The Food and Drug Administration has begun warning consumers that baby bottles and plastic containers containing Bisphenol-A, commonly known as BPA, may pose hazards to your health. The FDA recently cautioned the American public not to put liquids into, or to heat, containers made of BPA. David Biello, Energy and Environment Editor at Scientific American, Americas oldest continually published magazine, joins us to explain the history of BPA, the science behind it, and the dangers to your health it may cause.

It’s no surprise that students who drop out of school are harming their own individual prospects. But now, an Alliance for Excellent Education study, partnered with State Farm Insurance, shows exactly what that problem can mean for the city and the nation. As the former governor of West Virginia, Bob Wise brings a high level of expertise to the Alliance for Excellent Education, and as its president, leads the organization in its mission to see every student through high school.

I recently spoke with Patrick Gavin of Politico about new media and its prevalence in Washington. We discussed the advantages of twitter for politicians and the diplomatic community, who’s using it and who’s not as well as the upcoming White House State Dinner.

I spoke with economic historian and author, Bruce Bartlett, about the economy and his new book, The New American Economy. Bruce has interesting insights and persepctives on the current economy as well as what the future holds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UWChkX_pQc

I sat down with Dr. Ron Faucheux of Clarus Research Group. We spoke about President Obamas approval rating and his predictions for the upcoming mid-term elections.

I sat down with Rich Masters, a Democratic Party Strategist. We spoke about President Obama’s approval ratings, the economy and the upcoming 2010 elections.

Focus Washington recently sat down with Douglas C. Smith, President and CEO, Ericsson Federal Inc. In our studios, Mr. Smith shared his thoughts on the military’s increasing need for broadband communication solutions on and off the battlefield. As conflicts and emergencies continue to emerge around the globe and here at home, Ericsson Federal Inc. is staying on the forefront of cutting edge communication technology. However, as Mr. Smith points out, there is a major discrepancy between the luxuries used in private industry and what is being deployed on the battlefield.  Congress has been slow to act, and our service men and women are paying the price.

Doug Smith is President and CEO of Ericsson Federal Inc. (EFI). He is driving the adoption of Ericssons solutions into U.S. federal, state and local government agencies that are demanding the same broadband applications and communications capabilities as commercial markets and working with EFI customers to leverage Ericssons worldwide commercial leadership and massive research and development investment to achieve mission success.

Rich Masters had the privilege of meeting with KRG Foreign Minister Falah Bakir last week during his week-long visit to Washington, D.C.  The Minister discussed the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, covering such topics as the Minister’s vision for Kurdistan and Iraq; the Kurdistan Region as an emerging tourist destination; growing opportunity for foreign investment in Kurdistan; the successful 2009 Kurdistan elections; the upcoming 2010 Iraq elections; what the U.S. can do to help facilitate continued peace and stability in the Kurdistan region; and more.

You can watch the interviews here:

By Chuck Conconi
Washington Life Magazine
September 2009

The Vice President’s domestic policy advisor puts her carefully honed legal and political skills to work in the battle for health care reform

The first time I met Terrell McSweeny she was a toy soldier in the Washington Ballet’s performance of Nutcracker at the Lisner Auditorium. I was a reporter for Channel 5 and had reluctantly agreed to interview her despite the fact that I considered children to be largely unresponsive in such situations. Ten-year-old McSweeny was self-possessed and articulate as she sat on the lip of the stage in her heavy makeup, her legs dangling, ignoring the camera.

Twenty-four years later we are sitting at Sesto Senso over plates of pasta, but now she is domestic policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden with the additional title of special assistant to President Obama. She is just as self-possessed and articulate as ever.

Lithe, tawny, and now a bit taller, McSweeny explains her lifelong interest in the political system. “It was impossible for me to grow up in Washington and not be fascinated by it. My parents emphasized that working in politics you can make a big difference in people’s lives. It is a passion I shared, listening as they talked about their experiences working with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation.”

Her socially prominent parents, Bill and Dorothy McSweeny, are active in the arts community, serve on numerous boards, and are involved in Democratic Party politics. Bill, a retired oil man, has served as a trustee of the Kennedy Center and Dorothy was chairman of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities during the administration of Mayor Anthony Williams.

“We always talked about international affairs and politics at the dinner table and she asked great questions,” her father says, adding that her favorite senator was Joe Biden, going back to the days when Terrell served as a page for Sen. Al Gore, a longtime family friend. Bill McSweeny sees her as playing a significant role in Democratic Party politics some day, although not necessarily running for elective office. One of her biggest assets, he says, “is the ability to keep a political secret.”

Terrell McSweeny quickly looks at her Blackberry, then apologizes and puts it away as she relates how her political interests focused during her junior year at Holton Arms when she became the first woman to be chief of the Senate pages. (She says that Biden was also the favorite of her entire page class)
Abby Saffold, who was secretary to the Senate majority, remembers McSweeny well: “When I hear her name I think that if I ever had a daughter I would want her to be like Terrell. She is smart, a quick study with attention to detail, and funny.”

After graduating from Harvard, McSweeny moved to Hillsboro, W.Va., population approximately 300, to help set up a the High Rocks Educational Association, a non-profit group that worked to get teenage girls to stay in school. It was there that she met her husband, Ralph Burns, and where they own a farm where they retreat from Washington with their 16-month-old son Warren Maverick. Her husband works on policy issues in the District’s city administrator’s office.

In the spring of 2000, McSweeny went to Nashville to work on the Gore campaign, which she says renewed her interest in politics and social justice issues. After working on the bitter recount battle in Florida, she decided to return to Washington to attend Georgetown University Law Center on the advice of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (who had headed the Gore efforts).
After Georgetown, she joined the Washington law firm of O’Melveny & Myers but took time off to be the deputy political director of retired Gen. Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential primary bid. She was back at the law firm when she learned in 2005 that Sen. Biden was looking for a policy director. Wise to how Washington works, McSweeny say she “lobbied for the job with friends and contacts and got it.”
McSweeny’s career path was focused. When Biden entered the primaries in 2007, she was eight weeks pregnant when she took time off from her senate position to fly to Iowa to work on his campaign. She left her Senate job permanently when it became known that Obama would select Biden as his running mate.

Significantly involved in current health care reform proposals, McSweeny argues that “the economy is going to improve and I don’t think health care is in trouble. Nobody said it was going to be easy.” Working for the Vice President, she says, is a challenging experience. “He knows how to ask the right questions and … wants to talk about the issues. There is a lot of back and forth with the staff. You aren’t just asked to write a memo, he reads it and asks tough questions.”

“I’ve depended on Terrell’s domestic policy expertise in the Senate, on the campaign trail and now in the White House,” Biden says. “She’s smart, she’s compassionate, and she’s tough. She’s also a great person, and one of my most trusted advisors.”

When she has free time from her demanding schedule, McSweeny says she spends it with her husband and son. As for movies, it’s pretty much “On Demand” at home. (Recently they watched The Reader.) She speaks of loving the classics and saw the recent Shakespeare Theatre production of King Lear directed by her brother Ethan, who has a national reputation as a brilliant theatrical director. Also part of her high-achieving clan are a stepbrother, William McSweeny III, a judge in Cambridge, Mass., and a stepsister, Kate McSweeny, a lawyer in the Washington offices of Chadbourne & Parke.

Terrell McSweeny recently read Jonathan Alter’s The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope – “a fascinating read,” she notes, “about the first 100 days of a new administration.” The book she wishes she had been able to get a hold of before taking the White House post is the fourth volume of Robert Caro’s monumental study of the Johnson presidency, which is scheduled for publication in 2012.

At 34, McSweeny is a political veteran with a bemused view of “a number of young people who came into politics because of Obama and Biden but have never been on a losing campaign.” She has been in both places and has learned valuable lessons that make her a power broker to watch.

Last week, we sat down with Randy Teague, a partner at the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease. In this very timely segment, Focus Washington’s Karen Hanretty discusses the potential impact, both positive and harmful, of “cap-and-trade” legislation on Ohio industries. The transcript follows below:

Focus Washington: Randy Teague on Cap-and-Trade Legislation
Posted on 09-09-2009

Karen Hanretty: Hi, I’m Karen Hanretty sitting in today for Chuck Conconi at Focus Washington and joining me today is Randy Teague. He is a partner at the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease. Randy, thank you for joining us.

Randy Teague: Glad to be with you.

Karen Hanretty: We’re here to talk about cap-and-trade legislation, Congress is about to return from recess. Tell us first, what is the impact of cap-and-trade, explain it if you can for the audience.

Randy Teague: I’d be glad to do that. Cap-and-trade is a strategy to reduce air emissions and other contaminates. It’s climate change. It means we have to reduce hydro-carbon use, but what that requires industry to do is to reduce its own emissions into the atmosphere. Cap-and-trade originally was a private sector concept of recognizing the emissions, recognizing the damage, and then trading among companies themselves. Now, it has emerged in the House legislation as cap-and-tax and trade-and-tax, so it has profound implications for the budget of the United States as well as for clean air in the environment.

Karen Hanretty: Can you tell us what do you think are the prospects for cap-and-trade between now and the end of the year?

Randy Teague: I think that prospects are minimal but it could happen. Congress obviously has to deal with health care first, then the appropriation bills. They could get this done this year in a long session.

Karen Hanretty: Now, this is an enormous bill, of course it’s Congress, it’s lengthy with a lot of impact on industry in America and on your clients as well and Ohio specifically, right? Ohio depends on coal for affordable electricity. Tell us what are the impacts on industry in America.

Randy Teague: Well, the impacts on industry in America and Ohio are the same. Significant impact on jobs, income, providing products and services to the customers. It’s going to be significant. How it impacts a specific company depends on how that company positions itself in the legislation and then how it positions itself after the legislation is passed.

Karen Hanretty: Is there anything good that can come for the state of Ohio out of a cap-and-trade bill?

Randy Teague: Well, Ohio like many of the industrial states, is on both sides of this issue. You do have coal which is a target of this bill, but you also have many companies that are doing wind power, and our law firm leads Ohio in wind power permitting. Ohio has natural gas which is a very clean energy fuel but has been treated badly in the House bill. We have bio-fuels, we have clean air incineration, electrical power generation, so Ohio sits on both sides of this issue.

Karen Hanretty: So, if you think there are prospects that it might pass by the end of the year, what are you telling your clients? How should they prepare?

Randy Teague: Our clients can best prepare by getting themselves well-positioned in the Senate bill which, unlike the House bill, has not yet been passed. Clients and Ohio industry have to get the best they can out of the legislation. Then, once the President signs the bill, they have to position themselves to get the best that they can out of the regulations that are going to be forthcoming.

Karen Hanretty: Tell me specifically about your law firm and how they’re structured in order to provide the best advice to corporations to minimize the impact of this bill.

Randy Teague: We have responded by creating a climate change practice group within the firm which covers all of the different areas of the firm that are brought into this issue. Vorys leads the state of Ohio in clean air permitting and in wind power generation permitting. Our law firm is really prepared to help any client that comes through the door sort out how this bill can adversely affect them and what they need to do to assure reduction of those adverse affects.

Karen Hanretty: Ok. Very good, Randy thank you for joining us.

Randy Teague: Not a problem.

Karen Hanretty: This has been very informative.

Randy Teague: Glad to do it.

Karen Hanretty: I’m Karen Hanretty with Focus Washington, thanks for joining us.