Elder Law Prof Blog

Elder Financial Protection Network hosts 6th annual conference and awards ceremony

The Elder Financial Protection Network’s  6th annual Call to Action conference, luncheon and award ceremony will be held on March 25 in San Francisco.The keynote Speaker will be Philip Marshall, Grandson of Brooke Astor.

The featured panel presentation will be America’s Landmark Case: Brooke Astor, presented by Elizabeth Loewy, Assistant District Attorney of the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

The conference will also feature Triumph Over Torture presented by the masterful Paul Greenwood, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego District Attorney’s Office and several other dynamic sessions presented by an amazing lineup of speakers.

The Honorable Judge Kim Hubbard of the Orange County Superior Court will be our Master of Ceremonies for the luncheon and annual awards presentation.

This will be a historic event, a conference that you do not want to miss! For more information and to register, visit www.bewiseonline

New on SSRN: Elder Law Studies Journal abstracts

The Elder Law Studies Journal is sponsored by Syracuse University College of Law, which offers a certificate in Gerontology in cooperation with the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs.

Table of Contents Policy Learning and Cross-National Diffusion in Social Long-Term Care Insurance: Germany, Japan, and the Republic of Korea John Creighton Campbell, affiliation not provided to SSRN Naoki Ikegami, Keio University - School of Medicine - Department of Health Policy & Management Soonman Kwon, Seoul National University Testacy and Intestacy: The Dynamics of Wills and Demographic Status Alyssa A. DiRusso, Samford University - Cumberland School of Law Protecting Our Aging Retirees: Converting 401(K) Accounts into Federally Guaranteed Lifetime Annuities Lawrence A. Frolik, University of Pittsburgh - School of Law Insurer Bargaining and Negotiated Drug Prices in Medicare Part D Darius Lakdawalla, RAND Corporation, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Wesley Yin, Boston University A Conversation About End-of-Life Decisionmaking Alicia R. Ouellette, Albany Law School Timothy Quill, affiliation not provided to SSRN Robert Swidler, Northeast Health Thaddeus Mason Pope, Widener University Law School - Health Law Institute Nancy Dubler, Montefiore Medical Center - Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine

Informational site addresses hospital-acquired infections

HAIWatch.com is a website devoted to providing information about health-care acquired infections, which can be very serious due to the super-bacteria that they often involve.  Here's an excerpt from the site:

When someone develops an infection at a hospital or other patient care facility that they did not have prior to treatment, this is referred to as a healthcare-associated (sometimes hospital-acquired) infection (HAI).Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a global crisis affecting both patients and healthcare workers.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at any point in time, 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infections acquired in hospitals.  A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report published in March-April 2007 estimated the number of U.S. deaths from healthcare associated infections in 2002 at 98,987.  The risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections in developing countries is 2-20 times higher than in developed countries.  Afflicting thousands of patients every year, HAI often leads to lengthening hospitalization, increasing the likelihood of readmission, and adding sizably to the cost of care per patient.  Financially, HAIs represent an estimated annual impact of $6.7 billion to healthcare facilities, but the human cost is even higher.  Until recently, a lack of HAI reporting requirements for healthcare facilities has contributed to less-than-optimal emphasis being placed on eliminating the sources of healthcare associated infections. However, growing public anxiety regarding the issue and resulting legislation on state and local levels demanding accountability is serving to accelerate initiatives to combat HAIs.

To learn more about the impact of healthcare-associated infections for both medical professionals and patients, please visit www.haiwatch.com"

This site is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark.

Positions Available at Legal Counsel for the Elderly

Please see below for two position announcements at Legal Counsel for the Elderly. For inquiry purposes, Amy Mix ([email protected]) is the hiring manager for the Consumer position and I ([email protected]) am the hiring manager for the Brief Services Unit position. Applications should be completed at www.aarpjobs.com. 

 

   The AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE) provides a wide range of free legal services and advocacy to District residents age 60+.  LCE helps clients by providing courtroom advocacy on consumer, property tax and housing issues; assistance with public benefits, custody and identity theft problems; and provides help with drafting wills, powers of attorney and advance directives.

 

AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE) is currently seeking two qualified attorneys to fill the following positions:

 

Sr. Legal Aid Attorney - Consumer

Representation involves a significant degree of expertise in consumer law/consumer fraud, litigation (foreclosure defense, affirmative predatory lending litigation, deed fraud, advocacy for victims of identity theft, debt collection defense, and real estate scams); experienced litigator, independent judgment, ability to navigate through complex issues, strong problem solving skills, JD, member in good  standing with DC bar, plus 4 years related experience.  

 

Legal Aid Attorney - Associate (Brief Services Unit)

The BSU assists low income elderly residents of the District of Columbia in over 600 cases annually in the areas of economic security (public benefits, Social Security, and debt collection defense); health and supportive services (assessing health insurance and addressing medical debts); and livable communities (linking people with more affordable and safe housing);requires independent judgment, ability to navigate through complex issues, strong problem solving skills,  Completion of JD, willingness to work with volunteers, member in good standing of the DC bar and 3 years of related legal experience, particularly in public benefits/Social Security.  Spanish speaking a plus.

 

All qualified candidates are invited to apply on-line at www.aarpjobs.com.  Refer to All available positions.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that values workplace diversity.

 

Jennifer L. Berger

Supervisory Legal Aid Attorney

AARP/Legal Counsel for the Elderly

601 E Street, NW

Washington, DC  20049

Tel. (202) 434-2155

Fax (202) 434-6464

Marquette's annual Elder's Advisor CLE is March 26

The Push to Institutionalize Prevention: We Win, We Lose

Friday, March 26, 2010

Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
333 West Kilbourn Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Tel: (414) 276-1234
Fax: (414) 276-6338

The conference fee is $40—this includes continental breakfast, lunch, and reception. Scholarships available if needed. Marquette professors and students are admitted at no charge, but registration is required.

Please reserve your spot by March 19, 2010.

REGISTER:  https://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2216&deEvent_eventID=2919&date=03-26-2010&utm_source=Law+School&utm_campaign=72d7c3893c-2010_02_23Weekly&utm_medium=email

9:30–10:00 a.m. • Registration and Continental Breakfast

10:00–10:30 a.m. • Welcome
Joseph D. Kearney, Dean and Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School
Meghan C. O’Connor, Editor-in-Chief, Marquette Elder’s Advisor

10:30–11:15 a.m. • Session I
Prevention of Illness: Tidings of Comfort and Ambiguity
Paul Bernstein, J.D., M.D., Aurora Health Care
Alison Barnes, Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School

11:15–11:30 a.m. • Break

11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. • Session II
The Economic Faces of Prevention
John D. Blum, J.D., M.H.S., Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Adam Atherly, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Health Systems Management and Policy, University of Colorado at Denver School of Public Health

12:15 p.m. • Lunch

1:45–2:30 p.m. • Session III
Primary and Chronic Care for People with Disabilities and Advanced Age
John V. Jacobi, Professor of Law, Seton Hall University Law School
Freeman Farrow, J.D., M.D., Assistant Professor of Law, DePaul University Law School

2:30–2:45 p.m. • Break

2:45–3:30 p.m. • Session IV and Closing Remarks
The Unfinished Agenda: Alternatives, Revisions, a Future
Alison Barnes, Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School

Reception follows the conference

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please contact Erica Hayden, [email protected],
or KristyAnne Thompson, [email protected].
Elder’s Advisor: (414) 288-1915
CLE credits anticipated

The Push to Institutionalize Prevention: We Win, We Lose
Changing our activities and our eating, taking pills and potions, trying to improve a condition or its symptoms—all this is as old as humankind. But the benign face of prevention—often found in the doctor who knows the patient as a person—has changed as health care has evolved, becoming a growing business of recommendations for screens and tests. The trigger that sets this process in motion in an individual case is often the patient’s chronological age or chemistry, the latter revealed when some other condition warrants general screening. The result for many people can be overtreatment, opening a patient to the potential for invasive, lifelong side effects. And even though anecdotes relate the risks avoided, mortality rates are unchanged by some preventive measures.

This symposium sheds light on the excellent, the misguided, and the mysterious aspects of preventive care, with recognition of the roles that law, policy, and politics play through finance and quality assurance. For this discussion, we bring together scholars and experts in health and medicine—people who can assess both the public debate and the human and economic aspects of prevention.

You should wish to attend this conference if you are a practitioner or academic in law, public health, nursing, allied health professions, or community medicine, or if you take part in health-related policymaking on a local, state, or federal level.

Larry "the Dude" Frolik, inventor of Elder Law, receives Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award

Larry Frolik (Pitt) recently received the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award at the Univeristy of Pittsburgh.  Frolik, the co-author of an elder law casebook that is much more widely used than my own, was characteristically humble about the award, stating:  "As faculty members in a professional school, we have the obligation to train students for the profession...Teaching law can be very theoretical, but then you see the application of the law to older people, and people with disabilities, and the law can become very rewarding and stimulating.  It's very gratifying work."

Congratulations, Larry.  For the full article, visit http://www.cejp.org/larry.pdf

Lawyers, Drugs & Money: A Prescription for Antitrust Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Industry Online Proceedings

In cooperation with The University of San Francisco School of Law and the Rutgers Law Journal, the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN) is pleased to announce the Lawyers, Drugs & Money: A Prescription for Antitrust Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Industry Online Proceedings. These proceedings are available to all users at no charge and contain abstracts of the meeting's papers with links to the full text within the SSRN eLibrary.

One of the most pressing issues of our time is how to encourage medical innovation while containing the costs of medication. Judges grapple with this challenge in litigation over patent rights and antitrust law. The result is a potent dose of lawyers, drugs and money, the topic of our symposium.

The University of San Francisco School of Law hosted a day-long symposium on Friday, September 25, 2009 in Fromm Hall. The symposium included five panels addressing cutting edge issues relevant to enforcement of the antitrust laws in the pharmaceutical industry. These panels considered topics such as reverse payments (or pay-for-delay settlements), product hopping, standing and preemption, burdens of proof, and class certification in antitrust cases.


You can browse all Lawyers, Drugs & Money: A Prescription for Antitrust Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Industry Symposium abstracts in the SSRN database by clicking on the following link. The current drafts of the papers are available now and the final versions should be uploaded soon. You may wish to bookmark it in your browser.
View papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Lawyers-Drugs-Money.html.

AoA announces RFP for regional Pension Counseling and Information Projects

The Administration on Aging (AoA) will award grants for up to six Regional Pension Counseling & Information Projects and one Pension Counseling Technical Resource & Assistance Center.

 

The Federal government’s share for each of the six Pension Counseling & Information Projects will be approximately $200,000 per year for a project period of up to three years.  The counseling projects provide individuals who reside, have worked in, or have some other pension or employer connection to the regional service area with a range of services, including drafting administrative pension claims and appeals, and providing representation and support through administrative proceedings; identifying and pursuing pension benefits from clients’ prior employers; responding to basic questions about rights and remedies under all public and private pension systems throughout the service region; operating a region-wide outreach program to ensure public and provider awareness of the Program’s broad focus of assisting individuals with pension and retirement savings problems, regardless of age or income; and targeting certain outreach efforts to those in greatest need.

 

Eligible applicants include domestic public or private and non-profit entities including state, local and Indian tribal governments, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education, with a proven record of advising and representing individuals who have been denied employer or union-sponsored retirement income benefits, and which have the capacity to deliver services on a regional basis.

More info:  http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Grants/Funding/docs/2010/FY10_PensionCounselingProj_2_4_10.doc

The Administration on Aging (AoA) will also fund through a cooperative agreement one Technical Resource and Assistance Center (Center).  The Federal government’s share will be approximately $425,253 per year for a project period of up to three years.  The Center will be structured to support the Pension Counseling and Information Program’s grantees and others and to encourage coordination among the projects, State and Areas Agencies on Aging, legal services providers, and other potential providers of pension assistance by providing substantive legal training, technical assistance, programmatic coordination, and nationwide outreach, information and referral.  The award is a cooperative agreement because AoA will be involved substantially in the project.  Eligible applicants include domestic public or private and non-profit entities including state, local and Indian tribal governments, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education, with a proven record of advising and representing individuals who have been denied employer or union-sponsored pension and retirement savings plan benefits, the capacity to provide services under the Program on a national basis, and a well-established, positive reputation in their respective professional communities.

 

More info: 

http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Grants/Funding/docs/2010/FY10_PensionResourceCenter_PA_final_2_4_10.doc    

NAELA announces 2010 Student Elder Law Writing Competition

The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) is sponsoring the Fifth Annual NAELA Elder Law Writing Competition — a writing competition designed to focus students on the legal issues affecting seniors or people with disabilities.  NAELA offers a $1,500 cash prize for the best article, and the winning author will be interviewed for a future issue of NAELA News, a publication that reaches all of NAELA’s 4,000+ members. The cash prizes for second and third places are $1,000 and $500, respectively. The top eight authors will be published in the NAELA Student Journal in early winter 2011 and will receive a complimentary one-year membership in NAELA.

This competition is open to all law students who have not yet graduated.

For more information about this competition, visit http://naela.org/Student_Writing_Competition.aspx

News of the Old: King Tut died of malaria, ho hum.

Scientists from Egypt, Germany and elsewhere, including Zahi Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of  Antiquities, compiled results from genetic and radiological testing performed on the mummies between 2007 and 2009. The results clarify details about the 155-year-long 18th Dynasty that included Tutankhamen, who inherited the throne at age 11  Tut was afflicted with a cleft palate, mild clubfoot in his left foot and other bone ailments. He and some family members had a form of Kohler disease, which can cause foot bones to collapse from lack of blood but would not have been fatal.  King Tutankhamen, the teen-aged pharaoh whose Egyptian tomb yielded dazzling treasures, limped around on tender bones and a club foot and probably died from malaria, researchers said on Tuesday.  There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt's Valley of Kings.Tests performed on 16 royal mummies found four, including Tut, had contracted a severe form of malaria that likely cut short Tut's reign -- ruling out murder or some other sickness.

The scientists speculated Tut was weakened by a broken leg possibly from a fall. That and a malaria infection led to his death, they believe.  "Tutankhamen had multiple disorders, and some of them might have reached the cumulative character of an inflammatory, immune-suppressive -- and thus weakening -- syndrome. He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk," Hawass wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F50020100217

'Indiana Laws of Aging' handbook available for minimal fee

The Indiana State Bar Association and the Indiana Bar Foundation are pleased to announce that the Indiana Laws of Aging handbook, formerly known as the Legal Reference for Older Hoosiers, is available for purchase at a minimal price!

Members of the following ISBA sections, which supported the publication's printing, have received a complimentary copy of the handbook: Elder Law Section, Family & Juvenile Law Section, General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Section and the Probate, Trust & Real Property Section.

Additional copies of this publication can be purchased for just $1.50 (plus shipping). The handbook is also being widely distributed to elder law programs throughout the state at no cost.

To purchase a copy of the Indiana Laws of Aging handbook, please fax the order form to 317.266.2588.

To view an electronic copy of the handbook, visit the Indiana Bar Foundation Web site, www.inbf.org, and click on the Laws of Aging button on the left-side column of the IBF home page

10 law review articles you should have read but probably didn't

Via SSRN:

Law Review Articles You Should've Read (But Probably Didn't) in 2009

Bridget J. Crawford
Pace University School of Law

Tax Notes, p. 397, January 18, 2010

Abstract:     
This short column highlights for estate and gift tax practitioners 10 noteworthy law review articles published during 2009. Estate and gift taxation is one area in which law professors’ writing should be of interest to tax practitioners and vice versa, because significant change in the law of trusts and estates originates in both the academy and the field.

Keywords: trusts, estates, trusts & estates, estate tax, gift tax, law reviews, scholarship, pet trusts, tax gap, repeal, accessions, unconscionability, reproductive technology, privacy, elder law, assisted living, legal history, creditors, ERISA, marriage, wealth, beneficiary, beneficiaries

JEL Classifications: K34, K39, K30

Accepted Paper Series

Books: Oscar the Cat Knows When Death is Near

PROVIDENCE, R.I. —The cat’s uncanny. It knows when death approaches.

At first this was just a curious observation. Now it’s an undeniable conclusion, first published two years ago in a medical journal and now in a new book that came out last week: “Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat.” (Hyperion, $23.99).

Oscar is the cat. David Dosa is the author and the doctor. And it would be a mistake to assume from the title that Oscar merely accompanies Dosa at Steere House in Providence, which cares for patients with terminal dementia.

“It’s definitely his world,” Dosa says. “He just lets us work there.”

Oscar lives at the nursing home. And in his roughly five years there, Oscar has sensed the imminent deaths of some 50 patients whom he insisted on sitting beside and keeping company as their lives came to a close.

“It’s not like he dawdles,” Dosa writes. “He’ll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble, and then he’s back at the patient’s side. It’s like he’s literally on a vigil.”

Dosa is an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University. He has faith in science, not in a cat. Well, that was once the case. Dosa’s faith has been shaken.

“My own intellectual vanity made it easier for me to reject the notion that some errant feline could know more than we as medical staff did,” Dosa writes. “I felt strangely elated by the notion that I could be completely wrong.”

A few years ago Dosa realized he was completely wrong. Two patients on opposite sides of the nursing home were dying. A female staff member who earlier noticed Oscar’s aptitude to sense the onset of death took Oscar out of one patient’s room and brought him to the room of the other patient who was regarded as more deathly ill.

To read more about Oscar the Cat, http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/content/artsun-oscar_01-31-10_61H80A6_v26.3a627cd.html

Prof. Pietsch (Hawaii) quoted in article on financial abuse of elderly

 
Prof. Jim Pietsch of the University of Hawaii was quoted in the February 14 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser.  Here's an excerpt:

The ease at which powers of attorney can be drawn up — blank forms can be downloaded from the Internet, and no witnesses are required — and the significant potential for misuse have led some banks to stop accepting the documents, according to James Pietsch, director of the University of Hawai'i Elder Law Program.

The program offers basic legal assistance, advice and information to needy people 60 and older, and caregivers.

Many elderly residents are unaware of the risks of relinquishing their powers of attorney, and unless the documents are drafted with care, they can be readily abused because they grant broad decision-making authority, fail to explain clear standards of conduct, and lack monitoring mechanisms to detect problems early on or provisions for holding abusers accountable.

"It's very easy to abuse, especially with the increasing number of folks who are going to be suffering from diminished capacity or undue influence due to physical or mental frailty where they are turning over their things to other people," Pietsch said.

"You can't be as trusting as you used to be when there are people lurking out there at Zippy's and other places who know the ropes."

Read more here: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100214/NEWS01/2140379/More+Hawaii+seniors+financially+exploited

“Vulnerable Populations, Economic Realities” Conference

 

On Friday and Saturday, March 19-20, SALT and Golden Gate University School of Law are co-sponsoring the “Vulnerable Populations, Economic Realities: an inter-discliplinary approach to law teaching.  Registration is now open.  Registration fees have been waived for conference presenters. 

 

Registration is $130 for the two-day conference.  Here is just a peek at the program.  Watch the SALTLAW.org website for the full program to be posted later this week:

· The conference begins with a Friday morning plenary: a conversation between Paul Butler, (George Washington University School of Law) author of Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice, and Richard Delgado, (Seattle University School of Law)  on the criminalization of poverty. 

· Friday’s lunchtime speaker is Lauren Speeth, founding CEO of The Elfenworks Foundation, which is underwriting some of the costs of the conference. 

· Friday evening California Newsreel is sponsoring a wine and beer reception and showing a sneak preview of its documentary-in-progess “Turkey Creek,” about a Mississippi community in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Producer Leah Mahan will be there to answer questions about the film. 

· Saturday’s morning plenary features Senior Judge Thelton Henderson, United States District Court, Northern District of California, introducing his life-long friend John Payton, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

· Saturday’s lunch includes Doug Colbert, (University of Maryland School of Law) challenging the academy to infuse the entire law school curriculum with the concept of the “public citizen” found in the Preamble to the Canons of Ethics. 

Download a flyer and distribute it to colleagues.

Register and learn more about affordable hotels close to Golden Gate University…

Register for Equal Justice Conference

Join the Equal Justice Community for the 2010 Equal Justice Conference sponsored by the American Bar Association and National Legal Aid & Defender Association

Get away to Phoenix, AZ for the 2010 Equal Justice Conference, the nation's premier conference for lawyers and advocates involved in and supporting the delivery of civil legal aid to the low-income community. 

The Equal Justice Conference brings together all components of the legal community to discuss equal justice issues as they relate to the delivery of legal services to the poor and low-income individuals in need of legal assistance.  The emphasis of this Conference is on strengthening partnerships among the key players in the civil justice system.  Through plenary sessions, workshops, networking opportunities and special programming, the Conference provides a wide range of learning and sharing experiences for all attendees.

Pro bono and legal services program staff, judges, bar leaders, corporate counsel, court administrators, private lawyers, paralegals and many others attend this event.

Join hundreds of your colleagues for networking, training and fun in sunny Phoenix for the 2010 Equal Justice Conference. 

View the latest information about the conference online at the 
Equal Justice Conference website.

 
Click here for a list of workshop titles, Agenda At-a-Glance
and registration information. 

Heat wave in Brazil kills 32 elderly persons

Thirty-two elderly people died in a southeastern Brazilian city this week because of a heat wave that has pushed temperatures to unseasonably high levels, a health official said Wednesday.  All of the fatalities in the coastal city of Santos near Sao Paulo involved people between 60 and 90 years old with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, according to the health ministry in Santos.The first deaths were registered Monday, when the temperature in Santos reached 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit). Temperatures were well above 30 degrees (86 F) in the following days.Luiz Fernando Gomes da Silva, Santos' health ministry's coordinator for the elderly, is urging people to drink a lot of liquids amid the heat of the South American summer. 

Temperatures are also hitting record levels in Rio de Janeiro, where the city's five-day Carnival bash begins Friday.  The heat wave follows more than a month of torrential rains across southeastern Brazil that killed more than 70 people - most victims of mudslides that swept away ramshackle homes built on hillsides.

Read more here:  Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021003276.html

Editor's note:  In natural disasters such as this one, the elderly generally comprise 75-90% of all deaths.  Yet most disaster management programs, including those in the USA, don't explicitly address the circumstances that generate this statistic. 

Funding Opportunity: Wider Opportunities for Women Elder Economic Security Initiative

Wider Opportunities for Women Elder Economic Security Initiative

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) is pleased to announce the release of our Request for Proposals for the Elder Economic Security Initiative tm (Initiative). The Initiative's core components include: coalition building, research, advocacy, education, and outreach. Underpinning these national, state and community efforts is the Elder Economic Security Standard tm Index (Elder Index), a comprehensive geographically-based measure of income adequacy, developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston (GI UMASS) and WOW. WOW seeks lead state organizations (LSOs) with whom to launch and implement the Initiative. In collaboration with WOW, these LSOs will:

*Build a diverse statewide coalition;
*Provide input into the tabulation of the state Elder Index;
*Develop a statewide policy agenda to promote elder economic security; and
*Coordinate the launch and implementation of their state's Initiative.

To date, WOW has partnerships with non-profit organizations and state agencies in twelve states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia. Applications will not be accepted from these states. If you are interested in becoming involved with the Initiative in these states, please contact WOW.

Applications  will be due Friday, March 5, 2010. For additional information, contact Stacy Sanders, Associate Director, at [email protected].

Deadline: March 5, 2010 http://www.epa.gov/aging/grants/grantofo.htm#2010_0305_grantofo_1

Nominate someone 60+ for a $100,000 "Purpose Prize"

The Purpose Prize is a $100,000 award to people in their encore careers who are inventing new ways to solve social problems.

Ten people over the age of 60 will win in 2010. Nominate yourself or someone you know. Deadline: March 5.

For more information about this prize, or to nominate someone, visit: http://www.encore.org/prize

Rep. John Murtha, a voice for veterans, dies after surgery

Rep. John Murtha, the tall, gruff-mannered former Marine who became the de facto voice of veterans on Capitol Hill and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq War, died Monday. He was 77.  The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., with his family at his bedside, the hospital said.  In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. Ethical questions often shadowed his congressional service, but he was best known for being among Congress' most hawkish Democrats. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.  Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration's handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.  "The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion," he said.  Murtha's opposition to the Iraq war rattled Washington, where he enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. On Capitol Hill, Murtha was seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters.

Source/more:  Associated Press/Comcast, http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20100208/US.Obit.Murtha/