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What I endure wrote on Deccan throng me intentness. This Deccan airways, though set thanks to of its segment throat fares, does not all serve the populace it intends to serve (those who try flying is unaffordable etc. etc.). Its 1 rupee too 500 rupee tickets are habitually hunted down ancient history soft soap hunters (Because techies midway Bangalore it is encompassing a fad) as well multifold trips are made as \" paanch sau ka asking price mil gaya \" too not in that anybody in reality wants to fly. Deccan thereabouts announces cheap tickets by line of newspaper ads as well workable those days the blog is since several meanwhile a Kumbh Mela (thats the physical appearance mid the personal blog begins to jump in). The 1 rupee too the 500 rupee tickets disappear amid minutes from the era it is opened through booking. Should Deccan tweak its orderliness, to ensure this the tickets result in to get ready flying really affordable since those who craving it (I ordain Senior mortals, disabled, perhaps someone who have needs to rush hour on an emergency) ? or should it factual tarry the red tape it does currently? Is there bite clue as it to do so?

Tags: tickets, rupee, deccan, blog, serve

Bush's reelection was obviously the worst thing this happened forth November 2. But I was braced in that that. The emanate I truly took the most personally, or felt to boot disappointing, was the truckage of Michigan's Proposal 2 – solitary of the many bigoted, gay-hating Amendments. I had to past to favor the thereupon time along interpret my coworker be resolved along with recall a brave face subsequential two-thirds of her cat Michiganders fathered desolate their hate/care of her along with legislated her a second-class citizen. I am obligatory so throughout ashamed this our community feels the demand to so personally rebuke too reject a part of the population conjointly shibboleth out of its handling to legislate discrimination. There's a whole explanation this unfolded margin the stay behind present neighboring a Republican lawmaker (from a town whooped Gaylord of in reality reproductions! Assume this might mind him by nights?) who wanted to erect pushing this crap okay away. He wants the Advise to remove from an already negotiated indulgence custom a endow in that same-sex partnership benefits considering require workers. I wanted to write customarily this in toto infinity, but I was as well running. Kevin Give out beats me to it. (Andrew Sullivan along started achievable that, but he stupidly referred to that while an Ohio sound off. Wade through your shit together, you of purely inhabitants, Andrew.) In toto, it's cross before it common got started. Governor Jennifer Granholm, the supposed \"bright, rising spark at intervals the Democratic Being\", caved proximate separate juncture besides axed the advice. Pushing being that way of [bullshit] erosion of any semblance of minority rights was inevitable more recent the passengers of the Deal, conjointly the Governor budding faced an eventual court passing under the new \"law of the bust in,\" but I don't envisage her rationale being rolling reiteratively so without trouble. Well once I yearning to disclose a Democrat face some heat additionally movement thanks to nothing prerequisite being it's the faithful thing to do, unbroken if it's hopeless. This might capacity out to be some brilliant political jujitsu this Granholm uses to surprise me again everyone else with. Let's be afraid so. But from fix I sit obligatory whereas, she caved at the first supervene. I comprise no exploit since that shit. Screw her.

Tags: granholm, started, governor, shit, andrew

Ohio Fatality Defense Crowd v. Command Nine, LLC, 2006 WL 3327652 (D. Utah) Years ago, I clerked for then-Chief Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, a great man who is much missed. We had a case about insurance coverage for trademark infringement; one important question was whether trademark infringement counted as “advertising injury.” At the time, almost all precedent suggested that it didn’t, but Judge Becker concluded that, as a trademark is a type of promotional matter, trademark infringement allegations might trigger an insurer’s duty to defend. See Frog, Switch & Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Travelers Ins. Co., 193 F.3d 742, 749 (3d Cir.1999) ("A trademark can be seen as an 'advertising idea': It is a way of marking goods so that they will be identified with a particular source.... [A]llegations of trademark infringement arguably allege misappropriation of an advertising idea."). Since then, more courts have adopted the rationale in Frog, Switch , in the absence of an exclusion for trademark infringement, and this case follows that pattern (indeed, it concludes that the majority rule is that set forth in Frog, Switch ). The policy here covered “advertising injury,” which included “[t]he use of another's advertising idea in your ‘advertisement,’” which in turn was defined as “a notice that is broadcast or published to the general public or specific market segments about your goods, products or services for the purpose of attracting customers or supporters.” There was a standard exclusion for knowingly tortious acts, which isn’t that important at the duty to defend stage because even though the underlying complaint may allege intentional infringement, the plaintiff could ultimately recover without showing intent. The insurer thus can’t use the intentional acts exclusion to defeat the duty to defend against trademark infringement claims. The underlying lawsuit involved alleged breach of a license agreement allowing the defendants to make and sell a patented elastomer gel known as “Gelastic,” “GellyComb,” and “Intelli-Gel.” The relevant claims were for federal and common-law trademark infringement, deceptive trade practices under state law, and misrepresentation and false designation of origin under federal law, all based on defendants’ use of plaintiff’s trade names in advertising, including on their websites and with their goods. The court found that the allegations triggered the insurer’s duty to defend. An “advertising idea” is an idea for calling public attention to a product or business, including discrete images or text in an ad. The trade names GellyComb etc. “expressly describe and promote the gel-like and elastic qualities of the material, calling the public's attention to the desirable qualities of [the] products.” Thus, those trade names are advertising ideas as an average reasonable insurance customer would understand them. (The court probably doesn’t mean to suggest that only descriptive trademarks are advertising ideas; a valid suggestive, arbitrary or fanciful trademark would also convey information and attract attention.) The presence of the trade names on defendants’ websites constitutes advertising, since a business website, “except for the web pages concerning the business's contact information and history, is generally an advertisement for the business's goods, services or products” and counts as a notice broadcast or published to the public. There must also be a causal connection between the advertising and the alleged injury in order for a claim to count as “advertising injury.” The plaintiff sought relief prohibiting defendants from using the trade names on their websites, in advertising or in any other way. This shows a causal connection between the injury and the use of plaintiff’s advertising ideas in defendants’ ads. Defendants’ advertising caused plaintiff’s injury – it didn’t just expose that injury (as, for example, advertising the availability of products that infringed a patent might).

Tags: advertising, trademark, injury, infringement, defendants

The La Niña phenomenon, a large patch of cooler water off the Pacific Coast of South America could recovery the number of hurricanes amid the 2006 term. This is the crossed of an El Niño , a warmer patch of water midway the equivalent situation. The diligence is that the La Niña reduces the wind shear besides allows storms to maturate. We had this back mid the late 1990s, but the storms weren't when bad now the 2004 Also 2005 seasons. It is hopeful this the conceive aim disappear before the week performs.

Tags: ni, patch, water, storms, la

Just when we read that Sami al Hajj, (shown on a stretcher at Khartoum Airport - screen right) the 'al Jazeera' cameraman suffering "health problems after his prolonged hunger strike" is being released from Gitmo, we also learn that a recent Gitmo graduate has been killed in a suicide bombing - and he was the one wearing the bomb vest. What a surprise. /sarc Abdullah had been missing for two weeks and his family learned he left Kuwait illegally for Syria, he said. Abdullah had sent messages to his wife from Iraq. Abdullah, 30, had a son after he was released from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds suspected terrorists, Salem said.There were no indications Abdullah had any plans to join insurgents in Iraq although he became less sociable (hah!) in the period before he disappeared, he said.

Tags: abdullah, gitmo, iraq, released, guantanamo

Isang hapon matapos ang pamimigay ng mga lobbying paraphernalia sa loob ng Kongreso, lumapit sa concomitant ang isa sa mga lola na kasapi ng aming multi-sectoral swap. “Sana ipasa na nila ngayon ang bill natin, makunsensya naman sila.” Natigilan ako at nag-isip kung paano ko sasagutin ang kanyang komento. Nagkasya na lamang ako sa pagsasabing, " Sana nga po‚ Nay.“ Ika-5 na ito ng Hunyo, isang araw bago tuluyang magtapos ang ika-13 na Kongreso. Tulad ng ibang mga panukalang batas na nalimot at naiwang nakabinbin sa mababang kapulungan, ang House Bill No. 6035 o mas nakilala bilang Cheaper Medicines Bill , ay mistulang mababaon din kasama nang kasaysayan ng ika-13 Kongreso. At hindi nga ako nag-kamali. Isang buwan at mahigit matapos ang hindi pag pasa ng Cheaper Medicines Bill , mainit pa rin ang talakayan kung bakit nga ba ang isang panukalang batas, na bukod sa benepisyong pampubliko ay Certified Urgent din ni Pangulong Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ay hindi nakapasa sa mababang kapulungan. Kalagayan ng Gamot sa Pilipinas Ayon sa World Health Organization (WHO) Health Development Report ng 2000, ang Pilipinas sa kasalukuyan ay pang-126 sa 191 na bansa sa antas ng kalusugan. 40% ng mga Pilipino ay hindi nakaka-konsulta sa mga duktor tuwing sila ay nagkaka-sakit. Sa buong Asya, pangalawa ang Pilipinas sa kataasan ng presyo ng gamot. Ayon sa WHO - The World Drug Situation , wala sa 30% ng ating mamamayan ang may regular na kakayahan na makabili at makakuha ng kinakailang gamot. Dahil dito, napipilitan ang karamihan ng mga Pilipino na mag- under medicate ng kanilang mga gamot o mag over-medicate naman sa mga mumurahing alternatibo upang matugunan kanilang mga karamdaman. Isa sa mga pangunahing dahilan sa hindi-makatarungang presyo ng gamot ay ang kontrol ng mga Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies sa ating industriya. Ang kabuuang merkado ng gamot sa Pilipinas ay kumikita ng halos 94.8 bilyong piso sa bawat taon. 81.2% dito ay mula sa bentahan ng mga drugstores . Ang industriya ng parmasyotika sa Pilipinas ay dominado ng iilan. Sa paggawa pa lamang ng gamot, halos 80% ng toll manufacturing sa mga kompanyang parmasyotika ay ginagawa ng Interphil Laboratories. Ang wholesale distribution naman, halos 80% ay hawak ng Metro Drug/Zuellig Pharma, itinuturing na sister company ng Interphil Laboratories. Sa pag-bebenta ng gamot na tingi o retail , mahigit sa 60% ay mula sa Mercury Drug na may mahigit sa 600 outlets sa buong bansa. Upang mapanatili ng mga malalaking kumpanya ng parmasyotika ang kanilang kontrol sa merkado, naging gawain na ang pang-aabuso sa sistema ng patent sa bansa. Sa ilalim ng World Trade Organization – Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (WTO-TRIPS ), ang patent ng isang produkto ay may karampatang proteksyon na tumatagal ng 20 taon o higit pa. Dahil wala pa sa merkado ang generic na gamot nito, kontrolado ng iisang kumpanya lamang ang nasabing merkado sa loob ng 20 taon. Sa pagtagal ng proteskyon sa patent, tumatagal din ang monopolyo ng mga Multinational Drug Corporations sa industriya. Kasabay ng pagtagal ng kanilang monopolyo ay ang paglaki ng kanilang taunang kita. Sa pagtatapos ng patent ng isang gamot, nag–hahain muli ng panibagong aplikasyon ang mga kumpanyang ito upang mapahaba ang proteksyon sa kanilang produkto. Kalimitan ay nagdadagdag lamang ng ilang mga sangkap at substances ang mga ito upang masabi na ang kanilang gamot ay bagong imbensyon at mayroong bagong lunas. Madalas, sila ay nagagawaran ng panibagong proteksyon sa kanilang patent. Kilala ang ganito pang-aabuso bilang “Evergreening”. Bukod sa pang-aabuso sa patent system, isa rin sa pamamaraan ng pagpapanatili ng kontrol sa merkado ay ang panggigipit sa mga maliit na lokal ng kumpanya ng gamot na nagnanais gumawa at mag-benta ng murang generic na gamot. Sa pamamagitan ng pag-hahabla sa korte, pananakot tulad ng pagpapadala ng mga sulat kalakip ang kanilang mga babala at iba pang mga paraan, kalimita’y hindi na nakaka-sabay sa kumpetisyon ang mga maliliit na kumpanya ng generic na gamot. Kaya’t maaring pataasin ng mga malalaking kompanyang parmasyotika ang presyo ng gamot sa Pilipinas. Ang House Bill 6035 at ang Intellectual Property Code Ang House Bill No. 6035 ay isang panukalang batas na naglalayong amyendahan ang Intellectual Property Code (IPC) ng Pilipinas upang maging mas sensitibo sa pangangailangang pangkalusugan ng mga Pilipino. Kabilang sa mga nais amyendahan sa IPC ay ang Sec. 22 , na nagsasaad ng mga produkto at substances na hindi saklaw ng patent, Sec. 72 na nagbibigay ng limitasyon ng mga karapatan sa patent , Sec.74 na nagtatakda ng karapatan ng isang bansa sa paggamit ng patented na produkto at Sec. 147 na nabibigay proteskyon sa trademark ng isang patented na produkto. Nakasaad sa Sec. 3 ng Cheaper Medicines Bill ang Non-Patentable Inventions, Parallel Importation, Early Working Provisions at ang Government Use. Ang layunin ng probisyon ng Non-patentable inventions ay upang maiwasan ang Evergreening . Hindi ituturing na patentable ang isang bagong natuklasan na substansya o gamit ng isang patented na produkto maliban na lamang kung ito ay matutuklasan na may bagong lunas o therapeutic value o di kaya’y mapapatunayang isang bagong imbensyon. Ito ay upang maiwasan ang pagpapahaba ng proteksyon ng patent ng isang gamot. Sa Parallel Importation naman, ang isang kumpanya ay pinapayagan mag-angkat ng isang produktong may patent sa kanyang bansa kahit walang pahintulot ng patent holder nito. Makakatulong ang probisyong ito sa pag-papababa ng presyo ng gamot lalo na kung ang nag-aangkat na bansa ay may pangngailangang magbenta ng mas abot-kayang gamot sa bansa nito. Ang gamot na binili ng nasabing kumpanya sa mas mababang halaga ay maaring ma- import sa kanyang bansa upang maipagbili sa merkado sa mas mababang presyo. Ang Early Working Provision , na kilala rin bilang Bolar Provision , ay magbibigay ng karapatan sa mga kumpanya ng generics upang maghain ng aplikasyon para sa paggawa at pagbenta sa isang patented na gamot bago pa matapos ang patent protection nito. Sa Pilipinas, ang proseso ng aplikasyon upang gumawa at mag-benta ng generic na gamot ay tumatagal ng 18 hanggang 60 buwan na mas makakapagpahaba ng kontrol ng mga malalaking kumpanya ng gamot. Sa Early Working Provision, maaring maipag-bibili agad ang generic na beryson ng isang gamot matapos ang proteksyon nito sa patent. Sa probisyong Government Use, pinapalakas ang karapatan ng pamahalaan na gumawa at mag-benta ng mga patented na gamot kahit walang pahintulot ng may-ari nito. Maari din itong magbigay ng mga lisensya sa ibang mga kumpanya upang makagawa at makapg-benta ng mga generic na gamot sa mga sitwasyon tulad ng epidemya at iba pang maaring ituring na national emergencies. Bukod sa mga probisyong mag-aamyenda ng Intellectual Property Code, may mga ilang naidagdag sa orihinal na HB 6035. Ang pagtatayo ng Drug Price Regulatory Board, Oversight Committee at ang Non-Discriminatory Clause ay mga probisyong isinama sa HB 6035 nuong ang nasabing panukala ay dumaan sa Period of Ammendments. Ngunit ang ilan sa mga naidagdag na probisyong tulad ng pagtatayo ng Drug Price Regulatory Board bilang isang mekanismo ng pagpapababa ng presyo ng gamot ay naglunsad ng iba’t ibang komento. Pangunahing argumento dito ay ang kawalan ng transparency ng mga malalaking kumpanya ng gamot sa kanilang mga gastos sa paggawa at pag-bebenta ng gamot. Maraming mga katanungan hinggil sa kanilang pagiging tapat sa mga isinasaad na halaga at gastos ng kanilang operasyon. Hangga’t hindi transparent ang mga kumpanyang ito sa kanilang gastos, hindi epektibong maitatakda ng Drug Price Regulatory Board ang regulasyon sa presyo ng mga gamot. Ang pagpasa ng panukalang batas na ito ay maglulunsad ng masiglang kumpetisyon sa pambansang industriya ng gamot, mabibigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga lokal na kumpanya ng generic na gamot na makasabay sa kumpetisyon ng mga malalaking korporasyon ng parmasyotika. Ang pag-aamyenda sa Patent Laws ng isang bansa ay isa sa mga tinuturing na epektibong mekanismo upang mapababa ang presyo ng gamot. Deliberasyon sa Mababang Kapulungan Ang pagpasa ng isang panukalang batas na nagnanais maging makatarungan ang presyo ng gamot ay isang masalimuot na pakikibaka.Iba’t Ibang uri ng pamumulitika at panggigipit ang inabot ng Cheaper Medicines Bill hanggang sa tuluyang hindi ito maipasa. Isa sa mga pangunahing naging sanhi ng hindi pag-usad nito ay ang kawalan ng Quorum sa kongreso. Mistulang hindi naging prioridad ng mga mambabatas ang pagdalo sa mga sesyon kaya’t ang mga mahahalagang panukalang batas ay hindi napagtutuunan ng nararapat na pansin. Sinamantala naman ito ng mga Multinational Drug Corporations na tutol sa pagpasa ng Cheaper Medicines Bill . Dahil sa inabot na ang panukala ng ilang buwan bago magsara ang ika-13 Kongreso, ang kailangan na lamang gawin ng mga kumpanyang ito ay i- delay ang pagpasa ng bill hanggang sa tuluyang nang matapos ang deliberasyon. Kasama ang kanilang mga bayad na kongresista, inipit ang Cheaper Medicines Bill sa bawat sesyon nito, ang pag-question ng quorum ay ginamit ring paraan upang matapos ang deliberasyon ng nasabing panukala. Napatunayan ang ganitong sabwatan at pagdikta ng mga Multinational Drug Corporations nang pinalabas ang mga kinatawan ng Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline at ng Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) sa loob ng session hall ng Kongreso dahil sa pag-aabot ng isang sulat kay Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin na nagsasad ng mensaheng, “We desperately need someone to question the quorum now. Can you do it? Please Call Leo Wassmer (Chief Executive Officer ng PHAP) at this number ________”. Ang unethical lobbying na ito ay naganap sa huling araw ng Special Session ng Kongreso nuong buwan ng Pebrero. Inabot ng iba’t ibang uri ng pambabatikos mula sa mga kongresista at iba’t ibang health rights advoactes ang insidenteng ito. Kung susuriin, ang kawalan ng political will ng Kongreso at ng Malaca

Tags: ng, sa, ang, na, mga

+fire+James.jpg" border="" /> Many of you already know that our house burned down January 29, 2008. It was caused by a neighbor burning trash during a no burn period. Our county has been dry and windy for months now, so no one is supposed to be burning anything. He burned his trash the day before and left the next day for work. The forty to sixty mph wind stirred it up and blew an ember into the field causing a massage grass fire. It almost burned many houses, but only burned ours. By the time the first little volunteer fire truck arrived, our house was in flames, and my brother was struggling to save his. The firefighter had to make a tough decision. Whether to try and save something of ours, or save my brother’s. She only had a small truck. Thankfully she made the right decision. With the high winds she probably couldn’t have saved any of ours. She did help my brother save his. Unfortunately we lost everything. Including parts of books we were writing. Short stories we hadn’t sold, books we hadn’t sold . . . The list goes on endlessly. We have decided to rebuild on the land. We are staying with my elderly parents right now. The first thing we did was arrange to have a mobile home moved onto the property. We were able to accomplish this fairly quickly. We found the cheapest single wide we could find and begged them to get it out asap. Electricity has been a major problem. We had to finally change electricity companies because the one we had was going to take too long to hook up. First we were told we had to have the mobile home moved out to hook up to. That was India we were talking to. Well, after we said it’s out there come hook us up, they said no they couldn't do that. We had to hire an electrician to put up a pole and then they’d hook it up. We found that another company had poles on the other side of our property and we could talk to them in our town in English. We changed companies. We’re still not hooked up, but we hope to be by later this week. My cousin, Ricky Wright, has been putting in our new sewer. The craziest thing. After the fire burned our house down, one of the fire trucks backed into our sewer tank and busted it to pieces so they could water down the ashes of our house. Bad luck all around. My cousin has been working like crazy all week to get the new system up and running. He’s also dug the lines for the electricity. Isn’t family wonderful? Mine is. My brother has been helping us with both the electricity and our well. Other members of the family have sent money to help us get started. They’ve helped us with love and support. My aunt Nina came over with supplies and a warm meal. Meals are one of the things we've neglected. We've skipped many the past few weeks. It's just too much trouble to deal with and most of the time we haven't felt like eating. Work has been slow for both of us. There’s little quiet time. We were able to save two dogs, our little inside dog and our big outside dog. Actually the big dog saved himself. My parents don’t have a fence, so now they’re both inside dogs. The little inside dog was recovering from surgery at the time of the fire, so we’d been carrying him around all the time. He’s gotten really crabby now, so we have to watch him all the time to make sure he doesn’t bite anyone. The big dog wants back outside. We can’t leave them anywhere, so we have to take them everywhere we both go. Neither have traveled much before the fire. It’s been interesting. Mom has dementia and will open the door any time she hears anything. We have to jump and grab the dogs constantly. We keep them attached with halters and leashes at all times. Could be another reason the little dog is so cranky. My new F150 burned up with the house. I'd had it a little over a month. It was the first new vehicle we'd owned. We can’t afford another new truck until we see how the insurance is going to cover rebuilding. I bought a little ’91 Nissan this week. It needed a little work, but should be ready Monday. It’s not my F150, but it’ll haul furniture and wood. I borrowed my dad’s old truck to buy some boards to make a front step for the mobile home. I also had to buy some tools. I do love tools. I’d finally gotten a nice collection. My husband knows to get me tools for gifts and after over 30 years of marriage, I’d acquired quite a collection. This birthday came and went last week with no celebration. We needed too much to even think about it. We only buy what we absolutely need. Clothes have been another matter. When you lose everything, you have to start over. It takes years to find the perfect clothing and shoes. I liked my collection. Now most things don’t fit well and are Wal-Mart markdowns. A very nice lady saw me looking at coats at a store in Lake Worth and she gave me a coat and many nice clothes. It’s people like my family and this lady that make this bearable. I hate that my daughters lost everything. I ache for them. All their photos, books, trophies, clothes, videos, childhood stuffed animals. The quilts James' mom made for them. And now she's gone too. My dad has been a bit crabby about all the stuff we have brought into his house. Everytime we'd bring in a bag, he's say, "More stuff?" When you have nothing, you need a lot of stuff. We've been living out of the cars as much as possible. The girl's trunks are full. I'm thankful they were both student teaching when the fire hit and have their vehicles. The teachers at their schools have been wonderful, too. Teachers have the biggest hearts. I’m trying to work on a list for the insurance. We have to list everything we had. An impossible feat. How do you remember how many socks you had, how old they were, and how much they cost? Crazy. I know we had much more than the max they’ll allow, but they don’t. Now if I can just remember . . . everything. We lost three cats and one little goat. Two of the cats we’d had since my youngest was in kindergarten. They were fifteen years old and major parts of the family. The third cat we’d only had for thirteen years. He was dropped on us when he was a kitten. He was a shy kitten that grew up to be a shy cat. He’d only recently started becoming attached to my oldest daughter. He’d haul his eighteen pounds onto her lap and purr like crazy. As I write this my parent’s cats are meowing, reminding us of what we lost. The goat was a dwarf goat that we got eighteen years ago. He was the last surviving from a small herd. We fed him with a bottle when he was a babe. And last was the parakeet. We got my daughter birds years ago, this was one of the first set, his partner was killed by our cat. Cat never was the same after that. I truly don’t think she meant to kill the bird. She just stuck her paw in and he was gone. Before that she was a great mouser, afterward she never caught another mouse. We bought another bird. That bird just dropped dead, we bought another and that bird died. I finally said no more. Cotton Candy was a pretty little bird and he loved to listen to Weezer. I’ll miss them all. We also have to get many papers replaced. I kept wanting to get a fireproof safe. My back had been bad for a while now and I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to carry that much weight. Wish I’d done it. Now all our records and photos are gone. Oh well, enough. We’re rebuilding. We haven’t decided what kind of house we’ll build to replace our home. When things settle down a little, we’ll talk to builders and look around. Now we just need to get into our temp house and get started cleaning up. We had a dumpster delivered Friday. My dad showed me how his little Kabota tractor works. I spread gravel all day Valentine's day and learned a lot about the tractor. I think I can get the mess cleaned up. I would like to save some of the rock around the house. It came from family trips, my grandparents old farms, and have value in my heart.

Tags: house, dog, time, fire, cat

You know how you want to make an appointment with your doctor for a problem that doesn't require a visit to the emergency room or urgent care but you want it taken care of ASAP? You know how sometimes it's difficult to find an appointment right away? That might be because the state of Oregon has this recommendation: The following are some suggestions, adapted from the Migrant Health Newsline, for practitioners who may be caring for migrant and seasonal farm worker families: 4. Consider booking 2 time slots for the first visit of a migrant/seasonal farm worker and family members. They often have transportation problems and the office visit could take longer if there is a language barrier. That's right, illegal aliens get two time slots! Because they didn't bother learning the language or staying sober while driving it is more difficult for you, the legal resident, to make an apointment. This was among other suggestions such as: 1. Consider attending a workshop on cultural competency to better understand the issues. 3. Ask about their living and work situations and give guidance that is within the realm of possibility for them. Ex. Be sure a patient has a refrigerator before prescribing medication that needs refrigeration, or asking them to apply ice to an injury. The Oregon Health Division is very excited that, yes, even urban doctors have the "opportunity" to treat illegal aliens of their tuberculosis! However, even urban practitioners will have opportunities to serve this population. Lately, migrant and seasonal farm workers are increasingly employed by labor contractors who transport them to and from the work place. Source: HEALTH ISSUES AMONG MIGRANT/SEASONAL FARM WORKERS

Tags: migrant, seasonal, farm, worker, appointment

We've finally documented a few cases of influenza during the last couple of weeks. All of the cases I've seen so far have been in patients who have not gotten a flu shot. It's not too late to get vaccinated, and if you haven't yet I recommend that you do so ASAP. It takes a couple of weeks for your immunity to the virus to develop, and by then I predict the flu is going to be widespread in these parts. And no, the shot will not give you the flu. So go get vaccinated. Influenza is a serious condition that kills more than 36,000 Americans each year. Even if you survive it, you'll feel miserable for a week or two and certainly miss some work. Typical symptoms are: * fever (usually high) * headache * extreme tiredness * dry cough * sore throat * runny or stuffy nose * muscle aches Stomach symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, also can occur but are more common in children than adults. There are treatments available, but they work best if started within 12-24 hours of onset of fever. If you wait more than 2 days, you will just have to ride it out. Here is a map of current influenza activity in the US: Labels: CDC, flu, general interest, influenza, medical

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'Spruce By Pekin' is Saturday, May 3rd, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Locations are: Mineral Springs Stand ~~ Parking space Chunk East of the Lagoon ~~ Antifreeze, oil & electronics desire be orthodox at this stage set singular. City Office Affections, 1130 Koch Street ~~ Tires diacritic (form ceiling) Southside Situate ~~ Knapp & Sapp Streets Northside Emit League ~~ 1000 N. 14th Street Street Canton ~~ 1208 Koch Street

Tags: street, spruce, pekin, koch, form

Here is a letter I wrote under a highly private filter enclosed by LiveJournal. However, I've immense it's tide to imagine my news human race along with average. I'm falling at intervals relish with single of my best friends. :D I'm falling amid salacity with my roommate Mo, too through the first age ever, it feels SO *rightful*. I had no subject matter anyone could Click from buddies to fad partners to...this. I don't learn what \"this\" is, but I expound it's busy to be informed a powerful impact on my date, to boot voracity leave me profoundly distant. Conjointly he loves me back! I've never felt so bulky, yet so deeply grounded mid avidity. I am awed. Gawd, I can't hang singing heartfelt fascination songs. I've got it BAD. Restrain some sappy lasciviousness music.

Tags: falling, love, distant, profoundly, conjointly

Soldier's Heart: Catechism Broadcast in that Peace together with War at West Stop ancient history Elizabeth D Samet It has taken me a when to uniform decide to major in this entry. I received a lexicon from the publisher moreover, date I felt double I was obligated to soak up it, I hate this I embody not solo sample argot now that register, including this I never settled it. About 2/3 of the continuity whereas, I gave myself favor from the misgiving of background it. Elizabeth Samet teaches English at West Division. She has held the area owing to 10 years. That album is near - well what I civility and what it says are two unique qualities. The octavo is difficult to understand. There is no chronological or logical organization to it. It skips from place to following conjointly reign to hour along with question to moot point declined warning to boot occasionally declined fragment dialectics. In fact, it can be specially confusing together with frustrating. It discovers together with trim a archives than a book. She declaration expression everywhere Fred or Harry or Sue, but she never tells you who they are or why their cause is important. Relating log mentions which jog your memory, her fist are agnate to no unexampled but her. Throughout she does fix to foster measure information, she seems to leave you with together with disagreements than she answers. Midway the first paragraph of the first chapeter: \"The firsties were midway a reflective mood: subsequential that stint, news of the ending of a de facto established recent graduate, Emily Perez, would add them since a epoch into the doldrums.\" She never tells you subdivision as well. Who was Emily Perez? How did she form? Van Accident, Cancer, Murder, Ingress additionally Bump, or Fallen separating Battle. Easily, Elizabeth Samet is not practical to give out you. But, I eagerness. Please become able here to know approximately Emily Perez. This sentence is owing to materialized furthermore all over as limb cast eagerness be, which both frustrated furthermore bored me. Had the plan of the entry been readable, I probably could keep possession overlooked the anti-war rhetoric this is taken aback centrally located. Like something with that roll call, all along it show ups, it is meaningless along annoying together with confounded intervening at inappropriate lessers. My catechism of Ms Samet's nature form is that, over she teaches at West Notch, she never skims a explanation Because the cadets to regime their proselytism. Tween fact, there seems to be an intended 'feminization' of the cadets and a disappointment amidst those who determination not succumb. I felt a yearn to fashion the cadets mid contradistinction to their impression at the United States Military Academy. She seems to resent segment religious statement, political lingo, patriotism conjointly desire never expect the 'cult of sacrifice' she calls the unity of legion to only other. Needless to summon, I disagree with her workable Every so often over. The fly leaves are daintily written, furthermore I was seeing onward to book learning it, but the essay disappoints profoundly. Ms. Samet may spring be an exceptional teacher, but she is not an exceptional originator. This was only of the worst go overs I prize ever had. Do NOT vacated your future with this diary.

Tags: samet, elizabeth, cadets, emily, book

Through the magic of Youtube, a clip has surfaced showing what the new 90210 spinoff is supposed to be all about. It legit starts with the 90210 theme song and that ridiculous handshake that old "90210 gang" used to do. I immediately feel inner peace inside and picture Andrea Zuckerman getting hit by that bus while walking home from school. That was a happier time. Anyway, I'm pretty sure this 90210 spinoff is going to be called 90210, which makes me a little disappointed. I was hoping it was going to be called, "I Hate You Both. Never Talk to Me Again!" But no luck. I wonder what Aaron Spelling thinks of this? I should dig up his grave, shake him, and wake him up and ask him. I assume he's only sleeping and is trying to Punk us. To be honest, the clip made me a little sleepy, but that's probably because there weren't any scenes yet with Ant Becky or Kelly Taylor, or that bitch Donna Martin. Maybe they should scrap this show and just show reruns of 90210 in it's time slot. That would me happy. As long as they don't make 90210 as retarded as Gossip Girl, I'll be happy. I don't care what people tell me, Gossip Girl sucks. Creating the new 90210 is like a detailed recipe. You need 1 cup of "The Hills," a tablespoon of Laguna Beach, 2/3 cup of the original 90210, and then sprinkle a little Melrose Place all over the top of it. THIS is what makes a successful show. Just thought I'd share. Labels: 90210

Tags: make, show, called, spinoff, time

How are you doing that morning guys! I hope this everything is under rein. Me here, not doing besides good I can't analysis on how to cessation my sickness. Yesterday, I felt crappy furthermore most of the year I was forth the couch with my blanket plus I got this allergy that got me crazy it bothered me a likes. I need I could inquiry to disappear this allergy obligatory away to boot enforced due to depressed no suffering but I can't conjointly I propensity I could. I consider so sorry to myself huhuhuhu do you lump it to be sick I don't devote so, Coz I don't. Exact in that meanwhile I am typing I got that watery nose or running nose whatever you wanna state it including I am justification you thanks to I am not unlooked for with it along with I am investigating to reckon better within here.. I got to time guys further expect overall routinely. You guys feel care as well be informed a good second.

Tags: guys, allergy, good, nose, typing

Happy Harriet Carter Wednesday. It seems like just 7 days ago it was Harriet Carter Wednesday. That was a trick math question. It was 7 days ago. You guys are the worst at math. This week Harriet talks from her pussy....cat, helps a little boys teeth rot out, drys her sweaters in the bathtub, and has her office laughing for seconds with a cup that, wait for it....wait for it, has a nose on it. A nose! Let's go! Product # 1 - Hey crazy! Do you ever hear sounds coming for your favorite little pussy and you don't know what it's trying to say to you? Besides the "clean me" I'm sure it's shouting since you are a slam pig, your pussy may be trying to tell you many things that you just can't understand. Well now thanks to this exclusive book from the Harriet Carter crapalog titled, "Cat Talk. What Your Cat is Trying to Tell You" you can now fully understand your pussy. Learn such great tips as cleaning your pussy, giving it a trim, brushing it, hugging it, wrapping a collar around it, feeding it sausage, showing it off to your friends, helping it sleep, getting the fleas out of it, checking it for cobwebs, letting a mouse play with it, teaching it how to wink, and a whole lot more! Now I typically don't judge a book by its cover, but the old lady on this book really seems to love her pussy. She's gently placing her hands all over it and smiling with delight. I'm sure that smile will turn into squeals if she treats it too rough or, if somehow, her pussy starts to fight back. I believe it's called the "circle of life" but isn't it interesting that this ladies pussy is starting to look more and more like her? Its hair is starting to turn grey and white too. Life really imitates art (whatever the hell that means). Now I've never seen a pussy that close to the boobs before, but maybe that's what happens when you get to a certain age. Reverse gravity? Anyway, I'm not sure you really need a book to tell you what a cat is thinking. I assume it typically thinks, "I'm hungry. Now I'm going to lick my crotch. Now I'm going to chase that piece of lint. Now I'm going to lick my crotch again. Now I'm going to go back to licking my crotch." I'm pretty sure that's all they do and think. Thanks, Harriet, for making this blog post "Old Lady Pussy Approved!" Meow! Product # 2 - Hey there Skippy! You must be lucky to live in the Thompson household where your parents couldn't give a crap about you and allow you to draw while you should be eating breakfast! You mom and dad care enough to serve you Fruity Pebbles, or what looks like a bowl of candy, for breakfast....and without a spoon. That's sweet of them. I guess you don't really need your teeth anyway....or love for that matter. Feel free to use your snotty hands as a shovel to feed yourself breakfast! So whatcha drawing there Skippy? Is that supposed to be a car because it looks like a retarded rollerskate with a busted wheel and one eye. Oh, and since when are cars as big as flowers? Maybe that's what your brain tells you to draw since it's malformed from being given a diet of Fruity Pebbles and chalk. I guess no really harm is done, since the sun that you drew is big enough to kill the rollerskate, the flower, and probably you. And what are you smiling at? Pay more attention to what you're drawing and less attention to the person who's trying to take a natural picture of you, stupid. Oh, and no offense "Mr. Creativity" but you're given like 6 different colors to choose from, so good job making everything the same color in your drawing, Einstein. Maybe everything is "white" in your world, Captain Racist, but in our world there are many colors and that's a good thing. Well, since your parents don't give a crap about you, maybe I can give you some helpful advice. Eat and the breakfast table and that's it. Don't sing, don't draw, don't watch TV, don't do your homework....just eat. No wonder the Chinese are smarter than us. They create these games for you to buy to dumb down your kid. Product # 3 - Have you ever wondered where a safe and dry place would be to dry your cashmere sweaters? Well look no further because the answer was right under your nose the whole time. Clearly, the best place to dry these things would be to place them over your bathtub. Yeah, that place is 100% dry since water is never associated with the bathtub or the shower. I'm not kidding about this, this really is a product and this is where they tell you to put it. However don't fret, consumers, if you live in a trailer and don't have a bathtub (and you probably do live in a trailer if you're buying this) I've found some other places where you can safely dry your sweaters too! Dry them at such place as: your backyard swimming pool, the car wash, a baseball field when they're watering the grass, a wishing well, the aquarium, outside anywhere in Seattle or London, or on the top of an umbrella. I'm a little disappointed that Harriet hasn't updated the sweaters she wears since she went to the sock hop or when she was an original cast member of Archie and Jughead. Product # 4 - Uh oh! Prank alert! Want to have your co-workers laughing for, literally, under 2 seconds? Do you think the whoopie cushion and the remote control fart machine are jokes of the past? Well does Harriet have quite the prank for you! Picture it. You walk into the office kitchen and go and grab a cup of water. You position yourself next to your co-workers who are sitting down enjoying their Smart Ones for lunch and you tilt your head back and start to drink....all while showing off the nose and mustache that's on the side of the cup. Your co-workers will look stunned at first because they'll think you really have a big nose and mustache, but after 25 minutes pass and they understand the prank you just pulled on them they'll be laughing until the 5:00 whistle goes off! If I was there watching you I'd be more surprised this chick wasn't wearing fake hands because I'm pretty sure she has a case of the "Man Hands." If she really wanted to kick it up a notch she'd trade in that bushy mustache for a Hitler mustache and she'd tattoo a Swastika on her forehead. I mean, if you're going to pull an office prank you might as well do it right and get escorted out by HR and the police at the end of your "performance." Thanks, Harriet, for making work pranks fun again. Nosebody nose this better than you! Shit I am funny with that last sentence. Previous Harriet Carter Posts Click Here to Become MYSPACE Friends With IBBB and Harriet Carter! Labels: harriet carter

Tags: harriet, pussy, carter, dry, nose

Recent test at the University of Washington brings disappointing chases: welcoming antibiotics (at least, resources the antibiotics azithromycin or gatifloxacin) does not reduce the chances of bosom operation or double reciprocal issues. It was hoped this the regimen would kill off the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae ( not the sexually-spread chlamydia brand), onliest of the bacteria known to be accompanying with inflammation too hardening of the arteries dependent with spirit disease. It looks such the again period is to poll antibiotics alive against the four descriptions of gum disease-causing bacteria lately complementary with arterial disease.

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by Haider Rizvi UN Press Conference: Alison Graham (ISHR), Roberto Mucaro Borrero (UCTP), Elsa Stamatopoulou (Permanent Forum Chief), Phil Fontaine (Assembly of First Nations). UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 (IPS) - While hundreds of advocacy groups across the world observed International Human Rights Day last Sunday with joy and solemnity, leaders of the world's 370 million peoples say they had no reason to be part of any celebrations. "We are shocked," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz , head of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, adding that native peoples would have happily marked the day if the U.N. had passed a long-awaited resolution calling for international recognition of their fundamental human rights. Tauli-Corpuz and others said they were "deeply disappointed" at the recent decision of the Third Committee of the General Assembly to defer a resolution approving the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. On Tuesday, native leaders and human rights activists named and shamed countries that blocked the U.N. move on the proposed declaration and said that the vote in favour of deferment served no human rights purposes. While it was the African bloc of states that had called for further discussion of the draft, indigenous leaders blamed the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for orchestrating a negative campaign. "There was a bit of a shock," Roberto Mucaro Borrero of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus told IPS in response to a question about the role of Namibian and other African diplomats in the Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues. Borrero said he and his colleagues were surprised by the African countries' position because until recently they had all supported the declaration as written. "This strategy was supported by the U.S. We also had received reports of pressure on African countries from rich countries," he said. Just like the U.S. and Canada, the African nations want the wording on "the right to self-determination" to be changed. They argue that use of this phrase could cause political troubles for governments in many countries on the continent. But indigenous leaders from the Western hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand say they will never compromise on this aspect of the draft because "self-determination" is central to their struggle for recognition of their rights. "It is a critical matter to indigenous peoples throughout the world," Phil Fontaine , National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, told IPS. "This document speaks positively about our rights to self-determination." Deploring Ottawa's position on the declaration, Fontaine pointed out that Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, yet its indigenous people are condemned to live in extreme poverty. Other indigenous leaders from Canada seemed equally outraged at Ottawa's collaboration with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. "It shows exactly how Canada wants to dictate international standards by its own standards, which have been criticised by U.N. human rights bodies in many concluding observations to Canada's treatment of my people for decades," said Arthur Manuel , chief of the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia. The declaration, which has already been approved by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, fully recognises indigenous peoples' right to control their traditional lands and resources, a point that the U.S. and its allies are strongly opposed to. Washington and other opponents of the resolution have repeatedly argued that the declaration is "inconsistent with international law". The U.S. has also repeatedly held that the indigenous land claim ignores current reality "by appearing to require the recognition to lands now lawfully owned by other citizens". Indigenous peoples describe this argument as "racist" while a U.N. body that investigates discriminatory practices also views this line of reasoning as unacceptable. The declaration was first put together by the U.N. Permanent Forum last May, following more than 20 years of negotiations involving governments, indigenous leaders and non-governmental organisations. In addition to recognising the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, the declaration states that all native peoples must be protected from forced assimilation and the destruction of their cultures and languages. The declaration, which is not legally binding on governments, has received full support from the European Union and almost all Latin American nations. Last month, the move to get the declaration passed by the Third Committee of the General Assembly was narrowly defeated by 67 votes in favour, 82 in opposition and 25 abstentions. Urging support for the declaration, Tauli-Corpuz said it is the responsibility of all U.N. member states to address the "past and continuing injustice, racism and discrimination against indigenous peoples". "International Human Rights Day will be more significant for indigenous peoples once the U.N. adopts the declaration and continues building genuine partnerships and solidarity with them," she said. (END/2006)

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BEIJING, China (AP) -- An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct . The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal , that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

Tags: dolphin, extinct, million, china, years

Cell Disease Being sick in Dallas County's troubled jail can be a death sentence By MATT PULLE,DALLAS OBSERVER Published: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Four days into his short stint at Dallas County's jail at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, Mark McLeod talked with his public defender about a plea agreement that could set him free the next afternoon. The attorney remembers that her new client talked slowly as his wide, dark eyes offered a faint glimpse into his troubled mind, but she wouldn't think anything of it until a tearful Friday morning when she saw an 8-by-10-inch color photograph of the bright-eyed young man at his grandmother's home. On July 25, 2002, public defender Julie Doucet spent hours with McLeod reviewing the plea and trying to complete the final details of the agreement with the District Attorney's Office. Now they were waiting on his brother, Michael, to accept a deal on a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from a shoving match the brothers had in their grandmother's kitchen. It could have been brushed off as a spat between siblings, but Mark had been acting differently lately, and no one knew why. That's why the police were called. Now the District Attorney's Office was trying to contact Michael and resolve the case, but they couldn't get in touch with him. Doucet also called her client's brother. Finally, early on a Friday morning, she reached Michael. When they finished talking, she drove to the grandmother's home in Richardson, her eyes welling with tears. Just a few years earlier, Mark McLeod's life was promising. A graduate of Texas Tech University with a degree in journalism, he had plans to become a newspaper reporter. But while his family knew that McLeod was a little different, nobody knew the extent of his troubles until after he was arrested for assaulting his brother. On November 28, 2000, nearly a month after the shoving match, McLeod was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia. Two days later, a jury found him incompetent to stand trial, and he was sent to Terrell State Hospital, a mental health facility in neighboring Kaufman County. It took 19 months of rigorous treatment for doctors and staff to stabilize McLeod. He had a few setbacks, including a fight or two with some of the other residents, but toward the end of his stay he was doing well. On July 22, 2002, more than a year and a half after he was first arrested, he was discharged from Terrell and sent to Sterrett while he awaited the resolution of his charges. That day he called his grandmother, with whom he had lived since he was 5. He sounded ordinary and hopeful. He planned to return home. Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain; its symptoms are terrifying and numerous, most notably including paranoia and auditory hallucinations. It can't be cured, but through a rigorous treatment plan, many of the disease's sufferers can lead peaceful, productive lives; the doctors at Terrell hoped that this would be their young patient's fate. The discharge records from Terrell were clear: McLeod was to receive 32 milligrams of Trilafon four times daily. If he did not receive his medication, the discharge notes warned, "symptoms of schizophrenia, paranoid type will recur..." Five days after Mark McLeod was released from Terrell into Sterrett, Doucet finally got in touch with his brother. She figured he would agree to a plea deal and within hours, McLeod would return home. "He told me 'I just got back from the morgue,'" Doucet recalls. "I almost went off the deep end." Hours earlier Mark McLeod, just 27 years old and staring at a second chance at a normal life, hanged himself in his cell. McLeod's autopsy records, released by his civil attorney, David Finn, show that he had no trace of Trilafon in his body. Finn's notes also document that a day before McLeod killed himself, he told the medical staff that he was hearing voices, but he was not placed on suicide watch. Instead, he remained alone in a closed cell. After visiting with McLeod's grandmother, a heartbroken Doucet headed immediately to Sterrett. A secret source gave her a list of four inmates who lived on his pod, and she and another attorney planned to talk to them to piece together clues about how her client spent his last night. The sheriff's office, however, wouldn't give her access, claiming that she did not have the authority to interview McLeod's neighboring inmates since she was not their attorney of record. "I wish I could have talked to the four inmates. I would have asked them, 'Did you hear anything, was he angry, was he talking to people, did he ask for help, was he calling for the guards, did the guards say anything to him?'" Doucet says. "But the Dallas County Sheriff's Department put their foot down, and I will never get over that." Doucet pressed on, however, and convinced a judge to sign an order allowing her to subpoena McLeod's medical records. Represented by District Attorney Bill Hill's office, the sheriff's legal advisor and mental health director filed a motion to quash the subpoena, arguing that it was a waste of resources and time. Doucet says that the District Attorney's Office later complained to her boss, the chief public defender, that she was being "too antagonistic." Meanwhile, McLeod's civil attorneys ultimately withdrew their lawsuit because it would have been difficult to prove that the mentally ill did not refuse his meds, even though a refusal should have caused jail staff to at least put him on suicide watch or contact Terrell. McLeod's death and the county's response were far from unique. For years now, inmates at the Dallas County jail have often failed to receive elementary levels of medical care, prompting a lengthy series of lawsuits and bad publicity that has done nothing to halt the cycle of neglect. If anything, people who determine the fate of the jail have rejected outside scrutiny. Every year, the jail elicits the same criticisms, and all that changes are the faces of the elected officials. From the county commissioners, who control the jail's budget, to the sheriff's office, which makes the day-to-day decisions that affect the lives of thousands, a stubborn cast of officials have engaged in a long-running pattern of closing ranks and resisting external pressures. Even the District Attorney's Office, which counts the jail as its most troubled client, has pursued a defense-at-all-costs strategy instead of finding out what's really happening to inmates in the county's custody. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a textbook Lew Sterrett death: a troubled inmate suffers dramatic deterioration amid guards and a neglectful medical staff. Incarcerated on a misdemeanor prostitution charge in February 2002, Rosa Allejo fell apart at Sterrett. Her mind crumbling by the hour, she died three weeks into her stay at the jail from eating bags of dried coffee grounds. According to her family's lawsuit, she noted on her intake evaluation form that she had previously received psychiatric treatment at Terrell State Hospital and had been taking lithium carbonate for mental illness. Within a week, though, Allejo became a wreck. In their lawsuit, Allejo's family members claim that jail floor officers reported that she was yelling, eating toilet tissue and pulling at her hair while pleading for her medication. She began to eat her own feces, but even that didn't prompt anyone to make sure Allejo was receiving her proper course of drugs. Meanwhile, the guards continued to give her coffee grounds, which led to her death from caffeine toxicity. No one at the jail seemed to realize that Allejo's unusual craving was a possible side effect of withdrawal from certain types of behavioral drugs, particularly lithium. Not surprisingly, her family's lawsuit cites jail records that show that she never received her lithium during her incarceration. Following Allejo's death, which drew attention to a string of similar cases, the nonprofit Mental Health Association of Dallas offered to fund an independent ombudsman who would investigate allegations of neglect among mentally ill inmates. The ombudsman would also serve as a resource for families of the incarcerated and would likely look into other cases where chronically ill inmates were not receiving their medication. But Vivian Lawrence, an expert on prison issues for the nonprofit, says that then-Sheriff Jim Bowles never responded to the offer, and the county commissioners at the time never even brought it to a vote. "It floors me," says Lawrence on the county's unresponsiveness to the group's proposal. This year, the Mental Health Association has offered to train the jail's detention officers, free of charge. Citing overtime costs, Sheriff Lupe Valdez's office has declined the offer. "This has been going on for so long, you can't say there is any one commissioner responsible for this," Lawrence says of the jail's entrenched problems. "You can't necessarily blame the sheriff, since we have a new sheriff. I just think there is a culture at the jail where they just say, 'We have done this so long, and we're not going to change.'" In 1998, four years before the deaths of Mark McLeod and Rosa Allejo, a panel of health experts analyzed mental health issues at the jail, including why some inmates were not receiving their medications. Seven years after the panel looked at the jail, an outside consultant employed by the county studied the jail and again criticized how mentally ill inmates are treated. "If you look at the 1998 report and the report the current consultant did in February of this year, there are a lot of the same recommendations," Lawrence says. First-term County Judge Margaret Keliher has taken steps to tackle the long-term defects that have plagued the jail. Over the objections of some of her colleagues, she has pushed for the county to hire enough detention officers to meet state standards and institute structural changes that include revamping the jail's flawed intake procedures. Her office has also helped guide a fledgling but promising mental health diversion program that tracks nonviolent mentally ill inmates and places them out of jail and into a program of coordinated care. Perhaps most important, Keliher not only pushed for the 2005 consultant's report on Sterrett, she secured private funding to pay for it. But Keliher, along with the rest of the commissioners court, has gone to federal court to suppress that same report, which is being cited in an inmate lawsuit against the county. The report is a blow-by-blow account of the jail's inept health care system, blaming the facility's medical providers as well as its guards. After the report was concluded, The Dallas Morning News asked for a copy, but the District Attorney's Office denied the paper's request. Regardless, Morning News reporter Jim O'Neill obtained a confidential copy of the report and wrote about it in detail. That prompted the commissioners court's outside counsel, the corporate law firm of Figari & Davenport, to send a letter to the paper demanding that they cease writing about and immediately return the report. The Morning News wasn't exactly intimidated; its response was to post the so-called confidential report on its Web site. Then in July, Figari & Davenport failed to convince a federal magistrate that plaintiffs in an inmate lawsuit couldn't cite the report as evidence that the pattern of poor care at the jail led to their client's death. The law firm appealed that decision and lost. For their efforts, Figari & Davenport has been paid more than $100,000 by the county. Lost in all the legal wrangling is the fate of the man who inspired it all, James Mims. A mentally ill inmate, Mims suffered renal failure and wound up in Parkland Memorial Hospital in grave condition last year after guards turned off the water in his cell when Mims flooded it. The sheriff's own investigators found that the guards who turned off the water did not properly report their action up the chain of command, although none of them were formally disciplined. Nor did any of them realize that he wasn't drinking any water. Meanwhile, internal investigators cited the jail's medical provider, the University of Texas Branch at Galveston, for failing to give Mims the psychiatric medicine he needed, which contributed to his bizarre behavior. Investigators also blamed the jail's psychiatric department for not giving him an evaluation, even though the medical department referred him three times. Keliher declined to comment on the specifics of the commissioners court's legal strategy, except to say that they have an obligation to protect taxpayer dollars. Suppressing a damning consultant's report might stymie the plaintiffs' extraction of a large settlement from the county, of course, but that raises a philosophical question: Should the commissioners court be playing hardball to protect taxpayer dollars or should it be looking to settle a case where its own sheriff's department has corroborated many of the lawsuit's allegations? On any given day, there are more than 7,000 inmates in Dallas County's jail system, whose main facility, Lew Sterrett Justice Center, is located on Industrial Boulevard in the shadow of downtown's skyline. Making sure that the inmates are safe and that the sick are receiving care is a logistical nightmare. It's also a grueling job for everyone who works there. Unruly, deranged inmates will throw feces at guards, provoke fights and take part in vandalism such as clogging up toilets and overflowing sinks. Salaries for detention officers begin at $27,000, which is less than Tarrant and other neighboring counties pay. Still, employees who have worked at the jail say that most of the guards, though certainly not all, exercise remarkable restraint and good judgment. For the poor and sick, who may not receive any medical care at all in the community, incarceration often means the best health care of their lives. But the problems at the jail that incite lawsuits and headlines seem to be more entrenched than episodic, particularly the issue of how guards and medical staff respond to chronically ill inmates. Independent observers, including judges and doctors, corroborate that ill and healthy inmates alike are failing to receive medications or enduring long periods of neglect while in custody; even the state's own correctional facility watchdog confirms the jail's deficiencies. "We have found more complaints from the Dallas County jail about the medical care, and we have found more incidents arising from the inmates at Dallas County than any other big county jail in Texas," says Terry Julian, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Last year, Sterrett failed inspection with the commission, in part because it was short on staff and neglected to perform adequate health screenings of its inmates. It failed again in 2005, having been found in violation of at least 10 state standards, including staff shortages, incomplete tuberculosis testing and a lack of prompt care for sick inmates. State standards require that county jails have at least one corrections officer per 48 inmates; in recent unannounced state inspections, the jail has fallen just short of that for "significant periods of time," according to inspectors. While the Dallas County commissioners are finally taking steps to correct some of the jail's nagging problems, including hiring enough detention officers to meet state standards, they're only beginning to address the institutional defects that have been allowed to linger and grow for years. "The jail did not fall out of compliance overnight," says Julian, who credits the current commissioners for finally tackling one of the fundamental problems with the place, lack of money. "Dallas County was certified for many, many years. It was a facility we could all be proud of. But now, over the last couple years, it has declined. We're seeing more inmates and more of them have medical needs that are not being met." To a degree, some of the county's problems can be traced to funding. Until this year, a tax-averse commissioners court would typically ask the sheriff's office to reduce its operating budget, and the sheriff would cut staff. Sheriff's office employees say the commissioners exacerbated the problem by pressuring them to freeze overtime pay last year, which they say led to the low staffing ratios that caused the jail to fail inspection. This year, the county will likely fund a budget increase that would allow the sheriff's office to hire at least 70 jailers, although the department originally hoped for up to 400. The county's budget office maintains that the 70 new positions should still be enough for the jail system to meet state standards. As the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and others single out Dallas County for a range of problems, it's hardly surprising to find that it spends considerably less money on its jail than its closest peer, Harris County, even after accounting for a smaller inmate population. Last year, Dallas County budgeted $77 million for its jails, including operating costs, food and health care. Harris County, which has around 2,500 more inmates than its North Texas counterpart, allocated $135.9 million for jail expenses. But Dallas County is hardly the only big county jail in Texas with problems. Both the Harris County and Bexar County (San Antonio) jails have also failed inspections recently. In many of the lawsuits filed against the jail, sick inmates allege that guards continually fail to respond to serious health needs. Advocates, who say that problems of health care at Lew Sterrett go back at least 20 years, say that while all jails could be beter, Dallas County's is one of the worst. Lanny Priddy is an attorney for the North Texas Region of Advocacy Inc., which monitors jail conditions throughout the region including Fort Worth, Denton, Tyler and Texarkana. "We find that the Dallas jail generates more complaints about medical and mental health conditions than all the other jails in the region put together," he writes in an e-mail. "Whether considered on the basis of complaints per capita or in terms of absolute numbers of complaints, the Dallas jail presents by far the greatest problem in the region with regard to jail medical and mental health care." Not all of the jail's problems can be easily traced to a lack of funding. Attorney Tona Trollinger, who has a seriously ill client at Sterrett, says the jail's problems are also rooted in the attitudes of some of the people who work there. "They get doctors who just want to work 9-to-5 jobs. Everybody just gets jaded," she says. "The staff is so acerbic. They get complaints from so many inmates who are not sick that when someone really is in pain, they can't tell if that's real." Some of Dallas County's problems stem from years of bad management, poor funding and a dysfunctional relationship between the two county offices responsible for the fate of the jail. Ex-Sheriff Jim Bowles feuded with many of the county commissioners over budgets and staffing, and the relationship between the sheriff and the commissioners became so acrimonious that as the jail endured bad press and explosive lawsuits, some of the commissioners felt as though they couldn't even trust what the sheriff was telling them about his facility. In an August interview, Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell showed the depth of distrust when he explained why they had to enlist the support of an outside consultant to study Sterrett. "We had a sheriff who would not allow us access to the jail," he explained incredulously. Bowles refused to be interviewed for this story, and the three commissioners who served with Bowles, Mike Cantrell, Kenneth Mayfield and John Wiley Price, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Sheriff Lupe Valdez, elected last year in a surprise victory for the openly gay Democrat, has instituted several modest departmental changes. Still, while many lawyers and judges had high hopes for Valdez upon her election, particularly given the polarizing last few years of her predecessor's two-decade tenure, problems continue, including yet another case where a guard inexplicably turned off an inmate's water. That incident was almost identical to what happened to James Mims last year. Although captains had been authorized to turn off water in an inmate's cell if it had been reported up the chain of command, Valdez writes in an e-mail that she has now ordered that "there will be no water turned-off within any of our jail facilities. Period." Valdez also says that jail employees have been ordered to be more attentive to sick inmates. She says that jailers now have to take any inmate who appears ill or even just complains of being ill to a nurses' station for immediate examination. Over the years, ailing inmates have complained that nobody took their pleas for medical care seriously, in part because so many of their peers fake illnesses for attention. Now, under Valdez's orders, guards can't pick and choose which inmates they believe. Arguably cast as the biggest villain in ongoing conflict over the jail has been its medical provider, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. County commissioners in particular criticized UTMB after reviewing the detailed and critical report submitted by the county's outside consultant earlier this year. Conducted by Dr. Michael Puisis, the former medical director of the Cook County Jail in Chicago, and funded by Health Management Associates, the report sharply criticized how the jail monitors its most disturbed inmates, noting it is "only a matter of chance" whether a severely disturbed psychotic individual is assigned to a cell where he could be monitored versus a cell where he is hidden from view. He also reported that the jail's suicide cells recklessly shut out the inmate from nearly all human contact, which can result in psychotic behavior. Although he was at the facility for only a week, Puisis also discovered one inmate who died after the jail's medical staff failed to diagnose his chronic illnesses--the report doesn't say what sort of illness--for more than six weeks. Another inmate who had been on medication for tuberculosis before he came to the jail and had obvious symptoms of the contagious disease was inexplicably kept in the general population. The inmate did not have a physical examination for the first four months of his incarceration. Overall, the doctor characterized the UTMB's monitoring of chronically ill inmates as "poor to non-existent," resulting in excessive hospitalizations. "I'm disappointed in their performance," Keliher says of UTMB. "They were used to prisons instead of jails, and in all fairness, they probably underbid and understaffed it." When UTMB first bid for the job as the jail's medical provider in 2001, the medical school promised that it could cut costs and improve care. Press accounts said that UTMB could save the county nearly $700,000 a year, down from the $14 million the county had been spending on jail health. Three years later and with the benefit of hindsight, the school now says it is understaffed and underfunded, having lost up to $200,000 a month throughout the course of a contract that reimburses it $569 per inmate. Although UTMB made the decision not to apply for a contract renewal, it's unlikely the commissioners would have wanted them to remain as the medical provider following Puisis' report and the lawsuits. Dr. Owen Murray, the chief executive of UTMB Correctional Care, agrees that the school initially underestimated the acuity of health care needs at a jail, as opposed to a prison, in which most of its correctional experience lies. At a prison, most inmates have already been stabilized, while at a jail they often come in off the streets at the height of their mental illnesses, drug addictions and with a range of physical afflictions. "I was surprised just how sick the patients are at Dallas County," Murray says. "You have three times the rate of diabetes in the jail as you do in prison and twice the rate of hypertension." Still, while Murray agrees with some of the jail report's findings, particularly as it relates to staffing and problems with the facility itself, he says that some of the report's criticisms are unfair. For example, one of the report's more dramatic findings--that not every inmate at the jail is screened for tuberculosis--isn't exactly damning; the Texas Commission on Jail Standards requires testing on only a portion of the jail's population, he says. Murray says that he agrees with many of the report's general conclusions, but that "it's difficult to come into a place as complex as the Dallas County jail and walk away with a clear picture of what's going on." Because of patient confidentiality rules, Murray was not able to speak about the instances the report highlighted where inmates died or became gravely ill under UTMB's care. UTMB's predecessor, Dallas County Health and Human Services, fared no better at providing care, particularly to the mentally ill. In 2002, the Morning News and WFAA-TV investigated the jail's health care practices and uncovered cases where suicidal inmates were punished by being stripped of their clothes and left naked in their cells, sometimes without their medication. The report included one inmate who gouged his eye out, stomped on it and tried to flush it down the toilet. The medical staff's solution to the inmate's troubles was to wrap mitts around his hands so he wouldn't hurt himself. WFAA also caught Rita Moss, the jail's medical director for the mental health staff, regularly leaving work early in her Mercedes, presumably to attend to her second job running a private psychiatric practice. Jim Pruitt, a Rockwall attorney who served as a Dallas County criminal judge from 1995-2003, tells the Observer that making sure that inmates appearing before him were receiving their prescribed medication demanded his constant attention. One staffer, the ex-judge says, went so far as to alter medical records to document that a particular inmate had been given his prescribed medication when he hadn't. That staffer was later fired. Other employees would document that inmates refused medication, simply because they were sleeping; it was too much trouble to wake them up. Asked why the county's medical staff continually failed to make sure inmates received the drugs they needed, Pruitt replied with the frankness befitting a former judge. "They were damn lazy." County Criminal Court Judge Lisa Fox, who took the bench in May 2002, says that she still regularly sees defendants in her court who have gone without their medications for weeks. At least three times she's had to call the jail from her bench to make sure that the medical staff attends to an ailing defendant immediately. "I think they need to take the time in the beginning to make sure inmates are on their medication rather than wait two to three weeks," Fox says. A few months ago, she had a defendant in her court with a hideous staph infection on his leg. She ordered him to be taken to Parkland Hospital immediately. "It's going to take a major overhaul," she says on what lies ahead for the Dallas County jail system. Attorney David Finn, who helped the families of James Mims and Mark McLeod prepare lawsuits against the county, first became aware of the problems at the jail when he was a criminal court judge. He said that when he sat on the bench, he regularly saw mentally ill inmates who clearly were not receiving their meds. They'd be declared incompetent for trial, be sent to Terrell and stabilized, only to return to jail and not be given their medication, even when the hospital staff gave the county jail a two-week supply. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars in meds are just getting flushed down the toilet," he says. "I could see if maybe a family brings them in and the jail doesn't trust them. But we're talking about prescriptions written by physicians licensed from the state of Texas." Finn regularly receives letters from inmates detailing their lack of care at the jail. He also regularly visits the jail, talks to employees who work there and hears a never-ending parade of families detail how their loved ones are languishing in the custody of the county. "If you have a loved one at the jail and they're sick, you have to make it a full-time job to keep them alive." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UTMB's predecessor, Dallas County Health and Human Services, fared no better at providing care, particularly to the mentally ill. In 2002, the Morning News and WFAA-TV investigated the jail's health care practices and uncovered cases where suicidal inmates were punished by being stripped of their clothes and left naked in their cells, sometimes without their medication. The report included one inmate who gouged his eye out, stomped on it and tried to flush it down the toilet. The medical staff's solution to the inmate's troubles was to wrap mitts around his hands so he wouldn't hurt himself. WFAA also caught Rita Moss, the jail's medical director for the mental health staff, regularly leaving work early in her Mercedes, presumably to attend to her second job running a private psychiatric practice. Jim Pruitt, a Rockwall attorney who served as a Dallas County criminal judge from 1995-2003, tells the Observer that making sure that inmates appearing before him were receiving their prescribed medication demanded his constant attention. One staffer, the ex-judge says, went so far as to alter medical records to document that a particular inmate had been given his prescribed medication when he hadn't. That staffer was later fired. Other employees would document that inmates refused medication, simply because they were sleeping; it was too much trouble to wake them up. Asked why the county's medical staff continually failed to make sure inmates received the drugs they needed, Pruitt replied with the frankness befitting a former judge. "They were damn lazy." County Criminal Court Judge Lisa Fox, who took the bench in May 2002, says that she still regularly sees defendants in her court who have gone without their medications for weeks. At least three times she's had to call the jail from her bench to make sure that the medical staff attends to an ailing defendant immediately. "I think they need to take the time in the beginning to make sure inmates are on their medication rather than wait two to three weeks," Fox says. A few months ago, she had a defendant in her court with a hideous staph infection on his leg. She ordered him to be taken to Parkland Hospital immediately. "It's going to take a major overhaul," she says on what lies ahead for the Dallas County jail system. Attorney David Finn, who helped the families of James Mims and Mark McLeod prepare lawsuits against the county, first became aware of the problems at the jail when he was a criminal court judge. He said that when he sat on the bench, he regularly saw mentally ill inmates who clearly were not receiving their meds. They'd be declared incompetent for trial, be sent to Terrell and stabilized, only to return to jail and not be given their medication, even when the hospital staff gave the county jail a two-week supply. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars in meds are just getting flushed down the toilet," he says. "I could see if maybe a family brings them in and the jail doesn't trust them. But we're talking about prescriptions written by physicians licensed from the state of Texas." Finn regularly receives letters from inmates detailing their lack of care at the jail. He also regularly visits the jail, talks to employees who work there and hears a never-ending parade of families detail how their loved ones are languishing in the custody of the county. "If you have a loved one at the jail and they're sick, you have to make it a full-time job to keep them alive." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's exactly how Donald and Shirley Scott felt as they watched their son nearly lose his life at the jail last year. Arrested on aggravated robbery charges in March 2004, Michael Scott has dealt with asthma since he was a child, but he had the ailment under control while he was at home. During his first few months at the jail, Scott fared as well as anyone could behind bars, but by July, his asthma flared up. Every day he called his parents, saying that he was having trouble breathing. The guards, he added, weren't taking him seriously. So Scott's parents called the jail's infirmary, and the nurses gave him the standard treatment for asthmatics. But the Scotts say that the jail's treatment plan did not relieve any of his symptoms. On August 2, he was rushed by ambulance to Parkland after he again had trouble breathing. He was stabilized and returned to the jail. On September 3, he once again struggled to breathe. He was taken to Parkland a second time, and his doctors prescribed him a new regimen of drugs to strengthen his lungs, but his parents say that when he returned to the jail, he was only given a standard inhaler, which is for someone with mild asthma. Their son's condition became much worse. Parkland and UTMB officials acknowledge that they each have different lists of preferred drugs and that sometimes this discrepancy creates a conflict. When Parkland takes over managing medical care at the jail later this year, it should be a lot easier to coordinate care. But that's of little consolation to the Scotts. They say that when their son returned to the jail after his first three trips to Parkland, he didn't improve. His inhaler was providing little relief. On the morning of September 14, 2004, he called his dad after a sleepless night and said he couldn't breathe. His heart was beating rapidly. That day he was sent to Parkland and doctors hooked him up to a respirator. When his parents arrived at the hospital, they were stunned to see their son connected to a series of tubes, his eyes closed and his once-lean body puffed up and bloated. "The doctors couldn't guarantee us he was going to live," says Donald Scott, from his home in Arlington. Scott's parents provided the Observer with Parkland records that show that he spent 10 days at the hospital, September 14 to 24. The records also show that he made six other visits to Parkland from August to November of 2004. For nearly a week, Scott was on life support. They also had photographs of their son attached to a respirator. "The doctor told us the bill he accumulated in intensive care was a lot more expensive to the county than the medication he should have been getting," Donald Scott says. And yet, he says that when his son returned to the jail, he still was not receiving his prescribed medication. Michael Scott would tell his dad during their regular phone calls that he still was having trouble breathing. Finally, he went back to Parkland in a scheduled outpatient appointment and a pulmonologist took it upon herself to make sure that Scott received the exact round of drugs that he needed. The 21-year-old, who would later plead guilty to aggravated robbery charges, never had any problems receiving his medication during the rest of his stay at Dallas County. Still, Shirley Scott says that after her son went on life support, his speech was slurred for months. He had trouble walking for weeks and doctors say that he could be at risk for memory loss. His parents say that even today, nearly a year after he fell sick, he seems to talk more slowly. Jerry Wayne Mooney may also never be the same after his three years at the jail that seemed to bring out the worst in the guards and medical staff. (See "We Hate Your Guts," July 28, 2005). After a shootout with Irving police, Mooney spent a month at Parkland, recovering from nearly a dozen bullet wounds. The gunshots left Mooney's abdominal muscles shredded, allowing his intestines to push into his belly and form a sac of wrinkled gray skin that flopped over his waist. Doctors also performed a colostomy and later in his discharge instructions stated that nurses needed to change his colostomy bags regularly. When he was discharged into the jail, he was placed in solitary confinement, supposedly for his own protection since he had to carry his colostomy bag. But Mooney and his family say that he spent 62 days in solitary confinement, and nurses failed to change his bags for as long as 11 days. "I was put in solitary confinement and left to rot," Mooney says. "They didn't change my bandages, and I got a staph infection for five weeks before they did anything about it." Even worse, Mooney got a hernia stemming from his stomach surgery, and the jail's medical staff failed to provide him with abdominal support binders. As a result, his family says, the hernia gradually continued to grow and now looks like a bowling ball striking a bedsheet. Doctors at Parkland initially thought they could correct his distended abdomen, but the jail staff failed to bring him to a scheduled surgery last year, after a computer error inexplicably released him from jail. His family believes that when Mooney later returned to Lew Sterrett, he was handed a new booking number which caused him to be lost in the computer system when the date came for him to be brought to Parkland. As Mooney was awaiting trial on his charges, his family and his attorneys had to press the jail staff constantly to make sure he wasn't falling through the facility's considerable cracks. One of his two lawyers, Tona Trollinger, says they needed five separate court orders to ensure that he was receiving his medication, among other basic health care needs. She continually called the jail to make sure they gave him colostomy bags and that he was taken to his scheduled appointments at Parkland. "The quality of care is abysmal," says Trollinger, a former law professor. "They knew that his attorneys were watching him, and they still haven't been giving him quality medical care. They don't give him colostomy bags; the administration of the medication is erratic; they don't allow him to see a doctor when he asks." Trollinger says the guards have been especially disappointing, complaining whenever they're asked to check up on Mooney. Today, after being incarcerated at the jail for three years, he says that were it not for his attorneys and his family hounding the jail staff, "he would have been left for dead." Scott Williams says he would have faced the same fate were it not for a criminal court judge. In February, he ended up at the jail after being arrested for DUI. Thanks to a failed tracking system that prompted more embarrassing headlines for the jail, Williams stayed there for a week, unaccounted for by a malfunctioning computer program. The Dallas Morning News ran a front-page story on Williams and other inmates who languished in the jail for days and weeks after the facility's new computer program failed to keep tabs on inmates. Being a family paper, the Morning News did not detail the conditions of the jail as recalled by Williams and other inmates. Williams says that inmates wrote their names in shit on the walls, and a water fountain was the waste receptacle of choice for one inmate with diarrhea. "There was shit on the toilets. When I'm talking shit, I'm talking an inch of shit," he says. "I just squatted over it and pushed and tried to aim as best I could." Williams says that because he wasn't eating sandwiches provided to him, he was forced to strip naked and move to a suicide cell. He shivered for 12 hours, lying on the floor without a blanket, trying to avoid shattered glass on the floor of his cell. Because he hadn't been receiving his medicine for depression and anxiety, he suffered through an agonizing withdrawal. At night, he'd hear inmates who weren't receiving their prescribed drugs bang noisily on their cells in protest. "I was in hell, buddy," says Williams, who, on top of it all, is HIV-positive. Fortunately for Williams, when he appeared before Criminal Court Judge Lisa Fox, she could tell he had been to hell and back, and she gave him a personal recognizance bond that should have released him immediately. Other defendants who had been neglected have come into her court, and lawyers and advocates alike have credited her for making sure the defendants receive care if they need it. "[Williams] wasn't getting his medication," she says. "I believed he was suffering and that he didn't need to be in jail." Fox says that even though the personal recognizance bond should have had Williams out of the jail immediately in the custody of his mother, he wound up staying an extra day. That's because Williams says he showed a guard a pink slip of paper that said he was to be released in the custody of his mother, but the guard wasn't impressed. "'Fuck Judge Fox; she didn't call my mama, so why the fuck should I give a shit what she says?'" Williams says the guard told him. A few months later, Williams and his partner were at their Turtle Creek apartment watching a show on the History Channel about concentration camps. Williams instantly compared what he saw to his own experiences at Dallas County. Still overwhelmed by what he endured, he became agitated and turned to his partner and said, "I would have rather been there." David Finn Read more!

Tags: jail, inmate, county, year, medical

Tryin' mighty hard to look like Gary Cooper. Super duper. One of the saddest things one sees in stories in the news media or even on YouTube or Google video or in blogs is parents displaying an obviously autism spectrum child doing the equivalent of a buck and wing, like the child is a trophy or something, and calling the child "nearly recovered" or "cured." Usually, this is done to make a claim for the effectiveness of some particular treatment. Sometimes these "recovered child" videos are available on the websites of quack doctors who pitch their snake oil treatments to parents using these supposedly stunning before and after videos. Autism Diva watched a supposedly straight researcher from the MIND Institute use a video borrowed from a quack in a conference presentation (the borrowed video is on the quack's website) to show the improvements made by a little girl over the period of a little more than a year. She went from being a two-year old throwing tantrums --- NO! Really? A two year old throwing a temper tantrum? Shocking! --- maturing into a four year old interacting nicely with some adults. All of this is attributed to the wonders of the quack therapy, of course. Autism Diva is not saying that this little girl was not autistic, but the little girl looks pretty close to normal, even as a temper tantrum throwing 2 year old. Like they don't know that normal kids make huge strides in cooperating with adults from age 2 to 4. All of this comes about because the parents are so anxious to declare a victory in their seige on "the child's autism" and because they have wobbly definitions of what "recovered" is. These prounoncements of recovery are sometimes backed up by school administrators who are more than happy to agree that a child getting special ed services no longer needs them. Also, it doesn't take that much editing to make an autistic kid look normalish for a few seconds at a time on a video, just as selective editing can make an autistic child look like a total monster. As diagnoses are pushed to younger ages it will be easier for a non-autistic child to be misdiagnosed at age 11 months, for example, and then have a miraculous turn around and look non-autistic a year later. The "cure" will be attributed to whatever was done to the child in that time. One never hears about a "miracle cure" that works for a kid who is obviously autistic at age 8 and then not at age 9. Snake oil peddlers whose treatments fail on these older kids wring their hands and say, "Oh, if only you had brought him to us sooner!" None of this is to say that parents shouldn't show off their children's talents, it's just that the audience should feel like they are applauding a child's own skill and effort, and not applauding not some injections or a quack's brilliance at finding a cure for the dreaded moster autism. Autistic adults describe in detail the way they have learned to "pass for normal" in order to take the stress off in certain situations. Passing for normal, smiling when you don't want to smile, suppressing a desire to flap or perseverate on trains. It helps in some situations to get along with normal people, but it shifts the stress to elsewhere in the psyche because one isn't allowed to be one's self. The person working so hard to act normal can end up resenting the people he or she is trying to please. Like a (not autistic) UC Davis student Autism Diva knows, the student's mother expects her to be a pharmacist. The student switched out of the pre-pharmacy program at UCD a year ago and into an engineering program. Now the engineering student has to make up a pretend schedule of pre-pharmacy classes each quarter to tell her mother about. That's a lot of stress, but less stress than dealing with an angry disappointed mother, apparently. More lessons in psychobiology and child psychology from Young Frankenstein: Everyone's greatest fear, an Abby Normal brain. Click here for one more. Gene Wilder starts out demonstrating Son Rise techniques (Do NOT open this door!) and moves on to Bettelheim's specialty (the child just needs to be loved,) and then on to almost acceptance therapy: "People hate you, but WHY do they hate you? Because THEY are JEALOUS!" "Listen to me. You are NOT Evil, YOU ARE -- GOOD!" "This is a NICE BOY. ... This is a mother's angel!" "We LOVE him!" PG rated. Autism Diva time steps

Tags: child, autism, autistic, normal, year