Category: Massachusetts
Student from Dartmouth, N.H., Spends Semester in Washington
HARTMAN
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
December 10, 2008
WASHINGTON –Dan Hartman had every intention of completing his senior year at Tufts University, just like his fellow classmates.
But last June, while interning at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Mr. Hartman applied to intern in the fall at the White House, a position he had unsuccessfully applied for in the spring. This time, however, he was accepted.
“It was somewhat of a surprise, and I had already been prepared to go back to Tufts for the fall semester and I immediately had to change gears,” he said. “I had to take a semester off.”
A semester away, perhaps, but not a semester off, says Jeffrey M. Berry, a political science professor at Tufts and Mr. Hartman’s adviser.
“I don’t feel like he really is taking a semester off. I think this is part of his education as a political science student,” he said. “He’s enriching his education in ways that we could never teach him at Tufts.”
While Mr. Hartman will have to take a few summer classes to complete his college courses, he will still be allowed to graduate with the rest of his class in June 2009.
“It’s been totally worth it,” he said. “The White House doesn’t call very often, and when it does, you have to take it.”
Mr. Hartman’s choice to intern at the White House shouldn’t come as a surprise. At Tufts, he is double majoring in political science and economics. He has been active in College Republicans, serving as president of the organization last year. He also helped out with Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign from August 2007 until the campaign ended in February.
His political interests were apparent in high school as well when he was voted “Class Politician” and “Most Likely to Succeed” by Dartmouth High School’s 2005 class.
“He’s really, really psyched about political science and always been involved in political science since he was a kid,” said his mother, Debra Hartman. “That’s his passion in life, and I couldn’t see him doing anything other than this.”
The experience working at the White House, he said, has exceeded his expectations.
“I expected to be getting coffee and doing photocopies and what not, and it ended up being totally different than that,” Mr. Hartman said.
He worked why past tense? from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. every day and spent the day reading and analyzing the news as well as conducting research on issues that concern the president.
In addition to his daily routine, he has also had the opportunity to meet several higher-level White House staff, including Dana Perino, the presidential press secretary; Steve Preston, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and even President George W. Bush himself.
But some of the most meaningful experiences occurred away from the White House. During a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with his fellow interns, Mr. Hartman was given the chance to hear a testimonial from a Holocaust survivor.
“Hearing her story of perseverance is just one of the most inspirational things you can ever think of,” he said. “It kind of taught me that a lot of people have been through much harder than what I’ve ever had to go through, and that if you keep fighting hard, you’re going to succeed in life.”
For the long-time Republican, the 2008 election didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, but he said he still values being in Washington for the excitement.
“Being in Washington in general during the election was an opportunity to really enjoy and to appreciate the democratic process,” he said.
Mr. Hartman said he plans to head back to New York City in July to work on Wall Street. However, his time in Washington has given him a taste of how government directly affects the financial sector.
“Getting to witness firsthand the rescue of the whole financial system after having just worked in the financial system over the summer was a real unique opportunity,” he said. “I think that kind of perspective, the policy side, the government side, will help strengthen my perspective when I go into finance and Wall Street.”
Even though Mr. Hartman’s post-collegiate plans do not immediately include a political run, those close to him say they wouldn’t count his White House internship as his last foray with politics.
“It really wouldn’t surprise me if he pushes to get that far,” his father, Mark Hartman, said of a future career in the political arena. “He definitely has the drive.”
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Limited Funding Stalls Transportation Projects
TRANSPORTATION
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
December 8, 2008
WASHINGTON – The Shawmut Diner is located at one of New Bedford’s busier intersections. But congestion at Hathaway Road and Shawmut Avenue is not as bad as it used to be.
Philip Paleologos, the owner of the diner, has witnessed how effective the implementation of a single left-hand turn arrow can be in managing traffic.
“That has drastically cut down on not only accidents but also bottlenecking at the corner,” Mr. Paleologos said of the traffic signal, installed15 years ago. “Before the light with the arrows, we had many more accidents happening, because drivers were impatient and would pass on the left to go straight while people were turning.”
Despite this traffic success story, other intersections in the area are still experiencing problems. In fact, many of New Bedford’s intersections are under-designed, according to the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District.
“I don't know who planned the roads down here back in the ’50s and ’60s, but they must have thought that we were backwater towns that weren’t going to grow at all because they built interchanges that made no sense,” said Roland Hebert, deputy director and transportation planning manager for the regional planning agency. “They only made sense if we were going to stay farmlands.”
As a resident of New Bedford for 31 years, Mr. Paleologos has seen other intersections fail to manage the growing increase in traffic flow. Route 6 in Dartmouth and the intersection of Route 6 and Faunce Corner Road in particular have both had trouble keeping up with an increase of vehicles on the road, he said.
The regional planning agency, which serves 27 towns and cities in southeastern Massachusetts, has published several reports on problem intersections and roadways in the area. According to the 2007 Transportation Improvement Program, the latest report released, some of the most common problems occur at the Routes 24 and 140 intersection, the Tarkiln Hill Road and Kings Highway intersection, the Interstate 195 interchange in Dartmouth at Faunce Corner Road, Interstate 495 in Middleborough and the ramps on I-195 onto Coggeshall Street and Route 18, but many other problems exist.
As national transportation and infrastructure problem
As the nation’s list of transportation projects grows, funding for these improvements continues to shrink. Communities appealing to the state for money to fix infrastructure problems are having trouble acquiring the necessary funds because state money for road projects is drying up. Officials are looking to the federal government for funds to help maintain and improve transportation infrastructures.
Funding for transportation projects on a national level has been problematic and slow. But there is legislation that could jump-start work on solving some of the problems of the nation’s infrastructure
While traffic demands in the region are increasing the funds available to improve roadways are shrinking and WHATEVER.
WHATEVER
WHATEVER ….
Plans for fixing New Bedford’s problem spots have been in development, but acquiring the funds from the state continues to be difficult, said James Hadfield, director of highway planning for the regional agency.
“Most of us …understand how difficult it is to get funding and how slow projects move through the pipeline to actually be funded,” said JamesMr. Hadfield, director of highway planning for the regional agency. said. “It’s a very serious problem that’s not only here in Massachusetts, it’s nationwide.”
In September the House passed the Job Creation and Unemployment Relief Act of 2008. The bill has been placed on the Senate calendar, but has not been considered. If passed, the act would help fund projects that are ready to be implemented within 120 days, said Jim Berard, director of communications for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
While he said he doesn’t think the bill will proceed any further this year, Mr. Berard said he believes a similar stimulus bill that would allot money for transportation projects will be in the works early in the Obama administration.
In addition to the economic recovery bill that would potentially replace the House-passed bill, Mr. Berard said the committee would be looking to pass a new federal highway surface transportation bill.
Mr. Berard said he couldn’t offer specific details on what would be included in the bill, which has not been drafted, but he said it would be likely to allocate at least $300 billion to transportation and infrastructure projects, a figure he called a “conservative estimate.”
“With all the emphasis that people have been placing on infrastructure, on the need to rebuild our national infrastructure, we are expecting this bill to be probably the largest, in terms of money, that we’ve ever passed,” he said.
Any funds allocated for transportation projects, however, must be distributed by the states. And in Massachusetts, distribution of transportation funds has become a hot topic.
According to the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission’s March 2007 report, the cost of maintaining Massachusetts’s transportation system “exceeds the anticipated resources available by $15 billion to $19 billion.” The report went on to say that the estimates were conservative and did not include addressing any needed expansions or enhancements.
“Putting a new lane on a highway, widen it, building roads that don't exist yet – forget about that,” Mr. Hebert said of the report’s findings. “Just maintaining what we have and putting it in good shape, we're $20 billion in the hole.”
That debt exists in part because of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, commonly known as the Big Dig. The project, which from planning to completion lasted nearly 25 years, cost $14.6 billion, and with interest included, will ultimately total a cost of $22 billion, according to a July story by The Boston Globe.
“The Big Dig and the third Harbor Tunnel was the most expensive highway project in the nation and we did it with federal money and a state credit card,” Mr. Hebert said.
The system of bonding that financed the Big Dig is one that Mr. Hebert said he doesn’t believe is disappearing anytime soon.
“We're still in a position where our elected officials are not responding to this need properly,” he said. “We're borrowing more money on top and we still haven’t come up with more ways to pay it.”
The problem, Mr. Hebert says, is that the state hasn’t come up with a way to raise revenue so that debts and future state transportation projects can be funded with real dollars. While there is no easy answer for how to raise revenue, Mr. Hebert said, charging drivers a gasoline tax is one possibility. .
“It seems to me that gasoline taxes are the most fair user fee in the country,” he said. “If you don’t drive, you don’t pay it.”
Voices across the state have been weighing in on the issue of a gas tax or an increase in toll road fees.
David Guarino, spokesman for Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, said the speaker also believes an increase in the gas tax would be a fair way for the entire state to help raise revenue.
“If the decision has been made that we need to do something, not only to address the Big Dig costs, which are immediate, but the long-term transportation needs of the commonwealth, then whatever solution we come to has to be fair and has to be something that is shared throughout the state,” Mr. Guarino said.
However, State Rep. Robert M. Koczera (D-New Bedford) said he does not support an increase in the gas tax at this time because the funds would be used to pay off the debt from the Big Dig, a project “generally seen as a benefit to Boston” and infrequently used by New Bedford residents.
“Most of my constituents do not utilize the Big Dig. So I tend to feel that’s a disproportionate cost that my constituents would have to pay,” he said of the gas tax.
Rep. Koczera said he would be more open to an increase in the tax if the funds would be used to help create commuter rail service or mass transportation for New Bedford residents. However, he said he doubts the support to pass an increase in the Massachusetts fuel tax exists in the state legislature.
Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement that he is not “hostile” to an increase in the gas tax but that it’s not his first choice.
Instead, Gov. Patrick and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority have proposed increasing the toll fee at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels from $3.50 to $7 and at the Allston-Brighton and Weston toll plazas from $1.25 to $2. Hearings to discuss changes in toll rates are being held throughout the state this month.
Regardless of what the state decides, the initiative to raise revenue is a step in the right direction, according to Mr. Hadfield of the regional planning agency.
“We can’t keep borrowing our way out of problems,” Mr. Hadfield said. “Nobody likes to pay taxes, but yet everyone complains when the roads aren’t fixed or traffic signals break down. It has to be paid for one way or another.”
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Researchers Developing Easier, Cheaper Ways to Catch Beetles
Beetles
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Rachel Kolokoff
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 26, 2008
WASHINGTON – A costly battle is now being waged over the future of Maples and other hardwood trees in the Northeast. The enemy in that fight is a small, black and white-speckled beetle that stowed away inside wooden crates on a ship from China and emerged with the potential to become one of the most destructive insect species the United States has ever seen.
The Asian Longhorned Beetle was first discovered in New York in 1996, and since then has been found in Illinois, New Jersey and now in Worcester, the fourth infestation site in the U.S.
Spotted in the Kendrick Field section of Worcester in August, it has probably been in the city for at least seven or eight years, according to Michael T. Smith, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher who has studied the beetle in China, its native land. Since then department officials have begun looking for infested trees within a 62-mile area including the city and parts of Boylston, Holden, Shrewsbury and West Boylston.
When the beetle finds a potential host tree it chews a depression in the bark, lays an individual egg in that depression and then packs it down. When the larvae hatch, they bore into the tree and stay there, living off the wood and nutrients while they mature.
According to Mr. Smith, an infested tree can look normal for three to four years while the beetles are chewing its insides, working their way towards the outer bark. But eventually, if enough beetles have infested the tree, they girdle it, cut off its water flow and leave it to die. Chewing their way out of the tree, the grown beetles leave behind dime-sized holes, undeniable evidence of their presence, and move on.
Federal, state and city governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on programs to find and eradicate the tree-killing beetle. The task is extremely costly and time-consuming, but more efficient weapons against the pest may soon be on the way.
Mr. Smith, part of the agriculture department’s Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit in Delaware, is coming to Worcester in December to work in the field and try to develop faster, cheaper ways to detect and control the beetle.
The cost for Worcester’s program is growing as surveyors find more infested trees, according to U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern.
The total cost cannot be specified until surveyors determine the full extent of the infestation, but Mr. McGovern said it is expected to exceed $30 million for the first year.
Suzanne Bond, spokeswoman for the inspection program in Worcester, said the department has agreed to cover the costs for the first year of eradication efforts. But in the following years, costs will probably be divided among the federal, state and city governments, as they have been in Illinois, New Jersey and New York.
“Moving forward, cost-sharing relationships are basically part of the process,” Ms. Bond said.
Mr. McGovern said Worcester has already invested a lot of manpower in the beetle program and cannot afford to spend more.
“These are hard economic times,” he said, “and we shouldn’t have to pay for this.”
In terms of cost, it is best to intercept the beetle early on, according to Mr. Smith. Once the population grows past a certain point, it is no longer possible to eliminate it; at that point, regulating its growth becomes the goal.
“The Northeast is very worried,” Mr. Smith said.
In Worcester, the beetle is current inhabiting urban areas on the edge of forest, he said. If the beetle enters the forest, it will be much harder to contain.
Mr. Smith said the infestation in Worcester is large enough to allow him and his colleagues time to complete some fieldwork before workers chop down and grind up all the infested trees.
“There’s a lot we can learn that’s specific to the U.S. by getting our hands dirty up there,” he said.
Ms. Bond said efforts to survey the regulated area will continue to be ongoing throughout the winter.
Mr. Smith said the detection methods he is developing could save time and money for surveyors like those in Worcester by allowing them to determine more quickly which trees are infested.
The faster that workers can detect infested trees, the faster that they can eradicate the beetle, whose destruction of Northeastern trees and forests could potentially cause billions of dollars in damage to the lumber industry, the maple syrup industry and the tourism industry, which depends on fall colors. Water and air quality could also be affected.
So far, surveyors in Worcester have found more than 3,000 infested trees through the only available method--using their eyes or binoculars to examine trees one by one for markings associated with infestation. Often, they must climb the trees to look for markings in the canopy.
Mr. Smith said those methods are 66 percent effective, meaning that for every 10 infested trees examined, they can miss three or four infested trees.
As one alternative, Mr. Smith is trying to analyze the sound beetles make when they chew wood inside a tree. If he can determine the specific noise the chewing makes, he can detect infestations by touching an acoustic sensor to the tree.
“You can pretty much develop the acoustic signature,” he said, “and the sensor could recognize it, kind of how telephones can recognize your voice.”
Another tool would measure the amount of carbon dioxide in each tree. Because beetles produce carbon dioxide, infested trees would have unusually high levels.
“It’s in its early stages,” Mr. Smith said, “but it has been developed by a company that would use them to detect termites in walls.”
The tool, which looks much like an oversized remote control, has a metal, needle-like probe that would pierce the bark of the tree.
Because the best way to test the tool is in the field, Mr. Smith said, he will probably take it with him when he goes to Worcester in December.
Most of his other fieldwork has been in China, where he has spent two months every summer for the past 11 years.
“That’s the meat of my research,” he said, “because you need to study the beetle in its natural settings.”
In China, Mr. Smith collects species of wasps and brings them to his quarantined Delaware laboratory for study to determine whether wasps that parasitize the beetles could be used to help control infestations.
While in Worcester, Mr. Smith hopes to find native species of wasps that parasitize the beetle. To study the natives, he brings them to his insectary, a small, outdoor breeding house, where he allows them to grow inside large cylinders containing 2-foot log segments.
Standing in the insectary’s narrow, dusty walkways during warmer months, Mr. Smith is completely surrounded by some 500 cylinders, each filled with wood and a species of insect, stacked row-by-row.
Once the wasps develop, he brings them into the quarantined lab and unleashes them on logs infested with beetles, to see if they attack.
After three years of traveling to eastern forests, he has found four native species of wasps that act as the beetle’s natural enemies, he said. One wasp goes inside the tree, lays eggs on the outside of the beetle larvae and stays until the eggs hatch.
“If one of her eggs falls off the surface of that larvae, she’s able to move it back on,” he said. “The parental care is very amazing.”
The larvae grow inside the tree for most of the year and emerge as adults in the spring and summer.
Currently, surveyors can search only for trees infested with larvae and have no way of searching for adult beetles. But Mr. Smith is also developing a lure, an aroma that surveyors can use to attract beetles and determine if an area is infested.
To develop the lure, he is working with scientists to isolate the chemicals found in certain trees that the beetles are naturally attracted to.
Mr. Smith said he was “tickled pink” by the success he had in the lab this year and hopes to have a lure that could be mass-produced sometime soon.
Over every four or five-year period, some 15 exotic insect species are introduced to the United States but only one reproduces enough to become a major pest, according to Mr. Smith.
Many of those species, such as the Asian Longhorned Beetle, enter on foreign ships that dock at U.S. ports of entry.
If port inspectors find insects on board the vessel or in cargo, they box them and mail them to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where Department of Agriculture researcher Steven Lingafelter, an expert on Asian Longhorned Beetles, works. About 60 specimens arrive each day.
“When I find a specimen while I’m traveling in other countries, he (Lingafelter) is who I send it to if I need it identified,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Lingafelter got his job in the museum’s entomology department in 1996, on the same day the beetles were first found in New York, he said.
Mr. Lingafelter has traveled to China, Korea and Japan to study the beetles, and his office shelves are lined with jars of beetle larvae and pupae.
The Asian Longhorn Beetles are his favorite species, he said, in part because they are so colorful.
They come in a variety of shades, including white, yellow, black, orange, aqua and a deep, iridescent green. Each has spots, which are actually patches of densely packed hairs easily seen under a microscope.
“It’s really a beautiful group, for sure,” Mr. Lingafelter said.
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Inauguration Ticket Requests Surpass Supplies
FRANK TICKETS
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
November 19, 2008
WASHINGTON – New Bedford residents hoping to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20 may already be out of luck.
The offices of Rep. Barney Frank and Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry are reporting that requests for inauguration tickets are surpassing the number of tickets available.
Dorothy Reichard, spokeswoman for Rep. Frank, said the congressman has 198 tickets available for disbursement, but his Newton office has received 400 to 500 ticket requests – some being called in as early as June. Requests for tickets are being compiled at his Newton office and while no plan for disbursing the tickets has been put in place, a first-come, first-served system would be likely, she said.
Ms. Reichard said 198 tickets – 177 standing tickets and 21 seats – are provided for every House member. In total, there are 240,000 tickets available for the inaugural ceremony, with the largest portion of tickets going 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, said Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which organizes all inaugural ceremonies held at the U.S. Capitol.
Brigid O'Rourke, spokeswoman for Sen. Kerry’s office, said senators have received 300 to 400 tickets in the past, but has no guarantee that they can expect the same number this year.
“At this point,” she said “we don’t know exactly how many tickets we will receive.”
Ms. O’Rourke said their request list was numbering in the thousands. Despite the large number of requests, Sen. Kerry’s office is still maintaining a waiting list in case they receive more tickets. Tickets would be distributed on a first-come-first served basis, she said.
A spokesman from Sen. Kennedy’s office said that more than 1,000 requests for tickets have been registered and that no definitive plan for disbursement was in place.
Constituents can call or e-mail their members’ offices to request tickets, free of charge. The offices will receive the tickets in the week before the inauguration, and constituents must pick them up at the Capitol Hill office in person, Florman said.
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New Bedford Residents Come to Washington Seeking Relief through Prayer, Meetings
RELIEF
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
November 18, 2008
WASHINGTON – Chants of “Wake up, Secretary Paulson” filled Pennsylvania Avenue Tuesday morning as three New Bedford residents – and 200 others – prayed outside of the U.S. Treasury Building.
The Rev. Donald Mier, Anibal Cruz and Daniel Lesser of United Interfaith Action met other members of faith-based community organizations to pray and persuade lawmakers to vote for home foreclosure relief.
Mr. Lesser, organizer for United Interfaith Action, said foreclosures were “racking New Bedford.”
“We see the abandoned houses everywhere,” he said.
In New Bedford this year there have been 302 foreclosures on buildings, compared to 196 this time last year, said Greg Enos, neighborhood planner for the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
The purpose of the demonstration was to persuade lawmakers to use money from the federal bailout program to modify 1.5 million mortgages in order to prevent foreclosures.
The plan, proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), would cost roughly $24 billion and would encourage banks to rework loans and provide a federal guarantee for the losses on the modified mortgages.
Mr. Lesser said that United Interfaith Action believes the FDIC plan would be a good model for foreclosure relief. He cited the IndyMac Bank in California, where the FDIC enacted a similar plan, as an example of relief that worked.
“To keep people in their homes, to stop preventable foreclosures – it’s a moral duty to take this program nationally,” he said.
Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, however, opposes using funds to buy up bad mortgages.
Lewis Finfer, director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network, came to Washington with the New Bedford residents and attended a Tuesday morning hearing of the House Financial Services Committee before going to the demonstration at the Treasury building. Rep. Barney Frank, the committee chairman, and Secretary Paulson seemed to be in a stalemate in the hearing over how to use the funds, Mr. Finfer said.
“The Secretary of the Treasury is balking at [the plan] even though he has $400 billion left that he could spend,” he said. “That’s why we’re here, to push the Treasury. So we’re hoping they’ll move.”
After the group prayer outside the Treasury Building, the New Bedford residents and a few others from Massachusetts met with Rep. Frank to discuss what he was planning to do about foreclosures.
Mr. Finfer said the meeting renewed his hope that some sort of loan modification program could still be passed before the end of the year.
Rep. Frank said he was still hopeful that Secretary Paulson might agree to a large-scale loan modification program in the next three weeks.
“He is starting to move,” Rep Frank said. “I think we have gotten his attention that this has to change.”
Mr. Finfer said Rep. Frank’s comments were encouraging.
“That seems significant that he felt that that wasn’t a closed issue and that it was moving possibly in the right direction,” he said.
The meeting was also a chance for Mr. Finfer and the United Interfaith Action to ask what they could do to help Rep. Frank with foreclosure relief.
Rep. Frank said he told the New Bedford residents to take advantage of a later scheduled meeting with John Podesta, co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team. He said he “urged them to urge the president-elect to join us” in supporting the efforts to use federal bailout money for foreclosure prevention.
“It was a really important day to be here at this juncture when such a major issue is hanging in the balance,” Mr.Finfer said.
Mr,.Cruz said that even though United Interfaith Action came to Washington with a local perspective, he thought it was important to remember foreclosure was a national issue.
“We’re here in hope that our faith and our prayer will reach out to these people,” he said. “Because it’s not only affecting our community in New Bedford, it’s affecting everywhere in the country.”
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Ris Lacoste Brings a Life with Food to New Washington Restaurant
RIS
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
November 17, 2008
WASHINGTON – Ris Lacoste drew her first inspiration for cooking from Peanuts.
“I started making these cakes when I was a kid, Charlie Brown cakes. I would sell them for like $5, to parents or whoever wanted them,” she said.”
And while Ms. Lacoste no longer bakes, she certainly cooks. She was executive chef at Georgetown’s upscale 1789 Restaurant and worked alongside prominent seafood chef Bob Kinkead, establishing herself as one of Washington’s most high profile and well-respected chefs.
“There are a lot of people who come in through your door that should be thinking about careers in something else, not the restaurant industry, but Ris clearly had it,” said Mr. Kinkead, who served as a mentor and boss to Ms. Lacoste for a number of years.
Recently, Ms. Lacoste reflected on her 39 years in the food industry, and her future which includes the chance to open her own restaurant in Washington this summer. .
“Everything that I did brought me to where I am today,” Ms. Lacoste said, “which is odd to me.”
Odd only because when she was growing up in New Bedford no one would have pegged her as a chef. Or maybe because even though all the signs were there, no one, not even Ms. Lacoste, picked up on them.
Ms. Lacoste’s career as a chef formally began after her graduation from France’s La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine and with her first position cooking under Mr. Kinkead at the Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge, Mass.
But layered within her childhood, adolescence and early adulthood are details that, in retrospect, signaled her love of cooking and career path much earlier.
Doris Lacoste – called Rissie as a child and later just Ris – was the fifth of seven children and the youngest girl in her family.
With a family of nine to support, her parents worked hard to make sure that everyone ate three hot meals a day. Rene Lacoste worked as a fireman and part-time handyman while Yvonne Lacoste, who still lives in New Bedford, spent many years at home supporting the family before eventually going back to work as a secretary.
Because of their busy lifestyle, food became the centerpiece for the Lacoste family.
“We were poor, but there was always enough food,” older sister Cathy Lacoste-Hamel said. “The kitchen table was a major focus in the house.”
But even beyond her family’s kitchen, the young Ris was finding herself drawn toward the food industry. At age 12, she got her first job working as a cashier and shelf-stocker for Johnny Gorka at his Polish market near her childhood home.
At 16, Ms. Lacoste was hired as a waitress at Friendly’s Ice Cream shop, where she began to develop her way with food.
“She made the greatest cheeseburgers,” said Brian Pepin, a high school friend, who still lives near New Bedford. “If she was on the grill, I ordered lunch. If she wasn’t, I didn’t.”
Friendly’s also instilled in her the love of food service.
“I loved waiting on people. I loved knowing what they had to eat,” she said. “It was a great neighborhood place, and the same people came in every day. I loved that.”
Ms. Lacoste juggled her job at Friendly’s throughout high school and still managed to graduate as valedictorian from St. Anthony High School in 1974. Then she headed to the University of Rochester in New York with the intention of becoming a doctor.
“It was just that that was something you would do if you were smart,” she said of her decision to go pre-med. “It really did not mean anything to me. I had no vision of it.”
When Ms. Lacoste realized she lacked the passion for medicine, she moved to San Francisco to live with her sister Cathy. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in French.
While she was there, she continued working with food as a waitress and then assistant manager of the university’s faculty club where she worked for a while after she graduated from Berkeley in 1980.
In 1981, with money she had borrowed from her older brother Roger, Ms. Lacoste went to Paris to perfect and practice her French. After a few weeks there, she found herself at the doors of the cooking school La Varenne looking for work.
She was initially hired as a part-time typist, but was then offered a position as the school’s full-time receptionist. The position was unpaid, but she was given room and board and the chance to receive a grand diplôme in French cooking in exchange for her work.
After graduating from La Varenne, she came back to the U.S. and went to work with Mr. Kinkead at the Harvest. After two months he called her in for her first review. “He said, ‘Your knife skills suck, but your cooking is magic. It’s innate, either you have it or you don’t and you have it,’” Ms. Lacoste recalled. “And that solidified it. I never looked back.”
She worked with Mr. Kinkead for 13 years, helping him open 21 Federal in Nantucket and following him to Washington to help him open a branch of that restaurant in the capital city.
The Washington branch of 21 Federal closed in January 1993, but Ms. Lacoste assisted Mr. Kinkead with the opening of Kinkead’s, an upscale seafood restaurant, the following September.
In 1995, Ms. Lacoste was offered the position of executive chef of the 1789 Restaurant in Georgetown.
“I was so scared cutting those apron strings from Bob,” she said.
But Mr. Kinkead said he knew the transition would be good for her, though he described it as bittersweet.
“It was time for her to get her own place and do her own thing with 1789,” he said. “You don’t want to lose good people like that, but at the same time, it’s kind of like ‘This will be good for them.’”
While she was at the helm at 1789. Ms. Lacoste cooked for a number of luminaries including Woody Allen, Diana Ross, Nicole Kidman and Bill Cosby. She was even asked to prepare the 90th birthday dinner for Julia Child, one of the food world’s superstars.
Ms. Lacoste stayed with 1789 Restaurant for 11 years before leaving in 2006 with larger ambitions of opening her own restaurant.
In August 2007, she signed the lease on the property, which shares space with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington’s West End. The restaurant will be called simply Ris, and is set to open in late July.
“I characterize it as a classy neighborhood joint,” she said. “I really want to create that feeling that I will know everybody that comes in.”
The goal of her restaurant is simple, but many would say that’s not a surprise.
“She’s a simple person,” her mother said. “She really is. She’s not a fancy-dancy girl.”
That simplicity comes into play with Ms. Lacoste’s food and her ability to make basic things taste better.
“She makes food taste good,” Mr. Kinkead said. “That’s something that a lot of chefs just plain don’t do.”
Her friend Michelle Jaconi, a producer at NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said, “She makes these sandwiches with like ham and butter, and it’s my husband’s absolute favorite thing. And I can’t replicate it. It’s like the most simple thing, but it’s just her touch.”
That touch, Ms. Lacoste would say, is a little bit of herself.
“Your heart does go into your food,” she said. “So much of you goes into what you make. And that’s what people taste, is you. And, I truly believe that.”
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Kerry’s Small Business Committee Releases Guide for Small Businesses
SMALLBUSINESS
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Rachel Kolokoff
Boston University Washington News Service
November 7, 2008
WASHINGTON – Scott Bigelow, president of Bigelow Electrical in Worcester, said it was about a year and a half ago, when many of his competitors were going out of business, that he realized he needed a loan.
“I needed to expand in areas where we didn’t have the capital,” Mr. Bigelow said, “and so I called up Benjamin Franklin Bank.”
Mr. Bigelow said electric motor supply is not a flashy business that usually catches headlines, but motors are vital to industry and for nearly a century his company has provided them to Worcester.
Through Massachusetts’ Capital Access Program, which encourages banks to give loans to small business in lower income neighborhoods that would otherwise have trouble getting financing, Mr. Bigelow applied for a loan from Benjamin Franklin Bank.
“The bank saw that we were a candidate, I signed my life away and low and behold we were able to get the capital we needed,” Mr. Bigelow said.
Administered by the Massachusetts Business Development Corporation, the program, which helps businesses with less than $5 million in revenue, has received $15 million in state funding since 1993.
Corporation president Kenneth Smith said $10 million of those funds have been used to encourage more than 100 banks to loan money to some 3,800 small businesses in Massachusetts.
Banks are more comfortable making these somewhat riskier loans because the loans are backed by a reserve account, comprised of fees paid by the borrowers and state funds.
Mr. Smith said the banks determine the credit criteria for loans and while the maximum loan is $500,000, the average is around $70,000.
“It’s extremely flexible because borrowers can use it for working capital, real estate, equipment, pretty much anything they want,” Mr. Smith said.
Because the program has helped so many small businesses, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., included it in a reference guide that describes state programs from across the country that help small businesses.
Sen. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, who is the senior Republican on the committee, began more than a year ago asking governors and economic development agencies for feedback on successful small business programs.
The guide, which also includes programs from Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, features two programs from Massachusetts.
“These ideas have been put into action and are actually working today for small businesses,” Mr. Kerry said in an October press release.
Blain Marchand, vice president of commercial lending at Benjamin Franklin Bank, said his bank has been part of the capital access program for almost four years.
“It really allows us to write loans that we might otherwise have to pass on,” Mr. Marchand said.
Maria Heskes-Allard, vice president of Clinton Savings Bank, said her bank has participated in the program for more than two years. Since then, she said, the bank has given out 7 loans totaling some $600,000 to clients that might have had a hard time getting financed.
One of those clients is Roger McCarthy, owner of McCarthy’s Landscaping and Irrigation in West Boylston, which has done landscaping design and construction for almost 14 years.
Mr. McCarthy used the loan to acquire a building where his 18-employee business could develop. In the 13 years before then, he had been working out of a garage area with only a small office for client meetings.
“It’s helped us close more jobs because clients can come into a professional atmosphere,” Mr. McCarthy said.
The other Massachusetts program in the guide is the Small Business Technical Assistance Grant Program, which awards state funds to community development corporations whose mission is helping small businesses.
“The services applicants offer small businesses can be as simple as helping them put together an accounting system, helping with various software programs, or getting on more solid ground when it comes to bookkeeping,” said Andre Porter, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Mr. Porter said the state office, which has received some $1 million in state funds for the program each year since it began in 2004, awarded grants to 29 applicants in fiscal 2008.
One of those grant recipients was the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center in Worcester, which offers resources, business training and low cost office space to small businesses. The center received $115,000 in 2007, some 18 percent of its total budget.
“What this grant enables us to do is provide low cost technical assistance to small business who are looking to start up their ventures or to grow them,” said Felicia Riffelmacher, vice president of the center.
InnerCity Entrepreneurs, a company that offers management training to existing small businesses in Massachusetts, also received a program grant.
Jean Horstman, chief executive officer of InnerCity, said the company has received grants for the last two years and used the most recent grant of some $40,000 to create a branch in Worcester.
In two years, the company has helped 19 small businesses access $4.1 million in new loans to expand business and generate 58 new jobs.
The reference guide of programs for small businesses is available in its entirety on the Web site for the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, http://sbc.senate.gov/.
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Central Massachusetts Members Look Forward to 111th Congress
NEWPRES
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Rachel Kolokoff
Boston University Washington News Service
November 5, 2008
WASHINGTON - With a new, Democratic president and an increased Democratic congressional majority, the newly reelected House members from Central Massachusetts are optimistic about the legislative playing field.
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, said he expects President Barack Obama to practice bipartisanship, even with an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress.
“I think his speech reflected that he understands he’s not just president of the Democrats, but of everyone in this country,” Mr. McGovern said. “I think there will be a bipartisan cabinet and that he will work in a bipartisan way.”
Mr. McGovern said he has every reason to believe the new Congress will work well with Mr. Obama and does not expect much contention within the Democratic Party.
“Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but I just don’t,” Mr. McGovern said.
U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, said in a statement that he is also very excited about Capitol Hill’s new dynamic.
With Mr. Obama as president, he said, Congress has a chance to take the country in a new direction by restoring market regulations, passing another economic stimulus package and bringing an end to the Iraq war.
“The time has come for us to put in place and execute a plan to safely disengage our troops from Iraq and bring our soldiers home,” Mr. Olver said. “That policy shift is long overdue.”
Mr. Olver said Congress must also mandate emissions reductions for greenhouse gases and enact health care reform.
“Looking forward, the 111th Congress must also get serious about finally providing health care coverage to the 46 million Americans who have no health insurance,” he said.
Health care reform is also a big concern for U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, she said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I will work to give all Americans, especially our children, access to quality, affordable health care because we can do so much better than the system we have today,” Ms. Tsongas said.
Ms. Tsongas said in an interview that while the Democrats are a diverse lot, they embrace the same fundamental values on economic and energy policies.
“Where you have some differences of opinion are when you get down into the details, and those are things we can work out through the legislative process,” Ms. Tsongas said.
Ms. Tsongas also said it will be interesting to see if Mr. Obama appoints a bipartisan cabinet.
“I think clearly President-elect Obama brings a very measured approach, is clearly focused on creating an atmosphere that brings people together, and if that includes reaching out to and appointing some cabinet members from across the aisle, that is a good thing,” Ms. Tsongas said.
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Rep. Frank Lists Goals for Financial Services Committee
FRANK REACTION
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
November 5, 2008
WASHINGTON – Rep. Barney Frank said the 19 seats the Democrats picked up in the House will make it easier in the next session of Congress for the Financial Services Committee, which he chairs, to accomplish four goals.
First, he said the committee wants to make sure that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for building rental properties is well-funded.
Secondly, he said, the committee wants to pass laws to ensure that existing affordable housing built with private-public partnerships is preserved as affordable housing.
Rep. Frank said a third goal for the committee was to ban “irresponsible” subprime lending. He said the committee attempted this, the House agreed but the Senate did not approve the legislation.
“We tried to do that, the Senate didn’t go along,” he said. “It’s the biggest mistake that the Republicans made when they were in power that we tried to fix – banning irresponsible subprime lending.”
Finally, Rep. Frank, said the most comprehensive goal of the committee was to adopt a set of regulatory laws “to prevent the kind of abuses in the financial system … that were so much a part of the current problem”
Rep. Frank said the Democratic Senate gains, as well as Sen. Barack Obama’s win, would help the committee next year.
“I am optimistic that with this House and Senate majorities both being increased, and a president, that we’ll be able to do much of the [committee’s] agenda,” he said.
Of Sen. Obama’s decisive victory, Rep. Frank said he was excited “because it means we are off the defensive and can now do some useful things.”
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Frank Contributes More to Democratic Candidates in 2008 than 2006
FRANK MONEY
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
October 30, 2008
WASHINGTON – Rep. Barney Frank’s campaign committee is giving money to nearly twice as many U.S. House candidates in 2008 than it did in 2006.
Rep. Frank has donated to 80 Democratic candidates for the House since January 2007, up from the 41 he supported in the 2006 election cycle, according to his filings with the Federal Election Commission. Additionally, his campaign has almost tripled the amount of money it is giving, donating $230,000 to candidates this year compared to the $83,000 it contributed last cycle.
According to the contribution limits set by the FEC, Rep. Frank’s campaign committee is allowed to donate up to $10,000 per election cycle – $5,000 for the primary and $5,000 for the general election – to another candidate’s campaign committee.
Rep. Frank attributed his increase in donations to his more prominent role in the House. As chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Frank said he is expected to donate more money to House campaigns.
“It’s one thing to be the senior [member] in the minority, but in the majority, you’re expected to,” he said.
Being the chairman, he said, better equips him to raise money – a total of $1,880,978 during this election cycle.
“I get to raise more money, frankly, because I’m chairman,” Rep. Frank said. “I’m more prominent.”
He said that he has increased the number of candidates he is supporting in order to pick up more Democratic seats in the House.
“We have more chances, we think, to win,” Rep. Frank said. “I think that it’s my obligation.”
Rep. Frank’s challenger for his own reelection, Republican Earl Sholley, has raised $17,756. He was unavailable for comment.
In addition to the contributions made to House candidates, Rep. Frank is also expected to donate money to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. This cycle, his campaign donated $650,000 to the committee. It also contributed $30,000 to the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee – Federal Fund.
During this election cycle, Rep. Frank is supporting House candidates from 37 different states. Of the 80 candidates receiving funds from Rep. Frank this year, 29 of them received money in the 2006 election cycle. Of the 41 candidates he supported in 2006, 21 of them went on to win.
RealClearPolitics.com, an independent political Web site that tracks the federal elections, offers polls and statistics about the 2008 House races. According to its list of the 50 seats most likely to switch political party, seven of the candidates Rep. Frank is supporting are sitting incumbents in tight races.
Reps. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), Steven Kagen (D -Wiss), Nicholas Lampson (D-Texas), Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) all face tightening races in the days leading up to the election.
During this election cycle, 27 of the candidates Rep Frank is supporting are challenging incumbents. RealClearPolitics.com placed 19 of those races on its list of House seats likely to switch party after the election.
In 2006, all but one of Rep. Frank’s donations came in the last two months before the election. This year, his donations have been spread throughout the election cycle, with 63 individual donations in 2008 and 50 donations in 2007.
Rep. Frank donated an average of $2,923 to the candidates he supported. In 2006, his average was slightly less, $2,024, indicating that the increase in money spent comes from supporting more candidates rather than spending more on one particular candidate.
There are, however, several candidates getting more than the average. Rep. Frank. donated the most money to Kay Barnes, running for the 6th District seat in Missouri, and Donald Cazayoux, running for the 6th District seat in Louisiana; each received $6,000. Both candidates are running tight races against Republican incumbents.
In addition to the House races he’s supporting, Rep. Frank also donated money to Reps. Thomas Allen (D-Maine) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who are both running for the Senate.
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