Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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WCBS Small Business Breakfast Showcases WeWork, AI Company & More
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (WCBS 880) — Small business owners from the Tri-State area gathered at the Meadowlands Hilton in East Rutherford, New Jersey for a morning full of networking and business tips Thursday at the WCBS Delta Dental Of New Jersey Small Business Breakfast, hosted by WCBS 880’s business reporter Joe Connolly.
“I just love these days because we get so much energy and ideas from the people here, exchanging what’s working for them and whose business is up and why,” Connolly, host of WCBS 880’s Small Business Spotlight mini-series, said.
https://www.facebook.com/wcbs880/videos/1577326709056633/
The theme of the breakfast was “How To Think About Your Business in New Ways.”
Special guests at the event included Rui Barros, Senior Vice President and Head of Operations US/Canada East/Tri-State of WeWork, as well as Tyler Mathisen, CNBC Business News Anchor. Before the breakfast kicked off, Mathisen spoke to WCBS 880’s Steve Scott on air with Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane about the positive economic atmosphere the country has been experiencing recently.
“I am hearing optimism. I think when you hear the chairman of the Federal Reserve yesterday say that the American economy is great that is not usually what you hear from the very circumspect heads of the U.S. central banks. So when he says something like that that sets the tone and you can see it reflected here. More businesses are hiring than not hiring,” Mathisen said. “More businesses are expanding than not expanding. And so you see a lot of sort of optimism in the crowd today the turnout is good, the turnout is great.”
.@JoeConnollybiz starts the #WCBSBizBreakfast with 3 Things to Know:
1. “Small Business” is outdated. It should be called “independent business.”
2. More successful fast growing small businesses now than ever.
3. “I saw an opening” is a common theme among “Spotlight” guests. pic.twitter.com/gfqiqEzX85
— WCBS 880 (@wcbs880) June 14, 2018
Among the many successful small businesses showcased at the event was Satisfi Labs, an artificial intelligence company that “made physical location a live search engine.” Founder and CEO Don White explained how he found his unique idea and turned it into a reality.
“We saw an opening, and we looked at physical locations like a Jet game, a Broadway show, musical concert, retail store. A comment was mentioned about personalization of trying to find a person. Well when you walk into a place like that how easy is it to try and find a person? So you use artificial intelligence to enable a mobile device to locate and find things, services or purchase decisions you want to make in large physical areas. So we leverage artificial intelligence to essentially make a physical location a live search engine,” White said.
https://www.facebook.com/wcbs880/videos/1577492379040066/
Satisfi Labs, which has high-end clients including the New York Mets, has created software that allows users to find what they want when they want it directly from the source. Whether you’re a fan in a sporting arena looking for the closest peanut concession or a shopper looking for a certain shirt at the mall, users can log onto Satisfi Labs and search for their products. White explained this as training the “perfect employee,” then placing it into consumers’ phones, allowing them to find what they need immediately and without any issues.
“So it’s like training your perfect employee, putting it in your phone and then that property or asset owner is telling you what they want you to know, not a third-party search engine that scrapes websites,” White said.
To showcase his business model, White presented the “fan in a stadium” example, explaining that with Satisfi Labs spectators do not have to search all over the arena for a specific concession. Rather, they can search on Satisfi Labs’ venue information to find the exact location.
“Provide a way for you to get what you want on demand from your seat or when you’re going to the stadium so you don’t have to find a person, and you can get it all on your phone,” White said.
In addition, Gary Stout spoke about his company Buzzworthy Studio, which helps consumers expand and establish their digital brands.
This year marks the 23rd year that the WCBS 880’s Small Business Breakfast has been connecting entrepreneurs in a professional setting. It now stands as the longest running small business event series in the New York area.
For more pictures and information from the event, visit #WCBSBizBreakfast on Twitter.
Thank you for joining us at the @DeltaDentalNJCT #WCBSBizBreakfast this morning! @JoeConnollybiz is enthused about the future of “independent business” in the Tri-State. Thanks to our guests Tyler Mathisen of @CNBC @PowerLunch and Rui Barros of @WeWork! pic.twitter.com/4K2VxhWI68
— WCBS 880 (@wcbs880) June 14, 2018
Neil A. Carousso produced WCBS Newsradio 880’s multi-media coverage of the Small Business Breakfast and assisted in organizing the event in East Rutherford, NJ on June 14, 2018. All WCBS 880 videos and social media posts were written, edited and published by Neil A. Carousso.
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Parade Of Ships Kicks Off Fleet Week 2018
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Anchors aweigh!
Fleet Week 2018 kicked off Wednesday with a parade of ships up the Hudson River.
https://www.facebook.com/wcbs880/videos/1554601914662446/
Eleven ships carrying 2,300 sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen are in for a week of tours and celebrations.
As WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported, an FDNY fire boat welcomed the sailors to New York Harbor with sprays of water. The amphibious transport dock U.S.S. Arlington from Norfolk, Virginia led the parade with Marines in their dress blues and sailors in white manning the rails past the Statue of Liberty – and saluting at the 9/11 Memorial.
Vincent Catalano of Babylon, Long Island was watching. His son, Michael, is the ship’s lieutenant commander.
This is a wonderful story. I spoke with Lt. Commander Catalano’s parents who have served just like their son. incredible people who are proud of their son & excited to finally see him. His father and I share the same alma mater – @StFrancisPrep1! #FleetWeekNYC @MDiamond8 @wcbs880 https://t.co/5OhiksCwHJ
— Neil A. Carousso (@NeilACarousso) May 23, 2018
Catalano said his son was a fan of Fleet Week long before joining the service himself.
“He loved Fleet Week. He always came down here. As a matter of fact, when the JFK was still commissioned, that’s the aircraft carrier that used to come up here, we went every year on the JFK,” he said.
Diamond earlier was scheduled to join the Marines from Camp Lejeune aboard the Arlington, but her mission out to the ship was scrubbed because of heavy fog and she watched from the Battery.
After a beautiful tour around Manhattan, the @USNavy landed its helicopter back at the heliport due to fog preventing us from landing on the USS Arlington for the Parade of Ships #FleetWeekNYC. Here’s our landing back Downtown. @MDiamond8 @NeilACarousso pic.twitter.com/bKh3p4drG4
— WCBS 880 (@wcbs880) May 23, 2018
“The ceiling was too low for the pilot to take us out to the ship,” Diamond reported.
The ship received cannon salutes at Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth before headign heading toward Lower Manhattan.
The fog has lifted and we’re ready for liftoff. Listen for my reports from the #USSArlington #FleetWeekNYC @wcbs880 @NeilACarousso pic.twitter.com/6xMSdo4ncN
— Marla Diamond (@MDiamond8) May 23, 2018
Ships will be docked on Manhttan’s West Side, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Merchant Marine Academy and the Bronx CUNY Maritime College for the 30th annual Fleet Week in New York City.
This is a chance for the men and women in uniform to get a taste of New York — the ballgames, the Statue of Liberty and of course Times Square.
Participants said they always have a fantastic experience in New York.
“This is actually my third personal Fleet Week, and each year, it just keeps getting better,” said Lt. Justin Vitalis, who is in charge of all helicopter operations for Fleet Week.
He said it was a great opportunity for the sailors, Coast Guard officers, and Marines to experience “the best city on the face of the earth,” as well as an opportunity for people in the Tri-State Area to get a feel for what it’s like to be in the service.
https://twitter.com/wcbs880/status/999287878361415680?s=21
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum will host a series of events including a free screening of Top Gun on the flight deck, a Battle of the Big Bands music and swing dancing event, and the annual Memorial Day commemoration ceremony, featuring the unfurling of a 100-foot American flag, the playing of Taps, a ceremonial wreath laying and a 3-volley rifle salute.
Neil A. Carousso produced WCBS Newsradio 880’s digital content from Fleet Week on May 23, 2018.
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Campaign Urges Veterans To Get Mental Health Care If They Need It
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a campaign to urge veterans to get help for if they need it.
The campaign is called “Mental Health Means a Stronger You.” It aims to reshape the perceptions and treatment by outlining the success stories of vets who have reached out for mental health support.
WCBS 880 Producer Neil A. Carousso talked about the campaign this week with Marine Corps veteran Moses Maddox – now veterans retention counselor at California State University San Marcos – and Dr. Wendy Tenhula, director of innovation and collaboration at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
It is part of the “Make a Connection” program, the VA’s ongoing national mental health outreach effort.
“While the conversation for mental health has gotten better, there’s still this stigma that, you know, either you’re weak or you’re crazy – a variety of things that people say when it comes to seeking, you know, mental health, that frankly just aren’t true, and that treatment is something that should be thought out, and that recovery can be achieved as long as you take your treatment seriously and as long as you actually go out there and seek that help,” Maddox said.
Maddox said some veterans might not seek out mental health care because of the stigma, some are concerned that it might limit their employment opportunities, and some don’t want to admit they need help because they feel like they can go through anything after having gone to war.
“And then they come home, and something as simple as a college class is extremely difficult because they’re cycling through things,” Maddox said. “So there’s a variety of reasons why people don’t go seek help, and this movement that we’re trying to do; this message is to say, ‘Hey, OK, people have been there before. We’ve gone through it. You’re not alone. Don’t be afraid to open yourself up and get that help.”
Tenhula said the “Make a Connection” program was launched a few years ago “to raise awareness about mental health conditions and to inform veterans, as well as their family members and other loved ones, as well as their country at large, that mental health conditions are treatable.”
She said hundreds of veterans have come forward and talked about their own difficulties, the treatments they have received, and how those treatments have made a difference.
“There are effective treatments available, and that recovery is possible,” Tenhula said.
Maddox said there are many factors that go into an effective mental health care treatment program.
“One is having a really good counselor who is very honest about the process; who told me that some days are going to be better than others; that there’s going to be sessions where I might leave the session feeling worse than when I started, but it was all part of the process,” he said.
He added that the first step is just to get help and understand that doing so can be scary and stressful – particularly since a therapist will start out as a stranger to whom a veteran is assigned.
“But keep in mind that it is OK; that it is a process, and you have to stick with it. There’s going to be days where it’s incredibly difficult. There’s going to be times when it’s going to be hard to go out of bed, and there’s always an excuse; a reason not to go. You have to not listen to that,” Maddox said. “Once you take that first step, you have to follow through, and those stressors tend to go away once you get comfortable with the process; once you start to see little incremental changes.”
The VA has also expanded the methods veterans can use to access mental health care, Tenhula said
“We’ve expanded the use of telehealth for mental health conditions, so a veteran can be in one location, and their doctor or therapist can be in another location, and they can work together using video conferencing technology. VA also has a number of mental health-related mobile phone apps,” she said.
Maddox’s message for other veterans was that he has an idea of what they’re going through – and he said veterans like openness, honesty, and frankness.
“It’s natural. But you’re not weak for going to seek out mental health treatment, and in fact, saying that I do need help is a great sign of strength, and that’s what we really encourage,” Maddox said.
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Young People with Autism Get To Be WCBS 880 Reporters For A Day
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — As part of Autism Awareness Month, and in partnership with Koeppel Auto Group, WCBS Newsradio 880 presented a program on news and weather reporting for a class of autistic young people from the Quality Services for the Autism Community Day Habilitation program.
The young people came to the showroom of Koeppel Ford in Woodside, Queens to hear from WCBS 880 Reporter Marla Diamond and Chief Meteorologist Craig Allen.
Diamond explained how she works as a reporter – including her early alarm clock, her computer skills, how she works out of her vehicle, and how she travels the city covering all kinds of interesting stories.
She demonstrated how she uses as microphone, digital recorder and audio editing software on her laptop. She recorded QSAC visitors reading news scripts and weather forecasts.
WCBS Newsradio 880 Director of News and Programming Tim Scheld, Reporter Marla Diamond and Chief Meteorologist Craig Allen talk with motivated QSAC students. (Neil A. Carousso/WCBS 880) The QSAC young people also got a lesson in weather from Allen, a veteran of both radio and TV. He also brought tools of his trade — including a barometer, a lightning detector, and something that created a tornado effect in a glass tube.
The session concluded with questions and answers from the young people about everything from covering snow storms to what makes a good news story.
“So when we talked to the guys who came today about this potential opportunity, they were incredibly excited to meet people in the community who they see as absolute superstars, and they really were excited to learn about what you guys do, and to be in a place with fancy cars, with everybody giving them tons of attention, so they’re really excited to be a part of this today,” said QSAC Senior Director of Day Services Lauren Maldonado.
WCBS Newsradio 880 Chief Meteorologist Craig Allen shows QSAC students the tools of his trade. (Neil A. Carousso/WCBS 880) QSAC President and Chief Operating Officer Cory Polshansky said many in the program are making leaps and bounds toward independence. He mentioned one young man who has been with the program since he was a teenager.
“Now it’s 15 years later, and he’s grown into a young adult, and he’s developing the skills and hopes to one day live in his own apartment. And that’s what he’s been talking about for a couple of years, and he’s working at it, and in a couple years, he’ll probably be ready to live independently with some supports from QSAC,” Polshansky said.
A QSAC Student reads a weather forecast with WCBS Newsradio 880 Reporter Marla Diamond and Chief Meteorologist Craig Allen. (Neil A. Carousso/WCBS 880) The session was held at the Koeppel showroom in Queens as part of the auto group’s strong support of the QSAC organization.
“We would like to give back what we get. I mean, it’s kind of selfish to keep getting and not giving back,” Koeppel said.
Neil A. Carousso produced WCBS Newsradio 880’s digital content at QSAC’s Day of Habilitation program at Koeppel Auto Group on Friday, April 13, 2018.
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A Look Back at Steve Scott’s Interviews With James Earl Ray, The Man Who Pleaded Guilty To Killing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — James Earl Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which happened 50 years ago Wednesday.
But until his death at the age of 70 in 1998, Ray maintained that the guilty plea notwithstanding, he was not the one who killed Dr. King.
WCBS 880’s Steve Scott interviewed Ray several times – including two radio interviews in the prison where Ray was serving his sentence, first in 1992 and again shortly before Ray died in 1998.
Ray was a footnote in the grand scheme of history, Scott noted. But in 1992, Ray published a book, “Who Killed Martin Luther King? The True Story by the Alleged Assassin.” Upon seeing the book, Scott thought Ray might be an interesting person to talk to.
Scott went through Ray’s publisher to get in contact with him, and not long afterward, Ray called him at home.
“I was taking a nap one day, and got a collect call from a maximum security prison in Nashville, Tennessee, and there was James Earl Ray on the other end of the phone,” Scott said. “And I interviewed him, and then I asked him, I said, ‘Hey listen, if I can get myself down to Nashville, would you be willing to sit down in a room with me and record a radio interview face-to-face talking about the King assassination?’”
Scott said Ray responded, “Well, you know, they don’t like me a whole lot,” but said Scott could ask prison authorities. The prison authorities in turn said there were no rules against an interview, so Scott could come down to talk to Ray if he so desired.
So Scott, who was working in Chicago at the time, headed to Nashville and met with Ray at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville in 1992. Ray laughed as Scott played him a clip of CBS News’ Walter Cronkite from the night Dr. King was assassinated.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. Police have issued an all-points bulletin for a well-dressed young white man seen running from the scene,” Cronkite said in the clip.
Ray said: “Well-dressed? That couldn’t have been me.”
Ray had been a fugitive from a Missouri prison at the time of the King assassination. He had a long criminal record that included armed robbery, burglary, forgery and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, CBS News reported.
Speaking to Scott, Ray said he was a low-level crook who ran guns over the Canadian and Mexican borders. He said he was duped into being in Memphis when Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968.
Ray fled the city shortly after the shooting and was captured in London two months afterward, CBS News recalled. He signed a confession with a detailed description of how investigators claimed the crime happened, and went on to plead guilty, CBS News recalled.
CBS News reported the prosecutor in the case, Phil M. Canale Jr., maintained there was no evidence of a conspiracy in the King assassination. Canale did not outline a motive for the killing, nor did he accuse Ray, who was white, of being racist, CBS News reported.
Ray tried to withdraw the guilty plea three days after issuing it even though he had told the judge he understood the plea could not be appealed, CBS News reported. He claimed at the time that he was set up by a shadowy gun dealer he had met in Montreal and whom he knew only as Raoul, and said he himself was changing a tire at the time King was killed, CBS News reported.
Authorities never found a connection between the man identified as Raoul and the slaying, and several courts said there was never evidence of anyone else’s involvement, CBS News reported.
Ray told Scott in the 1992 interview that he was not involved in any way with the King assassination, and he said he pleaded guilty out of concern that his brother and father – the latter also a prison escapee who had been on the lam for more than four decades – might also face charges otherwise.
Scott: “James, I’ll ask you again, did you kill Martin Luther King?”
Ray: “No, I had nothing to do with the shooting of Martin Luther King, and I had no advance knowledge of it. But having said that, I had been, you know, committing criminal offenses. But I wouldn’t have got no 99 years for what I was doing.”
Scott: “You confessed to the King murder.”
Ray: “Yes… I didn’t really confess to it. I entered a guilty plea. There’s a difference between, you know, a confession and a guilty plea.”
Scott: “But why plead guilty to one of the most notorious murders of the 20th century if you didn’t do it?
Ray: “If I didn’t enter a guilty plea, they might charge my brother Jerry Ray for as a conspirator in the Martin Luther King murder.”
Scott: “Who had nothing to do with it?”
Ray: “He was working. They knew he was working at the time. He was working in Chicago at the time, six days a week. They also said they might arrest my father, and my father, he’d escaped from prison in 1925, and he’d been a fugitive ever since. So apparently, the Justice Department found out about it, and they told my attorney, Percy Foreman, and he came and told me that if I didn’t enter a guilty plea, that you know, they might put him back in jail. And so I agreed to enter a guilty plea on those conditions.”
In the interview, Ray suggested that the FBI was behind the King assassination, because then-Director J. Edgar Hoover was terrified of King’s influence over black America.
Ray also reminded Scott that he was a prison escapee himself in 1968, and said, “What better way to stay under the radar than to kill Martin Luther King?”
The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1978 that Ray was the man who killed Dr. King. But the committee concluded that a group of racial bigots in St. Louis – with a reported $50,000 bounty on King’s head, might have been involved too, CBS News reported in 1998.
As to whether he believes Ray was King’s assassination, Scott said: “He maintained until the day he died that he didn’t do it. Do I believe him? I’m not a big conspiracy guy. I’m really not. But there is a lot of compelling evidence – and the King family buys into this as well – that points, perhaps, to the fact that James Earl Ray at least did not act alone or didn’t do it at all. But you know what? If you give me 99 years in prison, I’m going to come up with some pretty good stories too. So the bottom line – I just don’t know.”
Neil A. Carousso produced and edited the backstory video with WCBS Newsradio 880 afternoon anchor Steve Scott.
