Category: Fall 2009 Newswire
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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Announced Troops Surge Draws Mixed Reviews From Maine Delegation
MAINE AFGHANISTAN
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 1, 2009
WASHINGTON—When President Barack Obama stood in front of cadets at West Point Military Academy in New York Tuesday night and announced that 30,000 more troops would be deployed to Afghanistan, he acknowledged that the move would not be universally popular. He said in his speech that the debate over the Iraq War—and by extension, the war in Afghanistan—has drawn the “dominant share of our troops, our resources, our diplomacy and our national attention.”
The “wrenching debate” will continue in the aftermath of the president’s address, even among members of Maine’s congressional delegation.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has traveled to Afghanistan four times, and said in a statement that she continues “to have questions about the impact of deploying more American combat troops to Afghanistan.”
She said that a surge in American troops would have to be met with a surge in Afghan troops.
“The situation [in Afghanistan] has worsened significantly,” she said. “I found American troops carrying the bulk of the military burden, valiantly and courageously, but often with too few Afghans by their side.”
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has also seen the situation in Afghanistan firsthand, and agreed that more Afghan troops should participate, as well as NATO forces. She also said in a statement that equipment would likely need to be updated before the troops are deployed.
“There is no question that when we send our brave men and women in uniform in harm’s way, we must ensure that they are fully equipped and supported with the resources they require,” she said.
Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, said in a statement that while he “unequivocally supports” Obama’s goal of defeating al Qaeda, he would reserve final judgment until more details, like the cost increase involved and how many allied troops would join the American surge, emerge.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said in an interview after the speech that as it stands, she would vote against funding the troop increase.
“I don’t agree with [Obama] that we should increase the number of troops before we decrease,” she said. “I want to see a legitimate debate about beginning to draw down the troops and talk about what is a reasonable amount of support in Afghanistan, and shift debate from increasing troops to what we need to get done, and our security in general.”
Like the other Maine members of Congress, Pingree also cited concern over the cost of continued combat.
“I think every day of people in Maine who are out of work,” Pingree said. “I think of just the tremendous variety of needs in our country.”
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Maine Military Mother Sees No End to War
WAR MOM
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Dec. 1, 2009
WASHINGTON— Carole Whelan decided early not to watch President Barack Obama’s Tuesday night prime-time announcement of his plan for the war in Afghanistan.
“I’m tired,” Whelan said. “I’ve been around a long time, and I think that I’m really tired of the propaganda that is given to the American population in lieu of the truth about what’s really going on.”
Whelan’s life has been touched by war more than many.
“I am the daughter, the sister, the wife and mother of war veterans,” she said. Her father was a bomber pilot in World War II, her brother was a Marine during the Vietnam War and her husband also served in Vietnam, with the Air Force.
Now, her son, whose name, age, location and military branch she did not want to reveal for fear of repercussions he may face because of her anti-war opinions, is an active member of the military, and has been deployed overseas twice.
The Hope resident has been active with an advocacy organization called Military Families Speak Out, and was formerly a chapter leader for the group. She said she never actively protested war until the Iraq invasion began, and then began writing letters, lobbying members of Congress and attending anti-war rallies in Maine and Washington, D.C.
Before American troops were sent to Iraq, she said, “I was in my own little world in Maine, doing organic farming and gardening and having a lovely little peaceful life.”
Then came the deployments and another war in the Middle East.
“I had hoped that the country learned after Vietnam, that we would never do that again,” she said, after explaining how disillusioned she was in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. “Well, there’s a whole new generation of people who don’t know better. And every generation seems to have to learn that lesson all over again.”
The burden of the billions of dollars spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq trouble Whelan, she said, but more than that, the toll on the members of the military and their families, and the lack of appreciation and understanding from the civilian population bother her.
She said she feels like she’s talking to a wall when she tries to speak with Maine’s members of Congress about the war that she feels will go on for “a very long time.”
“When war is declared ended for the troops, it doesn’t end for the veterans and the families,” Whelan said. “It just doesn’t end. It goes down through generations of trauma, and just never ends.”
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Musician From Middleborough Plays Bass Trombone in National Symphony Orchestra
GUILFORD
New Bedford Standard Times
Haley Shoemaker
Boston University Washington News Service
December 1, 2009
WASHINGTON—Matthew Guilford decided to make a career out of playing the bass trombone after breaking his arm on the football field while a student at Middleborough High School. The injury, he said, gave him more time to practice music.
“I then joined … the Greater Boston Youth Symphony,” Guilford said. “After I got a flavor of what that was like I was hooked.” He said performing gave him the same adrenaline rush as when his football team scored a touchdown.
For the past 18 years Guilford, who is 44, has been living and performing in Washington. His main job is at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he is the only bass trombone player in the National Symphony Orchestra.
He is also an associate artist-in-residence at the University of Maryland’s main campus in suburban College Park, Md., and a faculty member at The Catholic University of America. He also gives private lessons, arranges music and performs with many other musical groups around the city.
Guilford, who began playing the trombone when he was 9 because his mother loved the sound of trombones, said he had a wonderful trombone teacher in Middleborough named Jerry Shaw. “Jerry Shaw is the salt of the earth,” said Beverly Salvato, Guilford’s mother. “He could be playing in any symphony, yet he’s teaching students.”
Guilford said Shaw put a lot of effort into working with each student. “He spent a lot of time with me; he was a tough but kind teacher,” he said. “I owe a lot of my successes to him. He’s an extremely dedicated person.”
Guilford said good teachers have to be consistent in their behavior toward their students, just as parents have to be consistent in dealing with their children. If a teacher behaves inconsistently, the students will be confused about what is required of them.
Guilford said that Shaw was always consistent in his teaching and that as his student he always knew what was expected of him.
Shaw, for his part, remembers Guilford as “an amazing, fun-loving guy, with a great ability to focus. When you told him something he needed to fix, he would get it right the next week.”
His experience with Shaw inspired him to teach, Guilford said. “I get just as much, if not more, satisfaction working with students as I do performing,” he said. Shaw said that Guilford recently sat in on one of his lessons, and that they have discussed teaching techniques.
Guilford also plays all low brass instruments, including the trombone, euphonium, trumpet and contrabass trombone. “Sometimes I play them with the symphony, too,” he said.
In addition to practicing at least a couple hours a day, Guilford said he has a cardiovascular routine to keep his lungs healthy and to stay in shape. “I have been playing for 35 years,” he said. “It’s a very physical, it takes a lot of air, you have to work out.”
He also does solo appearances as often as he can. He performed with the Washington Trombone Ensemble. “I played a solo and they backed me up,” he said. “They are some of the best trombone players. A lot of them play in service bands, the Air Force and Navy; they’re all wonderful players.” He is having a piece written for him to perform with the ensemble in March.
He also has had two recitals at the University of Maryland and plans to do another in the spring. He said, “It’s good to get out from the back row of the orchestra and just be a soloist.”
Guilford’s family members have attended many of his performances, “I love to go and watch him. I can go and close my eyes and hear him playing Maybe it’s because I am his mother,” Salvato said.
Guilford recently performed songs featured in videogames, ranging from Pac-Man to more-current games. A video screen showed images of the games as he performed. “It brought a lot of young fresh faces into the concert hall. I thought it was pretty fun,” Guilford said. “My son wanted to come, but the concert was beyond his bedtime, so I brought him souvenirs.”
In his spare time, he also arranges music, “I take a piece that already written, it could be for anything, a rock band or the violin, and write it so it’s playable on the bass trombone,” he said. Guilford did a recital about eight years ago of songs that he had arranged. “As a trombone player we don’t get a lot of Bach or Beethoven. We have to beg, borrow and steal. That’s where transcriptions and arrangements come in. I’ve thought about arranging some rock tunes for a trombone ensemble. I don’t think hip-hop would work though,” he joked.
Guilford’s music of choice is rock from the 1970s and 1980s. “I don’t listen to a lot of classical music, honestly. When my kids get into the car they turn to certain radio stations, mostly hip-hop, pop and rock,” he said. “My kids are turning me on to other music, like Kings of Leon and Jay-Z.”
Guilford studied music at Boston University and then transferred to the New England Conservatory, where he stayed on and received his master’s degree. Later, he joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, played with many musicians all over the country and went on tour with a road company of “Les Miserables.” I think that’s what he’s talking about. You can’t have a Broadway performance anywhere except on Broadway.
Guilford frequently gets to travel with the National Symphony. Each year the orchestra goes to culturally underserved parts of the country and stays for about 10 days and performs.
“My first trip was to Alaska, and it was amazing – we got to see polar bears,” Guilford said. He also has traveled with the orchestra to Maine, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Louisiana. Next year it is going to West Virginia. “You get to go to places that you would not normally choose to go to, but we always end up having a great time,” he said.
His family—his wife, Rayne, and their two children, a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter—has traveled with him on some of his trips. “They’ve also got a taste for travel,” he said of his children. “They’re at an age where they still think I am cool because I perform in front of a bunch of people. When they become teenagers their sense of coolness might change.”
The orchestra also travels internationally, and Guilford has been to Europe numerous times and to southeast Asia. In June, the orchestra was in China and Korea. “Travel is a great perk of the job,” Guilford said.
He said he wants to live in Europe before his kids get too old. “I need to find a way to make it happen,” he said. Italy is his first choice. “It’s the best place on earth – the culture, the food – they just have it down. I have to figure out how to live there.”
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Wilton Student Gets to Witness Presidential Turkey Pardoning
TURKEY
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
11/25/09
WASHINGTON – “Guess where I am going for Thanksgiving,” 10-year-old Riley Ann Wadehra of Wilton asked her classmates at Middlebrook School early Tuesday afternoon.
Riley’s plans included her grandparents but not their house. On Wednesday morning Riley was at the White House as one of 60 guests attending President Barack Obama’s first presidential turkey pardoning.
The event was better than expected, she said. “It was very relaxed. We were just five steps away from the President and it did not feel like we were so close to a president,” she said. “It was so casual.”
Wearing a purple dress, which she “picked for the occasion,” Riley entered the White House’s Southwest gate followed by her grandparents, Barbara and Tony Erena, and her uncle, Blake Thompson, all of High Falls, N.Y. They were guests of Joel Brandenberger, president of the National Turkey Federation.
The federation was responsible for delivering Courage, a 45-pound turkey from North Carolina, to the White House for the annual pardoning ceremony, which was first done by President George H.W. Bush.
Riley and her family waited for 20 minutes in the Main Foyer of the White House listening to live piano music and then joined the president and his daughters Sasha and Malia and the media under the North Portico for the ceremony.
“I’m told Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson actually ate their turkeys,” Obama said in his speech joking. “You can’t fault them for that; that’s a good-looking bird. Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha – because I was planning to eat this sucker – Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate.”
Immediately after the event, Riley said she got a chance to pat the turkey and take some pictures.
“Courage was very calm,” she said with a laugh.
Just in case Courage could not fulfill his duties, Walter Pelletier, the chairman of the National Turkey Federation, also brought Carolina as an alternate.
After the White House ceremony the birds were to fly first class to California where Courage will be grand marshal of the Disney Thanksgiving Day Parade. The turkeys will get to live out their days at Disneyland.
Riley, who kept asking her grandparents questions about the ceremony and the White House, said she “learned a lot today.”
After leaving the White House, Riley was anxious to call her mother, Jenn Wadehra, and have lunch and go sight-seeing with her grandparents.
“She was so excited that they got into the White House,” said Mrs. Wadehra in a phone interview.
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Maine Members of Congress Head Home for the Holidays
MAINE THANKSGIVING
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 24, 2009
WASHINGTON—Thanksgiving is a day for family, friends and altogether too much food. Even the Maine congressional delegation, whose day–to-day lives are different than most—weathering elections and long floor battles, allocating billions in federal funds to help the folks back home—will give their power suits a break and celebrate a largely traditional Turkey Day back home in the Pine Tree State.
U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, said he plans to spend the holiday in East Millinocket, though his plans were not entirely set in stone early this week.
“We’re still working out the details, but I might be hosting Thanksgiving at my house,” he said in an e-mail response to a query about his plans.
Michaud called turkey “a favorite” and said that the bird, along with pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream, would definitely be making an appearance at the family dinner.
Besides the meal itself, Michaud said, he uses the holiday to remember others’ sacrifices.
“I am also thankful for the service of our men and women in uniform. Here at home, I have been touched by the dedication of our troop greeters and thankful that Americans understand and realize the challenges faced by our soldiers and their families,” he said. “The holidays can be a particularly tough time for military families, and I am thankful for the support our state gives them.”
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and her husband, Jock, will head to Snowe’s cousin’s house in Old Orchard Beach for a family dinner on what she called “one of America’s most cherished holidays.”
Snowe said she was thankful for members of the military at home and abroad, as well as for other people in her life.
“We are extraordinarily thankful for the health and happiness of loved ones, and the magnificent beauty and bounty of our great state and nation,” she said in a statement. “And at this challenging economic time we also pause to express appreciation to those countless individuals of good will and compassion who give selflessly of themselves to brighten the lives of so many during these difficult days. They truly embody the enduring resolve and can-do spirit that are the hallmarks of Maine and America."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is headed for her brother Gregg’s house in Caribou, where her parents, brothers and sisters and “many nieces and nephews” will gather.
“I am making creamed onions, a Collins family favorite,” she said in an e-mail message. “And my mother, Pat, is baking all of the delicious pies.”
Collins is also making a donation to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, which she said she does annually.
“So many Maine families are struggling in this tough economy, and especially during this holiday season, it is important that we remember those who are less fortunate,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, has a very hands-on Thanksgiving planned. Pingree, before going into politics, was a farmer in Maine, and one of her family’s Thanksgiving traditions is raising the turkey they will eventually carve in their North Haven home. Most of the vegetables and produce that will be on Pingree’s table were grown at home, spokesman Willy Ritch said.
Pingree will host “a couple dozen” family members for Thanksgiving dinner, including her children, her grandson and others.
“She really likes Thanksgiving,” Ritch said. “It feels like a really relaxed holiday. It’s just making the meal and having the family over.”
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Sen. Shaheen Hears Concerns Over Health Reform from AARP members in N.H.
AARP
New Hampshire Union Leader
Joseph Markman
Boston University Washington News Service
11/19/09
WASHINGTON – Following the unveiling of the Senate Democratic leadership’s version of health care reform, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., fielded questions ranging from Medicare cuts to prescription drug costs on a teleconference call with 5,900 New Hampshire AARP members Thursday morning.
The legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office said would cost $848 billion over 10 years and extend insurance coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans, would also impose higher Medicare payroll taxes on couples making more than $250,000 a year and trim various aspects of Medicare, including $118 billion over 10 years from Medicare Advantage spending.
Joanna from Canaan, one of the AARP members calling in and a self-described “big supporter” of a government-run insurance option, urged Shaheen to convert some of her Republican colleagues into getting behind the so-called public option in the Senate bill, which would allow individual states to opt out.
“The government has shown with Medicare that they know what they’re doing with health care,” Joanna said, “and I have more confidence in a government-run program than private companies.”
Shaheen responded that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill would spur competition through its public option, but that the legislation was only a “starting point” and would change as it faced vigorous debate.
The senator also suggested Joanna call Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., to help convert him herself.
Gregg said recently about the opt-out government-run insurance plan: “Assuming that the states will opt out of a federally subsidized government-run plan is like assuming your children will opt out of their allowance.”
Barbara from Salem said she is a diabetic and wondered about the Senate’s fix for the Medicare Part D “doughnut-hole” prescription drug coverage gap, in which she finds herself every year.
“There are some changes in the bill that I think will help with this,” Shaheen said. The legislation would provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and provide a better path for generic drugs to get to the market.
“It’s a good start. Obviously we need to keep working,” Shaheen said.
Donna from Merrimack, who said her son pays $700 per month in premiums to a private insurer, asked if the measures before Congress would alleviate the financial pain people like her son face.
“There are changes in the bill to help folks with the cost of insurance coverage,” Shaheen said. “It provides subsidies so you only have to pay a certain part of your income.”
On the cost-cutting front, Fred from New Ipswich said he was a senior and very concerned about Medicare cuts in the health reform bills.
“How can you comfort me that Medicare will not be diminished in the future?” Fred asked.
Shaheen responded by calling attention to an aspect of the bill she introduced in September that would help senior citizens with follow-up care after leaving the hospital, significantly reducing the cost to Medicare of re-hospitalization.
“There are real savings we can provide by doing a better job providing health care to people,” Shaheen said.
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Q&A with Anthony Fauci
FAUCI
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jessica Leving
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 — Anthony S. Fauci‘s office at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is so decorated with awards, press clippings and diplomas—including his 1962 diploma from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester—that there is hardly any wall space left unexposed.
His monumental research into diseases most people squirm to think about—malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, pandemic flu—has led Mr. Fauci, 68, to become one of the most-cited scientists in all disciplines throughout the world, according to a study by the Institute for Scientific Information.
These days, as director of the institute, he barely has time to collect the accolades. With the country in a frenzy to get the H1N1 flu virus under control, Mr. Fauci is working around the clock conducting research, advising government officials, and even, twice a week, treating patients.
It has been, he said, “the perfect storm in misfortunes.”
In an interview between his many engagements, Mr. Fauci gave some updates on how it’s all coming along—and how he’s holding up.
Q: How has the U. S. government reacted to the H1N1 pandemic?
A: The preparation has been excellent. Within days of the discovery of a completely new virus, the virus was isolated, characterized and put into form to make as a vaccine.
Q: How has preparation stepped up since the bird flu scare? Were the mechanisms in place to produce enough of the [H1N1] vaccine?
A: We’ve made phenomenal advances [since the bird flu]. But it doesn’t happen overnight. The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan was started in the last administration. The fact that we don’t have it ready right now is not a surprise, because technologies and science and discovery usually take years.
The time-honored but somewhat fragile technology for making influenza vaccine is to grow it in eggs. Sometimes viruses grow well, and sometimes they don’t. The H1N1 virus [vaccine] in this case did not grow very well. Unfortunately that technology let us all down this particular year. If it was any other seasonal flu, the cushion of time that you had on either end would have easily compensated for the slowness, and by the time you needed it, it would have been available. But since we had to out of necessity start three months late, and the flu was waiting for us at end of August, when kids came back to school, it was, as we call it, the perfect storm in misfortunes.
Q: Do you think the public has reacted appropriately to the H1N1 scare?
A: The general public is very skeptical about vaccines at all. In some respects, we’ve been victims of our own success. We’ve been so successful in controlling, if not eliminating, the diseases that vaccines are made for that all the public sees are vaccines that may have some finite risk. No vaccine is 100 percent safe, but the risk of the disease is far greater than the risk of the vaccine.
Q: So what should we expect to see next with H1N1 as we really get into the thick of flu season in the next few months?
A: We’re going to get through the season. We’re going to get more vaccines. The more vaccines, the better we’re going to do. The pandemic is going to come under control, hopefully sooner rather than later. The last I heard, we have now 49.9 million doses of vaccines ordered. Just a few weeks ago we were around 12 million doses.
Q: Aside from H1N1, you’ve also done a lot of work with HIV/AIDS research, and last month there was talk of a vaccine trial in Thailand. Is an HIV vaccine on the horizon?
A: The study in Thailand was a very slight but nonetheless important advance. No one is claiming that this is a vaccine for prime time under any circumstances, but it’s an important step forward in our knowledge about where we need to go with this vaccine.
Q: So do you think we will see an HIV vaccine that can be distributed sometime relatively soon?
A: It’s impossible to predict. This is still in the stage of discovery. There are so many unknowns, the most important of which is: why does the body not naturally mount a response that’s adequate enough to control HIV infection? It can’t. That’s very unique.
Q: With the country in the middle of a flu pandemic, and HIV research still being conducted, along with all kinds of other research, how do you fit it all in?
A: I work 22 hours a day. I have a lot of different hats. Right now I’m very much consumed with H1N1.
Q: In an interview with The Washington Post a few years back, you said you were not planning to retire any time soon. Is that still the case?
A: That is still the case. I probably have about another 35 years to go.
Q: Do you ever have time to relax?
A: Right now we’re in the middle of a pandemic—so no. When it’s not a pandemic, I occasionally have a beer.
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Congressional Probe into Fort Hood Attack Begins
FORT HOOD
Bangor Daily News
Kase Wickman
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON – The Senate hearing Thursday on the Fort Hood shooting began with questions about how federal agencies can cooperate to identify and prevent extremist behavior and unraveled to speculation on whether the First Amendment should apply fully to members of the military.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee began its probe by discussing whether Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter, should have been questioned or monitored and whether federal procedures should change to catch potential threats before they escalate.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Congress must work to understand the shortcomings that led to the shooting.
“To prevent future homegrown terrorist attack, we must better understand why our law enforcement and intelligence agencies and our military personnel system may have failed in this case,” Collins, the top Republican on the committee, said. “These patriotic soldiers and civilians of all faiths that were injured and killed – not on a foreign battleground, but rather on what should have been safe and secure American territory—deserve a thorough investigation.”
Though committee chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday in a press conference that the committee was “not interested in political theater” with the hearings, Thursday’s hearing provided plenty of drama, and may not yield results anytime soon.
Lieberman said that the committee would have another public hearing about so-called homegrown terror plots and the Fort Hood attack “when and if we think it’s appropriate and constructive to do so,” and until then would continue investigations behind closed doors.
The hearing, which focused on information available on the public record about Hasan, his research and military career, featured testimony from retired Army Gen. John Keane as well as Fran Townsend, a former assistant to President George W. Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism. Representatives from RAND, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the intelligence division of the New York Police Department also testified.
No current federal employees were witnesses, one indicator that the congressional investigation is being tolerated—not supported or encouraged—by President Barack Obama, who reportedly asked Lieberman to wait for the criminal investigation of the incident to be over before delving into it himself.
Witnesses talked about “lone wolf” acts of terrorism, where it is unclear whether the attacker is acting alone or as part of an organization, as well as how political correctness could have saved Hasan, a practicing Muslim, from inquiry about his behavior or beliefs.
“Were numerous warning signs ignored because the Army faces a shortage of psychiatrists and was concerned, as the Army chief of staff has subsequently put it, about a ‘backlash against Muslim soldiers’?” Collins said in her opening statement. “These are all questions we will seek to answer.”
Juan Zarate, another Bush-era counterterrorism adviser who is now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that though many subscribe to the simplified West-versus-Islam mindset, and though some Muslims believe they “must unite to fight the United States in defense of fellow Muslims,” this minority view cannot be punished, no matter how foreign it may seem to some.
“Given our First Amendment protections, merely espousing such views cannot be considered illegal, and absent proximity and causality tied to an act of violence, the preaching of such hatred and advocacy of violence is not prosecutable as incitement under U.S. law,” Zarate said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that the military should monitor soldiers more closely.
“Perhaps we should err on the side of caution rather than the side of [political] correctness,” he said.
Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff, said that it should be the responsibility of other soldiers to alert their superiors of extremist views in their units. Right now, he said, it is not a requirement, and many soldiers will pull away from someone with radical views, allowing extremists to exist in the ranks and polarize units.
“We will find that our policies will need revision again to reflect the specific behavior… of jihad extremists,” Keane said. “It should not be an act of moral courage for a soldier to identify another soldier who has exhibited extremist behavior. It should be an obligation.”
When the investigation is concluded, Lieberman said, the committee will make recommendations for the federal government.
“I’m very much for a diverse Army, and I think that the diversity in our Army is its strength,” Collins said after the hearing. “What I also believe is that if a member of the military exhibits extremist behavior it has to be confronted for the safety of all those that individual is serving with.”
Hours after the hearing ended Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that former Army Secretary Togo West and former Chief of Naval Operations Vernon Clark would lead the Pentagon review of the shootings.
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WPI Students Gain Hands-on Experience, Contacts Through Washington Program
WPI
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Jessica Leving
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 18, 2009
WASHINGTON—Among students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the school’s Washington, D.C., program is hardly anyone’s first choice for study abroad. “It’s just not overseas,” agreed Evan Duderewicz, a junior from Stratford, N.H.
But once the students arrive in the nation’s capital, students admit, they get to do some pretty cool things.
Take the Ecuador oil remediation team, which is researching a multi-phase scheme to remove oil pollution from a remote area of Ecuador.
“We’re all so passionate about this issue,” said Chad Caisse, a junior from Lowell. And it shows.
Decked out in dress shirts and slacks, the three team members swivel in their chairs on the fourth floor of a sleek office building in the trendy Dupont Circle neighborhood, turning back and forth to call up a statistic on their computer or write a note on the floor-to-ceiling sheet of paper taped to the wall. The Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit that promotes human rights and democracy, has given them what amounts to closet space to work in, but they’re not complaining.
“Indigenous people live off the water in this area,” said Chris Baker, a junior from Quincy. “Now it’s completely polluted from years of careless dumping of oil. People have all kinds of diseases.”
“They can’t say for sure this is what it came from, but there’s a clear increase of cancer cases in the past few years,” Mr. Caisse added. “It’s exactly like in the movie ‘Erin Brockovich.’ ”
The oil remediation study is one of nine two-month hands-on group research projects that WPI’s 35-year-old Washington program sponsored this semester. The 26 students who arrived in Washington in October are working on projects ranging from water pollution in Ecuador to crib safety, where students are working side-by-side with Consumer Product Safety Commission staff members.
“WPI was a pioneer in recognizing that engineers need to work in teams when they get into the workplace,” said Natalie A. Mello, WPI’s director of global operations.
“On a global scale, we want students to understand the impact of technology,” added David DiBiasio, director of the Washington program.
New this year is cooperation between the WPI program and the office of U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern (D-Worcester). Mr. DiBiasio credits Mr. McGovern with making introductions at government agencies that led to several projects.
The Ecuador oil project was developed after a campus visit last year by Mr. McGovern, who has a history of advocacy work related to the issue.
“Hopefully, the final product will have recommendations that the U.S. government, Ecuadorian and other governments can use in implementing best practices in their countries,” Mr. McGovern said in a statement.
Students and faculty were also particularly excited that the start of their research coincided with the release of the movie “Crude,” a documentary on the exact area they are researching.
“This question of remediation is going to be huge,” said Andrew E. Miller of the nonprofit Amazon Watch, featured in the movie, who has agreed to mentor the Ecuador teams. “One of the cases that Amazon Watch has been involved in is the lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador. If it’s successful, one of the main things will be bioremediation of the area. How exactly to do that is not well known.”
In addition to the oil remediation team, a group of three Spanish-speaking WPI students is using the crisis in Ecuador as a jumping-off point for an interactive project with indigenous communities and advocacy groups that hopes to provide policy suggestions to prevent these problems from arising again in Ecuador as well as in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.
“We’re trying to protect the whole Amazon region,” said Carlos Donado, a junior originally from Barranquilla, Colombia.
“We’re on the prevention side,” added Seanna Reilly, a junior from Easton. “What happened in Ecuador we want to make sure doesn’t happen in other tropical regions. We’re looking at technical aspects, environmental aspects and human rights aspects.”
The Ecuador teams may be the most exciting of this year’s Washington projects, but other students in the program are equally immersed in projects at high-powered Washington offices.
One team, for instance, is working on enhancing crib safety at the Consumer Product Safety Commission—a timely task given a sweeping stroller recall earlier this month. Two other teams are working on marine safety with the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Another team is working at the National Association of State Fire Marshals to come up with methods for preventing fires in historic districts.
“The way these streets are, if one building burns down all the others will, too,” said Jared Brown, a junior from Merrimack, N.H.
In the past, successful completion of these group projects has translated into success in the workplace, said Constance Areson Clark, one of the Washington faculty advisers.
“We hear from employers all the time that these students hit the ground running and know how to get a job done,” said Ms. Clark, a professor of history.
While in Washington, students live downtown at the Marriott Residence Inn with three faculty advisers—and yes, they get maid service.
Though a “very small number” of students picked Washington as their first choice, Ms. Mello said, “Now, they can’t imagine doing this anywhere else.”
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