| Hensley: State needs 'common man' approach
Gov. Fletcher claims that we have "turned Kentucky around." This declaration of success is premature and shows how out of touch he is with life in much of Kentucky. We need hundreds of thousands more jobs to increase household incomes. Over 100,000 Kentuckians are still unemployed and many more are not counted because they have lost hope. Many of us struggle just to live and hundreds of thousands of us are on government programs because of a lack of jobs. We lose many of our college students to other states because of a lack of jobs. Hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians are without health insurance because of its high cost. The Family Court system impoverishes parents with high legal and consultant fees and draconian measures limiting a parent's ability to earn a living. We have senior citizens who must choose between buying food or medicine because of the high cost of living; and thousands of Kentuckians, many of whom are women with children and veterans, are homeless or living in homeless shelters.
Stateline Area Business People in the News
Dale Reeves, Senior Vice President, recently joined Blackhawk Bank's Business Division to replace Dick Rusch upon Rusch's retirement in April. Reeves most recently lead the bank's Consumer Banking and Wealth Management Divisions.A graduate of Western Illinois University, Reeves has extensive experience in the financial service sector going back to 1984. He will take over the business banking clientele of Dick Rusch, will be responsible for development of new business, and will continue oversight of the Raymond James Financial Services offices located inside Blackhawk's Beloit and Rockford banking centers.Reeves is on the Board of Directors of the New Court Theater and the Macktown Living History Education Center and is a member of the Beloit Rotary Club. Dale, his wife Lisa, and their two children reside in Roscoe.
12 million euro SOPRANO project to support independent living in Europe
Tunstall is heading up a 12 million European health and social care project aimed at supporting older people in their own homes. The Service Orientated Programmable Smart Environments for Older Europeans (SOPRANO) project is part-EU funded and will develop affordable, smart IT-based assisted living services aimed at promoting independence for older people, improving quality of life and addressing the issue of an ageing population across Europe. The SOPRANO project will run for three and a half years and combines the expertise and knowledge of over 20 partners from six European countries, including university research institutes, public bodies and industry experts. The project will demonstrate how telecare technology, IT and mobile communications can be harnessed to develop new community-based models of care and support.
Bob Welch: Telling the story of a life, just in time
That's just another birthday for a woman who saw the Wright brothers, heard John Philip Sousa's band play and watched Halley's Comet streak across the sky in 1910. No, the story is Thelma, her book and the Elder Help volunteer who insisted that she write it even after she said, "Oh, I'm no writer." The story begins eight years ago when, at 96 and taking care of a 75-year-old daughter - you never stop being a mother - Thelma realized that she needed some "taking care of" of her own. Elder Help, a Lane County organization, sent her a volunteer to help her do errands so she could keep living at her home on Taylor Street. She didn't like its choice. The volunteer was, well, a man. His name was Dave Kayfes, then 61. He told her he was a retired Register-Guard sportswriter.
Spouses close even if one is in nursing home
EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Even if one spouse is placed in a nursing home, married couples work hard to maintain closeness and keep their marriages alive, says a Canadian study. Robin Stadnyk of the University of Alberta says she was surprised to discover that home-based spouses were heavily involved in the lives of their institutionalized partners and that many of the couples stayed active together both inside and outside the nursing home. Stadnyk, a post-doctoral researcher, reviewed data from a qualitative study of 52 community-dwelling spouses in three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. She found that the participants were heavily involved in their spouses' lives, not only through caretaking duties like doing laundry and helping with personal hygiene, but also through nurturing activities that brought them closer together.
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