Sam Simon's blog

There are over 380 million eggs being recalled by Wright County Egg, headquartered in Galt, Iowa. These are eggs that have been shipped since May of this year and made many people very ill.  As of now, there are no reports of deaths.

I had the opportunity on Thursday, July 29, 2010 to attend a briefing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (formerly the “Old Executive Office Building”) to hear Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Liebowitz and Vice President Joe Biden speak about some new consumer protection initiatives and a statement about the Vice-President’s Middle Class Task Force. I attended in my role as Secretary of the Board of the National Consumers League, the oldest consumer group in America.

I don't agree with George Will that often. His column in the Washington Post is however an important message on values. While he speaks elegantly about the danger of hubris, he thus reminds us of the importance of humility.

Working at the intersection of power and values can create magical moments.  On the night of June  21st,  Intersection’s Power and Values initiative hosted a meeting of its New York Values Roundtable to explore our programming for the coming 2010-2011 program year.

We think so. That is why Intersections is asking everyone who uses twitter to get ready for a “tweet-in”.  On Thursday, June 10th, during Intersections first Awards Gala featuring our Iraqi Voices Amplification Project we are going to ask people at our event, and all who support urgent action to improve the lives of  the over 5 million Iraqi refugees by opening doors for permanent resettlement all over the world, to re-tweet a  message that we will tweet  at 8:30 p.m. eastern time. Follow us @intersectionsNY  and tune into your twitter account and get ready to “tweet-in” to support Iraqi Refugees.
 

I spent Friday, May 14, 2010 in a St. Louis court room. It was a quiet, rainy morning. Inside the Court House, a diverse group of deputies, lawyers, people looking to find the right court room, were all moving at a leisurely pace. Hardly a sense of the drama that was about to break-out in Court Room No. 8.

This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 1.7 million listeners. It is produced by Chicago Public Radio, distributed by Public Radio International, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards. It is also often the most popular podcast in the country, with more than a half million people downloading each week.

On Wednesday, March 10, Richard J. Ablin, the person who in 1970 discovered P.S.A. – prostate specific antigen – in an op-ed in the New York Times entitled The Great Prostate Mistake bemoaned the $3 billion spent on PSA tests each year.

This past Sunday we celebrated Intersections Day at the Collegiate Fort Washington Church. It is a time for Intersections, which itself is a multi-faith, multi-cultural project of the Collegiate Church, to strut its stuff, so to speak, at the various other congregations. This was the first time I was in New York to attend one of these “Days.” The Fort Washington congregation was wonderfully welcoming and generous to Intersections staff. Rev. Robert Chase, our Founding Director, was able to deliver what is titled “Scripture and Sermon.” One of the multi-faith elements of Intersections is that I am Jewish. I fully enjoyed the experience of a joyous service filled with graciousness, acceptance and song.

A discussion is taking place across America about what is important.  The Great Recession has fallen on people’s dreams and aspirations like a ton of bricks.  Too many of us began to define our self-worth not by who we are and what we do, but instead by what we own and how much money we make. Now that most people’s net-worth has decreased and may earn less (or nothing at all), many are re-examining the less tangible things in life – relationships, ideas, community and faith.