For more than 10 years, Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) has urged states across the country to enact legislation that protects students living with asthma and allergies, highlighted by the federal Asthmatic Schoolchildren’s Treatment and Health Management Act of 2004.
Now AANMA and other advocates are celebrating their latest legislative triumph: Louisiana and Connecticut are the 48th and 49th states to pass laws allowing students to carry and self-administer life-saving asthma medications in school starting this coming school year. The new laws also allow students to carry anaphylaxis medication. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell have just signed both bills into law.
“Students with asthma and allergies are taught to use their medications at the first sign of symptoms,” said Sandra Fusco-Walker, AANMA’s Director of Patient Advocacy. “Often there isn’t time to retrieve medications from the clinic or locker. Any delay in treatment could have life-threatening consequences. That’s why laws like these are so essential to student safety.”
Prem Menon, MD, an allergist in Baton Rouge, La., and a member of AANMA’s Board of Directors, led the effort in Louisiana along with AANMA members. The bill passed unanimously due to their hard work and the support from advocates they rallied throughout the state.
“This bill was necessary,” Dr. Menon said. “Students were having a hard time with some of the teachers and school nurses. Because there was no state law, some nurses worried that the State Board of Nursing would discipline them if children carried auto-injectable epinephrine and albuterol.”
AANMA member Pam Minicucci has two children with asthma and allergies and provided testimony for the Connecticut bill. “Families who have to deal with asthma and food allergies don’t expect the world to change for us, but we do expect the world and our school systems to allow our children to keep themselves safe,” she said.
South Dakota is the only state remaining without a law that allows students to bring and use their asthma medications in school; five states have yet to add anaphylaxis medications to their present laws regarding asthma medications (Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin).
Also:
• Pennsylvania removed an age restriction in pending legislation that only allowed students 10 and older to carry anaphylaxis medications.
• Georgia passed a law making it legal for students to carry and self-administer their anaphylaxis medications during the school day.
For more information about state laws affecting students with asthma, go to:
Economists and heavyweight Obama backers such as Warren Buffet already are calling for another stimulus, saying the recession proved to be deeper and more devastating than originally believed…
“We strongly believe we need another stimulus, and we need it now,” said Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO’s policy director.
A group of unions, including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said they will start pressing lawmakers for a jobs bill. They said the $787 billion economic stimulus approved earlier this year, though helpful, wasn’t big enough and didn’t include enough government spending.
The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.
The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not the administration.
Rob Simmons is one of the bevy of Do-Nothing Republicans vying for their party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate. On Saturday Simmons reiterated his opposition to President Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan. The Obama Economic Recovery Plan, passed earlier this year in Congress, is slated to provide around $3 billion in funding for Connecticut families who have been hit hardest during this recession and help spur job creation and development in the state. To date, more than $975 million has come into Connecticut for projects and initiatives.
One of the largest projects Connecticut officials hope will receive stimulus money is the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail project, which dovetails with President Obama’s larger high-speed rail plan throughout the country. Today in the Hartford Courant, Connecticut Department of Transportation Chief Joseph Marie said, “It’s the most important initiative we have. We’re going to bring it to the finish line.”
Continued the Courant:
To transit planners, the New Haven to Springfield line looks like a long-term way to head off even more congestion on the north-south corridor. I-91 from New Haven to Hartford is already the fourth-busiest stretch of highway in Connecticut, and the DOT forecasts the congestion will steadily worsen… This year, President Barack Obama’s administration helped kick-start the project again: Stimulus grants are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Amtrak’s shoreline bridges, perhaps freeing up money from Amtrak’s budget to spend on the Hartford project.
So in opposing Obama’s Economic Recovery Package, Rob Simmons also opposes the state’s premiere commuter rail project which would help the projected 2,400-5,000 riders daily. He’d prefer they wait in traffic, clogging up thoroughfares like I-91, wasting gasoline and their hard-earned money.
It’s clear what Rob Simmons is against – policies to help put people back to work, jump start our economy and help make a reality the New Haven-to-Springfield rail project that has been just a pipe dream for so many years.
But what is Rob Simmons for? He’d fit in quite well with the Do-Nothing Republicans in Congress, but the people of Connecticut rejected his lack of ideas three years ago, and they’ll do it again in 2010.”
Prior to the July 4th recess, Chris Dodd unveiled a healthcare reform bill with a substantially lower cost and a public option, supported by all of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s 13 Democratic Senators. Time’s Karen Tumulty said the bill amounted “to enormous progress largely creditable to Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd” and USA Today called Dodd a leading architect of the legislation. Chris Dodd was asked by ailing Chairman Ted Kennedy to lead the committee’s efforts in his absence.
Below is a summary of some of the coverage from last week’s announcement.
This amounts to enormous progress, largely creditable to Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who has taken the helm of the committee in Kennedy’s stead. Where the earlier, incomplete version had been estimated to add $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the new one has pared that cost to $611.4 billion. It also does a lot better job of covering the uninsured; the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, combined with the Medicaid expansion expected under the bill that the Senate Finance Committee is working on, this legislation could assure that 97 percent.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a leading architect of the legislation, said the new bill will cost $611 billion over the next decade — lower than an earlier $1 trillion estimate — and that he hoped his committee could have its version completed next week.”This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president’s goals,” Dodd said today of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the bill’s cost. “We believe people ought to be able to keep [insurance] plans they like and that people ought to have choices.”
Also, Dodd said the Congressional Budget Office has lowered the projected cost of the new bill to $611 billion over 10 years, down from an earlier $1 trillion project. “This is a strong number that allows us to achieve the president’s goals,” Dodd said in a conference call this morning.
A key Senate committee on Thursday unveiled significant new elements of health care reform legislation, including a plan for government-sponsored insurance and an employer mandate. The revised legislation is substantially cheaper than previous versions of the bill, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), with the changes bringing down the cost from previous estimates of $1 trillion to $611.4 billion over 10 years.
Their main idea for controlling insurance costs is the proposal for a public option. Along with private insurers’ offerings, it would be part of a new insurance exchange from which consumers without employer-provided coverage could choose. On Thursday, Mr. Obama said again that the public option would help in “keeping the insurance companies honest.”
The most terrible aspect of the death penalty is the prospect of our country (or state) putting an innocent man to death. And yet, it may happen soon. Troy Davis, a man who is probably innocent, faces death by judicial and prosecutorial indifference in the near future.
The case must be reopened for several reasons: Davis’s conviction was based on the word of eyewitnesses. However, since 2001, seven of the nine witnesses recanted or contradicted their original testimony. Several said they were coerced by the police. No physical evidence was ever produced that tied Davis to the murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a white off-duty Savannah police officer who was killed as he tried to break up a street fight. The gun used in the shooting was never found.
Second, there is abundant evidence supporting Davis’s likely innocence but it has not been aired in court. Our legal system does not allow defendants the opportunity to present new evidence of their innocence after conviction. This intransigence on legal procedural matters is unconscionable when a life is on the line.
The new evidence of his innocence means Davis deserves another day in court, not execution: The prospect that an innocent man might be put to death based on faulty witness testimony, and because the court won’t agree to hear evidence of his innocence, represents a tragedy of epic proportions. A wrongful execution cannot be rectified.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, with the Supreme Court in recess, the next move could fall to Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm. There’s no stay of execution preventing Chisolm from trying to move forward with Davis’ death sentence. The prosecutor released a brief statement Monday that stopped short of saying he would wait for the Supreme Court before acting.
But the numbers are even worse than that: 4.4 million have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.
9.0 million counted as employed are only working part-time (not by choice.) Since the start of the recession, the number of such workers has increased by 4.4 million.
793,000 more workers are not counted as unemployed for some reason: they are discouraged workers not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available. Discouraged workers are up by 373,000 from a year earlier.
So add 9.8 million to the 14.7 million out of work – those hurt the most by the recession total almost 16% of workers.
Here are more details:
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage points.
Job losses were widespread across the major industry sectors, with large declines occurring in manufacturing, professional and business services, and construction.
The recession has hit teenagers and minorities the hardest:
In June, unemployment rates for the major worker groups–adult men (10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per- cent)–showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million.
The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in June at 9.0 million.
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Employment in manufacturing fell by 136,000 over the month and has declined by 1.9 million during the recession. Within the durable goods industry, motor vehicles and parts (-27,000), fabricated metal products (-18,000), computer and electronic products (-16,000), and machinery (-14,000) continued to lose jobs in June. Since the recession began, employment in motor vehicles and parts has declined by 335,000, or about one-third.
In June, employment in construction fell by 79,000, with losses spread throughout the industry. Since the start of the recession, construction employment has fallen by 1.3 million. Mining employment fell by 8,000 in June, about in line with the average monthly decline since its recent peak in October 2008.
Employment in the professional and business services industry declined by 118,000 in June. This industry has shed 1.5 million jobs since an employment peak in December 2007. Within this sector, employment in temporary help services fell by 38,000 in June; this industry has lost 848,000 jobs since the start of the recession.
Retail trade employment edged down in June (-21,000); job losses in retail trade have moderated in the past 3 months. Over the month, job losses continued in automobile dealerships (-9,000).
Employment continued to fall in wholesale trade (-16,000).
In June, financial activities employment continued to decline (-27,000). Since the start of the recession, this industry has lost 489,000 jobs.
The information industry lost 21,000 jobs over the month and 187,000 since the start of the recession. Publishing accounted for about half of the employment decline in the information industry during the recession.
In June, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 33.0 hours–the lowest level on record for the series, which began in 1964.
Governor M Jodi Rell released her executive order on the state’s budget late afternoon on July 30, 2009 which will allow certain services to continue for the month of July until a budget agreement can be achieved.
“First and foremost, people should rest assured that state government will continue to operate – services will be delivered; we will care for the vulnerable and the sick; public safety and public health will be protected,” Governor Rell said.
“Apparently, that doesn’t include people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHWAs) who remain among the most vulnerable and medically and socially fragile people in the state, “said Shawn M. Lang, Director of Public Policy with the CT AIDS Resource Coalition.
The governor’s executive order zeroes out the three key AIDS lines in the Department of Public Health’s budget including: (1) AIDS Services, which funds HIV prevention programs; (2) Syringe Exchange Programs, which funds five programs that have scientifically proven to prevent the spread of HIV among injecting drug users and take in thousands more used syringes than they distribute; and (3) Community Services for Persons with AIDS, which funds emergency housing and other supportive services.
These are vital services which are part of a precarious network that helps to shore up sound public health policies in the state that benefits everyone. To illustrate this vulnerable population, in 2008, the results of a needs assessment conducted by the Hartford Ryan White Planning Council (which covers Hartford, Middlesex and Tolland Counties) found that 82% of PLHWAs lived on $1,000 or less per month; 23% were homeless or precariously housed; 70% had an AIDS diagnosis; and 47% relied on Medicaid/SAGA as their primary health insurance.
In the New Haven/Fairfield County Ryan White Planning Council needs assessment in the same year; 41% of respondents identified housing assistance as the most needed service; followed by assistance in paying for medication (26%); and food (23%).
While the annual number of newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS has declined over the past few years, the cumulative number of PLWHA continues to increase. Over the past 10 years, the number of PLWHA has doubled, while funding in all three of these categories has seen very small increases, cuts, or flat funding.
Many people think that the AIDS crisis is over; but that’s far from reality.
25% of people who are infected with HIV don’t know it and 23% of people who find out they’re HIV positive also get an AIDS diagnosis at the same time (meaning that they have been infected for a long time without knowing their HIV status). These programs provide HIV prevention education, housing assistance, care and treatment to PLWHAs and their families. Ceasing to fund these services will force people to attempt to get assistance from the State’s social service offices (DSS offices) that are ill-equipped to handle the complex issues facing PLWHAs.
“These funds pay for services that are not available through any other state service. We’re wondering where the governor wants injecting drug users to dispose of their used syringes, or where people who lose their housing due to these cuts should go to sleep tonight?” asked Rev. John P. Merz, Executive Director with the CT AIDS Resource Coalition.
AIDS advocates around the state will be mounting a campaign to get these funds restored.
I exercise vigorously three times a week October through March, twice a week in April and September. But in the prime weather months, June-August, I usually get out 4 times a week, with bike riding, kayaking and a little tennis supplementing the 3 times a week soccer that is my religion.
Recently I have been falling off this regimen, feeling too tired on Saturdays to do much of anything. That really kind of scared and depressed me. But I am thrilled to report that I found renewed energy this past weekend, and added a long bike ride and long kayak ride Saturday to my regular Sunday soccer game and kayak ride.
The truth is I love these activities so much that I would probably do them even if they were bad for me (and my orthopedist recommended giving up soccer 15 years ago) but the evidence is overwhelming that that exercise is just about the best thing you can do for yourself (other than giving up smoking.)
