Ask the Obama Administration to address the obesity epidemic

Ask the Obama Administration to address the obesity epidemic by using some of the $650 million set aside for prevention and wellness in the economic stimulus package to strengthen the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO). CDC is the nation's lead prevention agency, yet DNPAO is funded at less than one half of one percent of CDC's budget.

Please go to the “contact us” section of recovery.gov. Insert a request for CDC obesity funding, such as the model comment below, and add a supporting fact of your own or one from the list of options below:

Please ensure that the prevention and wellness fund from the stimulus package includes a strong investment in obesity prevention by providing $90 million for the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.


To support that request use one of the following or your own supporting fact:

* At the current funding, $42 million, CDC is able to support only 23 states. The remaining states receive no funds from CDC to address a condition that affects two-thirds of American adults, contributes to 112,000 deaths annually, and costs the nation $123 billion in treatment costs.

* Over the last ten years, the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity has begun to build a strong science base, effective programs, and national infrastructure to promote healthy eating and physical activity. The Administration should build on that initial investment rather than reinventing the wheel.

* With high rates of obesity in adults and children, the Administration can’t afford to not have a strong national obesity prevention program in place. Without sufficient investment in prevention, obesity rates are going to continue to wreak havoc on the nation’s health and health care costs.

* Funding CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at $90 million would allow it to support obesity prevention programs in every state.

* Even though all state applications were approved for funding, 13 states lost their obesity funding last year due to inadequate resources.

Campaign finance-plank-Dowd - Fix PA

Nice response. Now lets go and split hairs.

Campaign finance-plank-Dowd - Fix PA 1) I will introduce comprehensive, common sense campaign finance legislation that is tied to federal contribution limits within the first 100 days;

2) I will end the practice of awarding no-bid contracts to campaign contributors;

3) I will ensure that every contract over $25,000 will be competitively bid;

4) As an incumbent Mayor, I will not solicit campaign contributions from any firm that does business with the City of Pittsburgh or its Authorities;

5) I will make all finance reports electronically available to the public on the state and county filing dates;

6) I will ensure the creation of and integrate searchable electronic databases of all city contracts and all campaign contributions of all city elected officials.

7) I will publish my public schedule on the city's website so that any Pittsburgher can see who I am meeting with.

#7. Why not have your private and public schedule on the web?

Why not have the schedule on the web now?

Why not have the schedule on a personal site and not the city's site?

Why not have the main meeting room set up with UStream or some other video conference set up so that what is said is broadcasted and archived so others can see or hear exactly what happened?

#6. Why not do a database of your spending and incomes now?

Why not support the TRANSPARENT PAC ACCOUNT concept with private banks as a way to make a solution that is without any extra costs and overhead on city resources?

Why not meet with me to learn about and craft such a solution with a call to local bankers for a new type of account for local PAC accounts?

Why not ask all the other candidates you know in the city and county to migrate their bank accounts to these new TRANSPARENT PAC ACCOUNTS so that a critical mass rewards to early adopters and a new chapter in transparency is started in earnest?

#5. Why not make finance transaction data available as it occurs, not as the reporting periods dictate? Do reporting in real time, not with big lags.

#3. Why not insure that every contract greater than $5,000 be awarded after a competitive bid? Why the $25,000 ceiling?

Cal swimmers embrace unusual training methods

Cal swimmers embrace unusual training methods: "'At Rutgers I didn't think I would go any farther in swimming,' she said. 'I was just about ready to leave the sport. I wasn't where I wanted to be. I was frustrated with the whole thing - coaching, practices, meets, everything. Back East, it's very old school: Just pound out a lot of yardage. The coaching style is very removed. They tell the swimmers exactly what to do without a lot of positive feedback.'"

Program's goal is to knock down barriers, expose black youth to swimming : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal

Program's goal is to knock down barriers, expose black youth to swimming : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal: "Program's goal is to knock down barriers, expose black youth to swimming

By Wendi C. Thomas (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, March 19, 2009

Last summer city pools opened to tragedy: two teens drowned on the first day the pools were open in June.

Not this year, said Susan Helms, director of injury prevention and Safe Kids Mid-South at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center."

Big Job Fair -- the day after a posting closed

The city held a big job fair. Great. The city had an open job posting that closed the day before the job fair. Go figure. Not great.

PAC this to Zero-Land. The loophole is the PACs

From hot-pot-w-students

Start here, at Bob's blog: http://thebusmansholiday.blogspot.com/2009/03/peduto-campaign-finance-reform-by.html

My reply:

The loophole is PACs.

A union's PAC can give 2.5 times as much as an individual. But, a union PAC often has a city, county, regional and national PAC. And, it can have Grey PAC, Gay PAC, At-Home PAC, Retired PAC, Women's PAC, and so on. Anyone can make a PAC. PAC can then funnel money to candidates.

A rule follower could give $1-M to various PACs and they can all end up giving money to the same candidate for the same campaign.

When the rights of a mob, group or clan exceed that of the individual, red flags should fly.

1 hour and 20 minutes on the Kraus bill for sidewalk cafes

Bill Peduto is going to use his gavel. Finally. He is a bit hacked off today at city council for the spending of 1 hour and 20 minutes on a bill that had no amendments.

Too much talk. Too little action.

From NZ-whales

Mr. Kraus wants to thank everyone for all their help. That's called doing their jobs. Grandstanding stinks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kraus is always late to meetings. When I'm talking today -- he gets up from the table. When other members of the public are talking, Mr. Kraus is in the audience schmoozing.

Fixing it isn't everyone's duty. But to flag it is a great help.

My suggestion at another blog about fixing wiki pages when errors are noticed.

Life must be hard to know it all yet not have the technical / language skills to fix any of our bogus shared understandings.



Tip to Chris: At wikipedia.org, (and even FixPA.wikia.com) when you see something that is at odds with the truth, click the blue button at the top of the page called, "discussion." It is at the tab just to the right of the link labeled 'article.'

Then click again on the button, also at the top, called "new section." Sometimes a "+" sign is there. Then insert with the wiki language of plain old text in English to what you feel should be changes / adjusted / altered / inserted. Just go freehand.

Often two fields are presented, a title, like in a blog post. And a body field for longer chunks of text.

No need for any HTML nor WIKI mark-up. Just type like a blog comment.

Then after you are done, sign your nugget of insight by hitting the ~ (tide character) four times. That is way to the top left of the keyboard, often a CAP. It looks like this, ~~~~ .

That trick, ~~~~ puts your name and time stamp onto the posting.

Then leave the edits to others. Go about your merry way to other pages or whatever.

When busy, drop of comment onto the discussion page and move on. Hopefully others will get to the matter in due time.

I did this the other day at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Caliguiri

Perhaps some day the Caliguri page will get fixed to everyone's satisfaction.

(full thread)

The Pittsburgh Comet & Campaign Finance Reform

The Pittsburgh Comet: "If the ship leaks, we can look to where it's leaking.

My second comment at another blog goes like this:

If pay to play is the problem, then fix pay to play. You don't fix pay to play with campaign finance reform.

As you said, "If the ship leaks, we can look to where it's leaking." EXACTLY.

If you have a leak on the roof of your house, don't put in cement floors. Fix the roof.

The pay part should be okay, within reason. Don't make it criminal to give a donation to a candidate. We want people to be invested in self-government and the American process -- generally. However, we don't want special favors to be delivered to anyone. We don't want certain players to get the ball and our money all the time at the exclusion of others. Government isn't about making the rich richer despite effective operations.

The play part of pay to play is where the taxpayers get screwed. The play part is fixed with the elimination of all no bid contracts.

If you want to do business with government, we need to have a competitive bid process to insure that we buy the most and best for the money -- open to all.

Gaming the system is solved when the contracts and purchasing elements are with sealed bids and competition.

Campaign finance reform is another matter. It needs attention too. But, trying to make Campaign Finance Reform a wonder drug, magic bullet, and fix-it-all-solution, is sure to bog everything down and fail.

BTW, this was one of the failures of Peduto 2004 thinking. We're past that now, I dare say.

You don't fix one problem with an approach that isn't about the problem: Campaign Finance Reform

This is what victory looks like!

When Bill Peduto championed campaign finance reform in 2004, I was there saying, "Think again."

Peduto knew of the gang of 75 who were the pay to play mavericks. They ruled this town and took from its treasury, as needed, via their no-bid contracts. They come in all flavors from law firms to bond underwriters to URA designer weenies.

Peduto's aim, in part, was to fix this 'pay to play mentality.' So, he wanted to limit the size of campaign donations. The pay to play problems shrink as the size of the pay-offs are able to decrease -- generally. But, the root of the problem is the awarding of city contracts to friends.

In the case of Twanda Carlisle, she gave city money and city contracts for doing nothing, to family and friends. Those folks didn't give big campaign donations. They were paid, but they didn't even need to play the game with advance payments.

My point in recent years has been to the problem of letting city contracts to those who are hand picked. End all no bid contracts and the pay to play realm gets shattered.

This is what's on the table now. This is a major reform move. This is what I've been talking about and it is coming to pass.

Can anyone tell me any reason why we need any no-bid contracts in city government?

Next, gifts. Sure. We can start a gift abatement policy. But, that has to come from the individuals and it would be nice to have an Ethics Hearing Board too. Rev. Ricky Burgess is ranting about gifts and that's just fine.

The problem comes from enforcement.

What if I give you a ride home after a meeting? What if I let you use a cell phone to call home because of some special circumstances? These are much like NCAA Recruiting and Eligibility Rules. Have you ever seen or read the NCAA Manuals? Thick like phone books. Fairness. A college athlete can't get a new suit to go to a banquet to get an award. That's a deal breaker that will change the team's record from the last year.

A college athlete can't use the coach's phone to call home -- even if mom is home sick. Bang. Eligibility violations.

The mirco management of elimination of all gifts can get really unhealthy.

The thing to do is offer and reward the culture of gift elimination. But, don't legislate morals, as that's next to impossible to do.

We need to hire and elect wise and honest individuals.

The kicker gets to enforcement, in the final chapters of these discussions. Time to talk, again, about the 'scarlet letter provisions.'

If a person wants to buy property from the city, and that person owes taxes to the city on any property, the deal is off. The city won't sell property to tax cheats. The people who owe back taxes are blacklisted and can't purchase additional properties from the city. That's fine with me and a great law and policy.

I'd like to see the same thinking apply to these matters of campaign finance reform enforcement.

So, if a company has an employee that donates more money than allowed to a candidate, as established by these pending bills -- then what. I say that that company has to get a better grip on its employees, or owners, or board members. And, that company as a cheat on the campaign finance reform measures would be ineligible for any business dealings with the city. That company would be blacklisted and not be eligible for any contract with the city -- other than paying taxes, of course.

For example, consider the case of building a bridge or digging a tunnel under a river for the expansion of light rail. Some city contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Buying a council member or five, or a mayor or field of mayors, is worth tens of millions of dollars. And, if the penalty is a $10,000 fine -- yet the contracts are worth half-a-billion, then guess what.

Those who wanted the Mon Valley Toll Road gave Bob O'Connor and Tom Murphy both -- lots of money. They wanted to send the road through Hazelwood and into the Mon Valley -- out to Thomas Jefferson and such. This toll road would be valuable to those land speculators. And, it was worth hundreds of thousands. Those deals flowed in 2000 and 2001. Both O'Connor and Murphy spend $1-M in the 2001 primary election. Much of that money came from Mon Valley Advocates.

Same too happened with gambling.

Wayne Fontana and Michael Diven both had money from the D and R parties in Harrisburg that amounted to $1M each for a state senate seat. Years of gambling money, from horse track, slots, casinos, resorts and such flowed to Harrisburg and they were flush for their candidates.

Some deals, like casinos, stadiums, convention centers, sports teams, mass transit, airports, mining rights, dams, etc., are big ticket deals. Fortunes are made on the backs of public money.

We need to say that those who are guilty of breaking our rules are not eligible for any government dealings. That goes for the givers who give too much. And, that goes for the takers who take too much. Both are guilty. Those who are guilty can do so in their private lives on their private time with their private funds -- and should be excluded from any transactions from the public treasury. This would include pay checks.

And, the scarlet letter would last as long as those who are in office stay in office. The expiration of the black-listing should exceed the duration of the term of public employment in any capacity.

Now, let's swing the conversation of campaign finance reform to the enforcement aspects.

Getting serious, again, with the school name game

Time to think about school names and mascots.

Pittsburgh Public School is starting a new high school. It opens, sorta, again, in the fall of 2009 and is going to be dedicated to the I.B. concepts. This I.B. style is short for International Baccalaureate.

We've been calling the school, "I.B. High."

Let's name at school: Pittsburgh International, Junior and Senior High School. The short name, PI High.

The mascot: The Olympians.

Now taking the court, Pi High Olympians of Pittsburgh.



This school comes from, in part, Schenley and its Spartan tradition. The Spartans were Greek. Same too the Olympians. I think the Olympian name does some justice to the Spartan tradition. They can be brothers.

Of course, the logo should not be the five interlocking rings as shown in the trademarked design of the International Olympic Committee. But, that is for another discussion on another day.

Twitter make me tweet rich

My twitter account is @Rauterkus.

Look to the left of the page to see my recent tweets.



Woops:

Rocketboom did a twitter video. I put in with embed on my blog. http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com. But, it seems to have been lost with a bug. Gone. Poof.
Background: I tried to put in a 'comment' but it was made into a 'tag' instead. So, I was hitting delete on each of the tag words. After 4 or 5, the entire video vanished.

After about 10 minutes, the video came back. And, I've since nuked the various bogus tags.

Dowd and Schenley High School

I watched the first moments of the Dowd talk about Schenley High School closing (and his big important role in that) and nearly choked to death.

After a cooling off period, (15 seconds) the resumed the watch brings the following.

Schenley's capacity was strong. There are district problems that were ignored for too long -- thanks in good part to Patrick's in-action. But, the capacity at Schenley wasn't one of them. And, by closing Schenley, the rest of the problems got ignored still. And, a new set of problems came into the scene.

With too much capacity, why endorse a plan to open NEW high schools? New U-Prep. New I.B. New Sci-Tech. The U-PREP is in a building with ability to hold 1,000 plus students and the first year had less than 150. So, thanks to Patrick -- we've got bigger problems.

Still no change in sight for Westinghouse nor Peabody nor Oliver nor Langley. Zippo -- still.

Schenley wasn't a problem! But, Dowd closed it and made it worse.

Dowd said, "For years, and years, and years (3x), people ignored the problems at Schenley." Well, Schenley's new windows were like 5 years old. The entire facade of the building, and roof, was brand new. BLIND SPOT.

Same crap was said by Mark Roosevelt. He said on the radio that the physical structure of Schenley had not changed for 90 years. Except the new swim pool, new gym and addition -- all modern in recent decades. Lies.

Money was spent on Schenley. Not enough on the walls. But, elsewhere.

The 'Rightsized plan' (old news on Dowd's tenure) was to close 20+ ELEM Schools. Except 1 = Schenley H.S. Some how that school, Schenley HS, was put into the mix with Elem Schools. Go figure. That was on Dowd's watch. We fixed that with outrage at the board.

The merry-go-round didn't stop on Patrick's watch. It tripled in speed, IMNSHO.


Bonus clip -- flashback:

Nolte movie seeks 1,500 student extras

Going to the movies and The Pete.

The Pitt News - Nolte movie seeks 1,500 student extras The Petersen Events Center is also a major character in the film “Warrior.” Brennan said that the Pete will be a gym and will possibly be transformed in to a Las Vegas set. The Pete will also be the setting during the film’s climatic scene, where the star battles opponents in a series of choreographed mixed martial arts tournaments. On that day of filming, more than 1,500 extras are needed to fill the Petersen gymnasium.

Speaking of which, is The Pete going to be open for students and fans to watch the basketball games this Thursday and Saturday?

City officials urged to link youth summer jobs program to academic performance - Pittsburgh Business Times:

What do you get in life with a lottery choice?

City officials urged to link youth summer jobs program to academic performance - Pittsburgh Business Times:: "Richard Flanagan, youth development director at Bloomfield Garfield Corp., urged Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and other elected officials to tie academic performance to youth job placement to maximize use of economic stimulus funding. Summer job candidates are currently chosen by lottery.

In Pittsburgh, you get to pick a school by lottery. That's bad.

In Pittsburgh you get to pick who to hire by lottery. That's bad too.

I agree with Mr. Flannigan. Hire based on merit. Imagine that.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors

Getting closer.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors 'On the first day of taking office, I would issue an executive order that would ban no-bid contracts for political contributors to elected officials,' said Mr. Dowd, whose 2007 council run was backed in part by a handful of lawyers and financiers that do business with the city. 'I'm sure at some point we will also say that we will have no no-bid contracts.'

One does not need to ban political contributions for people who have no-bid contracts if you eliminate all no-bid contracts. So, I'd say, as I have said in the past, the city should eliminate all no-bid contracts. There is no place for no-bid contracts in government.

Simple.

Otherwise, I don't like the removal of free speech for some on day one.

Furthermore, all donors to political campaigns can have their names and details visible as soon as the money gets deposited. And, as soon as the campaign spends any money, that gets reported as well. All incomes and all expenses of political action commitees -- starting with me -- can be made visible on the internet in real time.

Dowd blasts Ravenstahl for contributions from contractors: "Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb has said he is putting together searchable, online lists of contributions and contracts."

Too little and too late, Mr. Lamb. Get moving already.

St. Louis - Daily RFT - Libertarians Claim State Violated Homeland Security Policies

St. Louis - Daily RFT - Libertarians Claim State Violated Homeland Security Policies Libertarians are still rankled about a memo uncovered last week in which Gov. Jay Nixon and other state officials classify followers of Ron Paul and third-party candidates as possible militia members.

Yesterday, the Missouri Libertarian Party issued a statement saying that the memo in question (circulated by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, or MIAC) failed to follow U.S. Department of Homeland Security policies that prohibit political profiling and other civil rights violations.

Carmen Latrice Robinson's says "fighter"

UPDAED. See comments.

Humm...

Facebook | Carmen Latrice Robinson's NotesA Good Fight!

Safe neighborhoods, good schools and a strong local economy are the building blocks of a livable city; those goals will not become a reality without a fighter at the helm.

I AM NOT AFRAID of A GOOD Fight!

If you’re looking for an advocate and not a politician, vote for a fighter Carmen Robinson, as you’re Mayor May 19th.

G.W. Bush and Dick Chaney were always looking to start a fight.

Tom Murphy was always in 'fight mode' too.

I'm thinking, 'fire in the belly' is great -- if not necessary. However, I'm not excited in the least bit about one who picks to make fights.

The Kingdom of Heaven goes to the peacemakers. Making peace is rough.

Give us un-unflappable leadership. Give us a fixture for certain principles. Give us tenacity. Give us an underdog that isn't intimidated. Give us drive and determination. Give us the uncomfortable.

More than telling you are hungry for a fight -- deliver the actions. Engage in that mental toughness of a fight with bone-headed authority figures day-in-and-day-out. Who are your in a rumble with? How is it going? What ground are you going to protect. What areas do we need to recapture? Draw lines and see who falls on which side?

If you want to be a fearless fighter like the TV cartoon, Tazmanian Devil, jumping around in a huff without purpose, you'll get less than 400 votes and not do much but blow smoke and dust into the air.

Finally, some are less into the fight and more into the outcomes. Getting jazzed about the fight is almost a primal urge -- if not middle-school aged hubris. Rather, let's jump on the bandwagon of a victor. Let's celebrate the win together. That is with real mass appeal.

Goffyness of Governance

Bill would exempt some from yearly tax relief form: "under Councilman Patrick Dowd's legislation, residents 50 and older would only have to fill out the city's Act 77 tax relief form once. Then they would have their assessments frozen until they moved or reported an increase in income."

Making a tax freeze is a guarantee way to advance corruption, unfairness, and plant all sorts of other bad karma nasty ramifications.

This is politics 101 for dummies and Dowd seems to be the one who wants to go there now.

Pandering. Unsustainable. Unethical in the end.

The entire Allegheny County re-assessment boondoggle came about because of a 'freeze mentality.' Their bogus fix is a turn-back the clock solution. Live in the past. Stay there.

Meanwhile, the city and region shrink some more.

Dowd, or someone else, should take the high road on these important matters of self governance.

Schools dig into stimulus arithmetic

Don't let that cat out of the bag.

Schools dig into stimulus arithmetic For those who are hoping the closed Schenley High School building will be renovated, Mr. Roosevelt said, 'There's not monies sufficient to bring a project of that magnitude to the table, nor is it consistent with the very clear Obama administration edict that the money be used primarily on student gains.'

Do students gain when they have extra time on a bus?

Do students gain when those in 6th grade are put with those in 9th, 10, 11th and 12th?

Do students gain when $5-Million of additional money is to be spent in the summer of 2009 to fix up a school that will be given to a bulldozer in less than four years?

Do students gain when massive buildings sit empty?

I say that students gain when prudent investments of the past are continually realized into the future.

I say students gain when they can study and learn in a learning community, such is Oakland. Today, some will be walking to a play for a Spanish class field trip to the Oakland-based Cathedral. The topic of the play is an idealistic gent who took on some major opponents -- quixotic even.

I say high school reform is needed and must be in the back seat as we speed into a future with community participation with our schools.

The magnitude of fixing some plaster at Schenley High School has never been put onto the table in a fair, open and honest way. We don't need to fix the pipe organ. We don't need a lavish food court in the school. And the alternative costs are not put into the formula either. The magnitude is the uncertainty and doubt -- not a building with interior walls and ceilings that match what is found in some other schools.

Mr. Roosevelt expects the school system's innovations will prove effective. Prove that the past innovations have proven as much.

What about the Gifted Center innovations that have not come to pass?

What about K-8 schools?

What model of 6-12 grade schools has proven to work -- ever -- anywhere?

What about the ALAs? Why the flop? Why the uncertainty?

What about starting of school in mid August -- when we don't even know how many showed up for school on those days nor how hot the buildings were?

How are the kids doing in Duquesne's district? PPS has had a hand in that leadership innovation. Summary reports are where?

How are the Vo Tech kids doing in schools now -- since the closing of South Vo Tech? Where is the proven effect document with peer review, naturally.

The closing of some 20 school buildings in the past has made an impact. The Rightsizing innovation has saved money yet put dark holes into many communities. Where and how and when do we get to look at the effect of those empty buildings to places such as Knoxville and Hazelwood (with the still closed Gladstone Middle School)?

Here is a final question in our search for proof: What maget programs are effective? Why? How?