Radio: ‘Granny Snatching’ and NJ ‘Corruption’

Melissa Hayes

As the first guest Oct. 28 on my radio show Washington Update, New Jersey journalist Melissa Hayes described the acquittal of a local mayor in a nationally important corruption case that’s part of the reform credentials of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Then Ron Winter, an award-winning journalist and military commentator, provided lessons from his dramatic new consumer book, Granny Snatching, about his fight against relatives to help his 92-year-old widowed mother live at home in dignity. Winter seeks national legislation to prevent similar abuses.

Hear the show nationwide with my co-host Scott Draughon via Live! on the My Technology Lawyer Radio Network by archive.

As background, I recently published, “Politicians, Press Cheat Taxpayers By Ignoring DOJ’s Wasteful Witch-Hunts” about the 46-defendant “Bid Rig III” corruption investigation in New Jersey. The indictments last year helped propel the Republican former New Jersey U.S. attorney Christie to the state’s governorship.

A New Jersey jury acquitted Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 43, Oct. 28 of bribery charges involving $10,000 in contributions to a legal defense fund. Hayes covered the trial, and wrote two stories published today: The verdict and defense strategy, “Ridgefield mayor’s victorious defense worked to discredit FBI informant.”

At trial, the defendants attacked the main prosecution witness Solomon Dwek, a brothel owner who also committed a $50 million bank fraud. Dwek obtained leniency from prosecutors because he was willing to use taxpayer funds supplied by authorities to entice mostly Democratic candidates or office-holders into suspicious conversations about what they might do if given campaign “contributions.”

Dwek, now free on bond while he testifies against defendants, has long been earning between $10,000 and $12,000 a month taken from the assets of his fraud victims because bankruptcy authorities say they need him to sort through the paperwork. The office of current New Jersey U.S. attorney Paul Fishman, a Democrat, declined to send a speaker to the show.

Winter, the show’s second guest and my longtime friend from our early days in investigative reporting, described his latest book, Granny Snatching, and its importance for families as our population ages. The book’s introduction says:

What began as an act of kindness just before Christmas, 2008 when author Ron Winter and his family offered to share their home with his aging mother, ended in a rescue mission and a year-long legal battle against out-of-state relatives who were trying to commit her to an Alzheimer’s home and strip her of her assets.

The struggle was especially significant since Ella Winter does not have Alzheimer’s. Winter’s new book, is the gripping account of one family’s battle to confront a growing national phenomenon – Granny Snatching – wherein family members attempt to institutionalize elder relatives and gain control of their assets.

Ron Winter

“Granny Snatching exemplifies the need for national legislation that will guarantee uniform rights for elderly citizens regardless of which state they live in or where they may be housed,” says Winter, who regularly writes and speaks on the military and politics.

He previously authored Masters of the Art: A Fighting Marine’s Memoir of Vietnam. “Advocates for the elderly have been pushing for such legislation for several years,” Winter continues. “Reported instances of elder abuse, under which granny snatching is classified, are climbing steadily toward the one-million mark annually in the US alone. This time, the victim was spared.”

About Melissa Hayes and The Jersey Journal
Melissa Hayes joined the Jersey Journal as a staff writer in October 2009 after three years at the Burlington County Times, also in New Jersey. She covers Jersey City and Hudson County, including municipal government and happenings, as well as Hudson County politics. Details.

About Ron Winter
Ronald Winter is an author, public relations executive, college professor and award-winning journalist. He regularly writes and speaks on the military and politics. Winter gave up an academic scholarship at the State University of New York at Albany in 1966 to join the Marines and fight in Vietnam as a helicopter crewman and machine gunner. He flew 300 combat missions and was awarded 15 Air Medals, Combat Aircrew Wings, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. Details on books.

Alabama’s Democratic Senate Nominee Barnes Questions Rival’s Health As Issue

Bill Barnes

Bill Barnes, the Democratic nominee for an Alabama U.S. Senate seat in the Nov. 2 election, raised a number of sensitive issues on my radio interview Oct. 14.

Among them, he questioned his opponent’s commitment to fighting for BP Gulf disaster victims and to serving out his term.

In an exclusive interview on Washington Update radio, Barnes said his Republican opponent Richard Shelby, 76, portrayed below in his longtime official photo, has shown scant interest in the plight of Alabama’s victims of the oil tragedy.

Sen. Richard Shelby

In response to a listener call, Barnes also voiced for the first time in his campaign suspicions among high-level Alabama Democrats that Shelby’s health might encourage him to resign shortly after the election to enable Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to shift to the Senate before his gubernatorial term expires in January.

“It’s a strong possibility that Mr. Shelby, Sen. Shelby, is suffering from some health issues,” Barnes said in his interview, noting that Shelby has made few campaign appearances. “Gov. Riley has been in the media quite regularly, drawing a lot of attention to himself, it appears. And I often wonder in my own mind, what’s the angle? Is he [Sen. Shelby] my true opponent?”

Gov. Bob Riley

Access the show nationwide on the My Technology Lawyer Radio Network archive. The weekly public affairs show’s founder Scott Draughon and I interviewed Barnes at 17 minutes past the hour.

See our attached news release for a more thorough description of quotations from the Barnes interview. The other guest was Jim Baldauf, president and co-founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & GAS – USA, a non-profit, non-partisan research and public education initiative.

May 6 Update: Author Paul Craig Roberts Charts Drastic Decline of U.S. Liberties, Media

Paul Craig Roberts

Author, former Reagan official and civil rights advocate Paul Craig Roberts described on the May 6 edition of my Washington Update radio show why he is retiring from writing because of the nation’s appalling decline in civil rights protections.

Roberts has had an extraordinarily successful career as a Wall Street Journal editor, author, research scholar and assistant Treasury secretary. You can hear him here in an archived version of the show from anywhere in the country following his live interview on the My Technology Lawyer Radio network.

This spring Roberts published what he called his final essay, “Truth Has Fallen and Has Taken Liberty With It.” In it, he wrote:

Americans have bought into the government’s claim that security requires the suspension of civil liberties and accountable government. Astonishingly, Americans, or most of them, believe that civil liberties, such as habeas corpus and due process, protect “terrorists,” and not themselves. Many also believe that the Constitution is a tired old document that prevents government from exercising the kind of police state powers necessary to keep Americans safe and free….The American media does not serve the truth. It serves the government and the interest groups that empower the government….As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off.

We spent much of the show exploring his insights, battles and grim outlook for the country, previewed in his 2000 book updated in 2008, The Tyranny of Good Intentions. Co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, the book is subtitled: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.  The book, rated with five stars on Amazon.com by most readers with a low-rating of three-stars by a reader who protests that Roberts does not provide enough solutions for the dire portrait of the nation’s future.   The book is an impressive survey of the advancement of legal theories of due process and other civil rights from ancient times to what he describes as a bipartisan abdication of our rights to central executive authorities in an abdication of responsibility by Congress, the news media and the courts that he describes as foreign to Anglo-American legal traditions.

His book and essays critique not simply the legal system, but breakdowns in the news, manufacturing, and Wall Street. As a result, he says, his writings are now longer welcome at major corporate-owned publications. He has been a prolific author up to now for web-based investigative outlets until recently.

Scott Draughon, the show’s founder and co-host, drove much of the lively interview.  We began the show with a news overview addressing the Gulf oil spill and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s party switch from GOP to independent. Listener advisory: Mac listeners need “Parallels.”

About Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts has held many academic appointments, and holds France’s Legion of Honor. He authored Supply-Side Revolution: An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy; and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy. co-authored with Lawrence Stratton The Tyranny of Good Intentions, subtitled: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.

April 22 Update: Federal Spending Critic Cites Defense Waste, Capability Problems

Winslow T. Wheeler

Winslow Wheeler, a leading critic of federal waste, today critiqued the Defense Department’s trillion-dollar budget on the DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio.  On the show, he amplified his call April 21 to suspend production of the F-35 fighter.  Hear today’s radio show in a nationally-available archive by clicking Live! (http://snipurl.com/v1yey).

Wheeler, author of America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress, described the nation’s most expensive military procurement as producing fighters deeply flawed and thus a waste.  Also, he reviewed an essay this week, Our Trillion Dollar Defense Budget, by fellow National Journal commentator George Wilson.  Among Wheeler’s own National Journal essays are: 2010 Will Be The Year Of….What? and Containment Succeeded and Pre-emption Failed — Time For A New National Strategy? As a Senate staffer, Wheeler worked on hundreds of bills and amendments.  These included the War Powers Act, and many proposals to reform DOD procurement and require more realistic weapons tests. 

Update’s co-hosts are business radio pioneer Scott Draughon and Washington commentator Andrew Kreig.  The hosts began the show with an overview of Washington policy news affecting the nation’s business, politics and quality of life.  Mac listeners need “Parallels” to enable a Windows Media Player.

About Winslow Wheeler

Winslow T. Wheeler worked on national security issues for 31 years for the U.S. Senate and General Accounting Office (GAO).  In the Senate, Wheeler worked for Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kansas, David Pryor, D-Arkansas, and Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico.  He was the first, and according to Senate records the last, Senate staffer to work simultaneously on the personal staffs of a Republican and a Democrat (Sens. Pryor and Kassebaum). Among his books, Wheeler authored The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security, published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press. He is director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information and is a research fellow at the Independent Institute .

About Scott Draughon and My Technology Lawyer Radio Show

Richard Scott Draughon is host and producer of the My Technology Lawyer Radio Show, which is affiliated with MyTechnologyLawyer.com ─ an on-demand legal service.  Also, he is author of the 2007 book, “The Art of the Business Radio Show” and is an experienced litigator.  Details. 

About Andrew Kreig

Andrew Kreig, an attorney and author, is executive director of the Justice Integrity Project in Washington, DC. Earlier, he led the Wireless Communications Association International as CEO from 1996 to 2008 in its worldwide advocacy to establish the broadband wireless industry.  Details.

March 25 Update Hosts Horse-Killing Foes Kerry Wallum, Clay Canfield

Country Artist Clay Canfield

Actor/producer Kerry Wallum and country music artist Clay Canfield are guests March 25 on my DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio as they describe how they’re using their talents to oppose slaughter of wild horses for meat.

Listeners can access the show nationwide beginning at noon (Eastern Time) via the Live! link, which enables call-in and also archives all shows.

Canfield, who recorded the smash hit “Wild Horses,” is visiting the nation’s capital to sing the song as part of two-hour protest concert outside the White House at Lafayette Park shortly after the radio show.  He is working closely with his friends Wallum, actor-singer Willie Nelson and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) to protect America’s wild horses by supporting legislation in Congress.

Wallum and Nelson recently announced formation of Luck Films, an independent production company based in their native Texas.  Its goal is important entertainment and documentary films independent of the big-dollar studio system.  Nelson recently gave his views on wild horse and burro protection:

I’m a little prejudiced when it comes to horses.  I have always loved them.  I currently have about 68; 25-30 were rescued directly from slaughter.  I got involved eight years ago, when AWI first made me aware that American horses are being slaughtered and shipped overseas for human consumption.  It’s a shame horses ─ or any animal ─ be treated this way when horses are the foundation of America….Folks, please join my family and friends at the Animal Welfare Institute to see how you can help with this important American cause.

I cohost Update with business radio pioneer Scott Draughon, the show’s founder.  We begin the show with an overview of Washington policy news affecting the nation’s business, politics and quality of life.  Topics this week include a special report on the best-selling memoir by former Bush adviser Karl Rove, Courage and Consequences: My Life As A Conservative In The Fight.  As a listener advisory:  Mac listeners need the tool “Parallels” to enable a Windows Media Player.

About Kerry Wallum and Luck Films

Kerry Wallum grew up in Texas, where he performed in rodeos and had his acting debut in a junior high school play.  From stunts to acting, Kerry now has 67 movies under his belt. On March 16, he joined with American music icon Willie Nelson to announce the creative team for Luck Films. Based out of Luck, Texas, the key partners include also writer/director/actor/producer Norman Macera, producer/director Scott McCauley, and producer/director David Von Roehm.  Luck Films will initially produce three to five feature films a year, and will also branch out into producing musical specials, and documentary films for television and subscription internet streaming.  Details.

About Clay Canfield and “Wild Horses”

Country music artist Clay Canfield is an acoustic country/blues solo artist based near Nashville, TN, specializing in original songs.  He is coming to sing at the March for Mustangs! His incredible song “Wild Horses” will be heard at Lafayette Park on March 25 during the 1-3pm Rally. Clay is donating a portion of the proceeds from each sale of this song to Animal Welfare Institute’s work for the wild herds.  Please join Clay on Facebook to hear the music.  Clay will join Wendie Malick, Ginger Kathrens, Hope Ryden, RT Fitch and many more amazing speakers in a unified rally for the wild herds, organized via the Animal Welfare Institute.  Details

About Scott Draughon and My Technology Lawyer Radio Show

Richard Scott Draughon is host and producer of the My Technology Lawyer Radio Show, which is affiliated with MyTechnologyLawyer.com ─ an on-demand legal service.  Also, he is author of the 2007 book, “The Art of the Business Radio Show” and is an experienced litigator.  Details. 

About Andrew Kreig and Justice Integrity Project

Andrew Kreig has co-hosted on the My Technology Lawyer Radio network for three years.  He is an attorney, author and commentator listed in Who’s Who in the World since the mid-1990s. As president of the Wireless Communications Association International for 12 years, he helped lead the advance of the broadband wireless industry worldwide.  Currently, he is executive director of the Justice Integrity Project, which he founded this year to examine misconduct by federal prosecutors and judges ─ and the consequences for the public.  Details.  He is a speaker at 5:30 p.m. on March 25 at a forum hosted by American University in Washington, DC.  Entitled “Just Justice: Political Actions by the Department of Justice,” the two-hour session in Ward Hall 2 features victims and independent experts describing how the public is hurt by politically motivated prosecutions against local officials.

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Grassroots Civic Action Is Best Hope To Correct Federal Prosecution Abuses, Says Author Harvey Silverglate In DC Radio Interview Jan. 28

Informed and pro-active citizens are the nation’s best hope to correct increasing abuses of power by federal prosecutors, according to my radio interview today with Harvey Silverglate, author of the pioneering new book Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.   

Silverglate spoke live on the DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio, archived at www.MyTechnologyLawyer.com/update.

Silverglate, a Boston-based litigator for 42 years, showed how the federal executive branch abuses power via selective prosecution under hard-to-understand statutes.  The book is winning praise from experts across the political spectrum.  His book deserves the attention of anyone in the country worried that loss of constitutional rights affects politics and business.

Silverglate explained the book’s title thus: The average professional is unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes each day.  Why unaware?  Modern federal criminal laws have exploded in number, and become impossibly broad and vague.

In gripping detail, his book shows unfair prosecutions in different fields affecting ordinary people, as well as Martha Stewart-level celebrities.  In congressional testimony last fall on the problem, Silverglate said:

I was readily able, from my own litigation experience as well as from research done on other cases, to pinpoint myriad inappropriate prosecutions of many an unwary innocent citizen in the medical  community, the medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, investment houses, bankers, lawyers, accountants and auditors, academics, artists, newspaper reporters, merchants, as well as public officials.  

Won’t judges and defense attorneys protect defendants from unfair treatment?   Silverglate responded to the question on today’s show from my co-host Scott Draughon by saying that too many judges and prosecutors began their careers in a “culture” that assumes that those who are accused must be guilty.  So, Silverglate said, 95% of defendants then plead guilty, in part because so many defense attorneys are former prosecutors accustomed to “processing” clients through the system rather than fighting for them.

His advice for defendants seeking the right attorney?  He suggests seeking help from attorneys active in civic groups compatible with the defendant’s perspectives, not simply experienced courthouse players.

Three Felonies A Day author Harvey Silverglate is counsel to Boston’s Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan LLP. He is co-founder and board chairman of the Foundation for Individual Rights Education (Fire), a columnist for the Boston Phoenix and a Cato Institute fellow.  His congressional testimony last fall is available here.  In 1999, he co-authored The Shadow University. For details, visit here. Three Felonies a Day is available via Amazon.com here.

Jan. 28 Update Hosts ‘Three Felonies A Day’ Author Harvey Silverglate

On radio Jan. 28, I’m interviewing longtime Boston litigator and civil rights expert Harvey Silverglate to discuss his pioneering new book Three Felonies A Day on the DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio.

Listeners can access the show nationwide beginning at noon via the link at www.MyTechnologyLawyer.com/update, which also provides archives of previous shows I co-host with the show’s founder Scott Draughon.

The book’s subtitle is How the Feds Target the Innocent.  The theme is: The average professional in this country is unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes each day.

Why unaware? Modern federal criminal laws have exploded in number, and have become impossibly broad and vague. National Journal legal columnist Stuart Taylor, Jr. comments, “Abetted by compliant courts and easily gulled media, the feds brand as criminals good people who intended no crime.”

The book shows how the federal executive branch is able to exercise a disturbing form of social control via selective prosecution. The book is winning praise from experts across the political spectrum, and deserves the attention of anyone worried that loss of constitutional rights affects politics and business. 

The show’s founder, business radio pioneer Scott Draughon, will begin the show with an overview of Washington policy news affecting business, politics and quality of life.  Scott’s asked me to join him in an additional a special hour-long discussion at 4 p.m. Jan. 28 because of major recent developments in Washington and around the nation.

Our very accomplished noon guest Harvey Silverglate summarized his book’s themes in testimony last September before a House subcommittee.  

“This book is written from the perspective of a trial lawyer who has seen these statutes wreak havoc with the law and with people’s lives, and threaten the balance between governmental authority and civil society,” he testified.  “The book contains some legal analysis, but primarily it is meant as a description of how vague statutes function, in practice, as a tool of terror and true prosecutorial harassment in the lives of ordinary as well as extraordinary people.” 

Silverglate continued:

I was readily able, from my own litigation experience as well as from research done on other cases, to pinpoint myriad inappropriate prosecutions of many an unwary innocent citizen in the medical  community, the medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, investment houses, bankers, lawyers, accountants and auditors, academics, artists, newspaper reporters, merchants, as well as public officials.  

The time has come, it seems to me, to reduce or eliminate – rather than to enlarge – the number of these affronts to liberty and fair treatment of our citizens.

I hope you can join us for an especially important program.  Your calls or email questions are welcome, of course.  Call-in with questions at 866-685-7469, or send emails to radio@MyTechnologyLawyer.com.  

Three Felonies A Day author Harvey Silverglate is counsel to Boston’s Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan LLP. He is founder and co-chairman of the Foundation for Individual Rights Education, a columnist for the Boston Phoenix and a Cato Institute fellow.  His congressional testify last fall is available here.  In 1999, he co-authored The Shadow University. For details, visit here. Three Felonies a Day is available via Amazon.com here.

Listener advisory: Mac Listeners need the tool “Parallels” to access the Windows Media Player.

Jan. 7: DC Radio Hosts Ken Auletta On His Best-Seller ‘Googled’

New Yorker media columnist Ken Auletta discussed his latest best-seller Googled: The End of the World As We Know It on the Jan. 7 DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio.  

Listeners can access the show nationwide via the link at www.MyTechnologyLawyer.com/update, which also contains archives of previous shows.

In the show’s first guest segment beginning 18 minutes into the hour, Auletta discussed how, “Google has morphed from a search into a media company…that bestrides the world.”  He further described how Google in the process has become both “beloved” by some and “feared” by others.  

The book lives up to its advance billing:  Using Google as a proxy for the larger digital revolution, Auletta shares the secrets of Google’s success and describes why that success threatens traditional media.  The author enjoyed unprecedented access to Google’s founders and executives, but brings to bear an independent expert outlook. 

The book has hit the bestseller lists, with publishers in 12 nations.  Netscape founder Marc Andreessen describes Googled as, “A uniquely incisive account of the new Internet revolution, powered by Ken Auletta’s unparalleled access.  A great book.”

The radio show is co-hosted by business radio pioneer Scott Draughon and by Washington commentator Andrew Kreig.  The hosts begin with an overview of Washington policy news affecting the nation’s business, politics and quality of life.  As a listener advisory: Mac computer users need the tool “Parallels” to hear Windows Media Player.

About Ken Auletta and Googled

Ken Auletta has written the “Annals of Communications” column for The New Yorker since 1992. He is the author of 10 books, including four national bestsellers. These include Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way, Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman, and World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies. In naming him America’s premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review said, “No other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly.”  For details, visit his website here. Googled is available via Amazon.com here, with 32 reader reviews averaging a four-star rating out of a possible five.    

About Scott Draughon and My Technology Lawyer Radio Show

Richard Scott Draughon is host and producer of the My Technology Lawyer Radio Show, which is affiliated with MyTechnologyLawyer.com ─ an on-demand legal service that he leads.  Draughon is author of the pioneering book The Art of the Business Radio Show.  For details, visit the website: http://www.mytechnologylawyer.com. 

About Andrew Kreig

Andrew Kreig is an investigative reporter, author and attorney who reports frequently about official corruption on such new media sites as Huffington Post, Connecticut Watchdog, Nieman Watchdog and OpEd News. Kreig is finishing a year as senior fellow with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and is a research fellow with the Information Economy Project at George Mason University School of Law. Earlier, he was president of the Wireless Communications Association International from 1996 to last summer and authored the 1987 book, Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America’s Oldest Newspaper.

 

 

 

Dec. 17: DC Radio Hosts Authors Joan Biskupic On Scalia, Richard Wolffe On Obama

Authors of major new books on the Supreme Court and Obama Presidency are guests at noon Dec. 17 on DC Update. The My Technology Lawyer Radio network show hosted by Scott Draughon and Andrew Kreig can be heard here. The guests and their books are:

• Joan Biskupic, USA Today Supreme Court reporter and author of American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The book published Nov. 10 is the first full-scale biography combining the life-story and public impact of the court’s most provocative justice. Scalia provided exclusive interviews to the author.
• Richard Wolffe, MSNBC analyst and author of Renegade: The Making of a President. The book is the first account of the campaign, based on the author’s work as a Newsweek correspondent covering Obama for 21 months. Wolffe obtained many exclusive interviews with Obama and top aides, providing unparalleled access. Wolffe this month announced a contract for a new book on the administration.

Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe describes American Original as a “must-read” for anyone the seeking to understand “the most influential and interesting voice of the most powerful movement in contemporary American law.”

With exceptional clarity and research, the author weaves the story: Scalia, a brilliant Nixon administration official, went on to co-found a powerful conservative movement to reorient the judiciary, and was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a 98-0 vote in 1986. He thus became the first justice of Italian-American background and just the sixth Catholic justice in U.S. history. He is now one of six Catholics among the nine on the court. More generally, Scalia’s jurisprudence helped shape our time in such ways as the court’s 5-4 vote ending the 2000 Bush-Gore recount.

Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee describes Wolffe’s book Renegade as, “The first of the President Obama books – and a good one – insightful, thorough, and straight.” Wolff’s book, published June 2, was suggested by the candidate in March 2008. “The resulting volume,” the New York Times wrote in its review, “showcases the author’s access to the candidate, as well as friends, aides and campaign strategists.”

Wolffe’s title Renegade is partly derived from the candidate’s Secret Service nickname. This provides a near-parallel with John McCain’s theme of “Maverick” and Sarah Palin’s autobiography Going Rogue. The book ends with the start of the new Presidency. But the author is well-positioned to comment on current issues that will be included in the DC Update radio interview.

As a listener advisory: Mac computer users need the tool “Parallels” to hear Windows Media Player.

About Joan Biskupic and American Original

Joan Biskupic has covered the Supreme Court since 1989. Before joining USA Today in 2000, she was the Supreme Court reporter for the Washington Post (1992-2000) and legal affairs writer for Congressional Quarterly (1989-1992). She is the author of the 2005 biography Sandra Day O’Connor and co-author of Congressional Quarterly’s two-volume encyclopedia on the Supreme Court (3rd Ed., 1997). She holds a law degree from Georgetown University, a master’s in English from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s in journalism from Marquette University. Her new book’s descriptive details via Amazon.com include a five-star rating from all four reviewers so far. Details. 

About Richard Wolffe and Renegade

Richard Wolffe is an award-winning journalist and political analyst. He is an MSNBC contributor, finishing an interlude as a senior strategist at Public Strategies before his next book. As a columnist for Daily Beast, he broke the story last month, “Obama’s Secret Climate Pact.”  He covered the length of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. Earlier, he was U.S. diplomatic correspondent and deputy bureau chief for the Financial Times. His book’s descriptive details and reader reviews via Amazon.com, include a 3 ½-star rating from 125 reviewers so far and a four-star rating from 36 Barnes & Noble reviewers.  Details.

About Scott Draughon 

Scott Draughton is an attorney and business radio pioneer who founded the My Technology Lawyer Radio network. Draughon, author of the 2007 book The Art of the Business Radio Show, has long experience also in guiding entrepreneurial success through close attention to the dynamics of the marketplace, law, government policy and effective marketing. Details: http://www.mytechnologylawyer.com.

About Andrew Kreig

Andrew Kreig is an investigative reporter, author and attorney who reports frequently about official corruption on such new media sites as Huffington Post, Connecticut Watchdog, Nieman Watchdog and OpEd News. Former president of the Wireless Communications Association International from 1996 to last summer, Kreig is a senior fellow with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and a research fellow with the Information Economy Project at George Mason University School of Law. His coverage of Supreme Court books includes a 1979 interview with The Brethren co-authors Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong about controversies involving their research methods.

Nov. 19: DC Radio Hosts Health Care Rights Advocate, Russia Intrigue Analyst

Congressman Walter E. Fauntroy (1971-1990)

The congressional debate on health care reform and allegations of Russian regime-ordered killings were featured on today’s DC Update edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio.  

This week’s show hosted two courageous participants in events that helped shape our world.  The show is available via the link at www.MyTechnologyLawyer.com/update, which includes an archive of past shows.  Today’s guests were:

• The Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, former Washington, DC Congressman (1971-1990), an advocate of expanded health care as a basic civil right, and an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama.
• Steve LeVine, the Business Week Washington correspondent who drew on his 11 years work in the former Soviet Union to author the recently published Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia.

Update is co-hosted by the show’s founder and business radio pioneer Scott Draughon and by Washington commentator Andrew Kreig.  The hosts began the show with an update on Washington policy news affecting the nation’s business, politics and quality of life.  Topics included new developments in the health care battle, and the faith-based business success of the Chic-fil-A restaurant chain.

The show’s first guest helped lead a unique town hall-style hearing on Oct. 27 whereby patients whose insurance had expired testified about their limited options under the nation’s health care system.  In view of a Harvard study estimating 45,000 Americans dying each year because of lack of coverage, Fauntroy argued that basic health care should be considered as civil right under reform legislation. 

The Oct. 27 hearing, including a video of Fauntroy’s eloquent remarks surveying the rise and fall of great nations, was summarized on Nov. 5 by Kreig in a Huffington Post article: “Fans Of House Health Option Cite Rights Hopes, But Risk Big Defeat.”

LeVine’s book Putin’s Labyrinth focuses upon the life-and-death struggles by Russian dissenters to the government dominated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  LeVine described how six suspicious deaths in recent years of dissenters and others illustrate an alarming long-term pattern in Russian government.

Those patterns arguably continue with this week’s suspicious death in a Russian prison of Sergei Magnitsky, 37.   The prisoner was a Russian lawyer for the Hermitage Fund who had uncovered evidence of official involvement in the theft of $230 million from the government.  

LeVine’s book was originally published last year, and has been re-released in paperback with a new Afterword.

 About the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy

Walter Edward Fauntroy, 76, is the retired pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and a civil rights activist.  He is also a former member of the U.S. Congress.  He describes his life work as to advocate public policy that “declares Good News to the poor, that binds up the broken-hearted and sets at liberty them that are bound.”   A close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fauntroy helped organize the Alabama civil rights marches whose brutal disruption by police in March 1965 shocked the public and federal authorities into introducing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  That law enabled widespread black voting in the Deep South for the first time since Reconstruction. 

About Steve LeVine and Putin’s Labyrinth

Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for Business Week.  Previously, he was a correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years.  His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. Details: www.oilandglory.com.