The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • A3

TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2006 THE RECORD A-3 New Jersey A News Health (Features) Local Sports Kean proposes curbs on lobbying Menendez aide notes GOP rejected measure By JOSH GOHLKE TRENTON BUREAU Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. proposed restrictions on lobbying, gifts and federal spending Monday as part of a plan to reform Congress. Kean spent much of a news conference about the plan reciting a list of allegations against his opponent, U.S. Sen.

Bob Menendez, and his associates. Menen-dez's purported ethical failings have been a focus of Kean's campaign. "He has operated on a quid pro quo basis for essentially his entire career," Kean said of the Democrat. But Menendez has already co-sponsored a Democratic reform bill that con- by their relatives. The Menendez campaign has criticized Kean for raising money from executives of a company for which his father, former Gov.

Tom Kean, serves as a board member. The Keans have said it's ridiculous to suggest that they were trading on their influence. In January, leaders of the Republican majority in Congress vowed to pass lobbying reforms after scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others. Both the House and Senate went on to pass weakened versions of the reforms, but a compromise bill had yet to be reached when Congress went on summer recess. E-mail: gohlkenorthjersey.com tained many of the measures Kean was calling for, noted spokesman Matt Miller.

It was voted down in March by Kean's fellow Republicans, who have yet to produce a bill on lobbying reform despite months of deliberations. "If he was really serious about ethics reform that would have been a good time to say something," Miller said. Kean said lobbyists should be subject to more regulation and disclosure of clients, income, fund-raising and gifts. He said the moratorium on lobbying by former members of Congress should be ex tended from one year to two, and that ex-members who become lobbyists should forfeit their special access to the House and Senate floors. Kean also proposed more restrictions on so-called earmarks that allow members of Congress to direct federal money to special projects in their districts.

And he said congressional ethics should be monitored by an independent body, not committees of each chamber. "I believe that Congress cannot police itself," Kean said. The Kean campaign also threw in a couple of proposals designed to remind the audience of negative stories about his opponent. One of his proposals, for example, would make it illegal for federal officials to "steer business to lobbyists," mimicking the language of a New York Times report that Menendez helped a former aide establish a successful lobbying business. Menendez has said he has vouched for the aide but did not steer business to her.

Miller said Kean should also propose a restriction on raising money from executives who work for companies controlled nil- Puerto Rico affairs agency in Newark shut by year's end Government fiscal crisis triggers closing ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS Vince Papale sharing a light moment during an interview to promote the movie based on his improbable football career, "Invincible." From walk-on to stardom 'Invincible' hero's story By MIGUEL PEREZ STAFF WRITER An agency that has been serving more than 365,000 Puerto Ri-cans in New Jersey for more than a decade will shut down by the end of this year. In an effort to cut expenses, the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) will consolidate its community affairs operations into three regional offices in New York City, Orlando and Chicago, eliminating offices in Newark, Philadelphia, Hartford and Boston, officials said. Local non-profit community agencies that already assist Puerto Ricans also will be asked to pick up some of the slack, they said. "Folks will still be able to reach the PRFAA New York office," said Jose Acevedo, acting director of the Newark office. "But to fill the void, each closing agency will be trying to transfer some of the services we provided to local Hispanic organizations and local Hispanic elected officials." Forms currently available only at the Newark office to request a copy of a birth certificate from Puerto Rico, for example soon will be distributed among community agencies, he said.

The closings follow a 42-percent reduction in PRFAA's budget, from $10.2 million for the 2004-05 fiscal year to $6.25 million for 2006-07. They come in the aftermath of a fiscal crisis that shut down the Puerto Rico government, including the Newark office, for two weeks in May. "People are not saying, 'Hey, let's change Acevedo said. "But had it been another time, they would be saying, 'OK, we've got to rally behind your Instead, when he goes to community activities, "people are coming up to me and expressing heartfelt condolences." Puerto Rico's government was paralyzed in May by the failure of the Legislature and Gov. Anibal Acevedo-Vila to agree on a bailout plan for a $740 million budget shortfall.

The shutdown closed 43 government agencies and left nearly 100,000 people out of work and 500,000 students out of public schools. While announcing the closing of the four agencies in the Northeast, PRFAA executive director Eduardo Bhatia threw a jab at the governor's opponents in the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and took credit for at least saving three regional offices. "Many elected officials in Puer- New York Regional Office 475 Park Ave. South, 7th Floor New York, NY 1001 6 Telephone: 212-252-7300 Fax: 212-726-9957 New Jersey Regional Office (until Dec. 31 2006): 744 Broad Suite 522 Newark, NJ 07102 Telephone: 973-824-6030 Fax: 973-824-6130 Web site: prfaa.com to Rico, not affiliated politically with the governor, would like nothing better that to terminate any and all involvement by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in your communities," Bhatia said in a statement.

However, he added: "We refuse to yield to narrow-minded petty partisan prejudices. We are one family, no matter where we were born or where we reside. We should continue to work together." New Progressive Party members in New Jersey said they were saddened by the news, especially since it was their party that expanded the PRFAA agencies. "It's a sad day, because many Puerto Ricans who are here -even the ones who were born here still feel very close to the island," said Peggy Anastos, a Wayne resident who was instrumental in persuading the Puerto Rico government to open the New Jersey office in Trenton in January 1995. The state office later was moved to Newark.

"That office was like a piece of the island, where Puerto Ricans felt like they were back home and where they could get help in solving their problems," said Anastos, who was an advisor to former New Progressive Party Gov. Pedro Rossello. "It will be greatly missed." Soraya Rodriguez Balzac, the first director of the New Jersey office under Rossello, said that by creating a network of statewide officials and grass-roots organizations, the agency also created "an opportunity to advocate to local elected officials on behalf of issues that mattered to Puerto Rico and local Puerto Ricans. "It was an exercise in democracy, quite honestly," she said. "Not having representation in Washington, we could educate and advocate to those that did." E-mail: pereznorthjersey.com Above, Vince Papale in 1976 when he was a rookie for the Philadelphia Eagles.

A down-and-out former World Football League player, he made the team after responding to an open tryout. Right, Mark Wahlberg playing Papale in the movie "Invincible." By DOUGLAS J. ROWE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Vince Papale once lived a dream. Now the Cherry Hillresident is living a second dream by revisiting the first. A substitute teacher and bartender who never played college football, he tried out for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976 and made the team at age 30.

That unlikely tale has inspired "Invincible," starring Mark Wahlberg as Papale and Greg Kinnear as Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil. "It is a second dream," Papale, now a youthful 60, says of the movie. "I've been reinvented. For me, it's a resurrection of sorts. What's great about it is I'm now talkin' to another generation." Papale was down on his luck in the 70s, when big Northeast cities like Philadelphia were suffering tough economic times.

The movie opens with a montage that hints at blue-collar despondency, angst, even anger, which serves as a backdrop for the rest of the movie. He got laid off from his teaching job, and he was scrounging for more hours behind a bar named Max's. His wife moved out, leaving a note saying he'd never amount to anything and never make any money. Papale says he ran up some debt because he was making a decent buck in the World Football League, which quickly folded. "You do some stupid things because it's the first time in your life you have some money," he says in an interview.

"Then all of a sudden there you are: You don't have those bucks that are coming in all the time." With the dissolution of the marriage and dim job prospects, Papale says, "I was feeling rejected. I wasn't feeling real good about myself." For sports fans, Papale's phoenixlike ascendancy was amazing because, aside from his brief stint in the short-lived WFL, he played just one year of high school football. He went to St. Joseph's University on a track scholarship. He was 5-foot-7, 160 pounds when he was 18.

No college was going to beat down his door to offer a football scholarship. But by college graduation, he was 6-foot-2, 185 pounds. Mostly he played rough-touch football with his friends. His favorite scene in "Invincible" shows them playing in the mud: "It just showed the pure innocence and joy of playing. And to me, it was a bunch of guys who are over the hill but they became kids again, and it just transcended time." He also enjoys that his children have little cameos: his 12-year-old daughter throwing a football in a city street, and his 9-year-old son running in front of a car to retrieve the ball with Papale's No.

83 taped on his T-shirt. Papale's late father wasn't originally in the script, but that changed after he drove director Ericson Core, a cinematographer making his directorial debut with this film, to where he grew up in Glenolden, Pa. As they were driving away the Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like An Eagle" came on the radio. "I said, "There it is. That's the sign.

That's Kingey right up there' my dad's nickname was Kingey -'telling us he's gotta be in the "The spirit and the essence of the struggle that I had to go through, not only to overcome some things from the past and some issues that I had to deal with both financially and personally -they captured that, and also they captured the true nature of what I had to go through when I was on the field. The football action is absolutely dead-on, from the training camp and some of the shunning and hazing that I took from my eventual teammates." Vermeil is depicted in the movie as a new coach willing to shake things up and take a chance on a walk-on. In real life, it was Vermeil's open tryout that led to Papale's opportunity. "Well, he was a big Italian kid that could run a four-five 40. He was a graceful athlete.

He could change direction easily and efficiently. And he had a tremendous passion to play," Vermeil recalled in a recent interview. That passion translated into Pa pale fearlessly covering punts and kickoffs. The movie shows Vermeil overruling the majority of his assistant coaches who wanted to cut Papale. "When it came down even between him and another receiverspecial-teams player at the final cut we kept him because of his charisma, and his appeal to the South Philly fans where the stadium is, and then to his talent as well," says Vermeil.

Papale played in the NFL for three years. When his playing days ended, he became a part-time sportscaster for a Philadelphia TV station, then was let go in a management shake-up. He wound up as regional sales director for Frito-Lay, then worked on a couple of radio stations. These days, he works for Sallie Mae and gives motivational speeches. Papale's feel-good story was largely forgotten until NFL Films did a feature on him that aired on ESPN four years ago -and Hollywood took notice.

"I just want people to like the movie, that's all," Papale says, "and to come away feeling good about themselves and this character they see up on the screen." Sharpe James' charge receipts subpoenaed THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWARK New Jersey's U.S. attorney and attorney general subpoenaed debit and credit card records Monday for former Newark Mayor Sharpe James after reports surfaced that he racked up tens of thousands of dollars in charges at taxpayers' expense, a city official said. A spokesman for Mayor Cory A. Booker said the subpoenas involving James asked for "anything involving credit or debit cards that he's used, his mayoral staff and his security detail" from 2002 to 2006. "We're going to comply and do everything they ask for and we'll cooperate fully into the investigation," said Booker spokesman Amin Nathari.

Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, would not confirm any subpoenas, saying grand jury discussions are confidential..