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CALENDAR


Wednesday, November 23, 2022


[link removed] ([link removed])

Thursday, December 1, 2022


www.cityoffellsmere.org/citycouncil

Friday, December 2, 2022

2:00-4:00 p.m. - DWC Book Group, Indian River County Brackett Library, 6155 College Lane,
“The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times” by Jane Goodall will be reviewed. Any questions about the book group can be addressed to Maryann and Rita at
mailto:[email protected]@aol.com


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Democratic Women’s Club

Friday, December 2, 2022

The DWC Book Group will meet from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Indian River County Brackett Library at 6155 College Lane “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times” by Jane Goodall will be reviewed. Any questions about the book group can be addressed to Maryann and Rita at ** (mailto:[email protected])
[email protected]

SAVE THE DATE:

Saturday, December 10, 2022

DWC luncheon meeting HOLIDAY CELEBRATION at Bent Pine. There will be a raffle of gift prizes & a musical performance by Linn Kezer and Margretta Fosse.
More information to follow.

YARD SIGNS

Please do not throw yard signs in the trash.

You can return them to our office and we will return them to the candidates or contribute them to the IRC RECYCLES project that recycles yard signs into fuel cells.



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Louise Carnevale at 108:
Did volunteerism and activism keep her young?



Louise Carnevale, a lifelong community activist, just turned 108. Carnevale seems to have thrived by "fighting the good fight," even if it meant butting heads with powerful people over issues important to her. "Louise was a political lioness," longtime ** Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard ([link removed])
wrote of her ally in numerous environmental skirmishes. "She was a wonderfully devoted researcher, never happier than when she was deep-diving data or background."

Jim Navitsky, former Martin County superintendent of schools, said Carnevale was the kind of constituent the community's leaders ignored at their own peril.

"Every politician in Stuart and Martin County knew Louise Carnevale," Navitsky said. "If she wasn't on your side, you knew you had problems."

After Louise's husband retired early, the family moved to a house on Lighthouse Point in 1972.

"Mom and I both didn't want to move out of NY, but obviously it turned out OK," Carol Carnevale wrote in an email. "We're still here and love Florida."

Louise got a job as a teacher's aide at Stuart Middle School, which was only the beginning of her involvement with community activities.

"It was after the Stuart Middle School job that Mom kicked her civic volunteerism into high gear," Carol wrote. "I think one of the first things she did was start the school volunteer program."

She also got involved in raising money for the ** Environmental Studies Center ([link removed])
, a Jensen Beach-based program that provides educational activities for Martin County schoolchildren.
John Wakeman, a retired Martin County teacher, said many communities around the country launched similar centers in the early 1970s after the first Earth Day celebration. However, Wakeman said, some of those centers later folded after federal funding dried up.

While the ** Martin County School District ([link removed])
provides the bulk of the local center's funding, Wakeman said Louise was part of a loyal group of advocates who would raise supplemental dollars for special projects.

Louise served more than 13 years as executive director of the ** Environmental Studies Council ([link removed])
, a nonprofit organization that promotes and financially supports the center's activities. In that capacity, she ** oversaw numerous council projects ([link removed])
, including the annual kitchen tour, the arts and crafts exhibits, the Florida Flavors cookbook, the Environmental Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and the Mars lecture series.

She also championed slow growth for Martin County, teaming with then-** Martin County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla ([link removed])
and others to oppose development projects she felt endangered the quality of life in her adopted home.

"She dogged local developers," Wakeman said. "She was kind of a nemesis to them."

Navitsky said Louise was not only an exhaustive researcher, but also a stickler for getting the details right in public debates.

"She was an exacting person and she was relentless," Navitsky said. "She knew all the facts. And she held you to them."

Louise was a fixture at County Commission meetings to discuss issues such as the county's comprehensive plan, ** Pendarvis Cove Park ([link removed])
, a $12 million bond issue for school improvements, a bond issue for beach improvements, and a referendum to buy Indian Riverside Park.

Although Louise is not as active as she used to be, Carol said her mother continued to write letters to government officials and newspapers about various topics well after turning 100.

"I don't think a problem exists in the world that she wouldn't think about how she could fix it," Carol said.

A 'relentless' warrior:
** Carnevale named Unsung Hero at Environmental Stewardship Awards ([link removed])


Blake Fontenay
Treasure Coast Newspapers




LOCAL




Florida St. Lucie Hospital again gets only A on Treasure Coast



Overall, local hospital grades worsened or stayed the same since spring 2022.


When it comes to patient safety, one Treasure Coast hospital is at the head of the class, according to health care watchdog ** The Leapfrog Group ([link removed])
.

** HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital ([link removed])
was awarded an A in the nonprofit’s semiannual ** Hospital Safety Grades ([link removed])
announced Nov. 16, marking the Port St. Lucie hospital’s fourth consecutive top mark and seventh A in the last eight report cards.

“We are grateful to earn consecutive Leapfrog recognitions,” hospital CEO ** Jay Finnegan ([link removed])
said in a prepared statement to TCPalm. “It is a reflection of how our team works together to make St. Lucie a hospital the community can depend on for excellent service and compassionate care.”
Fall 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grades, which assesses how well hospitals protect patients from preventable medical errors, accidents, infections and injuries. The Leapfrog Group released its semiannual ** Hospital Safety Grades ([link removed])
on Nov. 16, 2022. Hospitals were deemed "below average," "average" or "above average" in more than 30 categories before receiving an overall letter grade. Icons show change from spring 2022 grades. Leapfrog’s findings were mirrored in a study published in the ** Journal of the American Medical Association ([link removed])
in July. Between 2010 and 2019, the annual rates of adverse events such as falls and infections declined for U.S. hospital patients admitted for pneumonia, heart failure, major surgical procedures and acute myocardial infarction, researchers noted.
Sebastian River was among the 28% of hospitals nationwide to get a B this fall, matching its spring grade and besting the two C’s it got in 2021.

Indian River got a C in patient safety — the only local hospital whose grade dropped this fall. In the past four years, the Vero Beach hospital scored mostly B’s and hadn’t gotten a C since fall 2020.

Indian River counts the prevention of C. diff infection among its above-average marks. It scored below average in 15 categories, including handwashing.

** The Treasure Coast’s only trauma center ([link removed])
got its fifth consecutive C this fall, having last earned a B in spring 2020.

The Fort Pierce hospital, formerly Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute, scored above average in the prevention of surgical wounds splitting open, among other metrics. It scored below average in 14 categories, including sepsis infection after surgery.

► Leapfrog rewind: ** How did your nearest hospital perform in spring 2022? ([link removed])

► Hospital rankings: ** ‘Significant’ disparities in patient readmission ([link removed])

► Hidden data: ** COVID-19 strains hospitals, FDOH statistics or not ([link removed])

** Lindsey Leake ([link removed])

Treasure Coast Newspapers



STATE

Federal judge blocks Florida's anti-'woke' law in colleges

A federal judge in Florida partially blocked a law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis designed to limit the discussion of racism and privilege in schools and workplace training.

In a 139-page order, Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker excoriated the Republican-led bill and blocked it from taking effect in the state's public universities.

"The State of Florida's decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all," Walker wrote. "But the First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark."

The legislation, previously called the Stop W.O.K.E. Act – the acronym standing for "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees" – is now known as the Individual Freedom Act. DeSantis signed the bill into law this spring; it initially took effect in July.

The bill prohibits schools and workplaces from any instruction that suggests that any individual, by virtue of their race, color, sex or national origin, "** bears responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress ([link removed])
" on account of historical acts of racism. The bill also forbids education or training that says individuals are "privileged or oppressed" due to their race or sex.
Critics say the bill is designed to prevent schools and workplaces from discussing racism. In August, a group of eight Florida professors sued representatives of the state higher education system over the bill, calling the legislation "racially motivated censorship" aimed at stifling "widespread demands to discuss, study and address systemic inequalities."

Critical race theory is a decades-old academic framework that examines how racism helped to shape institutions and traditions that exist today.

The idea was once confined to law school seminars. But over the past two years, the term has become a catch-all shorthand for a variety of conservative bugaboos: workplace diversity trainings, protests over police brutality and high school history lessons.

DeSantis began pushing for the bill ** last December ([link removed])
. "In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory," he said in a press release announcing the proposal. "We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other."

The bill is one of the most strident state legislature entries in the conservative culture wars over schools. Florida lawmakers passed it alongside ** the Parental Rights in Education Act ([link removed])
, ** called the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics ([link removed])
, which bans classroom instruction involving sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

In his order, Judge Walker, an Obama appointee, opened by reciting the first sentence of 1984, George Orwell's novel about life under a futuristic totalitarian government.

"'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,' and the powers in charge of Florida's public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom,'" the judge wrote. "This is positively dystopian."

Thursday's ruling is the second legal setback for the law. An August ruling, also by Walker, blocked another part of the bill that targeted workplace diversity practices. The law faces another challenge by K-12 teachers.

DeSantis' office is expected to appeal the decision.

Becky Sullivan, NPR

FEDERAL



Democrats slam Kevin McCarthy over his vow to remove them from committees



Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, pointed to McCarthy’s support of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. McCarthy said he would reinstate the far-right lawmaker’s committee assignments if he becomes speaker. Greene was stripped of her assignments last year in light of incendiary remarks musing about the execution of Democratic lawmakers.

“McCarthy’s effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred - including threatening to strip me from my committee - does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with. It does nothing to address inflation, health care, or solve the climate crisis,” Omar said. “What it does is gin up fear and hate against Somali-Americans and anyone who shares my identity, and further divide us along racial and ethnic lines,” she continued. “It is a continuation of a sustained campaign against Muslim and African voices, people his party have been trying to ban since Donald Trump first ran for office.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA, similarly took aim at McCarthy in an interview Sunday with ABC News, calling him a “very weak leader” of the GOP conference who will adhere to Greene’s wishes.

“He will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator,” Schiff said. “And if that lowest common denominator wants to remove people from committees, that’s what they’ll do.”

“It’s going to be chaos with Republican leadership,” Schiff added.

McCarthy initially made his pledge to boot Schiff, Omar and Swalwell, from their committee assignments if the GOP retakes the House in an ** interview ([link removed])
with Breitbart News in January. All three Democratic lawmakers are vocal critics of former President Donald Trump and have ** repeatedly ([link removed])
been ** targeted by conservatives. ([link removed])

Schiff, a former prosecutor, served as** the lead House manager ([link removed])
during Trump’s first impeachment trial and is a member of the Jan. 6 committee. Swalwell, also a former prosecutor, was an impeachment manager during Trump's second impeachment trial.

Removing Democrats from their committee assignments would require a vote of a majority of the House.

Summer Concepcion, NBC News



VIDEO of the WEEK

Obi-Wan Pelosi

Stephen Colbert

[link removed]



Office Hours

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Vero Beach 32960

(772) 226-5267

[email protected]


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