Category: Michelle Knueppel
Wetherfield to Receive Grants for School Security
WASHINGTON—Wethersfield and three other Connecticut towns will receive a total of $500,000 in new grants to hire and train police officers to protect local public schools, Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman announced recently.
The grants, for the Wethersfield, Meriden, Suffield and East Windsor police departments, will allow law enforcement officers to work on school campuses as student resource officers, or SROs. The officers work with students and school administrators to curb crime and violence on campus and instruct students on state and local laws.
“Children today are faced with so many responsibilities and tough choices,” Dodd said in a statement. “At the very least, we must provide them with a safe school environment that fosters their academic and social development and give their families the peace of mind in knowing that their kids are safe.”
Thomas R. Moore, principal of Wethersfield High School, said his school currently has a part-time police officer who handles criminal matters on campus. With the new grants, Moore said, he hopes the officer will work full time. He said several area schools already have full-time officers.
Moore said Wethersfield, which has 1,200 students, has not had significant problems with crime. But in an era in which school-based crime and violence has increased in districts throughout the country, he said a full-time officer could work to prevent problems from developing.
The program is part of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, launched in 1994 by the Clinton Justice Department to increase the number of officers on the streets in communities throughout the country. Community policing focuses on crime prevention and assigns officers to beats to allow them to get to know residents or, in the case of schools, students.
In 1999, COPS began to train community police officers in Connecticut to work on local campuses. So far, Connecticut communities have received more than $9 million and have placed 74 police officers in public schools, said COPS spokesman David Buchanan.
The officers “become positive role models and improve the relationship between students and law enforcement,” Buchanan said.
Moore agreed that the officers were “much more than a security guard.” In addition to handling criminal matters, SRO officers work closely with students as counselors and instructors on issues relating to crime and the law. Moore said they take a “preventative and proactive” approach to school violence.
“In many schools the officers take on roles as teachers, mentors, coaches and instructors,” Buchanan said. “A lot of times they teach anti-bullying courses and criminal justice classes. Sometimes they are the coaches of sports teams or advisers to school clubs.
“Informally,” Buchanan continued, “they become friends and mentors for the students.”
Campus officers also receive training on school emergency response plans and school safety assessments. The grants pay each new officer up to $125,000 over three years.
Wethersfield applied for the SRO grants for the first time last January, Moore said. He said the school hopes to receive the grant money later in April.
Mother of Fallen Soldier Wants Questions Answered
WASHINGTON – Nearly one year after Mathew Boule died fighting in Iraq, the only personal possessions the Army has given his parents are the 22-year-old soldier’s socks and underwear, a wallet and part of his wristwatch.
But Sue and Leo Boule, of Dracut, Mass., never received the one item that meant the most to them.
“They didn’t give us his uniform. Nothing. Which I would have liked to have had because at least it was something. We would have liked something,” Sue Boule said in a recent interview. “I mean, they even sterilized his wallet.”
Mathew Boule, an Army specialist, died April 2, 2003 – two weeks after the U.S. invaded Iraq -- when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a firefight. He was the first Massachusetts resident to die in the war.
As the anniversary of his death approaches, his parents are grappling not only with their grief, but with what Sue Boule describes as an Army so bogged down in bureaucracy it doesn’t respond to her questions. She said in a telephone interview that she is frustrated to still be waiting for the Army to pay her son’s death benefits.
Boule said she still has questions the Army failed to address, namely why it never returned Mathew’s clothes or allowed an autopsy to be performed. “People don’t answer questions,” she said.
She said she has still not received all the items Mathew brought with him to Iraq, including a digital camera.
Since the war began last March 19, 570 American service members have been killed and 3,273 injured, according to the Pentagon’s tally on Tuesday.
Approximately four American service members have been killed each week since the beginning of January. In November alone, 92 service members died.
“My own feeling is I hope it stops,” Boule said. “I just hope we don’t lose any more.”
Boule said she has been given the runaround from the Army as she worked to retrieve her son’s missing things. “I’m sure they have other things that are more important to them, but they have to realize that there are things that are more important to us, too,” she said.
The Defense Department gives a $12,000 death gratuity to survivors of service members killed in action, and reimburses burial expenses up to $6,900. Survivors are also reimbursed for any leave time their relative left unused and for up to $250,000 in life insurance. Other benefits are available only to a service member’s spouse or children, but Mathew Boule had none.
Shari Lawrence, spokeswoman for Army Human Resource Command, said that because Mathew Boule’s rank was “very junior, some of the other benefits don’t kick in.” She would not say how much the Pentagon has paid the Boule family.
Boule said the Army helped pay for her son’s funeral, though she declined to say how much. But she said she is still waiting for additional payments she was promised.
Boule said despite her frustrations, she has some positive feelings about the Army, which her son joined when he graduated from high school. “They did good with Mathew,” she said. “They taught him. He liked it.”
She said she and her husband find comfort in sharing experiences with others who have lost loved ones in the war. “The families stick together. That’s where we’re getting help,” she said. “From each other.”
Boule said she feels torn between supporting the soldiers still in Iraq and wanting the war to end. “Most of the soldiers we’ve been in touch with say they are there for a reason. They all say the same thing, that Mathew’s death was not in vain and that he died for a reason,” Boule said.
“But as a mother, I’d love them all to come home right now. People out there can’t imagine what you go through,” Boule said, “even a year later.”
Peace Corps Volunteers Undeterred by International Political Turmoil
WASHINGTON - Despite escalating political turmoil around the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 , terrorist attacks, the number of new Peace Corps members has increased nearly 30 percent in recent years.
Though statistics show a slight dip in Peace Corps volunteer applications immediately after Sept. 11, applications surged in 2002 and 2003, according to Bart Kendrick, a spokesman for the Peace Corps. Last year, 11,518 people applied for Peace Corps service, up from 10,611 in 2002 and 8,917 in 2001.
Established under President Kennedy in 1961, the Peace Corps is a federal agency that sends college graduates to underdeveloped countries, where they work for two years in education, community development, health care, agriculture, information technology and small-business development.
Barbara Daly, the corps' press director, said that instead of deterring volunteers from going overseas, unstable political climates have encouraged volunteers who want to make a difference.
"People want to do something to lend a hand across the world," Daly said. "This is a way that people can fight the ignorance that is out there about who Americans are. By serving in the Peace Corps, they put a face on America ."
To cope with the possibility of terrorist threats, the Peace Corps has adopted new security measures, Daly said, including adding additional safety training for volunteers.
"There are risks involved when you're serving overseas in countries that are less developed. We don't hide that fact," she said. Volunteers go through a 10- to 12-week on-site training session to learn the language, culture and how to assimilate so "they don't stand out and make themselves targets," Daly said.
In its more than four decades, 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers have worked in 136 countries to promote education, health care and information technology, Daly said. The organization's goal is to help Americans and people in other countries gain better understandings of one another.
In 2003, 221 Connecticut residents served in the Peace Corps. That was up from 189 in 2002, 170 in 2001 and 190 in 2000.
Stamford resident Laura Buchs, 30, served from 1997 to 1999 in Chuuk, an island that's part of the Federated States of Micronesia . Buchs taught English to first through eighth graders and helped open a library. She said Americans serving in foreign countries can help dispel stereotypes, which is essential during wartime.
"I think people who are attracted to the Peace Corps often understand the value of first-hand interaction with people," Buchs said.
While there is often a military component to areas of political unrest, she said, volunteers see there is "also a human side. There is a significant portion of our population who believes in bridging the gaps of miscommunication."
Helen Risom Belluschi, a New Canaan resident, served in El Salvador from 1966 to 1968. "I certainly was a Jack Kennedy aficionado," she said. "I could not wait to get out of college and join. It was such a hot thing to do then."
In 1961, the program's first year, 51 Americans traveled to Ghana and Tanzania for the Peace Corps. By 1966, more than 15,000 volunteers were working overseas, more than any other time in the organization's history.
Belluschi said the Vietnam War was a driving force in her decision to join. She said her goal was "to bring the world back home" and to fight poverty.
Mark D. Gearan, a director of the Peace Corps under President Clinton, said volunteers entering the Peace Corps today were more practical than those entering in the 1960s during Vietnam . The turmoil of the Sixties has not been duplicated during the war in Iraq , he said. "Without a draft, it's a different time and a different generation."
"Today's generation is much more pragmatic than it was in the Sixties," Gearan said. "I don't know if you would hear today on campuses, 'I'm going to change the world,' but you will hear, 'I'm going to change my part of the world."
Lieberman’s Conservatism to Blame for Campaign Failure, Experts Say
WASHINGTON --Sen. Joseph Lieberman's moderate views and mild manner dealt insurmountable blows to his chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination, political experts said Wednesday.
Lieberman withdrew from the race Tuesday night, after finishing far behind the frontrunner in eight state contests and lagging in campaign contributions. He returned home to Connecticut Wednesday and was embraced by state politicians in both parties.
Lieberman set himself apart from leading Democratic candidates by vociferously supporting the war in Iraq , a position that did not go over well with the largely liberal voters who participate in Democratic primaries and caucuses, said Carroll Doherty, editor of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which has done extensive polling on the race.
"The war was just so widely unpopular with primary voters. That issue set him back enormously," Doherty said.
While some other contenders, including the current frontrunner, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts , initially voted to give President Bush authority to go to war, they have since criticized his handling of the aftermath. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who once led in the polls but has failed to win any states so far, gained popularity by opposing the war from the outset.
Although polls showed Lieberman "in the top tier of candidates" late last year, Doherty said primary voters were turned off by what to Democrats is a conservative message. The turnaround, he said, was "stunning."
In political campaigns, "ideas matter," Doherty said. "He was on the wrong side of the big issues."
Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey , said Lieberman was too tame for primary voters and caucusgoers.
"He had a centrist view that wasn't appealing to angry Democrats who wanted revenge on George Bush," he said. "His manner of expression is mild. He's reassuring rather than belligerent."
The most conservative of the Democratic candidates, Lieberman tried to garner support from moderate Democrats and independents. But his platform never caught fire.
Allan Lichtman, chairman of the History Department at American University in Washington , said that primary voters were not inspired by Lieberman's message. "Democrats are angry and they want someone who can beat Bush," Lichtman said. "Lieberman seemed too close to Bush" on policy issues.
Political experts also said the nature of primary elections worked against Lieberman. People who vote in primaries, whether Democratic or Republican, are generally not as centrist as those who vote in national elections. "In primaries, the Democrats who vote are more distinctively liberal than average Democrats," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa .
Lieberman started the race with a great advantage: name recognition, a result of his run for vice president on Al Gore's ticket in 2000. "In our polls this year he was by far the best-known candidate in a crowded field, which is a significant advantage," Doherty said.
But Goldford said that the national recognition did little to propel Lieberman's campaign.
"While he certainly was known to those in the New England area and those who followed national politics, he really had no national constituency," Goldford said.
Goldford said that Lieberman was "plucked from relative obscurity" when Gore made him his running mate in 2000. And while he is recognized nationally, Goldford said it is merely as "a loser on the presidential ticket."
Lieberman also became known in 2000 as the first Jewish candidate on a national ticket.
When Gore chose him, questions arose as to whether his religion would hurt the Democrats' chance of retaining the White House. But commentators generally have dismissed religion as the explanation for Gore's loss of the presidency in 2000 or Lieberman's poor showing now. Baker said religion was "absolutely not" a factor this year.
Lichtman said because Lieberman was on the ticket four years ago, "he had to start out ahead and stay ahead" to have a chance of winning the nomination.
Lieberman's inability to raise campaign funds also crippled him. Dean raised three times as much and Kerry twice as much as Lieberman.
John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Politics at Akron University in Ohio , said that Lieberman was hurt by Gore's endorsement of Dean. Fundraisers who had previously worked with Gore and former President Bill Clinton "signed on with other candidates because they want to go with the one who's most likely to win," Green said.
Dodd Legislation Blasts Outsourcing
WASHINGTON -Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., told a group of small-business and labor leaders Tuesday that keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States was vital to the economic health of the nation.
At a luncheon, Dodd blasted the Bush administration for supporting companies that hire workers overseas to keep business costs low. Dodd has introduced a bill, the U.S. Workers Protection Act of 2004, that would combat such outsourcing by prohibiting federal money from being used to contract for foreign workers.
Dodd said that he supported "the idea of fair and free trade. Jobs in Connecticut depend in no small measure on there being a foreign market" for the state's manufacturing products.
However, he said, federal tax dollars should not be used to take jobs away from Americans.
"We understand that people are trying to compete and lower costs," Dodd said. "But when that private company subcontracts those jobs to some foreign worker, that is not a level playing field. That is not legitimate competition, in my view."
Fred Tedesco, president of MADe in the USA , a trade organization, dubbed the small-business owners and representatives of manufacturing organizations and labor unions who attended the luncheon "the most unusual coalition of modern times." The groups, often on opposing sides of labor issues, have joined together to fight the movement of jobs overseas.
But Peter Gioia, an economist at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, a lobbying group, said that outsourcing could benefit American businesses. He said that 1,200 businesses in Connecticut were foreign-owned, including pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim and the international bank, UBS Warburg.
"These are huge firms," which provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for American workers, Gioia said.
Gioia said Dodd's legislation could backfire because foreign labor plays an important role in U.S. manufacturing businesses. He noted that sometimes components of products are more "effectively" assembled in foreign markets. But, Gioia said, the high-value, high-technology work is performed by Americans, who ultimately benefited from the finished product.
Gioia said Dodd's legislation could encourage foreign countries to introduce their own outsourcing legislation, which might limit foreign business coming to the United States . "You ultimately end up shooting yourself in the foot," he said.
"Open, fair, and free trade is something that is absolutely essential to the Connecticut economy and economic growth," Gioia said.
Dodd acknowledged that his legislation was intended to "provide a forum" for discussion and expressed some doubts about the chances it would pass. "I realize it's a tough bill," he said. But, Dodd said, there has been a "spontaneous groundswell emerging across the country."
Dodd said that 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the United States in the last seven months. He predicted that $140 billion in wages could be lost in the next 15 years if company? tax incentives are not provided to keep work in the United States .
John Bauman, president of The Organization for the Rights of American Workers, a worker advocacy group, urged immigration reforms and visa limitations to curb the flow of foreign workers coming into the United States .
"These are people coming to our country to replace the American worker," Bauman said at the luncheon.
Senator Dodd Attacks Bush’s Health Tax Cuts and Prescription Drug Act
WASHINGTON --Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) attacked President Bush's proposal to lower health care costs with tax credits and health savings accounts and criticized the controversial new prescription drug law during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday morning.
The vast majority of uninsured Americans are poor, working-class people who do not have extra money to set aside in savings accounts for health care costs, Dodd said.
"You're talking about people who don't have disposable income," he said.
Tax-free savings accounts would be of little help to people more concerned with putting food on the table than paying insurance premiums, he said.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the hearing to assess the reasons for the rising costs of health care and the increase in the ranks of the uninsured.
National health costs rose 9.3 percent in 2002, the latest year for which numbers are available, while the number of uninsured people increased from 39.8 million in 2002 to 43.6 million in 2003, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that provides grants to improve health care practice and policy.
Dodd said 18,000 people die prematurely each year because they are uninsured.
He said 80 percent of the uninsured hold jobs, but many of their employers do not offer insurance plans. He added that 21 percent of children lack health insurance.
Dodd also said the Medicare prescription drug law Bush signed last month would increase health-care costs for senior citizens. The law, he said, "banned people from preventing the rising costs of prescription drugs" because it effectively prohibits them from ordering less expensive drugs from Canada .
Under the new law, the only way Americans can buy drugs from Canada is if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can vouch for an imported drug's safety, which it so far has declined to do. Critics argue that drugs sold in Canada are often made in the United States and exported to Canada at discount prices, while Americans pay more in an unregulated U.S. drug market.
Dodd said that Americans also pay higher prices for drugs because the government does not use its enormous purchasing power to regulate costs. That won't change under the new law.
"What is this administration thinking about?" he asked.
Brian Schubert, the press secretary to Rep. Nancy Johnson (D-5), who helped write the Medicare prescription drug bill, said, "The same provision that Democrats are criticizing now in the Medicare law, many of them voted for when it passed in the Senate in June. I find that difficult to understand."
Democrats, including Dodd, overwhelmingly opposed final passage of the bill in November, after Republicans from the House and Senate changed several provisions.
Campus Activists Urge Youths to Vote
WASHINGTON—As Democratic presidential hopefuls court Connecticut college students before the state’s primary March 2, campus activists are fighting to round up elusive youth voters.
It won’t be an easy task. Young people historically vote in small numbers, and Connecticut college students have shown little interest in a race that could be wrapped up when voters in their state and nine others weigh in on Super Tuesday, less than three weeks from now.
Nirupam Sinha, president of the College Democrats at Yale University, said that his organization has not yet endorsed a candidate. However, individual coalitions have been lining up student support for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
Sinha is one of a number of students at Connecticut universities working to educate students on campaign issues and encouraging them to vote. Despite their efforts, politicians frequently ignore the concerns of college-age kids because statistically, 18- to 24-year-olds are the least likely age group to turn up at the polls.
Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said young people’s interest in politics has declined significantly since the tumultuous 1960s. But, he added, it has grown slightly in the last year.
Gans noted that a recent poll conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles found that, in the 1960s, fully 60 percent of young people “expressed political interest.” This year, he said, 34 percent of freshmen were interested in politics, as opposed to 29 percent three years ago.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds dropped from 50 percent in 1972, which was the first year 18-year-olds could vote, to 32 percent in both 1996 and 2000.
Initially led by Dean, who appealed to young people through a strong Internet campaign, this year’s Democratic contenders have made a special effort to reach out to youth.
Gans said he expects some increase in young voters in November. But, he added, “I don’t think it will be a tidal wave.”
Sinha said he expected more young people to vote in 2004 than four years ago, in part because of the less than 500,000 votes that separated George W. Bush from Al Gore. Although Gore, then the vice president, won the popular vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Bush won in the Electoral College.
“I think people oftentimes think they can’t make an impact,” Sinha said. “But I think especially right now, for students who remember 2000, they are very dissatisfied with the current administration. People are motivated,” Sinha continued. “They’ve realized that every vote is important and does matter.”
Sinha said the Yale College Democrats helped the presidential campaignsin New Hampshire and attended fundraisers before that state’s Jan. 27 primary. Kristina Riordan, president of the College Democrats at Fairfield University, spent five days in New Hampshire campaigning for Kerry.
“Politicians are never going to start catering to students’ interests until we show that we’re a group to be listened to,” Riordan said.
Because students don’t vote in large numbers, politicians neglect their top concerns, such as financial aid funding, Riordan said. “If students voted, that would be an issue politicians would talk about instead of health care,” she said.
Young people’s interest in politics has been siphoned off by presidential scandals, from Richard Nixon’s Watergate to Bill Clinton’s womanizing, Riordan said. “Every politician seems to lie to us,” she said.
But Riordan said that former President Ronald Reagan’s administration also played a hand in forming her generation’s view of the political process. Reagan’s preference for small government helped shape the way she looks at politics, Riordan said.
“Anti-government, anti-politics – that’s the era we were raised in,” Riordan said.
Riordan, who was born in Washington, D.C., said she has always been surrounded by politics. But for some students, she said, political participation was “really not in their consciousness.”
Riordan’s housemate and fellow Fairfield student, Emily McAdam, is the vice-chairwoman of the Connecticut Union of College Republicans, which presides over the 10 schools in Connecticut that have College Republican chapters.
McAdam said Fairfield’s College Republicans have organized membership drives to get students involved. The drives, which usually last three days, sometimes attract up to 100 new members each day, McAdam said. Social events, meetings and guest speakers have been used to entice young Republicans to get active during the election year.
by Michelle Knueppel
The drives work because “a lot of the time students aren’t going to take the initiative on their own. They need someone to get in their face,” McAdam said.
McAdam also said that young people need a special candidate to peak their interest. “If they’re like the typical rich old white guy running for office, students won’t be really receptive. They can’t relate to that,” McAdam said. “We need someone to excite us.”
She didn’t mention who that might be. Both Bush and Democratic frontrunner Kerry are wealthy and white.
On the flip side, McAdam said, college students forfeit their say in elections by failing to vote.
“It’s a vicious cycle. College students don’t vote, so politicians don’t pay any attention to them,” McAdam said. “We’re not in a position to demand that politicians listen to us.”
Though Riordan and McAdam are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, McAdam said they are best friends. “We both want to be active because we care about our country,” she said. “In that way, we have a lot in common.”
Jerold Duquette, a political scientist at Central Connecticut State University, said more Connecticut students were interested in the presidential campaign when one of the state’s senators, Joseph Lieberman, was a candidate. Lieberman dropped out of the Democratic race last week after losing all the early primaries.
“Before Joe Lieberman got out of the race, there was some energy there,” he said.
Art Paulson, a political scientist at Southern Connecticut University, said students’ top election concerns are the war in Iraq and jobs.
Paulson, who advises the College Democrats, said students were “less apathetic now than in previous years because of the war.
“I don’t think it comes close to the involvement of the student population during the Vietnam War,” he added.
Before any voters went to the polls, Paulson said, his students “were ready to formally endorse Howard Dean because his Internet campaign and anti-war position were highly popular.” But, he said, as Dean began to fall further and further behind Kerry, “Democrats of all kinds are beginning to circle the wagon around Kerry.”
Connecticut Delegation Reacts to the State of the Union
WASHINGTON --The Connecticut congressional delegation reacted along partisan lines to President Bush's State of the Union speech last night.
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-5) commended Bush's commitments to the war on terror and health care while Democratic Sens. Joseph Lieberman Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), and Rep. John Larson (D-1) blasted Bush's stance on spending, taxes and the economy.
In his speech, Bush said that "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities" were still being identified in Iraq and that "the world without Saddam Hussein's regime is a better and safer place." Johnson praised Bush's efforts in a written statement. "We have vigorously pursued the war on terror, and with our allies we have rid the world of a murderous and dangerous tyrant. Saddam Hussein will never again threaten the freedoms of the Iraqi people, deny them the economic opportunity they deserve or threaten the peace and stability of the world," she said.
Dodd disagreed. "Though all of us were glad to see Saddam Hussein captured, the threat of terrorism continues to loom large and the President has failed to provide adequate resources to our homeland defenders and exert leadership in the world community to combat terrorism more effectively," he said in a written statement
Bush emphasized finding ways to reduce federal health care costs instead of pouring more money into government-sponsored programs.
Johnson, who helped write the Medicare Prescription Drug Act that Bush signed into law last month, said: "I'm glad the President has injected new thinking into addressing the crisis of the uninsured, moving this important issue to top priority status. Over 250,000 Connecticut residents live and work without health insurance, threatening their health and financial security."
But Lieberman blasted Bush's health care and Social Security announcements in a statement after the speech. "After his stealth efforts to privatize Medicare, he's deceptively trying to sell the privatization of Social Security as if he were just giving workers another 401(k)."
Bush pinpointed the tax breaks Congress enacted at his behest as the reason for the economy's turnaround. "This economy is strong, and growing stronger," Bush said.
While Bush maintained that manufacturing activity is increasing, Larson said in an interview, "We continue to shed jobs in this economy."
Lieberman lambasted Bush's tax cut and job-growth plans. "There's still no real plan to create lasting growth and good jobs, just more tax cuts for people who don't need them -- comforting the comfortable and once again leaving the middle class in the lurch," he said. "The fact is, we have a more realistic chance of finding aliens on Mars than making this fantastical, fiscally reckless plan work."
Larson agreed that the tax cuts were unfair. "They're calling to send more money to the wealthiest one percent."
Connecticut Delegation Reacts to Ricin Scare
WASHINGTON -- Members of the Connecticut congressional delegation and several senators responded on Tuesday to the discovery of ricin, a poison found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's mailroom Monday afternoon.
In a press conference at the Capitol, Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said that none of the workers who might have been exposed to the white powder had become ill, and that ricin is not contagious.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), whose office received a letter containing anthrax in late 2001, said, "This is going to take some time to put the pieces together."
Capitol police said that all unopened mail would be removed from the Capitol complex within the next few days. Police said they have found no evidence that the ricin has spread through the Senate ventilation system as had the anthrax mailed to Daschle, then majority leader, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.).
All three Senate office buildings were closed Tuesday and Senate hearings postponed.
But despite the closures, Congress remained in session and House meetings continued as scheduled.
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-5), said she attended a Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Bush's proposed budget Tuesday afternoon and that her staff was in the office.
"It's an unfortunate reality of working in Washington that it has become the target of such cowardly attacks," Johnson said in a statement. "We're doing everything possible to keep the nation's Capitol open for business without jeopardizing people's lives."Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a statement, "Anyone -- be they terrorists or criminals -- who would use these types of toxins as weapons needs to [be] dealt with in the harshest fashion and swiftly brought to justice."
Dr. Charles McKay, associate medical director of the Connecticut Poison Control Center , said that unlike anthrax, ricin cannot multiply and spread through the air.
He described ricin as a "protein structure" that prohibits cells in the body from creating proteins. While anthrax is an infectious agent that spreads bacteria through the body, ricin simply stops the cells from functioning, McKay said.
Ricin is most powerful when injected. McKay said that less than a milligram, which is smaller than a pencil point, would cause death in two to three days when injected directly into the body.
Symptoms of ricin exposure include weakness, diarrhea, low blood pressure and fever, McKay said. Victims injected with ricin "can end up with what looks like multiple organ failure," he said.
But because ricin cannot multiply, it is "not very effective" as a large-scale biological weapon, he said. "It would take so much that it would be completely impractical," to use in a terrorist attack, McKay said.
While there is no known antidote for ricin, McKay said that all previous known deaths have come from direct injection, not through inhalation or ingestion. It would take a much larger amount to kill someone through inhalation, McKay said. "If you ate an ounce it would probably kill you. But it would have to get into your system," he said.
McKay said that his center has not changed any procedures and everyone working there is staying calm. "Hopefully everybody else is too," McKay said.
A "powder-like" substance was also found Tuesday in a postal distribution center in Wallingford , Conn. , said William Gerrish, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health. The substance was still being tested at a facility in Hartford late Tuesday. Anthrax was found at the same Wallingford distribution center in 2001, and authorities suspect a 94-year-old woman died of anthrax after receiving mail processed at the center.
"Sadly our state previously had to deal with tragic consequences from anthrax attacks," Dodd said, "and it goes without saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the workers there as they deal with these anxious moments."
Johnson, Larson Add to Campaign Accounts
WASHINGTON- Political action committee contributions to Nancy Johnson (R-5) totaled more than $600,000 last year, putting her behind only Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Il) and Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) as the House member with the most PAC contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Johnson, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, received most of her campaign money from health insurance companies and private physicians, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Because of her committee post, "it's not surprising she is attracting a lot of PAC money,"
said Sheila Krumholz, research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that monitors campaign finances.
Reports released last month show Johnson raised just over $1 million in her campaign fund in 2003, including $200,000 in the last quarter of the year. As the new year began, she had: cash on hand of $897,432.
Johnson's $1,012,614 in contributions to date, Krumholz said, was "a standout figure," especially with eight months remaining to raise money before the November election.
Johnson is running for re-election for the 12 th time. She won in 2002 with 54 percent of the vote, running against Democratic congressman James Maloney in the re-districted Fifth District.
"She's had tough races before and is a fairly popular representative, so it's not surprising" that she might want to build up her campaign war chest "to ward off serious challengers," Krumholz said.
Johnson faces two Democratic challengers this time: Paul Vance Jr., president of the Waterbury Board of Aldermen, and Robert L. Marconi, the Connecticut assistant attorney general. Both said they have not yet raised the $5,000 necessary before filing an FEC report. Marconi said he will formally announce his intent to run next month. In the meantime, he plans to meet with Connecticut Democratic town committees to get his name on the political radar.
"It's incredibly difficult to start raising money if nobody knows who you are," Marconi said.
Republicans running for re-election this year have raised on average of $469,741, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Of Johnson's total contributions, 64 percent came from PACs, and 94.5 percent of the PAC donations came from businesses, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Krumholz said of Johnson's PAC money, "It's more than the average candidate has raised in any kind of contributions. That's definitely a hefty figure at this point in the cycle."
Brian Schubert, Johnson's press secretary, called the PAC donors a "broad coalition." They gave to Johnson because they support her agenda, Schubert said.
Rep. John Larson (D-1) raised $37,491 in the latest filing period, bringing his total receipts to $151,860. As 2004 began, he had $128,955 in cash on hand. A variety of donors contributed, including attorneys and manufacturing companies. The American Postal Workers Union gave $5,000. Larson is running for his 4 th term after winning 67 percent of the vote in 2002.
Through Dec. 31, 55 percent of Larson's contributions came from individuals and 43 percent came from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
John Halstead of Wethersfield recently announced his candidacy against Larson, but so far has reported no activity to the FEC.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, (D-Conn.) contributed $1,000 to Larson in 2002 through his Responsibility/Opportunity/Community PAC, but so far no contributions from that PAC have been reported for the 2004 election.
