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Startseite / Alben / Seattle, July 2004 31
In July of 2004 ADAPT travelled from around the nation to meet in Seattle Washington for the National Governor's Association (NGA) Conference. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was that year's president of the group and after days of protest outside the hotel he came out to meet ADAPT and agreed to our demand that the NGA pass a resolution supporting our goals. Seattle police, originally fearing we were anarchists, came around to supporting our cause. The local disability coalition, the protection and advocacy organization and other local groups were more supportive than in many other towns we'd been to. A final hit on HUD capped off a week of successful actions.
- ADAPT (1556)
[Headline] Wheelchair users to protest [Subheading] Hundreds expected on the streets as governors gather for Seattle meeting BY ANGELA GALLOWAY P-1 reporter Odds are on the hundreds of people in wheelchairs causing the most disruption this weekend. Most of the nation's governors, along with more than 1,000 state officials and lobbyists, will gather in Seattle for the annual summer meeting of the National Governors' Association, which runs tomorrow through Monday at the Westin Hotel downtown. And police are preparing for several protest groups to greet the officials, particularly a national disability rights activist group called ADAPT. ADAPT - here to call for increased access to home-based, rather than institutional, care for the disabled - expects about 600 protesters, most in wheelchairs. In the past, the group's protesters have sometimes used tactics such as blocking streets and disrupting public events to gain attention. While hoping to avoid mass arrests, ADAPT is prepared for that possibility, said Bob Kafka, a national organizer with the organization. Members sometimes say they'd "rather be in jail than in a nursing home," said Kafka, of Austin, Texas. "In jail, at least you know when you're go-ing to get out." At the NGA meeting, governors will develop policy positions for their 2005 congressional agenda. They also will hear from invited speakers on a range of issues, from economic development to the environment, said Christine LaPaille, spokes-woman for the NGA. This year's meeting is focused on ad-dressing the aging population, as the nation prepares for a projected 77 million baby boomers to retire this decade, LaPaille said. Keynote speakers include Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Leon Panetta, for-mer White House chief of staff, who are scheduled to speak Monday. The NGA was formed in 190 as a bi-partisan lobbying and research organization. This year, the governors plan to approve policy papers on Medicaid reform and changes to federal telecommunications laws, as well as a policy supporting ability of citizens in states such as Washington to deduct local sales-tax levies SEE PROTEST, B5 - ADAPT (1557)
- ADAPT (1558)
It's in the P-I Seattle Post-Intelligencer THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2004 Too many disabled people, he said, are "warehoused" in nursing homes and institutions, despite a court ruling five years ago that the disabled had a right to community-based care. 'We think our long-term care system is broken," Kafka said. "In almost every state, there's very little being done by the governors to implement (the ruling). They're, in fact, cutting Medicaid and community services. In most states, there are very long waiting lists." If it comes to arrests this weekend, ADAPT members will cooperate with the authorities, Kafka said. 'We are not violent. We are non-destructive," Kafka said. 'We have nothing against the police." Still, the city had better be ready. Many of the protesters need skilled care to use toilets or maintain their catheters; some can eat only through tubes; and some breathe through ventilators. The labor unions and student groups are limiting their demonstrations to Saturday. The Federation of State Employees is calling on the NGA to work with it, spokesman Tim Welch said. In addition, "we're protesting what we view in bad fiscal times what we think are wrongheaded budget priorities . . . like still granting billions in corporate tax breaks and then still cutting vital public services." The group has arranged for 200 "peacekeepers" in orange vests to ensure things stay calm as they march from Westlake Center past the Westin and back, starting at 1:30 p.m. 'We will not have any what we will term 'civil disobedience,' " Welch said. About 200 members of various Western Washington student groups plan to join the unions, after gathering at Seattle Central Community College Saturday at noon. Organized in part by a student activist group from South Puget Sound Community College, the group plans to march to Westlake to join the union marchers. "What our purpose is is just for our voices to be heard," said Arielle Woolis-Pink, a 20-year-old prelaw student at South Puget Sound Community College. 'We don't oppose the NGA, but we would like them to include other interests — not just corporate interests." Like the union leaders, the students plan to keep their demonstrators out of trouble with the police. They're planning a parade, with a marching band and a couple of small floats — one of a "giant corporate swine." "We're trying to stay positive and say yes, this is what we want, as opposed to no, this is what we don't want," Woolis-Pink said. "It's a perfect venue for our frustration, I think, because it seems as though in this regime, that's happening in our country. The people's voices are being included less and less, and we're not going to stand for that." - ADAPT (1559)
The Seattle Times THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2004 [Headline] As governors meet, groups plan to voice concerns BY BETH KAIMAN Seattle Times staff reporter Seattle police are preparing for downtown protests this weekend from groups representing labor, students and people with disabilities — each determined to make its case to the National Governors Association conference. Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said three groups have permits to march with the labor group Put People First estimating at least 1,000 participants; the student group Building Revolution by Increasing Community Knowledge (BRICK) hoping for as a many as 1,000 people; and the disabled-rights organization ADAPT bringing in about 400 people from across the county, many of them in wheelchairs. Representatives of the groups said they intend to take part in orderly demonstrations, but the disabled-right organization, in particular, has been known to try to disrupt governors association meetings in other cities. Bob Kafka, national organizer with ADAPT, said the protest is meant to appeal to the states to support a bill in Congress to bolster Medicaid spending for community- and home-based care for people with disabilities. "People young and old don't want to be housed in institutions," Kafka said. The group will make its way about 3:30 p.m. Saturday from the Red Lion Hotel, down Union Street toward Pike Place Market and a 4 p.m. rally at Victor Steinbrueck Park. Kafka declined to detail plans for Sunday, when the governors are scheduled to discuss long-term health-care issues. - ADAPT (1560)
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- ADAPT (1562)
This page continues the article from Image 1563. Full text is available on 1563 for easier reading. - ADAPT (1563)
[Headline] Governors Meeting [Subheading] Various issues divide state leaders, galvanize local demonstrators By J. Patrick Coolican, Matt Rodriguez and Lornet Turnbull Seattle Times staff reporters Though billed as a friendly meeting to discuss issues such as health care and the environment, the National Governors' Association conference kicked off yesterday in Seattle with partisan sniping as Democratic governors attacked President Bush and Republican governors responded in kind against his challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. By the end of the day, however, the 30 or so governors in attendance were boarding boats to go to dinner together at the home of billionaire software mogul Bill Gates. Meanwhile, several hundred labor activists, students and advocates for the disabled held spirited protests throughout downtown Seattle. At Westlake Park, liberal activists voiced concerns about a cornucopia of issues: the Iraq war, health care, wages, influence peddling, corporate greed. Later in the afternoon, about 400 people representing a disabled-rights group called ADAPT, many of them in wheelchairs, marched and wheeled from Westlake to the Pike Place Market calling for better home-based health care. The groups were also protesting the use of $2 million in corporate money to fund the conference. Many of the corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, Boeing and Amgen, have a large financial stake in the issues being discussed at the conference. The conference started on a divisive note, with the governors playing surrogates for the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns. The meeting's host Washington Gov. Gary Locke, led the Democratic attack on President Bush. "The Bush administration has done nothing to help us emerge from these hard times. Americans are working fewer hours, for less money," he said, surrounded by a group of Democratic governors in a conference room of the law firm Preston, Gates & Ellis. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, chair-man of the Democratic Governors' Association, noted that un-employment in his state went up last month. "Tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans will not put those 72,000 Iowans back to work," he said, referring to several tax cuts Bush has signed. Locke and fellow governors from Tennessee, Arizona and several other states also said the large National Guard call-ups for the Iraq war — many of the Guard taken from local police departments — had burdened their states and local communities. [Subheading] The Republican response Republicans responded with their own press conference to blast Kerry. Marc Racicot, Bush-Cheney campaign chairman and a former Montana governor, led the GOP blitz, calling Kerry a liberal who had raised taxes voted [image] [image caption] ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Dick Hosty, center, of Kansas City, Mo., chants yesterday as about 400 members of ADAPT, a disabled-rights group, march and wheel to Pike Place Market. They called for better home-based health care. [text resumes] against giving $87 billion to the Iraq war effort last fall and switched positions on a number of issues. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Kerry was more liberal than his fellow Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and accused Kerry, a for-mer prosecutor, of being soft on crime. Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, referring to Kerry's vote to give Bush authorization to attack Iraq but not the $87 billion to fund the war and reconstruction last fall, said, "The Kerry position just appalls me. How he could vote to send soldiers into harm s way and then not vote to fund them is unforgivable." [Subheading] Three protest marches The first of three protest marches started at midday when about 100 demonstrators, known as the Infernal Noise Brigade, gathered near Seattle Central Community College for a loud and colorful march to Westlake Park. "With all that's going on around us — war, job losses, economic strain — so many people are find-ing themselves in survival mode," said a protester, Ivy Rose Night-scales, a Seattle resident and author. "The common person is under attack." At Westlake, the demonstrators met with several hundred others from labor and community groups for a rally that featured a speech from Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, still pursuing his quixotic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Seattle police officers were out in force on bikes, motorcycles and horses, in cars, paddy wagons and on two buses. At times, they appeared to outnumber the protesters. Police and their bicycles created a barricade around the West-in Hotel, site of the conference, as the demonstrators shouted to the governors to come down. Late in the afternoon, a group of about 400 wheelchair activists and their supporters rolled from the Red Lion Hotel to Pike Place Market in support of more government funding for programs that allow them to live independently. Ben Barrett, whose body was mangled after he was hit by a train in 1993, said "separating people in nursing homes and other institutions is just wrong. "When they put us all in one building on one side of town they get us out of sight and we're out of mind. If they don't have to see us, they don't worry about us." Seattle Police reported no problems and no arrests in connection with the protests "Everything went absolutely according to plan," said spokeswoman Deanna Nolette. The official business of the governors meeting starts today. The schedule includes policy forums on aging and the environment, as well as a governors-only lunch with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and a health-care session with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, both tomorrow. The governors also will talk about U.S. foreign policy. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, chairman of the governors association, said the governors will dis-cuss the National Guard in a meeting with Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Gen. Ralph Eberhart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command. J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com - ADAPT (1533)
- ADAPT (1534)
[Headline] Group Protests Over Housing [image] [image caption] Nearly 250 disabled protesters, including Barbara Moore of Baltimore, center in red, travel to the Federal Building on First Avenue from the Westin Hotel, where the annual National Governors' Association conference was being held. The group went to the Federal Building yesterday to ask regional HUD Director John Meyers to send their complaints about the current housing voucher system to Washington, D.C. Disability rights organization ADAPT, which sponsored the protest, was trying to reach governors of states that ranked poorly on providing options to the disabled to live and receive support services from the community. Washington was not listed among the 20 worst states, and many of the protesters were from elsewhere. - ADAPT (1535)
[Headline] ADAPT Announces Worst States at Governors Meeting Mississippi topped the ADAPT 2004 list of the top ten worst states for community services, it was announced recently at a press conference in Seattle, Wash., where the National Governors Association (NGA) held its summer meeting. Mississippi's dubious honor was the result of 87 percent of its long term care funding being spent on nursing homes and other institutions, while only 13 percent goes for community services. Ranking number two through 10 respectively are Nevada, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, New Jersey, Florida and the District of Columbia. ADAPT's 10 worst list is based on a combination of statistics the states report to the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid and an informal survey of people with disabilities, advocates and state person-nel. The rankings weighed the ratio of institutional spending to community spending, the per capita spending on nursing homes and community and the overall spending on community long term care. Members of Mississippi's ADAPT chapter met with Gov. Haley Barbour (R - Miss.),.offer-ing to work with him to create a real home and community based service system in Mississippi so [image] [image caption] ADAPT members demonstrates in Seattle. [text continues] that their state wouldn't always be in the top ten worst Barbour was presented with the "first worst" wreath of lemons and dinosaurs when he returned to Mississippi. ADAPT then marched to the regional Housing and Urban Development (HUD) office with four demands which HUD Regional Director John Myers agreed to fax to HUD Secretary Alphonzo Jackson. The demands were aimed at preventing any reduction in funding or the number of Section 8 vouchers available, keeping the Section 8 program in its current form with adequate funding, requiring impact studies for any proposed changes and assuring input from the grassroots on any pro-posed changes. "Our main objective here in Seattle was convincing the NGA to pass our resolution calling for long term care reform that al-lows people to choose to receive long term care services in their own home," said Beto Barrera of Chicago ADAPT and the Disability Rights Action Coalition for Housing (DRACH). "However, as we begin to free more people from institutional settings, they are going to need affordable accessible housing, and that's where HUD comes in." ADAPT blocked intersections around the headquarters of the meeting for five hours before Gov. Edward Rendell (D - Penn.) agreed to introduce ADAPT's long term care resolution to the NGA membership. According to ADAPT, Rendell's commitment to read the resolution to the NGA membership and begin a formal process to move it forward, not only pre-vented the imminent arrest of up to 200 ADAPT activists, but -it set the stage for a vote on the resolution by the NGA member-ship at their February meeting. - ADAPT (1536)
[state flag] MISSISSIPPI: Approximately 87% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 51st in community fiscal effort for persons with developmental disabilities. 47th in overall spending on community services for people with disabilities. 17th in per capita spending on nursing homes. 46th in spending for Medicaid waivers. Currently has an Olmstead lawsuit filed against the State for not complying with the Supreme Ct decision. [state flag] NEVADA: Approximately 67% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. Lowest spending per capita on all community services. 32nd in community spending for persons with developmental disabilities. 49th in spending on Medicaid waivers. [state flag] LOUISIANA: Approximately 81% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. Ranked 51st in the country in Medicaid community spending. 39th in Medicaid waiver spending. 4th highest spending per capita for ICF-MR facilities for people with developmental disabilities. [state flag] TENNESSEE: Ranked 48th on Home Cave per capita spending. 39th in Medicaid community spending. 39th in spending for persons with developmental disabilities. 46th in spending for people with physical disabilities. 45th in spending on Medicaid waivers. Since Tennessee provides some long term care services under a man-aged care model it is not possible to get a true ratio of institutional versus community spending. [state flag] ILLINOIS: Approximately 80% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 46th per capita spending in community spending. 46th in community spending for people with developmental disabilities. 47th in overall community spending. 41st in spending on Medicaid waivers. [state flag] GEORGIA: Approximately 79% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 48th in fiscal effort for all community services. 36th in spending for people with developmental disabilities. 47th in spending on Medicaid waivers. [state flag] ALABAMA: Approximately 77% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 46th in fiscal effort for all community services. 42nd in spending for people with developmental disabilities. 37th in spending for Medicaid waivers. [state flag] NEW JERSEY: Approximately 76% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 7th highest spending per capita on nursing homes. 46th in spending on community services. 50th in community fiscal effort for persons with developmental disabilities. 33rd in spending on Medicaid waivers. [state flag] FLORIDA: Approximately 74% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 43rd in per capita spending for community services. 31st in spending for persons with developmental dis-abilities. 40th in spending for Medicaid waivers. [state flag] WASHINGTON DC: Approximate 90% of long term care spending goes for nursing homes and other institutions. 2nd highest spending per capita on nursing homes. The highest per capita spending on ICF-MR facilities. 4th in per capita spending on Home Health. 11th in total capita spending on community services. - ADAPT (1537)
ADAPT TEN WORST RANKING JULY, 2004 [logo of ADAPT Free Our People] [Heading] Ten Worst Ranking 1. Mississippi 2. Nevada 3. Louisiana 4. Tennessee 5. Illinois 6. Georgia 7. Alabama 8. New Jersey 9. Florida 10. District of Columbia [Heading] The next ten worst states: Pennsylavnia Indiana Texas Ohio Iowa Kentucky Virginia Nebraska Arkansas Missouri. [Heading] ADAPT used three public sources of information to rank the states: * Medstat-CMS 64 data on Medicaid Long Term Care Expenditures in FY 2003 (Oct 2002 through Sept. 2003) Released May 25, 2004 * National Study of Disability Finance, Preliminary data (2004) *University of Colorado, Dept of Psychiatry. Advocate's Survey Assessment of their states services. (ADAPT, June 2004) ADAPT's analysis weighed various long term care facilities based on published data and the evaluation of people with disabilities (old and young) of their state's provision of long term services and supports. Some of the factors looked at in the ranking were: *Institutional spending versus community spending ratio; (national ratio is 67% institutional-33% community) *Nursing Home spending per capita; *Community spending per capita; *ICF-MR spending per capita; *Ranking of State spending on Community Long Term Care. - ADAPT (1538)
- ADAPT (1539)
The Seattle Times I MONDAY, JULY 19, 2004 [Headline] Protesters for disabled block streets BY JOANNA HOROWITZ Seattle Times staff reporter About 500 protesters from a group for the disabled barricaded streets yesterday around downtown Seattle's Westin Ho-tel where the National Governors' Association (NGA) is meeting. Additional protests are expect-ed this morning, and the Seattle Police Department advised commuters to expect traffic delays and possible street closures around the hotel between Fourth and Seventh avenues and Union and Stewart streets. American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) said last night that members would be in front of the Westin at 11:15 a.m. today to announce a list of the "10 Worst States for Community Services." The group said the information was based on data states report yearly to Medicare and Medicaid. ADAPT decided to take to the streets yesterday in an impromptu demonstration after a meeting with Matt Salo, director of the NGA's Health and Human Services Committee, didn't go the way the group had hoped. ADAPT is lobbying for the governors to sign a resolution pledging to favor care for the disabled and elderly in their homes rather than forced institutionalization. Mike Oxford, one of ADAPT's national organizers from Kansas, said that ADAPT asked Salo at the morning meeting yesterday to take the resolution to the governors but that he refused. "Really he wasn't prepared to do anything," Oxford said. "People kind of shouted him out of the room." Christine LaPaille, the NGA's director of communications, said Salo has met with the group a number of times in the past. He was surprised when he arrived at the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue and found a large crowd, including news media. "It was a news conference, and he wasn't prepared," she said. LaPaille said Salo told the crowd that long-term care was one of the issues on the agenda for the governors' discussion. That answer didn't sit well with ADAPT members. "There was only one thing that came out of that and that was nothing," said John Loyd, one of the core members of Missouri's ADAPT group. "They don't want to open a can of worms," he said. 'Well, this isn't a can of worms. This is a can of people, and we're being kept in a can." The group blocked intersections between Olive and Stewart on Sixth, at Stewart and West-lake and at Fifth and Stewart. They chanted "NGA, pass the resolution," lying in crosswalks to write messages in chalk and carrying signs with slogans such as "Get government off my back, let me live at home." "It's time for Washington and our legislators to see there is a powerful group nationally," said Katrinka Gentile, chairwoman of the Washington State Independent Living Council. Protesters said they planned to stay until someone would speak with them. "I'd rather go to jail than go to a nursing home," said Rich Landers of Salt Lake City. But LaPaille said the NGA is not the forum for that. "We do not set up meetings with them with the governors," LaPaille said. She said that in the past there had been an agreement that pro-tests would stop after meetings were held, but ADAPT continued to protest. The ADAPT demonstration ended later in the afternoon. Seattle police had not been told about yesterday's protest, said department spokeswoman Deanna Nollette. However, the department has been planning for the NGA meeting for more than a year and had officers ready to deploy, she said. Joanna Horowitz: 206-464-3312 or jhorowitz@seattletimes.com