Category: Joanna Broder
Bird Flu Threatens Maine’s Brown Egg Industry
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 – When the port of Shanghai first opened to foreign shipping in 1843, American sailing ships traveling from Boston to China for silk and spices would carry back a crate of red-, black- or cinnamon-colored chickens to provide eggs or the occasional chicken dinner for the long trip home. But unlike the white or tannish-colored eggs the mariners were used to, these birds laid an egg with a rich-brown hue. In China, white symbolizes death or funerals.
New Englanders fell in love with brown eggs ? they were so much fresher than the white eggs that took so long to arrive from the mid-west ?and they eventually become a dietary staple in the region: Maine has even become the number one producer of brown eggs in the world. Brown eggs are now the third biggest agricultural product in the state.
Today, the same country that introduced brown eggs to Maine has the potential to introduce the agent that would be responsible for their demise: a highly-virulent strain of avian influenza virus known as H5N1. Avian influenza is the umbrella term for a large group of viruses that affects birds. While much attention has focused on the possibility that bird flu could endanger human lives, less has been paid to the economic consequences of an outbreak in the poultry industry in this country.
“Sadly we’d be looking at the end of our brown egg industry here in the state of Maine,” if the bird flu hit, said Shelley Doak, the director of the division of animal health and industry at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources.
In 2004, egg production in Maine generated $61.4 million dollars in cash receipts, according to the New England field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Nationally, it could cause “severe damage to the poultry industry,” said Dr. Mike Opitz, extension veterinarian emeritus at the University of Maine in Orono.
The value of all egg production nationwide in 2004 was $5.3 billion according to the National Agricultural Statisticas Service. Broiler chickens, turkey and egg production had a combined value in 2004 of $28.9 billion.
If the virus were found in a commercial flock, international organizations would need to be notified and U.S. poultry exports would be banned. Over the last decade exports have represented between 10 and 15 percent of the total value of poultry and poultry products of U.S. origin, according to Agri Stats, a statistical research and analysis firm serving agribusiness companies.
“That would be killer to the poultry industry in Maine,” Opitz said. But he cautioned: “We shouldn’t get paranoid about it and throw a lot of money just at avian influenza. There are many other issues we have to deal with.”
H5N1, or bird flu as it is commonly known, was first detected in China nine years ago in a farmed goose. Since then the virus has killed large numbers of wild birds and domestic poultry in Asia and parts of Europe. In birds, it has spread as far west as Central Europe. It may make its way to the United States in less than a year, according to Don Hoenig, Maine’s state veterinarian. No cases of bird flu have been confirmed in birds or humans in the United States.
If bird flu comes to this country, it is unlikely to arrive first in Maine because the state is not traversed by any major flyways for birds, according to Opitz. However, migratory waterfowl could transmit the virus through secretions and feces. Many commercial farms have ponds where ducks or geese tend to stop, Hoenig said. Domestic chickens could come into direct contact with contaminated bird droppings. Or, farm workers carrying the virus in the form of manure on their shoes could track it back into a bird house. Trucks could transmit the virus from one farm to another. “It could come in a million different ways,” Doak said.
“If you’ve ever been around chickens they love manure,” said Dennis Avery, director of global food issues at the Hudson Institute, a non-partisan research organization that promotes global security. “They love partially digested grain.”
Brown egg farmers are highly-centralized in Maine; the big commercial operations are located in close proximity to each other, for the most part in Turner, Winthrop and Leeds.
Many state officials and industry leaders agree that because of their history with other strains of avian influenza and the strict biosecurity measures in place on commercial farms ? not to mention the fact that birds are kept indoors ? commercial poultry have only a small risk of contracting H5N1 from migratory birds. But should it happen, bird flu “would most likely move quickly through the barns,” Doak said. Highly virulent strains of avian influenza have the potential to kill 90 to 100 percent of a flock in two days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Once in the state, bird flu could wipe out Maine’s entire brown egg industry in a matter of weeks, according Hoenig.
Even if the government paid for the lost chickens through indemnity programs, during the time farmers were out of birds, “they’d have to try to supply their market with brown eggs through some other source and there’s nobody else that produces as many brown eggs as we do,” Hoenig said.
“Everything in agriculture has a ripple effect,” Hoenig said. There is one major feed company that provides feed for the birds and they too would suffer from the effects of bird flu. Similarly, many dairy farms rely on manure from Maine’s chicken farms to fertilize their fields and their business would be affected. Then there are all the people who work indirectly with the farms, such as electricians, Hoenig said.
The commercial poultry industry is familiar with avian influenza, having battled highly pathogenic, or virulent, strains of it in Pennsylvania in 1983.
But industry and government officials say that they feel confident about the security of commercial chicken farms. Since 1998, Maine has monitored the commercial poultry industry for avian influenza by testing a percentage of birds in a flock prior to the birds going out to slaughter, Hoenig said. The state also conducts sick-bird surveillance at the diagnostic laboratory in Orono. And it monitors brown-egg breeder flocks every three months. A breeder flock produces fertilized eggs that are then hatched and go on to become the new brown-egg laying hens.
David Radlo, president and CEO of Radlo Foods, an organic and commercial egg producer based in Watertown, Mass., with commercial brown egg farms in Leeds and Turner, Maine, said he is not concerned about the threat of bird flu because of the rigorous safety protocols already in place. “We are prepared as we can be and we continue to be vigilant,” Radlo said. “This is our livelihood.”
In the poultry industry methods to secure hen houses from disease are known as “biosecurity.” A “biosecure” farm is likely to have a fence around it to regulate comings and goings, a protocol to disinfect vehicles coming onto the farm and a policy mandating workers wear protective clothing, such as coveralls, boots and hats. Poultry houses also are usually kept locked.
Dennis Bowden has a mid-sized commercial brown egg farm in Waldoboro with 10,000 layers. He protects the hens from disease by not allowing outside visitors. Anyone who walks into the hen house has to walk through a sponge soaked with a disinfectant to sanitize their shoes. Bowden said he also puts chicken wire up on the eves of the henhouse to prevent wild birds from nesting there.
But some poultry experts and industry members are concerned about the growing number of organic farmers. To be certified organic, poultry farmers must allow their fowl some degree of outdoor access, according to Barbara Haumann, senior writer at the Organic Trade Association. Being out of doors may make the animals more likely to have contact with migratory waterfowl droppings than indoor commercial birds.
In 2003 there were 1.6 million organic layer hens in the nation, up from roughly 44,000 in 1992. There were 6.3 million broilers in 2003, up from about 17,000 in 1992, according to the economic research service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Organic poultry sales in the United States as a whole are projected to grow 33 percent each year from 2004 to 2008.
Radlo’s chickens have outdoor access. However, the birds are screened off with fences and netting so they cannot come into contact with migratory waterfowl, said William Bell, general manager for the New England Brown Egg Council. Radlo Foods is a member of the council.
“Tell me how a net is going to prevent wild bird droppings from infecting an outdoor poultry flock,” the Hudson Institute’s Avery said.
The previous cases of avian influenza in the United States have all occurred in confinement flocks, said Jim Riddle, immediate past chair of the National Organic Standards Board, a Department of Agriculture advisory board that reviews and approves substances that can be used in organic farming. More research is needed on how susceptible outdoor birds really are to H5N1 before making any decision about how effective nets are in keeping out disease, he said.
In Maine, there are only about 20 or 30 organic poultry farmers, but there are hundreds of “backyard farmers” who raise anywhere from two to 100 chickens, often outdoors, to use for broilers, eggs or to compete in shows.
Unlike commercial poultry, backyard poultry do not receive any testing for disease. Interstate regulations that apply to larger commercial farmers also do not affect them, Doak said.
Backyard farms are “irresponsible,” Radlo said, adding: “You’re asking me: ‘Where do I think the outbreak is going to occur?’ And I’m telling you it’s in backyard flocks.”
State Veterinarian Hoenig has a backyard flock. “How much risk are my 11 or 12 backyard hens to get [bird flu] and spread it? Very, very minimal right now,” he said. Still, Hoenig acknowledged that the H5N1 threat might rise next year when migratory waterfowl could fly into the United States down the flyways.
The Department of Agriculture has discussed implementing new testing of backyard farms, but decided it does not have the resources for it. However, in recent months the department has escalated communications with the poultry industry about biosecurity, had more contact with backyard farmers through Maine’s Alternative Poultry Association, and met with other state agencies involved in influenza planning. Currently the state only monitors wild birds for West Nile virus, but it is establishing a protocol to monitor wild birds for avian influenza.
Nationally, the United States does not import poultry products from Southeast Asia.
If H5N1 appeared in Maine, the state’s instant management and emergency response teams would go into action, along with special, federal animal inspection teams, Hoenig said.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture could also declare a state of emergency and allocate emergency funds.
“We’d probably have a lot of people coming in here from all across the country helping out,” Hoenig said.
Opitz said that the U.S. and Maine departments of agriculture worked well together in 2002 to handle the low pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in Warren. But when asked how well prepared the nation and state would be for H5N1, he was less sure.
“I don’t have a good feel for how effectively, with the available means, we really could deal with that,” he said.
Areas where the state is vulnerable, Opitz said, include auctions, places to go to buy live poultry, and live bird markets, places where a person can purchase poultry and then have it slaughtered onsite. Live bird markets have been a cause for concern among national experts because of the many species that come together potentially leading to the spread of disease from contaminated equipment, vehicles or people coming back from live bird markets
There are no live bird markets in Maine, but many of the state’s “spent layers,” or hens past their laying prime, are sent to live bird markets in other states such as New York or Boston. Hoenig said that his office has worked closely with the individuals who are involved in the markets, meeting with them and talking about reducing the risks.
Last November, President Bush issued a proposal requesting $7.1 billion in emergency funding from Congress to prepare the nation for and protect it from pandemic influenza. Under the plan the states would receive $100 million collectively to help them revise and test their state’s emergency avian influenza response plan. The money has not yet been approved by Congress.
“If they pass the president’s initiative that would be a big help,” Hoenig said. “If we actually get some money we [could] actually hire somebody to do what Shelley Doak and I have been trying to do for the past couple of years and that is sit down and update these plans.”
“You’re talking about three million birds or more,” Hoenig said. “It’s a huge logistical issue.”
Frenetic Days for Sen. Susan Collins are Just a Way of Life
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - Sen. Susan Collins typically wakes up at about 6:45 a.m., is in the office by 8:30, and often does not leave until after eight at night. She takes a thick briefing book home with her and works for another two hours before plunking down to bed at about midnight.
"There are times when I look at the size of the briefing book and I groan because I know it's going to be a late night," she says.
"The volume of work, particularly now that I'm chair of a major committee, is huge and it requires constant work to keep up," she says. "There's generally no time in the day to do it."
What is a typical day on Capitol Hill for Maine's junior senator? Collins agreed to be followed by a reporter on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Collins knows the halls of Congress better than her staffers do. Her frenetic daily schedule is reflected in the swift pace at which she walks. And she thrives on her demanding schedule.
9:50 a.m.
Sen. Collins has already attended a breakfast on the House side, cleaned out her briefing book, and prepared for today's hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which she chairs.
After the hearing, there are back-to-back constituent meetings and then floor votes. Tonight she will attend a dinner about U.S. competitiveness that will go until nine. Collins, who has gone to a dinner every night this week, was hoping to skip the one, but, she says, after Majority Leader Bill Frist sent her a personal email encouraging her to go there really was no other choice.
Collins has homes in both Bangor and Washington. In Washington she lives a 10-minute walk from the Capitol in a townhouse with one room per floor and the kitchen in the basement. Her friends call it "the doll's house," she says, because it is so small. On weekends she commutes ? sometimes it takes up to five hours ? to her home in Bangor, always traveling back on Sunday rather than Monday to make sure not to miss a vote if a flight is delayed.
Soon it is time to leave for the hearing and she hustles down the halls of the Dirksen Senate office building.
Collins is part of a walking club with Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Thursday mornings at 7 a.m. they walk from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and back. Trying to get into shape, Collins says, has led her to join a women's-only gym in the Senate, where she walks on the treadmill and lifts weights.
Just prior to the hearing, the seventh in a series investigating the government's poor planning and response to the disaster, Collins greets the witnesses ? executives from the private sector ? in the small room behind the hearing area. They will testify today about how their companies prepared and responded to Hurricane Katrina more effectively than the government.
Collins, wearing a deep purple suit with black velvet trim around the collar, a thick silver chain around her neck and low-heeled black pumps, soon has the male executives laughing.
"I even had someone at the Department of Homeland Security concede that Wal-Mart saved more lives than FEMA and the Red Cross combined," Collins says after the two-hour hearing has concluded, her heels clip-clopping hurriedly back to her office.
Noon
"Oooooh."
Sen. Collins is genuinely surprised when she is greeted upon her return to her office by a large bouquet of colorful flowers. "Now, I have no idea where these gorgeous flowers came from."
Her excitement drops a barely-noticeable notch after silently reading the card, as if for a moment she might have been hoping for something more interesting.
A group of former Merchant Marines known as the Just Compensation Committee was obviously pleased with how Collins co-sponsored a bill to have Merchant Marines who were deployed during World War II receive veterans benefits.
Collins needs to prepare for a 12:30 luncheon with executives from Maine-based New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc., which is the last remaining athletic shoe maker in United States. But she always seems to have a few minutes to chat.
Collins has two cars: a green 1998 Honda Accord that she drives while in D.C. and a white 1997 Subaru Outback that she uses in Maine. "I tend to drive my cars until they die," she says. "Some of my friends would say I'm overly frugal."
On one side of her office is what Collins calls her "Heroes Wall," which includes a picture of moderate Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) who took Collins under his wing, she says, and also a signed picture of Margaret Chase Smith, Collins' role model, who served in the Senate from Maine from 1949 to 1973.
Collins now really needs to do some work.
12:25
Sen. Collins, her chief of staff and press secretary head out to her luncheon in the Capitol. Her black pumps have been replaced by New Balance running shoes that were made at the factory in Norridgewock.
The underground subway that connects the Senate office buildings to the Capitol looks like the people-mover at Epcot Center in Disney World. As the subway twists and turns, Sen. Collins talks about her favorite place to eat, the River Drivers Restaurant in Millinocket. She loves the lobster-stuffed haddock and the lollipop lamb chops.
It turns out that the lunch started at noon, not 12:30. Sometimes I need a clone, she says.
We are rushing around the back halls of the Capitol, the kind of places only someone like Sen. Collins, who worked for former Sen. William Cohen for 12 years, would know about.
"Do we know where we're going?" she asks her staff as she leads the pack to the luncheon room.
"No," is the answer.
"Good job you guys," she tells her staff. "I'm the one who knows where we're going."
Collins greets the 20 or so New Balance executives, who are there to discuss trade issues. The lunch is closed so the trailing reporter is ushered outside the room with the press secretary Kevin Kelley, a former New England Cable News correspondent who reported from Portland prior to arriving in Washington just this past summer.
She's a perfectionist, Kelley says about Collins. "She is never unprepared."
1 p.m.
Sen. Collins needs to do a satellite interview from the Senate recording studios located in the basement of the Capitol at 1:40. She does not have time to return to her office in Dirksen so she heads to her "hideaway" instead. A hideaway is an office just off the Capitol dome that is awarded to senators based on their seniority. Only about 60 senators have them.
We climb the winding, spiral stairway up to the office. Inside the office the ceiling is sloped. There is a picture on the wall? taken in 1996 just after Collins had won the Republican Senate primary ? of Collins with the first President Bush and Mrs. Bush at their compound in Kennebunkport. "It was quite thrilling," she says of having lunch with the former president.
1:35
Sen. Collins is on her way to the basement of the Capitol for the interview with WAGM, a Presque Isle television station, about the future of the weather forecast station there.
1:45
The senator emerges from the interview room once again in her black pumps as the deputy press secretary ferries the New Balance running shoes back to her office in a blue gift bag.
As she walks back to her office, Collins talks about being a woman in the Senate.
Initially a female senator has to prove that she belongs here, Collins says: "After you jump over that initial barrier I think your colleagues accept you. By and large I just don't think about it."
Her social life, she says, consists of a lot of friends. She is also quite close to her five siblings and her parents who live in Caribou where she grew up.
"I have the flexibility to, with my schedule, work very hard that I would not have if I had children," she says later.
2:05
Once back at her office in Dirksen, the senator returns phone calls.
2:35
Collins heads back to the Capitol for the second time that day for three roll call votes. Constituents who have come to meet with her will be brought over to the Senate reception area just outside of the Senate floor in the Capitol.
"You can never be sure what your schedule is going to be like," Collins says. The votes were not scheduled until about 1 p.m., she explains.
Waiting for the subway once again, she bumps into Sen. Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who also owns the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team.
"She's a great senator," Kohl says. "She's respected by people on both sides of the aisle equally well. She's not only smart but she's got a nice common sense about her, an everyday quality that people relate to."
"She's single, I'm single," he adds.
3:10
Sen. Collins meets the members of the Maine chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons.
"I think she's done a wonderful job for the people of the state of Maine and seniors in particular," says Les LeFond, state president of the association.
3:45
Next, Collins meets with Phoenix Research, a newly established Maine company that has developed a research ship specializing in mapping and coastal and marine geology. The ship will be ready for charter in 2006. Collins tells Phoenix that when they are ready she will draft an introductory letter to government agencies and some universities in Maine that might be interested in contracting out the vessel for research purposes.
4:15
The press secretary gets word on his Blackberry (which does not work in all parts of the Capitol) that there may be more votes; some may go as late as 11 p.m.
Meanwhile Collins sits outside the floor of the Senate chatting with Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman.
4:25
Back to Collins' office. How does she relax?
She loves to cook - blueberry muffins and cakes, chicken with Mediterranean salsa and "a really good" apple tart ? and she loves to watch the food network on Saturday mornings.
Does she ever get awed by the famous members of the Senate?
"I feel awed when I see the Capitol building lit up at night. I don't feel in awe of the people that I work with," she says. "I feel like they're my colleagues."
Upon returning to her office, Collins says that she will return a call to a reporter, meet with her legislative director about a tax bill and prepare for a hearing she will chair tomorrow. By the time she is through it will be time for the dinner she is to attend at 6:30.
As is fairly typical, she will get home at about nine, and as always, go through her briefing book for two hours before bed.
But wait: Change in plans.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has spoken about the need for an independent commission to investigate the response to Hurricane Katrina. The GOP leadership has asked Collins to go to the floor and talk about her committee's findings on the matter.
"I may do it," she says, "it depends on the time on the floor."
Is it always this busy?
"Honestly, it's usually even busier."
Senator Collins' Favorites
Favorite book : "Empire Falls" by Richard Rousseau. "I loved that book. He combined a sense of Maine with both humor and tragedy all in one book."
Book she is reading now: Collins tends to have a book going in both Maine and Washington. In Washington she is reading "The World is Flat," by Tom Friedman. In Maine she is reading "Wicked," by Gregory Maguire.
Favorite movies: "Casablanca" and "The Wizard of Oz."
Favorite political figure: Margaret Chase Smith, William Cohen (for whom she worked for 12 years) and John Chafee of Rhode Island.
Favorite fast food: "I'm not a big fast-food person" but if she had to pick she would say Quiznos chicken sub on a whole wheat bun with zesty grill sauce.
Favorite restaurant: The River Drivers Restaurant in Millinocket.
Favorite drink: Iced tea with lemon.
Favorite vacation spot: Her camp at Lake Cold Stream Pond in West Enfield.
Favorite things to do to relax: Kayaking, cooking (she loves watching the food network), and reading.
#####
Two Maine Towns Honored for Their History and Heritage
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 -Camden and Gardiner became the first towns in Maine to be designated as historical communities on Wednesday.
The designations came from Preserve America, a White House initiative spearheaded by Laura Bush, whose mission is to encourage communities to preserve their cultural heritage.
Twenty-eight cities, towns and communities were recognized. About 300 communities in 45 states have received Preserve America designations since the program's inception three years ago
"Preservation is about revitalizing the spirit of a community," Anita McBride, Mrs. Bush's chief of staff, told the community representatives at the ceremony.
The awards reception was sponsored in part by the Historic Preservation Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. Designees from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Department of the Interior (both organizations administer a large portion of Preserve America) also attended the event.
Preserve America's goals are to strengthen historical education and local pride, while at the same time supporting the local economies.
"It's nice to know that whatever you're doing to protect and preserve and utilize your historical assets does rise to their standards," said David Jackson, director of the Conservancy for Camden Harbor Park and Amphitheatre.
As a designated community, Camden also receives a National Park road sign with the Preserve America logo, and the program's official Web site, PreserveAmerica.gov, features a description of Camden with links to the town and the Chamber of Commerce.
Bruce Milhans, spokesman for the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, said that "heritage tourism" - visiting a town to tour its historical sites - is a growing trend.
"Heritage tourists stay longer, spend more [and] extend their visits to communities or areas when they encounter things that interest them," Milhans said.
Tourists are "going to go to Preserve America communities because they know that these are places where they can go and experience heritage assets that they wouldn't know about otherwise," he added.
Camden, which has a population of 5,300, was settled in 1769. It soon prospered as a ship-building and wool manufacturing town.
To get a town designated as a Preserve America community, a representative must complete a series of application essays about how the town protects and promotes its historic resources. In the Camden application, Jackson wrote that the town "recognizes its historic roots as a coastal town each August with its annual Windjammer days," a celebration of the town's sailing ships. Some of the ships are original and some are replicas.
Gardiner did not have anyone present to accept the designation certificate. Jackson said that his employer, the not-for-profit Camden Harbor Park and Amphitheater, could not afford to send him, and the town manager paid for much of the trip from her own personal travel account.
"It does show that we made an extra effort," Jackson said of Camden.
This year, for the first time, Preserve America will offer competitive grants totaling $5 million. Designated communities or those in the process of designation that are willing to match the funds may apply for individual grants of $20,000 to $150,000. The grants aim to help the communities advance their economies, develop inventive tourism programs and provide historical documentation that tells a story to enhance the local visitor experience. The application deadline is December 16.
Jackson said he plans to apply for a grant to do the research necessary before he can nominate the Camden Harbor Amphitheater as a national historic landmark.
For more information about applying to become a designated community, visit www.preserveamerica.gov .
###
What Would It Take to Unseat Michaud?
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3-Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud of the second district doesn't seem to have many worries about his bid for reelection next year, to judge by his latest campaign finance report to the Federal Election Commission.
Michaud raised only $62,000 in the last quarter, according to his filing with the commission.
"For an incumbent in a swing district [that] is not that much money," said Jonathan Coll, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which provides financial assistance to Republican candidates for the House.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that compiles campaign spending figures on its Web site, opensecrets.org, Michaud has raised $228,890 so far in the 2006 election cycle, which is about $200,000 less than what he raised during the same period in the 2004 election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission.
"I suspect Michaud's fundraising is a function of the fact that he's unlikely to have a major Republican challenge at this time," said Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington political analyst. No one has formally challenged Michaud at this point, according to election Web sites.
"This is an off year and the congressman's really been focused on congressional duties so we haven't really ramped up the fundraising for '06," said Monica Castellanos, spokeswoman for the congressman. Castellanos said Michaud has been concentrating his time on the transportation bill, and trade and veteran's issues.
At this point only "divine intervention" would unseat Michaud, said Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the Rothenberg Report, which analyzes American politics and elections. "It would kind of be like the parting of the Red Sea."
Michaud, who is culturally conservative on issues of abortion and guns but more of a traditional Democrat on economic issues, has drawn support from moderate and conservative Democrats, along with some Republicans.
Even the "more progressive Democrats are not going to desert him," said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College in Waterville.
The ideal Republican challenger would be enough of a moderate to appeal to Democratic voters, Maisel said, and that person could find a major weakness in Michaud's record.
According to Coll of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Michaud's biggest vulnerabilities are that he voted against the energy bill.
A Republican challenger would also need to be able to raise big money, Rothenberg said.
Michaud, who has spent only $93,266 on his 2006 campaign so far, was first elected to the House in 2002 in a race for the open seat vacated by John Baldacci, now Maine's Democratic governor. Michaud raised more than a million dollars for that campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and narrowly won the race, 52-48 percent, over Kevin Raye, who was Sen. Olympia Snowe's chief of staff.
Because the race was highly competitive, the National Republican Congressional Committee supported Raye financially but gave no money to Republican challenger Brian Hamel in 2004. "That was not a high-priority Republican race," Rothenberg said.
Michaud had an easier time winning last year, with 58 percent of the vote, against Hamel, a former business executive. Hamel raised $667,602 compared to Michaud's $1.3 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"Hamel was a good candidate," Rothenberg said. "But that's not enough to defeat an entrenched incumbent who seems to fit the district pretty well." Hamel told the Bangor Daily News that he has no plans to run again in 2006.
Over the years Republicans have become more interested in defending incumbents' seats than in launching attacks on entrenched Democrats, Maisel said. "They don't want to put their efforts in districts where they're going to win by a large amount or lose by a large amount. It's a waste of money," Maisel said.
"It's a much worse environment for the Republicans now than it was two years ago with the war, gas prices, the President's response to Katrina, questions about Republican ethics," Rothenberg said. "My guess is that [Michaud] doesn't feel threatened."
The National Republican Congressional Committee would not comment about whether it will contribute to a Republican challenger to Michaud next year, Coll said, but according to political experts, they are not likely to.
####
Surprising Findings About Levee Failures
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2-The levees that breached during Hurricane Katrina, causing the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, had dozens of breaches along the city's many miles, rather than the much smaller number originally thought, civil engineering experts told a Senate panel Wednesday.
The experts added that the levees might have been poorly constructed, possibly as a result of malfeasance.
"It's disturbing to learn that inferior materials were used in some cases and contributed to the failure of the levees," said Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which held Wednesday's hearing. Collins added that she has contacted the Government Accountability Office to look into the question of possible malfeasance.
The findings surprised Peter Nicholson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Hawaii and team leader of an American Society of Civil Engineers expedition to assess the failure of the New Orleans levees. Nicholson had expected a few gaps caused by overflowing waters. Instead his team found many fissures and longer-term causes.
"Many of the levee problems involved significant soil-related issues," Nicholson said, including scour erosion, seepage, soil failure and internal erosion caused by the flow of water through a dam or embankment.
Collins said this raises serious questions about the levee system. "The levees were supposedly built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane," she said, "but the testimony today suggests that they did not withstand even a Category 1 hurricane."
Questions also remain as to whether the levees were constructed according to their design, according to Raymond Seed, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who suggested malfeasance. Specifically, he said, some materials originally specified for construction were changed.
Nicholson said that sand and shell fill were used in the levees -- materials that are inferior as embankment material because they are highly erosive, he said.
Collins added that her committee needed to further investigate what the contract specified for building the levees. "That will help us answer the question of whether there was a substitution of lower-grade materials or there were mistakes in the design of the contract," she said.
"Either is disturbing, but obviously malfeasance is even more so," Collins said.
###
Funding for Radiologic Technology Program Alleviates a Growing Need
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20-At $8.67 per hour, the filing job Jessica Thompson landed at Sebasticook Valley Hospital, a small "very personable" hospital in the middle of a rural community in Pittsfield, Maine, was certainly not her dream job.
So when she saw that the 25-bed hospital was sponsoring an employee to become a radiologic technician, the 21-year-old leapt at the opportunity. "I didn't want to file forever," said Thompson, who started the two-year radiologic technology program at Kennebec Valley Community College last month.
Sebasticook Valley Hospital is paying Thompson's tuition and supplying her with a part-time job in exchange for two years of service after she graduates if there are positions available at that time. When she gets her first job, Thompson will earn at least $15.58 per hour, the minimum, according to statewide data, and nearly double the amount she is earning as a filing clerk.
The two-year radiologic technology program at Kennebec Valley, in partnership with six Maine hospitals, was instituted last year with money from the U.S. Department of Education and the six hospitals.
On Wednesday, Kennebec Valley was one of 70 community colleges across the country to get some of the $125 million distributed by the U.S. Department of Labor in the form of community-based job training grants designed for employment in high-growth industries including health care, construction and energy.
The $955,831 Kennebec will receive will enable radiologic technology students to expand their education options, according to Kathy Moore, the dean of students. Kennebec also will use the money to expand the number of nursing slots.
Radiologic technology programs have a "huge career ladder," with a lot of levels after students receive the base, two-year degree, Moore said. These advanced levels include specialties using magnetic resonance imaging, mammography machines, X-rays, ultrasound and computed tomography scans and often involve obtaining certificates.
"We will work with our hospital partners to identify the specific need beyond the two-year degree level," Moore said.
"We get people trained to the basic radiology technologies level," said Tom Lizotte, director of marketing and development at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, another partner. "And then we can add training so they are cross-trained on those various modalities."
The college also will use part of the grant money to create a "health career pathways" program for adults who want to enter a health care field for the first time. The program is also for students who choose to take some college-level science and math classes during high school to help them prepare to attend Kennebec upon graduation.
Thompson attends classes four days a week while she spends 30 hours a week filing for Sebasticook's health information division. She described the radiologic technology program as "very good."
Originally a cosmetologist, Thompson recently moved back to Maine with her boyfriend. There were fewer cosmetology clients available, and she found herself looking for a career change that would "be beneficial to somebody else and myself." And she liked the small town environment of Sebasticook.
"You know everybody that's working here," she said about the small-town hospital.
Right on the edge of the north Maine woods with little to the north besides trees, mountains and wilderness areas, the 25-bed Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft has benefited from being a partner in the Kennebec program.
"There's an explosion of need for those types of workers because there's a lot more imaging work being done for patient diagnosis," Lizotte said.
"We've realized it's a lot more cost effective to grow your own home-grown people rather than try to recruit," he said. "If you have local people that you've identified and bring their skill level up, that's cheaper, more cost-effective to do that and they're also more likely to stay because they have roots in the area."
Mayo Regional currently has three employees enrolled in the program. Unlike Sebasticook, which will sponsor students who live in the surrounding area even if they don't work at the hospital, Mayo Regional sponsors only hospital employees, paying the $8,095 in tuition, fees and books for the two years and a small stipend while the students are in school, with the promise that when they finish the program they will work in the hospital for three or four years. If they leave early they will have to repay the difference, Lizotte said.
"They wanted to move up to a higher-paying job with more professional status," he said of the hospital's three participating employees. "We see this as a nice little career ladder for someone who's already here to move up."
The starting salary at Mayo Regional for a radiologic technician is about $40,000 a year, he said. "If you're a medical assistant making $10 to $12 an hour and all of a sudden you get that credential, you can like double your salary pretty quickly," he added.
There is a shortage of radiologic technicians nationally but especially in Central Maine, where "we haven't had a program here in a long [time]." said Kennebec's Moore, who wrote the grant that won this year's award. It's not the only program in the state, she said, but it is the only one in the Augusta-Waterville area.
"Health care is expanding due to aging populations and new technologies," Moore said. "The new technologies that are available now have changed the field. There's less invasive surgeries. . Sometimes you can have a scan done so they can diagnose you instead of having to.cut you open."
Other projects across the country receiving funds ranged from health care and construction to advanced manufacturing and energy, according to the Department of Labor's Web site.
###
New Painting in Capitol Profiles Female Trailblazer Senator
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - She was the first woman to be elected to both the House and Senate, the first woman to get elected to the Senate on her own and the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party's convention.
And now, the late Margaret Chase Smith, originally of Skowhegan, Maine will forever watch over the halls of the Capitol.
Amid the gilded pillars and plush-red-carpet-with-stars that decorate the old Senate Chamber, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe - both wearing red roses in allegiance to their mentor - unveiled Smith's portrait Tuesday. Smith died in 1995 at the age of 97.
"She did make an extraordinary difference for women as I can tell you from my own personal experience," Snowe said. "I well remember the sense of awe when I came to Washington D.C. . as a senior in college, sitting across the desk from her. Little did I realize that because of the doors that she opened she would make it possible for me to sit one day at her very desk on the floor of the United States Senate."
Snowe, who requested in 1999 that the Senate Commission on Art commission a portrait of Smith, said the portrait reflects a woman of "myriad dimensions." Smith rose from the "most humble of beginnings to the highest corridors of power," she said.
Added Collins: "For every woman serving in the United States Senate, but part for Olympia Snowe and me, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith blazed the path because she was senator the entire time we were growing up."
Artist Ronald Frontin, who lives in South Thomaston, Maine, was selected in 2000 from among 30 applicants nationwide to paint the portrait.
In the oil portrait, Smith, wearing a royal blue dress, double-stranded pearls and her famous single red rose, is standing at her desk in the Senate Chambers holding the "Declaration of Conscience," a 1950 speech in which she criticized Sen. Joe McCarthy, who was carrying out a witch-hunt against citizens and public officials who he alleged were communists.
Frontin used a small black-and-white slide of Smith's face as the base for the portrait, he said, adding that the picture is really more of a compilation of many different pictures of her.
"There wasn't one photograph where she was ever in this pose," Frontin said. "It was sort of a scavenger hunt and then putting it all together."
Smith's niece and nephew, staff from the Margaret Chase Smith Library, in Skowhegan , curators and some senators played a role in the painting's creation.
"It was a bunch of people from all different angles and interests looking at the painting," he said. "We all put our heads together and tried to get something that we all agreed on."
Frontin, who has thick salt and pepper, wavy hair, attended the ceremony yesterday with his wife and two young sons. Standing shyly in Khaki pants and black shirt, he was a sharp contrast to the high-powered officials in suits- including Senate Majority and Minority leaders Bill Frist and Harry Reid - gathered around him.
"I get more nervous than anything," Frontin said about these events. "I'm more comfortable behind the easel than I am in situations like this."
The painting of Smith is a little dark and Frontin said this was for aesthetic reasons.
"The Senate chamber is yellow and if I painted it with the bright yellow in the background aesthetically it just wasn't going to work," he said. "Muting the colors back .pushes her out."
Earlier this month, Frontin unveiled at the Penobscot County Courthouse his portrait of Former Maine State Supreme Court Justice Paul L. Rudman,. He has also painted a portrait of State Supreme Court Justice Samuel Collins, which hangs in the Knox Country Courthouse, and a portrait of Snowe's husband, Jack McKernan, the former governor of Maine, for the statehouse.
Smith served in Congress for 32 years from 1940 to 1972. After the 1940 death of her husband, Rep. Clyde Smith, she was elected to fill his seat and served in the House for eight years. In 1948 she ran for the Senate, where she stayed for 24 years. She was the first woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. In 1964 Smith's name was placed in nomination for president at the Republican convention.
Collins first met Smith when she was a senior in high school and she took part in the Senate Youth program. Collins said she expected a handshake and a photo but ended up talking to Smith for two hours.
"I remember leaving her office feeling so proud that she was my senator and I also remember thinking that girls can grow up to be anything," Collins said. "What I remember most is her telling me to always stand tall for what I believed in."
Government’s Response to Tularemia Concerns Some
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 -- A highly-suspect air sample in Washington was held for four days at the end of September before government officials determined it contained fragments of microbes causing a rare but treatable form of pneumonia and notified state and local public health officials.
While the bacteria that causes the disease, Tularemia, is considered a potential biological terror weapon, the sample did not meet the standards required to set off an immediate alert, or was not "BioWatch positive," as one Department of Homeland Security official put it.
The Tularemia incident has raised the question of when the government should notify state and local public health officials of potential bioterrorism attacks, especially if the material in question is in low concentrations and tests show it appears probable but unconfirmed.
DNA fragments of Francisella tularensis - a naturally-occurring bacteria, but one that is also considered a potential weapon of bioterrorism along with Anthrax and Smallpox - were found in the air in very low concentrations in the areas of the National Mall, Lincoln Memorial, Judiciary Square and Fort McNair on Sept.24, according to published reports. About 250 people from Maine were in Washington that day attending an antiwar protest. Another 140 veterans from Maine also were in the area visiting the World War II Memorial.
City officials were not notified of the alert for four days, a fact that has drawn criticism from some in Congress.
"There should have been a much more rapid notification of the CDC by the Department of Homeland Security [and] in turn the CDC should have quickly notified the local health authorities," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
"Just imagine if there had been a biological release and the sensors had picked it up and we had lost five days in potentially identifying and providing early treatment to victims, that would be a terrible situation," she said.
Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the Committee on Governmental Reform, wrote letters to the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early October to find out why public health officials in D.C., Maryland and Virginia were not notified sooner.
"If the bacteria detected can cause a flu-like illness and if symptoms can begin to appear one day after exposure it appears that notification of the appropriate state and local officials was delayed too long," he wrote.
Dr. Jeffrey Stiefel, who directs BioWatch - a $60 million early warning, environmental monitoring program overseen by the Department of Homeland Security - disagreed. An initial test of the air samples at a local lab on Sunday, Sept. 25 was not a confirmed a "BioWatch positive," he said.
"You've got to think of the greater good on this one," he said. "If you come out and say that this is what it is and you're wrong and the entire public health response network stands up then you now.have that community losing faith and potentially nation-wide losing faith in the system."
Collins disagreed. "I supported the decision by New York officials to heighten security on the subway systems in response to what appeared to be credible evidence of a specific threat targeting the New York subway system," she said. "Now it turned out that nothing happened but I think it is better to be on the safe side."
BioWatch is a system of air collectors in 30 cities nationwide which monitors the air for six undisclosed substances, except in Washington where monitors check for eight substances, Stiefel said. No cities in Maine have BioWatch collectors.
"It didn't meet our standards because .there are a certain number of markers that have to show up every single time and we weren't getting that, but we were getting some of that which we've never seen before," Stiefel said.
The Department of Homeland Security and CDC are both currently working on responses to Davis' letter, officials from those offices said. Rep. Davis could not be reached for comment.
"Now is there a chance that you can miss something? Maybe," Stiefel acknowledged. "But the fact is that if this had been . a true bioterrorist attack when they had used a lot of agent, it would have hit all of our markers.and we would have known by Sunday." He added: "The system worked and it worked better than one would have thought."
A "very astute" lab worker encouraged a repeat test on Wednesday, after which the lab contacted the CDC for more sophisticated testing, even though they are not required to do so, Stiefel said. The CDC confirmed fragments were of Francisella Tularensis, a bacteria commonly found in soil and water in certain southern and southwestern parts of the country like Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas.
The bacteria, which causes Tularemia, commonly known as "Rabbit Fever," is not contagious from person to person. Rather it is transmitted to people from animals or insects. The symptoms are usually like those of a cold or flu, but in rare instances - or if collected in a powder and sprayed in the air, as would be in a case of bioterrorism - a person can breathe it and get pneumonia which is generally treatable, but not always immediately recognizable to doctors, according to infectious disease specialists.
Congressman Davis also questioned BioWatch's operating procedures.
If it had been a true "BioWatch positive," notification would have gone out immediately, Stiefel said. Also the response given to something that is not a confirmed "BioWatch positive" differs depending on the organism. "One would think that if we had seen a similar signal and it said smallpox it would have gone up the chain real, real fast," Stiefel said.
A nationwide alert went out to state and local public health departments on Friday, Sept. 30, six days after BioWatch labs first detected that Tularemia microbes might have been in the air.
As of last week, no cases of Tularemia had been documented, according to CDC, but officials there wanted state and local public health officials to be on alert for it.
"I've not heard anything to say that it was intentional but I think we do need to understand the source," said Von Roebuck, a CDC spokesman.
Sen. Collins said that the Department of Homeland Security had recently contacted her office to tell her that it was a false positive. But when asked if this was a terrorist attack, Stiefel said "there's no way that anybody can know. There's not enough data."
Stiefel said the current theory is that it was environmental. In 2003 in Houston, Texas there was a similar incident where an air sample showed fragments of the Tularemia bacteria after winds stirred up dust, according to Penny Hitchcock, senior associate of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Maine State Health Officer Dr. Dora Mills received the alert Friday, Sept. 30.
"I was just sort of scratching my head," she said, adding that the alert provided little information about the level of risk involved. "I had to read it twice to wonder what they were trying to get us to do."
Mills said she forwarded the alert to Maine infectious disease specialists, but did not track down the Mainers who had been in Washington for the march. Left to their own devices - and the media - to grapple with exposure to a potential bioterrorist agent, the protesters were not sure how to react.
"Everything that we've read really [is] so preliminary," said Merry Segal, a Bowdoin college sophomore who attended the antiwar march and helped organize buses for the event. "It's something that we'll follow but.we're not doing anything at this point in response to it other than making other folks aware."
"As we do more and more sampling of the environment we're going to.detect organisms that are in the soil and that we didn't know could be aerosolized and collected in a device like this so there's a learning curve," said Hitchcock.
"It's a microbe that's carried by rodents and other animals like rabbits," said Dr. Mills. "It just would seem to me like of course you're going to find it if you go looking for it on a grassy park."
####
Collins Asks FEMA Chief About Ice in Portland
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 -- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Federal Emergency Management Agency acting director R. David Paulison Thursday that the agency's policy of diverting truckloads of ice originally meant for Gulf Coast hurricane victims to locations as far away as Portland, Maine, undermines the public's confidence in FEMA.
The federal government purchased nearly 200 million pounds of ice for more than $100 million, she said, and most of that ice traveled thousands of miles on "circuitous routes" throughout the country but was never delivered to the victims.
"It erodes public confidence in the federal government's management, and I also think it erodes public support for additional appropriations to help the victims when the public sees this kind of waste in their own backyard," Collins said at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee .
Collins, who chairs the committee, which has been investigating FEMA's preparedness and response to Hurricane Katrina, told Paulison she wrote a letter to FEMA in late September asking why the federal government paid truck drivers to haul ice all over the country.
"We don't have a good tracking system of where the commodities go," and that needs to be addressed, Paulison said at the hearing.
In late September, FEMA diverted hundreds of trucks loaded with bagged ice to Portland and other sites around the country after realizing the ice was no longer needed to assist the rescue efforts in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi but might be needed in the future, according to the Associated Press.
After sending her letter, Collins said, FEMA responded that 30 trucks had been diverted to Maine. But Collins said that after seeing the trucks lined up and running in Portland (trucks run all the time to keep the refrigeration going and the ice from melting) she thought there were many more than 30 . FEMA amended the figure to 250 trucks just before the hearing, she said.
One hundred of the refrigerator trucks have since been dispatched from Portland to assist victims of Hurricane Rita and the ice in the other 150 or so trucks has been moved into a refrigerated storage facility in Portland, Collins said.
"Clearly the system by which commodities are ordered, tracked and delivered is deeply flawed," Collins said.
"It's not such a bad idea to talk to Wal-Mart," Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) advised Paulison, because the huge retail chain tracks a large amount of commodities all over the country on a regular basis.
Paulison, who before coming to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 was the chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, said FEMA was not going to get rid of the ice until the end of this hurricane season because it might be needed again.
###
Maine Delegation Not to Give Back Money for Transportation Projects
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - Maine members of Congress said this week they would not redirect any of the transportation funds-including members' pet projects--that Maine received in the transportation spending bill to help defray the costs of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"That money meets urgent infrastructure needs in the state of Maine," Sen. Susan Collins said about the $1.1 billion that was allocated for projects in Maine last July as part of the six-year, $286.4 billion highway bill. "I don't think it makes sense to take money that is needed in other states and reallocate it to Katrina."
Congress recently authorized $62 billion for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims and the cleanup and that allocation has caused some groups to urge congressional delegations to give up their pet projects -otherwise known as earmarks - and put the money toward Katrina instead.
"Yes, we should consider ways to address the deficit and bring real, direct relief to the Gulf Region," Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) told the Daily News, "but we must not lose sight of maintaining the infrastructure that supports our economy and way of life."
To offset some of the costs of Katrina, Sen. Collins suggested cutting back energy tax credits and subsidies that "go to the very largest oil companies at a time when they're experiencing record profits."
The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free-market think tank based in Portland, last week called for the Maine delegation to follow in the footsteps of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) - who said last week she would give up her district's earmarks and put them toward Hurricane Katrina relief instead -and give back 50 percent of earmarks designated for Maine transportation projects.
It is time to set new priorities, said Bill Becker, executive director of the center.
"We're facing potentially the greatest reconstruction on American soil since the Civil War," he said. "Is that not a priority and does that not take precedence over other projects both in Maine and across the nation?"
Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine), a member of the House Committee on Transportation and the Infrastructure, disagreed. "Federal transportation funding generates 10,000 jobs in Maine," he told the Daily News "Putting some of those people out of work by reducing federal investments is not a good way to fund hurricane relief."
Earmarks have grown tremendously in the last 15 years. This year there were 6,371 earmarks in the transportation bill, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Washington. In 1991 there were only 538 earmarks, according to a previously published report.
"We certainly support a robust investment in transportation, but we felt as though the earmarking not only had gone out of control but really was the wrong way to legislate in transportation bills," said Erich Zimmermann, a senior policy analyst with the taxpayers group.
Maine projects receiving earmarked money under the new transportation bill include $33 million for the Aroostook North-South Highway project, $18 million for the Maine East-West Corridor Project, $16 million for the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, $4 million for the Acadia National Park's offsite intermodal transportation center, $2.6million for the Rockland Ferry Project, $1.75 million for access and traffic improvements to Route 15 in Brewer and $1.5 million for improvements and construction of US Route 1A and State Route 9 in Bangor.
###
