Presidential Debate React; LAUSD Proposes Radical Change For Middle And High Schools; California National Guardsman Challenges Stop-Loss Program; Joe Sample
Presidential Debate React
Guests Jonathan Wilcox, a Republican strategist and an Adjunct Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, and Lisa Garcia Bedolla, former consultant for the Kerry campaign, post doctoral fellow at UCLA, and assistant professor of Political Science and Chicano Studies at UCI join Host Larry Mantle to discuss the debate between Senator Kerry and President Bush, which took place on Friday night at Washington University in St. Louis. The town-hall format focused on domestic and economic issues. Charles A. Gibson, host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” moderated.
LAUSD Proposes Radical Change For Middle And High Schools
The Board of Education announced Tuesday that every middle and high school in LAUSD will be divided into smaller schools, undergoing a process that will make them conversion high schools. This means that a school with as many as 5,000 students will be divided into smaller schools, on the same campus, of between 350-500 students. Based on extensive research, other cities have done this, and Los Angeles is following suit. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just gave the LAUDS a $900,000 planning grant to help towards this conversion. Larry Tash, Director of the Office of School Redesign at the LA Unified School District, and Edward Trimis, Assistant Principal at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley join Host Larry Mantle to discuss the conversion.
California National Guardsman Challenges Stop-Loss Program
A second California National Guardsman has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, challenging the legality of the military’s “stop-loss” program. This program extends, involuntarily, a Guardsman or -woman’s contract. About 40,000 National Guard soldiers are deployed as a result of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Critics of the stop-loss program call it a “backdoor draft,” and it has been raised in the presidential debates. Experts Joshua Sondheimer, attorney with the Law offices of Michael S. Sorgen, based in San Francisco, and Hal Kempfer, LT. Colonel in the USMC Reserves and a military analyst for ABC 7 news join Host Larry to discuss the controversial issue.
Joe Sample
Jazz pianist Joe Sample’s new CD, “Soul Shadows,” digs deep into the Great American Songbook to convey the history of jazz and piano music that has inspired him throughout his career. He joins Larry Mantle to discuss his career and music.