A perfect ten is a great score, unless you're the Governmental Accountability Office and you're talking about how many times you were able to smuggle bomb-making materials into so-called high-security federal buildings. The GAO released a report yesterday documenting their study: not only were they able to get the bomb-making materials into the buildings, they were also able to walk around the buildings undetected. Joining The Takeaway to discuss this disturbing report is Mark Goldstein, director of physical infrastructure issues at the U.S. G.A.O., who led this investigation. Also joining the conversation is security strategist J.R. Roberts.
Here's the video that accompanied the GAO's report:
Click through for a transcript of this interview.
"The problem is that because the Federal Protective Service is so stretched in the responsibilities that it has, what we found is their ability to oversee and manage this task force is not as good as it needs to be."
—Mark Goldstein of the GAO on security in federal buildings
As we look for alternatives to oil and try to develop new technologies, we are tapping into an entire periodic table of new important commodities. These rare earth metals are the basis of a whole range of new "green" products. Lisa Margonelli is here to help us understand them. She's a regular Takeaway contributor who writes the energy blog for The Atlantic and is the author of Oil on the Brain.
"We're going to need to think about how we recycle the car even before we build it."
—Lisa Magonelli on developing new technologies
A new study by the Texas Transportation Institute showed that traffic jams cost Americans 4.2 billion hours of lost time. (You could listen to the entire War and Peace audio book 160 times.) So why not just take the bus or train? In 2007, public transportation saved commuters 646 million hours in travel time and 398 millions gallons of gas. Joining The Takeaway to discuss Americans' reluctance to get out of their cars is Tim Lomax, a research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute.
Oil prices rose above $61 a barrel in Asian trading this morning, recouping some losses after tumbling 17 percent last week. But gasoline reserves in the U.S. are growing, showing continuing low demand for crude. In Economics 101, you learn that when demand drops, so does price, so why are oil prices rising? Joining The Takeaway to analyze the turbulent oil market is BBC Business Correspondent Mark Gregory.
In June, President Obama promised the nation a "New GM" as part of his administration's restructuring of the auto industry in the wake of its financial collapse. Now General Motors is expected to emerge from bankruptcy reorganization as the promised “New GM” —a partially-government-owned entity. The brand will hang on to successful lines like Chevrolet and Cadillac and let go of others. How will this "New GM" fit in with the old Detroit? The Takeaway is taking the pulse of Detroit today. We are joined by Bishop Charles Ellis of the Greater Grace Temple and WDET reporter Noah Ovshinsky.
"I see a lot of people moving into their passions—entrepreneurial things and visions and dreams... They never stepped out into those other things that they had burning within them. But now they are finding that there is life beyond the automobile industry."
—Bishop Charles Ellis of Detroit's Greater Grace Temple
Have your own story or thoughts on the "New GM"? Let us know!
President Barack Obama and other G-8 leaders are meeting in Italy today. Top of their agenda is climate change. The leaders of the world's top industrialized nations are aiming at new targets to battle global warming, including a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. But the wealthy nations were unable to persuade leaders of developing countries to commit to reductions of their own. Their cooperation is considered critical to avoiding the worst effects of climate change. Joining us from L'Aquila, Italy, is Peter Baker, New York Times correspondent, and Richard Gowan, associate director of New York University's Center on International Cooperation, a thinktank that works on the G-8, the U.N. and the World Bank.
"If you're the Indians or you're the French or you're the Americans, you're not going to show all your cards now. You're not going to do all the deal making now, because you've got another six months of negotiations ahead of you."
—Richard Gowan on negotiations at the G-8 summit
The problem with your television is that you have to sit in your living room, den, or bedroom to watch it. What if you want to take your television with you to the park or the laundromat? With the advent of websites like Hulu.com, Apple TV, and even Netflix, you can watch what you want anywhere you have internet access. Is this easy access to network shows and movies making television irrelevant? Kevin Purdy, senior editor of Lifehacker.com joins The Takeaway to discuss life after television.
When you can watch "Better Off Ted" on Hulu, do you really need a television?:
Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is back in the news today. His former chief of staff, John Harris, has plead guilty to fraud charges in a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago. He has also agreed to cooperate with the investigation into Blagojevich, which could be key for the prosecutor's fraud case against the former governor. For more The Takeaway turns to Rob Wildeboer, Criminal Justice and Courts reporter for WBEZ in Chicago.
When Harry Potter first hit the literary scene, the book sales were astronomical and fans would line up the night before, eager for each installment of the fantastical tale. The next movie in the Harry Potter series is set for nationwide release on July 15th and is getting excellent reviews. But as Harry and his fans get older, will the movie be a hit? David Edelstein, chief film critic for New York Magazine and Preethi Vaidyanathan, a 21-year old Harry Potter fan, join The Takeaway to discuss the perhaps not quite enduring legacy of Harry Potter.
Here's the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is sure to get you excited:
Protesters in Iran who planned to rally this evening may want to think twice before heading out. Seeking to pre-empt a revival of street protests that followed the contested results of the presidential election, Iranian authorities announced that any rallies would be met with a “crushing response” and were illegal. For more of the story, The Takeaway turns to Michael Slackman, the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times.
Barack Obama will head to Ghana tomorrow for his first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa as president. As the first African-American President, and someone whose father came from the continent, Mr. Obama carries tremendous symbolic weight across the continent. Joining The Takeaway from Accra, Ghana, to discuss the emotional and political implications of the president's visit is David Amanor, from BBC Network Africa.
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