Three of my guests on this year’s edition the “Year-end Round-Up” are back from last year.  Again this afternoon we have Dr. Lewis Perelman from Virginia, John Puma from Mount Vernon, John Berenyi from New York and all over the world and Dr. Bob Flower, who joins us for the first time from Bronxville, NY. The topic today will be a review of the year 2009, reflections on how to turn the country around, and predictions for 2010. My special holiday guest in the studio will be Ms. Dana H. Garfunkel, the Assistant Director of ecruitment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Our first guest this morning is Dr. Lewis J. Perelman is a Washington-DC policy and management consultant.  A native of Mount Vernon, New York, and one of my oldest friends, he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the City College of New York, and went on to study space and planetary physics at Columbia University and Harvard University.  He later earned his doctoral degree in administration, planning, and policy from Harvard, where his studies focused on sustainable economic development. Dr. Lewis Perelman has over thirty years of professional experience focused on the processes of innovation, sustainability, and resilience—as a consultant, analyst, author, publisher, and teacher.  Since his graduate studies at Harvard onward, Dr. Perelman has had a long professional interest in sustainable development.  Earlier in his career, he worked on renewable energy R&D and policy initiatives for the US Dept. of Energy. In 1992 he gained renown for his best-selling book “School’s Out”, which anticipated much of the revolution that the Internet and information technology would end up causing in learning, work, and the keys to business success.  Since 2001, Dr. Perelman also has been actively engaged in work on homeland security, for the federal Homeland Security Institute and other organizations. Recently, Dr. Perelman has been working on the connections between infrastructure resilience, security, and sustainability as a consultant to several associations, research institutes, and public agencies, and as a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Regulatory Science in Alexandria, VA.

John Berenyi currently he advises governments, corporations and non profit organizations from Mt. Vernon, NY to South Carolina and cities in South Florida on sustainability, risk management and strategic planning related to alternative energy. Internationally, he is an advisor on these matters to companies and public entities in Israel, New Zealand, Hungary and other areas. He has over 25 years of experience as financial advisor, technology and economic consultant and investment banker.  His work has been at the intersection of engineering, business law, urban planning, management, economics and finance. The focus of his activities: alternative energy projects, power systems, solid waste facilities, mass transit authorities, highways and bridges, affordable housing and mortgage finance, water and sewer systems, long term care facilities, non-profit institutions such as universities, museums, stadiums, hospitals and nursing homes.John has undergraduate and graduate degrees in industrial engineering, management sciences and applied economics and public finance from Columbia University and was named a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard University. He worked as the Co-Chairman of the NY State Task Force of business and economic leaders and citizens established   to support the amendment to the NY State Constitution which now allows “Tax Increment Financing” by communities throughout NY.

John Puma is a career entrepreneur. His career has ranged from creating start-up businesses, to developing communications systems for multi-national communication giants, to building housing for the middle and working class citizens, and to developing alternate energy concepts for communities. John, who was brought up on Long Island, and gravitated to Mount Vernon, was educated at the State University of NY in Buffalo earned a degree in Management & Finance and earned another degree in TV Production at NYU. John is interested in encouraging and developing local and market interest in alternative Energy and the effort to wean our economy from fossil fuel dependency. Today John is the NY Tri-State Area Manager for Standard Renewable Energy charged with building out operations for Standard Renewable Energy bringing Renewable Energy to the Northeast. SRE is the leading Renewable Energy Company in the US with 2 primary products – Solar Systems for Homes and Businesses and Energy Efficiency Products and Services – most importantly the Weatherization of Homes and Businesses. One can find out more information at www.SRE3.com and he can be reached at 877-923-7733. 

Dr. Robert Flower, who is a resident of Bronxville, NY, is a graduate of both Fordham University and Walden University with a BA degree in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Philosophy along with Organizational and Systems Sciences. Bob is a successful entrepreneur, scholar and adventurer who has spent 29 years analyzing human potential and developing a methodology for achievement. Through his discovery of the Laws of Potential and development of Natural Intelligence and Thinking, Dr. Flower has achieved tremendous personal success, and helped others to set and reach their goals as well. As Director of The Gilchrist Institute for the Achievement Sciences, a sociopolitical/economic think tank since 1982, he discovered the Laws of Potential and Natural Intelligence. He has written 3 books on Potential and Intelligence and lectured on the subject twice at the United Nations (1991, 1992). His books are published in 3 countries. As a General Systems Specialist (expert in learning, potential and intelligence) he has been frequently featured in newspapers and magazines, and has appeared on national radio and television programs.*
He also hosts 2 shows: The Public Advocate in several cable markets, and The Master Pattern Report -- an international internet show where Dr. Flower predicts economic, political and stock market activity with incredible accuracy. WEBSITES: www.drbobflower.com

John Puma, Dana Garfunkel, Bob Flower	Richard and Dana Garfunkel
John Berenyi	Lewis J.Perelman

My guest is Tim Brooks and our subject is a short history of television and the future of the networks. (Highest rated TV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-watched_television_broadcasts)

Tim Brooks retired at the end of 2007 as Executive Vice President of Research for Lifetime Television. Brooks reported to Andrea Wong, President/CEO of Lifetime, and was responsible for all research concerning Lifetime's programming, online and advertising sales efforts, as well as research for Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Research at Lifetime, a position he held since January 2000.

Prior to joining Lifetime Brooks was Senior Vice President, Research for USA Networks, where he supervised their programming and advertising research in domestic and international markets, and developed and launched new businesses. While there he helped structure the programming plan for the launch of the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992 and USA's Latin American and European networks in the late 1990s. He joined USA Networks in 1991. He was widely quoted in the press on audience matters both while at USA and at Lifetime.
 
Before USA Networks, Brooks was Senior Vice President/Media Research Director for N.W. Ayer from 1989 until 1990, and with NBC in the 1970s and 1980s holding various positions, including Director, Program and Advertising Research and Director, Television Network Research. He began his career in New York with WCBS-TV in 1969-1970. Brooks has been very active in industry affairs, serving as Chairman of the Board of both the Media Rating Council and the Advertising Research Foundation; longtime Chairman of the ARF's Video Electronic Media Council; a board member of the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM); three-term chair of CTAM's Research Committee; and a board member of the recently formed (2005) Council for Research Excellence, among others. He is currently a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards committee. He is a recipient of  a number of industry awards.

Regarded as one of television's leading historians, Brooks has had a parallel career as a writer on television and record industry history. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (1979), co-authored with Earle Marsh, is a standard industry reference that won an American Book Award in 1980 and is now in its ninth edition. His groundbreaking Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry (2004) won three major academic awards, and a related double-CD by the same name won a Grammy Award in 2007. He has also authored or co-authored several other books and numerous articles.  Brooks was an adjunct professor of communications at Long Island University (1979-1988), and also served as a captain in the United States Army. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Dartmouth College and a master's degree in television-radio from Syracuse University.

Tim Brooks and his 9th Edition of his Complete Directory of Prime Time Network.

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Tv Shows, Seventh Edition

    

Download | Duration: 00:52:23

 

On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, at 12:00 Noon, I will be hosting my show The Advocates on WVOX- 1460 AM, and you can also listen to the program’s worldwide, live streaming at www.wvox.com. One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. My guest is writer and lawyer Amy Bach, who has written, Ordinary Injustice, How America Holds Court, “…the exposure and systematic shoddiness at the core of the American criminal justice system…” from Publishers Weekly. Michael Shapiro, of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn of NYC, will join me as a guest panelist. http://www.ordinaryinjustice.com/

Download | Duration: 00:52:19

 

“This is a magnificent work, a crusading call for reform in the tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed…This groundbreaking book deserves widespread attention.”
--Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals

Amy Bach, a member of the New York bar, has written on law for The Nation, The American Lawyer, and New York magazine, among other publications. For her work in progress on Ordinary Injustice, Bach received a Soros Media Fellowship, a special J. Anthony Lukas citation, and a Radcliffe Fellowship. She was a Knight Foundation Journalism Fellow at Yale Law School. Ms Bach is a graduate of Brown University and the Stanford Law School. After law school she clerked for the Honorable Rosemary Barkett, judge of the 11th Circuit of Appeals in Miami, Fla.

She was raised in NYC and currently lives in Rochester, New York, where she has taught legal studies at the University of Rochester. She is currently a Soros Justice Media Fellow at The Open Society Institute. Recently, she held the Hayward Burns Memorial Fellowship at The Nation Institute, where she wrote a series of articles about injustice for The Nation magazine.

Mr. Michael Shapiro is a long-time Scarsdale resident and noted criminal defense lawyer. Mr. Shapiro, who was raised in the Bronx, was educated at the City College of New York, where he received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude, and later earned his JD from New York University. He is currently a faculty member of the Cardozo Law School’s Intensive Advocacy Program and has been a frequent guest panelist at the Harvard Law School. He is now a partner with the prestigious Wall Street, New York law firm, Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, which was established in 1854.
  
                                      

My guest on Wednesday is Samuel Estreicher, NYU’s Dwight Opperman Professor of Law and an expert on labor and employment law. Our subject will be labor law reform and how government can assist in the creation of jobs.

Download | Duration: 00:52:23

Mr. Estreicher is a endowed Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and Director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law and the Institute of Judicial Administration.  He has published several books including leading casebooks in labor law and employment discrimination and employment law; edited conference volumes on sexual harassment, employment ADR processes, and cross-global human resources; and authored over 100 articles in professional and academic journals.  He is the Secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association, a former chair of the Committee on Labor and Employment Law of the Association of the Bar for the City of New York, and chief reporter of the new Restatement of Employment Law, sponsored by the American Law Institute.

In 1975, Mr. Estreicher obtained his law degree from Columbia University, where he was editor-in-chief of Columbia Law Review. He graduated in 1974 from Cornell University with his master's degree and was a Herbert H. Lehman Fellow.  At Columbia College, he received his bachelor's degree in 1970 as a Joseph Pulitzer Fund Scholar.  During 1977, Mr. Estreicher clerked for the late Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. of the Supreme Court and the late Harold Leventhal of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  He is admitted to practice in New York and Washington, D.C.

Samuel Estreicher is also of counsel in the Labor and Employment  and Issues and Appeals practice groups of Jones Day,  resident in the New York office.  His practice focuses on the wide range of issues affecting the employment relationship, including designing ADR systems, training supervisors for performance-based management and employee involvement initiatives, advising clients in OFCCP, EEO and labor relations compliance and representing clients in individual, global HR management, and class EEO and Wage and Hour litigation.

My guest on Wednesday is author and political observer Anne Cook. Our topic will be “Women in our Culture and Politics.”

Download | Duration: 00:53:50

Anne Cook is an author and occasional blogger whose book, "Democrats in the Red Zone," garnered some attention over the course of the 2008 presidential campaign. The book's overarching theme was that Democrats needed to watch more football if they wanted to win more elections; but its content focused heavily on the dynamics of political perception -- specifically, issues related to race, gender, and religion.
                                                                           
 Cook is currently studying the history of American economics and investigating the definition of democracy and concepts such as "freedom." She continues to root for her beloved New England Patriots to triumph in this year's NFL season; but as the daughter of a Giants fan, she also knows that football fans across the nation need to do their best to get along, no matter the color of their jerseys. Anne Cook has appeared on The Advocates discussing her book, Democrats in the Red Zone, the 2008 Election Aftermath, and most recently Obama’s First Hundred Days!

My guest on Wednesday is Gail Collins, columnist and former editorial page editor of the New York Times. Our subject is her just published book, When Everything Changed, the Amazing Journey of American Women, and her views on today’s women and their challenges.

Gail Collins joined The New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times’ editorial page. At the beginning of 2007, she stepped down and began a leave in order to finish her new book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. She returned to The Times as a columnist in July 2007.

Before joining The Times, Ms. Collins was a columnist at New York Newsday and the New York Daily News, and a reporter for United Press International. Her first jobs in journalism were in Connecticut, where she founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, which provided coverage of the state capitol and Connecticut politics. When she sold it in 1977, the CSNB was the largest news service of its kind in the country, with more than 30 weekly and daily newspaper chains.
Besides When Everything Changed, which was published in October of 2009 by Little, Brown, Ms. Collins is the author of America's Women, Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics, and The Millennium Book, which she co-authored with her husband, Dan Collins.

Ms. Collins ran the newspaper at her all-girls Catholic school and even published a book of comic monologues at the age of 15. She earned a journalism degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1967 and a master's in government from the University of Massachusetts in 1971. In graduate school, she met and married her husband, Dan Collins, now an editor at CBS News. After graduation they moved to Connecticut.

In her early 20s, Collins took a job covering the state legislature in Hartford for The Fair Press, a small weekly in Fairfield County, outside of New York City. When the paper could no longer afford to keep her on, Collins, rather than look for another job, started her own news service called the Connecticut State News Bureau in 1972. After five years and with about 35 subscribers, Collins sold the news service in 1979.

Download | Duration: 00:50:08

My guest on Wednesday is Craig Michaels of Riverkeeper, and our topic will be the Hudson River in its 400th year after its discovery by Henry Hudson and the crew of the Half Moon, and the crisis of fresh water.

Download | Duration: 00:52:33

Craig Michaels has been Riverkeeper’s Watershed Program Director since October 2008.  Mr. Michaels returned to Riverkeeper in 2007 as the New York City Investigator for the Hudson River program.  He previously worked at Riverkeeper for three years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator before entering law school.  In January 2007, he received his J.D. and Environmental Law Certificate from Pace Law School.  At Pace, Mr. Michaels interned for one year at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, where he represented Riverkeeper and four other environmental groups in administrative permit proceedings arising from a Clean Water Act citizen suit against the City of New York.  Prior to interning for the Environmental Litigation Clinic, Mr. Michaels served as a Legal Aide in the Litigation Bureau at the Office of the New York State Attorney General.  Mr. Michaels holds a B.S. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan and grew up in Westchester County.

  

Richard J. Garfunkel                                                                   Craig Michaels



The Hudson River at Tarrytown

My guest on Wednesday is Barry Machado, author of In Search of a Usable Path: The Marshall Plan & Post War Reconstruction Today, and a Senior Fellow at the Marshall Foundation. Our topic will be the George C. Marshall Foundation, its past, who was George C. Marshall and what the foundation does today.

Download | Duration: 00:52:29

Barry Machado received his BA in 1966 from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. in American history in 1975 from Northwestern University. From 1971 until his retirement in 2005 Machado taught U.S. military and foreign affairs in the history department at Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. For over twenty years he served as the Director of Research for the Marshall Undergraduate Scholarship Program at the George C. Marshall Research Library. He also served on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Military History. His specialties are the Cold War and American Business Abroad. Among his recent publications are History, Memory, and Holes in the Wall, in The Most Dangerous Years: The Cold War, 1953-1975 (2005); In Search of a Usable Past: The Marshall Plan and Postwar Reconstruction Today (2007) and A Usable Marshall Plan, in The Marshall Plan: Lessons Learned for the 21st Century (2008) With his wife Anice, who teaches 8th grade, he lives in retirement (of sorts) in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where he continues to explore the life and times of George C. Marshall. 

                                                                         
        
General George C. Marshall

My guests on Wednesday are Mark Cleverley of IBM, Mayor Roy Buol, David Lyons of Dubuque, IA and guest panelist John Berenyi. Our subject will be the IBM “Smarter Cities Initiative” and how it will be instituted in Dubuque, and is it a model for cities all over the United States? (From Reuters. IBM and Dubuque) http://www03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28420.wss . We will also be hearing from the Hon.Richard Swett, former Ambassador to Denmark and Member of the House of Represntatives.

Mark Cleverley helps governments with technology-enabled transformation. He advises IBM’s public sector customers and IBM teams on potentials, challenges and best practices in the evolving use of new technologies. He has consulted widely on government projects, and has written and spoken publicly extensively in the USA and abroad. Currently Director of Strategy for IBM’s Global Government Industry, working with governments in many nations and many areas of information systems. Previously he was responsible for IBM’s Public Safety, Justice, and related clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Earlier he led technology-enabled innovation projects in the oil, aviation and financial services industries, in Western Europe, the USA and Russia. These ranged from consolidating European data centers, through implementing core airline systems, and included one of the earliest (pre-web) public access kiosk developments. He has a joint honors degree in Psychology and Philosophy from Oxford University. A British citizen now living in America, his speaking engagements have included many briefings on strategic issues to individual government clients around the world, and to multiple stakeholder/media events such as: California Franchise Tax Board Symposium, California CIO Academy, Delaware Technology Conference, DMAW New Media Marketing Conference, Frontiers in Service Conference, G-CON (Gartner Government Conference), and many, many others. His publications have included a forthcoming article in Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery on how “smarter planet” technology can aid the developing world.

Roy Buol is the Mayor of Dubuque, IA. He is a Dubuque-native and  was elected to a four-year term as Mayor in November 2005. He was previously elected as Second Ward Representative to the City Council in 1995, was re-elected in 1999 and again in 2003. Before entering public life he had a long association with the John Deere Company and is the Director of the Landscaping and Grounds Department at the University of Dubuque. Mayor Buol holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a double-major in Business and Marketing from the University of Dubuque, where he also completed graduate coursework toward a Master of Arts in Communication. He is currently enrolled in the National League of Cities Certificate of Achievement in Leadership Program and represents Dubuque in the U.S. Conference of Mayors.  Recently Business Week the published the following piece discussing this program:       http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2009/id20090918_187656.htm on Dubuque.

David Lyons serves as the Project Manager for the public sector components of the IBM “Smarter Cities Initiative and Partnership.” A graduate of Loras College and the University of Iowa Law School, he most recently served as the Chief Business Development Officer for the Iowa Farm Bureau, before leaving to form a non-profit research institute. Prior to that, David was the Director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development (appointed by Governor Tom Vilsack), State of Iowa Insurance Commissioner (appointed by Governor Terry Branstad) and Legal Counsel to the Iowa Legislature.

John Berenyi currently he advises governments, corporations and non profit organizations from Mt. Vernon, NY to South Carolina and cities in South Florida on sustainability, risk management and strategic planning related to alternative energy. Internationally, he is an advisor on these matters to companies and public entities in Israel, New Zealand, Hungary and other areas. He has over 25 years of experience as financial advisor, technology and economic consultant and investment banker.  His work has been at the intersection of engineering, business law, urban planning, management, economics and finance.

   Left: Mayor Roy Buol of Dubuque, IA                                                                                     
   Right: Mark Cleverley, Director of IBM's Global Government Industry

  
                                                                        
David Lyons, Dubuque's Director
of IBM Smarter Cities Program                 John Berenyi, Senior Advisor  
                                                                    
      

                                                                                      

Download | Duration: 00:53:07

My guests on Wednesday will be Mr. John Dabels, and Terry Russell and our subject is “Who killed the electric car and how to move to a workable and affordable alternate energy society?” 

Mr. Dabels serves as chief executive officer and co-founder of EV Power Systems of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Mr. Dabels is a 25+ year veteran of General Motors where his career included direct involvement with or managing introductions of a number of new products, including the GM EV1.  His career at GM ranged from GM Financial Staff in New York to Director Marketing Buick Division.  Following Buick, Mr. Dabels joined the GM EV1 program with direct responsibility for developing demand for electric vehicles worldwide.  In addition to managing the marketing, public relations, and government relations staffs, Mr. Dabels was the primary "public face" for the GM EV1 program.  Since GM EV1, Mr. Dabels has remained involved with electric or hybrid electric vehicle programs.  One assignment was CFO of EV Global Motors, a company founded by Lee Iacocca.  While EV Global Motors’ initial product was electric bicycles, the intent was to migrate to an electric-powered on-road vehicle.  Education: BS Drake University, SM Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan Fellow). Mr. Dabels now makes his home in North Carolina.

Terry Russell serves as president and chief operating officer of EVPS.  Mr. Russell started his professional career as a lawyer with the May Department Stores.  A former May lawyer recruited Mr. Russell to join Ryder System.  When joining, Ryder was the nation’s largest truck leasing and rental company, as well as one of the largest highway-transportation logistics providers.  During his 18-year career at Ryder, Mr. Russell’s positions included Corporate Secretary; Acting General Counsel; Sr. VP, Development; President, Insurance Management Services Division, President, Ryder Automotive Logistics Division, and President, Ryder International.  In the Automotive Logistics division, Mr. Russell had direct responsibility for the delivery of about 6,000,000 light trucks and cars from the automotive OEM’s (primarily General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Nissan) from ports, railheads, and assembly plants to dealers throughout the United States and Canada.  In the International operation, Mr. Russell was responsible for all Ryder’s leased/rented trucks and maintenance in UK, Germany, Poland, Canada, and Mexico, and preparations for Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, and Venezuela. 

Subsequent to Ryder, Terry has remained in transportation, distribution, logistics businesses having, among other businesses, co-founded what is today the largest independent wholesale lubricant distributor in the US.  Education:  AB, JD Washington University (St. Louis, MO) (Order of the Coif, Articles Editor, Washington University Law Quarterly); Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1968 through 1971. 


 

Left to Right
Terry Russell
Terrence Russell, Mount Vernon Commissioner of Public Works
Yolanda Robinson, Mount Vernon Chief of Staff to the Mayor
John Dabels

Terry Russell demonstrates how electro-fitting works on a municipal truck

Download | Duration: 00:53:01