Two Red Ribbon Week activities taking place Friday in EVSC Schools

• Stringtown Elementary, 8:05 a.m., 4720 Stringtown Road:  Students will gather outside following their morning news report and will do a red balloon release to show their pledge to be drug free.  This is the culminating event of a week of activities informing students about the danger of drug use.  Contact at the event:  Principal Martin Brown.

• Bosse High School, 1:20 p.m., 1300 Washington Avenue:  Teen Power students at Bosse are getting the word out about not using drugs through several activities including Friday’s theme day — wearing t-shirts using the theme: “Day of the Dead.”  They will have a wrecked car parked on campus to symbolize what can happen and at 1:40, a school-wide assembly with guest speakers will be conducted.  Interviews with Teen Power students are available around 1:20 to talk about the importance of not using drugs, and what they are doing at Bosse to get the word out.  Media are welcome to stay for the assembly following the interviews for b-roll and photos.  Contact at the event: Teacher Sally Hale.

Background: National Family Partnership (formerly National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth) annually provides drug awareness by sponsoring the National Red Ribbon Celebration. The movement started in 1988, in response to the murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena. His murder angered parents, and youth in communities across the country began wearing Red Ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to raise awareness of the killing and destruction cause by drugs in America. Today, the Red Ribbon serves as a catalyst to mobilize communities to educate youth and encourage participation in drug prevention activities.  http://redribbon.org/

Report supports notion of adopting ‘wait and see’ approach after PSA test, experts say

Men who undergo a biopsy that rules out prostate cancer might still experience severe anxiety because the procedure can result in pain or bleeding, researchers have found.

The findings add to growing criticism of prostate cancer screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. Critics say the test is unnecessary and potentially harmful, given that many men with the cancer will have a slow-growing form of the disease that may never prove fatal.

The results of a PSA test often are followed by biopsy. In the new study, even those men who received a negative biopsy report often felt alarm or worry due to pain at the incision site or blood in their urine, stool or ejaculate, the British researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancers for the American Cancer Society, said the research highlights important issues.

“This does give one more reason why doctors should be upfront with their patients talking about the whole process of prostate cancer detection,” Brooks said. “If they choose to undergo a PSA test and it comes back high, they will have to have a biopsy. They may have a number of negative consequences from the biopsy even if they don’t have a cancer diagnosis. This is a conversation that should take place before the first PSA level is drawn.”

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and its incidence has risen rapidly following the introduction of PSA blood tests, the researchers said in background information.

The influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, however, recently recommended against PSA screening for men at average risk for prostate cancer, concluding that it has little to no effect on prostate cancer deaths but can cause great emotional and physical harm to men who undergo treatment due to their test results.

“We think that men should have as much information as possible about the possible consequences of having a PSA test before they decide to take the test,” said study co-author Jenny Donovan, a professor of social medicine at the University of Bristol.

“Most men having a PSA test will hope that it is negative, but it is important that they know that if the PSA is raised, they will be advised to have a prostate biopsy,” Donovan said. “The biopsy process is uncomfortable for most, and for some will be painful and lead to symptoms including bleeding and infection, and, if the symptoms are severe, will lead to anxiety.”

The study tracked more than 1,100 British men who underwent a biopsy for prostate cancer. They returned questionnaires assessing their anxiety and depression at the time of their biopsy, and at seven days and 35 days following the procedure.

Men who reported biopsy symptoms as a moderate or major problem a week after the procedure had markedly higher levels of anxiety than those reporting biopsy symptoms as a slight problem or no problem at all, the researchers said.

For example, 10 percent of men who had blood in their ejaculate and considered it a serious problem experienced heightened anxiety, compared with about 3 percent who had the same symptom but did not consider it much of a problem.

This anxiety decreased over time, however. By 35 days after the biopsy, the proportion of men with troubling biopsy-related symptoms remained about the same, but they reported considerably reduced levels of anxiety.

These results should give doctors pause before recommending a PSA test to a patient, or ordering one on their behalf, cancer experts said.

“One of the major debates in American health right now is whether men should be screened for prostate cancer, because screening can lead to unnecessary biopsies,” said Dr. Charles Ryan, a genitourinary cancer specialist with the University of California, San Francisco. “This article should be read by both urologists and primary-care physicians who should weigh this in their decision-making related to prostate cancer screening.”

Despite current guidelines, however, many U.S. physicians still routinely order PSA tests for patients. For example, a study in the Oct. 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that doctors surveyed in the study ordered PSA tests for 40 percent of their male patients older than 75 — even though no major medical group recommends prostate screening for that age group.

Brooks, of the American Cancer Society, said that in the past, doctors have tended to automatically order a PSA screening whenever blood work is performed on a man, often without even discussing with the patient what might happen if the test comes back abnormal.

“It does them a real disservice if you haven’t had a discussion with them about whether they want to head down that particular path,” he said.

More information

For more information on prostate cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

SOURCES: Jenny Donovan, Ph.D., professor of social medicine, University of Bristol, United Kingdom; Charles Ryan, M.D., genitourinary cancer specialist, University of California, San Francisco; Durado Brooks, M.D., director of prostate and colorectal cancers, American Cancer Society

On behalf of the entire Deaconess family, congratulations to Nancy Koehler, Executive Director of the Deaconess Foundation for being named Rotarian of the Year.

Congratulations to Nancy Koehler, Executive Director of the Deaconess Foundation, for being named the Rotarian of the Year for the Evansville Rotary Club. Rotary President, Jeffrey Berger, told the club that Nancy, “has truly modeled the motto of Service Above Self” in her job as well as in her work in the community. We couldn’t agree more.

In her time as Executive Director of the Deaconess Foundation, Nancy has enabled countless employees to receive the education and training needed to advance the practice of medicine provided by Deaconess. She has secured funding to provide medical services to those who could otherwise not afford or access it, and served as a living example of Deaconess’ mission to provide quality healthcare with a compassionate and caring spirit.

The Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana is pleased to announce Amanda Sibrel as the featured artist In the Window. My House was Built with Wood from your Family Tree is the title of Sibrel’s exhibit. The opening reception will be Saturday, November 9^th from1:00pm to 3:00pm at the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana. The exhibit will be on display until November 29^th.

My House was Built with Wood from your Family Tree

Artist Statement, 2013

I grew up in a house on the 700 block of Chandler Ave in Evansville, IN. It was a very old house with high ceilings and hardwood floors, crown-molding and leaded windows, French doors and peeling wallpaper. The house had been updated with bits and pieces of each of its owners. Wallpaper layered atop wallpaper. I found Africa and Bette Crocker and Groucho Marx hiding in the walls where the paper had peeled.  It aged a lot during the 18 years that I lived there; we grew older together.  And when the last of the eight layers of roof began to leak, I took comfort in the stories I would share about my aged friend that I’d matured with. When I moved out to go to college in Kansas City, I took few pictures because I knew I’d remember every detail forever.

I did lots of drawings of the rooms in my house throughout college. In them, I imagined who might have lived there through each decade of its existence and how they might have looked standing in my bedroom, my bathroom and the foyer. I also documented and analyzed every big old, drafty house I lived in after.

My art has been about many things in the 13 years since I left my house behind, and the 7 years since the city tore it down, but no matter the theme I intend to follow, my history with that Victorian Lady has solidified my aesthetic. I still romanticize the history of each house and the people who lived and loved in it and covered the walls with their own stories as they built additions onto their family tree.

By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – The latest squabble between Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz and, oh, well, just about every Republican in the state raises an intriguing question.

Is there one single sane functioning adult to be found at work anywhere at any level of state or federal government?

Ritz, a Democrat, filed suit Tuesday against the state Board of Education, all of the members of which had been appointed by Republican governors. Ritz argued that the board violated the state’s open door law by drafting and sending to Republican legislative leaders a letter last week urging them to take the controversial A-F school grading process out of her hands.

Ritz said that the board members didn’t even tell her about the letter, even though she’s supposed to be the board’s chair.

This Indiana playground donnybrook follows on the heels of a federal government shutdown that stretched on for more than two weeks, drained $24 billion out of the economy and slowed job growth across the country. That shutdown and resulting economic disaster came as a result of carefully thought-out strategy by tea party Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

The right-wingers’ finely tuned plan was to stamp their feet and hold their breath until the rest of the country gave them their way.

This battle over who controls education policy is every bit as mature as the shutdown fight was.

At the heart of this kindergarten tussle is an inconvenient election – for Republicans and self-proclaimed education reformers, anyway.

Last fall, Ritz defeated a heavily favored and heavily funded incumbent, Tony Bennett. Bennett was one of the darlings of the education reform movement, a fire-breather in favor of school choice, standardized school and teacher assessments and market-driven approaches to learning in general.

Bennett’s defeat was such an unwelcome development for the school choice and accountability crowd – in part because it undermined one of their basic arguments, namely that their approach was what the people wanted – that they pretty much decided to pretend it never happened.

Ever since Ritz got elected, the state’s Republican hierarchy has worked to ignore the new superintendent or thwart her if the circumstances didn’t allow them to ignore her.

The fact that, in addition to ignoring or thwarting her, they also were ignoring or thwarting the majority of the voters who placed her in office seems not to have occurred to the GOP deep thinkers and their appointees.

They have continued on their course even after a series of stories by the Associated Press revealed that, before he left office, Bennett altered the assessment process of the A-F school grading system to get the outcome he wanted for a specific school, one he had touted as a model for his approach to education. That revelation delivered a devastating blow to Bennett’s career and reputation and forced state officials to re-examine the whole A-F system.

When the revelations about Bennett’s manipulation of school grading system hit, Republicans and Democrats settled into another protracted set of squabbles. Republicans blamed Ritz for leaking the information that damaged Bennett and the A-F system. Democrats did their best to make Bennett the poster boy for everything bad in schools, state government and life in general.

The partisan pushing, shoving and jostling now have exploded into a full-scale playground brawl.

In addition to sending the signal to parents all over Indiana that their children will not be under anything resembling adult supervision as long as these leaders are on the job, the suit creates other interesting problems.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller, for example, makes it a point of pride to say that he is the state’s lawyer. Who does he line up with on this one – the schools chief elected by the voters or the state board of education appointed by the governor?

Zoeller refused to comment on the suit when it broke and may be looking for a way to sit this fight out, but others likely won’t be able to do so.

Thoughtful Hoosiers doubtless will ponder what all these folks could accomplish on behalf of the state’s students if they spent half – nay, a quarter – as much time and energy on improving kids’ learning experiences as they do trying to stick it to each other.

But that would require someone in a leadership position to show some maturity.

That, too, raises a question: Who’s going to be the grown-up, perhaps the only one around, in state government?

John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits” WFYI 90.1 FM Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

The Rotary Club of Evansville announced today that they will Cut the ribbon Thursday October 24, 2013 at 11:30 am for the Canoe/Kayak Launch located at the south east quadrant of the Green River Rd bridge over Pigeon Creek.  County Commissioners Marsha Abell, Joe Kiefer and Stephen Melcher will be present to help break ground.  The ribbon will be sretched out across Pigeon Creek.  Several people involved with the project will canoe up to it to cut the ribbon (weather permitting).

The total project was funded by the Rotary Foundation of Evansville along with several community partners.  The location was secured with Vanderburgh County and the adjoining landowner.  Rotary’s goal with this project is to continue the restoration of Pigeon Creek as the vibrant recreational and cultural center of the City that it once was.  What is lacking now is access to the waterway itself.  Currently, there is only one public access ramp on Pigeon Creek which means the only takeout available is on the Ohio River.  Siting a public access ramp at the intersection of Pigeon Creek and Green River Road would open over six miles of this waterway to the residents of Evansville, bringing the opportunities for paddling, fishing & exploration within easy reach of local residents and visitors.

Some of the major contributors include:  Evansville Rotary Foundation, Alcoa, Welborn Baptist Foundation, Vectren, Bussing-Koch Foundation, Koch Foundation, Crescent –Cresline Wabash Foundation, Evansville Commerce Bank, Old National Bank, German American Bank, Meyer and Mulzer Stone.  The Schnepper family donated property.

For details about the Canoe/Kayak Launch or to find out more about donating to the project, visit www.EvansvilleRotary.comor contact Rotary Executive Assistant Julie Spratt at 812-962-4687 or info@evansvillerotary.com .  For details regarding the ribon cutting ceremony, call Dianna Page at 812-480-1471 or dianna@evvairport.com .