Adjunct Professor of Journalism, USC
Adjunct Professor in Journalism at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication; speechwriter for then-Governor Pete Wilson and former Communications Director for Rescue California, the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis
Little Political Fallout from a Terrible Budget The Legislature is getting ready to vote on 28 bills running to hundreds of pages, this week’s $26 billion budget compromise. Nobody likes it, and many claim all it will do is kick the can down the road. But which party has come out looking worse?
California's Growing Clout in DC Leon Panetta is just the latest Californian to assume an important new role in Washington. Nancy Pelosi is House Speaker, LA Congresswoman Hilda Solis will be Secretary of Labor, Steven Chu of UC Berkeley's National Radiation Laboratory, will be Secretary of Energy, and LA Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley will run the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In addition, Congressmen Henry Waxman , George Miller and Howard Berman all chair House committees; Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are senior members of the Senate. Californians have achieved great heights in Washington. What will that mean for the state?
Preview of the State of the State Gray Davis was recalled from the governorship because of a massive deficit. Four years later, the man who replaced him is faced with the same problem, only this time it's bigger. In tomorrow's address on the State of the State, Governor Schwarzenegger will ask all Californians to share the pain of a $14 billion deficit. How does this happen again and again?
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?
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.