Long past its painful peak, inflation in the United States may be heading steadily back toward its pre-pandemic levels, without the need for further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Such a scenario became more likely, if hardly guaranteed, after Nov. 14’s surprisingly tame report on consumer prices for October. The Labor Department’s data showed a broad-based easing of inflation across most goods and services. The price of gas? Down. Appliances? Down. Autos? Down. Same for airfares, hotel rooms and doctors’ fees.
Overall inflation didn’t rise from September to October, the first time that consumer prices collectively haven’t budged from one month to another in more than a year. Compared with a year earlier, prices rose 3.2% in October, the smallest such rise since June, though still above the Fed’s 2% inflation target.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation was just 0.2% last month, slightly below the pace of the previous two months. Measured year over year, core prices rose 4% in October, down from 4.1% in September, the smallest rise in two years.
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“The inflation fever has broken,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “Rising petroleum production is holding down gas prices, house prices are rising more slowly after mortgage rates surged in 2023 and rents are also rising more gradually” as more apartment buildings are completed.
October’s milder-than-expected price figures make it much less likely that the Fed will impose another rate hike. Many economists now say that the Fed’s most likely next move will be to cut rates, likely sometime next year, though that would depend on whether inflation continues to cool.
What’s driving inflation lower?
A major factor has been a big improvement in the supply of many things — workers, housing and components for manufactured goods.
Millions of Americans have come off the sidelines in the past year and flooded back into the workforce, seeking and (mostly) finding jobs. Immigration has increased, too, and with it more people looking for work. With more hires available, businesses haven’t had to raise wages as much to fill jobs, thereby easing the pressure on those businesses to raise their prices.
At the same time, the largest number of new apartment buildings nationwide in decades are being completed, a trend that is helping slow rent increases. Rental costs, after a spike in September, rose at a much more gradual pace last month.
Rents and other housing costs are likely to keep coming down, economists say, as the cost of new leases continues to fall, according to real-time data providers such as Zillow. Those lower prices show up in the government’s data with a lag.
And the supply chains that were badly snarled during the pandemic have pretty much unwound. An ample availability of products, parts and components help keep a lid on their prices. Automakers, for example, are having a much easier time finding semiconductors.
Partly as a result, new car prices declined last month, defying fears that the now-settled autoworkers’ strike would reduce dealers’ inventories and send prices higher. Used car prices, too, are down. They fell for a fifth straight month in October and have tumbled 7% from a year ago.
“We’re finally undoing that and getting the benefits,” Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said Tuesday in remarks at the Detroit Economic Club.
Separately, consumers are widely expected to pull back on spending after a blowout summer, with credit card debts — and delinquencies — rising and average savings falling. Cooler demand should force businesses to compete more on price.
Gas costs have kept falling this month, with the national average price at the pump averaging $3.35 Tuesday, down 42 cents from a year earlier. Those prices declines could push overall inflation, measured year-over-year, below 3% by December.
Aren’t things still pretty expensive?
Yes, inflation is still painfully apparent in many areas. They include auto and health insurance and some groceries, like beef and bread.
The average cost of auto insurance, which jumped 1.9% just from September to October, has soared nearly 20% from a year earlier. As new and used vehicles have grown more expensive, so has the cost of insuring them. And health insurance prices rose 1.1% last month, though that was largely due to a change in the government’s methodology.
But even as overall price increases slow, it doesn’t mean inflation is reversing or that most prices are falling back to pre-pandemic levels. The consumer price index, the most widely followed measure of inflation, remains about 20% higher than it was before the pandemic.
Milk prices, which have ticked down compared with the past year, are still 23% higher than they were pre-pandemic. Ground beef prices are 31% higher. Gas prices, despite a steep decline from a year ago, are still 46% higher than before the pandemic.
Many economists say a key reason why so many Americans hold a gloomy view of the economy despite very low unemployment and steady hiring is that these prices — on items that they buy regularly — remain much higher than they were three years ago.
Are paychecks keeping up?
Barring a deep and painful recession, prices aren’t going to fall to their pre-pandemic levels. Instead, economists say, Americans’ wages need to rise to help pay for the higher costs.
Wages and salaries trailed inflation in 2021 and 2022, exacerbating the pain of higher prices. Yet this year, as inflation has cooled, average pay has pulled ahead of inflation. By most measures, average paychecks, adjusted for inflation, are back to where they were before the pandemic.
Yet that essentially means that Americans, on average, have had scant real pay increases compared with three years ago. And while average pay may be back to pre-pandemic levels, many people have received below-average pay raises and are still behind inflation.
How might the Federal Reserve respond?
The Fed will likely welcome last Tuesday’s report as evidence of further progress toward getting inflation back to its target of 2%. Fed officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, are considering whether their benchmark rate is high enough to quell inflation or if they need to impose another increase in coming months.
Powell said recently that Fed officials were “not confident” that rates were sufficiently high to tame inflation. The Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in the past year and a half, to about 5.4%, the highest level in 22 years.
But the central bank has raised its key rate just once since May. Since its last meeting on Nov. 1, a government report showed that hiring cooled in October compared with September, and wage growth slowed, thereby easing pressure on companies to raise prices in the coming months.
Adams, the Comerica economist, said he thinks the Fed’s most likely next move will be to cut rates, likely by mid-2024.
The Fed’s rate hikes have increased the costs of mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and many forms of business borrowing, part of a concerted drive to slow growth and cool inflation pressures. The central bank is trying to achieve a “soft landing” — raising borrowing costs just enough to curb inflation without tipping the economy into a deep recession.
Said Eric Winograd, chief economist at AB Global, an asset management firm: “They look like they are on course to generate a soft landing. There’s no guarantee that they will actually manage to accomplish it. But right now, that’s the story that the data are telling.”
Let’s make a deal. American parents stop harassing schools over library books that deal sympathetically with differences in sexual preference. And America’s schools stop withholding information about a student’s said preference from the parents.
First, the ugly clashes over offerings at school libraries. Parents should understand that reading a wide range of viewpoints improves critical thinking. A book about a child whose parents are both female doesn’t turn the reader gay. Ask a child psychologist about that.
The sons and daughters of lesbian parents I’ve known all turned out heterosexual. Not a scientific sampling, I know, but if the school library contains a book that makes the offspring of gay parents feel OK about their home life — and other kids respect them — where’s the harm?
Furthermore, parents should be grateful that their kids are reading books. Those who fear their children might be exposed to damaging influences would best take their mobile phones away. Go after TikTok and leave school librarians alone.
Now the second part of the deal. Schools should drop the idea that if students declare a sexual identity different from the one they were born with, they should not tell the parents. An example would be hiding information from parents that their son Jack wants to be called Sue in class.
This reflects the current obsession with LGBTQ issues. The initials stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (or questioning). These are individuals who are attracted to people of the same sex or both sexes, or their gender identity does not align with the sex assigned to them at birth.
It is withholding information about the last category, children who identify with a gender other than the one they were born with, that has a lot of parents up in arms. And they’re not all the expected groups — social conservatives, evangelicals and tradition-oriented immigrants. They include Democrats and gay people.
I asked a father who is quite liberal and has close gay friends how he feels about schools hiding the declared gender identity from parents.
“They have every obligation to tell me,” he said, anger in his voice. “They’ll tell me if he’s picking his nose in the class. He’s a minor, and that’s a major event.” This is information that helps a parent be a parent.
Sonja Shaw, head of a school board in Chino Valley, California, complained to The Economist that boys who identified as girls were allowed in her daughters’ locker room. Hers became the first school district in California to require that schools not keep a child’s gender identity secret from their parents. Hundreds of school districts do.
There is, of course, pushback to changing the rules. Kristi Hirst, a parent and former teacher, characterized school board debates in places like Chino as fearmongering. “Teachers do not have nefarious intentions to keep secrets,” she said. That may be true, but good intentions don’t always equal wise policies.
The thinking is that parents might beat up on kids who veer from their presumed gender. Or that such information could be used as ammunition in custody cases. That could happen, but abuse of children or holding up gender identity as evidence of bad parenting is a matter for law enforcement and the courts. And having to navigate different identities in class and the family dinner table can be highly stressful to the child as well.
The broad coalition objecting to these policies suggests the sense agreement that time spent on LGBTQ concerns is taking time away from such essential subjects as math, reading and history. Rather than simply treating these issues with delicacy, many schools seem to be obsessing on them. These parents have a point.
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.
DANVILLE — Bose Corp. is closing its operations in Danville.
According to an email from Joanne Berthiaume, global communications director with Bose Corp., “Bose will be making adjustments to its supply chain in North America. As part of these changes, we intend to close our operations in Danville.”
“I can confirm it won’t be an immediate closure, but we don’t have more details to share at this time,” she added.
Bose currently employs 16 people in the Danville facility.
Bose Corp. of Danville, is located at 300 Eastgate Drive, and is known for making headphones and speakers systems.
In 2020, Bose was a local business the Commercial-News talked to about layoffs and temporary furloughs of its employees with the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a representative said they couldn’t share details of their workforce at that time, the spokesperson said “Bose like other companies is taking the necessary steps to respond to the pandemic. We’re following applicable guidelines, and operations are continuing at our Danville location.”
According to Todd Lee, Vermilion Advantage interim president and CEO, Bose was initially a supplier for Japanese corporation Meisei. Meisei went through changes in 2009, going down to about four employees at the Eastgate Drive location. Bose bought Meisei, Lee said.
He said Bose purchased the Danville facility and began making coils for car stereos there.
He said Bose increased its employment at that time to about 20.
Lee said he wasn’t as familiar with their employment since then.
He said Vermilion Advantage had not been informed by any decision by the company about closing its Danville facility.
“They’ve been a great partner in our community,” Lee said.
He said Vermilion Advantage can assist Bose and their employees as needed.
“It’s my feeling because of the skills of those employees, they will be very valuable assets to the community…,” Lee said about other companies looking to fill jobs.
According to the company, “Bose is world renowned for its premium audio solutions for the home, on the go, and in the car. Since its founding in 1964 by Dr. Amar Bose, the company has been dedicated to delivering amazing sound experiences through innovation. And its passionate employees — engineers, researchers, music fanatics, and dreamers — have remained committed to the belief that sound is the most powerful force on earth; its ability to transform, transport, and make us feel alive. For nearly 60 years, this belief has driven us to create products that have become iconic, changing the way people listen to music.”
David, a handsome six-year-old boy with curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and a stocky build, loved recess. He would climb to the top of the monkey bars and yell, “I am King of the World”! David also loved to argue with his 1st grade teacher; he always had to have the “last word” in every argument. He defied his Principal — or for that matter, most adults who tried to be an authority figure — and his explosive anger scared his friends and peers, causing them to back away from him.
At home, his mother, Nancy, could not make him mind. Even simple commands such as, brush your teeth, pick up your dirty socks, or go to bed, erupted into tug-of-war battles. What was much worse, however, was when David demanded something from his mother. His favorite, always asked immediately before dinner, was: “Mom, can I have a candy bar”? As soon as Nancy mouthed the word “no,” David’s anger transformed into a raging locomotive which ran her over.
At these times, Nancy would retreat into the safety of her bathroom, lock the door, and sob over the loss she felt. Like a punctured oil pan dripping black oil more and more each day, it felt as if her love for her son was draining out of her heart. Difficult thoughts filled up the empty space in her heart — “I am scared of my own son, what do I do?” Now desperate, Nancy turned to her boyfriend, Jacob, who had a completely different view of David: “He minds me — sort of — because he knows I mean business. Nancy, you need to be firmer, David’s just going through a phase that he will grow out of.”
What neither Nancy or Jacob know is that David’s whole future now teeters on a precipice — one path leads to success in school and in life; the other descends into dark places — like jail — or even worse, an early death caused by violence, drugs and alcohol.
Too dramatic? Well, consider the following facts in child developmental research: 1. David has a serious childhood behavioral disorder called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD. ODD is defined as a pattern of negative, hostile, and defiant behaviors with these symptoms: Loses one’s temper, defies and argues with adults, refuses to follow rules, and blames others for his mistakes. 2. ODD, left uncorrected, can progress into the adult version called Conduct Disorder (CD), and/or Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). 3. CD and APD are the two most common “admission tickets” into adult prison.
ODD is to CD what asthma is to lung cancer. Or, using the proper Star Wars analogy, ODD is to CD what the young (still good) Anakin is to Darth Vader (corrupted by the dark force). ODD carries within itself a deadly seed. If this seed is allowed to germinate and grow, David will never develop into a healthy young man. This seed can destroy David’s moral compass, his sense of right and wrong, his conscience.
Moral development, just like physical development, progresses over time. In the same way an infant must crawl before walking, David must learn to accept “no” before he can sort out if a decision is right or wrong. More importantly, the child must learn to recognize that appropriate guilt is a signal of making a moral error. That is, guilt is a necessary ingredient for the child to develop healthy morality. If the needle (his conscience) on David’s moral compass is removed, he feels no remorse or guilt.
What causes ODD? The first cause is a major disruption in the family, which breaks or destroys the bond between the child and his/her caregivers. In David’s case, the knife which cut the parent-child bond was the death of his father when David was two. For Nancy, this loss threw her into a world of deep trauma and depression which made it impossible to effectively parent David.
The second cause of ODD is inborn, genetic skill deficits which make it impossible for a child to develop behavioral control. David was born with the following: 1. Poor frustration tolerance. When David’s wishes were not met, his internal frustrations erupted too fast and too hard. 2. Rigid and inflexible thinking. David saw the world in terms of good and bad, all vs. none, you like me vs. you hate me. He lacked the mental flexibility needed to effectively solve problems. 3. Poor impulse control. David could not think before acting.
(The content of this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for treatment by a professional. The characters in this story are not real. Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality.)
Dr. Richard Elghammer is a clinical psychologist in Danville, Ill., and Crawfordsville, Ind. He received specialty training in child, adolescent and family psychology at Riley’s Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis and completed his clinical internship at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Children do not choose their families, they are just born into them. The chance that a child will end up in a healthy family – kind, loving, stable- is the same as buying a lucky lotto ticket: A game of chance. Unfortunately, for children born into troubled families, life is not a game. No, for them, living in a family shattered by alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, and earthquake-like instability, is a constant nightmare of survival. Children born into deeply troubled families live with forces felt but not seen. Like an invisible monster, unhealthy family forces tear, rip and dismember the emotional hearts of their children. These children have one hope – someone with great power will save them, rescue them and fix all the wrongs done to them. Too young to know the word, they yearn for justice.
But what if these troubled families cannot fix themselves? What if no one in their family has the power to repair the damage? This is the story of one such family.
From birth to 6, Alicia’s life was stable. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, and her father, a medic/EMT, worked three days on and four days off. At age 7, Alicia’s life was derailed: Her mom lost her second child at two months of age to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and, unable to recover from the loss, she began drinking alcohol and taking pain medication, at the same time. Alicia took the role of “mommy’s helper” and began to do housework, dishes, and laundry. As her mother’s depression and addiction worsened, Alicia’s support and loyalty to her grew (she believed she could fix her mother). Her father, a man who avoided all conflicts and hated arguments, stayed passive and quiet until he learned that his wife was having affairs. He told her she had one choice: “Get treatment for your depression and addiction, stop your affairs, or get out”. So, Alicia’s mother moved two hours away to live with her sister, and her father filed for divorce. Her father received custody of Alicia, with her mother having visitation.
When Alicia was 9, her father re-married. Problems erupted when Alicia turned 10. Each time she returned from visits with her mother, Alicia was hostile, mean and defiant to her stepmother. It would take two to three days, after returning from her mother’s house, for Alicia to settle back into her normal routine. When Alicia reached 13, problems worsened: Her grades dropped to D’s, she developed a pattern of lying, began to hang around with kids who used drugs, and her anger toward her stepmother was out of control. I became involved with Alicia when her stepmother brought her in for treatment. The event which forced her into treatment was when her stepmother found her diary, which covered topics such as having un-protected sex, and smoking pot. Another problem became clear: Alicia had achieved great power over her father, with threats of “going to live with mom”. Dad wilted under this threat. Basically, Alicia had blackmailed her father.
Alicia’s family is a perfect example of the need for family counseling. Some of the goals for the family would be: 1) Dad needs to overcome his fear that Alicia would leave him and go live with mom and apply parental power with clear rules and consequences for his daughter. He also needs to back up Alicia’s stepmom, so she can begin effective parenting of Alicia. 2)Alicia must learn that her mother’s depression and addiction were not her fault, and that she had not failed to cure or heal her mother.
3) Once Alicia’s mother receives the proper care for her depression and addiction, she will be able to rebuild her relationship with Alicia. 4) Alicia’s father should become more involved in Alicia’s life by spending much more time, one-on-one, with her. 5) Alicia’s stepmother needs to build a deeper relationship with her, one that will teach Alicia that being close to her stepmom is not a betrayal of her loyalty to her mother. 6) Both Alicia’s mother, father and Alicia have work to do on their grief over the loss of their child and brother, that died at two months of age.
Family counseling is an opportunity to rebuild damaged relationships and restore healthy family functioning. It takes great courage and commitment by parents to tell your children: “Our family needs professional help”. Children learn from the actions of their parents. When they see their father, mother, or stepparent really trying to fix family problems, they learn a life lesson – My parents love and care for me, and I am their priority.
(The content of this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for treatment by a professional. The characters in this story are not real. Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality.)
Dr. Richard Elghammer is a clinical psychologist in Danville, Ill., and Crawfordsville, Ind. He received specialty training in child, adolescent and family psychology at Riley’s Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis and completed his clinical internship at Indiana University School of Medicine.
DANVILLE — After months of negotiations and late-night meetings, Danville District 118 school board members on Wednesday voted 5-0 to ratify a new four-year contract with the Danville Education Association.
Board members Tyson Parks and Darlene Halloran were absent.
Salary increases for the more than 500 union employees, not including food service or custodial, are 5.5 percent the first year, 5 percent the second and third years and 4 percent the fourth year.
The previous contract expired June 30, 2023. This contract runs through 2027.
“We bargained a lot of new language in the contract, especially around discipline,” said DEA President Alan Rivers.
The DEA had ratified the contract by a 78 percent to 22 percent vote.
Superintendent Alicia Geddis thanked everyone for their hard work in reaching a contract for staff. She said a statement will be sent to staff regarding when retro pay checks will be coming.
School board members also thanked the DEA representatives and everyone involved with the new contract.
School Board President Randal Ashton thanked the DEA for not having contentious negotiations.
He said the DEA and board listened more to what each side had to say and there were no real arguments in how to accommodate each other and reach an agreement at the end.
“I appreciated the non-contentiousness of the negotiations this time. It was much appreciated,” Ashton added.
He also said it was a process that had to take this much time. He’s heard several positive comments from employees already.
“We’re appreciative of the staff and… we’re glad to be able to come up with an agreement like this,” Ashton said.
In other business, the board started tax levy discussions about what the district should levy, and whether a truth in taxation hearing will be needed, due to equalized assessed valuation of Vermilion County district properties estimated at a 14 percent increase.
School officials said they don’t want to leave money on the table if the school district can benefit from the larger than usual projected EAV increase.
Asking for more than a 5 percent tax levy increase requires a truth in taxation hearing.
The school district’s 2022 tax rate was 5.238 percent with EAV of $372,815,510.
EAV for 2023 is estimated at $423,570,623, which is a 14.69 percent increase, according to Director of Business and Finance Narcissus Rankin.
She said the board has options with the 2023 tax levy. They could use the 14 percent projected EAV increase, or base the levy request on 10 percent or 6.5 percent increases.
The board will further discuss the tax levy prior to a vote.
Also Wednesday, the board approved matching salaries for non-union food service kitchen managers and area supervisors staff due to the increases with union staff. The percentage salary increases are 13.23 percent the first year, 6.13 percent the second year and 5.77 percent for the third year.
The school board also heard a concussion policy update in accordance with the Youth Sports Concussion Safety Act and board policy. The district has a Concussion Oversight team to annually exam policies. The district doesn’t have an athletic trainer on staff right now, but is trying to recruit an alum. The district has tried to contract with Carle in the past, but demand is high and winter is a struggle, according to Mark Bacys, facilitator of district athletics. He said concussions largely come from soccer. The district will usually see under 10 concussions a year. If there is a head injury, the student must be cleared by a medical professional. Emergency Medical Technicians have covered this roll, he said, adding that visiting football teams’ trainers also cover both sidelines.
In addition at the board meeting, it was announced that Northeast Elementary Magnet School again earned gold status as one of America’s healthiest schools. The achievement is by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national organization that empowers youngsters to develop lifelong healthy habits, as the nation’s healthiest schools based on the school’s ability to meet a rigorous set of criteria, including serving healthier meals and snacks, getting students moving more, offering high-quality health and physical education and empowering school leaders to become healthy role models.
There also was a first reading of traditional, balanced and pre-school calendars for 2024-2026.
In other business, the board approved:
- Out-of-state field trips for Danville High School AVID and College Career Class students to Purdue University; DHS JROTC to Springfield; and Mark Denman Elementary second, third and fourth-grader MATS students to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.
- Accepting as a gift a new larger show choir trailer purchased by the Choral Music boosters. The show choir groups had been renting a U-Haul for the last three years to transport equipment due to issues with the current trailer.
- The district’s revised wellness policy.
- Purchasing new three new steam tables for Danville High School, and one for Edison and one for Liberty elementary schools for $4,498 from Hubert Supplies. The steam tables are required in food service for the way they serve students to keep hot food hot and cold food cold. The current 25-year-plus tables are missing parts which are no longer available from vendors.
- A Head Start food program contract agreement for the site at Voorhees Street and Bowman Avenue for meals costs of $1.95 for breakfast, $3.45 for lunch and $1 for a snack.
- A Pepsi Co. agreement for vending machine service. School district commission had been 35 percent on items, but now will be 28 percent in addition to a rebate for products and additional free items. In a past year, the district had seen about $6,000 through commissions. Carbonated drinks are in teachers’ lounges in schools. DHS has Gatorade and water in a vending machine.
- A $14,400 contract, plus mileage, with Love Your Classroom for special education behavioral support due to recent resignations of two Board Certified Behavior Analysts.
Today’s story is about a mother, a daughter and a dazzling pair of emerald earrings.
Mary and her daughter Katie (9) have been shopping at a mall in Indianapolis, and three hours of browsing and walking have taken their toll. But their physical fatigue is overpowered by the thrill – akin to other “firsts” in life, such as a girl’s first love – of marching into a jewelry department at Kohl’s so Katie can buy her first piece of real gemstone jewelry.
You see, a double celebration is in the works: Christmas is but three days away; Katie’s 10th birthday is tomorrow. Like a puppy begging for a treat, Katie has pestered her mother daily: “When I turn 10, can I have a pair of real gemstone earrings?”
As their fingertips touch the top of the warm, glass display case, ancient light flashed from below reveals a treasure trove of earrings: all exquisite, all expensive, all possessing real gemstones cut and polished to perfection. Pulled by the power of the gems, Katie’s vivid imagination creates a movie where she, a princess, is playfully talking with each pair of earrings, are you the one for me? “Psst, Katie, over here, I’m the diamond pair in the center – Buy me! I’ll be your BFF, best friend forever.” “No, no, Katie, don’t choose the diamond, Buy me! I, the ruby-red garnet am the match for you.” It is the pair located at the top right corner which catches her eye. For the deep, sea-green emeralds, set in black onyx, are a match for Katie’s green eyes and raven black hair.
As mother and daughter leave the mall to return home to their farm in Illinois, Katie’s body glides with grace, her smile eternal, she is walking on air. Liquid-green eyes framed by shining raven hair are joined by new sparkles of green, now glittering from each ear. Almost 10, Katie is a princess returning home to her castle.
Westbound on State Road 136, Mary sees the bridge spanning the Wabash River; her signal that only six miles remain in their trip home. While Katie sleeps, her mother glances over at her and reflects, “In eight years Katie will be off to college, then she will marry, then she will have children of her own – Whoa! I’m not ready to be a grandmother! How can I slow down this march of time…”
Eastbound on 136, a 41-year-old man uses his teeth to twist off a bottle cap, which he spits out, so he can guzzle whiskey straight from the bottle. Blazing hot, it splashes down his gullet. Brain-buzzed on booze, reflexes dulled, he reaches down to snag his fallen pack of cigarettes, and as he does, his eyes leave the road.
With a clap of thunder, two cars collide, and the world slows down as time unwinds. Seconds stretch into hours, hours become centuries. One solitary emerald earring, briefly having touched the warmth of the living, is now ripped from flesh and flung high into the air. As it travels in an arc, on its final journey, it begins to tumble. Head over heels, green over black, black over dark, dark over light, light over death, death over life – and falls back to earth to land in a roadside ditch.
One year later:
Mary’s arrival, 25 minutes late for her regular office visit, was my warning sign. When I see her, she had become a woman I’d never met.
Her hair is matted, eyes vacant, mud is caked on the knees of her jeans. “What happened?” I ask. She replied, “You knew today was the one-year anniversary of Katie’s death, right?” “Yes,” I reply. Mary continued, “So, I went back to the crash scene, searching.” “What were you searching for?” I asked.
Mary extends her right hand, palm up, and opens her fingers. Nestled in her palm is an earring, which she gives to me. The earring, warmed by Mary’s body heat, is alive with green sparkles. Mary continues, “At the hospital that night, this one earring was given to me. The other one is still lost somewhere at the crash site. If I can unite them, complete the pair, I can start getting my life…” Overcome by sorrow, Mary speaks slowly, “I’m the sole survivor – like a shipwrecked person, I clutch onto broken pieces of the ship’s hull, to keep me afloat, but with no anchor, I’m drifting, pretending to live. Does the man who killed us even know what he took away?”
“Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life” – Sophocles.
Every year, more than 55% of all serious or fatal car crashes are a result of drivers who were positive for drugs or alcohol (CNNHealth.com, 12/14/2022). I believe they all would be alive today if awareness of the devastation caused by drunk drivers was raised. As this awareness becomes a permanent part of our culture, the value of life – all life, would in turn be raised.
This soon to be arriving holiday season, as you celebrate with family and friends, but before you drive, please hold Katie’s story inside your heart.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation Land of Smiles program visited 574 pre-kindergarteners through third grade students at Pine Crest Elementary School and Oakwood Grade School. Land of Smiles is a free, dynamic educational initiative that aims to empower children with essential oral health habits. The program has been designed not just to educate, but also to entertain. Characters like Captain Super Grin, Terri Tooth Fairy, Toothpick, and their playful nemesis, Caz Cavity, captivate young audiences while delivering crucial messages about oral hygiene, nutrition, and regular dental check-ups.
Tooth decay remains the leading chronic disease affecting our children, and the statistics in Illinois are particularly alarming. Research shows that 22% of Illinois third graders have untreated tooth decay.1 In a steadfast effort to address and curb this growing concern, the Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation has introduced the Land of Smiles program.
Reaching more than 30,000 children annually, the Land of Smiles program is a testament to Delta Dental of Illinois’ commitment and drive to improve the oral health landscape of the state’s younger generation.
Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation partners with school administrators and nurses to bring the free Land of Smiles program to Illinois elementary schools each spring and fall. The program has reached 524,078 students at 983 Illinois elementary schools over the past 13 years. This fall, it is reaching 24,674 pre-kindergarten through third-grade students in 119 Illinois schools. Every student at a Land of Smiles performance receives a kit with a free toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, along with bilingual oral health tips outlining how students should care for their teeth.
To learn more about the Land of Smiles program, download K-3 oral health educational resources, or request a school performance, visit https://www.landofsmilesil.org/.
Fentanyl has killed more Americans than the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. And lined up behind it are still more vicious street drugs.
The Justice Department can indict Chinese companies producing fentanyl and the precursor chemicals used to make it. The Biden administration can pressure Mexico to come down harder on drug trafficking.
None of this is going to work. As long as people can make money off these drugs and others are willing to pay for them, the flow will not stop. How has the 52-year War on Drugs worked out so far?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. Cheap to make, it is about 50 times as powerful as pure heroin. Of the reported 107,081 drug overdose deaths in America last year, more than two-thirds involved synthetic opioids other than methadone. A gram of fentanyl is so dangerous that experienced drug users have been known to die after making some careless dosing error.
Fentanyl usually takes the form of white powder that can be turned into pills or mixed with other drugs, such as meth, cocaine or heroin. And those who buy street versions of commonly prescribed drugs — say, Xanax for anxiety or Oxycodone for pain — may be getting something with fentanyl mixed in.
And there are scarier drugs. Carfentanil, a member of the fentanyl family of opioids, is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 10,000 times more powerful than morphine. Originally developed as a tranquilizer for elephants, it can masquerade as heroin.
Another animal sedative, xylazine, has been increasingly detected in fentanyl products. Often going under the name of “tranq” or “zombie drug,” xylazine is not an opioid but a sedative. That means overdose reversal treatments, such as Narcan, don’t work against it. It furthermore causes gruesome flesh wounds.
These monstrous drugs can be made in laboratories. The impossibility of diking the flood has changed the calculous of groups trying to mitigate this crisis. Instead of fighting against the supply, one epidemiologist said, “It is something that we’re coexisting with.”
Their strategy is “harm reduction.” Knowing that there’s a huge market for street drugs, they are trying to make that supply safer. One means is to set up machines in health departments and universities that can test drugs for deadly substances. Users can anonymously turn over their illegal drugs for analysis.
The machines, however, can cost hundreds of thousands. There are far cheaper and mostly reliable test strips that let users check for the presence of fentanyl.
Who is going to use this technology? It might work in social settings such as nightclubs, where the testing is done right on the premises. But what about kids being handed pills at a party?
And will addicts suffering an agonizing withdrawal bother to test a drug that they think could quickly relieve their anguish? The do-it-yourself test strips require a number of steps — not unlike the COVID home testing kits — that a disorganized junkie might have trouble following.
Florida, Texas, Kansas and Georgia, meanwhile, have made these test kits illegal, deeming them “drug paraphernalia.” That’s too bad, as well as bad labeling. We should try everything to save lives. But it would also be a mistake to let testing add to the sense that street drug use is in any way safe.
Fentanyl has even shown up in some marijuana. Legal marijuana bought at dispensaries is a fairly safe bet, if not foolproof. And note that in states where weed’s use has been legalized, it is still illegal to buy it from illicit sources.
As for fentanyl, governments can’t stop the killing. Only its customers have that power. So far, they’re not using it.
The foundational focus of Lions International and its worldwide Lions Clubs is to focus on improving peoples’ vision and hearing issues. In 1925 Helen Keller met with Lions International at their convention in Cedar Falls, Ohio asking them to be advocates for the blind, which they embraced. It follows then that Lions have been dedicated ambassadors and loyal supporters of the mission of Leader Dogs for the Blind since its inception in 1939.
More than 4,900 Lions Clubs both nationally and internationally contribute financially to Leader Dog, including Danville Lions Club. Lions identify people in their community who could benefit from Leader Dogs services, offer assistance to our clients and widely communicate information throughout their hometowns and districts. Lions step forward to support the people they serve in significant ways, acting as Leader Dog Chairs in their districts, as puppy raisers and hosts for our breeding stock dogs and as advocates for the community of people who are blind or visually impaired.
Currently Peg Morris of Danville Lions Club serves as a Leader Dog Chair in the district.
At a recent Danville Lions meeting, Danville resident and new Danville Lions Club member Mary Beth Zundo recounted the Zundo family experience years ago as being both puppy raisers and hosts for the breeding stock dogs.
As the Zundo family loves dogs and had family dogs for years, when their children were toddlers, they made the decision to approach Leader Dogs for the Blind to see how they could participate in that program to be a part of the mission of preparing dogs to serve those experiencing blindness. Their first dog was Goldie, a five-month-old yellow Labrador. They visited the Leader Dogs for the Blind headquarters in Rochester Hills, Mich., to become acquainted with the facility for the dogs and to be instructed as to the expectations they were to meet as hosts of Goldie.
One of the instructions they were given was not to instruct Goldie to “heel,” to stay close to the side of the human, as is typical dog training; as these dogs will be leading their blind owners, they will need to “lead,” not heel. From day one of the dog living with them, they were told they needed to “socialize” Goldie, to acclimate her to being around people. Leader Dogs need to be trainable and friendly. The dogs undergo very specific training to be leader dogs when they are at the facility in Michigan, and host families are instructed as to how to raise them to be able to be trained to eventually lead. The personality of each dog is very important to be trained as a Leader Dog.
While living with the Zundo family, Goldie was bred three times, one of which produced a litter of 11 puppies, which the family was responsible to care for. As years went on, the Zundo family continued to work with Leader Dogs to host and breed additional dogs. As Mary Beth Zundo relayed to the Lions Club, their experiences provided wonderful family memories, which she was pleased to share with the members.
The Danville Lions Club is a stalwart financial supporter of the Leader Dog program through the Lions Illinois Foundation. In her presentation, Zundo pointed out that there are varied reasons as to why people lose their sight, one of which being diabetes. That is why Danville Lions hosts diabetes awareness days annually to educate the public and raise funds for programs to assist people with vision and hearing needs.