Category: Riley Yates-Doerr
N.H. Natives Worry Over Sniper Attacks
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2002–Claremont native Shanon Angielski said Thursday that for a brief moment she felt she had had enough.
“Let’s move back to New Hampshire,” Angielski told her husband while they talked Thursday morning about the recent sniper attacks that have resulted in at least six deaths in the Washington metropolitan area.
She does not really intend to move back to New Hampshire. But the shootings, which have followed on the heels of last year’s Pentagon attack and the anthrax scare, has made the city seem a lot less safe than New Hampshire, she said.
“In New Hampshire, you assume [guns are] for hunting,” said Angielski, who works here for an energy and government policy law firm.
Knowing there is a killer out there targeting people doing everyday chores, she said, has led her to worry as she goes about her daily life. Going to pick up dinner no longer feels safe. Walking down the street, she said, she feels nervous at times.
“Everybody’s a target, so it could be you,” she explained.
“I look around me a lot,” she added. “I seem to hurry back and forth.”
Her feelings are shared by Nashua-born Virginia Wilbert, a legislative assistant to Rep. Charlie Bass.
The other day Wilbert was jogging along the National Mall. “I did notice that I was turning my head more, which is silly. But you can’t help it,” she said.
Wilbert said that the day after last week’s shooting spree that left five dead, House officials passed around a packet with tips for coping with the attacks.
The decision to give the packet out indicated how many people are affected by the attacks, Wilbert said. And on the Hill, she noted, people feel a lot safer than in the suburbs, where the attacks have been occurring.
For Francis Bouchard, who left Concord for Washington 14 years ago, it is his two children for whom he feels most concerned.
“I fear [more] for my children than for my own safety,” Bouchard, who works for a global financial services lobbying company.
He said the shootings have resulted in a real disruption of his kids’ everyday lives. “They can’t go out to recess anymore,” he said, because for security reasons schools no longer allow students to go outside.
Not having recess affects them, Bouchard said, which in turn affects the entire family.
Bouchard said, however, that it was possible to overplay the tension Washington-area residents feel.
“We’re certainly not in hysterics. We’re certainly not in lockdown mode. But you just kind of watch yourself,” he said.
And Bouchard said he did not feel that New Hampshire was necessarily any safer.
“This kind of psychotic can be found anywhere,” he said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Town Sewage Facilities Struggle to Meet EPA Standards
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2002--While President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency are calling this "The Year of Clean Water," wastewater treatment plants in some New Hampshire municipalities are struggling to meet pollution guidelines set by the federal government.
Sewer systems in several towns across the state repeatedly failed to keep the amount of pollutants they released into neighboring streams within levels that are set by the EPA, according to a study recently released here by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), a liberal lobbying group that focuses on environment and consumer issues.
The study was based on EPA documents from 1999 to 2001 that U.S. PIRG obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Seventeen New Hampshire municipalities and companies violated EPA standards. Ten of those violators were community wastewater treatment plants including those in Jaffrey, Claremont, and Exeter.
The most common violation came when the plants released more copper into neighboring waters than they are allowed. High copper levels typically are the result of houses that have old, corroding plumbing, Mike Fedak, the senior enforcing agent for the New England EPA, said. Industries that discharge their used water into their local sewer system can also contribute to the problem.
Copper, even in minuscule doses, can kill small aquatic organisms, which form the base of river food chains. "If you don't have the microorganism there, then the fish can't eat them, and it messes up the whole food chain," Fedak said.
While the safety level for copper in drinking water is 1,300 milligrams per liter, the standards are far more stringent, 20 milligrams per liter, for water released into streams, said Fedak.
"It's very difficult to get down to the level we're talking about," he said.
And for municipal governments, already reeling from a nationwide economic decline, it can be an expensive proposition to meet the EPA standards.
"Most people here aren't anti-environmental," Jonathan Sistare, the Jaffrey town manager said. "But there comes a time when it's too much… If the water is good enough for people to drink, it should be good enough for the rivers. You can tell I'm not very happy, but it's just too much to ask a small town to do."
Jaffrey, located on the headwaters of the Contoocook River in southwestern New Hampshire, had nine violations in the three-year period covered in the U.S. PIRG report. Several violations were several hundred times the EPA limit.
The town has spent over $2 million since 1996 upgrading its treatment facility which serves 750 people. By 2005, Sistare said, the town expects to have spent nearly $6 million.
In order to pay for those improvements, Jaffrey had to issue more than $4 million in municipal bonds and soon the interest payments will choke the $500,000 wastewater management budget, he said. "It's going to be 50 percent of our budget just to meet the debt payment," Sistare said.
While Fedak acknowledges that it can be costly for towns to upgrade their facilities he said the EPA must ensure that its guidelines are met. "We recognize that municipalities are in a sort of financial crisis," he said.
So far, of all of the state's municipalities violating the standards, only Claremont has been asked by the EPA to make changes, Fedak said.
Located in eastern New Hampshire near the Sugar River, Claremont was asked in September to submit a statement detailing where the high levels of copper are coming from and how they can be reduced. The city has been given 455 days to respond, Fedak said, which he considers more than enough time.
Claremont had 10 copper release violations over U.S. PIRG's three-year period. On three of those occasions, the city exceeded its emissions standards by a factor of more than 100.
While Claremont is a community facing difficulty meeting the standards, others have managed to fix their treatment problems and comply with the EPA standards.
One success story is Exeter, near the Squamscott River in southeastern New Hampshire. After nine violations in three years, Exeter finished upgrading its sewer system in January, extending the sewer pipeline further into the river and giving it several points of release, which allows copper to be diffused throughout a much larger area.
The project cost $700,000 at a time when "all budgets are tight," Victoria Del Greco of Exeter Public Works said, but since then there have been no violations.
Josh Irwin, the director of the Concord-based New Hampshire Public Interest Research Group, said he hoped the study would help to ensure that other towns were brought into compliance with EPA standards.
"These are not facilities that have a great deal of resources," he said. "That's not to say they shouldn't be held to the same standards as everyone else, [however]."
Other municipalities named as repeat offenders in the report include Keene, Lincoln, Milford and Newmarket.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Has Lowest Crime Rate in Nation
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2002--New Hampshire has the least crime per capita in the nation, its already low rate falling 4.5 percent last year, according to a study that the FBI made public this week.
Crime rates in New Hampshire were about 45 percent lower than the national average. About 2,321 crimes were committed in 2001 per 100,000 New Hampshire inhabitants, compared to a national average of about 4,160 per 100,000, the study said.
In violent crime, New Hampshire's rate also fell, going down 3 percent, keeping New Hampshire among the five lowest states in that category. For both violent and total crime rates, the Granite State bucked a national trend that saw small increases in those categories.
Ted Kirkpatrick, the director of the University of New Hampshire's Justiceworks, an applied research center on crime and criminal justice, credited the "connectivity" of New Hampshire communities as a key factor in the state's current and historically low crime rates.
New Hampshire has remained a relatively stable community in the past decade, Fitzpatrick said, with its population growth and demographic change remaining smaller than those of its neighbors.
The result is that most people in the state are emotionally and financially tied to where they live. "The more connected people are to their neighborhoods," Fitzpatrick said, "the less invasive is crime."
Kirkpatrick said other factors also played a role in the state's low crime rate. Part of the reason probably lies in New England's regional attitude, he said, adding that unlike in the South, there is no "culture of violence" stemming from the legacy of slavery and segregation.
Relatively high income levels, as well as low unemployment rates, also contribute, Kirkpatrick said.
Murray Straus, a UNH professor of sociology, said that despite the state's economic stability, crime rates will rise in the next few years. "We're certainly very likely to experience them also," he said.
In general, New Hampshire lags behind national trends but does not buck them altogether, Straus explained. With unemployment and population growing in the past few years - even if less than in other states - a rise in crime necessarily follows, he said.
Cities on the southeastern coast such as Somersworth, Portsmouth and Hampton may already show population growth's impact on crime rates, Fitzpatrick said. They had the highest crime rates of New Hampshire cities, probably because of their recent population boom, he said.
"There's more change that's taking place (there)," he said. "With growth comes crime. You have more opportunity for [it], at very least."
Hanover had the lowest overall crime rate among cities in the state in 2001, one-fourth the rate in Lebanon, which had the highest.
Kirkpatrick said Hanover's low crime rate reflects the community's homogeneity and constantly low unemployment. "It's a historically bucolic, Norman Rockwell town. It's as close to mainstream America as you can get," he said.
The only possible area of concern for New Hampshire in the FBI report was its high number of reported rapes, the state ranking 18thworst in the nation in that category.
But analysts said they were unsure whether this reflected a tendency toward increased willingness on the part of victims to report to police that they had been raped, or whether the crime actually had been committed more often.
"Are we doing well or not so well?" Nicole Tower, the director of the YWCA crisis service in Manchester, said. "This is a difficult question to answer."
Tower said she guessed the high number of rape reports was probably a positive statistic, however. "Certainly New Hampshire has well-written (rape) laws," she said. "I think this state is moving forward. It is a state that is aware."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sununu Urges Passage of Iraq Resolution
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Oct. 09, 2002--Rep. John Sununu, in a Wednesday floor address, reiterated his support of President Bush's handling of the Iraq situation, urging colleagues to vote for the Iraq resolution authorizing the use of force against that country.
Sununu said the United States has been driven toward war by the belligerency of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"We are a peaceful nation," Sununu said, that has been "exceedingly patient" with Saddam Hussein. "But to date we have failed."
He said the restrictions the Iraqi regime has put on weapons inspectors prevents the United States from effectively discovering Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The threat of war may change the Iraqi leader's stance, however, Sununu said.
"Only when military action is imminent does the Iraqi regime even discuss allowing inspectors to return," he noted.
Sununu said he, like many, hopes to avoid war if possible.
"Neither I, not any member of this body, would like to see renewed conflict in Iraq," Sununu said.
But America cannot afford to fall prey to Iraq's delaying tactics, Sununu added, because Iraq soon may have greatly enhanced its weapons programs.
"If we wait until Iraq succeeds in achieving [weapons of mass destruction]," Sununu said, "we will have waited too long."
He said in the interest of protecting American lives and addressing the threat to global peace, the United States should be willing to fight Iraq even if the United Nations refuses to support it.
The actions of the Iraqi regime more than justify America's acting alone, Sununu said, reciting the now-familiar litany of abuses of which Bush has accused Saddam Hussein, including the violation of U.N. resolutions signed at the end of the Persian Gulf War and his treatment of ethnic minorities within his own country.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Sen. Judd Gregg also highlighted the harshness of the Iraqi regime, as have most members of both chambers during this week's debate on the Iraq resolution.
The other members of the all-Republican New Hampshire delegation, Sen. Bob Smith Rep. Charlie Bass, were also planning to speak this week. Jim Martin, Bass's spokesman, said Bass may have to submit testimony for the record, however, due to the high number of House members still wishing to appear on the floor.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Group Highlights Diesel Danger
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Oct. 03, 2002--One in 3,250 New Hampshire residents may get cancer because of outdoor air pollution, with most of that risk produced by diesel soot in the air, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer rights watchdog.
That puts New Hampshire well below the national average of one in 2,100.and puts it 28th among the 49 states (excluding Alaska) covered in the survey of potential cancer risk from air pollution.
The Clean Air Act of 1990 established the margin of safety for cancer risk from carcinogens at one in 1 million, said the study, which used Environmental Protection Agency data. The New Hampshire rate is 308 times higher than that standard.
The study blamed diesel emissions for much of the outdoor air pollution. In New Hampshire, the study said, diesel soot produces 88 percent of the carcinogens in the air.
More than half of diesel soot pollution comes from construction, industrial and farm vehicles that do not use the roads, the study said.
Emissions standards for those vehicles are much more lax than the standards for other vehicles, Emily Figdore, the clean air advocate for U.S. PIRG, said at a press conference Thursday.
The EPA in 2001 required that diesel fuel emissions for trucks and buses be reduced by 90 percent by 2010, Figdore said. They should ask the same of non-road diesel vehicles, she said.
"We see a great urgency to cleaning up these engines," Figdore said.
Josh Irwin, the director of the New Hampshire PIRG, agreed, and said he hoped the Bush administration would maintain the EPA's 2010 deadline for reducing truck and bus emissions.
Irwin suggested that New Hampshire work on its own to adopt more rigorous clean vehicle standards similar to those in place in most other New England states.
He said the current emissions standards in New Hampshire are "locked in place" until 2007. But, he added, "if we're going to move to that tougher standard, we're going to have to start working on it now."
He said that given New Hampshire's location and size, though, federal regulations are required, since much of New Hampshire's pollution is blown in from other states. Weather patterns, he said, circulate pollution into the state from as far away as Ohio.
Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of Diesel Technology Forum-- which represents oil and natural gas companies such as British Petroleum, as well as engine manufacturers-- took issue with the report's focus.
"The industry has made very significant progress" toward reducing emissions, Schaeffer said. Engines today, he said, pollute much less than those built even a dozen years ago.
He said he thought the lower standards for non-road vehicles reflected that they are used for heavy-duty work.
"The average person in Manchester would recognize the difference in a bulldozer and a delivery truck," he said.
Gary Abbott, the executive vice president of the Bow-based Associated General Contractors of New Hampshire, highlighted the small number of construction vehicles compared to cars.
When deciding admissions standards, Abbott said, it must be borne in mind that "there's only one bulldozer for X number of automobiles."
Abbott said he would be concerned that new standards might lead to companies "putting useful equipment to rest."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
N.H. Unemployment Continues to Rise
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002--Hard times in New Hampshire are continuing, with close to 3,700 people in the state losing their jobs in August, according to studies released this month by federal and state agencies.
The seasonally adjusted state unemployment rate leapt half a percentage point to 4.7 percent last month, the reports said. New Hampshire's rate remains below the 5.7 percent national unemployment rate, however.
The biggest losses in the state came from manufacturing, which saw 1,000 jobs cut in August, according to a recent study by the New Hampshire Employment Security's Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau (ELMIB).
So far this year, 3,900 New Hampshire manufacturing workers have been laid off, the study said.
High-tech jobs also have been hit hard, said Don Sheffield, research analyst for ELMIB. Regionally, Sheffield said, the hits to this industry mean that the Nashua and Manchester areas have seen the highest unemployment rate increases.
Unemployment in the Nashua area went up 18 percent, from 5,790 to 6,830. In Manchester it climbed 13.7 percent, from 4,540 to 5,160, according to an ELMIB regional report, which does not include seasonal adjustments such as jobs lost when the summer tourism season ends.
Sheffield pointed to several regions that do not seem badly affected by the nation's economic downturn or that appear to be on the road to improvement.
Lebanon, because of stable employment at Dartmouth University and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, has retained unemployment rates of about 1.4 percent for the past year, he said.
Berlin, Sheffield said, has seen its economy improve substantially since May, when Nexfor, a Toronto, Ontario-based company, bought a local paper mill that had closed in August 2001 and started rehiring workers.
Unemployment rates that were about 14 percent in Berlin in January, Sheffield said, have now decreased to about 6.9 percent.
"While the rate may look high," he said, "it's an improving picture up there."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sununu and Shaheen Accuse Each Other of Partisanship
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002--In the latest battle in New Hampshire's Senate race, Republican Rep. John Sununu and Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen accused each other Thursday of following their party's national leadership over the interests of Granite State voters.
"Jeanne Shaheen has campaigned on the rhetoric that she has an independent mind," Sununu said in a telephone press conference. "But the fact is, when asked on national television to name an issue where she disagrees with the Democratic national leadership, she could not name one," he said, referring to Shaheen's Sept. 21 appearance on CNN's Novak, Hunt and Shields show.
And with the Senate stalled over homeland security and appropriations bills, New Hampshire cannot afford to strengthen the Democrats' control of the Senate by electing Shaheen, said Sununu, who was joined by National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
But Shaheen aide Colin Van Ostern said the governor has a long record of bipartisanship. He pointed to the 2002 Clean Power Act, which established fossil fuel pollution standards, and the 2000 HMO Accountability Act, which set up an independent review board to which patients who are refused coverage can appeal their cases.
"She's not a lock-step partisan like John Sununu," he said. "John Sununu is a rubber stamp for the Republican party leadership."
Shaheen supports President Bush's tax cut and "strongly supports" his military budget, Van Ostern said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sunun Criticizes Shaheen over Taxes
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--It could become a taxing question for New Hampshire voters tracking the Senate race: Is Gov. Jeanne Shaheen a pro-tax Democrat or a fiscal moderate?
Republican opponent Rep. John Sununu asserted the former in a telephone conference call Wednesday.
He highlighted several tax proposals Shaheen made while governor, including her failed proposal last year to institute a 2.5 percent sales tax, and her signature of a 1999 school budget plan that included New Hampshire's first statewide property tax.
"This is not an agenda that is good for New Hampshire's economy, and it's not good for New Hampshire's small businesses," Sununu said.
"The contrast with Jeanne Shaheen is sharp and needs to be made," Sununu added. "I have been a constant champion of the small business [need] to be protected. Jeanne Shaheen has not done so."
But Colin Van Ostern, Shaheen's communications director, said Shaheen is a fiscal moderate who has supported taxes only when they are necessary and often when they have bipartisan support
New Hampshire voters are familiar with her record, Van Ostern said in an interview Wednesday, and know "she's been a moderate for years now."
As an example of her bipartisan approach, Van Ostern said 75 percent of Republicans in the state house voted for the 1999 property tax before Shaheen signed it into law. CHECK FOR ACCURACY.
"For John Sununu to criticize that is to criticize three out of four Republicans in his party," Van Ostern said.
As for a sales tax increase, Van Ostern said that President Bush once proposed a similar increase in 1997 while governor of Texas, arguing it was necessary to ease property tax burdens - the same argument Shaheen has made, Van Ostern said.
But Sununu said his record is one of consistently voting to cut taxes, emphasizing his lead in the House effort to pass Bush's massive tax cut, which was signed into law in June 2001.
Sununu also noted his support for legislation making the repeal of the estate tax permanent, which passed the Republican-controlled House in June but has stalled in the Democratic Senate.
Shaheen supports Bush's tax cut as well, Van Ostern said. "If she had been in the Senate at the time," he said, "she would have voted for it."
She also wants the estate tax repeal made permanent, he said, but only for small businesses and family farms, not the superwealthy.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Sierra Club Focuses on Sununu-Shaheen Race
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002--The Sierra Club, which believes Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen has a better environmental record than that of her opponent, Republican Rep. John Sununu, has highlighted the New Hampshire Senate race as one of the few contests nationwide where environmental issues could swing an election.
"In New Hampshire, environmental issues are taking a more prominent role than ever," Laura Scott, the chairwoman of environmental education for the Sierra Club's New Hampshire chapter, said Tuesday at a press conference here.
"Most candidates want to be considered environmental candidates," she said.
Scott said this environmental focus is surprising from a state with a conservative reputation, but she argued that residents "treasure the clean air and the open spaces we have" and vote with the environment in mind.
In view of this attitude, for the six weeks until the election the Sierra Club plans to send voter packets to New Hampshire residents that say Shaheen has done more for the environment than Sununu and to buy television and radio airtime for ads directed against Sununu.
The voter packets showcase three votes Sununu made in Congress that the Sierra Club says were anti-environment, including a 2000 vote exempting some businesses from cleaning up toxic waste Superfund sites, the main focus of the Sierra Club ads.
The Sierra Club also plans to continue with the grassroots organizing it began before the Sept. 10 primary, Scott said, attending farmers' markets and county fairs and going door-to-door talking about the candidates' environmental records.
Sununu's record was first scrutinized during the GOP primary, when his opponent, Sen. Bob Smith--who won praise for being a conservative who opposed oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--questioned Sununu on the environment several times, most notably during their televised debates.
Scott credited Smith's campaign with bringing environmental issues to the forefront in New Hampshire politics.
"I think Smith pushed it [the environment] because he viewed Sununu's environmental record as one of his weaknesses, which it is," Scott said.
Julie Teer, Sununu's campaign spokeswoman, called the Sierra Club's portrayal of Sununu unfair.
"It's a partisan group," Teer said. "Ninety percent of their resources go to electing Democrats."
"This is absolutely 100 percent political," she added.
Teer defended Sununu's record, highlighting legislation to protect a 12-mile section of the Lamprey River that he authored in 1999 and helped pass.
"When you see John Sununu's record," Teer said, "it is a record of preservation and results."
"John has worked to strike the critical balance between protecting the environment and promoting New Hampshire's economic growth," she said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
Area Legislators Skeptical of Iraq Announcement
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2002--Members of the all-Republican New Hampshire congressional delegation said Tuesday they were skeptical of Iraq's offer to allow United Nations weapons inspectors to return to the country, but praised President George W. Bush's diplomacy as leading to the Iraqi concession.
"[It] is rhetoric we have heard before, and compliance by Iraq with U.N. resolutions will speak louder than any statement Iraq can issue," Sen. Judd Gregg said in a statement about the Iraqi decision.
Sen. Bob Smith said in a statement that he viewed the Iraqi announcement with "cautious pessimism."
"Saddam's record of performance on complying with [U.N.] resolutions is marked by failure and deceit," he said.
Iraq said Monday it would allow inspectors to return "without conditions," as international pressure increased for Iraq to allow weapons inspectors into the country.
But Rep. John Sununu said that even if weapons inspectors are allowed to return, Iraq has a lot more that it must do to placate the United States, which is considering an invasion of that country.
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein still must honor other U.N. resolutions signed at the end of the Persian Gulf War, Sununu said, by releasing remaining prisoners of war and ending oppression of ethnic minorities such as the Kurds.
"There are a number of commitments that Iraq made that haven't been met," he added.
The New Hampshire legislators stressed that the United States should not wait for Iraq to meet these conditions but should continue to move forward, drumming up support at home and internationally.
"Time is not on our side when dealing with Iraq and weapons development." Rep. Charles Bass said in a statement. "The international community has waited long enough for compliance and will not long accept delay, deception or denial from Hussein."
Sununu said he disagreed with speculation that Iraq's announcement will hurt the U.S. effort to win international support for an invasion, with many countries concluding that the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq would remove the primary, if not the only, issue justifying invasion.
"If you were to try to measure support among our allies right now," he said, "it's probably a lot more than it was three months ago."
The New Hampshire legislators credited this support to Bush's Sept. 12 speech to the United Nations, in which the president urged the world body to prove its standing by making Iraq follow the agreements it has made with the United Nations.
"Unquestionably, Iraq's recent action is directly attributable to the compelling justification the President has presented," Bass said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
