An ode to canine anarchy circa '70s Athens

You think Athens is a dog-friendly place now? Ask anyone who lived here 30 to 40 years ago, and they’ll tell you that the city is now a veritable concentration camp for dogs compared to the old days.

It’s autumn in Athens, and as Ohio University upperclassmen know, the race to sign a lease for the 2010-2011 school year began at the same time that classes did.

Because good housing tends to get snatched up quickly in Athens, students often find themselves signing away a year of their lives without fully considering the pros and cons of their living arrangements.

Skeeter, a 6-month-old Australian cattle dog and boxer, chases other dogs around the Athens Dog Park on West State Street as his owner, exercise physiology graduate student Joe Kelley, sits on a bench studying.

"I try to get him out here at least once a day, and I take him on short walks, too," Kelley said as Skeeter followed two other dogs through the agility course at the park.

As President Barack Obama addressed the nation on health care, the California Nurses Association revealed that health insurers have rejected about one-fifth of all medical claims in the state over the past seven years.

Using data culled from California's Department of Managed Care’s Web site, the CNA said it found that the state's five largest insurers rejected 31.2 million claims for care from 2002 through June of this year. According to the nurses’ union, PacificCare denied the largest percentage of claims (40 percent), followed by Cigna (33 percent), HealthNet (30 percent) and Kaiser (29 percent).

Research geared toward improving treatments for teenage smokers will be a feature at HEALTHfest, which will be held at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, Saturday, Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A mobile research laboratory from the Center for Biobehavioral Health in the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital will be present at HEALTHfest.

In an effort to raise awareness of breast and cervical cancer, the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) is providing free and reduced-cost screenings throughout southeast Ohio in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

This effort is part of an ongoing series of screenings provided by the OU-COM Community Health Programs and the Area Health Education Center.

In recent change, birth-control pills now covered

The first H1N1 diagnosis at Ohio University was officially announced Thursday, and as anxieties about the flu spread across campus this week, many students are unclear about what is even covered on their student health insurance plan.

About 3,600 students were covered by the OU student health insurance plan in the 2008-2009 school year, said Jacqueline Legg, interim director of the Student Health and Counseling Services at OU. At $367 per quarter for yearlong insurance coverage, Legg said that OU student insurance costs an average of $90 per month.

The Athens First Presbyterian Church donated $24,000 to My Sister’s Place on Sunday, Sept. 27.
The donation will cover renovations at the My Sister’s Place establishment, including reconstruction of the ventilation system and the purchase of a larger oven, and will cover the cost for the relocation of a dishwasher.

The donation is part of the First Presbyterian’s bicentennial celebration, whose theme is “Building the Future through the Legacy of Service,” said bicentennial chairperson Harold Robison.

Editor’s note: This is a letter from Catherine Pierce, acting director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Dear Friends,

Fifteen years ago, we saw the result of the hard work of dedicated advocates throughout the nation, when landmark legislation, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), was signed into law on Sept. 13, 1994.

In lieu of jail time, men charged with domestic violence can be admitted to the Domestic Violence Intervention Program (DVIP), which is a group-based treatment program overseen by My Sister’s Place.

Two groups – one run in Athens, and another in Logan – are each facilitated by two clinicians with at least a master’s degree in counseling or psychology. Topics covered in the 24 sessions include understanding various types of abuse; distinguishing between assertive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive communications; the consequences of abuse on families and children; and understanding male privileges, explained Dr. Paul Castelino, training director at the Carruth Center for Psychological and Psychiatric Services at West Virginia University, in an e-mail. He worked as a staff psychologist for Counseling and Psychological Services at Ohio University until August of this year.

An appellate court decision recently handed down in a local domestic-violence case should make it easier for battered women to get continued police protection from abusive ex-husbands after they get divorced.

In a ruling issued in May, the 4th District Court of Appeals overturned a decision by the Athens County Common Pleas Court, which had refused a woman’s request for a five-year civil protection order against her ex-husband, based at least in part on the view that because the couple was getting divorced, she wouldn’t need further protection.

My Sister’s Place, the Athens-based domestic-violence shelter, has worked for more than 30 years to empower women in the surrounding communities, and this year the shelter was the recipient of the first-ever Athens Foundation Women’s Fund endowment.

The grant of $2,058 is being used in collaboration with Girl Power, a national campaign that’s being conducted in Trimble, Federal Hocking and Amesville elementary and/or middle-school classrooms.

An emerging crisis in the state of Ohio is being combated with an executive order signed by Gov. Ted Strickland in April 2008.

According to the state Office of the Governor Web site, domestic violence is an issue of public health, as well as an economic issue and a workplace safety issue.

Over the past year, lawmakers at the Ohio Statehouse have introduced a number of items dealing with domestic violence. What follows is a status update on some of those measures. The information comes from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network steering committee, with updates from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.