MONDAY, DEC. 1, 2003

HOUR 1: (9 a.m.) Getting the postal service to pay for itself
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As you get ready to send holiday packages you may consider more than usual one of the older functions of government: delivering the mail. A presidential commission found a number of things the post office should be doing better, but stopped short of recommending the service be privatized.

Guests: James Johnson, co-chairman of the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service that gave its final report earlier this year. He's vice chairman of Perseus, LLC, a merchant banking and private equity firm in Washington, DC.

Related Links
Web Resource: President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service
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HOUR 2: (10 a.m.) Time for future-gazing
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Robots and touch screens touched more lives this past year. Will we continue to distance ourselves from human contact? Futurist Andrew Zolli talks about trends for the upcoming year.

Guests: Andrew Zolli, researcher, futurist and head of Z Partners, a forecasting think tank in New York City. He also contributes to Popular Science magazine and public radio's Marketplace.

Related Links
Web Resource: Andrew Zolli's Web site
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TUESDAY, DEC. 2, 2003

HOUR 1: (9 a.m.) Insurgency and tentative steps to elected government
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U.S. military officials say attacks have killed 54 Iraqis following weekend ambushes that claimed the lives of Spanish intelligence agents and South Korean and Columbian civilian workers. Iraqis say far fewer were killed. At the same time, a Shiite cleric is pressuring the Iraqi Governing Council to hold elections next year.

Guests: Edmund Ghareeb, Middle East media specialist and adjunct professor at American University. He's a co-author of the book, War in the Gulf, 1990-91: The Iraq-Kuwait Conflict and Its Implications. Leslie Gelb, former editor and columnist for the New York Times and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Related Links
Web Resource: "The Three-State Solution" -- Leslie Gelb commentary in the New York Times
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HOUR 2: (10 a.m.) Filmmaker focuses on the Vietnam war era
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Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris talks about his latest film, The Fog of War. It's a portrait of former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and the role he played in the political events of the 20th century.

Guests: Errol Morris also made The Thin Blue Line and Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.

Related Links
Web Resource: Errol Morris's Web site
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WEDNESDAY, DEC. 3, 2003

HOUR 1: (9 a.m.) Congress's uncivil debate
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The recent passage of major changes to Medicare brought out strongly partisan behavior that may shut out good policy, according to a scholar of Congress.

Guests: Burdett Loomis, professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Kansas. He edited the book Esteemed Colleagues: Civility and Deliberation in the U.S. Senate. He's also the author of The Contemporary Congress.

Related Links
Web Resource: About Burdett Loomis
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HOUR 2: (10 a.m.) The wisdom of disappearing languages
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The world's vanishing languages still have things to teach us about cultures and differences in perspective. A writer journeys to lands where increasingly rare tongues are spoken.

Guests: Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages.

Related Links
Web Resource: About Mark Abley
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THURSDAY, DEC. 4, 2003

HOUR 1: (9 a.m.) Mayor Kelly on city development, response to Latinos
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St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly talks about recent housing and revitalization proposals, how his administration might address concerns in the growing Latino community and the search for a new police chief.

Related Links
Web Resource: City of St. Paul Web site
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HOUR 2: (10 a.m.) How to take care of holiday plants
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Just because it's winter doesn't mean you can forget about your plants. Garden guru Deb Brown answers your questions about keeping poinsettas and Christmas trees looking their best through the holiday season.

Guests: Deb Brown, horticulturist with the Minnesota Extension Service's Yard & Garden Line.

Related Links
Web Resource: Yard & Garden Line
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FRIDAY, DEC. 5, 2003

HOUR 1: (9 a.m.) Lawyers allowed for some Guantanamo detainees
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The Bush administration appears to be softening its stance on the terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. Some analysts say the policy shift is a response to the decision by the Supreme Court to hear the case of detainees who want to challenge their detention in court.

Guests: Darryll Jones, law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and defense counsel for terrorist suspects appearing before United States military tribunals.

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HOUR 2: (10 a.m.) Talking Volumes: "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs
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The latest installment of Talking Volumes with best-selling author Augusten Burroughs. Dry recounts the author's difficult, darkly humorous trip to sobriety.

Related Links
Talking Volumes Web site
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