The Brian Lehrer Show

Adoption: A Different Approach

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Guest host Errol Louis looks at why some birth mothers are staying close to their children long after the adoption process. Also, the latest in our series on the New York City public housing developments, your calls on what The Bronx’s new slogan should be, an update on "Troopergate", and two City Councilmen tell us about their plans to clean up the city.

Listen to the whole show

Day One, Everything Changes. Day Two, Business as Usual?

Michael Goodwin, Daily News columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner and the News' Executive Editor and Editorial Page Editor and Wayne Barrett, senior editor at the Village Voice, and author, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (HarperCollins 2006) with Dan Collins, follow up on "troopergate."

Taking Out The Trash Violators

Two bills in the city council this week take on trash in the city. First, Council Member Simcha Felder, (D-Brooklyn) describes his plan to ban the distribution of flyers and menus throughout NYC. Then, Council Member Michael McMahon, (D-Staten Island), wants to crack down on people who break a rarely enforced law by dumping residential and business trash in public cans.

A New Approach to Adoption

"Open adoption" is where birth parents stay in regular contact with the adoptive parents. Dawn Smith-Pliner, the founder and director of Friends in Adoption, looks at how this changes things for the child, and music critic Ann Powers talks about her experience.

Friends in Adoption

Public Housing: Tenants Voices

We continue our summer series on New York's public housing developments with a residents' roundtable. Reginald Bowman, Brooklyn East District chair and acting Citywide chair of the Residents Executive Board and resident of Seth Low Houses, and Corinne Haynes, resident of Queensbridge Houses and a member of the East River Development Alliance team, and Agnes Rivera, resident of Wagner Houses in Manhattan and member and leader at Community Voices Heard, a low-income activist organization, offer the tenants' views of public housing issues.