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Issue 10.30 | Tuesday, July 13, 2010 |
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TODAY'S FOCUS SUWANEE, Ga, July 13, 2010 – Students arrive for orientation August 11 and classes begin August 16 for the newest pharmacy school in Georgia. The announcement was made last week in a joint communication from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Matthew Schure, and Mark Okamoto, PharmD, professor and founding dean of the PCOM School of Pharmacy in Suwanee. That announcement comes on the heels of written approval from the national pharmacy education accrediting body, following an April visit to the school and a comprehensive review of the educational structure, and the planned clinical training sites and the facility.
Although the accrediting body, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), has formally granted the School pre-candidate accreditation (the first of three levels of accreditation.) Plans for the School have been underway for nearly two years. Applicant interviews have been conducted and 75 students have been selected for the inaugural class. President Schure expressed his delight at the ACPE ruling granting Pre-Accreditation status and allowing the School of Pharmacy to proceed with enrolling the first class. “We look forward to welcoming our class in August, to educating much needed pharmacists for Georgia and the Southern states, and to creating new models of inter-professional collaboration between pharmacists and physicians." Dean Okamoto says: “Students begin classes August 16. We are all looking forward to meeting the needs of the charter class of 75 students. No stone will be left unturned to provide them with a first-rate pharmacy school experience and equip them with the education and understanding they need to take leadership roles in an ever-changing health care environment.” Data from the “Final Report, Task Force on Health Professions Education, Findings and Recommendations June 2006” to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, indicated the need for pharmacists in Georgia is second only to the need for nurses,” according to Campus Executive Officer Dr. John Fleischmann, who was instrumental in the initiative to bring the pharmacy school to the College’s Georgia campus. The proposed opening of the new school attracted a large number of applicants for the 75 available seats. Over 300-applicants were invited to the Georgia campus for interviews. Students in the four-year Doctor of Pharmacy program will be involved in classroom, lab and pharmacy experiences beginning in year one. Classroom and lab experiences continue throughout the first three years of the program, while the fourth academic year sends students to eight, five week rotations in hospital community practice, ambulatory care and medicine rotations along with four elective rotations in a variety of settings including pediatrics, cardiology, infectious diseases, nuclear pharmacy, psychiatry, and managed care, to name a few. Most of
the entering students have a baccalaureate degree and some have graduate
degrees, but some of the students are able to fulfill the prerequisite
requirements in less time. Many of the charter class come from working
professional backgrounds as pharmacy technicians. The application process
for new classes enrolling for the Fall 2011 semester for all schools of
pharmacy has already begun. The centralized Pharmacy College Application
Service (PharmCAS, www.pharmacas.org)
began accepting applications on June 14, 2010, for the next year’s
class. EEB PERSPECTIVE JULY 13, 2010 – It pains all Georgians, even those of us who are not graduates of the University of Georgia, when someone at this citadel of higher education, gets arrested.
In recent years, we have had a continuing dose of high-powered athletes being in the headlines. It has made us wonder if the Athletic Department was recruiting people with athletic abilities, who just happened to be hoodlums, too. We would want the department to recruit a higher grade of athleticism. Yet some say such recruits are necessary in order to win. Hmmm. We wonder. Then the even-greater embarrassment last week when the Athletic Director himself, Damon Evans, was in the headlines. The best comment that can be made is that he is no longer employed by the state's premier institution. With this as background, we relish the recent headlines another individual has made, giving the University of Georgia great distinction and acclaim.
Dr. Samantha Joye is in the news virtually every day, as an expert on living and non-living components of the ecosystems in coastal environments. She's the voice of calm reason and great understanding of what is happening in the Gulf Spill. She is a professor in the department of marine sciences of UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. She's an expert on the science of cycling of nutrients, metals and organic materials. She has great understanding of geochemical modeling, microbial ecology; metabolism and physiology. Whew! She's been widely published....81 extensive articles in peer reviews....no slack academic accomplishment in itself. In 2008 she was awarded UGA's Creative Research Medal for her work assessing the impacts of climate change on biological and geological processes, particularly those involving carbon in coastal systems. (It is like she was preparing in advance for the oil rig explosion and its oil spill. (Think oil washing up on beaches.) She's also involved in temperature changes on coastal ocean areas; rising sea levels causing climate change, and affecting coastal wetlands; and similar studies. Dr. Joye, 45, is a native of Laurinburg, N.C., and holds the bachelor's, master's, and PhD degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her previous faculty jobs have been at Texas A&M; San Francisco State; and advanced study at two institutes in Germany; and at Woods Hole, Mass. Dr. Joye will be in the news again today at 11 a.m., as she gives a new assessment of the impact of the Gulf oil spill. She'll also give preliminary findings on concentrations of oil and other hydrocarbons. The event will be in the Marine Sciences building in Athens. Her call to fame came when she was conducting research in the Gulf of Mexico when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. At that time, she was only eight miles from the disaster site. So she immediately shifted the focus of her work to quantify the impact of the oil spill, and in particular, to document the plume's distribution and to measure the variables. She reported on the discovery of the plumes, and since has been featured on many national media. Dr. Joye lives in Athens, is married, has a daughter, and enjoys walking her dog and riding horses. And in the meantime, she brings great distinction to the University of Georgia and to our state. ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is First National Insurance, located at 1689 Duluth Highway, Lawrenceville. The firm, with roots going back to its founding in 1995, offers multi-lines in insurance and financial services, including auto, home, recreational, commercial and group benefits programs. It is the representative of several old-line insurance companies, including Travelers, Hartford, Auto-owners, Allied, Blue Cross-Blue Shield and Zurich firms. Call First National Insurance at 770 513-2264. Check out our web site at www.fnins.net.
FEEDBACK Editor, the Forum: Maybe all
county commissioners should get a “bottoms up” taste of police
service like Commissioner Bannister got. Now that the police have
been covered, let one of the other commissioners get a nice unexpected
water bill over $1,000; another can be faced with a complicated tax statement;
another find four or five abandoned animals on their property, and so
on. I’d volunteer to arrange that little project, and maybe
extend it to division heads, etc. Summary: If you did not have problems, you are lucky. I’ll still be very curious next year looking back about how many illegal dumping sites this prevented. My prediction: zero.
Could arrest come after anyone's controversial stand? Editor, the Forum: Let me preface my response to say that I have disagreed with a number of issues that our County Commission chairman has been involved with. However, the way in which this incident was handled causes me concern regarding "Due Process." As I have read, the incident was reported outside the normal protocol; the arrest was made based on perception of sobriety test and mugshot taken. As a citizen of Gwinnett County, I have to ask could this happen to anyone who may take a controversial stand in Gwinnett County? After the blood test and Breathalyzer revealed 0.00, something is wrong here. I am glad the GBI will investigate and hopefully will do a thorough and timely investigation.
Editor, the Forum: Sometime you just hit the nail on the head! You did it here again for me about television. Let me add that what has happened to television news programming is driving me crazy. I am unfortunately a news junkie. I enjoy reading several newspapers and watching multiple new broadcasts daily. This is perhaps a bad habit and one that my wife contends keeps me from sleeping well at night! Television's decision to show multiple people all talking over one another and giggling and making snide remarks is not my idea of real news. With lines of print scrolling at the bottom and up to four people talking at the same time, I find I have to rewind often just to understand what they are talking about. I ask, "Am I the only one who finds this extremely distasteful?" My children have almost convinced me that the best way to get the news is to read it on the Internet. This is a very difficult change for me but one I am beginning to embrace.
UPCOMING Snellville's Eastside Hospital is once again under the sole direction of Hospital Corporation of America. Emory Healthcare
and HCA have announced a shift in the partnership first forged by the
two health care organizations in 1998. Emory Healthcare will purchase
HCA’s ownership interest in Emory Johns Creek Hospital and become
the sole owner of that facility, and HCA will assume full ownership of
Eastside Medical Center in Gwinnett County. It is expected to take several months for the transition of ownership for these two Atlanta hospitals. Gwinnett property tax bills to be mailed July 22 Gwinnett
property tax bills for 2010 will be mailed by July 22, Tax Commissioner
Katherine Meyer announces. Payment may be made in two installment, by
September 22 and November. 15. At a minimum, half the tax amount due must
be paid by the first installment date. The last day for advance voting in the July 20 General Primary election is Friday, July 16. Gwinnett County residents can vote at several advanced voting locations the week before the election. The Gwinnett Elections Office located at 455 Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and four satellite locations will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 12 –16. They are:
Satellite
offices will not be open the day before Election Day, on Election Day
or for runoff elections. Voters still have the option of getting an absentee ballot that they can return by mail or in person; however, ballots that do not qualify under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Voting Act and are received in the absentee office after 7 p.m. on Election Day will not be counted, regardless of when the ballot was mailed or postmarked. Many polling places in Gwinnett have changed since the last election. Please check the Secretary of State's new elections website http://www.sos.ga.gov/mvp before voting. Buford Main Street planning monthly Thursday night event Main Street Historic Buford business people will begin an event, Historic Buford Live on Main, beginning July 15 and continuing the third Thursday of each month. Merchants will open their doors and have special offerings on these days! Live music, art demos, specials on merchandise and opportunities to interact with interior designers, train enthusiasts, jewelry designers, musicians, artists and others in their places of business.
Snellville theatre presents The Secret Garden through Aug. 8 New London
Theatre will present the hit musical The Secret Garden opening July 16
through August 8. NOTABLE The City of Sugar Hill and the Sugar Hill Housing Authority is sponsoring the World Changers Southern Baptists youth mission “hands-on” work experience in Sugar Hill. Mayor Gary Pirkle initiated the contact as a way to improve the well being of some of our citizens. With the Housing Authority looking for an avenue to give back to the community, this was undertaken. Some 180 young adults will come to Sugar Hill July 19-24 to paint, reroof, and build handicap ramps and other minor fix ups to needy resident home owners in Sugar Hill. World Changers national work projects began in the summer of 1990 in Briceville, Tenn., where 137 youth and adults spent a week performing light construction jobs on nine homes. In 2009, World Changers coordinated over 23,000 participants (who pay their own way to participate) at 99 locations on 1,793 work sites and 51 ministry sites. The youths are grouped into teams of 10-12 each with an adult team leader. A project coordinator oversees the teams and develops work schedules. The City has received applications from residents wanting help to maintain their home, or may need some minor repairs. After review by the World Changers construction manager, ten homes were identified meeting the requirements for help and were selected for work. Each work group has a senior adviser and professional construction managers to monitor all work performed. There is no cost to the home owner for the repairs. The Sugar Hill Housing Authority is financing the materials needed for the work. Gwinnett Jets to play home games at Sugar Hill Park The Gwinnett
Jets semi-pro football team has contracted with the City of Sugar Hill
to hold their first home game is July 24 at 6:30 p.m. At E.E. Robinson
Park on the main synthetic field. The concession stand will be open and
there will be entertainment. The Gwinnett Jets play in the Southern Football
League, where they won the 2009 Division Championship with a 10-1 record.
Jets Coach Oscar Dillard has an extensive resume coaching winning teams,
and is currently owner of Oscar Dillard Football Academy, located on Cascade
Road in Atlanta, training athletes year round. Check out their web site:
www.gwinnettjets.com. RECOMMENDED
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
Atlanta-based EarthLink, an independent Internet service provider (ISP), traces its history to the early 1990s, when Charles Brewer founded MindSpring and Sky Dayton founded EarthLink Network. Each company provided broad consumer access to the Internet. The two organizations merged in 2000 to form one of the nation's largest ISPs, and five years later EarthLink had 5 million subscribers and 2,000 employees. In 2005 1,100 employees worked in Earthlink's corporate headquarters on the corner of Peachtree and 17th streets. In February
1994 Brewer, a Kentucky native with an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University,
founded MindSpring in Atlanta with 32 nonpaying customers. Four months
later the company celebrated its first paying customers and by November
had joined other Atlanta start-up companies refining their businesses
at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Advanced Technology Development
Center. Within two years the company reported 12,400 subscribers and eight
employees. MindSpring completed its first profitable quarter in December
1997 with 278,000 subscribers and 502 employees. Five profitable quarters
followed, and by February 1999 the company had more than a million subscribers. In addition to acquiring several regional ISPs, MindSpring grew by providing its subscribers with technologies and services as they were being developed. In 1999 the firm introduced high-speed cable modem access to customers in Alabama and Georgia, launched MindSpring Biz to focus on the needs of small business, and developed Internet software packages that emphasized ease of use. In late 1999 MindSpring introduced digital subscriber line (DSL) services in Atlanta and several other cities outside Georgia. Dayton, a California native, founded EarthLink Network in 1994 in Los Angeles and moved the company to Pasadena, Calif. in 1996. EarthLink Network initiated a series of partnerships with such companies as Microsoft to forge broader connections in the ISP market. The company became publicly traded in January 1997 and by April 1997 had grown to nearly 300,000 subscribers. Later that year EarthLink Network partnered with Charter Communications to provide high-speed Internet access. EarthLink Network's most effective alliance was finalized in early 1998, when Sprint Corporation agreed to help create a single, unified Internet service, eventually investing a reported $1 billion. EarthLink Network also continued to increase subscriber numbers by becoming the default Internet software for iMac, Packard Bell, and NEC Ready computers. By December 1998 EarthLink Network had signed its one millionth subscriber. MindSpring and EarthLink Network each developed a deeply loyal customer base, and in 2000 the two companies merged, taking the name EarthLink and creating the second largest ISP at the time, with more than three million subscribers nationwide. Based in Atlanta and traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, the new company offered an array of software upgrades, including improved parental controls, child-friendly Web browsers, updated security tools, and faster connectivity. EarthLink also began introducing such premium services as music subscription and voicemail. Company highlights include growing broadband services from nothing in 1999 to $400 million in 2004 and the addition of the People PC unit, a discount dial-up service with a million customers as of 2005. In September 2004 EarthLink, emphasizing its expertise in e-mail and intrusion protection, began offering services for handheld wireless voice and data devices, most notably the BlackBerry product by Research In Motion. Also in 2004 EarthLink offered Voice over Internet Protocol, with plans to fully integrate voice and Internet services; an enhanced Web-based e-mail system; a secure private business network service for remote access; and personalized portals. Since its founding EarthLink has often been recognized for quality of service. In 2004 the company earned highest honors for both high-speed and dial-up Internet services in J. D. Power and Associates' ISP Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. EarthLink has also been committed to reducing operating costs, and as of June 2005 the company was debt free. For the first quarter of 2005 EarthLink reported a net increase of 13,000 subscribers across all services for a total of 5.4 million customers and a quarterly profit of $33.3 million. CREDITS GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday. If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more. Send
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© 2010, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. |
If you are a pessimist, well, you can't be too careful! "A pessimist is a man who looks both ways when he's crossing a one-way street."
For the 2010 primary season, GwinnettForum asked all candidates facing primary opposition in Gwinnett County to provide answers to a few questions. You can read their answers below by clicking on the links. Candidates with no primary opposition are noted. They'll be asked in the fall by us to fill out issues surveys, which we'll publish before the November election.
PROFILE KEY
2010 FEDERAL CANDIDATES U.S. Congress, District 4
U.S. Congress, District 7
2010 STATEWIDE CANDIDATES Georgia Governor
Georgia Lieutenant Governor
Georgia Attorney General
Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture
Georgia Commissioner of Insurance
Georgia Labor Commissioner
Georgia Secretary of State
Georgia State School Superintendent
Georgia Public Service Commission
2010
LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES Republicans
State Senate, District 40
State Representative, District 51
State Representative, District 88
State Representative, District 95
State Representative, District 96
State Representative, District 98
State Representative, District 101
State Representative, District 102
State Representative, District 103
State Representative, District 104
State Representative, District 106
2010 GWINNETT COUNTY CANDIDATES Gwinnett County Commissioner, District 2
Gwinnett County Commissioner, District 4
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ABOUT US GwinnettForum.com is a twice-weekly online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. Contact us today. © 2001-2010, Gwinnett Forum.com is Gwinnett County's online community forum for commentary that explores pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. PHONE: 770.840.1003 |
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