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UNI defeats UE volleyball, 3-0

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Aces head to Drake tomorrow

 Rocio Fortuny had a stellar night, notching 12 kills, but a combined 23 kills from Bri Weber and Piper Thomas helped UNI defeat the University of Evansville volleyball team by a 3-0 final on Friday evening at the McLeod Center.

Fortuny led the Purple Aces (10-15, 4-9 MVC) with her 12 kills.  Cathy Schreiber finished with six.  Mildrelis Rodriguez paced the team with 11 digs while Allana McInnis notched 19 assists.  For the Panthers (22-6, 12-2 MVC), Weber posted 12 while Thomas had 11 kills to lead the offense.

The Panthers got off to a great start in game one, scoring the first five points of the night.  Evansville kept up with UNI, getting within four at 11-7, but the opposition was able to pull away for a 25-11 win to start the night.

UE did better in game two.  UNI had another nice start, going up 10-5 before leading by as many as seven points at 18-11.  The Aces responded with a 6-2 run to get within three at 20-17.  Taylor Jones did the serving while Rachel Tam, Adeline Payne and Cathy Schreiber each had kills in the run.  Evansville continued to close as another Schreiber tally made it a 24-23 game before Piper Thomas got the clinching kill in a 25-23 victory and a 2-0 lead.

Evansville was unable to sustain the momentum from the end of the second tilt as the Panthers scooted away in the third set for a 25-14 win.  UNI jumped out to an 18-4 lead and held on from there to take the win.

Health Department leads push for diabetes awareness

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By Adrianna Pitrelli
TheStatehouseFile.com

 INDIANAPOLIS — Every 21 seconds someone is diagnosed with diabetes, which is why the Indiana State Department of Health is encouraging Hoosiers to take precautions against the deadly disease during November, National Diabetes Month.

“Diabetes is a serious and potentially life-threatening illness, but there are ways you can prevent or delay the onset of the most common types of diabetes,” said Dr. Kristina Box, state health commissioner in a statement. “Exercising, eating right, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco use and getting your blood glucose checked regularly are all important steps toward a healthier life.”

Diabetes is a disease that develops when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or is unable to use insulin effectively. Currently, 750,000 Hoosiers live with diabetes, a 37 percent increase since 2005.

The Indiana State Department of Health is organizing a prevention program to encourage people to increase physical activity, eat healthy and lose weight — all changes that could help save a person’s life.

The American Diabetes Association hopes to show Americans the importance of diabetes awareness.

“Diabetes is serious and it impacts all of us,” said Tracey Drzich, area executive director for American Diabetes Association. “Diabetes is so much more than the medications, devices and lifestyle tools used to manage it.”

In 2013, Indiana had four programs to help people with diabetes prevention, but program has expanded to 92 locations across the state. The program is targeted toward people with pre-diabetes — conditions one-third of Indiana adults have. People with pre-diabetes have blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

Diabetes doesn’t just take a physical toll on people, it also can cause a financial strain. The average price for healthcare for a person without diabetes is $2,935 a year. But with the addition of the disease, healthcare can cost Hoosiers upward of $11,000, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.

Indiana State Department of Health also will partner with diabetes education programs to educate Hoosiers with diabetes about ways to lower blood sugar, like staying hydrated and controlling stress levels.

“It’s time to come together and raise awareness of the diabetes epidemic facing our nation.” Drzich said.

For information about the Indiana State Department of Health programs, Hoosiers are encouraged to visit preventdiabetes.isdh.in.gov. People can also share their diabetes story to spread awareness but using #DearDiabetes on social media.

Adrianna Pitrelli is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students

Vanderburgh County Recent booking Records

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

“READERS FORUM” NOVEMBER 4, 2017

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WHATS ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

We hope that todays “Readers Forum” will provoke “…honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?”
 Todays READERS POLL question is: Do you feel that the partnership agreement between the STATEHOUSEFILE and the City COUNTY OBSERVER is really a big deal?
Please take time and read our newest feature articles entitled “LAW ENFORCEMENT, READERS POLL, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBS” and “LOCAL SPORTS” posted in our sections.  You now are able to subscribe to get the CCO daily.
If you would like to advertise in the CCO please contact us City-County Observer@live.com.

 

EDITOR’S FOOTNOTE:  Any comments posted in this column do not represent the views or opinions of the City County Observer or our advertisers

Congress Should Act Now To Permanently Repeal The Medical Device Excise Tax

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There’s a cloud of uncertainty hanging over one of Indiana’s most important employment sectors—the medical device industry. A sales tax on medical devices that has been suspended since 2016 will resume in 2018 unless Congress takes action to repeal it by the end of this year.

At a time when technical advancement in the life sciences is at an all-time high, this medical device sales tax threatens to stifle medical advancements, stop new investment, and prevent future job growth. Furthermore, the Obamacare system the tax was designed to support is crumbling under its own weight. For all those reasons, it’s time for Congress to permanently repeal the medical device tax.

Medical device companies are crucial to the continuing advancement of medicine, and the technology they produce has been life changing for families. Consider NICO Corporation, an Indianapolis-based company that developed a revolutionary technology called NICO BrainPath. The new technology creates a path the size of a dime in a person’s brain for a surgeon to operate with minimal damage or invasion.

Beyond astounding medical breakthroughs, the medical device industry also supports high-wage Indiana jobs. Our state has among the highest concentration of medical device jobs in the U.S., with the life sciences industry alone employing approximately 56,000 Hoosiers. Indiana’s booming life sciences industry is home to several medical device giants, such as Zimmer Biomet, Roche, Boston Scientific, and Cook Medical—along with countless smaller companies and startups. And, these medical device manufacturing jobs pay 41.7 percent more than the average wage in Indiana.

The negative effects of the medical device tax between 2013 and 2016 were clear: The tax resulted in the industry losing about $82 billion in medical device sales.Moreover, the tax stopped investment in new technology that was essential for healthcare advancement and for growing our economy.

Orthopediatrics, a company located in Warsaw, Indiana, had to freeze hiring and stop research and development for new products intended to help disabled children walk again because it needed the money to pay the medical device tax. Similarly, Cook Medical in Bloomington, Indiana, was forced to hold off on plans for five new manufacturing facilities in the Midwest so it could use the money to pay its tax bill.

The medical device tax has failed to achieve its purpose. Proponents of the tax said it would raise revenue to help pay for Obamacare and increase medical device sales. Instead, it has generated 27 percent less revenue than originally projected while reducing investment and billions in sales. We should be building a tax system that unleashes economic growth, not one that chokes it.

There are many complicated issues facing leaders in Washington in the months ahead, but repealing the medical device tax is a smart and straightforward move that will encourage innovation and economic growth in our state. Congress should act now to permanently repeal the medical device excise tax.

 

Condemned Killer Challenges State’s Execution Process

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By Adrianna Pitrelli for TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — A death row inmate is challenging the state’s current method of execution on the grounds that the public should have had a chance to comment on the process put in place three years ago.

The Indiana Supreme Court considered the fate of the state’s death penalty protocol Thursday after hearing oral arguments in the case of Roy Ward. The case comes after Ward broke into a Dale, Spencer County, home in 2001 and raped and murdered a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to death in 2007.

Ward’s attorney, David Frank of Fort Wayne, argued the state didn’t properly follow administrative procedures when it chose the new lethal injection drug cocktail in 2014.

“The General Assembly dictates by law this combination of drugs use,” Justice Mark Massa said.

“If a state agency or unelected state agency adopts new protocols, they should do it in front of the public,” Frank said, noting current statute says public comment must be allowed. He argued because there was no public hearing, the death penalty protocol adopted in May 2014 is considered void.

The third drug added to the state’s cocktail — methohexital — has never been used in another state, which makes some wary about how it would affect death row inmates.

Often, death penalty appeals revolve around whether the drug mixture amounts to a violation of the 8th Amendment’s provisions against cruel and unusual punishment. Ward isn’t arguing that point, focusing instead on the drug not being chosen in front of the public.

But some justices wanted to know why this is being brought up now.

“This issue has never been raised before,” Justice Steven David said. “It’s not like the Department of Correction changed this in the last 25 years. There has never been a rule making application with what the ingredients of the injection are.”

This issue, however, has been raised in other states. In 2010, a Kentucky judge halted executions over concerns about the three-cocktail injection. In 2012, the state said it would switch to a two-cocktail injection, which uses a sedative and painkiller.

Indiana State Attorney Stephen Creason argued the statute gives the Department of Correction authority to choose lethal injection drugs like it did three years ago.

“Choice of drug only matters as to whether it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the federal Constitution if constitutionally valid the opinions of the public, the state agency and the state courts don’t matter in choosing a new drug,” Creason said.

There have been no execution dates set for the 12 death row inmates at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. If Ward’s appeal prevails, then the state would be left without legal means of carrying it out.

However, if the change enacted by the Department of Corrections was considered a rule, then it would have to go through the administrative process — if not, it stands as is.

The state’s high court is expected to decide the case in the next several months.

FOOTNOTE: Adrianna Pitrelli is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

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TALK IS CHEAP And BETTER By Jim Redwine

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Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine

TALK IS CHEAP (& BETTER)

Gentle Reader, you may recall last week’s column that set out the general philosophy of the Posey Circuit Court: “Talking is better than fighting”. Or, more generally, resolving conflicts instead of exacerbating them is what courts should do and the earlier the better.

Over twenty years ago my staff and I were searching for ways to ease the pain of Posey County families involved in divorce cases. At that time, my court reporter Synda Waters had the main responsibility for domestic relations matters in the Posey Circuit Court. With Synda’s help and the input of the rest of the court staff we initiated the procedure we still use today to attempt to assuage the fear, anger and frustration of couples who managed to once fall in love but for myriad reasons must now apply to the Court to untangle themselves.

The most salient feature we noted in many of these cases was people refused to talk to one another. Pride, disgust, jealousy, etc., etc., etc., prevented once loving couples from communicating with each other and, therefore, from any real chance of solving their problems.

Other sticking points were often lack of money and almost every case took too long. We decided we needed a faster, cheaper, less traumatic system of getting divorcing couples to where they could get on with their new lives even though they might still be tethered to their old ones, say for example, because of children or ongoing businesses.

We knew that statistically practically every court case resulted in some form of settlement. So we sought a procedure that would help couples settle their cases by themselves inexpensively and as close as possible to when the case was filed. Talking to one another at the beginning of the case as opposed to avoiding contact until later during an expensive and lengthy trial appeared to us to offer a better opportunity to set aside pride and discuss problems. The court-ordered Pre-pre-trial method was born.

Couples who had ceased communicating during their marriage were encouraged and facilitated by the Court to meet and attempt to resolve their conflicts. What we found was that once couples discussed their problems, often with the help of a court-appointed mediator, they could usually settle their case on their own. This simple, inexpensive procedure usually results in cases being resolved, children being better cared for, money being saved and families being able to maintain civil relationships even after the divorce.

A similar procedure is employed in most cases in the Posey Circuit Court although, of course, not every case is settled early and sometimes problems never get solved. However, I suggest Posey County is a more pleasant place for all of us to live when people with what they may have once thought were intractable problems sit down and work them out on their own.

As I have occasionally explained to warring couples who find it difficult to talk to one another and instead decide to come into Court spoiling for a fight, they can either have some stranger, me for example, decide their futures or they can do it themselves quicker, cheaper and better.

For more Gavel Gamut articles go to:

www.jamesmredwine.com

 

Food Inspection Reports For Vanderburgh County

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Food Inspection Reports 11-2-17

Empty Bowls Event Nov. 11 Raises Funds and Awareness for Hunger Relief

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The Ceramics Center at USI has been working full tilt to make more than 1,000 bowls for the 2017 EMPTY BOWLS Evansville Event, sponsored by the USI Art & Design Department with support from Ivy Tech business students.

The event is planned for Saturday, Nov. 11, from 11a.m. – 2 p.m., at Sauced, 1113 Parrett St., in Evansville’s Art District. The wide variety of soups will be provided by Sauced.

Empty Bowls is a national non-profit organization that lends its name to any organization fundraising for hunger by making and selling ceramic bowls. This is the sixth Empty Bowls event that Alisa (AL) Holen, associate professor of ceramics at USI, has organized.

Holen’s ceramics 1-3 courses were re-classified as “Service Learning” courses in the fall, which opens up the courses to focus on service as well as ceramics. USI Students have been educating as well as learning as groups come into the Ceramics Center at USI to make bowls. After the bowls have been made, USI ceramics students trim and sign each bowl with the maker’s name. They then bisque fire the bowls, glaze the bowls, and glaze fire the bowls in the electric, gas, and salt kilns.

Ivy Tech students in the School of Business, Logistics, and Supply Chain have teamed up with the ceramics students at USI to help organize the event. These students have spent their time organizing the event with soup providers, advertising, and with organizational details. Their work on the project strengthens their understanding of companies acting in a manner which is legal, ethical, and socially responsible.

Each bowl made by the community will be sold for $10/each and come with a choice of soup donated by Sauced, water donated by Tropicana, and a Zip Stick donated by Azzip. Empty Bowls will also feature a “Pro-Bowl” room with professionally-made bowls at higher prices.

Proceeds from this event will be used to support local organizations fighting hunger.

For additional information contact:  Faith Fox, Ivy Tech assistant professor, ffox6@ivytech.edu.

 

UE to Show Documentary “8 Borders, 8 Days” 

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The documentary 8 Borders, 8 Days will be shown Tuesday, November 14, at 6:00 p.m. in Room 170 of the Schroeder School of Business Building on the University of Evansville campus. The screening will be followed by an interactive discussion with the movie’s director Amanda Bailly, UE philosophy professor Derek Jones, and a panel of Syrian and American students. The event is free and open to the public.

The film follows a Syrian family who were not accepted for resettlement to the US and instead traveled with smugglers in a raft to Europe.

“The majority of people in the United States who want to close our doors to refugees have never actually heard the voices of the people affected,” said Bailly. “This film tells the story of three of them, and they’re three of the strongest, most resilient human beings I’ve ever met.”

8 Borders, 8 Days premiered to sold-out screenings at the Florida Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival, where it was awarded a $50,000 impact filmmaking grant. It has been called “raw, emotional,” and “unblinking.”

Donations will be accepted at the event for the Karam Foundation, a non-profit organization on a mission to build a better future for Syria. The foundation develops innovative education programs for Syrian refugee youth, distributes smart aid to Syrian families, and funds sustainable development projects initiated by Syrians for Syrians.

The screening and panel discussion is being co-sponsored by Scholars for Syria and Books Not Bombs, a student-led campaign aimed at creating scholarships for displaced Syrian students. Through donations at the event and online, Scholars for Syria and Books Not Bombs hope to add to the Karam Foundation fund that is empowering Syrian refugees to succeed in school and beyond.

For more information on the event at UE, call 732-239-4139, e-mail gv15@evansville.edu or go to www.facebook.com/events/1987428101542302/?active_tab=about.

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