Category: Spring 2002 Newswire
Senate Takes Up Bill that Allows Drilling in Alaska and Bans MtBE
WASHINGTON, March 06–Debate on President Bush’s energy policy bill began this week, and Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) is getting ready to fulfill his pledge to break with his party by opposing oil drilling in Alaska and to “fight like hell” to enact a ban on the polluting gas additive MtBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether).
“Developing a strong energy policy is one of my top priorities,” Smith said in a statement. “New Hampshire, along with much of New England, has suffered through its worst energy crisis in a decade. Dependence on foreign oil has risen, oil consumption has increased and something must be done.”
The 440-page energy bill, the most comprehensive to emerge in years, authorizes funds for the Energy Department through fiscal year 2006. The House approved it last August, though many key provisions, including the MtBE ban, have been added by the Senate Energy And Natural Resources Committee.
Smith said he played a major part in writing language in the energy bill that would ban MtBE, a petrochemical that is mixed with gasoline to make it burn more cleanly and reduce smog. MtBE has polluted waterways in New Hampshire and around the nation and Smith’s language includes $400 million for cleanup and remediation of contaminated sites.
“MtBE from New Hampshire’s perspective is extremely, extremely significant,” said Lisa Harrison, Smith’s communications director. “Thousands of wells, particularly in the southern part of the state, may be contaminated by MtBE. Senator Smith has worked with [Senate Majority Leader Thomas A.] Daschle [D-SD] to secure a commitment to debate MtBE,” she said.
Resistance to the MtBE ban is likely come from senators in states that produce ethanol, a corn-based petrochemical similar to MtBE that is banned in New Hampshire. “They want their ethanol to be mandated as a replacement, which isn’t good for us,” Harrison said.
While his colleagues kicked off debate on the wide-ranging bill on the Senate floor today, Smith stood on the Senate’s steps and told visiting students from the Sierra Students Coalition that the fight against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “looks very positive right now.”
Smith remains resolved to break with the Republican leadership by opposing drilling in 1.5 million acres of the Arctic reserve in Alaska. Because the Senate committee did not include a provision for drilling in the bill, pro-drilling Senators – including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) – are likely to offer an amendment to allow it.
Smith, who plans to support a filibuster led by the Democrats to prevent adoption of the drilling provision, reported to the visiting students that pro-drilling senators don’t have the votes to block the filibuster.
Smith, who votes with his party on more than 95 percent of issues, has made the fight against drilling a personal priority. A legislative aide said he changed his position after receiving 7,000 letters from constituents opposed to drilling.
Gregg, in a statement, defended his support for drilling, saying it will “minimally impact” the Alaska coastal plain.
Gregg cited the increase in the number of Central Arctic caribou in the Prudhoe Bay region since oil was discovered there in 1969, and said that advance technology would “drastically reduce the intrusion of necessary infrastructure on the environment when drilling.”
“The Untied States could replace imports of all Iraqi oil over the lifetime of the designated area of ANWR,” Gregg said.
In the House, Rep. Charles Bass voted (R-NH) against drilling, while Rep. John E. Sununu (R-NH) voted for it.
Adam Kolton, the Arctic campaign director at the Alaska Wilderness League, based in Washington, DC, said that oil from Alaska would not affect the Granite State. “No oil from Alaska is used in New Hampshire – not to heat peoples’ homes, not for cars, not for electricity.”
According to a poll conducted by ICR of Media, Pa., more than half of Americans oppose drilling in the Arctic reserve.
The energy bill also calls for incentives for alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, money for clean-coal technologies and new efficiency standards for consumer products such as air conditioners. It also would ease restrictions on utility conglomerates.
A recent Pew Research Center study showed growing public support for conservation and regulation as opposed to new exploration and more power plants.
Smith said he also worked on other parts of the energy bill including tax credits, energy diversification, alternative fuels, hybrid vehicles and a provision for tax credits for people who build and construct energy-efficient buildings.
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
FBI Documents Acknowledge Barboza’s Guilt and Association with Deegan Murder
WASHINGTON, March 02--According to FBI documents recently obtained by the New Bedford Standard Times, Mafia hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza and other mob-connected men who were alleged to have been involved in a gangland slaying received protection from the FBI while others were convicted of the murder.
The documents are part of the evidence presented to the House Committee on Government Reform, which is investigating corruption in the FBI in association with organized crime.
In 1965, New Bedford was home to Mr. Barboza, a notorious mob hitman and an informant for the Boston FBI. Now members of the House Committee on Government Reform are calling the FBI's actions in regard to Mr. Barboza "the worst cover-up in FBI history," and questioning the reasons behind the FBI's protection of organized crime.
On March 12, 1965, mobster Edward "Teddy" Deegan was found dead in an alleyway in Chelsea, Mass., slain in "gangland fashion," and according to documents dated March 10, 1965 the FBI was aware of the upcoming "hit" on Deegan before it happened.
The March 10, 1965 document written by then FBI agent H. Paul Rico states that an informant "advised that he had just heard from 'Jimmy' Flemmi thatáRaymond Patriarca has put the word out that Edward 'Teddy' Deegan is to be "hit"áand that for the next few evenings, the informant should have a provable alibi in case he is suspected of killing Deegan."
One day after the Deegan murder, an FBI memo from Mr. Rico, detailing a conversation with an informant, described the alleged events of the murder and stated "Flemmi toldáthat Ronnie Casesso and Romeo Martin wanted to prove to Patriarca they were capable individuals, and that is why they wanted to "hit" Deegan. Flemmi indicated that they did an 'awful sloppy job.'"
Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo and Peter Limone - the four men convicted of this murder - were not mentioned in the memo.
The internal FBI memos written by Mr. Rico were dated March 10, 1965 and March 13, 1965, respectively, but neither was distributed within the FBI until March 15, 1965 - three days after the murder of Mr. Deegan.
On March 19, 1965, a memo from the Boston division of the FBI was written to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover mentioning five people as responsible for killing Deegan - Ronnie Casesso, Joseph Romeo Martin, "Jimmy" Flemmi, Roy French and Mr. Barboza.
(Roy) "French apparently walked in behind Deegan when they were gaining entrance to the building and fired the first shot hitting Deegan in the back of the head. (Ronald) Casessa and (Romeo) Martin immediately thereafter shot Deegan from the front," the memo stated. In the 1968 murder trial in which Joseph Salvati was convicted of Deegan's murder, no members of the FBI testified about the information that existed naming others as responsible for the murder. However, Barbosa did testify, naming Salvati as responsible for the murder. After giving his testimony in the Deegan case in 1968, Barboza went into the newly created Witness Protection Program. The FBI placed Mr. Barboza in Santa Rosa, Calif., as the first member of the Witness Protection Program, under a new identity and enrolled him in cooking school. Edward Harrington, former Department of Justice lawyer and now a federal district judge in Boston, said he never saw the memos Mr. Rico wrote regarding Barboza's alleged involvement in the Deegan murder and is still "satisfied that Barboza was telling the truth."
In 1976, Barboza was gunned down on the streets of San Francisco and died at the age of 43. His killer or killers have not been identified.
According to Harrington, Barboza "paid the penalty for cooperating with the United States government."
"We know that Barboza ended up on the street," said William Delahunt, D-Mass and former district attorney in Norfolk County. "Mr. Salvati couldn't get a parole. He sat there for 30 years and he received no cooperation from the government. Is that what justice is about?"
According to Mr. Delahunt, the answer is a simple "no."
Mr. Burton and his committee have asked the Justice Department to turn over some subpoenaed documents involving FBI dealings with organized crime, over which President George W. Bush claimed executive privilege. On February 27, the justice department agreed to provide the Committee with access to the documents.
"The FBI has to be held accountable and the culture has to change. We have members of the United States Senate describing a culture of concealment and a culture of arrogance within the agency," Mr. Delahunt said. "Joseph Salvati lost 30 years because of a culture -because of an attitude. I respect the need for confidentiality, and I think it's really important, but it's about time that that culture changes."
As the committee continues with their investigation of FBI conspiring with Boston mafia informants, Mr. Salvati, paroled after 30 years from a life sentence in prison, continues to fight to clear his name.
"We all know what awesome power the Government has over our lives," said Victor Garo, Mr. Salvati's lawyer in an opening statement to the committee on February 27. "It becomes even more evident when they are trying to take away a person's freedom, or worse yet, their life."
Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., who chairs the government reform committee, said the government behaved reprehensibly in this matter.
"This is America - the land of the free and the home of the brave and we believe in fairness, equality and justice. And we find out that innocent people are being sent to jail and authorities know they are innocent. Giving the death penalty to the innocent protects mafia and underworld informants - that is a disgrace."
Written for The New Bedford Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.
Minorities Still Discriminated Against in Lending
By Kelly Field
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28-- The majority of blacks and Hispanics surveyed in a national poll believe that white men are favored in the lending process, according to a poll made public yesterday by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) at its annual conference.
The poll, which surveyed 1,258 Americans, also showed that 26 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Hispanics believe that they have been discriminated against in getting a loan.
John E. Taylor of Boston, the president and chief executive officer of the NCRC, said that the findings prove that discrimination in lending persists and that increased oversight is needed to ensure that poor and minority communities are served. Taylor and several Massachusetts members of the coalition are in Washington this week to build support for legislation that would extend the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to mortgage and insurance companies and require insurers and lenders to provide demographic data, with the applicant's consent.
This would make it easier to gauge whether lending institutions and insurers are providing loans to minority and women-owned businesses, Taylor said.
The CRA rates banks on the number of loans, investments and services they offer to residents of low and moderate-income communities. In the past 25 years, the law has been credited with increasing home and small business ownership and lowering crime.
The poll also addresses the issue of so-called "predatory loans", defined by the NCRC as "a subset of sub-prime loans·.designed to exploit vulnerable unsophisticated borrowers." These can include loans that charge exorbitant interest and fees, carry higher rates than the applicant's credit history would justify, and that do not take into account the borrowers ability to repay. According to the poll, 76 percent of all respondents believe that lenders deliberately steer women and minorities towards unsuitable loans.
Often, said Florence Hagins of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, the victims are people with poor or no credit ratings who are desperate for a loan--any loan.
"People that are strapped for cash think of it as a way out. They don't read the fine print," she said.
Immigrants-who may have little or no credit history--are also frequent targets said Kristin Harol, deputy director of Lawrence Community Works. Harol, whose organization runs a home ownership program, said she is accustomed to seeing immigrants come in with loans with 14 and 15 percent interest rates.
"The Latino population is hungry for home ownership and may be willing to take on a bad loan to pay," Harol said. "Rents in Boston are so exorbitant that it seems like a good deal."
According to Lawrence's Len Raymond, head of Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders, Lawrence has the second-highest rate of sub-prime loans in Massachusetts. Only Springfield has a higher rate.
A "certain segment" of these loans are "undoubtedly predatory," he said. "These guys are not interested in [applicants'] ability to pay. There are a lot of them that are equity strippers."
Harol said she also sees banks "overqualifying" homebuyers, providing them with mortgages they can't afford and then threatening to repossess their homes if they can't make payment. With the current recession and resulting layoffs, many borrowers are worried that they will not make their high interest payments and will default on their homes, she and others said.
"There is some growing fear of increased default and disclosure," particularly in Lawrence, Chelsea, Dorchester and Brockton, said Andrea Luquetta, director of housing and community investment at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
Members of the NCRC are working to build support for a Predatory Lending Consumer Protection Act that would expand the number of high-cost loans that are subject to consumer protections.
"As we have seen with Enron, there may be room for more oversight of sleazy businessmen," said Al Franken, a former Saturday Night Live producer known for his political impersonations and his Stuart Smalley persona; he backs the legislation.
At the conference, members of the banking and lending community disputed these criticisms, saying that they are charging only what's required to make a profit and protect themselves against risky clients.
"We are in the lending business; we do need to make money," said Steve Nadar of Option 1 Mortgage. "We may not be as fat a business as people say."
Liz Hall Ortiz of Citigroup said that the fact that only 10 percent of bank branches are in low and moderate-income neighborhoods belies accusations that lenders are "targeting" the poor.
And James Valentine of American Banking Association said that passing new legislation would only add more paperwork to an already overburdened process.
"People getting loans already don't understand any of this," he said. "This will double the amount of paper."
When Taylor suggested that lenders could simply explain the terms orally, Valentine replied "This is Washington; you know that doesn't happen."
Answered Taylor, "I'm from Boston, not Washington."
Published in The Eagle-Tribune, in Lawrence, Mass.
Smith: Punish Media For ‘Broadcast Fraud’
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28--Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), whose Senate race in 1996 was inaccurately called a failure by CBS News, wants to punish broadcast news organizations that knowingly air false election polling data or closing times.
Late Tuesday night on the Senate floor Smith offered his "broadcast fraud" amendment to the election reform bill that the Senate is now debating. Smith's amendment calls for fines or prison terms for members of the news media who report false results or report that polls are closed when they are open - as happened in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.
On election night, all major news networks except Fox reported that the Florida polls closed at 7:00 Eastern Time, Smith said. Six Florida counties, however, are in the Central Time zone, so when polls in the Eastern Time zone were closed, 361 precincts were actually open for another hour.
"In the last hour of the election in the Florida Panhandle, 361 precincts were ready to go in that last hour, expecting a rush of people coming home from work, and the public was told, on all of the major networks, that the polls were closed," Smith said. "The voters in the Panhandle had their votes suppressed."
Smith said his amendment would "ban false or misleading information" that confuses voters. "The whole issue, rightfully so, by the Democrats in [the 2000 presidential] election was, were the voters confused by looking at these butterfly ballots," he said. "Yet not a word was uttered about the confusion and absolute flat-out misleading information put out by the media, not by political operatives."
Smith's amendment would impose a fine of $10 million and/or a five-year prison term on any outlet with a Federal Communications Commission license for knowingly broadcasting false poll closing times or election poll results.
Smith invited his Senate colleagues to watch a seven-minute video he sent to their offices containing segments of news broadcasts from the night of the contentious election battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The video, Smith said, shows newscasters, including ABC's Peter Jennings, CBS's Dan Rather, NBC's Tom Brokaw and CNN's Judy Woodruff, saying that the Florida polls had closed even though they were still open.
Smith said the tapes show "every one of these networks saying the same thing, over and over and over again, ad nauseam, between 7 and 8 o'clock: The polls are closed in Florida."
The Committee for Honest Politics, a Republican-oriented group, reported that 19,133 Florida voters were disenfranchised when they did not vote because they believed polls were closed when they were open.
Daniel Perrin, the executive director of the Committee for Honest Politics, received an affidavit from poll workers in Florida who described shock at their thinly attended polling stations in the later hours. A poll worker in Bay County said it was "like the lights went out," Perrin told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee last year.
"The panhandle region is 2 to 1 Republican," Perrin said in an interview. "The media effectively suppressed the votes of thousands of voters." Lauding Smith for his "courage," Perrin said, "There's a large body of people who would never go up against those who own and operate nightly news stories."
As further evidence of the media's "wrong," "misleading" and "arrogant" actions, Smith on Tuesday referred to a letter Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris distributed to the news media on October 30, 2000, "trying to get the media to report the truth eight days before the election." Harris, he said, requested that the media delay predictions of the outcome of elections until after 8 p.m. EST.
Smith added a personal note to his late-night amendment-touting speech: "Dan Rather, in 1996 on my election, called my opponent and congratulated him on his victory," Smith said. "Then he called me a couple of hours later wanting to know what went wrong. I said: 'Nothing went wrong, Dan. I won.'"
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Barboza Influences FBI Corruption in Boston Mafia
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27--The House Committee on Government Reform is demanding documents from the Justice Department relating to the FBI protection of notorious New Bedford mafia hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza.
The committee, which is developing legislation aimed at preventing such alleged FBI misconduct, is preparing a contempt citation that would require Justice to turn over files on the FBI's involvement with Mr. Barboza.
"I think once the White House and the Justice Department realize that we are going all the way to the mat with this thing, I think they will give us the documents," said chairman Dan Burton, R-IN. "It's not in the national interest to keep this under wrap."
Since August, the committee has been denied documents relating to the FBI's involvement.
"The federal government wants this committee and those people out there listeningáto believe that Barboza would kill but he would never lie, because that is where he drew the line," said Victor Garo, the attorney for Joseph Salvati who was convicted for the 1965 murder of Teddy Deegan on the 1971testimony of Mr. Barboza. "The FBI knew Ted Deegan was going to get killed, and they didn't stop that from happening."
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, according to Mr. Garo, were given to serial killers like Mr. Barboza, Steven "The Rifleman" Flemmi and James "Whitey" Bulger, and they were given the protection of the FBI while Mr. Salvati went to prison for a crime he did not commit.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - famed words from our Constitution," Mr. Garo said. "But, to the federal government in Boston and to the FBI, these words meant nothing, because it was the FBI who determined who got life, who got liberty and got to pursue happiness."
"The Animal" testified against Mr. Salvati in the Deegan murder and, according to committee members, the FBI knew Mr. Barboza was lying to the jury in the murder trial.
According to Mr. Burton, "the FBI had document after document in their possession showing who the real killers were, and they never turned them over to the defense. The question remaining on everyone's minds is how could the FBI let this happen?"
"If there is a need for any further evidence that there exists within the FBI and the Justice Department a culture of concealment, we have overwhelming evidence," William Delahunt, D-MA., said.
As for Mr. Garo, his point is clear: "We cannot allow the justice system to function the way it has in Boston in the last 30 years."
Written for The New Bedford Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.
Johnson, Maloney Split on Bush’s Tougher Welfare Plan
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27--Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-6th) said at a press conference yesterday she strongly supports President George W. Bush's new welfare proposal and will push for passage of the measure that would increase the hours a week welfare recipients must work.
Johnson (R-6th), who helped manage passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill which Congress must renew this year said, "We are going to build on the success of welfare reform, what we learned about helping people become self-sufficient through the first welfare reform billá that fundamentally changed welfare in America."
Currently, half of welfare recipients in each state must work at least 30 hours a week; Bush's proposal would raise that requirement to 40 hours and increase the percentage of recipients who must work from 50 percent to 70 percent by 2007.
Bush's recommendations would also make it more difficult for states to meet the percentage requirement simply by reducing the number of people on the welfare rolls.
But Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5th), who is running against Johnson for the House seat in the newly redrawn 5th District, opposes much of Bush's approach. Maloney said he plans to co-sponsor a bill that "avoids three of the problems" with the president's bill.
The Danbury Democrat said his bill, which will be filed in the "next couple of weeks," will address those three issues - deadbeat dads, more money for child care and health care and additional funds for job training. Maloney said Bush would cut job training funds by 12 percent in his budget.
Bush's plan also offers initiatives to help ease welfare recipients' transition from assistance to jobs. The president called for $300 million in funds for programs that encourage poor couples with children to marry. The proposal would also allow states to place welfare recipients in education, training and other programs for up to 16 hours a week or put people into rehabilitation for substance abuse or job training for three months once every two years.
"We need to talk about moving up the career ladder, we need to talk about moving up the income ladder so that self-sufficiency for families is real and rewarding and secure in their lives," said Johnson. "We have too many people making it off the welfare roll and then being confronted with housing issues that make them homeless."
Matthew Barrett, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Social Services, said that Bush's plan would be compatible with Connecticut's welfare system.
"[Bush's plan is] very consistent with the approach taken in Connecticut," he said. "The increased work requirements, the increased flexibilityáis sort of tailored to our program."
Speaking at a church in a poor section of Washington, Bush said Tuesday: "Welfare reform in 1996 was good and sound and compassionate public policy. We are encouraged by the initial results of welfare reform, but we're not content."
Last year 2.1 million families were on welfare compared with 5.1 million in 1994, the year that the number of welfare recipients peaked.
Johnson, flanked by Reps. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.), Kay Granger (R-Texas), Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), touted the successes of the 1996 welfare reform bill that cut welfare rolls in half, including "a dramatic increase in the number of women working and supporting themselves."
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
Johnson Supports Bush’s Welfare Initiative
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27--Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-Conn., and several other GOP female representatives banded together yesterday to praise the welfare reauthorization proposal President George W. Bush unveiled on Tuesday.
"I'm proud that the president has come to the table with some new ideas, some new thinking, and some generosity in his heart, and I intend to work with him and my colleagues to move welfare reform to the next rung of opportunity in people's lives," Johnson said during a press conference held at the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson helped draft the1996 welfare reform law, which required welfare recipients nationwide to find employment after receiving public assistance for two years. Also known as the "welfare-to-work" program, the law also set a five-year life-time limit for individuals to receive welfare benefits.
Bush's plan would toughen the 1996 welfare reform act and require states to have 50 percent of their welfare cases working. Currently, the average state has about 30 percent of its welfare recipients working. Bush's proposal would also require that states get to a figure of 70 percent of their welfare recipients working by 2007.
Bush also proposed an increase in required work activity from 30 to 40 hours per week.
Johnson said she also supported the president's plan to count two days, or 16 hours, of job training, substance abuse treatment, or mental health education programs toward a recipient's work-week quota.
Last year about 2.1 million families were on welfare, down from 5.1 million in 1994, when the number of welfare recipients was at its highest.
"There's been a fifty percent decline in cash welfare families completely dependent on public dollars, and with that, a dramatic increase in the number of women working and supporting themselves or contributing to supporting their own support and developing themselves," Johnson said.
Bush also offered changes that would toughen work requirements and advocate abstinence programs and marriage for single parents, pointing to statistics that show children reared in a two-parent environment are less likely to fall victim to drug addictions, poverty, violence and are less likely to drop out of school.
Bush is willing to dedicate $300 million of the $19 billion welfare budget to experimental programs to promote two-parent families including premarital counseling.
"We still have one third of births out of wedlock in this country," according to Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio.
Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash. said, "It's important for us to remember what it was like 5 years ago" when welfare initiatives were "reverse and perverse" and "hurtful to children without two parents."
Critics of Bush's proposed changes say there may not be enough money to do everything he is suggesting and the administration plan includes no increases for federal welfare grants and child care assistance.
"While we understand that no additional dollars are earmarked and that there are increased work requirements, the increased flexibility is sort of tailored to [Connecticut's state welfare] program," said Matthew Barrett, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
Wendell Primus, the income security director at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington, said it may not be so easy during a recession for more welfare recipients to find work.
"You can't snap your fingers and mothers are going to magically have jobs," Primus said, who added that funding might be another issue that arises from Bush's proposal.
"The thing to see is what the states say about their capacity to meet these requirements and whether they can do this without funding increases," Primus said.
"We need to talk about moving up the career ladder," Johnson said, "so that self-sufficiency for families is real and rewarding and secure. This bill is about the future, it's about growing independence fostering economic growth among people who have low incomes."
Published in The Waterbury Republican-American, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
New Hampshire Woman Receives $10,000 Award for “Up” Syndrome Fund
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27--Meredith-resident Ann Forts, 34, once told her father that she wanted to have as many friends as there are stars in the sky. Standing in front of hundreds of disability activists here last night while receiving a $10,000 award from the American Association of People with Disabilities, Forts beamed, "I think I'm getting close."
Forts, a motivational speaker and advocate for people with Down Syndrome, was one of seven people to received the Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award at a ceremony held at a Washington hotel last night and attended by members of Congress and disability activists.
Forts was chosen from hundreds of people to receive the award because she emulated AAPD founder Hearne's mission to open doors for people with disabilities. The AAPD in a non-profit that promotes political and economic empowerment for the more than 56 million children and adults with disabilities in the United States.
Forts started referring to her disability as "UP" rather than "Down" Syndrome around the age of 8, because she believes "Down" sounds too negative.
"My parents got the 'Down Syndrome Newsletter' and I put an X right through 'Down'," she said at a reception before the award, where she greeted people like Sen. Ted Kennedy, (D-MA) and Ted Kennedy Jr. as old friends. "It sounds so bad. I wish the person who discovered Down Syndrome was named 'Dr. UP.'"
Forts served on President Clinton's Committee on Mental Retardation for three years and served three terms on the New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council. She is now the director of the Direct Support Professionals Association of New Hampshire.
Forts created The Ann Forts "UP" Syndrome Fund four years ago. So far she has raised almost $200,000 toward her goal of $1 million by selling t-shirts, hats and other items with the "UP" Syndrome logo, like one she proudly wore over her black pant suit at the ceremony. The fund is designed to provide assistance to people with Down Syndrome and scholarships for people who plan to work in special education, according to her father and traveling companion, Bernard Forts of Moultonboro. The fund has spent $20,000 of the interest, he said, to help Down Syndrome children pay their medical bills and attend conferences.
"Ann started going to conferences at a young age, before high school," said her mother Shirley Forts, who also attended last night's dinner.
It was in high school, at the public Milton Academy in Moultonboro - where she was the first Down Syndrome student - that Forts became, as she calls herself, "a ham." "No, I wasn't the head cheerleader," she said with a wink," but I led the cheerleading squad."
Already involved in the disability community, Forts started speaking to human genetics classes at Dartmouth Medical School as a young adult. She then joined the Lions Club. After a few years the members held a benefit for her to raise money to establish her fund.
When she's not raising money she gives motivational speeches, like one she gave two weeks ago to elementary-aged kids in Wayland, Mass.
To pay the rent at her apartment in Meredith, where she has lived by herself for a decade, Forts also holds odd jobs, like one she has now at a video store. "I love movies, and TV," she said. "And I love to sing. I just got a Karaoke machine for Christmas. I'm a pro at 'New York New York.' I love my life."
Rep. John Sununu (R-NH) presented Forts with her award, remarking on how well known she is. "There's not a local sporting event or church dinner where you can't find Annie's smiling face," he said. "I join everyone that knows and has met Annie in declaring that she can do it."
Before presenting the award and getting a big hug and kiss from Forts, Sununu chuckled, "She's a hugger."
"Everybody knows Ann," Susan Swanson, the executive director of the Kennedy Foundation said at the ceremony. "She doesn't have much patience for people who aren't empowered."
Mrs. Forts said her daughter plans to put most of the award money toward her UP fund, but may use some for other expenses. "She's so busy. We probably travel 20,000 miles a year."
Published in The Union Leader, in Manchester, New Hampshire
Connecticut Homeland Defense Officials Ask State’s Congressional Delegation for More Funds
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26--Two top officials handling Connecticut's homeland security told several members of the Connecticut congressional delegation yesterday at a closed-door meeting that there is a defense plan in place for the state but more funds are needed for military construction.
The hour-long meeting held in the Capitol was the second time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that Connecticut officials have briefed the state's members of Congress on homeland defense. Vincent DeRosa, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety and Connecticut National Guard Maj. Gen. William Cugno discussed potential spending for a new armory in New Haven and a Regional Training Institute that would be used to train National Guard members and Justice Department employees to fight terrorism.
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4th), who attended the meeting along with Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd), Nancy Johnson (R-6th) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, said "the state of Connecticut is ahead of others in terms of preparing for acts of terrorism."
"The state is well organized, and people are taking the terrorist threats very seriously," Lieberman (D-Conn.) said. "We just heard about the committees [the officials have] set up á and we talked about what they hoped to get."
However, Kevin Maloney, a spokesman for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, who was not at the meeting, said in a telephone interview that Connecticut's homeland security system is inadequate.
"At our conference in December, one of the officials asked the 250-plus municipal leaders in the audience if they were ready and prepared and had everything they needed to raise their hand, Maloney said. "Not one person raised their hand."
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities is an association representing the largest of the state's cities and towns and encompassing more than 93 percent of the state's population. The group plans to meet with the state's congressional delegation early next month to continue asking for funds for homeland defense to pay for training and overtime costs for police, fire and emergency personnel.
Bush's budget for the fiscal year 2003 calls for $37.7 billion in homeland security-an increase of $18.2 billion from this year. Connecticut delegation members said they would try to secure more funds in appropriations bills, and Lieberman, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would help to get more money for construction of military facilities.
"Property taxpayers, who are quite overburdened in Connecticut, simply don't have the capability to come up with increased assistance that's needed in order to help towns do the best job possible with domestic preparedness," Maloney said.
He added that money is also needed to help regions coordinate with other parts of the state "in terms of domestic preparedness, planning, training and equipment purchases."
Shays said it is important for different municipalities to work together. "Not every community is going to get everything it would want, but every area needs to get what they need," he said. "Then they need to pool their resources and help each other."
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
Local Student Converses With Maloney
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26--He may resemble a typical high school senior who speaks his own slang and stylishly gels his spiked hair, but Jonathan Blansfield knew how to use his intellect to make an impression.
During his visit yesterday with Rep. James H. Maloney, D-Conn., Blansfield had this to say to the lawmaker about the hotly contested 5th District congressional race that matches Maloney against Rep. Nancy L. Johnson in November: "One of the things about the coming elections that I find interesting is that you have a 68-year-old on one side, who only has two or three terms left, and than there is you, with this term-limit contract."
The 17-year-old Waterbury resident quickly added, "One question [Johnson] is probably going to ask is - what, are you just going to run for a dead duck - for one term?"
"Do I look like a dead duck?" Maloney said after a hearty laugh, and then explained that he supports term limits because they allow constituents to hear new voices and opinions on a regular basis.
"That's what gets me mad." Blansfield said to Maloney. "When the Constitution was originally drafted, it wasn't politicians entering the political spectrum because of a career. [Leadership] was supposed to by cyclical."
Amongst the nods of stipulation and shared laughter, Blansfield engaged in a lively 30-minute discussion with the three-term Democrat as part of the Presidential Classroom Scholars Program, a Washington-based non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to giving high school juniors and seniors across the nation an insider's view of the federal government through seminars, discussion groups and visits to congressional leaders.
Blansfield, a self-proclaimed political independent and a student in the J.F. Kennedy High School's Students of Academic Renown (SOAR) accelerated program, was one of 52 Connecticut students selected by the program to participate in one of nine week-long sessions based on his academic excellence and leadership skills.
Maloney encouraged Blansfield to pursue a broadcast journalism career and chatted about whether the news media influenced the government or vice versa.
"I think it's a mix," Blansfield said after Maloney told him of a former classmate who made a career leap from journalism to politics as an illustration of how journalism and political public service are aligned with one another.
"It's like asking - do you influence your brother?" elaborated Maloney, who once wrote a recommendation letter to Boston University for Blansfield's older sibling.
"Yeah," Blansfield responded.
"And does your brother influence you?"
"Nah," Blansfield said with a mischievous side-glance before admitting, "to some extent."
Prior to the student and the lawmaker's light-hearted, but serious, conversation, Maloney suggested that Blansfield and the rest of this week's 170 Presidential Classroom scholars visit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in addition to their scheduled tours of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.
Maloney also commended the diversity of the program and the students' individual analytical prowess.
"One of the things I like about this program is that you have kids from all over the country who come with very different points of view. That's exactly what goes on in Congress," Maloney noted.
Blansfield, who has met Maloney several times before, didn't seemed fazed by the representative's political prominence.
"I appreciate you meeting with me," he told the representative as he shook his hand. "It's awesome."
Published in The Waterbury Republican-American, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
