AARP Ohio also asks the General Assembly to support bills that benefit Ohio’s 50 plus population as they age in place
Columbus, Ohio – Today, AARP called on Ohio lawmakers to pass House Bill 23, commonsense legislation that would help Ohio’s family caregivers who have a loved-one with Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementia. The bill would develop education and require training for first responders addressing difficult situations for individuals with dementia.
The bill will
help develop and train the peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel to recognize the key signs of Alzheimer’s and related dementia
train peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel to appropriately interact with persons living with dementia
educate peace officers and specified emergency medical service personnel on how to best intervene in situations where these individuals may be at risk of abuse and neglect.
“The symptoms of dementia aren’t always consistent, or even easily recognizable. You know the ones providing care or have provided care for someone with dementia need all of the help and support they can get,” said Veronica McCreary Hall, a retired nurse, an AARP Ohio volunteer and former family caregiver for her father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. “Ohio’s first responders can play a critical role in keeping them safe and protected.”
There are an estimated 220,000 individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Ohio, with a projection to see nearly a 20% increase in those living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias by 2030. 421,000 family caregivers bear the burden of the disease in Ohio, with 614 million hours of unpaid care.
“Mandatory training for first responders will help protect vulnerable Ohioans with Alzheimer’s Disease or other related dementia, while giving their families peace of mind,” said Holly Holtzen, state director for AARP Ohio. “Passing this legislation is a step in the right direction and could impact hundreds of thousands of lives.”
AARP Ohio also supports additional legislation that will benefit Ohioans and help keep them safe and secure.
House Bill 305/Senate Bill 220 This bipartisan bill would cap the price of insulin at no more than $35 for a 30-day supply.
House Bill 461 House Bill 461 will establish a private room per-day rate to be added to a facility’s daily Medicaid rate. Medicaid will pay facilities an additional reimbursement for each resident housed in a private room. Nursing facilities will be incentivized to offer single-occupancy rooms, ultimately increasing safety in nursing home residents.
House Bill 625/Senate Bill 325 The quality of resident care and nursing home operations and performance is often related to rates and reimbursements. AARP Ohio is urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would increase Medicaid rates in 2023 for nursing homes. The bill would also be a major benefit for nursing facilities, as incentive payments may be related to direct staff retention.
House Bill 419 Elder abuse is on the rise, yet it often goes unreported. AARP urges the passage of this legislation to ensure mandatory reports are filed.
Enrollment for health insurance coverage is now open! Greater Cincinnati residents who qualify for free or reduced-cost health insurance can select a plan on HealthCare.gov (Ohio and Indiana) or kynect.ky.gov (Kentucky).
People must enroll by Dec. 15 for coverage to begin on Jan. 1, 2023.
Open enrollment runs through Jan. 15 and is the only time to enroll in or change coverage in a federal or state health care marketplace plan, commonly referred to as Obamacare.
Ohioans have had the right to direct democracy since 1912, but now lawmakers and Secretary LaRose are going after the power of the people. Because of gerrymandering and dark money, Ohioans have faced years of unpopular and unjust legislation related to democracy, women’s reproductive rights, public education, and so much more.
Yesterday, Rep Brian Stewart and Secretary of State LaRose proposed a bill that would require a 60% yes vote to pass a citizen initiated constitutional amendment, while maintaining that constitutional amendments referred by the Legislature would still only require a simple majority vote to pass.
LaRose claims that this measure is necessary to protect the Ohio Constitution, and that the time is right. We say ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Ohio citizens must already overcome extreme challenges to placing an issue on the ballot. The process requires hundreds of thousands of verified signatures and a strict geographical distribution across at least half of Ohio’s 88 counties.
The process is not overused. In fact, since 1950, only ten out of 44 ballot measures have passed (23%). If so few citizen initiated amendments pass, what problem are we looking to solve?
If this measure passes the Ohio Legislature, it will be on the ballot in May 2023; primary elections in odd numbered years have always historically had very low voter turnout. As little as 10% of the electorate will likely decide how Ohio citizens can practice direct democracy and affect change.
Send a message to your elected leaders and demand that they stop this threat to democracy!
More about the proposal to restrict access to Ohio Voters…
Secretary of State Frank LaRose (speaking) alongside Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, introducing a constitutional amendment requiring a 60% supermajority for all future citizen-led ballot amendments. (Photo by Nick Evans, OCJ.)
Legislative Republican leaders also negotiating other changes, nix plan for automated voter registration
Lawmakers raised two ideas Thursday with massive implications for Ohio voters. One is an initiative requiring citizen-led constitutional amendments gain a 60% supermajority at the ballot for passage, the other is a House bill aimed at rewriting the underlying infrastructure of how the state conducts elections.
The amendment
State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, joined Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to introduce their plan to “safeguard Ohio’s constitution from special interests,” by proposing the supermajority for passage.
“We have repeatedly watched as special interests buy their way onto the statewide ballot and then spend millions of dollars drowning the airwaves to secure fundamental changes to our state by a vote margin of 50% plus one vote,” Stewart argued.
Their plan singles out the citizen-led process for amending the state constitution and raises the threshold for passage to 60%. The signature threshold for making the ballot would remain unchanged. LaRose argued lifting that benchmark would give the same interest groups a relative advantage.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Official photo.
“If a special interest group can afford to pay, you know, million dollars to hire people with clipboards,” LaRose reasoned, “they can afford to pay a million and a half dollars to hire more people with more clipboards.”
The stakes are high for any groups whose ideas have fallen on deaf ears in Columbus. The prospects for abortion protection, recreational marijuana, minimum wage increases, gun violence prevention, or further redistricting reform provisions are effectively non-existent in the GOP-controlled Statehouse. LaRose and Stewart’s proposal would move the goal posts for any of those ideas.
The proposal itself, of course, will need to go to voters and get just 50% plus one to alter the Ohio Constitution. It will follow a different process, too. Stewart’s resolution would make the ballot through a General Assembly vote rather than the citizen signature-gathering process.
That lawmaker-led process won’t see any changes in the threshold for passage, either. LaRose and Stewart dismissed any suggestion their approach is unfair. Lawmakers have to meet a supermajority benchmark, too, they argued. It’s on “the front end” where they have to clear a 2/3 supermajority to make the ballot.
Under maps declared to be unconstitutional gerrymandering by a bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio Republicans once again won rock-solid supermajorities in the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate last week.
LaRose and Stewart highlighted how 11 of 16 citizen-led amendments have failed since 2000, so it wasn’t clear exactly why they want to raise the bar higher as they also noted of the five measures that passed, three cleared 60% at the ballot box.
The legislation
Republican Ohio House Majority Leader Bill Seitz. Official photo.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, kicked off Thursday morning by proposing sweeping changes to an already sweeping elections bill. The biggest move involved nixing the automated voter registration language contained in the initial proposal.
Those provisions would’ve leaned heavily on the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to help voters register or update their registration any time they interact with the agency. If voters’ registration is regularly updated, the thinking goes, there will be fewer names to purge. But Seitz said after months of negotiations, the Ohio Senate hasn’t budged.
“If we’re going to get anything done,” Sietz said, “we’ve got to have an agreement between two chambers, and the Senate does not yet feel comfortable with automated voter registration, even though I am comfortable with it.”
“But it takes two to tango as they say,” he added with a wry chuckle.
Among other changes, voters would be able to request absentee ballots online, but they’d have to submit paper requests on a specific form. The deadline for requesting one would be seven days before an election. The bill trims the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive post-election to seven days as well.
Drop boxes would be available for the duration of early voting, but they’d be restricted — no more than three, all on board of elections premises and under 24/7 video surveillance.
The bill eliminates the final day of early voting but distributes those hours in the week prior by extending weekday hours.
Seitz also dropped a number of ID provisions from the original bill. He noted Senate legislation plans to offer free photo-ID to anyone — not just poor Ohioans as his bill envisioned.
“They can be, you know, Leslie Wexner or Carlin Lindner III and they could still get a free photo ID,” he quipped referencing the founder of The Limited and the co-CEO of American Financial Group.
Pushback
A slew of press releases were released Thursday afternoon from good government groups and voters rights organizations slamming the Stewart and LaRose proposal to increase the passage threshold for citizen-initiated amendments.
As for the Seitz proposal, voting rights advocates applauded the inclusion of online ballot requests and funding for electronic poll books. But League of Women Voters of Ohio Director Jen Miller warned the proposal would make elections “more complicated, expensive and inefficient.”
She urged lawmakers to expand in person voting hours during the final weekend of early voting. Miller argued boards will get more bang for their buck expanding weekend voting compared to tacking on extra early morning hours during the week.
Miller also pushed them to reconsider the automated voter registration they’d just removed. She argued 22 other states have similar policies including West Virginia, Georgia and Michigan.
“It removes barriers to registration, but it also helps every voter because the accuracy of voter rolls are improved and it can reduce administrative costs for the boards of elections,” Miller explained. “And we reduce our provisional ballot counts which are typically very high in Ohio.”
Miller returned to the idea of excessive provisional ballots in a discussion of stricter voter ID requirements.
“When someone votes provisionally, which of course we support, that actually takes away all workers from the process,” Miller explained. “It increases lines, and it also increases a lot of post-election work for boards of elections. So we think that the system as is works.”
Speaking afterward, Seitz rejected out of hand the idea that more stringent voter ID requirements could increase the number of provisional ballots cast.
“I don’t buy that at all, that’s crap,” he said, “look at everything you need a photo ID for in life, okay?”
Miami Township, Ohio – The Little Miami River Chamber Alliance threw a gala celebration on November 17 to honor local individuals and businesses. It was held at the Oasis Conference and Event Center.
Here are the awards that were presented:
Annual Awards Dinner 2022
Business of the Year: BF Realty
Emerging Business of the Year: JL Aerial Views
Beautification Award: Love Our Land
Community Involvement Award: Michael Franks
Business Community Advocate Award: Lemons & Limes Boutique
Non-Profit of the Year: Loveland Learning Garden
Woman Owned Business of the Year: All The Ingredients
Young Professional of the Year: Emily Mobley
Randy K. Stanifer Health, Wellness & Fitness Business of the Year: Activate Brain & Body
Customer Service Award: Mile 42 Coffee
Community Responder Award: NEST Community Learning Center
Hidden Hero Award: Ben Morrison Memorial Fund
Chamber Choice Award: Bush Re Shea Insurance
Lift Up Loveland Award: Scott & Jamie Gordon
Loveland Magazine, Cassie Mattia, and David Miller were nominated for several awards but the competition proved just too tough! We had a blast at the dinner though and want to thank the Chamber for such great hospitality, and just as important, congratulate the well-deserving businesses and individuals who were honored.
These photos are from the vantage point of the Loveland Magazine table and taking a couple spins around the sold-out capacity crowd.
Loveland, Ohio – On Monday, December 5 you can join our Tiger Nation in celebrating the life and legacy of Women’s Basketball Head Coach Darnell Parker. His daughters have established a scholarship in their father’s name to award to a deserving Loveland High School athlete.
The Varsity Game is at 7:30 PM and the JV game is at 6 PM. Sometime around 7, between the JV and Varsity games is when Darnell’s family will be called down to mid-court.
Will you wear orange and black spirit wear? Will you wear your Coach Parker tee? Will you come and compete in the half-court throwdown? Will you buy enough split-the-pot tickets to win the split?
The split-the-pot raffle, the half-court shot tickets, and cookies will be sold throughout the JV and Varsity games. The half court competition and split the pot winner will be announced at half-time of the Varsity game.
Darnell had more fun than anyone could imagine playing collegiate basketball and earning his bachelor’s degree.
A student earning this scholarship will be continually inspired by Coach Darnell Parker to push through adversity to accomplish their dreams.
If you are interested in applying for this scholarship, information will be available in Spring 2023 to apply.
If you would like to contribute to the Darnell Parker Memorial Athletic Scholarship, click here. Donations may also be venmo’d to @Dana-Parker-41 or checks made payable to S3C, Inc. may be mailed to 6187 Cardington Place, West Chester, OH 45069.
Loveland, Ohio – On a very frosty last Thursday morning, the students and teachers from the Loveland Intermediate and Middle School campus hit the street and carried food from their school to the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church at the corner of Lebanon Road and West Loveland Avenue. They delivered the food they had collected to the Loveland LIFE Food Pantry which will distribute it to those less fortunate in the Greater Loveland Area.
As Nancy Grant explains in the LOVELAND MAGAZINE TV segment it was the start of the second decade of the “Pass it on Food Drive”, the 21st year! The goal this year was to help the food pantry put together 250 Thanksgiving Day and 250 Holiday meal boxes.
In the video, you can see most of the Tigers as they hustle their way up the street and into the church where they help sort their donations. Grant and Penny Dippold will tell you how the programs started and the enduring value to the Loveland community.
Miami Township, Ohio – Ohio Valley Voices’ Emerging Leaders Group (ELG) is hosting an event for GivingTuesday at Bishop’s Quarter in Loveland, joining millions around the world participating in the global generosity movement on November 29th, 2022.
Ohio Valley Voices (OVV) is an early intervention program that helps children who are deaf and hard of hearing learn how to speak and listen through the use of cochlear implants and hearing aids. The GivingTuesday event will aid organization’s fundraising efforts to support OVV children and programs.
This year, the Emerging Leaders Group is taking on a goal to raise awareness and funds to help children who are deaf and hard of hearing in the Greater Cincinnati area.
You can join Ohio Valley Voices staff and the Emerging Leaders Group members at the Bishop’s Quarter to find out more about their mission and take part in a raffle. The winner will receive a prize that includes two VIP tickets to the OVV Annual Gala with a private experience with award-winning mixologist, Molly Wellmann.
All proceeds from the event will go to support Ohio Valley Voices programs.
Everyone experiences challenges in their lives whether it’s having a not-so-great work week, overcoming an illness, or getting into an argument with someone you care about. In the grand scheme of things, those challenges are often ones you can quickly overcome and grow from! Some obstacles in life can be so challenging that when one overcomes them it is not only inspirational to see but also serves as a beautiful example for those experiencing the same obstacles. Meet Kathryn (Kat) Feldmann, a 21-year-old who has not only never backed down from a challenge but has also been a source of motivation for others in the developmental disability community to pursue their dreams.
Kat, who lives with her mom, Kristen, her dad, Kurt, and her brother, Konrad in Liberty Township has overcome a lot of medical challenges in her life. As a baby, Kat was diagnosed with an Atrial Septal Defect that was eventually corrected through surgery. Kat was also diagnosed with autism, Pierre Robin Sequence, anxiety, Craniofacial Anomalies, and a speech delay. Though Kat deals with challenges daily due to her disabilities, she has successfully managed to not only exceed her goals, but also receive many awards/honors along the way for her outstanding achievements.
Kat, as a very young girl, loved being involved in the community and supporting organizations that she truly believed in.
“Throughout her school age years, she participated in Butler County 4H doing mostly food and nutrition projects and even competed at the state fair twice,” Kat’s mother Kristen said. “Kat was also involved in Girl Scouts since first grade and earned the Girl Scout Gold award. For this, she earned a multiyear grant from Katie’s Krops and grew a garden from which she donated her entire harvest to a local food pantry. She also identified and printed recipes to donate alongside the produce so that the recipients would have a better idea of how to cook it.”
Kat and her many accomplishments, awards, and honors!
Kat’s determination and dedication to the environment, her community, and cooking delicious, healthy, fresh food earned her multiple 4H awards and a trip to Washington DC where she served as the “Citizens Focus” Club’s Treasurer. Little did Kat realize she was becoming one of the biggest local advocates for those with developmental disabilities!
As time went on, Kat began to really enjoy researching things that interested her, often watching YouTube videos to learn as much as she could about topics that she was passionate about. This led to Kat diving into many hobbies such as collecting American Girl Dolls, reading books, cooking, music, dancing, spending time with her Siamese cats, and art.
Kat, her brother Konrad, and her mother Kristen (Photo top left), Kat and 1 of her 3 Siamese cats (Photo top right), Kat and her SSA, Teresa Rouff (Photo bottom left), Kat in Pittsburgh (Photo bottom right).
Kat successfully graduated from Lakota East and shortly after became a part of Butler Tech’s Project Life, a comprehensive, multi-year transition program where students develop, practice, and strengthen skills that increase adult independence and successful integrated employment in the community, and Butler Tech’s Project Search, a school-to-work program for students with disabilities who are serious about working hard and getting a job.
“Kat completed both Project Life and Project Search in May of 2022. For Project Search she completed rotations in the emergency department and the lab at West Chester Hospital,” Kristen explained. “She is now working with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) to secure employment in the future.”
Once Kat finished Project Search she realized she had an interest in Hospitality which led her to enrolling in the Tartan TOPS program at Sinclair College, an educational/career pathway program for part-time students who have an intellectual disability.
Kat in front of Sinclair College, where she currently takes classes in the Tartan TOPS program.
BCBDD Service and Support Administrator (SSA), Teresa Rouff, began working with Kat in April and couldn’t be more impressed with Kat’s progress!
“On top of all the amazing things Kat is doing, she recently began a vocational habilitation program at InsideOut Studio where she creates various art pieces,” Teresa said. “She loves art and is VERY talented. She has a few pieces for sale on the InsideOut Studio website that show how gifted she is at art!”
Kat enjoys all aspects of art and is currently working with fiber and crocheting knits at InsideOut Studio. Kat said she hopes to sell some of her creations through the online store.
“Kat is also involved in SpeakUp and was recently matched with a buddy through Best Buddies and looks forward to fun times ahead with her new friend,” Kristen said. SpeakUp is a BCBDD self-advocacy group and Best Buddies is a non-profit organization that offers one-on-one friendship and leadership development programs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Kat’s “Happiness” acrylic on canvas that she created at InsideOut Studio (Photo top left), Kat’s white pumpkin garden stone that she created at InsideOut Studio (Photo top right), Kat with advocate Jodi Mann, Director Kimberly Hauck from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD), advocate Cassie Sullivan, and Steve Beha, the Chief Policy Officer for the DODD, Kat was on an advocate panel when DODD’s Director Hauck visited the BCBDD (Bottom right photo).
Kat says her main hope and dream is to become as independent as possible and to live with roommates and friends for socialization. She says she would like to get a job that allows her to make a difference in the world and continue doing what she’s passionate about!
Watch the on-camera interview with Kat Feldmann, BCBDD SSA Teresa Rouff, and Kat’s mother Kristen Feldmann below!
Watch as Drew Plitt is announced by the Arlington Renegades as their pick at quarterback for the 2023 season. ESPN’s Stormy Buonantony, XFL Head Coach Bob Stoops officially announced the team’s quarterback. Plitt will play in Arlington, Texas. The Renegades play their home games at Choctaw Stadium.
The Arlington Renegades announced their selections of Kyle Sloter and Drew Plitt as the team’s two quarterbacks for the upcoming season
