May 24, 2010 - Niabi Zoo is proud to announce that "Zuri" has been selected as the name of the femaie giraffe born at the zoo on April 10, 2010.  Zuri is a name of Swahili origin which mean "beautiful."  The zoo sponsored a context to select the name.  The winning name was submitted by multiple members.  The winner of a year-long family membership to Niabi Zoo is Susan Bates of Bettendorf.  Her name was randomly selected  from those entries suggesting Zuri.  Niabi Zoo would like to thank the community for their participation.

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WASHINGTON  - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, with exclusive Senate jurisdiction over taxes, this week joined the committee chairman to introduce tax legislation that would create job opportunities for veterans returning home from military service and help businesses create jobs.  This is the latest in a series of Grassley actions to help veterans and active duty members of the military.

"These men and women are extremely capable," Grassley said.  "They have a lot of skills to offer in the workplace.  This legislation will clear some bureaucratic hurdles and add a financial incentive to encourage employers to seek out veterans.  These steps are a logical follow-up to my effort to increase the IRS' hiring of veterans.  The IRS saw the value of this pool of potential workers and followed through on increased hiring of veterans.  Other employers, including small businesses, should have similar opportunities."

The bipartisan Veterans Employment Transition Act will reward employers who hire qualified veterans who have recently completed their service in the military with up to a $4,800 tax credit for disabled veterans and up to a $2,400 tax credit for other qualifying veterans.  The bill eliminates the administrative burdens that make the current Work Opportunity Tax Credit provision directed toward unemployed veterans difficult for small businesses to use.  As a result, servicemen and women who have been recently discharged will be able to provide documentation from the Department of Defense without having to go through the tax credit's current certification process, which can be lengthy.   Any recently discharged veteran who has discharge paperwork showing 180 days of qualified active duty is eligible. This includes those men and women who were activated by their states as members of the National Guard.  The bill also requires the military to educate service members on how employers may qualify for the tax credit by hiring them.  The bill text is available here.

The introduction of this legislation follows earlier Grassley steps to increase veterans' hiring.  Beginning in 2008, Grassley succeeded in persuading the IRS to increase its hiring of veterans. At Grassley's urging, the agency hired more than 1,000 veterans in 2008, per a verbal commitment Grassley secured from the IRS commissioner, and hired an additional 700 veterans in the first five months of Fiscal Year 2009.  Grassley is seeking an update for the rest of Fiscal Year 2009.  Grassley initiated the effort after realizing that the Treasury Department, including the IRS, lagged behind other federal agencies in hiring newly returned veterans, even though the department had significant vacancies.

In 2008, Congress made permanent several provisions to provide tax relief for American troops and their families that Grassley helped to advance.  The Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008, the HEART Act, was a bipartisan effort that incorporated most of the provisions in the Defenders of Freedom Tax Relief Act of 2007, which Grassley co-sponsored and promoted.  The HEART Act also made permanent and expanded upon some of the tax relief measures that Grassley coauthored in 2003, while chairman of the Finance Committee.

"Military service makes taxes complicated and sometimes unfair," Grassley said.  "People shouldn't suffer a tax hit to serve our country.  Military men and women should have fair treatment under the tax code. It's a no-brainer."

Last year, Grassley welcomed the enactment of legislation he cosponsored to help members of the military benefit from the first-time homebuyer tax credit.  Before this correction, members of the military were penalized by the credit's structure.  The correction gave military personnel serving outside of the United States more time to qualify for the credit.   It also eliminated the repayment requirement for military personnel forced to sell as a result of official service.  The legislation also excluded from tax any payment to military personnel to compensate them for loss in home value resulting from base closure.

Apart from tax work, Grassley recently has worked to address the ongoing and growing backlog of veterans' claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  He also cosponsored successful legislation that will ensure timely, sufficient and reliable funding for the VA health care system.  This legislation was supported by all major veterans' organizations as well as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  Grassley also has worked to include several beneficial provisions in the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act.  This new law corrects a number of deficiencies in how the U.S. cares for veterans with traumatic brain injuries, enhances VA support for family caregivers, and expands mental health services.  In 2009, Grassley received the American Legion's Distinguished Public Service Award for his work on issues important to veterans.

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Senators Klobuchar, Cornyn, Grassley and Brown Introduce Bill for Safe Disposal of Medication, Helping Keep Unused Prescription Drugs from Teens

Legislation promotes take-back programs to collect and destroy unused, unwanted, or expired medications

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced bipartisan legislation today to provide patients with safe and responsible ways to dispose of unused controlled substances.  Patients currently seeking to reduce the amount of expired or otherwise unwanted prescription drugs in their homes have few disposal options, increasing the risk that teenagers will gain access to them.  The Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 seeks to reduce that risk by permitting individuals and long-term care facilities to deliver unused drugs for safe disposal, and promoting the development and expansion of drug take-back programs.

"Parents know that keeping unwanted prescription drugs in their homes increases the risk that young people will find them, but current law provides them with few alternatives," Klobuchar said. "By making it easier for people to dispose of controlled substances they no longer need, we reduce teens' access to these drugs and help curb teen drug abuse."

"Abuse of prescription medications is a serious problem.  But because of overly restrictive federal laws, most people currently lack a safe option for disposing of dangerous medications.  This legislation writes some common sense back into the law by allowing responsible drug take-back programs to accept any person's unused or unwanted medications," said Cornyn.

"The abuse of prescription narcotics such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives is currently the fastest growing drug abuse trend in the country," Grassley said.  "Many legitimate users of these drugs often do not finish their prescriptions, and, as a result, these drugs remain in the family medicine cabinet for months or years because people forget about them or do not know how to properly dispose of them. It's important that we encourage people to dispose of their old or unwanted medicines so that these drugs don't fall into the wrong hands."

"It's critical that we treat prescription drug abuse like the dangerous epidemic it is," Brown said. "This legislation will make it easier for parents and facilities to dispose of controlled substances before they are abused. It is an important step in our fight against prescription drug abuse."

Up to 17 percent of prescribed medication goes unused, and if improperly disposed, may contribute to drug diversion and environmental problems. The bill would allow consumers to give controlled substances to specially designated individuals for disposal, such as law enforcement officials or pharmacists. It also would allow long-term care facilities to dispose of certain prescription drugs on behalf of their residents.

Keeping outdated prescription drugs in the home leaves drugs readily accessible to children and teens. Teenagers now abuse prescription drugs more than any other illegal drug except for marijuana, and the majority of teens who abuse these drugs get them for free, usually from friends and relatives and often without their knowledge.

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The Figge Art Museum is one of more than 600 museums to offer free admission to military personnel and their families this summer

Davenport, Iowa -?Today The Figge Art Museum announced the launch of Blue Star Museums, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and more than 600 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2010.   Families can visit the Figge Art Museum at www.figgeart.org for museum hours.  The complete list of participating Blue Star Museums is available at www.arts.gov.

"America's museums are proud to join the rest of the country in thanking our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifice," said National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman. "I cannot imagine a better way to do that than welcoming them in to explore and enjoy the extraordinary cultural heritage our museums present.  The works of art on view this summer will inspire and challenge viewers, and sometimes they will just be a great deal of fun."

"There have always been wonderful examples of partnerships between museums and military installations, but the scale of this gift from the museum communities to military families is thrilling," said Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet.  "Military families work hard for this country, and it is gratifying for us to be recognized for that.  We anticipate that thousands of military families will participate in the program and visit museums this summer - many of them for the first time.  Blue Star Families will work hard to help our military families make the most of these opportunities."

In addition to being Chairman of Blue Star Families, Ms. Roth-Douquet is married to a Marine Corps officer, who is currently deployed to Afghanistan.  They have two children, and Ms. Roth-Douquet and the children plan to take a road trip this summer to visit Blue Star Museums up and down the East Coast.

More than 600 museums in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are taking part in the initiative.  The American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, and the Association of Children's Museums each sent a letter from NEA Chairman Landesman inviting museums to participate in this program.  In addition to thirty children's museums across the country, participating museums represent a broad range of art, history, science, and cultural topics -- from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, to the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, California, to the Mission San Luis, a living history site and historic landmark in Tallahassee, Florida, to the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Lincoln - Nebraska, the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, and the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.

Blue Star Museums runs from Memorial Day, May 31 through to Labor Day, September 6, 2010.  The free admission program is available to active duty military and their immediate family members (military ID holder and five immediate family members), which includes active duty Reserve and active duty National Guard.  Some special or limited-time museum exhibits may not be included in this free admission program.  For questions on particular exhibits or museums, please contact the museum directly.  To find out which museums are participating, visit www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.  The site includes a list of participating museums and a map to help with visit planning.

This is the latest Arts Endowment program to bring quality arts programs to the military, veterans, and their families.  Other NEA programs for the military have included Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Great American Voices Military Base Tour, and Shakespeare in American Communities Military Base Tour.

About Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families is a national, non-partisan, non-profit network of military families from all ranks and services including guard and reserve, with a mission to support, connect and empower military families.  In addition to morale and empowerment programs, Blue Star Families raises awareness of the challenges and strengths of military family life with civilian community and leaders.  Membership includes spouses, kids, parents, service members, veterans and civilians.

Operation Appreciation is an initiative of Blue Star Families that seeks to connect military families to the larger community.  Blue Star Families 2009 annual survey shows that 94 percent of military families feel that the larger community doesn't truly understand or appreciate the sacrifices we make for the country.  Through initiatives such as Blue Star Museums, Blue Star Families provides avenues for the larger community to show that they do understand, in meaningful ways that enrich the lives of military service members, spouses, children and parents.  For more information, please visit www.BlueStarFam.org.

About the National Endowment for the Arts

The NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts - both new and established - bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education.  Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.