9-11 memorial fund needs support
By: Marie MacKay

Carolyn Beug, Utah State University alumnus.

Mary Alice Wahlstrom, wife of a former USU employee.

Brady Howell, former USU student.

All died on Sept. 11, 2001.

These individuals are who a small group of Davis County teenagers are determined to do.

Youth of Promise (YOP), a service group composed of junior high and high school students, is nearing the final months of a five-year fundraising effort to build a $500,000 Sept. 11 memorial at USU's Utah Botanical Center.

The only obstacle preventing the construction of this historic project is funding - $180,000 to be exact.

"It's not just a small project that they are doing, it's a huge project and to think that they have already put in literally years is phenomenal," said Zellene Allred from Hyde Park, whose son Michael died in combat Sept. 6, 2004.

In order to complete the memorial for the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, YOP needs to raise the remaining money by March, said Margaret Wahlstrom, whose mother-in-law, Mary Alice and sister-in-law, Beug, died in the first airplane that hit the World Trade Centers.

The group is involved in several fundraising projects. They are selling "Utah Unites in Hope" wristbands for $2 each.

They also receive a certain percentage of money for groceries when Albertson's customers fill out a Community Partner form with their Preferred Savings cards.

In addition, a book containing the bibliography of Utah residents who have died in the war on terror will be sold at the Botanical Center's Utah House.

"Before we do construction, we have to have the money," said YOP President Mari Lindstrom.

Because the memorial will be built on land donated by USU, Lindstrom hopes to involve the university's students to raise money.

Daniel Allred, a USU freshman whose brother Michael died in the war, has been working with members of ASUSU to sell wristbands at university-sponsored events.

"It's going to such a great cause. These [students] might not agree with why the war started, but these are men and women who are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for people they don't even know," Allred said. "It's a way for the community to come back and say 'thank you.'"

Originally, the memorial was meant to honor the three individuals from Utah that died during the attacks, but as the memorial evolved, the war in Iraq began and the youth group wanted to pay tribute to those serving from Utah and the heroes from Sept. 11, Wahlstrom said.

"It's a very interesting concept and idea and it's very fitting that the memorial will be expanded to recognize the entire Sept. 11 event," said David Anderson, associate director of the Botanical Center.

With help from AJC Architects, the memorial is designed to portray the message of the war through a three-dimensional physical manifestation of emotions.

A pathway to the memorial will lead visitors under a large stone balancing over piles of rubble on the ground representing the vulnerability felt on the day of the attacks.

Once inside the memorial plaza, there will be a reflecting pool symbolizing the unity of the United States after the attacks and 3,000 fiber-optic lights to show how many lives were lost, Brough said.

"It's a very humbling experience to know that someone you know has been added to that lost list, but there is a healing as you come to these different memorials that these young men have not been forgotten," Zellene said.

A row of totems will be constructed by community groups to express their feelings through art and words.

"After they get it built, it will never be finished - it will be a living and growing monument that will show other events that are going on [in the United States]," Brough said.

The memorial has already been nominated for the national American Freedom Award, Lindstrom said.

"It's a really beautiful project and I think people will come from all over the nation to see it," she said. "I hope people will want to be united as a nation."

Through various fundraising efforts, YOP has already received other donations from organizations including Kaysville City, Clearfield Job Corp, Hill Air Force Base, Layton City, Northern Electric and Spears Plumbing.

For more information about the memorial, or to donate, visit www.utahbotanicalcenter.org or send donations to Utah Unites in Hope at 715 E. 200 North, Kaysville, UT 84037.

http://www.utahstatesman.com/media/paper24...w.utahstatesman.com

Oliver Stone's upcoming drama "World Trade Center" which is scheduled to be released August 2006. Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal the Academy Award winning director tells the true story of the heroic survival and rescue of two Port Authority policemen – John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno – who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went in to help people escape.

The film also follows their families as they try to find out what happened to them, as well as the rescuers who found them in the debris field and pulled them out. Their story shows how the best in people rose above the tragic events of that day.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_7162.html

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Planning Purposes - Sent January 23, 2006

Contact: Joe Soldevere (Maloney) - (212) 860-0606; Craig Donner (Fossella) - (718) 356-8400

Fossella, Maloney & Sick/Injured Ground Zero Workers

to Call for Appointment of

9/11 Health Czar

to Coordinate Feds' Response

to Ground Zero Health Impacts

-Recent Deaths Underscore Need for Immediate Action-

WHAT: News Event. NY Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens) and Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island) will be joined by sick & injured Ground Zero workers, union leaders and NY Delegation members TBA to demand that a seasoned health expert be appointed 9/11 Health Czar to coordinate the federal response to 9/11 workers' health needs.

WHY: The federal government does not have a single individual overseeing and coordinating the response to the health impacts of 9/11 nor has federal funding been spent treating sick and injured responders. Further, the federal health monitoring program was shut down after only 400 workers were examined, creating uncertainty among the thousands of workers, volunteers and residents who responded to the attack.

Recent media reports indicate that as many as fourteen 9/11 workers, including an NYPD detective and a firefighter, have died due to injuries sustained during their service at Ground Zero. Clearly, the federal government must take charge and act now to ensure that all 9/11 responders have access to health monitoring and treatment.

WHO: * 9/11 RESPONDERS and Family Members STILL SUFFERING & STILL WITHOUT PROPER ACCESS TO HEALTH MONITORING AND TREATMENT

        * NY Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Vito Fossella and Others TBA

        * Tom Hart, Chair of the WTC Worker and Volunteer Medical Monitoring Program Advisory Committee

                    * NY Labor Leaders

WHEN: Wednesday, January 25th at 11:00 AM

WHERE: Ground Zero, west side of Church St. (at Cortlandt St., across from Century 21 Dept. Store), Rain Location TBA

Sept. 11 detainees sue officials and guards

By Nina Bernstein The New York Times

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006
 
NEW YORK Hundreds of people were swept up on visa violations in the weeks after Sept. 11, held for months in a federal detention center as "persons of interest" to terror investigators and then deported. Now six of them have become accusers. 
They are coming back to New York to give depositions against top government officials and detention guards whom they are suing. As in the cases of all the Muslim immigrants rounded up in the New York area after the Sept. 11 attacks, the six were never accused of a crime related to terrorism. In fact, they were eventually cleared. 
But as they return here - four from Egypt, one from Pakistan, one from Britain - the U.S. government is requiring that they be in the constant custody of federal marshals. 
They are barred from calling anyone during their stay at an unidentified hotel, where depositions are being taken over the next two weeks. They can expect hours of questioning by lawyers representing more than 31 defendants in the lawsuits, including John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and Robert Mueller 3rd, the director of the FBI. 
The first returning detainees, Yasser and Hany Ibrahim, who are brothers, say that putting themselves back in the hands of the government they are suing is an act of faith in the United States. Speaking by telephone from Alexandria, Egypt, the two said they were frightened but resolute in pressing a class-action lawsuit charging that they and others were abused and deprived of due process because of their religion or national origin, in violation of federal law and the Constitution. 
"I'm seeking justice," said Yasser, 33, who had a Web site design business in New York before he and his younger brother, Hany, 29, a delicatessen worker, were delivered in shackles to a detention center 19 days after Sept. 11. "It's from the same system that did us injustice before. But I have faith in this system. I know what happened before was a mistake." 
A report by the inspector general of the U.S. Justice Department found systemic problems with immigrant detentions and widespread abuse at the federal detention center in the borough of Brooklyn where the six were held; several guards have since been disciplined. 
Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said officials would not comment on any aspect of the case, but in court papers the officials who have been sued deny wrongdoing. 
Justice Department lawyers contend in part that the Sept. 11 attacks created "special factors" - including the need to detect and deter future terrorist attacks - that outweigh the plaintiffs' right to sue for damages for any constitutional violations. 
The detainees' lawyers say that what happened at the detention center can be recognized four years later as the template for later abuses by the United States around the globe. 
Right after the World Trade Center attacks, they said, their parents urged them to come home. "We assured them," Yasser Ibrahim recalled, "'This is the United States. They don't arrest people for no charges. We didn't do anything, so nothing's going to happen to us."' 
But on Sept. 30, 2001, the lawsuit says, a dozen terrorism investigators from the FBI, the police and the immigration services knocked at the door of the apartment that the brothers shared with several Egyptian and Moroccan friends. They took away the Ibrahims and another man; their tourist visas had expired. 
Physical abuse, the lawsuit says, began the moment they arrived, chained and shackled. As Yasser described it, supervised guards slammed his younger brother face-first into a wall where a T-shirt bearing the U.S. flag had been taped, then did the same to him. 
Worse than physical or verbal abuse, Yasser Ibrahim said, was "the feeling that we are being hidden from the outside world, and nobody knows in the outside world that we are arrested and in this place." 
At a closed immigration hearing Nov. 20, three weeks after their arrest, the brothers agreed to immediate deportation. By Dec. 7, the lawsuit says, FBI memos stated that clearance checks on the Ibrahims had shown no links to terrorism. But they were held six more months - Hany Ibrahim until May 29, 2002, and Yasser Ibrahim until June 6. 
The Ibrahim brothers say a presumption of guilt followed them to Egypt, where they now are unemployable. Yasser Ibrahim, who is married with a 2-year-old son, said he and his brother were eking out a living in a small jewelry business. 
"It's going to be very difficult for me to go back for just a week and not to be able to see the places that I loved before," he said of his return. "America's the land of the free." 
 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/23/news/detainees.php

SPECIAL

GROUND ZERO MEMORIAL PRAYER SERVICE

THURSDAY JANUARY 26 @ 12 NOON

LIBERTY & CHURCH

REMEMBERING FALLEN FIRST RESPONDERS

PRAYING FOR ALL FIRST RESPONDERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

           SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER

DON FAETH

VP, UNIFORMED EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS & PARAMEDICS—FDNY, LOCAL 2507

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT REV. BILL 917.826.7255

Bill Doyle -Father of Joseph
Wtc tower1 101st fl.Cantor
http://www.joeydoyle.com
17189482538
17189486284 phone/Fax
3472360885 Mobile
http://www.wtcufg.org
http://takebackthememorial.org/
http://www.911fsa.org
9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism
http://www.coalitionof911families.org/
Board Member, 9/11 Health Insurance Group

9/11 responders are now in need of help
 
SHERYL McCARTHY

'People keep saying it's all in our heads, but you know what, we're dropping dead," Bonnie Giebfried told me.

A former emergency medical technician, Giebfried was healthy and athletic when her ambulance responded to the World Trade Center attacks more than four years ago. But after spending five hours at the site and being buried twice by falling debris, her life changed dramatically.

 She used to play on three softball teams and a paddleball team. Now she suffers from full-blown asthma, a persistent cough, a condition that causes stomach acid to back up into her throat and has damaged her vocal cords, damage to her left side from the neck to the knee, nerve damage, and injuries to her left thumb, wrist, elbow and shoulder. She recently recovered from her third bout with pneumonia, has been hospitalized three times, and has made repeated trips to emergency rooms.

So she wasn't surprised by recent news reports that 23 former Ground Zero responders have died from diseases related to their exposure to toxic chemicals there, and that thousands more are sick and suffering. While some responders are suing the government, Giebfried and others want the federal government to pay for medical treatment for the sick responders, many of whom can no longer work and have no health insurance.

Mount Sinai Medical Center has done medical screenings for more than 15,000 World Trade Center responders under a federally funded program that will last until 2009. The medical center has also treated 1,600 responders through a program primarily paid for by the Red Cross. But there's a three-month waiting list and it's funded only for another year and a half.

Meanwhile, doctors at Mount Sinai say they're seeing people who are chronically ill and not getting better. And because they were exposed to numerous carcinogens, many more could get sick over time and some may develop cancer.

"There's a potentially looming time bomb of what we may see down the road," says Dr. Robin Herbert, director of the World Trade Center Health Effects Treatment Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Giebfried hasn't worked since April 2004. It took more than two years for the state's workers' compensation program, which is funded by private employers, to agree to pay some of her medical bills. After her job insurance ran out, she was without coverage for a year until the Red Cross picked up her $440 monthly premium under the COBRA program, and that coverage will end in March. Meanwhile, she has more than $40,000 in unpaid medical bills and is living off a federal disability check and a small stipend from workers' compensation.

Her story is similar to the ones I heard from other responders. They talked about going from good health to having a vast array of ailments for which they take up to two dozen medications. They talked about losing the ability to work, about burying friends, and about fearing that, having been exposed to the infamous "green smoke" at Ground Zero, they will only get sicker over time. They also talked about fighting with workers' compensation officials for their benefits, and about their amazement that the federal government has done nothing to help them with their medical needs.

John Feal, 39, a former demolition supervisor, worked six days removing debris at Ground Zero before his left foot was crushed by a steel beam. He's since had half his foot amputated, battled gangrene and organ shutdown, and has had more than a dozen surgeries on both feet. Every time he takes a pre-operative breathing test, he fails it. He thinks programs like the one at Mount Sinai are great, but knows the hospital can't handle the demand.

"We went [to Ground Zero] without any prejudice, without thinking about our lives," Feal said. "Now while we're suffering and dying slowly - we are literally decaying - these people have just turned their backs."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) is outraged that to date, "not one dime of federal money" has gone for the treatment of sick and injured responders. She and other members of New York's congressional delegation are pushing Congress to restore $125 million that was cut from the federal budget to help states pay workers' compensation claims related to Sept. 11 and to pay for treatment programs like Mount Sinai's. The measure passed the House and the Senate is expected to follow suit.

The health problems of the responders are shaping up to be the next big national scandal. They deserve to be treated better, not simply ignored.

Sheryl McCarthy can be reached at mccart731@aol.com.

Statement for the press by Congressman Jerrold Nadler, New York City, December 9, 2005

Good morning. Thanks so much for coming out through the snow this morning. Im delighted that our friends in the environmental community are here. Theyve all been incredibly committed to this cause.

I want to thank Senator Clinton for her tireless advocacy on behalf of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and for her insistence on the highest possible standards of response. Senator Clinton truly understands the responsibilities of the public servant. Without her work, the movement assembled to seek environmental injustice would have come to very little.

Welcome to my office. Were all standing about a mile from Ground Zero. Were the Towers still standing, you'd feel as though you were in their shadow. And in the weeks following their terrible fall, this area was so choked with toxic dust that only residents with proof of address were allowed down here.

Yet according to the EPA plan, if you're standing north of Canal Street, your'e nowhere close to Ground Zero. The EPA would say that this far north of Ground Zero a whole mile contamination is not an issue. So its particularly interesting to note that in the weeks following the attacks, the Department of Energy used this very roof to measure the contamination and causticity of the air.

EPA does not want to hear that if you looked out this window on September 11, you would barely have been able to see the buildings opposite. EPA does not want to hear if you had been walking through Brooklyn Heights on September 11, you would have had office paper swirling around your feet.

EPA says contamination can be defined by lines on a map.

The fact is that the testing and cleanup plan that the Environmental Protection Agency has put forward is a shameless and transparent effort to find nothing, spend nothing, and do nothing.

As I have mentioned, the most obvious failure of the plan is that a priori it denies the possibility of contamination north of Canal Street and in Brooklyn, places where we all saw WTC dust with our own eyes. In my book, we should reject on its face any plan that discounts these areas. But, sadly, there are many more reasons to oppose the plan before us today.

The plan involves yet another absurd imagination game and that is that EPA asks us to imagine that businesses and workplaces cannot be contaminated. This is ludicrous. If dust can get through window jambs in homes, it can do so in business. Indeed, we saw it do so.

In addition, the sampling method proposed by the plan is clearly designed to avoid the very locations where WTC dust was likely to collect. The plan will not test HVAC systems, and it will not test so-called "reservoirs" the deep, dark spaces in buildings that rarely get cleaned, and, therefore, where dust piles up.

And when it comes to cleanup, there is another major flaw. EPA has backpedaled on its commitment to clean whole buildings wherever contamination is found. So if my apartment is found to be contaminated, and is cleaned, I may still not be out of the woods, because my neighbor didn't get his apartment tested in the first place. So when he decides to rearrange his furniture next year, you know what's going to happen.

Time and time again we have said that the only way to solve the whole problem is to address the whole problem. Time and time again, EPA has failed to do that.

EPA is mandated under federal law to take the lead here. Leaving aside that we have had to drag them into it, kicking and screaming, wouldn't you think that, as the federal governments experts on environmental hazards, they would want to see the job done well? Wouldnt you think that they would want to see lives saved?

It is plain to see that EPA has failed to protect Americans when they most needed protection, and I think its wholly appropriate that we ask the GAO to look into their actions. Certainly the residents and victims here in New York want answers. But even beyond that, the taxpayers in our country need to know whether the Environmental Protection Agency they pay for is doing its best to protect them if its doing anything to protect them.

Finally, I want to say this to EPA: its not too late. We are angry, and we are disappointed, but we would welcome a better plan. The plans shortcomings are clear, but the solutions to those problems are clear as well: test above Canal Street; test Brooklyn; test the parts of buildings where dust is most likely to be found; commit to cleaning entire buildings.

We would welcome an effort to do this the right way. We are ready as we have always been ready to work together.

On September 11, a terrible tragedy befell this city. Enough damage has been done already. Lets resolve here and now to help heal New York while we still can.

Thank you

Unions Call For Death Benefit In Post-9/11 Cases;

Wary of Growing Toll Among Responders To WTC Site


By GINGER ADAMS OTIS


Leaders of the city's fire and police unions are quietly pushing to get a task force in place to oversee the implementation of the World Trade Center Disability law signed by Governor Pataki last summer.

 
JAMES SLEVIN: Alarmed by recent deaths.
 
They're also anxious to get a death benefit added to the law that currently only grants presumptive disability pensions to Ground Zero workers who fall ill with any number of predetermined injuries or diseases.

The legislation contains a clause allowing for changes to the law as circumstances demand, to be made by a task force comprised of city, state and union leaders.

'Protect Families, Too'

Uniformed Firefighters' Association Vice President James Slevin said his union was waiting for final appointments so that the task force could be petitioned to add a death benefit.

"We feel it's critical to get these death benefits included as part of the law. It was the intent of the law and the legislators to not only protect the responders who became ill, but also their families, should they die," he said.

 
MICHAEL J. PALLADINO: Can't be a coincidence.
 

The UFA Jan. 13 reported the deaths of three firefighters from lung-related diseases believed to be linked to their work at Ground Zero, and the Detectives' Endowment Association said the Jan. 5 death of 34-year-old retired Det. James Zadroga was also related to the 450 hours he spent investigating debris in the World Trade Center site.

A medical autopsy is pending for Detective Zadroga. The families of the three firefighters have not made their medical reports public. The Fire Department has not confirmed the deaths or commented on any possible causal link to 9/11.

Two Emergency Medical Technicians also passed away last summer from lung diseases believed to be related to 9/11, although the one coroner's report released to the public listed the death simply as a heart attack due to respiratory distress.

Cumulative Toll

DEA President Michael Palladino said he'd asked in informal discussions with the NYPD for a line-of-duty death designation for Detective Zadroga.

"My feeling is, should his death certificate reveal that he's a victim of the World Trade Center, as we assume, then he's the 24th [city] police officer to succumb to 9/11 injuries," said Mr. Palladino. "He just didn't succumb that day."

Mr. Palladino acknowledged the possibility that an autopsy might not establish that Mr. Zadroga's prolonged presence at Ground Zero four years ago brought about the diseases that took his life.

'Had to Be 9/11-Related'

"Absent any clear indication, then it's left up to interpretation. But pre-9/11, James Zadroga was a very healthy individual with no symptoms of respiratory illness," the union leader noted. "His post-9/11 life was filled with difficulty breathing, reduced lung capacity, respiratory ailments and his health went downhill at an accelerated rate. I think it would be beyond coincidence to say this was his predetermined fate and not related to 9/11."

Mr. Palladino said he hoped that no other first responders would suffer untimely deaths from what appeared to be 9/11-related illnesses, but that it was necessary to add a death benefit to the WTC disability law.

The DEA is going to be polling its membership to get health information. According to Mr. Palladino, a week after Mr. Zadroga's passing, a second Detective died - Sandra Adrian, a 17-year-veteran of the force. She reportedly died of cancer, and the DEA is waiting for the autopsy before commenting on the possibility of a 9/11 link.

"Sandra spent a good amount of time at Ground Zero and at the [Fresh Kills] landfill," he said. "But she wasn't as young as Zadroga, so I'm sure the big battle is going to be over whether it was related to 9/11 or not."

No Protective Gear

Shortly after the Twin Towers came down and the rescue effort turned into a recovery effort, officials declared Ground Zero a crime scene. When that happened, Mr. Palladino said, Fresh Kills, the morgue and the city bereavement center became Detective-heavy operations.

Many of the Detectives were at the sites without protective gear or with inadequate gear; the DEA called in an industrial specialist a few days after the disaster who recommended more stringent protections that the union quickly adopted.

Mr. Palladino and Mr. Slevin applauded the foresight of the Albany lawmakers who had insisted on including a task force in the final version of the bill presented to Governor Pataki last summer.

Peter D. Meringolo, who as chair of the Public Employee Conference did most of the negotiating for city and state unions on the legislation, said he understood the urgent need to get the task force running.

'A Need to Monitor'

"This bill, which was monumental in and of itself, is not foolproof, and there are things that we need to be monitoring and assessing now," he said. "At the Public Employees' [Conference] Breakfast in Albany this Feb. 7, one of the main objectives will be to get a time frame established and get the appointments finished, and we'll be giving examples like [Detective Zadroga] to reinforce the need for a death benefit."

The task force is comprised of 19 members, three of whom are appointed by the Assembly, and three by the Senate. Four of those seats must be given to state or city labor leaders, and two must go to independent health experts.

Of the Governor's six seats, one must be filled by the state Health Commissioner, and the remaining five can be designated as the Governor sees fit.

Other appointees include the State Comptroller, the City Comptroller, the Mayor or a representative of his choice, a second appointee from the state Department of Health, the state's Department of Labor Commissioner, the Director of the state Division of the Budget and the Commissioner of the state Department of Civil Service.

Outstanding Issues

Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who was instrumental in getting the third version of the pension bill to the Governor's desk, said the Senate has already made its appointments and that the task force was very close to completion.

He said there were a few issues that needed to be addressed, such as the situation of city Mechanics who cleaned and maintained all the vehicles used by first responders and others on 9/11 and for months after. Because the garages where they worked weren't included in the official delineation of "Ground Zero," they're not considered eligible for the disability pension.

"They probably breathed in more dust and debris - after all, they were cleaning it up," said Mr. Abbate. "So that has to be fixed. But I'm open to hearing what the other unions have to say about a death benefit and I would support it, even if we have to do it in a different bill. It's something we knew was coming, we just didn't think it would be this soon."

Mr. Abbate said he was pressing to get final appointments made by Feb. 1.

http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2006/0127/News/003.html

Work finally nearing at Ground Zero site of 9/11 terror attack

NEW YORK — After four years of planning and squabbling over the future of Ground Zero, 2006 will finally be "the year of the hard hat" at the hallowed site.
"It's going to be a year when people are actually going to start seeing activity," Port Authority Executive Director Kenneth Ringler said during a walk-through of the site.
"By the end of 2006, we estimate there will be 1,000 construction workers here," he said.
Five hundred will work on the PATH station, which is being transformed into the Grand Central Terminal of downtown.
The other workers will focus on projects designed to rebuild what's mainly a giant hole in the ground — one that draws hundreds of tourists a day along Church and Liberty streets.
The Port Authority, which owns the 16 acres, estimates contractors at Ground Zero will pour 50,000 cubic yards of concrete this year and construction will total $230 million.
9/11 memorial design criticized
Some concrete will go into fittings for the World Trade Center Memorial, starting in March, even with a number of Sept. 11 family groups criticizing the design.
Developer Larry Silverstein, whose long-term plans are being challenged by the authority, moved closer last week to a spring start on his 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, set for the northwest corner.
He awarded a contract to Petrocelli Electric, which will clear space for the foundation by relocating high-voltage lines and other wires serving PATH.
Another first-quarter project will be the temporary underpinning of the box that encloses the No. 1 subway line, which runs through the site and separates its western portion from the not-yet-excavated east side.
Massive excavation to come
Excavation of the east side — bordered by Church Street — will begin at the end of the year.
"We have to dig that area out, down to the lowest elevation, so we can put in parking and other structures," including multiple levels of stores the Port Authority wants to develop, Ringler said.
The surge of activity in 2006 is but a warm-up for years of expanding construction at Ground Zero and the surrounding area.
Goldman Sachs recently started to build its 43-story headquarters diagonally across West Street from Ground Zero, and construction of the Fulton Street Transit Center has led to the excavation of Dey Street.
The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, formed by Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, estimates 10,000 to 15,000 construction workers a day will be employed downtown when projects are in high gear over the next three to five years.
Lowermanhattan.info will become the new Web site of the command center, offering updates on construction and showing what the finished projects will look like.

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/112691

PA boss: Let's roll!
 
Pledges army of hardhats will send WTC site soaring in 2006
 
BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 
After four years of planning and squabbling over the future of Ground Zero, 2006 will finally be "the year of the hardhat" at the hallowed site.
"It's going to be a year when people are actually going to start seeing activity," Port Authority Executive Director Kenneth Ringler said during a walk-through of the site.

"By the end of 2006, we estimate there will be 1,000 construction workers here," he said.

Five hundred will work on the PATH station, which is being transformed into the Grand Central Terminal of downtown.

The other hardhats will be on projects designed to rebuild what's mainly a giant hole in the ground - one that draws hundreds of tourists a day along Church and Liberty Sts.

The PA, which owns the 16 acres, estimates contractors will pour 50,000 cubic yards of concrete this year, some of which will go into fittings for the controversial World Trade Center Memorial, starting in March.

Developer Larry Silverstein, whose long-term plans are being challenged by the PA, moved closer last week to a spring start on his 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, set for the northwest corner.

He awarded a contract to Petrocelli Electric, which will clear space for the foundation by relocating high-voltage lines and other wires serving PATH.

Another first-quarter project will be the temporary underpinning of the box that encloses the No. 1 subway line, which runs through the Trade Center site and separates its western portion from the not-yet-excavated east side.

Excavation of the east side - bordered by Church St. - will begin at the end of the year.

"We have to dig that area out,down to the lowest elevation, so we can put in parking and other structures," including multiple levels of stores the PortAuthority wants to develop, Ringler said.

The surge of activity this year is but a warmup for years of expanding construction at Ground Zero and the surrounding area.

Goldman Sachs recently started to build its 43-story headquarters diagonally across West St. from Ground Zero, and construction of the MTA's Fulton St. Transit Center has led to the excavation of Dey St.

Meanwhile, Silverstein is closing a deal with a Chinese developer to lease the top five stories of his new 7 World Trade Center, a source told the Daily News.

Beijing-based Vantone Real Estate Co., which plans to use roughly 200,000 square feet as a visitor and conference center to promote Chinese businesses in New York, would be the largest leaseholder so far in the 52-story building, which has been slow to attract firms.

"Having an international conference center at 7 World Trade Center is certainly consistent with my vision for downtown," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/385221p-326931c.html

Junkyard Animal Sculptor Jim Gary, 66, Dies

Jim Gary, an artist who used junkyard car parts to make playful dinosaur skeletons that were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County and other leading museums around the world, has died. He was 66.

Gary died Jan 14 at Centrastate Medical Center in Freehold, N.J., of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered last month, according to Kafi Benz, the director of his studio. Gary was a resident of Farmingdale, N.J.

Gary’s exhibit, “Twentieth Century Dinosaurs,” toured the United States, Australia and Asia for more than 20 years starting in the late 1970s. It featured several dozen of his creatures, most of them nearly life-sized, and attracted crowds at such disparate venues as the California Academy of Natural Sciences in San Francisco and the Automobile Dismantler’s Association of America in Detroit.

He built many of his sculptures from the worn-out parts of hulking American cars of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. He turned old brake shoes into dinosaur feet, oil pans into faces, axles into legs. Generator fans as dinosaur eyes allowed for huge lashes.

He often painted his dinosaurs bright orange, purple and pink with auto body paint.

Critics compared Gary’s scrap metal creatures to the famous bull’s head by Picasso made from a bicycle seat and handlebars.

Gary had a more basic conception of his art.

“If I were to try to define my works, I’d say they represent a view of the past through the use of the discards of modern technology, done with love and a sense of humor,” Gary said in a 1994 interview with The Dallas Morning News.

He and his art were featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic World and a number of other science and nature publications. His dinosaurs also appeared in the 1986 intergalactic movie fantasy “Howard the Duck” and in “Dinosaurs!,” a 1991 television special narrated by Walter Cronkite.

Children were among Gary’s biggest fans. He held workshops for them at the museums where he exhibited his dinosaurs and often received letters that he answered personally. He made guest appearances on several children’s television shows, including “Captain Kangaroo” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” One of his works, “Stegosaurus,” is included in “Alphabet Animals,” a children’s book by Charles Sullivan that also includes depictions of animals by Charles Audubon, Alexander Calder and Marc Chagall.

Self-taught, Gray marveled at his success, particularly when his work won awards. “Here were all these people who had degrees and had traveled to Europe and studied with the masters,” he told the Dallas Morning News in 1994. “And then, there was me. I didn’t have any formal training.”

Gary was born in Sebastian, Fla., one of 11 siblings. His father was a farm worker. His mother did domestic work. The family moved to Colts Neck, N.J., when Gary was an infant.

At age 11 he went to live with a family that was better able to support him.

He graduated from Freehold Regional High School, where he became interested in wood working and began to make wooden sculptures. He was also interested in cars as a teenager and built several entirely from scrap parts.

After high school he served four years in the Navy, where he earned an aviation mechanic’s license. He later held various jobs and continued to work on his sculpture.

When one of his temporary jobs ended he decided to make art full time. He crafted small animals and birds that he sold at art fairs. Increasingly he received private commissions.

In recent years he was commissioned to design a Sept. 11 memorial sculpture for Colts Neck, honoring five men from the area who died in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. A work in brass and copper, it includes lotus leaves and butterflies and was installed at the Colts Neck Municipal Building in 2002.

He also designed a baptismal font for St. Benedict’s Catholic Church in Holmdel, N.J., and stained glass pieces for the Opera Society of Monmouth, N.J.

Asked how he came to think of auto parts and animal parts as having a connection, he said one always made him think of the other.

“Junkyards remind me of animal graveyards,” he said in 1979. “I decided to try to get the animals back out of the cars.”

Gary is survived by a sister and four brothers.
 
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=265424&Category=20

RAND Report Details 9-11 Victims Compensation
From Robert Longley,

Over $38.1 billion paid out so far

A study released by the RAND Corporation shows that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — both individuals killed or seriously injured and individuals and businesses impacted by the strikes — have received at least $38.1 billion in compensation, with insurance companies and the federal government providing more than 90 percent of the payments.

New York businesses have received 62 percent of the total compensation, reflecting the broad-ranging economic impacts of the attack in and near the World Trade Center. Among individuals killed or seriously injured, emergency responders and their families have received more than civilians and their families who suffered similar economic losses. On average, first responders have received about $1.1 million more per person than civilians with similar economic loss.

The 9-11 terrorist attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,551 civilians and serious injury to another 215. The attacks also killed or seriously injured 460 emergency responders.

“The compensation paid to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania was unprecedented both in its scope and in the mix of programs used to make payments,” said Lloyd Dixon, a RAND senior economist and lead author of the report. “The system has raised many questions about equity and fairness that have no obvious answers. Addressing these issues now will help the nation be better prepared for future terrorist attacks.”

Dixon and co-author Rachel Kaganoff Stern interviewed and gathered evidence from many sources to estimate the amount of compensation paid out by insurance companies, government agencies and charities following the attacks. Their findings include:


Insurance companies expect to make at least $19.6 billion in payments, comprising 51 percent of the money paid in compensation.

Government payments total nearly $15.8 billion (42 percent of the total). This includes payments from local, state and federal governments, plus payments from the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 that was established by the federal government to compensate those killed or physically injured in the attacks. The total does not include payments to clean up the World Trade Center site or rebuild public infrastructure in New York City.

Payments by charitable groups comprise just 7 percent of the total, despite the fact that charities distributed an unprecedented $2.7 billion to victims of the attacks.
Because of concerns that liability claims would clog the courts and create further economic harm, the federal government limited the liability of airlines, airports and certain government bodies. The government established the Victim Compensation Fund to make payments to families for the deaths and injuries of victims. In addition, the government funded a major economic revitalization program for New York City.

RAND researchers found that businesses hurt by the attacks have received most of the compensation that the study was able to quantify. The families of civilians killed and the civilians who were injured received the second-highest payments. The study found that:


Businesses in New York City, particularly in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center, have received $23.3 billion in compensation for property damage, disrupted operations, and economic incentives. About 75 percent of that came from insurance companies. More than $4.9 billion went to revitalize the economy of Lower Manhattan.

Civilians killed or seriously injured received a total of $8.7 billion, averaging about $3.1 million per recipient. Most of this came from the Victim Compensation Fund, but payments also came from insurance companies, employers and charities.

About $3.5 billion was paid to displaced residents, workers who lost their jobs, or others who suffered emotional trauma or were exposed to environmental hazards.

Emergency responders killed or injured received a total of $1.9 billion, with most of that coming from the government. Payments averaged about $1.1 million more per person than for civilians with similar economic losses, with most of the higher amount due to payments from charities.
Certain features of the Victim Compensation Fund tended to increase compensation relative to economic loss. Other features tended to decrease compensation relative to economic loss. Researchers say more detailed individual data are needed to determine the net effect.

For example, the Victim Compensation Fund decided to limit the amount of lost future earnings it would consider when calculating awards for survivors. Administrators capped income the fund would consider at $231,000 per year in projecting future lifetime earnings, even though many people killed earned more than that amount. The special master of the Victim Compensation Fund had substantial discretion to set final awards for higher income earners, but data are not available on how he exercised that discretion.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/defenseandsecurity/a/randon911.htm