Overseas Adoptions
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A father and mother in India claim their child was kidnapped and put up for adoption. Journalist Scott Carney investigated and found the child living with a family in the US. Carney, whose reporting is presented in Mother Jones magazine, tells us this case may be the tip of the iceberg.
We also hear from David Smolin, who is featured in the Mother Jones story because he adopted children from India who were not orphans. Their mother was tricked into giving up her rights to the two girls. Eventually they told David and his wife they were not orphans. So the Smolins traveled to India and found the girls’ parents. Now Smolin, who teaches law at Samford University in Alabama, is an advocate for adoption reform.
Gray Wolf De-Listing
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To the dismay of environmental groups and to the joy of ranchers, the Obama Administration says it will go ahead with a plan to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list in much of the Rocky Mountain west and parts of the western Great Lakes. We talk with Bill Schieder, an editor at the Montana-based on-line journal NewWest, about reaction to the de-listing. Expect a court battle, he says.
Firefighters throw a rock through a window to spray water inside a home in Los Angeles in 2008. (AP)
Wildfire Strategy
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With Central Texas, the Southeast and California in a prolonged drought, emergency officials have had to put out an unusually high number of wildfires so far this year. And in Southern California, fire officials are looking back at the deadly wildfires in Australia last month, wondering what lessons there are to learn about when in a wildfire residents should evacuate. We speak with Cliff Hunter, Fire Marshall for Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego in California.
McFlurries Anyone?
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The sitcom, 30 Rock, recently caused a controversy when the McFlurries ice cream got a starring role in the show. The show’s creators say it was a comedy bit, not product placement. But with the down economy, more products are becoming plot devices. Here & Now media analyst, John Carroll, examines the trend.
Music from the Show
- Air, “Mike Mills”
- Steve Earle, “Transcendental Blues”
- Freddie Hubbard, “Little Sunflower”
- Tortise, “I Set My Face to the Hillside”
- Medeski, Martin and Wood, “Bloody Oil”
- Moby, “Inside”
- Joe Jackson, “Steppin’ Out”
- Stuart Crombie & Dennis Berry, “Bargains Galore”
My wife and I like to travel and, because we live on the East Coast, our visits to the American West become major vacations – recently we spent three weeks in Oregon and Washington, renting cars, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, patronizing art galleries and museums, book stores and jewelry stores, leaving between $3,000 to $5,000 behind us. I’d love to visit Idaho,Montana and Wyoming in the same way. However, as long as these states allow – and even worse, encourage – the hunting of wolves, I will strike them from my Places to Visit list. Yellowstone and Grand Teton? The Custer Battlefield? Rodeos? Steakhouses? B&Bs? Forget it. I won’t even buy Idaho potatoes.
Posted by Bill Earls, on March 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pmIronically, states like Montana and Wyoming, whose populations oppose the recovery of wolf populations, and whose politicians refer to “state’s rights” as justification, are generally the states that, on balance, are net importers of money from the Federal government. It would improve their credibility if they were to start sending those tax dollars back to the states like Massachusetts, New York, California, etc – the states that are currently supporting them.
Posted by Erik T, on March 12th, 2009 at 9:17 pmSee http://www.nemw.org/fundsrank.htm for the data.