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Ingredients for life
A p ril 5. 2006
Red Cross Gives Up Control of Katrina Aid
Makes new promises after botched disaster relief
AP - Criticized for its Katrina
response, the American Red Cross
will overhaul the way it handles
future disasters by relinquishing
control over some aid dollars and
cracking down internally on waste
and abuse.
The nation’s largest charity
promised the changes in a state
ment to a Senate panel Monday,
follow ing its acknowledgment last
year that its $2 billion response to
the Gulf Coast storm fell short.
Responding to allegations of
SAFEWAY Ö
Red Cross chairman Bonnie
McElveen-Hunter
Senate Finance Chairman
Charles Grassley
waste, the Red Cross said it was
moving to standardize financial
controls, hire more investigators to
review whistleblower complaints
and cede control to religious
groups in some underserved areas.
“Could the Red Cross and the
entire nonprofit community have
done better? Undoubtedly,” wrote
Red C ro ss c h a irm a n B onnie
McElveen-Hunter to Senate Fi
nance Chairman Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, whose committee is lead
ing a congressional inquiry.
“There is no excuse for the in
stances of improper conduct which
impacted on our performance and
response during Hurricane Katrina
and on our continued relief and
recovery efforts along the Gulf
Coast,” McElveen-Hunter said.
In a major shift, the Red Cross
told the Senate committee that it
will funnel money, training and re
sources to other charitable groups
so they can establish shelters in
areas where Red Cross local chap
ters have less presence.
It acknowledged the potential
difficulties in ceding this power,
but the Red Cross said it was com
mitted to change and had hired a
new vice president for diversity to
coordinate the effort.
“These would be shelters the
Red Cross would recognize and
support financially but would not
necessarily run,” according to
McElveen-Hunter, who said the
specifics had yet to be hammered
out. “The Red Cross understands
that partnership does not mean
assisting the Red Cross in its mis
sion, but helping others achieve
the shared mission of serving the
affected community.” .
The Red Cross, however, would
not release - at Grassley's request
- the details of hundreds of internal
complaints made by employees and
charities that allege fraud, safety
violations and employment dis
putes. It cited the confidential na
ture of its phone complaint line.
The charity also disputed as un
founded some whistleblower alle
gations made public by the Finance
Committee last month - including
possible theft as well as charges
the Red Cross had inflated thou
sands of food orders from suppli
ers at a New Orleans feeding site in
mid-September, explaining that it
had relied on estimates from city
officials.
Grassley said Monday that he
appreciated the efforts but ex
pressed concern that "their deeds
match their good words.” He said
that the Red Cross response reject
ing some whistleblower complaints
“seems to quibble over inconse
quential details” and that several of
the allegations did expose prob
lems in Louisiana.
“1 worry that the Red Cross man
agem ent still d o e sn ’t get it,”
Grassley said.
Fast Food Ads Target Blacks
Even preschoolers see too much
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AP - There are far more ads for
fast food and snacks on black-ori
ented TV than on channels with
more general programming, re
searchers report in a provocative
study that suggests a link to high
obesity rates in black children.
The results come from a study
that lasted just one week in the
summer. Commercials on Black
E ntertainm ent T elevision, the
nation’s first black-targeted cable
channel, were compared with ads
during afternoon and evening
shows on the WB network and
Disney Channel.
O f the nearly 1,100 ads, more
than half were for fast food and
drinks, such as sodas.
About 66 percent of the fast-
food ads were on BET, compared
with 34 percent on WB and none on
Disney. Fordrinks. 82 percent were
on BET, 11 percent on WB and 6
percent on Disney; and for snacks,
60 percent were on BET, none on
WB and 40 percent on Disney.
The study in a pediatric medical
journal accompanies separate re
search: a study indicating kids con
sume an extra 167 calories, often
from advertised foods, for every
hourof TV they watch; and a report
suggesting even preschoolers get
fat from watching more than two
hours of daily TV.
The studies clearly illustrate
“that the media have disturbing
potential to negatively affect many
aspects of children’s healthy de
velopment,” Amy Jordan of the
Annenberg Public Policy Center at
University of Pennsylvania wrote
in a journal editorial.
“Such evidence offers increasing
support for the American Academy
of Pediatrics’ recommendation that
children older than 2 years spend no
more than two hours per day with
screen media, preferably educational
screen media," Jordan said.
Obesity affects about 18 percent
of black children, compared with
about 14 percent of white young
sters, according to 2001-02 data.
The rate was almost 20 percent for
Hispanics.
BET spokesm an M ichael
Lewellen said BET's target audi
ence is blacks aged 18 to 34 and said
its programming “does not target
children.”
Outley said black children are an
attractive target for fast-food com
panies because many live in neigh
borhoods with easier access to fast
food than healthier food.
The goal is to “get kids hooked
at a very early age" so they become
lifelong customers, she said.
M
Sense of Community
continued
Jk,
f rom Front
residents have already moved to
New Columbia, which is still in the
scape,” Andrews said.
The housing auth o rity has process o f opening blocks and
started the relocation process early, housing units. According to a hous
by talking with residents. In June ing authority timeline, the project
they’ll begin relocating residents kicks off with a six-month reloca
who have three options: transfer to tion process, followed by demoli
another public housing unit, move tion of the units, then 18 months of
to an apartment that takes Section construction. The new Humboldt
8 vouchers or move to New Colum Gardens will welcome back its resi
bia, where they’re given priority on dents and greet newcomers, at 100
N. Sumner, around the Christmas
the lengthy waitlist.
Andrews said about 15 of the 85 season of 2008.
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