Wednesday, August 26, 2009

RIP Teddy.. and Ellie too...

**Updated to include interview audio links***
Click here to listen to Robert Reich talk about his friend Ted Kennedy

Click here to listen to the discussion about ERISA ****

About an hour after wrapping up last night's show, I was still working. Actually, I was working on a video project that I have to have finished in time for my trip to Los Angeles next week... So, I was editing video and had the TV sound on in the background. It was probably shortly after 2am when they broke in with a special bulletin to tell us that Teddy Kennedy had died.

Even though we knew it was coming, it didn't soften the blow. Tonight, we'll pay tribute to the last Kennedy brother, and I'll speak with his friend, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who paid his own tribute to him today on Huffington Post.

One of America's most amazing songwriters also died today. Ellie Greenwich died today in NYC. She was 68. She earned 25 gold and platinum records, as a songwriter, producer and artist. I put together a montage of some of her biggest hits and we'll listen to that tonight too...

Dominick Dunne was the third famous person to die today. Although I was a fan of some of this writings, I had mixed emotions about his form of celebrity crime journalism... I do, however, love his son Griffin Dunne...

In the first hour of tonight's show, we'll deal with a topic I had already been planning. It's a follow up to a show I did a few weeks ago dealing with ERISA (The Employee Retirement Income Security Act). I had never heard the term until a listener wrote me an email about it.
Jeff Metzger is an attorney who represents clients against insurance companies, and he joined me to talk about the problem that is ERISA. I then heard from another attorney who has a similar practice, Richard Johnston... who also writes a blog entitled "The Problem Is ERISA!"

Listened to the interview with Jeff Metzger. Seems like equal time is in order to set some of the record straight.
I contacted the sender, Mike Reilly, and invited him to elaborate.... It turns out he is also an attorney, who deals with the other side. I invited him on the show, but he's on the road this week. He did however, offer his partner Jeff Knapp, in his stead. So, we'll have our own courtroom battle at the top of the show tonight.. and you and I will likely learn a lot more about how health insurance works... or not!

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