Paquin Tower Times

Sheltered Workshops Cope With State Cuts

2012-01-26T06:23:00.000-06:00

The Missouri Association of Sheltered Workshop Managers met with Jefferson City lawmakers Wednesday to discuss state spending cuts as Governor Jay Nixon and lawmakers in the General Assembly try to close a one-half-billion dollar budget gap. Sheltered workshops are small businesses that hire individuals with disabilities.

"It's going to be a rough year," director Ken Wagner of Capital Projects Inc., a sheltered workshop in Jefferson City, said. "The state's out of money and it's going to be a rough year. We know that."

Unlike other state agencies, sheltered workshops do not receive direct appropriations. Instead, they are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem for each employee. The per diem applies to a six-hour work day. But over the last few years, the state has paid only 18 dollars, resulting in a four-million reduction for sheltered workshops statewide. Wagner said Capital Projects lost roughly 20 percent of its state revenue in 2011. But despite the setback, the workshop was able to avoid layoffs by taking advantage of a reserve it had built up from better business years.

"We've been able to keep our employees here," manager Tami Bock said. "But we've had many days where we've just sat and had nothing to do."

Bock said Capitol Projects hasn't had to lay anyone off in 25 years, but she's unsure about the future of the workshop. Capitol Projects currently employs 125 workers with disabilities.

The association met with lawmakers on Wednesday to persuade them to maintain current levels of support for workshops statewide.

"We have to teach the legislators what the workshop is because they really don't know necessarily what we are," Wagner said. "We try to get them to come to our shops and see what we do and the type of people we serve."

Representative Mike Bernskoetter, R-Cole County, says he understands the importance of sheltered workshops, but he's not sure if the state can provide them with more funding anytime soon.

"Because of the budget shortfalls we've had, we're just not getting the revenue in like we'd like," he said.

Funding workplaces for the disabled saves tax dollars over time. Wagner said that while sheltered workplaces are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem, other programs are over 100 dollars-a-day. Last year, Missouri sheltered workshops paid 80 million back into their communities.

Source and More:
http://www.komu.com/news/sheltered-workshops-cope-with-state-cuts/

Mentally ill suffer effects of government cutbacks

2012-01-08T05:02:00.000-06:00

Because confusion has arisen lately regarding federal and state budget cuts and their effect on our ability to adequately care for the mentally ill, I thought I should clarify a few important issues. Many changes have been made during the past three years, and Missouri’s 2012 mental health budget calls for another funding cut of $21.2 million in services.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has been specific in outlining how budget cuts in every state have affected the mentally ill during the past few years and how budget cuts will continue to affect the mentally ill in the future. Without rehashing the numerical data and the dire prophesies about what might occur in Missouri if these trends continue, I’ll point out a few of the most disturbing trends in Boone County during my first term.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jan/08/budgetary-disorder/?commentary

Who is 'The Press' in the First Amendment?

2011-12-28T05:09:00.000-06:00

What does "the press" mean in the First Amendment's guarantee "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of...the press"? The Mainstream Media or collection of reputable Internet, print, TV, and radio journalists, right? Bloggers, too, if you're feeling generous?

Sorry, brah! In his landmark new article on the press clause's original meaning titled "'The Freedom of...the Press,' From 1791 to 1868 to Now- Freedom for the Press as an Industry, or the Press as a Technology," UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh argues the Founders meant the press clause's "the press" to be the printing press (a printing technology) and any future communication technology. Crazy, right? So the Founders really meant something more like "freedom of...the printing press" or "freedom in the use of the press"?

In a jump-kick to "the press-as-journalists"'s face, Volokh notes Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most widely used dictionary at the ratification's time, gave no definition of "press" in terms of today's common understanding of "the press" as a collection of journalists but did define "press" as "[t]he instrument by which books are printed." Volokoh mentions that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a definition of "the press" as a collection of literature ("[n]ewspapers, journals, and periodical literature collectively") emerged in the English language in the late 1700s and early 1800s. However, before and at the Founding, the Founders did not use this "press" definition when discussing press freedom.

Volokh got me thinking: Scanning Johnson's dictionary, I discovered Johnson had no entry for "media" but did define the following words:

Journalist - "Writer of journals" (with "journal" being "any paper publi[s]hed daily; an account kept of daily tran[s]actions")
Reporter - "Relater; one that gives an account"
Newsmonger - "One that deals with news; one who[s]e employment it is to hear and to tell news" (with "news" being "fre[s]h account of anything," "[s]omething not heard before," and "papers which give an account of the tran[s]actions of the present times")

If the Founders wanted to protect in particular who today we call media, reporters, etc. with "freedom of...the press," then surely the Founders could have written, for example, "freedom of...journalists" or "freedom of...newsmongers."

Volokh describes how, with no significant exceptions, prominent writers the Founders often cited, including William Blackstone, Jean-Louis De Lolme, and George Tucker, connected press freedom with the right of every "freeman," "citizen," or "individual" to "write," "print," or "publish" his or her thoughts. This fact implies the Founders didn't intend the press clause to protect the existing or future collection of "newsmongers" per se but rather to recognize the right of any person (or "freeman") to use printing presses (Until 1694, England imposed licenses on publications, which the Founders abhorred). James Madison's following first draft of the Bill of Rights' speech/press clauses highlights this point: "The people [emphasis added] shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." According to Johnson's dictionary, "people" had such definitions as "a nation," "men, or per[s]ons in general," and "the commonality."

Volokh provides much more evidence for the press clause's "the press" being the printing press, particularly his evaluations of U.S. court cases from the Founding to 2011 that demonstrate judges have consistently interpreted the press clause as protecting any individuals who use the printing press, including newspaper advertisers and authors of letters to the editor, pamphlets, and books. Volokh describes how it was only the 1970s when some lower courts began interpreting the press clause's "the press" to be a collection of journalists and not the printing press as a technology.

My only disappointment with Volokh's article is his insufficient explanation for how constitutional law could, in the press clause's original meaning, interpret "the press" as including future communication technologies. Volokh touches the issue a few times but leaves much to be desired. For instance, Volokh's footnote 9, in describing what may qualify as equivalents of the Founders' printing press and why constitutional law should accept equivalents, says the following:

[Constitutional law should accept any]...communication technology that today serves the role the printing press did in the 1700s...The printing press itself was understood during the Framing era as a technological innovation, and rights were understood as being adaptable to technological innovations.

I suspect the answer for how the press clause's "the press" includes future communication technologies lies in part in the original definitions of "write" and "publish," the rights to which, in the Founders' understanding, made "freedom of...the press" essential. According to Johnson's dictionary, "write" had such definitions as "to perform the art of writing" and "to compo[s]e" while "publish" had such far-reaching definitions as "to di[s]cover to mankind; to make generally and openly known; to proclaim; to divulge." Thus congressional interference, whether it be licensing, content regulations, or taxes, with any communication instrument that abridges a person's rights "to compose" or "to proclaim" thoughts would violate the Founders' purpose of having "freedom of...the press." Today, communication instruments obviously include TV, radio, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

Volokh's "counter-cultural" vision of the press clause's meaning is a liberating view of who could be journalists, media, members of the press, newsmongers, the reporter collective, etc. Am I media with this blog? New York Times and other media elites might sneer at such a possibility and can define media as they choose: Just don't mess with my "press"!

Source and More:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/who_is_the_press_in_the_first_amendment.html

Paquin Tower Times Under Attack by the Columbia Daily Tribune

2011-12-26T05:52:00.000-06:00

Well it does seem that our little blog here is under attack by the big bad corporate minded Columbia Daily Tribune for the publishing of their stories here on the blog.

Those stories are usually only related to the Low Income,CHA,Paquin Tower and it's residents only. Most if not all of those stories are very inaccurate in details 99.9999% of the time.

Kind of funny since their online news edition is Wide Open for anybody and everybody to view even through their crappy so called secure Pay Wall is easily bypassed by just the simple act of blocking the main Cookie in your browser from the main Web Site URL.

So we will be posting a lot less of their Liberal Minded articles that often times neglect to present ALL of the facts anyway.

Look to the Columbia Missourian,Columbia Heartbeat and other news sources for your news IMHO.

The Paquin Tower Times is part the 99% and the Columbia Daily Tribune is part of the 1% that is ruining this once great nation.

Corporate greed is the evil that must be eliminated from our once great nation in all forms that use coercion to silence the people as it sees fit.

Again, freedom of speech

2011-12-26T04:57:00.000-06:00

Ya, it will bring me hardship, retaliation may but here's a sample of the LAW as it stands in Missouri. 4 (four) outside attorneys told me it IS against the LAW. They want the case, are even choppin' at the bit because not only will they sue the offenders, they want the big fish. We keep being told you can harass, torment, and undermind and discriminate here under freedom of speech. Part of Missouri state statute 455.010 says:

Food bank distributes produce, meats at Paquin Tower

2011-12-23T18:38:00.000-06:00

One 10-pound sack of potatoes. Three honeydew melons. Three cucumbers. Two packages of carrots. One bag of grapefruit. Plus some buns and tomatoes.

That's what each of the visitors who came to a mobile food pantry at Paquin Tower received Friday morning from The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.

“Sharing food. Bringing hope,” was the slogan on sweatshirts worn by some of the workers at Paquin Tower, where the Food Bank took four tons of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat to distribute from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. The mobile food pantry is a refrigerated truck donated this year by Kraft Foods.

Bobbie Kincade, director of development for the Food Bank, said this is the first year it has done mobile Christmas donations, and that Friday's event was the first time it has distributed food at Paquin Tower.

“We were blessed with a large donation of produce, and we are trying to give it out in Columbia, so here we are,” Kincade said.

John Wampler, regional coordinator for The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, said that even though Boone County has the lowest unemployment rate in its 32-county service area, there's still plenty of need.

“Even though times are tough we are not just sharing food, we are giving hope.” Wampler said. “We believe hope shines the brightest when the hour is darkest.”

“We are blessed to give it away,” Wampler said. “It’s nice.”

Teresa Kidwell, 50, said she has lived in Columbia two years and regularly visits the Food Bank.

“We wouldn’t be able to eat if we didn’t have it, so it helps,” Kidwell said, adding that she also relies on it for basic supplies such as medicine, toilet paper, paper towels and canned and boxed foods.

“I get what I can get, and sometimes I bring it to others,” Kidwell said.

Paquin Tower resident Marjorie Miller, 85, said the donations will help her make a proper Christmas dinner for visitors she expects Sunday afternoon.

“People do a lot for me, so it’s a little thing I can do for them,” Miller said.

Joyce Hyde, another Paquin resident, said the mobile food pantry was particularly helpful this month because her food stamp benefits were down.

Charlann Peavler, who helps manage Paquin Tower for the Columbia Housing Authority, said the Food Bank called her directly to set up the event.

“It’s awesome they thought about us and our location to help benefit the residents and anyone that’s around,” Peavler said. She hopes to have the food pantry back next Christmas season.

Kincade said she, too, hopes to make it an annual stop.

“It’s a good thing,” Peavler said. “This helps our residents get through the holiday time.”

Volunteers at the Food Bank also made Christmas cards and brought them to Paquin Tower for the residents to enjoy. They also brought food donations to the rooms of residents who were unable to collect and carry the items.

“This is why we do what we do, to see the smiles on their faces,” Kincade said. “It’s rewarding to come here, meet the people and see them so thankful for the food.”

The Food Bank feeds more than 100,000 people every month, and that's not counting those helped by special distributions.

“This (event) today is just an extra blessing,” Kincade said.

Anyone who would like more information about The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri can call 474-1020

Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/23/food-pantry-receives-special-donation-during-mobile-distribution/

Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay

2011-12-15T04:53:00.000-06:00

Hairier skin may be the key to avoiding being bitten by bed bugs, claim Sheffield academics.

Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported.

Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim.

Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.

Prof Michael Siva-Jothy, from Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, recruited 29 brave volunteers to test the theory further, watching the bedbugs as they found a place to feed and removing them only as they were about to bite.

He found that more layers of both longer visible hairs and finer, "vellus" hairs near the surface appeared to work as a deterrent to the insects, with the finer hairs also acting as an early warning system.

Prof Siva-Jothy said: "Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites - the hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement."

He said they also slowed down the insect as it searched for a tasty spot to bite.

"The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects' impact on humans."

However, even though men are naturally hairier than women, they do not appear to be bitten less often.

Professor Siva-Jothy suggested this pointed to an evolutionary battle between bed bugs and their prey, with the insects adapting to automatically head for relatively hairless bits of the body, such as wrists and ankles.

He added that extreme hairiness might also be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.

"If you have a heavy coat of long thick hairs it is easier for parasites to hide, even if you can detect them.

"Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down."
Evolutionary pressure

This tallies with other studies which look at how humans came to be relatively less hairy than apes.

Other scientists have suggested that swapping thicker fur for clothes was a way of making insect bites and parasitic infestations less likely.

Prof Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, said that biting parasites remain a major cause of disease and death worldwide, making them a potentially enormous evolutionary pressure on early man.

He said: "This vellus hair is certainly no use for anything else, so it is a reasonable hypothesis that it developed in response to a strong selective pressure in our past.

"Mammals are unique in developing this wonderful fur, and humans are the only mammals to jettison it, so there must have been a very good reason to do so."

Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16166134

Paquin Tower resident draws scenes from the Bible

2011-12-14T05:44:00.000-06:00

John Tucker is a 48-year-old resident of Paquin Tower, a public housing apartment complex in central Columbia for seniors and people with disabilities.

Tucker moved to Columbia from East St. Louis, Ill., in 2010 and lived in Worley Park until he found an apartment at Paquin Tower.

Tucker doesn’t know how to read but said God helped him learn the Bible after he was given a copy of it while in jail. He said he was lying in his bunk and said to himself, "Lord, if you exist, prove it to me."

He said he put the Bible on his chest and knew its contents the next day. The experience, he said, inspired him to draw most of the comics that hang on his walls and almost exclusively depict scenes from the Bible.

These days, Tucker is learning to read and taking GED classes so he can pursue his two major goals in life: to publish a comic book and to be a minister.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/13/paquin-towers-resident-draws-bible/

Paquin, Bear Creek to get free Wi-Fi

2011-12-11T05:26:00.003-06:00

The Free WiFi is ONLY in the lobby and in the computer lab both on the first floor. WiFi does not like to go up and down through concrete and steel framing.
*********************************
In an increasingly connected society, those without Internet access can get left behind. But residents at two Columbia Housing Authority facilities might soon get a chance to catch up.

On Dec. 5, the Columbia Housing Authority Board of Commissioners approved resolutions to allow CEO Phil Steinhaus to request permission from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to enter into lease agreements that would provide wireless Internet access to Paquin Tower and the Bear Creek Family Site.

Full Stream LLC, which would provide Wi-Fi to Paquin Tower, is proposing to lease space on the building’s roof for a tower. The company would pay the Columbia Housing Authority $1,500 per month and provide Wi-Fi to residents for free.

BlueBird Media Network, which will provide service to the authority’s Bear Creek site, was previously awarded federal stimulus money. The firm is leasing CHA property to build a communications transmission facility near the Bear Creek site and will provide free Wi-Fi to residents there.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/dec/11/paquin-bear-creek-to-get-free-wi-fi/

Research: Bedbugs Can Thrive Despite Inbreeding

2011-12-07T04:42:00.000-06:00

Bedbugs aren't just sleeping with you. They're sleeping with each other.

Researchers now say that the creepy bugs have a special genetic gift: withstanding incest.

It turns out that unlike most creatures, bedbugs are able to inbreed with close relatives and still produce generally healthy offspring. That means that if just a few bedbugs survive in a building after treatment, they repopulate quickly.

Coby Schal and Ed Vargo are entomologists at North Carolina State University, and they presented preliminary research on genetic diversity in bedbug populations on Tuesday in Philadelphia, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

"We kept discovering the same thing. Within a given apartment, or even a given building, there was extremely low genetic diversity," said Schal. "In most cases there's just a single female that founded the population."

Schal said that was a surprise, since an animal or insect population with limited diversity will usually build up and then crash, because genetic defects tend to magnify with inbreeding.

"But somehow bedbugs are able to able to withstand the effects of inbreeding, and do quite well," he said.

The new research is important, said Zachary Adelman, an entomologist at Virginia Tech University who wasn't part of the North Carolina State team.

"No one had looked at these things," he said of the genetic makeup of bedbugs. "It's pretty exciting."

And pretty depressing.

The researchers also found that while the community within a building tends to be similar, there are many different strains of bedbugs throughout the East Coast, suggesting that new colonies also get introduced through foreign travel or commerce.

"That means they're coming into the country from lots of different places," which means that the bedbug problem isn't going to stop anytime soon, said Adelman.

The findings may also help explain another part of the bedbug boom.

Bedbugs — and other insects — develop resistance to insecticides. Schal said that if a treatment kills anything less than 100 percent of the bugs, the survivors will not only repopulate, but pass on the resistance they've developed to future generations.

"The insecticides really need to be robust" to do the job, Schal said.

Bedbugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that bite people and animals to draw blood for their meals. Though their bites can cause itching and welts, they are not known to spread disease.

Another researcher notes that you have to discover a problem before you can treat it.

Rajeev Vaidyanathan of SRI International, a nonprofit research firm with headquarters in Silicon Valley, said he's working on a quick, easy test so people can discover bedbugs before they get bitten.

Vaidyanathan said current technology comes down to spotting live or dead bedbugs, or using dogs to sniff them out.

"Both are often ineffective and tedious," he said.

So Vaidyanathan is trying to developing a biochemical test to identify bedbug-specific proteins that they leave behind, even when only a few bugs are present. Homeowners would swab a section of their home, and dip it in a special compound.

"A home pregnancy kit type of read-out. If there's a color change, you have a bug," he said, but it's too early to say when or if the idea will make it to market.

Vaidyanathan also pointed out some other forces behind the spread of bedbugs.

"The problems we are seeing with bedbugs in North America did not happen overnight," said Vaidyanathan. "We have the highest concentration in the history of our species of humans living in cities. Bedbugs do not have wings; they are nest parasites, so our own population density has helped them to thrive."

Source and More:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/research-bedbugs-thrive-inbreeding-15102082

Wireless Internet might be on its way to Paquin Tower

2011-12-06T14:25:00.001-06:00

Columbia's public housing residents aren't just on the lower end of the wealth gap. Phil Steinhaus thinks they suffer from a digital divide, too.

"When you look at people in poverty, there's a huge technology gap," Steinhaus, the chief executive officer of the Columbia Housing Authority, said.

The housing authority is hoping to close that gap by taking steps to provide wireless Internet service to residents of Paquin Tower and its Bear Creek neighborhood.

Steinhaus noted that nowadays, people use the Internet for things such as looking up movie times and hunting for jobs. And most jobs require at least a minimum level of computer literacy.

Source:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/05/wireless-internet-might-be-its-way-paquin-towers/

Columbia faces affordable housing crunch

2011-12-04T06:48:00.002-06:00

Michelle Blake moved to Mid-Missouri from California seven years ago to be closer to her parents, but she found other reasons to stay: a new husband, a sense of community and affordable living.

Now, she’s struggling with the latter.

Blake is a resident of El Ray Mobile Home Park, which is scheduled to close in the coming months. Columbia attorney Ron Netemeyer owns the park on Mexico Gravel Road, east of Lake of the Woods Road, as well as two other trailer parks in the area. He is closing El Ray because the lagoon that serves the property is not up to state standards. Even after the park closes, it would cost him about $25,000 to shut down the lagoon, he told the Tribune.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/dec/04/columbia-faces-affordable-housing-crunch/

Kids call in to Santa on city hotline

2011-12-04T06:42:00.002-06:00

Santa Claus fielded scores of predictable gift requests yesterday during his special phone hotline session in Columbia.

Barbies, American Girl dolls, electronic games and action figures topped many Christmas lists. One girl asked for a zebra-striped blanket and nothing else, said Sarah Bowman, recreation specialist for Columbia Parks and Recreation, which sponsors the Santa Hotline.

But one request especially pulled on heartstrings, standing out among the roughly 315 calls some 20 volunteer elves helped answer at Paquin Tower.

“We had a little girl ask for a mom and dad for Christmas,” Bowman said. “Santa told her he would put extra stuff in his sleigh for her.”

For the most part, though, the requests were lighthearted.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/dec/04/kids-call-in-to-santa-on-city-hotline/

Jimmy Joe Stoots, 1960-2011 Paquin Tower Family Member

2011-11-26T09:39:00.000-06:00

Jimmy Joe Stoots, 51, of Columbia passed away Monday, Nov. 21, 2011, at Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital.

There will be no services.

He was born March 28, 1960.

He was a fighter. He lived life to its fullest and wouldn’t compromise. He was a boxer, purveyor of antiques, music lover, motorcycle rider, fisherman and Santa Claus. Jimmy Joe made this world more beautiful, making flowers bloom where there was once only gravel and poor dirt. He worked hard and with great integrity. Most of all, he was a good friend, and he will be sorely missed.

He served our country honorably in the U.S. Army tank division.

He is survived by family and friends.

Each one of them holds precious memories of him in their hearts.

PTRA Meeting Nov 28 2011 Agenda

2011-11-18T17:50:00.000-06:00

Meeting Agenda
Monday, Nov 28 2011 @ 6:30 p.m.

Agenda:
I. Meeting Called to Order
II. Pledge of Allegiance
III. Officer’s Roll Call
IV. Previous Meeting’s Minutes Shared
V. Treasurer’s Report Shared
VI. Daily Check, Vial of Life, Share Shelf, CHA Van, BBH, RAB, CMAAA
Old Business—
I. MOU Budget - April
II. Discussion Officer Elections. Vote Ron Brammer to full Officer status.
New Business—
I. Officer Meeting Moving 2012
II. Bylaws Committee Forming 2012
III. No PTRA Meeting December
IV. Speaker Mark CenturyLink
IV. Time for CHA Management
VII. Open Floor Comments, Questions
VIII. Adjournment.
Expect there to be Snacks after the Meeting

A conversation with David Dollens Occupy CoMo

2011-11-13T09:38:00.000-06:00

From the beginning, David Dollens called the shots. “We’ll talk at my apartment,” he says, walking from his post in front of city hall. “But on the way, I have to stop at the bank and then at a gas station.” Why the gas station? “To get lottery tickets, of course. It’s all rigged, but I keep buying tickets to help pay for education. And maybe today I’ll get lucky.”

Nearly 70 years old, Dollens commands respect not just because of his military service, his grizzled beard or his commitment to a number of causes, but because everyone around Columbia seems to know and love him. “Hey Dave!” a student shouts from his car as Dollens ambles past a few homeless people who also greet him by name. “I’ve been around a long time,” he explains. And he doesn’t plan on going anywhere. Dollens has been campaigning for the rights of impoverished and oppressed citizens for as long as he can remember. His latest cause is Occupy CoMo, Columbia’s version of the Occupy Wall Street movement that aims to draw attention to the income inequality in America. Camped outside Columbia City Hall for hours and sometimes days at a time, Dollens and his fellow Occupy CoMo protestors crusade for the rights of Americans who, he feels, do not have a voice.

How long have you been an activist?

My father owned a pizza parlor in Mexico, Mo., when I was young, and he served all races. Black people didn’t even have to go in the back room. They ate out front. Some of them would get up to let the white people sit, and he would say, “No.” That’s the way I was taught.

What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?

I met this couple who were homeless and had two little kids, so I’d buy them coffee and sodas. They were out every day, and it was getting cold, so I went down to the bank and got out $1,000. I don’t have much, but I’d saved a couple thousand, so I got that and put it in an envelope. I waited a couple of days and finally saw them. I just shoved the envelope out to them and their eyes got so big. They said “Thank you” and the woman said she’d pay me back. Well about a year or so went by, and I didn’t think anything about it. And the next thing I know, they’re knocking on my door, and they gave me $1,000 plus $300 interest. But I didn’t take the interest. I had no idea that they’d pay me back! It amazes you what some people will do.

Have you participated in any other protests?

I went on a protest at city hall in 1985 in Columbia. I read in the paper that they were gonna do away with the free health clinic for the poor people. They weren’t gonna fund it. Well, I figured the only thing I could do was go down and sit outside city hall for a few days without food. And I did for 30 days. When you fast that long, you just want to hug everybody that walks by.

In your opinion, what is the Occupy Wall Street movement about?

It should have been done 30 years ago. But this movement is about how people want change. These college kids don’t have a chance for the next 20 years — they owe too much money. The government owns them. And there are no jobs out there. They say on the news that 44 percent of graduates are unemployed or working in minimum wage jobs that don’t require a college degree, and they’re gonna have to live at home or be homeless. It’s that pure and simple.

What do you hope to accomplish by protesting in Columbia?

To make people aware of what’s going on. The news said that the after-tax income of the top one percent in America has gone up 275 percent between 1979 and 2007. The poorer people’s wages have gone up only 18 percent. You can get your pencil and paper and see how much the cost of living has gone up in 10 years. That’s why I’m out there. I don’t want to steal from the rich, but we’ve got to do something.

What are you and the other protestors going to do about the cold weather?

Nationwide, it’ll just fizzle. What I understand is it’s growing, but this cold weather is going to mess it up. But I hope it’s going to come back in the spring. But I’m not sure that even the cold weather is going to stop some people.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen while protesting?

The people protesting with me. I was amazed that we had everyone from a prosecutor, teachers and a lieutenant colonel to students and kids with bachelor’s degrees at the protests. I was amazed that we had a veterinarian who got laid off. That’s what I’m seeing down there.

What’s the most disheartening thing you’ve witnessed since joining Occupy CoMo?

There was a college kid who came out here, stuck his head out the car window and said (to the protesters), “I’m gonna kick all of your butts,” and that really pissed me off. There’s a lieutenant colonel down there. Twenty years in the military and three wars. For this college kid to tell him he’s going to whip his butt — that just isn’t going to happen.

Do you have many students out there supporting the cause?

Ninety percent of the kids who drive by support us. Nationwide, there’s the growing Occupy Colleges movement. I’m hoping that this is their generation’s chance to do something.

How do you feel about the people who come out with signs that say things like “I love turtles” or “free hugs”?

We had one down there that said, “I’m a banana.” That’s OK, as far as I’m concerned. They’re down there. That’s what the movement’s about. The kid asked me if he could put up the sign that said “Free hugs,” and I said, “Yeah, put it up there.” He gets to hug a lot of girls. I wouldn’t mind that.

Source:
http://www.voxmagazine.com/stories/2011/11/10/conversation-david-dollens/

PTRA Meeting Oct 31 2011 Minutes

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000-06:00

Meeting Agenda Minutes
Monday, 10/31/2011 @ 6:30 p.m.

Meeting called to order @ 6:27 p.m. by: Jeff Shirley

Pledge of Allegiance

Officer’s roll call:
Jeff Shirley = President
Chuck Dudley Jr. = Vice President
Tony Watkins = Treasurer
Sandra VanSickle = Secretary
Andy Paul = Sergeant of Arms

Previous meeting’s minutes shared:

Treasurer’s report was not available due to April was ill and not here. The report for this month will be read at the next meeting.

Andy Paul says Daily Check is going just fine.

Jeff says he has plans to store all our goods, and that April now stores all of our equipment.
Speaker: Lee Radke introduced our new manager, Charlann Peavler, from Arizona, who us experienced (20yrs.) is exactly what we need.

Old Business—
1. Chuck reported on the price list for office equipment.
2. Jeff says winter-time food sales are going well.
3. Chuck talked about selling toilet paper to the residents.
4. Jeff talked about the past residents party and said that everything went fine.

New Business—
1. Election of Assistants Officers:
Ron Brammer = Assistant Sergeant Of Arms.
Elsie Privette = Assistant Vice President
Robin Fox = Assistant Secretary

2. Charlann addresses the Residents:
She will be posting her office hours soon. To come by anytime or call, and she does listen to her messages if you leave your name, apt. #, and your phone #.
She says for us to think of us all as Family.
She says if you loan money out, not to expect it back. All complaints from residents must be taken to April first.

3. Jeff reminds us the Burrell Behavior Health
has many very positive aspects; many solutions to problems and to be sure to welcome them when they come.

4. Theresa said that she thinks all notices to
the meetings should be put on our doors.

5. Sandra said she agreed with Theresa.

6. Chuck says a CHA Officer has to give permission to post them on the doors.

7. Elsie Says the bulletin boards aren’t always read and Margarie says that she wants larger letters and non-colored paper

Adjournment passed by Quorum vote.

Sandra VanSickle Secretary PTRA 10/31/2011

The Green Thing

2011-11-02T09:17:00.000-06:00

The Green Thing
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right, (really, the younger generation doesn't have a clue) -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

PTRA Meeting Oct 31 2011 Agenda

2011-10-28T12:13:00.000-05:00

Meeting Agenda
Monday, October 31 2011 @ 6:30 p.m.

Agenda:
I. Meeting Called to Order
II. Pledge of Allegiance
III. Officer’s Roll Call
IV. Previous Meeting’s Minutes Shared
V. Treasurer’s Report Shared
VI. Daily Check, Vial of Life, Share Shelf,
CHA Van Schedule….

Old Business—
I. Resident Party
II. Office Equip Purchases
III. Winter Time Food Sales List
IV. MOU Budget Approval

New Business—
I. Presentation of New Officers
II. Voting of Assistant Staff
III. Officer Re-election 2012
IV. Speaker: Dan Ostercamp
V. Time For: CHA Comments
VI. Open Floor Comments, Questions:
VII. Adjournment.

Expect there to be Snacks after the Meeting

New Partnership between CHA and Burrel Behavioral Health System

2011-10-06T04:47:00.001-05:00

Today marks a huge turning point both for CHA and the Disability Communities two largest concentrations of the Disabled in our community. CHA is partnering up with Burrel Behavioral Health to all of the residents of Oak and Paquin Tower with any issues relating to Mental Health Issues by those residents. This is huge mile stone in the opinion of this blogger and is much welcome on a whole of how much easier it could be for those Disabled Citizens to seek counciling who might not normally do so.

Thank you goes out to all of the CHA Management Staff and to Burrel Behavioral Health for this great project and it's undertaking.

May God bless this project and help it to grow to it's fullest potential. :)

More to come and be posted as the story hit the main stream media later today. This blogger through sources I cannot name has known about this for over a month now but was requested to keep it under wraps until now.

Paquin Tower Resident Assiciation Election Results

2011-10-02T13:39:00.003-05:00

The normal PTRA Officer election was held on Sept 26 2011 and the results are:

Jeff Shirley - President
Charles E Dudley Jr - Vice President
Sandra Vansickle - Secretary
Tony Watson - Treasurer
Andy Paul - Sargent At Arms

Lawyer Max Lewis finds inspiration after injury

2011-09-20T17:46:00.002-05:00

One moment on a scorching June day in Pettis County, Max Lewis dove off a bridge into Muddy Creek, 21 feet below.

The water was only 2 feet deep.

The next moment …

“I was face-down in the water,” Lewis recalls. “I was there for dead.”

Co-workers pulled their unconscious friend from the water. Lewis, then 19, was placed on a gurney and raised by a rope to the bridge to meet a waiting ambulance. When he regained consciousness in a neurosurgical intensive care unit at University Hospital, where he’d undergone a 10-hour surgery, a surgeon delivered the worst news of Lewis’ life.

“Max, you’ve been paralyzed, and you’ll never walk again.”

That was June 1986. Lewis said he really hasn’t spent a lot of time replaying that near-fatal dive.

“It was just a miscalculation and an error in judgment,” he said. “Nobody pushed me off that bridge. This was my doing.”

Lewis also can’t recollect languishing in self-pity or being angry at God. He does remember times when the lights were turned out in the NSICU.

“Those were the loneliest times I had in my life,” he said.

Lewis tells his story with a determination that indicates how he would move beyond his “miscalculation” and the cervical spinal cord injury that threatened to rob him of life.

“I did not want that to be the last paragraph in my life story,” he said. “I felt I had something to contribute.”

Source:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/sep/20/lawyer-max-lewis-finds-inspiration-after-injury/

Don’t let the bedbugs bite

2011-09-15T19:24:00.002-05:00

In early Colonial days and on into pioneer times, it was a twice-a-year cleaning chore to dismantle the family’s rope beds for cleaning. The ropes, which provided foundation for the mattresses, would have stretched and sagged with use. The straw mattresses would have hardened and probably become infested with bedbugs. So, on a sunny, dry day, everyone would drag their mattress and ropes outside for cleaning

Rope beds were not beds made of rope. They were wooden beds that were strung with rope to support the mattresses. The ropes were woven in and out of holes that were drilled in all four rails of the bed frame in an open basket-weave pattern. The ropes were pulled as tightly as possible when newly roped, but, in time, they stretched and allowed the mattress to sag. Periodic tightening with a rope-bed key was necessary.

Source:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/sep/15/dont-let-bedbugs-bite/

Columbia receives grant to help smokers quit

2011-08-24T06:03:00.000-05:00

A $118,293 grant to help people quit smoking has been awarded to the Health Department.

The Public Health and Human Services Department plans to use the grant money to help smokers at two public housing buildings and eight area companies kick the habit. The goal is to get 25 percent of people who sign up to quit smoking.

The Columbia City Council must first review and accept the grant before the Health Department can begin the program. If the council accepts it, the grant would start in October and last through September 2013.

The Missouri Foundation for Health awarded the grant on July 21.

People with low incomes are more likely to be smokers, health planner Linda Cooperstock said. That's why the Health Department plans to focus on residents of Paquin Tower and Oak Towers, which are managed by the Columbia Housing Authority, and workers at eight area companies who make low wages. The companies have not been selected.

“Those are areas at greater risk of having more smokers,” Cooperstock said.

About 135 of the 345 residents of Paquin Tower and Oak Towers smoke, resident services coordinator April Steffensmeier said.

The program would last four weeks, Cooperstock said. People would wear nicotine patches supplied by the Health Department and meet in groups to talk about their attempts to quit and to help each other.

The Health Department learned in a 2007 study that group meetings are more successful than one-on-one sessions in helping people quit.

“When you provide smoking cessation in an environment where people work or gather frequently together, you increase the quit rate,” Cooperstock said. “The moral support you get at work or at home is helpful.”

At the end of the four weeks, the Health Department would call participants to learn how to improve the program, she said. The four-week cycle would be repeated during the two years of the grant.

Cooperstock spoke passionately about helping people quit smoking.

Smoking and obesity are "the two big things that kill people," she said.“If we could make great strides in both of them, we would really reduce the premature death rate by a significant amount."

Steffensmeier said smoking was allowed in all rooms at Paquin Tower and Oak Towers until recently.

“We made a couple floors smoke-free to better accommodate people with disabilities,” she said. “It went well.”

Steffensmeier said she would welcome the grant.

“We tried a smoking cessation class with a very small number of participants,” she said. “It was difficult at first, but residents changed. This will help on a larger scale.”

The Missouri Foundation for Health was formed from the former Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri. Its mission is to distribute 5 percent — or about $50 million — of its assets every year to “health-focused” nonprofits in 84 counties in Missouri and the city of St. Louis, foundation spokeswoman Bev Pfeifer-Harms said.

The foundation also paid for the study in 2007.

Source:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/23/grant-help-smokers-quit/

Attacking the stigma of mental illness, program by program

2011-08-21T06:15:00.000-05:00

What if the stigma associated with seeking mental health care could be eliminated and such a step were perceived as a sign of strength, rather than a sign of weakness?

Then, campaigns could present mental health care as just a step toward making oneself healthier, more capable, even more professional.

Sally Spencer-Thomas’ foundation is preparing to launch an education campaign in the fall that will use “menspeak” and dark humor to reach the at-risk groups.

The Carson J Spencer Foundation has also put together a program called Working Minds, which teaches businesses ways to be proactive about mental health issues. The idea is to address suicide prevention for men in the workplace the same way it was addressed for youths in schools.

Spencer-Thomas said that often, business owners and managers will take action only after something has already happened to an employee. When business owners call her foundation, they are unsure of what to do from there and wondering, “What did I miss?”

The Working Minds toolkit offers a DVD and script so workplaces can at least start conversations about suicide prevention and mental health. The goal of the program is an overall more efficient workplace, achieved with more happy, healthy workers.

By making suicide prevention and mental health commonplace in the office, the stigma around asking for help can be lessened.

Informing workers of mental health help options available to them could also make them feel more comfortable reaching out for help. Managers can be trained as "gatekeepers" to recognize signs of distress in workers and more effectively offer help and resources.

The program was added to the National Best Practices Registry in June 2010 and has been used with several thousand employees.

To learn more about Working Minds, go to the program's website at workingminds.org.

Source:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/21/sidebar-suicide-prevention-program-working-minds/