In Cold Blood? Greenpeace comes to Southern California to take on Edison’s use of coal plants. Conrad Murray’s team outlines defense strategy. The wets vs the drys – America’s Prohibition experiment.
Shake-up at Probation Department days before influx of parolees?
There are fevered rumors that Los Angeles County Probation Chief Donald Blevins is on his way out. WitnessLA was first to report yesterday that “multiple sources inside and close to the LA County Board of Supervisors’ offices” say Blevins was dismissed last week.
But Kerri Webb, a spokesperson for Blevins says, “There's nothing to substantiate [the news report].” Blevins was recruited from Alameda County less than two years ago to fix the troubled probation department. Up until now, he was thought too popular with LA County Supervisors to be ousted. Despite the fact that earlier this year, the unions associated with his department hit him with a “no confidence” vote.
All this comes a week before the state starts cutting thousands of prison inmates and putting them on probation for the counties to supervise. The new California corrections policy, known as “realignment,” was assigned to Blevins’ department even though LA County Sheriff's Department, under Lee Baca, lobbied for the role.
WEIGH IN
What could have led to Blevins’ ousting? Who will take over? Why does it seem so difficult for the county to hire and retain department heads? What does this mean for the realignment?
What could have led to Blevins ousting? Who will take over? What does this mean for the realignment?
Guest:
Frank Stoltze, KPCC Reporter
'In Cold Blood' under fire in Glendale
Truman Capote’s brutal, moody, intense “In Cold Blood” is a seminal work in the nonfiction novel genre. It details the murders of the Clutter family at the hands of two petty criminals, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, and the two men’s subsequent execution. It appears on college and high-school reading lists all across the U.S, but it might just be off the table at Glendale High School.
Recently, English teacher Holly Ciotti wanted to add the book to her advanced placement 11th grade language class. Ciotti says Capote’s work is perfect for the class because it covers a range of controversial topics and introduces students to the vagaries of the American judicial system.
She assumed adding the book to her curriculum would be a no-brainer, but she received push-back from members of the school board and the PTA. Board member Mary Boger said she certainly understands that the book has literary importance but there are other works that can illustrate the same issues without the shocking violence of “In Cold Blood.”
Ciotti has backup plans, but feels no novel matches up to Capote’s. She said that while the description may be graphic, the violence is far from gratuitous because Capote includes those scenes after readers become fully invested in the characters.
“Even though you know that these are indeed cold-blooded killers, what you also know is that they’re human beings, and you want to understand them. This is a psychological profile as much as it is anything else,” she said.
The addition if the book is currently in a holding pattern while the school board decides whether or not to allow Ciotti to teach it. The question now is: Is the book inappropriate?
WEIGH IN:
Do the literary merits of the work outweigh the graphic violence? And, Ciotti maintains that the book is only going to be used by her advanced placement students. Are they better equipped to deal with depictions of a brutal quadruple murder?
Guests:
Holly Ciotti, English Teacher, Glendale High School
Mary Boger, Board Member, Glendale Unified School District
Greenpeace takes on Edison’s use of coal plants
Greenpeace has been around for forty years now. We tend to think of it as an organization that partners with other environmental groups and lobbies the United Nations to bring about policy change. But there's been a shift in their strategy of late.
Instead of presenting environmental concerns as a contradiction to social concerns, they aim to point out that the struggles to end global poverty and avert catastrophic climate change are two sides of the same coin.
To get this done Greenpeace will continue its work with the U.N. in hopes of reaching the best agreements between all countries. But they’re also ramping up their work at the local and state levels.
Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace, says this is especially important in a country like the United States where the process has been largely stalled at the federal level.
This week, Naidoo is in Southern California to meet with Edison International to press them to kick their coal habit. Edison, which generally considers itself one of the greener utilities, has taken positive steps towards more environmentally friendly power generation. But they still own some of the dirtiest coal plants in the United States. Edison has pledged to divest itself of coal by 2016. Greenpeace wants coal ended earlier. We’ll talk with Naidoo about the momentum of their local efforts and the latest activities Greenpeace is taking on.
Guest:
Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International
Conrad Murray’s team outlines defense strategy
With MJ fans clamoring outside the courthouse and cameras rolling in the courtroom, the trial against Dr. Conrad Murray is officially underway.
State attorney David Walgren's opening arguments yesterday characterized Michael Jackson's personal physician as incompetent and greedy. Walgren told jurors, "[Dr. Murray] was not working for the health of Michael Jackson. [He] was working for a fee of $150,000 [per month]." In particular, Walgren accused Murray of administering a dangerous anesthetic, propofol, without adequate safeguards and even deceiving paramedics about it on the day Jackson died.
One haunting moment in court came when Walgren played a voice recording of Jackson while he was, as Walgren said, "highly under the influence of unknown agents with Dr. Murray evidently sitting nearby." On the tape, the late King of Pop slurs and mumbles, "When people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life... He's the greatest entertainer in the world.'"
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff charges it was that hunger for fame that caused Jackson to beg desperately for propofol as a sleep aid. Chernoff alleges Jackson himself administered the fatal drug doses without his doctor's knowledge. “Blaming the victim” is a common defense strategy, but legal experts warn it can be risky.
WEIGH IN:
What do you make of the strategies of the prosecutors and the defense? Will the trial become a battle of the medical experts? Do you think Jackson’s ambition is relevant in the trial? How did you react to the audio tape played for the first time in court? Legions of Jacko fans will be glued to their televisions and twitter feeds for the duration of the trial – will you be among them?
Guests:
Mark Geragos, Defense Attorney, Geragos and Geragos
Matt Semino, Attorney and Huffington Post Columnist
The wets vs the drys – America’s Prohibition experiment
In the modern era of liquor on billboards and beer commercials dominating the Super Bowl, it may seem strange that at the turn of the last century alcohol was outlawed completely in the United States.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick address this “Noble Experiment” in their new documentary Prohibition. Growing out of the temperance movement championed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carry Nation and others, a national effort from the Anti-Saloon League was realized with the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1919.
Originally meant to act as a way of legislating human behavior and increasing common decency in America, prohibition eventually ushered in one of the most tumultuous and corrupt periods in the nation’s history. A tense conflict arose between “wets,” who supported the use of alcohol, and “drys,” who were fans of its prohibition. Due to the criminal element now associated with the manufacture and partaking of alcohol, neighborhood gangs grew into national organizations, government officials often fell prey to bribes, and individual citizens had to grapple with the hypocrisy and corruption pervading society.
WEIGH IN:
Why exactly did Prohibition fail? What lessons can we take from that time period? Is it ever possible to control human behavior through legislation? Would you like a drink?
Guest:
Ken Burns, Documentary Filmmaker for PBS