Chet Edwards For Congress - Protecting Children

Protecting our Children

Kat — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:34:17 -0700

Protecting our Children

Chet is working to keep children safe online with tougher law enforcement against sexual predators who use the Internet to prey on children.

Chet voted to establish and fund the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, which has led to over 5700 arrests.

As a father, Chet strongly believes in cleaning up our public airwaves and restricting minors' access to violent and inappropriate video games. Chet has voted to increase fines on broadcasters who violate decency standards and air profane material.

Chet has supported efforts to help local law enforcement crack down on drug dealers, and is particularly concerned with the proliferation of crystal methamphetamine (meth) labs in rural Texas communities.

City, hospital receive federal funds for repairs

econnor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:11:31 -0700

Wednesday, January 02, 2008
City, hospital receive federal funds for repairs

Madisonville Meteor
By Dave Lewis | Meteor staff writer

Madison County residents will be seeing visible proof of their tax dollars at work this coming year with federal funds coming here to help repair the roof at Madison St. Joseph Health Center and to resurface Collard Street.

According to an announcement Thursday, Dec. 27, from the office of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, $117,000 has been earmarked to renovate the roof and emergency room at Madison St. Joseph, a 57-year-old non-profit facility.

The hospital here has seen the number of emergency room visits increase by nearly 40 percent in recent years in what has been designated a Health Professional Shortage Area and a Medically Underserved Area by the federal government.

Funding for both the hospital and Collard Street comes from the final 2008 appropriations bill, which passed both the U.S. House and Senate earlier in December and was signed by President George W. Bush on Dec. 26.

“I am pleased that my colleagues in the Congress approved my request to help relocate the emergency room for the St. Joseph's Hospital in Madisonville, and I especially want to commend Madisonville community leaders for stressing the importance of this priority project to me,” said Edwards, who is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The Collard Street project was earmarked for $169,000, which will help repair potholes and broken curbs on one of the town's major east-west feeder streets.

“Improving roads,” said Edwards, “is important for future economic growth and the quality of life in Madisonville. I want to thank Madisonville city leaders for recommending this important project to me.”

Madisonville Mayor Sonny Dean said receipt of the news was “fantastic.”

Interim city manager Dave Ward said, “We're going to rebuild Collard street, not just fix potholes. I'm not 100 percent sure how much of Collard Street we can repair. We'll probably have enough to go from S.H. 75 to S.H. 21 and widen it a bit to make it more conducive to two-way traffic and put a good surface on it rather than seal coat.

“I'm going to get bids to hot mix (asphalt). That is what I hope we'd be able to do to it. It's a very busy street and needs to be widened a good 18-24 inches. I wish we would have enough to go the full length, but I just don't think $196,000 will go all the way.

“I will assure you the west side of Collard to North Madison that has been a problem area will be fixed. That's one of the busiest intersections in town.”

Brazos Valley tallies $41 million in earmarks

econnor — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:09:42 -0700

Saturday, December 29, 2007

BV tallies $41 million in earmarks

The Bryan College Station Eagle

By JANET PHELPS |Eagle Staff Writer

More than $41 million will be poured into Brazos Valley projects next year, thanks to earmarks by U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

President Bush criticized special project money as "wasteful government spending" when he signed the $555 billion bill Wednesday that funds the Iraq war into 2008 and keeps government agencies running through September.

The money will go to 16 projects in Brazos, Robertson, Madison and Grimes counties. The projects range from high-profile aerospace engineering and biofuel research at Texas A&M University to a small, church-based drug prevention program.

Edwards said Friday he was proud of the federal money he secured for local projects because it's an effective way to encourage local growth.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to make appropriations, he said, and earmarks allow local leaders to identify and receive funding for projects they see as important.

"I believe [locally initiated projects] make more sense than letting some bureaucrat in the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C., make decisions about what projects to fund," he said. "I would challenge anyone to criticize agricultural research at A&M or emergency response training that help make our cities safer."

A majority of the $41.6 million will go to Texas A&M, including $985,000 for biofuels research and $705,000 for aerospace engineering projects that are used by NASA for lunar and Mars exploration.

Ken Peddicord, director of Texas A&M's Texas Engineering Experiment Station, said the funding is an important step in advancing research into new energy sources.

Texas A&M's BioEnergy Alliance -- a partnership between the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station -- has developed groundbreaking research in alternative fuels such as sorghum that do not come from food sources, he said.

"This money allows the program to strike off in new directions, to move away from corn and ethanol," he said.

St. Joseph Health System also received money for repairs to its Madisonville hospital.

Gentry Woodard, director of legislative affairs and grants for the St. Joseph Health System, said employees at the 57-year-old hospital have volunteered on weekends to make repairs themselves.

Edwards said the staff dedication is one reason he allotted $117,000 to pay for repairs to the roof and emergency room upgrades.

"It was terribly important to that community," he said.

The earmarks come on top of the 2008 defense appropriations bill that was signed into law in November, in which Edwards secured $6.8 million for Texas A&M defense projects and $2.6 million for Lynntech Inc.

Other local earmarks include:

$392,000 to repave County Road 172 in northern Grimes County.

$196,000 to make improvements to Collard Street in Madisonville.

$376,000 to improve communication technology equipment at the Navasota Police Department.

$12.5 million to train emergency first responders at the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center at Texas A&M.

$2 million to fund research at the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute at Texas A&M.

$21.9 million to 23 farming, forestry and animal health research programs at Texas A&M.

$1.39 million to provide anti-terrorism training to educators and local law enforcement through the Texas Engineering Extension Service's Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program and Texas A&M's Project Protect.

$588,000 to Brazos Valley Transportation Management Center to study local traffic solutions and plan for future growth.

$150,000 to Project Focus, a drug- and alcohol-abuse prevention program at Shiloh Baptist Church in Bryan.

House Approves Stiffer Penalties For Broadcast Indecency

Kat — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:05:26 -0700

June 7, 2006
House Approves Stiffer Penalties For Broadcast Indecency

KWTX-TV

(June 7, 2006)—The U.S. House voted Wednesday to approve the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which would increase maximum fines for indecent material on the airwaves to as much as $325, 000.

The Senate approved the legislation last month and the President is expected to sign it into law.

Currently the biggest fine the Federal Communications Commission can levy is $32,500.
The 379-35 vote caps a two-year effort by Congress to crack down on indecent language and behavior broadcast into American homes following the Janet Jackson incident during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

Tougher penalties for broadcast indecency violations have been a high priority of conservative groups.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, voted in favor of the act Wednesday.

“Parents have a right to expect decent standards for their children and broadcast networks must be held to a higher standard to protect family-friendly broadcasting,” he said.

Keeping up with the children online

Kat — Sun, 14 May 2006 13:22:19 -0700

May 14, 2006
Keeping up with the children online

Bryan-College Station Eagle
By HOLLY HUFFMAN | Eagle Staff Writer

Mary Wolf's daughter doesn't have a MySpace page. At 12, the preteen still must ask permission before she can surf the Web, and she must keep her mom updated on what she is doing.
But that likely won't last forever. And Wolf knows that.

"It's a changing world. Parents didn't grow up using this language or using the Internet," the College Station mother said Thursday after attending an Internet safety seminar. "We need to try to be at least as educated as our children."

She added: "By the time she's 16, I'm going to need to know a whole lot more."

Wolf was one of more than three dozen parents who gathered in the College Station Middle School cafeteria for "Web-wise" - a seminar created by a Bryan-based Internet safety task force. It was presented during a community meeting hosted by the College Station school district and police department.

The nearly three-hour presentation is designed to give parents, who are often less technologically savvy than their children, a lesson in general Internet safety. The class aims to give moms and dads tools for keeping kids safe, whether they are playing video games, instant-messaging friends or posting profiles on social networking Web sites.

Several parents spent much of the meeting furiously scribbling notes about helpful Web sites, security software and acronyms that should raise suspicions such as PA or IPN - "Parent Alert" and "I'm Posting Naked." Some questioned the safety of computers at libraries and community centers, while others expressed frustration about teens who were able to crack parental controls.

"Don't be afraid to be a nosy parent," College Station police Detective Paul Price told the crowd during a question-and-answer session.

But while the seminar covered a broad range of safety topics, most parents seemed preoccupied with one site in particular: MySpace.com.

With roughly 77 million members, MySpace has become something of a cultural phenomenon since its 2003 inception. It is immensely popular among teenagers, college students and young professionals. But lately the site has been drawing a little unwanted attention from parents and educators who worry teens are revealing too much personal information, inadvertently making themselves targets for online predators.

The controversy has even sparked debate among legislators as to whether MySpace and similar sites should be regulated by state or federal laws.

"There just needs to be some protective measure built in by the legislature," said state Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station in a recent interview. "The opportunity for predators is the big issue."
Brown said he was familiar with the continued debate over MySpace and expected legislators to prefile bills about the Web site later this fall. But he said he hadn't thought specifically about possible solutions because he's been engrossed in the recent special session aimed at overhauling public school finance.

His comments were echoed by a spokesman for state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan.

Neither Ogden nor U.S. Congressman Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat, could be reached last week for comment, but Edwards did release a statement indicating his support for groups such as the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The nationwide task force is funded by the Justice Department.

Edwards stressed the importance of providing the FBI with necessary funding so agents can catch and punish child predators. School districts, churches and local, state and federal agencies should work together to protect children, Edwards said, but he pointed to parents as the first line of defense.

"As a parent of 8- and 10-year-old sons, I want to do everything possible to protect children from being victimized over the Internet," Edwards said in the statement sent in response to The Eagle's inquiry. "First and foremost, I believe parents must take responsibility for their children's welfare and closely monitor their activities on the Web."

That seemed to be the mindset of most parents at College Station's recent meeting.

Wolf described herself as someone who believed in trusting children and giving them privacy - she never considered it appropriate to read children's journals or diaries. But leaving the meeting Thursday, she said she thought an occasional spot check of Web pages and chat logs might not be a bad idea.

It's not about a parent trusting a child; it's about a parent not being able to trust others on the Internet, she explained.

"It's a whole new world," she said.

College Station mother Lauri Brown echoed her sentiments. Taking notes throughout the meeting, Brown said her 11-year-old daughter doesn't have a MySpace page, but she is allowed to browse the Internet.

"I'm just interested in protecting her," she said, laughing as she acknowledged how hard it is to stay in touch with fast-changing technology. "She can't know more than I do."