INSIDE TODAY LOCAL STATE: Bike tour raises ITTT.TTSTH DARBOY CLUB'S AWARD WINNING funds for nature center A-3 CHICKEN r-UA vallct inu: btrong milk prices help farmers rebound A-6 BREAK!) NEWS on your cell phone Text APC8REAKING to 44638 (4INF0) presented by FNB SPORTS: Brewers defeat Astros to Today's weather mxisU 4 v.umijici.c 1111 cc-yaine sweep d- i Unexpected letter bridges countries for family B-5 cou The Post-Orescent FOUNDED 1853 Appleton I Fox Cities, Wisconsin A GANNETT COMPANY Monday, August 8, 201 1 Health care: Services for elderly, frail at risk with freeze to Family Care 1 H'y I mm u' "L.JJU mi mmmj 4: it 1 1 VI' 'ft 1 i wm IJ Cindy Plach, a caregiver with Homelnstead Senior Care, assists Helen Comperini on Thursday at her home in Appleton. Helen, who suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on one side, receives care and assistance in her home via Family Care. DAN POWERyTHE POST-CRESCENT Markets affected by economy, not rating Downgrade was widely anticipated by analysts Staff and wire reports U.S. investors will have their first chance today to react to Standard Poor's decision to strip the U.S. government of its top credit rating.
But the bigger issues facing Wall Street and stock markets worldwide remain debt-ridden countries in Europe and concerns that the global economy is weakening. Friday's first-ever downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA wasn't unexpected and may have little impact on interest rates. But it's the kind of news that stock mar-kets don't need when INSIDE investors are already Asian markets nervous. fall after U.S.
Brian Jacobsen, a Fox debt downgrade Cities native who works A-4 as an analyst with Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, does not expect a mass selloff today. "The news of the downgrade was widely anticipated and leaked on Twitter earlier in the day on Friday," Jacobsen said Sunday. Jacobsen, who also is an associate professor of economics at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, said even if a selloff happens, bargain hunters will be lured in. "When the market moves abruptly, it rarely gets it exactly correct," he said. "Markets tend to overshoot." Even before the downgrade, the Dow Jones industrial average last week fell nearly 700 points, or 6 percent.
Investors were worried because economic signals in the U.S. and overseas were pointing toward trouble: On July 29, the government dramatically lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew during the first quarter. It had said the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent, but revised that number down to 0.4 percent. Second-quarter growth was also weak, a 1.3 percent rate. European officials are trying to help Italy the world's eighth-largest economy avoid the kind of bailouts that Greece, Portugal and Spain were forced to accept to prevent them from defaulting on their debt.
And those bailouts haven't solved all the problems in those countries. See MARKETS, A 5 MORNING TICKER Headlines from around the nation and around the world ICfrtfo) an CMDS1 Advocates trying to lift limits on Wisconsin's Family Care program By Kathy Walsh Nufer WHAT IS FAMILY CARE? county executives, up in Family Care is Wisconsin's publicly funded long-term care and community-based support program for the frail elderly and people with physical and developmental disabilities. Created 12 years ago to eliminate waiting lists for services, it currently serves about 35,500 people, but the state has capped enrollment at its present level as of July 1. Advocacy groups and various public officials have asked U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to deny the state's request to cap Family Care.
The program, which uses federal Medicaid dollars to cover 60 percent of its costs, currently operates under a federal waiver, so any change in its Family Care contract needs federal approval. arms, and has led to a letter-writing campaign urging the U.S. Department of health and Human Services to reject the state's request for federal approval allowing the freeze. If Gov. Scott Walker does not modify or eliminate the cap soon, opponents argue, many residents will be without local services the enable them to remain in their homes or will be forced unnecessarily into more expensive nursing homes, and already financially strapped counties will be forced to pick up additional costs.
See FAMILY CARE, A-2 Post-Crewent staff writer APPLETON Five years ago, a stroke following brain surgery for epileptic seizures paralyzed Helen Comperini's left side, sending the Apple-ton woman to a nursing home. Eventually she returned home to her husband, Mike, but broke her hip a few years later. Surgeries to repair the hip failed. This time she was able to go back home because of Family Care, Wisconsin's publicly funded long-term care and community-based support program for the frail elderly and people with physical and developmental dis- abilities. Others waiting for services aren't so lucky, however, because of a state freeze on enrollment in Family Care.
The cap, which went into effect July 1, means no new people can be added to a county's program unless there is attrition someone withdraws from the program, dies or moves away. The freeze has a number of people, from families and advocacy groups to Fox Valley Boating deaths already match one-year record HELICOPTER CRASH: Families mourn deaths of Navy SEALS: "He loved his job," Kimberry Vaughn said, of her husband, Aaron, who was killed in "If you took speed out of the scenario, people would have time to react," he said. One of the 18 watercraft-related deaths this year occurred in Outagamie County. Leslie Riehl, 65, of the Town of Black Creek, was fishing from an anchored boat April 18 on the Wolf River in the Town of Bovina when he fell overboard and drowned while trying to release a line tying the boat to a tree. The weather was cold and the water level was high at the time, authorities reported.
Diane Mott, 54, of Green Bay, died July 13 after she fell from a pontoon boat into Anderson Lake in Oconto drowned, and of those, 88 percent were not reported as wearing a life jacket. Boaters are required to have life jackets on board for all passengers, Cords said. However, passengers are not required to wear them. The Coast Guard reported alcohol use was the leading factor in IV percent of all 2010 deaths, more than any other contributor. Last month, the Coast Guard in the Great Lakes region reported issuing 19 citations in less than a week for boating under the influence.
Charles Davis writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The Post-Crescent contributed to this report. By Charles Davis Gannett Wisconsin Media GREEN BAY The summer is far from over, and Wisconsin already has matched the 18 watercraft-related deaths reported last year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. "If people were wearing life jackets when they were boating, we could probably cut these fatalities down by 75 percent," said Jeremy Cords, recreational safety warden for the DNR's northeast region. Cords said speeding is the No.
1 cause of boating mishaps. County. Patricia Wolfgram, 53, of Little Suamico, was fined $452 for driving the pontoon under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol was involved in six of this year's deaths and ruled out in three. The remaining nine cases are still under investigation.
Last year, alcohol was known to be involved in 22 percent of fatal boating accidents. Alcohol use is typically one of the three leading causes of fatal water-vessel accidents statewide. Cords said. According to a U.S. Coast Guard report, nearly 75 percent of the 672 victims in 2010 fatal boating accidents Saturday's helicopter crash.
"There was no way even if you could tell him that this would have happened, he would have done it anyway. All those men are like that. They're selfless." A-9 HEALTH: Medicare costs for hospice soar From 2005 through 2009, Medicare spending on hospice care rose 70 to $4.31 billion, according to Medicare records. A-9 Post-Crescent wire services 1 Join The P-C's Buzz columnist Maureen Wallenfang, for BUZZ LIVE, as she chats online at 2:30 p.m. with family owners of Carmella's, an Italian TODAY'S LIVESTREAM at www.postcrescent.com Bistro, about the growing Grand Chute restaurant and takes reader questions (use hashtag buzzhve rf on Twitter).
GOOD MORNING, FOX VALLEY Today's Best Bets more at www.postcrescent.com Index Advice B-8 Business A-6 Classified B-9 Comics B-7 Community A-7 Crossword B-10 Horoscope B-6 Life! B-5 Local A-3 Obituaries Sports B-1 TV B-8 Vitals A-2 Weather A-11 DANCE NIGHT: Fox Valley Folk Dancers meet at South Greenville Grange in Apple-ton. $3. 7 p.m. MUSIC AT THE LIBRARY: Yellow House Road performs contemporary music at the Appleton Public Library. Free.
6:30 p.m. CONCERT: Willie Nelson returns to the Oneida Casino in Green Bay for a sold-out show. 8 p.m. We use 3 recycled paper www.postcrMcant.com.
