Saving Tots
living cont’d
PAUL WELLMAN FILE PHOTO
Gardening
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undreds gathered on a large lawn at The Biltmore on a recent Friday afternoon for a cause that remains dire in our community — the 500 children trapped in the foster-care system in the county. And about 150 of those are estimated to be 2 years old or younger. Dedicating the seeks last eight years Top-Notch to putting a dent into that figure Parents is Meichelle Arntz. Arntz’s first glimpse into the child-welfare system was as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) volunteer several years ago. In court, she had represented two little brothers, who, after bouncing from one foster home to another — up to seven in one year, she speculated — suffered severe instability and attachment issues. So with a background in pediatrics, Arntz opened Angels Foster Care of Santa Barbara in 2006 to place very young children in stable homes; 153 babies have since been placed. Though foster parents in the public system can take in up to six children at once, Angels parents care for only one child or one set of siblings. Angels parents sometimes adopt the child, possibly eliminating them from the pool of available foster-care parents. “There’s always going to be a need,” said Holly Casady, who has a foster child, an adopted child, and two biological children. “Word of mouth is the best way to [spread awareness],” she added. “We knew we wanted to do this.” In the foster-care realm, the goal is always reunification between a child and his or her biological parents, a decision that’s ultimately up to a judge. Arntz explained that 79 percent of Angels parents adopt the first child in their home. Of the 36 who are ready for school, all but two were kindergarten-ready at age 5. (And the two started kindergarten the next year.) Arntz added that 100 percent of the children adopted were showing age-appropriate attachment behavior, she said. “It’s not like we’re just looking at stats. But good stats mean you’re impacting human beings,” she said, adding that Angels ensures kids stay in the home in which they are placed. “It sounds rational, but it’s not what has happened,” she said. Last year, Angels could not take in 32 babies because we were full,” said Arntz. “This keeps me up at night.” For more info about Angels, call 884-0012.
Angels Foster Care
— Kelsey Brugger
Zone 2, the fuel-reduction zone, extends from 70-100 feet (farther if you are on a slope or surrounded by thick vegetation) outward from the structure. Plants should be spaced far apart (minimum of 10 feet between the tops of trees) with all branches below 10 feet removed and all dead vegetation removed. If you can irrigate this zone as well, so much the better. Zone 3 encloses all the vegetation outside Zone 2. Remove dead or dying trees and shrubs and mow grassy areas. In all three zones, avoid planting highly flammable plants. Plants whose growth results in thickets of secondary, woody forms should be kept farther away from structures. Softer perennials, and especially those that don’t have aromatic foliage (a clue that they are full of flammable oils and resins), are obvious choices to plant in Zone 1. Isolate groups of plants with corridors of ground covers Tea Fire, 2008 so that they don’t create “ladders” for the fire to follow. More common-sense rules: Trim overhanging Landscaping Tips to Keep Away the Flames branches and keep them at least 15 feet away from roaddefensible perimeter is the minimum spacing of vegways. Rake up dead leaves, barks, and twigs, and remove them etation allowed around homes and other buildings in from roofs and gutters. Be sure to keep palms that hold their old the fire-prone southland. Fire-prevention specialists fronds trimmed up, as well. Don’t locate the firewood pile near any have developed a specific set of guidelines for manag- structures. Keep vegetation mowed. ing landscapes so that should a fire break out, your home is as fire Trim vegetation while it is still somewhat green, and beware safe as it can be. Given the current dry conditions, these become of stones hiding in the grasses that, in a collision with a mower extremely important considerations for almost everyone. Fireor tractor blade, can cause sparks. Have a hose ready nearby to management authorities define three management zones: dampen things down and get the upper hand quickly should, Zone 1 starts with a three- to five-foot unplanted strip right next heaven forbid, these precautions fail. to the structure that extends for up to 30-100 feet outward from the One last caution: Make sure mowers, string-trimmers, and structure (consider any trees planted near the structure as a part of chainsaws are in good condition to avoid electrical shorts and gas the structure). This zone should be irrigated and all vegetation kept leaks that can fuel the tiniest spark. Fire season never really ends in low (ground covers and low shrubs). Avoid using bark or woodlow-rainfall areas, so we all must do our part to reduce the risk of a chip mulches mul ulch ches es iin n this this zone. zon o e. — Virginia Hayes chip devastating wildfire.
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Book Review
All the Presidents’ Bankers The Unholy Alliance Between Presidents and Bankers
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alling a book a “tour de force” is a cliché, but every once in a while this overused phrase fits, and that is the case with All the Presidents’ Bankers by Nomi Prins. Consider what Prins has pulled off in this meticulously researched yet readable work (her fourth book about the U.S. financial system): nothing less than tracking the often unholy alliance between American presidents and bankers across a century of American history, two world wars, the Cold War, market booms, busts and panics, and bailouts funded courtesy of American taxpayers. From Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama, J.P. Morgan and Charles Mitchell to John Reed and Jamie Dimon, presidents and bankers have depended on one another to open foreign markets, finance wars, and ensure the U.S. dollar became and remained the world’s dominant currency. As Prins notes, “No other country on the planet is driven by such a critical symbiotic and costly relationship.” The titans of Wall Street and the occupant of the White House — regardless of political party — have been joined at the hip for decades, though, as in all marriages, there have been periodic spats. Teddy Roosevelt railed against the trusts and the concentration of wealth, but when the Panic of 1907 struck, TR tempered his attacks and stepped into line behind the bankers. During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt sounded a populist chord by castigating the power and privilege of the titans of finance and industry, but much of that ire was only for show. The key financiers of the time were FDR’s people — fellow bluebloods educated at the same universities, members in good standing of the same exclusive
clubs and social circles and often related by marriage. Eric Holder, the incumbent attorney general, has admitted that today — more than five years after the financial meltdown of 2008 — a coterie of American banks are simply too big, powerful, and interconnected to fail or jail. The irony is that the federal government was complicit in allowing banks to become behemoth in the first place. This fact may account for the haughtiness JPMorgan Chase chairperson Jamie Dimon displays when he testifies before Congress, but Dimon’s demeanor is hardly different than J.P. Morgan’s was when he testified before the Pujo Committee in 1912. Too big now, too big then. And that is Prins’s central point. American bankers are prone to crash the economy every few decades, either through excessive risk taking, outright fraud, or prosaic greed, and they know, from a century of experience, that when push comes to shove, the taxpayers will pick up the tab. After all, the bankers have friends in very high places. Prins sums it up this way: “Our choice is simple: Either — Brian Tanguay we break the alliances, or they will break us.” may 22, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
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