The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in DC this summer.  Health care reform is already a hot topic, and as legislation moves through Congress, Americans across the nation have questions about how costs will be brought under control to make quality affordable health care accessible to everyone.

That’s why the White House is taking another step to connect with people outside of Washington and answer some of the most common questions you have.  In the coming days, we’re going to focus on your questions about health care, with President Obama and some of his top health care advisors providing answers.

On Wednesday, the President will hold another online town hall to answer more of your questions.  This online town hall will be a little different than the last one. This time around, we are engaging online networks outside of WhiteHouse.gov, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

source

Last night during our church instrumental rehearsal, I had the opportunity to speak to some of our soon-to-be high school Juniors about my education and career. While the purpose of our ministry is to use the talents we’ve been given to glorify God, the adult leaders in the group felt it was also important for us to make sure the youth could benefit from some of our life experiences as they prepare for college. We didn’t want to lecture them about the “old days” and we wanted it to be in a relaxed environment where they could ask questions.
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Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks operate 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit www.feedingamerica.org.

For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 10 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country. Please join the Kellogg Company and Causes as we take small steps towards creating BIG change. 15% of all donations made through Causes on June 18, 2009 will be matched and donated by Causes to Feeding America. Visit your Causes homepage and invite friends to take action. For more information you can visit the Facebook page or check out the website above.

What is Photo Phinish?

If you talk to the people I hang around most, the majority will say that I’m a pretty quiet, easy-going, kind of guy. I tend to not get upset about a lot of things and when placed in a situation where some would flip out, I try my best to remain calm, cool and collected. For a long time, I thought patience was one of my greatest virtues. But then I had kids…
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On June 19th, the President hosted a Young Mens Barbeque at the White House for students from local schools to discuss the importance of fatherhood and taking personal responsibility. The President kicked off a national conversation about the importance of fatherhood today at a White House town hall meeting afterwards. The President was joined in the discussion by well-known fathers from across the country, national and community organizations, young students, as well as five outstanding fathers from diverse backgrounds. These men shared their stories of their commitment to fatherhood and personal responsibility, covering everything from the struggles of balancing work and family to the importance of family dinners.

Following their stories, the President discussed the vital role of fathers in their families and their communities. He said he hopes this conversation will spark a national dialogue about fatherhood in America, which will inspire participants to fulfill their obligations and become positive role models in their own communities.

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The blogosphere is full of mom bloggers who are very active and organized. So it was nice to see the blogger dads organize and come up with a place where dads feel comfortable visiting. From what I could find out, this is a fairly new site and was started by bloggers Pete Janelle and Joe Schatz. If you are a parent, you can join the community and get to reading posts like “What I Really Want for Father’s Day”. I’ve included an excerpt of what dad-blogs.com is all about:

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When the economy is rough, people have to tighten the strings when it comes to giving. Scholarship programs are either funded less or cut, making it harder for you to pay for your college education. Finding scholarship money for college can take a lot of time and effort. There are essays to write and applications to fill out, but the end results are definitely worth the time.

I received and email from BlackStudents.com informing me about the 2009 Scholarship Guide and wanted to share it with the readers of this blog. It looks like you have to sign up online to get the guide and someone most likely will call you to get more information, but it’s FREE so it may be worth it. If I decide to sign up for it, I’ll post my opinion of how helpful the guide was to me. Below, I’ve posted the link to the site and some extra info on what’s included in the scholarship guide.

FreeEducationGuide

Free Education Guide gives you access to over 1,900 colleges and university’s across the country and even includes scholarship information to help you pay for it! There’s no excuse good enough to ignore your dreams!

A college degree is as important as ever these days! The path to earning that degree starts with having information on how to go about it! The 2009 Free College Education Guide can be the roadmap to a better and brighter future.

* A free guide to over 1,900 college and universities!
* Scholarship and grant information to help you pay!
* Information on how to earn your Bachelors or Masters degree in just 24 months!

If it ain’t one thing it’s another. Even at the young age of 33, I’m on a small dose of pressure medicine. It runs in my family (with both parents), but I hope to kick the pill soon. I’ve been slacking on the exercising and I could get a little more sleep, but that’s something I’m working on. I’ll do better. I have people depending on me. Check out this article published on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

source – www.chinaview.cn

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) — Middle-aged adults who sleep fewer hours appear more likely to have high blood pressure and to experience adverse changes in blood pressure over time, according to a report published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Almost one-third of Americans have hypertension or high blood pressure, a condition that contributes to seven million deaths worldwide each year, according to background information in the article.

“Identifying a novel lifestyle risk factor for high blood pressure could lead to new interventions to prevent or reduce high blood pressure,” the authors write. “Laboratory studies of short-term sleep deprivation have suggested potential mechanisms for a causal link between sleep loss and hypertension.”

Sleep deprivation is associated with increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s stress response. Over time, this activation could contribute to high blood pressure.

Kristen L. Knutson of the University of Chicago and his colleagues studied 578 adults who first had their blood pressure and other clinical, demographic and health variables measured between 2000 and 2001. In 2003 and 2005, the researchers measured sleep duration by using surveys and wrist actigraphy, in which a sensor is worn on the wrist to record periods of rest and activity. Blood pressure, demographic and self-reported sleep information were measured again in 2005 and 2006.

Participants (average age 40) slept an average of six hours per night; only seven (1 percent) averaged eight or more hours of sleep. After excluding patients taking medication for high blood pressure and controlling for age, race and sex, the researchers found that individuals who slept fewer hours were significantly more likely to have higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Sleeping less also predicted increases in blood pressure over five years, along with the onset of hypertension. Each hour of reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 37 percent increase in the odds of developing high blood pressure.

“Consistent with other studies, we observed higher blood pressure levels in men, particularly African American men,” the authors wrote. “Also, as described in a previous report from this study,

African American men slept much less than white women. These two observations suggested the intriguing possibility that the well-documented higher blood pressure in African Americans and men might be partly related to sleep duration.”

“In summary, the present study provides evidence for a link between the duration and quality of sleep and high blood pressure levels using objectively measured sleep characteristics,” they concluded. “Intervention studies are needed to determine whether optimizing sleep duration and quality can reduce the risk of increased blood pressure.”

Editor: Fang Yang

I was watching the Today Show and saw this segment about the Financial Cost of Cancer. It tugged on my heart because growing up my family faced a similar situation when my dad had a brain stem stroke. The financial recovery from dealing with this type of situation can last for years and it takes making some tough decisions to get out of it.

What happens to those who try to do the things “the right way”, only to find themselves in a situation of financial ruin? It’s all ready tough enough dealing with the fact that your loved one is sick, only to have the hospital creditors bugging you about their payment. We need some type of health care reform and we need it soon. People are suffering and no one seems to know what to do. President Obama has pledged to have some type of health care reform by the end of the year. But with trillion dollar deficits, I have a hard time seeing how it will get done. Maybe someday all Americans will have access to the same heath care benefits as those in Congress.

We shouldn’t have to choose between doing what it takes to keep a loved one alive and food for our family. But it’s a sad reality of what people are having to do every day. What’s out there to help those who’ve been placed in this situation? If you know, feel free to share with us.

For those who saw the title and thought they were going to read something about services within the adult industry, click the BACK button and try somewhere else. For those looking for government job placement training “for adult individuals”, then continue reading this post. Adult Services encompass workforce investment programs and initiatives that provide millions of adult workers with workforce preparation and talent development services, and help employers find the skilled workers they need. Activities promote and facilitate an integrated public workforce system through which a full array of services is offered. These services are available to workers and employers through the national network of One-Stop Career Centers.

I’ve gone through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Program and they offer some great services for people who’ve been laid off or terminated at their job. Times are still tough and sometimes we need new skills to compete in the workforce. If you are eligible take advantage of what the WIA has to offer. Th training I received was top of the line and best of all it was free. This helped a lot especially since I didn’t have an income from a job to help pay for the training. For more information, visit the link below and visit your local workforce office.

Workforce Investment Act — Adults and Dislocated Workers Program