Category: Maite Jullian
The Tradition Continues: 10,000 Wreaths Laid on Graves at Arlington Cemetery
WREATHS
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 13, 2008
ARLINGTON, Va. — Cindy DeCosta took her time to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery on the grave of Edmund S. Muskie, former Maine governor, U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator. Her eyes were glossy with tears and her voice trembled as she thanked members of the Maine State Society for the opportunity they had given her.
For the first time Saturday, Cindy and her husband, Tim, who live in Windham, Maine, came to help place about 10,000 wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers and veterans, a tradition that began 17 years ago.
“What better way is there to honor people who lost their lives for America?” she said. “The best part of it is to see people show their patriotism and take time out of their busy lives to lay a wreath. It is very emotional.”
Arlington was the last stop for the DeCostas, who left Harrington, Maine, last Sunday to accompany the two trucks carrying the wreaths given by the Worcester Wreath Co. Tim is a member of the Patriot Guard that escorted the convoy on its 750-mile trip.
“We cried all the way down here,” Cindy said.
On this cold but sunny Saturday morning, more than 3,000 people lined up under the McClellan red brick arch to get a wreath distributed from the back of the trucks. Families, veterans and couples slowly spread along the aisles of the cemetery.
Each picked a grave and laid a wreath. Some took pictures. Some had tears rolling down their cheeks. Other smiled. All kneeled down to write down the names of the soldier or veteran they honored on the stickers given for the occasion for the first time.
In two hours, the white graves of Section 12 of the cemetery were filled with wreaths with shiny red bows.
“This is a great, a wonderful thing to do,” Sylvia Wendt, from Rumford, and her three friends said in a chorus, with large smiles on their faces. “It is an honor to be here.”
Wendt has been coming to Arlinton for the past six years. On Saturday she was standing with her high school friends Susan Starr, from Scarborough, Cindy Flaherty of Saco and Gail Divine of Wallingford, Conn., who came for the first time.
They all went together to lay a wreath on a grave and then pay their respects to the veterans, spouses and children who also are buried at the national cemetery.
“You look at the names and dates,” Divine said.” It’s hard to explain, but you definitely make a connection.”
After all the wreaths were distributed, Wendt and her friends followed the group of Mainers to the grave of Muskie. Later on, they stopped at the Kennedy gravesites, the USS Maine Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknowns for a special ceremony.
What started as a small ceremony 17 years ago — when about 40 members of the Maine State Society, a Washington, D.C., organization that brings together Maine natives, laid about 4,000 wreaths — has become a national commemoration after a photograph of the wreaths, resting against gravestones on a snowy day, was e-mailed around the world three years ago.
Since then, the event has attracted many more volunteers. In 2005, there were 100. In 2006, 500. Last year, organizers estimate that around 3,000 people showed up. Some members of the Maine State Society said they thought there were even more volunteers on Saturday than last year.
Mary Beegle came from Dubois, Pa., with 35 other people for the first time.
“We have students in Iraq,” she said. “Our chaplain has just returned from Iraq. We all have connections and we are very privileged to be here to honor the people who did this for America.”
For the first time this year, Dec. 13 was officially “Wreaths Across America” day after the Senate unanimously passed a resolution this week introduced by Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to “recognize the hard work and generosity of all those involved in the project.”
The program prepared more than 105,000 wreaths to be placed on graves at 354 cemeteries and monuments across the country and 24 sites overseas, including four in Iraq.
Lew Pearson, a member of the Maine State Society, said that next year three trucks will come to Arlington as the society keeps receiving calls from all over the country and abroad.
“People want to participate for the purpose behind this or because they have a family member or a friend buried here,” he said. “It means a lot to a lot of people. It’s great.”
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Barriers to Mental Health Care Access for Children Persist
MENTAL HEALTH
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
12/12/08
WASHINGTON – As the new U.S. Congress convenes next month, child advocates are putting their hopes in a bill Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she will reintroduce to address a national issue: the barriers families face in accessing mental health care for emotionally or mentally disturbed children.
The goal of the Keep Family Together Act, first introduced in 2003, is to promote mental health treatment for children in a family and community setting instead of in a residential facility.
The bill would provide states with $55 million a year for five years to support and maintain systems of care focusing on community-based services. It is intended to help families to get state services that are now either insufficient or too expensive and allow them to care for their children at home.
“It’s an issue that doesn’t come to the attention of policymakers that often,” Collins said in an interview. “Families tend to suffer in silence. This happens all over the country, but individual families are struggling on their own.”
She said the bill would encourage states to create more cost-effective and innovative services. It also would establish a task force to make recommendations on how to improve mental health access and services in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
“It is providing some funding resources for the kind of services that parents need,” Carol Carothers, executive director of the Maine National Alliance on Mental Illness, said. “Just people recognizing that it’s happening would help. There hasn’t been much progress so far.”
Collins said she is introducing the bill to help reduce the number of parents who relinquish custody of their children and place them in the child welfare system or the juvenile justice system as a way to provide them with care.
“I don’t think there is much difference in Maine,” Carothers said. “I don’t have a line of families calling, but it is still an issue. It is still really hard to get treatment.”
The issue was brought to light in a 2003 Government Accountability Office report, requested by Collins and Reps. Pete Stark, D-Calif., and Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., which showed that parents placed more than 12,700 children into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems in fiscal year 2001 so that they could receive mental health services.
Because 32 states didn’t provide the GAO with any data, the report concluded that “the number of children placed is likely to be higher.”
Since then, no new data have been compiled because states don’t track this practice, but Collins said she will request the GAO to update the report.
During hearings in 2003 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Tammy Saltzer, then an attorney for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a Washington-based advocacy organization, said that “when families are uninsured or have exhausted their private insurance benefits, both mental health providers and public child welfare agency staff often advise parents that relinquishing custody of their child to the state is the only way to obtain services.”
She also said that it resulted in children being placed in more expensive and less supportive residential placements.
Even if families’ relinquishing custody is more the exception than the rule, as Darcy Gruttadaro, director of the child and adolescent action center at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said, families still have difficulties getting mental health care for their children.
A 20-state survey the alliance conducted reported that “64 percent of families with children with special health care needs, including children with mental illnesses, are turning down jobs, raises and overtime so that they can remain in the income bracket that qualifies their child for Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid.”
Middle-class families are especially affected. Their salaries are too high to get Medicaid but too low to cover the cost of therapy and medication, outpatient visits or residential treatments – especially since insurance companies impose caps on costs and stop reimbursements after a period of time, said Lee Carty, spokeswoman for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
The GAO report said residential treatment facilities can cost up to $250,000 a year for one child. One outpatient therapy session can cost more than $100.
Since 2003, progress has been made, thanks to state and federal regulations adopted in the last few years.
The Family Opportunity Act, signed into law in February 2005, included one of the provisions in Sen. Collins’ bill that would expand Medicaid coverage to children with mental health disorders under the Katie Beckett waiver, which allows Medicaid eligibility for home care to be determined by the individual’s income and assets and not the income and assets of the family. In this way community-based services are available to eligible children who otherwise would be in residential treatment facilities.
The mental health parity law, attached to the economic bailout bill in October, was another welcome step. The law, which goes into effect in October 2009, requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide equal insurance coverage for physical and mental health services.
Maine, along with 41 other states, already has a parity law, but employers who self-insure didn’t have to follow it. Under the new federal law, they will have to.
Child advocates still think that more needs to be done, especially considering what happened recently in Nebraska, where more then 30 children were abandoned under the state’s safe haven law. Most were either waiting for mental health care or had been treated for mental illness.
“There are significant loopholes in the parity laws both in the states and at the federal level,” Carothers said. “In the small-group market there is no parity, so for many of the country’s citizens, there are significant limits on insurance coverage. And many states are putting additional limits on Katie Beckett these days because of the cuts to Medicaid and to mental health services in general.”
According to Carrie Horne, the assistant director of the Maine National Alliance on Mental Illness, the state recently implemented an annual premium for families receiving aid under the waiver and will soon double it, which drives families to choose to drop out of the program, she said.
The Bazelon Center’s Carty said that the recent parity law and the Family Opportunity Act help but that they are “still a drop in the bucket.”
“To make a real difference, we need a comprehensive mental health care reform,” Carty said.
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Pingree Spends Orientation Week Finding Her Way Around
PINGREE
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
11/21/2008
WASHINGTON – Democratic Rep.-elect Chellie Pingree describes orientation week for new members of the House as being like the first week of school.
“Half of the time is spent finding your way around,” she said.
On Friday morning, Lisa Prosienski, Pingree’s campaign manager and future chief of staff, led the way through the numerous hallways and floors of the U.S. House office buildings exploring potential offices for the new Maine representative and her Capitol Hill staff.
Office picking is an institution on the Hill. On Friday morning, new members gathered for the traditional lottery, which Prosienski described as “quite a ceremonial process.”
Offices are picked by seniority – the longer you have served the higher you are on the list. When members retire or lose and their offices become available the current members get to decide if they want to move to a vacated office. Then there is the lottery for new members.
Getting number one means you’ll get to choose first. Getting the last one means that you may end up with one of the offices on the 5th floor of the Cannon House Office Building with no windows and low ceilings.
Prosienski picked number 17 – out of 54 – and was pretty lucky. By early afternoon, she and Pingree knew they will be in room 1037 of the Longworth House Office Building. As Pingree had wished, she will be on a lower floor, and will have windows.
But before settling in on the first week of January, new representatives and their teams have tons of work to do. The new members’ orientation week was designed to give the freshmen some help in organizing their offices and understanding their new role.
“A lot of this week has been about administrative and procedural issues,” Pingree said. “We were given stacks of paper and applications. I had been told there would be those things but I didn’t know there would be so many endless details.”
Besides receptions and celebrations, including a dinner below the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and a reception at the botanical garden, it was more about sessions to learn about pensions and benefits, the rules surrounding staffers, anti-discrimination laws and how to set up an office.
But Pingree said she did have time to think about being in Washington.
“Did we really win? Are we really here?” she said. ”It is so exciting to be here. I knew it would be great but I hadn’t assessed the impact of winning with Barack Obama.”
Prosienski, who has been working on and off with Pingree since she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002, is also eager to be on the Hill.
“It is very exciting,” she said. “This is a tremendous opportunity. I would expect a fast moving Congress and a lot of work.”
They both are going back to Maine for Thanksgiving, but they won’t have too much time to rest. Another orientation session is planned for the first week of December at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., and they have to work on taking over from Rep. Tom Allen, who lost his challenge to Sen. Susan Collins.
“We have so much work to do,” Pingree said. “We are making a transition, picking up on cases Tom Allen was working on.”
She also has to interview and hire staff – up to 18 members for D.C and Maine offices – study the numerous issues that need to be addressed, build a Web site and learn about communications on the Hill.
Even though the team is still in transition, Prosienski said she already has received a phone call for Rep. Pingree. And the Blackberry Pingree got this week, the “internal communication system” of the Hill as Prosienski called it, is already getting messages.
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A National Treasure Once in the Hands of a Mainer
FLAG
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 21, 2008
WASHINGTON – When the light of dawn broke on September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key was able to see the American flag flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. He then knew that the British bombardment of the fort had failed.
The poem he wrote to celebrate America’s triumph in that battle became the lyrics of the national anthem and made the Star-Spangled Banner an icon in American history.
Almost 200 years later, the early light of dawn has been replaced by soft blue lights and the 30-foot by 34-foot Star-Spangled Banner lies behind glass doors at a ten-degree angle, in a brand new and dramatic display at the National Museum of American History, which reopened Nov. 21 after going through a two-year renovation.
It took seven years to restore the most famous flag in American history and ensure its survival. And at the center of the project was Bangor native Marilyn Zoidis. As senior curator of the project, Zoidis realized from the beginning what a huge challenge they faced.
“The first time I actually got to examine the flag, my stomach fell to my feet,” she said. “I thought ‘what have I got myself into?’ I turned to the chief conservator and asked her if the flag could be saved. She said she thought we could do it, that it was the plan. Over the next seven years, we implemented that plan.”
The extent of the work needed on the flag, which was originally 30 feet by 42 feet and was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1907, became evident only after it was taken down from the main hall of the museum in 1998. The original plan was to remove the linen backing and put it back on display.
“Much of the flag had been lost over time because of the light, use and being on display,” Zoidis said.
Zoidis was hired from a pool of national applicants in 1999 to lead the restoration. She worked on the project until 2006, when it was completed, sharing with the Smithsonian her expertise in telling stories through artifacts.
“She has a special gift in using an exhibition to tell compelling history,” said Kent Whitworth, executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society, where Zoidis now works. “I never met anybody better at that. She brings intellect and energy, tenacity to these projects. It was a great day when she arrived here.”
For the flag’s restoration, a new lab with a glass wall so visitors could see the work progressing was built within the American history museum, one of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums which is located on the national mall here.
The $18 million project started in 1999 went through four stages: removal of the linen support, detailed examination of condition and construction of the flag, cleaning treatment, and long-term preservation plan.
When Zoidis, 59, talks about the Star-Spangled Banner, her excitement over its historical signficance is evident.
“I always felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to get it right, to ensure the long term safety of the flag and that stories told about it tell a complex history of America,” she said. “It is a very complicated symbol which reflects a complex history of American society.”
As the curator, she was “the content expert supposed to know everything there was to know about the Banner and flags in general,” Julia Forbes, the former senior educator on the project, said.
“The flag is a metaphor for the nation in many ways,” Zoidis explains. “We can go through wars, an economic downturn, riots or strikes but we can emerge as a nation with resilience and hope. The flag represents that.”
In recognition of her accomplishment, the Washington D.C.-based Maine State Society is presenting her with its annual Big “M” Award on December 13, which rewards Mainers for their professional achievements or contributions to their state.
“This is very, very nice,” she said. “I am deeply touched that they would think of me, that they would give it to me. It is from my home state that I love so dearly,” said Zoidis.
Zoidis is now the assistant director of the Kentucky Historical Society. She could have stayed at the Smithsonian and written a book, but the museum was closing for renovation and she was looking for her next challenge, driven by a will to move forward and experiment, qualities reflected in her professional choices.
Zoidis was born in Bangor. Her grandfather moved there from Albania in 1904. Her father and his two brothers opened the restaurant Pilots Grill in 1940, a “community institution of sorts,” she said, but which closed in 2002.
She graduated from Bangor High School in 1967 and got her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine in 1971. After teaching at James F. Doughty School, named Fifth Street Junior High at that time, and then at Bangor High School, she got a master’s degree in education in 1978.
“Then a job opened up at the Bangor Historical Society,” she said. “I was able to concentrate on the stuff I love: the artifacts and documents.”
Presenting and sharing history with the public through exhibitions has always been her first passion.
“It’s an important obligation to preserve the history of a community and to share it. It is a way to reach people who don’t think they are going to like history,” she said. “The idea of finding something that people will like to see in a hundred years, conserve it and capture its meaning is something incredibly exciting for me.”
She was the executive director of the Bangor Historical Society from 1983 to 1987 and then went to Freeport, where she held the same position at that city’s historical society for two years.
In 1992, she got a master’s in American history from Carnegie Mellon University and became the director for research and collections at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh for one year.
Interested in social and cultural history, she started a doctorate program in American history at Carnegie Mellon but the offer to work on the flag derailed that plan and she never completed her dissertation.
While on a fellowship at the Smithsonian to complete the last chapter of her dissertation, she heard that the museum was looking for a curator for the Star-Spangled Banner Project. She was “stunned” to learn she was one of the five finalists and ultimately she was selected for the job.
Abigail Ewing, the former curator at Bangor Historical Society who worked with Zoidis for a year, was not surprised when she learned Zoidis had landed a job at the Smithsonian.
“She left here [Bangor], went to Freeport and went to graduate work. She was getting into more challenging positions and bigger projects,” she said.
For the people who worked with her, Zoidis is a passionate historian who brings with her intellectual stimulation and energy.
“She was very open and giving with her research,” said Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, the chief conservator of the project. “She was always enthusiastic about finding questions to my answers. We could discuss and share. It made our jobs easier.”
“I really loved working wither her,” Forbes said. “She is so smart and very passionate for her work.”
Whitworth still sounds amazed that Zoidis agreed to work at the Kentucky Historical Society.
“Kent was looking for someone who could help in the next stage of developing and I was looking for the next challenge,” Zoidis said.
Withworth said she has surpassed his expectations in the two years she has been working there.
“She has been a great adviser in terms of exhibition, administration, development and marketing,” he said. “She has infused this place with a lot of intellectual energy. We went through a real transition with her. We are just very fortunate, thanks to Maine for sharing Marilyn Zoidis with Kentucky.”
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Maine Senators Seen as Major Players in the New Senate
MAINEGOP
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
11/07/08
WASHINGTON – As moderate Republicans, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins will play a major role in the new Senate as both political parties will hunt for their votes to pass, or block, major legislation.
“They are going to be very critical players in the Senate,” said former Rep. Charlie Bass, head of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership. “They will be in a position to police legislation.”
In the 111th Congress, President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda will not face as much resistance in the Democratic-dominated House as it will in the Senate. Although the Democrats will have at least 56 seats in the Senate, they won’t have the 60 votes required to end a filibuster, a tool used by the minority to delay or block votes on legislation.
If Democrats can’t find common ground with the minority leadership on a bill, they would have to reach out to Republicans. And the most likely to support them are the moderates.
“They are going to be so influential,” Douglas Kriner, assistant professor of political science at Boston University, said. “Since the Democrats won’t have 60 seats and because there are differences within the Democratic caucus, they’ll have to reach across the aisle.”
The group of moderate Republicans went from six to four senators after the election, Bass said. The two others are Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
In 2007, Snowe and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana created the Common Ground Coalition, a bipartisan group whose goal is to bring members from both parties together to work on major issues.
And Collins was part of the Gang of 20, a bipartisan group that worked in September on an energy bill.
The Maine senators also sit on influential committees. Snowe is a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Collins is on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee.
With these bipartisan records and important positions, their votes will be coveted by the Democrats.
According to Christian Potholm, professor of government at Bowdoin College, this configuration will also be beneficial to Maine.
“Democrats are going to have to turn to them,” he said. “This is a great thing for Maine. We have two senators at the very center of power and activity.”
Snowe and Collins each said the new political configuration is not much of a change regarding their work in the Senate, as they will keep promoting a bipartisan approach.
“This is the way I have always worked,” Collins said. “The difference is the margin. Democrats clearly will be reaching out to moderate Republicans so it should strengthen the role that I play.”
“When it comes to major issues, we have to develop solutions that embrace a bipartisan approach,” Snowe said. “No party has a lock on good ideas. I want to work to fuse those differences and be a catalyst to embrace change to solve issues.”
Bass said that although they always worked according to what they believed in rather than sticking to the party lines, a change is coming.
“I don’t think their philosophy will change but their influence definitely will,” he said.
Snowe and Collins said that cooperation across party lines is more important than ever to address the issues that the country is facing.
“Too many issues have been seen as partisan or an opportunity to score political points,” Collins said. “The American people want us to work together.”
Snowe said that unlike the past two years, the new Congress has to put aside differences to address the country’s pressing problems.
“There is a greater pressure on both sides to answer the overwhelming message sent in the election,” she said. “We have to show that we’ve got it. Too many wanted to play the partisan game and as a result there was a repudiation of the status quo of the last Congress.”
On whether the two parties will actually cooperate, Collins and Snowe are confident, but cautious.
“I am seeing it but we have to get beyond the talking point,” Snowe said. “It didn’t happen the last two years. If we haven’t heard this message then something is really wrong.”
“I am concerned whether Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) will be willing to take a less partisan approach,” Collins said. “My hope is that Obama will set a tone that encourages bipartisanship on both sides.”
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No More Funds for Wireless Carriers in Maine?
FCCMAINE
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
10/30/08
WASHINGTON – While Americans will be electing their next president on Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on a proposal that critics worry would cut funds to wireless companies providing cell phone towers in rural and underserved areas of Maine and other states.
If approved, Maine wireless carriers would lose $13 million in federal money from the Universal Service Fund’s high-cost program, according to Connecting Rural America, a coalition of advocacy groups, community leaders and elected officials opposing the cuts.
The federal funds, the coalition says, would be used by wireless carriers to construct cell phone towers in rural communities in Maine.
Robert Kenny, a spokesman for the FCC, said that discussions on reforming the program to reduce and redirect costs have been around for years and that the time has come for implementing the changes.
“There is more and more demand for high-speed and broadband services,” he said. “We need to reform to address those demands. Without any reform, these programs couldn’t be sustained and could be eliminated.”
Kenny said specifics about the proposals won’t be made public until the vote next week. But he said the FCC, besides redirecting funds, wants to change the formula allocating funds to wireless carriers.
To receive subsidies, the companies would have to reveal their costs – they are not required to now – and make a five-year commitment to build broadband infrastructures.
Earlier this year, the commission started the reform by capping payments to wireless carriers to 2008 amounts until the program is evaluated.
Besides restricting phone coverage for consumers in underserved areas, critics say, these cuts would be damaging for Maine businesses and first responders such as firefighters and police officers.
“In rural areas, if there is no signal, people are unable to get help,” Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said. He is a member of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association, which is part of the coalition opposing the FCC proposal.
Ross said that local law enforcement officials are confronted all the time with weak phone coverage, phone conversations breaking up and areas without signal.
Deputies, who all have cell phones, need to be able to have access wherever they are. And coverage problems may result in not being able to locate people in need of help or protection as the officers use triangulation, he said.
“People are moving towards cell phones, and we need to put the money there,” Ross said. “Great advances have been made thanks to the money from the [Universal Service Fund] invested in Maine, but it is not the time to stop.”
In 2007, Maine received more than $36.5 million through the fund’s high-cost program. More than $13.3 million went to wireless carriers, according to data from the FCC Web site.
US Cellular is supposed to build 18 towers in several Maine rural areas this year, and 16 next year with the projected $9.7 million from the fund. Without the federal money, it won’t be possible, Jack Rooney, president and CEO of US Cellular, said in an interview.
“The intent of the FCC is to eliminate payments to wireless carriers,” he said. “It will have a negative impact in Maine. Some of the rural areas where we build towers can’t afford them, so we use [the federal] funds to build them.”
Earlier this year, the federal payments to wireless carriers were capped to allow the FCC to evaluate the program and launch a “path for comprehensive reform,” according to a May FCC press release.
The FCC said the cap on payments to wireless carriers was necessary to “stem the explosive growth” of the Universal Service Fund, financed by consumers who pay more than 11 percent on their phone bills.
The payments to wireless carriers have grown from about $1.5 million in 2000 to more than $1 billion last year, according to the press release. “Left unchecked, this staggering growth forces consumers to pay excessive and ever-increasing contributions to the fund,” the FCC said.
Even if the FCC eliminated payments to wireless carriers, consumers would save only 30 cents a month on their phone bills, Rooney said.
Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins sent a joint letter earlier this month to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asking the commission to reconsider the proposal.
“By limiting the program that supports carriers in rural areas, we risk causing a major setback in the endeavor for universal service for the people that need it most,” they said in a joint press release. “First responders depend on efficient and reliable cell phone service to do their jobs and save lives.”
The FCC created the Universal Service Fund in 1997 to provide telecommunications services of quality to rural and underserved areas.
Through four different programs, the USF subsidizes high-cost rural phone companies –wireless and landline carriers – Internet and telecom connections for schools and libraries, phone service for low-income customers and telecom costs of health care providers that use telemedicine.
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U.S Lawmakers Richer in 2007
WEALTH
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
10/29/08
WASHINGTON – The American economy may be gloomy this year, but for members of Congress, the previous two years weren’t at all bad. In fact, the lawmakers’ collective wealth increased by 13 percent from 2006 to last year, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Among them, Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe was ranked the 20th richest member of Congress and the 8th wealthiest senator, with an average net worth of $33,308,537, an increase of 76 percent over her 2006 average net worth of $18,963,031.
“The change in the value of the 2007 holdings was chiefly due to the increase in value of her husband’s stock in the company he works for,” said John Gentzel, spokesman for Snowe.
Snowe’s husband, John McKernan, is the executive chairman and chairman of the board of directors of Education Management Corp., a Pennsylvania-based provider of private post-secondary education.
McKernan also served as the corporation’s chief executive officer until February 2007. He represented Maine in the U.S. House before becoming a two-term governor of the state.
According to Gentzel, “the information relating to assets and transactions includes her husband’s enterprises.”
Sen. Susan Collins, on the other hand, was one of the “poorest” senators, ranked 89th out of 100 with an average net worth of $247,502, the lowest among the Maine delegation members.
Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud ranked 276th among the 435 House members, with $375,009. Democratic Rep. Tom Allen ranked 225th, with $626,006.
“It is not surprising that his ranking is 276th,” Monica Castellanos, Michaud’s spokeswoman, said. “When he first ran for Congress in 2002, he did so because there were so many millionaires in Congress. He believed that it was important that working families had someone to represent them who shared their experiences.”
Snowe is the only member of the delegation whose wealth increased from 2006 to 2007. Michaud’s wealth decreased, from $505,011 in 2006 to $375,009 in 2007. Collins’ and Allen’s reported average net worth was the same for both years.
“As reported on her financial disclosure form that is available to the public, Sen. Collins is not among the wealthy members of Congress,” Jen Burita, Collins’ spokeswoman, said.
The Center for Responsive Politics’ analysis is based on the Congress members’ personal financial reports, which they are required to file every year. The 2007 numbers are the most recent available. The analysis is available on the Center’s Web site, opensecrets.org,
The financial statements are reported within a fairly wide range, so that only an approximation of a member’s net worth is available. Thus Snowe’s net worth in 2007 could have been as low as $15,018,074 or as high as $51,599,001, for an average net worth of $33,308,537.
“Worries about the economy that most members of Congress are feeling right now are likely coming from their constituents,” Sheila Krumholz, the center’s executive director, said in a news release. “Most members have a comfortable financial cushion to ride out any recession.”
According to the analysis, senators were the wealthiest Congress members, with a median net worth of approximately $1.7 million in 2007.
Massachusetts Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy claimed two of the top three spots. Kerry was the richest senator, with $336 million. Kennedy ranked third, with $104 million, behind Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) with $241.5 million.
In the House, though the median net worth was about $684,000, 39 percent of the members had net worth last year estimated to be at least $1 million.
Center analysts point out that the numbers actually may be higher than members’ financial statements disclose.
Dan Auble, who manages the center’s database of lawmakers’ financial information, said that some valuable information is not required to be disclosed, such as the value of any residences, unless they produce an income.
“Members of Congress don’t make it easy for the public to keep tabs on their personal holdings and any conflicts of interest those holdings present,” Auble said in a press release.
Because the statements were only for 2007, the report does not include any possible losses related to the current financial crisis and cannot be used to determine the current value of lawmakers’ holdings.
“Unless they divested before the recent market downturn, their portfolios are almost certainly worth less now,” according to the center’s news release.
“I am not privy to the details of the senator’s personal finances, but I know the senator has been negatively affected by the financial crisis just like anyone else who is invested in the stock market,” Gentzel, the Snowe spokesman, said.
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Maine to Get $79 Million in Heating Assistance
MAINE LIHEAP
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
10/16/08
WASHINGTON – Maine will receive $79.2 million in the new fiscal year to finance the federal program of heating assistance to low-income families, which would help more than 80,000 households to pay their energy bills, according to the Maine State Housing Authority.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe announced Thursday that President Bush directed the Department of Health and Human Services to release $5.1 billion nationwide for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
“This is very good news,” Collins said in a statement. “This impending winter will bring a sharp increase in applications for LIHEAP assistance. This funding will go a long way to helping low-income Mainers stay warm this winter.”
The State Housing Authority is getting $49.5 million in base funding and $29.7 million in emergency funding. The latter amount, the 5th highest among all states, is set aside and may be used in case of extreme cold winter or an extreme rise in heating oil prices.
In 2008, Maine received $46 million to help low-income families pay their energy bill. The new total represents a 72 percent increase over last year.
“We are delighted,” said Dale McCormick, director of the Maine Housing Authority. “It is going to allow us to keep the benefits of last year’s amount and serve about 33,000 more households.”
“It was essential for the administration to identify the heating oil burden as a critical and timely priority and to fund the program accordingly,” Snowe said in a press release.
Even though there is a sharp increase in funds, Maine’s eligible families will actually receive a little less assistance because the administration also modified the eligibility requirements to increase the number of eligible recipients.
Previously, to be eligible a family had to earn no more than 170 percent of the poverty level or 60 percent of the state median income.
Dan Simpson, spokesman for the State Housing Authority, said that under the new requirements, a family must now earn no more than 230 percent of the poverty level or 75 percent of the state median income.
Simpson said that about 50,000 households received an average $779 from the program last year. In 2009, 84,000 families will receive an average of about $722.
“We have more money to get spread over more people, so the average benefit is going to stay about the same,” McCormick said. “But we are going to target the money to the neediest households.”
Last year the program assisted 4.5 million low-income families nationally, or only about 15 percent of eligible families.
The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said last month that home heating oil prices were expected to reach a record $4.60 per gallon this winter, which would mean a $4,000 average heating bill for families.
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New Regulation to Protect the North Atlantic Right Whales
WHALES
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
10/09/08
WASHINGTON – The endangered North Atlantic right whales will soon benefit from greater protection thanks to a new regulation which will reduce the speed at which large commercial ships can travel along the East Coast.
Although the regulations won’t affect ships traveling in Maine waters, the state’s lobstermen’s association welcomed the news as the recognition that both fishing and shipping industries should share responsibility for protection of the right whales.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, which issued the regulation, said its goal is to reduce collisions between North Atlantic right whales and ships, one of the most common human-related causes of the mammal's death.
"There are only 300 to 400 left in the world," Connie Barclay, spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, said of the right whales. "They are slow-moving and very vulnerable to ship collision. She said several whales are killed every year as a result of being hit by ships.
Ships will be required to stay at speeds below 10 knots in certain coastal regions. The regulation will take effect in two months and apply to ships of 65 feet or longer within 20 miles of the East Coast from Massachusetts to Florida, an area where the right whales feed, reproduce and migrate.
The new rule is part of NOAA’s ongoing efforts to protect the whales which include aerial whale surveillance and a mandatory ship reporting system.
The North Atlantic right whales have been on the endangered species list since 1973, according to NOAA. That same year, they were also designated as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The speed reduction won’t apply to Maine because the concentration of right whales is not great enough in the waters off the state’s coast according to Vicki Cornish, vice-president of the marine wildlife conservation at the Ocean Conservancy.
However, The Maine Lobstermen’s Association supports the passage of the regulation.
For the past 10 years there have been a number of federal rules and restrictions on fishing gear that have applied to Maine fishermen, according to Patrice McCarron, executive president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
These are designed to prevent whales’ entanglement in fishing gear, the other most common cause of whale deaths.
McCarron said the group supports ship speed reduction because the fishing industry should not be singled out for restrictions and both threats should be addressed.
“If the shipping industry is having a negative impact, it should have some restrictions as well,” McCarron said. “The precedent is good. We all need to step up to the plate and do something.”
Both Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe and Democratic Rep. Tom Allen said they were pleased with the rule.
“There is an unquestionable need to reduce the occurrence of right whale ship strikes,” Snowe said in a press release. “For years, Maine lobstermen have made considerable efforts to abide by new fishing gear rules, so it is highly appropriate to address other causes of whales’ mortality.”
The regulation “ensures that all parties, not just lobstermen, are working hard to conserve our natural resources,” Allen said in a press release.
The new NOAA rule will be up for renewal in five years, after scientists assess the effectiveness of the restrictions.
The Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife and the Ocean Conservancy who have been pushing for the rule’s implementation, said they were satisfied but disappointed the rule was not made permanent.
“We are very happy that the speed restrictions are in place on the East Coast, the need has been known for seven years,” Cornish said. “But we do feel like the agency made some pretty big compromises by reducing the restriction areas and adding a five year provision. It could cause NOAA to stop the rule early and we are concerned about that.”
Barclay said that the five year provision would allow NOAA scientists to assess how the rule is working.
“It’s a complicated issue,” she said. “It gives us more time and a chance to improve the rule.”
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Allen and Michaud Disagree on the Financial Rescue Plan
MAINE VOTE
Bangor Daily News
Maite Jullian
Boston University Washington News Service
10/03/08
WASHINGTON – Maine’s Democratic congressmen Mike Michaud and Tom Allen repeated their Monday votes on Friday as the House approved 263 to 171 the Senate version of the $700 billion financial rescue plan. Michaud, who voted against the House plan that failed on Monday, again cast a no vote while Allen again voted for the government bailout.
“I am not surprised in the vote but I am very disappointed,” Michaud said after the vote. “It’s a travesty. I do believe we had to act swiftly but this bill is deeply flawed. It did little to change the White House plan.”
Michaud said he regretted the House Rules Committee, in charge of deciding how and when a bill comes to the floor, refused to add amendments to the Senate bill, which he said lacks sufficient protection for taxpayers.
“If we were able to have amendments, they would have passed,” he said. “There were some good ideas in the air. Now, we have superficial safeguards and they know it.”
Allen said in a statement that the House “took necessary action.”
“I believe that Congress acted today in the best manner possible to protect Mainers and all Americans from further financial deterioration,” he said. “I am proud to have worked with members from both parties to build consensus and pass this critically important legislation.”
U.S House members cheered with applause as the House approved the Senate version of the bailout plan early Friday afternoon. In a rather unusual fast move, President George Bush signed the bill two hours later.
Allen and Michaud each said the Senate added too many extra provisions to the bill, such as $110 billion in tax breaks.
“The Senate did not provide sufficient offsets for these measures, increasing the deficit even further,” Allen said. “Our national debt has skyrocketed over the past eight years, contributing to the situation we are in today, and it is time to reverse that trend.”
Michaud also underscored the fact that the plan will put the budget debt limit to $11.3 trillion, whereas the country already faces huge trade deficits and high costs with Medicare and Social Security.
“As a nation, we are putting ourselves in a very tough situation,” Michaud said. “People are suffering, they have problems putting oil in their tanks yet we are going to spend $700 billion to bail out these large corporations.”
Both Maine representatives said they hope the new Congress will improve oversight and taxpayer safeguards when it comes to the financial markets.
“We must change the way that Wall Street has been operating so that Main Street can prosper once again,” Allen said. “This bill is just the first step in rebuilding our economy. Congress must continue to evaluate and modernize financial regulations to ensure that a similar situation will not reoccur.”
“It is definitely time for a change,” Michaud said. “I will be looking forward to putting corporate governance on top of the agenda as well as a new trade policy. There is too much greed on Wall Street and K Street. The American people are fed up.”
K Street in Washington is where many lobbyists have their offices.
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