After 100 days and a long night, California passes a budget. Bob Woodward's inside take on Obama's wars. Then, TGI-Filmweek! This week our critics review Secretariat, Life As We Know It, Stone, and more. Later, dinner and an (expensive) movie - are movie ticket prices out of control?
California lawmakers pass long-overdue budget – finally!
After pulling an all-nighter, Sacramento lawmakers finally ended the 100-day budget impasse. The state Senate passed the final piece of the budget package early this morning. It’s now headed to Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk for his signature, although he retains the authority to line item veto specific elements. The proposed budget is loaded with last minute favors for special interests, but includes some cuts in state spending and essentially freezes funding for schools. Lawmakers are claiming victory, but it’s far from a perfect budget. How much will it help California’s fiscal woes? Will the state ever improve its budget process?
Guests:
Julie Small , KPCC's State Capital Reporter
HD Palmer, Deputy Director of External Affairs for Governor Schwarzenegger, California Department of Finance
Jack Scott, Chancellor of California Community Colleges
Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Yvonne Walker, President of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, the largest union of state workers representing 95,000
Bob Woodward’s inside take on Obama’s Wars
Obama waving a Pentagon report at the Joint Chiefs insisting, “I’m not spending a trillion dollars” in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai is manic depressive. Military leaders under Obama do not respect the Commander in Chief’s right to, well, command. Even before its publication, the wires and the web have been buzzing with tidbits from Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars. What else has Woodward learned from the President and his staff about the decision making process leading up to U.S. escalation in Afghanistan and troop drawdown in Iraq? The veteran muckraker pulls back the curtain on Obama’s Oval Office during wartime.
Guest:
Bob Woodward, author, Obama’s Wars. Woodward has worked for The Washington Post since 1971. He has won nearly every American journalism award, and the Post won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his work with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal.
FilmWeek: Secretariat, Life as We Know it, Stone, and others
KPCC film critics Wade Major of boxoffice.com and Claudia Puig of USA Today join Larry to review the week’s new film releases including Secretariat, Life As We Know It, Stone, It’s Kind Of A Funny Story, Tamara Drewe, Nowhere Boy, and Leaving, among others. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Economy is down, but movie prices are UP!
These days, movie tickets run about $10 in most major cities. If you’re headed to an ArcLight cinema in Southern California, prepare to drop $11 on a weekday and 14 smackaroos on weekends. Throw in some 3-D glasses and a family movie outing will cost you upwards of 60 big ones. And that’s without any incredibly-overpriced popcorn. What gives? Are prices out of control? Is the film-going experience worth burning a hole in your pocket? Larry and critics take your calls and criticisms about blockbuster…robberies.
Guests:
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today