Category: Spring 2009 Newswire
Group Works to Connect Portuguese-American Communities
PALCUS
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Cristian Hernandez
Boston University Washington News Service
April 15, 2009
WASHINGTON—Nearly 20 years after its founding, the Portuguese-American Leadership Council of the U.S. is still working to connect Portuguese-American and other communities with Portuguese roots—from Brazil and the Azores, for example—all over the country.
The organization, widely known as PALCUS, lobbies for Portuguese-American issues in Washington and has board members from various regions, including two from the South Coast Region.
“We are in the South Coast region gathering around the community and bringing local organizations together and asking what the issues are,” said Alda Petitti, the organization’s treasurer, who works in New Bedford as an accountant. “We want to bring our resources to them.”
But despite its successes in community outreach, the non-profit organization still faces challenges when trying to connect Portuguese-American communities to each other.
“We are basically trying to be an advocate for the entire community whether you live in Colorado or Fall River; we are trying to be inclusive,” said John Bento of California, the chairman of PALCUS,
The biggest challenge, he said, was trying to be both a national organization and one that represents geographically fragmented communities that have different histories. He said the group also faces the challenge of generational differences.
“PALCUS can do a better job setting up a vision that can work nationally and regionally. There needs to be a diverse but clear agenda that can include more communities,” said Frank Sousa, director of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Sousa noted that there are more than one million Portuguese-Americans in the country; and that in the South Coast region, 40 percent of the population has Portuguese ancestry.
Manuel Geraldo, PALCUS’s vice chairman, said board members and directors try to look at national issues that may be affecting more then one community in the country. But some issues, he said, affect only some areas, and PALCUS tries to rally politicians to make positive changes in the community.
The organization is currently working to stop the deportation of residents who are not citizens and have been convicted of crimes.
“We are not sure if this is in the best interests of the residents,” Geraldo said. “Most of them are Americans, they know very little about their culture and may not know anyone in the Azores. They may not even speak the language.”
PALCUS has been working to resolve the issue for more than two years, writing letters to officials and arranging meetings with Portuguese embassy officials to discuss possible solutions.
Associate director Paulo Araujo serves as the face of the organization in Washington. “I serve as a link between the community and the board as well as the U.S. and the Portuguese government,” he said.
Members of the organization’s executive committee and the board come from places with large concentrations of Portuguese-Americans, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Odete Amarelo of Fall River is on the board and has been working with PALCUS since 1994. She said she acts as a resource for the South Coast community that may have issues to bring to the main office.
“I try to look at issues at the national level but focus on local issues and see how I can participate,” she said.
Amarelo, a native of the Azores, worked for the Fall River school system for more than three decades advocating for children who do not speak English. She recently retired and now teaches Portuguese at Bristol Community College.
Recently Amarelo and Petitti have been busy working on the deportation issue and just finished obtaining federal funds for a Portuguese language program at Rhode Island College.
President Bush had vetoed the bill authorizing money for the program, but after PALCUS rallied support within the community and brought the issue up with politicians in Washington the program received the funds
Preservation of Portuguese culture is a priority for PALCUS.
“One of our missions is to educate people about culture and language as well as creating education opportunities in communities,” Geraldo said
Geraldo has been part of PALCUS since 1994 and said he is proud of the time and effort he puts into his work with Portuguese-American communities. His father, who migrated from Portugal at the age of 21, came from a farming town and moved to the United States to get an education.
PALCUS has a college internship program that places college students of Portuguese descent in the offices of members of Congress, the U.S. embassy in Lisbon and various government agencies. Interns are provided with a stipend.
PALCUS chairman Bento said that one of the organization’s current initiatives is setting up branches or the organization at the college level.
Recognizing the achievements of prominent Portuguese-Americans is also a priority for board members and directors.
“It’s a way for people from different communities all over the country to connect. It enables people who want to share successes to do so and it allows Portuguese-Americans to be honored on a national and local level,” Petitti said.
Each year PALCUS hosts a fund-raising gala to honor Portuguese-Americans. Past honorees include television broadcaster Meredith Viera and singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado.
“It’s important because we don’t always give ourselves the credit we deserve,” Bento said. “We want to set up a link to prominent Americans. Most people don’t know that Tom Hanks is half Portuguese. ”
Meanwhile, PALCUS has been having a series of mixers aimed at creating networking opportunities with fellow Portuguese-Americans.
Board members say they are confident that PALCUS will continue to grow and become an even better advocate because it does more than just talk about problems.
“I have seen a lot of Portuguese organizations,” Bento said, “and all they do is talk. When I saw PALCUS I thought, now here’s an organization that’s actually doing things, not just talking.”
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Elmira Lobbyist on Capitol Hill Works for Veterans and Their Families
Cary Profile
Lindsay Perna
Boston University Washington News Service
WENY-TV
14 April 2009
WASHINGTON—His briefcase stacked with mission statements and budget proposals, Matthew Cary looks like most of the other lobbyists who labor in the power corridors of Washington.
He even dresses like most of them, except for his red, white and blue patriotically colored pin, inscribed “Leave No Veteran Behind.”
Matt Cary is a volunteer lobbyist for and president of Veterans and Military Families for Progress, a non-profit organization whose announced goal is to ensure the rights and needs of veterans, active-duty service members and their families.
The Elmira native is driven by the vivid memories he brought back with him from Vietnam.
Fifty hours a week, the 61-year-old “can hardly breathe,” he said, as he hustles between numerous negotiations with Senate and House members in their offices and committee meetings.
When he is working at his consulting firm, Cary & Associates, he begs for health care, employment aid and assistance to homeless veterans.
Veterans and Military Families for Progress was formed in 2005 at a meeting of veterans and military family members from across the country. According to the organization’s Web site, the intention, is to address veterans’ “coming home” issues.
Or, as Cary put it in an interview, it was an “opportunity to get veterans out of the closet.”
Cary’s work with the veterans’ organization, however, did not ignite his career. His war-ridden past did.
Cary was born in Waverly into the Commerford Theater business. His father owned the second-largest independent movie theater business in the country, with 180 cinemas stretching from Waverly, Binghamton and Elmira to Scranton, Pa.
Cary’s father would commission his three sons to produce variety shows in their back yard. His first job, when he was 6 years old, was behind the scenes, dealing with patrons at the make-shift family event.
While his two older brothers would headline the shows in hula skirts for their rendition of “South Pacific,” Cary would dole out tickets, candy and popcorn to neighborhood kids.
“That was kind of a disaster,” he recalled with a grin as he sat at the bar in the Democratic National Committee building.
“Matt was naturally outgoing, very much of an extrovert,” said Brian O’Donnell, Cary’s childhood friend since 1958.
O’Donnell met Cary at St. Patrick’s Grammar School in Elmira. He’s seen Cary through trombone and trumpet lessons and played baseball with him at Notre Dame High School.
“In life, you maybe have hundreds of acquaintances and handfuls of good friends – Matt qualifies as a good friend,” the Watkins Glen resident said.
Cary’s baseball pitching skills carried over to his active-duty days in Vietnam.
He received a medal for his skill in throwing hand grenades, Cary said. “A lot of that had to do with baseball,” he said. “I was throwing a grenade and it was landing where it should.”
On graduation from St. Bonaventure University, Cary, then 22, was drafted and put himself on the reserve list.
“I said, ‘Well, my fate is doomed—my two brothers are already in the Air Force,’ ” he recalled, saying that he later requested an assignment instead of waiting out his reserve status.
He reached the rank of corporal by the time he returned from eight months of active duty in 1969.
Bill Dooling, who has known Cary for six years while working as vice president of Veterans and Military Families for Progress, said Cary came back from Vietnam with a sense of obligation.
“I wouldn’t say he was traumatized, I would say he is impassioned,” said Dooling, who is also a Vietnam veteran.
Cary moved to Washington immediately after his return and circulated his resume through the New York congressional delegation. “I knocked on all the doors,” he said.
He finally landed a job as legislative director for then-Rep. James Hastings (R-N.Y.) of his home district.
“I was part of all of it, and that was exciting,” he said.
Though he unsuccessfully made a stab at running for the same congressional seat years later, Cary eventually shifted to legislative lobbying. Building on his three years at the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities, Cary advised on legislation as a Washington representative for six cities, including Buffalo, N.Y., and Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
In 1986, he started a consulting firm, Cary & Associates.
Even with his busy schedule, Cary finds time to play in a senior baseball league, traveling all over the country in tournaments. He also chairs the board of dcbaseball.org, a non-profit whose mission is to encourage young people’s participation in the sport.
“He mixes both his political interests and his personal interests quite a bit,” said Robert Doyle, who
has known Cary since 1976, when they met in a government-sponsored baseball game. “We're both of the same political stripe—Democrat.”
“He’s a big organizer—whether it comes to work or social events,” said Philip Amoruso, a fellow Army reservist who has known Cary since they met 40 years ago at their reserve unit in suburban Maryland.
When Dana Serafin met Cary at the bar of the Mayflower Hotel in 1996, she thought “he was really fun interesting guy–pretty cute, too.”
Cary proved his “impeccable character” and “commitment” when her father died just before they married in 1997, she said.
“If somebody needs help, he will help them out,” the 51-year-old said of her husband.
Now, Cary is looking to recruit philanthropists, members of the corporate world and the entertainment community for the Veterans and Military Families for Progress.
But his next “big battle to fight,” he said, is at a District of Columbia City Council hearing that will consider moving the city’s veterans’ affairs unit from the mayor’s office to another city agency.
“We figure it will get lost in the shuffle over there,” Cary said, and he warned that the move would strip the VA office of its ability to seek federal money.
“If we can bring everyone together as one family, we can fix these problems,” he said before heading off for another day on the Hill.
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Recovery Director Keeps Watchful Eye on Stimulus Expenditures
Recovery Director
New Hampshire Union Leader
Aoife Connors
Boston University Washington News Service
April 10, 2009
WASHINGTON – Tracking the expenditure of $300 million in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act for your state is a demanding job. Try planning a wedding at the same time. That gives you a sense of the craziness that surrounds the life of Lisa Levine, newly appointed recovery director in the office of Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.).
Constituents throughout the 2nd Congressional District in New Hampshire contact Levine looking for information on how to get access to stimulus funds. Levine directs them to the competitive grants and application processes.
Trying to understand the stimulus plan can be overwhelming for most people, whether you are a small-business person who needs help or a community group. “My job is to direct – weave through the recovery plan – and figure out if there is opportunity for them to access funds, and if there is, how they can access that opportunity,” Levine said.
Her role also involves “working with the Obama administration and Governor [John] Lynch’s office to make sure the Recovery Act funding is being properly spent,” she said. “It must help New Hampshire cities and towns rebuild our infrastructure, our schools, and ultimately create jobs.”
Levine travels to communities, providing information and assistance. Recently, she said, “I met the head of the New Hampshire Police Chiefs Association, in Lincoln. I gave him some good leads about where the police chiefs could access stimulus money.”
Currently she is working with Keene, which needs a new fire station, Levine said. There is a competitive grant in the Recovery Act specifically for fire stations. The grant is available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The Recovery Act funding is targeted at building fire stations, because many fire stations are falling apart,” Levine said.
What is most interesting about the stimulus funding, Levine said, is that it is not as complicated as potentially it could have been. “I’m finding that we are getting information in a timely way,” she said.
Born in Massachusetts, Levine’s childhood was split between her two homes, one in Newton, Mass., and the other in Newbury, N.H. “On Friday afternoons my family traveled to Newbury, New Hampshire, until Sunday,” living in the Lake Sunapee region, Levine said.
Levine graduated from Tufts University and then went to law school at Suffolk University, graduating in 1995.
“It was a bad job year if you were graduating from law school,” Levine said, so she moved to Washington.
“On average most people who move to Washington stay there for three or four years, so me staying ten was a little extraordinary,” Levine said.
After working four years for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Levine entered the world of lobbying in Washington. She spent the next 18 months working for the American Association of University Women.
During the next five years, Levine worked in Washington as a lobbyist for a large Indiana law firm.
In 2005, Levine moved home to New Hampshire, where her “entire extended family and cousins were living in Newbury.”
She settled in Concord, where she now lives with fiancé Joshua Urozitch. Levine said they can’t wait to get married in September, in the Lake Sunapee region.
The congressman will laugh when I tell you this, Levine said, “but these days most of my time away from the office is spent planning my wedding.”
Rushing into the Filene’s Basement bridal sale at noon recently, Levine and her mother were on the search for the “pretty wedding dress,” that the 38-year-old so desired. “People queue up at 6 a.m. and run into the store when it opens, hoarding dresses,” Levine said. Being an organizer, Levine had read online that going in at noon is recommended, “when the madness has quietened down.”
Her dream came through when she found the prettiest dress that “cost her $250 but retailed at $2,000.”
“Life is a bit crazy,” Levine laughed. “We have been so busy finding a location, finding someone to marry us, finding a tent and tables for the reception,” and the list seems to go on.
It doesn’t faze Levine, who is completely at ease and light hearted about the workload and busy schedule.
Upon his election in November 2006, Rep. Hodes asked Levine to work for him as director of special projects. She said, “I work with constituents to find federal funding for projects, which is why the congressman felt I was fit to become recovery director.” Levine is also the congressman’s legal counsel.
“Lisa helps me to keep New Hampshire tax dollars right here in the Granite State, so we can fund critical projects for our state’s future,” Hodes said.
House Democratic freshmen and members elected for the first time in 2006 were encouraged to appoint a recovery director or economic development coordinator, according to a spokesperson in the office of the speaker of the House.
More than 60 Democratic representatives have appointed recovery directors, said Chris Barnes, press director at the Democratic Caucus.
Republican members are not expected to appoint recovery directors since they are less enthusiastic about the stimulus funding, he added. No Senators have appointed recovery directors.
Levine works closely with Orville “Bud” Fitch, whom Gov. Lynch recently appointed as director of the state’s Office of Economic Stimulus.
“Our role is to initially identify every potential opportunity for New Hampshire in the stimulus bill,” Fitch said.
Communication about where stimulus money is spent is essential, Levine said. “Everything done in New Hampshire must be reported both on recovery.gov, the federal Web site and on nh.gov/recovery, the state Web site.”
The recovery director acts as an early-warning system if the funds are not being distributed efficiently, Levine said.
The time frame for the distribution of the stimulus funds varies among government departments. Levine said, “The funding is just beginning to flow from lots of federal agencies.”
The stimulus money is expected to create almost 16,000 jobs in New Hampshire. “We will be able to see, in a fairly short time frame, some of these jobs created and others protected,” Levine said.
Levine is optimistic that as this money begins to come into New Hampshire “people and cities and towns will begin to see some relief.”
Having traveled throughout the state, she said she was aware that people are suffering.
“The recession is pervasive, it is everywhere,” Levine said. “If folks are not losing their jobs, they know someone who has lost their job or they know someone who is struggling.”
The stimulus law is expected to create many different types of jobs. Levine said, “It’s not just one industry, not just one type of project coming into the state; there will be transportation and road projects, green jobs and funding for services.”
Levine said she thinks there will be improvement. “There is a tenacity in the state among New Hampshire folks to fight for themselves and fight for their families, because we are a proud people,” Levine said.
It is going to take time, she added, “but my hope is that as this federal funding comes to New Hampshire, we can really have an impact on people’s lives. That is the ultimate goal of this legislation.”
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Worcestor Native Leaves Marks on Washington as Major General
GENERAL
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Sarah Gantz
Boston University Washington News Service
04/10/09
WASHINGTON – The president and the general shared a brief exchange moments after laying a wreath with two elderly Medal of Honor recipients at the foot of the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery. But that was not the highlight of the day for Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr.
Earlier, the Army general, a Worcester native, had signed the promotion application of a young soldier. She had recently completed a bachelor’s degree in biology while on active duty, but her heart was set on driving the president’s limousine, a job that required the rank of sergeant.
Gen. Rowe took out one of his personalized notes, embellished with the two stars of his rank, he recalled, and wrote, “Best wishes for success.”
It is people like the young woman who wants to be a sergeant instead of a biologist who most impress the general—people who, like himself, serve their country not because it is their only choice, but because they feel compelled to military service.
“What a great candidate to become an officer,” Gen. Rowe said of the sergeant-to-be. “She doesn’t have to be. But it’s an option that’s available and it’s a challenge she wants to pick up.”
As the commander of Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region and the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, which he has been since 2007, Gen. Rowe is responsible for the safety of Washington. He sits on local emergency response boards and oversees military operations. If the capital should ever come under attack, he would be in charge of its defense.
His ceremonial duties include participating in medal ceremonies and funerals of fallen soldiers. He is also escort to the president—on Inauguration Day, he got a kiss on the cheek from Michelle Obama while walking the First Family down the Capitol steps to the stage.
Gen. Rowe did not become a soldier for the power and the glory—although his father is a World War II veteran and his ancestors fought under George Washington in the Revolutionary War. He had other options after graduating from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York with an economics degree and later earning a master’s degree in business from Boston University while stationed in Germany. Gen. Rowe does what he does by free will.
His military career, 40 years this summer, is a mix of abroad and homeland assignments—including three tours to Korea and homeland commanding positions—that set an example of the lesson with which his conversations with young soldiers often culminate: America is a land of choice; what are your options?
Gen. Rowe, born in Worcester on Aug. 30, 1951, and raised in Franklin and Cheshire, recounted another meeting with a young soldier standing guard at the edge of a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery. The general strolled over after it was over, said hello, and asked how things were going. Then he got to the nut of the conversation.
“I told him, ‘What are you doing, you should be in college,’ ” Gen. Rowe recalled. “He said he’d been in college—graduated in three years, tests off the walls. But he wants to be an officer, he said, and he wanted to do it by going through infantry.”
Gen. Rowe said he never expected to be where he is today, a high-profile homeland security officer, saluting the president at his inauguration, making frequent public appearances and knowing everyone.
Despite the confidence in his voice and crinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiles and the ease with which he holds conversations, his duties require an aptitude for socialization that the major general says does not come naturally to him.
“I’m an introvert,” he said. “When I’m on my own, I’ll sit in a corner with a book,” mostly biographies and military tactics, usually more than one at a time. At home after a long day, he sits quietly with a newspaper or book or talks with his wife, Dale, about the people he met.
He says his people skills are learned and practiced, like any other military skill. He talks to everyone. He can recall in great detail the burdens and business of each conversation.
While making the rounds through Fort Myer a few weeks ago, he stopped to chat with a military police company commander. “She was telling me she had a new lieutenant arrive yesterday and another one coming in a couple of weeks and she was excited because she was going to get to do leadership development…. These are lieutenants who graduated from college last spring, now they’re coming to their first unit, and for a captain who’s already been through this, it’s pretty exciting…. I would have liked to have been a lieutenant coming to that company.”
What he and his soldiers do in Washington is incredibly important, he said, and perhaps even underrated. It is one thing to learn how to be social. But the invaluable leadership skills needed for the job he learned in Korea, where he has been deployed three times.
“The best job I ever had,” Gen. Rowe said, was as an infantry battalion commander in Korea during the 1990s. He called it “the one which in terms of growing as an Army officer really was a culminating point.”
His previous assignments include joint plans officer for Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and assistant division commander of operations for the 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. He has previously been stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort Stewart in Georgia, and most recently held commanding positions at Fort Monroe, Va., and Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
In Korea, he commanded more than 800 soldiers, he said. Many of his officers have been promoted to colonel and his enlisted men and women to sergeant, but he keeps the memory of all of them—even those he hasn’t heard from in years—close.
“Those were all my units,” he said, pointing out a frame hanging in his office at Fort McNair. Tanks, intelligence, air defense, infantry companies, and 100 Korean soldiers are each represented by a flag the size of a business card. The small flags are behind him as he describes the challenges of the job—train and communicate with the soldiers, demystify the Korean terrain, decide, decide, decide.
“You’re really in charge,” he said. “What that battalion does well and doesn’t, you and your people make happen. You own it.”
Gen. Rowe has received many medals and distinctions—Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Expert Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge and Ranger Tab, to name a few. But it was the lessons about leadership he learned from his troops in Korea that have helped him accomplish his tasks as a general.
“Lord knows how they picked me to be here. I thought to be in this unit you had to be tall and you had to be a good marcher,” the major general said, jokingly.
The soldiers now under his command cite Gen. Rowe’s personal support for his unit.
“You can’t separate the personal from the professional in the Army,” Col. Daniel Baggio, the general’s press secretary, said of his boss. “Our family members and the support you get from them correlates to the professional side, and you can see that in him. You can see the values he was raised with—he wears it on his sleeve.”
The oldest of 10 children, Gen. Rowe spent four years at boarding school in New Hampshire before enrolling in the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at St. Lawrence University.
His father has devoted his life to education—first as a college professor in Massachusetts, then at local and federal departments of higher education. He later returned to teaching at Montgomery College in suburban Washington, where, after celebrating his 85th birthday a few weeks ago, he still works as an adjunct business professor.
“My dad is my mentor,” Gen. Rowe said. So when his dad suggested ROTC, he complied.
The general has four daughters, one who recently took her ROTC entrance exam at Clark University and one who returned from Iraq in February.
“He’s very hard-working and expects the same from other people,” Army 1st Lt. Natalie Rowe, 24, said of her father.
But, she said, “He’s the same everywhere.” If she were to place second in a race, her father might gibe that she was the second-place loser, said Lt. Rowe, who had delayed an afternoon run to talk about her father, also a runner.
Gen. Rowe is, of course, proud of Lt. Rowe—he said he thought of her, in Iraq, as he participated in the inauguration ceremony—but he is proud of all his children.
His other two daughters, Hannah French and Therese Van Antwerp, decided against a military career. Hannah, a school teacher in Lynn, “took one look and decided, ‘This isn’t for me,’” Gen. Rowe said. “I’m supportive. I’m a cheerleader.”
On March 25, Gen. Rowe was at the National Medal of Honor Day ceremony, where he displayed another kind of support and respect for the service. President Obama was descending the marble steps to the wreath propped up before the Tomb of the Unknowns. Gen. Rowe was holding on tight to the crook of the arm of an elderly Medal of Honor recipient. They did not miss a step.
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Local Congressmen Post Earmarks on Their Websites
POSTING
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Sarah Gantz
Boston University Washington News Service
04/09/09
WASHINGTON – Local congressmen reported more than $647 million in 2010 budget earmark requests on their Web sites, in accordance with a House Appropriations Committee reform to enhance transparency.
Since 2007, a list of earmarks and which members requested them has been posted online before a bill is passed. But this is the first time members have been required to independently post on their own Web sites a list of the earmarks they have requested in the proposed spending bills. Not all requested earmarks will be included in the final versions of the bills.
In an effort to improve transparency, the committee requested that members’ lists include the name and address of the organization for which funding has been requested, the amount of money requested and a brief description of the project.
“Certainly this is a significant step forward,” said Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a government watchdog group that has been tracking Congress’ compliance with the new rule.
But, he said, “Having it located on 400 or 500 Web sites—in a variety of locations, in a variety of Web sites—is not the most efficient and effective way to achieve transparency.”
The appropriations earmark lists posted many House members take the form of Internet buried treasure, which require sifting through various pages and subpages to get to the numbers, and as of April 8, many had neglected to post their projects at all.
But U.S. Reps. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, John W. Olver, D-Amherst, and Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, posted links to their budget earmark proposals on their homepages. They say they have nothing to hide; in fact, they are proud of their earmarks.
“For me, it’s very simple—I’m proud of the work I do for my constituents,” said Mr. McGovern, who has requested 55 earmarks worth more than $400 million. “If I can make it easier for them to know what I’m doing, all the better.”
Mr. McGovern’s earmarks can be perused from a menu listed under the “Appropriations” tab on his Web site’s homepage. According to his Web site, Mr. McGovern requested the 55 projects, including $800,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester, $2 million for CellTech Power, a Westborough-based company, to improve coal fuel efficiency, and $100 million for Boston-Power Inc., which plans to open a plant in Westborough to manufacture lithium-ion batteries needed by the Defense Department.
“It wasn’t that I just drew projects out of a hat,” Mr. McGovern said. He said his project list is the product of long discussions between him, local politicians, business leaders and community groups.
Mr. Olver’s 64 earmarks are listed alphabetically in one press release posted front and center on his homepage. There is no point in hiding the fact that he has requested $76 million for his district, Mr. Olver said.
“Earmarks give me an opportunity to help make a difference,” he said, “to directly address the needs I see in our community.”
Among Mr. Olver’s projects, which he described as “solid investments,” is funding for the Leominster branch of Fosta-Tek Optics to develop low-cost combat optics for use in the Middle East ($1.5 million), Mount Wachusett Community College to erect a wind turbine ($1 million), and the Orange Police Department to begin a civilian watch program ($622,000).
Mr. Neal requested about $82 million in budget earmarks, which are listed on his Web site under the link, “Appropriations Priorities.”
William Tranghese, Mr. Neal’s press secretary, said in an email that it is Mr. Neal’s belief “that this significant reform measure will bring increased scrutiny and accountability to the appropriations process.”
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Rep. Frank’s Earmark Requests for Local Projects Total $40 Million
Earmarks
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Cristian Hernandez
Boston University Washington News Service
04/09/09
WASHINGTON—Rep. Barney Frank has requested more than $40 million in earmarks for local projects to be included in next year’s spending bills.
“Most of them are for economic development and creation of jobs for companies that are hiring in the south coast,” Frank said of the projects he has proposed for funding in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills.
The earmarks, disclosed in detail on Frank’s Web site, are for state and local projects, non-profits and for companies that do business in the 4th Congressional District.
The biggest-ticket item in the list of 24 requests is $7 million for the Muddy River restoration project. Mike Keegan, the project’s manager, said the flood-prevention project consists of three phases and will cost an estimated $80 million when completed. The work, being done by the Army Corps of Engineers, started in 2005.
Among the private companies that could receive funds is New Bedford-based software developer International Compliance Systems. The company could get $3.2 million to expand its mishap reduction system, which identifies potential risks for accidents in the military.
“It identifies where there are precursors and puts together action plans and tools,” said Steven Hemingway, the company’s president and owner. He said the money would help expand the system throughout the Department of Defense.
The Taunton Nursing Home could get a $1.5 million boost for renovations. The nursing home is looking to update the air conditioning system and to build a new kitchen.
“The support we get from the congressman is marvelous,” said John Brennan, the nursing home’s administrator. “The seniors who live here, they know this guy. He’s no stranger to the Taunton Nursing Home.”
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth could get up to $6 million, including $1 million for the Marine Renewable Energy Center. The university’s School for Marine Science and Technology would get $3 million for a fishery multi-species survey and $2 million for a scallop fishery assessment project.
“The purpose of the Renewable Energy Center is to aid in the development of ocean-based renewable energy,” said John Miller, the center’s director.
Other earmarks disclosed by the congressman include $4.9 million for Bristol County sewers, $2.5 million for electric drive train research, which would help extend the range of electric vehicles being developed by Vectrix Corp., and $1.5 million for a Mill River habitat restoration project.
Congress will work on the spending bills in the coming months and would be expected to pass them by Oct. 1, the beginning of the 2010 fiscal year. Not all of the requested earmarks are expected to be included in the final bills, according to the congressman’s Web site.
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U.S. Slaps Tariff on Canadian Lumber
TARIFF
Bangor Daily News
Drew FitzGerald
Boston University Washington News Service
April 8, 2009
WASHINGTON – The United States fired another shot in a decades-long trade dispute with Canada Wednesday by imposing a 10 percent tariff on Canadian softwood lumber imports, alleging that Canadian provinces violated the terms of a court agreement.
The tariff, which U.S. lumber advocates say equals the 10 percent tax that four Canadian provinces were ordered to levy under a Feb. 26 London Court of International Arbitration ruling, will go into effect April 15 and last until the United States collects $54.8 million.
“These are difficult times for everyone, and the U.S. has only asked for fair competition and fair enforcement,” Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, said. “The ruling called for a remedy with an economic effect, and as has been consistently the case in Canada… they try to get out of it. We’re very glad that the U.S. government did not allow this to happen.”
Canada was supposed to impose the taxes by March 28 on lumber from Manitoba, Ontario, Québec and Saskatchewan, according to the ruling. The decision was the most recent arbitration agreement reached in a decades-long dispute over lumber from Canada, which U.S. industry representatives allege is unfairly subsidized by provincial Canadian laws.
The Canadian government offered to satisfy the court decision by paying the U.S. Treasury $46.7 million Canadian [about $37.7 million U.S.], but on April 2 the United States refused the offer. Canadian trade officials said they were disappointed by the tariff and have appealed to the London court for another arbitration session.
“In any relationship between two countries there are times when there are disagreements,” Canadian International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said Tuesday, according to a transcript of remarks with reporters. “We have a disagreement right now with the United States. We have made a payment that we believe satisfies or cures the breach, in the language of the tribunal, related to the softwood lumber dispute. The Americans do not agree with that.”
In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk said Wednesday that Canada “made this action necessary” by choosing not to honor its commitments. He acknowledged the double threats U.S. mills are facing from foreign competition as well as from “extremely weak demand.”
Residential construction permits dropped 44 percent in February over the same month in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in a statement on Wednesday, hailed the U.S. decision to impose a tariff, calling it a strong defense for American workers against unfair competition from trade violations.
“I sincerely hope that this action is the first step toward a renewed willingness on the part of [the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative] to swiftly and consistently enforce U.S. trade rights,” she said.
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Shays Stamped Slogans on Willing Voters
TATTOO
Norwalk Hour
Tait Militana
Boston University Washington News Service
04/07/09
WASHINGTON – In a fierce campaign for Congress last fall, Republican Rep. Christopher Shays employed a bizarre but increasingly popular tactic to get his message under the skin of voters. He tattooed them.
Granted, the tattoos were only temporary.
Shays, who ultimately lost his reelection bid in the 4th District to Democrat Jim Himes, handed out nearly 5,000 fake tattoos of his name to willing voters. The tats mirrored Shays’ lawn signs with the words “Congressman Christopher Shays” inked in red, white and blue.
Shays was not the only politician to employ such skin-tingling promotion tactics last election. A New Hampshire congressional candidate, a Mississippi congressman and even presidential candidate Barack Obama also stamped voters with images of hope and prosperity.
Paul Cary, president of Tattoofun.com, a Web site that creates custom tattoos and the provider of the Shays and Obama body art, said he has seen demand for political tattoos explode in the last three years.
“Tattoos are the new buttons,” he said.
Cary did not have an official count for how many political tattoos he made during the campaign season last year but said it was several million. The tattoos range from $110 for 1,000 to $1,240 for 10,000, depending on size.
The Obama campaign alone ordered 400,000 tattoos, Cary said.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based organization that tracks money and politics, the Shays campaign spent more than $600 on tattoos last year.
The campaign declined repeated requests for an interview, citing the ongoing investigation of a former campaign manager on embezzlement charges.
However, Jay Malcynsky, a political consultant with the New Britain-based Gaffney, Bennett and Associates, said he has seen dozens of strange political promotion items over the years and has come to the conclusion that politicians will put their name on pretty much anything that promises to promote their brand.
“There’s really no strategy to promotional items other than to buy what people will keep around,” he said in an e-mail message. Tattoos are “just another way to improve name ID and possibly image.”
Malcynsky said what is curious about the tattoos is their temporary nature. Ultimately, they wash off, which may limit their effectiveness.
“To the extent that people feel they are clever or humorous, they make a good, but short-term, impression,” he said. “Obviously, since they come off right away, they have no value as a continued reminder of the encounter with the candidate.”
According to Cary, the tattoos last up to seven days and eventual dissolve with water.
Bob Clegg, who ran for Congress last year from New Hampshire’s 2nd District but lost in the primary, also used tattoos. He said he geared them toward children and often handed them out at parades.
“We found kids absolutely loved it,” he said. “If we were entertaining the children, we had the parents' attention.”
Clegg, who purchased 2,500 tattoos, said they eventually became so popular that staffers began carrying them around in their pockets at all times.
The kids “have no idea what I do, but they know I have tattoos,” Clegg said.
Clegg also handed out bobblehead dolls of himself. He said part of the idea of the tattoos was to show that he did not take himself too seriously.
“Maybe it’s why I lost, but we had a ton of fun,” Clegg said.
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Feminist Turned Cherry Blossom Princess Represents Connecticut in D.C. Festival
PRINCESS
The Day
Katie Koch
Boston University Washington News Service
April 4, 2009
WASHINGTON—Liz Malerba, a self-proclaimed feminist with a women’s studies degree, came to Washington two years ago to work in government and make a difference for women.
But on Friday night, as she filed in to the ballroom of a downtown Washington hotel dressed in a long white gown and elbow-length gloves, she was filling a more unexpected role: princess.
“Yes, the feminist does enjoy dressing up,” she joked.
As Connecticut’s Cherry Blossom Princess, Malerba was the Nutmeg State’s representative in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, a 74-year-old celebration of the blossoming of the pink-budded trees and of American and Japanese friendship.
The two-week festival commemorates Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki’s gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington in 1912. The festival was started in April of 1935 to correspond with the short peak blooming period of the trees, which surround the Tidal Basin south of the White House near the Jefferson Memorial.
The princesses’ tight schedule ensured that the congressional staffer, who until two weeks ago was the scheduler for Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, got to experience the micromanaged life for herself.
Malerba spent last week hustling back and forth between her job on Capitol Hill and a whirlwind series of events, from an afternoon at a food bank in industrial northeast Washington to glamorous receptions in some of the city’s swankiest neighborhoods.
Even more than the busy schedule, the princess program’s strict rules kept Malerba on her toes. Before the week’s events began, she said, the princesses received etiquette lessons and clear wardrobe instructions: no dark colors, all pastels.
“I shouldn’t even be sitting like this right now,” she joked on Thursday afternoon, gracefully repositioning herself as she enjoyed a moment of relaxation on the subway commuting between events.
“This is my first taste of pageantry, if you will,” Malerba said. “But this isn’t really a beauty pageant. It’s an opportunity…to represent your state, to experience what it means to be an ambassador of your state culture and your state values in D.C.”
The princesses are chosen by their respective state societies—social and networking clubs that allow home-state persons the keep in touch—to attend a week of educational and networking events. This year the group visited the Japanese and Lithuanian ambassadors’ homes, watched a Russian fashion show, met with women in the military and heard from a panel of women in government.
On Saturday, the princesses walked in the Cherry Blossom Parade, escorted by Naval Academy cadets carrying their home state’s flag.
The program maintains a somewhat old-fashioned feel, which culminated in Friday evening’s Grand Ball, a cultural celebration-meets-debutante ball complete with sushi buffet, a Color Guard salute and a princess procession. The princesses even have a handler, Princess Chair Trippi Penland, whose objective “is to take care of all my chickadees,” as Penland put it.
While the festival does crown a Cherry Blossom Queen, there’s no cutthroat competition involved: At the ball on Friday night, Miss New Mexico was chosen the winner by the spinning of a wheel with the princesses’ names on it.
The princesses are typically between 18 and 24 years old, and many are college students or congressional staffers. At 25—her birthday was a week before the festival started—Malerba is the oldest princess this year.
“They had to fill out an age waiver for me,” she said, laughing.
Malerba’s stint as a princess was something of a fluke. Her softball teammate Brian Mahar, the president of the Connecticut State Society, approached her and convinced her to fill out the “Princess Papers,” as the application is known.
“Liz was the first person to come to mind for several people on the board,” Mahar said of the society’s decision to sponsor Malerba, the first Connecticut princess since 2003. “She has a great personality, she’s always smiling. She definitely represents herself very well, and she has a great background with the state.”
Malerba’s sister, Angela Malerba, said she was a bit surprised when she found out about the princess program: “I would never picture Liz as the pageant girl.” But after she learned about the program’s professional nature, “I felt like she fit the bill perfectly.
“She was probably a natural-born leader,” Angela Malerba, 22, said. “She’s so passionate about everything she does. She loves where she works. She belongs in D.C, on Capitol Hill.”
Her main passions—tribal rights and women’s equality—are largely a byproduct of her upbringing, Malerba said.
An Uncasville, Conn., native, Malerba grew up enmeshed in both the small town community and tribal life. She attended Montville High School for two years and finished high school at the Pomfret School, a private day school in nearby Pomfret.
Her most formative experiences, though, were with the Mohegan Tribe. Her great-great-grandfather, Chief Matahga, led the tribe from 1937 to 1952, and the family’s tradition of leadership in the tribe remains strong. Her grandmother served on the tribal council for more than 30 years, and her mother, Lynn Malerba, is currently vice chair of the tribe. Her father, although not a member of the tribe, works as a plumber at Mohegan Sun.
Growing up one-sixteenth Mohegan at a time when tribes around the country were fighting for recognition was a formative experience, Malerba said.
“I remember the phone call, I remember everybody in tears,” she said of the day in 1994 when the tribe learned it would be recognized by the federal government. “It’s something that was a very long time coming. My great-great-grandfather tried to get us recognized, and we tried in the ’70s. This was a triumph and also a tribute to all those who had attempted to do this before us.”
After graduating from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., in 2007, Malerba moved to Washington to intern with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District. She worked on finding cosponsors and supporters for a bill to mitigate wage discrimination against women, a cause DeLauro has long championed.
“She’s a feminist, I’m a feminist—it just worked out really well,” Malerba said.
In the fall of 2007, Malerba took a job as a staff assistant for Larson. After nine months, she became Larson’s scheduler, a position, she said, that gave her the people skills the Cherry Blossom Festival coordinators prize in a princess.
“You take care of your member of Congress first, but you’re also there for your constituents,” she said. “You learn to find a way to tell people no but also to make them feel that they’re being taken care of.”
Last month, after Larson was elected chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Malerba switched positions again. She now works in his leadership office performing outreach to members of the women’s, progressive and New England caucuses within the party.
While she enjoys Washington, the pull of the family business and tribal culture is strong.
“I owe a lot of my personality and a lot of my successes to the tribe,” Malerba said. “My end goal is to give back in any way I can.”
Malerba’s sentiments aren’t surprising, according to her mother.
“She’s been involved ever since she was born,” Lynn Malerba said. “We would hope that she would follow in our footsteps.”
Someday, Malerba said, she might want to fill her mother’s shoes as the Mohegan government’s envoy to Washington and Hartford. But for now, armed with no more diplomatic power than a pastel wardrobe and a can-do attitude, she’ll have to settle for being the ambassador from Connecticut.
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‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program Gets a Jump-Start
CLUNKERS
Bangor Daily News
Drew FitzGerald
Boston University Washington News Service
April 2, 2009
WASHINGTON – As lawmakers look for ways to give the ailing U.S. auto industry a life-saving jolt, a plan to convince drivers to trade in their old, gas-guzzling vehicles for more fuel-efficient replacements with cash vouchers is gaining traction.
A bill sponsored in January by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., calls for a four-year program that would provide up to $4,500 for drivers who turn in a fuel-inefficient vehicle to be scrapped and buy a new or used vehicle which gets significantly better mileage.
The bill never made it into the final Recovery Act Obama signed in February, but on Tuesday the president said he would like to reshuffle some stimulus funds to pay for such a program.
“Such fleet modernization programs, which provide a generous credit to consumers who turn in old, less fuel-efficient cars and purchase cleaner cars, have been successful in boosting auto sales in a number of European countries,” Obama said in a speech at the White House. “I want to work with Congress to identify parts of the Recovery Act that could be trimmed to fund such a program, and make it retroactive starting today.”
The legislation is seen as a way to stimulate demand for new cars, which have piled up at car dealerships and seaport lots amid a punishing economy. Franchised new car dealers sold 13.2 million new vehicles in 2008, down 18 percent from 2007, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, as uncertain consumers hold on to their old cars.
“Taking these cars and trucks off our roads and highways would help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate the economy,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the bill’s original co-sponsors, said in a statement.
Lawmakers have drafted several versions of the idea, including two slightly different proposals, one from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and the other from Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio. A White House spokeswoman said the president has not endorsed any particular proposal, but said the effort will require legislation.
“We will be working closely with Congress to try to move legislation that meets the goal of both boosting auto sales and improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicle stock,” the spokeswoman said.
Under the Senate proposal, owners can trade in an old vehicle for any new or used vehicle that exceeds federal fuel economy standards for its class by at least 25 percent. Vouchers also could be redeemed for public transportation fares.
The trade-in must be a registered vehicle in “drivable condition” to qualify for a voucher, the act states, to prevent actual clunkers from being taken off junkyards to gain the credit. The value of the voucher rises progressively up to $4,500 for newer trade-ins and more fuel-efficient replacements. The replacement also must have a manufacturer suggested retail price of less than $45,000.
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