Category: Jennifer Mann
Housing Authority Faces Unprecedented Crunch
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2004-Joseph Finnerty, executive director of the New Bedford Housing Authority, is ready to throw up his hands: The federal government has tossed him a math problem to which there is no good answer.
“We really are caught between a rock and a hard place,” he says. “The numbers just don’t make sense.”
The swirling numbers pertain to Section 8 vouchers, which the Housing Authority administers and the government pays for. These vouchers allow low-income families to choose their apartment with certificate in hand, and pay only 30 to 40 percent of their income in rent.
The government pays the remainder, but only up to a certain guideline: the area’s fair market rent, which is supposed to represent the 40 th percentile of rental costs in the area (meaning 60 percent of rentals would be more expensive than the fair market rent).
That is where the equation has gotten tricky for New Bedford.
In October, the Department of Housing and Urban Development determined that New Bedford’s fair market rent had dropped by as much as 14 to 24 percent from the year before.
Change had been minimal in previous years, making this is an unprecedented shift – one that leaves the Housing Authority to cope under a tighter budget.
And Finnerty, who believes these figures inaccurately portray the cost of renting in the area, says his agency will have only two choices under its already-tight budget: They can either deny more applicants the certificates that lead to affordable new homes or they can force others, already on the program, to pick up the tab.
“People are going to have a very hard time finding safe, sanitary housing at that price,” Finnerty said.
It was a sentiment echoed by several politicians and housing experts. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for example, a ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote HUD requesting a reevaluation of New Bedford’s figures.
“We are very concerned about the rents in New Bedford,” said Kay Gibbs communications director for the Democratic staff of the committee. “New Bedford has a legitimate concern to say that they don’t feel that all that could have been done has been done.”
Critics point to discrepancies between the figures for New Bedford and the nearby city of Fall River, where fair market rents increased by about 25 percent. In New Bedford, they decreased by about 18 percent.
Steven Beauregard, director of leased housing for the authority, noted in a letter to HUD that Fall River has for the past five years averaged 13 percent below New Bedford in regard to fair market rent values.
“Amazing, amazing, amazing,” said Finnerty. “New Bedford and Fall River are usually referred to as sister cities, because geographically they have the same demographics. It just doesn’t make sense that the fair market rent in the Fall River area would increase.while New Bedford’s would decrease. It is just illogical.”
The repercussions of the fair market rent cuts and area discrepancies are already being felt. Several New Bedford area landlords have notified the Authority that they might have to opt out of the program.
Claremont Cos., for example, which manages Rockdale West and Buttonwood Acres in New Bedford and Sol-E-Mar in South Dartmouth may stop accepting the vouchers. Overall throughout the area, the company runs about 1200 affordable housing units, two to three percent of which rent to individuals with vouchers from the Housing Authority
“An approximately 20 percent decrease in the rents makes it not feasible to participate in the [voucher] program,” said Patrick Carney, president and chief executive officer of Claremont. He pointed to the discrepancies between Fall River and New Bedford as evidence that HUD “has made a terrible mistake in their new 2005 rents.”
Claremont will continue to provide project-based Section 8 housing, which uses the same formula for assistance, but is set up directly between the rental property and HUD.
Yet Aaron Gornstein, executive director of Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, a statewide advocacy group for affordable housing and community development, is worried that Carney’s reaction might be indicative of a future trend: landlords pulling out of the voucher program because of fears of losing money.
“It undermines the confidence in the program among landlords,” Gornstein said. “It is going to be more difficult to recruit more landlords into the program in the future.and to keep them on board now.”
Since HUD first published proposed figures in August, it has been under fire from affordable housing proponents and state representatives disputing the numbers. The result has been a long, drawn-out process in which HUD has figured and re-figured its methods for areas nationwide.
HUD has for years calculated its fair market rent figures using the most recent census data adjusted by inflation along with metropolitan statistics published by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. These latter statistics were based on geographical areas defined by county lines, or in some exceptions, more flexible groupings of cities and towns.
New England had, for the most part, always relied on this exception.
But in August, the Office of Management and Budget started basing its metropolitan statistics on county lines alone.
Across Massachusetts, cities and towns with widely varying leasing prices were suddenly classified as having the same fair market rents. The number of geographic areas declined from 19 to 10, and New Bedford, which had previously comprised its own metropolitan area, joined the rest of Bristol County, which spans from Providence to Boston.
Five Bristol County communities saw their fair market rents drop more than half from the previous year, and most others, including New Bedford, saw drops from 18 to 36 percent, according to the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.
The move also had ripple effects for housing programs across the country, and more than 350 groups sent letters to HUD, urging it to reconsider its methods. The outcry prompted department officials to reverse course and in October they reverted to the 2004 geographical areas.
Combining the previous year’s geographical data, with the most updated census data, produced a set of numbers different from both the August proposals and the previous year’s figures.
HUD also agreed to perform random digit dialing surveys in 29 communities to further ensure the numbers’ accuracy. It had already completed 24 of these local market surveys, but had been using the August geographic guidelines.
These revisions solved the perceived problems in most areas, but not all – and not in New Bedford.
“The [latest figures] were only very slightly different, to the point where they could have just rubber stamped them and sent them back to us,” said Finnerty of the Housing Authority.
This fact did not escape the Housing Coalition, which specifically mentioned New Bedford in its letter to HUD, arguing that budget changes in April, coupled with the decreases in fair market rents, created a dire scenario for the city.
The organization also suggested HUD make major changes for determining, and publishing, fair market rents for the next time around.
“Taken as a whole, this year’s changes are not easily understood and they do not address the well-known criticisms of the old [fair market rates] in any meaningful or consistent way,” the Housing Coalition argued. “Values change[d] unpredictably last year to this, creating great uncertainty among tenants, administrators and advocates. In most cases.fairly arbitrary changes in geography and methodology appear to be at work.”
But in Massachusetts, next year might come too late.
“The numbers, as proposed, would be devastating to certain areas of the Commonwealth,” Beth Bresnahan, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, said in October, after the revisions. The department, in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts’s Donahue Institute, conducted its own investigation into HUD’s methodology.
According to Gornstein of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, the majority of the fair market figures for Massachusetts are still “significantly below” the real world figures in most regions, and that non-metropolitan areas have been particularly hard-hit.
“In reviewing its choices,” Gornstein wrote in a letter to the department, “HUD needs to ask.what implementation is reversible, and what does irrevocable harm? If the [fair market rents] are too low now, and are allowed to stand pending review, then hundreds of families in Massachusetts and thousands nationwide will be displaced out of good housing.with many more displaced over time. This will be irrevocable.”
Eighty Massachusetts organizations ranging from housing authorities to research institutions signed on to the letter, as did the New Bedford Housing Authority.
Of particular significance to New Bedford, Gornstein argued that the process by which the random digit dialing surveys were used was flawed.
For some areas of Massachusetts, original survey results (under the discarded geographical definitions) were used, while in others, like New Bedford, fair market rents were updated based on the recent census data alone.
Gornstein pointed out that the survey results had been maintained in Fall River, but discarded in New Bedford. He asserted that this explains the difference in fair market rents between New Bedford and Fall River.
And according to the Housing Authority’s Beauregard, 96 percent of rental inventory taken for the Providence-Fall River survey fell within New Bedford’s property area.
“Our analysis suggested that the New Bedford area really needed its own RDD [random digit dialing] survey,” said Mike Goodman, director of economic and public policy research at the Donahue Institute, and one of the authors of the Department of Housing and Community Development’s report.
But with an already tight budget, the Housing Authority might find it difficult to fund a survey of its own.
The other hope is that HUD might add New Bedford to the list of cities and towns for which it is continuing to revise numbers. Department officials are considering it, said Kristine Foye, a spokeswoman for HUD’s New England regional office.
New Bedford will find out if that will happen when HUD responds to open comments in the next Federal Register, due out after the first of the year, according to Donna White of HUD.
But that leaves Finnerty, who has already decided not to issue any new vouchers for 2005, simply keeping his fingers crossed.
“Right now, we are operating as if the October 1 rents are the ones we will be living by,” he said.
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Bristol Community College Professor Wins Big Award in D.C.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18-Bristol Community College professor Howard Tinberg believes he has only taught when he sees that his students have actually listened and learned.
And his drive to constantly engage the classroom is, in part, what prompted the award he received on Thursday, said John Lippincott, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Tinberg was chosen as the 2004 Outstanding Community College Professor of the Year by the council and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, out of a pool of almost 300 nominees.
"Howard Tinberg has been successful as a teacher and role model because of his enthusiasm for his subject--English--and his dedication to community colleges and to community college students," Lippincott said in a press release. "Dr. Tinberg's classes are places of humor and compassion.. He brings to the educational process a zest for learning--both his own learning and that of his students."
Award recipients were chosen through a selection process in which two panels of judges-comprised of educators, deans, and government, foundation and agency representatives-evaluated nominees based on letters of support from students and colleagues, submissions of the teacher's course curricula, class descriptions, and a personal statement. The Carnegie Foundation chose the final recipients, to which a $5,000 prize was awarded.
Tinberg, an English professor at Bristol, was one of four professors to receive an award. He was joined by another Massachusetts professor, Robert Bell of Williams College, who was chosen as winner in the Outstanding Baccalaureate Professor category.
Speaking at the ceremony, Tinberg said the value of a good teacher should never be underestimated. He urged others to improve their educational practices by challenging themselves, and their teaching methods, daily.
"Learning depends to some degree, on review, reflection and revision.. Good things can happen to us as classroom instructors, when we ask and answer questions such as: What happened in my classroom today? What did I expect to happen? What can I learn?" he said. "Effective teaching depends upon our ability and desire to adapt."
These methods will yield successful students in any college, whether a two-year, or a four-year university, Tinberg said. He added that there should be no difference between the types of institutions when it comes to effective teaching.
"I call upon colleagues of four-year institutions to meet us two-year college faculty half way," he said. "Let's read each other's work and let's recognize, on both sides, the quality of that work. Let's acknowledge in our mutual way, through citation and records, the scholarship and research done on either side of the two-year, four-year divide. We and our students ought to expect no less."
As editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College and a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, Tinberg said he has learned the value of this, because it has helped him bring new ideas to his classroom, and broadened his perspective.
Tinberg, who has been an English teacher at Bristol College since 1987, teaches courses in composition, literature, and literature and history. In all of his classes, Tinberg places a heavy emphasis on ethnographic research, urging students to discover the way language is bred, and manifested, in their own communities.
"I encouraged students to become observer/participants, and thereby record the use of literacy in their homes and communities," he wrote in his personal statement to the council.
Tinberg is also director of the college's writing lab, which employs the help of professors from various disciplines, along with peer tutors, to provide one-on-one guidance to students.
It is where Wellesley College senior Lin Morley Gautie first met Tinberg. She was on her way to becoming an accountant, when his instruction and encouragement propelled her to follow a career in English and teaching.
As she introduced Tinberg at the ceremony in Washington, Gautie reflected on how he has continued to provide counsel to her, even after she graduated and embarked on her own career in education.
"As I learned through Dr. Tinberg's model, the educational process does not stop at the classroom door," she said. "He is the very epitome of a teacher, always creating and re-creating a decent and effective environment in which to learn. And he perpetually cares, not only for his students, but also for mankind at large."
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Artifacts of War Evoke Memories From Museum Visitors
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16-There are the wool bunting fragments cut from the flag of Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner. And there are the steel girders painstakingly extracted from the wreckage of the crumbled twin towers.
These relics of America's past evoke memory, and mourning, from American History Museum visitors who pass through a new exhibition, "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War."
But smaller, subtler tokens of war have meaning for those visitors who themselves fought or served. There are Army song sheets and melt-proof Hershey's bars that were passed around among the troops of World War II. There also are packs of Truong S'on cigarettes and the tin cups given to the prisoners of war in North Vietnam.
Artifacts, aged combat gear, mementos and undying photographs, all grace the winding halls of the exhibit that opened last Thursday in the Smithsonian Institution's recently remodeled American History Museum.
With its début timed for Veteran's Day, the exhibition traverses the history of America's conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the current war in Iraq, with more than 850 items and graphics. It provides what museum director Brent Glass said is a "sweeping and memorable overview" of American military history.
"What is most significant about this exhibition is its comprehensive nature," he said. "I think that one of the lasting impressions that visitors will come away with upon visiting this exhibition, is an appreciation for the people through history who have served the country, both on the battlefield and on the home front."
And indeed, this 18,000-square-foot exhibition provides a multi-faceted window into the world of battle, both at home and abroad.
The displays of earlier wars are filled with relics that might have been plucked straight from a high school history textbook: the buckskin coat worn by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and pieces from the battleship USS Maine.
But as visitors meander through the wings of the museum, and through history, they encounter displays filled with what Glass said are "stories and collections.of a more personal nature."
Not only are there battlefield artifacts, but also pieces of American military actions as viewed through the eyes of those who remained at home. It provides a glimpse of history that Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said is unique to this country.
"Many of us know, the best footpath beyond war is not to dwell on our experiences, but to draw from them," Ridge, a Vietnam veteran, said Thursday at the opening of the exhibition. "And that is the gift of this exhibition-for it tells a story that is uniquely American-and that will embolden and enlighten, as only the American experience can."
There is the cast metal Pearl Harbor lapel pin, a pierced oval with "remember" in red, and "harbor" in blue, hugging a single center pearl. Thousands of these and similar lapel pins were distributed across the country, to solidify war efforts and remind Americans of the tragic bombing of the military base in December 1941.
Joining it nearby is a tarnished air raid helmet, once worn by a factory worker turned air raid warden, when the threat of nuclear war was uncertain; and a cookbook from the World War II era that offered women ways to stretch the value of their food ration coupons, reading, "It may not be convenient, But we don't admit defeat, For in spite of War and Rationing, America must eat."
Some critics have argued that the museum is overly inclusive, and that displays of the Sept. 11 attacks and Iraq war are inappropriate, because they blur the line between history and current events, and in the latter case, make a political statement about a controversial conflict.
But Glass said the move was spurred by the overwhelming agreement of historians commissioned during the planning process, and also at the request of teachers who had sent in requests for the inclusion of current events. He added that the museum will continue to try and incorporate ongoing history, as events unfold.
"Unfortunately, war is part of human history and is part of human condition," he said. "We would imagine that there would be wars in the future.and it would be important to include them."
Glass said it would be a shame to focus on that aspect, and ignore the magnificence of an exhibition that is rich, not only in content, but also in display.
The halls of the museum take on a multi-dimensional approach, due to the work of Boston-based design team, Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, and a Virginia company that assisted with the installation process. The process was also given a boost from a $16 million gift from California real estate mogul and philanthropist Kenneth E. Behring, who has donated a total of $100 million to the museum over the past ten years.
There are objects small and large; from the pile of gold flakes that lured settlers to California after Mexico ceded the land in the war from 1846 until 1848, to the restored UH-1H Huey Helicopter that was manufactured by Bell Helicopter in 1965 and formed a lasting image of the Vietnam conflict in many individuals' minds.
"It was in a way, the center of the conflict," Glass said. "Now it is the center of our museum."
And there are interactive displays, like the touch-screen computers that provide first-person narratives from men and women who experienced each conflict, and the 40 panels spread throughout the museum that provide points-of-view of U.S. military involvement. There are also nine videos donated by the History Channel, including the film "Fighting for America" which visitors can view upon leaving the exhibition.
"The people whose stories are told in this exhibit, and the countless American graves around the world, serve as reminders of the willingness to bear this burden of defending liberty," Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday.
Also in the exhibition are activities for children. The "Give Me Liberty" puppet play explores Colonial resentment to tea sanctions, and the "Hay Foot, Straw Foot" exhibit allows visitors to learn musket drills and field maneuvers.
It is a panoply of visuals and text that provides a slideshow of history that is open to interpretation. But Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small said there is one idea all should agree on:
"Though nations declare wars, individuals fight them, sacrifice and suffer in them," he wrote in the museum's magazine. "In the end, the price of freedom may be incalculable, because its true costs lie buried so deep within individuals, where no one can fully take their measure."
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Voting-Watch Groups Call for Election Reform
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4—Although legal battles reminiscent of the 2000 election debacle did not surface in the aftermath of the recent presidential election, a handful of voting-watch groups warn that the country should not rest easy.
After the dust cleared on Wednesday, George W. Bush’s wide margin of victory in the popular vote only masked the many voting problems that were scattered throughout the country, these groups say.
“There’s a variety of problems, many of them are systemic problems, showing that we just can’t handle this level of voting,” Chellie Pingree, president of liberal-leaning Common Cause and a former international election monitor, said. “We haven’t solved many of the problems in this country.”
Pingree’s group logged more than 175,000 calls on the toll-free hotline it had set up to walk voters through any problems they encountered on Election Day.
According to Pingree, voters reported problems with long lines due to insufficient poll staffing and electronic voting machine breakdowns, as well as voter intimidation and restrictions including polling booth time limits.
Others reported registration problems including instances in which they never received a requested absentee ballot and then arrived at the polling station to find that their vote had somehow already been recorded, and instances in which they arrived at the precinct to which they thought they were registered, only to find that their name was not on the roll.
The Election Protection Coalition, a progressive umbrella group of civic and civil rights groups that set up its own hotline to deal with Election Day problems, received more than 4,500 complaints of ballot problems, nearly 3,000 of polling place and location problems, more than 7,000 of registration difficulties and over 1,000 of voter intimidation.
And in the battleground state of Iowa, the secretary of state’s office reported that four counties were still tabulating votes as late as Wednesday morning. In one county, an electronic voting machine that shut down forced poll workers to feed approximately 23,000 ballots through manually.
“We were clearly not prepared in this country, to handle so many voters, in spite of the fact that Congress passed the Help America Vote Act to attempt to cure some of the problems of the 2000 election,” Pingree said.
That law was implemented by Congress to clarify voting procedures after the close race between Bush and Al Gore in 2000, when disputes over punch-card ballots in Florida led to a 38-day delay in the determining the election winner.
The act required the use of provisional ballots—given to voters to cast if their names do not appear on the precinct rolls —and also required first-timevoters to show identification when entering the polling booths to cast their ballots.
But the act does not provide a uniform standard to tell states how and when provisional ballots should be counted or what should be recognized as valid identification.
Robert A. Pastor, director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University, said this has led to problems.
“Both [practices] are not working very well, because everybody has implemented them differently, and it is not clear what a uniform protection is like at this point.”
Spencer Overton, a law professor at George Washington University, said too much discretion is given to poll workers in each state, and thus, provisional ballots are treated as “second-class votes.”
“We’ve got problems of uniformity and consistency in counting, some of the same problems that were identified in Bush v. Gore,” he said. “The provisional ballots are second class votes…in part, because we don’t know whether they’ll be counted.”
Both Pastor and Overton also noted that the law had been under-funded by Congress.
The provisional ballot received public attention Tuesday evening, when Ohio became the linchpin to election success for President Bush. As votes were tallied late into the night and the state appeared to be settling in Bush’s favor, some 100,000 to 200,000 provisional ballots that remained to be counted led many of the media networks to refrain from calling the state’s projected vote.
It was not until John Kerry conceded the election to Bush on Wednesday, admitting that it was not possible provisional votes could help him overtake Bush in Ohio, that the issue was resolved.
But Miles Rapoport, president of the non-partisan public policy organization Demos and former Connecticut secretary of state, said all votes should always be counted, regardless of the margin of victory.
“Failure to count every ballot will lead the millions of Americans who voted for the first time yesterday to question whether casting a ballot actually makes a difference,” he said.
He urged federal and state governments to dedicate necessary funds for fully staffed polling places and trained poll workers, set national standards for voting practices beyond what is set out in the election law, and increase the ease and transparency of registration and voting systems.
"If the right to cast a ballot and have that vote be counted is to mean anything, then the major reforms that have been promised since the last presidential must be realized,” he said. “It's too late for excuses.”
The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, which is part of the Election Protection Coalition, held a forum on Thursday in which the Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, also called for the next Congress to take further steps in reforming the election system.
And Overton, of George Washington, said the message should also go out to the American public.
“A lot of the problems that had been alluded to can be resolved when the American people wake up and realize that their votes count, but that they only count if the system is responsive and more effective than it has been up until now,” he said.
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A Call Out to Women
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28-Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, says that women are "tired of being a political football" and that her organization urges young ladies to "vote as if your life depends on it."
Page Gardner of Women's Voices, Women Vote wants politicians to know that the idea of a "security mom" is a farce.
And other women's organizations, each with its own message and own way of saying it, have been canvassing the nation in the last days leading up to the election to make sure that women's voices are heard. And, of course, to make sure that women vote.
"This will not be the biggest election of our lives, but it may be the biggest in our lives to date," Crystal Lander, campus program director of the Feminist Majority Foundation's Get Out Her Vote campaign said Tuesday.
She pointed to hot-button issues that could be guided, or decided, by whoever wins the nation's vote on Nov. 2: reproductive rights, civil rights, national security, global trade and economic policies.
"This next president will be able to make so many key decisions that we will have to deal with for the next 30 or 40 years," she said. "These are all issues that we feel resonate very strongly.and these are not things that are easily changeable."
Lander's group has visited over 250 college campuses nationwide, and worked with an additional 159 campus groups, to urge female students to register, vote and become more aware of the issues that are at stake in every election. She estimated that the founbdation has gotten over 20,000 women to pledge to register, or register to vote, thus far.
"The key thing is, women vote differently than men, and when women vote, they can change the elections," she said, explaining Smeal's football analogy. "When they realize we are key-all of a sudden everyone is scrambling for us. But we've been there the whole time."
Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, confirmed that statistics show a gender gap in the way Americans have voted over the past two decades. In presidential exit polls since 1980, higher percentages of women have typically supported Democratic candidates than have men, according to the center.
In 2000, for example, women's support of George W. Bush was 10 percentage points less than that of men . And in 1980, women's support of Jimmy Carter was 8 percentage points greater than that of men.
Even when favoring the same candidate as men, women have done so by different margins.
In 1988, for instance, 50 percent of women voted for George H.W. Bush, while 49 percent voted for Michael Dukakis, according to exit polls. For men, on the other hand, 57 percent voted for Bush, while only 41 percent voted for Dukakis.
Carroll said her guess was that in upcoming election, percentage points would be more closely aligned. "I think the key issues for women are much the same as what the key issues for men are," she said.
She would not make predictions on their actual votes, however. "I think the election really hinges on which of those issues are in the forefront of voters' minds when they go to the polling booth," she said.
Carroll said the strength of the women's vote should not be underestimated, noting that women have had a higher voter turnout rate than men since the 1980s-and she expects more of the same for the upcoming election.
"There has been an unprecedented mobilization this year of voters in general, but specifically of women," she said. "I expect the number of women who are voting this year to go up for sure."
And many of the organizations that have led these mobilization efforts are warning politicians and pollsters not to underestimate the voting power of newly registered individuals, particularly women, this year.
Gardner, of Women's Voices, Women Vote, said her organization has focused on unmarried women, who in the past had made up "the largest group of non-participants" in the elections.
Her organization found that in the 2000 elections only 52 percent of eligible unmarried women voted, compared to 68 percent of eligible married women. Since then, it has led a campaign of mass phone calls and mailings in 16 states that have had particularly large gaps between married and unmarried women voters.
She estimates that the organization has registered more than 130,000 unmarried women, and because of this, she discouraged any attempts to try and pin down the female electorate to any particular political stance. Gardner said the "security mom"-the middle-class married woman whose fear of terrorism drives their voting-is "not a phenomena."
She said the characterization leaves out the growing number of unmarried women who, according to their polling, see terrorism as one of their lesser worries and view issues like healthcare and job growth as larger concerns.
Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, spoke last week on her group's Vote, Run, Lead initiative, which has focused on registering voters from previously underrepresented groups in key states including Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, and Washington. She warned that many of these newly registered individuals might not be reflected in the polls.
"A lot of the polls really are done with either people who are registered to vote, people who are prospective voters or expected voters, because that's how they [figure] out who to call," she said. "I don't think they are calling the housing projects and the Twin Cities . I don't think they are calling people on Native American reservations. I don't think they are calling folks who are in transitional housing or who are in deaf housing."
And what about the women from Massachusetts? With most of the national organizations focusing on hotly contested states, the solidly blue Bay State is being left out of the loop. But Risa Nyman, executive director of the League of Women Voters' Massachusetts chapter, said she doubts this will deter women in the state from voting.
"This is the first election since the debacle of the election in 2000, and since 9/11," she said. "I think there is going to be a big turnout in Massachusetts, even though we are not a swing state."
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Beer Meets Politics
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26-Beer has finally made its way to the forefront of politics.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show the National Beer Wholesalers Association ranks second in campaign donations from its political action committee, or PAC, for the election cycle ending Nov. 2.
They fall below the National Association of Realtors, which came in at number one.
And FEC reports compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and policy making, reveal certain factors that make this ranking unique.
Notably, while the Realtors have long topped the charts in congressional and presidential election fundraising-according to the center, it has been the number one PAC donor for the election cycles since 1998- the beer wholesalers have only recently reached the top of the game.
While corporations and business organizations cannot legally contribute directly to federal candidates, they can form PACs to receive individual contributions and, in turn, donate money to candidates.
Looking at overall industry contributions since 1989, taking into account not simply PAC money but also donations from individuals and-until so-called soft-money contributions were outlawed two years ago-from corporations, the Realtors ranked third overall, with $20.4 billion given, while beer wholesalers were 32 nd , with $10 billion.
Michelle Semones, spokeswoman for the Beer Wholesalers group, said it is no fluke that the organization's PAC has found itself at the top of the donor list, with the added political clout that comes with it.
"We have been really focusing on increasing our political strengths, probably for the past 12 and 14 years," she said. "Government affairs and public policy is a big thing for us."
Linda Auglis, director of political affairs at the beer group, said much of the increase in contributions by its PAC has come from greater understanding among the members of the importance of influencing federal legislation. Currently, approximately half of the organization's members contribute to the PAC.
"We're not doing anything different, let's put it that way," she said. "Our guys have just been stepping up to the plate.and they have just been very good at convincing the wholesalers in their states."
FEC reports reflect this steady climb. Since 1990, the group has more than doubled its contributions-from approximately $700,000 to more than $2 billion this cycle.
But while the Realtors' PAC contributions have been evenly divided between the two parties, the beer wholesalers have given more than three-fourths of their contributions to Republican candidates.
Nevertheless, Semones insisted that her organization is strictly nonpartisan.
"We have very consistently been with the candidates that are pro-business, particularly pro small business," she says. "At this point, it just appears that Republicans are more small-business friendly."
The PAC has not always contributed more heavily to Republicans. In fact, in 1990 - when Democrats still controlled Congress -- its donations were almost equally split between the two parties. Yet as contributions increased over the years, so did the share that went to those on the right side of the political spectrum.
Semones cited the proposed permanent repeal of the estate tax as an example of legislation that is very important to the small, family-owned businesses that make up the beer distributor sector.
David Rehr, the beer wholesalers' president, and a close ally of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, called the estate tax "the number one issue facing many small-business owners" and has fervently lobbied on for its repeal. The 2001 tax cut has gradually reduced estate tax rates and increased exemptions, but the law is due to expire in 2010, bringing the estate tax back to a full 55 percent rate in 2011.
"The owner of a family business still cannot plan effectively to ensure that future generations-faced with staggering death taxes-could afford to carry on the business," Rehr wrote in a letter to the Washington Times in August.
The organization maintains that its industry is a driving force in the nation's economy and thus that the concerns of its members should be recognized. Its Website notes that more than 90 million Americans drink beer regularly, and that beer represents 88 percent volume of all licensed beverages sold in the United States.
Among the contributors to the PAC have been a small group of Massachusetts beer distributors. Four out of seven of these distributors have been recognized by the organization's political action committee as "2004 Company Honor Roll Members."
These four-Merrimack Valley Distributing Company in Danvers, D.J. Reardon Co. Inc. in Tewksbury, Consolidated Beverages, Inc. in Auburn, and Williams Distributing Corp. in Chicopee-all have representatives who contributed more than $5,000 over the last two years.
Merrimack Valley Distributing Company leads the list, with contributions from its president and vice president totaling $10,500. D.J. Reardon Co. Inc. falls closely behind, with $10,000 coming in from its president.
Representatives of Merrimack refused to comment, and those from D.J. Reardon could not be reached.
The beer PAC made contributions to three of the 10 House members (all Democrats) from Massachusetts this election cycle: $3,000 to Bill Delahunt, $3,000 to Stephen F. Lynch and $1,000 to Richard E. Neal.
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Fair Market Rents Criticized
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20-Cape Cod's affordable housing situation is anything but ordinary, thanks to the generous tourist industry that revs up rental prices only during certain seasons of the year.
The anomaly, regional housing advocates say, makes the government's annual calculation of their community's fair market rent an ever-evolving, headache-rendering uncertainty.
And, they say, recent changes in how the federal government calculates its share of housing aid-based on these changing fair market rent values-are only sharpening that pain.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced earlier this month that it was revising for a second time its benchmark aid figures for the nation's Section 8 housing voucher program.
At stake for both Cape residents and affordable housing-users nationwide is the possibility of low-income residents being forced from their homes, particularly if they are already struggling to pay the rent, and a diminishing reliance on the Section 8 housing program.
Under the program, low-income families are required to pay 30 to 40 percent of their income for rent. The federal subsidy covers the rest, but only up to the limit determined by the fair market rent.
Last August, when HUD released its proposed fair market rent figures for 2005, Marjorie Sanson, director of the leased rental department of the Cape's Housing Assistance Corporation, joined others who argued the figures did not accurately represent the actual rental prices across New England, and in particular, on Cape Cod.
Sanson said her organization, which promotes affordable housing for low-income Cape residents, sees the change as "another assault on low-income people housing needs".
The fair market rent figures are calculated annually by HUD based on U.S. census data and metropolitan statistics from the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
This year, the budget office changed the way it considered geographical areas used for those calculations, a move that had ripple effects for the housing program. The changes were significant enough in some areas to prompt affordable housing proponents and low-income residents to speak out against the manner in which the fair market rent was calculated.
HUD received more than 350 comments from August to October, many of which were concerned with what they believed was an inaccurate portrait of the actual fair market rent figures for their area.
HUD reacted, announcing on Oct. 1 that it had revised its figures for fair market rents by going back to the previous geographical areas used by the Office of Management and Budget. It still maintained the most recent census data calculations, as is required by law.
"The goal of FMR's [fair market rents] is to help ensure HUD's resources reflect community needs," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said.
But Sanson said the opposite is happening in Cape Cod. "It's just ridiculous," she said. "We're not seeing any benefit from the action HUD took."
While many of the communities surrounding Boston saw a positive change under the revisions, Cape Cod communities saw little difference, Sanson said, mainly because the Cape is comprised of only two geographical areas; a metropolitan and non-metropolitan region.
In both the August proposal, and the Oct. 1 revisions, both areas will see a drop in voucher values come next year.
And Sanson says there are also discrepancies for nearby Cape islands: While the fair market rent for Martha's Vineyard went down, the numbers for Nantucket went up. "You gotta wonder what kind of data they are getting," she said.
The numbers are important because they directly affect the amount of assistance that HUD will provide to low-income renters in each community.
Low-income families pay 30 to 40 percent of their income for rent and the federal subsidy pays the rest, but only up to the limit determined by the fair market rent.
In Falmouth in 2004, for example, a voucher for low-income individuals applying for a two-bedroom apartment capped at $960. Next year, that cap will be $909.
For the same-sized apartment in Yarmouth, a voucher capped at $969 in 2004, but will be down to $919 in 2005.
"We believe that the market has been softening a little bit," Sanson admitted, "but not at the percentage that we see here."
Sanson said the changes can be significant for those families who are already struggling under their current rent situations. The altered figures might force them to find other means of assistance when renewing their lease, or cause them to move out to a more affordable home, possibly into another community.
Of most concern, she said, are the figures pertaining to rentals for multiple-bedroom units. Vouchers for Falmouth residents applying for a four-bedroom apartment in 2004 maxed at $1,347, but in 2005 they will be limited to $1,131.
"The three and four bedrooms take the biggest hits across the state, and we are wondering, what kind of message does that send?" she said. "It's the families with kids who are affected."
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan group that conducts research and analysis on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals, released a report last week that focused on the hardships three- and four-member families might face under these new guidelines.
"These families already are struggling to support themselves," Barbara Sard, head of the housing policy at the center and an author of the report, said in a statement. "HUD's decision puts them in a deeper hole when it comes to affordable housing."
The group reported that in the past, HUD has calculated assistance for multiple-bedroom apartments in a way that would give bigger families the same opportunities as smaller families, by allowing them a certain percentage of fixed increased assistance, above the fair market rent. It said that this year the percentage increase has diminished.
But Donna White, spokesperson for HUD's office in Washington, said in an interview Tuesday that the center's claims are incorrect. "We are still instituting that policy," she said, adding that any decreases are "just a reflection in some cases of what the market has done."
She also said communities and local and state governments can still submit information and supporting data in order to appeal the 2005 calculations, if they feel the area's rental values have been misrepresented.
Beth Bresnahan, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, said on Tuesday that her agency plans to do that.
The department has enlisted the help of the Donahue Institute, an outreach and economic development unit of the president's office at the University of Massachusetts, and will present a report to HUD by the end of the month.
"We want to make sure that the numbers HUD has proposed, whether the initial or the revised, reflect what the fair market rent actually is in these areas," she said. "We are hoping to get the information from the institute by the end of the month.and we are pretty positive it will be different from what HUD has presented."
Delagado’s Crusade Again Put On Hold
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5-Raimundo Delgado of New Bedford has waited more than 25 years for legislation that would allow foreign-born citizens like himself to run for president of the United States.
Yet on Tuesday, as House and Senate members discussed for the second time resolutions that would allow naturalized citizens to do so, Delgado faced an uncomfortable possibility: That this year, as in the past, his pet project might have to wait, only to start anew in the next congressional session.
Under the Constitution, only native-born U.S. citizens can hold the nation's highest office. Delgado's is a struggle to loosen those requirements and end what he calls second-class status for millions of Americans. And while no action is expected this year, the issue is slowly building momentum as bipartisan groups in the both the House and Senate have sponsored like-minded bills.
Delgado's quest to amend the Constitution first gained public attention in July 2000, when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee supporting an amendment sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Rep. Frank's amendment, spurred by numerous conversations with Delgado, died in committee.
Yet Delgado, a veteran teacher at Ashland Middle School who immigrated to the United States from Portugal at age 15, remained unperturbed, and he faced the most recent congressional session ready for another round.
Rep. Frank has again co-sponsored legislation allowing for broader eligibility requirements, and Delgado has continued to visit other members of Congress in order to gather support for his cause.
"Frankly, I am ready to put this message forth anywhere in this country because this is something that just has to happen," Delgado said. "How can you deny someone the opportunity to run? Because then on the other side of that, you are denying the public the opportunity to vote."
The proposals in Congress recommend that a non-native should become eligible after he or she has lived in the country for a certain number of years.
Legislation proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, would require that an individual be a citizen of the United States for at least 20 years, and a proposal by Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., would require an individual to be a citizen for at least 35 years.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Tuesday to consider the different proposals. In addition to statements from Rep. Frank and other Congressman, the committee heard testimony from Professor Akhil Amar Southmayd of Yale Law School, Dr. Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation, and Professor John Yinger of Syracuse University-all of who spoke in favor of the proposals.
Delgado said he saw the hearing as a positive sign. "You just see the sprinkling of support from across the country," he said. "Now people just have to have the gusto and the guts to say, we need to see this before the floor."
At the hearing, Rep. Frank called the current provisions in the Constitution "offensive." He spoke of how Delgado had first approached him in 2000.
"He [Delgado] was troubled as I was by the invidious discrimination of it," he said. "It basically says to people who have chosen to come to America.who have gone through the processes of citizenship, have been very loyal, very law abiding citizens, that they are somehow flawed"
Rep. Frank said all citizens should be allowed presidential eligibility, regardless of how long they have lived in the United States. "In my view, an hour and a half is probably enough time," he said.
However, other representatives present at the hearing expressed a reluctance to support a constitutional amendment this late in the congressional session, and so close to a presidential election.
An amendment would require support of two-thirds of each house of Congress and then ratification by three-fourths of the states. Congress is slated to recess this Friday, although it is expected to return for a lame duck session in December, after the election.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal., said she was "very reluctant" to put the legislation forward to the Senate floor for a vote, particularly in haste before the end of a session. She said a constitutional amendment should be considered, only if the risk of not considering it was too great. "I think this amendment, if it receives two-thirds, will have a very hard time being adopted by three-fourths of the legislatures of the states," she said.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., agreed that an amendment would bring inevitable challenges. "I have seen more attempts, scores in the hundreds of attempts to amend the Constitution," he said. "It is a near impossible task. It is a hurdle so high that it is near impossible."
But, he continued to say, it is worth it: "I'm prepared to make an exception because I think this is a good change."
Delgado said it is sentiments like Durbin's that give him continued hope. "The snowball is moving," he said. "Obviously, it is moving very slowly for my like, but it is still moving."
Intelligence Reform Bill Provokes Question of Civil Liberties
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14-The Republican-sponsored intelligence reform bill that the House approved last week has stoked a fire of criticism from Bay State Democrats and civil liberties advocates who oppose certain immigration and law enforcement provisions included in the measure.
The legislation, which passed 282-134 in a vote mostly divided along party lines, was prompted by the Sept. 11 commission report in July that called for a reorganization of the nation's intelligence community.
Critics argue that the House bill incorporates only half of the commission's recommendations and instead tacks on several provisions that would pose a threat to immigrants' rights and impinge on the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans.
"The extraneous provisions. are some of the most significant expansions of the Patriot Act we have seen in the last three years," Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said at a hearing sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., on Wednesday. "The House bill also includes the most anti-immigrant legislation Congress has seen in over a decade."
Edgar pointed to provisions that would relax limits on national security wire taps, make it a federal crime to have one's name associated with a terrorist organization, expand the number of national security-related crimes punished by the death penalty, establish a required national identification card, make it more difficult for asylum seekers to make the case for admission into the United States and make it easier to deport illegal immigrants.
"These anti-immigrant provisions and expansions of the Patriot Act have no place in any legislation, let alone a bill that is supposed to be implementing the intelligence reforms recommended by the 9-11 commission," Edgar said.
The ACLU also launched bilingual print and radio advertisements on Wednesday in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico, calling on the administration to strip anti-immigration provisions from the legislation before its passage.
Kate Martin, a George Washington University law professor and director of the Center for National Securities Studies, also criticized a provision allowing for an information-sharing database that could be accessed by the FBI, CIA and local law enforcement agencies.
"I think that there is a serious national security concern here that what these authorities will end up being used for is not to identify, locate and focus on the few individuals who may be in this country who are planning the next attack," she said at the hearing. "Instead, those authorities will first be focused as they have been to date on the Arab community, the Muslim-American community, the immigrant American community, and finally, political dissenters in the U.S."
Representative William Delahunt, D-Mass., co-sponsored an amendment that would curtail many of these information-sharing provisions.
"We can fight terrorism without undermining fundamental privacy rights," Delahunt said in a statement last week. "There is no reason to have to choose between security and liberty; if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the values we are struggling to defend."
But while Delahunt's amendment was acknowledged by the Judiciary Committee, on which he serves, it was not included in the final bill the House approved on Friday.
The ACLU and House Democrats argue that the Senate version of the bill, which passed 96-2 earlier last week, is more in line with the Sept. 11 commission recommendations and would receive broader public support because it does not have the extraneous provisions included in the House bill. However, an amendment sponsored by House Democratic Caucus Chairman Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, to substitute the Senate language for the House bill, failed 203-213.
All 10 Massachusetts representatives voted for the Menendez amendment, but against the bill on final passage.
A joint House and Senate conference committee is currently considering both versions of the bill. If a compromise is reached, the revised legislation would have to be approved by both chambers before heading to the White House for the president's signature. Congress adjourned last week for the November 2 elections and would have to be called back if the bill is to become law before Election Day.
But many contend that the Senate and House versions differ so drastically that it will be impossible to pass any sort of intelligence reform bill before the November elections.
Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., accused the Republican House leadership of intentionally creating these circumstances in a statement released after the House vote last Friday.
"It is clear that the House GOP leadership.added highly objectionable provisions to advance their political agenda and intentionally sink any type of meaningful intelligence reform," Tierney said. "They went against their own constituents and ignored the bipartisan work of the Senate and the 9/11 Commission to craft an extreme bill that will most certainly make a conference committee between the two chambers very difficult."
Report Probes Childhood Obesity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -When it comes to food and drink, today's kids have a range of options. Soda comes in brown, green, purple and blue. Ketchup does too. And fruit snacks appear as bears, ducks, baseball players, and pop music stars. The world is at our children's fingertips. Yet this is precisely the problem, according to a report released Thursday by the Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth Committee.
As the food and beverage industries are making fat and sugar ever more appealing, the growing presence of vending machines in school hallways becomes a greater problem, the report said.
The committee, a part of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, wants to make sure that provisions are in place to encourage healthier choices-and limit the availability of the commercial goodies that often crowd the school's vending machines.
Jeffrey Koplan, chairman of the 19 member committee, said childhood obesity is still on the rise. Approximately 9 million children over the age of 6 are considered obese, they said, and over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for children 2-5 years old and 12-19 years old. It has more than tripled for children 6-11 years old.
"We must act now and we must do this as a nation," Koplan said. "Several of our recommendations challenge entrenched aspects of American life and business, but if we are not willing to make some fundamental shifts in our attitudes and actions, obesity's toll on our nation's health and well-being will only worsen."
The report calls for increased federal guidelines for monitoring products available at schools. Currently, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture sets nutritional guidelines for the meals served in the school cafeterias they do not apply to food and drinks sold out of school vending machines. The only limit is that schools are prohibited from allowing vending service during school meal times.
The report noted that while 21 states have developed their own guidelines in this area, a report from the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, found in 2000 that commercial vending foods were sold in 98 percent of secondary schools, 74 percent of middle schools, and 43 percent of elementary schools.
In Massachusetts, where there are no additional conditions, several financial and educational training programs accompany the federal guidelines in order to promote school nutrition.
The Team Nutrition and Training Program promotes public and private partnerships for school nutrition and the School Breakfast and Lunch programs provide federally funded cash reimbursements for participating schools to serve free and reduced price nutritional meals to low-income children.
The New Bedford school district participates in both of these federal meal programs. According to Nancy Carvalho, food service director for the New Bedford Public School System, the breakfast and lunch programs are now an important part of the school day.
"We are what we eat, you know," Carvalho said. "And we're trying to get them to eat the meal, rather than go to the snacks."
While they are not required to do so, Carvalho said her office makes sure that all of the schools vending machines have supplies of healthy snack choices, in addition to some of the more popular treats. In addition, the "soda machines" carry only juice and water.
Sheila Parisien, who is food service director for the Manchester and Essex county school systems and president-elect of the School Nutrition Association of Massachusetts, said that her organization and the Department of Education are working to make these practices a requirement, as was recommended by the Prevention of Obesity committee's report.
She pointed in particular to work being completed by the Massachusetts Action for Healthy Kids, which is a coalition of leaders from her organization and the Department of Education, along with other state health and education groups.
In addition to drafting its own set of guidelines for vending service items and procedures, the coalition has launched a "Get local, buy fresh" campaign to promote healthy and local food choices in schools statewide. It also has announced six $1,000 grants that will be awarded to high school student groups that work with their school's administration to bring in healthier food plans.
"We feed kids sometimes two times a day, so we have a big responsibility to them," Parisien explained. As a food service director herself, she said, "We are not the problem, but we are a big part of the solution."
Cathy Liverman, study director and senior program officer for the Institute of Medicine, said this is the attitude her group hopes to propagate with the report. The group will be briefing several congressional committees on their findings, including a hearing scheduled with Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., for next week.
"We just hope that this spurs a lot of work from here on," she said. "This will give people a lot of validity and solid research, in order to move forward."
