Monday 3/30/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
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6:35 Dr. Stanley Goldfarb – www.DoNoHarmMedicine.org Chair
Following up here on the news that the largest medical school accreditor in the nation, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), dropped its DEI requirements. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb argues in a Fox News op-ed that this is America’s biggest victory against medical DEI yet.
What’s next: Now that LCME has stopped forcing DEI, the question remains: will medical schools keep DEI or drop it?
This follows Goldfarb’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last month, urging the Trump administration to break the LCME’s accrediting monopoly by creating an alternative accreditor. Today, he reaffirms that proposal because the LCME could reverse course the moment President Trump leaves office.
Background:
- Last week, Do No Harm discovered that the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the biggest medical school accreditor, had quietly removed the remaining DEI requirements (section 7.6) from its latest standards for medical schools. Do No Harm tipped off the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news on Monday.
- In March 2025, Do No Harm released a report documenting how accreditors require DEI in healthcare education. The report specifically highlighted the LCME’s standards 3.3 and 7.6.
- In April 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order, “Reforming Accreditation To Strengthen Higher Education,” which mentioned the LCME by name.
- In May 2025, the LCME removed Standard 3.3, which required medical schools to have “programs and/or partnerships” aimed at achieving diversity. That standard was removed entirely from current and future standards; however, section 7.6 has remained in place until now.
In a major shift from its previous DEI activism, the biggest medical school accreditor in the nation has removed the remaining DEI requirements from its latest standards for medical schools, the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board reported last night: “A Welcome Setback for Medical DEI.”
7:15 Stefano Ritondale, Chief Intelligence Officer at Artorias. a threat intelligence and geopolitical risk company.
About Stefano Ritondale: Stefano has deep, firsthand operational intelligence experience on Iran and the broader Middle East / Persian Gulf region. He is a subject matter expert on the Iranian military, their operational strategies, the revolutionary guard, their global network of proxy groups, and their missile and drone projects. As the lead intelligence planner and Opposing Forces (OPFOR) analyst for the intelligence section of the 32nd Army and Air Missile Defense Command, he advised U.S. forces across multiple Middle East deployments on Iranian ballistic missile, cruise missile, and attack UAV threats. He has also worked closely with the Israeli Defense Forces and allied partners providing his expertise on the Al Ghadir Missile Command (AGMC), Iran’s ballistic missile unit. Stefano is currently the Chief intelligence Officer at Artorias.
following Iran’s rejection of America’s proposed ceasefire plan, American military assets are moving closer to a ground invasion of certain key points in Iran. There are risks involved.
8:10 Dr. Dennis Powers – www.DennisPowersBooks.com
Sid DeBoer and Lithia Motors
By Dennis Powers
Lithia Motors began as a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge dealership in Ashland, Oregon, when Walt DeBoer started the business in 1946. It was located in Ashland’s downtown Plaza, named after the town’s Lithia Springs, and a grand total of 14 cars were sold in its first year. Walt died tragically when struck by a car in 1968, and his 25-year-old son, Sid, took over running the operation. He then purchased it from his mother for $60,000.
Two years later, Dick Heimann joined Lithia after three years as a district manager for Chrysler Corporation. Working together, the two increased the business by the 1990s to 5 stores and 19 franchises (allowing dealers to sell more than one brand at the same location) in Southern Oregon. Lithia was providing parts and maintenance, repairs, finance, and warranty-credit insurance services.
Sid DeBoer had been thinking over a bigger, different strategy: He would buy car dealerships in rural communities and the smaller towns he was familiar with, and then increase their sales with the techniques he well knew. Using his existing base of five dealerships in Medford and Grants Pass, he could reach northward into Washington and southward into California, then diversify west as opportunities arose. Sid decided he would use the proceeds of an equity offering, not unpredictable bank debt. This way, he had quick funds for expansion and could lessen the problems of economic downturns.
DeBoer headed to Wall Street in 1996 with his plan and confidence. He needed this, as no one knew him: Lithia was then about the 500th largest car dealer in the country. After tireless work, he and Dick Heimann convinced the investment banking firm of Furman Selz to underwrite a public offering. In December, Lithia Motor’s offering raised $25 million for these expansion plans, and the stock began trading at $11 per share on NASDAQ. They started looking for dealerships to buy in small to medium markets with agricultural or rural ties, hometowns like Medford was.
Moving primarily through the West, Lithia grew to 30 dealerships by 1998. A network of brokers, old friends, or dealers themselves brought dealerships to Lithia’s attention. The management team then analyzed what the specific problems were for that site: for example, lack of professionalism, poor management, or store layout. If it could be fixed, the site was a potential acquisition. Lithia’s success was in its ability to bring an acquisition into sync with its other dealerships and practices, including detailed cost accounting, use of promotional pricing, and quickly changing promotions.
By the year 2000, Lithia’s dealerships were 40; ten years after the public offering, the company had 94 car dealerships in 13 states. The company was the eighth-largest car dealer in the county (of the top 125 U.S. ones) and closing in on $3 billion in annual sales. The wisdom of relying on equity, not debt, was seen when the continued, great recession of 2008 hit. Although Lithia needed to trim non-performing dealerships, its balance sheet and operations were safe.
Sid’s son, Bryan DeBoer, with years of experience at Lithia is its President and CEO, while Sid is the Founder and Chairman of the Board. In 2013, Lithia exceeded $1 billion in sales for its second quarter and headed to $4 billion in annual sales overall; by the end of 2025, it had annual revenues of near $38 billion with earnings of $825 million. Lithia had 455 stores representing 54 brands of new and used vehicles across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with its growth coming from acquisitions and “one of the best management teams in the business.” Its sales were from: “New Vehicle Sales (50%), Used Vehicle Sales (36%), Aftersales (11%), and Finance & Insurance (3%).”
Over time, Sid and Karen DeBoer with their family have been substantial philanthropists to Southern Oregon nonprofits, including guidance given on a variety of boards of directors–which we salute! The Sid and Karen DeBoer Foundation by itself supports youth-mentoring programs, hospitals, the arts, cancer research, and universities, among other worthy causes. Lithia Motors is now a Fortune 500™ company and America’s largest automotive retailers. Not bad, for starting out with 5 stores some 35 years ago—and it’s still headquartered in Medford.
Sources: Lithia Motors Website at Company Website; Oakley Brooks, “Lithia Motors: The Art of the Deal,” Oregon Business, April 2006; Edwin Battistella, “The Oregon Encyclopedia: Lithia Motors,” at its website; Greg Stiles, “Lithia CEO turns over the wheel as sales soar,” Mail Tribune, February 23, 2012; Greg Stiles, “Lithia passes $1 billion revenue plateau,” Mail Tribune, July 25, 2013.