Four years after Hurricane Katrina the recovery and rebuilding effort has moved slowly. Even with a change of administration and a president who has made a commitment to the region much more needs to be done. According to the Institute for Southern Studies a survey of fifty grassroots leaders gave the Obama administration a grade of D+ on issues of housing, environmental protection, and using stimulus money to rebuild New Orleans.

Renika Moore, Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Chris Kromm, Executive Director of the Institute for Southern Studies, Saket Soni, Director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, and Tiffany Gardner, Human Right to Housing Director at NESRI on the Gulf Coast four years later.

Then, Claude Anshin Thomas, Vietnam war veteran turned Zen priest, discusses his new book, At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace. Thomas is the founder of the ZALTHO Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes peace and non-violence through spiritually based teaching.

Finally, the other side of Fiji Water. A short video based on a recent story in Mother Jones on how a plastic water bottle imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away became so cool.  

Thanks to Brave New Films, State Radio, and the American News Project and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund for video in tonight’s show.