U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta will be the guest as Perfectly Clear returns for a second season at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, on WROC-TV Channel 8.

The 30-minute public affairs series, modeled after PBS's The McLaughlin Group, is hosted by Curt Smith, senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester, former presidential speechwriter, and WROC-TV political analyst, and is sponsored by the University of Rochester's College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering.

"We are delighted to again welcome Upstate New York's finest public affairs series," said WROC vice president Tim Busch. "No regional show matches its well-known guests. We expect the program to attract the same response as it did a year ago."

Last year, Perfectly Clear's guests included former President George Bush, New York Governor George Pataki, and then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Mineta, the first of many 2001-2002 guests, will discuss airport security, airplane safety, and America in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorism.

Future guests will include former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former CNBC chief economist Lawrence Kudlow, famed pollster John Zogby, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ben Cramer, and Academy Award-winning producer Deborah Oppenheimer.

Each week Perfectly Clear will explore local and national subjects with regular panelists, including many University of Rochester faculty, administrators, alumni, and other friends. Highlights and panelists may be viewed on the web at www.curtsmithusa.com.