Six o'clock and I just let someone else end to the to the meeting and I will start by Reading our Common script now that as Jarrah the Rochester select board I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to addendum 6 to executive order 01-20 and act 92 this public body is authorized to meet electronically In accordance to act 92 there is no physical location to observe and listen Contemporaneously to this meeting however in accordance with the temporary amendments to the open meeting law I confirm that we are providing public access to the meeting by Telephone video or other electronic means we are currently using the zoom platform for this remote meeting All members of the board have the ability to communicate Contemporaneously during this meeting through this platform and the public has access to Contemporaneously listen and if desired participate in this meeting you can Find out how to get into the zoom meetings either by looking at the information on the Posted to second somebody else wants to get in the posted agendas are going to the town website or Request specific emails from the town clerk So that said we will Ask if there are any additions to the agenda tonight's agenda Yes, I have an addition Which isn't nor yep This is regarding as the rector rector China organized some Halloween festivities And I want to talk about a COVID protocol and then be Organizing actually a series of events around the For the 30th and 31st, okay All right Anybody else have an addition to the agenda? I'd like to add an executive session to continue discussion about an employee issue and Add that And That said I guess we'll move on with the minutes from the prior meeting of September 28th, and I read them and they seemed Seemed correct, and I didn't find any corrections. I'd move to adopt those And I second that well in favor I don't see Joan here yet, so maybe we'll see if she comes in later for her updates, but let's um I guess we'll just go right into norm. You want to talk to us about what you're what you're thinking Yeah I'm actually I'm coming in as Barbara Shanta and that's weird and let me turn some video so you can see my pretty face Okay Okay Yeah, we've been talking with other rec directors primarily Linda Anderson in Hancock She's organizing a multi town sort of a Quinn town series of events Actually posted them on our website There's really three Big events we want to do. We want to do it sort of a Halloween reverse parade Which is very similar to what we did as a Reverse parade for 4th of July Where in 4th of July we had like little stick people standing by the sides of the road and Basically cheering on all the cars At this point we're gonna have stick Halloween characters You know spooky people funny people whatever anybody wants to make um And then they're welcome to You know put their people out on the green Or the the park and the other towns will be doing the same Also anywhere along the highway um And that will go from Uh, October 30th through November 1st the whole weekend Friday through Sunday um and then um Friday evening we'll have a pumpkin lighting And we've done this in the past. I think I think Katie Landware did it um You know just get a bunch of kids or families together and light their pumpkins and Set them up around the monument um We we were talking about food, but I don't think that can really happen with uh all the covid protocol You know bringing usually they brought in cider and donuts, but uh, I don't think that's gonna happen um And then on the 31st, uh, we're thinking about um What to do for halloween um Again, we got the covid thing going so I wanted to ask you guys Is is halloween The door-to-door trick or treating gonna be Sort of outlawed this year I don't know if you've gotten directives from the state But in lieu of that, I was thinking um Well, again all the towns are going are Creating these events where the kids can just um Show up and get bags of candy like in handcocked They're gonna have a zipline And somebody with uh vinyl gloves will put a bag of candy on the zipline And and wheel it to the little kid, you know 30 feet away very covid safe I was thinking something like a big tube a big pvc tube somebody with gloves throws a big bag of candy through the pvc tube And the kid has a bag and never touches anything So so there's a way we're trying to come up with ways to do it without You know You know following protocol basically um We I was thinking about Maybe if there is no trick or treating that people that wanted to Give candy at their doorstep could Possibly drop off some candy maybe at the town office in a big box So for a couple Couple days in advance, um, maybe a group of us could um organize the candy in the bags, you know all the donated candy and kind of create a thing for the the kids Uh, regardless, we we sort of have a environment around the gazebo. We have stuff from uh pierce hall pierce halls going to be Not Not having its event Because of coven, you know, not no serving food or anything Um, so we'll be able to maybe take some of those lighting and decorations to the gazebo and Create a little environment for Someone so for the kids to have fun. So, you know, if they can't go dirt or trick or treat Um, norm I I welcome what you guys have to say norm Yeah, speaking as someone who lives at trick or treat central right on main street there on the corner of the park um, I Mentioned this to a couple of my neighbors over the phone and they all Would much prefer having something on the park. They don't feel comfortable doing the food They want to do it next year if if at all possible giving out candy because they like it But they feel this year may be not a good idea. So I know I don't believe that it's been like Band or anything by the state or something dune could dune and patty and frank could tell you but um, I just was thinking myself just the the Scuttle but on the street so to speak that I've heard from neighbors is they'd much prefer To have that off them, but they would be willing to donate some candy and stuff if needed So I don't know that's that's just what I've heard There's been no directives from the state that I know but I know a lot of municipalities have Spoken up and um, taking it off the table for this year and saying no no trick or treating just Yeah, because it's probably not a good idea this um in this environment um in terms of orchestrating You know dosing the kids with candy I don't know, you know, if that's How important that is or not I guess that's that would be up to the parents it seemed to me You might thought the whole process of going house to house and then wandering around with all the other Goblins is a big big part of halloween and I don't know if you want to just reduce it to Getting a bag of candy But that's right. What do you what do you guys think? I I don't know actually I I think it is an issue that we have to Think about I mean if they wanted to have some sort of giveaway You know, they have the The farmers market set up there like so if they did something along that line Where they you know had one way in one way out kind of thing and Went through different little stands like the farmers market sets up Then you might be able to do something like that Where they could get candy at one spot But they're going to have to be social distance and I'm not sure you can get that through Yeah, it's it's going to be Kids running around As far as What you said doing is it just make it sort of a one-time thing? I mean we we would like to create an environment and I've been working at pierce hall For years and you know, maybe with a little light show decorations and Just families getting together You know, although they're six feet apart that there is sort of a A chance for Kids to you know, they're just not going to show up and get the candy and go home. They're they're sort of They'll be social interaction And we will try to find devices to keep them You know entertained Maybe it maybe one idea might be a costume contest or something because I know when my kids were growing up Obviously getting the candy was fun and a big part of it But they really loved planning their costumes ahead and showing off their costumes to the other kids when they were going around trick-or-treating And when they'd come home, they'd be telling me all about oh, you should have seen You know and tell me all about what other kids were wearing and somebody had a really cool costume So I don't know that's that's possibility um Yeah, yeah, we could have different categories possibly that would mean we need more prizes, but Uh, that that is definitely possibility come up with events like that Uh Sure I mean a lot of costumes involve masks, don't they? That's right.  So it would be a It would be a thing, you know, a bunch of spooks on the park Running around. I mean it is it's it is up to the parents to You know police them a little bit and make sure that they are um You know socially distancing or do what they have to do. I want to bring um, Amy brawn into it. I've contacted her along with Yolanta, um the uh After school uh persons are I'm trying to Integrate the school with it and and they sort of know all the rules and know, you know, they know how to deal with these protocols In the school environment. So I kind of want to carry that Into this park environment I think weather has to be a consideration too and we can't plan it this far ahead Um, I I've been listening only because I haven't made a decision about the hardware yet. Um, the hardware Has a tradition of giving um halloween candy out Um, and we normally during the week close at six and and stay open to about 7 30 because it's month end And I gotta do statements anyway. And so, um, we would run open until about 7 30 and give out candy for trick or treating um We uh, we're planning on not changing that we're still going to do that except Uh, halloween's out of saturday and we close at four So now we would be open like two three hours later if we wanted to cover the the halloween rush That's that's more of the issue of what we have right now. Um, so I don't know um If the businesses um planned on still giving out That is actually one of the elements that I didn't mention we we want to do the same kind of thing that we did over the fourth of july Uh, which is invite businesses to offer specials if they have any special that Yeah, you have to the restaurant if they have Something on the menu or whatever Um, they can contact us and we can put their specials on a flyer So, um Remember at our rec committee meeting we talked about how the trick or treating type stuff on halloween should be from two to five in the afternoon Yeah, we're looking for an earlier one for trick or treating like uh largely daytime and that quick help patty with her time issue Yeah, I think something you better do is not put out mixed signals Yeah Settle line and follow it We're going to have an article to have a lot of confusion We're gonna have an article in the paper next week And also norm is going to when everything gets settled after our meeting this thursday Hopefully everything will be settled then then he's going to be um Be making up flyers to send home with both the with the kids to school that kind of thing The thing is if you have some businesses handing out candy They're probably going to go around to houses and knock on doors. Oh, yeah You know, so you're inviting that so I think you have to set up A certain thing and that's it if if we as a town are not going to support a trick or treat Then for this year because of the covet thing then I think we need to make a stand on that That's my feeling that makes sense friend Because if we send out mixed signals, it's going to get crazy and everybody would be going around to all the houses Again, which is not what we should be doing. I don't believe Yeah So I think you have to set a draw a line in the sand and And come up with some rules and and figure out how you want to address it if you want to have A set time To do the candy thing On the park. That's fine. I would think but I don't think you want to Make it I think the town has to come out with something and says You know, no trick or treating house to house this year And then come out with whatever they want to do, you know, that would really include Businesses too because that that leads you on to the pattern of going somewhere to get candy versus Focusing it on the park You know, I don't know how elaborate you'd need to get even if like how the the um The farmers market is set up on the arc to the park if you set it up with the um With the decorations and the goblins and such on the park there could be you could have You know break up the donations of candy into bags and and As kids come by a certain Certain Character they could pick up a bag of candy there. I don't know if you know how elaborate we need to get with them It's up to the volunteers that are doing it but to um Yeah, I agree with frank. I don't I don't think patty. It's a good idea to To give out the candy there. You could help, you know Got some bags with the hardware store name on it. That could be that the donation bag is on the park or I don't know Sorry kids. Now. Does that mean I I can't get dressed up either because Pirella Deville with a damnation. It was awesome. Oh, I heard you were great. You know why not why not get dressed up I think you should get dressed up. I think I think the whole select board should get dressed up. Yeah Um, maybe the businesses could have a station at the park station or a table At the park along the arc in the park pathway, you know, all the businesses line up and Right It's uh, well, I don't think max would do it But if they took a treat at max max was giving out candy I believe sandy was giving out candy and the huntington house was giving out candy So there was there are a few businesses that were I think inner traditions put something out on their porch so there there were Probably, I don't know five businesses that that were giving out candy as long as they were open So it might be good for the board to let the businesses know that we're going to concentrate on the park, please Yeah, you know, I mean not I don't know I do I think dune has a point that you know, if they give up You know, people are going door to door there. They'll keep going Now that's something I can announce in the flyer And of course that flyer will go to the kids in the school Um, so the word will get out that way as well. Whatever you guys decide as a select board I can And I'm sure Martha will put in the paper Yeah, I was just wondering if you were going to be sending the flyer to the My experience just was where I live is that I get kids from most of the valley towns and you know, I recognize where they live And so it's possible. I mean I mean for normal trick or treating so I'm wondering if you're going to be giving the flyer at least out to maybe in the Stockbridge school as well as Rochester, but I don't know if that's Yeah, actually. Yeah, that's linda and I have been talking about this linda Anderson and uh her whole idea here and it really works pretty well with 4th of July is to coordinate and integrate all five towns from down in Pittsfield up through Grandville and we've talked with we've had zoom meetings with Martha and Some of the other directors and other interested people and You want to coordinate where you know, some people Can go from town to town and go to these events That's what linda was hoping for where you could It sounds like Hancock's really going to do it up this year But she was suggesting within this three hour time period You know to go from Hancock to Rochester to see the other It's almost like a trick or treat in and of itself, you know, there's Could be two three four events Up and down route 100 Um, we're coordinating both our pumpkin lighting events and our trick or treating events at exactly the same time so You know when people get sick of one to go to the next one So or you have you're having the pumpkin lighting Friday night, but you're having that is a trick or treating Saturday afternoon Yeah, 530 to 830 So that's like a sort of It may involve maybe You know older maybe more parents or older people as more It's sort of like a A prelude to trick or treating. Well, I'm just worried about having any pumpkins left for halloween night Um, I mean halloween day, whatever the idea we're getting to that. Um Only because Anybody doesn't want to keep their pumpkin they would They could leave them with us and you know, I would put them Somewhere for safe storage for Is that the box who has a has a compost business now is offered? I think I heard that he had offered to get rid of any leftover pumpkins when halloween is over that nobody else wanted, you know, he would You know, it's something to think about too. We don't want to leave a mess on the park So yeah, we've been planning all these details all these people from five times. It is pretty amazing and um You know, I say, you know, let's go for it one way or another and you know, whatever you guys decide As the Rochester protocol will try to get the word out I just think you need to really promote no door to door Trick or treating I really honestly think you got to do that And probably a good way of doing that is by promoting this as an alternative to that and communicated That way right now um probably should have um Something in the paper kind of you know, I'm going to be having I'll have something in this article, of course about the meeting But next the plan was since we're having our meeting on thursday to make our final decisions I'm on this committee that that norms on That we would have an article in next thursday the 22nd Which should be a full week and two days ahead of halloween Um to help people plus they would be sending the flyer home with the kids Which would have all the definite stuff on it And I think um, maybe on the town website and norm can tell you he's got several other ideas for places to put it too like Yeah, I haven't been on front first forum much But actually yeah, the schedule is currently on the website right now Rochester, Vermont And that's going to be the hub for all five towns to get their halloween information Um, and again, we'll be sending a flyer to the school um You know if you guys decide no trick or treating I can put that front and center right on the website But I think we kind of made that decision there I think I think so I think that's the way to go and you know I can see events where you can you know give out candy along that and if the businesses want to contribute to that That would be where to go with that I think But you have a a set time Where you do that and we promote no door to door And use it like doon said in lieu of no door to door you're what you're doing, you know To promote that that way I think that's kind of the way we have to handle it. Yeah so the the um So the application for the park use and has got three points that's um to Do the reverse parade action the decorating on the park and then on the 30th the jack lantern writing and then What we've talked mostly about the 31st the um trick or treat event in alternate events, which um I I guess I would Amend this to say that that is um promoted as and As a consolation prize or anything to Um well promoting the lack of door-to-door trick or treating that there will be um, you know some Orchestrated safer events, you know around the park uh Part of the announcement would be Uh because you can't give out candy and trick or treating, uh, can you please donate that candy? To us so we can make up some monsters on the park who will distribute it safely Right and normally we have that article in next week. We can always put your note Your name and phone number or whoever else wants to volunteer Maybe linda as the person to call if people want to make donations or whatever sure sure I was hoping uh, it's july here Would julie be okay with having um, uh, like a big box at the town office and Have people come to the town office and drop off bags of candy if they wish Yeah, we could we could do that Yeah, taxes and candy But the hardware too because people all have to wear masks when they come into the hardware so Okay Martha you may you may want to run that a couple weeks if you're going to be the 22nd But maybe the 29th too. Um, they won't let me run the same thing twice But maybe I can make a shorter version for the 29th. Yeah, that would be great I think it's I think it's something we have to do to make sure that people are aware I don't want people going around town knocking on people's doors Well, it's I mean as much as I wish everybody in town read the herald They don't all read the herald and so he that's why norm's got other ideas too That's good. I think I definitely will More we hammer at home the better we are so yeah the safe yeah, I won't be able to go I got some people on the pto. I I'll send them flyers and They're really good at getting a few of the facebook Conduits So I think the word would get out uh, kid wise That's why I suggested sending the flyers home with the kids at the school at our first meeting because I thought That's obviously our focus group and if they bring the flyers home and show their parents Then if their parents are too busy to read the paper or something at least they saw that so That great, so I guess I would um Move to approve the application for use of the town park for for these events um and With the addition of that these um these events are specifically the one on halloween is Folded into a communication of the um the um No door-to-door trick or treating this this halloween Sure So um, do I have a second? Uh, I second that and I just don't I just don't know when we say no, I mean We do not recommend it. I mean we're saying no that we're not we're not gonna have somebody policing the area, but no I can second that I hate this All right I'm okay with it. Okay on favor I Yep, but but we're we are gonna allow Santa Claus to come to town I'm standing on my ground on that one Only halloween only halloween characters But I'll uh, I'll put some language in uh the website tonight and maybe you guys If you have a chance to have a look and see if it's worded right, you have a better suggestion. Let me know As far as I figure out we sort of have to Delicately tell people they can't trick or treat There's right. I think you have to be good about it. I mean do the best we can I'm just going to close just leave my lights off and you know I don't know what else to do Don't answer the door Um, okay, but I figure some people might be really into it, you know But I mean a lot of people don't like to do what they're told Yeah And I like that you're bringing back the tradition of the jack-o'-lanterns I'm around the monuments been a while since I've seen that and that's always kind of Yeah, I was gonna say we did that when my kids were little and I remember they really liked that a lot So I think it'd be fun to do it again. Well that was done by uh zoos larry athletic director. Yeah Apparently there's supposed to be a Every town is doing it or at least three or four times and I'm gonna they're gonna take pictures and post we're gonna post them on the websites and apparently Have a little vote off for the best set of pumpkins All right And Rochester's pumpkins Right. All right for uh, so um now for something Less, um exciting but uh, we have a Application for a permit for a driveway construction Um from ray and Cheryl harvey on town line road And that's um, I know where that where that's that I haven't talked with cooter about this I think this is um pretty easy to approve. There's already um An informal Um driveway there. They're they're just gonna formalize it and put a culvert in so I I think I'd Um move to approve that one A second map. Yeah on favor Boy that seemed really quick compared to the halloween one That's still runs by cooter. Anyway, you're correct um Well, he's no the select board is the one that approves the driveway cut. We just that they had With the advice of the um a road foreman Yeah, but that's that's a straight stretch. There's no curves there and it's like said it's already That's the old gill matlots. I guess right. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah um So, um, we've got um a um The maintenance contract for the town tax mapping. I see we lost the guy that we um That put together the current one and I guess he's retiring and I print that now it's on my other computer And it's something that needs to happen. I don't know if we um Have um julie has there been much Options out there and it's not something that's big enough to that we need to put out to bid. We're talking about 1700 dollars or 1750 right and Is this a company that you think is actually going to stick around for a while? It's kind of disappointing that's the The fellow we went with last time decided that he's done all of a sudden Right. He this company here is out of new hampshire. So it's close by And uh, they provide services for many of the towns in vermont Yeah So they've made an application julie or something and what's the name of the company or uh It's c a i technology Is that like capital c capital a capital i correct. Okay. Thank you And they're out of littleton new hampshire And they're keeping their uh for this year. They said they'll keep everything the same as what um Previous Amounts were 1750 for the maintenance service and then um Yeah, so maintenance services is basically any modifications or adjustments and I guess that deals with the Transfers and title with people buy and sell properties Correct. Yeah that bad and if any um new tax or any new surveys come in, uh, they'll get added to the list And is this this is something that we have to do every year That's not something that we can skip a year and because they're talking about the data Um ending This march, you know the year before then so we're already half a year Begone that time. I just didn't know if this is um I guess this comes into play for setting our tax rate for The grand list for the tax rate next year, right? Correct, right? This follows this follows the listers. Um, their taxation date is April 1st Okay, so it's everything as of 3 31 and that's that's where the listers start lodging the properties and then they actually Start there in a year after they go first. So I think it just follows the listers Yeah So I think it's um, I think we have um, I'd move could approve this to the contract I second that an all in favor Nice Right, um, so we have some um, the proposals for modifying the speed ordinances in town and on Bethlehem Mountain Road and um There's something that if we approve this then we have to post it and for what 60 days But then I think there people have up to 40 days to um Contest it or ask for more information or petition against it The um, I think we should put this on the back burner. We basically What how this came about was uh, the Windsor county sheriff wanted some clarity in a couple of our roads And we weren't sure I know I talked with Julie about it And we weren't sure how the process worked on how we amended it And he came into the office and looked through our ordinances and found the places where We need to to upgrade so that when he writes a ticket, he's got a foolproof Uh plan so that it's kind of you know, it's the judge will accept it. Yeah in other words, so it'll You know gain us a little money there. He said and it's and it's just a foolproof system. So um, I we just got this information and I just soon Uh Study it a little bit so we can write it out properly and make sure we're doing the right things Yeah, because we do have ordinances in place already. Is this just he had pointed out some Yes, these are just amendments to the ordinance basically, right But to do that we have to warn it a certain way and after we do approve it I think we have 14 days to uh to make sure it's Submitted to the public and then they can you know, they can mix it or whatever, but I'd like to look at it for Really and then maybe I can get Nancy to help me a little bit We can work would you be willing to do that Nancy to see where we can plug that ordinance in? Yes Okay, yeah the other part of this too is um once the or once it's written uh Susan sinning from the vlct attorney. She suggested that it um That you have it reviewed by either a town attorney or by vlct to you know Just make sure everything is worded correctly to hold up So if I said that you decided to look at the issue further before bringing it To bringing it up to a vote or something. I mean is the board voting on it? Do you have to have a vote on it at a public meeting? Vote at it on a public meeting and then it's um presented to the public for a Fairly good amount of time. I think and they to um To comment on it. Yeah, I remember when we did the this or I remember when this was going into effect I think there were two Open public meetings with lots of testimony pro and con back and forth especially about the Bethel mountain Road section when we dropped it down to 25. Um, yeah, it was it was a Before it would go through um because of All of the meetings and hearings and the legalities of it. So I think that what we have here um was all done correctly But uh, I so I don't know what the sheriff is Well, it's a couple of sections that aren't spelled out in the ordinance itself And one of them is the is the main town From the entrance to town to the end of the fire department he 30 mile Thing and he wants to make sure that we've got it right And so I want to research it to make sure that we're doing it right And what he wants is is not already in there and I haven't had time to do that Yeah, I mean this this does this covers specific roads. Um, and it doesn't doesn't really cover townwide um Like the townwide speed limit and um, whoever is going around putting stickers on our speed limit signs in the hollows Changing they realize that by doing that they're going to make tickets unenforceable. So they're actually By putting stickers on the town speed limit signs Um thinking it's cute to lower the speed limit. They've actually rendered the tickets Unenforceable that would be written on those roads. So they're actually um having the the opposite effect that they would think they're having Yeah, correct. I believe also if you tamper with the sign it voids the sign so it defaults back to whatever the town speed limit is Which is like 40 Speed limit, yeah Yeah, you're not doing anybody any favors whoever is doing that So, um, so I I agree that this is this definitely is something to um research further and then let's table that Yeah All right, um Is Joan made it in here? She has not for I don't know if well the only The biggest updates that we have from her is that there is not a lot of money out there for um, for road projects surprise surprise and We'll um, I just pick that up again next year, but it doesn't look like we're um moving very quickly on the nascent brook project and um or the um Well, we'll see but that's that was the gist of the communication. She gave us last week Um this coming wednesday Our one-year anniversary of the Bethel mountain road project was october 11th last sunday Um, and it was part of the contract to do a one-year Uh walkthrough kind of like our our warrantee is coming up or something Um, so we're we've got that scheduled with uh myself cricket and bryan brezzlin from uh, Deboy and king to do wednesday Um, and we're meeting at the town office at one o'clock if anybody else wants to um Walk up Bethel mountain road with us. You're you're you're welcome to join in. We're really just going to walk up and um See if everything's stable and make notes of things that are not stable Which I believe that there is a spot or two that may need to be noted Um, just so that if something were to happen the state would say oh, we're responsible for that too. Yeah. Yeah All right Um An update on the town office Um, I've been cleaning out down there the sheriff took a few things from there But they weren't worth anything. He just wanted to destroy them because they had numbers on them Uh, that he didn't want to get out to the public in any way So I told him to take them and destroy them So they uh other than that I've took one Load to the dump. I'm probably going to do another. I probably do the office chairs That are junk This next week So and I took the heat out of the garage and I'll cap it off so that It's capped off now the heat part, but I got to insulate the The vents so there's no cold air in there and I got to get gopher or somebody in there to drain the water And put some valves on that water system So and then I'll just continue to keep trying to get it clean where we can put the Stuff in there. Yeah use it for storage All right, thank you Frank yep boy I think that we pretty much covered what's on the agenda tonight Um, dune one question. You said you were going to end by having the board go into executive session to discuss an ongoing employee issue Yep, um, do you plan to make any sort of decision that I should That's um part of what we're talking about is that we're Not ready to make any decisions. Okay. I just wondered. I was going to ask you to let me know if there was something Yeah, no, we When it comes to that point. Okay. Thank you. Thank you So, um, thanks everybody We'll see you around town Thank you. Have a good evening everyone. Yep. Bye. Good night.  I think we're we're we're done here. All right um, I can um Can um close everybody else out here Yeah, that sticky mute button Oh, okay. Yeah, did you have something else that you wanted to say there? No, I did. I wanted to show you what I have for the uh, COVID-19 I wrote something up here pretty quickly Um, I can exit full screen. I'll I'll read it to you. I was trying to share the screen and I was disabled but anyway, um I'll read this to you all door-to-door trick or treating in the town of rochester has canceled this year due to COVID-19 As an alternative the following events will take place Please donate candy to That that you would have given out For our town-wide COVID-free event Drop off bags of candy at the town office or the hardware store So that uh, the candy will be redistributed at the event kind of wordy, but uh That's a good start Good start, okay All right, good. Uh take care. All right. Thanks norm. Thank you. Yep Appreciate it All right, and I'm going to um Yep, I'm working on them. I think did I um, I think that I I took patty out instead of


Next we're checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2020 release underwater So this is a very new one for that reason. This is a no spoilers review So you can kind of get my opinions on it and decide do you want to watch it or do you not want to watch it? But if you've already watched it, you can get some Information from this I kind of talk in a way that it's not spoilers But if you've already seen it, you'll understand some of the stuff I'm kind of codedly talking about in a sense. So anyway, this is 2020 film Everyone knows it starts Kristen Stewart in it now. I know Kristen Stewart's a very Polarizing actress there people were totally good with her there are people who just hate everything she does I have some problems With her and I'll talk about it a little bit as I get into the review more So this was directed by William Eubank who directed the films love and the signal now Not the signal like the quasi zombie film the signal which I really like I think that's a good one and eventually we'll do a review on that one, but Another movie called the signal which I have not seen so it was written by Brian Duffield who did who wrote the films Insurgent Jane got a gun and the babysitter and also Adam Cozad who wrote Jack Ryan shadow recruit and the legend of Tarzan the film had a Somewhere between 50 and 80 million dollar budget and it only made forty point nine million dollars in the box office. So it's lost money and After seeing this film, I understand why it's I mean I don't recommend this film I just don't because this is one of those movies where yeah, there are some good things about it But there's not enough good stuff in it To justify spending your time watching this film when there are a lot of films kind of like it that are much better much more Fun much more interesting This film kind of seems like Hey, we made a film Congratulations, you made a film, but what is it? What it does that matter like? How does that matter can't figure it out in this film? How does that matter? It doesn't that's the point So the creature designed for this actually It said that it was it was inspired by HP Lovecraft Which is why it's actually kind of funny that I randomly grabbed this shirt to wear today And then realized as I was about to do this review Oh, this is an HP Lovecraft inspired shirt Miskotonic University Historical Society, and there's you can see look a little Cthulhu Lording over the town So it's very random It seems like there have been a lot more films recently showing up that our HP Lovecraft inspired now If you're familiar with this stuff, you will see where that inspiration works its way into this film I mean, this isn't really spoiler, but there are creatures in the film you know, it's deep it's deep see there are creatures in the film and Those are inspired by HP Lovecraft You can definitely see how that is and the creatures the design they look pretty good to be honest But I would argue that you don't see them enough You don't see them clearly enough and especially for having tens of millions of dollars for your budget We got to see that stuff. We really have to see it a lot more But they showed it they showed them a decent amount We just need more lighting and that's just another kind of issue in general with this film is very very dark You can't see a whole lot. It's disorienting which Like I kind of understand because in the situation if you as an audience member were in that situation It would be disorienting so you're kind of seeing it from the perspective of the characters But for the standpoint of making it a film It's tough to do it that way because it's hard to follow You know when it's dark and you can't see a whole lot plus. There's a lot of quick camera emotions and quick cuts You're disoriented. You can't like fix your eyes on anything Like you just don't know what's going on a lot of the time and it's like could someone provide me with some More light here like you can set up a situation within the film That creates more light so that we can really see what's going on and I really think they should have done that with this film This is one of the biggest issues with it There's a this is set up immediately to be very much like alien and aliens Now it seems more inspired by aliens than it does the original alien But there is that original alien aspect in there especially because you don't get the aliens without having aliens So if you watch this film, you'll see what I mean, especially the way they set it up. It seems The the kind of Long hallway shots and the way the the like underwater station looks Reminds you a bit of the the stations from alien and aliens also the the really Kind of clear tie-in where it's in alien and aliens these were Like mineral resource Mining companies that were going out into space and then they happen to run afoul of some creatures in this film It's the same thing. It's drilling for resources in the deep sea. So space deep sea. It's very very similar. So For that reason very inspired by alien and aliens and you see it throughout pretty much Things start in a very mundane way, but they actually don't take long to get crazy I did like the fact that it's very slow for the first just few minutes to be honest And then boom things are happening and I felt like oh, okay, this is cool But then I realized no this isn't cool because We don't know who these characters are and that's the thing like you have no nothing established about the characters You don't know who any of these people are you're just thrown into the situation with all these people And then you have to try and figure out. Why do I care about these people? Who are they? What's their backstory and that really never happens. So you just have really flat characters. They do try to make a little bit of Development happen and give it a little bit of extra dimension to the characters much later in the film But it really becomes a it's too late now type situation It's like I've come so far not caring about any of these characters Why are you gonna try and make me care now and you're not even doing that good of a job at trying to make me care To be honest you have to establish the characters early on otherwise people don't feel invested There was no establishment of the characters at all. They're not introduced really.  You can't be that lazy with the script You can't just do that you have to make people get invested You have to pull people into the film and this doesn't do that at least with the characters now Some people may really like it because it's you know, it's kind of adventurous You know, there are crazy things happening in this underwater like this deep-sea space station and that might drive people's interests There are people who really like that stuff and I do think some of the cool camera stuff is that it It does feel adventurous because you don't know where they're going within this deep-sea space station type thing So it's exploratory in that sense. So if you like that aspect of things you could enjoy this It's just there's not there's not really story here. Like there's not really a story There aren't really characters all the characters.  Just don't care So they messed up the script was just you know There was a concept here and then it just wasn't fleshed out basically is what it is or at least not thoughtfully fleshed out They're just like hey, we got this rough idea for a film. Let's just make it and I need to worry about the story all that much Let's just make it. Let's go So there's a pretty tough pressured decision that's made very early on in this Which helps to set the tone for how urgent things actually are they did do a good job with that like as soon as things get Crazy, there's this tough pressured decision that's made Which I thought they would build off that and they just dropped it so It was a great opportunity It was a great scene and then they just kind of dropped it they they could have made that kind of stick with characters and Develop things that way, but they just they didn't they missed a good opportunity there The dire situation happens suddenly and it has no explanation Which is actually a good idea because it's more from the characters perspective They would need to kind of figure out what happens and for that reason you as an audience member are kind of like a character in A sense that you're experiencing everything along with them But because of that you should also give us the backstory on all these characters first so if you're gonna treat the audience like they're a part of this and Crazy stuff happens and nobody knows why and we're trying to figure it out Then also treat us like the characters and let us know who you're in this movie with you know Like you have to flesh out these characters. You can't just pick and choose these things You have to engage whole in a whole way the audience so choose it Are they all is the audience gonna be from the outside the whole time and outside looking in or is the audience gonna be from the inside? experiencing everything and you have to build the world in a Cohesive manner that way so make that decision and make the script cohesive for that perspective They did not do that. It was kind of like I feel like doing it from out here, but then in from here What do we do? Just the script Not good Like alien there is an adventurous nature to the film because of the movement through the underwater station like I was saying I feel like that's done really well in alien and especially in aliens especially because that's a Station they weren't familiar with but these people are familiar with it But you as an audience member are seeing it for the first time So I did like that aspect of it getting to see the scenery the set design and all that stuff But like I said, it's very dark and it's kind of disorienting shots and quick cameras camera movements So it it cuts down on that like I would have liked to be able to see things better Because like in alien and aliens like the sets designs were amazing like it looked great So even when there wasn't a whole lot going on with the characters You have so much to look at that just looks so cool with this if it was there you you don't get to spend that time looking and It felt like once again another missed opportunity there They established Kristen Stewart's character as the leader pretty much immediately which you know kind of further Increased that that feeling of this is like alien and aliens. It was Seemed like a indirect reference to Ellen Ripley basically It has a very claustrophobic feel to it at times Which kind of made me think a little bit about the movie the descent But the descent is a much much much much much better movie than this So if you want that just watch the descent, but for the little claustrophobic moments They actually pulled it off well since cinematically so It appears TJ Miller is in this film for some comedy But that feels really forced it does not work and he doesn't really do a great job either Comedy has a place in every film potentially But you have to build it that way With his character the way they wrote them the way they inserted him into the story It felt so forced Miller didn't do the greatest job delivering his lines to be honest and You were really just like what why like why are we doing this right now? Let's focus on what's actually going on not try to distract us with oh Maybe we can make you laugh just a little bit. This isn't a situation to laugh Like I understand that there are people who actually will just like make jokes in dire situations because that's how they deal with things I understand that but within the context of this film It doesn't work. It doesn't work at all and even like the jokes that they try to make. It's not funny So like if you're gonna inject comedy into it, it needs to feel right.  Thank you Creature design is good like I was talking about you know Lovecraft inspired But just didn't get enough of it Bunch of the time you can't tell what's going on because it's so dark and moving fast. It's super disorienting. Are you talked about that? There are a lot of long corridor shots in it Which I feel like is something that was done in alien and aliens as well So that's just another tie-in that makes you think about alien and aliens They try to put some emotional stuff in this film toward the end of it But honestly at that point it just feels like it's way too late You need to establish that the audience cares about someone much earlier on in the film And then you can hook them in emotionally with what you're trying to do at the end And they just didn't do it like I wrote down like they never laid the tracks to get to that emotional stuff They're putting in there to actually pay off So they're just throwing it in being like wait. Do you care? No, no, we don't because we didn't care before so You know when you just give us random people who we have no idea who they are what their motivations are Or what they care about in life or you know, even if they have families like You can't just give us here's nameless random person Which that's the thing like it doesn't even matter what the names of the characters were in this They're so throw away like they're all throw away and that's part of the reason why you start feeling like Just kill them all just like but then that's that's another problem is that it's a PG-13 film So the deaths aren't even good They're terrible because you can't even see gore and blood and there's like you can't even see How they could have pulled off good effects for gore and blood Because they can't do it because it's to PG-13 now wouldn't our rating on this film have saved the film No, it wouldn't save the film because like I said the story is not really there But and the characters aren't there, but it would have helped It would have created an A level of interest in this in my opinion. So I don't know You have to have a really strong Script and a really good story idea and really good characters in order to do PG-13 for horror in my opinion Otherwise you have to realize that what you have is kind of weak and you got to put good kills in there and good gore Just to redeem it. Let's be honest There's actually a good quote at the very end of this film There's a voiceover Kristen Stewart's character with a a quote and it's a really good quote and you'll know what I mean if you watch it Pretty cool. It's kind of about like Feelings and how feelings get tied into things and about taking action and it's it's a good quote I did enjoy that. That was this one dialogue moment of inspiration It plays so this film actually plays a bit off the idea of the deep ocean being a relative unknown To humanity because I mean it is and this kind of idea of like we don't really know what's down there So if we venture down there, are we prepared for what we might find of what we might have to deal with now? It's not just from that perspective It's also from the perspective of when a company sends people down there. Are they ready now? This is something obviously that's been seen with alien and aliens before So it's it's well-trodden material One of the big issues is you know, yeah already talked about that not feeling connected to the characters Kristen Stewart is actually her usual self in this in my opinion She never emotes with her face and she always delivers lines with no emotion. That's her acting That's how she is now for that reason I can't judge is she better in this role than other roles or is you know, I can't judge that type of thing I just don't like the way Kristen Stewart acts now. She's not the only one there are other actors out there who I can't stand Because they have the same type of acting Richard gear Olivia Munn Kristen Stewart are all the same to me they barely ever emote with their faces and When they deliver lines, it's always flat like there's there's never Emotion shown in their delivery of lines and for that reason I can't connect with the characters I can't care about the characters. It seems lazy, but that's just you know, how it is I will say though Kristen Stewart's physical acting in this film was good like she physically Which it seemed like a relatively physically demanding role. She rose to that and she did it. So, you know, I Will I will give her credit for that portion of it? Because of the flat characters frantic camera movement darkness and the fact that it's PG 13 so there are no good kills this movie is boring It's a boring movie That's all I can say like even when stuff is going on it's boring, so I You know, if you if you're looking for a film that feels kind of like this Just watch Alien or Aliens if you're looking for a film that's underwater because you like that aspect of it Which I do I dig that type of thing Instead I would watch something like the Meg because at least is the mecca good film No, but is it fun? Yeah, it's a lot of fun. So this film. It's not good and it's not fun So watch the Meg instead because it's fun I'm sure there are some other ones that I'm just not remembering at the moment for underwater films, but yeah Jaws although it's not really underwater. It's about the water, but yeah, but anyway, that's my review of this I don't like it. It's not good. I mean The shots like cinematography looked good except for all the you know, quick camera movement and everything directing seemed okay I guess so out of five stars with half stars in play One and a half. It's a one and a half star film. I'm sure there will be people out there who like it and thank goodness because People should like every film there should be people who like every film that's ever made So I do I would particularly like to hear from people in the comments who have seen this and actually either were like Yeah, it was good or loved it because I like getting different perspectives and maybe there's some stuff I didn't think about that I was You know being a little harsh about or just didn't occur to me and you know There's a possibility that if you bring it up, I can be like, oh, yeah I think you may have been right on that So I'm not you know, these are just my opinions after I watched the film to not a hundred percent married to them So anyway, thanks for checking that out. Do me a quick favor hit that subscribe if you like anything I do that's your way to repay me very painless and quick and it takes you a second So do that for me if you're already subscribed just hit the thumbs up Just let me know you're still watching and you want to encourage me to keep going and then like I said comments If you want to talk about this movie or anything else you can just put it down there It's fine, but thanks for taking your time to check this out and until next time keep it brutal


Broadcasting live from Honolulu, Hawaii. Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii's newest show, Top of the Line. I'm your host, Ben Lau. Aloha, and thank you for tuning in. Our guest today is someone very special, very dear to me, my friend, Mark Kazowitz. Mark is someone who needs little introduction in most circles of American business and society, known throughout corporate America, from Wall Street to Greenwich, Connecticut, from Times Square to Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Washington, DC, from coast to coast in all parts in between, from the Southern District of New York and the courts of the Second Circuit to those of the Eleventh Circuit all across the country, from the chambers of Congress to the Oval Office of the White House, in corporate boardrooms, conference rooms, jury deliberation rooms, trading floors, home studios, courthouses throughout the US, throughout the world. Mark and his namesake firm, Kazowitz Benson Torres, have a reputation for smarts, strategic thinking, aggressiveness, effectiveness, trailblazing. They have a reputation for winning. Our guest has a reputation that precedes him. And lest you viewers think any of this is hyperbole, Mark is a public figure. You can verify everything of what I'm sharing against the public record. Hello, Mark, thank you for being my guest on my inaugural episode. Hi, Ben, thanks for having me, I really appreciate it. You've been approached for interviews countless times, Mark, and you've typically declined. So much appreciation for granting me the special opportunity to sit and talk with you. It's an honor and a real privilege. Let me begin by repeating the thanks that you and your firm recently received from the governor of my state, our state of Hawaii, Governor Ige, on behalf of the people this past summer. Thank you for recovering for the state over $30 million in a case involving the Hawaii Department of Transportation. It's a huge amount for a state of our size of 1.4 million. An award like that is like winning close to 900 million for California, or close to 650 million for Texas. Governor Ige's letter to your firm reads Mahalo. So I know you know that word. And I reiterate that message of appreciation. In addition to all of your accomplishments and accolades, and appreciation of your works thus far, you are the embodiment of the American success story. From working in the backyard of your father's scrap metal junkyard with your twin brother, sorting scrap metal in the freezing New Haven, Connecticut cold until your face and fingers went numb and blue, to now flying in your own private jet with your personal pilot up in the great big blue, to Air Force One and to the White House, you have risen literally from dad's scrap metal junkyard to the stratosphere. Let me ask you, what's your view from up there? What do you see? Well, thanks Ben. I appreciate that. And I appreciate your showing the picture of my dad, which we affectionately in the family refer to as my dad's Marlon Brando on the waterfront picture. Look, my dad was a very, very firm believer in the value of hard work. And not only hard work, but in the value of good character, honesty and abiding interest in taking care of family and friends. And I think that if I think about the most important things that I learned from him or inherited from him, it really is the deep abiding love for being kind to people, being good to people. I always believed that the real essence of life was treating people in the way that you would want them to treat you and the way you'd want them to treat your family. And that's been kind of the message for me growing up and the message for me getting older, which I am now. So many people, when I read things about me or I read things about our firm, people say we're aggressive, we're smart lawyers, we're all about winning and those things are true. We are, we're completely devoted to making sure that our clients' interests are protected. That's why they come to us. But underlying all of that, I think is what we believe about the value in being good and kind to people in having them trust us and trust that we're gonna do the right thing for them. And I think that, I mean, my dad wasn't a lawyer. He didn't go to college. He barely finished high school because he was working, but if there's anything that I've learned from him that I inherited from him, it's that kind of belief in the value and the importance of kindness to people. Mark, you are not just the embodiment of success.  I know you, I've been part of that extended family and you're part of your firm. I've been around you, I've seen you with those countless acts of kindness that you're not even aware that anyone else is looking or that those of us that we share about your kindness to us, you give to people that there's no reasonable expectation and even if there were, there's no way they can repay you besides maybe being just that more grateful and serving you a drink faster or opening the door for you with a big smile or whatever it may be, that's who you are. And I would say that most of the people I know who've interacted with you in New York, I've been around with you, they see it the same way.  I wanna share the story about how you impressed my parents and made them fans forever. You were the head of my summer program at the law firm that I started at before you went and started your firm with Dan and Hector and I brought them to the office one night after a Broadway play, our office was in Times Square as yours is currently, but across the avenue and we were walking around the office and I was hoping not to run into anybody or embarrass anybody, it was probably 11 or 12 o'clock at night. I hear some rustling as we go by your office and you're there, you're on the sofa with your arms crossed you've got your eyes up into the ceiling, you're clearly contemplating something, imagining some important case or something.  How do you do? I don't know how you remembered my father was a doctor, I think it was the first time you met them. They had ever since been a fan. That's, you just win people that way. That was how many years ago. I don't wanna get my age away, but that's who you are. We could talk about your kindness all day. Let's talk about where does your drive and ambition come from? You know, your firm, you seem to be everywhere, you know, in recent news, suing Apple and patent litigation, winning close to $700 million for MBIA, resolving disputes over Woodstock 50 Festival against the Japanese advertising BMF Densu, representing Scarlett Johansson and Hollywood in her lawsuit against Disney, winning Hawaii those tens of millions of dollars. What else is going on that we should know about? Well, look, I think that, and thanks for that, Ben. Look, I think that we have lived by, in our firm, we've lived by an abiding notion, you know, for all these years and we've been in business ourselves for, I guess, 27 or 28 years now. And this is gonna sound a bit over the top and egotistical, and I apologize for that. And I apologize for the immodesty of it. But the reality is that there's no firm in the country that takes care of their clients more effectively or gets better results for their clients and does it in a creative way, in an aggressive way than we do. And that is such a, you know, source of pride for me. When people come to us, they have serious problems. When companies come to us, they have very, very important issues. Either they're defending against the government or they're defending against multi-billion dollar claims or they've been damaged by some event or some company to the tune of billions of dollars in claims, and that's why they come to us. So the responsibility that we have to take care of them is enormous and it's a responsibility that I feel deeply and all of the lawyers in our firm feel. And we're, you know, we're really blessed that we've been able over the course of, look, I've been practicing law for 45 years. We've had the firm for close to 30 and we're really blessed that we've been able to solve these problems for these clients. I mean, you know, dating back to the 90s, when we came up for the idea of settling tobacco litigation, we were representing Liggette, which was the smallest of the big five tobacco companies. And at that time, tobacco companies had never settled any cases against them, never paid a nickel to any smoker or any claimant. And what we saw at that time were cases brought by state attorney's general that sought to hold the tobacco industry liable for the amounts of money that had been spent in state owned and operated hospitals treating smoking related disease. And although all the rest of the companies claim that smoking, and this is 1995, 1996, all the rest of the companies claim that smoking didn't cause these diseases. Our client Liggette was willing to own up to the fact that, and the reality that smoking really did have negative effects on people and was addictive. I think you might be responsible for this, for these labels, you were formed the industry, you were formed the tobacco industry. Well, we did. And at the same time, we protected our client reliability and we also came up with a strategy that for our client ended up making it financially solvent. Because when we settled these cases inexpensively for Liggette at the beginning because no tobacco company had ever settled anything, ultimately when the cases became a threat against the rest of the industry, and the rest of the industry paid $250 billion over 25 years to settle the attorney general cases the way that tobacco companies raised money was to raise the price of cigarettes. So all the rest of the companies raised the price of cigarettes to pay these settlements over to the attorneys general and Liggette, which we settled for very little because we were the first ones in, were able to raise the price of cigarettes and create a economically, financially viable company that's done extraordinarily well and put warnings on their packages that smoking was addictive, which the rest of the industry absolutely refused to do. Like I said, responsible for the labeling, I think. I don't know if people listen, but Mark, let me, you say we, you say we a lot. It's rarely me, you use the word we and you've got a core team of lawyers over there, you and Dan Benson and Hector Torres, you formed a group and a platform that allows so much talent to stand up and shine and develop fantastic reputations and status of their own. How do you do it? How do you spot and retain such talent? How do you hold a group like that together? How do you keep talent like my buddy, Jim Stricker, another dear friend? Hi maintenance guy. How do you keep these guys in line? How do you keep them as part of your team? Well, look, we started with, it's a great question. And we started with 18 lawyers back in 1993. And I think we have close to 300 today. And for us, again, the message is pretty simple. We're loyal to our people. We try to give the same respect to everyone who works in our firm, whether it's a lawyer, a partner and associate, a non-lawyer, a non-legal staffer, a secretary, administrative assistant, someone who works in our copying room. I mean, to us, the value that everybody contributes to what we are accomplishing is immeasurable. You can't define separately what each single person contributes to our venture, to our mission. And the mission that we have is to protect our client's interests and to do it, you know, creatively, aggressively and ethically. And so I think the reason that people stay with us and we've had, I mean, the folks who started with us are still here. I mean, 30 years later. And the reason that they're still here is because they've realized that what we provide is a home, a home for them, a home for their hopes, aspirations, a place for them to raise their own families and the like, and a place where ultimately they understand that they can depend on us. And I, you know, Ben, you're the first person to say this to me in, you know, I don't do many interviews, you're right. But in any of the ones that I've done, you're the first person to say to me that I always say we not, not, not, not I. And the reason that I say we not I is because it's us, not me. And for that, I'm grateful.  I mean, I'm a blessed person to have around me the kinds of people who we have. They're great lawyers and they're great people. Let me, if I could Mark, take the moment. There's another special us in that equation and a shout out to Lori, another former colleague. Hello, Lori. Mark, I wanna use the precious time we have with you. You represent a host of high profile clients and amazing matters that are relevant to affairs in our country and in the world. Does your firm also handle pro bono cases helping out the little guy? What do you do in that area? Yeah, we do a lot of pro bono work. Some of the people who do the pro bono work sometimes think that I don't view as highly the work that they're doing because it doesn't bring dollars in the door. But the reality is that I view everything that we do as being of equal value.  I mean, they've done an unbelievable job. They went awards every year for the kind of work that they've done for people who don't have resources, who really, really need help whether they're immigration matters, whether they're matters involving women and spouses who have faced abuse in their homes, whether they're matters for children who have had to deal with abusive families and need protection, whether they're immigration matters for folks who are coming to our country and have had to deal with hostile environments and the like and are seeking naturalization here, whether they're landlord tenant matters, simple straightforward matters where the tenants just can't afford to pay and they've been, they've been prejudiced by hostile residential environments and the like. We have a very, very robust program. But what I wanna stress about that is that we have so many people who come to us not necessarily as part of the theater programs for these pro bono matters, but come to us because they have a problem and they can't solve it without having the influence and power, frankly, of a firm like ours. And they don't have the resources to pay. There's so many of those that we agree to do on our dime because we think that the people are, you know, a great character and value and they have real claims. So we do a lot of this work. Allow me to please say it because I hear you're saying it, but you're more self-humbling about it. You know, David and whoever else are on your team of pro bono lawyers doing all this good work, to the extent they may say that you don't seem to appreciate it as much because it doesn't bring in money, I think the response would be, and I'll say it, they may not listen, is that I think you very much highly value that because exactly it doesn't bring in money. It sends money out the door and your offices are swanky, high-priced real estate. They have a place in there. They have all the resources you form offers. I think the fact that you underwrite all of that says how important it is to you, even if your interests are in trying to win a case for an important client whose bill will keep the lights on and afford this work. Let me move on, Mark, if we could. You possess unparalleled insider status and know the insides of so many businesses and the exclusive quarters of power, privilege, and influence. You are literally the cover boy of the American lawyer. As the American lawyer, we have a little bit of time remaining. Could you address the younger viewers, not just aspiring lawyers, but what possible career paths should they chart for their journey to follow your example, to ascend to the top of the line? I gotta plug my title in my show. Great question, Ben. And I guess kind of, I'm not an expert in this, figuring out career paths for people in this day and age. But what I can say is this. If you look at what's happening in our world, if you look at the kinds of issues that are of increasing criticality and importance in our world, then what you see are a bunch of different things that really require talent and attention. So what are they, okay? One, law. I mean, law continues to be, in fact, not just continues to be, but our world is increasingly entangled with legal issues that the resolution of which require legal solutions. So for people who are, for young people who are looking at a career path and trying to decide what they wanna do, if they can express themselves clearly and forcefully and clearly in writing and have a passion going into law is a great profession because our world, virtually every aspect of it is saturated with legal questions that require legal solutions. In thinking and going beyond that, beyond lawyers, I mean, when I look at the kinds of threats to stability in our country, for example, I mean, when you look at the role that computers play in our life and the role that the internet and that the organization of information plays in our life, it is overwhelming. It is everywhere just as the internet is an enormous strength and positive for our society in our country and our culture. It's also a vulnerability because the opportunity for people who wanna hurt us or create our anarchy or create terror for our country is enormous. So I view cybersecurity as being a huge field that is going to take on even increasing importance over the coming years. And if I'm a young person and I'm trying to figure out where can I make my mark? I mean, one place where I can make an indelible contribution would be in the area of cybersecurity. Then you have a lot of other stuff, right? You have people who talk about Bitcoin and other kinds of currencies and the like. And I don't know, I'm too old and old fashioned to understand whether what the ultimate future and value of that is gonna be. So I'm not really qualified to talk about that. We have young partners in our firm who are doing big Bitcoin cases now and they're real issues that present themselves. But whether that's a place where people ought to be looking for the future, I leave that to people who are much smarter than I am. That's gonna be hard to find, but Mark, we have very few minutes remaining. So I'm gonna ask you two questions. And the first question could lead to a very long answer. So I have to ask you to keep it brief and then we'll get to the second question. The first question. You helped make one of your clients, president of the United States. Is that a job you would recommend for our young viewers to aspire to some day? Can you help them? You mean the job of being president or helping someone become president or both? Both, I'll double the 30 seconds and let you answer both. I am a, I'm enormously devoted and grateful to this country. My parents were both born here. All my grandparents were not born here. And for my family and for countless families, the United States of America has been a godsend, a godsend of freedom of liberty, of opportunity, a place where people have been able to build their lives, their families, their professions, their characters. And it is a place to which I am immensely grateful, always will be. There's nothing that will change my view about the United States of America. Like any aggregation of people, it has its vulnerabilities and its issues. But, gratefully, it's been a place that has worked hard to solve its problems over the years for which I'm very grateful. So I guess by answer, with that context, my answer is this, anyone who is president of the United States who ever asks Mark Kazowitz to help, Mark Kazowitz's answer is yes, whether it's a Republican, a Democrat, a first-time politician, a long-time politician, I believe that we owe a debt of gratitude and service to our country. And if President Biden were to ask me for help right now, my answer would be yes, the same way it was when President Trump did. So that's how I see it. I love how you honor President Biden and embedded in your answer is an assumption that he would not misuse your talents to go against a former client, which would be absolutely impossible. But I'm just implicit in your answer. And that's the kind of respect I think you hold for whoever holds that office. And the same goes for many of us. Thank you for that answer. Let me ask you this last question.  You're his legacy. And I can't imagine anyone could be prouder looking down upon you and what you've done with what he's given you, your name and all the rest. You've turned around and done the same with your daughter, Samantha, who looks like she's riding her horses over some pretty amazing challenges. I wanna ask you about legacy. What would you like your legacy to be?  I got a picture of that too. Have you thought about that? I know you're young, you're still young. You got many years to go, many billable hours to go.  But, and I maybe don't want to prematurely launch this on you, but you think about legacy? Look, I think that, I think it's really simple. I think that the legacy, it doesn't matter what the word is, whether it's a legacy or what the concept is, whether it's legacy or how people think of you or who you are or what you are, it really goes back to, I think, what I said at the beginning, which I deeply believe and I want for all of the people who I associate myself with and the people who are my family, I want to be, I guess if I had to say it, I want to be thought of as someone who thought of other people and put them first and tried to help them in the same way that they would, I'd want them to help me. You know, when I was growing up in New Haven and I was thinking about when I was a little kid and I was thinking about like what I'd like to do with my life, I always thought about wanting to be a lawyer. And the reason I wanted to be a lawyer was because my picture, my vision was that the lawyer was the wise man in the community, the wise person in the community, the person that other people came to when they needed advice, when they needed help, when they needed support, that was my vision. And I guess that if you talk about a legacy or whatever, yeah, I'd like to be thought of that way, that I was someone who tried to help, you know. You already have that. I think we need to shoot higher. You've got that from everyone. So let's have you think about more, if you can do even more. Look, we have to wrap up. I can only wish future young lawyers and summer associates the good fortune of knowing the working alongside, being mentored by someone like you, associated with someone so special, supportive, decent and kind, so amazingly generous as you.  You and Dan and Hector created a firm that is home to some very, very special people and some very dear friends of mine. Let me let you have the last word before I say a few closing things. Well, look, first of all, Ben, I'm flattered to have been included in this interview. You really have flattered me and made me feel very welcome here and I'm appreciative. And I think that, I guess, not to elevate this to any kind of higher or political discussion, our world and our country face enormous challenges these days. And the challenges, to lots of people seem insurmountable, the conflicts and the divisiveness among people seem irreconcilable. I guess the way I think about it is they are reconcilable, they are surmountable and the way that they're surmountable is through exactly what we're doing here tonight, talking, exchanging views, giving heartfelt impressions and beliefs about the things that are important to us. And if the folks in our country on both sides, on all sides, could feel free enough to do that, we'd be solving so many of these issues so much more easily. And I guess that's my bottom line on all this. The title of the show is Mark Kazuch, Champion of Clients, but I think it should be Mark Kazuch, Champion of the People, Champion of Hope, Champion of Integrity, Champion of the Possibility, the Promise of what the American story is all about. We know you know this word from Governor Igay's letter of gratitude, Mark. Mahalo, from my home to your second home at 1633 Broadway, where you sit now with your private bathroom off in the distance and your private conference room on the other side of that. For me and my family, to you and yours, Mahalo.


A human aging population creates many societal challenges. So what has the European Longevity Initiative proposed as a solution? We'll have this story plus four other stories in this episode of Lifespan News. Welcome to Lifespan News on X10, your source for longevity science updates. I'm your host, Brent Nalley. We encourage you to check the description below for links to these stories. Continuing with our first story, the European Longevity Initiative proposed an actionable plan to address the challenges of an aging population. The European Longevity Initiative, or ELI, is an advocacy group working to promote legal, budgetary, regulatory, and institutional support for the development of healthy longevity technologies in the European Union, or EU. Recently, the ELI has provided a commentary on and propose amendments to the EU's Green Paper on Aging, with which the EU has launched a 12-week public debate initiative on long-term sustainable policy choices to address the challenges of the present demographic change. The ELI argues that, while commendable, the wish expressed in the Green Paper to enable healthy or active aging for all is indeed just a wish, unless the possibilities offered by geroscience are taken into account. In the commentary, the ELI explains how the Green Paper seems to ignore the well-established role that the processes of aging play in the deterioration of people's health, as well as the current mainstream scientific view that aging is a process amenable to medical intervention and can possibly be slowed down, halted, or even reversed. ELI argues that it's only by taking these facts into account that the problem of an aging population can be tackled. In addition to the ELI's critique of the Green Paper, ELI members propose a change of policies that ELI believes the EU should adopt if the EU is indeed serious about addressing the problem of human aging. Their proposals involve commitments at different levels, such as the acknowledgement of geroscience as the way forward to treat aging and the pathologies it leads to, budgetary commitments to foster research on and development of therapies to target the aging processes, regulatory commitments to green light EU-wide large-scale clinical trials for geroprotective interventions, and institutional support in the form of a European Institute for Healthy Longevity Research. We have a link to the detailed ELI commentary in the description below. You can also show your support for this initiative by voting for the ELI proposal, which is also linked in the description. For our next story, spermedine improves cognitive function in flies, mice, and humans. Spermedine is a compound found in many tissues and in ribosomes. Spermedine is known to decline with aging, and spermedine treatment increases lifespan in lots of species. In a new study, researchers tested the effect of spermedine provided via drinking water rather than injection. The researchers found that spermedine crossed the blood-brain barrier and improved the cognitive performance of 24-month-old male mice. There was less improvement when the mice got a higher dose, so dose-response experiments could be useful. The researchers were able to show that spermedine improved the respiratory capacity of tissues and mice and fruit flies and that this effect happened via changes in autophagy. Finally, the researchers looked at an existing dataset measuring the cognitive function in humans. The researchers found that spermedine intake, based on self-reported diet, correlated with measures of cognitive performance and reduced the odds of cognitive impairment. This study improves our understanding of spermedine as a potential therapeutic agent, but it's important to remember that correlation is not the same as causation. Other factors could be at play in the human dataset despite the researchers' efforts to control for them. By the way, Lifespan News is released every Tuesday at noon Eastern time while our other Science and Advocacy X10 videos are released every other Monday also at noon Eastern time. We encourage you to subscribe to our X10 YouTube channel. Once you're subscribed, be sure to click the notification bell and select all notifications to ensure you don't miss any videos. Now, back to the news. A conventional dietary, exercise, sleep, and breathing regimen showed reduced epigenetic age in an eight-week human clinical trial. Epigenetic age was reduced by approximately two years in males between the ages of 50 and 72 in this study which examined entirely conventional and widely recognized methods of improving health among elderly people. Participants ate daily diets, heavy and leafy greens, broccoli or other cruciferous vegetables, colorful vegetables, and beets along with six ounces of animal protein, two servings of fruit, daily probiotic supplements, healthy oils, and methylation adaptogens such as green tea or oolong tea. Every week, three servings of liver and five to ten eggs were included. Dairy grains, legumes, and sugar were all excluded. In addition, moderate exercise of 30 minutes each weekday was also part of the regimen and participants had to get at least seven hours of sleep a night. Participants were also told to perform a special breathing regimen for relaxation twice a day. The researchers then measured the participants age using the original 2013 Horvath DNA M age epigenetic clock and compared them with the control group. While there was a good deal of variability, the average age of the treatment group was about two years less than in the control group. Interestingly, the average age of the control group went up by a year over the study, even though the study only lasted eight weeks. As with most studies of this kind, this study could have strongly benefited from more participants, particularly since the results of the DNA M age clock fluctuated so strongly. There's also no guarantee that the benefits would last after the intervention stopped, and given the intensity of the intervention it would probably be challenging to maintain over the longer term. Nevertheless, some people are interested in adopting a healthy lifestyle and this study makes the usefulness of this approach more clear. Moving on, B cell depletion ameliorates Alzheimer's and mice. A new study links Alzheimer's disease, or AD, with inflamaging, leading scientists to propose B cell depletion as a possible therapy. One of the hallmarks of AD is the accumulation of amyloid beta, or AB, plaques in the brain. But there's an ongoing debate about whether AB plaques in the brain are a symptom or a cause of AD. So far, targeting those AB plaques directly has only managed to slow down AD's progression. Now, researchers delved into the role B cells play in AD. The researchers use mouse models that have been engineered to recapitulate the symptoms and progression of AD. Because the number of B cells correlates with the progression of AD, the researchers tested the effect of genetically depleting B cells. The result was improved cognitive performance and fewer AB plaques. Next, the researchers tested whether therapeutically depleting B cells could have the same effect. It worked as long as the therapy began at the onset of AD. The researchers think that inflamaging might make B cells attack the microglia that normally work to clear out AB plaques. Supporting this, there were fewer microglia in AD mice, and B cell depletion increased the number of microglia and reduced AB plaques load. Whether or not B cell therapy turns out to be an effective approach, showing a link between AD and inflamaging offers a path to treatment via other therapies that target inflamaging. For our final story, RNA deep sequencing uncovers Parkinson's progression. A massive RNA sequencing effort has identified changes in microRNA associated with Parkinson's. Some of the changes correlated with Parkinson's disease progression, holding out hope that they could be useful as prognostic or diagnostic biomarkers to help guide research and evaluate potential therapies. The progression of Parkinson's can vary considerably, and the interplay of genetic and environmental factors driving this remains poorly understood. The inability to properly track Parkinson's has hampered the development of an effective therapy. Using RNA sequencing of samples from a large cohort, researchers identified microRNAs that could serve as Parkinson's biomarkers. The researchers then analyzed RNA sequences from thousands of patients in the Parkinson's progression markers initiative dataset with different types of Parkinson's. The researchers included the initial samples as well as follow-up time points so they could study Parkinson's progression. The analysis uncovered a set of microRNAs that are dysregulated in Parkinson's patients. The dysregulation occurred in two waves, one in patients in their 30s and another in their 70s. The researchers also identified changes in microRNA that correlated with disease progression. Differing between patients in whom Parkinson's progress quickly and those in whom Parkinson's remain relatively stable, as well as distinguishing between different types of Parkinson's. Finally, the researchers mapped these microRNA changes to networks of messenger RNA in order to get an idea of the resulting changes in gene activity and discover which processes were affected. Though more work is needed to determine whether the microRNA changes meet the criteria for serving as biomarkers, the data from the study will be an invaluable resource in guiding future research on Parkinson's, whether to understand Parkinson's biology or to develop potential therapies. That's all the news for this video. Before you go, there's a few quick, free and simple things that you can do to help us solve the human aging problem. First, make sure to like this video and make sure that you're subscribed with the bell icon turned to all notifications. Then please share this video on your social media. This helps inform more people about the importance of healthy human life extension science. Is there a recent life extension story that we haven't covered yet that you think we should have? And what was your favorite story from this video? Let us know what you think in the comments below. We really appreciate it, and we look forward to seeing you in the next video, at least as healthy as you are now.