April 30 - Dragging Obama into Syria; How Republicans Block Obama's Judicial Nominations; What is Killing off the Honey Bees?

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Part 1	We will begin with Syria which dominated today’s press conference by the president who was asked whether his red line had been crossed by the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. An expert on Syria, Henri Barkey, who was a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department joins us to discuss the mounting pressure on a reluctant president to intervene in the Syrian disaster.
Part 2	Then we will examine why there is a record backlog of judicial appointments the Obama Administration is trying to fill. Michelle Schwartz, the Director of Justice Programs at the Alliance for Justice, joins us. Her organization just issued a report on how Republican Senators are not only blocking Obama’s judicial nominations by the arbitrary use of the filibuster, they are refusing to recommend potential federal judges in the first place.
Part 3	Then, following a European Commission ban on a class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, which are believed to be the cause of the alarming Colony Collapse Disorder that is killing off bees that pollinate most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, we will look into what is causing the die-off of over 50% of America’s bees. Paul Towers, a spokesman for the Pesticide Action Network and Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources join us to examine what is killing off the world’s honey bees.