Category: Joseph Vines
Push to Lower Drinking Age Faces Tough Climb Up Capitol Hill
DRINKING
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
December 8, 2008
WASHINGTON – The push to repeal the federal statute that strips 10 percent of federal highway aid from any state that has a legal drinking age lower than 21 seems to have fallen on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.
Choose Responsibility, a national organization based in Washington that promotes lowering the drinking age to 18, is seeking to have the issue debated in Congress next year, when the federal highway bill is scheduled to come up for reauthorization.
The group’s Web site argues that the age 21 restriction on drinking “has failed utterly at its goal of protecting young people from the dangers of excessive alcohol use.”
“Removing the 10 percent penalty will allow the states to debate this openly and put all options on the table,” said Michael Giuliani, executive director of Choose Responsibility. “Allowing the states to set their own policy, which is where the Constitution says alcohol regulation should be, is what our hope is.”
Giuliani said organization leaders have talked with members of Congress about sponsoring an amendment to the highway bill that would repeal the law, but declined to name those to whom the organization has spoken. So far no member of Congress has publicly favored amending the highway bill to do away with the penalty for states that lower the drinking age.
The issue has been widely discussed on the campus of Keene State College this semester, after college president Helen F. Giles-Gee was asked to sign the Amethyst Initiative, a national petition circulated among heads of colleges and universities calling for a national debate of the effectiveness of the current legal drinking age. Choose Responsibility provides staff support and is sponsoring the Amethyst Initiative.
Giles-Gee did not sign the initiative but supports a discussion of the issue, said Andrew Robinson, vice president of student affairs at Keene State.
“It called for a debate, but at some point [the initiative] said ‘21 is not working.’ So what the president decided is let’s have that debate without signing an initiative that would appear as though we were supporting lowering the drinking age,” Robinson said.
“The statement does not recommend the drinking age be 18 or 25,” Giuliani said. “It’s calling attention to the problem that is going on in America of excessive alcohol consumption and calling for an open and unimpeded debate about that topic.”
One Keene State freshman favors raising the driving age as a solution instead of lowering the drinking age. Tim, who declined to give his last name because of the sensitivity of the subject on campus, said, “You don’t hear of too many 26-year-olds who are really, really drunk, but you do hear of these really drunk high school students.”
Currently, a person must be at least 16 years old and complete a driver education course before obtaining a license, according to the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Web site.
To date, the Amethyst Initiative petition has 134 signatories, including Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc, who did not return repeated calls for comment for this story.
According to Choose Responsibility’s Web site, the current legal drinking age of 21 is not working and instead has resulted in the unintended consequence of creating a clandestine college culture of binge drinking that is often conducted off campus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines binge drinking as excessive alcohol use in a relatively short period—typically, five or more drinks for men, four or more for women in about two hours. Binge drinkers, the center says, usually are not considered to be alcohol-dependent.
The center reports that 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by those under 21 in the United States is during binge drinking. And binge drinking is most prevalent among people ages 18 to 20.
Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a press release issued by Mothers Against Drunk Driving that he “won’t consider any effort to repeal or weaken [the law] in any way.”
Oberstar’s opposition is a significant blow to advocates of repealing the statute since as the committee chairman he can simply refuse to entertain any amendment offered to change the law. However, Jim Berard, the committee’s communications director, said the issue could come up next year, though he couldn’t name any potential backers of changing the law.
Niel Wright, communications director for Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., a 15-term lawmaker who sits on both the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Education and Labor Committee, said while the congressman believes that the drinking age should be left up to the states, he does not foresee offering legislation to change the law in the next Congress.
The statute was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 as an amendment to the Federal Aid Highway Act. In 1986, South Dakota brought suit in federal court contending that the law violated the 10th amendment, which reserves to the states powers not delegated to the federal government, and the 21st amendment, which repealed alcohol prohibition, In a 7-2 decision, the court decided that the law didn’t constitute prohibition. And because the statute did not ban the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 21, it did not violate the 21st amendment.
Choose Responsibility advocates a national licensing program in which high school graduates, upon completion of a detailed curriculum, obtain a license that, according to the organization’s Web site, entitles “him or her to all the privileges and responsibilities of adult alcohol purchase, possession and consumption.”
However, the license would come with certain restrictions. “If you put restrictions and penalties on people who would receive this license – that if they violate the law in any way then that license is gone – they’re going to be less likely to do something if you give them comprehensive education,” Giuliani said.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a national organization founded to prevent drunk driving and underage drinking, contends the current law is working and saves lives.
“[T]here is no reason to go shooting in the dark for a solution and repealing a law that we know already saves lives with absolutely no evidence that it would be a benefit,” said Kelley Tway, media relations manager at the organization’s national office.
Tway also said that medical studies have shown that the brain of an 18-year-old is not fully developed and use of alcohol can stunt development in the final stages of growth “The 21 law saves lives, no matter how you slice it,” Tway said.
“If you all of the sudden lower [the law] down to age 18 without having an educational background with it, the problem may not necessarily get better, it may just transition to a different age-group of students,” said Dan Saucier, student body president at Keene State.
Saucier, a senior majoring in education and American studies from Rochester, N.H., said opinions among the student body on the issue are mixed, but he expressed concern that if the drinking age were lowered from 21 to 18, the problem would be taken out of the hands of college presidents and put into the hands of high school principals, a sentiment Giuliani takes issue with.
“Alcohol is a reality in public high schools now. Seventy-five percent of high school seniors, 60 percent of high school sophomores and 40 percent of eighth graders have consumed alcohol,” Giuliani said. “Since the age has been raised to 21, the age of first consumption of alcohol has dropped. It’s younger now than it has ever been.”
####
Keene Native Spends Summer Working with Africa’s Poor
Dowley
Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
November 13, 2008
WASHINGTON − Caitlin Dowley was going to be sick to her stomach. She was about to spend the next two months in South Africa, where she didn’t know a soul and was about as nervous as a Yankee fan sitting in the Green Monster seats at Fenway Park.
Dowley, 21, a Keene native, has spent much of her life dedicated to community service. A junior at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., studying international business, Dowley has spent much of her college career doing local charity work, in soup kitchens and impoverished areas of New Haven.
This time, her trip and the project in South Africa were sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit, the Student Movement for Real Change.
With her parents, Bill and Vicki Dowley, in tow, she departed for John F. Kennedy airport in New York City on June 15 not knowing what to expect: “What if I don’t get along with the other people in the group,” she thought to herself. “What if I want to come home?”
She arrived in the terminal, kissed her parents goodbye and boarded a plane for her 18-hour journey to Cape Town with two bags: a suitcase filled with antibacterial soap to distribute to the villagers and a backpack containing her clothes, including the one pair of jeans that would have to get her through the next two months.
“A lot of people in the villages do not have money, and cleanliness is a huge problem,” Dowley said.
Traveling on service missions is nothing new for Dowley. As a high school student, she traveled to Puerto Rico, Virginia and Washington, D.C., working with United Church of Christ in Keene, helping needy families. “I really got involved and learned to love community service and helping others,” Dowley said of her upbringing in Keene.
Dowley’s interest in community service is rooted in her faith and in the teachings of her church. The mission trips she went on as a high school student were organized by Woody Shook, former associate pastor at the church. Shook does not take credit for Dowley’s desire to help others. “This is natural for her and her family. They are all very active and very community-oriented,” Shook said.
This summer was going to be different, though. “I’ve always been interested in Africa,” Dowley said from her dorm room at Quinnipiac. “My main interest is in extreme poverty.”
Dowley arrived in Cape Town on a warm afternoon and spent her first couple of weeks visiting the urban areas of Cape Town and Johannesburg. “You don’t feel as if you’re in South Africa because the city is industrialized and modern,” Dowley said.
According to Dowley, the impoverished areas of South Africa are predominantly black, while the more affluent areas have blacks and whites. Dowley said that you would never find a white South African living in one of South Africa’s destitute provinces.
After touring South Africa’s metropolitan areas, Dowley traveled to the village of Utah in South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province, her home for the next two months.
Dowley likened the village to a ghetto in an American inner city. Many of the village’s residents live in close quarters and earn less than $2 a day. Even the simplest tasks such as getting clean drinking water can be difficult.
South Africa’s infrastructure is severely antiquated or in some cases nonexistent. Homes in the village do not have running water. The water taps that line the streets don’t work because the pipes break easily and residents often travel long distances to get water, which makes bathing a rare occurrence.
While in South Africa Dowley undertook many community projects, including tutoring students in geography. Dowley recalled that when she showed students a world globe, they reacted as if they had never seen one. “They have such an isolated view of the world,” she said. “They don’t understand what they don’t have.”
Dowley, a 2006 graduate of Keene High School, also helped design an adult education program to teach the village’s women conversational English with the help of interpreters. The program is still being taught, and the South African government is now paying the interpreters to teach the course.
Most children do not have the chance to expand their education beyond Utah because of the high cost. The South African government offers free tuition to South African children who score 70 or above on the school exit exam but in the black villages only about one student every two years earns a high enough score, she said. The average score on the test, she noted, is 50.
Dowley and her friends also converted an old storage room at the Samson Primary School into a library to organize the school’s books.
“She was committed to empowering the local community. For her, it wasn’t about going out and experiencing poverty,” said Saul Garlick, board chairman of the Student Movement for Real Change, which organized the trip. “For her, it seemed a lot more about understanding the community, but also finding ways for local communities to solve their own problems.”
Garlick started the organization in 2001 when he was a senior in high school. Its mission, he said, is to improve health and education in neglected regions of the world.
Garlick emphasized the work Dowley did running sanitation workshops with HIV/AIDS patients. He estimated that 25 percent of the village’s residents are HIV-positive. “Everyone has a family member who has been affected by the disease,” Garlick said.
Like Dowley, Garlick is optimistic about the country’s future. “Young people in South Africa are constantly pursuing solutions, and they’re ready to take risks, and they’re looking for work, and they’re studying without any real hope of getting to university because there’s no money, they’re still working hard,” Garlick said.
As in every society, there are stigmas associated with being HIV-positive, and one of the reasons AIDS is an epidemic is that it is difficult to for people to get tested. While the test is free, many people can’t afford transportation to the clinic. Dowley estimated that unemployment in the village is 60 percent and that only 25 percent of the village’s residents had been tested for the AIDS virus.
What Dowley will remember most is her host family and how welcomed she felt. “I would come from work and there would be 25 kids wanting to hang out with me,” she said. “Living with my host family, I was able to understand South African culture so much better.”
Dowley had wanted to go to South Africa for some time but can’t see getting back any time soon. But as her father, Bill Dowley, put it, “When she wants to get behind a project and push her energy, she’s usually successful.”
Dowley’s summer in South Africa made her think more about domestic poverty issues and the cultural values of the United States. “In South Africa, they might be very poor but they have really close knit communities and families. They are ignorant to the things they don’t have,” Dowley said. “In the United States, the poor see what they don’t have everyday. The United States doesn’t have the culture of being as close to family and friends.”
Most importantly, her summer made her reexamine her own life. “I value the simple things in my life more,” she said. “I’m a lot more of appreciative of what I have.”
If you would like more information about the Student Movement for Real Change, visit its Web site at http://www.studentmovementusa.org
###
Hodes Holds Big Money Advantage in 2nd Congressional District Race
FEC HODES
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
October 23, 2008
WASHINGTON− Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., holds a significant fundraising advantage over Republican challenger Jennifer Horn as the campaign for the 2nd Congressional District House seat enters the final weeks.
According to data from the Federal Election Commission, Hodes, seeking a second term, enters the homestretch with $563,363 in his campaign treasury as of the Sept. 30 deadline for filing campaign finance reports with the FEC and bringing his fundraising total to a staggering $1.8 million.
That sum is more than 40 percent greater than the average for all House incumbents this year, according to opensecrets.org, a nonpartisan Web site that compiles campaign finance information.
Horn, a former radio talk-show host from Nashua who has largely financed her own campaign, reported $109,646 left in her coffers as of Sept. 30 after collecting $403,695 through that date. Horn personally loaned her campaign $214,844, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The majority of Hodes’ contributions have come from outside New Hampshire. His biggest contributors have been trial lawyers and labor unions. Horn’s biggest contributors have been the real estate industry and trial lawyers.
“The congressman has raised over $550,000 from inside New Hampshire,” said Mark Bergman, the Hodes campaign’s spokesman. “I think people in New Hampshire are responding to his message of standing up for people here.”
While most of Hodes’ money has come from outside the Granite State, he has had the help of a few local big-money donors, including grocery store magnates Richard and Jan Cohen of Keene, who each donated $4,600, the maximum combined amount for a primary and general election.
Horn received a $500 donation from former Rep. Charles F. Bass, who defeated Hodes handily in 2004 but lost to him in a rematch in 2006.
Horn has been hitting Hodes in recent weeks for accepting money from the securities and investment industry in an effort to tie Hodes, who sits on the House Financial Services and Oversight Committees, to the economic crisis.
“Paul Hodes saw the economic crisis brewing two years ago,” said David Chesley, Horn’s campaign manager. “He has taken $150,000 from those industries he is supposed to oversee and provided no oversight for.”
But Hodes aide Bergman said: “Those contributions have not affected his vote. If he were in the pocket of the financial services industry, he would not have voted against the bailout bill not once but twice…. To say that is disingenuous.”
Though Horn has hit Hodes for taking money from the financial services industry, she accepted a $1,000 donation from Amtrust group, a financial insurance company, and has collected $5,768 from the financial services and insurance industry overall, according to opensecrets.org.
Money from political action committees has also played a major role in the race. Horn received $10,000, the federal limit, from White Mountain PAC, the committee headed by Sen. Judd Gregg. Horn also received $11,000 from PACs supporting the automotive industry. Political action committees are organizations set up by public officials and private groups to raise money for political candidates.
Hodes has taken $778,826 from PACs, according to the Federal Election Commission, the majority of the money coming from business and labor PACs. Hodes received the federal maximum of $10,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Horn has also received help from the National Republican Congressional Committee in recent weeks. The fundraising arm of the House Republicans spent $84,000 on a television advertisement for Horn in a last-ditch effort to flip the seat.
Recent polling by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics showed Hodes leading with 35 percent to Horn’s 18 percent, though 45 percent of respondents said they were undecided, a large number this late in the campaign.
“This is not a top-of-the ballot race.” Bergman said. “[Hodes] is going to have the resources down the stretch to communicate his message. We feel confident with where we stand in this race.”
Horn’s campaign is optimistic that she is going to be able to appeal to the undecided voters and close the gap. “Paul Hodes has been campaigning for six years, and it’s clear that a large number of individuals are not sold on Paul Hodes and looking for someone else,” Chesley said. “I am confident Jennifer Horn can win this campaign, and she will have all the resources she needs to win.”
###
Bailout Bill Provides Energy Tax Credits for Consumers
Incentives
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
October 15, 2008
WASHINGTON −While the public has largely focused on the $770 billion financial bailout bill President George W. Bush signed in to law two weeks ago, the bill also gives homeowners tax credits for being energy-efficient.
The tax incentives were originally part of the Energy Policy Act that Congress passed in 2005 and that expired at the end of 2007. The new act renews the incentives for 2009 but does not apply to 2008.
The tax credit for new energy-efficient doors, windows, metal roofs and insulation is 10 percent of the cost up to $500 for all such improvements.
The credit for solar water heaters, on the other hand, is 30 percent of the cost, without limit. A $2,000 limit in the expired law was removed, and the credit has been renewed through 2016.
“While not a comprehensive solution to our nation’s energy woes, these incentives will go a long way to increase clean and renewable energy production and encourage greater energy efficiency,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who was the lead negotiator on the bill for Senate Republicans,
To receive a credit on insulation, the installed item’s primary function must be to insulate; so installation of vinyl siding does not qualify.
Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. Products with Energy Star labels meet strict energy-efficiency standards and oftentimes qualify for tax credits. Any window or door with the Energy Star label qualifies but not all Energy Star heating and air-conditioning systems qualify for the credit. The cost of installation is not included in calculating the tax credits.
The legislation also renewed the tax credit on hybrid vehicles. The deduction can be as much as $3,400 for the most fuel-efficient cars. However, once a company sells 60,000 of a certain hybrid vehicle, the amount of the tax deduction goes down
Information concerning the tax credits can be found at www.energystar.gov/taxcredits. “There’s been an awful lot of interest in the page because a lot of people are going to do these improvements and they want to get a couple hundred bucks extra if they can,” said Karen Schneider, information technology manager for Energy Star. The Web page is one of the most popular on the site, she said.
Gregg said more must be done to conserve energy. “I have introduced a proposal that would more than triple funding for the weatherization assistance program, which provides assistance to low-income individuals and families so they can install energy-efficiency measures in their homes,” he said in a statement.
###
Gregg Bill Would Increase Power of FDA to Recall Tainted Food
FDA
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
October 7, 2008
WASHINGTON – Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is likely to reintroduce legislation at the start of the next Congress that would expand the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to inspect the nation’s food supply and make it easier for the agency to recall contaminated food.
The bill, which Gregg’s spokesperson said the senator has been working on for some time, was first introduced in July in response to a salmonella outbreak in produce. The bill would increase funding for the FDA by instituting fees on domestic and international food suppliers
“When Americans go to the grocery store, the last thing on their mind should be the safety of the foods they are bringing home to serve their families,” Gregg said in a statement in July. “The recent salmonella outbreak highlights the current vulnerability of our food supply and the need to modernize our food safety laws.”
The bill would allow the FDA to recall any food item it deems dangerous when a company declines to do so voluntarily at FDA request. The bill would increase inspections at food plants across the country and establish a program that would easily track produce if testing was needed.
According to the statement by Gregg’s office, food safety experts say that had these provisions been in place, the FDA’s response to the outbreak could have been improved.
Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, said that while the FDA continues to push for mandatory recall authority it would not have made a difference in this outbreak. “Following our discovery of contaminated jalapeno peppers at a distribution center in Texas, as soon as we alerted the distribution center, they were right on it and they initiated the recall immediately,” he said.
Nevertheless, Acheson said, the recall authority would be important because distributors can simply ignore FDA warnings and refuse to recall a product. He said the FDA published a food protection plan last November that specifically asked for mandatory recall authority. “We want that,” he said
Currently, the FDA can seize products it deems dangerous, but seizure orders are issued at the local level, so that if the contaminated product is housed in distribution centers across the country, the FDA has to issue separate seizure orders for each center through local courts, which can be time-consuming. Acheson said giving the FDA mandatory recall authority would allow the agency to issue blanket recall orders for the whole country. Currently, the FDA can issue a blanket mandatory recall only for baby formula.
“We don’t believe we would use mandatory recall authority very often,” Acheson said. “Virtually always, a firm, when they hear there’s a problem, want to do the right thing.”
He said that the FDA used a trace-back system to locate the source of the outbreak last summer, but that the process took too long. “Having a trace-back system, mandatory or otherwise, that is more efficient is definitely going to help,” Acheson said.
Since April, 1,438 people have been infected with food-borne salmonella, including six reported cases in New Hampshire, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
###
Special Interest Groups Ratchet Up Negative Ads in New Hampshire Senate Race
ADS
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
September 25, 2008
WASHINGTON− National business and labor groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Service Employees International Union are playing an increasingly visible role in the New Hampshire Senate race between Republican Sen. John Sununu and former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
The organizations are running television advertisements lambasting the two candidates for their records on issues ranging from the cost of prescription drugs to tax policy.
The Chamber of Commerce ad, titled “tax machine,” is set in what appears to be the 1920s. The ad depicts cars crashing and a bridge collapsing under a train’s weight and plummeting to the ground below, while criticizing Shaheen for proposing additional income taxes.
“The allegation about the income tax is absolutely, patently false,” said Kate Bedingfield, the Shaheen campaign’s communications director. “She threatened to veto an income tax and was responsible for killing the legislation that would have implemented it.”
Bedingfield acknowledged that Shaheen proposed a 2.5 percent sales tax, but only after a state Supreme Court decision mandated that the state play a bigger role in paying for local public education. “When she was governor, New Hampshire had the lowest tax burden in the nation,” Bedingfield said.
The chamber promotes business issues and a free-enterprise agenda before Congress and the states, according to the organization’s Web site.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is not affiliated with the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, said Thomas Dowling, president of the local organization.
“The Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce does not support or disparage any political candidate,” Dowling wrote in a statement to the Sentinel. “We use our energy and resources to engage the diverse segments of our regional economy in the common goal of creating a better business community and a better place to live, work, play and raise a family.”
The U.S. Chamber will spend $20 million to elect “pro-business” candidates this cycle, according to J.P. Fielder, a spokesman. He said that the ads follow all legal protocols. “The ads speak for themselves, that they reflect the views of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I wouldn’t think anyone would assume otherwise,” Fielder said.
Sununu too is taking heat from third party groups. The Service Employees International Union recently sponsored an ad criticizing Sununu for opposing an amendment to a Senate budget bill that the union says would have lowered prescription drug prices. The campaign declined to comment on Sununu’s vote on the amendment.
The SEIU represents approximately 2 million health-care and public service workers, according to the organization’s Web site. The ad buy cost $600,000, according to a press release.
“As they did in 2002, we know that the liberal special-interest groups will again spend millions of dollars trying to distort Sen. John Sununu’s record of independent leadership for New Hampshire families,” Sununu campaign press secretary Stefani Zimmerman said in a statement.
Advertising by third-party groups has become commonplace in political campaigns, particularly this election cycle. “Unfortunately third-party spending is a fact of political life right now,” Shaheen aide Bedingfield said. There’s nothing we can do to control them. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact of political life right now.”
###
New Media Technology Crucial in Getting Out the Young Vote
TECHNOLOGY
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
September 23, 2008
WASHINGTON – Shaun Doherty first met John McCain during the Arizona senator’s first campaign for the presidency in 1999, and is just as enthusiastic about him nine years later.
“Sen. McCain is someone who has really made sacrifices for this country throughout his whole life,” Doherty said. “He’s someone I like because he’s reform-minded.”
Doherty couldn’t vote for McCain in 2000. He was too young.
This year, in what experts predict to be a tight election, Doherty, now 20 and a communications student at Rivier College, is doing everything he can to make sure McCain secures New Hampshire’s four electoral votes. He has organized phone banks and door knocks as well as an event featuring McCain that attracted approximately 1,000 people.
Doherty attributes the success of these events to Facebook, the popular social-networking Web site. Doherty started a Facebook group called New Hampshire Students for John McCain, which allows users to exchange ideas through the group’s message board and easily send e-mails to hundreds of people at once.
“I think it’s a great way to keep up on the campaign for younger people who might not use the traditional means of the newspaper or the Web site, but they are on Facebook or MySpace,” Doherty said.
Facebook and MySpace aren’t the only social networking Web sites making an impact in the 2008 race, though. Both political parties have designed social networking Web sites. In February, the College Republican National Committee launched STORM, a social networking Web site designed to inform young voters about conservative political candidates.
The site features a reward system called “impact points.” Users of STORM earn impact points by registering other voters to the site or organizing get-out-the-vote activities. At the end of each month top impact point earners have won prizes such as a free iPod Nano or free housing at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
The site has 132,000 users, according to Ashley Barbera, the committee’s communications director.
The Obama campaign also has a social networking site, mybarackobama.com, which functions almost the same way as STORM, but without the reward incentive.
The College Republican National Committee also designed a Web site called Where is the Red. The site followed four young Republicans on a cross-country road trip beginning on the East Coast and following a path west along contiguous Republican congressional districts.
Along the way, the students uploaded photos to Flickr, a social networking Web site and photo repository in which users can share personal photographs with one another. The students also uploaded video to YouTube, a site where users can share videos.
They also kept a journal using Twitter, a social networking site in which users communicate through blogging. When a user updates his or her blog, Twitter sends the update to everyone on the user’s friends list via an e-mail message called a Tweet.
Since social-networking Web sites debuted in 2004, voter registration among people 18 to 29 has increased exponentially, according to Stephanie Young, spokeswoman for Rock the Vote, a national nonpartisan organization created in 1990 to get young voters to the polls. According to Young, voter registration of people 18 to 29 doubled from 2004 to 2006 and tripled from 2006 to 2008.
“Young people are not happy with the direction of the country and they want to do something to change that,” Young said.
Rock the Vote’s Web outreach includes a Facebook message that users can send to their friends and a voter registration widget. A widget is defined as anything that can be embedded in a Web site, including advertising banners, “click here” links for downloading Web content and counters that track how many people have visited a Web site.
Rock the Vote also uses mobile text messaging to inform young voters who registered with the site about important dates such as registration deadlines. Young said that Rock the Vote plans to send a text message out on Election Day reminding young people to vote.
The use of mobile phone technology is critical in young voter outreach. Ben Hall, a 22-year-old social science major at Keene State College, signed up to be informed of Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential pick via mobile text message.
“I was definitely excited,” Hall said. “I was waiting to see if I was going to get [the text message] and checking the Drudge Report and Huffington Post.”
The Illinois senator made history when he became the first presidential candidate in history to announce his running mate by text message. The announcement of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice president first went out at 3 a.m. on Aug. 23.
“Being in the 21st century, with the advent of the cell phone, most young voters don’t have a land line, so it forced all campaigns to be creative in the way we reach out to young voters,” said Larkin Barker, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in New Hampshire.
Barker declined to say how many people signed up to receive the message but said it was in the “hundreds of thousands.”
Hall said he is enthusiastic about Obama’s candidacy because, he said, Obama was not part of the Washington crowd. “I think he’s a new face that we need” he said. “I feel like Washington is out of touch with regular Americans.”
As a member of the Keene State Democrats, Hall belongs to a Facebook group that supports Obama’s candidacy. He also uses databases of e-mail addresses that make it easier to send e-mails to large groups of people.
The use of mass messaging in both electronic and mobile forms also has made an impact on the 2008 race. Garth Corriveau, president of the New Hampshire chapter of the Young Democrats of America, said his chapter uses the e-mail database of the America Votes Coalition. The database contains names and e-mail addresses of union members, non-profit organizations and others interested in electing Democratic public officials.
Corriveau said the database was a helpful tool in electing young Democrats to the state legislature. “We’ve really been heavily emphasizing young Democrats helping young Democrats,” Corriveau said.
Young voters could play a key role in the 2008 election. According to Rock the Vote, people 18 to 29 make up one fifth of the country’s adult population. During this year’s New Hampshire primary, 18 percent of young voters went to the polls, a higher percentage than voters aged 30 to 39 and senior citizens, according to Rock the Vote.
Rock the Vote has registered more than 1 million young voters this election cycle, with a goal of registering 2 million, Young said.
Matt Segal, executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, a nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to increasing civic education among young people, said he was confident young voters will play a big part in the election.
“I think that in 2008, young people are going to set the record straight and show that we are the swing demographic worthy of the candidates’ time, resources and energy because we can help them win,” Segal said.
###
World Champ Celtics Honored at White House
BASKETBALL
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
September 19, 2008
WASHINGTON− The 2008 NBA Champion Boston Celtics were honored by President George W. Bush in the East Room of the White House Friday, commemorating the franchise’s first championship since 1986.
“So, Celtic pride is back,” Bush said to a crowd of approximately 150 guests and members of Congress. “I went to school up there and those were the days the Celtics were awesome.”
Bush then spoke of Boston’s three stars, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but emphasized that winning a championship involves the entire team. “You might recall, I was the owner of a baseball team, and I never knew what this felt like,” Bush quipped.
”And Doc Rivers, this guy can coach,” Bush said of the Boston head coach. Bush previously met Rivers when Rivers was a coach with the San Antonio Spurs and Bush was governor of Texas.
Following Bush’s speech, the team, dressed-to-impress in expensive-looking suits, had their picture taken with the President. “Mr. President, we just want to say it’s truly an honor to be here today,” said Celtics captain Paul Pierce. Pierce then presented the 43rd president with a basketball signed by the entire team and a number 43 team jersey.
Pierce also presented the President with a check for $100,000 made out to the Red Cross for the victims of Hurricane Ike, which ravaged Bush’s home state of Texas last week. The money was donated by the Shamrock Foundation and the Heroes Among Us program, a community outreach initiative established by the Celtics in 1997, according to the team’s Web site.
“We’re definitely honored to be here today. [The Celtics] treat us very well,” said Seaman Brian M. Brooks. Brooks, 29, of Jacksonville, N.C., is stationed on the USS Constitution in Boston. He said he was a member of the military color guard for some of the Celtics home playoff games. “It was definitely an honor to do that for the Celtics,” he said. “It’s kind of intense. The spotlight’s on the singer and you.”
“It was kind of surreal,” Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said following the ceremony. Garnett said he enjoys playing for the Celtics and team General Manager Danny Ainge. “I think as a player I probably didn’t appreciate it as much,” Ainge said, speaking about visiting President Ronald Reagan, after winning an NBA championship as a player with the Celtics in 1986.
With their 131-92 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in game six, the Boston Celtics earned the franchise’s 17th world championship, the most championships by a franchise in NBA history.
The ceremony marked the final time President Bush will welcome an NBA championship team to the White House. “Should you win next year, you can find me in Texas,” he said.
###
PROTESTS
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
September 18, 2008
WASHINGTON – Fifteen advocates for the rights of disabled persons were arrested in U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s office Tuesday after trying to get his endorsement of their housing agenda.
Randy Alexander, an organizer for ADAPT, said his organization advocates for individuals with disabilities being allowed to live in their communities rather than in nursing homes. The group was in Washington hoping to gain support for their housing agenda, which calls for accessible, affordable, integrated housing, Alexander said.
ADAPT members met in Rep. Frank’s office because they believed the congressman had previously committed to acquiring 500 housing vouchers for people transitioning out of nursing homes and failed on his commitment, Alexander said.
Rep. Frank said the Financial Services Committee never had control over acquiring the vouchers. That responsibility, he said, fell to the House Appropriations Committee.
“To the extent that my committee could vote for the vouchers, we did,” he said, “but I never promised that I would get them.”
Despite the unmet commitment, Alexander said the group was primarily gathering Tuesday for the congressman’s endorsement.
“The folks that went into his office asked for him to support our platform,” he said. “Didn’t ask him to pass anything; didn’t ask for money.”
Bruce Darling, of Rochester, N.Y., was one of the 15 arrested in Rep. Frank’s office. Darling said the group requested to speak to the congressman but were told he was unavailable. When they refused to leave, Darling said the congressman suddenly appeared and began yelling.
“It felt more like he was lecturing us as opposed to looking at the platform,” he said.
Though Rep. Frank said he is in favor of the platform, he said he still told the group to leave because they were being disruptive. When they refused, he asked the Capitol Police to arrest them.
ADAPT members also were arrested in the offices of Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Including the 15 in Frank’s office, a total of 52 persons were arrested.
Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for the Capitol Police, said all of the arrestees were charged with unlawful assembly. While some were held longer than others, all were released on Tuesday.
###
