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From the Los Angeles Times

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Inspiration below ground and above

As freedom nears for the 33 trapped miners in Chile, the international cooperation behind the rescue effort is impressively on display.

OPINION

October 12, 2010

For the 33 miners who have been trapped half a mile below ground in Chile for more than two months, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. When drill operator Jeff Hart punched through to the chamber last week, the miners cheered below and their relatives wept with joy, hugging Hart and posing for pictures with him. The Denver resident had been in Afghanistan drilling water wells for the U.S. Army when he was called to the mine in the Atacama desert, and his efforts there are only one example of the extraordinary international effort that, combined with local expertise, has made the 33 miners the longest surviving victims of a mine cave-in. The Chilean authorities have said that they could be rescued as soon as Tuesday night.

The international effort was matched by the inspiring example of those trapped below. The mine collapsed on Aug. 5, and 17 days passed before contact was made through a probe and the world learned of the miners' determination and discipline. They had stretched a two-day supply of food by living on two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, a bits of crackers and a nibble of peaches — every other day. And they had maintained order by continuing to follow the directions of the senior miner in the company.

Contact with the world above brought hundreds of government officials, Red Cross workers and volunteers (who prepare 500 meals a day for family members) to the site. It also brought cutting-edge technology to solve the dual challenges of keeping the miners alive and devising a rescue. Twenty private mining companies from around the world — usually rivals — coordinated efforts to penetrate the rock, loaning equipment and personnel; the state-run mining company fashioned a telephone system through a second probe hole. The miners have received, food, water, medicine, dominoes, MP3 players and videos to ward off depression, and they have traded letters with family members. One man proposed to his girlfriend; another promised his wife the honeymoon they never had. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent a team to Chile to share expertise about the psychological and physical toll of living in cramped quarters, and when the miners exercise — to be rescued, they must fit into a capsule called the Phoenix, whose diameter is less than two feet — they wear gear that is standard for astronauts and which monitors their heart, lung and other functions. When they are finally brought out into the light they will wear special sunglasses provided by Oakley, based in Orange County.

On Monday, the capsule, whose components were designed by 20 NASA engineers, completed a successful trial run. And if it rises later this week, as expected, carrying the first miner, the greatest joy will be in Chile, but the job well done will belong to many.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-1012-chile-20101012,0,1565995,print.story

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Justify a 'hit list'

Anwar Awlaki, an Al Qaeda agent believed to be in Yemen, reportedly is on a U.S. 'targeted killings' list. The Obama administration should have to justify to a court of law its reasoning that the U.S. citizen should be assassinated

OPINION

October 12, 2010

Should a federal court have any say over whether a U.S. citizen can be targeted for killing by his own government without due process of law? The Obama administration has submitted a lengthy document to a federal court that can be summed up in one disappointing word: No.

The Justice Department's attempt to keep the courts out of the case of Anwar Awlaki, an Al Qaeda propagandist thought to be hiding in Yemen, is reminiscent of the Bush administration's aversion to any meaningful involvement by the courts in the war on terror. The judiciary shouldn't agree to be sidelined.

It has been widely reported that Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, is on a "targeted killings" list. In its filing with a federal District Court, the Justice Department insists that Awlaki is more than simply a mouthpiece for Al Qaeda. Citing a statement by James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, the department argues that since late 2009 Awlaki has "taken on an increasingly operational role" in the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, including preparing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines plane last Christmas.

We have no reason to doubt that characterization of Awlaki. But before the government begins targeting its own citizens for assassination far from a combat zone, it should, at the very least, have to explain to a court why such an extraordinary step doesn't violate the Constitution, which promises that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. In a pending lawsuit, Awlaki's father asks the court to rule that his son can't be killed outside armed conflict "unless he is found to present a concrete, specific and imminent threat to life or physical safety, and there are no means other than lethal force that could reasonably be employed to neutralize the threat."

In response, the Justice Department sprays the court with a variety of legal arguments to have the case thrown out. For example: Awlaki's father lacks standing to sue because Awlaki himself could have access to the courts if he surrendered. Here's another: Proceeding would involve the judiciary in "political questions" reserved to the president and his advisors.

And if the court doesn't accept these and other arguments, the administration says it will invoke the much-abused "state secrets privilege" to stop the litigation.

We don't underestimate the problems that would be created if the judiciary intervened in the day-to-day national security decisions of the president, the armed forces or the CIA. But that is not what is being proposed here. Assassinating a U.S. citizen away from a battlefield is such a momentous step that the administration should have to justify its reasoning, in secret if necessary, to a court of law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-awlaki-20101012,0,257733,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Pa. School Settles 2 Webcam Spy Lawsuits for $610K

October 12, 2010

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia-area school district agreed Monday to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops.

The Lower Merion School District admitted it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers.

Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, then 15, charged in an explosive civil-rights lawsuit filed in February that the district used its remote tracking technology to spy on him inside his home. Later evidence unearthed in the case showed that he was photographed 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom, according to his lawyer, Mark Haltzman.

The settlement calls for $175,000 to be placed in a trust for Robbins and $10,000 for a second student who filed suit, Jalil Hassan. Their lawyer, Mark Haltzman, will get $425,000 for his work on the case.

The FBI investigated whether the district broke any criminal wiretap laws, but prosecutors declined to bring any charges.

"Although we would have valued the opportunity to finally share an important, untold story in the courtroom, we recognize that in this case, a lengthy, costly trial would benefit no one," school board President David Ebby said in a statement late Monday. "It would have been an unfair distraction for our students and staff and it would have cost taxpayers additional dollars that are better devoted to education."

The district's insurer has agreed to pay $1.2 million toward legal and settlement costs. The carrier, Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company, had questioned in a lawsuit whether costs associated with the webcam suit would be covered under the district's policy.

Neither Haltzman nor the Robbins family returned calls for comment Monday.

Hassan has since graduated from Lower Merion High School, and a phone number for him could not immediately be determined.

The district issues Apple laptops to all 2,300 students at its two high schools.

The district's review found that its technology staff captured at least 56,000 images through the remote tracking program, which was sometimes left on inadvertently for months after laptops were located.

Robbins said he had never reported his computer missing, and did not know why the program was activated on his laptop.

District officials said he had damaged or destroyed two other school laptops, and failed to pay the required $55 insurance fee on the one he had. He was therefore not authorized to bring it home, a technology official said in court papers.

According to his suit, Robbins learned of the practice when a Harriton vice principal cited a laptop photo in telling him that the school thought he was engaging in improper behavior. Robbins told reporters the school had mistaken candy he was seen eating for drugs.

The district is no longer using the tracking program.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/11/us/AP-US-Laptops-Spying-on-Students.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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The Paralysis of the State

Sometimes a local issue perfectly illuminates a larger national problem. Such is the case with the opposition of the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, to construction of a new tunnel between his state and New York.

Christie argues that a state that is currently facing multibillion-dollar annual deficits cannot afford a huge new spending project that is already looking to be $5 billion overbudget. His critics argue that this tunnel is exactly the sort of infrastructure project that New Jersey needs if it's to prosper in the decades ahead.

Both sides are right. But what nobody seems to be asking is: Why are important projects now unaffordable? Decades ago, when the federal and state governments were much smaller, they had the means to undertake gigantic new projects, like the Interstate Highway System and the space program. But now, when governments are bigger, they don't.

The answer is what Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal once called demosclerosis. Over the past few decades, governments have become entwined in a series of arrangements that drain money from productive uses and direct it toward unproductive ones.

New Jersey can't afford to build its tunnel, but benefits packages for the state's employees are 41 percent more expensive than those offered by the average Fortune 500 company. These benefits costs are rising by 16 percent a year.

New York City has to strain to finance its schools but must support 10,000 former cops who have retired before age 50.

California can't afford new water projects, but state cops often receive 90 percent of their salaries when they retire at 50. The average corrections officer there makes $70,000 a year in base salary and $100,000 with overtime (California spends more on its prison system than on its schools).

States across the nation will be paralyzed for the rest of our lives because they face unfunded pension obligations that, if counted accurately, amount to $2 trillion — or $87,000 per plan participant.

All in all, governments can't promote future prosperity because they are strangling on their own self-indulgence.

Daniel DiSalvo, a political scientist at the City College of New York, has a superb survey of the problem in the new issue of National Affairs. DiSalvo notes that nationally, state and local workers earn on average $14 more per hour in wages and benefits than their private sector counterparts. A city like Buffalo has as many public workers as it did in 1950, even though it has lost half its population.

These arrangements grew gradually. Through much of the 20th century, staunch liberals like Franklin Roosevelt opposed public sector unions. George Meany of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. argued that it is “impossible to bargain collectively with government.”

Private sector managers have to compete in the marketplace, so they have an incentive to push back against union requests. Ideally, some balance is found between the needs of workers and companies. Government managers possess a monopoly on their services and have little incentive to resist union demands. It would only make them unpopular.

In addition, public sector unions can use political power to increase demand for their product. DiSalvo notes that between 1989 ad 2004, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was the biggest spender in American politics, giving $40 million to federal candidates. The largest impact is on low-turnout local elections. The California prison guard union recently sent a signal by spending $200,000 to defeat a state assemblyman who had tried to reduce costs.

In states across the country, elected leaders raise state employee salaries in the fat years and then are careful to placate the unions by raising future pension benefits in the lean ones. Even if cost-conscious leaders are elected, they find their hands tied by pension commitments and employee contracts.

The end result is sclerotic government. Many of us would be happy to live with a bigger version of 1950s government: one that ran surpluses and was dexterous enough to tackle long-term problems as they arose. But we don't have that government. We have an immobile government that is desperately overcommitted in all the wrong ways.

This situation, if you'll forgive me for saying so, has been the Democratic Party's epic failure. The party believes in the positive uses of government. But if you want the country to share that belief, you have to provide a government that is nimble, tough-minded and effective. That means occasionally standing up to the excessive demands of public employee unions. Instead of standing up to those demands, the party has become captured by the unions. Liberal activism has become paralyzed by its own special interests.

The antigovernment-types perpetually cry less, less, less. The loudest liberals cry more, more, more. Someday there will be a political movement that is willing to make choices, that is willing to say “this but not that.”

Someday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12brooks.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

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Closing the Case on the Cole

OPINION

TEN years ago, Qaeda terrorists blew a hole in the side of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. Yet the attack's mastermind still hasn't been prosecuted, and many of the men tried and imprisoned for the bombing are again free.

As Washington debates whether to increase aid to Yemen, it should first remember its duty to seek justice for those sailors — and to heed the broader national-security lessons from the attack.

As soon as the F.B.I. received news of the Oct. 12 bombing, I flew to Yemen with a team to investigate. The bodies of sailors draped in flags on a blood-stained deck, guarded by teary-eyed survivors, formed a heartbreaking image that motivated us during the following months.

Our investigation faced difficulties from the beginning. Yemen's weak central government's on-again, off-again relationship with extremists meant that Al Qaeda had influential sympathizers in positions of authority, as well as among powerful tribes in the country's vast desert. As a consequence, we regularly faced death threats, smokescreens and bureaucratic obstructions.

While such obstacles were not unexpected, what surprised us was the lack of support from home. No one in the Clinton White House seemed to care about the case. We had hoped that the George W. Bush administration would be better, but except for Robert Mueller, the director of the F.B.I., its top officials soon sidelined the case; they considered it, according to Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, “stale.” Even the families of the sailors were denied meetings with the White House, a disgrace that ended only when President Obama took office — and a precedent I hope the administration maintains.

Still, our team pressed ahead and, together with agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, we tracked down many of the Qaeda members responsible for the attack, secured confessions from them and prosecuted them. We were aided by courageous Yemenis from the country's security, law enforcement and judicial services who shared a commitment to justice and an understanding that ignoring Al Qaeda would only embolden it. We left Yemen with most of the terrorists locked up.

After we were gone, however, Yemen began releasing terrorists under presidential pardons and through a questionable “rehabilitation” program. Many of the men we helped convict went free.

For example, Fahd al-Quso, who had confessed to his role in the Cole attack and was sent to prison, is now out; earlier this year he gave press interviews and was featured in a Qaeda video threatening the United States. Jamal al-Badawi, who confessed to being Mr. Quso's boss and received a death sentence, has gone through a cycle of “escaping” from prison, receiving clemency and allegedly being rearrested.

Meanwhile, the security situation in Yemen has deteriorated. Freed operatives and the availability of safe havens arguably make Yemen an even better base for Al Qaeda than Afghanistan or Pakistan, as does the fact that the government is distracted by a rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south. Not surprisingly, Al Qaeda's Saudi branch recently moved to Yemen and merged with the local faction to form Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In response, Washington is considering increasing military aid to Yemen, to as much as $1.2 billion over six years, up from $155 million in 2010. But it should do so only if it wins from Yemen a guarantee that it will be consistent in its fight against Al Qaeda.

An important test of that commitment should be how Yemen responds to a long-overdue request that Mr. Badawi and Mr. Quso be handed over to American officials to be properly prosecuted. Extraditing the two men would also help with another problem connected to the Cole attack: the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the plot's alleged mastermind, who has been in American custody for almost eight years.

Mr. Nashiri has yet to be tried because he was subjected to waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, rendering his statements legally problematic, even those given after interrogators stopped using the counterproductive measures.

Fortunately, there is enough evidence to convict Mr. Nashiri based on confessions we gained legally from Mr. Badawi and Mr. Quso — we even read them the Miranda warning — and from other physical evidence we found during the investigation. Their presence in court would enable us to use their confessions.

It is not merely an insult to the 17 dead sailors, their families and our national honor that Washington does nothing while convicted terrorists walk free and Mr. Nashiri sits unprosecuted. It also harms our national security. We long ago realized that if the American government had not let the Cole attack go unanswered, and if our investigation had not been so constrained, we could have undermined Al Qaeda and perhaps even averted the 9/11 attack. After 10 years, we need to finally put that lesson to use.

Ali H. Soufan was an F.B.I. special agent from 1997 to 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12soufan.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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‘So Utterly Inhumane'

You have to believe that somebody really had it in for the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys. They have always insisted that they had nothing to do with a robbery that occurred near the small town of Forest, Miss., on Christmas Eve in 1993. It was not the kind of crime to cause a stir. No one was hurt and perhaps $11 was taken.

Jamie was 21 at the time and Gladys just 19. But what has happened to them takes your breath away.

They were convicted by a jury and handed the most draconian sentences imaginable — short of the death penalty. Each was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in state prison, and they have been imprisoned ever since. Jamie is now 38 and seriously ill. Both of her kidneys have failed. Gladys is 36.

This is Mississippi we're talking about, a place that in many ways has not advanced much beyond the Middle Ages.

The authorities did not even argue that the Scott sisters had committed the robbery. They were accused of luring two men into a trap, in which the men had their wallets taken by acquaintances of the sisters, one of whom had a shotgun.

It was a serious crime. But the case against the sisters was extremely shaky. In any event, even if they were guilty, the punishment is so wildly out of proportion to the offense that it should not be allowed to stand.

Three teenagers pleaded guilty to robbing the men. They ranged in age from 14 to 18. And in their initial statements to investigators, they did not implicate the Scott sisters.

But a plea deal was arranged in which the teens were required to swear that the women were involved, and two of the teens were obliged, as part of the deal, to testify against the sisters in court.

Howard Patrick, who was 14 at the time of the robbery, said that the pressure from the authorities to implicate the sisters began almost immediately. He testified, “They said if I didn't participate with them, they would send me to Parchman and make me out a female.”

He was referring to Mississippi State Prison, which was once the notoriously violent Parchman prison farm. The lawyer questioning the boy said, “In other words, they would send you to Parchman and you would get raped, right?”

“Yes, sir,” the boy said.

The teens were sentenced to eight years in prison each, and they were released after serving just two years.

This is a case that should be repugnant to anyone with the slightest interest in justice. The right thing to do at this point is to get the sisters out of prison as quickly as possible and ensure that Jamie gets proper medical treatment.

A number of people have taken up the sisters' cause, including Ben Jealous, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., who is trying to help secure a pardon from Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. “It makes you sick to think that this sort of thing can happen,” he said. “That these women should be kept in prison until they die — well, that's just so utterly inhumane.”

I have no idea why the authorities were so dead set on implicating the Scott sisters in the crime and sending them away for life, while letting the teens who unquestionably committed the robbery get off with much lighter sentences.

Life sentences for robbery can only be imposed by juries in Mississippi, but it is extremely rare for that sentencing option to even be included in the instructions given to jurors. It's fair to think, in other words, that there would have to be some extraordinary reason for prosecutors and the court to offer such a draconian possibility to a jury.

Chokwe Lumumba, a lawyer representing the sisters, captured the prevailing legal sentiment when he said: “I don't think Mississippi law anticipates that you're going to be giving this instruction in a case where nobody gets hurt and $11 is allegedly stolen. In the majority of robbery cases, even the ones that are somewhat nasty, they don't read that instruction.”

The reason for giving the jury the option of imposing life sentences in this case escapes me. Even the original prosecutor, Ken Turner, who is now retired and who believes the sisters were guilty, has said that he thinks it would be “appropriate” to offer them relief from their extreme sentences. He told The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., “It was not a particularly egregious case.”

The appeals process for the women has long since been exhausted. It is up to Governor Barbour, who is considering petitions on the sisters' behalf, to do the humane thing.

A pardon or commutation of sentence — some form of relief that would release Jamie and Gladys Scott from the hideous shackles of a lifetime in prison — is not just desirable, it's absolutely essential.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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City to hire up to 200 more cops next year

October 12, 2010

BY FRAN SPIELMAN

Chicago will hire as many as 200 more police officers next year -- in addition to the 120-member class that entered the police academy last month -- to ease a severe manpower shortage, City Hall sources said Monday.

Mayor Daley is expected to announce today that his final budget will include funding for Chicago's first police entrance exam in four years and the hiring of two more classes from the new list, each including 75 to 100 recruits.

A two-year hiring slowdown has left the Chicago Police Department more than 2,300 officers-a-day short of authorized strength, counting vacancies, medical leave and limited duty.

The shortage triggered a police protest last month and prompted Daley to propose taking scores of police officers out of community policing.

The new classes go above and beyond the 100 new officers Daley promised in July after a stunning outbreak of violence that saw three police officers gunned down in two months.

Still, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council's Police Committee, was unimpressed.

"This is just putting a Band-Aid on a large open wound that's not gonna heal," Beale said.

"It's nowhere near enough. You probably have a couple hundred people retiring. It's not gonna be a net gain."

Beale has been pressuring Daley to "level the playing field" for minorities by dropping the 1997 requirement that applicants complete at least two years of college.

The alderman also wants to streamline the hiring process by grading the new police exam on the spot so applicants know where they stand when they leave the testing site.

"If we operate under the same process, by the time there's a test given, it's gonna take eight months for people to even know what their score is. We won't see these officers for two years," Beale said.

On Sept. 1, a new class of 120 recruits entered the police academy to start their six months of training, honoring the mayor's modest hiring promise but depleting a 2006 hiring list.

The city had three options: scrap the police entrance exam altogether; hire an outside consultant to draft a new exam or take the testing process back in-house.

Daley chose to hold a new exam, but in a way that would speed the process because time is of the essence. The manpower shortage is getting worse with each wave of retirements.

City Hall has asked four firms with so-called "master consulting agreements" to vie for the right to administer a new police entrance exam that's expected to draw as many as 30,000 applicants.

The request seeks a vendor who would purchase a pre-existing exam directly from an exam developer, provide exam materials and study guides, staff the exam and administer and grade the exam. Responses were due back last Thursday.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2794028,CST-NWS-cops12web.article

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Fighting HIV among inmates

October 12, 2010

BY MONIFA THOMAS

HIV is four times more prevalent among prison and jail inmates than in the overall population, which makes correctional facilities a key battleground in the fight against AIDS.

Yet there's been scant research on the most effective ways to identify inmates with HIV, make sure they get quality treatment and help ensure that they don't spread the infection once they get out.

Now, the National Institute on Drug Abuse -- a division of the National Institutes of Health -- is awarding $50 million in grants over the next five years for research projects in several states. It's the first NIH-funded initiative to target HIV infection in correctional facilities, according to Dr. Jacques Normand, director of the drug abuse institute's AIDS research program.

"If you don't tackle these hard-to-reach populations, there's enough of them to sustain the epidemic," Normand said. "Just dealing with people who are highly educated and have access to health care will not allow us to contain this epidemic."

The $7 million Illinois portion of the funding will go to a project, led by researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Cook County Jail, focusing on inmates at the jail and at more than two dozen state prisons.

Part of the money will go toward gradually implementing HIV testing for new inmates in the state's prisons that will automatically be performed when an inmate enters the system, unless the inmate refuses. Now, tests are given only by consent.

The Cook County Jail also plans to switch to such "opt-out" testing later this month.

The change in testing policy is in keeping with guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should help reduce the number of infected inmates who don't know their HIV status, said Dr. Jeremy Young, one of the three lead investigators for the project, who is an infectious-disease specialist at UIC.

The researchers will also examine, for the first time, whether linking inmates to HIV care via telemedicine gets better results.

"Prisoners have typically been managed by prison physicians who are generalists, not sub-specialists, so they don't really have access to specialist care," Young said.

Two months ago, UIC launched a pilot program with the Illinois Department of Corrections in which UIC specialists see inmates at prisons via a secure video link. A nurse is in the room with the inmate, and doctors have access to an exam camera and a stethoscope that allows them to remotely hear a patient's heart rate.

"It's basically just like a live visit," Young said, adding that it's less expensive than having doctors drive all over the state to see patients in the prison system.

In theory, greater access to specialty care should lead to more timely initiation of antiretroviral drug therapy.

The third piece of the project involves tracking HIV-infected inmates after they leave prison.

"In the past, prisoners have gotten two weeks of meds and an appointment [for follow-up care] in the city," Young said. "The problem is, when prisoners go out into the community, many of them start taking drugs and hanging out with old friends, and they don't show up for appointments and get lost to follow-up."

The grant will provide for additional case managers to contact newly released prisoners on a regular basis and connect them to mental health services, drug counseling and the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2793264,CST-NWS-health12.article

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Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze

October 12, 2010

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Seniors prepared to cut back on everything from food to charitable donations to whiskey as word spread Monday that they will have to wait until at least 2012 to see their Social Security checks increase.

The government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through a second straight year without an increase in monthly benefits. This year was the first without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation started in 1975.

"I think it's disgusting," said Paul McNeil, 69, a retired state worker from Warwick, R.I., who said his food and utility costs have gone up, but his income has not. He lamented decisions by lawmakers that he said do not favor seniors.

"They've got this idea that they've got to save money and basically they want to take it out of the people that will give them the least resistance," he said.

Cost-of-living adjustments are automatically set by a measure adopted by Congress in the 1970s that orders raises based on the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. Social Security benefits will remain unchanged as long as consumer prices remain below the level they were at in 2008, the last time a COLA was awarded.

Still, seniors like McNeil said they'll be thinking about the issue when they go to vote, and experts said the news comes at a bad time for Democrats already facing potentially big losses in November. Seniors are the most loyal of voters, and their support is especially important during midterm elections, when turnout is generally lower.

"If you're the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election," said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

At St. Andrews Estates North, a Boca Raton retirement community, seniors largely took the news in stride, saying they don't blame Washington for the lack of an increase. Most are also collecting pensions or other income, but even so, they prepared to tighten their belts.

Bette Baldwin won't be able to travel or help her children as much. Dorcas Eppright will give less to charity. Jack Dawson will buy cheap whiskey instead of his beloved Canadian Club.

"For people who have worked their whole life and tried to scrimp and save and try to provide for themselves," said Baldwin, a 63-year-old retired teacher, "it's difficult to see that support system might not sustain you."

Baldwin and her husband mapped out their retirements, carefully calculating their income based on their pensions and Social Security checks. Trouble is, they expected an annual cost-of-living increase.

"When we cut back, we're cutting back on niceties," Baldwin said. "But there are other people that don't have anything to cut back on. They're cutting back on food and shelter."

Many at St. Andrews said the cost-of-living decision won't affect who they vote for next month. But seniors tied the Social Security issue to what they see as a larger societal problem with debt, entitlements and hopefulness for the future.

"I'm kind of glad in a way," Stella Wehrly, an 86-year-old retired secretary, said of the freeze. "One thing depends on the other and when people aren't working there's not enough people feeding into the Social Security system."

Wehrly and her husband, Hank, said curtailing government spending is necessary to maintain the Social Security system.

"We have a generation now that we're not going to leave a very good legacy for," she said.

Jack Dawson, 77, said the freeze is the right move considering the state of the government and the American economy.

"Who would be surprised what's happened?" he asked. "I feel this is the right decision in light of the malaise."

More than 58.7 million people rely on Social Security checks that average $1,072 monthly. It was the primary source of income for 64 percent of retirees who got benefits in 2008; one-third relied on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their income.

At the Phoenix Knits yarn shop in Phoenix, 73-year-old owner Pat McCartney said she already worries about paying for utilities, groceries and gas. Not having the increase makes her worry even more.

"If I have any major expense, I don't know what I'll do," McCartney said while helping customers with their knitting. "I live on Social Security."

In Kansas City, Mo., Georgia Hollman, 80, said Social Security is her sole source of income. She would have liked a bigger check, but said she's grateful for what she gets.

"There isn't nothing I can do about it but live with it," she said. "Whatever they give us is what we have to take. I'm thankful we get that little bit."

Advocates for seniors argue the Consumer Price Index doesn't adequately weigh the costs that most affect older adults, particularly medical care and housing.

"The existing COLA formula does not account for the economic reality of the true costs that most seniors faced," said Fernando Torres-Gil, director of UCLA's Center for Policy Research on Aging and the first person appointed to the governmental post of assistant secretary for aging, during the Clinton administration.

Still, Torres-Gil said the political reality is different, and many feel seniors are lucky to have their checks determined by the CPI, instead of some new formula that might make it even harder to secure a raise.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/2794860,social-security-senior-freeze-101210.article

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