|
|
|
ABOUT US | SUBSCRIBE
| E-MAIL
EDITOR | HOME |
|
NEWS |
This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion
Daily Express Email News Service.
Jobs, economy drive fight to keep facilities open by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 18, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA--Parents of institution residents, employees and community members joined forces last week in an attempt to persuade lawmakers to keep Muscatatuck State Developmental Center and the Madison State Hospital open.. More. White House issues Executive Order implementing Olmstead June 19 -- Keeping his promise to last month's ADAPT protesters, Pres. Bush issued an Executive Order implementing the 1999 Supreme Court Olmstead Decision. The Order directs the Dept. of Education to coordinate efforts to assist states to expand alternatives to institutions. The order would not have happened without the "direct action" of ADAPT members, says ADAPT organizer Bob Kafka, who sees the Order as evidence of eventual "complete victory and the total reversal of the institutional bias." Federal agencies have 120 days to review their programs and to report on how they will remove barriers to community living, says Kafka. "Our aggressive advocacy must continue." Kafka says ADAPT will be meeting with HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on implementation of the order. More. Blockbuster Video sued for lack of access SAN FRANCISCO -- Oakland-based Disability Rights Advocates has sued Blockbuster video rental stores, claiming they violates state and federal accessibility laws. More from the Contra Costa Times San Francisco State U. settles ADA suit San Francisco State University has settled a class-action lawsuit by disabled students and faculty by agreeing to make the campus more accessible. Read more in the June 14 Los Angeles Times. The University two years ago said it would fight the lawsuit; the San Francisco Chronicle reported that University officials had said states weren't bound by the Americans with Disabilities Act. More. Crime victims with disabilities seldom get justice, says report by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 13, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. BOSTON --A review of state documents shows that crimes against people with disabilities are rarely investigated and the alleged criminals seldom prosecuted because investigators believed the victims would not be good witnesses. The Boston Globe reported on Sunday that it reviewed state records of 342 investigations into alleged crimes against people with mental retardation and other disabilities in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Only 18 of those resulted in a conviction, even though these cases were considered by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission to have the strongest evidence. In 107 of those cases, the prime suspects were people paid to support and protect the victim. More than one-half of the cases involved sex crimes. Officials say one main reason the cases were not even brought to trial was that people with these disabilities were not considered by police or prosecutors to be reliable, believable witnesses. More in these three Boston Globe stories: "Prosecutions Rare For Disabled Crime Victims", "In Attacks On Disabled, Few Verdicts" and "All Agreed The Woman Was Raped, Case Closed" FL boy with autism banned from golf by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 12, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. ZEPHYRHILLS, FLORIDA--"If we make an exception, we are undermining the integrity of the competition." If you think this sounds an awful lot like the unsuccessful argument made by the PGA-Tour against allowing Casey Martin to use a golf cart, you're right -- but the statement was actually made a week after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision saying the PGA must let Martin ride a cart during tournaments. Brian Code, president of the Greater Tampa Junior Golf Association (GTJGA) has decided not to allow a 9-year-old boy with autism to participate this year because he cannot keep his score and the scores of his competitors. Matthew Ross loves the game of golf and is considered an above average golfer for his age. Last year, his mother helped him out by keeping score for him. She wanted to do that again this year, but the GTJGA board has said that would create an "unfair advantage" for the boy. "If we grant a waiver, you will have another parent step forward and say he wants us to help their child because he has an attention deficit disorder or a panic disorder," said Mr. Code. "I have no idea where this would stop." Sound familiar? Here is the story from Tampa Bay Online. The RealAudio news clip will probably start playing immediately. Click on the link entitled "Fighting for the right to play" for another story's text: http://multimedia.tbo.com/multimedia/MGAD8G7NNNC.html Sex harrassment suit filed against sheltered workshop by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 7, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. FAIRFIELD, ILLINOIS--The guardian of a former sheltered workshop employee has filed a lawsuit against the program claiming staff members forcibly strip-searched her and a supervisor sexually assaulted her. Old National Trust Co., which is guardian for the 42-year-old woman, filed a $30 million sexual harassment suit in U.S. District Court on Monday against the Career Development Center (CDC). Old National alleges that in October 1997, when the unnamed woman was employed in the sheltered workshop, she was one of three woman assaulted by a staff member. The suit claims that when the Rae Ellen Reever, Chief Executive Officer of CDC, questioned the woman about the alleged assault, she asked the woman to remove her clothing. When the alleged victim refused, the suit claims, Reever and another staff member removed her clothing by force. The suit also claims that about a month later, a CDC supervisor took the woman to a remote area and sexually assaulted her. Three law enforcement agencies had been involved in investigating the alleged sexual assault, but no charges have been filed. "The whole purpose of sheltered workshops is to help people with disabilities," the woman's attorney Stanton Ernest told the Evansville Courier and Press. "It is truly unfortunate when the disabled are taken advantage of by the very people who are entrusted with watching out for their well-being." Texas legislature puts "money follows person" plan into budget June 7, 2001 The Texas legislature last week added riders to the Texas Dept. of Human Services budget with the "money follows the person" language pushed by ADAPT to get Medicaid and other funds moved from nursing homes to in-home services in wake of the 1999 Olmstead Supreme Court decision. "It is the intent of the legislature that, as clients relocate from nursing facilities to community care services, funds will be transferred from Nursing Facilities to Community Care Services to cover the cost of the shift in services," reads one; "This is the 'money follows the individual' principle put on paper," says national ADAPT attorney Steve Gold. "This means if an individual in a nursing home wants out of the nursing home the money that is currently being spent on that individual in the nursing home can be moved to the community." The other rider "relates specifically to persons who receive community services under one of Texas' Medicaid waiver programs," says Gold. "If those [community-based waiver] services are required for that individual to live in the most integrated setting," says this rider, the costs of the waiver services for THAT ONE individual cannot prevent them being allowed to live in the community. A person who may cost more to live in the community than a nursing home can receive those community services as long as the "aggregate" cost to the state is not higher than the federal government allows. This means people with significant disabilities can get the services they need without remaining in the nursing home just because it may 'cost' the state more to serve them in their own home than to keep them in a nursing home. "No more discrimination because of severity of disability!!" says Gold. The victory comes after months of "intensive, oftentimes aggressive, lobbying, education, coercing, and cajoling of the Texas legislature by the Texas disability community's coalition," Gold says. "Celebrate the victory! Kudos to the Texas disability advocates! Let's share these successes!" More background
Advocates Rally For Increased Funding and Reduced Waiting List by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 6, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. NASHVILLE -- About 50 advocates for community living rallied at the Legislative Plaza Tuesday, asking lawmakers to approve funds targeted at reducing the waiting list for community-based services. Each month about 40 people with developmental disabilities are added to the waiting list for in-home supports or other services. The list now has about 2,000 names on it. "We have people who have been waiting five years for services," Donald Redden, whose son has disabilities, told the Nashville Tennessean. "To get services now, you have to get to a crisis -- you have to be incapacitated, hospitalized . . . or unable to care for your child." A bill in the current legislature would add $60 million to reduce the list. No action is expected during the remainder of the legislative session, however. "Everybody likes the bill - it's just how it's going to be paid for," Redden said. WI legislators earmark $50 million for community services by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express June 5, 2001 This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. MADISON, WI --A legislative committee here has approved $50 million in new funds over the next two years to reduce the state's waiting list for community-based services for seniors and people with developmental disabilities. In a move that angered the nursing home industry and counties that operate nursing homes, the Joint Finance Committee decided to tap into $108 million in federal Medicaid funds in order to meet community service needs. Community advocates are overjoyed. Many of them rallied for increased funding at the state capitol in April. Nursing home supporters claim lawmakers are stealing from them. Read stories from The Capital Times and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Supreme Court vacates lower court ruling against Indiana golfer's use of cart June 5 -- Yesterday the Supreme Court vacated last year's Seventh Circuit court ruling against Indiana golfer Ford Olinger, who has a degenerative hip condition, and who had sued the United States Golf Association for the right to use a cart in an Open qualifying event. Olinger had lost the suit; of the U.S.G.A.'s 13 championships, 11 require "walking" as part of the rules. The lower court must now reconsider the case in light of the Supreme Court ruling that golf carts are a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is almost certain, say legal experts, that Olinger will now be allowed to use a cart. Supreme Court overturns Penry murder conviction; jury did not consider mental retardation June 5 -- The Supreme Court yesterday voted 6-3 to overturn the death sentence of John Paul Penry, who'd been convicted of murder in Texas, saying Penry's 1990 trial had failed to adequately instruct the jury about making "a reasoned moral response to Penry's mitigating evidence," which includes mental retardation and, said his attorney, violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court's decision sends the case back to local authorities for a new sentencing proceeding. |
|