Category: Jessica Sperlongano
The Wal-Mart Bank Hype
WASHINGTON, April 28 – Wal-Mart submitted a bank charter application on July 18, 2005, intending to open a bank on the sixth floor of an office building in Salt Lake City, Utah.
One week later the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the agency that grants bank charters, started to receive the first of almost 2,000 letters opposing the Wal-Mart request.
“Most new bank applications receive little to no interest,” said FDIC spokesman David Barr in a telephone interview. “Typically if we get a half a dozen or more comments that’s considered a lot…. So to receive more than 1,900 comments is highly unusual and is the most we’ve ever received on a new bank application.”
According to the Wal-Mart application, the bank would be solely used to process credit card, debit card and electronic check transactions, which the company says would save it hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Wal-Mart insists it has no plans to open branch banks which would provide consumer banking services in its stores.
But despite what the Wal-Mart application says, many people fear that approval would open the door for hundreds of Wal-Mart banks to be opened in stores around the country.
As a result of the outpouring of opposition, the FDIC recently held several public hearings on Wal-Mart’s application. The first hearings, held on April 10 and 11 at the FDIC headquarters in Arlington, Va., drew both angry opponents from across the country as well as supporters of the application.
Andrew Grossman, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, a consumer group that monitors Wal-Mart’s activities, said in his testimony at the hearing, “This mammoth corporation’s historic patterns of disregarding legal accountability, the potential size of their charter, and the troubling lack of transparency in its application all contribute to our strong belief that this application could threaten the deposit insurance system and endanger America’s fiscal security.”
Jack Blum, counsel to Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal activist organization, voiced strong objections to Wal-Mart’s request. “Should a charter be granted, we believe the world’s largest retailer would quickly move to use its position in the marketplace and its control of prime real estate to become one of the largest banks in the United States,” Blum said.
Blum also raised concerns at the hearing about what might happen if Wal-Mart were to experience financial problems in the future and Wal-Mart’s bank were to fail.
Jane J. Thompson, Wal-Mart Financial Services president, testified that “Wal-Mart would be profoundly disappointed and its customers and communities would be ill-served if Wal-Mart is treated differently than the many commercial and retail firms that now engage in more extensive banking activities than proposed for our bank.”
This type of bank charter request is not unusual from large stores – both Target and Nordstrom went through the same process with little opposition, according to the FDIC
The difference is that Wal-Mart is not just any company, according to Marty Heires, its senior communications manager.
“I think there are a lot of critics of the company these days, most of them are driven by the labor unions, and they oppose us at every turn,” said Heires in a telephone interview. “I think that it was not terribly surprising that there would be some opposition, but I think we would tell you that we’re a little surprised at the level here.”
Many Wal-Marts now have branches of local banks in their stores. Heires said that Wal-Mart leases out the space to third parties and that more than 300 financial institutions operate more than 1,150 branches in the stores with plans to open an additional 250 branches.
In New Hampshire, several of the state’s 26 Wal-Mart stores have branch banks. Citizens Bank has a branch in the Amherst Wal-Mart Super Center. The bank has 18 branches in stores throughout New Hampshire but the branch in the Amherst Wal-mart is the only one located in a Wal-Mart, according to Kathleen Reardon of Citizens Bank.
“Citizens is a leading in-store bank because it provides convenience to our customers,” Reardon said.
Wal-Mart’s Heires maintains that allowing banks to have branches in Wal-Mart stores is as far as the chain would go with public banking.
“All we’re doing is leasing them space because our customers tell us that they like the convenience of having a bank,” Heires said. “It really would have no impact at all [on smaller communities]. The average consumer will not even know this bank exists.”
But the ADA’s Blum is not convinced. He said at the hearing that “Wal-Mart’s application for a charter to enter the banking business is fraught with risk—risk which, in the end, will be guaranteed by the American taxpayer,” Blum said. A Washington attorney, Blum said that he spent much of his life studying banks and has seen retailers forced into bankruptcy because of sudden changes in the commercial environment.
The FDIC “is not and should not be in the business of understanding the risks of large-scale retailing,” said Blum. “It should not have to worry about the safety and soundness of a global retail business dependent on complex global supply systems.”
At least one person not connected with Wal-Mart spoke in favor of the application. Lawrence White, an economics professor at New York University said that it is important for Wal-Mart to be treated like any other store requesting a banking charter. As long as the bank is adequately capitalized and competently managed, and the relationships and transactions between the bank and owner are closely monitored, then it should be allowed a charter, said White.
“The doomsday scenarios of Wal-Mart’s rivals seem far-fetched and unrealistic,” said White. “Such scenarios ought not to be guiding bank regulatory policy.”
A charter is rarely rejected, not because every application deserves a bank, but because the FDIC works closely with the applicant until they come to an agreement on how the bank is to be opened and run, said FDIC spokesman Barr.
Barr said it is somewhat rare for the FDIC to reject a banking application but often applicants are made very aware of FDIC concerns, and a charter is withdrawn before it has the chance to be rejected.
A decision on the application could take up to six months for FDIC consideration, Barr said.
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New Hampshire Names Its Cherry Blossom Princess
WASHINGTON, April 6 - It may still be a bit chilly in New Hampshire, but Washington is knee deep in cherry blossoms. Packed with sushi, sake and a whole lot of princesses, the annual Cherry Blossom festival is a celebration of states, and of everything Japanese.
The annual festival celebrating the blooming of the city's thousands of Japanese cherry trees draws tourists from all over the world. Akin to New England when the leaf peepers show up in the fall, Washington is overrun by those wishing to see the city in pastel pink. The three-week festival, which is almost 70 years old, opened on March 25 this year with the annual kite festival on the National Mall and ends Sunday with the closing ceremony.
Each year, the National Conference of State Societies sponsors the Cherry Blossom Princess program, honoring young women of accomplishment from each state. The granite state program is organized through the New Hampshire State Society in Washington, an educational organization that focuses on providing stipends to students from or studying in New Hampshire who are interning in the nation's capital.
This year, Kathleen Tobin, an office manager and scheduler in Rep. Charles Bass's Capitol Hill office, is New Hampshire's 2006 Cherry Blossom Princess.
The 21-year-old Newmarket native graduated from Boston University in December 2005 with a degree in journalism and political science. Tobin said academics have always been her focus, so it was a nice change to participate in the festival. "I never got to do anything that was completely out of my realm, different than anything I've ever done before, and this was," she said.
Michael McBride, the New Hampshire State Society's president, said that unlike other state societies that are more focused on social events, his group is education-oriented.
Christina Thornton, New Hampshire's 2003 cherry blossom princess, who now works in Sen. John Sununu's office as well as being involved with the society, said that the major recruiting for the cherry blossom festival is done through a press release. The society forms a princess committee that reviews the applications, which include an essay and biographical information, and the committee then holds interviews with finalists.
To be selected, Thornton said, a young woman needs "some sort of tie to the state where we feel they would represent our state well and are knowledgeable about New Hampshire and represent what New Hampshire is."
Sending in her application "was sort of on a whim," said Tobin, who came across a press release from the New Hampshire State Society while she was sorting e-mails in Bass's office. Tobin said she was joking about applying with another staffer, who suggested that she seriously consider it.
The essay topic that Tobin had to write focused on what New Hampshire meant to her. "I was born in New Hampshire, raised in New Hampshire, my family still lives in the same house I was born in, so for me, it is literally everything," Tobin said.
Thornton said she was very impressed with Tobin's essay. "She has a very strong academic portfolio and has been involved in several leadership organizations, and she just had a lot of enthusiasm for wanting to represent New Hampshire," Thornton said.
McBride, who joined Thornton on the selection committee, said that Tobin's application was fantastic. "She's very articulate, excited about the prospects of being the princess., and we just thought that she met the qualifications very well and that she would represent the society very well."
"It's not a beauty contest, which is one of the nice things about it," Thornton said. "It's based on their achievements and the leadership roles that they've had."
Tobin said one of the traditions she was looking forward to is the exchange of gifts between states. "Each representative brings a gift for all the other Cherry Blossom princesses. Being from New Hampshire, I have a little bottle of New Hampshire maple syrup," Tobin said. "But each state brings something, so basically I'm going to have something from every state."
According to the National Conference of State Societies, the blossoms history has been rooted in Washington since 1912, when Helen Taft, the wife of the president, brought her love of the trees to the city.
Having lived in Yokohama, Japan, for a short time, Mrs. Taft wanted to bring the blossoms to the swamp land that is now the Tidal Basin area. At her request, 3,000 trees, which are not native to North America, were donated to the city by prominent Japanese. The first two trees were planted by Mrs. Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador, Viscountess Chinda, on March 27, 1912, in West Potomac Park. Ninety-four years later, the two trees still reside on the Tidal Basin.
The Cherry Blossom Festival found its beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s, when school groups would sponsor informal ceremonies while the trees were in bloom. The princess program began in 1939, when some state societies in Washington began recruiting female college students to represent their states during the festival. During the Second World War, the festival was cancelled and did not resume until 1948.
Now, in addition to parades, dinners and public events, the princesses also visit congressional offices, embassies, national memorials and have a visit with Laura Bush in the White House.
"A lot of it's becoming familiar with the Japanese culture and building relationships with the individuals that are part of the festival," Thornton said.
At the Cherry Blossom Ball, held Saturday night at the Fairmont Hotel, a Cherry Blossom Queen was scheduled to be selected by spinning a wheel.
"What they do is spin the wheel and whoever it lands on is chosen to be the Cherry Blossom Queen," Thornton said. "If they're chosen, then they'll actually be sent to Japan for two weeks later in the spring to represent the United States and their state in Japan."
New Hampshire's never had a queen, Tobin said, adding that if she was the winner, she would have to get her passport renewed because it has expired.
Tobin originally came to Washington as part of Boston University's Washington Journalism Program, where she covered Capitol Hill for the Union Leader.
"When I came down here I was dead set on being a reporter in D.C., so I knew that. this would be a great way to get some experience, get some clips and make a lot of contacts that I need," Tobin said.
But she found that getting a job as a reporter in Washington was more difficult than she originally expected.
"When I was here last semester I really enjoyed being on the Hill, I really like being in the middle of it all, understanding why and how bills become law, how legislation is processed," Tobin said, adding that this was what led her to a job on Capitol Hill..
Although Tobin is enjoying her time in the Capitol, she said that she misses many aspects of the granite state. "I miss being with my family," she said. "Everything's so different there; just the whole lifestyle feels so much more relaxed there. You can have just as much stuff to do, but it's so much calmer that I feel much more relaxed."
Tobin will return to the region in the summer when she will be getting married across the border in Maine. But the reception, she said, will be in New Hampshire.
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Aquaculture Industry Research Thrives in New Hampshire
WASHINGTON, April 6 - The next time you order seafood you may want to ask whether it is wild or farm-raised because with aquaculture still in its infancy in most of the United States, much of the seafood consumed in the United States. is imported from countries where it is farm-raised.
"American consumers are enjoying more seafood every year, but to a large degree the increase in consumption is not coming from the wild," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's National Ocean Policy Study, during a hearing on offshore aquaculture on Thursday.
"We are getting a great deal of this increase from overseas, and much of the increase in imports comes from fish farms far from the reach of U.S. environmental regulations," he said.
According to Sununu, over the past three years more than a billion pounds of shrimp have been imported each year, Atlantic salmon imports have doubled and tilapia imports have tripled.
The purpose of the hearing was to study the growing of fish in cages in the ocean, [an alternative to importing most of the nation's seafood. The committee is studying how to control and promote this industry. Without regulation, seafood can be imported with toxins, which is why the committee is interested in the creation of U.S. fish farms that could be regulated by federal law.
"The United States lags behind a dozen nations, including and as far away as China, Norway and Australia, and as close as Mexico and Canada, in developing offshore aquaculture," said Sununu, who along with other members of the committee has concerns about the environmental and health repercussions.
One of the witnesses at the hearing was Richard Langan, a proponent of aquaculture and the director of the University of New Hampshire's Open Ocean Aquaculture Program. The goal of the university program, which began in 1997, is to further develop commercial aquaculture throughout New England, to create employment opportunities and to contribute to community and economic growth, according to the program's Web site.
"Our project is looking at species that are native to our area, shellfish and finfish, and we sort of had a very early success with shellfish, in particular mussel culture; we saw that we had excellent production capacity," Langan said after the hearing. "We went out and did an economic assessment of it, and that came back very favorable, so we've done a great deal of outreach to fishermen in New Hampshire."
Langan said that the program also is assisting a New Hampshire fisherman with a commercial start-up in New Hampshire waters. The program hopes that the fisherman is successful so other local fishermen will attempt aquaculture projects.
Langan said mussel culture can be done part time to supplement regular fishing. "We're not asking someone to replace their fishing activities; it's something they can do in conjunction with fishing, so we think there's real economic opportunity there, for fishermen who can continue to use the boats that they already have," he said.
However, he said, for finfish there is still a way to go. "I think we still need a couple more years to answer some biological questions in terms of getting better growth rates," said Langan, whose program is looking at some small cage systems and studying if they will pay off economically.
"In terms of whether it's a large company producing seafood off the coast of New Hampshire or a small-scale commercial fisherman producing it, I think there's going to be some combination of direct benefit for New Hampshire citizens, plus they're going to have a nice local supply of fresh, high-quality seafood," Langan said.
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Pork Book Cites Wasted Government Spending
WASHINGTON, April 5 -Congress is flushing money down the drain, literally, according to the 2006 Pig Book released Wednesday by the Citizens Against Government Waste.
Surrounded by Winnie and Dudley, two pigs on leashes; Porky,someone in a full-body pig suit; and foam pigs and plastic snouts from the non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating wasteful spending, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., spoke out against pork barrel spending.
The annual report includes "oinkers of 2006," awards for what the organization considers the most egregious spending. Some of the projects cited were $1 million for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative, $500,000 for the Sparta (N.C.) Teapot Museum and $100,000 for a boxing club in Henderson, Nev.
"Money taken from defense appropriations still remains the highest number and still the most outrageous because it diverts money from our national defense and the men and women who are serving and fighting and risking their live," McCain said. His favorite spending project, he said sarcastically, was the glass-blowing museum in Ohio.
The Pig Book defines pork as spending that meets at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chambter of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; not requested by the President; greatly exceeds the President's budget request; not the subject of congressional hearings; and serves only a local or special interest.
The national spending per person for pork is $30.55, according to the Pig Book. "Alaska this year has $489.87 per person and Hawaii has $378.29 per person," McCain said. "Those are my citizens' tax dollars that are being inappropriately allocated to states not by virtue or need for these tax dollars but through the earmarking process. My constituents deserve better."
Arizona, according to the Pig Book, received $228,076,000, or $38.40 per capita (20 th in the nation), in projects the group identified as pork.
Coburn said that it is important to recognize that not all earmarks are necessarily bad.
"It's not about whether a project may or may not be good, it's about whether or not elected leaders in this country have the courage to make the hard decision about where we spend money and where we don't; the process is broken," Coburn said.
"Earmarks are the gateway drug to overspending," he said. "We are overspending, and what we are spending is future opportunities for our children and grandchildren."
New Hampshire ranked 11 th in the nation for pork spending per capita at $62.36. It ranked 15 th last year. Some of the pork spending cited in the granite state was $1.1 million for Operation Streetsweeper, added by a Senate-House conference committee, and $1 million for a High Performance Brush Program, introduced in the House.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H, was one of a handful of senators from both parties who introduced earmark reform legislation in February along with McCain and Coburn. Sununu said in an interview Wednesday, that the senators were able to get some provisions included in the lobbying reform bill.
"There were a couple of other items that we would have liked to have seen in the bill.. I think we're going to come back to try to address those," Sununu said.
Disclosure and transparency are important in earmark reform, Sununu said.
"It should be part of either the House bill or the Senate bill so that it doesn't just appear magically in conference," he said. "We should know who's making the request, and I just think that would result in a better process."
"I don't think it's feasible to eliminate all earmarks, and in some circumstances it's not desirable," Sununu said. "Congress has the power.to write these appropriations bills, we need to recognize that, but more disclosure and transparency, I think, would really improve the process."
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Bradley Acquires Funds for Veterans
WASHINGTON, March 29-The House Budget Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure that would add $795 million in health care funds for veterans next year and a total of $3.9 billion over the next five years.
"I think that people recognize, on a bipartisan basis, that for people that have served our country, we should be funding a health care system that works for them," said Rep. Jeb Bradley, the New Hampshire Republican who sponsored the legislation, an amendment to the Department of Veteran's Affairs budget. The amendment would remove the proposed $250 enrollment fee veterans would have to pay to receive medical benefits and eliminate a proposed increase in prescription co-payments from $8 to $15 per prescription.
"It will add $795 million to the health care line of the veterans' function of the budget, and it is to replace what was assumed would be revenue from the drug co-payment and instituting a $250 deductible," said Bradley, who opposes President Bush's proposed fees for veterans seeking health care benefits. "The whole point of the amendment was to make it clear that we did not want to, especially in a time of war, increase the drug co-payment or implement a deductible for care, and so it makes sure that there's enough money."
Bradley, who sits on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee as well as on the Budget Committee, told the latter committee that the purpose of the amendment was to make it clear that the "vast majority of members on the committee do not support the administration's proposal to increasing the co-payment fee or institute an enrollment fee."
The amendment would transfer money from the international affairs budget to the Veterans Affairs Department for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and ensure that there is additional funding over the next five years.
"Over the last number of years, this Congress has dramatically increased the amount of funding for veterans' health care," Bradley said. Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, suggested that the Veterans Affairs Department's budget be increased to $36.1 billion from $33.6 billion this year, an increase of 7.4 percent. Bradley's amendment would instead increase funding to $36.9 billion, a 9.8 percent increase.
The amendment was added without opposition, but Rep. Chet Edwards D-Texas, said it may be a topic to revisit next year when the addition of more veterans to the program may create a need for additional funds.
Edwards said Democrats have opposed the president's proposed enrollment fees in the last two budget proposals because many of them felt "that veterans paid their enrollment fee when they put on our nation's uniform and many of them went into combat to risk their lives to serve our country."
The amendment is similar to one Bradley was successful in adding to the budget last year that increased budget authority for veterans by $229 million in fiscal year 2006 and by $1.15 billion over the next five years.
The Budget Committee approved the budget resolution on Wednesday, and the House will vote on it next week. The Senate has yet to act.
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New Hampshire Delegation Praises Card, Welcomes Bolten
WASHINGTON, March 28-The New Hampshire delegation praised Andrew Card's dedication after he resigned from his position as White House chief of staff on Tuesday.
"The chief of staff is the toughest job in Washington," Sen. John Sununu, whose father held that post for two years under President Bush's father, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "Andy has worked very effectively, as long or longer than any chief of staff in recent history; it's understandable that he would want to spend more time with his family and more time on other pursuits."
President Bush announced that budget director Josh Bolten will take Card's place but has not announced who will fill Bolten's position. "I think that [Card} will be difficult to replace, but Josh Bolten is very capable," Sununu said. "I think Josh has skills that are weighted more toward policy and budget, and I think that will be very helpful during the budget debate coming up and very helpful in dealing directly with members of Congress."
Sununu said that although Bolten does not have as much management or administrative experience as Card, he will do a fine job. "It's a change in personnel, it's a change in management styles, but both people have the confidence of the president and both have very good relationships with members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans."
It was not unheard of for Card to put in 16- or 17-hour days, and Sen. Judd Gregg agreed that Card handled the tough position well. "This position is probably the most difficult in the government, and Andy handled this job with an extraordinary ability that will be the standard for all who follow in this unique and important position," he said in a statement on Tuesday, wishing Card and his wife, Kathleene, good luck in the future.
"Andy Card has been an exceptional public servant who has unique and special ties to New Hampshire, where he managed the first President Bush's campaign in 1987 and 1988," Gregg said. "I have greatly enjoyed working with him over these many years and have always been impressed by his selflessness and humility and his total commitment to the two Presidents he worked with, especially President George W. Bush."
Gregg called Bolten a strong choice to follow Card. "I have had the pleasure of working with him since the beginning of this administration and especially over the last few years during his time as director of the Office of Management and Budget," said Gregg, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.
"He is extremely capable, smart and open to input from others, and he has a wonderful sense of humor, which he will need in dealing with the extraordinary tension of the chief of staff's job." Gregg, who has close ties to President Bush and the administration, said he continued to look forward to a close working relationship with Bolten.
The new chief of staff will have big shoes to fill on April 14, when Bolten officially takes over the position. In a phone interview, Rep. Jeb Bradley said that he knew Bolten a little bit from his appearances before the House Budget Committee, on which he sits. "He's a very solid person, and I think he is going to do a good job, in a very high-pressured job, being the chief of staff in the White House, I think he'll do a fine job."
Bradley also agreed with Sununu and Gregg on Card's merits during his tenure at the White House. "I think that Andy Card has been a longtime loyal public servant of both Bush administrations, but before that . a member of the Massachusetts legislature, secretary of transportation; so he has really served our country well, and I certainly wish him well, and it's been a pleasure to have worked with him all these years," he said.
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New Hampshire Delegates Push for Wilderness Protection
WASHINGTON, March 28- Rep. Jeb Bradley, an avid hiker, said Tuesday that he and Rep. Charles Bass would introduce a bill in the House later this week to preserve thousands of acres of New Hampshire wilderness. The Senate bill was introduced Tuesday by Sen. John Sununu and is cosponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg.
"I've hiked all of the 48 four-thousand footers in New Hampshire and including hiking all way through the Wild River, the proposed wilderness, by going from route 16 out. to route 2 up in Maine," Bradley said in a telephone interview. "It's a very, very wild area.absolutely gorgeous, so I'm pleased to be able to support this proposal."
The New Hampshire delegation is pushing for permanent wilderness designation of 34,500 acres of White Mountain National Forest land in the Wild River and Sandwich Range areas. The New Hampshire Wilderness Act of 2006 would designate 23,700 acres in the Wild River area and an additional 10,800 acres to the Sandwich Range Wilderness.
This legislation comes after the U.S. Forest Service recommended last November the need for additional wilderness designation in its management plan for the White Mountain National Forest. Wilderness areas are permanently closed to mining, logging, road construction, traffic and construction, and since these are federal lands, new wilderness must be approved by Congress. Bradley said that the proposal is consistent with the Forest Service plan, which he thinks is a balanced plan in terms of multi-use of the White Mountain National Forest.
"Logging interests are protected, recreation and the beauty of the White Mountain National Forest are protected, so I think it's a well-balanced plan and I'm really thrilled to be promoting a wilderness area," Bradley said. "In particular as somebody that has hiked through both areas, they're very significant, they're worthy candidates for this designation."
Although logging may not be a concern in the Sandwich area, which consists mostly of steep slopes, the Wild River area, according to Bradley, would benefit from this status. "It's a very remote area; however, it is accessible from the northern part-from route 2, and it has been logged in the past," Bradley said.
Currently, four designated wilderness areas in the White Mountain National Forest are located in New Hampshire: the Presidential Range/Dry River Wilderness, the Great Gulf Wilderness, the Sandwich Range Wilderness and the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The fifth area, the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness, is located in Maine.
"Some of the nicest areas for hiking and just getting away from everything are protected by this designation, and I've had just a wonderful experience of hiking through all of them," said Bradley. who has begun to climb all of the 4,000-foot peaks in the winter. "This is a great, great balanced plan, and I'm pleased to support it."
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Teens Are Cranky From Lack of Sleep
WASHINGTON, March 28-If your teen talks back, it may be due to sleep deficiency, according to a new study the National Sleep Foundation released Tuesday on adolescent sleep habits.
"One of the key findings is that many adolescents that get insufficient sleep are sleepy, cranky and falling asleep in school," Dr. Mary A. Carskadon, a sleep specialist at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I., said at a press conference.
"Think about our typical sense of what an adolescent is-this unhappy, cranky, irritable individual," Carskadon said, citing lack of sleep as a cause for these moods. The study of students from 6 th grade through 12 th grade also showed that adolescents with insufficient sleep were most likely to report being depressed.
According to the study, sleep habits also affect performance in school. "Adolescents who get insufficient sleep were more likely to report getting lower grades," Carskadon said. "Those getting optimal sleep were much more likely to report that their grades are mostly A's, whereas those getting insufficient sleep were more likely to report getting worse grades."
Another problem is when students are tired and get behind the wheel. "Adolescents are driving drowsy, and this is of course a major concern for the National Sleep Foundation and it should be for all of us, because now we come to what may be a potentially lethal outcome of insufficient sleep," Carskadon said.
Fifty-one percent of students in 11 th and 12 th grades reported that they had driven drowsy at least once in the past year, and 15 percent report that they drive drowsy at least once a week. "So here we have these tired teens, just learning to drive with not much experience driving and suffering this drowsy driving effect," Carskadon said.
On average, the study showed, only 20 percent of students were getting nine hours of sleep a night, which is the optimal amount for teenagers. The study found that 31 percent were getting a borderline amount of sleep-between eight and nine hours-and 45 percent were getting less than eight hours of sleep, which is considered insufficient.
The environmental factors that the Foundation blamed for lack of sleep were caffeine and technology. The study showed that adolescents with four or more technological items in their bedrooms, including televisions and computers, are getting 30 minutes less sleep a night and are twice as likely to fall asleep in school or while doing homework as students with fewer than four such items.
The study surveyed 1,602 adolescents across the country and was administered separately to students and their parents. One of the most drastic differences between the two sets of responses involved sleep habits..
According to the study, 90 percent of parents believe that their child is getting enough sleep, but only 44 percent of adolescents report that they are getting enough sleep. Also, only seven percent of parents believe that their child has a sleep problem, whereas 16 percent of adolescents believe they experience a sleep problem.
According to the foundation, warning signs that adolescents are not getting sufficient sleep are that the child needs caffeine to wake up, naps for 45 minutes or more on a daily basis, sleeps two or more hours later on weekends and is difficult to wake for school. Carskadon said parents can help by making sleep a positive priority, enforcing regular bedtimes and wake-times and removing technology from bedrooms.
The study compared middle school students, starting in sixth grade, and high school students, ending in 12th grade, and found that the older students are the less sleep they receive. According to the findings, sixth grade students get an average of 8.4 hours of sleep on a school night, going to bed at 9:24 p.m., and 12th grade students get an average of 6.9 hours of sleep per night, going to bed at 11:02 p.m.
The study also shows that students are not catching up on sleep during the weekends, because although they are sleeping in, they are going to bed later.
"On any given school day in our public middle schools 127,000 students will fall asleep," Carskadon said. "In our high schools we have what I call the 'slack-jaw droolers,' 737,000 of them each day falling asleep in school."
"Sleep learning has not proven to be effective," she added.
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New Hampshire Shoulders the Country’s Tax Burden
WASHINGTON, March 16-- Granite Staters may think about moving west after reading a study released Thursday by the Tax Foundation that shows New Hampshire ranks third from the bottom in federal spending received per dollar of federal taxes paid.
With only 67 cents coming back to the state for every tax dollar sent to the federal government in 2004, New Hampshire is ranked as the third-most generous state, only slightly behind New Jersey (55 cents on the dollar) and Connecticut (66 cents on the dollar). This means that for each dollar New Hampshire residents and businesses pay, the government spends only 67 cents on projects within and grants to the state.
New Hampshire is deemed a "donor state" by tax foundation president Scott Hodge. In 2004, the state paid $9.65 billion in federal taxes-which includes income and corporate taxes, Social Security and unemployment taxes, excise, estate and gift taxes, along with customs duties-but only $6.45 billion was received in federal spending.
When the money is not going back into New Hampshire projects, it is instead going to "beneficiary states," like New Mexico, which received two dollars back in federal funds for each dollar paid to the government in 2004, the latest year for which such figures were available.
And New Hampshire has progressively seen a smaller share of its tax money come back over the past 10 years, according to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research organization in Washington, D.C., that has released its annual study for the past 20 years. Although it has gained 2 cents in funds since 2003, in 1994 the state was receiving 73 cents back on the dollar.
In the foundation's study, 18 states are classified as donor states and 32 as beneficiary states.
This also can be considered a red state, blue state issue. In 13 of the 19 states that Sen. John Kerry won in 2004, more money was sent to Washington than was received back in federal spending. But 25 of the 31 states that President Bush won were recipient states, with some receiving almost double the money that was sent to the federal government.
"Spending patterns don't change very much over time," said Curtis Dubay, an economist at the Tax Foundation. "A huge portion of spending is already predetermined, it's entitlement-driven, it's Social Security, it's Medicare and other mandated programs."
Discretionary spending is the only part of federal funding that can be changed, and, according to Dubay, that is a rather small portion. "So unless you see major changes in federal expenditure, the way the federal expenditures are handled, it doesn't seem like those ratios will change," he said y.
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said New Hampshire "does not utilize social programs and services to the degree that other states do because of our strong economy and household income levels higher than those of other states."
"New Hampshire enjoys strong economic growth," Bradley said, "including one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and a high per capita income-one of the main reasons why the Granite State was recently ranked the 'Most Livable State' for the third year in a row."
"I will continue to advocate for federal funding for necessary and efficient programs that are reflective of our New Hampshire values of frugality and individual responsibility," Bradley said.
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Massachusetts and Connecticut Shoulder US Tax Burden
WASHINGTON, March 16-Massachusetts and Connecticut are shouldering the tax burden of other states, according to a study released Thursday by the Tax Foundation.
Massachusetts has the seventh-highest tax burden in the country, with only 77 cents of federal spending going back to the state for every dollar Massachusetts residents and businesses paid in taxes in 2004.
Connecticut has the second-highest tax burden, with 66 cents of federal spending going back to the state for every dollar sent to Washington. Only New Jersey residents are seeing less of their money, with 55 cents for every dollar sent to Washington coming back to the state.
"By and large, states with the highest per capita federal tax burden are among the biggest donor states," said Scott Hodge, the Tax Foundation's president, in a teleconference call. "Connecticut has a per capita tax burden of over $10,000, making it the number two donor state."
In 2004, the latest year for which the figures are available, Massachusetts paid $57 billion and received $44 billion in federal funding. In Connecticut, more than $36 billion was paid in federal taxes-which includes income and corporate taxes, Social Security and unemployment taxes, excise, estate and gift taxes, along with customs duties-but only $24 billion was received back in federal spending.
The foundation considers both states to be "donor states," which means that some of the money residents and businesses in these states pay in federal taxes is going to other, so-called "beneficiary states," like New Mexico, which receives two dollars back in federal funds for each dollar paid to the government.
According to Curtis Dubay, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research organization in Washington, D.C., in states with a high concentration of high-income individuals, there is going to be a greater tax burden.
"No matter how the spending breaks down, those states will never receive enough money to make up for the taxes they're actually sending to Washington, especially Connecticut and Massachusetts; those are high-income areas," Dubay said. "They're never going to be able to make up the difference with expenditures."
In the foundation's study, 18 states are classified as donor states and 32 as recipient states.
This also can be considered a red state, blue state issue. In 13 of the 19 states that Sen. John Kerry won in 2004, more money was sent to Washington than was received back in federal spending. But 25 of the 31 states that President Bush won were recipient states, with some receiving almost double the money that was sent to the federal government.
"Spending patterns don't change very much over time," Dubay said. "A huge portion of spending is already predetermined, it's entitlement driven, it's Social Security, it's Medicare and other mandated programs."
Discretionary spending is the only part of federal funding that can be changed, and according to Dubay, is a rather small portion of the total. "So unless you see major changes in federal expenditure, the way the federal expenditures are handled, it doesn't seem like those ratios will change," he said.
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