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Hurricane Katrina Aftermath - One Year Later
This week marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the category five monster hurricane that pounded the gulf coast killing more than 1300 people and leaving hundreds of thousands displaced. In New Orleans more than 200 thousand people have not been able to return home.
Environmental Human Rights also pose a serious risk as New Orleans residents have been urged by government agencies to move back into their homes. This, despite contaminants that have leached deep into the soil and mold in the air. According to Reuters, Asian tsunami relief workers who visited New Orleans this summer were shocked at the lack of recovery.
Guest - Attorney Jaribu Hill, Executive Director with the Mississippi Worker’s Center for Human Rights / Read Jaribu Hill’s Congressional Testimony here
Download - Jaribu Hill Interview [11 MB]
Guest - Cholene Espinoza, author of Through The Eye of The Storm - A Book Dedicated To Rebuilding What Katrina Washed Away. Cholene Espinoza was the second woman to fly the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in the U.S. Air Force She is also a Captain for United Airlines on the Airbus 320 and 319.
A Rare Report From Inside Lebanon During the Israeli Bombardment
It’s been more than two weeks since the UN cease-fire has been in effect on Israel’s month-long war that has the lives of 1300 Lebanese civilians. More residents in southern Lebanon have buried their dead. The largest funeral took place in Qana where an Israeli airstrike on the town in late July killed 29 people - the majority of them women and children. Border skirmishes continue as the truce is in its 15th day.
Guest - International Solidarity Movement founder Huwaida Arraf. She has spent the last few weeks in Lebanon establishing an international civilian presence and supporting Lebanese civilians in confronting the Israeli aerial bombardment in southern Lebanon.
TAKE ACTION - Help prevent the supply of cluster bombs to Israel -
related links - http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/
Federal Judge Says NSA Spying Unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled last week that the government’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate end to it. Taylor is the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the constitutional separation of powers.
So far, the Bush administration and the federal judge agreed to allow the program to hold off on enforcing the ruling for the time being, meanwhile the warrantless eavesdropping will probably continue.
Guest - Attorney Melissa Goodman with the National ACLU
Guest - Shane Kadidal, staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Read more about the decision here at Center for Constitutional Right’s page
