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I just came from a meeting with Congressman McHale, the one who took Clinton to task for lying, and is probably well known because he is a democrat. To make a long story short, as you all know, there is a 14% increase in the NIH budget, with these specific diseases benefiting the most========Diabetes, Cancer, Aids, and Genetic. He did not see anything referring to PD, BUT, because of the length of the budget, he could not definitively say whether we were mentioned or not. He said the budget was a foot high, over 3000 pages, and he tried to do the best he could by researching the items. This is the best part, they will vote for these bills, on Tuesday. And in this wonderful budget, there is 250,000 for caffeinated coffee research, 270,000 for something with grasshoppers, 1,000,000 for peanut research, and 12,000,000 more than Washington, DC asked for. I hope I got most of it right, I was writing so fast, and so mad at the same time, who knows what was correct. Even better, this is a good guy, who met with us in Washington, has tried to help, and is good friends with Lane Evans, congressman from Ill, who was recently diagnosed with PD. He is one of the most honest and ethical politicians I know.... Of course, he is not running for reelection this time around. Gerry