CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Reuters) - At least three people died and hundreds more were left homeless after violent thunderstorms raked sections of Appalachia and the Ohio Valley with high winds and torrential rains, authorities said on Monday.

Up to 6 inches of rain fell across southern and central West Virginia, bringing widespread flash floods and mudslides to eight counties where Gov. Bob Wise declared states of emergency. Storms that crossed the region on Sunday also caused damage and knocked out power in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina.

Pineville, a West Virginia town in the southern county of Wyoming, was cut off by record flood levels on the Guyandotte River, which had yet to crest by midday on Monday. It was near there that emergency crews found the body of an elderly woman floating along a fence.

The same weather system that brought heavy rains to West Virginia sent high winds across rural eastern Kentucky, where a 35-year-old woman and an 11-year-old girl died when their Bracken County mobile home collapsed.

Officials in West Virginia said some of the worst flooding in recent memory damaged 3,000 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 500 people.

Some of them were rescued off of rooftops by National Guard helicopters,'' said Mark Rigsby, spokesman for the West Virginia Office of Emergency Services.

We're still in the flood and will be transitioning to cleanup and recovery sometime later in the week. But when is a question of waiting for water levels to go down.''

Officials said many areas hit by heavy downpours from Sunday's storms already had been saturated by weeks of wet weather, complicating cleanup efforts as the National Weather Service (news - web sites) forecast more rain.

Nearly 200 West Virginia National Guardsmen were deployed to help with rescue and recovery efforts, while the state received four National Guard helicopters to supplement its fleet of two.

The storms also caused widespread damage and downed power lines in the Cincinnati area in neighboring southern Ohio.

I am attaching a list of the needs that we identified during our 2000-2001 planning process -- most of which could not be addressed in our SuperNOFA application. (I am also attaching a list from the 1999-2000 planning process to make sure that we haven't lost any important information from one year to the next.)

House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran is to unveil a sweeping package of proposals today designed to reduce the state's affordable-housing crunch.

The details have pleasantly surprised housing advocates, who said they were impressed that Finneran's plan includes a larger-than-expected $508 million bond bill, and other elements advocated by House members, even Finneran critics.

''The speaker has kept his promise,'' said Representative Byron Rushing, a South End Democrat who has clashed frequently with Finneran.

The Finneran plan eliminates some of the more explosive ideas initially floated - such as a proposal to count jail and prison inmates in affordable-housing tallies - and puts together a well-rounded strategy on housing policy, said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association.

''It's one of the most comprehensive housing bills we've seen in many years,'' Gornstein said.

If the package becomes law, it could lead to the construction and rehabilitation of thousands of affordable homes and apartments across the state, Gornstein said.

The bills include a series of tax incentives for housing developers, along with the bond authorization, which would fund new construction and repair aging public housing. It would also set up a special commission that would develop a five-year plan to end homelessness in Massachusetts.

Finneran is to appear today in Roxbury to announce his plan, along with several other state lawmakers and Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to approve the housing bill by early next week, and it is scheduled for debate on the House floor next Wednesday.

The bond component of the bill, if left at $508 million, could force a confrontation with Acting Governor Jane M. Swift, who is not obligated to issue bonds approved by the Legislature. Her administration has recently agreed to increase the state's bond spending on housing from $71 million per year to $100 million, but the House bill would require $166 million per year for each of the next three years.

A Swift spokesman, Jason Kauppi, said the administration needs to review the details of the House proposal before deciding whether to raise the state's bond cap.

Finneran's stamp of approval on the proposal represents a significant concession to the liberal members of his party, many of whom have criticized the Mattapan Democrat's leadership style. The speaker and his staff were careful to include housing advocates, committee chairmen, and rank-and-file House members in cobbling together the package over the past six weeks.

''It was a combined internal and external effort, and I'm proud of what's been put forth thus far,'' Finneran said. ''Housing production at all income levels is very, very important to not just the economic picture in Massachusetts, but to the quality of life.''

The plan also includes a compromise concerning anti-snob zoning laws, which require communities to shoulder their fare share of affordable housing.

The proposal would make it slightly easier for communities to comply with the law, while at the same time opening the door to penalties for cities and towns that don't. A special commission would address sanctions for communities that don't reach state-set affordable-housing thresholds.

That aspect of the speaker's plan would effectively replace the scores of other anti-snob zoning proposals on the table, including the one to count prisoners as housing, which was filed by Finneran's own Ways and Means chairman. But any number of those proposals could come up on the House floor next week, and debate on the issue could be considerable.

Housing advocates said that although the House proposal doesn't solve all the issues in the realm of housing, it makes significant progress.

''It's been a very good process,'' said Lew Finfer, an organizer with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. ''He's following through. It has a lot of good things for affordable housing.''

BOSTON--OK, so you were an opponent of the tax cut. You called the president's ``tax relief'' a four-letter word: s-c-a-m. You ranted about how the $1.3 trillion cut would benefit the rich at the expense of the rest.

When you heard about the $300 rebate, you sneered, ``oh goody, I'm rich.'' You figured that could pay for one month of your mom's prescription drugs or buy three sets of silver-plated place card holders from Saks Fifth Avenue. And when you discovered that 35 million low-income workers--those who need it the most-- would get no rebate at all, you just about went apoplectic.

Well, guess what pal: YOU'RE GONNA GET THE MONEY ANYWAY. They don't just give the rebate to people who agree with the policy. You're one of the 91 million Americans who are going to be getting a big fat collective $38 billion.

Soon you'll get a letter announcing this with a fanfare: ``We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress passed--and President George W. Bush (news - web sites) signed into law--the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which provides long-term tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes.''

This will read like a rouse from Publishers Clearing House or a fund-raiser from the Republican National Committee (news - web sites), but it's from IRS and the message is simple: Here Comes Santa.

The letter says something else: ``You will be receiving a check. You need to take no additional steps.'' But there, dear IRS, I beg to differ. You do need to take additional steps. You need to figure out what you'll do with your 300 ill-gained bucks.

I know. Many folks regard the rebates as their money wrenched back from the thieves in Washington. Many regard it as found money, picked up on the sidewalk of a forgetful administration. Some regard it as house money in the big gamble of the Bush budget.

But you have a suspicion that it's also hush money designed to create silent accomplices.

It's time to put your money where your mouth is. You didn't want it; give it away. You don't like the budget; make your own.

``This is like a giant social experiment,'' says Richard Thau, president of Third Millennium, an advocacy group for young adults. ``If you send unexpected money to tens of millions of households, what percentages of those households will give all or part of the rebate to charity?''

Thau is going to donate his own rebate to a program for homeless women. But his group has set up DonateRebate.org, a site that leads to Helping.org, which lists 700,000 nonprofit groups. Many help the people that are hurt the most.

Tony Adams, a Houston Web site developer and a political in-activist, goes a step further. The 35-year-old Adams, engaged to a woman who ``pledged her rebate to shoes,'' didn't even vote in the last election. But he was so infuriated when Bush reinstituted the global gag rule against international family planning groups, he pledged his rebate to ``help counteract Bush's actions.''

His new Web site, TaxRebatePledge.org, has already attracted more than 300 people who promised more than $100,000 to groups that oppose the administration on such things as international family planning, the environment and civil rights. ``People think I'm some kind of a liberal wacko,'' says Adams. ``If your country is a car and about to veer off the road to the right, you got to jerk it pretty hard to the left to get it back onto the center.''

Now I know that despite all your ranting, it's easiest to cash the check. You could pay down the credit cards or invest both checks at 8 percent and have $6,500 in 2031. Heck, no one-time rebate is going to create an alternative budget or an alternative politics. Your whole point is that individuals can't replace every function of a government. And you can't send it back to the government or they'll use it for some missile fantasy.

But you've got a month or more to turn this rebate scam into a discussion about how to make a difference, where to begin and what's most important. You can be a $300-a-person philanthropist, a $600-a-couple social change agent.

And while you're putting your money where your mouth is, why let the tax-cut supporters off the hook? Didn't they tell us that private folks use the money more wisely than Washington?

When George W. signed this tax cut, he said, ``This bill is more than just tax relief. This bill reflects a philosophy that says we trust the American people more than we trust government.''

Now there's $38 billion coming our way. Sometimes hush money can make a very loud statement.

Our NELRC cohorts have just issued an RFP for the ABE-to-College Transitions Project, funded by the Nellie Mae Educational Foundation. The 17-page RFP is online as a Portable Document Format (PDF) version only, as such highly formatted documents really don't translate well into HTML:

They are especially interested in funding Massachusetts programs in this round. For further details, please contact Jessica Spohn, project coordinator 617-482-9485

Shelter searches for city's homeless Someone has been camping in this concrete-and-asphalt woods. Purple chicory lines a foot-worn trail. At the mouth of the path, bricks are placed in a haphazard circle that holds the charred remains of a fire. For warmth? For cooking? The spire of a Downtown skyscraper can be seen from this urban campsite. Traffic sounds spill over its rough edges, like echoes from another world. Anthony Ratcliffe and Mark Robinson, backpacks filled with personal hygiene kits and small portions of nonperishable food, are familiar with this place. It is midmorning, but the inhabitants are already gone for the day. Ratcliffe, 35, and Robinson, 43, are AmeriCorps workers, assigned to the Horizon House Street Outreach team. About a dozen workers -- some on bicycles -- traverse the camps and other obscure places tucked into the folds of the city's fabric to offer helping hands to the more than 3,000 homeless people in Indianapolis. In three hours one morning, the on-foot pair will peer under Eastside bridges, visit a White Castle restaurant, the bus station and Pan American Plaza, walk along Washington Street Downtown, then end up at the Salvation Army on East Michigan Street, where they'll help serve lunch to a large group of homeless men. The goal is to be ambassadors for service, said Lora Johnson, the team's director. While many homeless people work daily, they might never have enough money to make it back from the edge of the cliff. And, according to a study done for the U.S. Conference of Mayors last year, more than a third of the homeless are now families -- largely women with children whose lives are a cycle of shelters and borrowed sofas.

Horizon House, a day shelter program, has itself been homeless for longer than two years. A new building, now being completed at 1033 E. Washington St., might open in about two weeks.

The day shelter was cast adrift in 1998 after leaving its cramped quarters in borrowed space several blocks east of its new location. What followed were lessons in politics and perception, as some in City Hall criticized efforts to move shelters and other help agencies too close to a booming Downtown.

When the new 21,000-square-foot facility opens, it will offer services from showers and medical care to employment and housing assistance and mental health counseling. It will even offer an address and a phone for those who have none but need them to return to life -- on the inside. Bobby Pyle was a regular at Horizon House's former location. He misses it, even though he says it's not likely he will give up the streets any time soon. Tourists and shoppers walk by and look past and through him, as if he were a ghost. It doesn't seem to ruffle the invisible man. Ratcliffe and Robinson recognize him, though, and call out hearty greetings. They call Pyle "the Mayor" because he seems to know everyone -- at least everyone homeless who frequents the streets. Pyle, gaunt and toothless in the front but with a neat, self-clipped haircut and long but trimmed goatee, is not your stereotypical homeless guy. Late this morning, Pyle sits on a bench outside Circle Centre. He says he doesn't panhandle. But the restaurateurs know him and give him a plate of food occasionally that otherwise would be destined for the trash bin.

It's an OK life, said the Indianapolis native. But look at his shoes and you know that this man has some mileage for a 40-year-old. The rubber heels have that off-kilter look, and their high-tops have the kind of malignant grime no scrubbing would cure."They don't have anything to lose, because they have already lost everything," Johnson said. "We are their family. For some, this is as good as it is going to get." Contact with the outreach team is just a beginning. Ask Ratcliffe. He lived on the streets for a time after being released from prison. "I stayed in abandoned houses, under bridges, in the park . . . in the stairwells at Market Square Arena." He said he was helped by older men, who taught him how to find shelters, clothing, food. So when Ratcliffe tells homeless people he knows their situation, he does. He came to the team a year ago when he saw a flier on a bulletin board of a transitional housing program Downtown. "I just want to give back," Ratcliffe said, "to give back to the people who are still out here."

Now that the school year is winding down, we would like to tell you about a variety of opportunities that will enable you to continue your participation in VES throughout the summer months.

1. Online Professional Development Opportunities: VES Summer School will be offered to all VES users starting June 25th. Learn about standards based resources available to you, participate in discussions with other educators across the state, and contribute to the design and development of VES. Self-study modules will be rolled out weekly, allowing you to participate at your own pace. The program has been designed for those who wish to earn PDPs and for those who just want to learn more about VES. You will be able to access the Summer School Registration Form on the VES Homepage by June 22nd.

2. VES Design and Development Opportunities: Many of you know that VES will have major development activity underway this summer and next fall. Massachusetts’s public school educators are an incredible resource for the VES Initiative. As a result we are looking to you to support and augment our efforts this summer.

We are seeking individuals for intensive multi-day workshops, part time assignments during the summer, and part time assignments during the fall. All of the projects will give participants direct and early access to VES capabilities, as well as an opportunity to help direct the course of VES. For some it will also mean a chance to participate in advanced wireless, handheld, and Internet Appliance hardware. The following is a list of the projects that we invite you to join:

a.Student Design Team: --> We seek students who are willing to participate in an extended set of activities throughout the summer and fall, as the Student Design Team. This team will participate in the design of the student tools, resources, and student workspace.

b.Technology Competency Project: --> These individuals will help write ISTE and NETS based technology competencies for teaches and students. The competencies will be used to develop an online professional development course.

c.Standards Based Education Competency Project: --> These individuals will prepare standards for what teachers should know and be able to do in implementing standards based teaching and learning. The standards prepared by this group will be used to develop an online professional development course.

d.Curriculum Mapping Project: --> These individuals will prepare model performance based maps of the curriculum in their discipline. The product of this multi-day process will be used with the Instructional Planning and Management tools.

e.Beta Test Program: --> These individuals will test early versions, and proof of concept prototypes of VES tools, resources, and applications.

f.Edge Device Beta Test Program: --> These individuals will test early versions, and proof of concept prototypes of VES handheld, wireless, and Internet Appliances.

g.Professional Development Team: --> These individuals will help VES staff write and test online professional development courses and modules.

h.Educational Content Research and Evaluation Project: --> These individuals will work with VES to identify, validate, document, and integrate high quality Web resources into VES.

i.Programming Projects: --> J2EE, Java and XML, XSL programmers are sought for challenging assignments with the VES team.

j.Librarian Focus Group: --> Participants in this team will work on the VES Virtual Library and Content Gateway projects.

k.Business Manager Focus Group: --> Participants in this team will work on the VES District and School Administrative Support projects.

l.Research and Development Team: --> Educators with research, evaluation, cognitive science, instructional theory, HCI, knowledge base, expert system, or VR expertise are sought for challenging R&D assignments with the VES team.

If you are interested in working on any of these projects, please go to the VES Opportunities exchange at www.ves.mass.edu/voxmain.htm. You can also access the form by clicking on the VOX link on the VES homepage (www.ves.mass.edu). Once you’ve completed the form, you will be contacted regarding the specific opportunities for which you have indicated an interest.

For additional information on any of the above summer opportunities, please contact Mark Rodgers at vox@ves.mass.edu.

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