theurbanhermit (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} theurbanhermit) wrote,@ 2007-01-18 07:08:00 |
|
from boston.com:
Nicotine boost was deliberate, study says
Harvard researchers analyze cigarette data
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | January 18, 2007
Data supplied by tobacco companies strongly suggest that in recent years manufacturers deliberately boosted nicotine levels in cigarettes to more effectively hook smokers, Harvard researchers conclude in a study being released today.
The companies increasingly used tobacco richer in nicotine and made design changes to give smokers more puffs per cigarette, according to the analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health. The report expands on a landmark Massachusetts Department of Public Health study issued last August showing that the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes increased an average of 10 percent from 1998 through 2004.
The Harvard researchers, who corroborated the basic findings of the state study, wanted to determine why cigarettes were delivering more nicotine. The state report did not address causes .
"Industry says it's changed," said Greg Connolly, an author of the Harvard study and former director of the state health agency's Tobacco Control Program. "Yeah, they've changed -- maybe for the worse."
Philip Morris, the biggest US tobacco maker, released a statement last night challenging the Harvard study. The company said that nicotine levels of its top-selling Marlboro product have fluctuated, but that the rates in 1997 and 2006 were identical. The Harvard study, which was begun several months ago, did not include 2006 data.
The two other leading cigarette makers, Lorillard Tobacco Co. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment on the study.
The Harvard study relies on information supplied by the industry. A 1996 state law required cigarette makers to test the nicotine that could be inhaled from their products, and the state ordered the use of machines that simulate a typical smoker's puffing.
State regulations also require cigarette companies to provide other information to the Department of Public Health related to the delivery of nicotine, a substance that makes smoking more addictive and pleasurable. The state required companies to provide measures of nicotine concentration in tobacco, the number of puffs yielded by each cigarette, and the design of the filter.
The Harvard researchers used a sophisticated statistical analysis to examine data from the companies covering 1997 through 2005, two years more than the earlier state study. Like the Department of Public Health report, the Harvard study found that levels of inhalable nicotine during that period increased regardless of whether the cigarettes were menthol, full flavor, light, or ultralight.
The researchers used the company data to review possible causes for the increase and concluded that the single most important factor in the increased rates of inhalable nicotine was the amount of nicotine in the tobacco chosen for the cigarettes.
"It was systematic, it was pervasive, it involved all the manufacturers, and it was by design," said Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study.
Another author said that the likelihood that the nicotine increase happened by chance was less than 1 in 1,000.
The study also said that the company data showed an increase in the number of puffs per cigarette, which the researchers said was probably due to a design change, but they could not determine the mechanism for that increase.
One activist expressed no doubt about what caused the changes .
"The tobacco industry is clearly looking to addict people quickly and to keep them heavily addicted by making it really, really hard for them to quit," said Diane Pickles, executive director of the advocacy group Tobacco Free Massachusetts, which was not involved with the study.
The Harvard researchers, as well as antismoking forces, said the study offers compelling evidence that the federal government should regulate tobacco much the way pharmaceuticals are controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy is reviving long-stalled legislation that would give the FDA extensive authority over the sale, distribution, and advertising of tobacco products. A spokeswoman for Kennedy said last night that the senator intends to introduce the legislation in the next couple of weeks and conduct hearings shortly thereafter.
"Congress has been an accomplice in the travesty because of the success of the tobacco lobby in blocking real reform," Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.
The Harvard researchers included a broader range of data than the state report in their search for the underlying cause of increases in inhalable tobacco. State officials said that in order to release their report as quickly as possible and to keep it accessible, they chose to limit the scope of their August study.
"We tried to do as simple an analysis as we possibly could," said Tom Land, a research analyst in the state's Tobacco Control Program. "We wanted as many people as possible to understand it."
In reports such as those generated by Harvard and the state, researchers look for trends while acknowledging that figures can fluctuate year to year. For instance, the Harvard researchers present data showing that inhalable nicotine in Marlboro brands generally trended upward from 1997 through 2005, although levels declined slightly in the last two years covered in the study.
In its statement, Philip Morris said, "There are random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upwards and downwards, and those variations are not consistent in either direction across reporting years."
Connolly and state health officials dispute that assertion, saying that their research shows a consistent upward trend.
The company also said, "Philip Morris USA agrees with the authors that cigarettes are addictive and harmful."
The Harvard researchers do not speculate in the study on how companies might have chosen tobacco with higher nicotine content, but veterans of the war on tobacco suggested possibilities.
They pointed, for example, to US government documents showing that in the 1980s one company, Brown & Williamson, bred tobacco in Brazil with twice the nicotine content of its standard product. Matt Myers, head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that companies can also manipulate nicotine levels by choosing parts of the tobacco plant known to have high concentrations of the addictive ingredient.
"The evidence is clear that the tobacco companies are capable of and do carefully regulate the level of nicotine in their products," Myers said. "The consistent increase over a period of years can't happen by accident."
----------------------------------------
boston.com:
Patrick to OK fees for power plants
State set to rejoin regional group
By Scott Allen and Beth Daley, Globe Staff | January 18, 2007
Governor Deval Patrick is expected to announce today that Massachusetts will rejoin a group of other Northeast states that plan to combat global warming by charging power plants for emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. Patrick's predecessor, Mitt Romney, had dropped out of the program out of concern that the pollution fees would raise the state's already high electricity rates.
Patrick has scheduled a press conference with his environmental affairs secretary at the University of Massachusetts at Boston this afternoon, and energy company and environmental officials said they expect Patrick to use the event to make good on his campaign promise to rejoin the seven-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The initiative, launched by states frustrated at the lack of federal action to slow global warming, calls for states to begin charging power plants for their carbon dioxide emissions by 2009. Money collected from the power generators could then be used for clean energy projects or conservation.
"It's a major step forward," said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, which has campaigned extensively for Massachusetts to rejoin the effort to help ease global warming. . "This is a critical signal that Governor Patrick is going to keep his promise to seriously address the climate crisis threatening both the nation and the world."
Global temperatures have risen an average of 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century -- last year's US temperatures were the highest ever recorded -- largely because of the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels worldwide, scientists say. In 2001, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from negotiations over an international treaty aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, prompting the Northeast states to start their own initiative.
The details of Patrick's plan have not been released, but environmentalists and legislative allies of the governor are hoping he will follow the lead of New York and Vermont, two states that already have committed to require power plants to buy a permit for each ton of carbon dioxide they release, using the funds for projects ranging from energy-efficient streetlights to nonpolluting forms of energy generation. States also have the option of giving away most of the permits, while selling only one quarter of them to power plant owners.
"I hope that the governor adopts the growing principle that polluters should pay, and the revenue generated by the auction of carbon permits should go 100 percent for public benefits," said state Representative J. James Marzilli Jr., an Arlington Democrat who has filed a bill that would bring Massachusetts back into the greenhouse gas initiative.
Many energy generators and large industrial users of electricity have opposed the greenhouse gas reduction plan, arguing that Massachusetts already has among the highest electricity rates in the country. Yesterday, however, they said they need to concentrate on minimizing the economic impact of the carbon dioxide charges, which analysts say could initially increase the average family's electricity bill by several dollars a year.
"We want to work with the governor to make sure that implementation of this rule doesn't harm our economy and make Massachusetts more expensive to do business in," said Robert Rio, vice president for government affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
Under greenhouse gas initiative rules, the release of carbon dioxide from Massachusetts power plants would be limited to 26.7 million tons in 2009. That would require no more than modest reductions in emissions, but power generators would need to have a permit for each ton they pump into the air.
The state would have the choice of making the generators buy the permits, expected to cost somewhere between $2 and $5 per ton, or to give them up to 75 percent of the needed permits, while requiring that they buy the remaining 25 percent. New York and Vermont officials have indicated they plan to sell all the permits, giving away none of them. Connecticut and New Jersey officials have given preliminary indications that they intend to do the same.
If Massachusetts followed those states, the carbon dioxide permit system could raise $50 million to $130 million a year for energy conservation, clean energy projects, or even direct electricity rate rebates to energy consumers. Advocates of the greenhouse gas initiative say the money could generate dramatic savings in energy costs over the long term.
By 2015, the carbon dioxide limit for Massachusetts and other states in the system would be reduced by 10 percent, forcing power plants to cut back on their overall carbon dioxide emissions.
----------------------------------------
bostonherald.com:
Deluge of challenges will follow DNA lab’s blunders
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter
Thursday, January 18, 2007 - Updated: 06:13 AM EST
The mishandling of critical DNA evidence by a state police technician will draw a flood of motions from defense attorneys seeking to challenge convictions and police conduct in countless cases where DNA evidence was used, a top official said yesterday.
“It’s going to be systemwide. There will be motions on old cases and on any forthcoming case,” said Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke, adding that the “negligence” of one crime lab administrator could reverberate throughout the state’s criminal justice system.
A top public defender is already calling for a review not just of the cases handled by the administrator, but of the rules governing procedures employed by police and prosecutors. The attorney, William Leahy, wrote a letter to Burke requesting that a special commission be created to investigate the causes of wrongful convictions.
“The larger issue is the continuing threat to the accuracy of verdicts in Massachusetts criminal cases caused by both human error and deeply-flawed but long-established procedures which virtually guarantee a . . . stream of wrongful convictions,”wrote Leahy, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Meanwhile, state police and the FBI are investigating the crime lab’s work methods and the cases handled by administrator Robert E. Pino, who is accused of mishandling evidence in at least 15 unsolved rape cases.
In four cases, Pino allegedly prepared false reports, saying that DNA from a crime scene matched a particular suspect, when in fact no match had occurred. In 11 other cases, he discovered a match but did not report it to prosecutors until after the statute of limitations had lapsed, officials said. Pino could not be reached for comment yesterday.
--------------
Bostonherald.com horoscope: "TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You're multigenerational. There's a 6-year-old inside of you, and also a 3-year-old, and a 72-year-old. And all these characters are battling it out today over what it really means to act your age."
Yahoo.com extended: "For some people, variety may be the spice of life -- but it is adding some tension to your life right now. You are faced with some big decisions, and others may see you as having an embarrassment of riches. They can't quite relate to your stress, but that's okay. Think of this as a nice problem to have -- you really can't make a bad decision. Focus on what feels right deep in your gut, and ignore what looks best on paper."
last HU HR posting for 1/17:
Requisition Number 28954
Title Program Assistant, PPE
School / Unit Graduate School of Education
Department PPE
Location Cambridge
Full Or Part Time Full-Time
Hours Per Week 35
Days And Hours Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Days Off Sunday
Saturday
Salary Grade 053
Union HUCTW
Eligible for Overtime
Date Posted 01/17/2007
----------------------------------------
Duties And Responsibilities This position is in our Programs in Professional Education (PPE) group and reports to the Manager of Programs. Works collaboratively with Program Coordinators to prepare, execute and successfully implement professional development programs for educators. Responsible for ensuring a positive participant experience for customers of PPE. Provide strong customer service by responding to participant inquiries. Provide administrative support by compiling program materials, organizing and confirming logistical details such as securing space for programs, arranging transportation, and coordinating program facilities. Coordinate and oversee routine catering. Assist in preparing program related materials, arranging and organizing media needs for programs, and processing financial transactions. Please note that this is a term position through August 31, 2007.
----------------------------------------
Required Education, Experience and Skills Basic Requirements: College background preferred. 2+ years related experience required. Previous event experience preferred. Computer skills required: MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Must be able to work evenings and weekends during peak periods. Additional requirements: Excellent customer services skills required. Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines in a fast paced environment. Must have the ability to manage multiple competing priorities. Strong organizational skills, attention to detail and the ability to work independently and as part of a team. Previous financial processing experience preferred.
-----------------------
MIT HR posting:
Mammography Technologist mit-00002047 Medical Department Cambridge MA Part Time
Nicotine boost was deliberate, study says
Harvard researchers analyze cigarette data
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | January 18, 2007
Data supplied by tobacco companies strongly suggest that in recent years manufacturers deliberately boosted nicotine levels in cigarettes to more effectively hook smokers, Harvard researchers conclude in a study being released today.
The companies increasingly used tobacco richer in nicotine and made design changes to give smokers more puffs per cigarette, according to the analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health. The report expands on a landmark Massachusetts Department of Public Health study issued last August showing that the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes increased an average of 10 percent from 1998 through 2004.
The Harvard researchers, who corroborated the basic findings of the state study, wanted to determine why cigarettes were delivering more nicotine. The state report did not address causes .
"Industry says it's changed," said Greg Connolly, an author of the Harvard study and former director of the state health agency's Tobacco Control Program. "Yeah, they've changed -- maybe for the worse."
Philip Morris, the biggest US tobacco maker, released a statement last night challenging the Harvard study. The company said that nicotine levels of its top-selling Marlboro product have fluctuated, but that the rates in 1997 and 2006 were identical. The Harvard study, which was begun several months ago, did not include 2006 data.
The two other leading cigarette makers, Lorillard Tobacco Co. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment on the study.
The Harvard study relies on information supplied by the industry. A 1996 state law required cigarette makers to test the nicotine that could be inhaled from their products, and the state ordered the use of machines that simulate a typical smoker's puffing.
State regulations also require cigarette companies to provide other information to the Department of Public Health related to the delivery of nicotine, a substance that makes smoking more addictive and pleasurable. The state required companies to provide measures of nicotine concentration in tobacco, the number of puffs yielded by each cigarette, and the design of the filter.
The Harvard researchers used a sophisticated statistical analysis to examine data from the companies covering 1997 through 2005, two years more than the earlier state study. Like the Department of Public Health report, the Harvard study found that levels of inhalable nicotine during that period increased regardless of whether the cigarettes were menthol, full flavor, light, or ultralight.
The researchers used the company data to review possible causes for the increase and concluded that the single most important factor in the increased rates of inhalable nicotine was the amount of nicotine in the tobacco chosen for the cigarettes.
"It was systematic, it was pervasive, it involved all the manufacturers, and it was by design," said Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study.
Another author said that the likelihood that the nicotine increase happened by chance was less than 1 in 1,000.
The study also said that the company data showed an increase in the number of puffs per cigarette, which the researchers said was probably due to a design change, but they could not determine the mechanism for that increase.
One activist expressed no doubt about what caused the changes .
"The tobacco industry is clearly looking to addict people quickly and to keep them heavily addicted by making it really, really hard for them to quit," said Diane Pickles, executive director of the advocacy group Tobacco Free Massachusetts, which was not involved with the study.
The Harvard researchers, as well as antismoking forces, said the study offers compelling evidence that the federal government should regulate tobacco much the way pharmaceuticals are controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy is reviving long-stalled legislation that would give the FDA extensive authority over the sale, distribution, and advertising of tobacco products. A spokeswoman for Kennedy said last night that the senator intends to introduce the legislation in the next couple of weeks and conduct hearings shortly thereafter.
"Congress has been an accomplice in the travesty because of the success of the tobacco lobby in blocking real reform," Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.
The Harvard researchers included a broader range of data than the state report in their search for the underlying cause of increases in inhalable tobacco. State officials said that in order to release their report as quickly as possible and to keep it accessible, they chose to limit the scope of their August study.
"We tried to do as simple an analysis as we possibly could," said Tom Land, a research analyst in the state's Tobacco Control Program. "We wanted as many people as possible to understand it."
In reports such as those generated by Harvard and the state, researchers look for trends while acknowledging that figures can fluctuate year to year. For instance, the Harvard researchers present data showing that inhalable nicotine in Marlboro brands generally trended upward from 1997 through 2005, although levels declined slightly in the last two years covered in the study.
In its statement, Philip Morris said, "There are random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upwards and downwards, and those variations are not consistent in either direction across reporting years."
Connolly and state health officials dispute that assertion, saying that their research shows a consistent upward trend.
The company also said, "Philip Morris USA agrees with the authors that cigarettes are addictive and harmful."
The Harvard researchers do not speculate in the study on how companies might have chosen tobacco with higher nicotine content, but veterans of the war on tobacco suggested possibilities.
They pointed, for example, to US government documents showing that in the 1980s one company, Brown & Williamson, bred tobacco in Brazil with twice the nicotine content of its standard product. Matt Myers, head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that companies can also manipulate nicotine levels by choosing parts of the tobacco plant known to have high concentrations of the addictive ingredient.
"The evidence is clear that the tobacco companies are capable of and do carefully regulate the level of nicotine in their products," Myers said. "The consistent increase over a period of years can't happen by accident."
----------------------------------------
boston.com:
Patrick to OK fees for power plants
State set to rejoin regional group
By Scott Allen and Beth Daley, Globe Staff | January 18, 2007
Governor Deval Patrick is expected to announce today that Massachusetts will rejoin a group of other Northeast states that plan to combat global warming by charging power plants for emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. Patrick's predecessor, Mitt Romney, had dropped out of the program out of concern that the pollution fees would raise the state's already high electricity rates.
Patrick has scheduled a press conference with his environmental affairs secretary at the University of Massachusetts at Boston this afternoon, and energy company and environmental officials said they expect Patrick to use the event to make good on his campaign promise to rejoin the seven-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The initiative, launched by states frustrated at the lack of federal action to slow global warming, calls for states to begin charging power plants for their carbon dioxide emissions by 2009. Money collected from the power generators could then be used for clean energy projects or conservation.
"It's a major step forward," said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, which has campaigned extensively for Massachusetts to rejoin the effort to help ease global warming. . "This is a critical signal that Governor Patrick is going to keep his promise to seriously address the climate crisis threatening both the nation and the world."
Global temperatures have risen an average of 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century -- last year's US temperatures were the highest ever recorded -- largely because of the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels worldwide, scientists say. In 2001, President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from negotiations over an international treaty aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, prompting the Northeast states to start their own initiative.
The details of Patrick's plan have not been released, but environmentalists and legislative allies of the governor are hoping he will follow the lead of New York and Vermont, two states that already have committed to require power plants to buy a permit for each ton of carbon dioxide they release, using the funds for projects ranging from energy-efficient streetlights to nonpolluting forms of energy generation. States also have the option of giving away most of the permits, while selling only one quarter of them to power plant owners.
"I hope that the governor adopts the growing principle that polluters should pay, and the revenue generated by the auction of carbon permits should go 100 percent for public benefits," said state Representative J. James Marzilli Jr., an Arlington Democrat who has filed a bill that would bring Massachusetts back into the greenhouse gas initiative.
Many energy generators and large industrial users of electricity have opposed the greenhouse gas reduction plan, arguing that Massachusetts already has among the highest electricity rates in the country. Yesterday, however, they said they need to concentrate on minimizing the economic impact of the carbon dioxide charges, which analysts say could initially increase the average family's electricity bill by several dollars a year.
"We want to work with the governor to make sure that implementation of this rule doesn't harm our economy and make Massachusetts more expensive to do business in," said Robert Rio, vice president for government affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
Under greenhouse gas initiative rules, the release of carbon dioxide from Massachusetts power plants would be limited to 26.7 million tons in 2009. That would require no more than modest reductions in emissions, but power generators would need to have a permit for each ton they pump into the air.
The state would have the choice of making the generators buy the permits, expected to cost somewhere between $2 and $5 per ton, or to give them up to 75 percent of the needed permits, while requiring that they buy the remaining 25 percent. New York and Vermont officials have indicated they plan to sell all the permits, giving away none of them. Connecticut and New Jersey officials have given preliminary indications that they intend to do the same.
If Massachusetts followed those states, the carbon dioxide permit system could raise $50 million to $130 million a year for energy conservation, clean energy projects, or even direct electricity rate rebates to energy consumers. Advocates of the greenhouse gas initiative say the money could generate dramatic savings in energy costs over the long term.
By 2015, the carbon dioxide limit for Massachusetts and other states in the system would be reduced by 10 percent, forcing power plants to cut back on their overall carbon dioxide emissions.
----------------------------------------
bostonherald.com:
Deluge of challenges will follow DNA lab’s blunders
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter
Thursday, January 18, 2007 - Updated: 06:13 AM EST
The mishandling of critical DNA evidence by a state police technician will draw a flood of motions from defense attorneys seeking to challenge convictions and police conduct in countless cases where DNA evidence was used, a top official said yesterday.
“It’s going to be systemwide. There will be motions on old cases and on any forthcoming case,” said Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke, adding that the “negligence” of one crime lab administrator could reverberate throughout the state’s criminal justice system.
A top public defender is already calling for a review not just of the cases handled by the administrator, but of the rules governing procedures employed by police and prosecutors. The attorney, William Leahy, wrote a letter to Burke requesting that a special commission be created to investigate the causes of wrongful convictions.
“The larger issue is the continuing threat to the accuracy of verdicts in Massachusetts criminal cases caused by both human error and deeply-flawed but long-established procedures which virtually guarantee a . . . stream of wrongful convictions,”wrote Leahy, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Meanwhile, state police and the FBI are investigating the crime lab’s work methods and the cases handled by administrator Robert E. Pino, who is accused of mishandling evidence in at least 15 unsolved rape cases.
In four cases, Pino allegedly prepared false reports, saying that DNA from a crime scene matched a particular suspect, when in fact no match had occurred. In 11 other cases, he discovered a match but did not report it to prosecutors until after the statute of limitations had lapsed, officials said. Pino could not be reached for comment yesterday.
--------------
Bostonherald.com horoscope: "TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You're multigenerational. There's a 6-year-old inside of you, and also a 3-year-old, and a 72-year-old. And all these characters are battling it out today over what it really means to act your age."
Yahoo.com extended: "For some people, variety may be the spice of life -- but it is adding some tension to your life right now. You are faced with some big decisions, and others may see you as having an embarrassment of riches. They can't quite relate to your stress, but that's okay. Think of this as a nice problem to have -- you really can't make a bad decision. Focus on what feels right deep in your gut, and ignore what looks best on paper."
last HU HR posting for 1/17:
Requisition Number 28954
Title Program Assistant, PPE
School / Unit Graduate School of Education
Department PPE
Location Cambridge
Full Or Part Time Full-Time
Hours Per Week 35
Days And Hours Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Days Off Sunday
Saturday
Salary Grade 053
Union HUCTW
Eligible for Overtime
Date Posted 01/17/2007
----------------------------------------
Duties And Responsibilities This position is in our Programs in Professional Education (PPE) group and reports to the Manager of Programs. Works collaboratively with Program Coordinators to prepare, execute and successfully implement professional development programs for educators. Responsible for ensuring a positive participant experience for customers of PPE. Provide strong customer service by responding to participant inquiries. Provide administrative support by compiling program materials, organizing and confirming logistical details such as securing space for programs, arranging transportation, and coordinating program facilities. Coordinate and oversee routine catering. Assist in preparing program related materials, arranging and organizing media needs for programs, and processing financial transactions. Please note that this is a term position through August 31, 2007.
----------------------------------------
Required Education, Experience and Skills Basic Requirements: College background preferred. 2+ years related experience required. Previous event experience preferred. Computer skills required: MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Must be able to work evenings and weekends during peak periods. Additional requirements: Excellent customer services skills required. Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines in a fast paced environment. Must have the ability to manage multiple competing priorities. Strong organizational skills, attention to detail and the ability to work independently and as part of a team. Previous financial processing experience preferred.
-----------------------
MIT HR posting:
Mammography Technologist mit-00002047 Medical Department Cambridge MA Part Time
