Today on Kresta - April 6, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Apr. 6


4:00 – "If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die": How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor
It was this week in 1999 that violence once again flared in East Timor – the end result of which would be a vote for independence and an end to Indonesian occupation later that year. Historian Geoffrey Robinson is here to examine the tumultuous events surrounding East Timor's 1999 attempt to gain independence from Indonesia. With expertise and an insider's perspective - a principal researcher for Amnesty International in the 1990s, Robinson joined the UN mission overseeing East Timor's independence referendum – Geoffrey offers rare insight into the country's internal turmoil. Particularly riveting are Robinson's descriptions of the days preceding the historic vote to separate from Indonesia: "dressed in their Sunday best, some East Timorese left home in the middle of the night to reach the polling station by dawn." The importance of that vote, in which "98.6 percent of those who had registered cast ballots," is hard to overstate. Despite the overwhelming brutality of the story, and a bleak assessment of actions from the UN and international community, Robinson manages to cap his detailed report with a hopeful note.

4:30 – A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church
On December 26, 1997, near the affluent community of Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle, a house went up in flames. In it was the shy, beloved minister’s wife Dawn Hacheney. When the fire was extinguished, investigators found only her charred remains. Her husband Nick was visibly devastated by the loss. What investigators failed to note, however, was that Dawn’s lungs didn’t contain smoke. Was she dead before the fire began? So begins this true crime story that’s unlike any other. It investigates Nick Hacheney, a philandering minister who had been carrying on with several women in the months before and just after his wife’s death. He would be convicted for the murder five years to the day after the crime. One of the foremost names in true crime, author Gregg Olsen joins us to tell this gripping and truly unforgettable story of a man whose charisma and desire rocked an entire community.

5:00 – Kresta Comments


5:20 – Twenty-five miners dead in WV blast
An underground mine explosion in Southern West Virginia has killed 25 miners. Rescuers likely won't be able to resume their search until at least early this evening for the four miners who remain unaccounted for. The blast happened Monday afternoon at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. Homer Hickam knows the area and coal mining very well. The best-selling author of "Rocket Boys" about his boyhood in the Southern WV coalfields was made into the movie "October Sky". Hickam is himself a former miner and has written several books set in and around WV coal mines. He was asked to give the eulogy following the 2006 Sago mine disaster in his home state, and his Red Helmet Foundation endows college scholarships for the children of coal miners. He joins us.

5:30 – Archbishop Gómez to succeed Cardinal Mahony in Los Angeles
Pope Benedict XVI has named Archbishop José Gómez of San Antonio as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles. Born in Mexico in 1951 and ordained a priest of Opus Dei in 1978, Archbishop Gómez was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Denver in 2001 and Archbishop of San Antonio in 2004. Archbishop Gómez will become Archbishop of Los Angeles upon the retirement of 74-year-old Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has led the United States' largest diocese since 1985. We talk with Deacon Pat Rodgers, Director of Communication in the Archdiocese of San Antonio about his loss and LA’s gain.

5:40 – Kresta Comments