Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Shirley Sherrod: White House Forced My Resignation
July 20, 2010 3:31 PM
by Stephanie Condon--CBS NEWS--Politics
The Department of Agriculture employee who resigned after a controversy erupted over recent remarks she made is now saying that the White House forced her resignation.
Shirley Sherrod, the USDA's former director of rural development in Georgia, said USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday and said the White House wanted her to resign, the Associated Press reports.
"They called me twice," Sherrod told the AP, noting that she was driving when she received the calls. "The last time they asked me to pull over the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
Sherrod submitted her resignation after she became the focus of scrutiny from Fox News and conservative blogs over remarks she gave at an NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27. A video of a portion of her remarks were posted on a conservative blog, giving the impression that Sherrod admitted to discriminating against a white farmer as an employee of the USDA.
The comments were taken out of context, however. In her remarks that day, Sherrod was recounting a story that pre-dates her tenure at the USDA by more than two decades. Sherrod says in her story that Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted; Chapter 12 was instituted for family farmers in 1986, while Sherrod was appointed to head the USDA's Rural Development office in Georgia just last July. Furthermore, the point of Sherrod's story is that race is not an issue.
Sherrod has said the video excerpt did not include the full story of her relationship with the farmer, with whom she says she became friends after helping him avoid foreclosure.
Nevertheless, Sherrod says the White House pressed for her resignation. A USDA spokesman would not comment on whether the White House was involved, the AP reports.
Earlier today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement saying he had accepted Sherrod's resignation, and added that the department has no tolerance for discrimination.
The NAACP on Monday released a statement condemning Sherrod's statements and saying the organization supported the USDA's position. The group, however, is now reportedly reconsidering its position.
--http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
by Stephanie Condon--CBS NEWS--Politics
The Department of Agriculture employee who resigned after a controversy erupted over recent remarks she made is now saying that the White House forced her resignation.
Shirley Sherrod, the USDA's former director of rural development in Georgia, said USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday and said the White House wanted her to resign, the Associated Press reports.
"They called me twice," Sherrod told the AP, noting that she was driving when she received the calls. "The last time they asked me to pull over the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
Sherrod submitted her resignation after she became the focus of scrutiny from Fox News and conservative blogs over remarks she gave at an NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27. A video of a portion of her remarks were posted on a conservative blog, giving the impression that Sherrod admitted to discriminating against a white farmer as an employee of the USDA.
The comments were taken out of context, however. In her remarks that day, Sherrod was recounting a story that pre-dates her tenure at the USDA by more than two decades. Sherrod says in her story that Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted; Chapter 12 was instituted for family farmers in 1986, while Sherrod was appointed to head the USDA's Rural Development office in Georgia just last July. Furthermore, the point of Sherrod's story is that race is not an issue.
Sherrod has said the video excerpt did not include the full story of her relationship with the farmer, with whom she says she became friends after helping him avoid foreclosure.
Nevertheless, Sherrod says the White House pressed for her resignation. A USDA spokesman would not comment on whether the White House was involved, the AP reports.
Earlier today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement saying he had accepted Sherrod's resignation, and added that the department has no tolerance for discrimination.
The NAACP on Monday released a statement condemning Sherrod's statements and saying the organization supported the USDA's position. The group, however, is now reportedly reconsidering its position.
--http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
Friday, July 16, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Who will live to 100? Genes may tell
July 1, 2010 3:20 p.m. EDT
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
(CNN) -- If celebrating triple-digit birthdays sounds appealing, scientists may be able to determine if you're likely to live that long.
Researchers from the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Boston Medical Center have identified genes associated with living longer. They also predicted using genetics alone many of those among study participants would be a centenarian. Their results will be published in the journal Science.
"Could these signatures tell a physician and their patient who's going to be at increased risk for a particular disease sooner, and can this lead perhaps to interventions that might help them? I think that's a possibility down the road," said co-author Dr. Thomas Perls of Boston Medical Center, in a press conference.
People who live to 100 are a model of healthy aging, the study said. Previous research shows that about 90 percent of centenarians are disability-free until around age 93, said Perls, founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study, the largest study of centenarians in the world, based in Boston, Massachusetts.
The study looked at 1,055 centenarians and 1,267 controls -- people who weren't 100 yet. As much as possible, researchers matched the genetic backgrounds of controls to those born in 1910 or before.
The centenarians in the Boston group's study were all Caucasian, meaning the results should be replicated with participants of other ethnicities, Perls said. His group is going to be collaborating with a group in Japan to further investigate the issue. It could be that people of different ethnic backgrounds carry distinct genes that help them live to 100, he said.
Scientists identified 150 DNA sequence variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms among those 100 years old and above that may have contributed to their healthy aging. In the control group, 15 percent of participants had longevity-associated genes. That means, in theory, 15 percent of the American population is predisposed to live to be 100.
But there's approximately just one centenarian per 6,000 in the population of developed countries such as the United States; in 2010, there are about 80,000 in the U.S. There's only one "supercentenarian" -- someone over age 110 -- in every 7 million people, Perls said. That's partly because in the era when today's centenarians were born, medicine was not as advanced, and average life expectancy was about 47. In other words, genetics isn't everything; environment and lifestyle also play into living long.
Using their genetic model, researchers found they could predict with 77 percent accuracy who would live to be 100 or higher based on genetics alone in the sample.
"This is very important information that should make anybody aware that if we are going to find genes that are protecting us from aging, it is not an impossible mission," said Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, who was not involved in the study.
Researchers noted that while 77 percent accuracy is relatively high, that means that there's an additional 23 percent of centenarians who do not have the "right" genetic signatures -- in other words, environmental factors are still relevant.
Few centenarians have a history of smoking, and they tend to not be substantially obese, Perls said. Seventh-day Adventists, the religious group whose members have an average life span of 88 in the U.S., are another example of how lifestyle may impact longevity. Because of their religion, they have a vegetarian diet, exercise regularly, abstain from alcohol and smoking, engage in exercise, and manage stress well -- such factors may help them live well beyond the national average of 78 years.
"It really does speak to the incredible importance of lifestyle factors," Perls said. "To live the extra 10-15 years beyond the 88, our paper is indicating that genetics may play an important role in distinguishing those individuals from the average population."
Some of the genetic signatures identified in the study could are associated with delay in the onset of dementia, heart disease, diabetes or stroke, Perls said. Others are associated with being able to live a long life despite having one or more of those diseases for a long time.
"Understanding better the different pathways of getting to 100 will be very important," he said.
Researchers also found three genetic signatures common among 40 percent of supercentenarians.
Surprisingly, researchers found little difference between centenarians and controls in terms of the number of genetic variants associated with diseases of aging, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and dementia. That means that perhaps what makes centenarians live longer is not a lack of predisposition to such illnesses; it's the enrichment of genetic variants associated with longevity, said Paola Sebastiani, lead author of the study and professor of biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health.
These longevity-associated genes may even cancel out the negative effects of variants linked to disease, she said. That suggests current tests for the risks of diseases of aging are incomplete, as they do not take into account these longevity-associated genes that may override that risk.
Previous research in the genetics of healthy aging is already leading to the development of pharmaceuticals to help people live longer, Barzilai said. One such type of drug is called a CETP inhibitor, intended to reduce "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and raise "good" cholesterol (HDL). Merck & Co. is in phase III clinical trials for a CETP inhibitor called anacetrapib; Roche is currently recruiting participants for a phase III trial for another drug of this type called dalcetrapib.
"Our goal is not to make people live to 100; the goal is to have people have good quality of life and [be] free of disease at the end of their life," Barzilai said. "I would say that longevity is a side effect of those drugs."
If genetics research can be used to help people live longer, there's cost-savings across the board, Barzilai said. For someone who dies at age 80, the last two years of life are three times more expensive for medical costs than someone who dies at age 100, he said.
Although companies may try to make tests to see who will live to 100, this information may not be valuable to the individual, as accuracy is only 77 percent and lifestyle factors are still important, Perls said.
But the results do point toward the era of personalized medicine, he said. The methods developed by Sebastiani could be used to find out whether there are genetic signatures for positive or adverse reactions to certain medications, for example, Perls said.
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
(CNN) -- If celebrating triple-digit birthdays sounds appealing, scientists may be able to determine if you're likely to live that long.
Researchers from the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Boston Medical Center have identified genes associated with living longer. They also predicted using genetics alone many of those among study participants would be a centenarian. Their results will be published in the journal Science.
"Could these signatures tell a physician and their patient who's going to be at increased risk for a particular disease sooner, and can this lead perhaps to interventions that might help them? I think that's a possibility down the road," said co-author Dr. Thomas Perls of Boston Medical Center, in a press conference.
People who live to 100 are a model of healthy aging, the study said. Previous research shows that about 90 percent of centenarians are disability-free until around age 93, said Perls, founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study, the largest study of centenarians in the world, based in Boston, Massachusetts.
The study looked at 1,055 centenarians and 1,267 controls -- people who weren't 100 yet. As much as possible, researchers matched the genetic backgrounds of controls to those born in 1910 or before.
The centenarians in the Boston group's study were all Caucasian, meaning the results should be replicated with participants of other ethnicities, Perls said. His group is going to be collaborating with a group in Japan to further investigate the issue. It could be that people of different ethnic backgrounds carry distinct genes that help them live to 100, he said.
Scientists identified 150 DNA sequence variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms among those 100 years old and above that may have contributed to their healthy aging. In the control group, 15 percent of participants had longevity-associated genes. That means, in theory, 15 percent of the American population is predisposed to live to be 100.
But there's approximately just one centenarian per 6,000 in the population of developed countries such as the United States; in 2010, there are about 80,000 in the U.S. There's only one "supercentenarian" -- someone over age 110 -- in every 7 million people, Perls said. That's partly because in the era when today's centenarians were born, medicine was not as advanced, and average life expectancy was about 47. In other words, genetics isn't everything; environment and lifestyle also play into living long.
Using their genetic model, researchers found they could predict with 77 percent accuracy who would live to be 100 or higher based on genetics alone in the sample.
"This is very important information that should make anybody aware that if we are going to find genes that are protecting us from aging, it is not an impossible mission," said Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, who was not involved in the study.
Researchers noted that while 77 percent accuracy is relatively high, that means that there's an additional 23 percent of centenarians who do not have the "right" genetic signatures -- in other words, environmental factors are still relevant.
Few centenarians have a history of smoking, and they tend to not be substantially obese, Perls said. Seventh-day Adventists, the religious group whose members have an average life span of 88 in the U.S., are another example of how lifestyle may impact longevity. Because of their religion, they have a vegetarian diet, exercise regularly, abstain from alcohol and smoking, engage in exercise, and manage stress well -- such factors may help them live well beyond the national average of 78 years.
"It really does speak to the incredible importance of lifestyle factors," Perls said. "To live the extra 10-15 years beyond the 88, our paper is indicating that genetics may play an important role in distinguishing those individuals from the average population."
Some of the genetic signatures identified in the study could are associated with delay in the onset of dementia, heart disease, diabetes or stroke, Perls said. Others are associated with being able to live a long life despite having one or more of those diseases for a long time.
"Understanding better the different pathways of getting to 100 will be very important," he said.
Researchers also found three genetic signatures common among 40 percent of supercentenarians.
Surprisingly, researchers found little difference between centenarians and controls in terms of the number of genetic variants associated with diseases of aging, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and dementia. That means that perhaps what makes centenarians live longer is not a lack of predisposition to such illnesses; it's the enrichment of genetic variants associated with longevity, said Paola Sebastiani, lead author of the study and professor of biostatistics at Boston University School of Public Health.
These longevity-associated genes may even cancel out the negative effects of variants linked to disease, she said. That suggests current tests for the risks of diseases of aging are incomplete, as they do not take into account these longevity-associated genes that may override that risk.
Previous research in the genetics of healthy aging is already leading to the development of pharmaceuticals to help people live longer, Barzilai said. One such type of drug is called a CETP inhibitor, intended to reduce "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and raise "good" cholesterol (HDL). Merck & Co. is in phase III clinical trials for a CETP inhibitor called anacetrapib; Roche is currently recruiting participants for a phase III trial for another drug of this type called dalcetrapib.
"Our goal is not to make people live to 100; the goal is to have people have good quality of life and [be] free of disease at the end of their life," Barzilai said. "I would say that longevity is a side effect of those drugs."
If genetics research can be used to help people live longer, there's cost-savings across the board, Barzilai said. For someone who dies at age 80, the last two years of life are three times more expensive for medical costs than someone who dies at age 100, he said.
Although companies may try to make tests to see who will live to 100, this information may not be valuable to the individual, as accuracy is only 77 percent and lifestyle factors are still important, Perls said.
But the results do point toward the era of personalized medicine, he said. The methods developed by Sebastiani could be used to find out whether there are genetic signatures for positive or adverse reactions to certain medications, for example, Perls said.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Immigration debate: fight brewing between ACLU and Nebraska town
By Amanda Paulson, Staff writer / June 22, 2010
Immigration debate in Fremont, Neb., has made it the latest town to decide to take immigration enforcement into its own hands.
On Monday, 57 percent of voters in the 25,000-person town in eastern Nebraska helped pass a law that would bar businesses from hiring illegal immigrants or landlords from renting to them.
In doing so, it joins Hazelton, Pa.; Riverside, N.J.; Valley Park, Mo.; and at least a few dozen other towns that have passed laws targeting undocumented immigrants. The ordinances have generally faced lawsuits, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Nebraska has already declared its intention to fight the Fremont bill.
“An ordinance of this kind is a true indication of the frustration some communities
feel, and I don’t belittle that feeling,” says Laurel Marsh, executive director of ACLU
Nebraska. “That being said, I believe it violates the supremacy clause of the United States.”
Ms. Marsh argues that two main problems exist with the law: that setting immigration policy is solely a federal function, and that the 14th Amendment guarantees due process to all people in the US, not just citizens.
And so far, many cities – including ones like Hazelton and Farmers Branch, Tex., which have tried to restrict landlords' abilities to rent to illegal immigrants – have had laws struck down by federal courts, though they remain on appeal.
Legal costs
The cost of fighting such lawsuits has also caused some communities – like Riverside, N.J. – to drop the measures, and was a major argument of those inFremont who opposed the referendum.
"In a community of 25,000, it's going to be hard to take on the whole country, and it will be costly to do so," Fremont City Councilman Scott Getzschman told the Associated Press.
But such laws continue to crop up in communities around the country – a measure, say many, of the frustration that many Americans feel with the lack of federal immigration enforcement and with the burdens illegal immigration places on their towns.
“The feds aren’t doing their job,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates restricting immigration. “It’s a sign of the public frustration, and you’re going to see more and more of this sort of thing.”
Those on the other side of the immigration debate agree with that basic assessment, and say that they hope that measures like Fremont’s, as well as the law passed in Arizona last month, will spur Congress to again take up the issue.
Page: 1 2 CSMonitor.com
----http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
Immigration debate in Fremont, Neb., has made it the latest town to decide to take immigration enforcement into its own hands.
On Monday, 57 percent of voters in the 25,000-person town in eastern Nebraska helped pass a law that would bar businesses from hiring illegal immigrants or landlords from renting to them.
In doing so, it joins Hazelton, Pa.; Riverside, N.J.; Valley Park, Mo.; and at least a few dozen other towns that have passed laws targeting undocumented immigrants. The ordinances have generally faced lawsuits, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Nebraska has already declared its intention to fight the Fremont bill.
“An ordinance of this kind is a true indication of the frustration some communities
feel, and I don’t belittle that feeling,” says Laurel Marsh, executive director of ACLU
Nebraska. “That being said, I believe it violates the supremacy clause of the United States.”
Ms. Marsh argues that two main problems exist with the law: that setting immigration policy is solely a federal function, and that the 14th Amendment guarantees due process to all people in the US, not just citizens.
And so far, many cities – including ones like Hazelton and Farmers Branch, Tex., which have tried to restrict landlords' abilities to rent to illegal immigrants – have had laws struck down by federal courts, though they remain on appeal.
Legal costs
The cost of fighting such lawsuits has also caused some communities – like Riverside, N.J. – to drop the measures, and was a major argument of those inFremont who opposed the referendum.
"In a community of 25,000, it's going to be hard to take on the whole country, and it will be costly to do so," Fremont City Councilman Scott Getzschman told the Associated Press.
But such laws continue to crop up in communities around the country – a measure, say many, of the frustration that many Americans feel with the lack of federal immigration enforcement and with the burdens illegal immigration places on their towns.
“The feds aren’t doing their job,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates restricting immigration. “It’s a sign of the public frustration, and you’re going to see more and more of this sort of thing.”
Those on the other side of the immigration debate agree with that basic assessment, and say that they hope that measures like Fremont’s, as well as the law passed in Arizona last month, will spur Congress to again take up the issue.
Page: 1 2 CSMonitor.com
----http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
BP to create $20 billion claims fund, suspend dividend
June 16, 2010, 3:46PM
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY HOUSTON CHRONICLE
WASHINGTON -- Under pressure from President Barack Obama, BP agreed today to set aside $20 billion in a spill recovery escrow account to compensate Gulf Coast fishermen and others who have lost wages and work because of the massive spill from a BP deep-water well.
The company also said it will suspend its quarterly dividend payments to shareholders for the rest of this year and will divert some of that cash to the escrow account, which would be managed by an independent administrator and be funded over three and a half years.
BP also agreed to set aside $100 million to compensate oil industry workers whose jobs disappear because of the government's moratorium on deep-water drilling and a delay of exploration in shallower depths while regulators develop new safety regulations.
BP's concessions are a win for Obama, who has struggled to show he is in control of the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. The agreements — hammered out in a three-hour meeting with BP executives at the White House - give the president a concrete example of administration efforts to help coastal residents.
Obama called the claims fund "an important step toward making the people of the Gulf Coast whole again."
The escrow account could soothe complaints in coastal communities and Congress that the claims process has been flawed -- a sentiment that has shaken confidence in BP executive's repeated assurances that the company will pay all "legitimate" economic damages.
"We have always met our obligations and responsibilities," said BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, speaking outside the White House. He said the escrow account and revised claim process should assure Americans that "we will look after the people affected, and we will repair the damage to this region."
The spill response fund will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, a veteran claims administrator who oversaw compensation for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Obama stressed that the fund would not prevent anyone from pursuing claims in court and does not place a cap on BP's responsibility.
BP will fund the account with initial payments this year of $3 billion in the third quarter and $2 billion in the fourth quarter, followed by quarterly payments of $1.25 billion until the total reaches $20 billion.
BP pledged to set aside $20 billion in U.S. assets as collateral, which will decline as the reserves in the fund build.
Although it will take time to establish the fund and rules governing payouts, White House energy adviser Carol Browner promised a seamless transition from the existing claims process.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the decision "a good first step toward compensating victims."
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called the fund the "very least BP must do to start making the coastal communities devastated by its recklessness whole again."
But other lawmakers fretted that the $20 billion could be misused. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said he views the account as a "privately funded, government slush fund that the administration is going to divvy out as they see fit."
BP's decision to suspend its prized quarterly dividends is a blow to pension funds and investment portfolios in the U.S. and overseas that count on the revenue.
The White House meeting was the first time Obama has spoken with BP's corporate chiefs since oil began gushing from the Macondo after an April 20 blowout that also destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 workers.
Obama said he told the executives about the anxiety among fishermen and shrimpers who are watching their businesses and way of life disappear as the crude encroaches on the coast.
He insisted that the executives keep those people in mind when making decisions about spill recovery and cleanup.
"That's going to be the standard by which I measure BP's responses," Obama said after the meeting. "Throughout this process, as we work to make sure that the Gulf is made whole once again the standard I'm going to be applying is whether or not those individuals I met with, their family members (and) those communities that are vulnerable are uppermost in the minds of all concerned."
jennifer.dlouhy@chron.com
By JENNIFER A. DLOUHY HOUSTON CHRONICLE
WASHINGTON -- Under pressure from President Barack Obama, BP agreed today to set aside $20 billion in a spill recovery escrow account to compensate Gulf Coast fishermen and others who have lost wages and work because of the massive spill from a BP deep-water well.
The company also said it will suspend its quarterly dividend payments to shareholders for the rest of this year and will divert some of that cash to the escrow account, which would be managed by an independent administrator and be funded over three and a half years.
BP also agreed to set aside $100 million to compensate oil industry workers whose jobs disappear because of the government's moratorium on deep-water drilling and a delay of exploration in shallower depths while regulators develop new safety regulations.
BP's concessions are a win for Obama, who has struggled to show he is in control of the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. The agreements — hammered out in a three-hour meeting with BP executives at the White House - give the president a concrete example of administration efforts to help coastal residents.
Obama called the claims fund "an important step toward making the people of the Gulf Coast whole again."
The escrow account could soothe complaints in coastal communities and Congress that the claims process has been flawed -- a sentiment that has shaken confidence in BP executive's repeated assurances that the company will pay all "legitimate" economic damages.
"We have always met our obligations and responsibilities," said BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, speaking outside the White House. He said the escrow account and revised claim process should assure Americans that "we will look after the people affected, and we will repair the damage to this region."
The spill response fund will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, a veteran claims administrator who oversaw compensation for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Obama stressed that the fund would not prevent anyone from pursuing claims in court and does not place a cap on BP's responsibility.
BP will fund the account with initial payments this year of $3 billion in the third quarter and $2 billion in the fourth quarter, followed by quarterly payments of $1.25 billion until the total reaches $20 billion.
BP pledged to set aside $20 billion in U.S. assets as collateral, which will decline as the reserves in the fund build.
Although it will take time to establish the fund and rules governing payouts, White House energy adviser Carol Browner promised a seamless transition from the existing claims process.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the decision "a good first step toward compensating victims."
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called the fund the "very least BP must do to start making the coastal communities devastated by its recklessness whole again."
But other lawmakers fretted that the $20 billion could be misused. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said he views the account as a "privately funded, government slush fund that the administration is going to divvy out as they see fit."
BP's decision to suspend its prized quarterly dividends is a blow to pension funds and investment portfolios in the U.S. and overseas that count on the revenue.
The White House meeting was the first time Obama has spoken with BP's corporate chiefs since oil began gushing from the Macondo after an April 20 blowout that also destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 workers.
Obama said he told the executives about the anxiety among fishermen and shrimpers who are watching their businesses and way of life disappear as the crude encroaches on the coast.
He insisted that the executives keep those people in mind when making decisions about spill recovery and cleanup.
"That's going to be the standard by which I measure BP's responses," Obama said after the meeting. "Throughout this process, as we work to make sure that the Gulf is made whole once again the standard I'm going to be applying is whether or not those individuals I met with, their family members (and) those communities that are vulnerable are uppermost in the minds of all concerned."
jennifer.dlouhy@chron.com
Saturday, June 5, 2010
UPDATE 1-BP will pay legitimate claims "as long as it takes"
June 5 (Reuters) - BP (BP.L) has no specific pre-allocated budget amount to pay damage claims resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but will pay all those "hurt, harmed or damaged" until all legitimate claims are satisfied, a BP executive said on Saturday.
BP America Vice President of Resources Darryl Willis said the company over the past 30 days had written damages claims checks totaling more than $46 million across the U.S. Gulf region, and he expected that to rise through June to "$84 million plus."
Asked during a conference call how much the British-based energy giant had set aside for economic damage claims, Willis said there was no pre-allocated budget for that.
"We will make these payments for as long as it takes and for as many people who have been hurt, harmed or damaged by this spill," he said, speaking from Orange Beach, Alabama.
"There is no budget, we'll do this until it's finished. We'll stay with it until people are able to return to their normal way of life on the Gulf Coast," Willis added.
BP, whose share price has lost about one-third of its value since the crisis began, has said it has already spent $1 billion on the disaster, which includes the growing cleanup bill.
Willis said 90 percent of the damages or income loss claims paid out so far had gone to individuals -- "primarily fishermen, shrimpers, oyster fishermen and crabbers."
The rest had gone to smaller businesses, and the company was also moving to respond to claims by medium- and large-sized businesses, he added.
"So far, we have not denied any claims," Willis said.
BP faces a U.S. criminal probe, several lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and growing questions about its credit-worthiness, but Chief Executive Tony Hayward says it has plenty of money to meet its obligations. (Reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)
BP America Vice President of Resources Darryl Willis said the company over the past 30 days had written damages claims checks totaling more than $46 million across the U.S. Gulf region, and he expected that to rise through June to "$84 million plus."
Asked during a conference call how much the British-based energy giant had set aside for economic damage claims, Willis said there was no pre-allocated budget for that.
"We will make these payments for as long as it takes and for as many people who have been hurt, harmed or damaged by this spill," he said, speaking from Orange Beach, Alabama.
"There is no budget, we'll do this until it's finished. We'll stay with it until people are able to return to their normal way of life on the Gulf Coast," Willis added.
BP, whose share price has lost about one-third of its value since the crisis began, has said it has already spent $1 billion on the disaster, which includes the growing cleanup bill.
Willis said 90 percent of the damages or income loss claims paid out so far had gone to individuals -- "primarily fishermen, shrimpers, oyster fishermen and crabbers."
The rest had gone to smaller businesses, and the company was also moving to respond to claims by medium- and large-sized businesses, he added.
"So far, we have not denied any claims," Willis said.
BP faces a U.S. criminal probe, several lawsuits, dwindling investor confidence and growing questions about its credit-worthiness, but Chief Executive Tony Hayward says it has plenty of money to meet its obligations. (Reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Next Steps to Confront the Big Spill
May 30, 2010
(CBS) BP said last evening that its so-called "Top Kill" operation failed to stop the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Don Teague has more on where things stand now in this Sunday Journal: It's been almost six weeks since the explosion and fire that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, killing 11 workers. Forty days of oil gushing at what experts now fear may be up to a million gallons a day. Forty days of failure, at every attempt, to stop the flow. The latest failure, the so-called "top kill" procedure of sealing the well with mud and bits of junk, confirmed yesterday by BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles - a new setback for a Gulf of Mexico disaster that's been described as a Hurricane Katrina in slow motion.
Every day that more escaping oil washes up on beaches or into delicate marshes, more birds and marine life perish, and more tourists - key to the Gulf economy - are driven away. And the people who depend on these once-clear waters to make a living are driven closer to bankruptcy . . . people like fishing guide Jeff Brumfield: "The efforts to stop and cleanup the oil aren't happening fast enough," he said. He fears he's watching the death of his livelihood… "This is where the shrimp and the fish and everything starts, in this marsh, and if it kills this marsh grass, the entire ecosystem is gone," Brumfield said. Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the high season in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Ordinarily these beaches should be filled with tourists, but on this weekend they're empty. It's an economic disaster. Once-bustling fishing marinas are also deserted. Cleanup workers are the only people out in large numbers. "A lot of people can't understand," said one. "This is our Gulf. This is where we're from. We need to protect it." And questions are mounting about BP's efforts to clean up the spill. Yesterday the company responded to charges that an army of workers that suddenly appeared around the time of President Obama's visit Friday was largely there for show. "This was not window dressing," said BP's Suttles. "If you went there today - I just flew over it - you would find people working today." BP announced yesterday plans for the building of tent cities and even floating camps to house cleanup workers, so they can spend more time at work. And the next step? The company said it will now cut off the well's broken gushing riser pipe and try to replace it with a new riser to help capture the oil. "It takes a little longer to do that and that's why that would be the next option to stop the flow," said Suttles. But all the while, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico - like the emotions of those that live here - grow a little darker.
(CBS) BP said last evening that its so-called "Top Kill" operation failed to stop the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Don Teague has more on where things stand now in this Sunday Journal: It's been almost six weeks since the explosion and fire that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, killing 11 workers. Forty days of oil gushing at what experts now fear may be up to a million gallons a day. Forty days of failure, at every attempt, to stop the flow. The latest failure, the so-called "top kill" procedure of sealing the well with mud and bits of junk, confirmed yesterday by BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles - a new setback for a Gulf of Mexico disaster that's been described as a Hurricane Katrina in slow motion.
Every day that more escaping oil washes up on beaches or into delicate marshes, more birds and marine life perish, and more tourists - key to the Gulf economy - are driven away. And the people who depend on these once-clear waters to make a living are driven closer to bankruptcy . . . people like fishing guide Jeff Brumfield: "The efforts to stop and cleanup the oil aren't happening fast enough," he said. He fears he's watching the death of his livelihood… "This is where the shrimp and the fish and everything starts, in this marsh, and if it kills this marsh grass, the entire ecosystem is gone," Brumfield said. Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the high season in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Ordinarily these beaches should be filled with tourists, but on this weekend they're empty. It's an economic disaster. Once-bustling fishing marinas are also deserted. Cleanup workers are the only people out in large numbers. "A lot of people can't understand," said one. "This is our Gulf. This is where we're from. We need to protect it." And questions are mounting about BP's efforts to clean up the spill. Yesterday the company responded to charges that an army of workers that suddenly appeared around the time of President Obama's visit Friday was largely there for show. "This was not window dressing," said BP's Suttles. "If you went there today - I just flew over it - you would find people working today." BP announced yesterday plans for the building of tent cities and even floating camps to house cleanup workers, so they can spend more time at work. And the next step? The company said it will now cut off the well's broken gushing riser pipe and try to replace it with a new riser to help capture the oil. "It takes a little longer to do that and that's why that would be the next option to stop the flow," said Suttles. But all the while, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico - like the emotions of those that live here - grow a little darker.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Kingston under siege
By Nick Davis
BBC News, Kingston 5-24-2010
As I drive through the city, my taxi driver tells me that he is going to have to charge extra: "Everywhere is blocked up, it's just turn, turn, turn."
I am just trying to get into the main commercial district of the capital, New Kingston, but the journey provides a snapshot of the situation the country finds itself in.
As we head up one road we spot the few vehicles on the road doing sharp U-turns. Then I hear it, the sound of automatic weapon fire.
We head back down the road to go around the trouble, and we are suddenly surrounded by police. A shot-up Toyota is parked up by a petrol station.
We continue. Towards the centre of town the streets are quiet - it is a national holiday, Labour Day, a time when communities get together to do work in their areas.
But everywhere is empty until we pass the main army camp as truckloads of soldiers in convoy head out, sandbags loaded on their vehicles, to a city under seige.
Steve the driver, like many Jamaicans, has a nickname. His comes from his time in the Jamaican defence force: Sojey, the patois for "soldier".
After seven years in the army, he recognises the sound of the M16s fired in our direction. Tight control
The old police station at Darling Street had stood in West Kingston for over a century. Now it is a ruin, firebombed and looted in an brazen daytime attack. Parts of the capital are under a state of emergency with two police officers killed overnight.
Jamaica had been gearing up for trouble from the moment the country's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, announced he would address the nation a week ago.
He promised to explain his handling of an extradition request from the US for Christopher Coke, better known as Dudus.
He also goes by the other aliases of Shortman and President, the last one an indicator of how he is viewed in his community of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston.
Before the violence which came to a head on Sunday, I had spent time in the community of Denham Town, and I was surprised by the reaction from many residents.
The area had been called the "mother of all garrisons" by a former head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force yet when I spoke to people, I was struck by the loyalty and support people had for the Dudus.
"Nobody can steal round here without his say-so, nobody carries out rape round here, they'd be dead."
I was worried for my safety but was told that nobody would touch me and in the early hours of the morning I walked out of the community, something that would be unheard-of in other more volatile communities on the island.
He was seen as the boss who cared for his community, providing what the state had not: safety.
Fast-foward to nine months ago and the US put in an extradition request for Christopher Coke, a man Washington claims is the head of the Shower Posse, an infamous gang that made and earnt its name in the 1980s by spraying bullets like water when they attacked rivals.
It is believed they are responsible for more than 1,400 murders in the US.
His extradition would see him facing charges of drug-smuggling and gun-running but, as a prominent supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, he holds a large amount of political sway. Jamaica's 'dons'
He keeps the area, which is also Prime Minister Bruce Golding's constituency, loyal to the party.
The government initially turned down the request, saying the evidence for the extradition had been gathered illegally.
But following calls for Mr Golding's resignation, after it became clear he had sanctioned a US law firm to lobby against the extradition, he announced the order would be signed the following day.
The warrant for the arrest saw fortifications being put round West Kingston.
The tough inner city communities of Kingston are not called garrisons for nothing.
Controlled by an "area leader" - the island's euphamism for the criminal bosses who are better known as "dons" - local strongmen can control a few blocks to whole swathes of the city.
The power they have stretches from the gully to the Gordon House, the seat of government.
The prime minister says the security forces will be swift and decisive in re-establishing law and order but, as the violence spreads, many wonder if they can handle the criminals who are taking on the state.
-------Jamaica PM promises to end unrest
BBC News, Kingston 5-24-2010
As I drive through the city, my taxi driver tells me that he is going to have to charge extra: "Everywhere is blocked up, it's just turn, turn, turn."
I am just trying to get into the main commercial district of the capital, New Kingston, but the journey provides a snapshot of the situation the country finds itself in.
As we head up one road we spot the few vehicles on the road doing sharp U-turns. Then I hear it, the sound of automatic weapon fire.
We head back down the road to go around the trouble, and we are suddenly surrounded by police. A shot-up Toyota is parked up by a petrol station.
We continue. Towards the centre of town the streets are quiet - it is a national holiday, Labour Day, a time when communities get together to do work in their areas.
But everywhere is empty until we pass the main army camp as truckloads of soldiers in convoy head out, sandbags loaded on their vehicles, to a city under seige.
Steve the driver, like many Jamaicans, has a nickname. His comes from his time in the Jamaican defence force: Sojey, the patois for "soldier".
After seven years in the army, he recognises the sound of the M16s fired in our direction. Tight control
The old police station at Darling Street had stood in West Kingston for over a century. Now it is a ruin, firebombed and looted in an brazen daytime attack. Parts of the capital are under a state of emergency with two police officers killed overnight.
Jamaica had been gearing up for trouble from the moment the country's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, announced he would address the nation a week ago.
He promised to explain his handling of an extradition request from the US for Christopher Coke, better known as Dudus.
He also goes by the other aliases of Shortman and President, the last one an indicator of how he is viewed in his community of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston.
Before the violence which came to a head on Sunday, I had spent time in the community of Denham Town, and I was surprised by the reaction from many residents.
The area had been called the "mother of all garrisons" by a former head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force yet when I spoke to people, I was struck by the loyalty and support people had for the Dudus.
"Nobody can steal round here without his say-so, nobody carries out rape round here, they'd be dead."
I was worried for my safety but was told that nobody would touch me and in the early hours of the morning I walked out of the community, something that would be unheard-of in other more volatile communities on the island.
He was seen as the boss who cared for his community, providing what the state had not: safety.
Fast-foward to nine months ago and the US put in an extradition request for Christopher Coke, a man Washington claims is the head of the Shower Posse, an infamous gang that made and earnt its name in the 1980s by spraying bullets like water when they attacked rivals.
It is believed they are responsible for more than 1,400 murders in the US.
His extradition would see him facing charges of drug-smuggling and gun-running but, as a prominent supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, he holds a large amount of political sway. Jamaica's 'dons'
He keeps the area, which is also Prime Minister Bruce Golding's constituency, loyal to the party.
The government initially turned down the request, saying the evidence for the extradition had been gathered illegally.
But following calls for Mr Golding's resignation, after it became clear he had sanctioned a US law firm to lobby against the extradition, he announced the order would be signed the following day.
The warrant for the arrest saw fortifications being put round West Kingston.
The tough inner city communities of Kingston are not called garrisons for nothing.
Controlled by an "area leader" - the island's euphamism for the criminal bosses who are better known as "dons" - local strongmen can control a few blocks to whole swathes of the city.
The power they have stretches from the gully to the Gordon House, the seat of government.
The prime minister says the security forces will be swift and decisive in re-establishing law and order but, as the violence spreads, many wonder if they can handle the criminals who are taking on the state.
-------Jamaica PM promises to end unrest
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Brown switches vote to advance financial regulation overhaul
Posted by Stephanie Vallejo May 20, 2010 03:44 PM
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON – Senator Scott Brown switched a key vote from yesterday and joined 57 Democrats and two Republicans this afternoon in advancing a massive financial regulation overhaul.
The Massachusetts Republican said that over the last 24 hours he received assurances – from the chief negotiators in the House and Senate, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, and Representative Barney Frank -- that changes he was seeking would be addressed. Those assurances came during a phone call with Frank last night, while the Newton Democrat was working out in the House members gym. Brown was further convinced during a 40-mile bike ride he went on this morning with Senator John Kerry.
“We recognize that there’s going to be some fixes here, more than likely, and the conference committee,” Brown said after voting. “I’m satisfied that all of our efforts – Senator Kerry and my efforts – will benefit and protect jobs in Massachusetts.”
“I spoke at length over a 40 mile bike-ride with Senator Kerry about it,” Brown added. “He’s a very good athlete.”
Brown’s vote was the key in making the difference after Democrats tried unsuccessfully yesterday to shut off debate and move toward a final vote. Brown was criticized, though not by name, by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for breaking his word and not voting for the measure. Reid and Brown met this morning.
Brown said yesterday that he opposed the measure to end debate because he did not have assurances that several changes would be made, including one that would ensure that some of the new regulations would not apply to certain financial institutions.
Brown has tried to protect some of the insurance and mutual fund companies in Massachusetts from falling under the so-called Volcker rule, which could restrict the investment options of large institutions, including preventing them from owning private equity funds.
Brown argues that those restrictions should be designed to curtail the risky bets placed by big Wall Street firms, not the more traditional practices of the Massachusetts-based companies.
One of the key difference-makers was assurances that Brown received from Frank, who told Brown last night that he would ensure that the changes were made in conference committee. Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, wrote legislation that the House passed last year and will be the top negotiator in reconciling differences between the House and Senate.
The financial overhaul legislation, which has been debated for several weeks, is designed to crack down on some of the risky practices that contributed to the financial downturn. It would create a consumer protection bureau that seeks to help people avoid trouble with mortgages and credit cards they cannot afford. The legislation would also establish a council that would be charged with monitoring the system for potential problems.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON – Senator Scott Brown switched a key vote from yesterday and joined 57 Democrats and two Republicans this afternoon in advancing a massive financial regulation overhaul.
The Massachusetts Republican said that over the last 24 hours he received assurances – from the chief negotiators in the House and Senate, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, and Representative Barney Frank -- that changes he was seeking would be addressed. Those assurances came during a phone call with Frank last night, while the Newton Democrat was working out in the House members gym. Brown was further convinced during a 40-mile bike ride he went on this morning with Senator John Kerry.
“We recognize that there’s going to be some fixes here, more than likely, and the conference committee,” Brown said after voting. “I’m satisfied that all of our efforts – Senator Kerry and my efforts – will benefit and protect jobs in Massachusetts.”
“I spoke at length over a 40 mile bike-ride with Senator Kerry about it,” Brown added. “He’s a very good athlete.”
Brown’s vote was the key in making the difference after Democrats tried unsuccessfully yesterday to shut off debate and move toward a final vote. Brown was criticized, though not by name, by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for breaking his word and not voting for the measure. Reid and Brown met this morning.
Brown said yesterday that he opposed the measure to end debate because he did not have assurances that several changes would be made, including one that would ensure that some of the new regulations would not apply to certain financial institutions.
Brown has tried to protect some of the insurance and mutual fund companies in Massachusetts from falling under the so-called Volcker rule, which could restrict the investment options of large institutions, including preventing them from owning private equity funds.
Brown argues that those restrictions should be designed to curtail the risky bets placed by big Wall Street firms, not the more traditional practices of the Massachusetts-based companies.
One of the key difference-makers was assurances that Brown received from Frank, who told Brown last night that he would ensure that the changes were made in conference committee. Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, wrote legislation that the House passed last year and will be the top negotiator in reconciling differences between the House and Senate.
The financial overhaul legislation, which has been debated for several weeks, is designed to crack down on some of the risky practices that contributed to the financial downturn. It would create a consumer protection bureau that seeks to help people avoid trouble with mortgages and credit cards they cannot afford. The legislation would also establish a council that would be charged with monitoring the system for potential problems.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
New $100 bill: Why the high-tech redesign?
By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer / April 21, 2010
A hundred dollar bill? "Dottie," a Starbucks cashier, says she almost never sees them.
“Maybe, once in a month someone will pull one out,” she says, placing four tall lattes into a cardboard carrier. “Otherwise, no way Jose.”
After a quick spot query of the café shows that not a single person has one in his or her wallet, the question arises: Why is the US's new $100 bill necessary?
The quick answer, say banking experts, is that $100 bills are the most common use of American currency by foreigners. Two-thirds of all $100 bills are in foreign pockets. Therefore, international counterfeiters feel they can get away with bigger sums of fake cash in the far reaches of Europe, Africa, and Asia – not to mention being far from the spotlights of law enforcement.
“The necessity of such a move can be easily debated. Counterfeiting of US currency is quite a big deal, especially in markets outside the US,”, says Scott J. Dressler. Assistant professor of economics at Villanova University’s School of Business.
US Secret Service spokesperson Edwin Donovan says the $100 bill is a favorite of foreign counterfeiters. “It’s in the most exotic, far away and non-domestic locales abroad where this activity goes on most,” he says.
Among the many new high-tech security features, a blue ribbon will give a 3-D effect to micro-images on the bill. Tilt the note back and forth and you will see tiny bells on the ribbon change to 100s as they move. And that's one of the reasons for the new design. “You can check these features without holding the bills up to a special light,” says Mr. Donovan.
While the added security features should thwart counterfeits of the new note for the time being, the old note will remain in circulation and can still be counterfeited, Mr. Dressler says. “While the old notes get retired, counterfeiting becomes more difficult. Therefore, you can think of this as the beginning of the end for counterfeiters - until they can successfully pass off a counterfeit of the new bill.”
The perception that paper money is on the way out as consumers opt for debit and credit cards is incorrect, says Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Fortress Paper, which produces high quality security paper including bank notes and passports. "Contrary to popular opinion, banknotes, which are commonly known as 'paper money,' 'bills,' or 'notes,' are more in demand than ever across the globe," he says.
The design of the new bill was unveiled Wednesday, but won’t appear in circulation until February, 2011.
“As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we’re staying ahead of counterfeiters,” said Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, at the unveiling.
Those still in possession of the old-style bills needn't do anything, officials say. “When the new design $100 note is issued ... the approximately 6.5 billion old design $100s already in circulation will remain legal tender,” said Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Ben S. Bernanke. “U.S. currency users should know they will not have to trade in their old design notes when the new notes begin circulating.”
A hundred dollar bill? "Dottie," a Starbucks cashier, says she almost never sees them.
“Maybe, once in a month someone will pull one out,” she says, placing four tall lattes into a cardboard carrier. “Otherwise, no way Jose.”
After a quick spot query of the café shows that not a single person has one in his or her wallet, the question arises: Why is the US's new $100 bill necessary?
The quick answer, say banking experts, is that $100 bills are the most common use of American currency by foreigners. Two-thirds of all $100 bills are in foreign pockets. Therefore, international counterfeiters feel they can get away with bigger sums of fake cash in the far reaches of Europe, Africa, and Asia – not to mention being far from the spotlights of law enforcement.
“The necessity of such a move can be easily debated. Counterfeiting of US currency is quite a big deal, especially in markets outside the US,”, says Scott J. Dressler. Assistant professor of economics at Villanova University’s School of Business.
US Secret Service spokesperson Edwin Donovan says the $100 bill is a favorite of foreign counterfeiters. “It’s in the most exotic, far away and non-domestic locales abroad where this activity goes on most,” he says.
Among the many new high-tech security features, a blue ribbon will give a 3-D effect to micro-images on the bill. Tilt the note back and forth and you will see tiny bells on the ribbon change to 100s as they move. And that's one of the reasons for the new design. “You can check these features without holding the bills up to a special light,” says Mr. Donovan.
While the added security features should thwart counterfeits of the new note for the time being, the old note will remain in circulation and can still be counterfeited, Mr. Dressler says. “While the old notes get retired, counterfeiting becomes more difficult. Therefore, you can think of this as the beginning of the end for counterfeiters - until they can successfully pass off a counterfeit of the new bill.”
The perception that paper money is on the way out as consumers opt for debit and credit cards is incorrect, says Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Fortress Paper, which produces high quality security paper including bank notes and passports. "Contrary to popular opinion, banknotes, which are commonly known as 'paper money,' 'bills,' or 'notes,' are more in demand than ever across the globe," he says.
The design of the new bill was unveiled Wednesday, but won’t appear in circulation until February, 2011.
“As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we’re staying ahead of counterfeiters,” said Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, at the unveiling.
Those still in possession of the old-style bills needn't do anything, officials say. “When the new design $100 note is issued ... the approximately 6.5 billion old design $100s already in circulation will remain legal tender,” said Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Ben S. Bernanke. “U.S. currency users should know they will not have to trade in their old design notes when the new notes begin circulating.”
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Benjamin L. Hooks, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 85
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: April 15, 2010
Benjamin L. Hooks, who for 15 years led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as it struggled to remain an effective champion of minorities in an era of rising political conservatism, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 85.
Leila McDowell, a spokeswoman for the N.A.A.C.P., said the cause was heart failure.
“Black Americans are not defeated,” Mr. Hooks told Ebony magazine soon after he became the association’s executive director in 1977. “The civil rights movement is not dead.
“If anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks.”
Yet under his leadership the N.A.A.C.P. faced a growing white backlash against school busing and affirmative action programs intended to redress past discrimination. And it repeatedly tangled with the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush to preserve the gains that minorities had made in the 1960s and ’70s. When Mr. Bush selected a conservative black federal judge, Clarence Thomas, to serve on the Supreme Court, the N.A.A.C.P. ultimately opposed the nomination.
“I’ve had the misfortune of serving eight years under Reagan and three under Bush,” Mr. Hooks said in 1992, the year he stepped down as executive director. “It makes a great deal of difference about your expectations. We’ve had to get rid of a lot of programs we had hoped for, so we could fight to save what we already had.”
Mr. Hooks shifted much of the N.A.A.C.P.’s focus to increasing educational and job opportunities for blacks as recession gave way to economic recovery in the Reagan years. But the association had been weakened under the weight of declining membership and shaky finances.
It had also developed an image problem, as that of an outmoded and increasingly irrelevant civil rights group. For some who had watched the N.A.A.C.P. over the years, Mr. Hooks came to symbolize an older generation of leaders who had marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and who had fought for the passage of landmark civil rights legislation but who had become unwilling or unable to adapt to modern times and changed political circumstances.
Mr. Hooks rejected that notion, maintaining that he had succeeded in advancing a just cause, to improve the lot of African-Americans. “I have fought the good fight,” he said in his valedictory to the N.A.A.C.P. in 1992. “I have kept the faith.”
Mr. Hooks had a varied career. He was a lawyer, a businessman (he owned fried chicken franchises in Memphis that ultimately failed) and a Baptist minister, heading two separate churches. He was also a gifted orator, mixing quotations from Shakespeare and Keats with the cadence and idioms of the Mississippi Delta.
“There is a beauty in it and a power in it,” Mr. Hooks once said of black preachers’ speaking style.
Mr. Hooks was the first black to be appointed to the criminal court bench in his native Tennessee, and he was the first African-American to be named to the five-member Federal Communications Commission.
“Most people do one or two things in their lifetimes,” Julian Bond, a former chairman of the N.A.A.C.P., said of Mr. Hooks. “He’s just done an awful lot.”
Benjamin Lawson Hooks was born Jan. 31, 1925, in Memphis, the fifth of seven children of Robert and Bessie Hooks. His father’s photography business gave the family a stable middle-class grounding, allowing Mr. Hooks to attend LeMoyne College in Memphis. But he knew well the indignities blacks suffered in the segregated South.
“I wish I could tell you every time I was on the highway and couldn’t use a restroom” because it was reserved for whites, he once told U.S. News & World Report. “My bladder is messed up because of that.”
After serving three years in the Army during World War II and rising to staff sergeant, Mr. Hooks attended law school at DePaul University, graduating in 1948.
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Dennis Hevesi contributed reporting.
Published: April 15, 2010
Benjamin L. Hooks, who for 15 years led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as it struggled to remain an effective champion of minorities in an era of rising political conservatism, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 85.
Leila McDowell, a spokeswoman for the N.A.A.C.P., said the cause was heart failure.
“Black Americans are not defeated,” Mr. Hooks told Ebony magazine soon after he became the association’s executive director in 1977. “The civil rights movement is not dead.
“If anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks.”
Yet under his leadership the N.A.A.C.P. faced a growing white backlash against school busing and affirmative action programs intended to redress past discrimination. And it repeatedly tangled with the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush to preserve the gains that minorities had made in the 1960s and ’70s. When Mr. Bush selected a conservative black federal judge, Clarence Thomas, to serve on the Supreme Court, the N.A.A.C.P. ultimately opposed the nomination.
“I’ve had the misfortune of serving eight years under Reagan and three under Bush,” Mr. Hooks said in 1992, the year he stepped down as executive director. “It makes a great deal of difference about your expectations. We’ve had to get rid of a lot of programs we had hoped for, so we could fight to save what we already had.”
Mr. Hooks shifted much of the N.A.A.C.P.’s focus to increasing educational and job opportunities for blacks as recession gave way to economic recovery in the Reagan years. But the association had been weakened under the weight of declining membership and shaky finances.
It had also developed an image problem, as that of an outmoded and increasingly irrelevant civil rights group. For some who had watched the N.A.A.C.P. over the years, Mr. Hooks came to symbolize an older generation of leaders who had marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and who had fought for the passage of landmark civil rights legislation but who had become unwilling or unable to adapt to modern times and changed political circumstances.
Mr. Hooks rejected that notion, maintaining that he had succeeded in advancing a just cause, to improve the lot of African-Americans. “I have fought the good fight,” he said in his valedictory to the N.A.A.C.P. in 1992. “I have kept the faith.”
Mr. Hooks had a varied career. He was a lawyer, a businessman (he owned fried chicken franchises in Memphis that ultimately failed) and a Baptist minister, heading two separate churches. He was also a gifted orator, mixing quotations from Shakespeare and Keats with the cadence and idioms of the Mississippi Delta.
“There is a beauty in it and a power in it,” Mr. Hooks once said of black preachers’ speaking style.
Mr. Hooks was the first black to be appointed to the criminal court bench in his native Tennessee, and he was the first African-American to be named to the five-member Federal Communications Commission.
“Most people do one or two things in their lifetimes,” Julian Bond, a former chairman of the N.A.A.C.P., said of Mr. Hooks. “He’s just done an awful lot.”
Benjamin Lawson Hooks was born Jan. 31, 1925, in Memphis, the fifth of seven children of Robert and Bessie Hooks. His father’s photography business gave the family a stable middle-class grounding, allowing Mr. Hooks to attend LeMoyne College in Memphis. But he knew well the indignities blacks suffered in the segregated South.
“I wish I could tell you every time I was on the highway and couldn’t use a restroom” because it was reserved for whites, he once told U.S. News & World Report. “My bladder is messed up because of that.”
After serving three years in the Army during World War II and rising to staff sergeant, Mr. Hooks attended law school at DePaul University, graduating in 1948.
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Dennis Hevesi contributed reporting.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist goes from shoo-in to political freefall
By Michael Leahy
Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 16, 2010; 2:45 PM
THE VILLAGES, FLA. -- Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, once regarded as a shoo-in to become Florida's next senator, waded into a milling crowd. If his campaign had been going according to plan, his audience here on this night would have been perfect: an elderly, largely conservative Republican throng that included 82-year-old Bob Gammon, who had voted for Crist before and now had a beer in his hand and something he wanted to say.
Crist smiled and put a campaign sticker on Gammon's Hawaiian shirt.
"That hug," Gammon said.
"Oh," Crist said, immediately understanding what Gammon meant. Shortly after Barack Obama's inauguration, the new president had come to Florida to pledge federal help for this economically reeling state -- and Crist had reacted by embracing Obama on stage. "I wish you hadn't hugged him," Gammon said.
"I'm glad I did," Crist said calmly, smoothing the sticker on Gammon's shirt. "He was visiting our state. He's the president. I respect the office."
"I really wish you hadn't," Gammon said. As he moved away, leaving Crist to answer more questions about the hug, he predicted the outcome of Crist's upcoming August Republican primary: "He can't win."
If you're Charlie Crist, this is what a political freefall feels like. One day it is 2008 and you're a popular governor whose Republican admirers are talking you up for the veep spot on your party's national ticket. Then, suddenly, you've infuriated party conservatives, and what you're being fitted for is a political coffin.
According to polls, Crist was once ahead by about 30 points in a primary contest widely viewed as a certain rout, a steppingstone for the 53-year-old Crist toward a bigger national stage and a future White House run. Now, targeted for extinction by "tea party" activists and the right-wing of his party, Crist is behind by more than 20 points, yet another reminder of the intraparty dangers awaiting Republicans viewed as too moderate.
"A victim of the times," is how Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, characterizes his collapse.
Questions about Crist's political character and loyalty have added to his woes. He was dealt another blow this past week when former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News to say that Crist had lied to him in the months leading up to the Republican presidential primaries in 2008.
Giuliani claimed that Crist, whose endorsement was regarded by GOP candidates as critical in the pivotal Florida primary, had reneged on a private promise to endorse Giuliani for the Republican nomination. It is a charge denied by Crist, who ultimately endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain, the party's eventual nominee.
"He broke his word, which to me in politics is everything," said Giuliani, who told Fox host Sean Hannity that he is endorsing Crist's front-running Republican primary opponent, former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio,, a 39-year-old tea party darling.
CONTINUED
Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 16, 2010; 2:45 PM
THE VILLAGES, FLA. -- Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, once regarded as a shoo-in to become Florida's next senator, waded into a milling crowd. If his campaign had been going according to plan, his audience here on this night would have been perfect: an elderly, largely conservative Republican throng that included 82-year-old Bob Gammon, who had voted for Crist before and now had a beer in his hand and something he wanted to say.
Crist smiled and put a campaign sticker on Gammon's Hawaiian shirt.
"That hug," Gammon said.
"Oh," Crist said, immediately understanding what Gammon meant. Shortly after Barack Obama's inauguration, the new president had come to Florida to pledge federal help for this economically reeling state -- and Crist had reacted by embracing Obama on stage. "I wish you hadn't hugged him," Gammon said.
"I'm glad I did," Crist said calmly, smoothing the sticker on Gammon's shirt. "He was visiting our state. He's the president. I respect the office."
"I really wish you hadn't," Gammon said. As he moved away, leaving Crist to answer more questions about the hug, he predicted the outcome of Crist's upcoming August Republican primary: "He can't win."
If you're Charlie Crist, this is what a political freefall feels like. One day it is 2008 and you're a popular governor whose Republican admirers are talking you up for the veep spot on your party's national ticket. Then, suddenly, you've infuriated party conservatives, and what you're being fitted for is a political coffin.
According to polls, Crist was once ahead by about 30 points in a primary contest widely viewed as a certain rout, a steppingstone for the 53-year-old Crist toward a bigger national stage and a future White House run. Now, targeted for extinction by "tea party" activists and the right-wing of his party, Crist is behind by more than 20 points, yet another reminder of the intraparty dangers awaiting Republicans viewed as too moderate.
"A victim of the times," is how Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, characterizes his collapse.
Questions about Crist's political character and loyalty have added to his woes. He was dealt another blow this past week when former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News to say that Crist had lied to him in the months leading up to the Republican presidential primaries in 2008.
Giuliani claimed that Crist, whose endorsement was regarded by GOP candidates as critical in the pivotal Florida primary, had reneged on a private promise to endorse Giuliani for the Republican nomination. It is a charge denied by Crist, who ultimately endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain, the party's eventual nominee.
"He broke his word, which to me in politics is everything," said Giuliani, who told Fox host Sean Hannity that he is endorsing Crist's front-running Republican primary opponent, former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio,, a 39-year-old tea party darling.
CONTINUED
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tennessee, Delaware schools to get Race to the Top funds
By Sally Holland, CNN
March 29, 2010
Delaware
Washington (CNN) -- Tennessee and Delaware were the only two states designated Monday to receive funds in the first round of the education funding competition "Race to the Top," federal officials announced.
Delaware will receive $100 million under the program, while Tennessee will receive $500 million.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in the announcement that one determining factor was that "both states have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools. They have written new laws to support their policies. And they have demonstrated the courage, capacity, and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students."
The states are the only two left after 40 states and the District of Columbia initially applied for the program. To receive the funds, the states had to prove that they were progressing in specific areas including turning around low-performing schools, adopting college- and career-ready standards, and using data systems to support student achievement.
Race to the Top is an Obama administration program that is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to reward states for aggressively reforming their education systems. The $4.35 billion is to be awarded in two phases to an undetermined number of states.
Several state governments have changed their state laws to make themselves better positioned to receive the funds. Both Tennessee and Louisiana changed their charter school laws to meet Race to the Top criteria, and California dropped from its books a law that made it illegal to tie teacher evaluations to student performance.
California did not make the cut in Phase 1 of the program, but could still qualify for the funds in Phase 2. Louisiana made it to the top 16.
Some states decided not to compete for the funds. In January, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent a letter to Duncan explaining why his state would not be applying for Race to the Top funding. The letter stated, "I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national curriculum standards and tests."
March 29, 2010
Delaware
Washington (CNN) -- Tennessee and Delaware were the only two states designated Monday to receive funds in the first round of the education funding competition "Race to the Top," federal officials announced.
Delaware will receive $100 million under the program, while Tennessee will receive $500 million.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in the announcement that one determining factor was that "both states have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools. They have written new laws to support their policies. And they have demonstrated the courage, capacity, and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students."
The states are the only two left after 40 states and the District of Columbia initially applied for the program. To receive the funds, the states had to prove that they were progressing in specific areas including turning around low-performing schools, adopting college- and career-ready standards, and using data systems to support student achievement.
Race to the Top is an Obama administration program that is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to reward states for aggressively reforming their education systems. The $4.35 billion is to be awarded in two phases to an undetermined number of states.
Several state governments have changed their state laws to make themselves better positioned to receive the funds. Both Tennessee and Louisiana changed their charter school laws to meet Race to the Top criteria, and California dropped from its books a law that made it illegal to tie teacher evaluations to student performance.
California did not make the cut in Phase 1 of the program, but could still qualify for the funds in Phase 2. Louisiana made it to the top 16.
Some states decided not to compete for the funds. In January, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent a letter to Duncan explaining why his state would not be applying for Race to the Top funding. The letter stated, "I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national curriculum standards and tests."
Sunday, March 14, 2010
In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt
THE NEW POOR
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: March 13, 2010
One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.
At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.
But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.
“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”
For-profit trade schools have long drawn accusations that they overpromise and underdeliver, but the woeful economy has added to the industry’s opportunities along with the risks to students, according to education experts. They say these schools have exploited the recession as a lucrative recruiting device while tapping a larger pool of federal student aid.
“They tell people, ‘If you don’t have a college degree, you won’t be able to get a job,’ ” said Amanda Wallace, who worked in the financial aid and admissions offices at the Knoxville, Tenn., branch of ITT Technical Institute, a chain of schools that charge roughly $40,000 for two-year associate degrees in computers and electronics. “They tell them, ‘You’ll be making beaucoup dollars afterward, and you’ll get all your financial aid covered.’ ”
Ms. Wallace left her job at ITT in 2008 after five years because she was uncomfortable with what she considered deceptive recruiting, which she said masked the likelihood that graduates would earn too little to repay their loans.
As a financial aid officer, Ms. Wallace was supposed to counsel students. But candid talk about job prospects and debt obligations risked the wrath of management, she said.
“If you said anything that went against what the recruiter said, they would threaten to fire you,” Ms. Wallace said. “The representatives would have already conned them into doing it, and you had to just keep your mouth shut.”
A spokeswoman for the school’s owner, ITT Educational Services, Lauren Littlefield, said the company had no comment.
The average annual tuition for for-profit schools this year is about $14,000, according to the College Board. The for-profit educational industry says it is fulfilling a vital social function, supplying job training that provides a way up the economic ladder.
“When the economy is rough and people are threatened with unemployment, they look to education as the way out,” said Harris N. Miller, president of the Career College Association, which represents approximately 1,400 such institutions. “We’re preparing people for careers.”
Concerned about aggressive marketing practices, the Obama administration is toughening rules that restrict institutions that receive federal student aid from paying their admissions recruiters on the basis of enrollment numbers.
The administration is also tightening regulations to ensure that vocational schools that receive aid dollars prepare students for “gainful employment.” Under a proposal being floated by the Department of Education, programs would be barred from loading students with more debt than justified by the likely salaries of the jobs they would pursue.
“During a recession, with increased demand for education and more anxiety about the ability to get a job, there is a heightened level of hazard,” said Robert Shireman, a deputy under secretary of education. “There is a lot of Pell grant money out there, and we need to make sure it’s being used effectively.”
The administration’s push has provoked fierce lobbying from the for-profit educational industry, which is seeking to maintain flexibility in the rules.
A Lucrative Business
The stakes are enormous: For-profit schools have long derived the bulk of their revenue from federal loans and grants, and the percentages have been climbing sharply. ------From nytimes--Business
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: March 13, 2010
One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.
At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.
But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.
“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”
For-profit trade schools have long drawn accusations that they overpromise and underdeliver, but the woeful economy has added to the industry’s opportunities along with the risks to students, according to education experts. They say these schools have exploited the recession as a lucrative recruiting device while tapping a larger pool of federal student aid.
“They tell people, ‘If you don’t have a college degree, you won’t be able to get a job,’ ” said Amanda Wallace, who worked in the financial aid and admissions offices at the Knoxville, Tenn., branch of ITT Technical Institute, a chain of schools that charge roughly $40,000 for two-year associate degrees in computers and electronics. “They tell them, ‘You’ll be making beaucoup dollars afterward, and you’ll get all your financial aid covered.’ ”
Ms. Wallace left her job at ITT in 2008 after five years because she was uncomfortable with what she considered deceptive recruiting, which she said masked the likelihood that graduates would earn too little to repay their loans.
As a financial aid officer, Ms. Wallace was supposed to counsel students. But candid talk about job prospects and debt obligations risked the wrath of management, she said.
“If you said anything that went against what the recruiter said, they would threaten to fire you,” Ms. Wallace said. “The representatives would have already conned them into doing it, and you had to just keep your mouth shut.”
A spokeswoman for the school’s owner, ITT Educational Services, Lauren Littlefield, said the company had no comment.
The average annual tuition for for-profit schools this year is about $14,000, according to the College Board. The for-profit educational industry says it is fulfilling a vital social function, supplying job training that provides a way up the economic ladder.
“When the economy is rough and people are threatened with unemployment, they look to education as the way out,” said Harris N. Miller, president of the Career College Association, which represents approximately 1,400 such institutions. “We’re preparing people for careers.”
Concerned about aggressive marketing practices, the Obama administration is toughening rules that restrict institutions that receive federal student aid from paying their admissions recruiters on the basis of enrollment numbers.
The administration is also tightening regulations to ensure that vocational schools that receive aid dollars prepare students for “gainful employment.” Under a proposal being floated by the Department of Education, programs would be barred from loading students with more debt than justified by the likely salaries of the jobs they would pursue.
“During a recession, with increased demand for education and more anxiety about the ability to get a job, there is a heightened level of hazard,” said Robert Shireman, a deputy under secretary of education. “There is a lot of Pell grant money out there, and we need to make sure it’s being used effectively.”
The administration’s push has provoked fierce lobbying from the for-profit educational industry, which is seeking to maintain flexibility in the rules.
A Lucrative Business
The stakes are enormous: For-profit schools have long derived the bulk of their revenue from federal loans and grants, and the percentages have been climbing sharply. ------From nytimes--Business
Friday, March 5, 2010
U.S. unemployment rate is steady at 9.7 percent for February, job cuts slow
March 05, 2010, 8:30AM New Jersey Real-Time News
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February as employers shed fewer jobs than expected, evidence that the job market may be slowly healing.
The Labor Department today said employers cut 36,000 jobs, below analysts' expectations of 50,000. Analysts expected the jobless rate to rise to 9.8 percent.
The severe snowstorms that hammered the East Coast last month may have affected job losses, but the department wouldn't quantify the impact.
Other data in the report signaled the storms didn't have as much impact as feared.
Economists estimated before the report that the storms could inflate job losses by 100,000 or more. That would mean the economy generated a net gain in jobs last month, excluding the impact of the snow, for only the second time since the recession began in December 2007.
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February as employers shed fewer jobs than expected, evidence that the job market may be slowly healing.
The Labor Department today said employers cut 36,000 jobs, below analysts' expectations of 50,000. Analysts expected the jobless rate to rise to 9.8 percent.
The severe snowstorms that hammered the East Coast last month may have affected job losses, but the department wouldn't quantify the impact.
Other data in the report signaled the storms didn't have as much impact as feared.
Economists estimated before the report that the storms could inflate job losses by 100,000 or more. That would mean the economy generated a net gain in jobs last month, excluding the impact of the snow, for only the second time since the recession began in December 2007.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Health Executive to Lead N.A.A.C.P.
By IAN URBINA nytimes
Published: February 20, 2010
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday announced the selection of its first new board leader in more than a decade.
Roslyn M. Brock will succeed Julian Bond, right, as leader of the association's board. Center, Benjamin T. Jealous, president.
Roslyn M. Brock, 44, the board’s current vice chairwoman, will become chairwoman of the board, taking the reins from Julian Bond, who last year, on the eve of the organization’s centennial celebration, announced his decision to step down. The 64-member board is the policymaking arm of the organization.
In being named vice chairwoman of the N.A.A.C.P. board at 35, Ms. Brock was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position.
She has more than 20 years of experience in health care administration and policy. In her current job as a vice president of Bon Secours Health Care, Ms. Brock serves as the chief spokeswoman on government relations, advocacy and public policy.
“This is the time for renewal,” said Mr. Bond, 70, who took over the chairmanship in 1998. “We have dynamic new leadership. Roslyn understands firsthand how important youth are to the success of the N.A.A.C.P. She was introduced to the N.A.A.C.P. 25 years ago when she served the N.A.A.C.P. as a youth board member and Youth and College Division State Conference president.”
The most recognized organization in the civil rights establishment, the association was founded in 1909. One of its main missions was to fight the lynchings of blacks.
The organization has played an important role in virtually every major civil rights issue of the last century, including the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
It has struggled in recent years, however, with declining membership, financial and political problems and questions of how best to move forward. The group’s reputation was tarnished in the mid-1990s when it fired its president for using organization money to settle a sexual harassment claim against him. In 2007, it laid off more than a third of its staff because of a budget shortfall.
In 2008, the board selected Benjamin T. Jealous, an activist and former news executive, as its youngest president, breaking with a tradition of picking ministers and political leaders and rebuffing criticisms that it was out of touch with the concerns of younger African-Americans.
“We’re looking at a generational shift in our communities,” Ms. Brock said. “We have a 48-year-old president in the White House, an N.A.A.C.P. president who was 35 at the time of his election and a 44-year-old board chair. The wisdom of those who stood the test of time got us to this point, and the youth are who will ensure the future legacy of this organization.”
Published: February 20, 2010
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday announced the selection of its first new board leader in more than a decade.
Roslyn M. Brock will succeed Julian Bond, right, as leader of the association's board. Center, Benjamin T. Jealous, president.
Roslyn M. Brock, 44, the board’s current vice chairwoman, will become chairwoman of the board, taking the reins from Julian Bond, who last year, on the eve of the organization’s centennial celebration, announced his decision to step down. The 64-member board is the policymaking arm of the organization.
In being named vice chairwoman of the N.A.A.C.P. board at 35, Ms. Brock was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position.
She has more than 20 years of experience in health care administration and policy. In her current job as a vice president of Bon Secours Health Care, Ms. Brock serves as the chief spokeswoman on government relations, advocacy and public policy.
“This is the time for renewal,” said Mr. Bond, 70, who took over the chairmanship in 1998. “We have dynamic new leadership. Roslyn understands firsthand how important youth are to the success of the N.A.A.C.P. She was introduced to the N.A.A.C.P. 25 years ago when she served the N.A.A.C.P. as a youth board member and Youth and College Division State Conference president.”
The most recognized organization in the civil rights establishment, the association was founded in 1909. One of its main missions was to fight the lynchings of blacks.
The organization has played an important role in virtually every major civil rights issue of the last century, including the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
It has struggled in recent years, however, with declining membership, financial and political problems and questions of how best to move forward. The group’s reputation was tarnished in the mid-1990s when it fired its president for using organization money to settle a sexual harassment claim against him. In 2007, it laid off more than a third of its staff because of a budget shortfall.
In 2008, the board selected Benjamin T. Jealous, an activist and former news executive, as its youngest president, breaking with a tradition of picking ministers and political leaders and rebuffing criticisms that it was out of touch with the concerns of younger African-Americans.
“We’re looking at a generational shift in our communities,” Ms. Brock said. “We have a 48-year-old president in the White House, an N.A.A.C.P. president who was 35 at the time of his election and a 44-year-old board chair. The wisdom of those who stood the test of time got us to this point, and the youth are who will ensure the future legacy of this organization.”
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tiger Woods to Break Silence and Apologize on Friday
After Months of Silence and Allegations of Affairs, Golfer to Speak this Week
By RUSSELL GOLDMANFeb. 17, 2010 ----ABC News
Tiger Woods intends to end three months of silence by apologizing on Friday, the first time he will be seen in public since a Thanksgiving car crash started a domino effect of sexual allegations against him.
Woods is expected to speak on Friday at 11 a.m. for a mere five minutes from the PGA's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
"This is all about the next step," Mark Steinberg, his agent, told The Associated Press. "He's looking forward to it."
Steinberg said he would speak to a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates" about his past and what he plans next, along with apologizing for his behavior.
Woods has not been seen in public since November, issuing just two terse statements through his Web site admitting to "transgressions" and is rumored to have spent time in a sex rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi.
In December Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave of absence from golf, bowing out of tournaments as sponsors scrambled to distance themselves from the once squeaky-clean athlete.
Rumors have swirled since early this month that Woods might play at the Tavistock Cup, an unofficial event played between pros from two rival country clubs at Woods' home course at Isleworth in Orlando on March 22 and 23.
Golf's premier event, the Master's Tournament, will be held April 5 – 11 in Augusta, Ga. If Woods plans to attend that event and wants some time on a pro course beforehand, there are just two PGA Tour events in March for which he can still register.
Woods has been virtually unseen this winter leading to speculation about where the golfer is hiding and when he might return to public life and professional sports.
"This kind of absurd, bizarre thing that Tiger Woods is reduced to a children's story -- Where's Waldo?" USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan told ABC News last month. "You're talking about one of the most recognizable people on the planet and no one can find him."
By RUSSELL GOLDMANFeb. 17, 2010 ----ABC News
Tiger Woods intends to end three months of silence by apologizing on Friday, the first time he will be seen in public since a Thanksgiving car crash started a domino effect of sexual allegations against him.
Woods is expected to speak on Friday at 11 a.m. for a mere five minutes from the PGA's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
"This is all about the next step," Mark Steinberg, his agent, told The Associated Press. "He's looking forward to it."
Steinberg said he would speak to a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates" about his past and what he plans next, along with apologizing for his behavior.
Woods has not been seen in public since November, issuing just two terse statements through his Web site admitting to "transgressions" and is rumored to have spent time in a sex rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi.
In December Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave of absence from golf, bowing out of tournaments as sponsors scrambled to distance themselves from the once squeaky-clean athlete.
Rumors have swirled since early this month that Woods might play at the Tavistock Cup, an unofficial event played between pros from two rival country clubs at Woods' home course at Isleworth in Orlando on March 22 and 23.
Golf's premier event, the Master's Tournament, will be held April 5 – 11 in Augusta, Ga. If Woods plans to attend that event and wants some time on a pro course beforehand, there are just two PGA Tour events in March for which he can still register.
Woods has been virtually unseen this winter leading to speculation about where the golfer is hiding and when he might return to public life and professional sports.
"This kind of absurd, bizarre thing that Tiger Woods is reduced to a children's story -- Where's Waldo?" USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan told ABC News last month. "You're talking about one of the most recognizable people on the planet and no one can find him."
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Paterson to Announce Campaign for Governor
By JACOB GERSHMAN
Amid churning doubts over his political future, New York Gov. David Paterson has told one of his closest advisers that he will officially announce his campaign for governor next week.
William Lynch, a Harlem lobbyist and political aide, said Mr. Paterson will give a "major statement on why he's running" and will travel around the state to make clear his intentions. "He's running," Mr. Lynch said.
Mr. Paterson, who was elected lieutenant governor and then succeeded Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned amid a sex scandal, has struggled with low poll numbers for months and battled with lawmakers over the deterioration of the state's finances. He is gearing up for an announcement as Democrats in Albany have circulated rumors about the Democratic governor's private life and questioned his viability as a candidate.
Some party activists are encouraging Mr. Paterson to step aside to avoid a primary against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who is expected to run for governor. While Mr. Cuomo hasn't declared his candidacy, his aides have been quietly laying the groundwork for a campaign for months.
--From WSJ
Amid churning doubts over his political future, New York Gov. David Paterson has told one of his closest advisers that he will officially announce his campaign for governor next week.
William Lynch, a Harlem lobbyist and political aide, said Mr. Paterson will give a "major statement on why he's running" and will travel around the state to make clear his intentions. "He's running," Mr. Lynch said.
Mr. Paterson, who was elected lieutenant governor and then succeeded Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned amid a sex scandal, has struggled with low poll numbers for months and battled with lawmakers over the deterioration of the state's finances. He is gearing up for an announcement as Democrats in Albany have circulated rumors about the Democratic governor's private life and questioned his viability as a candidate.
Some party activists are encouraging Mr. Paterson to step aside to avoid a primary against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who is expected to run for governor. While Mr. Cuomo hasn't declared his candidacy, his aides have been quietly laying the groundwork for a campaign for months.
--From WSJ
Friday, January 29, 2010
First lady leads charge against obesity
JoAnne Allen Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:03am EST
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have leveraged the star power of first lady Michelle Obama to roll out a new campaign against obesity, a preventable condition that drains billions of dollars from the economy
Obama, who plans to take on childhood obesity as a cause, headlined the launch on Thursday of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's blueprint for what can be done at home, school and work to reverse the epidemic.
In her first initiative since becoming "America's doctor," Benjamin issued a report on the consequences of obesity to start a national dialogue on the subject.
"The number of Americans, like me, who are struggling with their weight and health conditions related to their weight remains much too high," she said.
Benjamin's report lists recommendations for preventing obesity. They range from simply eating more fruit and vegetables to adding "high-quality physical education" in schools and bringing more supermarkets to low-income communities.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the launch that the Obama administration was investing $650 million in economic stimulus money in wellness and prevention programs aimed at obesity and stopping smoking.
She introduced the first lady as "everyone's favorite vegetable gardener."
Obama, who created a White House garden with local school children, said the solution to the obesity epidemic cannot come from government alone. Everyone has to be willing to do their part to end the public health crisis.
"This will not be easy and it won't happen overnight. And it won't happen simply because the first lady has made it her priority," Obama told an audience of children's advocates at a recreation center in Alexandria, outside Washington.
"It's going to take all of us. Thank God it's not going to be solely up to me."
Two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese -- a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
The United States spends nearly $150 billion a year on obesity and related complications -- twice what it cost in 1998 and more than every cancer cost put together, Sebelius said.
"The unhealthier we are as a nation, the more our health care costs will continue to rise and the less competitive we will be globally," she said.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have leveraged the star power of first lady Michelle Obama to roll out a new campaign against obesity, a preventable condition that drains billions of dollars from the economy
Obama, who plans to take on childhood obesity as a cause, headlined the launch on Thursday of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's blueprint for what can be done at home, school and work to reverse the epidemic.
In her first initiative since becoming "America's doctor," Benjamin issued a report on the consequences of obesity to start a national dialogue on the subject.
"The number of Americans, like me, who are struggling with their weight and health conditions related to their weight remains much too high," she said.
Benjamin's report lists recommendations for preventing obesity. They range from simply eating more fruit and vegetables to adding "high-quality physical education" in schools and bringing more supermarkets to low-income communities.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the launch that the Obama administration was investing $650 million in economic stimulus money in wellness and prevention programs aimed at obesity and stopping smoking.
She introduced the first lady as "everyone's favorite vegetable gardener."
Obama, who created a White House garden with local school children, said the solution to the obesity epidemic cannot come from government alone. Everyone has to be willing to do their part to end the public health crisis.
"This will not be easy and it won't happen overnight. And it won't happen simply because the first lady has made it her priority," Obama told an audience of children's advocates at a recreation center in Alexandria, outside Washington.
"It's going to take all of us. Thank God it's not going to be solely up to me."
Two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese -- a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
The United States spends nearly $150 billion a year on obesity and related complications -- twice what it cost in 1998 and more than every cancer cost put together, Sebelius said.
"The unhealthier we are as a nation, the more our health care costs will continue to rise and the less competitive we will be globally," she said.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Obama's latest speech seen by 48 million Americans
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's television ratings may be the latest indication that his popularity is slipping, despite his move to push job creation to the top of his policy agenda.
Just over 48 million Americans tuned in to the telecast of his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, about 4 million fewer than watched his first address to Congress a month after taking office last year, Nielsen figures showed on Thursday.
Yet, Obama's latest speech, seeking to reconnect with Americans angry about a weak economy and high unemployment, surpassed the numbers that either of his immediate predecessors -- George W. Bush or Bill Clinton -- averaged with their State of the Union addresses.
Both Clinton and Bush averaged fewer than 46 million viewers in their respective eight annual messages to Congress.
While a president's TV audience can reflect his standing in public opinion polls -- Obama's approval level has declined since his inauguration -- Nielsen ratings also ebb and flow according to events.
Bush, for example, failed to crack 40 million viewers with either his first address to Congress or his last. But his January 2003 speech, a couple of months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was watched by 62 million Americans, the biggest audience on record for an official State of the Union.
Clinton scored higher, 66.9 million viewers, with his first address to Congress in 1993. But that speech, like all first presidential addresses to Congress, was not considered an official State of the Union.
By comparison, Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress in February 2009, was seen by 52.3 million viewers. Bush's first drew 39.8 million.
Wednesday's State of the Union was not Obama's first TV appearance to compare unfavorably to previous prime-time outings. A televised address to the nation in December to outline the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan drew 40.8 million viewers, about 10 million fewer than two televised speeches in February 2009 on the issue of healthcare reform.
Still, Obama continues to top U.S. television's highest rated series, "American Idol," which drew 24.7 million viewers in a Wednesday night broadcast that gave him a strong "lead-in" on the Fox network on the East Coast.
Nielsen's latest Obama tally included all four major broadcast networks, plus the three leading cable news channels, the BET (Black Entertainment Television) network, business cable channel CNBC and Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Conan Not Laughing All the Way to NBC’s Bank
By DAVE ITZKOFF- nytimes-Arts Beat
Just to be totally clear — and regardless of what any bandleaders for any other NBC late-night shows might say — a publicist for Conan O’Brien said on Monday that none of the skits and stunts that Mr. O’Brien ran during his final week at the host of “The Tonight Show” broke NBC’s budget or cost more than what was normally spent on the show.
In a telephone interview, Leslee Dart, Mr. O’Brien’s publicist, said the various sketches “all fell within the show’s normal prop and music budget guidelines.” For example, for a skit in which Mr. O’Brien appeared to bring the Kentucky Derby-winning horse Mine That Bird onstage while showing National Football League Super Bowl footage on a television screen, Ms. Dart said, “The horse was a standard rental and the Super Bowl footage wasn’t from the N.F.L.” For a segment in which Mr. O’Brien showed off an expensive Bugatti Veyron automobile while playing the Rolling Stones song “Satisfaction,” Ms. Dart said, “The Bugatti was loaned to the show for free, and the music clearances were no different than the show gets for other pop tunes all the time.”
?uestlove, the bandleader on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” had written on Twitter that it cost “The Tonight Show” $500,000 to play the Beatles song “Lovely Rita” when To Hanks appeared on the show Friday. But a representative for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which handles the Beatles catalog, said it cost the show only a “nominal fee.”
Ms. Dart said she wanted to emphasize that “The Tonight Show” was “a comedy show, which means that not everything Conan says on the show is a fact.”
Just to be totally clear — and regardless of what any bandleaders for any other NBC late-night shows might say — a publicist for Conan O’Brien said on Monday that none of the skits and stunts that Mr. O’Brien ran during his final week at the host of “The Tonight Show” broke NBC’s budget or cost more than what was normally spent on the show.
In a telephone interview, Leslee Dart, Mr. O’Brien’s publicist, said the various sketches “all fell within the show’s normal prop and music budget guidelines.” For example, for a skit in which Mr. O’Brien appeared to bring the Kentucky Derby-winning horse Mine That Bird onstage while showing National Football League Super Bowl footage on a television screen, Ms. Dart said, “The horse was a standard rental and the Super Bowl footage wasn’t from the N.F.L.” For a segment in which Mr. O’Brien showed off an expensive Bugatti Veyron automobile while playing the Rolling Stones song “Satisfaction,” Ms. Dart said, “The Bugatti was loaned to the show for free, and the music clearances were no different than the show gets for other pop tunes all the time.”
?uestlove, the bandleader on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” had written on Twitter that it cost “The Tonight Show” $500,000 to play the Beatles song “Lovely Rita” when To Hanks appeared on the show Friday. But a representative for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which handles the Beatles catalog, said it cost the show only a “nominal fee.”
Ms. Dart said she wanted to emphasize that “The Tonight Show” was “a comedy show, which means that not everything Conan says on the show is a fact.”
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien gets $45m pay-off
Thursday, 21 January 2010 BBC News Tonight Show
NBC has reached a $45m (£28m) agreement with Conan O'Brien over his late-night US talk show, paving the way for his predecessor Jay Leno to return.
O'Brien, 46, will be paid in excess of $33m (£20m) to end his seven-month reign as host of The Tonight Show, with the remainder going to his staff.
The deal allows Leno, 59, to return to the show, a programme he hosted for 17 years before leaving last May.
O'Brien, who took over in June, will host his final programme on Friday.
Actor Tom Hanks is scheduled to appear, as is comedian Will Ferrell - O'Brien's first guest as Tonight Show host when he began his stint last year.
Leno will return to The Tonight Show on 1 March, NBC announced on Thursday.
Ratings slump
The deal brings to a close an ignominious battle that has seen both hosts discuss the dispute on NBC's own airwaves.
It will also allow Leno to bounce back following the failure of his 2200 prime-time show, launched in September, to pull in audiences.
O'Brien, who used to host a show in a later slot before filling Leno's shoes, will be allowed to return to TV in eight months.
"He just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible," his manager Gavin Polone told the Wall Street Journal.
It is unclear, though, whether any of NBC's rivals will be prepared to sign him up following The Tonight Show's ratings slump during his tenure.
The dispute has provided plenty of comic material for O'Brien's late-night competitors, among them veteran broadcaster David Letterman.
The 62-year-old, who hosts The Late Show on CBS, had been expected to take over The Tonight Show from the late Johnny Carson prior to Leno's appointment.
NBC has reached a $45m (£28m) agreement with Conan O'Brien over his late-night US talk show, paving the way for his predecessor Jay Leno to return.
O'Brien, 46, will be paid in excess of $33m (£20m) to end his seven-month reign as host of The Tonight Show, with the remainder going to his staff.
The deal allows Leno, 59, to return to the show, a programme he hosted for 17 years before leaving last May.
O'Brien, who took over in June, will host his final programme on Friday.
Actor Tom Hanks is scheduled to appear, as is comedian Will Ferrell - O'Brien's first guest as Tonight Show host when he began his stint last year.
Leno will return to The Tonight Show on 1 March, NBC announced on Thursday.
Ratings slump
The deal brings to a close an ignominious battle that has seen both hosts discuss the dispute on NBC's own airwaves.
It will also allow Leno to bounce back following the failure of his 2200 prime-time show, launched in September, to pull in audiences.
O'Brien, who used to host a show in a later slot before filling Leno's shoes, will be allowed to return to TV in eight months.
"He just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible," his manager Gavin Polone told the Wall Street Journal.
It is unclear, though, whether any of NBC's rivals will be prepared to sign him up following The Tonight Show's ratings slump during his tenure.
The dispute has provided plenty of comic material for O'Brien's late-night competitors, among them veteran broadcaster David Letterman.
The 62-year-old, who hosts The Late Show on CBS, had been expected to take over The Tonight Show from the late Johnny Carson prior to Leno's appointment.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
U.S. Mobilizes to Help Haiti
By HELENE COOPER and LIZ ROBBINS
Published: January 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama, facing the first large-scale humanitarian crisis of his presidency, moved quickly to send help to Haiti, pledging Wednesday that the Haitians and their devastated island nation would have the “unwavering support” of the United States.
Within hours of Mr. Obama being informed of the quake in Haiti on Tuesday, United States officials were plotting a response that included ships, transport planes, helicopters and thousands of Marines. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton decided Wednesday night to cancel the rest of her Pacific trip and return to Washington.
Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of the United States Southern Command, said that one of the Navys large amphibious ships would probably be sent to Haiti, with a Marine expeditionary unit aboard, and that other American military forces were on alert, including a brigade of 3,500 troops. He said the Pentagon was “seriously looking” at sending thousands of Marines to help the disaster effort.
The Navy aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was deployed from Norfolk, Va.; military commanders said it should arrive in two days. In addition, White House officials said the military was looking into sending the Southern Command’s hospital ship, the Comfort, in light of reports that most of Haiti’s medical facilities were severely damaged if not destroyed. The Coast Guard also dispatched four cutters.
As the United States mobilized, other governments and aid agencies around the world began marshaling supplies and manpower and overwhelmed rescue workers in Haiti scrambled to set up makeshift clinics. Medical workers from Doctors Without Borders, which had 800 people in Haiti before the quake, said they were mobbed everywhere they went by people who had suffered severe traumas and crushed limbs, and by others begging for help in rescuing trapped relatives.
France said that it would send three military transport planes, including one from nearby Fort-de-France, Martinique, with aid supplies, and that 100 troops based in the French West Indies would be sent, according to TF1, a French television network. Britain and Germany were sending governmental assessment teams, and Germany said it would make available 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, for emergency assistance.
On Wednesday, relief organizations developed aid plans from their headquarters outside of Haiti and quickly raised millions of dollars through social networking sites and donations by cellphone. But they were still struggling to get workers and supplies into Haiti, where operations at the capital’s port were shut down and runways at the main airport were open only to limited traffic because the control tower had collapsed.
“We’re looking at private charter options, looking at getting people through the Dominican Republic,” said Paul McPhun, a director of the emergency management team for Doctors Without Borders. “We need to get people in, and get people fast. There’s not a shortage of getting people to go, but it’s how to get them there.”
Mr. Obama did not make a specific aid pledge, and administration officials said they were still trying to figure out what Haiti needed. But he urged Americans to dig into their pockets and to go to www.whitehouse.gov to learn ways to donate money.
“This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday, speaking in the White House diplomatic reception room with Vice President Joseph R. Biden. at his side.
He described the reports of thousands buried under the rubble in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as “truly heart-wrenching,” a tragedy made more cruel by Haiti’s desperate poverty.
Robyn Fieser, the regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services, said, “All they heard last night was chanting and praying,” describing reports from some of her organization’s relief workers who were in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday night. “They did not hear any emergency vehicles or emergency efforts at all. All they saw was people doing rescue work on their own, with their bare hands.”
White House officials were clearly conscious that Mr. Obama’s response to the first major humanitarian disaster of his presidency would be closely watched. President George W. Bush learned that lesson the hard way, when his initial response to the December 2004 tsunami in Asia that killed 226,000 people was derided as paltry, and a year after that when his White House fumbled its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Obama canceled a trip to Lanham, Md., scheduled for Wednesday afternoon so he could make telephone calls to discuss the relief effort with staff members and foreign diplomats, White House aides said.
Mr. Obama was informed about the quake at 5:52 p.m. Tuesday by Denis McDonough, his national security chief of staff; he told aides that he wanted the United States to move “fast and aggressively,” one White House official said. By 6:22 p.m. the White House had issued a statement from the president that the United States was “closely monitoring the situation” and stood “ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
The Coast Guard cutter Forward was at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba when the earthquake hit on Tuesday, causing the 270-foot ship to rock back and forth even though it was more than 200 miles from the epicenter. The Forward arrived in Port-au-Prince early Wednesday morning, the first American military ship on the scene and the only large vessel in the harbor, Diane W. Durham, commander of the Forward, said in a telephone interview.
Commander Durham described extraordinary devastation, with collapsed buildings reaching from the port into the hills above, and said that Haitian officials had told her that half of the 80 Haitian coast guard staff members stationed at the port were killed in the earthquake.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was halting the deportations of Haitians back to the island “for the time being.” Refugee and immigration rights groups said the United States should grant temporary protective status that would allow Haitians who are now in the United States to stay here.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Liz Robbins from New York. Eric Lipton contributed reporting from Washington.
Published: January 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama, facing the first large-scale humanitarian crisis of his presidency, moved quickly to send help to Haiti, pledging Wednesday that the Haitians and their devastated island nation would have the “unwavering support” of the United States.
Within hours of Mr. Obama being informed of the quake in Haiti on Tuesday, United States officials were plotting a response that included ships, transport planes, helicopters and thousands of Marines. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton decided Wednesday night to cancel the rest of her Pacific trip and return to Washington.
Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of the United States Southern Command, said that one of the Navys large amphibious ships would probably be sent to Haiti, with a Marine expeditionary unit aboard, and that other American military forces were on alert, including a brigade of 3,500 troops. He said the Pentagon was “seriously looking” at sending thousands of Marines to help the disaster effort.
The Navy aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was deployed from Norfolk, Va.; military commanders said it should arrive in two days. In addition, White House officials said the military was looking into sending the Southern Command’s hospital ship, the Comfort, in light of reports that most of Haiti’s medical facilities were severely damaged if not destroyed. The Coast Guard also dispatched four cutters.
As the United States mobilized, other governments and aid agencies around the world began marshaling supplies and manpower and overwhelmed rescue workers in Haiti scrambled to set up makeshift clinics. Medical workers from Doctors Without Borders, which had 800 people in Haiti before the quake, said they were mobbed everywhere they went by people who had suffered severe traumas and crushed limbs, and by others begging for help in rescuing trapped relatives.
France said that it would send three military transport planes, including one from nearby Fort-de-France, Martinique, with aid supplies, and that 100 troops based in the French West Indies would be sent, according to TF1, a French television network. Britain and Germany were sending governmental assessment teams, and Germany said it would make available 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, for emergency assistance.
On Wednesday, relief organizations developed aid plans from their headquarters outside of Haiti and quickly raised millions of dollars through social networking sites and donations by cellphone. But they were still struggling to get workers and supplies into Haiti, where operations at the capital’s port were shut down and runways at the main airport were open only to limited traffic because the control tower had collapsed.
“We’re looking at private charter options, looking at getting people through the Dominican Republic,” said Paul McPhun, a director of the emergency management team for Doctors Without Borders. “We need to get people in, and get people fast. There’s not a shortage of getting people to go, but it’s how to get them there.”
Mr. Obama did not make a specific aid pledge, and administration officials said they were still trying to figure out what Haiti needed. But he urged Americans to dig into their pockets and to go to www.whitehouse.gov to learn ways to donate money.
“This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday, speaking in the White House diplomatic reception room with Vice President Joseph R. Biden. at his side.
He described the reports of thousands buried under the rubble in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as “truly heart-wrenching,” a tragedy made more cruel by Haiti’s desperate poverty.
Robyn Fieser, the regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services, said, “All they heard last night was chanting and praying,” describing reports from some of her organization’s relief workers who were in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday night. “They did not hear any emergency vehicles or emergency efforts at all. All they saw was people doing rescue work on their own, with their bare hands.”
White House officials were clearly conscious that Mr. Obama’s response to the first major humanitarian disaster of his presidency would be closely watched. President George W. Bush learned that lesson the hard way, when his initial response to the December 2004 tsunami in Asia that killed 226,000 people was derided as paltry, and a year after that when his White House fumbled its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Obama canceled a trip to Lanham, Md., scheduled for Wednesday afternoon so he could make telephone calls to discuss the relief effort with staff members and foreign diplomats, White House aides said.
Mr. Obama was informed about the quake at 5:52 p.m. Tuesday by Denis McDonough, his national security chief of staff; he told aides that he wanted the United States to move “fast and aggressively,” one White House official said. By 6:22 p.m. the White House had issued a statement from the president that the United States was “closely monitoring the situation” and stood “ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
The Coast Guard cutter Forward was at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba when the earthquake hit on Tuesday, causing the 270-foot ship to rock back and forth even though it was more than 200 miles from the epicenter. The Forward arrived in Port-au-Prince early Wednesday morning, the first American military ship on the scene and the only large vessel in the harbor, Diane W. Durham, commander of the Forward, said in a telephone interview.
Commander Durham described extraordinary devastation, with collapsed buildings reaching from the port into the hills above, and said that Haitian officials had told her that half of the 80 Haitian coast guard staff members stationed at the port were killed in the earthquake.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was halting the deportations of Haitians back to the island “for the time being.” Refugee and immigration rights groups said the United States should grant temporary protective status that would allow Haitians who are now in the United States to stay here.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Liz Robbins from New York. Eric Lipton contributed reporting from Washington.
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