August 2009 - Posts
By Mike Taibbi, NBC News Correspondent
BOSTON – After Ted Kennedy was elected for the first time, at age 30, his home state sent him back to the Senate eight times, all but once by unassailable margins.
Here in Massachusetts, people understood him and wanted him on their side – and it wasn't just because of his the name.
It was the accent that was as much Boston as Brahmin. It was his collection of imperfections and failings trumped most of the time by his stubbornness, real passion and just plain will.
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| Darren Mccollester / Getty Images |
| Gail Steinbring, left, and Gini Guertin read a special edition Boston Globe dedicated to U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy outside the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Thursday in Boston, Massachusetts. |
And there was something else about him that made him an untouchable here: He came from a patrician family that often, as an entity, angered people but he was the one that plain people seemed to be able – and eager – to relate to.
There are a lot of stories about his "everyman" qualities being told around Hyannis, where he was often just another guy in the produce aisle. But he carried that accessibility everywhere.
Jimmy Sullivan, the co-manager and bartender at the Union Oyster House, a landmark restaurant in the center of Boston, explained how Kennedy exuded those qualities whenever he came in over the years – often by himself.
"You sit at the Oyster Bar and you can't help but be a regular guy," said Sullivan. "You're sitting face to face and back to back with all the regular people. He used to come in all the time…For a guy who came from wealth, he had a genuine soft spot for the working guy."
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By John Baiata, NBC News’ Senior Editor
RINGWOOD, N.J. – Is eating your vegetables actually…cool? Kids and vegetables have historically gotten along about as well as dogs and mail carriers. I vividly recall many evenings locked in staring contests with a plate of peas or creamed spinach. Vegetables were the enemy. And no doubt similar battles still play out in many household dining rooms.
But the proliferation of farmer’s markets and locally grown produce is doing wonders for the vegetables’ image amongst the 12 and under crowd. (Fruits, not nearly as hard a sell for kids, are doing quite nicely too.)
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| John Baiata / NBC News |
| Shoppers check out the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables at the Ringwood Farmer's Market on a recent Saturday. |
And while today’s parents more than ever are foregoing processed foods in favor of fresh produce, it may be the kids who are increasingly driving the bus (or the tractor?) on the issue. A new generation of locavores, people who try to eat only locally grown food, is being bred. And they’re hungry.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are now approximately 4,800 farmer’s markets in the country. Ringwood Farmer’s Market, in the exurbs of New Jersey, is one of the many seasonal markets included in that figure, and a Saturday staple for many nearby residents.
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By Michelle Kosinski, NBC News Correspondent
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – "Welcome home, Scott." It’s a sentence this community has been waiting 18 years to say.
Even if the homecoming is still wrapped in questions.
On Friday, Jacksonville’s mayor delivered brief remarks under gray skies, before the city’s Memorial Wall honoring war veterans and hundreds of citizens clutching red roses and American flags.
Many in the crowd wore military uniforms.
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| Daron Dean / Reuters |
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Florida Governor Charlie Crist, right, stands with Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, second from right, as the hearse carrying the remains of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher passes the Duval County Veterans Memorial Wall in Jacksonville, Fla.on Friday. |
The somber crowd then walked over to the roadway, lining it in almost complete silence, as they waited for the procession of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher’s remains.
A man Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist called "the best of the best" during his remarks Friday morning.
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By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just after sunrise on a recent Friday morning, Dr. J. Keith Melancon had a large Starbucks coffee in hand and was gearing up for a long and busy day.
Melancon, 40, was getting ready to spend 12 hours on his feet in an operating room at Georgetown University Hospital where he is the director of the medical center’s thriving kidney and pancreas transplant program.
Talking to Melancon was Larry McPhatter, who himself was preparing for a big day – McPhatter was about to undergo surgery to donate one of his kidneys.
"Don't worry we are going to take good care of you," Melancon told his patient, clasping his hand. "And once again, you’re a hero my man, this is beautiful."
A kidney transplant is a surgery that places a healthy organ in a person who has suffered from kidney failure. Lots of kidneys are needed –
more than 485,000 Americans are being treated for kidney failure, according to National Kidney Foundation.
And the need is higher for minorities – due to high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease,
African Americans have an increased risk of developing kidney failure. In fact, out of the
85,458 Americans currently on the U.S. waitlist for a kidney transplant, 35 percent are black, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
McPhatter was getting ready to donate a kidney to a total stranger – so that his wife Elizabeth, who has struggled through kidney dialysis three times a week for two years, could receive a new kidney from someone else.
They were just two people out of 14 involved in the recent kidney transplant chain at Georgetown and MedStar Health's Washington Hospital Center – most of the organ recipients were African American.
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