Patt Morrison for Friday, April 15, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, April 15, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:39

OPEN

 

 

1:41:30 – 1:58:30

“Pervasive” misconduct in foreclosures prompts a fix but will it do more harm than good?

Nothing in the housing industry is particularly rosy these days, from flat sales to sinking home prices.  Foreclosures, in particular, remain a sour point for hundreds of thousands of homeowners who have had less-than-satisfactory experiences seeking government assistance and fighting banks to keep control of their homes.  Bank regulators, in particular, have faced fierce criticism for not doing enough in the lead up to the housing bubble, with predatory lending, and not doing enough to protect vulnerable homeowners as the bubble burst.  On Wednesday the Federal Reserve issued orders to overhaul procedures and compensate borrowers injured financially by wrongdoing or negligence, citing “pervasive” misconduct in foreclosures.  The new regulations are meant to shield homeowners from hasty foreclosures but advocates say that the orders set the bar so low that banks are essentially allowed to continue to operate as usual.  Almost every home rescue plan by the government has failed to make a dent in foreclosures—will this one be any different?

 

Guests:

Paul Leonard, vice president for Government Affairs, the Housing Policy Council

CALL HIM @

• The Housing Policy Council (HPC) is a part of the financial industry trade group The Financial Services Roundtable Board. The mission of the HPC is to promote the mortgage and housing marketplace interests of member companies in legislative, regulatory, and judicial forums as well as to communicate effectively the benefits of a fully competitive and integrated housing market to the American public. HPC is actively representing its member’s interests in mortgage finance and housing issues to Congress, the Administration and the industry. HPC members originate, service, and insure mortgages. They estimate that HPC member companies originate approximately 75% and service two-thirds of mortgages in the US.

 

Liz Ryan Murray, policy director, National People's Action

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• National People's Action (NPA) is a Network of community power organizations from across the country that work to advance a national economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has over 200 organizers working to unite everyday people in cities, towns, and rural communities throughout the United States.

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:19

OPEN

 

 

 

2:21:30 – 2:39

Bees: terrifying when they’re around but more terrifying when they’re not

Spring may have brought the birds, but have you noticed the distinct lack of buzzing? The disappearing bee population has long been cause for global concern and has earned a moniker as mysterious as its symptoms: “colony collapse disorder.” An agricultural power-house and a producer responsible for 80% of the world’s almond supply, California is feeling especially glum due to the waning presence of our fuzzy-friends. Today, nearly half of commercial bee hives across the U.S. are shipped to California to help pollinate the almond crop alone. Professor May Berenbaum is here to talk about colony collapse disorder, our latest understanding of it and its effects locally and globally.

 

NICK: Professor Berenbaum is this year’s recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, one of the first international premier awards for environmental science, environmental health and energy.

 

Guest:

May Berenbaum, professor and department head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

IN STUDIO

 

 

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Freedom Riders

Leaving from Washington, D.C. in 1961, an integrated group of people calling themselves “Freedom Riders” traveled to the Deep South to put a recent federal ruling declaring it unconstitutional to segregate bus riders to the test. Despite their pledge of nonviolence, they met with physical resistance and sometimes violence as they attempted to occupy segregated buses, restaurants and waiting rooms. Local authorities often refused to intervene, but the Freedom Riders kept their pledge of— and transformed the civil rights movement. Historian Ray Arsenault tells their story.

 

Guests:

Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, he’s the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and Director of Graduate Studies for the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.

Via ISDN

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org