Hi, this is Sandy Baird for What's Happening, our local news commentary. Mainly a lot today about local news as well as the COVID virus and the local shutdowns of most of many of our small businesses and the continuing shutdowns that have happened as a result of that virus. And with me today is Jared Carter, a professor at Vermont Law School and Pete Garretano, a retired citizen of this fair region and of the United States. And we're here to comment about what's happening in our local situation in politics and also in the world. And so we'll start today maybe with a local piece of information from Jared. What's going on with you? Yeah, what happened yesterday is what interests me. What happened yesterday? Oh, you mean the city council meeting? Meeting to behind closed doors. Yeah, yeah, on Zoom. Well, I don't know, why don't you start with this? No, you know, well, okay. The reason that I'm concerned about local politics and I think we're all concerned about politics in general is that the virus has been the result of the virus has been the shutdown of many of our local businesses of our public spaces. Frankly, I believe of the government itself. City Hall is still locked up. The libraries are locked up and no one can really access our local governments very easily. And it's all because of this supposed spread of this virus. And I think Pete Garretano, our friend over here will have stuff to say about that. But um, but I did want to talk to Jared Carter as well, because he is very interested in local politics as I am. And I think he basically had maybe could even tell us a little bit about the mayor's race, which will happen in March. But last night was yesterday. It wasn't last night. It was at noon. Special meeting of the city council was wasn't really called. Was it? I mean, I don't I saw no notices of it anywhere. Did you know? Okay, the mayor scheduled a city council meeting from noon till one o'clock. And of course it was on zoom. And as a result of that, the city council unanimously passed a resolution to control alcohol sales in our city. And they had to be shut off alcohol sales at first about 10 o'clock, but then it was extended to 11, which is basically going to hurt small bars, restaurants and all the places which sell liquor. Some of them don't even get started till 10 or 11 o'clock like, you know, Red Square. So I wanted to get Jared's comments about that. And just what did you think? Yeah, I don't remember the last time I made it up till 11 o'clock at night. So I wouldn't be at those bars anyway. But one thing I would say that both here in Burlington and nationally, the pandemic's impact on small businesses has been great. Great. Well, great crushing crushing right. Absolutely crushing. And I think you're seeing it a historic moment where huge swaths of the economy that we're already moving in this direction are moving more quickly towards e-commerce and the e-commerce giants that are going to further and further control the economy and further further exacerbate this income disparity that is at pandemic proportions. So I think it's it is very troubling.  And I'm not personally convinced that getting back to your point about the 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock curfew hour, I'm all for following the data and following the science, where it leads, whether I believe in it politically or not. I haven't seen any data that shows that a bar that's struggling to survive during this pandemic is suddenly less safe at 11 01 PM than it was at 10 59. In other words, if it's safe enough to have those places open until 10 59, I'm not sure what the what the rationale is for closing them at 11 01 minute later, especially when in listening to folks around the city, they're really struggling to survive. Not sure that they can. So what impact does that have not only the business owners, the building owners, but also the people that work in the service industry, which is a huge part of our community. And they're young people. And they're young people. Absolutely. So I am concerned that there's this sentiment of almost one upsmanship, right? We've got to one up the next person. We've got to show that we're tougher as well, tougher on the virus, as opposed to smarter. And so if there was actual evidence to show that at 11 01 PM, the bars are less safe than they were at 10 59, you know, maybe I could get with that because I haven't been to the bars for 11 o'clock at night in a long time. But without that, it just doesn't make sense. And it has massive impacts on the small businesses, I think, in this community that are the beating heart of Burlington and really beating heart of the United States of America. Right. So we have a huge I think we have a huge wealth transfer going on right now. And to me, that is as troubling as any of the other wealth transfer. Well, you say what that means to you or to the economy. Well, if you look at the Jeff Bezos of the world, the Bill Gates of the world, the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, their wealth has increased since this pandemic became began by billions of dollars. Why? Because people are now having to rely because of quarantine, because of other measures of government, having to rely on e commerce, buying things online, engaging with the economy, education, education online. And so these companies and their owners really stand to become much more powerful than they already are. Right. During the presidential election, Senator Sanders was always railing against the 1% and and the income inequality that our economy had. That has only gotten worse. And so to me, that's as troubling as anything else. Because as soon as that income inequality grows, the political power shifts even further than it already has. And those 1% are able to control the levers of government to their financial and political gains. And that's really, really troubling. Tying that back to Burlington. It's it's exactly why it's so important that we follow the data, we follow the science. And we come together as a community to make sure we can support these small businesses because without them, without the students that that that really make this city what it is without every member of the community. I think we're going to make things worse. And we've got a long way to go. So I think it's I think it's troubling seeing what's going on in Burlington right now. But I'm optimistic. Why? Well, look, I'm optimistic by nature. I guess as you maybe know. And I look around and I've certainly seen and you're both study history. You look at the times that people have been knocked down. And we've always gotten back up. And usually we've gotten back up better. Not perfectly. But let me just hear me out. So of course, they revolution. Yeah, American revolution, right? We got our Bill of Rights out of that. Right? I'm a constitutional or you practice constitutional law. I know Pete's a fan of the Constitution. We got our constitutional rights out of that. They weren't perfect, right? Obviously, they were, they were basically geared towards white men, women, African Americans, Native Americans, didn't benefit from that. We got our constitutional rights out of crisis. Yeah, civil war. Okay, massive upheaval. We ended slavery. We got the 1314th and 15th amendments, right? That birth Jim Crow. So a few steps forward, pushed back. The the Great Depression. Again, history is an interesting topic. But the Great Depression, we got a big war. We got a big war to but we got it, we got a new deal. We got Social Security. We got some of these, these things that help support people. And so every time I've seen this country in Burlington as a leader has historically been a leader, I think in this country, get knocked down, we get back up and we improve. And so that's why I'm optimistic. I don't see why this would be any different. I don't see why if we come together as a community, small businesses, students, seniors, working people come together as a community that Burlington can't be part of leading that recovery, that building Burlington back recovery that you just so need. Well, do we need new political leaders to do that? What do you think? I mean, the thing that interests me about this whole crisis is that what happened? How come that meeting was at noon to one o'clock? How come the citizens of Burlington did not know enough to zoom into this meeting? How come the mayor did this almost by fiat? And how come? Why are we being denied even knowledge of what the mayor is doing? Because he will continue to use the excuse of COVID to keep the government shut down. By the way, is the legislature gonna reopen in person? Do you know that? I'm not sure. It isn't is it? I don't know. I mean, it's all I mean, to comment about a couple of first points is that the small businesses are hurting the difference. I look back at the big financial collapse. The difference between this collapse and the way collapses. Businesses were hurting, but nobody was forced to shut down. So people didn't have money and jobs. People lost jobs, but nobody said you can't be open. Okay. So there's businesses that are going to go under because they're not even allowed to be open.  But now there's been businesses that aren't allowed to have them go out to sell anything for months and months and months and they're not going to survive. And the people that we're talking about that are going to lose their jobs are all the I mean, most of them I would say are people that are making between minimum wage and maybe $30,000 a year.  And recently the money the government was given got cut in half. So now I mean, I read where 80% of New York restaurants could go under the next month. 80% I mean, we're talking 10,000 restaurants in the next month because they're going to be a default on their their their lease. I mean, can you imagine that? How many people is that employee? I can't imagine what's happening. So to me the logic of this whole thing and you said something about being strong. Well, we've passed the point where that's there's any logic for that because Vermont is so clean right now. You look at Europe, Europe reopened way before they were at the level Vermont's at now. Vermont is lower than any European country right now and they opened what two, three, four weeks ago, Italy, Spain, who had a horrible COVID deaths according to that. So these people had where as bad as say New York City, those are some of the big areas northern Italy. Well, they said, okay, it's time to go. I mean, the thing has died down. Let's open up. Vermont has never got to there with their numbers and now they're way below even in testing. I mean, it's ludicrous to me that they're making the students do what they're do when they had tested 998 students and six of them became positive. That's like 0.2%. Okay, six out of 998. There is no problem right now. Okay, it is below any level that in the past you would have ever said we have a pandemic still and it's not happening now. So it's really time. I mean, there should have been a line drawn in the sand where they said, okay, when we reach this level, one percent positives or whatever it is, then we can reopen it safe and it's been stated by the CDC. That's 5%. We're at 0.2 to 0.5%. We're way past the time to open up. It's time to open up. It's ludicrous. I don't know who is directing this thing or why they're doing what they're doing, but there's absolutely no reason for it.  I think this idea that the students are somehow, it's us versus them that they are outsiders. They're vectors of disease. That's how we see them. Fine, but this us versus them, the students are such an important part of their community. They're members of this community.  And I'm all for being safe and making sure we follow the data, follow the science as best as we can, as imperfect as it is. But in the end, we've got to find a way to support these students coming back and embrace them coming back. Otherwise, all of those small businesses are going to be fall prey to the Bezos of the world. Jeff Bezos and several other of these .0001 percenters. I think my data might not be exact, but somewhere around $150 billion they've made since this pandemic began. That is sickening. These businesses that are about to close down, these guys should be kicking in to keep them going if nothing else. They don't care about those small businesses. I read an interesting one the other day, or just two days earlier, that Apple stock value went from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in three months. $1 trillion increase. $1 trillion. There was an article that I talked about, I think, with you guys even on an email by Naomi Klein, who's an economist and a sociologist from the left also. She's not a right-winger at all. She's a big supporter of Bernie Sanders. And what she describes as what is happening really is a transformation of capitalism. A real evolution in the stages of capitalism, which means that the small businesses are being cut out and shut down and collapsed for the benefit of these big monopolies and that we are moving into a stage of really monopoly capitalism, where places like Amazon get all the profit. What I'm saying is at least since the early 80s, Burlington has rejected that in many respects. You look at places like, and you're involved in this fight, the waterfront, public spaces, church street marketplace. These were radical ideas at the time that we're going to have a publicly accessible, granted, mall commercialism there, but you're going to have a public space. The waterfront was going to be public. Places like Burlington Telecom were going to be public assets. In many ways, Burlington put itself on the map because it rejected that sort of doctrine of vulture capitalism. And that's what made us attractive to students, to people wanting to come and live here and build the economy and grow the economy because you're different. And I think right now, this beautiful Lake Champlain behind us, it sort of feels like we're adrift on Lake Champlain. And that's all within the context of the, you know, the ongoing pandemic. But I think we do, we need to get back to focusing on what made, and I think has a potential to make Burlington exceptional again. We need to start believing that we are exceptional, that this community is exceptional. Right. But I think a lot of people are feeling tired. And so we need a vision for this city that allows people to embrace that, to remember what it's like to lead, to bring Burlington back, and to really feel good about it again. Try some new approaches to old problems, right? Lincoln said, you know, something along the lines of the dogmas of the quiet past are incompatible with the stormy present. And I think in many respects Burlington used to operate that way. Yeah. And we've lost our way. We've got, we've sold off Burlington Telecom. We've considered privatizing Church Street. We had to fight about that. We've had to fight about that. We lock homeless people up historically, recently. We put in a lot of fancy yacht slips for Canadians who can't even come here anymore. And I think that's what every other city, that's anywhere USA. And that's what I mean by we're adrift on Lake Champlain. We need to get back to being exceptional, build Burlington back, bring Burlington back. And that takes a vision. And I think it's lacking at the city level, right? But okay, yes. No, I totally agree with you about that. However, the counter argument from our mayor, apparently, is that in terms of we have to stay safe, not free, not creative, but we have to stay safe because of this pandemic. So Pete, maybe, how would you answer that? Well, I think I agree with that people are tired. They're worn out because, I mean, there's never in the history of our lives been a media blitz about anything not about a war, not about terrorism that's gone on relentlessly 24 seven on every TV station that about this. No, no, but they still talked about. Yeah, it's still talked about. Yes.  And I feel that's offensive that I should not be a suspected terrorist. There's no reason for anybody, you know, they have everything they know about. I mean, they can look and, you know, through all their files and see that I've never done anything that would make me a suspected terrorist. So why do I have to ever go through airport security? Okay. Well, now they're saying everybody is a suspected, typefully, Mary, basically. Anybody can infect you. You got to be careful. It could be that guy could be that guy wear a mask, stay six feet. And it's all baloney. You know, it's just it's the craziest thing that has happened that people that don't trust the media, they don't trust the government and they don't trust Trump in particular. Well, there's 50% that don't trust one side, 50% don't trust the other side. It depends on who's in the castle at the time that, you know, for the last eight years, there's 50% that didn't trust Obama. So it doesn't matter who's there. They don't trust and they don't generally trust pharmaceutical companies. And that's that's who's really making out right now. And people say to me, well, what do you think it's some big conspiracy? Not necessarily. I think you have opportunists, whether they're Amazon opportunists or the pharmaceutical companies, they see an opening, they see a chance where this thing is going to go. And they saw it, I guarantee you, in March when this started, somebody went, wow, you know, and said, we're going to make a lot of money from this. And, and, and, and, how, how, well, when everybody got closed into their houses, everybody that was in any kind of tech industry knew that they were going to, they were going to make money, right? Amazon knew they were going to make money. All the stores closed.  They knew where they're going to make money. And the pharmaceutical companies certainly knew they were going to make money as soon as this happened. They've been trying to get a vaccine out for a virus for 30 years. And they've never once succeeded, okay? They've never succeeded because what has happened every time it's happening right now is the virus came and it went and right about the end of it, they almost got the vaccine ready. And that's why they're rushing this one because they want to get it there before it's gone. I mean, it's gone in Europe. It's gone in the Northeast United States. It'll be gone probably in the same period of time in the South. It's usually a six-month thing if you look back at any of these things, whether it was SARS, whether it was MERS, whether it was the last, or the swine flu, they all last about the same amount of time. They peaked, they went out, they were done. They kind of, there was some kind of an immunity or the thing just died out. And there's really not a big difference in this one. The big differences that were testing healthy people and telling them they're sick. And that has never, ever happened before. It's the tests that we're using that just got invented and approved when the swine flu came along, okay? And that was the first time this PCR test was ever used. But back then it was a new technology, and I have CDC documents here, but I won't actually, I'll just quote from them, but you can look this up. They were telling people, don't go in. This is during swine flu, which was killing children. This was predominantly killing children, okay, back in 2009.  You don't really need to go to the doctor. Think of how opposite that is right now. If you get really sick, then go to the hospital, then we'll test you and see what you have. That is the exact polar opposite of what's happening now.  If they had had this technology back then, they could have done the same thing with the swine flu. In retrospect, they looked, and you could look on CDC files again, and they estimated 30 million people had the swine flu, but it's an estimate just from the small amount of people that actually got tested, which was very, very small because only sick people were getting tested. Certain amount of people died, but they had this big range and say, well, maybe more and more died, and we didn't know. Okay, so this test has been the big thing that has caused the panic, and people have so many viruses in them that don't do anything to them, and that's why you have these asymptomatic people. They have this viral RNA in them. It doesn't necessarily become infectious. It's there just like herpes, just like mono, just like all these other viruses. There's apparently 200 different viruses possibly in everyone's body that have been identified as infectious viruses, and they're just there. They're just there. They don't necessarily do anything at any time. So every year UVM students came back, we could say, okay, let's test you for something. I guarantee you, if you picked one of them, you could find six out of 998 that had this, and if you wanted to test them for herpes, you could probably find 400 out of them. Right, so what do you do next year? We're kind of worried about herpes. Let's bring everybody in and give them a PCR test and see if they have herpes and create a panic.  Sorry. I mean, that's what they could do. That's what they could do with this test at InfiniDame. They could just keep doing this every year for everything to come along. Is there any decline in the numbers of tests that are happening in the United States? No. New York City was doing 50,000 a week. Are they still? I think now they're saying, look, we don't need to because they're just getting a minuscule number of positives out of their 50,000. 800,000 a day. Yeah. But now still? Well, this goes on, I think Pence said yesterday or something, 800,000 a day or the total number of tests that are being... And they're pretty much... I had a test yesterday. I know you did. It was painful, eh? It is painful.  Yeah, yeah. My wife had to have that. Yeah, yeah. It was part of a sort of return to work protocol that I had to have one. And I'm not sure, I'm not sure who financed it, but it was quite a process. It'll be interesting to see your bill because I've heard $700 to $1,000 is what it starts before you get your copay and it's $20 or whatever or $10 or free. Well, that gets back to the broken nature of our healthcare system. Oh, my gosh, yeah. And I think you want to talk about who profits by any of this. The broken nature of our whole healthcare system just exacerbates that. So I feel like all of these underlying issues, all of these pre-existing conditions, if you will, that existed before the pandemic are just being exacerbated by the pandemic. And we darn well better take this opportunity to look at how we can fix them. Because I think in some respects, all of this focus on how many tests are we doing? Are we closing bars at 11? All of the focus on that can take away from some of the underlying problems that I think just basically have led to United States. And I think the data bears this out, doing worse than many about the other developed countries in the world on this. And you look at Canada. Yeah. Our neighbors to the north. It's not so hot. They're terribly strong. But I'm just saying in terms of their countries being taken over by this virus, either literally or figuratively, it's not chaos up there the way it is down here. It just isn't. The number of cases that they have, one of the days the United States reported 70,000 cases. And maybe some of these are asymptomatic. Maybe some of them aren't actually cases. I mean, that's above my pay grade. But 70,000 people were confirmed to have it. That same day, Canada had 366. You don't think the Canadian economy is going to recover more quickly than ours? So the fundamentals of the economy in a country that is dealing with it that way is very different than what we're facing now. I don't think Canada's bars are closing down at 11 o'clock at night. They did. They did. But they're now opening up. And the fact is that the United States is not recovering economically because some, obviously, people don't want things to be reopened. I don't mean people. People are desperate to have things reopened. But our political leaders don't seem to be desperate about that. I don't understand Mayor Weinberger. Well, but look who our political leaders are. Well, I'm not talking about up and down, up and down. Up and down, up and down. Yeah, no, I know that. Well, but if you look at really what's happening actually, President Trump wants to recover the economy. Mayor Weinberger doesn't seem to be wanting that. Well, look, I think the mayor has been a good bureaucrat over the past. Which mayor? Mayor Weinberger. He's been a good bureaucrat over the past however many, how many years has he been in office? He's been in now two terms, which is six years. So before this, our books were apparently balanced better. But what's fundamentally lacking and what I think is so important for real leadership is a vision. Look, we've lurched from one Wall Street scheme in this city to the next. Whether it's the hole in the ground, $250 million promised by another Don, Don Cinex, from New York City. And look, you and I and Pete have been saying for years that this wasn't going to work. Well, the Burlington Telecom seemed to. And it didn't. And it didn't. And then we moved to Burlington Telecom. Then we flipped to, let's privatize Church Street. Let's put a bunch of yacht slips in for the Canadians. I mean, it's lurching from one thing to another without any encompassing vision. And so I think that's what's really missing. The mayor has done some things well. From a bureaucratic, technocratic perspective. But there's no vision. There's no vision from bringing Burlington back. We're a drift in Lake Shemford. His vision always was to get us out of debt, I think. But yeah. Well, that's, we're back in debt. I know. Big time. Right. So now we need a vision to bring us back. Okay. The thing that I find puzzling about the whole COVID thing is that there have been pandemics, I guess before. Never has there been shutdowns of the entire economy. Never. So what happened, Pete? It's this test. I'm telling you. But that was before the test that the shutdowns were made. No, no. What happened? What happened was people were getting sick. They immediately started, I mean, you can look and the testing and it got ramped up and then all of a sudden the cases, like all of a sudden they see how many cases there are. And it's like, I mean, it's instantaneous because there was a lot of people that were asymptomatically ill. And all of a sudden they said, oh my gosh, we have all these cases. And so they said, but this didn't happen. Previously, because they weren't testing healthy people. They only people that were sick. And that's the difference between our country and many other countries. China, I mean, it's really comical. People say, well, what did China do? China had 4,500 deaths. That's where the thing started. That's all. I mean, 4,500. And they were all in one area. And you have a province, I think it's called Hubei, where Wuhan is, at all the deaths, the one next to it, I can't pronounce the name, starts with a J, has 50 million people, zero deaths touching it. Okay, that would be like, that'd be like New York City having all the deaths in New Jersey, having none. I mean, it's a bigger area, but it's kooky. Well, they don't, you know, who knows what happened, but they also don't report deaths that are heart attack as COVID. And that's what the United States is doing. And then the other thing, you can read the CDC documents, which they didn't do in 09 with swine flu. They have underlying symptoms now. And it says in here, you can assume, you can assume, you can presume. If you think it contributed to the death, just put COVID. So you can die of 25 different things as underlying conditions.  And if the coroner or medical examiner that does the cause of death enlisted, and there's the way the form is written, there's the immediate, and there's underlying. And they're telling you, right in here, that if COVID is on there, list heart disease or as underlying and not as the main cause of death. That completely changes the figures that we're getting because 90, I say 84, no, only 6% of the COVID reported deaths were had only COVID on them. All the other had between two and five underlying symptoms, which are, and that's why you see lots of people in retirement homes, people in, you know, hospices, because these people were already really sick. And it's just like with pneumonia, which this actually is, is a kind of pneumonia, that that's what people die of.  So, yes, this is another respiratory illness, and it's hitting the people who get infected easily because they're, they're sick. But in the past, they would write down, he died from a heart attack because of this. Yeah.  The pharmaceutical companies have to be just giddy about this whole thing, because it's all, you know, there's 50 of them working on a vaccine. They're getting billions of dollars to try to make one. They're making, we were talking about the test. I look this up. There's 32 companies approved for this test. All these little companies you've never heard of. 30 million, they want 30 million tests distributed or 50 million. So let's say each little company, Still? Yeah. Each little company gets to sell one million tests for a hundred dollars profit, which is probably way under it. They made a hundred million dollars sending out a little plastic thing to wherever they, they sent it to. Some companies what you're basically saying is that you're asking the question of who benefits. We know who benefits. Well, we don't. I don't think that's correct. This is a perfect example. So I mean, by the underlying health care system is completely broken. It's completely broken. You shouldn't, nobody should profit on that. Right. Right now, they have more power than the Pentagon. You know, and they talk about the players like we talked about 20 years ago. It was the military industrial complex. It was Wall Street, some other big corporations. So now you have Google, you have Amazon, you have Microsoft, you have all these pharmaceutical companies that are, have more power or as much power really as the Pentagon in decisions. And certainly as much power as the government. I mean, Matt Taibbi just wrote an arc on Rolling Stone about that. I saw that. Oh my gosh. It's, it's hard to read it. There's a one company got approval for a drug for COVID. They thought it was going to be fair to charge 48,000 dollars a dose. What? Yeah, 48,000. So then they said, well, gosh, maybe that's too much. It was like a construction estimate. And then they went, well, we'll bring it down to $3,000 a dose. All this drug did was possibly shorten your time in the hospital by four days. Yeah. Well, and the government because they control the government. We'll give them money for it. It's corporate welfare. I passed a woman on the drive in here. Maybe you did too on the corner of the street with a ski pole and a cup attached. Yeah, I saw it. Yeah. Reaching out to people driving by to get a few pennies.  When in fact, if you look at the data, poverty in this country for the first time in a long time went down during the existence of the pandemic. Yeah, because the government was handing out money. Right, exactly. And so I think instead of handing it out to the the baseless of the world, the the the the Pfizer's of the world, the Novavax, the Moderna's of the world and giving them corporate welfare.  Why do the people have to walk by my house every every Friday today and pick through my recycling bin for my cheap domestic beer that I buy because I can't afford all the fancy Vermont beer. Can't don't believe it. Yeah, that that that is that is sickening to me. And again, not to sort of get away from the the the pandemic because that I think is illustrating all of these inequalities. But I want I really think part of what the city needs to do is start focusing on those sorts of things. Get back to business. If we can if we can safely open restaurants, do it. Yeah, if we can safe safely open stores, there's no reason in my mind that we can't safely open city government and the libraries and public spaces like libraries. Yeah. Again, safety is important. We've got to do it safely, but I don't see how we can't well if we can welcome people back into the shops and the bars and the restaurants and say that that's safe. Well, we should be able to do that with city government. I mean, that's democracy. Right. Well, I had an ongoing conversation, we'll say with the libraries. I do discussion groups with people like our age in the library. So we've always discussed current events. They've been very a lot of fun, for instance. So I want the libraries open because I don't want to do these discussion groups on Zoom, which to me are very ineffective, better than nothing, I guess, but very ineffective. So I've been having this ongoing discussion with the library and they continue to say, oh, well, we have to be safe. We have to be safe. Our workers say, blah, blah, blah. And I finally said to the librarians, we are a creative, great people and we are great Vermonters. We are great Americans. We have the intelligence to open safely and creatively and that has got to happen. I mean, I have faith in normal people. That's what that's the point of remembering that we are exceptional. Reminding ourselves that we can do this, that we can get back up and we can find creative solutions.  Why can't we open the libraries? As you said, I don't understand either they want to look at all this data but the data is telling us to be open so I don't understand what they're looking at. I don't know. It makes no sense to me. The data, I mean, nobody's died in two months in Vermont, right? And there's been one person in the hospital apparently in the last two, three weeks. So it's totally insignificant. It's such a small number. It's ridiculous. So what data? I mean, what are they looking at? What are they thinking about? Is somebody else is the federal government? Is somebody else is the CDC? Is the NIH? Who's telling our leaders that they can't open? I don't understand. Is it our the Vermont Health Department?  What what what are they looking at? I don't understand.  But who's telling well, I don't know. Well, but I would I mean, I think there are, I mean, I walk down Church Street and I would say by and large, and I think this gets back to this point about city government in particular and certainly libraries and other public spaces. I mean, I think to a large extent, aside from after 11 p.m. at night at the bars downtown, I think the commerce downtown is very much open. Sort of. Well, you see people there. Let's put it that way. Yes, you do. You do. Thank you.  I think one thing that we should be looking at in the city, aside from sort of a vision for our community, but also how can we open up city government so that people have access to city services and city government because a lot of people don't have access to broadband. A lot of people don't have access to the internet, particularly within our immigrant community. My kids are in sustainability academy, which we love. It's a wonderfully diverse community. And I sat through lots of Zoom classes with them last spring and some this summer where it was very obvious that a large segment of the population really wasn't able to interact virtually. So what about those people? How do they engage with government? And they're such an important fundamental part of our community. So I'm really concerned about the continuation of a closed down government to at least some version of in-person interaction. That's what I've been concerned about most from day one. Because it's discriminatory against the most vulnerable among us. How does the city council get away with saying this and making it a resolution and closing down basically closing down bars at 11 o'clock at night? Where do they get that legal authority? I think they get it from the emergency they say from the emergency powers of the governor. Well, there's no emergency anymore. There's no emergency. Yeah, that's what I don't understand. But the greater thing to me is the total collapse as I see it of civilization in a lot of ways. Our economy is busted. Our government is busted and operating behind screens. Our libraries are basically busted. Our schools, are we going to really force students, little kids to be on devices? Well, I will say this. Somebody that has kids in the schools, I do think what the schools are doing, at least from my own experience right now, I do think they're trying to strike a balance. Yes. So right now, people are allowed to choose if they want to be virtual or in-person, at least for part of that time. And the reason I say that I like that approach is I think the other thing to remember, especially in a small community like Burlington, is everybody is going to have different levels of comfort. And so you need to try to be able to meet people halfway. Otherwise, we are going to end up in this thing where it's like, you know, us versus them, one side yelling at the other and we're never really going to get there. So I think this approach allows people who maybe just still are comfortable to do it virtually. And those people that really need the in-person classes and want that to be able to do it. So I do think the schools are trying to strike the right balance and I get back to that point. If we can do it in the schools, if we can do it in the stores, if we can do it in the bars, if we can do it in the restaurants, how is the most fundamental part of our democracy, city government at the city level, still offering no in-person interaction as far as I know? And that's troubling. Right. What do you think, Pete? Well, if I was mayor, which I will never be. Or John there. No, because you don't live here. The first place. I don't live here. No, I live in Burma. I live in Charlotte. But yet to me, there's absolutely, I mean, I understand if people are worried and scared. And I respect the fact that they want to have their kids at home because the media blitz has been relentless. Right. I mean, I'm one of the few people and they're probably 10 or 20% like Sandy and I, who just don't believe this thing. We just think it's been overblown beyond anything reasonable. I mean, to me, part of the big problem was the whole lockdown was worse than if we had been open and I'll give you the reasoning.  There was a surge within two weeks afterwards.  I mean, they weren't definitely locked up in their house.  Other places, if you had somebody sick, they either went to the hospital, you isolate them, and everybody stayed to work. And then you say, I mean, this is just like time tested stuff. You have a fever. You have a cold. You have a cough. Stay away. Don't go to work. Stay home. There's no difference between this and what should have happened in this thing. If you're sick, stay home. And that's the approach a lot of other countries used. And I mean, that's the approach Sweden used and people criticized it. But their economy is better than any economy in Europe right now. It didn't dip down. Their death rates were about the same or a little lower. So instead of having this, they just had like a flat line thing, and then it was over with. So it was just, it was all just ridiculous to me that there was this panic about this thing. It was the worst thing ever. But if you look back at all the other ones and you read the book, this has been tried before. There's always been hair and fire thing where there was the bird flu, the swine flu. There's always been when it first came out, this is going to be the worst thing ever. And then it never kind of really panned out.  I know I'm not. But so I mean, none of these other things really ever were that horrible. But in the beginning, if you go back and read the newspaper about 2009, they were saying all the same things. Oh my gosh. But they all went away and the whole wave that accompanied that wasn't legitimate enough to keep it going. Because of what we're doing now, the way we change the classification of death and the testing, this enables this thing longer than it needs to be enabled.  Well, I feel fine. Sorry, you have to get a test.  All it tells you is you have a snippet of RNA that matches up with the snippet of RNA that they've identified as being this virus. Okay, and then they have to go through this big process. They heat it. They cool it. They amplify it.  Okay, so it doesn't tell you what people think it tells you. It just tells you that you have something in you that may possibly just like all these other things make you sick. Okay, what I was always shocked at and maybe we should conclude pretty soon. What I was always shocked at was the virus thing as you point out that the fact of the virus, of course, is also medically not totally proven in the first one. Right. But what shocked me about this even if you accept it was the shutdowns. That never happened in history before, as I pointed out. We've had a lot of viruses, a lot of epidemics, a lot of pandemics. Healthy society did not collapse. And our society is, to me, and I may be an extremist on the verge of collapse, economic collapse, political collapse. What happened to the United States of America? We are people who have done magnificent stuff and also a lot of bad stuff for Monters as well. I believe that we have to get that spirit back and recreate our society. And that we have the ability to do it. And in line with that, to close, I wanted you to talk a little bit about what might happen politically. Yeah. Well, lots is going to happen politically. Obviously, we've got a presidential election. We've got the state level gubernatorial elections. But I think one of the things that I always think about is, how can, and I grew up in a family of activists, people that were engaged, trying to make the community a better place, environmentally, social justice, teachers. And that really instilled me with this idea that one should try to give back to the community they live in. You can really have an impact at the local level. I believe that, too. And so I think it's certainly time to start thinking about and exploring who is going to lead Burlington moving forward. And I think we need someone with a real vision. We've had a bureaucratic and technocratic approach that perhaps has helped balance some books. But now it's time to build Burlington back. It's time to build Burlington back and better. Absolutely. Three Bs, alliteration. Build Burlington back better so that we aren't simply lurching from one development project to the next with no real comprehensive vision and reminding ourselves, and that's the role of the mayor, to lead, to remind ourselves that we are exceptional, that we can get back up from this and that Burlington can lead not only Vermont, but quite frankly the entire country has done in the past. So I think it's really important to start exploring what that might look like and who's best situated to do that. And I don't know whether it's Pete, you, maybe me. Not him, he lives in Sherlock. So Pete's excluded. I'm a foreigner. But I think the time has come. And I think the people of Burlington are ready for that. They're ready for a new vision because I think there is a sentiment that we've been a drift and it's time to tack, to continue the Lake Champlain analogy and get back on track and make Burlington a leader again. And I think that means that there's a mayor's race in March that we are all going to attend to, right? Absolutely. And last, I just want to say something more or less a personal level. I live in a student neighborhood and I live on Looma Street which is in the heart of the student ghetto and everybody in that neighborhood except me and a couple of others are really trying to control the students coming back and some people are even suggesting that students, UVM students, Champlain students and others should not come back because they see them as some sort of a vector of some kind of a disease. I would say from the bottom of my heart I welcome the students back in this town. If they can come back safely of course that would be the ideal situation but we in my view have to have young people back in this community studying at UVM to preserve UVM and to preserve the cultural and economic benefits that they bring to this whole community. So I'm just saying welcome back students even though they might not hear it from many people. I welcome them back and I hope they do come back. So with that I think that we that what's happening maybe will occur in a couple of weeks but thank you especially to CCTV which showed up in person to take this program. It's not a Zoom presentation is held at the wonderful and beautiful St. John's Club and I thank CCTV in particular for coming out to do this today. And thanks Jared and Pete for being here with me and we'll see in a couple of weeks. Thank you Sandy always a pleasure. Thank you.


The Columbia Broadcasting System presents yours truly, Johnny Duller. The next half hour has its baggage pack to take a trip with America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Duller. At insurance investigation, he is just an expert.  Expense account submitted by special investigator, Johnny Duller. Home office, American Continental Life Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of my expenditures, fulfilling your assignment as a bodyguard. The body being that of your late policy holder, Robert W. Perry. Expense account item one, fare on night train, Hartford to New York, $3.80. Expense account item two, a dollar eighty, taxi to Lower Manhattan the following morning. Two offices, Perry and Van Bruten Importers, arriving as promised at exactly 9 a.m. Help you? Yeah, my name is Johnny Duller. I have an appointment with Mr. Perry for 9 o'clock. Oh, yes, from the insurance company. Well, you're right on time. Well, he told me I'd better be. Mr. Perry just came in. He's alone and waiting for you. I'll buzz in that you're here. Thanks. What was left of your policy holder, Mr. Perry, was just sliding out of his swivel chair as I hit the room. The top of his desk had erupted, and splinters of mahogany pointed their sharp fingers upward through lazy circles of smoke swirling toward the ceiling. The buzzer from his secretary's desk had been rigged to a booby trap. Perry. Stay away from him. There's nothing you can do for him. He's dead. Oh, what happened? What happened? Whatever happened. Come on. Let's get back out of here. Sit down. I'll get you a drink of water. Just drink this. He's on the third floor. Should I call him? Never mind the doctor. Call the police. And nobody gets in here until they arrive.  Beat it. Run along. And turn off that alarm. Okay, Miss. Now, just take it easy. He was all so sudden. What happened? Well, that's not too hard to figure out. Somebody wanted to give your boss, Mr. Perry, a shortcut through life. So whoever it was, figured out that his secretary would never buzz their boss unless he was at his desk. They rigged up a bomb somewhere in his desk. It would go off when you buzzed him. But then I killed him. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Don't get hysterical on me. There's excitement enough around here and there'll be plenty more when the police get here. Keep cool. But I did it. You saw me do it. Look, the way you put it, I killed him by coming in here and giving you my name so you'd buzz him. Drop it, will you? What about yesterday? Was he here? Yes, all day. What time was it when you last used the buzzer? Wait. Right up to the last minute at about 5.30. Who left the office first? You or Perry? Mr. Perry, he always leaves first and I lock up. Looks like you should have used more locks last night. Somebody got in here to do some wiring. I forgot that fire alarm. All that equipment and no fire. Look, before the police arrived, do you know why I was sent here? Yes. Mr. Perry recently felt that his life was in danger. He thought that, well, with a hundred thousand dollar policy, the insurance company would do everything they could to help keep him alive. Well, we didn't have much of a chance, did we? What was he afraid of? I don't know. Okay. What were his other appointments for the day? He only had two. His partner, Mr. Van Brutten, at 11. One at a time now. Van Brutten. Anything special about their meeting? Yes. Mr. Van Brutten arrived just yesterday from Holland. You mean there was a branch of this firm in Holland? Yes. Mr. Perry was buying out Van Brutten's interest. He had their final meeting at Van Brutten's hotel last night. Van Brutten was coming by this morning to pick up his money. Uh, cash? No, a cashier's check. The bank has to deliver it here at 10.30. Now, quick. Perry's other appointment. Who was that? Christine, his wife. Oh, yeah. Now Christine, the beneficiary. Yes, but she wouldn't have been the beneficiary in another two weeks. They were getting a divorce. Thanks for the motive. You don't like her? I didn't mean it that way. How about Perry? Did you like him? Okay, well, here's an easy one. What's your name? Susan. Susan Gates. No, isn't that about enough? Okay, Susan. You'd better save your voice. During the next few hours, you're going to have a lot of talking to do. Oh, here come the firemen, and we haven't even got a child to ask them to save. Where's the fire? I'm looking for a fire. Just stick around. When the cops get here, somebody will get burned. The firemen should have stuck around because the cops arrived in a blaze of glory. It was a very high-class investigation. Two lieutenants. Finally, after about an hour, the police photographer ran out of flash bulbs, the office of the deceased ran out of fingerprints, and the lieutenants ran out of questions. So the on-the-scene phase of the investigation was closed. At about five minutes of 11, I left the police to pack up their notebooks, their clues, and the body, and went into the outer office. Susan looked like she could use a big broad shoulder to weave on, but unfortunately, I was wearing my light gray suit. About then, a dark blue suit and a deep green voice entered the room from the corridor. Say, there's some filler out here says he belongs here. His name is Van Bruten. Shall I let him in? Oh, what do you think? His name is on the door you just opened. Oh, indeed, now. Well, my name happens to be Murphy, and it's on beds all over the country. But that don't mean I'm stuffed with feathers, does it? I'll teach you, Johnny. I'll never to cross tongues with an Irishman. OK, send him in, officer. All right, you can come in. The policeman out there. Is the trouble here? Oh, I am Bremer Van Bruten. Where's Mr. Perry? What? He's waiting for me, no? No. But my appointment, he's not keeping any. He's dead. Dead? It's impossible. Last night I saw him. He was well. What happened? He was hit by a buzzbomb. The buzzbomb? Please. Forgot other people aren't used to these things.  Very foul. Please, may I sit down? My first visit in all these years since before the war. It was to be so happy. Now, tragedy like this. He was a good man, a good partner. I understand that as of last night you were no longer partners. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. I realize, of course, that it is indelible to speak of such things as money at a time like this. Nothing. That is why I'm here to receive my payment. Oh, just because Perry got his, there's no reason for you not getting yours, huh? But you misunderstand me. I am deeply grateful. Since the transaction was consummated, what is there to do? The delay would be a needless waste of money. I have already paid for passage back to Amsterdam tomorrow. Your check is here, Mr. Van Bruten. There you are. Thank you. In all my years of business, this is indeed the saddest moment. Yeah. Yeah, those are very kind words, Van Bruten. And I believe them. If your eyes would stop counting all the zeros on that check. Expense account, item three, 90 cents. Phone call to your company. American Continental Life Insurance Company, good morning. Oh, well, that's a matter of opinion. This is Johnny Dollar. Put me through to Mr. Gordon, will you? Yes, sir. Mr. Gordon's office. Johnny, this is Johnny Dollar. I want to speak to Gordon. Oh, and while I'm telling him what I've got to tell him, maybe you'd better sit in his lap with some smelling salts. I'm not that type of a secretary. And besides, he doesn't have a lap. Hello, Dollar. How are you making out? I owed about $100,000. What's that? Yeah, somebody termed Mr. Perry into a firecracker. He's dead. That's bad news. It's a big policy. Yeah. Look, what I want to know is, shall I stay on the case? Certainly, Dollar. Certainly, by all means. Is there a chance of the improving suicide? There's a non-payment clause. To make this one a suicide, there'd have to be a Santa clause. Nobody could hate himself enough to do it this way. No. What are the fraud possibilities? Only fair. There's an estranged wife. She's the beneficiary, but she wouldn't have been in a couple of weeks' divorce coming up. I'll start with her. All right, Dollar. Good luck. But what's those expenses? My garden, I'm surprised. I think an insurance man would be the first to want to see a fellow live a little. Expense account, item three. Cab fare, $2.80. Tip to driver, $1. Christine Perry's apartment was on sudden place overlooking the river. And from what the doorman told me, all of the proprieties. I took the elevator up to the 24th floor, and there I discovered that our garden fresh widow was living high in more ways than one. Everything about the place was French. The maid that led me into the living room, the decor, and the perfume, which reminds you that breathing can be fun. I looked up from enjoying my nose to see Mrs. Perry looking down hers. Mr. Dollar? Oh, Mrs. Perry. I believe we can dispense with any getting acquainted. You're an insurance investigator interested in the death of my husband. Naturally, you're here because you've jumped to the conclusion that I killed him. You're the one that's jumping to conclusions, lady. Then what do you want? The policies in order, the premiums are fully paid. I'm not quite sure. I know that you've got a great motive. So far, the only motive I've found. You haven't had much time to look, have you? Check. This is my first stop. Maybe you can help me. Do you know anyone who would be happier with your husband out of the way? I know very little about my husband's friends. Or for that matter, his activities for the past six months. That's when I left him. Uh-huh. Well, that's not much help for either of us. Without someone else to suspect, I may just have to concentrate on you. Mr. Dollar, I picked them in. I want to concentrate on me. Well, I hope you're as long on alibis as you are short on your temper. Where were you last night? With a friend, Al Donovan. For a while, I think that my husband was. And I've witnesses to prove who was with him. Anybody at the club caprice can tell you. Well, save me a trip. I can't afford the prices they get there. Certainly. Thank you.  Well, I wouldn't be more surprised if your late husband walked through the door and said that... All right, Mr. That's enough. Al. Yeah. How much did he give? I'm a big guy, baby. Six foot four, and I've got big ears to make. Oh, please. Would this be Mr. Donovan, your companion of last evening? I'm getting you out of here, Christine. I don't know what you're saying. You lie to me. How can I help you if you lie to me?  The way you're playing this, you'll alibi yourself right into a cell. I'm getting you out of here. What are you doing to me?  Come on. She's right.  She was doing just fine until you dropped in. Mr. You've been asking a lot of questions. Now I'll give you one answer. All right, Christine. So much for the wise guy. Now about you and your alibi. You wasn't with me at the club caprice last night. And if it's so easy to prove your husband was there with his secretary, who were you there with?  When Al measured me for that swing, I measured my chances with him. To me, he looked like one of the corporate assets of murder incorporated. So I rolled with a punch, hit the floor and stayed there, with my eyes closed and my ears open. What I heard was Christine's alibi flying out the window. Mr. Donovan giving her a few loving cuffs, and finally the pair of them flying out the door. I allowed myself the luxury of a 20 second massage on the new lump on my jaw, and then I got up and started out after them. This case was becoming interesting. In just a moment, we'll return to the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. But first, this important message. $60 million is what the Red Cross needs to carry on its great work in 1949. If this seems like a lot, just try to review briefly the various activities of the Red Cross. It can't be done briefly. Red Cross services extend into every area of our lives, bringing care, comfort and recreation to the men and the armed forces, bringing first aid training, nutritional programs, nursing services, blood banks, to our own communities. And all the time, as these activities go on uninterrupted, the Red Cross is holding itself ready to spring into instant action in case of disaster, fire, flood, explosion, any sort of catastrophe finds the Red Cross on the scene with food, clothing and medical care. $60 million isn't so much in the light of such activity. We can make it with each of us contributing. We're giving to our own safety, security and peace of mind, and to our neighbors too. So let's give generously to our own Red Cross. Now back to the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. I hit the street just in time to see Donovan pushing Christine Perry into a cream-colored convertible. When they got rolling, I piled into a cab and followed them, and the case was on. At 57th and Broadway, things got complicated. My cab was three cars behind theirs when a red light flashed them to a stop. Then the door of their convertible flew open. Christine jumped out, dashed across the street and down into the subway. Since Donovan didn't follow her, I followed him. When he finally pulled to a stop, he took two chances. He parked in a no parking zone and walked straight into the building beside it, a police station. This is Mr. Dollar, Lieutenant. He's been waiting for you for some time. Well, you can wait outside, Sergeant. Okay, sir. My name is Johnny Dollar, Lieutenant. Here are my credentials. Insurance, huh? Yeah, the Perry murder in particular. I came to the right place, Dollar. A man named Donovan just walked in here and made a full confession. He what? That's right. My clerk's just typing it up. In the meantime, the gentleman is down in the tank having a bite of lunch on the city. He confessed. Does his story add up? As far as I know. I haven't heard too much about the case myself. It's not in my precinct. What did he use for a motive? Jealousy. Says he's in love. Wanted to marry Perry's wife. Did he say how he managed it? Yeah. He stole a key to the office from the wife's apartment, entered the building last night, and wired a bomb to the buzzer system. Well, guys do a lot of strange things in the name of love. Yeah, it looks like Donovan did. He either killed a man, or he's trying to cover up for someone who dead. Listen, don't execute him for a couple of days. How, Lieutenant? I spent the rest of the afternoon downtown in the offices of Perry and Van Bruten, importers. The partner's correspondence told me two things. They had been extremely friendly, and Van Bruten was extremely bald. Perry had been sending him two pays from a famous Hollywood makeup firm. At 4.30, I opened the drawer marked Employment Files. They rocked me with two minor explosions of their own. The folder marked Donovan, Albert Jay, told me that he'd been employed as Perry's bodyguard over a period of years, and that he was canned the day before the murder. Before I received blast number two from the folder of Perry's secretary, Susan Gates, the office door opened behind me. Well, Mr. Dollar, you were supplied with a search warrant, I hope? Just the one I was born with, Mrs. Perry, the kind they say kills cats. You know, curiosity. What are you looking for? I found it. How about you? What are you doing here? Oh, I... I'm tired of dueling with you. I'm here because I want to... Well, I've got to talk to someone. I called your hotel, you went there. I tried to locate Susan, but I couldn't. I thought maybe you'd be down here. What's the basis of our sudden friendship? You should know. Al Donovan's confession. The newspapers have it already? Yes, but there's not a word of truth that he didn't kill my husband. How do you know that? It's impossible, that's all. It was a little hard for me to swallow, too, when the police told me about it. But since then, it's become a little more digestible. What do you mean? I just learned that he was your husband's bodyguard. He was fired yesterday. That same day, your husband calls his insurance company screaming for another bodyguard. Now, how would that end up for you? A beef, maybe? Never thinks. He just rushes in and says it does whatever's on his mind. He told my husband if he didn't divorce me that... Well, he threatened him. You came in here saying that Donovan's confession was no good, and you spend your time making it sound better and better. What do you want, anyway? I can't help it. I've got to tell you this. I know it doesn't sound like I'm trying to help Al, but what can I do? You really want me to answer that? If you want to help Al, phone the police. Tell them Donovan made that phony confession to cover up for you. It's simple. Not as simple as that. You don't need the gun, Christine. Hang up the phone. Sure. I hope you don't mind my version being held for murder myself. Oh, that's a common aversion. I'm a no hurry to see you behind bars, but don't forget, when the cops want to pick you up, they'll do it. Don't spoil the rest of the afternoon. Take that gun someplace else. I've got things to do. The first time, I didn't really recall that I wouldn't make... Not necessarily. If it'll make you feel any better, we'll just put this phone out of order. Satisfied? Of course not. But don't get me wrong, Mr. Dollar. I wish you nothing but success in your investigation. I puzzled over that exit line for a few seconds after she'd gone, and I went back to the company's employment file. Namely, the application for employment as secretary of Susan Gates. It informed me that during the war, she had worked in a munitions plant. Her specialty, wiring bomb fuses. When Miss Susan Gates reached home at 8.30 that evening, she found a visitor, me. How did you get in here? A professional secret. Oh, you scared me. What do you want? Why did you come here? I wanted to bring you the good news. I heard on the radio that Al Donovan confessed to Perry's murder. Al! I can't believe it. Why not? Who do you like to the spot? Quite Christine. Al is covering up for her. I'd like to agree with you. If it turns out that Christine wound up her husband's life with a bang, the company that hired me saves $100,000. But I don't know. She claims she has all kinds of alibis. One of them is you. Me? Yeah. Did you see her at the Club Caprice last night? Well, yes. I know who you were with. Your boss. There's nothing wrong with that. Oh, I'm not preaching a sermon. I want to know who she was with. I don't know. A man I'd never seen before. Mr. Perry knew him, but he wouldn't tell me who he was. Why not? I don't know. He said I might get the wrong idea. About what? I don't know. We didn't sit there and talk about it all night. Why should we sit here and talk about it all night? All right, all right. Well, a census taker shows up and asks a lot of questions. People answer them. One investigator tries to do his job. They make the proverbial clam look like a blabbermouth. Look, Mr. Jones, believe me. This has been a greater shock to me than to anyone else. Make shifting, of course, your late employer, Mr. Perry. How long did you work for him? Four years. Now, where'd you work before then? Why, I... I... Let me help you. Bombs, wiring fuses. Remember? All right, I remember. Good. Then maybe you'll remember a little bit more. Let's go back to last night, the guy with Christine Perry. Who was he? I tell you, I don't know. Was it Van Bruden? I don't know. You don't know? No, I mean... I'll get that. No, I'll go. You make sure you just don't keep going. Susan! When Susan snapped the spring lock to open the door, the gun outside opened up. The first slug quarter in the left shoulder, spinning her out of the way of the rest of them, it was getting monotonous. Every time a buzzer went off, things started booming. Susan was sprawled out in the floor in front of the door, and to open it, I had a mover. By the time I did, the hallway outside was empty. Okay, come on, take it easy. It won't start hurting for a couple of minutes. I'll have a doctor here by then. He'll give you something. Let's try and keep calm.  I'll try not to move. Trying to ruin this rug. Never mind the rug. What we want to worry about is who tried to ruin you. What'll they do to me? What will who do to you? They'll arrest me. No, they don't arrest people for getting shot. Do you have any idea who it was? That man in the office this morning. The one who picked up the check. Van Brutten? No, no, he wasn't Van Brutten. He was a phony. Yes. And you still gave him that check? Yes. Well, I won't ask you why, but apparently you gave him the money and then tried a blackmail him. Is that right? They'll arrest me. I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Who is this guy? Where can I find him? Come on. Don't pass out on me now. His name. Quick. Vincent. Where does he live? Nelson Hotel. Under his own name? No, I don't. I don't blame you. I could use a few moments of unconsciousness myself. The Nelson Hotel didn't have a Dutch name on the register, so I got a hold of the housekeeper and found out how many rooms his staff hadn't been able to make up all day because of do not disturb signs in their doors. I went a-crawling at these particular rooms. On the ninth floor, I awakened one old maid.  On the fifth, I blushed my way out of the bridal suite. And on the fourth, I struck the door of 427. And the jackpot. Who's that? Don't you see the signs? I do not wish to be disturbed. Oh, sorry. I must have the wrong room. I started up the hall after the fire acts, but when I got to it, I changed my mind. One of the few things I'd learned about this guy, Van Sant, was that he loved to murder people through doors, so I decided against trying to chop his down. Then I remembered the way those people came pouring out of those offices earlier in the day when they heard that fire alarm.  Then I rushed back to 427. Fire! Fire! Right here in my eyes, sweetheart. Why you come here? You wish you hadn't. Never mind, addresser. You're through shooting guns for the day? What do you think, Van Sant? You want to try some more? You cannot make me stay here. The fire, we've all died. You look good, barbecued, but I'll make a deal with you. You talk. If I like what I hear, I'll show you how to get out of here alive. How do I know this? Well, you don't think I'm going to stay here in Friday?  First, where's Van Bruton? You will find him in the bedroom. He'll be alive. He's out cold. What's the matter with him? He will be all right. He is on the sedatives. Where did this identity switch start? You better hurry up. I smell smoke. I knew Van Bruton in Amsterdam. I knew about the sale of his interest. And I knew that the girl in the office here had never seen Van Bruton. Well, let's go now. Now, don't get up. I can feel it getting warm in here. The firefights. We will be saved. Now, don't be too sure. They always start at the top floor and work their way down. Come on, I can hear those flames crackling. You know the rest. Last night when the transaction was all finished with Barry, I gave to Van Bruton some sedatives in his cocoa. You set up that bomb so hurry to get it before you showed up to pick up the check. Yeah, I told you that. Then it happened that girl didn't know I was an impostor. I don't know how. Well, let me tell you, she's been sending old Van Bruton in there at two pace for the last four years. Grey ones, my red-headed friend. Oh, yeah. Let's get out of here now. You know, yeah, I'll pull. Expense account item four, $1.40. Nightletter informing you that American continental would have to meet payment of claim to Mrs. Christine Ferry, innocent widow of the insured. The only thing she was guilty of was trying to stay on the right side of a hot temperate boyfriend. She lied about who she was with at the Club Caprice, not to fix herself in alibi, but to keep Al Donovan from learning that she'd been out with another guy, being the real Mr. Van Bruton, who had only taken her out to try to target her into reconciling with his friend, her husband. Item five, $60. Silver chafing dish. Wedding present for Christine and her new husband, Al Donovan. That was the least she could do for the guy who had confessed to a murder he thought she had committed. Item six, $8. Flowers for Susan Gates, prison hospital. Item seven, fine for turning false alarm. $1,000 at no sense. And that's what I think I'm beginning to get for getting into this racket. No sense. Expense account total, $1,263. Yours, uh... truly, Johnny Dollar. In just a moment, we'll tell you about next week's Johnny Dollar Adventure. But first, this reminder. Just a little earlier tonight on CBS, Jack Benny turned dramatic actor on the Ford Theatre. But this Sunday, he'll be back again on his own show with a special treat for the Jack Benny fans. After the last broadcast on which the Ronald Coleman's appeared, thousands of letters came in from fans asking that Jack invite Ronnie and Benita back again soon. The walk he can whip did. And Ronnie and Benita, by popular demand, returned to the Jack Benny program this Sunday in what should result in one of the most hilarious broadcasts of the year. So be sure to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Coleman on the Jack Benny show which is heard on all CBS stations this Sunday. Listen in again next week when CBS brings you Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar with Charles Russell as Johnny. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is written by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd with music by Mark Warner and is produced and directed by Richard Sanville for CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


I can't wait to share with you the drugstore dupes that I have found that I've rounded up because I don't think that these have been shown anywhere, not that I know of, although one of them I did get from a viewer so it might be out there already. Let's get into those so that I can share with you how you can save some money and still have high-end makeup that's beautiful. Hi friends, my very, very favorite videos to do because I love saving money. I know that you love saving money. This video, even though it might not be the perfect exact colors on these dupes, the formulas are just as good and I feel like a lot of times the drugstore formula can outperform the high-end formula and I cannot wait to share those with you. So it might be more along the lines of by this at the drugstore, not that at high-end or luxury. So let's get started. The first one I love is from Urban Decay. They're 24-7 pencils. They have an array of gorgeous, gorgeous colors. This is one of my favorite and it's called Electric Empire. Very kind of tealish green, a very pretty green for me to be able to wear. I love it a lot, but I did tell you very recently about this one from CoverGirl, which is the exhibitionist. This is a waterproof formula and I'm telling you that this formula outperforms Urban Decay over and over again. I wish that they would come out with that array of colors that Urban Decay has because it would be fantastic. This is called Emerald. You're going to see that Emerald is a lot more green and it's a lot more deep than the actual one from Urban Decay. Okay, so that's why by this not that, but the reason is is because not because of the color per se, but it's because of the lasting power. I can put this on, let it sit down and I will be able to smudge the Urban Decay off and not the CoverGirl exhibitionist one. I'm going to let this sit. We're going to come back to it. The creaminess is just fantastic. Put that exhibitionist in your waterline. You're going to have it there all day. I do have one of these put into my waterline today just to kind of brighten up and kind of, you know, tie in my blue shirt a little bit, but I really feel like the exhibitionist outperforms this 100% and I'll show you as soon as this sets down how I rub it and you'll see that. It's really, really quite impressive. The next thing is really one of my favorite finds. I was so excited when I found it. This is the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless filter. Everybody talks about this. This is one that people go gaga over and they're saying that it's their best primer. It's a wonderful highlighter. It is all of those things. It is in a dough foot applicator. Let's see. I have mine in color too light and it's a good color. It's a really good color. It is a little bit thicker of a product. It seems like it's almost along the lines of a concealer. So you kind of just dab it across and it brings some light to that area. It's really popular for using underneath makeup. You can feel the slip in it. You can feel the dimethicone in it. So it does kind of tick off that box of being able to wear it under a matte foundation because it's going to give you some light under there. And when I got it, I wasn't super blown away with it. I was like, okay, this is good, but I don't know if it's something that I would repurchase. But Elle sent me this one. This is the Electric Mood Illuminating Elixir Priming Serum. Okay, so this is specifically for priming. This is so close to that in texture. I actually like it a little bit better because it's a little bit thinner, but it sinks into my mature skin a little bit better. But I feel like it gives a better glow. So you've got the Charlotte Tilbury up here, which I feel like has almost gotten to look like a matte after it's sat down. And then you have the one that is this illuminating one from ELF that is like pennies compared to the other one. And it's just still shiny and pretty, even though I'm rubbing it in and I used less here than I did for the Charlotte Tilbury. So if I was going to say by this, not that, I would absolutely pick up the ELF. I feel like it's more hydrating. I feel like it set down on my mature skin better. It went into my pores and didn't make them show texture better than the Charlotte Tilbury. That is one thing that I had to be really careful with is that if you get too much of the Charlotte Tilbury on and then your foundation, you're going to look a little bit cakey because both products are a little bit thicker, whereas this is super thin and can go underneath your makeup and is so beautiful. I did just tell you about a Charlotte Tilbury. So many of these are Charlotte Tilbury that I probably should have just gone for doing a Charlotte Tilbury dupe video. But this is the Charlotte Tilbury color corrector. I bought this because I was so intrigued with wanting to know what her formula was because so many YouTubers had talked about it. It does have a bit more slip. It's a little bit more emollient. So I find that if you put it on underneath your eyes, you have to almost set it or put your concealer on or your foundation on over top of it immediately because you're going to need to do that in order to get it not to crease unless you really work with it and really work it in, which is a little bit hard, as you know, with super emollient products underneath the eye because they can cake a little bit. One of you said that you had heard that the Believe Beauty corrector that you can get at Dollar General. Now, I know that they had two colors. You can only buy this in store as far as I know so far. So this one, it is so close. It is so, so close. Now, I do feel like this is a little bit more stiff. And I like that because, again, you're not working with something that is so emollient that you're going to get it to crease. And that is one thing that is just a little bit better to me about some of these that are just a little bit thicker of a product. I shouldn't say thicker because this is not a thick product by any means. It's quite thin. This one from Charlotte Tilbury is the medium. And then this one from Believe Beauty is the light medium. So you can see that they are two different colors. And I do know that the light from Charlotte Tilbury was quite a bit lighter. And I believe very close to the color of the Believe Beauty one. But my goodness, as far as price goes, as far as how much I like to have the Believe Beauty one instead of the Charlotte Tilbury, you can see that I barely even dipped into the Charlotte Tilbury one. It's because it creases on me too much. So I like the Believe Beauty one. It is what I have on today. It is something that I feel like is a little bit more perfecting than Charlotte Tilbury. So if you want to talk about buy this, not that. This is another one of those products because you're going to save a ton of money. And I believe it outperforms it so well. All right. I just told you that I was going to show you after these dried down. Now look at this. You're going to see how good this is. Look at this one from Urban Decay. Can you see how that's smudging just a little bit and wearing off? I've actually got a little bit of it on my fingers. But that one from CoverGirl is not going anywhere. It's not coming off. It's not bleeding up or it's not bleeding down. I will tell you the other thing is I'm going to just wash off that hand. You're going to see that that Urban Decay will come off really easy. Look. The Urban Decay is almost gone and I'm going over them both. And the exhibitionist is having a hard time coming off. I am like rubbing like crazy. It's coming off but it is taking a long time. So you can tell that that would really go well into your waterline and stay in your waterline a whole long time. So I'm going to try and get the rest of that off so I can do more swatches on this hand. All right. Foundation, foundation, foundation. We are always on the hunt for the perfect foundation. And it seems like Estee Lauder Double Wear is the perfect foundation for so many people. This color right here is a little bit dark for me. The normal color that I wear is Fresco, Fresco, Fresco. And it is a perfect color for me. Pretty much year-round. I can kind of bronze it up in the summer. But I feel like this foundation, if you're not careful, especially if it's dry, like we're coming into winter and it can be just a little bit too drying, especially as you age and you find that you have more dry skin, indoor heat. If you live in a very dry, arid part of the country, which I do, you can find that this can get a little bit cakey, a little bit thick, adding some primer that's hydrating or adding just a tiny drop of oil in it can really help this. It's gorgeous. It lasts all day. It's called Double Wear for a reason. It lasts all day. It covers like a dream. It is full coverage. You will feel like you do have makeup on with this, though, even though it looks very perfecting. So I love this and I use it quite often. It's a beautiful foundation that if I need something to stay on all day, this is what I'm going to reach for. But I'm here to tell you I found the dupe and I don't know if this has been talked about before on other channels or not. This is just one that I ran across because of looking through my foundations and wondering what I could do as a dupe for the Estee Lauder. It is the Revlon 24-7 Color Stay Makeup. Mine is in the Normal to Dry formula and I'm here to tell you that this acts just like it, except for they have an oily normal formula and then they have the dry normal formula. And for me, I can wear this in the winter and it be perfect. But it has that same quality of being able to cover in one coat, having the full coverage and staying put. It says that it is a 24-hour wear. It's 200 nude. It's a great color for me. As a matter of fact, I do have that on this side today. And I just think that this one outperforms the Estee Lauder Double Wear because of my dry skin. It is a very similar thickness or very similar consistency to both of them. I like the Revlon more because I don't feel dry at the end of the day whereas if I don't mix something with the Double Wear, I will feel dry at the end of the day. I love the price point on this compared to this one. Just like the Double Wear, this will not show up texture. It applies like a dream. It helps to hide all of my imperfections and it's an absolutely gorgeous foundation. And I have talked about this before, but I've never talked about it as a dupe and I'm so glad that I compared the two. And yes, I am wearing this one on my skin today. I did have to lighten it and I did have to put a color corrector in it that was white in order to get it light enough for me. But they both work so good and they both perform so well except for I feel like again, buy this one and not this one if you're a mature gal with dry skin that gets drier in the winter. I love this stuff. This is one that I'm super duper glad that I found because way back, way way back, Becca came out with this highlighter and I have to get my glasses so I can figure out what it is. This is called the Becca Pearl Glow Luster Glow Powder in Pure Pearl. I just loved this because it was not like their regular ones where you pick it up and it felt really heavy or talky. It was just really silky, really smooth and it gave a really beautiful beam. But at the same time, it was super soft and it didn't show up any texture on my mature skin. I fell in love with it. I think I heard about it from Mel and she just really loved it and I love it too. And it was one of those ones that I just had to have. It's gorgeous because of it's not showing up any texture but it being the glow without being any glitter or any sparkle or anything like that. This is the one that I found that is a dupe for it and I love this. This is more than a glow highlighter from Catrice and this is the Rose one. This has had an embossing in it right here that I've kind of worn off but it is very, very close. The texture is so, so close and the color is pretty darn close too. It might be that the Catrice is just a teeny tiny bit more on the champagne side and then the Pearl one from Becca is just a little bit more on the pink side but you can't tell on the cheeks. There's no way you can tell on the cheeks. So I am wearing it on the cheeks on this side, the Catrice and the Becca on this side. Again, we can't get this one anymore but we definitely can get the dupe with Catrice. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous highlighter. Every bit as gorgeous as Becca's was. This one I would never have figured out had it not been for Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty. I know a lot of you do have this though. This is the identity palette from Persona. This is an incredibly beautiful neutral palette and these colors are stunners. They are so pretty. There are so many unique colors in here and very easy to work with, very soft, very blendable. I fell in love with this thing. You get the orange neutral, the purple neutral, the brown, the green shimmers, the golden shimmers, the champagne, the pink shimmers. You get this light white color to mix with any of them to kind of make them brighter which is so nice. I love this. Again, this is by this, not that, because it's not an identical dupe but I picked up this palette from ColourPop called Lust for Dusk. This has quickly, very, very quickly become my very favorite palette. Look at the colors in here. They're muted. They're gorgeous. They're more on the neutral side but at the same time you get just that little bit of beautiful color in there just to kind of set off that neutral look that we all can kind of get in a rut in. I feel like there's 16 colors in the Lust for Dusk and then there's 12 colors in the Persona. If you take a look at this side by side, I think you're going to see what I'm talking about. They look so close to each other. Now, if I swatch these right next to each other, you're going to see that they aren't exactly. They are pretty dang darn close. Here's the one from Lust for Dusk and then here's the one from Persona. That's the purple one in there and then this one right here is that dark brown one and then the dark brown one out of the Persona. They're so close. They might just have just a little bit of a tonal difference but can you tell the difference on my eyes? I don't think you can. This one is the Lust for Dusk and then this one is the Persona. Now, I will say that one thing that I did do was I took the highlighter from the Catrice and I did put it in the inner corner of both of these just to bring some brightness right there on the inner corner but the lid, the outer V, the crease, the transition color, everything about them is almost an identical look. You just can't tell the difference in them. I just ended up mixing a few together and these are so close. You can see how close they are. Different price tag. Yes, big time different price tags but I also like this one a little bit better for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love this silver in here. I think it's so pretty and there isn't anything like that in the identity palette. Color-wise, it's pretty darn close. What about the formula? I love ColourPop's formula. I always have. I've been wearing this on my eyes for a few hours now. There's no fading on the ColourPop one whatsoever and that's the nice thing about the Persona. They're beautiful. I feel like if you missed out on this and you're sorry that you did, check out this one, Lust for Dusk in the ColourPop formula and I love it so much. This has been my new favorite. I really, really like it. Lastly, I might get some backlash for this last one but this is one that I feel like for me is a huge find and I feel like for any of you that are on any sort of a budget where you can't put out that high end dollar for the Hourglass palettes that you might really enjoy this. These are the two Hourglass palettes that came out. The one is the Ambient Lighting Edit and Unlocked and this one is the Universe one. I picked up the Unlocked one. Wait a minute. Yes. I picked up the Unlocked one first. This is just the Ambient Lighting Powder that you dust across. Two blushes, a bronzer and then the Highlighting Colour and the same thing goes for the other one which is again the Universe one. You get the two blushes although I feel like this bronzer that they put in here this time is so close to a blush that if you have any sort of a skin tone that you like, it's very natural. You could wear this one as a blush and then you have the Highlighter and then the Ambient Setting Powder or Lighting Powder that you can use. I love that this time they did the big powders here because it used to be so small that you could hardly get a brush in. I do like these. I think they're beautiful. I think that either one that you pick up would be a winner for you but I realize that not everybody can do this. This is an $80 price tag for each of these and they aren't inexpensive. I pick them up because I don't use makeup up a lot because I'm testing so many different things for all of you and so having these gives me a chance to try all of their stuff, all of their powders and still be able to not break the bank with the single ones that are usually like 50-something dollars. So I do like these. However, again this is not an easy price tag to swallow but I got you covered and I think that I found really, really good dupes for these. Again, by this not that because the colors on these aren't identical but a lot of them are really, really close and I really love them. So the Sephora Collection has a micro smooth multi-tasking baked face palette and I am positive that they did this because of Hourglass's ambient powders. Now Hourglass's powders are silky, they're smooth. You stick your finger into them and you love them but I almost like the texture of these from Sephora a little bit more. I feel like as I'm putting my finger in here I feel they're softer and they're easier to blend out. I like them better. I think that they're just ones that are just a little bit nicer. They're a little bit, I don't even know how to describe them other than their powders that are great for somebody that has texture or large pores because they just really work into the skin and they're beautiful. So this one is the enchant like I said and this one is in Captivate. So this is the darker one. That's the other thing that I don't feel like Hourglass does. They don't give you a darker option. These did. Now I'm not saying that this is dark enough for my super deep toned skin gals but I'm saying that it's pretty good to be able to get a darker tone in here than these light, light tones and you can see as I'm rubbing them here that they are a lot darker than what these are up here. I love that. Now let me show you side by side because they are not the same color but like I said I do feel like the formula is better. This is a little bit more of a warm tone but I think as you get up into those medium tan deep tones you do get a little bit warmer and then of course the other one which is the two light ones I feel like so many of these highlighters are exactly the same or very very close. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I actually took the darker one of the Sephora and I did put it on this side with my blush and my high well I'm not my highlighter because I did my highlighter the other way but I did put it on with that's my blush and then this side with the I can't remember that name universe is over here so I felt like they were very very close. I don't feel like you're missing out if you don't buy this but you buy these because you're getting such beautiful colors and a whole entire video on Sephora products and I love them. I think that they outperform so many high-end products and I think they're great. I have reached for this light one over and over and over again and it's gorgeous. I just I'm really impressed with these they're just very high quality and I'm really glad that I got them. That's it for the dupes today. I hope that you did enjoy them and again this is a buy this not that and save some money. I always love to hear about dupes in the comment section from you so if you do have any will you let me know down there I would super appreciate that I'm still trying to get that uh yeah the cover girl uh exhibitionist I'm still trying to get it off there still not coming off of there so you should have it on all day too. All right thank you for spending time with me I love you very much and I'll catch you all in my next video goodbye my friends


Hi, I'm Sam Zockeberg, Senior Legal Researcher at the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment. I'd like to thank the organisers and my colleagues on this panel for the opportunity to make this presentation by video ahead of time. Today's topic focuses on innovations in open and transparent land governance and to borrow from a recent CCSI report on this topic, we must ask, for whom? CCSI initiatives can have a range of beneficiaries, including regulators, community members, citizens, journalists, each of whom may have different needs. So designing systems that meet such needs will be crucial if we want to avoid less dominant actors, such as communities, indigenous peoples and women being left behind. I'd like to focus on transparency in the context of land-based investments specifically, given the immense land pressures that agribusiness, forestry and renewable energy projects are currently causing. As you can see, land investment transparency has four elements. The first is disclosure of all relevant and accurate information in a timely manner. This includes information about actual or proposed investments, including likely impacts and the actors involved. But it also includes information about relevant rights and laws, including the processes through which decisions will be made. CCSI's own effort in this regard is open land contracts, which currently houses 1,500 land investment contracts and other documents from over 50 countries. The next element is access. Communities, citizens and government actors have to be able to safely access the information. Third is comprehension. Information should be made in understandable formats, which includes translations into local languages and plain language summaries. In the case of open land contracts, for instance, we summarise key contract clauses to aid comprehension for non-legal users. Communities often also need sufficient time to digest information and to access technical support if needed. The final element is information use in open systems. Communities and other actors must be able to access decision-making processes if they want to knowledgeably influence them. More generally, governance systems must be open and democratically responsive. So what are these open systems and decision-making processes that we need and how can local actors influence them in practice? The systems and processes I have in mind are wide-ranging and often country-specific. They include processes enabling decisions on land use planning, the design of legal and policy frameworks, through-to-consideration of proposed investments and the terms of those investments that are granted permits. So this also includes consultations, contract negotiations, impact assessments, as well as monitoring and enforcement, grievance mechanisms and decisions concerning project closure and what happens to land afterwards. For communities to access these systems, disclosure is crucial, but it's also insufficient. To influence decisions, communities need information, yes, but also power is going to play a prominent role, meaning that communities will often struggle to have their voice heard. They may need skill-building and accompaniment from civil society and other support providers to really grasp what is at stake, prepare and confidently decide on and implement a course of action before it's too late. Because communities, including women and Indigenous peoples, are so often excluded from these processes, they increasingly are turning to processes to set the agenda themselves before it's too late. Community-led processes include autonomous protocols and bylaws, which explain how customary decisions are made within the community, as well as community-driven visions for how the community plans to pursue its own self-determined development. Community-led data collection is another important tool. This can democratise the information sources feeding into government decisions concerning land, which can otherwise often tilt heavily towards unaccountable company consultants or reporting that may not tell the full story. On the government side, we know that information sharing between agencies remain the challenge. This is not only a technical or a financial challenge, it's also a political one. Public actors might be hoarding information or demanding money for it, precisely because being a gatekeeper to such information brings with it power and influence. So while we can and should innovate on intra-governmental information sharing and coordination, we also have to empower those good faith actors within government, sometimes referred to as reformers, who earnestly seek to uphold their mandates but are too often stymied by pressure from above to not make things difficult for certain investors. On this topic, CCSI is currently working to empower specific governmental actors and is preparing a brief on how such actors can build political support to translate good ideas into practice as part of our Align project with IIED and Nomati. Thank you very much for your time.


What also motivates us to contribute to the home country development is the fact that we see this differential of development between western societies we live in and our home country and of course it's a natural tendency that we want our country to also be developed and to get back on track.