to worry about panels falling in on me? >> hopefully not. >> hopefully not. >> if you have a good contractor, they'll do their due diligence. they'll do their homework. it's better for the industry if everyone does their homework and does the calculations to make sure the system is going to last 20 years, 30 years. >> that is another question. what is the lifetime of the system? do you have to have the solar panels replaced periodically? >> no, actually the solar panels last a really long time. there are solar panels in operation from the 1950's and the 1960's. the inverter is a piece of hardware that has a lifespan between 10 years. they usually warranty between five and 10 years. that may need replacement down the line. the solar panels will last a good long time. this is what we have intalked here at british motors. what we have, there is no moving parts here as we are talking about. you have a tempered glass cover covering the cells themselves and an aluminum frame. each one of these little blue frames is the solar cell

the hotter the panels, the less energy they produce. in summer, when their surfaces can hit 60 degrees celsius, they are 20% less efficient. one way to keep the temperature down is by sprinkling them with water. however, water evaporates quickly and the cost of using so much water actually drives up operating costs. so the company tried using ceramics underneath the solar panels. ceramics absorb water and that water evaporates slowly. that means less water is needed to cool down the panels. under the glass surface of panel is the layer of silicon that generates electricity. the ceramic underlay retains water, so the temperature can be kept down without having to add water continuously. the company has found that by making the ceramics into flat panels they can reduce the temperature by seven degrees. its next target is to bring that down by over ten degrees. >> translator: if this approach can be developed for use on people's houses, much more power can be generated than at present. >> reporter: another company is focusing on maximizing

we have three action-packed panels. our first panel celebrates the 50th anniversary of a novel that really defined american justice in the 1960's and that's "to kill a mockingbird." and many a lawyer was motivated by atticus finch in his closing argument in that case which in many ways represented the civil rights movement that was to come and it already begun. we have best-selling authors. we have a real-life atticus finch, tony serra, who is here and has motivated so many of us to do what we do. our second panel looks at abuse of power, abuse of power and how it happens and why it happens and most importantly what we can do and need to do to prevent it. whether it's a prosecutor or a judge or a defender render ineffective assistance to counsel or a police officer violating constitutional rights. this is not something we can tolerate, yet it happens each and every day. and our panel is going to delve deep into the issues that we're seeing not only here in the bay area but throughout the country and throughout the world

this panel is going to be incredible. it really is. we have a superstar panel and, of course, a superstar moderator that i'm very honored to introduce, and that's judge lee baxter. and judge lee baxter is retired now from the bench, although you would never know it. and she's enjoying a new career as a photographer, is a great photographer. but during the time that she was on the bench in san francisco, we had the opportunity to try cases in her court. and she was somebody who represented fairness to everyone. and i think some of the ideals that we talked about in the last panel really were embodied by the way that she ran her court. and at the end of the day it was always about making sure that whoever appeared in her court and before the court walked out of there feeling that they had their case heard and their concerns heard. so, again, judge lee baxter, retired from the san francisco superior court bench. [applause] >> thank you for your kind words. i have been away for a while, but i certainly enjoyed my time on the bench, particu

i was appointed to the panel, and i speak to you next about my role as a panel member. the panel's report was not reviewed or cleared by niosh, cdc or hhs prior to its release. all mine operators must take a proactive role to ensure the safety of mine workers. and as the accident investigations have concluded, massey energy's highly noncompliant practices directly caused the explosion at the ubb mine. it is impossible to know how many thousands of deaths have been prevented through msha's enforcement actions. yet in those instances, when the operators' actions caused a disaster, we must understand why, learn from and prevent future occurrences. msha's internal investigation team was thorough and it disclosed fully every deficiency it found in msha's enforcement performance. a review of msha's internal reviews for other mine disasters also reveals a candid and detailed disclosure of shortcomings in msha's enforcement performance. the same or very similar deficiencies show up in many of these internal reviews. and now, as in previous internal reviews, a detailed set of re

you may get called away but we're hope you're able to stay for the panel. finally, we have sheldon siegel. and sheldon siegel is a corporate lawyer who has written a series -- i think seven books now, a fictional criminal defense attorney named mike daley who actually lives here in san francisco. and he's written a series of books and these becomes have been shown and transcribed and read throughout the world. so we're going to start now with a clip, a video clip and then we're going to go to the panel. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the book had sort of captured me. that was exciting. i didn't realize that literature could do that. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literar

>> what i would do as soon as you know which panels you will put on. you ask the manufacturer, do you have a roofing specification. tell me how they are going to be done. if you feel like you need to you can ask a roofer to look at it and say this is the specification and they say how tell need to be installed. >> how long should my roof last. >> reconditioned what does that mean? they gave it a new coat of asphalt. >> no they torched more of the membrane where they saw that needed it and put paint aluminum paint. >> it sounds like may nintenann the city because of cloud cover we see roofs go a long time. you might get 20 years. if it's a significant cost to do the paneling you might want to have the roof looked at and ask what would it cost to put a new roof down. it might be the right time. if you are putting 15 penetrations on a 25 roof you may consider, now's the right time to do it. going back to the solar attachmen attachments. some of the contractors using pitch pans. pitch pans veteran around for years. pitch pan is a little box with an flange,

these panel members have decided to make their stake here. they risked reputation, may be small amounts of money. if they had a lot of money, they may not have had to start this. they have also done it for the right reasons. they want to experience the city in a different way, but one that is in the tradition of san francisco and is reflective of mine, welcoming more people to share in the economy. hopefully the right reasons will create more jobs and get more entrepreneurs involved. i have often said this can be the city for the 100%. everybody can have a chance to fulfill their dreams and make sure they can have a stable income for themselves and their families. i think we are on the verge of discussing things that would invite other members of our city family, department heads, those who work in planning or land use, to be involved in an ongoing discussion that would potentially invite and open up our economy and modernize it even further. a year ago, david chiu and i did not know what the outcome might be, but we were afraid a company cal

so my point on the panel, which i'm only on the panel because i claimed there was not a panel on theeconomy. and so i was told it will be a place for you. [laughter] embarrass everybody else. [applause] there's been twenty to thirty really good books on the economy this year. and we've had some very good ones. we don't seem to have a panel on afghanistan, iraq war. which i have to tell you is still going on. so i feel little bit annoyed. my wife started the festival seventeen years ago. i think the high point was the panelist. [applause] thank you. i think i've taken my time. thank you. [applause] >> what do you really think about things? [laughter] >> i have a few more points. i'm wishing i written a book about the imply. it would be okay for me to be on the panel as well. >> we were going to be nice to the festival folks. we'll get back to you. joe, at the moment -- >> i'm a newspaper reporter, so i got into my disaster because they asked me to work the weekend. i was told i needed to write for the web about the oil spill. what happened was two years ago yesterday, that at about te

the blue ribbon panel on the future of st. luke's hospital includes 11 recommendations. among those recommendations that i knew it acute-care hospital should be rebuilt on the campus, that the size of the hospital should be it corporate to the planned improvements, and it should represent the commitment to excellence in health care. the house passed or recommend -- a resolution based on the recommendation. the health commission has two additional resolutions related to cpmc. i to thousand nine, it supported the rebuilding of -- in 2009, is supported the rebuilding cpmc facilities. replacing skilled nursing facility beds that are not included in the plans of the hospital, and supplementing the recommendations of the blue- ribbon panel. in accordance with this, the health commission also established a task force on cpmc's master plan. agreements resulted in a third commission resolution which was passed in march 2010. this resolution set specific goals for each of the eight recommendations, most of which have the time to responsibilities for the two hospitals. the help com

they reorganized the subsidiary that makes liquid crystal panels. they agreed to sell more than half the subsidiary shares to a chinese firm. managers also plan to sell a stake to japanese parts suppliers. they say the alliances will help them bring in more revenues. >>> japan airlines will resume hiring of graduates for the first time in three years. the carrier has been under financial reconstruction since it went bankrupt two years ago. jal will hire about 30 men and women fresh from college for administration positions starting next april. they include sales personnel and people who deal with passengers at airports. the airliner will also add about 200 flight attendants. the carrier will also start midcareer recruitment of flight attendants for the first time in four years. jal also hopes to resume screening of engineers, including ground crew next year. >>> social networking giant facebook is making a bid to enhance its services and boost its user base. the company has announced it will buy instagram, a possible mobile photo sharing service for

on the panel are going to tell us about their companies. let's come straight down the line. >> i am a co-founder and ceo of viable, a community marketplace for travel experiences. anybody can offer their services to others as a guide, offering touristrs, sailing ships, cookig class. we have enabled terrorism -- tourism to access parts of the city it had never before accessed. restoring murals for example. we launched in 2011. we have been going for about a year. we're proud to be launched in san francisco and growing the platform here. >> i am the founder of a company called task rabbit, an online marketplace for people to outsource jobs to others. if you need dry cleaning pickup or groceries delivered, you can post that job. one of our over 1000 active task rabbits will be alerted and you will be able to be matched to them. they both run online vetting process that includes an application, background check. we're passionate about the idea of micro entrepreneurship. we have created over 1000 jobs for people in san francisco to set their own

how come he did not choose to film the 9/11 panel?> a lot of what we do here is covered by logistics'. we can only set our cameras up in one of the halls because of the resources involved. so wherever is happening in human all is well we're covering. >> mask a question. does c-span watch have something to do with that? come out with 9/11, we were attacked because of u.s. support for israel. >> there was no editorial decision in being in that room except the books that were happening right there. if you have a question for eric alterman? >> i think it's a very important thing. that was the most important panel you could probably have, you know. >> thank you. thank you, margaret. i want to use margaret's question because in the final chapter of your book one of those causes you talk about and liberal foreign policy is actually america support for israel and in some ways of this complicated the picture for help america has approached foreign policy. >> right. well, i don't make a big deal out of it, but i do believe it's true. i don't th

we're looking forward very much to this panel. we're going to be considering a set of challenges that perhaps paradoxically are just as difficult and daunting in many ways as those of the economies in transition which we just heard discussed in the previous panel. experience around the world has shown sadly that ample endowments of natural resources which should be a blessing for national economic development can, on occasion, be a curse. nations that are rich in natural resources need to figure out ways how to translate that potential wealth under the ground into enduring forms of wealth above ground that can create high and rising standards of living. doing this, experience has shown, requires serious effort to avoid the temptations of overconsumption, the temptations of poor investments in white elephant projects and sometimes as plain corruption. more affirmatively, making this transition from hydrocarbons to a broader and more diversified economy requires an effort to make sensible, thoughtful investments in infrastructure in

we're going to tart in again on our first panel. if everyone could quiet down. i know there are a lot of conversations going on upstairs where the handouts are and the -- and the refreshments. we call that the foia foyer. foia foyer. we don't do it just during sunshine week. we call it that all year long. by the way, it does look like the sun is beginning to peek out a little bit, as befitting this freedom of information day during sunshine week. i want to make sure that everyone here in the audience knows that we do have handouts, many handouts up there, including detailed biographical sketch on everyone who's speaking here today. so you'll find that the moderators, including myself, we will not spend a lot of time with respect to biographical details. we'll spend some time on that, because we'll try to get as much content out during the day as possible. and i'm going to sit in on this first panel, but i'll introduce first meriam nesbitt, who is known to everyone here in the audience, i'm sure, and hopefully more and more people out in the viewing audience, as

this is the third and final panel for those of you who have stayed. this is going to be an incredible discussion. leading the panel, this is the chief attorney of the public defender's office, matt gonzalez. >> let me talk about how we decided to have a panel as part of this year is just a summit on the death penalty. san francisco is often known for being a large city, in this case, we have a unique history with the death penalty. during his reelection campaign of 1999, terrence hallohan said that they would not seek the death penalty for any offense in san francisco. he was reelected by a close margin a few years later, and she took the position that she would not bring any death penalty case. and she was reelected with the same conditions as part of the reelection campaign. harris was elected to be the state of the new general, and gavin newsom elected george gascon to be the district attorney. when asked his position on the death penaltiy, hy, he said he wouldn't rule it out. this raised a lot of concern among opponents of the death penalty who th

and now we'll turn our attention to the panels. we have two panels of witnesses joining us today. each of our witnesses has prepared an opening statement that will be placed into the record. on our first panel we have the honorable john bryson, secretary for the united states department of commerce. good morning, secretary bryson. it has always been a pleasure to work with you as a fellow californian. we've had a long history together. i welcome you to our subcommittee and i'm very thankful that you're here. we look forward to work with you closely on this and many other important issues. you'll be recognized for five minutes to help you keep track of time, the timer is right in front of you. when it turns yellow you'll have one minute to try to sum up if you could. please remember to turn the microphone on and bring it close to your mouth so the audience at home can hear your remarks. and with us again, welcome, mr. secretary. you are recognized for five minutes. >> -- working with you here on this and -- can you hear? >> especially if you are complimenting the chairman it's nice

my question is for the panel. the budget control act requires an enforcement mechanism called and i did mention in my opening remarks sequestration. and due to take effect in january of 2013. my question to the panel is what would the sequestration have on the department's budget and your ability to provide core services to tribes? >> well, we are very concerned about the sequestration. for the indian health service, a portion of our budget actually is protected in that automatic decrease would be less but it still would be 2%. and 2% for our budget equates to around $88 million, and that would have to be applied to both of our accounts in services and facilities. and so we already know that our system has had to absorb a lot of costs including high medical costs and inflation and so on. and having another $88 million to try to absorb in our budget would be very painful and would be very difficult for our health care facilities and would certainly impact services. so we're following the progress of this in congres

i would like our second panel to come forward. i'll introduce the panel and i'll be turning the gavel over in a very bipartisan way to senator burke. not so you get practice, only to let you do this today. i appreciate your accommodating me with this. >>> if we could keep the room quiet as everyone trades chairs her because i would like to introduce the panel as they're coming up. we're going to be moving now to our second panel and they have come up and join us and are seated in the appropriate places. i want to -- again, if we could have it quiet in the room. i want to extend a very, very warm welcome to a friend of mine from washington, bill schrier. mr. schrier is the national commander. thank you for the treous work you do and for participating on this panel today to bring a local perspective that's important for all of us to hear. tim tesz is the director for the national commission on -- the independent budget, carl blake, the national legislative director of paralyzed veterans of america, jeffly hall, the assistant secreta

panels. i am also a member of the m3 organization. the mission of the movement is to help create a healthier and safer community by providing guidance and support to the previously incarcerated and others who are looking to improve their lives. i attended the university of california. i have previous experience of starting small businesses. i am the president -- of a company that focuses on reducing carbon footprints and educating on the youth on what they can do to reduce their carbon footprints. there are thousands of young men and women who are coming home soon. the majority of them are african-american. our aim is to provide programs to support them, to have been in place prior to them stepping out. we are a solar panel installation training organization. we recently graduated several individuals, 11, and i am proud to say that two of them were released from the system and graduated from our program. we feel like this type of programming will provide them with a job, the skill sets that l

i have a question for the panel. in the past, whenever that vat trial balloon has gone up, it's been shot down by the governors associations, the mareses associations, who say consumption taxes, that's our sand box. the feds should stay out. so has perspective of the governors and mares changed? and if not, what can be done to change that perspective? >> first of all, i this i we have to say if you get rid of the phrase consumption tax when you say value added tax. consumption tax is related to income and things like that. value added tax is a business cash flow tax that's border adjustab adjustable. >> maybe you should unpack that so everybody understands what a value added tax is. >> here's the deal. i make cars. i sell my cars. i get $5 billion for selling my cars. from that, i subtract the billion i paid the steel company, the glass company, da, da,da,da, da. $4 billion. i send 25% of that to the government. i'm done. that's it. that's the whole thing. so the cash comes in, cash goes out. cash is only deductible