Viewpoint: Why Democrats should re-appropriate ‘freedom’

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In this Viewpoint Web exclusive, Eliot Spitzer and George Lakoff, co-author of The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic, discuss the meaning of the words freedom and democracy as Democrats define them versus how Republicans define them.

The Republican argument always reverts to the word freedom. And freedom in their linguistic structure means freedom from government, Spitzer notes. But despite this obsession with freedom, Republicans seem to have no problem with subjugating individuals to corporate power, Spitzer points out.

Lakoff agrees, noting, Rather than being about citizens caring about each other and providing for each other, [Republicans] see democracy as about the liberty to pursue your self-interest and your own well-being without being responsible for the well-being or interests of anybody else.

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Viewpoint: Why Democrats should re-appropriate ‘freedom’

Va. lawmaker proposes payments for eugenics victims

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By Bob Lewis The Associated Press August 6, 2012

RICHMOND

Exactly 85 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state governments could force involuntary surgical sterilizations of people society deemed genetically inferior or deficient under laws based on a discredited pseudoscience called eugenics.

Delegate Patrick A. Hope, D-Arlington, plans to mark Monday's anniversary by calling for "a symbolic payment" from the General Assembly and Gov. Bob McDonnell for victims of eugenics who are still alive.

Eugenics is among the darkest stains on Virginia's 405-year history.

It was born in 1924 as Virginia's aristocracy sought to purify the white race. It mandated involuntary surgical sterilization for virtually any human malady believed to be hereditary, including mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, criminal behavior, alcoholism and immorality. Even people deemed to be "ne'er-do-wells" were sometimes targeted.

The same law banned interracial marriage.

"A symbolic payment? What's a symbolic payment? How would you do that? How would you find the victims?" asked Deborah Skiscim of suburban Midlothian. She said she had a cousin who was institutionalized under the eugenics law, and because of that she never met her cousin.

"There is no amount that could ever really give back to those people what was taken from them," Skiscim said in a Friday interview.

Hope plans to begin Virginia's eugenics reparations at a Monday news conference on Capitol Square.

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Va. lawmaker proposes payments for eugenics victims

HK Struggles to Clean Plastic Pellets From Beaches

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The cleanup from Hong Kong's worst typhoon in 13 years could take months, the government said Monday, after hundreds of millions of plastic pellets washed onto beaches from containers that fell off a ship.

Environmental groups are concerned the pellets will absorb toxins and pollutants and then be eaten by fish that may in turn be eaten by humans. They're also worried rare marine species such as the Chinese white dolphin could be threatened by the pollutants.

Also known as nurdles, the pellets are used by factories to make plastic products. Authorities say six containers filled with the pellets were lost from a ship in waters south of Hong Kong when it was caught in Typhoon Vicente last month.

Several hundred volunteers at one beach Sunday used trowels, paintbrushes, dustpans and sieves to painstakingly pick up the translucent pellets, which coated the shore.

AP

"It's a bit overwhelming. It seems like we can't get rid of them even though there are hundreds of people here," said Mathis Antony, one of the volunteers on Lamma Island off the western coast of Hong Kong Island. "It looks like it's going to take a lot more to clean it up."

The volunteers filled dozens of garbage bags but there were still many pellets left at the end of the day, piled like snow between rocks.

The government said Monday it would deploy additional manpower and contract out work to speed the cleanup, which could still take several months.

The typhoon prompted authorities to raise the storm warning system to its highest level, indicating hurricane-force winds of 118 kilometers (73 miles) an hour or more, for the first time since 1999.

The government said large amounts of pellets have been found at 10 beaches. At some beaches, numerous sacks filled with pellets and bearing the markings of the manufacturer, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, have also washed ashore.

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HK Struggles to Clean Plastic Pellets From Beaches

Mapping the Cosmos, From Scythes to Superclusters

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Illustration by Soner n

By Caleb Scharf 2012-08-05T22:30:26Z

Astronomy, the most ancient of sciences, has always been about mapping.

Australian aborigines looked at the constellation we call Orion and saw a canoe carrying two banished brothers. The Finns saw a scythe. In India, it was obviously a deer. For the Babylonians, it was the heavenly shepherd, and for the Greeks, it was the hunter, a primordial giant.

Over the centuries, mapping the cosmos has been a gradual process of locating the brighter objects and then filling in the gaps. We have helped our eyes along by constructing telescopes, some gathering much more than just visible light to illuminate phenomena beyond our wildest imaginations.

Seeing the universe for what it is has required us to overcome many other blind spots, including the one that places ourselves at the center of the map. It took the insight and intellectual conviction of Galileo and Copernicus to challenge the orthodoxy that Earth was at the center of everything. Even then, the notion that our solar system was nonetheless located somewhere at the middle of the visible universe lasted into the first decades of the 20th century.

The discovery, by the astronomer Harlow Shapley in 1918, that our solar system was not even at the center of the Milky Way galaxy opened the floodgates for more revelations in the following decades. The Milky Way, it turned out, is merely one of many galaxies, all flying apart as the universe expands.

So what does our current map look like? It is both three- dimensional and four-dimensional, linked as it is to time. The farther away objects are, the longer their light has taken to reach us, all the way back through the universes 13.8-billion- year history. There are so many categories of objects and phenomena, and so much higgledy-piggledy data from several hundred years of telescopic astronomy, the best we can do to begin to grasp what this atlas looks like is to play out a thought experiment.

Let us pretend that a very large box has just been delivered to our doorstep, and we have hauled it inside. It contains an ominous-looking sack filled to bursting. An occasional wisp of gas escapes through the knotted top, and every so often a muffled thump or muted glow comes from within.

This sack contains what we could regard as a representative portion of the universe -- a fair sample, a cosmologist would say. If you divided the total mass in the sack by its volume, you would obtain a good estimate of the average density of the universe as a whole. Equally, if you measured just how lumpy the arrangement of galaxies was within this volume, it would be a close match to the universal lumpiness of structure.

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Mapping the Cosmos, From Scythes to Superclusters

Astronomy club invites stargazers to Hopewell

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Starfest 2012 is Saturday from 4 to 11:30 p.m. at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Union Township.

The Chesmont Astronomical Society will present programs and speakers on astronomy, with telescopes available to view celestial objects.

Admission and parking is free. Donations will be accepted.

The schedule:

4 p.m.: Telescope setup/solar observation.

6 p.m.: Children's activities.

7 p.m.: Stan Stubbe, president, Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council, discusses the Hopewell Big Woods Dark Sky Reserve.

7:35 p.m.: Karl Krasley, president, Chesmont Astronomical Society, marks the group's 25th year.

8:20 p.m.: Dr. H. John Wood of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

9:15 p.m.: Public stargazing.

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Astronomy club invites stargazers to Hopewell

Buncombe Commissioners preview: Economic incentives, property reappraisal, longevity pay and more

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By Jake Frankel on 08/04/2012 06:59 AM

After taking July off, commissioners will hold a public hearing Aug. 7 on the $8.4 million in grants Buncombe County has promised to New Belgium Brewing Co.

In exchange, the Fort Collins-based brewery has agreed to invest $175 million in a new production facility on Craven Street at the edge of the River Arts District, eventually hiring 154 workers.

The county grants are in addition to the $3.5 million in incentives and infrastructure improvements being offered by the city of Asheville and a $1 million grant from the state One North Carolina Fund. All in all, the brewer has been offered roughly $13 million in incentives from city, county and state governments.

The hearing will give the public a formal opportunity to weigh in on the plans.

In other business, the board will consider setting the date for county property reappraisal to Jan. 1, 2013. The goal of the reappraisal process is to determine the fair market value of property for taxation purposes.

The meeting agenda also includes consideration of a rezoning request to allow more development on a 0.3 acre plot at 15 Tupper Road in Black Mountain. The Buncombe County Planning Board recommends approving the request but staff recommends denying it.

In addition, the board will consider several changes to county personnel policies, including longevity pay.

Commissioners also will consider dedicating the newly renovated Health and Human Service building at 40 Coxe Ave. in honor of Margaret Hall Coman, who retired as the director of the county's Department of Public Welfare in 1983 after 43 years of public service.

The board will meet at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 7, in the commissioners chambers, located at 30 Valley St. A short pre-meeting review of the agenda will begin at 4:15 p.m.

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DNA helps close old murder case in Fla Panhandle

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NICEVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say DNA evidence has helped close a 37-year-old murder case in the Florida Panhandle.

Catherine Ainsworth's body was found in her Niceville apartment on Aug. 30, 1975. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

Authorities say they've linked the crime scene to William P. Rouse, a New York man who had been based at Eglin Air Force Base at the time.

Rouse died in 2006. Authorities tell the Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/N9gUoN ) that Rouse's relatives provided two hats he frequently wore for DNA testing.

Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Investigator Travis Robinson says DNA from the hats matched DNA evidence found on a rug under Ainsworth's body.

Rouse had been Ainsworth's neighbor. Robinson said Rouse had given conflicting stories to the case's original investigators.

Information from: Northwest Florida Daily News, http://www.nwfdailynews.com

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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DNA helps close old murder case in Fla Panhandle

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DNA clue to bone setter mystery

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5 August 2012 Last updated at 08:28 ET By Neil Prior BBC News

DNA mapping has shed light on a 260-year-old mystery of the origins of a child shipwrecked on Anglesey, who helped shape medical history.

The boy of seven or eight, who could not speak English or Welsh, washed up on the north Wales coast with his brother between 1743 and 1745.

Named Evan Thomas, he was adopted by a doctor and went on to show bone setting skills never seen before in the UK.

Now a DNA study has revealed he came from the Caucasus Mountains.

The boys' dark skin and foreign language led people to believe they were Spanish - a myth which went on for hundreds of years.

Evan's brother survived only a few days, but he went on to demonstrate he already possessed bone setting skills, including the first recorded use in Britain of traction and splints to pull apart the over-lapping edges of breaks and immobilise limbs while healing took place.

It's not yet a perfect match, but you can definitely say that their background was heavily influenced by this region.

Analysis of DNA from the 13th generation of Evan's descendants is now indicating that the brothers came from an area of the Caucasus Mountains, including Georgia, Ossetia and Southern Russia.

Anglesey bone setter DNA project director John Rowlands said: "When we embarked on the project, all the historical evidence seemed to point to Spain as being the most likely origins of Evan Thomas.

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Aaron Curry using stem cell therapy to help knees

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AP

Raiders linebacker Aaron Curry isnt sure when hell be able to get back on the field, but hes pretty sure that stem cell therapy will be the thing that winds up getting him back there.

Paul Gutierrez of CSNBayArea.com reports that Curry has received the therapy on both of his knees. Bone marrow from his hips was used in the treatment and Curry told Gutierrez that it is the only thing hes tried that has helped him feel better. Curry is still working out on the side during Raiders practices and said hell only return to practice when hes fully able to help the Raiders.

My goal is to get healthy and just go out there and be violent, be fast, be a pain in the offenses butt and whatever I have to do on the defense, do it, Curry said. And do it full speed. I cant do that until my body says its ready.

The treatment has been popular with Oakland athletes. Linebacker Rolando McClain said that the treatment helped his legs feel better earlier this offseason and As pitcher Bartolo Colon has credited stem cell treatment on his shoulder with saving his baseball career.

With McClain facing a possible suspension under the Personal Conduct Policy and Oakland short on linebacking depth, the Raiders need Curry to be healthy for the start of the season.

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NASA braces for "7 minutes of terror" Mars plunge

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PASADENA, Calif.Hurtling ever closer to Mars, NASA's most high-tech interplanetary rover prepared for the riskiest part of its journey: diving through the Martian atmosphere and pulling off a new landing routine.

Nerves will be on overdrive Sunday night as the Curiosity rover attempts a dizzying "seven minutes of terror" routine that ends with it being lowered by cables inside a massive crater if all goes according to script.

Hours before the 10:31 p.m. PDT planned touchdown, Curiosity was in excellent health and speeding toward the top of Mars' thin atmosphere.

"We're having a very clean ride right now. It's a little spooky," said Allen Chen, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission.

Not ones to tempt fate, flight controllers planned to break out the "good luck" peanuts before Curiosity takes the plunge as part of a long-running tradition.

One scientist who can relate to the building anxiety is Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, who headed NASA's last successful rover mission in 2004.

This time around, Squyres has a supporting role and planned to view the landing with other researchers in the "science bullpen."

"Landing on Mars is always a nerve-racking thing. You're never going to get relaxed about something like landing a spacecraft on Mars," said Squyres.

Sunday's touchdown attempt was especially intense because NASA is testing a brand new landing technique. There's also extra pressure because budget woes have forced NASA to rejigger its Mars exploration roadmap.

"There's nothing in the pipeline" beyond the planned launch of a Mars orbiter in 2013, said former NASA Mars czar Scott Hubbard, who teaches at Stanford University.

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NASA braces for "7 minutes of terror" Mars plunge

NASA Spacecraft Speeding Toward Epic Mars Landing

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Next stop, Mars.

NASAs Mars Science Laboratory and the Curiosity rover are preparing to enter the Martian atmosphere, following an 8 month race to the red planet at 8,000 miles per hour. By the time it arrives at Mars, gravity will have accelerated the spacecraft to a whopping 13,200 mph.

NASA must then slow it down.

Following seven minutes of terror beginning at 1:31a.m. EST early Monday morning a reference to the nerve-racking landing NASA has planned, which involves Curiositys screaming race to the surface and a dangle off a rocket-powered sky crane the rover will be set to begin its mission: the study of our planetary neighbor, and the quest for signs of life there.

Curiosity is the culmination of a decade of exploration. We can now begin to move toward finding the fingerprints of life on Mars, said Scott Hubbard, a Stanford University consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

The space agency said Curiosity remains in good health, and was steering so smoothly between planets that a planned minor course correction Saturday wasnt necessary. And with the gravitational pull of Mars already tugging on the spaceship, arrival is being closely monitored by the watchful eyes of mission control.

After flying more than eight months and 350 million miles since launch, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now right on target to fly through the eye of the needle that is our target at the top of the Mars atmosphere, said Mission Manager Arthur Amador of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

In keeping with a decades-old tradition, peanuts will be passed around the mission control room at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for good luck. The space agency said it was optimistic that everything would go according to plan.

"Can we do this? Yeah, I think we can do this. I'm confident," Doug McCuistion, head of the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters, said Saturday. "We have the A-plus team on this. They've done everything possible to ensure success, but that risk still exists."

A Twitter feed for the rover itself happily chirped notice Saturday evening of its imminent arrival at Mars.

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Tufts University School of Medicine Celebrates Program with Massachusetts Youth

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Newswise BOSTON (August 3, 2012) Tufts University School of Medicine today celebrated the achievements of the 33 Massachusetts high school students who participated in the Schools 2012 Teachers and High School Student Program. The program is one of Tufts signature initiatives to encourage high school students with diverse backgrounds to explore their interest in medicine and biomedical sciences. Established in 1989, the Tufts program supports the careers of aspiring young doctors and scientists by engaging them in a range of clinical and research opportunities across the Tufts Health Sciences campus in Boston.

Tufts University is committed to nurturing scientific curiosity among young people of diverse backgrounds, particularly those from communities that are underrepresented in medicine and the health sciences," said Harris Berman, M.D., dean of Tufts University School of Medicine. "The extraordinary students who participated in our high school program this summer have contributed immeasurably to the Tufts community, and we are proud to offer high school students the opportunity to launch promising careers as health professionals.

Our summer program for high school students offers invaluable experience to young people who might not otherwise have opportunities to explore their budding interests in medicine and the biomedical sciences, said Joyce Sackey, M.D., dean for multicultural affairs and global health and associate professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts Teachers and High School Students Program is one of our key initiatives to support the educational development of youth in our community.

Selected high school students participated in a seven-week program and spent up to 25 hours each week in various positions at Tufts University School of Medicine, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Tufts or Tufts Medical Center. Students also took a gross anatomy course taught by Tufts medical students and gained knowledge of laboratory-based science; in the process, students developed relationships with medical and graduate student mentors that Tufts expects will continue beyond the summer program.

The Tufts program also includes an independent study, the findings of which the students presented to the Tufts community, family and friends today. Participating students were:

Edward Akubude (Mattapan), 16, Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Reduction of OCD symptoms in Mice Carlos Angeles (Norton), 19, Xaverian Brothers High School The Relationship between Diabetes and Diet Christina Augustin (Medford), 16, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School The Effects of Marijuana on Pregnancy Janika Beatty (Malden), 17, Community Charter School of Cambridge The Effects of Marijuana on Pregnancy Carrington Cazeau (Boston), 16, Natick High School Zebrafish fin Mutations Walter Chacon (Lynn), 16, Phillips Academy Andover The Relationship between Obesity and Depression Malka Forman (Brighton), 17, Maimonides School Lower limb ischemic threshold with near infrared spectrometry device John Frazer (Quincy), 16, Boston College High School Evidence Based Review of Domestic Violence (The reporting and recognition by healthcare providers of child abuse and neglect in the Latino population) Ericka Garcia (Brookline) 15, Brookline High School Leukemia in Children Bryant Gill (Foxboro), 17, Xaverian Brothers High School "Correlation of Neuronal Signal to Astrocyte Morphology" Nathan Gill (Foxboro), 16, Xaverian Brothers High School Reduction of OCD symptoms in Mice Yvonne Hamisi (Springfield), 18, Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership Cardiac Differences between Athletes and Non-Athletes Elyane James (Dorchester), 18, Marblehead High School Evidence Based Review of Domestic Violence (The reporting and recognition by healthcare providers of child abuse and neglect in the Latino population) Hyunji Koo (North Andover), 16, Phillips Academy Andover Cross-cultural communication and the doctor-patient relationship Fatima Khan (Somerville), 16, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Ryan Kuehl (Springfield), 18, Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership Too Much Exercise? Anthony Nino Lambert (Hanover), 16, Boston College High School Factors that affect the Concentration of Serine Jessica Mar (Brighton), 16, Boston Latin School Physician Wellness Abby Mendez (Roxbury), 17, City on a Hill Evidence Based Review of Domestic Violence (The reporting and recognition by healthcare providers of child abuse and neglect in the Latino population) Jasmine Ngan (Somerville), 16, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School The Effects of Storage Conditions on Bloodspot Amino Acids Blessing Ojini (Roxbury), 16, Needham High School The Benefits of Play in Child Development Emanuel Parrilla (Springfield), 18, Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership The effects of a torn ACL in later life Klarissa Ramkissoon (Milton), 17, Milton High School Behavioral Testing in Mice Krystina San Soucie (Upton), 16, Nipmuc Regional High School Methods to Maximize Serine Levels Abdullahi Tahlil (Roxbury), 17, Match High School Child Health Assessment Mapping Project Lisa Tam (Boston), 18, John D. O'Bryant High School of Math and Science Effectiveness of Home Visits Compared with Standard Care Dorothy Tran (Boston), 17, The Winsor School Child Health Assessment Mapping Project Arianna Unger (Newton), 17, Maimonides School "A Comparative Study of Two Orthotic Systems Used for the Assisted Ambulation of a Child with Spina Bifida" Camille Van Allen (Milton), 17, Milton High School Benefits of Breast Feeding Winnie Wang (Boston), 18, Boston Latin School Relationship between Toxic/Nutritional and Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy Natalie Wolanski (Springfield), 17, Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership Concussions in Sports and Society Davonte Willis (Quincy), 18, Quincy High School Factors that affect the Concentration of Amine Acids Kavin Zhu (Boston), 17, Boston Latin School Genetic Disease as Exemplified by Hunter Syndrome

The Teachers and High School Students Program is one of a number of "pipeline" programs at Tufts University School of Medicine designed to engage diverse students interested in the fields of medicine and biomedical sciences. Tufts offers programs for diverse students in middle school, high school, and college, as well as college graduates.

About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical education and advanced research. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, biomedical sciences, special combined degree programs in business, health management, public health, bioengineering and international relations, as well as basic and clinical research at the cellular and molecular level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical science.

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Liberty Dethrones Gorman With Ninth-Inning Rally

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Posted: Aug. 5, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.

Liberty's Michael Vargas was well aware of Bishop Gorman's credentials as he stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth inning Saturday.

He knew that the defending champion Titans had won five of the past six American Legion state baseball championships, and he knew they had manhandled their opponents in four consecutive wins to reach the title game.

But none of that mattered to Vargas.

In the Patriots' first championship appearance, Vargas drove a two-run single to right field to tie the game with one out. Liberty scored the go-ahead run one batter later on a throwing error and held on for a 4-3 victory at Wilson Stadium.

"We beat a great team," Liberty coach Mike Eshragh said. "Gorman has been here before. They've done that, and they've got the experience."

The win not only dethroned the Titans (40-11) but also spoiled their impressive march through the losers' bracket after an opening-round loss to Coronado.

"But you've got to beat the best to be the best," Eshragh said.

The Titans jumped ahead early, taking a 1-0 first-inning lead on Cody Roper's run-scoring double. A single by Kenny Meimerstorf in the third put Gorman up 2-0.

The Patriots (26-8) made the most of two singles and two Gorman errors in the sixth to cut their deficit to 2-1.

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USA: Libertarian Ticket Says Yes to Marriage Equality

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Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee Judge Jim Gray today urged Ohio voters to place the proposed Freedom to Marry amendment on the 2013 statewide ballot and to approve it. Gray endorsed the measure on behalf of both himself and presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Judge Gray announced the Libertarian ticket's support for Freedom to Marry at a news conference Saturday morning at the County Courthouse in Toledo.

Gray said, "Unlike Mitt Romney or President Obama, Governor Johnson and I believe the right to marry who we choose is a constitutionally protected right. People of different faiths and different beliefs are free to follow those beliefs when it comes to embracing or opposing same-sex marriage within those faiths and beliefs. However, it should not be the purview of government to impose one set of beliefs over another. And government absolutely should not sanction discrimination against gay Americans who choose to marry.

See the Full Story at FitsNews

Find more articles and gay wedding resources.

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USA: Libertarian Ticket Says Yes to Marriage Equality

Planned Expat Fee Is Talk of the Cayman Tax Haven

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One among thousands of lawyers, accountants and other workers from around the globe, Paul Fordham is escaping cold weather and the taxman by working in a sunny British territory in the Caribbean. He and many others, however, worry they soon may be looking for another haven.

The Cayman Islands have lost some of their allure by proposing what amounts to the territory's first ever income tax. And it would fall only on expatriate workers like Fordham who have helped build the territory into one of the most famous or, for some, notorious offshore banking centers that offer tax advantages for foreign investment operations.

"The discriminatory nature of the tax has stirred up so much uncertainty for people who moved here thinking they knew what they were getting into," said Fordham, an insurance sector specialist from the London area who moved to the main island of Grand Cayman 6 years ago. His recent attempt to sell his house collapsed because an interested buyer was spooked by the prospect of the islands' first direct tax.

In the seaside capital of George Town, where financial experts in casually elegant clothes unwind over beer or white wine, conversations have been about little else since July 25, when Premier McKeeva Bush declared his intention to impose a 10 percent income tax on expatriate workers as part of an effort to bail the government out of a financial hole.

Bush refuses to call it a tax, preferring instead to dub it a "community enhancement fee." The 10 percent payroll levy, as things stands now, will be imposed Sept. 1 on expatriates who earn more than $36,000 a year.

It's a monumental shift for the territory of 56,000 people where zero direct taxation, friendly regulations and the global money they lured in recent decades helped transform the economy of the island chain, a dependency of Jamaica until 1959, from a reliance on seafaring, fishing and rope-making.

Government data show 91,712 companies were registered as of March 2011. A total of 235 banks, including most of the world's top 50 banks, held licenses at the end of June as did 758 insurance companies. Assets for the registered companies totaled $1.607 trillion last September, down from $1.725 trillion a year earlier.

Bush says the tax is necessary to meet British government demands that the territory diversify its sources of revenue beyond the fees and duties it now relies on, that have left his administration with a budget deficit.

"This is not an us-and-them story, no matter how many screaming headlines call this an expat tax," Bush told a crowd of critics and supporters late Wednesday during a four-hour meeting in a school gym, where each side vented complaints against the other.

Opponents argue that a social contract may have been broken by targeting only the roughly 5,875 expatriates who are paid more than $36,000 a year, saying it could drive some away and hurt the financial services and tourism sectors that are now the pillars of the Caymans' economy. Government reports say a majority of the wealthiest residents are Cayman citizens.

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Guest Column: The financial impact of the Affordable Care Act

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Guest Column: The financial impact of the Affordable Care Act

State heeds county woes

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Cash-strapped California is aggressively moving its poorest residents to managed health care, whether they're seniors, rural residents or people with disabilities.

So, when Gov. Jerry Brown proposed earlier this year to transfer the nearly 900,000 poor children in the Healthy Families insurance program into Medi-Cal, he saw it as another opportunity to reduce costs by expanding dental managed care.

But something happened between then and now, and that something was Sacramento County.

Sacramento County's poorly performing Medi-Cal dental managed care program foiled Brown's plans, legislators say.

"That failure certainly has stopped the expansion of dental managed care," said Assemblyman Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat who also is a pediatrician. "Hopefully, we as a state have learned from that failure, and not only on the dental side. Hopefully, we can apply those lessons on the medical side."

Sacramento and Los Angeles are the only two counties with Medi-Cal dental managed care.

Their lackluster performance getting poor children to dentists made legislative leaders balk at adding Healthy Families kids to Medi-Cal dental managed care.

Instead, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Assembly Speaker John A. Prez of Los Angeles negotiated a deal to move Healthy Families kids into the more flexible and potentially more expensive fee-for-service dental care model under Medi-Cal.

"We want to ensure that the challenges in certain counties are addressed before we contemplate a major expansion" of Medi-Cal dental managed care, said John Vigna, a Prez spokesman.

Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid, is a public health insurance program for the lowest-income Californians. Healthy Families covers children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

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Reform party

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Single-payer health care advocates hold house parties to recruit supporters for their cause

On a recent Wednesday night in Corvallis, a dozen people sit around Nadine Grzeskowiaks living room sipping organic lemonade and munching gluten-free pie while video images flickered on a screen.

But theyre not watching the London Olympics. Theyre viewing a Power Point presentation on Americas health care crisis.

After a series of statistics detailing soaring insurance premiums, worsening health problems and widespread medical bankruptcies, up pops a slide on the benefits of single-payer health care.

Its not a government takeover of private medical care, Grzeskowiak tells the intimate gathering of friends and neighbors. Its simply a rational response to a national emergency.

People in this country dont want anybody to take their freedoms away, she says. The thing is, we actually lost our freedom in this country a long time ago when it comes to health care.

Statewide push

House parties like this one are being organized all over Oregon by reform advocates like Grzeskowiak, a registered nurse whose struggles with undiagnosed celiac disease soured her on a system she believes puts profits before patients.

Why should I look for celiac disease, she said one doctor asked her, when theres no treatment I can bill for?

Grzeskowiak is the vice chair of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates, one of several regional organizations working under the umbrella of Health Care for All Oregon in a statewide push to declare health care a human right.

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Hospital anchoring dramatic expansion of health services

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Patients beginning to reap benefits of advanced care

More than 60,000 people have visited ORMC's expanded emergency department in the Town of Wallkill during the past 12 months. It's just one of the hospital's services that are remaking health care and supporting businesses in the mid-Hudson.DOMINICK FIORILLE/Times Herald-Record

Published: 2:00 AM - 08/05/12

The new Orange Regional Medical Center has not only changed the face of health care in the region since it opened exactly one year ago today, it's begun to change the region itself.

From the 1,500 new customers per week at the Quick Chek next to the hospital, to the scores of new doctors and nurses who will train, work and raise families here, ORMC means more than a gleaming new intensive care unit for babies, private rooms for all of its patients and a new lease on life for its new partner, Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris.

"It just changes everything," says David Broder, president of the New York Colleges of Osteopathic Medical Education Consortium, referring to the many new students who will study at the planned new medical college in Middletown, and ultimately practice at ORMC and Catskill.

More than 20,000 inpatients have been treated at ORMC.

It's delivered more than 1,700 babies.

More than 60,000 people have visited its emergency department.

Source: Orange Regional

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Hospital anchoring dramatic expansion of health services