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From WGBH in Boston this is the Emily Rooney show. Friday May 7 2010 Emily Rooney on Today show a week of years from dirty water to Wall Street jitters to an almost successful car bomber in New York City. Now Senator Scott Brown has a bill that would strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship if they're found to have ties to terrorist organizations. There's the nature of the issue is that the standards that we need to use to fight back all the legal challenge. Meantime as the integration debate rages on the issue becomes a flashpoint in the gubernatorial race there people are the country that probably ought to have heard the under-30 All that plus the public relations nightmare facing VI Deaconess. That and more today on the Emily Rooney show but first the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying more unemployed

Americans are actively looking for work again and are being factored into the Labor Department's jobless numbers. The influx pushes the unemployment rate up to nine point nine percent for April but the economy has created nearly 300000 jobs. President Obama says that's a big step forward. This is the largest monthly increase in four years and we created one hundred twenty one thousand more jobs in February in March than previously estimated which means we've now seen job growth for four months in a row. Private companies are credited with the bulk of hires in April but the census is also playing a factor sixty six thousand people have been temporarily hired so far. NPR's Tamara Keith says it's a welcome boost for those who've been out of work for months. Hiring thousands of census workers isn't a long term solution to the nation's employment woes but for Kiersten Kirby her job as a census crew leader is just what she needed tonight having a paycheck and being able to pay bills and things like that.

But then also just. And my feeling of worth and our hope I guess she had been unemployed for nine months. Steve Nagy has been job hunting for nearly two years and is thrilled to be working for the census. Even if it is only temporary. This will be limited. I mean once it's done it's done. So we we will be able to work until we get the job completed which should be around June. In the meantime for Nagy and many other census workers the search for a permanent job continues. Tamara Keith NPR News Washington. Britain's Liberal Democrats have the fewest parliamentary seats but they may very well become king makers. The party could determine who controls Britain after yesterday's election failed to deliver an outright winner. The Conservatives won more seats and Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labor Party. But they fell short of a majority needed to form an effective government. Both sides are now wooing the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government. Health authorities in the US are looking into an e-coli outbreak possibly linked to a certain

type of lettuce. NPR's John Snyder tells us at least 19 people have been sickened. 12 of those who fell ill were hospitalized three with reported life threatening symptoms. Federal health officials say they're looking into ten other possible cases. The outbreak has turned up in three states Ohio New York and Michigan and those sickened include students on three college campuses you know break is being linked to a brand of romaine lettuce that's generally sold in bulk fresh way foods of Sidney Ohio says it's recalling the lettuce sold under the fresh way in imperial Sysco brands in 23 states and the District of Columbia. According to food safety advocates the Food and Drug Administration is focusing on romaine lettuce grown in Arizona. Trial Snyder NPR News Washington has done more than 60 points. This is NPR News. After getting a bailout to stay afloat AIG is showing signs of improvement. The insurance giant which received 180 billion dollars in taxpayer money during the financial

crisis is now reporting net income of one point forty five billion for the first quarter. The company says streamlining its operations and recovering credit markets helped in morning trading shares of AIG rose 90 cents to thirty seven sixty five. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on a case dealing with the media's right to protect its sources. As Dan Karpen chek reports the ruling means a journalist in Canada have no constitutional rights to protect their sources. In an eight to one decision the high court justices ruled against the National Post newspaper in a 10 year old case dealing with possibly forged documents. They were linked to a government business loan in the constituency of former Prime Minister John Craig Chan police one of the National Post to hand over a brown envelope and a document supplied by a confidential source. It turned out the document was a forgery. The paper argued that turning over the material for DNA and fingerprint tests would likely reveal their source known as X. But today's ruling means that journalists have no broad constitutional immunity to protect sources and any such claims must be assessed on a case by case basis.

The court said in this case the right of the police to investigate a potential crime outweighs the newspaper's right to protect its source. For NPR News I'm Dan Carpenter in Toronto. Russia's parliament is rejecting a motion that would have stopped American families from adopting Russian children. The measure was introduced in response to the case of an eight year old boy who was sent back to Moscow alone after his adoptive American mother said she couldn't take care of him after one of the biggest losses on Wall Street today stocks are gaining ground Dow is down more than 30 points. This is NPR. Support for NPR comes from constant contact dedicated to helping small businesses at nonprofits build strong customer relationships with email marketing constant contact dot com. It's live and it's local. Coming up next two hours of local talk the Emily Rooney show and the Cali Crossley Show only on WGBH. Good afternoon you're listening to the Emily Rooney show.

It was a week that started with the water meltdown and ended with a market meltdown. In fact so much has happened this week that the water issue actually feels like well water under the bridge. Although personally I still feel unsatisfied about why we couldn't figure out that the water was safe to drink all along. Why did it take three days and you hear them all that over and other big stories of the week are Jim O'Sullivan of the Statehouse News Service. Carol Miller professor at Babson College and a contributing columnist for Metro West Daily News and former Boston city councilor Sam. You know welcome to all of you. I mean I'm totally sick of this what of the water story but I still feel like it was crazy that people didn't know that the water was safe that you know you think some intrepid reporter would run out and done a quick you know test to see if there was anything in it but nobody. It's interesting because early in the week you know I live in Boston and I was boiling my water and we had pots of water on the stove and we were pouring it into bottles to bring upstairs to brush your teeth with you know all this because they said it's really unsafe. Don't do

anything with it. And I remember listening to you who I really you know like I'm drinking the water. And then finally by the end of the week we found out the water was fine all along I should have taken your advice and I thought you were crazy but you know now I know I just I acted like it was happening to everybody else and not me. And that was just my attitude not affecting I think it was a good exercise. Yeah I think he gave everyone in our part of this country a sense of what it's like to live in a developing country. And what I couldn't believe is that the runs that people were making on bottled water as if bottled water is going to you know it was going to save them. And you know what's so hard about setting a pot on the still boiling it and wait until it waiting until it cools I mean it's you know we have with this kind of self-reliant spirit that we should. You know you know I was just actually look at looking back at a lot of the pieces that the media did this week because I'm working on a story for Beat the Press and I couldn't believe how many people were genuinely upset and angry and stupid or you know got in their cars and waited in lines

to get either to get free water or to buy water and it's like wait a second. You've got water. It's called. Yeah it's in your tap. A reminder I think of how dependent we are on infrastructure and on sort of the elements you know it was a contrast to last week where we. You know the federal government approved Cape Wind which is all about sort of harnessing nature. And then this week something is sort of basic is running water was disruptive to two million people. You know I think that's exactly right and people are looking to find the solution outside themselves in the bottled water but really the solution was right there with 10 minutes of work they could have all the water they wanted and yet you know I think they wanted to buy the solution instead. Yeah. Well as we often talk here it's like you know we've just become so inconvenient averse that anything that the slightest little trip up sends us into a tizzy. I've I've had enough of that. There was a GREAT was a great political week as a matter of fact. That story ended up being a great political boost for Governor Deval Patrick a

great job. I think the governor's people were very careful to you know project the idea of you know post post-Hurricane Katrina the notion of having a chief executive or any sort of political like td appointed leader not appearing and gauged is just. You know unthinkable I think at this point so they were very careful to make it appear and to actually be that the governor was in the bunker in Framingham on the site you know conversant with the people who were handling the problem. They were they were sure to send out at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. The notice that the boil water order had stopped to let people know that they're working through the night. And so I think that now it is yeah exactly. And the even as you know Charlie Baker and Tim Cahill didn't have much to say about the governor's performance what did they say. Well interestingly even in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf President Obama has

gotten some criticism for putting too much emphasis on what BP would do and not being down there quickly enough and I think exactly as you said Jim I mean DEVAL PATRICK Every time I turn on my television during the crisis he was there. People were working through the weekend. And I think there's nothing better to boost to put politicians standing than a major crisis and seeming like you were on it. Yeah. He was there and I think that's it. You know he's somebody whose trademark is to say that I care about. I understand what you're going through. I kind of I'm good at the empathy thing I'm there for you. And you know I think you know we're all agreeing that there's no way that he could have you know delegated this and just taken a backseat role. You know what this is going on because it's just absolutely on everyone's mind. You know over the entire week and so I think it was a good week. It was a good week for him. Yeah I mean because there's a governor's race actually sort of one on hold for two or three days. What's the project you're working on Jim. You're collecting names of politicians that are.

Oh I'm doing me seriously what is that. Thank you for letting me know what you know. Free lance piece about for politics magazine about the 100 Most Influential People in Massachusetts political campaigns and in history. Thank god deadline has passed no currently. So I mean like oh. Well I'm not I'm not. What were you to say when we both had we had the 10 Republicans and the ten Democrats in theirs and undifferentiated 80 group of folks like us both campaign managers and campaign managers it was kind of a question of defining the parameters we ruled out elected officials ruled out. You know reporters columnists talk show hosts and often no current candidates really can't wait to read what it was you know it was kind of a reminder of how active the political scene is because it wasn't a question of you know people said oh you know come up with a hundred names it wasn't a question of reaching 100 It was a

question of reducing a lot more than that so some folks well why would you limit it now and not me but there was some talk show hosts who were really you know drove the agenda for a number of things including Scott Brown's election to the Senate. You know that's absolutely right and there are you know players in other spheres and I'm sure I didn't capture people I'm not even aware of that are at or near the top of the list. But you had to set some kind of gross Yeah all right well speaking about Scott Brown I addressed the attempted bombing car bombing in New York City yesterday and he was talking about what should happen to somebody who's a naturalized citizen if they're convicted of attempted terrorism Here's what he had to say. Individuals who take up arms. This is what I believe. Mr. Brudenell senior citizens. In this legislation or simply in the real world it is that if somebody wants to run there very much what was told to. Take away their

citizenship. Because I feel the most important civil liberties. This if you will save the money. Talking with Jim Sullivan Carol Miller and Samuel what do you think of that idea. Stripping somebody of their citizenship. Well this is I think for the last hundred years there's been a Supreme Court precedent that establishes that citizenship can only be given up voluntarily. Right so none of that I didn't hear the word constitution and then a sound bite from from Scott Brown and I think the legal experts say this will absolutely you know not withstand a Supreme Court ruling and so for him to put it out there it really is just tapping into kind of raw emotion and feel so I thought. I thought it sounded. I hate to say this but very unsophisticated. Yeah and you know we take up arms and he is very good at is painting imagery right. So it makes you think of somebody you know whether with a rifle point at the White House I mean he's good with a leather jacket he had a pickup truck and that's that is kind of his that's his M.O.. Yeah you know

to just pay the Eritrean just draw on that not like raw emotion but that if it's not going to it's not going to go anywhere you know then you get a question what are you doing if you're filing the legislation I guess he is. He's yes most are co-sponsoring it with Joe Lieberman and I mean I think it tells you everything you need to know that John Boehner who heads the Republicans in the House is against this you know formal or legal adviser to the Bush administration says this is draconian. I mean exactly as Sam said you can't just strip people of their citizenship. And the problem there too is where do you draw the line. How about somebody who's killed a bunch of policeman. How about somebody who's a serial killer. What do you classify as a terrorist organization if somebody is a terrorist in a homegrown militia does that qualify. And in fact the way they have written the law. It is that they talk about supporting a terrorist organization financially. If you're financially supporting a terrorist organization can you be stripped of your citizenship. And would you even know that. You know I think many people who write

checks to organizations aren't even aware of all the things that happen within those organizations so I think it's such and you know again deco it seems that it is such a nebulous law that there's no way it's going to pass muster in terms of actually going into the books. Well I think it's interesting you bring up Ben he was actually from what I read and what I could tell he was more down on the legislation than Speaker Pelosi was she said she wanted to hear more about it. You know obviously I'm not really in step back in leadership given the Times Square thing this was obviously timely in the way Lieberman framed it was just he talked about it merely as an update of the 1040 law obviously passed during the Red Scare about people who pledged allegiance to other states and other armies Well it's not so much other states and other armies that are threatening us now is sort of these. You know shadow groups and splinter groups and things like that.

So I think it's you know like you said it got killed by the Constitutional scholars and so I wonder if he would strip the citizenship from a reporter let's say who tipped off you know accidentally or purposely tipped off the terrorists that the police or the FBI were after him. That's why it's so tough to get so hazy. And in fact I heard Glenn Beck in the last few days talk about his concern that civil liberties are slowly being stripped I think he was talking about in the context of the Arizona law. But but you've got people on the right like Graner who are worried that this is an infringement on people's civil liberties. I mean it's citizenship is what protects gives you protection under you know under the Bill of Rights and the law you know it protects the civil liberties without citizenship you're not entitled to that so it's like even a level further you know deeper than that. And I figured this was not really. Something more sensible like they couldn't own a gun. Well that's that's films under via law enforcement. That's where you know the FBI and counterterrorism you know agencies like

that need to weigh in and say well you know are we doing enough and there's been plenty during the Bush years you know and up till now you know plenty of debate and policy making that is designed to make us feel safer but what is this you know how does this make you feel safer than just saying you know I'm just going to be more draconian than you. All right so listen we got a little breaking news here on the Boston Firefighters raise. Glad you're here today Sam. You tell us how did you how was it. Had you been on the bus to city council. All right so the arbiter who awarded Boston firefighters that 19 percent raise in exchange for submitting to random drug and alcohol testing is saying now that he was persuaded that the actual cost of the award is thirty nine point four million far short of the 79 million the city officials have said it is. He says I conclude that the city's proposal to skim the frosting pocket the cake and avoid paying the fair reasonable and affordable value of the meal is found that will not hunt. Wow. You know a lot of cliches. This is a guy. Dana

Edward he was the arbiter and he just he's just saying he thought that the firefighters earned the raise and that's why he worded it to them. What would you what would you do. Sam you are still on the bus this is how in this economy when people like me. Yeah yeah exactly. Can you justify a raise of that kind. How how does that. And it's like that's how you have an ax to grind here. Yeah that's right I think you know in for a three person arbitration panel and this is even you know I don't really understand where one person is a firefighters union president and the other is clearly a kind of on management side as a former mayor current mayor. So a lot depends on the third person to be neutral. His hand was neutral and he's saying that 2.5 percent of the 90 percent raise was direct quote quid pro quo for gold standard truly random drug and alcohol all testing of firefighters.

Why should you be giving them extra money for not taking drugs. I don't get that. I'm really pissed off. Yeah this guy must come up with it all on its own I'm reading it right this is Boston like Tom is breaking this got this story. But he released a statement. Yeah. That's how far I think. This is how far things have deteriorated. You know if the person that you count on to be the arbiter to weigh in in a very kind of objective and fact based way to say they deserve it. Well a lot of people deserve a lot of things. And it you know for that to not to have kind of a factual kind of objective even tone this is really crazy but here the fact is you know I think the city council is going to pass this. Yeah. And I think the reason is you know and something that I talked about during the campaign is because you know it's not that this is a vote that people remember and who remember is firefighters and the unions. And there's an incredible amount of pressure is being brought to bear on the city councilors.

And but this just really calls for an active engaged citizenry. You know to well even Governor Deval Patrick has protested this he was talking about it this morning. He says it's not right. John what's your what's your take on this I mean is anybody on the council do you think in a pushback on this cancer you know better than I mean you know obviously the firefighters union has an enormous amount of sway. Over city council a lot of firefighters live in the city they you know abide by the rules that are been set out. But I think just from a public standpoint you know even people within you know firefighters that I've talked to and people close to the union say that the drug testing is just kind of optically really awkward thing. Why wouldn't you know why wouldn't you voluntarily why would you kind of get out in front of that just from a sort of PR standpoint when you get out in front of that and say you know we're going to embrace that in exchange for whatever percent raise.

You know I think there's two issues there here I mean I think there's the agreement that the union comes to you and then there's a question of upholding that agreement. Here it seems like an issue of upholding and if indeed the agreement they came they came to with something outlandish but they came to it and it is set in stone. I don't know what you can do at this point but I think there is that initial question of. How was in agreement. Ever come up with where somebody could be making $270000 years a police officer. Obviously it's an incredible amount of money I mean that's you know working on Wall Street kind of money. Yeah or used to be anyway. But but if you compare that with other public people I mean my sister used to be a teacher in Massachusetts and you know you compare that with starting salaries of teachers I mean there's just they're not even in the ball and there was no way for the future are to make that kind of overtime it doesn't exist you know. And yes indeed they get the summer off but even taking all that into account these still people are still making quadruple triple what many I'm traveling for I mean you put your wife and I want to

cover fire for you know I think that's a that's a different variable in the equation. You are in public. Public Safety officers should all be paid well. I mean that that's a bottom line. But there are pieces of the system where if you spend 15 minutes of the overtime and you're get four hours pay. You know that's a piece of the system that can be tweaked in a way that could save real money. I mean there's something every Boston city councilor you know from those who are like really from you know close to the police and firefighters to everyone else would think that that's an unmanageable system. Well over time you know it's 34 million dollars and we only say 4 million dollars from the last you know overtime budget. And it's because there are just ways of gaming the system that are that are there and it's not breaking the law. You know but that's the system. They also work for a state that's deeply in debt and shedding jobs. So I think that should also be taken consideration I'm wondering if somebody can challenge the neutrality of this arbiter. It sounds like he was way

over the line. I mean in any of these kinds of comments that he's made today it just sounds like he didn't even consider the city's position on this. There's a public trust issue. And you know and there is you know what we're going to hear from city counselors or is that. You know we respect the process that is laid out to mediate the dispute between union and management and now the process has been carried to its logical and we're going to respect that process. But there is a public trust issue and that is in a statement like that you know is was it objective was it was a fair or was it you know you would expect an arbiter to not even appear to be taking sides or saying you know based on the merits you know of this this is how you know it sounds nutty. I'll go right right around him and say he sounds a little loopy I don't know. He should have just issued the statement and shut up but he sounds like he's dug himself a hole here. He's certainly got a bunch of he's got a penis the men apart like yeah yeah.

Well I mean the community center is closing schools you know slated to close next year. Libraries the libraries. I mean that is that's about a tenth the size you know the population like about a tenth the size of the arbiters award. You know beyond what was with them the mayor was always requesting it's wharfs you know all the other problems just you know the city has and it's going to create another problem when the other one the other unions go to negotiate as well. Yeah. All right we're going to take a short break I'm talking to Samuel and Karen Miller and Jim O'Sullivan reviewing stuff that happened in the news this week and we're going to move on when we continue. Support for WGBH comes from you.

And from Bank of America. Committed to supporting vital community needs here in Massachusetts through lending investments and philanthropy including more than 12 million dollars in community support across the commonwealth last year. And from the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning drama August Osage County at Boston's Colonial Theater. Now through May 9th. For tickets you can visit Broadway Across America dot com part of the Lexus Broadway Across America Boston series. At. The annual WGBH spring auction is underway there's an auction docked at WGBH dot org to bid on hundreds of great deals. Red Sox tickets form a restaurant gift certificate one of a kind getaways new items appearing in closing every day. Don't miss out. Visit auction at WGBH dot org.

This is Brian O'Donovan. Don't miss weekends on the new eighty nine point seven. We've got a whole new line up of public radio's favorite weekend voices. Hello and welcome to This American Life IRA guys. This is NPR's ON THE MEDIA. I'm Brad bloodstone and a Celtic sojourn at a new time. Saturday afternoons at 3. Weekends are all for you flavor along with the staples you always loved was but a quiet week unlike what we're going to hear on the new eighty nine point seven. WGBH. I'm Kelly Crossley coming up on the calico show we hit the rewind button on the stories that graced the front pages and didn't reach our radar. That's today one after the Emily Rooney show only here on the new 9.7 WGBH. You're listening to the Emily Rooney show we are talking about all things in the news this week.

Car bomb attack that attempted car bombing in New York City Of course the water crisis here in Boston and a story that I've actually been talking about myself both on the radio show and on Greater Boston is this incident with Boston. She's the Beth Israel Deaconess CEO Paul Levy who I know I've known for more than 20 years a really good guy as Brian McGrory writes in his column today extremely talented individual and I work at the end. You are a is widely credited with saving hundreds of jobs at Beth Israel Deaconess and has prided himself in being transparent about all things dealing with the hospital he writes a daily blog story that emerged that you probably don't know about this couple weeks ago that he had had some kind of an improper inappropriate relationship with a woman at the hospital. That I agree with Brian McGrory is none of our business but as he so succinctly put it today the question about whether he inappropriately used hospital funds which that hospital gets a lot of federal dollars state dollars. Did he

hire her because he was having a relationship with or did he promote her because he was having a relationship with her. Why would somebody if she's a young woman. You know why would somebody leave a high profile job she was working at the Needham branch of beyond. Why would she need to have a severance package unless it became so uncomfortable between her and you know the management. I guess everybody was well aware of this relationship and I guess it got to the point where something had to give and she was given a severance package. I don't really know that much about it other than that I do know who the woman is and we've tried to contact her just to ask her the same questions that are being asked of Paul Levy but I think the hospital has a tremendous problem on its hands. The next time Paul let me use in public somebody is going to ask him these questions he was speaking out at Babson. This week I tried to contact him there I don't know if he actually ended up doing it or not it was his high profile Health Conference. He canceled his appearance at his Salem State College because he's supposed to be the

keynoter the graduation speaker there. I mean this is not going to go away. You guys are look at me like I don't know. I think you know I think that we're used uncomfortable is a pretty appropriate one it's it is really uncomfortable because it's such a you know sort of the clash between the personal and yeah the very public policy oriented world that Paul Levy inhabits when this is a guy who has pushed for you know when he talks about health care reform he's talking about transparency behind the way that the dollars move and stuff like that so it's just kind of a kind of a nasty irony to it I think. I mean yeah it's one thing for the board of directors to know these details and as well they should but this is one of those things that falls into the public's right to know. I mean it's not just appropriate curiosity. I'm sure the globe knows who the woman is too that's not the point. We don't need to know all the details of that relationship it's it's the whys and why she got hired why she got promoted Why why she got this severance pay. I don't know if I agree with that I think. You know I think we should leave this alone I think you know the hospital determined that

first of all there was no there was no violation of the law. And second of all that it didn't even violate hospital policy. Nothing that he did violated the design. Just a thousand dollars in something didn't sit right with the hospital the something didn't sit right right and sin so they created a bigger story by fining him if they had just said we've investigated it and it didn't violate any hospital policy but they find it's and that was I think there's that's the relationship that that exists in you know between a board of directors and their and their you know that President CEO. And I think given those two things that there wasn't any that he didn't break the rules of hospital policy in that there was no violation of law I think it's I think it is time to move on and I think this is to the extent there's a trust issue there that's something that the hospital is dealing with now and I don't think that by exposing more of the details of this that they're going to you know regain any of that any of that trust I think.

I think one of the very problems of the finding of the $50000 itself is that in some way implies that he is he is paying them back for the money that he squandered and for that he cost them somewhere namely the severance package. My guess is it was passed it was 50000 So if you say on one hand everything's OK but give us fifty thousand dollars. You're really saying everything's OK but it's not OK we want we want to be made whole again. Well if you took something improperly from them that they want back. That is in and of itself not OK. You know I think this also contributes to just the public's general sort of a lack of trust in institutions. Obviously we've seen this on a much larger and more serious scale with the Catholic Church with government with contributors lobbyists. Even the question of the water who got contracts to where. I mean this has been raised you know who has gotten Congress just much like the Big Dig. And and you know David Brooks of The New York Times has talked about this for a long time but there is a

major distrust out there of institutions and the more this kind of thing happens the more people think that there are people on the inside and then there are people on the outside and they don't get treated the same way. But I think what happened here and you know I appreciate the irony of the you know his standing for transparency but you know how more light on this is actually going to lead to higher quality patient care or better. You know better kind of future business wise you know for about Israel or how they're going to just help health care and I think they're the reason that there is no decision but. But tim if this is going to be the focus of you know Paul of his presence then the next time he's anywhere in public until these questions are answered they blew this just flat out blew it they blew it from a public relations stand that's all. If they had addressed it right up front it we wouldn't be having this conversation today. I mean I can tell you that. I mean this is a you know

a nonprofit institution right here that in this building if anything like that happened in these walls I mean first of all the person if it was a high profile person probably wouldn't still be working here. And secondly I can guarantee you they would be as transparent as possible just to get you know the story away. I think he just won't be as trusted as he once was. Ever again it's going to be hard to restore that trust you know for me to get out. Yeah give it up. It's to do with it it's a political story is as much as is as anything. All right we're going to take a short break and when we come back I actually want to talk about the market Steve Siler from the Boston Globe is going to join us. You will.

Or will. I will. Eat. You out. The back. With. Support for WGBH comes from you and from Huntington Theatre Company presenting prelude to a kiss which explores the power of love and nature of commitment in a breathtaking and life affirming comedy directed by Peter Dubois. May 14th through June 13th. Huntington Theatre dot org and from Comcast. Last year donating 11 million dollars to local charities and TV and Internet services valued at three point eight million annually to schools and libraries in eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Moore at comcast dot com.

I'm Kelli Crossley coming up on the Kalak Rosslyn show our Week in Review. Well look at this week's news that wasn't the stories that didn't reach our radar. We top off the hour with ragtime a roundup of the weekly rags That's today and one right after the show. Only there on the new eighty nine point seven. WGBH. The voice of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I hope you'll join me this July for the WGBH learning tours trip to the Berkshires. The tour includes two great BSL concerts at Tanglewood with music director James Levein and shall get to great theater performances. Babes in arms and Mengelberg and Mahler and several visits to

world class music. Sign up and learn more at WGBH daughterboard slash learning tours. You're listening to eighty nine point seven. WGBH Boston NPR station for depth and understanding with the world and all things considered the new eighty nine point seven WGBH. You're listening to the Emily Rooney show we're going to move on and talk about the market I see on Yahoo Finance. It has stocks seesaw after a while Thursday that's for sure. Joined here in the studio by Jim O'Sullivan Carol Miller and former Boston city councilor Samuel and on the telephone is Boston Globe business columnist Steve Siler. Welcome Steve. I am really how are you. All right we don't get it. What's the line forms Yeah right I mean was there was there some kind of a bogus trading area yesterday or was it all legitimate.

Well the market was two stories wrapped in one yesterday before we hit this period in the middle of the afternoon that was so crazy. Stocks were way down for a legitimate reason and then you just hit this period of you know a half hour of complete insanity where the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down over 500 points in five minutes and then kind of snapped back again. That brief period. It was not real and that there are a lot of people looking at exactly how that happened and there are a lot of trades that are being examined that are clearly for whatever reason should have gone through that did. But then once you got out of that period you went back to this market where you're still down about 300 points for the day and that's where it ended up and that first 300 is real and was real and that that sort of death defying plunge down when the Dow was almost down a thousand that second leg of it was not.

Steve this is Karen Miller. So my question is. Do you see Germany or any other members of the EU stepping in to help Greece in the near term. I mean it seems like you know they've been really loath to help their sort of weaker performing brethren because they you know honestly they're doing pretty well. Right well inside the European community there are a lot of has been have not there is a big split there right now and as much as we see you know violent protests in Greece every day. If you went to Germany you would see not violent protests but it would be very palpable how unpopular politically. Supporting other countries it is and you know one of the problems overall from a market perspective when you say why did stocks go down 300 points because of Greece and Europe. Is this this kind of Shiism and the lack of any kind of real leadership in Europe in solving not only the Greek

problem but this kind of contagion fear that Greece is only the beginning and there is Spain Portugal and Italy and Baba block you know a couple weeks ago when the market first reacted to this Greek situation thats like two weeks ago the market dropped like 200 points and then inst right back up and I kept saying that having that Greek situation I mean I almost feel like the the the market is so theyre driven by I think they were driven by what they saw on television. Yes well the protesters that seem to set this thing off I think there is kind of a visceral reaction to seeing something like that but you know you mentioned there was kind of a real reaction in Greece and then they kind of drifted away in a way. But in truth you know there are lots of different influences on the market and I think Greece was front and center for a while but you know things there are other things that are put good and bad you can and they dont necessarily have a specific market. Pack figure but when you look at things like the oil spill that's a negative. You look at the New York terrorism story that's a negative on the other hand

there's lots of in America lots of consistently positive big picture economic forecasts and statistics and news coming out all the time we have on the day the job the job is very 290000 new jobs in April. You know right to market is reacting well to that. Well you know we kind of it's obsessed right now and you know you had mentioned at the top that you know we were back in a seesaw today. You know I'm looking right now at a screen where it's what the market has been and sort of you know started up a little bit and then it was down two and a half percent and it climbed back to even and now we're back down a little bit so there's there's a lot of competing forces out there but I was very encouraged by the employment numbers and the actual unemployment rate went up but that's only because so many people who had given up looking are reinvigorated not to go back out to look for a job and count themselves amongst the job seekers like the Boston Globe Steven sire. We were all wondering yesterday why the trading brakes didn't sit in the circuit breaker out and ask about this to say well you know a lot of this

trading didn't happen on the big exchanges and this is. Although we don't know really what happened yet a key thing here is that the New York Stock Exchange slowed down the trading of a large number of shares because the volatility was getting out of control and finding the right price for a stock which is in in the parlance of Wall Street is called price discovery they were having a hard time doing that and so when they talk about slowing down trades in the New York Stock Exchange it means the difference between doing it instantly and taking 30 or 60 or 90 seconds in that window of time there are all these electronic platforms that also do trades. And so the volume split off and spread around into those areas where they're very thin there aren't that many buyers to meet the sellers and the Nasdaq market is part of this or in some particular instances and you know the Nasdaq came out today and said in 300 almost 300 different

stocks were gold. We took a look at them and some of the price swings were so dramatic in this sort of. Been crazy period where the prices were you know 60 percent or more off what they had been just a few moments ago and we're going to avoid those trades. You know one particular local stock that's in that crowd of 300 is Boston Beer the maker of Sam Adams and you know Boston Beer is a stock that trades for about 55 bucks a share is today and for a brief moment in time yesterday it was trading for pennies. Not sure you know how screwed up the system was. All right Steven Tyler you got demo has a question. Jim O'Sullivan just a question about the EU again I read something this morning about how there might be sort of a north south split. What's the likelihood of that at this point where there's you know almost like a succession at that point. Well you know I think the European community as. Political and economic entity is under an enormous amount of pressure. It's

easy to to cooperate and grow in good times. And Europe has had mostly good times but when you come under increasing financial pressure like this you know where the fissures end up I'm not sure I do. I guess my real answer to your question is I don't know but I think there is pressure up and down the line in Europe. OK Steve Buyer thanks for joining us. That's a great explanation. You know I think some people are denying that there was any kind of a screw up or a bumbling situation with the trading but it clearly there was something was wrong was wrong. I want to talk about a couple other local issues here. I don't know about this convention center hotel I heard on the radio this morning Pat Muscatel saying they're looking for some state funding to the 700 million sounds like a lot for for a hotel over in the World Trade Center. As I have been repeatedly saying here that is a vast wasteland. There's no reason to have a hotel over there because there's nowhere to go once you get there.

Other than the World Trade Center a bit. I think that tells you exactly what's going to happen if they do indeed build a huge convention center. I think it will be a kind of zone unto itself and I don't I mean I'm skeptical honestly that there would be very much Bill over to the city of Boston me people are not going to walk outside their door and end up at Boston Common it's not there. There will be a few restaurants that will serve those people and I mean if you've ever been to a convention as I have you get pretty sect and I mean you have time for lunch but unless you are right in the middle of the city that lunch is going to be right. You know if the restaurant that is right in front of you. I mean I do see like for example the Marriott in Back Bay. There is some you know sort of spill out to the Prudential Center to Copley to Newbury Street but that is because the Marriott is in Maine it is convention center but it is strategically placed. I mean if you're over by the seaport forget it you know I know I went to high there the other night and my cab driver said you want to see something he took me by the West and he said there were 50 people at six o'clock standing in line

waiting for a cab he said. There's no cabs over here. You can't come here at six o'clock at night. You know unless you're dropping somebody off you know I can go over there to pick up a fare you know that the worry is that that could be a self-fulfilling prophecy the more you kind of see the seaport district as as this wasteland you know then it just sucks the confidence and in our ability to imagine that it could be a thriving vibrant place I mean I think you know if To the extent that the convention center authority really has a solid kind of economic projection of the business that they're losing or foregoing because there just aren't enough hotel spaces kind of in the vicinity you know then you know there could be an argument you know to build more but that's that's the positive development either with you know it to the extent that public or that tax revenue on the meals and whatnot comes back to the state yet there could be an argument there. But you know we ought to learn from you know the Columbus center kind of a saga in terms of how you present the use of public money that

has some private benefit. Now it's an authority granted so it's a clause I you know public institution but. But to ask people to pay more taxes on their rental cars or their meals in hotels. You know you have to make that argument you know from the get go and be transparent about about all of it. All that is going to have to be approved by some legislative bodies like city council or state legislature. And in difficult economic times sometimes can be hard to sell now. Why does Sammy and Karen Miller and Jim O'Sullivan is that something legislature is not going to be this is not a good time to be coming up and asking for another penny or two on the meals tax and the legislature is just looking to get the heck out of there for the sure they don't you know the idea of sanctioning What was it seven hundred million dollars. Yeah in public 7 we figured at 700 K per room. You know even with the long term you know despite or even if there were terrifically sound economic development arguments for bringing those larger

conventions and that's what really and the executive director Jim Rooney's is saying is we're losing out on huge amounts of business. They had 8000 convention gets spread out across 33 hotel rooms and it cost three hundred grand in transportation it's not efficient but it's at a time when we talk about the cuts the city at the state level. You know it's even more dire it's just an awkward timing I think and the cities are already trying to grapple with the W Hotel in the theater district that opened about two minutes ago and failed about 1 minute ago. So I mean 10 million dollars of money loaned from the city which I never understood that maybe you can explain that and so you know why would we be loaning the W seems like it was. Yeah those guys right. I might understand if I don't get to know someone who knows someone. It was all favoritism. He's not moaning dontcha farro any money. Right right I mean the. Yeah that's right. It's a it's a who you know sort of business and that scale. I think. But you know in terms of who pays.

You know if if there's you know the whole idea of Tax Increment Financing is that you know that you're borrowing kind of future prosperity to invest now to make something happen. And it's true. Other cities do it you know this is Chicago is a city that I've been been to Chicago lately I mean they have you know they've they've invested very well and very you know smartly and growing their infrastructure and attracting business and activity. It's something for some reason we haven't figured out how to do here in Boston I think there's a messaging component to that there's a political component for it for sure. I can tell you you know for the record on the city council I voted against a couple tiff tax increment financing packages that were proper for the council. But it was not necessarily on the merits of it. It was just the process. You know in the climate center thing was all about process bungling the process and not being honest about you know what the true needs are and what you know what the what the real benefits would be so that something can be done but it's you know I think Gary has struck on some.

You know and that is that the seaport district is away from the city of Boston and it's not it's not doesn't have the old world charm of you know Back Bay Beacon Hill and when people come here that's the neighborhoods they want to be in. That's where they're going to stroll that's really going to dinner so this idea that you're going to recreate something like that on the waterfront is just and already the way that some of the planning is going it's just you know you get the I see it just sitting there all by itself you've got and then it's a drive over to the World Trade Center from the ICJ everything I get I get a sticker for the seaport here I go. I used to live over in that direction. I'm Nancy Reagan on and I know I like it over there and I think it's kind of been you get there it was right there. Yeah. You drive you take the silver line you can walk it's I mean not far over the bridge from the financial district and I think it's you know certainly the place is headed you know hems and haws and starts and stops but it's kind of interesting to watch this

neighborhood struggle to develop out of basically parking lots and mudflats you know when you hear it's kind of. I think for thing you know it's always been that that one says they've been trying to write it right but what's what's wrong with taking a stab at that and trying to build out the section of the city that was there was nothing you know there isn't anything wrong with it just isn't working that's my point. I also don't know that a convention center which tends to create a bubble I mean is going to do it. I mean I agree that I think there's potential there is potential there but right now I mean I went to dinner there a few months ago and it's kind of scary walking around because it's extremely dark and I mean ready when you get to the restaurant so you're all set. But just getting there it's really hard to navigate it's not very well lit it's just yeah it's not there yet. I guess I'd say it is not they tell you they care a Miller former boss the city council's Hanuman in state house News Service guy Jim O'Sullivan. I want to bring up also this carrot deal the selling of the of the of the hospital.

First I don't understand why the. AGs office has to pass off on that. You wanted to bring up a couple issues about this hospital. You know I just think actually that it's moving in the right direction insensible. First of all I mean the initial agreement is that it's going to stay a Catholic hospital. But I actually think that passing out of catholic hands and into secular hands is a good thing I think for any public institution to be religious automatically sets up these problems you know what if you have certain technologies that the religion doesn't agree more with their certain medical procedures we already know of a couple abortion and euthanasia that are that are already going to be problematic. But you know as time goes along and technology gets more developed there is inevitably going to be more. So I think that's just an inherent problem with how they're going to turn this into for profit isn't what it's for. And I think that's why the age is often just as in because they oversee all the non-dom

process right so if you they want to make sure that this conversion isn't going to. You know a crew you know excessive benefit to some individuals or whatnot I imagine something like that. But I think what's really important about this this character's conversion is not just you know the religious part of it but their community hospitals you know and we're kind of like in the this part of the country is there's a lot to talk about the high cost of healthcare and the brand name hospitals the Longwood medical area you know do we really want a health care system in which you know nobody thinks about going across the street to the community hospital instead they have to go downtown to children's where they know they're getting world class care. But it may be that if you can get the exact you know same kind of you know equivalent care at local community hospital. Where the insurers you know don't have to reimburse at nearly the same rate that you could be better for the system and I think that you know I think this this will be really interesting to see how much I agree with

the care that would be. I would shy away from it because of their religious affiliation was that I think concerned that's why I think they agreed to say well if this becomes you know an a an obstacle to us you know bringing in the patients that we want then will will buy out the religious affiliation which is interesting cause I mean just kind of. But it's there appears like a 25 million dollar price tag about 25 million dollar donation to charity. They'll get rid of their Catholic affiliation and all Catholic name Saints pictures everything when they come down exercise that you know a lot of right there's no sign off on that. Just so you know it's going the other direction in either direction if the if the archdiocese has a problem with the way things are going with this conversion to I think they can opt out for something. So they're leaving all options on the table and I think it's because they believe that community hospitals are. You know are an important part of our health care system and I think that there's you know I actually support their effort to make to switch it to a for profit I mean when you get right down

to it everything is for profit. I mean you know it's just a matter of how your organization is structured and with what kind of a board of directors and all that but everybody wants to bring in money and you know it's just and they're not because they make a lot of money. Right exactly. I know it's absolutely true and I actually think the Catholic influence here has been really good because they have promised that in the future the hospital will do and I believe it's 60 million dollars a year to community efforts in health care for the uninsured. So they're sort of trying to keep that element of the Catholic Charities which I think is really nice if the legislature have to weigh in on this at all Jim. You know I just don't care. It's all sure they I mean I'm sure some of them care but it's a level thing and she and she has put out what she needs to. Yeah. And also add to property tax rolls. Yes. And in Boston you know often quoted figure 50 percent of the land is not taxable. It's crazy. So saying Elizabeth I don't want to burn about that that home pilot that payment right of taxes things I mean people got to

get on board with that is that bridge is right and some of these institutions really come up with nothing for the city. So we're going to lower that percentage by U.S. Elizabeths in Brighton and Paradise County and Dorchester if this goes through they will be paying taxes on that. Property Yeah and that will be significant that will be that would be significant but in the end but they have to they have to value Well they have to be a going concern you know. Funny yeah because that's that's going to be in the you know millions after those kinds of properties absolutely have to bring in a lot of money. All right Evan talking to former Boston city councilor Samuel. Thanks for him Sam fed us that Daily News columnist Karen Miller and Jim O'Sullivan from the Statehouse News Service. Thanks a lot for this week in review covered a lot of territory that is going to do it for us this afternoon. We'll be back Monday at noon. In the meantime tune in to the press tonight at 7:00 we're going to talk about how the media almost blew the arrest of New York's would be terrorist.

That's right I really am onboard that that really happened. But we'll talk about that and more tonight at 7:00. The Emily Rooney show is a production of eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston as NPR station for news and culture on the web at WGBH dot org slash Emily Rooney Kelly Crossley Show is coming up next an Emily Rooney. Have a great weekend.