Profnet Wire: Government & Law: Same-sex Marriage

ROUND-UP: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE (continued)

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**1. DIANA RICHMOND, family law attorney at SIDEMAN & BANCROFT LLP in San Francisco: "A ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court in the case of Castle vs. State is imminent. A finding in favor of the plaintiffs would make Washington the second state in the U.S. to support the rights of gays to marry." Richmond represented a lesbian mother in a landmark custody case that went before the California State Supreme Court (2005) and is available to comment on the status of the nation's marriage equality laws, the Defense of Marriage Act and the impact of this court decision on pending court cases. News Contact: Wendy Hoffman, wendy@strategicintelligencemarketing.com Phone: +1-415-308-4558 (3/8/06)

**2. LAWRENCE M. FRIEDMAN, assistant professor of law at NEW ENGLAND SCHOOL OF LAW: "As the issue of same-sex marriage is litigated under state constitutions, a judicial consensus may emerge as to the validity of restrictions on such marriage under state law. This may foreshadow the arguments that will be raised in the expected challenge to those laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." Friedman can provide constitutional analysis and can comment on the Washington case, the implications for cases involving same-sex marriage in other states (for example, in New Jersey, where a case is pending) and the implications under federal constitutional law. Friedman: lfriedman@faculty.nesl.edu Phone: +1- 617-422-7459 News Contact: Sandy Goldsmith, sgoldsmi@nesl.edu Phone: +1-617- 422-7203 (3/8/06)

ROUND-UP: GULF COAST RECONSTRUCTION (continued)

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**1. JAMES L. SIPES, ASLA, landscape architect with EDAW, is developing an interactive map to determine the vulnerabilities of the Gulf Coast's natural and cultural resources. News Contact: Ashley Owens, aowens@asla.org Phone: +1-202-216-2371 (3/8/06)

**2. KEVIN SHANLEY, ASLA, president of the SWA Group, is an expert in wetlands and coastal restoration, does extensive work in these areas in the Houston bayous and is active in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. News Contact: Ashley Owens, aowens@asla.org Phone: +1-202-216-2371 (3/8/06)

**3. PAUL ROOKWOOD, ASLA, AICP, managing principal of WALLACE ROBERTS & TODD, LLC, a planning and design firm working on the redevelopment of New Orleans, is instrumental in the development of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission plan. News Contact: Ashley Owens, aowens@asla.org Phone: +1-202- 898-2444 (3/8/06)

**4. JOSEPH E. BROWN, FASLA, president of EDAW, a San Francisco-based architecture and environment consulting company, is a moderator for panel discussions on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and is a landscape architect. News Contact: Ashley Owens, aowens@asla.org Phone: +1-202-216-2371 (3/8/06)

ROUND-UP: LINE-ITEM VETO (continued)

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**1. JOHN NUGENT, visiting assistant professor of government and senior research analyst at CONNECTICUT COLLEGE, has studied line-item vetoes extensively and can discuss President Bush's recently proposed legislation to establish a presidential line-item veto: "States' experiences with line-item vetoes fail to support the case for creating a similar federal power. The idea that this is a silver bullet that would reduce federal spending is just not supported by the evidence from the states." News Contact: Eric Cardenas, ecard@conncoll.edu Phone: +1-860-439-2508 (3/8/06)

_____ LEADS

**1. ECONOMICS: DID ALAN GREENSPAN'S EASY MONEY POLICY KILL BASEL II? CHRISTOPHER WHALEN, managing director of INSTITUTIONAL RISK ANALYTICS: "Banks in the U.S. have spent billions of dollars preparing for adoption of Basel II, but the latest quantitative impact study, or 'QIS4,' suggests that the 'benign economic environment' engineered by the FOMC between 2000 and 2004 has caused loan default rates to fall sharply -- and, with it, estimates for how much capital banks really need. The period of interest rate ease by the FOMC under Alan Greenspan seems to have not only created a speculative bubble in markets, such as real estate, but also distorted the credit risk profiles of U.S. banks. We believe that federal monetary policy is a major factor behind the failure of the U.S. to adopt Basel II." Whalen: cwhalen@institutionalriskanalytics.com Phone: +1-914-827-9272 (3/8/06)

**2. GOVERNMENT: CONGRESS SHOULD RESTORE MINING SAFETY RESEARCH. THOMAS NOVAK, professor and head of mining and minerals engineering at VIRGINIA TECH, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on March 2 that the U.S. government's "strong commitment to research and development would provide the most effective means for improving mine safety": "More than $100 million cuts in mine safety research since 1979 have resulted in the loss of expertise. I recommended a strong, government- supported, university research program administered through NIOSH's Office of Mine Safety and Health Research or a newly created institute. Research and enforcement should be kept separate." Novak: tomnovak@vt.edu Phone: +1-540- 231-6671 News Contact: Lynn Nystrom, tansy@vt.edu Phone: +1-540-231-4371 (3/8/06)

**3. LAW: AT&T, BELLSOUTH MERGER'S IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE REGULATORS. BROOK BROWN, partner and chair of the telecommunications practice group at the Austin office of MCGINNIS, LOCHRIDGE & KILGORE, LLP: "Although the FCC pre- empts state law on wireless carriers, state utility commissions will carefully evaluate and comment on the AT&T and BellSouth merger because it creates such a large wireline and wireless entity. The big question for all regulators and entities involved in reviewing this merger is how big is too big?" News Contact: Laura Williams, jlbwill@swbell.net Phone: +1-512-497-8035 (3/8/06)

**4. LAW: CONGRESS' PROPOSED CHANGES TO 1996 TELECOM ACT. THOMAS J. BLILEY, senior advisor at COLLIER SHANNON SCOTT and former chairman of the House Commerce Committee: "As one of the authors of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, I regard the act as one of the chief accomplishments of my tenure as chairman of the House Commerce Committee. We used the tried and true formula of competition to guide our approach to crafting the act. People forget that before the act, many markets were legally closed to competition because the last major rewrite of the nation's communications law had been enacted in 1934. Ten years ago, businesses were limited to owning broadcast stations as if we were still living in the 1930s with FDR as president. Thanks to the act, broadcast ownership rules have been modernized." Bliley is available to discuss changes Congress is proposing to his landmark legislation and other telecommunications topics and developments, such as the AT&T-BellSouth deal. News Contact: Deborah Danuser, deborah.danuser@sightlinemarketing.com Phone: +1-202-342-8415 (3/8/06)

**5. POLITICS: UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER OF NEW DONORS TO 2004 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS. GRANT REEHER, professor of political science at the Maxwell School at SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, is the co-author of a new study that explores the surge in the number of small and online donors to the 2004 presidential campaign: "More than three times as many people gave as in 2000 and many were first-time, small or Internet donors. The report looks at what these donors might mean for future campaigns and elections. There's good news in the findings -- more people participated, especially ordinary people, and more avenues to participation were opened. While the changes were significant, they were not tectonic. The revolution came and no one got hurt." Reeher: gdreeher@maxwell.syr.edu Phone: +1-315-443-5046 News Contact: Jill Leonhardt, jlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu Phone: +1-315-443-5492 (3/8/06)

**6. WORLD AFFAIRS: THE ONLY EFFECTIVE AID HAPPENS AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL. ERIC THURMAN, CEO of Wayne, Pa.-based GENEVA GLOBAL, leading philanthropic experts who investigate grassroots humanitarian initiatives in Third World countries for wealthy American donors, held three meetings with the Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza on Feb. 20. They discussed charitable projects in Burundi requiring funding, especially HIV/AIDS projects: "Nkurunziza expressed concern about how little foreign aid and NGO funding actually seems to benefit the local people. He expressed concern about the ineffectiveness of some NGOs working in his country, is taking steps to require NGOs to prove they are having impact, and hopes to create a model for other African countries. In Africa, as well as the Third World -- as in the case of the tsunami crisis, where billions were raised but only a portion effectively reached survivors -- the only effective aid happens at the grassroots level. Problems occur when there is no connection with the competent locals on the ground who know how to make things happen quickly, and when there's bureaucratic ineptitude or corruption from the top down." News Contact: Michael O. Schwager, moschwager@aol.com Phone: +1-954-423-4414 (3/8/06)

**7. WORLD AFFAIRS: NATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY IS MARCH 8. ALEX COUNTS, president and CEO at GRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA: "Women entrepreneurs are key to fighting global poverty. Every day, we see millions of women in India, Uganda, Bolivia, Haiti, and other countries around the world struggling to feed their families and put roofs over their heads. For many of them, a loan of less than $200 is the first step in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and forging new lives for their families. As we celebrate International Women's Day 2006, we salute the courage, ingenuity and perseverance of poor women in meeting challenges and creating new hope for future generations." Grameen Foundation USA and its global network have helped more than 1.5 million families through microfinance. News Contact: Michelle Tennant, michelle@tennant.org Phone: +1-828-749-3200 (3/8/06)