June 30 – Another Week to Make the P5+1 Deal with Iran; California’s Vaccination Law and an Attempt to Destroy Public Sector Unions; An Electorally-Challenged Chris Christie Enters the Presidential Race

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the extension by a week of the deadline for the P5+1 negotiations with Iran in Vienna, after the parties failed to reach an agreement by the June 30 deadline. Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver joins us to discuss the likelihood that a deal will be made in spite of a last-minute spoiler from Iran’s Supreme Leader that appeared to backtrack from the framework agreement reached in April. We also discuss Nader Hashemi’s article in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs “How a Nuclear Deal Helps Democracy in Iran”.

Part 2

Then we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist at the Los Angeles Times Michael Hiltzik about two major California stories making news today. The first is Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of the nation’s toughest new mandatory vaccination law that will end exemptions from state immunization laws based on religious or other personal beliefs. And the second is the Supreme Court’s agreement to take up a case that could weaken public sector unions in a challenge by 10 nonunion public school teachers who claim California’s requirement that they pay union dues violates their free speech rights.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the scandal-plagued record of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who is the fourteenth entrant into the crowded Republican presidential primary field, joining a race in which his poll numbers indicate 55% of Republican primary voters can not envision voting for him, making Christie only slightly more palatable than the bombastic racist buffoon Donald Trump. Robert Hennelly, a contributing writer at Salon, reporter for CBS News’ Money Watch and a political analyst for WBGO, an NPR affiliate in Newark, New Jersey, joins us to discuss the gulf between Christie’s ego and New Jersey’s tattered economy.