-mary ellen: hi, i'm mary ellen. -lemonis: mary ellen. -mary ellen: nice to meet you. ary lou: mary lou. -lemonis: mary lou. chuck: call me chuck. lemonis: chuck, nice to meet you. -chuck: pleasure to meet you. -charlie: charlie. lemonis: okay, so you guys are brother and sister. -mary ellen: yes. -lemonis: is this your dad? -charlie: correct. -chuck: c.e.o., designer. charlie: when i go home, at the dinner table, he's my old man. he's my dad. i love him to death. in business, it's chuck because i'm going to get a little emotional. lemonis: and who's in charge? charlie: i kind of run the show. mary ellen: i mean, the loudest person usually does. lemonis: the loudest person. charlie: i think everyone can agree. -mary lou: no. -mary ellen: [ scoffs ] charlie: everyone comes to me. i'm the one person that you all communicate to. lemonis: and whose name's on the door? -chuck: oh, my name. -lemonis: okay. just wanted to clarify that. it doesn't say, "swim by charlie handy." chuck: no. lemonis: do you have a business card? charlie: yes. lemonis: vice president, that's you. an

. >> thank you mary ellen and everyone for being here today. i remember the year before last when we had one of the first heat waves, one that we knew was coming, but didn't really understand how significant it would be because it wasn't something that we as a city was use to. we love san francisco because we love the cold weather, probably. we all know that climate change is real and there are a number of issues that are impacting our environment and that includes challenges with wildfires, the issues around, you know, unanticipated increases in temperatures, which has really put us in a different situation. i remember when i was on the board of supervisorsers -- supervisors, we had hearings to talk about, where did we go wrong to respond and address the issues to support our residents, but in particular, our very vulnerable communities, especially our seniors. at that time, so many of the departments came together to talk about ways to work with our community-based organizations to improve our response to addressing any type of challenge, whe

mary ellen: that's pretty. i like that.monis: ...a family has sunk their life savings into their swimwear company... i leave here inspired by your story. ...only to find themselves out to sea. i mean, you guys are, essentially, out of business right now. that's a lot of pressure on you. there's no clear leader... charlie: i've kind of run the show. -mary lou: no. -mary ellen: [ scoffs ] lemonis: ...no design process in place... charlie: i just don't have the time. chuck: no, you did. you did. you absolutely did. lemonis: ...and now, there's no money left either. mary ellen: they have put their finances into running this company. i don't want to see you guys lose everything. mary lou: i don't want you to worry about me. lemonis: if i can't help them swim with style, it won't be long before they go under.

mary ellen mentioned that we're not going to be the only ones facing this. if our power is out, other people's power is out as well. this will be a bay area concern and one we need to make sure we need to get ahead of. also, this is one of the learning elements. power outages will require a time for recovery. just because the lights and the power comes back on, it doesn't mean that everything will be fine. we need to make sure if there are individuals that may have been specifically impacted, we need to reach out to them. if there are data systems that are impacted by an automatic shutoff, then those are brought up properly. things won't go back to normal immediately. we looked at what's next, our people, processes we need to have and technology. for people in particular, it's working and making sure we're extending out to our private sector partners, vendors, an contractors. what are their plans? how are we going to coordinate with c.b.o.s and other groups to make sure neighbors are helping neighbors and they're checking on one another during and after the

ial correspondent mary ellen geist has the story. >> reporter: casandra grimes has been homeless fora year. but she has started to stitch her li back together. >> i try to just make my life better than it was before. ed reporter: grimes discova unique opportunity: working at the empowerment plan, a non-an profit oation dedicated to ending homelessness through employment. >> reporter: the organization was founded by veronika scott. >> both of my parents struggled with eloyment and addiction and poverty, and so it is myeating an opportunity i wish had been given twn family. >> reporter: while conducting research to design a coat for homeless people, scott was confronted by a woman who told her that sheidn't need a coat, she needed a job. that led scott to launch the empowerment plan, which offers n th employment and a unique product for peopleed, a durable garment that can be transformed from a shoulder bag to a coat, teeping bag, wnd back to a shoulder bag. >> the coat on itss a band-aid for a systemic issue, and what really has thimpact is hiring the people that would need it in the

studies professor and co-author of a book "ensuring poverty welfare reform and feminist perspective" mary ellen curtin is the director of american studies and the author of a forthcoming book "from virtue to power". glenna math thews is a co-autho of the book "running as a woman gender and power in american politics". and finally susan carroll who is a political science professor at rutgers university. a senior scholar. co-author "a seat at the table congresswomen's perspectives on why their presence matters". david perry, let's begin with you. >> thank you so much. this book, right here available, the book exhibit, begins with a line this book is about the women who went to my grandmother's funeral. that's the first line here. my mother's last work which came out two days ago took decades for her to get to that first line. in the 1980s my mother, elizabeth perry turned her attention to belle moskowitz. people knew about belle, but her papers, she broadly destroyed her papers and so it took my mother a long time to dig through hay stacks and find a lot of needles looking for copies of letters s