Thursday, December 31, 2009

Ford Transit Connect Finally Comes to US

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/The New York Times
December 30, 2009


The new Ford Transit Connect has a strange name, a compact European delivery van appearance and a ceiling thats so tall, someone sitting in the drivers seat might only reach it with fingertips.

But these oddities are nearly endearing in one of the smartest and most practical vehicles for anyone -- including a small business owner, camping enthusiast or trend-eschewing individualist -- looking for something different to drive.

The front-wheel drive Transit Connect has been sold in 55 countries by Ford Motor Co. but is only coming to the States this model year as something of an experiment in downsized commercial vans.

Buyers wont find luxury accouterments. But they will get at least double the cargo room of other small, boxy, four-cylinder-powered vehicles that frequently do duty as small business vehicles, such as the Scion xB and Chevrolet HHR panel wagon.

Buyers also find on the Transit Connect window sticker a government rating of 22 miles per gallon in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway, which is about double that for a traditional, large, Ford delivery van.

Best of all, the Transit Connect is affordable with a starting manufacturers suggested retail price, including destination charge, of $21,830 for a base, five-passenger model with 136-horsepower, four-cylinder engine and automatic transmission.

A cargo version of the Transit Connect, with no rear seats, has a starting retail price of $21,475.

There arent directly comparable competitors here.

For example, the 2010 Scion xB comes from Japan and has a starting retail price of $16,420, while Chevys American-bred HHR panel wagon has a starting price of $19,350. But neither has anywhere near the 135.3 cubic feet of cargo room behind the front seats that the Transit Connect offers.

In fact, even large sport utility vehicles dont have this much cargo space. The Chevy Tahoe tops out at 108.9 cubic feet with third row seats removed and second row folded.

The Transit Connect has van-like side doors for the second row of seats that slide open and closed. So, it might compare with small passenger vans like the 2010 Mazda5 that starts at $18,745. But the six-passenger Mazda5 with three rows of seats and 5-foot-3-inch height seems conventional vis-a-vis the 6-foot-6-inch-tall Transit Connect.

The Transit Connect is based on a special version of the platform of the Ford Fiesta small car thats sold in Europe, and it is used for many commercial purposes overseas, including delivery vans and ambulances.

But in the US, the possibilities are endless among business owners looking to reduce gasoline use, camping fans who want to downsize, even drivers suffering from disabilities who need to carry wheelchairs and medical equipment.

Part of the appeal of this new vehicle is how easy it is to get in and out. At 5 feet 4, I just turned and sat onto the drivers seat cushion. Theres no climb up or dropping down into a low-riding car seat. The tester was a passenger van version with seats for five, so I and my passengers rode with decent views out front and to the side.

The two cargo-style doors at the back meant I didnt have one large window to look out of at the back, however. So I was glad to have the optional reverse parking sensors back there to help me know when I got too close to obstacles while I was backing up.

Seats, dashboard arrangement and door trim were all no-nonsense and functional in the test Transit Connect. There was nothing fancy, and the center console area didnt even have covered storage.

I noticed how tall the side windows are, and I had to open the side windows to reach out and manually wipe away condensation that had formed overnight on the outside mirror and stationary part of the side windows.

Theres just one engine -- a hardworking, 2-liter, double overhead cam, Duratec four cylinder generating 136 horsepower and 128 foot-pounds of torque at 4,750 rpm. Even when the vehicle was empty, the Transit Connect didnt rocket around town. Rather, it moved with a hint of spunk. With more people and cargo, the vehicles spunk was replaced with a more purposeful personality.

I readily heard the engine at work as well as road noises from the 15-inch tires on pavement. Sometimes, the sounds seemed to reverberate throughout the cavernous interior, which was a unique experience.

But I loved the low load floor at the back of the Transit Connect, not to mention how the two rear doors were hinged so they could swing all the way back and stay against the sides of the vehicle and out of the way. This is so much nicer than ducking under a tailgate door or walking around a single, side-opening rear cargo door.

The impressively tall ceiling meant even a 6-footer could darn near stand up inside in the cargo area, and the utilitarian floor material makes for easy cleanup.

I didnt feel as if I had the latest technology as I drove the Transit Connect. The ride was adequate but not refined. For example, the rear suspension uses uncomplicated leaf springs and solid axle. And there didnt seem to be a lot of sound insulation as wind noise came on noticeably when the Transit Connect hit highway speeds.

Unusual options complete the package. For $1,395, for example, a buyer can add an on-board computer that monitors a drivers speed, idle time and vehicle location -- things a business owner might want to track.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/30/us/AP-US-Behind-the-Wheel-2010-Ford-Transit-Connect.html?_r=1

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Have you seen?

This was part of a press release sent out recently from the Georgia Advocacy Office. I know you have already seen this, but if you haven’t, take a look and send a quick note to Josh Norris and thank him for the work of GAO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Court Rules Georgia Medicaid Agency Must Provide Child With Services Prescribed By Her Physician:
A federal district judge ruled on December 9, 2009, in Moore v. Medows, that Georgia’s Medicaid Agency, the Department of Community Health (“DCH”), must provide the nursing services to Callie Moore, a 14-year-old girl from Madison County, that her treating physician prescribed for her. The court rejected the state’s argument that it was the final arbiter of medical necessity and had the discretion to limit treatment to Callie.


Callie has many complex medical conditions that require nursing care. Callie is eligible for Medicaid and receives some Medicaid-funded nursing services in her home. Callie’s treating physician prescribed 94 hours per week of nursing care for her, but DCH would only approve 84 hours of nursing services.

The Georgia Advocacy Office (“GAO”), the designated protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities in Georgia, filed suit on Callie’s behalf in 2007 against Dr. Rhonda Medows, DCH’s Commissioner, to enforce Callie’s right under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment services (“EPSDT”) provisions of the Medicaid Act [42 U.S.C. §1396d(r)]. EPSDT requires states participating in Medicaid to ensure that children under age 21 who are Medicaid-eligible receive all of the health care services and treatments necessary to “correct or ameliorate” any physical or mental illness or condition.

In ruling in Callie’s favor, the court reaffirmed Callie’s right under the EPSDT provision to all necessary care prescribed by her treating physician to treat her many complex conditions. The court ruled the state’s role was limited to reviewing a treating physician’s prescription for “fraud, abuse of the Medicaid system, and whether the prescribed service is within the reasonable standards of medical care.”

The district court had previously held that the state did not have the discretion to deny the nursing services that had been prescribed by Callie’s treating physician. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in an unpublished opinion finding that both the state and the treating physician have roles in determining what is necessary to “correct or ameliorate” a child’s conditions and illnesses, but leaving open the question of what those roles were. The case was then sent back to the district court.

“The court affirmed the basic right of children under the Medicaid Act to all of the care that they need to treat any condition or illness they may have, and clarified the role of the treating physician as the central figure in deciding what care is needed,” said Joshua Norris, GAO’s Director of Legal Advocacy. “The state, by contrast, does not have discretion to deny necessary care to Medicaid-eligible children, and it has a specific, limited role in reviewing the physician’s prescriptions.”

Advocacy Tool Kit

Just in time for the 2010 Legislative session, AADD has published a Tool Kit for Advocates. In it you will find sample letters and tips for engaging your legislators and the media.

Let me know what you think. Please share!

Happy New Year! Rita

Houston County, Georgia Schools Recognized for Special Ed

EDUCATION BRIEFS
From staff reports
The Macon Telegraph/The Sun News
December 23, 2009

WARNER ROBINS — The Georgia Department of Education recently recognized the Houston County school system for its efforts to improve the performance of students with disabilities. It was honored at the Georgia Council for Administrators of Special Education conference in November, according to a news release.

Houston schools were recognized for high performance in achieving a higher percentage of students with regular education diplomas and increasing their percentage of students who meet or exceed state standards for reading and language arts, the news release states.

Houston also was one of 47 systems statewide that met three out of five state targets.

“These districts demonstrate the belief that all children can learn,” Kathy Cox, state superintendent of schools, said in a news release.

Perry FFA takes top state finishes at meat evaluation event

PERRY — Perry High School’s FFA chapter took first and second place finishes at the Georgia State FFA Meats Evaluation Career Development Event, according to a news release.

Perry’s Senior Meats Evaluation team, which included Kaila Ransom, Dereck Pollard, Edward Moore and A.C. Talton, took first place. Ransom was the “High Individual” of the contest, and all team members placed in the top 10, the release states.

Perry’s Junior Meats Evaluation team, including Myles Sowell, Daniel Bergman, Drew Rowell and Michael Herrin, took second place.

“All of the individuals on both teams worked very hard to prepare for the contest,” said Philip Gentry, an FFA adviser. “We are very proud of their accomplishments and look forward to working with them as we prepare for the national contest.”

Houston, Peach graduates earn research apprenticeship

ATHENS — Two University of Georgia students, from Warner Robins and Byron, are among 30 chosen for the 2009-10 Apprentice Program sponsored by the university’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, according to a news release.

The apprentice program gives undergraduate students funded opportunities for research in partnership with faculty.

Vinh Dong, a graduate of Houston County High School, is a freshman majoring in biology and chemistry. Dong is studying the effect of different amino acids on DNA condensation, a process that may be used to treat diseases like cancer, the release states.

Teddy Story, a graduate of Peach County High School, is comparing the effectiveness of different types of teen driver interventions. Story, a sophomore, is majoring in business, according to the release.

Mossy Creek student’s drawing nets third at state

KATHLEEN — A Mossy Creek Middle School student won third place for his grade division in the National School Bus Safety Poster Contest, according to a news release.

Sixth-grader Nicholas Moulder took the award home in the division for sixth- through eighth-graders. He previously won first place at the school system level. For his third-place win, Moulder will receive a $100 savings bond from the National Association for Pupil Transportation, according to the release.

http://www.macon.com/197/story/962062.html

Copyright © 2009The McClatchy Company

No Bond for Driver Who Allegedly Hit Bus on I-85

The 32-year-old Lawrenceville woman charged with felony hit and run and DUI in an Interstate 85 crash that injured 13 developmentally disabled adults and their bus driver made her first court appearance Thursday morning.

By Larry Hartstein
lhartstein@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Gwinnett County magistrate ordered Joy Christine Wilson held without bond at the county jail until a preliminary hearing on Jan. 7.

Witnesses told police Wilson was driving erratically, changing lanes frequently to bypass cars, before causing the 11:45 a.m. wreck Wednesday in the northbound lanes just north of Pleasant Hill Road. Her black 1999 Honda Accord hit the back of a small bus operated by Norcross-based Just People Inc., and the bus lost control, police said. The bus skidded across several lanes and flipped on its side before colliding with the guardrail and righting itself.

The wreck, which shut down I-85 northbound for about three hours, sent three people to the hospital in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Nine others suffered serious injuries and two had minor injuries.

Thursday morning, police said nine people remained at Gwinnett Medical Center: one in critical condition, one in serious condition and seven in good condition. One patient was in stable condition at North Fulton Regional Hospital.

Wilson pulled over briefly following the accident, but left before police arrived, Gwinnett police spokesman Officer Brian Kelly said. An hour later, she was apprehended as she attempted to return to the scene.

A family member convinced her to turn herself in, Kelly said. About the same time, police found her car in an unincorporated area of Lawrenceville.

"Wilson was taken into custody at Satellite and Steve Reynolds boulevards," Kelly said.

According to its Web site, Just People "provides a wide variety of support services to adults with developmental disabilities."

The bus was taking "special-needs individuals to an art class in Hoschton," Kelly said.

The person answering the phone at the Just People office Wednesday afternoon said the agency had no comment on the wreck.

Staff writers Mike Morris and Mashaun D. Simon, and staff photographer Vino Wong contributed to this report

http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/no-bond-for-driver-253917.html

© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

AGING & END OF LIFE WEBINAR SERIES

Sponsored By
AAIDD – AUCD – The Arc of the US - ANCOR – AAIDD Gerontology Division - RRTC on Aging & DD at the University of Illinois at Chicago

No Registration Fees – You Pay Your Ordinary Long Distance Telephone Charges

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/835020752

Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm EST

Moderator: Elizabeth A. Perkins, PhD, President AAIDD Gerontology Division

Topic: DEMENTIA AMONG ADULTS with DOWN SYNDROME: Individual Differences in Risk and Progression

Speaker: Wayne Silverman, PhD., Director of Intellectual Disabilities Research, Department of Behavioral Psychology, Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) and Associate Director of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at KKI and Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Silverman and his colleagues have been studying effects of aging and Alzheimer’s disease on adults with intellectual disability, especially adults with Down syndrome, for over 20 years. Dr. Silverman is an AAIDD Fellow and a past Board member, as well as the immediate past President of The Academy on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Webinar Description: This presentation will provide an overview of currently available information on progression of dementia among adults with Down syndrome. General background material will be presented regarding the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, and findings from a large ongoing research program will be presented with an emphasis on individual differences in age of onset of dementia (i.e., risk) and rate of symptom progression.

Additional findings regarding the effectiveness of “cognitive enhancing” medications will also be discussed, as will evidence supporting possible strategies for delaying declines in cognitive and functional abilities in vulnerable individuals.

Target Audience: Anyone interested in dementia and aging with intellectual disability, but especially anyone interested in planning services for elderly individuals with intellectual disability.

FUTURE WEBINARS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!! 3rd Wednesday of the Month 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST

February 17th, 2010: Principles of Medical Ethics in Health Care Provision
Speaker: Michael Henderson, M.D. University of Rochester, Strong Medical Center
Moderator: Renee Pietrangelo, Executive Director ANCOR

March 17th, 2010: Self Advocates Speak
Speaker: Pending
Moderator: Pending

April 21st, 2010: End of Life through a Cultural Lens
Speaker: Tawara D. Goode, MA, Director, National Center for Cultural Competence and Associate Director, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development; Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

AGING & END OF LIFE WEBINAR SERIES

Sponsored By AAIDD – AUCD – The Arc of the US - ANCOR – AAIDD Gerontology Division - RRTC on Aging & DD at the University of Illinois at Chicago

No Registration Fees – You Pay Your Ordinary Long Distance Telephone Charges

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/835020752

Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm Eastern Time

Moderator: Elizabeth A. Perkins, PhD, President AAIDD Gerontology Division

Topic: DEMENTIA AMONG ADULTS with DOWN SYNDROME: Individual Differences in Risk and Progression

Speaker: Wayne Silverman, PhD., Director of Intellectual Disabilities Research, Department of Behavioral Psychology, Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) and Associate Director of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at KKI and Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Silverman and his colleagues have been studying effects of aging and Alzheimer’s disease on adults with intellectual disability, especially adults with Down syndrome, for over 20 years. Dr. Silverman is an AAIDD Fellow and a past Board member, as well as the immediate past President of The Academy on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Webinar Description: This presentation will provide an overview of currently available information on progression of dementia among adults with Down syndrome. General background material will be presented regarding the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, and findings from a large ongoing research program will be presented with an emphasis on individual differences in age of onset of dementia (i.e., risk) and rate of symptom progression.

Additional findings regarding the effectiveness of “cognitive enhancing” medications will also be discussed, as will evidence supporting possible strategies for delaying declines in cognitive and functional abilities in vulnerable individuals.

Target Audience: Anyone interested in dementia and aging with intellectual disability, but especially anyone interested in planning services for elderly individuals with intellectual disability.

FUTURE WEBINARS - MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!

3rd Wednesday of the Month
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time

February 17th, 2010: Principles of Medical Ethics in Health Care Provision
Speaker: Michael Henderson, M.D. University of Rochester, Strong Medical Center
Moderator: Renee Pietrangelo, Executive Director ANCOR

March 17th, 2010: Self Advocates Speak Speaker: Pending
Moderator: Pending

April 21st, 2010: End of Life through a Cultural Lens
Speaker: Tawara D. Goode, MA, Director, National Center for Cultural Competence and Associate Director, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development; Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center.

Father: Utah Man Who Inspired 'Rain Man' Dies

By DOUG ALDEN
The Associated Press
December 22, 2009

SALT LAKE CITY — The man who inspired the title character in the Oscar-winning movie "Rain Man" has died.

Kim Peek was 58. His father, Fran, says Peek had a major heart attack Saturday morning and was pronounced dead at a hospital in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.

Peek was a savant with a remarkable memory and inspired writer Barry Morrow when he wrote "Rain Man," the 1988 movie that won four Academy Awards.

Fran Peek said his son met Morrow at a convention in the early 1980s and the writer was taken with Peek's knack for retaining everything he heard. Morrow wrote the script, and the movie went on to win Oscars for best film and best actor for Dustin Hoffman, whose repetitive rants about being an excellent driver and the "People's Court" about to start were a hit with moviegoers.

Although the character was technically fictional, Fran Peek said his son was every bit as amazing as Hoffman's portrayal of him. And Kim's true character showed when he toured the world, helping dispel misconceptions about mental disabilities.

"It was just unbelievable, all the things that he knew," Fran Peek said Monday. "He traveled 5,500 miles short of 3 million air miles and talked to nearly 60 million people — half have been students."

In his later years, Peek was classified as a "mega-savant" who was a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. But his motor skills were limited; he couldn't perform some simple tasks like dressing himself.

NASA scientists had been studying Peek, hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain would help explain his mental capabilities.

Fran Peek says the funeral will be next Tuesday in Taylorsville. Details were pending.
___

http://www.ajc.com/

http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-movies/father-utah-man-who-251022.html?cxntlid=thbz_hm © 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Copyright 2009, The Associated Press.

Democrats Face Challenge in Merging Health Bills

By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
New York Times
December 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — Even as the Senate took a significant step toward passing its version of a sweeping overhaul of the health insurance system before Christmas, Democrats were grappling Monday with deep internal divisions over abortion, the issue that most complicates their drive to merge the Senate and House bills and send final legislation to President Obama.

Senate Democratic leaders and the president of the American Medical Association heading on Monday to a press conference where they said the group had endorsed the Senate health plan.

In the House, advocates and opponents of abortion rights and conservative Democrats have made clear that they object, for different reasons, to the Senate’s compromise language on abortion. Interest groups on both sides of the spectrum — Planned Parenthood on the abortion rights side, Catholic bishops for the anti-abortion rights camp — also oppose the abortion provision in the Senate bill, leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a challenge in rounding up the votes she needs in the House.

Ms. Pelosi’s room for maneuvering is limited because any changes to the language in the Senate bill could unravel the deal that provided Democrats with the 60 votes they need to get the legislation through the Senate.

Ms. Pelosi, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the White House will have to find a way forward on abortion even as they confront other big differences between the House and Senate bills, including how to pay to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans and whether to include a government-run plan to compete with private insurers.

The Senate bill cleared a major hurdle early Monday, when the Senate voted 60 to 40, along party lines, to limit debate on the guts of its measure. Two more votes are set for Tuesday. Calling it a “historic vote,” Mr. Obama said, “The United States Senate knocked down a filibuster aimed at blocking a final vote on health care reform, and scored a big victory for the American people.”

Senate Democrats got another lift on Monday when the American Medical Association endorsed their legislation, which embodies Mr. Obama’s top domestic priority.

“Of all the organizations and individuals that have supported this bill, I rate this one as the most important,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and a co-author of the bill.

Jubilant and exhausted after winning the 1 a.m. test vote, Democrats on Monday were already thinking ahead to the next stage of the legislative process. The Senate and the House will try to hash out their differences, with members of the House under intense pressure to accommodate the tenuous deals in the Senate despite their ideological qualms. And no issue is shaping up to be more complex than abortion.

Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and the author of the anti-abortion provisions in the House bill, said Monday, “It would be extremely difficult for me to vote for a bill” taking the Senate approach on abortion.

The House, more liberal than the Senate on many issues, would impose more stringent restrictions, barring coverage of abortion by any health plan bought even partly with federal subsidies.

Under the bill that is likely to be approved this week by the Senate, health plans could cover abortion. But people who enroll in such plans would have to write two premium checks, one for abortion coverage and one for everything else. Insurers would have to keep separate accounts, and state officials would police the “segregation of funds.”

Douglas D. Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, said it was difficult to envision a compromise because “people opposed to abortion see it as the taking of innocent human life.”

Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, said Monday that the compromise she struck last week with Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, offered a potential road map for successful negotiations on the issue with the House.

In an interview, Mrs. Boxer said the Senate bill created “a firm wall” that would prevent the use of federal money to pay for insurance coverage of abortions, meeting a demand of opponents of abortion rights, while allowing women to use their own money to buy health plans that cover the procedure.

“When you have both extremes saying they’re unhappy, I think it’s a fair compromise,” Mrs. Boxer said. “Because we have this compromise that’s being attacked on either side, I think that gives us momentum going into the final conference.”

Sixty-four House Democrats, representing one-fourth of the House Democratic caucus, voted for stringent restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion. And 41 of them voted for passage of the House bill, so they constitute a crucial bloc. The bill was approved, 220 to 215, on Nov. 7.

But leading supporters of abortion rights in the House said they would not vote for a final bill if it included those restrictions, which they fear would curtail access to abortion for many women who already have insurance.

The House bill would establish a tax surcharge on income over $500,000 for individuals and over $1 million for couples. The Senate bill would tax high-cost employer-sponsored health plans and increase the Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.

Lawmakers said they could envision a compromise mixing the two approaches.

More than 190 House members have gone on record against the Senate’s proposed excise tax on “Cadillac health plans,” which is also opposed by organized labor. But the White House and some health economists say the tax could help control health costs by encouraging employers to shop for cheaper policies that would not be hit by the tax.

It is unclear whether the House and the Senate will appoint a formal conference committee or just try to work out their differences in negotiations with Democratic leaders and committee chairmen from the two chambers. In any event, White House officials expect to play a huge role.

The Senate may have the upper hand in negotiations on a government health plan, championed by liberal Democrats.

Senate Democratic leaders dropped the public option after concluding they could not get 60 votes for it. Their bill calls instead for two or more nationwide health plans, to be offered by private insurers under contracts negotiated with the federal Office of Personnel Management.

Ronald F. Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that works closely with the White House, said Monday: “I think we will not have a public option in the final bill. It would be close to impossible to pass it in the Senate.”

On this, as on several other issues, Mr. Pollack said, “the Senate has somewhat greater leverage than the House” because Senate Democrats need 60 votes, the exact number in their caucus, to overcome Republican opposition.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said, “There is a natural tendency to split the difference between the Senate and the House.” But on major issues in the health bill, Mr. Lieberman said, “splitting the difference means you won’t have 60 votes in the Senate.”

In the eyes of consumers and voters, the success of the legislation will hinge, to a large degree, on whether it makes insurance more affordable. One of the most important issues for House and Senate negotiators is how to aid low- and middle- income people.

The House would expand Medicaid to cover people with incomes less than 150 percent of the poverty level ($33,075 for a family of four). The Senate would expand eligibility to 133 percent of the poverty level ($29,327 for a family of four). Many advocates for low-income people prefer the House approach.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/health/policy/22health.html?_r=1&hp

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Statement of Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding the Senate Health Care Bill


STATE OF GEORGIA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Sonny Perdue
GOVERNOR

For Immediate Release Contacts: Office of Communications
Monday, December 21, 2009 (404) 651-7774

Statement of Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding the Senate
Health Care Bill

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue issued the following statement today regarding the latest version of the U.S. Senate’s health care reform legislation.

“I am utterly dismayed and disappointed by the vote buying that has occurred in the United States Senate in order to pass a measure that most citizens are against. If this reform was truly the right policy for our country, we wouldn’t see waffling Senators lining up like game show contestants hoping to win today’s jackpot of a special deal from Harry Reid. This bill places an unsustainable burden on the backs of Georgia’s taxpayers, and will lead to either higher state taxes or massive cuts to basic state services in years to come. I join Governors from around the country of both parties in asking our Representatives and Senators to listen to the public outrage against this bill and stop this mistake before it occurs.”

###

Monday, December 21, 2009

Republicans Back Ralston for Speaker

By Aaron Gould Sheinin
December 18, 2009

COMING SUNDAY: The AJC takes a closer look at Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), who was selected by Georgia’s Republican lawmakers to be the next Speaker of the House.

It took 13 months longer than he originally planned, but Rep. David Ralston won a key vote Thursday to become the next speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Ralston, 55, the gregarious lawyer from the North Georgia mountain town of Blue Ridge, defeated Ways and Means chairman Larry O'Neal of Bonaire and Higher Education chairman Bill Hembree of Winston to become the House Republican caucus' nominee to be speaker. Ralston will stand as the GOP nominee when formal elections are held after lawmakers return for the 2010 session on Jan. 11. Because Republicans hold a 105-74 margin over the Democrats, his ascension to the speaker's podium is all but assured.

The vote, Ralston said afterward, tells Georgians that the House is "ready to change and make the changes necessary. It's not business as usual anymore, and I think people are going to like that."

Ralston will become the second Republican speaker since Reconstruction and his election came on a poignant day in the history of the office. Not only was it the day current Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said goodbye to the chamber he led for five years before being forced to resign in disgrace, but it was also the second anniversary of the death of legendary Speaker Tom Murphy (D-Bremen), who led the House for parts of four decades.

Ralston's election followed more than a month of scandal that began with Richardson's admission that he tried to take his own life on Nov. 8. Richardson, and the caucus, seemed to rebound from that stunning revelation until Richardson's ex-wife gave a devastating television interview in which she revealed that Richardson had had an affair with an Atlanta Gas Light lobbyist while he was championing legislation that would benefit the utility.

From that, there was no coming back for Richardson.

But Ralston proved Thursday that there are comebacks in politics. Just more than a year ago Ralston ran for speaker at the height of Richardson's power because he said it was time for a different direction and a different tone in the House. Ralston lost that bid and as a result lost his chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee.

Ralston referenced that failed bid in his speech to the caucus before the vote.

"The need now for that change is beyond debate because this House cannot afford business as usual anymore," he said.

And this time, the outcome was different, although it was close. While caucus chairwoman Rep. Donna Sheldon (R-Dacula) refused to release the actual result of the vote, it took two ballots for Ralston to gain a majority. Hembree was eliminated after the first round and Ralston ousted

O'Neal on the second ballot. One lawmaker in the chamber said the vote was 55-48 for Ralston, but that could not be confirmed.

In a final message from the floor of the House, Ralston beseeched his colleagues to walk out the door and return in January united.

"We have had a tough few weeks," he said. "When we walk out of here I want us to walk out committed to our family. The family's been battered up a little bit."

But he also warned his colleagues to end the rumor-mongering and personal attacks that have filled the void between Richardson's resignation and his election.

"I will put up with a lot. ... But I will not put up with and you need to know this probably today, because I'm not the speaker yet -- I will not put with backbiting and bickering and this intra-family tensions very long. Now, I hope I'm clear. That will destroy all the good work that has brought us to this point."

His colleagues largely praised his nomination.

"Speaker Ralston is going to have a clear mandate from this caucus," said Rep. Michael Harden (R-Toccoa).

That good will extended to Hembree, who said he promised to support Ralston after falling out of the race after the first ballot.

"The House caucus has turned in a new direction," he said. "His campaign was focused on change, my campaign was focused on change, and that's what brought it together today. We're ready to go and do the right things for Georgia."

O'Neal left without speaking to reporters.

While his GOP colleagues worked to turn the conversation forward, Georgia Democrats were sure to remind everyone of Ralston's past tax troubles.

"Republicans have shown the taxpayers that for all their talk of ethics, the House Republican Caucus is only interested in preserving the status quo," Georgia Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd said in a statement.

Ralston repaid more than $400,000 in back taxes and penalties and fees covering 10 years in 2006. He said that the tax problems were caused by an employee of his law firm who embezzled money. Ralston said the employee was eventually prosecuted for the crime.

"This is just more of the same from Georgia Republicans," Kidd said. "It shows their dedication not to reform, but to sweeping their ethical problems under the rug and moving ahead with their dangerous special-interest agenda."

Also Thursday, Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) was chosen as the GOP nominee for speaker pro tem. If elected by the full House, she was replace Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek), who will serve as speaker from the time Richardson resigns Jan. 1 until the official elections are held after Jan. 11. Burkhalter chose not to run for speaker or for re-election as pro tem because he is in the running to become the executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center.

Burkhalter said Thursday he will resign from the General Assembly if he lands the World Congress Center job.

Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta) was also elected as majority whip, a position that Jones vacated to run for speaker pro tem.

Ralston is known as good-natured and possesses a good sense of humor. Although he represents conservative North Georgia he could be considered a moderate in the Republican caucus on social issues.

He said his first piece of businesses will be to focus on the state budget, which remains in crisis.

Ralston inherits a budgetary nightmare and lawmakers will be forced to cut an additional $1.3 billion from the current year's budget as soon as they return in January. The budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 will likely be even more austere.

Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this report.

AP Mobile. © 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Legislature to Focus on Ethics in 2010

By Cameron McWhirter
December 19, 2009

On the first day of the 2010 Legislative session, expect the state Capitol’s basket for incoming legislation to be piled high with new ethics reform bills. Some have already been filed.

Nothing spurs reform like scandal, and the Georgia House had just had a whopper - the career immolation of Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram).

Now, the crowd under the Gold Dome has taken a sudden interest in tightening rules.

“It has suddenly become very fashionable to talk ethics,” said David Ralston, the Republican caucus’ choice for new speaker.

He said he is looking for “real change” and would like to see a reform package, not just one bill.
Ralston said he has been flooded with ideas in recent days and expects a package of reforms to come out of the session. He wants to see limits on spending by lobbyists on travel and gifts for legislators. To set a positive tone, he said, he would ban candy and flowers from being delivered to the speaker’s office and no lobbyists will be allowed into the speaker’s office without an appointment.

He said also wants the Legislature to look at rules and laws so “you behave the way your mama would want you to behave.”

Joe Wilkinson (R-Sandy Springs), who heads the House Ethics Committee, said he’s ready.

“The [House] Ethics Committee is prepared to act immediately on any and all legislation,” he said.

Some changes being considered include:

- Severe limits on how much lobbyists can spend on gifts, food and trips for legislators. Georgia is one of only 11 states that have no limits, but such expenses must be reported. Limit proposals have ranged from $100 per event to no more than a cup of coffee.
- Permanent funding and an expansion of powers for the State Ethics Commission. Currently the watchdog panel must seek funding annually from the very body it is supposed to watch. And its role is limited mostly to responding to complaints and collecting disclosures. It does no auditing. Rick Thompson, the former executive secretary of the Ethics Commission who now runs an ethics compliance consulting business, said Georgia needs an ethics czar with more authority and more money.
- Expanding the state’s Open Records Act to include the Legislature. Currently, the House and Senate are exempt from the act so all correspondence and other records involving legislators is kept private.
- Imposing a period that departing legislators would have to wait before they could start lobbying.

Ralston said there used to be great resistance to such ideas from the House leadership.
“That’s all changed,” he said.

Ethics advocates are as excited as they have been in years that they can pass tough new rules.

“There is an opportunity for real change,” said Rep. Wendell K. Willard (R-Sandy Springs), chair of the House judiciary committee, who is revising his own ethics legislation to submit when the Legislature returns on Jan. 11.

Willard submitted a bill last year that would limit to $100 the amount lobbyists could pay for legislators when taking them out to dinner or to an event. Willard said few legislators were interested in his bill.

“It was dead on arrival,” he admitted.

He planned to resubmit it this year anyway– but he wasn’t hopeful. Then the Richardson imbroglio hit, and “lo and behold, all these things started to unfold,” he said.

But it’s a long and circuitous road from a bill’s introduction to the governor’s desk. Any such legislation will have to pass through committee rooms and hallways peopled by lobbyists and legislators less than eager for more scrutiny and restriction. It’s like sending Little Red Riding Hood through the forest to Grandma’s house. More than likely, she’ll run into at least one wolf.

Richardson probably would have blocked ethics legislation if he was still speaker. He was generally hostile to new ethics rules, open records or expanding public meeting laws. Ironically, he now has become the chief reason why such legislation has a good chance of passage.

When his personal problems exploded this fall, they exposed an unseemly world where powerful legislators carry on close relationships with lobbyists outside public scrutiny.

Richardson announced in November that he had attempted suicide because he was depressed over his failed marriage. He said he was recovering and planned to carry on as speaker. But then this month, Richardson’s ex-wife went on television and said he had an affair with the lobbyist for a company seeking passage of a particular bill. Richardson was a co-sponsor of the bill. Richardson’s ex-wife also accused him of threatening to use state agencies to harass her.

Richardson announced his resignation within days of the television broadcast.

Ralston said none of the legislation being considered now would deal directly with Richardson’s situation. If the allegations are true, what Richardson already violated ethics rules, he said.

“You can’t legislate good behavior,” Ralston said. “You can’t legislate common sense.”
Ralston said however, that the atmosphere at the Capitol in recent years led to a loosening of standards, and that atmosphere has to change.

“We definitely got off track, big time,” said Rep. Tommy Smith (R-Nicholls), who made a bid to be the next speaker but then dropped out before the vote.

Smith, who has been in the House for more than 30 years, said the Legislature needs to be more transparent in how it conducts business. He said the Legislature needs to consider including itself in the Open Records Act and other changes.

The Democratic minority in the House has already dusted of some of their bills and filed them for the new session. Their proposals include:
- No gifts for legislators of more than $25.
- Lower contribution limits for campaigns.
- Granting authority for the state ethics commission to investigate conflict of interests allegations.
-Adding an abuse-of-power clause to state ethics rules.

As the minority party, the Democrats are unlikely to drive any ethics reform this session. And Republicans are quick to point out that many of these ethics changes could have been made years ago when the Democrats controlled both houses and the governor’s office.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has pushed ethics reform in past years, may submit new legislation this year or he may let the Legislature produce its own, said spokesman Bert Brantley.

University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock, an expert on Georgia and Southern politics, said ethics legislation is a good thing to pass in this tight budget year because for the most part, “it doesn’t cost you anything.”

He said historically scandal has always been followed by reform. ?“It takes a scandal to get legislators to embrace this,” he said. “If there isn’t a scandal, they figure nobody’s looking.”
Thompson, the former Ethics Commission chief, said the overall goal should be absolute transparency, so voters can see how the people’s business is being conducted.
“No cloud, no fog,” he said.

While ethics changes are being bandied about, some urged caution. Stefan Passantino, an attorney at McKenna, Long & Aldridge who specializes in representing clients on ethics issues, said he thinks more transparency would be good, but he worries about too many rules burdening well-meaning legislators and lobbyists while not really stopping people from acting inappropriately.

“The wrong new rules won’t stop bad behaviors. It’s more likely to be a pitfall for those already trying to follow the rules.”

What actually happens in the coming months to change the legislator-lobbyist relationship from a last call slow dance to a ballroom waltz is anybody’s guess. But some kind of change is likely.
Ralston, who ran in 2008 against Richardson for speaker and lost his committee chairmanship as a result, said the scandal has shocked many voters, who want substantive reform.

“Georgians don’t want us to do this in a hasty way,” he said. “But they do want us to do it.”

Staff writer Aaron Gould Shienin contributed to this report.

AP Mobile. © 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Senate Democrats Clear Hurdle on Health Care Bill

by ERICA WERNER, With The Associated Press
Guest Writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats won a crucial test vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, putting them on track for passage before Christmas of the historic legislation to remake the nation's medical system and cover 30 million uninsured.

All 58 Democrats and the Senate's two independents held together early Monday against unanimous Republican opposition, providing the exact 60-40 margin needed to shut down a threatened GOP filibuster.

The vote came shortly after 1 a.m. with the nation's capital blanketed in snow, the unusual timing made necessary in order to get to a final vote by Christmas Eve presuming Republicans stretch out the debate as much as the rules allow. Despite the late hour and a harshly partisan atmosphere, Democrats' spirits were high.

"Today we are closer than we've ever been to making Sen. Ted Kennedy's dream of universal health insurance coverage a reality," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said ahead of the vote, alluding to the late Massachusetts senator who died of brain cancer in August.

"Vote your hopes, not your fears. Seize the moment," Harkin urged colleagues.
Kennedy's widow, Vicki, watched the vote from the visitor's gallery along with administration officials who have worked intensely on the issue. Senators cast their votes from their desks, a practice reserved for issues of particular importance.

The outcome was preordained after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrangled his fractious caucus into line over the course of the past several months, culminating in a frenzy of last-minute deals and concessions to win over the final holdouts, independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and conservative Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Obama's oft-stated goal of a bipartisan health bill was not met, despite the president's extensive courtship of moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the only Republican to support the bill in committee. Obama called Snowe to the White House for lengthy in-person meetings both before he left for climate talks in Copenhagen and after his return on Saturday. In the end Snowe said she was "extremely disappointed" in what she called a rushed process that left scant time for her to review, much less amend, the bill.

Even so, the vote represented a major victory for Democrats and Obama, who's now clearly in reach of passing legislation extending health coverage to nearly all Americans, a goal that's eluded a succession of past presidents. The legislation would make health insurance mandatory for the first time for nearly everyone, provide subsidies to help lower-income people buy it, and induce employers to provide it with tax breaks for small businesses and penalties for larger ones.

Two more procedural votes await the Senate, each requiring 60 votes, the first of these set for Tuesday morning. Final passage of the bill requires a simple majority, and that vote could come as late as 7 p.m. on Thursday, Christmas Eve, or the day before if Republicans agree.

Although Democrats are expected to prevail in the votes over the next several days, the final outcome remains unpredictable, because the Senate measure must be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House in November before final legislation can be sent to Obama's desk.

There are significant differences between the two measures, including stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that's missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-value insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats.

After Monday's vote a number of Senate Democrats warned that the legislation could not change much and expect to maintain support from 60 senators. House Democrats are sure to want to alter it but may have to swallow it mostly whole.

"It took a lot of work to bring this 60 together and this 60 is delicately balanced," Lieberman said.

Republicans are determined to give Democrats no help, eager to deny Obama a political victory and speculating openly that the health care issue will hurt Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.

"There will be a day of accounting," warned John Cornyn, R-Texas, accusing Democrats of pushing a health overhaul opposed by the public. "Perhaps the first day of accounting will be Election Day 2010."

At their core the bills passed by the House and pending in the Senate are similar. Each costs around $1 trillion over 10 years and is paid for by a combination of tax and fee increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending. Each sets up new insurance marketplaces called exchanges where uninsured or self-employed people and small businesses can compare prices and plans designed to meet some basic requirements. Unpopular insurance practices such as denying people coverage based on pre-existing conditions would be banned, and young adults could retain coverage longer under their parents' insurance plans — through age 25 in the Senate bill and through age 26 in the House version.

Reid cut numerous last-minute deals to get the votes he needed and powerful Democrats also inserted home-state provisions in a 383-page package of amendments Reid filed this weekend to the 2,074-page bill.

Among other items, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., included a provision allowing residents of the town of Libby, Mont., who are suffering asbestos-related illnesses from a mining operation to get Medicare benefits. Nelson won a list of benefits for Nebraska including a commitment for the federal government to pick up the full tab of an expansion of Medicaid. And Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election, inserted a $100 million item for construction of a university hospital that his spokesman said he hopes to claim for the University of Connecticut.

AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.ajc.com/business/senate-democrats-clear-hurdle-248465.html

Thursday, December 17, 2009

2009 Special Needs Winter Break Camp at The Elaine Clark Center

The Elaine Clark Center is offering a unique opportunity for children with special needs, ages 6 to 22, to enjoy a full day of activities, therapeutic recreation and social interactions!

December 21st - 23rd AND December 28th – December 31st

7:30am until 6:00pm

(closed December 24th & 25th and January 1st )

Fee: $40/day (*plus a $50 registration fee if applicable)

The Elaine Clark Center is offering a unique opportunity for children with special needs, ages 6 to 22, to enjoy a full day of activities, therapeutic recreation and social interactions, including:
· Structured art projects
· Story time
· Walking group
· Outdoor recreation
· Indoor sensory gym
· Social games
· and more

All activities are adapted for age appropriateness and disability inclusion.


We are currently accepting applications for enrollments through Friday, December 18, 2009.

Upon acceptance of your application, a pre-enrollment visit may be necessary to ensure your child’s success in our program.


(We will consider late registrations based on space availability.)

For more information, contact Shon Jackson at 770-458-3251 or
shon@heartofhopeacademy.org


*The Registration Fee is a processing fee that covers a child’s enrollment in any program at The Elaine Clark Center for the entire year.

M.T.A. Proposes Severe Service Cuts; 2 Subway Lines May Be Eliminated

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Longer waits on subway platforms. More crowded buses and trains. No more discounts for New York City students.

One way or another, nearly every bus, subway and commuter train rider will be affected by the newly austere budget released on Monday by the beleaguered Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is struggling to address a sudden and unexpected financial shortfall of nearly $400 million.

Starting mid-year, fewer subway trains would run in the middle of the day, late at night and on weekends. Two lines, the W and Z, would stop running altogether, and service on the M and G lines would be reduced. Several stations in Lower Manhattan would be closed overnight, and dozens of bus lines throughout the boroughs would see a reduction or elimination in service.Next year’s shortfall for the agency came out to $383 million, after sharp drops in state funding and tax revenues. The problems were compounded last week when a State Supreme Court judge upheld an arbitration ruling awarding 11.5 percent raises to transit workers over the next three years.

The $383 million shortfall is slightly less pessimistic than initially thought. A spokesman for the authority, Jeremy Soffin, said on Monday that revenue from a state payroll tax is now projected to fall $100 million below estimates; the state had predicted a $200 million shortfall.

The budget plan, which does not include a fare increase for 2010, was approved by the authority’s Finance Committee on Monday; it will go before the full board on Wednesday.

Under the plan, hundreds of thousands of students who currently receive free or discounted fares on the city’s transit system will lose half of their discount in September 2010, with the rest swept away by September 2011. Costs for the student-discount program were once split among the state, city and transportation authority, but contributions from Albany and City Hall have flatlined since the mid-1990s.

Handicapped riders who are now picked up at home and driven to destinations throughout the city would no longer be able to use the so-called door-to-door service under the plan. Instead, the authority would transport disabled riders to handicapped-accessible subway and bus stops, which is the minimum service required by federal law.

Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, sharply denounced the cuts to student discounts. “The fact that you would jeopardize free MetroCards for children to go to school, and put their parents in harm’s way, is something so inexcusable, I had to come here today and tell you, just stop,” Mr. Stringer said in an angry speech before the committee meeting.

And Gene Russianoff, the longtime riders’ advocate, told the authority’s board members that they would lose credibility with the riding public if the cuts were approved. “Riders have every reason to be as mad as hell,” he said.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/mta-proposes-severe-service-cuts-2-subway-lines-may-be-eliminated/?scp=1&sq=MTA%20&%20Disabilities&st=cse

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Frugal, But With Plenty to Give

By MATT GROSS
New York Times
December 16, 2009

Even in a Dantean hellscape as nightmarish as Kennedy Airport, the Delta arrivals area is an inferno unto itself. With six zones — some international, some domestic — spread across two low-ceilinged, ill-lighted terminals whose depths often block cellphone signals, travelers require a virtual Ph.D. in urban spelunking to navigate. And that’s if you’re a New Yorker.

If you’ve come from Miami, Madrid or Moscow, and perhaps speak less than fluent English, the arrivals areas can be as opaque as a graffiti-scarred cinderblock wall. How do I get into the city?

Where’s my luggage? Where’s the bathroom? Where’s my daughter? The answers to these questions can flummox even the savviest travelers.

But answers are available. In Arrivals Area B, sandwiched between a Travelex currency-exchange booth and a newsstand, is an information desk staffed by volunteers from Travelers Aid International, a more-than-150-year-old organization devoted to helping the lost and the confused, the stranded and the desperate, with locations at 36 airports and bus stations in the United States, Canada and Australia. Wearing their trademark bright blue blazers, these volunteers hand out maps, track down flight information and generally point people in the right direction. And on occasion, they handle more serious issues — people struggling to rebook missed flights or understand immigration requirements, people who need short-term lodging but have no money, people fleeing precarious domestic situations.

And as of this month, “they” includes me, the Frugal Traveler. In an effort to repay the unearned kindnesses I’ve received from so many strangers over the years — and to show a little selflessness during the holiday season — I’ve begun volunteering with Travelers Aid, devoting approximately four hours a week to directing the aimless and calming down the overstressed. I’m just one of 95 volunteers stationed throughout Kennedy Airport, from the easy-to-find desk at American’s Terminal 8 to the post-security labyrinth of gates at Terminal 4, where the profusion of international airlines is guaranteed to confound.

My stint began in Delta’s bowels just after noon one recent Saturday. Led there by Jane Mrosko, a petite blond Iowan who is Travelers Aid’s JFK program director, I settled into a ringlike information station that looked left over from a 1980s sci-fi movie set. At our half of the station (the other was occupied by the people who book the SuperShuttle car service), the computers didn’t work, meaning we couldn’t track flights, and indeed one monitor had been replaced by a sheet of plywood.

Clearly, money is an issue for Travelers Aid, as it is for every travel-related business and organization these days. Should Delta fix up the information station? Or the Port Authority, which actually finances Travelers Aid at Kennedy? And if there was extra money, whether from the authority or from donations, is fixing a single computer the smartest use of it? Ideally, Ms. Mrosko would like to expand the group’s hours beyond its usual 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

All this murkiness seemed to highlight Travelers Aid’s odd status at the airport. Though its volunteers are trained and security-screened like everyone else, I heard rumblings about occasional friction between volunteers and certain airlines, turf battles that suggested there might be something somehow un-New Yorky about an organization devoted to helping travelers get their bearings.

Not that that was the friction I should really be worried about, according to June, one of the SuperShuttle bookers. “If you can handle people coming up and viciously attacking you, you’ll be fine,” she joked. Remembering some of the comments posted on my blog over the years, I figured I’d be O.K.

And, mostly, I was. For the next four hours, I sent people to the ATM (just around the corner to the left), the bathrooms (women to the left, men to the right) and the AirTrain (outside to the left, and up what looks like a highway on-ramp). If you had come to meet someone arriving from Tokyo, I’d have sent you to Arrivals Area A, and if you were looking for C6, where the flight from Trinidad was landing, I’d direct you to Area C, never mind the number. If you wanted the Athens flight, however, I’d point you to Terminal 4, the next one over. Sorry!

Primarily, I helped people figure out how to get away from the airport, an intricate calculus that depended on budget, age, time constraints, energy level, number of passengers and overall travel savvy. But once in a while, the requests were more complicated. A middle-aged Asian woman silently held up an English-language e-mail printout asking for directions; I spotted Chinese characters on it and asked her, in my dodgy Mandarin, “You’re Chinese, right?” A little stunned, she said yes. Then I called over my colleague Tsai-Shen Yang, a Taiwanese-born aviation aficionado who’s been volunteering with Travelers Aid for a year, to help her properly.

I never had to deal with anything major, but after all, it was only my first day. There’s still time. Volunteering with Travelers Aid (or donating to it) is not the only way frugal-minded travelers can give back this holiday season. There are several travel-related charities and nonprofits that can use some help, no matter how little you can afford to give.

Chief among them is Passports With Purpose, a two-year-old organization raising money to build, outfit and support a school in rural Cambodia. Sounds like a lot of other charities, right? Well, Passports With Purpose is doing things slightly differently: giving prizes to donors. Each prize — to be given at random to a donor — is offered through a particular travel blogger, who has requested the goodie from a sponsor or advertiser. Tim Leffel at the Cheapest Destinations Blog, for example, has sunglasses from Tifosi Optics on offer, while HeatherOnHerTravels.com has a Flip Ultra videocamera. CiaoBambino.com even has a five-night stay at the Los Sueños Resort in Costa Rica.

The best part is that getting a chance to win one of these prizes — and, you know, helping Cambodian kids eat fresh vegetables, drink clean water and get an education — costs very little. Passports With Purpose is raising all its money (goal: $26,000, to be given to American Assistance for Cambodia) through donations in increments of just $10. When was the last time you spent $10 for a night at the Four Seasons in Seattle (the prize sponsored by DeliciousBaby.com) and didn’t have to feel guilty about it?

If you’ve been following the Frugal Traveler for any length of time, you know I have an abiding interest in travel footwear. Which makes Friends of Toms a natural choice for a frugally focused charity. The nonprofit was founded in 2006 to let volunteers participate in overseas donations organized by Toms Shoes, the footwear company that gives away a pair of children’s shoes for every pair it sells. Friends of Toms has logged 22 shoe drops so far, to places like Argentina and South Africa, and while volunteers typically spent about $2,500 of their own money for its eight-day Argentina trip, the organization has a budding scholarship program that accepts donations to sponsor participants.

Finally, there’s Wilderness Inquiry, a 31-year-old nonprofit based in Minneapolis, whose mission is to make outdoor adventures like kayaking and camping “accessible to everyone.” That is, not just to the young and able-bodied but to people with various disabilities, from the wheelchair-bound to those with cognitive impairments, and to financially challenged urban youth and families. A financial-aid program eases the strain for participants, and since some of the small trips — say, three days of canoeing in state parks — cost as little as $80, a donation of even $50 goes a long way. If you don’t have $50 to give, that’s O.K. — Wilderness Inquiry accepts used outdoor gear, too, everything from tents and kayaks to fishing gear and hiking shoes. Now, let’s see, I’m sure I have an extra backpack or three around here somewhere …

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/frugal-but-with-plenty-to-give/
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Long-Term Care Stirs Health Care Debate

By ROBERT PEAR
The New York Times
December 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — Embedded in sweeping health legislation passed by the House and being debated on the Senate floor is a major new federal insurance program for long-term care intended to help people like Anne M. Rader.

Skip to next paragraph Ms. Rader, 45, works at Booz Allen Hamilton as a consultant to federal agencies on emergency preparedness. Even though she has cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis, she leads a full, active life. But she worries that she will lose her independence if her conditions grow worse.

“Having two disabilities, two disabling conditions, I can’t predict what will happen in the future,” said Ms. Rader, who lives alone in a condominium in Arlington, Va.

Advocates for older Americans and people with disabilities see the program as a long-overdue effort to address needs that will explode as baby boomers age. It is meant for people with severe disabilities who want to live in the community, though the benefits could also be used to help pay for nursing home care or assisted living.

But critics say that the program is unsustainable and that it could ultimately create serious fiscal problems for the government.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, drafted the proposal several years before he died. Barack Obama, as a senator from Illinois, was a co-sponsor. Now, as president, Mr. Obama wants Congress to include it in the health care bill.

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the health committee, said: “This is the next logical step after the Americans With Disabilities Act. It will provide people with security and peace of mind. They won’t have to go to a nursing home or an institution if they become disabled through an accident or an illness.”

The bill would provide cash benefits if a person had a substantial cognitive impairment or was unable to perform two or three “activities of daily living,” like eating, bathing or dressing. The program would be financed with premiums paid by participants, through voluntary payroll deductions, with no federal subsidy. People could qualify for lifetime benefits if they became disabled after paying premiums for at least five years and working for three of those years.

The Congressional Budget Office assumes that premiums would be $123 a month for benefits expected to average $75 a day, or about $27,000 a year. The amount of benefits would vary, depending on the degree of a person’s disability. The secretary of health and human services could increase premiums to ensure “the financial solvency” of the program over 75 years.

The Senate bill says, “No taxpayer funds shall be used for payment of benefits.”

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, said the benefits would allow people with disabilities to “live out their lives with decency and dignity.”

“What’s the alternative?” Mr. Dodd asked. “Getting rid of all your assets, impoverishing yourself, relying on your family or friends to take care of you in order to try to survive.”

But Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats said they feared that the government would eventually have to bail out the program because it would prove unsustainable.

“It would create a huge new liability down the road,” said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota.

Paradoxically, the proposed new program accounts for more than half of the bills’ deficit reduction in the first 10 years — because the government would pay out far less in benefits than it would collect in premiums. But costs would grow later.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the long-term-care insurance program in the Senate bill would reduce federal budget deficits by $72 billion from 2010 to 2019. For the House bill, the comparable figure is $102 billion.

On Dec. 4, the Senate voted 51 to 47 to strip the program from the bill. The Senate had previously agreed to set a 60-vote threshold, so the effort failed, and the program remains in the bill. But it could become a bargaining chip in negotiations over the measure.

The effort to eliminate the program won support from 11 Democrats, including the chairman of the Finance Committee, Max Baucus of Montana, and the chairman of the Budget Committee, Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

Six of those Democrats said the program “would not be fiscally responsible.” The bill would “create a new federal entitlement program with large, long-term spending increases that far exceed revenues,” they said in a letter to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

Richard S. Foster, chief actuary at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has expressed a similar concern.

“There is a very serious risk that the program would become unsustainable,” Mr. Foster said, because people who have or anticipate health problems would be more likely to sign up than people in better-than-average health.

Some companies that sell long-term-care insurance are lobbying against the proposal, known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or Class Act.

One big insurer, Genworth Financial, said the program “would give individuals a false sense of security” and could discourage them from buying private insurance to cover the costs of long-term care.

“A government-run program that covers only a small fraction of Americans’ total long-term-care needs will mislead the general public and make it even harder for agents and advisers to encourage their clients to plan for this important retirement protection,” Genworth says on a website for its employees and agents.

Supporters of the program say it will help not only people with disabilities, but also those who care for them as well.

Carolyn A. Martin, 85, has a touch of dementia, kidney problems and severe arthritis. She cannot prepare meals, wash her clothes or bathe herself, and she often has trouble getting out of bed.

She lives in Columbia, Md., with her daughter, Alma M. Gill, who cares for her while holding a full-time job at a nonprofit organization.

“If I had someone to care for my mother four hours a day, it would change her life, and mine,” Ms. Gill said. “I feel guilty about leaving her alone when I go to work. If something were to happen to her, it would be my fault.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/health/policy/14care.html?scp=6&sq=DISABILITIES&st=Search

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Disabled Adults Find A Way To Give Back

By Jeff Gill
The Times
Gainesville, GA
Dec. 1, 2009

OAKWOOD — A movie about children collecting their pennies for a good cause inspired one group of developmentally disabled adults to engage in volunteer efforts of their own.

The result was the creation of Partners Who Care," made up of participants at Enhanced Life Services, a nonprofit residential and day program based in Oakwood.

As part of the program, the adults participate, with the help of staff, in the Gainesville-Hall County Meals on Wheels program.

Twice monthly, they stop at the Gainesville-Hall County Community Service Center on Prior Street to pick up the meals, then deliver them, along with a copy of The Times, to recipients living along the program's route No. 5 in Gainesville.

"We're looking for places where we can contribute and volunteer, and Meals on Wheels was one of the ones that was pretty obvious," Enhanced Life Services Director Patty Moore said. "And they were advertising for needing help."

One of a person's basic needs is "to feel needed and to feel like they're giving back," she said.

"Otherwise, they just consume ... and that's an artificial life. For them to function (normally), they need to be giving something too."

The agency's participants are the ones who initially pushed for the program.

They watched the inspirational movie on a Friday about six months ago and then, on the following Monday, "all the participants were coming in with their money saying they wanted to give their money," said case manager Robynn Boland.

"They didn't know where to put it, so we had a big bucket (for the money)," she added.

"And so, that's how it all kind of got started, with them talking about how they could give back to the community."

Moore then held a contest on naming the group.

So far, the program is working well. "They love it," Moore said.

The participants geared up early last week for a Meals on Wheels run the next day, making Thanksgiving cards in the offices off Old Flowery Branch Road.

A few of them headed out in a staff member's minivan last Tuesday, hauling trays of food from the trunk at each stop and then knocking on doors announcing "Meals on Wheels!"

"We work as a team," said one of the participants, Russell Reed, who was aided by Wesley Petraroi. "We take turns giving lunches to them."

Reed said he felt they "did a pretty good job" and the key to the program is volunteering and teamwork.

The agency's participants, ranging widely in age and degree of disability, have steered the program, Moore said.

"They made this contract with one another of what they felt the rules should be," she said. "So, that put them in charge and it gave them a kind of a government in their environment. What we have found is that if they are invested, they are excited about it and very compliant.

"They are really just like everyone else — it's just that they needed someone to help them figure out the best way to handle things."

Moore's own start in the field began when she was working at a rehabilitation center in North Carolina and was asked to help some clients who weren't adjusting well.

"They happened to be persons with mental retardation. This was my first introduction to this whole population," Moore said. "And I just fell in love with them (and decided) this is what I need to do."

After moving to Georgia, she opened a host home for those with developmental disabilities.

"I felt there was no control, no structure over what happened to them ... and so I decided to become a provider," said Moore, who started Enhanced Life Services in 2002.

She said she is looking to expand Partners Who Care efforts "wherever we can find something."
Moore said she is looking forward to Goodwill of North Georgia setting up operations at the Merchants Crossing Shopping Center off Mundy Mill Road in Oakwood.

The nonprofit corporation provides job training and employment services to people having trouble finding work and who may want to change careers or start their own business.

Rashida Powell, a Goodwill spokeswoman, said she expects the operation to be open by mid-December.

"We feel there is going to be a good opportunity through Goodwill to help," Moore said. "... However we're going to give back is what we're going to do."

jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/archive/26629/
© Copyright 2008 The Times, Gainesville, GA. All rights reserved.

Teacher Needs Help With Disabled Child

From Staff Reports
The Augusta Chronicle
Tuesday, December 15, 2009



A substitute schoolteacher raising a child with special needs could use some help this Christmas.

"The therapies she needs I haven't always been able to provide," she writes. "I find myself needing people and help for the first time in years. I ask for assistance to be able to get a few things for her for Christmas.

"If it weren't for the grace of God and other family and friends, I don't know where I'd be," she writes.

The Augusta Chronicle Empty Stocking Fund has helped people facing such challenges for 79 years.

Last year, the charity raised a record-breaking $124,000 that helped families across the region.

HOW TO HELP

Donations to the Empty Stocking Fund are tax-deductible. To contribute:

- Mail donations to The Augusta Chronicle Empty Stocking Fund, P.O. Box 1928, Augusta, GA 30903-1928.

- Drop off donations at the cashier's office at The News Building, 725 Broad St., weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and at the Columbia County Bureau, Publix shopping center, 4272 Washington Road, Suite 3B, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

- Donate online at augusta chronicle.com/emptystocking.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/12/15/met_559554.shtml
© 2009 The Augusta Chronicle

Monday, December 14, 2009

Public-Private Compromise Makes for Further Battles Ahead

By Mike Lillis
The Washington Independent, National News in Context
Center for Independent Media Site
December 9, 2009

Announcing the Democrats’ tentative deal on a public option, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last night that the nascent proposal strikes a good balance between liberals, who say a federal plan will lower patient costs, and conservatives who want to limit the government’s hand in private markets.

“It has something that we think should satisfy everybody,” Reid said.

Well, maybe. But it also has something to rile everybody, which leaves the future of the still-vague proposal very much uncertain.

Although Democratic leaders are keeping the details largely under wraps, the leaked elements include provisions that will be difficult to swallow for those on both sides of the nettlesome debate over the public insurance plan. Indeed, while the week-long negotiations were designed to win agreement between liberal and conservative Democrats, key figures representing both camps are still declining to endorse their supposed deal. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), for example, has expressed reservations, and Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) said Wednesday that they won’t advocate for the proposal before they see a cost estimate.

Central to the Democrats’ compromise is reportedly a strategy to table the public option in favor of hybrid national plans to be regulated by the government but administered by private companies. If those companies failed to meet certain cost and coverage thresholds, it would trigger the creation of a full-scale public option to compete directly with private plans.

The “trigger” proposal is hardly new to the health reform debate, and it’s certain to meet with resistance. Although Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), the only Republican to support the Democrats’ health reforms, has endorsed the trigger, others have vowed to kill the overall bill if such a mechanism is included. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Roland Burris (D-Ill.), for example, say the trigger doesn’t go far enough to encourage private companies to keep plans affordable, while Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said it goes too far to encroach on private markets.

Even Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), one of the 10 Democratic negotiators who crafted the compromise, has argued this year that the trigger proposal is a punt. “Historically, ‘trigger’ mechanisms have not been successful, and they are not a substitute for a strong public health insurance option,” Rockefeller said in an October statement, likely referring to the trigger in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit that was never pulled. “A ‘trigger’ simply delays price competition.”

Rockefeller’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Furthermore, the proposal to have the insurance companies administer the national plans leaves in place the same profit motive for denying claims that Democrats have attacked throughout the health reform debate.

“This legislation cannot simply be a huge subsidy to private insurance companies that will get millions of new customers and be able to raise their rates as high as they want,” Sanders said last month.

There are other red flags in the Democrats’ public-plan compromise. One provision, for example, would extend Medicare eligibility to include those aged 55 to 64. Liberals have long called for such an expansion of the single-payer Medicare program, but concerns have swirled around the level of reimbursement for health care providers, many of whom complain that rates are too low to see Medicare patients. A September study conducted by the Center for Studying Health

System Change found that just over half of the nation’s doctors accept all new Medicare patients, while almost 14 percent will see none at all.

“Are providers going to be reimbursed at Medicare rates? That’s certainly going to be the issue,” said Julius Hobson, former lobbyist for the American Medical Association and now health policy analyst with the Washington-based law firm Bryan Cave.

Still another element of the Democrats’ deal would reportedly force private insurers to spend no less than 90 cents of each premium dollar on health-care services, as opposed to ads, salaries and other administrative costs. That proposal, however, is sure to rouse the opposition of the powerful insurance lobby and conservative lawmakers already critical of the degree to which the Democrats’ health reform bill intervenes in the private marketplace.

And it’s not only conservatives who might be wary. Indeed, when Rockefeller proposed a similar provision during the Senate Finance Committee’s debate on health reform, liberal Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M) emerged as one of the vocal opponents. Bingaman said the amendment, which would have set the floor at 85 cents on the dollar, was inappropriate “without more understanding of … what it will do to the insurance markets.”

These sticking points do nothing to mention the opposition that will likely surface in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made the public option a centerpiece of the chamber’s health reform legislation.

The Democrats’ proposal is still young, of course, and by declining to release the details, Democrats have left themselves plenty of room to tweak the compromise in order to lure broader support. Still, with so many constituencies to satisfy at once, the bill’s success might just hinge on whether or not lawmakers are willing to hold their noses and vote in favor of major provisions they adamantly oppose. If Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is any indication, that tendency might already be happening.

“Do I like it?” Harkin said Tuesday when asked about the compromise. “No, but I’m going to support it to the hilt.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/70353/senate-public-option-deal-fuels-uncertainty

© 2008-2009 The Washington Independent

Microsoft Snags Sentillion

Combination of the two systems will streamline access to medical information

by Lalee Sadighi
December 10,2009

Microsoft on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire health care IT company Sentillion for an undisclosed sum.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has made a number of moves in the health care IT industry in 2009, including a deal with the American Medical Association that gives physicians access to patent records through Microsoft's HealthVault, an online application that allows users to store their medical information.

“Combining Sentillion’s products with Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS) will make it easier for healthcare professionals to deliver better patient care by streamlining access to multiple IT applications and patient data,” the company said in a statement.

Sentillion, a privately held company located in Andover, Massachusetts, supplies software to health care professionals that integrate various types of clinical, business, and personal productivity applications, regardless of whether they are Web-based or Windows-based.

Sentillion’s software is used in more than 1,000 hospitals, according to the software giant.

Unified with its own Amalga UIS, Microsoft hopes to offer an integrated technology that can help health care providers access patient data from multiple sources.

The sale to Microsoft marks an exit for Sentillion backers Newbury Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners, Split Rock Partners, Merril Lynch Ventures, Wall Street Technology Partners, Intersouth Partners, and First Consulting Group.

Microsoft is not the only company showing interest in IT health care. Google, Intel, and Oracle are some of the other contender in the growing health care IT market.

In 2008, Google launched Google Health, its own online resource for storing personal health information and sending data to doctors and other contacts. It also partnered with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a program that would allow Medicare recipients to enter their Medicare claims into Google Health.

In July, Intel announced that it would install more connectivity options in its Intel Health Guide, a device that allows patients to record their health history and connect with a physician or health care provider. The company also announced that it would invest $250 million over the next five years to further develop health care IT technologies.

As for Oracle, it has developed the Oracle Healthcare Acquisition Corp., whose principal activity is to be in the business of health care industry through acquisitions, mergers, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchases, and other business combinations.

http://www.redherring.com/Home/26253
RedHerring © 2009

NJ Girl Who Helped Rally Support Joins State Senate for Vote

State Senate OKs Reading Disabilities Task Force Ocean City Girl Advocated

By DIANE D'AMICO
Education Writer
Press of Atlantic City
December 11, 2009

TRENTON - Not everyone gets a state senator to write their excuse for missing school.

But Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, was happy to accommodate Samantha Ravelli, of Ocean City, and her sister, Roseann, on Thursday when the two missed school to attend a Senate session during which Van Drew's bill to form a statewide Reading Disabilities Task Force was unanimously approved.

Before the vote, Van Drew said the Legislature often gets credit for passing bills, but it is people who inspire them.

"Ordinary people can become extraordinary through their advocacy and what they fight for," Van Drew told the Senate. "Samantha's work with her mother has advocated throughout New Jersey. She has achieved greatness."

Van Drew then asked Samantha to formally move the bill on the Senate floor. She also pressed the button to register Van Drew's vote. Samantha has dyslexia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for her to process language. She and her mother, Beth, began advocating for greater awareness of reading disabilities after struggling for years to find a program that would help Samantha learn to read.

After an article about Samantha was published in The Press of Atlantic City in 2005, the response from other parents in similar situations spurred Beth Ravelli and Samantha to begin a campaign to make sure all students get the help they need. Ravelli contacted local legislators and found a sympathetic ear in Assemblyman Nelson Albano, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

The Ravellis moved to Ocean City, which offers the Wilson reading system, when Samantha was in third grade and still could not read. Now in seventh grade at the Ocean City Intermediate School, Samantha is still tutored every week, but can read and has made the honor roll. She also started a Web site to help raise awareness of dyslexia.

Albano visited Samantha's school, and with colleague Matt Milam sponsored the Assembly bill in 2008 to create the task force. Samantha went to Trenton to testify, and Albano's bill, A880, was approved by the state Assembly in February. Van Drew picked up the Senate version, S2400, which was approved by the Senate Education Committee in May.

The Ravellis continued to lobby to get the bill to the full Senate before the legislative session ends, or they would have had to start over. As word spread around the state, more advocates contacted her and their own legislators to support the bill. After years of work, it took just minutes to get the bill approved. It must still be signed into law by the governor, which Ravelli said she was told could happen as early as next week.

Then the hard work of creating the task force begins. The new law calls for 13 members, including the commissioners of education and human resources, plus four legislators and seven members of the public. Ravelli said she would be interested in serving on the task force, and will be meeting with Albano early in 2010 to begin the process.

It is estimated that about 20 percent of the population have some type of reading disorder, and about 85 percent of students with learning disabilities struggle to read. The goal of the task force will be to identify practices and strategies to help those students, and spread awareness of them to teachers and school districts.

"Having the ability to read is vital to succeeding in school and getting a good job," Albano said in a release issued after the vote. "We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that every child is able to read and to overcome difficulties that can lessen their future prospects for success."

Samantha had no trouble reading the note Van Drew wrote for her school. In it he says that she was absent because she was with him in the Senate chamber.

"Along with the rest of the Senate, I am very proud of her," Samantha read. On Roseann's note Van Drew cited her support and assistance of her sister.

Beth Ravelli said she will make copies of the notes for the girls to bring to school today. The real notes will become part of the scrapbook she has made on how Samantha helped pass a law.

Contact Diane D'Amico:
609-272-7241

DDamico@pressofac.com

Samantha Ravelli's Web site to increase awareness of dyslexia:
www. sammiesmission.com

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_
e0a20069-f98d-5385-8deb-6e8578b6fc63.html
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