and he started it all with geraldine ferraro. and i was interviewing, when i called geraldine ferraro to talk to her about her relationship with barnett and how that led to this incredible, remarkable practice that he has, it was just about the time that sarah palin had been named to be the vice presidential nominee by john john mccain who is not a williams and connolly client, by the way. so i said just sort of at the end of my questioning of ferraro about her relationship with williams and connolly, i said, has, have you talked to sarah palin? you now share this distinction as being the only two women in american history to be nominated for vice president. has she called you to talk to you, ask you what it's like or what it might be like or anything like that? and she said, well, she said, no, but then she said, well, actually senator mccain had called me, and can i called him back. he had called me to tell me what he had done, and can i had called him back. and he said -- and i said, wish her luck, and he said, well, she's rig

geraldine could no longer afford to make ends meet. what did geraldine do? so at 81 years old she went back to work as a lunch monitor at the local high school just to be able to stay in her home and just to be able to stay in the state of new york. geraldine, we understand your problems. help is on the way. we will pass a property tax cap, geraldine, once and for all and we -- [ applause ] >> and geraldine, we applaud your spirit, your strength and tenacity. let's give geraldine a big new york round of applause. [ applause ] we must transform our state government. the last time the state government was reorganized was 1927 under governor al smith. 1938, a reform was passed and the constitutional amendment that said there could only be 20 executive departments, 20. so what has happened since then? well, we couldn't create any more departments, but the law didn't say anything about creating councils, advisory panels and working group facilities with sports and committee. so what do we now have? the department of health only one department in compliance with t

geraldine could no longer afford to make ends meet. what did geraldine do?at 81 years old she went back to work as a lunch monitor at the local high school just to be able to stay in her home and just to be able to stay in the state of new york. geraldine, we understand your problems. help is on the way. we will pass a property tax cap, geraldine, once and for all and we -- [ applause ] >> and geraldine, we applaud your spirit, your strength and tenacity. let's give geraldine a big new york round of applause. [ applause ] we must transform our state government. the last time the state government was reorganized was 1927 under governor al smith. 1938, a reform was passed and the constitutional amendment that said there could only be 20 executive departments, 20. so what has happened since then? well, we couldn't create any more departments, but the law didn't say anything about creating councils, advisory panels and working group facilities with sports and committee. so what do we now have? the department of health only one department in compliance with the l

geraldine, international news manager for world vision. of the speaker. david, senior vice president of the international services for the american red cross and a guest of our speaker. melissa, the speakers committee chair and an organizer of this event. skipping over our speaker for the moment, susie to france's chief public affairs officer for the american red cross american red cross, and a guest of our speaker. rachael ray, of the london daily telegraph. edward donahue, reporter for "the associated press." april ryan, white house correspondent and washington bureau chief of the american urban radio network. and, finally, brooke stoddard, freelance journalist. [applause] >> today is the one year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated haiti, claiming more than 200,000 lives and destroy more than a quarter million homes, leaving more than 1 million people homeless. many haitian families one year later still need food, shelter, and sanitation. survivors are living in tent camps marked by disturbing reports of violence. debris clogs

from your right, nasir ahmad, liz skinner, geraldine ryerson- cruise, sam worthington, david meltzer, melissa charbonneau, susie defrancis, rachel ray, edward donohue, april ryan, and finally, brooke stoddard. [applause] today is the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated haiti. , claiming more than 200 lives and destroying many homes leading more than 1 million people homeless. many asian families one year later still need food, shelter, and sanitation. survivors are living in tent camps marked by disturbing reports of violence. debris clogs the capital of port-au-prince. he conditions have sparked a tougher accountability for how funds are spent. today's guest is essential to patient relief efforts. as prison and ceo of the american red cross, gail mcgovern had a largest relief organization. last week, the red cross announced that so far it has spent or signed agreements to spend $245 million on haiti recovery efforts, more than half of what it has collected. haiti as a test -- is a test for the american red cross. when she took the job in 2008, mcgovern was the seve

>> i'm representative geraldine thompson from florida where indeed we now have rules that our legislature will use to draw district lines. i've heard that if you don't like the sight of blood particularly your own, you stay away from redistricting. [laughter] >> or florida. [laughter] >> y'all always have drama. >> we do, we do. but my question is, how do we make sure that there's inclusion and there's fairness in appointing people to serve on the redistricting committees that our legislature will have because those decisions are made by the people in power? so my question is, do you have some thoughts, some ideas, some strategies in terms of how we can be involved in the process? >> from my experience, i think it's one of those cases regardless whether you're in the leadership or whether you're the anointed one or not, he or she who has the knowledge can have the most influence. particularly, for the minorities. the african-americans and the hispanics, they don't want to get sued and they don't want you in court testifying against them. so the challenge for us, new members in particular,