Letters
- Details
- Written by: Mike Thompson
However, most Social Security recipients don’t realize that they are eligible for a rebate of $300 through this economic stimulus package, even if they have no other income. This rebate also applies to people who receive VA disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits. But they can only receive it if they file a tax return.
If you receive Social Security benefits or VA disability compensation, pension or survivors’ benefits, I encourage you to file a tax return so you can receive your rebate. This economic stimulus package was designed to help Americans who are struggling with the rising costs of housing, energy and health care, and that includes many seniors and people with disabilities.
All you have to do is file a 2007 IRS Form 1040 or Form 1040A and report at least $3,000 in qualifying income on the form, which includes your SSA or VA benefits.
For assistance, please call my Congressional office at (707) 226-9898. Or, find complete instructions for filling out this form at my Web site, http://mikethompson.house.gov.
These rebates and other efforts to revitalize the economy are just a start. There is clearly much more to be done. Congress continues working to find new, long-term solutions to our country’s economic problems.
Mike Thompson represents Lake County in the House of Representatives.
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- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Please, please, everyone get your heads out of the morass of mascot sand and get busy with seeing to it that the children of Lake County get the best possible education. That means all children. Get out of the past! Deal with the future. Stop wasting time, newspaper space, money and emotions on the past!
Lake County Office of Education is dealing with a very difficult situation. Give them your support to keep our schools functioning. A mascot has nothing to do with the quality of education required by children to be successful, self-supporting, productive human beings. Let’s close the chapter on mascots now and forever, and get the entire community united and focused on the critical issue of educating our children.
To me, and to many others with whom I have discussed this issue, the Kelseyville Indians have always represented school teams that are tenacious, courageous, resourceful and bright with a winning attitude. Does this sound derogatory?
Leona M. Butts lives in Clearlake Oaks.
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- Details
- Written by: Ken Young
Much to the surprise – and welcome – of the Board of Supervisors for getting it right, that the time is now for this program to go forth.
If one child is saved the lifetime cost of becoming infected with HIV and/or HEP C, picking up and getting infected by a dirty needle in a park playground; then, it is all worth it.
The stats for AIDS and HEP C, presented by the Department of Public Health, were scary in their sparseness. As folks who work in the public service sector know, it is safe to hazard a guess that the existing stats for both infections are probably at least 200- to 300-percent higher than the stats collected for citizens who are in the system, i.e., 63 documented AIDS and nearly 200 HEP C.
This is merely the tip of the iceberg and we need prevention programs such as the syringe-exchange if, at least, to practice harm-reduction and have access to the IV drug population that proliferates in the County of Lake as well as those devastating other rural counties in Northern California.
Hats off to the Board of Supervisors and the health services and spiritual community for being both progressive and pro-active. I feel hope.
Ken Young is program coordinator for the Community Care HIV/AIDS Project. He lives in Clearlake Oaks.
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- Details
- Written by: Janis Paris and Paul Frindt
The CAH puts specialized nurses into the same category as doctors when describing minimum staff requirements. The following is taken from the Rural Assistance Center's Web site (www.raconline.org) frequently asked questions about CAHs: “The staff … could be a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, or a clinical nurse specialist, with training or experience in emergency care. In certain very limited circumstances, the coverage could be provided temporarily by a registered nurse.”
Furthermore, you will not know until you arrive at the hospital if there is a doctor in attendance or not: “a CAH, that does not have a physician on site 24 hours per day, seven days per week, [must] provide a notice to all patients upon admission.”
Nowhere in the CAH definition is it ever guaranteed that a physician will be “on-call” at all times and able to come to the hospital if needed: “CAHs are required to provide oversight by a physician, but the oversight provisions are very liberal. This can be especially useful in communities that have had difficulty recruiting physicians.”
This illusion of an Emergency Ward is worse than no emergency ward at all. The waiting time for treatment allowed by these standards is scandalous. It would be better to give training and funding to ambulance staff so they can perform triage themselves and get injured parties to an appropriate place of treatment.
For more information visit www.raconline.org/info_guides/hospitals/cah.php.
Janis Paris and Paul Frindt live in Spring Valley.
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