The drought drastically affecting the state of California is the area's worst in 1,200 years. The snow pack on the Sierra Nevada mountains is at its lowest level ever recorded, harvests are withering, and more than a dozen towns in the central valley are in danger of are drying out. While authorities are seeking to reduce water consumption by the population, such restrictions have not been imposed on agribusiness, hydraulic fracking, and bottling companies. In today's edition of "Imaginary Lines", program host Michael Fox talks to Mateo Nube, co-founder of the Oakland-based Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. They discuss the scope of the drought, its effect on local communities and migrant workers, an ecological approach to conserving and efficiently using water, and the politics behind the government response. But first, a look at how the Western corporate press viewed the June 7 Mexican elections and their coverage -or lack thereof- of the combative movement to boycott the polls in the southern states of Guerrero and Oaxaca and the resulting repression by local and federal police. Finally, the expiration of sections of the U.S. Patriot Act and what this means for government surveillance of the population as seen by the mass media. teleSUR
