Lake Tahoe Fire; Another Grocery Workers Strike?; Special Congressional Election; Civil Liberties In The Age Of Terror; Emotion And Politics
Lake Tahoe Fire
Larry gets the latest about the fire in the Lake Taho area from Sacramento Bee reporter Ryan Llillas and Daniel Verlant of the California Department of Forestry.
Another Grocery Workers Strike?
Larry Mantle talks with experts Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, and Mike Shimpock, spokesman for all seven local grocery workers unions about a possible grocery workers strike.
Special Congressional Election
A special election will be held Tuesday to fill the 37th Congressional District seat left vacant by the death of Juanita Millender-McDonald. There are 17 candidates on the ballot. State Senator Jenny Oropeza and Assemblywoman Laura Richardson, both Democrats, are the front runners. Valerie McDonald, the daughter of Millender-McDonald, is also considered a strong contender. If one candidate garners 50% of the vote, that person would serve the remainder of Millender-McDonald's term. If not, a runoff will be held in August with the top vote getter from each party on the ballot. Larry talks with political scientist, Raphe Sonenshein, and social critic, Joe Hicks, about the wide field of candidates.
Civil Liberties In The Age Of Terror
Anthony Romero took the helm of the ACLU in September 2001, a week before the terrorist attacks. Larry talks with Romero about his new book, In Defense of Our America (William Morrow), which takes a critical look at our civil liberties post 9/11 and goes behind the scenes of some of the most important cases in America. Doug Kmiec, professor of Constitutional Law at Pepperdine, also joins the conversation to offer an opposing point of view.
Emotion And Politics
Larry talks with author and professor Drew Westen about his new book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of a Nation (Public Affairs). Westen and a team of neuroscientists study how the brain processes political information and have found that Americans vote with their hearts, guts, or neuroses, not with their minds.