Category: Fall 2009 Newswire
Annual Wreath Laying Brings Thousands to Arlington National Cemetery
WREATHS
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 12, 2009
WASHINGTON—More than 5,000 volunteers from across the country flocked to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia Saturday to spread holiday spirit while remembering the sacrifices of veterans of the armed services.
Saturday marked the 18th annual laying of wreaths at Arlington, a tradition started by Mainer Morrill Worcester in 1992, when his wreath company had hundreds of excess wreaths. With the holiday season drawing to a close, Worcester came to Arlington with a handful of volunteers and adorned a section of graves in a far corner of the cemetery.
Wayne Hanson, a representative of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C, said Worcester plays a major hand in educating children about the sacrifices veterans have made for their freedom.
“We stand here among some 300,000 names…[which] thanks to Mr. Worcester and people like yourselves, are never to be forgotten,” Hanson said to a gathered sea of volunteers early Saturday morning.
Worcester reminded the volunteers that the event’s purpose was to “remember, honor and teach.”
The first year that he donated wreaths, however, Worcester said that the cemetery’s staff was more concerned with “who was going to clean all this up.”
The Maine State Society, which organizes the wreath-laying event, also arranges for volunteers to clean up the wreaths. This year, about 15,000 wreaths were distributed to volunteers to place in front of tombstones in five sections of the cemetery.
Some volunteers already knew which graves they wanted to put their wreaths on, choosing to honor a family member or ancestor. For others, the chance to lay a wreath at Arlington was an opportunity for reflection, exploration or teaching.
Jeff Nulf came from Arlington, Va.. with his 6-year-old twins, Kylie and Matthew, in what he said he hopes to be the beginning of a family tradition. The siblings each chose a headstone to adorn, and Nulf made sure they read the headstones and understood why who was buried beneath them deserved respect.
Matthew chose “Thomas,” he said, pointing at the section of graves the family had just walked from.
“We chose him because he was a hero, and we were thinking that a hero is a good man,” Matthew said.
Kylie said she chose “Albert,” because it reminded her of the Little House on the Prairie book series.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, wandered the cemetery Saturday as well, and said that she and members of her staff placed wreaths on a number of graves. The freshman congresswoman said that she, like the Nulfs, hopes to make a new tradition.
“Everyone deserves our respect,” she said.
Some, like Mary Carroll of West Grove, Penn., chose to make their marks on entire sections of the cemetery. Instead of lining up to get a wreath and select a grave, Carroll spent hours Saturday walking up and down rows of headstones, straightening bows and nudging wreaths to perfect symmetry on the graves.
“Some people put them down upside down and stuff,” Carroll said. “I’m a neatener.”
She said that taking the time to straighten others’ wreaths was her way of honoring veterans, including her husband, who served during the Vietnam War.
“Nobody did anything for the Vietnam vets,” she said. Even the wreath laying, she said, “is never going to be enough, but at least they’re doing something.”
Still others were tasked not with laying or straightening wreaths, but with ensuring their safe arrival. John and Bunny O’Leary, of Norwood, Maine, as part of the Patriot Guard Riders, made the weeklong journey from Maine to the District of Columbia with the trucks carrying the wreaths, visiting memorials and veterans’ associations along the way.
This is the fourth year they’ve been part of the wreaths’ official entourage.
Bunny, a Blue Star Mom whose son is serving in the Air Force, said that the trek and ceremony itself are to “try to spread the word that freedom isn’t free.”
The O’Learys were part of the group that encouraged Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Republicans of Maine, to submit Senate Resolution 358, to proclaim Dec. 12, 2009 National Wreaths Across America Day. The resolution was passed unanimously, and the couple was presented with a framed copy of the resolution, signed by Collins.
John O’Leary said that planning for next year’s ceremony and journey would begin as soon as they arrived home early next week.
“Here’s my best idea for next year,” John said. “Sunny, warm weather.”
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Shaheen Chairs, NH Businessman Attends Hearing on Boosting American Exports
EXPORT
New Hampshire Union Leader
Joseph Markman
Boston University Washington News Service
12/09/09
WASHINGTON – The glitz of recent economic development in countries like China and India should not overshadow America’s more lucrative trade relationship with Europe, economists said at a hearing Wednesday chaired by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
New Hampshire businessman Charles Howland stressed that point in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs. Howland, president and chief engineer of Warwick Mills, Inc., a New Ipswich company that engineers protective textiles, joined with the chief economist at the U.S. State Department and two other experts in examining the trade and investment ties between the United States and Europe.
With high unemployment and stagnant economic growth, the United States needs to find ways to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to invest in markets across the Atlantic Ocean, Shaheen said.
“It is easy to forget that, by far, America’s largest, most vibrant, and perhaps its most critical economic relationship is actually with Europe,” Shaheen said at the hearing. “It would be a mistake to neglect this crucial partnership as we attempt to dig ourselves out of this economic downturn.”
Robert Hormats, undersecretary of state for economic, energy, and agricultural affairs, testified that American exports to the European Union are more than five times the amount sent to China every year. Even combining China with Russia, Brazil and India, the European connection is much more substantial, Hormats said.
“We need to build on this strong, transatlantic foundation,” he said.
New Hampshire has its own ties to the European market. Shaheen, when she was governor, led the state’s first trade delegation outside of North America, and in 2007 Europeans bought nearly $1 billion worth of goods from companies in New Hampshire, Shaheen said.
Warwick Mills was founded in 1870 with a focus on making cotton textiles. Through the decades, it has produced parachute fabric for the U.S. military during World War II, created a specialized weave for use in body armor, and made high-strength fabric for the space shuttle Endeavour’s parachute, according to the company’s Web site.
Howland said more than 50 percent of his sales are to the European market, which is his most important business relationship. Key partners include Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
In order for Warwick Mills and other American companies to succeed overseas, Howland said they need to focus on developing “best in class” technical products to sell to niche markets. That way, Howland said, the United States can work to retain or create manufacturing jobs.
“We exist on the value of our innovation,” he said. “We must innovate to thrive.”
Howland called on the Department of Defense to work more closely with the Commerce Department in its Small Business Innovation Research initiative, in the hopes of facilitating American exports. The initiative provides up to $850,000 in early-stage research and development funding directly to small technology companies.
The New Hampshire businessman said most small businesses in the United States find exporting “a mystery” because the large domestic market has made it easy for them to avoid the more difficult task of getting their product overseas. He urged the government to create a “portal” involving some combination of embassies and government trade departments to encourage Atlantic trade and boost the U.S. economy.
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Sen. Gregg Introduces Bill to Create Task Force Addressing National Debt
DEBT
New Hampshire Union Leader
Joseph Markman
Boston University Washington News Service
12/09/09
WASHINGTON – Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., along with a bipartisan group of senators, introduced legislation Wednesday that would create a task force to examine ways to reduce the national debt.
As Congress faces a vote on whether to raise the federal debt ceiling above the current $12.1 trillion limit, Gregg and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., have spearheaded an effort to address the debt, which they say is likely to surpass 100 percent of gross domestic product within a few years, nearing levels not seen since the end of World War II.
“Congress feels entitled to spend with a blank check and little regard for the future of our economic stability,” Gregg said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “We are swimming in a sea of red ink that will drown any chance our children have for prosperity or even a decent standard of living.”
The bill, co-sponsored by 27 Democrats and Republicans, proposes an 18-member commission of lawmakers and members of the executive branch. To address “unsustainable long-term fiscal imbalance,” the proposal would put “everything on the table” and would require the panel to submit a report after the 2010 elections.
Responding to criticisms that they are seeking to avoid scrutiny before next year’s elections and that they have not set any specific goals, Conrad said he “harbors no illusions” about the political pressures that come with trying to reduce government spending while increasing revenue.
“The regular legislative process is simply not going to get the job done,” Conrad said.
Gregg and Conrad, who hold the two top spots on the Senate Budget Committee, called for “fundamental tax reform” as a path toward easing the deficit, saying the country’s “inefficient tax system” collects only 76 percent of the revenue it is due.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., among others, has criticized the proposal, calling it too blunt an instrument to deal with what is really a problem of rising health care costs.
Conrad argued that health care reform “will not be enough to solve this problem,” though he and Gregg acknowledged that spending on entitlements – Medicare and Social Security – consume an outsized amount of federal resources.
“We owe it to the Americans who depend on these retirement and health care programs, as well as our children who will pay for them, to fix our broken entitlement system,” Gregg said.
The Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act, which would require a final vote on its recommendations during the “lame-duck” portion of the current Congress, represents an updated version of a bill Gregg and Conrad introduced in 2007.
The Democratic leadership appears split on the issue. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is reportedly considering the task force and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House Majority Leader, is in favor, Conrad said. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has rejected the idea in favor of the existing legislative process.
Gregg countered that “a bipartisan, fast-track process is the best way to arrive at workable solutions.”
“It is no longer enough for Congress to simply talk about reform; it is time for action and leadership,” Gregg said.
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Heavier Trucks Weight Allowances Will Ease Pressure on Maine Roads
TRUCKS
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 9, 2009
WASHINGTON—Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, proved herself to be a congressional heavy hitter late Tuesday night when she got a measure that would allow heavier trucks on stretches of interstate that run through Maine included in the 2010 Transportation Appropriations bill.
The one-year pilot program will increase the maximum allowed weight of trucks driving on the interstate in Maine from 80,000 pounds, to 100,000 pounds. This trial year is the first step in correcting what Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, called in a statement a “truck weight mismatch.”
Collins is the only Maine member of Congress to serve on an appropriations committee, and has been dogging the highway issue for some time.
“Increasing federal truck weight limits on Maine’s interstates has always been one of my top priorities,” Collins said in a statement. “A uniform truck weight limit would keep trucks on the interstates where they belong, rather than on the rural roads that pass through our small towns and villages.”
Collins said she was “delighted” to have the measure included in the bill. Now that the final Transportation Appropriations bill has been cleared by the House-Senate conference committee, both chambers must pass this final version before it can be signed by President Barack Obama and take effect.
Michaud agreed that the bill was a good beginning.
“Maine deserves a permanent solution to this issue so that we can improve road safety, increase productivity and remain economically competitive with our neighbors,” he said.
Officials at the Maine Department of Transportation were happy with the inclusion of the pilot project in the bill.
Herb Thomson, director of communications for DOT, said that the DOT was very receptive to the program.
“We have been working with our congressional delegation as a united front to move the truck weight limits in this direction for several years,” he said.
DOT Commissioner David Cole explained that the two lengths or interstate the weight limits would affect had been the only stretches that only allowed trucks weighing up to 80,000 pounds, while everywhere else in New England allowed the heavier trucks. The weight difference, he said, would allow the trucks to move more products and improve the economic climate, without forcing them to travel on 200 miles of back road through Maine.
“The actual size of the truck is not any larger,” Cole said.
Instead of more, lighter trucks on the roads, Cole said, the pilot program would allow for a more greenhouse gas and safety-friendly Maine.
“The more vehicles you have on the road, the more opportunities for conflict there are,” he said.
John Diamond, board chairman for the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday's announcement was good news.
“This has been a longstanding concern of the chamber and we have worked with Sen. Collins and her staff on this for a long time,” he said Wednesday. “We are extremely pleased that she and other members of our delegation have been successful in advocating for this pilot project.”
Cole said that the pilot program has been long-awaited.
“This is the right thing to do,” he said. “People just look at us like, why can’t we get this done? There are compelling arguments everywhere, and we’re just glad that it’s part of our larger national debate and that this hurdle’s been met. We’ll just cross our fingers and hope it’s permanent.”
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Proponents of Gay Marriage See Victory as Inevitable, But Lack Strategy
EQUALITY
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 9, 2009
WASHINGTON—History repeats itself. That old maxim is a favorite of those who advocate same-sex marriage in Maine.
One month after the passage of a ballot question vetoing the state’s five-month-old same-sex marriage law, activists are beginning to look at what went wrong in a battle that seemed won before any votes were cast and are searching for new tactics for the next round of the fight.
Grasping for a new plan of action for Maine and the rest of the country, proponents of same-sex marriage take comfort in history.
Betsy Smith, executive director for Equality Maine, an advocacy organization, is one of those who believes in the power and patterns of history. Just as legal bans on interracial marriage were overturned decades ago, and just as religious prohibitions or restrictions on interfaith marriage have weakened over the years, so, she said, will bans on same-sex marriage eventually fall away.
“Over a period of time, I think that it is inevitable,” Smith said. “I think our country will evolve in its opinion on same-sex couples. I think this goes historically the same way as the ban on interracial marriage or the marriage between faiths. I don’t know the timing, but yes, we will be a country, not too many decades from now, that will not deny unions for same-sex couples.”
Currently, only four states offer marriage licenses for same-sex couples (a fifth, New Hampshire, will do the same on Jan. 1), and a handful more offer some form of spousal benefits to same-sex couples. Twenty-nine states have constitutional amendments restricting marriage to one man and one woman, and 11 more states have laws that define marriage the same way.
Sarah Warbelow, the state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights national advocacy group, said she thinks that the battle for marriage will eventually move out of the state arena and into the national spotlight.
“One of two things has to happen,” Warbelow said. “At some point there aren’t going to be any more state courts that are going to interpret their state constitutions to protect same-sex couples, and we’re going to run out of states that will pass it legislatively, whether that’s because they have a state defense-of-marriage law or they don’t feel it’s popular enough.
“So we’re going to stall. When that happens, the federal courts are going to have to be the ones to say that marriage is accessible nationwide—or the federal government is.”
Both Smith and Warbelow said that they see an inevitable victory for equal rights, probably by way of a majority of states authorizing same-sex marriages, and the Supreme Court ruling that the remaining states must follow suit, the same way that the civil rights movement achieved victory.
The gay rights movement, Warbelow said, is actually just the next step in the civil rights movement that began in the 1960s.
“Civil rights is a set of legal rights, and we are fighting for civil rights,” she said.
“It could be a long road, we hope it’s a shorter one, and part of what we’re hoping to do is to make people understand that the rights we are talking about are real,” Warbelow said. “There are very real benefits to getting married.”
Mark Brewer, an associate professor of political science at the University of Maine, said that the momentum of the battle for gay and lesbian rights has slowed in the wake of the vote on what was popularly known as Question 1.
“I think if you would have asked a lot of people whether or not same-sex marriage was inevitable a month ago, I think the answer from most of them would have been yes, and that they saw that momentum headed in that direction,” Brewer said. “Now, I don’t know. The playing field has changed here over the last four weeks. If I had to go out on a limb, I’d say it probably still is inevitable, but I’m not nearly as certain of that as I was a month ago.
“It may take longer at this point, and the venue may change.”
That venue change is the one that same-sex marriage supporters see: from the states to the federal government.
Marc Mutty, who chaired the Stand for Marriage Maine anti-marriage-equality campaign to repeal the state same-sex marriage law, said he doesn’t expect the issue to go away anytime soon.
“They have vowed that they would be back, and they’d be back as soon as they could,” Mutty said of proponents of same-sex marriage. “Equality Maine and their partners have already made it crystal clear this is not the end and they will be back, using all resources they have to forge ahead.”
Mutty said he’s not looking forward to the hard work he sees ahead in defending his camp’s November victory while still fatigued from the months of campaigning.
“I’m concerned that we’ll be dealing with this again, since we’ve dealt with it so recently,” he said. “Even the thought of having to go through this intense legislative battle is certainly not something I look forward to.”
Despite predictions from activists that same-sex marriage will eventually become a federal issue, Maine’s senators don’t see it that way.
The last time a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage came to the Senate, in the form of the June 2006 Federal Marriage Amendment (also called the Marriage Protection Amendment), Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Republican of Maine, voted against forcing a vote. The cloture motion fell short of the required 60 votes.
Even though both have been praised by the Human Rights Campaign for their voting records on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, neither Collins nor Snowe sees marriage as a federal issue, representatives of the senators said.
“I would say that Sen. Collins believes that this issue is best handled at the state level since states have historically had responsibility for defining domestic relationships,” Collins’ spokesman said.
Snowe’s spokeswoman pointed out that in 1996 Snowe voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman for federal purposes.
Under that law, “it is left to individual states through the legislature or referenda to make their own determinations on this very personal issue,” Snowe’s spokeswoman said. “Sen. Snowe’s position has not changed.”
Brewer said that in the aftermath of the November vote, both sides of the debate have yet to remobilize and begin campaigning again, to either protest or uphold the veto.
“If you are an opponent of same-sex marriage, then you’re probably feeling pretty good,” he said. “If you’re a proponent of same-sex marriage, you’re kind of wondering what’s going to happen here. I don’t think anyone’s close to answering that.”
Smith said that there is no master plan or next step for her organization yet, but that they will continue the individual outreach and conversations that she hopes will make an impression on Maine’s voters.
“We are educating an entire country, entire culture and entire society,” she said. “It takes a while, but that education is happening right now.”
Whatever the momentum, Brewer, Mutty, Smith and Warbelow all agreed that a change of some sort is coming. Mutty said that polls aren’t always linear in predicting voting behaviors, and that attitudes can change.
“We’ve certainly seen a movement in society in this direction [of support for same-sex marriage] that’s undeniable,” he said. “There’s been no question that there’s an increase in acceptance…. There’s speculation that as the older generation dies out, it’ll be more acceptable, because old people are less receptive to change than young people.”
Here is where the decades of uphill struggle that Smith and Warbelow have predicted come in.
“The caveat to that,” Mutty said, “is that those young people grow up to be old people, so that theory may not hold true in the end.”
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Paid Sick Leave Sparks Debate in New Hampshire and Across the Country
SICK DAYS
New Hampshire Union Leader
Joseph Markman
Boston University Washington News Service
12/08/09
WASHINGTON – The customers at Arthur’s Market in Rochester, N.H., are buying less of the store’s specialty meats and produce lately, straining co-owner Kathy Gagnon’s ability to keep a staff of 18 people employed. And so she casts a skeptical eye toward efforts to mandate that companies provide paid sick days.
“It would cost me a fortune, and I’m barely getting by as it is,” Gagnon said in a telephone interview. “I’d probably have to replace some of them myself and work more than the 70 hours a week I already work.”
Employees are also struggling in today’s economy, and Jenn, a Granite State retail worker, recently lost two and a half days of pay because her employer does not provide paid sick days. First her 4-year-old daughter caught the seasonal flu, Jenn said, and she lost a half day of work because her husband, who works in marketing, couldn’t skip a series of meetings. Then Jenn herself fell ill and missed two days of work.
“I live paycheck to paycheck, so we’re basically your typical middle-class family,” said Jenn, who requested that only her first name be used for fear of upsetting her employer. “It’s not like we make any surplus income.”
Legislation in New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., and cities and states nationwide that would force all but the smallest companies to pay workers for a set number of sick days each year is drawing fire from businesses even as the H1N1 flu pandemic provides momentum for worker advocates who’ve been pushing reform for years.
Advocates argue that current federal law – The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 – does not go far enough in protecting sick workers. The law provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for employees of companies with 50 or more employees. Pointing to studies that show 60 million Americans go without paid sick time, supporters consider the issue a fundamental workplace right.
“The idea that people are working in this country with no paid sick leave is pretty foreign to the environment we work in,” said Mark MacKenzie, president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. “There's a place where governments have a role. One of the places is to figure what is good public policy.”
Critics counter that the government should leave employee benefits to negotiation between employers and their workers. They fear that mandating paid sick leave would hurt businesses like Arthur's Market, which are already struggling to earn a profit.
“It is inappropriate for government to be trying to mandate a one-size-fits-all benefit plan for employers in the private sector,” said David Juvet, senior vice president of the Business and Industry Association, New Hampshire’s statewide chamber of commerce. “This is not the right time to be putting additional costs on the small-business community.”
State Rep. Mary Stuart Gile, a Merrimack Democrat, introduced a bill in January to give five days of paid time off to workers at New Hampshire businesses with 10 or more employees. After negotiations weakened the mandate, the bill stalled before Thanksgiving in a House committee, where it was sent for more study.
Nikki Tobiasz Murphy, director of the New Hampshire Women’s Lobby and campaign manager for the Gile’s legislation, said opposition concerns are overstated because both the state bill and a broader national bill – the Healthy Families Act – take into consideration employers that are already offering paid time off as a benefit that can be used at an employee’s discretion.
“It will not be a human resources nightmare,” Murphy said. “We do not want to penalize businesses in any way that are already doing best practices.”
In addition to bills working their way through Congress, 12 states, including every one in New England, are considering action on paid sick days. San Francisco, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., have enacted similar laws.
Kristin Smith, a family demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute, said the paid sick leave effort has gained a lot of visibility because President Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged people to stay home from work or school if they have flu-like symptoms.
“This has been an issue for a long time, and maybe it’s gaining more momentum because of H1N1, but I don’t know that it’s been an effective tool,” Smith said.
Along with the Healthy Families Act, which was originally introduced in Congress five years ago and would mandate up to seven days of paid sick leave for businesses with 15 or more employees, there are also two pending emergency measures focused on containing the H1N1 outbreak.
U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., said he is skeptical of assertions about the innocuous nature of both the Healthy Families Act and the two emergency bills, and has decided to adopt a wait-and-see stance.
“If it makes workers more productive, I think it’s good for business, although it imposes some burdens on business,” Hodes said. “I am concerned, especially at this time, with a fragile economy.”
Advocates argue that having millions of Americans without paid sick time actually hurts businesses because of what they term “presenteeism” – when employees show up to work sick so they don’t lose pay and end up infecting their fellow workers.
Yet those on the front lines of human resources at small-to-mid-size companies, even those that offer some form of paid time off, worry about the economic impact of any new benefits laws.
At Bancroft Contracting Corp., a Maine construction company with a permanent field office in Berlin, N.H., which already provides some paid time off, human resources head Harold Skelton said, “We don't have money like that to throw around.”
Skelton, who oversees about 150 employees, cautioned that “something would have to give. That’s really a considerable impact on our bottom line.”
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Cryopreserving Coral, Saving Oceans: Connecticut Scientist Gives Back to the Sea
CORAL
New London Day
Caroline Treadway
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 8, 2009
WASHINGTON—“Corals have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and we will potentially lose them in the next 25,” said Connecticut native Mary Hagedorn, one of the world’s leading marine biologists. “What’s even more frightening is that we could potentially lose every organism in our ocean.”
Hagedorn, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Institution for the past 16 years, has pioneered the science of cryopreserving, or freezing at very low temperature, applying human fertility techniques to coral. She’s spent years honing the freezing process for coral sperm, eggs, embryos and now polyps—the tiny beginnings of reefs—to save endangered coral.
Coral reefs serve many functions – they help protect coastlines from storms and erosion, provide food for millions of people, support tourism and offer new cures for diseases, like the AIDS drug AZT, derived from a Caribbean sponge.
Hagedorn’s lab in Hawaii is the only one in the world dedicated to coral cryopreservation. With funding from the Smithsonian and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and in collaboration with the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Marine Biology and SECORE (Sexual Coral Reproduction), an international organization of professional aquarists and scientists that is concerned about coral conservation, Hagedorn is racing to create frozen archives of live coral tissue before the endangered Elkhorn and Staghorn corals disappear.
The numbers of these two Caribbean reef-building corals have declined more than 90 percent since the mid-1980s. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature added them to its red list of endangered species.
“The only hope of maintaining coral is either in live culture or frozen in a repository,” Hagedorn said. “A lot of people, even scientists, don’t quite understand or believe the threat. But when you’re down in the Caribbean and you see these ecosystems collapsing in front of your eyes, it’s just so obvious.”
To cryopreserve coral, Hagedorn first exposes the tissue to a cryoprotectant, or antifreeze, that pushes water out of the cells by osmosis and prevents formation of damaging ice crystals. She can then safely freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen at minus 198 degrees Celsius. Such cold temperatures suspend all cellular life and enable her to store fragile genetic material indefinitely. Hagedorn later thaws the frozen coral tissue, fertilizes eggs and grows baby coral colonies, which can be shipped to zoos or used to restore reefs in the wild.
“It’s an insurance policy for the corals,” said Mike Henley, invertebrates keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. “If the corals all die off in the wild, we have the beginnings of a captive population in zoos and aquarias. If all those die off, Mary’s is preserved in perpetuity. It’s another backup plan. And at the rate they’re dying off, it’s not too soon.”
Hagedorn attributes her love of the ocean to spending summers on Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook as a child. “I don’t remember not ever loving the ocean,” she said.
Every summer her family drove from New Britain to Point Road on Cornfield Point, Old Saybrook. Hagedorn recalled spending every day in and around the Sound, swimming, playing, collecting crabs and mussel shells. “That was my inspiration for becoming a marine biologist,” she said.
Every day, Hagedorn would watch their neighbor, an old Scandinavian fisherman, cross their yard and head to the rocky point to catch stripers and bluefish after work. “He knew so much about fish and fishing,” Hagedorn said. She would watch him tie flies every night, and remembered once he even caught a shark. “He was very respectful,” she said. “He never caught more than he could eat, and if he did he gave it away.”
Today, Hagedorn has a new summer ritual. Every August, she goes Puerto Rico for the annual Elkhorn coral spawning. Four days past the full moon, at about 9:15 pm, Hagedorn, Henley and a team of international scientists dive into what Hagedorn described as an “underwater blizzard” to collect coral gametes for breeding and freezing.
“I feel very fortunate to have lived next to the ocean most of my life,” Hagedorn said. “It’s important to give back, and this is how I give back to the ocean.”
Hagedorn received a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in biology from Tufts University. She then attended the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and graduated with a doctorate in 1983. She did a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University from 1984 to 1986. For the last five years, Hagedorn has been in Hawaii, coming back to the Smithsonian every few months.
Henley described Hagedorn as a brilliant scientist who also has people skills. “She’s that mix of being extraordinarily intelligent but you can still connect with her, carry on a normal conversation and not feel intimidated,” he said.
Hagedorn started working on coral, she said, “because nobody had done any cryopreservation of coral at all and I saw it as a huge hole in our conservation need.”
In 1978, scientists witnessed a mass coral bleaching, she said. Large portions of reefs turned white and died. Coral bleach when their symbiotic partners, tiny photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae, die in response to environmental or thermal stress. Bleaching events continue, with the largest recorded in 2005.
Scientists cite many causes for declining coral reefs. Bottom trawling and dynamite fishing physically destroy reefs. Rivers carry pollution and sediment from deforestation, development and erosion to the ocean, choking reefs. And fertilizers in particular promote the growth of green algae that outcompete coral.
Hagedorn, Henley and other SECORE scientists like Dirk Petersen from the Netherlands’ Rotterdam Zoo agree that rising water temperatures and ocean acidification play a major role in reef decline.
The ocean becomes increasingly acidic as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Calcium carbonate, the main component of coral and shells, dissolves in acidic environments.
“You know how your mother always told you not to drink soda because it ruins your teeth?” Hagedorn said. “It’s the carbonic acid in sodas that really does it, and that’s what’s happening in the oceans.”
Hagedorn joins scientists in a worldwide conservation effort to build frozen archives of genetic material to protect endangered species. At the National Zoo, for example, nearly every department freezes something, from milk and sperm to soil and coral.
“Right now my lab is about the only one in the world that’s working on the frozen aspect of coral conservation,” she said. “So I feel almost desperate because there is so much work to be done. We are working on pennies and nickels and dimes to do this.”
She added, “As we go into the future, hopefully this frozen material will never be needed. But if it is, it can stay frozen for hundreds of years.”
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Support Program Prepares Members of N.H. National Guard and Families
Mental Health
New Hampshire Union Leader
Daisy Hsiang-Ching Tseng
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON – Patrick Sadlemire and Kaileigh Hubbard, who have been dating for two years, have always had communication problems. Little things like calling the landlord to fix a faucet or deciding what they would have for dinner were hard for them to work out, Hubbard said.
“After weeks of bottling my emotions up, something as simple as a bottle cap on the floor would make me verbally throw everything at him but the kitchen sink,” Hubbard, a Concord pre-school teacher, said. “He would become more defensive about all the issues I was bringing up to him at once and would say just about anything to me to make me stop. It was becoming very scary.”
In addition to difficulty communicating, Sadlemire said, he has anger issues and they have financial problems.
Sadlemire, 24, a produce associate at Hannaford Supermarkets in Concord, joined the New Hampshire National Guard four years ago and is among the 140 members of C Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment who are preparing for deployment to Afghanistan early next year.
As a member of the New Hampshire National Guard, Sadlemire was able to get help in working out solutions to the problems the couple was facing. In July Peter Collins was assigned to them as a “care coordinator” by the Full Cycle Deployment Program, a New Hampshire National Guard program that could be copied by other National Guard units across the country.
Started two and half years ago, the program adds pre-deployment planning to the nationwide Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, which provides National Guard and Reserve members and their families with information, services and referrals during and after deployment, according to Col. Rick Greenwood, director of manpower and personnel for the New Hampshire National Guard.
When a service member signs up with the Full Cycle Deployment Program, the member and his or her family are assigned a care coordinator, who develops a lasting relationship with the member and the family, Greenwood said.
A care coordinator, who must have a minimum of a master’s degree in social work or a related field, acts as a case manager who helps service members and their families to figure out what needs and problems might lie ahead and to assess situations across a spectrum of domains. The care coordinator then either offers guidance directly or coordinates with service providers in the civilian community who can present the families with the help they need.
“We provide the individual care and attention to our service members and their families prior to the deployment,” Greenwood said. “The pre-deployment planning is the biggest difference that New Hampshire is doing now.”
The most common problems service members and their families have encountered involve financial, emotional and legal issues, according to Collins, a licensed social worker for 25 years. He’s also helped people deal with relationship issues and the preparation for and anticipation of what children’s reactions might be.
“In pre-deployment planning, we put together a fairly detailed plan that takes the knowledge that we have about service members and families, and some of the problems they’ve experienced in deployment and in reintegration, and we kind of take that step forward, and that can minimize or take away problems from developing later on,” Collins said.
“A lot of the problems that service members face could be mitigated or lessened if intervention was provided before they deploy, if they could anticipate what might come up, and start to put preventive and proactive supports in place,” said Daisy Wojewoda, project director of veterans’ services at Easter Seals New Hampshire, the nonprofit that contracted with the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and the New Hampshire Guard to provide care coordinators.
Approximately 1,400 of the Guard are going to deploy in the next 18 months, according to Greenwood. What differentiates them from regular active-duty Army is that they live a civilian life rather than on a military base and that they and their families don’t get the service and support a military base would provide.
The New Hampshire model was recognized by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who included the Yellow Ribbon Plus amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama at the end of October.
“New Hampshire is leading the nation in developing programs to assist our National Guard, reservists and their families before, during and after deployment,” Shaheen said in a statement. Providing personalized assistance is one of the greatest ways to honor the sacrifice and dedication of the members of the military, she said.
From Sept. 11, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2009, according to the Department of Defense, about 1.4 million regular active-duty personnel of all branches were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about 570,000 National Guard and Reserve troops were mobilized, of which about 28 percent were deployed two or more times. Of the total number of National Guard and Reserve troops, 2,900 list New Hampshire as home.
The Yellow Ribbon Plus amendment seeks to evaluate and improve the nationwide Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, calling on the Pentagon to identify lessons learned from programs that have expanded beyond Yellow Ribbon, including New Hampshire’s Full Cycle Deployment Program.
It’s not certain that the new Yellow Ribbon Program will have the personalized service that the New Hampshire National Guard provides, according to Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman. It will require extensive collaboration among Department of Defense agencies and each state’s National Guard, he said.
“It's one thing to be able to handle problems as they develop, it's another to prevent problems from developing,” Collins said. “And if that can happen across the country, that would be a wonderful thing.”
After about five months of weekly meetings with Collins, Sadlemire and Hubbard are more stable financially, and they have been able not to let their fights escalate to the point where they’re yelling, Sadlemire said.
“I have been able to remain calm during tense conversations or situations,” he said.
Hubbard said that Collins has changed their life. “He came into the relationship at our lowest point, picked us up off of the ground, sat us on our butt and said let's fix this thing,” she said.
Sadlemire left Dec. 8 for six to eight weeks of training in Indiana before going to Afghanistan.
Although still terrified, Hubbard said, she tries to stay positive about Sadlemire’s deployment.
“Like so many other significant others and soldiers, I am ready for it to begin,” she said. “I am thankful that, through my work with Peter, I am more equipped to handle the stresses of deployment.”
“This program offers sanity and stability – two things that go out the window when your soldier leaves,” she added. “To have someone who understands the process is invaluable.”
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Tracking the Stimulus: Ten Months Later, a Sustainable Model for Recovery?
STIMULUS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jessica Leving
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 4, 2009
WASHINGTON—Ten months after President Barack Obama signed the stimulus package into law, the Worcester area’s $90 million portion of the aid is in full swing, paying for a variety of projects from police and teacher jobs to new public buses to scientific research.
But some critics wonder: How effective has the stimulus really been in jump-starting Worcester’s economy? Can these projects sustain themselves when the funds run out, or are the current measures just a Band-Aid?
It makes sense to use stimulus funds for one-time expenses, said Roberta Schaefer, president of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, a private non-profit group that analyzes public policy issues. “But putting it into recurring costs like teacher salaries…what are you going to do when you don’t have stimulus money? If [the stimulus] is just going to prop up existing institutions without making any changes in how they operate, it can’t be sustained. That’s a really big problem.”
In particular, Ms. Schaefer pointed to the stimulus funds – approximately $27.3 million – that were funneled into the Worcester Public Schools and reportedly saved around 500 jobs.
“The school department got stimulus money that stemmed the tide for them,” she said. “Next year, because there will be no stimulus money, they’re facing a $26 million deficit without any way of funding it. The stimulus money, in effect, just delayed the inevitable.”
The economic crisis earlier this year caused traditional revenues to plummet for the Worcester Public Schools as well as other Worcester institutions. When the economy rebounds, stimulus recipients expect those revenues—particularly in the form of property taxes, state aid and, for some, profits--to return.
(All numbers cited for stimulus dollars are based on the federal government’s spending reports through October on Recovery.gov, the official Web site used to track the stimulus funds, unless otherwise noted.)
Brian Allen, chief financial officer for the school system, confirmed that the department has projected a $26 million deficit for next year but said that the exact amount is not yet known.
“What we’re doing now is working with the school community, developing budget priority, and looking at ways to restructure the delivery of service,” he said. “We don’t have recommendations yet. I think it’s going to be a combination of cuts across the board.”
Though Mr. Allen said he does not know where funding for rescued teacher salaries will come from without stimulus money, he said he could not fault the state government for using stop-gap measures.
“[The stimulus] was in anticipation that the economy would rebound,” he said. “But we haven’t seen that happen.”
Similar questions have arisen over the sustainability of the $1.9 million in aid to the Worcester Police Department announced Nov. 23, especially the 25 police officer jobs that were saved after layoffs were scheduled for November.
Police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said attrition and careful overtime planning will carry the officers into the next fiscal year.
As far as what will happen after that, he said, “We’re hoping by then we get additional money coming in. We’re hoping the economy turns around.”
Jeffrey A. Simon, director of infrastructure investment for Massachusetts Recovery, the state unit that tracks stimulus funds in Massachusetts, admitted that some of the federal money amounts to “riding out the storm” and waiting for the economy to improve.
“We don’t want to have this funding cliff that towns fall off of in 27 months when the stimulus money is gone,” he said. “We absolutely take that into account. But when you’re dealing with job creation, it gets much more difficult to take that issue into consideration. We feel if we can save those jobs the economy will improve to where the cuts will not be necessary.”
Worcester-area congressmen, who voted for the stimulus, said they stand by their decision and are pleased with the stimulus progress.
“I voted for the stimulus because it was clear at the time that something simply had to be done,” said U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst. “Everything is moving forward as envisioned. In Massachusetts, we’ll see quite a few of these projects move into the construction phase come spring.”
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, said use of the stimulus funds to stave off layoffs was appropriate.
“There are two challenges: one, to stem off immediate crisis and two, to invest in more jobs for the future,” he said. “Not investing in teachers would have been detrimental to our ability to create jobs in the future. You need to keep people working right now but you also need to be able to invest in industries. This stimulus tried to do both. If I had written a stimulus package it might have been different, but… if anybody tells you this stimulus package didn’t work, they’re not looking at the facts. Countless jobs were saved and created. Without it the economy would be much, much worse.”
Some agencies have more readily available sustainability models than others. The Worcester Regional Transit Authority, for example, which received $12.4 million—14 percent of the total funds allocated to Worcester—is using the money to pay for 18 new buses, four of which will be hybrid diesels, clarify as well as upgraded technology and consultants hired to discuss possible reorganization measures.
“We’ll save money in two ways,” said Stephen F. O’Neil, WRTA administrator. “We’re ridding ourselves of old buses, which means less repairs, and we’re getting a new system where we’ll be able to monitor buses on a more frequent basis to determine when items need to be repaired. We’re also looking at a 25 percent increase in mileage on our buses, and acquiring automatic passenger counting so we can make adjustments to service runs that will better accommodate the public.”
Mr. O’Neil said a consultant has also been hired to discuss the possibility of moving the transportation hub from City Hall to Union Station, where passengers could more easily make connections to other trains and buses. A new building could also implement solar- powered technology, he added.
The Great Brook Valley Health Center received two awards that will end up paying for themselves, according to John Hess, vice president of planning and development. The center, which received $1.4 million, about 1.5 percent of the total aid to Worcester, used the bulk of the first grant to hire doctors and support staff for more than 14 new positions.
“These providers will generate revenue from [the insurance plans] of the people they see,” Mr. Hess said.. “Once their practices are going full-tilt, they’ll generate enough to pay their own salaries.”
The second grant was used specifically for facility improvements, which Mr. Hess said will create space for the new providers and generate more patient visits.
“This is one-time boost money to get us going and get us serving more patients,” said Toni McGuire, president and CEO of the center.
A large chunk of the federal grants in Worcester, more than 25 percent, has gone to research at local universities. The University of Massachusetts Medical School has received 79 grants to date from the National Institutes of Health, totaling $36.6 million, according to the most recent university report.
UMass Medical School Chancellor Dr. Michael F. Collins said in a statement that every dollar invested in medical research yielded at least twice that amount in growth in payrolls, supply purchases and support staff.
Other schools such as Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University also received funding for research projects.
At Clark, more than $674,000 in funds is being used to study a range of projects, from the transition to adoptive parenthood for lesbian couples to why Latino men under-utilize depression treatments.
“Federal research grants typically have a project lifespan of three to five years, after which the grant expires and the researchers seek new funding,” said Jane Salerno, spokeswoman for Clark. “These stimulus grants are similar. When the stimulus funding has expired, our researchers will continue to seek alternate funding from public and private sources.”
The Worcester Housing Authority has used its $4.6 million grant for large-scale facility improvement projects such as roofing and rehabilitation.
Raymond V. Mariano, executive director of the authority, said these projects are one-time fix-ups and “there is no sustainable cost there.” For example, he said, “We just replaced the roofs. That will last for 20 years.”
In recent weeks, the Recovery.gov web site has been criticized for widespread reporting errors and exaggerated figures for job creation.
An analysis of the Worcester data did not find any major hiccups, but the massive Recovery.gov spreadsheet detailing area projects was not error-free.
Most glaringly, Community Builders Inc., a nonprofit urban housing development, listed 23 jobs created twice—once for each grant—reporting a total of 46 jobs for only 23 positions.
Data such as the awarding agency and project description was also missing from several grants, though the information could be tracked down by searching other databases by award code number.
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Mother Works to Change Law so She can be Buried with Son Killed in Iraq
COREY
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 3, 2009
WASHINGTON – Denise Anderson knows loss. She knows what missing a friend feels like. She knows how trying it is to live every day without a loved one.
On Nov. 12, 2008, Anderson and her husband, Jeff Margolin, were shopping at Cardi’s Furniture in South Attleboro, Mass., when her cell phone rang. Her daughter, Kristin, was on the phone, frantically asking Anderson to come home immediately. When the couple rushed home, there was an Army vehicle and police outside the house.
“I knew something had happened. He was just doing his job,” Anderson said in a telephone interview from her home in Mansfield, Mass.
Anderson’s 21-year-old son, Army Spc. Corey M. Shea had been killed in Mosul, Iraq. He had been shot dead by an Iraqi soldier. The Mansfield native had one more month before he would have returned home. “It just stinks. It’s just not fair,” Anderson said.
Anderson is now supporting legislation that would allow her to be buried at the same gravesite as her son, who is interred at Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. Her request to be buried with Shea was turned down by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-4, said he and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tried to appeal to the VA after Anderson’s request was turned down. “I admire her enormously,” Frank said. “She’s a woman of great strength.”
Early this year Frank introduced the Corey Shea Act. The legislation was made part of a larger bill, the Veterans’ Small Business Assistance and Servicemembers Protection Act, which the House passed, 382-2, on Nov. 3.
According to the bill, the parent of a fallen veteran can request to be buried in the same gravesite as a child who is buried at a national cemetery that the VA administers. The veteran must have been unmarried, have no dependent children and have been killed in service after Oct. 7, 2001. Currently the policy extends only to spouses and dependent children.
In the Senate, the bill has been referred to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. A hearing date has not been scheduled, according to Kawika Riley, the committee’s spokesperson. Committee chairman Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, has not taken a position on the legislation, Riley said.
Since Shea’s death, Anderson has set up the Corey Shea Memorial Fund at Mansfield High School, which Corey graduated from in 2005. The money comes from donations and fundraisers. With help from school staff members Anthony Modica and Sue Donovan, Anderson decides who gets funds to defray college costs.
“I didn’t want to give it to the jocks because Corey was one,” Anderson said. “I didn’t want to give it to the A students because Corey was not one. I wanted it to go to someone who had a hard time in school.”
Modica, a teacher at Mansfield High School since 1982, taught Shea for all four years. “I could tell from day one Corey was a man of heart,” Modica said. “He was a tall, lanky kid. He understood mutual respect and communicated clearly and concisely with me. One of the things that characterized Corey was his maturity. He was a good friend to a lot of kids here.”
Evan Vucci, a photographer with the Associated Press, was embedded with Shea’s platoon in Iraq in March and April of 2008. He remembers sitting with Shea and other soldiers one evening, talking in the doorway of the outpost, when a bullet passed through the group. “Everyone ran for cover. First we thought it was a sniper,” he said. Vucci recalls how he and Shea were joking later about the incident with the other soldiers.
“He was just a great kid,” Vucci said of Shea. “Super nice guy. Everyone loved him. He had a personality that drew everyone in.”
Shea was buried with full military honors, his casket drawn on a horse-drawn carriage down East Street in Mansfield. People lined the street on both sides, many holding the American flag, said Joseph Maruszczak, principal of the high school.
Anderson visits Shea’s gravesite two or three times a week, she said, and she still wears Shea’s high school ring with his name and year of graduation and all his dog tags from Iraq. “It’s all I got back of him,” she said.
Her son would call home from Iraq on Sundays, Anderson said. She had missed his call the Sunday before he died and she now replays his taped voice message. “If I look at something he likes, if I hear a song, if I see something, it’s really, really hard for me because it brings back memories of Corey,” Anderson said.
The VA denied Anderson’s request because it would require additional space, possibly at the cost of availability to veterans to whom they must give priority, according to a statement from a department spokesperson. The bill in its current form would cost the department an estimated $27,000 in the first year, $180,000 over five years, and $462,000 over ten years.
Anderson said she expected to be buried in the same gravesite as her son and not in a separate gravesite. However, she did not specify this in her request to the VA, she said. Shea has been interred deep enough to allow an additional coffin to fit in his grave, Anderson said.
Currently, a fallen veteran is entitled to one additional space in the same gravesite for a family member, said Jo Schuda, a VA spokeswoman. Depending on ground conditions of the cemetery, provision for a second family member can be made, she said. The department’s denial of Anderson’s request was based on the understanding that she was seeking a separate gravesite.
“I’m not a veteran,” Anderson said. “But for what I sacrificed and what he [Corey] sacrificed, I think I deserve this. It’s important to me that he’s not alone for eternity.”
Frank emphasized that his legislation would not displace any veterans. Repeats what was written above. As for the VA representative’s comment that this request would cost more, Frank said, “It’s an outrageous for them to say. I wish these people would think about the trillion-dollar cost of this war itself rather than the minimal cost of this. Terribly insensitive thing to say.”
The cemetery in Bourne is the only national cemetery in Massachusetts. Space to bury family members of fallen veterans is limited, said Paul McFarland, director of the cemetery. Honoring such requests depends on the size of gravesites and availability of space, he said.
Despite the shortage of space, 2,300 to 2,400 burials are performed yearly, McFarland said. Half of the cemetery’s 240 acres is dedicated to gravesites, with an estimated 25 acres to be added next year.
The remaining space is meant for irrigation and roadways, McFarland said. There are approximately 48,000 graves at the cemetery, which was established in 1980.
The bill would not apply to Arlington National Cemetery outside the nation’s capital because it does not come under the VA’s jurisdiction.
Anderson is not alone in her wish to be placed with her son when she dies.
Ruth Stonesifer is national president of American Gold Star Mothers, a nationwide organization of almost 2,000 members who have lost a son or daughter in service to the country. Stonesifer’s 28-year-old son, Kris, died on Oct. 19, 2001, “38 days after 9/11,” she said with heaviness in her voice.
The Army specialist was killed in a helicopter crash at an airstrip in Pakistan. “If this were an option for me, I would take it, too,” Stonesifer said. “American Gold Star Mothers stands behind this legislation,” she said of the Corey Shea Act.
Stonesifer’s son wanted his ashes to be scattered on a lake in Montana. “That’s where my ashes will be sprinkled too,” she said. “It’s very powerful when you lose a child. The bond is there. It’s even stronger when they get taken from you.”
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