As of this date and this time I do so resign my position as Vice President of the Paquin Tower Resident association due to the following reasons.
Since before I was elected by unanimous vote into said office then acting Vice President Jeff Shirley asked me to help with the PTRA Office due to the lack of any real responsibility of then acting President Daniel Jones. To this I agreed and became a contracted volunteer helping to train other PTRA Officers including then VP Shirley who did not know or were unsure on just how to do their respective jobs.
Then I ran for the office of Vice President due to then active VP Jeff Shirley claimed he needed me in that slot and not in the SGT at Arms slot I was going to run for. So I accepted that offer and ran and was successfully elected into the VP position.
Upon my successful election President Shirley and I talked a lot about what needs to be done daily in the office since President Shirley was taking college courses and doing things with Burrel Behavioral Health and more. Him and I agreed and we informed all of the Officers of the PTRA that I would be the Office Administrator and work in the office daily.
President Shirley and I also agreed to split up the office hours where I would work the 11am to 1pm shift and President Shirley would work the 5 pm to 6pm shift. This arrangement did not last long as many times that I came to the PTRA Office in the evening President Shirley was NOT THERE and the office was NOT OPEN as him and I agreed upon so I took over the evening shift too.
President Shirley also had given me all powers to do ALL of the daily PTRA Office Business and to go into any and/or all business negotiations with his final approval between the City of Columbia and/or other outside agencies.
Today a source that will remain anonymous expressed to me that a petition of recall was being circulated for my recall by Debbie Miner due to I was over stepping my duties that President Shirley had freely and openly given to me and all of the other present and past PTRA Officers openly knew and acknowledged. President Shirley himself signed that petition of recall himself instead of talking to me first thus the reason for this resignation.
President Shirley has NOT been doing his sworn duties,he has NOT been training any other officers,he has NOT been doing the duties according to the 2008 Bylaws and many times I will here by swear to has been Intoxicated while doing duties in his elected office as President of the PTRA. Too many times I tried to talk to President Shirley about his Alcoholism to no avail. Too many times I have backed him up when complaints of his intoxication have come to me. No more.
Never again. This was the last and final time. Paquin Tower has seen the last of my helps as far as even wanting to help this Resident Association in any way shape or form. I will not go out of my way daily to help others and allow myself to be openly stabbed in the back by those who thank me for helping them and then turn right around and stab me in the back.
I highly recommend at this time that stronger supervision of the entire PTRA Officer Board be implemented ASAP. That they be held accountable for each and every action and that the CHA if need be remove and or replace President Shirley due to his constant intoxication.
Charles E Dudley Jr
1201 Paquin St #21209
Columbia Mo 65201
Added Note: This blog will be closing as of the end of April 2012. The name will still belong to me but the blog itself will only be posted on by those whom have Google Accounts and only after Comment Moderation Approval.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
More Construction coming to Paquin Tower
There is still more construction coming to this facility for the independent style living of the Disabled Citizen.
Such construction coming projects are:
New Main Boxes.
All new floor tile on the first floor areas.
All new all in one Site Manager(s) and Resident Services Coordinator Offices.
Resident Association Office moving to the First Floor.
Potential changes to the Computer Lab(maybe).
All new First Floor Windows and Entry Door(s).
New paint and Drywall.
Possible Dining Room/Kitchen remodel.
Wireless Internet for the Lobby/Dining Room area only.
And more as CHA acquires funding.
Also there will be some more work to be done on the Heating and Cooling Units in each Living Unit such as the changing out of the Control Box due to it does not limit the temperatures as Greg Willingham the Project Coordinator thinks they should be so CHA can maintain it's Energy Performance Ratings.
Lots of work still going on around Paquin Tower so heads up folks and read your bulletin boards on your floors,all door notices put in your door slots,come to the monthly PTRA Business Meetings on the last Monday of each month and keep yourselves up to date.
Charles E Dudley Jr
Blog Owner/Admin.
Such construction coming projects are:
New Main Boxes.
All new floor tile on the first floor areas.
All new all in one Site Manager(s) and Resident Services Coordinator Offices.
Resident Association Office moving to the First Floor.
Potential changes to the Computer Lab(maybe).
All new First Floor Windows and Entry Door(s).
New paint and Drywall.
Possible Dining Room/Kitchen remodel.
Wireless Internet for the Lobby/Dining Room area only.
And more as CHA acquires funding.
Also there will be some more work to be done on the Heating and Cooling Units in each Living Unit such as the changing out of the Control Box due to it does not limit the temperatures as Greg Willingham the Project Coordinator thinks they should be so CHA can maintain it's Energy Performance Ratings.
Lots of work still going on around Paquin Tower so heads up folks and read your bulletin boards on your floors,all door notices put in your door slots,come to the monthly PTRA Business Meetings on the last Monday of each month and keep yourselves up to date.
Charles E Dudley Jr
Blog Owner/Admin.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Public housing staff counters stereotypes | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri
Public housing staff counters stereotypes | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri
Public housing staff counters stereotypes
By Andrew Denney
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Public housing programs and the people who depend on them are not always cast in the best light, Columbia's top public housing official said.
Columbia Housing Authority properties are sometimes perceived as breeding grounds for crime or a haven for those who prefer to depend on public money, and a lack of understanding of how public housing operates can even be found among local social service workers, Phil Steinhaus said. Steinhaus is the CHA's chief executive officer.
He said social service agencies commonly have high turnover rates, and new social service staffers often will refer someone in need of housing to CHA without understanding the rules. CHA staffers Gay Litteken and Lee Radtke gave a presentation yesterday for staffers of social service agencies at Oak Tower, a CHA facility for low-income and elderly residents, in hopes of preventing what Steinhaus described as a “wild-goose chase” for those trying to find housing.
Regarding some widely held perceptions about public housing in Columbia, Steinhaus said they do not come without their reasons. But CHA staffers and residents in the agency's five locations say the perceptions are often more misconception than truth.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/feb/16/public-housing-staff-counters-stereotypes/
Public housing staff counters stereotypes
By Andrew Denney
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Public housing programs and the people who depend on them are not always cast in the best light, Columbia's top public housing official said.
Columbia Housing Authority properties are sometimes perceived as breeding grounds for crime or a haven for those who prefer to depend on public money, and a lack of understanding of how public housing operates can even be found among local social service workers, Phil Steinhaus said. Steinhaus is the CHA's chief executive officer.
He said social service agencies commonly have high turnover rates, and new social service staffers often will refer someone in need of housing to CHA without understanding the rules. CHA staffers Gay Litteken and Lee Radtke gave a presentation yesterday for staffers of social service agencies at Oak Tower, a CHA facility for low-income and elderly residents, in hopes of preventing what Steinhaus described as a “wild-goose chase” for those trying to find housing.
Regarding some widely held perceptions about public housing in Columbia, Steinhaus said they do not come without their reasons. But CHA staffers and residents in the agency's five locations say the perceptions are often more misconception than truth.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/feb/16/public-housing-staff-counters-stereotypes/
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sheltered Workshops Cope With State Cuts
The Missouri Association of Sheltered Workshop Managers met with Jefferson City lawmakers Wednesday to discuss state spending cuts as Governor Jay Nixon and lawmakers in the General Assembly try to close a one-half-billion dollar budget gap. Sheltered workshops are small businesses that hire individuals with disabilities.
"It's going to be a rough year," director Ken Wagner of Capital Projects Inc., a sheltered workshop in Jefferson City, said. "The state's out of money and it's going to be a rough year. We know that."
Unlike other state agencies, sheltered workshops do not receive direct appropriations. Instead, they are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem for each employee. The per diem applies to a six-hour work day. But over the last few years, the state has paid only 18 dollars, resulting in a four-million reduction for sheltered workshops statewide. Wagner said Capital Projects lost roughly 20 percent of its state revenue in 2011. But despite the setback, the workshop was able to avoid layoffs by taking advantage of a reserve it had built up from better business years.
"We've been able to keep our employees here," manager Tami Bock said. "But we've had many days where we've just sat and had nothing to do."
Bock said Capitol Projects hasn't had to lay anyone off in 25 years, but she's unsure about the future of the workshop. Capitol Projects currently employs 125 workers with disabilities.
The association met with lawmakers on Wednesday to persuade them to maintain current levels of support for workshops statewide.
"We have to teach the legislators what the workshop is because they really don't know necessarily what we are," Wagner said. "We try to get them to come to our shops and see what we do and the type of people we serve."
Representative Mike Bernskoetter, R-Cole County, says he understands the importance of sheltered workshops, but he's not sure if the state can provide them with more funding anytime soon.
"Because of the budget shortfalls we've had, we're just not getting the revenue in like we'd like," he said.
Funding workplaces for the disabled saves tax dollars over time. Wagner said that while sheltered workplaces are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem, other programs are over 100 dollars-a-day. Last year, Missouri sheltered workshops paid 80 million back into their communities.
Source and More:
http://www.komu.com/news/sheltered-workshops-cope-with-state-cuts/
"It's going to be a rough year," director Ken Wagner of Capital Projects Inc., a sheltered workshop in Jefferson City, said. "The state's out of money and it's going to be a rough year. We know that."
Unlike other state agencies, sheltered workshops do not receive direct appropriations. Instead, they are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem for each employee. The per diem applies to a six-hour work day. But over the last few years, the state has paid only 18 dollars, resulting in a four-million reduction for sheltered workshops statewide. Wagner said Capital Projects lost roughly 20 percent of its state revenue in 2011. But despite the setback, the workshop was able to avoid layoffs by taking advantage of a reserve it had built up from better business years.
"We've been able to keep our employees here," manager Tami Bock said. "But we've had many days where we've just sat and had nothing to do."
Bock said Capitol Projects hasn't had to lay anyone off in 25 years, but she's unsure about the future of the workshop. Capitol Projects currently employs 125 workers with disabilities.
The association met with lawmakers on Wednesday to persuade them to maintain current levels of support for workshops statewide.
"We have to teach the legislators what the workshop is because they really don't know necessarily what we are," Wagner said. "We try to get them to come to our shops and see what we do and the type of people we serve."
Representative Mike Bernskoetter, R-Cole County, says he understands the importance of sheltered workshops, but he's not sure if the state can provide them with more funding anytime soon.
"Because of the budget shortfalls we've had, we're just not getting the revenue in like we'd like," he said.
Funding workplaces for the disabled saves tax dollars over time. Wagner said that while sheltered workplaces are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem, other programs are over 100 dollars-a-day. Last year, Missouri sheltered workshops paid 80 million back into their communities.
Source and More:
http://www.komu.com/news/sheltered-workshops-cope-with-state-cuts/
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Mentally ill suffer effects of government cutbacks
Because confusion has arisen lately regarding federal and state budget cuts and their effect on our ability to adequately care for the mentally ill, I thought I should clarify a few important issues. Many changes have been made during the past three years, and Missouri’s 2012 mental health budget calls for another funding cut of $21.2 million in services.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has been specific in outlining how budget cuts in every state have affected the mentally ill during the past few years and how budget cuts will continue to affect the mentally ill in the future. Without rehashing the numerical data and the dire prophesies about what might occur in Missouri if these trends continue, I’ll point out a few of the most disturbing trends in Boone County during my first term.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jan/08/budgetary-disorder/?commentary
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has been specific in outlining how budget cuts in every state have affected the mentally ill during the past few years and how budget cuts will continue to affect the mentally ill in the future. Without rehashing the numerical data and the dire prophesies about what might occur in Missouri if these trends continue, I’ll point out a few of the most disturbing trends in Boone County during my first term.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jan/08/budgetary-disorder/?commentary
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Who is 'The Press' in the First Amendment?
What does "the press" mean in the First Amendment's guarantee "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of...the press"? The Mainstream Media or collection of reputable Internet, print, TV, and radio journalists, right? Bloggers, too, if you're feeling generous?
Sorry, brah! In his landmark new article on the press clause's original meaning titled "'The Freedom of...the Press,' From 1791 to 1868 to Now- Freedom for the Press as an Industry, or the Press as a Technology," UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh argues the Founders meant the press clause's "the press" to be the printing press (a printing technology) and any future communication technology. Crazy, right? So the Founders really meant something more like "freedom of...the printing press" or "freedom in the use of the press"?
In a jump-kick to "the press-as-journalists"'s face, Volokh notes Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most widely used dictionary at the ratification's time, gave no definition of "press" in terms of today's common understanding of "the press" as a collection of journalists but did define "press" as "[t]he instrument by which books are printed." Volokoh mentions that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a definition of "the press" as a collection of literature ("[n]ewspapers, journals, and periodical literature collectively") emerged in the English language in the late 1700s and early 1800s. However, before and at the Founding, the Founders did not use this "press" definition when discussing press freedom.
Volokh got me thinking: Scanning Johnson's dictionary, I discovered Johnson had no entry for "media" but did define the following words:
Journalist - "Writer of journals" (with "journal" being "any paper publi[s]hed daily; an account kept of daily tran[s]actions")
Reporter - "Relater; one that gives an account"
Newsmonger - "One that deals with news; one who[s]e employment it is to hear and to tell news" (with "news" being "fre[s]h account of anything," "[s]omething not heard before," and "papers which give an account of the tran[s]actions of the present times")
If the Founders wanted to protect in particular who today we call media, reporters, etc. with "freedom of...the press," then surely the Founders could have written, for example, "freedom of...journalists" or "freedom of...newsmongers."
Volokh describes how, with no significant exceptions, prominent writers the Founders often cited, including William Blackstone, Jean-Louis De Lolme, and George Tucker, connected press freedom with the right of every "freeman," "citizen," or "individual" to "write," "print," or "publish" his or her thoughts. This fact implies the Founders didn't intend the press clause to protect the existing or future collection of "newsmongers" per se but rather to recognize the right of any person (or "freeman") to use printing presses (Until 1694, England imposed licenses on publications, which the Founders abhorred). James Madison's following first draft of the Bill of Rights' speech/press clauses highlights this point: "The people [emphasis added] shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." According to Johnson's dictionary, "people" had such definitions as "a nation," "men, or per[s]ons in general," and "the commonality."
Volokh provides much more evidence for the press clause's "the press" being the printing press, particularly his evaluations of U.S. court cases from the Founding to 2011 that demonstrate judges have consistently interpreted the press clause as protecting any individuals who use the printing press, including newspaper advertisers and authors of letters to the editor, pamphlets, and books. Volokh describes how it was only the 1970s when some lower courts began interpreting the press clause's "the press" to be a collection of journalists and not the printing press as a technology.
My only disappointment with Volokh's article is his insufficient explanation for how constitutional law could, in the press clause's original meaning, interpret "the press" as including future communication technologies. Volokh touches the issue a few times but leaves much to be desired. For instance, Volokh's footnote 9, in describing what may qualify as equivalents of the Founders' printing press and why constitutional law should accept equivalents, says the following:
[Constitutional law should accept any]...communication technology that today serves the role the printing press did in the 1700s...The printing press itself was understood during the Framing era as a technological innovation, and rights were understood as being adaptable to technological innovations.
I suspect the answer for how the press clause's "the press" includes future communication technologies lies in part in the original definitions of "write" and "publish," the rights to which, in the Founders' understanding, made "freedom of...the press" essential. According to Johnson's dictionary, "write" had such definitions as "to perform the art of writing" and "to compo[s]e" while "publish" had such far-reaching definitions as "to di[s]cover to mankind; to make generally and openly known; to proclaim; to divulge." Thus congressional interference, whether it be licensing, content regulations, or taxes, with any communication instrument that abridges a person's rights "to compose" or "to proclaim" thoughts would violate the Founders' purpose of having "freedom of...the press." Today, communication instruments obviously include TV, radio, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.
Volokh's "counter-cultural" vision of the press clause's meaning is a liberating view of who could be journalists, media, members of the press, newsmongers, the reporter collective, etc. Am I media with this blog? New York Times and other media elites might sneer at such a possibility and can define media as they choose: Just don't mess with my "press"!
Source and More:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/who_is_the_press_in_the_first_amendment.html
Sorry, brah! In his landmark new article on the press clause's original meaning titled "'The Freedom of...the Press,' From 1791 to 1868 to Now- Freedom for the Press as an Industry, or the Press as a Technology," UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh argues the Founders meant the press clause's "the press" to be the printing press (a printing technology) and any future communication technology. Crazy, right? So the Founders really meant something more like "freedom of...the printing press" or "freedom in the use of the press"?
In a jump-kick to "the press-as-journalists"'s face, Volokh notes Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most widely used dictionary at the ratification's time, gave no definition of "press" in terms of today's common understanding of "the press" as a collection of journalists but did define "press" as "[t]he instrument by which books are printed." Volokoh mentions that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a definition of "the press" as a collection of literature ("[n]ewspapers, journals, and periodical literature collectively") emerged in the English language in the late 1700s and early 1800s. However, before and at the Founding, the Founders did not use this "press" definition when discussing press freedom.
Volokh got me thinking: Scanning Johnson's dictionary, I discovered Johnson had no entry for "media" but did define the following words:
Journalist - "Writer of journals" (with "journal" being "any paper publi[s]hed daily; an account kept of daily tran[s]actions")
Reporter - "Relater; one that gives an account"
Newsmonger - "One that deals with news; one who[s]e employment it is to hear and to tell news" (with "news" being "fre[s]h account of anything," "[s]omething not heard before," and "papers which give an account of the tran[s]actions of the present times")
If the Founders wanted to protect in particular who today we call media, reporters, etc. with "freedom of...the press," then surely the Founders could have written, for example, "freedom of...journalists" or "freedom of...newsmongers."
Volokh describes how, with no significant exceptions, prominent writers the Founders often cited, including William Blackstone, Jean-Louis De Lolme, and George Tucker, connected press freedom with the right of every "freeman," "citizen," or "individual" to "write," "print," or "publish" his or her thoughts. This fact implies the Founders didn't intend the press clause to protect the existing or future collection of "newsmongers" per se but rather to recognize the right of any person (or "freeman") to use printing presses (Until 1694, England imposed licenses on publications, which the Founders abhorred). James Madison's following first draft of the Bill of Rights' speech/press clauses highlights this point: "The people [emphasis added] shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." According to Johnson's dictionary, "people" had such definitions as "a nation," "men, or per[s]ons in general," and "the commonality."
Volokh provides much more evidence for the press clause's "the press" being the printing press, particularly his evaluations of U.S. court cases from the Founding to 2011 that demonstrate judges have consistently interpreted the press clause as protecting any individuals who use the printing press, including newspaper advertisers and authors of letters to the editor, pamphlets, and books. Volokh describes how it was only the 1970s when some lower courts began interpreting the press clause's "the press" to be a collection of journalists and not the printing press as a technology.
My only disappointment with Volokh's article is his insufficient explanation for how constitutional law could, in the press clause's original meaning, interpret "the press" as including future communication technologies. Volokh touches the issue a few times but leaves much to be desired. For instance, Volokh's footnote 9, in describing what may qualify as equivalents of the Founders' printing press and why constitutional law should accept equivalents, says the following:
[Constitutional law should accept any]...communication technology that today serves the role the printing press did in the 1700s...The printing press itself was understood during the Framing era as a technological innovation, and rights were understood as being adaptable to technological innovations.
I suspect the answer for how the press clause's "the press" includes future communication technologies lies in part in the original definitions of "write" and "publish," the rights to which, in the Founders' understanding, made "freedom of...the press" essential. According to Johnson's dictionary, "write" had such definitions as "to perform the art of writing" and "to compo[s]e" while "publish" had such far-reaching definitions as "to di[s]cover to mankind; to make generally and openly known; to proclaim; to divulge." Thus congressional interference, whether it be licensing, content regulations, or taxes, with any communication instrument that abridges a person's rights "to compose" or "to proclaim" thoughts would violate the Founders' purpose of having "freedom of...the press." Today, communication instruments obviously include TV, radio, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.
Volokh's "counter-cultural" vision of the press clause's meaning is a liberating view of who could be journalists, media, members of the press, newsmongers, the reporter collective, etc. Am I media with this blog? New York Times and other media elites might sneer at such a possibility and can define media as they choose: Just don't mess with my "press"!
Source and More:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/who_is_the_press_in_the_first_amendment.html
Monday, December 26, 2011
Paquin Tower Times Under Attack by the Columbia Daily Tribune
Well it does seem that our little blog here is under attack by the big bad corporate minded Columbia Daily Tribune for the publishing of their stories here on the blog.
Those stories are usually only related to the Low Income,CHA,Paquin Tower and it's residents only. Most if not all of those stories are very inaccurate in details 99.9999% of the time.
Kind of funny since their online news edition is Wide Open for anybody and everybody to view even through their crappy so called secure Pay Wall is easily bypassed by just the simple act of blocking the main Cookie in your browser from the main Web Site URL.
So we will be posting a lot less of their Liberal Minded articles that often times neglect to present ALL of the facts anyway.
Look to the Columbia Missourian,Columbia Heartbeat and other news sources for your news IMHO.
The Paquin Tower Times is part the 99% and the Columbia Daily Tribune is part of the 1% that is ruining this once great nation.
Corporate greed is the evil that must be eliminated from our once great nation in all forms that use coercion to silence the people as it sees fit.
Those stories are usually only related to the Low Income,CHA,Paquin Tower and it's residents only. Most if not all of those stories are very inaccurate in details 99.9999% of the time.
Kind of funny since their online news edition is Wide Open for anybody and everybody to view even through their crappy so called secure Pay Wall is easily bypassed by just the simple act of blocking the main Cookie in your browser from the main Web Site URL.
So we will be posting a lot less of their Liberal Minded articles that often times neglect to present ALL of the facts anyway.
Look to the Columbia Missourian,Columbia Heartbeat and other news sources for your news IMHO.
The Paquin Tower Times is part the 99% and the Columbia Daily Tribune is part of the 1% that is ruining this once great nation.
Corporate greed is the evil that must be eliminated from our once great nation in all forms that use coercion to silence the people as it sees fit.
Again, freedom of speech
Ya, it will bring me hardship, retaliation may but here's a sample of the LAW as it stands in Missouri. 4 (four) outside attorneys told me it IS against the LAW. They want the case, are even choppin' at the bit because not only will they sue the offenders, they want the big fish. We keep being told you can harass, torment, and undermind and discriminate here under freedom of speech. Part of Missouri state statute 455.010 says:
Friday, December 23, 2011
Food bank distributes produce, meats at Paquin Tower
One 10-pound sack of potatoes. Three honeydew melons. Three cucumbers. Two packages of carrots. One bag of grapefruit. Plus some buns and tomatoes.
That's what each of the visitors who came to a mobile food pantry at Paquin Tower received Friday morning from The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.
“Sharing food. Bringing hope,” was the slogan on sweatshirts worn by some of the workers at Paquin Tower, where the Food Bank took four tons of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat to distribute from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. The mobile food pantry is a refrigerated truck donated this year by Kraft Foods.
Bobbie Kincade, director of development for the Food Bank, said this is the first year it has done mobile Christmas donations, and that Friday's event was the first time it has distributed food at Paquin Tower.
“We were blessed with a large donation of produce, and we are trying to give it out in Columbia, so here we are,” Kincade said.
John Wampler, regional coordinator for The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, said that even though Boone County has the lowest unemployment rate in its 32-county service area, there's still plenty of need.
“Even though times are tough we are not just sharing food, we are giving hope.” Wampler said. “We believe hope shines the brightest when the hour is darkest.”
“We are blessed to give it away,” Wampler said. “It’s nice.”
Teresa Kidwell, 50, said she has lived in Columbia two years and regularly visits the Food Bank.
“We wouldn’t be able to eat if we didn’t have it, so it helps,” Kidwell said, adding that she also relies on it for basic supplies such as medicine, toilet paper, paper towels and canned and boxed foods.
“I get what I can get, and sometimes I bring it to others,” Kidwell said.
Paquin Tower resident Marjorie Miller, 85, said the donations will help her make a proper Christmas dinner for visitors she expects Sunday afternoon.
“People do a lot for me, so it’s a little thing I can do for them,” Miller said.
Joyce Hyde, another Paquin resident, said the mobile food pantry was particularly helpful this month because her food stamp benefits were down.
Charlann Peavler, who helps manage Paquin Tower for the Columbia Housing Authority, said the Food Bank called her directly to set up the event.
“It’s awesome they thought about us and our location to help benefit the residents and anyone that’s around,” Peavler said. She hopes to have the food pantry back next Christmas season.
Kincade said she, too, hopes to make it an annual stop.
“It’s a good thing,” Peavler said. “This helps our residents get through the holiday time.”
Volunteers at the Food Bank also made Christmas cards and brought them to Paquin Tower for the residents to enjoy. They also brought food donations to the rooms of residents who were unable to collect and carry the items.
“This is why we do what we do, to see the smiles on their faces,” Kincade said. “It’s rewarding to come here, meet the people and see them so thankful for the food.”
The Food Bank feeds more than 100,000 people every month, and that's not counting those helped by special distributions.
“This (event) today is just an extra blessing,” Kincade said.
Anyone who would like more information about The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri can call 474-1020
Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/23/food-pantry-receives-special-donation-during-mobile-distribution/
That's what each of the visitors who came to a mobile food pantry at Paquin Tower received Friday morning from The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.
“Sharing food. Bringing hope,” was the slogan on sweatshirts worn by some of the workers at Paquin Tower, where the Food Bank took four tons of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat to distribute from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.. The mobile food pantry is a refrigerated truck donated this year by Kraft Foods.
Bobbie Kincade, director of development for the Food Bank, said this is the first year it has done mobile Christmas donations, and that Friday's event was the first time it has distributed food at Paquin Tower.
“We were blessed with a large donation of produce, and we are trying to give it out in Columbia, so here we are,” Kincade said.
John Wampler, regional coordinator for The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, said that even though Boone County has the lowest unemployment rate in its 32-county service area, there's still plenty of need.
“Even though times are tough we are not just sharing food, we are giving hope.” Wampler said. “We believe hope shines the brightest when the hour is darkest.”
“We are blessed to give it away,” Wampler said. “It’s nice.”
Teresa Kidwell, 50, said she has lived in Columbia two years and regularly visits the Food Bank.
“We wouldn’t be able to eat if we didn’t have it, so it helps,” Kidwell said, adding that she also relies on it for basic supplies such as medicine, toilet paper, paper towels and canned and boxed foods.
“I get what I can get, and sometimes I bring it to others,” Kidwell said.
Paquin Tower resident Marjorie Miller, 85, said the donations will help her make a proper Christmas dinner for visitors she expects Sunday afternoon.
“People do a lot for me, so it’s a little thing I can do for them,” Miller said.
Joyce Hyde, another Paquin resident, said the mobile food pantry was particularly helpful this month because her food stamp benefits were down.
Charlann Peavler, who helps manage Paquin Tower for the Columbia Housing Authority, said the Food Bank called her directly to set up the event.
“It’s awesome they thought about us and our location to help benefit the residents and anyone that’s around,” Peavler said. She hopes to have the food pantry back next Christmas season.
Kincade said she, too, hopes to make it an annual stop.
“It’s a good thing,” Peavler said. “This helps our residents get through the holiday time.”
Volunteers at the Food Bank also made Christmas cards and brought them to Paquin Tower for the residents to enjoy. They also brought food donations to the rooms of residents who were unable to collect and carry the items.
“This is why we do what we do, to see the smiles on their faces,” Kincade said. “It’s rewarding to come here, meet the people and see them so thankful for the food.”
The Food Bank feeds more than 100,000 people every month, and that's not counting those helped by special distributions.
“This (event) today is just an extra blessing,” Kincade said.
Anyone who would like more information about The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri can call 474-1020
Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/23/food-pantry-receives-special-donation-during-mobile-distribution/
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay
Hairier skin may be the key to avoiding being bitten by bed bugs, claim Sheffield academics.
Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported.
Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim.
Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.
Prof Michael Siva-Jothy, from Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, recruited 29 brave volunteers to test the theory further, watching the bedbugs as they found a place to feed and removing them only as they were about to bite.
He found that more layers of both longer visible hairs and finer, "vellus" hairs near the surface appeared to work as a deterrent to the insects, with the finer hairs also acting as an early warning system.
Prof Siva-Jothy said: "Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites - the hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement."
He said they also slowed down the insect as it searched for a tasty spot to bite.
"The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects' impact on humans."
However, even though men are naturally hairier than women, they do not appear to be bitten less often.
Professor Siva-Jothy suggested this pointed to an evolutionary battle between bed bugs and their prey, with the insects adapting to automatically head for relatively hairless bits of the body, such as wrists and ankles.
He added that extreme hairiness might also be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
"If you have a heavy coat of long thick hairs it is easier for parasites to hide, even if you can detect them.
"Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down."
Evolutionary pressure
This tallies with other studies which look at how humans came to be relatively less hairy than apes.
Other scientists have suggested that swapping thicker fur for clothes was a way of making insect bites and parasitic infestations less likely.
Prof Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, said that biting parasites remain a major cause of disease and death worldwide, making them a potentially enormous evolutionary pressure on early man.
He said: "This vellus hair is certainly no use for anything else, so it is a reasonable hypothesis that it developed in response to a strong selective pressure in our past.
"Mammals are unique in developing this wonderful fur, and humans are the only mammals to jettison it, so there must have been a very good reason to do so."
Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16166134
Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported.
Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim.
Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.
Prof Michael Siva-Jothy, from Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, recruited 29 brave volunteers to test the theory further, watching the bedbugs as they found a place to feed and removing them only as they were about to bite.
He found that more layers of both longer visible hairs and finer, "vellus" hairs near the surface appeared to work as a deterrent to the insects, with the finer hairs also acting as an early warning system.
Prof Siva-Jothy said: "Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites - the hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement."
He said they also slowed down the insect as it searched for a tasty spot to bite.
"The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects' impact on humans."
However, even though men are naturally hairier than women, they do not appear to be bitten less often.
Professor Siva-Jothy suggested this pointed to an evolutionary battle between bed bugs and their prey, with the insects adapting to automatically head for relatively hairless bits of the body, such as wrists and ankles.
He added that extreme hairiness might also be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
"If you have a heavy coat of long thick hairs it is easier for parasites to hide, even if you can detect them.
"Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down."
Evolutionary pressure
This tallies with other studies which look at how humans came to be relatively less hairy than apes.
Other scientists have suggested that swapping thicker fur for clothes was a way of making insect bites and parasitic infestations less likely.
Prof Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, said that biting parasites remain a major cause of disease and death worldwide, making them a potentially enormous evolutionary pressure on early man.
He said: "This vellus hair is certainly no use for anything else, so it is a reasonable hypothesis that it developed in response to a strong selective pressure in our past.
"Mammals are unique in developing this wonderful fur, and humans are the only mammals to jettison it, so there must have been a very good reason to do so."
Source and More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16166134
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Paquin Tower resident draws scenes from the Bible
John Tucker is a 48-year-old resident of Paquin Tower, a public housing apartment complex in central Columbia for seniors and people with disabilities.
Tucker moved to Columbia from East St. Louis, Ill., in 2010 and lived in Worley Park until he found an apartment at Paquin Tower.
Tucker doesn’t know how to read but said God helped him learn the Bible after he was given a copy of it while in jail. He said he was lying in his bunk and said to himself, "Lord, if you exist, prove it to me."
He said he put the Bible on his chest and knew its contents the next day. The experience, he said, inspired him to draw most of the comics that hang on his walls and almost exclusively depict scenes from the Bible.
These days, Tucker is learning to read and taking GED classes so he can pursue his two major goals in life: to publish a comic book and to be a minister.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/13/paquin-towers-resident-draws-bible/
Tucker moved to Columbia from East St. Louis, Ill., in 2010 and lived in Worley Park until he found an apartment at Paquin Tower.
Tucker doesn’t know how to read but said God helped him learn the Bible after he was given a copy of it while in jail. He said he was lying in his bunk and said to himself, "Lord, if you exist, prove it to me."
He said he put the Bible on his chest and knew its contents the next day. The experience, he said, inspired him to draw most of the comics that hang on his walls and almost exclusively depict scenes from the Bible.
These days, Tucker is learning to read and taking GED classes so he can pursue his two major goals in life: to publish a comic book and to be a minister.
Source and More:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/12/13/paquin-towers-resident-draws-bible/
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