Senior Women Web

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  • Fitness For Fogies*

    by Rose Madeline MulaSeniors Exercising

     

     I’m basically lazy — especially when it comes to exercise.  I am in awe of people who get up at dawn and run ten miles and others who go to the gym and work out strenuously every day.  Not for me.  But I know how important it is to keep active as we grow older, so I have incorporated a fitness program into my normal routine.

    Photograph: World News Network, Wikimedia Commons

    I usually start my day with isometrics, or tensing of the muscles — in my case, the calf muscles. Actually, to tell the truth, this tensing is completely involuntary.  So since it requires no conscious effort on my part, I suppose I can’t call it isometrics.  I guess a more accurate term is leg cramps. But whatever their name, these cramps are very effective in getting my day off to an active start since they propel me out of bed, whereupon I jump up and down and shake my legs vigorously to relieve the cramping.  This, in turn, often results in floor exercises, or falling down and trying to get up — which  involves straining of every muscle in the body to pull myself upright.

    Next on my agenda is weight training — lifting heavy forkfulls of food from my plate to my mouth at least three times a day — and even heavier armloads of magazines, catalogs, advertising flyers, and solicitation letters from my mailbox daily.  These workouts are exhausting.  I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to meet the challenge.

    I also exercise my abs after every meal by insuring that acid reflux keeps those stomach muscles churning actively.

    In addition, I constantly fight upper arm flab throughout the day by using my hands and arms to push  myself up off a chair or couch.  Every time I do this, I really feel the burn — not only in my arm muscles, but also on my back, thighs, hips, knees, calfs, ankles, and even my toes.  This truly is a challenging, full-body workout.

    Also beneficial for the arms, writsts, waist, and shoulders are the tortuous twists required to find the armholes when putting on a shirt, sweater or coat.  Pulling on a pair of pants provides an opportunity for beneficial leg lifts — exhausting at first, but worth it once you have developed the muscle groups involved.

    Another daily task I used to perform effortlessly but which now requires considerable skill and strength is buckling a seat belt.  Just twisting and reaching back to grasp the belt involves muscles I never knew I had in my  neck … shoulders … waist.  Once I’ve managed to clutch the belt,  I need a couple of minutes of heavy breathing to replenish the oxygen to my lungs before attempting to click the belt into the receptacle — which I usually find I’m sitting on.  That’s fortunate because it requires another series of strenuous maneuvers to free the buckle before I can continue.

    Of course, before I have to struggle with a seat belt, I must get into a car.  That never used to be a problem for me, but it’s a major hurdle now.  If the vehicle in question is an SUV, it might just as well be Everest.  No way can I climb up there without a lot of help.  If there aren’t half a dozen sherpas available to boost me up, I at least need a sturdy stepstool (preferably one with handrails) — which actually is a good thing.  Climbing stairs, even if only one or two, is an excellent cardio exercise.   Low-slung sports cars present an opposite challenge.  If, like me, your knees no longer bend normally, you can’t lower yourself into the seat gradually and gracefully.  Instead, simply stand in the open doorway with your back to the car’s interior, aim your  rear end towards the seat, and freefall into it.  Since  gravity does most of the work, unfortunately little or no effort is required on your part — until you have to twist your buttocks around and lift your legs into the car.  At first, you may require assistance from a friend or passer-by to help with those leg lifts until you have strengthened your thigh muscles enough to be able to do it yourself.

    You’re now ready to drive.  With power brakes, power steering, automatic transmission, and electric turn signals — and even automated parallel parking — today’s cars offer little or no opportunity for exercise.  To compensate for that lack, health providers advise you to resist the temptation to use your handicap placard to park near the door when you arrive at your destination.  Instead, they say you should select a space as far away as possible so you can benefit from the walk.  So I do just that.  However, once I park in that remote space, I  realize it will take as much effort to get out of the car as it did to get into it.  And after that I’m supposed to walk a mile?!  Forget it.  The mere thought exhausts me.  So, instead, I just drive back home.  I’ll have a neighbor pick up the groceries I need tomorrow.

    But before you go home, be sure to visit the fast food drive-through.  What better way to stretch those arms than by  reaching for those burgers and fries?

    At the end of the day, it’s time for my evening workout — getting out of those clothes it was such an effort to get into that morning, and then gyrating myself into my PJs.  After all that effort, I’m ready for a good night’s rest; but I don’t allow myself that luxury.  Tossing and turning most of the night, punching the pillow, plus sprinting to the bathroom four or five times all insure that I continue to burn calories when most people simply waste the nighttime hours sleeping soundly.

    So, no excuses, People!  Get up from that couch!  (But maybe you should take a little nap first to give you the strength to tackle that.)

    ©2014 Rose Madeline Mula for SeniorWomen.com

    *Full Definition of FOGY, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:  a person with old-fashioned ideas —usually used with old

    — fo·gy·ish or fo·gey·ish adjective

    — fo·gy·ism or fo·gey·ism noun

    origin unknown

    First Known Use: 1780

      

    Editor’s Note: Rose Mula’s most recent book, Grandmother Goose: Rhymes for a Second Childhood is now available as an e-book on Amazon.com for the Kindle and at BarnesandNoble.com for the Nook at $2.99; the paperback edition is still available for $9.95. Her books of humorous essays, The Beautiful People and Other Aggravations, and If These Are Laugh Lines, I’m Having Way Too Much Fun can also be ordered at Amazon.com or through Pelican Publishing (800-843-1724).

  • The Puzzling Workforce Decline

    By Marsha Mercer, Special to Stateline

    Hiring Now

    When manufacturers of cardboard boxes, wire bagel baskets and other products said they needed workers with technological expertise and strong social skills, Maryland officials agreed to set up manufacturing boot camps for recruits.

    The eight-week sessions will train and test potential workers in financial literacy and anger management as well as in computer-assisted design and robotics. In the past, Maryland’s job training programs prepared participants for broad categories of jobs, with limited success. Now the state is bringing together business and industry, colleges and local and state agencies in partnerships to create training programs for skills that employers actually need.

    Graphic:  MAU Workforce Solutions

    Industry partnerships are just one strategy states are using to fight persistent unemployment and a less-discussed but troubling trend: In every state and the District of Columbia, the labor force participation rate is shrinking.

    The labor force participation rate represents the proportion of the population 16 and over that has jobs or is looking for work. Simply put, if there are 100 people and 65 are employed or job hunting, the labor force participation rate is 65 percent.

    The annual average labor force participation rate in Maryland dropped from 69.4 percent in 2008 to 67.4 percent in 2013.

    Despite a dip in the national unemployment rate to 6.7 percent at the end of 2013, 10 million Americans remained jobless. Over the last five years, the national job participation rate has dropped almost 3 percentage points, to 63.2 percent — the lowest level since 1978. In 2008, as the recession kicked in, the rate was 66.0 percent.

    “What exactly these people are doing is the question,” says Susan Campolongo, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a question many economists are trying to answer.

    Labor participation rates vary widely among the states:

    • In 2008, 13 states had rates above 70 percent. They were Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming. In 2013, only three states had rates above 70 percent – Minnesota (70.4), Nebraska (72) and North Dakota (71.5).
    • On the low end of the scale, in 2008 only two states had labor force participation rates below 60 percent – Mississippi and West Virginia. Last year, eight did – the previous two, Mississippi (56.9) and West Virginia (53.5), plus Alabama (56.8), Arizona (59.3), Arkansas (58.3), Louisiana (59.6), New Mexico (58.1) and South Carolina (58.8).

    Searching for Answers

    Economists debate why the labor force is shrinking. Some blame demographics. The first wave of boomers reached age 62 in 2008 and qualified for Social Security. Some stayed on the job when their 401(k) plans and home values plummeted in 2009 and 2010 but are retiring now that stocks and housing have partially recovered. There’s also a trend for older retirees to re-enter the workforce. Some jobless workers are claiming Social Security disability benefits; those rolls have doubled in the last five years.

    Fruitless job searches also lead the jobless to withdraw from the workforce. The Congressional Budget Office reported in February that “the unusually large number of people who have decided not to look for work because of a lack of job opportunities” has pushed workforce participation down. The trend is expected to continue through 2016.

    Prime-age male workers leave the work force because they’re frustrated with their job prospects and wages or no longer feel the need to hold steady employment, some economists said.

    10 States With Highest Labor Participation
    1. North Dakota 71.5%
    2. Nebraska 72%
    3. Minnesota 70.4%
    4. South Dakota 69.9%
    5. Iowa 69.5%
    6. DC 69.3%
    7. New Hampshire 69.2%
    8. Utah 68.6%
    9. Vermont 68.5%
    10. Wisconsin 68.2%
    Source: BLS, 2013 data.

    “The core problem in the United States is: Why have employment rates of 25- to 54-year-old men been slipping?” said Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches labor market policy. He suggested there have been fundamental changes in the job market, in society’s view of men and in men’s attitudes toward work since 1960.

    “From World War II to the early 1960s, men 20 to 64 were very, very heavily relied upon” by women and families, he said.

    Men without a high school diploma were able to hold a stable career and support a family by working in construction and heavy manufacturing. Over the last few decades, many of those jobs have disappeared, and women have become more equal in the workplace.

    “Men as a group now are put in competition with women for jobs” that once were male preserves, he said, such as banks.

    The CBO attributes about half the 3 percentage point decline in labor participation to the aging population and other long-term trends; about 1 percentage point drop to weakness in job prospects and wages, which prompts frustrated job-seekers to leave the workforce temporarily; and about one-half of a percentage point decline to discouraged jobless workers dropping out of the labor force permanently.

    A shrinking labor force matters because it’s “the central factor in slowing economic growth,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told a U.S. House Budget committee hearing Feb. 5.

    “After we get out of this current downturn, but later in this decade and beyond, the principal reason why we think the economic growth will be less than it was for most of my lifetime will be a slower rate of growth by the labor force,” Elmendorf said.

    CBO projects the workforce participation rate will continue to fall, dropping to 62.5 percent by the end of 2017.

    What States Are DoingMau photo

    To help the unemployed get back to work, at least 17 state legislatures passed laws regarding workforce development last year, said Qiana Flores of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Photo: MAU Workforce Solutions

    Maryland was one of them. The goal of its Employment Advancement Right Now (EARN) program is to train unemployed workers for specific jobs that employers are trying to fill, while teaching skills that will help them thrive far into the future. For example, EARN  will train welders for  current bridge and other construction jobs with an eye to preparing the workers for new jobs assembling and maintaining turbines in future offshore wind farms. The first of 40 to 70 turbines are expected to be up and running off Ocean City, Md., by 2018.

    “In the past, when we’ve trained people at community colleges or other places for jobs, they were not the right job fit for jobs,” said Maryland Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, a Baltimore Democrat. “Now we have employers coming to the EARN program, telling us what specifically they need. This is a very, very big change for Maryland.”

    Maryland lawmakers appropriated $4.5 million for the first year of EARN. It was the first state general fund money Maryland had devoted to workforce development in many years, said Scott Jensen, Maryland’s deputy secretary of labor. Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley has asked the legislature for an additional  $4.5 million for EARN for the next fiscal year.

    Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin also have established public-private industry partnerships. Wisconsin Fast Forward will give up to $15 million in grants to employer-led training programs over two years to train jobless and underemployed workers. The first round of grants — $2.6 million – was announced Feb. 14.

    Other states are pursuing different strategies to boost workforce participation. Connecticut, New Jersey and Virginia were among states that passed laws aimed at helping veterans find employment. The Connecticut General Assembly unanimously approved expanding to all vets the state’s Subsidized Training and Employment Program, known as Step Up. The state has invested $10 million over two years in the Step Up program, which provides tax credits and wage subsidies to employers. New Jersey’s Helmets to Hardhats program, which is modeled on the national H2H program, helps vets find and train for jobs in construction. New Jersey offers $420,000 in grants for the program.

    Virginia Values Veterans, a $450,000 program, aims to educate employers about the advantages vets bring to the workplace and to secure promises from employers to hire vets.  From June 2012 through February 2014, 180 companies pledged to hire 5,500 veterans. Of these, 3,300 actually had been hired, said Andy Schwartz, head of the program known as V3.

    Connecticut increased its manufacturing apprenticeship tax credit. Indiana passed a Jobs for Hoosiers program, requiring claimants for unemployment benefits to make an in-person visit to the WorkOne office in the fourth week, and is working with new or expanding businesses to train and upgrade workers’ skills. Missouri passed similar legislation and created a “New Jobs Tax Credit.”

    Large state investment is rare. “The majority of states don’t put state money into workforce development,” said Fred Dedrick, executive director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, which has raised $35 million over seven years from foundations to be used in local job training programs in 30 localities. In addition, he said, state workforce programs tend to come and go.

    “Every time there’s a new governor, a new program comes along,” Dedrick said.

    Most states rely on funding from the US Department of Labor to help the unemployed, and “the federal government has been cutting back year after year after year,” says Rich Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

    The Labor Department’s employment and training budget has dropped from $7 billion to $6 billion since fiscal year 2010, according to the National Skills Coalition, which tracks federal funding.

    Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.

  • The Bletchley Circle Returns: Alice Is Quietly Resigned To the Fact She Will Hang

    Bletchley Season Two

    L – R:  Alice, (Hattie Morahan); Lucey, (Sophie Rundle); Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin); Millie (Rachael Stirling); Jean (Julie Graham). Credit: Courtesy of ©World Productions 2013

    This series follows Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, ordinary women with extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, site of the United Kingdom’s main decryption establishment. Now, in 1952, the four have returned to civilian life, keeping their intelligence work secret from all, including family and friends. A series of ghastly murders targeting women, however, reunites the team as they set out to decode the pattern behind the crimes.

    Upcoming Broadcasts: Sundays, April 13-May 4, 2014, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET

    Blood On Their Hands, Part 1 and 2

    Alice Merren is in prison awaiting trial for the murder of her former Bletchley Park colleague. Jean, believing Alice is covering for someone, begins to reunite the circle to help establish the innocence of one of their own. The investigation leads to a young woman who seems to have had a relationship with the deceased and in whose home they find documents suggesting a military cover-up of a chemical spill. The women use the skills honed at Bletchley Park — and take dangerous chances — to try to exonerate Alice. Since Alice refuses to participate in her own defense, the women begin to investigate the murder. Clues found in the murdered man’s house lead to Lizzie, a woman with whom he had a relationship. In Lizzie’s apartment, the women find a classified military file and press clippings relating to a chemical spill. Eventually they track down Lizzie, who fears her life is in danger. Susan deduces why Alice is willing to face the death penalty.

    Through a search of documents and confidential police information, the women believe the murder was part of a wider military cover-up. When Susan gains entry to a military hospital, she learns the truth. Meanwhile, the other women’s lives are in danger.

  • Bills Introduced: Background Checks on Foster Care Placements,Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, Military Sexual Trauma & Tax Credit Increase for Childless Workers

     

    HearingsRep. Dina Titus

    Rep. Dina Titus

    On March 27, the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on several bills, including H.R. 2527, the National Guard Military Sexual Trauma Parity Act, and H.R. 2974, a bill to provide beneficiary travel for veterans seeking treatment and care for military sexual trauma (MST) in specialized inpatient and outpatient programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

    National Guard Military Sexual Trauma Parity Act

    The measure, sponsored by Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), would permit veterans who served in the National Guard or reserve components of the armed forces and experienced military sexual assault during inactive duty training to receive the necessary counseling and care.

    Speaking on behalf of the bill, Rep. Titus said, “Members of the National Guard or other reserve components who are the unfortunate victims of sexual assault while on active duty are, like members of the other armed forces, provided all the resources and services they need to recover and heal, physically and emotionally. This treatment is provided by the VA for free for as long as is needed … These benefits, however, are not offered to members of the National Guard or other reserve components who experience sexual assault while on inactive training missions.” She continued, “This oversight is simply unacceptable, and leaves so many who have served our country without assistance or support during a devastating time. The National Guard Military Sexual Trauma Parity Act would fix this omission and clarify that all victims of sexual trauma in the National Guard or other reserve components have access to the resources and services they need whether they are on active duty or on a required training mission.”

    H.R. 2974

    The legislation, sponsored by Jackie Walorski (R-IN), would make victims of military sexual trauma eligible for VA beneficiary travel benefits.Jackie Walorski

    Rep. Jackie Walorski

    “MST-related care must be provided in a setting that is therapeutically appropriate, taking into account the circumstances that resulted in the need for such care,” said Rep. Walorski. “A supportive environment is essential for recovery. Thus, VA policy states that any veteran with MST must receive clinically appropriate care regardless of location. Veterans being treated for conditions associated with MST are often admitted to programs outside their Veterans Integrated Service Network. VA health care in general, especially for women, has been characterized as fragmented … to a 2012 VA inspector general report, obtaining authorization for travel funding was frequently cited as a major problem for both patients and staff. The beneficiary travel policy indicates that only certain categories of veterans are eligible for travel benefits, and payment is only authorized to the closest facility providing a comparable service. The current beneficiary travel policy contradicts VA’s MST policy, which states that patients with MST should be referred to programs that are clinically indicated regardless of geographic location.”

    The following witnesses also testified:

    On March 26, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations held a hearing, Innocence for Sale: Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.Judge Donna Groman

    Judge Donna Quigley Groman

    The Honorable Donna Quigley Groman, supervising judge, Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center, Los Angeles County Juvenile Delinquency Court, focused her remarks on the need to treat children who have been trafficked as victims. She said, “It is important to understand that these youth are not criminals. They are children who are being abused by sex traffickers, and they deserve the same protections and resources to which other child victims of sexual or physical abuse and neglect are entitled. Child victims of sexual abuse are comforted by assurances that they are not responsible for the abuse. Child victims of commercial sexual exploitation deserve the same assurances. The criminalization of commercial exploitation of children holds these children responsible for not preventing their exploitation.”

    Highlighting federal efforts to end domestic child sex trafficking, Michael Harpster, acting deputy assistant director, Criminal Investigative Division, Branch 1, Federal Bureau of Investigation, noted that “By utilizing information obtained through [task force] operations, and by building a strong rapport with victims, the FBI often uncovers organized efforts to prostitute women and children across many states. These investigations can lead to local, state, or federal charges. To date, our investigations have led to the conviction of more than 1,400 pimps, madams, and their associates who commercially exploit children through prostitution. These convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including multiple life sentences and the seizure of real property, vehicles, and monetary assets.”

    The following witnesses also testified during the hearing:

  • The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?

    Editor’s Note: We’re including these links as we find few networks and/or cable are carrying these hearings. Once a live feed is over, perhaps the Committees will release their recorded sessions. GM is a frequent contributor to congressional committee member campaigns and funds.

    The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Hearings

    Wednesday, April 2, 2014

    Examining the GM Recall and NHTSA’s Defect Investigation Process

    The live webcast: http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings&ContentRecord_id=878092ca-3da8-4a43-8948-6f50822a1938

    Majority Statement

    Witness Panel 1

    Witness Panel 2


    The Congressional Hearings: Energy and Commerce

    Tuesday, April 1, 2014 – 2:00pm

    Oversight and Investigations: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/%E2%80%9C-gm-ignition-switch-recall-why-did-it-take-so-long%E2%80%9D

    2123 Rayburn

    Background Memo: – See more at: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF02/20140401/102033/HHRG-113-IF02-20140401-SD002-U2.pdf

    From Open Secrets:

    General Motors CEO Mary Barra goes in front of House and Senate panels investigating ignition switch problems in her company’s vehicles, she’ll be talking to many members whose campaigns have received contributions from the company she steers.

    marybarra.jpg

    Twenty-one members, or more than 40 percent of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — which today [is questioning] Barra on the company’s previous knowledge of the faulty technology that has been blamed for 13 deaths — have been helped by cash from GM’s PAC in the 2012 or 2014 election cycles, according to an OpenSecrets Blog analysis. The company has given $72,000 to the committee’s members from 2011 through 2013, or about $3,500 to each member who received donations.

    http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/03/many-lawmakers-investigating-gm-have-long-been-helped-by-auto-maker.html

    Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy

    Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton

    Mary Barra

    David Friedman

    – See more at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/%E2%80%9C-gm-ignition-switch-recall-why-did-it-take-so-long%E2%80%9D#sthash.sqkG0bck.dpuf

    Opening Statements: 

    Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy

    Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton

    Witnesses: 

    Mary Barra

    David Friedman

    Congress: 113th

    – See more at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/%E2%80%9C-gm-ignition-switch-recall-why-did-it-take-so-long%E2%80%9D#sthash.sqkG0bck.dpuf

  • Night of the Runaway Wheelchair; A Life-Altering Class

    By Roberta McReynolds

    The breeze lifting the hair off my face didn’t originate from any meteorological conditions. It occurred when my wheelchair broke free of my white-knuckled grip at the top of a long ramp, consequently launching me across the parking lot. It felt like I was about to execute an imitation of one of those metal balls in a pinball machine, poised to ricochet off all obstacles in my path, but without the bells and lights.Navigating obstacles at U of Ky

    Erin Miller, a senior occupational science major, completed an obstacle course in a wheelchair during Disabilities Awareness Day activities at Eastern Kentucky University

    I managed to skid to a stop a few feet short of ruining the paint job of the nearest car. As I caught my breath, I realized how close I had come to explaining this near miss to my insurance company. How embarrassing, especially since I didn’t exactly require the use of a wheelchair to navigate about in my surroundings in the first place. (But then again, that situation might have altered if I had actually crashed.)

    The incident stemmed from my participation in a life-altering class. I hadn’t set out to further my education, nor was I contemplating a new career following several years of blissful early retirement. Yet the six-line blurb tucked in the community section of the newspaper grabbed my attention as firmly as a front-page headline. It announced the schedule for an Activity Director training course. Those few lines had already taught me something new; I never realized that state and federal laws require certified activity directors for nursing facilities and similar institutions.

    I clipped out the square of newsprint and left it where I could reread it throughout the day, weighing how much my interest was sustained as the deadline for registration approached. I imagined offering arts and crafts to those living in facilities and the lure became stronger. This was right up my alley! I decided to pick up the phone and find out if there was room for one more in the limited-size class.

    The class was held two nights a week for one semester. We met at a church classroom annexed off a gymnasium/multipurpose room that was utilized as a daycare center for adults with cognitive disabilities on weekdays.

    The first evening each student was asked to explain why they were taking the class. I was already feeling out of my element. Most of my classmates (all women) were already employed in health care occupations and needed the class to become certified and comply with regulations. Others planned on a career in this field. When it was my turn, I admitted that I was there primarily out of curiosity and interest in geriatrics. The compliment of instructors and my classmates silently stared at me, the obvious misfit. While sustaining direct eye contact with me, the director made a point of saying that students could drop out that night and still get a complete refund.

    Everyone received a two-inch thick binder and listened to the overview of material, assignments, and required volunteer hours at different levels of care facilities. We would be required to develop two projects which fulfilled regulations and demonstrate them in front of the class. Weekly tests covering physical and mental disabilities, as well as the state and federal regulations and corresponding paperwork would track our progress. An incredible amount of documentation, charting, and assessments are required from an activity director on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis for each resident. Naturally, the regulations in California were the toughest in the country (at least at the time I was enrolled in the class). The huge amount of material we’d cover each night meant that if a student missed more than one class, she would be automatically dropped, but allowed to return next year and try again.

    I suspected bets were already being made by the end of the first session as to how long I’d last. Truthfully, I wasn’t so sure anymore either. Who knew that just playing a game of BINGO with residents in a nursing facility could be so complex?

    The point to all this is quality of life. Perhaps memories of visiting my great-grandmother at a nursing home when I was a little girl planted the seed of empathy which triggered this interest. Even though I was only six years old at the time, I can still picture the plain, institutional white walls where she spent her final months. Prior to all those regulations aimed at improving quality of life, those residents who were able to leave their rooms sat slumped in wheelchairs staring at the tiled floor for hours. They merely existed.

    When my mother and I arrived for a visit, the tired faces lining the halls lit up and gnarled, arthritic hands reached out in my direction. They wanted to touch my curly brown hair and pat my round cheeks. I was extremely shy and wanted to pull away from these strangers, but my mother understood their need for contact and told me to endure the attention for a few minutes before going into great-grandmother’s room. Eventually I even made friends with a few of them and we ‘adopted’ each other as a sort of extended family.

    While far from perfect, things have changed dramatically since then. The scope of Title 22 requirements includes the following activities: social, indoor and outdoor, activities away from the facility, religious programs (with exemptions), opportunity for patient involvement, creative, educational, and exercise (with exemptions). The monthly calendar an activity director creates must cover and balance all these areas. There are also five categories of activity groupings to consider: activities of daily living, cognitive/intellectual, physical, social/recreational, and sensory. Each individual is assessed to determine limitations, interests, and needs. Personalized goals are set. Participation and progress are documented and reviewed regularly to assure that the greatest potential level of enrichment is provided.

  • Forget Your Twitter Following; Nuclear Weapons Materials Gone Missing: What Does History Teach?

    Obama looks at Rembrandt painting at Rijksmuseum

    President Barack Obama looks at Rembrandt’s “Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul” during a tour of the Gallery of Honor at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 24, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

    FAS President Dr. Charles Ferguson examines missing US nuclear fissile materials in a chapter of the new book Nuclear Weapons Materials Gone Missing: What Does History Teach? (published by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.) The chapter examines incidents of missing materials (such as missing highly enriched uranium from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation in Pennsylvania from the 1960s) and provides an overview of U.S. military control and accounting systems and recommendations on how to improve these systems.

    Ever since President Obama made securing nuclear weapons assets a top priority for his global arms control agenda, guarding and disposing of these holdings have become an international security preoccupation. Starting in 2010, multilateral nuclear summits on how to prevent nuclear theft and sabotage have been held every two years — the first in Washington, the second in Seoul, the third in [just completed] The Hague. Scores of studies have been commissioned and written, and nearly as many workshops (official and unofficial) have been held.

    Yet, in all of this, the urgent task of securing and disposing of known nuclear weapons assets has all but sidelined what to do about nuclear weapons-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium that we have lost track of. This is understandable. It also is worrisome.

    How likely is it that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could detect even a large amount of MUF [material unaccounted for] in a timely fashion at declared civilian nuclear sites? What of national means of detection? What can we learn from the history of civilian MUF discoveries in Japan and the UK and of military MUF in the United States and South Africa? How well can the IAEA or any existing nuclear material accountancy system track the production of special nuclear material or account for past production?

    This volume gives us more than a few answers. Much of the analysis is technical. Most of it, technical or not, is downbeat. The good news is that this is the first dedicated volume on this specialized topic. There is likely to be more of such histories written in the future. How they might read, however, ultimately will depend on how much unnecessary civilian and military material production is curtailed, which is itself a matter worthy of another book.Book image

    Published by:  The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center; text by the Center .  Download the Complete Edition or a Chapter: Read the chapter here (PDF).

    Releases about the the 3rd Nuclear Summit March 24th and 25th, The Hague:

    -03/25/14   Joint Statement by President Obama and President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan on Cooperation in the Sphere of Nonproliferation and Strengthening Nuclear Security
    -03/25/14   Joint Statement by the United States and Ukraine
    -03/25/14   Joint U.S.-EU Statement on Combating Illicit Trafficking
    -03/25/14   Joint Statement on Multinational Cooperation on High-Density Low-Enriched Uranium Fuel Development
    -03/25/14   Fact Sheet: U.S. – Kazakhstan Cooperative Activities in Nuclear Security
    -03/25/14   Fact Sheet: Enhancing the Security of the Maritime Supply Chain Gift Basket
    -03/25/14   Fact Sheet: U.S. Counter Nuclear Smuggling Activities
    -03/24/14   Fact Sheet: Advancing Global Nuclear Security
    -03/24/14   Fact Sheet: Belgium Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium Removals
    -03/24/14   Fact Sheet: Italy Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium Removals
    -03/24/14   Fact Sheet: Cooperation at Japan’s Fast Critical Assembly
    -03/24/14   Fact Sheet: United States-Japan Nuclear Security Working Group
    -03/24/14   Joint Statement by President Obama and Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo of Belgium on the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit
    -03/24/14   Joint Statement by the Leaders of Japan and the United States on Contributions to Global Minimization of Nuclear Material
    -03/24/14   Joint Statement by the United States and Italy on the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit
    -03/24/14   Joint Statement on Countries Free of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)
    -03/20/14  Joint Statement on the Contributions of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) to Enhancing Nuclear Security; Office of the Spokesperson; Washington, DC
    -03/24/14   Statement on Enhancing Radiological Security

  • Draft Rules Would Help Protect Seniors When Medicare Advantage Plans Drop Doctors

    By Susan Jaffe

    Federal officials are considering new Medicare Advantage rules to help protect seniors when insurers make significant reductions to their networks of doctors and other health care providers.

    The proposals follow UnitedHealthcare’s decision to drop thousands of doctors from its Medicare Advantage plans in at least 10 states last fall.

    The government’s response is part of the 148-page announcement of proposed rules and payment rates for next year’s Medicare Advantage plans released last month by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Officials say that the terminations only a few weeks before Medicare’s Dec. 7 enrollment deadline may not have given seniors enough time to find new doctors, choose a different plan or rejoin traditional Medicare, which does not restrict beneficiaries to a limited network of providers.

    The proposals would give beneficiaries more than 30 days’ advance notice of network changes and providers at least 60 days’ advance notice of a contract termination. Even Medicare officials need more advance notice – “no less than 90 days” – so they can ensure that the remaining providers “will continue to meet required network standards.” Officials are soliciting suggestions on how plans should prove that their reconfigured networks are adequate.

    The physician terminations sparked protests to Medicare and UnitedHealthcare from patients, as well as physician groups across the country, state officials and members of Congress.

    Nearly 16 million people, about a third of Medicare beneficiaries, are enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans, which are an alternative to traditional Medicare. The government reimburses insurers to care for these seniors.

    Although the announcement does not name any insurance companies, officials prefaced the proposals by writing, “Recent significant mid-year changes to MAOs’ [Medicare Advantage organizations’] provider networks have prompted CMS to reexamine its current guidance on these requirements and to consider augmenting such guidance in response to such changes.”

    Medicare Advantage rules allow beneficiaries to change plans if they move out of the coverage area or for other special reasons, but not if they lose their doctors or hospitals. Otherwise, they can switch plans only once a year, during the annual seven-week, fall enrollment period. Since most beneficiaries are locked into their plans, CMS is considering whether to restrict insurers’ ability to drop doctors during the plan year.

    If insurers expect to drop providers in the coming year, they should say so in the letter highlighting changes that they are required to send to plan members every year before the open enrollment season. CMS would also add “required language” to the letter explaining patients’ rights in the event that network providers leave the plan during the plan year.

    Final rules are expected as early as April 7.

    “These are exactly the things we talked about with CMS back in the fall,” said Mark Thompson, executive director of the Fairfield County (Conn.) Medical Association, which, along with the Hartford County Medical Association, sued UnitedHealthcare to block the terminations. The American Medical Association and 35 state medical associations and physician advocacy groups filed legal papers in support of the doctors.

    “Someone was paying attention and listening to us,” Thompson said.

    A federal court judge in December issued an injunction halting the cancellations in those counties and a panel of three federal appeals court judges in February upheld that decision until the doctors had time to challenge their terminations before independent arbitrators.

    Representatives for UnitedHealthcare and Humana, the two leading Medicare Advantage insurers, declined to answer questions or provide copies of their comments to CMS related to the proposals. UnitedHealthcare said earlier the cancellations were partly the result of cuts in federal reimbursements required by the Affordable Care Act and also part of an effort to improve quality and reduce costs.

    However, America’s Health Insurance Plans, which represents more than 1,300 health insurers, warned CMS that the proposed rules could hinder insurers’ contract negotiations with providers, which “occur throughout the year” and could also weaken enforcement of contract terms that allow for provider terminations. In addition, notifying beneficiaries of potential terminations before contracts may be successfully completed “would be unnecessarily disruptive,” the group says.

    Contact Susan Jaffe at Jaffe.KHN@gmail.com 

    This article was produced by Kaiser Health News with support from The SCAN Foundation and was produced in collaboration with wapo

  • Janet L. Yellen: Remarks on Women’s History Month

    Chair Janet L. Yellen At the Women’s History Month Reception, US Capitol, Washington, D.C.

    March 25, 2014Council of economic advisors

     

    It’s an honor and a pleasure for me to be here with you to mark Women’s History Month, which itself has some history behind it.

    March 8, 1911 was the first International Women’s Day, and it was 1980 when President Carter established National Women’s History Week. In 1987, Congress acted to make that week a full month.

    Women, of course, are also a part of history for the other 11 months of the year. And I would add that women were influencing the course of history long before 1980, or 1911. But I am glad that there is, each year, a time when we pause to think about the role of women, because history is more than simply what happened, and more than what women and men did to make it happen.

    History is what we remember about those deeds. It is the lessons we have taken from the past and the knowledge we draw on to live today and to shape the future.

    For me, one lesson from history is that it is no coincidence that America’s great success in the past century came as women steadily increased their participation in every aspect of society. Starting with gaining the vote, just a few years before International Women’s Day, “The American Century,” as it’s sometimes known, was also a century of progress for women. Fundamental to our country’s values, to those ideals that have been and continue to be so influential around the world, is the principle of equality for all, including for women.

    One reason America’s example is influential elsewhere is because progress toward these ideals has been accompanied by great success in broadly raising living standards. And I think our economic success has been due in substantial part to the fuller participation and contribution of women to the economy. Their increasing participation in the workforce, particularly after 1970, was a major factor in sustaining growing family incomes. Making fuller use of the talents and efforts of women in the workplace has made us more productive and prosperous.

    If I were to apply this lesson, I would hope that our nation continues to reap the benefits of greater participation by women in the economy and that we do everything that we can to foster that participation. Women have made great progress in many occupations and professions, but lag in others. In my own profession, there has been a gradual increase in the share of women in economics, but women still remain underrepresented at the highest levels in academia, in government and in business. There are doubtless numerous reasons for this, and in fact economists themselves are among those engaged in trying to understand the factors that explain why more women aren’t rising to higher levels.

    I hope we continue to seek this understanding, in my field and others where women are in the minority, because the benefits of greater participation for women, it seems to me, are clear and substantial. As we continue to make progress in recovering from the Great Recession, our country is going to need the best efforts, ideas and talent it can muster to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy. If women’s history can shape the future, I hope that it inspires America to take those steps we can take to draw forth these contributions from all Americans.

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  • First on the List: Cubbing

     A French staghound pack moving off.

    A French staghound pack: moving off.  Photo by Luna04, Wikipedia

    By Joan L. Cannon

    I never thought of a ‘bucket list’ till the movie came out. Since then, I’ve thought of them often. Lately, I’ve come to realize that I don’t really have one. Oh, there are still the things I’d love to have done, places I’ve always wanted to go, successes I wish I’d had, but the desire is almost as far in the past these days as the dreams were when I had them.

    Maybe part of the reason is that I’m so far beyond being one of the “women over fifty” for which SeniorWomenWeb is designed, or perhaps it’s that too many of those wishes  wouldn’t have been so enticing to experience alone. Even a couple of years ago, when our daughter and her husband proposed a river cruise in Europe, I was astonished to realize I didn’t much want to go. That had been an ambition my husband and I shared for decades, and then, when it might be possible, it didn’t seem enticing at all.

    When I was in my thirties and for perhaps the next twenty years, I used to think that one day, somehow, I’d get to go to Ireland or England and go cubbing. For those to whom that’s a new term, it refers to the practice of taking novice hounds out to learn how to be fox hunters in the autumn, when the fox cubs are still denned with their mothers. I thought of this as an ideal time to have an experienced hunter (horse) under me in an undemanding cross country ride in an ancient and romantic tradition.

    Later, thinking about the total unfairness of attacking innocent, inexperienced babies where their dams would be their only protection with scores of dogs learning to tear them apart, I lost any desire for that item on my bucket list. I tried to work up some enthusiasm for the “drag” hunts indulged in in our part of the world, but the taste was fading fast. Of course, so was my athleticism. If challenged, I probably would have chickened out at the idea of a four-bar fence to be jumped on an unfamiliar mount.

    When my father asked me in my senior year in high school what I wanted to be, I replied that perhaps acting or art. I knew he’d hoped I’d go for organic chemistry, and that it was hopeless for someone who got C minuses in Algebra. His reply was that I could do anything I wanted after I graduated from college. There went all those fantasies of modern dance, the stage, easels and painter’s smocks. I never even dared to confess that I’d like to be writer. So I was the first in our family to have a college degree, though my father already had a doctorate, honoris causa.

    Since reading in childhood an exciting series of books about Navajo-Zuni-Hopi country and the people who live there, I’ve always wanted to visit the southwest. I don’t know if The Song of Hiawatha influenced me, but I have an abiding fascination with the first inhabitants of North America. History classes in school emphasized this. Maybe I’m just drawn to obvious underdogs with everything going against them. When I became the manager of a museum gift shop for an Indian museum, this ambition increased. I really wanted to watch the varied techniques of jewelry making depending on whether the workman/woman was a member of one tribe or another. Navajo silver is quite familiar to nearly everyone, but the wonderful Zuni ‘needlepoint’ and the Hopi inlays are less so. I wanted to see Pueblo potters, weavers, sand painters, beaders and quill workers. Today there is no way I’d want to venture into the tourist-crowded markets or to trading posts by myself. I salve this itch with old issues of Arizona Highways.

    My husband and I both wanted to see Florence. Travels in Italy (on business) had excluded that city from his experience, and I had never even been to Europe until 1977. After his retirement we booked a place on a tour. Without going into the details, suffice to say that we arrived about 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon in Florence, and we left Monday morning before 8 in the morning. So much for that goal.

    Some of the excuse for this ever-shortening list of things to do before I’m gone depends on the practicalities involved:  cost, how to take care of my pets in my absence, general acknowledgment of the unavoidable shortcomings both physical and temperaments of aging. But there’s something else at work, I think, in the back of my mind. Blessed with relative good health, I find so much pleasure in walking the dog in the famous Litchfield Hills’ landscape, in something like the setting sun’s flaring reflection from a polished brass weather vane on the steeple of a meeting house as I drive to my son’s for supper, the fabulous ability of that possum that my dog surprised under the bird feeder a couple of nights ago.

    The dog was unaware for almost a minute that anything was out there, and when he noticed it and began slowly to approach, the possum fell over in a fetal curl, its teeth exposed in a rictus of instinctive behavior, and the dog (who is old and deaf and couldn’t hear me calling him) was easily led back to the house. I’ve seen this once before, but it still amazes me. I live in an area rife with the arts, and whenever the ticket price isn’t too high (and sometimes when it is), I have access to incredible music and much more.

     Tonight I’ll attend a performance of Hello, Dolly at the regional high school where one of our granddaughters is singing the lead. I know how good she was as Nellie Forbush last year, and she’s a year older and more confident now. All her other performances (beginning with Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz when she was nine) I’ve had to see on videotape or DVDs when I lived in another state at some distance away.

     If there’s one more thing on my bucket list, it’s the least likely ever to come to pass, but I can’t remove it, even though I want to:  I’d love to be published by a traditional publisher just once. The days when I occasionally sold a short story (I mean I got paid for letting someone print it) are long gone. I don’t much care what it is, since I’ve written long and short fiction, newspaper features, poetry, novels, and these essays. I look at my father’s and my uncle’s books on the shelf, published by Doubleday or Farrar, Strauss, or Knopf, and mentally I sigh, and maybe even salivate a little.

    That’s my bucket list. At least I have the wit to be grateful for its brevity.

    © 2014 Joan L. Cannon for SeniorWomen.com