More than 49 million Americans—or one in seven—struggled to find enough to eat last year, according to a report from the US Department of Agriculture released Monday. That’s the highest total since the federal government began keeping track of food insecurity. Meanwhile, leaders from most of the world are gathered in Rome to tackle hunger on a global scale at the UN World Food Summit, but leaders of the world’s richest countries were largely absent from the summit. We speak with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System. [includes rush transcript]

President Obama’s nominee for the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the office of the US Trade Representative, Islam Siddiqui is currently a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto, and Dow Chemical. He was previously a lobbyist for CropLife and also served in the US Department of Agriculture under President Clinton and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations have sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging them to reject his nomination. [includes rush transcript]

The governing body of the University of California system, the Board of Regents, is preparing to vote on a major tuition hike for both undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduate tuition would rise an average 32 percent, while some graduate schools would begin charging thousands of dollars for programs that are currently tuition-free. The Regents are meeting Thursday at UCLA, where students from across the state are converging for what organizers have dubbed a “Crisis Fest,” including mass protests, civil disobedience and teach-ins. [includes rush transcript]

• World Leaders: No Binding Deal on Climate Change Until 2010
• Gov't Report: Quarter of All US Children Went Hungry Last Year
• Percentage of Delinquent Mortgages Reach New High
• NAACP, AFL-CIO Call on Obama to Do More to Create Jobs
• Gov't Audit Criticizes Handing of AIG Bailout
• Palestinians Threaten to Form Independent State
• US to Attend ICC Meeting as Observer
• Gates Blocks Release of Torture Photos
• Five Arrested at Fort Huachuca
• Biotech Lobbyists Write Statements for Dozens of Lawmakers
• Drug Industry Raises Prescription Drug Prices
• Nation's Oldest Gay and Lesbian Newspaper Shuts Down
• Holder Urged to Probe Possible Puerto Rican Hate Crime
• FBI Tracked Studs Terkel for 45 Years
• KPFA Programmer Andrea Lewis, 52, Dies

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Yip always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Yip was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of his life.

Taking us on today’s trip through the music and politics of Yip is his son, Ernie Harburg. First, we’re going to go through Yip’s early life, his collaboration with the Gershwin’s, through “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Then we’re going to take an in-depth look at The Wizard of Oz. And finally, we’ll hear a medley of Yip Harburg’s Broadway songs and the politics of the times in which they were created. [includes rush transcript]

After eight years of broadcasting out of Downtown Community Television’s historic firehouse, Democracy Now! is moving to new studios. DCTV’s Keiko Tsuno and Jon Alpert took us in shortly before the 9/11 attacks, giving us a beloved home in one of the country’s leading community television centers. We will be on the road for two weeks and then begin broadcasting from our new studios in an old graphic arts building occupied for years by printing presses. [includes rush transcript]

The anti-poverty group ACORN has filed a lawsuit against the US government that accuses Congress of punitively targeting the organization. In September, the Senate and the House voted on legislation to strip ACORN of federal funding following the release of a video in which employees of ACORN were secretly recorded giving tax advice to two conservative activists dressed up as a pimp and a prostitute. ACORN has long been a target of right-wing scorn for its work helping poor people fight foreclosures, fix tax problems, and register to vote. We speak with Bill Quigley, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who filed the lawsuit on ACORN’s behalf. [includes rush transcript]

Federal prosecutors have moved to seize four mosques and a New York skyscraper belonging to a non-profit foundation with alleged financial ties to Iran. The Council on American-Islamic Relations warns that the seizure of places of worship may have First Amendment implications for the American Muslim community. [includes rush transcript]

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce today that five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a criminal court in New York instead of a military commission. The move marks one of the first major steps by the Obama administration to close the prison at Guantanamo. To assess the future of Guantanamo Bay and the more than 200 men still in detention there, we speak with British journalist and historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. [includes rush transcript]

Homeowners in New London, Connecticut took on the city’s leaders after they announced plans to condemn all of the homes in one neighborhood to make way for a private development project for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The city said it would bring in thousands of jobs. After a 2005 Supreme Court ruling against the homeowners, the entire neighborhood was bulldozed. This week Pfizer announced it is shutting down its research center. [includes rush transcript]

• Alleged 9/11 Conspirators to Be Tried in NY
• US Seizes Mosques, Buildings for Alleged Iran Ties
• Gates "Appalled" by Admin Leaks on Afghan War
• British PM: US Allies Could Send 5,000 Troops to Afghanistan
• Obama Rejects Visit to Hiroshima, Nagasaki
• Ft. Hood Suspect Charged, Faces Death Penalty
• On 10th Anniversary of Glass-Steagall Repeal, Watchdog Says Bailout "Almost Certainly" Will Result in Taxpayer Loss
• Fed to Bar Overdraft Fees
• Reid Mulls Medicare Payroll Tax for Top Earners
• Insurance Giant Recruits Employees to Oppose Public Option
• RNC Orders Insurance Plan to Stop Covering Abortions
• Ex-Manager of Postville Plant Convicted of Financial Fraud
• Pakistan Denies Report of China Nuclear Ties
• Group: Colombian Gov't, Paramilitaries Responsible for Vast Majority of Abuses
• Obama to Hold Unemployment Summit
• Report: Admin Considers Short-Term Climate Pact

A new documentary looks at a man once described as the most hated and most loved lawyer in America: the late William Kunstler. We play excerpts of William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe and speak to the film’s co-directors, Kunstler’s daughters Emily and Sarah Kunstler. [includes rush transcript]

The Environmental Protection Agency is being accused of trying to silence two longtime EPA enforcement attorneys who have publicly criticized a key component of the climate change legislation being considered by Congress. Last week the EPA directed Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel to remove or edit a video they posted to YouTube that warns a cap-and-trade plan will not effectively combat global warming and is “fatally flawed.” The couple instead advocate for a solution involving carbon fees with rebates. [includes rush transcript]

In a last-minute dissent ahead of a critical war cabinet meeting on escalating the Afghan war, US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry has cast doubt on a troop escalation until the Afghan government can address corruption and other internal problems. Meanwhile, a report reveals how the US government is financing the very same insurgent forces in Afghanistan that American and NATO soldiers are fighting. Investigative journalist Aram Roston traces how the Pentagon’s civilian contractors in Afghanistan end up paying insurgent groups to protect American supply routes from attack. [includes rush transcript]

• US Ambassador Resists Troop Increase in Afghanistan
• Poll: 58% Oppose Afghan War
• Obama Honors Veterans at Arlington
• Iraq Probes Blackwater Bribery Allegations
• Influential US Diplomat Could Profit from Iraqi-Kurdish Oil Ties
• US Criticized for Collapse of Honduras Deal
• Palestinians Mark 5th Anniversary of Arafat Death
• Study: Unsafe Abortions Burdening Developing Nations
• Report: Anti-Terror Laws Thwarting Immigrant, Asylum Cases
• Internal Study Predicts Drug Industry Windfall from Healthcare Reform
• Dodd Unveils Senate Financial Overhaul Bill
• CDC: 4,000 Swine Flu Deaths Since April
• Immigrant Rights Advocates Hail Departure of CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs

The parents of US Army Reserve Specialist Chancellor Keesling, an Iraq war veteran, received a letter yesterday from the VA asking that their son complete his “Post Deployment Adjustment.” The only problem is, Chance Keesling had killed himself in Iraq nearly five months ago. We speak with Chance’s dad, Gregg Keesling, who’s still waiting for the letter he’s never received: condolences from President Obama. A longstanding US policy denies presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who have committed suicide. [includes rush transcript]

The rate of sexual assaults within the US military also exceeds that of the general population. A Pentagon report earlier this year found one in three female servicemembers are sexually assaulted at least once during their enlistment. Sixty-three percent of nearly 3,000 cases reported last year were rapes or aggravated assaults. Despite what some have called an epidemic of military sexual trauma, the delivery of healthcare to women veterans remains grossly inadequate. [includes rush transcript]

On Veterans Day, a new study estimates four times as many US Army veterans died last year because they lacked health insurance than the total number of US soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period. A research team at Harvard Medical School says 2,266 veterans under the age of sixty-five died in 2008 because they were uninsured. We speak to the report’s co-author, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. [includes rush transcript]

• Blackwater Prepared Bribes After 2007 Nisoor Massacre
• Report: Top Officials Back 30,000 Additional Troops in Afghanistan
• US Citizen Sues FBI for Kidnapping, Mistreatment in Africa
• Obama Honors Ft. Hood Victims
• Anti-Arab Marine Reservist Assaults Greek Priest
• DC Sniper Executed by Lethal Injection
• 4 Arrested at Sen. Lieberman's Offices
• Basketball Legend Abdul-Jabbar Backs Universal Healthcare
• Ex-Bear Sterns Execs Acquitted in Fraud Case
• India Criticized for Opening Bhopal Disaster Site Ahead of 25th Anniversary
• Justice Dept. Subpoenaed Indymedia Site for Web Visitors

John Perkins calls himself a former economic hit man. He has seen the signs of today’s financial meltdown before. The subprime mortgage fiasco, the collapse of the banking industry, the rising unemployment rate—these are all familiar to him. Perkins was on the front lines of monitoring and helping create these very events that were once just confined to the Third World. From 1971 to 1981, he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main, where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Confessions of An Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire. [includes rush transcript]