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GUESTS: Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation, and Cecilia Munoz, Vice President of The National Council of La Raza

One year ago, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated many communities in the states of Louisana and Mississippi. Among those deeply impacted were the small Houma Indian settlements in lower Plaquemines, lower St. Bernard, and lower Jefferson parishes. The population of these Indian settlements, some 3500 tribal citizens, was hit hard by the storm. Over one thousand people were left homeless, their homes completely destroyed by wind and water. Meanwhile, several hundred thousand Latinos and immigrants living in Louisana and the Gulf region also suffered. Many of them did not receive adequate information or assistance from the federal government or private agencies. Monolingual relief workers made life and death …

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GUESTS: Jeff Perlstein, Executive Director of Media Alliance, Sydney Levy, Program Director of Media Alliance

Today from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. there will be a Federal Communications Commission town-hall meeting in Los Angeles to discuss diversity and localism in the media. FCC Chair and Republican Party member Kevin J. Martin recently launched a formal review of media ownership rules. Martin favors the loosening of newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules. Last Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore lashed out at centralization of the media calling it a major threat to democracy. The mainstream media is already tremendously consolidated: Clear Channel Corporation owns over 1,200 radio stations and out of 1,500 newspapers in the country, only 281 are independently owned. Members of the community who are concerned about further media consolidation …

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GUESTS: Rosario Vigil, Host and producer and a member of the Enfoque Latino Collective at KPFK, Eric Fugarolas, physicist and futurologist, from Claremont University, with the organization Nodo Futuro Mexico

The National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, has been hosting an international conference on immigration this week. Starting on August 29th and ending today, this international gathering of specialists have been discussing prospective migration between Mexico and the U.S. According to the latest census data, Mexican nationals account for 79% of the undocumented immigrant population in the United States, which is about 6 million residents. The three day conference put on by the School of Social and Political Science at UNAM, asks he questions, “Where are we going?” “Where can we go?” and “Where do we want to …

Neighborhood activists all over Southern California hold regular peace vigils to end the war in Iraq. Each week we announce just some of the 50 plus vigils that are taking place. Complete listings of all the vigils are available at www.neighborsforpeaceandjustice.org or www.peacevigils.com.

On Fridays in Pico/La Cienega
5–6 p.m
On the corner of Pico & La Cienega boulevards
the email contact is nfuller-AT-netwood.net

On Fridays in San Pedro
5-7 pm
On the corner of 1st and Gaffey
the information line is, 310-316-1567

On Fridays in Topanga
5–6:30 p.m.
Topanga Canyon Boulevard, between PCH & Ventura Boulevard, at Pine Tree shops
the information line is 310-455-2688

On Fridays in Mar Vista
6:30 to 7:30 PM
Mar Vista Park, Corner of Palms and McLaughlin
the email contact is marvista4peace-AT-attbi.com

On Saturdays in South Pasadena
4:30 PM TO 6:30 PM
On the corner of Fair Oaks and Mission
the information line is …

“With all the mass media concentrated in a few hands, the ancient faith in the competition of ideas in the free market seems like a hollow echo of a much simpler day.” ~Kingman Brewster, Jr.

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GUESTS: Maya Wiley, Founder and Director of the Center for Social Inclusion and a civil rights attorney, Tracie Washington, Director of the NAACP Gulf Coast Advocacy Center and Civil Rights Attorney

On Monday of this week, in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Professor Michael Eric Dyson accused President and Laura Bush of being “clueless patricians” in the context of Katrina and the suffering of Black Americans. Today, on part 3 of our week-long series on Katrina, we focus on the role of race in last year’s tragedy. An AP-IPSOS poll earlier this month showed that 57% of Americans fear that the country is ill-prepared to protect them from natural disasters. That’s up from 44% in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. In addition, the poll showed that …

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GUESTS: Brian McCann of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in Texas, Ray Ramirez, a member of the Welfare Poets

On August 31st, the state of Texas plans to murder death row inmate 29 year old Hassan Shakur. Formerly known as Derrick Wayne Frazier, Shakur was convicted in the 1997 double murder of Betsy and Cody Nutt in Refugio County, Texas. Anti-death penalty activists are calling on Texas Governor Rick Perry to grant Hassan Shakur clemency on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial. Shakur was tried and convicted by an almost all-white jury who sentenced him to death despite the lack of physical evidence placing him at the scene of the crime. The sole piece of incriminating evidence was a video tape …

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GUESTS: Chuck Collins, founding co-director of United for a Fair Economy and is now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Sarah Andersen, Director of the Global Economy Program at the Institute for Policy Studies

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently adopted a sweeping overhaul of its rules governing the disclosure of executive and director compensation and transactions. The reforms were intended to provide greater transparency on compensation paid to principal executive officers, principal financial officers, and the highest paid executive officers and directors. A new report released today by United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies, compares CEO pay to worker pay for defense and oil industries. The report is entitled “Executive Excess 2006: Defense & Oil Executives Cash …

“A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.” — Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General, speaking to the New York Times in 1968.

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GUEST: Amy Liu, Deputy Director and Co-Founder, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution; Author of various reports on Katrina, John Ellison, Attorney and Managing partner of the Anderson Kill & Olick law firm

A man calling himself Rene Oswin, and claiming to be assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, claimed yesterday at a public meeting that his agency was changing course. He said, “Our charter here at HUD is to ensure access to affordable housing for those who need it the most… This past year in New Orleans, I am ashamed to say that we have clearly failed to do this.” It turned out that Rene Oswin was a member of The Yes Men, a guerilla group of political pranksters who impersonate government and corporate …