LA city councilmember bill rosendahl calls HIV/AIDS elder advocacy summit & new media training feb 12 (0131)

February 4, 2010
Contact: Nate Kaplan-(213) 473-7011, Richard Kearns-(310) 488-1328

ROSENDAHL CALLS LOS ANGELES HIV/AIDS ELDER ADVOCACY SUMMIT & NEW MEDIA TRAINING
Forum Open to the Public

Los Angeles – Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl is co-costing an “HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit and New Media Training Conference” with the City’s AIDS Coordinator’s Office, and a coalition of Los Angeles grassroots advocacy organizations led by activist Richard Kearns.

The conference will be held on the 27^th Floor of City Hall in the Tom Bradley Tower on Friday, February 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The program will offer instruction on:

• building a website from scratch
• practicing posting videos & text
• meeting with city councilmembers and their staff
• empowering adult activists and their allies with new media and networking skills

“This is a great opportunity for people living with HIV and AIDS to learn how to use the Internet to communicate with each other and the world,” said Rosendahl.  “This day-long training session will educate and empower individuals to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other online sources to network and express themself through the powerful medium of the Internet.”

Kearns, a 58 year-old gay man living with AIDS in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, is a member of the growing group of long-term survivors.  He is a community-based Internet advocate, an AIDS activist, and publisher of two blogs. His has become a familiar face at LA City Council meetings, where he speaks regularly on issues that affect people living with HIV in Los Angeles, such as aging, the assisted healthcare system, and medical cannabis.

“Everyone treats us as liabilities when in fact, we are resources – both to ourselves and to our community,” said Kearns. “However, as a group, I’d also characterize elder people living with HIV and AIDS as ‘internet reluctant,’ and ‘technology resistant.’ The question becomes this: Why should we let ourselves be intimidated by something a nine-year-old can master in a single sitting?”

Anyone interested in attending the free conference should contact Richard Kearns at rk@aids-write.org or call 310-488-1328.

www.councilmanrosendahl.com
City Hall (213) 473-7011 West LA (310) 575-8461 Westchester (310) 568-8772



miguel gomez et al, AIDS.gov: peer-generated new media in the fight against AIDS — a call to action (0130)

New Year’s Messages from AIDS.gov and Colleagues

chers—

this is an excellent 5-minute introduction to advocates using the new media for HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, treatment & survival education.

namaste

—rk

New Year’s Messages from AIDS.gov and colleagues highlighting voices and new media lessons learned.

USDA report (in americaBLOG): 81% more seniors living alone rely on foodbanks (0128)

The Obama failure: senior citizens increasingly relying on food pantries
by Chris in Paris
11/28/2009

chers—

the text about this US department of agriculture (USDA) report is excerpted in a 11/28/2009 post on americaBLOG. i have put the report first and the 2 paragraphs of commentary after, reversing the order of the original post.

namaste

—rk

The number of seniors living alone who seek help from food pantries in the U.S. increased 81 percent to 408,000 in 2008, compared to 225,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, 4.7 million households used American food pantries in 2008, compared to about 3.7 million in 2006.

“Seniors thought they were OK, but they’re not OK,” said Virginia Skinner, director of Development at The Association of Arizona Food Banks in Phoenix, citing the downturn in the area’s housing market.

Catholic Charities USA, which has 170 agencies across the country helping the needy, issued a 2009 third-quarter report that found a 54 percent increase in requests for food and services from seniors nationwide compared to the same period last year.

hivandhepatitisdotcom, cme & newsletter: non-AIDS-defining illnesses in the mature patient (part iii of iii in “the graying of an empidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and aging”) (0125)

chers—

this is a link to the pdf for part iii on an excellent series called “the graying of an epidemic: clinical considerations of HIV and Aging,” available as a cme from hivandhepatitis.com. the other two parts are below.

namaste

—rk

video post: kearns to LA city council announcing elder HIV/AIDS summit & new media training feb 12 (0119)

chers—

if this works, share my joy of this unhistoric moment of major insignificance, la la la

namaste

—rk

after the jump

kearns to LA city council: HIV/AIDS elder summit & new media training in bradley conference center set for valentine’s weekend (0106)

[december 15, 2009] good morning president
garcetti, distinguished council members. i
have given the clerk copies of my prepared
remarks.

my name is richard kearns. i am a
58-year-old gay man living with AIDS
in los angeles for more than
20 years, an angelino poet advocate.

i am delighted to announce to you
this morning that
on friday, february 12th, 2010,
upstairs in the
tom bradley conference center,
on the 27th floor,
we will hold,

the
LA city
grassroots
elder
HIV/AIDS
advocacy summit
& new media
training

“new tricks
for old dogs &
their allies”
sponsored by
councilmember bill rosendahl &
the city AIDS coordinators office

kearns: save the date (feb 12, 2010) for LA city grassroots elder HIV/AIDS sdvocacy summit & new media training (0105)

text of jpeg after jump

CDC issues H1N1 email fraud alert (0094)

Fraudulent emails referencing CDC-sponsored State Vaccination Program
Health Related Hoaxes and Rumors
(December 1, 2009)

chers—

this came in earl this morning, so i thought i’d help get the word out.

namaste

—rk

CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program.

The messages request that users must create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The message then states that anyone that has reached the age of 18 has to have his/her personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site.

The CDC has NOT implemented a state vaccination program requiring registration on http://www.cdc.gov. Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system. CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack:

• Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
• Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites.
• Use caution when entering personal information online.

An example of the Phishing email follows:

thomas carlyle: first use of the term “fourth estate” (0086)

text follows jump

kearns to la city council: medical cannabis, carmen trutanich & LA’s “extraordinary response” to HIV/AIDS (0079)

[tuesday, November 3, 2009] good morning
president garcetti, distinguished council
members. i have given the clerk copies
of my prepared remarks.

my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old
gay man with AIDS, a long-term survivor & activist,
a medical cannabis advocate, a poet & journalist.

i am here this morning to suggest a
plan B for medical cannabis in LA