2008 Clinton Global Citizen Award Winners announced

Former President Clinton recognized four remarkable individuals for their leadership and impact in improving the lives of millions around the globe at the second annual Clinton Global Citizen Awards. The Clinton Global Citizen Awards ceremony concluded day two of the Clinton Global Initiative’s fourth Annual Meeting, which convenes world leaders from government, the private sector, and NGOs to create lasting, positive change across the world.

“The Global Citizen Awards are about honoring and inspiring service to humanity” President Clinton said. “Our award recipients were chosen from a pool of remarkable candidates. Their innovation, dedication and determination have changed lives, and their actions serve as models of what each of us can do to make a difference in the world.”

Award winners were nominated by a collection of global leaders and selected for their visionary leadership and sustainable, scalable work in solving pressing global challenges. Honorees were chosen from civil society, the private sector, the philanthropic community and public service.

The 2008 Clinton Global Award Winners are:

Jennifer and Peter Buffett
Co-chairs, NoVo Foundation

The Buffetts have led an inspirational campaign to improve the status of women and girls across the globe. Their innovative approach to philanthropy has leveraged the capacity of existing organizations to affect real, positive change. Among various targeted investments, the NoVo Foundation has pledged US$30 million over five years to help rebuild the education systems and address violence against women and girls in post-conflict West Africa. Their fresh approach to fostering sustainable change has catalyzed action in the donor community world wide.

Xiaoyi (Sheri) Liao
Founder and President, Global Village of Beijing

Sheri Liao has become one of China’s best-known environmental activists for her pioneering work over the last decade, including the establishment of an environmental program on Chinese public television, cooperating with the Xuan Wu municipal government to found the first Green Community in China and, most recently, was an environmental adviser to the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.

Julio Frenk
Senior Fellow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
President, Carso Health Institute

Julio Frenk has changed the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health. As result of Frenk’s work as minister of health of Mexico, Mexican health insurance is expanding access to quality care for almost 50 million Mexicans. Frenk will assume the position as the new dean of the Harvard School of Public Heath in 2009. His ongoing work continues to deliver a greater focus on evidence-based decision making with life-saving results.

Neville Isdell
Chairman of the Board, the Coca-Cola Company

Neville Isdell is one of the most articulate advocates for social action in the business community. Under his leadership, Coco-Cola has built partnerships that support more than 120 community water projects in over 50 countries and his advocacy of the private sector’s leadership role in combating HIV/AIDS in Africa, has further verified the capacity of the business sector to strengthen and improve the communities it serves.

Part of the fourth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, this special ceremony was hosted by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Youssou Ndour and his band Le Super Etoile de Dakar performed at the ceremony, as well as singer/songwriter James Taylor. Clinton Global Citizen Award statues were designed and sculpted by Mozambican artist Gonçalo Mabunda.

To date, Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) members have made nearly 1,000 commitments valued at upwards of $30 billion to improve the lives of more than 200 million people in over 150 countries. CGI University (CGI U) and MyCommitment.org have also inspired action on a large scale.

The CGI community is helping to:

• Avoid or reduce more than 40 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions
• Supply more than 4 million people with access to clean-energy services in the developing world
• Fund more than 270 microfinance institutions, permitting access to finance for close to 3 million microentrepreneurs
• Provide more than 8 million children with access to schooling
• Increase access to health services or improve quality of care for over 11 million people
• Target 34 million people for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases
• Provide interventions addressing malnutrition or under-nutrition for over 42 million children

Further information about the Clinton Global Initiative is available at www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Dara Torres promotes exercise, embraces role model status

Dara Torres has been an inspiration to many in her return to the pool and recent Olympic success.  She authored her own article for the USA Weekend newspaper insert where she talks of being a role model and provides motivational tips.

The important thing to remember is that you can always find time to exercise. If, say, you’re a working mom, instead of taking the elevator in your building, take the stairs. You can always try to find little ways to do a little bit of exercise each day or every other day.

And then there’s diet. When I wake up, I have this nutritional drink, which I had before each one of my races. It has every single nutrient and protein that I need in a meal. The point is that getting the right nutrition is essential to your health and fitness, even if you aren’t an Olympic athlete.

The active lifestyle is one that she is already introducing to her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Tessa.

Exercise was very important to me growing up, and I am already trying to teach Tessa how important it is. The funny thing is, she already loves it.

Read the entire USA Weekend article “You can always find time to exercise.”

Here are some other relevant Dara Torres articles:

Dara Torres: 2012 Olympic Games a ‘possibility’ - MSNBC
Dara Torres throws out first pitch at Yankees game - AM New York
Dara Torres Walks The Runway At Fashion Week - NY Post
Doctor dives in to repair swimmer Torres’ shoulder - CN

Lucha Libre Racing returns to Mexico to race and deliver school supplies

Artist and sculptor, Joe Brubaker and photographer Michael Emery team up to form Lucha Libre Racing. The SF Bay Area duo will venture to Mexico this October to race La Carrera Panamericana. The Carrera is the last great high speed, amateur race run on public roads in the world. It is pedal to the metal for 2000 miles over 6 days, from the bottom of the country to the top, straight through the heart of Colonial Mexico.

The race will start in the sweltering jungles of Tuxla Gutierrez, Chiapas on October 24th. They continue to Oaxaca, Mexico City, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, and Aguascalientes. Day 5 begins at 8300 feet in thebeautiful Silver mining city of Zacatecas. The racing here is fast and treacherous. Many race-ending mistakes happen on “La Bufa” the spectacular bluff where Pancho Villa had his first victory. October 30th the final grueling day brings 325 miles of flat-out-engine-wrecking-straight-a-ways and fast sweeping turns, down through the cacti, to the border in Nuevo Laredo.

100 vintage racecars from Europe and the Americas will take on the 2008 Mexican Road Race. The fastest teams will drive 50+ year-old American Iron at speeds up to 180 mph. The Lucha Libre Racing 1967 Datsun Roadster will humbly do a little over half that speed. In 2006 Lucha Libre Racing was the first team to contest La Carrera in a Datsun, they had the least amount of experience, the least amount of horsepower and finished in dead last. In consolation, they did beat 19 cars that crashed or blew up.

This year, in addition to the challenge of finishing the race, the Lucha team will deliver school supplies to rural Mexican children. They will focus their efforts on outfitting two schools along the raceroute. The first school will be in Chiapas where the race begins and the second in Zacatecas, where Emery lived with his family in 2001.

The team will make two stops in enroute for car shows. October 12th they will be in Irvine, CA for the largest “Old School” Japanese car show in the USA. October 18th they will be in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a charity car show and fundraiser that benefits: Feed the Children, a charity that provides daily hot meals for local children. To help the effort or make a donation please contact the Lucha Libre Team.

YouTube fights global poverty with ‘In my Name’

YouTube announced an effort with a strong line-up of celebrity and non-profit partners to campaign countries in an effort to end global poverty.

Celebrities and organizations that are involved include Will.i.am, of Black Eyed Peas fame, Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Fergie and nonprofit organizations Oxfam, GCAP, Save the Children and Comic Relief.  Collectively with YouTube “In My Name” aims to be a global effort to raise awareness around the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

These eight time-bound, measurable goals were set in 2000 to combat global poverty.  In My Name is meant “to give you the opportunity to tell your leaders to do more.  World leaders need to hear from you.” stated YouTube via their website.

From now through November 1, visit www.youtube.com/inmyname to upload a video stating your name, your home country, and your simple message to your government about the need to meet the MDGs. Be as creative, compelling, simple, or wordy as you like — this is your chance to join the video petition to end world hunger.  Once that date has passed, YouTube will create a mash-up of the most powerful submissions from around the world and broadcast it directly to the United Nations General Assembly.

Google offers $10M for ideas that can ‘change the world’

If you could suggest a unique idea that would help as many people as possible, what would it be?

Google has unveiled a bold $10M effort to implement ideas that can “change the world.”  Project 10^100 (that’s “ten to the hundredth”) marks the 10th anniversary of the company and is meant to “celebrate the spirit of Google users and the web.”  All ideas need to be submitted by October 20, 2008.

“We’re launching  a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life,” says Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab. “CNN will be covering this project, including profiles of ideas and the people who submit them from around the world.  For a deeper look, follow along at Impact Your World.”

Google noted that the ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or not. But they do have to have a potential positive impact on the world.  As part of the announcement Google provided some examples of projects that fall in line with the spirit of Project 10^100.

What are some examples of ideas we think are cool? A team of just two people are implementing a solution to help the millions of people who laboriously carry on their heads 5-gallon buckets of water for long distances by designing and distributing The Hippo Water Roller (www.hipporoller.org), a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that can be easily wheeled on the ground. First Mile Solutions (www.firstmilesolutions.com) is implementing simple but effective ideas for connecting isolated communities in developing countries to the Internet. One plan has communities tacking on Wi-Fi devices to public buses so they can detect and send stored emails and messages as the buses travel through unconnected areas. Google is excited to fund projects that similarly have a big impact.

Google provided the following categories for which it will be considering ideas:

• Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
• Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
• Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
• Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
• Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
• Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
• Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
• Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.

The Best Companies for Working Moms

Working Mother Magazine has released their annual rankings of the best companies for family friendly employment.  The top 10…

• Abbot
• Baptist Health South Florida
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Earnst & Young
• IBM
• KPMG
• The McGraw-Hill Companies
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• S.C. Johnson & Son

According to the article there are many companies with innovative and progressive cultures that support a balanced life of work and family.  The list includes several new companies including Dell.

From flextime and telecommuting to backup child care and parental leave, these winners are expanding the concept of family-friendly benefits to make sure they cover adoptive parents, fathers and grandparents as well as working mothers—even as the economy stumbles.

View the full list of top 100 companies

View the entire article

Woman completes road race after lung transplant

Achievement in athletics is relative. Consider Castro Valley’s Heidi Tegner, who may have turned in one of the most incredible 384th-place finishes in road-racing history.

Um, 384th place? Right. With her sister Amber and a half-dozen friends running with her, that’s where Tegner, 24, finished in the recent 5K Eden Medical Center Run to the Lake. She had to fight back tears of joy when she completed her quest.

At what position she finished hardly mattered, though she did wind up outpacing 126 runners. That she ran the race at all was enough.

One day short of a year earlier, Tegner underwent 10 hours of surgery at Stanford Hospital, receiving a double lung transplant after her battle with cystic fibrosis had reached an acute stage. She had 23 percent breathing capacity in her lungs at the time and required round-the-clock oxygen support.

“I had a tank I would have to take with me wherever I went,” she said. “I had trouble climbing the stairs. I’d have to stop halfway and catch my breath before I could climb the rest.”

Tegner never thought she would run again, let alone participate in a 5K. But after her remarkable recovery from surgery — her lung capacity is at 100 percent — she’s able to set real-life goals, and one of them was to honor her anonymous teenage donor by running in the event.

“Originally, just my sister and a bunch of her friends were going to run in honor of my donor,” she said. “They actually trained for it. But three days before, I just decided to do it, too.”Earlier in the year, Tegner had started preparatory training for the biennial Transplant Games in Pittsburgh, Pa., and though she missed that event because of a physical setback and other commitments, she felt she was in shape to make the 5K attempt.

The day of the race, she admitted to a slight case of panic.

“I was thinking, ‘How am I ever going to complete this? There’s no way,’” she said.

Ten years ago, it probably would have been unthinkable. The first successful double lung transplant wasn’t performed until 1986. Even now, it’s a rare, risky surgery with many postoperative concerns. According to the American Lung Association, only about 1,000 are performed every year, and about 15 percent involve cystic fibrosis patients.

Read the full story at InsideBayArea.com

Carl Seward has been writing a regular article of every day heroes for his regional paper in Northern California.  He suggested that this was a good story for Champoli to share.   You can find all of Carl’s articles in his online archive.

Teenager becomes first female to win tour event

Zakiya Randall, 17-Year-Old teen golf star, fondly known by fans as “Z” makes history and becomes the only and youngest female to win on the Golf Channel Georgia Tour.  After already qualifying for the Georgia Golf Channel Championship by placing in the Top Percentile on the most difficult level of play on the Golf Tour, she goes on to win the final tournament of the season on September 7, 2008 at Arbor Springs Golf & Resort Club also known as the Coweta Club in Newnan, Georgia.

“I am excited to be able to win on one of the most challenging golf courses in Georgia against some of the best Adult-Men Amateur players on the Georgia Golf Tour,” Randall said. “I have been working on some swing mechanics for further improvements so this win on the Tour in the Final Tournament of the season is really special.”

The field included approximately 50 of some of the best adult-men amateur tour players in Georgia. She now joins an elite list of amateur level golfers that has also qualified to play at the national level on the Golf Channel Tour.

Zakiya has been in Sports Illustrated, EBONY Magazine, on Public International Radio, The Golf Channel TV Show, nominated as a finalist for outstanding talents and have been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and on-line journals around the globe.

Randall took up golf at the age of 10 and after winning a series of tennis tournaments she was immediately successful in golf, winning ‘Player of the Year’ Honors.

Snyder and Bulger to host army hero

Two small paragraphs at the end of a long NFL article today provide an exclamation point on the power of positive media.  On October 12 a returning, two-tour soldier will be hosted by Washington Redskin owner Dan Snyder and St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger when their teams meet at FedEx field.

Aren’t soldiers returning to hometown parades in many parts of the country?  Why is this story any different?  If you are a Peter King reader then you already know, but if you are not then enjoy this story.

This is a 3 year story in the making.  In what was one of the best and most inspiring articles I read in 2005 Peter King of SI.com detailed a chance encounter he had with Army Sergeant Mike McGuire at a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.  Please, read this story.

Over the past 3 years King has maintained an ongoing correspondence with McGuire which he shares with his readers as part of his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback article.  During this time period King has shared the fears, successes, tragedies, and gut wrenching decisions that a husband and platoon leader faces during his tours of duty.

Now Mike McGuire is returning home.  He is a huge NFL fan and his favorite team is his hometown St. Louis Rams.  The broader visibility that was provided through the Sports Illustrated website has yielded a heroes welcome that should be more standard than the exception.

Enjoy this excerpt from SI.com, Monday Morning Quaterback and Good Guys of the Week

I doubt many in our military deserve leave more than Army First Sgt. Mike McGuire, who is deep into his second long tour in Iraq, overseeing a platoon of men hunting Improvised Explosive Devices on the most dangerous roads in the country. I am so pleased he’ll be coming home to the States — to Missouri, his home, and then to a ceremony in western Pennsylvania honoring the memory of fallen comrade Allan Bevington, and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit a wounded man in his platoon, Nick Koulchar.

The Rams, Mike McGuire’s favorite team, aren’t home when McGuire will be in St. Louis, but [Washinton Redskin owner Dan] Snyder and [Rams Quarterback Marc] Bulger stepped up to take care of that. Snyder will host McGuire, wife Pam, and the brother of the wounded Koulchar at the Rams-Redskins game Oct. 12. And Bulger, whose foundation provides care and R&R for American troops, will host McGuire at Rams Park.

You think those things don’t mean a lot? McGuire, like so many of our soldiers, lives for the NFL, plans his week around it, talks endlessly about it out on patrol. And for the owner of the Redskins and the quarterback of his favorite team to take the time and effort to recognize him … it’s something McGuire will remember for the rest of his life.

Medicare’s monthly premium won’t rise in 2009

Good news for millions of American seniors: Medicare’s standard Part B monthly premium in 2009 will remain the same as in 2008, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday.

The $96.40 rate means 2009 will be the first year since 2000 that there hasn’t been an increase in the standard premium over the previous year, the agency said. In addition, the 2009 Part B deductible will be the same in 2009 as it is this year — $135.

Medicare’s Part B program covers the health care of seniors and disabled people. The monthly premium paid by beneficiaries covers a portion of the cost of physicians’ services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, durable medical equipment and other items.

While increased use of Part B services is expected in 2009, the higher anticipated costs are “offset by a substantial reduction in the premium ‘margin’ needed to maintain an adequate contingency reserve in the Part B trust fund account,” the CMS explained in a news release.

The Part B premium is based on a beneficiary’s annual income. If gross income is greater than certain amounts ($85,000 in 2009 for a beneficiary filing an individual income tax return or married and filing a separate return, and $170,000 for a beneficiary filing a joint tax return), the beneficiary has to pay a larger portion of the estimated total cost of Part B benefit coverage.

One advocate for Medicare recipients said the decision to keep Plan B premiums the same is “welcome news.”

“News that health care premiums are not going up is rare these days. The stability in the Part B premium is good news for people with Medicare struggling to cope with rising prescription drug costs and medical bills,” Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, said in a news release.

However, the CMS also announced Friday that the Part A deductible will rise $44, to $1,068 in 2009. The Part A program covers hospital and hospice care as well as short stays in nursing homes. About 99 percent of Medicare beneficiaries covered by this program do not pay a monthly premium. The deductible is their only cost for up to 60 days of Medicare-covered inpatient hospital care in a benefit period.

Beneficiaries must pay an additional $267 per day for days 61 through 90 in 2009, and $534 per day for lifetime reserve days that can be used for hospital stays beyond the 90th day in a benefit period. In 2008, those amounts are $256 and $512, respectively. Daily coinsurance for the 21st through 100th day in a skilled nursing facility will be $133.50 in 2009, up from $128 in 2008, the CMS said.

For beneficiaries who have to pay for Part A coverage, the monthly premium will increase from $423 in 2008 to $443 in 2009.

In mid-August, the CMS said the average monthly premium for Medicare’s prescription drug plan will increase from $25 this year to $28 in 2009. The premium for next year is 37 percent lower than originally projected when the Part D drug coverage was introduced in 2003.

National Library of Medicine

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