Big bill for first-responders

Alicia Robinson

President Bush on Wednesday signed Rep. Chris Cox’s $5.6-billion bill

to purchase and stockpile vaccines against biological agents , the

nation’s largest first-responder program ever.

Local emergency service providers said they are happy about the

bill, which will dovetail with local efforts to create emergency

response plans for terrorist attacks.

“It’s a really great bill for us, because right now Newport Beach,

along with other agencies in the county, are working comprehensively

to really develop a plan,” Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley said.

“We honestly believe that probably the single-best method for being

prepared for biological attacks is having stockpiles instead of

having everybody carry [vaccines].”

Now, local agencies can put to other uses the funds they were

using for biological threats such as anthrax, he said.

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Les Gogerty said the bill will be a good

thing, although it won’t stop local emergency responders from having

to worry about terrorist attacks.

“I think that what people have realized is that terrorism has

become a part of our vocabulary,” he said. “It’s something we have to

learn to deal with, but from a day-to-day standpoint, we haven’t

stopped focusing on the day-to-day things that we do [as emergency

responders].”

As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Cox has

written, sponsored or supported numerous national security bills,

including one that would change the formula for distributing federal

funding to local emergency responders.

Edwards’ Balboa Bay Club stop nets more than $400,000

A fundraiser Saturday at the Balboa Bay Club, where Democratic

vice-presidential candidate John Edwards spoke, was everything local

Democrats hoped it would be, Orange County Democratic Party Chairman

Frank Barbaro said.

“It was extremely successful, much more so than the Los Angeles

fundraiser [Edwards] had the night before,” Barbaro said. “He really

reached the people.”

The money from the $1,000-a-plate luncheon in the heart of

Republican country is still being counted, but Barbaro said that so

far the party raised $400,000 for Edwards’ and presidential candidate

John Kerry’s campaign, and at least $10,000 more is expected.

While Democratic supporters were eating

ginger-and-teriyaki-marinated salmon and fancy custard desserts, a

group of GOP activists held an anti-Kerry/Edwards demonstration

across the street to show the county is staunchly Republican. That,

in turn, sparked a counter-protest by a handful of Democrats hoping

to balance out Edwards’ critics.

Local incumbents don’t return questionnaires

Reps. Chris Cox and Dana Rohrabacher were among elected officials

and candidates who did not fill out a political issues questionnaire

sent to them by Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan, nonprofit

voter-education group, according to the organization’s website.

The survey addresses where candidates stand on issues, including

abortion, drugs, budget and defense spending priorities and

education.

Rohrabacher spokesman Aaron Lewis said the congressman typically

doesn’t respond to surveys, and this one doesn’t allow any complexity

of answers.

“It’s basically yes or no on a lot of issues, [but] they call for

more than a yes or no response,” he said.

Some local candidates did fill out the survey, including

Rohrabacher’s Democratic opponent Jim Brandt; Cox challengers John

Graham, a Democrat, and Bruce Cohen, a Libertarian; and Libertarian

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Gray of Newport Beach. To see who responded

to the survey and read their answers, visit

https://www.vote-smart.org.

Congressional district candidate to speak July 31

Jim Brandt, Democratic 46th Congressional District candidate, will

present a town hall meeting on July 31 to discuss environmental

issues with residents of the district, which includes Costa Mesa.

Brandt, who is running against Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

has invited conservation groups such as Orange County CoastKeeper,

the Surfrider Foundation and the Southern California League of

Conservation Voters, to participate. The event will address

open-space preservation, ocean and beach pollution and other issues.

The meeting will be from 10 a.m. to noon July 31 at the

International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Hall, 5402

Bolsa Ave., Huntington Beach. A statement from the Brandt campaign

said the event will be first in a series of town hall meetings in the

district.