Newsmakers

March 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

10:00 AM  Security Practitioners (NPC Newsmaker)

Description:

Leading Scholars and Security Practitioners Provides a Glimpse of Likely Security Threats and Conflict through the 2020’s

Authors of a new study on the 21st Century security environment will highlight key ways to improve U.S. capabilities, Tuesday, March 23rd at 10 a.m., National Press Club (Zenger Room), 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Dr. Roy Godson – Professor Emeritus of Government, Georgetown University and President of the National Strategy Information Center (NSIC)
Dr. Richard Shultz – Director, International Security Studies Program, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and NSIC Research Director

Joining Godson and Schultz will be three members of NSIC’s international practitioner working group who were consulted for the report:

Major General Jacob Amidror (Ret), Israel Former Commander, Israel Defense Forces Military College, and Military Secretary of   the Minister of Defense
Gen. Lord Charles Guthrie (Ret), UK Chief of the UK Defense Staff, 1997–2001
Vikram Sood, Chief, Research and Analysis Wing (India’s external intelligence service), 2001–2003

At Tuesday's Newsmaker event, authors of a new report Adapting America’s Security Paradigm and Security Agenda, paint a picture of the first quarter of the 21st Century where “decentralized and irregular” conflicts with armed groups will pose a major and persistent threat.  A time when half of the world’s population lives in weak or failed states that spawn these groups.

The security environment for the next quarter century will be vastly different from the 20th Century and where many of the solutions are “non-kinetic,” requiring local intelligence gathering, rule of law teams, development and education programs to be integrated with military forces. The report also questions if the U.S. is ready to meet the new security challenge. 

Embargoed copies of the report are available to members of the press in advance of the news conference by contacting Beth Daly at beth.daly1@gmail.com
____________________________________________________________________
Contact: Tejinder Singh, chair, Newsmaker Committee (202 503 8052 tejindersinghdc@gmail.com)
Beth Daly, National Strategy Information Center (NSIC) (301/943-4002 beth.daly1@gmail.com)

 

Sponsored by:Newsmakers Committee

Location: Zenger Room

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

7:00 PM  Miller Center Debate (NPC Forum)

Description:

Does the U.S. Need to Ration Costly End-of-Life Care?

Controversial Issue to be Focus of

Miller Center National Debate

Washington, D.C. -- With skyrocketing Medicare costs contributing to record-setting budget deficits, does the United States need to ration costly end-of-life care? This compelling topic will be the focus of an upcoming debate produced by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, in partnership with MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and The National Press Club.

The debate will take place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 24 at 7:00 pm ET. It will be webcast live at www.millercenter.org and air later on PBS stations across the country.

Debaters include:

• Ken Connor, Chairman, Center for a Just Society, Gov. Jeb Bush's Attorney in Terri Schiavo case


• Marie Hilliard, Director of Bioethics and Public Policy, National Catholic Bioethics Center


• Dr. Ira Byock, Director of Palliative Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Author, "Dying Well"


• Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief of "Health Affairs" and a "PBS NewsHour" analyst, will moderate the debate.

With more than one-fourth of Medicare expenses going to medical treatment in patients' last year of life, debaters will argue what, if anything, the government should do to contain costs. Should the government spend less on costly end-of-life procedures and instead use these resources to care for more patients? Would it be better to ration by choice and let patients and their doctors decide on end-of-life care, such as living wills and pain management? What would be the social implications of a rationing policy? Would the government be deciding who is worth saving and who is not?

This debate will be followed later this spring by debates on the cost of college moderated by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for "PBS NewsHour" and on the impact of the Internet on democracy moderated by Robin MacNeil of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.

The Miller Center of Public Affairs is a leading nonpartisan public policy institution aimed at bringing together engaged citizens, scholars, members of the media and government officials to focus on issues of national importance to the governance of the United States, with a special interest in the American presidency.

Sponsored by:Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia

Location: Ballroom

April 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

10:00 AM  NRG Energy CEO David Crane (NPC Newsmaker)

Description:

NRG Energy CEO David Crane

 
NRG Energy President & CEO David Crane, a member of the Electrification Coalition (EC), will release the results of a detailed macroeconomic analysis and state-by-state economic impact of the implementing EC’s Electrification Roadmap on Thursday, April 8, at 10:00 a.m. in the National Press Club’s Zenger Room, 13th floor, National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W.
 
The Roadmap, released last November, detailed the dangers of oil dependence, explained the benefits of electrification, described the challenges facing electric cars, and provided specific policy proposals to overcome those challenges. The EC is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale, in order to combat the economic, environmental, and national security dangers caused by our nation’s dependence on petroleum.

 
 
Contact:  National Press Club: Frank Maisano, vice-chair, NPC Newsmakers Committee (202-828-5864, frank.maisano@bgllp.com)

Sponsored by:Newsmakers Committee

Location: Zenger Room

Friday, April 16, 2010

10:00 AM  Climate Geoengineering (NPC Newsmaker)

Description:

 
Expert Panel to Detail Climate Geoengineering Challenges, Possibilities
 
 
Experts from Congress, the environmental community and academia will look at the highly-controversial topic of climate geoengineering, or looking for scientific ways to minimize the potential impacts of global warming, at National Press Club Newsmakers press conference at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 16th, in the Zenger Room, 13th floor, National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, DC.
 
With many groups advocating for emissions reductions that are likely to never emerge because of the current economic crisis and global political realities, a group of scientists and political thinkers are beginning to look at technologies once thought to be fringe, such as brightening clouds, sucking CO2 out of the air, reflecting sunlight or even creating an artificial volcano effect.  In fact, the ideas have already gained steam in Congress with House Science and Technology Committee Bart Gordon pushing legislation to authorize a federal geoengineering research program. 
 
The panel, which will focus on the potential technologies and policy challenges they will face, includes Chairman Gordon's point person, House Science panel Staff Director Christopher King; well-known environmental author Jeff Goodell (Big Coal); and former White House Council of Environmental Quality official Sam Thernstrom, now co-director of the American Enterprise Institute's Geoengineering Project.
 
 
 
Contact:  National Press Club: Frank Maisano, vice-chair, NPC Newsmakers Committee (202-828-5864, frank.maisano@bgllp.com)

Sponsored by:Newsmakers Committee

Location: Zenger Room