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Paralegal Student is a Forceful Voice in Autism Debate

Kathleen Seidel is not a doctor. She's not a medical researcher. She's not an educator. She's not a lawyer. But the 52-year old Peterborough woman, armed with a degree in library science and a healthy sense of outrage, has become one of the leading voices in the public debate about a possible link between autism and vaccines.

Seidel's website, neurodiversity.com, is a clearinghouse for autism-related literature, and her attached weblog has become the site of an impassioned and thoroughly researched campaign against a group of scientists and lawyers who promote the theory that childhood vaccines cause the developmental disorder.

For Seidel, who guards her family's privacy but says she has a child with an autism spectrum diagnosis, the scientific evidence disputing their claims is overwhelming. A series of conclusive reports from government scientists have found no connection between autism and a mercury-based preservative once contained in vaccines. And Seidel said that her own family's experience has further cemented her belief that the disorder has a strong genetic component.

But those studies haven't persuaded a significant number of parents who believe that their children were poisoned by vaccines and suspect the U.S. government of denying its culpability. Their views are taken seriously. Nearly 5,000 are involved in a massive legal action to get compensation for their children, and many politicians and medical commentators stand behind the mercury poisoning theory. Among those who believe that mercury might cause autism are Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

Seidel believes that the propagation of the theory causes many harms: It traumatizes parents, who believe their children have been poisoned and must be fixed; it harms children, who are subjected to medically unnecessary treatments designed to remove mercury from their bodies; it discourages vaccination, leaving children vulnerable to deadly diseases; and it distracts autism activists and researchers from the work she feels is most important.

"There's been a lot of energy, a lot of attention that been focused in an area that's not going to help disabled kids," Seidel said.

'1,000 percent'

Seidel describes herself as a "1,000 percent kind of person," who pours herself into her research and writing projects, generally spending about 30 hours a week on her website. That intensity is evident in her blog, where many posts run more than 5,000 words and contain quotations from medical journals, court documents and message groups where parents of children with autism share treatment experiences. She has made Freedom of Information requests for documents and sifted through historic archives on legal databases.

"I inhaled all the documents. I exhaled all the documents," Seidel said, describing one of her recent posts.

Seidel, who is married and has two teenaged children, has worked as a children's librarian and as an internet entrepreneur. In recent years, she has not had a full-time job, splitting her time between caring for her children, curating her website and taking college courses in paralegal studies. During a recent interview, she wore a floppy black hat over her dark frizzy hair and a T-shirt that said: "What we need more of is science."

Science hasn't settled the question of what causes autism, but it has largely ruled out the possibility that a mercury-based preservative called Thimerosal, used in childhood vaccines until 2001, is to blame. After a series of epidemiological studies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Medicine, and the World Health Organization all agree that the evidence doesn't support the theory.

Recent studies indicate that about one in every 165 children has an autism spectrum diagnosis, meaning that they have problems with social interaction, language and repetitive behaviors. The disorder is described as a spectrum because cases range in severity. Some people with autism are able to succeed in school and live independently as adults. Others have persistent physical and behavioral problems and are never able to speak. Research suggests that the rate of autism diagnoses has not declined since Thimerosal was removed from vaccines.

Seidel's writing has focused on the group of researchers and lawyers who remain wedded to the vaccines-cause-autism theory, and her blog includes accusations of ethical lapses, plagiarism, conflicts of interest and inaccurate citation in their work.

Advocates and fans say her exhaustive research sets her apart and makes her blog a must-read for those who care about the scientific, legal and political swirl surrounding autism.

"She is the Erin Brockovich of autism spectrum disorders," said Irving Gottesman, a psychiatry professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School who studies the causes of autism and is convinced that there is no vaccine link. Gottesman compared Seidel's investigative work to what he'd expect from a research team of several graduate students working under a professor. "Amazing," he said, for an amateur. (more>>>)

Paralegal's Bra Design at the Center Of IP Dispute

NEW YORK (NYT) — Hear the phrase "intellectual property," and the mind might wander to the epic struggle between the recording industry and Napster, or the more recent battle between J.K. Rowling and a fan who wanted to publish The Harry Potter Lexicon as a literary love note.

One place it would probably not go is to lingerie — bras and litigation being an uncomfortable fit. But then there was the lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan: a patent matter relating to Victoria Secret’s "Very Sexy 100-Way Strapless Convertible Bra."

The bra is, according to the lawsuit, the intellectual creation of Katerina Plew, a Long Island paralegal, who registered it under U.S. Patent No. 6,733,362 in May 2004. Plew, who is 38, contends that Victoria’s Secret stole, then mass-produced, her specialized design.

"The first time I thought of it I was getting ready for a christening," Plew said in a telephone interview from her home in Selden, N.Y.

"It was an idea that just popped into my head in — don’t know — like March of ’99."

The bra, with its various hooks and eyelets, is something like the Micronaut of the undergarment world. By a complicated series of manoeuvres, it can be worn in as many as 100 ways.

Robin Olshavsky, a spokeswoman for Limited Brands Inc., Victoria Secret’s parent company, said she could not comment on pending litigation. (Source)

Paralegal/Chairman Helps Texas Kickapoo Rebuild After Corruption Scandal

EAGLE PASS, Texas - For Chairman Juan Garza, taking over leadership of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas with little experience at the height of a 2002 corruption scandal and financial disaster was no easy task. But he and the tribe have been strengthened by what they have learned in the past several years, he said, and are facing a positive future.

In 2002, a swell of discontent among the Texas Kickapoo ousted then-chairman Raul Garza and business manager Isidro Garza Jr., a non-Indian, which led to a federal investigation of the Garzas and five others for embezzlement, tax evasion and civil rights violations.

High-level Washington circles were caught up in the investigation and ensuing media attention, as a photo circulated by Raul Garza fueled speculation about a link between Kickapoo adviser and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and President Bush.

In February, the ''Kickapoo Seven'' trial finally came to an end, with Isidro Garza Jr. receiving 20 years in prison for tax evasion and stealing from the Kickapoo, and the other defendants plea bargaining or receiving lesser sentences.

''I think we've moved on from that,'' said Juan Garza in his office in downtown Eagle Pass. ''The defendants are serving their time and there's nothing left to say about it.''

Now, he said, the tribe is tackling the issues that were there before the trial thrust the Kickapoo into the media spotlight: building stable income for the casino and the 500-plus members of the Texas tribe, educating their children, and dealing with health problems like addiction and diabetes.

''We're just barely getting on our feet,'' Garza said.

''When there was a change of government in 2002, little did we know that we only had $60,000 in the cage at the casino; that was all the money we had.''

When Garza and others from the newly elected tribal government went to the bank to check on their financial status, they were told the previous tribal government had left them $20 million in debt.

Now, according to Garza, though the tribe still has debt, it has managed to put away some savings.

''The tribal council decides everything this time. We don't have anyone else telling us what to do. That's the main thing we do to safeguard the tribe's money.''

Garza, who was re-elected as tribal chairman last year, said income from the 1,000 slots and 20 gaming tables at the Lucky Eagle Casino has finally enabled tribal members to give up the migrant farm work they had survived on for years. Now, he said, all Texas tribal members are employed by the casino, as well as some tribal members from Kansas, with a total employment of more than 700.

The Kickapoo, who originated in the Great Lakes region, split up into several groups in the 19th century as they kept moving to avoid immigrant invasions.

By the end of the 20th century, there were fewer than 2,000 Kickapoo separated into tribal groups in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona, Texas and Nacimiento, Mexico. The Texas Kickapoo consider Nacimiento their spiritual home, and many continue to return there on weekends to practice their religion.

Casino profits have enabled the tribe to build more housing on the land they acquired in Texas in the 1980s, after living for years in traditional wikiups under the International Bridge in Eagle Pass, Garza said.

Children of parents who were illiterate now are obtaining GEDs, graduating from high school and going on to community colleges and universities, thanks to the stability of casino income. Each child in school receives $400 a month, as well as a $2,000 stipend once they graduate from high school and a laptop or desktop computer when they enter college.

The tribe has also been able to buy land in Texas and Mexico, where traditional deer hunting for ceremonies can be practiced, and plans to invest in a hotel and a new road to the casino.

It recently hired a consultant for its pecan farm in an effort to make that business more profitable.

But there is much that still has to be done, Garza said. Diabetes and addiction to paint fumes continue to plague the tribe, and more income is needed for the tribe's Healing Grounds health center.

A cultural center and tribal school would ensure that the new generation of Kickapoo doesn't forget their own language and culture, Garza added.

''I didn't even know we were from the Great Lakes when I was growing up,'' he said. ''I thought we were from Mexico.''

To build revenue, the tribe has petitioned the state government to expand from a Class II to a Class III casino license, which will enable it to offer full Las Vegas-style gaming, including blackjack and roulette.

Texas, so far, has refused.

The Kickapoo position is that Texas has not operated from ''a good-faith negotiation,'' said Garza, who is also a paralegal for Native law services. The U.S. Department of the Interior agreed with the Kickapoo, but a 5th Circuit court recently backed up Texas' refusal. The Kickapoo have now appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In June or July, they will find out whether the Supreme Court will hear the case.

''I think the case that's in the Supreme Court is important for all Native Americans to know,'' Garza said. ''It can affect a lot of people, even the ones that have compacts already.'' (Source)

Paralegal Leads a Horse to Water

You lead your horse to water. Horse Quencher will make it drink.

The product, created and sold by three horse-loving friends, has become a hit among equestrians and leisure riders for convincing their otherwise finicky friends to drink water, no matter what the source.

“If they're used to a certain water, and they're out on a trip, they're not going to drink,” said Horse Quencher co-founder Anne Kusmich. “When you throw this in, it's like a treat.”

Kusmich, Leslie Reiss and Nancy Issenman are the “Quencher girls” — three businesswomen whose company, Equatic Solutions, is devoted solely to developing and marketing Horse Quencher. In two years, they've sold 15 tons of the trail mix-like concoction.

Reiss lives in Upper Makefield and Kusmich and Issenman live in Hunterdon County, N.J. The three women met over their love of horses. Kusmich and Reiss breed and sell horses, while Issenman is a former show jumper who's an avid trail rider.

Kusmich developed the “horsy cocktail” for a pregnant mare that refused to drink. A friend suggested throwing some feed into the water, and she started to experiment with different ingredients that would appeal to her horse.

“Everybody would say to me, "You should market this,' ” Kusmich said. “I'm a paralegal and a barn manager. What do I know about marketing?”

Kusmich, Issenman and Reiss would meet in Reiss' kitchen to make up batches of Horse Quencher. For marketing help, they turned to Reiss' husband, Gary, a serial entrepreneur who's owned a variety of businesses. Gary Reiss is Equatic Solutions' chief executive officer.

Issenman, a retired municipal clerk who runs the business full time, took the cocktail to an equine nutritionist to help develop the final product, a mixture of all-natural ingredients including molasses, salt and grains. It comes in four horse-friendly flavors — apple, peppermint, butterscotch and root beer — and is available for $29.99 in a 2.5-pound bucket or 10 single-serving sizes. They've had to refund only two customers whose horses didn't like it, they said.

The mix was recently named the Official Hydration Product of the American Endurance Ride Conference, the national governing body for endurance horseback riding in the United States. The product is available online, as well as in feed stores nationwide.

“The ball is starting to roll in the right direction,” Reiss said.

Horses are particular about the water they drink, and may not drink water they're not used to, said Megan Campbell, a veterinarian at the Mid Atlantic Equine Medical Center in Ringoes, N.J. For years, horse owners have tried numerous tricks to get their horses to drink, adding apple juice, molasses or other treats to the water.

Horse Quencher, she said, has been a hit with most horses she's given it to.

“This theory has been around for a long time,” she said. “Someone's finally put in a sellable product.”

Issenman said they're making a profit, but putting the money back into the business. The goal this year is to continue the company's expansion across the U.S. Once they achieve that, Issenman said they may add new products, possibly for other finicky animals.

“Someday, you'll see Horse Quencher at the Kentucky Derby,” Kusmich said. “That would be great.” (Source)

Paralegal with Liver Disease Sees Need for Organ Donors

Neither Vicki Pierce nor Bridget Moore had any symptoms.

Pierce worked 12-hour shifts in the surgical intensive care unit. Moore played basketball in college and loved to exercise.

Both said they were in good health at the time.

Yet, at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where both are employed, Pierce and Moore are forced to deal with the effects of liver disease.

For Moore, what started as a routine procedure to remove her wisdom teeth ended with a life-changing diagnosis.

Due to the extreme rarity of her disease, Moore said she was misdiagnosed twice before doctors discovered she had Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis with overlapping Autoimmune Hepatitis.

PSC focuses on the bile ducts of the liver and slowly destroys them, according to the Mayo Clinic's Web site.

"It was a scary thing, realizing that I will have to go through a liver transplant," said Moore, a paralegal for University Health Systems. "I went through severe depression, but luckily I had some good doctors that took care of me."

Moore said she takes more than 20 medications each day to combat the PSC, including supplements such as iron. Even though she will inevitably need a liver transplant, she said the timing depends on the rate her liver deteriorates.

"I could need a new liver in two years or 15 years," Moore said. "That is one of the hardest things for my doctors because they don't know when this (transplant) is going to happen."

Moore said there is a stigma in society associated with people receiving organ transplants, especially transplants involving the liver.

"A lot of times, the public thinks of those receiving transplants as people who have somehow inflicted this upon themselves," Moore said. "A large majority of the people dealing with this had nothing to do with it. It just happens."

Pierce, who now works as a registered nurse at HealthDirect, PCMH's nursing triage, said her story began in November 2005.

Even though she had no prior indications, Pierce said she started vomiting blood and had to be rushed to the hospital.

The doctors diagnosed her with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, NASH for short.

Over the next few months, Pierce said she was hospitalized numerous times to drain fluid from the right side of her lung and for surgery to bypass the main blood supply to her liver.

She moved to Jacksonville, Fla., to be closer to the hospital that performed her liver transplant on the morning of March 26, 2007.

"I had to move there and find a small assisted living facility for my stay through the transplant and recovery period," Pierce said. "Being in Florida by myself was extremely hard."

Currently, there is one transplant surgeon with hospital privileges at PCMH. Dr. Carl Haisch, who works in the division of transplant surgery at the Brody School of Medicine, performs kidney transplants.

A hospital official said PCMH is working with East Carolina University to recruit another transplant surgeon to the area.

One of the hardest parts of her transplant, Pierce said, was knowing what the donor family was going through and the sacrifices they were making.

Both Pierce and Moore emphasized the importance of becoming an organ donor.

"There are so many people that need hearts, livers, kidneys, and it can improve their lives so much," Pierce said. "It can help the donor families know that something good can come out of something so sad. It's a hard decision to make, but it can help so many people." (Source)

Paralegal Charged in LA for Unauthorized Legal Services

LOS ANGELES -- A Colorado-based paralegal was charged Monday with conspiracy and other counts for the unauthorized practice of law in a bankruptcy court, prosecutors said.

Emmanuel Assaf, 42, is accused of violating laws that prohibit paralegals from advertising and providing most legal services without a licensed attorney's supervision and from charging more than $200, prosecutors said.

Assaf allegedly billed an 85-year-old man $1,200 for bankruptcy services.

Assaf, reached by phone at his office in Aurora, Colo., said he did not know charges had been filed against him and could not respond without reviewing the charging documents.

He said staff members at several of his offices in Southern California provided police investigators with documents on Friday, but detectives refused to tell him why he was being investigated.

Police began investigating Assaf in May 2007 after a judge reported he failed to let his alleged victim, Maximiliano Jimenez, of Los Angeles, know he had to complete a course in financial management as part of his bankruptcy filing, Delgadillo spokesman Frank Mataljan said.

Assaf did not accompany Jimenez to court or instruct him to complete the financial management course, prosecutors said. Because Jimenez did not complete the course, his debts remained on the books until the situation was explained to the court, authorities said.

Jimenez did not know Assaf was in Colorado when the paralegal called him and said he would handle the bankruptcy filing, prosecutors said.

Assaf faces one count of conspiracy, one count of financial elder abuse, one count of grand theft, two counts of unauthorized practice of law, one count of false advertising and one count of misleading advertising as a paralegal, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said in a news release.

If convicted, Assaf could face up to 4 1/2 years in jail and more than $15,500 in fines. (Source)

Aspiring Paralegal Commuter Finds Longer Drive Worth Price

Despite rising gas prices, drivers across the state still cling to their zig-zag commutes. For many, it boils down to the disconnect between their two main hubs of life -- home and work.

When The News & Observer asked drivers to keep travel diaries for a week, we were particularly interested to see whether climbing gasoline costs were spurring any changes in our commuter culture.

Melodie Bulluck, 41, was among a number of readers who eagerly signed up. She thought keeping a trip log would be a piece of cake.

"I do this all the time. I time everything," she said. "I'm a fanatic at that."

Bulluck typically uses driving logs to plan trips without wasting a minute. But more recently, she has used her logs to track how much more time she spends on the road since moving from Rocky Mount to Wilson.

The move has tripled what used to be a 7-minute drive between home and the RBC Centura Bank in Rocky Mount where she works. In addition to work, she also drives herself and her 6-year-old son, Daniel, to Rocky Mount three or four times a week to attend church or visit family.

But to Bulluck, the extra travel is worth it.

"I was able to get the type of house at a price I could afford in Wilson," she said.

Bulluck is taking online courses to get state certification as a paralegal. She hopes one day to save on gas by having her own home-based paralegal practice. But she may try to get more experience first in a bigger market, such as Raleigh.

"My commute is going to get longer before it gets shorter," she said.

There are some signs, meanwhile, that others are trying to avoid longer commutes. The Triangle's long-expanding galaxy of suburban satellites has been tightening around its geographic core.

In recent years, townhouses built primarily in Wake and Durham counties have experienced strong sales, relative to the rest of the real estate industry, said Bernard Helm of Market Opportunity Research Enterprises, a Rocky Mount company that tracks residential development trends. The townhouses have attracted buyers who otherwise couldn't afford to live near the Triangle's employment centers.

And gas prices could become a growing factor in people's choices about where to live.

Highest since '86

In the last quarter of 2007, energy costs reached about 6.3 percent of the nation's consumer spending, the highest level since 1986, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"I'm seeing people paying as much on gas as on a car payment ... people with gas bills half their mortgage," said Rebekah O'Connell, a credit counselor with Triangle Family Services. "That you didn't used to see."

The uptick in gas prices has been hardest on those who weren't making a lot of money to begin with.

Kevin Littlejohn, 23, estimates he burns through $8 to $9 of gas each round trip he makes between Raleigh and Chapel Hill, where he lives with his high school sweetheart.

"That's about an hour's worth of work," said the entomology lab research assistant at N.C. State University.

His girlfriend, a UNC-Chapel Hill senior, doesn't drive, so it makes more sense for him to do the commuting, he said.

For a few semesters on weekends, Littlejohn used to take Triangle Transit Authority buses between the two campuses -- 1 1/2 hours one way. It was easy and free to him as a student. But because of where the recent NCSU graduate works now, he'd have to make several city bus transfers to reach the TTA line.

Every time gas prices exceed $3 a gallon, Littlejohn said, he tries to work longer hours or take work home so he can knock off one day a week of going into the lab. And since June, he has worked a second job at Hookah Bliss, where he keeps tobacco water pipes going, serves beers and chats with customers. It's about a mile away from where Littlejohn lives.

"I figured I could get a cheaper, gas-saving job," he said. (Source)

Paralegal "Indie" Game Designer to Show Off Creation

Portland has indie music, indie art, indie films.

And, now, indie games.

A growing number of local designers have put their spin on the role-playing and fantasy genre, publishing games such as "Beast Hunters" and "Panty Explosion" (which actually offers little in the way of panties or explosions).

Portland has spawned several small game companies and dozens of followers in the GoPlay PDX club. This weekend, the community hosts a convention-within-a-convention at the annual GameStorm in Vancouver. Designers hope "Indie Hurricane!" will expose their inventions to gamers -- and inspire more people to craft games.

Fanatics say the appeal is simple: Indie games are creative. They blend good writing and art. And they tend to focus on characters' relationships, not the blood-and-guts of some mainstream games.

"I was getting sick of 'Dungeons & Dragons.' I wasn't really into being a barbarian and stabbing people," says Jake Richmond, a 30-year-old artist who created "Panty Explosion" with his 33-year-old business partner, Matt Schlotte.

They met when Schlotte was Richmond's boss at a game store in Lloyd Center. After the shop closed, the friends continued playing games and made the leap to publishing, starting Atarashi Games.

They spent a year developing "Panty Explosion," which they describe as "psychic and mundane Japanese schoolgirls battling nightmarish demons, ghosts, government agents and often each other. It's also a game about enduring high school, making friends, besting rivals, achieving goals and having fun in modern Japan."

Like many indie games, "Panty Explosion" comes in book form -- with blocks of writing accompanied by Richmond's lifelike illustrations. Players create characters by choosing names (Aiko or Kiku, for example) and establishing everything from their age to best friends and biggest rivals. From there the book instructs them to navigate teenage life, acting out conflicts and resolutions.

Another local designer, 30-year-old Christian Griffen of Aloha, discovered role-playing games as a teenager in Germany. He recently launched Berengad Games with his wife, Lisa, whom he met through online gaming. Their first creation, "Beast Hunters," casts players as elite warriors in Germanic tribes. (more>>>)

Paralegal Runs Community Meeting Cafe

DRYDEN — Monica Knight admits that businesses on the village's main street are “drying up and emptying out.” But she's not discouraged — she sees it as a challenge.

In a building surrounded by shuttered windows with “For Rent” signs taped to them, she and a bevy of other committed community members envisioned revitalizing the area with a place where residents could gather to talk, relax and socialize with their neighbors. That was in August.

On Feb. 28, their creation, the not-for-profit Dryden Community Center Café, officially opened for business at 1 W. Main St. The coffee shop, located at the village's four corners at the intersection of routes 38 and 13, serves up hot coffee, grilled paninis, free wireless Internet and a place for locals to congregate in a town that many said had no good central meeting place.

“The most common comment we heard was there's no place to gather, relax, have a good cup of coffee, and just chat,” Knight, the Café's vice president, said. “People have been hungry for something like this for a while here. There was a dearth of community space.”

Since 1836, when it was built, the building at 1 W. Main St. has been a place to mingle with neighbors — it's been grocery store and, most recently, the Brooklyn Diner. But for almost the past two years, it's been a vacant shell.

That's no longer the case.

As she worked at the Café on Saturday with fellow trustee and board president Wendy Martin, Knight outlined all the events they've planned: first, a grand opening this Friday; live music three days a week; family game nights; talks by local authors and professors; and events for kids whenever possible.

Martin and Knight are newcomers to the Dryden area, so for them, the Café is also about making new friends and bringing their adopted community closer together in a shared space, they said. With a core crew of about 30 volunteers who helped build and help run the space, and a $3,000 grant from the town of Dryden, the Café board members have lassoed the community into their project.

“We're trying to put heart into our community and so we wanted this to be in the heart of the village,” Martin said. “People have been coming to this location for a long time.”

A reading and book swap room in the back was furnished for free with donations, a stage in front provides room for coffee drinkers and people watchers, and in the center — with the functional style of a mother's kitchen — the espresso bar/sandwich counter serves up hot food and drinks. Bulletin boards, volunteer sign up sheets, a chalkboard and local artwork adorn the walls.

But even as the place has come together, Martin said there have been many challenges in running a not-for-profit Café with a mostly volunteer staff, so they hired several paid staff members, like Virgil resident Amanda Underwood. She said she likes working in a non-traditional coffee shop.

“There are challenges trying to organize everything, but it's fun to make up the rules as we go,” she said.

For Martin and Knight, an administrative assistant and a paralegal, respectively, managing a restaurant was a completely new experience.

“We're a bunch of non-restaurant people trying to start a restaurant,” she said. “But every time we've needed something, someone's walked in and said, ‘I can do that.'”

Even before the grand opening, the community has already been quietly exploring the new coffee shop.

In the back reading room on Saturday, 3-year-old Truman Lyons picked out a book to read while he and his parents, Chris and Mary Beth, of Dryden, ordered hot chocolate all around. The Lyonses stop into the Café twice a week, they said.

“I was kind of skeptical at first, but it has been amazing to see how this place has come together,” Chris Lyons said.

They just moved into town from Texas, and for them, the Café has also been a great place to meet their neighbors, Lyons said.

“There's a lot to make us isolated in this society, and so anything that reverses that is better,” he said. “(The Café) has been filled to capacity with people of all ages. It's exceeded our expectations, and they have great hot chocolate — what's not to like?” (Source)

Paralegal Seeks House Seat

BRISTOL — Hoping to follow in the footsteps of his well-known father, Christopher Wright declared this week he plans to seek election to northeast Bristol’s 77th state House district.

Wright, 35 and a Democrat, said he wants to represent the area in Hartford so he can “fight for cleaner air and cleaner water, better schools and better health care for all our citizens so that we can continue the promise made by those who came before us to leave our children a state better, stronger, cleaner and healthier than the one we live in today.”

Wright, one of former state Sen. Gardner Wright’s children, is eyeing the seat currently held by state Rep. Ron Burns, a first-term Republican who snatched the district from Democratic hands two years ago.

Burns, who knocked out longtime incumbent Roger Michele, has not said whether he’ll seek re-election in the heavily Democratic district.

It is unclear whether any other Democrats may vie for the right to seek Burns’ seat. At this point, Wright said, he doesn’t know of any other contenders.

Wright said he’s jumping into the race because he’s concerned that government is doing too little to balance its books, protect the environment and ensure affordable, quality health care for everyone.

He said Republicans have failed ordinary Americans because the GOP has “cut tax rates for only the very wealthiest in our society, ballooned our public debt to levels that not even Ronald Reagan or the first George Bush could have imagined and have left working Americans with incomes that are, at best, stagnant and in all too many cases shrinking when compared to the rate of inflation.”

Wright said the state needs to preserve “the last remaining remnants of open space” that it has. “We lecture other countries about the destruction of their forests, yet we plow over ours to build bigger and bigger McMansions,” he said. “What kind of a legacy is this leaving for our children?”

He called for environmental policies “which encourage the reclamation and reuse of brownfields instead of the destruction of greenfields” as well as policies for fuel-efficient vehicles, cleaner emissions and sustainable economic growth.

Wright said health care needs more attention, too.

“The fact that 10 percent of the population in the state which calls itself the insurance capital of the world goes without health insurance is unacceptable,” he said.

Gardner Wright, who serves as one of the city’s downtown commissioners, is a former city councilor, state House member, congressional candidate, city Democratic leader and chairman of the state Commission on Hospitals and Health Care. He represented the 77th District in the 1970s and early 1980s until he gave up the seat in an unsuccessful bid to win an open congressional slot.

“One thing my father told me was, ‘Son, all you have in life is your name, so never do anything to harm it,’” Christopher Wright said.

“Of course, he also once told me, ‘Son, don’t be humble, you’re not that great,’” the son added.

“It must be that which gives me the gumption to stand in front” of the town committee to “tell you why you should help elect me Bristol’s next state representative,” Wright said.

He grew up in the district, attending Mountain View, Ivy Drive and Northeast Middle schools before graduating from St. Paul Catholic High School. He earned a degree in economics from Central Connecticut State University in 1991.

After college, he earned a paralegal certificate and attended a seminary for a time before putting in eight years with the Federal Deposit Insurance Co. He currently works in registration for St. Francis Hospital. (Source)