Friday, July 2, 2010

• Despite House Passage, Feingold Maintains Opposition to Financial Reform Bill as "Too Weak" in Face of Wall St. Recklessness

  
  
  

  Democrats may still be one vote short of approving an overhaul of financial regulation with Senator Russ Feingold vowing to vote against the measure again. The House approved the measure this week following over three weeks of conference committee negotiations. We speak to former investment banker turned journalist Nomi Prins, author of several books, including It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. [includes rush transcript]

• Canadian Civil Liberties Group Mulls Lawsuit as Details of Mass Arrests, Unprecedented Powers at G2O Come to Light

  
  
  

  The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it is looking into suing the Toronto Police Department following mass arrests at the G20 summit last week. It is now estimated that 1,000 people, including many journalists, were arrested. On Thursday, protest rallies were held in Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg against the brutal police crackdown. Civil liberties advocates are also up in arms after it emerged that the Toronto police were secretly given new and unprecedented powers of arrest in the lead-up to the G20. We hear from Dave Vasey, the first person arrested under a new law in Toronto that allowed police to detain anyone near the site of the G20 summit if they failed to identify themselves. [includes rush transcript]

• Leading Canadian Peace Activist Targeted by Home Break-In in Lead-Up to G20

  
  
  

  As we continue our G20 coverage, we hear from Sid Lacombe, the national coordinator of the Canadian Peace Alliance. Lacombe had his house broken into and ransacked in the lead-up to the G20 summit. [includes rush transcript]

• Maude Barlow: "The World Has Divided into Rich and Poor as at No Time in History"

  
  
  

  As world leaders gathered in Toronto for the G20 summit last week, leading activists from around the world joined thousands in Toronto’s Massey Hall to oppose the G20 agenda. Maude Barlow was one of the key speakers at the event. She heads the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and is a founder of the Blue Planet Project. [includes rush transcript]

• In First Address on Immigration, Obama Urges Middle Ground Between Blanket Amnesty and Mass Deportations

  
  
  

  President Obama delivered his first major speech on immigration Thursday, making an impassioned plea for passing comprehensive immigration reform. We play excerpts of his address and speak to two guests: Columbia University professor Mae Ngai, author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, and Gaby Pacheco, a twenty-five-year-old student who, along with three other students, completed a four-month walk from Miami to Washington, DC, earlier this year, talking to people about their experience of growing up undocumented and urging the President to stop deportations. [includes rush transcript]

• Grand Isle, Louisiana: Voices from a Community Devastated by BP Oil Spill

  
  
  

  We end today’s broadcast in the Gulf Coast as the worst oil spill in US history is in its seventy-fourth day. On this holiday weekend, with families across the country celebrating July 4th, our thoughts are in Louisiana, where we broadcast several weeks ago. We visit Grand Isle, a community devastated by the oil spill. [includes rush transcript]