Tobacco linked to 40% of cancers diagnosed in U.S.

Forty percent of cancers diagnosed in the U.S. may have a link to tobacco use, according to this month's Vital Signs Report.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of cancer and cancer deaths. It causes more than lung cancer — based on current evidence, it can cause cancers of the mouth and throat, voice box, esophagus, stomach, kidney, pancreas, liver, bladder, cervix, colon and rectum, and a type of leukemia (acute myeloid leukemia).

Each year between 2009 and 2013, about 660,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with, and about 343,000 people died from, a cancer related to tobacco use, according to a new report by CDC. Three in ten cancer deaths were due to cigarette smoking, but progress has been made. Since 1990, about 1.3 million tobacco-related cancer deaths have been avoided.

"There are more than 36 million smokers in the U.S.," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "Sadly, nearly half could die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses, including 6 million from cancer, unless we implement the programs that will help smokers quit."

National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data released today in a separate article in the same MMWR show that current cigarette smoking among U.S. adults declined from 20.9 percent (45.1 million) in 2005 to 15.1 percent (36.5 million) in 2015. During 2014-2015 alone, there was a 1.7 percentage point decline, resulting in the lowest prevalence of adult cigarette smoking since the CDC's NHIS began collecting such data in 1965.

"When states invest in comprehensive cancer control programs—including tobacco control—we see greater benefits for everyone and fewer deaths from tobacco-related cancers.  We have made progress, but our work is not done," said Lisa C. Richardson, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

Comprehensive cancer control programs are focused on reducing cancer risk, detecting cancer early, improving cancer treatments, helping more people survive cancer, improving cancer survivors' quality of life, and better assisting communities disproportionately impacted by cancer. Comprehensive tobacco control programs coordinate efforts to implement proven strategies to prevent tobacco use initiation among youth and young adults, to promote tobacco users to quit, to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure, and to identify and eliminate tobacco-related disparities. However, not all states or all people have experienced the benefits of these efforts; tobacco prevention and control resources, along with access to medical care and cancer treatment, vary widely across the U.S.  The Vital Signs report on tobacco-related cancers shows that:

• Incidence and death rates were highest among African-Americans compared with other races or ethnicities, people who live in counties with a low proportion of college graduates, and people who live in counties with high poverty levels.
• By region, incidence rates were highest in the Northeast (202 per 100,000 persons) and lowest in the West (170 per 100,000 persons).
• Incidence rates for tobacco-related cancers are still higher among men (250 per 100,000 persons) than women (148 per 100,000 persons).

Preventing and reducing tobacco use and related cancers take comprehensive approaches

Quitting smoking at any age has health benefits, including reducing the risk of getting or dying from cancer. Quitting smoking improves the prognosis of cancer patients and reduces the risk of getting a secondary cancer (a cancer that occurs in a different organ) in cancer patients and cancer survivors.

States and communities can help by making quitting resources available to people who want them and by funding comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs at CDC-recommended levels.

Smokers can get free help quitting by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW. There they can get free counseling and information about the seven smoking cessation medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign features real people living with the consequences of smoking-related diseases and offers additional quit resources at http://www.cdc.gov/tips, including cessation assistance developed by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

The United States Cancer Statistics contains the official federal statistics on cancer incidence (newly diagnosed cases) from each registry that met data quality criteria. CDC and the National Cancer Institute have combined their cancer incidence data sources to produce these statistics. Mortality data are from CDC's National Vital Statistics System. The CDC provides support for states and territories to maintain registries that provide high-quality data through the National Program of Cancer Registries.

Methodist College receives $1.5 million federal grant

Methodist College-Unity Point Health has received a $1.5 million federal grant that will make more scholarships available to students with financial needs, are ethnic or racial minorities or first generation students, the college announced Thursday.

The purpose of the grant, which will be administered over for years, is to get more nurses into medically underserved communities, of which Peoria is one, Methodist College President Dr. Kimberly Johnson said at a news conference.

The grant is from the Health Resources Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Recipients of the scholarships will receive $7,700 each of four years to cover expenses not met by other aid, such as Pell or MAP grants.

Also on Thursday, the college announced that the Unity Point Health – Methodist/Proctor Foundation Board of Directors approved funding that will be used by the college to hire a program coordinator and to bring in a cultural competence expert to meet with the scholarship winners and Methodist College faculty to learn to “effectively work within the cultural context of a client,” the college said.

“We are thrilled to be selected to receive this grant that will relieve the financial burden for some of our current and future students,” Johnson said. “In addition, this grant will allow us to establish additional programs that will help support these students and ensure success in their nursing education.”

Chief among those programs is the new RISE Scholars program established for the scholarship recipients. RISE stands for Reaching for Innovation, Success and Empowerment. The goal of the program is to increase enrollment and retention of full-time Bachelor of Science in Nursing students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Johnson said that fits with the Methodist College mission.

To receive one of the RISE scholarships, the student must agree to participate in 90 percent of the RISE program activities, which include tutoring and mentoring sessions, workshops or additional learning activities, said Dr. Deborah Garrison, vice president of academic affairs at Methodist College who headed up the team that applied for the grant.

RISE participants who choose to live in the Methodist College student housing complex also will receive funding to help with that because, Garrison said, the college wants to create a living and learning community of RISE scholars with a resident facilitator who can tutor and provide support.

Garrison said many hours were spent by the grant writing team to make the application one that would be noticed, including developing the bones for the RISE program to be included with the application. “We knew we certainly have the right demographics for this but we wanted to make our program get noticed. We want our students to be successful,” she said.

It will not be required of RISE scholars to work in medically underserved communities after graduation, Johnson said. “But that is our goal because it is so important. Peoria is a medically underserved community and most of our graduates stay here,” she said.

Applications for the scholarships are being accepted now for use in the spring term. For more information visit www.methodistcol.edu/rise-scholars.

The federal grant will be spread out over four years, with $326,335 available the first year and $390,000 each year after that. The college will recruit a cohort of 20 students who mus demonstrate a financial need, be a member of an ethnic or racial minority or be a first generation student. They also must be in good academic standing and be a full-time student.

'A Christmas Story The Musical' opens Friday at Peoria Players

Anybody who doesn’t know about the holiday classic film “A Christmas Story” must not own a television or is a true bah-humbugger.

The film that chronicles one Christmas for little Ralphie and his family and friends, written and narrated by Jean Shepherd, is broadcast on a continuous 24-hour basis every Dec. 25 on TNT.

And now, you can see a musical theatre version of the iconic story starting Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Peoria Players Theatre and continue for seven shows, through Sunday Nov. 20. It is the film “A Christmas Story” put on stage with music.

Does directing a show that virtually everybody knows, many can recite from memory and have certain expectations of lend itself to any pressure, Kelleen Nitsch?

“Well, it did take me a while before I agreed to direct it because there is such a huge expectation with it. We have to make sure we accomplish everything we can, including pulling off the iconic features from the film and pay the proper tribute to those things,” she said.

“But it’s a great cast and crew and we’ve done it,” she added.

This is Nitsch’s first directing gig at Peoria Players, but not her first overall by any stretch. She is the drama director at Eureka Middle School, on the staff in the theatre department at Eureka College, an experienced choreographer at all the local community theatre venues and she directed a version of “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” last year at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

Also, she owns with her husband Matt the not-for-profit group Nitsch Theatre Arts, which produced “Sleepy Hollow” and aims to provide theatre arts opportunities in the region to all ages.

Oh, and before that she worked and directed in Florida before coming to Peoria four years ago.

One thing Nitsch has found in central Illinois is a lot of talent, from its youth to its adults and it has made the task of directing this show easier, she said.

“I have a fabulous cast and in this show I have been able to work with some people I have come to admire and respect from other shows,” she said, among them Chas Killen who portrays The Old Man and Barb Blackowicz, who portrays the mother.

She also has taught Isaac Leman, who portrays Ralphie, and Tristan Schonert, who is Randy. “It has been a great watching them grow,” she said. She also has worked with Josh Shepherd, who is the narrator (and is NOT related to the author Jean Shepherd) and Taylor Elizabeth, who play Mrs. Shields. “They are so talented,” Nitsch added.

The musical version of “A Christmas Story” is making its central Illinois regional premiere but despite the story being very well known it has not been without its challenges. Chief among them is the fact there is no rehearsal recording of the music and nobody in the cast had ever heard the music before rehearsals began.

Music director Nicole Fauser told Nitsch it was perhaps the toughest musical score she’s ever worked with, as well. “Lyrically I love the songs in the show but it has been a challenge to learn them, for the cast and the musicians,” she said. The show will have a nine-piece orchestra conducted by Fauser.

Another challenge has been designing and building a set that enables all the different scenes from the story to be played out, tough for a community theatre. The two-story house where Ralphie and his family live moves so other scenery can be used. Nitsch designed the set but she praised the volunteers who built it.

“We had fun doing it,” she said.

Others in the cast of 25 include the kids, Cole Rich as Scut Farkus, Owen Schmitt as Grover Dill, Jack Harmon as Schwartz, Jameson Warfield as Flick, Addie Bigger as Esther Jane, Eve Yoder as Mary Beth and Ella Blackowicz as Nancy.

“This show is a great way to kick off the holiday season,” Nitsch said.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $13 for students and can be purchased online at www.peoriaplayers.org.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, 12, 17, 18, and 19 and 2 p.m. on Nov. 13 and 20.

The tax implications of a Trump presidency

Following a lengthy and contentious campaign season, the American public has elected Donald Trump as president of the United States. It remains to be seen whether President-elect Trump will preside over significant tax reform, but according to the following summary developed by Crowe Horwath LLP, there are several things to consider across the spectrums of corporate, individual, international, and estate and gift taxation.

Crowe is one of the largest public accounting, consulting and technology firms in the U.S.

"As expected, tax policy was a hot button issue on the campaign trail and, conveniently, this election year coincides with the 30^th anniversary of the Tax Reform Act, which was the last time sweeping changes were made," said Howard Wagner, Crowe National Tax Services managing director. "With the election of Donald Trump, we'll likely see a push around unraveling the tax code, including significant rate reductions for corporations and individuals, as well as radically changing the current international tax system."

Below are key aspects of President-elect Trump's proposed tax policy and how they will affect your bottom line if Congress should approve them.

Corporate Tax

• Reduce the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent.
• Reduce or eliminate unspecified loopholes that benefit special interests as well as deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower corporate tax rate.
• Allow manufacturing firms immediate expensing of all new business investments in lieu of a deduction for interest expense.
• Eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax.
• For investment managers, tax income from carried interests at ordinary income rates.

Individual Tax

• Create three tax brackets with rates of 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent.
• Eliminate the tax on net investment income.
• Cap the capital gains tax rates at 20 percent with a lower rate for individuals not in top brackets.
• Close unspecified "special interest tax breaks" and cap deductions at $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for married filers.
• Eliminate the individual alternative minimum tax.
• Implement new dependent-care savings accounts to be used for child care, after-school enrichment programs and school tuition, as well as in-home nursing and nursing home care for elderly dependents.
• Increase the standard deduction to $30,000 for joint filers and $15,000 for single filers with personal exemptions eliminated.

International Tax

• Tax all earned foreign subsidiary income and impose a one-time 10 percent transition tax on the deemed repatriation of profits of foreign subsidiaries, payable over 10 years.

Estate and Gift Tax

• Permanently eliminate the federal estate tax.
• Subject capital assets exceeding $10 million held at death to income tax, and disallow contributions of appreciated assets into private charities established by the decedent or their relatives.

For more information please visit www.crowehorwath.com/lp/2016-presidential-election-tax-policy-resource-center.