by Mark RichardsonIllinois News Connection
CHICAGO - A national watchdog group studied how all 50 states handle the biennial process of redrawing their congressional district lines - and has given Illinois a failing grade. Common Cause issued its report this week, analyzing how effective each state has been in drawing fair, independent and balanced district maps. Only two states - California and Massachusetts - earned an "A" while 17 states were in the "D" or "F" category. Dan Vicuña, national redistricting director for Common Cause, said there was a consistent thread among the states that rated poorly. "The states that rank near the bottom shared some things in common," he said, "which include a lack of transparency and an unwillingness to give the public much, or any, notice about when meetings would take place; having redistricting hearings for the public during traditional working hours." The report said Illinois was a "nearly perfect model" for everything that can go wrong with redistricting. The state Legislature scheduled hearings in places and at times when many people could not attend. The report said the result was heavily gerrymandered in favor of Democrats, which drew lawsuits from a half-dozen civil-rights groups. To improve the process, Vicuña said, Illinois needs to develop a nonpartisan system or commission with broad representation to draw up districts, hold well-advertised hearings in public places after work hours, increase language assistance and improve access for people with disabilities. "States that find a different path and take that power away and create citizen commissions, create bipartisan, multi-partisan processes for drawing districts - keeping political insiders boxed out of the process, and making redistricting community-centered - has resulted in great success," he said. Vicuña said Illinois lawmakers drew congressional and state legislative districts through the legislative process, using it in this cycle to protect a Democratic supermajority. Reformers have twice put ballot initiatives in front of voters to create independent, citizen redistricting commissions in the last decade, winning both times. However, both laws were subsequently struck down by the IllWhinois Supreme Court.
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URBANA - The Urbana girls' basketball team opened their 2023-24 campaign with a loss at home on Tuesday. While playing a defensively solid game, the Tigers' offensive effort fell short in the 35-14 loss.
Aziyaha Davis led UHS' scoring effort with six points, four produced in the final quarter of the game. Zion Reid and Janae Hall came off the bench to hit a field goal and sink one free throw to finish with three points apiece.
The Tiger varsity squad is back in action tonight, hosting McArthur at 7pm.
Dallas, TX - Cardiovascular mortality is on the rise in rural areas of the United States, where more than 60 million Americans live, according to an American Heart Association presidential advisory. Understanding and addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to the Association’s pursuit of a world of longer, healthier lives.
Today — on National Rural Health Day — the Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, announces two new collaborative efforts to help close the gap between rural and urban hospital care and bring equitable care to all, regardless of where you live.
“Addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to achieving the American Heart Association’s 2024 impact goal for equitably increasing healthy life expectancy nationwide,” said Karen Joynt-Maddox, M.D., MPH, American Heart Association volunteer, associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine and co-director of the Washington University in St. Louis Center for
Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research. “Innovative collaborations like these are key to improving rural health across the nation.”
Sharing clinical educational resources
The American Heart Association is collaborating with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to highlight and share cardiovascular and stroke clinical educational resources such as model practices, collaborative learnings and rural quality research findings with NRHA membership.
Through this collaboration, the American Heart Association will submit content for NRHA’s magazine Rural Horizons, weekly e-newsletter NRHA Today and Journal of Rural Health, as well as participate in NRHA’s 2024 Annual Rural Health Conference and 2024 Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital Conference.
“NRHA is excited to partner with the American Heart Association to share resources and education to help reduce rural cardiovascular health disparities,” said NRHA CEO Alan Morgan.
Harmonizing quality data for analysis and validation
The American Heart Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) are collaborating on efforts to resolve outcomes gaps and identify model practices for hospitals and health systems in the rural setting. This effort will identify sites participating in both organizations’ respective quality programs and cross-promote their data registries, as well as explore data harmonization and opportunities for shared data analysis and validation.
The Association and ACEP share common priorities in addressing outcomes gaps in rural areas and building the knowledge base needed for evidence-based clinical practice. Reaching clinicians and providers and other key constituents with important messages is foundational to these efforts.
ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative strives to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes. The E-QUAL data submission activities have been designed to allow hospitals who are already participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® programs to seamlessly meet all E-QUAL reporting requirements.
“Through ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative, we strive to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes,” said Kori Zachrison, M.D., MSc, E-QUAL Stroke Initiative co-lead. “While many rural EDs may be working with fewer resources at their disposal, they remain the anchor of the community’s stroke chain of survival. We’re thrilled to work side-by-side with the AHA in investing in these communities.”
Here are some tips for Thanksgiving. Be Thankful. Thanksgiving season is a good time to say thanks but we need to make it a lifestyle.
An attitude of thanksgiving is a good way to live. When you are daily thankful for your food, shelter, and the simplest things it elevates your sense of well-being. We devalue our well-being when we spend all of our time looking at what others seem to have. Others may seem to have such great lives that we start missing our own blessings.
The greatest blessings in life are: the ability to walk across the floor; take yourself to the bathroom; enjoy a car ride; feed yourself; have meaningful conversations with other people; enjoy whatever income you have; walk through the grocery store; go to church or enjoy watching television.
