STATEHOUSE – Ten entities will receive nearly $13 million in Safety PIN grants aimed at reducing infant mortality in Indiana, as a result of a law championed by State Rep. Holli Sullivan (R-Evansville).

“The Safety PIN grant program allows Indiana organizations and communities to apply for resources that can be used to implement a plan to combat infant mortality,” Sullivan said. “Providing grants to programs that understand and target specific drivers of infant mortality, such as smoking and lack of prenatal care, is the most efficient way to protect both the mothers and their unborn children.”

Sullivan authored House Enrolled Act 1004 during the 2015 legislative session to establish the Safety PIN grant program. The program allows groups to present their innovative solutions and apply for a grant to reduce infant mortality. Sullivan said this is a performance-based grant where recipients must show they met certain standards in order to receive the total grant amount.

Administered by the Indiana State Department of Health, the groups applying for grants had to include in their proposal: the targeted area, the amount they plan to reduce the infant mortality rate by and the timeframe in which they will achieve their goal.

According to the Indiana State Department of Health, 31 entities applied for the grant; 10 of which received funding. Projects chosen to move forward included ones focused on safe sleep practices, prenatal care, smoking cessation, one-on-one home visits and key demographic groups with higher infant mortality rates.

Lawmakers appropriated a total of $13.5 million for grants and development of a mobile application designed to help connect pregnant women with resources and reduce Indiana’s infant mortality rate.

As the fifth worst state in the nation for infant mortality, the House Republicans sought to address this issue, making it a top priority in the 2015 session.

“These grants will be put to good use and I will continue looking for more ways to improve the health of all Hoosiers, especially the unborn,” Sullivan said.

By Tom Purcell

I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there IS a Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in the Communist Party paper Granma, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, El Presidente. Is there a Santa Claus?

– Virginia O’Hanlon 

Dear Virginia:

Your little friends are wrong. Of course there is no Santa Claus. Did your papa not tell you that I banned all likenesses of Santa, a symbol of Yankee capitalist greed, in 1959?

Did your papa not read the 1959 Time article that explained how I required all Christmas decorations to be made of Cuban materials, with traditional Cuban scenes – that American-style Christmas trees had to be replaced with Cuban palms?

Does he not remember that I, the world’s most successful Scrooge, canceled Christmas altogether in 1969 – that millions of Cuban children grew up without any sense of a Christmas tradition – and that I only eased the ban in 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited our country?

Believe in Santa Claus, Virginia? You might as well believe that freedom exists – as foolhardy American pigs do. Their freedom opens the floodgates to everything that is bad in the human heart – greed and vanity and dishonesty.

Only a benevolent dictator like Fidel can stop such freedom. Only I can open the floodgates to everything good in the human heart, such as generosity and selflessness and integrity. Those who refuse to embrace these traits will be beaten, jailed or sent to the firing squad!

I laugh when I read the various estimates of the political opponents I sent to their deaths – between 4,000 and 33,000. Even Fidel has lost count. But I had to whack these troublemakers. They stood in the way of the revolution. They didn’t know that only with absolute power could I help my people, in particular the poor.

All the world knows I am a great champion of the poor. I love poor people so much, in fact, that I created millions of new ones.

I gave them education – I’m proud to say my country has the best educated janitors, maids and garbage collectors in Latin America!

I gave them free health care – albeit not very good health care. It’s not my fault most of our doctors, in their greed, fled to other countries to enrich themselves with the livable salaries our communist country can never pay them.

My intentions are good and – as the progressive left in America will tell you – isn’t that all that matters?

It’s true that as my people have suffered – the average income in my country is $20 per month – I have lived a lavish life.

Forbes estimated my net worth at just short of $1 billion. Had I been a ruthless capitalist pig like America’s president-elect, I, too, would be a billionaire many times over. But Fidel didn’t do too badly as the dictator of a small communist island.

But getting back to your question, Virginia, of course there is no Santa Claus.

Look, Virginia, the most real things in the world are only those things that Fidel sees. Did Fidel ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not. Fidel only sees the good life that the revolution has brought to Cuba – including the finest fleet of rundown ’58 Studebakers in all the world!

Alas! There is no Santa Claus, Virginia.

And now that I have answered your question, Fidel has a question for you: What are the names of these little friends who have been telling you lies about this Santa Claus?

– Fidel Castro

The VHS is hosting an adopt-a-thon of epic proportions on Friday & Saturday, December 16^th & 17^th. It is an event not to be missed.

 

For the second year, the Vanderburgh Humane Society will be hosting an “Empty the Shelter” event with 100% waived adoption fees on all shelter animals. This includes dogs, cats, and rabbits. The event will kick off at 10:00 am on Friday, December 16^th. VHS will have extended hours on both days, opening early (10:00 am instead of noon) and closing late (8:00 pm instead of the normal 6:00.) All hands will be on deck for this event, including all staff members and a host of volunteers.

The obvious well-meaning concerns that many individuals have are that people who cannot afford to pay an adoption fee, cannot afford to have a pet. One is inclined to believe that those who get “free” animals are much more likely to abuse them, abandon them, or return them to the shelter once the excitement wears off.

The ASPCA has done extensive research into these very issues. They recently conducted a study at the Edmonson Humane Society analyzing 344 cat adopters. 138 families paid adoption fees, and 206 did not. What they discovered was that paying the adoption fee seemed to have no bearing on whether or not the cat received follow-up veterinary care, and it also did not affect retention. Both groups had families who did provide their cats with vet care, and families who did not. More than 80% of the fee-waived families indicated that they valued their cats and would adopt again.
– MORE –

A 2006 study conducted by ASPCA Senior Director of Shelter Research and Development, Emily Weiss and Shannon Gramann, ASPCA Manager of Shelter Research and Development, compared “the attachment levels of adopters of cats — fee based adoptions vs. free adoptions.” These were their results, which were published in Vol. 12 Issue 4 of the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science.

• Attachment to cats adopted from the study facility was not decreased when adoption fees were eliminated
• Eliminating adoption fees does not devalue the animals in the eyes of the adopters
• Free adult cat programs could “dramatically impact the lives of thousands of shelter cats who would otherwise reside in a shelter for months or be euthanized.”