Mind Robbing

Published March 23rd, 2008

A new report predicts that up to10 million American baby boomers -- some right here in Boca Raton -- will develop Alzheimer's disease, placing enormous strains on the US health-care system and its already overburdened network of caregivers.

Currently, at least 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, including 200,000 to 250,000 people under age 65, and many of whom live in South Florida. By 2010, projections say there will be 500,000 new cases of the disease each year, and nearly one million new cases annually by 2050.

And while Medicare currently spends more than three times as much money on people with Alzheimer's and other dementias than it does on any other Medicare recipient -- the money spent on Alzheimer’s research -- compared to either cancer or heart disease -- pales by comparison.

Currently, the federal government spends about $650 million a year on Alzheimer’s, while spending $5 billion on cancer and $3 billion on heart research.

This disparity becomes all the more pointed when learning that in 2005 Medicare spent $91 billion on people with Alzheimer's and other dementias -- begging the question of a serious push to find stabilizing remedies, even a cure for the mind-robber.

Boca Raton residents interested in more transparent government will be pleased to learn that Attorney General Bill McCollum has created significant changes to the Attorney General’s Government in the Sunshine Website, located at <http://myfloridalegal.com/sunshine>.
The website now includes easy-to-access links for information on open government and public records requests as well as the contact numbers for the various groups who may be seeking assistance or mediation through the Open Government Mediation Program.  Statute references and guides for requesting records are also made available, as well as current information about the Attorney General’s Government Accountability Project.
Scissors
FYI:  The Florida legislature recently passed over $500 million in budget cuts - many affecting education, including:

·   $20 million cut in community college funding

·   $49 million cut in funding for the class size amendment

·   $234 million cut in the K-12 funding formula -- amounting to a spending reduction of $55 per student.

·   $9 million cut in bright futures scholarship

·   $49 million cut in state university funding
 
And with the Revenue Estimating Conference announcing that there will be an additional $3 billion revenue shortfall for Fiscal Years 2007-08 and 2008-09 combined -- the scissors will remain sharp. 

Our republican democracy requires citizen participation.  And it’s warm in South Florida.  There’s no reason to sit on your hands.

"A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is." ---Karl Krauss

The Reverend Al Sharpton says four black teens charged in the gang rape and beating of a West Palm Beach woman and her son were treated unfairly.

Sharpton says the teens charged in the June 2007 attack in the Dunbar Village housing project should have been treated the same as five white teens recently accused of raping two young girls in Boca Raton after a party.

The defendants in Boca Raton are all free on bail. Three teens charged in the Dunbar Village attack remain held without bail; the fourth agreed to a plea deal.

And here’s the difference.

The Boca teens, boys and girls, were all drunk, and thus had a reduced capacity for rational judgment - certainly not an excuse, but equally as certain an explanation.

On the other hand, none of the black teens were drunk, and the acts committed were inhumanely cruel, including forcing the woman’s son to participate in the inhumanity.

Sharpton needs to take his race-baiting sideshow somewhere else.