Byrne announces statewide leadership team

By Jennifer J. Foster

Thanks to the technical skills of the Opelika-Auburn News’ resident computer whiz, my blog has a new category for press releases.

Our first such entry comes from Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne, who announcing his statewide leadership team last week.

One note: Auburn/Opelika connections are all over this announcement. Jimmy Rane is, of course, a member of the Auburn University Board of Trustees; Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller sits on Byrne’s steering committee; state finance committee member Dan Broughton lives in Opelika; and Oline Price, who will chair Byrne’s effort in Lee County, is also Lee County’s Revenue Commissioner.

Conservative reformer Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne, who, as former chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system has been credited with cleaning up an entrenched culture of institutional corruption inside the postsecondary system, today announced a distinguished group of Alabama business, civic and community leaders who have committed their support to him and will serve, under the leadership of Campaign Chairman Jimmy Rane, as key advisers to the Byrne for Alabama 2010 campaign.

Making today’s announcement, Byrne said, “It is truly an honor and a distinct privilege to announce the tremendous group of leaders who have generously offered their support and considerable time, talents and resources to this campaign and to our goal of moving Alabama forward on the strength of proven, experienced and uncompromising leadership.

“The men and women who have agreed to lead our campaign as members of our State Steering Committee, State Finance Committee and as leaders in their counties truly represent the best and brightest in Alabama,“ Byrne added. “Their dedicated support is tremendously energizing; each of them has a long-time and proven commitment to building a better Alabama; and their support will be critical to our campaign as we mobilize our grassroots effort and take our call for serious ethics reform, meaningful education improvement and new job creation through vigorous economic development to Alabamians all across the state in the coming weeks and months.“

An enthusiastic Rane also weighed in on the impressive leadership team during a festive event celebrating the Grand Opening of Byrne for Alabama State Campaign Headquarters in Montgomery.  “The proven leaders and respected citizens represented on the Byrne for Alabama 2010 leadership team are indicative of the strong support Bradley Byrne has already earned from one end of Alabama to the other,“ Rane told a cheering crowd of supporters. “I look forward with great enthusiasm to working with this winning team of committed Alabamians to make sure Bradley Byrne is elected the next governor of this great state and has the opportunity to continue his successful record as an inspiring leader and tireless reformer.“

To read the rest of the release and see the names of the others who will coordinate Byrne’s campaign throughout the state, click here.

AU makes its mark on alternative energy development

By Jennifer J. Foster

Researchers with Auburn University’s Space Research Institute recently showed why they are at the forefront of solar energy development in Alabama: They took the lead in installing a power system using the technology at Lee County’s T.K. Davis Justice Center, the first public building in the state to be outfitted with solar energy.

From AU’s Communications and Marketing Office:

After months of research and analysis, the Auburn team managed the installation of a 16.56 kW grid-connected solar-powered system on the new addition to the center. The system will offset the energy costs of electricity the building uses.

“The Lee County Commission contracted with Auburn University to procure and install the system, to develop and manage a Web site and to conduct systems analysis and modeling,” said Henry Brandhorst, director of Auburn’s Space Research Institute. “We want to show that solar power is successful and to have others invest in it.”

“Every amount of power that we generate is power they don’t need from the grid,” Brandhorst said. And, if the center does not use all the power generated by the solar system on a given day, then their power meter literally runs backwards. The system will eventually pay for itself once the cost savings from the solar panels equals the cost of equipment and installation.

“Solar power systems are costly but costs are continuing to decrease every year,” Brandhorst said.

The release goes on to note how the research developed from the project will have practical applications for consumers, whether they eventually rely solely on solar at some point in the future, or whether they use it to supplement their traditional energy supplies. If you’re interested, you can view the building’s solar power output in real time at the team’s web site.

Solar power isn’t the only alternative energy area of interest to Auburn researchers. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers toured the university’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts Tuesday, getting “a glimpse of technology that could make bioenergy production more reliable and practical,“ according to this story in the Opelika-Auburn News.

Rogers helped bring about $1.5 million in federal funding for biofuels research at AU.

“I have been a big believer in it for years,” Rogers said of alternative energy research. “Global competition for oil is a loser for us.”

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the difference between legitimate federal spending and pork. As the old saying goes, if it comes to my district, it’s legit; if it goes to your district, it’s waste.

But Rogers captures the essence of the difference with his quote.

Here’s how I see it: Legitimate federal spending is money that, while spent in one place, has a likelihood of producing benefits for Americans broadly. Pork is money that goes into a district and stays there—basically a redistribution of tax dollars drawn from other areas of the country without much, if any, hope for return.

Of course, all this is predicated on the assumption that the government spends money on things and for purposes delineated in the Constitution ...

... And that’s another story.

Opelika discount drug card update

By Jennifer J. Foster

I linked you last week to a story in the Opelika-Auburn News about a new discount drug program in Opelika.

Today we have an update to that story, also from the News. It seems that local pharmacy owners aren’t too thrilled with the plan:

The city of Opelika will launch a prescription drug discount card on Saturday through the National League of Cities that could save non-insured residents up to 20 percent on their medication, but not everyone thinks it’s a good thing.

The cards, which will have the city of Opelika emblem, are administered by CVS/Caremark, the combination of the CVS drugstore/pharmacy chain and Caremark, a pharmacy benefit manager (a third party administrator of prescription drug programs). The two merged in 2007.

The cards offer discounts on prescription drugs, but the walk-off-the-street cost of prescriptions at some pharmacies could be lower without the use of the card. The pricing for the discount is based on usual and customary retail prices.

“The assumption being made is that all pharmacies other than CVS are over charging,” said Roger Burnett, owner of Thomas Pharmacy Inc., in Opelika. “We feel like our prices are probably as good as they are going to tell us to charge anyway.”

Read the rest here.

H1N1 update

By Jennifer J. Foster

As an update to yesterday’s post about the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, we have this story from the Associated Press:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that a massive school closing wouldn’t stop the spread of the swine flu virus, saying vaccinations must be the defense against a menace that one report said could infect up to half of the population.

“What we know is that we have the virus right now traveling around the United States,“ Sebelius said in a nationally broadcast interview. “And having children in a learning situation is beneficial ... What we learned last spring is that shutting a school down sort of pre-emptively doesn’t stop the virus from spreading ...“

Asked in the interview what people should do while awaiting the arrival of a vaccine, with first supplies likely by October but most not until the Thanksgiving season, Sebelius said: “I think it’s important that people begin to anticipate that we will have a vaccine. We think it’s likely that we’re going to need two shots for the vaccine.“

She said people should plan ahead for this, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions, pregnant women and health care industry workers. Sebelius said federal health authorities also are recommending that people should immediately get their regular “seasonal” flu vaccine to bolster their health for the scenario yet to play out later this year regarding the swine flu virus.

Here’s a link to the CDC’s “H1N1 U.S. Situation Update” map—in other words, a visual representation of where the infections have spread. One surprising fact: The virus is most widespread in Alaska and Maine—not exactly the two states I would expect to be at the top of the infection list. Other information useful for tracking H1N1 is available here, too—including the graph showing hospitalizations and deaths caused by the virus. Note that through Aug. 20, H1N1 had a fatality rate of more than 6.5 percent.

If you haven’t yet voted in my polls on this issue, please do. You’ll find the general poll in the sidebar; the poll about your intentions regarding the vaccine is in the earlier post.

Mike Rogers in Auburn with Lee Co. GOP

By Jennifer J. Foster

I caught up with U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) tonight after his speech to the Lee County Republican Executive Committee in Auburn.

I say I caught up with him after the speech because I got there just in time to hear the last paragraph of his remarks. I arrived just before the 7 p.m. meeting; unfortunately for me, Rogers was part of the 6 p.m. social hour. (Note to self: In the Lee County REC, “Social hour” actually includes business.)

Anyway, he was gracious enough to hang around in the lobby for a few minutes to catch me up on what he told the standing-room-only crowd of about 100.

Here’s what he said:

At the close of his formal remarks, Rogers was encouraging the crowd to work especially hard to retain the senior members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, including U.S. senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. Only after years of building seniority can legislators really start to make broad impacts on public policy, Rogers said, and through Shelby and Sessions, “Alabama is finally getting some seniority.“ Shelby, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee,“is an 800-pound gorilla” in Washington, and Sessions’ new position as the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee made him the GOP’s “point man” as the Senate considered the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

As Rogers concluded his remarks, a man over my shoulder said half-heartedly to the man sitting next to him, “Well, I guess the bottom line is, we’re stuck for the next 30 years.“

I couldn’t stifle a chuckle.

Later, I asked Tripp Skipper, Rogers’ senior adviser, how long Rogers intended to stay in Congress.

“My guess is he’ll keep going back as long as the good folks of the Third District will send him,“ Skipper said.

On health care: Rogers told me that most of his remarks to the crowd had focused on the health care bill now making its way through Congress.

“The whole debate is about the public option,“ he said. And while some people may think that the Democratic leadership will back off of the public option because of the “upheaval” it has caused across the country, “I don’t think it’s over,“ he said.

Rogers said there is no circumstance under which he would support a bill that included a public option, citing concerns that such an option would eventually lead to a single-payer system.

“I have serious questions about the implications of keeping the public option on the table,“ Rogers said. “They say it’s to keep the private insurance companies honest. But if the public option doesn’t have to make a profit, doesn’t have to pay taxes, is not subject to the same rules and regulations as the private sector and is subsidized by the government, how can private insurance companies compete with that?“

The scenario would inevitably lead to the single-payer system, Rogers said.

He also has concerns about health care delivery in rural areas under the new plan, he said.

“My job is to ask questions. If I’m wrong, then it should be easy to disprove what I’m saying.“

As for the public option, Rogers said he expects that liberal Democrats will succeed at getting the bill out of the House with it intact. How? Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “smart, capable and she really wants this,“ Rogers said, so he expects that she will target a handful of Democrats (14, if she keeps the rest of the Democrats together) from the Blue Dog caucus who are in strong positions in their districts, peel them off from the caucus and lock them down on the vote to get the bill passed. Those members, theoretically, will be able to withstand the political storms in their districts; the rest of the Blue Dogs, Rogers said, will be released to “do what they have to do” in voting against the bill and go back to their districts to say whatever is necessary to keep their seats.

The real problem is in the Senate, where, as I have told you over the last two days, liberal Democrats are floating the idea of using reconciliation to pass the health care bill without having to overcome the threat of a filibuster. We didn’t get back to what Rogers thought would happen if the Senate passed the bill under reconciliation and it came back to the House from conference with the public option intact. But I suspect his reticence on that issue spoke volumes.

On that national “upheaval” Rogers mentioned: He said he’s “disturbed” by the White House’s reaction to the anger at town hall meetings. That anger isn’t just about what’s going on in health care, he said. It was caused by a “series of policy decisions,“ starting with the stimulus package, including the cap and trade bill and continuing through other moves strengthening the government’s control over the financial sector. Add what’s going on with health care to the mix, and Americans are seeing “a lot of public policy movement” that consolidates power in the federal government.

“My town halls are packed, and I’ve never had that before,“ Rogers said.

I asked Rogers about the way health care is sucking all the oxygen out of the room and whether that is enabling anything else to fly below the radar in Congress. At first, he shook his head, but then he mentioned the Employer Free Choice Act.

You might have missed it in all the health care and Supreme Court news last month, but the EFCA has undergone some substantial changes in the Senate. Or has it?

A handful of senators have signaled their opposition to the “card check” provision of the bill that would make it easier for unions to organize. That was the most controversial component of the bill, because it would substitute the card check for the secret-ballot elections that are now required for organization. But Rogers said he expects that the unions will make a full frontal assault on Congress to get what’s left of the bill—new arbitration provisions—into law.

Rogers said the unions—“who bought and paid for this Congress to get this bill through”—will try to swap the card check provision for tighter arbitration periods of as few as 30 days. Business organizations fear the change because, under expanded arbitration, they would have even less control than they do under the system now over what they pay their employees, what benefits they offer, etc.

Rogers will return to Washington for the fall session in two weeks.

It will be interesting to see how his prognostications play out.