Category Archives: Progress

The world was watching in shock and horror as a rightwing mob stormed the Capitol during the confirmation of Joe Biden as the next democratically elected president of the US.

On the heels of Democratic victories in Georgia giving Democrats control of the Senate (to go along with the House and the Presidency), armed Trump supporters broke through the police and interrupted the proceedings. Far from being a protest, this was a terrorist insurrection that struck at the very core of US democracy.

At the heart of this violence were Trump and his Republican colleagues who have been feeding his supporters lies about a stolen election and the need to resist. It echoed his entire presidency which was built on a virulent mixture of conspiracy theory, white resentment, and real economic suffering. His politics was one of mob rule and populist backlash with the need to Make America Great Again regardless of the political or human costs.

Yet the US also now faces a clear and profound choice. Will it finally face up to the root causes of this extremism: corporate power, growing inequality, and systemic racism? Or will it continue to try to treat the symptoms without curing the disease?

Throughout his time in office, there were ongoing questions of how serious a threat to democracy Trump and his voters actually were. While his rhetoric and behavior crossed all conceivable lines of political civility and democratic acceptability, there was still hope that his reign would end with a peaceful transfer of power. Any such illusions were shattered by the recent far-right assault.

However, this extremism has always been central to Trumps appeal and victory. He plays on fears and presents the nation as being in extreme danger, a crisis which requires an extreme response. He has cloaked his entire political ascent to a paranoid belief in the need to resist a corrupt establishment. It is with little irony that this corrupt business person born into wealth and privilege presents himself as the only person standing up to elites in defense of the people.

Ultimately, whatever claims he makes, his revolution is one of pure reaction. It is a channeling of anger against vulnerable populations and in the service of corporate interests.

Even worse, it is the trading of an entrenched oligarchy for a personal plutocracy as he has used the presidency, above and beyond all else, as a vehicle to enrich himself, his family, and his friends. Far from draining the swamp, he was trying to build the foundations for a gilded 21st monarchy, a Trump-branded dynasty that he could profit off of for decades to come.

Still, for those breaking into the Capitol, there was a desire for revolution, for genuine change and democracy despite it being driven by white power and nativism. Even as they concretely tried to disrupt and dismantle it, they were ironically doing so in the name of saving US democracy.

Watching from our homes the danger to US democracy was easy to spot and condemn in the right-wing mob overtaking the Capitol Building. Less visible but every bit as threatening to its long-term survival though was the decent status quo which was under attack by the very extremists they ironically helped to create.

Undeniably, the most urgent task is to top this literal far right assault on US freedom and popular sovereignty.

Yet this immediate responsibility must not come at the expense of dealing with these deeper issues fundamentally undermining democracy in the US and globally. The threat of authoritarian capitalism, widening inequality, and corporate imperialism will continue to give birth to extremism and destroy any and all democratic gains.

These existential threats to freedom and democracy are covered over by a politic of voting for the lesser evil and trumped out partisan divides. While there is an underlying pro-finance and pro-military census between mainstream Republicans and Democrats, this is too often hidden in media-friendly culture wars. Further, attempts to enact serious reforms are labeled as naive and politically impossible.

Trumpism arose from the corrupted soil of a democracy that was far more rhetoric than reality. This political oligarchy was matched by a civic and popular culture that promoted violence over deliberation, policing and anti-heroes over social movements, and collective attempts to create real change.

In the face of globalization that was rapidly leaving most people behind, a financial crisis with a recovery for the rich and not the poor, and endless wars with mounting casualties at home and abroad, people wanted to feel empowered and found little opportunity to do so democratically either politically or in the workplace.

The violence invading the Capitol is, thus, a reflection of the violence that has infected US society in the new millennium.

It is one where everyday people, especially Black citizens, face state-based violence of a militarized and largely legally unaccountable police force. It is the daily violence of people being allowed to go hungry, sick, and jobless while corporations are given ever-larger subsidies by the state. It is the violence of mass shootings and no serious gun laws due to the power of the gun lobby. And it is the violence of a military that regularly invades, attacks, and overthrow legitimately elected governments that challenge US corporate interests all in the name of preserving democracy.

The attempted coup reveals the nation at a crossroads. One path leads to the rise of even greater authoritarianism and social division. The other to genuine solidarity and progress. Just as the myth that right-wing extremism was harmless must now be forever disregarded, so too must we dispense with the centrist myth that we can return to the status quo before Trump and expect our democracy to survive let alone thrive.

What we are witnessing is the barbarism of far-right populism. But it sprung from the savage injustices of a respectable politics as usual. Without destroying the latter, the former will continue to rise and rise again. The hard work will come with revitalizing our democracy in our communities, workplaces, and globally.

Right now, in front the worlds watching eyes, fascism and hate are literally trying to overrun US democracy, something sadly it has done around the world with bipartisan support. We must put our energy into stopping this threat.

Yet tomorrow, the choice between change or the status quo has never been so obvious. For popular rule and freedom to be preserved and expanded, we must begin to choose justice over hate, equality over greed, and real progress over greater and lesser evils.

Originally posted here:

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear - The Globe Post

Adrienne Herbert is a personal trainer based in London. Fiit

Progressive overload is "the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training," according to research.

This means gradually challenging your body more during workouts.

While most commonly used in weight training, the principle can be applied to all types of exercise, as three personal trainers explained to Insider.

It's crucial for ensuring your body keeps adapting and is the difference between exercise and training.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Whether you're looking to get fitter, stronger, or faster, there's one crucial component you need to employ in your workouts: progressive overload.

This principle means gradually challenging your body more, and it's important if you want to reach your fitness goals.

"Progressively overloading means you are continually increasing the demands on your muscle in order to maximize adaptation gains in strength, size, or endurance," personal trainer Sana Shirvani told Insider.

"It's about creating fresh stimulus to keep pushing your performance forward, and can be done with frequency or intensity," Rich Tidmarsh, personal trainer and owner of London gyms Reach, told Insider.

The term is commonly used by weight-lifters - in this case, it means gradually increasing either the weight or the reps performed of any exercise. However, the concept applies to any discipline.

"Progressive overload is an effective and safe way to improve strength, but the same method and principles can also be applied to cardio training too," Fiit master trainer Adrienne Herbert told Insider.

Shirvani added: "We can progressively overload through an increase in weight, repetitions, sets, decreased rest periods, and increased training frequency. Also, progressive overload doesn't just apply to muscle growth, we can also see improvements in bone density, connective tissue strength, as well as cardiovascular fitness."

Story continues

Runners, for example, might try to shave a few seconds off a certain distance. Or, as Herbert advises, aim to increase the total volume of distance you run each week by 10%.

If you have an exercise bike and a heart rate monitor, one workout you can do is cycling at 80% of your max heart rate for three minutes, resting, then repeating it twice more. If next time you increased that to four sets, or added 30 seconds longer to the three sets, that's progressive overload.

For anyone working out at home with minimal equipment, Tidmarsh advises increasing time under tension and focusing on the "negative" part of movements - in a push-up, for example, this might mean lowering yourself down slowly, holding at the bottom position, then driving back up.

Increasing time under tension means performing each move incredibly slowly so as to increase the length of time the muscles are working, as celebrity trainer Sebastien Lagree previously explained to Insider.

If you do the same thing week-in week-out, yes, there will be benefits, but your body will get used to it.

"Exercise is a stress stimulus to the body and our bodies then make adaptations to this stress stimuli," Shirvani said. "However, once that adaptation has taken place, your body is less likely to adapt without a change in stimulus."

She continued: "This means that if you're training to improve your strength, size, or endurance, progressive overload is fundamental for adaptation and development." And research confirms this.

It's important to note that there's a difference between exercise and training, and progressive overload helps turn the former into the latter.

If you're just looking to shake off the stresses of the day, burn calories, and get the endorphins pumping, exercise will do that for you.

Training, however, is more structured. If you're tracking your workouts in some capacity, working toward specific performance goals, you're training. And this is where you need progressive overload.

You don't need to start a spreadsheet if you're not that way inclined, but you should log your workouts in some capacity so you can remember what you did in your last session and apply progressive overload properly.

"Training in this way means you can easily track and measure your progress, as well as avoiding a plateau," Herbert said.

She continued: "A gradual increase in intensity and volume will change your mind as well as your body, so you won't get bored of doing the same routine. It will also boost your motivation and confidence as you see yourself getting fitter, faster, and stronger. It's a great feeling when you do something that you couldn't do before."

This is one of the main reasons the majority of personal trainers recommend that clients who want to lose weight set themselves performance goals as well as aesthetic.

We are all different, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach to progressive overload. When deciding to up the ante in your workout, you should push yourself, but not go too fast. If you try and challenge yourself too much too quickly, you'll likely end up injuring yourself.

You also won't make progress if you don't give your body enough recovery time between sessions - overtraining won't get you to your goals quicker.

"There's a fine balance between making progress and doing too much, which can actually mean you get weaker," Tidmarsh said. "You'll burn out, get tired, and get injured."

He continued: "When gyms are open, say you train deadlifts twice a week, that's probably about right. If you did it four times a week, you'd probably actually get weaker and get hurt."

Ideally, you should consult a qualified trainer for individual guidance, but Shirvani recommends ticking a few boxes before progressively overloading on a movement:

Form: "Form always comes first! If you are not executing an exercise with good form, focus on nailing the form first before thinking about progressive overload," she said.

Rate of perceived exertion: "Ask yourself how challenged you felt between 1-10 at the end of an exercise," she said. "If you feel like you have another 3+ reps in you, with good form, this is probably too little stress for your body to adapt, which means you can progress."

Plateau: "If you reach a plateau, this could be due to a number of factors, but one of them could be that you are not providing your body with the minimal effective dose of stress to see the desired changes."

Trainers (and studies) say that novices are able to progress quicker than seasoned fitness fans, but we're all different so you should progress at the rate that's right for you.

Read more:

I did 100 push-ups a day for 100 days in lockdown and was amazed by how my body changed

The 5 best exercises for building muscle and how to perform them correctly, according to the UK's fittest man

Lifting heavy or light weights will give you different results - here's how to know which ones to use

Read the original article on Insider

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'Progressive overload' is the key to fitness progress that you might be missing. Here's what it means. - Yahoo News

BELHAVEN The Board of Aldermen held a public hearing during their monthly meeting on Monday to gain insight regarding the proposed amendment of the town charter and the application process for the Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Fund.

The proposed amendment would allow the Board of Aldermen to extend the mayoral term from its current two year term to four years. This change would make the mayoral term equal to that of the Aldermen and the two positions would serve concurrently. This amendment received opposition from townspeople.

The CDBG-CV proposed budget is $900,000 and would come directly from the block grant program. The funds would be split between three different projects, including $42,000 in public broadband expansion, $418,000 in subsistence payments to be distributed by St. Vincent De Paul and $350,000 in rehabilitation of the Wilkinson Center. The remaining $90,000 will pay for the fee for grant administration.

The amendment of the town charter must be discussed at the next Board of Aldermen meeting on Feb. 8 before the board can vote for extending the mayoral term. CDBG-CV was approved at the meeting Monday and the application process will go ahead.

See the original post here:

Belhaven holds two public hearings focused on town progress - Washington Daily News - thewashingtondailynews.com

ATLANTA The day after Georgia elected a Black descendant of sharecroppers and a young Jewish filmmaker to be U.S. senators, underscoring the rising political power of racial and religious minorities, the forces of white grievance politics struck back.

At the Peoples House in Washington, a predominantly white mob in support of President Trumps attempts to overturn the election overtook the Capitol building by brute force. Confederate flags flew at the seat of American democracy. A gallows was erected, with a noose hanging in the air. It was as stark a contrast as any, one day that illustrated the nations original paradox: a commitment to democracy in a country with a legacy of racial exclusion.

The seeds that led to the insurrection were hidden in plain sight. At Mr. Trumps rallies, where his supporters set up open-air markets of hate and conspiracy, selling Confederate flags and T-shirts that mock his opponents and the media. In conservative news outlets, where the language of revolution and civil war is commonplace. On Mr. Trumps Twitter feed, which has amplified white supremacists, anti-Semites and anti-Muslim extremists.

On Thursday night, he took to that Twitter feed again to post a video message condemning the mob while taking no responsibility for inviting it to Washington or inspiring its actions. You do not represent our country, he said to the rioters, before moments later nodding to all of our wonderful supporters. On Friday night, Twitter permanently suspended Mr. Trumps account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

Whether the mob represents a fringe of the American political spectrum or a growing movement increasingly opposed to democratic norms is an essential question at the end of the Trump era, when it is clear that progress to some is seen as an affront to others.

Its not surprising to see insurrectionists swarm the Capitol when the federal government is run by people who have made it the project of the Republican Party to dismantle the federal government, said Representative Mondaire Jones, a newly sworn-in Democrat from New York. He added that these leaders articulated this false narrative of a federal government that seeks to oppress the rights of the American people.

Like other lawmakers on Thursday, Mr. Jones acknowledged that it was easier to diagnose the causes of the chaos than to craft solutions. The forces that helped Democrats send Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris to the White House are real. So is a widening gap between liberal and conservative movements, and the fact that as the United States has increasingly incorporated Black Americans, people of color, immigrants and Native Americans into the democratic fabric, it has come at a cost.

Mr. Biden addressed the fallout as he introduced his designees for the Justice Department on Thursday afternoon.

He framed it as a wake-up call to a country that has at times feigned ignorance of this reality: The most ardent portions of Mr. Trumps white base are engulfed by a toxic mix of conspiracy theories and racism.

No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldnt have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol, Mr. Biden said.

His administration, he promised, would meet the moment as a policy challenge. More than anything, we need to restore the honor, the integrity and the independence of the Department of Justice in this nation, he said.

But the mob tested more than policy or ideology. The intentions of the presidents supporters struck at an idea at the core of the American experiment that, in time, the countrys commitment to democracy will overtake its history of intolerance.

Mr. Biden has made clear he believes that the Republican Party, from its base to its top elected officials, will break from the hard-line posture of Mr. Trump and work with Democrats and his cabinet. He has selected experienced cabinet leaders with that mission in mind, intended to restore faith in American institutions through familiar faces and ideological moderation.

In emergency remarks from Delaware on Wednesday, the day of the unrest, Mr. Biden repeated his familiar refrain: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are.

Some civil rights leaders said they took away the opposite message, that it was time to recognize the scope of the challenges facing the country, not dismiss them as fringe. It was a message intended for Mr. Biden, both political parties, and the most powerful corporations in the country.

Capitol Riot Fallout

Jan. 13, 2021, 3:01 p.m. ET

Representative Maxine Waters of California, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the images should be a jarring reminder of the countrys bloody struggle against injustice.

That Confederate flag conjured up, for me, the many Black people who have died as a result of racism, she said in a phone interview.

In some ways, the week brings the political era defined by Mr. Trump back to where it began. Years before he announced his presidential run at Trump Tower in New York, he led the spread of birtherism, a potent mix of conspiracy theory and racism that sought to delegitimize President Barack Obama.

His 2016 presidential run was full of similar misinformation and prejudice. He refused to denounce the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; insinuated that a Mexican-American judge could not fairly adjudicate; and allowed a questioner in New Hampshire to say, unchallenged, that Mr. Obama was a Muslim who was not even an American.

During his time in office, Mr. Trumps supporters have taken his actions as tacit approval and begun to organize online, outside the gaze of mainstream news outlets and with the encouragement of some Republican officials.

Death of a Nation, a documentary made by the conservative provocateur Dinesh DSouza, compared the Democratic Party to Nazi Germany and urged the audience to resist by all means necessary. It had a star-studded red carpet reception in Washington with appearances from Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son, and Housing Secretary Ben Carson. Republican House members held watch parties as campaign fund-raisers, as did some local Republican Party groups.

In Arizona, a battleground state where Republicans rely on turnout among white rural conservatives to overpower Democratic votes in urban centers, the state party chair, Kelli Ward, and Representative Paul Gosar have appeared at events like a Patriotism Over Socialism rally and a gathering called Trumpstock, which paired public figures associated with the president and speakers that included open white nationalists who threatened violence if Mr. Trump lost re-election. At Trumpstock, supporters of the president spoke casually and openly about violence and insisted that they were not white supremacists, despite their racist language. They were patriots.

Mr. Trump and his allies have not condemned such sentiments, but praised them. When he spoke to the marchers this week in Washington, many of whom had traveled to the capital after attending similar local events, the president framed their actions in the same apocalyptic terms used in Mr. DSouzas movie the country was at a crossroads and in need of saving.

Youll never take back our country with weakness, Mr. Trump said to the crowd. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

With Mr. Trump on his way out, however, the Republican Party has a choice. Its congressional ranks include some more moderate figures who have denounced the president and his message, but also firebrands who have become the favorites of the partys base.

Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and a vocal critic of Mr. Trump, was harassed on a plane this week by people who were flying to attend Wednesdays rally. Figures like Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama have doubled down claiming without evidence that left-wing groups like antifa infiltrated the crowds in Washington to sow discord.

Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil rights group Color of Change, said Mr. Biden must be emboldened by the presidential results in November and, perhaps, by disgust at the events in Washington. He said the incoming Democratic administration should make racial justice a governing priority, not just an idea to pay lip service to on the trail.

In 2020, for the first time ever, racial justice became a majoritarian issue at the polls, Mr. Robinson said. Now we have to do the work to make sure that what is a majority issue actually becomes a governing majority. Because that is how you make a democracy function when the will of the people are actually delivered on.

He added: We dont get racial justice out of a true democracy. We get a true democracy out of racial justice.

That admission strikes at the countrys long-held racial myths, and requires an acknowledgment that full American democracy is not centuries old and static, but fragile and relatively new.

The road to the Civil Rights Act was paved with Black death, like the killings of the 13-year-old Virgil Lamar Ware and the 14-year-old Emmett Till. And for every Raphael Warnock, who will become the first Black Georgian to serve in the Senate, there are descendants of Black sharecroppers who are still mired in poverty, stuck in the generational cycle of inequality that stretches from the political to social and economic.

Ms. Waters, the congresswoman, was a teacher in Watts, Calif., in the 1960s. She played a pivotal role in restoring order in Los Angeles after the rebellion in 1991, after city police officers beat Rodney King.

Still, she said, seeing the symbols of hate on display on Wednesday made her fear for her life. And if some are surprised that so few of the people who forced their way into the Capitol were arrested or shot, they shouldnt be. The mob was white.

When I looked out on that crowd, I didnt see any Black people all I saw was determined and angry white faces, Ms. Waters said. The white people of this country are going to have to take responsibility, and theyre the ones that are going to have to help change the thinking.

Excerpt from:

America in 2021: Racial Progress in the South, a White Mob in the Capitol - The New York Times

It started with the border wall and ended at the border wall.

After announcing his candidacy for president in 2015 by campaigning for stronger borders and a restrictive immigration policy, President Donald J. Trump made his second and last presidential visit to the Rio Grande Valley Tuesday.

The President held a press conference in Alamo to mark the 45th mile of new border wall that was constructed under his administration. The President previously visited the Valley in 2019 and his latest trip occurred with over a week to go before the inauguration of a new president.

News of his visit drew criticism from officials and local organizations, along with support from Trumps growing fan base in the Valley.

The Visit

The President made his first public appearance since a riot broke out in the U.S. Capital last week that killed five people as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Bidens electoral victory.

Trump has been accused of inciting the attack by holding a rally prior to the riot where he expressed support for those protesting the certification of the votes. Though Trump refused to take responsibility for the attack, he condemned those who participated in it.

Millions of our citizens watched as a mob stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government, the President said Tuesday. As I have consistently said throughout my administration, we believe in respecting Americas history and traditions, not tearing them down. We believe in the rule of law, not in violence or rioting.

Due to his alleged involvement in inciting these attacks, as well as spending months spouting unfounded claims of voter fraud, Democrats are seeking to impeach the president. Trump called the proposed impeachment an assault on free speech.

The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration, the President said. The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country, and it is causing tremendous anger and division and pain far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.

During his nearly 21-minute long speech, Trump focused on immigration issues and touted the construction of the border wall which he campaigned for.

Looking at our wall, we reformed our immigration system and achieved the most secure southern border in U.S. history. It is at a level that its never been before, Trump said. It wasnt easy getting it built. Getting it financed was tough. Getting it built was even tougher. All the different chains of title and all the different things we had to go through very, very complex and very difficult, but we got it done.

As part of his campaign, Trump promised the construction of up to 1,000 miles of new border wall throughout his administration that Mexico would pay for. Tuesdays visit marked the completion of about 450 miles of border wall funded by the U.S. Government. According to a report from NBC News only 47 of the 450 miles represent brand new border wall structures along the 2,000-mile-long border area.

I kept my promises, Trump said, adding that an additional 300 miles of border wall will be added. And today we celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the completion of the promised 450 miles of border wall. Four hundred and fifty miles. Nobody realizes how big that is.

*For the extended story featuring local reactions to Trumps visit, pick up Fridays edition of the Progress Times wherever our newsstands are available.*

Original post:

Trump's marks final presidential visit to the RGV - Progresstimes

Seema Verma is administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

This article was coauthored with Alexandra Mugge, deputy chief health informatics officer at CMS, and Shannon Sartin, chief technology officer at the Centers for Medicare andMedicaid Innovation.

In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the White House Office of American Innovation, publicly announced our commitment to ensuring that patients would have access to their healthcare data wherever and whenever they need it, and we commenced on a journey to break down the barriers that keep critical patient health information locked in digital silos.

For decades, the path to healthcare interoperability has been a relay spanning multiple administrations, one in which each administration has passed the baton to the next, moving the healthcare industry closer to the goal, but always falling short of seamless interoperability of health data.

At the finish line lies a more coordinated, seamless system of care in which patients have electronic access to their health information andproviders are offering competitive quality and patient care, providing more evidence-based care with less duplication of testing and errors. We have taken the race further by revising old policies to better achieve their intended goals, finalizing new policies to engage all stakeholders across the healthcare industry and laying a foundation for the future of interoperability.

Over the past three years, and as part of the support under the 21st Century Cures Act, our accomplishments have been numerous. Underpinning many of our accomplishments is the use of application programming interfaces that allow electronic data to flow securely and seamlessly between information systems, and, specifically, the use of the API standard for interoperability known as HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, or FHIR. This standard enables more efficient collaboration and a modern approach for sharing of information between the different electronic health systems essential for interoperability.

At CMS, we have promoted the use of APIs, both inside CMS and in the broader healthcare industry, to enable the secure exchange of data. Some of our externally facing APIs include:

We have also refined our programs to better support interoperability and data access. In 2018, CMS overhauled the Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs (formerly known as meaningful use) to prioritize interoperability and patient access.

Through these programs, hospitals and clinicians may receive reduced Medicare payments if they do not give patients electronic access to their data. In this way, we took a struggling program that was focused on EHR adoptionand transformed it into a driver for data exchange among providers to give patients access to their healthcare data.

In addition, we have used our regulatory levers to engage our stakeholders in data sharing. In September 2019, CMS released the Discharge Planning Final Rule, which mandates that hospitals ensure each patients right to access their medical records in an electronic format, as well as requiring the seamless exchange of patient information between healthcare settings, and ensuring that a patients healthcare information follows them after discharge from a hospital or post-acute care provider. It requires the discharge planning process to focus on a patients goals and treatment preferences.

In May 2020, CMS finalized our first rule dedicated to interoperability with the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule. Based on Medicares Blue Button initiative that provided claims data to patients, the final rule focused on driving interoperability and patient access to health information by liberating claims and clinical data for 85 million patients.

Through our policies, CMS promotes an HHS-wide move to FHIR APIs to support interoperability across the health ecosystem. This rule also establishes a Condition of Participation, requiring hospitals receiving reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid to provide patient event notifications at hospital admission, dischargeand transfer.

These notifications inform patients doctors and providers that they have been in the hospital and provide relevant data pertaining to the visit, which facilitates more coordinated and seamless care. Of important note is that this notification requirement is only applicable to said hospitals with electronic health records systems or other electronic administrative systems that meet certain technical specifications.

At the same time, ONC finalized their 21st Century Cures Act final rule, which will support patient access to their electronic medical records directly from their providers through FHIR-standards-based APIs. Together, these rules addressed both technical and healthcare industry factors that cause barriers to the secure exchange of health information and limit the ability of patients to access essential health information.

By aligning FHIR-based requirements for payers and healthcare providers through the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule, and health IT developers, providers and health information networks through the ONC 21st Century Cures Act final rule, we are driving an interoperable health IT infrastructure across systemsand ensuring providers and patients have access to health data when and where it is needed.

Most recently, we released the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization proposed rule. This proposed rule would build on our efforts around FHIR APIs and would ensure that providers and payers have necessary patient data.It would require Medicaid and CHIP fee-for-service and managed care payers, as well as insurers offering individual market qualified health plans on the Federal Exchanges, to facilitate exchange of certain specified data across the healthcare ecosystem to patients, providers and to other payers.

In the Interoperability and Patient Access final rule published last May, we required that certain payers exchange information with one another at patients request. In this new proposed rule, we are proposing that this data exchange be done using a FHIRAPI when a patient changes from one payer to another, or has more than one payer.

Because the rule would require a FHIR-based API allowing different payers systems to communicate with each other, new plans would have access to a patients claims data almost as soon as they enroll, allowing them to understand their patients previous care and medical needs.

In addition, this rule would require payers to build APIs enabling the sending of patient claims, encounter dataand clinical data directly to providers EHRs, again allowing for providers to have their patients complete medical history.

As soon as a provider requests this information from a payer, they would have access to their patients complete medical claims data, including diagnoses, tests, medications, previous doctors' visitsand more. For providers that take full advantage, duplicative tests, unnecessary proceduresand hazardous interactions between medications could almost be a thing of the past.

In effect, the rule would add another layer of communication to our earlier final rule that required certain data to be available through APIs, which would make possible for patients to directly access their data. If for whatever reason a patient did not have their data at a particular visit, their providers should be able to pull it up instead using the API.

Finally, the proposed rule would tackle one of the foremost challenges for providers, payers and patients alike: effective prior authorization. Prior authorization is an administrative process for providers to request confirmation from payers that the providers will be paid for a medical service, prescriptionor supply.

This process takes place before a service is rendered and is part of providers negotiated agreement to participate in a payers network. Prior authorization is an important tool to coordinate care and lower costs.

When poorly executed, however, it can drain significant time and resources from the very purpose of medicine caring for patients and can result in physician burnout. When done well, the process can ensure needed care for patients and help them avoid unnecessarily paying out of pocket.

The proposed rule again would build on our efforts to promote FHIR and APIs to require certain payers to build a new FHIR-based API that would allow providers to know in advance what documentation is needed for each different health insurance payer subject to the rule. We proposed that another API be built to allow providers to send prior authorization requests and receive responses electronically and within their existing workflow, eliminating the need for phone calls and faxes.

This would streamline the documentation process for the entire system and allow providers to send prior authorization requests and receive responses directly from their electronic systems.

As we look forward, we are confident that we have laid a solid foundation for interoperability on which future administrations can continue to build. We continue to look for ways to expand interoperability by examining policies that can both increase interoperability and reduce burden.

We have been committed to moving in a direction of digital quality measures and FHIR-enabled measure submission systems. CMS is currently working on regulations to adopt standards for healthcare attachments and electronic signatures that can be used in conjunction with healthcare attachments transactions.

The Center for Medicare andMedicaid Innovation is continuing to drive forward the use of standard data collection in our models and providing bulk data throughFHIR APIs to our model participants. Interoperability and standardized data-sharing are essential for the future of value-based care, and we will leave no stone unturned in seeking to deliver it to our healthcare system.

Seamless interoperability of health information comes when standardized data sharing occurs with every system, device, organization and person having instantaneous access to the data they need, when they need it. This future includes requiring interoperability of all medical devices, ensuring that part of the approval process means manufacturers and technology companies have identified how they will ensure devices are connected to patients and providers.

In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for data to move seamlessly is critical for public health surveillance, both now and in the future. A truly interoperable system will allow us to rapidly detect emerging infectious diseases and make it easier for providers to share public health data.

Technology is ever evolving, and our work will constantly evolve, but our efforts have laid a foundation for future policy that will enable the secure and interoperable exchange of healthcare information, drive value-based care in America, and give patients and doctors the information they need.

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How CMS has made progress on healthcare interoperability - Healthcare IT News

Governors Early Literacy Foundation and TDOE Partnership reflects the Largest Statewide Rollout of Ready4K in U.S.

The Governors Early Literacy Foundation (GELF), in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE), announced a statewide rollout of Ready4K, a research-based text messaging program to help parents support their students in learning at home. This marks the largest statewide rollout of the Ready4K program to date and this resource is being made available for free to Tennessee school districts by GELF and TDOE.

Through theReady4Kprogram,140,000familieswithpre-Kthrough 3rdgradestudentsacross Tennessee will receive threeweeklytext messageswith facts,easy tips, and activitieson how tohelpeachchild learn and growby building on existing family routines.Text messagesmatch each childs age, with simple, engaging facts and suggestions for building on existing daily routines, such as getting dressed, bath time, or preparing a meal.

In Tennessee,parents in86school districts,38of which havevoluntary pre-K programs participating,will begin receiving text messages today, January 11.For a full list of the school districtsand voluntary pre-Kprograms participating in Ready4K, visithttps://governorsfoundation.org/over-100000-families-across-tennessee-enrolled-in-ready4k-text-based-program/.

Our day-to-day activities outside of the classroom create rich learning experiences that are free and easy to do,said James Pond, president of GELF.Together with TDOE, we are highlighting those opportunities in fun, accessible ways for parents and caregivers to incorporate into their daily routines, from getting dressed, to preparing a meal. Just as we deliver books directly to homes, delivering Ready4K texts directly to phones makes it as easy as possible for families toimplement learning opportunities thatcan positively impact a childs life.

Ready4K is a part of the Tennessee Department of Educationsnew $100 million literacy initiative,Reading 360, which will provide optional reading resources and supports for districts, teachers, and families to help students read on grade level by third grade.

While research shows reading proficiently by third grade is a critical milestone for students, only about one-third of Tennessees third graders were reading on grade level before COVID-19.In additionsupporting teachers to help students learn to readin the classroom, supporting families to help teach children strong reading skills at home willhelpensureTennessee addressesitsliteracychallengefrom all sides.

In Tennessee, our goal is toensureallstudentscandevelopintostrong readers,said Dr. Penny Schwinn, Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner.As a parent, I know this past year has been a stressful time,juggling workandhome lifewhile trying to ensureour children continue learning.We are proud to partner with the Governors Early Literacy Foundation to launch Ready4K in Tennessee andprovidethisfree, easy resourcetohelpfamiliessupportstrong learningathome.

The Ready4K text messages are aligned to Tennessees academic standards and focus on key areas like language and literacy, math and science, social and emotional learning, physical development, and health and safety. The Ready4K text messages intend to spark family conversations in English and Spanish and expand learning at home.

Tennessee is taking a leadership role in providing families with accessible, evidence-based family engagementtext messagesto help foster child development and bridge the gap between home and school during a time of unprecedented challenges,said Ben York, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Ready4K.With more than 15 million children in the U.S. living without adequate internet access or devices, the use of texting addresses the countrys digital divide and enables even the hardest-to-reach parents to access high-quality information and resources for their children.

Ready4K has the strongest evidence base in the field and the program is continuously being evaluated and improved through ongoing partnerships at Stanford, Brown and Notre Dame universities. The Ready4K approach has been shown to increase family engagement at home and school and increase child learning by 2-3 months over the course of a school year.

The widespread use of text messaging combined with its ease of use and short-message format is allowing school districts, educators and administrators to implement highly effective programs for the families they serve.In fact, nationally, research shows:

If any Tennessee public school district is interested, there willbefuture opportunities for districts to participate and can email Ready4K@governorsfoundation.org for additional information.

Governors Early Literacy Foundation serves as a thought leader,advisorand catalyst to strengthen early literacy in Tennessee by sustaining early literacy programs for children statewide. The Ready4K roll-out is a part of GELFs broader Caregiver Engagement program to provide resources for caregivers to help children develop early literacy skills through reading and learning together. In addition to the Caregiver Engagement program, GELF also partners to provide a K-3 Book Delivery program in collaboration with Scholastic and a Birth-5 Book Delivery program through Dolly Partons Imagination Library as well as Storybook Trails and Book Buses that deliver books and resources to children and families.

About Governors Early Literacy Foundation (GELF)

The mission of Governors Early Literacy Foundation (GELF) is to strengthen early literacy in Tennessee by acting as a thought leader,advisorand catalyst to support and sustain earlyliteracy programs for children statewide. These programs include Birth-5 Book Delivery throughDollyPartons Imagination Library, Storybook Trails, Book Buses, K-3rdGrade Book Delivery and Caregiver Engagement. GELF was founded in 2004 by former Gov. Phil Bredesen as a public-private partnership to sustain Dolly Partons Imagination Library in Tennessee, giving all birth to age five children the opportunity to receive books in the mail at no cost to families. GELF has grown from solely a book-gifting program to an early literacy organization driven by a vision where all Tennessee children have access to the resources, guidance and support they need to become lifelong learners. For more information, visit http://www.GovernorsFoundation.org or http://www.facebook.com/GovEarlyLiteracyTN, orcall toll-free at (877) 99-BOOKS.

About Ready4K

ParentPoweredis a public benefit corporation that was established to pursue social impact by creating easy-to-use tools for great parenting to improve the lives of all children, regardless of means. In addition to the core Ready4K program, an evidence-based family engagement curriculum delivered via text messages geared toward children from birth through fourth grade, the company also offers Ready4K Trauma-Informed and Ready4K Personalized Learning.ParentPoweredserves parents through partnerships with school districts, Head Starts and community, county, regional, state and national educational organizations, working to ensure equitable learning access to parents regardless of their economic situation. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California More information is available atwww.ParentPowered.comand on social media: IG: @Ready_4K, Twitter: @Ready4K, FB: @Ready4K.

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History of Hartwood AcresHartwood Acres in Hampton and Indiana townships is the former country estate of John and Mary Flinn Lawrence. Built in 1929, it features an English Tudor mansion, equestrian facilities, formal garden and bridle trails nestled in 629 acres of rolling hills. Allegheny County bought the site from Mary Flinn Lawrence in 1969. Today, the Hartwood mansion is a popular wedding destination. Its grounds, including an amphitheater, host concerts and other events.

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About $2.4 million in renovations will convert the former Hartwood Acres stables into a wedding and special events center.

The upgrade includes a new $1.4 million slate roof and nearly $1 million in other renovations that will convert what was an equestrian complex built in 1927 for Mary Flinn Lawrence into the special events venue.

One of nine county parks, Hartwood Acres straddles Hampton and Indiana townships. It was ripe for the investment because there hasnt been that much work done at the park, which features the Hartwood mansion, a performance stage and mostly fields and trails.

It was Hartwoods turn, said Andy Baechle, director of Allegheny County Parks. County officials and others realize the value of these facilities, he said.

The stables roof had to be fixed. Leaks were becoming frequent and problematic.

Once a roof goes, its amazing how quickly a building can deteriorate, he said.

Hartwoods stables arent just one building but a series of buildings and rooms based on the old-style architecture of a Cotswolds village in England, which Mary Lawrence wanted to replicate, said Kevin Evanto, Allegheny County parks spokesman.

During Lawrences days there, in addition to the horses, cows were housed in stables. They used to travel the steep cobblestone driveway to reach the surrounding fields to graze, he said.

The Lawrences definitely loved their animals, he said.

The stables are imposing, with durable craftsmanship and well-preserved oak and ironwork. In adjoining rooms, preserved artifacts from the Lawrence family include antique equestrian gear, trunks, horse show ribbons and other family memorabilia.

Call it not the Cadillac but the Rolls-Royce of horse stables, said Tim Jaczesko, Hartwoods park manager.

The varnished oak of the horse stalls still maintains its luster decades after Mary Lawrence directed its daily polishing, according to the website Historic Pittsburgh.

Those impeccably maintained areas of the stables will not change.

Preserving the stables is fitting for the park and the legacy of Mary Lawrences love of horses, said Melissa Swedish, deputy director of Allegheny County Parks. The Hartwood grounds include an old horse cemetery and a number of the trails that were first laid out as horse trails.

The stables complex also houses the parks maintenance operations, two vacant apartments, a small greenhouse and a nearby rustic barn.

Completion of the new roof and other work is expected by June 11.

There are already 12 weddings booked this year for the stables, which hold up to 100 guests. It rents for $900 to $3,600 for Allegheny County residents.

The site renovation project includes outdoor facilities such as tents in the main courtyard branching off the stables, restacking some stone walls, resetting the cobblestone road, refurbishing the courtyards, and adding a drainage system to direct water from the site to a small pond.

Other projects on tap at Hartwood include a sculpture garden led by the Allegheny County Parks Foundation with help from the county departments of parks, public works and facilities management, Evanto said.

That work will preempt weddings at the mansion in 2021. However, the county is already booking weddings at the mansion and the stables for 2022.

Because of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, only one of the 43 weddings booked at the mansion was held, Evanto said.

Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary at 724-226-4691, mthomas@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories:Allegheny | Fox Chapel Herald | Hampton Journal | Local | Top Stories | Valley News Dispatch

History of Hartwood AcresHartwood Acres in Hampton and Indiana townships is the former country estate of John and Mary Flinn Lawrence. Built in 1929, it features an English Tudor mansion, equestrian facilities, formal garden and bridle trails nestled in 629 acres of rolling hills. Allegheny County bought the site from Mary Flinn Lawrence in 1969. Today, the Hartwood mansion is a popular wedding destination. Its grounds, including an amphitheater, host concerts and other events.

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Estimated $2.4 million renovation in progress at Hartwood Acres stables - TribLIVE

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The Mavericks will have to endure at least one game without superstar Luka Doni after he was ruled out of Sundays meeting with the Chicago Bulls.

Coach Rick Carlisle confirmed during his pregame media session that Doni would be out with a left quadricep contusion suffered in the Miami game on Friday.

It happened late in the second quarter, Carlisle said. Hell be listed day to day. So well see where he is (Monday).

The Mavericks have their first back-to-back set of games of the season when they visit Houston on Monday. They then have two days off before playing at Denver on Thursday.

Well see how he is tomorrow, Carlisle said. I dont think this is a long-term thing, but well just have to see how he feels when he gets up and see if tomorrows going to be a possibility or not.

The 6-7 Doni is averaging 24.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game.

Carlisle said that rookie two-way player Nate Hinton will be active for the first time in his career.

Porzingis getting closer: The news was considerably better in regard to Kristaps Porzingis, who continues his rehab from arthroscopic meniscus surgery in October.

Carlisle said that Porzingis had his longest full-court workout of the season on Saturday during an optional practice.

He played full-court for about 35 minutes with our young guys and some of our lower-minute guys, Carlisle said. He did well. Hes feeling the fatigue in his legs, as you can certainly understand. This is all part of the process of coming back from a minor surgery two-plus months ago.

One of the things working against the 7-3 Porzingis is that the Mavericks are not going to have a lot of practice time in the coming days.

In terms of the timetable . . . as we look at this week, theres no practice today or (Monday) obviously with two games. Tuesday will be an off day coming off the back-to-back. Wednesday will be a practice day and then we leave for Denver.

Theres nothing imminent with him playing in terms of a target date. But were a lot closer than we were.

Twitter: @ESefko

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