Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; head of the investigation team that looked at the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina; chair of the joint State-Federal Technical Advisory Committee for assessment of levee-related risk for the state of California
The Legacy of Katrina and Politics in California After the Gulf States suffered a major catastrophe just one year ago today, California politicians promised action to prevent anything similar from happening here. But bills that might protect California from disastrous flooding have been bottled up in this last week of the legislative session by none other than San Jose Democrat Don Perata , President Pro Tem of the Senate. Now, he's changed his tune and called for a "flood summit" to see if the bills could be brought back to life. Were they delayed to accommodate special interests? Will they be revived? Would they provide sufficient protection if they became law?
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.
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
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.
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.