The latest on the unfolding crisis in Japan. Arianna Huffington - curator, aggregator, exploiter-in-chief. Obama calls for No Child Left Behind overhaul by Fall. Saudi troops enter Bahrain and unrest continues in Libya. Cokie & Steve Roberts mix faith, food, love & work in new book.
Japan’s nuclear crisis escalates in the aftermath of massive earthquake
The situation continues to deteriorate in Japan following last week’s 9.0 earthquake. The death toll continues to climb as rescue workers sort through the rubble in the aftermath of the largest earthquake in the history of the country. The resulting tsunami caused failures in cooling systems at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and a series of explosions have prompted Japanese officials to warn people with a 20-mile area of the reactor to stay indoors. Closer to the plant, nearly 200,000 Japanese citizens have been evacuated and nuclear experts now fear that the breach of a steel containment structure have resulted in the release of radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Japanese officials have made a formal request for U.S. assistance in dealing with the continuing crisis while many around the world are beginning to question the handling of the situation. Will the situation in Japan get worse before it gets better? Does this crisis cast doubts over the future of nuclear energy? Can any country prepare for this kind of catastrophe?
Guests:
Ralph Vartabedian, Reporter for the LA Times
Paul Carroll, Program Director, Ploughshares Fund
Tom McKone, staff scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Carl Baab, Spokesman for Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), a trade organization for the nuclear industry
Arianna Huffington - curator, aggregator, exploiter-in-chief?
As you’ve probably heard, the Huffington Post was recently bought by AOL for a whopping $315-million. Now, Arianna Huffington, who founded HuffPo less than six years ago and will head up the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, is coming under fire. New York Times executive editor Bill Keller blasted Huffington in a recent op-ed as the “queen of aggregation” who is profiting from posts by “unpaid bloggers and news reports from other publications.” Journalist Chris Hedges likens her to a “business owner who uses largely unpaid labor, with a handful of underpaid, nonunion employees” for personal gain. And a group of writers headed up by Artscene publisher Bill Lasarow have gone “on strike,” refusing to offer up any more free content until their demands for payment and a clear divide between editorial content and promotional materials are met. But journalist Robert Scheer argues that the unpaid bloggers (which include him) whose content appears on the Huffington Post aren’t exploited. What is HuffPo’s business model? Who gets paid and who doesn’t? Will that – should that – change now? What impact will this mega-merger ultimately have on traditional news organizations?
Guests:
Bill Lasarow, Publisher, ArtScene, a guide to the fine art galleries and museums of Southern California
Robert Scheer, Editor in Chief of Truthdig; longtime journalist whose columns appear in newspapers across the country; regular contributor to “Left, Right and Center” on KCRW; professor of communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Chris Hedges, is a weekly columnist for Truthdig and a fellow at The Nation Institute; his most recent book is “Death of the Liberal Class”
Obama calls for No Child Left Behind overhaul
The Obama administration has made clear over the past week that several changes to the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act are necessary and a new version of the law is expected by September. The fact that 82 % of US Public schools could fail a review under current standards is being touted as a sign that the act is "broken" and that federal standards must be altered to address only the schools that need the most help. The key changes the administration is proposing include a multitiered system for evaluating schools, new standards for evaluating student proficiency and more federal funding for competitive grants. Which of these changes are likely to meet with the most resistance from Congress? Is the effort to create more categories for schools that are now all being lumped into the "failure" category simply a matter of semantics or can it help in identifying specific challenges for individual schools?
Guest:
Laura Meckler, Wall Street Journal White House Reporter based in Washington D.C.
Morgan Polikoff, Assistant professor of K-12 Policy and Leadership, USC Rossier School of Education
Unrest continues in Libya, Saudi troops enter Bahrain
President Moammar Gadhafi remains defiant in the face of continuing protests and violence in Libya. Gadhafi's forces struck the rebellion's heartland with airstrikes, missiles and artillery today, trying for the first time to take back a city that serves as a crucial gateway for the band of fighters who threatened his four-decade hold on power. Despite tough talk, the United States and international community is moving slowly to take any action against Gadhafi. Meanwhile, hundreds of troops from Saudi Arabia and police from nearby United Arab Emirates have entered Bahrain. This move marks the first time Arab nations have intervened in another country’s affairs amid ongoing regional unrest.
Guests:
Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, currently in Tripoli
Cokie & Steve Roberts mix faith, food, love & work in new book
Can members of two distinct religious beliefs not only coexist, but worship to the full extent without infringing on one another? Cokie and Steve Roberts contend that it’s not only possible, but that doing so enriches the spiritual lives of both parties involved. In Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families, Cokie and Steve, who are Catholic and Jewish respectively, tackle this large issue through the lens of their Passover Seder. They bring together a modern and personal touch to the Haggadah, the Hebrew text which details the order for the Passover meal, and show how couples can incorporate individual styles into each other’s established rituals, thus making the ancient, sacred traditions their own. Such insight can likely be trusted, as Cokie and Steve have been hosting a Passover Seder for decades, which has grown beyond their own families to a celebration with friends and acquaintances from diverse religious backgrounds. How do successful interfaith couples make it work?
Guests:
Cokie Roberts, co-author of Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families (Harper); political commentator for ABC News and senior news analyst for NPR
Steve Roberts, co-author of Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families (Harper) and political analyst for ABC radio network and NPR. Roberts is also a professor of journalism at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs