Category Archives: Progress

Curbside grocery pickups and home deliveries are growing in Beaver County. More and more, curbside grocery pickups, offered at local Giant Eagle and Walmart stores, are being welcomed as a time-savings measure by people on the go.

An increasing number of us are getting quicker at grocery shopping.

Now is a very interesting, dynamic time. Were seeing a little bit of everything, Giant Eagle spokeswoman Jonnah Jablonowski, a Beaver County native, said.

While the vast majority of grocery shoppers still prefer walking into a store, browsing then standing in line at the checkout, the Giant Eagle stores in Rochester and Hopewell Townships Green Garden Plaza are seeing a steady rise in curbside pickup orders.

The Hopewell store also offers home delivery.

More and more, curbside grocery pickup, also offered at local Walmart stores, is being welcomed as a time-savings measure by people on the go.

Giant Eagle began curbside pickup in 2012 at its Robinson Township Market District store.

We were kind of ahead of that curve, Jablonowski, who grew up in Economy, said. It took time to fine tune. We had a very steady roll-out as we saw customers get a little more comfortable with it. Now we have nearly 100 curbside markets, which is nearly half of our supermarkets.

For curbside pickup, customers scroll through a website on their computer, phone or tablet, and choose the products they wish to buy.

Free with a minimum $35 order, curbside orders must be placed three hours in advance of the desired pickup time.

You choose the time you want and a bar code online verifies you get the correct products, Green Garden Giant Eagle manager George McGrady Jr. said.

Customers pre-select online if they will allow substitutions. Say you wanted a 26-ounce bottle of a gourmet pasta sauce but the store is out of it; you instead could settle for a smaller size bottle of the same sauce, or perhaps accept a bottle from a similar competitor if that was your choice.

Were pretty good at getting you the next most reasonable thing, McGrady said.

Once the grocery store processes an online order, an employee collects from shelves the ordered food and places it in separate containers for freezer and refrigerator items. When the customer arrives and parks in a designated spot outside the store, they notify the store by phone, and their order is wheeled out to them and placed inside their trunk, so they need not exit their car.

Curbside pickup appeals to that audience that feels they dont have enough time to invest to step into the store, Jablonowski said. Its often families with young kids who dont want to have to pull them out of the car.

Curbside pickup also cuts down on impulse buying, like when a child sees something in the store and demands mom or dad buy it.

The Hopewell Giant Eagle began curbside pickup in August 2018; Rochester Giant Eagle began curbside pickup in October 2019.

Starting last year, the Hopewell store also began home delivery to two zip codes, 15001 (Aliquippa) and 15061 (Center Township) with a fee of $5.95 for next-day delivery, while orders placed for same-day delivery cost $9.95.

For home deliveries, Giant Eagle uses a company called Shipt, which is sort of like an Uber, transporting grocery orders to a persons home.

Robert Morris University student Marcus Joyce drives for Shipt and does home delivery from the Green Garden Giant Eagle.

Its a good thing. You get to help people out, Joyce said. Like the one lady I just delivered to had surgery so she cant get her own groceries. So its a nice way to help people out and earn extra money.

As customer demand increases, curbside and home delivery could be added to other Beaver Valley Giant Eagles.

We take a very strategic approach, Jablonowski said.

Always trying to stay on top of trends, area Giant Eagles also are slowly rolling out Scan, Pay & Go, an expedited self-checkout system for shoppers who still want to enter a brick-and-mortar store.

With Scan, Pay & Go, theres a big kiosk where customers can borrow a hand-held scanner they take with them through the store to chalk up the items they buy. You scan the products and bag them as you go.

So you move through the store more quickly, Jablonowski said. Instead of picking all your items and then going to self-checkout youre kind of doing that as you go. It eliminates scanning at a register. Weve seen customers excited about this. So were looking at ways to roll it out.

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Progress 2020: Grocery shopping now on-the-go (or home delivered) - The Times

JACKSON, MI Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies is expected to tout the city's 2019 successes and lay out plans for new task forces and committees at Wednesday night's State of the City address.

The event begins at 6 p.m. Feb. 26, in the Michigan Theatre of Jackson, 124 N. Mechanic St. Attendance is free.

Projects like the $1.9-million renovation of the King Center which is ready to begin and the construction of a $13-million apartment complex downtown will be among the 2019 highlights Dobies will mention, he said.

King Center to close through summer for $1.9M renovation

He also plans to announce new task forces, commissions and committees including a pair of "corridor improvement authorities," Dobies said. These groups are meant to inspire improvements along a pair of corridors to downtown, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and East Michigan Avenue, he said.

The success of the city is contingent on ordinary citizens also stepping up and leaning into that progress, Dobies said. Weve seen what can be done with the Bright Walls project, when people took ownership on making their city a better place.

Ken Toll, United Way of Jackson County president/CEO, is the guest speaker. Hell address his organizations initiatives to battle poverty in Jackson and how people can get involved.

Follow along with a live stream of Dobies speech on the Jackson Citizen Patriot Facebook page or for updates via the Twitter hashtag #JacksonSOTC.

Related Jackson news:

Bright Walls announces plans for third and final Jackson mural festival

Jackson should cut poverty level in half, mayor says in State of the City address

Love him or loath him, the feather-ruffling Patrick Burtch changed Jackson

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State of the City address to focus on expanding progress to Jacksons corridors - MLive.com

Company Recognized for Inclusive Employee Culture and Commitment to Improving Lives, Communities and the Environment

RADNOR, Pa.(BUSINESS WIRE)Today, Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) celebrates recent accolades in corporate responsibility, highlighting the companys significant efforts to improve the lives of its customers, employees and communities, and setting the stage for the next decade of continued focus and momentum in these critical areas.

In todays tight job market, a companys commitment to doing the right thing for its communities, its employees and the environment can make a difference when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent. According to a new survey, 40% of employed US adults say they would turn down their dream job if they werent sure of an employers commitment to doing the right thing, and 53% say they would turn down the opportunity to leave their current employer for a higher-paying job if the new company was less socially responsible1.

Lincoln is dedicated to building vital communities through philanthropy, creating a diverse and inclusive culture that develops and empowers its employees, protecting the environment through sustainable business practices, and operating with transparency and responsibility.

In all that we do at Lincoln, we are focused on a common purpose: to provide financial peace of mind to everyday consumers across the United States. This shared mission infuses each of our actions with meaning in both our business practices and community outreach programs, said Dennis R. Glass, president and CEO of Lincoln Financial Group. The more diversity of thought, experience and people we have, the better our decisions will be. More support for the communities in which we live and work translates to higher employee engagement. Not only is being a responsible company the right thing to do it also makes us stronger and helps us best serve our customers.

Recent industry accolades recognizing Lincolns commitment include:

With the help of its 12,000 employees, Lincoln has expanded existing programs while launching several new initiatives to help improve lives, communities and the environment, including:

Read more about Lincoln Financials strategy, actions and achievements in the areas of corporate philanthropy, environmental sustainability and responsible business practices in the 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility report, Making it count: Real people, real stories.

About Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower people to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as to guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $275 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2019. Lincoln Financial Group is a committed corporate citizen included on major sustainability indices including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and FTSE4Good. Dedicated to diversity and inclusion, Lincoln earned perfect 100 percent scores on the Corporate Equality Index and the Disability Equality Index. Lincoln has also been recognized in Newsweeks Most Responsible Companies and is among Forbes Worlds Best Employers, Best Large Employers, Best Employers for Diversity, Best Employers for Women and ranked on the JUST 100 list. Learn more at: http://www.LincolnFinancial.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Sign up for email alerts at http://newsroom.lfg.com.

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A Decade of Progress: Multiple Perspectives, Diverse Backgrounds and Community Giving Propel Lincoln Into 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Every time I did something, it felt like someone was stabbing me with a knife in my back putting my shoes on, putting my socks on, said Verdugo. Now, I dont have any pain, nothing like that. I maybe have some soreness.

Verdugo and the Sox are trying to measure the pace of his buildup in activity, wanting to take a conservative approach to avoid a setback. Still, he characterized himself as close, very close to swinging.

We dont have a set date, but its soon, he said.

While Verdugo is still weeks away from being ready to play in games, interim manager Ron Roenicke hasnt given up on the idea that the outfielder might be ready to play in spring training games.

I would say that we start getting into the middle of March and on that hes got a chance to play some games, said Roenicke. I think he does [have a chance] depending on how fast he comes along with his swinging. Hes doing really well. We just havent asked him to swing a bat yet.

Major League Baseballs investigation into the 2018 Red Sox will not be finished this week after all. An industry source told the Globe on Tuesday that the findings will not be announced until next week at the earliest.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said Feb. 16 that his goal was to wrap up the inquiry by the end of this week. But unexpected delays related to scheduling have pushed that back.

The probe started six weeks ago after anonymous sources told The Athletic the Red Sox used live video to steal signs then relayed the information to runners at second base.

Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers, Ian Kinsler, and J.D. Martinez are among the current and former Sox players who have denied that.

Red Sox principal owner John Henry, who also owns the Globe, and team president Sam Kennedy also said the teams 2018 championship was won fairly.

Sox manager Ron Roenicke said earlier Tuesday that the team was eager to have the investigation finished.

Tony Clark and members of the MLB Players Association met for roughly 1 hour, 45 minutes on Tuesday morning with Red Sox players and coaches. The conversation was split largely between potential sign-stealing regulations and matters related to the collective bargaining agreement.

After the conclusion, however, Clark couldnt help but notice a glaring absence from the meeting. Two weeks removed from the trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Dodgers, the MLBPA remained puzzled by the transaction.

Boston made whatever decision they made for whatever reason they made it. I think that a face of our game, someone that should be more a face of our game, being put in that position, I dont think it was necessary, said Clark. I know theyve offered some commentary publicly, but youd have to ask Boston as to why thats the case. We simply believe that Mookie is a generational talent. And the idea that he is no longer here is one that we just didnt believe was necessary.

The Sox have stated that their trade of Betts was driven by baseball reasons. Nonetheless, the teams stated desire to get its payroll below the $208 million luxury-tax threshold in the coming season and thus resetting the penalties associated with future overages is consistent with what Clark sees as teams using the threshold as an excuse to cap payroll.

We think there are a number of aspects in our CBA that need to be addressed. If the competitive balance tax is being used in the fashion that its being used and the excuse that its being used for, then its something were going to look at, said Clark. The assumptions that we made [in negotiating the current CBA] were predicated on what it was that teams had been doing in the past.

What weve seen, though, is a dramatic change and shift in how those teams are functioning against the backdrop of how they may have functioned five or 10 years ago. As a result, were going to need to modernize the system to reflect the changes that were seeing.

A year ago, Ryan Weber was a nonroster invitee to camp, a virtual unknown simply hoping to position himself for a big league call-up during the season. But after making 18 big league appearances, including three starts, with the Sox last year going 2-4 with a 5.09 ERA in 40 innings Weber is now in a very different position.

The 29-year-old is competing for a potential rotation spot. In his first appearance in that quest, he threw a pair of scoreless innings against an Orioles split-squad unit on Tuesday, allowing two hits, walking none, and striking out a batter.

Just knowing that they have the confidence in me puts a lot of accountability on me, which I really like, said Weber. Im not just another depth piece to them, I think. It makes every pitch really, really matter at this point. Im trying to make the team and prove to them that ... I am a big league pitcher and I can go out and I can start games, I can pitch deep in the games or I can throw multiple innings out of the bullpen. I can do what they want me to do.

Lefthander Chris Sale is scheduled to have a bullpen session on Wednesday in which he throws, sits, then throws again, a controlled simulation of a multi-inning workload ... Eduardo Rodriguez (left knee) was fine after Mondays live batting practice session and will start in a Grapefruit League game on Saturday ... The Red Sox lineup against the Orioles featured J.D. Martinez in left field, Andrew Benintendi in center, and Jackie Bradley Jr. in right, an alignment Roenicke said the team might use during the season at Fenway ... Xander Bogaerts (ankle) took ground balls for a second straight day ... Rafael Devers could make his first appearance in a game as soon as Friday.

Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @alexspeier.

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Red Sox Alex Verdugo making progress in injury rehab - The Boston Globe

Health care, especially as it relates to its physical footprint, changed dramatically in Beaver County in the last century with hospital closings, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures.

In simpler times, your family doctor, black bag in hand, showed up at your doorstep to treat grippe, quinsy, dropsy, lumbago and consumption maladies better known today as flu, sore throat, edema, lower back pain and tuberculosis.

More than a century ago, if you were pregnant, your son broke his leg sliding into home plate, dad gashed his hand or grandpa got pneumonia, you hustled to a community hospital in Beaver County to birth a baby, set a fracture, stitch a wound or fight a lung infection.

If you lived in Rochester, you went to Rochester General Hospital. If you lived in Beaver Falls, you went to Providence Hospital. If you lived in New Brighton, you went to Beaver Valley General Hospital. And if you lived in Aliquippa in the late 1950s, you went to Aliquippa Hospital.

House calls made up 40 percent of doctors visits in the 1930s, according to Forbes. Today, they represent only 1 percent. And none of the aforementioned hospitals exists today.

One of our favorite phrases is health care is ever changing, ever challenging, said Norm Mitry, president and chief executive officer of Heritage Valley Health System, an integrated network that provides health care for residents in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and panhandle of West Virginia at three hospitals and numerous satellite facilities.

Economic volatility, legislative policy changes and continuous evolution of technology underscore those changes and challenges.

Health care, especially as it relates to its physical footprint, changed dramatically in Beaver County in the last century with hospital closings, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Hospitals in Rochester, New Brighton and Beaver Falls joined in 1980 to form The Medical Center of Beaver County that was built on farmland off Dutch Ridge Road in Brighton Township.

I can only imagine the articles in the paper and the community uprising, Mitry said, when those three communities agreed to give up their community hospitals to build this new medical center on a hill in a township that never had a hospital.

However, that visionary decision, Mitry said, was so far ahead of its time and started the hospital on a path of continued growth to support its mission of improving health and well being of people in communities it serves.

In the mid-90s, The Medical Center merged with Sewickley Valley Hospital which opened in 1907 to form Heritage Valley Health System. And last year, Ohio Valley Hospital in Kennedy Township, Allegheny County, affiliated with Heritage Valley Health System to become Heritage Valley Kennedy.

That partnership brought a very robust pain center and wound care center, Mitry said, along with an ambulance company and an assisted living, personal and memory care facility.

But maybe another phrase should be added: Everything old is new again, especially with the emergence of community based, convenient-care clinics and medical neighborhoods, and connected care via sophisticated digital tools that measure and monitor everything from blood pressure to blood glucose and relay results to physicians.

Todays health-care shift is community based health care thats available closer to home. Thats what drove Heritage Valley Health System to develop new strategies to meet patient needs.

People dont think about health care until they need it, Mitry said, and the last place they want to go is a hospital.

People want health care when and where they want it, he said fit into the routine of their busy days.

The vision wasnt to wait for people to come to the hospital, but take health care to the communities. And it came from four words, Mitry said: quality, cost, access and experience.

Seamless, convenient and accessible health care led Heritage Valley Health System to develop its retail medical strategy in 2009. Thats when the first convenient-care, walk-in clinic opened in Beaver with a goal of providing high-quality, accessible care for minor illness and injury flu shots, stitches, sprains, antibiotics, for example.

Clinics, which have been very successful, Mitry said, are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and require no appointments.

The Affordable Care Act helped shift health care to community based, too, prompting Heritage Valley Health System to develop medical neighborhoods that offer primary care, pediatrics, lab testing, physical rehabilitation, and diagnostic imaging including MRI and CT scans.

Previously, Mitry said support services like radiology, blood draw, and primary care sites were scattered, but medical neighborhoods bring them all together in one place with equivalent quality and less wait time than if one went to a hospital.

The first medical neighborhood opened in 2012 in Chippewa Township.

The eighth and largest at more than 60,000 square feet opened last March at Bluffs at Glade Path in Center Township behind Beaver Valley Mall. It also features an ambulatory surgery center and outpatient surgical services in orthopedics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, general surgery, gynecology, podiatry and urology.

We dont own any of the buildings, Mitry emphasized. We either lease them or somebody builds them for us and we lease. We spend zero capital on brick and mortar for this. Thats important for people to know.

The beauty of medical neighborhoods is efficiency.

If a physician puts a stethoscope to your chest and doesnt like what he hears, hell direct you across the hall for an X-ray. Since all radiology readings are online, he can see results immediately and order whatever further treatment is necessary.

Before, a doctor would write a prescription for blood work and chest X-ray for which you would have to schedule an appointment.

Women are really good at that, Mitry said, while men tend to delay or ignore it.

At a medical neighborhood, everything can be done efficiently and effectively.

That really helped to drive our mission, he said, making sure patients receive services they need to take better care of themselves.

And they are using those services.

Mitry referenced a site that opened Dec. 4, 2018, in Aliquippa as an example.

From the day it opened through today, every day of the week it sees double-digit patients. Heres a city starved for health care. It has had double-digit activity from the very first day, which blew us away, he said.

Patients like the medical facilities because its convenient, its high quality, its cost effective, he said.

If one isnt feeling well and visits an emergency room, likely hed face a co-payment of $100 to $150. But co-pay at a convenient care might be $30.

Still, emergency room visits havent gone down, which surprises Mitry.

The Beaver campus sees 60,000 patients a year, he said. The Sewickley campus sees anywhere from 35,000 to 40,000 annually. And the Kennedy campus sees approximately 25,000.

At the end of last year, convenient-care sites treated 70,000 people.

Its an incredible number, he said. The good news is people are going for health care they probably need, but emergency rooms are just as busy as theyve always been.

Over time, care has shifted 35 percent inpatient; 65 percent outpatient, he said.

Medical neighborhoods helped Heritage Valley Health System to not only survive into the future, but help us thrive. Had we not done that, had our board not had that vision, Im not sure the shape wed be in today. Somebody else would be doing it.

Electronic health records keep physicians and neighborhoods connected.

For instance, if one visits the medical neighborhood in Aliquippa today, his primary care physician in Beaver knows hes been there. Whatever treatment was dispensed is logged into his electronic care chart. Likewise, treatment providers at the Aliquippa medical neighborhood can access that electronic record and see health history back to 1996 when Heritage Valley Health System started saving data electronically.

Similarly, if a patients physician retires or relocates requiring the patient to find a new doctor, that doctor can review that electronic history to better know a patient.

Thats pretty incredible, Mitry said.

Todays technology things like apps and interactive portals keeps patients even more connected to care.

The Heritage Valley Health System App enables patients to identify physicians, locate services and in real time see patient volume at emergency departments, diagnostic centers and satellite sites.

Health Link a free, secure and interactive portal enables patients to view lab and test results, health records, request prescription renewals, schedule appointments online, and manage health.

More than 250,000 people have used the mobile app the past two years and this year its on path toward 350,000. Quarterly, about 30,000 people use the patient health portal.

Doctors are really encouraging people to get on and look up their numbers and take ownership of their health, said Suzanne Sakson, director of marketing and communications. We do have that buy in from physicians and I think that has helped tremendously.

Heritage Valley Health System also offers community health and disease-management programs smoking cessation, pre-diabetes and diabetes education, and pregnancy classes, for example to improve patients qualify of life and reduce use of medical resources.

And offers interactive community events like the upcoming Whats On Your Plate, a healthy food and wellness expo from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 21 at Community College of Beaver County in Center Township.

It features exhibitors, speakers, fitness and cooking demonstrations, free health screenings, and free food and product samples.

More than 2,000 people many who queue at the door before the expo opens attend, Mitry said.

Over the years, joint ventures with 12 complementary health care organizations enabled Heritage Valley Health System to expand its services range.

One of the more recent is a partnership with Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Sewickley.

Its a huge plus for this service area to have a specialized rehabilitation hospital in the Heritage Valley service area, but the average person has no clue that were related to that, Mitry said. But thats OK.

Other ventures include those with Concordia Visiting Nurses, Good Samaritan Hospice, and LIFE Beaver County.

Whats in the future?

Mitry, understandably, cant reveal his cards.

Ive got to be careful what I say because health care is incredibly competitive, he said.

Other health providers have already encroached on Heritage Valley Health Systems territory.

MedExpress has urgent care centers in Center, Chippewa and Moon townships.

Last spring, Allegheny Health Network opened a $20 million cancer center on Wagner Road Extension behind Beaver Valley Mall in Center Township the same street as Heritage Valley Health Systems newest medical neighborhood.

A group of physicians from the North Hills is building an independent surgery center in Center Township and Weirton Medical Center in West Virginia is encroaching on us, Mitry said.

But Heritage Valley Health System is blessed, he said, to be payer and provider neutral, which means it takes all insurers.

As long as we can stay what we refer to as Switzerland, our future is much better off than not, he said.

And he complimented Heritage Valley Health Systems board and senior management team for its vision and support in decisions affecting 2020 and beyond.

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Progress 2020: Today's health care returns to its community-based roots - The Times

Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times

Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times

Jessica Hemmingway, left, gets her heart checked by peers Sam Keegan, center, and Tammy Tanner during a classroom exercise in December 2017.

In this era of deep partisan divides, policy change can be difficult. This is all too clear at the federal level and was, for many years, in Maine as well. But over the past five months Ive had the refreshing opportunity to see both bipartisanship and policy progress as a member of the Commission to Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues. The commission, which met five times this past fall, submitted its report to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services on Feb. 4.

The recommended changes are not as dramatic or wide sweeping as those proposed by 2018s Homecare For All referendum, which I supported, but rather incremental. Nonetheless, they could be profoundly important to Maines direct care workers, the providers who employ them, and the adults with disabilities who rely on their services.

Commissions to study issues hardly represent radical change. One pictures reports gathering dusk on shelves, often with little impact from their work. And indeed, this is not the first time this issue has been studied in Maine: a previous commission, convened 10 years ago, produced the 2010 Direct Care Worker Report, referred to with frustration by Helen Roy in a recent letter to the editor. Some members of this years commission had also served on the earlier one and were emphatic that if we wanted follow through, oversight was essential. I admit to harboring some skepticism myself regarding how much impact a commission might have, but from the first meeting in September through the delivery of the report to the committee five months later, I was continually impressed by the level of commitment by all involved.

The commission, chaired by Sen. Erin Herbig and Rep. Jessica Fay, included legislators from both parties, a direct care worker, representatives from provider organizations and the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, and advocates for consumers and workers. At each meeting, experts were invited to inform us both of the current dire situation as well as potential interventions that had been tried elsewhere in the country. We also heard from the public, many of whom came to every meeting.

We learned of the ever-increasing demand for direct care worker services and the difficulty in meeting that demand, resulting in many people going without the assistance they need. We learned how both residential and community-based provider agencies are being squeezed by low reimbursement rates and ever-increasing costs. We learned of the challenges faced by direct care workers, including low pay, inconsistent hours, lack of paid time off, and feeling they and their work are not valued by society or medical teams. We learned how essential direct care workers are to consumers who use their services, and the consequences for them and their family members when those services are not available.

The discussions were interesting, respectful and informative and systematically moved us toward our goal of laying out recommendations in a report. The report included 29 recommendations and suggested legislation incorporating three of the most immediate ones: increasing wages for direct care workers to no less than 125 percent of the minimum wage, adjusting reimbursement rates for provider organizations sufficient to meet their costs, and creating an oversight advisory committee.

When the report was presented to the Health and Human Services Committee earlier this month, I was again impressed by the thoughtful questions posed by legislators who ultimately unanimously accepted the proposed legislation, LD 2109. But the journey is not over. The bill will have a public hearing on Wednesday. There will be a work session, where bills are frequently revised, and then votes by the committee and both chambers of the Legislature.

I remain guardedly hopeful that this long-awaited, much needed policy change may indeed occur. This may not represent revolutionary change, but it is essential for sustaining and growing our long-term services and supports system, on which any of us could depend at some point in our lives. LD 2109 deserves our support.

Sandra Butler is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Maine in Orono. Her views are her own and do not represent those of any group with which she is affiliated. She is a member of the Maine chapter of the national Scholars Strategy Network, which brings together scholars across the country to address public challenges and their policy implications. Members columns appear in the BDN every other week.

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Maine making incremental progress on long-term care - Bangor Daily News

Destiny 2

9,777,777,700 fractiline is a whole lot of fractiline. Thats how much of the Season of Dawns special currency we need to finish Destiny 2s massive community goal for the end of this season, and were moving quickly towards completion. The last goal, 6,000,000,000 fractiline, fell last week. But weve been moving much more quickly since long-term fractiline investors have begun dumping their considerable stock, and were going to get a massive infusion at reset, as we do every week. It wont be long now.

A little simple math I did just now: if it takes 3 seconds to donate 100 fractiline, we will need to spend a grand total of 3,395 days clicking that little button to donate enough fractiline to fill this goal. Thats just the time spent clicking, mind you, not the time spent acquiring more fractiline, clicking on the associated bounties, clearing out the postmaster, haggling with Spider for more glimmer: etc. The Destiny series has always had good menus, at the end of the day, but that doesnt mean Im all that excited to spend as much time in them as I have been during this event.

At the time of this writing, weve donated just over 8,000,000,000 fractiline, and you can follow along here. It might seem like we have a very long way to go, but as you can see from the tracker we get massive infusions every week at reset, when the obelisks produce their sizable bounty of glowing tetrahedrons. We got nearly 1 billion last Tuesday alone, and if these trends continue, well be finished on Wednesday or so: possibly sooner if some people decide to really put in the clicking work.

Community events are always fun ways to make a game feel alive, to see every other immortal space wizard huddled around the same little obelisk terminal as you are, even if theyre just there to cash in Perfect Paradoxes for shards. Next time we do this Id like to see some sort of combat component too, but well see what Bungie gets up to in the Season of the Worthy(if thats what its called).

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Destiny 2 Empyrean Foundation Fractiline Progress: Were Almost Done With This Thing - Forbes

Justice? Not as far Argentinas new government is concerned. Buenos Aires is eager to walk back any progress made in investigations into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires the worst terror act in the countrys history or the suspicious death of the man who was set to break the case open.

Previous probes yielded ample evidence that Iran was behind the attack on the Asociacin Mutual Israelita Argentina, which killed 85 people, as well as an earlier terrorist act, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, when 29 civilians perished. The new Argentinian government would rather ignore it all.

And no wonder. Since December, Kristina Kirchner is Argentinas vice president, a demotion for the woman who was president between 2007 and 2015. At that time, after the Interpol already issued red notices for the arrests of Iranian officials and Hezbollah operatives, Mrs. Kirchner was set to form a joint investigative commission with Tehran.

Before he died, Kirchners foreign minister, Hector Timerman, who sealed struck in 2013 a Memorandum of Understanding with Tehran, scoffed once when I told him the proposed joint investigation sounded as credible as O.J. Simpsons vow to find the real killers. Meanwhile the Interpols red notices were put on ice while Argentina sought to widen its trade with Iran.

In 2015 an investigator, Alberto Nisman, accused Mrs. Kirchner of scheming with the Iranians to allow the Hezbollah and Iranian operatives to escape justice for their alleged role in the AMIA bombing. The night before Nisman was scheduled to present detailed evidence of his findings to Argentinas congress, he was found dead in his apartments bathroom with a single gunshot to the head.

Mrs. Kirchner and her supporters in the press quickly spread the notion that Nisman committed suicide a strange act for a man about to make public a case marking the culmination of his lifes work. Consequent investigations completely demolished the suicide theory.

Most notably, in 2017 a police unit, the Gendarmerie, presented detailed forensic evidence that concluded Nisman was murdered. During the presidency of Ms. Kirchners successor, Mauricio Macri, the suicide theory was widely discarded.

Even after Mr. Macris predsidency, his successor, Alberto Fernandez, said to me personally he didnt believe the suicide theory, says Damian Pachter, an Argentinian journalist who first broke the news of Nismans 2015 death. (Following threats from members of Argentinian intelligence, Mr. Pachter fled the country.)

Since he beat Mr. Macri in last Decembers presidential election, Mr. Fernandez changed his tune. His election victory was made possible after he decided to run on a joint ticket with Ms. Kirchner, who remains popular despite an indictment over her role in covering up the AMIA investigation.

So now President Fernandez says there is no proof Nisman was murdered.

So was it suicide? Murder? Cant be both, although a documentary series on Nismans death, widely distributed on Netflix, tries to present both as possibilities. The six-part series claims to show all sides: Kirchner accolades insist on the suicide theory while others maintain he was murdered.

That is, both flat-earthers and scientists are given equal time.

Mr. Macri tried to end the charade. Mrs. Kirchners MOU with Iran was declared unconstitutional. During his tenure, Mrs. Kirchner and others were indicted on coverup charges. But hes gone and she is vice president, and as such immune from incarceration.

Worse: in February the judge assigned to continue Nismans investigation into the terrorist cases, Claudio Bonadio, passed away after months-long bout with a brain tumor.

Kirchner loyalists were named as successors. And, as Toby Dershowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies notes, in addition to Mrs. Kirchner eleven Argentinians were indicted in relation to the AMIA case and now some of them have influential jobs in the new government.

So it looks like the government is set to wind down the AMIA investigations. The Iranian masterminds, Hezbollah operatives, and Argentine collaborators will not be brought to justice. Mr. Kirchner is protected from any accusation of complicity in Nismans death. Any hope of closure for terror victims loved ones is fast fading.

Yet, as Mr. Pachter, the reporter who fled Argentina to Israel, notes, a top perpetrator of the AMIA bombing, Hezbollah master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in Syria in 2008 by the Israelis. So some justice was done after all, Mr. Pachter says.

________

Mr. Avni, a contributing editor of the Sun, covers the United Nations.

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Argentina Reversing Progress on Probe Of Big Terror Bombings - New York Sun

The Kanawha County school system won the right in court Wednesday to enter the planned Wolverton Mountain site of the new Bridge/Clendenin consolidated elementary school.

The victory in the eminent domain case may finally open the way to actually building the school. It would replace Clendenin Elementary, which the school system tore down after damage from the June 2016 flood.

But oil and gas companies may fight to be paid millions by the state and federal governments for the property. Eminent domain allows governments to seize private property for public use, but governments must pay those private owners for their loss.

Chuck Smith, the school systems executive director of facilities planning, said the school system estimates it will only have to pay $25,000 for the property, just south of Clendenin, and the mineral rights (including oil and gas rights) beneath it.

On Wednesday, Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey denied an attempt by Cunningham Energy LLC to intervene in the case. Cunningham claimed that the school system taking the property would jeopardize an oil drilling well pad that could produce an estimated $59 million in revenue.

Nick Barth, a Charleston-based attorney for the school system, said that property has been up there for millennia, no one has ever drilled and produced millions of dollars of oil I think its just kind of more than coincidental that the school board decides to condemn the property, and all of a sudden we have these claims.

Cunningham could appeal to the state Supreme Court. Bailey also denied its request to stay her ruling until the appeal was done.

Smith said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to reimburse 90 percent of the reasonable costs of the property. The state is supposed to fund the rest.

Barth said FEMAs rules require the school system to buy not just the surface of the land, but the mineral rights beneath it.

The school system filed this eminent domain case last month against Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania-based Vesta Oil & Gas Holdings LLC.

Vesta owns half of the surface, and the school system already owns the other half, according to a court filing by Kanawha.

That same document says Cunningham formerly owned the property.

Cunningham attempted to intervene in the case to become an official party that could file its own motions. Company President Ryan Cunningham attended the hearing.

Charleston-based attorney Gerald Titus argued Wednesday that the company had the right to be a party because its currently suing Vesta in federal court to get back its mineral leasehold interests both within and beyond the 35-acre site the school system seeks.

And, Titus said, even if that fails, theres an agreement between Vesta and Cunningham saying that if the school system or anyone else pays above $5 million for the property, part of every dollar above $5 million could go to Cunningham.

So, Titus said, without Cunningham as a party to the case, Vesta could agree that $5 million is sufficient and Cunningham would get nothing.

Theres very little incentive for Vesta to maximize the [financial] recovery, Titus said.

Barth, at one point, literally threw his hands up.

Cunningham has no deed, they have no lease, they have nothing. This is pretty simple were entitled to a right of entry Vesta owns it we need to pay Vesta just compensation, Barth said, adding that the rest was irrelevant.

He asked Bailey to deny that motion, grant right of entry, lets build a school.

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The Kanawha school system won the right to progress toward building new Bridge/Clendenin school. But oil, gas companies may keep up fight over...

CHICAGO In 1979, a man named Jerome Stone, frustrated with the lack of options and information about Alzheimers disease following his wifes diagnosis, brought together experts and families affected by dementia to launch the Alzheimers Association. One of their goals: find a cure for the disease.

Forty years later, an estimated 5.8 million Americans have Alzheimers, with a new person developing the condition about every minute of every day. There is still no treatment that slows progression of the disease, let alone stops or reverses it. There are increasing doubts whether the prevailing theory explaining the foundation of Alzheimers is accurate.

I would have thought wed be further along by now, Harry Johns, the associations CEO, acknowledged in an interview at the groups headquarters here.

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But to listen to Johns and other association executives is to hear a message of hope: The groundwork is now, finally, being laid for future therapies. New approaches are being explored, and awareness of Alzheimers and other forms of dementia and the desire to address them has reached critical mass. The past few years have also been a boon for the association, with an increased profile and fundraising reaching a record $365 million in fiscal 2019.

We now have momentum unlike weve ever had in this field before, Johns said.

The question is whether that outlook reflects a predictably bullish view from an advocacy group one that should be taken with a dose of skepticism or a sign that researchers and patients might be on the precipice of progress. The first new drug for Alzheimers in 15 years could be approved this year. Federal funding for Alzheimers and dementia research has skyrocketed.

On the other hand, the Alzheimers Association has long touted a more positive message. When Johns joined the association in 2005 from the American Cancer Society, he called it a time of unprecedented optimism and momentum using some of the same language.

Asked how he squared what he said then with what he was saying 14 years later, Johns said both sentiments were accurate. Back then, he said, a number of closely watched drugs were in pivotal clinical trials, even though they ultimately joined the heap of failed therapies.

I believe firmly in the momentum we have today compared to what we had then, and what we had then compared to what we had before, said Johns, whose mother and mother-in-law had Alzheimers. Its a relative reality.

Its not for lack of trying that the broader Alzheimers field has failed to find new treatments or cures; the disease has proven an intricate puzzle box to crack. For its part, the Alzheimers Association has been criticized for focusing too heavily on potential treatments, at the expense of providing assistance for people already living with the disease.

The association insists it can do it all, expanding its support for people with dementia while championing both basic science and translational research. And as the group enters its fifth decade, Johns sees a simple path toward therapeutic success, a strategy that he has seen work successfully in cancer: increase awareness, get people including lawmakers mobilized, and clear the runway for scientists to do what they need to do.

Part of it is just being relentless, Johns said. Youve gotta be relentless. We just have to get it done.

If the Alzheimer Associations playbook calls for rallying the public and increasing funding, there are signs that that is working.

Based on the associations own tracking, awareness of the disease has soared over the past five years, as has awareness of the association. And in the absence of treatments, many of the associations biggest wins have come in Washington, dating back to a 2011 law that resulted in the first federal Alzheimers plan.

The plan created a framework for future policy and research initiatives, and offered a way to measure progress, said Robert Egge, the associations chief public policy officer. The first of the plans five goals: prevent and effectively treat Alzheimers by 2025.

The association also pushed the Alzheimers Accountability Act, signed in 2014. It required the National Institutes of Health to tell Congress every year the amount of funding it would need to meet the 2025 goal joining cancer and HIV/AIDS as the only other diseases with hard targets for appropriators to hit.

And federal funding for Alzheimers and dementia has increased from roughly $500 million in 2012 to $2.8 billion in fiscal 2020, giving more scientists more opportunities to pursue a wider ranger of inquiries and potential therapeutic avenues.

Asking a member of Congress to support Alzheimers may seem as difficult as giving out free pie, but the challenge, Egge said, is keeping it on the front burner.

Its not that we have opposition, he said. Its that we have to get a Congress thats besieged by so many issues to carve out the time to focus on something. As big as this is, its still one of scores of issues that any given office in Congress has to think about.

The association has also used politics to promote its work. Take, for example, an ad it aired last year during a Democratic presidential debate. It highlighted the divide between red states and blue states, before reminding viewers that the two colors, when combined, created purple the associations signature color and a metaphor for how to defeat Alzheimers: Divided we fail but united we win.

Another campaign from the association, First Survivor, was designed to signal to the public that, despite clinical setbacks, progress was still happening. The slogan: The first person to survive Alzheimers disease is out there.

Theres momentum in the space and we dont want people to lose hope, said chief marketing officer Michael Carson. We want them to know that theres a place to go for help, that were there, were working hard on their behalf. We need their help, too, and ultimately were going to solve it.

Carson said, though, that the association has been careful not to overpromise or create false hope. Some of the potential first survivors featured in the campaign are older people. But there are also children indicating that it might be decades before the discovery of an actual remedy for dementia.

Ultimately, we make sure that well never come out and say there is a specific timeline on a cure, he said. Dont know it. Cant say, basically, theres going to be a cure for this family.

A few years ago, the association consolidated, bringing local chapters, which had been affiliated but largely independent, into the national organization. The shift was not seamless.

Instead of being subsumed, a number of chapters broke off, arguing that they didnt want to send their local dollars to a national organization that spent millions on salaries and that was focused more on lobbying and marketing than on curating programs for their communities.

The rifts were exacerbated by subsequent fights over fundraising dollars, trademarks, and the establishment of new chapters by the national association in areas where the local organizations chose to strike out on their own, according to people who work in the Alzheimers field. In interviews with other Alzheimers organizations, more than one person referred to the association as the 800-pound gorilla, while declining to criticize it on the record. (The Alzheimers Association is one of a handful of groups for the disease, including UsAgainstAlzheimers and the Alzheimers Drug Discovery Foundation.)

Critics accuse the Alzheimers Association whose mission statement includes supporting patients and caregivers and promoting brain health along with eliminating the disease of sidelining people living with dementia in its single-minded pursuit of treatments.

It is fair to say that the currently stated dual mission of the U.S. Alzheimers Association is technically correct but de facto grossly unbalanced as it is substantially closer in reality to a single mission, Eilon Caspi, a gerontologist and critic of the association, argued in a 2017 paper in Dementia. Describing the millions of people living with dementia and their caregivers, Caspi wrote: These individuals desperately need fundamentally higher level and quality of timely support, education, and training, evidence-based and innovative services and programs, and psychosocial personalized interventions.

Association executives dismiss the criticism, and seem confounded by assertions that it has neglected people with the disease.

I would emphatically disagree with that opinion, said Joanne Pike, the associations chief program officer. Weve done nothing but increase the numbers that we have served and the number of services that we have been providing.

Johns argued that the unification, as association executives call it, led to a more cohesive structure with a streamlined fundraising apparatus, instead of the national organization competing with its own chapters for donations. He said it was a key driver in the groups spike in fundraising, from $160 million in fiscal 2016 to $365 million in fiscal 2019, which has allowed the association to contribute to more research directly and expand its care and support services.

Pike said being one organization also helps programs that have been successful in one region get implemented in another. The association has been holding more community forums and increasing opportunities for volunteers. It also rolled out recommendations for long-term care providers for dementia care in 2018 and is developing guidelines for primary care providers. The association wants these clinicians to able to help diagnose dementia early and for patients and families to feel comfortable talking with their general clinicians about cognitive issues.

Because the treatment options are so limited, Pike said, physicians report that they dont feel like theres something they can do, so its not something they broach as quickly. Cancer and diabetes, heart disease, have a treatment, and so health systems are able to have an actionable item where they see value from that.

The association also runs a 24-hour helpline service from its Chicago headquarters that receives 300,000 calls a year, the majority from caregivers. One day in December, the staff had taken 644 calls by 3:53 p.m., as a screen tracked incoming calls and how quickly they were answered. On the wall is a painted message in capital letters: Making that call is not a sign of weakness.

For decades, the underlying hypothesis in the Alzheimers field has been that the buildup of plaques of beta-amyloid protein in the brain drives the death of neurons and cognitive issues that are hallmarks of the disease. But of scores of amyloid-targeting drugs that have been tested, none has been definitely determined to slow the disease.

I dont think that theres anyone out there today who thinks [amyloid] is exclusively the answer, Johns said. The association has diversified the types of research it funds for several years now.

Still, the amyloid-targeting drug aducanumab, from drug maker Biogen, is expected to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration this year. Biogen believes it works, but because the clinical trial results were ambiguous, some experts have argued the drug should be tested in another trial before approval. Johns declined to say whether he thought the FDA should approve aducanumab.

He also dismissed questions about the potential cost of an Alzheimers therapy. Back-of-the-envelope calculations have pegged the cost of a monthly infusion like aducanumab at $40,000 a year (though Biogen has said nothing about how it would price aducanumab if it were approved). With 2 million to 3 million potential customers, thats $100 billion annually more than the entire Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2018.

Johns argued that the associations focus would be on access to any approved treatment, irrespective of the price. Asking a question about how the association would advocate around access despite how many billions of dollars the drug might cost was almost rationing it from the outset, Johns said. A spokeswoman later sent over a 2015 report from the association that found that a treatment arriving in 2025 that pushed back the onset of Alzheimers by five years would save payers $220 billion over five years though it didnt account for the price of that drug.

Its not our choice what the company charges or whats paid for it, Johns said. Our interest is access, when there is a drug available that can make a difference in peoples lives. Thats real for people.

Nicholas Florko contributed reporting from Washington.

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Alzheimer's group sees signs of progress against a grim disease. Is it real? - STAT