- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by United Airlines.

Connecting people, uniting the world.

Fedway Associates, Inc.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

MD Advantage Insurance Company.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

The Adler Aphasia Center, enriching the lives of people with aphasia, their families, and communities.

Johnson & Johnson.

And by Caldwell University.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by AM970 The Answer.

[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato.

We are taping on the 17th of November, you'll see that information up on the screen but we are joined right now by Dr. Jessie Wilt.

Department Chair of Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Summit Medical Group.

Good to see you doctor.

- Good to see you Steve - By the way we're just making clear the reason Dr. Wilt is holding that microphone is to make sure our audio is good, but way more important than our audio right now, as we tape this program, the twin-demic, flu season, COVID going into 2021.

What should most people or all of us be looking for and concerned about?

- So thankfully, most of the community here in New Jersey and around the country has prepared themselves for this season ahead.

The steps we're taking to control COVID are one in the same with the steps we need to do to control flu.

Keep that face covered, keep those hands clean and maintain social distance.

These two viruses are spread by very similar mechanisms, respiratory droplets, high concentration in the nasal passages.

So that's why you hear people really making sure to tell patients and people around the state get that mask up over your nose.

This is where the virus spreads.

In the event that you come into contact with a person or a surface that could be contaminated with either of these viruses, focusing on your hand hygiene, keeping the hands clean, sanitized and away from the face are all the steps we need to take that are gonna be the most effective steps in addition to what most of New Jerseyans have pursued, is getting their flu shots.

- Do me a favor, pull that microphone a little closer as we keep talking about it.

Well, let me ask you this.

We were joking that our kids at Seton Hall prep, your son a senior, my son a junior, but you talked about how to wear the mask.

At what point are we going to get to the point where virtually all Americans see the mask, not as a political statement, but as a sign, not just of protecting oneself but out of respect to others, no?

- We'll get there.

As this virus, unfortunately, we were the epicenter in March and April.

The rest of the country didn't see or feel what we felt here in New Jersey.

We learned an early lesson.

Unfortunately, rates have increased and bloomed across the country.

Not sparing any state as most Americans encounter either first or second hand, a dear friend, a loved one suffering from the ravages of this condition.

That's going to be high motivation to continue to pursue a mask as a self protection mechanism.

We haven't had riots over children wearing bike helmets or or us wearing seat belts.

People will get there.

- Let's talk, protecting ourselves in terms of our mental health.

Our emotional and mental health.

Exercise is critically important, correct?

- Yes, absolutely.

We talk about the five elements of self wellness that are beyond your pharmacy, beyond your prescriptions and we talk about sleep, hydration, nutrition, fitness and mental wellness.

People can sleep too much, laying around in bed, becoming lackadaisical, and as the weather turns colder, I mean, you saw it.

I saw it.

The streets were full of people, dogs, children, bikes but we're heading into winter.

We need to keep up that conditioning.

We need to keep up that walking and we need to support it with healthful nutrition.

A lot of people unfortunately dug into some deep, bad habits, either with sugars or alcohols.

We need to stay away from that.

Alcohol itself actually erodes your sleep quality.

- Real quick, a couple, about a minute left or so.

Any over the counter medicines that you advocate that will help us with our immune systems.

- So there are a lot of trials out there, but one of the best is a supplemental vitamin C up to a thousand milligrams twice a day is a healthy.

- Took mine this morning with that echinacea.

Am I doing the right thing?

- You're doing the right thing.

We don't want to hyper dose above those doses.

We can get a lot of irritation from the acid in the vitamin C of the lining of the stomach.

So yeah, that's one of the safest in addition to your nutrition and hydration - Real quick, gyms, who the heck knows, as people watch this open, close, we don't know.

Best way is to exercise in your home, even if it's a small space.

- Yes, so if you go to any of the online platforms where individual artists, there are an enormous amount of fitness professionals that have put free content to video, through platforms such as YouTube and others that literally are called the no equipment home workout.

They're going to run you through a 20 or 30 minutes series of exercises that are going to preserve heart rate, strength, core strength, flexibility, agility all the things we need to do to keep living well through this time.

- Hey Dr. Wilt, in five and a half minutes you gave more valuable information than some folks can find in a lot of other media outlets let's say.

I want to thank Dr. Jesse Wilt, Department Chair Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Summit Medical Group Dr. Wilt, best to you and your family and your colleagues, all the best.

- Thank you Steve, you too.

- I'm Steve Adubato, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by one of my favorite bankers, favorite people Lucia DiNapoli Gibbons, is the Metro New York/New Jersey Division Executive of Commercial Banking at Wells Fargo.

Good to see my friend.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

The highlight of my day.

- It has been way too long.

But let's do this.

You're functioning, you're working you're getting things done.

But my question is this, you and I have talked about leadership for a couple decades.

How challenging is it leading in the banking world these days?

- We could change that question to how challenging is it to lead in this COVID environment?

You know, Steve, look, I've read all your books and I've followed all your advice over the years.

And you know, it's about staying connected to people, right?

And doing it in different ways.

One of the benefits I had was for the last six years I was running a business up and down the East.

And certainly I was traveling to see people, but more often than not, I was doing meetings via, some type of technology and via the phone.

So I'm very, very comfortable with it.

So it's about making connections with people.

More often than not allowing some space for them to talk about, how they're feeling and how everything that's happening is impacting them.

You know, me, I love leadership.

So it's been great to exercise those skills to help people during this time.

- But you also love connecting with people and that's a big part of who you are and your success.

So I'm also curious about this, dramatically since say let's say Friday, March 13th, 2020.

How has the banking industry changed?

- It's interesting.

So first I would say, we were making major investments in technology platforms and people pre-COVID.

All of that is accelerated dramatically, because consumers and businesses have really adopted all of those new tools out of necessity.

So those investments are accelerating.

So I'd say banks are becoming more like technology companies than anything else.

The other interesting thing Steve- - Sure go ahead.

- Is that despite, low to no interest rate environment, banks are awash in deposits right now because the savings rate for both consumers and businesses is up.

People are stowing away the rainy day fund, right.

Which is a really, really good thing.

And then lastly, I would say now more than ever our customers and prospects need us, they need our insight, our advice, our credit, tools and technology to help them get through this pandemic and hopefully to a much brighter future.

- You know, let's do this.

First of all, I want to say that Wells Fargo, one of the significant supporters of what we do and have been supporting public broadcasting for a long time.

But part of that and the cumulative community goes to this Open for Business fund.

What is the Open for Business fund and why should the average person care about it, Lucia?

- I'm so excited that our company has done this.

So the Open for Business fund was created with the $400 million in fees collected through making PPP loans, right?

Which are helping businesses get through this pandemic.

And right here in New Jersey, we have funded, I'm gonna look down just for a second.

It's the Greater Newark Enterprise Corporation for 250,000, and the Union County Economic Development Corporation for 500,000.

We're supporting nonprofits that are supporting minority owned businesses.

So I'm excited that we've done that.

- Why?

- It matters.

Listen, in order for our business to thrive, businesses and people have to thrive, and you know this Steve.

Small businesses have been so hard hit by what's happened during the course of the past year.

We have to do everything we can to make sure that businesses survive and get through and that people survive and get through.

Otherwise what good is our business?

We're only as good as the communities that we serve.

- Along those lines it's so interesting Lucia, we've talked to many business leaders, small business, big business, medium sized business, talk about their struggles, challenges.

Philosophical but relevant question.

How much do you believe the government is responsible for helping... You talked about what your bank is doing, other banks doing important things as well.

Do you believe the government, has an important role to help business during these very tough times?

- I absolutely believe.

I believe everyone has a role.

Certainly government has a role.

The Paycheck Protection Program- - That's right.

- Was good for small business.

And we played a huge role in that.

There are companies though that are not going to survive, right?

Infection rates are spiking again, and consumers and businesses need another injection of funds, some of them to help survive what's happening.

So it would be great to see the government come together and decide on a second stimulus program.

I will tell you that from an economic perspective the forecast that we're making, don't assume that because it's so uncertain at this point.

- Lucia, do not assume that, you do not assume that.

- Don't assume, we do not assume that.

It's too uncertain at this point.

It's too uncertain at this point.

- So you know, 30 seconds left, you used the word uncertainty.

What is the impact of the tremendous amount of uncertainty in having to make the business decisions that you and your colleagues have to make every day?

- So I would say, let me, I'm gonna turn that around and say that businesses really stood in place for a while given the great uncertainty.

We have more certainty now, Steve, we're closer to a vaccine and therapeutics that we've ever been.

And we are seeing certain customers that are doing well take advantage of opportunities by making acquisitions, buying real estate.

Doing those kinds of things if they have wherewithal to do it because people are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But again, there's the have nots that are not in that place, and they are ensuring that they have liquidity, and working with us to ensure that liquidity, so that they can get through the other side.

- Well said, by the way, I remind folks as we talk to Lucia was taken on the 17th of November, it will be seeing the rest of this year into 2021.

So the vaccine, right.

That is safe, that is accessible and people get it.

Hey, Lucia, it's great seeing you.

Next time, we'll see each other in person in a studio, God willing and we'll talk that way, thank you, Lucia.

- I look forward to it Steve, thank you so much.

- You got it, we're right back right after this.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by a good friend, Steve Swetsky the executive director, New Jersey Education Association.

Good to see you Steve.

- Good to be here, Steve.

Thanks for having me on.

- We're actually taping on November the fifth, there was a convention the NJEA Convention.

It's virtual this year going on a lot of years, over a hundred years, but it's virtual.

What's the biggest difference for you Steve?

Virtual in-person, a convention?

- So I mean, just the being able to be with people talk to people, bump into them.

This morning I did, you know we did our opening and we have a virtual main street which you've been at the convention before.

So you know that we have an area where members kinda join together for the organization.

And so I took a walk down the virtual main street and it was amazing.

You know, I bumped into rooms, there were members in there they were conversing and engaging.

And those weren't either the workshop rooms the workshop rooms are all happening, you know on our virtual third and fourth floors of the center.

These are just our places where our members gather.

And so while it's different, it's an opportunity, right?

And one thing we're seeing, we're seeing lots of members participating in our events, not just convention but throughout the year now who really haven't had the opportunity before.

Being able to access things and participate virtually, is becoming second nature to everyone.

- You know, Steve, last year when we were in Atlantic City for the convention, interviewed you and your colleagues a big theme around racial justice, right?

Racial, social justice, the themes this year.

I think I mentioned social justice, education justice equal student success.

Give us a concrete example, Steve, of what we mean by social justice, education justice, or injustice put it out there.

- Well, I think we're seeing that right now throughout New Jersey, as schools are in 600 different versions of instruction.

Some with students in classrooms some completely remote, some in hybrid models.

And the virtual aspect of this is really exposing even more than we've talked about before kinda the haves and the have-nots of who has access, who has the tools, right?

Who has a place in their house to go to school.

And so it's, I think really exposing a whole new part of public education in ways that we, right now everybody's peddling really quick just to keep up and do what they need to do.

When this all clears, I think we really should sit down for a conversation about how all of this connects and how public education is the connector.

- Steve, here's my question.

You know, whether it's State of Affairs or Think Tank our two public policy programs, I keep asking myself from a public policy point of view, right?

What do you believe, quote, education justice should look like A and B, are those policy decisions that have to be made?

- Yeah, I think they are policy decisions that have to be made.

- Such us?

- I mean, you know, it's equity, it's funding, it's school facilities, you know, all of these pieces that make schools that are not equitable throughout New Jersey.

New Jersey is a segregated state one of the most segregated States in the country.

And so while we have the top ranked school system, public school system in the country, if you dig a little deeper in there, you'll find, again, a lot of places where there are haves and there are have-nots.

And those are the things that we should talk about and it's gotta be policy.

I mean, that's where you bring everybody together on those policy issues.

- But Steve is that largely, by the way let me disclose the NJEA one of our longtime educational partners and underwriter of what we do when it comes to educational programming.

But I'm curious about this.

How much of those policy decisions do you believe come out of the State House versus local boards of education and, or both?

- I think it's both.

And I think it comes down to resources and it comes down to wealthier communities that have more resources than less wealthy communities.

And so then you get the state involved in that conversation and the legislature involved in that conversation via funding via the lawsuits that have gone on in New Jersey over a period of 30 years in terms of the Abbott decisions and the various versions of that which are all designed to bring equity into the public education sphere and acknowledge where it doesn't exist and provide resources to make things better in those areas.

- By the way, let's be clear.

I asked Steve about the State House whether it's the legislature, the governor combination of the two, the department of education Steve just made reference to a school funding ongoing issue about school funding from the State which comes from the income tax in our state largely in local property taxes.

He made reference to the Abbott decision.

I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole but I'll just say this, he's making it clear that the Supreme Court and the State has a key role to play when it comes to seeking racial, social and educational justice.

Am I overstating that Steve?

- No, not at all.

I mean, I think the Supreme Court has ruled in many cases over the years and what the court typically does though is turn it back to the legislature, turn it back to the administration to implement pieces.

- Back and forth and back and forth.

Why is that Steve?

- You know, I guess it comes down to resources I guess it comes down to the amount of those funding resources that are available and how they're distributed and how that impacts everyone.

And so it's not as simple-- - And priorities, how high has priority is public education and our public school students, is ultimately the question that seems to me, no?

- Yeah, absolutely.

We're seeing again right now, you know in all of the preparations to return to school.

Ventilation, right, big issue.

And there we find that even in our more well-to-do districts school buildings are just not constructed to be, you know, kinda year round.

They're not air conditioned in many cases.

Then you turn to some of our more urban areas where schools in those places are a hundred or more years old.

And now we talk about safe schools and how do we bring students into those and staff by the way, into those schools in a safe way, in the midst of a pandemic, the likes that we've never experienced before.

- The issues that Steve Swetsky is raising we will continue to examine from a policy perspective, from a human perspective.

And most of all, in terms of teachers and students in that classroom or in a remote fashion.

Hey, Steve thanks so much for joining us from the convention remotely.

- Glad to be here, thanks, Steve.

- We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- Back by popular demand he's with us, he's Tom Weatherall, who is in fact President, CEO of Make-A-Wish New Jersey.

Good to see you, Tom.

- Great seeing you, Steve.

- Describe Make-A-Wish in the age of Covid.

- In the age of Covid.

Well, Steve, on one hand our mission hasn't changed.

We create life changing wishes for children with chronic illnesses.

We're still doing what we've always done.

What we've been doing for the last 37 years.

Here in New Jersey, advancing our mission, so against some assumptions, perhaps, over the last several months that we've been curtailed, we haven't, Steve.

We have still been granting wishes ever since this came to our shores, this Covid, came to our shores, and changed to turn all our lives here upside down in New Jersey, and nationally, and globally.

Wishes have still been going on.

How could they not?

Right, Steve?

You know our mission as well as anybody, being such a dear friend to us for so long.

We can't cancel hope.

Kids are still being diagnosed with illnesses, and life-changing medical conditions.

Despite the fact that Covid is here.

And so, our board, our staff, our donor base, all of our constituents, including past Wish families, especially as well, who have been though the experience have all picked up, stepped up, and are helping us to carry on.

And, still grant wishes.

- Tom, do this for us.

Young boy named Nico, 15 years of age.

If we we're together in a studio, and we had more time, we can talk more about it, but who's Nico?

And, describe this fascinating shopping spree.

- Ha ha ha.

I'd love to, Steve.

What a special young man this guy is.

So, Nico, 15 years old, from Howell, New Jersey down here, in Monmouth County, battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and when we turned to Nico, and asked, if you could have one wish, what would it be?

His answer, he knew immediately.

He wanted an online shopping spree.

He wanted a Playstation, a new Mac laptop, and a new iPhone.

But, he didn't stop there, Steve.

He wanted to set aside some of the funds, to pay it forward.

He's being treated at Hackensack Meridian's, wonderful Hovnanian Children's Hospital, over in Neptune.

And, he's been in and out of the hospital over time.

But, he was so grateful to the care that he received there, that his family received there, that he wanted to pay it forward, and so with his shopping spree, he sent over a Playstation.

Well, actually he delivered a Playstation, and a large screen TV for the hospital to set it up, to be installed in one of their lounges, so that other kids, who were also hospitalized like him, can experience something to break up the treatment protocols when they're there in the hospital, break up the monotony that occurs.

- Sounds like an extraordinary young man.

- He is.

I was there, we held a press conference back, a couple of months ago.

I witnessed it.

All of us who were there were moved by Nico, and you know, he recently underwent a relapse, though.

And, he's currently awaiting some more tests.

He'll go for a PET scan in the next short time, upcoming.

They're hopeful that they'll receive some good news, and but, he'll be back in the hospital for a STEM cell transplant later this month as well.

- The entire public television family, our prayers, thoughts for Nico.

Do this Tom, your website's been up throughout the entire segment, tell folks how they can help make a wish right now.

- You know Steve, right now the best was to help us is by making a donation.

NJ.wish.org Go to our website.

Thank you for showing it, Steve.

And, hit donate.

Make a donation.

Whatever amount.

All of those dollars are so important to us, so valuable.

Whatever the dollar size might be.

- Tom, so we'll put this up there, the website will be up there, people should follow up.

And Tom, as you told our producers is true, hope is not canceled during Covid.

Hey Tom Weatherall, thank you my friend.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you for always giving us, lending us your platform to share our mission.

- Any time.

That's Tom, I'm Steve.

Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by United Airlines.

Fedway Associates, Inc.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

MD Advantage Insurance Company.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

The Adler Aphasia Center, Johnson & Johnson.

And by Caldwell University.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by AM970 The Answer.

- Hi.

I'm Governor Tom Kean.

A dear friend of mine had aphasia, which is a language disorder that occurs from a brain injury or a stroke.

It robs a person's ability to communicate, but it doesn't affect their intellect.

Programs and services offered at the Adler Aphasia Center help to improve my friend's communication skills, as well as her self confidence and quality of life.

Most importantly, she was among people who understood her.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with aphasia, there is hope.