August 11th Show Recap:

Lisa pays tribute to Eunice Kennedy Shriver - who died August 11th at age 88:

Lisa said Eunice Kennedy Shriver is really a hero and made a difference in this world. She had the pleasure of interviewing one of her children, Timothy Shriver, when she was broadcasting her show from Yale University. He is one of the directors of the Special Olympics, an organization Eunice Shriver founded.

Lisa said the Kennedys get mocked for their public service pretentions and pitied for a lot of transgressions of the younger generation, but Eunice stands in a box all by herself. Even If she hadn’t been a Kennedy, she is one of the more extraordinary women of her generation. Eunice was one of the nine children of Joe and Rose Kennedy. She was extremely affected by her sister Rosemary, who was born ‘slow’ – we really don’t know what was wrong with her . She was given a lobotomy. Lisa said the family was advised by doctors that this would be the best thing and the Kennedys thought this would improve her mental condition. The operation was a disaster, Rosemary was never herself again. There must have been a lot of collective guilt in the family and Eunice took on the mantle of the guilt – which, Lisa said she guesses – Jews, Catholics and many ‘thinking’ people do.

Eunice felt sorry for people called ‘mentally retarded” a term used at that time to describe people who were born with lower than average IQ, inclusive of Down syndrome – which is different. She opened up her home to those people, at a time when people like that were not seen in public, but kept hidden away. Eunice's home became a summer camp. From these events the Special Olympics were formed.

Lisa said Eunice was fond of the saying “to whom much is given, much is expected”. She received the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ in 1984 by Ronald Reagan for her work with the mentally-retarded and she received many other awards. She was the first person who was not a first lady or U.S. President in the National Portrait Gallery. Lisa said this is extraordinary. Eunice Kennedy Shriver didn’t go with the crowd, she didn’t believe in being a sheep- she founded a group of Democrats who were pro-life after abortion became legal.


Rhode Island Threatened to Close 1,000 Businesses For Non-Payment of Sales Taxes:

Businesses got a letter from the State threatening to close them down. Lisa said this is=2
0like the story she reported on with the credit report checks preventing people who have lost their jobs from getting work again. Self-defeating- how can you pay your debt if you don't have a job? Same thing here-If you close down a business for non-payment of sales taxes how will the State ever get paid? One particular business called “Dr. Doolittle’s Pets and More” – a store with parakeets, puppies, and a ferret, the owner received a letter saying he did not have the right to do business and must cease immediately. Lisa stated that his animals are not widgets, they have to be fed and cared for, so the owner goes to the store and feeds them daily. Maybe it's karma because we know most of these pet stores should be closed anyway because of where the pets come from.



Law Suit Filed Against Leona Hemsley’s Trustees:

Lisa said Leona Hemsley was sent to jail because nobody liked her, they called her “the queen of mean”.

She, in Lisa’s view, would not have been prosecuted, like Martha Stewart - if she had any friends on the way up, so when she was on the way down, nobody cared.

Leona married Harry Hemsley; they made a lot of money, but big deal. When she died she had one son she barely spoke to and virtually no friends. In the end, if you come out of this world and you don’t have a lot of friends that care about you - you haven’t done much. The one being she loved and loved her back, says Lisa, was her dog and she left the dog millions. People laughed about that. The trustees reduced the amount of money, but the Animal Welfare Society is saying they did not do what Leona wanted; they should change the allocation of the trust fund and help more animals.



Lisa’s - “I Told You So” Moment!

Lisa’s prediction was correct about the Westchester County low income housing story making front page in the New York Times. Lisa said it looks like this issue was impressed upon them by the Obama administration. There will be 750 low income housing units built or acquired and sold to minorities. Lisa said she will continue to follow this story.



Lisa welcomes Dr. Barry Sears, Inventor of the ground-breaking diet “The Zone”:

Dr. Sears is one of the nation’s leading nutritionists, worked at MIT and Boston University, has published over fourteen books, holds thirteen patents in the area of intravenous drug delivery systems and is known best for inventing “The Zone”. He was one of earliest people to promote the importance of the Omega-3s. Lisa and Dr. Sears’ discuss his latest book called “Toxic Fat”. Lisa asked Dr. Sears what makes fat good or bad. The doctor discusses the problem of “inflamed” fat – which, he said, in high enough doses, can kill us. He said, we often assume, if a person doesn’t look good in a bathing suit that they have one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel and that isn’t correct.

Dr. Sears said he has a patient who is classified as the heaviest man in the world. When he met the patient, he weighed 1,230 pounds and had not gotten out of bed for six years! Dr. Sears started working with the patient to reduce the inflammation and after the first eighteen months he lost about 400 pounds and now only weights 800 pounds. He may now be the healthiest man in Mexico because his blood cholesterol is perfect, his blood sugar is perfect, his blood pressure is that of a teenager and although he hasn’t left his bed, yet – he has the heart rate of a trained athlete. He’s upbeat, healthy, and happy and has just gotten married. He is still on Dr. Sears’ diet and it will take him about another five years to get down to 220 pounds, but the patient said he has a system now that he continues to follow and keeps losing weight.

Lisa and Dr. Sears discussed the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats, sugar, refined carbohydrates, free radicals, antioxidants and more. The doctor says it is the foods that have the most free radical fighters are the foo
ds with color, like fruits and vegetables. They have profound antioxidant and more importantly anti inflammatory capabilities. Dr. Sears’s book teaches us how to use the food we eat to reduce inflammation and oxidation and if we do, we live a longer and better life.

Westchester County Law Suit:

Lisa opens the show with the big story about the Westchester County law suit. A civil rights group brought a case about Westchester County alleging that Westchester County in its housing funds was discriminatory against minorities like black and hispanics. Andrew Spano took the extraordinary step in settling the law suit that forced Westchester County to construct affordable housing in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market the housing to non-whites in New York City and Westchester. Lisa said this is like affirmative action for housing - because they are trying to make up for past discriminatory impact in housing and our local and county governments are being charged of righting the wrongs of the past. She said this makes the New Haven fire fighter case look like peanuts! $50 million of tax payer dollars will go toward constructing or acquiring no less than 750 units and it has to be in neighborhoods in which blacks constitute less than 3% of the population and Hispanics makes up less than 7% of the population. Lisa wanted to know how they come u

p with these figures and if her listeners though it was a good thing or a bad thing? A caller from Stamford stated he is concerned that the government is involved, especially the federal government, where we are a network of such diverse communities, it is impossible to legislate these things from a central government.



Mentally Ill Offenders Stretch the Limits of Juvenile Justice:

Bob Francis, Executive Director of the CT Alliance for Juvenile Justice and Solomon Moore, a Criminal Justice reporter for the New York Times, joined Lisa to discuss this story reported in today's New York Times. Lisa cited statistics saying there are about two-thirds of the nation’s juvenile inmates - who numbered 92,854 in 2006 - that have at least one mental illness and more are in need of therapy than punishment. Bob Frances said he is in general agreement with the article and said the state of Connecticut is doing a little bit better because the issue came up a few years ago and more attention is being paid to it. He said Connecticut has more capacity and has developed other services in the community where we are able to divert these young people from the juvenile justice system.

Solomon Moore, a Criminal Justice reporter for the New York Times, said there has been a movement forming around reforming juvenile justice systems in the country. The overall juven

ile population has declined over time, but there is a lot more mental illness in the juvenile prisons. A 2006 study estimates that for every 100,000 youths, there are fewer than nine child psychologists. Lisa said that means nobody is getting any help; they are just getting pills and not all of the time because the medications are inconsistent and the wrong doses. Mr. Solomon said the people he spoke with didn’t have a big problem with medication per se; it was the fact that diagnoses were sketchy sometimes; documentation didn’t follow children from their schools into treatment centers in the juvenile justice centers. Kids who were on one drug, were supposed to be tapered of that drug but it never happened because they move from one place to another and you ended up with kids on a lot of different medications and a lot of diagnoses, but not a lot of coherence in terms of treatment. Mr. Frances said he agrees with Mr. Solomon and adds that there are not enough psychiatrists, social workers and direct service workers in the system.

August 8th Show Recap:


Westport - Staples High Football Lights and the Planning & Zoning Commission, The Westport YMCA

Lisa said she has lived in Westport for many years and even served on the Planning and Zoning Commission. She asked - Why do people select a town to live in because of it's beauty, then want to change it and not preserve the things that attracted them there in the first place? During her time on the Planning and Zoning Committee, there were regular requests from the football team to put lights on at Staples High School. Who is more important, the neighbors who feel that having 70 ft tall lights will annoy them, impede their right to non-disturbance of their suburban home or the rights of a high school and it's community who want lights on and to have a game on a Friday night? Lisa says sometimes she doesn't recognize Westport anymore. It is now 6 to 1, Planning and Zoning Commission is voting to go ahead with lights!

The same people who see nothing wrong with putting a $25 million dollar YMCA on the outskirts of town are the same people who thinks it’s okay to take a two acre residential zone where Staples High is and put 70 foot tall lights there! There is no sympathy anymore for the people that already live here, bought their homes based on an expectation of what their neighborhood would be like.
The local zoning board is responsible to th
e neighborhood and the protection of the people who live in the town. Lisa invited listeners to chime in or disagree.
The Westport YMCA: Lisa said she thinks it is disastrous to take the YMCA out of the downtown, one of our lone reasons to go downtown, go there and exercise, then take care of business there. It is poor planning because Mahackeno is the last outside daycare camp we have in our area. We'll be cutting down an estimated 3,000 trees to build the new YMCA! Will there be a need to be in downtown Westport after 6:00 p.m. anymore? Fairfield has done a much better job with their downtown and so has South Norwalk.


Danger Dog Case:
Two years ago a dog was in a fight with another dog. Wally Meyer intervened to protect his smaller dog, he was scratched, his dog was bitten, but nobody had to go to the hospital or harmed. Mr. Meyer made a complaint, the police investigated and determined the dog was not dangerous. They reached a compromise of keeping the dog fenced in his yard. There has not been another incident with the dog after two years. Mr. Meyer said that wasn't good enough - the dog has been declared a 'dangerous dog'. The fence isn't good enough; the dog has to be muzzled when outside and constantly supervised.
Lisa said this is plain nonsense!

Man versus Mutt - who gets the better treatment in Britain, dog or human?:
Lisa reports on a Wall St
reet Journal cover story "Man versus Mutt", an essay saying that being a dog in Britain is better than being a human. It's a cautionary tale for Americans, to not go the way of national health insurance of the UK. If it's a poor dog, a mutt that nobody loves, with or without an owner that can't pay, what do you do? The vets have an association of health insurance for dogs. It's not the prettiest facility or private care, but the dogs get treated.

Pre and Post Nuptial Agreements - With special guest Attorney Ellen Strauss:
Attorney Ellen Strauss joins Lisa in the studio to discuss pre and post nuptial agreements and the recent Connecticut law in respect to pre and post nuptial agreements. Lisa says before one gets married you can make a contract with your intended - that under certain circumstances will be upheld by the judges. But, after you get married, there are a lot more suspicious of these kinds of contracts. Lisa and Attorney Strauss also discuss the high-visibility cases of Donald Trump and Marla Maples and the Marie Douglas David, 37 years old and her husband 67 years old -- multi-million dollar settlement. Lisa said it was very expensive make-up sex!

News you may have missed:

DNA has cleared Kenneth Ireland of Wallingford of charges of rape.
Ireland was cleared after 21 years in a Connecticut prison, convicted of murder. Tax payers will be paying reparations.

AIG bonuses costing 249 million dollars. AIG loss so much money they were hemorrhaging! Frank Glassner, Veridas, CEO says the public will perceive this very poorly. Lisa's guest, Attorney Strauss said as egregious as it sounds, bonuses were contractual agreements that they cannot get out of.

Madoff Update:
Ex Madoff Finance Chief Frank Dpascali is turning states evidence (in return for a reduced sentence). He's going to to disclose who else knew about the scheme, since Madoff is not speaking. The victims of Madoff's scheme are objecting to the amount of money Mr. Picard, the trustee is being paid. So far he has gotten $14.7 million in fees for the four months of work he's done. Ruth Madoff cannot spend more than $100 on herself without telling the trustee what the money is for. Lisa said the Madoff trustee has gotten approval to sell the private jet for $753,000, which strikes Lisa as cheaper than the $500 million that our house of representatives has appropriated itself for buying 8 eight jets.
She asked - why don't they take Bernie's castoff, it's a lot cheaper!!!
Lisa will be following the settlement of the Fairfield Greenwich Group, currently in talks.



Healthcare Town Hall Debates:
Lisa feels we are being manipulated by all the messages. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois said Obama will own the pulpit during the health care discussions during the August congressional recess, to sell20it and it's a once in a political life time to revamp the system. David Axelrod was quoted as saying regarding the people, "if they fight, you've got to fight twice as hard". Lisa is concerned that they are saying it will be mandatory.

August 7th Show Recap:

Boss, the Plane! the Plane! (with a tip of our hat to Herve Villechaize)

Congress Gets An Upgrade to $500 million to buy eight jets - The plot thickens:
Lisa said this is an important story because it is indicative of the hypocrisy of Washington D.C.! Lisa asked - is this what we're paying our taxes for? It was reported that the shopping list goes beyond what the Air force requested. They sought to buy just one Gulfstream-5 and one business class equivalent to replace planes they already had that were aging and the Defense department wanted to buy two other planes that were being leased. But, the lawmakers in the House added to that appropriation.

Lisa quotes Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary who said "The Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. We ask for what we need and only what we need. We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for." Lisa said she thinks they lose their minds when they get to Washington D.C. and she knows they lose their perspective! They are bleeding us dry, they want more and more of our tax money and more of telling us what to do. They don't get it, a bunch of hypocrites - all of them!

The Healthcare Debate:
"Who is manipulating whom?" - asks Lisa. She cites a recent poll that shows 68% of people consider their health coverage good or excellent, leaving 32% - not in the mix. A fact to consider, said Lisa, is that the majority and then some, are happy with the status quo. She said that is a fact that must be considered when we advocate for change. There are town hall meetings being held and - reading between the lines - there is some organized activity upset and feel it’s being rammed down our throats. A lot of disorganized activity with regular people concerned or alarmed enough that they want to hear, in person, from their representatives about what is happening and voice their reservations.

Lisa states that nobody seems to be able to get hold of the substance and she keeps reading everything she can get her hands on, but it's a moving target. Who has time to read a thousand pages and figure it all out! She would like to see us incrementally fix what is wrong, rather than overhaul the whole process.

Immigrant Detention Centers:

Lisa said Obama hasn't been specific yet, but he wants to fix the problems with detention centers. The people being held in these centers are treated as if they have no civil rights and are far worse than those who are imprisoned in this country. Lisa said they don't have access to a lawyer, they can't see their families and over sixty have died in custody.
Regarding the reporting of this story, for one newspaper organization it's an important story, for another it is not - but Lisa said she is pleased Obama is looking into fixing the problem. The NY Times puts it on Page One, the Wall Street Journal buries it in a left bottom corner on Page 4. Moral: You have to read everything.

Another Hurdle for the Jobless: Credit Inquiries:

Citing a New York Times article written by Jonathan Glater, Lisa said it is now becoming a standard regular process when you want to get a job, for employers to do a credit check on you. Lisa asked about the relevancy of someone's credit history with the job they are applying for. It is not always a relevant straight line. Lisa said you can't necessarily equate someone with a poor credit history as someone who will make a poor employee.
If the employee has old debts, the IRS and a judge will garnish their wages, so it's really not the employer's business. In today's economy when people have fallen behind on their mortgages and credit cards, how are you going to help them climb back up the ladder by not giving them a job, because "you've" decided that their credit rating isn't good enough? How will they improve their lives, she asked. Lisa said these people are not criminals who deserve "a second chance" and forgiveness from their debt to society. It's hard enough for those people and that's a different subject entirely. You don't know people with a poor credit history chose to file for bankruptcy because they are sick and couldn't cover their cancer costs. You don't have any relationship with them, yet you are already barring the door.

Lisa states, that this is another trend in our American society of 2009 of making ridiculous rules, applying them to everyone and making people feel like failures, as a result! It was like the rule of having white people and black people drink from different water fountains, until somebody decided it wasn't a good rule. That’s how civil disobedience works: you decide first if the rule is a good one, and then you obey. You don’t automatically obey just because something is a rule- that’s what sheep do.

The Economy & Trends
Lisa said the stock market is about trends and it had a very good day today. She understands the market is important to a lot of people, but not for her anymore.

Lisa gave us some hard numbers about the economy.
There is a 1.3 Trillion dollar deficit doing on right now in our government! Incomprehensible!
There are 33 million people on food stamps.
There were 500 thousand people who filed for unemployment (first time claims) this week.
The real estate market is still at historic lows.

Lisa says she knows that right about now a lot of people's unemployment has run out and they cannot find new work. She said she hopes the economy is turning around, but is not yet convinced that it will. Lisa said she is not sure if we are being manipulated again by these numbers. Bottom line: In our real life, are we collecting a pay check? Are we able to pay our bills? Are we saving more now then we used to? Do we feel rich? Lisa quoted her father who says "the rich man is the man whose income exceeds his expenses"!

The SEC is settling a lot of old cases:

The SEC settled with Hank Greenburg, the head of AIG - for $15 million, which was like a drop in the bucket for him and he has avoided a fraud charge. Lisa said the SEC also tried to settle with the Bank of America yesterday, but the judge said 'not so fast'. They are forcing the SEC to defend itself, there will be a hearing this Monday.

Nurse of the year -- was no nurse!:
Lisa read about Norwalk's "nurse of the year", a story from the Drudgereport.
Betty Lichtenstein, 56, is accused of posing as a nurse at a hospital in Norwalk. She invented an organization and spent $2,000 to give herself a 'nurse of the year' award.

You Reap What You Sow- and then some
'Guy meets girl' on a web site for those looking to have extra-marital affairs:
Lisa said a guy met a girl on a web site for those seeking extra-marital affairs. He is a high-level financial person who has access to inside information on mergers and acquisitions. He decided, through e-mail and 7,000 phone calls over a two year period to the woman, that wanted to play internet games with her and gave her company patterns and made her guess what company he was talking about.
The woman is in debt, she took the information and started buying and selling stock. She ended up on the SEC watch list and got caught. Although the man didn't make a penny, Lisa says, he confided in someone he had no idea would make money off of the information he was providing. She testified against him, he was charged with insider training and went to jail. Lisa asked if this man is someone we should pay 30,000 to incarcerate. Is he a threat on the street? She said he should be financially fined and allowed to move on with his life.

August 6, 2009 Show Recap: Lisa and Guest Sam Caligiuri, US Sen Rep Candidate



Segment 1: Current Events

John Hughes Dies
The Director of ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Sixteen Candles,’ Dies at 59. Lisa quotes her late grandmother who used to say "those are the blessed people - who go with a heart attack on a golf course, that's the best way - because it's 'fast'.
Diane Schuller, who killed herself and eight others in a tragic car accident:
The latest news is that Schuller's husband denies the toxicology reports which states his wife had ingested an enormous amount of pot 15 minutes to an hour before the accident, plus 8 or 10 shots of 80 proof vodka. Lisa thinks her husband is going in the wrong direction and she asked -- did someone slip her something, like a 'date rape' kind of a drug somehow, that threw her body systems off completely?
NY Times reports - US to overhaul detention policy for immigrants :
Lisa said immigration custody system right now is a mess -a patchwork of complete inequity and unfairness. If you are here illegally you have no rights at all; even our defendants have more. Lisa will continue to follow this story.
Bill Clinton's mission:
Lisa says she doesn't understand why people are 'throwing stones' when Clinton completed what seemed to be a successful mission to get the two women home from North Korea.
Sonia Sotomayor Confirmed:
Lisa said she is glad that Sotomayor has been confirmed and we now have two women. When Lisa graduated from law school there were 41% women in her graduating class. The fact that she is hispanic or not, doesn't matter to Lisa and she disagreed on Sotomayor's decision about the New Haven fire fighter case. But, being wrong on one decision does not make you unfit to be a Supreme Court justice.

Segments 2-4

Sam Caliguiri joins Lisa in the studio:
Lisa is pleased to introduce Sam Caliguiri who is a State Senator taking on the challenge to win the Republican nomination against Chris Dodd. The polls are showing that Dodd is vulnerable. Tune in to hear how Sam answered Lisa's tough questions about "Waterbury being referred to as a cesspool" and how he will separate himself from the stench! Plus, Lisa asks about healthcare, the economy and jobs leaving the state.

August 5, 2009 Show Recep: Just Lisa

A murder mystery? -- Questions loom about Mom in NY crash that killed eight: Lisa stated that this story just doesn't pass the smell test; it sounds like a murder mystery. The horrific car crash claimed the life of driver Diane Schuler, 36, her 2-year-old daughter and three young nieces. Three men in the car she hit died also. Schuller had a blood-alcohol content of .19 percent -- more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, authorities said. She also had 6 grams of undigested booze in her stomach and so much THC that the cops said she had to have gotten high from 15 minutes to an hour before the crash. Lisa said Schuller's family stated that she had no history of drug and alcohol abuse. Her husband said she was fine the morning of the crash. Lisa asked if there was something that possibly happened when she stopped at a McDonalds's restaurant because shortly after that stop, she called her brother to say she wasn't feeling well. A caller from Danbury said he was surprised that Schuller had driven almost 2 miles in the wrong directions without encountering a state police! Lisa thinks there is more to this story- sounds like someone gave her a date-rape drug or a roofie! Bloomberg's program offering students cash for passing Advanced Placement exams has good results: The program is one of several local and national experiments using financial incentives to raise student achievement. Lisa asked -- Do you pay your kids to get good grades? Is that a good idea or a bad idea? A caller from Stamford told Lisa she thought it was a bad idea. Lisa agreed with the caller who said her parents expected good grades. There was plenty of praise for good grades, but no cash rewards! On the other hand, in the real world people are paid for doing good work.

Chutzpah Award Tonight: Three Contenders
1. Jobless US graduate sues college for 70,000 dollars: Lisa said a student, Trina Thompson, from New York's Monroe college had filed a complaint with the school accusing it of being responsible for her inability to find work. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!". Lisa said - the school gives you the tools, but it's more than that when seeking employment, it's about your history, your personality, your attitude and a lot of other things. The college has done their part, now the student has to do hers. A caller said the student has to be a real go getter, especially in this economy. 2. House orders Up Three Elite Jets: Last year, law makers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. But, apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel, said Lisa. At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million Gulfstream G550 luxury jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress! Lisa asked - why should they be entitled in this economy or any other economy? Are they better than us who fly commercial? Don't they have a fleet of Air force planes they should be using? 3. President Obama's "Dollar-A-Day" e-mail messages: Although Lisa did not donate to Obama's campaign, she is on his distribution list. She signed-up to keep on top of what was going on with political campaign. Lisa says Obama ran the most innovative and extraordinary campaign in this country; part of the magic was the message of the internet. She forwarded today's e-mail about his Healthcare reform to about 10 people who are on different parts on the political spectrum, libertarians, liberals, conservatives, and middle-of-the-road. Then she read it on the air- Listen to their feedback - and comments from a caller from Greenwich.

And tune in to hear Lisa's picks for the Chutzpah Award!