Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the chemical spill into the Elk River just north of Charleston, West Virginia that has resulted in 300,000 local residents not having access to safe water to drink or bathe in for four days. David Gutman, a staff reporter with the Charleston Gazette, joins us to discuss the role of the company  that has existed in its current form for less than two weeks, responsible for the contamination, Freedom Industries, one of whose founders was charged in 2005 for failing to pay more than $200,000 in income tax, and who in 1987 pleaded guilty to selling between 10 and 12 ounces of cocaine.

Part 2

Then we speak with Russian/American journalist Masha Gessen, who wrote the searing expose of Russia’s president “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin”. We discuss her latest book “Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot” and Putin’s recent gestures of magnanimity in releasing Mikhail Khodorkovsky from prison after 10 years then on December 23, two of the members of Pussy Riot who were given two-year prison sentences, from a Soviet gulag, ahead of Putin’s showcase event, the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the just-released report from the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, “Millionaires’ Club: For the First Time, Most Lawmakers are Worth $1 million Plus”. An author of the report, Sarah Bryner, the Research Director at the Center for Responsive Politics, joins us to discuss how the median net worth of our current 530 lawmakers as of May 2013 is $1,008,767, meaning that for the first time in our history, half of our representatives in Congress, not only represent the 1% , they are the 1%.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the burgeoning political scandal in New Jersey following the release of emails from Governor Christie’s deputy chief of staff that indicate the governor had advance knowledge of a traffic nightmare on the George Washington Bridge that appears to have been engineered as political retribution by Christie's staff against a mayor who did not back his reelection. An expert on New Jersey’s rough and tumble politics, Ruth Mandel, the Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University joins us to get some clarity on whether this Republican front-runner for president in 2016 is as the headlines proclaim; the bridge troll.

Part 2

Then we speak with Troy Williams, the Executive Producer of RadioActive, a progressive talk show on KRLC-FM in Salt Lake City who has been named by the Salt Lake Tribune as the “Gay Mayor of Salt Lake City”. We discuss the uncertainty in Utah for 1,300 gay married couples now in legal limbo following the Supreme Court’s stay on same-sex marriages in the state while Utah appeals a lower court ruling allowing the unions.

Part 3

Then finally, while Republicans in Congress have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to kill healthcare reform, we examine the success of Republican obstruction of Obamacare at the state level, where thanks to the Supreme Court decision, Governors are free to decline federal Medicaid money and not create healthcare exchanges. Theda Skocpol, a professor of government at Harvard University whose latest research for the Scholars Strategy Network illustrates how partisan ideology has suppressed enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, joins us to discuss the impact and human cost on millions of people in 23 states who are being denied healthcare because of  petty political spite.