Pinehurst council considers plans to reconfigure two troublesome traffic islands

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By Steve DeVane Staff writer

PINEHURST - The Village Council might change two traffic islands on downtown streets to keep drivers from going the wrong way.

Assistant Village Manager Jeff Batton told council members at a work session Tuesday that cars turn off of Cherokee Road into outgoing lanes on Dogwood and Chinquapin roads. He said no accidents have occurred.

"It's not a huge issue," he said. "We know that it occurs from time to time."

Islands on Dogwood and Chinquapin are meant to guide drivers on those roads into lanes to turn onto Cherokee.

Instead, drivers coming off Cherokee are using those lanes.

Batton said if the council is interested in reconfiguring the islands, this summer is a good time.

He said the village could change them while it is repairing brick curbing, which is already planned for fiscal 2014 that starts today.

Batton showed the council several options designed by Bob Koontz.

Mayor Nancy Roy Fiorillo and three council members said they liked one of the designs but decided to continue the discussion later because Councilman Mark Parson was not at the meeting.

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Pinehurst council considers plans to reconfigure two troublesome traffic islands

‘Horse nappies’ to be introduced on Aran Islands

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Horse nappies to be introduced on Aran Islands

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

By Brian McDonald

First it was Killarney now horse nappies are about to be introduced to the Aran Islands as the local council seeks to get jarvies to clean up their act.

While the new regulations will apply countywide when passed, they are being specifically targeted at the Aran Islands off the west coast where more than 20 jarvies operate pony and trap carriages to show tourists the unspoilt countryside.

Many of the jarvies are operating family businesses that have been handed down from a previous generation, while others are more recent arrivals, seeking a slice of the lucrative tourist trade.

More than 60,000 tourists visit the three Aran Islands of Inis Mr, Inis Meain and Inis Oirr during the summer season, but the proliferation of horse dung has become problematical in recent years.

Two accidents involving traps over the last two years have highlighted the need for regulation and Galway County Councils strategic policy committee on roads and transport has drawn up draft proposals to put the business on a more formal footing.

Operators will have to apply for a licence to operate as a jarvey and will have to produce a tax clearance certificate and pay a yearly registration fee of 50.

Central to the operation of a horse-drawn vehicle will be the need for the horse to wear a dung-catcher or so-called nappy.

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‘Horse nappies’ to be introduced on Aran Islands

Japan lawmaker on boat near China dispute islands

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A lawmaker from Japan's ruling party was aboard one of four fishing boats that sailed on Monday towards islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with China, the organiser said, as Chinese vessels loomed nearby.

Japan's national broadcaster said one of the Chinese maritime surveillance ships had been within a kilometre (1,000 yards) of the fishing boats, in an incident that could inflame a debilitating international row.

There was no attempt by anyone on board to land on any of the islands, which Japan controls as the Senkakus, but which China claims as the Diaoyus.

"The purpose of dispatching the fishing boats is to fish in the waters," an official from the nationalist Channel Sakura satellite broadcaster told AFP, adding the company's president was aboard one of the boats.

"Most of the people on this mission are fishermen," he said, but noted that Kenji Yamada, a parliamentarian and member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party had also taken part in the mission.

The Japanese boats had left the area by the afternoon, he said.

The incident passed off without confrontation but marked a change from recent months, which have seen regular forays by official Chinese ships into the 12-nautical-mile zone regarded as territorial waters.

It has become customary for Japan's coastguard and the Chinese ships to exchange demands that the other side leave the waters, as part of a tussle between Tokyo and Beijing over ownership of the resource-rich islands.

A Japanese foreign ministry official telephoned the Chinese embassy in Tokyo to protest at the presence of the Chinese vessels, the ministry said.

The four ships made a circuit of the largest island in the chain before heading away, Japan's coastguard said.

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Japan lawmaker on boat near China dispute islands

NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner outlines health care plan at The Common Good – Video

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NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner outlines health care plan at The Common Good
On June 20th, 2013, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (at 4:00min) spoke to The Common Good and introduced his health care plan to insure all ci...

By: The Common Good

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NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner outlines health care plan at The Common Good - Video

Health Care Reform Series: Coverage Improvements During the Transition Period – Video

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Health Care Reform Series: Coverage Improvements During the Transition Period
Disclaimer: Pre-approved HRCI credit was only available for those that attended the live webinar. By viewing this recording, FutureOffice Network does not gu...

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Health Care Reform Series: Coverage Improvements During the Transition Period - Video

Health care fuels Kansas City area job growth

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Without the health care industry, the Kansas City areas economy would have suffered far more in the Great Recession and slow recovery.

A new Brookings Institution study of the largest metropolitan areas found that the Kansas City region has more than the national average share of health care practitioners and health technologists in its labor force, and the health care industry has grown faster here than the national average.

While health care jobs nationally contributed to 13 percent of job growth in the recovery, those jobs represented 18 percent of the post-recession growth in the Kansas City area, according to the report released Monday.

Health care created about 6,300 jobs out of about 35,000 created in the Kansas City area since the recovery began and that can be a good news/bad news thing, said Martha Ross, a fellow in the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

Its good to have job growth in that industry, but you want broad employment growth, so its important for the metro areas overall health to have growth in other industries as well, she said in a telephone intervew.

Theres another mixed blessing about job growth in health care: The average earnings of health care practitioners, a category that includes physicians, nurses and dentists, are nearly double average worker wages. Thats good for the local economy.

But the average wages of home health care aides and other kinds of nursing assistants are lower than national pay averages. And their limited discretionary income means less purchasing power and a small economic ripple in the economy.

More than 85,000 workers out of the Kansas City areas employment base of about 970,000 are health care practitioners, technicians, such as lab workers, and health aides, Brookings reported, based on U.S. Department of Labor industry classifications.

Nationally and in the Kansas City area, about 1 in 10 jobs are in the health care industry. From 2003 to 2013, employment in that industry grew 22.7 percent, far outstripping the 2.1 percent job growth in all other industries.

Brookings said that in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas, the share of health care practitioners which includes doctors, nurses and dentists averages 3.6 percent of all employment. In the Kansas City area, those jobs account for 3.8 percent of employment.

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Health care fuels Kansas City area job growth

Advocate Health Care Reports More Than $600 Million in Community Benefits

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DOWNERS GROVE, IL--(Marketwired - July 01, 2013) - Advocate Health Care, the state's largest integrated health system, announced today that it provided $614 million in charitable care and services in 2012. The total is an increase of $43 million over the previous year.

"We continually challenge ourselves to extend our services beyond our hospital walls," said Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate Health Care. "We are proud to have provided charitable care and services that touched so many lives last year."

Advocate provided $104 million in free and discounted charity care for the uninsured and underinsured and supplied more than $330 million in care without full reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. In 2012, these benefits alone totaled $434 million in health care service costs.

In addition to free and subsidized health care, Advocate also offers programs and services that respond to communities' unique needs. These include health and wellness screenings, behavioral health services, and school-based health care. Advocate also made significant investments in language-assistance programs, which offer our patients access to interpreters and other non-English patient education materials.

Contributions to other not-for-profit community organizations, as well as equipment, supplies and clinic space donations totaled $6 million. Advocate also increased its provision of medical education and training in 2012 to more than $80 million. As part of its annual Community Benefits Report, a detailed breakdown of Advocate's contributions was recently filed with the State.

About Advocate Health Care

Advocate Health Care, named among the nation's Top 5 largest health systems by Truven Analytics, is the largest health system in Illinois and one of the largest health care providers in the Midwest. Advocate operates more than 250 sites of care, including 12 hospitals that encompass 11 acute care hospitals, the state's largest integrated children's network, five Level I trauma centers (the state's highest designation in trauma care), two Level II trauma centers, one of the area's largest home health care companies and one of the region's largest medical groups. Advocate Health Care trains more primary care physicians and residents at its four teaching hospitals than any other health system in the state. As a not-for-profit, mission-based health system affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, Advocate contributed $614 million in charitable care and services to communities across Chicagoland and Central Illinois in 2012.

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Advocate Health Care Reports More Than $600 Million in Community Benefits

Health Care REIT, Inc. Completes Investment with Sunrise Senior Living

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TOLEDO, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Health Care REIT, Inc. (HCN) announced today the completion of the final phase of the Sunrise Senior Living, Inc. property portfolio acquisition. The aggregate $4.3 billion investment includes 120 wholly-owned properties and 5 properties owned in joint ventures with third parties. Health Care REIT expects the portfolio to generate an unlevered NOI yield exceeding 6.5% in the second half of 2013 with long-term growth of 4% to 5% per year on average.

The portfolio includes approximately 10,000 units located in affluent, infill markets. Approximately 90% of the properties are Sunrises well-regarded mansion prototype. The average age of the portfolio is eight years, which is well below the industry average. The properties generate average monthly rental rates that are nearly 100% higher than the industry average. The portfolio is located primarily in markets with high concentrations of age and income-qualified elderly including London, Southern California, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., and Montreal.

The Sunrise transaction epitomizes our strategy to partner with the leading operators to own premier-quality real estate in affluent, infill markets, said George L. Chapman, Chairman and CEO of Health Care REIT. Our teams execution on the joint venture buyouts exceeded all expectations with respect to timing and economics.

Sunrise Property Count Reconciliation:

8/22/12

5/7/13

7/1/13

105

54

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Health Care REIT, Inc. Completes Investment with Sunrise Senior Living

America’s Health Care Pricing Problem

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Juanmonino / Getty Images

Of all the oddities of the U.S. health care system, one stands out: we spend far more on health care per person than other industrialized nations yet have no better health outcomes.

Understanding why isnt easy. A 2012 paper by the Commonwealth Fund found that, among 13 industrialized countries studied, the U.S. has the highest rate of obesity, which is usually a factor higher health care costs.

Yet, the U.S. ranks far behind many other countries in our rates of citizens who smoke or are over 55, two other strong indicators of increased spending.

So why is our health care spending more than 17 percent of our gross domestic product, far more than any other country?

In the recent debate over health care reform, two often cited culprits were fear of malpractice lawsuits and our complex health care payment structure. Doctors and hospitals practice defensive medicine, critics charge, ordering extraneous tests and procedures to protect themselves in the event of malpractice claims. This leads to over-use of the health care system.

(MORE: And Now, The Selling of Obamacare)

Likewise, fee-for-service medicine, in which hospitals and doctors are paid separately for every treatment, procedure or test they perform, also encourages over-use. And yet, the same Commonwealth Fund study found that, while we may be consuming more health care than we need, we arent nearly as guilty of this as, for example, Japan. There, patients consult with doctors, on average, more than 13 times a year, compared to the U.S., where patients have about four doctor consultations annually. Or how about Canada, where patients receiving acute care stay in the hospital an average of 7.7 days, compared to our 5.4?

A central reason U.S. health care spending is so high is because hospitals and doctors charge more for their services and theres little transparencyabout why. There is no uniformity to the system, in which public and private insurers have separate, unrelated contracts with hospitals and doctors. The result is a tangled, confusing and largely secretive collection of forces driving health care prices higher and higher.

This isnt possible in many other countries either because governments set prices for health care services or broker negotiations between coalitions ofinsurers and providers. Known as all-payer rate setting, insurers in these systems band together to negotiate as groups. In contrast, U.S. insurers closely guard the secrecy of their contracted prices with health care providers and negotiate individually. This is why a hospital hosting five patients for knee replacements might get paid five different amounts for the surgeries.

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America's Health Care Pricing Problem