the closing of Guantanamo with David Glazier from Loyola Law School, and Ron Meister of the Board of the Institute of Military Justice.
City's First Gang Czar
On Wednesday, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa named Jeff Carr as the city's new gang czar. Carr is an evangelical minister who has spent most of his career developing youth programs in some of LA's poorest neighborhoods. He will coordinate Villaraigosa's anti-gang strategy, unveiled in April, that would establish eight "gang reduction zones" throughout the city and evaluate the city's 23 existing gang prevention and intervention programs. Ted talks with Jeff Carr about his vision for reducing gang activity in Los Angeles.
Director Lajos Koltai
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Lajos Koltai was first known as a cinematographer and now as director. His second feature film, Evening, opens next week and stars Merryl Streep, Glenn Close, Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, and Natasha Richardson. Ted talks with Koltai about his career and working with some of today's major stars.
FilmWeek Reviews
Ted and critics Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media, and Andy Klein, of CityBeat, discuss this week's new releases, including A Mighty Heart, Evan Almighty, 1408, You Kill Me, Broken English, and Black Sheep.