The Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield, Massachusetts • 4

A4 The Berkshire Eagle, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 General News ON THE WEB: www.berkshireeagle.com Woodward urges skepticism Journalist shares experience, wisdom with crowd of 600 1 i What should we really worry about? Secret government. Democracy dies in darkness. Bob Woodward Darren Vanden Berge Berkshire Eagle Staff Journalist Bob Woodward speaks to a group of people at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Tuesday afternoon. By Jennifer Huberdeau North Adams Transcript NORTH ADAMS Bob Woodward could have ended his career as a journalist at age 27, several years before he and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal that toppled the Nixon administration if he hadn't gotten out of his chair and walked a few blocks to a condemned restaurant. "I had received a report from a source at the health department that they had just given the worst sanitary review in the history of Washington, D.C., to a prominent hotel's coffee shop," Woodward said.

"The Mayflower Coffee Shop had received a 50 percent rating I won't go into the grotesque details. I had my human source and a document to verify the information, so I wrote up the story and handed it to my city editor before lunch. He asked if I had ever been there, so I went for a walk to the Mayflower Hotel." When he arrived at the Mayflower, Woodward discovered it didn't have a coffee shop, just two very prestigious restaurants. The coffee shop, he quickly discovered, was in fact not at the Mayflower, but at another well-known hotel, the Statler Hilton. "I went back to my editor and said that I needed to make a few changes," Woodward said.

"I had the name of the hotel front wrong. I learned a lesson that day that first-hand experience is important. You need to go to the scene and experience things for yourself. If that story had run without the corrections, I probably wouldn't have even been able to get a job at WOODWARD from A 1 aspects of every president since Richard Nixon. He has written four on the Bush Administration's war machinations, the most recent of which, "The War Within," was released Sept.

8. And he had plenty to say about George W. Bush and the way his administration functions. For his first book on Bush, "Bush at War," Woodward said he had gathered a great deal of information and then sent Bush a 21-page memo outlining the information he had gathered, and asked for an' interview. His colleagues chided him, saying Bush never reads anything that long.

"But he did read it," Woodward said. The next day, Condoleezza Rice, then-national security adviser, called to set up the interview. Because Bush answered the questions with brevity, during two sessions totaling about 3.5 hours, Woodward said he asked about 500 questions. "And he answered the questions in a way that was quite revealing," he said. Several years later, when researching his most recent book, Woodward interviewed the president again, and Bush was apparently quite happy to tell Woodward that he was not in the practice of attending the meetings at which momentous decisions are made regarding the war in Iraq.

'I have other things to he told me," Woodward said. "I was sick. He's telling me I should be happy he's not at the meeting where they're making those deci- sions. Throughout his lecture, there were plenty of shiny pearls of wisdom, such as: "What should we really worry about? Secret government. Democracy dies in darkness." And: "There will always be a group of people called journalists who work together to present what they believe to be the truth.

We are going to have to find some way to fund independent inquiry we lose that and, frankly, we go back to secret government." Woodward also said, "I think we're in for some real dreadful times and this generation is going to have to bail us out." He lamented the effect the Internet has had on journalism. "In this media age news gathering is driven by two things speed and impatience," he said. "It really is important to surround some of these subjects, and too often it isn't done. And that is madness in a way that is going to reduce the quality and authenticity of the information on what our government is doing." gives short, direct answers. If it was Bill Clinton, I would have been lucky to get two questions in.

Clinton has a lot to say." He described President Bush as a "smart man who doesn't like to do his homework." Woodward also chastised the press, including himself, for not digging deeper in March 2003 when the president said Saddam Hussein had "mass weapons of destruction" hidden in Iraq. "I had three sources that said the evidence we had was skimpy," he said. "I could have been more aggressive. I could have called up Saddam and told him I was coming to Iraq with a team of Washington Post investigative journalists to take a look around. He most likely would have said no, but that wouldn't have stopped us.

The press is best when it is aggressive and skeptical." McDonald's." Woodward's appearance Ties-day at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts was part of a day-long event culminating at the MCLA Church Street Center, where he spoke to a sold-out house. His lecture, sponsored by the Ruth Proud Charitable Trust, was a first for the college's new political science and public policy major. During an exclusive question-and-answer session Tuesday afternoon with approximately 70 MCLA students and faculty, Woodward often turned the tables. He asked them to answer questions: How do they define bias? Who has the power to declare war? What would they ask President George W. Bush if they had a the opportunity to interview him for 3 12 hours? "I asked him 500 questions over the course of two days," Woodward told the CTOwd.

"The president Fairview Hospital Welcomes Census: 2,600 left Pittsfield CENSUS from Al Dr. Mitali Saha joins the medical staff of Fairview Hospital and the pediatric caregivers at MACONY Pediatrics, providing medical care from birth through age 21 for residents of South Berkshire and neighboring communities in Connecticut and New York. She joins Dr. Richard Heck, Dr. Leslye Heilig, Dr.

Deborah Buccino, Dr. Claudia Meininger-Gold and Physician Assistant Donald Reinauer at MACONY Pediatrics. Mitali Saha, MD Pediatrician MACONY Pediatrics 100 Maple Ave. Great Barrington, MA 413-528-4047 Jobless lines lengthening LINES from Ai Gigante, who until recently was employed as an insurance adjuster. By 10 a.m., he was still in queue.

"I don't mind the wait," said one woman, who asked that her name not be published. "I just want to know what's going to happen with me." Last week, 638 people used a service at BerkshireWorks. Of that total, 274 people, or 43 percent, were there to file unemployment claims. David Nash, a Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist based in North Adams, said 360 people filed for unemployment benefits last week, up 50 to 60 percent from the week before. He said the intake rate is typically 20 claims a day, but 96 claims were taken on Monday of last week.

Seventy-five claims were taken this past Monday, the same day The Associated Press reported that employers cut the jobs of 533,000 U.S. workers in November the worst monthly drop in 34 years. Because of this, Congress passed an expansion of the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. Effected on Nov. 23, it provides up to seven additional weeks of unemployment benefits on top of the 13 weeks approved this summer.

The standard durat ion is 30 weeks. Since the extension, Gelaznik said BerkshireWorks and other career centers have been "overloaded" with claims. This has resulted in longer waits for claims filed both on-site and via telephone. "We had one woman who waited 200 minutes on the phone last week. People are getting frustrated, obviously," Gelaznik said.

She said she participates in regular conference calls with other agencies across the state to come up with strategies to better manage the influx. On Dec. 2, Suzanne Bump, the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development in the state, announced that the statewide TeleClaim Centers have extended their hours of operation from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, and on Saturdays from 8 a.m.

to 1:30 p.m., through the end of the year. "We recognize that individuals are facing long wait times on our phone lines, and we are working hard, through increased staffing and extended hours, to decrease the wait times," Bump said in a press release for the Division of Unemployment Assistance. At the Pittsfield Berkshire-Works location, Gelaznik said that they've added two phone lines and hired a second full-time unemployment claims intake specialist. This month, while people are waiting, she said a representative from the Berkshire Community Action Council will be on site to help people who fill out fuel assistance applications. "We're trying to do other things so they can get more done while they wait.

We also think safety, which does become a concern in a tense environment," Gelaznik said. "People are very unhappy, especially because it's the holiday time," she added. "When you do see people waiting, it's not a good image for Berkshire County." Eagle staff reporter Scott Stafford contributed to this story. 2 quakes hit California TRONA, Calif. (AP) A pair of small earthquakes have hit an inland area of Southern California, but no injuries or damage have been reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a 2.5-magnitude quake hit San Bernardino County about 15 miles northeast of Trona around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The quake was initially reported as a 4.4, but was downgraded by seismologists who said a computer misread the initial data. One minute after the first temblor, a 3.6-magnitude quake hit Devore, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

That's about 125 miles south of Trona. Medical degree from Albany Medical College, Albany, NY Residency in Pediatrics, Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, NY Undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Provides general pediatric care, with clinical interests in preventive medicine for women and children and developmental pediatrics For an appointment with Dr. Saha or one of her colleagues, call MACONY Pediatrics at 413-528-4047 Fairview ft Mm Hospital BERKSHIRE HEALTH SYSTEMS Transit Authority. The federal survey found Pittsfield's median age a shade over 41 and that 18 percent of the city's population is 65 and older, figures that can determine what type of transportation services are needed. "We have an aging population that requires different services, and if it is much older we'll need specialty transportation," Karns said.

The federal census also shows females comprise 53 percent of the Pittsfield's population and males account for 47 percent, another statistic that doesn't surprise Karns. "An aged population skews that figure toward women who tend to live longer than men," Karns said. He added since single-parent households are led mostly by women that also influences the female-to-male ratio. The survey found that single parent and other non-traditional family structures accounted for 20 percent of Pittsfield households. Married-couple families was first at 40 percent, followed by people living alone at 35 percent.

The median income of those households is $43,000. Educationally, 88 percent of Pittsfield residents 25 and older have at least a high school diploma. The 12 percent who don't are not necessarily all dropouts from the Pittsfield Public School system, according to Superintendent Howard "Jake" Eberwein III. "However, that number correlates between our dropout rate over three to four years minus those who get their GED," said Eberwein referring to former students who eventually pass the General Educational Development test to get a high school diploma Eberwein said the school department continually works toward increasing the number of people who end up finishing high school in one form or another. "We're working our tails off," Eberwein said.

"In fact, we have a group that meets every week to address this issue." The groups effort is slowly paying off. "We did a focus group with five students who dropped out," Eberwein added. "Three of them got their GED and are now at Berkshire Community College." www.berkshirehealthsystems.org Holiday Photo Album Publishing Wednesday December 24th $27.55 Photo ana message Place the photo of your loved ones, "kids, pets or your honey" in The Berkshire Eagle's Holiday Photo album and let them know how much they mean to you. A I an You are the best gift we could ask for this year. Merry 1st Christmas Love, Mommy, Daddy Sissy Deadline for photo and copy, Monday, December 22nd Numbers game jCucu, A sampling of statistics from Pittsfield's American Community Survey conducted by the U.S.

Census Bureau. lota! population, 45,953. Median age, 41.3. Median household income, $42,930. Percent of people 25 years and older with at least a high school diploma, 88.

BILLING INFORMATION Submitted by Name Address Phone. Send to: Holiday Photo Album co Classified Department, The Berkshire Eagle P.O. Box 1171 Pittsfield, MA 01 202 Payment type: Cash Check Charge Card Charge Card Exp. Date (Minimum charge on charge cards: $15) flv MJ5j. Hi: 1.888-BUYSMHl Jftn ijOOC 528-3833 1 637-1834 499-0000 743-3535 j22i222' You can also e-mail your copy (and a photo) to us at: classifledsberkshlreeagle.com The Rgliifce Eagle For additional information call 413-442-2000 or 800-234-7404 Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.

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