Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Biography: The Lives of Legendary African Americans

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'll be posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The sixth panel discussion I attended was "Biography: The Lives of Legendary African Americans."

Here is an edited panelist biography via the LA Times website.

Raymond Arsenault is one of the nation's leading civil rights historians, he is the author of several acclaimed and prize-winning books, including "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice" and "The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America." New York Times Notable Book "Arthur Ashe: A Life" was released last year.

David W. Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. His newest book is "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom."

Ron Rapoport was a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than twenty years and served as the sports commentor for NPR's Weekend Edition for two decades. His newest book is "Let's Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, The Life of Ernie Banks."

Jeffrey C. Stewart has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, UCLA, Tufts University, Howard University, Scripps College, and George Mason University before coming to the University of California at Santa Barbara as Professor and Chair of the Department of Black Studies from 2008-2016. His latest book is "The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke."

Guyana: Oil Corruption

I wrote a blog post about Guyana earlier this year and it had to do with territory disputes between Guyana and Venezuela. Though that is an ongoing issue, Guyana recently got an article written up about the country in the BBC:

South America's second poorest nation is bracing for an oil boom that could catapult it to the top of the continent's rich list - and beyond. But can Guyana avoid the so-called oil curse and ensure that its newfound riches benefit all Guyanese?

In Guyana, "corruption is rampant," says Troy Thomas, the head of the local chapter of global anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. He says he is "very worried" about the oil curse. A political crisis in recent months has been seen by some as an early sign of the curse's effects. 

Corruption. Corruption. Corruption.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Entertainment, Information, and Addiction: Our New Digital, Social World

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'll be posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The fifth panel discussion I attended was "Entertainment, Information, and Addiction: Our New Digital, Social World."

Here is an edited panelist biography via the LA Times website.

Ali E. Abbas is Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He is also editor of numerous books including "Improving Homeland Security Decisions", and the forthcoming book "Next Generation Ethics."

Dr. Julie Albright is a sociologist specializing in digital culture and communications and is currently a lecturer in the departments of Applied Psychology and Engineering at USC. Her book on the impacts of mobile-social-digital technologies on society, "Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream" was published last year.

David Craig is Clinical Associate Professor at USC Annenberg's School for Communication and Journalism and a Fellow at the Peabody Media Center. His newest book is "Social Media Entertainment: The New Intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley."

California: Pension Needs Increase

The Sacramento Bee posted an article up about a month ago regarding public employee pensions:

California state government’s bill for public employee pensions is set to rise by $676 million. CalPERS on Tuesday advanced a scheduled increase in employer contribution rates, bringing the state’s total bill for the 2019-2020 budget year to about $7 billion.

From what I can tell, the increase is driven by:

1. $340 million increase due to paying down the current unfunded liability. The article states that California has $287 billion in unfunded liabilities that it is trying to pay down over 30 years. Governor Newsom wants to add an additional $3 billion to that amount.

2. $229 million will have to come from various public agencies as the rate of return is being reduced from 7.25% to 7.0%.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Excavating The Past: Writing International Histories.

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'll be posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The fourth panel discussion I attended was "Excavating The Past: Writing International Histories."

Here is an edited panelist biography via the LA Times website.

Ruby Lal is Professor of South Asian Studies at Emory University, Atlanta. Her fields of study include feminist history and theory, and the question of archive as it relates to writing about Islamic societies in the precolonial and colonial world. "Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan" is her latest book.

A third-generation journalist, Scott Martelle is currently a member of the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times. His newest book is "William Walker's Wars: How One Man's Private American Army Tried to Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras."

Priya Satia is a professor of British History at Stanford University. "Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution" is her newest book.  

And the following are my notes from the panel discussion: 
 
Ruby Lal. Nur Jahan (1600s) has been lost to history. She is a household name in South Asia, but she is known for her love story. People don’t know who she was. Why was she lost to history? She has coins minted under her name. She has portraits of her loading a musket, which is something women didn’t do.

Algeria Update: Military Makes Arrests, what does it mean?

What is currently going on in Algeria? According to Reuters, there are still protests but . . .

The demonstration was peaceful but smaller than those that have shaken Algiers over the past weeks.

There have been a number of arrests amount the political and business elites. Interestingly, Reuters and Fox News interpret the developments differently.

Reuters interprets these arrests as the military trying to gain support among the protestors by detaining those suspected of corruption:

Last week, Bouteflika’s youngest brother, Said, and two former intelligence chiefs were placed in custody by a military judge over “harming the army’s authority and plotting against state authority”. At least five businessmen, including the country’s richest man, Issad Rebrab, who is active in food industry and sugar refining, have been detained for alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. John Carreyrou, Author of “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.”

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'll be posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The third panel discussion I attended was "John Carreyrou, Author of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.."

Here is an edited panelist biography via the LA Times website.

John Carreyrou is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal. For his extensive coverage of Theranos, Carreyrou was awarded the George Polk Award for Financial Reporting, the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in the category of beat reporting, and the Barlett & Steele Silver Award for Investigative Business Journalism.

And the following are my notes from the panel discussion: 

Elizabeth Holmes left Stanford during her sophomore year. She wanted to build a medical device. She also wanted to be like Steve Jobs. She created Theranos. The goal was to invent a bracelet that would have needles that would diagnose your diseases and then give you the necessary medication. This was very Sci-Fi and when they finally gave up on that idea, they shifted to doing blood tests. In the end, it was never ready and that’s where it all became a lie.

Venezuela: April 30th Coup Attempt

Last week had an interesting coup attempt occur in Venezuela. From various articles, it appears that opposition leader Juan Guaido thought he had the support of the following Maduro loyalists:

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino
Supreme Court Chief Judge Maikel Moreno
Presidential Guard Commander Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala
Spy Chief Manuel Figuera

How did things unfold on Tuesday, April 30th?

From Reuters:

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Tuesday made his strongest call yet to the military to help him oust President Nicolas Maduro but there were no concrete signs of defection from the armed forces leadership. Early on Tuesday, several dozen armed troops accompanying Guaido clashed with soldiers supporting Maduro at a rally in Caracas, and large anti-government protests in the streets turned violent. But by Tuesday afternoon an uneasy peace had returned and there was no indication that the opposition planned to take power through military force.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. American History: Leaders & Moments that Shaped Our Modern Country

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'm posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The second panel discussion I attended was "American History: Leaders & Moments that Shaped Our Modern Country."

Here are edited panelist biographies via the LA Times website. 

Susan Page is the Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, where she writes about politics and the White House. Susan has covered six White House administrations and ten presidential elections. Her book "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty" was recently released.

Miriam Pawel is the author of "The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation," a finalist for the 2018 L.A. Times Book Prize in History and a Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. She is a Pulitzer-prize winning editor and reporter who spent twenty-five years at Newsday and the Los Angeles Times.

Jon Ward has chronicled American politics and culture for two decades, as a city desk reporter in Washington D.C., as a White House correspondent who traveled aboard Air Force One to Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and as a national affairs correspondent who has traveled the country to write about two presidential campaigns and the ideas and people animating our times. His most recent book of nonfiction, "Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party," was released earlier this year.

And the following are my notes from the panel discussion: