Category: Ayesha Aleem
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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New Bedford Fishermen Now Have a Voice in Washinton
VANASSE
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 1, 2009
WASHINGTON—Robert Vanasse has returned to his New Bedford roots after decades of involvement in politics in the nation’s capital.
The New Bedford native and longtime Washington resident is executive director of The Project to Save Seafood and Ocean Resources, an advocacy group in Washington for the New Bedford fishing community. The group’s Web site, www.savingseafood.org, launched in February of this year, is the most visible part of the project.
He is, in short, the lobbyist for his hometown’s important fishing industry, with the goal of making a local issue one of national importance,.
“He loves his New Bedford roots,” said Michelle Jaconi, who studied with Vanasse in graduate school at Georgetown University and was a producer at NBC for 12 years before joining CNN earlier this year.
“It was always around in my family, to some degree,” he said of his interest in politics. “My mother moved to D.C. at 18,” after she graduated from high school. She worked here in the Treasury Department. A native of New Bedford, she eventually moved back to the city, married and gave birth to Robert, her only child, in 1962.
“I remember being on a tour of the White House when I was 13 years old and thinking, ‘This is really cool.’ Maybe it was in my blood,” Vanasse said.
Seated at a bar in Washington’s Woodley Park, Vanasse is dressed for an event he will attend later in the evening – gray suit and red tie. His order of scallops has arrived, and he cuts through the textured flesh with a fork.
Vanasse became involved with the Saving Seafood project in 2005, at a time when New Bedford fishermen had earned a reputation for being the “bad guys,” seen as intent on driving out the last fish in the water, he said.
With the help of Brian Rothschild, professor of marine science and technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and with an underwater camera that took photographs of the ocean floor, the Saving Seafood team was able to prove that scallops and other marine species were still thriving in New Bedford waters, contradicting warnings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that stocks of these species had been depleted.
The fishing industry was living through a 10-year-long “roller coaster ride” when this project was initiated, Vanasse said. Controls over the number of days fishermen could be at sea, among other rules, intensified. Fishermen complained that the stiffer regulations were putting them out of business.
Vanasse, after graduating from Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, enrolled in Boston College. “I didn’t think I could get in to Harvard, I didn’t like Dartmouth and I wasn’t keen on Brown,” he said recently. “And then I visited Boston College and it felt like everything college is supposed to feel like.”
At Boston College, Vanasse became actively involved with College Republicans. “For a Republican, I hang out with Democrats an awful lot,” he said with a smile. Metal elephant-head bookends and coasters in Vanasse's living room suggest his Republican affiliation.
Vanasse’s first job after college was at Mercer Management Consulting as a research associate. He used the company’s tuition reimbursement program to enroll as a graduate student in politics at night at Georgetown University, he said.
While at Georgetown, Vanasse started taking classes with Jeane Kirkpatrick, who had served on President Reagan’s National Security Council staff and as his ambassador to the United Nations. She encouraged Vanasse to participate in a two-month international management program at Oxford University, which he described as “really cool.”
By 1992, Vanasse, who had been working as a congressional aide on science and technology issues, had a job lined up at the White House. But President George H.W. Bush was not reelected ending Vanasse’s job prospect. So he joined Cliftex a New Bedford-based garment manufacturer, working on a trade show project.
Vanasse returned to Washington in 1994, working this time for America Online for a while before concentrating on his own start-up political information Web site, www.voter.com. The venture was short-lived when the 2001 dot-com bubble burst and funds for the project dried up.
“When it ended, I was burned out. People say they couldn’t find me,” said Vanasse, who disappeared for a month to Switzerland. “I skied.”
Returning to Washington, Vanasse began using newly developed software to do freelance audio and video work. He created short movies for the 2000 election campaigns, and made a film about the installation of master chef Julia Child’s kitchen to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington in 2001.
On a friend’s suggestion to make a similar movie for the fishing industry, Vanasse’s relationship with the community was resurrected.
The Saving Seafood project is an effort to preserve the natural resources of the sea while providing quality seafood, with an emphasis on scallops, Vanasse said.
“The fisheries have been important to Massachusetts for as long as there has been a Massachusetts,” he said, and the sea is central to the character of New Bedford.
New Bedford is the country’s largest fishing port in value of catch, primarily for scallops, of approximately $206.5 million in 2004, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Fishing is a family occupation, the kind that spans generations. It’s a part of the cultural heritage of those who are engaged in it professionally, Vanasse explained.
In January, with sponsorship from the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction in New Bedford and the Boston Seafood Display Auction, Vanasse launched the Saving Seafood project.
Rothschild, who has been working with Vanasse for the past four months, said, "It is evident that he knows how to assemble information and does a terrific job of communicating the problems of New Bedford to the rest of the world."
At present, the project is looking for additional sponsors among corporations, Vanasse said.
“We want to work with the government and environmental agencies to be part of the solution; to develop a larger conversation that is more thoughtful than angry people ranting; to be the voice of reason in this cacophony,” Vanasse said. “I get viscerally angry when I see bureaucratic people make decisions in a vacuum that affect people’s lives.”
His inspiration, he said, comes from something he first heard from Rep. Barney Frank (D-4th) that one should not let perfect be the enemy of good but to do what is doable now.
What makes Vanasse suitable for this role? New Bedford “is my hometown,” he said. “I have a childhood background sufficient to understand the small fishing community in Massachusetts.”
Evidence of his connection to the sea can be found in Vanasse’s Georgetown home. The 19th century white town house has a whale tail front door knocker. There are fishing-related curios in the living room, like fisherman-in-a-boat bookends, for example, a large seashell in the bathroom, ocean-related art on the living room wall and a copy of Moby-Dick on his bookshelf. Boston College mementos hang on the stairwell wall.
Vanasse has never been married and has no children. Seafood, quite naturally, is one of his favorite kinds of food, he said.
Vanasse is also chief organizer of “game watches,” a Washington gathering of Boston College alums to watch his other love, the school’s football team, in action. “It’s notable, when I met Bob, he had studied overseas, worked in New York,” said Gordon Carr, who worked with Vanasse on the Cliftex project. “But Bob is a great testament to someone who remains tied to New Bedford in such a tangible way and finds opportunities to help local businesses. I just think that’s really cool.”
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Veterans Benefit Backlog Creates Financial Problems for Students
GIBILL
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON – After five years of Army service, including tours in Iraq, Richard Messier thought he would not have to worry about paying for college under the Post 9/11 GI Bill. But the heavy backlog of claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs has created financial problems for this 23-year-old unemployed, full-time undergrad at Bristol Community College.
The new law, which came into effect on Aug. 1 of this year, provides financial support toward education to individuals with at least 90 days of active service on or after Sept. 11, 2001. The benefits include stipends for tuition, housing, books and supplies to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an institution of higher learning.
Messier said he filed an application in September but has not received any payment from Veterans Affairs.
“I don’t receive a dime from unemployment. I don’t receive a dime from VA,” he said. “I’ve had to be frugal with whatever money I have. If it weren’t for the greatness of my family, I’d be on the streets right now.”
In September Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs, announced that “emergency checks” of $3,000 would be issued to address the problem created by the backlog. These payments became available to eligible students through VA regional offices on Oct. 2.
Messier said he had received the emergency payment from the VA office in Providence, R.I. “But that’s running out, too,” he said. The college has allowed him to buy books on credit, for which he owes approximately $250 when his regular payment comes through, Messier said.
Of 110 veterans enrolled at Bristol Community College, 28 students are eligible for VA benefits, said enrollment counselor Beth Vezina. She said six students had problems because of the backlog but there could be more.
The college sent out target e-mails informing students of the backlog and placed holds on classes so that students who have not paid their bills don’t get dropped from classes, Vezina said. An emergency bookstore fund has also been set up, she said, that allows students to buy books and to pay for them when they receive their VA payment.
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has 35 students eligible for VA benefits, said Kristina Leonardo, staff associate for veterans affairs. “We are not penalizing the students for late payments,” said Bruce Palmer, director of financial aid.
Brendon Puntin, 26, a graduate student in the computer engineering program at UMass Dartmouth, is among the students affected by the backlog. Puntin, who served four years on active duty in the Marine Corps and one year in the Reserves, has not received any benefits since filing his application in July, he said.
At the time of this interview, Puntin said he was on his way to Providence to pick up the emergency check. “I’ve had to change a closing date on a house I was planning to purchase,” he said about the delay in receiving payment.
And although Puntin’s cash flow was down, his cost of living was manageable, he said. The university has been crediting the amount for his tuition although it has not received payment from the VA, he said.
20-year-old Benny Smith of North Carolina, majoring in finance at UMass Dartmouth, receives Veterans Affairs benefits as a dependent whose father was in the service for 25 years, he said. The backlog has made it difficult to pay bills, rent and a car payment, Smith said.
“I’m having to work more hours during the week,” said Smith, who works part-time as a pharmacy technician at CVS. “It’s been stressful to pick up extra shifts.”
As a dependent, Smith is not eligible for the emergency checks, he said. “I’m down to the basic necessities. I think they [the VA] are a little unprepared for the amount of requests for aid they receive. But it’s a great program that will benefit many people.”
The average time to process an application is 30 days, said Phil Budahn, spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs. “This is very new legislation. It’s very complex,” he said about the new bill. “The previous bill was rather straightforward. The payment went directly to the veteran. With the new bill, there are multiple computations. Payments go to schools, stipends go to veterans for housing” and other expenses.
“That being said, this is unacceptable,” he said about the delay. “This is not how we want to provide educational benefits.” Since Aug 1, approximately $165 million in benefits have been released to 56,000 veterans, Budahn said.
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Following Frank’s Money
FRANK FEC
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem and Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON – Health care and climate change may be among the major issues before Congress. But with his approaching reelection bid, the financial sector is a high priority for Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank plays a key role in legislation that regulates the financial services and banking industry. As of Sept. 30, Frank’s 2010 reelection campaign had received more than $200,000 from individuals and political action committees associated with the financial industry—insurance, securities and investment companies—according to OpenSecrets.org, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money and politics.
In the first nine months of this year, Frank had already raised approximately $1.1 million, the highest amount among House members in the Massachusetts delegation, according to his campaign’s third-quarter filing with the Federal Election Commission.
FMR Corp., which owns Fidelity Investments, is one the largest contributors to the congressman’s campaign committee, contributing $22,650 from individual employees and $2,500 from the Fidelity political action committee, according to OpenSecrets. Companies cannot contribute to political candidates, and so they set up political action committees to which their employees may contribute.
Contributions associated with Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. make up the third-largest group. Individual employees donated $7,500 and the Liberty Mutual political action committee gave $10,000.
“Chairman Frank is a local congressman and someone we are proud to support,” Liberty Mutual spokeswoman Adrianne Kaufmann said in a statement.
However, the top donor to the congressman’s campaign committee was ActBlue, an independent organization based in Massachusetts that raises funds for Democratic candidates. Contributions totaling $26,450 were made to Frank through ActBlue, according to OpenSecrets. ActBlue provides individuals with online fundraising tools to contribute to Democratic candidates, Adrian Arroyo, the organization’s deputy communications director, said.
Insurance companies are the single biggest source within the financial industry of donations to Frank’s war chest. The insurance sector contributed approximately $120,000 from individuals and company political action committees, according to OpenSecrets.
For example, the political action committees of Georgia-based Aflac and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America donated $5,000 each to Frank.
“We believe that it is important to be a part of the government process and to make them aware of who we are and how we are different from major medical insurance,” said Laura Kane, vice president of external relations at Aflac, the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States.
Supplemental insurance, as the name suggests, is additional insurance that provides coverage in excess of a person’s primary insurance policy.
Since being elected to office in 1980, Frank has enjoyed relatively easy reelections and that is not likely to change in 2010. Frank’s challengers, as listed on the Federal Election Commission Web site, are Republicans Earl Henry Sholley and Keith Messina. Through Sept. 30, Sholley raised almost $17,000 and Messina raised $600, according to their filings with the Federal Election Commission. Tarah Donoghue, communications director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said that the party is unsure whether a primary will be held.
“The conservatives from Rush Limbaugh through all the right-wing Republicans have spent a lot of time attacking me, and I have had to spend some money to refute these inaccurate acts,” Frank said. “So for example, recently with my campaign money, I sent out a mailing to my district responding to these acts. Because even if the candidate himself doesn’t have money who is opposing me, if I don’t refute these lies, then they stick.”
One of the main reasons for raising large sums of money is to counter efforts from independent organizations like so-called 527 groups that can threaten an incumbent’s position, said Harry Gural, press secretary for Frank. These are tax-exempt organizations created primarily to influence nominations, elections and appointments or to defeat candidates for public office.
Frank has already spent more than $900,000, mostly for operating expenses such as staff salaries, candidate travel and fundraising expenses, as indicated on the Federal Election Commission Web site.
He has also contributed $300,000, through five separate payments, to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to the most recent commission filing.
“As chairman of a major committee, I am expected by the Democrats in the House to give $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Committee,” Frank said. “When I solicit my funds, I tell people much of the money you give me I will be giving to other people.”
As a chairman, Frank said, he is able to raise more money than some other Democrats.
“I want there to be a Democratic majority. It makes a tremendous difference,” Frank said. “For four years, Republicans were in control of the committee that I serve on, and I was very frustrated.”
In the past three years, with Democrats in control, “we’ve got much more done,” he said.
Frank said he does not accept funds from the top 10 companies that receive federal aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Citigroup, Bank of America and American International Group (AIG) are the top three companies in this group.
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New Dates Set for Credit Card Regulations
CREDIT CARD
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 4, 2009
WASHINGTON—The House voted Wednesday to advance the starting date for new credit card regulations by as many as eight months. The bill, like the one introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and co-sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank and signed in May by President Obama, would limit the rate changes that credit card companies may impose on cardholders. The vote was 331-92.
Under the new terms, the regulation would come into effect on Dec. 1 instead of next Feb. 22 for some provisions and next August for others. Specifically, card companies would need to notify customers 45 days before any interest rate change, would not be able to raise rates based only on the customer’s history with other card companies and would have to apply minimum payments to balances with the highest interest rates.
It would also end “double-cycle” billing, by which the companies can charge interest on unpaid balances for debts incurred the previous month.
Supporters of the bill say that the card companies have not used the time constructively until the new law becomes effective and continue to charge exorbitant rates of interest and high fees.
Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and an active champion of financial reform, said, “Banks took advantage of what we offered them.”
Maloney said, “The credit card companies have earned this [new] legislation because they have not used the time to modify their [computer] systems” to allow them to offer lower interest rates.
To critics who say the new legislation would increase consumer costs, Frank responded: “That is simply untrue. Banks will raise consumer costs as much as they can anyway. Some consumer costs should be raised. But nobody’s rates should be raised retroactively. Plus, you should be given notice.”
An amendment proposed by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, that would allow banks to offer lower interest rates without the 45-day notification period was adopted. Both Frank and Maloney supported this change.
The House also adopted an amendment by Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, to prohibit imposing a fee on people who pay down their balances every month. “The notion that people should be penalized for being prudent is crazy,” Sutton said.
In 2008, credit card companies imposed approximately $19 billion in penalty fees, with the amount expected to be more than $20.5 billion this year, according to a statement earlier in the year from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
“Consumers will receive important benefits,” Frank said of the date changes. When customers fully comply with credit card terms, companies should not be allowed to raise their interest rates, he said. “It is the single most unfair economic act I can think of that does not involve a pistol. This is not risk management, this is hostage-taking.”
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Former Senator Edward Brooke Awarded Congressional Gold Medal
BROOKE
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 29, 2009
WASHINGTON – Edward Brooke is familiar with being in the minority. He has now joined another exclusive group when he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress may bestow.
The former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, who served from 1967 to1979, received the award at the Capitol Wednesday.
Ninety-year old Brooke, a Republican, was the first African-American to be elected by popular vote to the Senate. President Barack Obama, who presented Brooke with the medal, became only the third when he was elected to the Senate from Illinois in 2004.
As a senator, Brooke championed the causes of low-income housing and a woman’s right to an abortion.
Brooke served as Massachusetts attorney general before being elected to the Senate.
After serving two terms in the Senate, Brooke was defeated by Paul Tsongas, whose widow, Rep. Niki Tsongas, currently represents the 5th Congressional District. There has been no Republican senator from Massachusetts since Brooke left office.
In 2008, Rep. Barney Frank pushed to award the Gold Medal to Brooke. “As I work in the housing area, I find myself frequently trying to preserve some of the pioneering efforts on behalf of affordable housing that Ed Brooke created,” Frank said in a statement at the time. “Sen. Brooke was a leader in a number of areas.”
The Gold Medal is one of two of the highest civilian awards in the United States, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. American citizenship is not a requirement. The award has only been bestowed 150 times since 1776. George Washington was its first recipient. Other winners include Thomas A. Edison, Walt Disney and Winston Churchill.
More Massachusetts Families to Stay Warm this Winter
HEATING
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 23, 2009
WASHINGTON – Massachusetts will receive $131.5 million in federal funds to help low income families pay their heating bills this winter, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, announced Thursday.
The allocation is down from $213.5 million that the state received last year. Nationwide $2.6 billion has been released to the states under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
This money will help approximately 13,000 families in the greater New Bedford area, said Bruce Morell, executive director of People Acting in Community Endeavors. PACE is a local non-profit agency responsible for allocating money to clients. Approximately 175,000 families statewide are currently in need of assistance with their heating bills, he said.
PACE does not give money to the clients, Morell said. Instead, it either puts oil in the family’s heating tank or pays the heating utility company directly.
A gallon of heating oil in Massachusetts costs approximately $2.50. An average heating tank can hold about 275 gallons of oil and last up to one month. This can set a family back by $687 a month.
Last year, the poorest family in Massachusetts was eligible for a maximum of $1,400 per month. “We expect this year to be around that figure,” said Morell.
To qualify for assistance, a family of four must be earning less than $53,608 per year. In 2007, that number was $42,400. Since then, 3,500 more families have joined the program. “We expect more this year,” said Morell.
Currently, a family can receive a maximum of $635 per month. “With this money, that number will go up,” said Liz Berube, fuel assistance director at Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, another local agency responsible for allocating funds among local clients.
In 2008, about 180.000 were assisted through this program, said Phil Hailer, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. “It was an unusually good year,” he said. “Given the state of the economy, we hope that this year can be as good as next year.” He said the announcement of these funds was good news that meant the program could begin on Nov. 1.
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Meeting the President was ‘Mind-Blowing,’ New Bedford 18-year-old says
SCOTT
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 20, 2009
WASHINGTON – At 18, Scott Paiva has already placed third in a national business competition and has had a personal meeting with the president. The graduate of New Bedford High School developed a business plan for a tax preparation service that caters to student clients.
Currently a freshman at Suffolk University in Boston, Paiva placed third in the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge 2009 sponsored by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and Oppenheimer Funds.
The top three winners were given a tour of the White House and then met with the president in the Oval Office, Paiva said..
”When we heard him say, ‘Come on in, guys,’ that’s when I knew this was really happening,” he said. The meeting lasted only about five minutes but was still “mind-blowing” for the teenager.
“He looks just like he does on TV,” Paiva said about the president. “Really tall.”
The entrepreneurship competition, which is open to high school students across the country who complete the semester or year-long program run by the foundation, allows students to refine a business plan with help from professionals. Contestants must clear a series of qualifying rounds before the final competition in New York City. This year’s judges included Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and Steven Brill, co-founder and CEO of Journalism Online.
Paiva won $2,500 for Express Tax Service, which he created. He originally took the entrepreneurship class as an elective at New Bedford High School. “Something to fill the slot,” Paiva said. But as he progressed through the competition, he was able to develop his product from a school project to a real-life business plan, he said.
“In the very beginning, it was still a tax preparation service for everyone,” he said. Paiva later identified his target group as students. This idea came from the large number of students in the Boston area and the fact that H&R Block, a popular tax preparation company, does not specifically cater to students, Paiva said.
Growing up in a finance-focused family played a big role in his success, Paiva said.P His family owns Paiva Financial Services in New Bedford. He called his father, Carlos, his “role model.”
He also attributes his success to Ken Gouveia, who taught the high school entrepreneurship class.
“I knew from the first week that he would do well,” Gouveia said about Paiva.
The competition is a “culmination of work students do in classrooms through the year,” said Clare McCully, executive director of the foundation’s New England program. “It’s a continuing, learning process.”
The competition, which has taken place since 1987, has unearthed business plans for catering businesses, babysitting services and cupcake businesses, she said. A 2009 New England finalist developed a prescription-delivery system for seniors in collaboration with Walgreens, McCully said.
The 2009 competition saw 24,000 nationwide entries from which 28 finalists were selected.
“Every year I see a great improvement in the business plans,” she said. “This year I was bowled over.”
McCully said she looked forward to seeing what Scott does in his life. “I told his father Scott was someone I would trust my taxes with,” she said. “All of this couldn’t have happened to a nicer young man.”
Since his victory, Paiva said he has received a wave of messages. “From extended family, people I don’t talk to much, people I don’t know,” he said. “It’s really overwhelming. Really exciting.”
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Massachusetts Runnerup in State Energy Rankings
ENERGY
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 20, 2009
WASHINGTON—Massachusetts ranked second among the 50 states in implementing efficient use of energy, according to the 2009 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard that the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy published on Wednesday.
The report that was released at a news conference at the National Press Club was intended to draw attention to growing state efforts, even during the current recession, to promote energy efficiency.
States were judged in six categories that included transportation policies and appliance efficiency standards. Massachusetts scored 44.6 out of 50 possible points. The Bay State also climbed five places since last year. This is the third edition of the annual report.
By ranking states, the report seeks to demonstrate that energy efficiency is the optimal solution to meeting energy requirements and strengthening local economies.
“This is very much about creating jobs,” said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who was present at the press conference.
Reinforcing Markell’s point, Cathy Zoi, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, said that 1.6 million construction workers in the United States are currently unemployed.
“Energy efficiency is an area of the government that is growing robustly,” Ian Bowles, the secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for Massachusetts, said in an interview. The labor-intensive industry could help create more jobs, he said.
The Green Communities Act, which came into effect last year in Massachusetts, requires companies to purchase all energy-efficiency products and services that cost less than it would to produce electricity. The intent is to reduce consumers’ electricity bills.
Recently, the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council, which was established under the act, approved a state plan to spend $1.6 billion for three-year energy-saving measures. The first set of steps will be presented to the Department of Public Utilities this fall.
Bowles said the “landmark legislation” was responsible for Massachusetts’s improved performance in this year’s ranking and would also boost the state’s ranking next year to the first spot among the states for energy efficiency.
“Energy efficiency is the single most important way to reduce greenhouse gas emission,” Bowles said. “By 2020, 30 percent of [the state’s] electricity needs will be met through energy efficiency.”
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Committee Focuses on Derivatives, not Consumer Financial Protection agency
AGENCY
New Bedford Standard-Times
Ayesha Aleem
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 13, 2009
WASHINGTON—Ever since Wall Street collapsed last year, dragging down major banks and many homeowners with it, the House Financial Services Committee has been working on legislation to establish a consumer financial protection agency. On Wednesday, however, the committee temporarily turned its attention to another area of financial reform—the arcane subject of financial derivatives.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Barney Frank, met on Wednesday to discuss amendments that would impose new rules on derivatives—financial instruments based on another asset. The asset itself is not traded, only the derivative based on that asset.
A futures contract, for example, is an agreement to buy or sell the underlying asset at some future time. So is a credit default swap, the kind of instrument that contributed to last year’s financial meltdown and required a major federal bailout of American International Group, the principal seller of such instruments.
Frank wants new rules governing capital, margins, transparency, record-keeping and reporting of over-the-counter derivatives. For transactions between financial institutions, Frank proposes that they be traded on an exchange.
As for the consumer financial protection agency, as its name suggests, it would set rules aimed at providing greater protection to consumers against financial exploitation.
The rules would also extend to regulation of mortgages, credit and debit cards, installment loans and other products that financial institutions issue.
Frank recently proposed to change the proposed agency’s oversight panel to consist mostly of top bank regulators. This has been negatively interpreted by some who view these regulators as instrumental in the financial crisis. However, Frank said in a telephone interview, consumers would be suitably represented.
Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the committee’s senior Republican, called the legislation a form of “government bureaucracy” at Wednesday’s hearing. But Frank has reiterated the need for regulation to avert financial turbulence as experienced during this past year.
“The only innovations that thrive are those that attract people's money in a free-enterprise society,” Frank said in a statement earlier this year. “But there are periods when innovation reaches critical mass, when there is such a combination of new things, it often means that with new technology combined with new ideas, that the existing regulatory framework is left behind. And the role of the public sector is to come up with regulations that allow society the benefit of those innovations in the private sector while curtailing some of the abuses.”
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