Category: Jordan Zappala
Gulf War Veterans Find Vindication, but Not Much Else
GULFWAR
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
December 12, 2008
WASHINGTON – U.S. Army veteran Donald Overton Jr. said he considers himself lucky that he was physically injured during the Persian Gulf War.
Having been left legally blind and missing a few fingers as a result of a Desert Storm blast, the Norwalk native and executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare also suffers from symptoms of Gulf War Illness, such as hair loss, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. But without his physical injuries, Overton said, any attempt to receive disability compensation for the service-related illness would have been quashed by the years of bureaucratic red tape and government denial that Gulf War veterans have weathered.
“The [Gulf War] Illness leaves very little on the outside, but it can be debilitating,” said the 40-year-old, who feels like he is “going on 60-something” because of his injuries. “I had my physical injuries too, and I still fought for five years to get my benefits.”
The Persian Gulf War ended 17 years ago, but many veterans have been forced to continue fighting for their lives even after their return home to the U.S.
Finally there appears to be a ceasefire of sorts. Last month the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses issued the validation so many of the nearly 700,000 veterans had been waiting for: there is, in fact, a Gulf War Illness, and at least one in four Gulf War veterans has it.
In Connecticut, that translates to roughly 9,000 veterans inflicted with a service-connected disease for which there is no effective treatment.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have long denied the existence of a Gulf War-related illness, despite their eventual acknowledgement of troop exposure to chemical agents.
Numerous congressional hearings, federal research programs and independent studies had previously produced inconclusive results – in large part because of the litany of symptoms these veterans display: persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread muscle and joint pain, acute gastrointestinal problems, chronic fatigue and sleeplessness, respiratory problems, and skin rashes. The severity and concurrence of symptoms varies by patient, but in many cases, the result is a debilitating sickness that has the capacity to level even the most stalwart soldier.
The advisory committee’s conclusion – though hailed as a step in the right direction – is by no means the end of the war for these wounded warriors. Appointed in 2002 by the secretary of veterans affairs after a 1998 congressional order, the Research Advisory Committee is not itself a VA entity. James Peake, the current VA secretary, will have to formally accept the ailment before Gulf War Illness will fit into the department’s complicated disability grading system, and for that, the veterans will have to wait a little longer.
Peake said he has sent the report to the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine for additional review and recommendation.
“I appreciate the committee’s work on this report, and I am eager to see the results of further independent study into their findings,” Peake said in a prepared statement. “Of course, VA will continue to provide the care and benefits our Gulf War veterans have earned through their service, as we have for more than a decade.”
If the VA continues not to recognize the illness, sick veterans have little chance of claiming any disability compensation. The monthly benefits – ranging from $100 to $3,000 – can make all the difference in supporting a family or keeping a home when work becomes impossible.
Overton said Gulf War veterans have waited long enough for their benefits, and called Peake’s decision a “stall tactic.”
The lengthy process has too great a cost for veterans, he said, which is why his organization banded with the Vietnam Veterans of America and filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs last month aimed at expediting the disability claims process.
Though the claims are supposed to be answered quickly, the VA acknowledges it takes an average of six months to reach a decision, and some go unanswered for close to a year. The appeals process – which is successful more than 50 percent of the time, according to the Veterans of Modern Warfare – takes an average of four years. To remedy this, the lawsuit demands that the initial claim be answered in 90 days, with an appeal returned in 180 days. If this schedule is not met, the suit suggests, interim benefits should be granted at a rate of 30 percent disability, or roughly $350 a month, until the decision is reached.
Robert Cattanach, a partner at Dorsey and Whitney in Minneapolis and pro bono attorney for the veterans, said the consequences of the VA delays are “staggering” – citing homelessness, depression and hopelessness.
“The suit fits perfectly with the new [Gulf War Illness] report, because these veterans have already waited far too long for their benefits,” said the Navy veteran, whose son has served two tours in Iraq. “The report finally gives them legitimacy, and if we win, they’re not going to have to stand in line forever to get what they deserve.”
Gulf War veteran Mike Roley knows all about waiting. The 44-year-old U.S. Army and Gulf War veteran from Shelbyville, Ky., shows many symptoms of Gulf War Illness, has physical injuries from a training accident and was placed on 13 prescriptions in an attempt to regulate his many inflictions, but he still had to fight the VA for more than 10 years.
“At first, it was the cramps – so bad I couldn’t stand up straight,” said the married father of three. “I started to get rashes that would blow you away, and headaches. I was so tired all the time, but I could never sleep. When I could fall asleep, there were the night sweats. I have a wonderful wife, but I’m embarrassed to sleep with her – I soak the bed.”
Despite the fact that Roley received a disability rating of 240 percent – a number derived by totaling the disabling level of each injury – he said he was denied VA benefits multiple times before finally winning his claim in 2002. The victory was bittersweet for the family, who had lost their home and entire savings trying to stay afloat in 1999, after Roley was no longer able to work.
But still, Roley considers himself luckier than many. U.S. Army veteran Matt Letterman, of Willow Springs, Mo., is still waiting for his benefits – 17 years after his laundry list of symptoms surfaced. The 45-year-old married father of five has to sleep in a straight-backed chair to keep leg pain at bay and has only 37 percent of his lung capacity despite never having smoked a cigarette. Yet the VA denied his claim in 2007.
Letterman supports his family of seven with just the $1,400 a month he receives from the Social Security Administration, after also losing his home in 1999 when he could no longer keep a job.
Neither Letterman nor Roley holds out any hope that his disease will be understood, let alone treated.
Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs and a retired U.S. Air Force flight nurse, said that with the new findings, Connecticut veterans denied benefits should try filing their claims again.
“The attitude of many people in the VA is that veterans are trying to milk them dry. It’s sad,” said Schwartz, who drew a parallel to the Vietnam-era denial of Agent Orange effects. “They’re supposed to be erring on the side of veterans. These denials devalue the meaning of the veterans’ sacrifice. I think the money is part of it, but it’s more the recognition that they are suffering because they served their country, and earning the respect they deserve. “
Gulf War veterans were exposed to a vast array of chemical and biological factors – a “toxic soup,” as Overton described it – making a single cause of the illness difficult to pinpoint. But the advisory committee for the first time zeroed in on two exposures “causally associated” with the illness: the pyridostigmine bromide pills troops were required to take to protect against nerve agents, and an overabundance of pesticides used to ward off bug-borne diseases – neither of which are used today, Department of Defense spokesman Ken Robinson told CNN.
At the time they were given to the troops – “handed out like candy,” Letterman said – the pills were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration as an anti-nerve gas agent, but the Defense Department signed a waiver to bypass the hurdle of informed consent. Both Letterman and Roley recall fellow soldiers having adverse reactions to the pills while in the desert – and Roley said he stopped taking them after his superiors stopped watching.
In addition, the committee identified other exposures that it said “cannot be ruled out” as potential causes of Gulf War Illness, including burning oil wells, multiple vaccines and low-level exposure to nerve agents such as those released by the U.S. demolition of a munitions dump near Khamisiyah, Iraq – to which at least 100,000 troops were potentially exposed, including Letterman. With thousands of troops currently stationed in the same desert, Overton said, research on chemical-related illness should be a serious priority.
The committee also noted that Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis than other veterans and that troops who were downwind from the Khamisiyah demolition have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans.
“There are others out there that have probably had it worse than I have had it – and some that are no longer with us anymore,” Letterman said. “There are quite a few more that have been beat down by the system. A sick veteran doesn’t have the strength to fight the system when it’s working the way it’s working. The system will always win.”
For questions or help in filing a claim, call the Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs at 866-928-8387.
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Norwalk World War II Airman Laid to Rest at Arlington
TROY
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
11/20/08
ARLINGTON, VA. – On an appropriately cold, gray morning, Army Staff Sgt. Martin F. Troy of Norwalk was finally laid to rest with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, a full 64 years after his bomber crashed during World War II in Nazi-occupied Europe.
At Wednesday’s early-morning Catholic service, “Ave Maria” played on the organ as six soldiers from The Old Guard carefully and methodically carried the American flag-covered casket between somber rows of family, friends and well-wishers, including Rep. Chris Shays and Rep.-elect Jim Himes – each of whom turned, out of respect, to face the fallen soldier as he traveled up the aisle.
Troy’s only living sibling, Julia Carvutto, sat in the front row of the small, whitewashed Old Post Chapel on the grounds of Fort Myer Army base in Virginia, just outside the gates of Arlington. Carvutto, 90, never took her hand off of the attentive man next to her – William Wilcox, her son – who supported her physically and emotionally throughout the morning’s ceremonies.
“It is just overwhelming,” Wilcox said later, his eyes brimming. “We’re flooded with emotions. We are just so relieved that finally he’s home.”
Wilcox’s sentiment echoed that of the service’s presiding cleric, Monsignor Joseph Goudreau, who said the family were likely to be experiencing the “conflicting emotions of gratitude and sorrow,” because Troy had for so long gone without a proper burial.
Joseph “Jerry” Conlon, 83 – a survivor of the June 30, 1944, air battle that took the lives of 17 of the 41 men who flew that mission – made the three-hour trip from his home in Roaring Spring, Pa., specifically to see the last man of their fallen crew laid to rest.
“This has been a long time in coming,” Conlon said slowly to open his memorial remarks at the service.
With somewhat halting speech, Conlon talked about the unexpected gun fight that interrupted their mission to bomb a German oil refinery, and how three of the four U.S. planes in the air crashed into swampy Hungarian soil. Several soldiers, including Conlon, were able to parachute out of their falling planes to spend the remaining months of the war in German prisoner of war camps, but 17 men were not as lucky, hitting the ground still inside the planes. Sixteen of those bodies were eventually recovered and buried, but Troy seemed to have been forgotten.
“I have 14 great-grandchildren now,” said Conlon. “All this time, Martin’s remains have been underwater, in the crater made by his plane when it crashed.”
The retired soldier went on to describe how 37-year-old Troy, who was married at the time of his death, and his best friend John Lenburg palled around on their Italian base, always smiling and laughing. It was Lenburg, Conlon said, who petitioned the government 10 years after the war ended to return to Hungary and try to recover Troy’s remains.
When Lenburg died before Troy’s remains were found, Conlon took the burden upon himself. On July 17, 2007, bone fragments were found, he said, and two days later, he flew to Hungary to witness their long overdue recovery.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command compared the DNA of the fragments to Carvutto’s DNA and confirmed that they belonged to the missing airman, said Patrick Troy, great-nephew of Martin Troy.
“It’s incredible that the Army spent the time and money to bring him back,” said the 49-year-old salesman from Newtown. “I’d always heard about Uncle Mart, but I only knew that he’d gone down in a bomber during World War II. I didn’t have all the details. This really made the extended family learn more about him.”
Troy said that the discovery allowed him to reconnect even with the family of his great-aunt – nieces and nephews mostly, since Martin Troy and his wife had no children.
Led by a gray hearse, the funeral procession wound through Arlington’s manicured hills, passing many soldiers standing guard and six black horses pulling a cloaked black caisson, and eventually stopped in Section 60, where Troy will be surrounded by soldiers from more contemporary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
With Carvutto and Conlon again in the front row, a minister quietly uttered a prayer before seven nearby soldiers fired a sharp salute, and out of the quiet, a lone trumpet began to play taps, bringing tears to many of the roughly 30 mourners.
A soldier on bended knee presented the flag to Carvutto. Candy Otstott – a member of the Arlington Ladies, a group of military wives who ensure that someone will always be at a soldier’s burial – stepped away from her Old Guard escort to offer a note and word of condolence to Carvutto, before the entire party made its solemn procession back to the waiting cars.
“Julia, I’m sure the passage of time has assuaged some of the hurt you must have felt when the KIA soldier walked into your house,” Conlon said to Carvutto in the chapel. “I’m thankful he’s finally home, and may his soul rest in peace.”
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Thousands Request Tickets to Obama’s Swearing-In
CONN TICKETS
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
11/19/08
WASHINGTON – With Inauguration Day still two months away, tickets to the swearing-in ceremony are already nearly impossible to obtain.
Connecticut residents should be able to call or e-mail their members’ congressional offices to request one of the estimated 2,000 free tickets given to the Connecticut delegation for the Jan.20 ceremony, but the number of residents who have already done so reaches well into the thousands.
Fourth District constituents are in a less-than-ideal position. With Christopher Shays on his way out of Washington and Jim Himes not yet secure in a Capitol Hill office, area residents have even less of an opportunity to get their names on the inaugural list.
There “really isn’t a mechanism in place” for newly elected members to take ticket requests from constituents, said Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which organizes all inaugural ceremonies held at the U.S. Capitol. Often, outgoing members take requests and pass on a list to the incoming member, she said, although they aren’t required to do so.
Rep.-elect Jim Himes does have an e-mail alert system on his home page, where 4th District residents can sign up to be informed on how to acquire the sought-after tickets – a system Florman said she was encouraging.
Dave Natonski, press secretary for Shays, said that he is not keeping a list of interested callers and instead telling 4th District constituents to contact the offices of Connecticut Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman.
The number of constituents requesting tickets from Lieberman’s office has topped a thousand, but an aide estimated that the office will receive only 400 tickets, leaving many residents who make the trip to Washington to watch the festivities on giant television screens posted on the National Mall and across the parade route.
In all, 240,000 tickets are available for the inaugural ceremony, but the largest portion go to the president-elect and vice president-elect. The remaining tickets are distributed to members of the new Congress, with each senator receiving a greater number of tickets than each House member, Florman said. If lucky enough to reserve tickets, constituents must pick them up in person at the congressional offices in Washington during the week leading up to Inauguration Day, she said.
None of the Connecticut offices has divulged exactly how the tickets will be doled out – whether by lottery or first-come, first-served – and that decision is left completely to congressional discretion.
Don Carlson, transition chief of staff for Himes, said that the Connecticut delegation will be meeting soon to come up with a consistent policy for ticket distribution in an effort to avoid any appearance of impropriety regarding this historic inauguration – for which Washington officials say they expect more than 2 million visitors.
Carlson also indicated that Himes, and the delegation as a whole, will be organizing inaugural parties both in the 4th District and in Washington so that Connecticut residents can come together to experience history.
Jennifer Paul contributed to this report.
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Connecticut Congressional Delegation Welcomes Himes, Congratulates Larson
HIMES
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
11/19/08
WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s members of Congress officially welcomed Jim Himes, the 4th District representative-elect, to Washington Wednesday in a small, ornate room in the House wing of the Capitol that was overflowing with good cheer and aggressive hugs.
All seven members of the now all-Democratic delegation spoke at a press conference designed to formally introduce Himes, who will take office in January, and to congratulate 1st District Rep. John Larson on his election as House Democratic Caucus chairman– a post that will be left open in the new Congress when Rahm Emanuel moves to the White House in January.
“I want to congratulate all the House members on their victories this past November, and of course, particularly welcome Jim Himes,” Sen. Christopher Dodd said. “We have a small delegation in this state, and we need to work very closely together…. We try to make a difference every day for the people we represent.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of the 3rd District,– and new dean of the Connecticut House delegation – echoed Dodd, saying the hallmark of the delegation was the willingness to work together to get things done for Connecticut.
“Jim Himes has truly changed the face of the 4th District, and we could not be prouder,” she said.
Larson called Himes a “tribute to the people in your district who have sent you here” and welcomed him to an already “blessed” talent pool of Connecticut members of Congress.
Himes, in turn, accepted the louder-than-anticipated applause graciously and immediately spoke of the “real honor to be standing with these giants of Congress who have accomplished so much.”
And he paid tribute to the man he beat, Capitol Hill veteran Chris Shays.
“My predecessor, Congressman Shays…we certainly disagreed on a number of critical issues, but he is a man of courage and a man of grace, and I stand here knowing that I have very big shoes to fill,” Himes said to a roomful of applause.
Though certainly the main attraction, Himes was not alone in receiving congratulatory praise.
In his remarks, Dodd described Larson as “one of the most respected and well-liked” members of the House – a sentiment echoed by the other members of the delegation.
Dodd also addressed speculation about this week’s closed-door meeting in which fellow Sen. Joe Lieberman learned of his potential punishment for speaking against the party and campaigning for Sen. John McCain.
“An overwhelming majority of my colleagues from across the political spectrum stood up one after another and expressed their confidence and support in the person they’ve known, worked with and admired,” Dodd said of the meeting.
Lieberman, who joked that Himes shouldered a “special burden” in having him as a constituent, said that the post-election period “hasn’t been an easy” one for him.
“I do want to say a personal ‘thank you’ to [Dodd,]” Lieberman said. “It meant everything to me to have the man who is not just my senior senator, but my dear friend for 40 years, not just standing by my side, but advocating on my behalf. I am so pleased to be continuing as chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.”
With the delegation banding together in support of their once-rogue senator, newcomer Himes did not want to speak out of turn.
“Truthfully, I haven’t given it much thought, I’ve been so busy,” Himes said of Lieberman’s situation. “I’m not even a congressman yet, let alone a senator, and the people who brought me here didn’t do so to worry about Sen. Lieberman.”
Nearing the end of “freshman orientation,” Himes has spent his week on Capitol Hill, along with wife, Mary, attending back-to-back activities – some of which recalled his school days: a freshmen photo, class elections and choosing an office, for example.
“It’s been an enormously exciting week for me,” Himes said Wednesday during a 10-minute break in House leadership meetings at the Library of Congress. “There’s such energy here, and a sense that we need to do bold things quickly.”
Himes also referred to what he saw as a “commitment to being pragmatic” by describing the traditional welcome dinner hosted by the speaker of the House that usually includes only majority party members but that this year included both parties and party leaders.
The freshman congressman said that though he loved the history in Washington, he wouldn’t dream of moving here at this point because it would be too disruptive to his young daughters, Emma, 9, and Linley, 6. Also, he added, it is critical to stay connected to his constituents, who haven’t had the chance to get to know him as well as they knew 11-term veteran Shays.
Rep. Joe Courtney of the 2nd District, who said he and 5th District Rep. Chris Murphy often felt like “Frick and Frack” during their freshman term the past two years, offered some advice to the young congressman from the 4th District.
“Be tough on your scheduler to make sure family doesn’t get lost,” said the father of two. “If you want, you can use my rule. Just say: never on Sunday.”
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Stamford Native Stands Guard on Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill
CHARLES
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
November 18, 2008
WASHINGTON – Connecticut native Charles Dunn stands guard for hours on a street corner here – keeping patient watch over the nation’s Capitol building. Daily, and without complaint, he endures extreme temperatures, wailing sirens and confused tourists – all in pursuit of his childhood dream.
Dunn did not grow up wanting to pitch for the Yankees, drive a race car or walk on the moon – he just wanted to protect members of the United States Congress.
Currently a U.S. Capitol Policeman, Dunn gave up the exhilaration of NYPD foot chases in favor of endless security screenings and the chance to join the prestigious Dignitary Protection Detail, a Secret Service-like arm of the Capitol Police responsible for protecting members of Congress. His dream of joining the detail is almost within reach now, and his words show he does not want to jinx it.
“I am honored to have this job,” said 30-year-old Dunn of his current position in the Senate Division of the U.S. Capitol Police. “People want to harm our government, the people who run the country. We’re here to protect them. That’s enough for me – I’m just hoping to do even more.”
According to his El Salvadoran mother, Blanca, who lives in Newtown, such sentiment is typical of the son she calls by his shortened middle name, Tony, to eliminate confusion between her only boy and his father, Charles Anthony Dunn Sr. Always putting family first, Dunn has long been the family’s protector, she said in a warm, melodic accent, and even now he calls home two or three times each day to check on his parents and three sisters.
“I had to encourage him to leave the nest, and I had to learn to let him go,” Mrs. Dunn said of her son, who attended in-state schools for both college and graduate school.
Dunn, who grew up in cities across southern Connecticut – from Stamford to Danbury – knew what he wanted to do early and went after it avidly. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science at Southern Connecticut State University, and started down the path towards a law degree, when the events of 9/11 changed his course.
“Before 9/11, national security was not talked about so much, and certainly not studied,” said the small, clean-shaven man with bright eyes and rich, tanned skin. “Given what I wanted to do, I thought law school was my best bet, but after [9/11] national security programs started to appear.”
So, in 2005, Dunn graduated from the University of New Haven with a Master’s degree in national security, and took his first job outside of Connecticut, in the 44th precinct of the New York Police Department. It was not exactly what his parents had in mind.
“Oh no, we were not too happy about that,” said his father, who works in the quality assurance department of Procter & Gamble in Stamford. “His mother would lie awake at night, and you just feared…you never knew when you would get a call.”
The two-mile section of the Bronx that made up the 44th Precinct, where Dunn was assigned, was home to a vast array of criminal activities that Dunn likened to a “Law and Order” episode. He learned quickly what it meant to stake your life on fellow officers – a camaraderie he had heard his father talk about when describing his Army days.
The elder Dunn, now 61, was stationed in Germany during part of the Vietnam War, and served as a combat medic and surgical technician. After returning home to Connecticut and working for a few years, he enrolled in the Connecticut State Police Academy but, at age 40, ultimately decided he was a little too old to be entering the field. The younger Dunn points to this as part of the reason he decided to pursue law enforcement, to “pick up where my father left off.”
The 44th Precinct also was home to Yankee stadium – the team that, by all accounts, remains one of Dunn’s great passions. His mother said he would sometimes call home when on patrol, asking what had happened on the field to make the fans cheer so loudly they could be heard blocks away. His father said he took a young Dunn to several New York Mets’ games at Shea stadium – something that still upsets his Yankee-fan son so much he doesn’t like to talk about it.
Despite the long, less-than-ideal hours (he worked the night-shift) and obvious danger (he said he felt bullets flying by him on more that one occasion), Dunn’s face lights up when talking about his one year with the NYPD, a year he said really taught him he could make it anywhere.
So, after proving himself on the NYPD, Dunn was accepted to the elite Capitol Police force in early 2007, undergoing weeks of testing, interviews, exams and polygraphs before eventually securing one of 48 spots – beating out more than 9,000 other applicants, he said.
With his new classmates, Dunn was sent to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia for three months of intensive training. According to a fellow officer, those several months of living with and relying on each other tend to reveal one’s true nature.
“[Dunn] was a complete professional,” said Derren Fuentes, an ex-Baltimore Police Department detective who joined the Capitol Police force at the same time as Dunn. “He was the person who’d be there to help, no matter what it was. We had new people taking tests, practical exams and there was never a moment when he wasn’t helpful, giving support.”
Dunn describes the training period as being one of the most exciting times of his life and it may be because during that training he met a local dental office manager named Emily Anderson, to whom he proposed a year later.
“I’ll tell you, to me she’s the best thing that could have happened to him – he’s all alone down there,” his mother said emphatically. “Anything could happen to him, and it’s good to have a sweet girl who cares for him. It’s time now anyway, he is 30.”
Now on his way to forming his own family, Dunn said one of the greatest lessons his mother ever taught him was understanding the value of a dollar.
“I tell my children, even if I had everything to give to them, I wouldn’t,” she said. “That’s not teaching them responsibility.”
He listened and learned well, according to his father, who said Dunn has consistently worked a lot of overtime, trying to save money for his greatest love: restoring old cars.
As part of a “car family,” where his father spent much of his free time restoring the blue 1968 Dodge Coronet he eventually sold to his son for “a good price,” Dunn caught the restoration bug, and now owns an orange 1969 Dodge Super Bee and black 2007 Corvette in addition to the Coronet.
“The funny thing is, before I met him, I knew nothing about muscle cars,” said 37-year-old Fuentes of Dunn’s passion. “Now I know about every tire and engine and name. He says he’s trying to swear off it – with the economy so bad – but not a day goes by that he’s not online looking.”
Dunn laughed at his friend’s comment, and said the cars would stay with him as long as he’s around, confessing he’d part with one only if he could pass it down to his own son, as his own father did with him.
But despite his potentially expensive passion, Dunn managed to save enough to procure a house for himself and new fiancée in suburban Washington, D.C. When his parents – who have been married for 35 years, after meeting in church – and sisters visit his newly-purchased Fredericksburg, Va., home this Thanksgiving, they will meet the extended Anderson clan for the first time, in preparation for next year’s late summer wedding.
And so, the facets of Dunn’s life appear to be falling into line – the single holdout remains his dream of being accepted into the Dignitary Protection Detail. But after all of his hard work, that dream may come into reach in the next few months, according to Fuentes.
A few spots in the coveted protection unit will be opening at the start of the 111th Congress early next year, Fuentes said, and Dunn will have the chance to finally grab the post he’s been aiming for since childhood.
“I’ve worked as hard as I could, and I take my job very seriously,” said Dunn, staring out the window at the Capitol. “I hope to one day make that leap.”
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Dodd to Keep Chairmanship of Banking Committee
DODD
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
11/6/08
WASHINGTON – Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced Thursday that he would retain his position as chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in the 111th Congress because “our economic crisis is the center of gravity to which all our problems are being pulled.”
The senator’s statement put an end to speculation that, as the second-ranking Democrat, he would assume the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations when the current chairman, Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, leaves the Senate.
“We have been left with a terrible mess,” Dodd said at a Capitol press conference. “Unemployment is rising. Incomes are stagnating – while at the same time the cost of health care, housing, education and energy is skyrocketing.”
“Every day for the past several weeks, an average of 44 families in my state enter foreclosure – some 16,000 in all,” he continued. “Thirty-five of its workers lose their jobs. Countless men and women – in Connecticut and across the country – sit around their kitchen tables at night, worrying about what might happen next.”
Dodd highlighted several issues he would focus on as committee chairman in the next congressional session, which begins in January: oversight of bailout bill implementation, modernizing the financial structure, strengthening consumer protection and renewing the focus on national security challenges.
As many Americans have done this week, Dodd also took the time to reflect on the historic nature of the country’s presidential choice.
“Just over 40 years ago, well within our lifetimes, African-Americans as a people were excluded…from participating in our nation’s political life,” the senator said. “On Tuesday, they joined with others from across the racial, ethnic, regional, economic and ideological spectrum to elect a man who personifies the freedom, equality and opportunity that is the birthright and the hope of every American.”
The senator said he will continue to serve as a senior member of both the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.
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Conn. Election Web Site Ranks Near the Bottom
WEBSITES
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
10/23/08
WASHINGTON –Connecticut’s official election Web site received a failing grade in a study released this week by the non-partisan research group the Pew Center on the States.
With a score of 37 out of 100 points, the site maintained by the Secretary of State’s office ranked 48th out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of searchability, usability and helpfulness, according to the Pew Center’s research.
The study focused on the Web site’s ability to answer the most common user questions, such as whether they are registered to vote, the location of polling places and what candidates or issues are on the ballot. Connecticut’s site – which is found under the “Elections & Voting” tab of www.ct.gov/sots – provides no easy answers, if any, to these top questions, according to Pew.
In this new hi-tech era, both Republican and Democratic campaigns have raised large sums of money, recruited volunteers and communicated with supporters through social networking sites, e-mail and text messages. Sen. Hillary Clinton even announced her presidential candidacy on the web. As of June, 40 percent of all adults turned to the Web for campaign information, according to Pew researchers.
“With an increasing number of Internet users, it is paramount that state elections Web sites meet the needs and expectations of current and prospective voters by providing useful and usable elections Web sites,” the Pew study said. “This is no longer a nice thing to do, but a must-do to enable citizens to exercise their right to vote.”
Connecticut, in particular, warrants an above-average election Web site, according to data compiled by Web measurement firm Compete. Connecticut ranked second in a national survey of online political activity, with 11.2 percent of residents – or 1 in 9 – having visited a candidate’s Web site or top political blog in September.
In late September – after the Pew study was complete – a newly crafted election Web site was launched by Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz. The new, more user-friendly page provides most of the same information as the poorly rated original site, but still does not allow Connecticut’s more than 2 million registered voters to confirm that they are registered, where they can vote or which candidates will be on the ballot.
“Voter registration records are kept with the local registrar’s office, so we usually tell people to call and ask,” said Adam Joseph, deputy communications director for the Secretary of State. “And polling places are not online, because they can vary – municipal election locations may be different than presidential. We have a listing of candidates on the homepage, but to find more about their stance on things, they’d have to go somewhere else.”
While it may be possible to get all the necessary information elsewhere when it is not readily available on the official Web site, people often call their local offices or a national hotline to find answers to their questions. The Pew Center reported that these calls to state or county election offices can cost up to $100 each, depending on the staffer’s qualifications.
In contrast to Connecticut’s voter Web site and that of New Hampshire, which ranked the worst in the nation, Iowa had the best Web site in the survey, with a score of 77 out of 100 points. Iowa’s site received the highest score because the links to voters’ most critical questions were easy to locate, it came up first during Web searches, and a link to the site is featured prominently on the state’s homepage, according to the Pew report.
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4th District Race is Priciest House Race in New England
SHAYS/FEC
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
10/16/08
WASHINGTON – The fight for the Connecticut 4th District House seat is currently the priciest in New England and the 9th-most expensive nationally for the second election in a row, according to new data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., has raised $3.1 million since early 2007, while Democratic challenger and ex-Goldman Sachs executive Jim Himes received $2.9 million – according to Oct.15 filings to the Federal Election Commission – making this the closest race financially the 11-term congressman has ever faced.
“Money is an important part of campaigns, of course, but nothing is more important than a candidate’s relationship with his district,” said Michael Sohn, campaign manager for Shays. “Chris has a long relationship with the district – it’s a great relationship, and they understand his work.”
Since incumbents are often able to raise significantly more than their challengers, Shays’ small fundraising lead doesn’t bring about any real-world advantage in the race. In fact, experts say their finances put the candidates on equal footing.
“Conventional wisdom states that the challenger doesn’t even have to match the incumbent dollar for dollar,” said Kurt Schlichting, a polling expert and professor of sociology and anthropology at Fairfield University. “He just has to reach a threshold that enables him to buy the same media as his competitor, and Himes has clearly done that.”
In the last quarter alone – July 1 through Sept. 30 – each candidate raised more than $800,000, but Himes spent more than twice as much as Shays in the same period, topping $1.8 million.
“We want to spend it all, keep nothing in the bank,” said Michael Sachse, communication director for the Himes campaign. “We spent a lot on our media campaign, because this media market is one of the most expensive markets in the country – if not the most. That’s one of the reasons we’ve needed to raise as much money as we have.”
As a result of such spending, the Himes campaign has only a little more than $400,000 remaining in its coffers – a stark contrast to the nearly $2 million remaining in the Shays campaign bank as of Sept. 30.
“We’ve already spent a significant portion of that in the past 15 days on TV, mail, get-out-the-vote efforts,” Sohn said. “But it’s really important what you do with that money, and running a positive campaign is really important to Chris, so we won’t run negative ads.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the average raised by House incumbents is a little more than $1 million, with challengers averaging about $225,000. Clearly, the much higher level of 4th District race donations suggests an intense fight for this politically symbolic seat.
“We’ve raised so much because people are ready for a change,” Sachse said.
As the last remaining House Republican stronghold in New England, the seat continues to present a significant victory for either party, and the residents of the 22nd wealthiest congressional district in the country are able to spend heavily to try and secure that seat.
Connecticut residents have been generous enough that Shays again ranks 9th of all House incumbents in the share of money received from in-state donors. As of Sept. 29, roughly 87 percent of his total came from in-state residents, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The political parties’ strong stakes in the battle for the seat, as well as its location in the third-wealthiest state in the union, are probable reasons that both campaigns are able to raise the level of money they consistently have, political experts say.
“Shays has the [House Financial Services] Committee, and if Himes tapped into the network of people he knew in the financial services industry, there’s a lot of money there,” Schlichting said. “This has just been a competitive district for a long time, since Shays is the only Republican who can win in the area.”
Shays has faced competitive races almost every year since coming to Capitol Hill in 1987, but the gap seems to be narrowing each cycle. In the 2006 and 2004 races – both against Democrat Diane Goss Farrell – Shays won by only 1 and 4 percentage points respectively.
Current polls indicate that the two candidates are in a dead heat. One poll, conducted in late September by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute, showed Shays ahead by 10 points, but a Roll Call poll conducted Monday and Tuesday by SurveyUSA put Himes in the lead by three.
“With the error margins and the shifting data, the polls are statistically tied,” Schlichting said. “The interesting thing will be to watch Bridgeport – there’s a big pool of Democratic votes there, but it’s also where Shays lives. It’s hard to call, but it will certainly be interesting.”
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Army Issues New Policy for Media Coverage of Funerals at Arlington Cemetery
ARLINGTON
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
10/10/08
WASHINGTON – In the face of criticism, the Army for the first time has written a policy outlining media access to military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, giving clear but limited control to mourning families while reserving the final word for cemetery officials.
Of the 43 Connecticut members of the military who died in Iraq or Afghanistan, at least 12 have been laid to rest at the 624-acre military cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.
“The policy is now official on the Army level,” said Col. Catherine Abbott, the Army’s director for media relations. “It’s about paying honor and respect to our fallen comrades.”
Under the new policy, family members will be able to grant or deny varying degrees of media access to funeral services: none, visual or visual and “limited audio.” In the latter category, the main speaker is outfitted with a wireless microphone to transmit the eulogy to the media; reporters cannot hear family members speak or approach them at the site.
When a family does grant media coverage, according to the new policy, journalists are permitted to report only from a “designated media area,” chosen by the cemetery's superintendent, that is "close enough to allow visual recording . . . without intruding on the ceremony or the military formation."
Before these regulations were implemented last month by the Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, the cemetery had a near-identical “informal” policy, said Kaitlin Horst, a spokesperson for the cemetery. Like the official policy, the informal policy allowed families to make the initial decision on media access, but gave cemetery authorities ultimate control over what reporters saw by designating where the media could locate inside the cemetery gates.
“(Our policy) has basically been to allow access to Arlington National Cemetery in coordination with the family’s wishes,” Abbott said. “That is paramount for us. But concerns were voiced from different areas that that wasn’t happening.”
The informal policy came under fire this spring when The Washington Post ran a story about the media being kept from covering Lt. Col. Billy Hall's funeral, even though the Marine's family gave reporters permission to be there.
“[The military] arranged the Marine’s burial yesterday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the public domain,” Dana Milbank wrote in the article. “Journalists were held 50 yards from the service, separated from the mourning party by six or seven rows of graves, and staring into the sun and penned in by a yellow rope.”
Concerns regarding the informal policy were voiced not only by members of the media. Gina Gray, hired as Arlington’s public affairs director in April and fired three months later, told the Post this summer that her dismissal was a direct result of her push for a more lax media policy regarding funerals.
The Army is conducting an internal investigation into her firing, according to Abbott, who declined to comment because of the investigation.
During a discussion of the proposed policy in August between Army officials, journalists and members of veterans groups, several in attendance recommended that the provision outlining the “designated media area” be worded more precisely so that a situation such as the one Milbank experienced could be avoided.
Abbott said it was a nice idea, but impractical for the sprawling cemetery.
“They wanted to say, be 10 feet away every time, but because of the terrain, that’s not possible – you could either have a great shot or be behind a tree,” Abbott said of the proposed correction. “Plus, each service is different, depending on the branch of the military and the honors applied. The folks at Arlington know best where [the journalists] should be.”
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Conn. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gay Couples
MARRIAGE
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
10/10/08
WASHINGTON – The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to marry, making Connecticut the third state in the country to allow same-sex marriage, following Massachusetts and California.
In a 4-3 ruling that reversed a lower court decision, the Supreme Court determined that the state’s marriage law discriminated against gays and lesbians because it violated the state constitution’s equal protection principles. The case was brought by eight same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses and sued the state in 2004.
“In light of the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm,” Justice Richard Palmer wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Janet Peck – a plaintiff with her partner of 33 years, Carol Conklin – said that she started crying immediately upon hearing the decision.
“We are just so, so happy – there are not enough words to express how happy we are,” said Peck, a mental health counselor from Colchester. “I am thrilled that after our 33 years together, we have finally been legally recognized, and that so many other gay and lesbian couples will have the equal protection they deserve.”
Peck said that she and Conklin will be getting married soon, but that their “families have been waiting so long for this, it is important that they be able to celebrate with us.”
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Carisa Cunningham, public affairs director for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) – the group that represented Peck and the other plaintiffs in the case. “Today’s decision represents the hopes and dreams of lesbian and gay couples to live as full and equal parties in the eyes of the law.”
The Connecticut Legislature passed a law in 2005 allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, but the plaintiffs argued – and the court agreed – that the unions did not afford the same benefits or protections as marriage.
The Family Institute of Connecticut, a political action committee opposed to gay marriage, quickly spoke out against the ruling.
"Even the legislature, as liberal as ours, decided that marriage is between a man and a woman," said the group’s executive director Peter Wolfgang. "This is about our right to govern ourselves. It is bigger than gay marriage."
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she disagreed with the court’s decision, but said Friday that she would not fight it.
"She is opposed to the ruling," said Luigi Fulinello, assistant to Rell. "However, it is a Supreme Court decision, and there’s nothing she can do to overturn that. She does not believe any attempts to reverse the decision through the Legislature would be successful at this time.”
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is impossible since the decision was based solely on “an interpretation of state constitutional law.”
“The State Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on all state law, and its ruling on the state constitution must be respected,” he said Friday.
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