Category: Fall 2007 Newswire
Private-Sector Investors Lift, Leverage the Poor
MICROFINANCE
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
WASHINGTON – Four years ago, Peruvian immigrant and business owner Rene Rosas was looking to borrow money from a bank or consumer lender to sustain his East Boston convenience store.
But the most any bank or lender would offer him was a credit card with a $2,000 limit, not nearly enough for his needs.
Then Mr. Rosas came across Accion USA, a private, nonprofit that provided him with a $5,000 “micro” loan that he used to stock his shelves with Peruvian products for his customers, mostly fellow expatriates, and keep his business alive.
Millions of stories about seamstresses, grocers, florists and other poor small-business entrepreneurs around the world are repeated by leaders of microfinance institutions, who extend financial services and small loans – as low as $20 or $30 – to the working poor, people typically considered high-risk and unbankable.
Recent growth of the industry has proven its viability, and it is now attracting the interest of profit-seeking investors here and abroad. But will these trends strengthen or weaken microfinance’s mission and its ability to achieve its stated goal – to help alleviate poverty?
Excluded from mainstream financial activity, aiding the poor was once the mission of socially minded philanthropists, government aid organizations and donors to charitable foundations. But the recent surge in financially driven, private-sector investors has created what some refer to as the “double bottom line.”
In April, Mexican microfinance institution Banco Compartamos issued an initial public offering, the first of its kind in Latin America. In a $468 million deal with close to 6,000 institutional and retail investors, stakeholders saw shares jump 22 percent during the first day of trading on the Mexican stock exchange. Shares are currently trading at $46, with a recommendation to buy, according to Reuters.
Data collected from the Microfinance Information Exchange, a non-profit industry organization that monitors microfinance performance, show that the most successful microfinance institutions can yield profit margins as high as 64 percent.
Commercial banks, insurance companies, private equity firms and even hedge funds have realized microfinance’s profitability and entered the market, and industry experts agree that their entry is primarily beneficial.
Profit maximization motivates most private-sector lenders. But large, commercial and private investors can offer more than their deep pockets; they can also offer technical and advisory expertise that will continue industry growth and profitability.
“We continue to develop new business models for microfinance with the support of commercial leaders – Citigroup and AIG – whose global reach and infrastructure will enable us to bring innovation to millions more poor households,” according to Accion International’s Web site.
But Elizabeth Littlefield, the president and CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, expressed concern about the effect profit motives could have on the industry.
“This is not about transferring money from North to South or about creating a new asset class,” Ms. Littlefield told the newspaper Emerging Markets. “This is about developing local financial markets that serve the majority of their citizens.”
Despite the financial appeal, the “vast bulk” of private investment in microfinance has come from “investors with some social motivation alongside their financial motivation,” said Xavier Reille, author of a forthcoming World Bank report on the subject.“”
The emergence of microfinance is associated with the 1976 establishment of Grameen Bank by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in microfinance. In fact, however, Accion International, a microfinance network founded in 1961, issued its first micro loan in Brazil in 1973. Since that time microfinance has evolved into a wide range of financial services beyond micro credit, or small loans. It now includes savings, transactional and asset-building services.
In 2006, Accion and its partners served 2.4 million microentrepreneurs in 23 countries with more than $3.7 billion in credit loans and other financial services, according to its Web site. The International Finance Corporation, a part of the World Bank group, extended more than $4.6 billion in micro financing to an estimated 2.3 million micro enterprises and reported that foreign capital investment reached $4 billion by the end of 2006.
Barely middle-aged, microfinance is still considered a fringe financial sector, not fully integrated into formal financial markets but trending toward mainstream commercialization. The increased interest seems a natural development in the industry’s maturation.
As more capital flows into the sector, its technical infrastructure has improved and operational costs have decreased. Simultaneously, high interest rates on micro lending – a consequence of the higher risk of its borrowers – and repayment rates as high as 97 and 98 percent have allowed many microfinance institutions to reach a self-sustaining, profitable stage.
Martin Holtmann, a lead financial specialist for the International Finance Corporation, said that in addition to these factors, “the resilience of microfinance portfolios to crisis [systematic shocks in financial markets] shows it’s a safer asset class.”
But in addition to the influx of commercial activity and increased hope for competitive returns on investment, experts say there are also significant private investors, not considered commercial, who are ethically motivated.
A number of online funds aimed at socially minded individual investors have emerged in the last two to four years. High-net-worth individuals, considered venture philanthropists, are entering the market through such microfinance networks as Kiva.org, MicroPlace, Globe Funder and Kabod.
Kiva.org, which launched in 2005, has already allowed more than 80,000 individual investors to provide debt capital to more than 50 microfinance institutions, and MicroPlace, launched by eBay, is the first microfinance securities broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. EBay founder Pierre Omidyar first invested in microfinance in 2005 with a $100 million endowment to establish the Tufts University Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund.
Individual investors are likely to see returns of two to five percent, similar to what could be expected from putting money in the bank.
But others hope to get much more competitive returns.
Last year TIAA-CREF, the $380 billion financial services company, created a microfinance investment program worth $100 million. The program is financed by assets invested by 2.3 million investors in TIAA Traditional, one of the company’s annuity products worth an estimated $160 billion at the time. The program’s first investment was a $43 million private equity stake in microfinance institution ProCredit Holding AG.
“This investment in ProCredit gives us an opportunity to seek competitive returns through socially responsible investments that we believe have a low correlation to traditional equity and fixed-income markets,” said Ed Grzybowski, TIAA-CREF’s chief investment officer, in a statement.
Still, development organizations like the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor say that private-sector investors like commercial banks have a positive role to play in integrating financial services to the poor into mainstream markets.
“International banks are often the catalysts for the integration of mainstream models and new product development in the microfinance industry,” the World Bank’s Mr. Reille said.
Citigroup is one such bank. It works with microfinance institutions and investors “to expand access to financial products and services to allow those who are currently under-served by the financial sector to participate fully in the mainstream economy — many for the first time,” said Robert Annibale, global director of Citi’s microfinance group.
Citigroup began its work in microfinance through the charitable Citi Foundation, but has dramatically expanded the scope of its effort as the microfinance sector grew.
“Our microfinance group has evolved to take our efforts in microfinance beyond philanthropy and to embed it in our business to view those once thought of as beneficiaries as clients,” Mr. Annibale said.
Microfinance institutions also need to access the capital as well as the technical and advisory skills available in the private sector so that they can continue to be self-sustaining in the long term and reach more people who need access to financial services.
The International Finance Corporation’s Mr. Holtmann said that he sees the increased participation of private-sector investors as a positive development, allowing microfinance to expand its outreach in hard to reach places, what he calls the “frontier” of developing countries.
Last month a World Bank research report estimated that 50 to 80 percent of adults in developing countries still lack adequate access to financial services. In Africa, for example, where microfinance is less advanced than in other developing areas, a mere four percent have access to bank accounts, according to the U.N. Development Program, and only one percent have gotten loans or other forms of credit from formal financial institutions.
Development of the industry is likely to continue. Developments such as Standard & Poor’s establishment of a ratings system for microfinance institutions may contribute to this growth. Ratings, often required by investors, provide a way to assess the risk associated with an investment. The creation of a ratings system, analysts say, reflects investor confidence in the microfinance industry.
As the industry grows, however, challenges to integrating it into formal financial markets remain. For instance, because microfinance lending has different features from traditional bank lending, regulation of the industry is a big question. Some microfinance institutions also take deposits. With varying capital adequacy requirements, differing rules for setting aside funds as a hedge against bad loans and various requirements for reporting financial performance, regulations to promote an efficient market still haven’t been developed.
Mr. Holtmann’s greatest concern is not about appropriate regulation but about the “overselling” or over-popularization of socially responsible investing as a way to relieve poverty.
“With the Yunus and Nobel Prizes of the world, people may simplistically believe that all that needs to be done is to put microfinance out there and poof, all will be resolved,” he said.
A recent World Bank paper said that the “real opportunity for microfinance is to tap into the huge and growing socially responsible private-investor market.” But Mr. Holtmann called this a “dangerous” misconception and warned that such a belief could “provoke a backlash if we claim that microfinance is the recipe to put poverty in the museum.”
Nevertheless the desire to push microfinance into the mainstream is real, however, for socially minded investors and the industry alike. The tagline for the MicroPlace Web site reads: “Invest wisely. End poverty.”
###
Lawsuit a Challenge for Federal Agency
FLIGHT
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
12/11/2007
WASHINGTON – It’s the Christmas season, and holiday planning is in full swing, including family travel plans. Now imagine it’s Christmas Eve, and you’re stuck in an airport because of flight delays. Your children are crying, Grandma is calling and the presents you bought are stuck out in the cold air underneath a waiting plane.
Flight delays at our nation’s airports have been a problem for years, especially at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airports. Congested air space in one area causes delays all over the country, and in November congressional leaders declared 2007 as the worst year for air travel.
So why has Norwalk joined a lawsuit to prevent the Federal Aviation Administration from implementing a plan that agency officials claim will save 12 million minutes in delays per year?
“It’s safety, it’s environmental,” said Judy Neville, a former New Canaan first selectman. “But the biggest thing is that due process was not followed.”
Norwalk and 13 other nearby towns filed suit against the FAA over new flight paths that would send planes right over southwestern Connecticut, disrupting the quiet lives of its residents. These towns have also formed the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning to lobby the federal government.
“They don’t find noise an issue,” Neville, who acts as an alliance spokeswoman, said of the federal officials. “And they don’t consider it a safety issue. We do.”
Southwestern Connecticut is not the only area to file suit, either. In addition to the alliance, towns in New Jersey, New Yorkand Pennsylvania have also complained about the federal agency. But in the year of bad air travel, who is in the wrong?
THE FAA
The FAA first started looking into redesigning the routes for commercial airplanes in 1997, looking mainly at the airspace around the New York City airports, including not only Kennedy and LaGuardia but also Newark Liberty International and Teterboro Airports in New Jersey. Later, Philadelphia International Airport was added.
The intent of the redesign, according to an agency spokesman, was to reconstruct the airspace to improve its flow, similar to renovating a home to create more space.
“What happens at one [airport] affects the other,” said the agency official, who wished not be named because of the pending lawsuit. Under the old system, control of the airspace had been divided among the airports, while the new plan would create a central air traffic control technology to coordinate the overall space.
After nine years and four proposals, the agency announced its plan on Sept. 5. It includes the redesign for New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia and, according to the agency, would reduce delays, expedite arrivals and departures and reduce the overall complexity of the current system.
The plan includes building a new gate at LaGuardia for planes arriving from and departing to the north. At Kennedy, a departing gate would be shifted north, while aircraft coming in would descend over southwestern Connecticut at an estimated 8,000 feet.
“In order to make a controlled descent, they can’t just come over the Bronx and plop down,” the aviation official said.
There would also be a new route for traffic coming from the northeast, which would take planes north and then west ofStamford. However, while the documentation states that the planes will fly over Fairfield County, the official said that the plan actually intends for the planes to turn toward the airport before entering county airspace.
According to the official, the plan is to be phased in over a five-year period.
THE ALLIANCE
But Judy Neville remains unconvinced. As the alliance’s chief operating officer, Neville focuses on the litigation and on rallying support. The alliance has already hired Timmons and Company, a Washington.-based lobbying and consulting firm, as well as the grass-roots On Point Advocacy Group, also in Washington, to help in the fight.
The Timmons Web site notes that its vice president, Erin Graefe, has personal relationships with key committee chairmen, including Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning represents Bridgewater, Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Milford, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Stamford, Weston, Westport and Wilton in Connecticut, as well as Pound Ridge, inNew York. According to Neville, there are 10 petitioners filing suit against the FAA. There is a chance that the suits could all be bundled, but Neville is not certain what will happen.
Neville had said she thought the suit could be filed in January, but on Wednesday she was told that the FAA administrative record was late in coming and could push the suit back to February.
THE DISPUTE
The National Environmental Policy Act mandates that the FAA mitigate any new significant noise increases – over 65 decibels – from air travel. According to the agency official, the airspace redesign does not cause that much of an increase in southwestern Connecticut.
“No community will experience significant increases in noise,” he said. “None rise to the level that has to be mitigated beyond what we have done.”
But Neville and the alliance disagree over the meaning of “significant.”
“They consider it moderate,” she said. But “there will be a three-fold increase in noise level, up to 10 decibels, depending on where you are.”
In most of Fairfield County, Neville said, that there would be an increase of 5 to 7.5 decibels and climb by as much as 10.2 decibels closer to Brookfield. She said she is also convinced that in its computations the agency has combined the noise level changes for both night – which is relatively quiet – and day. Focusing solely on day-time flights, she argued, would show a significant increase in noise.
“There is no basis, no methodology,” Neville said. “It is not the way it appears.”
Still, while the FAA recognizes some communities will experience a noise increase, officials argue that it has done what it can, including implementing new approach paths so that planes can descend more quietly, as well as shifting some of the noise over waterways.
When asked if she has been approached by the agency with any solutions to the problem, Neville chuckled.
“In your dreams,” she said.
Neville said she also suspects that the plan has already been implemented in the Norwalk area though the FAA says it has not. She cited what she said was an increase in the number of regional jets flying overhead at low altitudes.
According to the office of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), she said, “the FAA will not implement the plan for another year. But why are they [the regional jets] increased? And flying at such low-flying altitudes? I have verified it on the radar.”
THE GAO REPORT
While the fight is going on at the local level, Congress has asked the Government Accountability Office, its investigative arm, to research the redesign plan and submit a report on its findings. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, along with Reps Oberstar, Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), has called for a review of the program.
Susan Fleming, the Government Accountability Office’s director of physical infrastructure issues, who is running the investigation, said she hopes to finish the report by the end of July 2008. However, she said, if Congress were to call a hearing about the issue beforehand, she would be prepared to give the legislative body her preliminary results.
“This is politically sensitive; Congress is invested,” she said. “This is an airline congestion issue, which is one piece of the whole congestion problem.”
Another Government Accountability Office report released in October found that attempts to improve the aviation system could mean that communities that were once unaffected by noise might be exposed to it and become concerned. The report also stated that community opposition to these programs is a major challenge to their success. And, while new technology for quieter planes is being employed, it is not an immediate solution and could end up having unintended effects.
“Funding noise reduction research and development programs poses a challenge for federal agencies,” explained Gerald Dillingham, who directed the October report. “Additionally, these reductions in aviation noise are likely to be eroded by the public’s increasing awareness of and sensitivity to even moderate amounts of aviation noise and to predicted increases in the number of aircraft flying overhead.”
CONCLUSION
“It’s not as if people bought houses near airports,” Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia said in an interview in October. “It’s a quality-of-life issue.”
But, Phil Barbarello, vice president for the eastern region of National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says the FAA’s plan is also flawed and dangerous.
“What the FAA is doing is useless,” he said. “They are trying to piecemeal together a solution.”
The new plan, Barbarello said, is only going to cause a lot of headaches. Because of a shortage of air traffic controllers and of places to park the planes, the airspace will become saturated.
And the additional volume, along with the low-flying altitudes, will make the situation in the air much less safe, he added.
What seems to loom in the immediate future is a clash between these two sides—the Federal Aviation Administration, with its attempt to ameliorate on the problems of air travel, and the groups suing to protect the status quo. For Barbarello, the underdog has a good chance if the lawsuit makes it to court.
In suing the FAA, he said, Norwalk “is smart. If a judge is going to look at the advantages and disadvantages, if someone honestly takes a look at it, the FAA will not be able to move forward.”
###
Veteran Homelessness Still a Problem
LOW-INCOME
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
12/5/2007
WASHINGTON – Federal and local governments alike are frustrated with the prospect of even more war veterans returning to the United States with no place to go.
Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) said at a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday that there were 5,000 homeless veterans in Connecticut and that the population of homeless veterans was growing throughout the country.
“We owe no greater debt than the one we owe to our veterans,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the senior Republican on the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee. “Our nation’s heroes deserve the very best we have to offer.”
Shays, a member of the subcommittee, wrote a letter Nov. 8 to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the subcommittee’s chairwoman, expressing concern that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming homeless at a much younger age because of the nature of their injuries and the rise of post-traumatic stress brought on by combat.
“Additional funding can help,” Shays wrote, referring to the $1.5 billion the Department of Veterans Affairs spends on health care costs for homeless veterans. “But there is also an opportunity to identify and expand programs that work.”
Shays wrote that the number of homeless veterans nationwide has grown to the point that one out of every four homeless are veterans. In Connecticut, it is estimated that 10 percent of the homeless are veterans, Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for the state, said in a telephone interview.
But, she said, there is no clear idea of how many homeless veterans there are or what their circumstance is.
Already, Schwartz has counted 108 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have gone through the Veterans’ Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill. The home tries to use its facilities to give these veterans vocational training and medical help to get them back on their feet, the commissioner said.
Peter Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said Wednesday at the hearing that homeless veterans are more likely to receive benefits once they are identified. For Commissioner Schwartz, identifying these homeless veterans has become a mission.
Through “vigorous outreach,” Schwartz said, her department is traveling to shelters throughout Connecticut in hopes of identifying all homeless veterans to make sure they receive the benefits they are entitled to. And, if they are not entitled to benefits, Schwartz said her department will help them contact the proper agency that can help them.
“This is a deep concern,” she said. “But we still have people living in the woods, under bridges.”
According to Schwartz, the Veterans’ Home and Hospital now holds 380 veterans who have no other home. With winter coming, Schwartz said she hopes she can reach as many veterans as possible.
“Most people won’t believe that people come back from war and have no place to go,” she said.
###
Charting Coastal History, Map by Map
MAPS
Cape Cod Times
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
November 29, 2007
WASHINGTON – For 200 years the Office of Coast Survey, the country’s oldest scientific organization, has mapped and charted the landscape of the nation’s shoreline to ensure safe maritime travel and trade. But as time has altered the land, old maps and charts have quietly slipped into antiquity, forgotten – until now.
Volumes of centuries-old maps and charts lay tucked away on the shelves of a Coast Survey warehouse, only recovered in the last decade when Curtis Loy, once chief geographer at the Coast Survey, was told that the warehouse was closing.
Loy found “far in excess of 30,000” historical documents in the Riverdale, Md., warehouse. “I was astounded,” he said. After being scanned and posted online the original maps were sent to the Library of Congress or National Archives. More than 20,000 of them are accessible at the Coast Survey Web site, http://historicals.ncd.noaa.gov/historicals/histmap.asp, for viewing and free downloading.
While the Coast Survey initially decided to construct the online collection as a record of mapping and charting techniques over two centuries, each image also has artistic and historical merit. Preserving these records is “the essence of what recording American history is all about,” said William Stanley, president of the Washington Map Society and former chief historian of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The collection, which dates back to1655, contains more than 800 renderings of the Massachusetts shoreline. Hundreds of them depict Cape Cod’s coast and waterways: from a 1791 nautical chart of Nantucket Shoals that predates the agency’s 1807 establishment to a map of the Bass River Harbor as it met the Atlantic in 1878.
An 1882 rendering of “Wood’s Holl,” as it then was called, illustrates the area from the northeast point of Naushon Island to Quissett Harbor. Dotted every few inches with measures of depth, latitude and longitude, and buoy markers, the map also details houses and a blacksmith’s shop along Bar Neck Wharf at Great Harbor. Sailing directions beside the map’s legend would guide seamen through the “Holl’s” channels into Buzzard’s Bay:
When off the harbor in 6 fathoms, bring to bear N ¼ W (N 12” 30’W.) a Yellow House at the head of the harbor (it is the Westernmost house on Bar Neck, has wings and is a story and a half high). Steer for it until Bar Neck Wharf bears E. N.E., then anchor of steer NW (N 56’W) for the inner harbor, anchoring in from 4 to 8 fathoms. The buoys mark clearly the limits of the channel…To pass through Wood’s Holl into Buzzards Bay When the Largest House on the high land on Parker’s Neck bears E. t, N. steer W ¼ S.(W.12”30’S) Between Red Buoy No 4 and Black Buoy No 3 When the Bay is broad open steer N by W. ½ W (N25’W.)
These historical maps provide perspective, implications about the life of place, its people and how it has changed. When Stanley picks up a map, “not only am I holding a piece of history in my hands,” he said, “but I'm seeing what people who held it then saw with their own eyes – there is so much more there if you stop and really look.”
Still, such historical data has contemporary relevance. Today, centuries-old maps are used in coastal studies on Cape Cod and all along U.S. shores.
Coastal researcher Mark Adams, a geographic information systems specialist at the Cape Cod National Seashore, combines new observations with data from old maps and charts, he said, justifying new research studies, revealing unknown histories, restoring and preserving natural systems or projecting how a future map might look.
Adams is a technical assistant in the Marindin Project, a resurvey of the coast led by Dr. Graham Giese from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. The original coastal survey of Cape Cod’s shoreline was conducted by Henri Marindin, a Swiss cartographer, in the late 1800s.
Much of Marindin’s original survey, Adams said, was a likely source for many maps and charts of Cape Cod that are part of the Coast Survey’s digital, historical collection. But Marindin’s real objective was to create a benchmark study that would enable later comparative research and a long-term understanding of coastal change.
That is just what his work has become. When the current survey is complete, there will be a 120-year record of coastal change along Cape Cod, telling stories about how systems and habitats once functioned and how best to restore them to their most efficient, natural state.
For its practical application in numerous preservation efforts, “Marindin’s surveys were a gift to subsequent generations,” Adams said.
Adams, Stanley and administrators at the Office of Coast Survey said they hope better access to such maps will fascinate and educate the public, providing a better understanding of the nation’s coastal landscapes, past and present.
###
Travelers Can Expect Usual Problems This Holiday
AVIATION
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
11/15/2007
WASHINGTON – Congress is warning Americans to prepare for an unprecedented volume of air travel over this Thanksgiving holiday.
Travelers can expect many of the same problems as in past years, including delays and weather-related problems, members of the House Subcommittee on Aviation were told at a hearing Thursday on what is being done by airports and airlines to ensure customer satisfaction.
“Consumers have been left in a lurch by congestion,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the senior minority member of the parent Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Airlines have to step up to the plate to deal with consumers that have been abused.”
According to Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the subcommittee, the Air Transportation Association is predicting that 27.3 million passengers will fly over the Thanksgiving holiday, from Friday through Nov. 27. This is an increase of almost four percent from last year. The association also is predicting that just more than two million people will fly per day and that planes will be filled to 90 percent capacity.
“Airports are especially cognizant of the increase of passenger traffic during the holiday period,” said Greg Principato, president of Airports Council International for the North American region. “Airports have systems in place to address issues that may arise with increased airport congestion, long passenger waiting lines and delayed flights.”
Donna Greene, a member of the communications staff for the government of Westchester County, N.Y., said in a telephone interview that during the holidays parking is going to be the biggest problem at Westchester County Airport, a little more than 20 miles from Norwalk. Greene cited the airport’s limited parking capacity and said that with the recent addition of service by JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways, parking at the airport will be virtually impossible.
At Hartford’s Bradley International Airport, however, the situation is different.
John Wallace, director of media relations for Bradley, advised in a telephone interview that passengers get to the airport an hour to an hour and a half before their flights but insisted that the situation over the holiday will be “pretty much business as usual.”
“We know its coming,” he said. “Everybody will work together to make it work.”
In his testimony, Principato outlined customer service initiatives that have been put in use for the holidays. These include earlier passenger notification of any problems through the World Wide Web and local media outlets, advance reminders of what is and is not allowed through security checkpoints, increased airport concessions for customer comfort, snow removal in harsher weather and infrastructure and parking maintenance.
In addition to the steps airports are taking, President Bush announced on Thursday that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace for commercial flights from Wednesday through Sunday.
The Federal Aviation Administration says that flight delays are up 20 percent since 2006, a number that is as high as 50 percent at some of the nation’s busier airports. With the increase in the number of people flying, airlines and airports are expecting not only a busy holiday season, but increased air travel from now on.
“This holiday season is going to be a snapshot of what every day is going to be like,” Principato said. “And we need to prepare for that.”
###
Economic Report Cards Give New Hampshire High Marks
ECONOMIC HEALTH
New Hampshire Union Leader
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
November 13, 2007
WASHINGTON – Life is good in New Hampshire. That is the bottom line of two economic “report cards” from the Corporation for Enterprise Development.
New Hampshire earned an A in almost every category of the nonprofit group’s 2007 Development Report Card and in its Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, which measure economic performance and growth and residents’ financial prosperity.
Though positive scores make the Granite State “one of the best places to live and work in the country,” the corporation reported, not all news was good. Both assessments revealed what they called weaknesses New Hampshire must address if families and businesses hope to enjoy future prosperity.
Significant among shortcomings is New Hampshire’s D for “business vitality,” which gauges how well businesses thrive. Another perceived weakness: household credit debt.
New Hampshire’s 13 percent rate of business closings is higher than in most other states. Manufacturing investment and industrial diversity lag, and the rate of new businesses start ups and the jobs they create is comparatively low.
“The strength of [New Hampshire’s] current business standing is hampered by businesses that fail more often than the national average and new businesses that generate fewer jobs than in most other states,” said the corporation’s research director, David Buchholz.
Neither report provides reasons for businesses failures or lagging job creation in New Hampshire, but unemployment and financial resources data may offer limited insight: unemployment is low in the state, but so is the number of loans for financing small businesses.
“I think the resources are there,” said Michael Skelton of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. “But we can always do a better job to provide them and to make sure that businesses are successful.”
New Hampshire also is underperforming in affordable housing, energy costs, transportation infrastructure, science and engineering education and uninsured low-income children, according to the reports.
Despite its B for residents’ financial security, New Hampshire ranks 50th in median credit debt. Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, only Alaska ranks higher. New Hampshire’s median debt is $2,109, compared to $1,690 nationally.
This compromises the financial security of New Hampshire residents, who cannot build wealth while living beyond their means. The phenomenon is true nationwide: 15 percent of all Americans have zero or negative net worth, the corporation reports.
“This report shows that our economy is still not working for everyone,” Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) said. “Hard-working, middle-class families are being forced into debt just to maintain their standard of living.”
In response to high debt, the corporation advocates legislation currently before Congress that would help low-income families establish individual development accounts, government-matched, for major lifetime purchases – such as buying a home, paying for education or starting a business.
“I think it’s a great vehicle to increase savings for people who are especially stressed by the rising costs in our society, and I support it,” Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) said.
Shea-Porter said she will review the legislation when it comes before the House.
Still, where New Hampshire does well, it shines.
“The economy in New Hampshire is strong, and there are a lot of strong indicators and reasons to believe that New Hampshire is on a good footing,” said James Nguyen, a corporation research associate.
Its employees enjoy higher-than-average pay and experience greater annual pay increases than in all but five other states. New Hampshire ranks third in college attainment, fifth in academic research and development and seventh in patents issued. More New Hampshire workers are covered by employer-provided health insurance than in any other state and has the fifth best unemployment rate.
###
Local Religious Leader, Desmond Tutu, Part of Connecticut Celebration
CATHEDRAL
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
11/11/2007
WASHINGTON - After a long applause, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu took his seat on the altar of the Washington National Cathedral and greeted his audience with a simple, “Good morning, dear friends.”
When he received no response from the hundreds of people who crowded the nave of the Episcopal cathedral Sunday morning, the Nobel Peace Prize winner chuckled to himself, and tried again. This time he got a booming greeting back, and thus set the tone for the Cathedral’s weekly Sunday Forum, which preceded the church service celebrating Connecticut State Day.
“We don’t normally have a houseful,” joked Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd, who joined in the discussion with Tutu.
While every state is celebrated each year with its own mass at the cathedral, Connecticut was one of only 12 states with a major state-day ceremony in 2007. Because of the major state day rotating schedule, Connecticut’s last celebration like this was in August 2003.
For the state’s residents who traveled to Washington to participate in the celebration, this was just part of a weekend full of events.
On Saturday, groups traveled to Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home in Virginia, visited the Smithsonian museums and went to Arlington National Cemetery. And, Sunday morning, the religious-leaders participating in the Connecticut State Day service were led in a pilgrimage through the cathedral, meditating and praying at different stations.
“It was wonderful, magnificent,” said Sylvia Corrigan, president of the Episcopal Church Women for the Diocese of Connecticut. “How do you describe it?”
Corrigan, who grew up in Weston and now lives in Westport, joined the Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, bishop suffragan, Diocese of Connecticut, in celebrating the state at the cathedral. As joyous as the occasion was, however, Corrigan said she couldn’t help but worry as she listened to Archbishop Tutu speak beforehand about whether she would stumble as she carried her banner down the aisle.
They were all nervous, Corrigan said afterwards, laughing. “But it was easy for us to process in.”
Corrigan, who is a member of Christ and Holy Trinity Church in Westport, entered into the cathedral with the Episcopal Church Women banner. She was one of eight Connecticut religious leaders leading the procession of cathedral clergy, altar servers, readers, and choir members. The theme of the service was forgiveness, which also was the subject of the Sunday Forum.
During the forum, Archbishop Tutu discussed how his nation was able to heal and forgive, after years of apartheid.
“To forgive is not being altruistic. It’s the best form of self-interest,” he said “When I dehumanize you, I am, in the process, dehumanized.”
Archbishop Tutu discussed the healing process in South Africa after apartheid and how things could have gone better, but how they could have been much worse. With an overwhelming sense of reason, he talked about the work of fellow South African and civil rights leader Nelson Mandela, and how Mandela’s time in jail was necessary in South Africa’s healing process.
“In 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela evolved from an angry young man to [gain] an understanding of the point of view of the other,” he said, calling those 27 years “crucial.”
In his sermon, the Rev. Lloyd echoed Tutu’s message, calling forgiveness “the most powerful tool for the future of the human race ever created,” a message Corrigan said she is excited to take back to Christ and Holy Trinity Church, as well as the Episcopal Church Women.
“I know I want to talk, share this example,” she said. “I’ve noticed in my own life how often that comes up. It’s so nice to have this encouragement, because usually we’re alone.”
Along with the State Day Celebration, the National Cathedral also is celebrating its 100th anniversary. On its Web site, the cathedral’s ties to the state of Connecticut are listed, including various carvings, statues and needlework created by Connecticut residents that are positioned throughout the structure and its grounds. Most significant may be the prayer of the Rev. Francis Sayre, dean emeritus of the cathedral, specifically for the state:
“Have in Thy keeping, O God, the strong hills and homely rocks of Connecticut, and the undaunted folk who live among them…may Thy people ever rejoice in the bounty of their valleys, the refreshment of the sea, and Thy changing glory at each season of the year.”
But what many were taking away from the day’s celebration and were discussing once the day’s events concluded were the words of Archbishop Tutu before the mass.
“In our African culture, there is…the essence of being human: a person is a person through other persons,” he said. “I need you to be all you can be, so I can be all I can be.”
###
Shays Joins Religious Leaders in Supporting Animal Welfare
ANIMALS
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
11/7/2007
WASHINGTON – When Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) lost his family dog as a child, he said there became “a huge void” in his life. When he later received a new pet from his parents as a Christmas present, his penchant for animals was solidified. On Wednesday the congressman joined other members of Congress and religious leaders in support of a proclamation in support of animals.
“The way a society treats its animals speaks to the core values and priorities of its citizens,” Shays said at a ceremony on Capitol Hill. “We as a society have betrayed those core values of compassion, mercy and decency.”
The ceremonial signing of A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion, sponsored by the Best Friends Animal Society of Utah, brought together persons of various faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. The proclamation, co-authored by more than 30 faith leaders and signed Wednesday by 11 of them, calls for the prevention of animal overpopulation, conscientious food and clothing choices, the rejection of entertainment that harms and exploits animals, the end of medically unnecessary animal testing and research and the boycotting of companies that profit from wildlife eradication.
Signers of the proclamation agree to promote these changes and take the message to their religious communities.
“Who is it that we devalue the most in our culture?” asked the Rev. Steve Keplinger, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Page, Ariz., and co-author of the proclamation. “For me, there is nothing we devalue more than God’s creation. We have segregated ourselves from every one of God’s non-human species.”
Officials with the Best Friends Animal Society said they are hoping the proclamation will reach many people. By posting the document on its Web site and allowing people to add their names via the Internet, the animal advocacy group would like the proclamation to receive one million signatures in 2008. In 2009, the group plans to come back to Washington to hold its Care for Compassion summit on animal cruelty.
“Animals build a better world for all of us,” said Michael Mountain, president of the Best Friends Animal Society. “People who care about the animals can rise above their own differences. Kindness is a virtue that rises above national conflict.”
Shays, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus, said he has supported several bills intended to alleviate the plight of neglected and abused animals. The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, passed in 2006, requires that any area in need of help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency first have in place a plan to help pets and other animals in the event of a disaster. In 2006 Shays received the Humane Legislator of the Year award from the Humane Society.
“Global warming isn’t the only inconvenient truth we need to confront,” Shays said at the ceremony. “You in the faith-based community are crucial to this effort.”
###
Lawyers, Law Firms Top Political Contributors
FEC LAW FIRMS
Cape Cod Times
Darlene M. Darcy
Boston University Washington News Service
Thursday, November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON – Shelling out almost $800 million, lawyers and law firms gave more money to candidates for federal office, especially Democrats, than any other industry’s contributors in the last 17 years.
Since 1990, the legal community has invested $783,774,518 in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks political dollars. Democratic legislators received 72 percent of that money, while their Republican colleagues received only 27 percent.
[TK – NAME, director of public affairs for the American Association for Justice – formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America – said, “…”]
The association’s political action committee, a leading donor within the legal industry, consistently has contributed at least 85 percent of its total political dollars to Democrats since 1990, which is as far back as the center has tracked campaign money.
In Massachusetts, Democratic members of Congress have fared well. The legal community ranked as the leading industry donor for eight of the twelve members, all Democrats, of the Commonwealth’s delegation, including Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and Rep. William Delahunt).
Lawyers and law firms gave Kennedy almost $4 million in the election cycles starting in 1989, and their contributions to Kerry amounted to more than $25 million during those same years, including contributions to his 2004 presidential bid. Delahunt amassed more than half a million dollars from lawyers and law firms since he first ran for Congress in 1996.
“As a former District Attorney and prosecutor, and now as a forceful advocate for civil liberties, [Delahunt] has always had strong support from the legal community and bar associations,” his chief of staff, Mark Forest, said.
The American Association for Justice’s PAC, which advocates on behalf of plaintiff trial lawyers, shares the leading rank with the Teamsters Union PAC as Delahunt’s number one contributor since 1996, each giving $60,000 through 2006.
Delahunt has “always been endorsed by a broad base of organizations,” Forest said. “We like to think the support is based on his hard work on behalf of our district and nation.”
In the last election cycle, from 2005 through 2006, lawyers and law firms led industry contributors, putting up $99,050, more than double the $42,000 contributed by Delahunt’s number two donor for that cycle, the building trade unions.
Among Delahunt’s leading contributors for the 2005-2006 election cycle, the American Association for Justice’s PAC gave $10,000. So did the PAC for Boston-based law firm Thornton & Naumes, along with seven other political action committees representing various industries. These nine PACs were tied for second out of Delahunt’s top 20 contributors for that election cycle.
The real estate industry and its PACs ranked third among industries, contributing $41,000 in the 2005-06 cycle. Industrial unions, the insurance, business service, and beer, wine and liquor industries each gave at least $20,000 in that cycle. Retired individuals gave Delahunt $26,750, ranking them the fourth highest category of political donors to Delahunt for 2005-2006.
Both Senator Kennedy’s and Kerry’s offices each said they receive broad support from industries and individuals encompassing all sectors of the economy and all parts of society.
###
Connecticut Official Doesn’t Want Medicaid Cuts
MEDICAID
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
11/1/2007
WASHINGTON – A Connecticut state official has asked the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services to refrain from making cuts to long-running state Medicaid programs.
David Parrella, director of Medical Care Administration for the state Department of Social Services, testified in Congress Thursday that proposed cutbacks in programs and funds would do more harm than good.
“Despite the occasional messiness that ensues in a program of this size, we are not a runaway train on spending,” he said at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “To restrict the state option to use Medicaid to fund any of these activities will only make life harder for the millions of poor Americans who look to you for answers on health care.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recently proposed several restrictions to Medicaid state programs to correct what the Government Accountability Office called “inappropriate financing arrangements.” According to Marjorie Kanof, representing the agency, these arrangements, particularly a state’s ability to shift fiscal responsibility for Medicaid services to the federal government instead of its own, have had “significant fiscal implications for the federal government and states.” She also noted that although the exact amount is not known, “additional federal funds generated through these arrangements…was in the billions of dollars.”
Kanof, who is the managing director of health care for the agency, added: “States’ use of these creative financing mechanisms undermined the federal-state Medicaid partnership as well as the program’s fiscal integrity. States must share in Medicaid costs in proportions established according to a statutory formula.”
Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th), a member of the committee, agreed that states should pay their proper share of Medicaid costs.
“If I was governor, I would say to my staff, ‘I want you to get as much money out of the federal government as you can get,’” he said in an interview. “The problem is, that’s not being true to the program. It’s finding loopholes and taking advantage of them. I’m not a state legislator. I’m a member of Congress, and I have an obligation to make sure our federal dollars are spent honestly.”
In his testimony, Parrella said that, with these restrictions, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is trying to put new limits on how a state can raise its share of Medicaid funding, as well as trying to redefine what services are coverable. According to Parrella, who has experience working in the Medicaid field, Washington has good reason to worry about the integrity of its program, but in some areas, Washington is incorrect.
“They maintain that the elimination of $20 billion in federal Medicaid funding for Medicaid administrative activities…is appropriate because these activities were never intended to be part of Medicaid, despite decades of approved state plan amendments across the nation,” he said in his testimony. “It is surprising that this philosophy should come at a time when most experts in the field would say that the nation’s health care system is in a state of crisis.”
Shays, on the other hand, said that none of the planned changes would kill any program within Medicaid. Instead, they would slow the increase in spending by only eight-tenths of a percent.
“There’s no cuts here, this is slowing increase,” he said. “There’s more money being spent. We are spending tens of billions more dollars every year. It’s just an issue of who has to make up” the extra spending
Connecticut, through Medicaid, its HUSKY A program for uninsured children, and state-administered general assistance, is able to provide health care for low-income people. According to Parrella, Connecticut has not had a problem with inappropriate financing of programs or with shifting costs from the state government to Washington.
“Where money wasn’t being spent on the health care providers…that’s what they are really trying to clamp down on. But we don’t have any history of that,” he said.
If there is a problem in other states, he said, “then they should issue regulations about that. Very simply, if you’re going to spend Medicaid money, the money should go to Medicaid providers and pay for Medicaid services. Period. End of story.”
###
