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Friday, November 12, 2004
NEW YORKERS FOR BUSH. Robert
David Sullivan, who developed the pioneering "Beyond Red and Blue"
map for CommonWealth
magazine, has uploaded his analysis of the
presidential election. His
most interesting findings:
- Bush got one of his biggest
popular-vote boosts from the area around New York City, despite
losing that region overall by a substantial amount.
- The most solidly Republican
area of the country now is Appalachia, "which has the poorest and
most rural population in the US." Guess those Republican leaflets
saying that Kerry wanted to ban the Bible and force gay marriage
down their throats worked. Yep.
THE OTHER SHOE. Boston
Herald radio columnist Dean Johnson today asks a good question:
is Boston University's investigation
of itself really going to
be allowed to stand as the last word regarding Jane Christo's tenure
as general manager of WBUR
Radio (90.9 FM)?
Without suggesting that the level
of wrongdoing was really any worse than what was already found,
wouldn't it make sense for BU interim president Aram Chobanian to
name some sort of outside, independent panel?
At one point Massachusetts attorney
general Tom Reilly was at least being kept informed of the
investigation, but there are no signs that he's moving forward on
this. (With the Big Dig tunnel falling apart, he's obviously got his
hands full.) Besides, a full-fledged state investigation would
probably amount to overkill.
But since Christo ran up
multimillion-dollar deficits, awarded no-bid contracts, and the like
as an employee of Boston University, Chobanian should get to the
bottom of whatever was going on. The report
issued this week appears
merely to skim the surface.
HARD TIMES AT SPARE
CHANGE. The Homeless
Empowerment Project, which
publishes Spare
Change News, has laid
off its executive director in an effort to keep its services intact -
including the newspaper. (See earlier coverage here.)
Here's the press release:
HEP, Spare
Change News Restructure and Plan for the Future
CAMBRIDGE - In
light of a projected 2005 fiscal shortfall, the Board of Trustees
of the Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP) voted to cut costs by
laying off its executive director. Relying on its remaining staff
and its volunteers, the publisher of Spare Change News will
continue all of its services: producing the newspaper and
providing an employment opportunity for Greater Boston's
unemployed and homeless.
On Tuesday,
October 25, the HEP Board examined the proposed budget and
discussed various ways to balance it - including layoffs, cutting
services or cutting back publication of the paper from twice to
once per month. In the end, the board decided that the only way to
balance the budget while maintaining the core values and mission
of the organization was to release Executive Director Fran
Czajkowski. Czajkowski attended the meeting and was actually the
individual who first proposed her departure as one option for
balancing the budget. Czajkowski served the organization in the
executive director capacity for several years, during which time
HEP grew significantly and was able to continuously advance its
core mission. Her last day of work was November 5. HEP board
member Paula Mathieu, a professor of English at Boston College,
has stepped in temporarily as interim director.
"HEP and Spare
Change News have a talented, dedicated staff and group of
volunteers who have seen the organization through tougher times
than this," said Lee Mandell, president of HEP's board of
trustees. "This change will not hurt our mission in the
least."
The overall size
of the HEP staff had doubled over the past year, from one
full-time and three part-time workers to three full-time and two
part-time staff. Fundraising, which has also grown over recent
years, had not increased enough to maintain this increase in
staff. The existing staff of two full-time and two part-time
employees will cover all the day-to-day operations of the
organization. The HEP Board will step in to oversee fundraising
and establish new initiatives.
"In order to
keep the paper going, in order to keep providing an income to more
than a hundred men and women who depend on the paper, we had to
cut costs," said Mathieu. "At the same time, we are going forward
with direction, energy and hope for the future."
HEP will
continue to expand its work with homeless and other disadvantaged
people throughout Greater Boston. The non-profit plans to
reestablish a Speakers' Bureau that will make available staff and
vendors of the newspaper to talk with local school, religious or
community groups about issues of homelessness and poverty.
Additionally, long-time Spare Change vendor James Shearer was
recently voted a member of the Board and will oversee the Vendor
Committee as well as take part in discussions on future visions
for the paper.
"We hope these
changes will increase the empowerment opportunities at HEP," said
Mandell. "We plan not only to survive but thrive, by encouraging
all of our staff and vendors to become active in the organization
as we go forward."
HEP publishes
Spare Change News (SCN), a biweekly street newspaper that reports
on issues including homelessness and poverty from local, national
and international perspectives. SCN's vendors, many of whom are
homeless, sell the newspaper to earn a living. SCN also publishes
original work by people who are homeless or otherwise marginalized
by society.
"Spare Change
News will continue to publish timely, important and engaging
articles that people will not find in other publications," said
SCN editor Sam Scott. "We are committed to reporting the news and
helping our vendors earn a living despite this temporary
setback."
In addition to
other fundraising measures HEP is planning, the organization will
have its annual holiday appeal, which will be featured in the
newspaper beginning November 25. People interested in supporting
or volunteering for HEP can call 617-497-1595, ext. 12 or e-mail
meg@homelessempowerment.org.
posted at 1:44 PM |
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1 Comments:
NEW YORKERS FOR BUSH
Anyone surprised? Don't you think that the heavy incomes earned in the city vote their tax bills? Always have, always will. And they toast the poor chumps in tarpaper shacks with $15 martinis. American way.
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
