Category: Mary Kate Smither
Capitol Police Test Segway
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2002–As U.S. Capitol Police officer Ronald Sellner cruises around, he looks just like a kid enjoying himself during a joyride on a new toy, and everyone who crowds around wants to know what it is and where they can get one.
It is the Segway Human Transporter, a personal transportation device manufactured by Segway, Dean Kamen’s Manchester company. The U.S. Capitol Police are currently testing six Segways and considering whether to add them to the department’s fleet of bicycles and motorbikes.
“It’s kind of like riding a futuristic, Roman chariot; at least that’s what people tell me when they see me riding across the [Capitol] plaza,” Officer Sellner said. “It gets you all kinds of places very quick.”
The Segway is best for short distances and is designed to allow users to travel at speeds of up to 12 mph. The electrically-charged unit can run for approximately 11 miles when fully charged, although that depends on the riding terrain and speed, Sellner said.
The units, which cost between $4000 and $5000, were leased to the department for 60 days beginning in September. Marsha Krug, deputy chief for the Capitol Police said.
With 1400 officers in the department, Krug said, the 60-day period is helpful to determine the proper application for the vehicles. Krug added that it was great for the department to be approached about using the Segway because the ability to apply new technology in the workplace is always good.
“We have a new chief of police, Terry Gainer, and he’s very interested in utilizing whatever types of technology can enhance the police department’s ability to do the job more effectively,” Krug said.
Sellner, an officer with the Capitol Police for 10 years, was one of six officers selected to test the transporters during the 60-day period. The officers received approximately eight hours of training to use the Segways and Sellner said the Segway has helped with his work because of its ability to move well on many types of terrain including dirt, hills, and grass. It also keeps officers from becoming fatigued, especially when they have to cover a lot of ground.
During the test period, the department is using the Segways outside all parts of the Capitol to find the correct application and ensure that it is tested on a variety of terrains.
“It’ll go about 12 mph, so in a normal foot chase I don’t know of any person who can go 12 mph for a very long period of time,” Sellner said. “It may take me a while to catch them, but I know I won’t be tired.”
The National Park Service, the Chicago Police Department, and the Boston EMS Department are also testing the Segways, and the Seattle Fleets and Facilities Department has recently purchased 10. The Segway can provide an enormous amount of value to day-to-day police applications, Tobe Cohen, director of marketing for Segway said.
“The object of community police is to be approachable to the public but also highly mobile, and that’s what Segway provides,” Cohen said.
Krug, who agreed, said “The nice thing about the Segway is while you’re able to move a little more quickly, you’re not moving so fast that people aren’t going to approach you; which is something the Capitol police are really proud of is our ability to talk to people and interact with the public.”
Although Krug said there is some concern about officers’ physical fitness because they are on foot less with the Segways, Cohen said that law enforcement officers use many methods of transportation, including foot patrols, to perform their jobs.
“People don’t say we shouldn’t use squad cars or fire trucks,” Cohen said. “The important thing is to accomplish their mission, and Segway helps the police to accomplish that mission.”
A decision will be made on whether to purchase the Segways for the department before the end of the year, Krug said, and funding will have to be included in next year’s budget if the department decides to purchase large numbers of Segways.
“We would love to see it become part of the system that the police use to protect the nation’s Capitol,” Cohen said. “It gives us a lot of encouragement to participate in protecting Washington D.C. and the Capitol.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
Sierra Club says Bush Administration Putting ‘Communities at Risk’
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002--The Bush administration is trying to fix something that isn't even broken, the Sierra Club said in a report released Thursday.
The report, "Leaving Our Communities at Risk," profiled 25 communities across the country, including Nashua, N.H., that will be affected by changes to the current Superfund policies and the Clean Air and Water Acts.
"This report is just the beginning of trying to hold the Bush administration accountable for their policies," said Deborah Sease, legislative director for the Sierra Club.
President Bush's administration has announced plans that the Sierra Club said in a statement "condemns many communities to more years of toxic contamination."
Sease said educating Congress, holding the Bush administration accountable and bringing public pressure to bear on the administration are additional steps being taken.
Currently, New Hampshire has 19 sites listed on the Superfund's national list for cleanup, said Catherine Corkery, a New Hampshire statehouse lobbyist for the Sierra Club. The Mohawk Tannery in Nashua, she said, has been proposed to be included on the Superfund's priority cleanup list.
According to Alice Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the New England regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Nashua Mayor Bernard Streeter lacks confidence that the Superfund is the right solution for cleaning up the tannery.
Although Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) wrote a letter in March of 2000 in support of a Superfund cleanup at the site, and Streeter initially agreed, he eventually requested that Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) delay the request until alternative methods could be explored, said Kaufman.
Cleanup of the Mohawk Tannery could cost $15 million to $20 million and take 12 to 18 months to complete under the expedited appropriations request Nashua plans to make to Congress, Streeter said. The request to Congress would be made on the recommendation of the EPA.
"We want to try the expedited route first," Streeter said. "A Superfund designation is no guarantee that a project will get done, and it could take eight to 10 years"
Part of the president's plan, the Sierra Club report said, is to let the "polluter pays" tax die. High-polluting corporations have traditionally paid the tax. Although the tax lapsed in 1995 and has not been reinstated, Bush is the first president since the enactment of the Superfund law in 1980 who has not included the tax as part of his budget.
The lack of the tax means fewer and lengthier cleanups, along with a shift of the tax burden to the taxpayer at large, said John DeVillars, the New England administrator for the EPA under the Clinton administration.
DeVillars added that without the tax, the Superfund would be forced to compete with every other federal program for the limited dollars that are available.
The Superfund, funded with $3 billion in 1995 but only $28 million in the current fiscal year, will be financed solely by American taxpayers in 2004 if the tax is not reinstated, the report said.
Additionally, the report said, the administration has announced plans to allow 17,000 major polluters, including oil refineries and chemical plants, to increase their air emissions without installing modern pollution controls, as required by the Clean Air Act.
"When I look at case after case, the Bush administration has put pollution professionals in front of environmental concerns," Sease said. "The administration is more concerned about their interests than the public's, and we need to do everything we can to stop these actions."
According to the report, President Bush has proposed reducing the EPA's workforce by 200 people during the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, thereby curtailing the agency's ability to enforce the clean air and water laws.
"I think this is a statement about their priorities," DeVillars said. "It demonstrates a lack of will and resolve for environmental laws of the country to be enforced."
The national headquarters of the EPA did not return repeated phone call requests for comment.
"The strength and the kindness of caregivers that goes into cancer patients, the recognition of the whole system, the network and the great work is really why I'm here today," Boss said.
Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), whose own mother died of breast cancer, met with Lewis and Boss during their visit on Thursday.
"I think probably everybody knows someone who has suffered from some form of cancer," Bass said in a statement. "Every effort should be made to prevent, diagnose, and provide access to affordable treatments for this difficult and often fatal disease."
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
Keene Residents Rally for Celebration on the Hill
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2002--Even amongst a sea of purple tee shirts on the National Mall, 9- year-old Aaron Boss and 10-year-old Ian Lewis-Slammon stood out with their purple hair. Like many other participants at Thursday's rally, Aaron and Ian were wearing the signature color of the American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill.
Their parents, Keene residents Jim Boss and Susan Lewis, were selected as two of New Hampshire's 10 Relay Community Ambassadors for the event.
The rally, which was held at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool, featured festive tents decorated for each state and a makeshift track with members from each state delegation walking at all times to symbolize the ongoing fight against cancer. An estimated 6,000 cancer volunteers, survivors and caregivers descended on Washington to show their commitment to the issue and to lobby their members of Congress for more funding for cancer research.
Lewis, a physician's assistant for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Keene, said she has often delivered a diagnosis of cancer to her patients and felt it was important to attend the event because she would like to see more access for patient care, screening, and improved care for minorities.
"My biggest motivation for being here as a healthcare provider is that without research and funding, we're not going to find a cure," Lewis said. "I'm also here in memory of my friends, family and patients who have had cancer or passed away, and I really want to make a difference."
Ian Lewis-Slammon brought photos of Emma Furlone, a five-year leukemia survivor, to show to legislators during his visit. Emma has been a classmate of Ian's for the last five years.
"The point of this event is to show the power of people," said Peg Camp, chief operating officer for the New England division of the American Cancer Society. "We want to put positive pressure on our legislators to recognize that there are issues related to cancer that they need to pay attention to."
Camp said the goal of the Celebration on the Hill, the kickoff for an 18-month campaign, is to influence Congress to provide increased funding for the National Institute of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Center on Minority Health and the Centers for Disease Control.
The American Cancer Society also hopes to have the Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Act passed by Congress this year, Camp said. Under this act, privately insured patients would receive the same access to colorectal cancer screenings that Medicare patients currently receive.
Jim Boss, who has been involved with the Relay for Life for 10 years and co-chaired the annual Keene relay with Lewis, said he first became an active volunteer after his father died from colorectal and liver cancer in 1983.
"This event is going to really show our leaders in Washington that there are so many people who are in it for the long run and Mr. Bush [George W.] said the other day in a letter that the only way to win the war on cancer is to fund it, and there are some critical money issues that are coming up," said Boss.
His focus with the American Cancer Society over the last few years has been on behalf of survivors like his mother and all of the others who have been left behind after the loss of a loved one.
"The strength and the kindness of caregivers that goes into cancer patients, the recognition of the whole system, the network and the great work is really why I'm here today," Boss said.
Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.), whose own mother died of breast cancer, met with Lewis and Boss during their visit on Thursday.
"I think probably everybody knows someone who has suffered from some form of cancer," Bass said in a statement. "Every effort should be made to prevent, diagnose, and provide access to affordable treatments for this difficult and often fatal disease."
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Low-Income Housing Remains Unaffordable
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2002--Although the minimum wage in Cheshire County is holding steady, low-income workers in the county must make more money this year to afford a two-bedroom apartment, a new study says.
The annual "Out of Reach" report, released Wednesday by The National Low Income Housing Coalition, a group that advocates more low-income housing, revealed that while the federal minimum wage remains at $5.15, the hourly wage needed by a low-income family in Cheshire County to afford a modest two-bedroom rental apartment is $14.15, a 6.09 percent increase from last year.
Minimum-wage earners must work 110 hours per week to afford the cost of the two-bedroom apartment, the report said.
A low-income family in Cheshire County is classified as a household that earns no more than 30 percent of the county's median income of $48,300, or $14,490.
"For the fourth year in a row, there is no city or county in the nation where a minimum-wage earner can afford to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment," Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) said at a Capitol Hill press conference where the report was released.
Martha Yager, project manager for the New Hampshire Housing Forum, a low-income housing advocacy group, agreed and said that in New Hampshire the "gap continues to get bigger and bigger" between the minimum wage and the hourly wage needed to afford the fair market rent.
" 'Out of Reach' backs with concrete data what the daily experience of low-income people tells us is true: We have a very serious housing affordability problem here in New Hampshire," Yager said.
Yager added that New Hampshire, which uses the federal minimum wage standard, has the lowest minimum wage among all New England states and that 38 percent of residents hold jobs in sectors paying less than $10 per hour.
"It's a real myth that it's just kids who work minimum-wage jobs," Yager said.
Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who also spoke at the press conference Wednesday, is sponsoring a bill that would establish a new fund dedicated to affordable housing. "This report tells us two things," Sanders said. "First, that the Congress has got to increase the minimum wage. And second. that the federal government has got to pour billions and billions of dollars into affordable housing to address one of the major crises that exists from one end of the nation to another."
The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund that Sanders proposed would address the affordable housing issue in three ways -- production of new affordable housing, preservation of existing affordable housing and new homeownership opportunities for low-income families.
The legislation is necessary, Sanders said, because "it is absurd that millions of Americans have to make the choice between putting a roof over their heads or feeding their families. That is not what this country should be about."
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) also attended the press conference and said it is vital to continue pushing for legislation because "the argument that all you need to achieve a quality of life in America is a strong private sector is dead wrong."
Frank added that if Democrats win control of Congress in November, legislation could be enacted into law next year.
"We will continue to make this fight this year and next year, and I believe given the reality and the extent to which you have been vocalizing and the response we have been getting, that we're going to win this fight," Frank said.
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Delegation Reacts Favorably to Bush’s U.N. Speech
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2002--New Hampshire's all-Republican congressional delegation reacted with overwhelming support to President George W. Bush's speech on Iraq yesterday before the United Nations General Assembly.
"President Bush has my unwavering support in his effort to bring about a change in leadership in Iraq and wipe out terrorism," Rep. Charles Bass said in a statement. "Saddam Hussein is a destabilizing force in the Middle East and poses a serious threat to the United States and the rest of the world."
Throughout his speech, Bush alluded to potential military action against Iraq, saying that if conditions are not met, action will become unavoidable. "My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council on a new resolution to meet our common challenge," he said. "If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account."
Sen. Judd Gregg called Hussein "a thug and an international criminal" and said it is the obligation of the United States to lead the free world and the U.N. community. Gregg said that although he hopes Bush's speech will promote support from the United Nations, "protecting our national security is something we should always be willing to go alone."
Bush's conditions for a new U.N. resolution include Iraq's disclosing the locations of or destroying all weapons of mass destruction, ending persecution of its civilian population, releasing or accounting for all Gulf War personnel and ending illicit trade outside of the oil-for-food program.
Rep. John Sununu said he appreciated Bush's clarity, force and directness throughout his speech, and supports Bush's assertions that Iraq must meet conditions set forth by the United Nations.
He added that his views on action against Iraq would not be influenced by his Senate campaign against Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat. "This isn't about politics, this is about doing what's in the nation's best interest," Sununu said. "I hope that every member of Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, will give the President the benefit of the doubt to propose an option regarding Hussein and Iraq and then weigh that option," he said.
Gregg, who said he believes the president soon will ask Congress to act, agreed with Sununu.
In a statement, Sen. Bob Smith pledged his support to Bush and said the president made a strong case against Iraq for its violation of U.N. resolutions.
"We cannot afford to wait to let Saddam Hussein build weapons of mass destruction to use against our forces deployed overseas or to commit terrorist acts on U.S. soil," Smith said.
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
