Indianapolis is joining a program designed to offer priority hiring status to qualified soldiers returning to the civilian workforce. Mayor Greg Ballard and Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita will make the announcement today in conjunction with the U.S. Army and AAR Aircraft Services Indianapolis for the Army Partnership for Youth Services Program.
Colonel Terrence L. Murrill Sr., Commander, U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion Indianapolis; Mr. Mickey Cohen, President and General Manager, AAR Aircraft Services — Indianapolis and the Honorable Robert Spanogle, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army, State of Indiana will also be present.

The announcement is set to take place at 1 p.m. at the Indianapolis Airport IMC-AAR facility.

DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. is investing $250,000 in Ivy Tech’s capital campaign to raise $2.8 million. The funding will be used for land acquisition, equipment and technology for a new campus in Warsaw.
The new campus will serve Kosciusko County and surrounding communities.

Press Release

DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. is making a major investment in Ivy Tech Community College-Warsaw’s future as an educational leader in the community. DePuy U.S. President, David Floyd, said the company is investing $250,000 in Ivy Tech’s capital campaign to raise $2.8 million for land acquisition, equipment and technology for a new campus in Warsaw.

“Given the orthopaedic industry’s need for highly skilled, technically trained employees, DePuy is committed to supporting a career pathway for those who are interested in pursuing a degree in the manufacturing field,” said David Floyd. “DePuy’s support of Ivy Tech also enables members of our community to stay within the county to attend classes and further their education.”

According to Ivy Tech-Warsaw Executive Dean Randy Maxson, “The amazing generosity of DePuy is yet one more example of the commitment the Warsaw and Kosciusko County communities have to ensuring that Ivy Tech-Warsaw has a permanent home. This significant investment in Ivy Tech-Warsaw’s future will ensure that residents have continuing educational opportunities right here in the community.”

About the “Changing Lives…Fulfilling Dreams” Capital Campaign
Ivy Tech has had a presence in the Kosciusko County community since the late 1970s, but always in a borrowed or leased space. The lease for the current main facility at 3755 Lake City Highway will end in 2012. The college has been conducting a capital campaign in response to the community’s need for a new, permanent campus in Warsaw.

Ivy Tech entered into a purchase agreement for land for the new campus last fall. College officials and community members are completing the process to secure state funding for the “bricks and mortar” of the new campus. The new campus will serve Kosciusko County and surrounding communities. Current plans are to fold programs at the main campus and the Ivy Tech Orthopedic and Manufacturing Training Center, which opened in October 2006 at 980 Executive Drive, into the new campus.

About Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana
Ivy Tech Community College is the state’s second largest public post-secondary institution with over 105,000 students enrolled annually. Ivy Tech has 23 campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its communities, along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. More information about Ivy Tech can be found at www.ivytech.edu.

About DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.
DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, is advancing the standard of orthopaedic patient care, with a focused commitment to help surgeons achieve excellence in surgical practice. The company designs, manufactures and distributes orthopaedic devices and supplies including hip, knee, extremity, trauma, cement, orthobiologics, and operating room products. As a global leader in joint replacement products, DePuy Orthopaedics is committed to Restoring the Joy of Motion® for patients whose mobility is restricted by severe osteoarthritis or other debilitating injury.

ndiana Governor Mitch Daniels is expected to meet with President George Bush this morning at the White House. The session is a governor’s only meeting with the President as part of the National Governor’s Association Winter meeting. Daniels will deliver a speech this afternoon at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He will talk about Indiana’s economic development progress.
He will speak about the Healthy Indiana Plan, Major Moves, telecom reform and the state’s progress in economic development.

Prosecutors have focused the blame in TaJanay Bailey’s death on her mother’s live-in boyfriend, signaling that her mother may dodge a murder charge.
But Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Wednesday that any plea agreement reached with Charity Bailey would hold her accountable and could leave her facing decades in prison. He announced plans to seek a life sentence without the possibility of parole only for Lawrence Green, whose murder case likely is headed for trial.
“We determined that Mr. Green was more culpable in terms of physical abuse,” Brizzi said, with some instances going back 18 months.
Bailey, 20, and Green, 21, were each charged with murder and neglect after 3-year-old TaJanay’s Nov. 27 death, a horrific killing that sparked an internal review by the state Department of Child Services.
The prosecutor’s life sentence request for Green cites two aggravating circumstances: that Green tortured TaJanay before her death, and that the girl was younger than 12.
Brizzi said Green repeatedly whipped TaJanay, hung her by her T-shirt on a coat hook, causing injury, and punched her in the chest.
If a jury convicts Green of murder, it then would consider a life sentence.
The Department of Child Services returned TaJanay and her infant half brother home for a trial visit less than one month before the girl’s death. DCS had removed TaJanay from Bailey’s care in May 2006 on suspicions of abuse and neglect.
Brizzi initially said he would seek life sentences for both Bailey and Green. But Bailey has been cooperative and gave an expanded statement, Brizzi said.
No plea deal has been signed, but Brizzi said he anticipated allowing Bailey to plead guilty to felony neglect instead of murder in exchange for her testimony. Class A felony neglect carries a potential penalty of 20 to 50 years in prison.
“We are in plea negotiations,” said Ray Casanova, Bailey’s public defender.
Mark Inman, one of Green’s attorneys, declined to comment Wednesday. His other attorney, Carolyn Rader, did not return a phone message.
Brizzi said Bailey, who is about seven months pregnant, was the only eyewitness to TaJanay’s final days.
“We want to make sure the person responsible for putting hands on that baby will never see the light of day,” he said.
A DCS review has cited failed communication, lingering domestic violence issues in the home and a lack of urgency among everyone handling TaJanay’s case. Officials said all of those amounted to errors in judgment.
Brizzi said Wednesday that prosecutors are still looking at the way DCS handled the case but so far had found no evidence of criminal violations by workers.

Majestic Star Casino owner Don Barden says the company is withholding a monthly tax payment to the city because Gary has failed to live up to its promise to build access roads to his business.

Mayor Rudy Clay said Barden’s move puts Gary in a “major financial dilemma.”

“The city was skating on thin ice anyway,” Clay said.

Majestic’s payments total roughly $6 million a year, depending on how much money it makes, city controller Celita Green said.

Barden filed complaints against the city with the American Arbitration Association and Marion County Circuit Court last week. Its complaint filed in Marion County also named the Indiana Gaming Commission as a defendant.

Barden said he would begin depositing 3 percent of adjusted gross receipts for each of his two casinos, Majestic Star I and II, into a “segregated account” instead of paying it to the city. He is asking the court to force the city to use that money to build the access road.
Green said the payment due Feb. 12 is typically used to make state-mandated bond payments for debts dating to the construction of the city’s baseball stadium and the renovation of Gary’s public safety building. It is also used to supplement the general fund as the city makes overtime and insurance payments, Green said.

The Marion City Council has approved issuing up to $10 million in bonds to be used by Veriana Networks LLC to buy and equip headquarters it has said it wants to build in the Grant County community.

In October, Veriana, a startup specializing in technology, media and risk management for the entertainment industry, announced its headquarters plans and the intentions of hiring 280 workers over five years.

In addition to issuing bonds, the city will sell Veriana a building that had been used as a WorkOne Resource Center for $1, according to The Chronicle-Tribune of Marion. The startup will pay for improvement and use the building until its headquarters is finished.

keigleyjason1.jpg
(Danville, IN) - As a result of a partnership between Indiana Secretary
of State Todd Rokita and Hendricks County Prosecutor Patricia Baldwin,
Indianapolis resident Jason Keigley has been found guilty in Hendricks
County Superior Court of swindling money from seniors through a
fraudulent investment and mortgage scheme.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita and Hendricks County Prosecutor
Patricia Baldwin joined forces to file criminal charges and pursue
prosecution of Keigley for violations of the Indiana Securities Act and
Indiana Loan Broker Act. Charles Williams of Rokita’s Prosecution
Assistance Unit and Hendricks County Deputy Prosecutors Rhett Stuard conducted
the investigation. Tyler Starkey presented the State’s case at trial. A
jury found Keigley guilty on all four counts.

Keigley was convicted of the following charges: the offer or sale of an
unregistered security, transacting business as an unregistered Broker
Dealer, and fraud in connection with the offer or sale of a security,
all class C felonies. Keigley was also found guilty of loan broker
fraud, a class D felony.

Sentencing was initially set by the Court for March 17. Keigley faces a
maximum sentence of eight to 13 years for all charges.

“Hoosiers simply will not tolerate mortgage fraud in our state,” Rokita
said. “Indiana can reverse the ill effects of mortgage fraud by
educating and protecting home buyers from this type of damaging, criminal
activity. Every home buyer has a duty to do their homework, and my office
provides a variety of valuable investment and mortgage information
resources.”

Prosecutor Baldwin agreed with Rokita and echoed his sentiments.

“In Hendricks County, we take it seriously when unscrupulous people
attempt to defraud innocent citizens, and we will continue to vigorously
prosecute those cases,” Baldwin said.

Keigley worked as a loan originator for an Indiana mortgage company in
2004, and during his employment, he also operated his own business, 1st
Place Mortgage. The Secretary of State’s office found that Keigley
convinced a Hendricks County couple to invest in his company which,
unbeknownst to them, was an unregistered security. He also told them their
investment was in an interest-bearing account, available to them upon
request, while at the same time establishing a reverse mortgage for the
couple. Some time after Keigley brokered the reverse mortgage loan and
the couple had bought Keigley’s investment, the couple requested their
investment funds and only a small portion was returned.

No account has ever been located and Keigley could not account for any
of the missing funds. In addition, the victims were hit with
foreclosure on their home as a result of Keigley’s failure to fulfill the
obligations of the reverse mortgage. Investigator Charles Williams was able to
save the couple’s home from foreclosure through his investigative
efforts.

“Our Securities division is charged with protecting investors,” said
Chris Naylor, Indiana’s Securities Commissioner. “We believe a two tiered
approach can help prevent future cases of fraud. Educating Hoosiers
about prudent investing and mortgage practices coupled with bringing
enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions against companies and
individuals engaged in fraud are powerful tools to protect our citizens. This
will ultimately restore consumer confidence and promote business
development.”

The Secretary of State’s Prosecution Assistance Unit (PAU) initiated
this investigation and worked with Prosecutor Baldwin to file charges and
prosecute Keigley. Rokita created the PAU in 2004 to facilitate local
law enforcement’s prosecution of alleged Securities Act and Loan Broker
Act violations by creating a stronger partnership between the
Statehouse and county courthouses. Since its inception, the PAU has helped law
enforcement throughout the state file charges in 27 high-profile
investment fraud cases, earning a 26 to 1 conviction-to-dismissal record and
obtaining more than 200 years of sentenced jail time for white collar
criminals.

If you feel you have been the victim of investment fraud of any kind,
please contact the Secretary of State’s office at 800-223-8791.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing workshop will be offered March 24 and April 28 in several locations across Indiana.

The workshop, which is sponsored by Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and the Purdue Center for Regional Development, is a two-part videoconference workshop to be conducted by state specialists on Purdue’s campus and Purdue Extension educators at 27 different sites throughout the state. It is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST both days.

“There are more than 60,000 nonprofits in Indiana all competing for a limited amount of resources,” said Scott Hutcheson, co-presenter of the workshop.

Knowing how to develop a compelling grant proposal is vital for survival, and this workshop is a great way to learn the basics of grant writing, said Hutcheson.

The workshop is intended to help grant writers of all skill and experience levels learn how to develop ideas into winning proposals, target potential funders, understand the full proposal development and submission and review process, and to reach for the most funding possible.

On the first day participants should come with an idea for a grant proposal, and by the end of the day they will have an outline and resources necessary to expand the outline into a full proposal.

When participants return the second day with a full written proposal, they will be put into the role of reviewers. Day two also will teach strategies for finding funding and provide an opportunity to polish proposals and send them in for professional review.

“Participants in this workshop will be able to gain the knowledge that is needed to help them become successful at getting grants,” said Sabina Calhoun, Purdue Extension program resource development officer. “This will help the counties that the participants represent in attracting outside funding.”

Site locations include:

* Purdue Extension Allen County office, Fort Wayne.

* Purdue Extension Bartholomew County office, Columbus.

* Clinton County Learning Center, Frankfort.

* Purdue Extension Dearborn County office, Aurora.

* Purdue Extension Elkhart County office, Goshen.

* Fountain County Community Room, Covington.

* Franklin County Government Center, Brookville.

* Purdue Extension Hancock County office, Greenfield.

* Hendricks College Network at 4-H Fairgrounds & Conference Complex, Danville.

* Purdue Extension Howard County office, Kokomo.

* Jackson County Education Center, Seymour.

* Purdue Extension Jasper County office, Rensselaer.

* Southwest Purdue Ag Center, (Knox County) Vincennes.

* Purdue Extension Lake County office, Crown Point.

* Lawrence County Bedford Public Library, Bedford.

* Purdue Extension Marion County office, Indianapolis.

* Martin Community Learning Center, Loogootee.

* Purdue Extension Monroe County office, Bloomington.

* Montgomery County Instructional Center, Crawfordsville.

* Pinney Purdue Ag Center, (LaPorte County), LaPorte.

* Purdue Extension Pulaski County office, Winamac.

* Rush County Schools Administration offices, Rushville.

* Purdue Extension Steuben County office, Angola.

* Purdue Extension Switzerland County office, Vevay.

* Purdue Extension Tippecanoe County office. Lafayette.

* Tipton County Extension Education Center, Tipton.

* Purdue Extension White County office, Reynolds.

The registration deadline is March 1. The workshop is $150 per person. This fee includes the “Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing” manual, lunch both days and follow-up technical assistance. Checks should be payable to Purdue University.

For more information or a registration form, contact the local Purdue Extension office, or Angela Thomas at (765) 494-7273, adthomas@purdue.edu.

Writer: Elizabeth Fritz, (765) 494-8402, elfritz@purdue.edu

Sources: Sabina Calhoun, (765) 491-3523, scalhoun@purdue.edu

Scott Hutcheson, (765) 494-7273, hutcheson@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
Agriculture News Page

Solutions that add value

Could your company get more value from DBE, MBE, WBE… participation?

Have you ever thought…
“There must be a way to make sure my company is getting real value as a result of working toward meeting XBE participation requirements.”

Has that ever crossed your mind?

You are personally invited to the “7 Tools for Getting the Most Value for Your Company from XBE Participation” workshop on February 22nd. Gain some momentum on the 2008 pre-bid season and come hear 7 practical, useful tips that you can put into practice in your business right away. This workshop is FREE for staffers who work with MBE, WBE, and DBE subcontractors. The workshop will run from 7:45 to 9:30 AM on February 22nd.

Please make plans npw to join us on February 22nd!
I look forward to seeing you there!

7 Diversity Tools Workshop February 22nd

You are invited to attend a 90-minute workshop presented by Sandra Connor, CPIM - The Answer Lady, managing principal of DMMI Associates LLC and an expert on supplier diversity.

During this energizing, entertaining and thought- provoking workshop, Sandra will show you “7 Tools for Getting the Most Value for Your Company from DBE, MBE, WBE (et al) Participation.” These proven methods will help you to effectively deal with some of the most challenging supplier diversity issues facing the industry. These include:

1. How can we quickly and easily confirm City, State, or Federal certifications (MBE, WBE, DBE, etc.)?
2. What are the most effortless ways to solicit XBE subcontractor bids?
3. We can’t find enough XBEs - what about that?
4. Which of my key managers and field staff need to understand this diversity thing?
5. What do we need to do when it comes to goals compliance?
6. How can we avoid communication issues getting in the way?
7. What need is there for internal goals?

Who Should Attend

If you do any of the following:

* Project Management
* Prepare project bids
* Estimating
* Project administration

…then this FREE workshop will be well worth your time.

Please keep in mind that seating is limited, so you are encouraged to reply as soon as possible.

DMMI Associates LLC
3333 North Illinois Street
Suite 13
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208-4682
(317) 918-2006
info@dmmiassociates.com
http://www.dmmiassociates.com

Washington, D.C. - It’s a new way to push for patient safety: Don’t pay hospitals when they commit certain errors. Medicare will start hitting hospitals where it hurts in October, and other insurers are hot on the trail.

That has the nation’s hospitals exploring innovative programs to prevent injury and infection: Hand-washing spies. Surgical sponges that sound an alarm if left in the body. Even a room sterilizer that promises to wipe out bacteria left lurking on bedrails.

“Money talks,” says Dr. Steven Gordon, infectious disease chief at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. “Every hospital CFO, this gets their attention.”

And patients’ first sign that something is changing may involve lessening of a big indignity: Today, one in four hospitalized patients is outfitted with a urinary catheter. The tubes trigger more than half a million urinary tract infections a year, the most common hospital-caused infection.

Yet many patients don’t even need catheters - they’re an automatic precaution after certain surgeries - and many who do have them for days longer than necessary. Why? The University of Michigan reported the first national study of catheter practices last month, finding nearly half of hospitals don’t even keep track of who gets one. Fewer than one in 10 hospitals does a daily check to see if the catheter is still needed, a simple but proven infection-reducing system.

With those infections topping Medicare’s do-not-pay list, Gordon says hospitals already are beginning to get choosier about who needs catheters, and to yank them faster.

Even when a hospital makes a preventable error, it still can be reimbursed for the extra treatment that patient will now require. Some errors can add $10,000 to $100,000 to the cost of a patient’s stay.

Beginning Oct. 1, Medicare no longer will pay those extra-care costs for eight preventable hospital errors, including catheter-caused urinary tract infections, injuries from falls, and leaving objects in the body after surgery. Nor can hospitals bill the injured patient for those extra costs.

Next year, Medicare will add three more errors to the no-pay list; ventilator-caused pneumonia and drug-resistant staph infections are top candidates.

Medicare, which insures about 44 million elderly and disabled people, estimates the move will save the government about $190 million over five years.

It also sparked a movement: Private insurance giants like Aetna are moving to make hospitals absorb the cost of serious errors. Pennsylvania last month said it would follow Medicare’s example and stop Medicaid payments, too. The American Hospital Association is urging members to voluntarily quit billing for treatment of serious errors, and hospitals in a number of states, from Minnesota to Vermont, have announced they will.

Many hospitals already were trying to improve patient safety for a bigger reason - to prevent suffering and death - and a question is whether making them literally pay for mistakes will spur greater improvements. But some novel attempts are under way:

-A standard mop-and-bucket cleaning leaves bacteria in hospital rooms, especially on electronic equipment that janitors hesitate to touch. So the Wellmont Health System in Kingsport, Tenn., is testing a portable machine that sterilizes a closed room by spewing out vaporized hydrogen peroxide that reach into every nook and cranny.

STERIS Corp.’s VaproSure is proven to eliminate tough germs; it has long been used in sterile manufacturing facilities, and even helped clean buildings tainted in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

But doctors, nurses and others bring new germs into rooms every time they enter, raising the question of whether sterilizing between check-ins will really lead to fewer infections.

“There’s no question they can sterilize a room,” Wellmont chief executive Dr. Richard Salluzzo says of the $180,000 machines. “Has it prevented infection? We don’t have the answer to that yet.”

He hopes to have enough data to tell by year’s end.

-Nurses count surgical sponges to make sure they’re all out before a patient is sewn up, but every hospital occasionally misses some. In University of Michigan operating rooms, doctors are testing sponges tagged with bar code-like radiofrequency chips. Wave a wand and a beep sounds if a sponge is still in the wound. Or, nurses can drop used sponges into a “smart” bucket that counts how many are missing.

“We’ve had a long history in medicine of this problem continuing to occur no matter what kind of very careful steps we’ve devised,” says clinical affairs chief Dr. Darrell Campbell, a well-known patient safety specialist. “We want to get to zero.”

-In U-Michigan’s hospital halls, physician assistants are assigned to spy to tell if fellow workers wash hands both when entering and exiting patient rooms. Workers are better at remembering on the way in, but they don’t want to carry germs back to the nurses’ station or elevator buttons, either, Campbell notes. Some bugs can live on cool hospital surfaces for weeks.

There is some concern that the no-pay push could make hospitals try to hide certain errors, or just trade one problem for another. Pull a urinary catheter too soon, for example, and a fragile patient may fall going to the bathroom, says Michigan’s Campbell.

“I don’t know how much is really preventable,” adds the Cleveland Clinic’s Gordon. “We want to chase zero, but we’ll probably never get to zero.”