Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Photo: myfloridalegal.com)

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is slated to co-host a Republican presidential candidate forum on Fox News’ Huckabee this Saturday, exactly one month before the Iowa caucuses. Bondi will interview candidates alongside Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Candidates Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have all been confirmed for the event. No word on whether or not one-time frontrunner Herman Cain, who is currently being dogged by accusations of a longtime affair with a Georgia woman, will also appear. According to The New York Times, the network is also awaiting responses from Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.

“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in a press release sent out by the Republican Party of Florida. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”

Bondi appeared alongside many of the GOP presidential contenders in August, when she spoke at CPAC FL. During the event, Bondi sat on a panel that discussed  strategies to end “unconstitutional ObamaCare.”

The forum will take place at 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 3.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo made the announcement Monday morning during an annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in St. Louis.

In a following statement, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “Today’s funding will provide residents of these rural communities with high speed internet connections to improve health care and educational opportunities and connect to global markets. In addition to providing much needed services to rural businesses and residents, these investments will increase jobs, not just in the near term, but through expanded opportunities in rural areas.”

The USDA provided three examples of how the funding would improve quality of life for rural residents. In Minnesota, they said, Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative’s existing Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network to serve rural communities in north-central portions of the state. The program will offer service to more than 45,710 households and businesses through a company that has been operating since 1952.

In North Dakota, the funds will expand Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation’s broadband system throughout 18 exchanges to provide voice, video and high-speed data systems. When the project is completed, all of Polar’s subscribers will have access to broadband.

Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., based in Indiana, will begin the process of designing and building broadband services to its 5,711 subscribers spread over 1,148 miles.

USDA is providing $478.6 million in funding to companies that meet eligibility requirements. Companies slated to receive funding, by state, are:

Colorado

• Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association, Inc.–$18,725,000 will be used to upgrade the existing fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) network, capable of providing modern broadband services to subscribers in 10 exchanges.

Idaho and Utah

• Albion Telephone Company–$17,075,000 in loan funds will be used to install 453 miles of buried fiber optic cables throughout the proposed FTTP system, providing nearly 60 percent of subscribers with FTTP.

Illinois

• McNabb Telephone Company–$3,700,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including constructing new FTTP facilities. A total of 115 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed to improve service to subscribers.
• Shawnee Telephone Company–$30,286,000 in loan funds will be used to construct FTTP facilities, allowing Shawnee to provide voice and data services at speeds of up to 100 Mbps to both residences and businesses.
• McDonough Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$15,728,000 in funds will be used to upgrade the rural areas with FTTH technology. Approximately 766 miles of buried fiber cable will be deployed to provide over half of the subscribers with access to improved broadband service. McDonough has been serving its rural subscribers for over 60 years.
• Wabash Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$21,867,000 will be used to install 777 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will enhance service to 70 percent of Wabash’s subscribers.

Indiana

• Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$29,139,000 in loan funds have been awarded to Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., (PSC) which provides telecommunications services to nearly 6,000 subscribers over approximately 1,150 square miles in southern Indiana. This loan will enable PSC to start the process of designing and building FTTP to enhance broadband services across the service area.

Iowa

• Mediapolis Telephone Company–$13,401,000 in loan funds will be used to make system upgrades to the transport system and the network architecture from the existing copper Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to FTTP broadband systems.
• Griswold Cooperative Telephone Company–$12,747,000 in loan funds will be used to complete a system-wide FTTP network, enhancing broadband service to all subscribers.
• La Porte City Telephone Company–$9,867,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including installation of a FTTP broadband network that will serve all of the borrower’s subscribers. A total of 297 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed, enabling downstream data rates of up to 20 Mbps.

Kansas

• The S & T Telephone Cooperative Association–$29,814,000 will be used to implement a full FTTH design to allow the migration to 10-20 Mbps broadband speeds to all subscribers and to provide IPTV in the near future.

Minnesota

• Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative–$19,749,000 in Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan’s existing FTTH network to serve the exchanges of Park Rapids Rural and Trout Lake in North Central Minnesota. With this extension of their network, Paul Bunyan will be able to provide advanced telecommunications services to over 45,710 establishments (households and businesses) across all service areas. Paul Bunyan has been operating since 1952 and has been a telecommunications borrower with the Rural Utilities Service since 1953.

Nebraska

• The Hemingford Co-operative Telephone Company–$10,280,000 will be used to upgrade the outside plant with optic cable, fiber optic drops and FTTP equipment. These funds will add 377 fiber miles of fiber optic cable.

New Mexico

• Roosevelt County Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$12,358,000 will be used to deploy new equipment and install FTTP equipment to enhance the broadband network.

North Dakota

• BEK Communications Cooperative–$26,746,000 in loan funds will be used to expand a FTTH broadband system. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of BEK’s subscribers will be served by fiber.
• SRT Communications, Inc.–$24,832,000 in loan funds will be used to install 2,143 miles of buried fiber optic cable and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will be constructed in areas outside of towns in twelve of the borrower’s twenty-six exchanges. The service areas in the towns will continue to be offered DSL at speeds of at least 55 Mbps with its relatively new copper plant.
• Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation–$32,939,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the Borrower’s FTTP broadband system throughout the borrower’s eighteen exchanges. The upgraded system will help meet current and future requirements for delivery of voice, video and high speed data to subscribers. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of Polar’s subscribers will be served with broadband via various technologies.

Oklahoma

• Terral Telephone Company–$4,855,000 in loan funds will be used to convert the existing copper network to a FTTH system, and connect new subscribers. The proposed FTTH deployment includes construction of over 62 miles of fiber plant in and around Terral, and the replacement of the existing softswitch and power plant. This FTTH deployment will create nine jobs and save seven jobs.

South Carolina

• Sandhill Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$5,930,000 will be used to provide for system improvements, including purchase of a new switch.

Tennessee

• North Central Telephone Cooperative Corporation–$27,069,000 will be used to upgrade portions of North Central’s outside plant and network infrastructure by deploying a FTTP network.

Washington

• Inland Telephone Company–$24,823,000 in loan funds will be used to expand Inland’s FTTP broadband system and connect new subscribers.
• The Toledo Telephone Co., Inc.–$18,091,000 in loan funds will be used to install 292 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system, offering enhanced service to all Toledo subscribers.

Wisconsin

• Union Telephone Company–$13,308,000 in loan funds will enable Union to deploy approximately 336 miles of fiber, which will provide approximately 60 percent of Union’s subscribers with access to improved broadband services.
• Marquette-Adams Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$19,781,000 Marquette-Adams will use loan funds to complete a system-wide FTTP network, including over 370 miles of new or modified buried fiber, providing enhanced broadband service to all subscribers.
• Vernon Telephone Cooperative–$24,143,000 in loan funds will be used to install 1,206 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will offer enhanced broadband service to 90 percent of subscribers.

Wyoming and Colorado

• Dubois Telephone Exchange, Inc.–$11,391,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the FTTP system to provide video and data services over an optic network with speeds up to 100 Mbps. Included in this loan is $9,462,000 for construction and engineering in Wyoming and $1,929,000 for construction and engineering in Colorado.

President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One (Pic by The White House, via Flickr)

North Dakota is on its way to becoming the first state in the country to have an operating health insurance exchange program. Each state is required by the Affordable Care Act to have some infrastructure in place by January 2013 for an exchange. Florida remains one of the lone states dragging its feet.

The Grand Forks Herald reports that North Dakota is on track to pass legislation that would set up its state exchange.

According to the Herald:

House Bill 1474, drafted by the Health Care Reform Review Committee after the regular legislative session ended this spring, would create a North Dakota health insurance benefit exchange system.

Under the federal legislation, all states must have an operational health benefit exchange by Jan. 1, 2014 or the secretary of Health and Human Services must create one.

Pam Sharp, director of the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget, said the key component of the exchange would be a new website that would allow residents to compare costs and benefits of affordable health insurance plans.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report (.pdf) that said as of “August 17, 2011, 39 states and the District of Columbia have introduced some form of legislation promoting exchange implementation.”

“Among the 34 states where the legislation would fully establish a state exchange program, ten states enacted such bills into law,” the group reports.

Only 11 states, Florida among them, have not introduced any legislation to establish a state exchange program.

Florida is among only five states not using federal grants meant to help the state plan and research for an exchange. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that “Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma reportedly will return exchange grant funds.”

This week, health advocates touring the state warned that Florida had done “virtually nothing” to follow the law’s mandates. The groups also warned that the state would cede their authority to the federal government if the state did not meet the deadlines.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health tells The Florida Independent that budget authority was denied for a competitive grant “awarded to Florida beginning October 2010 for $175,000 yearly.”

The DP10-1017 “Demonstrating the Capacity of Comprehensive Cancer Control Programs to Implement Policy and Environmental Cancer Control Interventions” grant was a “five-year grant built on strengths of existing statewide Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council (C-CRAB) working with four regional cancer collaboratives to reduce the burden of cancer,” according to the Department of Health. The grant did not require any contributions from the state.

The grant was just one of many that has been rejected by the state. This week, health advocates in Broward County expressed their frustration with the millions of dollars Florida has turned away since the passage of the federal health care reform law.

According to a recent report by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Florida is among many states that have “missed opportunities to enact laws and policies that could not only save money and generate revenue, but also save lives.” In the report, Florida was listed as one of the seven states that fell short in all “five priority areas.” Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee are the other states that are also falling short in every category.

Two of the priority areas the report focused on had to do with the funding of prevention and detection programs in the state.

According to a Department of Health spokesperson, the state’s joint advisory councils had recently “completed the revised 2010 Florida Cancer Plan and developed an accompanying Implementation Guide.” The plans would have built “on the cancer councils’ combined agenda of identified priorities” and the rejected grant would have “accelerated prevention and risk reduction policies and efforts.”

The department says the plans for the grant included:

• Assisting Moffitt Cancer Center to convene the four goal committees to implement strategies for cancer control.
• Assessing and implement initiatives to reduce tobacco use statewide.
• Promoting national food guidelines and other measures to reduce obesity in school aged populations.
• Developing and support community health workers to improve access to care for underserved populations.
• Creating a forum to enhance the continuum of care for cancer patients through improved medical record keeping including electronic medical systems.

The Department of Health spokesperson tells the Independent that “the work of these initiatives is being continued by other programs in the Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, but in a smaller scope.”

The early returns in Oklahoma, where a 5.6-magnitude earthquake near Sparks damaged buildings and rattled nerves on Saturday, are inconclusive. Much as scientists said there just isn’t enough evidence to link earthquakes this summer in Virginia in Colorado to fracking, officials over the weekend declined to connect the Oklahoma quake to the common drilling practice.

A holding pond for fracking fluids in Texas.

The process of fracking involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals into oil and gas wells to break up tight rock and sand and free up more hydrocarbons. The fracking fluids are then stored for later use, recycled or disposed of in injection wells.

According to the Associated Press, there are 181 such injection wells in the vicinity of Saturday’s Oklahoma quake and Sunday’s aftershocks. AP also reported Oklahoma typically only experienced about 50 earthquakes a year until 2009 when that number spiked dramatically. Last year there were 1,047 small quakes in the area, prompting the installation of seismographs.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is now seeking more data on the weekend quakes in Oklahoma, a state whose panhandle region borders southeastern Colorado, where earthquakes this summer shook area residents in an area with natural gas drilling.

In August, Las Animas County, Colo., experienced a 5.3-magnitude quake, followed by a 5.8-magnitude quake in Virginia that was felt in Washington, D.C. Those quakes also prompted questions about fracking operations and injection wells.

“That process can cause very small earthquakes, but the fracking process doesn’t really, we think, induce large earthquakes,” USGS scientist Mike Blanpied said in a video chat at the time. “The thing that can induce larger earthquakes is the high-pressure waste fluid injection that’s done in some places.”

In July, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission shut down four disposal wells and ordered a moratorium on new injection wells after earthquake swarms last spring. USGS scientists have studied earthquakes and fracking in Colorado in the past, without drawing any definitive conclusions.

“Just to be clear, the connection between fracking and fluid injection and earthquakes is an area of active research and really we’re only starting to learn about how those things are connected,” Blanpied told reporters in late August.

The USGS points to Colorado for the most infamous case of an injection well being linked to an earthquake. The U.S. Army had been disposing of toxic fluids up to 12,000 feet underground at its Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver but had to shut down the well after a 5.5-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks.

Jennie Linn McCormack, a mother of three from Pocatello, Idaho, was initially arrested and prosecuted in December 2010 for inducing her own abortion, when she was between 20 and 21 weeks of gestation, with the abortion pill RU 486, which she bought on the Internet, reports Reuters. She was charged under a 1972 state law that classifies ending one’s own pregnancy as a felony, before a judge threw out her case for lack of evidence. Now McCormack is suing the attorney that prosecuted her, Mark Hiedeman.

Idaho’s new late-term abortion law — signed and enacted immediately by Republican Gov. Butch Otter in April — makes it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks, except in a situation where the mother’s life is in danger. Though this law was not in effect when McCormack took the abortion drugs, her suit includes both the 20-week abortion ban and the 1972 law; in the suit she claims she induced her own abortion because of the general lack of access to abortions for women in her state. According to the Associated Press, McCormack was single and unemployed when police arrested her after discovering the dead fetus in a box at her home.

McCormack’s case -– depending on how far up the court system it goes –- could impact the five other states that have banned abortion after 20 weeks, beginning with Nebraska in 2010, followed by Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Alabama.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that “Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma reportedly will return exchange Planning and/or Early Innovator grant funds” awarded by the Affordable Care Act. Other states — while not universally writing legislation to begin implementation — are at least accepting the grants to begin the early steps of the implementation. #

Florida’s state Legislature has not accepted various grants since the law’s passage. Legislators have turned down money awarded to the state for community health centers, child abuse and neglect prevention, and grants to help seniors avoid or get out of nursing homes. Their reasoning has been that the state is currently in litigation with the federal government over the constitutionality of health care reform. Despite the dismissal of all these grants, the legislature did accept Affordable Care Act funds for abstinence education. #

Half the country is in litigation against the law, yet most states are still accepting grant money. #

Right now, Gov. Rick Scott is working with the federal government in an effort to possibly recoup some of the dismissed grants. #

Here is the map of the 2010 and 2011 “Exchange Grant Awards” from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: #

#

The report, titled How Do You Measure Up?: A Progress Report on State Legislative Activity to Reduce Cancer Incidence and Mortality, “ranks state policies in five priority areas.” #

The five “priority areas,” according to a press release announcing the report, are: #

• breast and cervical cancer early detection program funding
• colorectal screening coverage laws
• smoke-free laws
• tobacco prevention program funding
• tobacco taxes.

The study analyzes whether states have either “well-balanced policies and good practices,” or whether they are falling short, in these health policy areas. #

Florida is one of seven states that is falling short in every single one of these areas. Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee are the other states that are also falling short in every category. #

According to a press release from the Cancer Action Network: #

“State legislators should support laws and policies that help people fight cancer by emphasizing disease prevention, making health care affordable and accessible and focusing on quality of life,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of ACS CAN. “Missed opportunities to pass laws that fight and prevent cancer not only leave new state revenue and health savings on the table, but deny the potential for saving countless lives from a disease that still kills 1,500 people every day.” #

One area where the Cancer Society scores Florida particularly low is in state appropriations for breast and cervical cancer screening programs. #

According to a state-by-state analysis, Florida “allocates no money for the program.” #

The group’s press release says that “many states are slashing funding to the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which provides low-income and uninsured women with access to life-saving mammograms and Pap tests.” The group also warns that “decreased funding means that fewer eligible women across the United States have access to lifesaving screenings.” #

Public funding for women’s health in Florida has taken a hit this past year. The state’s budget (with added line-item vetoes from Gov. Rick Scott) cut millions in funding for women’s health. #

One policy research group recently stated that the severity of the cuts to the state’s public health funding was “unnecessarily harmful.” #

Medical abortions are administered through a pill called RU 486, or Mifepristone. RU 486 induces a miscarriage and is generally used within the first trimester of a pregnancy. #

Life Site News, National Right to Life News, Catholic Culture and Life News all posted information on an “audit” of abortions performed in South Australia in 2009 and 2010. #

The Australian reported that the “audit” of nearly 7,000 abortions “found that 3.3 percent of women who used mifepristone in the first trimester of pregnancy – when most elective terminations occur – later turned up at hospital emergency departments, against 2.2 percent who had undergone surgery.” #

Only four years ago, a US/Denmark study showed that medical abortions are “no riskier to future pregnancies than surgical abortions.” #

That study, which was featured in the August 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the drug, “at least in the long term, is safe.” #

Time Magazine reported that the study “contradicts an earlier study, of women in the Auvergne region of France, published in 2003 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, which found an association between medical abortion and a nearly threefold greater risk of ectopic pregnancy — a condition that accounts for about 9% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S.” #

When asked about the disparity in the two reports, one researcher pointed to the “small sample size and self-reported data in the earlier study,”  while the current study had a “large cohort and national-registry information.” According to Time, “the focus of the previous study was not abortion per se, but general risk factors for ectopic pregnancy, including women’s history of smoking and pelvic infectious disease.” #

Medical abortions are a contentious topic in the U.S. Since RU 486 first arrived in the United States, anti-abortion activists have campaigned against the drug’s approval and began petitioning the government to disallow the use of the drug once it became more widespread. #

Recently, Texas and Oklahoma took up legislation that would limit the drug’s use and place restrictions on when the pill could be administered. #

The Islamic Center of Northeast Florida was pipe-bombed just before evening prayer services on May 10, 2010. The bomb caused no injuries and only $500 worth of damage to the mosque, but was thought by many to be a hate crime possibly linked to the appointment of a Muslim man to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission.

Though video surveillance captured the suspect on tape, his face wasn’t clearly visible and police never named a suspect. But nearly a year later, the FBI announced that a suspect had been killed following a “confrontation” with FBI agents. Sandlin Matthew Smith, a 46-year old bus driver from Julington Creek, Fla., is said to have been responsible for last year’s bombing.

According to the FBI, the “critical lead” in linking Smith to the pipe bomb was the discovery of explosive materials in his residence found after executing a search warrant.

According to Jacksonville’s First Coast News, Smith had been bragging to friends that he was responsible for the bombing.

After speaking to more than a dozen of Smith’s acquaintances, the FBI tracked him to Oklahoma. Smith was shot and killed following a “confrontation” with FBI agents. He was armed.