His book watchdog when is about investigations you went through and the troubled asset relief vote, your vote election to congress, interesting for readers is the gray davis recall in california and the behind the scenes story of how that came about and was financed. Has a little of chairman tom baits in it. Guest a little of that. Host what prompted you to write a book . Guest i think voters have lost a little hope. They see the wrongdoing, not all of it but some of it, and dont see what difference it makes. I thought a book about taking the stories people know about and link it to what difference it makes would help people. There were things done as a result on our successes. You sent out 2,000 letters in a congressional cycle and most of those end in government complying, and making changes and investigations. Many led to fundamental changes. There were lavish parties held on taxpayers money and our oversight changed how the administration oversees that to make sure taxpayer dollars
We have enough growth in the number of fisheries, and a rate of decline. Growth because of the throughput, but youre going to spend money more wisely. With someg to do away Surplus Properties in the next year which will bring money into the treasury. Their true to do some efficiency things to make the v. A. A streamlined as it can be. But not by sacrificing money for the benefits of our veterans. I wanted to ask, when it comes to the budget, the v. A. Has repeatedly asked for flexibility and how they move money around. As we saw last year, because of that inflexibility, there was almost a shutdown of the va Hospital Services in the fall. Mcdonaldand secretary found any Common Ground, is there anything that congress to free up fundso for the v. A. To manage within the year . That is a terrific question. Togives me a chance congratulate secretary mcdonald. Initially our relationship they want to flexibility without accountability, which i was not willing to defend, because the month mone
Have very changeable forecast. Fo rain now, winds later, veryer cold temperatures tonight. Tonit lots to talk about for theor t first weekend of april. April it is saturday morning, april 2nd. Ri2n radar right now showing thosengt showers moving through. Throu if you are not seeing rain ingai d. C. Over the past hour or so, s you probably are now. N there are heavier pockets of o rain up in baltimore,timore, fredericksburg, and wellrgd wel probably see rain through theeeh morning hours. Its not until afternoon thatfto we start to clear out. Out might even see a little bit ofei sunshine. But for now its the rain. Rai later today its the wind. High wind warning in effectrnin for the mountains where wee mo could see gusts over 50 milesr l an hour. An h even though thats way towardsow west virginia, extrememe sections of western maryland wen you could have potentiallyential Power Outages from this wind. W along with the wind we have aav freeze warning in effect for northwestern counties. T
Four. I am neither the first or the last. The point that i wanted to reflect was that this is a tradition in the history of. Ociety people have to put themselves on the line. People have to take risks. Citizens have not just an , notest but nomination just believing in idea but standing for it in challenging the government when it goes to backfire. If we see our constitution being a violated on a massive scale by we have been demanded our officials to smirnov that they will protect becomes diffusion against all enemies not just foreign but domestic as well, we have a duty to stand up and do something about it. I tried my best to do that. I will hope that others will do the same in the future. I hope that will have no need for something as dramatic as we have seen in the last year. The last one, i have lost track of. Sorry. Are you working on a tool to protect journalists . That is still an area of active focus. I am doing a lot with the freedom of press foundation and doing other thing
Who are freezing can admire your shorts and tshirts and silently curse you. Speaking of the tucson festival of books, we have bill minor here today, one of the visionaries. Give him a round of applause. Very much a volunteerdriven effort a group of people bill and many others who made a big impact on the community. If you want to be part of that, i hope you will consider becoming a friend of the festival. A tax deductible donation that impacts this event and were moting around the country. Let me introduce the panel. David maraniss author of many books, he was won several wards prince of tennessee about al gore books about sports in the 1960s, and other political books as well. So please welcome him. [applause] if you are political aware and not living under a rock you know about mark levitch and his book this town that caused a lot of stir and conversation. Number one New York Times best seller followed up with a collection of his fantastic articles over the years called sitcitizen ci