RedBlueTalk

Recorded May 6, 2020

Tonia Conner-Mitchell is a community organizer and activist in Yonkers, New York.  We discuss the April 27, 2020 beating of two alleged shoplifters at ShopFair, a local supermarket in the Getty Square downtown area, at the hands of store employees.   

https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/workers-brawl-with-alleged-shoplifters-in-yonkers-supermarket/  

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/yonkers/2020/04/30/yonkers-grocery-workers-brawl-alleged-shoplifters-viral-video/3054930001/

https://www.facebook.com/tonia.conner1/videos/10218076909376480/

Recorded May 6, 2020

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward on WVOX 1460 AM.  This episode was recorded for podcast only.  Along with guest host Charles Stern they interview Yehudis Gottesfeld, candidate for US House of Representatives, CD-17 (NY).

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward on WVOX 1460 AM.  Along with guest host Charles Stern, in this broadcast they interview Catherine Parker, candidate for US House of Representatives, CD-17 (NY).

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward on WVOX 1460 AM.  Along with guest host Charles Stern, in this broadcast they interview David Buchwald, candidate for US House of Representatives, CD-17 (NY).

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward on WVOX 1460 AM.  Along with guest host Charles Stern, in this broadcast they interview Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, candidate for US House of Representatives, CD-17 (NY).

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward.  Along with guest host Charles Stern, in this broadcast they interview Mondaire Jones, candidate for US House of Representatives, CD-17 (NY).

Guide:

00:45  How is the world changing?

04:30  Endorsements

07:00  Progressive positions

08:11  Cancellation of student debt

09:43 Free public college

16:18 Single Payer Medicare for All

23:49  Challengers

Excerpt from live broadcast on WVOX 1460AM, February 17, 2020, used with permission.

Westchester Eye on the Radio is a weekly public affairs program hosted by Peter Moses and Ardina Seward.  Along with guest host Charles Stern, in this broadcast they interview Mimi Rocah, candidate for Westchester County District Attorney.

Excerpt from live broadcast on WVOX 1460AM, February 10, 2020, used with permission.

Rocah will face first term incumbent Anthony Scarpino in a Democratic primary election on June 23, 2020.

I had a chance to catch up with Westchester County Election Commissioner Reginald Lafayette yesterday while attending a Democratic Unity Press Conference.  The event was essentially a pep rally for mayoral candidate Shawyn Patterson Howard, who having one the primary in June, is basically a shoe-in to win in the November general election.  Even though the June votes have been tallied and certified, Patterson Howard’s opponent, incumbent Mayor Richard Thomas is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against the board of elections, claiming there was voter fraud and voting irregularities.  Mr. Lafayette spent a few minutes explaining the implications of that lingering lawsuit.

On June 25, 2019 there’s a Democratic primary for Mayor of Mount Vernon, NY.  

The candidates are incumbent Mayor Richard Thomas, City Council President Andre Wallace, Yonkers YMCA President/CEO Shawn Patterson Howard and former Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Clyde Isley.  I asked all 4 to join me for one on one conversations, and each of them scheduled interviews except Mr. Wallace.  

Links to the podcasts and videos are at redbluetalk.com

Check out the interviews with the other candidates, here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMUwHDuj5ZNNqtYfPwVNiLFd4GMxSw48-

Won't you be my subscriber?

https://goo.gl/LjxB8V

Podcasts, video and more:

www.redbluetalk.com

On June 25, 2019 there’s a Democratic primary for Mayor of Mount Vernon, NY.  

The candidates are incumbent Mayor Richard Thomas, City Council President Andre Wallace, Yonkers YMCA President/CEO Shawn Patterson Howard and former Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Clyde Isley.  I asked all 4 to join me for one on one conversations, and each of them scheduled interviews except Mr. Wallace.  

Links to the podcasts and videos are at redbluetalk.com

Check out the interviews with the other candidates, here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMUwHDuj5ZNNqtYfPwVNiLFd4GMxSw48-

Won't you be my subscriber?

https://goo.gl/LjxB8V

Podcasts, video and more:

www.redbluetalk.com

On June 25, 2019 there’s a Democratic primary for Mayor of Mount Vernon, NY.  

The candidates are incumbent Mayor Richard Thomas, City Council President Andre Wallace, Yonkers YMCA President/CEO Shawn Patterson Howard and former Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Clyde Isley.  I asked all 4 to join me for one on one conversations, and each of them scheduled interviews except Mr. Wallace.  

Links to the podcasts and videos are at redbluetalk.com

Check out the interviews with the other candidates, here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMUwHDuj5ZNNqtYfPwVNiLFd4GMxSw48-

Won't you be my subscriber?

https://goo.gl/LjxB8V

Podcasts, video and more:

www.redbluetalk.com

Mount Vernon, NY , June 3, 2019, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Grace Baptist Church
Mayoral Candidates:
Clyde Isley, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Richard Thomas (incumbent), Andre Wallace

Timeline

0:00  Intro, Rev. DeCohen

2:35  Intro, Rev. Richardson

7:58  Intro, Isley

12:35  Intro, Patterson-Howard

22:25  Intro, Thomas

31:10  Intro, Wallace

40:53  Question: Dignity, all candidates

47:52  Question: 7 Criteria, all candidates

58:54  Question: Mt. Vernon Challenges, all

1:04:48  Question: Collaboration, all

1:12:00  Question: Porcari indictment, Thomas

1:15:28  Question: Lawsuits, Wallace

1:18:36  Question: Party loyalty, Isley

1:20:40  Question: Spezio/Zamor, Patterson-Howard

1:24:13  Question: Economy/jobs, all

1:31:06  Question: Zombie property, all

1:37:00  Gentrification, Rev. Richardson

1:38:35  Question by Thomas to Patterson-Howard, Personnel

1:43:20 Question by Isley to Wallace: Council inaction

1:45:07  Question by Patterson-Howard to Thomas: Payment process 

1:47:22  Question by Wallace to Isley: Personal finance 

1:49:44  Question by Thomas to Wallace: Planning Dept break-in 

1:52:33  Question by Wallace to Patterson Howard: Why were you silent? 

1:55:15 Question by Patterson-Howard to Wallace: Governance 

1:57:29  Question by Isley to Thomas: Water Dept 

2:00:51 Closing: Rev. Richardson

The First Family featuring Vaughan Meader was a blockbuster album from 1962 that was a parody of the Kennedy family.   Here's what it meant to me.

Amazon has it: https://amzn.to/2W8uG4j

Mo Rocca is a correspondent for CBS This Morning.  He has a new podcast called MOBITUARIES, the very first episode really caught my attention.  He talks about a very famous comedy album from 1962 called The First Family, and I have a personal connection to that record.  Check out mobituaries.com

Before I explain all that, let me just say, as a vlogger and podcaster, I really look up to the Mo Rocca’s of the world.  His work is polished and beautifully written and produced.  There’s a team of pros involved, and he leverages everything CBS News has to offer.  It’s first class, and I recommend you check it out at mobituaries.com, and on every podcast platform you could possibly have.

Now, about the first family.  I have no firsthand recollection of John F. Kennedy.  I wasn’t born until two years after he was assassinated.  But I was the youngest of 4 children, and my nearest sibling is 8 years older than me, so I missed an experience they all had.  I had my own record player and a small collection of records that I was allowed to play myself, as opposed to the grownup collection that contained my father’s Broadway show soundtracks, and my mother’s collection of classical music in which I had no interest.  There was a whole separate collection for my brothers containing contemporary artists, but it was off limits to me.

So my child safe collection consisted of relics from earlier childhoods -  a Mickey Mouse Club album, a kids album by Groucho Marx, a Peter and the Wolf album, and in 1970 I got my first new record that was mine alone - The Sesame Street Album.  I played them over and over and over.  Playing these records was something I could do myself, and it was tons of fun.

There was one album in the kid collection, “The First Family”.  I never question why it was in the kid collection, I just played it over and over like all the others.  It was a political parody of President Kennedy and the First Family.  I liked it because the cover had a picture of a family including the kids, and balloons, so it seemed like it was for kids, and there were kids in the album too.

The question is “Why was The First Family” even a part of my playlist as a kid?  I have no idea.  I learned from the Mo Rocca podcast that this album was a blow out success in 1962 - It won Album of the Year, it was one of the best selling albums in history.  Why wasn’t it protected in one of the grownup collections?  Did my parents not like Kennedy? Why did they buy it in the first place?  Who knows?

Then, watching Rocca made me think about my own direct connection to the album?  Why did I love it so much?  The jokes were over my head.  I had no idea who Barry Goldwater was, or Albert Schweitzer.  To this day I don’t get a lot of the political references.  So what was it that made me love it so much?

The answer is that it was funny, AND because if you listen to it carefully, Vaughan Meader, the guy who plays Kennedy, gets applause and adoration at the end of every cut.  And as a kid all I wanted was attention like that.  And third, because The First Family on that album seemed like a fun family, one that spends time together and has fun.  Listen to this:

So I ran around my house at the age of 5, 6 and 7 talking like Jack Kennedy, with a kid’s ear version of a New England accent, saying “Ask not what your country can do for you…”   But what I was really doing was imitating Vaughan Meader impersonating Jack Kennedy.  It didn’t matter. I killed it, and the grownups loved it.  It never failed to get a laugh from relatives and friends that

A'tif Khalil is a citizen journalist focused on Mount Vernon, New York.  In this episode we discuss the challenges of covering stories about City Hall when you know the people inside, personally.    We also discuss a recent incident involving Mount Vernon's Mayor along with Internet celebrity Fatboy SSE.  The two visited the local high school on Friday, January 12, unannounced, resulting in a disruption of the school day and suspensions.