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HOT JOBS IN EVANSVILLE
Adopt A Pet
Rolley is a male orange tabby. He’s a very big, handsome “tomcat!†He is about 2 years old, and wants to go home with someone who has lots of time to love on him. His adoption fee is $30 and includes his neuter, microchip, vaccines, and more. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 or River Kitty at (812) 550-1553 for details!
Lady Eagles Look To Finish Non-Conference Play On Strong Note
University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball looks to finish its non-conference slate on a strong note when it hosts NAIA opponent Grace College Sunday at 3:15 p.m. at the Physical Activities Center.
The Screaming Eagles (9-1), who slipped to No. 8 in the Division II Media Poll and No. 20 in the USA Today Sports/Division II Coaches’ Poll, are coming off their first loss off their first loss of the year, an 81-73 road setback to Lincoln Memorial University on December 19.
Junior forward Kacy Eschweiler (St. Charles, Missouri) had 21 points to lead the Eagles, while senior guard/forward Kaydie Grooms (Marshall, Illinois) chipped in 16 points and four assists.
Grooms leads USI on the year and ranks fourth in the GLVC with 18.5 points per contest, while senior forward Morgan Dahlstrom (Grayslake, Illinois) is fifth in the league in scoring with 16.6 points per contests and second in rebounding with 9.9 boards per appearance.
Grace (8-7), which has won five straight games, is led by junior guard Brooke Sugg and sophomore guard Vironnica Drake, who are respectively averaging 13.7 and 12.4 points per contest.
Sunday’s game, which follows USI Men’s Basketball’s 1 p.m. contest with Ohio Valley University, will be aired on WSWI 95.7 FM and on the GLVC Sports Network. Live stats, audio and video links can be accessed at GoUSIEagles.com.
USI Women’s Basketball Notes (12/27/17)
• Eagles suffer first loss. USI Women’s Basketball suffered its first loss of the year last week when host Lincoln Memorial defeated the Eagles, 81-73. Despite forcing 26 turnovers, the Eagles surrendered a regular-season high 81 points as the Railsplitters shot 47.4 percent (27-57) from the field and connected on 19-of-27 (.704) from the charity stripe.
• Leaders. USI had four players in double figures in the loss to Lincoln Memorial. Junior forward Kacy Eschweiler had a game-high 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting, while senior guard/forward Kaydie Grooms finished with 16 points and four assists. Junior guard Alex Davidson (Salem, Indiana) scored a career-high 13 points, including 11 in the opening period, while senior forward Morgan Dahlstrom added 10 points.
• Eagles sporting one of DII’s top defenses. Despite giving up 81 points in their first loss of the year, the Eagles still have one of the nation’s best defenses. Heading into the Holiday break, the Eagles ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense (52.5 ppg), 10th in blocks (5.5 bpg), 11th in opponent field goal percentage (.336), 14th in steals (12.6 spg) and 16th in opponent three-point field goal percentage (.249). USI has held its opponents to 50-or-fewer points five times this year and to 60-or-fewer points eight times.
• USI in the Top 25. Prior to the loss to Lincoln Memorial, USI slipped one spot to No. 8 in the Division II Media Poll. Following their loss to LMU, the Eagles fell three spots to No. 20 in the latest USA Today Sports/NCAA Division II Coaches’ Poll. USI also slipped to No. 6 in the latest Herosports.com Division II rankings and No. 8 in the Massey Ratings.
• What’s next? The Eagles conclude non-conference play Sunday when they host NAIA opponent Grace College at the PAC.
• A look at Grace. Located in Winona Lake, Indiana, Grace is a member of the Crossroads League. The Lancers (8-7, 2-2 CL) bring a five-game win streak into the PAC and are coming off wins over Roosevelt and Robert Morris prior to the Holiday break. Junior guard Brooke Sugg and sophomore guard Vironnica Drake lead the Lancers with 13.7 and 12.4 points per game, respectively.
• What’s ahead? USI resumes GLVC play January 4 when it hosts Missouri-St. Louis at the PAC before traveling to Springfield, Missouri, for a Top 25 showdown with No. 8 Drury January 6.
• Record book watch. Three players are in currently in USI’s record books:
–Kaydie Grooms is 11th in scoring (1,199), is 16th in blocks (53) and 22nd in rebounds (432);
–Randa Harshbarger is sixth in assists (299) and is 10th in steals (157);
–Morgan Dahlstrom is tied for 12th in rebounds (542) and blocks (56), and is 31st in scoring (725).
• USI in statistical rankings. USI begins the week ranked first in the GLVC in six statistical categories including scoring defense, scoring margin, steals, field goal percentage defense, three-point field goal percentage defense and free throw percentage. The Eagles rank in the top five of 13 GLVC statistical categories and in the top 25 of seven NCAA II statistical categories.
• Eagles in statistical rankings. Several Eagles are in the top 15 of GLVC statistical categories to begin the week:
–Morgan Dahlstrom (7 categories) ranks No. 1 in defensive rebounds (7.0 drpg), No. 2 in total rebounds (9.9 rpg), and No. 5 in scoring 16.6 ppg);
–Kacy Eschweiler (3 categories) is No. 10 in blocks (1.1 bpg) and No. 30 in scoring (10.8 ppg);
–Kaydie Grooms (5 categories) is No. 4 in scoring (18.5 ppg);
–Imani Guy (1 category) is tied for 11th in blocks (1.0 bpg)
–Randa Harshbarger (3 categories) is No. 2 in steals (3.8 spg) and No. 5, nationally.
Long Holiday Weekend- Keeps Troopers Busy
For troopers working out of the Indianapolis Post, heavy holiday travel coupled with slick roads resulted in numerous crashes and calls for service the entire weekend. Troopers stayed busy Friday through Tuesday answering more than 300 traffic related calls for service.
Troopers responded to 150 non-injury crashes and 25 personal injury crashes in the seven county district. They also assisted 106 motorists disabled along the highways and helped 24 drivers that slid-off the road. Many of these crashes and slide-offs could have been prevented had motorists just slowed down and reduced their following distances, commented Sergeant Trent Smith, Indiana State Police Public Information Officer.
Trooper Nicholas Cox wasn’t immune to the chaos as his police car was also struck. He was rear-ended while working a crash along I-465 near the US-52 exit on the east side of Indianapolis. The subject who struck Cox had a suspended driver’s license and was arrested. Two other Indianapolis troopers were also hit by motorists over the weekend. None of the trooper’s or other parties involved were injured.
Indiana Law Schools Remain Predominantly White But Women Are Gaining Ground
December 26, 2017
However, the racial and gender mix of students from 2015 to 2017 differed at both schools.
IU Maurer’s minority enrollment ticked up in 2016 but slumped 4 percentage points to 17.4 percent in 2017. At IU McKinney, minorities have held steady at roughly 18 percent of the student population from 2015 through 2017. Both schools have charted a steady increase in the percentage of women with the balance tipping and females gaining a slender majority at IU McKinney in 2017.
At Valparaiso, women continued to outnumber men, although the gap has narrowed to 49.1 percent and 50.0 percent, respectively. Also, while the northwest Indiana institution still sustains the highest percentage of minority students of all the law schools in the state, as the number of students at Valparaiso has declined so has the percentage of minorities. In 2015, minorities composed 38.3 percent of the student body at Valparaiso while they currently comprise 28.6 percent.
Notre Dame Law School bucked the trend a little bit. Its student body has increased by 19 students since 2015 but the composition stayed mostly male and white.
Among the students, Black or African Americans and Hispanics have either been the largest or second largest minority group at IU Maurer, IU McKinney and Valparaiso since 2015. At Notre Dame, Hispanics have been the dominate minority for the past three years and Asians have consistently been the second highest minority.
The 2017 statistics from the individual schools are as follows:
IU Maurer had a total of 505 students in 2017. Of that, the number of men was 267 (52.9 percent) and women was 237 (46.9 percent). Racially, 352 (69.7 percent) were white and 88 (17.4 percent) were minority with the largest minority group being Black or African American.
IU McKinney had a total enrollment of 783 students in 2017. Of the entire student body, men numbered 391 (49.9 percent) and women number 392 (50.0) percent. Also 628 (80.2 percent) were white and 140 (17.9 percent) were minority with Black or African American being the biggest minority group.
Valparaiso had a total enrollment of 234 students in 2017. Of that, men numbered 115 (49.1 percent) and women numbers 119 (50.9 percent. Also, 161 (68.8 percent) were white and 67 (28.6 percent) were minority. The largest minority group was Hispanic.
Notre Dame has a total of 600 students in 2017. The student body consisted of 333 (55.5 percent) men and 270 (45 percent) women. Also, 412 (69.7 percent) were white and 157 (26.2percent) were minority.
Statistics for 2016 and 2015 are as follows:
In 2016, the IU Maurer had 525 students of which 68.8 percent were white and 21.5 percent were minority while 55.4 percent were men and 44.4 percent were women. In 2015, the Bloomington school had 538 students. The composition was 69.7 percent white and 20.3 percent minority along with 57.1 percent men and 42.8 percent women.
In 2016, the IU McKinney has 804 students of which 79.6 percent was white and 18.5 percent was minority. Also, men comprised 51.1 percent of the student body and women 48.9 percent. In 2015, the Indianapolis school had 816 students. Of that, 80.9 percent was white and 17.8 percent was minority while 53.2 percent were men and 46.8 percent were women.
In 2016, Notre Dame had 599 students. Of that 68.8 percent white and 26.2 percent minority while 55.6 percent were men and 44.4 percent were women. In 2015, the South Bend school had 581 students of which 68.5 percent were white and 25.3 percent were minority while 58.7 percent were men and 41.3 percent were women.
In 2016 Valparaiso had 346 students. The composition was 66.5 percent white and 30.3 percent minority while 48.3 percent were men and 51.7 percent were women. In 2015, the northwest Indiana school had 433 students. Of that, 59.1 percent was white and 38.3 was minority while 49 percent were men and 51 percent were women.
Senators Introduce Bill To Reduce ‘Colossal And Completely Preventable Waste
written by Marshall Allenhis for ProPublica
Two U.S. senators introduced legislation on October 31, 2017 requiring federal agencies to come up with solutions to the waste caused by oversized eyedrops and single-use drug vials, citing a ProPublica story published earlier this year.
The bipartisan effort by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, calls for the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to come up with a plan to reduce the waste, which is estimated to cost billions of dollars a year.
“With the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, American taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for medicine going to waste,†Klobuchar said in a press release announcing the bill, known as the Reducing Drug Waste Act of 2017.  Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are co-sponsors of the legislation.
Grassley called it “common sense†legislation. “It’s no secret that wasteful health care spending is a significant contributor to the rising cost of health care in the United States,†he said in the release.
ProPublica’s story showed how drug companies force patients to pay for expensive liquid medications, such as eyedrops and cancer drugs, which are produced or packaged in ways that lead to waste. Drug companies have known for decades that eyedrops are larger than what the eye can hold — sometimes two or three times too big. As a result, the excess medication overflows the eye and runs down users’ cheeks or is ingested through their eye ducts. This waste causes some patients to run out of medicine before their insurers allow them to refill their prescriptions.
Some of the largest producers of eyedrops — from expensive vials for eye conditions like glaucoma to over-the-counter drops for dry eyes — have done research to show that smaller drops work just as effectively. But they have continued to produce larger drops. Novartis, owner of Alcon, one of the leading eye care companies, said the larger drop size allowed a margin of safety to help patients administer the drops. Other eyedrop makers declined to comment.
ProPublica also examined how the packaging of cancer drugs often results in some of the drug being tossed in the trash. The drug company Genentech, for example, switched earlier this year from sharable vials of its cancer drug Herceptin to single-use vials, causing excessive waste. One California cancer center estimated the change would lead to an average of $1,000 in wasted medicine per patient, per infusion. Patients are billed for such waste.
ProPublica also cited research led by Dr. Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Bach’s study, also reported in 2016 in The New York Times, found that single-use cancer vials wasted nearly $3 billion annually in cost increases and medicine that must be thrown away.
“From cancer drugs to expensive eye-drops, many drug companies insist on selling their products in excessively large, one-size-fits-all vials that contain more medicine than the average patient needs,†said Durbin, one of the lawmakers sponsoring the bill. “This is a colossal and completely preventable waste of taxpayer dollars, and it means American patients and hard-working families are paying for medication that gets tossed in the trash.â€
The waste in the packaging of liquid medications is part of an ongoing ProPublica series. In recent months ProPublica has written about hospitals throwing away brand new supplies and nursing homes flushing perfectly good medication. We have also looked at drug companies combining cheap medications and charging a premium for it. And we explored the arbitrary way drug expiration dates are set, resulting in the disposal of tons of still safe and potent medication.
Bach’s study proposed making drug companies produce vials in additional sizes, so they could be delivered in a way that’s more efficient, or requiring drug companies to give rebates on unused medicine. He said it’s too early to know what the federal government’s solution would be, but the new bill is a positive step forward.
“This could be legislation that saves Medicare and sick patients a lot of money,†Bach says.
Dr. Alan Robin, a Baltimore ophthalmologist whose research was featured in ProPublica’s story, has been urging drug companies to reduce the size of their eyedrops for decades. When he heard Monday about the senators’ proposed legislation, he started to cry.
“I’m literally crying with joy,†Robin says. “I’m very concerned about both the cost issues associated with waste, the side effects on patients, and also the environmental impact of waste.”
FOOTNOTE: Â This article was published by the City County Observer without opinion, bias or editing.
Overview of Mary Beth Bonaventura Resignation By Gail Riecken
Mary Beth Bonaventura, the former Lake County Superior Court Judge appointed to the position of Director of the Department of Child Services, just left that high paying job arguing a case of irresponsibility on the part of the administration as her reason. She said in a letter to Governor Holcomb that her department needed the money requested to meet the needs of children at risk of abuse or neglect, 80% of these children’s needs due to caregivers involved in drug addiction.
Director Bonaventura and you and I deserve a better answer from the Governor.
In a rather patronizing response to Director Bonaventura’s passionate and very specific letter of concerns, the Governor said the department was getting millions more in this next two year budget, in other words, be glad for what you get.
Regretfully, the Governor did not respond to the other issues in the letter that warranted his every effort to satisfy her concerns and keep Director Bonaventura from leaving. They were all directly related to protecting our children.
So now that she is gone, let me offer this praise for her great work for the children of Indiana. The Governor will never be able to match the skills and experience this person brought to the job.
Mary Beth Bonaventura turned around a department after years of leadership that was damaging to the department and ultimately hurt our children. She reversed the high turn over rate in our local departments after years of poor relationships with the public; she greatly improved the image of the department with residential providers; she raised the bar for performance in the department; and she effectively advocated personally with legislators for changes in legislation to benefit children at risk.
I personally want to thank her for her leadership on the Commission for the Improvement of the Status of Children.It takes a strong person with a positive attitude to accomplish the goals she set. It is commendable how well she worked with the directors of the health department, mental health department, family and children, attorney general, education, the court system and appointed legislators on this committee to solve problems for our children, sometimes those problems in our own “backyardâ€.
Job well done, Mary Beth Bonaventura, and every success in your next adventure. You will be missed.
Sincerely,
Gail Riecken
Former District 77 State Representative And City County Observer Statehouse Editor