Daily Archives: October 19, 2021

This addition will be the eighth wreath provided to all participating locations with corresponding service flag for use on National Wreaths Across America Day.

Published: Oct. 19, 2021 at 1:02 PM EDT|Updated: 9 hours ago

COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine, Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, national nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) announces the addition of the United States Space Force to the set of ceremonial wreaths that are provided to all participating locations nationwide to be used on National Wreaths Across America Day this year scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. This is the eighth ceremonial wreath with corresponding service flag to be provided by the organization to all registered, participating locations. The ceremonial wreaths represent each branch of the service, and POW/MIA, and are encouraged to be on display as part of each National Wreaths Across America Day ceremony held.

The U.S. Space Force, which was established December 20, 2019, with the enactment of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, is the first new military service since the Army Air Forces were reorganized as the U.S. Air Force in 1947. The U.S. Space Force organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force.

"The U.S. Space Force traces its roots to the beginning of the Cold War, with the first Army Air Forces space programs starting in 1945, and the first major employment of space forces culminated in the Gulf War, where they proved so critical to the U.S.-led coalition," said Joe Reagan, U.S. Army Veteran and Director of Military & Veteran Outreach, Wreaths Across America. "As an organization whose mission is to Remember the fallen, Honor those that serve and Teach the next generation the value of freedom, it is imperative that we recognize all those who have stepped up to serve as Guardians and continue to protect those Freedoms all Americans enjoy."

Since in founding as a 501c3 in 2007, WAA has provided seven live, handmade balsam veterans' wreaths each with a corresponding service branch flag, including a POW/MIA flag to each registered participating location to use in that year's National Wreaths Across America Day ceremony. Moving forward, eight wreaths will be provided along with the U.S. Space Force delta service flag. Each participating location is coordinated by local volunteers who are encouraged to host a ceremony using these wreaths as part of their National Wreaths Across America Day ceremony and invite veterans, current servicemembers and their families to participate.

This year,more than 2,700 participating locations are registered to take part inNational Wreaths Across America Day Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021 each one will receive the now eight ceremonial wreaths for this event.

For more information on how to volunteer locally or find a participating location near you, please visit http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

About Wreaths Across AmericaWreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization's mission Remember, Honor, Teach is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all 50 statesand beyond.

View original content to download multimedia:

SOURCE Wreaths Across America

The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc.

Go here to read the rest:

Wreaths Across America to Add Ceremonial Wreath Representing the United States Space Force - WVIR

Now that the B.C. NDP has a majority under John Horgan, it's decided to put up a barrier to those who want to file freedom-of-information requests.

In the legislature on October 18, Minister of Citizens' Services Lisa Beare introduced a bill to allow the government to impose fees on those filing freedom-of-information requests.

A new $25 tariff per request is possible due to Bill 22's amendment to section 75 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to allow a "prescribed application fee".

Journalists Rob Shaw and Bob Mackin are among those who've condemned Bill 22 over social media.

UVic's new Wayne Crookes professor of environmental and climate journalism, Sean Holman, tweeted that Alberta is the only other province that charges a $25 fee to ask for government information.

Meanwhile, B.C.'s information and privacy commissioner, Michael McEvoy, raised concerns to the Vancouver Sun about how Bill 22 would allow public bodies to send British Columbians' personal information outside of the country.

In addition, Bill 22 would ensure that section 5 of the Offence Act does not apply to the legislation.

That section of the Offence Act states: "A person who contravenes an enactment by doing an act that it forbids, or omitting to do an act that it requires to be done, commits an offence against the enactment."

It could mean that anyone who simply omits to fulfill a request won't be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

In its place, Bill 22 declares that an offence occurs if a person wilfully makes a false statement to or misleads or attempts to mislead or obstructs the commissioner, an adjudicator, or anyone acting under their direction.

In addition, Bill 22 states: "A person who wilfully conceals, destroys or alters any record to avoid complying with a request for access to the record commits an offence."

"The changes we're proposing will strengthen government accountability and transparency by enabling us to be more responsive to the needs of people by adding more public bodies and charging new offences for destroying records to evade FOI," Beare said in a speech to the legislature.

The Freedom of Information and Privacy Association has described Bill 22 as a backward step that shows "disregard" for the legislature, its legislation, and British Columbians.

A legacy of transparency scandals, from fast ferries, to triple delete, to wood chippers at the Legislature, show the costs of secrecy and the importance of getting theselegislativeamendmentsright," FIPA president Mike Larsen said in a news release.

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act applies to a long list of public bodies, including provincial Crown corporations, municipal governments, school boards, and health authorities.

According to a Ministry of Citizens' Services report, there were 7,622 general FOI requests and 4,633 personal FOI requests in 2018-19.

If there were the same number of requests in the first year after Bill 22 became law, FOI submissions would generate $306,375 in revenue for the provincial government.

The 12,255 requests in 2018-19 were a significant increase over the 10,471 requests received in the previous fiscal year.

Read more:

B.C. NDP government aims to impose fees for making freedom-of-information requests - The Georgia Straight

Senate Democratic leaders are hoping to end the long-time prohibition on federal funds to support abortion services, setting up a fight with Republicans and a key member of their own party over fiscal year 2022 spending.

The head of the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled a $220.8 billion Labor-HHS-Education funding bill that nixes the Hyde and Weldon amendments, which keep people on programs like Medicaid from accessing abortion services via safety net programs.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate appropriations panel responsible for health funding, said in a statement that funding bills for too long have interfered with millions of peoples ability to exercise their constitutional right to abortion.

Most Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) support maintaining the Hyde Amendment, making any hopes of passage of this proposed spending bill unlikely.

The bill would increase the Labor-HHS-Education budget by $46.7 billion over fiscal 2021 levels. The legislation would provide $47.9 billion to the National Institutes of Health, a $5 billion increase over 2021. Nearly half that increase would go to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, President Joe Bidens proposed new biomedical research agency, Alex Ruoff reports.

House Floor: The House is scheduled to consider several health-related bills under expedited procedure, including:

Lawmakers to Speak at Medicare Advantage Summit: Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) are scheduled to speak tomorrow at the Medicare Advantage Summit hosted by the Better Medicare Alliance advocacy group.

Vaccine Mix-and-Match Poised to Get FDA Clearance: The Food and Drug Administration is poised to clear the use of a Covid-19 booster from a different manufacturer than the one that supplied a patients original inoculation, according to people familiar with the matter. The FDA is still considering the scope of the measure, including whether to allow the widespread mixing and matching of vaccines or whether to narrow the parameters of use, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity before any announcement. Read more from Josh Wingrove.

Schools Begin to Lift Mask Mandates as Spread Slows: Some U.S. schools are starting to lift mask mandates as the latest Covid-19 wave fades, and case trends suggest others may soon follow. At least a half dozen school districts across the U.S. have recently lifted their mandates, the first such swing away from the face coverings, according to Burbio, which tracks the developments and runs a dashboard on schools. As of Oct. 15, 78% of the 500 largest districts still required masks, it found. Jonathan Levin has more.

Courts Clash Over Vaccine Religious Exemptions: Conflicting court decisions over coronavirus vaccine mandates for health-care workers in Maine and New York could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its stance on what freedom of religion means for employees. A federal judge in Maine let the state move forward without offering employees any exemptions, while a district judge in New York extended an order that temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the rules for workers with religious exemptions.

Vaccine mandates from employers and governments have been challenged in federal courts almost 40 times this year, but so far, they have largely passed legal muster. The battleground now is the question of how broad are the exemptions going to be, said Brian Abramson, who teaches vaccine law at Florida International University College of Law. Read more from Allie Reed.

More Headlines:

DOJ Asks SCOTUS to Ease Texas Abortion Ban: The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift Texass ban on abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, setting up a new high court showdown over the most restrictive ban thats currently in force in the U.S. In papers filed yesterday, acting U.S. Solicitor General Brian Fletcher pressed justices to intervene on an emergency basis to block the law. Fletcher also asked for a definitive ruling, a move that would raise the stakes in what already is a watershed fight.

DOJ said the Texas law violates Supreme Court precedents protecting abortion rights and unconstitutionally seeks to skirt judicial review with a novel mechanism that places enforcement in the hands of private parties. The fundamental question presented in this case is whether states may nullify disfavored constitutional rights by purporting to disclaim their own enforcement authority and delegating enforcement of unconstitutional laws to private bounty hunters, Fletcher told the justices. Greg Stohr has more.

White House Unveils Sweeping PFAS Plan: The White House EPA announced plans, ongoing efforts, and research eight agencies have undertaken to reduce PFAS in the nations air, water, land, and food. They include the EPAs Roadmap, a three-year strategy describing specific regulations with deadlines for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue and research it will do to understand where additional controls might be necessary. Read more from Pat Rizzuto.

More Headlines:

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Lee in Washington at blee@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Zachary Sherwood at zsherwood@bgov.com; Giuseppe Macri at gmacri@bgov.com; Michaela Ross at mross@bgov.com

Original post:

HEALTH CARE BRIEFING: Democrats Target Ban on Abortions Funds | Bloomberg Government - Bloomberg Government

Connecting Latino caregivers to resources

A southern California program tried to overcome barriers between Latino caregivers and resources they need for support. Is it working?

Scott Norris, Natalia Rodrguez Medina and Maryann Batlle, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Can tax credits for family caregivers provide more financial stability in households where the caregiver has sacrificed other impact to support a loved one in need? Let's take a closer look at a key element of proposals considered as part of President Joe Biden's social spending proposal currently under debate in Congress.

Family caregivers make up the vast majority of care providers in the United States, and in many cases, they receive no compensation for the work.

In fact, many spend thousands of dollars each year to care for their loved ones. A recent AARP study found that 78% of family caregivers are paying for care-related expenses out-of-pocket, at an average of $7,240 per year.

That's on top of income or other benefits that family caregivers may be losing if they're taking time away from work to care for an aging parent or family member with a disability.

Theresa Robertson, of Elkridge, Maryland, works from home at a small company she started a job that, critically, gives her enough freedom to care for her husband, Emanuel.

At 63, Emanuel Robertson has suffered a series of strokes and kidney failure, has been hospitalized countless times, and is experiencing mild vascular dementia.

Theresa Robertson needs to be at home toadminister his medication, check his blood pressure, take him to doctor's appointments and make sure he gets to dialysis.

Emanuel Robertson's care also takes money. Theresa, 58, estimates that the family spends$4,000 per year on caregiving expenses.

The Robertsons have spent their retirement savings. Theresa, who manages a team of virtual assistants remotely from her home, is missing out on all the benefits that a more traditional job would bring, includinghealth insurance and a retirement plan.

Right now, she's debating whether to get a job at night so that she can access better insurance for Emanuel Robertson, who needs a kidney transplant, and for herself.

It is incredibly difficult, Theresa Robertson said of the financial burden. It is a sacrifice.

Abill being considered in Congress recognizes the intense financial pressures on family caregivers. Called the Credit for Caring Act, the bill would offer tax credits of up to $5,000 to people like Robertson.

It's an acknowledgment of the fact that family caregivers provide hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid care each year, sometimes leaving their jobs like Robertson has and losing out on healthcare, retirement savings and other benefits, according to the AARP.

The burden falls disproportionately on women, who make up 61% of family caregivers, and people of color, especially Hispanic and Black family caregivers, who report higher levels of financial strain.

Some family caregivers receive compensationthrough a patchwork of state Medicaid programs. But most states, including Maryland, do not pay spouses to care for their husbands or wives.

"Part of me feels like why should someone compensate me to take care of my husband? I love my husband, so there's nothing I wouldn't do to make sure he's safe," Theresa Robertson said.

"On the other hand, it's crushing."

Caregiver advocates say the tax credit could make a major difference for struggling families. But the financial situation for family caregivers is so dire that $5,000 won't be enough to cover the immense need for help.

"In my mind, it's not a bad idea, but it doesn't move the needle," said CharlotteDodge, the senior advocacy manager for Caring Across Generations. "It's not the kind of investment or support for family caregivers that I think we at Caring Across Generations would like to really prioritize."

What might make a bigger difference, Dodge said, is the Biden administration's proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster in-home caregiving services (though that number may be whittled down as Congress haggles over a massive spending proposal).

That plan could make professional, in-home care much more accessible, removing the burden from family members who care for their loved ones out of necessity.Hundreds of thousands of Americans are on state waiting lists for home- and community-based service waivers through Medicaid.

"Any massive investment in home- and community-based services could relieve the care burden by allowing more family caregivers to stay in the workforce," Dodge said.

Robertson said family caregivers would welcome "any help at all."

"Families are making (financial decisions) every day, all day long," she said. "What they can and can't do, what they can and can't afford. It's a matter of life and death, and they have to do it all by themselves."

Some programs already exist to compensate family caregivers, but they vary widely by state.

A few states allow spouses to serve as at-home caregivers and be paid throughMedicaid. But most states don't, or have strict limitations on which family members can get paid to care for a loved one.

It can feel arbitrary to family caregivers trying to navigate the system, experts said.

"On the whole, it's not a great system, and there are a lot of barriers and challenges for family caregivers," Dodge said.

A few innovative programs have tried to fill the gap, including the Veterans Health Administration's Caregiver Support Program.

The two-tiered program offers basic resources to anyone caring for a veteranand a more comprehensive set of support services for veterans and caregivers who meet a set of eligibility requirements.

The higher level of services includes a monthly stipend for family caregivers, which can vary depending on the veteran's needs, medical services for the caregiver, counseling and mental health services, respite care and travel expenses.

It is considered "the gold standard" for family caregiver support services, Dodge said.

"The support services that that program offers Ithink is definitely more robust than any other family caregiver program that I'm aware of," she said.

The program launched in 2011 to support veterans who came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious injuries that would require long-term care, saidDr. Colleen Richardson, the executive director of the VHA Caregiver Support Program.

"Men and women were surviving injuries they wouldn't have otherwise survived in other wars," Richardson said. "Spouses are giving up entire careers to care for these veterans. How do we help them?"

That's how the caregiver program was born, though for years it was limited to veterans who were seriously injured on or after Sept. 11, 2001.

The program has been celebrated for its innovative approach to supporting family caregivers, but its extensive services have come with a rising price tag as more veterans and their caregivers become eligible for the program.

The VHA at first vastly underestimated the need for these caregiver support services.

A 2014 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that about 15,600 caregivers had been approved for the support program more than three times the VHA's original estimate of 4,000 caregivers approved by Sept. 2014.

The costs of the program also grew with the number of caregivers. The GAO estimated the services would cost more than $263 million in the 2014 fiscal year, up from $225 million the previous year,and keep increasing.

Since then, the program has continued to expand. In 2020, the program began to include veterans who served prior to 1975. It is set to expand once again, to include veterans from all eras,in 2022.

The cost of the program is expected to balloon with the expansions.The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated the caregiver support program would cost nearly $1.2 billion in the 2021 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

When lawmakers balked at the up-front costs of the proposed expansions in 2018, then-VA-Secretary David Shulkin argued that the program could ultimately save the government billions by reducing medical costs for veterans.

The program expansions have come with other obstacles, as well. The VA was two years behind when it implemented an IT system that would support the 2020 expansion.

The VA's Office of Inspector General estimated earlier this year thatabout 55,000 veterans would be eligible for family caregiver services by 2024.

Just tenmonths into the first expansion of the VA caregivers program, though, more than103,000 applications have come flooding in, Richardson said.

The VA is also planning listening sessions to assess how current caregivers feel about the program.

"I don't doubt we'll get some pretty honest feedback," Richardson said. "If we're not getting it right, ... I want to hear from them and see what we can do better."

Madeleine O'Neill has coveredthe Maryland State House and state issuesfor the USA TODAY Network. Email questions or story ideas to project editor Michael Kilian at mkilian@gannett.com

This and related stories on the Biden administration's caregiving plansare produced through the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations and universities dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about successful responses to social problems. The group, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, has been producing stories on potential solutions to the challenges facing caregivers of older adults.

Read this article:

Biden plan: How tax credits might be the solution for family caregivers - Detroit Free Press