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At Increased Risk For Premature Illness And Death
“Women At Risk: The Health of Women in New York City” Report Released
NEW YORK CITY – March 8, 2005 – New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden today presented findings from “Women at Risk: The Health of Women in New York City,” a new report that outlines health behaviors, health care access, and health outcomes among different economic and racial/ethnic groups of women in New York City.  The report, which is structured around the ten key areas from Take Care New York, the City’s health policy, is available online at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/pdf/data/data-womenatrisk-2005.pdf.  It was released at a breakfast event at KPMG in Manhattan co-sponsored by DOHMH, The Commonwealth Fund, the Fund for Public Health in New York, and the NYC Commission on Women’s Issues.

Overview of the “Women at Risk” Report
  The health of women in New York City has greatly improved over the past decade, but some groups of women – particularly black, Hispanic, and low-income women – still experience poor health.
  Many women in New York City do not receive appropriate levels of preventive care, including regular cancer screenings and immunizations.
  Women lag behind men in heart disease prevention efforts, such as exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight.
Among the report’s specific findings are:
 Women in New York City’s poorest neighborhoods have a life expectancy 5 years shorter than those who in the highest income neighborhoods.  Black women have a life expectancy almost 5 years shorter than white women.
  Data suggest that women are more obese than men.  An estimated 30% of black women, 26% of Hispanic women, 15% of white women, and 10% of Asian women are obese.
  Hispanic women and women with low incomes are less likely than most other women to have health care coverage.
  Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related complications. 
  Among women, 27% of years of potential life lost are due to cancer, while cancer is responsible for only 17% of the years of potential life lost among men.
  Nearly one-quarter of women age 40 and older have not received a mammogram in the past two years; fewer than half of women age 50 and over have ever had a colon cancer screening; and 1 in 5 women have not had a Pap test in the past three years.  Asian women are least likely to receive colon cancer screenings and Pap tests.
  The rate of new AIDS diagnoses is 11 times higher among black women than white women and the rate of AIDS deaths is 7 times higher.
Dr. Frieden was joined at the event by Dr. Harold Freeman, Medical Director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention; cardiologist Dr. Nieca Goldberg; Dr. Marjorie Hill, Director of the Women’s Institute at Gay Men’s Health Crisis; Dr. Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund; and radio personality Valerie Smaldone, of 106.7 Lite-FM.  The event focused on three areas of women’s health: cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart health.  
DOHMH Commissioner Frieden said, “Women’s health has improved greatly in the past decade, but we can do even better.  The findings of the “Women at Risk” report identify critical issues, intervention strategies, and particularly vulnerable groups of women.” “One of the greatest risks for women in New York City is not to have access to cancer screening, timely diagnosis and treatment,” said Dr. Harold Freeman of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention. Cardiologist Dr. Nieca Goldberg said, “This conference is vital to the health of women in New York City, particularly when it comes to their hearts. Now is the time to focus on the heart health of women at the greatest risk because they are the heart of their families and heart of our city.”

Dr. Marjorie Hill of Gay Men’s Health Crisis said, “Gender specific HIV prevention, care and treatment must take into account the myriad of psychosocial, economic, human rights and cultural nuances that impact the lives of women, especially women of color. No woman is an island, but many HIV positive women feel isolated and alone.”
“These findings highlight the critical importance of health care coverage in ensuring access to medical care; too many women are needlessly at risk for preventable illness because they are uninsured,” said Commonwealth
Fund President Karen Davis. “Improving coverage for eligible low-income women in Medicaid and Family Health Plus is a particularly effective way to improve the health of millions of New Yorkers.”
“The NYC Commission on Women’s Issues continues to focus on the health of women throughout the city for the very reasons this report cites,” said Chair of the Commission, Anne Sutherland Fuchs.  “We are committed to keeping the health of women in New York a top priority through programs such as Step Out New York, which encourages women to become more physically active.”
Data Sources
The report, which was funded by the Commonwealth Fund, is based on a comprehensive review of health data on New York City women aged 18 and older, as well as additional data on female adolescents, from a variety of City, State, and national sources.
“Women at Risk: The Health of Women in New York City” is being distributed to community organizations, elected officials, universities, health care providers, and others throughout the City.  The report is online at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/pdf/data/data-womenatrisk-2005.pdf, or through The Commonwealth Fund website at: http://www.cmwf.org.   To request copies, send an email to womenhealth@health.nyc.gov.

After 27 years as Dedicated Educator, Alfred Martin Told He’s “Miscast” for the Role
By Danielle Douglass
For over 27 years, Alfred Martin, 58, has worked as an educator in the New York City public school system. From a junior high school math teacher to a high school assistant principal, Mr. Martin has dedicated his life to serving children and helping them achieve their goals. During his years of service, Martin has only been praised for his performance, but that changed within the last school year.
Like so many senior administrators in the new Department of Education, Martin believes he is a victim of the department’s ”misguided” efforts to revamp the floundering school system. Martin is a licensed Assistant Principal of Pupil Personnel Services (APPPS). This placed him at the helm of the guidance department and pupil personnel services at Harry Van Arsdale High School for the last eight years. Seven years out of the eight, Mr. Martin worked under Principal Dr. Bruce Bilig until he retired in 2003. During the Bilig administration there were many improvements made to the troubled Van Arsdale: the business programs were enhanced, behavioral incidents were reduced, a new science lab was installed and graduation rates slightly increased. Mr. Martin alleges that he was personally responsible for creating a cohesive and more efficient guidance department – one that worked with community organizations such as the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corp. to augment parent and staff involvement to help students achieve their goals.
Before Bilig retired, he proposed dividing the school into small, focused academics to remedy the school’s overcrowding and to provide students with more attentive instruction. But Bilig’s plan was discarded as the new deputy chancellor, Carmen Farina, had plans to phase the school out entirely to create smaller schools. Upon Bilig’s retirement in 2003, Eleanor Leonard was installed as principal, but she was among the 45 principals forced out of their positions in 2004. Like many of the 45 principals, Leonard was given little to no time to make the sweeping changes expected by the DOE, so she was let go. Mr. Martin believes Leonard was set up to fail. He believes the then-Local Instruction Superintendent (LIS), Jean Claude Brizard, wanted to clean house and set in action a number of events to do so.
According to Martin, before Leonard vacated her position, she informed him that Mr. Brizard tried to get her to give Martin an unsatisfactory rating, which she refused to do (Leonard could not be reached for comment). But Leonard’s commendation of Mr. Martin’s work would not exempt him from Brizard’s alleged plans. The first day of the school year, August 30, Mr. Martin was brought into the new Principal Kenneth Cuthbert’s office where he was informed he would no longer serve as APPPS. Martin, who holds a master’s in guidance counseling and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in education from NYU, was allegedly told by Brizard that he was “miscast” in his role. Martin was reassigned as the Career Technical Education Supervisor (CTE), told to observe physical education classes, supervise student attendance and work with security, duties outside his licensed area. In addition, Martin was moved from his office, which was near the principal, to the fifth floor, out of the site of students. Outraged by the abrupt move and reassignment, Martin asked for assistance in his new role from Cuthbert and Brizard, but to no avail. Unhappy but undeterred, Martin persevered. “I’m an effective administrator; part of being an administrator is knowing what your role is and being able to facilitate the educational process. It certainly helps when you understand the subject matter, but I understand the rubric of good teaching and that cuts across subject matter,” says Martin.
Nevertheless, Martin was still disturbed by the chain of events and decided to write Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina. She never responded. Soon thereafter, on November 1st, 2004, his union representative filed a formal grievance, which Cuthbert and Brizard were made aware of. The very next day, Mr. Martin was pulled into the principal’s office and informed that he was to report to the Region 8 offices pending investigation of allegations made against him. Without explanation of the charges, Martin was asked to leave the building immediately. Upon arriving at the regional office, Martin was informed that the attendance coordinator claimed that he made sexually inappropriate comments to her. After being interviewed by the regional board, Martin asked if they had recommended that he be removed from the building. The board explained that the decision was solely Cuthbert’s and Brizard’s. After an extensive investigation, Mr. Martin was exonerated and returned to his position. He believes Cuthbert manipulated the accusations in order to force him out of Van Arsdale. Neither J.C. Brizard or Kenneth Cuthbert returned calls for comment.
Martin eventually wrote Chancellor Klein on January 20th, 2005, but received no reply. However, he was later given the opportunity to meet Klein at a luncheon on February 12th. It was there that Martin made the chancellor aware of his situation. Weeks later, the chancellor’s office sent a letter acknowledging their investigation of his complaint. Since then, Martin has hired a lawyer and has begun arbitration through his union regarding the wrongful reassignment.

Recently, during a routine cabinet meeting, Martin alleges that Cuthbert mentioned the results from the annual region inspection, stating that the school faired better than under Leonard’s administration, especially the guidance department, which Martin previously supervised. Martin was immediately alarmed by the comment and asked to review last year’s report. “They rated me in 5 areas and basically said that I was incompetent, the entire rating of the school was poor,” says Martin. Recalling the 2003-2004 visit, Martin says he was reviewed by Yvette Douglas, who he alleges asked him to take her to only two of the guidance offices and soon after dismissed him, 15 minutes into the review.
In his 27 years of service, Martin never received an unsatisfactory rating. In fact, a former cabinet member who worked with Martin for a number of years at Van Arsdale, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “[Martin] was very proactive with the kids and parents; he was a very commendable assistant principal.”
“This is their ill-advised way of making regime change when they didn’t have to take that route”, says Martin. “Now I understand why when I write a letter to Farina there’s no response, because Brizard is hiding behind the veneer of this flimsy report.”
Talks of phasing out Van Arsdale were not solidified until the end of Leonard’s administration, but Deputy Farina was interested in the idea since the end of Bilig’s administration. Martin believes Brizard intentionally set Mrs. Leonard up to fail in order to make the compartmentalizing of Van Arsdale seem more necessary.
Yet a strong case could be made for disbanding the school without any alleged conspiracies to remove senior faculty. Even during Bilig’s administration, the school, which has a higher spending-per-student average than all other schools in its district and most other city schools in general, performed below city standards on graduation requirements for the last five years.
Still, Alfred Martin’s situation is by no means unique in the new Department of Education. He is among countless senior administrators who have been bullied or all together forced out. One of the more notable cases of this questionable plan of action is that of former IS 390 Principal Ray Haskins.

(NAPSI)-Stroke, the third leading cause of death among Americans, can be especially devastating for African-Americans. In fact, statistics show that there is a two to threefold greater stroke incidence for African-Americans than for Caucasians.
          Most people who are at risk for a stroke meet one or more of the following criteria:
 55 years of age or over who have had a stroke or have a family history of stroke
 Diabetes
 High blood pressure
 Heart disease
 Cigarette smoking
     Compared to Caucasians, African-Americans have a higher incidence of stroke risk factors including diabetes and high blood pressure. African-Americans develop high blood pressure earlier in life and their average blood pressures are much higher overall compared with Caucasians. In fact, the rate of high blood pressure for African-Americans in the U.S. is among the highest in the world. As a result, compared with Caucasians, African-Americans have a 1.3 times greater rate of nonfatal stroke and a 1.8 times greater rate of fatal stroke.
Compounding these risk factors, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States often receive a lower quality of care than Caucasians and are therefore less likely to receive adequate diagnostic and screening tests or disease management.
        “It is important that African-Americans understand their risk of stroke and get the medical attention they need,” said Dr. Jose Suarez, director, Neurointensive Care Unit, University Hospital of Cleveland. “It is particularly important for racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. to arm themselves with as much information as possible so they can talk to their doctors and develop appropriate plans to combat this disease.”

By Akosua Kathryn Albritton
Internet TV
Americans and television-it’s an enduring love affair.  In fifty years, television has gone from black and white images playing from narrow screens with broadcasts shutting down around midnight to color, high-definition and plasma screens; and 24/7 broadcasting.  TV programming is transmitted via antenna, cable, satellite and Dish.  Then there is the wide selection.  One chooses from nature shows, travel, cartoons, Japanimation, sitcoms, dramas, documentaries, music, movies, sports, news, celebrity news, children’s shows, Christian programming, cuisine and home improvement.  In fact, new categories are being birthed at this writing.
This love affair is nurtured by the American desire to have “television on the go.”  It began in the 1960’s when transistor radios were outfitted with a third band to receive TV frequencies.  It was common to see and hear a radio tuned to a popular soap opera at work.  The radio with the TV band was found at the beach and at sports stadiums.  Sports fans would switch between radio and TV announcers’ renditions of the plays that occurred before them in living color.
Television on the go in the 21st century takes many forms.  The radio is surpassed by Internet TV.  This makes sense because PCs have had monitors attached to them for at least two and one-half decades.  Internet TV opens the way to television content found on the Web, on handheld devices, PC notebooks and cell phones.  Major cell phone makers are busily devising the technology to make it happen.  Currently, Cingular, Midwest Cellular and Sprint PCS have TV chips in their phones, which access subscribers to live television.  Please note the word “subscribe.”  For a monthly fee of about $10 or annual fee of under $100, one may view TV on a cell phone.  The technology is in its infancy; therefore, accept muffled sound and jumpy scenes as growing pains.
If you are not one to jump to the latest innovation in cell phones, then investigating Internet TV on your PC may be extremely engaging.  Internet TV is both original television content developed for Web cast as well as viewing and purchasing broadcast TV programs, movies and videos.  Original Internet TV programs include Bartenders, Chemical Generation and Pork chops and Matzo Balls.  Old favorites like I Love Lucy are downloaded into your hard drive.  This TV content competes with cable, video/DVD rentals and movie houses.  The criticism of Internet TV is that some stations have adware, spy- ware and popup windows attached.  Those devices can be avoided by investigating the portal one uses to access the channels and programs.
TV.org is a portal to download broadcast TV programs.  After registering, a member moves on to select the desired programs.  Portals to live TV include Beeline TV, Any Free TV, Web TV List and WWITV.  The URLs to these sites are dot- coms.  Beeline TV is a portal to “broadband online television from all over the world.”  It categorizes the stations by language.  The station names are listed with the country of origin and the media player required to view it.  Web TV List is competitive with Beeline TV.  It features an online TV guide and choices of prerecorded and live TV Web casts.  Its Internet TV station listing is larger than Beeline.  This portal categorizes the stations by program category (Christian, comedy, etc.) and by nation of origin.  WWITV is another broadband portal for live and on demand TV content.  It boasts of listing 940 TV stations.  There are many more portals to choose from, but these three have enough to click through for a few days.  They offer a Web surfer the chance to watch programs from different countries, to listen to emerging musical stars and watch fresh, experimental programming.
Any Free TV is a portal for downloading broadcast TV shows and movies.  A P2P network, or file-trading facilitates this operation.  One need only register to become a member.  Any Free TV states that it is spyware and adware free.  With 240 million users worldwide and estimates of 15 million users logged in at any given time, this portal assures downloading is quick due to the multiple sources accessed to send the content to your hard drive.  A member has the option of viewing from the hard drive or burning CDs and DVDs.  In fact, they offer to download the CD/DVD burning software.  A major plus is that PC systems can run on Windows 95 at 233 MHz and 64 RAM.  Imagine: watching The Sopranos when you want as well as pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding from your PC.
Free Speech (a dot org URL) is the Web site for Free Speech Network.  Its motto is “What Democracy Looks Like”.  This is a stand-alone Web site rather than a portal to other Web sites.  It features an online store to purchase audio, video and books; an online community that contains a calendar of events, blogs and discussion groups.  Free Speech is the spot to stream audios and videos of internationally known thought leaders who look at issues concerning global sustenance.
If you are interested in developing online TV content but don’t have all the equipment, consider a provider like Narrow Step (narrowstep.com).  Narrow Step builds television channels on the Internet.  The corporation also makes the content available on mobile devices, wireless devices, broadband and broadcast TV services.
The name of the game in business is identifying an untapped niche and satisfying it.  Do you believe there is a place for poetry slams, vegan cooking or Spanish-language African history programming in Internet TV?  Produce the show and connect with Narrow Step or one of its competitors about building a channel for TVYOU.
Have a great Web site?  Know of a computer hoax or ferocious virus?  Contact me at Akosua@plans4success.com.

By Danielle Douglass
For over 27 years, Alfred Martin, 58, has worked as an educator in the New York City public school system. From a junior high school math teacher to a high school assistant principal, Mr. Martin has dedicated his life to serving children and helping them achieve their goals. During his years of service, Martin has only been praised for his performance, but that changed within the last school year.
Like so many senior administrators in the new Department of Education, Martin believes he is a victim of the department’s ”misguided” efforts to revamp the floundering school system. Martin is a licensed Assistant Principal of Pupil Personnel Services (APPPS). This placed him at the helm of the guidance department and pupil personnel services at Harry Van Arsdale High School for the last eight years. Seven years out of the eight, Mr. Martin worked under Principal Dr. Bruce Bilig until he retired in 2003. During the Bilig administration there were many improvements made to the troubled Van Arsdale: the business programs were enhanced, behavioral incidents were reduced, a new science lab was installed and graduation rates slightly increased. Mr. Martin alleges that he was personally responsible for creating a cohesive and more efficient guidance department – one that worked with community organizations such as the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corp. to augment parent and staff involvement to help students achieve their goals.
Before Bilig retired, he proposed dividing the school into small, focused academics to remedy the school’s overcrowding and to provide students with more attentive instruction. But Bilig’s plan was discarded as the new deputy chancellor, Carmen Farina, had plans to phase the school out entirely to create smaller schools. Upon Bilig’s retirement in 2003, Eleanor Leonard was installed as principal, but she was among the 45 principals forced out of their positions in 2004. Like many of the 45 principals, Leonard was given little to no time to make the sweeping changes expected by the DOE, so she was let go. Mr. Martin believes Leonard was set up to fail. He believes the then-Local Instruction Superintendent (LIS), Jean Claude Brizard, wanted to clean house and set in action a number of events to do so.
According to Martin, before Leonard vacated her position, she informed him that Mr. Brizard tried to get her to give Martin an unsatisfactory rating, which she refused to do (Leonard could not be reached for comment). But Leonard’s commendation of Mr. Martin’s work would not exempt him from Brizard’s alleged plans. The first day of the school year, August 30, Mr. Martin was brought into the new Principal Kenneth Cuthbert’s office where he was informed he would no longer serve as APPPS. Martin, who holds a master’s in guidance counseling and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in education from NYU, was allegedly told by Brizard that he was “miscast” in his role. Martin was reassigned as the Career Technical Education Supervisor (CTE), told to observe physical education classes, supervise student attendance and work with security, duties outside his licensed area. In addition, Martin was moved from his office, which was near the principal, to the fifth floor, out of the site of students. Outraged by the abrupt move and reassignment, Martin asked for assistance in his new role from Cuthbert and Brizard, but to no avail. Unhappy but undeterred, Martin persevered. “I’m an effective administrator; part of being an administrator is knowing what your role is and being able to facilitate the educational process. It certainly helps when you understand the subject matter, but I understand the rubric of good teaching and that cuts across subject matter,” says Martin.
Nevertheless, Martin was still disturbed by the chain of events and decided to write Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina. She never responded. Soon thereafter, on November 1st, 2004, his union representative filed a formal grievance, which Cuthbert and Brizard were made aware of. The very next day, Mr. Martin was pulled into the principal’s office and informed that he was to report to the Region 8 offices pending investigation of allegations made against him. Without explanation of the charges, Martin was asked to leave the building immediately. Upon arriving at the regional office, Martin was informed that the attendance coordinator claimed that he made sexually inappropriate comments to her. After being interviewed by the regional board, Martin asked if they had recommended that he be removed from the building. The board explained that the decision was solely Cuthbert’s and Brizard’s. After an extensive investigation, Mr. Martin was exonerated and returned to his position. He believes Cuthbert manipulated the accusations in order to force him out of Van Arsdale. Neither J.C. Brizard or Kenneth Cuthbert returned calls for comment.
Martin eventually wrote Chancellor Klein on January 20th, 2005, but received no reply. However, he was later given the opportunity to meet Klein at a luncheon on February 12th. It was there that Martin made the chancellor aware of his situation. Weeks later, the chancellor’s office sent a letter acknowledging their investigation of his complaint. Since then, Martin has hired a lawyer and has begun arbitration through his union regarding the wrongful reassignment.
Recently, during a routine cabinet meeting, Martin alleges that Cuthbert mentioned the results from the annual region inspection, stating that the school faired better than under Leonard’s administration, especially the guidance department, which Martin previously supervised. Martin was immediately alarmed by the comment and asked to review last year’s report. “They rated me in 5 areas and basically said that I was incompetent, the entire rating of the school was poor,” says Martin. Recalling the 2003-2004 visit, Martin says he was reviewed by Yvette Douglas, who he alleges asked him to take her to only two of the guidance offices and soon after dismissed him, 15 minutes into the review.
In his 27 years of service, Martin never received an unsatisfactory rating. In fact, a former cabinet member who worked with Martin for a number of years at Van Arsdale, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “[Martin] was very proactive with the kids and parents; he was a very commendable assistant principal.”
“This is their ill-advised way of making regime change when they didn’t have to take that route”, says Martin. “Now I understand why when I write a letter to Farina there’s no response, because Brizard is hiding behind the veneer of this flimsy report.”
Talks of phasing out Van Arsdale were not solidified until the end of Leonard’s administration, but Deputy Farina was interested in the idea since the end of Bilig’s administration. Martin believes Brizard intentionally set Mrs. Leonard up to fail in order to make the compartmentalizing of Van Arsdale seem more necessary.
Yet a strong case could be made for disbanding the school without any alleged conspiracies to remove senior faculty. Even during Bilig’s administration, the school, which has a higher spending-per-student average than all other schools in its district and most other city schools in general, performed below city standards on graduation requirements for the last five years.
Still, Alfred Martin’s situation is by no means unique in the new Department of Education. He is among countless senior administrators who have been bullied or all together forced out. One of the more notable cases of this questionable plan of action is that of former IS 390 Principal Ray Haskins.