Florida to drug-test welfare recipients - America City & County article

Welfare recipients in Florida will now have to undergo screening for illegal drug use, a law Gov. Rick Scott says will ?increase personal accountability and prevent Florida?s tax dollars from subsidizing drug addiction.? However, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU of Florida) is threatening to sue to block the measure, saying it gives ?ugly legitimacy? to stereotypes of welfare recipients.

Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying for assistance. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify, and parents who fail the required drug test may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of the children, according to Scott?s office. ?While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction,? Governor Scott said.

However, ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon says the new law is a violation of personal privacy that humiliates welfare recipients without any evidence that they abuse drugs. Simon said in a statement that a federal judge in 2003 struck down a similar law in Michigan, ruling that forcing those applying for temporary welfare assistance to submit their bodily fluids for a government search violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches. ?Searching the bodily fluids of those in need of assistance is a scientifically, fiscally, and constitutionally unsound policy,? Simon said in the statement. ?Today, that unsound policy is Florida law.?

Also, ACLU of Florida filed suit on May 31 to block Scott?s Executive Order 11-58 requiring drug testing for state employees. That lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Council 79, which represents 50,000 public workers who are now subject to the new drug-testing regime and Richard Flamm, a 17-year state employee and Research Scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission located at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg. ?It is an unnecessary and costly invasion of the basic privacy and dignity of all state workers to force us to submit to tests of our bodily fluids with absolutely no just cause,? Flamm said in a statement. ?For those of us who do our job well, it?s an affront to suggest we may be abusing drugs just because we work for the state.?

In addition, Scott signed House Bill 1039, which makes ?bath salts? a Schedule 1 controlled substance, considered in Florida to have no medical value or usage. Poison control centers in Florida have reported 61 calls of ?bath salts? abuse, making Florida the state with the second-highest volume of calls, according to Scott?s office. The hallucinogenic substances are readily available at convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, and truck stops, among other locations.

Read the governor?s press release or the ACLU of Florida?s press release about its lawsuit against Florida?s drug testing of state employees.

Link to Document
Read Simon's statement on Florida drug testing welfare recipients.

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Source: http://americancityandcounty.com/pubsafe/drug-testing-welfare-recipients-20110607/index.html?imw=Y

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Kidney Donors Reach Out on Facebook

Facebook is also a place to cry for help, particularly for those who are in need of kidney donors.

Damon Brown from Seattle is only one of fortunate individuals who found a kidney on Facebook. He told his story on a special page he created under the name, "Damon Kidney," AP reports.

Fortunately, Damon's friends and family forwarded his link to everyone they knew - until an acquaintance of his wife responded. ?

The family was surprised over the kind gesture of someone they had known for years, but had not been very close to.

"She said it wasn't really for me. It was for my kids, because they deserve to have a dad around," Brown, 38, told AP.

Damon was on the official transplant list and had started mobile dialysis through Northwest Kidney Centers but as he was seeing his health deteriorate, he and his wife decided it was time to make a public plea for help on Facebook via 'Damon Kidney.'

The page eventually drew over 1400 friends.

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Just a few weeks ago, after his transplant was approved and scheduled, Brown posted the good news to his Facebook friends, over 300 of whom responded positively to the good news.

Damon's kidney donor, Jacqueline Ryall, 45,?told AP her mother does not understand why she would give a kidney to someone other than her own brother and sister, and her family is worried about her health going forward.

However, Ryall did her own research and figured it is relatively safe for a woman in good health to donate a kidney.

She said her decision to share a kidney is an act of gratitude for all the good things she has in her life.?

April Paschke, a spokeswoman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, a private non-profit organisation that manages the nation's organ transplant system for the federal government, told AP the agency has been seeing an increase in the number of kidney requests being posted to Facebook and other social media sites.

"It's an extension of the way we communicate. Before we found the internet, people found other ways: through a church bulletin, word of mouth or an advertisement even,'' Ms. Pasche noted.

AP further reports in 2011 alone, a man in Michigan also found a kidney donor through Facebook, and a Florida woman found one through Craigslist, a popular website for posting free advertisements.

An average of 46 kidney transplants take place each day in the United States while another 13 people who have been waiting for a kidney die each day. About 90,000 are on the transplant list right now, AP reports.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/275455/20120103/kidney-donors-reach-out-facebook.htm

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Small Start to Local Church is Now a Big Impact on Community

(Springfield, MO) -- There are churches all across the city of Springfield, spread in all directions.

But one church is using a central location to make an impact in the community.

It began with just four guys, four friends in a small basement of the old Skinny Improv Theatre.

They were young and appealead to the younger generation.

But now after five years, their message speaks to all ages.

The name of the church is Emmaus, named after a story in the Bible.

And after outgrowing that old theatre basement, they are now located just above the Gilloiz Theatre.

Emmaus is lead by four guys with the oldest one being just 35 years old.

They all go by the title of pastor because there is no heiarchy of rank.

One of the pastors is Kent Shelton and he said that it is a simple system between the friends.

They're just four regular guys who started a church.

"We've had to learn a lot along the way. We didn't even really have a gamplan in place at the beginning. but we knew what we wanted to be and didn't want to be and through it all we have slowly fine tuned and kinda involved into what we are now, " said Kent Shelton, Emmaus Pastor.

Again, Emmaus is located just above the Gilloiz Theatre, with a service time of 10:30 a.m. every Sunday.

And also they have what they call "house churches" that meet at several different locations Sunday through Thursday.

For more information about Emmaus, visit http://www.emmausspringfield.com/

Source: http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=579807

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Why is Twitter Down? Site Greets New Year With Mass Outage

Twitter, one of the world's most popular social networks, is ringing in the New Year with mass outages, as the site goes down, comes back up, and then crashes again.

Likely strained by too many "Happy New Year" tweets, the web site has been essentially broken for hours now, and tech analysts and Twitter engineers are all scrambling to figure out why.

New 'Fail' Art

Twitter did manage to give its users an adorable bit of "down for maintenance" art while they wait (bidding goodbye to the "fail whale" of years past), but as Twitter continues to have its service disrupted, many are getting restless.

And for those who still want to tweet in the New Year, there's still a chance users can get and send Twitter posts using apps or the mobile site, with some success reported via this more indirect route.

Like us on Facebook

Twitter Reports 'Some Site Issues'

But when it comes to what's causing Twitter to be down for so long, the Twitter status microblog?will only say that there are "some site issues" that "our engineers are working on resolving."

At the moment, the site appears to be fluctuating between periods of working and not-working. Twitter has been in the habit of going through extended outages at least once a year since 2007, when the web site's popularity began to explode.

Why is Twitter Down?

Tech analysts point to the site being chronically over-capacity, especially since thousands of Twitter users keep checking the site or trying to get access the moment the social networking site reappears.

In 2010, issues with Twitter's "timeline cache" caused the site to go down for several hours, an issue that may have been exacerbated by the Twitter revamp introduced to select users this year.

Most likely, however, the reason for the New Year's outage is simply that too many users keep flooding a site that, years on, still has enough network problems not to be able to handle it.

Keep checking back for Twitter updates as site engineers try to fix the problem, or check out status.twitter.com?for minute-by-minute info.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/274945/20120101/why-twitter-down-site-outages-new-year.htm

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The Prime Minister Speaks: Church of England

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. David Cameron, prime minister of Great Britain, celebrated the occasion with a speech at Christ College, Oxford, in which he asserted Britain's identity as a Christian nation.

Cameron described himself as a committed Anglican albeit a "vaguely practicing" one. He confessed to doubts, yet emphasized the Church of England's essential role in framing Britain's culture. Cameron cited the influence of the King James not only on the English-speaking world but also on the world introduced to English by the King James. He made no apologies for the faith's spread. And he noted that religious minorities are more apt to flourish in the Anglican realm than in secular France.

Cameron made headlines with what the British press labeled a "coded" rebuke of Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury. The prime minister recognized the archbishop's right to address political issues, as Williams has done, but implicitly criticized him for not defending Christianity with sufficient vigor. Cameron took a theological approach to the riots that afflicted his country earlier this year. He spoke then of a moral collapse.

British politics lacks a religious right or a religious left in the American sense ? which is not to say religion has vanished from the political realm. The Labour Party sings "Jerusalem" as its anthem, even as the secular left scorns articles of faith. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is a man of piety, although he did not announce his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church until his departure from Downing Street. And Cameron just delivered a speech of a religious depth deeper than American politicians would venture. God save the queen.

Source: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/rtd-opinion/2011/dec/30/tdopin01-church-of-england-ar-1575557/

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Obama hopeful for more economic progress in 2012 (AP)

HONOLULU ? Reflecting on a challenging year, President Barack Obama says he's hoping for more economic progress following action by Congress to prevent tax increases at the start of 2012.

"It was good to see members of Congress do the right thing for millions of working Americans," said Obama, using his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to deliver a New Year's message.

He said the public made itself heard on a Social Security payroll tax cut and that was one big reason that lawmakers agreed to extend it for two more months.

The American people, Obama said, "had the courage to believe your voices could make a difference."

The president said he expects Congress to finish the job when lawmakers return to Washington in January and extend the tax cut through the end of the year.

Reflecting on 2011, Obama said it was a time of great challenge and progress, including the end of the war in Iraq, the death of Osama bin Laden and signs of an economic recovery.

"There's no doubt that 2012 will bring even more change," Obama said. "And as we head into the new year, I'm hopeful that we have what it takes to face that change and come out even stronger ? to grow our economy, create more jobs and strengthen the middle class."

On the eve of an election year, Obama said the months ahead will help determine "what kind of country we want to be and what kind of world we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in."

Sen. Johnny Isakson, delivering the GOP address, outlined his party's commitments to the American people for 2012.

The Georgia lawmaker said his party's No. 1 goal is to make it easier for small businesses to create jobs.

"We'll accomplish this by focusing on three things: fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform and energy security," he said.

Isakson said that while some people may think Congress will be too consumed with the 2012 elections to accomplish anything significant, the public deserves better.

"Americans cannot wait until after the November election," he said. "They need us to do our job and do it right now to create an economic climate that makes it easier to put people back to work."

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111231/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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VPN For Business Communications | iBlognDax Directory

When a company starts to expand these days it literally takes on different locations. They have to set up offices in different areas in order for their business to go on as they want it to. If a company fails to expands in that way it finds itself severely hampered.

Once multiple locations of business have been set up all of these would need some form of communication with each other. This form of communication has to be fast, efficient and secure in order for the business to go on as planned.

A VPN or a virtual private network provides a fast and reliable way of communication within a business setting. Through the use of a VPN networks of computers that are separated by great distances can communicate with each other and exchange data.

This type of network communication utilizes a public network such as the Internet in order to hook up the internal network of a company together. It does not utilize a physical connection, instead it uses a virtual connection in order for networks to communicate with each other. This virtual network is very crucial right now.

Since this kind of communication utilizes a public network, one of the most important concern for it is security for those who would like to try it out. This problem is resolved by encrypting the message so that even if it is intercepted it would not be of any use.

Most companies now are thinking and planning on the possibility that they might have to Buy VPN in order to keep their business running. A few years ago they might have no choice but to go for a leased line which can really be quite expensive. Now there is a more affordable alternative.

A VPN opens up doors of new possibilities for a company and its Intranet. They could even start dreaming of utilizing it for home-based workers who are just connected by the network.

Want to find out more about VPN, then visit www.vpnfortress.com on how to choose the best VPN for your needs.

Source: http://iblogndax.vdhdesigns.com/vpn-for-business-communications/

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