MTA Strike

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First janitors, then bus drivers, now county workers are on strike with unionized teachers threatening to go next. Newspapers report that Los Angeles leads the nation in membership growth and political activism by organized labor. Some supporters say it's not just a case of demanding more of LA's growing prosperity, but the last chance to maintain a Middle Class in the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Others denounce what they call a "stranglehold" on economic progress, and some even warn against giving in to "union thugs." We'll take a look a "strike city" today. Newsmaker: Governor Davis has signed into law a measure rushed to his desk after revelations that former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush allowed misconduct by insurance companies after the Northridge Earthquake. George Kehrer is executive director of a group that sounds like his name: CAR[E], or Community Assisting Recovery. Reporter's Notebook: The Washington Post's Lou Cannon waited six years before publishing "Official Negligence" his book about the Rodney King beating, the riots of 1992 and the LAPD. With the hindsight of history, he found some exculpatory evidence about the LAPD. Yesterday, in the New York Times magazine, Cannon wrote at length about the LAPD's latest catastrophe: the Rampart scandal.
First janitors, then bus drivers, now county workers are on strike with unionized teachers threatening to go next. Newspapers report that Los Angeles leads the nation in membership growth and political activism by organized labor. Some supporters say it's not just a case of demanding more of LA's growing prosperity, but the last chance to maintain a Middle Class in the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Others denounce what they call a "stranglehold" on economic progress, and some even warn against giving in to "union thugs." We'll take a look a "strike city" today.
  • Newsmaker: Governor Davis has signed into law a measure rushed to his desk after revelations that former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush allowed misconduct by insurance companies after the Northridge Earthquake. George Kehrer is executive director of a group that sounds like his name: CAR[E], or Community Assisting Recovery.
  • Reporter's Notebook: The Washington Post's Lou Cannon waited six years before publishing "Official Negligence" his book about the Rodney King beating, the riots of 1992 and the LAPD. With the hindsight of history, he found some exculpatory evidence about the LAPD. Yesterday, in the New York Times magazine, Cannon wrote at length about the LAPD's latest catastrophe: the Rampart scandal.

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney

Producer:

Frances Anderton