Somalia-Minnesota terror connection. How effective is marijuana at managing pain? Carl Kasell leaves Morning Edition. Telescope time travel. What's a Hadron collider? And, we talk with Joseph Wambaugh about his novel, "Hollywood Moon."
Somali-American terror network
Boy seeks refuge in United States. Boy meets gang. Gang sends boy to train as an Al-Qaeda fighter in Somalia? The FBI has filed various charges against 8 American citizens, including conspiring to kill, maim, kidnap or injure people outside the United States. The suspects at one time lived in or near the Twin Cities. Some are in federal custody, while others remain at large. What's the Minnesota-Somali terror connection?
Guests:
Laura Yuen, reporter, Minnesota Public Radio. MPR's ongoing coverage of this story can be found here.
Special Agent E.K. Wilson, Minneapolis Media Coordinator, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Medical marijuana: evil weed or useful drug?
As LA’s debate about pot policy rages on, some are stepping back and asking if marijuana really is a medicine. Depending on who you ask, it’s a dangerous drug, a miracle herb, or a plant with medical uses and drawbacks, worth exploring. What does science say? What do doctors recommend?
Guests:
Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Emeritus professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Rick Chavez, Medical Director of the Pain Institute, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Carl Kasell starts sleeping in
"Thirty years is a long time," Carl says of his decision to leave NPR's Morning Edition. But, fear not. You will still hear him reading limericks and leaving messages on listeners' home answering machines on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!
New telescopes and the Hadron Collider look at the start of the universe
The Giant Magellan Telescope is part of a new generation of instruments currently under construction that will allow scientists to look back in time at the processes that formed the universe. And after a significant delay, scientists have activated the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva- a 16.8 mile tunnel lined with super-conducting magnets that crash protons together. Physicists will ramp up the power until the collisions mimic conditions at the time of the Big Bang. As long as that doesn't create a black hole that eats Switzerland and crushes the solar system, it should tell physicists some pretty interesting stuff.
Guest:
Lawrence Krauss, physics professor at Arizona State University and writer of "The Physics of Star Trek."
Police trilogy wraps up
Best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh joins Larry in studio to talk about “Hollywood Moon,” the last in his darkly comic, gritty trilogy chronicling the goings-on in a Hollywood police station.
Guest:
Joseph Wambaugh, author of “Hollywood Moon” (Little, Brown and Company)