Casino Trouble
Gov. George Pataki signed a major casino-land claim deal with a man who had no right to act on his tribe’s behalf, according to a majority of the Cayuga Nation of New York’s traditional government. The group, representing two of the three Cayuga claims, said the agreement signed with Pataki is invalid because the man who negotiated for the tribe, Clint Halftown, had no authority to do so.
Traditional Cayugas, tribal leaders are now saying, oppose gambling, and the tribal council has not reached any consensus on a pact with Pataki.
Pataki’s office insisted the agreement is valid, citing documents from 2003 that show Halftown was designated a tribal representative. But tribal leaders including Chief Chester Isaacs have made available a letter telling Halftown he has no right to represent the tribe in deals with other governments.
Pataki needs state and federal legislation for the Cayuga land claim, along with deals with four other tribes, to be approved.
The Nov. 17 deal was aimed at settling a nearly $250 million judgment against the state in the Cayuga land claim case. It would allow a tribal casino at Monticello Raceway, and the tribe would share slot machine revenues with the state.
Lobbyists are saying the state could borrow against future gambling income to close its current deficit. But with Pataki and five tribes reaching deals that would allow large casinos — all with about 3,000 slot machines – the stakes are high enough to have drawn intense opposition in Washington as well as Albany. Speculation now has Pataki using up to $5 billion in such revenues within the coming year’s budget proposal, due in the coming weeks.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a Republican whose district includes the Oneida land claim territory, and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district would likely host the five proposed casinos, said they are not embracing the land claim settlements.

Old Battles...
Lots of big, black SUV’s with offical liscence plates idled in the cold parking lot of the Catskill Mountain Foundation Conference Center barn in Hunter. Inside, offical looking men and woman with dark suits and black coats milled around a continental breakfast, making casual conversation. A few jokes were overheard about recent press accounts of Town of Hunter Supervisor Dennis Lucas saying the event was just a big photo op for those in attendance.
At the end of the day-long get together, Lucas, who sat quietly on the sidelines of the pow wow wearing a work jacket and baseball cap, found out that while that may have been the case in previous years, this year he was wrong.
Claiming the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has been making decisions that harm the Catskills - beginning with its objections to Dean Gitter’s proposed Belleayre Resort voiced last Spring - the Coalition of Watershed Towns has convinced the State Department of Environmental Conservation to step into the fray.
On Friday, December 10th, the annual meeting of the Watershed Partnership and Protection Council was held in Hunter, where dozens of officials from several involved agencies got together for what promised to be a refresher course on the happenings with the unique watershed partnership forged in 1997.
The Watershed Protection and Partnership Council was created by the historic New York City Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, signed on January 21st, 1997, to provide a regional forum to aid in the long-term protection of New York City’s drinking water, and the economic vitality of the upstate watershed communities. This landmark agreement was an attempt to forge a new partnership to protect New York City's Watershed and ensure the economic vitality of the Watershed communities.
But the feeling of partnership was scarce on Friday when Coalition Attorney Jeffrey Baker made an appeal to Erin Crotty, the Commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Ignoring the feel-good vibe that was in the room for the rest of the session, Baker accused City officials of dragging their feet on allowing full recreational use of the thousands of acres, to the detriment of the region, while enjoying the land acquisition rights the City was granted in exchange.
Baker also complained that the City is in the process of drafting revisions to other regulations that would govern land use throughout the region, and that as written they give the City “unfettered discretion” in matters that will kill many small development projects before they even begin.
City Officials fought back, with acting Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David Tweedie stating that his agency has acted within its legal rights. He then added that “the body language in the room” indicated that the agency might not have communicated very well with upstate about things.
After Tweedie said his staff would take another look at the recreational use issue, Baker said that Tweedie’s agency, left to its own devices, has spent 8 years looking things over with little progress and that enough was enough.
“We are not interested in bilateral discussions with the city,” Baker said.
Furthermore, Baker said the Coalition’s review of the draft regulations indicates that the DEP would require mammoth engineering costs for small development projects that create minimal environmental disturbance. The result, he said, is that a $25,000 expense on a small sub-division, before the applicant even knows if the project would be approved, is enough to keep many projects from even getting on the drawing board.
Following their bosses’ lead, Department of Environmental Protection officials defended the agency’s actions. Attorney Sandy Jackson said her office has met all legal requirements when it comes to opening up City-owned lands for recreation. Deputy Commissioner Mike Principe stood by the draft regulations, saying he was aware of the Coalition’s objections but that “there are things in those regs that are very important to us.”
In the end, Crotty established a list of stakeholders within the room with the intention to assemble the group and discuss the issues. The meeting, she said, will take place after she has “an offline discussion” with Tweedie, who has been acting Commissioner for only the past few weeks, following the resignation of former Commissioner Christopher Ward.
With that, Crotty announced it was time for a lunch break. By then it was almost 2 pm. Several officials, including Tweedie, took that as an opportunity to hop into their SUVs and rumble away.
The troubles between the City and Coalition re-started when the Voalition came out against the DEP for raising objection’s to the Belleayre Resort project last Spring.
Meetings were set up at the time by Baker and his former attorney-partner, Dan Ruzow, who is now working for Gitter’s project.
More recently, Baker and some of his associates have provided testimony on behalf of the Belleayre resort project before a state DEC judge hearing cases for and against which issues should be adjudicated as part of the large project’s compex SEQRA review.
No mention was made of Gitter’s project at the meeting last week.

Jail Reprieve
A financial claim against Ulster County by contractors working on the late and over-cost new jail has been settled for under a quarter its original amount, leading some in county government to start talking about the whole project becoming less a financial burden than originally anticipated. A check was cut last week to electrical contractor J.D. Parella for $945,583, as opposed to the contractor’s original $4.4 million claim.
Other claims filed against Ulster County include firms seeking compensation for additional money they’ve had to spend because of 16 months of delay in completing the project: General contractor David Christa Construction, who are seeking $3.3 million, and Rotondo Weirich, seeking $4 million.
Current estimates call for the new jail and county sheriff’s office to be completed sometime next summer.

Local Growth?
The Hudson Valley saw unemployment figures stay relatively low at 4.3 percent, and growth pick up somewhat for the third quarter, according to new figures recently released by the Marist Bureau of Economic Research, with major increases in Ulster and Dutchess making up for losses elsewhere. Jobs in the larger valley region grew by 1.6 percent across all sectors except manufacturing, including trade, business, services and tourism. The average selling price for houses was up nearly 13 percent over a year ago and the rate of sales increased by 3.1 percent. The number of building permits also increased, up 8.1 percent for single family homes.
Nationwide, manufacturing has declined by 20 percent since 1977 - more rapidly over the past seven years. The report suggests a growing federal deficit may reduce availability of funds for needed infrastructure projects including local water and sewer systems, schools and roads, and warns that the dollar’s decline against other currencies may start hampering local growth in the coming year.
The debt-to-income ratio for households increased 1.2 percent - a record high relative to disposable income. The debt-to-asset ratio was 18 percent, the highest over the span of the 1990s.
A strong relationship was found between commuting time and income, with those boasting incomes greater than $200,000 more likely to commute more than 60 minutes, than those with incomes less than $50,000.

Get Vertical!
The Onteora Middle School is raising funds to build a climbing wall and ropes elements in their Middle School and High School gyms as part of their physical education program. For $10, supporters can buy a “Get Vertical” Savings Card that offers discounts and savings at local businesses. Savings can be found at Belleayre Mountain, Bread Alone, Resevoir Inn, Beyond the Gate, Dunkin’ Donuts, Olive’s Country Store, Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant, Anaconda Sports and Catskill Mountain Pizza. The card is valid for one year. Organizers hope to install the new physical education apparatus during the winter. For anyone interested in purchasing a “Get Vertical” Savings Card you may call the Onteora Middle School at 657- 7090 or contact PTSO member Kim Burgess 339-3164.

Failed Regents
Almost one-fourth of the state’s high school students in the Class of 2004 did not take all five Regents exams required to graduate, let alone pass them, according to data released recenty by the state Education Department. The achievement results for students who entered ninth grade in 2000 were requested by the state Board of Regents as it considers moving to 65 the passing grade required for graduation. At present, a score of 55 is needed to pass.
Among general education students who did take all five exams, 92 percent passed. If the passing score were raised to 65, the percentage passing would fall to 77. And although an overwhelming majority of students who dropped out of high school or entered general equivalency diploma programs never took Regents exams, the few who did take them mostly passed.
The state Education Department blamed poor preparation in middle school as the main cause for the shortcomings.

Backlash…
The federal Social Security Administration (SSA) is not accepting marriage licenses from New Paltz submitted on or after February 27, 2004, when village mayor Jason West solemnized 25 same-sex marriages. Since then, 123 heterosexual couples from New Paltz and the surrounding areas have received those marriage licenses from the town clerk. But it appears that these are not considered valid, at least according to the feds.
This news has incensed couples who were legally married in New Paltz as well as local officials, residents, and congressman Maurice Hinchey.

The new policy specifically directs SSA employees not to, under any circumstances, accept ANY marriage licenses from New Paltz as a valid form of identification. Under the Evidence of Identity for an SSA Card policy that can be found at http://policy.ssa.gov, a section lays out the policy for “Procedure-Questionable Marriage Documents.” Not only is New Paltz specifically identified as a “questionable” town for marriage documents, but it is the only one out of four in the nation whose invalidity is open-ended.
Congressman Hinchey has drafted a letter to the commissioner of the SSA asking that the policy be “immediately repealed.” “This policy is completely arbitrary, overreaching, and attempts to penalize innocent people who have been legitimately and legally married,” said Hinchey, who believes that this act is a symptom of a “neo-conservative administration” to try to penalize and ban same-sex marriages.
John Shallman, the regional communications director for the Social Security Administration, said that only legal documents are acceptable for use in changing an individual’s Social Security record. “And until the legal issues are resolved, local Social Security offices nationwide will not accept as evidence of identity any marriage documents issued in New Paltz after February 27, 2004,” he explained.

Drug Busted…
Local Mid-Hudson counties are poised to join New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties in suing 44 national pharmaceutical companies for inflating the prices of prescription drugs sold to Medicaid recipients that were partially funded by the counties. Greene County has already signed on to the lawsuit while Ulster, and neighboring Dutchess and Columbia counties, are still contemplating the move.
Federal law effectively allows drug companies to self-report the “average wholesale price” of drugs sold through the Medicaid program. Several lawsuits, including one filed by the state Attorney General’s Office, allege the firms charged government-funded programs far more than they charged hospitals and other health-care providers.
New York state and its counties each pay 25 percent of all Medicaid costs, with the remaining 50 percent paid by the federal government. The program provides health care coverage for the poor and disabled.
Decisions are expected in the coming month…

Drop The Rock!
State lawmakers voted recently to scale back some of the mandatory sentences under New York’s infamously harsh “Rockefeller drug laws”, which could send a person to prison for life for possessing just a few ounces of heroin or cocaine. Among the reforms would be to change the current maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years to life to a sentence of eight years to 20 years, making offenders eligible for release in less than seven years. They currently have to serve the minimum of at least 15 years. The proposal would also eliminate the maximum term of life for the most serious offenses. A common sentence of three years to life for many offenders would become a determinate sentence of three years, making offenders eligible for release in just over 2 1/2 years. Under the Rockefeller drug laws, defendants could face up to life in prison for possession of just four ounces of cocaine or heroin.
The agreement would also make nonviolent drug offenders eligible sooner for treatment programs and double the amounts, by weight, of heroin and other controlled substances that defendants have to be caught with to qualify for the harshest of charges.
The Assembly approved the measure 96-41; the Senate passed it in a 53-6 vote. Gov. George Pataki helped negotiate the measure and said he would sign it into law.
Critics of the mandatory drug laws say the sentences are unduly long for many low-level offenders and addicts, and disproportionately affect minority offenders.

Winey Court
The Supreme Court is considering whether states such as ours may bar people from buying wine directly from out-of-state suppliers, a big-money question that could lead to sweeping changes in how alcoholic beverages are regulated and sold. Justices have heard arguments in three appeals involving bans in Michigan and New York on direct shipments that cross state borders. The dispute pits regulators and wholesalers against out-of-state wineries that want to sell alcohol to consumers, mostly over the Internet or by phone.
The case involves a clash between two parts of the Constitution, with lower courts divided over which section should rule. On one side is the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition in 1933 and explicitly granted states authority to regulate alcohol sales. Twenty-four states have laws that generally require outside wineries to sell their products through licensed wholesalers in the state. Michigan and New York allow instate Internet or telephone sales of alcoholic beverages. Some other states allow such sales, others do not. The Constitution also implicitly prohibits states from passing laws that discriminate against out-of-state businesses. That provision has been embraced by wine makers who hope to reach faraway Internet customers looking for favorite U.S. vintages unavailable in their home states.
While the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with New York in upholding the state restrictions, the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, struck down Michigan’s laws as unconstitutionally protectionist.
Since 1980, the number of wineries has quadrupled nationally to more than 3,700 this year, and their survival depends on state laws that give them a fair shake, the National Association of American Wineries argues in a friend-of-the-court filing.
The Washington-based Institute for Justice says the 24 states that ban direct interstate shipments are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.

EPA Sewage…
Millions of Americans will face an increased threat of bacteria, viruses and parasites in their water thanks to a new federal policy allowing sewer operators to dump inadequately treated sewage into the nation’s waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan, which reverses a current rule requiring sewer operators to fully treat their waste in all but the most extreme circumstances, will allow operators to routinely dump sewage anytime it rains. EPA is expected to issue the policy sometime in the next few weeks.
Scenic Hudson and Environmental Advocates of NY, two groups that have worked closely on state water quality issues in the past, recently called on the New York Congressional Delegation to stop EPA from implementing this official guidance, which would be particularly harmful for New York drinking water supplies.
Currently sewer operators are allowed to blend partially treated sewage only in extreme cases, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, and when there is no feasible alternative, such as adding more capacity to handle sewage or storing it until it can be fully treated. The new policy will allow plants to dump partially treated sewage anytime it rains or snows.
Untreated sewage contains a variety of dangerous pathogens, including bacteria (such as E coli), viruses (such as hepatitis A), protozoa (such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia) and helminth worms. The pathogens in sewage can cause illnesses ranging from diarrhea and vomiting and respiratory infections to hepatitis and dysentery. Even with the current, stronger sewage treatment standard, experts estimate that there are 7.1 million mild-to-moderate cases and 560,000 moderate-to-severe cases of infectious waterborne disease in the United States annually.
Besides the obvious threat to public health, allowing inadequately treated sewage in our nation’s waters will have dire long-term environmental and economic consequences, Scenic Hudson and Environmental Advocates said. More sewage in our waterways will close beaches along the Hudson River, in New York’s Great Lakes Basin area and throughout the state. This would in turn kill fish and destroy shellfish beds, resulting in irreparable damage to the fishing and tourism industries. Sewage is the second largest known cause of U.S. beach closures and advisories every year.

Flu Shots…
Two months after the government recommended that scarce flu shots be reserved for people most at risk, health officials are now worried that tens of thousands of doses could go to waste, and they are considering easing the restrictions.
The demand for flu shots has turned out to be lower than expected because the flu season has been mild so far. Also, it turns out that more than half of all elderly or chronically ill adults have not even tried to get vaccinated because they figured no shots would be available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
The problem is that a flu shot is only good for the flu season it is made for. Any excess must be disposed of at the end of the season. The flu season begins in the fall and can last through April.
The surplus already has prompted some states to loosen their immunization restrictions, allowing people as young as 50 to get a shot. Others are considering allowing flu shots for anyone who has close contact with those in a high-risk group.
The government in October recommended that healthy adults delay or skip a flu shot this season to save vaccine for the estimated 98 million people in the country who need it most - the elderly, infants or those with chronic conditions. Those people are at highest risk of severe complications or death from the flu, which kills on average 36,000 people and hospitalizes 200,000 each year in the country.
The recommendation was made after health officials learned that nearly half of the country’s flu shot supply would be cut off because of contamination at vaccine maker Chiron Corp.’s plant in Liverpool, England.
Only about 65 million doses of vaccine will be available this season in the United States, including a nasal vaccine that is safe for only healthy people.
Although there were long lines of people seeking flu shots after the nationwide shortages were announced in October, demand has substantially dwindled in recent weeks. One reason is the flu season has been mild so far. New York is the only state with major flu activity, although flu cases are being found all over the country, the CDC has noted
Locally, additional doses of flu vaccine have been received by local health departments and health-care providers, giving senior citizens and other high-risk individuals another chance to be inoculated against influenza before winter takes hold. Ulster County residents can make appointments for flu shots and will be inoculated at the Health Department’s Kingston offices in the coming month. Only those over 65 years old, and individuals 18-64 who have proof of a high-risk medical condition, can get the shots. Senior citizens who have Medicare Part B will be able to obtain their vaccinations through Medicare. The recipient must be entitled to Part B coverage on the date of service, Medicare Part B must be the primary insurance coverage, and the Medicare card must be presented on the date of service. For those not eligible for Medicare Part B coverage, there will be a $20 charge for the flu shot and a $25 charge for pneumococcal vaccine, payable at the appointment.
Call the county Health Department at (845) 340-3070 to schedule an appointment for a flu shot that will be administered at the Health Department’s Kingston office on subsequent days. For more information, call the county’s flu hotline at (845) 340-3093 or visit the Health Department’s Web site at www.co.ulster.ny.us/health.

Guard Down
In the latest signs of strains on the military from the war in Iraq, the Army National Guard announced recently that it had fallen 30 percent below its recruiting goals in the last two months and would offer new incentives, including enlistment bonuses of up to $15,000. In addition, the head of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, has said that he needed $20 billion to replace arms and equipment destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan or left there for other Army and Air Guard units to use, so that returning reservists will have enough equipment to deal with emergencies at home.
The sharp decline in recruiting is significant because National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers now make up nearly 40 percent of the 148,000 troops in Iraq, and are a vital source for filling the ranks, particularly those who perform essential support tasks, like truck drivers and military police.
In an effort to halt the slide, the Army National Guard this week approved recruiting incentives that triple the enlistment bonuses to $15,000 for soldiers with prior military experience who sign up for six years (tax-free if soldiers enlist overseas), Guard officials said. Bonuses for new enlistees will increased to $10,000 from $6,000.
General Blum’s remarks come just a few days after the chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, said that the Army Reserve recruiting was in a “precipitous decline” that if unchecked could inspire renewed debate over the draft. General Helmly told the newspaper that he personally opposed reviving the draft.

Got Your ID?
The United States Congress has passed legislation that requires the States to surrender their regulatory rights over driver’s licenses and birth certificates to The Department of Homeland Security. Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions. Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme Court rulings that American citizens when born will be issued a Social Security Number that will be included on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric markers, the rulings guarantee that all birth certificates will also now be registered in a Federal Government database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. No child will be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to either State of Federal Government benefits programs without first presenting a certified Homeland Security registered Birth Certificate. Drivers License4s holding Social Security Number will be required for receiving and applying for all State and Federal benefits programs. Supreme Court rulings have simultaneously upheld that State and Federal Law Enforcement authorities have the right to request Identification from any American citizen, for any reason and at any time as not being violations of their, the citizens, constitutionally protected rights.
Major Banks and credit card companies have applauded the adoption of a National ID system as being important to counter fraud and increasing instances of identity theft. National ID cards with biometric markers will eliminate them from having to issue Credit and Debit cards, which for the first time in US history have surpassed the usage of checks and cash. Utilizing The Department of Homeland Securities centralized federal database, Banks and credit card companies will only require the presentation of a citizens Driver’s License to make purchases as all of the persons financial information, including credit and cash balances, will already be known in “real time.”

Muslim Rights?
Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll. The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims’ civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious. Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support limiting the rights of Muslim Americans. The survey found 44 percent favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way. The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported requiring all Muslim Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29 percent thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the first U.N. seminar on confronting Islamophobia with a plea not to judge Muslims by the acts of extremists who target and kill civilians. “We should not underestimate the resentment and sense of injustice felt by members of one of the world’s great religions, cultures and civilizations,” he said. “And we must make the re-establishment of trust among people of different faiths and cultures our highest priority,” Annan added, saying that failure to do this threatens world peace and development.
Seyyed Hussein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, said Islamophobia was a question not only of fear but also of hatred - often by people who know little about the religion. Nasr said most people view Islam as an intolerant, monolithic religion bent on ruling the Western world when in reality, there are various schools of Islamic thought, the religion is not anti-Western and the Islamic dynasties over the centuries accepted both Jews and Christians fleeing persecution.

Punishing…
The US government is quietly threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid aimed at combating terrorism, resolving conflicts, and building democracy unless countries agree to shield Americans from prosecution at the UN permanent war crimes tribunal. An amendment to the 3,000-page budget bill before the House of Representatives would punish countries, even close allies in the war on terrorism, that have joined the International Criminal Court and have declined to promise they would not send American citizens to the court without US permission.
Since 2002, the US government has withheld military aid from countries that refused to sign such a bilateral agreement. But the new amendment in this year’s budget bill goes a step further, revoking other nonmilitary assistance to governments. The amendment targets an economic support fund designed to foster democracy and human rights around the world, as well as promote the rule of law in Muslim countries to bolster counterterrorism efforts.
Supporters of the amendment are “so irrationally paranoid of the International Criminal Court that they are literally willing to shoot themselves in the foot in opposing it,” said William Pace, head of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, based in New York, a global network of more than 2,000 organizations that support the tribunal. “It will completely cut the legs out from underneath US credibility on peace initiatives, antiterrorist activities that the US is trying to fund, and support.”
US officials say they have a right to punish countries who refuse to protect Americans from the court. Although the United States is not a party to the court, US officials worry that American soldiers could be prosecuted for war crimes in politically motivated proceedings when an alleged crime is committed on the territory of a nation that is a member.
“US dollars are not free,” a State Department official said.
Evolution Games
The Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday against one of their state’s school districts that is requiring students to learn about alternatives to the theory of evolution. The ACLU said its lawsuit will be the first to challenge whether public schools should teach “intelligent design,” which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher power.
The Dover Area School District was believed to be the first in the nation to mandate intelligent design when it voted 6-3 in October in favor of including the concept in the science curriculum. Administrators have declined to comment on the mandate, which applies to ninth-grade biology classes in rural south-central Pennsylvania.
The ACLU has said intelligent design is a more secular form of creationism, a Biblical-based view that credits the origin of species to God, and may violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
AMA Rules!
The American Medical Association is weighing support of importing prescription drugs from outside the United States as the nation’s physicians address pleas from patients over the high cost of medicines. The largest U.S. doctors group, representing a quarter million physicians, is being asked by members to put its considerable lobbying clout behind federal legislation that would find a way to safely import drugs from outside the United States. Already, several states have bucked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy against importation and set up state-sponsored initiatives to purchase lower-cost drugs from Canada or elsewhere. The issue is expected to come before Congress early next year and could gain momentum should the AMA’s 545-member policy-making House of Delegates back some form of importation.
The nation’s tab for prescription drugs continues to rise 10 to 15 percent a year by most estimates, and an increasing number of patients seek relief by buying drugs from Canada and other countries where prices can be 20 to 80 percent cheaper. Because various resolutions supporting safe importation have the support of large state delegations, including the California Medical Association, a measure putting the AMA on record in support of importation is seen as having a good chance to pass.
Currently, less than an estimated $1 billion worth of prescription drugs are purchased by U.S. citizens from Canada and elsewhere each year. That number is rising, although still dwarfed by U.S. drug purchases of more than $230 billion a year. Some doctors have said they shared concerns of the pharmaceutical industry that legalized importation would merely bring drug price controls of other countries to the United States.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry lobbying organization that includes drug giants Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. and North Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories among its members, said price controls in the United States would hurt the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to fund research and therefore hurt development of potentially life-saving medicines.


Inaug-Ur-funds
The energy industry and some of its executives have contributed over a million dollars to President Bush’s inauguration fund. In all, 26 donors gave over $4.5 million.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., whose business stands to benefit from the president’s actions in regard to Libya, donated $250,000, as did Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company. Other donors from the energy sector included Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who gave $250,000; and former Enron President Richard Kinder, who left the firm five years before it collapsed and now is CEO of one of the largest energy transportation and storage companies in the country. Kinder also gave $250,000.
Energy provider Southern Co., which owns utility companies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, gave $250,000. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the nuclear industry, gave $100,000.
Outside the energy sector, New Orleans Saints football team owner Tom Benson gave $50,000 and his companies gave $200,000. Northrop Grumman Corp., the world’s largest shipbuilder and second-largest U.S. defense contractor, gave $100,000. Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world’s largest personal computer maker, gave $250,000.
Meanwhile, peace and justice activists from the Mid-Hudson region have chartered buses to Washington Jan. 20 to bring local residents to a protest at the inauguration, even though it’s looking like the capital will be locked down for the occasion. The 55-seat buses will leave from Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz early
in the morning, returning in late evening. A round-trip ticket costs $40. For reservations email jacdon@earthlink.net or call (845) 255-5779.
The major national antiwar group ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is negotiating for a permit to hold a rally along the Inaugural Parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue but is already facing difficulties.