Category: Michael Hartigan
Bill Focuses on Methamphetamine Precursors
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 – The battle against methamphetamine use is marching through Congress.
The Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act was introduced in the House last month and has received bipartisan support. A House hearing on Tuesday by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, on which Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) sits, focused on several issues.
Along with looking to regulate importation of meth precursors, heightening criminal penalties and enacting environmental regulations, the bill seeks to tighten the grip around meth precursor sales and distribution.
Over-the-counter cold medications like Sudafed contain a drug called pseudoephedrine, which is commonly used as a decongestant or combined with antihistamines. Methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant drug, can be produced from over-the-counter medicines that contain pseudoephedrine.
The bill proposes to amend the Controlled Substances Act by lowering the amount of pseudoephedrine-containing product that a person can buy at one time from 9 grams to 3.6 grams.
The act also includes restrictions on the sale of the individual dosage packages on store shelves.
While the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Department has not seen a specific Cape Cod epidemic, they do see it as an important issue that affects the entire nation.
“It is definitely out there,” said Shaun Cahill of the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Department.
Detective Robert Brackett of the Harwich Police Department agrees methamphetamine is present on the Cape, but has not yet reached epidemic proportions.
“It has not yet, and I stress yet, become a problem on the Cape,” said Detective Brackett, who acknowledged Provincetown as a hotspot for meth use. “We’re bracing for the storm, because it’s coming.”
Much of the focus is on teenagers who steal or simply purchase the cold medication that includes pseudoephedrine.
Cahill said that a mixture of Robitussin and vodka, frequently called “purple rain” or “purple syrup,” has forced many pharmacies to keep closer watch on the sale of cold medication.
“Kids will go in and shoplift this stuff pretty easily,” said Cahill. “Some companies, drugstores, are talking about putting the nonprescription drugs behind the counter. The thought is these kids are going to be less likely to actually stand out and ask for it.”
But Delahunt said there needs to be more focus on treating addicts.
“In terms of the use of precursors and accountability, yes that is something that is worthy to be addressed,” Delahunt said. “But it doesn’t really go to the core issue, which is how to reduce the use of all of these drugs.”
He said treatment facilities are underfunded and overcrowded and he supports long-term treatment to reduce recidivism.
“We have to deal with the individual,” he said. “The issue of drug addiction in this country is the lack of treatment.”
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Red Sox Nation from the Capital to the Capital
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - A 30-foot Boston Red Sox banner has been draped across the front of the Rhino Bar since last week. The deluge of Manny, Johnny and Papi supporters has already begun. But the Rhino Bar is located in the nation's capital, far away from the capital of Red Sox Nation.
"There are more New Yorkers in D.C. than I think New Englanders, but as for baseball fans, I think there are more diehard Red Sox fans than anything," said David Nelson, owner of the Rhino Bar in the Georgetown neighborhood. "People are just insane."
If Boston is the capital of Red Sox Nation consider Washington an embassy. The excitement brought here by New England transplants represents the widespread appeal the Red Sox have enjoyed since reversing the curse in 2004. Through Cape Cod natives, vacationers and politicians, the Red Sox pulse beats vibrantly in D.C.
Rhino and several other bars, easily discovered via Google, cater specifically to the D.C. Red Sox delegation. During the 2004 American League Championship Series, Nelson said he refused entrance to anyone not clearly supporting the Red Sox.
Last weekend when Boston traveled to Baltimore for a series against the Orioles, there was an overwhelming Red Sox presence.
"Every single time you go to a Boston Red Sox game [in Baltimore] there's just as many Red Sox fans as Orioles fans," said Nelson.
In Silver Spring, Md., just outside Washington, Julie Bartlett started a Red Sox meet-up group.
"It's unbelievable just how many Red Sox fans are here," said Bartlett. "The Baltimore/D.C. area is packed with them."
Bartlett's family used to vacation on Cape Cod and she herself on Nantucket. Bringing a truly New England tradition, like the Red Sox, to Washington helps many transplants connect with home.
"It is kind of like a microcosm of New England, of what you would expect if you went to a bar up by Fenway," she said.
Tahani Rivers, an Orleans native, has a picture of the Red Sox World Series victory in her cubicle at the Environmental Protection Agency.
"I see more Boston Red Sox hats than any other hats from any other team," Rivers said. She stays connected to her team mostly through her parents who still live on the Cape.
Despite the vibrant following, being far from Fenway is hard on some fans.
"It's difficult because you maintain the same level of commitment but everyone kind of looks at you a little funnier," said Tim Zajak, a New Bedford native and graduate student at the University of Virginia about two hours south of Washington. "It tests your passion."
Mikaela Egan, a high school junior from Reston, Va., who used to live in Yarmouth, said last year she talked about the Red Sox with teachers from New England more than her local friends.
"A lot of people don't understand," she said. "I have a lot of people ask me if I'm a fan just because they won last year."
But there are many who do understand. It is a common occurrence for a Red Sox t-shirt to induce a, "GO SOX!" cheer from a random businessman crossing the street.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) prepares for the playoff long haul, and a "vigorous repartee," as he puts it, with his congressional colleagues from New York.
"All the New Yorkers, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, are really obnoxious on their attitudes when it comes to the Red Sox," said Delahunt, laughing. He has links to Boston sports teams on his congressional website.
When asked if he gives it back to the New York naysayers, Delahunt replied, "Oh, in spades."
This weekend in Red Sox Nation-South, all eyes will be turned toward Boston as the New York Yankees roll into Fenway to end the regular season. The diehards at bars across the Washington region will be there for every pitch.
"It's just chaos. You just kind of forget that you're not outside of Fenway," said Bartlett. "It's just so much more exciting with people who are just as nuts."
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Peace Activists Open Dialogue with Congressional Staffers
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Cape peace activists have opened a dialogue with aides to the Massachusetts congressional delegation to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Two members of Cape Codders for Peace and Justice joined two members of Peace Action Monday at Rep. William Delahunt's office, where they met with a senior legislative assistant.
"It was a very positive experience," said Stephanie Wall, a Cotuit resident and member of Cape Codders for Peace and Justice. "I came back and I felt wonderful."
Wall, along with fellow Cape Codders for Peace and Justice member Beth Verani of Cotuit and Peace Action members Shelagh Foreman of Falmouth and Angela Kelly of Nantucket spoke with Cliff Stammerman, Delahunt's aide. They thanked Delahunt for his support of a resolution to withdraw troops from Iraq.
They also urged Delahunt to support the Student Privacy Protection Act. Currently secondary school student information is available to military recruiters unless parents say no to the release of that information. The act seeks to amend the process, making student information unavailable to recruiters unless parents say yes.
Wall said Stammerman agreed to bring it to Delahunt's attention.
The activists also asked Delahunt to support a proposed cabinet-level Department of Peace, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), which would be dedicated to peace building options.
The activists had spent the weekend in Washington at a peace rally that began with a march on Saturday and ended with Monday's lobbying of congressmen.
"Hopefully what it does is to motivate the American public to look more closely at the issue," Delahunt said last week of the antiwar rally. "I think we have to look at this as a process of education. I think we have to have a rational discourse."
After the meeting at Delahunt's office the Cape group joined about 50 other Massachusetts residents to meet with members of Sen. Edward Kennedy's staff. They then met with aides to Sen. John Kerry.
The Kennedy meeting was very positive," Wall said. "He has called for getting us out of Iraq. He is one of us. I just wish the rest of the Democrats were."
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Cape Codders March For Peace
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - When the Friday peace vigils first began in Hyannis, Diane Turco noticed that passers-by usually held up only the middle finger in the universal sign of disdain. But as the summer went on the single-finger gesture turned to a two-finger salute: the peace sign.
This weekend the Harwich resident will head to Washington, along with other Cape Codders, to raise her fingers and her voice in protest of the Iraq War.
Turco belongs to Cape Codders for Peace and Justice, a local group that organized two buses to bring residents to the capital to attend a weekend-long war protest and march. The event was largely put together by United for Peace and Justice, a national association made up of more than 1,300 local groups, including the one from the Cape. United for Peace and Justice leaders say they expect more than 100,000 people to descend upon the nation's capital.
"We vote, we pay taxes and we also have to have a voice," said Turco, 51, a special-education teacher at Harwich Middle School. "We need to use our citizenship to take back this country that is ours."
Friday night two buses filled with more than 100 New Englanders, most of them from the Cape, will leave, bound for Pennsylvania Avenue. Turco helped coordinate the buses and the large number of people flying and driving to Washington.
"We've never had a response like this," Turco said. In October 2002 the group was able to fill only half of a bus to attend one of the first Washington rallies against war in Iraq .
The weekend will include a march and festival on Saturday, faith services and civil disobedience training on Sunday and lobbying and nonviolent civil resistance on Monday.
"This could be a turning point," said Bill Dobbs, media coordinator for United for Peace and Justice.
On Monday, activists say they hope to meet with Rep. William Delahunt, a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus who voted against the congressional resolution authorizing the war.
"We have checks and balances and due process so that all perspectives are listened to," Delahunt said. "Clearly there's a need for all of us to listen carefully here and to really take the responsibilities of citizenship."
The Cape Cod buses will include a diverse cross-section of activists. A mother and daughter attending their first rally together and several war veterans will be on board.
"The Cape really has a population that is much more engaged and sophisticated in terms of their civic responsibility," Delahunt said.
Stephanie Wall, 67, a retired physician from Cotuit, has been attending antiwar rallies since the Vietnam era.
"I think the march is probably the most important thing in terms of the numbers," she said. "This war is the craziest war we've ever been involved in."
Charles Johnson, a 77-year old Korean War veteran from Falmouth, opposes war because, he said, he lived war.
Johnson was involved in several small reconnaissance efforts during his time in Korea. But one major battle affected him more than anything else. It took place in a valley where, as he recalled, tanks, troops and artillery were engaged in such chaos that he could not discriminate between friend and enemy.
"I'll never forget it. It was terrifying, it was overwhelming," he said. " "I guess there is no substitute for experience. When I heard them talking about shock and awe and the destruction they're going to cause in Iraq I thought, oh my God, not again."
Over the summer Turco spent time in Crawford, Texas, with grieving mother and outspoken activist Cindy Sheehan. While she was there Turco met a woman from San Antonio, dressed in designer clothing with manicured hands and stylish shoes. The woman had heard Sheehan's plea to bring the troops home and simply packed up and drove across the dusty Texas landscape to join her.
Even though people from all walks of life are protesting the war, Turco and others believe the Bush administration will not immediately react.
"I don't think the administration will do anything," Wall said. "I think that Bush and the Republicans insulate themselves."
But the responsibility is bipartisan, according to Turco.
"As a whole the Democrats have to step up to the plate. They need to be very loud and vocal in Congress," she said.
Early next year, Delahunt plans to reinvigorate Iraq Watch, a weekly one-hour session on the floor of the House, to review the status of the Iraq conflict. Activists believe that their persuasiveness will ultimately help bring the troops home.
"I want to stop the war," said David Agnew, 58, of Chatham. "I think that the people can do it."
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Feds Respond to Nantucket Hazmat Needs
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The Nantucket Fire Department will clean up with the help of a federal grant aimed at creating a new hazardous materials team.
The Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program has awarded the department $356,117. The announcement was made Monday by Rep. William Delahunt..
"This is a great opportunity for the Nantucket Fire and Rescue and a significant event in the community as it pertains to public safety," said Nantucket Fire Chief Everett Pierce.
The grant will enable the department to purchase hazardous material detection, salvage and containment equipment and personal protection suits and breathing apparatus.
Part of the money also will go to train eight firefighters to be HAZMAT technicians. An additional four will be trained to operate in the decontamination area of a spill site. Nantucket will kick in $18,000 to the effort from a reserve fund.
With the airport and the harbor, Nantucket has potential hazardous issues, said Steven Broderick, legislative aide for Delahunt. "They need to be prepared."
Currently the department has limited HAZMAT capabilities and must call in a state response team, a practice that will continue even with the new capabilities. But according to Chief Pierce, there are several potential hazardous material threats on and around the island that warrant a self-sufficient, island-based HAZMAT team.
"We're pretty remote; it's a two-hour voyage to getting any equipment or people over here," Pierce said. "Getting somebody over here is predicated on the weather. If the weather is bad, nobody comes."
Besides oil and gasoline incidents, the pesticides and chemicals used by cranberry and other farmers pose potential risks. The department also wants better terrorism preparedness resources.
This year the federal grant program had 15,000 applicants and expects to portion out 5,000 grants nationwide. Forty-nine of those have been awarded to Massachusetts towns, for a total of more than $7 million. The Brewster Fire Department received $570,000 to purchase a ladder truck.
Delahunt held a briefing earlier in the year to help local fire departments write their grant proposals.
"A tip of the helmet to him and his people," Chief Pierce said of Delahunt. "They've never left us in the lurches."
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Coast Guard Takes Step Toward Increased Budget
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - The United States Coast Guard was buoyed Thursday by a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives to authorize an $8.7 billion budget for 2006.
Rep. William Delahunt, who served in the Coast Guard and Coast Guard reserves from 1963 to 1971, spoke fervently about the need to revise an outdated fleet.
"What most Americans don't know is that the U.S. Coast Guard operates the second oldest naval fleet in the world," Delahunt said before the vote. "The indisputable fact is that the demands of the Coast Guard have vastly outpaced its resources."
The vote, which was 415-0, is only a preliminary step in passing the budget. After authorizations are approved, Congress then must appropriate the funds. The budget figure would represent a $1.4 billion increase from this year.
In addition to upgrading aging vessels, the budget would increase the capacity of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. A new plane, used for long-range missions, would be placed at the station, and unmanned vehicle capabilities would be added.
The Coast Guard's Woods Hole Group, which consists of 11 stations at places like Provincetown, the Cape Cod Canal and Chatham, has a heavy presence on Cape Cod.
In 2004 the Woods Hole Group and Air Station Cape Cod made 795 rescues and saved an estimated $3.8 million in property, according to Steven Broderick, legislative assistant for Delahunt. The air station, which is the fifth largest Coast Guard air station in the country, made 283 search and rescue missions and 53 emergency medical evacuations from the islands, Broderick said.
"These assets, these ships and planes, are being pushed to their limits," he said.
Before the vote, Delahunt cited the 329 in-flight engine failure incidents per 100,000 flight hours the guard experienced last year, compared to the Federal Aviation Administration's acceptable standard of one incident per 100,000 flight hours.
"Our ships and aircraft are getting old and need to be replaced," said Jolie Shifflet, spokesperson from Coast Guard Headquarters.
The Coast Guard initially requested $8.15 billion but that was then increased by the House transportation committee.
The committee increased the budget in order to hasten the progress of the ongoing Integrated Deepwater Systems project, which seeks to replace ships and planes and create a completely integrated communications network, Delahunt's staff said.
"They're trying to upgrade their assets," Broderick said. "They've got cutters going back to World War Two protecting the coastline."
In recent weeks Hurricane Katrina has highlighted the vast presence of the Coast Guard, which was pre-positioned in the Gulf Coast before the storm hit land. A helicopter from Cape Cod made the first rescue, Delahunt said.
"Unlike other government agencies, they were ready," Broderick said.
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Help Is On The Way For Evacuees At Camp Edwards
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - President Bush Wednesday declared a federal emergency for Massachusetts due to the commonwealth's ongoing Hurricane evacuee relief efforts, making it the 29 th state, along with Washington, D.C., to be given federal aid.
The move means that evacuees at Camp Edwards, on Cape Cod, will get a federal boost as they start to rebuild their lives.
"The federal assistance offered would be to supplement the local, state response efforts," said Barbara Ellis, the public affairs officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The emergency declaration makes available federal assistance to cover all of the costs incurred by the state and local governments on housing and caring for evacuees. The assistance is retroactive to Aug. 29.
Gov. Mitt Romney requested such a declaration from President Bush on September 9. In his letter, Romney specifically asked for temporary housing assistance, disaster unemployment assistance, legal services and crisis counseling and training assistance. The governor's request was sent to a FEMA regional office, which then considered the information and made a recommendation to the White House. Further details of that process were unavailable because the process is confidential, Ellis said.
"The New England tradition of neighbor helping neighbor is alive and well," Rep. William Delahunt said in a press release. "As we care for people whose lives were so disrupted by Hurricane Katrina, we'll continue to pursue reimbursement for communities that opened their hearts and homes."
To expedite the appeal, the Massachusetts congressional delegation followed Romney's request with a letter of support on Tuesday.
"None of us, be it residents of the upper cape, the governor or anyone else involved, waited for paperwork because there were lives at stake, period," Steve Schwadron, Delahunt's chief of staff, said. "Having said that, it is also our belief that we are entitled to reimbursement for doing the responsible thing and in the process, absorbing significant financial obligations."
In addition to the efforts by state and local governments there is an enormous outpouring of support from local citizens.
"Everyday another restaurant in town has come forward with lunch," Dave Pollock, a Red Cross volunteer at Camp Edwards, said. He described the efforts of Red Cross and other federal and state agencies, but also mentioned children who are running lemonade stands.
"It seems to me like everyone is pitching in," he said.
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