Rebekah Casey of Hayden (pictured in Eye On Boise photo) was one of the individuals who testified about Medicaid cuts before the Idaho Legislature budget committee this morning (she's one pictured in Eye on Boise link). Betsy reports on Rebekah's testimony: “My husband and I have adopted two children through the foster care system. My daughter has been receiving PSR services for almost two years now.” The youngster struggles, she said. “Without the PSR services … we would not have been able to maintain her in our home.” Over the summer, Casey said, her daughter suffered a crisis, and was unable to obtain additional psycho-social rehabilitation services due to the new 5-hour cap on such services for children. “Instead we were forced to consider medicating our 4-year-old daughter, when therapy services would have been sufficient,” Casey told lawmakers. More here.

• JFAC members: 'Put a human face on our budget decisions'
• JFAC wraps up after 2 1/2 hours of public testimony
• Testimony: 'I don't know what we'll do'
• Testimony: Parents of mentally ill kids being told to get them into juvie for treatment
• Testimony: School funding, state employee pay, restoring PSR, dental cuts
• Testimony: Impact of Medicaid cuts, funding priorities, suicide hotline…
• Testimony: ‘Medicaid cuts don’t necessarily lead to savings’

Question: Should the Idaho Legislature restore Medicaid cuts?

My wife is an addict. She can’t go a day with out a cup (or seven) of hot black coffee. This doesn’t bother me. I adore the aroma of brewing coffee filling the house and I enjoy an occasional cup. But my wife has a problem. No, she doesn’t drink too much. I jest about her her being a coffee addict, but I know people whose java addiction is a serious issue that makes Bekah look like a recreational user. Bekah’s complication is not the rate of her consumption.  Her dilemma is the quantity of mugs used during the course of a day. She’ll brew a pot, start sipping her first cup and set it down somewhere to carry on with the rest of her day. An end table, the kitchen counter, the bathroom, window sills, on top of the TV in our bedroom - she’s fairly indiscriminate in where she abandons her cup of coffee/Nic, Rants, Raves, & Random Thoughts. More here.

Question: Are you a coffee addict? Do you leave your half-filled coffee mugs laying around everywhere?

(Phenomenal Cabin — Nic Casey channels Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman)

Little people wonder where my secret lies.

I’ve not paid for anything a normal person might

Public trees are for the taking

Don’t think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the taxes unpaid

The trees of the land,

The logs of my home,

Cut down by my hand.

I’m an Athol

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal cabin,

That’s mine.

More here

On Facebook, Nic Casey admits he’s ”trying to find ways to slip ‘vuvuzela’ into my normal every day conversation. Let me know how it works” ======<()))))))

Question: Have you used “vuvuzela” in an every day conversation since the World Cup began? Can you use it in a sentence now?

On Facebook, Nic Case/Rants, Raves, & Random Thoughts writes: “Attention interweb friends: I’m logging off to go read a book. Yes, I said ‘book.’ It’s what we did before the internet was invented.” I not only applaud Nic for signing out to read a book. But I must confess that I read far fewer books today than I did when I began blogging/Tweeting/Facebooking. In fact, when it comes to books, I now have the attention span of an MTV addict. How about you?

Question: Do you read more books or /less books today than you did five years ago? Are you currently reading a book? Which one?