Troy University to honor four with Alumni of the Year Awards

Troy University will honor four alumni during Homecoming festivities on Saturday, Oct. 5 with Alumni of the Year Awards.?Andy Davis of Dorchester, Mass., Sandra Gouge of Troy, Bobby Terrell of Greenville and Lon Wise of Pensacola, Fla. were selected by the Troy University Alumni Association Board of Directors based on outstanding professional accomplishments, civic achievements and loyalty and service to the University.?The four will be honored during halftime ceremonies at Saturday?s homecoming game against South Alabama. Kickoff is set for noon. In addition, the recipients will be honored at an invitation-only dinner Friday night and a breakfast reception on Saturday.?Andy DavisSince May 2012, Andy Davis has served as president of Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Mass. The 1992 TROY graduate began his career as a Certified Public Accountant and member of the health care services team for an accounting firm in Pensacola. In 1998, he joined Baptist Health Care in Pensacola as the hospital?s director of internal audit. While at Baptist Health Care, Davis also served as a member of the measurement team for patient satisfaction.?In 2000, Davis joined Health Management Associates and was appointed to a series of posts, including assistant chief financial officer for a hospital in Anniston, Ala., chief financial officer in Van Buren, Ark., and then chief operating officer for the Franklin Regional Medical Center in Louisburg, N.C. Davis later led Sandhills Regional Medical Center in Hamlet, N.C. as the hospital?s chief executive officer before being named chief executive officer of the Davis Regional Medical Center in Statesville, N.C.?A hallmark of Davis? career has been in consistent involvement in community organizations and charities, including local chambers of commerce, the United Way, Rotary, hospice organizations and workforce development programs. He holds both bachelor?s and master?s degrees from TROY and is a former member of the TROY basketball team.?Davis and his wife, Sonya, are the parents of a teenage daughter.?Sandra GougeSandra Gouge has more than 35 years as a professional in both the business and academic worlds. She currently serves as President of Gouge Marketing Group, LLC, an integrated marketing management and education firm.?Gouge devoted many years of her professional career to Troy University, retiring in 2010 after more than six years as Associate Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communication. Prior to that post, she served as Chief Advancement Officer/Executive Assistant to the President and as Dean of Students on TROY?s Montgomery Campus. In addition, she has previously served in the following roles on the University?s Montgomery Campus: adjunct instructor, registrar, director of the Learning Resource Center, director of admissions and academic adviser.?Gouge and her husband, Fred, are lifetime members of the Troy University Alumni Association and were founding members of the TROY Shield Society. The couple resides in Troy and has one son, Cooper, a TROY alumnus.?Gouge is a member of the Administrative Council at Troy?s First United Methodist Church, the Board of Directors of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce, the Troy Rotary Club, the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce and the Pike County Chapter of the Troy University Alumni Association. She previously served as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of the Johnson Center for the Arts. Gouge also is a member of the Robert E. Lee High School Hall of Fame in Montgomery.?Bobby TerrellBobby Terrell is Founder and Chairman of the Board of Terrell Enterprise, Inc., a company he began in 1975 to provide quality furniture and service to the education market in Alabama. Today, the Greenville-based business not only provides furniture solutions for schools but also for commercial, healthcare, hospitality and government applications. Through a partnership with Sport Court, the family-owned and operated business now also supplies a safe, high-performance modular sport surface to customers.?A 1959 graduate, Terrell was a member of both the TROY basketball and tennis teams during his time at the University. Immediately following graduation, he coached football and girls basketball in Blakely, Ga., before going to work for GMAC in Lake City, Fla. Terrell moved back to Greenville in 1964 and worked with American Seating Co. until 1975 when he decided to launch his own business.?An active member of the Greenville community, Terrell has coached little league baseball and football teams, been a member of the Jaycees and the Elks Club, an elder at Walnut Street Church of Christ and a lifetime member of the FDA Dunk Club at Fort Dale Academy due to his dedication and service to the school?s basketball team. He also made annual missionary trips to Guyana in South America for 22 years.?He is married to the former Mary Lou Brannon and the couple has four children, 10 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Both are lifetime members of the TROY Alumni Association and active members of the Butler County Alumni Chapter.?Lon WiseLon Wise is the oldest living TROY football player. He and his wife, Mary, met during their time at what was then Troy State Teachers College.? Lon was a junior starting guard on the Red Wave football team and Mary was a transfer student when the two met in September of 1938. Mary went on to become Miss State Teachers College in 1938. The couple was married on Dec. 26, 1940.?Following graduation, Wise left to fight in World War II. He landed on Omaha Beach D-Day plus two and fought in the Battle of Brittany, the Battle of the Bulge and throughout Germany. Following the war, he served for a time as an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation before returning to his true calling ? teaching.?During his career in education, Wise served as principal of five schools in Escambia County and was the first principal of Pine Forest High School where he stayed until his retirement in 1980. The school?s stadium is named in his honor.?Wise?s legacy in education is one of building a school?s faculty to be the best it could be. Even in retirement, he remained active for more than 10 years as the Secondary School Association representative for Northwest Florida.?He and Mary have been married for 72 years and have three sons and three daughters. Wise has continued to be an avid supporter and contributor to Troy University through the years. Up until 2012, the couple regularly made the trip to TROY each year for Homecoming and to attend the annual World War II era alumni reunion.?For additional information about TROY?s Homecoming activities, contact the Alumni Affairs Office at 334-670-3318.?

Source: http://eastmontgomery.wsfa.com/news/community-spirit/412471-troy-university-honor-four-alumni-year-awards

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UK government teams with Google and Facebook to bring internet to all

THE UK GOVERNMENT will work alongside technology titans including Google and Facebook to help Sir Tim Berners-Lee in his mission to bring affordable internet to all.

The Alliance for Affordable Internet founded by Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation received backing from the UK government on Monday, which will help the group reach its goal of bringing affordable internet to 90 percent of the global population that don't have access yet.

The group's mission is to bring entry-level broadband service to Asia and Africa, and to ensure it is priced at less than 5 percent of the country's average monthly income. At present, a basic fixed line broadband connection costs around a third of monthly income to those in developing countries, compared to an average of two percent in the UK and US.

Berners-Lee said lowering the cost is crucial to getting users in developing countries online, citing the fact that in Mozambique, 1GB of data can cost "well over" two months wages for the average citizen.

He said, "The result of high prices is a widening digital divide that slows progress in vital areas such as health, education and science. Yet with the advent of affordable smartphones, new undersea cables and innovations in wireless spectrum usage, there is simply no good reason for the digital divide to continue.

"The real bottleneck now is anti-competitive policies that keep prices unaffordable. The Alliance is about removing that barrier and helping as many as possible get online at reasonable cost."

Justice Greening, secretary of state for International Development added that the new alliance will move to stop anti-competitive regulations and policies from driving up the prices of broadband in poorer countries.

She said, "Over the last twenty years the web has changed our own society so much that everyday life seems unimaginable without it. Internet access has been a driver of economic growth. It puts power in the hands of people and opens up societies. Yet for millions of people across the world high prices still put it out of reach."

As well as Google and Facebook, the Alliance for Affordable Internet also has the support of companies including Intel, Microsoft and Yahoo. ?

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AP IMPACT: Tribes mishandle funds, go unpunished

ETHETE, Wyo. (AP) ? American Indian tribes have been caught misappropriating tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, according to internal tribal audits and other documents. But federal authorities do little about it ? due to a lack of oversight, resources or political will.

The result? Poor tribes like the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming suffer.

One Arapaho manager pocketed money meant to buy meals for tribal elders. Another used funds from the reservation's diabetes program to subsidize personal shopping trips. And other members plundered the tribal welfare fund, then gambled the money away at one of the tribe's casinos.

Altogether, employees drained at least a half-million dollars from the coffers of a tribe whose members have a median household income of about $16,000 a year.

Federal agencies questioned millions more dollars the Northern Arapaho government spent, but decided not to recover any of the money ? and even increased funding to the tribe.

The Wyoming tribe is hardly unique.

An Associated Press review of summaries of audits shows that serious concerns were consistently raised about 124 of 551 tribal governments, schools or housing authorities that received at least 10 years of substantial federal funds since 1997.

Fraud and theft occur across the range of nonprofits and local governments that get federal money. But tribes are five times as likely as other recipients of federal funds to have "material weaknesses" that create an opportunity for abuses, according to the review. Overall, one in four audits concluded that tribal governments, schools or housing authorities had a material weakness in their federally funded programs; the rate was one in 20 for nontribal programs.

Thousands of pages of audits and dozens of reports by federal investigators, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, show evidence of embezzlement, paychecks for do-nothing jobs, and employees who over-billed hours and expenses. The audits, conducted by private firms, are required of tribes that spend more than $500,000 in federal funds annually.

Agencies often cannot legally cut funding because of treaties, Supreme Court decisions and acts of Congress, and frequently refuse to take control of failing programs.

"It's basically a reluctance to take on tribes. The Department of the Interior bends over backwards to be their friends," said Earl Devaney, the former inspector general at the department that houses the bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education. "It's 'make nice,' and what you don't know, you don't know."

Many amounts were relatively small. But there are so many instances of abuses that the total was substantial.

Tribal council members in Northern California used federal grants to pay their utility bills and mortgages. A Nebraska tribe spent health clinic money on horses and ATVs. An environmental supervisor with a Washington tribe received $16,000 for mileage and other charges he either exaggerated or never incurred. Among grant programs with a significant track record in a government database of audits, tribes ran 16 of the 20 with the highest rates of rule-breaking. Auditors flagged welfare grants to tribes, for example, 39 percent of the time. Most prominent were programs funded by Interior's bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education and the Indian Health Service, under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many findings by auditors suggest mismanagement, not theft or fraud.

One barrier to proper administration of tribal programs is turnover among staff and leaders ? entire governments can be voted out of office every two years. Attracting qualified administrators to often-remote reservations in the first place is another challenge. "So they hire maybe the chairman's nephew who had some accounting classes," said Pete Magee, a longtime auditor of tribal books.

Sergio Maldonado, a Northern Arapaho member who is diversity coordinator at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, said tribes generally are just finding their self-governance footing after years of being under federal control. He said there are four goals for a successful tribal government ? "academic preparation, professional experience, a collective consensus for the benefit of the tribe and an ethical set of guidelines."

Maldonado, who also teaches a class about the tribe on the reservation, said it is relatively easy to address each point individually. But all four must be done together, and that's not easy, he added. "It's not just our reservation; this is commonplace with a lot of tribes."

___

There are about 10,000 enrolled members of the Northern Arapaho, which shares a large reservation southeast of Grand Teton National Park. For the most part, they live in trailers, lapped siding homes and farm houses scratched into the high plains at the foot of the Wind River Mountain Range.

Officials at the Northern Arapaho Business Council, which governs the tribe, contended in a statement that numerous negative audits the tribe received were "primarily a result of inadequate documentation and record-keeping." The statement added that the management issues "were many years in the making and will take time and considerable financial resources to fix."

The business council has ordered a "top to bottom review of all programs, both tribal and federal, to determine if improper spending is taking place and if personnel changes are required."

Gary Collins, a former chairman of the business council who serves as the Northern Arapaho liaison with the state, said the tribe participates in more than 60 federal programs, a number that presents challenges for auditing and accountability. "There's nothing really intentional," he said of any shortcomings.

Since the early 1970s, federal policy has favored letting tribes manage housing, health, welfare, law enforcement and other programs as they see fit. As this "self-determination" approach took hold, many tribes developed the financial savvy and governmental infrastructure to handle millions in federal money without major incident. But others, like the Northern Arapaho, have not.

Federal officials try to coach tribes to self-correct rather than punish them ? both in deference to tribal "self-determination" and because there aren't enough staff to closely monitor the thousands of service contracts between tribes and the government.

Even when auditors raise concerns, there is no guarantee that tribal leaders will be investigated or prosecuted. Several auditors said their contracts were not renewed after they uncovered self-enrichment by tribal leaders.

Indeed, agencies recoup a small fraction of what they conclude tribes owe.

Since fiscal year 2008, the BIA and the Bureau of Indian Education have collected only $2.3 million of nearly $69 million in questionable expenditures, according to financial records. In several cases, the bureaus were legally barred from recouping money because they waited too long.

Since 2003, auditors concluded that 79 tribes or Indian organizations couldn't justify $33 million of Environmental Protection Agency money they spent. EPA said it had recouped "approximately $3 million" since October 2007.

Indian Affairs and Indian Education can't legally reduce funding even to corrupt governments. Funding levels are set by federal law, regardless of how well a tribe is managed.

Thomas Thompson, a senior budget official at Indian Affairs, said reducing funding based on past practices would penalize tribal members rather than address management issues. The standard punishment is requiring tribes to submit invoices for reimbursement, rather than giving full funding at the start of each year.

Agencies can in theory wrest programs back from tribes, but almost never do. In 2012, for example, Indian Affairs had taken back the programs of three of 566 federally recognized tribes. "They don't want to take the program back;" said Brian Pogue, a BIA employee for 30 years who retired as its director. "They want the tribe to succeed."

___

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Interactive Newsroom Technology Editor Troy Thibodeaux in New Orleans and researcher Susan James in New York contributed to this story.

Follow Justin Pritchard at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-07-US-Tribal-Troubles-Abridged/id-0da4f71593944fc69ca9a557531f8645

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Diverse crowd, 2,000 strong, seeks immigration reform (Star Tribune)

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DOD recall, back-pay bill mark Day 5 of shutdown

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate are at an impasse, neither side backing down, after House GOP conservatives linked the funding bill to President Obama's existent health care law. There has been no sign of progress toward ending the government shutdown that has idled 800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate are at an impasse, neither side backing down, after House GOP conservatives linked the funding bill to President Obama's existent health care law. There has been no sign of progress toward ending the government shutdown that has idled 800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Democratic leaders discuss the government shutdown and their disagreement with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. There has been no sign of progress toward ending an impasse that has idled 800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. From left to right are Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to the chamber as lawmakers vote to pay federal workers who have been furloughed during the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate remain at an impasse, neither side backing down, since House GOP conservatives linked the funding bill to President Obama's signature health care law. The shutdown has idled 800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Democratic leaders discuss the government shutdown and their disagreement with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. House Republicans appeared to be shifting their demands Saturday, de-emphasizing their previous insistence on defunding the health care overhaul in exchange for re-opening the government. Instead, they ramped up calls for cuts in federal benefit programs and future deficits, items that Boehner has said repeatedly will be part of any talks on debt limit legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., center, and members of the Republican Caucus, speak with reporters just after the House voted for back pay for government workers, who have been furloughed during the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. From left are Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan. There has been no sign of progress towards ending an impasse that has idled 800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? For days lawmakers have debated which federal workers should be put back to work. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ended the argument Saturday for most Pentagon civilian employees, ordering nearly all 350,000 back on the job.

That's a large chunk of the estimated 800,000 federal workers on furlough because of the partial government shutdown. All those in the government off the job or working without paychecks would benefit from a bill the House approved Saturday without dissent that orders them to be paid once the shutdown ends.

The back-pay bill and Hagel's decision, based on a bill supported by Republicans and Democrats and signed into law by President Barack Obama, would appear to take a big bite out of the impact of the political impasse that has left the government without a budget. With an unprecedented default on the federal debt in less than two weeks, key members of both parties concede that no one has presented a plausible plan for avoiding it.

Hagel said he based his decision on a Pentagon interpretation of a law called the Pay Our Military Act, which was passed shortly before the partial government shutdown began last Tuesday. Republican lawmakers had complained in recent days that the Obama administration was slow to bring back those workers even though the law allowed it.

In a written statement explaining his action, Hagel said the Justice Department advised that the law does not permit a blanket recall of all Pentagon civilians. But government attorneys concluded that the law does allow the Pentagon to eliminate furloughs for "employees whose responsibilities contribute to the morale, well-being, capabilities and readiness of service members."

Hagel said he has told Pentagon officials, including leaders of the military services, to "identify all employees whose activities fall under these categories." He said civilian workers should stand by for further word this weekend.

In remarks to reporters, Robert Hale, the Pentagon's budget chief, said he did not yet know the exact number of civilians who would be brought back to work but that it would be "90 percent plus." He said there are about 350,000 civilians on furlough, somewhat fewer than the 400,000 that officials had previously indicated. If 90 percent were recalled that would mean 315,000 coming off furlough.

Hale said that even with this relief, the effect of the furloughs has been severe.

"We've seriously harmed civilian morale; this (recall) will be a start back," he said.

Hale said he hoped that a "substantial number" could be returned to work on Monday but that an exact timetable was not available.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats continued to bicker and to ponder the chasm between their warring parties, each of which seems convinced it's on the winning side morally and politically. House Speaker John Boehner, asked Saturday whether Congress was any closer to resolving the impasse, replied: "No." Aides say he has not figured out how to end the gridlock.

Even the top bipartisan achievement of the shutdown's fifth day ? agreeing to pay furloughed federal employees for the work days they are missing ? was a thin victory. Congress made the same deal after the mid-1990s shutdowns, and Saturday's 407-0 vote was widely expected.

Still, it triggered the sort of derisive quarreling that has prevented Congress from resolving the larger funding and debt dilemmas.

"Of all the bizarre moments" involved in the debate, said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, "this may be the most bizarre: that we will pay people not to work." He called it "the new tea party sense of fiscal responsibility."

House Republicans said they want to ease the pain from the partial shutdown. Democrats said Congress should fully re-open the government and let employees work for the pay they're going to receive.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Saturday the Democratic-controlled Senate will approve retroactive pay for furloughed workers, although he didn't specify when.

The politics of the shutdown have merged with partisan wrangling over the graver issue of raising the federal debt limit by Oct. 17. If that doesn't happen, the White House says, the government will be unable to pay all its bills, including interest on debt. Economists say a U.S. default would stun world markets and likely send this nation, and possibly others, into recession.

Boehner, R-Ohio, and Obama say they abhor the idea of a default. But they and their respective parties have not budged from positions that bar a solution.

Obama says he will not negotiate tax and spending issues if they are linked to a debt-ceiling hike. Boehner and his GOP allies say they will not raise the ceiling unless Democrats agree to deep spending cuts.

Many House Republicans also demand curbs to Obama's signature health care law as a condition of reopening the government. The president and his allies call the demand absurd.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-05-Budget%20Battle/id-73b875c6654944d18ca65a7e23cd45b3

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