Army chaplain and captain Ran Dolinger has 20 years of experience in the army, ministering to soldiers in the field, and training other chaplains. He was in Iraq from July 2003 to February 2004, and returns there September. He currently serves at the Chief of Chaplains Office as media liaison officer.
Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is a key figure in the Bay Area improvisational scene, where he became known in the early 1990s as a member of the New Klezmer Trio.
Reporter Jane Mayer's recent article in The New Yorker examines the role of David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and longtime legal adviser. Mayer says current and former Bush administration officials credit him with helping form the administration's legal strategy in the war on terrorism.
Darrell Scott grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, just like his father, Wayne. Now Darrell is a Nashville singer and songwriter with albums and awards to his credit. And his father, at 71, is releasing a debut album.
Sergeants Zack Bazzi and Stephen Pink were two of three soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq who were given cameras to record their experiences. Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry Regiment and were based in the Sunni Triangle. They filmed their entire year's deployment. The footage makes up the new documentary The War Tapes which was directed by Deborah Scranton. The film opens in New York and L.A. this weekend.
Author Robert Sullivan's new book chronicles his family's cross-country trips from Oregon to New York. Its subtitle paints the picture: Cross Country: Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a lot of bad motels, a moving van, Emily Post, Jack Kerouac, my wife, my mother-in-law, two kids, and enough coffee to kill an elephant.
Linguist Geoff Nunberg comments on the outrageous nature of political talk shows. He uses Ann Coulter's remarks describing Sept. 11 widows as witches to illustrate his point.
Journalist Bill Minutaglio's new book documents the career of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Minutaglio writes for many publications, including The New York Times, Outside and Details.
Our film critic reviews Superman Returns. The new feature is directed by Bryan Singer, who made The Usual Suspects and X-Men. Newcomer Brandon Routh plays the man of steel, and Kevin Spacey is archenemy Lex Luthor.
Frank Tracy Griswold III, the 25th presiding bishop and primate of the U.S. Episcopal Church, is ending his nine-year term later this year. His replacement — a woman — has just been named. The Episcopal Church has been divided in recent years over the ordination of gay bishops.
In summer, lots of readers like to tackle complex works of non-fiction. Our book critic tells us why this summer, she turned to two ambitious works of historical fiction: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky and Triangle by Katharine Weber.
Dave Alvin is best known for his work in the Blasters and X, as well as his solo career. His new CD West of the West is a tribute to California songwriters, and features Alvin performing songs by Jerry Garcia, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Merle Haggard and others.
Movie musicals usually get lumped together as a category. But classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says that a batch of original musicals from MGM and 20th-Century Fox, just released on DVD, reveals an array of categories that date back to the earliest sound films. The batch includes Till the Clouds Roll By, Summer StockDown Argentine Way and It's Always Fair Weather.
Dr. Paul Epstein is a physician in Boston, and the associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. He's created a niche as an eco-physician, exploring the link between increased illness and global warming. Illnesses such as heatstroke, asthma and allergies are the more obvious outcomes of a warmer and more polluted planet, but Epstein says an increase in infectious diseases such as malaria and West Nile virus may also be linked to the greenhouse effect.
Emmy Award winner Brian Cox will be appearing on the HBO series Deadwood this season. Cox has been in more than 100 films and TV shows over the past 40 years.
Civil rights lawyer Joseph Margulies' new book is Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power. Margulies has represented several prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, and he believes that current U.S. policy is a legal and ethical disaster. He says that few new prisoners are arriving at Guantanamo, but the population at Bagram prison in Afghanistan is growing rapidly.
Attorney Richard Samp is the chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation, an organization that has been urging the U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss challenges to detentions at Guantanamo. He has said, "Throughout our history, the courts have never allowed nonresident aliens to invoke the Constitution as a basis for challenging their detention by American authorities."
Trauma care professionals C. William Schwab and Therese Richmond work at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. After years of treating patients in the emergency room, Schwab and Richmond have co-founded the Firearm Injury Center at Penn in an effort to systematically reduce the epidemic of gunshot wounds in the United States.
