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Show Specialteatures Page 14 Monday, Oct. 3, 201/ The nation's number one fan of the Supreme Court ready for session BY ROBERT BARNES (c) 2011, The Washington Post WASHINGTON - Meet the least cynical man in Washington. He can't stay long. His name is Graham Blackman-Harris, and you'll find him on the first Monday in October where he's been for the past two decades: waiting in line to enter the Supreme Court. Which he describes alternately as "fun" and "fascinating" and "magnificent." He took the day off from his job as a Federal Express manager in Jersey City, N.J., to be at the court's opening argument of the term; he plans vacation days around important cases and court milestones. He spent the weekend in Washington so that he could be at the court's marble plaza by 5:30 a.m. to ensure himself a spot as one of the first 50 in line. "This will be the 20th year, and I've only missed two first Mondays," Blackman-Harris said last month in an interview at a Jersey City diner. "One I was sick, and the other one I was closing on my house." G R A H A M B L A C K M A N - H A R R I S in front of the Supreme Court; the New Jersey resident takes To ask why he fell in love with the Supreme off work, using his vacation time, to listen to the Supreme Court when in session and this will be his 20th Court is to receive a puzzled response about year attending the first day of the session. Washington Post photo by Undo Davidson. why everyone else has not. four pages," he said. "I couldn't understand a lot "Every American should see the Supreme The attraction of the court, he said, is its of it because, you know, it had a lot of legalese Court in action," he said. "Anyone going to the authority. in it and it referred to cases, and if you don't court will see we have a magnificent array of "I love the finality," he said. "When the court know the cases you have to go back and look talent on that court." speaks, that's the final answer to the question. them up." For Blackman-Harris, a self-described Now, that's not really true, but it is the answer Now, he speaks of the Casey "plurality opin"C-Span junkie," the fascination began with a to that question." trip to Washington to see the Capitol. Not much ion" and refers to "the old chief," which is how Blackman-Harris has attended the first court insiders refer to Chief Justice William was going on, and a guide suggested that he go appearance of each new justice since Ruth Rehnquist, who died in 2005. He reads opinions across the street. Bader Ginsburg in 1993, with the exception of online and listens to the audio of the court's "I could see Thurgood Marshall on the Justice Samuel Alito. (Alito's first appearance oral arguments. bench," he realized. "I was hooked. That voice! came in a January session of the court). Blackman-Harris, 45, has the zeal of a His voice just echoed off the marble. It was aweHe was there when Justice John Paul Stevens, convert. He was born in Barbados and accomsome." then the courts senior justice, escorted new panied his family to New Jersey when he was The first opinion he remembers reading Chief Justice John Roberts down the steps in high school. He said he became a citizen in was 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which on Roberts's first day, and notes that he had 1992. upheld the abortion rights established in Roe v. to make a special trip to see Justice Sonia "I got really interested in American history Wade. Sotomayor. in high school," he said. "I find the American "I had never read an opinion before, but it Her debut was not in October, but for a story to be a fascinating one - love it, love it!" was in the newspaper - it must have taken up special rehearing of Citizens United v. Federal ' • ' : • V . - ' ' • .'.; .-. ' ' ' ..'- "-' .. • • - . '.:-': • • ' - • .-. ' ... ' • -.. '.'• Meatless Mondays: New health food movement "i '..•': ( .J-\'-_ - , , -. • ; i . •- ' . ' • ' - ' • - . ' ' • • & ' • • • B ^ i ;J • • a• , •;•.."- -._ ^,.b ,'; •_'." < i - ' . j i .)•,.• •T'"-.'-'.i- v • **V • ' "C- f) UNIT E D I i l --. • • - - _ - • sgaaasaaBaftcwww-w"--^— U.S. A I R L I N E S C A N C E L E D more than 16,200 flights in August and September, according to Portland, Ore.-based FlightStats.com. Bloomberg News photo by Kim White. Canceled flights at 10-year high amid blizzard-to-Irene upheaval BY MARY JANE CREDEUR (c) 2011, Bloomberg News ATLANTA - U.S. airlines are canceling flights at the fastest clip in a decade as storms from blizzards to hurricanes wallop the busiest hubs, and full planes are making it harder for stranded travelers to rebook trips. United Continental Holdings, Delta Air Lines and other large carriers have scrubbed almost 104,000 flights this year through Sept. 21, or 2.36 percent of the scheduled total. A full-year rate at that level would be the highest since 2001, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The disruptions stem from a combination of foul weather in major markets such as New York and seating-capacity cutbacks to curb costs. When Hurricane Irene struck the East Coast in August, Cameron C. McCulloch faced a weeklong wait for a new ticket - so he drove the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Yale University to catch the start ofclass.es. "There was too much uncertainty with the flights," said McCulloch, 21, a Yale junior. "At least with driving I knew I'd be there on time and that I could control all the factors." Annual cancellations have exceeded 2 percent just six times in 24 years of federal recordkeeping. Researcher FlightStats.com computed the 2011 year-to-date figure for Bloomberg, using data reported by airlines. BTS won't disclose its September figures until November. Airlines are "canceling sooner and getting smarter about doing it," said Michael Derchin, an analyst at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Conn. "They save money when they pre-plan and recover more quickly afterwards." By moving jets out of a storm's path, carriers are able to start rebuilding normal operations more quickly once conditions improve, and they don't have to spend as much on crew pay and overnight emergency accommodations, or on fuel. U.S. airlines are now 24 percent more likely to cancel flights after the so-called three-hour tarmac rule that was imposed in April 2010, according to a Sept. 14 study by the Government Accountability Office. The rule provides for fines against carriers that keep fliers on planes for more than three •i Election Commission in September 2009. "That's going to be a trivia question someday," he said. His is not an easy task. The court has room for only several hundred spectators, and those who want one of the seats reserved for the public get there hours early to be one of the first 50. Sometimes it means camping out. On occasion, Blackman-Harris brings a sleeping bag "because that marble is cold, okay?" he said. "I've had to defrost my feet several times. And that's why I love the Supreme Court cafeteria." Mike Sacks knows the difficulty as well. He spent part of law school at Georgetown University trying to be the first in line for important cases and writing about it for a blog he created called "First One at One First," a reference to the court's address: 1 First St. NE. Sacks met people who had interest in a specific case, lawyers interested in an issue, law students interested in their new profession. "Graham, on the other hand, was just a big fan of the institution," said Sacks, adding that Blackman-Harris has a remarkable "hope and enthusiasm for the country." Sacks also knows what it's like to get hooked on the court; he is giving up a job at a big law firm to become the Supreme Court correspondent for The Huffington Post. Blackman-Harris said he is a political moderate, so perhaps it is not surprising that his favorite on the current court is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is often the deciding vote when the court s conservatives and liberals split. "I can understand his opinions," BlackmanHarris said. "He makes it clear." His all-time favorite? "Justice (Hugo) Black, come on!" he exclaimed. "First Amendment! I'm a First Amendment guy." He's never met one of the nine - "I would be blown away," he said - and he wishes the court would relent and televise its proceedings. That is not a complaint, though. As he explained, "You can't have everything." hours after leaving the gate without offering them a chance to get off. Political support for the regulation grew after the Feb. 14, 2007, storm that marooned 130,000 JetBlue Airways Corp. passengers in terminals and on planes at New York's Kennedy airport. The severity and location of storms this year helped balloon cancellation rates. A February blizzard hobbled United and American Airlines in Chicago and then dropped a record blanket on New York, home to the busiest U.S. airspace. Ice storms belted Delta's Atlanta hub in January and American's hometown Dallas-Fort Worth hub before Super Bowl weekend the next month. Hurricane Irene's path took it alross Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston at the end of August. Adding cancellations from that storm to others in August and September, U.S. airlines scrubbed more than 16,200 flights in the two-month period, according to Portland, Oregon-based FIightStats.com. Among them was the Aug. 27 trip that Yale student McCulloch planned on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Newark, N.J. He borrowed his parents' Subaru Forester sport-utility vehicle for the 3,000-mile drive rather than wait to be rebooked. His younger brother flew in from Seattle a few days ago to ferry the auto back to their parents. "I didn't want to start the semester behind from the get- go," McCulloch said. "I couldn't count on flying." Seats already were in shorter supply this year. The industry has cut 15 percent of its capacity since 2008 when demand plummeted during the recession, making it tougher to find open seats to rebook passengers on new flights. Planes flew 85.5 percent full in June, the most-recent data available and a near-record for that month, according to BTS. By comparison, planes were 74 percent full in June 1996 when airlines were adding capacity. Airlines said they were able to rebook most Irene-grounded passengers within a few days by adding extra flights and scheduling those fliers on Tuesday and Wednesday, which are slower travel days. They also allowed passengers to change their itineraries to dodge the storm or reroute through airports that weren't in Irene's way, spokesmen said. BY ROBERTA FREEMAN (c)2011,WPBloom Meatless Mondays is a grass-roots food movement picking up steam. What started as a public health initiative in 2003 to reduce meat consumption in America has now been embraced by schools, colleges and hospitals, as well as by prominent, meat-loving chefs such as Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck. Even Oprah Winfrey is joining the movement, establishing Meatless Mondays at Harpo Studios. The nonprofit Monday Campaigns developed the Meatless Monday campaign in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. The initiative was based on the Healthy People 2010 report's recommendation that Americans reduce their saturated fat intake by 15 percent. Dr. Robert Lawrence, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, credits meat and high-fat dairy as the source of nearly all saturated fat in the American diet. "Cutting meat out one day a week can help Americans reach the reduction goal with little effort," Lawrence said in a statement. An ever-growing body of research indicates that for those who battle high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer, a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts can aid in reversing the symptoms. For those who are considering a vegetarian diet for one day a week or more, the Vegetarian Resource Group provides information on the nutritional considerations of a vegan or vegetarian diet. Going meatless for one day a week is unlikely to create if on or B12 deficiencies, but it is always a good idea to check with a doctor before making any major changes to your diet. NPR picks new chief executive: Gary Knell NPR on Sunday named Gary Knell, who has headed the organization that produces "Sesame Street," as its new chief executive and president. Knell replaces Vivian Schiller, who left NPR in March after a succession of controversies that started with the firing of NPR commentator Juan Williams last fall and ended after conservative activists secretly taped two NPR fundraisers appearing to make disparaging remarks about conservatives. Since then, NPR has been run by an interim CEO, Joyce Slocum, while the organization's board searched for Schiller's replacement. The various flaps fueled a Republican-led push to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, including Washington-based NPR. But those efforts failed, and NPR's annual subsidy was preserved. Knell, 57, is president and chief executive of Sesame Workshop, the New Yorkbased non-profit group that produces "Sesame Street," the long-running PBS children's program. He has headed the organization since 2000. In addition to advocating for continued federal support, Knell's biggest immediate task may be finding a permanent head of news for NPR, whose programs are heard on hundreds non-commercial stations nationwide. NPR's newsroom has been run since January on an interim basis by Margaret Low Smith after Schiller forced out Ellen Weissfor J her handling of the Williams affair. Knell has a background in public broadcasting, journalism, the media business and government. In an interview Sunday, he called himself "an NPR groupie." "I think their journalists do a great job," he said. Before joining Sesame Workshop in 1989, Knell was managing director of a publishing company, Manager Media International, that operates in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company published a monthly business magazine, Asia Inc., the daily newspaper Asia Times, and several trade publications. He was also an executive and general counsel at WNET, the public TV station in New York. 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