1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Comments Wanted on DOJ’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking!
2) National News
U.S. Census Revising Disability Questions, Comments Needed!
Tax Plan a Raw Deal for Social Security, Critics Say
Another Great Article on the Institutional Bias, Featuring the Center for Disability Rights!
3) State News
Legal Questions Remain After Denver City Council Pit Bull Ruling
Staten Island Man’s Death Ruled Homicide
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
Social Security Administration Launches Retirement Estimator in Spanish / El Calculador de beneficios por jubilación en español ya está disponible por Internet
US Federal Committee to Hold Meeting On Electroshock Devices, Survivors Invited to Speak Out
Comments Wanted on DOJ’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking!
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking public comment on the possibility of revising the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to address accessible web information and services, movie captioning and video description, accessibility of Next Generation 9-1-1, and accessible equipment and furniture.
The Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) were published in the Federal Register on July 26, 2010, and the comment period for them closes on January 24, 2011. Go to the DOJ ADA Homepage at www.ada.gov and click on “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” to view the ANPRMs, and Fact Sheets.
It's very important that the Department of Justice hears what you have to say because they have asked you, essentially, 90 questions that they need answers from the public, from both the disability community as well as the regulated community so that their regulations can meet the needs of the public.
Send in your comments today!
U.S. Census Revising Disability Questions, Comments Needed!
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are working together with EconSys to develop a supplementary set of new disability questions for the Current Population Survey (CPS). The Census currently undercounts individuals with disabilities by at least 10 million people. The new questions will be designed to enhance the data currently collected in the CPS about people with a disability, and will be included in the May 2012 CPS.
Comments and suggestions are being considered to provide guidance and determine the focus of these new questions, and it is important that we submit as much input as possible to help end the trend of being underrepresented. People with disabilities and disability related issues will never receive adequate attention or consideration if Census results suggest that many of us do not exist.
Please take a few minutes to submit comments to: vote@aapd.com. More information about this project can be found at: http://disabilitysupplement.econsys.com/.
Tax Plan a Raw Deal for Social Security, Critics Say
Source: CNNMoney.com, by Jeanne Sahadi
Left-leaning Social Security advocates are worried that the tax-cut compromise made between President Obama and Republicans will undermine the retirement safety net in the long run. At issue: A provision that would reduce the payroll tax employees pay into the system for one year. The concern is that lawmakers will blink when it comes time to reinstate the tax at its current level.
To fund Social Security, workers and their employers each pay 6.2% of the first $106,800 in wages. The tax-cut deal would reduce the employee portion to 4.2%. The idea is to let workers keep the money so they'll spend it and give the economy a boost.
The White House has said the Social Security system would be reimbursed for the full amount from general revenue -- an estimated $112 billion -- so it wouldn't affect the program's long-term solvency.
Social Security advocates don't doubt that's true over the coming year. But they worry that reinstating the 6.2% rate could be portrayed as a 50% tax increase. "It's easy to enact tax cuts but virtually impossible to allow them to expire. This payroll tax holiday proposal will be no different. Election year politics in 2012 will doom the repeal of this [$112 billion] cut," said Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Read More.
Another Great Article on the Institutional Bias, Featuring the Center for Disability Rights!
Source: Kaiser Health News / AARP
There's one age group that's going into nursing homes at a higher rate. And it's not the elderly. Young people ages 31 to 64 now make up 14 percent of the nursing home population, an analysis of federal data from the Department of Health and Human Services by NPR's Investigative Unit found. That's up from 10 percent just 10 years ago.
The data do not show why this age group is entering nursing homes in such higher numbers, but Michelle Fridley's fight to stay out of a nursing home may provide a clue.
Ten years ago, Fridley was nine months pregnant and 23 when, driving on a rural road in upstate New York's Amish country, she came over a blind hill and swerved to miss a horse and buggy. Her car hit a tree; she was left a quadriplegic.
At the time, Fridley was driving home to decorate for her baby shower. Her daughter, Felicia, was born nine days later. Ever since, Fridley, who is now 33, has fought to stay out of a nursing facility and continue living in her own home. Read More.
Legal Questions Remain After Denver City Council Pit Bull Ruling
Source: Denver Daily News, by Peter Marcus
The director of Denver’s Office of Disability Rights says the City Council’s failure to exempt service dogs from the city’s ban on pit bulls not only puts the city out of line with federal law, but puts his office in an “unusual situation.”
Disabled individuals normally have the right to file a grievance under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act if they feel the city is not offering rights afforded to them under the law. But Ed Neuberg, director of the Office of Disability Rights, who handles such grievance complaints, says he’s not sure he’s even able to investigate such potential claims following the City Council’s lack of action on Dec. 6 — even though it is a legal right afforded to disabled individuals.
City attorneys had advised the Council that from a legal standpoint, Council members had no choice but to provide the exemption for pit bulls as service dogs. But still, the Council voted against the exemption, mostly arguing that it would not “roll over and play dead” with the federal government.
Come March, when an updated definition of a “service animal” takes effect under the ADA, the city will be in blatant violation of federal law, opening Denver up to an onslaught of potential lawsuits, some of which may come from the federal government itself; others may seek monetary damages at the taxpayers’ expense from individuals who feel their civil rights have been violated, say attorneys and civil rights experts.
The argument isn’t whether the city is in violation of federal law, it’s whether the city can be in violation of federal law. Because a federal judge will be forced to recognize that the city is in violation of federal law, it is possible that the city will lose any potential lawsuits, say attorneys and civil rights experts, including Neuberg himself, who works for the city. Read More.
Staten Island Man’s Death Ruled Homicide
Source: CBS New York (1010 WINS/CBS 2)
A distraught Staten Island mother said she believes someone murdered her autistic son, who was a patient at a Staten Island psychiatric center. Sharon Rowe was beside herself with grief when she learned that her 27-year-old son, Henry Jawara, had died Sunday.
The Medical Examiner’s office found evidence of a possible strangulation and ruled Jawara’s death a homicide, 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported. According to authorities, EMT arrived at the psychiatric center Sunday afternoon and found Jawara unconscious. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigative sources said the staff at the psychiatric center was trying to subdue Jawara, when he went unconscious, CBS 2′s John Slattery reported. Courtney Rowe, Jawara’s stepfather, said the family was told that staff members “were trying to restrain him.”
An autopsy showed evidence that he may have been strangled and his mother said she noticed bruises on him before, but he couldn’t tell her anything. “He can’t talk, he’s non-verbal,” she said. Rowe said her son acted more like a 4-year-old and that he had been at the center for a little over one year. Rowe is convinced someone killed him.
“He was murdered and I think, you know…I should have seen it coming,” she told Rivera. “I put my son some place to protect him and they ended up strangling him. That’s all I know,” Sharon Rowe told Slattery. Read More.
Social Security Administration Launches Retirement Estimator in Spanish
The Social Security Administration announced that the agency’s most popular online service – the Retirement Estimator – is now available in Spanish at www.segurosocial.gov/calculador. The Retirement Estimator uses a person’s own Social Security earnings record to provide immediate and personalized benefit estimates.
The Spanish-language Retirement Estimator and the other information available at www.segurosocial.gov will help provide a broader audience with important informational tools for planning a secure retirement. Legendary broadcaster Don Francisco is helping to publicize this new Spanish-language service with a Public Service Announcement, which you can view at www.segurosocial.gov/calculador.
Please share this exciting news with your friends, colleagues, and other interested parties. For your convenience, we have included a Spanish version of this letter below.
El Calculador de beneficios por jubilación en español ya está disponible por Internet
Estamos contentísimos porque el servicio más popular de la agencia disponible por Internet – el Calculador de beneficios por jubilación – ya está disponible en español en la página web www.segurosocial.gov/calculador. El Calculador de beneficios por jubilación usa el propio registro de ganancias del Seguro Social de la persona para calcular una estimación personalizada e inmediata de sus beneficios.
El Calculador de beneficios por jubilación, al igual que el resto de la información que está disponible en el sitio web www.segurosocial.gov, nos ayudará a compartir información valiosa y necesaria para la planificación de una jubilación segura a una mayor audiencia. El muy conocido anfitrión del programa de televisión Sábado Gigante, Don Francisco, nos está ayudando a promocionar este nuevo servicio a través de un anuncio de servicio público, el cual puede ser visto en la página web www.segurosocial.gov/calculador.
Por favor comparta está gran noticia con los compañeros de su organización, colegas, u otras personas o grupos interesados. Para su conveniencia hemos incluidos enlaces a nuestras nuevas páginas de Facebook y Twitter en español.
US Federal Committee to Hold Meeting On Electroshock Devices, Survivors Invited to Speak Out
Source: MindFreedom Zapback Initiative News
On January 27 and 28, 2011, an US Food & Drug Administration committee will "discuss and make recommendations regarding the possible reclassification of devices indicated for use in electroconvulsive therapy." More information on the meeting.
Background: The FDA has appointed an advisory committee to assist it to determine if ECT devices will be moved from Class III to Class II, or as many have proposed, to require the manufacturers to submit a "Pre-Market Application" which they should have been required to do 35 years ago.
If the Committee agrees to downgrade the risk of ECT to Class II, it will be more readily available, and the manufacturers will never have been required to prove neither that it is safe, nor that it is effective.
ECT survivors may briefly speak to the committee in this public meeting to provide their story or perspective on the harms caused to them by ECT. Communication of long term harms is especially
important, as the manufacturers and ECT advocates all claim that ECT has no long term ill effects - no long term memory loss - no long term effect of reducing ability to learn and remember new information.
Persons wishing to speak at this important meeting may contact James Engles at James.Engles@fda.hhs.gov.
|
December 15, 2010