Today on Kresta - April 28, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on April 28

4:00 – Kresta Comments

4:40 – Wall Street Reform and the Presidential Debt Commission
As Congress continues to battle over a Wall Street Reform bill, President Barack Obama has launched the Presidential Debt Commission. Yesterday, the President said that the commission will suggest ways to rein in soaring U.S. budget deficits and told them to consider every possible remedy to put the country on a path toward fiscal health. Obama said the 18-member bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, which held its first meeting, would be free to work without limitations. He declined to discuss what revenue increases or spending cuts the panel should consider. The U.S. deficit was $1.4 trillion in 2009, nearly 10 percent of the overall economy, and it could be higher this year. We talk with George Schwartz, author of Good Returns: Making Money by Morally Responsible Investing.

5:00 – Disney’s “Oceans”
Disneynature’s debut film, Earth, was a 90-minute sifting of “Planet Earth,” the BBC’s massive documentary miniseries about life on Earth. Fans of “Planet Earth” and its marine companion series “Blue Planet” might wonder whether Disneynature’s new film Oceans was likewise distilled from the latter series. It’s not. Wider in scope and subject matter, this new film is no less breathtakingly up-close and personal with its subjects. Nature docs thrive on firsts, and Oceans has some eye-poppers. Steven Greydanus has the review.

5:20 – High court rules cross doesn't violate separation of church and state
The Supreme Court narrowly ruled today that a white cross, erected as a war memorial and sitting on national parkland in the Mojave Desert, does not violate the constitutional separation of church and state. The 5-4 majority said Congress acted properly when it tried to transfer land around the Mojave Memorial Cross to veterans groups, an effort to eliminate any Establishment Clause violation. The land then would have been declared a national memorial. A federal appeals panel had previously blocked that land swap. Attorney Charles LiMandri is here to discuss this ruling.

5:40 – 50 Years After “The Pill”
An end to poverty. A cure for divorce. The elimination of unwed pregnancy. Fifty years ago next month, when the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would approve the oral contraceptive, these were the highest expectations for it. Janet Smith is here to look at the “Pill” – 50 years later. She says that the science is unequivocal. Fifty years after FDA approval, chemical contraception is bad for women, couples, society and the environment.