A Pea Plant Grows Indoors
http://www.gardeningblog.net/how-to-grow/sugar-snap-peas/
Periwinkle Flowers Again
Our periwinkle (vinca) has blossomed again, as it does each year. It is a groundcover that takes its mission seriously. Given no interference, it tends to take over, which can be a good thing depending on where it is planted. It sends out vines and, well, covers the ground. It is green even in the winter months, a bright spot when everything seems dark and dreary. What a treat to see it peek out as the snow melts, reminding us of greener times to come.
http://www.seriouslyflowers.com/periwinkle-flower.html
States Struggle to Pay for Police Body Cameras: Only a Handful of States Have Figured Out How To Pay For Them
By Jake Grovum, Stateline
As the nationwide push intensifies for police to wear body cameras, states and cities have encountered one consistent roadblock to adopting the technology: the cost.
The price of a single camera ranges widely, from less than $100 to more than $1,000, based on the size of the purchase (larger police departments often get a discount) and whether the deal includes data storage services. But managing and storing the video costs many times the price of the cameras themselves. And because the technology is so new, it’s likely that it will have to be replaced fairly quickly, which would require additional expenditures.
In a survey of 40 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum conducted last fall and released this year, nearly 40 percent of departments without body cameras cited cost as the primary barrier to using them.
President Barack Obama has called for $75 million in new federal spending to help pay for 50,000 police body cameras for local police departments. States are struggling with whether cameras should be worn all the time and whether the video should be a public record, which also can affect costs. As of April 20, 34 states were considering 117 bills related to police body cameras, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). So far, only a handful of states have figured out how to pay for them.
“They (cameras) can be a really great tool if implemented correctly,” said Lindsay Miller, a senior research associate at the police forum, a membership organization of police and government officials, academics and others who work in the field. “It’s not as easy as sticking a camera on an officer and sending them out in the field.”
Put simply, Miller said, “The money has to come from somewhere.”
Funding With Fines
In New Jersey, legislation enacted last fall requires officers or the vehicles they routinely use in traffic stops to have cameras, either on the officer or on the dashboard in the car.
Giving local governments the option — body camera or dashboard camera — was a compromise to help pass the bill, said Democratic Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, who sponsored the legislation. The measure only applies to newly acquired vehicles, and it exempts officers who work in administrative roles or detectives who don’t regularly conduct traffic stops.
The most significant part of the compromise, however, is the funding mechanism: The legislation levies a $25 surcharge on convicted drunken drivers, a fine that stays in the municipality where the offense occurred. That funding can go toward purchasing cameras or data storage and other expenses that make having police cameras “workable,” Moriarty said.
“We have a problem here with the state mandating something and not coming up with some way to pay for it,” he said. “Some of these larger cities, they’re strapped for cash — and some of the smaller ones too.”
Finding Funds Elsewhere
Lawmakers in some other states are trying a more straightforward approach. They are calling for state money to help pay for a technology they see as a necessity, and one for which the public and local police departments are clamoring.
A measure advancing in Texas, for instance, would dedicate $50 million in state money to implement a requirement that officers across the state wear cameras. Several body camera bills have gained bipartisan support in Austin; one already has cleared the Senate, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled his support for body camera legislation this session.
Democratic Rep. Ron Reynolds, who is pushing the $50 million measure, said finding the money to support body camera requirements was just as important as the requirement itself.
“If there’s no funding, then it’s nothing more than an unfunded mandated; it’s nothing more than a noble idea,” Reynolds said. “A lot of these municipalities, they don’t have the revenue to do it, they’re barely getting by now, they have to make it based on lean budgets.”
Reynolds admits his bill could change as the session winds toward its June adjournment, but he is optimistic the state will provide at least some money to pay for body cameras.
Safari To the Serengeti For A Birthday Trip, Both Hair-Raising and Life Transforming
By Sonya Zalubowski*
The red dust of Tanzania’s iron-rich soil still clings to my athletic shoes. I’ve been loathe to clean them, wanting in this small fashion somehow to preserve the way the country, its wildlife and people touched my soul.
Just as friends who were veterans of similar trips had promised, the two-week game-viewing safari was life-changing in the fresh perspective I gained, despite some potentially hair-raising moments. It was well worth the nearly 24 hours of plane travel from the airport in Portland, OR direct to Amsterdam and then another direct flight to the East African country, a convenient if exhausting journey. Well worth overcoming were all the frightening, if exaggerated, fears of Ebola, the West Africa epidemic that hadn’t infected the Tanzanians on the other side of Africa, a continent three times the size of the United States.
©Photographs by Sonya Zalubowski. Maasai women and children
How to tell you now what it felt like to drive in northern Tanzania out onto the Serengeti, an experience that even our seasoned guides said has to be lived to understand? The word in the language of the Maasai, a predominant tribe in the area, means “endless plain.” As far as you could see, all the way to the distant horizon where they appeared as dark dots, (the Serengeti national park is the size of Connecticut), herds of animals cavorted on the flat grasslands.
Near our jeep, two young wildebeest, so inelegant in their beards, high front haunches and horns — some say God created them out of leftover parts — kicked up their rear legs with joy at the fresh green grass. Though it was only October, the rains were a month early and the annual migration had begun of wildebeest and zebra from the woodlands where they spent the dry season back onto the Serengeti, the largest single movement of wildlife left on earth.
It was almost as though you’d come upon the Garden of Eden, a place where nature and the animals rule, not man. The only humans allowed are tourists with guides in permitted jeeps like ours and park rangers who work to stop poachers after meat and trophies. Even the Maasai are kept out with their herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Since man largely poses no threat, the animals seemed oblivious to us, restricted by the rough gravel roads that traverse the park.
States Try More Tax Breaks for Seniors: 36 States With An Income Tax Allow Some Exemptions For Pension Benefits
Citizens filing IRS forms in 1920; by Underwood and Underwood photo, Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons
By Elaine S. Povich, Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts
About a half dozen states are considering giving new tax breaks to seniors over 65, although they already enjoy favorable treatment by the federal government and by most states on their income and property taxes.
For some of the states looking to cut taxes, it’s an effort to stop older folks from decamping to more tax-friendly places when they retire. For others, it’s a way for lawmakers to curry favor with one of the most politically plugged-in demographic groups, which also is the wealthiest.
“They are worth more, dollar-wise, than young people,” said US Census Bureau spokesman Robert Bernstein.
Among the states looking at proposals this year are Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland and Rhode Island. Most would reduce or do away with state taxes on retirement income.
In Iowa, for instance, state Sen. Roby Smith’s bill would phase out state taxation on retirement income over five years starting in fiscal 2017. Iowa already excludes the first $6,000 of retirement income from state income taxes ($12,000 for married couples) and all income for recipients of military retirement benefits. Smith’s proposal would cost the state about $200 million a year.
Smith, a Republican, said the idea came to him when campaigning door-to-door last fall. “The No. 1 thing I heard at the doors … from retirees or soon-to-be retirees was ‘don’t tax my pension,’ ” he said. Like many other states, Iowa does not tax Social Security income. Not taxing pensions or other retirement income is “the next logical thing,” he said.
Smith represents Davenport, just across the border from Illinois, which does not tax pensions. “I have people who move across the river to avoid the pension tax,” he said.
Moving to a “tax-friendly state” can be important to many seniors, who aren’t wealthy and live on fixed incomes, or who are seeking to get the most from their retirement savings and pensions. Financial publications like Kiplinger’ Retirement Report compares the taxes elderly residents face in every state. According to Kiplinger, Iowa is a “not tax friendly” state and Illinois has a “mixed” tax picture for retirees.
Maine is not a tax-friendly state, according to Kiplinger, and Republican Gov. Paul LePage wants to change that. He has proposed eliminating the state’s income tax entirely. But if he can’t do that, he’d like to exempt military pensions and up to $30,000 of other retirement income from income taxes. He has said cutting taxes on military pensions will help convince retired military personnel to stay or move to Maine.
LePage elicited laughter at a recent public forum when he pointed out that the tax was imposed by referendum during the tenure of former Democratic Gov. Kenneth Curtis, who now lives in Florida.
The Supreme Court Hearing on Obergefell v. Hodges, Also Known As The Same-Sex Marriage Case
No clear answers on same-sex marriage: In Plain English
The Supreme Court’s Blog, SCOTUSblog, has weighed in on the court’s hearings today:
“It could turn out to be a nailbiter. After two-and-a-half hours of oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases, it was not clear where Justice Anthony Kennedy – and therefore the rest of the Court – was headed. Let’s talk about the oral argument in Plain English.”
Read more at the ScotusBlog site
Right: A symbolic marriage cake in favor of allowing gay marriages in Italy not only to heterosexual couples but to lesbian and gay ones as well. Picture by Giovanni Dall’Orto, January 26 2008. Wikimedida Commons
http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2014/14-556-q1
http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2014/14-556-q2
Update: The audiotapes of the hearing — first, a ninety-minute tape on the marriage issue (question one) , followed by a one-hour tape on the marriage-recognition issue — have been posted and the second question is being streamed on the Court’s website and can be listened to.
Anyone interested in the proceedings will be able to access the recording and transcript directly through links on the homepage of the Court’s Website and those links above. The Court’s Website address is www.supremecourt.gov.
The New York Times has commented on the hearings:
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The Scotus Blog: Same-sex marriage: The decisive questions
The New York Times has devoted a page of sources for information on the topic:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
Carrying and Swiping: Medicare and Potential Uses of Electronically Readable Cards
A GAO Report*
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — the agency that administers Medicare — could use electronically readable cards in Medicare for a number of different purposes. Three key uses include authenticating beneficiary and provider presence at the point of care, electronically exchanging beneficiary medical information, and electronically conveying beneficiary identity and insurance information to providers. The type of electronically readable card that would be most appropriate depends on how the cards would be used. Smart cards could provide substantially more rigorous authentication than cards with magnetic stripes or bar codes, and provide greater security and storage capacity for exchanging medical information. All electronically readable cards could be used to convey beneficiary identity and insurance information since they all have adequate storage capacity to contain such information.
German Healthcard (2012), Wikimedia Commons
Using electronically readable cards to authenticate beneficiary and provider presence at the point of care could curtail certain types of Medicare fraud, but would have limited effect since CMS officials stated that Medicare would continue to pay claims regardless of whether a card was used due to legitimate reasons why a card may not be present. CMS officials and stakeholders told us that claims should still be paid even when cards are not used because they would not want to limit beneficiaries’ access to care. Using electronically readable cards to exchange medical information is not part of current federal efforts to facilitate health information exchange and, if used to supplement current efforts, it would likely involve challenges with interoperability and ensuring consistency with provider records. Using electronically readable cards to convey identity and insurance information to auto-populate and retrieve information from provider information technology (IT) systems could reduce reimbursement errors and improve medical record keeping.
To use electronically readable cards to authenticate beneficiaries and providers, CMS would need to update its claims processing systems to verify that the cards were swiped at the point of care. CMS would also need to update its current card management processes, including issuing provider cards and developing standards and procedures for card use. Conversely, using the cards to convey beneficiary identity and insurance information might not require updates to CMS’s IT systems or card management practices. For all potential uses, Medicare providers could incur costs and face challenges updating their IT systems to use the cards.
The Critique of Reason — Challenging the traditional notion of the Romantic artist as a brooding genius given to introversion and fantasy
A Lion Attacking a Horse, George Stubbs 1724-1806, British, (between 1768 and 1769). Oil on panel
In spring 2015, the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art presents their first major joint exhibition, bringing together treasures of the Romantic art movement from their respective collections. The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art, 1760 –1860 comprises more than 300 paintings, sculptures, medals, watercolors, drawings, prints, and photographs by such iconic artists as William Blake, John Constable, Honoré Daumier, David d’Angers, Eugène Delacroix, Henri Fuseli, Théodore Géricault, Francisco de Goya, John Martin, and J. M. W. Turner that expanded the view of Romanticism as a movement opposed to reason and the scientific method. The broad range of works selected challenges the traditional notion of the Romantic artist as a brooding genius given to introversion and fantasy.
Wreckers — Coast of Northumberland, with a Steam-Boat Assisting a Ship off Shore (1833 – 1834), Joseph Mallord Willam Turner, 1775-1851, British. Oil on Canvas.
Regulating Millions of Cosmetic Products Sold: Supporting The Personal Care Products Safety Act Proposal
Wikimedia Commons
Find your Representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Find your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the Personal Care Products Safety Act to protect consumers and streamline industry compliance by strengthening the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority to regulate the ingredients in personal care products. While the personal care products industry is projected to exceed $60 billion in US revenue this year, federal regulations on these products have not been updated in 75 years.
The bill, which is the result of numerous discussions with stakeholders and extensive consultation with the FDA, is supported by the following companies:
- Personal Care Products Council (a trade association representing more than 600 companies in the industry)
- Johnson & Johnson (brands include Neutrogena, Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Lubriderm, Johnson’s baby products)
- Procter & Gamble (brands include Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Clairol, Herbal Essences, Secret, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Ivory, Cover Girl, Olay, Sebastian Professional, Vidal Sassoon)
- Revlon (brands include Revlon, Almay, Mitchum)
- Estee Lauder (brands include Estée Lauder, Clinique, Origins, Tommy Hilfiger, MAC, La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Donna Karan, Aveda, Michael Kors)
- Unilever (brands include Dove, Tresemme, Lever, St. Ives, Noxzema, Nexxus, Pond’s, Suave, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Degree)
- L’Oreal (brands include L’Oréal Paris, Lancome, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Kiehl’s, Essie, Garnier, Maybelline-New York, Vichy, La Roche-Posay, The Body Shop, Redken)
The bill is also supported by the following consumer groups:
- Environmental Working Group
- Society for Women’s Health Research
- National Alliance for Hispanic Health
- HealthyWomen
“From shampoo to lotion, the use of personal care products is widespread, however, there are very few protections in place to ensure their safety,” said Senator Feinstein. “Europe has a robust system, which includes consumer protections like product registration and ingredient reviews. I am pleased to be introducing this bipartisan legislation with Senator Collins that will require FDA to review chemicals used in these products and provide clear guidance on their safety. In addition, the legislation has broad support from companies and consumer groups alike.”
“I am pleased to be working with Senator Feinstein on legislation to modernize FDA regulation of cosmetics and personal care products, which are widely used by consumers often on a daily basis,” said Senator Collins. “By improving FDA oversight of the ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, this legislation aims to protect consumers while also providing regulatory certainty for manufacturers, enabling them to plan for the future.”
Consumer and health advocates are concerned about the use and concentration of some chemicals in personal care products. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, short-term exposure to formaldehyde, which is used in smoothing hair treatments, has been reported to cause a range of negative health effects. Initially, these can include headaches and shortness of breath in consumers and the professionals who apply the chemicals. However, long-term exposure to formaldehyde has been associated with increased risk of cancer, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires salon owners to provide their workers with protective equipment, including masks and goggles, when applying this chemical.
In another example, propyl paraben, which is used as a preservative in a wide range of products, mimics estrogen and may be appropriate only in certain concentrations. According to scientific studies, chemicals that mimic estrogen can disrupt the endocrine system and have been linked to a wide range of health effects, including reproductive system disorders.
The bill would require the FDA to evaluate a minimum of five ingredients per year to determine their safety and appropriate use — the two chemicals mentioned above are among those to be reviewed in the first year. The review process set forth in the bill would provide companies with clear guidance about whether ingredients should continue to be used and if so, what the concentration levels should be and whether consumer warnings are needed. For example, a chemical may be deemed inappropriate for use in children’s products, or appropriate for professional application only.
The first set of chemicals for review includes:
- Diazolidinyl urea, which is used as a preservative in a wide range of products including deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath and lotion
- Lead acetate, which is used as a color additive in hair dyes
- Methylene glycol/formaldehyde, which is used in hair treatments
- Propyl paraben, which is used as a preservative in a wide range of products including shampoo, conditioner and lotion
- Quaternium-15, which is used as a preservative in a wide range of products including shampoo, shaving cream, skin creams and cleansers
The bill would provide streamlined federal standards so that the personal care products industry knows what to expect and companies can plan for the future with certainty.
The Personal Care Products Safety Act would also:
Provide the FDA the authority to order recalls of certain personal care products that threaten consumer safety.
- Provide the FDA the authority to require labeling of products that include ingredients not appropriate for children and those that should be professionally administered. Complete label information, including ingredients and product warnings, would also be required to be posted online since approximately 40 percent of personal care products are purchased over the Internet.
- Require companies to provide contact information on their products for consumers and report serious adverse events to the FDA within 15 days, including death, hospitalization and disfigurement. Health effects that could have resulted in hospitalization without early intervention would also be required to be reported.
- Require manufacturers to register annually with the FDA and provide the agency with information on the ingredients used in their personal care products.
- Direct the FDA to issue regulations on Good Manufacturing Practices for personal care products.
To fund these new oversight activities, the bill would authorize the FDA to collect user-fees from personal care products manufacturers similar to what is done for medications and medical devices.
Renewing Respect for Language: The Subjunctive Is a Governor of the Consciousness That Uses It
An example of the Reed Kellogg sentence diagramming system; Wikimedia Commons
In my teens I came to the realization that without words we could not actually think. Feel, emote, react — of course, but it takes words to think.
My father was a perfectionist. A musician and writer, he did his best to reorder his world to an ideal of regularity and esthetic standards. That included his growing daughter’s handling of the English language.
I recently heard a remarkable lecture by a non-native speaker (and teacher) of English about the subjunctive. Like many of my coevals, in elementary school we were given the barest elements of English grammar. It wasn’t until I was exposed to years of French and four of Latin that I even understood what the subjunctive is. One reason I didn’t need to was that if my father overheard me forget it, he would be sure to remind me: If it were, not if it was. I wasn’t a rebel, so I did my best to remember.
Then this discussion provided the idea that we who value the power of language must never forget: the subjunctive is a governor of the consciousness that uses it. It actually is an enabler for both speaker and listener without which most of us would never understand half of what we learn.
The lecturer is a Vietnamese refugee. Having mostly grown up in the United States, he is at home with the possibilities, with the alternative realities with which the concept of the subjunctive makes us conversant. Most of my youthful willingness to learn correct grammar and something of the nature of syntax was sort of a matter of learning to please my father and my English teachers. Analysis of what is implicit in those formalities had to wait for my understanding of complexities of character and psychology to develop. I grew up speaking English and remained virtually unaware: it was the lack of respect owing to complete familiarity.
Imagine what it must have seemed like to a boy when he asked his father what he thought a dreadful experience (the strafing death of several relatives on a bus) might have been like. When he asked what his father might imagine life would be had this not happened, had his mother and other relatives not perished on that bus he and his father had missed. In Vietnamese all his father could reply was that (in effect) what is is. Period.
What was was, and that’s all there is to it. What will be will be. The language doesn’t allow for speculation, for referral to the past in any way but to the facts of what occurred. Nothing is alterable by the emotions or opinions of the speaker because there is no way to express those suppositions or wishes or imaginings. The future can’t really be linked to past memories — only to past events. Speculation can’t be expressed because the language itself doesn’t allow it!
If only I had figured this out while I was teaching ordinary high school students. If only I thought there were time enough time to elaborate on the implications of this notion. All by itself, it makes the study of history into a new discipline.
©2015 Joan L. Cannon for SeniorWomen.com
An Imprint on Your Health: Heart attack Risk High in Divorced Women, Even After Remarrying
A woman who has been through two or more divorces is nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when compared to her stably married female peers.
Divorced women suffer heart attacks at higher rates than women who are continuously married, a new study from Duke Clinical Research Institute researchers has found. A woman who has been through two or more divorces is nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when compared to her stably married female peers, according to the findings.
Even among women who remarry after the stress of divorce, their heart attack risk remains elevated according to the study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.
A woman who has been through two or more divorces is nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when compared to her stably married female peers.
“Divorce is a major stressor, and we have long known that people who are divorced suffer more health consequences,” said Matthew Dupre, PhD the study’s lead author. “But this is one of the first studies to look at the cumulative effect of divorce over a long period. We found that it can have a lasting imprint on people’s health.”
The findings were based on the responses of a nationally representative group of 15,827 people ages 45 to 80 who had been married at least once. Participants were interviewed every two years from 1992 to 2010 about their marital status and health. About one-third of participants had been divorced at least once during the 18-year study.
Although men are generally at higher risk for heart attack, it appears women fared worse than men after divorce, although the differences were not statistically significant. Men who had been divorced had about the same risk as those who stayed married. It was only after two or more divorces that the risk for men went up, the study found.
The study also found that men who remarried also fared better than women. These men experienced the same risk of heart attack as men who had been married continuously to one partner.
In addition to Dupre, study authors include Linda George; Guangya Liu; and Eric Peterson.