Anticipated Court Battle Over LAUSD Plan; Congresswoman Jane Harman; U.N.'s Oil For Food Scandal; Vaudeville Wars
Anticipated Court Battle Over LAUSD Plan
A battle is brewing over LA Mayor Villaraigosa's plan to assume substantial control over the Los Angeles Unified School District. L.A. school officials said they would file a lawsuit to strike down a law that the Legislature passed to pave the way for Villaraigosa's initiative. The California attorney general's office will defend the law, but the mayor is also arranging for a private lawyer to help protect his plan. The battle focuses on whether Villaraigosa's Council of Mayors constitutes a "local educational agency" making it part of the public school system, which is required by the state constitution. Larry talks with legal experts about the strengths of both arguments.
Congresswoman Jane Harman
Larry talks with Congresswoman Jane Harman about President Bush’s decision to declassify the intelligence document that reportedly finds the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat to the US. Larry also opens the phones for listeners to lay in.
U.N.'s Oil For Food Scandal
By March 2003, seven years after it was launched to alleviate the threat of starvation in Iraq, the Oil-for-Food program had become the largest humanitarian relief operation in history. It had also become mired in corruption and mismanagement. Larry talks with the authors of Good Intentions Corrupted, who tell the story of what the Independent Investigation into the Oil-for-Food Scandal discovered.
Vaudeville Wars
Vaudeville's heyday, from 1890 to 1920, left a mixed legacy of artistic creativity and duplicity. Larry talks with Arthur Frank Wertheim about his new book, Vaudeville Wars, which tells the story of the tycoons of the two most powerful circuits, Keith-Albee in the East and the Orpheum in the West, conspired to control Vaudeville's big time.