Professor of Neurosurgery at UCLA School of Medicine
Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center and Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at UCLA's Geffen School of Medicine, with an expertise in neurovascular surgery
Will Medical Illness Mean Political Change? While the rest of the country copes with the weather and makes holiday plans, Washington's "political class" is buzzing about brain surgery. South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson is in stable condition after surprise brain surgery Wednesday night. Nevada's Harry Reid has been visiting George Washington University hospital every day and says Senator Johnson looks "really good" to him. But the same may not be true of the one-seat Democratic majority that Reid is expected to lead as Johnson's sudden ailment could alter Democrats' one-vote balance of power in the US Senate. Or could it? The Senate is bound by tradition and, back in the 40's, one member served four years without ever attending a session. In these polarized times, will the Upper House maintain its historic gentility or give way to the partisan demands of the moment?
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.