mr. torre. it was my mistake that i did not say at the beginning of this hearing that we face two challenges. one, we generally we have a rule that witnesses can speak for five minutes or less but not more, and secondly we have votes starting at 4:00, so that puts pressure on all of us to get on with it. ms. virginia seitz, outside counsel. major league baseball players association. what is outside counsel? are you a part of them or do you advise them or what? >> i advise them. and i've been doing it for the past 25 years. i've been outside special counsel for most of the last 25 years to major league baseball players association. >> but they couldn't make it? >> i'm testifying on behalf of the association's executive director, tony clark. he couldn't attend today because he is right now chairing mlbpa's annual executive board meeting. it will not surprise you to hear that one of the major topics at that meeting that's under discussion today and tomorrow is, in fact, domestic violence and the w

mr. torres. >> i hope and pray -- i am i am a disabled i have a disabled wife so i hope and pray you will approve the free transportation for all the seniors and disabled because we have so many appointments in the hospital. thank you very much. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon mr. heal y. >> good afternoon. i'd like to discuss the proposed cancellation of other forms of innovative insurance by you guys i guess this actually makes no sense. well, am vest doesn't give ratings until a company has been in business for several years i would like to point out this was setup a couple of months ago with the help of mta and director hiashi and this has been a low cost method of getting insurance in a sky rocketing insurance market it actually makes no sense to get rid of this because this actually is an a rated insurance company it simply hasn't been rated because it hasn't been in business long enough further more you are precluding the possibility of anybody else coming here with an innovative solution and we've been besieged besieged by uber and everyone else and actually this is the

chairman. >> thank you mr. torre.t's my mistake that i did not fit the beginning of this hearing that we face two challenges. we have a general rule that witnesses can speak for five minutes or less but not more and secondly we have votes starting at 4:00 so that puts pressure on all of us to get on with it. ms. virginia seitz outside counsel major league baseball players association. are you part of them or do you advise them? >> i've been doing it for the past 25 years years. i have an outside special counsel for most of the last 25 years to major league baseball players association. >> but they couldn't make it. >> i'm testifying on behalf of the executive director tony clark. he could attend today because he is chairing mlbpa annual board meeting and it would not surprise you to do one of the major topics at the meeting under discussion today and tomorrow is the fact that domestic violence and the work association has been doing will address. >> please proceed with your testimony. >> i will attempt to be brief. >>

mr. joe torre from major league baseball, welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good afternoon. chairman rockefeller, senators and members of the committee. i'm joe torre, executive vice president of baseball operations for major league baseball. i want to thank you for the opportunity to discuss the efforts we are undertaking to address the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault. the subject matter of this hearing is personally important to me as a person whose childhood was touched by domestic violence. i have come to understand that discussing the issue publicly has the potential to help millions of victims who believe that they must suffer in silence. in 2002, my wife and i formed the safe at home foundation to create educational programs aimed at ending the cycle of domestic violence and i'm proud to say that we reached close to 50,000 youngsters in that time. through my work in the area including cochairing the attorney general's task force on children exposed to violence, i have had the opportunity to work without standing individuals. they have devoted their lives

mr. joe torre, who is executive president of baseball operations, welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good afternoon. chairman rockefeller, members of the committee, executive vice president of major league is welcome i want to thank you for the opportunity to discuss this issue with domestic violence and sexual assault. this is personally important to me as a person whose childhood was touched by domestic violence i have come to understand that doesn't issue publicly has the potential to help millions of victims who believe they must suffer in silence. my wife and i formed the safe at home foundation at created safe at home programs ending the cycle of domestic violence and i am proud to day that we have reached close to 50,000 youngsters and that time. that includes children exposed to violence, i have had the opportunity to work with outstanding individual is who have devoted their lives towards working towards solving the issue of domestic violence in this country and this includes the understanding that major league baseball is our national pastime has an obligation to set a posi

mr. living ston. >> officer torres? >> good evening, commissioners, and to answer your question, we think that the limited live performance permit would be more appropriate for this location. and given the small proximity and the way that the buildings is structured which impacts the neighbors at 234 hyde street and if you want, you could let them speak on behalf of what the issues that they experienced with this. >> yeah. >> and they will have a chance to do that. >> it is because of the size and the neighbors. >> it is very residential? >> it is mixed use. >> again just to be clear i would like him if he could move in there and succeed and work with the neighbors, great. and so, go ahead. >> so, one of the things that i did wonder is, is there a difference since it has been not in operation, has there been more and up swing in crime in the area and stuff like that? i am wondering if this activation has helped in that way at all? >> well, i will say that when he is, when the basement is opened, there is a you know, cer

we'll show you what jacques torres, mr. continuing fallout from sony pictures' decision to pull its comedy, "the interview." >> the fbi said the threats to hackers linked to the north korean government and president obama said the u.s. will retaliate. julia nayewel julianna goldman is in our washington bureau. good morning. >> good morning. they say they had nothing to do with the attack. yesterday president obama said north korea was to blame but that sony made a mistake in canceling its release. >> i wish they would have spoken to me first. i would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these types of criminal attacks. >> sony said they haven't caved and they said they still hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so. during his press con fwrens the president indicates the threat from north korea was overblown and he dismissed the leader kim jong-un who announced an all-out assault on a film. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will r

torres representing tenderloin police station. as mr. mark reddy stated earlier, capt.chartist lieut. falzone and myself, we met with mr. barry livingston that tenderloin station. we agreed to support his application with the conditions that we submitted. we also asked that this security plan be also included as part of the conditions on their permits. >> what do you mean by that? >> there is a lot of issues that are in the security plan that would like him to abide by the convert security officers might be hours there's a lot of stuff that's in the security plan. >> okay. that's helpful >> thank you. >> any questions for ofc. torres? >> yes. i do not receive think about this since the last time we were here and one of my issues was if we're going to limit it until 10:00 pm that same that really they should have entertainment but i think we be sure place where we can say they can have entertainment and normally we do with this, got involved with other organizations, other clubs opening of the same issues mike was to issue 10 pm weeknight curtail of their entertainment p

evening supervisors i'm officer torres representing the captain of the tenderloin station our recommendation is what we've submitted and our experience has been that first of all, mr. livingston doesn't have experience running a night club bar this is the first business he's operating as a club and bar he has experience as a bartender and we worked in korea where he did something like that not in san francisco the second issue we have is that the location was closed for probably about 4 years the old black hawk night club on tucker that opened 2011 they obtained a liquor licenses and also a place of entertainment when the place was opened we had lots of problems with people outside making noise, noise comblaments from the liquid music inside the night club and fiethsdz outside and one of the issues is that particular location is very small it has a narrow bar and it has like another area right towards the end of the location and the maximum occupants is probably like 80 people or so so with tends to happen it is such a small place people go outside smoking cigarettes and talking and basically, what you have is a party outside on the street so our issue here is tha

i want to thank mr. torre for his example, because i think men have a vital role, which is the reason why your players can be such role models, such positive role models for others and why the leagues can be such positive role models in providing tangible financial assistance, which you have not yet done for all the talk here to the advocacy groups and organizations that are so pivotal in fighting domestic violence. so i'm asking for a commitment that you will support this accountability and that you will support the groups that assist victims and survivors. in the interest of time, i'm just going to ask is there anyone here who would not make that commitment? by the absence of a response, i'm going to assume that you would agree with me that that kind of commitment is important and necessary. you've begun doing it, but i'm not asking you to continue what you have done, but for a substantial increase in that assistance to the hot lines and the shelters and all the servic the shelters and all the service groups