There will be a special meeting of the Common Council of the City of Evansville, Indiana on Monday, July 29, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in Room 301 of the Civic Center.

The purpose of this meeting is to review and discuss the McGladrey Report.

The Evansville Police Department will be hosting a Coffee With a Cop workshop this afternoon at the Old National Bank building at 1 Main St. The workshop begins at 1:30pm in the Schlottman Auditorium.

This workshop will have over 30 attendees from agencies in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. The presenter will be Officer Chris Cognac from the Hawthorne California Police Department. Officer Cognac is the founder of the Coffee with a Cop program.

This 4 hour-workshop will review the philosophy of community policing, explain how Coffee with a Cop aids in problem solving and relationship building, and provide helpful tools and strategies for implementing a successful Coffee with a Cop program.

The media is invited to attend the workshop.

Tomorrow morning, there will be a Coffee with a Cop event at the Donut Bank at Hwy 41 and Lincoln Ave from 8:00-10:00. There will be a 2^nd Coffee with a Cop event at the Downtown Diner at 122 First St in Henderson Kentucky from 10:30-12:30. The media is invited to attend one or both of these events.

Preliminary design concepts for the new Roberts Park will be on display at two open house meetings this month. The first meeting is tonight from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Swonder Ice Arena, 209 N. Boeke Rd. The second concept meeting will take place at the Traveling City Hall meeting set for Wednesday, July 31, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 918 W. Mill Rd. The preliminary designs will also be posted on the City of Evansville website www.evansville.in.gov later this week, and residents will have the ability to submit feedback electronically.

The City of Evansville’s Department of Sustainability, Energy and Environmental Quality (SEEQ) is pleased to announce the Sustainable Evansville Awards 2013.

The Sustainable Evansville Awards recognize important contributions to sustainability during the last two years, celebrating the greater Evansville area’s environmental enrichment, economic progress, and vibrant community. Projects located in Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties are eligible to apply. Awards will be presented for achievements in these categories:

1) Air or Water Quality, 2) Resource Enhancement or Conservation, 3) Greening the Community 4) Green Building, and 5) Education. Each entry will be scored by a panel of independent judges for innovation, impact and leadership in promoting sustainability in the region.

The application deadline is August 30, 2013.

Mayor Lloyd Winnecke will recognize the winners during the Sustainable Evansville Awards Ceremony at the Downtown Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013, at noon at Tropicana Evansville.

Additional information and entry forms are available on the Sustainable Evansville Awards

Program website:http://www.evansville.in.gov/index.aspx?page=2994

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Dona Bergman @ seeq@evansville.in.gov or 812/435-6145.

My ancestors helped build Detroit. The Fourniers were fur-trappers and farmers living hard by the Detroit River until the fledgling auto industry beckoned in the early 1900s with a better deal: $5 a day and a pension.

In the 1960s, my father opted out of the family business to be a police officer. He served Detroit for 25 years as part of the elite motorcycle unit that doubled as the riot squad. One of my earlier memories is of my parents, dressed in church clothes, leaving our house to attend the 1967 funeral of a riot cop.

Mom and dad raised four children at 15285 Coram in the city’s northeast corner, the same block upon which they were raised. All this to say: I love my hometown. And I hate what Detroit’s demise might bode for our country.

Wrenching economic change … income inequality … political corruption … ineffective government … rigid institutions … chronic debt and racism — these are the things that bankrupted Detroit, morally and fiscally, and they’re an exaggerated reflection of the nation’s challenges.

Economy: Detroit failed to adapt to the global economy and to diversify for the postindustrial era. “Sometimes the losers from economic change are individuals whose skills have become redundant; sometimes they’re companies, serving a market niche that no longer exists; and sometimes they’re whole cities that lose their place in the economic ecosystem,” wrote economic columnist Paul Krugman in today’s New York Times. Sometimes, the victims are whole countries, a fact that seems lost on Washington, where the leadership is polarized and smart ideas go to die.

Income inequality: The unemployment rate in Detroit is more than 18 percent. Per capita income is pathetically low, near $15,000. Life is much better for suburban residents. In Grosse Pointe, Mich., separated from Detroit by the aptly named Alter Road, the median family income is more than $100,000, and unemployment is not a problem.

Bad government: “The city’s operations have become dysfunctional and wasteful after years of budgetary restrictions, mismanagement, crippling operational practices and, in some cases, indifferences or corruption,” Detroit’s emergency manager Kevyn Orr wrote in May. “Outdated policies, work practices, procedures, and systems must be improved consistent with best practices of 21st-century government.” It would not be a stretch to apply Orr’s words to the federal government.

Broken promises: The group most at risk in Detroit’s bankruptcy may be the city’s 20,000 retirees (including my father and many friends and family members). Of Detroit’s overall debt, about half represents pension and health benefits promised to retirees, according to The Washington Post. This is because city leaders borrowed against pension funds and mortgaged the future—not unlike what Washington’s leadership is doing to Social Security and Medicare.

Rigid institutions: Government agencies, businesses, schools, churches, the media, and virtually every other city institution failed to help residents weather the tumult of the last four decades of the 20th century. In particular, big labor never managed a second act after anchoring the rise of the American middle class in Detroit. Union membership and influence has declined in Detroit and elsewhere, considered by many to be more of an obstacle than a solution.

Racial tensions: Racism and racial polarization have a long and an ugly history in Detroit. The 1967 riots caused many whites to leave the city. White flight increased in the 1970s, when school busing and a ban on real-estate “red lining” threatened the nasty traditions of segregation. Craven real estate agents hired black women to push baby strollers through white neighborhoods, then knocked on doors urging residents to sell “before it’s too late.”

The fallout from George Zimmerman’s trial struck a chord with this Detroit native, particularly President Obama’s eloquent remarks about Trayvon Martin and black Americans. As a kid, I was told to lock my car doors in “black neighborhoods.” The owner of Detroit store where I worked ordered me to follow young black men into the aisles “to keep an eye on them.”

On race and other issues, Detroit should be a warning to the country. It was—and in many ways, still is—a great city, but poor leadership and an ambivalent citizenry allowed Detroit’s problems to fester, grow, and eventually overwhelm it. A nation can make the same mistake.

Coincidentally, when Detroit declared bankruptcy, I was wrapping up a Michigan vacation. The highlight was my daughter’s wedding. She lives and works in the city, and got married in a church not far from where the Fourniers once trapped beavers and farmed. Her family drove in from the suburbs to a city they had abandoned (and that had abandoned them). The wedding reception was at the Detroit Historical Museum, where the Fourniers danced to Motown music in the brick-and-cobblestone streets of “Old Detroit.” We toasted the future.

 

              A new early childhood class will open at Dexter Elementary this fall to serve students ages 3-5 years old.  Children must be 3 by Aug. 1, 2013 in order to attend.

Hours of the program are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, when the EVSC is in session. Cost is $130 per week.  There is also the option of an abbreviated day, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost for this program is $100 per week.  Childcare vouchers will be accepted. Bus transportation is not available.

The program, like all of the other Early Childhood classes in the EVSC, uses the Reggio Emilia Approach. This style of early education is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was developed by teacher Loris Malaguzzi, and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emiliain Italy after World War II. The program is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum.

In addition to the new classes at Dexter, Daniel Wertz early childhood classes also have openings.  Call 435-8219 to enroll or for more information.

For individuals who qualify for Title 1 programming, there are early childhood openings at Culver Family Learning Center. This programming runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday when the EVSC is open.  The program is free of charge to eligible families and bus transportation may be provided.

The EVSC currently offers early childhood programming in a variety of schools including:
Title 1 Programs: Daniel Wertz, Cedar Hall, Culver Family Learning Center (including Even Start for adults wanting to obtain their GED), Caze and Evans. Tuition-based programming is offered at Scott School (Little Husky World); Daniel Wertz (Little Panther World); and now at Dexter. In addition, the EVSC also offers infant and toddler programs at Bosse TLC and at the Culver Family Learning Center through Even Start at no charge.

 

(Washington, DC) – Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released an update to their legislative framework that would replace the current Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) system with a fair and stable system of physician payment in the Medicare program.  This announcement comes after a draft of the legislation was released at the end of June and is the next step in a transparent, bipartisan process to ensure our seniors are receiving quality, efficient care.

As a physician, Representative Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) helped to shape components of the draft legislation, including the use of Medicare data in developing new models of care and improving the quality and patient care.

Rep. Bucshon released the following statement regarding the updated legislation to reform SGR:

 

“I applaud the work of Energy and Commerce Committee on another critical step forward in a transparent and bipartisan process to reform our broken Medicare physician payment system. The current system is not working and is unfair to seniors and their physicians. The reforms in the draft legislation are vital to ensuring seniors have access to predictable, quality care and that physicians are afforded necessary certainty. I look forward to continue open discussion on how we can improve this legislation.”  

BACKGROUND (Courtesy the Energy and Commerce Committee):

 

The draft legislation unveiled last week incorporates feedback received from a broad range of bipartisan lawmakers and over 80 stakeholder organizations, representing ideas of committee Republicans and Democrats. The policy would get rid of the SGR for an improved fee for service system in which providers report quality measures that will lead to better care in a more efficient manner. Better quality care will lead to better outcomes and put a greater emphasis on efficiency which can lead to cost savings. In addition, providers will have the option of leaving the fee for service system and opt instead for new ways of delivering care that put an even greater emphasis on quality and efficient care, particularly those that can mean more time with patients and more savings to the system.

The Subcommittee on Health has announced a markup for this week on the draft legislation, which is authored by Health Subcommittee Vice Chairman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Full Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Full Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI).