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A busy day in the world, this April 24th in 1998. Fourteen years ago on this day you probably woke up and heard the news that Boris Yeltsin, after a month of political wrangling and arm-twisting, finally succeeded in installing his pick for Prime Minister, Sergei Kiriyenko. Opposed by the Communist minority in the Russian Parliament, Kiriyenko was touted by Yeltsin as part of his plan for economic rejuvenation of the sagging Russian economy.

In other parts of the world. A festive atmosphere greeted the public execution of the first four convicted of perpetrators of the horrific genocide in Rwanda. The Soccer Stadium in Kigali filled to capacity to witness the firing squad take aim at the three men and one woman who were part of wave of mass killings that had gone on for so long in the beleaguered African nation.

With the recent death of James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, plans were still underway to open an investigation on the murder of the Civil Rights leader. Despite a 1978 Senate Subcommittee hearing that concluded Ray acted alone, there was pressing evidence that Ray had been funded by a group of St. Louis bigots who reportedly offered Ray $50,000.00 for the assassination.

Mergers and Unions in the Airline Industry were big news on this day. With talk of a merger between United and Delta Airlines, promises of a potential windfall, similar to the promises of a windfall from the previous days merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways had many expressing doubts about how much of a windfall this really was and an investigation of this new merger was called for.

Meanwhile, over at Northwest Airlines - The labor dispute was deepening with Northwest reportedly firing two mechanics, one for wearing a clown costume to work, and suspending four others for a reported work slowdown at its Minneapolis hub. Six other unions were prepping for a confrontation with stockholders and NWO's annuan meeting in New York. A federal mediator called for resumption of talks before the ugliness got started.

Whitewater figure Susan McDougal was sitting it out in a Little Rock jail on this day, as the result of refusing to answer questions for the Grand Jury hearing.

The cost of Health Insurance premiums were going to be going up, with a reported increase of as much as 15% in some cases.

The Senate narrowly approved legislation on Tax-free savings accounts for school expenses. President Clinton threatened a veto.

And daughter of OJ Simpson, Arnell was arrested for Drunk Driving in Beverly Hills.

Some day.

That and lots more via the CBS World News Roundup for a Friday, April 24th, 1998.

There was a time, if you were at a gathering of strangers in Los Angeles, the question would invariably be; "so where are you from originally?" Seemingly no one who lived in Southern California was actually born there - they had all been imported during the Great Migration of the 1950's, where cities east of the Rockies suffered a massive drop in populations and Mecca's like Los Angeles swelled accordingly. It was mostly about the weather, but it was a lot about the freedom - the "wide open spaces" as it was touted in ads. The escape from the rat race of the City, whether it was St. Louis, or Chicago, Detroit or Pittsburgh - the pot of gold was at the end of the road which just so happened was Los Angeles.

In 1959, more or less at the mid-point in the "massive migration", CBS Radio as part of their Great Challenge radio series of documentaries, did an in-depth look at the subject of these "20th Century Nomads", hosted by veteran newscaster Howard K. Smith.

Ironically, it was broadcast on January 4th, 1959 - I wonder if the weather everywhere east had something to do with it.

Maybe a little.

Always scandal somewhere, always unrest everywhere else. It just seems that way. On June 7th 1947 it was no different. On this day in June disgraced and jailed Boston Mayor James M. Curley petitioned the White House in search of a Presidential pardon for his Mail Fraud charges. Also on Capitol Hill, Congress was seeking to halt Oil Exports (fancy that) in lieu of our domestic oil shortages. Seems even the Navy was noticing a shortage while we shipped some 800,000 barrels to Russia. And since Price Controls had expired, there was a big spike in food and household prices, with as much as a 50% hike in beef, causing a second and third look at that Porterhouse on the dinner table.

Speaking of The Soviet Union. There was a big thumbs down in Moscow over the nomination of Ernst Reuter as Mayor of Berlin, while the Foreign Ministers meeting in Paris was getting a bit itchy. Not the least because of the heat wave in Paris (hitting 100 on this day), but because the Russian delegation was getting testy and it caused the meeting to go secret, barring the press while fingers waved and tempers flared.

On the subject of waving fingers and flaring tempers, the Civil War in Paraguay was heating up with accusations the Argentine government of Juan Peron had been sending weapons in support of the Military-backed Junta. While Peronista heads wagged denial, crates of munitions marked Hecho en Argentina galloped across the border. And speaking of Peron, Eva landed a 27 minute private audience with Pope Pius XII at the Vatican, doubtless broaching the subject of confession for shipping all the Ordinance . . .or not.

Ethiopia got into the Marshall Plan fracas by accusing the hand-that-gives of ignoring Africa in the aid and reconstruction plan. Something that no doubt would bite a few posteriors in the future. And General MacArthur pushed for a land-grab by insisting Okinawa and its neighboring islands be turned over to the U.S. for buffer-zone purposes in the event of . . . .oh yeah, Cold War.

And if you were living in St. Louis this day in 1947 you'd be bracing for 39 feet of flood water as the Mississippi and Missouri were doing what they seem to do every year, wipe out entire chunks of farmland and neighborhoods as June continued busting out all over.

Just another day on Planet Earth via ABC Radio's News Of Tomorrow for June 7, 1947.