Monday, June 23, 2008

AMERICA'S HOSTS: Renee Montagne and Ari Shapiro; Nora Raum, Jean Cochran
CALIFORNIA/NEVADA HOST: Donna Apidone; NEWSCASTS: Steve Shadley

Here are some highlights of today's show:

The Angora fire near South Lake Tahoe bean a year ago tomorrow.  One agency that took much of the blame was the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA).  Ben Adler talks with TRPA spokesperson Julie Regan to talk about what has changed in the last year, this morning at 6:33 and 8:33.

For farmers living along the Mississippi River in Iowa, the flooding has been financially devastating. Thousands of acres of farmland in the Midwest are still underwater. And it couldn't have come at a worse time -- prices for corn and soybeans are at record levels. 
ALSO, after the huge floods in 1993, a few Midwestern states got together with the Army Corps of Engineers to draw up a plan to build higher levee walls along the Mississippi River.  The plan could have helped limit the amount of flooding the region is now seeing. The final draft of the report was released in February. But it doesn't look like the federal government will fund it. Thos stories will air this morning at 6:40 and 8:40.

It's the end of an era.  Comedian George Carlin has died at the age of 71.  Carlin's routine "The Seven Words You Can Never say on TV" resulted in a Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction radio stations for broadcasting offensive language. We'll have a remembrance at 5:35 and 7:35.

To paraphrase an early Carlin character named Al Sleet, "Have a hippy dippy day."