Tag: Health & Science

Audit says state should focus on safety of Child Protective Service workers

An audit of the Bureau for Children and Families says the Department of Health and Human Resources needs to focus on the safety of Child Protective Service workers making home visits throughout the state.

Legislative auditors presented their review of the bureau to lawmakers with six recommendations on how to improve safety for workers monitoring cases and conducting investigations outside of their county offices.

Those include:

1. Increase focus on worker safety and create a culture that emphasizes worker safety through creating a central and uniform focus on safety.

2.    Avoid any further delays in providing personal safety devices for all CPS workers and develop a statewide, uniform practice for their use.

3.    Identify areas of weak/nonexistent mobile phone coverage and explore the use of other communication technology.

4.    Provide agency mobile phones to all field workers and require their use for state business conducted from remote locations.

5.    Provide methamphetamine safety training and establish stringent methamphetamine safety guidelines for social workers.

6.    Require annual safety training.

As auditors explained their recommendations to members of the Joint Committee on Government Organization, they explained the bureau has been aware of communication issues during home visits since a CPS worker was killed on the job five years ago, but have yet to make any changes to the devices workers are carrying with them.

Bureau Commissioner Nancy Exline said over the next few months, they will be testing a variety of communication devices including satellite phones, life alert type badges and cell phone boosters to determine which technologies will be useful in different areas of the state.

“We’re currently doing a complete inventory of all of our cell phones, the technology they have, where they work, where they don’t work, where we need booster,” she said. “It is my hope that in December we can begin to make decisions about what devices we need to have where and which ones are the best to use for all of our field staff.”

Legislators asked Exline to return with a report in December detailing the devices that will be used by CPS workers and how additional safety procedures have been implemented as suggested by the audit.
 

WVU students exploring the world through others’ perspectives—Literally.

Google Glass. It’s a new computer right out of a James Bond film or a science fiction novel. You wear it like you would wear glasses, but you peer at the world with technologically reinforced eyes.

Like Iron Man.

…Without the suit.

Maybe the suit will come next, but, in the meantime Google Glass is being tested by thousands of people including students at West Virginia University. Professor Mary Kay McFarland got wind that Google was looking for ‘Glass Explorers’ and now she’s incorporated the technology into her class.

What Iron Man Sees

McFarland explains that basically, you’re wirelessly tethered to your smartphone. So instead of burying your head in your lap, you can walk around—head held high, taking pictures, rolling video, text messaging, calling someone, sharing what you see-live, getting directions-and following them, and of course, you look up whatever you want online—and all with voice commands or with a flick, tap, or nod.

“So it’s really responsive to questions like, ‘Do I need a sweater today?’ It’ll give you the weather. They’ve sort of thought about making mental leaps. You might say, ‘Ok, Glass, I’m hungry.’ And it’ll just list all the restaurants in the area.”

McFarland also points out that the design is fairly intelligent—the screen that you look through which projects whatever you’re looking at on the world in front of you, hovers just above your eyebrow so as not to actually obstruct your vision.

Testing, testing 1, 2, 3, 4… 8,000

McFarland is one of about 8,000 so-called ‘Glass Explorers’ who responded to a call for tweeted proposals to test the device.

Mary Kay McFarland made this proposal: It's not WHAT you said, it's HOW you said it. –  Couples get counseling to understand the other's perspective. What if you could see it? I would use Glass to make documentary video about the misunderstandings in relationships resulting from unconscious body language, choice of phrase and tone of voice.

She explains that once chosen, testers had to go to NY, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, to one of the Google offices, to pick the devices  up and get an explanation of how to use them. So off she went to New York.

“It was very simple ass I was just playing with them, to take pictures of the people who were sleeping across the airplane aisle or in the waiting area. And I thought, you know, if you had a camera out here it would be very obvious what you were doing, people would shy away or say, ‘I don’t want my picture taken.’ But it just looks like I’m fiddling with my glasses.”

Enter Elephant in the Room

“It just changes the complexion of life on the street if you can be being filmed all the time, without your knowledge, and have pictures taken of you without your knowledge. So I think most people are excited about the Glass, because they think, ‘Oh, it would be like wearing a computer around; I can just ask it questions and get answers.’ And that is absolutely true, but what they haven’t considered all the implications of privacy and that something that records and then uploads directly to Google who has the capacity to do facial recognition… ”

These are ideas that McFarland is introducing along with the device in her journalism classes at West Virginia University.

“This is not a new issue, however the technology makes the invasion of privacy possible on levels that it probably wasn’t before.”

Classy

But McFarland is embracing the technology nonetheless and students are eager to do the same. She’s asking students to come up with journalism and documentary projects where, instead of recording their subjects, they record their subject’s point of view.

“One student in my multimedia reporting class is in the WVU marching band—the Pride of WV—he actually used them to tell the story of Game Day from the band’s perspective as they go out on the field and what they see from the field, how the formations look.”

McFarland also points to examples like a student who wants to explore the effects of sequestration on Head Start, and a student who is interested in the implications of possible marijuana legislation in the state.

“In those stories they’ll have to find the people for whom those issues matter. And then we can talk about the implications of actually seeing life through the eyes of the people who are living through those issues.”

State moving toward locally grown food in schools

Up a small set of stairs and to the left sits the cafeteria at McKinley Middle School, but you don’t need the secretary’s directions to find it. At lunch time, you can hear the chatter of students as soon as you walk in the school’s front door.

McKinley houses about 350 6-8 graders who, in 20 minute shifts of about 50 or so, file into the small cafeteria, fill their trays and sit down at tables to eat.

“I’m usually scared of the school food,” said eighth-grader Mickala Wilkinson.

Reviews that are not so uncommon from your average middle school student about what’s being served in their cafeterias, but this lunch was slightly different.

“I like the apples. They actually have flavor to them,” Mickala said about halfway through her lunch.

“Oh, it’s wonderful,” said sixth-grader Chase Casto. “It’s kind of nice to have freshly grown stuff from around St. Albans.”

Chase sat with his classmates and enjoyed a cheeseburger on a whole wheat bun- wheat that was grown in Preston County, along with apples from Berkeley County, lettuce from Putnam, ice cream from Kanawha and brussel sprouts from Upshur County.

Students at McKinley Middle weren’t just eating their normal Wednesday afternoon lunch. They were eating a lunch prepared from scratch with West Virginia products as a part of the state Department of Education’s Farm to School program.

“We started this initiative about three years ago,” said Executive Director of the Office of Child Nutrition Richard Goff, “where we showcase local growers, local producers and today’s menu highlighted just locally sourced food grown here in West Virginia.”

The program is similar to the Farm to Table movement becoming popular across the country. It’s about supporting local producers and providing them a stable market to sell their products, and county school systems are a very stable market.

In the last school year, more than $350,000 was spent on local products used in schools in 30 counties across the state.
Diane Miller, the child nutrition director for Kanawha County Schools and organizer of the McKinley event, said the goal is to get that number to grow.

“Farm to School for me is not just a one time event,” Miller said. “What I want to do is find longevity of the program so that I can say every single day at every single school in Kanawha, we’re going to have something fresh from a local farmer, but I have to find other farmers to be able to bring that quantity into Kanawha County.”

Finding the farmers seems to be the biggest challenge, but Miller said there’s an even bigger reward. Outside of the help the school systems can bring to the local economy, students are eating fresher, healthier foods and, perhaps most importantly, liking them.

 “The amount of work was amazing, but today you reap the benefits of it. To see these kids’ trays and to see these kids happy and just kind of excited about their lunch,” Miller said.

As for Chase, he likes the idea of tasting new foods.

Potato salad and all, Chase and the kids of McKinley Middle seemed satisfied as they emptied their trays and returned to class, as Diane Miller said, with bellies fed and ready to learn.
 

Huntington parks set up wireless system

  The Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District is banking on the idea that if WiFi is available, people will come to the park.

An internet service provider based in Huntington pipes a signal directly to antenna’s located at strategic locations in the park. That signal is turned into WiFi; available to connect to mobile devices in the park. At 50 megabytes per second the Park District thinks they’re on to something that the public will enjoy. Kevin Brady is the Executive Director.

“With today’s technology there is really no reason you couldn’t do that in a park. So here we are I can basically go in and access my email account and spend two hours here and work just like I was sitting at my desk,” Brady said.

At a cost of $400 an antenna, Brady thinks it’s a good idea. He said it may seem backwards, that at a place where people come to exercise and look at nature, is trying to be a technological innovator for the area. Brady said in a time when everyone is glued to their smartphone, tablet or computer it just makes sense to provide them with another incentive to come to the parks in the area.

“The thought process is combining old with new. We have always wanted people to get up from their couches, get up from in front of their computer, get out away from the TV and come to the parks and I know that we’re not going to get everybody to put their smart phone down and put their laptop down and just go play,” Brady said.

Charlie Theuring was at Ritter Park Tuesday. He said he can see why some would like it, but says coming to the park is his time away from technology.

“Really should you be utilizing WiFi while you’re enjoying the outdoors and the scenery and hanging out with your kids and stuff like that, maybe you should be paying attention to them. That’s my first immediate reaction to WiFi at a park. I don’t think about getting on my phone or my laptop while I’m out enjoying the scenery,” Theuring said.

Brady said though to others the service will be useful, like Marshall students or those wanting to leave the office cubicle and work outside one afternoon. Or he said those exercising can now stream music off the internet without using their data plans.

Besides Ritter Park wireless has also been set up at Harris Riverfront Park in Huntington and soon at Rotary Park. Brady said the hope is to have wireless available at each of the parks they run in town.

And so far, Brady said they’re not worried about a lack of bandwidth at the parks.

“They tell me that 100 users will not be a noticeable slow down, 200 users it might be, 300 users, and that’s per unit, 300 users and it’s really going to start slowing down, if we had a huge event here and everybody suddenly logged in at the same time you might notice a slowdown,” Brady said.

Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District will combat the idea of overload by creating a layout that will alleviate problems.

“We’re setting up basically a grid system, there is a transceiver here, there’s one at the fountain, and there will be one up here and one up there and that grid system should cover the entire area and it’s somewhat omni-directional,” Brady said.

Brady said this will help bring the park district on the cutting edge.

Property owners sue FirstEnergy over coal ash impoundment

More than 50 West Virginia and Pennsylvania property owners are suing FirstEnergy over groundwater pollution, soggy yards, and foundation damage they say…

More than 50 West Virginia and Pennsylvania property owners are suing FirstEnergy over groundwater pollution, soggy yards, and foundation damage they say was caused by a leaking coal ash impoundment.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wheeling accuses the Ohio-based power company of negligence, reckless conduct, trespassing and creating a nuisance.

It says arsenic and other substances have leached out of the unlined, 1,700-acre Little Blue Run impoundment into groundwater, and the air has been fouled by the noxious odors of hydrogen sulfide gas.

The complaint says the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly cited FirstEnergy for violations, so FirstEnergy’s conduct should qualify as willful and reckless.

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Stephanie Walton said the company hasn’t formally received the lawsuit, but a proposed closure plan is under review by Pennsylvania regulators.
 

Four things you need to know about the UMWA-Peabody/Patriot deal

The United Mine Workers of America has reached a settlement with Peabody Energy and Patriot Coal that will help to cover health care benefits for retired miners.

Background:

  • Magnum Coal Company purchased certain Arch Coal operations in 2005
  • Patriot Coal purchased Magnum Coal Company in 2008
  • Patriot Coal was spun off from Peabody in 2007
  • Patriot Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on July 9, 2012
  • In May of this year, a ruling allowed Patriot to quit paying health care benefits for retirees and established a VEBA account with initial Patriot contribution of $15 million

Here are four things you need to know about the new deal:

  1. The agreement provides more than $400 million to provide health coverage for retirees affected by the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal.

    The money will go into the Voluntary Employee Benefit Association or VEBA account.

    Peabody will make payments totaling $310 million over the next four years, and proceeds will be  applied to future retiree health care benefits.

    Patriot has agreed to contribute $15 million to the VEBA in 2014, with up to an additional $60 million to be paid into the fund over the following three years.

  2. The union has agreed to give up its 35 percent stock as part of this new deal.

    UMWA was given 35 percent equity stake in Patriot in May as part of a ruling. The same ruling established the VEBA account.

  3. UMWA continues to look to Congress to assist in securing additional funds for health care benefits.

    Rep. David McKinley introduced a bill in the house that currently has 24 co-sponsors from both parties and a bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller currently has six co-sponsors.

  4. UMWA is still hoping to come to an agreement with Arch Coal, another company that formed Patriot. 

Patriot has reached a final deal with Arch Coal. According to a release, Patriot will receive $5 million in cash and a release of a $16 million letter of credit posted in Arch’s name as part of the deal.

In a release issued just after midnight Thursday morning, UMWA president Cecil E. Roberts said he was pleased.

“This is a significant amount of money that will help maintain health care for thousands of retirees who earned those benefits though years of labor in America’s coal mines,” Roberts said.

“This settlement will also help Patriot emerge from bankruptcy and continue to provide jobs for our members and~thousands of others in West Virginia and Kentucky.”

Patriot President and Chief Executive Officer Bennett K. Hatfield echoed the union’s satisfaction.

“I am pleased that we have been able to reach agreements that provide the UMWA with hundreds of million of dollars in retiree healthcare funding,” Hatifield said.

“The best result for the UMWA and its members is for Patriot to emerge from bankruptcy as a healthy company that will continue to provide jobs and benefits, and we are now on track to achieve that goal.”

This deal still needs approval by federal bankruptcy judge Kathy Surratt-States. The judge is expected to make that decision early next month.
 

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