“Currently, more than 74,000 students in Florida who attend Title I* schools have an opportunity to participate in Supplemental Educational Services (SES) and get the extra help they need to be successful in school. Because of our diverse population, Florida offers parents and students the choice to participate in after-school programs within the school district or through private service providers.

“In this year’s legislative session, Florida legislators dedicated an amount equal to 15 percent of Title I, Part A funds available to schools for SES in the 2012-2013 school year.

“Florida sought a flexibility waiver from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act last year precisely because we wanted to have the flexibility to make decisions for our students and our schools that are right for Florida. Suggesting that our state and our legislators were not acting in the best interest of Florida’s children reinforces how important it is that our state be allowed to chart a course that is right for Florida.”

* Title I schools have a significant percentage of enrolled students who are economically disadvantaged.

###

CONTACT: DOE PRESS OFFICE
(850) 245-0413

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a University of Florida professor $1.25 million to study factors affecting political stability in the African Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert.

The award is part of the DOD’s Minerva Research Initiative, a university-based social science research program started by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to increase the nation’s understanding of regions and topics considered important to U.S. national security. The funding will support a three-year effort by a team of UF faculty and graduate students to study various aspects of culture and politics in the nations of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The project should yield valuable insight into a poorly understood area of emerging global importance and establish UF as a key center for research on the Sahel region.

“These countries are among the least developed and least studied nations on Earth,” said Leonardo Villalon, the UF associate professor of political science and African studies who received the award. “And until recently they have been considered sort of a sleepy backwater in the world scene.”

But that is changing quickly as new threats to stability develop in the region, he said. Turmoil from Arab Spring uprisings in Northern Africa and disruptive forces from Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militia are reaching south across the Saharan Desert and infiltrating what has historically been a peaceful region.

Why?

“Because they can,” Villalon said. “Political structures in the Sahel are fragile and susceptible to pressure from the outside.”

Years of drought coupled with a fast-growing population and few options for economic development have created enormous strain on governments in the Sahel region. To their credit, these states have managed to maintain a largely peaceful existence despite the challenges, he said.

But the recent coup in Mali suggests that the once peaceful Sahel may not be able to withstand political turmoil flowing from bordering nations like Libya. Men from Niger and Mali reportedly recruited to fight in Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s army are returning home and generating unrest. In Mali, the situation has deteriorated to the point where the democratically elected president has been ousted by a military junta, a situation that is causing great concern for the U.S.

“The catastrophe unfolding in Mali as a result of the conflict in Libya was actually a potential vulnerability we identified when we applied for the award,” Villalon said. “It turned out to be an unfortunately prescient statement.”

The award will fund field research in six nations of the Sahel that will serve as the basis for academic publications and other educational resources. Beyond academia, the results of the research may be of use for journalists and the general public, as well as for the DOD and U.S. policymakers. More importantly, said Villalon, the work will help institutionalize ongoing efforts at UF to build a university research-based training ground for the next generation of political scientists specializing in this region of the world.

“The grant builds on previous work we’ve been doing at UF,” said Villalon. “It’s not just a project we dreamed up out of the blue.” Villalon has studied issues at the intersection of politics and religion in the Sahel for more than 20 years.

This week, Villalon and UF colleagues are hosting visiting scholars and election officials from the Sahel as part of a two-year-long program funded by the U.S. Department of State called The Trans-Saharan Elections Project. Last year, a similar delegation of U.S. professionals visited Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal to tour election facilities and meet with election administrators and political leaders.

“This is an important collaboration that we are building between ourselves and our African colleagues,” he said. “The award gives us an opportunity to dramatically increase our understanding of the complex issues that underpin stability in this region.”

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From the University of Florida
News Desk http://www.news.ufl.edu
newsdesk@ufl.edu
352-392-0186, fax 392-3358
101 Tigert Hall / Box 113075
Gainesville, FL 32611-3075

Writer: Donna Hesterman, 352-846-2573, donna.hesterman@ufl.edu

Source: Leonardo Villalon, villalon@ufl.edu, 352-538-3972
Photo available

TALLAHASSEE — The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) is enhancing
its group home monitoring procedures to improve oversight and
accountability. APD issued a new monitoring form to include a signature
line for a group home representative that is in addition to the APD
employee’s signature. This will verify and confirm that both parties are
aware of the inspection, the date it occurred, and the outcome of the
monitoring visit.

The agency already currently requires monthly monitoring visits, including
some unannounced inspections. These changes do not add any additional
burdens on service providers, but are additional accountability measures
within the process.

These actions are following a preliminary review by the agency’s inspector
general (IG) of some group home inspection reports. The IG determined that
the agency should consider strengthening the oversight of the group home
monitoring process.

APD Director Michael Hansen said, “Our agency is responsible for the health
and safety of all individuals in our care. I asked our inspector general to
take a look at our policies and procedures related to group home monitoring
to ensure as many safeguards were in place as possible. Based on the IG
findings and other reviews, we are immediately updating our monitoring
forms as another safeguard for our customers.”

The agency is working to automate its group home information over the next
several months. Once the system is operational, all monitoring information
will be available online.

Group home providers contract with the state of Florida under the Home and
Community-Based Services waiver to deliver services to APD customers who
are Floridians with developmental disabilities. There are 1,300
APD-licensed group homes statewide that are required to be inspected at
least once a month by APD employees. To review the agency’s policies and
procedures related to group homes, visit

http://apdcares.org/providers/group-homes.htm

APD annually serves more than 50,000 Floridians with the developmental
disabilities of autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intellectual
disabilities, spina bifida, and Prader-Willi syndrome. For more information
on the agency, visit APDcares.org or call toll-free 1-866-APD-CARES
(1-866-273-2273).

###

Contact:
Melanie Mowry Etters
Communications Director
(850) 488-4257

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A tiny filter could have a big impact around the world in the fight against tuberculosis. Using the traditional microscope-based diagnosis method as a starting point, a University of Florida lung disease specialist and colleagues in Brazil have devised a way to detect more cases of the bacterial infection.

“We’re hopeful that this more sensitive method, which is both simple and inexpensive, will improve diagnosis in patients,” said lead researcher Dr. Kevin Fennelly, an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of medicine and Southeastern Tuberculosis Center, and the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute.

The new technique, which involves vacuum filtering a sputum sample treated with household bleach and other simple chemicals through a small filter, could dramatically improve TB diagnoses globally, particularly in settings where the disease is common and resources are limited. It is especially useful when the presence of only a small number of bacteria in the test sample makes it hard to detect TB. The researchers are refining the technique in hopes of developing a cost-effective product that can be used globally.

Funded by the World Health Organization and the Núcleo de Doenças Infecciosas infectious disease institute in Brazil, the study appears online and in an upcoming print edition of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

TB is a treatable disease caused by a microbe called Myocardium tuberculosis. It most often affects the lungs, but can also target organs such as the brain, spine and kidneys. Symptoms of active disease include a chronic cough, sputum production and coughing up blood. TB spreads from person to person through the air.

Once the leading cause of death in the U.S., TB has been largely under control in Western nations. Still, more than 11,000 U.S. cases were reported in 2010, the latest year for which there is comprehensive data. That year, almost 9 million people around the world were diagnosed with TB and almost 1.5 million died from it. TB causes more deaths than any other bacterial infection and is the most common killer of people living with HIV.

“TB is still a tremendously important disease worldwide and control efforts are greatly hindered by lack of simple, inexpensive diagnostics that could be used at the point of care,” said Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, a Dartmouth College infectious diseases and TB diagnostics expert who was not involved in the UF research. “What Dr. Fennelly has done is capitalize on existing infrastructure of microscopy to try to improve performance of that prevalent diagnostic tool.”

The most widely used way to confirm TB infection is to use a microscope to identify and count disease-causing bacteria in sputum smeared onto a glass slide. This so-called direct-smear method also helps health professionals figure out how likely people are to pass on the disease, what treatment decisions should be made, and how well patients are responding to treatment. Although the method has been in continuous use for more than a century, it can be unreliable, catching cases only about half of the time, on average.

Part of the problem is that sometimes sputum samples don’t contain many bacteria, making it hard to detect TB. Concentrating bacteria onto a small area could help improve detection accuracy, and although previous efforts have led to improvements, they tend to require expensive equipment or technical know-how. In some cases, gains were offset by loss of sample or safety concerns. So the quest for a low-cost, simple, effective method led back to the trusty microscope.

In the early 1980s researchers vacuum-filtered sputum samples to trap TB bacteria onto quarter-sized filters that were then viewed under a microscope. But the filters hung over the sides of standard microscope slides, posing a health hazard and preventing proper inspection. So Fennelly and his team decided to try smaller-than-a-dime filters that fit neatly onto microscope slides and that concentrated the bacteria even more.

Among 314 patients in Brazil suspected as having TB, but not yet in treatment, the small-filter method detected 89 percent of cases, compared with 60 percent detection when samples were concentrated by the currently used method of rapid spinning, and 56 percent detection when sputum smears were looked at directly under the microscope. Furthermore, the small-filter method identified almost three-quarters of TB-positive cases that had been incorrectly reported as negative based on the traditional technique.

Fennelly and collaborators are now teaming with the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières, translated as “Doctors Without Borders,” to test the method in western Uganda, where many people have both TB and HIV. They’re comparing it again with the traditional direct-smear method and with a sophisticated DNA-based test that can also detect whether bacteria are drug resistant.

Both types of technique have their place — high-tech tools would be most feasible in referral centers, but on the front lines, the small-filter microscope method can perform an invaluable service, the researchers say.

“A point-of-care dipstick that can say yes or no is the Holy Grail, but we’re a long way from there,” Fennelly said. “‘Microscope’ has become a dirty word in the TB diagnostics world — but almost every clinical laboratory in the world has one.”

-30-

From the University of Florida
News Desk http://www.news.ufl.edu
newsdesk@ufl.edu
352-392-0186, fax 392-3358
101 Tigert Hall / Box 113075
Gainesville, FL 32611-3075

EDITORS: Downloadable video and script available at: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10837916/20120516TBFilter.zip

For media inquiries contact Czerne M. Reid, 352-273-5814, czerne@ufl.edu.

~ Win Free Gas, Cash Prizes and VIP Access to
the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona® ~

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Just in time for the Memorial Day holiday and summer travel season, the Florida Lottery announces its new FLORIDA LOTTO™ Gas for Life Promotion. For a limited period of time, from May 23 through July 11, 2012, all players who purchase at least $5 in FLORIDA LOTTO or FLORIDA LOTTO with XTRA® tickets will have a chance to win additional prizes. Some lucky players will instantly win $50; all others will receive a voucher they can enter in the Gas for Life Promotion on the Florida Lottery’s website.

The Florida Lottery will conduct seven weekly promotional drawings with 50 players winning Gas for a Month ($300) and five players winning Gas for a Year ($3,600) during each drawing. All entries will be eligible for the grand prize drawing, Gas for Life, in which the winner will receive $3,600 annually in gas cards for life or a cash option of $72,000, less applicable taxes.

The Florida Lottery has partnered with Daytona International Speedway® to offer a unique opportunity for race car enthusiasts to win the Pit Stop prize, which includes a VIP trip to the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered By Coca-Cola and the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on July 6-7, 2012. The entry deadline for the drawing for this prize is June 13, 2012.

“The FLORIDA LOTTO Gas for Life Promotion is the ideal way for the Florida Lottery to jump start the summer and remind Floridians and visitors about our exciting game options,” said Secretary Cynthia O’Connell. “We are all feeling the pain at the gas pump and want this game to give players hope for a chance at free gasoline through the purchase of our flagship game “LOTTO”. Whether it helps people get to work each day, or allows for a surprise family road trip, we are excited to offer this opportunity,” O’Connell added.

Playing FLORIDA LOTTO has made more than 900 people millionaires and paid more than $9 billion in prizes over its 24-year history. The game has generated $7 billion for the state’s education system as well.

ABOUT THE FLORIDA LOTTERY
The Florida Lottery reinvests nearly 98 percent of its revenue into the state’s economy through prize payouts, donations to education, and money paid to Florida retailers. In 2011, Florida Lottery games made 79 people millionaires. Since its beginning in 1988, the Florida Lottery has transferred billions of dollars to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, investing in Florida’s future leaders through school construction, K-12 classroom support and more than 550,000 Bright Futures scholarships. The games of the Florida Lottery are designed to fuel excitement while funding tomorrow. For more information, visit www.flalottery.com.

DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY®
“The stars of NASCAR return to Daytona International Speedway on July 6-7, 2012. Tickets to the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, featuring a special hour-long pre-race concert by multiplatinum, Grammy-winning superstars Train, and the Subway Jalapeno 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race are available by calling 1-800-PITSHOP or online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com.

Fans can also stay connected with Daytona International Speedway on Twitter (www.twitter.com/disupdates) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/DaytonaInternationalSpeedway) for all the latest news all season long.”

# # #

CONTACT:
FLORIDA LOTTERY COMMUNICATIONS
(850) 487-7727
www.flalottery.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla – City Council Member R. Don Redman announced his endorsement today of Mike Weinstein for the Florida State Senate citing his conservative values and record of success as what Jacksonville needs in a state Senator.

“Mike’s a true conservative, but just as important I like that Mike knows how to get things done. He has experience. We’re looking at tough times right now, so it won’t be easy up in Tallahassee, and that’s why we need a man like Mike. He’s a man of principle. We can count on him to stand for what’s right and then to get it done,” said Redman.

“Don Redman is a well respected conservative and I am honored to have his trust in representing Jacksonville’s interests in Tallahassee. As State Senator, I look forward to working closely with the Jacksonville City Council to make our vision for a better Jacksonville become reality,” said Mike Weinstein.

Weinstein presently is a State Representative running for the newly redrawn Senate District 4. He previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for Jacksonville mayors Ed Austin and John Delaney, the Executive Director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, the President and CEO of the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee and past-President of Take Stock in Children, a state-wide non-profit for underprivileged children. He currently serves as a prosecutor and the Executive Director for State Attorney Angela Corey’s office. Weinstein continues to build momentum as community leaders from inside the district are lining up to support him such as Jacksonville City Council President Stephen Joost, Duval County Property Appraiser Jim Overton, Jacksonville City Councilman Matt Schellenberg, Jacksonville City Councilman Doyle Carter, Jacksonville Jaguars original owner Wayne Weaver and Governor Rick Scott’s Campaign Manager Susie Wiles.

###

Contact: Brett Doster
Phone: 850-222-8156
brett@flstrategies.com

Contact: Sheri Treadwell
904.654.8548
Treadwell.Sheri@gmail.com

Demonstrators Plan to Tell Insurer to Stop Using Premiums to Hurt Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – Seniors, advocates, health plan members and shareholders of Coventry Health Care will gather inside and outside of the company’s annual meeting Thursday to demand that the company stop using policyholder premiums and taxpayer money to secretly fund political actions that hurt American families. The activists will protest Coventry’s history of shady marketing practices targeting seniors in Medicare and Medicaid and release a report detailing the company’s profit margins, lobby expenditures and political donations over the past few years.

Meanwhile, shareholders will voice support for a resolution that would promote greater disclosure of the company’s political spending. Coventry investors demanding disclosure of all political spending will question the company’s executives and directors about investing in political efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Coventry is the latest corporation to be held to account by the 99%. Around the country, angry people have been making their voices heard at shareholder meetings, including those of Bank of America, WellPoint, Cigna, General Electric, Wells Fargo, Carnival Cruise Lines and others.

What: Rally and Press Conference at Coventry Health’s Annual Shareholder Meeting

Who: Organize Now, FLARA, Awake Broward, and others

When: Thursday, May 17 @ 8:30am ET

Where: Outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotal, 1 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale 33304

Sheena Rolle
813.728.1867
sheena@organizeflorida.org

http://www.orgnow.org/

GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT’S SCHEDULE
FOR
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2012

4:45pm-6:00pm FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Location: Willard Intercontinental Hotel
Address: 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC

6:30pm-8:30pm FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100 GOVERNOR’S RECEPTION & DINNER
Location: Willard Intercontinental Hotel
Address: 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC

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LT. GOVERNOR JENNIFER CARROLL’S SCHEDULE
FOR
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2012

9:00-10:00am PRESENTATION OF THE ANNUAL MEMORIAL DAY RESOLUTION
Location: The American Legion
Address: 229 Lake Ella Drive
Tallahassee, FL

4:00-5:00pm AEROSPACE STATES ASSOCIATION MEETING

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty issued an Order to iWorld Financial Group (iWorld) and United Defend Company a/k/a United Defendco (UDC) for these entities to cease and desist engaging in the unauthorized and unlicensed sale of insurance in the state of Florida.

The Office received information that iWorld and UDC offered, issued and/or administered errors and omissions coverage to insurance agents in Florida without a license through Facebook and the following websites: www.iworldfinancialgroup.posterious.com, www.uniteddefendco.com), and www.eando4less.com.

Both companies list the same business office location in Grandville, Michigan. Office records indicate iWorld and UDC have never been authorized to sell insurance in the state of Florida. They have 21 days to respond to the Order.

Consumers should research companies before they buy insurance. The Office has an online “company search” tool that allows consumers to determine whether a company is authorized to sell insurance products in Florida.

About the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has primary responsibility for regulation, compliance and enforcement of statutes related to the business of insurance and the monitoring of industry markets. For more information about the Office, please visit www.floir.com or follow us on Twitter @FLOIR_comm.

###

Contact: Jack McDermott Amy Bogner
850-413-2515 850-413-2515
Jack.McDermott@floir.com Amy.Bogner@floir.com

“Yesterday’s vote by the State Board of Education to recalibrate the school grading scale of the FCAT Writing test was done in response to a tougher grading system that appropriately expects our students to understand proper punctuation, spelling and grammar. The Board acted after it became clear that students were posting significantly lower scores under newer, tougher writing standards.

“We are asking more from our students and teachers than we ever have. I believe it is appropriate to expect that our students know how to spell and how to properly punctuate a sentence. Before this year, those basics were not given enough attention, nor did we give enough attention to communicating these basic expectations to our teachers. I support the Board’s decision to recalibrate the school grading scale while keeping the writing standards high.”

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CONTACT: DOE PRESS OFFICE
(850) 245-0413