Government & Politics

Marty talks with science writer Seth Shulman about how the military has left toxic wastes in bases all across the country. His new book is "The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Performance artist Rhodessa Jones. She wrote and performs "Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women," a theatre piece that grew out of her work as an aerobic instructor in the San Francisco City Jail. Her work has been seen in international festivals in Amsterdam, Munich, and Boston. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Controversial author Salman Rushdie. Terry last talked to him in late 1990 about his life. For over three years, Rushdie's been in hiding, a result of the reaction to his novel "The Satanic Verses." That novel offended many Muslims and led to the Ayatollah Khomeini putting a one-million-dollar death sentence on Rushdie's head. Just lately, he's begun to travel and make public appearances, even though he's still a target for assassination. Rushdie called us from his hiding place somewhere in Great Britain.

Stan Sesser, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, just wrote a lengthy article called "Report From Cambodia." A country that's been dirt poor for several decades is experiencing a new prosperity since the United Nations peace agreement was signed last October. Oddly, the agreement calls for a sharing of power with the Khmer Rouge, an action Sesser equates with allowing the Nazis back into power in post war Germany. (The article is in the May 18, 1992 issue of The New Yorker.)

David Savage is the Supreme Court reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He's just written a book called "Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court," (John Wiley and Sons) about how the Supreme court turned conservative in the 80s, and what future decisions the court will make.

John Lee is a first-generation Korean reporter whose beat at the Los Angeles Times has been Koreatown during and since the riots. Many Korean merchants were targeted, and many wielded guns to defend themselves. He feels that the Korean side of the conflict hasn't been accurately portrayed by the media.

Pollster David W. Moore is the Director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire, where he also teaches political science. His polling results have been picked up by all the T-V networks and most of the major newspapers and newsmagazines in the country. He's written a new book about the history of polling, called "The Superpollsters: How The Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion." (Four Walls Eight Windows Press)

Documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls. He is best known for his 1970 work "The Sorrow and the Pity," about the conduct of the French people during the Holocaust. He also made the film "Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie." His latest work is about life behind the iron curtain and the changes underway in Europe since the fall of the Berlin wall.

A look at social policy in light of the Los Angeles -- and national -- turmoil with sociologist Christopher Jencks. Does welfare work? Did Johnson's Great Society fail, as the Bush administration now posits? Or is it the fault of the massive cutbacks of the Reagan-Bush era? Jenck's new book is called "Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty and The Underclass." (Harvard University Press) (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884-1933" by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking press).

Bob Simon is the CBS News correspondent who was taken prisoner during the gulf war and held for six weeks. He's just written a book about the experience called "Forty Days." (Putnam) In it, he describes the indignity and loss of control he felt as a captive. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Sweet Alice Harris lives in Watts, in South Central Los Angeles. She started and runs Parents of Watts Working With Youth and Adults after the Watts riots of 1965. She says she knew last week's riots would be bigger than Watts. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

We air our previously scheduled interview with Patti Davis, Ronald and Nancy Reagan's daughter. While the Reagans stressed family values while in the White House, their daughter says they didn't practice them. Davis has a new autobiography called "The Way I See It." (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Janet Clayton, assistant editor of the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times. We spoke with her yesterday; we check in again with her today.

William Julius Wilson, professor of sociology at the university of Chicago. He's written several books on urban poverty and the underclass.

Tony Massengale, who works with gangs in Los Angeles.

Political consultant Neil Oxman. He specializes in media consulting and designed Lynn Yeakel's ads for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate. She'll run against Senator Arlen Spector. Yeakel was a virtual unknown at the start of the race. It's believed that Yeakel's T-V ads made the difference in the campaign. One emphasized her work as head of Women's Way. The other received national attention because it attacked Spector for his role in the Thomas hearings.

From the AME church in south L.A., where a rally was held after the announcement of the verdict, Mark Whitlock. He headed a security force organized by the church to stand between the police and protesters in order to head off violence.

From the Los Angeles Times, Assistant Editor of the editorial page Janet Clayton. In addition to functioning in her official media capacity, she'll be leaving work early to visit her mother, who lives in the curfew zone.

New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino. She was the first American and the first woman to interview the Ayatollah when he came into power in 1979. She was expelled from Iran ten years ago and recently returned there for the first time since to cover the elections. Terry talks with her about the changes she saw in Iran from the ten years previous.