Prudent Blogger

Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a far-reaching measure that enacted a series of changes improving public access for people with disabilities and protecting them from discrimination.

This Story

• Conversations: Kareem Dale: Disability aide reflects on ADA’s anniversary
• : Americans with Disabilities Act Anniversary

Kareem Dale is associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and a special assistant to President Obama on disability policy, the first such adviser. He is legally blind and uses a cane when he walks.

Dale, a graduate of the University of Illinois law school, met Obama in 1998 when he invited the then-state senator to speak to the school’s Black Law Students Association. He joined Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 as an adviser on disability policy. He spoke on Friday about the law’s impact on federal policy and the general public.

Q How has ADA helped disabled Americans in the past 20 years?

I think people are very happy with the progress. You have curb cuts now. I’m a beneficiary of the Braille you see on hotel room doors and elevators. There’s better accessible transportation, wheelchair-accessible buses and reasonable accommodations that employers had to provide.

It’s been a sea change in 20 years, but we’re not done. One of the areas, for example, is when you look at technology. When ADA was passed in 1990, the Web wasn’t what it is now and technology wasn’t what it is now. The ADA and the law have to pick up with technology.

Give me an example of how ADA should apply better to technology.

Well, the simplest questions would be, does ADA apply to Web sites? Many courts have said no and maybe a couple have said yes, but it’s been an open question. Our Department of Justice just announced [on Friday] that they plan to issue some proposed rulemaking about ADA applying to Web sites.

Has ADA helped Americans better understand the plight of people with disabilities?

I think it has. I don’t think you have a law like the ADA and see changes like a blind governor in New York [David A. Paterson] — you don’t have those things without public awareness not changing.

Is it where it needs to be? Probably not, but that’s one of the things the president is trying to do, is say, ‘Look, I have people with disabilities working for my administration.’ So he’s trying to lead by example.

What are the Obama administration’s top goals when it comes to disability policy?

article source

Comments(0)

(CBS) Liberals might believe that Glenn Beck has been blind all along, but now the television talk show host says that he is suffering from macular dystrophy and may actually lose his sight.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor because of my eyes, I cant focus my eyes, he said to a Salt Lake City crowd on Saturday. He did all kinds of tests and he said, you have macular dystrophy …you could go blind in the next year. Or, you might not.

The often comedic Beck fired back, Did you just charge me a thousand dollars for knowing what I knew my whole life?

Vitelliform macular dystrophy is a genetic eye disorder which causes vision loss over time by disrupting cells in a small area near the center of the retina which is responsible for sharp central vision. A more aggressive version can strike during childhood. Either form can make it hard to recognize faces, read and drive.

During Saturdays event, Beck quickly turned his medical problems towards a larger platform - his opposition to President Obamas health care reform.

I went to the best doctor I could find, while I could still go to the best doctor I can find, he told the approximately 6,000 people assembled for his American Revival tour.

Lets hope the system doesnt blind side him as he fears.

article source

Comments(0)

Elena Kagan denies substantive discussion of health-care case

Senate Republicans are worried that, as solicitor general, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan advised President Obama about litigation against health-care reform - a potential issue if the litigation makes it to the Supreme Court.

article source

Comments(0)

Al-Huwaidar’s husband received the same text, she learned last week,
when she had left Saudi Arabia on another recent trip to Germany.

“It is sad how Saudis use technology in a way not intended to be used
for,” she told The Media Line. “In Saudi Arabia, technology brings more
restrictions and misery! They use it to have more control over people’s
lives, especially women.”

“I am an adult woman that has been earning my own income for over a
decade now but according to the Saudi government, I am a dependent until
the day I die because of my gender,” Al-Huwaidar said. “Im not sure
how it works, but lately we get to be informed through our mobile phones
about our bank accounts, sale ads, jobs, donation campaigns and others.
Im sure its a new service that the government is using for different
purposes. They don’t state which country the dependent left for, but
simply state that they did leave.”

Saudi authorities did not respond to requests to comment on this
article, and whether the text messages received by Al-Huwaidar’s husband
indicate a new system of monitoring or a case-specific effort to track
Al-Huwaidar’s movements.

“I’m a member of the Saudi women’s rights group and my husband did not
tell me he received a message which means he probably didn’t,” Reem
Asaad, a Saudi economics lecturer and women’s rights activist told The
Media Line. “It’s possible that Wajiha [Al-Huwaidar] has been
spotlighted by the authorities.”

Saudi Arabia’s strict patriarchal guardianship system requires all women
to be represented by men — either their husband, father or son — in
all public and official spheres of life. Women are not allowed to drive,
inherit, divorce or gain custody of children; and cannot enter most
public spaces without a male guardian.

“My husband had to fill out a form at the passport control authority to
allow me and my children to travel outside the country whenever I like,”
Asaad explained. “He has to renew that with each passport every five
years. Most women travel this way.”

Nadya Khalife, the Middle East Womens Rights researcher at Human Rights
Watch, said the guardianship system presents an enormous barrier to
Saudi women’s freedom of movement.

“Guardianship is a really complicated system and has a great effect not
only on women’s travel within Saudi Arabia but also to the outside
world, prohibiting women’s freedom of movement in a very critical way,”
she told The Media Line. “A woman cannot leave the country without the
permission of her guardian, who might be her youngest son. The text
messages just adds another level of controlling women’s movements. I
guess they’re getting more technologically advanced.”

The Saudi government has gone to great efforts recently to improve the
image of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of
Vice, the country’s religious police who are tasked with enforcing the
guardianship system.

Earlier this year the commission’s national director was fired and the
new director, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Humain, announced a series of
training programs and a special unit to handle complaints against the
religious police.

“The government has promised to change the system and said that women
over 40 can travel a bit without a guardian,” Khalife said. “But from
what we’ve seen and the complaints we’ve received from women in Saudi,
the system is still very much in place. Women still need their
guardian’s permission to travel, to study, to work, and even to go to a
court to complain about domestic violence. So there’s a bit of a
disconnect between the promises that have been made and the reality on
the ground.”

Dr. Edit Schlaffer, founder of the advocacy group Women Without Borders,
said the Saudi guardianship system is in violation of international
law.

“The guardian system is one of these things that is not justified by the
Qu’ran,” she told The Media Line. “No other Muslim country has a system
like this. It’s a unique Saudi interpretation of Islam and according to
the freedom of movement provisions under the Human Rights Act the
guardianship system is totally unacceptable to the international
community. But unfortunately, women’s rights are not at the forefront of
international humans rights issues.”

Dr. Schlaffer, who recently concluded an extensive study on gender in
Saudi Arabia, argued that while there is a growing Saudi movement
opposed to the guardianship system, outside pressure will not help.

“There is a growing movement within Saudi Arabia which is supported by
women and forward-looking men who oppose the guardianship system,” she
said. “But Saudi Arabia is outside the international time zone so change
is extremely slow.”

“At the same time I feel that interferance from outside is helpful,” she
continued. “It creates new blockages. The way forward is to help civil
society within Saudi to provide a space for change.”

article source

Comments(0)

CHANDLER, Ariz., Jul 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Amkor Technology, Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!amkr/quotes/nls/amkr
(AMKR
5.80,
-0.02,
-0.34%)
today announced that Ken Joyce,
the company’s president and chief executive officer, and Joanne Solomon,
the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, will
participate in the Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Annual Technology, Media and
Telecommunications Conference in Boston, MA, on Tuesday, August 10,
2010. The presentation is scheduled to begin at 4:40 pm. (EDT).

An audio-only webcast of the presentation will be made available, both
live and by replay, on the Investor Relations section of the company’s
website. In accordance with company policy, Amkor will not update,
reaffirm or otherwise comment on any prior financial guidance during
this conference. Amkor’s financial guidance for the quarter is effective
only on the date given.

About Amkor

Amkor is a leading provider of semiconductor assembly and test services
to semiconductor companies and electronics OEMs. More information on
Amkor is available from the company’s SEC filings and on Amkor’s
website: www.amkor.com

SOURCE: Amkor Technology, Inc.

Amkor Technology, Inc., Chandler
Greg Johnson
Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
480-821-5000, ext. 5499
greg.johnson@amkor.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

article source

Comments(0)

July 19, 2010 — Abuse of prescription pain relievers jumped 400% between 1998 and 2008 among people aged 12 and older, according to a new report.

The report showed that prescription pain reliever abuse rose from 2.2% in 1998 to 9.8% a decade later, with increases seen across all sectors of society — gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education, employment status, and region. Moreover, pain reliever abuse soared from 6.8% in 1998 to 26.5% in 2008 among people admitted to treatment facilities for opioid dependence.

Easy access to prescription pain relievers, such as keeping OxyContin in the bathroom medicine cabinet or accessing illegal pharmacies on the Internet, may play a role in the increase, experts say. These numbers also indicate that prescription painkiller abuse has become a major national public health threat.

“The non-medical use of prescription pain relievers is now the second most prevalent form of illicit drug use in the nation, and its tragic consequences are seen in substance abuse treatment centers and hospital emergency departments throughout our nation” says Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, JD, in a news release. “This public health threat demands that we follow the president’s National Drug Control Strategy’s call for an all out effort to raise awareness of this risk and the critical importance of properly using, storing, and disposing of these powerful drugs.”

Prescription Drug Abuse on the Rise

The study was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. It was based on treatment facility admission data and was published Friday as the “Treatment Episode Data Set Report.”

Among the study’s other key findings:

• There were equally significant increases in prescription pain reliever abuse among men and women. For men, the proportion of treatment admissions rose from 1.8% in 1998 to 8.1% a decade later; for women, those figures were 3.5% and 13.3%, respectively.
• There were also equally significant increases among people with different levels of education. For people with an eighth grade education or less, admissions rose from 1.9% to 9.7% from 1998 to 2008; people with more than a high school education experienced an increase from 3.8% to 12.1% during that same time period.
• More than 55% of nonmedical users obtained prescription pain relievers from a friend or a relative for free; another 8.9% reported that they purchased prescription painkillers from a friend or relative.
• Although increases were seen across all races/ethnicities, non-Hispanic whites showed one of the most significant increases of admissions of prescription painkiller misuse, from 3.2% in 1998 to 14.4% in 2008.
• Increases were similar among the employed and unemployed, with a jump for employed people from 2.1% in 1998 to 9.2% in 2008 versus 2.7% to 11.1% for the unemployed.

article source

Comments(0)

DOVER, Del., Jul 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!dde/quotes/nls/dde
(DDE
3.21,
-0.04,
-1.23%)
invites you to
participate in a conference call subsequent to the release of Dover
Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc.’s. earnings for the second quarter
ended June 30, 2010. The conference call will be held on Thursday, July
29, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

To listen to the conference call, you should dial 212-547-0328 five to
ten minutes before the scheduled start time and request to be connected
to the Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. conference call,
conference ID is GAMING, leader is Denis McGlynn. If you wish to listen
to a playback of the conference call, you may dial 402-220-4613
(passcode 4551) beginning one hour after the conference call. The
playback will be available until August 5, 2010.

This release contains or may contain forward-looking statements based on
management’s beliefs and assumptions. Such statements are subject to
various risks and uncertainties that could cause results to vary
materially. Please refer to the Company’s SEC filings for a discussion
of such factors.

Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. is a diversified gaming and
entertainment company whose operations consist of Dover Downs Casino — a
165,000-square foot casino complex featuring popular table games, the
latest in slot machine offerings, multi-player electronic table games,
the Crown Royal poker room, and a Race & Sports Book operation; the
Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center — a 500 room AAA Four Diamond
hotel with conference, banquet, fine dining, spa, retail, ballroom and
concert hall facilities; and Dover Downs Raceway — a harness racing
track with pari-mutuel wagering on live and simulcast horse races.

SOURCE: Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc.

Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc.
Timothy R. Horne - Sr. Vice President-Finance
302-857-3292

Copyright Business Wire 2010

article source

Comments(0)

(Adds further executive and analyst comments, background throughout.)

Telecom equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks said Monday it has agreed to pay $1.2 billion for the majority of U.S.-based Motorola Inc.’s (MOT) network equipment business in order to gain a stronger foothold in the important North American and Japanese markets.

In a joint statement, the companies said they expect the all-cash deal to close by the end of 2010.

Nokia Siemens is making the acquisition primarily to boost its position in markets like the U.S. and Japan and gain access to new customers, but the deal will also provide economies of …

article source

Comments(0)

ELEANOR HALL: The Prime Minster Julia Gillard attempted to put her stamp on the Governments health strategy today. Reform of the health system is a policy area that her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, worked hard to make his own.

Today in Launceston Ms Gillard announced that shell spend $96 million on training for new doctors and nurses in emergency departments.

Ashley Hall is travelling with the Prime Minister and he joins us now in Devonport in Tasmania. So Ashley what sort of a pitch did Julia Gillard make on health today?

ASHLEY HALL: Well, Eleanor as you mentioned she is trying to put her mark on this policy. She pointed out that nearly a third of patients admitted to hospital from an emergency department, that is about 600,000 Australians, wait longer than eight hours between the time they arrive and when they are transferred to a hospital bed in a ward.

You will remember earlier this year the Government secured an agreement with the states to roll out a tough new national standard to ensure that Australians visiting emergency departments will be seen and treated within four hours.

And to achieve that the Prime Minister says there will need to be more staff and she has announced today additional training places, an additional 27 specialist emergency doctors a year. That means up to 270 specialist emergency doctors over the next decade.

Also the Government will support 300 additional scholarships a year to train more emergency nurses and nurse practitioners up to 2,000 more specialist emergency nurses over the next decade, including up to 600 more specialist emergency nurses over the next three years.

There is another 100 student nurses a year to gain experience in emergency departments and 100 scholarships a year to improve the skills of support staff in emergency departments. All of this will cost around $96 million.

There was some confusion at the media conference where Ms Gillard announced these moves because she said initially that this was a new announcement with new money but as it turns out, this is a new announcement spending money that was allocated in 2010/2011 budget, so cleared that up towards the end of the media conference.

That event was held at Launceston General Hospital and the Prime Minister went for a bit of a tour around the hospital and met many of the staff and then she laid out for all of us that as far as she sees it, Australians have, on the question of health, a choice to make on August the 21st.

JULIA GILLARD: A choice with going forward with these new investments in our emergency departments and care in our communities or going back - back to the days of healthcare cutbacks, when we saw a billion dollars taken out of our public hospitals, back with cuts to GP super clinics.

Mr Abbott has said he would end our GP super clinics program. Mr Abbott has also said he would end our GP hotline program. The hotline number you would ring to get a doctor if you needed one and of course he has also said he would end our investments in electronic health records which are so important to the new ways that doctors and nurses want to work and the new ways of providing patient care.

ELEANOR HALL: And that is the Prime Minister making that announcement in the hospital in Launceston this morning.

Now Ashley, this is the first chance that reporters have had to ask the Prime Minister about last nights leaders debate. What did she say about it?

ASHLEY HALL: Well indeed we did ask her about the leaders debate and there were questions about whether or not it was a boring debate, whether or not she was scared to face Tony Abbott a second and/or third time. Some suggestion that there should be more debates.

So she wouldnt be drawn on the outcome of the debate last night.

JULIA GILLARD: Ill allow others to judge the debate. It is in the hands of the Australian people to make their judgements, but I will say this - I am never going to be bored, never going to be bored talking about a strong economy that gives Australians the benefits that come with having a job, the simple benefits and dignity of work. I am never going to be bored talking about the healthcare that Australians need. I am never going to be bored talking about giving our children the opportunity of a first-class education.

ELEANOR HALL: And that is the Prime Minister Julia Gillard there and travelling with her, our reporter Ashley Hall.

article source

Comments(0)

Many nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurers have amassed billions of dollars in extra cash in the last decade even as they hit their individual customers with double-digit premium rate hikes, a new study found.

Seven out of 10 nonprofit Blues plans held at least three times the amount that regulators require them to maintain for minimal solvency, according to a report from Consumers Union.

The independent group found that 10 Blues plans collectively held $9.1 billion in surplus funds in 2009, or about $855 per member per year. That’s up from $4.6 billion in 2001, or $395 per …

article source

Comments(0)