We’ll examine the controversy surrounding Bridgestone corporation, the half-time show sponsor of this year’s Superbowl; And, as Costa Rica’s Congress delays a vote on CAFTA, we’ll be joined in studio by a visiting activist from the Central American nation. Plus, a debate on Proposition 93, on term limits for California legislators. And this week’s Black Agenda Report.

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Carl Freedlander, Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, Eric Heins, 4th grade teacher at Pittsburgh United School District in Contra Costa County, Board member of the California Teachers Association

Proposition 92 on Tuesday’s ballot could affect two and a half million students on over a 100 community college campuses statewide. If passed, the measure would mean a constitutional amendment that would decrease student fees from $20 to $15 per unit; increase the number of members of the Board of Governors; and change the funding formula in a way that proponents say will stabilize community college funding. Many educators and students are in favor of Prop 92, including the California Federation of Teachers, the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, the California School Employees Association, and the Community College Association. …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUESTS: Quanah Brightman, Vice President of United Native Americans Inc, John Gomez Snr, Vice Chairman of the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization

When Californians head to the polls this Tuesday for the state’s primary elections, they will also decide on four American Indian gaming propositions on the state ballot. Originally compacts signed by Governor Schwarzenegger and four Southern California tribes, the agreements would significantly change the relationship between state and local governments with Indian casinos. Though already ratified by the California legislature last year, groups opposed to the compacts gathered enough signatures to force the issue to be put on the ballot. Proponents of propositions 94 through 97, say that the deals allowing four Indian gaming casinos to add thousands of new slot machines will ultimately …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: V J Foster, Associate Artistic Director at The Actors Gang, plays the character of Reverend Cotton Slocum

Twenty years ago, a play called Carnage, a Comedy, poked fun at the religious right, back when it was barely entering the American consciousness as a formidable political movement. The play was written by Adam Simon, and actor/activist Tim Robbins and is being now revived by the Actors Gang here in LA. Carnage follows the pilgrimage and ultimate demise of a fictitious televangelist named Cotton Slocum, played by V J Foster, who is also the Associate Artistic Director of the Actors Gang.

Carnage, A Comedy opens on February 2nd at the Actors Gang, located at the Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd in Culver City.

The play will be showing …

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about the Mae West play, The Drag

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org

“Education [is] a debt due from present to future generations.” — George Peabody

We’ll take a look at 5 of the 7 propositions on this year’s state ballot: Propositions 94-97 on the Indian gaming compacts, and a debate on Proposition 92, the Community College funding initiative. Plus, Carnage, a Comedy, by the Actors Gang, takes a playfully scathing look at the religious right.

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: John Miller, National coordinator for the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

Indonesia’s long time former dictator, Mohamed Suharto, is dead at the age of 86. He was given a state funeral with full military honors. Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years before being overthrown in an uprising sparked by the Asian financial crisis in 1998. In speaking at his funeral, current Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dismissed Suharto’s bloody legacy, saying he “made mistakes because no one is perfect.” Suharto came to power in a US-backed coup in 1965, and stands accused of committing genocide. The US Embassy in Jakarta supplied Suharto with a list of Indonesian Communist Party members. Between 500,000 and 3 million people vanished in the several …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Alex Gibney, director of Taxi to the Darkside and ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Soon after the American defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, was arrested by pro-US Afghan militias and imprisoned at Bagram airbase. In the 5 days before he died he was subjected to cruel, unusual, and degrading punishment and became perhaps the first victim of torture in the US’s “war on terror.” Alex Gibney, award winning director of ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room, now brings us a new documentary called Taxi to the Darkside, focusing on the protocol of torture and cruel interrogation techniques used by the US military in Bagram (Afghanistan), Abu Ghraib (Iraq), and Guantanamo (Cuba). Taxi to …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUESTS: Lara Morrison, KPFK volunteer and LA Eco-Village resident; Michelle Wong, Board member of the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust, and member of the LA Eco-Village

Due to declining enrollment, the Los Angeles Unified School District has largely scaled back on expansion plans for new school sites. Despite this, residents and owners of properties in LA Eco-Village were notified that their neighborhood may now be under threat. Unique to the city, LA Eco-Village, located on the corner of 1st and Vermont, and is one of the few urban based communities based on ecological living in Southern California. The LAUSD has slated that site for a new school that would service up to 950 elementary schoolers. Concerned community members of LA Eco-Village contend that the district …