Benny Johnson needed to escape the Internet.
In less than two
years, he had built himself up into a Washington media-insider
celebrity: one of the most trafficked news writers on one of the most
trafficked Web sites in the world, Buzzfeed.com. He wrote light but
irresistible stories that were more like lists: "19 Times American Politicians Tried to Look Normal and Failed"; "The 17 Most Canadian Things About Ted Cruz." People began to recognize Benny from his Twitter avatar. They called him Buzzfeed Benny.
Then
he was exposed as a plagiarist. Forty-one of his articles were based on
the work of other writers, unattributed. He lost his job and an
identity that had opened doors and put him on guest lists all over
Washington.
"This is what happens when it all collapses," he says now. "It's a jarring moment."
His
friends rescued him, he tells me. When the Twitter mob was crucifying
him as the symbol of everything wrong with Internet journalism, they
whisked him out of D.C., lured him onto a boat, and hit the open waters
to hunt for crabs. They confiscated his phone, he says, and locked it in
a safe to buffer him from the angry roar of social media.
Less
than a year later Benny is back on the Internet, this time as a boss — a
"content director," for the conservative-leaning Web site IJReview.com. The website isn't yet three years old and already has monthly traffic rivaling Fox News.
Other
disgraced journalists have found forgiveness too. But Benny rebounded
unusually quickly, fielding offers within weeks of his dismissal from
media organizations eager to get a piece of the addictive new breed of
storytelling perfected by this 29-year-old. D.C. has always been the
city of second chances, now it just moves at meme speed. And no one can
ride a meme like Benny Johnson.
Benny's brand of journalism is taking over. Even if
you don't recognize his name you've seen his type of work infiltrating
your Facebook feed. As "viral politics editor" at Buzzfeed Benny worked
to make the wonky world of D.C. interesting to the kinds of people who
favor articles like "The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions." He compared members of Congress to characters from the television show "Arrested Development." He documented the seven ugliest federal buildings in D.C. He walked 3.5 million readers through the Army's "Spectacular Hidden Treasure Room."
"I have this incredible access, and all I've ever wanted was to bring people along," Benny says.
Benny
wears his hair long on top and short on the side, a style made popular
by the Seattle rapper Macklemore. Square-jawed, with eyes that dart back
and forth under thick glasses, he looks like a skittish Clark Kent. He
likes pipe tobacco, wearing suits patterned like American flags, and
making fun of people for being hipsters. He grins so much, through
criticism and compliments alike, that he can seem like the
personification of the shruggie guy that started showing up in your
Twitter feed last year.
(You know: ¯\_(¿)_/¯ That's Benny for you.)
If
you're on a constant search for viral topics, it's helpful not to know
boundaries. Benny breezes uninvited into parties with the excitement of a
puppy smelling bacon. He sidles up to strangers and starts a
conversation like they're old friends.
"When I went through my
divorce, he acted like a brother to me," says Jill Collins, a
public-relations specialist who has worked with Benny but isn't exactly
close with him. "He would call me up, say he was going to take me out.
He even offered to let me stay at his place. He's either the nicest,
most genuine person I've ever met, or the best actor."
The
shamelessness is part of Benny's charm, but it can also be his blind
spot. During the Arab Spring, he published an item comparing Tahrir
Square to "Jurassic Park." The online magazine Slate asked: "Is this the
worst thing Buzzfeed's ever done?"
Traditional journalists
scoffed at his lists of photos and animated GIFs, but they'd kill for
Benny's reach. His explainer on President Barack Obama's push to bomb
Syria was clicked on 860,000 times, helped by the funny reaction videos
of MTV personalities Benny added to the text. ("The votes for military
action are not looking like they will pass" was illustrated by reality
star Lauren Conrad weeping a mascara-stained tear.) Almost a million
readers — many of whom probably knew nothing about Syria — gave this
"listicle" a click.
But Benny isn't content just sitting behind a
computer. At the Supreme Court, he noticed the funny way interns sprint
down the steps to carry a big ruling to their media bosses and turned
that into a story. He found the secret Dunkin Donuts inside the Library
of Congress. He assigned his team to parade a cardboard cutout of
Hillary Clinton through a conservative conference to film the reaction
of the rambunctious crowd. He doesn't care if you think it's dumb as
long as you check it out.
"A hate click is just as valuable as a love click," he says.
When
Benny joined Buzzfeed in 2013, the site was trying to transcend its
reputation for jokey pop-culture riffs and feel-good listicles ("13
Simple Steps to Get You Through a Rough Day") by adding political
reporters and narrative journalists. Benny straddled the two Buzzfeed
identities.
A University of Iowa chemistry major, he got into
media not through the student newspaper but his activism as a campus
Republican. After working in a German lab, he began contributing to the
conservative Web site Breitbart.com in 2010 and adopted its firebrand
tone.
"Why not instead send the Imam to Pakistan where he can help
shovel out drowning families, or to Somalia where he can persuade
vicious Islamic Radicals to stop murdering in the name of his peaceful
religion?" he wrote in an article decrying plans to build the
"blasphemous Ground Zero Mega Mosque." But Benny says now he was just
trying to fit in.
"Sometimes I was just writing a lot for the
audience," Benny says. "I knew well what they wanted to read. Even if I
didn't believe it."
It
paid off. Benny landed a full-time gig at Glenn Beck's The Blaze in
2011. Soon he was mimicking the work of his favorite website: Buzzfeed.
"I just loved everything they were doing," he says. He started a
correspondence with Ben Smith, the former New York Daily News and
Politico journalist whom Buzzfeed hired to run a serious media
enterprise, and talked himself into a job in 2013.
He rose
quickly, writing more than 500 posts in less than a year and a half, and
racking up some major Web traffic hits with posts on political topics, a
rare score for Buzzfeed. Even with the investment in serious reporting,
recent reports suggest that little of its traffic comes from its news
stories.
Benny became a known quantity, a guy about town. He threw
a July 4th barbecue where he served his guests shark meat, then paraded
them over to the Capitol to crash a private party. His online persona
had just as much swagger. He wasn't afraid to pick a fight.
"Repeat
after me: Copying and pasting someone's work is called 'plagiarism,'"
Benny tweeted last July, after seeing an IJR article about George H.W.
Bush's colorful socks that resembled one of his posts.
Some found
this a surprising charge. Buzzfeed had its own reputation for cribbing
other people's work. A post that got more than 15 million page views,
"21 pictures that will restore your faith in humanity," was widely
criticized for being a clip job from Reddit and a site called
Nedhardy.com.
And Benny had a particularly big target on his back.
Many found his style grating. There was the time he tweeted that he was
eating fried chicken and waffles to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday, and his overheated post revealing that Sen. Cory Booker,
D-N.J., had once replied to a Twitter messages from a stripper. After
just one year at Buzzfeed, Salon.com made him No. 3 on their annual
"Hack List."
"Repeat after me," tweeted someone going by
@Blippoblappo, echoing Benny's rebuke to IJR about the socks article,
"@bennyjohnson shouldn't call out plagiarism because he does it all the
time."
On a blog called Our Bad Media, Blippoblappo and another
Twitter personality, @Crushingbort, named three examples of Benny's work
that cribbed from Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers, and other sources. "It was
so easy to spot this stuff, you have to conclude that there was
essentially no editorial oversight," they wrote in an email to The
Washington Post.
Smith, his Buzzfeed boss, defended him, telling
Gawker that Benny was "one of the Web's deeply original writers." But
after an internal review found that almost 10 percent of his work — such
as "DC's Version Of The Royal Baby Is A Gigantic Flower That Smells
Like Poo" — included plagiarized passages, Smith fired him. (Smith
declined to comment for this story.)
The Twitter shaming came
on in a fury. To describe Benny's work as "viral," sniped Guardian
contributor Jeb Lund, "does an allusive disservice to more noble
organisms like the AIDS virus."
Benny took the hit."If I had it to
do over again, I would have attributed and appropriated. It would have
been easy," he says now. "But there is a culture of 'get this piece out,
get this out now.' "
Buzzfeed brass did their own soul-searching
and removed more than 4,000 old posts that they said no longer met their
standards. Other than Benny, though, no one was fired.
"The first
person through the wall's going to get bloody," Benny says. "But
somebody's got to make the first Joe Biden GIF listicle."
And so, Benny found himself out to sea.
Or, you know, something like that.
"Well, we weren't on the boat the whole time," Benny clarifies the next time he tells me the story of his getaway.
His
girlfriend had brought him out to Virginia's Chincoteague Island, he
says now, a place famous for its population of wild horses. She's the
one who locked the phone in the safe, he acknowledges in the retelling.
They stayed in a condo. Friends came and went.
Maybe not as epic
as a soul-cleansing boat expedition with friends, but Benny's ready with
a new headline. "What could be more Buzzfeed than soothing your soul on
an island filled with ponies?" he says.
Within weeks of being
fired, Benny landed a job at the National Review Online. A few months
later, IJR — the same site that had copied his socks story — stole him
away.
IJR might not sound prestigious, but it's a sleeping giant.
The site gets about 20 million monthly visitors according to recent
searches on Quantcast, occasionally beating Fox News or the Drudge
Report. The site was founded in 2012 by a former Republican staffer,
Alex Skatell, who wagered there was a big audience whose political
worldview was not being represented by viral news sites. Last year he
had 10 staffers. This year he moved a team of 50 into a 9,000-square
foot office in Alexandria.
So when they reached out to Benny with a
pitch about wanting more original content, Benny didn't just see a
website that had once ripped him off. He saw conservative Buzzfeed. "I
get to be the Ben Smith," he says.
Depending on how you look at
it, Benny is either the problem with Internet media, or the solution. He
is both the content monkey recycling old videos of the time Hillary
Clinton did a Forrest Gump parody and the journalist driving to
Baltimore to track down the business owner whose pizza shop was burned
to the ground by protesters.
Either way, IJR is right about
something: This particular moment in Internet media is all about his
brand of pithy, grabby, irreverent stuff. Even politicians are taking a
page from this playbook, as they use the Web to bypass journalists and
communicate directly with voters. When Obama was selling his health care
bill, he sat between two ferns for an interview with the comedian Zach
Galifianakis. When John Boehner was attacking the president's free
community college proposal he used Taylor Swift GIFs. To Benny, this
isn't a sign of the decline of media. It's an opportunity.
"The
thing that really got to me was that people said Benny wasn't creative,
that he needed to take from other people to be creative," says Benny's
girlfriend, Katelyn Rieley. "He's the most creative person I've ever
met."
Sometimes that creativity can get him a little carried away.
Here's Rieley's version of the trip to Chincoteague: They spent the
vacation alone, she says; there were no other friends. Nor was there
much boating, though they did some crabbing from the dock. Rieley says
she didn't lock his phone in a safe; she simply powered it down and
stowed it in her bag.
As a journalist who has now fully
investigated the story of the boat and the safe, I am inclined to
believe her account. But I have to admit that his packaging of the
anecdote is far more compelling.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
From the community: Terri Cunliffe Named CEO of Covenant Retirement Communities, Inc.
The board of directors of Chicago-based Covenant Retirement
Communities (CRC), owner and operator of 14 senior living communities
nationwide, has named Terri Cunliffe as its chief executive officer,
effective June 1, 2015. Cunliffe, who has served as CRC's COO since 2010
and has been part of the organization for more than 25 years, succeeds
current CEO Rick Fisk. The Holmstad, based in Batavia, is one of its 14
communities.
Beginning her career as a nursing home part-time receptionist, Cunliffe has held a series of progressive leadership roles within CRC, including nursing home administrator and executive director at Covenant Village of Florida. As CRC's senior vice president of health and wellness and executive vice president of operations, Cunliffe effected change by developing and implementing the company's LifeConnect® approach to whole-person wellness. The program enables CRC to connect residents with resources and opportunities to help them fulfill their needs, interests and goals through educational and cultural programming, on- and off-campus activities and excursions.
While serving as COO Cunliffe developed the organization's new customer service and hospitality platform - 'We Believe.' The platform, which is currently being implemented across CRC's 14 senior living communities, focuses on enhancing the communities' customer service and resident relations by focusing on individuality, hospitality, congeniality and spirituality.
"It has been a privilege to be a part of an organization that is committed to the Evangelical Covenant Church's mission, and provides its employees the opportunity to impact the lives of others on a daily basis while practicing their faith at work," says Cunliffe. "Our residents and staff inspire me daily, and I look forward to continuing to work with our executive leadership team and board of directors to further Covenant Retirement Communities' strategic vision of assisting and meeting the needs of future generations of residents and staff."
"Throughout her tenure with Covenant Retirement Communities, Terri has earned the respect of the staff and board members as well as colleagues in the senior living industry," says Neil Warnygora, executive director at Covenant Village of Northbrook. "With her long history with the organization and strengths - enthusiasm, experience, business savvy, and wellness perspective - Terri is the right person for this position and will effect positive change that will continue to reflect the mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church and Covenant Retirement Communities."
A licensed nursing home administrator in the state of Florida, Cunliffe has been an active leader in LeadingAge Florida, formerly known as Florida Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, since 1995. She was named FAHSA Executive of the Year in 1999, received its chairman's award in 2005 and was the organizations' chair from 2009-2011.
Cunliffe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in long-term care administration from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. and a master's degree in health services administration from Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
About Covenant Retirement Communities
Covenant Retirement Communities is one of the nation's largest not-for-profit senior services providers. It serves 5,000 residents at 14 retirement communities nationwide and is a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church. For more information, visit www.covenantretirement.org.
This item was posted by a community contributor. To read more about community contributors, click here.
Beginning her career as a nursing home part-time receptionist, Cunliffe has held a series of progressive leadership roles within CRC, including nursing home administrator and executive director at Covenant Village of Florida. As CRC's senior vice president of health and wellness and executive vice president of operations, Cunliffe effected change by developing and implementing the company's LifeConnect® approach to whole-person wellness. The program enables CRC to connect residents with resources and opportunities to help them fulfill their needs, interests and goals through educational and cultural programming, on- and off-campus activities and excursions.
While serving as COO Cunliffe developed the organization's new customer service and hospitality platform - 'We Believe.' The platform, which is currently being implemented across CRC's 14 senior living communities, focuses on enhancing the communities' customer service and resident relations by focusing on individuality, hospitality, congeniality and spirituality.
"It has been a privilege to be a part of an organization that is committed to the Evangelical Covenant Church's mission, and provides its employees the opportunity to impact the lives of others on a daily basis while practicing their faith at work," says Cunliffe. "Our residents and staff inspire me daily, and I look forward to continuing to work with our executive leadership team and board of directors to further Covenant Retirement Communities' strategic vision of assisting and meeting the needs of future generations of residents and staff."
"Throughout her tenure with Covenant Retirement Communities, Terri has earned the respect of the staff and board members as well as colleagues in the senior living industry," says Neil Warnygora, executive director at Covenant Village of Northbrook. "With her long history with the organization and strengths - enthusiasm, experience, business savvy, and wellness perspective - Terri is the right person for this position and will effect positive change that will continue to reflect the mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church and Covenant Retirement Communities."
A licensed nursing home administrator in the state of Florida, Cunliffe has been an active leader in LeadingAge Florida, formerly known as Florida Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, since 1995. She was named FAHSA Executive of the Year in 1999, received its chairman's award in 2005 and was the organizations' chair from 2009-2011.
Cunliffe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in long-term care administration from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. and a master's degree in health services administration from Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
About Covenant Retirement Communities
Covenant Retirement Communities is one of the nation's largest not-for-profit senior services providers. It serves 5,000 residents at 14 retirement communities nationwide and is a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church. For more information, visit www.covenantretirement.org.
This item was posted by a community contributor. To read more about community contributors, click here.
Court upholds key parts of Texas' strict anti-abortion law
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Texas' strict abortion
restrictions that could soon leave only seven abortion clinics open in a
state of 27 million people.
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows Texas to enforce Republican-backed restrictions that require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, a checklist that includes rules on minimum room sizes, staffing levels and air ventilation systems. The restrictions, approved in 2013, are among the toughest in the nation.
Owners of traditional abortion clinics, which resemble doctor's offices more than hospitals, say they would be forced to close because the new rules demand millions of dollars in upgrades they can't afford. That would mark the second large wave of closures in as many years in Texas, which had 41 abortion clinics in 2012, before other new restrictions took effect that require doctor admitting privileges.
"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale," said Nancy Northrop, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "We now look to the Justices to stop the sham laws that are shutting clinics down and placing countless women at risk of serious harm."
Texas will be able to start enforcing the restrictions in about three weeks unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to halt the decision, said Stephanie Toti, an attorney for the center. Only seven abortion facilities in Texas, including four operated by Planned Parenthood, meet the more robust requirements.
Abortion-rights groups said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which temporarily sidelined the law last year.
If the law takes effect, some women in the state would live hundreds of miles away from a Texas abortion provider. But that argument didn't sway the three-judge panel making the decision for the New Orleans-based appeals court, which is considered one of the most conservative in the nation. The judges noted that a New Mexico abortion clinic was just across the Texas border, and said clinic owners in Texas failed to prove that a "large fraction" of women would be burdened.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office argued before the appeals court in January, praised Tuesday's ruling.
"Abortion practitioners should have no right to operate their businesses from sub-standard facilities and with doctors who lack admitting privileges at a hospital," Paxton said.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservatives say the standards protect women's health. But abortion-rights supports say the law is a thinly veiled attempt to block access to abortions in Texas, which has been the site of one of the nation's largest abortion fights for two years. Toti said roughly a half-dozen other states require similar standards for abortion clinics, but unlike in those states, the Texas law doesn't allow clinics to be grandfathered or seek waivers.
About 18 abortion clinics are currently open in Texas, though the number fluctuates depending on whether a facility has a doctor with hospital admitting privileges.
Under the new restrictions, the only remaining abortion facilities in Texas would be in major cities. One exception would be a Whole Woman's Health clinic in McAllen, near the Texas-Mexico border, which the 5th Circuit exempted from some restrictions — but Toti said even those exemptions are so limited that it may not be practical to keep that clinic open.
For women in El Paso, the closest abortion provider in Texas would require a 1,200-mile round trip to San Antonio, or they would have to cross state lines. The appeals court found that option suitable, noting that a clinic was just across the border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
"Although the nearest abortion facility in Texas is 550 miles away from El Paso, there is evidence that women in El Paso can travel the short distance to Santa Teresa to obtain an abortion and, indeed, the evidence is that many did just that," the court wrote.
Attorneys for the state dismissed opponents' arguments about women being burdened by fewer abortion facilities, saying that nearly 9 in 10 women in Texas would still live within 150 miles of a provider.
Associated Press
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows Texas to enforce Republican-backed restrictions that require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, a checklist that includes rules on minimum room sizes, staffing levels and air ventilation systems. The restrictions, approved in 2013, are among the toughest in the nation.
Owners of traditional abortion clinics, which resemble doctor's offices more than hospitals, say they would be forced to close because the new rules demand millions of dollars in upgrades they can't afford. That would mark the second large wave of closures in as many years in Texas, which had 41 abortion clinics in 2012, before other new restrictions took effect that require doctor admitting privileges.
"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale," said Nancy Northrop, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "We now look to the Justices to stop the sham laws that are shutting clinics down and placing countless women at risk of serious harm."
Texas will be able to start enforcing the restrictions in about three weeks unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to halt the decision, said Stephanie Toti, an attorney for the center. Only seven abortion facilities in Texas, including four operated by Planned Parenthood, meet the more robust requirements.
Abortion-rights groups said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which temporarily sidelined the law last year.
If the law takes effect, some women in the state would live hundreds of miles away from a Texas abortion provider. But that argument didn't sway the three-judge panel making the decision for the New Orleans-based appeals court, which is considered one of the most conservative in the nation. The judges noted that a New Mexico abortion clinic was just across the Texas border, and said clinic owners in Texas failed to prove that a "large fraction" of women would be burdened.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office argued before the appeals court in January, praised Tuesday's ruling.
"Abortion practitioners should have no right to operate their businesses from sub-standard facilities and with doctors who lack admitting privileges at a hospital," Paxton said.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservatives say the standards protect women's health. But abortion-rights supports say the law is a thinly veiled attempt to block access to abortions in Texas, which has been the site of one of the nation's largest abortion fights for two years. Toti said roughly a half-dozen other states require similar standards for abortion clinics, but unlike in those states, the Texas law doesn't allow clinics to be grandfathered or seek waivers.
About 18 abortion clinics are currently open in Texas, though the number fluctuates depending on whether a facility has a doctor with hospital admitting privileges.
Under the new restrictions, the only remaining abortion facilities in Texas would be in major cities. One exception would be a Whole Woman's Health clinic in McAllen, near the Texas-Mexico border, which the 5th Circuit exempted from some restrictions — but Toti said even those exemptions are so limited that it may not be practical to keep that clinic open.
For women in El Paso, the closest abortion provider in Texas would require a 1,200-mile round trip to San Antonio, or they would have to cross state lines. The appeals court found that option suitable, noting that a clinic was just across the border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
"Although the nearest abortion facility in Texas is 550 miles away from El Paso, there is evidence that women in El Paso can travel the short distance to Santa Teresa to obtain an abortion and, indeed, the evidence is that many did just that," the court wrote.
Attorneys for the state dismissed opponents' arguments about women being burdened by fewer abortion facilities, saying that nearly 9 in 10 women in Texas would still live within 150 miles of a provider.
Associated Press
Southeast Side man charged with neglecting dogs he kept for fighting
A man is facing several animal cruelty charges after officers
confiscated 10 pit bulls held in “deplorable conditions” at his
Southeast Side home, police said.
Juan Zamora, 49, of the 9700 block of South Avenue L in the East Side neighborhood, faces felony animal cruelty, felony neglect of owner’s duties and felony possession of dog-fighting equipment charges.
Zamora appeared in bond court Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held on $75,000 bond, according to court records.
Police executed a “dog-fighting related search warrant” at Zamora’s home about 11:45 a.m. last Thursday and found the 10 dogs, according to a police news release. Police turned over the dogs to Chicago’s Animal Care and Control for treatment.
Zamora wasn’t at home when police served the warrant, and turned himself in to police on Monday.
All 10 dogs, 3 females and 7 males, were at the animal care shelter, and they appeared to be in good health, said Ivan J. Capifali, deputy director of animal care and control. None of the dogs had to be destroyed, he said.
Police weren’t releasing further information.
Juan Zamora, 49, of the 9700 block of South Avenue L in the East Side neighborhood, faces felony animal cruelty, felony neglect of owner’s duties and felony possession of dog-fighting equipment charges.
Zamora appeared in bond court Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held on $75,000 bond, according to court records.
Police executed a “dog-fighting related search warrant” at Zamora’s home about 11:45 a.m. last Thursday and found the 10 dogs, according to a police news release. Police turned over the dogs to Chicago’s Animal Care and Control for treatment.
Zamora wasn’t at home when police served the warrant, and turned himself in to police on Monday.
All 10 dogs, 3 females and 7 males, were at the animal care shelter, and they appeared to be in good health, said Ivan J. Capifali, deputy director of animal care and control. None of the dogs had to be destroyed, he said.
Police weren’t releasing further information.
Letters to the editor: Elgin area volunteers head to D.C.
State cuts would hurt River View Rehab Center
The residents at River View Rehab Center are at risk as the state considers drastic cuts to Medicaid funding. Nursing homes across the state suffered $15 million in cuts for May and June and are now facing the possibility of $230 million in cuts for all of Fiscal Year 2016.
Such cuts would have a serious impact on the quality of care at River View. We would be forced to decrease staffing to bare minimums and eliminate extras that create the home-like environment our residents and their families have come to expect. We would also be forced to cut the level of activities for residents, and would be forced to delay needed renovations.
Remember, our residents are the ones who worked their whole lives, paid their taxes, served our country and built our community. But, in many cases, they have outlived their resources. When it comes to deciding where to cut, our residents must be our top priority.
Please join me in calling on elected officials in Springfield to hold the line on Medicaid funding for nursing homes.
Arshad Rahman, Administrator
River View Rehab Center
Elgin
Wildcats will become part of suburban zoo
Leave it to the idiots beyond the burbs to want to hunt wildcats. First of all, most hunters drink gallons of beer before they hunt, which means they shoot at loud sounds. Those loud sounds are usually other hunters who also downed gallons of beer.
As for the wildcats, they aren't as stupid as the hunters. They quickly find those places where hunters don't usually shoot. One is the south side of Chicago where the houses shoot back (with AK's). Another place is the Chicago burbs because those living in the burbs shoot back with something even more terrifying than AKs: lawyers.
The result is the wildcats join the zoo of varmints and critters already at home in the burbs: bears, cougars, wolves coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, hawks, buzzards, deer, ground hogs, rats mice — and occasionally eagles. Note please that while the hunters may or may not threaten the wildcats, the bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes, foxes and eagles are a different story, altogether. It means wildcats always have the nearest tree in mind as they quest after rodents. Sooner or latter, they run for it only to find a house cat already occupying a branch. Still, as long as it finds an empty branch, both of them will only have eyes for whatever treed them.
Such is life in the suburban zoo.
Len Robertson
St. Charles
Elgin area volunteers head to D.C. to lobby for solution
Following the release Pope Francis' much-anticipated encyclical dealing with climate change, three volunteers from the Fox Valley chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby will meet in Washington with their representatives and senators to press for legislation that places a fee on carbon and returns revenue to households.
The Fox Valley CCL members who are traveling to the nation's capital to attend the 6th International Citizens' Climate Lobby Conference, will spend a day, June 23, visiting the offices of senators DIck Durbin and Mark Kirk, as well as representatives Randy Hultgren and Peter Roskam. Their message: We need to reduce the risk of climate change by reducing the carbon pollution we currently emit. We can achieve that with a market-based solution that places a steadily-rising fee on carbon and gives the revenue back to consumers, thereby shielding families from the economic impact of higher energy costs.
As the advocates prepare to go to Washington, Pope Francis is releasing his encyclical — a papal letter sent to all bishops in the Catholic Church — calling for action to address climate change. Titled "Laudato Sii" (Praised Be), the encyclical speaks about the need to care for God's creation and to protect the most vulnerable from the ravages of global warming. Francis' encyclical comes in advance of his visit to the U.S. in September, when he will address a joint session of Congress and also speak at the UN General Assembly in New York. The pontiff's actions are timed to encourage nations to reach agreement on a global climate change accord in Paris at the end of the year.
"It's very exciting that the Pope's encyclical is being released just before we go to lobby our members of Congress," said Sandy Kaptain and Deni Mathews group leaders for the Fox Valley CCL chapter. "With one third of Congress being Catholic, Francis' message is bound to have a big impact."
In their meetings with members of Congress, CCL volunteers hope to assuage fears that placing a price on carbon will be detrimental to the economy. A study from Regional Economic Models, Inc. found that CCL's proposal, known as Carbon Fee and Dividend, would actually ADD 2.8 million jobs over 20 years while cutting carbon emissions in half.
"If it's done the right way, pricing carbon can actually be good for our economy," Kaptain said. "That can happen if we give all the money back to households. It will act as an economic stimulus."
The CCL International Conference in Washington is being held June 21-23, and features keynote speaker Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, who was named one of Time Magazine's most influential people and who also appeared in Showtime's award-winning series about climate change, "Years of Living Dangerously."
Sandy Kaptain,
Elgin
The residents at River View Rehab Center are at risk as the state considers drastic cuts to Medicaid funding. Nursing homes across the state suffered $15 million in cuts for May and June and are now facing the possibility of $230 million in cuts for all of Fiscal Year 2016.
Such cuts would have a serious impact on the quality of care at River View. We would be forced to decrease staffing to bare minimums and eliminate extras that create the home-like environment our residents and their families have come to expect. We would also be forced to cut the level of activities for residents, and would be forced to delay needed renovations.
Remember, our residents are the ones who worked their whole lives, paid their taxes, served our country and built our community. But, in many cases, they have outlived their resources. When it comes to deciding where to cut, our residents must be our top priority.
Please join me in calling on elected officials in Springfield to hold the line on Medicaid funding for nursing homes.
Arshad Rahman, Administrator
River View Rehab Center
Elgin
Wildcats will become part of suburban zoo
Leave it to the idiots beyond the burbs to want to hunt wildcats. First of all, most hunters drink gallons of beer before they hunt, which means they shoot at loud sounds. Those loud sounds are usually other hunters who also downed gallons of beer.
As for the wildcats, they aren't as stupid as the hunters. They quickly find those places where hunters don't usually shoot. One is the south side of Chicago where the houses shoot back (with AK's). Another place is the Chicago burbs because those living in the burbs shoot back with something even more terrifying than AKs: lawyers.
The result is the wildcats join the zoo of varmints and critters already at home in the burbs: bears, cougars, wolves coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, hawks, buzzards, deer, ground hogs, rats mice — and occasionally eagles. Note please that while the hunters may or may not threaten the wildcats, the bears, cougars, wolves, coyotes, foxes and eagles are a different story, altogether. It means wildcats always have the nearest tree in mind as they quest after rodents. Sooner or latter, they run for it only to find a house cat already occupying a branch. Still, as long as it finds an empty branch, both of them will only have eyes for whatever treed them.
Such is life in the suburban zoo.
Len Robertson
St. Charles
Elgin area volunteers head to D.C. to lobby for solution
Following the release Pope Francis' much-anticipated encyclical dealing with climate change, three volunteers from the Fox Valley chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby will meet in Washington with their representatives and senators to press for legislation that places a fee on carbon and returns revenue to households.
The Fox Valley CCL members who are traveling to the nation's capital to attend the 6th International Citizens' Climate Lobby Conference, will spend a day, June 23, visiting the offices of senators DIck Durbin and Mark Kirk, as well as representatives Randy Hultgren and Peter Roskam. Their message: We need to reduce the risk of climate change by reducing the carbon pollution we currently emit. We can achieve that with a market-based solution that places a steadily-rising fee on carbon and gives the revenue back to consumers, thereby shielding families from the economic impact of higher energy costs.
As the advocates prepare to go to Washington, Pope Francis is releasing his encyclical — a papal letter sent to all bishops in the Catholic Church — calling for action to address climate change. Titled "Laudato Sii" (Praised Be), the encyclical speaks about the need to care for God's creation and to protect the most vulnerable from the ravages of global warming. Francis' encyclical comes in advance of his visit to the U.S. in September, when he will address a joint session of Congress and also speak at the UN General Assembly in New York. The pontiff's actions are timed to encourage nations to reach agreement on a global climate change accord in Paris at the end of the year.
"It's very exciting that the Pope's encyclical is being released just before we go to lobby our members of Congress," said Sandy Kaptain and Deni Mathews group leaders for the Fox Valley CCL chapter. "With one third of Congress being Catholic, Francis' message is bound to have a big impact."
In their meetings with members of Congress, CCL volunteers hope to assuage fears that placing a price on carbon will be detrimental to the economy. A study from Regional Economic Models, Inc. found that CCL's proposal, known as Carbon Fee and Dividend, would actually ADD 2.8 million jobs over 20 years while cutting carbon emissions in half.
"If it's done the right way, pricing carbon can actually be good for our economy," Kaptain said. "That can happen if we give all the money back to households. It will act as an economic stimulus."
The CCL International Conference in Washington is being held June 21-23, and features keynote speaker Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, who was named one of Time Magazine's most influential people and who also appeared in Showtime's award-winning series about climate change, "Years of Living Dangerously."
Sandy Kaptain,
Elgin
Roche takes another shot at Alzheimer's after Biogen success
GENEVA — Roche Holding is weighing a second test for an experimental
Alzheimer's drug that failed in an initial study, after a similar
offering from Biogen showed promise in slowing the memory-robbing
ailment.
Roche stopped a trial of gantenerumab in December because patients weren't benefiting more than those receiving a placebo. Four months later, Biogen said that its drug slowed the progression of the disease, supporting a long-held hypothesis that targeting a protein linked to the telltale plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients may yield a treatment.
Roche may re-run its trial with a higher dose and other adjustments to the study, said Paulo Fontoura, head of neuroscience clinical development for the Basel, Switzerland- based company. Like Biogen's medicine, gantenerumab is an antibody that targets the beta amyloid protein, suggesting that if Biogen's drug works, so should Roche's.
"Dose is one of the key factors we are looking at now," Fontoura said in a telephone interview. "The two molecules are remarkably similar. It's more to do with how the experiment was set up."
There are 47.5 million people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia -- more than the population living with HIV/AIDS. The number is set to almost double by 2030, according to the World Health Organization, which estimates that the global cost of dementia care was $600 billion in 2010.
The only drugs now available, including Eisai Co.'s Aricept, can alleviate symptoms such as declining mental function. But the benefits are short-lived and there's no cure. Among 244 drugs tested in Alzheimer's between 2002 and 2012, only one -- Lundbeck A/S's Ebixa -- has won marketing approval, a study published last year found.
Gantenerumab appeared to be the latest casualty when Roche halted its trial. But the Swiss company was buoyed after Biogen said its drug, aducanumab, lowered plaque in the brain and reduced cognitive decline by as much as 71 percent.
"Everyone was excited to see that data" because it renewed confidence in targeting beta amyloid, Fontoura said.
Roche is still analyzing its study to figure out why it didn't get the same result. Biogen's trial was small and the results need to be confirmed in larger studies that Biogen is doing, according to Fontoura.
"The Biogen data is a little bit of a surprise, because typically you need much larger sample sizes to see that much of a signal," he said. "In Alzheimer's unfortunately we're still in a world where we do need pretty large datasets to get a robust signal."
Biogen expects to begin late-stage studies of its drug this year, spokeswoman Catherine Falcetti said in an e-mailed response to questions.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company plans to test two doses, including a lower dose in patients with a genetic mutation linked to higher risk of Alzheimer's. Those patients had the highest rates of side effects in Biogen's initial study.
Roche is also evaluating a second trial of gantenerumab it's conducting for mild Alzheimer's, to see if there are ways to increase the chance of success, Fontoura said.
Roche gained gantenerumab through a partnership with Morphosys AG, which stands to earn payments if the therapy meets developmental targets, and royalties on sales.
Morphosys shares rose on Tuesday because Roche's plan to revisit gantenerumab shows it's "more confident" in the drug's potential, Olav Zilian, an analyst at Helvea SA in Geneva, said in an e-mail. The stock had plunged the most in a decade when Roche stopped the trial.
Safety is an important factor in finding Alzheimer's treatments. In Biogen's study, more than half of patients with a genetic predisposition to the disease experienced brain swelling, and one-third stopped treatment because of it.
"We're in a relatively desperate situation," said Ian Le Guillou, a spokesman for the London-based Alzheimer's Society. "We have no effective treatments for Alzheimer's and really people would be willing to accept side effects if we could show that the treatment was effective."
Roche may have a trump card: a drug called crenezumab that may be safer and more effective than gantenerumab.
While a study of crenezumab in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's failed to meet its main goals, an analysis of those with the earliest stages of the disease found a 35 percent reduction in cognitive decline. Roche is now testing higher doses of the drug, licensed from AC Immune of Switzerland, Fontoura said.
"As we've found and Biogen has found, at higher doses of these antibodies, you may start to see some safety events," he said. "If crenezumab can really prove to be an efficacious molecule that has less of that, then it will obviously be a very valuable tool for clinical use."
Roche stopped a trial of gantenerumab in December because patients weren't benefiting more than those receiving a placebo. Four months later, Biogen said that its drug slowed the progression of the disease, supporting a long-held hypothesis that targeting a protein linked to the telltale plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients may yield a treatment.
Roche may re-run its trial with a higher dose and other adjustments to the study, said Paulo Fontoura, head of neuroscience clinical development for the Basel, Switzerland- based company. Like Biogen's medicine, gantenerumab is an antibody that targets the beta amyloid protein, suggesting that if Biogen's drug works, so should Roche's.
"Dose is one of the key factors we are looking at now," Fontoura said in a telephone interview. "The two molecules are remarkably similar. It's more to do with how the experiment was set up."
There are 47.5 million people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia -- more than the population living with HIV/AIDS. The number is set to almost double by 2030, according to the World Health Organization, which estimates that the global cost of dementia care was $600 billion in 2010.
The only drugs now available, including Eisai Co.'s Aricept, can alleviate symptoms such as declining mental function. But the benefits are short-lived and there's no cure. Among 244 drugs tested in Alzheimer's between 2002 and 2012, only one -- Lundbeck A/S's Ebixa -- has won marketing approval, a study published last year found.
Gantenerumab appeared to be the latest casualty when Roche halted its trial. But the Swiss company was buoyed after Biogen said its drug, aducanumab, lowered plaque in the brain and reduced cognitive decline by as much as 71 percent.
"Everyone was excited to see that data" because it renewed confidence in targeting beta amyloid, Fontoura said.
Roche is still analyzing its study to figure out why it didn't get the same result. Biogen's trial was small and the results need to be confirmed in larger studies that Biogen is doing, according to Fontoura.
"The Biogen data is a little bit of a surprise, because typically you need much larger sample sizes to see that much of a signal," he said. "In Alzheimer's unfortunately we're still in a world where we do need pretty large datasets to get a robust signal."
Biogen expects to begin late-stage studies of its drug this year, spokeswoman Catherine Falcetti said in an e-mailed response to questions.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company plans to test two doses, including a lower dose in patients with a genetic mutation linked to higher risk of Alzheimer's. Those patients had the highest rates of side effects in Biogen's initial study.
Roche is also evaluating a second trial of gantenerumab it's conducting for mild Alzheimer's, to see if there are ways to increase the chance of success, Fontoura said.
Roche gained gantenerumab through a partnership with Morphosys AG, which stands to earn payments if the therapy meets developmental targets, and royalties on sales.
Morphosys shares rose on Tuesday because Roche's plan to revisit gantenerumab shows it's "more confident" in the drug's potential, Olav Zilian, an analyst at Helvea SA in Geneva, said in an e-mail. The stock had plunged the most in a decade when Roche stopped the trial.
Safety is an important factor in finding Alzheimer's treatments. In Biogen's study, more than half of patients with a genetic predisposition to the disease experienced brain swelling, and one-third stopped treatment because of it.
"We're in a relatively desperate situation," said Ian Le Guillou, a spokesman for the London-based Alzheimer's Society. "We have no effective treatments for Alzheimer's and really people would be willing to accept side effects if we could show that the treatment was effective."
Roche may have a trump card: a drug called crenezumab that may be safer and more effective than gantenerumab.
While a study of crenezumab in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's failed to meet its main goals, an analysis of those with the earliest stages of the disease found a 35 percent reduction in cognitive decline. Roche is now testing higher doses of the drug, licensed from AC Immune of Switzerland, Fontoura said.
"As we've found and Biogen has found, at higher doses of these antibodies, you may start to see some safety events," he said. "If crenezumab can really prove to be an efficacious molecule that has less of that, then it will obviously be a very valuable tool for clinical use."
Commentary: Hurray, American Pharoah! Now, let's end horse racing.
Now that American Pharoah has captured the first Triple Crown in
decades, many are wondering what that means for the future of horse
racing, and of the colt himself. The New York Times's Joe Drape believes
the feat will give horse racing "a badly needed shot in the arm," with
no indication of whether the hypodermic metaphor is meant to be ironic.
American Pharoah's trainer, Bob Baffert, said he wants the horse to race
as long as possible, though he did give a nod to the idea of letting
the three-year-old quit while he's ahead.
Here's my wish: That American Pharoah goes out on a high note, and with him, the entire sport of horse racing.
Frankly, it's a wonder that horse racing has lasted this long. Idealists would point to the sport's long history in this country and to the unique place horses occupy in the American consciousness. But save for a few big races each year that are ultimately more cultural events and excuses to drink than marquee athletic showcases, the sport has been on a steady decline. And despite its blue-blood reputation, the "sport of kings" is really just the sport of vice, kept afloat by a system of gambling and doping that amounts to institutionalized animal abuse.
The main controversy today is over an anti-bleeding drug known as Lasix. In the U.S., it's often administered on the day of the race, along with up to 26 other permitted substances; race-day medications are banned in almost every other country. Several top trainers have banded together to push for a plan to ban race-day medications in the U.S., citing the negative effects on the health of the animal and the reputation of the sport. Those resistant to change, including the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, claim that injecting drugs is actually good for a horse's health.
This argument about what's "best" for the horses blatantly overlooks the sport's role in endangering their health in the first place. Lasix is used to treat bleeding in the lungs, a condition called exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage. EIPH is for the most part found only in racing animals, camels and greyhounds as well as horses. There are two theories of what causes EIPH in horses — that is, the mechanism by which hemorrhaging occurs — but as the disease's name would suggest, it's undoubtedly related to abnormally strenuous physical activity. You can debate the benefits of Lasix all you want, but it's clear the best thing for a horse's health would be to keep him off the track.
Horse racing is inherently cruel, and the problems start, literally, from birth: As the Indianapolis Star's Gregg Doyel notes, we should expect nothing less than physical breakdown from an animal bred to sustain an abnormally muscular carriage on skinnier-than-usually legs. What you don't see behind the veil of seersucker and mint juleps are the thousands of horses that collapse under the weight of their science-project bodies. This weekend at Belmont, all eyes on American Pharoah meant nobody was paying attention to Helwan, the four-year-old French colt who had to be euthanized on the track after breaking his left-front cannon bone. It was Helwan's first time racing on Lasix.
Helwan's breakdown is by no means an outlier. In 2008, a national audience watched in horror as Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line at the Kentucky Derby with two broken ankles and had to be immediately euthanized. In 2006, then-undefeated Barbaro suffered a similar injury at the Preakness and was eventually put down as well.
In 2012, the New York Times conducted a thorough investigation of the dangers of racing and the unchecked doping that furthers the risks, revealing that, "24 horses die each week at racetracks across America." From 2009 to 2012, 6,600 horses suffered injuries or breakdowns. In that same period, 3,600 horses died at state-regulated tracks.
It's easy for the public to overlook these facts. Most Americans only care about horse racing during the month-long Triple Crown season. And just as in sports played by humans, the high-profile stars get all the attention while the plight of the little guy goes ignored. The horses at the most risk are cheaper animals competing in lower-tier races, known as claiming races. According to the Times, horses in claiming races suffer injuries or breakdowns at a 22-percent higher rate than upper-tier horses, partially because drug regulation is much more lax than on the Triple Crown circuit.
It's true that abuses and safety concerns exist to varying degrees across all sports. But the more we have learned about health risks in football and hockey, and of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball and cycling, the more we stepped up our efforts to rectify the problems. As football players learn of the game's long-term health dangers, many rethink their participation. But this exposes racing's fundamental ill: A horse can't consent.
"He's the one that won — it wasn't me," Baffert said after American Pharoah's win at Belmont, reminding us who the athlete really is in racing: "It was the horse." It's time to rethink a sport in which the athlete has no say in the terms of his participation.
Kavitha Davidson writes about sports for Bloomberg View.
Here's my wish: That American Pharoah goes out on a high note, and with him, the entire sport of horse racing.
Frankly, it's a wonder that horse racing has lasted this long. Idealists would point to the sport's long history in this country and to the unique place horses occupy in the American consciousness. But save for a few big races each year that are ultimately more cultural events and excuses to drink than marquee athletic showcases, the sport has been on a steady decline. And despite its blue-blood reputation, the "sport of kings" is really just the sport of vice, kept afloat by a system of gambling and doping that amounts to institutionalized animal abuse.
The main controversy today is over an anti-bleeding drug known as Lasix. In the U.S., it's often administered on the day of the race, along with up to 26 other permitted substances; race-day medications are banned in almost every other country. Several top trainers have banded together to push for a plan to ban race-day medications in the U.S., citing the negative effects on the health of the animal and the reputation of the sport. Those resistant to change, including the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, claim that injecting drugs is actually good for a horse's health.
This argument about what's "best" for the horses blatantly overlooks the sport's role in endangering their health in the first place. Lasix is used to treat bleeding in the lungs, a condition called exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage. EIPH is for the most part found only in racing animals, camels and greyhounds as well as horses. There are two theories of what causes EIPH in horses — that is, the mechanism by which hemorrhaging occurs — but as the disease's name would suggest, it's undoubtedly related to abnormally strenuous physical activity. You can debate the benefits of Lasix all you want, but it's clear the best thing for a horse's health would be to keep him off the track.
Horse racing is inherently cruel, and the problems start, literally, from birth: As the Indianapolis Star's Gregg Doyel notes, we should expect nothing less than physical breakdown from an animal bred to sustain an abnormally muscular carriage on skinnier-than-usually legs. What you don't see behind the veil of seersucker and mint juleps are the thousands of horses that collapse under the weight of their science-project bodies. This weekend at Belmont, all eyes on American Pharoah meant nobody was paying attention to Helwan, the four-year-old French colt who had to be euthanized on the track after breaking his left-front cannon bone. It was Helwan's first time racing on Lasix.
Helwan's breakdown is by no means an outlier. In 2008, a national audience watched in horror as Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line at the Kentucky Derby with two broken ankles and had to be immediately euthanized. In 2006, then-undefeated Barbaro suffered a similar injury at the Preakness and was eventually put down as well.
In 2012, the New York Times conducted a thorough investigation of the dangers of racing and the unchecked doping that furthers the risks, revealing that, "24 horses die each week at racetracks across America." From 2009 to 2012, 6,600 horses suffered injuries or breakdowns. In that same period, 3,600 horses died at state-regulated tracks.
It's easy for the public to overlook these facts. Most Americans only care about horse racing during the month-long Triple Crown season. And just as in sports played by humans, the high-profile stars get all the attention while the plight of the little guy goes ignored. The horses at the most risk are cheaper animals competing in lower-tier races, known as claiming races. According to the Times, horses in claiming races suffer injuries or breakdowns at a 22-percent higher rate than upper-tier horses, partially because drug regulation is much more lax than on the Triple Crown circuit.
It's true that abuses and safety concerns exist to varying degrees across all sports. But the more we have learned about health risks in football and hockey, and of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball and cycling, the more we stepped up our efforts to rectify the problems. As football players learn of the game's long-term health dangers, many rethink their participation. But this exposes racing's fundamental ill: A horse can't consent.
"He's the one that won — it wasn't me," Baffert said after American Pharoah's win at Belmont, reminding us who the athlete really is in racing: "It was the horse." It's time to rethink a sport in which the athlete has no say in the terms of his participation.
Kavitha Davidson writes about sports for Bloomberg View.
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