Category: Washington, DC
Bogus Calls on Jury Duty Could Lead to Identity Theft
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — People in several states have fallen victim to con artists claiming to be employees of state and federal courts.
The scheme runs like this, according to the FBI: The victim will receive a call from a person pretending to be a court official. The person will be told that he or she has jury duty and then will be requested to give confidential information, such as Social Security number and credit card numbers. Victims refusing to comply will be threatened with fines.
“A person might receive a phone call from a federal employee, that’s for sure,” said Dick Carelli, a spokesman for the federal court system, but he added that no officer of a federal court would ask for sensitive information over the phone.
“They’d never ask for your bank account,” he said. “They’d never ask for your Social Security number.”
Carelli advises that if someone is asking you for sensitive information over the phone, no matter who they claim to be, ask for a number and call the person back. Or, if you are uncomfortable, “Simply hang up and give a call to your local FBI office or your local district court.”
The FBI has several guidelines on how to avoid telemarketing fraud. The bureau’s Web site suggests that you take your time when responding to phone calls, insist on getting information about who you’re dealing with, including name, mailing address, street address and phone number. Then verify the information before money or sensitive information changes hands.
You should also never give personal information to someone who is unknown to you, even if the person already has information about you. The complete list of guidelines is available at http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm.
Carelli said that calls about the scheme from clerks in Ohio and Nebraska came on top of “similar complaints from half a dozen states” over the summer about people posing as state employees.
A spokesman in the Washington FBI office confirmed that complaints of the scheme also came in to the bureau’s New Haven, Conn., office and a “western state” that the spokesman refused to name.
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Hearing on No Child Left Behind Concentrates on How Law Can Be Improved
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - The Department of Education is considering granting states more flexibility in testing under the No Child Left Behind act, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings told a House panel Thursday.
Testifying in front of the House education committee, Spellings said the department is working with states who want to create different testing standards for students with disabilities - for instance, giving them more time to complete the tests.
The secretary also said that school districts that have taken in displaced students from the Gulf Coast will be allowed to report evaluations of those students separately from their main body of students.
The No Child Left Behind law, passed in 2002, requires that states test students annually and meet federally-mandated progress standards.
Committee members expressed concern that allowing different testing standards for students with disabilities might cause them to be left out of the process all together.
The department also is considering a system where schools will be given credit for improvement over time, even if their improvement in a given year isn't sufficient to remove the school's 'needs improvement' designation, Spellings said.
While she spoke of the importance of greater flexibility in the way the law is implemented, Spellings defended the law's core goals. She reiterated her commitment to the goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.
"That really is not too much to ask of our country and our children," Spellings said.
She said schools have seen a more dramatic improvement in the last five years than they did over the previous 30, especially for minority students.
"We have created an appetite for results," she said.
Lawmakers also expressed concerns about the state of America's high schools. While Spellings said that there has been rapid improvement in schools since the law was implemented, she acknowledged that improvement has occurred mainly at the elementary education level.
Spellings said one of the problems is that the data on what needs improvement in high schools isn't available. "We're doing a lot of guessing about what's wrong in high school," she said.
She also said she was concerned about the number of high-school drop-outs, estimating that there are one million every year. It costs the country money in lost taxes and, "it also represents the American Dream denied for many people," she said.
Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the dropouts are the symptom of earlier problems. "We don't lose them in high school," he said. "We lose them in grades one through three when the fire of learning is not lit."
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Democrats Sense a Change in the Wind
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - House Democrats kicked off their midterm election effort for 2006, charging that in the 11 years since Republicans took control of Congress they have reneged on their Contract with America promises to end congressional corruption and balance the budget.
"George Bush and the Republicans have made a mess of things in this country," Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) said.
The House Democrats' campaign committee launched a new website Monday, called "Campaign for Change," to underscore their strategy for 2006. Wednesday night House Democrats had scheduled a fundraising event that they estimated would raise $1 million.
The strategy pronouncements came on the same day that then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was indicted in Texas.
Mr. McGovern rejected the argument that Democrats lack ideas, citing Democratic platform items like "a real prescription drug bill" which would allow government to negotiate the price of drugs, affordable housing initiatives, and "progressive" tax relief, which he said would benefit the middle class and those aspiring to it.
Americans, regardless of their politics, are disgusted by the cronyism of the current administration, Mr. McGoven said. He pointed to appointments like that of Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Rep. John Olver (D-Amherst) compared the atmosphere surrounding the 2006 election to that of 1994, when Republicans took over the House for the first time in 40 years. "The Americans threw us out of the Congress.because. we were just continuing to move forward on an agenda that the country was getting tired of, which seemed to be bigger government," he said.
Mr. Olver cited the banking scandals that happened before that election, and said that Democratic initiatives like the assault weapons bill and President Clinton's healthcare bill were perceived by the public as overreaching.
Now, he said, the roles of the two parties were reversed: Failures in Iraq and the Gulf Coast, combined with a growing deficit and "incompetents in high places," have contributed to "a movement for change," he argued. He called the proposed GOP overhaul of Social Security their great overstep, akin to the Clinton healthcare bill.
"It's a question of whether or not people have had enough," Mr. Olver said. And if they haven't had enough, "We'll be in the minority again."
Sarah Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, expressed cautious confidence about the Democrats' position.
"Anyone who suggests they know what will happen 13 months from now doesn't know what they're talking about," she said. "But I'd rather be us than them right now."
Carl Forti of the National Republican Congressional Committee said, "I think we're in great shape. primed and ready."
Mr. Forti argued that any attempt by Democrats to nationalize next year's election would fail, and he called national polls irrelevant. Voters vote for their own local congressman and incumbents are popular with their constituents, he said.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Springfield) said Democrats had "a series of issues playing to our favor," especially Social Security. He added that Democrats should approach other issues with the same unanimity with which they responded to the Republican's Social Security plan.
Ms. Feinberg, speaking hours after majority leader Tom Delay was indicted by a Texas grand jury for an alleged conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, said that Republicans currently preside over the most ethically troubled Congress in history.
But Mr. Forti said Delay's woes will not bring about a repeat of 1994. "I don't know of a single congressman who has lost an election because of something another congressman did," he said.
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Local Cape Anners March for Peace
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - At 8:35 a.m., protesters are already beginning to gather in downtown Washington. At the mouth of the Federal Triangle Metro stop, senior citizens are consulting maps and schedules, sporting protest T-Shirts and buttons and carrying signs. Two adults and a middle-school-age girl stand by a directory of the area. The girl adjusts some buttons she has pinned to the knee of her blue jeans. One with the letter W crossed out is readable, even at a distance.
On the other side of the courtyard, Sally Takekawa of Gloucester and Nina Samolioff of Rockport are making their plans for the day. Takekawa says they did manage to sleep "somewhat" on the bus. Now, in search of breakfast, they decide to follow the flow of people on the street.
On the way, they discuss other protests they have known. Samolioff talks about coming down to protest the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.
"There were security checkpoints everywhere," she says. She adds that she was forbidden to take in a button she brought, because security wouldn't allow her to bring anything with a pin near the parade route. People also were not allowed to have fruit to eat.
"I think they were afraid we would throw it," Samolioff said.
Over breakfast, the two women talk about politics, fuel efficient cars and Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show". Takekawa also tells the story of her life as a military family member. Her first husband was in the military and she had to be very careful, she says, with any activism.
"If I ever wrote letters to the editor, I had to leave my husband's name out of it, and just write for myself," she says. Takekawa added that she is glad to see groups like Military Families Speak Out, because she believes it's a change in the culture of silence that she observed on bases.
Takekawa has two sons, one of whom, Peter Johnson, is in the army in Iraq. He is a black-hawk mechanic stationed in an airbase in Balad, which is north of Baghdad. Near the end of his second three-year hitch in the Army - he had been to Kosovo - Johnson thought that because he had already served in a war zone he wouldn't get called to go to Iraq.
However, Takekawa's son got called to Iraq on the stop-loss program, which allows the Army to send soldiers who have more than 90 days left to serve to anywhere they might be needed for a year.
"This make me very angry at the people who say, 'You know, there's not a draft. These people signed up - they get what they get,'" Takekawa says.
Her son left for Iraq during what Takekawa describes as "the year from hell." Her husband was seriously ill, then she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Halfway through my chemo, they sent my son to Iraq. Actually, It wasn't even halfway through. I had just started." Soon after, Takekawa's father passed away. Johnson was not allowed to come home for the funeral.
"That was so distressing," she says.
She also talks about the worry that comes with her position.
"Every morning I wake up with that feeling in my stomach, you know?," she says. She reads everything she can find about the war and the war zone - torn between wanting to know and worrying about what she might find out, she says.
Takekawa says she is frustrated by the war and the reasons it is being fought - angered by the government's insistence that weapons of mass destruction was the reason, when they turned out not to exist.
"I wonder why more people don't feel betrayed, why they don't feel like they've been tricked," she says.
After breakfast, Takekawa and Samolioff join the stream of people flowing towards the mall. Samolioff says, "Where's Cindy?" referring to activist Cindy Sheehan and her "Bring them home now tour" which traveled cross-country from Texas to Washington in buses for this demonstration.
Sheehan's people have set up crosses and stars of David in rows in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Nearby, the Veterans for Peace have set up a tent with information. People are roaming the mall with signs, stickers, petitions and musical instruments.
Samolioff notes that there are fresh roses on many of the crosses. "That took time and money to set up," she says.
The women head to the right of the monument, towards the area south of theWhite House. Samolioff picks up a pre-made sign comparing the victims of the Iraq war and the victims of Katrina. It exhorts the nation to "stop the war on the poor". Takekawa picks up a pre-made sign from United for Peace and Justice, but she has brought her own small sign, as well, which she tapes to the back.
Her sign has a picture of her sons Peter and Ken. Written on it in black magic marker are the words, "Bring Pete home, his brother misses him, AND SO DO I!"
The rally hasn't started yet when they get to the Ellipse. Occasionally, someone on the stage tries to get people to chant something, but the crowd quickly loses interest. People keep streaming into the area around the stage. Takekawa frequently darts off to take pictures of people who have particularly clever signs. She takes one picture of a girl from California whose sign says, "I am 13, I paid my own way here, and I hold Bush personally responsible for the deaths in Iraq."
By the time the speakers start at 11:30, the lawn is packed. The emcee says people are still coming in and that "there are buses that haven't arrived yet, from New York."
Speaker after speaker, including Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), the Rev. Jesse Jackson and, of course, Cindy Sheehan say the same things - war should end, Bush should be held responsible, corporate interests are driving the war in the first place, and the troops should come home now.
Some of the speakers are not nationally known - there are some who speak of the soldiers as family - brothers, sons, husbands. These seem to move Takekawa and Samolioff the most.
The rally runs over the time appointed. By 1 pm., the crowd is clearly restless. Some of them are shouting "march!" and screaming, "no!" whenever a new speaker is brought to the stage.
Eventually, Samolioff and Takekawa decide to join the growing tide of people heading to march in spite of the organizers' wishes. Just as they are about to leave the stage area, Takekawa notices a group of people all wearing T-shirts that have pictures of a young man, a name and two dates. She speaks to one of them, an older woman, and asks if it is her son.
"She said it was her brother's son," says Takekawa later, "She just hugged me and said, 'I hope your son comes home.'"
She is subdued by this encounter. As she goes off to march she says, "Seeing a group like that with the T-shirts is a little scary - more than a little scary. I think how lucky I am that my son is all right."
Takekawa says one of the things that moved her the most during the rally was a speaker who mentioned a story she had already read about. A young serviceman who came home later hung himself because he was haunted by what he had to do.
"I think about all these people who are going to have nightmares and images - and how do you fix that?" she says. "There's isn't any government programming that's going to make that better."
She and Samolioff say they are impressed by the sheer number of people who came out. Moving slowly forward in the march route, Samolioff observes, "Wow. It's huge!"
In spite of the emotional impact of the day, both women are glad they came. Says Takekawa, "I wouldn't have missed it for anything."
As she said earlier in the day, "[Our troops] are still in the military to protect our right to do what we're doing today."
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Worcester Sends Protesters to Washington
WASHINTON, Sept. 24 - "Being an organizer is a very nervous job," said Alex Broner, the senior geography major responsible for getting three vans full of his Clark University compatriots down to Washington, D.C., for Saturday's peace march. He was still grappling with van rentals and nailing down participants only a few days before it was time to leave, and he said there was still a chance it would all fall apart. "Once we get there and people are tear-gassing us I'll be so relaxed," he said.
But half-past midnight on Friday the little band of Worcester-area students and older community members (brought along partly for their driving prowess) finally rolled out of town, bound for the nation's capitol and equipped with signs, food, and very loud music to keep the drivers from falling asleep at the wheel.
Gray Harrison, who drove a van down fortified by Java Hut coffee, is a math and science teacher at a school he recently founded outside Worcester. "I got involved in the late '60's when I thought they might send me to Vietnam," Mr. Harrison said. He said that the Iraq War was like Vietnam, because both were "for imperialism, and not to keep our country safe."
He has protested in New York and Washington, and participated in weekly vigils put on by Worcester Peaceworks, where he said the supportive-beep to middle finger ratio has improved since the war began. His wife and daughter saved the $50-per-person cost of the trip by joining 30-40 protesters in Worcester's Lincoln Square.
They were coming down for the annual protest organized the groups International A.N.S.W.E.R. and United for Peace and Justice. The Clark University group was among the large numbers from across the country that descended on Washington to express their opposition to the war in Iraq, not to mention globalization, racism and other issues.
A few minutes after 10 a.m. the group settled itself beneath a tree on a lawn between the Washington Monument and the White House, known as the Ellipse. People were arriving, but far fewer than the organizers' projected 100,000.
A sound system blasted the news that Amtrak trains running south to Washington had been suspended due to an electrical problem. It was hinted broadly that this was a little too convenient to be a coincidence, but that would-be protesters in New York had overcome the attempt at sabotage by demonstrating spontaneously at Penn Station. "Fight the system. The electrical system," joked Mr. Broner.
The group sat in a circle, some lying down, others chatting or reading newspapers. Ksenia Varlyguina, who was born in Moscow but raised in Worcester, said she was mainly interested in protesting the IMF and the World Bank. She said they "help us, but don't really help the people they're supposed to with their policies." She was considering staying for Monday's lobbying day against those institutions.
Ben Kilpatrick held a sign that said "End the war against the poor in Iraq and New Orleans." He wore a University of New Orleans sweatshirt. Mr. Kilpatrick's family got out of that city a day and a half before Hurricane Katrina hit, and he's staying in Worcester for the time being, studying at Clark.
Clark biology and economics major Sarah Assefa grew up in Kenya and said she wants to go back there and work in economic development with the environment in mind. She disagrees with what she calls the "misallocation of resources" that the Iraq war represents, toward war and away from education and humanitarian programs.
"The war in Iraq is totally inappropriate," she said. "If we want security there are other ways to go about it."
By the time the speakers began, the crowd had grown. The Worcester protesters split up, some starting on a long march to the Dupont Circle neighborhood while others relocated to a space in the back of the crowd, next to three women and a man from western Massachusetts who call themselves the Matriots. The group began a year ago as a way of "putting the party back in party," as member Marybeth Home of Northampton put it. The Matriots (as opposed to patriots) have declared themselves a political party, and even had their first "unconventional convention" last Mother's Day.
Explains Ms. Home, the group aims to "bring feminine balance to a male dominated world," which she and her friends do wearing foot-tall wigs and fake fur-covered glasses.
Speakers at the rally included the Rev. Jesse Jackson and mom-turned-protester Cindy Sheehan. Afterwards, the protestors marched past the Department of the Treasury and the White House, chanting, "Iraqis die by the hour? What do we do? Fight the power." A man pushed his wheelchair which held a sign which read: "World War Two veteran for peace."
The march was peaceful, with police watchful but relaxed along the route. Police officials estimated that the protesters reached their 100,000 goal, while organizers said that they far surpassed it. A separate protest was scheduled Sunday for supporters of the war in Iraq.
As to whether the protest will have an effect on policy, long-time protester Carol Esler of Hopkinton said her views on that had changed over the years.
As a Vietnam protester in college she said, "There was a sense [with each protest] that 'this time we're going to do it.'" She said she believed that the demonstrations would change people's views in a lasting way.
Now, although Ms. Esler still thinks protest is effective, she said, "I know that we're going to have to keep doing this."
Organizers Hope March Will “Energize and Expand” War Opposition
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- More than 100,000 people are expected to gather Saturday on the Mall alongside the White House for a rally and a march that organizers say they hope will make the government more aware of growing anger over the war in Iraq.
An umbrella group called United for Peace and Justice, representing more than 1,300 groups nationwide, organized the weekend's events. Bill Dobbs, the group's media coordinator, said the goal of the march is to "raise a loud cry in front of the White House and to Congress: 'End the war in Iraq, bring the troops home now.' "
Dobbs said he also hopes the protest will "galvanize, energize and expand opposition to the war, so people will go back home and work harder to end it."
The rally and march on Saturday will be the most visible event in a weekend of activism and training for antiwar advocates from all over the country. The rally, which will feature numerous speakers, will begin at 11:30 on Saturday, followed by a march around streets near the White House at 12:30. Later in the afternoon, there will be a concert that will include musicians Steve Earle and Joan Baez and activist Cindy Sheehan.
Sunday will consist of training in nonviolent resistance, organizing and lobbying, in preparation for demonstrations and meetings on Monday. Dobbs said 500 activists will meet with about 300 members of Congress from 39 states to lobby them to do what they can to stop the war.
"Congress is very important because they gave Bush the money to wage this war," Dobbs said, "We have to hold them accountable."
"In the aftermath of Katrina, even more people are wondering why we continue to spend money and lives on a senseless war," he said.
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Head Start Reauthorized in House
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed legislation that would allow faith-based program providers receiving federal funds for low income preschoolers to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring.
The move came as the House reapproved the Head Start program for another five years. While the bill was expected to pass easily, the amendment, passed on a predominately party-line vote, drew opposition to the bill.
Nancy Topping-Tailby, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association called the amendment "troubling."
"It's just not consistent with the Head Start philosophy," she said.
The Senate approved its version of the Head Start reauthorization bill on May 25. It has similar provisions to the House version but has no provision for religious discriminatory hiring.
If the religious amendment is in the final reconciled version of the bill it would not have a great effect on the commonwealth as there is only one center run by a faith-based organization, according to Topping-Tailby.
The Head Start program provides a number of services for children from low income families up to age five, including programs for their education, health, and nutrition.
The House-passed version of the legislation includes provisions designed to increase transparency in accounting practices and new criteria by which Head Start centers will be judged. If a center falls short in any one of several fields - including education level of teachers, compliance with state standards, cooperation with state agencies and teaching performance - it will be open to competition from other providers when its grant comes up for renewal.
Officials at Gloucester's local Head Start center expressed concern about the requirement that at least 50 percent of a center's staff must have an associate's degree, a two-year degree from a community college, or higher.
"Our salaries are so low, we have difficulty attracting and retaining people," said Caroline Haines, chief operating officer at Pathways for Children, which operates Head Start centers in Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich and Essex.
Out of nine lead teachers in their centers, she said, two have bachelor's degrees and maybe two have associate's degrees. Haines said her staff makes $10-$12 an hour.
"We're having trouble finding any people to do this work," Haines said. "We're having trouble finding people who meet the minimum state qualifications. And our staff turnover is high."
Haines also expressed concern about current testing measures, which she said have been classified as "invalid and unreliable" by the Government Accountability Office. There are provisions in the House bill that require the National Academy of Sciences to examine the current testing, but Haines believes the current test should be suspended while they're developing a new standard.
Topping-Tailby said she isn't concerned about most of the criteria for judging centers, because, "we're a strong region." However, she agreed that it's difficult to find qualified people.
"It's very hard to do with the current revenues we get, in terms of the salaries we can offer," she said.
"Programs should be monitored, they should get their results," she added, saying that programs that don't measure up should be given a period of time to fix the areas where they fall short. "The House, unfortunately, is taking an approach where we feel that more programs will get pulled into recompetition than necessary," she said.
Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, who was on the committee that considered the bill, said that he shared concern over the ability to retain skilled teachers. "We're not compensating people enough," he said.
He worked to get education loan forgiveness for early childhood teachers built into the higher education reauthorization bill, and got $5,000 per teacher.
"It's not enough, but it's a start," said Tierney, who added that it was a struggle simply to get enough money in the Head Start bill to fund the program, even though Republicans praise it. "We can't get them to put the money behind it," he said.
Tierney, who supported the bill when it came out of committee, ultimately voted against the amended version.
Federal and State Legislators Grapple with the Rising Costs of Gas
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Members of Congress can agree that America has a gas problem, but consensus fractures when discussion turns to solving it.
America's drivers were grumbling about gas prices even before Hurricane Katrina, but since the rigs and refineries of the Gulf Coast were damaged, prices have gone through the roof. The average price per gallon nationwide passed the three dollar mark, while some areas like Atlanta reported prices above five dollars. Hurricane Rita now threatens to push prices higher.
On Wednesday members of the Senate's commerce committee heard testimony on ways to ensure the supply of oil for their constituents.
"We can't supply our way out of this," Robin West, a former Reagan administration energy adviser told the legislators. "We must deal with the demand."
That sentiment met with broad bipartisan agreement, but the parties disagreed on how to close the gap.
Republicans complained that United States environmental laws prohibited drilling in areas where there are oil deposits, like the Arctic shelf. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) applauded President Bush's decision to temporarily suspend certain environmental regulations while the Gulf Coast oil industry recovers from Katrina, and suggested they be discarded altogether.
Democrats blamed oil companies for not having built a refinery in America for 30 years. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that companies were creating artificial shortages, and compared the situation to the California electrical crisis of 2001.
She told the story of an oil company in Bakersfield, Calif., that wanted to close a refinery rather than sell it because, company officials claimed, they could not find a purchaser. The state stepped in and found one easily, she said, adding that the company had only wanted to limit its competition.
Mr. West responded that oil refineries in the United States were "unprofitable," and that there was plenty of competition in the oil market.
Democrats said they favor empowering the federal government to go after what Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) called "predatory pricing." Ms. Cantwell and Ms. Boxer favored giving the Federal Trade Commission "courage" to investigate and subpoena oil companies if their prices seem to rise excessively over a period of time.
Massachusetts lawmakers also are grappling with the issue of fuel pricing, and some protections are already in place. Massachusetts has price-gouging legislation that goes into effect when the governor declares a state of emergency. Additionally, there are laws against "unfair practices" in the oil industry, and the state government has power to subpoena gas distributors and suppliers.
"We are working with [the] consumer affairs [department] to send inspectors throughout the state" to investigate 60 gas stations alleged to have marked up prices to take advantage of the Katrina crisis, said Corey Welford, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
The Massachusetts House is working on legislation to encourage Bay Staters to buy more efficient appliances and vehicles and also to aid elderly and low-income residents with their home heating costs this winter.
Dick Kennedy of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce said that local businesses would probably deal with the increased price of fuel by offering their employees ride-sharing programs and opportunities to work from home via internet.
"It will clearly have a substantial impact on the price of doing business," Kennedy said. Ultimately, he said, prices for consumer goods could rise if gas prices remain high.
Brian Allen, business manager for the Worcester School District, said the district had been forced to freeze funds earmarked for books and classroom supplies to help pay $150,000 extra in fuel costs. That money will only pay half that projected amount, but Allen said he is hopeful that the cost of gas will go down and part of the money will still be available for crayons, pencils and the other things Worcester schools need.
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Congress Works to Protect U.S. From Tsunamis
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 26 - Four months after one of the most destructive tsunamis in history killed thousands of people along the Indian Ocean basin, Congress is taking steps to try to prevent similar devastation in the United States should a tsunami occur.
The U.S. has a system to detect tsunamis-large, often destructive waves produced after underwater disturbances-in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in the Caribbean Sea, but several bills are moving through Congress to expand and improve the detection system and reduce reaction times.
Immediately following last December's Indian Ocean tsunami, President George W. Bush requested and was granted supplemental funds for this year to expand the U.S.'s warning system. The President requested additional money for the plan in his proposed 2006 budget, according to an official from the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Bush's proposal calls for spending $37.5 million over the next two years to develop 32 new detection buoys, according to an Office of Science and Technology Policy press release. Seven of the buoys would be placed in the Atlantic and the Caribbean and the rest in the Pacific, said Greg Romano, public affairs director for the National Weather Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
These "next generation" buoys, part of the Weather Service's Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis program, would be able to collect a wide range of data about the oceans, including tsunamis, and would provide more real-time information than the current buoys, said Scott Carter, a congressional affairs specialist for NOAA, who handles Weather Service legislation.
The new system would provide the United States with improved ability to detect coastal tsunamis, allowing responses within minutes. The new system would also "expand monitoring capabilities throughout the entire Pacific and Caribbean basins, providing tsunami warning for regions bordering half of the world's oceans," according to the science and technology office press release.
On the heels of Bush's proposal, several tsunami warning bills were introduced in both chambers of Congress.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), co-chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, sponsored a bill exclusively focused on establishing an improved tsunami warning system.
Meanwhile, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), another member of the committee and chairman of its Fisheries and the Coast Guard Subcommittee, reintroduced legislation that would establish a comprehensive system to monitor the condition of the nation's oceans and coastlines, including detecting tsunamis. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) co-sponsored the bill.
The committee has approved both bills, and they are expected to go to the Senate floor for debate soon, Carter said.
According to information about tsunamis on NOAA's Web site, movement on the ocean floor sends water upward, and as the wall of water moves closer to shore and enters shallower water, the wave becomes compressed, slowing its speed but increasing the wave length and height, causing the pileup of water that crashes to shore. The process can repeat a number of times, with flooding occurring between waves.
While a tsunami can occur anywhere, one is much less likely to hit along the Atlantic Coast or in the Caribbean Sea than in the Pacific Ocean because the Pacific has deep, actively moving fault lines that shift to cause an upheaval of water and, thus, a tsunami, Romano said. Earthquakes registering 7.0 or greater on the Richter Scale are generally needed for a tsunami to occur, he said.
But the Atlantic and Caribbean areas are not without risk.
"We have in the Atlantic and Caribbean densely populated areas . so the potential impact should a tsunami occur is huge," Romano said. "It's important that people who live or work or visit coastal communities along any coasts understand that tsunamis could occur and that there are very simple actions that should be taken."
For individuals, one of the most important things to do is to move inland or to higher ground, said Romano. Local communities can help prepare citizens for tsunamis through education and planning.
To that end, NOAA developed the Tsunami Ready Community program so communities can prepare for tsunamis by establishing an emergency operations center, notification system and hazard plan, according to information on NOAA's website. The program is similar to NOAA's Storm Ready program, which educates communities about how to handle tornados and other major storms. Once a community is Storm Ready, it would not take much to become Tsunami Ready as well, Carter said.
But only a handful of communities in New England are Storm Ready, including Fort Fairfield, Maine, and Hampton, N.H., and no place on the East Coast is Tsunami Ready. On the West Coast, where tsunamis are more likely to occur, only 15 or 16 communities are Tsunami Ready, Carter said.
"If communities don't understand what to do when they get a warning or when an earthquake happens, it's not going to do a lot of good," Carter said.
Depending on weather and sea conditions, tsunamis can be of varying heights, and topographic differences can affect how far inland the waves travel. The Northeast region has the advantage of having higher levels of elevation than other parts of the country, Romano said.
"If higher ground is nearby, there's not as much need to go as far inland" to escape the tsunami, he said.
Although Maine is not at great risk for tsunamis, Snowe is concerned about a broader range of oceanic detection issues, said Antonia Ferrier, her press secretary.
"Given that we are so economically dependent on our ocean, we need to do everything we can to make sure it is a healthy and productive resource for our future," Ferrier said.
Carter said Snowe's bill is more "comprehensive" than Inouye's because the detections she has proposed would monitor such things as wave heights, salinity, wind and currents, which are important because linking all possible ocean data would allow for better forecasting.
The current focus on ocean detection systems could help Snowe's bill pass this session.
"We are encouraged by having more people talking about warning systems. It elevates the issue to the forefront," Ferrier said. "It is our hope that the Senate acts swiftly on the legislation."
The Bush administration also is working on developing a global system for countries to develop universal standards and be able to share data collected from the world's oceans.
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Bush Hosts Patriots Again
By Tim Heaney
WASHINGTON, April 13 -The World Series champion Boston Red Sox were rewarded with a trip to the South Lawn of the White House last month. This month, the two-time defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots earned themselves a visit to the Rose Garden.
President George W. Bush Wednesday welcomed to the White House more than 30 members of the football team for the third time during his presidency.
"You know, the commentators would say, well, they're not the flashiest bunch, they're not the fanciest bunch, they just happen to be the best team," Bush said. "They're the team that showed that when you play together, when you serve something greater than yourself, you win."
The Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls, the first team to accomplish that feat since the Dallas Cowboys in 1993, 1994 and 1996. The Patriots have won nine straight playoff games dating back to 2002.
Bush said the Patriots' leadership of quarterback Tom Brady, head coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft exemplified what it entails to win while maintaining a serious tone.
"I'm pretty impressed with the way you handle yourself," the president said.. "I think some of us involved in the political arena could -- could spend a little time getting tutelage on how to handle the mike like you do," Bush said, referring to Belichick's notoriously curt postgame interviews.
The Patriots also spoke of their visits to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the Naval Medical Center in suburban Bethesda, Md. The team said that the experience put their accomplishments into perspective, and made them realize the sacrifices the soldiers made for their country.
"To go in there and see the troops, it makes what we do seem so unimportant," Brady said in a press conference following the White House ceremony. "We admire them more than we could ever express."
Bush honored linebacker and fan favorite Tedy Bruschi for his courage on and off the field. Bruschi joined the team for the visit after suffering a stroke in February. Bruschi was smiling while greeting invited guests, and Brady said he was in good spirits.
"It was the same old Tedy," he said. "We were all scared when it initially happened, but it was good to see him back there."
All of the Patriots' Super Bowl victories came by a margin of 3 points, with kicker Adam Vinatieri gaining celebrity with last-second field goals against the St. Louis Rams in 2002 and the Carolina Panthers in 2004. Vinatieri did not make the trip because of the birth of his second child.
While acknowledging the New England congressional delegation in attendance, Bush said that the region's sports presence at the White House was becoming redundant. "I'm surprised more of the delegation hasn't come, but, you know, Red Sox one week, Patriots the next -- it's getting to be old hat here," he said.
Kraft presented the president with a "Bush 1" white home jersey. Belichick presented Bush with a hooded gray Patriots sweatshirt like the one the coach has consistently sported during the Patriots' run.
Kraft promised Bush the team would return, while taking advice from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.
"I hope we keep this reunion going, and next year if we're blessed to be here, we'll follow Sen. Kennedy's advice and bring the cheerleaders," Kraft said.
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