wellcome will not allow me in this discourse to call the role of great women in african american history. let me pray that their numbers are many, and the stories of them tell the truth of women, african american women, in culture and history. for our women have been on the move. our women have refused to be moved. and our women continue to move mountains in african american history. and now, in closing, let me cradle this month's celebration in the history -- in the city of st. francis, with a sense of gratitude and neutral respect. the we black, white, brown, or red, we are all god's children. mavis in vacation -- may this invocation be accepted and the record show that in the city of st. francis, black history 2012 celebrated in truth the contribution, culture, and history of african-americans, and their contributions to this nation and to this great city. let us say a man. -- amen. >> thank you, reverend dyson. ok. with that, we are going to move to the next item on the agenda, which is the singing of "lift every voice and sing," the negro national anthem. it is in your program. the

we put ourselves out there as a city that wellcome's benefit corporations. when you have a national debate about social responsibility, it is important for us to support companies that are doing well and doing good. i should also mention that philadelphia became the first city to provide tax benefits to benefit corporation. the specific legislation that you have in front of you is modeled after current contract bidding preferences for local businesses and micro enterprise businesses. this legislation is modeled after those types of programs. to receive this contract preference, the business would have to be legally recognized by california. in the legislation, we put some specific numbers down, but we are very open to feedback on what might be the right number. by legislation states that for benefit corporations, we provide an 8% preference. for local benefit corporations, we provide an additional 2%, simply to state that these kind of companies, we welcome them. we want them to start here, we want them to grow here, we want them to be headquartered here. i

i have heard a lot of wellcome's in my career, but that has to be one of the best. this man is so committed. i have never met him in my life, but it makes the heart flutter a little bit. let's continue. ray rodriguez, i know you're in the room. would you please come up and say a few words? you are not ray rodriguez. he looks like rodriguez to me. >> hi, everyone. ray was kind enough to send me up here to say thank you. by the way, how often you get to follow the superintendent and mayor of san francisco all at once? that is pretty rare and a pretty special evening. what i was most touched about, carlos, and mr. mayor if you're still anywhere in earshot, is the amazing partnership that is taking place here in the city of san francisco. i think it is through partnerships that all the great things have happened and have emerged. my name is john simon. we thank you for allowing us to be your partners. we have been here with you from the very beginning, and we are incredibly proud of your work in growth. your membership has swelled to a tremendous numbers, and it will ke

please help me to wellcome barry sanders. [applause] >> it is an honor and privilege to be here brahmans bookstore it. it is an institution in southern california the oldest and largest. the book "american avatar" derives from years of the king of the issue of how people form their ideas it is a book about ideas but i try to write it in a way from the point* of view of human nature and common sense. what i am asking when i talk about images of america not just why they hate us but you'll find the majority of people have a favorable impression that the question i am asking is how do people come by their ideas? how do they derive any idea? asked about the image of ecuador or finland and they may have some warren nine but it is worth talking about images of america because it is one of the rare concepts that is in the minds and has for over 200 years that makes it a place to where people form their ideas not only today and there is surprising continuity and what is particularly useful is you start off with the and standing at of

wellcome. >> talk about this renovation going on, periodically we can show you when we walk around theloor here that you are changing out some of the older posts putting new one in. >> going post by post, renovate a house, got people in the garage, moving them here over time and then have as much of the equity activity from the agents and dmms and we can have in one room surrounding you guys all around you on the periphery here, if you think about it even though the volumes are down this year, doing more volume than we have ever done with 25% of the people that used to work on the floor five or ten years ago. the technology has clearly been embraced, too. >> duncan, did you get any push back from traders turning a major post, post 9, into a tv set? i mean, talk to us a little about the evolution of what has gone on here? i remember when i first got down here almost 20 years ago, you had almost 5,000 people in the new york stock exchange throughout five rooms. obviously, you have closed some rooms, got about 1,000 people. >> 1,000. >> people right here. so is that progress and technolog

. >> wellcome congress could give us, could give us legislation that gives us the ability to set that obviously. but that is one of the ways that we are. the protecting the fund. the only other thing i would say , there are other options as part of this effort that every important. one of the things that the record low interest rates that we have today, one of the powers is the ability for a homeowner to choose either refinance to take their same at lower payments all but also he goes back to paying off the mortgage more quickly. and almost any homeowner that is below that loans available, if they choose to take their savings and put it into reducing their principal was shorting the length of the loan, almost everyone of them gets back above water and then rebuild than five years. and that is something that we would want to encourage. so what we would do, we are proposing, the closing costs for those refinances be eliminated where a homeowner chooses to allow their savings back in to reducing equity. and we think that that could be an important part using the power of low interest rat