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Last updated: Fri, Jul 19
Kaiser Health News staff writers Phil Galewitz and Julie Appleby report: "Ratcheting up the campaign to sell the health law, President Barack Obama delivered a speech Thursday touting how millions of individuals are already benefiting from its insurance rebates, and others who buy coverage online in states such as California, New York and Oregon will pay lower-than-projected premiums next year because of increased competition" (Galewitz and Appleby, 7/18). Read the story.
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This Kaiser Health News video clip includes remarks by the president at the White House Thursday in which he touted lower-than-projected premiums that have been announced for health insurance marketplaces in several states (7/18). Watch it or read the transcript.
Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Jenny Gold reports: "The Obama administration is counting on Latinos to help make the Affordable Care Act a success, but there may be troubles ahead: Hispanic health centers and community organizations say they don't have the funding or resources to carry out the complicated sign up process for the 10 million Latinos who will be eligible for new public and subsidized health coverage options" (Gold, 7/18). Check out what else is new on the blog.
Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "N.Y. State Of Mind?" by Adam Zyglis.
Meanwhile, here is today's health policy haiku:
Health law opponents
are seeking strange bedfellows
in fight against law.
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please send it to us at http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/ContactUs.aspx and let us know if you want to include your name. Keep in mind that we give extra points if you link back to a KHN original story.
In a Thursday White House speech, President Barack Obama stepped into his role as the overhaul's campaigner-in-chief and talked about the millions of Americans who are already benefiting from insurance benefits.
The New York Times: Speaking Out for Health Care Act, Obama Says Millions Will Get Rebates
President Obama, slipping back into his episodic role as a vigorous campaigner for his new health care act, said Thursday that thanks to the law, more than 8.5 million Americans are getting rebates this summer from their insurance providers. Mr. Obama was joined by families who have benefited from a provision in the law, which requires health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of the revenue from premiums on medical care rather than on administrative costs (Landler, 7/18).
Kaiser Health News: Obama Says Health Law Is Saving Consumers Money
Ratcheting up the campaign to sell the health law, President Barack Obama delivered a speech Thursday touting how millions of individuals are already benefiting from its insurance rebates, and others who buy coverage online in states such as California, New York and Oregon will pay lower-than-projected premiums next year because of increased competition (Galewitz and Appleby, 7/18).
Kaiser Health News: Obama On Health Law: 'Working The Way It's Supposed To' (Video)
This video clip includes remarks by the president at the White House Thursday in which he touted lower-than-projected premiums that have been announced for health insurance marketplaces in several states (7/18).
Los Angeles Times: Obama Touts Savings From Healthcare Law
President Obama, facing a new Republican push to dismantle his healthcare law, redoubled his efforts to sell his signature achievement Thursday at a White House event with Americans who have benefited from the law. The president pledged to "blow through" GOP attacks on the law and continue working to implement it (Levey, 7/18).
CNN: Obama Says Refund Checks Show Obamacare Success
Surrounded by middle-class Americans, President Barack Obama touted the successes of his signature health care law on Thursday and the ways consumers are seeing tangible benefits. "Because of the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies have to spend at least 80 percent of every dollar that you pay in premiums on your health care; not on overhead, not on profits, but on you," the president said during an event Thursday in the White House East Room. The president highlighted a provision in the law called the medical loss ratio policy that forces health care providers to refund money to consumers like Chicago resident Dan Hart, a father of two who got a check in the mail for $136 (Lothian, 7/18).
The Associated Press/Washington Post: Obama Touts Insurance Rebates Under Health Care Law, While GOP Vows To Keep Trying For Repeal
Facing public doubts and embarrassing setbacks to his signature health care law, President Barack Obama stepped forward Thursday to extol the program's benefits, emphasizing that some Americans already are receiving insurance rebates and lower premiums. Obama said the program is working the way it was supposed to with "better benefits, stronger protections, more bang for your buck." The assertion was ridiculed by Republicans, with House Speaker John Boehner calling the Affordable Care Act "a train wreck" that he will keep working to repeal (7/18).
Fox News: Obama Touts Health Care Rebates, Pushing Back After House Votes To Delay Mandates
President Obama touted a provision in his Affordable Care Act on Thursday that would require health insurance providers to return money to consumers, pushing back on Republican criticism a day after the GOP-led House voted to delay key parts of the law. The president's signature health care overhaul -- commonly referred to as ObamaCare -- has come under fire by many Republicans who have worked to defeat, delay or gut major parts of it. At the White House event Thursday, Obama highlighted more of the financial benefits tied to it -- specifically, a half billion dollars in rebates going to 9 million people under a provision of the law (7/18).
NBC News: Obama Defends Health Care Law, Slams GOP For "Re-Fighting" Old Battles
More than three years after signing a massive health care system reform into law, President Barack Obama on Thursday worked to sell the legislation's benefits to an American public still largely skeptical about the overhaul. Highlighting nearly half a billion dollars in insurance rebates going back to consumers due to the law's requirement that insurers spend 80 cents on the dollar towards medical care, Obama said the law is "doing what it's designed to do" (Dann, 7/18).
Politico: Barack Obama Defends Health Care law, 'Glitches' And All
Obama said he was confident that, despite resistance, even hardened foes will come to like the law. There were plenty of opponents of Medicare and Social Security when those programs became law, "but once it got set up, people started saying 'it's a pretty good deal, it gives me more security,'" said the president (Epstein, 7/18).
The Wall Street Journal: Obama Tries To Woo Health-Law Skeptics
Speaking from the White House, Mr. Obama said people across the country have gotten rebates from their health-insurance companies that they can use to pay other bills and support their families (Favole and Dooren, 7/18).
Politico: The Fine Print Of Obama's Health Care Pitch
President Barack Obama said Thursday that his health care law is already providing real savings and is working as planned — despite some expected glitches and unrelenting political opposition. He painted an optimistic picture of how Obamacare is putting money back into the pockets of consumers. … And all that political opposition? Just noise, Obama said. Of course, that picture isn't complete. The massive health care overhaul comes with enough moving parts and political baggage to make it difficult to sort through what's actually happening (Norman and Millman, 7/18).
Reuters: Obama Steps In To Push Health Plan As Critical Date Draws Near
Fending off delays and a barrage of political criticism of his signature healthcare law, President Barack Obama on Thursday touted benefits Americans already are reaping from the law and vowed to work through setbacks to fully implement it (Felsenthal, 7/18).
PBS NewsHour: Will Health Reform Law Make Premiums More Expensive Or More Affordable? (Video)
President Barack Obama defended the benefits of the Affordable Care Act in a news conference, part of a broader effort to sell the law amid continuing criticism from Republicans. MIT's Jonathan Gruber and Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute join Jeffrey Brown to debate the cost of coverage under the health reform law (7/18).
ABC News: Obamacare Health Insurance Rebates: Who Gets A Check (Video)
An estimated 8.5 million Americans will receive rebates from their health insurers this summer thanks to the Affordable Care Act, which says companies that fail to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on health care must refund the difference to consumers. President Obama today touted the benefit as part of his mid-summer push to educate Americans on the continued rollout of his health care law (Dwyer, 7/18).
News outlets analyze the strategic, political and public opinion dynamics that are currently in play -- and offer some fact-checking -- as the White House works to inspire public enthusiasm for the measure's implementation.
The Washington Post: With Legacy On The Line, Obama Touts Health-Care Implementation
Transforming the nation's health-care system stands as Barack Obama's most crucial piece of unfinished business, with much of his presidential legacy riding on whether it is deemed to have succeeded or failed. While other presidents have managed to overcome intense opposition to major new social initiatives, Obama faces a degree of difficulty with health care that has no historic parallel. So there was a certain urgency in the speech that Obama gave Thursday, the morning after the Republican-led House voted for the 38th and 39th times to dismantle all or part of the Affordable Care Act (Tumulty, 7/18).
Politico: On Health Law, Obama Sells Big By Talking Small
President Barack Obama's got a strategy for Obamacare: make the big sell by talking small. In a speech on Thursday, Obama got deep into the specifics of the sweeping health care law, from a rule that forces insurers to send rebate checks to some consumers to the price competition in its new health insurance marketplaces— all provisions designed to save Americans money (Nather, 7/18).
NPR: White House Muddles Obamacare Messaging — Again
This summer was supposed to be a time to reintroduce the public to the Affordable Care Act and teach people how to sign up for benefits this fall. But that's not what's happening. Instead, earlier this month, the Obama administration decided to delay some key pieces of the law, most notably the requirement for larger employers to provide coverage or risk fines, because they couldn't have reporting regulations ready in time for next year's rollout. Then this week, the Republican-led House voted to delay the so-called individual mandate for a year to match. … And now some are starting to worry that the White House is getting dangerously off-message (Rovner, 7/19).
USA Today: Public Relations Battle Over Health Care Heats Up
The public relations battle over President Obama's signature health care law has simmered long past the point when it became law more than three years ago. But in the days and weeks ahead, a critical deadline looms for implementation of the law, and the battle for public opinion is heating to a boil (Madhani, 7/18).
The Associated Press/Washington Post: Fact Check: Obama Injects Misleading Advertising In Claims About Health Insurance Rebates
Another year, another round of exaggeration from President Barack Obama and his administration about health insurance rebates. In his speech defending his health care law Thursday, Obama said rebates averaging $100 are coming from insurance companies to 8.5 million Americans. In fact, most of the money is going straight to employers who provide health insurance, not to their workers, who benefit indirectly (7/19).
The Washington Post's The Fact Checker: President Obama's Claim That Americans Saved $3.4 Billion In Health-Care Premiums
With the House of Representatives yet again voting to scale back President Obama's signature health-care law, the president made a case for the law in an East Room ceremony. The rebates the president refers to stem from the "80/20 rule" or "Medical Loss Ratio rule" in the law, in which insurance companies must rebate a portion of the premiums if they spent less than 80 percent of the premium on medical care and efforts to improve care. In 2012, insurance companies shipped about $500 million in rebates to American families, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (Kessler, 7/19).
After a weekend of high-profile action related to the health law, news outlets note that polls indicate it remains a divisive issue -- a point that was evident with this week's House vote to delay the employer and individual mandates, as well as Democrats' reactions to it.
The Washington Post's The Fix: The Health-Care Law Isn't All That Popular. And That's Not Changing
Of the opposition to the law — particularly within House Republican circles — Obama said: "We're just going to blow through that stuff and keep on doing the right thing for the American people." Judging from polls, Obama shouldn't expect to blow through much of anything when it comes to health-care law, however. The Kaiser Family Foundation has been tracking the popularity — or, perhaps better put, unpopularity of the bill-now-law for quite some time (Cilizza, 7/18).
National Journal: Democrats' Couch Time Is Over On Obamacare
Republicans have had the Affordable Care Act battlefield to themselves for a long time, but the pro-Obamacare forces are coming off the couch. The intense back-and-forth of the past few days is a taste of what's to come as the most contentious parts of the law start phasing in this fall (Lawrence, 7/18).
The Hill: Dem Anxiety Over Obamacare Shows In House Mandate Vote
Vulnerable House Democrats laid low Thursday after voting to delay two key Obamacare mandates over a White House veto threat. The hush from centrist Dems came after a considerable number cast ballots alongside Republicans on Wednesday for bills designed to embarrass the Obama administration (Viebeck, 7/19).
WBUR: Here & Now: Affordable Care Act Continues To Divide Obama, Lawmakers (Audio)
A day after House lawmakers voted for delays in implementing health care reform, President Obama today made a push for his Affordable Care Act, claiming that consumers will see rebates averaging around $100 from health insurance companies under the ACA. House lawmakers voted largely on party lines yesterday to delay when individuals must have health insurance. They also affirmed an Obama administration decision to delay when larger employers must offer health coverage to their workers (7/18).
CBS News: Health Care Exchanges Could Lower Premiums -- If They're Bought (Video)
On Thursday, the president promised what he called "more bang for your buck" when a major part of his health insurance program opens for enrollment in October. The Affordable Care Act is facing public doubts and technical setbacks, but President Obama said costs are falling and will fall even more when uninsured Americans begin enrolling in health care exchanges where insurance companies will compete for customers. There are potential savings to be had -- if the right customers buy in (Axelrod, 7/18).
The Texas Tribune: Groups Work to Promote Health Insurance Exchange
Texas officials have declined to establish a state-based health insurance marketplace, a major provision of the federal Affordable Care Act. So private organizations are working to educate Texans about coverage options through the federal health insurance exchange, which opens on Oct. 1 (Luthra, 7/18).
MinnPost: State Considers Release Of Health Insurance Rates For MNSure
Policymakers and state officials are looking at ways to shed some light on the rates consumers will pay on Minnesota's health-insurance exchange before more than a million Minnesotans are expected to begin enrolling in the complicated new health-reform program. The state Commerce Department is examining ways to provide at least a summary of the rate information before October, the federally imposed deadline on the state to begin enrolling consumers in MNsure, the backbone of the federal health-care reform law here in Minnesota (Nord, 7/18).
The Associated Press/Washington Post: Md. Official Urges Businesses To Take Part In Program For Tax Credits In Health Care Reform
The comptroller of Maryland is urging small businesses to take advantage of tax credit they could be eligible for relating to health care reform. Comptroller Peter Franchot is scheduled on Monday to talk about a pilot program to see how well mailings to more than 5,000 small businesses in Howard County will boost interest (7/18).
Coverage of health law implementation issues includes reports about a recent Department of Health and Human Services analysis that concluded premium costs would be less than initially projected in 11 states, as well as news about rate shock, the role of the health law in triggering a shift to part-time work and other issues.
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: HHS Analysis Finds Lower Health Insurance Premiums
An analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services looked at proposed, preliminary premiums of insurance plans in 11 states that would be sold under health law in 2014, and found they were less expensive than previously projected by the administration (Dooren, 7/18).
Reuters: U.S. Sees Lower-Than-Expected Obamacare Insurance Costs
Hoping to gain the high ground in an escalating war of words over Obamacare, the U.S. administration on Thursday forecast sharply lower than expected insurance costs for consumers and small businesses in new online state health care exchanges. The exchanges represent the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and their success could depend on the cost of so-called "silver plans" with mid-range premiums, which are expected to attract the largest number of enrollees (Morgan, 7/18).
Bloomberg: Fed Ponders Part-Time Shift As Obamacare Role Questioned
Bailey Brewer, 28, is a writer with a graduate degree in journalism. She's been employed since the start of the year as a temporary office worker, unable to find a full-time job. … Brewer isn't alone. The number of workers holding full-time positions fell in the U.S. in June as part-timers hit a record after rising for three straight months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics household data (Nussbaum and Smialek, 7/19).
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Hatch to Unions: Join GOP In Calling For Health Law Delay
The Affordable Care Act is upsetting some political alliances and inspiring a flurry of letter-writing among politicians. Last week, three union presidents wrote a letter to Congress's top Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, sharply criticizing the Obama administration and the law's impact on union-run health plans. Today, the unions got a response of sorts -- from Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (Maher, 7/18).
CQ HealthBeat: Urban Institute Study Predicts 'Rate Shock' Would Be Temporary
If the premiums that health plans charge in the insurance exchanges opening this fall start out shockingly high, they won't stay that way, predicts a study released by the Urban Institute on Thursday. The study also suggests that the new health care law marketplaces will prove viable in the long run because the rates that insurers charge will be reasonable (Reichard, 7/19).
Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Survey: Latino Groups Worry About Money For ACA Enrollment
The Obama administration is counting on Latinos to help make the Affordable Care Act a success, but there may be troubles ahead: Hispanic health centers and community organizations say they don't have the funding or resources to carry out the complicated sign up process for the 10 million Latinos who will be eligible for new public and subsidized health coverage options (Gold, 7/18).
The Hill: Top Treasury Official: No More Obamacare Delays Looming
A top Treasury official on Thursday suggested that his department has no current plans to delay additional provisions of the ObamaCare. J. Mark Iwry, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health policy, told lawmakers that the employer mandate is the only policy that has been considered for deferral (Viebeck, 7/18).
Stateline: Nurse Practitioners Slowly Gain Autonomy
When the federal health law takes effect in January, some 30 million more Americans are expected to have health insurance, many for the first time. An already critical shortage of primary care providers may make a doctor's appointment hard to come by. Increasingly, you might hear, "The nurse will see you now." Some states are trying to fill the primary care physician shortage with nurses who have advanced degrees in family medicine. That requires relaxing decades-old medical licensing restrictions, known as "scope of practice" laws that prevent these nurse practitioners from playing the lead role in providing basic health services. At least 17 states now allow them to work without a supervising physician, and lawmakers in five big states are considering similar measures (Vestal, 7/19).
The proposal would get rid of the sustainable growth rate formula and replace it with a system that rewards doctors based on quality and efficiency measures, MedPage Today reports.
MedPage Today: GOP: Repeal SGR And Grant Annual Pay Raises For 5 Years
House lawmakers late Thursday released the final draft of a bill that repeals Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula and replaces it with a system that incentivizes quality and efficiency starting in 2019. The bipartisan measure provides 5 years of stable Medicare payments starting next year, with reimbursements growing 0.5 percent for each year between then and 2018, according to the 70-page, yet-to-be-named bill. After those 5 years, physicians would be subject to having reimbursements based on performance on quality measures, or may opt out of that requirement if they practice in certain alternative payment models (Pittman, 7/18).
In other congressional news -
The Hill: Bill Would Exempt FDA User Fees From Cuts
A new bipartisan House bill would exempt Food and Drug Administration user fees from sequestration, the automatic federal budget cuts that took effect in March. The FDA's budget is substantially supported by user fees from the industries it regulates. The budget cuts are expected to shave about $85 million from the agency's budget in 2013 by hitting those fees (Viebeck, 7/18).
Community Health has received a subpoena for two executives to testify in an investigation into its Medicare admissions. The hospital operator also reports its income fell 57 percent on weak patient volume and debt.
The Wall Street Journal: Community Health Slashes Outlook, Gets Another Subpoena
Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. CYH +0.13%slashed its second-quarter earnings forecast and said it was served with an additional subpoena from the government as part of an investigation into Medicare admissions. The double dose of bad news sent shares of Community Health and its peers sharply lower in after-hours trading (Tadena, 7/18).
Modern Healthcare: Community Health Systems Faces New Subpoena, Reports 57% Fall In Net Income
The U.S. Justice Department hit Community Health Systems with an additional subpoena and a request to interview two high-ranking executives, escalating a two-year Justice Department investigation into the company's admissions practices from its emergency departments. The Franklin, Tenn.-based chain disclosed the revelations in an earnings preview that also showed a sharp 57.2 percent decline in net income, which it attributed to weak patient volume, higher-than-expected bad debt and an adverse payer mix (Kutscher, 7/18).
Also, a St. Louis-based drugmaker will pay federal authorities millions to end a doctor-kickback lawsuit --
The Associated Press/Washington Post: St. Louis Drug Maker Mallinckrodt To Pay Feds $3.5M To Settle Lawsuit Over Doctor Kickbacks
A St. Louis-based drug maker will pay $3.5 million to settle allegations that it paid doctors to prescribe "outdated, third rate" antidepressants and sleep aids, the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco announced Thursday. A former employee of Mallinckrodt LLC originally filed the lawsuit in 2008 under the federal False Claims Act. The employee alleged that between 2005 and 2010, the company paid doctors consulting and speaking fees and other inducements in exchange for prescribing drugs that otherwise would not have been prescribed (7/18).
The nation's largest health care insurer says membership is growing and medical costs have been lower than expected.
The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth Earnings: Company Raises Outlook As Profit Rises 7.4%
The nation's biggest managed-care company by revenue and membership posted a quarterly profit well above Wall Street expectations, and it raised the lower end of its forecast for full-year 2013 earnings. Solid membership growth and lower-than-expected medical costs are fueling the positive results. But UnitedHealth continued to be cautious about its outlook for next year, citing planned reductions in government funding of Medicare Advantage health plans for the elderly, as well as the implementation of certain provisions of the U.S. health-care overhaul law (Loftus, 7/18).
The Associated Press/Washington Post: UnitedHealth 2Q Profit Rises As Enrollment Improves, But Executives Caution On Medicare Cuts
UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s second-quarter net income rose almost 8 percent, buoyed by steady enrollment growth and slower-than-expected use of health care services. The nation's largest health insurer's earnings topped Wall Street estimates on Thursday, and it raised the low end of its full-year earnings forecast. The company's stock jumped nearly 6 percent (7/18).
Minneapolis Star Tribune: UnitedHealth Adds Members Amid Industry Shifts
With all the fulminations in the insurance industry over the federal health care law, the mood at UnitedHealth Group Inc. seems to have settled into business as usual now that the most sweeping changes are just months away. "Apparently it's not going to be a complete disaster," deadpanned Stifel health care analyst Thomas Carroll, as the Minnetonka-based insurance giant posted better-than-expected earnings Thursday (Crosby, 7/19).
Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed controversial abortion restrictions into law Thursday, even as abortion-rights supporters readied challenges and said the law will force all but five of the state's abortion providers to close. Reuters, in the meantime, reports why that might not be true.
The New York Times: Abortion Restrictions Become Law In Texas, But Opponents Will Press Fight
Six months after declaring his goal to make abortion at any stage "a thing of the past," Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill into law Thursday giving Texas some of the toughest restrictions on abortion in the country, even as women's rights advocates vowed to challenge the law's legality in court (Fernandez, 7/18).
Los Angeles Times: Texas Gov. Rick Perry Signs Bill To Curb Abortions; Challenges Likely
The bill passed over the strong protests of Democrats and abortion-rights supporters. Abortion-rights activists and clinic operators say the measure will force the closure of all but five of the state's 42 abortion providers. In a signing ceremony at the state Capitol in Austin attended by more than 100 Republican lawmakers, the Republican governor praised the measure as a landmark in protecting unborn children and women's health (Kelly, 7/18).
Texas Tribune: Perry Signs Abortion Bill Into Law
The law, which would impose several new regulations on abortions and abortion providers, has drawn criticism from abortion advocates and incited demonstrations from both sides. HB 2 would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, impose new regulations on how the abortion drug RU-486 is administered, require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and require all abortion facilities to meet the regulatory standards for ambulatory surgical centers (Luthra, 7/18).
Reuters: Why Many Abortion Clinics In Texas Stay Open Despite New Law
Most of the Texas clinics that abortion rights advocates predict will close because of a new law requiring tighter health and safety standards likely will remain open -- at least if history is any guide. ... Twenty-six states have laws that require abortion clinics to meet varying levels of hospital standards, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Missouri passed strict health and safety rules similar to Texas, it said. In those three states, however, most clinics were able to stay open after the laws passed, some by reallocating dollars to comply with building upgrades, according to abortion providers and state health department officials interviewed by Reuters (Garza, 7/18).
Meanwhile, in other news on Texas women's health --
Texas Tribune: Family Planning Clinics to Close, Citing Reduced Funds
Three Planned Parenthood family planning clinics in Southeast Texas announced plans Thursday to close at the end of August. The closures result from reduced family planning funds and the removal of Planned Parenthood from the state Women's Health Program, said Melaney Linton, CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. While the closures were announced the same day as Gov. Rick Perry's signing of omnibus abortion legislation, House Bill 2, the closures are "a completely separate issue" from that new law, Linton said (Luthra, 7/18).
A selection of health policy news from Florida, Minnesota, Utah, Oregon, Georgia, Wisconsin and California.
Medscape: Appeals Court Hears Arguments On Physician Gun-Gag Law
The top attorney for the state of Florida asked a federal appeals court today to reinstate a Florida law that regulates what physicians can ask patients about gun ownership, asserting that the law does not actually stifle such questions. Yes, it does, countered a lawyer representing several Florida medical societies and individual physicians who challenged the law as an infringement on their First Amendment right to free speech (Lowes, 7/18).
MPR News: U Of M Wants To Scale Back Employee Health Care Coverage
One of the state's largest employers is proposing to scale back its employee health plans to avoid a massive tax penalty under the new federal health care law. The University of Minnesota is considering changes for 2014 that would increase copays for primary and specialty care, require employees to pay deductibles, and establish a cheaper, but more limited plan for Twin Cities area employees, among other things. The changes would apply to employees but not students (Richert, 7/18).
The Associated Press: Fewer Utah Doctors Caring For Medicaid Patients
Fewer Utah doctors are willing to care for a growing number of Medicaid patients, according to analysts at the Utah Legislature. The latest figures show the number of Utah medical providers willing to take Medicaid patients has dwindled to 2,517, down by 25 percent from 3,366 in 2008 (7/18).
The New York Times: Heroin In New England, More Abundant And Deadly
Heroin, which has long flourished in the nation's big urban centers, has been making an alarming comeback in the smaller cities and towns of New England (Seelye, 7/18).
The Lund Report: Legislation Failed, Yet Dental Integration Moves Forward
Coordinated care organizations have started the tricky work of integrating dental care into their health care delivery system for the Oregon Health Plan, now that legislation pushed by dental organizations has failed, and the ground rules have become more settled. Senate Bill 373, pushed most ardently by Advantage Dental, would have guaranteed contracts for all the existing dental organizations through 2017, but the CCOs resisted that demand, and the bill died in the budget committee after clearing the Senate Health Committee (Gray, 7/19).
Georgia Health News: Doctors Blast Slow Pace of Medicaid Raise
The delay in a pay raise for Medicaid doctors in Georgia is "inexcusable and unacceptable,"' physician groups say. On Thursday, an email letter to Jerry Dubberly, the state Medicaid chief, urged the state Department of Community Health and vendor HP "to accelerate the process to resolve the IT readiness problems that are reportedly responsible for this significant delay" (Miller, 7/18).
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawmaker Seeks Bill To Rein In Podiatrist's Practices
A Wisconsin lawmaker is calling for a bill that protects patients from unexpected medical fees by requiring podiatrists to disclose if they are in a patient's health insurance network before treatment. The proposed legislation comes three days after the Journal Sentinel reported on Milwaukee-area foot doctor John Lanham, who over the course of 12 years has triggered 92 formal complaints with the state regulatory agency, most related to excessive fees or fraudulent billing practices. Lanham told the Journal Sentinel that he survived on the "ignorance" of patients who don't know the details of their insurance plans and said he would not be able to make a living as an independent physician if he was forced to disclose his fees before treating clients (Koran, 7/18).
California Healthline: Scope Of Practice A Hot Topic Across U.S.
A panel of health care experts, outlining proposed and pending changes in scope-of-practice laws across the country yesterday, said California's advancement of four bills in the current session is just the tip of the national legislative iceberg. "There could never be more state activity at this level, because every single state is under pressure in terms of needing to solve workforce issues," said Kavita Patel, an internist at Johns Hopkins and the managing director for clinical transformation and delivery at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution. … Patel said 827 bills were proposed nationwide to change scope of practice last year. She said 124 of them were enacted in 29 states (Gorn, 7/18).
California Healthline: Treatment Trends Pushing Diabetic Amputations Down List Of Options
Diabetes is on the rise in California and the nation, but one of the most feared outcomes of the disease -- amputation -- may be waning. Advanced complications of diabetes, such as nerve damage, gangrene and infection, can lead to the need to amputate legs and feet. But the decision to amputate may be moving down and sometimes off the list of treatment options. At podiatry clinics and wound care centers in California, patients with advanced diabetes who might be candidates for amputation are being treated with alternatives aimed at making amputation a last -- rather than primary -- option (Gorn, 7/18).
Each week, KHN reporter Alvin Tran compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
Spine: Medicaid Status Is Associated With Higher Complications Rates After Spine Surgery – After analyzing 2003-2004 data of patients who underwent spinal surgery at two medical institutions, they found that Medicaid beneficiaries were at much higher risk of experiencing any type of complication than patients who are privately insured. "The results of our study further support the growing body of literature that Medicaid patients have higher rates of complications," the authors write. When evaluating patients and considering the likelihood of complications, "Medicaid status should be considered as well," they concluded (Hacquebord et al., 7/15).
Annals Of Family Medicine: Care From Family Physicians Reported By Pregnant Women – With national survey data from 2000 to 2009, researchers looked at how family physician use for maternity-related care varied by geographic region. "Even though provision of maternity care by family physicians has decreased during the past decade, a substantial and steady proportion of pregnant women (34.4%) received care from a family physician, underscoring the importance of family physicians as providers of clinical services for childbearing women, before and during pregnancy," the authors write, concluding: "Trends in family medicine care for pregnant women have remained steady for the nation as a whole, but they differ by region of the United States. Most pregnant women reported care from multiple clinicians, highlighting the importance of care coordination for this patient population" (Kozhimannil and Fontaine, 7/15).
JAMA Ophthalmology: Socioeconomic Disparity In Use Of Eye Care Services Among US Adults With Age-Related Eye Diseases: National Health Survey, 2002 And 2008 – Among U.S. adults, age-related eye diseases, such as glaucoma and cataracts, are the leading causes of vision impairment. Early detection and treatment can prevent permanent damage. Researchers analyzed 2002 and 2008 survey data of adults ages 40 years and older and found that: "Many issues affect the use of eye care services, including an individual's ability to pay for the services, accessibility of eye care professionals and facilities, vision and eye care insurance coverage, high insurance deductibles, provider and patient education, and beliefs about health. However, we found that eye care in the United States is suboptimal, especially among [groups with low socioeconomic status]. This calls for continued efforts to improve access to and use of eye care services among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups" (Zhang et al., 7/18).
Urban Institute and The Kaiser Family Foundation: The Cost Of Not Expanding Medicaid – "As of July 2013, 24 states were moving forward with the Medicaid expansion, 21 states were not moving forward with the expansion and debate was on-going in the remaining 6 states. The decisions by as many as 27 states not to adopt the Medicaid expansion will leave many more uninsured; these states would also forgo billions in federal funds," the authors write. They add that 64 percent "of all consumers who were originally slated to receive coverage under Medicaid expansion live in states that are not moving forward or are still debating the expansion – 6.3 million and 2.1 million, respectively. Texas, Florida and Georgia account for half of the enrollees in the states not moving forward" (Holahan, Buettgens and Dorn, 7/17).
In a related report, researchers highlight "five key ways that state decisions will shape the outcome of Medicaid expansion" (Rudowitz and Stephens, 7/17).
Here is a selection of news coverage of other recent research:
Medscape: Urgent Care Centers Divert Patients From PCPs, EDs Alike
Urgent care centers (UCCs) save money by treating patients who otherwise may land in a more costly hospital emergency department (ED), but they also boost healthcare spending by diverting patients from primary care practices (PCPs), according to a new study published online today by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Given these findings, UCC executives, ED directors, and health plan network managers interviewed in the study are uncertain about the overall effect of UCCs on cost, write lead author Tracy Yee, PhD, and coauthors (Lowes, 7/12).
Reuters: Half Of Parents Aware Of CT Scan Risks
Just under half of parents in a recent survey understood that radiation from a computed tomography (CT) scan is tied to an increased risk of cancer for their child. There has been a growing understanding among the medical community in the past decade that children who have had a CT scan are slightly more likely to develop cancer later in life, researchers said. ... About 47 percent of parents correctly believed that undergoing a CT scan is tied to a greater cancer risk over a child's lifetime, according to findings published in Pediatrics (Grens, 7/17).
MedPage Today: Dementia Screening Gets Thumbs Down
Population screening to detect Alzheimer's disease or other dementia can't currently be recommended because there isn't enough evidence to show it offers practical benefits, researchers reported here at the annual Alzheimer's Association International Conference. In addition to this "gap in evidence," even when the screening programs identify possible dementia patients, only about half those people undergo follow-up testing, according to Carol Brayne, MD, professor of public health medicine at the Cambridge University Institute of Public Health in England (Susman, 7/18).
MedPage Today: Misdiagnosed Dementia Adds $$$ To Healthcare Bill
When patients with vascular or Parkinson's disease-related dementias are initially misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease, their cost of care rises dramatically, a researcher said here. In an analysis of anonymous Medicare beneficiary records, about one in eight individuals receiving diagnoses of vascular dementia had previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, incurring average Medicare claims of about $12,000 to $14,000 during the year of diagnosis change over and above the costs recorded for individuals with unchanged vascular dementia diagnoses, said Noam Kirson, PhD, of Analysis Group (Gever, 7/17).
Boston Globe: Small Number Of Doctor Shoppers Have Big Impact
They make up a very small percentage of people filling prescriptions but the amount of opioids they buy, feeding their own addiction or others', is alarming. "Doctor shoppers," or people who visit multiple physicians' offices and pharmacies soliciting the highly-addictive drugs, accounted for about 7 of every 1,000 people who filled a prescription for narcotic painkillers in 2008. But they purchased nearly 4 percent sold that year, according to a study by Cambridge researchers published Wednesday evening on PLOS ONE (Conaboy, 7/18).
Oregonian: Oregon Elderly Live Healthier, Longer Lives Than In Other States
Because they stay physically active and eat smart, Oregon's seniors have more healthy years ahead of them than folks in most other states. The Centers for Disease Control released a report Thursday that put Oregon's healthy-life expectancy after 65 -- the length of the time after retirement-age that one can expect to stay healthy -- at 15 years, ranking it with the top quarter of U.S. states (Karlamangla, 7/18).
Every week reporter Ankita Rao selects interesting reading from around the Web.
The Atlantic: The Immigrant Healthcare Imperative
I didn't know much about my patient, a young man originally from Tibet, other than that he worked in a restaurant in Queens. For most of my patients, their coming-to-America story is an intrinsic part of their medical history. It's certainly medically relevant in terms of what diseases they might have been exposed to, what nutritional, environmental and genetic factors might play a role in their health, but it's also such a key part of who they are that it's usually a central part of our initial interview. … As my patient's story slowly unfurled from him I realized that there was so much I did not know about him. He was not a loner at all. He was married, with two young children. His parents lived with him, as well as an aunt. But no one was getting any medical care because they were undocumented and worried about deportation. ... As immigration reform wends its way through a fractious and polarized House of Representatives, many are thinking about the implications for health care. From the medical perspective, bringing people into a primary care system is beneficial for our entire society, both from the public health standpoint and the moral standpoint (Danielle Ofri, 7/16).
The New York Times: A Life-Or-Death Situation
If Margaret Pabst Battin hadn't had a cold that day, she would have joined her husband, Brooke Hopkins, on his bike ride. Instead Peggy (as just about everyone calls her) went to two lectures at the University of Utah, where she teaches philosophy and writes about end-of-life bioethics. Which is why she wasn't with Brooke the moment everything changed. Brooke was cycling down a hill in City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City when he collided with an oncoming bicycle around a blind curve, catapulting him onto the mountain path. His helmet cracked just above the left temple, meaning Brooke fell directly on his head, and his body followed in a grotesque somersault that broke his neck at the top of the spine. … Suffering, suicide, euthanasia, a dignified death — these were subjects she had thought and written about for years, and now, suddenly, they turned unbearably personal. Alongside her physically ravaged husband, she would watch lofty ideas be trumped by reality — and would discover just how messy, raw and muddled the end of life can be (Robin Marantz Henig, 7/17).
Scientific American: Poem: Asymmetry
We met on my birthday and
your age trailed mine by a week.
Your past medical history bare,
you let me see you sick.
You let me feel the margins
of your spleen,
your sexual history,
your confusion over why this
and why you
and what now
and what next (Shara Yurkiewicz, 7/9).
Kaiser Family Foundation: The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare: Health Insurance Changes Coming Your Way Under the Affordable Care Act
2014 is coming–are you ready for Obamacare? Join the YouToons as they walk through the basic changes in the way Americans will get health coverage and what it will cost starting in 2014, when major parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," go into effect. Written and produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Narrated by Charlie Gibson, former anchor of ABC's World News with Charlie Gibson and a member of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. Creative production and animation by Free Range Studios (7/17).
Time: Sick Before Their Time: More Kids Diagnosed With Adult Diseases
Diabetes, obesity and elevated blood pressure typically emerge in middle-age, but more young children are showing signs of chronic conditions that may take a toll on their health. The latest report on the trend, from researchers at Harvard Medical School found that children and adolescents are increasingly suffering from elevated blood pressure. Published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, the study showed a 27% increase in the proportion of children aged 8 years to 17 years with elevated blood pressure over a thirteen-year period (Alexandra Sifferlin, 7/18).
The New York Times: Talking Female Circumcision Out Of Existence
Like every other girl of her era in her part of southern Ethiopia — and most girls in the country — Bogaletch Gebre was circumcised. …Today, however, cutting has vanished from Kembata-Tembaro, as have bride abduction and widow inheritance. A study done for the Innocenti Research Center, a research arm of Unicef, found that cutting had only 3 percent support in 2008 — down from 97 percent in 1999. This is a remarkable achievement. There is nothing more difficult than persuading people to give up long-held cultural practices, especially those bound up in taboo subjects like sex (Tina Rosenberg, 7/17).
The recent announcement of the premium cuts in New York and President Barack Obama's health speech has galvanized opinion writers.
Bloomberg: The Pointless Debate Over Obamacare
President Barack Obama's remarks this week on the Affordable Care Act had the trappings of importance: members of Congress in the audience, ordinary citizens on stage. All that was missing, as is too often the case in the health-care debate, was anything important to say. ... In his defense, Obama was responding to an even more farcical bit of political theater staged by House Republicans, who voted to delay the health law's mandate that individuals buy insurance. It was the 38th time the House has voted, futilely, to stop or slow Obamacare. Such posturing only contributes to public confusion over the law -- and keeps Republicans and Democrats alike from addressing essential steps toward health-care reform (7/18).
The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare's Definition Of A Full-Time Job Needs Revising
In Lafayette, Ind., a school district cut the hours of 200 support staff to no more than 29 per week. In Bangor, Maine, the school system is preparing to track and cap the number of hours worked by substitute teachers to ensure that they don't work more than 29 hours a week. Elsewhere, in Portland, Maine, a small business reduced a part-time employee's hours from 35 to 29. We are hearing reports like this from across the country. Why is this happening? (Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, 7/18).
The New York Times: The Good News On Insurance Premiums
Individuals and families who buy health insurance on their own will pay significantly lower premiums next year in New York and many other states. It is the most impressive evidence yet that the Affordable Care Act, through its mandates and competition-promoting health insurance exchanges, can hold previously rising premiums in check. The encouraging news underscores the vital importance of the health law's "individual mandate" (7/18).
Reuters: The Obamacare Plot Twist
If this much-reviled bill proves to work for tens of millions in select states, it will change the current narrative dramatically. It will demonstrate that collective action is not just desirable for optimal collective outcomes; it is essential. Fight all you want to prevent laws you dislike from passing; work all you wish to amend laws that have passed; but once those laws exist and have been validated, work together to implement them. Sounds oddly naïve in today's jaded world, but it's the only way forward (Zachary Karabell, 7/18).
The Wall Street Journal: A Health Scare For Democrats
What if waking up is more terrifying than the nightmare? Democrats for three years have comforted themselves with the thought that 2014 would be the year they broke free of the ObamaCare night sweats. Their political washout in 2010, their failure to take back the House last year, all was the result of their having to defend a law that had yet to take effect. Once the law was up and running, Americans would wake up to its benefits. Or so they believed (Kimberly A. Strassel, 7/18).
The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare's Eroding Support
The Washington refrain is that Wednesday night's House votes delaying ObamaCare mandates were a pointless dead end, but the White House shouldn't be too confident. Opposition to more of the Affordable Care Act is becoming bipartisan. The first measure, which sailed through 264 to 161 with 35 Democrats in favor, codified President Obama's decision to suspend the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate to extend insurance benefits to workers or else pay a penalty. The White House lacks the legal authority to delay the mandate by fiat, so the vote was a vindication of the rule of law (7/18).
The New York Times: Economix: What Makes U.S. Health Insurance Exchanges So Complicated
Americans insist on choice and pluralism among insurance products, enabling them to find coverage they believe will fit their personal needs. That choice, desirable though it may be, comes at a stiff price, with two dimensions. First, it adds considerably to monetary outlays on administrative functions, which in the United States run about twice per capita what they are in other countries. And to make careful and responsible choices takes a great deal of a person's time (Uwe E. Reinhardt, 7/19).
Fox News: 5 Problems With The President's Spin On ObamaCare
President Obama claimed that consumers in states such as Maryland received a windfall as a result of refunds issued by insurance companies who failed to meet the requirements. These requirements tried to enforce insurance companies to spend at least 80 cents on every dollar towards medical care and not administrative costs. If, in fact, the Affordable Care Act was working the way the President claims, insurance companies should be staying above the 80 percent threshold, and not providing refunds (Dr. Sreedhar Potarazu, 7/18).
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Women's Health At Stake In 2014
What's going on in Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa ought to be a wake-up call to Minnesotans who prefer that physicians, not politicians, guide an individual's medical care. Minnesota's neighbors have moved with alarming alacrity to cripple women's access to a safe and legal medical procedure — abortion (7/18).
NBC News: Ease US Blood Supply Shortage By Lifting Gay Donor Ban
The United States is facing a health care crisis. Our supply of blood is dangerously low. The American Red Cross reports that across the nation blood donations were down an estimated 10 percent in June -- about 50,000 fewer donations than in May. In the face of a blood supply shortage that is bad and likely to get worse, there is a group of people -- gay men -- who might ease the situation, if only they were allowed to help (Art Caplan, 7/17).
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As Whooping Cough Returns, Trust Science, Not Opinion
People who listen to bogus science and deny facts from legitimate scientific studies are pushing an agenda that a wise parent should back away from. In fact, backing away is too slow. Turn and run. ... It comes down to this: Who would you rather get medical advice from — Jenny McCarthy, former nude model turned childhood development expert, or the Journal of Pediatrics? Ms. McCarthy is convinced that her son's autism is linked to childhood vaccinations. But in April, pediatric researchers published a study that looked at nearly 1,000 children and concluded that exposure to vaccines during the first two years of life was not associated with an increased risk of developing autism (7/19).
Forbes: Why Medicare Is A Crummy Business Partner
Medicare unveiled a series of regulations this month that make annual adjustments to various price schedules that set out what the program pays providers. The proposals confirm why the agency makes for such a crummy business partner. The new rates will hit some healthcare businesses with cuts of as much as 25%. If the reductions stand, it will throw some providers over a proverbial cliff, disrupting their businesses and ultimately impacting patient care (Scott Gottlieb, 7/18).
Los Angeles Times: Genetic Screening: Every Newborn A Patient
This year marks the 50th anniversary of routine newborn screening in the United States. Since 1963, tens of millions of babies have had blood drawn from their heels to be tested for rare diseases. The program has unquestionably prevented tragedies. ... But routine screening is now being expanded in ways that demand scrutiny (Stefan Timmermans, 7/19).
Los Angeles Times: New York Mayor Bloomberg May Also Cure Dementia
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his latest health initiative this week: He's banning elevators! OK, not really. But he did say he was planning to introduce legislation that would inspire New Yorkers to take the stairs by making staircases in buildings more accessible. As with all of Bloomberg's noble health-conscious initiatives, which have included banning trans-fats and trying to curb super-sized, nutrition-less sodas, the announcement was met with a contingent of eye-rolls (Alexandra Le Tellier, 7/18).
Stephanie Stapleton
Andrew Villegas
Lisa Gillespie
Shefali Luthra
The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. (c) 2014 Kaiser Health News. All rights reserved.
© 2014 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


text:
Camilla Stein is the author of Over the Rainbow I Fly (2015), Space Scrapers (2011) and Gaia's Children (2008), Editor-in-Chief of CSReview, owner of the consulting agency CAMILLA STEIN CONSULTING and autism intervention service provider CamillaStein4Kids.
Interviews with Camilla Stein: Artists First | Curiosity Quills Press | Writers in Business
Writes for Examiner. Published in CineSource.
Featured on Green Leaf Haiga, Simply Haiku, World Haiku Association Haiga Contest.
Member of AACasting, Filmbay, Criticker, WHC Haiku Multimedia.
Camilla's advised McNichol Law, Simply Haiku, Caduceus Pty., A Celebration of Women Foundation, Aflatoun, Glagoslav Publications, Princess Carina Organization, Mitsubishi Motors, Russian Business Outlook, Heal The World Foundation, ReAttach, The Mean Nurse LLC; authors Juan Galvan, Jon D'Amore, Nolyn Hill, Jade Valour, and others.
Contact Camilla: firstname.lastname@example.com
Veronica Belmont - about.me user since 2010
"First, customize your page. It's easy and fun to design!"
Hi! I'm currently living in (City), where I work at (Work Place) doing (Job Title). When I'm not working I like to (Hobby), (Interest) and (Passion). Connect with me!
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
May 28th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized
Blockbusters Meme
I used to love Blockbusters. Still got the board game on top of my shelf and used to have the annual with an interview with His Holiness in it. Anyway, why I'm mentioning this? Well, Ally tagged me for a meme. It features letters, as did blockbusters, hence the tenuious link. Therefore, as it's my […]


text:
Dash Recipes
Mediterranean Chicken Stew
– 0 Comments
Hot linguine is topped with deliciously stewed chicken.
Mediterranean Chicken Stew
- 1⁄2 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 1⁄2 tsp black pepper, divided
- 1 (3-lb) chicken, cut into pieces
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 chopped onion
- 2 tsp chopped garlic
- 1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes
- 2 small cans mushrooms, drained
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Hot cooked linguine
Combine flour, 1⁄2 tsp salt, and 1⁄4 tsp pepper. Coat chicken with flour mixture.
In a large skillet, heat oil for 30 seconds. Add chicken and brown on all sides. Remove chicken to a large bowl.
In same skillet, sauté onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, 1⁄2 tsp salt, 1⁄4 tsp pepper, and oregano. Bring to a boil. Add chicken. Cover; simmer for 25 minutes or until done. Serve with linguine.
Kitchen Counter
Makes 6. Serve: 6. Per Serving: 670 calories, 12g carbs, 46g protein, 47g fat, 225mg cholesterol, 820mg sodium, 2g fiber (excluding linguine)


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Amanda McKay's Battleship is Sponsored by Coke Zero
Recently, Craig got a chance to sit down with Amanda McKay to talk about the upcoming browser game, Battle For Everything.
» Show: Random Awesomeness
» Tagged In: #amanda mckay, #Battle For Everything, #Battleship, #Coke, #Coke Zero, #craig, #interview
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Anyone who needs to be fought. Like fools who want to "fundamentally change" America into Stalinist Russia.
That's a great punchline for a joke. The defense establishment spends SEVEN TIMES more than our nearest competitor (China), yet constantly mewls that even a tiny cut in alleged "defense" spending is "gutting our defenses."
I'm not a big gun owner and I'm not part of the gun culture. So why, then, do I frequently post about the issue of gun control?
Mostly because I believe in freedom and the Constitution.
But I also appreciate facts and analysis and I know that law-abiding citizens are safer and criminals face greater obstacles when good people have the right of self defense.
Last but not least, I think there's a non-trivial possibility that the United States will suffer some sort of social chaos and/or breakdown of law and order because of the damage caused by reckless...


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Can I say something…….this just made me sick. Do we really need to be so PC? Can we not keep it real anymore. The man said women shouldn't put themselves in the position where they are provoking a man to hit them. Are we saying that it's impossible for a any women to do this? Do women hold no culpability in possibly inciting a situation to where it gets physical?
I feel a man shouldn't abuse a woman, I stand by that. But to say there are no variables to be imagined were a woman might get struck because of her inability to compose herself is foolish to me. You hit me enough, especially in a situation where I'm trying to restrain or remove myself from the situation….you might get slapped. Point blank. Don't give me this " even if a woman punching or kicking you, you suppose to walk away" nonsense. What if you in….. an elevator? And can't leave. If a women gets hit guys a criminal. If a women hits a man he's SOFT.
And I say that to say this…can we stop the double standard? That it's okay to hit a man but it's not okay to hit a woman. It's just like boxing, protect yourself at all times. You bold enough to hit me then you should brace yourself just in case of a return shot. "But women can't defend themselves, men have an spin fair advantage physically"…yea so does an adult have advantage over a child. Doesn't stop you from "whooping his/her ass". But that's discipline right? There's a difference between abuse and being hit. Clarify that with yourself. No way and hell this man should have had to get on television to give "that" apology. Maybe it was his choice but damn that he said nothing wrong to me. If Stephen Smith has to apologize publicly then I want one from Solange and Hilary Clinton too. Domestic Violence works both ways. #stephenasmith #espn #domesticviolence


text:
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What does Top Rated Merchant mean to me?
- Any time you see the TRM seal next to a merchant, rest assured that this merchant has been rated excellent on all possible parameters by our team and by the ShopClues community. Our team has verified that the merchant exhibits highest standards for customer service, return, pricing, brands/selection etc, and you will have an excellent shopping experience with this merchant.
Delivered in 5-7 Business Days.Rs.1,245
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Excellent quality, stable & reliable.
With a project-light hole; It gives out brilliant red/green light beams.
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text:
'99 Silver svt 3.0 Turbo
MTX-75 rebuilding. Differential installs,shift towers,final drive changes etc
why dont you check out the huge parking lot right next to the hotel or the hotel itself. theres so much room around there
Ya, but the whole even should be out that way anyhow. Like 04, banquet,S&S, and karting all in the same place in one day. Plus the road course is just down the road . As well as Dave and Busters.
Would be nice to have the S&S with the banquet though. Or with something else. The S&S is kinda of a snooze fest
Last edited by Livinsvt; 02-25-2008 at 02:08 AM.
'99 Silver svt 3.0 Turbo
MTX-75 rebuilding. Differential installs,shift towers,final drive changes etc
The first thing to comes to mind is the Roush factory, off Plymouth Rd.
Not sure how they would like it considering none of them are Roush cars
But eh its worth a shot. It's literally down the street from the hotel.
'98 SVT E0 BLK/MNB#1663 3L Always broke.
'99 SVT E1 BLK/TAN#0741 Sold
Seriously.... Hotel parking lot.
Like Livinsvt said, Show and shine is a snooze fest. Walk around see everyones (that ya already saw thur. fri.) in 15.. maybe 30 minutes and then what? sit around and shoot the . I personally would rather look at some cars, crack a beer and fire up the grill.
^^^ what pud said
bagged cardomain
00 customized svt#1240
Automotive Hall of Fame... they tend to do this alot for car clubs and they often bring in food and local radio stations. Its right next to The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village which is nice for some of the out of towners who have never been to any of those locations.
Last edited by WorldTour; 03-02-2008 at 07:12 PM.
'10 SVT Raptor SCab in Tuxedo Black
'11 Ford F-250
"Good Judgement Comes From Experience. Experience Comes From Bad Judgement."
Enough time is already spent at the hotel parking lot all weekend, so why have the show and shine there too?
I like that Roush suggestion and Mark's suggestion as well.
I'd really love to avoid having the show and shine in the hotel parking lot or in some random mall parking lot.
2007 Mazdaspeed6 GT
2001 Cougar C2
2002 Honda Shadow Spirit 750
former owner of 1995 Contour GL


text:
10.6: Sleep and lock display with hot corner | 6 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
10.6: Sleep and lock display with hot corner
In 10.6 Security preferences there is the option to set how long after display sleep or screen saver that the password is required. So simply setting that time to 5 minutes (or 15 minutes, those are the two closest options in your case) will do exactly what you require. Hope this helps.
10.6: Sleep and lock display with hot corner
Steve, that solves the battery issue, but it doesn't solve the issue when my system is plugged in.
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text: I've been told that if you open the oven during baking, it can make your > bread collapse. Is this true? I have never had my bread collapse when I've opened the lid on my bread machine. The heat doesn't escape that quickly. You shouldn't leave the lid up for a long time. You have to open the machine to add ingredients mid-cycle - like fruits and nuts and such for heartier breads, some machines will even beep to tell you when.


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Thank you!
Printable View
Thank you!
Even in the early third age, the names would have been in the Sindarin/Westron miscellanea we are familiar with, rather than in Quenya. Quenya was already an uncommon language amongst elves in the first age, in Numenor during the second age it was seldom used, mostly for kings' names and other ceremonial usages.
LOVE Tolkien stuff!!
I have still A LOT to learn!
sîdh & meleth
(Peace & Love in Sindarin)
Excellent map! beautiful.
really excellent!
are the place name translations, qenya/westron?
Thank you, guys!
I can't say much about the place names, they were provided by the client.


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Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Our NHS
Thursday, 4 September 2014
So long, farewell, auf wierdersehn, goodbye....
Monday, 25 August 2014
It's not your birthday song...
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Gold Stars
"It should be borne in mind that children do need a break from more formal learning as imagination and creativity depend on it. The 'Summer With Gold Stars Challenge' allows for structured learning alongside a full and fun summer holiday. Parents can rest easy in the knowledge their children are continuing to learn and develop, whilst having fun, enjoying the long summer break." This is a quote from an educational consultant at Parragon Books.
Monday, 28 July 2014
Summer Days...
Friday, 25 July 2014
Bye bye 20s
Today is the last day of my 20s.
A lot has happened in the last ten years. Marrying my Jon Bob and having our boys obviously being the highlights!
Memories such as the first time Samuel's feet ever touched the sand at the seaside and the first time Freddie said 'I love you Mummy' are mine forever.
Today we have had a lovely day just doing everyday things and being reminded of just how lucky and blessed we are....


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Canadian government muzzling scientists
Meshach (578918) writes | more than 3 years ago0
Meshach (578918) writes "Scientists in Canada researching why salmon stocks are depleting face being muzzled by the Canadian Conservative government. Apparently many studies have been completed and their findings are central but they are not allowed to be published."
Link to Original Source


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Receive Miami by Mavala for FREE
With any order over $60 that includes at least one Mavala item. View Details.
Founded in Switzerland, Mavala creates treatments for many different nail problems. They also offer a line of quality nail shades and their products have been featured in magazines such as Women's Weekly, Cosmopolitan and Elle.


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Sometime ago, I read a big piece in the NY Times by this guy Junger, a journalist, who was imbetted for months with an Army unit and wrote the book, "War" which I read: good book. He is proposing that we "they" erect a monument to civilian dead in Afghanistan. He said, which is true, that in the beginning the Vietnam Memorial Wall was controversial. It was. I can remember walking up and seeing it at night and thinking, "I don't know about this." But, it became a place of real healing. Perhaps it will be for the Afghans. In War, civilians suffer, caught between warring armies. They die and a Memorial won't bring them back. But, what it might do is focus on how awful is war and the incalculable loss of innocent lives. ERECT A MONUMENT!
- fergusonicd890 likes this
- strictlyfingpolitics posted this


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...I want them to understand what they are studying and be able to clearly discuss the topic with their teachers/professors. I recently had a student who wanted to improve her Portuguese because she would be leaving to Angola. When she arrived in Luanda and started talking Portuguese with her local colleagues, they were all surprised she could communicate that well.
14 Subjects: including reading, writing, public speaking, Portuguese
Atlanta, GA
...I have coached and trained all type of athlete's ranging from big time Division I talent down to YMCA talent. In addition, I have worked with all ages stemming from 5 years of age up to collegiate age athletes. I'm originally from Florida in which for the past 4 years I have been apart of one of the top Nike Programs in the country in Each 1 Teach 1.
1 Subject: basketball
Atlanta, GA
Hello, everyone! My name is Katrina and I have been studying Spanish since the 8th grade. I am now a senior at Georgia State University.
1 Subject: Spanish
Atlanta, GA
...I have a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art (Visual Art) and have successfully passed collegiate classes in Drawing and have created a very structured and cohesive drawing portfolio. I have a passion for the canon, and allow students to engage with art by creating physical definitions for a greater u...
5 Subjects: including drawing, Adobe Photoshop, painting, art history
Atlanta, GA
...I have previous experience tutoring from middle school to college level math and sciences. My past students have improved dramatically as I not only emphasize learning the subject matter but provide great tips about effective studying habits as well as time management. If you would like to lear...
17 Subjects: including reading, GED, SAT math, grammar
Atlanta, GA


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Former state Sen. Ernest E. Newton, a colorful, quotable, three-time convicted felon who served nearly five years in federal prison on corruption charges, was arrested again Friday on charges of campaign finance fraud in his latest election campaign.
Newton was charged with \"falsely obtaining thousands of dollars in public funds\'\' during his August 2012 Democratic primary bid against incumbent Sen. Edwin Gomes in Bridgeport, according to the Chief State\'s Attorney\'s office. Newton lost the three-way election to state Rep. Andres Ayala, who will be sworn in next week as Bridgeport\'s newest senator.
Newton, 56, of 190 Read Street in Bridgeport, was charged on a warrant with a felony count of first-degree larceny, one felony count of tampering with a witness, and five counts of illegal campaign practices.
Friday\'s arrest came after a detailed investigation by the State Elections Enforcement Commission and the Statewide Prosecution Bureau in the Office of the Chief State\'s Attorney.
Known as one of the most colorful characters at the state Capitol, Newton had called himself \"the Moses of my people\'\' during a defiant speech in the pouring rain in Bridgeport in 2005 before later pleading guilty to three felonies for taking a bribe, evading taxes, and pilfering campaign funds for personal use.
In an arrest warrant affidavit, prosecutors said that Newton \"submitted false documentation to obtain $80,550 from the state\'s Citizens Election Program\'\' that funded his campaign in the three-way race.
Under the law, candidates for state Senate are required to raise $15,000 in private funds in order to qualify for the public money. But Newton raised only $14,500. At that point, \"Newton had five campaign workers sign cards stating they had contributed to the campaign when in fact they had not,\'\' the chief state\'s attorney\'s office says.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission sent more than $80,000 to the Newtown campaign in July 2012 after receiving the false documentation that he had raised the necessary $15,000.
\"When one of the five individuals who signed contribution cards was contacted by SEEC investigators, Newton told her not to talk to them,\'\' the chief state\'s attorney\'s office said.
Newton arrived Friday at the Connecticut state police barracks in Bethany, where he was arrested by inspectors from the Chief State\'s Attorney\'s office. He signed a promise to appear, and his arraignment was set for January 17 at state Superior Court in Hartford.
First-degree larceny is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The felony count of tampering with a witness carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, while all five finance counts have terms of five years each.
Newton had shocked much of the Connecticut political world in May 2012 when he won the Democratic Party's convention endorsement in the race — part of the long road back for the convicted felon who resigned his seat in disgrace and pleaded guilty in 2005.
That launched his race for a bruising battle of bare-knuckle Bridgeport politics against the 76-year-old Gomes and Ayala. Gomes, a pro-union Democrat, has served in the Senate since Newton's departure, while Ayala has served in the state House of Representatives since 2007.
Not only was Newton in the race, but he received more than $80,000 in public money under state law to run his campaign. Some residents were outraged that Newton was receiving public financing, but he said he had the same total as his two opponents who have also received public money after raising the necessary $15,000 in private contributions. He was the first convicted felon to win a major party's convention endorsement for the state Senate since the state legislature changed the law regarding felons in 2001.
Newton had heard all of the criticisms about being a felon, about betraying his community and about how he would be unable to work with his colleagues in Hartford after failing to tell them the full story when he was being investigated by federal prosecutors and the FBI.
Yet Newton remained as defiant as ever.
"People in Hartford can say what they want because they can't vote for me," Newton said in an interview with The Courant at the time. "I didn't call all my friends in Hartford to help me raise $15,000 [to qualify for public financing]. I did it with my people. I'm indebted to the people who put me in office. No lobbyists, no leadership, no union can say we helped you raise $15,000 — which makes me a free person."
With his fiery speeches, Newton was known to some as more of a preacher than a politician, often peppering his quotes with references to God and the Bible. He said the most important thing that constituents said to him after he returned from prison was that they had prayed for him.
"People say, 'How can an ex-felon run? He broke the trust of the people,'" Newton said. "Well, wait a minute. Jesus had 12 disciples. They was always breaking the commandments, but Jesus always forgave them.
"Think about it. They weren't perfect people. I'll give you Peter. Jesus had to rebuke Peter because Peter was out of control — cussing, cut a man's ear off. C'mon. The thing I'm trying to say is nobody in this world is perfect."
But Gomes's campaign manager, Marty Dunleavy, ripped into Newton during the primary campaign for saying that he was "the Moses of my people" before resigning from office and being sentenced to prison.
"He's more like the Judas of his people, selling them out for pieces of silver," Dunleavy told The Courant. "Statements like that that should not go unchallenged."
Dunleavy said it was "a disgusting idea" that Newton referred to himself as the Moses of his people.
He added that Newton's own actions should prevent him from returning to public life.
"You can't be the rooster in the henhouse again," Dunleavy said.
Staff photos by Hartford Courant photographer Steve Dunn in Bridgeport during the state Senate primary campaign in 2012.


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Motorbike trips
Feel the wind
What we say:
When we last wrote about renting a motorbike in Hanoi options were relatively limited and bike rental shops were just that: bike rental shops. Since then there has been a motorbike-supply eruption, with numerous operators offering not only bike rental and sales but also organised tours.
While it's of course possible to replicate the trips they offer under your own steam, a guided tour provides companionship, security and most likely a better route than you'll find on your own. And of course, there'll be no arguments over which way up the map goes. With tours including accommodation and food, they can also take the stress out of planning and ensure you get a good feed.
You can choose between private and group tours. A private tour means you just go with the people you book with, rather than joining a group of strangers. They tend to be more expensive, but can be tailored to your needs. Single travellers or those on a budget may prefer to join a group tour. Groups are kept to a comfortable size, so you won't be trailing down Highway 1 in convoy, but still provide an opportunity to meet others, and the cost is usually lower.
Popular overnight and two-night trips from Hanoi include Mai Chau, Ninh Binh, Tam Dao and Cuc Phuong National Park. Thac Ba Lake is another, less visited, nearby option. If you want to venture further afield, north Vietnam offers numerous routes through amazing scenery, or buy a bike and do the classic north-to-south journey.
Rentabike, which we recommended in 2011, are still a good bet for bike rentals but now also operate private guided tours for groups of two or more and will help you plan an itinerary if you want to go it alone. Prices range from US$80 to $140 per day, all inclusive.
Dao Duy Tu and Luong Ngoc Quyen Streets in Old Quarter are now lined with motorbike shops, a popular spot being Vietnam Motorbikes. Originally focused on refurbishing and selling bikes, they now also offer guided tours. Their two-day tours cost US$80 per person, including bike hire, accommodation, food and a guide, and they guarantee no more than six bikes on each tour. Choose from automatic, semi-automatic or "beefed up" manuals.
Famous Cuong's Motorbike Adventures now operates out of a smart shop on Gia Ngu Street, also in Old Quarter, and has a diverse fleet of motorbikes on which to enjoy your tour. Bikes include Minsks, Urals and more modern Honda CRFs. Cuong's offers a range of scheduled departures on trips lasting from three to 11 days and can also arrange trips as far as Ho Chi Minh City or into Laos.
Finally — although this list is by no means exhaustive — the tours on offer by Zoom Zoom Let's Go to the Countryside include motorbike trips to northern destinations including Mai Chau and Ha Giang.
Rentabike 6b Tam Thuong St and 27 / 52 To Ngoc Van St. T: (0913) 026 878;(0904) 392 423 www.rentabikehanoi.com
Vietnam Motorbikes 40 Dao Duy Tu St, T: (01662) 913 512. firstname.lastname@example.com
Cuong's Motorbike Adventures 46 Gia Ngu St, T: (0918) 763 515 cuongs-motorbike-adventure.com
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text: Kat said: > > And I thought Maggie had her Laurel too, which would make it 15. > > Which Maggie? I can't think of one that is a Laurel. > Margery de Bray. Maybe it's just her being the Kingdom Bard that I'm remembering. I'm guilty of trying to rank all the Kingdom Bards in that catagory: must be my Irish showing through. -Ulf Who sometimes travels back to the NORSE kingdoms in Ireland... ============================================================================ Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.


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It may turn out that the Cincinnati Bengals end up signing a defensive end to a long-term extension after all, it just won't be the one you'd thought it would be:
Hearing #bengals close to extending Dunlap
— Geoff Hobson (@GeoffHobsonCin) July 15, 2013
Dunlap deal, reported 6 years $40m, probably announced tomorrow
— Geoff Hobson (@GeoffHobsonCin) July 15, 2013
The Bengals entered today needing to work out a long-term deal with DE Michael Johnson prior to 4pm, or he'd be playing under the franchise tag for the 2013 NFL season. The two sides failed to reach a deal, but that may have had to do with the team having a long-term deal for Dunlap wrapped up.
There are a number of reasons the Bengals opted for Dunlap over Johnson. Age was and potential to still grow were two big ones.
Dunlap has been in the league for three years, compared to Johnson's four years.
In that time, Dunlap has accumulated 20 sacks, averaging almost 7 a year. Johnson has brought down the quarterback 23 times, but in more year's time, averaging almost 6 sacks a year – however, those numbers are after a career year in 2012.
Johnson has totaled 94 tackles in four years, averaging 23.5 per year. Dunlap has had 65 tackles, averaging about 22 per year.
Dunlap has had three more forced fumbles than Johnson as well.
Dunlap is also two years younger than Johnson, and will be expected to carry a much bigger load in 2013, and has the potential to be a Pro Bowl DE when healthy.
Want more Bengals news? Like Stripe Hype on Facebook, or grab our RSS feed.
Tags: Carlos Dunlap Cincinnati Bengals Michael Johnson NFL Offseason


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…ma come si lavano i denti ai bambini??
Analogue film is what keeps a photographer like me alive; but analogue film is dying and almost untraceable where I live.
Analogue photography is dying - and I am in need of analogue films for my cameras.
If you're willing to help me as a photographer, then graciously donating some film(s) might be a bright idea.
See my choice from a range of different films in my wishlist at Lomography.com.
I will send a surprise free 10x15 (tha is a 4"x6") print of one of my film photos as a thankyou to anyone buying me at least one film roll chosen from my wishlist at Lomography.com!
The wishlist is here:
Just don't forget to send me a message (use the mail icon you see above right in the header of the page) with your snail mail complete address and as soon as I receive your lovely donation I will print and send you my heartfelt thankyou!


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We look at the star's best hair looks(Read more) ➞
You can win a trip to Ireland!(Read more) ➞
Pick a scent based on your astrology sign(Read more) ➞
Charlize Theron stars in Dior's new short film for J'adore
We've all heard about preventing and treating common age issues like wrinkles and dehydrated skin. But what are some of the other effects of aging that we experience?(Read More)➞ Posted October 31, 2014
Being smart is the new black and thankfully, we're seeing Hollywood stars that are inspiring us with their ideas and beauty (hello Lena Dunham!).(Read More)➞ Posted October 30, 2014
Whether it's a candy-coloured dip-dye hair or neon matte lipstick, your 20s are all about experimenting with bold beauty trends.(Read More)➞ Posted October 29, 2014
The Glow team recently jetted across the pond to beautiful Dublin for our latest series of fashion shoots. Traveling in style is always our motto and we soon discovered we were not alone.(Read More)➞ Posted October 28, 2014
The Glow team headed backstage to cover spring 2015 trends and all things beauty at World MasterCard Fashion Week(Read More)➞ Posted October 28, 2014
Looking for your perfect foundation match? Find the one here with Revlon's range of makeup that caters to every woman and skin tone.(Read More)➞ Posted October 28, 2014
Let's face it: overtime, just any old moisturizer won't do. Our skin needs all the help it can get as we get older and our skin shows signs of aging. Enter Estée Lauder's Enlighten skincare range.(Read More)➞ Posted October 27, 2014
Tata Harper Aromatic Stress Treatment(Read more)➞


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The underground parking lot of the W Hotel isn't all that different from the Ghost Bar some 300 feet above it in some ways: white walls, industrial interior. Still, the lack of air conditioning was growing uncomfortable, and my perfectly waved 'do was giving way to frizz, but that will happen at an ... More >>
Photo by Allan Hayslip Known for his sophistication as a DJ, Reid Robinson (a.k.a. Woodtronic) gets groovy, laid back gigs spinning at spots like the Perot Museum and outdoor shows in Dallas Arts District. Not to say he can't pump (and punk) it up if needed...you can also see him spinning pretty reg ... More >>
Neeks, Night Game Cult El Sibil Saturday, June 16 Often, when there are six people on stage at a hip-hop show, you're in trouble. You get some limp attempts at verses, some blunted flow, too many stoned rappers bumping into each other. Neeks, who performed at Oak Cliff art space El Sibil as part of ... More >>
Saturday, February 25, at Texas Theatre
King Khan & the Shrines Sons of Hermann Hall Monday, February 6 It's hard to tell who King Khan is channeling when he gets on stage. James Brown comes to mind first, as does Screamin' Jay Hawkins. He sings about the important things: Mainly sex, food and rock 'n' roll. Also, the man has style. He c ... More >>
Monday, February 6, at Sons of Hermann Hall
Last week, Obama sang the opening line of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," so of course it's been everywhere online, but last night, Old School 94.5 told me what I really wanted to know: How I could get my own ringtone rendition of it. I think Obama needs to sing parts of old soul songs more often. ... More >>
American Idol Live Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Better than: Watching paint dry. I think. I don't remember if there was ever a talent show episode on the original Beverly Hills 90210. But if there had been, I imagine it would have looked a lot like last night's sho ... More >>
As a man, I don't think I'll ever get the appeal of the group Train. Before I heard "Drops of Jupiter" all those years ago, the name Train brought to mind the show Soul Train, suggesting a funk and soul character. Now, every time I hear that name, I always think "Aren't these guys too old to play p ... More >>
Funk songstress Sharon Jones.Sharon Jones January 27, 2008 Granada Theater Better Than: The Super-fly doppelganger of Adam West performing the Bat-tussi on Soul Train. In support of their third independently released album, 100 Days, 100 Nights, funk revivalists Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, pla ... More >>


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After considering the matter in several proceedings since 1991, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has decided to permit the state's utilities to include in rates the full cost of...
the town to pass on savings of, so far, 17 percent to its citizens.
Today, the economies of all four of these towns are growing again. Stantonsburg, Black Creek, and Sharpsburg all now have housing developments under construction. In Black Creek, a major new employer has come into town - an event due in large part to lower electricity rates, at least according to the mayor. Large tracts of land with rail access and now, low electric rates, are available to manufacturers seeking building sites.
Cause for Concern - And Hope
What made these projects go?
The key factors were a desire to get the job done and the will not to bend to pressure. Duke Energy's assistance early in the game was critical, as was VEPCO's support in sticking with the towns, even though the towns lack a large-volume industrial or commercial user, and their total combined load is only in the range of about 10-15 megawatts. As a consultant, I cannot say enough about the support we have received from VEPCO. Simply put, they have earned my respect.
Not all the news is rosy, however, though recent events have added hope for the future.
I applaud the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent Order 2000, but I am greatly disappointed that it did not mandate the joining of an RTO. Without an RTO that includes eastern North Carolina, I see storm clouds on the horizon for these towns and their citizens.
In our case, without regional grid management, the three towns enjoy network transmission service, but lack the capability for dynamic signaling to manage loads minute-by-minute. So far, none of the towns has incurred charges for ancillary service from CP&L. The Tri-Towns' contract with VEPCO absolves them from all risk associated with imbalance penalties. Under its contract, Sharpsburg shares the imbalance risk with VEPCO. Fortunately, VEPCO has done an outstanding job of staying within the safe harbor band in the Open Access Transmission Tariff, or OATT. That OATT ordinarily would impose charges if variations in load exceed 1.5 percent, but allows an exemption if variations never exceed 2 MW. Our contract with VEPCO will terminate in 2.5 years; after that, we might encounter trouble in finding another supplier if we still do not have the dynamic signal.
As a consultant in the wholesale power markets, it has been my observation that OATTs handle the job of buying transmission service, but long-term service is still difficult when imbalance penalties are stringent. If promoting competition is the goal of the electric industry, we must remember that metering and managing risk, such as imbalance penalties, are keys to long-term success.
In the case of these North Carolina towns, the local control area utility is Carolina Power & Light, which is not a member of any regional transmission organization (RTO). In my opinion, this lack of membership in an RTO hinders development of a fully competitive power market in eastern North Carolina. One of my top priorities for these towns is to somehow convince the state's utilities of the need to level the playing field


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House Hunters International
Buying a Bar in Salvador, Brazil
Episode HHINT-2511HSee all Episodes
Tune In
July 12, 2013
12:30 PM e/p
University admin Steve McKoy is trading in dreary London skies for the sun kissed beaches of Salvador, Brazil. On his first visit, Salvador's seductive appeal inspired Steve to make the ultimate impulse to buy an African bar in the city's historic colonial center. Before opening shop, however, Steve must land the ideal Brazilian abode. Will Steve be swayed by beachside modern condo luxury? Or wowed by 17th century colonial style flair? Or will Steve's constant second guessing send him packing back to England? Find out, when House Hunters soaks up the sun in Salvador!


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Hobart: Great Reading at the OB/GYN!BJ Hollars (he might'a been kidding when he said "You can blurb me on that."
sighted: an ARC of BJ Hollars's new collection arrived in the mailbox today! suckers!!
At the end of the school year, several of us began passing around a dog-eared copy of Stephen King's Carrie, which we devoured partially for its pornography but mostly for its self-help.
B. J. Hollars, "Indian Village"
there's something kind of perfect about this, that mix of adolescent searching for both sexual intrigue and also just answers about the world and how to live.
7 notes
See Post #BJ Hollars #Indian Village #Sightings #adolescence #Carrie
Some days it was all I could do to keep my eye on the ball and swing.B. J. Hollars, "Indian Village"
11 notes
See Post #BJ Hollars #Sightings #Indian Village #baseball #all i could do