Foreign policy experts explain the newly-released Benghazi report; Would temporarily removing guns from those with temporary restraining orders alleviate gun violence?; and Stanford University researches have found an enormous water reservoir in California --will it save the parched Golden State from the drought?
Foreign policy experts parse House Benghazi report
(AP) Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee harshly faulted the Obama administration Tuesday for lax security and a slow response to the deadly 2012 attacks at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya.
But they produced no new allegations about then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The attacks, which killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, have been repeatedly cited by Republicans as a serious failure by the administration and by Clinton, who now is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
But the committee's 800-page report, released by Republican members, offered no "smoking gun" about Clinton's role. Panel chairman Trey Gowdy has said the report was not aimed at her, though Democrats have accused the committee's Republican majority of targeting her throughout.
The report from the two-year, $7 million investigation does include severe criticism of the military, CIA and administration officials for their response as the attacks unfolded the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and their subsequent explanation to the American people.
Read the full report from the House of Representatives here.
Guests:
Shana Gadarian, Associate Professor of Political Science at The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University
Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President of Research for Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit, non-partisan policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.
Perceptions of Supreme Court politics in a divisive era
The Supreme Court is concluding an historic term this week – capping it with a landmark ruling yesterday protecting abortion rights.
While the high court seldom weighs such divisive and politically charged issues, many Americans view each of the justices as inherently political - either liberal or conservative.
In 2012, a New York Times/CBS News poll had 76 percent saying the justices’ decisions are sometimes influenced by their political or personal views.
When did this third branch of government begin to be seen as akin to Congress or the Oval Office?
Guest:
Garrett Epps, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Baltimore; he covers the Supreme Court for “The Atlantic”
Should temporary restraining orders trigger gun surrenders across the country?
A Supreme court ruling yesterday reaffirmed a ban on gun possession by convicted domestic abusers, but some prosecutors want the law to go further in addressing the widespread, deadly correlation between domestic violence and gun violence.
In particular, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence want temporary restraining orders to trigger the surrender of personal firearms by the accused. Sixteen states, including California, follow that rule, but the prosecutors want a federal law consistent across the country.
Critics say such a law would violate the due process rights of alleged abusers.
Guests:
Mike McLively, Staff Attorney, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence; he tweets from
Josh Blackman, an associate professor of Law at the South Texas College of Law who specializes in constitutional law. He is the author of “Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare” (Public Affairs, 2013)
How Stanford researchers discovered a gigantic underground reservoir in California's Central Valley
The Central Valley has been hit hard by the long-running drought. La Niña has failed to deliver the relief everyone was hoping for, but researchers at Stanford have discovered what could be good news for the region and for the state.
Stanford scientists have found a large reservoir of water deep below the Central Valley — to the tune of 713 trillion gallons of water.
There’s a catch, though: the water’s estimated to be anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 feet underground, which means that extracting that water could hasten the sinking of the ground – something that's already happening in the Central Valley. Plus, scientists are worried that water that deep could be contaminated from oil and gas drilling in the region.
“We don’t want to fool the public into thinking that we suddenly have increased our water supply by a factor of 10,” said hydrologist Jay Famiglietti, a professor at UC Irvine and a senior water scientist at JPL.
While Famiglietti called deep brackish groundwater basins like the Central Valley reservoir “a resource,” he said that there are many uncertainties about the usage and usefulness of them.
“It’s not clear at what rate we should extract them, and when we will be able to do that without significant consequences," he said.
Stanford professor and co-author of the study Robert B. Jackson also urged the public to be cautious when interpreting his findings, especially regarding the apparently massive quantity of water in the basin.
“There are places where there is good fresh water available, but we’re not saying to run out and drill. We’re saying, let’s quantify this resource, let’s understand it, and ideally let’s save it for the future as a rainy day fund.”
Salinity of deep groundwater in California: Water quantity, quality, and protection
Guests:
Robert B. Jackson, co-author of study, “Salinity of deep groundwater in California: Water quantity, quality, and protection,” published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the school of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University
Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine. He is also a senior water scientist at JPL
This story has been updated.
The reality of terrorist attacks around the world
The Los Angeles Times recently came out with a story that rounded up the number of deaths and injuries incurred by terror attacks worldwide for the month of April.
The confirmed death toll was 858 in 27 countries, with 1,385 injuries.
With high profile attacks such as San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris and Brussels, fear of terrorism has been at the forefront of many people’s minds in the west, but the most affected areas of the world can be overshadowed by threats to the U.S. and Europe.
But the number attacks have actually decreased since last year, while the nature of them has become more deadly.
So what can we learn from the attacks that don’t get the spotlight? Today Patt Morrison joins Braden Goyette, a reporter who worked on the story and terrorism expert, Brian Michael Jenkins, to discuss how terror is evolving globally.
Guests:
Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior Advisor to the President of the Rand Corporation and one of the nation's leading experts on terrorism and homeland security. He tweets
Braden Goyette, Assistant Foreign/National Editor at Los Angeles Times who contributed to the article, “858 killed: Not a day in April passed without a terror attack.” She tweets
How former LA Sheriff Lee Baca’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis could affect his sentence
After word came down yesterday that former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka would get five years in prison for obstruction of justice, focus shifted to his ex-boss, former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca.
Baca was convicted on charges of lying to federal investigators after cutting a plea deal with prosecutors, part of which stipulated that Baca would serve no more than six months prison in exchange for a guilty plea and a promise not to fight other allegations from the feds.
However, a court filing from released on Monday shows that a government expert who evaluated Baca concluded that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Prosecutors are still calling for Baca to serve the six months, but others say that sentence is too harsh given Baca’s diagnosis.
Guest:
Robert Weisberg, Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center
AirTalk Preview: Alleviating the homeless crisis in Los Angeles & Orange County
Guest host Patt Morrison and a roundtable of lawmakers and advocates will delve into the problems and solutions to the homelessness crisis tomorrow, Wednesday, from noon to 1:00 p.m.
Complementing the Bay Area's coordinated media effort to focus attention on the issue , KPCC's "AirTalk" will devote the entire second hour of the program to discussing how we can effectively combat homelessness in Los Angeles and Orange County. We'll also hear from a person who recently overcame homelessness and is now advocating for the community.
Share your questions or comments for our guests in the comment section below, or tweet them to
. Do you have any suggestions for our lawmakers? What are some of your biggest concerns? Have you recently overcome homelessness? What did you find most difficult?
Guests:
Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Los Angeles City Council Member representing District 8 in South LA and co-chair of the Homelessness and Poverty Committee; he tweets from
Sheila Kuehl, Los Angeles County supervisor; she tweets from
Robert "Bob" Solomon, Co-Director of Community & Economic Development Clinic and clinical law professor, University of California, Irvine
Rebecca Prine, Founder and volunteer director, Recycled Resources for Homeless