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Biography: Politics and Government Stub‑class

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Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus

The article on Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus contained a reference to the following AP article for which a functioning link is apparently no longer available:

By David Briscoe

The Associated Press 14 DEC 2007

HONOLULU -- Americans in states and territories not attached to the U.S. mainland are tired of being treated like they're from another country.

They pay inflated postage and air fares; they suffer more onerous airport inspections and can't tune in to satellite radio, and some of them are miffed they don't seem to be worth even two bits. The territories want to be included in the 50-state quarter program.

"We've fallen through the cracks in Washington because our issues don't affect the contiguous 48 states," said Puerto Rican Senate President Kenneth McClintock in an interview after leading meetings with legislative leaders from Hawaii, Alaska, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The mix of leaders from offshore states and territories was a first. McClintock said Thursday the group plans to keep regular contact and meet again in May in Kentucky during a Council of State Governments conference. Legislators from American Samoa and the Virgin Islands were also invited but couldn't attend.

Issues the group is addressing involve both inequities created by federal rules and laws, as well as policies of some private companies, McClintock said.

He said Americans in the territories aren't even treated like second-class citizens, but more like they're from a foreign country, and many of the problems are shared by Hawaii and Alaska even though they're states.

Satellite radio, for example is not available outside the U.S. mainland, he noted.

Now that the nation's two satellite services are trying to merge, the group agreed to ask the Federal Communications Commission to make more far-reaching service a requirement for federal approval of Sirius' proposed absorption of XM.

The territories also object to the dual agricultural and security inspections passengers have to go through at their airports, especially now that both inspections are handled by agents of Homeland Security. In Hawaii, however, the agricultural inspection is a state function.

The legislators also object to census data that leaves out the territories and private polls that exclude Alaska and Hawaii, as well as residents of the territories. The fact that census data on the territories is incomplete adds to the cost of doing business, he said, because business planners have to pay for more of their own research.

"This is the first time in history that Senate presidents from outlying areas have gotten together to recognize that they have common problems, identify them and get together to solve them," McClintock said. He said Honolulu was chosen for the meeting because it's about midway among all the territories.

Not all the discrimination involves government, he said, citing the fact that Apple Inc. doesn't sell its iPhone in Puerto Rico even though AT&T provides service that could use it.

A major complaint against private industry is the practice of boosting postage and handling charges for merchandise mailed from the 48 mainland states.

Companies often charge more to mail to Hawaii and Alaska, for example, even when the U.S. Postal Service rates are the same as to any other state, McClintock noted.

Puerto Rico is treated as a dumping ground for outdated items, he said, accusing Dell Computer of selling older models for higher prices to buyers from Puerto Rico.

"We have no currency problem, no passport problem, but they just decide to treat us as a foreign country," he said.

While I'm not sure about the best way to reference this AP story in Hanabusa's article, it certainly provides an adequate source to the paragraph in question. Pr4ever (talk) 02:13, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Edits from the U.S. House of Representatives

Keep an eye on edits from User:143.231.249.141. It's someone (or possibly a shared computer) at the U.S. House of Representatives. I suggest that it is troubling when an anonymous user from the U.S. House of Representatives edits an article on someone running to serve in a congressional district.--Kevinkor2 (talk) 13:52, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Assertion that Obama admin and National Dem leadership support Case: Not supported by Article

The following clause was removed from a statement about Hanabusa's rival in the 2010 special election:

• "but the Obama administration and National Democratic leadership have indicated a preference for Ed Case."

The support for that statement was given as: "DePledge, Derrick (January 2010), "Senators boost Hanabusa", Honolulu Advertiser, http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20100110&Kategori=NEWS21&Lopenr=1100359&Ref=AR, retrieved 2010-01" (broken link). A good link is: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100110/NEWS21/103020003/Senators-boost-Hanabusa

There is no mention of support (rumored or otherwise) for Case from either the Obama administration or the national dem leadership. Perhaps some other article had this statement? If so, the clause should be restored with the citation. J JMesserly (talk) 02:48, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

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