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Bipartisan Senate Group Making Progress on Health Care

A bipartisan group of nine U.S. senators, after meeting for nine months behind closed doors, is nearing an agreement on the broad strokes of a health care reform bill. The so-called Gang of Nine — though its number expands and contracts depending on the meeting — is hammering out the finer points as they prepare to enter the drafting phase of the negotiations, sources from three Senate offices involved in the talks tell TIME.

The talks have been held in parallel to negotiations orchestrated by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has principally involved outside groups like insurers, doctors, labor and big business. Aides to the bipartisan group of lawmakers, citing the delicacy of the talks, provided no details of the potential agreement. However, the two main sticking points remain how to pay for a plan that some estimate could cost as much as $1 trillion and how to integrate a public, government-run plan into the private system, two aides say.

Last June’s Senate health care summit helped spark the closed-door gatherings, which at first involved just six members: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and the committee’s top Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa; Ted Kennedy and the HELP Committee’s top Republican, Mike Enzi of Wyoming; and Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care. In recent months Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a top HELP Committee Democrat, was added as Kennedy’s understudy as the Massachusetts Democrat sought treatment for brain cancer. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and his GOP counterpart Judd Gregg of New Hampshire were also added after President Obama included his $634 billion outline for health care reform in his 2010 budget request. Other senators from the Democratic leadership and the HELP and Finance Committees have been intermittently involved, and the core group has encouraged participation of as many members as possible.

The Senate moves come as three House committees — Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce and Education & Workforce — Wednesday sent a letter to President Obama announcing their intention to work together to draft legislation. The cooperation among committees in both chambers is a break from the 1994 attempt at health care reform, when committee infighting helped sink that effort. Both chambers have said they intend to see legislation reach the floor before the August recess, though many admit the tougher part will come when the differences between the two versions must be reconciled. “The House bill will be the high water mark of what we’d like to do with the system,” says one Democratic Senate staffer involved in the talks. “Still, we don’t have 60 votes yet. So the House is going to have to accept, to a certain degree, what we work out here.”

Having the Senate Budget Committee leaders involved in the talks is especially noteworthy, as it suggests the group is grappling with the issues of Paygo — a requirement that all new spending be offset by reductions to avoid adding to the deficit. Their presence could also indicate the group is considering moving the final bill through budget reconciliation, the end-of-the-year budget bill that needs only a simple majority of 50 votes to pass the Senate, avoiding a potential GOP filibuster. Republicans have repeatedly warned Democrats about trying to pass health care in that fashion, saying it goes against the spirit of a normal legislative process for such a sweeping bill. Many Democrats have argued, in return, that President Bush pushed several large initiatives through this same process, such as his tax cuts and deficit reduction legislation. But Rockefeller recently said that he worried trying to use budget reconciliation to pass health care reform would effectively poison the well. “If you go for budget reconciliation, you’re basically going for a bill that goes nowhere,” he said.

Baucus announced last week a schedule to have his up his side of the bill marked up by the end of June. Starting in late April the Finance Committee will hold a series of public round tables followed by closed-door, member-to-member sessions on the delivery system — public or private, or some combination of the two — in which individual members can weigh in on their own plans and ideas. Other issues of coverage, cost containment and prevention and wellness will see similar treatment, aides say. The HELP committee will have its own schedule on the prevention and wellness provisions, as well as the parts of the bill involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act , which regulates employer-offered health insurance plans. Rockefeller will first hold his own series of hearings in March and early April on quality, long-term care and the importance of a competitive and open bidding process.

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Sweden’s Icehotel the ultimate place to chill

The hotel in northern Sweden opens every year in early December and closes at the end of April.
I’ve never been a fan of the cold. As a kid, my favorite part of skiing was the hot chocolate, and I relished blizzards for the snow days, not the snowball fights. So when I booked a trip to the Icehotel in northern Sweden, my family and friends were amused — and a bit concerned, especially when I got sick days before my flight. "You can’t go to the Arctic with a cold!" my mother admonished.

But I had good reason for wanting to sleep in a glorified freezer: As an environmental reporter, I was curious to see a place where people have turned snow and ice into a moneymaker, one that’s spawned copycats in frigid spots from Canada to Romania. Conceived by Yngve Bergqvist, a river-rafting guide who wanted to lure visitors to the Arctic north during the winter, the Icehotel started out in 1990 as nothing more than a crude igloo. Now, it’s a fanciful ice castle that’s rebuilt every November with an unparalleled level of artistry — which explains why each winter 16,000 guests pay hundreds of dollars a night to sleep on a slab of ice and thousands more make the trek just to tour the rooms for the day. The 30 most elaborate suites are the handiwork of a team of artists — sculptors, painters, architects, even comic book illustrators — many of whom have never worked with ice before. Wielding chain saws and chisels, they spend weeks crafting frozen furniture while electricians install lights to provide an ethereal glow. Surreal Exceedingly. This winter, German furniture maker Jens Paulus and American industrial designer Joshua Space created a space-station room straight out of “Star Trek,” with giant carvings of the sun and moon on opposing walls and twinkling lights in the ceiling. British decorator Ben Rousseau and graffiti artist Insa devised the Getting Cold Feet suite, with oversize high-heeled ice shoes beside the bed. Twenty-nine unadorned snow caves offer a somewhat less pricey and more purist experience.

IcehotelJukkasjärvi, 11 miles from Kiruna, 011-46/980-66-800, http://www.icehotel.com, from $400 for a snow room, from $535 for an art suite, both include breakfast and sauna.

Since no hotel would be complete without a bar, the artists also sculpt a chic space where guests can warm their innards with an Icebar Jukkasjärvi, a mix of vodka, blueberry liqueur, blue curaçao syrup and elderflower juice, sipped from a cube-shaped ice glass. Then there’s the chapel, where designs etched into the ice walls resemble stained glass. About 150 couples tie the knot here each year, some brides bundled in snowsuits, others dressed in white wedding gowns, their teeth chattering as they recite their vows. When I arrive in Sweden, I’m surprised to find that the guests actually spend a lot of time in a pair of heated chalets that look like life-size gingerbread houses. The shower and bathroom are located in the one nearest the hotel — because, really, who wants to sit on a frozen throne And the other contains the restaurant, where chef Richard Näslin dreams up such intriguing dishes as arctic char ice cream, which has a slightly salty, smoky flavor and is much more delicious than it sounds. Budget Travel Dream Trip: Scale a volcano in Ecuador After my dinner, wrapped in several layers of fleece and down, I waddle out to a tepee for a folk concert by native Laplander Yana Mangi. At the end of each song, the crowd responds with a uniquely Arctic ovation: muffled mitten clapping.

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My suite has a nautical theme, with walls curved into a frozen wave and an oval bed of bluish ice set beneath a clam-shaped headboard. Topped with a mattress and a reindeer skin, the setup looks snug. Almost. The temperature is a brisk 23 degrees Fahrenheit, and I’m still petrified I’ll lose a finger to hypothermia, even in my head-to-toe winter wardrobe. I climb under the furry blanket, making sure not an inch of skin is exposed. Then I gaze through the slits in my microfleece face mask and marvel at the stillness. My breath comes in shallow white puffs. Soon, I’m fast asleep. The next thing I know, a hotel attendant is standing beside me with a cup of steaming lingonberry juice — my wake-up call. Amazingly, I slept through the night, giving new meaning to the expression “out cold.” I wiggle my fingers and toes — they’re tingly, but all there. Then I do what any sane person would: sprint to the chalet to thaw out in the shower and sauna. Most guests stay only one night, but I opt for a second. It’s not to prove my mettle; I feel as if I’ve done that. Rather, I find my frosty alcove incredibly restful and therapeutic. Maybe the hotel should add an ice yoga studio next IF YOU GO … GETTING THERE A round-trip flight between New York and Stockholm on SAS costs about $700 in midwinter (flysas.com). From Stockholm, take a 16-hour train ride to Kiruna (from $44 round trip). The Icehotel is a $13 bus ride away. WHEN TO GO The hotel opens every year in early December and closes at the end of April. You have a chance of spotting the northern lights in December and January, but those are the coldest months — temperatures can dip to 45 below. WHAT TO PACK Think wool and fleece layers; avoid cotton, which can trap moisture and make you colder. The hotel supplies boots and hats. For details, see icehotel.com/winter/adventure/dress. WHERE TO SPLURGE Don’t miss the guided hotel tour ($37 per person). And how about an ice-sculpting lesson ($75 per person) Or a six-hour snowmobile safari to see moose at their winter feeding grounds ($400 per person) WHERE TO SAVE Tour the Icehotel by day, and then spend the night at Hotel Kebne in Kiruna (011-46/980-68-180, hotellkebne.com, from $100).

El Salvador prepares for crucial election

Voters in El Salvador will line up at a crossroads of history Sunday, deciding whether to give the presidency to a political party that 17 years ago was waging guerrilla war on the government.

Although polls indicate that the race has tightened considerably, most analysts say that Mauricio Funes, the candidate of the former guerrilla group known as FMLN, is still slightly favored to beat ARENA party hopeful Rodrigo Avila. That would end a 20-year hold on the presidency by the right-leaning ARENA. “It’s a sign that there’s democracy in that country, which is something the United States tried to foster,” said Bernard Aronson, who as President George H.W. Bush’s assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989-93 was heavily involved in ending El Salvador’s 12-year civil war. The FMLN, which is the Spanish acronym for the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, was formed in late 1980 as an umbrella group for five leftist guerilla organizations fighting a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. The guerrillas and the government signed a peace pact in 1992, and the FMLN became a legitimate political party. By some estimates, 75,000 Salvadorans died during the war. The new president will find “a country that still retains a lot of bitterness, a lot of division,” said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. The election, Hakim said, “is an important test of how far El Salvador has come.” The result also will be an important test of how far El Salvador will go. With an economy in deep trouble and neither party having enough seats to control the national Legislative Assembly, much will depend on the party that loses. “Conflict occurs when one person wants to force a conflict,” Hakim said. “Compromise requires both sides.” No one is certain what will happen if ARENA loses. “That’s a big unknown,” said Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the consulting firm Eurasia Group. “I still think they’ll play ball. They have an incentive to get along with the new administration. They certainly don’t want to be shut out of the process.” Otto Reich, who served in high-level Latin American posts for President Reagan as well as George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, sees the possibility of a spirited fight from ARENA. “If I had to guess, I’d say ARENA will try to put democratic obstacles in the way of an FMLN consolidation of power,” Reich said. Although ARENA, which are the Spanish initials for the Nationalist Republican Alliance, has come back from a 14-point deficit in some polls two months ago, Reich says that winning a fifth consecutive term is “swimming against the tide.” “People in El Salvador are weighing risks and opportunities,” Reich said. “They have an opportunity to replace a party with which they have gotten tired.” Hakim also sees voter fatigue with ARENA, saying, “One party has managed the country forever and ever.” Undecided voters among the 4.2 million Salvadorans eligible to cast ballots could decide the election. “It will come down to how about 16 to 20 percent of the people will vote,” Berkman said. Many of those voters will be weighing competing doubts. “The uncertainty is that the FMLN has never been in power,” said Berkman. But voters also will be asking themselves, she said, whether they are “better off than they were five years ago, 10 years ago Avila cannot run on a message of change. Funes’ message of change and new people in power will be more effective.” Since the war ended, Salvadorans have mostly supported ARENA because of concerns over the FMLN’s left-wing agenda and the group’s guerrilla background. There also have been outside influences. “The country has been afraid to vote for the left because of fears from Washington,” Larry Birns, director of the nonprofit Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said recently. With the election of Barack Obama as president, Salvadorans may be more likely to expect a different attitude from Washington. El Salvador, Colombia and Peru have been the United States’ closest allies in Latin America. Birns calls the three nations “Washington’s street-corner guys.” With an FMLN victory, El Salvador would join other Latin American countries that have elected leftist leaders in recent years: Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil. But Berkman and others warn that the United States must not lump everyone together. “People tend to look at the left in Latin America and oversimplify it,” Berkman said. “There’s the good left and the bad left.” Or, as Aronson put it, “There’s leftists, and there’s leftists.” Aronson sees two types of leftist governments in Latin America: “institutional” governments like Brazil’s that “have made peace with the free market” while championing social programs and populist, more radical governments like Venezuela’s. Analysts are not sure what to make of Funes, a former freelance journalist for CNN en Espanol who is projecting a moderate image. “The FMLN did something very clever,” Reich said. “They put somebody at the head of the party who is not a guerrilla, not a terrorist.” Even the FMLN may not know what to expect from Funes. Berkman calls it “an issue of uncertainty” between the former journalist and the former guerrilla group. “There’s a lot of unknowns about how the relationship between Funes and the FMLN will proceed,” she said, adding that she would watch his Cabinet picks and whether he brought in people from other parties. A Funes victory would be a defining moment for the FMLN. “It’s an important transformation,” Hakim said. “The ex-guerrillas have to make a decision: Are they going to try to bring about revolutionary, radical change or manage the whole country and have step-by-step reform” Aronson sees it as “a test of whether they will be pragmatic or ideological.” The FMLN may not have a choice but to be pragmatic. The party holds 35 seats in the 84-member National Assembly. ARENA has 32 seats. Forty-three votes are needed to pass most legislation, and some measures require “supermajority” approval of 56 votes. That means that if ARENA and the FMLN cannot agree on a measure, they have to look to one of the minor parties for support. The PCN, the National Conciliation Party, has 11 seats and could emerge as a power broker. Two other parties hold six seats. “It is in the PCN’s interest to play ball as well,” Berkman said. “The PCN will act as a moderating force.” Berkman also said the FMLN would probably take a moderate approach because the nation relies too much on outside investments and remittances from Salvadorans living abroad for the former guerrillas to adopt too much of a radical approach. But Hakim worries about something else, should the FMLN oust ARENA. “I think ARENA may be prepared for this,” he said. “I’m concerned that the FMLN may not be prepared to govern.”

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Facebook Wants to Read Your Mind

Facebook wants to know what’s on my mind. Actually, that’s not true; so far, it wants to know only what’s on some of my friends’ minds. Facebook doesn’t care about me yet, although it promises that will soon change.

Facebook is in the process of rolling out a new home page — one that combines photos, links, videos and status updates and puts them in one big stream of information. I don’t have the new layout yet, but a number of my friends do, and my news feed is suddenly full of frowny emoticons and questions like “What happened to Facebook!”

The new home page looks similar to the current one, but the biggest change is to the question prompting users to post status updates. Whereas the outgoing Facebook asks, ‘What are you doing right now’ the incoming version asks, ‘What is on your mind’

This new status-update field sounds like a self-conscious Carrie Bradshaw type who asks her boyfriend what he’s thinking every time he’s silent for more than five minutes. “I don’t even know how to fill it in,” Katie Tichacek says of the revised update box. An active Facebook user, Tichacek describes herself as “totally a status person — I like a quick and dirty read-through of what people are doing.” Until yesterday, she was changing her status regularly with updates about what she was eating, reading or working on or where she was traveling — but with the new home page, she’s having an existential crisis about telling Facebook what’s on her mind.

Why is Facebook’s news feed becoming so introspective “It’s going to be more about the message you want to send to others than what you’re doing at that very moment,” says Meredith Chin, Facebook’s manager of corporate communications. Or as the company described it in a blog post: “One way to think about this is as a timeline — or a stream. As people share more … the pace of updates accelerates.” Sort of like those annoying tickers that run across the bottom of cable news channels, but all the news is about people who never get off their couches.

The old status-update formula was simple, declarative: “Claire is working,” “Claire is hungry,” “Claire is unable to finish this article, so she is procrastinating by checking Facebook.” But if I’m hungry and you ask me what’s on my mind, what do I say Do I just type “doughnuts” into the field Then everyone I know will just see the update “Claire doughnuts.”

If people are honest about their status updates, Facebook news feeds will become either a series of one-word thoughts or uncomfortably intimate revelations: Your prom date needs to drop a few pounds. Your co-worker is starved for affection. And your best friend wants a taco.

I liked it better when we were all just hungry.

Read about Facebook’s about-face on privacy.

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Human skull piece found in Turkish ‘acid well’

Investigators discovered part of a human skull and other remains at a site in southeastern Turkey where the bodies of Kurdish victims of alleged extrajudicial killings are suspected to have been doused in acid and buried, Turkey’s state news agency was reporting Friday.

Abducted aid workers released in Darfur

Aid groups have been told to leave Sudan after an arrest warrant was issued for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Sudanese authorities have said a team of its doctors abducted Wednesday in Darfur has been released, the medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres said Friday

A Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator were abducted Wednesday night. Two Sudanese workers were also captured and freed, the group said. The incident took place in Serif Umra, the Sudanese province in northern Darfur. The three were working for the group’s Belgian section. Sudan last week ordered 13 major aid groups to leave the country after an arrest warrant was issued for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The International Criminal Court issued the warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It accuses him of complicity in a brutal campaign of violence against the people of Darfur. Two of MSF’s sections — one run by the Dutch and one run by the French — were ordered out. They were also operating in Darfur. Along with the Belgian section, there are other teams in the country. MSF is an international medical group that works in more than 60 countries. It helps people “threatened by violence, neglect or catastrophe.” The United Nations on Wednesday announced the start of a joint U.N.-Sudanese government mission “to evaluate the need for food, water, health and emergency shelter in Darfur” amid the expulsions of the groups, which are believed to have assisted about 4.7 million people.

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As of Tuesday, 183 international staffers of the affected nongovernmental organizations have left Sudan and others are awaiting exit visas to depart, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. The United Nations says that along with Darfur, other areas in the country will be affected by the expulsions, citing Abyei, Blue Nile State and Southern Kordofan State, locations “on the front lines of the North-South civil war.” Some of the expelled workers “provided health, nutrition, water, sanitation, education, food security and other assistance to hundreds of thousands of people there. ” The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have died in Darfur, where government forces and Arab militia allies have been fighting rebels. People have died “either through direct combat or because of disease, malnutrition or reduced life expectancy,” and around 3 million people have been displaced since 2003. Meanwhile, there have been diplomatic developments. Representatives of Sudan’s government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement have “recommitted themselves to a negotiated settlement to the conflict,” the United Nations said. Djibril Bassole, the U.N.-African Union joint chief mediator, plans to meet with the representatives of other rebel movements and regional countries in the coming days” and is “to brief the U.N. Security Council on the Darfur political process on March 26.”

Stewart seen as winner in showdown with Cramer

By most accounts, the showdown was pretty brutal.

Many watching Thursday night’s “Daily Show” on Comedy Central felt that comedian-turned-media-critic Jon Stewart held bombastic financial guru and CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s feet to the fire. And Cramer flinched. Stewart, known for his zany, satirical take on the news, was serious as he took Cramer’s network to task for what Stewart viewed as their “cheerleading” of corporations at the heart of the nation’s current economic crisis. And despite the title of his financial show, Cramer came off as less mad and more apologetic. Watch Stewart vs. Cramer » “If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it,” said Howard Kurtz, the “Washington Post” media critic and host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “I was stunned that Jim Cramer kind of did a rope-a-dope strategy and didn’t really defend himself against Jon Stewart’s assault.”

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Kurtz is very familiar with the style of both men. He has appeared on “The Daily Show” and is the author of “The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street’s Game of Money, Media and Manipulation,” in which Cramer is featured. Kurtz said Stewart “made clear at the outset that he wasn’t going for laughs” and displayed very much the same passion for holding the media accountable as he did when he appeared on, and denounced, CNN’s “Crossfire.” “When I went on [Stewart’s] show last year, he was so wound up in ripping the media that he went on for another 10 minutes, knowing full well that we were out of time,” Kurtz said. “Stewart, as funny as he can be, is a very trenchant media critic who cares passionately about this stuff, and we saw that Thursday night.” iReporter David Seaman of New York said he was surprised at the vigor with which Stewart “attacked Cramer’s credibility.” Check out David’s iReport The public wants answers as to how the country got into such financial distress, and viewers really want someone to answer for the mess, Seaman said. “People want to see a lot of the financial gurus on a shish kabob, being skewered,” Seaman said. “It’s really important to hold people accountable, and as we saw last night, Jon Stewart is a bit of a wild card, so if you aren’t living up to expectations, he may call you out.” David Brancaccio, host and senior editor of “Now on PBS,” commended Cramer for his bravery in going on the show, though he said he was surprised that the brilliant founder of TheStreet.com seemed ill-prepared for Stewart’s very thoughtful questioning. Brancaccio, the former host of American Public Media’s “Marketplace” radio program, echoed the comments of many in that he found the exchange visibly uncomfortable for the usually showman-like Cramer. “You have the comedian as journalist, and you have the financial journalist as clown, in that on his show, Cramer’s goofing around and plays the clown,” Brancaccio said. “What a role reversal.” Brancaccio said Stewart’s show has emerged as an important vehicle for media criticism. Thursday night’s show marked an important moment in journalism, especially financial reporting, Brancaccio said. “It’s really important that tough questions are asked, because when tough questions aren’t asked, we end up with Enron,” he said. “It’s interesting that the tough questions came from Jon Stewart, brilliant comedian that he is.” Brancaccio thinks the episode may serve as a cautionary tale for those in the media who don’t do their due diligence. “I don’t think any financial journalist wants to be in Cramer’s position,” Brancaccio said. “I think [journalists] may redouble their efforts to be dispassionate reporters asking the tough questions.” Steve Krakauer is associate editor of TVNewser.com, one of the leading blogs about the television news industry, and said comments at his site have been mixed about the show. Although some thought it was one of the best interviews they had ever seen, others found Stewart arrogant and said his outrage might have been a bit staged. Krakauer said the question now is where Cramer — who has said he plans to make some changes to his show — goes from here. Krakauer said he doubts that there will be a complete overhaul of “Mad Money.” “I can’t see things drastically changing,” Krakauer said. ” ‘Mad Money’ is one of the most successful shows on CNBC. Despite what has been written about Jim Cramer, the things he’s gotten incorrect and the calls he has made, he’s still popular and one of the most entertaining for people who are interested in that type of financial news.” If anything, Cramer’s appearance on “The Daily Show” may have just stoked the flames. Comedy Central’s Web site played it up with clips from the show that it called “an historic moment in basic cable.”

The topic is such a hot one that Kurtz will lead “Reliable Sources” with it Sunday, with journalist Tucker Carlson, radio show host Stephanie Miller and “Baltimore Sun” television critic David Zurawik as guests. “Beyond the entertainment value, and we are not above that, this is a really important moment for holding financial journalists accountable,” Kurtz said. “It may have taken Jon Stewart to blow the whistle on some of the hype and shortsightedness at America’s top business news channel, but those failings were repeated throughout the business press, which stumbled badly in reporting on what turned into a huge financial meltdown.”

Brazilian man steals plane, crashes into mall, police say

A Brazilian man stole a single-engine plane and crashed it into the parking lot of a shopping mall, killing himself and his 5-year-old child, Goiania police said Friday.

South Carolina student wants stimulus money to rebuild school

Ty'Sheoma Bethea sent a letter to lawmakers with her plea for money to help rebuild her crumbling school.
Ty’Sheoma Bethea felt she had to speak up.

Her school was crumbling, and Congress was not going to approve money that could be used to rebuild it. So she wrote a letter to lawmakers begging for help. “I said we’re not quitters and we can make a change,” Ty’Sheoma said. “And we’re just students who want to be lawyers, doctors, congressmen and also presidents.” The letter made its way to the Oval Office and brought an extraordinary invitation. The White House sat the 14-year-old eighth-grader next to first lady Michelle Obama at the president’s “state of the nation” address to Congress last month. It seemed help was on the way. New stimulus money was coming from Washington, and Ty’Sheoma thought her school, JV Martin Junior High in Dillon, South Carolina, would finally be rebuilt. But her governor, Mark Sanford, announced he wouldn’t use his share of the stimulus money on projects like rebuilding her school. “It’s easy to fall into the trap of we need to fix this one school,” said Sanford, a Republican. “The hat that I wear is to look as best as I can — and it will be imperfect — at the state in its entirety.” Taking a stand against government spending, Sanford said he would be willing to use the $700 million in the stimulus bill only if he believes he has discretion to control paying down the state’s debt. That means Ty’Sheoma’s community is left with its school, whose condition is astonishing.

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“The auditorium is condemned,” she said on the tour through the crumbling structure. “They use the stage for storage.” She looked around and said the walls are peeling off and debris has fallen from the ceiling. The gymnasium is in such bad shape, the basketball coach has to cancel games when it rains. “The roof leaks water through the small cracks at the top of the roof,” Ty’Sheoma said. Many classes are taught in trailers on the school grounds. But the walls are so thin, teachers have to pause when trains roll by, which happens about five times a day. The school lies in what’s been called the Corridor of Shame, a stretch of highway with enormously poor neighborhoods that are mostly African-American. Some critics say the state doesn’t want to spend money on black kids. South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat, is outraged that the governor won’t spend stimulus money in this community. “It’s a slap in the face of the people who live in those counties,” Clyburn said. “If the majority of those people happen to be African-American, it’s a slap in their faces as well.” Sanford flatly rejects the charge, and his office says state lawmakers could rebuild JV Martin with their own funds. “Spending money that you don’t have, I think, is a horrible idea,” Sanford said. Ty’Sheoma said she just wants the squabbling to end. “I think the politicians should be giving advice to me as a student instead of me giving advice to politicians just as a little girl from Dillon,” she said.