Ralph Story; What Charter Schools Are Doing Right; High-Speed Rail From the OC To LA?; The Army's Budget Shortfall; Ex-Gay Ministries
Ralph Story
Larry and his guests talk about the career of Ralph Story, a television and radio broadcaster for three decades. The host of the popular 1950s quiz show "The $64,000 Challenge" died Tuesday at his home in Santa Ynez. He was 86.
What Charter Schools Are Doing Right
What really goes on behind the classroom doors in California's charter schools? USC Education professor, Priscilla Wohlstetter has identified 20 innovative programs at charter schools throughout the state and has created a database to share their successes with other schools. Larry talks with Wohlstetter about the innovations she and her team discovered and the compendium they have created. To view the study, click on this link: Multiple Measures of Accountability for California Charter Schools.
High-Speed Rail From the OC To LA?
Orange County transit planners approved spending $7 million for preliminary studies on a high-speed train route that could transport riders from Anaheim to downtown LA's Union Station in as little as 15 minutes. Larry and his guests discuss the likelihood of the high-speed line which would be part of a 700-mile system from Northern to Southern California. Construction could depend on voters approving a $10 billion bond issue on the November 2008 ballot.
The Army's Budget Shortfall
The Army's top officer, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus other global commitments without billions more in funding. Schoomaker is seeking $25 billion above (totaling $138.8 billion in 2008) Rumsfeld's budget limits. Larry and his guests discuss the options: lower our strategy or raise our resources?
Ex-Gay Ministries
Every year, hundreds of gay men and lesbians join ex-gay ministries in an attempt to convert to non-homosexual, evangelical Christian lives. Larry talks with Tanya Erzen about her new book, Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement, a study of the ex-gay movement which describes how the Christian Right attempts to repudiate gay identity and political rights by using the ex-gay movement as evidence that "change" is possible.