Category: Fall 2004 Newswire
Youth Turnout Could Be High This Election
By Paola Singer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 – Their activism may not match the intensity of their 1960’s counterparts, but college students in 2004 are shedding the political apathy that has characterized them for many years.
A look at young people’s political engagement, particularly in this year’s presidential battleground states, indicates their turnout at the polls could be one the highest in decades and could be a factor in the race’s outcome.
Sixty percent of Americans 18-29 have registered to vote in 2004, and of those, 85 percent say they plan to go to the polls in November, according to a September poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. If they do vote, it would represent a spike in political participation among youths, which has been on the decline since 1972, the first presidential election after the voting age was lowered to 18. Only in the 1992 election – much to the credit of independent candidate Ross Perot – did youth participation not decline.
This year, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan have the largest number of eligible young voters.
“Coming into college I was very apathetic about politics. I really didn’t know where I stood,” said Tarah Rogowski, a senior at the University of Miami. But after attending a few school-sponsored political events “just to get more information,” her attitude started to change.
Today she is the public relations coordinator for the university’s Council for Democracy, a non-partisan student organization that began its get-out-the-vote efforts two years ago. Among several initiatives, including debate-watch parties called “pitchers and politics,” they are selling T-shirts -which Rogowski designed – that read “voters are sexy.” Those who wear the shirt on Election Day will have the chance to win gift certificates from Starbucks and other goodies.
It seems her efforts, and those of other political groups at the university, are paying off. “If you go around campus most people have buttons and stickers,” she said.
“Those 8,000 votes could really make a difference on the way this election goes,” she said about the student body at Miami. “We have a very loud voice.”
In spite of the general perception that people of college age tend to be liberals, no party dominates the youth vote, making it hard to predict how it will tilt the electorate. A September poll conducted by CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) and MTV found that 46 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 29 favored Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, while 40 percent supported President Bush. But according to a simultaneous Pew Research Center poll, 48 percent of voters in the same age group supported Bush, and 42 percent favored Kerry.
“Young people represent the largest independent demographic in the nation,” said Adam Alexander, spokesman for the New Voters Project, one of about a dozen non-partisan independent organizations that work to encourage young people to vote.
“The candidate who wins will be the candidate who has communicated more effectively with young voters,” Alexander said.
The issues that concern young voters the most are jobs and the economy, national security and the war in Iraq, according to those who pay attention to the youth vote..
“Young people are really following the debates to make up their minds,” Alexander said. “That indicates they are looking for substance.” He said 25 percent of young voters are undecided about their vote, compared to 8 percent of those over 65.
As Nov. 2 nears, campus organizations are working to boost turnout at the polls. “We are planning some big things for the lead-up to the election,” said Matt Scafidi, a 22-year-old University of Pennsylvania student working for the Rock the Vote campaign.
Scafidi mentioned a mock presidential debate with representatives from both parties in the coming days, makeshift ballots in all college houses “for those who have never seen a ballot box,” and outdoor Election Day events that will include free food.
“It’s really important to let young voters know about the identification requirements and where the polling places are,” he said.
The newfound political appetite of students still has to face the Election Day test. At Penn there is one polling site, at the east end of the seven-block campus. This has set off a debate between the school’s Democrats and Republicans, who initially started working together to obtain additional polling sites by petitioning the city election commissioner. Now the Penn Democrats are alone in their quest, with the Republicans alleging more polling sites could cause confusion and make way for voter fraud.
Carol Defries, executive director of the university’s office of government, community and public affairs, said the university decided to cease supporting students in their petition for fear of appearing partisan.
“Voting in the United States in 2004 is still subject to a dizzying hodgepodge of local and state regulation that can be difficult to navigate, especially for the first time,” wrote Jane Eisner, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and youth vote pundit, recently.
A June poll about Election Day laws by CIRCLE found that states that have extended polling hours and that mail voter information saw higher voter turnout rates among the young in recent elections.
In spite of possible overcrowding at the University of Pennsylvania polling place, campaigners expect registered students to vote. “Registration has not been a tough sell at all,” said Rich Eisenberg, head of Penn Democrats. “Students are well motivated this semester.”
Both the Kerry and Bush campaigns are seizing on the opportunity to attract young voters, on and off campus. Adam Alexander of the New Voters Project said the College Republican National Committee raised $7 million and the Democratic Party recently spent $8 million on ads targeted at young voters.
“Politicians traditionally removed young voters from their lists,” Alexander said. “This turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.” But in this election, he said, “it is impossible for any young American to say that their vote doesn’t count.”
The number of young people in the nation has grown in recent years, reaching more than 40 million, and is expected to continue to do so.
“I cannot understand when I hear someone say that they are not interested in politics, ” Scafidi said. “If you care about any issue then you have an interest in politics.”
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Families Make Final Call for Intel Reform
By Dori Berman
WASHINGTON, November 30, 2004-Families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will hold vigils this week in several cities nationwide urging House Republican leaders to allow the stalled intelligence reform bill to come to the floor for debate and a vote when Congress returns for a second lame-duck session next week.
"All of us hoped that by now.America would have the legislation it needs to prevent future attacks," said 9/11 Family Steering Committee member Mary Fetchet. She expressed concern that, because of turf battles in the House, Americans remain vulnerable.
Fetchet, a New Canaan resident whose 24-year-old son, Brad, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, appeared Tuesday at a press conference with Reps. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and several other 9/11 family members. The family members have appeared with Shays and Maloney numerous times throughout the past several months to urge Congress to pass a bill adopting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
The vigils will take place Wednesday through Sunday in Boston, Los Angeles and New York from noon to 1 p.m. each day. The New York vigils, which Fetchet will attend, will be held at Ground Zero.
During the vigils, the family members will seek signatures on petitions urging Congress to act on the intelligence legislation when it returns to Washington Monday.
Shays, who has been a strong proponent of a bill that adheres to the 9/11 Commission recommendations, plans to speak during the Wednesday vigil at Ground Zero.
Separate bills were introduced in the House and Senate following the release of the 9/11 Commission's report last summer.
The Senate bill mirrored the Commission's recommendations, while the House bill adopted some of the recommendations but also included provisions that opponents of the House version considered extraneous. Both bills would establish a national intelligence director and a national counter-terrorism center.
A conference committee reached agreement on the bill during the lame-duck session before Thanksgiving. But Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) kept the bill from reaching the House floor in response to pressure from some House Republican opponents of the compromise measure.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) expressed concern that the bill would complicate the flow of intelligence to troops in the field, while House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said he wanted the bill to contain provisions denying drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants and requiring those immigrants to carry federal identification cards.
"None of us would ask Congressman Sensenbrenner or Congressman Hunter to vote for a bill they don't believe in," Shays said at the Tuesday press conference, adding that he is asking them only to allow floor debate on the bill.
Shays wrote a letter to Sensenbrenner Monday urging him to allow the legislation to move forward.
"I wholeheartedly agree with your well-known position on drivers' license reform," Shays wrote. He added, "In January, the Republican leadership will enjoy its greatest majority in Congress since the 1920s. I see no reason why our majority could not proceed with the drivers' license and other immigration reforms at that time."
Senate Centrists Till Middle Ground
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2004 - On Tuesday, the first day of the post-election lame-duck session, a small group of senators met behind closed doors to talk about legislating from a shrinking piece of real estate: the political middle in Congress.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the co-chairwoman of the group that calls itself the Senate Centrists Coalition, convened the meeting to lay out an agenda and to identify issues on which Republicans and Democrats might find common ground.
"The American people should know that there is an organization that's willing to govern by consensus on some key matters" that affect the country, Snowe said.
Though the group's agenda is just now being discussed, topics raised included fiscal discipline, tax reform and litigation reform. Social issues, which tend to be more divisive, were not raised.
In the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to close debate and vote on legislation, the 15 to 20 moderates the coalition hopes to recruit could potentially play an influential role.
Prof. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, said the moderates' power doesn't lie necessarily in the influence they have over the Senate leadership. Rather, he said, the Republican leadership will depend on them to produce the votes to overcome filibusters. In the new Senate, the Republicans, with 55 seats, will be 5 votes short.
"They're outside of the normal leadership structure," Maisel said of the Senate centrists.
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who is the coalition's new Democratic co-chairman now that Sen. John Breaux, D-Louisiana, is leaving, said the group would try to reach beyond the margins.
"We've got the ability to affect what happens," he said. "More to the point, we don't want to use our numbers to stop things from happening, we want to use our numbers to get some things done."
The goal is to facilitate, not frustrate," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-NE, who is a vice-chairman of the group along with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.
Lieberman said the next step was to continue talking up the coalition among senators of both parties.
"We're going to survey our members. We're going to choose a couple of big, national needs and concerns and focus on those over the course of the 109th session," he said.
Breaux and fellow moderate Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina are both retiring from the Senate. Their seats have been won by conservative Republicans.Roughly 13 senators from both parties attended the coalition meeting Tuesday, though Snowe contended that scheduling commitments kept others away. She estimated that the numbers could grow to 20 or more. In the past, the numbers have fluctuated depending on the issue at hand. Moreover, the coalition this time extended an open invitation to all senators.
Sen. Susan Collins, who was busy with what she characterized as "intense negotiations" over the fate of the intelligence reform legislation in Congress, expressed her strong support for the coalition through a written statement and said she would remain involved.
Sen. John Chafee, R-Rhode Island, founded the group in 1995 with Breaux in the aftermath of the 1995 government shutdown.
His son, Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, who was at the Tuesday meeting and has at times publicly considered leaving the Republican Party, will continue to work in the coalition - but as a Republican.
"I'm solid," he said on the steps of the Capitol after the meeting, about whether he would eventually switch. "I'm up in '06, same as Olympia," he said about Maine's senior senator. If he were going to make a switch, he said, "I'd have made it."
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It’s Blackhawks for N. Andover Native
By Erik Milster
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 - Being drenched in sweat is something 2 nd Lt. Geoffrey Leonard, 24, has grown accustom to in the last four months.
A native of North Andover, Mass., Leonard is enrolled in the Army's Aviation training program at Fort Rucker Army Base in southern Alabama. He is part of a select group taking a nine-month program to learn the techniques of flying combat helicopters, including the Blackhawk.
After a six-mile run Leonard said his simple grey t-shirt bearing "ARMY" across the chest could be rung out, prompting him to recount his first impression of Alabama: "Like the hottest sauna ever."
Leonard began the flight training program in early June 2004, a year after graduating from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He recalls how even the moonlit nights were hot and humid.
"Almost every day I get up at 4 a.m., hoping maybe it will be cool out," he said recently. "No such luck. . I step outside everyday and I am soaked within a minute. It is even worse when we are in our full gear, boots and all."
By the time most people are waking up for breakfast, Leonard and his fellow officers have already arrived at the airfield ready for the morning briefing.
While the heat and humidity have taken their toll, it is the rigid schedule of flight training and studying that has most affected Leonard.
After ten weeks of training on flight simulators and smaller helicopters, Leonard now spends around four hours a day inside the cockpits of the Blackhawk. Along with a senior instructor, Leonard tries to learn the techniques of a seasoned Army pilot. Leonard has logged hundreds of hours in various simulators and helicopters since arriving at Ft. Rucker, but nothing compares to the Blackhawk.
After a grueling morning of flying-where "the seats of the Blackhawk are really good crash worthy seats, but they are not Lazy-Boy," said Leonard - the afternoon is spent in class and physical training. Three-hour classes, and six-mile runs are not uncommon. This training is harsh, but Leonard said he does not mind. He even laughs a little while admitting that while his conditioning has never been better, he is exhausted. "In this program you have to be both a world-class sprinter and a marathon runner at the same time," he said.
Even after 12- to 14-hour days that include flight simulator training, regular physical fitness tests, and extensive academic studying, Leonard is still absorbed in flight school, unable to step away for a minute.
"Someone told me that flight school was like having a firehose of information turned on you at full strength," said Leonard. "By the time I am finished around 6 p.m., I still have to study for upcoming exams, polish my boots, as well as the simple things like laundry and keeping in touch with my family."
Moving to Alabama was not the easiest transition for a boy born and raised in the Northeast. "When I heard that I was going to Alabama, I remember thinking, 'Isn't there a flight school somewhere in New England?'" Leonard said. The only times he had left New England was for family trips and Army training. His longest time away from his home region was a month-long Army training at Fort Knox, Ky.,. during the summer of 2001.
"While I wished I could have stayed close to family and friends, I knew Ft. Rucker was my only shot at flying," said Leonard. Since 1973, when the Army consolidated its flight training program at Ft. Rucker, the base has since become the promised land for any young solider with dreams of flying Army green.
However, Leonard has not entirely abandoned the Northeast. "It was amazing to see the Red Sox's wild run to the World Series not only because I am a huge fan, but seeing them on TV gave me a small window to see home," he said. "Those games helped when I missed home."
While at the University of Massachusetts the ROTC program was just one important aspect of Leonard's life, though some time in his junior year, his roommates christened him "Army Geoff, or AG for short," in response to his growing dedication. Now, flight training at Ft. Rucker has become his entire life.
One aspect of his active duty training that Leonard is reluctant to talk about is his prospect of being sent to the Middle East. "I am not going to go any time soon, but going there is inevitable. Within a couple of years, I'll be over there," said Leonard.
Even though Leonard has been passionately involved in the Army since his freshman year in college, it took a few years before he figured out his role in the military. "I loved being in ROTC at UMass," he said. "It was a great introduction to all the military has to offer. But the more I learned the more I began leaning towards flying."
Leonard recalls his days at UMass and before that at North Andover High School, where his interest in the Army grew daily. "From the time I was a senior in high school until my senior year at UMass, I noticed myself becoming not only more interested in the possibilities of a career in the Army, but more enthusiastic about the idea of flying helicopters," he said. During his senior year, Leonard said he began to ask senior officers about flying in the Army. After hard work and dedication, Leonard was accepted to the flight school at Ft. Rucker.
Friends of Leonard's back home in Massachusetts have seen a change in the young soldier. "I remember Geoff in college and he was always interested in his ROTC classes. But now I talk to him and he just has this new level of excitement I have never seen before," said North Andover resident Kenneth Jenkins, who has been friends with Geoff since UMass. "It is remarkable how much effort, fighting that grueling schedule, he is putting in to fulfill his dream of flying."
With only four months of training left, Leonard said he is looking forward to the future, much as he did during his senior year of college.
"When this program is done, my future is wide open," he said. "This has been the best experience of my life. But for anyone interested in attending flight school here is a word of advice: Be prepared to get no sleep, and make sure to bring plenty of dry t-shirts."
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Bush Set to Sign Revised Special Education Law
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - The 108th Congress is poised to send a bill to President Bush that would reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, updating the law that provides money and protections for the country's 6.7 million disabled students.
The House voted 397-3 in favor of the legislation Friday and the Senate approved it by voice vote before adjourning.
President Bush will likely sign the IDEA reauthorization into law before the completion of his first term.
House and Senate negotiators announced Wednesday that after an almost two-year debate, they had reached a compromise on the specific reforms each chamber sought for the current legislation, which was last modified in 1997.
The changes range from improving the discipline system for special education students to increasing standards for special education teachers, working more directly with parents and minimizing bureaucratic inefficiency.
"The agreement we have reached demonstrates what America has come to realize, that students with disabilities are a far too important priority to be used as a political tool or cast aside because of an election schedule," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Kennedy, who co-authored the Senate version of the bill, has been involved with special education law since 1975, when Congress passed landmark legislation intended to ensure free and appropriate education for students with disabilities.
According to a Kennedy spokesman, the senator was instrumental in pushing through the legislation during the lame-duck congressional session.
Kennedy has acknowledged that parents might prefer the disciplinary protections of the 1997 law, but added that the Senate took steps to prevent special education students from being disciplined for behavior resulting from their disability.
Cutting red tape
The last reauthorization required a hearing whenever a disabled student faced school suspension of more than 10 days. Those hearings were designed to determine whether a disability identified on the student's individualized education program had caused the misbehavior.
Currently, all members of a student's individualized education team must be present at those meetings, a mandate that critics say slows the disciplinary process. The new bill requires that only the relevant members attend.
"With an (individualized education program) meeting comes a tremendous amount of red tape," said Alexa Marrero, a spokeswoman for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "Now the school, the parent and the relevant members of the (program) are going to get together and look at the fact patterns. It's going to make a big difference."
According to Marrero, schools have had an extremely difficult time separating infractions from disabilities and some teachers have complained that they lack control. "Virtually everything could be attributed to a disability," Marrero said. "The burden of proof was entirely on the schools, and they had to prove a negative."
Gary Urgonski, director of special education at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich, said that assembling a student's whole team can be difficult and that as long as all the necessary people are at the hearing, special education students will remain protected.
Urgonski oversees more than 200 special education students at Cape Cod Tech. According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, there were more than 3,900 special education students in Barnstable County in the 2003-2004 school year.
40 percent goal far off
The bill would require new special education teachers to meet competency standards in their subject areas, something currently required of other classroom teachers. To calm critics who said that special education teachers often teach multiple subjects, the bill provides teachers additional time to comply as long as they meet standards in their primary field.
Bill Rokicki, director of student services for Falmouth schools, said the goal is retaining the best teachers, not imposing stiffer standards. "It's an absolute myth that if we raise the standards, we get better teachers," he said. "If you raise salaries, then you get the better teachers."
Special education funding remains controversial. According to the original 1975 legislation, Congress must provide schools with 40 percent of the funding needed for special education programming - a percentage it has never achieved. The bulk of special education funding comes from local taxes.
While the federal appropriation has increased from $2.1 billion in 1994 to $10.1 billion in 2004, Congress still currently provides only 19 percent of special education funding. The new bill calls for Congress to "recommit" to reaching that 40 percent mark by 2011.
"I deeply regret that this bill does not require the federal government to meet its full funding commitment to local schools to help them cover the costs of special education," Kennedy said on the Senate floor Friday.
Walter Healy, executive director of the Cape Cod Collaborative, which helps coordinate a variety of education-related services throughout the Cape, was hardly surprised.
"The intentions are good, but they set a goal of 40 percent, and they never come through with it," Healy said. "And the locals have to make up the difference."
(Published: November 22, 2004)
Bass Takes the Reigns of Tuesday Group
WASHINGTON, 11/22/04--The congressmen strolled into the press gallery and assembled in front of a sign that read "Vox Centrum," meaning "voice of the center." They glanced at one another and wondered aloud whether they should wait to begin the conference they had called to talk about the new leadership of their group of moderate Republicans until one more colleague showed up.
"Is that it, four of you?," said one of the reporters, laughing.
Quiet chuckles spread through the small crowd gathered to hear them last week.
"Plus 31," said Rep. Charles Bass, flashing a wry smile.
These 35 Republican House members are known as the Tuesday Group, moderate Republicans that meet once a week over pizza or sandwiches in the basement of the Capitol to hammer out their agenda, Bass and Mark Kirk (IL), plan to make the most of their numbers in order to make their voices, and what they call the voice of mainstream America, not only heard, but heeded.
In a GOP- dominated House, the 35 votes could influence legislation to the advantage of the Democrats, or could be garnered by conservative Republicans for a greater majority.
As the new co-chairs of the group, Bass and Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., plan to make the most of their voices, and what they think are the voices of mainstream America, not only heard, but heeded.
"We're not just going to try to pick issues that we think conservatives are going to like," said Bass. "We're going to develop an agenda that our members want and there's consensus for to push. We're going to try to stick together as a group and have some real results to show at the end of the session."
Or, as Kirk put it, "We're going to underpromise and overdeliver."
The Tuesday Group began in the late 1970's under the title of the "Tuesday lunch bunch." At first, the group included members of the Senate as well as the House. Past and long-time co-chair Mike Castle, R-Del., said he remembers taking his brown bag lunch to Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe's office to talk with a few others about the agenda for the moderates.
Members no longer have to pack their own lunches, and the group now only includes Houses members (a separate group known as the Republican Main Street Partnership includes moderate House and Senate members). But the focus on fiscal matters has remained constant-and the agenda in past years has grown to include the environment, science and defense.
Bass, according to his legislative director Tad Furtado, hopes the group's focus this session to be fiscal, namely, changing the rules of the budget to discourage new spending by requiring more than a 50 percent majority for approval of new spending.
Furtado also said Bass wants the group to take a more active approach to getting things done.
"What we don't want to do is just build a group that is always able to say no, we want to build a group that is able to say yes and pass something," said Furtado. "We've always been a defensive blocking group."
Bass said that though he didn't intend to go out and solicit the support of Democrats, the Tuesday Group agenda and priorities would attract their support.
"I have little doubt (our agenda) will attract the support of like-minded Democrats," said Bass.
Furtado said working in a bi-partisan manner has helped moderates offset a much larger number of ideologically driven, more conservative members, especially on energy policy.
Castle said Bass's personality helps him in this regard.
"He's liked beyond our group," said Castle. "You want somebody there who can talk to the leadership and talk to others."
This session, Bass will try to increase this influence by interviewing each member of the Tuesday Group to find out what he or she would like to focus on.
"Votes count. And what we will do that we have not done in the past is plan for the major issues, to find out.how our members feel about it and whether or not we're willing to stick together as a group," said Bass.
But unlike the conservative Republican Study Group or the moderate Blue Dog Democrats, the Tuesday Group does not stick together on every issue. Members readily admit that this is not what the group was created for.
"If you ask any of the four of us different questions, you'll get different answers, because we're not ideologically based in always having the same answer," said Castle at the conference. In addition to Castle and the two chairs, the fourth member to appear was Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.
Furtado said the members of Tuesday Group disagree on a number of "hot button" issues, such as gun and abortion rights.
Perhaps that is why it is so difficult to identify the moderate Republicans, and why it is perhaps so hard for them to identify themselves.
Unlike the Study Group or Blue Dogs, the Tuesday Group does not make a list of their members public. It has no Web site, and even the some of the group's members are reluctant to label themselves "moderate."
For instance, though he attends meetings, Rep. Jeb Bradley calls himself "loosely affiliated" with the Tuesday Group. He said there was no stigma attached to being a moderate Republican and said he prefers the focus to be on his voting record, not labels.
"I wanted to participate in the group and.learn from the perspective of more senior members of Congress, who were willing to take me under their wing," said Bradley of the group, "But I'm not so sure labels are always a good thing. I really focus on policy, not labels."
Rep. Mike Michaud, a member of the moderate Blue Dogs, said he didn't think there was a stigma attached to being a moderate Republican, but that they were under different pressures than moderate democrats.
"Clearly, there's a lot of pressure on the Republican side to toe the party line," said Michaud. "You've got a Republican president, a Republican Senate, a Republican House, it makes it more difficult for them to stray."
Bass said he and Kirk have already taken steps to make the group more public, such as developing the new "vox centrum" logo. He said they might develop a Web site in conjunction with the Republican Main Street Partnership.
Whether or not their influence is publicly known, members agree that the weekly meetings are a place for them to figure out their stances on a number of issues and talk honestly amongst friends in an environment that they feel comfortable in, absent the pressures of the press, which has never been allowed at the lunches.
"The best thing about the Tuesday Group is that one hour a week we're together.I learn more about what's happening in Congress and develop more of my thinking there than I do in anything I do in the entire week," said Castle.
Furtado agreed.
"Basically it's an environment where people can get work done," Furtado said. "There's nothing to be gained by standing out and banging your shoe on the table."
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Erin Brockovich-Ellis: A Warrior, A Mom, A Woman
By Huijuan Jia
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2004-"If anything I could think of can go behind my name, it's going to be: Erin Brockovich, 36 DD."
Erin Brockovich-Ellis, who became world-famous practically overnight through a hit movie named after her, was describing her title to hundreds of public health professionals, most with Ph.D.s or M.D.s after their names, at a conference in Washington's Convention Center.
The audience laughed. She waited for nearly a minute for the laughter to quiet down. With short blonde hair, a red, deep, v-neck, slim-fitting sweater, an ivory multiple stone-chained necklace with an egg-sized pendant, a black knee-length waist-belted leather coat and black high-heeled boots, Brockovich-Ellis, now 44, is no longer the sassy and flashy law firm clerk featured in the movie. But she still looks sexy and cool.
And she is definitely not short of titles behind her name. No longer a file clerk, she now serves as director of research at Masry & Vititoe, the law firm featured in the movie, where she famously brought a lawsuit against the utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Company and won a $333 million settlement for more than 600 residents in Hinkley, Calif.
The 2000 movie, which starred Julia Roberts, not only won the actress an Oscar award, but also made Brockovich-Ellis a public figure and won her numerous awards and titles including "Presidential Award of Merit" from the Consumer Attorneys of California, "Special Citizen Award" from the Children's Health Environmental Coalition, "Lifesaver Award" from the Lymphoma Research Foundation of America, "Woman of the Year" from the Israel Cancer Research Fund and the "Environmental Excellence" award from the National Jewish Fund.
Brockovich-Ellis never expected these honors. "I have always been the underdog," she said, adding that in school she was once voted "the girl least likely to succeed."
A native of Lawrence, Kan., Erin is the youngest of four children in her family. Her father was an industrial engineer and her mother was a journalist. After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1978, Erin spent one year at Kansas State University, and then transferred to Miss Wade's Fashion Merchandising College in Dallas, Texas, where she earned an associate degree.
She had worked for K-Mart and an engineering company in California for a few months. While at the latter job, she attended a beauty pageant and won the title of Miss Pacific Coast. (The movie called it Miss Wichita as director Steven Soderbergh thought "it would be cute" since she was from Kansas.)
The next year she married restaurant manager Shawn Brown, with whom she had two children, Matthew and Katie, and the family moved to Reno, Nev. Erin and Brown divorced in 1987. While working at a Reno brokerage as a secretary, she met her second husband, stockbroker Steven Brockovich, whom she married in 1989. Not long after she had her third child, Elizabeth, her second marriage ended in 1990.
After being seriously injured in a traffic accident in Reno, she moved back to Southern California with her children. She hired Jim Vititoe of Masry & Vititoe to handle her car accident case, but when the $17,000 settlement she received couldn't cover all her debts, she begged the firm to hire her as a $1,200 a month clerk. While organizing papers in a pro bono real estate case, she found medical records in the file that piqued her curiosity. She began to research the matter.
Her investigation eventually found that Hinkley's residents had been exposed to Chromium 6, a toxic chemical leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company's compressor station. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, the giant utility paid the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.
As in the movie, Erin Brockovich was rewarded with a $2 million bonus from the law firm and promoted to her current position.
Her biker boyfriend George in the movie was a real person but in real life things did not work out between Erin a nd George. Remarried in 1999 to actor Eric Ellis, she now lives in Agoura Hills, Calif., with her husband and children.
The movie brought Brockovich both fame and attacks. Journalist and attorney Michael Fumento published a series of articles in newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, blasting Brockovich and her law firm as acting "like fat rats by exploiting both the system and their clients." He argued that there is no significant evidence to prove that Chromium-6 was the cause of the disease suffered by Hinkley residents.
"Often times I see headlines: Erin Brockovich and her junk science. Oh, shut up," Brockovich-Ellis said.
"First of all, it is not my science. We work with world renowned experts," she said. She doesn't need a Ph.D. to know what is harming people's health, she said, adding all she requires is "common sense."
"We didn't expect the money. We didn't expect the movie. We didn't expect Julia Roberts," she said, "We simply cared. We chose to do the right thing for the right reason."
Brockovich-Ellis said she is not a politician, not an attorney, not a scientist. "I'm an ordinary person who isn't afraid to speak out not only what's in my mind, but to speak what's in my heart," she said.
While the movie portrays her as a warrior against a giant company in the name of justice, she said it is not her favorite film. "My favorite movie is 'Pay it Forward'," she said.
"Pay It Forward" tells the fictional story of 12-year-old Trevor McKinney, who comes home from school with an extra-credit assignment for his Social Studies class: Think of an idea for world change and put it into action. Trevor's idea was "paying it forward," where one does another a favor and then requests that a favor be paid forward to three more people. This is what Erin Brockovich-Ellis said she hopes she can do.
She attributed her persistence in finding the truth to her father, calling him "a very strong, committed and firm father." She said one thing she learned from him is honesty and she "learned it in a hard way."
While in high school, Erin once skipped school for a day. "I got caught and I told him a lie," she recalled. As a punishment, she was grounded for the whole semester and was not allowed to make phone calls or date. He even took away a planned trip to Chicago.
"I was furious," she said.
Her father wrote her a letter when he went out of town, she said. He told her there would be many trips in the future and most of them would be more fun than the one to Chicago. He told her to accept the punishment as an adult. "Remember your mom and I love you very much, and we expect you to develop into an honest and respected woman," her father wrote.
Now Erin Brockovich-Ellis, whom others predicted would be an "underachiever," has matched her parents' expectations. And she now has a family of her own: Her eldest son Matthew is 21, Katie 20, and Elizabeth 13. She said none of her children pays any attention to the movie.
"No 'Erin Brockovich' at home. I am Mom," she said.
Delegation Frowns on National Sales Tax
WASHINGTON 11/19/04- Replacing the current tax code with a national sales tax doesn't sit well with some members of the New Hampshire delegation, but most think simplifying the tax code is necessary.
"It's really a bad idea whose time has not come," said Sen. Judd Gregg, who will chair the Budget Committee in January. "We don't need a new major engine of revenue."
President George Bush has said overhauling the tax code will be one of his major priorities in the next four years. An August campaign appearance in which Bush entertained the idea of replacing the current tax code with a national sales tax sparked a buzz about the idea.
Sen. John Sununu said that reforming the tax code was necessary, but said a national sales tax wash highly unlikely to get through committee, much less make it to the House or Senate floor.
"We need a flatter, fairer income tax that provides a generous exemption for families and eliminates the complex maze of loopholes and deductions that frustrates most taxpayers," Sununu said in a written statement.
Rep. Charles Bass has similar feelings about the tax, according to spokeswoman Margo Shideler.
"Although the Congressman supports reforming our current tax system to make it fairer, flatter and easier to understand, he has serious concerns that a national sales tax would undermine the New Hampshire advantage that comes from not having a state sales tax," Shideler said.
Rep. Jeb Bradley said that it was too early to say what would work best- a national sales tax, a flat tax or simplifying the tax code- but said simplifying the tax code was necessary.
"Our tax code is really pretty cumbersome and complicated," Bradley said. "At a minimum we have to figure out a way to simplify our tax code, so that compliance costs are easier to deal with."
Bradley said there are benefits and downsides to a national sales tax.
"People will argue that a consumption tax is more transparent. You know what you're paying, when you're paying. If you object to the tax you don't have to consume that good or service. So it's a little bit more voluntary in that regard."
"On the other hand, there are those who do believe that it more adversely affects people at the lower end of the economic spectrum," Bradley said.
Chris Edwards, a scholar at the Cato Institute in Washington, agreed that it was more transparent, but there are problems with the details of the tax.
"If you make $50,000 on income, you'll see $50,000 on pay stub. But when you went to the store prices would be higher and you'd pay the tax," Edwards said. "And questions of whether you could do the rate that high, what possible rate would be..do you tax everything, do you exempt healthcare, do you exempt food?"
Both Edwards and Bruce Bartlett, an economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a public policy research institute in Washington, said that the tax would have to be about 30 percent.
Edwards said that in 1990s the most public plan would have replaced the individual and corporate income tax with a 15 percent sales tax. He said with the latest proposals the rate would have to be 30 percent.
Bartlett said the tax may even have to be higher and that some estimates place it at 50 percent.
"It's just utterly, utterly impractical," Bartlett said. "All the experiences of foreign countries tell us that you can't collect rates much above 10 percent."
Edwards said he did not think Bush would impose a national sales tax.
"It's certainly the most radical proposal.. He might not want to be as radical as a sales tax," Edwards said.
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Special Education Legislation Gets Reauthorized
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 - The research, drafting and negotiating process took more than three years, but an overhaul of the legislation governing the education of disabled students seems headed for approval in the extended session of Congress.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensures disabled students receive a free education with an emphasis placed on including disabled students in class with non-disabled students as much as possible.
The House passed a reauthorization of the bill in April of 2003 and the Senate passed its version in May 2004. A joint Senate and House conference committee this week approved a compromise version, and it is expected to be approved by Congress and signed by President Bush, said Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Both sides in the conference committee praised the bipartisan compromise efforts to allow the bill to reach its final stages.
"None of out differences are insurmountable, and the consequences of not getting a bill done this year are far greater than the challenge of compromising with another," said Boehner.
The bill is modeled after the No Child Left Behind Act in that it tries to focus on results rather than process. Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, noted that the bill has five themes. It seeks to improve the scholastic results of properly identified disabled students, reform the way disabled students are disciplined, reduce the number of lawsuits brought by their parents, require their teachers to be "highly qualified" and reduce the paperwork load for those instructors, and reform federal funding for disabled student education.
"We've gone from an input exercise to ultimately an output exercise, where we're looking at what the results are," Gregg said. The bill is aimed at students achieving academic goals, instead of getting sidetracked by bureaucratic requirements, resulting in students falling behind. It also seeks to change the way schools evaluate students so as to more accurately identify those with special needs.
The bill also revised the disciplinary rules for those students, making guidelines slightly more lenient: Administrators will be able to discipline disabled students using the same methods as non-disabled students, unless the student's disability is a factor in the behavior. Gregg said the bill is "sensitive to that child's handicap, but also recognizes that child must function in a classroom of other children."
Thirdly, the bill is designed to reduce litigation by creating a better communication network between parents and schools, so disputes can have constructive outcomes, rather than lawsuits.
The bill will require special education teachers to be "highly qualified" as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act in each subject they teach. It also "recognizes that special education teachers face two and a half times the paperwork burden as other teachers, by allowing 15 states to test new ways of giving teachers more time with students and less with needless paper work," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Lastly, funding has been set on a six-year path to reach a goal of 40 percent national average federal funding for the total costs of educating students with special needs. The law stipulates, however, that that money be used for the extra cost of educating these students, not to defray their regular educational costs. Currently, the federal government contributes roughly 18-19 percent, according to congressional officials, though that figure varies state by state. Last year federal education grants to states totaled $10.1 billion and this year the House has proposed an additional $1 billion, according to the House Education and Workforce Committee.
Additionally, the bill will add programs to connect students with technologies to make them more independent after they graduate.
"Five years after they complete their special education programs, more than half of those with disabilities still are not working or involved in continuing education," said Kennedy. "We owe it to them .to provide the training and support they need to lead independent lives."
Although he has not reviewed the language in the new bill, George Dowaliby, chief of the Connecticut Bureau of Special Education, said guidelines for student achievement and student discipline won't change that much.
Dowaliby said he is concerned about the bill's language on federal funding.
He said the funding promise to achieve 40 percent federal funding, appears to be more "concrete language" than before, and an improvement. But, he said, while Washington politicians claim states currently receive 18 to 19 percent federal funding for special education, Connecticut receives much less, receiving around eight percent. "The percentage in Connecticut is lower primarily because it costs more to do business here," he said.
Even under the new law Connecticut's share would likely end up around 20 percent rather than 40 percent, Dowaliby said. He said he would like to see the system refined to more equitably distribute funds to states, so benefits would be more even.
Also a concern for Dowaliby is the funding formula under the new bill which, he said, could give local school systems more money and the state system less money.
Norwalker Tutors Children in Washington
By Dori Berman
WASHINGTON November 18, 2004--When Yazmin Kahn was nine or 10, her cousin found a wild turtle and, much to Kahn's dismay, kept it as a pet. Her mother, Rana Kahn, remembers the two children arguing, with Yazmin insisting that her cousin release the turtle back to the wild, where it belonged.
Finally, one day when her cousin was out, Yazmin released the turtle herself, angering her cousin, Rana Kahn laughingly recalled.
"She's a very passionate person," Rana Kahn said. "She stands up for what she believes in."
Yazmin Kahn, who will turn 22 next month, grew up in Norwalk but currently lives in Washington while participating in City Year, an Americorps program that places young people in an urban setting to perform community service. She spends her days tutoring students one-on-one in the D.C. public schools.
While the program commitment is for one year, Kahn hopes to stay on for a second year as a team leader. City Year development director Brett Norton sees Kahn in a leadership position in the future, whether with City Year or elsewhere.
"People with drive and intelligence and compassion generally find a place," he said. "In Yazmin I see a great instinctual person who knows what the problems are before they arise, and that's a great leadership quality."
Khan graduated from Norwalk High School in 2000, though she spent her junior and senior years at the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad at Brien McMahon High School. There, she studied Japanese culture, history and language.
"I was extremely interested in the Japanese culture," she said. "The program approached culture with what I thought was the proper attitude of immersion," instead of only one class a day. At the end of the school year, the program participants put their newly acquired knowledge to use during a trip to Japan.
Both of Kahn's parents are from India, though her mother spent much of her life in England. Her parents married and moved to Connecticut in 1980, where Kahn and her two younger sisters were born.
Her parents' international roots influenced Khan's desires to travel and learn other cultures, she said. She has visited England many times, and would like to travel to India and just about everywhere else.
After graduating from high school, Kahn attended American University in Washington, D.C., but returned to Norwalk after one year for financial reasons and took classes at Norwalk Community College. There, she wrote for the school's newspaper, The Voice .
She said she plans to use the education award that City Year participants receive to return to college, and she hopes to study international relations at Georgetown University, also in Washington.
Kahn chose Washington for her City Year experience because it appeals to her on many levels, she said, and she plans to stay in the city for several years. Her younger sister, Shreen, is a student at American University, and some of Kahn's friends from her year at the university remain in the area.
The diversity of Washington also appeals. A practicing Muslim, she said the Muslim community here is far bigger and more diverse than in Norwalk.
Each morning, Kahn travels into the city from the apartment in Silver Spring, Md., that she shares with three other Corps members, where she meets her team to prepare for the day. Corps members find their own housing and the program provides a stipend that amounts to approximately $150 per week after taxes, Kahn said.
On a recent, uncharacteristically warm November morning, Kahn stood in a circle with her teammates on the City Year's Campaign for Literacy Education team. The City Year D.C. corps is broken into five teams, each performing a different type of service around the city.
Sunmer, the team leader, called on Kahn to lead the daily readiness check.
Khan declared "great" the word of the day. She then checked off each piece of the City Year uniform. All Corps members wear black shoes or Timberland work boots, white or black socks, khaki pants, white shirts and the signature City Year red Timberland coats.
Khan's style is usually colorful and trendy, but in uniform she could almost pass for a young school teacher or a social worker. She is small in stature, with olive skin and black hair that falls above her shoulders. Her fingernails are long, but carefully squared, and perfectly groomed eyebrows frame her dark eyes. The tiny, purple stud that dots the spot directly below her bottom lip is almost invisible.
"You got your shoes?" she asked with as much enthusiasm as a 21-year-old can muster at 8:15 a.m., to which her team members responded with a synchronized, "Great!"
After checking off each item of clothing, Kahn asked her team members: "You got your hearts?"
"Great!"
"You got your minds?"
"Great!"
"You got your smiles?
"Great!"
"You got your souls full of grace?"
"Great!"
"You got your positive, can-do attitudes?"
"Great!"
City Year draws people from many walks of life. Some are college graduates from across the country who have not decided what to do next, others are residents of the cities they serve, seeking a way to give back to their own community. Some, Khan said, want to teach and are preparing for their futures.
"I'm here because I want to affect change," Khan said, adding that, despite differing motivations, all members are devoted. "There's no way you could get up every morning and do this unless you wanted to."
Following the readiness check, Kahn and her team members walked to their first tutoring stop of the day, Shaw-Howard Elementary school. The Corps members fetched their daily lesson plans, which they had prepared themselves the previous session, and proceeded to different classrooms. After leaving Shaw-Howard each day, the team tutors at two more schools, teaching the basics of reading and math to students of varying ages, some of whom are far behind the skills expected of their grade levels.
"It's easier with the younger kids," Khan said. "But with the older kids, I feel like there's more of an urgency. I would love to see my 15-year-old get all the way through-addition, subtraction, multiplication, division-so that she knows them when she gets to high school next year."
Khan seems wise beyond her years, speaking articulately and thoughtfully about community service and the country's problems. At a time when many of her peers are only voting because it is the trendy thing to do, Khan regularly writes letters to her congressional representatives, expressing her concerns about their actions.
Proximity to the nation's political center seems appropriate for someone as politically-minded as Khan. She said she hopes to stay in Washington for a number of years, but does not wish to work on Capitol Hill.
"I'm more interested in social change and justice," she said. "I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU and I'm a member of moveon.org."
Still, it will be years before Kahn settles down. There are countless places to visit. Another year in City Year possibly awaits her, and she has considered the Peace Corps as an option after that.
Where will she end up?
"Norwalk is a great place to raise kids, and its diversity is a strength," she said, as opposed to the surrounding, more homogenous towns. "It will always be a base for me."
Most likely, however, she sees herself in New York City, "because it's the greatest city in the world."
