Proposition 86: Should Smokers Save ER's and Provide Healthcare for Children? [Listen] [Listen] [Listen]
Proposition 86 would triple the cigarette tax, from 87¢ to $3.47 a pack, bringing the total cost for a cigarette pack to about $6.60. The estimated $2.1 billion raised every year would give health insurance to kids who don't have it and reimburse emergency rooms for serving the uninsured. Most of the $50 million raised to fight Prop 86 comes from the tobacco companies. There's $13 million against it, mostly from hospitals. Would Prop 86 make California a healthier state? Is it fair to smokers? Would it encourage cigarette smuggling by criminal gangs?

• Making News: Schwarzenegger's Double-Digit Lead over Angelides
  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has increased his lead over Treasurer Phil Angelides with less than six weeks until election day. The Field Poll has Schwarzenegger 10 points ahead. The Public Policy Institute of California gives him a 17-point lead.

Proposition 89: California Politics without Big Money? [Listen] [Listen] [Listen]
November's elections will likely set new records for campaign spending, led by the race for Governor and 13 ballot propositions. One of them promises to change all that by setting limits on corporate contributions. Proposition 89 promises to take the big money out of politics with spending limits and $200 in public financing of campaigns for state offices. Would spending reform limit special interest influence? Would public finance mean tax money for negative campaigns? We'll hear the pros and cons.

• Making News: Ports ‘Shortchanged' on Security
  The Department of Homeland Security has cut back on federal money for the maritime facilities at Long Beach, LA and Oakland--three of the biggest ports in the nation.

Proposition 87: Can California Tax its Way to Clean Energy? [Listen] [Listen] [Listen]
There will be 13 propositions on California's next ballot, plus local measures and countless races for federal, state and local offices. One of the propositions you're beginning to see TV commercials for and against is Proposition 87. With six weeks to go before the November elections, the pros and cons have already raised more than $80 million. Prop 87 would tax oil companies for every gallon of gas produced in California. The goal is $4 billion in ten years to reduce dependence on gasoline and encourage development of alternative energy sources. Oil companies would be prohibited from passing the tax to consumers but they claim that gasoline prices would skyrocket anyway. Can California tax its way to clean energy? We hear the pros and cons.

• Making News: King/Drew Fails Test
  Federal officials say it's all over for King/Drew Medical Center, the hospital created by LA County after the Watts Riots of 1965. Now, three years after a series of patient deaths, the County has spent $17 million to make things right. But last week, King/Drew failed the last in a multitude of inspections. Medicare and Medicaid have formally announced withdrawal of $200 million in funding, half the hospital's annual budget. Today, the Board of Supervisors held a closed-door meeting to decide what to do.

Tribune Board Meets as Mutiny at the Los Angeles Times Continues
Publisher Jeff Johnson and Editor Dean Baquet still have their jobs, at least for the moment, after a public challenge to LA Times owners at Tribune Publishing in Chicago. Twenty high-profile Los Angeles civic leaders have asked Tribune to improve local coverage or sell the paper. They've been joined by a virtual Times' staff revolt against prospective reductions. Meantime, Los Angeles readers will be seeing bylines from other papers owned by Tribune. Is the paper actually better since Tribune took over? Should the rebellious executives have been fired? What's the atmosphere inside the LA Times? When will the mutiny come to an end?

• Making News: Growers Fear Long-Term Impact of E. Coli Outbreak
  One person has died and 146 have been taken ill from E.coli bacteria in 23 states. Now health investigators claim they have a "smoking gun." It's a contaminated bag of spinach found in the refrigerator of a sick patient in New Mexico and traced to the Salinas Valley. What does this mean for vegetable farmers?
• Reporter's Notebook: California Attorney General Sues Six Auto Makers
  Attorney General Bill Lockyer claims that greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles harm California by contributing to global warming. In the first suit of its kind, he's gone to court against the six biggest US and Japanese makers of cars: Chrysler, General Motors, Ford, Toyota North America, Honda North America, and Nissan North America.