Speaker John Boehner announced today that he will resign from his position and give up his House seat at the end of October. Then, Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered a safety review of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. Also, art forger, Mark Landis, has fooled countless museums into hanging his replicas of famous paintings around the country.
Boehner steps down as government shutdown looms
Speaker John Boehner announced today that he will resign from his position and give up his House seat at the end of October.
Boehner has been under immense pressure from conservatives who would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood, while Congress moved to avert a government shutdown.
At a news conference at the Capitol, Boehner said “It had become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.”
Boehner’s announcement has reduced the chance of a government shutdown next week and a majority of the members of the House will now need to choose a new leader. How will Boehner be remembered? What will be expected of the next House Speaker?
Guests:
Lisa Mascaro, L.A. Times reporter covering Congress
Reed Galen, Republican political strategist and owner of Jedburghs, LLC., a public affairs and campaign consultancy firm in Orange County
Garry South, Democratic political strategist and Principal of The Garry South Group, a political consulting firm in Santa Monica
Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation
Crowd-control scientists, Muslims react to 700 dead at Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered a safety review of the annual Muslim pilgrimage after more than 700 people died in a fatal crush on their way to the holy sites of Mecca.
It's the worst tragedy at the hajj in 25 years and looks as though it occurred when two massive groups of pilgrims converged from different directions onto one road.
Crowd-control experts believe victims in the crowd were more likely to have died of compressive suffocation, rather than a "stampede." Abdullah Lotfy of Egypt told the Associated Press, "People were climbing over one another just to breathe... It was like a wave.
You go forward and suddenly you go back." The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims, but critics say better management of the event could have prevented yesterday's tragedy.
It's the second major accident during this year's hajj season. On September 11, a construction crane crashed down onto the Grand Mosque, killing 111 people and injuring up to 400 more. The hajj draws 2-million people annually. Who can be held accountable for the deaths of the pilgrims? What will change before next year's pilgrimage? Will Muslims fear attending the hajj going forward?
Guests:
G. Keith Still, Professor of Crowd Science (Crowd Risk Analysis) at Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England
Anisa Mehdi, Journalist and filmmaker who has covered the Hajj since 1998 and produced two films about the pilgrimage for PBS and National Geographic
Why corporate America is doing away with the annual performance review
The culture of work has undergone many major changes in the last two decades. The dreaded annual performance review is the latest staple of the American workplace that’s come under threat.
Big businesses from the Gap to Accenture have either outright done away with the practice or reformed the process.
So what is the annual performance review being replaced with?
Guests:
Liz Ryan, CEO and Founder of the HR consulting firm Human Workplace in Boulder, Colorado. Liz is a former head of human resources at a Fortune 500 company
Larry Sternberg, President of Talent Plus, a management consultancy in Nebraska
Filmweek: ‘The Intern,’ ‘Stonewall,’ ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ and more
Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Andy Klein, Wade Major and Charles Solomon review this week’s new movie releases, including “The Intern” with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, “Stonewall” set during the early days of the gay-rights movement, the animated feature in wide release, “Hotel Translvania 2,” a handful of documentaries and more. TGI-Filmweek!
Guests:
Andy Klein, Film Critic for KPCC and LA Times Community Paper Chain
Wade Major, Film Critic for KPCC and host of IGN’s Digigods.com
Charles Solomon, Film Critic for KPCC and Animation Scoop and Animation Magazine
Often posed as a priest, artist fools trained eyes of many museum curators
Dubbed one of the most prolific art forgers in recent history, Mark Landis has fooled countless museums into hanging his replicas of famous paintings around the country. In the documentary “Art and Craft,” filmmakers Jennifer Grausman and Sam Cullman take audiences inside the mind of the artist who uses simple tools like colored pencils and chalk to recreate some of the world’s best known art pieces.
Often posing as a Jesuit priest with a large family estate, Landis has fooled many museums by giving away his work instead of selling it. Because he doesn’t make any profits, Landis has not been prosecuted under the law, which holds each art museum responsible for reviewing gifts of any caliber.
Grausman and Landis join us to talk about the artist’s battle with schizophrenia and the process of recreating works of art that continue to fool some of the country’s leading curators.
“Art and Craft” airs tonight on PBS. Click here for more information
Guests:
Mark Landis, artist and subject of “Art and Craft”
Jennifer Grausman, one of the directors of “Art and Craft”