Washington Journal Summary
Saturday, May 17, 2008
7:00-7:30 Question/Newspaper Articles/Phones

7:30-8:00 LYLE LAVERTY
Assistant Interior Secretary for
Fish, Wildlife and Parks www.doi.gov

Topic: The Interior Department this week gave polar bears a listing of "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Our guests today will discuss the current plight of polar bears and whether the listing as endangered is politically motivated.

8:00-8:30 SUSAN CASEY-LEFKOWITZ
National Resources Defense Council
Senior Attorney www.nrdc.org

Topic: The Interior Department this week gave polar bears a listing of "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Our guests today will discuss the current plight of polar bears and whether the listing as endangered is politically motivated.

8:30-9:00 JOHN DICKEN
Government Accountability Office
Health Care Issues Director www.gao.gov

Nursing Homes Report: www.gao.gov/new.items/d08517.pdf

Topic: Guest will discuss a new report put out by GAO, which looks at nursing homes & the role of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in monitoring the programs across the U.S.

9:00-9:30 THOMAS LIPPMAN
Middle East Institute
Adjunct Scholar www.mei.org

Topic: Guest will discuss yesterday's meeting between President Bush and King Abdullah, which mainly centered around Saudi oil production. Guest will also discuss the current day relations between the two countries

9:30-10:00 From Rangoon, Burma
phoner w/ SHARI VILLAROSA
calls State Department
Charge d'Affaires- Burma www.state.gov

Topic: Myanmar (Burma) Relief Update: Our guest joins us to discuss the relief efforts in Myanmar also known as Burma after a cyclone hit the region more than two weeks ago

SENATE SPECIAL AGING COMMITTEE 
Alzheimer's Disease

Chairman Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Witnesses:
· Sandra Day O'Connor - member, Alzheimer's Study Group and former associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court
· former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga., 1979-99 Speaker of the House 1995-99) - member, Alzheimer's Study Group
· Charles "Chuck" Jackson - Alzheimer's patient
· Suzanne Carbone – caregiver
· Rudi Tanzi - director, Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Massachusetts General Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and professor of neurology, Harvard University 

For More Information: www.senate.gov

SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION/CONSUMER AFFAIRS, INSURANCE, AND AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY SUBCOMMITTEE
Health & Safety Concerns over Plastic Additives in Consumer Products

Chairman Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Panel One
· Norris Alderson - associate commissioner for science, Food and Drug Administration
· Marilyn Wind - deputy associate executive director for health sciences, Consumer Product Safety Commission
Panel Two
· John Peterson Myers - CEO and chief scientist, Environmental Health Sciences
· Elizabeth Hitchcock - public health advocate, U.S. Public Interest Research Group
· Steve Hentges - senior director, Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group, American Chemistry Council

We'll have more recordings from the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI oral history project. This week's program focuses on the FBI investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Agent Robert Gemberling coordinated the case for the FBI from Dallas; James Sibert was one of two agents who witnessed the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Medical Center when the President's body was returned to Washington; and Kevin Harrigan was one of the agents involved in the work in New Orleans, where Lee Harvey Oswald grew up. We'll also talk with Brian Hollstein, director of the oral history project for the SFSA, and the interviewer of agents Gemberling and Harrigan.

This week...David Obey from August 2007...on his autobiography;
"Raising Hell For Justice: The Washington Battles of a Heartland Progressive"

7pm - America & the Courts
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
U.S. Department of Defense v. Associated Press 

Oral Argument on Releasing the Identities of Guantanamo Bay Detainees...
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City heard oral argument in the U.S. Department of Defense v. the Associated Press. The Court will decide if the Department of Defense must release the identities of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Followed by
Harvard & Stanford Law Schools' Supreme Court Litigation Professor Thomas Goldstein
on Building an Appellate Practice
Cambridge, Maryland
From April 30th

Fact of the AP Case: In 2007 the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking documents related to 558 military hearings where detainees challenged their incarcerations. The government then turned over the transcripts from the tribunals but redacted facts about each detainee's identity. In March a U.S. district judge rejected the government's argument that the detainees' names should be kept secret to protect their privacy rights and ordered the government to give unredacted copies of the hearings to the Associated Press. The Second Circuit Court heard this case on May 5th.