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Four Eagles net T&F All-America honors

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University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Track & Field landed four student-athletes on the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association All-America teams for the indoor season Tuesday in an announcement by the USTFCCCA.

Earning All-America honors is men’s freshman sprinter Zach Barton (St. Louis, Missouri) and sophomore distance runner Titus Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee); while junior distance runner Jennifer Comastri (Indianapolis, Indiana) and senior distance runner Hope Jones (Cumberland, Indiana) represented the women’s squad on the All-America list.

Normal policies dictate that All-America honors are awarded based on classifications of performance at the NCAA Championships.

Due to the cancellation of the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships, the USTFCCCA Executive Committee adopted the following criteria:
• Based on the posted startlist for the national championships announced by the NCAA, the following will be recognized as All-America for the 2020 indoor track & field season:
• Individual events: ALL student-athletes listed on the startlist for the anticipated event.
• Relay events: The four student-athletes per anticipated relay who produced the performance that was declared and accepted into their event.
• There will not be a distinction of “first-team” or “second-team” to these recognitions.

A total of 716 honors were handed out to 117 different institutions on Tuesday.

Barton, who had qualified for the NCAA II Indoor Championships in the 60 meters, becomes the first sprinter in USI history to earn All-America honors in an individual event. Barton, who also plays soccer at USI, became the first sprinter in USI history to qualify for an individual event at the NCAA II Championships and was ranked No. 13 in the field with his school-record time of 6.77 seconds.

Winders, a two-time All-American on the cross country course, earned a pair of All-America honors Tuesday as he had qualified for nationals in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. The two-time NCAA II Midwest Region Cross Country Runner of the Year was ranked No. 9 in the 5,000 meters and No. 12 in the 3,000 meters heading into the NCAA II Indoor Championships.

Comastri, who earned All-America honors on the cross country course in the Fall, also earned a pair of All-America honors Tuesday after qualifying for nationals in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters during the indoor season. Comastri had one of the strongest indoor seasons in recent memory as she set school records and ranked fifth, nationally, in both events. She moved up to No. 3 all-time at USI in the mile after posting an NCAA II provisional mark in that event as well–Comastri ranked 22nd, nationally, in the mile.

Jones, the only USI honoree to have previously earned All-America distinction on the track, is collecting USTFCCCA All-America awards after ranking No. 16, nationally, in the 5,000 meters. Jones earned second-team All-America honors in the 10,000 meters a year ago at the NCAA II Outdoor Championships.

All four student-athletes were set to compete at the NCAA II Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, March 13-14, but the meet was canceled a day before it was scheduled to start due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Willard Library Children’s Department Summer Reading Program

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ADOPT A PET

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Meet Shamu, who was found dumped in a field and brought to VHS for safety. He is a miniature Rex mix, which means he is incredibly soft! His exact age is unknown, but likely about a year old. He can be adopted on or after May 29th for $50 which will includes his neuter & registered microchip. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 or apply online to adopt at www.vhslifesaver.org!

VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

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 Evansville, IN – Below are the felony cases to be filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office today.

Allante Daion Marquise Pettit: Dealing in a schedule I controlled substance (Level 2 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Level 6 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Level 6 Felony), Theft of a firearm (Level 6 Felony), Carrying a handgun without a license (Class A misdemeanor), Resisting law enforcement (Class A misdemeanor), Possession of marijuana (Class B misdemeanor)

Judy Rainey Saylor: Domestic battery (Level 6 Felony), Possession of marijuana (Class B misdemeanor), Public intoxication (Class B misdemeanor)

Gene Edward Grannan: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 6 Felony)

Dejuana Marie McNary: Domestic battery (Level 6 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Class A misdemeanor), Disorderly conduct (Class B misdemeanor)

HEALTH DEPARTMENT UPDATES STATEWIDE COVID-19 CASE COUNTS

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The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) today announced that 370 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at ISDH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private laboratories. That brings to 32,437 the total number of Indiana residents known to have the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous day’s total.

Intensive care unit and ventilator capacity remains steady. As of today, more than 41 percent of ICU beds and nearly 82 percent of ventilators are available.

A total of 1,871 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 21 over the previous day. Another 159 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record, following a correction to the previous day’s total. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by ISDH and occurred over multiple days.

                                                       To date, 235,333 tests have been reported to ISDH, up from 230,749 on Tuesday.

                        Hoosiers who have symptoms of COVID-19 and those who have been exposed and need a test to return to work are encouraged to visit a state-sponsored testing site for free testing. Individuals without symptoms who are at high risk because they are over age 65, have diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or another underlying condition, as well as those who are pregnant, live with a high-risk individual or are a member of a minority population that is at greater risk for severe illness, also are encouraged to get tested.

 ISDH will host drive-thru testing clinics from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday of this week at the following locations:

 Shelbyville High School

2003 S. Miller Street

Shelbyville, IN 46176

 

Miller School – Hammond

6530 New Hampshire

Hammond, IN 46323

 

Ivy Tech Community College – Princeton

2431 S. Crabtree Drive

Princeton, IN 47670

 

Franklin County 4-H Fairgrounds

7178 Blue Creek

Brookville, IN 

 

To find additional testing locations, visit www.coronavirus.in.gov and click on the COVID-19 testing information link. More than 200 locations are available around the state.

 

Gov. Holcomb to Provide Updates in the Fight Against COVID-19

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Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, the Indiana State Department of Health and other state leaders will host a virtual media briefing to provide updates on COVID-19 and its impact on Indiana.

 

WHO:             Gov. Holcomb

State Health Commissioner Kristina Box, M.D., FACOG

Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration Jennifer Sullivan, M.D., M.P.H.

Ukamaka Oruche, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor at the Indiana University School of Nursing

 

WHEN:           2:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday, May 27

 

VANDERBURGH COUNTY RECENT BOOKING RECORDS

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https://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/recent-booking-records.aspx

Gov. Beshear Provides Update on Fight Against COVID-19

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Gov. Beshear Provides Update on Fight Against COVID-19

The Governor Condemns Tactics Used During A Weekend Demonstration At Capitol

FRANKFORT, Ky. (May 26, 2020) – Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday updated Kentuckians on the fight against the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

“We are going to get through this together because we are strong, we are resilient, and for the most part over this Memorial Day weekend, we showed that we can continue to do the right thing,” said Gov. Beshear. “Even with the ability to see more people, we know that COVID-19 is still out there, it’s still deadly, it’s still dangerous, but if we can take the Healthy at Work precautions and put those in our muscle memory, we can successfully reopen our economy.”

Gov. Beshear also offered updates about a weekend protest at the Capitol, the need continued social distancing, and efforts to address an outbreak at a Jefferson County facility.

Capitol protest
Gov. Beshear addressed a weekend protest at the Capitol that garnered national attention when a small group marched onto the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion and hung an effigy in a nearby tree.

The Governor talked about the decision to move his family to Frankfort, the first governor’s family – kids and all – to do so in over 30 years.

“I worried about a number of things. How would living in the community – with their dad as governor – affect my kids? What would it feel like to live in a house where people toured several days each week?” Gov. Beshear said. “One thing I never thought about, never questioned, was their personal safety. While I worried kids might be mean to them from time to time, I did not consider they might be bullied or heckled by adults.”

The Governor noted that his administration had offered the demonstrators a drive-up protesting permit but the organizers declined. He described how a right-wing militia group marched onto the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion.

“And there, just a windowpane away from where my kids often played, they chanted and heckled,” Gov. Beshear said. “While they were thankfully not there, I want to remind you my kids are 9- and 10-years old.”

The Governor called out the members of the group for engaging in acts meant to intimidate as well as politicians and officeholders who have encouraged them.

“You cannot fan the flames and condemn the fire,” he said.

Gov. Beshear said he would remain undaunted.

“I owe it to the people of Kentucky to not bow to terror, but keep doing what’s right for our citizens,” the Governor said. “Living my faith means I have to face adversity without losing my values.”

Resiliency urged
Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack talked about the need to continue to follow social distancing rules and to use masks.

“There is no doubt that this infection has taken a horrible toll on humanity, and it will continue to take a toll until we have a vaccine or effective treatment. Until then, we’re left with old-school, old-fashioned public health measures which we know work, but are difficult to implement because they require us to make sacrifices,” Dr. Stack said. “Nobody likes wearing masks, including me. But it’s important that we wear them. The evidence is absolutely overwhelmingly clear that a small number of large events or a small number of large gatherings with one or two infected folks spread this thing like wildfire.”

Facility outbreak
Secretary Eric Friedlander of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services provided an update on efforts to address a coronavirus outbreak at a Jefferson County facility.

Gov. Beshear is closely monitoring the situation at Nazareth Home Clifton, along with Secretary Friedlander and Dr. Stack. State agencies are working with facility operators and Louisville Metro to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and protect the residents and staff there.

“Long-term care facilities across the world, across the nation and across this state have been and will continue to be a challenge. So we’ve started aggressive testing. We’ve tested over 11,000 staff and residents in facilities across Kentucky. This weekend, we tested an entire facility, Nazareth Clifton, in Louisville. We had many positives, 39 residents and 20 staff,” said Secretary Friedlander. “Over time, it became clear that the facility was going to have a hard time finding enough [healthy] staff to take care of all residents, so we began an aggressive plan to transfer COVID-19 positive residents out to local hospitals. We were able to transfer those residents into the hospitals successfully and stabilize that facility. We made sure we were making the right decisions for everyone there, both staff and residents.”

Case information
As of 5 p.m. May 26, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 8,951 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 387 of which were newly confirmed through the Memorial Day weekend. That included 141 cases reported Sunday, 122 cases reported Monday, and 117 cases reported Tuesday.

“These are some of the lowest daily numbers we have seen,” the Governor said. “But that is fragile, and with a disease that can so easily spread we have to want and put into action our desire to see that downward movement.”

Unfortunately, Gov. Beshear also reported three new deaths Tuesday, raising the total to 394 Kentuckians lost to the virus.

“Let’s remember, every death is tragic,” said Gov. Beshear. “Three new families and 394 families total are still grieving. We’ll be turning our green lights back on at the Mansion on that same front porch. We show compassion there, not anger. We show love there, not hate.”

The deaths reported Tuesday to include an 85-year-old woman from Adair County, a 63-year-old man from Allen County, and a 72-year-old woman from Jefferson County.

At least 3,115 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus. For additional information, including up-to-date lists of positive cases and deaths, as well as breakdowns of coronavirus infections by county, race, and ethnicity, click here.

Testing expansion
Gov. Beshear continued to encourage Kentuckians to get tested for COVID-19.

The recommended per capita testing rate is 100 per 100,000. In the seven days ending Tuesday, the daily average of Kentuckians tested per 100,000 residents was significantly higher at 138.

Information on how to register at more than 70 sites throughout the commonwealth can be found at kycovid19.ky.gov.

Absentee Ballot Application Portal online
Gov. Beshear is encouraging all voters to use a new Absentee Ballot Application Portal now available online. A link to the State Board of Elections’ portal can be found at govoteky.com. He urged everyone who plans to vote in next month’s primary elections to go to the portal and request an absentee mail-in ballot.

More information
Read about other key updates, actions, and information from Gov. Beshear and his administration at governor.ky.gov, kycovid19.ky.gov and the Governor’s official social media account Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Kentuckians can also access translated COVID-19 information and daily summaries of the Governor’s news conference at tinyurl.com/kygovespanol (Spanish) and tinyurl.com/kygovtranslations (more than 20 additional languages).

“Battle of the Fans: COVID-19 College Challenge” Kicks-Off Starts Today

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“Battle of the Fans: COVID-19 College Challenge” Kicks-Off

Evansville, IN: “Battle of the Fans: COVID-19 College Challenge” begins this week as part of the local effort to raise $6 million for the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund for the Greater Evansville Region. The Fund is designed to assist with relief, recovery, and restoration in Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties. 31 non-profit agencies have already received grants, and other area not-for-profits from the human services sector are encouraged to apply at www.unitedwayswi.org/nonprofit-applications. 

“Battle of the Fans” will pit the fan bases of 14 colleges and universities with a significant presence in Southwestern Indiana against each other for a fun and competitive fundraising effort. Fans of each university will start on an even playing field at zero dollars apiece. 

“Battle of the Fans” kicks off on Wednesday, May 27, and ends on Friday, June 19. Each Friday will signify the end of a quarter, as in football. There is a countdown clock on the “Battle of the Fans” website (www.Battleofthefans.us). Over the next four weeks, fans can contribute on behalf of their favorite university to put them ahead in the standings. “We hope this friendly competition will fill the void of a sports-less summer and inspire passionate university fan base support to make contributions to a worthy cause,” said Ben Trockman, Commissioner of the “Battle of the Fans”.

The following area residents have agreed to serve as Captains for their schools: Ben Trockman, USI; Anna Hargis and Mike Schopmeyer, UE; Kortney Blaylock, IU; Nate Hahn, Purdue; Dr. Mark Logan, Murray State; Maureen Barton and Terry Clements, WKU; Marci Fenneman Moore, Butler; Bill Bussing, Notre Dame; City Council President, Alex Burton, Indiana State; Brad Byrd and Lance Wilkerson, Ball State; Wayne Hentrup and Brandon Roop, Wabash; Jim Sandgren and Chris Compton, DePauw; Jonas Cueche, Oakland City University; and Ross Chapman, Taylor University.

There is no specific fundraising goal for the challenge, but prior efforts have raised over $4.9 million for the overall effort, led by Old National Bank’s retired chief executive officer, Bob Jones.  The United Way of Southwestern Indiana is serving as the response fund’s fiscal sponsor, but donations are not part of the United Way’s annual campaign. Carl Chapman, former chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Vectren, is chairing the fund’s advisory committee.

The official Press Event for the “Battle of the Fans” will take place on Wednesday, May 27th, 2020 at 2:30 p.m. through WebEx, led by Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. The event link is available upon request through the Mayor’s office.  

FOOTNOTE: The Covid-19 Crisis Response Fund of the Greater Evansville Area is an organized and collaborative community effort to support 501(c) (3) organizations in our community during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. In response to the Covid-19 crisis, funding partners established a cross-sector, community-wide Response Fund, primarily Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick Counties. This response is designed to serve the community through the relief, recovery, and restoration. Visit CovidResponseFund.com to do what you can.

Staffing Nursing Homes Was Hard Before the Pandemic. Now It’s Even Tougher

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Staffing Nursing Homes Was Hard Before the Pandemic. Now It’s Even Tougher

By: Sophie Quinton
for Stateline

Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus.

Residents have fallen ill with the new coronavirus in both the Worcester, Massachusetts, nursing homes where Kwaku Tsibo Bondah works. Protective equipment is in short supply, he said, and many of his colleagues have tested positive or are calling in sick because they’re afraid to come to work.

“It’s really challenging … everybody is in a state of anxiety,” said Bondah, a licensed practical nurse. “Because you are going into a room with someone who has COVID-19 there.”

Many nursing homes and assisted living facilities were short-staffed before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now it’s even harder to recruit and retain nurses needed to care for residents and stop the infection from spreading.

When nurses and nurse aides are stretched thin, they end up cutting corners. They might fail to wash their hands often enough or try to lift a frail person by themselves — harming themselves or the people in their care, advocates, and people who study the direct care workforce say.

“We need to have enough staff to appropriately support the staff in there who are putting their lives on the line,” said Mairead Painter, Connecticut’s long-term care ombudsman. “When you’re working short, you make decisions you may not make on a good day.”

Governors and health agencies nationwide are developing “strike teams” of National Guard members and clinicians to help manage coronavirus outbreaks in long-term care facilities. But some state leaders also are trying to solve longer-term staffing problems.

Massachusetts and Colorado have launched websites to match job seekers with open long-term and residential care positions. Massachusetts is providing $1,000 bonuses for hires who stay on the job for a month, and Arkansas is boosting pay for nurses and other direct care workers from April 5 through the end of May.

Illinois is among the states letting facilities hire nurses with an out-of-state or recently expired credential and temporarily hire unskilled workers to help feed and clothe residents — a role made possible for the time being by looser federal training and certification requirements for nurse aides.

To fix staffing problems over the long term, however, worker advocates say direct care workers need better pay. And that, industry groups and labor unions say, will require more state and federal dollars for long-term care.

“Post-pandemic, I think there needs to be a real conversation about valuing the roles of caregivers,” said Marlishia Aho, regional communications manager for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a union that represents roughly 2,000 nursing home workers in Massachusetts, including Bondah. “And that requires wages that reflect the work that they are doing.”

Not Enough Nurses

Most U.S. nursing homes don’t have enough staff to provide the 4.1 hours of daily nursing care experts recommend, said Charlene Harrington, an emeritus professor of nursing and sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies long-term care staffing.

“Seventy-five percent of all nursing homes did not meet the professional staffing standards that experts believed they should have before the virus hit,” Harrington said. “So that made them very vulnerable.”

Care is mostly provided by nursing assistants, who have at least 75 hours of training and do everything from feeding residents and giving them medication to helping them move from a bed to a wheelchair.

Instead of employing one nursing assistant for every seven residents — the minimum recommended by experts — some facilities employ one nursing assistant for every 10 or even 15 residents, Harrington said.

There’s no standard federal ratio of staff to residents. A 1987 law requires nursing homes to have a registered nurse on duty eight hours a day, seven days a week; a licensed nurse on duty in the evenings and overnight; and staff “sufficient to meet nursing needs of its residents.”

There are no national data on nursing home staffing during the pandemic because the federal government has suspended staff reporting requirements to give businesses a break from paperwork. Before the pandemic, the average nursing home could provide 3.9 hours a day of nursing care per patient, according to the most recent federal data.

But workers, union leaders, and industry groups say many workers are taking time off because they’ve contracted the virus, have caregiving responsibilities at home, or because they or a family member have a medical condition that makes them vulnerable to a deadly infection.

“Many people are afraid to bring this home to their families,” said Aho of the SEIU.

And jobs that already were empty are proving harder to fill as nursing homes and assisted living communities to emerge as hotspots for coronavirus infections and deaths.

A third of deaths from the virus in the United States have been residents and workers at long-term care facilities, according to The New York Times. In 13 states, including Massachusetts, it has been more than half.

Before the pandemic began, 1 in 7 direct care or nursing jobs at Massachusetts long-term care facilities were vacant, said Jennifer Chen, director of membership and engagement for the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, a trade association for long-term care facilities.

“We’ve seen this shortage of these nursing staff prior to COVID-19,” Chen said, “but the pandemic has really exacerbated the shortages.”

Despite the Massachusetts job website, the state hasn’t attracted enough applicants to meet demand, Chen said.

Some states also are allowing employers to hire temporary unskilled workers to support nurse aides.

Illinois regulators require “temporary nursing assistants” hired during the pandemic to complete 16 hours of instruction and training. Massachusetts workforce development officials are promoting “resident care assistant” jobs that don’t require any prior training or a high school diploma.

Using entry-level hires to perform simple tasks, such as holding up an iPad so isolated residents can video chat with loved ones, isn’t a bad idea, Harrington said. But it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem.

“That would not, in any way, replace the needs for registered nurses or certified nursing assistants,” she said.

Not Enough Money

Worker advocates say long-term care nurses are underpaid. All types of nurses earn less in nursing homes than in hospitals, and low-paid nurse aides can struggle to afford rent and child care.

“We estimate that about 44% of direct care workers live in or near poverty,” said Robert Espinoza, vice president of policy at PHI, a New York City-based organization that works to improve direct care jobs. PHI’s estimate includes people who provide hands-on care in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, residential facilities for people with disabilities, and clients’ own homes.

The average nurse aide earns about $13 an hour in a nursing home or assisted living center, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many long-term care facilities have boosted hourly pay during the pandemic and at least one state, Arkansas, has won permission from federal regulators to offer bonuses: $250 a week for full-time direct care workers, and $500 a week for full-time workers who are caring for a patient who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Industry groups acknowledge that pay is a problem but say employers’ hands are tied because their revenue depends on how much states pay them to care for people on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income and disabled people.

In Massachusetts, 7 in 10 nursing home residents rely on Medicaid, Chen said, so state reimbursements dictate business revenue and therefore worker pay. “We can’t make these investments unless the state really makes these investments with us,” she said.

State lawmakers, in turn, say plummeting tax collections will make it hard to increase Medicaid reimbursements anytime soon. Massachusetts’ fiscal 2021 revenue is maybe 15% lower than expected, according to the nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a Boston-based research organization.

“Staffing and staff pay is at the very center of what we need to do,” said state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, a Democrat and Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs. She said she hopes lawmakers can improve Medicaid rates for long-term care facilities and better police how facilities spend the money.

But in the current budget environment, she said, “it’s going to be a very big challenge.”

Employers can improve direct care jobs without increasing hourly pay, said Katie Lynn-Vecqueray, director of employer membership at WorkLife Partnership, a Denver-based organization that helps employers retain employees.

Long-term care facilities can give care workers free meals, create support groups to help them manage stress or let them take mental health days, for instance. After low pay, Lynn-Vecqueray said, stress is a major reason why direct care workers quit.

Despite the pressure he and nurses like him are under now, Bondah said, he can’t think of any long-term care workers who have quit. He has been a nurse for 20 years, and he said he feels a duty to show people empathy and appreciation at the end of their lives.

“We need to give them good care,” he said of the residents he looks after. “We need to love them.”

 

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