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NY State Sen. Gustavo Rivera to Gov. Cuomo: Acknowledge Your Mistakes
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York officials aim to fix inequities in its vaccine distribution after a damning report this week that showed white New Yorkers received 48 percent of the city’s COVID-19 vaccines while Blacks received 11 percent of the doses, 15 percent went to Asians and another 15 percent to Latinos.
New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-NY-33), the chair of the health committee, called on Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to listen to his public health experts in the wake of nine state health officials resigning over the Governor’s public disparagement of experts’ guidance in responding to the pandemic, as reported by The New York Times.
“If you have made a mistake, Governor, acknowledge it, and then, try to move forward and build from that and listen to folks who are experts who can help you make better choices in the future,” Sen. Rivera addressed Gov. Cuomo on The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez. “Sometimes, he just doesn’t,” he added.
Lopez also asked him about the recent report from New York Attorney General Letitia James that showed the Cuomo administration undercounted nursing home deaths “by as much as 50 percent.”
“The reason why this data is so important is for us to make better policy to make certain that we can avert unnecessary deaths,” sad Sen. Rivera, noting he chaired 30 hours of hearings on the impact of COVID-19 in nursing homes last summer without cooperation from the Cuomo administration.
Hear Lopez’s full interview with Sen. Rivera on The 880 Weekly Rewind podcast above, plus how former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s presence looms large over Super Bowl LV, and “The Good Life” of legendary singer Tony Bennett whose wife revealed was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease four years ago.
Neil A. Carousso produces The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS Newsradio 880.
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‘I’m a little bit biased:’ Tiki Barber playing favorites for Super Bowl LV
By Neil A. Carousso and Joe Connolly
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Tiki Barber, who played ten seasons for the New York Football Giants, is playing favorites ahead of the big game.
The three-time Pro Bowl running back opened up to WCBS 880’s Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso after recording a Small Business Spotlight interview about his events company Thuzio, which is set to publish on Wednesday.
“I’m a little bit biased,” Barber admitted, revealing, “Bruce Arians, who is the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was roommates with my father at Virginia Tech and so I’ve known him since I was born, basically.”
The “Tiki and Tierney” co-host on CBS Sports Radio and CBS Sports Network said he grew up with Arians who started as a quarterback for the Hokies and won two Super Bowls as the wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 and 2008.
“The thing that I look for, that I’m looking for, is how these two teams are coached and how are they prepared to take on these extraordinarily amazing challenges in competition.”
Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid coached against Barber’s Giants as the long-time leader of their NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles. Reid won his first Super Bowl as a head coach last year when the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20.
“We have two amazing stories at the head coaching position whether it’s Bruce’s long journey or Andy Reid who is now in the top four, five of all time because of how successful he’s been,” Barber said. “I think that story besides all the great ones with the players that’s the one that I look to and it gives me the most interest mainly because I have a personal connection.”
Barber has another connection to this year’s Super Bowl: His twin brother, Ronde, was the star cornerback for the 2002 Bucs championship team. That was Tampa Bay’s only Super Bowl appearance until this season.
“That was the last time they won a playoff game was back in 2002 as crazy as that sounds,” said Barber.
While the 2002 Buccaneers were known for their impermeable defense, the 2020 Bucs are riding on their high-flying offense orchestrated by their 43 year old quarterback, Tom Brady, who has won six Super Bowl titles in his nine appearances in the big game as a member of the New England Patriots.
Brady’s first of three Super Bowl losses came at the hands of Eli Manning and the Giants – one-year after Barber retired, which he humorously brought up with Connolly and Carousso.
“Tom Brady’s two years younger than me. I’m retired for 14 years; he’s still playing,” Barber said, laughing. “It’s unreal how successful he’s been.”
In fact, this week, when Brady was asked if he’d be up for playing past age 45 he said, “I would definitely consider that.”
Tiki told WCBS 880 he never thought any team was just “one player away,” noting the team sport. “That’s never true until this year.”
Watch Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso’s conversation with Tiki Barber about Super Bowl LV above.
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Small Business Spotlight: Brooklyn Startup Puts Local Stores Online
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A Brooklyn startup has made shopping local in the pandemic easier and it is helping connect small retailers with customers online.
ShopIN.nyc is “the everything store,” as founder and CEO Maya Komerov describes it, for a variety of hometown products.
“People really want to shop local, but the truth is it’s not convenient,” Komerov told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight.
When the pandemic hit, she saw small businesses struggling and large e-commerce companies like Amazon were thriving. Boasting the slogan “Shop Brooklyn Not Bezo$” on its merchandise, Komerov told WCBS 880 she doesn’t like to think of ShopIN.nyc as in competition with Amazon, but they are making it easier and cheaper for small businesses to sell online.
“A single store cannot provide that,” she said of e-commerce. “That’s a fact and that’s something that we need to change immediately and that’s the technology that we built to make that change.”
It is free for businesses to join and the startup pays owners within 24 hours for sales on its website.
Komerov has a background in technology. She sold her first company, Blat Lapidot Business Applications – a Salesforce partner in Israel – in 2017 before moving to New York. She went to the drawing board for ShopIN.nyc in April and launched in July. They currently support 70 stores on the site and house their products in its Brooklyn warehouse for delivery. Thirty New York City stores are waiting for approval.
“They don’t need to go and bring stuff from a warehouse in New Jersey and have all those trucks,” said Komerov, explaining ShopIN.nyc’s appeal. “We build technology to allow the stores to work in a decentralized warehouse to serve the neighbors.”
ShopIN.nyc delivers products the same day an order is placed in one box with the stores’ branding on the package. They pay delivery workers $25 an hour – higher than the $15 minimum wage in New York City.
The e-commerce startup separates itself from other online sites in that it invests in communities throughout New York, including supporting schools.
“Online shopping should be part of the community just by connecting all the stores that are already part of the community together,” said Komerov. “We build more and more tools to allow the money to come back.”
By achieving this, ShopIN.nyc is localizing e-commerce and bringing the neighborhood to the customer.
See how ShopIN.nyc is helping local businesses connect with customers on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Dr. Fauci Says Schools Can Safely Reopen with Specific Resources, Opines on J&J’s Less Effective COVID Vaccine
By Neil A. Carousso and WCBS Newsradio 880
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has been at the forefront of the country’s battle against COVID-19 since the virus emerged in the U.S. last year.
Fauci turned 80 years old on Christmas Eve.
He’s been on the job a long time, going through SARS, Ebola, Zika, HIV, to name a few and is now President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor.
During a conversation Friday afternoon with the New York Press Club, moderated by WCBS 880 morning anchor Steve Scott, Fauci was asked, “How much longer will you keep doing this?”
“You know, Steve, I don’t know,” Fauci replied. “I don’t focus on a number. Age number is irrelevant, it’s how you feel. Your functional capability. Are you still able to give it 100% or 110%? Are you still up to the task? As long as that is what I have, namely, the energy, the capability and giving 110%, there’s no limit… I’m pretty honest with myself, I have a real good reality-testing wife who doesn’t hesitate for a second to give me constructive criticism about things. I’ll know when to step down, but I don’t see that in the future right now.”
During the nearly 40-minute long discussion, Fauci reiterated Biden’s plan to try to get K-8 grade students back in school in the first 100 days, but he admits that there are teachers and others who don’t think it’s safe just yet.
He said part of his job is to try to convince those who have questions about it that it is safe to go back but, only if the rules are followed, such as mask wearing and social distancing.
He stressed the recommendation is for K-8 and that it’s a little bit of a different ball game when it comes to middle, high school and college.
Vaccines are also a key part of the discussion, especially given Johnson & Johnson’s promising news about its one-shot vaccine.
It proved to be 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19, which isn’t as impressive as 95%, which Pfizer and Moderna got.
“So although it was not as good as a couple of the others in preventing early symptomatic disease, what it did do very well was prevent severe disease, including hospitalization, death,” Fauci said.
He predicts it could get an emergency use authorization within a week or two, with doses possibly being administered in the U.S. in February.
Fauci was also pressed about working in the Trump administration and his frustration level during that time.
“I don’t want to go back and rehash things, I really want to look forward,” Fauci said. “That’s in the past, let’s take a look at the things we can do to end this outbreak.”
But Fauci did say that he never thought about quitting.
“The enormity of the task and the responsibility that I had was such that it never even entered my mind to step down and quit,” Fauci said. “It was just too important a problem that we were facing.”
Neil A. Carousso produces The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS Newsradio 880.
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Small Business Spotlight: Making the Right Hire for Your Job Opening
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Hiring workers can be challenging, especially for business owners with limited resources in the pandemic.
Companies that are fortunate to be in the position of hiring have a vast talent pool to choose from as remote work has become commonplace.
“Emphasize what’s most important,” WCBS 880 “Your Next Job” host Steven Greenberg told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the Small Business Spotlight.
Greenberg’s career highlights include leading a human resources team for a major toy manufacturer, founding a staffing firm and operating a job board for jobseekers over 40 years old. He stresses owners must refine and focus their job descriptions to get the most qualified applicants.
“You want to send up a flag: ‘We’re seeking the person who’s the best at making outbound sales calls for our company. We want a killer person who could sit at home and make 100 calls all day and has a close rate of 20 percent,'” he said. “Everything else is sort of gravy.”
Greenberg told Connolly and Carousso that employers should look for résumés that are specifically tailored to that job description. He noted people with generic résumés are often sending applications for numerous open jobs, and likely, will not be a good fit for a company’s specific needs.
“A generic résumé tells the company, really, if you’re really looking at it carefully, I’m not that interested in working for you. I’m just sending out this résumé to 20 companies and I’m just hoping to get lucky,” he explained, adding it’s like “playing the lottery.”
The “Your Next Job” host suggested employers implement a practical test in the hiring process to gage if a candidate is right for the position. An example he gave on the Small Business Spotlight is having a sales applicant make some calls to see how much they know about the company during their pitch.
Candidates who do not face a practical test that would allow them to demonstrate their skills and qualifications, Greenberg said, should take the initiative to prove themselves.
“Why don’t you say… ‘I did some more research on it and I saw that you’re working on these three potential clients and let me tell you about how I can add value to that effort,'” he advised. “That’s an email that gets read, that gets noticed and I think should generate more interviews.”
Greenberg suspects his pet peeve about follow-up emails is shared among employers; he strongly encourages applicants to avoid using the phrase “I’m just following up” because it diminishes one’s application.
The HR consultant told WCBS 880 it sometimes takes creativity to stand out from the pack of applicants, especially with high unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic. He shared one of his favorite stories from an unnamed, well-known college basketball coach who gets flooded with emails from people who write it’s their dream job to work for him.
“He said, ‘Steven, you know what happens after those emails? Nothing. I’m not going to hire somebody then who doesn’t want to act on their dreams. I make my dreams come true. I don’t wait for other people to come true for me,'” Greenberg recalled. “One day, somebody sent him that email, and then, when he came home from a road trip at midnight, that person was waiting for them with their resume printed on a basketball.”
The coach hired him for backing up his words with actions.
Greenberg also told Connolly and Carousso about an unemployed chef he advised to write part of his resume in icing on top of a cake. That person got the job.
See more examples and hiring advice on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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