Category: Massachusetts
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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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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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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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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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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Terra Cotta Warriors Watch over National Geographic
TERRA
New Bedford Standard Times
Burcu Karakas
Boston University Washington News Service
11.18.2009
WASHINGTON—The greatest number of the famous Chinese terra cotta warriors ever to travel to the United States will be on display beginning Thursday at the National Geographic Museum in Washington.
Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor, includes 15 life-size terra cotta figures and 100 sets of objects from the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.
In the media preview of the exhibition, Terry Garcia, National Geographic’s executive vice president for mission programs, said that 96,000 tickets had been sold and that he hopes to reach 100,000 by this weekend.
Garcia said this has been an important week for China-U.S. relations, highlighted by President Obama’s visit to China.
Feng Xie, the deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy, who was at the preview, called Obama’s visit a “great success” and indicated that China-U.S. relations have reached a new historic starting point.
“Obama’s visit to China is historic, and so is the Terra Cotta Warriors” exhibition he said.
The terra cotta warriors have been described as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Discovered after being buried for more than 2,000 years, the warriors are said to reveal secrets of the Qin dynasty.
The exhibition began its U.S. tour in California last year and then visited Atlanta and Houston. Washington, where the warriors will on display through March 31, is the final stop.
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Women More Vulnerable to Global Warming, UN Report Says
UNFPA
New Bedford Standard Times
Burcu Karakas
Boston University Washington News Service
11.18.2009
WASHINGTON- Women are likelier to be affected by and to suffer from climate change than men are, according to a United Nations Population Fund report released Wednesday.
Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, said bringing women’s issues into the climate change debate is essential since women are already the greatest victims of AIDS, violence and refugee problems. “Climate change is making these problems worse and worse,” Wirth said at a press conference at the National Press Club.
Wirth noted that as the temperature of the Earth’s surface increases, food production will decline across the world, which will add enormously to the pressure on women who are responsible for sustaining their families.
The report supports the idea that family planning, reproductive health care and gender relations, particularly in developing countries, have the potential to influence the future of climate change.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., emphasizing the unequal burdens climate change places on women, said women are likelier than men to die from conditions related to climate change.
Robert Engelman, vice president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute, a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, said integrating gender considerations into the climate change framework is a new but crucial concept.
He said women who are in charge of their own lives have the power to change global warming by contributing to slower population growth, and their own efforts are “practical, necessary and hopeful.”
Rapid population growth and industrialization affect the levels of gas emissions, he said, and the world is running out of time to reverse this trend. This is a long-term problem, which is not only a governmental commitment but also a “fundamental human issue,” Engleman said.
Jose Miguel Guzman, chief of the population and development branch of the fund, said the way people organize their lives and achieve sustainable life styles is relevant to climate change.
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More H1N1 Vaccine Expected in the Following Weeks
H1N1
New Bedford Standard Times
Burcu Karakas
Boston University Washington News Service
11.17.2009
WASHINGTON—Leaders of a Senate committee expressed disappointment and frustration Tuesday over the slow pace of distribution of the H1N1 vaccine.
Speaking at a committee hearing Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said there have been “more flu deaths than previously realized and fewer vaccine does than originally promised.” He said this created public frustration and confusion among those with the highest risk.
He cited a report last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 22 million people have been made ill by the H1N1 virus, with 98,000 people needing hospitalization and about 4,000 people dying from the flu or from complications associated with the virus.
Lieberman noted that the estimated 120 million to 160 million doses promised to be available were not delivered. Instead, he said, there are now 42 million doses, equal to the number of highest-risk individuals.
“Things looked better two weeks ago, when 11 million more doses were delivered, with another 8 million doses projected to be available this week,” he said. “But by last Friday only about 5 million more were available.”
Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), the committee’s senior minority member, criticized the shortfall and expressed her frustration and anger.
“It is mid-November, and we know that supply production is still lagging behind those repeated assurances,” Collins said. She invited the administration to work more closely with state and local public health officials.
Nicole Lurie, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said an increase in the amount of vaccine is expected in the weeks ahead.
She said increasing the investments in technology and manufacture capacity is vital to preparing for and responding to threats. She added that health care facilities need to be supported during the current pandemic.
Alex Garza, the assistant Homeland Security secretary for health affairs, said the department continues to monitor the pandemic at state, local and tribal levels.
Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said a national campaign to encourage domestic and international travelers to take steps to prevent the spread of flu will be launched. She added that during the holidays, reducing the spread of the H1N1 virus among those who are traveling will be important.
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Early Child Education Discussed in Washinton
CHILDHOOD
New Bedford Standard Times
Burcu Karakas
Boston University Washington News Service
11.13.2009
WASHINGTON – Viewing early childhood education as an economic issue was the focus of a national conference in Washington this week. Partners in Early Childhood and Economic Development, a program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, convened experts to discuss and share ideas about the future of early childhood education in the country.
Participants said in order to make early care a priority across the nation proponents should come together more systematically at the federal and state levels to help policy makers understand the economic and education importance of early care.
Shannon Rudisill, associate director of the Child Care Bureau, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said they are trying to build a common perception about early child education by bringing a range of ideas together while they are working on the policies. She emphasized that cooperation is vital for quality improvement.
During the “Taking Early Care and Education Policy Forward” panel, participants said they appreciate the Obama administration’s concerns about early child education across the nation.
The economic recovery bill passed by Congress in February created new early care and education jobs and included more than $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs.
Barbara Gault, executive director of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said the role of the state and federal governments should be defined and that there should be public and private funding for early child care.
John Williams, a consultant at Development Communications Associates, emphasized the importance of working at the community level for early child care. Williams expressed the need of working together with school districts. “Early care education support is critical,” he said.
Williams also said the policies should be targeted to be “inclusive” for all children, regardless of the family profile.
Danielle Ewen, of the Center for Law and Social Policy, made remarks about the need of a change in the financing aspect of the current system. She said there should be an economic model to make early child care a public good. Ewen said a “revenue based investment” should be constructed in the long term.
In the short term, she said public and private partnerships are important and better data should be constructed about outcome, impact and providers in early child care.
“First, we need to understand and translate it into economic terms,” she said, regarding the significance of political pressures for better results on the issue.
She then pointed out that a new tax policy and a revenue based system is crucial to invest in early childhood education.
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