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Major news events throughout the world continue to be largely ignored until they reach tragic proportions. Underreported, a weekly feature on The Leonard Lopate Show, tackles these issues and gives an in-depth look into stories that are often relegated to the back pages.

Underreported: Offshore LNG Terminals in NY and NJ

The Leonard Lopate Show

September 04, 2008

Environmentalists in New Jersey and New York are fighting proposals to build offshore terminals to store liquefied natural gas (LNG). Hear why ExxonMobil and private investment firms want the terminals to be built, and why many are concerned about the terminals’ potential impact. David Byer is Water Policy Attorney for Clean Ocean Action.

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Underreported: Is NYC Ready for a Major Hurricane?

The Leonard Lopate Show

September 04, 2008

70 years ago, in September 1938, a major hurricane struck the northeast and killed almost 700 people…and caused the modern equivalent of nearly 5 billion dollars in damage! Find out whether the New York City metro area is prepared for another major hurricane, and the disasters that could follow. Sarah Newkirk is Coastal Program Director of The Nature Conservancy on Long Island; Dr. Nicholas Coch is Professor in the Queens College School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

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Underreported: Eating Mud Cakes in Haiti

The Leonard Lopate Show

August 21, 2008

As Haiti’s food prices skyrocket, many poor Haitians are resorting to eating mud cakes - the cheapest way to quell hunger in a country whose food import bill will leap 80% this year, the fastest price jump in the world. Rory Carroll is a correspondent for the Guardian.

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Underreported: Is Pollution Poisoning China’s Children?

The Leonard Lopate Show

August 21, 2008

With the Beijing Olympics underway, everyone’s talking about how air pollution there is affecting athletes’ performances. But how is it affecting Chinese children’s physical and intellectual development? Dr. Frederica Perera, director of Columbia University’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health, joins us to explain how China’s pollution problem may be poisoning its children.

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Underreported: Coming to Terms with Pinochet

The Leonard Lopate Show

August 07, 2008

Judge Juan Guzmán had supported General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup that toppled democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and left thousands of others dead or disappeared. But when in 1998 Judge Guzman was assigned the first criminal cases against Pinochet, what he learned about the past changed his mind about the General, and forced him to confront his own role in the tragedy. He joins Leonard, along with Elizabeth Farnsworth, director of a new documentary called "The Judge and the General." It airs on PBS on August 19 at 10 pm.

Event:
“The Judge and the General” will be screened
Thursday, August 7, at 6:30
at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
W. 65 St., between Broadway and Amsterdam
Tickets and more information is here

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Underreported: Small Business Money Goes to Corporate Giants

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 31, 2008

During 2006 and 2007, the Department of Interior awarded over $430 million in small business contracts to corporate giants like Xerox and John Deere. We look into how that happened, and whether that’s part of a larger pattern of directing small business money to large corporations. Lloyd Chapman is president and founder of the American Small Business League, a non-partisan group advocacy group for small businesses.

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Underreported: Women in Post-War Liberia

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 24, 2008

Many women in post-war Liberia are jobless and lack decent housing and medical care. Compounding the problem are the more than 30,000 women and girls who served with fighting forces in Liberia’s recent wars. They were constant targets for rape and sexual violence. Find out how former female Liberian soldiers are struggling to piece together their lives again.

Jackie Redd served in Charles Taylor’s forces throughout her teens and early 20s; Florence Ballah worked as a cook and porter in Liberia’s rebel group ULIMO. Both were abducted in their early teens and subsequently joined fighting forces. Tania Bernath is Liberia researcher for Amnesty International.

Events:
Amnesty International's documentary "Women of Liberia: Fighting for Peace"
will be shown

Thurs., July 24
92nd St. Y Tribeca
7pm-9pm
Screening, Debate and Discussion
200 Hudson Street

and

Sun., July 27
Riverside Church
11 AM service, After Service Program, 1pm-4pm
Screening, Liberian lunch, Liberian live music and DJ
490 Riverside Drive

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Underreported: Sudan Update

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 17, 2008

Georgette Gagnon, Africa program director for Human Rights Watch, gives us an update on the latest from Khartoum. We’ll talk about the ongoing proxy war between Chad and Sudan, and the recent ICC request for a warrant of arrest for Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir on charges of ten counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

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Underreported: Haitian Paramilitary Leader on Trial in New York

The Leonard Lopate Show

July 10, 2008

Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, former leader of the Haitian paramilitary group FRAPH, went on trial earlier this week in New York. But he’s not being tried for his human rights violations – he’s on trial for mortgage fraud! After fleeing Haiti to avoid a warrant for his arrest, he lived a comfortable life in Queens as a mortgage broker. Jennie Green is Senior Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has sued Toto Constant on behalf of 3 women who survived FRAPH’s campaign of violence against women.

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