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Becerra Pushes for Changes in Immigration Policy
Rep. Xavier Becerra said at an NPC Lawmakers breakfast Wednesday that addressing the nation's immigration dilemma is key to solving many of the nation's other most pressing problems, like health care and education. "I don't know how you do true health care reform without helping all the people who live here," said Becerra, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, at the members-only breakfast in the McClendon Room. "You're not going to solve these problems until you deal with all the broken parts." Becerra a California Democrat who is the only Hispanic in senior House leadership, praised…
Type: News
Energy Exec Advocates for Cap on Carbon Emissions
Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson said Congress should enact comprehensive energy policy which includes a cap on carbon emissions rather than simply impose a "one-size-fits-all" renewable electricity standard in a Newsmaker Thursday. Johnson and former Arkansas Utility Commissioner Daryl Bassett addressed the current effort and debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee focused on drafting legislation to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Johnson said Progress, which provides electricity to large parts of the Carolinas and Florida, supports state renewable standards that are based on…
Type: News
Czech Republic Favors Common EU Energy Strategy, Envoy Says
The Czech Republic strongly favors a European strategy for better energy security and a common energy policy, Czech envoy Petr Kolar said at a Newsmaker Thursday. The Czech Republic, he said, thinks it is "crucial for the future and security of Europe to have a common energy policy and to act as one when negotiating energy supplies." Kolar said the main emphasis of the Czech EU presidency, which ends July 1, has been on a new beginning for EU-U.S. relations, with the advent of the Obama administration. Prague, he said, "wants to build on its excellent relations with the U.S." and hopes it…
Type: News
Hall of Fame Will Tell Baseball's Steroid Story Honestly, Idleson Says
Baseball’s Hall of Fame “will not shy away from the topic” of star players who have been accused of using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, promised the museum’s president, Jeff Idelson, at a Luncheon Monday. Appearing with his guest, Brooks Robinson, former Baltimore Orioles third baseman who was elected to the Hall in 1969, Idelson said that the Cooperstown, N.Y., museum is “committed to presenting and interpreting baseball history as it unfolds.” The effect of drug use on baseball records in recent decades, he said, “needs to be examined in the perspective of time.” As more…
Type: News
Recession Threatens Public Library Resources, ALA President Warns
Public libraries are “the first responders to an economic recession,” American Library Association President Jim Retti said, at a Newsmaker May 11. However, he said, as public demands increase for library services in economic hard times, so do budget cutbacks, resulting in fewer library hours or closings when the facilities are needed the most. Rettig said that more than 115 million people visit libraries each month for services ranging from book lending to using computers. Free internet access is particularly crucial now for job seekers and the unemployed who can use library computers…
Type: News
Virgin Atlantic's Branson Says No to British Airways/American Airlines Merger
“Please join me in saying ‘No Way BA / AA,’ ” said Sir Richard Branson during his breakfast speech on May 14. The English industrialist was in Washington to make his case about why the proposed merger between British Airways and American Airlines would damage competition on transatlantic routes. "If the proposed merger between BA and AA is allowed to go ahead then the result for passengers, employees, communities and for fair and healthy competition, would be disastrous," said the chairman of the Virgin Group and ounder of the airline Virgin Atlantic 25 years ago. "It doesn't make sense to…
Type: News
Panel Discusses the "Now What?" of Washington-Based Regional Reporting
They called it “a journalism Dark Age” and a time when “the cop will be off the beat,” but the Washington reporters speaking at a National Press Club forum Wednesday agreed that after a couple years of disintegration, Washington reporting will re-emerge in some still-undefined model. “Regional reporting is not coming back,” said Andy Alexander, who was chief of the Cox Newspapers bureau that folded last month. “What remains of that model is in danger. We have to dwell on the future.” Alexander, now the Washington Post’s ombudsman, was speaking at a NPC forum on “The Disappearance of the…
Type: News
Veterans Push for Legislation to Cut Cost of High-tech Wheelchairs
Veterans groups and the inventor of the Segway scooter urged Congress to pass legislation that would make a high-tech mobilized wheelchair more affordable for wounded veterans and other paralyzed Americans at a May 14 Newsmaker. The iBOT, a mobile powered wheel chair, has gone out of production because Medicare is reimbursing purchases at the same rate as other kinds of wheelchairs. With a price tag of about $22,000, that puts the iBOT out of the reach of most people in the market for the device, they said. One of them of who uses one is Gary Linfoot, a helicopter pilot who provided air…
Type: News
Somalis Tell of Terrorist Groups Recruiting U.S. Immigrants
Representatives of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center told a May 20 Newsmaker of some of the methods used by terrorist groups in Somalia to recruit young Somali immigrants in the U.S. to return home where some are assumed to become involved in piracy and terrorist activities. Somalia has been without an effective government for several years, and some observers think the piracy issue results, at least in part, from the lack of law and order in the country and a strong Al Qaeda influence there. Omar Jamal, executive director of the SJAC, and Abdullah Farah of the center…
Type: News
Utility Executive Supports Climate Change Bill
Exelon Corp. Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe, head of the one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, said he supports the carbon cap-and-trade bill written by California Democrat Henry Waxman and Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey that would require a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. At an NPC luncheon May 15, Rowe called on Congress to pass climate change legislation this year. “The road to a low carbon future is a long one,” Rowe said. “We must begin the march now.” Rowe credited Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher with brokering a compromise that will allow most…
Type: News