Lawyers Suzanne Goldberg and Mark Huvard. Both are contesting a recent federal court ruling which allows employers to slash insurance coverage for AIDS patients. Representatives of the American Medical Association, the Association of Retired Persons, and the American Bar Association have all written letters to the U.S. Solicitor General, stating that the ruling was wrong. The original plaintiff in the case has already died from AIDS complications.
In 1980, AIDS activist and former Jesuit seminarian Martin Delaney was suffering from life-threatening hepatitis. He treated it with drugs then unapproved in the U.S. In 1985, Delaney founded Project Inform--which gathers information and facilitates access to AIDS treatments. Delaney has helped bring Compound Q, an unapproved AIDS drug, out of China. His life and work are discussed extensively in Jonathon Kwitny's controversial new book, "Acceptable Risks."
TV critic David Bianculli review the original pilot of "Gilligan's Island," which will be broadcast for the first time. He says it might be worse than the original.
Head of the National Security Archive Tom Blanton helped research "The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962," scheduled for release today, thirty years after the incident. In the book, newly released documents and top-secret files reveal how close the U.S. came to a nuclear entanglement. In 1987, the National Security Archive filed suit against the U.S. government for failing to produce the documents they requested. Since then, there has been more compliance with the archive, especially since the Russian government has agreed to allow the U.S. to release the Kennedy-Krushchev letters.
New York Times correspondent Martin Tolchin and his wife Susan wrote "Selling Our Security." It examines the ways U.S. political leaders, especially during the Reagan-Bush years, have pursued laissez-faire policies to the extent that most of America's valuable technological secrets have been sold to other countries.
Actor Rocky Carrol, who plays Joey Emerson on the popular sitcom, talks about the show's recent change to a live broadcast format. He says it works because Carroll and his costars have ample experience in theater.
Children's book author John Scieszka's first book was "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs," a retelling of the classic tale told from the perspective of the big bad wolf. He and illustrator Lane Smith have created several books under their Time Warp Trio editions. The latest is "The Good, The Bad, and the Goofy," a cowboys-and-Indians story written for boys, and "The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales," written for "hardcore silly kids."
Reporter Douglas Franz of the Los Angeles Times. He and reporter Mark Waas first broke the story that the Bush Administration continued to guarantee loans and to export military equipment to Iraq in late 1989 even though intelligence reports warned that Baghdad was developing a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles. The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating an alleged cover-up by the C.I.A. and the Justice Department related to a loan to Saddam Hussein of five billion dollars in the years before the war, some of which was used to finance Iraq's arms program.
Rock and roll historian Ed Ward gives us the first part of a two part history of Scepter Records, which--led by Florence Greenberg--discovered and produced the Shirelles and Dionne Warwick, and helped bring black music into the mainstream.
Coontz has just written the book, "The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap." She uses historical evidence to dismantle the myths about so-called "family values." She says that many of the family problems prevelent today have always been around, and that the survival of the family depends on recognizing and dealing with diversity.
Political science professor and author Ron Walters has advised the Congressional Black Caucus and been a consultant to Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns. He is the author of "Black Presidential Politics in America," which offers a history of and strategic approach for blacks breaking into presidential politics.
Book critic John Leonard reviews "African Laughter," Lessing's memoir of the four times she visited the country of her birth--now called Zimbabwe--and her impressions of its changing social and political climate.
TV critic David Bianculli takes another look at the documentary series. His only quibble is in the billing: unlike the broadcasting company, the show is only 18 years old.
Author James Crawford has spent many years investigating the English Only movement. His most recent book is "Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of English Only." It explores the underlying racism of an English Language Amendment. He has also edited "Language Loyalties," a comprehensive collection of the major issues and policies surrounding the bilingualism debate.
Greer came into the spotlight in 1970 with her controversial book, "The Female Eunuch." Since then, she has written many books dealing with women's issues and is widely thought of as one of the forbearers of the women's movement. Her new book, "The Change," challenges accepted beliefs about female aging and menopause.
Just in time for Columbus Day, Paramount is releasing 1492: Conquest of Paradise, starring Gerard Depardieu as the legendary navigator and directed by Ridley Scott, who made Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma and Louise. Film critic Stephen Schiff has this review.
Journalist Mark Perry is the Author of "Four Stars: The Joint Chiefs of Staff." His most recent book is "Eclipse: The Last Days of the C.I.A:" It examines the power struggle that took place after William Casey died, and after the fall of the Soviet Union. He also dispells the notion that the C.I.A. is still a highly effective and powerful organization.
Bell is a writer and professor who made the headlines in 1990 when he refused to return to Harvard Law School after an extended leave of absence. Bell, then the only tenured African American law professor, cited "reasons of conscious" for leaving--he was protesting the school's decision not to hire a woman of color. In 1959 he quit his job in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice rather than give up his membership in the NAACP. In 1977 Bell wrote "And We are Not Saved," a collection of parables about race and class.
