Evan Epstein, the Palisades First Baby of 2000, visits Hangzhou, a beautiful city near Shanghai, with his mother, Tiffany Hu.
(Editor’s note: Tiffany Hu was a violin prodigy while growing up in China. She came to the United States to study at USC and now lives in Pacific Palisades with her husband, Scott Epstein. Their son Evan was the town’s First Baby born in 2000 and is now a student at Marquez Elementary and a promising pianist. Tiffany and Evan spent Christmas and New Year’s in China, as she reports here in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post.) By TIFFANY HU Special to the Palisadian-Post Evan and I arrived in Shanghai on December 17, and I played in a concert on the 21st. Our group played Haydn’s Sinfornia Concertante for violin, oboe, basson and cello with the Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra. It was my first concert in China since I left in 1985. It was wonderful to play with old friends. I came from California, the bassonist from Chicago, the cellist was the principal of San Diego Symphony and is now a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory. The oboist is dean of the distinguished middle school of the Shanghai Conservatory. I heard Haydn’s music performed by members of L.A. Philharmonic and fell in love with the concerto; I dreamed of playing it myself, and suggested to the others, and all of us thought it would be a great opportunity for us to make music together after so many years. The concert was sold out, the hall was packed, and the audience loved our performance. Then the backstage was packed with friends. We are returning home on January 8, so Evan is going to have his 10th birthday here in Shanghai. I am planning to have a musical birthday party for him, because every kid plays instruments here, so all his Chinese friends will perform at the party. Evan is taking piano lessons again with a wonderful professor, Wu Zi Jie, of the elementary school of Shanghai Conservatory, who has produced many pianists who are active on the concert stage all over the world. Evan is also taking Chinese lessons, which he writes and reads, and he never asks for forks anymore while eating the food. He also enjoys the real Chinese food. I bring him to Shanghai every summer and we stay for about 5 to 6 weeks. Since he is half Chinese, it is very important to me that he grows up learning my thousand-year-old culture.
Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited. Linda Chase signs ‘Picturing Las Vegas,’ the story of a city whose history mirrors that of America itself: a tale of the frontier, of corruption and greed, of beauty and loss and ineffable hope, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Chase is also the author of ‘Surfing: Women of the Waves.’
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15
Kids Pajama Storytime, 6:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Patrice Karst reads ‘The Smile That Went Around the World’ (ages 3+), an uplifting story about how one smile finds its way around the world, cheering up everyone along the way. (See story, page 12.) Theatre Palisades presents Neil Simon’s ‘Chapter Two,’ 8 p.m. at the Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd., through February 14. For tickets, call 310-454-1970. The comedy, directed by Sherman Wayne and produced by Martha Hunter, plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
Food historian Charles Perry will lecture on ‘When Los Angeles Was America’s Wine Country,’ 2 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited and admission is free.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19
Dr. Susan Love, a pioneer in the field of women’s health and breast cancer, will address the members and friends of the Palisades Woman’s Club, 11:45 a.m. at the clubhouse, 901 Haverford Ave. (See story, page 8.) Monthly meeting of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association, 7 p.m. at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center. The public is invited. Folklorist Dr. Teri Brewer will be the featured speaker at the Chautauqua series program, 7:30 p.m. in Woodland Hall at Temescal Gateway Park, 15601 Sunset. Admission and parking is free.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20
The Palisades Branch Library and Sisters in Crime present mystery writer Harley Jane Kozak, 6:30 p.m. in the library’s community room, 861 Alma Real. ””””””
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21
Storytime for children ages 3 and up, 4 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. Family therapist Susan Stiffelman discusses ‘Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm and Connected,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. (See story, page 8.)
Dorothy Louise Werner, a resident of Pacific Palisades since 1954, suffered a stroke on Christmas evening and remained at St. John’s Hospital until she passed away on the evening of January 3. Her son and daughter and some grandchildren were present at the end. She was 82. Dorothy was born on September 2, 1927 in the town of Mankato, Minnesota, and had nine siblings. She grew up in a farm-style house with vegetable gardens, a chicken coop and fruit trees, and attended a Catholic high school. After Dorothy married Donald Werner in Austin, Minnesota, in 1949, they moved out to Los Angeles. Donald worked at Petersen Publishing as the editor of Motor Life and then Motor Trend magazines. Dorothy became a homemaker, raising two children, Lynne and Steven. The family first resided in an apartment at the intersection of Las Casas Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.’From there they moved to Livorno Drive and then to the upper part of Lachman Lane. Later, Dorothy and her husband built a home in the Riviera neighborhood. In 1962 and in 1965, Donald (1918-1997) and Dorothy started two family businesses in small offices in the Palisades and Brentwood: first Argus Publishers (now a part of Source Interlink Media) and then Werner Publishing Corporation, still located at Wilshire and Bundy. Dorothy was active in the family business right up to the end. Dorothy is survived by her daughter, Lynne Irvine, whose husband Thomas also comes from a longtime Pacific Palisades family; her son, Steven Werner (wife Debra); and four grandchildren: Jana and Ryan Werner and Diana and Laurel Irvine. Steven and Lynne attended Marquez, Paul Revere and Palisades High and are still Palisades residents. A memorial service was held for Dorothy on January 9 at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, where her ashes are now interned. This was the family church for nearly all of her years in the Palisades. Dorothy and her husband were always fond of saying, “Everyone in the world wants to live in the United States, and in the U.S. they want to live in California, and in California, they want to live in Pacific Palisades.'” You can sip a Starbucks coffee or munch a Noah’s bagel and think of Dorothy Werner while you sit on a bench near a plaque that bears her name on the Village Green, between Antioch and Swarthmore at Sunset.
Dr. Stanley Bernard Corwin passed away on January 3 after three months in the hospital due to complications from surgery. He was also suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83. Born April 23, 1926 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Corwin was the eldest of two sons of Lillian and Michael Corwin. In 1943, during his senior year in high school, the Corwin family moved to Beverly Hills, and he graduated from Hamilton High in June 1944. Upon graduation, Corwin entered the U.S. Navy, and was assigned to the USS Ross DD-563, a Fletcher-class battle cruiser. After graduating from USC in 1950, Corwin earned his DDS degree from UC San Francisco’s dental school in 1954. He went into private practice with his father, Michael, in Beverly Hills. He opened his own dentistry in Mar Vista and later moved his practice to the Westside. He retired in 1993. Corwin was married to his first wife from 1962 to 1967. During this time, he moved to Pacific Palisades, where the couple had two children, Scott (born in 1963) and Leigh (1966), both graduates of Palisades High School. Corwin met the love of his life, Libby Zubernick, in 1975. They married on September 18, 1977 and moved to Woodland Hills. They later relocated to Westlake Village. An avid artist and sculptor, Corwin was also a drummer, having played drums in high school and in the military. He and his grandson, Joshua, loved to play drums together. Corwin also loved to play golf. He taught his son to play and they enjoyed golfing together. Corwin is survived by Libby, his wife of 32 years; his son, Scott (wife Susan) of Pacific Palisades; his daughter, Leigh Rose of North Carolina; step-daughter Susan Barron of Texas; grandchildren Joshua, Gregory and Joanna; and step-grandson Daniel.
These beautiful flowering jacarandas are one of the designated street trees for Northfield Avenue in Pacific Palisades. Photo: Jim Kenney
(Editor’s note: Barbara Marinacci is a board member of Palisades Beautiful, an organization founded in 1974 to beautify the community by arranging to plant parkway trees along the town’s residential streets (between the sidewalk and the curb). True, parkways belong to whoever owns the property the house sits on, but L.A.’s Bureau of Street Services is entitled to regulate whatever gets planted there, since it claims a right-of-way.) By BARBARA MARINACCI Special to the Palisadian-Post As the Palisades Beautiful Web site proclaims, ‘Our goal is to make the Palisades a healthier and more beautiful place to live. Trees provide cleaner air, improve property values, create homes for wildlife, mitigate sound pollution, and reduce global warming.’ Who can argue effectively against such worthy aims? Our group’s tree-loving members’few in number but hardworking and intrepid’reconnoiter neighborhoods around town, looking for the absence of parkway trees. Whenever and wherever a vacancy gets spotted, the site will be considered ripe for a future tree planting ‘ which can take place if the homeowner wishes to acquire a new tree (free for the asking) and notifies Palisades Beautiful. Most Pacific Palisades residents have noticed that the street where they live is adorned and shaded primarily by one particular type of tree. This custom of aiming for uniformity in street trees in towns and cities around the world goes far back in time. It’s an aesthetic issue: in both commercial and residential areas, streets look far more attractive and orderly when featuring only one species. So when you gaze up and down a row of specially chosen trees lined up along most Palisades streets, you’ll notice that tree homogeneity pleases and soothes the eye. With a miscellany of trees there’s a discordant mixture of different trunk sizes and shapes, highly variable limb-branching patterns, wide ranges in leaf shapes and hues, and maybe showy blossoms whose colors clash. The push to create street-tree standardization throughout much of the nation begins, historically and currently, whenever a city or township’s administration, or a citizens’ group, decides that it’s a good civic move, resulting in drawing up a list of different kinds of trees judged desirable for lining up along sidewalks or roadways. Sometimes people just pick their own favorites, or conveniently settle upon various tree species that are already majorities in place on certain streets. Thus in the mid-20th century, widespread efforts started in communities within Los Angeles and elsewhere in the county to create city systems of ‘designated street trees”officially prescribed trees for particular streets. Since Santa Monica launched doing this early, it served as a local model when designated street-tree plantings began taking place in Pacific Palisades in the mid-1970s, spearheaded by Palisades Beautiful, which worked to gain approval of its proposed selections by L.A.’s Street Tree Division. Before this, the town’s population of street trees was much smaller than now, and mostly helter-skelter. One of our town’s greatest claims to environmental glory is its handsome collection of street trees, many now in their prime. As for street-tree choices, there’s never a shortage. Our Southern California landscape has proved especially hospitable to all sorts of tree immigrants’thriving in people’s yards, in parks, along streets (whether they’re designated or not), or surviving out on their own, untended, often having sprouted from wayward seeds. Those likely to do best in Los Angeles nowadays, with the increasingly needed rationing of water, are drought-tolerant ones, indigenous either to California and the Southwest or to various Mediterranean-like climates elsewhere in the world. However, a large number of trees have ended up as unsuitable candidates for street living in Los Angeles. Selecting particular trees for designation works best, of course, when from long experience arborists know which species are most likely not only to thrive in the Southland, but also under particular circumstances. Some trees also just prove to be nuisances. In Los Angeles, Urban Forestry, a division within the Bureau of Street Services, makes such recommendations, helps to set up street-tree plantings, and then concerns itself with their overall wellbeing. Currently, 35 species are named as designated street trees in Pacific Palisades. Over time, the list inevitably has somewhat changed, as when a newly introduced street tree fails to thrive or another suffers from unanticipated problems as it ages ‘ each type then retiring, to make room for a different designation. Some previously healthy trees too can show vulnerabilities to microbial diseases, introduced by insects, transmitted by fungal spores, or coming from some pathogenic soil sickness that may defy both diagnosis and remedy. Occasionally a whole row of trees will succumb and die. Of course, not all Palisades streets can even accommodate parkway or sidewalk trees. Some are just too curvy and narrow. Also, newer sections of the Palisades may not have places for trees right next to the streets. For instance, in the 1970s and ’80s, the developer of the Highlands didn’t plan to put in parkways, and even sidewalks don’t contain tree wells or openings for trees. Yet this upscale settlement up in the Santa Monica Mountains still has abundant trees right next to its streets. Many are at the very edge of front yards or on banks above sidewalks, with long, leafy branches hanging over to provide cool shade. If you’re fairly well acquainted with trees, you’ll have no trouble identifying such beloved street trees prevalent in the Palisades as the jacaranda, magnolia, red-flowering eucalyptus, liquidambar, and California sycamore. You may be less familiar with other ones, like the camphor, chitalpa, Mexican palo verde, California pepper, Idaho locust, and Brisbane box. Some familiar-looking trees designated for streets elsewhere’ficus, ginkgo, pittosporum, carob, coral tree, deodar, and golden trumpet, to name just a few’somehow didn’t get adopted. If you need help identifying the type of tree that grows predominantly along your street, visit www.palisadesbeautiful.org and click on the link to ‘Official Street Tree Designations.’ For more information, just Google the tree’s name and this will lead you to various informative Web sites. Remember that Palisades Beautiful can only plant a designated street tree in your parkway, following the rules and guidelines of the Urban Forestry division. Our organization obtains nursery-grown trees through the generosity of the DWP’s Trees for a Green L.A., and the L.A. Conservation Corps delivers the trees for planting. We also pay for the cost of the plantings themselves, using funds generously donated over the years by individuals and charitable groups’most notably the Pacific Palisades Junior Women’s Club. If you’re interested in having a free street tree planted in your parkway, here’s what you can do: ’ Send an e-mail request directly to: palisadesbeautiful@verizon.net ’ Write a note to: Palisades Beautiful, P.O. Box 1072, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 ’ Or call June Payne (PB president) at (310) 454-1685 Be aware that the tree you’ll receive will be considered the property of the City of Los Angeles, even though it’s growing on land owned by you. Don’t expect, though, to ever get much hands-on help from Urban Forestry and Street Services, though you can ask them for advice. Like many City services, these two interconnected agencies are underfunded, understaffed and overworked. The tree-trimming schedule is so jammed up that they might visit your street with special equipment only every 12 years or so. But you will need to apply for a permit from Street Services if you intend to prune your parkway tree. (Topping trees, though, is an absolute no-no.) For a permit, contact Street Services: http://bss.lacity.org/Administration/service, or call (800) 996-2489. Along with a permit, they will supply pruning instructions and safety guidelines. Busy and stressed as they are, Street Services nevertheless will manage to handle emergency situations, as when entire trees or some of their limbs are so overgrown, brittle, or diseased that they have already been taken down by the wind, or else pose obviously imminent dangers to human safety. Also, you may have to ask Street Services to come and extract a dead parkway tree on your block.
Palisades High Freshmen Win 16s Doubles Title at Copper Bowl
Alex Giannini (left) slaps hands with doubles partner Robbie Bellamy during the Copper Bowl finals last Thursday in Tucson, Arizona.
Neither Robbie Bellamy nor his doubles partner Alex Giannini expected to advance very far at least week’s Copper Bowl in Tucson, Arizona. That might be the biggest reason they were lifting the first-place trophy at the end of the Level III national junior tennis tournament. “We were unseeded coming in so I didn’t expect to win the doubles,” Bellamy said. “We actually won most of our matches pretty easily. I think what makes us tough is that I’m good at the baseline and Alex is good at the net.” What made the feat so impressive is that Bellamy just “aged up” to the 16s division and Giannini won’t do so for another month. Both are still 14, yet they carved through a draw loaded with older, more experienced players, knocking off four seeded teams en route to the title. “We played really well in the finals,” Giannini said of the pair’s 8-2 rout over No. 5-seeded Matthew Browne of Florida and Garrett Gordon of Georgia. “We couldn’t beat them in singles but doubles is a different game. We were really on that day. Browne has a huge serve but we broke him every time.” The win was especially satisfying for Giannini, who was playing his second tournament after sitting out three months with a foot injury. Bellamy, meanwhile, won three national doubles titles–all with different partners–and came within a couple points of the No. 1 national ranking. “I’ve been struggling with my serve for five months,” Giannini said. “I developed a bad habit that I’m trying to correct. I didn’t play well in the semifinals but Robbie was awesome.” Bellamy and Giannini, both ninth graders at Palisades High, ousted top-seeded Jay Billa of Folsom and James Boyd of San Diego, 8-6, in the semifinals. With the pro set knotted at 6-6 and Bellamy in trouble at Love-40, he reeled off back-to-back service winners, then won a long rally from the backcourt to reach deuce. Two more big serves led to easy volley winners for Giannini and the Palisades duo then broke Boyd to close out the match. If not for an equipment problem, Bellamy might also have reached the 16s singles final. He was up a break at 3-1 in the third set in the semifinals when he cracked the frame of his last racquet against 10th-seeded Nicolas Montoya of Scottsdale, Arizona, and lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. “By the time we got to 5-5 my racquet was bent out of shape and I couldn’t do anything except lob the ball back,” said Bellamy, who turns 15 on January 26. “Then, in the third-place match I got killed by one of the guys we beat in the doubles final (Browne). It just goes to show that doubles is a completely different game.” Wayne Bryan, whose twin sons Mike and Bob won the Copper Bowl as juniors in high school and went on to become the No. 1-ranked professional doubles team in the world, offered high praise for the Palisades pair. “The Brothers were usually No. 1 in the nation their first and second year, but I don’t ever recall them winning a national title playing in a higher age group.” Next up for Bellamy and Giannini is the Fullerton Tournament in two weeks. In the spring, both boys will play for their high school on a varsity team that is not only an overwhelming favorite to repeat as City Section champion but figures to be one of the best in all of Southern California. “That should be fun,” Giannini said. “Coach [Bud] Kling hasn’t told us where we’ll be playing yet or even if we’ll be partners but I know the team as a whole should be pretty strong.”
Palisades High freshman Drake Johnston finished 25th at the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Reno, Nevada. Photo: Gus Torres
Palisades High freshman Drake Johnston kept right on running after the high school cross country season ended in the fall and if recent results are any indication he figures to net the Dolphins quite a few points in track and field in the spring. First, Johnston won the CA Region 15 race (comprised of runners from Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii) to qualify for the prestigious 2009 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships. The 15-year-old completed the 4K course at Kit Carson Park in Escondido in 14:00.11 to take first place out of 54 runners. Then, the 15-year-old placed 25th out of 242 runners in the national championship youth boys’ 4K race at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park in Reno, Nevada. The start was delayed for over an hour while the course was cleared of two feet of snow. Once the gun sounded, however, Johnston turned up the heat, finishing in 14:24 to earn All-American honors. Ben Saarel of Provo, Utah, won in 13:36. “At the start of the race it was 20 degrees and the snow kept falling,” Johnston said. “Running in the snow was so much fun, but it took a lot out of me too. I was hoping to place better, but since I was sick I didn’t have anything left in the tank. I got All-American, so I’m happy.” Johnston played an integral role on Palisades’ varsity squad, which qualified for the City Section cross country finals at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. There, he was 44th overall and second on the team, covering the three-mile distance in 16:46–the ninth fastest time ever recorded by a freshman in the history of that race. “I ran injured all season but worked hard with LA Sports Therapy to overcome my hip injury and started altitude training over the summer at TriFit LA to be ready for a long season,” Johnston said. “When my high school season ended I was feeling great and Coach [Ron] Brumel had me in peak shape.” Johnson was the top sixth grader at Paul Revere in 2007, winning the mile-and-a-half race in 8:57. In July, he represented the South Orange County Wildcats Track Club at the USA Track & Field Championships in Ypisilanti, Michigan, leading his 4 x 800 relay team to victory in 9:03, taking third in the 3,000 meters (9:32) and fourth in the pole vault (8′ 4′). “I’ve taken a long break and am excited to start training next week for the track season at Pali,” Johnston said. “We’re going to have a great team.”
Garrett Nevels looks to drive on Dorsey’s Marvin Hall during the Dolphins’ 74-65 nonleague victory last Thursday.
There was no stopping Garrett Nevels last Thursday night. The Palisades High senior scored 32 points as the Dolphins won their home opener over Dorsey, 74-65, in the team’s final tune-up before league play. The game was called with 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter when Dorsey Coach Kevin Gibson was ejected after being assessed his second technical foul for arguing with the officials. By rule, if a referee disqualifies a coach the contest is forfeited and play terminated at that point. Adam Griffin had 11 points and Kenneth Towner added nine for the Dolphins, who led 36-25 at halftime and 58-51 after three quarters. Senior Anthony Dees scored 28 points, including 5 three-pointers, to lead Dorsey (6-7). The Dons made only 9 of 25 foul shots. On Monday, Palisades (12-4) began its Western League schedule with a 84-73 victory over visiting University. Trailing by three after the first quarter, the Dolphins used a 23-12 run in the second quarter to seize control of the game. The Dolphins hosted Venice Wednesday (result undetermined at press time), hosts perennial City Section powerhouse Fairfax on Friday (7 p.m. tip-off) and travels to LACES next Wednesday. Palisades’ girls varsity basketball squad also triumphed in its league opener Monday, routing host University 55-35. Guard Ashlie Bruner led the way with 20 points, center Donae Moguel added 11 and forward Nicole Flyer had eight for the Dolphins (8-5), who led 19-13 at halftime and 42-20 after three quarters. The girls hosted Venice Wednesday (result undetermined at press time), travel to reigning league champion Fairfax Friday (6:30 p.m. tip-off) and host LACES next Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The Pali Blues are not content to rest on their laurels. Proof lies in the team’s first signings of 2010: Penn State forward Danielle Toney and Australian National Team defenders Clare Polkinghorne and Karla Reuter. All three figure to play a prominent role in the team’s pursuit of its third consecutive USL W-League championship. Toney tallied a team-best 30 points as a junior last season at Penn State, recording 12 goals and six assists. The Northville, Michigan, native received NSCAA First Team All-Great Lakes honors and First Team All-Big Ten accolades. Toney was a Big Ten All-Freshman selection two years ago with seven goals and two assists. The 2008 Big Ten Tournament Most Valuable Player tallied 27 points on a well-balanced 10 goals and seven helpers as a sophomore. Prior to arriving at Penn State she was a three-time NSCAA Youth All-American and Parade All-American while playing at Northville High School. The two-time All-State selection also spent time in the player pools for the U.S. National Team at the U-15, U-16 and U-17 levels. Polkinghorne is a native of Brisbane, Australia, and currently plays for the Queensland Roar of the Australian W-League. She has played for her native country for the past four years, scoring twice in 26 international games. She also played for Australia in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China, where she contributed to the Matildas’ first World Cup win over Ghana and helped her country advance to the quarterfinals. Reuter is also a native of Brisbane, Australia, and spent this past season with the Queensland Roar. The Queensland Academy of Sport graduate began playing for the Matildas at the U-19 level in 2002 at the FIFA World Championships in Canada. She has been a mainstay with her native national team ever since, capping 14 times in the 2003 FIFA World Cup and 2004 Olympic Games. She began her club career with the Queensland Sting of the Australian Women’s National Football League before joining the Toowoomba Raiders and she is best known for playing stout defense. * * * * * O’Hara Wins MAC Hermann Trophy Kelley O’Hara, who joined the Pali Blues last June and immediately asserted herself as a leader in the midfield, has been awarded collegiate soccer’s highest honor for her recently completed senior year at Stanford. Last Friday’s Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy was an all Blues affair with North Carolina midfielder Tobin Heath and UCLA forward Lauren Cheney in attendance as the other two finalists. Since 2002, the ‘MAC’ Hermann Trophy has been the unified award presented to the top college player in the country as decided by Division I coaches. “It’s a great way to end the college season,” O’Hara said. “I’m so thankful, and blessed. But the reason I was able to get the award was because of my teammates. I couldn’t have done it without them.” Along with Blues teammate and Palisadian Ali Riley, O’Hara led Stanford to a 25-1 record and its first appearance in the NCAA finals. She shattered school scoring records along the way, leading the nation in goals (26) and points (65).
Congressman Henry Waxman addresses a packed audience at the Woman’s Club that included County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (center) in the front row. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Running for Assembly District 53, says Kate Anderson, is as exciting as giving birth to her twin daughters. She is vying to fill the same Westside seat that her mentor and former boss in Washington, D.C., Rep. Henry Waxman held before being elected to Congress in 1974. So on Sunday she joined with some 225 Pacific Palisades Democratic Club members and guests to listen to Waxman’s periodic congressional review at the Woman’s Club. For Waxman, 2009 was exciting indeed, but ‘the most challenging year I’ve ever had,’ he admitted. With a warm welcome from a roomful of likeminded constituents, the 18-term congressman maximized his diminutive stature with a stool and a good-natured, ‘Speaking to you has already been an uplifting experience,’ as he stood tall behind the podium. Emerging from two years as chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, trying to oppose efforts by the Bush Administration to block congressional oversight and roll back health and environmental laws, Waxman entered the powerful congressional inner sanctum last January when he was elected chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He beat out Rep. John Dingell, who at 82 is the longest-serving representative in Congress. Alluding to the fight within the Democratic Party for the committee chairmanship, Waxman, 70, explained his reasoning. ‘After the 2008 election, I thought we had a historic opportunity to deal with issues that have been pushed to the back-burner for too long. If I could be chair of Energy and Commerce, I would have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to push forward legislation on energy and health reform in 2009.’ While Waxman praised Dingell as ‘terrific on health issues, not so good on environment’ (the Michigan Democrat has a crippled automobile industry to represent), he felt he could push the legislation through the Democratic Caucus. Waxman had admired Dingell’s leadership on healthcare reform and recognized him as the lead advocate in the House to push health care reform this past year. Well equipped with facts and a concise timeline, Waxman reviewed the three areas of legislation that happen to be under his committee’s aegis while also being top priorities for the Obama Administration: energy, healthcare and consumer protection. Waxman has advocated for healthcare reform for decades, and has sponsored a long list of bills that have been enacted into law. These measures include the largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, and tobacco regulation. His record on environmental and health protection includes the 1996 Food Quality Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments, passed the same year. Now as chairman, Waxman has had to put his skills as an adroit politician and negotiator into overdrive. He acknowledged the recalcitrance of the Republicans, whose lack of bipartisan support, he asserts, is all part of their strategy to defeat Democratic candidates in 2010 and President Obama in 2012. ‘No Republican supported the economic stimulus bill except Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter, who, you could argue, are the only moderate Republicans left in Congress,’ Waxman said. ‘Even when you have Republicans who want to work with you (such as Senator Specter before he switched over to the Democrats), they come under intimidation’ from within their party. He offered comments from Texas Rep. Joe Barton as example A. ‘Barton said to me, ‘I don’t believe in global warming, I don’t believe it’s a problem, and I don’t believe in working with you on a problem that I don’t believe exists.’ At least he was honest.’ Having reconciled the fact that he will have to depend on the Democratic majority, nevertheless acknowledged the broad representation of different views within the party and from different parts of the country. ‘On the energy bill, we had to work with regional differences, so we proposed a bill making sure there was input from the business community and the environmental community. On the healthcare issue, the committee had to work with the Blue Dog conservative coalition and the liberal Democrats.’ Waxman praised the solid leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi in getting both bills passed by the House. ‘Under that velvet glove, she has steel,’ he said. ‘She’s tough; she knows how to get the votes.’ Waxman had three objectives for clean-energy legislation, known as the Waxman-Markey bill (Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee), that would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, promote the development of new technologies and create millions of new jobs, and reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Now with the House and Senate versions of the healthcare bill passed, Waxman and other key Democrats will start drafting a compromise bill, a task that cut short his Christmas break and had him returning to Washington, D. C., Monday morning. The differences between the two draft bills seem to center on taxing high-end health plans, restricting federal subsidies from abortion coverage, and creating a government-run health insurer, or ‘public option.’ Answering the question whether the healthcare negotiations would be televised on C-SPAN, Waxman said ‘No. They may not even be worked out by a conference committee,’ but instead by key Congressional leaders and President Obama. The audience was allotted 45 minutes for written questions, some of them prepared at home, others before Waxman took the podium. An especially informed group, the Democratic Club members were interested in topics ranging from healthcare, global warming and Afghanistan to cap-and-trade, election reform, the West L.A. Veterans property and even noise, pollution and safety issues at the Santa Monica Airport. ‘I am very skeptical about the president’s proposal for Afghanistan,’ Waxman said. ‘How can we expect a corrupt and incompetent government to protect its own population? We can’t afford to spend that money; we can’t be all things to all people all over the world.’ For the most part, Waxman acquitted himself expertly on the issues and declined to comment on issues that he had not thoroughly studied, such as certain provisions of CAFTA and NAFTA, saying only that he hadn’t voted for either of the free-trade bills. He took pains to explain in detail the Byzantine approaches to treating abortion in the healthcare bills, which involve the states’ responsibilities and federal exclusions. He concluded by reiterating his longstanding support of the right of women to freedom of choice, including the full extension of this right to lower-income women who depend on the Medicaid program. ‘The first year of the Obama Administration is not yet finished,’ Waxman said, adding that it has been tough ‘when you had the hand the president inherited from the Bush Administration. ‘But I have a lot of confidence in President Obama. He’s trying to do the right thing. He’s very smart, very thoughtful, and he’s taking his time. The first year of his presidency will not actually end until February or March or April.’
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