Patt Morrison for Fri, May 8

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, May 8, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

 

1:00 – 1:30

The Economics of Legalizing Marijuana

On Tuesday, Governor Schwarzenegger opened the door to debate over legalizing marijuana in California as a way to increase revenue in the state. A Field Poll released last week found for the first time that a majority of California voters supported legalizing and taxing marijuana. But exactly how much money would be generated by such an idea? One economist estimates nationwide revenues of $6.7 billion annually and savings of almost 13 billion in law enforcement expenses. We crunch the numbers for California.

 

Guests:

Stephen Easton: Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Also, Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute

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1:30 - 1:50

OPEN

 

 

 

1:50 – 2:00

20^th Anniversary LA River Cleanup

Since 1986, Friends of the LA River has worked to bring the river back to life and encourage its fragile ecosystem. Just a day before the twentieth anniversary of the group's river cleanup, Lewis MacAdams joins Patt today to speak about the history of the river and the annual event that gathers over 3,000 people to pull out 30 tons of trash in under 3 hours.

 

Guests:

Lewis MacAdams: Founder and Chairman of the board of FOLAR (Friends of the LA River)

CALL HIM @

 

 

 

2:00 – 2:30

The Medea Hypothesis

In Greek mythology, Medea is the woman who murdered her own children in despair. In a new book, the Medea Hypothesis, biologist Peter Ward says we humans are about to be murdered ourselves, in a die-off that’s a regular part of the cycle of life and death on this planet. This stands in stark contrast to James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis--the idea that life sustains habitable conditions on Earth. Could life by its very nature threaten its own existence? Ward, an astrobiologist with NASA, using the latest discoveries from the geological record, argues yes. How worried should we be?

 

Guests:

Peter Ward, Author, The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? He is professor of biology and Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, and an astrobiologist with NASA.

IN STUDIO

 

 

2:30 – 3:00

OPEN