Category: Lauren Smith
Artificial Pancreas Would Improve Lives of People with Diabetes
DIABETES
Lauren Smith
Bangor Daily News
Boston University Washington News Service
9/27/06
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 — Aidan Sweeney swiveled in a large leather chair at a conference table in a Senate committee hearing room. A small tube used to monitor the four-year-old’s blood sugar and inject him with insulin crept out from a belt that sat above his basketball boxer shorts. He colored while his mother gave gut-wrenching testimony that left tears in many eyes and the room silent.
“As parents we try from the moment our children are born to protect them from any harm,” Aidan’s mother, Caroline Sweeney, said. “Two years ago, I never felt more helpless when all I could do was hold the tiny hand of my 22-month-ld son in the intensive care unit and pray he would not die. I vowed at that moment to do everything I could to find a cure for diabetes.”
Aidan was diagnosed with type 1, or juvenile, diabetes when he was just 22 months old. The Sweeney family, residents of Gray, came to Washington for the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ hearing Wednesday on improving care for people with diabetes. Along with doctors and researchers, the Sweeney family was part of a panel to provide a face for families with diabetic children.
The hearing was chaired by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who founded and co-chairs the Senate Diabetes Caucus. The subject of the hearing was “The Potential of an Artificial Pancreas: Improving Care for People with Diabetes.” An artificial pancreas would free children from finger-stick tests and insulin injections.
“Diabetes is a life-long condition that affects people of every age, race and nationality,” Collins said in her opening statement.
The disease affects 21 million Americans. In juvenile diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks the pancreas and destroys the islet cells that produce insulin. Insulin regulates the amount of sugar in the blood, and people with diabetes must closely monitor their blood sugar levels through testing several times a day.
“His fingertips are scarred from being tested up to 12 times a day: that’s more than 11,000 tests in two and a half years,” Caroline Sweeney said.
Aidan receives insulin 24 hours a day through a pump that he wears on a belt around his waist. The pump is connected to an inch-long catheter tunneled beneath the skin on his bottom, his mother said.
But the development of an artificial pancreas may change all that.
An artificial pancreas would link two existing technologies—the insulin pump that Aidan uses and a continuous glucose monitor that provides real-time data on glucose levels and sounds an alarm if levels are too high or too low. The key to developing the artificial pancreas is finding a way to link these two technologies together.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the world’s largest charitable contributor to type 1 diabetes research, has given grants to Yale Medical School and five other top scientific facilities to find a way to “close the loop.”
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, is researching mathematical ways of predicting what is happening in the body and how much insulin is needed. They also are exploring other ways to monitor glucose, such as in eye fluid using a contact lens as a sensor.
But there are more benefits to the creation of an artificial pancreas than just those that relate to people with diabetes. “Fewer complications can, arguably, lead to one of the greatest health advances and financial savings in medical expenditures in U.S. history,” Arnold W. Donald , president and chief executive officer of the research foundation, said.
All types of diabetes cost the health care system more than $130 billion a year, Donald said. That’s because it is among the leading causes of heart disease, stroke, eye disease, kidney failure and amputation. “Decreasing the rate of diabetic complications in the U.S. can mean savings of literally billions of dollars in health care costs,” he said.
The Sweeneys are fortunate. Aidan’s father, Timothy Sweeney, is an emergency room physician, and his mother is a registered dietician. The two are familiar with medical procedures, needles and equipment. They live comfortably, and Aidan’s insulin pump is not cost-prohibitive. But that’s not the case for many other families in Maine whose insurance will not cover such devices, Timothy Sweeney said.
He said he hopes that Congress will increase spending for diabetes research.
“I stand before you today, with my son, my hero, asking for your support in saving his life,” Caroline Sweeney said. “While the continued glucose monitor and artificial pancreas are not cures, they can offer Aidan and children like him a tremendous improvement in his quality of life.”
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New Law Puts Americans in Watchdog Role
GOOGLE
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
9/26/06
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 —Two centuries ago Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s book, so that every member of Congress and every man of any kind--and any mind in the Union--should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses and to consequently control them.”
This month Congress took his advice.
And on Tuesday President Bush signed into law the bill that will establish a Google-like search engine Web site listing the federal government's grants and contracts. Informally called “The Google for Good Government Act,” it will allow anyone with Internet access to see how America’s tax dollars are being spent.
“When we spend your money, we want you to be able to watch us,” President Bush said before signing the bill.
The federal government awards more than $400 billion in grants and more than $300 billion in contracts to corporations, associations and state and local governments each year. “By allowing Americans to Google their tax dollars, this new law will help taxpayers demand greater fiscal discipline,” Bush said.
Bush thanked the bill’s co-sponsors, including Sen. Susan Collins, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, for a bipartisan effort. At the bill signing ceremony, Democrats and Republicans alike applauded the bill.
“The American public deserves to know how their tax dollars are being spent,” Collins said. “Taxpayers will be able to decide for themselves whether they believe their tax dollars are being spent well.”
Collins has led several investigations into government fraud and abuse, most recently the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster assistance performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This new law will bring greater transparency to and reduce federal spending by shining more light on where federal dollars are directed and how they are spent,” she said.
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation’s formal name, will allow anyone to type in the name of any company, association, state or locality and find out what grants and contracts in excess of $25,000 each they've been awarded. The Web site search also will tell the purpose of the award, the amount of money involved, and the agency providing the funds. Only classified grants and contracts will be excluded.
The bill’s backers said they hope it will cast light on earmarks, federal funds set aside for particular congressional districts, states, universities or organizations. In recent years the number of earmarks has skyrocketed, sometimes including more than a thousand in a single piece of legislation.
“It's a bill that empowers the American taxpayer, the American citizen,” Bush said. “And we believe that the more transparency there is in the system, the better the system functions on behalf of the American people.”
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Mainers Rally in Washington in the Fight Against Cancer
CANCERMAINE
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
Bangor Daily News
9/20/2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20—“If you were told when you leave here today you would get in a car accident and you may not survive, would you go? Would you get in that car?” Dan Bahr of Ellsworth asked.
“Probably not,” Bahr answered his own question. “But people diagnosed with cancer don’t have that choice.”
Four years ago Bahr was diagnosed with throat cancer. “When someone tells you you have cancer,” he said, “times stops.”
He was once told he might permanently lose his voice because of harsh radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Today, he speaks loudly in the fight against cancer, and was chosen to be one of 14 Maine ambassadors to promote cancer research.
Clad in lobster paraphernalia and wearing a pink sash inscribed “Survivor,” Bahr held hands with three other Maine cancer survivors as they took a lap around the Capitol Reflecting Pool. The survivors’ lap was the kick-off ceremony for the annual Celebration on the Hill, an American Cancer Society grassroots event that celebrates cancer survivorship and strives to empower others to advocate for laws that could help in the fight against the disease.
Lura Raymond, 20, of Orono cried as she watched the Maine survivors take a lap. She lost her mother to breast cancer when she was eight years old and has been participating in Relay for Life since fourth grade. Also an ambassador, she said she hopes to provide a real face to how cancer affects the lives of people all over Maine as she and the state’s other ambassadors met with the Maine congressional delegation.
“We’re here to confirm that they don’t just hear us,” she said. ”We don’t just need their voice, we need their vote.”
“This is not some little jaunt through Washington,” Raymond said as she looked out at more than 10,000 people, all wearing purple shirts, gathered on the National Mall. “This is hope.”
In December, Congress passed legislation that cut the budget of the National Institutes of Health for the first time in 35 years and reduced funds for cancer research for the first time in a decade.
“Cancer is the most feared disease in America,” Megan Hannan, the American Cancer Society’s government relations and advocacy director in Maine, said. “We want our members of Congress to know that this fear is felt in every corner of Maine.” This year, she said, Maine alone will see an estimated 7,910 new cases and 3,190 deaths from cancer.
The Maine ambassadors came to Washington with three objectives: Restore and increase federal funds for cancer research; invest in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national breast and cervical cancer early detection program; and to have lawmakers sign the Congressional Cancer Promise, a pledge to support the American Cancer Society’s legislative goals to put the country on track in the fight against cancer.
In the afternoon Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, met with singer/songwriter Jewel to discuss the Breast Cancer Protection Act of 2005 that Snowe introduced with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). The bill would end the practice of "drive through" mastectomies, where women are forced to leave the hospital, sometimes just hours after difficult surgeries, even if their doctors feel they are not ready to go home.
Jill Goldthwait, a state ambassador from Bar Harbor who works at the National Cancer Institute’s Jackson Laboratory in that city and tries to identify federal funding for cancer research, praised the Maine delegation for their support. “We’re preaching to the choir in Maine,” she said. “They get it. These four people have really been out in front. We’re not here to ask much more; we’re here to thank them.”
A vigil was scheduled for Wednesday night and more than 20,000 luminaries purchased by people throughout the country were to be lit to honor those who have won their battles with cancer and in memory of those who have lost the battle. At the same time, the University of Maine in Orono planned a candlelight vigil, organized by Raymond, a junior at the university, before she left for Washington.
“We all speak the same language when it comes to cancer,” Raymond said. “And this many survivors in one place means we’re doing something right.”
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Terrorists Recruit Inside U.S. Prisons
TERRORISM
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
9/19/2006
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. prison system has become a recruiting ground for Islamic extremists, a study by two academics released Tuesday shows.
Since Sept. 11, as the United States has made it increasingly difficult for potential terrorists to enter the country, the prison system, the world’s largest, has been spawning a new wave of home-grown potential terrorists.
“Our corrections facilities -- federal, state, and local -- provide fertile grounds for radicalization and recruitment efforts,” Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Tuesday before her panel heard testimony on the issue.
The experts referred not to direct recruiting by international terror organizations, but the spread of a radical ideology and tactics that groups like Al Qaeda inspire.
“The rise of domestic terror cells inspired by but not directly linked to Al Qaeda is an emerging threat to our nation’s security,” Collins said.
Many inmates convert to Islam to bring direction and purpose to their lives, Collins said. The problem sprouts from those who use prisons as a place to convert inmates not just to Islam but also to a “hateful ideology that incites adherents to commit violent acts,” she said.
Radicalization is not reserved for Islam but is also found among prison gangs and white supremacy groups, experts told Collins’ committee. Images of violence on television, and a general disconnect with the U.S. government all help to fuel inmates, panelists said.
A lack of Muslim chaplains is a large problem in many rural areas, the experts said. While more than 80 percent of religious conversions in prison are to some form of Islam only 10 of the 200 chaplains in the federal prison system are Muslims. Prisons use strict guidelines during religious meetings, such as allowing only English except for certain short prayers, and the presence of a prison official, to help keep watch over a group’s actions.
Prison networking, where officials on local, state and federal levels, can compare experiences in dealing with these issues, is key to stopping home-grown terrorism, the panelists said. Further study of social bonds, an increase in intelligence collecting and training programs for officials are also important, they said.
While panelists stressed the seriousness of the situation in California and New York prisons, smaller states, such as Maine, also have problems.
“It would be extremely difficult for officials in my state to track books,” said Collins, speaking about violent interpretations of the Koran that are sent to many prisons. She called on federal officials to compile and put on line a list of banned books.
“This is an issue with profound national security implications that reach into every state and a great many cities throughout America,” Collins said.
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Maine Senators Focus on Security
Security
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
9/13/2006
WASHINGTON -- In the week of 9/11’s five-year anniversary, both Maine senators focused their attention on security issues.
Sen. Susan Collins’ cargo security legislation finally hit the Senate floor. She was also able to include provisions in the 2007 defense spending bill that favor Bath Iron Works and Maine defense. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, meanwhile, pressed the Senate to improve security of the passenger rail system.
The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins chairs, also reached agreement with the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on another bill to increase cargo screening at ports and institute other security measures and contingency plans in case of terrorist attacks.
Roughly 95 percent of the nation’s overseas trade enters or leaves through U.S. seaports, according to Collins, and foreign vessels carry the majority of goods that come into the country.
“The link between maritime security and our national security is evident,” Collins said in a press release. “This legislation will provide the structure and the resources needed to better protect the American people from attack through seaports, which are both vulnerable points of entry and vital centers of economic activity.”
Collins was also able to get $3.4 billion in the 2007 defense budget, which the Senate passed last week, for the DD(X) naval construction program, which aims to build a new series of high-tech vessels, one of which will be constructed at Bath. Collins was also able to garner nearly $50 million in defense-related projects specifically for Maine in the budget.
“In addition to identifying the most likely threats, we must constantly assess and improve our efforts to counter them,” Collins said at a Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday. “While our efforts over the past five years have been substantial, they are not a task accomplished, but one under way.”
Snowe also supported an amendment to port security legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a passenger and baggage screening pilot program at five Amtrak stations and establish specific security measures, including testing explosives detection technologies and requiring picture IDs from passengers before they board a train. The amendment, introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), asks the department to complete a vulnerability assessment for rail infrastructure and make recommendations about security weaknesses. Additionally, it would require the department to sign a letter of agreement with the Department of Transportation to make clear each department's roles and responsibilities for the nation's rail security.
“Since the terrorist attacks of Sept.11th, we have worked to improve the overall security of our nation,” Snowe said in a statement. “But we still have to do more to secure our transportation infrastructure and specifically our nation's vulnerable rail network.”
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