This week, Mick Martin brings Love to the show: The L.A. Band, that is. Then, there are smokin’ sets by Johnny Winter, Otis Rush, Jr. Walker and Gov’t Mule. Plus a little bit of Shakey Jake, Magic Sam and Otis Redding.

Mick pays tribute to Guitarist/Songwriter Robbie Robertson with songs from the Band and others, like Jesse Winchester, John Hammond and Bob Dylan, plus a set featuring Bernard and Luther Allison.

There’s a new album from Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, a new one from blues legend Bobby Rush, a compilation from Mitch Woods featuring all star guests and a bit of the not-yet-released Joe Bonamassa album, all part of this weeks show. AND, a rare set

A Liberty Life Debit Order Authorization from Microsoft, via Standard Bank. This is enough to make anyone confused. Clearly these phishing scammers did not think this one through.

The California Criminal Legal System Reconsideration

In recent years, District Attorneys around the country in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and elsewhere have broken the law and order mold as they look for better ways to address public safety, crime, prosecution, and sentencing in America, including a wholesale reconsideration of the death penalty.

To examine the criminal legal system in the United States, we’ve invited one of the leading progressive prosecutors in America, George Gascon, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, to join us.

Guest – Attorney George Gascon began his career in law enforcement at the Los Angeles Police Department where he worked his way up the ranks from patrol officer to Assistant Chief of Police, overseeing operations for the more than 9,000 LAPD officers Then, in 2006, he was tapped to be Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, where he stood up to the hateful and anti-immigrant policies of then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 2009, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Gascón to be San Francisco’s Chief of Police. Two years later, Newsom again turned to Gascón to fill a vacancy created when then-District Attorney Kamala Harris was elected California Attorney General. Gascón was re-elected San Francisco District Attorney twice.

He was the first Latino to hold that office, and the nation’s first Police Chief to become District Attorney. On December 7, 2020, he took office as the DA of LA County. He is also a former board member of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute and a former member of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety.

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Maintaining Innocence Under Threat Of Execution: Bill Clark

We may be witnessing the dying days of the death penalty in the United States. 23 states have ended the use of capital punishment, while it remains on the books in 27 states, yet the number of executions are in decline. The U.S. public sector and political leaders are beginning to understand what abolitionists have always known: The death penalty is a relic of our racist past yet discrimination on the basis of race continues to plague the system. 55.8 percent of those executed are white, but 33.9 percent are Black and 8.4 percent are Latino/a, which is gruesomely out of proportion to the national population. Currently, 42 percent of death row inmates are white but a shameful 41 percent are Black.

Today, on Law and Disorder we are focusing on the state of California, where there are 650 inmates on death row, the largest number in the Western Hemisphere. 13 men have been executed since 1978. The last execution was in 2006. Due to a combination of court rulings and a moratorium imposed by Gov Gavin Newsom in 2019, there have been no executions in California in the last 18 years. Five inmates have been officially found innocent, all of whom were people of color. They join the 200 exonorees nationwide. Despite the moratorium in California, 17 people have still been sentenced to death in California — 80% of whom are Black or Latino.

The California Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to take up a historic petition filed in April by a coalition of civil rights and justice organizations arguing that racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty in California violates the equal protection guarantee of the state constitution. The petition to the state Supreme Court cites more than a dozen studies showing race discrimination. One looked at more than 55,000 homicide cases in California between 1979 and 2018 and found that Black individuals were more than twice as likely to receive a death sentence as white individuals, while Hispanic individuals were 1.5 times more likely to receive a death sentence. California Attorney General Rob Bonta agreed in his response to the petition that the evidence of racial discrimination in capital punishment is “profoundly disturbing.”

So those are some of the facts which describe the capital punishment system in California and the Nation. But today on Law and Disorder we want to go beyond those raw statistics and take a look at the human cost of the death penalty by talking to someone who has been living under the threat of execution for 33 years. Bill Clark’s Film Project

Guest – Bill Clark joins us by phone from prison in Vacaville, California, where he has been housed since March of this year after his transfer from San Quentin, where he was incarcerated for 26 years. I have known Bill for 24 years. Despite his situation, he is a hopeful, resilient and creative person. He was convicted of two murders in the early 1990s and has steadfastly maintained his innocence as he continues to challenge his convictions and death sentences.

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Healing Divisions Within Jewish Communities Over Israeli War And Destruction

Ever since October 7, the American Jewish community has been deeply divided over how to react to the brutality of what Hamas did that day, the fate of the hostages, Israel’s overwhelming military assault in Gaza, the ensuing humanitarian crisis, the unspeakable death toll suffered by the Palestinians, and the deadly clashes in the West Bank. All of this has spilled over to college campuses across the United States, where pro-Palestinian protestors, including Jews, have been arrested and at UCLA, were attacked by pro-Israel counterprotesters. Many Jews, including family members, can’t talk to each other about any of this. Some observers see a rise in antisemitism, while others complain that political criticism of Israel and its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being conflated with antisemitism, in an effort to silence pro-Palestinian voices.

Guest – Rabbi Sharon Brous is the founding and senior rabbi of IKAR, a leading edge Jewish community based in Los Angeles. She has been named #1 Most Influential Rabbi in the U.S. by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Rabbi Brous blessed both President Obama and President Biden at their National Inaugural Prayer Services in 2013 and 2021. Her popular 2016 TED Talk is called “Reclaiming Religion.” Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine, in an issue that examined religious diversity in America.

Rabbi Brous is the author of the national bestselling book The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World, which we’ll be talking about later in the program. I have know Sharon for almost two decades and I consider her one of the most compassionate people I know with wisdom far beyond her young life.

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Money And Class In America – Remembering Lewis Lapham

On July 23, 2024, Lewis Henry Lapham II passed away in Rome, Italy. A nationally respected journalist and author, of 14 books, Mr. Lapham was also the longtime editor in chief of Harper’s, and then founder and editor of Lapham’s Quarterly, Mr. Lapham offered a critical eye toward US domestic and foreign policies. On January 14, 2019, Michael Smith and I, Heidi Boghosian, interviewed the literary giant after his 1988 book, “Money and Class in America” was republished by OR books. His documentary film, “The American Ruling Class” has become part of the curricula in many of the nation’s schools and colleges. In tribute to Lewis Lapham and his legacy, we’re pleased to rebroadcast a shortened version of our one-hour interview.

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We are especially pleased and honored to spend the hour with our guest Lewis Lapham. After graduating from Yale in 1956 he started out working as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco and then in New York, where he currently lives and works. The editor of Harper’s Magazine for 20 years, Lapham has written 14 books. Currently, he edits “Lapham’s Quarterly.”

Lapham founded the quarterly magazine in an effort to further the consideration of history, which he calls “the advice and counsel of the past.” He sees history as “a guide to understanding and acting on the issues and ideas before us today.”

Major pillars of the rule of law have been defiled since 911. The edifice still stands, the promises remain, but as a nation, we have suffered huge losses. Last spring Lapham’s Quarterly addressed the topic, “The Rule of Law.” His 1988 book “Money and Class In America” was re-published by OR Books last year with a new introduction by Lapham and a forward by Thomas Frank. We speak with him in our studio today about the contradiction between the rule of the monied rich and the rule of law.

Guest – Lewis Lapham is editor and founder of Lapham’s Quarterlysince 2007 and editor of Harper’s Magazinefrom 1975 to 2006, Lewis H. Lapham is a member of the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame. He is the author of fourteen books, among them Money and Class in America, The Wish for Kings,Waiting for the Barbarians, Theater of War, and Age of Folly. He produced a weekly podcast,The World in Time, for Bloomberg News from 2011 through 2013. His documentary filmThe American Ruling Class has become part of the curriculum in many of the nation’s schools and colleges. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Lapham has lectured at Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota.

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Separation of Powers And Project 2025

The US Constitution created the three branches of the federal government to serve as a check on one another. In particular, the judiciary was intended to ensure that the actions of the Executive and Legislative branches did not violate the Constitution.

But what happens when the Supreme Court is in the grip of a highly partisan, result-oriented super-majority half of whom were appointed by a President who has been convicted of 34 felonies and faces 57 more felony charges in three different criminal prosecutions, but claims absolute immunity for whatever he did while in office?

And on top of all that, this ex-President – Donald Trump – is a nominee for President of the United States and has promised to “terminate” the Constitution.

Meanwhile, in an almost 1000 page blueprint for the next conservative President titled Project 2025, a group of conservative organizations spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, has laid out a detailed plan under which the President would acquire almost dictatorial power over the entire federal government.

Guest – Marjorie Cohn is professor of law emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is also Dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and a member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She writes frequent articles about the Supreme Court for Truthout.

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Larry Hebert’s Hunger Strike Against US Weapons To Israel

Israel’s deadly and unrelenting assault on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel has had repercussions around the world. In Gaza itself the death toll is approaching 40,000 and the humanitarian crisis worsens every day. In the United States, as students are headed back to campus, colleges and universities are bracing for a new round of protests and counter protests. Israel’s war in Gaza is dividing the Democratic Party just as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are seeking to unite their party to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Recent surveys show that 48% of Americans oppose Israel’s military action in Gaza, while 42% support it.

Guest – Larry Hebert [pronounced eh-BEAR], a very unlikely candidate to become an outspoken protestor against US military support for Israel, who would gain nationwide and international attention. Larry Hebert is a 26-year old U.S. Air Force Senior Airman and avionics technician assigned to Naval Station Rota in Spain, having served for 6 years in the military. At 10:00 am on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, Hebert began a hunger strike during an authorized leave from his post. Shortly before his hunger strike, he joined Veterans for Peace, an organization that opposes U.S. military actions.

The organization argues that U.S. weapons shipments to Israel is a violation of U.S. law. In a press release issued by Veterans for Peace, the purpose of Hebert’s hunger strike was described as highlighting “the plight of the starving children of Gaza.” Hebert wore a sign that read, “Active duty airman refuses to eat while Gaza starves,” with a photograph of an emaciated Palestinian infant. Hebert said he was inspired by the self-immolation of 25-year old serviceman Aaron Bushnell, who died on February 25, 2024 outside the Israeli embassy in Washington. Before he died, Bushnell declared he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” in Gaza. Hebert’s hunger strike lasted 9 days but ended abruptly on April 9, when he was ordered to report immediately to Andrews Air Force Base for a return flight to his post in Spain. Hebert is pursuing a release from active duty as a Conscientious Objector.

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Book Banning, Censorship And Freedom Of Speech

Americans have a love-hate relationship with freedom of speech: They love to protect their own free speech and they hate to protect the free speech of those they disagree with. The First Amendment to the US Constitution was intended to protect freedom of speech and freedom of the press, yet throughout American history, governments at all levels have censored speech and tried to muzzle the press.

The anti-censorship group PEN America, in a survey of the 2022-23 school year, found that “freedom to read is under assault in the United States — particularly in public schools — curtailing students’ freedom to explore words, ideas, and books.” Authors whose books are targeted are most frequently female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals.

According to the American Library Association, the number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels it has ever documented. According to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, “Each demand to ban a book is a demand to deny each person’s constitutionally protected right to choose and read books that raise important issues and lift up the voices of those who are often silenced.”

Guest – Robert Corn-Revere is Chief Counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as “FIRE.” He has practiced First Amendment law for 40 years. From 1989 to 1994, Corn-Revere served as legal advisor and later chief counsel to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Corn-Revere is a prominent writer, thinker, and advocate on free expression issues and is regularly listed as a leading First Amendment and media lawyer by various national publications. He co-authored the three-volume treatise, “Modern Communication Law.” In 2021, Cambridge University Press published his book, “The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor’s Dilemma,” which explores how free expression became a part of America’s identity. I reviewed “The Mind of the Censor” for Los Angeles Review of Books and called it an “entertaining, enlightening, and timely book.”

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Disappeared: Criminalizing The Unhoused

Late this June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can punish people for sleeping in public places. In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Court overturned lower court rulings that held it is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to penalize people for sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go. This ruling now allows localities the right to dismantle encampments of tents and cardboard coverings, even when there is no locally available housing or shelter.

Human Rights Watch has condemned this ruling and released a comprehensive report titled, You Have to Move! The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles. The report documents the experiences of persons living on the streets, in vehicles, in temporary shelters, and in parks as they struggle to survive. In Los Angeles alone, tens-of-thousands of people are living in the streets, with death rates among the unhoused population reaching alarming levels. Governor Gavin Newsom, a supporter of the Court’s decision, has urged all local jurisdictions in California to destroy unhoused encampments. Several cities in the state have already begun doing so.

Western Regional Advocacy Project

The lack of housing is a national crisis, and this ruling raises the risk of increased use of such punitive tactics not only in Los Angeles but across the entire country.

Guest – John Raphling, Senior Researcher in the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch and author of the report we’ve mentioned. Before joining Human Rights Watch, John spent years as a Deputy Public Defender in Los Angeles. He has represented political and community activists targeted for their activism, and homeless people prosecuted for crimes related to their status. John is also a member of the National Lawyers Guild.

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How Election Day results on the federal, state, and local level impact the labor, arts, and LGBTQ+ communities. Finally, comedian W. Kamau Bell performs at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.

Mikaela Shiffrin celebrated an emotional win in a women’s World Cup night race Tuesday, edging out Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova in another gripping duel of their ongoing slalom rivalry.

Mike Tyson’s new line of boxing glove-shaped cannabis gummies launched exclusively in Colorado this week, and the reason why might come as a surprise.

Ian Munsick will chart new territory in the Northeast and beyond with his 18-city Horses are Faster Tour

My Chemical Romance (Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero, and Mikey Way) will be celebrating The Black Parade this coming summer

Several Colorado cities have been "zoom-bombed" by people making offensive remarks from afar while shrouded in anonymity.

Aurora's decades-long debate over whether to ban pit bulls should finally find resolution in the Nov. 5 election, when voters will have the final say on whether to repeal an existing ban. Here's an explainer.

Aurora Mayor Pro Tem Dustin Zvonek is resigning from the City Council at the end of October, one year before the end of his term.

It was the summer of 2015 when the Animas River in southern Colorado turned such a garish orange-gold that it made national news.

"Donald Trump is not a politician who guards his words carefully to avoid offending anyone. But we don't need a politician now." -- Angie Many, Eckert

YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul had to wait an extra four months for his high-profile match with 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

Tune in at 8pm to hear the seldom performed opera by Giuseppe Verdi, I Masnadieri (The Robbers) staring Samuel Ramey, Franco Bonisolli, Joan Sutherland and Matteo Manuguerra recorded in 1983 on DECCA.

Tune in at 8pm to hear host Sean Bianco's favorite opera Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda. This 1981 recording stars Monserrat Caballe, Luciano Pavarotti, Agnes Baltsa, Sherrill Milnes and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Don't miss this amazing Italian opera!

Tune in at 8pm to hear a special tribute to honor the passing of Soprano Renata Scotto on August 16th at the age of 89 followed by the feature opera Bellini's Il Pirata staring Maria Callas recorded live in 1959.

Tune in at 8pm to hear Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico (3 one act operas) staring Renata Scotto in Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica and Tito Gobbi in Gianni Schicchi.

Fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has launched a new alcohol-free perfume for dogs called "Fefé" in honor of Domenico Dolce’s poodle, but not all vets and pet owners agree it’s safe or appropriate.

His sisters Cheryl and Michelle have posted on Di'Anno's Facebook page.

"There was nothing tawdry about it. It was companionship. And they loved music."

The Denver district attorney has launched an investigation into how a spreadsheet of voting system passwords ended up on the Colorado secretary of state's website earlier this year.

Denver International Airport officials are preparing to close the A-Bridge linking DIA's main terminal to concourses as part of a re-configuration and expansion of security screening checkpoints.

Denver voters were giving a strong thumbs-down Tuesday night to ballot measures that would ban businesses from making or selling fur-based products and outlaw slaughterhouses within city limits.

Perhaps, years from now, if existing trends are reversed and more police officers start to be held accountable for using excessive force against Black people, we will be able to look back at this verdict as a turning point. But that would have to be a retrospective judgment based on change.

Can a first championship game qualify as a classic? Mountain Vista's thrilling 32-21 victory over Arvada West on Saturday night in the Class 5A flag football title game sure is a contender.

These cities are rich with ghost sightings and scary stories grounded in truth.

“Hotel operators are starting to see restaurants as not just an amenity but as a way to drive traffic, and it’s important that these restaurants stand on their own as well."

What's on your essential Denver eats list? Here are our 30 picks.

SNÖBAHN, the Colorado venue that brings outdoor sports indoors, has received an investment from some high-profile names in the world of professional sports who hope to expand the concept nationally.

The allegations in the ICU come as the Aurora VA has been roiled by controversy in recent months. When clinicians do raise concerns to management, they say they're met with admonition and retaliation.

JET’s new digital app launches June 30.

Supermodel Shaun Ross owns the runway.

Black Hollywood's most beautiful celebs in different hues.

Shaun Ross shares all.

Shaun Ross discusses his #InMySkinIWin movement.

An audience member gets a makeover.

Sometimes it's better to talk on the phone over texting.

When Keke wants something done, she makes it happen.

William Byron launched Hendrick Motorsports’ 40th anniversary season by snapping the team’s nine-year Daytona 500 losing streak with a win Monday in the rain-delayed “Great American Race.”

Along the way, the 61-year-old Lakewood native became a fixture in the local motocross community

Bids for the Main Street Apartments complex will start at $6.2 million and be accepted until Nov. 15.

Front Range residents looking to strike big will soon have two new bowling alleys where they can knock down pins and knock back espresso martinis.

The growing Hispanic populations in Colorado and the U.S. and their increasing buying power are the focus of Ahorra Mucho.

Nonprofit coffee shop uses 100% of its profits from selling a cup of Joe to help people find employment and a place to live.