BALTIMORE — Federal prosecutors say a second Chillicothe man pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with conducting a sex-trafficking business from a Maryland apartment.

Robert Harris, 21, will be sentenced Feb. 16 and faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison for sex trafficking by force.

According to his plea, Harris and conspirators ran the prostitution business from an apartment in Millersville, Md. Harris transported at least one girl from Ohio to Maryland to engage in prostitution. He advertised the services on social networking sites, including Craigslist.

Richard Johnson, 22, also of Chillicothe, pleaded guilty in the case earlier this month. He will be sentenced on Feb. 12.

According to the indictment, the operation was run out of former Chillicothe resident Craig Allen Corey II’s Millersville apartment. The defendants in the case, which also include Jacob Tyler, 22, were accused of placing classified ads on Craigslist and other Web-based sites to “persuade, encourage, entice and recruit females to serve as prostitutes and promote their prostitution business,” according to the indictment handed down Sept. 24.

Among the activities authorities indicated were involved in the operation included photographing women in various stages of undress for Web postings, traveling outside of Maryland to facilitate the business, using a portion of the proceeds to buy illegal drugs to distribute to associates, prostitutes and customers and other acts.

Among the girls who were transported from out of state or enticed were a 16-year-old and 18-year-old from Ohio who were integral in the filing of sex trafficking by force and sex trafficking of a minor against various defendants in the case. The sex trafficking of a minor charge involving the 16-year-old was filed only against Corey, 23.

The charges came about after an investigation by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force of suspected activity between January and April of this year and a raid of Corey’s apartment on April 24.

source: http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20091224/NEWS01/912240308/Chillicothe-man-pleads-sex-trafficking-case

Upcoming issue of CARA (California Alliance for Retired Americans) Alert

Commissions and Feinstein: The Next Threats to Medicare and Social Security

By Michael Lyon

Four years after Bush tried to privatize Social Security and cut its benefits, there is new clamor to restructure Medicare and Social Security and to cut their future costs. This time it is led by Democrats, and California Senator Dianne Feinstein is in the thick of it.  These lawmakers want to slash the healthcare and income of seniors and people with disabilities to pay for the war in Afghanistan and for the insurance and drug company bailouts that pass for health reform. Forcing through these cuts involves huge concentration of government power, and overturns decades of budget principles to guarantee benefits for retired and poor people.

Feinstein and Texas Republican Cornyn are promoting their bill, S.276, calling for a “National Commission on Entitlement Solvency.”  1 Almost half of Feinstein’s Commission would be Presidential appointees and the rest are leaders of House and Senate Committees on revenue and spending. Each grouping has equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, so neither party has to accept blame for the cuts. For a year, the Commission would hold town hall meetings on fiscal responsibility across the nation, and would then propose sweeping laws cutting Medicare and Social Security, which would be fast-tracked through Congress. The Commission would be permanent, and would submit new fast-tracked legislative packages to Congress every five years.

Congress has several more bills to reduce Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.  A House bill, HR 1557, with nearly 70 co-sponsors, proposes a “Securing America’s Future Economy Commission,” to restructure Medicare and Social Security as well as the tax system. There is a Senate equivalent, S. 1056. 2 In the Senate, Budget Committee leaders Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg are demanding a “Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action” with powers to “improve the long-term fiscal balance of the Federal Government, including the fiscal balance of Social Security and Medicare.” 3 Over a dozen Democrats, including Feinstein, threatened to bring government to a halt by refusing to raise the national debt limit unless their Task Force was formed.    Like Feinstein’s Commission, these groups would be bipartisan, would include House and Senate finance committee leaders, and would have their recommendations fast-tracked through Congress, in some cases with no amendments allowed. 4

These Commissions are set up to be powerful and independent for a reason.  For decades, Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid benefits have been guaranteed by having their funding increase automatically as the number of recipients increases. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have wanted to eliminate this protection for years, but they are pressing harder as millions of baby-boomers prepare to retire and deficits mount from oil wars, tax cuts, bank bailouts, and giveaways to health insurance and drug companies.

CARA fought against Feinstein’s earlier Commission bill, S 355, in early 2007 5, and it is now dead. 6 A new national coalition, including the Alliance for Retired Americans has formed to protect Medicare and Social Security, and we will have an important role in California. 7 We have worked all our lives. We deserve and demand healthcare and a living income!

New American Media, November 19, 2009

Bipartisan’ Purple Dogs Go Rogue with ‘Task Force’ on Social Security, Medicare

A Kansas truck driver who paid to have sex with an 11-year-old girl was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child. The “girl” was actually an undercover officer. This sentence resulted from a joint investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in conjunction with the Human Trafficking Rescue Project.

Richard J. Oflyng, 32, of Ottawa, Kansas, was sentenced Dec. 1 by U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright, Western District of Missouri, to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Oflyng pleaded guilty to the charges in June.

The Human Trafficking Rescue Project conducted a sting operation during the first weekend in March which targeted local customers who solicit pimps to engage in commercial sex acts with children. The “children” were advertised online at Craig’s List; no real children were actually involved in the sting.

Oflyng responded via e-mail to an ad that advertised “little girls available.” The ad clearly advertised the children for sex. Oflyng was then contacted by telephone by an undercover officer, who offered an 11-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl. Oflyng made an appointment to have sex with the 11-year-old girl and agreed to pay $20 extra to have sex without using a condom.

Oflyng, a truck driver, arrived at the undercover location in his tractor-trailer the next morning. Upon entering the residence he confirmed that he wanted an 11-year-old girl and would pay $60, plus $20 extra for not using a condom. Oflyng handed the undercover officer the cash and was directed to a room with a dirty mattress on the floor. He was arrested upon entering the room.

This sentence is the result of Operation Guardian Angel, a unique undercover law enforcement investigation targeting the demand for child prostitutes in the Kansas City metro area. As a result of this investigation, seven defendants have been indicted. This operation marks the first time that the U.S. Department of Justice has used the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to prosecute customers who allegedly attempt to pay for sex with children.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia L. Cordes, Western District of Missouri, prosecuted this case. It was investigated by the Human Trafficking Rescue Project, a joint task force comprised of the following agencies: ICE; the Independence, Mo., Police Department; the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department; and the FBI.

“This sentence serves as a warning to those who seek to sexually exploit innocent children,” said Gilbert Trill, assistant special agent in charge of the ICE’s Office of Investigations in Kansas City. “Some child predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace shields them from scrutiny. In fact, their use of the Internet gives us new tools in our efforts to investigate this insidious behavior.”

This case was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,000 individuals under Operation Predator.

source: http://www.ethiopianreview.com/36509

Each day I get an “Afternoon Update” email from the Chronicle of Higher Education and though not all the featured articles are riveting, there are a few that always catch my eye.  They tend to be articles that deal with power and privilege in the education system and just state something straight up absurd like, boys don’t like to read or something.  Last week there was a fascinating article on the creation of Fat Studies as a discipline.  Reading some of the comments elicited by the article (like along the lines of- we shouldn’t be studying fat people- they should be studying us!) was perversely illuminating.  Today, there was an article titled “U. of Minnesota Takes Heat for Proposal to Gauge Future Teachers’ Sensitivity” that irritated me no end.  In fact, it irritated me so much that I’ve decided to blog about it (The most interesting blog posts to me are ones that either offer advice or discuss irritants- hence my obsession with career blogs and blogs commenting on power and privilege and hence, my blog).

This article talks about how a “Race, Culture, Class, and Gender Task Group” (boy I’d like to be a part of that- or should I say person I’d like to be a part of that) asserted that teachers should be able to position themselves culturally and understand how power and privilege functions in society.  Now, this doesn’t irritate me.  In fact, I think this is a fabulous statement and there should be more discussions concerning how teachers represent their disciplines as it can change education.  I remember when I was abroad on Antioch’s Comparative Women’s Studies in Europe program (one of the most amazing and eye-opening experiences of my 22 years of life), every time we would go to a museum our program director would remind us to consider from where the objects we were staring at came.  Pretty much, most of the stuff we were looking at was straight up stolen.  And yeah, some might think reminding students of this fact before they take a museum tour is a bummer but it changed the way I looked at the artifacts and viewed museums in general.  And that’s a good thing.  That’s my mind developing and becoming more critical and that’s what education is all about. 

I also remember sitting in a Bates Anthropology class on the first day of the semester and my female professor saying that we could refer to her either by her last name or her first name but before we made that choice we should consider what we call our other professors.  She stated that she noticed that many students addressed their male professors using last names and female professors using first names.  She said if this was the case for any of us, she’d like us to use her last name.  What!?  Making us think about gender norms on the first day of class!?  Bad ass!

So yes, I believe teachers have a responsibility to think critically about themselves so that they may help guide their students in doing so.  But noooooooooo, of course this is not okay.  Of course people said this was “unconstitutional and morally unconscionable” and “a severe affront to liberty.”  You’ve GOT to be kidding me.  What’s unconstitutional and morally unconscionable is the amount of racism and sexism that exists in this nation!  Being asked to consider one’s social position and one’s privilege is not a severe affront to liberty.  Is liberty having the right to be ignorant to the point that you may oppress others in your daily interactions?  I’m all for being what you want and thinking what you want as long as it’s not systematically hurting anyone else emotionally or physically but I’m sorry- not recognizing your white privilege hurts people in ways that you can’t even see- BECAUSE YOU DON’T RECOGNIZE IT. 

So, like Ali G and Ice Cube have said, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”  That’s all I see this issue being- this is about asking teachers to check themselves so they don’t wreck themselves or others.  As a teacher you have a responsibility to make sure your classrooms are safe spaces for all students.  And you do this by looking deeply at yourself and at the subjects you are responsible for teaching to others.  If you don’t, then sitting in class is no better than reading a crappy middle school history textbook that talks about how white dudes got things done back in the day.  No thanks.

Shhhh,

Steph

A newly formed task force intends to identify why the ALA should use social media, and define how to use it to enhance membership, promote ALA products and services, manage the ALA brand, and better serve members, especially at conferences. Social networking tools are especially useful at conferences. This idea is reinforced by the fact that at the 2009 ALA Annual conference, there were at least 10,000 instances of the hashtag #ala2009 on Twitter, Flickr, blogs, and other social media spots.

“Budgeted for or not, though, social media is clearly part of ALA’s inevitable future.” —  Jenny Levine, ALA’s Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide

Read more here:

http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/11/24/ala-kicks-off-task-force-on-social-media/

Three Midwest newspaper associations — Kansas, Missouri and Iowa — met Nov. 20 and formed a coordinated effort to manage monetization of their content on the web, raising in minutes an initial $30,000 to start planning. They’ve asked a retiring executive of the Iowa Newspaper Association, Bill Monroe, to look into the idea. A key part of the idea is a for-profit corporation, owned by the nation’s newspapers, to coordinate the effort.

Read more.

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but it took a few minutes to get my thoughts together and not be all over the place in this post.

As many of you have undoubtedly heard, Monday the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed the guidelines for mammograms.  Instead of every woman receiving one at 40, the new guideline is to have a discussion with your doctor about risk factors, and then wait until 50.

This excerpt is from an article by Danielle Dellorto copied from cnn.com:

Women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer, according to updated guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Before having a mammogram, women ages 40 to 49 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened, according to the task force.

For women ages 50 to 74, it recommends routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and above are unknown, it said.

I’ve spent the better part of this morning going over the details of the report, and here’s what I’ve come up with and my opinions about this recommendation.

There are 3 front-line, primary tests for breast cancer: self-breast exam (SBE), clinical breast exam (CBE) and mammogram.  Once you have any abnormalities, you can move into more specific, more definitive tests: MRI, digital mammography and biopsy.

Unfortunately, none of the front-line tests is fantastically good at what it does…each has a pretty high rate of false-positives, which leads people, mostly women, down a path to these other tests.  What I have a hard time getting my head around is that in the absence of better more definitive tests, the task force recommendation is to do nothing.

So, here we sit, with relatively poor diagnostic tools (in terms of false-positives and false-negatives) and are told that we should not take advantage of what we do have.

Not to be too melodramatic, but I would likely be living a whole different life if I didn’t have my mammogram at 40.  If these guidelines had been in place 2 years ago, this is likely what would have happened.

I would have  had a conversation with my OB/GYN, and we would have discussed that I have no family history of breast cancer.  We would have talked about the fact that I nursed each of my 3 boys for over a year (42 months in total), further reducing my risk for breast cancer.  We would have done a CBE which would have turned up nothing.  Our conversation would have ended with my GYN saying that I didn’t have any risks for breast cancer, and that it wasn’t recommended that I have one.  I would have left her office without an order for a mammogram, and we would have been fine assuming that all was well.

And my cancer wouldn’t have been caught as early as it was.  I wouldn’t have had a bilateral mastectomy in January 2008.  I probably wouldn’t have been so concerned about the lump that I found in September 2009.   I certainly wouldn’t have had a breast surgeon in my address book to call for an appointment and who performed an immediate biopsy.  She wouldn’t have called with pathology results within 4 days.  I wouldn’t have had an appointment with an oncologist within 24 hours from the call from the surgeon, which means that I wouldn’t have been able to start the stream of appointments leading up to chemotherapy beginning 3 weeks from the fateful call from my specialist confirming invasive ductal carcinoma.

But, these guidelines weren’t in place then, and they are now.  Which begs the question, where do we go from here?

As a community, our focus for so long has been on early detection via one of these standards, and how to treat the disease once a diagnosis is made.  But maybe the answer is to find new and more effective ways to detect breast cancer.

Let’s develop a yearly blood test that indicates you definitively don’t have breast cancer, a 100% specificity accurate test.  Then those who receive an inconclusive result can be shuffled through for a mammogram.  Let’s perform more genetic research to find a comprehensive genetic marker for breast cancer, rather than relying on BRCA1 or 2.  Let’s develop a vaccine that is given to all children at 5 which prevents the body from producing breast cancer cells, ever.

In the meantime, I think it is highly irresponsible for this panel to suggest that we stop doing what we can in the name of  eliminating anxiety or saving a few dollars for the insurance company.  The anxiety a woman feels because she is waiting for a biopsy is real, but put on your big girl panties and deal with it.  If it comes back benign, then you can breathe a sigh of  relief; if not, you’ll need that fortitude to deal with what’s coming.

And as for the insurance company, and their dollars.  The numbers in the spreadsheet that the panel used for their evaluation represent real people: mothers, wives, daughters, friends, sisters, cousins.  They may assign an acutarial figure to each of us, but try to explain to a 5 year old that his Mommy isn’t tucking him in anymore because she wasn’t worth the money for a mammogram.  I don’t think that he’ll care about your spreadsheet.

An outstanding study was done by the Task Force for Genocide Prevention about a year ago. This is a comprehensive report on the importance of genocide prevention as it relates to the U.S. national interests. Tying genocide prevention to national interest is crucial and directly related to the fact that sovereign states are unlikely to intervene unless there is national interest.  We have seen this first hand in the case of Rwanda and President Clinton’s PDD-25, as well as in numerous other earlier instances. I do not mean to single out PDD-25, rather am giving it as an example of a national policy that I can easily imagine being written by any other president of any other country.

The report lays out recommendations in a comprehensive fashion separating them into categories such as early warning, early prevention, and preventive diplomacy, employing military power and strengthening international regimes. The recommendations are well thought out and relevant. Most of all, these recommendations actually stand a chance of being used by practitioners. I will be referring to this source throughout my blog.

I find myself in the somewhat disquieting position of agreeing with my blog-mate on something.  The current government position on screening mammography clearly has everything to do with money and virtually nothing to do with good health care.  I’ve said before that some degree of rationing is inevitable if affordable health care is to be provided to all Americans, but leave it to the folks in Washington to start the process in the worst possible place.  There are, in fact, scores of medical tests that are performed unnecessarily every day in the US, things like CT scans of the brain on elderly patients who are just as demented today as when they had their previous CT two weeks ago, but screening mammograms are not among them.  It’s a worry.

BW

Task Force Training Officers To Spot Potential Victims

BALTIMORE — Local advocates are using a tragic story of a 5-year-old sold as a sex slave, to talk about human rights abuses in Baltimore.

On Tuesday, authorities in Fayetteville, N.C., confirmed that a body discovered yesterday is that of 5 year-old Shaniya Davis.

Detectives accuse the girl’s mother, Antoinette Davis, 25, of selling the child as a sex slave. Mario McNeil, 29, is being charged in Davis’ kidnapping.

“Sorry baby that you have to do this, you are in a better place. You are in better hands. You don’t have to hurt no more,” Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, said.

Numbers are difficult to come by in the shadowy world of child sex trafficking, but it is prevalent enough in Maryland that there is a state task force assembled to address the issue.

WBAL-TV 11 News spoke to a member of the task force who has spent years trying to reach victims.

Sidney Ford, of You Are Not Alone, or YANA, is part of Maryland’s Human Trafficking Task Force. She’s counseled women who have sold their own children into prostitution and she said there are willing buyers in the Baltimore area.

“Right here in Baltimore, there are people who are willing to pay big bucks to have sex with children. (It) fuels the market for this really abhorrent practice,” Ford said.

Ford said there are often missed opportunities to help victims like Shaniya before it’s too late. She trains police officers to look out for potential red flags.

“In their routine calls, emergency rooms, down the street, when they see certain types of situations happening that they ask questions that go beyond the immediate situations,” Ford said.

Situations which she said play out on Baltimore streets every day and often come to light if you ask the right questions.

“A woman saw an 11-year-old out on the corner. Her mother flew out of her house and said, ‘You need to make $500 tonight or I will beat your ass,’” Ford said.

It’s too late to save Shaniya, but those who advocate against human sex trafficking hope her story will shine light on the practice.

Ford adds that traffickers, including parents, often threaten kids or get them hooked on drugs or alcohol to make them less likely to run away or ask for help.

There is a national hotline set up for victims — that number is 1-800-373-7888.

source: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/21647344/detail.html

Co-chairs of the ABA eLawyering Task Force, Marc Lauritsen and Richard Granat, have submitted a draft set of minimum requirements for delivering legal services online which was published in this month’s Law Practice Today.  As a member of the Task Force, we have discussed these minimum requirements as a set of guidelines that attorneys will be able to turn to when they are interested in forming a virtual law practice .  Once approved by the ABA’s LPM, these requirements may be used by different state bars as a way to guide attorneys in their states who are forming virtual law practices.  You may check out the minimum requirements posted in the article and the Task Force welcomes comments and reactions to the document through their listserv. 

Keep in mind when reading these minimum requirements that the idea behind them is to provide guidance, but not to be too specific in ways that might stifle future innovation in the delivery of legal service.  The topics covered include website architecture, ethics issues, statement of terms and conditions, retainer agreement acceptance, online payment of legal fees, protecting client confidences, and security certification.

Women in their 40’s may not need a yearly mammogram, according to a new report from the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force. Instead, the task force recommends women now wait until 50 and receive the screenings once every two years.

But several experts and groups, including the American Cancer Society (ACS), are not on board. In fact, the ACS still recommends regular mammograms after 40.

So what should you do now? While mammograms can be very effective, early screening may also cause more harm than good when results lead to unnecessary procedures. The new guidelines are expected to reduce cancer scares, costs, and prevent over-treatment. Keep in mind these are recommendations — really it’s up to you and your doctor. According to the new guidelines – women of all ages should talk to their doctor about the benefits and risks before getting a mammogram. If you’re concerned or at higher risk, you can still get a mammogram before 50.

Although the benefits of self breast exams are still unclear, it’s a good idea to know your body and pay attention to any changes. Visit The Beehive for more information about breast cancer, screenings and health care services.

I haven’t written here in a few weeks as I have been involved in tackling a writing class again, through Grub Street –a wonderful writing collaborative in Boston/Cambridge.

So I decided to write to you all today.  My topic will be, I am sure, one of the top blogged about controversies today.  Have you heard?  The are now recommending woman do not get a mammogram until they are 50 years old and then only be tested every 2 years.Globe Article Here

WHAT?

These scientists concluded that mammograms save relatively few lives in women age 40 to 49, and that this benefit is eclipsed by the risks, including tests that erroneously detect tumors when none exist.  They say that to save only one life  you would have to screen 1,904 woman in their 40’s and they consider that unneccessary testing (mammograms cost about $100).

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 44 so this is extremely disconcerting news. Which life do they decide is inconsequential enough to write off.  Mine?  I don’t think my children would agree that my life is not worth $100.  Maybe it’s not mine.  Maybe I would have been fine if I waited until I was 50 –what if it was you, or your sister, or your mother, or your girlfriend or wife.  Is their life the one you want to risk?

So let’s just say I waited until I was 50 to get  my first mammogram. I saved myself the agony of 10 mammograms, 10 half-hour tests, and they discovered that I had breast cancer then.  My cancer would have had 6 full years to grow and spread; 2,190 days to move it’s carcinogenic cells out to my lymph nodes where it would then take off like a wild fire throughout my body. That’s a long time –in 6 years I could get a lot done–and cancer cells can too.  The study showed that in holding off on the mammograms until age 50 we  would save 63 unnecessary biopsies. I am not sure you can call any biopsy unnecessary just because it comes back clean. How many skin lesions are biopsied for melanoma a day that do not turn out to be cancer?  If I am faced with something suspicious then I want to know either way.  I guarantee you wouldn’t find anyone who was disappointed that they had a biopsy come up negative for cancer.  Maybe the answer here is to train our doctors better in knowing which spots to biopsy…maybe this is a problem for the professionals instead of having it passed on –once again–to the consumer.

The U.S Preventative Services Task Force — that’s the puffed up name of this committee –I think I will rename my Family Activities committee that I run at the elementary school to the Family Activities Task Force.  It gives me more power and makes me sound smarter.  Anyway this Task Force has also claimed that self-examination is useless in detecting Breast Cancer at any age.

WHAT?

Come on!  I found my cancer in the shower and I can name 5 other woman I know that found there’s as well.  What do they want us to do?  They won’t give us the test and then say don’t bother checking yourself either..better not to know…wait until it’s really bad and out of control.  Don’t ask, don’t tell.

I did have a slight argument for the other side of when I first heard about this atrocity . That was solely based on the nagging feeling of denial I have –the feeling that maybe, just maybe I never really had cancer and that I went through this ordeal for nothing. I never looked through the micrscope so I never actually SAW that I had cancer, I have trusted the doctors along the way.  But this is not rational thinking, this is emotional bargaining.

As I am writing this I am getting madder and madder as  I realize that the ones who would suffer in this scenario is once again the lower middle class.  Because if the government decides that the guidelines are to get mammograms at age 50 don’t think for a second that woman in their 40’s with some money wouldn’t get the test and pay for it out of their pocket; leaving those without the funds lost in the shadows yet again.  Don’t think for a second that Michelle Obama wouldn’t  be tested.

And there is where our hope lay in this whole situation.  Luckily we have a strong woman as our first-lady, and I can only hope that she would never let this ridiculous recommendation get any further than that.

I don’t know what research studies the US Preventative Services Task Force has been reviewing, but it must be in the same journal with the proofs that global warming is some sort of liberal hoax.  There have been literally hundreds of well-designed prospective studies in the last twenty years that have shown beyond any reasonable doubt that screening mammography as it is currently practiced detects breast cancer at the earliest possible stage, enables women to be treated with less radical surgery, and saves lives.  The task force’s argument seems to be that screening mammography has an unacceptably high level of “false positives” (mammograms which are suspicious for a cancer but turn out to be benign at biopsy), but this is, of course, the nature of any screening test.  In order to root out the smallest and most treatable cancers, there will inevitably be some cases which turn out to be normal.  In my experience, most women are very understanding of this concept and are willing to put up with the associated anxiety to find that their subtle finding, whatever it is, isn’t a cancer.

So it makes you wonder what this “task force” was thinking, and that’s where I begin to agree with my blog-mate on the issue of government control…the so-called “death panel”.  Given an array of possible choices, the bureaucracy seems to invariably go with the worst possible decision, and that’s what they seem to have done in this instance.  If the object is to control medical costs, they’ll accomplish their goal in the short run if Medicare and private insurers stop paying for mammograms for women in their 40’s and only for women in their 50’s every other year.  It’ll probably cut hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars per year.  In the long run, however, there will be the same number of breast cancers as there would have been with earlier screening, but they will be discovered at significantly later stages, requiring more invasive treatments with poorer outcomes, probably at increased costs…and, oh yeah, more women will die agonizing deaths.  That’s a real death panel.

BW

The Good News

The deadline to submit comments and suggestions for the National HIV/AIDS strategy has been extended until Nov. 23 (next Monday) so there is still time to submit your thoughts. I think they should leave the comments section open until after all the town halls have been completed –the last one is in Puerto Rico Dec. 14–but I am not in charge, so we’ll just have to wait and see if they extend the deadline again.

And now…

The Bad News

This Post article has me more than halfway appalled. Apparently this taskforce is saying it’s not really necessary to have women under age 50 receive annual mammograms. And apparently it’s not even necessary for us to do breast self exams now. This one I’m taking a little personal, which is not necessary, but I’d like to diversify this taskforce a little with some BC survivors and see what the consensus is then. I mean, given the mortality rates of black women with aggressive forms of breast cancer, it’s hard for me to believe that comments like this would even be verbalized.

Apparently the suggestions were made based on data from the U.S., Britain and Sweden, because there were too many false alarms. Hmm, so it seems we’d rather risk women’s lives than get some false alarms. And while we’re at it, maybe we should forget about changing the batteries in the smoke alarms cuz God knows we hate those false alarms when we burn stuff in the kitchen.

Now, I thought we wanted to take a stance that encouraged prevention. And whatever happened to better safe then sorry? To me, this seems ridiculous. If the methods aren’t accurate then maybe we should look at increasing the accuracy of the test, instead of telling women to drop prevention methods. I love [please note the sarcasm] how people will give you recommendations to save a dime (5 billion), but when it comes to their life hanging in the balance, it’s all about survival mode at all costs. Sad, man. Nothing but sad. If this is what our Preventive Services Task Force is coming up with, I feel like we should be concerned.

• Breast Self Exam
• Breast Health FAQs
• Cancer Stats

BACKGROUND
When railway working rules were framed two centuries ago, there were few trains, each with a limited number of carriages.
The guard, the “caption” of the train, was to see that all coaches are properly closed, before he shows the green flag, an indication for the driver to start the train.
One can tell the guard to wake him up if the stop is at odd hours.
If you do not get time to buy ticket,  you can tell the guard, who will issue a certificate, enabling you to buy the ticket from the ticket examiner, without paying the penalty.
Do you agree that we should review these archaic procedures, WHICH ARE IN THE BOOK ONLY?
In those slow times, punctuality was not the main concern. Today, delay of a few minutes can cause irrepairable damage, as life has become very fast and complicated. Punctuality is the ESSENCE of railway working now. In Japan, they adjust their watch, seeing the train pass like lightning.
There are separate tracks for trains coming from opposite directions, obviating the necessity for crossing stations. Electric traction allows speedy movement. No train is running at maximum speed. Why then are the trains running late?
One can understand delays caused by fog, landslides, derailments, floods etc. We don’t grumble. A task force comprising of young recruits, with top rank and no family should continuously oversee the running of trains. Even a delay of three minutes, should be automatically reported to the task force and investigated. If it was avoidable, the concerned General Manager should be shown the door. Railway service is not for enjoyment.

Delays are often caused by the necessity for overtaking of local trains by superfast trains. This can be reduced by using the available path, irrespective of whether it is for up or down trains.
Railway Board must be made a powerful, autonomous body, like the Atomic Energy Commission, responsible for the financial and technical security of the system. If a minister is found to interfere, the matter must be reported to the leader of the opposition, for pulling the ears of the minister!

No new trains may be introduced until track renewal, rebuilding of overaged bridges etc. are completed and the system should not be overburdened.
During British raj, private companies were the owners of the differennt railway zones. If a single person is found idling, the post is abolished.
The railway protection force can be transferred to the repective state pollice.
In winter I have seen ladies knitting woollen garments, sitting in the sun, instead of working in the office. The divisional Manager too sees it. This is our work culture.
Every year Audt is publishing a booklet detailing wasteful expenditure. Till now, none has been punished. In the days of the company management, even a preliminary observation slip (POS in our parlance) bring shivers to the concerned person, because of swift action by his superiors.

The RDSO, Lucknow, should be manned by briliant pople with exceptionally good academic record .

There is an anachronic term” Foreign Traffic” in our system. The earnings are assigned to home raiways, based on certain principles. This was necessary, at that time when each zone was the property of an individual company, and only one ticket is isued. So the cash collected has to be allocated to each zone, through which the train passes, according to their milage. Do away with it and you save precious money.
Till the railway system is fully modernised, no dividend to be given to the government.
All railway land not required by the system, lying waste since its aquisition, must be sold out and good money recovered from the buyers.
These are just some random suggestions.

Last week, men of the Task Force raided strip/nude clubs in Lagos, arresting managers, patrons and the dancers. 

Encomium Weekly writer, Sunday Adebayo, tracked down one of the strippers and had an interview with her.
An eye-opener. Read it below

Stripper “The major requirements are: you must be at least 18 years old. You must have a very good shape and have to be able to carry yourself well. Your breasts must be intact. They won’t employ you when you have sagged breasts and you must be clean up to your private area. And you must be a good dancer.”

Do they employ you full time or you do freelance?
“At Ocean Blue where I work, we are employed, but we are not on salaries. You have to be very good and have to canvass for people very well, so that you will get enough money for yourself.”

How then do you girls get your money?
“Normally we do lap dance, and three tracks of music will make a session of a lap dance. It’s N1, 000 per session. If you are very sexy and have men who like you, you may be very lucky to get up to 20 people to lap dance for in just one day. The lap dance in the VIP section is more expensive. You pay N3, 000. At timew when we want to do it, we still charge some people more, and some below the price.”

What makes the VIP section different from the regular?
“In the VIP, it’s a private closet where we can do anything. So once the customer has paid, you can do anything for him. You can help masturbate him or even insert his manhood into your mouth to make him happy. But you can’t have sex in the club.”

What if the customer wants sex and is willing to pay for it?

“We don’t do it at the club. But if anyone among the girls likes the person or can do it, you may go with him to a hotel to do whatever he wants to do.”

How much do you charge them for that?
“It depends. At times we charge up to N10, 000 for the fun, depending on how the person approaches us.”

Then can we call this a more professional prostitution?
“We are not prostitutes. We only entertain our clients and customers”

Like how many people come into the club on a daily basis?
“Most times, the space doesn’t even take people, especially at weekends. From Thursday night through Sunday night. But on average, not less than 200-250 people daily.”

“They don’t need to know, because I give them what they want at the right time. So, no problems.”

Now that the State Govt has closed down the clubs, how do you girls hope to survive?
“Life goes on. We will get something doing. And besides they will soon re-open the clubs. This is not the first time they are closing us down. We shall wait for what happens next”

All the girls have since been granted bail.
Please feel free to share your opinion on this…

We have again managed to get a very limited stock of the current US Secret Service special Agent badge and the very rare US Secret Service Technician badge.  We expect the demand of these badges to be very high, as they are a rare badges. Both are hallmark by “Sun Badge Co” and have a rear belt / wallet  attachment. These badges would make a lovely addition to any US Federal badge collector.

Special Agents: Special Agents within The USSS is mandated by statute and executive order to carry out two significant missions: protection and criminal investigations. During the course of their careers, special agents carry out assignments in both of these areas and must be available to be assigned to duty stations anywhere in the world.

The Technical Division of the US Secret Service (USSS) have the following responsibilities: Technical positions within the USSS are associated with the direct support of professional or administrative personnel. Assignments are generally non-routine in nature and involve extensive practical knowledge which is either gained through on-the-job experience,

Below is  an example of technical positions:

Information Technology Specialist, Photographer, Operations Support Technician, Protective Support Technician, Document Analyst, Fingerprint Specialist, Access Control Coordinator, Telecommunications Specialist, Physical Security Specialist and Special Officer

We have also got the US Secret Service badge (Obsolete) , FBI and California highway patrol badge contained in a wallet with a blank ID card (to be used for film prop use only!!)

The current DHS Transport Security Administration (TSA) special Agent badge and the ATF Task Force badge can be specially ordered through our website

Last month there was a lot of excitement at the South Carolina Supreme Court.

• For those interested in state politics, we had an ethics probe case, with video.
• For those of us in the legal profession, results from the July Bar Exam were published.
• For those interested in research and accessibility, we saw the re-opening of the Supreme Court Library.
• And for those of us interested in Court innovations and access to justice, we saw the establishment of a new Task Force – TASK FORCE ON STATE COURTS AND THE ELDERLY.

If you have a moment, take a look at these news items. Each offers perspective into the work of the Court and its endeavor to serve access to justice.

-RFW

A Great Big Thank You goes out to all the wonderful, generous Castle Rock people who came to the studio for Trick or Treat Street on Friday. It was our 4th Annual Food Drive for the Task Force. We gave away a FREE 5×7 print of their child in costume to everyone who either brought in a bag of food or donated $10 to the Task Force.  We gave away over 200 5×7’s in four hours!!! WOW! You guys donated SOOOOO much food and money to help out the needy this winter. It was such a great day, and it was so much fun to see so many old friends! If you’d like to see and purchase images from Friday online, click here. Here are a few of my favorite images:

!!!

WRITTEN BY: Josh Clarke

PUBLISHED: The Daily Campus, 10/13/09

UConn is increasing the number of online courses that will be offered in 2010, with the help of an online education task force.

The task force was established in December 2009 by Provost Peter J. Nicholls to research the potential of online classes and how students and faculty can best receive support from the university.

“Provost Peter Nicholls was the one who determined that the University of Connecticut needed to move forward in online education and so he charged a committee,” said Douglas Cooper, a co-chair of the task force and a professor of chemical materials and biomolecular engineering.

This committee became the online education task force, which consists of 27 faculty and administrators from different departments. Members are from the Storrs campus as well as the regional campuses.

The task force’s final report was presented in June with goals and recommendations for UConn to increase the number of online courses and to provide faculty and students with support to ensure a quality experience provided by these courses.

There are a number of advantages that online classes can give students. Having the option to take an online course can make it easier for a student to complete a degree in four years and to avoid schedule conflicts when two desired courses meet at the same time. Taking an online class “removes you from having to be in a specific room at a specific time,” Cooper said.

Students who go home during the summer can take an online course at UConn for credit, rather than taking a course at another college and having to transfer the credits to UConn, Cooper said.

“There are students who prefer online courses. There has been a demand for online courses from our student population,” Cooper said.

Online courses also offer flexibility of schedules to faculty, said Desmond McCaffrey, the other co-chair of the task force and the director of instructional design and development.

Another advantage to faculty is that “it allows them to explore new methods of teaching,” Cooper said.

“One of the ideas behind this task force is that what they learn in the process of developing an online course they can actually take back to face-to-face courses,” he said.

Our beloved task force, focused on prevention, is back with some recommendations for pap smears and reproductive health now, too. I’m going to have to search their site and see some suggestions they made for issues that aren’t predominately focused on females. Enjoy!