Florida has a large number of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and the like. This makes sense, due to out large elderly population and Florida as a desirable retirement destination. Understandably, laws and measures to ensure good care for our older population are all very important to most Floridians.

I’ve not had to think yet about my own parents entering a care home, but my grandparents are another story. Gratefully, we have had the time and the means to be choosy about where my grandparents have gone to live, the care they have received, and the options for their finances. Those are daunting decisions. When you love someone and see them slowly losing the independence, you want to make sure they are receiving the absolutely utmost in assistance.

It’s handy to have a resource for learning about long-term care systems, be it for home care, residential care, or just arranging for someone to assist with the management of finances. The Bettercaring website is such a resource. You can research facilities, learn about the different options available for yourself or a loved ones, to just connect via the forums with other people who have the same question you have. That might be the most important aspect – the ability to communicate with others who are in your shoes.

The reviews and program reviews focus on information in the U.K., but the support and the helpful articles and input about eldercare in general are applicable to anyone in the world dealing with the issues surrounding the navigation of care of the elderly.

Despite being convicted of sexual abuse, being branded as a child molester, and having to leave her teaching career – Debra Lafave appears to have still found a niche in society. On Wednesday. 97 patrons of Danny Boy’s Restaurant in Sun City Center signed a petition requesting that Debra Lafave be allowed to return to work there as a waitress, where she had been ordered to quit last month.

Lafave was arrested Tuesday and charged with violating conditions of her house arrest by having conversations with an underage employee at Danny Boy’s. It was her first violation since beginning house arrest over two years ago.

I agree Lafave is a criminal, but if there is a subset of our society willing to accept her and allow her to try and live a semblance of a normal life, I feel she should be allowed to do so. She will forever be under public scrutiny, never allowed near children and always reminded of her crimes. If waitressing at a small restaurant in the Tampa Bay area is the only future she will ever have, let her have it.

When I contact customer support at any given company these days, I skip the 800 number and the mailing address and go straight for e-mail. I like that communicating via e-mail gives me an instant record of all correspondence between myself and anyone at the business. All too often, though, I find that my messages have not been properly tracked on the business end and if several employees are involved, I often have to get on the phone anyway to help untangle the path my inquiry took.

Businesses of any size can afford to use simple customer management systems, like PerlDesk help desk software. This particular program implicitly tracks all incoming e-mails, logs all requests and issues so that any staff member can log in and see the full scope of the situation, and allows a variety of reports for tickets and other pieces of info. When you have a central system like this, anyone can login and have all of the information they need in order to interact with a customer. And, as more and more business applications are now, it is web-based and requires no on-site installation or backup.

Years ago, when I worked at a large non-profit professional association, we had an internal system that did many of the same things PerlDesk does, but it was clunky and complication. Nonetheless, what it did accomplish is that no matter who a member called and spoke with at the association, they always received consistent information since we were able to login and see the absolute most current status of any issues or communication of file about the member.

Even a very small business benefits by having a help desk set up. PerlDesk just happens to be the number one rated system of its kind. It’s worth checking out, since it is the industry standard.

By now, most of you have read about the suicide of 13-yer-old Megan Meier. She is the young girl who hung herself after being pushed to the brink by hurtful, personally insulting messages posted about her on MySpace. Almost more tragic than her death is that the person attacking her on MySpace was doing it via a fake account for a nonexistent teenage boy. The account was opened by an adult mother of one of Megan’s friends who lived on her street – Lori Drew.

The local district attorney decided that no charged would be filed in relation to Megan’s suicide, primarily based on the fact that Lori Drew is now blaming the actually negative comments on a temporary employee she hired at her home-based advertising business. Drew said that “somehow” other people had gained access to this fake MySpace account that the teenaged employee created. The employee says the account was created by Drew after a brainstorming session between Drew, the employee, and Drew’s own daughter.

Justice has a way of being served, though. Even if mainstream legal processes will not punish Drew she will still feel the burn of her unwise decisions thorough community channels. Most of her clients from her business dropped her like a ton of bricks. Her neighbors are polarized against her, coming together with the singular request that she leave the area. She is being shunned, just like in days of old when right and wrong were more clearly understood and society did not suffer wrongdoers for long.

Drew has issued statements through her lawyer saying she had nothing to do with the negative comments. Tell me, though, what adult opens a false internet account with the intension of spying on a child, as Drew has admitted was her motivation? It is natural for her community to doubt her, to call to question her judgment and worthiness as a neighbor, parent, colleague and friend.

Drew may claim ignorance about the mean spirited messaged now that the heat is on, but we are talking about a situation where a legal adult hatched a plan with two underage children. Who is responsible in this situation? What adult blames the minors involved? Pathetic.

I say Lori Drew deserves the shunning that is currently occurring in her Missouri neighborhood. If she moves and a stigma flows, she will deserve that as well. Our nation has too long been full of apathetic people who do nothing about the blatant wrongs we see daily. It is high time that people spoke out about it. Until people start being met with public humiliation for their sins, they will just keep on committing self-serving, wrong deeds.

As powerful as peer-pressure is in schools, community pressure can be all the more powerful. Public disapproval is natural and we should thank communities that hold true to their beliefs.

I was watching CNN in the restaurant where my daughter and I had lunch yesterday. (I had the Asian salad and a giant glass of ice water, if you must know.) The volume was on mute, so that diner could hear the music in the restaurant, but they had on the closed captioning so that you could also follow the news while you were eating, if you so desired. I so desired.

I was amazingly entertained by the closed captioning. It was terrible, I have no idea what kind of captioning service they use, but it was laughable. Asinine. Mind-boggling in it inaccuracy. It became a game for me to find errors so glaring they changed the meaning of the sentence into something obviously nonsensical.

I have to hope those who use the closed captioning due to real hearing impairments can read lips, otherwise they really ought to get their new in print form.

Donate that junker…
Most people are looking for just the right charitable organization in which to donate during the Holiday Season. If cash if not something you have on hand, but you do happen to have an old car, boat, motorcycle, etc sitting around and not being used – you might consider a car donation to Car Angel. They are a non-profit organization that uses vehicle donations to fund efforts like free animated videos for kids, cool skater-themed anti-drug videos for teens, and prison literacy programs. They’ve given way 2.4 million videos to date, so you know they are using those donations to benefit others.

Check out this Donkey Ollie clip! My daughter loves these videos. The Donkey Ollie series is a five-episode series, with one full-length movie.

When a church is asked to hand over financial information, it is in their best interest to comply fully and do so with a smile. If the organization has nothing to hide and has indeed been using tax exempt monies properly, that organization will be more than happy to let the world see their paperwork. If a church refuses to disclose or becomes defiant, you know they are hiding something. You know it with every ounce of your being.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance committee, gave six ministries until December 6 to turn over information about finances, board oversight and perks for pastors and staff. Some of the ministries complied.

David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo., met the deadline, saying they were confident their information exceeded.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries had representative deliver documents at the senator’s office.

Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church of Grapevine, Texas, indicated they would indeed comply, but need until January 30. Grassley said he was happy to give the ministries more time if they need it, as long as they comply.

On the other hand, some churches made a massive issue out of the request, vowing to fight. Do they realize how that makes them look? It makes them look guilty, shady and arrogant.

Tampa ministries Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries failed to comply. Randy White spoke to his congregation, placing Grassley on par with the devil. “When the enemy wants to attack the church, he attacks the character and the finances. The devil is a liar” he proclaimed. White insisted his church uses checks and balances. Checks and balances not open to the public, assumingly.

The Whites were specifically questioned about 28 areas of church and personal finances, including the compensation paid to the Whites and the reported tax-exempt purchase of a Bentley convertible for Paula White’s spiritual adviser, T.D. Jakes.

Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International told Grassley to talk to the Internal Revenue Service or get a subpoena. The organization remained defiant, saying they will only comply with a “proper” request from the IRS. Have they ever hear of humility, I wonder?

Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church initially agreed to comply, but subsequently declared the inquiry as an attack on religious freedom.

Grassley pinpointed ministries shadowed in complaints and media reports that non-taxable donations might be paying for lavish lifestyles. Some of the ministries preach “prosperity gospel,” which says that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. Again, I have to question the concept of humility.

I am grateful to the ministries that complied. They showed the kind of transparency I feel a religious organization is meant to have. If there is truth and lawfulness in the finances, then the books should proudly be open for the world to see.

As to those who refused to cooperate, I am ashamed of them. These are the people who give Christianity a terrible reputation.