PRI: Public Radio International

Syrian citizen-journalist also among dead in Homs

PRI's The World — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:41:00 -0600

Rami al-Sayed was a key provider of online videos showing the Syrian government’s bombardment of the central city of Homs.

That is, until his death on Tuesday.

Activists said Rami al-Sayed was fatally wounded when shells struck the opposition stronghold of Baba Amr in Homs for the 18th consecutive day. He had been trying to help a family flee in a car, witnesses said.

A video posted on his YouTube channel, Syria Pioneer, by Sayed’s brother showed his body in a makeshift clinic in Baba Amr, with shrapnel wounds to his chest, abdomen and legs.

Sayed uploaded more than 800 videos documenting the situation in the city, and used the video streaming website, Bambuser, to broadcast live footage as security forces attempted to wrest control of districts from the rebel Free Syrian Army by firing rockets, mortars and shells.

Tennessee struggling with homemade meth problem

Here & Now — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:52:00 -0600

Tommy Farmer, the director of Tennessee's state task force on methamphetamine use, said a drug bust in Mexico earlier this month could help the situation in his state.

Most of the meth in Tennessee comes from Mexico. But some of it is made right in Tennessee — in people’s homes, garages and cars.

One particular variety, known as shake-and-bake, allows people to cook up the drug in a plastic bottle.

But it's all dangerous — something Dr. Jeffrey Guy of Vanderbilt University sees firsthand as a surgeon specializing in burn and trauma surgery. A third of his patients are meth users, he said.

He wants drugstores to do more to stop the problem. He says that some drugstores are going so far as to put cold medications that contain pseudoephedrine, which is used to make meth, right next to the Gatorade bottles they can cook it in.

Farmer tried to get a law passed requiring a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine-containing drugs. That failed, but Farmer was able to get a bill passed that provides for stricter tracking of people buying those sorts of drugs.

"We just didn't get the results. We did see some initial reductions in lab seizures, but they were almost immediately overcome," Farmer said "Labs actually back on the rise, even to a level that surpassed our original record highs."

In most states pseudoephedrine products are available without a prescription, but with a range of restrictions. Only Oregon and Mississippi have made it so a prescription is required to purchase.

Farmer still wants a law that is similar to those states'.

"There was significant opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and, we just had a fundamental difference of opinion," Farmer said.

In a statement, Scott Melville, president and CEO of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, said while meth is a serious problem, making pseudoephedrine-containing drugs available only by prescription is an unnecessary step.

"It will only place new costs and access restrictions on the 18 million law-abiding American families who rely on these medicines for relief of their symptoms each year," Farmer said.

But Farmer said there are other products on the market without pseudoephedrine that can have a similar use to customers. And these sorts of changes are necessary to save lives, he said.

And there's a financial cost as well. Meth manufacturing requires a huge commitment from from law enforcement, resources that could be put elsewhere.

“While we’re spending 14 hours cleaning up a meth lab, we could be devoting our resources towards dismantling these Mexican meth organizations, instead of having to train and equip our law enforcement to spend hours stabilizing and packaging and removing all of these hazardous chemicals from this lab site,” he said.

Homelessness, unemployment remain as Greece again narrowly avoids default

The Takeaway — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:47:00 -0600

Greece has once again narrowly avoided defaulting on its $172 billion debt by agreeing to more austerity measures and other concessions to eurozone countries.

It's unlikely, however, that this development will ease the dire situation of Greece's population: nearly 20,000 Greeks are homeless and 21 percent are unemployed. Thousands have taken to the street in protest over these latest concessions, which many Greeks say amount to the country handing over its sovereignty.

In the United States, there continue to be small signs of recovery. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 13,000 for the first time since 2008. But if the last four years have proven nothing else, it's that what happens across the globe — like in Greece — can directly impact the markets here.

Joe Nocera, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, said a ratings downgrade of Greece recently is probably right. The country remains perilously close to defaulting on its debts.

The most recent bailout, Nocera said, does two things that make Greece's economic future particularly dicey.

"It imposes yet more austerity measures on Greece that the populace is ... ultimately not going to stand for," he said. "And second, it makes a series of very rosy assumptions that are required to make the mental leap that this bailout will be the last."

Unfortunately, Nocera said, that means we'll be back looking at round three soon.

"This is Band-Aid. That's what it is," he said.

As for austerity, something the Germans have insisted on, it makes it harder for the economy to grow, Nocera said.

"If you cannot grow, you will never be able to repay this debt," Nocera said. "That is the dilemma that not only Greece faces, but the entire eurozone."

They also present the possibility that the people of Greece will decide they've had enough, throw out the government and abandon the euro and its debt.

"They have two weeks or three weeks to legislate all these reforms — everything from privatizing certain businesses to firing inefficient tax collectors to really changing the way the country runs financially," Nocera said. "This is being imposed by other countries and Greece is going to feel that its sovereignty is being taken away."

And there's a large possibility, he said, that Greeks are going to stand up and say no to those reforms. Once that happens, default and departing from the eurozone become inevitable, Nocera said.

"Then the larger question is can the eurozone survive," Nocera said.

And while the bailouts have protected American banks and given them time to try to minimize their exposure to Greek debt, Nocera said we would be hurt by a Greek default.

"There's no possible way that won't affect us," Nocera said. "We're not immune."

And while it's certainly good news that the Dow hit 13,000 on Tuesday, Nocera said the takeaway is that the market is in a time of uncertainty, which leads to volatility.

"Brace yourself," he said.

Catholic Church prepares to canonize first Native American saint despite mixed reactions

The Takeaway — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

The Roman Catholic Church is ready to canonize its first Native American saint.

The Vatican recently announced that Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian, will be canonized later this year. Tekakwitha, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, was the daughter of a Mohawk chief born in upstate New York in 1656. She embraced Catholicism after smallpox left her disfigured and partially blinded, and later left her tribe to join a mission in Canada.

In December, Pope Benedict XVI determined that it was her miraculous intervention that saved the life of Jake Finkbonner in 2006. Finkbonner, a 5-year-old from Washington state, was struggling for his life after contracting a flesh-eating virus. He was expected to die and given last rites. The Finkbonners say that his recovery was swift after he received a small relic with Tekakwitha's profile and name on it and prayers asking for her to intercede on his behalf. Doctors told the Vatican that they had no clear medical explanation for Finkbonner's sudden recovery.

Native American Catholics are celebrating Tekakwitha's sainthood, but her upcoming canonization has also sparked a great deal of controversy. Robert Roche, an Apache Indian and executive director of the American Indian Education Center, doesn't believe it is a milestone to be celebrated. However, Kateri Mitchell, executive director of the Tekakwitha Conference and member of the Mohawk Nation, said the canonization will bring more healing.

Many are in agreement, as the Vatican has received numerous requests to canonize Tekakwitha for more than a century.

"Kateri Tekakwitha was a very holy woman and was able to survive the tragic disease of smallpox at a very early age. She lived a life in which she developed a very close relationship with her god," Mitchell explained.

Tekakwitha also cared for the sick and elderly and devoted herself to a life of prayer. For Mitchell and many others, the canonization is long overdue.

"By the 1800s, her cause was introduced through some findings with the Jesuit relations. This young woman had survived a lot of suffering, and did a lot of fasting and prayer, which warranted a very spiritual journey that she was following," Mitchell said.

To be declared a saint, a miracle must be attributed to the candidate after he or she has been beatified, or, declared by the Pope to be in a state of dying bliss. Takekwitha was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Brian Bull, chair of the Native American Public Telecommunications group, has studied Takekwitha for some time. He told NPR that her first miracle occurred in 1680 after her smallpox blemishes reportedly disappeared from her face and body moments after her death.

"It's also said on some accounts that mourners at her funeral also found themselves cured of various ailments," he said.

Takekwitha's last known miracle occurred when she saved Finkbonner's life.

The canonization is a source of pride for many Native American tribes that have embraced the Catholic faith along with their native spirituality.

But Roche has reservations about the relationship between the tribes and the Catholic Church. He calls the Church "RICO", or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.

"It is a difficult situation for me because I was a product of institutionalization and have a different opinion of the Catholic Church. The Catholics, as far as the documentation of the efforts of the Black Robes, the Jesuits, the servitude, and boarding schools, have stripped the Native Americans of their identity, culture and spirituality mostly through brute force," he said. "There's more controversy now about the genocide of the Catholic Church in Canada. The church was on the brink of going bankrupt because the Native Americans were finally able to file lawsuits and raise awareness of the injustices committed by the churches that systematically stripped Native Americans of their culture and spirituality,"

Bull admitted there are those who are critical of the Catholic Church, and see the canonization as an attempt to whitewash history.

"The Catholic Church did run a lot of controversial boarding schools from the late 1800s through the 1970s, where there are reports and accounts of children being taken away from their families, subjected to various abuses. And then, you know, many people see Christianity as a way of eroding in their traditional culture and religion, as well," he said.

Tekawitha will be canonized on Oct. 21 along with six other candidates.

Two Western journalists among at 20 dead following attacks in Syria

By Mitch Skinner -- Public Radio International — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik are among 20 people killed, according to the New York Times, in Homs, Syria, following deadly attacks from the Syrian government.

Colvin, an American reporter for the Sunday Times, and Ochlik, a French photographer, died after rockets hit the house they were staying in, according to Reuters. Wednesday's bombardment is an apparent continuation of the Syrian government's attack on Homs, the center of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime, following the double veto by Russia and China on Feb. 4 of a United Nations motion to end increasing violence in Syria.

Colvin spoke to PRI's The World last May about the dangers in Libya, where she also experienced heavy shelling.

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"It is very dangerous, I mean, it has to be said, and I think part of that danger is also the expectation of shelling. I mean, it's very random," Colvin said of the attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

The bombardment that ultimately killed Colvin is the continuation of violence from the uprising in Syria. The United Nataions stopped issuing estimates of a death toll at 5,400 in January because it could no longer verify them.

"This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime," said Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the U.S. state department.

Last May, President Barack Obama placed sanctions on Assad, as well as six other political leaders, in an effort to quell violence in Syria. However, the sanctions have appeared to a have little effect in doing so.

Hours before her death, Colvin spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the death of a baby hit by shrapnel.

"Every civilian house on this street has been hit. We're talking about a very poor popular neighborhood. The top floor of the building I'm in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. There are no military targets here," she said in reference to the notion that the Syrian government only seeks action against terrorists. "There are rockets, shells, tank shells, anti-aircraft being fired in parallel lines into the city. The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians."

Wednesday's attack adds to the death of journalists and civilians caught in the crossfire of Assad-led government's violent response to uprisings in Syria. Other journalists in Syria were reported to have been injured in this week's violence as well.

U.S Supreme Court hearing arguments over Stolen Valor law, Xavier Alvarez

The Takeaway — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:14:00 -0600

Xavier Alvarez has lied about playing for the Detroit Red Wings, being secretly married to a Mexican actress, getting wounded multiple times during combat as a Marine and receiving the Medal of Honor.

Much of this list of tall tales may seem laughable. But some of it is criminal. Under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, his lies about his military record could land him in jail.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear his case and determine whether or not Americans should be imprisoned for things they say rather than just for actions they commit.

Pam Sterner went back to school in her early 40s at Colorado State University. In a political science course, she wrote a paper "Stolen Valor" that grew out of her husband's frustrations over phony award claimants whose worst punishment was public embarrassment, and eventually led to the Stolen Valor Act of 2005.

"The way that I see this, and the reason why I wrote the paper that became this law is that I see this more as an impersonation, as a fraud issue, than a freedom of speech issue" Sterner said. "You cannot impersonate a police officer. You cannot impersonate a judge. You ought not to be able to impersonate a veteran, somebody who has served our country honorably."

Of course, impersonating a police officer can have real consequences for public safety. Impersonating a veteran doesn't necessarily have those same consequences.

But Sterner said it takes away from the medal system that's in place — and it places suspicion on the actual veterans.

"It also changes our history. These people make up battles, they make up injuries they've received that are often even chronicled in the Library of Congress as being true fact. I think it does hurt all Americans," Sterner said.

But Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar at George Washington University, says the Stolen Valor Act of 2006 raises very real First Amendment issues.

"I think it is is unconstitutional," Turley said. "If you use a lie to acquire any type of benefit, it is in fact prosecuted, when the lie becomes larceny or fraud or perjury. It's prosecuted for the collateral crime."

Turley said prosecutors will already regularly charge individuals who claim military awards they don't have even if they receive only the slightest benefit.

"For good reason. None of us question that those people should be put in jail if they're deriving benefits from these (lies.) There's a lot of these cases. And it's not just valor. A lot of people do the same thing when they're terminally ill," Turley said.

Importantly, Turley said, this is a slippery slope. This country has never made the idea of a lie a crime. There's always been a line of when a lie derives a benefit to make it a crime.

He also said the people who lie about serving in battle are already easy to identify, expose and ever ridicule.

"They tend to promote themselves into absurdity. It becomes addictive," Turley said.

But Sterner says that's not enough. These people, like Alvarez, do this for the attention. And he's getting attention — even if it is for being a liar.

Statistically, Kosovo's economy is booming — but residents can't tell

PRI's The World — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:12:00 -0600

If Kosovo’s economy is on the upswing, it’s news to the Krasniqis.

Ardian Krasniqi, his wife and their three small children live with his parents in a modest apartment just outside Pristina. Ardian was the breadwinner until he lost his construction job two months ago.

Now he’s part of the estimated 45 percent of Kosovars out of work. Those with jobs aren’t much better off. Wages here average about $300 to $400 per month.

Ardian used to work in Germany. He came back to Kosovo to start a family and build a life here.

“I regret it because I’m responsible for the children,” Ardian said. “They’re experiencing the consequences.”

Ardian’s mother, Azemine, pointed out that Ardian’s wife makes 150 euros a month working as a kindergarten kitchen. Azemine and her husband collect 120 euros from their pensions.

All told, seven people are living on less than $400 a month in a place where milk can cost more than in the US. Ardian said the family only gets by because his sister sends them money from Austria. She’s a doctor there.

“We have it hard. If it weren’t for my sister, it would be impossible,” he said.

Each year, Kosovo’s Diaspora sends home more than $650 million, mostly from Germany and Switzerland. And that money is hugely important here, with foreign aid on the decline.

In fact, remittances and government spending are the main reasons the International Monetary Fund says Kosovo’s economy is among the fastest growing in the eurozone.

But it’s still not good enough, said Agron Demi, who runs a think-tank in Prishtina.

“Kosovo has more than 40 percent unemployment. In order to just have a decrease by half, the unemployment, we need economic growth by at least 10 percent a year … like China, so this growth doesn’t mean anything to Kosovo,” he said.

Subtract government spending and those remittances, and there’s not a whole lot driving economic activity in Kosovo. Still, Bernard Nikaj, a top official in the ministry of trade and industry, said the economy is moving.

“There is improvement. It’s still not at the level we want it to be, I think, but we’re working towards that goal,” Nikaj said.

The goal is being a self-sustaining economy and Nikaj insists that it is slowly starting to happen thanks to reforms aimed at making Kosovo more business friendly.

Ermal Meta manages his family’s construction company in Pristina. He said revenue grew nearly 15 percent last year. Meta is driving an old Hyundai van to a government-sponsored business park in Drenas outside the capital. His company is building new offices and a factory there.

“Well, Drenas is a very good thing for us,” Meta said. “Because our business required much more space than we had. So this will be an opportunity to expand our business.”

The business park offers uninterrupted electricity, running water, and highly subsidized rent. It’s the first of its kind since the 1999 Kosovo war, but today there’s one big problem. Snow from a recent blizzard is blocking every entrance.

“What can I say? Thank God our business isn’t open here yet, otherwise …” Meta said, his voice trailing off.

Companies here face bigger obstacles than a mound of snow, though. Meta said the cost of doing business remains high because Kosovo produces very little.

“Aluminium we take from Greece. Plastic for windows, we take from Germany, and steel we import from Italy, Bulgaria … Serbia sometimes. That’s why we don’t have cash. This is the main problem. Every raw material is imported from outside ….” Meta said.

His construction company is building a factory to produce light steel to lower their dependence on pricey imports. But Kosovo bank loans come with steep interest rates.

“The interest rate is 11, the lowest you can get, up to 20 percent,” Meta said.

He said he’s trying to stay positive.

“I mean, do I have another choice? It’s natural law — countries … people do evolve. That will happen with Kosovo too,” Meta said.

But when remains to be seen. Kosovo’s economy could hit some harder times if growth slows in Germany and Switzerland. Then remittances from Kosovo’s Diaspora could follow suit.

Germany's solar market facing reduction in government subsidies

PRI's The World — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0600

On the eastern edge of Munich, construction crews are erecting a business park — block after block of new glass office buildings line a busy street.

From the roof of one building, it’s easy to spot a feature that all the new structures have in common: their roofs are blanketed with blue-black solar panels. It’s an increasingly common sight in Germany. But it also belies the difficulties confronting the country’s solar panel industry, which is losing jobs and companies.

2011 was a banner year for solar power in Germany, where the green energy movement is among the strongest in the world and the solar market is the biggest in the world. Last year, nearly half of all new solar installations worldwide were done in Germany.

That booming market is being driven by places like Munich. The city has pledged to use only renewable energy by 2025, a big part of which will come from solar. The city is investing several billion dollars in solar fields, and city leaders believe the payoff will be financial as well as environmental.

“All renewable energy plants (are getting) more economic,” said Gerhard Urbainczyk, of the city of Munich’s environment department. And “all fossil fuels get more expensive. Which guarantees that renewable energies remain economic.”

Renewables have become more economical here in part because of government subsidies begun over a decade ago. The system of price supports helped lead to a boom in the manufacture and installation of solar panels.

But that boom has also sewn the seeds of its own troubles. Germany’s minister of Economy, Phillip Roesling, said the subsidies have gotten too expensive for the government to sustain, and that they have also become a disincentive for competition.

“We are aware of all the disadvantages that come with subsidies,” Roesling said recently. He said subsidies put the brakes on innovation, which is essential for German companies to stay competitive.

So the government is beginning to reduce the subsidies. They dropped 15 percent on Jan. 1, and are set to drop again later this year. The move follows similar moves to cut renewables subsidies in Spain and the United Kingdom, but comes at an especially bad time for German solar panel manufacturers. The booming solar market here has brought a flood of competition from outside Germany, mainly from China.

“There are still too many modules in the market,” said Richard von Hehn, of the German solar company Gehrlicher. von Hehn said the influx of cheaper Chinese imports has shaken his industry to the core.

“Companies will struggle with prices way below their costs, and that’s not good for the market,” von Hehn said.

According to Germany’s solar association, some 20,000 jobs were lost last year. Several once-high-flying German solar companies have already closed their doors, and von Hehn said the subsidy cuts are likely to force other companies out of business as well.

But not everyone in the business here is glum about their outlook. After more than a decade of subsidies, known officially here as feed-in tariffs, the government thinks Germany’s solar industry is poised to stand on its own two feet. Michael Povlin, a Munich-based manager of the panel maker Abound Solar, agrees. He said the next couple of years might be tough, but the industry in general will benefit from quickly falling production costs.

“We’ll be able to produce electricity cheaper than the end customer’s price,” Povlin said. “That’s where you want to be — selling without depending on feed-in tariffs, not depending on politicians who want, and then don’t want, green energy.”

Povlin and other industry leaders say Germany’s solar market is hardly drying up. It’s just getting more competitive. But just about everyone involved expects demand here to stay very strong. Even as the government cuts subsidies, it’s maintaining its goal of weaning itself off nuclear power by 2020, and it’s still counting on solar to help fill the energy gap.

Scientists rush to save exotic frogs from spreading disease

PRI's The World — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0600

In the middle of the night, in the middle of a rainforest in Central Panama, biologist Brian Gratwicke slogs through a stream with a group of researchers looking for little green blobs sitting on a green leaf.

“Anything that makes the leaf hang unusually,” Gratwicke said.

A colleague spots a set of tiny eyes glimmering in the beam of a flashlight. But it’s a false alarm — probably just a spider, and spiders are not the scientists’ quarry. Nor are the venomous snakes or the very large lizard the team catches sight of. No, the little green blobs Gratwicke and his colleagues are looking for are frogs, and after 90 minutes in the jungle, they have yet to find a single one.

It might just be bad luck, but probably not. Frogs around the world are in trouble. Scientists estimate that over the last 30 years more than 100 species have gone extinct, and that more than a third of the remaining amphibian species are at risk of extinction.

Habitat loss and climate change are both playing a role in the disappearances, but another big reason is a virulent fungal disease that likely originated in Africa and has been spreading around the globe for decades — Amphibian Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or chytrid for short.

Gratwicke, a researcher with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., said for the amphibian world it’s an epidemic “that could spread from dogs to cats to cows to bats, and cause the extinction of half of those species. That’s what we’re looking at with this disease.”

In parts of Central America chytrid is spreading by about 20 miles a year. That’s why biologists here in Panama are racing to collect frogs and other amphibians ahead of the fungus.

Finally, the scientists have success — a glass frog guarding a gelatinous pile of eggs, with tiny tadpoles wiggling inside. The glass frog’s skin is transparent, and right above its stomach, you can see its tiny white heart beating.

It’s a stunning sight, but that’s it for this expedition — just a single frog.

The researchers have had better luck elsewhere, and when they do find frogs, they pack them into plastic bags and medevac them out of the forest like injured soldiers, to tightly controlled buildings like the ones Angie Estrada works in at the Summit Zoo, in Gamboa, Panama. The buildings are basically converted shipping containers that Estrada calls “pods”—a safe, “chytrid free” population of frogs in captivity.

Each pod holds row upon row of aquariums, fog machines, and UV lights, which Estrada said are meant to reproduce the specific conditions of each species’ natural habitats.

“Some of these frogs are coming from cloudy mountain forests,” Estrada said, “so our pods need to keep up with high humidity and low temperatures. They need to have light–white lights resembling night light and day light. We also need to do UV lights (to allow them) to go through metamorphosis.”

The frogs in the pods are some of the most remarkable you’ll see anywhere. Some look like bright yellow decomposing leaves, others are black as tar and have a crown like a triceratops.

And the pods hold some of the very last of their kind.

”We call them arks,” Estrada said, “amphibian arks, because we’re basically keeping them alive for future generations.”

And yet it’s a bit of a rag-tag effort, as scientists race to keep up with a disease that they say is killing frogs fast.

Edgardo Griffith, who runs the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in Western Panama, where the fungus swept through several years ago, said scientists there were “behind the chytrid wave.” When chytrid arrived in El Valle, Griffith said, “we didn’t even have a facility. So we had to keep frogs in hotel rooms.”

Griffith’s new facility is slightly more sophisticated. His quarantined building is home to a dozen vulnerable local species.

But being as exotic as they are also means there’s no rule book on how to take care of these frogs. Nobody knew exactly what some of them ate, or what they needed to mate. The researchers are learning as they go. And Griffith said they “lost a lot” of frogs along the way.

Why go to all this trouble to save a bunch of amphibians? The Smithsonian’s Brian Gratwicke said some of them may prove important to humans.

“There’s a species of frog in Australia that produces a chemical called asirin, which blocks HIV transmission to T-cells,” Gratwicke said.

And the skin of other frogs has produced compounds that kill “superbugs” in hospitals. That’s why Gratwicke believes every extinction is a lost opportunity for humans.

“The untapped resources of our amphibian biodiversity are virtually unknown,” he said.

But Gratwicke said there’s another important reason.

“’To keep every cog and wheel is the first rule of intelligent tinkering,’” Gratwicke said, quoting the legendary ecologist Aldo Leopold. In this case, he said, “amphibians are more than just the cogs and wheels. They are the entire middle of the food chain. They eat all of the bugs that are then eaten by snakes and birds and other things. So we just want to make sure we look after them.”

Of course frogs can only play their vital ecological roles if they can survive in the wild. And that likely can’t happen for most of the species now being sheltered here in Panama without some kind of solution to the Chytrid problem. There is promising research in the United States, where scientists have discovered bacteria that confer immunity to the fungus for some amphibians. But so far there is no miracle cure that will work in the wild.

Meanwhile, Angie Estrada has had a breakthrough in her efforts to save at least one endangered species in her frog pod in Gamboa, where about 80 miniature black and green frogs hop around a critter keeper. Estrada said they’re a brood of Atelopus certus babies, “one of the first Atelopus born in captivity ever.”

The species is native to a sliver of Panamanian forest called the Darien. There may be 150 species of frogs there altogether, and it’s still chytrid free. But scientists estimate that the fungus will arrive there in a year or two, and that ninety percent of them will die.

Estrada hopes that some day, though, her baby frogs may be able to leave her amphibian ark and go back to their parents’ forest home.

“I know it’s crazy,” Estrada said, “but these may be the founders for repopulating these areas.”

'Safety net' not strong enough to support America’s growing homeless population

The Takeaway — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:50:00 -0600

Homelessness is on the rise in Las Vegas.

Many middle class Americans have lost their homes.

Rick, an auto repair-man who hasn’t been able to find steady employment for several years, was forced to sell his three bedroom home and move his family into a trailer park.

“Work really dried up bad…I tried to find any job and nobody was hiring,” Rick said.

He has since been able to move out of the trailer park, but the family has not been able to recover economically. His wife Marjorie is anxious about being able to provide for their children.

“I just hope that we can get into a house, at some point, have some freedom and space. The other day my son said, ‘can I have a haircut?’ And we told him ‘you have to wait.’ Something as simple as a haircut, I don’t want to have to worry about that,” Marjorie said.

Rick and Marjorie are not the only families struggling to get by. At Whitney Elementary in East Las Vegas, <85% receive free or reduced-price lunches, and many are classified as homeless. Teachers report that students at Whitney regularly display symptoms of hunger such as dizziness and inattentiveness.

Whitney principal Sherrie Gahn said it is hard for her students to focus on their education when they’re distracted by hunger and anxiety.

“The dream here is that these children will be at the same level playing field as every other child in America. We know that doesn’t happen because they’re in such survival mode,” Gahn said. “They can’t possibly learn because they’re not thinking about learning. They’re thinking about their shoes hurting or where they’re going to sleep at night or their tummies grumbling.”

Under Gahn’s administration, the Whitney school has been transformed into a “full social service organization, providing food, clothing, health care and job opportunities for students and their families.”

In an interview with The Las Vegas Sun, Gahn said she can’t rely on government handouts to support her efforts.

“I’ve never looked to the state,” she said. “I’ve shied away from that because I need to sustain (the program) in the long haul. With budgets the way they are, I didn’t know if they would.”

Instead, Gahn has partnered with local charities and built a network of volunteers who distribute supplies to the student body.

In Lakewood, N.J. Rev. Steve Brigham founded “Tent City,” a camp for homeless individuals and families. Brigham founded Tent City in response to the growing numbers of homeless people who were left without options.

“There is no place in Lakewood or Ocean County. There are no shelters here. The closest one … is overcrowded on a continual basis” Brigham said.

Many of the occupants of Tent City became homeless when jobs in the construction sector disappeared.

“There are a lot of people that were good hard working people before the recession hit that are now in Tent City.” Brigham said. “They would love to have a job… they really don’t want to take government help if they don’t have to, but they realize that the safety net really isn’t there like they thought it was.”

In this election year, poverty is less a story about the students at the Whitney school or the residents of Tent City, and more of a political football in a high stakes game. The decision of whether to support the “safety net” of federal assistance programs has become a hot button topic amidst the political parties.

According to Columbia Professor of Health and Policy Management Jeffery Sachs, the U.S. is in denial about the realities of poverty within its borders.

“America now has by many standards has the lowest social mobility of all of the high income countries, meaning that a child born into poverty is likely to grow up as a poor adult,” Sachs said. This is stunning for a country that not only prides itself as being a middle class society but as the society where anyone can make it.”

New book looks at role of Hoover in modern anti-terror culture

The Takeaway — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

The FBI is unquestionably part of the lore of America, even if its tactics and motives sometimes raise questions.

The FBI was formed in 1908 and directed by J. Edgar Hoover from 1924 until his death in 1972. Hoover’s notion of enemies of the state and anti-communist sentiments developed early on in his career.

“Back during World War I, when he first joined the justice department and began forthwith constructing the mechanics of mass arrest and detention,” author Tim Weiner said. “He led the first great raids against Reds (Communists) in this country and summarily arrested at least 6,000 people.”

Hoover’s powerful devotion to national security stemmed from his belief that he and the FBI were the only forces capable of protecting a nation under siege.

“Hoover’s war, which went on all his life, from World War I until his death in 1972, was an all-out war in which there was no holds barred,” said Weiner. “He felt that only he and the FBI stood between safety and the overthrow of the government of the United States,”

In the 1960s, Hoover’s vision for a secure America was tested by numerous social movements working to overthrow the status quo. The FBI accused anti-war protestors, civil rights activists, gay men and women, and liberals of collaborating with the Soviet Union to bring down America.

In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Weiner said that Hoover disregarded privacy protections mandated by the constitution in order to obstruct the activities of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He ordered the FBI to bug King’s bedroom and repeatedly blackmailed the civil rights leader.

"When it came down to bugging bedrooms, you had to be careful not to get caught, but there wasn't anything to stop him," Weiner said. "He decided up to a point ... where the boundaries of the law [were] when it came to black bag jobs, break-ins, bugging, surveillance, the constitutionality of gathering secret intelligence on America's enemies — both real and imagined."

In his book, Weiner identifies how Hoover’s irrepressible dedication to American security has shaped contemporary politics. He argues that the impulses of the Bush administration after Sept. 11 were not a radical departure from earlier policies already implemented under Hoover.

“Hoover is the inventor of the modern American national security state. Every fingerprint file, every DNA record, every iris recorded through biometrics, every government dossier on every citizen and alien in this country owes its life to him. We live in his shadow, though he's been gone for 40 years."

Egyptian analyst confident that country will transition to successful democracy

Here & Now — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:55:00 -0600

Thousands of Egyptians rallied in Port Said on Friday, trying to make clear that local residents had nothing to do with the deadly soccer riot there earlier this month.

There's also a great deal of tension in Egypt with the United States, over the country's prosecution of nonprofits that have been funded by international sources. At least 16 Americans have been charged in connection with the investigation and are barred from leaving the country. Some have taken refuge in the U.S. embassy.

And as America threatens to withhold more than $1 billion in aid to Egypt until that situation reaches a satisfactory conclusion, Egyptian politicians are saying such an action could lead them to re-evaluate their 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Farouk El-Baz, professor of Geology at Boston University and an adviser to former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, said all of this should be viewed as political gesturing.

"They're saying that only for public consumption," El-Baz said. "In real life, the emphasis should have been placed on that these groups did not get the approval."

El-Baz, who himself is seeking a license to operate an NGO in Egypt, said the employees of the NGO are at fault for not securing a license before operating there.

"When you're going to a foreign country and going to do some activities, you better figure out what is it that is necessary to do that within the existing laws," he said.

More broadly, though, El-Baz said Egypt is making progress to democratic rule. People in Egypt, he said, even secular ones, aren't overly concerned about the large number of Islamists who won power in the most recent elections.

"When they assume power, they will have to deal with problems. They have to deal with the economy. You can't deal with the economy by saying that women cannot work," El-Baz said. "They will be moderated. There's no questions about that."

He said that while some Islamists are making outrageous statements, seeking attention, they're already being moderated and shouted down by their own party members.

"I really think they will settle into ruling the country," he said, "and I really think in the next election, the Islamists aren't going to get as many votes."

Increasingly, more Americans think interracial marriage not just acceptable, but socially 'good'

The Takeaway — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:30:00 -0600

In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in their own home, in the middle of the night, for the crime of miscegenation.

When the Supreme Court declared miscegenation laws illegal in 1967, 16 states still had them on the books. At one point, 42 states banned interracial marriage. But 45 years later, a new poll released this week by the Pew Research Center just how far we’ve come. About 15 percent of new marriages in 2010 crossed racial or ethnic lines, double the rate from 1980.

And a great majority of Americans say they would readily accept an interracial marriage in their family.

Renee Romano, a professor of history at Oberlin College and author of a book about interracial marriage, said regulating and preventing interracial marriage was a central part of American culture from the dawn of the nation through, in many places, the 1960s.

"You could be arrested if your performed an interracial marriage in some places," Romano said.

In 1958, when the Lovings were arrested, interracial marriage was still illegal in 21 states, Romano said.

"It was not at all unusual. They were forced to leave. They were banished from the South. At the time, when the judge ruled they could either go to prison or they could leave the South for 25 years. They could leave Virginia, leave their families behind. (The judge) said God created the races as separate beings and it is not his law for them to mix."

To the Lovings, their marriage was no big deal, Romano said. They'd grown up together. But to the state, this was a threat to keeping whites on top, Romano said.

Interracial couples often met in schools or at work, Romano said. Basically any place where they could meet as social equals.

"Being able to meet and date like any other couple might was really vital. And for much of American history that's been very hard," Romano said.

The Pew study shows that a lot of those views have changed in great ways. But Romano said there's still tension, particularly among African-American women who are angry at African-American men who date outside their race.

The number of African-American men who marry outside of their race is sharply higher than the number of African-American women who do.

"Some of the anger that the movie (Jungle Fever) tapped into has abated somewhat. But some of those issues are still around, even though there's much winder acceptance of interracial relationship," Romano said.

But even if that's the case, the research found that beyond being acceptable to most, a growing number of Americans actually think it's a good thing that marriage across racial lines is actually a benefit to society.

"About 45 percent of Americans think it's actually a positive good when people marry across race lines. They think that's a good thing," Romano said. "That is just incredibly different."

U.S. women vie to be among first to compete in Olympics

The Takeaway — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Sue Jaye Johnson, a documentary photojournalist, has been following 24 Olympic hopefuls as they gear up for February’s U.S. qqualifying events.

A few of these women will be among the first to compete in Olympic boxing — a sport just opened to women this year. Johnson finds it shocking how long the professional boxing world has ignored female fighters.

“Boxing is the last men’s-only sport in the Olympics games … It has been a long time coming,” Johnson said.

Bertha Arasil, one of the women vying for a spot on the Olympic team, agreed.

“This is history right here. We really have to show out as women, we have to prove to everyone that we can do it,” she said. “It’s a lot of pressure.”

For this year’s athletes and their supporters, the event is about more than just the individual. The athletes in the ring will be fighting against intense stigmas concerning female strength and women’s roles.

It has taken decades of activism and lawsuits for women to break into the boxing world. According to the WNYC multimedia series Women Box: Fighting to Make History, up until 1992, venues were legally allowed to deny entrance to contestants based on their gender, and it was not until 1993 that USA Boxing lifted its ban on female boxers. Negative perceptions about female fighters still abound.

“I’ve asked the women and a lot of the responses they get from some men are, ‘why do you want to break that pretty face of yours?’ ” Johnson said.

Arasil said her family supports her in her endeavors, but she still faces doubt from many people she meets who think the lightweight fighter would be better suited for a career in modeling. Arasil is not deterred by such responses. She is inspired by the strength of the women who compete at her gym and she even finds the sport to be therapeutic.

“It’s relaxing. Some people think you have to get angry to throw punches, but it’s not like that,” she said.

In an interview with Women Box, Christy Halbert, a former pro boxer and one of the strongest advocates for female boxing today, views boxing as a powerful tool for women to assert their strength.

“Sometimes I think the women that come into boxing gyms are looking for a way to express their power and boxing may be the only way they can do that,” Halbert said. “That's not just a woman thing. Boys and men go through that as well. It's easy to feel disenfranchised in our culture. Boxing, very quickly, can make a person feel powerful again.”

A slideshow of images from Women Box: Fighting to Make History can be found on WNYC's website.

Magazine asks whether Obama is 'chess master or pawn?'

Here & Now — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:40:00 -0600

With the 2012 United States presidential election less than 9 months away, questions regarding President Barack Obama's competency and his still-developing legacy are increasing.

The Atlantic poses the question of whether Obama is a chess master or a a pawn in the cover story for the March edition of their magazine. James Fallows, writer of the piece, examined whether Obama's time in office has been better defined as a political tactician constantly thinking of his next moves, like a chess master, or as a president struggling to make his mark against better opponents as well as his own staff, a pawn.

"What matters most about a president is whether he learns from his inevitable failures and overcomes his inevitable weaknesses," said Fallows, who claimed Obama is becoming a chess master. "I think in the last year we've seen signs of President Obama doing that."

According to Fallows, those weaknesses include Obama's relative inexperience in the Senate.

"There were areas in which he wasn't really prepared for what it would take to deal with the Congress and deal with some other problems," he said. "About a month before he won the election against John McCain, suddenly the landscape changed (from the Iraq War). There was the financial collapse, and something that had not been part of Obama's background at all, world fiscal management, dealing with financial crises, etc. Suddenly that was his responsibility and the dominating fact, at least for the first two years of his presidency."

Other weaknesses for Obama, according to Fallows, include the "Mr. Spock problem," or a perceived coldness in Obama's demeanor. Fallows said Obama can inspire people on the mass scale, citing the speech the president gave after the 2011 Tucson shooting. However, President Obama lacks the patience of presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan on an individual level.

The successes of President Obama, according to Fallows, are highlighted by containing the Iraq War and improving U.S. relations with China, among others.

"You don't end up governing on the issues that you run on. That's the case for most presidents, so that is where he has had to try hardest" said Fallows. "I think, probably, the second thing is recognizing the reality of the polical opposition he faces. He's become more confident in being able to draw lines and say I stand for this. They stand for that. Take your choice."

The question of Barrack Obama's mastery of the presidency will be a topic of much debate in the upcoming election, and his legacy may well be defined by its outcome.

Apple sends independent inspectors to suppliers’ Chinese factories

The Takeaway — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:15:00 -0600

In an effort to protect its public image, Apple has hired auditors from the Fair Labor Association to inspect the facilities in China where their electronics are produced.

Recent public and media attention, has forced Apple to divulge information about its suppliers. Now, the Fair Labor Association will look at the safety and working conditions of Apple’s suppliers and will publish its findings.

According to David Barboza, Shanghai business correspondent for The New York Times, Apple’s suppliers faces a long list of workplace violations.

“Often we found workers who were working 90, 100, or more hours a week, not just violating Apple’s code of conduct, but the law. Then there are the safety hazards. We documented the case of this explosion that killed 4 workers and injured about 20 others at a factory in Chengdu,” Barboza said.

According to The New York Times, “auditors have found instances of excessive overtime, underage workers, improperly disposed hazardous waste and falsified records... Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens.”

Barboza said Apple’s decision to invite in outside auditors is in direct response to the recent media coverage.

“There are violations in the factories that supply Apple and Apple wants to get on top of that before too long,” Barboza said. “They’ve been under some pressure to show that they’re doing something about their factories in China.”

Barboza said workplace violations that have been uncovered at facilities operated for Apple are not unique. Many American companies are currently being accused of supporting unsafe working conditions at facilities that make their products.

In an interview with The New York Times, Sasha Lezhev of the Enough Project, a social justice group, said Apple’s decision has far-ranging consequences. Because Apple has such a strong pull on market forces, they have the ability to change the way American companies do business in China.

“The problem with the F.L.A. is that it lives by rules set up by the companies itself…Real transparency will transform the electronics industry. But if it’s just a whitewash, I’m not sure how much will change,” Lezhev said.

Chinese delegation signs huge soybean trade agreement with the U.S.

Here and Now — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:15:00 -0600

China is the world’s largest agricultural producer but also the world's largest agricultural consumer.

U.S. agricultural exports to China have surged in the past few years and many states are benefiting from the increased trade. But especially Iowa.

In his first visit to Iowa in nearly 30 years, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping this week agreed to purchase $4.31 billion worth of U.S soybeans in a meeting at the World Food Prize Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

The agreement secures the purchase of 317 million bushels of soybeans from Iowa farms, Bloomberg reported.

Virgil Schmitt, a field agronomist at Iowa State University, said China buys $7 billion worth of products a year from Iowa.

“We export about a third of the products we produce here, and of that China consumes about 15 percent of that… China is our largest customer,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China became the top market for U.S. agricultural goods last year, purchasing $20 billion in U.S. agricultural exports.

Schmitt said half of what Iowa sells to China is soybeans, a quarter is corn, and a quarter is pork and beef products.

In fact, the U.S. has seen a 50 percent increase in Chinese corn purchases since 2010. Demand for soybeans has increased as droughts last year damaged crops in Brazil and Argentina, the two biggest agricultural exporters, after the U.S. According to Bloomberg, The USDA estimates that China probably will increase purchases from all suppliers by 62 percent in the next decade to 90 million tons from a projected 55.5 million this year.

“The Chinese people are becoming more affluent, they are demanding more and better quality products, and we are able to supply those to them” Schmitt explained.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, said the U.S. and China would also sign a five-year agreement to cooperate on agricultural trade, production and food security with long-term food security as the principal goal.

The trade agreements were signed during Xi's two-day visit to Iowa, part of his four-day trip to the United States. His first stop in Iowa was in Muscatine, the farm town he visited on an agricultural trade mission in 1985. Xi, who is expected to become the next president of China, traveled from Iowa to Los Angeles for additional meetings.

Iowa is the number one corn, soybean and pork producing state in the country, and to respond to Chinese demand, they’ve had to devote more of their land to soybeans and corn, at the expense, Schmitt said, of hay and pasture fields.

"In some of the other states that are a little more marginal in terms of corn and soybean production, that have historically emphasized wheat or cotton; more and more acres are being diverted into corn and soybean production as markets have surged."

Iowa State agricultural economist Chad Hart said farmers like this trade because assuming that the supply stays the same, prices increase. That also means that Americans are paying higher prices, but in Schmitt's opinion, the cost is miniscule.

“If we look at the value of the corn in a box of corn flakes, that probably translates to about one cent, as our markets go up. Because the vast majority of the cost in that box of corn flakes is in the processing and packaging and shipping,” he said.

Though some may be concerned about the possibility of an export bubble burst if China decides to grow its own crops, Schmitt said that there is no need to worry.

"China only does have so much land. If people shift their production from one crop to another, then demand in one crop might decrease, but we would expect that would be offset by an increase in demand in other areas," Schmitt said. "People would expect that the mix of trading would change, but assuming that we stay on good terms with the Chinese, most people believe that we are going to have a fairly healthy relationship with them."

Iowa expects more soybean commitments from China. Officials say the deals could add up to a record amount of U.S. soybeans — 12 million tons — being sold to China this year.

Research shows after divorce, women more likely than men to lose health insurance

Here & Now — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:34:00 -0600

In the rush to divide the property the furniture and child custody in a divorce, a new study shows something else is getting left behind.

A new study out of the University of Michigan(http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs/6843) finds that many women lose their health insurance after divorce. Using 11 years of Census data, lead researcher Bridget Lavelle looked at health insurance levels before and after a divorce. She found that about 16 percent of women lose health insurance within six months of divorce and go without it for at least two years — the longest that can be measured with the data available.

Lavelle, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, said women with the highest risk of losing coverage are those were covered under a husband's plan prior to the divorce.

"Roughly 1-in-4 of these women become uninsured in the months following divorce," Lavelle said. "But other women also lose research."

Research shows that after a divorce, many women suffer a substantial drop in economic well-being, which makes it more difficult for women to afford health insurance — even if they weren't previously covered by a husband's plan.

Lavelle said her study didn't look at the situation for men, but previous research, she said, shows that men don't suffer the decline in economic well-being to the degree that women do.

"Men are also less likely than women to be insured through a spouse's insurance," she said. "For both of these reasons, the risk of insurance loss is probably substantially less for men."

Other statistics show that recently divorced women are more likely to be in poverty than men, 22 percent to 11 percent. Some of that could be attributed to the loss of healthcare.

Many states do provide for state insurance coverage through Medicaid for parents of children — though usually only if they have extremely low incomes. For example, in some states, the maximum income is set at 90 percent of the federal poverty level. For a single woman with two children, she'd need to earn less than $16,000 per year to qualify for Medicaid, Lavelle said.

For childless adults, it's virtually impossible for them to get coverage through Medicaid.

This loss of health insurance, Lavelle said, "definitely puts a women's health at risk."

"Past research has found that uninsured women frequently worry about getting sick, about whether they'll be able to see a doctor, afford medication or pay medical bills if they do," she said. "Being uninsured also means women are less likely to go to the doctors for check-ups or to get medical care when they do get sick."

The next step for the research will be to examine how the phenomena changes after the healthcare reform law goes into effect. Though nothing in the healthcare really addresses this directly, Lavelle said it should help.

Congress sends unemployment, payroll tax cut extension to President Obama's desk

Here & Now — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:44:00 -0600

Congress Friday gave its final blessing to a compromise bill that will continue the payroll tax cuts that expire after this year and continue to provide unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed.

The bill will also prevent a large reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors from going into effect. All told, it extends compromise legislation passed last fall through the end of the year — preventing the issue from devolving into an election year mess.

The legislation passed in both the House and the Senate with support from most Democrats and a few Republicans. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill when it reaches his desk.

“One hundred sixty million Americans. That’s the number of Americans who are helped by this bill," Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who, led negotiations over the measure with the House, said to The New York Times.

The compromise came together quickly when Republicans agreed to drop demands that the payroll tax cut extension be paid for. That provision will add about $100 billion to the federal deficit. But the other provisions will be paid for, through a combination of new revenues, cuts in spending on preventative healthcare called for under President Obama's healthcare reform law, as well as a reduction in the length of time people can receive the extended unemployment benefits.

Representative Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., told the Times the bill was “a very important breakthrough and shows that we can come together and compromise.”

Republicans were eager to avoid the debacle they faced in December when the tax cuts were very nearly allowed to expire.

“We’re dumb, but we’re not stupid,” Sen. John McCain told reporters after he voted, according to the Associated Press. “We did not want to repeat the debacle of last December. It’s not that complicated.”

Transportation Secretary criticizes GOP transportation proposal, calls for investment

The Takeaway — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:55:00 -0600

There's a debate going in Congress about what will be the future of America's transportation system.

Will it mean simply maintaining the existing highway system? Expanding it as the country continues to grow? Augmenting it with national high speed rail? Funding public transit? It's becoming increasingly clear that "all of the above" is no longer a financially valid response, but just which course to take is hotly debated among Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Congress and the White House. Now, the legislation is mired in a traffic jam to rival the worst day on the 405 in Los Angeles.

Ray LaHood, United States Secretary of Transportation, said the Senate is making progress on legislation, with a bipartisan bill being passed out of the Senate transportation committee with unanimous approval. It'll be voted on after the current recess.

"The House is quite different. The House bill was a terrible bill. Had no support at all. Speaker Boehner couldn't even get his Republican colleagues to vote for it," LaHood said. "They've had to pull the bill because it doesn't reflect the values we've known in terms of transportation programs, particularly transit, particularly bus service, particularly light rail and other forms of transportation."

So the bill was pulled and LaHood said that's sad for America.

"We need a good, strong transportation program, a good infrastructure program," LaHood said.

LaHood also rejected the notion, which some Republicans have pushed, that we can no longer afford "to do it all" in terms of forms of transportation other than roads.

"We've always done big things. We've always been able to find the resources to do what we need to do in transportation," LaHood said. "I would direct people to the president's budget, which was released on Monday of this week. It's an over $460 billion budget. It's paid for using Highway Trust funds and funds that were paying for the Iraq War. And it takes care of roads and bridges in a very comprehensive way. It takes care of transit systems around America, takes care of our very strong safety agenda and safety initiative and really is a comprehensive approach."

LaHood said that should be the model for how we continue to make progress on transportation in America. The House approach, though, he said, was a failed approach.

But transportation advocates are even critical of parts of the Obama plan, saying it abandons the promise of building a true high speed rail network.

LaHood, though, rejected those criticisms, saying the $10 billion that's been spent on high-speed rail over the past three years "isn't chump change" and is "10 billion times more" that has been previously been invested in high-speed rail.

"We will continue to make those investments in the midwest and on the northeast corridor," he said. "What these investments do, they enhance passenger rail, they expand passenger rail and we have one of the strongest passenger rail programs that people have seen in the history of transportation."

LaHood also said that transportation should be funded using the principles Obama outlined — rather than with oil and gas leases, as proposed by Republicans.