WORLD IN BRIEF (11/1/06)

U.S. digs for vote-machine links to Hugo Chavez By Alfonso Chardy, McClatchy Newspapers… U.S. digs for vote-machine links to Hugo Chavez By Alfonso Chardy, McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI – In the debate about the reliability of electronic voting technology, the South Florida parent company of one of the nation’s leading suppliers of touch-screen voting machines is drawing special scrutiny from the U.S. government.

Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, according to two people familiar with the probe.

In July, a Treasury Department spokeswoman disclosed that a Treasury-led panel had contacted Smartmatic, and a company representative said his firm was “in discussions” with the panel. At the time, those discussions were informal. The government has now upgraded to a formal investigation, the two sources said.

Sequoia’s electronic voting machines operate in 17 states.

In Florida, the machines are used in four counties: Palm Beach, Indian River, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Miami-Dade and Broward use other technology.

Concerns about Smartmatic are keen on the eve of the Nov. 7 election, given fears that someone with unauthorized access to the electronic system could create electoral chaos. Some critics believe that if the Venezuelan government is involved, Smartmatic could be a “Trojan horse” designed to advance Chavez’s anti-American agenda.

However, officials in all four Florida counties using Sequoia said they were satisfied with the machines and were not concerned about allegations of a Chavez connection because company officials told them the Venezuelan government had no stake in the company.

“We are very satisfied,” Kathy Adams, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections, said.

Online game lets players rack up points with Fantasy Congress By Richard Clough, Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON – Imagine House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton working together toward the same harmonious end.

Sound like fantasy?

Maybe, but that fantasy may soon be realized in a new Web site game that brings the concept of fantasy sports to the political arena.

Created by four Claremont McKenna College students in California, Fantasy Congress allows people to compete against their friends with teams of lawmakers who rack up points based on real-life legislative accomplishments. And depending on which lawmakers players draft, Hastert, R-Ill., Pelosi, D-Calif., Brownback, R-Kan., and Clinton, D-N.Y., could all play for the same team.

In the works for several years, www.fantasycongress.com was launched last week. Word of mouth has already led more than 15,000 people to sign up and the creators say membership, which is free, grows every day.

The online game will go live after the Nov. 7 elections, when Congress returns.

Claremont McKenna senior Andrew Lee, who thought up the game during his freshman year, said he hopes his site can contribute to a greater interest in politics among young people.

“A lot of people care about sports,” Lee said. “If people cared about government as much as they care about sports, we’d probably have a lot more educated public.”

Like fantasy sports, participants draft players to form a team. In Fantasy Congress, players compete with a team of four senators and 12 congressmen against others in their league.

The players will earn points – and bragging rights but no prizes – based on the lawmakers’ real-life performances and the player whose team has the most points at the end of the season will win.

Tuition outpacing reality By Kit Lively, The Dallas Morning News

If you’re in college, you already know about your parents’ sacrificial rite of writing the tuition check. Paying for college ranks up there with keeping a roof over your head. And if your family needs financial aid, you know the sacrifice could continue for years if your parents help you pay back the loans.

Parents have been telling pollsters for years that paying for college is a big worry. Even Congress and the Education Department have called for colleges to control prices.

College officials talk about the importance of keeping costs low. They want a diverse student body, and they don’t want to turn away talented students just because they can’t afford to come.

Yet the costs keep rising.

And even though colleges are providing more financial aid, it doesn’t always keep up with tuition hikes.

A report released recently laid out the trends.

Released by the College Board (the nonprofit organization known best for producing the SAT), it shows tuition continued to rise faster than inflation this academic year – as it has for years.

This year’s tuition and fees at four-year private colleges average $22,218, up 5.9 percent from last year. (Room and board charges add another $8,149.) At four-year public colleges, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent, to $5,836. Community college charges rose 4.1 percent, to $2,272. Those increases all outpace inflation, which was about 3.8 percent in 2005-06.

The report deals in averages, but there’s a big range in tuition charged by both public and private colleges. A small group of elite private colleges continues to push tuition into the stratosphere. At least 12 are charging more than $35,000 in tuition and fees this year, according to Inside Higher Ed, an online journal, in its coverage of the report.

But here’s the real shocker: Tuition at four-year public colleges has risen 35 percent over the last five years, when adjusted for inflation.

The report breaks some data down by state. And Texas – where tuition at many public universities has surged since lawmakers deregulated tuition three years ago – doesn’t come out looking particularly good. The average tuition charged this year by Texas’ four-year public colleges – $5,940 – topped the national average and ranked 20th among all states. The size of their one-year increase – 8 percent – also outpaced the national average of 6 percent.