Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalBanned book lesson thrusts Oklahoma teacher into campaign
Summer Boismier was living her childhood dream. She grew up a bookworm, became a high school English teacher, and filled both her classroom and home with her favorite literature.
She taught her students: “Stories are what is fundamental about the human experience. We all have them.”
Boismier especially loves the fantasy genre, a passion sprouted from childhood favorite “Harry Potter.” But even in a world of fantasy, she couldn’t have dreamed that a lesson from her English class would land her in the center of a vigorous statewide political campaign and turn her into a target for candidates and voters on social media.
Over the past two years, the nine-year teaching veteran was growing alarmed with the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Legislature’s increasing efforts to restrict access to books in public schools. In her classroom, she covered some bookshelves with red butcher tape and labeled them “Books the state doesn’t want you to read.” She gave students a QR code link to the Brooklyn Public Library, which provides access to a variety of banned books.
She hoped to spark a discussion about the legislators’ book restrictions and a new law prohibiting lessons on critical race theory and other concepts about race and gender. Instead, she was summoned to a meeting with school administrators after a parent complained.
She hoped to spark a discussion about the legislators’ book restrictions and a new law prohibiting lessons on critical race theory and other concepts about race and gender. Instead, she was summoned to a meeting with school administrators after a parent complained.
A firestorm erupted as Boismier resigned and a reporter from a local television station covered the story. The state’s Republican candidate for superintendent of public schools, Ryan Walters, wrote a letter to the State Board of Education calling for Boismier’s teaching license to be revoked.
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-entertainment-education-social-media-oklahoma-2a0efaa9fbd485df4e8657e2b95b901a?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_09
While this story has a happy ending, a lot of them don't. This crap has to be STOPPED.
Texas billionaires are spending millions to support private school vouchers
Texas Republicans bankrolled by Christian conservative donors are hoping to ride a wave of parental anger over the teaching of race and sexuality in schools to achieve what has long been an unattainable goal: state funding for private education.
Groups committed to giving parents the option of sending their children to private schools using taxpayer dollars — sometimes known as “school choice” or “vouchers” — have given millions of dollars to Republican candidates in Texas this year, helping win key races and pushing some establishment lawmakers further to the right on the issue. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently pledged to make school choice a priority in the next legislative session if he wins re-election over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
As a result, political observers say, public school funding is effectively on the ballot Tuesday.
The push for private school vouchers has been funded in large part by Defend Texas Liberty, a Christian nationalist-aligned political action committee led by a former far-right Republican state lawmaker and bankrolled by a pair of West Texas billionaires. The PAC has spent nearly $10 million this year, largely backing candidates who support public funding for private education and attacking those who oppose it, according to an NBC News analysis of Texas Ethics Commission campaign finance reports and data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets.
Defend Texas Liberty did not respond to messages requesting interviews with PAC leaders.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-politicians-far-right-christian-megadonors-rcna55546
Rottinghaus? Could someone come up with a more appropriate name?
How a team of Black paramedics set the gold standard for emergency medical response
It is difficult to imagine society without the assurance that skilled, professional paramedics will respond to a medical emergency. But before the 1970s, clumsy, haphazard care, often at the hands of police officers, was the norm for emergencies. So much so that negligent ambulance care was responsible for an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 preventable deaths per year in the United States, according to journalist and former paramedic Kevin Hazzard.
In his new book American Sirens, Hazzard narrates the eight-year saga of the Freedom House Ambulance Service, the all-Black team of paramedics who pioneered the profession from 1968-1975 in Pittsburgh.
The book documents an untold piece of American history, recording how Freedom House saved thousands of lives and influenced the emergence of professional paramedic services in cities across the U.S., eventually setting the gold standard of emergency medical care.
Hazzard begins the book through the eyes of John Moon, a Black man who was born into poverty at Atlanta's Grady Hospital but found his calling as a Freedom House recruit. Other prominent Freedom House contributors include Dr. Peter Safar, the Austrian-born physician who co-founded Freedom House Ambulance Service shortly after he invented mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; and Dr. Nancy Caroline, the first medical director of Freedom House who authored the seminal emergency medical services text Emergency Care in the Streets.
With his professional EMS experience, Hazzard's writing feels like a paramedic ride-along, witnessing medical chaos – intubating patients against the clock, confronting frightened patients and their distressed relatives, and competing with an adversarial police force.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/05/1132533191/how-a-team-of-black-paramedics-set-the-gold-standard-for-emergency-medical-respo
I didn't know any of this, and I'm a nurse, FFS. I bet most of us didn't know it either. I will be looking for this book.
Why Americans living abroad are a voting bloc with untapped political potential
After graduating high school in Georgia in 1969, Herbert Ruffin was drafted into the military to serve as an infantryman in Vietnam. A year later, he was badly wounded in a firefight. He was awarded the Purple Heart and went on to serve his country for more than two decades.
But when it came time to retire, Ruffin chose to continue living abroad.
"The quality of life for me, as a person of color — there was better opportunities for me to live in Germany," he says. "I was born in the 1950s, so I came through some very challenging years being raised in the South."
Ruffin, 72, remains a registered voter in Maryland, where he typically votes for Democrats. He says he still feels a deep sense of patriotism and takes voting as an American overseas seriously.
"Where I grew up, opportunities to vote were restricted," he says. "I have a voice and I can encourage others to vote and let them know they can vote from abroad."
Ruffin is one of at least 3 million American expatriates of voting age, a voting bloc that organizers and researchers are still trying to understand in an era of data-driven political targeting.
It's a group with the potential to wield substantial power, if fully activated.
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1132730832/american-citizens-voters-overseas-abroad
A SCOTUS nursing home case could limit the rights of millions of patients
When Susie Talevski sued the agency that managed her elderly father's care before he died, she hoped to get justice for her family. She did not expect the case would grow into a national bellwether. A ruling against her could strip millions of vulnerable Americans of their power to hold states accountable when they do not receive benefits allowed by law.
"This case has taken on, really, a life of its own way beyond what I could have foreseen," said Talevski, a resident of Valparaiso, Ind.
Talevski filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging that her father's rights were violated at a nursing home where he resided to get 24/7 care for his dementia.
"He went from being able to walk and talk ... to not being able to move," Talevski said. "[The nursing facility] treated my dad like trash, like a dog. In fact, dogs are treated better than that."
In court filings, the Talevski family claims that her father was overmedicated to keep him asleep, his dementia wasn't properly managed, and he was involuntarily transferred to different facilities hours away from the family's home, which accelerated his decline. Gorgi Talevski died a year ago, in October.
Talevski sued the Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County, the public health agency in Indiana that owns the nursing facility. The agency declined to comment on the case. In court documents, it argued that Gorgi Talevski was violent and sexually aggressive and that affected his care.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/06/1133947431/scotus-nursing-home-case-could-limit-right-to-sue
A SCOTUS nursing home case could limit the rights of millions of patients
When Susie Talevski sued the agency that managed her elderly father's care before he died, she hoped to get justice for her family. She did not expect the case would grow into a national bellwether. A ruling against her could strip millions of vulnerable Americans of their power to hold states accountable when they do not receive benefits allowed by law.
"This case has taken on, really, a life of its own way beyond what I could have foreseen," said Talevski, a resident of Valparaiso, Ind.
Talevski filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging that her father's rights were violated at a nursing home where he resided to get 24/7 care for his dementia.
"He went from being able to walk and talk ... to not being able to move," Talevski said. "[The nursing facility] treated my dad like trash, like a dog. In fact, dogs are treated better than that."
In court filings, the Talevski family claims that her father was overmedicated to keep him asleep, his dementia wasn't properly managed, and he was involuntarily transferred to different facilities hours away from the family's home, which accelerated his decline. Gorgi Talevski died a year ago, in October.
Talevski sued the Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County, the public health agency in Indiana that owns the nursing facility. The agency declined to comment on the case. In court documents, it argued that Gorgi Talevski was violent and sexually aggressive and that affected his care.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/06/1133947431/scotus-nursing-home-case-could-limit-right-to-sue
Preserving the first Air Force One
Almost 80 years ago, a plane took flight for the first time with an important passenger; the President.
After many years and many flights, the plane was left in the desert to fade away and become lost to history.
That is, until it was taken in by Dynamic Aviation for preservation and restoration to its former glory.
Everyone knows Air Force One is the callsign for the President’s plane, but most people don’t know the story of the very first plane to bear that designation, and the people who sat in its seats.
From Dwight D. Eisenhower to Queen Elizabeth II, many well-known people hopped on board the Columbine and left their mark on its history.
https://www.whsv.com/2022/11/04/preserving-first-air-force-one/
One of my artist friends from the gallery where I sell my jewelry is actually working on this!
Winnie is getting a new sister
She won't arrive for a couple of weeks because we are going to Tennessee to do a gem show, but I looked over the barn cats yesterday and picked out a lovely patched tabby and white shorthair who is about Vicky's size and comes out to survey the situation frequently. Her shelter name is Maya but I plan to change it to Josephine, aka Josie. She'll have to stay in a crate for a few weeks so she and Winnie can get used to each other and she knows where home is and who feeds her. I anticipate a lot of hissing and swearing and "Yo Mama" commentary at first, but I imagine they'll work it out.
Winnie is extremely po'd at me today because I visited upon her the Drops of Afflicition, otherwise known as Catego, when she came to breakfast. Tough, kiddo. It's better than the fleas.
2 Denver firefighters declared a living woman dead without assessing her
Two Denver firefighters were suspended without pay after they declared a woman dead when she was actually alive, officials said.
One of the firefighters, Lt. Patrick Lopez, was also demoted over the June 24 incident, the city's Department of Public Safety said in an order of disciplinary action.
The fire department was called to the woman's home to assist police officers in conducting a welfare check after her father said that she had undergone stomach surgery and he had not heard from her in several days.
The order says that an officer went into the home, came out and said the woman had bluish-purple discoloration on the skin, fluid leaking from her body and smelled like she was decomposing.
Lopez, according to the order, said the officer told firefighters they did not need to go inside the home because the woman was "obviously dead." Lopez said he then instructed firefighter Marshall Henry to call the local hospital and ask for a doctor to provide a pronouncement of death.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-denver-firefighters-declared-living-woman-dead-assessing-rcna55653
She was septic, not dead. But the fact that they didn't even assess her......? 
Mom of 5 died after ketamine injection by a paramedic, family alleges in wrongful death suit
The family of a woman who died four years ago shortly after a paramedic injected her with the powerful sedative ketamine have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the health care worker and the ambulance company.
Jerica LaCour, 29, a Black woman who had been drinking alcohol and walking around in a parking lot in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was lying on the ground and crying uncontrollably when police, firefighters and other emergency personnel arrived the night of Jan. 11, 2018, according to court records.
They were responding to a 911 call about a distressed person trespassing on private property, according to the lawsuit filed last week in El Paso County District Court.
LaCour's family alleges in the lawsuit that Jason Poulson, a paramedic for American Medical Response Ambulance Service, administered 400 milligrams of ketamine to LaCour despite objections from a firefighter who was also an emergency medical technician.
Shortly afterward, LaCour stopped breathing, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of her and her husband's five preteen children.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-mom-5-died-ketamine-injection-paramedic-files-wrongful-death-la-rcna55509
She had already calmed down when they gave her the drug. Paramedics should not be administering ketamine in the field.
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