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Dear Friends,

I was talking with my Mom this morning who, unlike her son, tends to be sensible and avoid politics. But this morning, she broke with protocol and asked me what we occupier-types hope to accomplish.

I recapped the old news, how Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and their ilk bilked hundreds of billions from the general public and private enterprise. “Ok, but what do you DO about it?” she asked.

That’s the tricky part, isn’t it? How to hold corporate criminals accountable? One golden opportunity is the Attorneys General’s Bank Settlement Committee that Iowa’s own Tom Miller chairs. In a perfect world, if cash flowing from Wall Street were not gunking-up the gears of democracy, you’d expect a settlement of possibly $1 trillion dollars or more. But the way things are shaping up, the big banks may get off with a $20 billion slap on the wrist.

And as Matt Taibbi artfully sums up in a recent article, this is bankers “stealing the retirement nest eggs of firemen, teachers, cops and other actors.”

Monday, Charles Goldman (no relation to Goldman Sachs . . . do I have to keep reminding you of that?) joins me to discuss the bank settlement issue.

Tuesday, Linda Oleson-King of Passageway (formerly the Rainbow Center) discusses the legislative and funding challenges facing Iowa’s mental health care system.

Wednesday, we’ll look at the latest developments in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Thursday, Zach Bales-Henry co-hosts with me as we talk with Bill Ferrel about what religion and faith have to say about climate change.

So, tune in at 98.3 WOW-FM and online. You can download the Fallon Forum as a podcast, too.  And don’t forget to visit The Fallon Forum website at fallonforum.com.  Thanks!

Ed