I hope everyone is having a fine summer. Even though the solstice isn’t here yet, we’ve had a great early time of it in May. We can look forward to several more months of outdoor fun. For most people with disabilities, summer is a much easier time of year to be out of doors. I like ...
Author Archive
Editor’s Column – May 2010
At this amazing 20th anniversary of Access Press, I want to thank everyone for your patience with me back in September of 2001 when I was elected as executive director. It was a difficult transition for all of us; there just was no replacing Charlie Smith, who had lost his hard-fought struggle with throat cancer. Charlie ...
Editor’s Column – April 2010
Here we are in the middle of the legislative session, and as usual, everything seems to be on hold. There have been a few health and human services bills at the state capitol that were steps in the right direction. General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) was funded finally—well it was partially funded; there are still ...
Editor’s Column – March 2010
This last month, many Minnesotans lost at the capitol. As you’ve probably heard, General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) will be discontinued as of April 1. The people who are on this program will be moved to MinnesotaCare if they can afford it. Of course, most of the people on this program have no income other ...
Editor’s Column – February 2010
The 2010 legislative session started Feb. 4. If you haven’t contacted your legislators, do it now. Make sure your legislator knows your name and your face. It is much harder for them to cut programs when they know the faces behind these programs. Many legislators have told Access Press that the more people with disabilities ...
Editor’s Column – January 2010
On a 3-degree Minnesota winter day, I’m not feeling very optimistic. We hear horror stories about the number of homeless that are out in this frigid weather, and too often we imagine, or are presented with, just the stereotype: middle-aged males with chronic alcoholism. But there is a larger percentage of homeless families and teens ...
Editor’s Column – December 2009
I started last month’s column with some thoughts about the Charlie Smith award banquet. Then it was only a few days away, and I promised that this month I would fill you in on all that happened. Well, the night was a fabulous success! We had one room where the silent auction and raffle was ...
Editor’s Column – November 2009
The Charlie Smith award banquet will have happened by the time you read this. But I have a problem; it hasn't happened before I'm writing this. So I can't offer you any solid information about how the celebration went, but I feel confident it was excellent. I know that we had more RSVPs than we've ...
Editor’s Column – October 2009
Our sixth annual Charlie Smith awards are just around the corner, on Friday, Nov. 6. We hope to see everyone who has attended in the past, and we invite those who haven't been a part of "one of the best evenings of the year" to join us. The gathering will be held at a new ...
Editor’s Column – September 2009
It's time for the Charlie Smith Award banquet, a gathering that we all look forward to. It's an evening of real camaraderie and good spirits for Access Press readers and supporters. This year is going to be extra special; we are at a new location with more space for wheelchairs and more available public transportation. ...
Editor’s Column – August 2009
[caption id="attachment_1519" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Tim Benjamin, editor"][/caption] July 26 marked the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has had incredible effects on all of us with disabilities. It's time once again to say a big thank you to all the authors and to President George H. W. Bush for signing the ADA in ...
Editor’s Column – July 2009
The Americans with Disabilities Act has its 19th anniversary this July 24th, and guess what? Access Press is 19 years old now, too. It’s always good to have this annual reminder of how the Minnesota disability movement resulted in this paper at the very same time that the ADA was born on the national front. ...
Editor’s Column – June 2009
Our friend Charlie Smith founded Access Press 19 years ago this month. He started the paper as a very positive entrepreneurial adventure that has evolved in many directions and has involved thousands of people. There was a need in the disability community to have a resource for news outside mainstream news and Charlie filled that ...
Editor’s Column – May 2009
With all the concern about cuts to state-funded direct care, I decided to look back at the history of Minnesota’s personal care assistance program. There were several recurring themes throughout the program’s history; but guess what the main concern has been since 1977? Fraud. From 1977 to 1988, PCAs were paid directly by the department ...
Editor’s Column – April 2009
I want to thank the Minnesota Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) and all of the organizations that have worked so hard over the last couple of months to successfully organize rallies and lobbying efforts at the capitol and elsewhere. I know many of these people fairly well, and I’ve never seen before the distress ...
Editor’s Column – March 2009
[caption id="attachment_300" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Tim Benjamin at the March 7 Rally"][/caption]
I’ve had a pretty eventful month. I’ve gone to a couple rallies at the capitol and talked to a few folks about the upcoming proposed state budget cuts. The federal economic stimulus package should be good for the state and may keep many of our ...
Editor’s Column – February 2009
Well, there’s only one thing to talk about lately, and that’s the economy. There’s not much positive to say about either the Minnesota state budget or the United States federal budget. We have some very difficult times ahead and some very hard decisions to be made by our state and federal officials that will affect ...
Tax help available
Free help is available for persons who cannot afford to hire a tax preparer. Locally Account-Ability Minnesota (AAM) prepares taxes year round for low-income taxpayers at 14 tax sites in the Twin Cities and St Cloud and 27 tax sites in Greater Minnesota. Approximately 24% of these taxpayers are persons with disabilities. AAM has developed a ...
Editor’s Column – January 2009
As you can read in our “Year in Review” article, lots of things have been and are happening in our community. Minnesota has a very active disability community and especially in the coming years we need to make ourselves even more visible in national and state government. When we do finally know who will be ...
Editor’s Column – December 2008
This year’s Charlie Smith award banquet was the best ever. If you hadn’t heard, the winner of the Charlie Smith award for 2008 is Pete Feigal. Pete was introduced by his friend Vicki Dalle Molle, MPA, executive director of Southeastern MN Center for Independent Living (SEMCIL). You can read excerpts of her speech, but words cannot express ...
Editor’s Column – November 2008
Whether Barack Obama was your choice or not, he is our 44th president and I hope you join me in welcoming him as the first African-American president of the United States. His plan for supporting people with disabilities, as many of you probably know, is quite straightforward and comprehensive. We can only hope that he ...
Editor’s Column – October 2008
For the second year, the Abilities Expo was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in September. It featured many new exhibitors with a variety of products to showcase. There was excitement in the games and sports, like basketball, hockey and rugby. There was a plethora of outstanding seminars, with local presenters as well as national speakers. ...
Editor’s Column – September 2008
The documentary, “Offense Taken,” is again highlighted in Access Press. The collaboration involved in creating and distributing this documentary has proven to be phenomenal. I think of myself as a pretty aware person with respect to recognizing discrimination. But “Offense Taken” opened my eyes to the hurtful language that I use in my communications. That’s ...
Editor’s Column – August 2008
Last month in this column, I mentioned that I was going to look into global positioning systems (GPS) and their use by—or on—people with disabilities. Recently, it seems like there’s been a lot in the media about people getting lost and, unable to find their way home, needing to be rescued. The more I looked ...
Editor’s Column – July 2008
The economy sure has become the topic of conversations at all levels—from political circles to water cooler talk. Brigette Menger-Anderson, Personal Assistant Services Manager at Metropolitan Center for Independent Living, recently discussed gas prices and their effects on seniors and people with disabilities in a conversation on Minnesota Public Radio, http://tinyurl.com/5m3ogs. That conversation was broadcast ...
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