tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5201925221332188902024-03-11T23:51:21.054-05:00Ability Chicago Info Blog Disability News Service, Resources, Diversity, Americans with Disabilities Act; Local and National.Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.comBlogger6353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-7435308427364151482021-03-30T08:00:00.000-05:002021-03-30T10:41:22.876-05:00The Americans with Disabilities Act Signing Ceremony on July 26, 1990 : short video chronicles the historic event<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The ADA stands as one of the most important civil rights documents in the history of the United States, as it guaranteed for the first time that all People with Disabilities have the right to participate fully as equal members in society.</span></b><br />
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<i>Signing Ceremony for Americans with Disabilities Act - National Archives and Records Administration (1990-07-26 - ARC 1656530, LI 220-DISAB-1) </i><br />
<i>South Lawn, White House</i><br />
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<b>The short video chronicles the events of July 26, 1990, when four thousand people gathered on the South Lawn of the White House to witness then President George H.W. Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. </b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">American History from the Presidential Libraries</span></b> </blockquote>
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<i>By Susan K. Donius, Director of the Office of Presidential Libraries, U.S. National Archives (posted July 26, 2012)</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyu5sdV4oxgBMraduAYzLyuDU230iq3JBgHzRhELlvWy-k4g0mp6-Vzt4IvXsfuvU17EkekrlHK1J1kL9cmKDOHHLSFlQGn9aprNvVnhzlkes_S1fcna8sZrPj8wC9vAxpKlk8YFLLWk/s1600/George-H_W_-Bush-ADA1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyu5sdV4oxgBMraduAYzLyuDU230iq3JBgHzRhELlvWy-k4g0mp6-Vzt4IvXsfuvU17EkekrlHK1J1kL9cmKDOHHLSFlQGn9aprNvVnhzlkes_S1fcna8sZrPj8wC9vAxpKlk8YFLLWk/s400/George-H_W_-Bush-ADA1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This year marks the 22nd <i>(25th*)</i> Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 1990, President George H.W. Bush (RIP 2018) signed the Act into law on the White House South Lawn in front of an audience of 3,000 people. On that day, America became the first country to adopt a comprehensive civil rights declaration for people with disabilities. <br />
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The ADA was a landmark moment in history, designed to provide universal accessibility in the areas of employment, public service, public accommodations and telecommunications. As President Barack Obama noted in 2009 at the signing of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Proclamation, the ADA “was a formal acknowledgment that Americans with disabilities are Americans first, and they are entitled to the same rights and freedoms as everybody else: a right to belong and participate fully in the American experience; a right to dignity and respect in the workplace and beyond; the freedom to make of our lives what we will.”<br />
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Among the holdings of the Presidential Libraries of the National Archives are many letters, meeting notes, photos and White House memos that document the collaborative process of creating the ADA. The Presidential Libraries have protected and shared the records of every Presidential administration since 1929, and the history of people with disabilities is woven throughout.<br />
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Sierra Gregg is a second year intern in the Office of Presidential Libraries, who recognizes the importance of sharing Presidential records related to disability history. She has been closely involved in a project to make a selection of these documents accessible to a wide audience. The following post is written by Sierra, about the Americans with Disabilities research page that is now available on the National Archives website.<br />
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I was born visually impaired one year after the signing of the ADA. I have grown up in a world where my visual impairment is not a hindrance to my success, only a characteristic of who I am. The ADA has made it possible for me to get the help I need to work toward my academic and professional goals.<br />
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However, the story of disability civil rights did not start with the ADA and it certainly did not end on that day 22 years ago. The efforts to ensure independence and equality for people with disabilities have a long and fascinating history. Throughout the course of two summer internships, I have worked on the Presidential Libraries team to collect a small sample of records related to Americans with disabilities. This collection will be added to the research topic section of the National Archives’ website and will contain at least one record from every Presidential administration since Herbert Hoover.<br />
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Although the collection contains records related to different disabilities, the records directly related to visual impairments are particularly meaningful to me. I believe my favorite record in the collection is a Braille letter written to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 by then-thirteen-year-old John Beaulieu. I first saw the letter on display in the Public Vaults exhibit of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I still wish I could read the words with my fingers instead of just listening to the description. I was duly impressed that Beaulieu wrote the letter using a slate and stylus; I never quite mastered the art of using the slate. In order to write using the slate and stylus a thick piece of paper is placed face down in the slate, the stylus is used to punch out dots in the paper. The trick is every letter has to be written backwards so it can be read when the page is flipped.<br />
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The collection also contains two letters written to President Herbert Hoover by Helen Keller. She wrote letters to eight U.S. Presidents, starting in 1903 with Theodore Roosevelt. She also personally met 13 Presidents from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson. I must admit to feeling a twinge of envy when I learned that during a visit to the White House, she investigated her historic surroundings with touch. She even identified a bust of George Washington with her fingers.<br />
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The Americans with Disabilities research collection currently includes more than 50 different records. They range from Keller’s letters to President Hoover to photos of a White House dinner hosted by President Clinton, honoring the Special Olympics. It’s a resource that will continue to grow, and one that sheds light on an important part of disability, and American, history.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqa73WQYEcdarzQzvQXNhSOlWfLNN7vEwSm4nAYSAHNpdMx30jNLLSvt7fKGX09GwMBXPOA0FnRiwexUlXleBHcx84_OrtZFJDjS-RLRg_dr-MBUfGEG6NbdhByEbe3qFywqAtqqsc6qM/s1600/ADA2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqa73WQYEcdarzQzvQXNhSOlWfLNN7vEwSm4nAYSAHNpdMx30jNLLSvt7fKGX09GwMBXPOA0FnRiwexUlXleBHcx84_OrtZFJDjS-RLRg_dr-MBUfGEG6NbdhByEbe3qFywqAtqqsc6qM/s400/ADA2.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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# Learn more by visiting the Americans with Disabilities research page from the Presidential Libraries at:<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/americans-with-disabilities" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>https://www.archives.gov/research/americans-with-disabilities</b></span></a></span>.<br />
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<i># Susan K. Donius is the Director of the Office of Presidential Libraries at the National Archives and Records Administration.</i><br />
<i># Sierra Gregg is a senior at Truman State University in Missouri where she is studying computer science. This year, she was awarded a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i><b>For all posts on American with Disabilities History <a href="https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/search/label/ADA%20history" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">CLICK HERE</span></a> </b></i><br />
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<i># post was originally posted July, 2011.</i></div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-8904386337261863082020-02-12T17:00:00.000-06:002020-02-13T00:31:43.362-06:00U.S. Presidents with Disabilities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Our nation has had a distinguished line of presidents with a variety of visible and non-visible disabilities, from epilepsy to hearing impairments to learning disabilities</div>
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U,S, Presidents speaking publicly about their disability was discouraged during their lifetime. </div>
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On <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/presidents-day" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">President's Day</a> (and everyday) we honor them for overcoming the challenges they faced as individuals with disabilities and for leading and serving our country. </div>
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<b>William Jefferson Clinton, 1946- (hearing impairment)</b><br />
42<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> President of the United States (1992-2000); wears hearing aids.</div>
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<b><span id="more-2723"></span>Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969 (learning disability)</b><br />
34<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President of the United States (1953-1960); leader of the victorious Allied forces in Europe during World War II.</div>
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<b>Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 (learning disability)</b><br />
3<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> President of the United States (1801-1809); author of the Declaration of Independence; remembered as a great president, a diplomat, political thinker, and founder of the Democratic Party; reported to have many learning difficulties.</div>
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<b>John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 (learning disability, chronic back pain)</b><br />
35<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President of the United States (1960-1963); the youngest man ever elected President and the youngest ever to die in office; won world respect as the leader of the Free World.</div>
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<b>Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865 (major depression)</b><br />
16<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President (1860-1863); suffered from severe, incapacitating, and occasional suicidal depression; also thought to have Marfan Syndrome.</div>
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<b>James Madison, 1751-1836 (epilepsy)</b><br />
4<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President (1809-1817); drafted the Bill of Rights; often referred to as the Father of the Constitution; played a leading role in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 where he helped design the checks and balances system that equalizes the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; also created the federal system.</div>
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<b>Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004 (hearing impairment)</b><br />
40<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President of the United States (1980-1988); also served two terms as governor of California; in 1932 became a radio announcer for WOC in Davenport, Iowa and later WHO in Des Moines, Iowa; in 1937 he signed a contract with Warner Brothers and his first film was “Love is on the Air.”</div>
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<b>Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945 (polio)</b><br />
32<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> President of the United States (1933-1945); promised to create jobs for the unemployed and gave assistance to those in need; suffered with polio and worked very hard to hide the extent of his disability.</div>
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<b>Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919 (visual impairment)</b>26<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President of the United States (1901-1909); founder of the Progressive Party; an avid boxer, he suffered a severe blow to the head that detached his retina and led to blindness in the affected eye. <b><br /></b></div>
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<b>George Washington, 1732-1799 (learning disability)</b><br />
1<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> President of the United States (1789-1797); was unable to spell throughout his life and his grammar usage was very poor; thought to have learning disabilities.</div>
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<b>Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924 (learning disability)</b><br />
28<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> President of the United States (1913-1921); had a stroke toward the end of his term that left him partially paralyzed; known to have a dyslexia; World War I leader awarded Nobel Peace Prize for Versailles Treaty, 1919; domestic reforms included 1914 creation of Federal Reserve.<br />
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<b>Donald J. Trump, 2017 - (Suspected ADHD) </b>The current president is believed to have <span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> (</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;">ADHD</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;">)</span> , though not officially diagnosed or acknowledged by the White House.<br />
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<i># originally posted July 2015</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-18659467313069046712020-01-19T08:00:00.000-06:002020-01-19T23:29:32.565-06:00Illinois Benefit Access Program (formerly Circuit Breaker): apply online for benefits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Effective July 1, 2012, Illinois Cares Rx was terminated and the Circuit Breaker Property Tax Relief Grant was eliminated due to the lack of funding.<br />
<i>(this post links updated; verified January 2020 )</i><br />
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<b>The benefits now available are:</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Seniors Free Transit Ride</li>
<li>The Persons with Disabilities Free Transit Ride</li>
<li>Secretary of State License Plate Discount</li>
</ul>
<b>To be determined eligible for these benefits, you must submit a</b> <a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/benefitsaccess/pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Benefit Access Application</a> on the Internet. Paper applications are not available.<br />
<em style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 16px;">Please note that current processing times to determine eligibility of your Benefits Access Application is 4-6 weeks. </em><br />
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Once your application is approved you may print a certificate of eligibility to take to your local transit authority or Secretary of State Office. Please wait 10 business days from the date of your approval for your license plate discount to be available. If you requested the ride free benefit, please contact your local public transit system for further information. Your local transit system may have additional requirements in order to obtain the free ride. You can check the website at anytime to determine your application status.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.25;">If you have questions or would like to locate a Senior Health Assistance Program (SHAP) site near you for assistance, contact the Senior HelpLine at 1-800-252-8966, 1-888-206-1327 (TTY).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJB5kDFxuND8bo7sZwJtvNNpi3524KBjevFau7gH38DXf5Mi1zBQ-kQA94ZkwjvnD0RyLIb00tiGa7alEh78nQ1qrPAByd3b-yO2R1LvRBpnYab_V2wbizdGS10rhyphenhyphenm5NtO-WAFJeJAUHY/s1600/RTA+disabled+senior+cards.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJB5kDFxuND8bo7sZwJtvNNpi3524KBjevFau7gH38DXf5Mi1zBQ-kQA94ZkwjvnD0RyLIb00tiGa7alEh78nQ1qrPAByd3b-yO2R1LvRBpnYab_V2wbizdGS10rhyphenhyphenm5NtO-WAFJeJAUHY/s320/RTA+disabled+senior+cards.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>To file your application on the Internet, link to <a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/benefitsaccess/pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="color: #ff1300; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the Benefit Access Application</a> to apply online</b>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">For information or help applying, visit a local office of the following:</span></b><br />
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<b><a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/Pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Illinois Department of Aging</a>,</b><br />
<b><a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/partnersproviders/pages/aaa-main.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="color: #ff1300; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Area Agency on Aging</a> in your part of the state.</b><br />
Call toll-free:<br />
<b>1-800-252-8966 or 1-888-206-1327 (TTY)</b><br />
Note: Have your Social Security number ready when you call.<br />
<b>Write to:</b>Illinois Department on Aging<br />
1 Natural Resources Way, Suite 100<br />
Springfield, IL 62702<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">To Apply Online - Click: <a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/benefitsaccess/pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="color: #ff1300; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">HERE</a></span></b></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"># As posted at the Illinois Department on Aging website :</i><br />
<a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/benefitsaccess/pages/default.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #ff1300; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/benefitsaccess/pages/default.aspx</a><br />
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UPDATED Q & A: January 2020<br />
<h3 id="qst1" name="qst1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: content-box; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19.44px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em;">
Do I qualify for the Benefit Access Program?</h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Note</span>: Use of the word spouse also includes a civil union partner.</div>
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Apply on the Benefit Access Application if you meet the following requirements:</div>
<ol style="background-color: white; box-sizing: content-box; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;"><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Age</span></li>
<ul style="box-sizing: content-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">you must be 65 years of age or older by December 31 of the current year; or</li>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">you must be 16 years of age or older and totally disabled before January 1 of this year.<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">NOTE:</span> "Person with a disability" means a person unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. [320 ILCS 25/3.14]<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /></li>
</ul>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;"><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Residency</span></li>
<ul style="box-sizing: content-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">you must live in Illinois at the time you file your application.<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /></li>
</ul>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;"><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Income Limit Eligibility for the License Plate discount</span> and/or <span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Ride Free Transit Card</span>: (Income limit increase effective 1/1/2020.)<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" />Your total income last year must be less than</li>
<ul style="box-sizing: content-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">$33,562 for a 1 person household (yourself only); or</li>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">$44,533 for a 2 person household (yourself and your spouse, or yourself and one Qualified Additional Resident); or</li>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;">$55,500 for a 3 person household (yourself, your spouse and one Qualified Additional Resident, or yourself and two Qualified Additional Residents).<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">NOTE: </span>You must include your spouse's income if married and living together on December 31 of last year. If your spouse died last year, you would file as single and claim only your income. Do NOT include the income of a Qualified Additional Resident.<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">*</span><a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/BenefitsAccess/Documents/WhatIsIncome.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: content-box; color: #990000;" target="_blank">Click here for a list of what is considered income</a>.<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">*</span>Get Your Social Security Benefit Verification Online with <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/onlineservices/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: content-box; color: #990000;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: content-box;">my</em>SocialSecurity</a>.<br style="box-sizing: content-box;" /></li>
</ul>
<li style="box-sizing: content-box;"><span style="box-sizing: content-box; font-weight: 700;">Expiration</span>Eligibility is good for two years under the Benefit Access Program. The two-year period starts at the time your application is approved. You may file again beginning 90 days before your eligibility expires.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;"><b>FOR MORE Q & A</b> </span></span><a href="https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/BenefitsAccess/Pages/Eligibility%20and%20Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx">https://www2.illinois.gov/aging/BenefitsAccess/Pages/Eligibility%20and%20Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx</a></div>
</div>
</div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-55596228955627217802019-12-12T21:00:00.001-06:002020-12-03T16:12:55.095-06:00Hardrock, Coco and Joe : Chicago Christmas Memories of Years Long Gone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>For many of us in the Chicago area, the three cartoons posted below were a staple of our childhood. WGN9 in Chicago shows such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Rayner" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Ray Rayner and Friends</b></span></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_Goose_and_Friends" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Garfield Goose and Friends</b></span></a>, and of course <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bozo_Show" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>The Bozo Show</b></span></a> would play the cartoons every Christmas season. Though the purpose of Ability Chicago Info is disability related information, every now and then we all need to take a moment to relax and remember when,,, Jim</i><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VKGonDIq8gw" width="560"></iframe><br />
<b>Historic Chicago Kids TV Christmas video: Hardrock, Coco and Joe -- The Three Little Dwarfs</b><br />
<br />
<b><u>Lyrics:</u></b><br />
u shall hear<br />
A story fantastic, a story so queer<br />
It's all about Santa and his helpers three<br />
There's Hardrock, and Coco, and Joe<br />
<br />
Now Hardrock's the driver up there by his sleigh<br />
Coco reads maps and he shows him the way<br />
Though old Santa really has no need for Joe<br />
But takes him cause he loves him so<br />
<br />
Ole olady olady I ay<br />
Donner and Blitzen away away<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
I'm Hardrock, I'm Coco, I'm Joe<br />
<br />
And Santa is busy with his heavy pack<br />
He trusts his drivers and never looks back<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
I'm Hardrock, I'm Coco, I'm Joe<br />
<br />
Now go to bed early on this Christmas Eve<br />
I've no way of knowing just what you'll recieve<br />
But you'll hear their laughter that much I do know<br />
‘Twill be Hardrock, and Coco, and Joe<br />
<br />
The 3 little men only 2 feet high<br />
Singing to Santa way up in the sky<br />
Laughing and shouting as the sleigh bells ring<br />
It's Hardrock, and Coco, and Joe<br />
<br />
Ole olady olady I ay<br />
Donner and Blitzen away away<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
He's Hardrock, he's Coco, he's Joe<br />
<br />
And Santa is busy with his heavy pack<br />
He trusts his drivers and never looks back<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
He's Hardrock, he's Coco, he's Joe<br />
<br />
Ol' Santa will come in and set down his pack<br />
And Hardrock will hold the reindeer till Santa comes back<br />
If you hear a giggle as he turns to go<br />
It's Coco, a snowball,...and Joe!<br />
<br />
Ole olady olady I ay<br />
Donner and Blitzen away away<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
I'm Hardrock, I'm Coco, I'm Joe<br />
<br />
And Santa is busy with his heavy pack<br />
He trusts his drivers and never looks back<br />
Ole olady olady I oh<br />
I'm Hardrock, I'm Coco, I'm Joe<br />
Ole olady olady I oh.<br />
<br />
<b>Additional Information</b><br />
<br />
"The Three Little Dwarfs" That's what the original title of this little Christmas short was called. But we remembered them from the song. Hardrock, Coco & Joe.<br />
<br />
Every Christmas morning this favorite was played on the Chicago children shows Bozo and Garfield Goose. It is still shown today, along with the other two favorites, 'Suzie Snowflake, and Frosty the Snowman.<br />
<br />
This was the trilogy of childhood memories. <br />
<br />
Very little, if anything is really known as to where these films came from. When asked around about these little gems people would acknowledge they're existence but that was it.<br />
<br />
The video copies of these shorts have a copyright and other info at the bottom of the screen as they would begin, but the quality is so bad that you can hardly make it out.<br />
<br />
<i>All we know is that they are played every year at Christmas, and continue to bring back the memories of years long gone.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>ADDITIONAL FAVORITES</u></b><br />
<br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">Historic Chicago Kids TV Christmas video: Suzy Snowflake</b><br />
<span face=""roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FEe6KOWdbUs" width="560"></iframe></span><br />
<span face=""roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3px;"><br />
</span> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">Historic Chicago Kids TV Christmas video: Frosty the Snowman</b><br />
<span face=""roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TU3SKtJbNu8" width="560"></iframe></span><br />
<span face=""roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.3px;"><br /></span>
<span face=""roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 14.3px;"><i># this is a repost every Christmas Season, Happy Holidays!</i></span></div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-82129543925149483702018-11-26T08:00:00.000-06:002018-11-26T14:20:07.983-06:00City of Chicago Sidewalk Snow Removal info: REPORT UN-SHOVELED SIDEWALKS Q&A<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f1hw45GLXrA" width="420"></iframe><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>The information is shared from the <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/sidewalk_snow_removal.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">City of Chicago</a>. The below info is current as of November 2018.</i><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><br />
</i> </span><br />
<h2 style="color: #134474; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.65em; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: white;">
Your responsibility in removing snow and ice from the sidewalks</span></h2>
<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
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Many people rely on walking and transit as their primary way to get around, and without a wide, clear path through snow and ice, it is especially difficult for people with disabilities, seniors, and children to walk safely. According to the Municipal Code of Chicago (<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><a href="http://library.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Illinois/chicago_il/title4businessesoccupationsandconsumerpr/chapter4-4generallicensingprovisions*?f=templates$fn=default.htm$3.0$vid=amlegal:chicago_il$anc=JD_4-4-310" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="4-4-310 Public ways – Maintenance Littering prohibited – Snow and ice removal.">4-4-310</a></span> & <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><a href="http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Illinois/chicago_il/title10streetspublicwaysparksairportsand/chapter10-8useofpublicwaysandplaces?f=templates$fn=default.htm$3.0$vid=amlegal:chicago_il$anc=JD_10-8-180" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">10-8-180</a></span>), property owners and occupants are responsible for keeping sidewalks clear of snow and ice.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Download </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/pedestrian/sidewalksnowremoval/SnowBrochure2015.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Sidewalk Snow Removal Guidance for Residents and Businesses (color)</a><a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/pedestrian/sidewalksnowremoval/SnowBrochurebw2015.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/pedestrian/sidewalksnowremoval/SnowBrochureBW2015.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"> Sidewalk Snow Removal Guidance for Residents and Businesses (black and white)</a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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<h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">
Increase awareness of sidewalk snow removal laws</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 30px;">
Sidewalk Snow Removal Door Hangers</h3>
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The door hangers are intended as a reminder to shovel the sidewalk and offer assistance to anyone physically unable to clear their own sidewalks. The door hangers emphasize the importance of sidewalk snow removal and safe winter travel.</div>
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The door hangers are mailed to aldermanic offices and dozens of businesses and community groups throughout the city for distribution throughout the neighborhoods.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Download <a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/pedestrian/sidewalksnowremoval/Door_Hanger.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="Snow Removal Door Hanger">Sidewalk Snow Removal Door Hanger</a></span> (pdf, 1.3mb)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 60px;">
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<h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">
Report locations that DO NOT clear sidewalks to 311</h2>
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Report locations that DO NOT clear their sidewalks by making a <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">"Snow - Uncleared Sidewalk or Bike Lane"</span> request with <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />the City of Chicago 311 Service Request line.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">DIAL 311 or <a href="https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller?op=locform&invSRType=SWSNOREM&invSRDesc=Snow%20-%20Uncleared%20Sidewalk&locreq=N&stnumreqd=N" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="Request for City Service">Online Snow - Uncleared Sidewalk or Bike Lane Request</a></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">If calling from outside Chicago, call 312.744.5000</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 60px;">
When you make a "Snow - Uncleared Sidewalk or Bike Lane" request, please note the following:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />- Make sure the problem<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> occurs on the sidewalk.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />- <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">DO NOT </span>use this category to report snow on streets, parking lots, or alleys.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />- Provide a specific address where the problem occurs.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />- Request a reference number from the operator, this will help you track the status and resolution of your request.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 60px;">
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<h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">
Frequently Asked Questions About Sidewalk Snow Removal</h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Why is sidewalk snow removal important?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Chicagoans of all ages and abilities need to use the sidewalks to get where they're going every day of the year. Many children, older adults, and people with disabilities face serious mobility challenges in winter time. Clear sidewalks are a shared community responsibility, and this new ordinance clarifies the requirements for snow and ice removal.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Do the new regulations for sidewalk snow removal in Chicago apply to home, business, and property owners?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Yes, the new sidewalk snow regulations affect all home, business, and property owners in Chicago. Business owners that rent space adjacent to sidewalks are responsible for shoveling snow under the ordinance. Some landlords for residential and commercial property hold tenants responsible for snow clearance as a part of their lease agreements, other don't. Renters who aren't certain of their shoveling responsibilities should check their rental agreements or ask their landlords for clarification.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">When do the new regulations take effect?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
The new regulations took effect November 28, 2015.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">When do I have to shovel my snow?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
You must shovel snow as soon as possible after it falls. Snow that falls between the hours of 7:00 am and 7:00 pm must be removed no later than 10:00 pm. Snow that falls between the hours of 7:00 pm and 7:00 am must be removed by 10:00 am.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Do I have to shovel on weekends?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Yes. You must shovel 7 days a week in the City of Chicago.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">In what way should I shovel my sidewalks to be in compliance?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
You must clear a path at least 5 feet wide on all of the sidewalks adjacent to your property, including any crosswalk ramps. Do not shovel the snow into the right-of-way, which includes: transit stops and bus pads, parking spaces, bike lanes, bike racks, Divvy stations, and any other space where snow impedes traffic of any kind.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Are there special rules for corner lots?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Yes. If you are responsible for a corner lot, you must remove snow and ice from sidewalks on all sides of your building and from corner sidewalk ramps. This applies to residential property and business owners.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Can I be penalized for failing to shovel?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Yes, you can receive a citation for failure to shovel. In 2014, 226 citations were issued. The fines range from $50 to $500. The amount of the fine is on a per-case basis, and determined by an Administrative Hearings judge.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">How do I report a property owner who fails to shovel their sidewalk?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
Report property owners who DO NOT clear their sidewalks by making a "Snow - Uncleared Sidewalk or Bike Lane" request with the City of Chicago 311 Service Request line</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Dial 311 or submit a <a href="https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller?op=locform&invSRType=SWSNOREM&invSRDesc=Snow%20-%20Uncleared%20Sidewalk%20or%20Bike%20Lane&locreq=Y&stnumreqd=Y" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">service request online.</a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
If calling from outside Chicago, dial 312-744-5000</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 30px;">
When you make a "Snow - Uncleared Sidewalk or Bike Lane" request, please note the following:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 60px;">
- Make sure the problem occurs on the sidewalk</div>
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- DO NOT use this category to report snow on streets, parking lots, or alleys.</div>
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- Provide a specific address where the problem occurs.</div>
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- Request a reference number from the operator. This will help you track the status and resolution of your request.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQigLbO6yX5Z3pq3zPcU6_pNU9pGKvv5bUBcmNbci97BAKRCB2UbPc4vgFK1Cnmeyy_611c8-kkeUdjYs1kHCNz0HyqLRg9rAVJeJoGQUxFgFePLTr3szs74mt2NoWfXiI8WADhLfWJ0/s1600/vis_snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQigLbO6yX5Z3pq3zPcU6_pNU9pGKvv5bUBcmNbci97BAKRCB2UbPc4vgFK1Cnmeyy_611c8-kkeUdjYs1kHCNz0HyqLRg9rAVJeJoGQUxFgFePLTr3szs74mt2NoWfXiI8WADhLfWJ0/s400/vis_snow.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
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<i># The above information is from: City of Chicago, CDOT at:</i><br />
<a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/sidewalk_snow_removal.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/sidewalk_snow_removal.html</span></a><br />
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<b>RELATED POST: </b><br />
<b><a href="http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2012/01/chicago-snow-corps-connects-volunteers.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Chicago Snow Corps - connects volunteers with residents in need of snow removal – such as seniors and residents with disabilities.</span></a></b><br />
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<i>* this is a reposted page, with updates as available. </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4a4c3Ens4BRuq7QX-mnry5SZ1NSeonV97f5TSvFg6XXrNOtBdLUuXrdOLYO_Hu8Cvdtp9w1LsFyNfjOsOHH3cn-DghIoP_naCZ8Blx2tJnOXATjtGRoEgRSEYMUrfywTz8an3G2SUTU1/s1600/wheelchair+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4a4c3Ens4BRuq7QX-mnry5SZ1NSeonV97f5TSvFg6XXrNOtBdLUuXrdOLYO_Hu8Cvdtp9w1LsFyNfjOsOHH3cn-DghIoP_naCZ8Blx2tJnOXATjtGRoEgRSEYMUrfywTz8an3G2SUTU1/s400/wheelchair+snow.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Chicago 2014 Winter - Jim Watkins.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><br />
</b> <b>CIVIL IMMUNITIES [Illinois Compiled Statutes]</b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white;">(745 ILCS 75/) Snow and Ice Removal Act.</b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>(745 ILCS 75/1) (from Ch. 70, par. 201)</b>Sec. 1. It is declared to be the public policy of this State that owners and others residing in residential units be encouraged to clean the sidewalks abutting their residences of snow and ice. The General Assembly, therefore, determines that it is undesirable for any person to be found liable for damages due to his or her efforts in the removal of snow or ice from such sidewalks, except for acts which amount to clear wrongdoing, as described in Section 2 of this Act.<br />
(Source: P.A. 81-591.)<br />
<b>(745 ILCS 75/2) (from Ch. 70, par. 202)</b>Sec. 2. Any owner, lessor, occupant or other person in charge of any residential property, or any agent of or other person engaged by any such party, who removes or attempts to remove snow or ice from sidewalks abutting the property shall not be liable for any personal injuries allegedly caused by the snowy or icy condition of the sidewalk resulting from his or her acts or omissions unless the alleged misconduct was willful or wanton.<br />
(Source: P.A. 81-591.)</span></blockquote>
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The rules of snow shoveling in Chicago</h3>
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<b>Fox News Chicago </b>| <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">By Lisa Chavarria, FOX 32 News Reporter | Jan 30, <b>2015</b></span></div>
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To shovel or not to shovel? hat is the question for people living in the city. You either risk getting hit with a fine, or you risk getting sued.<br />
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Chicago winter's can be rough for anyone, but even more so for pedestrians like Jake Fruend.<br />
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"I've fallen a couple of times. You know, it's part of the sport I guess of Chicago in the winter time," said Fruend.<br />
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A simple walk home becomes a greater challenge when sidewalks are not shoveled.<br />
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"There are times when you're trying to get from A to B and there's just some absurd amount of craziness on the sidewalk that you just can't get past," added Fruend.<br />
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The expected weekend snowfall is forcing the city to remind residents and businesses they need to shovel their sidewalks.<br />
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Here's how it works: if the snow stops falling before 4 p.m., you have three hours to clear except on Sunday. If the snow stops falling after 4 p.m. or on Sunday, you have until 10 a.m. the next day to clear it.<br />
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You may have heard this before, but some may think not shoveling their sidewalks will save them from liability if someone slips and falls in front of their home.<br />
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Personal injury attorneys, like Marvet Sweis Drnovsek, add that just isn't the case, thanks to Illinois law.<br />
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"There is a law out there that protects them when they shovel their driveway and the adjacent sidewalk. We want people to get in and out of their property, of course. So the law recognizes that and protects them," said Drnovsek.<br />
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Drnovsek also said homeowners can only be sued if there is negligence.<br />
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"Don't see a patch of ice, cover it up with some snow and leave it and somebody comes and slips. Even as a joke, it's a bad joke, don't do it," she added. "That's where the law comes in and protects pedestrians."<br />
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The city will ticket residents for not complying with the ordinance, but only after being warned or after neighbors file a complaint.<br />
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Last year the city saw some of the highest amount of tickets issued, primarily because of the amount of snow we saw.<br />
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This winter is much more kind-- but for pedestrians, the hope is when it turns ugly, they'll be able to get around.<br />
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"I have to walk everywhere all the time, so I'm dealing, I'm dealing with the negligence on a regular basis," added Fruend.<br />
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If you need assistance shoveling call 311 to request the city's volunteer assistance.<br />
<div style="background-color: #ffffcc;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "times"; font-size: x-small;"><i>http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/27989990/the-rules-of-snow-shoveling-in-chicago</i></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: small;">####</span></b></h1>
<i>(Ed. Note)</i><br />
<i>If you are a senior citizen, or a person with a disability that are not able to remove snow, call you Alderman's office. Many of the Alderman offices will make attempts to assist - especially in election years!!!</i><br />
<i># this is a re-post from over the years, the information and links are still current as of re-post date.</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-69807092430130129692018-10-05T12:00:00.000-05:002018-10-05T22:59:23.925-05:00The Disabled Friendly Approach to Halloween - Great Ideas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="byline-title" style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #505050; display: block; float: right; font-family: "arial" , "helmet" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Atti in his Halloween tardis " src="https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70810000/jpg/_70810334_smaller-atti.jpg" /></span><span class="byline-name" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: "arial" , "helmet" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;">By Emma Tracey</span><span class="byline-title" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: "arial" , "helmet" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px;">BBC News, Ouch, Oct 31, 2013</span><span class="byline-title" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: "arial" , "helmet" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="introduction" style="background-color: white; clear: left; font-family: arial, helmet, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px;">
As younger children catch the trick or treat bug, Halloween fancy dress has moved away from horror and taken a turn for the creative and clever. This has given rise to a new wave of innovative costumes for disabled children and adults.</div>
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In 2011, Twitter came alive with photos of a <a href="http://www.reesedixon.com/2011/10/doctor-who-family-halloween-costume.html" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">little boy called Atti dressed as Doctor Who in his wheelchair</span></a>, which was cleverly made to look like a Tardis.</div>
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As well as witches and ghosts, nowadays lots of children are following suit and dressing as their favourite characters from TV and books. With a paucity of disabled princesses and superheroes, kids who use wheelchairs and their parents have to think outside the box... and that box happens to be cardboard, an excellent material for creating a sitting-down costume.</div>
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We've seen chairs adapted to look like other wheeled favourites like a <a href="http://www.oddee.com/item_98434.aspx" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">digger, an ice cream van and Thomas the Tank Engine</span></a> depicted widely on the web on blogs, disability sites and photo sharing sites like Pinterest.</div>
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Irish dad Paddy Brown found fame this week when a photo of his efforts to turn son Oisin's wheelchair into a bat-mobile went viral. He made the costume so that Oisin would feel included at his school fancy dress party.</div>
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<img alt="Oisin in Bat chair and father Paddy " src="https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70817000/jpg/_70817647_bat-chair.jpg" /></div>
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For girls on wheels a good alternative to the floaty fairy princess seems to be a mermaid outfit. Helpfully there is a website that <a href="http://disability.about.com/od/MobilityAidsAssistiveDevices/tp/Gift-Ideas-For-Child-And-Teen-Wheelchair-Users.htm" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">gives instructions on how you can achieve this look</span></a> - adopted by Lady GaGa in 2011. In short, simply cover the entire wheelchair with material to hide your legs and make a sparkly fish tail for the back. It's a costume that upright walking people could never achieve.</div>
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Disabled adults have been getting in on the act too. Former US Paralympic skier, now motivational speaker Josh Sundquist, is<a href="http://joshsundquist.com/photos_halloween_2013.html" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> <span style="color: blue;">dressing as a flamingo this year</span></a>. By perching upside down with crutches taking his body weight, his only le<span style="font-size: 14px;">g becomes the bird's neck and bill.</span></div>
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<img alt="Josh Sundquist dressed as a flamingo" src="https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70823000/jpg/_70823611_sundquist-464.jpg" /></div>
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Sundquist is known for his clever Halloween costumes that incorporate his limb difference. According to a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ocLSqrNe4" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">YouTube video where he reveals this year's look</span></a>, in 2010 he dressed up as a half-eaten gingerbread man - something an amputee is more readily able to achieve.</div>
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The move away from stereotypical disabled oddities or baddies like Edward Scissorhands and Captain Hook who had missing or altered body parts, and Scarface with his facial disfigurement, is no doubt welcome. And on Halloween night, these characters reportedly can confuse and upset children with autism or learning difficulties.</div>
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But, we hear you cry, you are discriminating against my disabled dog, he needs a costume too. Never fear, Fido shall go to the fancy dress apple bobbing ball. See below - for a wheelchair-using dachshund dressed as a hotdog<span style="color: #333333;">.</span></div>
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<img alt="Dachshund dressed as hot dog " src="https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70811000/jpg/_70811403_dachshund.jpg" /></div>
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<div style="color: #333333;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-24743930</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>
<i># Originally posted October 2013 / as of Oct. 2018 as links still active</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-36759764012139757642018-05-29T09:30:00.000-05:002018-07-16T13:30:43.006-05:00Chicago's Emergency Preparedness Resources for People with Disabilities and Seniors In An Emergency<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities</b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>City of Chicago Links and Resources</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.notifychicago.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">Notify Chicago</span></b></a> is a city service that provides residents with recorded telephone messages, text messages and/or e-mail alerts on various emergency and non-emergency situations taking place throughout Chicago.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><a href="https://webapps1.cityofchicago.org/volunteerregistry/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: red;" target="_blank">Emergency Assistance Voluntary Registry</a></span></b><br />
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The City of Chicago’s Voluntary Emergency Assistance Registry (<i><b><a href="https://webapps1.cityofchicago.org/volunteerregistry/" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">click</span></a></b></i>) was created to provide police, fire and other emergency personnel with important information about the type of assistance people with disabilities and seniors would need in an emergency.<br />
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The City of Chicago continues to coordinate partnerships that will strengthen the response, rescue and recovery efforts of first responders as well as assist in protecting Chicago’s critical infrastructure. As such, the Chicago Police Department (CPD), Chicago Fire Department (CFD) and Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) have joined forces to ensure the highest level of preparedness for local businesses through the Chicago’s Public and Private Partnership (CP3) initiative.<br />
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The CP3 portal will immediately assist first responders across all agencies in saving time, life and property during an emergency event. The CP3 portal gives the private sector the opportunity to proactively update critical information regarding their infrastructure, such as, floor plans and security operations at their specific locations. The portal provides a one-stop-shop for the private sector and first responders to communicate critical information. Business owners, tenants and members of a facility’s management teams are encouraged to enroll to become a CP3 partner.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Federal Emergency and Management Agency (FEMA)<br />Links and Resources</b></span><br />
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The <a href="http://www.ready.gov/individuals-access-functional-needs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">ready.gov website</span></b></a> has a section focused on preparedness information for people with disabilities or functional needs. It includes an instructional video as well as the brochure “Prepared for Emergencies Now: Information for people with Disabilities” (copy of brochure attached).<br />
<br />
Ready.gov also has basic emergency preparedness resources that may be useful, such as printable wallet cards to write emergency contact numbers or other information on.<br />
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Spanish language version of ready.gov can be found at <a href="http://www.listo.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">www.listo.gov</span></b></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Illinois Emergency Management Agency Sign Language</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>Preparedness Videos<br />
<a href="http://www.illinois.gov/ready/multi-media/Pages/AmerSign.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">www.illinois.gov/ready/multi-media/Pages/AmerSign.aspx </span></b></a><br />
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ASL videos on topics such as making a plan, building a kit, getting trained, volunteering, sheltering in place, going to a shelter, planning for people with functional needs, and planning for evacuations.<br />
<a href="http://www.temple.edu/instituteondisabilities/aacvocabulary/e4all.shtml#index" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">Accessible Communication 4 All</span></b></a><br />
<br />
This site includes downloadable sheets of common emergency terms with pictures and/or words.<br />
<a href="http://www.dds.ca.gov/consumercorner/EmergencyPreparedness.cfm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">Feeling Safe Being Safe</span></b></a><br />
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Tools developed by and for people with disabilities: This site includes a workbook that will help individuals to make an emergency plan, a video that demonstrates how to complete the workbook and put together a home emergency kit, and a printable magnet to post important emergency contact information on the refrigerator for first responders.<br />
<br />
<i>Information posted as shared by the City of Chicago <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mopd.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red;">Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD</span></b>)</a> ...</i><br />
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<i># previous posted May 2014, all links are up to as of the repost.</i></div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-70439677556066767732018-05-25T18:37:00.000-05:002018-05-25T18:37:18.734-05:00History of Memorial Day <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;">Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.. (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #7c93a1; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;">)</span><br />
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<i>"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." President John F. Kennedy</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-87502066271019444032017-12-12T14:50:00.001-06:002017-12-12T14:50:45.904-06:00 Remind U.S. Congress that they represent YOU! - Autistic Self Advocacy Network<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black;">Dec. 2017 - Congress is determined to pass their disastrous tax bill before their scheduled recess begins <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_730398554" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Friday</span></span>. <strong>This week is critical - </strong><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn%3D5bHbGrYVnTLXePF5sBU1jW3GMvnEk-2B448dCbwTJMu3J-2FuigFqPcw1AkJHRBuAfN5_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVG6zQUMRk5Ire0Nau0FOyaOJ7A9Lby9VxbpGU9CJtowkAZoJ9bAvC1mgaXg2Ie8GoNHiRJfpLzQ3By43aCDV05QNntJwp5LhbjZlN89Hr7P7R-2FVz9xrmlSQpVo7eJ8JOor39fafTLP4UoTUDzpPT5d2P9h0Q-2Fi1WGx0hkbhH3tZIDG1Gdz3VecrDXwDbfj3Yr&source=gmail&ust=1513197803123000&usg=AFQjCNF38kI6sGtI6LXvxDjGPf8vryMr7Q" href="http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn=5bHbGrYVnTLXePF5sBU1jW3GMvnEk-2B448dCbwTJMu3J-2FuigFqPcw1AkJHRBuAfN5_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVG6zQUMRk5Ire0Nau0FOyaOJ7A9Lby9VxbpGU9CJtowkAZoJ9bAvC1mgaXg2Ie8GoNHiRJfpLzQ3By43aCDV05QNntJwp5LhbjZlN89Hr7P7R-2FVz9xrmlSQpVo7eJ8JOor39fafTLP4UoTUDzpPT5d2P9h0Q-2Fi1WGx0hkbhH3tZIDG1Gdz3VecrDXwDbfj3Yr" rel="color:blue;text-decoration:underline;" style="color: blue; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong>we need your voice to stop this bill</strong></a><strong>. </strong>Your advocacy has already significantly delayed their process, and with your help we can grind it to a halt. There are a lot of people trying to influence the outcome of this fight, which is why<strong> it’s so important that your Members of Congress hear from the people they represent--you.</strong></span><br /><h2 align="left" style="color: inherit; font-size: 27px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #e36c09;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m_-4601072251388895055__1ob3a8mjy34t" style="color: #458cc6; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></a>What’s in the tax bill?</span></span></span></h2>
<span style="color: black;">Short answer: we don’t know yet. Long answer: all the components of the previous House and Senate bills are on the table, including:</span><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Taking the “affordable” out of Affordable Care Act</strong>. The Senate version of the bill repeals the individual mandate. The consequences of that would be a 10% hike in premiums and 13 million Americans losing health insurance outright.<br /><br /><strong></strong></span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Blowing up the deficit, paving the way for massive cuts to Medicaid and social services.</strong> The tax bill will increase the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion - and Congress has openly admitted that they’re planning on paying for it by slashing funding to Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and other social services.<br /><br /><strong></strong></span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>Automatic cuts to Medicare, food stamps, special education, and affordable housing. </strong>The $1.5 trillion deficit created by the tax bill would trigger mandatory cuts to federal programs across the board. Medicare alone would see a $25 billion cut in 2018.<br /><br /><strong></strong></span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>A health tax on people with high medical expenses. </strong>The House bill eliminates the medical expense deduction, which allows people to deduct medical expenses exceeding 10% of their income.<strong></strong></span></li>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #e36c09;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m_-4601072251388895055__eubfgphzxx3v" style="color: #458cc6; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></a>What can I do?</span></span></span></h2>
<span style="color: black;">You can use <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn%3DKdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B-2F9-2BWLvsMIOdGh1-2BtwOx9Jld4QUacFSfqNm-2BjsAviyJn_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVHikFAJoI96pGnhxL-2BOBG9VjefngzCST-2BB9PzJRbJodXgDGT2ucxoTe0BiTzFb-2F-2FQ7OLsSsg-2BLCa4Gr5fa2xUsCoIbNL3Yf9ycQM3b5QKa7Z48zaUZ6Ua2osFZAZY2k8hkEb1JwElrexEWASdC9MeEwXzOBTscQln-2Fbtqsq9UkA41McRRCfb-2FM3OfHzyr5iHR&source=gmail&ust=1513197803123000&usg=AFQjCNEZXeQfpqModyGTMSKRBpM_QszT7A" href="http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn=KdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B-2F9-2BWLvsMIOdGh1-2BtwOx9Jld4QUacFSfqNm-2BjsAviyJn_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVHikFAJoI96pGnhxL-2BOBG9VjefngzCST-2BB9PzJRbJodXgDGT2ucxoTe0BiTzFb-2F-2FQ7OLsSsg-2BLCa4Gr5fa2xUsCoIbNL3Yf9ycQM3b5QKa7Z48zaUZ6Ua2osFZAZY2k8hkEb1JwElrexEWASdC9MeEwXzOBTscQln-2Fbtqsq9UkA41McRRCfb-2FM3OfHzyr5iHR" style="color: blue; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">ContactingCongress.org</a> to find the phone numbers of your Members of Congress. When you call, you can use our script below, and if you don’t speak, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn%3DKdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B3fkywoaoHVIF035FavHfa2wm59J9TWWe42yLTNzgVWrpnf-2FCkgncMBDSU4frYtJULBnhhpsgPHDNksmOfgVEhZwPyE1AMGxPdgKY0nmhPM1AGPr9-2B0ngQfnrkp5Fu9iogBEwyk-2B1PEZKfTfaTGSzRw-3D_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVLmn1V39khMPOkcHKSBQQImAGBB-2FFMgBbm34nZVJwPxRaKX5PUntmx99bRQDuht3jUdGLuyRyuEhYJUk-2BDVBnL3DPxRXWnlj5LJ4okPxT1Pz-2FeB9StSSe38ajg6TMxTbTMQ3NTthwfXd5xnqWm9Kotc335uNSVstl2gCz3ij4QzXr88WROFjUTKNDutdDzppL&source=gmail&ust=1513197803123000&usg=AFQjCNEYXOl7-pA3t9ZCxk-7B5AJpVnztg" href="http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn=KdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B3fkywoaoHVIF035FavHfa2wm59J9TWWe42yLTNzgVWrpnf-2FCkgncMBDSU4frYtJULBnhhpsgPHDNksmOfgVEhZwPyE1AMGxPdgKY0nmhPM1AGPr9-2B0ngQfnrkp5Fu9iogBEwyk-2B1PEZKfTfaTGSzRw-3D_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVLmn1V39khMPOkcHKSBQQImAGBB-2FFMgBbm34nZVJwPxRaKX5PUntmx99bRQDuht3jUdGLuyRyuEhYJUk-2BDVBnL3DPxRXWnlj5LJ4okPxT1Pz-2FeB9StSSe38ajg6TMxTbTMQ3NTthwfXd5xnqWm9Kotc335uNSVstl2gCz3ij4QzXr88WROFjUTKNDutdDzppL" style="color: blue; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">you can call using your AAC device, or get a friend to call in and read your message</a>.<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 20px;">
My name is <strong>[your full name]</strong>. I’m a constituent of <strong>[Representative/Senator] [Name]</strong>, and I live in <strong>[your town]</strong>. I’m calling to ask the <strong>[Representative/Senator]</strong> to vote NO on the final tax bill. No matter what the conference committee does, we already know that the final bill would balloon the deficit, leave the door open to cut funding to Medicaid, and automatically cut vital services including food stamps, special education, and Medicare.<br /><br />People with disabilities in our state like <strong>[me/ my family member/ my friends]</strong> are not disposable, and our basic services are not your trust fund. Please vote AGAINST any tax bills that repeal the ACA or set up cuts to services disabled people rely on to survive. We’re calling on you to defend everyday Americans by standing up to this tax bill.</div>
<br />Calling your Members of Congress is crucial because it shows them that the people they were elected to represent <strong>do not support this bill.</strong> </span><h2 align="left" style="color: inherit; font-size: 27px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: normal;">
<span style="color: #e36c09;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m_-4601072251388895055__6sw1yl1hytoa" style="color: #458cc6; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></a>What now?</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: black;">If you’ve already called, call again. After you call, send your Members of Congress an email or a fax. </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn%3DKdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B2jLAKIlyBgA3CKuOndKZRgGjtQpVwdyniAqWsbuUuMg_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVgbkhGvQ2CxzusAQuF8aRSMOQy8GEXqCOnmyjI-2Fiq7FF0LsfKuvXAvF08DllmJnu9Qby1clO55JxZkjurVJ7FyNC-2BCWnD8LVIc3-2FoVpWQzNTKFajw2rooeOWPvi1-2B-2B1RIRJgtEdSXxOFVwcprX7hY059YVwGRyrgdpZzP5kI-2F8mkyqqTZ3UMlIbeE0MJkkYme&source=gmail&ust=1513197803124000&usg=AFQjCNFBqi6vHZ5X64hGacdX-fqPP6SyvA" href="http://em.networkforgood.com/wf/click?upn=KdGPYe-2BJDLILl6-2F1JXAx-2B2jLAKIlyBgA3CKuOndKZRgGjtQpVwdyniAqWsbuUuMg_3m1mcgVQLZFhlU9cLbRWtk3Be0qMybNIVusiGDLF9KeLL7CJ7BoZa58GxkmKE8CrOoyqOpTrGSqtRtWDblRqiNW-2FP7qhRH9c5Yjb2Grw-2BmLEAk2a8B-2BCmdtGpYF66DvaaIrxKvdHtci8L-2B5vVrimy0AuCP9mBPc-2BZVfnZv9ZlzIBdztHFjFtetgTskCS7jAVgbkhGvQ2CxzusAQuF8aRSMOQy8GEXqCOnmyjI-2Fiq7FF0LsfKuvXAvF08DllmJnu9Qby1clO55JxZkjurVJ7FyNC-2BCWnD8LVIc3-2FoVpWQzNTKFajw2rooeOWPvi1-2B-2B1RIRJgtEdSXxOFVwcprX7hY059YVwGRyrgdpZzP5kI-2F8mkyqqTZ3UMlIbeE0MJkkYme" style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">This site makes it easy</span></a><span style="color: black;"> to send free faxes to your Senators and Representative. Then, ask 5 people to call and email their Members of Congress too. Congress is making a huge push to get this bill through this week - so </span><strong style="color: black;">let’s show up, push back, and stop the tax bill in its tracks.</strong></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><strong>SOURCE: </strong></span></div>
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<span class="gD" data-hovercard-id="mail@networkforgood.com" email="mail@networkforgood.com" name="Autistic Self Advocacy Network" style="display: inline; font-size: 12.8px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://autisticadvocacy.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Autistic Self Advocacy Network</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> Dec. 2017 press release</span></span></h3>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-67239943634754908682017-12-12T08:10:00.003-06:002017-12-12T08:10:52.389-06:00Federal Agency Sues Henry's Turkey Farm owner for Exploiting Mentally Disabled Workers for Years<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dec. 11, 2017 - Four years ago, an Iowa jury handed a group of intellectually disabled workers who had been exploited for years the nation’s largest-ever award in an employment discrimination case: a staggering $240 million.<br /><i> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yMZWGlsI1wGZD95eWpmmqWjnefN3FswdKVm8vy7FosMJDbWOUlcVVvySDR3FTi4_654pXIQJF83-2NSKMzi8dhW8mnYrDy9MtKRKHLb3gucnjgrpHjE3n3PrhccZKdmKdnrPH5nb-g3F/s1600/henry%2527s+turkey+farm+bunkhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yMZWGlsI1wGZD95eWpmmqWjnefN3FswdKVm8vy7FosMJDbWOUlcVVvySDR3FTi4_654pXIQJF83-2NSKMzi8dhW8mnYrDy9MtKRKHLb3gucnjgrpHjE3n3PrhccZKdmKdnrPH5nb-g3F/s400/henry%2527s+turkey+farm+bunkhouse.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The 'Bunkhouse' has been demolished.</i></td></tr>
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<i>article by <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/staff/18237/clark-kauffman/" rel="author nofollow" style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Clark Kauffman</span></a> for the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Des Moines Register</b></span></a> </i><br />It was intended to compensate 32 men for the decades they'd spent in indentured servitude while employed by Henry’s Turkey Service, a labor broker accused of paying the men as little as 41 cents an hour while providing them with housing in a dilapidated bunkhouse on the outskirts of Atalissa.<br /><br />The jury's award was immediately slashed to just $1.6 million — less than 1 percent of the amount specified by jurors — because of federal caps on damages.<br /><br />Even so, the verdict represented an uplifting final chapter in a long story of exploitation and abuse.<br /><br />But now that story has an unexpected postscript.<br /><br />Robert Canino, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawyer who pursued the case against Henry's, is back in federal court.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">This time, he's fighting Joseph Paul Byrd, a former Henry’s Turkey Service supervisor who took over the company’s Newberry, South Carolina, labor camp in the 1980s and kept it running for another 30 years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In September 2016, the EEOC sued Byrd's company, Work Services Inc., alleging it had forced its intellectually disabled workers to live in a crowded, substandard bunkhouse, paid them “unconscionable wages” that were less than what nondisabled workers were paid, and subjected the men to a hostile work environment in which they were called “stupid,” “retarded” and “dumb.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The company has denied the allegations, and a trial is scheduled for August.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">"Sadly, the discovery of this situation, answers, in part, the question that has arisen since the disturbing Henry's Turkey Service operation came to light in Iowa a few years ago," Canino said. "After seeing how workers with intellectual disabilities had fallen between the societal cracks, being virtually invisible for decades, many have asked, 'Could there be any other situations like this out there or right in our own backyards?'</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">"The answer, sadly, turned out to be, 'Yes' — and what we found here serves to remind us all to remain vigilant against such abuse of our neighbors and co-workers."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><u>Workers exploited at every turn</u></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In a deposition taken last December as part of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, Byrd acknowledged that the six disabled workers who lived in the two trailers that made up the Newberry bunkhouse were each charged $800 in monthly rent, while the three or four nondisabled men who lived there paid monthly rent of $150 to $200 each.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">During his deposition, Byrd was unable to explain the disparity, except to say that he was maintaining practices established by his former employer, Henry’s Turkey Service, decades ago.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“That’s just the way it was always done,” he told a lawyer for the Department of Labor. “That’s simply the way it was when I started.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In his deposition, Byrd also acknowledged that he and his manager, David Perez, forged signatures on the disabled men’s paychecks and cashed them, then paid the men weekly allowances of $50 to $80 each.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Byrd also testified that he took the men’s disability checks as compensation for room and board and deposited the men’s tax refunds into a company account used to pay his personal and business expenses. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">According to Byrd, he began working for Henry’s Turkey Service in 1968, when the company was populating labor camps across the United States with intellectually disabled men recently discharged from state-run institutions in Texas.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Byrd said that because his job was to supervise the individuals running the various labor camps, he traveled from one site to the next, in Iowa, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, South Carolina and Kansas.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">At one time, Iowa was home to three labor camps runs by Henry’s — in Ellsworth, Storm Lake and Atalissa.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In 1985, Byrd went into business on his own, purchasing the Henry’s labor camp operation in Newberry, South Carolina. At the time, he said, the bunkhouse consisted of 15 disabled men living in a set of trailers across the street from a turkey processing plant.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Over the next 30 years, the men who worked at the plant would arrive there in the morning, help unload live turkeys from trucks, hang them on hooks and kill them. It was, as Byrd later acknowledged, difficult and repetitive work. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">By 2009, some of the men had become too old or sick to continue working. A few of them retired but continued to live in the bunkhouse. The same was true at Henry’s last remaining bunkhouse, in Atalissa.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDP-EWU87pFxM63iag_SKdHGxB9HEe9n-kIoMjWJVp1undscf0jLLCn_MT6blCF03R-wM-RzQ4WT8p0rfKPWb_j__ttDHguntPMwnfTOBrUGIfxQ-EkIWljos6b0ySL131PtbX4-dGkIc/s1600/Henrys+Turkey+Service+disability.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="300" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDP-EWU87pFxM63iag_SKdHGxB9HEe9n-kIoMjWJVp1undscf0jLLCn_MT6blCF03R-wM-RzQ4WT8p0rfKPWb_j__ttDHguntPMwnfTOBrUGIfxQ-EkIWljos6b0ySL131PtbX4-dGkIc/s400/Henrys+Turkey+Service+disability.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Some of the former residents at Henry's Turkey Farm.</i></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The Iowa operation already was winding down in February 2009 when a Des Moines Register investigation triggered a raid by state and federal authorities. All of the Atalissa workers were relocated to fully licensed care facilities, and the bunkhouse was shut down.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">But Byrd’s South Carolina operation continued to do business until late 2014, when New York Times reporter Dan Barry, working on a book about the Atalissa operation, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/separated-from-brother-left-to-toil-far-from-home.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">discovered the Newberry bunkhouse and reported that six of the original Henry’s workers were still living there</span></a><span style="color: #333333;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Because of health problems, two of the men — Claude Wren and Johnny Hickman — had retired from work at the Louis Rich processing plant across the street from the Newberry bunkhouse, Byrd told the Department of Labor.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But the four others — Leon Jones, Carlos Morris, and Jay and John Koch — were still working at the plant and collecting $50 to $100 per week in compensation from Work Services.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><u>Seeking compensation for the workers</u></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;">According to corporate tax records, Work Services Inc. had annual gross receipts of almost $1 million at that time. An affiliate, Work Service Co., reported more than $600,000 in gross receipts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor filed suit against Work Services, Byrd and Perez, alleging they had failed to pay the disabled workers the legally required minimum wage; failed to pay overtime; and failed to keep adequate payroll records.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But the lawsuit was limited in scope: Under federal law, the department could seek payment of only two years’ worth of back wages.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In February, Senior U.S. District Judge Henry Herlong sided with the Department of Labor, granting the agency summary judgment before a trial could take place.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The judge called Byrd’s claim that the workers wanted the company to keep their wages for them “ludicrous,” and he ordered the defendants to pay $165,404 in back wages and damages.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Seven months later, the EEOC filed its own lawsuit against Work Services, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The EEOC’s lawsuit, if successful, could result in far greater damages than the Department of Labor case, because it seeks compensation in three categories: money for the men’s financial losses; for emotional pain, loss of enjoyment of life and humiliation; and punitive damages for the “malicious or reckless conduct” of the company.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In his December 2016 deposition, Byrd acknowledged his bookkeeping at the bunkhouse wasn’t adequate — he kept thousands of dollars owed to the men stuffed inside envelopes hidden at his home, he said — but that he considered the workers family.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">“I did a really poor job of keeping records,” he said. “I was trying real hard to take care of them and make their life a little easier and, hopefully, create a place where they could live the rest of their lives. … I had a lot of affection for each and every one of them. Well, when you’ve spent a third of your life or more with them, they become part of your family, nearly.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Two of the disabled Henry's workers are related: Carl Wayne Jones and Leon Jones are brothers, just a year apart in age. They began working for Henry's in the late 1960s, but the company eventually split them up, sending Carl to Atalissa and Leon to Newberry. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">For decades, the two men didn't see each other.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But in 2014, Canino, the EEOC attorney, set up a Skype connection that enabled the two men, then in their mid-60s, to see and speak to each other for the first time in years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">According to the New York Times, Carl Wayne shared the news that their mother had died long ago; he also talked about his girlfriend and the group home in Waterloo where he lived with some of his friends from the Atalissa bunkhouse.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">This year, Carl and his girlfriend got married. Leon rented a tuxedo and, along with some of his friends from the Newberry bunkhouse, traveled to Iowa for the wedding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">"I missed being there," Canino says, "but I am so happy the South Carolina and Iowa guys got to reconnect a bit — especially Carl and Leon."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><u>Henry's Turkey Service still owes millions</u></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;">No criminal charges were ever filed against Henry’s Turkey Service for the alleged financial exploitation of its Iowa workers, labor law violations, fire-code citations or the lack of a care-facility license at the Atalissa bunkhouse.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">At the time, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said the better course of action was to have other agencies pursue civil remedies against company owner Kenneth Henry of Proctor, Texas, who was worth about $3 million.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Several state and federal agencies imposed administrative penalties, or won court judgments, against the company.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">They eventually totaled $5.9 million, but Kenneth Henry refused to surrender any of his assets or enter into a payment-plan agreement with the federal government before he died in April 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In recent years, however, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor have aggressively pursued collection efforts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">To date, they have distributed roughly $800,000 to the disabled former employees of Henry's. They expect to soon collect an additional $900,000 from the estate of Kenneth Henry, which should bring the total recovery for the Atalissa workers to $1.7 million.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Here's a look at the various judgments and penalties imposed against Henry's:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-weight: 700;">May 2009:</span> Iowa Workforce Development imposed a $900,000 penalty against Henry's for violating state labor laws. The penalty was later increased to more than $1.1 million.</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 700;">November 2009:</span> The U.S. Department of Labor sued the company for federal labor law violations, resulting in a court judgment against the company for $1.8 million.</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 700;">September 2012:</span> After the company offered no resistance or defense to allegations that it violated the fair-wage provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal judge ordered Henry’s to pay $1.3 million to 32 of its disabled workers.</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 700;">May 2013:</span> An Iowa jury returned a verdict of $240 million against Henry’s Turkey Service for discriminatory employment conditions, but the jury verdict was later reduced to $1.6 million because of federal caps on damages in such cases.</li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/12/11/atalissa-echoes-federal-agency-sues-bunkhouse-owner-exploiting-mentally-disabled-workers/924471001/</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>RELATED POSTS on <a href="https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/search?q=Henry%27s+Turkey+Farm&max-results=20&by-date=true" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">HENRY'S TURKEY FARM</span></a>.</b></span></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-34134492465716668782017-12-11T21:30:00.000-06:002017-12-11T21:33:50.541-06:00Chicago Snow Corps: connects volunteers with residents in need of snow removal, such as seniors and residents with disabilities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Snow Corps</span></b><br />
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Chicago Snow Corps is a program that connects volunteers with residents– such as seniors and residents with disabilities - in need of snow removal.<br />
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To request a volunteer to shovel your sidewalk or block in case of extreme snowfall, call 311, submit an<a href="https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller?op=locform&invSRType=SHVL&invSRDesc=Shoveling%2520-%2520Senior/Disabled&locreq=Y&stnumreqd=Y" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b> online Service Request</b></span></a> or contact your <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/about/wards.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Ward office</b></span></a>. This is a volunteer-matching service. The City will do its best to match those who have requested assistance with those who have volunteered.<br />
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To become a volunteer and help residents with snow removal, join the Snow Corps by filling out the form below. While winter can be hazardous for everyone here in the City of Chicago, it can be especially difficult for elderly and physically disabled residents, who may not have the ability or resources to remove snow from their sidewalks and walkways. Chicago Snow Corps aims to help minimize potential heavy-snow emergencies by pairing volunteers with blocks where elderly and disabled citizens have requested help.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Snow Corps - Frequently Asked Questions</span>
About</b><br />
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Chicago Snow Corps is a new program that will connect volunteers with blocks where residents in need of snow removal – such as seniors and disabled people – live. <br />
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While winter can be hazardous for everyone here in the City of Chicago, Chicago Snow Corps aims to help minimize potential heavy-snow emergencies by pairing volunteers with blocks where elderly and disabled citizens have requested help. <br />
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To request a volunteer to shovel your block in case of extreme snowfall, call 311. This is a volunteer-matching service. The City will work to match those who have requested assistance, in a timely manner but there is no guarantee. This is also not a 24 hour service, the coordination of volunteers will happen M-F during a standard work day unless we have an extreme snow emergency.<br />
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<b>What is the Chicago Snow Corps?</b><br />
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Chicago Snow Corps is a City referral program that uses 311 to connect volunteers willing to shovel snow with blocks where those in need of assistance live.<br />
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<b>What are the requirements for participating as a volunteer?</b><br />
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To be a volunteer, you need to be willing and able to help shovel out an area as designated to you by the City and have your own equipment, i.e. shovel or snow blower to do so. Volunteers will be notified via email in case of a heavy snowfall. Volunteers are not employees, agents, or contractors of the City of Chicago by virtue of participation in this program.<br />
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<b>What are the requirements for participating as an applicant for assistance?</b><br />
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Recipients of assistance must be age 60 or older and/OR have a physical disability. They must also live within Chicago City limits and lack access to the available resources (financial resources or local family/friends) to assist with snow removal.<br />
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Please note that we might not be able to have enough volunteers to match up with every resident that places a 311 call for service. This is a voluntary effort and best efforts will be made to help out our most vulnerable residents.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">What do I need to know as an applicant for assistance?</span></b><br />
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Guidelines for recipients include: What you should not do (please <br />
read the following carefully):<br />
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<b>Do not expect that a volunteer will provide services other than snow removal:</b><br />
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Do not expect that a volunteer will remove snow other than on the public sidewalks and on a path up to your front door. <br />
Do not expect that your volunteer will remove snow if it is expected to melt within 24 hours. <br />
Do not offer payment for snow removal. <br />
Inviting a volunteer into your home is NOT endorsed by the City. <br />
What do I need to know as a volunteer Chicago Snow Corps member?</blockquote>
<b>Things you should not do (please read the following carefully):</b><br />
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Do not accept any payment or tips for your services. <br />
Do not give your home phone number to your recipient. <br />
Entering a recipient's home is NOT endorsed by the City. <br />
Note: You are not obligated to shovel driveways.</blockquote>
<b>Things you should do (please read the following carefully):</b><br />
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Do remove snow from the sidewalk of your recipient’s house. Clear a path to the front door if specifically requested. You are not obligated to shovel the driveway. <br />
Do shovel the snow within 24 hours after a snowstorm ends.</blockquote>
The City of Chicago, its agents, and its employees (i) are not liable for any improper or incorrect use of the information on this site, (ii) assume no responsibility for anyone's use of the information, and (iii) are not liable for any damages (of any type, for any reason, however caused, or under any theory of liability) arising in any way out of the use of this site.<br />
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<b>Join the Snow Corps At</b><b>ChicagoShovels </b><br />
<a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/snowportal/chicagoshovels.html" rel="" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/snowportal/chicagoshovels.html</b></span></a><br />
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<b>RELATED POST: </b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;"><a href="http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/12/city-of-chicago-sidewalk-snow-removal.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">City of Chicago Sidewalk Snow Removal info : REPORT UNSHOVELED SIDEWALKS</span></a></b><br />
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<i># this is a repost from 2013, information and links are up to date as of repost.</i><br />
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-29873247378889836242017-12-11T21:18:00.002-06:002017-12-11T21:18:54.886-06:00Let's Lower The Barriers for Young People with Disabilities | Sen. Bob Casey Commentary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Fear and hope. Pride and heartbreak. Sadness and love. Those are only some of the emotions of family members highlighted in <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/ronnie_polaneczky/intellectual-developmental-disabilities-family-living-falling-off-the-cliff-part-4.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">the important Inquirer series “Falling Off the Cliff,”</span></a> as youth with disabilities move from school-age services into their adult years.<br /><i><br /></i><i>opinion by Sen. Bob Casey, For <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://philly.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Philly.com</a> </span>| Dec 2017</i><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">OFFICE OF U.S. SENATOR BOB CASEY - photo</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 0.8125rem;"><i>Sen. Bob Casey is a sponsor of legislation aimed at improving support for children with disabilities.</i></span></div>
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The possibilities for young people with disabilities are endless, just as they are for our young adults without disabilities. The barriers are so much greater, but the challenges to families are not insurmountable with proper support.<br /><br />More than 40 years after the passage of the <a href="http://idea.ed.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Individuals With Disabilities Education Act </span></a>and 27 years after the passage of the <a href="https://www.ada.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Americans With Disabilities Act</span></a>, a generation of young people with disabilities has grown up who have high expectations: to live on their own, to have a job, to become independent, to be active and valued members of their neighborhoods.<br /><br />All of those expectations and goals, however, can be dashed without the right supports and services. As the series points out, if you have to wait for decades for services; or there are not enough skilled, professional direct service workers; or there is no accessible transportation or housing, then the transition from youth to adulthood for a person with a disability can be a plummet over the side of a cliff for both the young person and his or her family.<br /><br />To avoid that cliff we need to do two things: Ensure community-based services and supports are available for young people with disabilities and remove as many barriers to employment as possible.<br /><br />First, we need to make community-based services for people with disabilities as available as institutional services. Right now, through the Medicaid program, our laws guarantee institutional care for adults with disabilities but do not guarantee community supports. As the Medicaid law is written, receiving supports and services in the community is based on a waiver granted by the federal government. The result is that almost half a million people around the country are waiting for services in their homes and communities.<br /><br />To make it possible for people with disabilities to live in the community with the supports they need, we need to amend the 1965 law that created Medicaid so that community-based supports are a right, enabling people with disabilities to choose to live in the community that will best enable them to succeed and to thrive.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.disabilityintegrationact.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>The Disability Integration Act (DIA)</b></span></a>, which I and 15 other senators support, would change that. It would ensure that community-based services are a right as a matter of law, just as institutional support is now. It makes little sense that under current law institutional care is a right but community living is a benefit rationed only to a portion of those who seek it. The benefits of this would go far beyond stopping youth with disabilities and their families from falling off the cliff. Of course, all of this is meaningless if<a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/gop-republican-tax-reform-bill-la-colombe-todd-carmichael-20171128.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"> the budget passed by Republicans in October</span></a> becomes a reality. If that happens, hundreds of thousands more people with disabilities will lose their community Medicaid supports and either be forced into institutions or receive no services at all.<br /><br />Ensuring funds are available for community-based services would help to create a network of community providers to support people with disabilities. It would also ensure there is money to pay direct support professionals, thus creating a pipeline of workers to provide the necessary services.<br /><br />The Department of Labor has estimated there will be over a million personal care aides and home health aides needed over the next 10 years. The DIA will promote the growth of agencies to provide support services and help to attract individuals into the field.<br /><br />In addition to community support, we also need to prioritize employment of persons with disabilities, which is key to independence. Employment for people is now an expectation. To make that a reality, we need to remove as many barriers as possible to obtaining a job.<br /><br />One of those barriers is the risk of losing one’s benefits. <a href="http://www.ablenrc.org/about/what-are-able-accounts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Stephen Beck Achieving a Better Life Experience Act in 2014, better known as the ABLE Act</span></a>, makes it possible for those with disabilities to save up to $15,000 a year without risking eligibility to their Medicaid health care and other benefits.<br /><br />ABLE is a first step to encouraging youth with disabilities to work and save for the future. We need to remove more barriers. The current tax bill moving through Congress would eliminate the tax credit to businesses that hire people with disabilities. That is wrong. We should be encouraging businesses to hire those with disabilities, not putting new barriers in place.<br /><br />We also need to ensure adequate funding is in place for vocational rehabilitation services, which help people with disabilities develop the skills they need to find and keep work.<br /><br />And we need to make sure the last three years of school eligibility for students with disabilities are focused on developing skills to be successful in postsecondary education, the workplace, or both.<br /><br />There are many more changes we can make to eliminate the cliff young people with disabilities and their families face when they turn 21. Let’s start by making sure services are available in the community and the path to employment is as smooth as possible. By doing so, we’ll be filling in that canyon and eliminate the cliff all together.<br /><br />Bob Casey is a Democratic U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenBobCasey" target="_blank">@SenBobCasey</a><div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/intellectual-developmental-disabilities-americans-with-disabilities-act-bob-casey-pa-20171208.html</i></span></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-51106543118463857512017-12-11T19:50:00.000-06:002017-12-11T19:50:28.732-06:00Quality Of Education Can Depend On ZIP Code For Students With Disabilities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The law says these students deserve to learn. In some districts, parents say that’s not happening.</b></span><br /><i><br /></i><div>
<i>Article By <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/rebecca-klein" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Rebecca Klein</span></a> for <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>The Huffington Post</b></span></a> 12/09/2017 </i><br />At the start of every school year, Jawanda Mast met with administrators at her daughter Rachel’s school. Every year, it was the same fight. Teachers wanted to separate Rachel ― who has Down syndrome ― from her peers without disabilities, and put her in a segregated class. Mast always pushed back. Isolating her daughter from her peers would have a devastating effect. Rachel was vivacious and social, and loved to be with her friends. <br /><br />After years of having the same fight over and over, Mast made a hard choice right before Rachel was set to begin third grade. Mast and her family decided to leave their home in Tennessee for Kansas, where they could put Rachel into a school system that offered a better education and would include her in an integrated classroom. The family also made the move due to Mast’s husband’s job, but the education issues in Tennessee were a key factor.<br /><br />“I was like, how on earth am I going to do this for 10 more years,” Mast said.<br /><br />As a child with Down syndrome, Rachel is one of the small number of public school students in America with an intellectual disability. These children made up less than 2 percent of public school students in every state <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/static-tables/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">during the 2015-2016 school year.</span></a> Experts estimate that up to 90 percent of students with disabilities can graduate high school meeting the same academic expectations as their peers. But parents and advocates say the other 10 percent are often assumed to be less capable than they are.<br /><br />Just a few decades ago, students with disabilities faced high rates of institutionalization and were rarely included in typical classroom settings. In 1975, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act ― originally called the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act ― enshrined into law these students’ right to an appropriate public education.<br /><br />Part of IDEA’s framework requires parents to advocate hard to get what they see as their children’s needs met. Often, school districts have different ideas about what would best serve a child. Decades later, this is still the case.<br /><br />Sometimes teachers lack the best training for dealing with a student’s specific disability. Other times, administrators have low expectations for what these students can achieve.<br /><br />While IDEA says students with disabilities should learn in the least restrictive environment ― meaning with non-disabled peers ― parents still often find themselves fighting hard, expensive battles for their child to be included.<br /><br />Success can be a matter of luck. But it also depends on time and resources. For Mast’s daughter, those two factors were important.<br /><br />The district in Tennessee where Rachel previously went to school never had a child with Down syndrome graduate with a high school diploma, Mast said. (Rachel’s elementary school was part of Shelby County Schools. Since she left, it split off and is now part of another district, Bartlett Municipal School District. Both districts deferred to the other for comment.) <br /><br />Now, Rachel is 18 and set to graduate in May from her district in Olathe, Kansas. She will receive a full, regular diploma ― Kansas does not have diplomas specifically for students with disabilities ― and has plans to start at a community college or go to a four-year college with a special program for students with special needs.<br /><br />The move to Kansas didn’t solve everything. Mast still had to fight for resources for her daughter. She said she is “exhausted from doing all I had to do to make sure she could be included.” But overall, it has been a positive experience. Rachel spends all day in general-education classrooms with her peers without disabilities, aside from a resource class where she gets special attention.<br /><br />Mast isn’t alone in feeling that she had to move in order to get the proper support for her child. HuffPost spoke to four families of children with severe disabilities who say they either moved in order to get their child better services, or allowed their children’s educational needs to factor into a move. They all ended up in places where they feel their child’s unique and individual needs are met.<br /><br />It’s a luxury not every family has.<br /><br />Maryland parent Marjorie Guldan has a 14-year-old daughter with Down syndrome. She fought for years and went to court to stop her district from giving her daughter certain assessments.<br /><br />The district needed these assessments in order to push Guldan’s daughter, Rebecca, into a graduation track specifically for students with disabilities. This track allows students to graduate with a certificate instead of a regular diploma. High school certificates don’t carry the same weight as diplomas ― <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/students-with-disabilities-high-school-degree_us_5a22be77e4b03c44072de069?9jp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">they are not recognized by postsecondary institutions</span></a>. Twenty-four states have diploma paths specifically for students with disabilities.<br /><br />A judge eventually sided with the district, allowing it to give Rebecca the assessments that would make her eligible for the certificate track. Guldan said officials started pushing for this path when Rebecca was only in the third grade.<br /><br />“My argument all along has been lets just keep pushing her and see where we get. If in the end diploma is not possible then I will happily accept the certificate,” Guldan said. “What I resented was, from third grade on, every year them saying she really should be on certificate, she can’t handle the grade-level work.”<br /><br />District officials did not respond to requests for comment.<br /><br />Guldan’s daughter now only spends a few classes a day with her peers without disabilities. The results have been mixed. Rebecca’s behavior has improved because she is less challenged by the curriculum and doesn’t act out as much in frustration. On the other hand, Guldan wants her daughter to be challenged.<br /><br />“I fully expect her to be able to work in the community. Obviously she’s not going to be a lawyer or a doctor, but there are plenty of opportunities out there that we can be working towards preparing her for that are going to require high expectations,” said Guldan, whose other daughter graduated from the district.<br /><br />Like Mast, Guldan considered taking her daughter out of the district to put her in a school that was more dedicated to inclusion. But for Guldan’s family ― like so many others ― picking up and leaving is simply not an option. It would be a financial burden, and Guldan has come to rely on her neighbors for help looking after Rebecca. They have developed a strong community. And Guldan’s other daughter loves her childhood home.<br /><br />“Even I don’t know that fighting for a diploma is worth all the upheaval,” Guldan said.<br /><br />But for families of students with disabilities, it’s an unfortunate dilemma that they’re sometimes forced to face.<br /><br />Experts say these battles play out all the time. Ricki Sabia, senior policy adviser at the National Down Syndrome Congress, said she sees tremendous variability in how students are treated based place and situation.<br /><br />“Even within a district can vary from school to school to school,” Sabia said.<br /><br />Sabia has seen families move to a specific district to take advantage of its inclusive options, only to have the school principal leave and the culture change.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
“People keep saying education shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code. It’s thrown around a lot in terms of kids in poverty, but it’s also true for kids with disabilities. It shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code,” she said.</blockquote>
<i>This story was produced by <a href="x-webdoc://B9E8B89D-9FE8-4515-A57A-66E8BD4D2C08/hechingerreport.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>The Hechinger Repor</b></span>t</a>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, in partnership with HuffPost. Read the whole series, “<a href="http://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/willing-able-forgotten/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Willing, Able and Forgotten: How High Schools Fail Special Ed Students,” here</span></a>. Sign up for our <a href="http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=a4f3e0748b" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">newsletter</span></a>.</i><div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/students-disabilities-quality-education_us_5a2ac25be4b0a290f0503905</span></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-85309795582177079932017-12-11T19:33:00.001-06:002017-12-11T19:33:52.138-06:00 'Tolerating Low Expectations for Children With Disabilities Must End' A Commentary by Betsy DeVos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Betsy DeVos is the U.S. secretary of education</div>
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Dec. 2017 - Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision. The justices ruled 8-0 in <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Endrew F.</i> vs. <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Douglas County School District</i> that Endrew, a child with autism, was entitled to an educational program that required more than the "de minimis"—or minimum—progress set by his assigned school.</div>
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This landmark decision was rightly hailed as a victory for the millions of children with disabilities and their families in America today. Too often, the families of disabled children have felt that their children are not being adequately challenged academically or given the support needed to grow and thrive.</div>
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Unfortunately, stories like the one in this case are not uncommon. Too many parents of children with disabilities see their son or daughter's individualized education program, or IEP, little changed from year to year. To these parents, it often seems as if the school district is content with simply passing their child along, rather than focusing on helping him or her progress and grow academically. They recognize that the de minimis standard isn’t working for their child, but, sadly, they often do not have the opportunity to access something better.</div>
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When it comes to educating students with disabilities, failure is not acceptable. De minimis isn’t either.</div>
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"When it comes to educating students with disabilities, failure is not acceptable."</div>
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That's why this week the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/qa-endrewcase-12-07-2017.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">U.S. Department of Education released a Q&A document</span></a> to inform families, educators, and administrators of the impact of the court's decision on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and the scope of the free, appropriate public education, or FAPE, requirements under the law.</div>
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The court's decision gave legal weight to what so many parents and educators already knew to be true: In order to excel, each child must have an education program that is appropriately ambitious in light of his or her circumstances. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s opinion emphasized the individualized decision-making required in the IEP process and the need to ensure that every child should have the chance to meet challenging objectives.</div>
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No two children are the same. Each has his or her own unique abilities and needs. Personalized, student-centered education can help all children thrive, especially children with disabilities. Their education should embrace their diverse traits and aspirations, rather than limiting them with a one-size-fits-all approach.</div>
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Student success requires we put each child at the center of everything we do. Low standards and de minimis expectations tell our students that we don’t have hope for them. That we don't believe in them. But we do. Tolerating low-expectations for children with disabilities must end. Challenging children with disabilities empowers them, and doing so gives them the hope of living successful, independent lives.</div>
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Every student should be loved and respected, and with our help, they can gain the tools to grow and become everything they want to be.</div>
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Every family should have the ability to choose the learning environment that is right for their child. They shouldn’t have to sue their way to the U.S. Supreme Court to get it. Thanks to the Court’s landmark unanimous decision, other families won’t have to.</div>
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<i>SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-91817679519797708702017-12-11T19:22:00.000-06:002017-12-11T19:22:14.050-06:00Owner of Houston Home Health Agency Sentenced to 80 Yrs for Involvement in $13 Million Medicare Fraud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Owner of Home Health Agency Sentenced in Absentia to 80 Years in Prison for Involvement in $13 Million Medicare Fraud Conspiracy and for Filing Fraudulent Tax Returns</h1>
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<i><b>U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owner-home-health-agency-sentenced-absentia-80-years-prison-involvement-13-million-medicare" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">press release</a> Dec. 8, 2017 </b></i> <div>
The owner of a Houston home health agency was sentenced today to 80 years in prison for his role in a $13 million Medicare fraud scheme and for filing false tax returns.<br /><br />Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez of the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office, Special Agent in Charge C.J. Porter of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region and Special Agent in Charge D. Richard Goss of the Houston Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.<br /><br />Ebong Tilong, 53, of Sugarland, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon of the Southern District of Texas. In November 2016, after the first week of trial, Tilong pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, three counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks, three counts of payment and receipt of healthcare kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. In June 2017, Tilong pleaded guilty to two counts of filing fraudulent tax returns. Tilong failed to appear for his original sentencing, which was scheduled for Oct. 13, 2017. <br /><br />According to the evidence presented at trial and Tilong’s admissions in connection with his guilty plea, from February 2006 through June 2015, Tilong and others conspired to defraud Medicare by submitting over $10 million in false and fraudulent claims for home health services to Medicare through Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. (Fiango), owned by Tilong and his wife, Marie Neba, 53, also of Sugarland, Texas. The trial evidence showed that using the money that Medicare paid for such fraudulent claims, Tilong paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters for referring Medicare beneficiaries to Fiango for home health services. Tilong also paid illegal kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries for allowing Fiango to bill Medicare using beneficiaries’ Medicare information for home health services that were not medically necessary or not provided, the evidence showed. Tilong falsified medical records and directed others to falsify medical records to make it appear as though the Medicare beneficiaries qualified for and received home health services. Tilong also attempted to destroy evidence, blackmail a witness, and suborn perjury from witnesses, including a co-defendant while in the federal courthouse, the evidence showed.<br /><br />According to the evidence presented at trial and his admissions to the tax offenses, from February 2006 to June 2015, Tilong received more than $13 million from Medicare for home health services that were not medically necessary or not provided to Medicare beneficiaries.<br /><br />In connection with his guilty plea to the tax offenses, Tilong admitted that to maximize his gains from the Medicare fraud scheme, he created a shell company called Quality Therapy Services (QTS) to limit the amount of tax that he paid to the IRS on the proceeds that he and his co-conspirators stole from Medicare. According to his plea agreement, in 2013 and 2014, Tilong wrote almost a million dollars in checks from Fiango to QTS, purportedly for physical-therapy services that QTS provided to Fiango’s Medicare patients. The evidence showed that QTS did not provide those services. According to his plea agreement, in 2013 and 2014, Tilong’s fraudulent tax scheme caused the IRS a tax loss of approximately $344,452.<br /><br />To date, four others have pleaded guilty or been convicted based on their roles in the fraudulent Medicare scheme at Fiango. Nirmal Mazumdar, M.D., of Houston, Texas, the former medical director of Fiango, pleaded guilty to a scheme to commit health care fraud for his role at Fiango. Daisy Carter, 58, of Wharton, Texas, and Connie Ray Island, 49, of Houston, Texas, two patient recruiters for Fiango, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud for their roles at Fiango. Neba was convicted after a two-week jury trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks, one count of payment and receipt of health care kickbacks, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of making health care false statements.<br /><br />On Aug. 11, Neba was sentenced to 75 years in prison and Island was sentenced to 33 months in prison. On Oct. 3, Mazumdar was sentenced to time served with three years of home confinement. Carter is awaiting sentencing. <br /><br />The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS-CI and HHS-OIG under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney William S.W. Chang, Senior Trial Attorney Jonathan T. Baum, and Trial Attorney Andrew Pennebaker of the Fraud Section.<br /><br />The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operates in nine locations nationwide. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 3,500 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $12.5 billion.<br /><br />To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.</div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-8491997108134736552017-12-11T19:11:00.000-06:002017-12-11T19:11:24.134-06:00Brittany Covington of Chicago gets Probation for Beating of Disabled Teen on Facebook Live<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dec 8, 2017 - A Chicago woman who prosecutors said used Facebook Live to stream a beating of a mentally disabled teenager from the suburbs avoided prison by pleading guilty to a hate crime Friday in Cook County circuit court.<br /><br /><i>article by <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/newsroom/BobSusnjara/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Bob Susnjara</span></a> for <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>The Daily Herald</b></span></a> </span></i><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Brittany Covington, 19, received four years' probation in exchange for the negotiated guilty plea. In addition to the hate crime, she admitted to aggravated battery with intent to disseminate on video and intimidation charges, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office.</div>
<br />Cook County Judge William Hooks sentenced Covington to 200 hours of community service as part of the probation, plus ordered her to attain a general equivalency diploma. Covington also is prohibited from contact with any gang members, must submit to random drug testing and is banned from all forms of social media for four years.<br /><br />The four defendants in the case are black and the victim white.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Authorities said the then-18-year-old Crystal Lake victim met up with Jordan Hill -- formerly a student at Aurora's Core Academy and Hoffman Estates' Conant High School -- on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2016, at a Schaumburg McDonald's restaurant. Later, the teen called his parents for permission to spend the night at a friend's home.<br /></div>
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Cook County prosecutors said after the teen met with Hill at the McDonald's, they and another person bought and smoked marijuana. Hill stole a van in Streamwood and the trio met up with another individual and drove to Chicago, eventually going to a building on the 3300 block of West Lexington Street, where Covington and her sister lived in an apartment on the third floor, according to authorities.<br /><br />By Jan. 2, the teen had stopped communicating with his family, and his parents filed a missing-person report with Streamwood police, prosecutors said.<br /><br />Tesfaye Cooper, a former Hoffman Estates High School student, yelled at the teen and forced him to make racially charged, expletive-filled statements about President Donald Trump and white people, officials said.<br /><br />Prosecutors said the livestream on Facebook showed all four defendants participating in the abuse. Authorities said the abuse included Hill and Cooper punching the teen in the head, forcing him to drink toilet water and gagging him with a sock and duct tape.<br /><br />Still pending are the cases of Hill, Cooper and Covington's sister, Tanishia.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20171208/woman-gets-probation-in-beating-of-teen-shown-on-facebook-live</i></span></div>
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<i><b>RELATED POST: </b></i><a href="https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2017/01/man-with-special-needs-tied-up-tortured.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Man with Special Needs ‘Tied Up & Tortured’ on Facebook Live in Chicago</b></span></a></div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-51747640637565475362017-12-11T18:36:00.003-06:002017-12-11T18:36:58.567-06:002 Delaware Men Arrested After Walker Stolen from Girl with Cerebral Palsy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
WILMINGTON, Del. - Dec. 6, 2017 - ABC News - Two men have been charged in connection with the theft of a walker belonging to a young girl with cerebral palsy in Wilmington.<br />
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Fifty-one-year-old Leland Watson and 49-year-old Donald Cale have been charged with theft and conspiracy. Watson is additionally charged with possession of heroin.<br />
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Brittany Murray said she wheeled her daughter, Kirsten Edwards-Alexander, out to the car last Thursday, placed her in the vehicle and then drove away, accidentally leaving the walker behind in the front yard of their Rodney Drive home.<br />
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Police said when Murray realized her mistake, about 20 minutes later, she contacted her husband who was still at home. Investigators said when the husband looked out the window the walker was gone.<br />
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As a result, Kiersten's sense of independence was also stolen.<br />
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"I wish I could walk right now but I can't. So that is how I feel deep inside," she said.<br />
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Surveillance video supplied by a neighbor shows that within a minute of the two driving off, a man in a white pick-up truck pulled up and took the walker.<br />
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Murray says she is certain the right men were arrested because they actually came back to her house on Monday night.<br />
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"They wanted to apologize for taking the walker. He didn't know it was a child walker," she said.<br />
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Unfortunately, the walker is gone.<br />
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"We were able to find out that the Walker was taken to the scrap metal yard and has since been recycled," said Mst. Cpl. Michael Eckerd of New Castle County<br />
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Murray says the alleged thieves gave her an older, beat up version of the walker to make up for what they did.<br />
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They even made a request.<br />
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"One of the gentlemen said to me that they wanted me to reach out to the new stations and the police to let them know they came by to bring her another walker," Murray said.<br />
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Meanwhile, the public outpouring of support from people all across the Delaware Valley has left his family speechless.<br />
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"It is honestly so much that we are really having a hard time keeping up with a lot of this," Murray said. "We were just really grateful for it."<br />
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"It makes me feel good to know that people actually care about me," said Kirsten.<br />
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Both Watson and Cole were taken to New Castle County Police Headquarters and arraigned on theft and conspiracy charges. Watson was also charged with possession of heroin.</div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-66666698589430062772017-12-05T15:11:00.000-06:002017-12-05T15:11:11.127-06:00Accessible Shared Streets: Federal Guide for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released a <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/accessible_shared_streets/index.cfm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>guide</b></span></a> on access to shared streets for people with vision impairments. The 40-page publication, Accessible Shared Streets: Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities, provides guidance and best practices for designing shared streets based on lessons learned from existing projects and input from FHWA Division Offices, the Access Board, state departments of transportation, and the National Association of City Transportation Officials. It also covers guiding design principles as part of a "design toolbox" for shared streets, applicable accessibility mandates, environmental challenges to pedestrians with vision impairments, and detectable warnings and other access features.</span></div>
<br />For further information, and the Accessible Shared Streets guide, visit <span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/accessible_shared_streets/index.cfm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">FHWA's website</span></a>.</b></span></div>
Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-63441948183027356652017-12-05T14:41:00.000-06:002017-12-05T14:41:00.221-06:00AccentCare to Pay $25,000 To Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit for Reasonable Accommodation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Health Care Provider Refused to Grant Employee a Reasonable Accommodation, Federal Agency Charged</span></em></strong></div>
DALLAS / Dec. 1, 2017 - AccentCare, Inc., a home healthcare company headquartered in Dallas, has agreed to pay $25,000 and provide other significant relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC charged in its suit that AccentCare discriminated against an employee with bipolar disorder.<br /><br />According to the EEOC's suit, an AccentCare IT analyst informed the company that she has bipolar disorder and requested leave in order to see her health care provider. The EEOC further said that upon learning of the employee's disability and receiving her request for leave, AccentCare fired her within one day, without giving proper consideration to her request.<br /><br />Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects employees from discrimination based on their disabilities and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations to employees' disabilities as long as it does not pose an undue hardship. The EEOC sued in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Civil Action No. 3:15-cv-03157) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.<br /><br />Under the terms of the consent decree settling the case, AccentCare, Inc. will pay $25,000 in monetary relief to the former IT analyst. AccentCare also agreed to post a notice about the settlement, and to provide training for employees on the ADA to include instruction on the specific provisions of the reasonable accommodation process. The training will include an instruction advising managers and supervisors of the potential consequences for violations of the ADA. Additionally, AccentCare has agreed to document complaints of disability discrimination and report to the EEOC.<br /><br />"It has always been our contention that AccentCare demonstrated a reckless disregard for the federally protected rights of this valuable employee, rather than carefully considering her request for leave to see her doctor," said EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Joel Clark.<br /><br />Robert A. Canino, regional attorney for the EEOC's Dallas District Office, added, "We would expect that employers in the health care field would be keenly aware of the importance of supporting the medical needs of their employees by allowing reasonable time that may be required for treatment. We are pleased with the resolution of this case."<br /><br />The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.eeoc.gov</span></a>. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our <a href="https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USEEOC/subscriber/new" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">email updates</span></a>.<div>
<i>SOURCE: EEOC <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/12-1-17.cfm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">press release</span></a></i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-59966353933360673312017-12-05T14:36:00.000-06:002017-12-05T14:36:24.749-06:00Day & Zimmermann Staffing Will Pay $45,000 To Settle EEOC Disability and Retaliation Suit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><em>Utility Services Company Unlawfully Publicized Worker's EEOC Disability Charge to Co-Workers, Federal Agency Charged</em></strong></div>
BOSTON - Nov. 30, 2017 - Day & Zimmermann NPS, a Philadelphia-headquartered provider of staffing services to the power industry, will pay $45,000 and furnish extensive injunctive relief to settle a lawsuit alleging retaliation and interference with rights filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.<br /><br />According to the EEOC's suit, an electrician hired by Day & Zimmermann to work during the shutdown of a Waterford, Conn., power plant filed a disability discrimination charge with EEOC under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). After that, the company publicized details of the charge, including the employee's name, union affiliation, and information about the medical restrictions on his ability to work, in a letter to 146 members of his union local. By publicizing the employee's charge in this manner, Day & Zimmermann retaliated against the employee and interfered with the rights of workers and witnesses to communicate freely with the EEOC and to file charges of their own, the EEOC asserts.<br /><br />The EEOC's lawsuit, Civil Action No. 3:15-cv-1416-VAB, filed in September 2015 in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, was scheduled to go to trial in January, after the court ruled in August that "when an employer disseminates an employee's administrative charge of discrimination to the employee's colleagues, a reasonable factfinder could determine that such conduct constitutes an adverse employment action." A jury, the court concluded, could find that "a retaliatory motive played a part" in the company's decision to publicize the employee's charge. The court further held that a reasonable jury could find that the company's letter "could have the effect of interfering with or intimidating the letter's recipients with respect to communicating with the EEOC about possible disability discrimination by DZNPS."<br /><br />The three-year consent decree resolving the case, which was approved by the court today, enjoins Day & Zimmermann from future retaliation or interference with ADA-protected rights and prohibits the company from publicizing the identity of individuals who file charges of disability discrimination in the future. In addition, the decree provides for revision of company policies, an extended statute of limitations for certain individuals to file ADA claims with the EEOC, and $45,000 in compensatory damages to the employee who filed the original discrimination charge.<br /><br />"This decree ensures that Day & Zimmermann will comply with the law," said EEOC New York District Regional Attorney Jeffrey Burstein. "As a national law enforcement agency, the EEOC will vigorously protect the rights of people to file charges with the EEOC and to participate in the agency's investigations without fear of retaliation."<br /><br />EEOC New York District Director Kevin Berry added, "Conduct by employers that interferes with the right of workers to speak to the EEOC increases the risk that discrimination will go unreported and unremedied. The EEOC will continue to oppose such conduct because it is crucial that employees, whether they are victims of discrimination or witnesses to discriminatory conduct, be able to communicate freely with the EEOC."<br /><br />Sara Smolik and Rosemary DiSavino were the EEOC's lead trial attorneys for this case.<br /><br />The EEOC's New York District Office oversees New York, Northern New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.<br /><br />The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.eeoc.gov</span></a>. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our <a href="https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USEEOC/subscriber/new" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email updates</a>.<div>
<i>SOURCE: EEOC <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-30-17b.cfm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">press release</span></a></i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-65632390726034591472017-12-05T06:40:00.000-06:002017-12-05T06:40:27.911-06:00 ASL Poser Derlyn Roberts with Criminal Past Dupes Tampa Police at News Conference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0sk32fMxujLBt9zpsq7iHCq5_7-8juEPuCsd66qhgEqd_LRpiNnCjEVdNeBSWKfekzKKsxWdFJAhd5RCkT0dfd41wG0VqEBhjxfj7UZ5iKPID9yYk9VjaIB9233jZU9wOp6DgJ-nnUHu/s1600/Tampa-police-signlanguage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="300" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0sk32fMxujLBt9zpsq7iHCq5_7-8juEPuCsd66qhgEqd_LRpiNnCjEVdNeBSWKfekzKKsxWdFJAhd5RCkT0dfd41wG0VqEBhjxfj7UZ5iKPID9yYk9VjaIB9233jZU9wOp6DgJ-nnUHu/s320/Tampa-police-signlanguage.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Dec. 4, 2017 — TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Hearing impaired people tuning into a news conference about the arrest of a suspected serial killer in Seminole Heights got a message of gibberish as they watched an American Sign Language interpreter.</span></div>
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Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Janelle McGregor said officials are conducting a review because they didn’t request an interpreter for the Nov. 28 news conference.<br /><br />Police Chief Brian Dugan announced the arrest of 24-year-old Howell Donaldson III that day.</div>
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<br />Rachelle Settambrino, who teaches sign language at the University of South Florida, says interpreter Derlyn Roberts signed the following: “Fifty-one hours ago, zero 12 22 (indecipherable) murder three minutes in 14 weeks ago in old (indecipherable) murder four five 55,000 plea 10 arrest murder bush (indecipherable) three age 24.”</div>
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<br />The next day, a new interpreter was at the news conference.<br /><br />Source: Associated Press<div>
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Dec. 4, 2017 Video <a href="http://wfla.com/2017/12/04/unqualified-asl-poser-with-criminal-past-dupes-police-at-seminole-heights-killer-news-conference/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">report</span></a> from News 8 Tampa WFLA.</div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-50867143219163493722017-12-04T16:22:00.003-06:002017-12-04T16:22:50.870-06:00What the TRUMP Tax Plan means to All Americans, Especially Those with Medical Issues<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<u>ALL Americans need you to call your member of Congress.</u> They need to hear loud and clear that this plan is bad news for retirees and anyone who isn’t a millionaire.</div>
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With the fact that 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, 51 Republican Senators voted to cut retiree health benefits earned over a lifetime to provide an unneeded windfall to the top 1%. They seem determined to create a retirement crisis that will take decades to reverse.<br /></div>
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<strong>We need to make sure everyone realizes how devastating this TAX plan is.<br /></strong></div>
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Besides the automatic cuts to Medicare, this bill:<br /></div>
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• Gives a massive tax cut to millionaires and corporations. Over 60% of the tax cuts go to the richest 1%.<br /></div>
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• Raises taxes on 67 million middle-class families making less than $100,000 a year.<br /></div>
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• Strips 13 million Americans of their health insurance and raises insurance premiums by $2,000 on average for millions of people on the individual market.<br /></div>
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• Adds $1 trillion to the national debt, which will result in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and education.<br /></div>
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• Reduces the popular state and local tax deductions used by millions of middle-class families.<br /></div>
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• Hands a $500 billion tax break to multinational corporations that have stashed $2.6 trillion in untaxed profits offshore.<br /></div>
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<strong><em>Fight back now by calling your member of Congress and telling them to vote against this Tax Scam.</em></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #c61f0c;">How to Contact Your Elected Officials </span>*<span style="color: #c61f0c;"> </span><a href="https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials</span></a></h1>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>Dec 4th Press Release!</b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is very close to reaching President Trump’s desk and becoming law. NOW is the time to call your Representative and tell them to OPPOSE this dangerous bill!</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D6bffec4646%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNHKgYRA0zwu_a9dzrqsOgXcUk68fw" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=6bffec4646&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Key Provisions for People with Disabilities in the House and Senate Tax Bills</span></a> – Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D61877a8be6%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNGcHeG3hp_Z4XzL9D0YJ79wTt5s0w" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=61877a8be6&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Top 5 Reasons the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is Bad for People with Disabilities</span></a> – Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities</li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">The Senate tax bill is extremely dangerous to the well-being of people with disabilities.</span><ul style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><strong>Tax cuts open the door for cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Security Income, and other services that benefit people with disabilities.</strong> While neither the House nor Senate tax bill includes direct cuts to these services, cuts are expected to follow to offset the $1.5 trillion added to the deficit due to providing large tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Medicaid and other disability services were the target of intense cuts over the summer through the various Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bills proposed in the House and Senate. There is no doubt that these same services remain on the chopping block to help pay for the proposed tax cuts.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><strong>The Senate bill eliminates the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual mandate.</strong> The individual mandate helps make health insurance affordable. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 13 million people would lose access to affordable coverage by 2027 if the individual mandate were eliminated. Furthermore, insurance premiums would rise by 10%, which amounts to an increase of hundreds of dollars per year for nearly 7 million middle-income Americans and by over $1,000 per year for seniors, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><strong>The Senate bill benefits the wealthiest Americans while the poorest would be worse off.</strong> The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D10a25e7429%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNG5oJwIZNXFchi1My5ahUuJmApCxQ" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=10a25e7429&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report</span></a> which found that Americans earning less than $100,000 a year would, ultimately, not benefit from the proposed tax cuts. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D5390f1a1ed%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNEnFe8qnAhbAI_tgOJOBHpLtGej9Q" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=5390f1a1ed&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">According to a <em>Washington Post</em> analysis of the CBO report</span></a>, “By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries, according to the CBO’s calculations.”</li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">The House bill is also damaging as it proposes to eliminate several tax deductions and credits that benefit people with disabilities. These include:</span><ul style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3Dcd37a44d6a%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNGNgVHb2RewQf0HICaXSPKwa05LOg" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=cd37a44d6a&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Medical Expense Deduction</span></strong></a>: This tax deduction allows people to deduct large, unreimbursed medical and dental expenses that exceed 10% of their income. Approximately 8.8 million people utilize this deduction, 70% of which have an income at $70,000 or lower. Most filings are around $10,000 by people with high healthcare costs, which largely includes people with disabilities, chronic health conditions, and other medical conditions. People are allowed to deduct expenses for a variety of expenses including treatments, surgeries, medications, and medical travel.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D09ba898cbd%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNHPm4MJwHC_cYNM4Mx24Y7r_mvWhA" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=09ba898cbd&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Disabled Access Credit and Barrier Removal Tax Deduction</span></strong></a>: Businesses that accommodate people with disabilities may qualify for tax credits and deductions including the Disabled Access Credit and the Barrier Removal Tax Deduction. This credit and deduction incentivizes small businesses to make their businesses accessible for disabled people. Small businesses can claim a 50% credit per year for expenditures between $250 and $10,250 that increase access and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f%26id%3D343b6cb8fe%26e%3D27394b669c&source=gmail&ust=1512510460880000&usg=AFQjCNFD5Ow-mSidwmyigNHhanL7pErMCw" href="https://aapd.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=08dab5cd58ad9250c3f56519f&id=343b6cb8fe&e=27394b669c" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Work Opportunity Tax Credit</span></strong></a>: This federal tax credit is available to employers for hiring individuals from certain target groups (including disabled people who receive services from Vocational Rehabilitation, SSI recipients, returning citizens, veterans, and long-term unemployment compensation recipients) who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment. The current tax credit for hiring a person with a disability can be as high as $2,400 for a business.</li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">The final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could contain any of these harmful provisions from the Senate and House bills.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">While neither tax bill includes direct cuts to Medicaid or other disability services, these cuts are expected to follow to offset the roughly $1.5 trillion added to the deficit due to providing large tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Medicaid and other disability services were the target of intense cuts over the summer through the various Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bills proposed in the House and Senate. There is no doubt that these same services remain on the chopping block to help pay for the proposed tax cuts.</span></div>
SOURCE: The <a href="http://www.aapd.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>American Association of People with Disabilities</b></span></a> (AAPD) </div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-66612828690906140682017-11-30T10:50:00.000-06:002017-11-30T10:50:23.909-06:00Autism & Safety Toolkit from Autistic Self Advocacy Network<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Alegreya, Georgia, Bitstream Charter, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.0016px;">The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) has made available a online toolkit, the following is as posted on their website. For more resources, news, advocacy, visit: </span></span></span><a href="http://autisticadvocacy.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>http://autisticadvocacy.org/</b></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16.0016px;">Autistic people have the right to be safe and live independently in our communities. We also face significant threats to our safety, including higher rates of abuse, institutionalization, suicide, and police violence. Too often, autistic voices have been erased from conversations about autism and safety. That’s why ASAN is proud to announce the release of our Autism & Safety Toolkit – the first toolkit made by autistic self-advocates, focusing on safety issues that affect us and the tools to deal with them.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This toolkit provides information about:</span></div>
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<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Abuse and neglect</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bullying</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Interactions with police</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mental health</span></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Safely navigating the community</span></li>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Many people think that people with developmental disabilities must give up our autonomy, or be separated from the broader community, in order to be safe. But in reality, we are safest when we are included in our communities and empowered to take control of our own lives. The toolkit describes safety risks we face, discusses different ways to address them, and debunks myths about safety that are sometimes used to curtail our independence and access to the community.</span></div>
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<span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Autism & Safety Toolkit comes in three sections. Click on the title of any section to download it as a screenreader-accessible PDF.</span></div>
<ul style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Alegreya, Georgia, "Bitstream Charter", serif; font-size: 16.0016px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 24px 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Autism-and-Safety-Pt-1.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(108, 110, 178); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: blue;">Research Overview on Autism & Safety</span></span></a></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Autism-and-Safety-Pt-2.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(108, 110, 178); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: blue;">Safety Tips for Self-Advocates</span></span></a></li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Autism-and-Safety-Pt-3.pdf" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(108, 110, 178); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: blue;">Ways for Family Members to Support the Safety of Autistic People</span></span></a></li>
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<i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This toolkit was made possible thanks to generous support from the WITH foundation.</i></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-4305598485224212622017-11-29T21:45:00.000-06:002017-11-29T21:45:24.034-06:00Nationally ADAPT Members Ready To Protest, to Secure 'DNC' Support for the Disability Integration Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Members from across the United States meet with the DNC Chair Tom Perez!</b></span><br /><br /><div>
11/29/17 – Washington, D.C. Activists from the disability rights organization ADAPT, the same group that spent summer fighting Republican efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, today set their sights on the Democratic National Committee. The ADAPT activists had traveled from as far as Colorado to express their anger at DNC chair Tom Perez because he didn’t live up to his commitments to them for the DNC to support Disability Integration Act (DIA – S910/HR2472) which would ensure that no Disabled American is denied Life and Liberty by unwanted institutionalization.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Tom Perez promised me personally that he and the DNC would work tirelessly to put the full weight of the party behind the Disability Integration Act and instead we get the empty gesture of this council and still struggle to get Democrats in Congress onto our bill.” said Dawn Russell from Denver. “Too many disabled people are still forced into nursing facilities and other institutions and too many Democratic Party leaders have been doing almost nothing about it.”</i></blockquote>
When ADAPT activists showed up to disrupt the launch of the DNC Disability Council, Perez agreed to meet with them and stated that the DNC would be issuing a statement in support of DIA and would work with ADAPT and other organizations to better address issues of importance to the Disability Community.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“We’ve been here for the Democrats all year, fighting to save Medicaid and the ACA” said Rochester ADAPT member Ericka Jones “and then we’ve had to fight them just to get them to support our lives and liberty. It has been disheartening and exhausting. Frankly, Democrats who do not support legislation that would allow us to live in our own homes are no better than the Republicans; and they damage the party’s relationship to the Disability Community.”</i></blockquote>
The group was also frustrated that the DNC has not publicly condemned HR.620, a bill that would drastically undercut the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that eleven Democrats are sponsors of this bill.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“The ADA has been around for 27 years, which means businesses have had 27 years notice that they need to be accessible. We’ve waited long enough!” said Laura Halvorson of DC Metro ADAPT “For Democrats to even think of sponsoring this bill is appalling. Is anyone else required to endure a legal waiting period before they can have their civil rights be enforced? Absolutely not. And we shouldn’t either.”</i></blockquote>
ADAPT has proposed that the DNC coordinate a meeting with Congressional Leadership to get the Democratic cosponsors to withdraw their support for the bill. Recognizing that there are concerns from small business, the activists hope to work with Democrats on an alternative approach that will address the concerns while not undercutting the rights of Disabled Americans. The DNC also agreed to work to phase out Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act which allows Disabled workers to be paid less than minimum wage.<br /><br /><a href="http://adapt.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>ADAPT</b></span></a>’s history, the issues it is fighting for, and its activities can be found at www.adapt.org, the NationalADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter under the hashtag #ADAPTandRESIST.<br /><br /><i>SOURCE: ADAPT <a href="http://adapt.org/members-from-across-the-united-states-ready-to-protest-meet-with-the-dnc-chair-tom-perez-to-secure-the-partys-support-for-the-disability-integration-act/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">press releas</span>e</a></i> </div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520192522133218890.post-21392089488017781622017-11-29T21:17:00.001-06:002017-11-29T21:17:20.048-06:00 In Madison Wis. Nearly 9 Percent of Students with Disabilities Restrained or Secluded in 2016-17 School Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">A report released this fall by the Madison Metropolitan School District said nearly nine percent of students with disabilities were restrained or secluded by staff during the last school year.</span><br /><i><br /></i><div>
<i>solid article by <a href="https://host.madison.com/users/profile/Amber%20Walker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"> Amber C. Walker</span></a> for <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Cap Times</span></a> | Nov 28, 2017 </i><br />The report showed that 334 of the 3,804 students with disabilities, or 8.8 percent, experienced restraint and/or seclusion during the 2016-2017 school year. That number is up from 5.6 percent in the 2015-2016 school year.<br /><br />The number was disproportionately high at Landmark Elementary Alternative Program (LEAP) West, a program at Olson Elementary School for students with emotional-behavioral disabilities. LEAP West reported 737 incidents of restraint and/or seclusion among 10 students last school year.<br /><br />MMSD’s report shows restraint and seclusion practices vary widely among schools, with some schools reporting less than five incidents and others reporting hundreds during the last school year. While some were troubled by the numbers, a national expert said MMSD’s training is in line with best practices around the country.<br /><br />State law <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/118/305" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">defines</span></a> physical restraint as “a restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a pupil to freely move his or her torso, arms, legs, or head,” and seclusion as “the involuntary confinement of a pupil, apart from other pupils, in a room or area from which the pupil is physically prevented from leaving.”<br /><br />Wisconsin prohibits the use of mechanical restraints, or equipment meant to immobilize students.<br /><br />Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham said in an emailed statement to the Cap Times that MMSD is committed to “inclusive education” and aims to decrease the use of restraint and seclusion in the district. <br /><br />“When it comes to restraint and seclusion, my priority is to minimize its use to only when it is absolutely necessary to maintain safety,” Cheatham said.<br /><br />Overall, 529 students, about 2 percent, were restrained and/or secluded in the 2016-2017 school year in 3,158 incidents across the district. <br /><br />Restraint and seclusion occurrences were also high at Schenk Elementary School, with 32 students (12 with disabilities and 20 without) experiencing 288 occurrences of restraint and/or seclusion last year. <br /><br />The highest number of incidents occurred in elementary schools, with 2,975 reports of restraint and/or seclusion among 405 students. Elementary schools account for over 94 percent of restraint and/or seclusion incidents.<br /><br />Middle schools reported 99 occurrences of restraint and/or seclusion among 51 students. High schools reported 84 incidents among 73 students.<br /><br />Although the restraint and seclusion report makes the distinction between students who have a disability and those who do not, it does not separate the data by race. The Cap Times has requested a more detailed report from MMSD.<br /><br />Madison School Board vice president Anna Moffit said she is “deeply troubled” by the restraint and seclusion numbers, particularly in the alternative programs.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>“Students of color, many of whom have already experienced significant trauma, are the primary recipients of these unjust methods,” Moffit said. “The use of exclusionary practices within our district, which includes physical force against our youngest, will only exacerbate the trauma of our most marginalized students. As a district, we must do better.”</b></i></blockquote>
Wisconsin districts are required to report to their school boards how often students are restrained and secluded each year.<br /><br />In 2014, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/schools-restraints-seclusions" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">ProPublica</span></a> found that underreporting of restraint and seclusion is common. Its research concluded that one-third of school districts did not report any use of restraint and/or seclusion in the 2011-2012 school year. ProPublica's analysis said that incidents of restraint and/or seclusion were used 267,000 times in the 2011-2012 school year, with MMSD accounting for 765 of those incidents.<br /><br />MMSD’s restraint and seclusion report said the district had reduced incidents across the district by almost 11 percent since the 2015-2016 school year. The 2016-2017 school year marks the first time MMSD saw an overall reduction in the trend since 2012.<br /><br />“We are pleased to see a decrease in our numbers, and will continue to work with staff, provide training and ensure those numbers keep going down,” Cheatham said.<br /><br />While cases were down overall, the number of times students were restrained in elementary schools increased by 50 cases, up to 1,502 incidents from 1,452 in the 2015-2016 school year.<br /><br />Madison School Board member Nicki Vander Meulen said in a statement emailed to the Cap Times that “the use of seclusion and restraint in public schools should only be used as a last resort… this is why the Behavior Education Plan needs to be reworked with a focus on positive interventions instead of punishment.”<br /><br />MMSD implemented its Behavior Education Plan in 2014. The BEP aimed to reduce exclusionary discipline practices in favor of restorative approaches to school discipline by helping students understand behavioral expectations and correct their actions.<br /><br />In August, MMSD released the results of an internal evaluation that showed the BEP was not meeting the district’s <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/report-madison-schools-behavior-education-plan-not-meeting-expectations/article_b6706680-bd71-53f0-97f5-20e023da7f06.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">expectations</span></a>. Students of color and students with disabilities are still overrepresented in school discipline data and <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/madison-schools-saw-a-spike-in-out-of-school-suspensions/article_2dc0fc7f-0b17-5122-91a7-dcc9d6b0c4dd.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">out-of-school suspensions were on the rise</span></a> in the latter part of the 2016-2017 school year.<br /><br />The restraint and seclusion report said that MMSD is taking steps to “ensure appropriate use of restraint and seclusion.” All staff who use restraint and seclusion are required to complete a two-day crisis management intervention <a href="https://hr.madison.k12.wi.us/cmi" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">training</span></a> meant to show them how to support students who are experiencing an emotional or behavioral escalation, and to prevent escalations from occurring.<br /><br />John Harper, director of student services for MMSD, said the district provides follow-up CMI training and consultations for schools that have high occurrences of restraint and seclusion. MMSD uses an electronic data system to report and track such incidents.<br /><br />Reece Peterson, emeritus professor of special education at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln whose <a href="https://k12engagement.unl.edu/physical-restraint-seclusion-resources" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">research</span></a> focuses on restraint and seclusion, said MMSD’s documentation and training around restraint and seclusion are in line with best practices across the country. However, school districts should be vigilant about staff using seclusion to discipline students, versus to de-escalate a dangerous situation.<br /><br />“Most larger districts have policies, but it boils down to whether the policy is known to the staff, training is provided and the staff continues to abide by those policies,” he said.<br /><br />“The issue is that sometimes… these procedures are used as disciplinary actions or punishment to the kids. That is seen, on a pretty widespread basis, as inappropriate use of these procedures.”<br /><br />This year, the U.S. Department of Education required each state to submit a plan to comply with the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Every Student Succeeds Act</span></a>, the national education law.<br /><br />Wisconsin’s <a href="https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/esea/pdf/Wisconsin-Cons-State-Plan-09-18-17.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">plan</span></a> detailed how it responds to “aversive behavioral interventions,” including restraint and seclusion. The plan said the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction supports districts by restricting the use of restraint and seclusion to situations where students are a physical threat to themselves or others. State law also mandates that schools report incidents to parents. DPI also provides professional development for schools to use data to monitor and reduce the practice.<br /><br />Madison School Board <a href="http://www.boarddocs.com/wi/mmsd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=9G52RK61DE47" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">policy</span></a> says it “does not condone” the use of restraint and seclusion and its policy prohibits “corporal punishment and unreasonable use of physical force.”<br /><br />However, the board recognizes that “it may be necessary for school personnel to use reasonable and appropriate restraint and/or seclusion when a student’s behavior presents a clear, present, and imminent risk to the physical safety of the student or others and it is the least restrictive intervention feasible.”<br /><br />The Madison School Board policy also outlines procedures for employees practicing restraint and seclusion that mirror the state statute.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.disabilityrightswi.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Disability Rights Wisconsin</span></a>, Wisconsin Family Ties and the <a href="http://www.wifacets.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Wisconsin Family Assistance Center for Education,Training and Support</span></a> collaborated over the last decade to encourage lawmakers to enact restraint and seclusion policies for students in schools and group homes throughout the state.<br /><br />The coalition’s 2016 <a href="http://www.disabilityrightswi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SeclusionRestraint-Report-2013-2014.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">report</span></a> compiled the number of restraint and seclusion incidents in Wisconsin school districts and included testimony from families who have experienced the practice.<br /><br />Joanne Juhnke, policy director at Wisconsin Family Ties, said restraint and seclusion has the potential to create conflict between teachers and students.<br /><br />“In addition to the concerns for physical harm and the emotional and relationship damage it does between the adult and the child, there is also the question of, ‘What are we teaching our kids when we use physical force to solve a problem?’”<div>
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<a href="https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/host.madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/6d/d6db7ca5-84f7-516f-af8b-ede022c7cda4/5a1dae3937560.pdf.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Madison Metropolitan School District Restraint and Seclusion Report</b></span></a> (PDF)<div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/mmsd-report-nearly-percent-of-students-with-disabilities-restrained-or/article_cadd6368-8db1-5b60-b244-083c4bf25721.html</i></span></div>
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Jim Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15228751643642883134noreply@blogger.com0