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 HelloReturn to index of stories... |
Hello AND WELCOME. I'm Mike Nikitas from NECN. New England Cable News, guest hosting tonight on NH Outlook. |
| Preshow #1 Return to index of stories... |
In this edition, A rare gathering of political interests and the US Supreme Court that could have a major impact on the federal elections. |
| Preshow #2 Return to index of stories... |
Plus, investigating the biggest blackout in US history. We'll have a conversation with New Hampshire Representive Charles Bass. |
| Preshow #3 Return to index of stories... |
And later, we'll take you to a rare school that's helping people put the brakes on car crashes. |
| Intro Supreme Court Return to index of stories... |
You probably couldn't get the ACLU, the NRA, the national Republican party and the California Democratic party to sit down in the same room together, much less agree on something. But when it comes to campaign finance reform, they all agree -- the McCain Feingold Law passed by congress and signed by the president needs to go. And this week, they went to the U-S Supreme Court, who heard the case in a rare September session. The decision could dramatically affect the race for president. CNN's Patty Davis has details. |
| Supreme Court Return to index of stories... |
--REPORTER PKG-AS FOLLOWS--
WITH HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CAMPAIGN MONEY AT STAKE -- A SPECIAL URGENCY BY THE SUPREME COURT TO RESOLVE THE CASE QUICKLY BEFORE THE COMING FEDERAL ELECTIONS.AT ISSUE -- A SWEEPING new LAW THAT BANS UNREGULATED UNLIMITED ONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL PARTIES -- KNOWN AS "SOFT MONEY."INSIDE THE COURT -- JUSTICES STRUGGLED WITH WHETHER THE LAW IS NEEDED TO STEM CORRUPTION OR WHETHER IT TRAMPLES FREE SPEECH RIGHTS.JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA PREDICTED ABUSES -- AND QUESTIONED THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S TOP LAWYER BEFORE THE COURT TED OLSON WHETHER INCUMBENT LAWMAKERS WERE ONLY WORRIED ABOUT PROTECTING THEIR POLITICAL CAREERS.scalia -- why pick on the party? olson-- we're not picking on the party, jsutice scalia, the parties and the candiudates are on the same. the party enjoys enormous privileges and should be subject to regulation.l NATSOT campaign ad THE OTHER CONTROVERSIAL PROVISION -- A BAN ON ISSUE ADVOCACY ADS -- THAT SOME CALL ATTACK ADS -- PAID FOR BY LABOR UNIONS AND CORPORATIONS SHORTLY BEFORE AN ELECTION. FIRST AMENDMENT ATTORNEY FLOYD ABRAMS ARGUED THAT AMOUNTS TO A CONTENT-BASED RESTRICTION ON SPEECH. BUT AT LEAST ONE JUSTICE OFFERED SOME SUPPORT FOR THE BAN. JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR: "ARE YOU SAYING NO EFFECTIVE REGULATION OF ELECTIONEERING IS POSSIBLE?" OPPONENTS SAY THE LAW IS OVERLY BROAD. A RULING BY THE SUPREME COURT IS EXPECTED BY THE END OF THE YEAR -- BEFORE THE PRIMARY SEASON GETS UNDERWAY. PATTY DAVIS, CNN, AT THE SUPREME COURT. |
| Intro Campaign Finance Return to index of stories... |
Joining us now to talk more about campaign finance reform and its impact here in the state, Andy Smith the Director of the UNH Survey Center. Andy thanks for being here. |
| Intro Bass Return to index of stories... |
New England Governors meeting in Connecticut have been told the region needs to upgrade its transmission system. The Governors heard from the operators of New England's power grid this week at their annual conference. New England was spared during the biggest blackout in history this summer. Poducer Richard Ager sits down with New Hampshire Representative Charles Bass and finds out why. |
| Bass/Blackout Return to index of stories... |
Track: They are the most memorable images of the summer - cities across the Northeast from Detroit to New York - and all of Ontario, Canada - blacked out. Nearly 50 million people were left to deal with the consequences - many minor - some more serious. Bite: CNN Phil #2 tape 06:24:30 The outage hit the city of Detroit area around 4:17 p.m. and the Enrico Fermi nuclear power plant shut down. The city of Detroit lost all power at 4:21 p.m. the impact - transportation was paralyzed, communications disrupted, and many people - particularly senior citizens, were put in potentially life-threatening situations without basic necessary services from food to water to oxygen that they needed to survive. Track: It was the biggest power outage in U.S. history - and Congress initiated hearings last week. Bite: CNN Phil #2 tape 06:18:45 You don't really know what caused the outage, do you? We are not at the stage of being able to answer that question. No. Track: One of the members of the House energy committee that is holding the hearings is Representative Charles Bass. Interview starts: Bass/Blackout tape What would you say is the gist of what you have learned in the hearings about the blackout? well, most definitely we need a national reliability standards for the electricity grid they need to be mandatory and they need to be enforceable by the national electricity reliability council NERC for short the other conclusion which is pretty clear is that existing power lines need to be upgraded in some parts of the country and possibly new power lines need to be constructed now that's a fairly controversial issue because of the sighting debate the some what have federal preemption without any kind of appeals process and others think that's obviously too much something's got to be brought up that somewhere in between that allows for local zoning and local input but at some point the appeals process has to be exhausted and the program has to go on provisions like this are included in the energy bill which is pending in the senate and the house the committee of conferee is about to take it up we appointed conferees about two days ago Charlie Bass off camera talking When the Blackout began there were fears that this was a terrorist attack though that proved not to be true what do you think are the broader implications how vulnerable is our grid? Well our system is always vulnerable to a casual attack for example somebody just shooting an insulator on a power line we've always worried about that it hasn't happened and there are protections for that What about a coordinated attack on a number of different transmission lines? Yeah well that can always happen and hopefully within the department of homeland security there is a plan in place to deal with such an attack the power companies and the grid managers understand that threat and I think that there level of communication with homeland security is better then it ever has been although there is no way of avoiding that and when the blackout occurred on August fourteenth that was the first thought it turned out to be or may turn out to be a sensually incompetence in one specific part of the grid which needs to be corrected and that's a big relief quite frankly the other thing is that the electric grid isn't all that simple and you'd have to be a very sophisticated and knowledgeable organization to really have an impact and know where that impact could occur and it would probably take the efforts of somebody who had either worked inside the system for a long time or knew how to it's not simple so it's a threat but I don't think to the extent that energy could be blacked out for whole you know the whole northeast for example it would be very hard to do What do you think has been the role of deregulation in this? Well it depends on what part of the country you're in I think deregulation in the northeast has been helpful. Our grid is with the exception of New England a small part of southwestern Connecticut and a small part of Northwestern Vermont our grid is pretty sound there are some problems in the Boston Metropolitan area but significant investments have been made not only in power facilities power generating facilities but also in maintaining our grid note that our system worked basically flawlessly on the fourteenth of August and New England was cut off from the rest of the country very quickly and very automatically How did we escape that? Well our systems our fuse system if you will was all automatic and because the original issue didn't originate within our pool we were able to cut it off very fast the other thing the other big factor is that we for the past several years have been net energy exporters even during the winter and energy is sort of like water flowing around it goes wherever it can go the easiest and in the case of New England we were actually pushing energy out of the region so we had a little protection against these overloads and a little extra time to cut ourselves off plus once the trips occurred we had the production capability to hold the voltage flow up so that we didn't have a blackout so it was close we could have had some reductions in voltage but people within our grid moved very quickly and they were a little bit farther down the line so to speak from the origin of the problem Were we lucky? I don't think we were lucky I think the system was properly maintained and properly supervised and properly automated so that it cut itself off quickly the one interesting facet of energy the energy that is being used to light this room right now is generated a millisecond ago energy travels at the speed of light and most people don't realize that there is no place to store energy so it's easy to overload the system if it isn't constantly working when you turn on a light that light is generated somewhere be it in Hooksett or in Seabrook or maybe even out west somewhere maybe but just a very fraction of a second before you turn that light on so what happens is the system has got to be well balanced all the time and it's very complicated and it takes a long time to restore energy because you have to get the frequencies the same all the loads the same and you have to adjust the power output of all these power plants so that it's balanced it's complicated Now deregulation basically freed up the market in terms of generating power but the transmission of power is still regulated and you can see that the amount of investment that's gone into generating as opposed to building up the transmission system has fallen quite a bit behind do you think perhaps transmission needs to be deregulated to provide Well there are provisions in the energy bill that's pending that will repeal the limitations on power companies ability to diversify into other energy related issues such as transmission and so forth and I have a feeling that with real deregulation nation wide that with federal oversight and mandatory reliability standards that it will become cost affective to invest and maintain the grid adequately barring in mind that were a little bit ahead of the nation on deregulation and our grid system is not with exceptions I've mentioned previously really in particularly bad condition it's ready to absorb the capacity and with some minor improvements were really in pretty good shape here in New England Do you think the federal government should have more of an oversight I mean now it's up to states to regulate electric transmissions? Within the states but the federal energy regulatory commission regulates energy across state lines I think the system that we have know where we have public utilities commissions and the federal energy regulatory commission working together is probably a good combination I'm sure you've heard some testimony relating to this when we look at this blackout compared to past blackouts what's your sense of how disruptive this was I mean we know have a much greater reliance on things like computers and other electronic devises how disruptive on the scale of past blackouts was this? Economically it was very disruptive it's estimated to have cost six billion dollars to the economy that's a lot as far as society is concerned it was extraordinarily non disruptive and I think that reflects a new attitude since September eleventh two thousand and one in this country about how necessary it is to remain calm if there is any kind of massive power outage or an explosion or any kind of what might be perceived as an attack especially in New York City it was really quite phenomenal given the fact that that city was powerless for twenty well close to twenty four hours and yet there were almost no instances of any really no increase in the crime rate I think that says something about the new attitude in this country about holding things together when we go through periods of crisis and that's basically what happened so it is different and it was no that way in London for example when they had their blackout I think they had a higher issue they had more looting and so forth occur there so I think we can be pretty proud about the way Americans acted D I think in the short term it's focused attention on the fact that we need to pass the energy bill before the end of this year and that's why right now the conferees are working hard on getting a version out because we don't want to end up with no policy at all I also think that internally within the grid system there's a lot of notes being traded and systems being put in place by the grid managers that will correct the problem that is alleged to have occurred in Ohio and bad communication faulty computers and so forth so that it won't happen again and I'm sure that the power companies Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and others are really focusing not two months from now but right now on correcting that problem making sure the other grids understand what happens and can be prepared to prevent such a event from happening again You know just speaking on our regional basis do you think this under lines a need to maintain our own separate grid and not integrate any further? What it means what it really shows to me is that is that these separate regions it doesn't matter how you define the region have to be relatively balanced in terms of their production and their consumption if you have if you have a lot of production here and a lot of consumption there that's not good so you want to try to divide these regions up in such a fashion so that there relatively well balanced and then you don't have what's known as loop flows where energy is going around and around and around and around looking for some place to go and going very fast by the way and building up fast or having to go long distances over over transmission lines that are already being used on a regional basis to provide energy to consumers |
| Tag Bass Return to index of stories... |
Representative Bass says he didn't vote for the Energy Bill during its first go 'round because of issues unrelated to the transmission of energy. He may vote in favor of it this time if there is no provision for drilling in the Alaskan Arctic Wildlife Refuge or a break for manufacturers of MTBE, the gasoline additive which is currently contaminating water supplies all over the country. |
| Intro Driver Training Return to index of stories... |
Finally, if you've ever been in an accident, you know that you have only seconds to make a move that could save your life. But, what move should you make and when should you make it? Producer Celene Ramadan goes back to driving school to learn some techniques for staying alive. |
| Driver Training Return to index of stories... |
Sandy Stevens OUR PURPOSE HERE IS TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO CONTROL A CAR IN AN EMERGENCY BECAUSE IT'S A PRETTY SIMPLE PREMISE - WE DON'T THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE PRACTICING ON REAL ACCIDENTS. TRACK - SANDY STEVENS OF STEVENS ADVANCED DRIVER TRAINING IS PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE PUT THE BRAKES ON CAR CRASHES, ESPECIALLY TEENAGERS. Sandy It is, after all, the leading killer in this age group. And I think if it were called "car crash disease" we'd be throwing money at it and there would be program after program. But, since we've gotten used to the way it is there doesn't seem to be a big emergency to change it. It can be changed and I think a program like this can do it. TRACK - AS I LEARNED BEHIND THE WHEEL THE PROGRAM IS A HIGH SPEED, INTENSIVE ACCIDENT AVOIDANCE COURSE. IT TEACHES THE SKILLS YOU MAY NEED IN AN EMERGENCY. Sandy IT'S A COURSE IN BEING ABLE TO HANDLE "THAT MOMENT". THERE'S TWO PARTS TO "THAT MOMENT" - ONE OF THEM IS YOU HAVE TO DO THE RIGHT THING. BUT THE OTHER, AND I THINK THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT, IS YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND YOU HAVE TO ALREADY BE DOING ALL OF THE THINGS THAT IT TAKES TO DO THE RIGHT THING WHEN "THAT MOMENT" HAPPENS. LEARNING TO DO THE RIGHT THING IS NOT JUST A LESSON FOR NEW DRIVERS - DRIVERS OF ALL EXPERIENCE LEVELS HAVE SOMETHING TO GAIN FROM THE CLASS. JESSICA METAFORA IS 22 YEARS OLD. SHE HAS HAD HER LICENSE FOR 5 YEARS. Celene - How did you pick this course? Jessica Metafora My mom researched schools and we picked it out from a couple programs - we thought it would be a good idea. Sandy We'll train all ages - we had a gentleman through who did a very good job who was 86 years old last year. But we have a lot of new drivers and I think that's the right time for this. Right when you have a permit and you're a licensed driver then that's the time to see us because the accident stats show that the most dangerous time is right after you get your license that's where the big spike in crashes and it doesn't have to do so much with alcohol or bad behavior as many people think it had to do with inexperience, so that's the time to get the experience here. THE INSTRUCTORS TAKE THE STUDENTS THROUGH A SERIES OF DRILLS THAT SIMULATE MANEUVERS YOU MAY NEED TO MAKE ON THE ROAD. THE FIRST DRILL IS A PANIC STOP. DRIVERS ACCELERATE TO 55 MPH AND THEN SUDDENLY SLAM ON THE BRAKES. Jessica The most surprising is how long it takes to stop where you're going that quickly and we're only going about 55 mph which on the highway doesn't feel fast at all which is surprising. Sandy Most of what we hear is that they have never stepped on the brake that hard they've never had to steer that intensely before and that's what we need to hear because that tells us where we need to go. THE SECOND EXERCISE IS THE STEERING SLALOM WHERE THE CARS WEAVE AROUND A SET OF CONES. THE DRIVERS LEARN THE EFFECTS OF SPEED ON HANDLING. Instructor - Turn…give it the gas, come on. Give it the gas. There you go. There you go, the last one's a freebie - you don't have to go around the last one… AFTER THE SLALOM, DRIVERS PERFORM THE EMERGENCY LANE CHANGE EXERCISE. THIS IS A COMBINATION OF STEERING, BRAKING AND REACTION TIME. Jessica They had us go around the cones first they did it without braking and then we did it with braking and the idea there was to go around the barrier and end up in the lane that you started. THE SPECIFIC EMERGENCY MANEUVERS OUTLINED IN THE STEVENS ADVANCED DRIVING PROGRAM CAME FROM SANDY STEVEN'S EXPERIENCE IN PERFORMANCE DRIVING. In 1979, I came from a background where performance driving happened and it happened at the race track and in competition and what I found was the things we knew in the race track were things that were completely unknown in the police community and that those people had an every day need to know the things that were common knowledge at a race track. So, I was excited to bringing that to that group and did pretty much exclusively police and fire training for many years. AND WHAT PROVED TO BE VALUABLE TO THE POLICE COMMUNITY COULD ALSO BE BENEFICIAL FOR EVERYDAY DRIVERS WHO HAVE ONLY HAD BASIC DRIVER ED COURSES. TERRY TIBBETTS IS THE SUPERVISOR OF DRIVERS ED PROGRAMS FOR THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. Terry Basic driver ed program is good because you have to start somewhere, but this is the real world course that goes beyond the aspect of basic driver education. There's none of this hands on training in basic drivers ed. Sandy I think the driver ed programs serve a vital function because they can do something that we can't do. What they can do is give someone a road sense someone has to go out there with people and figure out who goes first at a 4 way and how to approach an intersection and how to merge - we don't do that here and I think that's vital training. But the thing that a driver ed program can't do because you can physically do them out on public roads with three kids in the car is you can't teach someone how to do an emergency evasive maneuver, panic stops and emergency lane changes. I think what they do is necessary but I also think that what we do is a vital component of an educated driver. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I CERTAINLY FELT MORE COMPETENT. OKAY, SO MAYBE I TOOK DOWN A FEW CONES. BUT, AS SANDY EXPLAINS, IT'S NOT NECESSARILY THE DRIVER WHO KNOCKS DOWN THE LEAST CONES WHO GETS AN "A" AT THE END OF THE DAY. Sandy I think a good driver is a driver who has developed a sense of judgment about driving - and I think the judgment is much more important than the skill. We've had many drivers through this program who really had great difficulty with the physical part of this training but have had a lifetime of not having crashes because the thing they have is good judgment about driving they know how to stay within themselves, they know where to look for danger, they have developed a sixth sense about how to be safe in a car. FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK, I'M CELENE RAMADAN |
| Tag Advance Driver Training Return to index of stories... |
The Stevens Advanced Driver Training school is a mobile classroom that tours throughout New England. |
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To learn more about advanced driver training and other topics in this program, connect with us on-line at nhptv.org. You can also find links to resources used in this and other New Hampshire Outlook broadcasts. |
| Tomorrow Return to index of stories... |
On the next New Hampshire Outlook - The domestic partner debate in the Granite State. One city council votes no on benefits to partners. Another already provides them. |
| Goodnight Return to index of stories... |
I'll see you Wednesday morning on New England Cable News and again Wednesday night here on New Hampshire Outlook. Thanks for watching. Good night. |
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Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook: New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Public Service of New Hampshire Stratford Foundation |
| Tonight 10:00 Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. The domestic partner debate in the Granite State. One city council votes no on benefits to partners. Another already provides them. Join us tonight at 10:00. |
| key: National Politics / Government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 9/9/03 22:00 HOST: Mike Nikitas Length: 7:30 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, a rare gathering of political interests and the US Supreme Court that could have a major impact on the federal elections. Plus, investigating the biggest blackout in US history. We'll have a conversation with New Hampshire Representive Charles Bass. And later, we'll take you to a rare school that's helping people put the brakes on car crashes. You probably couldn't get the ACLU, the NRA, the national Republican party and the California Democratic party to sit down in the same room together, much less agree on something. But when it comes to campaign finance reform, they all agree -- the McCain Feingold Law passed by congress and signed by the president needs to go. And this week, they went to the U-S Supreme Court, who heard the case in a rare September session. The decision could dramatically affect the race for president. CNN's Patty Davis has details. Joining us now to talk more about campaign finance reform and its impact here in the state, Andy Smith the Director of the UNH Survey Center. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Patty Davis - CNN, Jennifer Ellis NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Andy Smith\UNH Survey Center |
| key: State Politics / Government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 9/9/03 22:00 HOST: Mike Nikitas Length: 10:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, a rare gathering of political interests and the US Supreme Court that could have a major impact on the federal elections. Plus, investigating the biggest blackout in US history. We'll have a conversation with New Hampshire Representive Charles Bass. And later, we'll take you to a rare school that's helping people put the brakes on car crashes. New England Governors meeting in Connecticut have been told the region needs to upgrade its transmission system. The Governors heard from the operators of New England's power grid this week at their annual conference. New England was spared during the biggest blackout in history this summer. Poducer Richard Ager sits down with New Hampshire Representative Charles Bass and finds out why. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Richard Ager NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Kwame Kilpatrick\Mayor of Detroit, Spencer Abraham\Secretary of Energy, Rep. Charles Bass |
| key: National Politics / Government Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 9/9/03 22:00 HOST: Mike Nikitas Length: 10:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, a rare gathering of political interests and the US Supreme Court that could have a major impact on the federal elections. Plus, investigating the biggest blackout in US history. We'll have a conversation with New Hampshire Representive Charles Bass. And later, we'll take you to a rare school that's helping people put the brakes on car crashes. New England Governors meeting in Connecticut have been told the region needs to upgrade its transmission system. The Governors heard from the operators of New England's power grid this week at their annual conference. New England was spared during the biggest blackout in history this summer. Poducer Richard Ager sits down with New Hampshire Representative Charles Bass and finds out why. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Richard Ager NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Kwame Kilpatrick\Mayor of Detroit, Spencer Abraham\Secretary of Energy, Rep. Charles Bass |
| key: Transportation Return to index of stories... |
NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 9/9/03 22:00 HOST: Mike Nikitas Length: 7:00 minutes In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, a rare gathering of political interests and the US Supreme Court that could have a major impact on the federal elections. Plus, investigating the biggest blackout in US history. We'll have a conversation with New Hampshire Representive Charles Bass. And later, we'll take you to a rare school that's helping people put the brakes on car crashes. Finally, if you've ever been in an accident, you know that you have only seconds to make a move that could save your life. But, what move should you make and when should you make it? Producer Celene Ramadan goes back to driving school to learn some techniques for staying alive. PRODUCER/REPORTER: Richard Ager NAME OF PARTICIPANTS: Sandy Stevens\Stevens Advanced Driver Training, Jessica Metafora\Dover, MA, Terry Tibbetts\NH Driver's Ed |
| WEB PROMO Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. . Tonight at 10pm on New Hampshire Public Television. |