Finally... A Politician Who KNOWS The Value Of Aviation!
When ANN's Aero-TV crews scoured the runways and byways of
Oshkosh last summer, ANN's Maxine Scheer had the chance to meet up
with an uncommon fellow... Congressman Vernon Ehlers, a highly
educated and motivated member of Congress who not only appreciates
aviation, but appears to be working hard to help it along.
US Representative Vernon J. Ehlers of Grand Rapids, Mich., was
sworn in on January 4, 2007, to serve his seventh full term in the
U.S. House of Representatives. He was first elected to the 103rd
Congress in a special election on December 7, 1993. Ehlers joined
Congress following a distinguished tenure of service in teaching,
scientific research and public service. He has served on numerous
boards and commissions and was elected to the Kent County (Mich.)
Board of Commissioners, and the Michigan House and Senate. The
first research physicist to serve in Congress, Ehlers has been
recognized for his strong work ethic and proven leadership skills
in his duties on Capitol Hill.
Among other posts, Ehlers serves on the Science and Technology
Committee (previously known as the House Science Committee), on
which he serves as Ranking Republican of the Subcommittee on
Research & Science Education. During his tenure on the
committee, he oversaw in 1998 the writing of the nation’s
first major statement on science policy since 1945. He also
co-chairs the STEM Ed Caucus, which is dedicated to improving the
nation's K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) education. Ehlers also is a member of the Education and
Labor (previously the Education and the Workforce) Committee, where
he blends his efforts with the Science Committee on improving math
and science education. Ehlers has served on the Science Committee
and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee since his arrival
in Washington and joined the Education and Labor Committee in
1999.
Prior to Congress, Ehlers served a total of 11 years in the
Michigan Legislature - with just over two years in the House and
nine years in the Senate, where he finished his tenure as President
Pro-Tem. He also served eight years on the Kent County Board of
Commissioners, including three years as chairman.
After three years of studying at Calvin College in Grand Rapids,
Ehlers transferred and received his undergraduate degree in physics
and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of California
at Berkeley in 1960. After six years teaching and research at
Berkeley, he moved back to Grand Rapids to Calvin College in 1966
where he taught physics for 16 years and later served as chairman
of the Physics Department. During his tenure at Calvin, Ehlers also
served as a volunteer science advisor to then-Congressman Gerald R.
Ford.
In this up-front conversation with ANN, Ehlers talks
passionately about aviation, user fees, technical education, and
the future of our industry.
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV
site (which will be upgraded aggressively
over the next few weeks). The ability to embed a video on
another web page is but one of the hundreds of amazing little
features that we've worked hard on, for many months now, to
implement in different phases of the initial release of
Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy unaltered
Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we have
extensive plans for future functionality, but this feature
allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or Feature
program to embed it on a different web site, though we must
note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those sites
or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper mission of
the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
Aero-TV Shows You How To Build A Glasair Sportsman
2+2 in RECORD TIME, Gets Up Close And Personal With the Newest
Continental Powerplant To Grace A Cessna, Gets A Sobering Briefing
From P.A.S.S., Flies The Piper Matrix, Hears What's Hot At Blue
Mountain Avionics, Gets Some GREAT Rotax Lessons, Checks Out More
"HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC 2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical
Aviation Issues, Spills Some Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3
Info, Catches Up On ALL Things SkyCatcher, Scores A BUNCH
of LSA Reports, and SO MUCH MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss
Them!
ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.25.24): Airport Rotating Beacon
See All