Which Way, L.A.?
The City of Bell and Municipal Chaos
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The City of Bell and Municipal Chaos

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 Bell City Council members reduced their $100,000 a year salaries by 90% and some offered to work for free, but that wasn’t good enough for angry residents at last night’s Council meeting. Will they be forced to resign? Will there be a recall? WWLA?’s Gary Scott was there and we get his report. Also, Governor Schwarzenegger threatens to hand this year’s state budget mess to whoever replaces him next year. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, WikiLeaks has created a firestorm by giving 91,000 secret documents to three influential newspapers before releasing them on the Internet.  Do they contain anything new?  Will they alter public perceptions of the war in Afghanistan or change public policy?

Main Topic

Bell City Council Cuts Pay, Public Wants Heads to Roll ()

The Mayor of Bell, Oscar Hernandez, has claimed that City Manager Robert Rizzo earned his $800,000 a year by making the town "a model of financial prudence." City residents don't agree, as Which Way, L.A.? producer Gary Scott found out at last night's meeting of the city council. We also hear from a 23-year veteran Bell police officer who's filed suit claiming that he and others were required to pass out absentee ballots in city elections and tell citizens how to vote, and from a political scientist who headed the charter reform commission for the City of Los Angeles.

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Making News

Schwarzenegger Says He'll Wait the Budget Out ()

Last month, the state legislature failed once again to meet the constitutional deadline to pass a state spending plan.  Now Governor Schwarzenegger has repeated his threat to let the process drag on until his successor takes office next year if he doesn't get what he wants. Anthony York reports for Capitol Weekly and the LA Times.

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Main Topic

WikiLeaks and the War in Afghanistan ()

WikiLeaks reportedly has 91,000 secret reports, which it has shared with the New York Times, Britain's Guardian and Der Spiegel in Germany.  But not all of them have been released to the Internet. On MSNBC today, WikiLeaks' editor in chief, Julien Assange, was asked about the Pentagon's claim that American lives could be put at risk.

Guests:
  • Jay Rosen: Professor of Journalism, New York University
  • Spencer Ackerman: Senior Reporter, Wired's 'Danger Room' blog
  • Thomas Johnson: Director, Naval Postgraduate School's Program for Culture and Conflict Studies
  • James Corum: Retired Lieutenant Colonel, US Army Reserve
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Underwriters

Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.

 

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