Government & Politics

For the last word on the 80s, comedian Al Franken looks back on the Al Franken decade. It's from an interview Terry did with Franken on March 22, 1988.

South African pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim (E-bra-HEEM). His music is influenced by South African vocal and popular music, early American Jazz, church music, and American Jazz of the 1960's and 1970's which was influenced by African music. One of his songs, "Mannenberg is Where It's Happening (Capetown Fringe)," a vocal, was a hit in South Africa and became the anthem for the Soweto uprisings of 1976. Ibrahim formerly went by the name Dollar Brand, and has several albums under that name. Ibrahim lives in New York in self-imposed exile from South Africa.

Television critic David Bianculli considers the networks' penchant for the docudrama and looks at NBC's upcoming movie, "Howard Beach: Making the Case for Murder."

Television critic David Bianculli reviews "The Neon Empire" a new mini-series on Showtime which stars Martin Landau, Gary Busey, and Ray Sharkey. It follows in the footsteps of NBC's belated "Crime Story."

Former first lady Nancy Reagan. When the Reagans entered the White House, Nancy was a relatively anonymous first lady, best known for her strident "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. But toward the end of President Reagan's second term, it became more apparent that Nancy Reagan's role in running the government was much larger than imagined, and it turns out many of her and her husband's decisions were influenced by a California astrologer. Nancy Reagan has a new memoir, called "My Turn."

Veteran arms negotiator and diplomat Paul Nitze. Nitze has spent nearly 50 years at the highest levels of this country's foreign policy, and advised every President from F. D. R. to George Bush. He helped form the Marshall Plan after World War Two, dealt with the Berlin War and Cuban Missile crises, and engaged in the famous "walk in the woods," during the U-S/Soviet INF treaty negotiations. Nitze has just written a memoir of his public life, called "From Hiroshima to Glasnost."

Former U.S. senator James G. Abourezk (AB-er-esk). In his new memoir, "Advise and Dissent," Abourezk tells of Arab-American heritage, his coming of age in the North Dakota Indian country, his early political days, his 8 years in Congress, and his decision not to run for re-election in 1979. These days Abourezk is an attorney in Washington, D.C., and is National Chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Computer expert Clifford Stoll. When Stoll discovered a 75-cent accounting discrepancy in his work as systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, he thought the intruder was a student prankster. But after tracking the hacker for almost a year, Stoll discovered an international spy ring, operating out of West Germany, which sold the data it collected to the Soviets. This is the subject of his book "The Cuckoo's Egg".

Television critic David Bianculli reviews the new season of the drama series "Wiseguy."

Novelist Russell Banks often depicts ordinary people coping with difficulties in contemporary society. His new book "Affliction," takes on the subject of male violence, following the story of Wade Whitehouse, "a good man beset by the dark side of the macho mentality." Banks has also written for "Esquire," "Vanity Fair," "The Nation," and other publications.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Black Rain." It stars Michael Douglas as a New York City cop who goes to Japan to try to track down a killer. The movie's directed by Ridley Scott, who also made "Blade Runner" and "Alien."

Poet Li-Young Lee. He was born into a family of political refugees from China. They traveled throughout Asia for years to escape persecution. In the mid-60's his family moved to Pennsylvania. Lee's poems reflect his struggle with his Chinese heritage - a heritage to which he is bound but in which he never lived. His poems also reflect Lee's attempt to come to terms with the powerful and mythic figure of his father, who was alternately imprisoned and revered for his beliefs.

Mystery writer Mary Wings. Wings' novels draw on the familiar hard-boiled detective genre, but her heroine is a lesbian-feminist detective named Emma Victor. Wings new book is titled "She Came in a Flash."

Book Critic John Leonard reviews Wasted, an investigation of last year's `Preppie Murder' trial in New York City. Robert Chambers, son of a wealthy New York City couple, was charged with the murder of Jennifer Levin, herself the product of wealthy parents and New York's finest private schools. The trial was a headline-grabber for Chambers' controversial defense and for its exposure of the aimless, dissolute lifestyle of the children of the wealthy.

Actress and director Lee Grant. As an actress, Grant won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Shampoo," Emmys for her work on "Peyton Place" and "Electra," and an Obie for "The Maids." As a director, she won an Academy Award for her documentary "Down and Out in America." This month, HBO is showing Grant's latest production, "Battered." It's a documentary about the victims, and perpetrators, of domestic violence. "Battered" airs as part of HBO's "America Undercover" series.

Edmund (Pat) Brown, the former governor of California. From 1959 to 1967, Brown commuted the death sentences of 23 convicts, but allowed 36 others to go to the gas chambers. He has written a book, Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor's Education on Death Row, about the extraordinary personal and political pressures that came to bear on each decision, and of the evolution of his thinking on the death penalty from his inauguration to his last day in office.

Novelist Taghi Modarressi. His new novel, The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette, is set in Iran after the Islamic revolution. It revolves around an aging academic, well acquainted with the ways and mores of the West, and his family and friends as they deal with the fear and poverty during the Iran-Iraq War. But when his prize student is killed at the front, the academic, who until now has closeted himself away with his philosophical pursuits, must acknowledge the meaninglessness of his efforts when compared to the chaos of contemporary Iran.

Reporter Robert Sam Anson. While a young reporter for Time Magazine in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, Anson was captured by the North Vietnamese and their allies in the Khmer Rouge. He's written a book about that experience, but also about Time's reporting of the war. For much of the war, according to Anson, Time's hawkish stance compromised the work of its reporters, himself included. Anson's earlier books include "They've Killed the President!": The Search for the Murderers of John F.

Ronald Takaki. He's the grandson of Japanese immigrants and a professor of Ethnic Studies at Berkeley. His book, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, tells the diverse stories of Asian immigrants who have come to the United States during the past century and a half. Takaki relates the personal testimonies of new immigrants and their American-born children.

Shelley Winters. With two Oscars and well over 100 films to her credit, Winters is a star in the classic Hollywood mode. But she is almost as well known for her off-screen adventures and irrepressible life style that made her a staple in the gossip columns.