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August 20, 2003
Massachusetts "State Treasurer Timothy Cahill said yesterday he wants to aggressively pursue the state's legal options to recoup the money the Massachusetts pension fund lost on a stock that made millions for Governor Mitt Romney and the firm he once headed. "Cahill, who is chairman of the pension fund, said he has 'great concern' over the allegations, detailed in a Globe story yesterday, that a Lehman Brothers analyst had issued a higher rating for the stock in 2000 after yielding to pressure from someone at a company that was financed by Romney's Bain Capital. "The pension fund lost almost all of its $349,000 investment in the stock of DDi Corp., a California electronics company, which it purchased within days of the analyst's rating of the stock. Bain and Romney were also investors in DDi, but they sold the stock before it dropped." --from an article by Frank Phillips in the Boston Globe.
"After nearly two days of confusion in courtrooms
around Suffolk County, [Massachusetts,] court-appointed lawyers began
taking new cases yesterday afternoon as Governor Mitt Romney pledged to
approve $15.4 million for their past work.
"Romney said that within the next several days he would take action on a bill, passed by lawmakers Monday, that would pay lawyers the money they are owed by the state from the last fiscal year for representing indigent clients. Although the lawyers had started the day by continuing to refuse new cases, they agreed to return to courtrooms after Romney's office promised his support. * * * "Although many of the lawyers were pleased with the quick response from Beacon Hill, they said the bill only addresses the most urgent problem: money they are owed from the last fiscal year, which ended June 20. They worry they will go unpaid again later this year because the state has not budgeted enough money for them." --from an article by Kathleen Burge in the Boston Globe. August 19, 2003 "As dozens of lawyers for poor [criminal] defendants disrupted courts throughout Suffolk County[, Massachusetts,] yesterday by refusing to accept new clients until they're paid for past work, state lawmakers hastily approved $15.4 million in back payments to the court-appointed attorneys. "However, the bill has not yet been signed by Governor Mitt Romney. And last night, leaders of Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, the 335-lawyer group that voted last week to refuse new cases, decided that lawyers would not return to courtrooms until Romney signs the bill. * * * "But Romney has been skeptical about providing additional funding for attorneys who take on indigent defendants. Last month, he vetoed $13 million for the Committee for Public Counsel Services for the current fiscal year, saying it was more important for the state to balance its books than pay attorneys in civil and criminal cases. "'It would be appropriate for attorneys to provide pro-bono work,' the governor told reporters at that time." --from an article by Kathleen Burge and Rick Klein in the Boston Globe. Well, no, it would not be appropriate for attorneys to provide pro-bono work for the thousands of indigent criminal defendants in Massachusetts. The state has an obligation to provide lawyers and to pay for those lawyers. The funding for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was insufficient to pay all the lawyers' bills for that year, and many lawyers are waiting to receive payment for work that they performed. The rates for court-appointed counsel in Massachusetts are $30 per hour for district-court cases, $39 for superior-court cases other than murder cases, and $54 for murder cases. When I was doing district-court appointed criminal work several years ago, the rate of pay was $25 per hour. I was required to have an office where I could interview clients, to have malpractice insurance, to pay bar association dues and the annual attorney registration fee, and to take certain courses each year for continuing legal education. I also kept a current set of annotated statutes and subscribed to current Massachusetts case law. I also had part-time clerical help, and of course a telephone and office equipment. I estimated that at that time my expenses of practicing came to $21 per hour. So in effect I was working for the state in order to make $4 per hour. And the payments were not prompt. I was sometimes owed as much as $13,000 in outstanding bills that I had submitted. There were periods of at least six weeks at a stretch when the state did not send out any checks. Court-appointed attorneys deserve better. An editorial in today's Boston Herald says that "when the state Department of Housing and Community Development goes out and hires outside private counsel, such as Palmer & Dodge, it pays from $267 to $437 an hour, according to a recent article in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly." In a story in the Boston Globe unrelated to the court-appointed lawyers' predicament, incoming president of the Boston Bar Association, Renée Landers is quoted, "What I tell students is that people don't want a wimp for a lawyer. If you're not really able to stand up for yourself, why should they hire you to stand up for them?"
August 18, 2003 "Saying the [Bush] administration has the worst record of job creation since the Hoover administration, and the worst record of economic growth since the Truman administration, [John] Kerry declared last week at the Iowa State Fair, 'You can't have any political label in America and not understand that the quality of life in our country is being affected by the choices that are being made in Washington.'"--from an article by Glen Johnson in the Boston Globe.
I have devoted a
web page to my
personal choices for shampoo and conditioner!
August 16, 2003 "I view it as a wake-up call," President Bush said about the black-out that affected large areas from New York to Michigan. Well, maybe if you are the President, you should be awake without a wake-up call! August 15, 2003 Amazon.com is accepting orders for an "Untitled Memoir" by Howard Dean, to be published in November 2003.
"The warning [to Congress two years ago] from David
Cook, general counsel for the nation's electric reliability organization,
was stark: 'The question is not whether, but when, the next major failure
of the grid will occur.'"--from an article by Peter Behr in the
Washington Post.
August 14, 2003 "President Bush begins a two-day swing through California today, but recent polls show he remains too unpopular in the Golden State to lend public support to movie star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger or any other candidate in the increasingly wild, high-stakes race for governor."--from an article by Wayne Washington in the Boston Globe.
August 13, 2003 "The Dean trolls have actually fired up Kerry supporters, and increased their energy and excitement to organize for John Kerry," said Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander, as quoted in the Boston Herald, about people who have posted pro-Dean anti-Kerry messages on Kerry's new campaign web log. August 12, 2003 John Kerry's campaign is requesting suggestions for a theme song, to be submitted before 5 p.m. EST tomorrow. August 11, 2003 Presidential candidate Howard "Dean has stood out among his rival candidates because of the intensity of his Internet operation; online donations drove his unexpected fund-raising performance in this year's second quarter, when he bested Democratic rivals to raise $7.5 million. In recent months, his campaign has staffed some Internet-related positions that wouldn't have existed in the 2000 race: 'head blogger,' 'national meetup coordinator,' 'head of Internet outreach.' "And some of the ideas that have most defined Dean's online operations--and some of the computer programming behind them--have come not from hired hands, but from volunteers." --from an article by Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe. August 10, 2003 "I'll be appealing to the basic courage of the American people," Dennis Kucinich said in Austin, Texas, Saturday, as quoted in an article at statesman.com. "This administration is based on fear. They're totally manipulating the people of America."
Arnold Schwarzenegger "isn't the first one with
connections to a political dynasty but no elective experience to try to be
governor of a big state. And unlike W., Arnold actually is a successful
self-made businessman," writes
Maureen Dowd.
August 8, 2003 The text of Al Gore's speech yesterday at New York University can be read at the site of moveon.org. August 7, 2003 Arianna Huffington, candidate for governor of California, answered questions from reporters for an article at motherjones.com. As part of her response to the question "Can you describe why you're no longer a conservative and when that realization struck you?," she said, "Well, it wasn't one lightning moment, it was a gradual process. First of all let me say that I have always been a moderate on social issues. Even during my Republican interregnum, I was pro-gay rights, pro-choice and pro-gun control -- so the transformation has been in terms of the role of government."
"Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean apparently remains
the presidential candidate getting the most mileage from online grassroots
organizing," writes Josh Richman for an article at
oaklandtribune.com.
August 6, 2003
In Haiti, a "recent government decree" has given "the
centuries-old practice of voodoo the status of an officially recognized
religion.
* * * "'Voodoo is the only environment in which Haitian gays feel accepted and free to talk about issues,' says Laurence Magloire, who last year produced a documentary film on voodoo and its embrace of sexual outcasts. 'We live in a country where homosexuality is taboo.'" --from an article by Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times, in the Boston Globe. "I love what I do. I don't know how to do anything else," singer Ricky Martin "said at a Hong Kong news conference the other day to promote his latest album" Almas del Silencio, reports the Boston Herald. Martin was "[d]ressed casually and wearing a jade amulet depicting the Buddha."
August 5, 2003 "The only straight male decorator I ever knew was the guy who decorated the Lincoln Tunnel," says Joan Rivers, as quoted in an article by Craig Wilson in USA Today about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. August 4, 2003 Senator John Kerry's web site has an online petition for people opposed to the Bush administration's proposed changes to the rules for overtime pay.
On August 14, the "Fab Five" of Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno "for
a special 'make-better' session with show host Leno," reports
Reuters.
August 3, 2003 The Democratic Party's presidential race is "starting to look like a race with two front-runners," says an article at CBC News. "Senator John Kerry, a Vietnam war hero, was always high on the radar. The big surprise is former Vermont governor Howard Dean, 54." August 2, 2003 ". . . U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday said Pope John Paul II 'crossed the line' by instructing pols to block legalization of gay marriage. * * * "'It is important not to have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in this country,' Kerry said. 'President Kennedy drew that line very clearly in 1960 and I believe we need to stand up for that line today.' * * * "'Our founding fathers separated church and state in America. It is an important separation' he said." --from an article by David R. Guarino in the Boston Herald.
"The 27 pages deleted from a congressional report on
Sept. 11 depict a Saudi government that not only provided significant
money and aid to the suicide hijackers, but also allowed potentially
hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist
groups through suspect charities and other fronts, according to sources
familiar with the document.
"One US official who has read the classified section said it describes 'direct involvement of senior [Saudi] government officials in a coordinated and methodical way directly to the hijackers,' as well as 'very direct, very specific links that cannot be passed off as rogue, isolated, or coincidental.' "Said another official: 'It's really damning. What it says is that not only Saudi entities or nationals are implicated in 9/11, but the [Saudi] government' as well." --from an article by Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, in the Boston Globe. According to Business Week of August 11, 2003, a new report from Forrester Research says that gays and lesbians are 19% more likely than other people to shop online and 35% more likely to have speedy Web access. August 1, 2003 "This has been the hallmark of Americans' role in the world--a curious blend of ubiquitous involvement paired with near-total ignorance," writes Daniel Patrick Welch in an interesting article entitled "Still Crazy."
The
Human Rights
Campaign is collecting "signatures" on an online petition for marriage
equality, to support
the right of every American to marry, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender couples.
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