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Jul

10

Katie Couric Kicks Off BlogHer ’08

Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Women | 10 Comments

I’ll be there, attending, not sleeping, on a panel (about race and gender) and who knows what else. If you’re going, please be sure to say hi – I’m 100% sure that I’m going to be totally intimidated and will shutdown entirely.  I know – hard to believe and maybe something a few people hope happens.  Self-snark.

Hmm – can’t get it to appear – no idea why. Maybe because I always write about not liking Katie?

Here’s the link if you want to go check out Katie’s welcome.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:17 pm July 10th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Women | 10 Comments 

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Jul

10

“This is not the American dream; this is the Auto Industry Nightmare”

Filed Under Business, Culture, Economy, Government, NAFTA, Poll, Social Issues, WH2008 | 15 Comments

You will not read a more visceral and affecting account of what the demise of the Big Three means to individuals, families, neighborhoods and regions than this one from Michigan (cross-posted from Michigan Liberal):

Yesterday my family joined the ever-growing group of Michigan families who now face an uncertain economic future due to lay-offs in the auto industry.

My dad’s employer, once part of The Big Three, offered their employees age 50 and over a puny buyout package, with the hopes that 300-400 people take them up on it. Whispers around the office led most to believe that if the buyouts weren’t taken, they’d still most likely be without a job, and the measly benefits. So as of August 1st, my dad will stay in Michigan, unemployed, with a mortgage, bills, and a very uncertain future. His job, like so many others, is heading to Mexico.

The news broke my heart and my spirit, just as it has for thousands others.

Here’s what worries me most – like many other laid off auto workers, my dad’s in his late fifties, with a bad back, arthritis starting to set in, and a minimal college education in auto repair, no thanks to the GI Bill. He can send me email, watch the funny YouTube videos I send him, but that’s about as far as his computer skills go. With a crummy economy, how does my dad compete with all the hungry, tech-savvy college graduates that don’t have families to support?

This is not the American Dream, this is the Auto Industry Nightmare.

Now what? Barack Obama? John McCain? Gov. Granholm?  Anybody?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:53 pm July 10th, 2008 in Business, Culture, Economy, Government, NAFTA, Poll, Social Issues, WH2008 | 15 Comments 

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Jul

10

Carnival of Ohio Politics #125 now posted

Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | Comments Off

Hot off the draft stage, here’s this week’s edition of the Carnival of Ohio Politics #125.  Thank you to Scott Piepho of Pho’s Akron Pages for assembling it this week.  Personally, I loved Gary Oldman in My Immortal Beloved.

The texts:

July 6, in the morning

My angel, my all, my very self – Only a few words today and at that with pencil (with yours) – Not till tomorrow will my lodgings be definitely determined upon – what a useless waste of time – Why this deep sorrow when necessity speaks – can our love endure except through sacrifices, through not demanding everything from one another; can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine, I not wholly thine – Oh God, look out into the beauties of nature and comfort your heart with that which must be – Love demands everything and that very justly – thus it is to me with you, and to your with me. But you forget so easily that I must live for me and for you; if we were wholly united you would feel the pain of it as little as I – My journey was a fearful one; I did not reach here until 4 o’clock yesterday morning. Lacking horses the post-coach chose another route, but what an awful one; at the stage before the last I was warned not to travel at night; I was made fearful of a forest, but that only made me the more eager – and I was wrong. The coach must needs break down on the wretched road, a bottomless mud road. Without such postilions as I had with me I should have remained stuck in the road. Esterhazy, traveling the usual road here, had the same fate with eight horses that I had with four – Yet I got some pleasure out of it, as I always do when I successfully overcome difficulties – Now a quick change to things internal from things external. We shall surely see each other soon; moreover, today I cannot share with you the thoughts I have had during these last few days touching my own life – If our hearts were always close together, I would have none of these. My heart is full of so many things to say to you – ah – there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all – Cheer up – remain my true, my only treasure, my all as I am yours. The gods must send us the rest, what for us must and shall be -

Your faithful LUDWIG

Evening, Monday, July 6

You are suffering, my dearest creature – only now have I learned that letters must be posted very early in the morning on Mondays to Thursdays – the only days on which the mail-coach goes from here to K. – You are suffering – Ah, wherever I am, there you are also – I will arrange it with you and me that I can live with you. What a life!!! thus!!! without you – pursued by the goodness of mankind hither and thither – which I as little want to deserve as I deserve it – Humility of man towards man – it pains me – and when I consider myself in relation to the universe, what am I and what is He – whom we call the greatest – and yet – herein lies the divine in man – I weep when I reflect that you will probably not receive the first report from me until Saturday – Much as you love me – I love you more – But do not ever conceal yourself from me – good night – As I am taking the baths I must go to bed – Oh God – so near! so far! Is not our love truly a heavenly structure, and also as firm as the vault of heaven?

Good morning, on July 7

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us – I can live only wholly with you or not at all – Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits – Yes, unhappily it must be so – You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart – never – never – Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life – Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men – At my age I nedd a steady, quiet life – can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day – therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once – Be calm, only by a clam consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together – Be calm – love me – today – yesterday – what tearful longings for you – you – you – my life – my all – farewell. Oh continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

ever thine
ever mine
ever ours

Ah.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:08 pm July 10th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | Comments Off 

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Jul

10

Coverage of county foster children: loss of McCafferty, improved SACWIS

Filed Under Cleveland+, Courts, Government, Health Care, Law, leadership, Ohio, Parenting, Social Issues, Youth | Comments Off

Last month, Rachel Dissell at The Plain Dealer, profiled three foster kids.  Dissell excels at this type of coverage (having won awards for her work covering Johanna Orozco).

With Jim McCafferty leaving CCDCFS, I’m shocked at the paucity of discussion around who will replace him, especially given the fact that just three days after the PD published news of the announcement that he would become the next county administrator (replacing Dennis Madden who is moving on to Med Mart challenges), they published this news that details DCFS’s struggles with coming into compliance with requirements related to upgrading computer tracking of children in foster care:

Earlier this year, crashes, glitches and access problems with the SACWIS system had some county officials resorting to using spreadsheets to keep track of kids placed in foster care because of inaccurate and incomplete data. But the county officials who were spitting mad are now singing the state’s praises.

“The state has really turned this around,” said Eric Fenner, director of Franklin County Job and Family Services, a vocal critic of the SACWIS effort this spring. “I’m really impressed with what they have done.”

Fenner said he credits the improved relationship between county and state officials to Gov. Ted Strickland’s support of an extended deadline, as well as a reshuffling of the SACWIS leadership team.

Fenner’s experience is being echoed by county agencies across the state, according to the head of an umbrella group representing Ohio’s child welfare agencies.

“I used to get daily calls on SACWIS,” said Crystal Allen Ward, head of Public Children Services Association of Ohio. “Now, the calls I get on it are few and far between.”

The idea that DCFS doesn’t know how many wards they have or where they are is an old one, and it plagues pretty much all systems that are responsible for children in county or state custody, in every state of the nation.  If PCSAO is implying that things are improving, then hopefully tracking really is improving.

But back to the issue: Who is going to replace McCafferty, an award-winning, nationally recognized head there?  Please, do not let it be someone without a background in child welfare, the mental heath profession or law.  Sincerely, that job is a perfect one for someone with a joint degree and years of public service to kids and families. I would also guess it’s pretty thankless and very stressful, but when the stories are good, they are really good.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:31 pm July 10th, 2008 in Cleveland+, Courts, Government, Health Care, Law, leadership, Ohio, Parenting, Social Issues, Youth | Comments Off 

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