28-06-2012 09:54 A divided Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Obama administration's health-care law, in one of the most anticipated high-court rulings in a generation. Jess Bravin reports on The News Hub.
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A Conversation About the Health Care Ruling – Video
Analysis: Obama Health Care Reform Upheld – Video
28-06-2012 19:26 The Supreme Court largely upheld President Obama's health care reform, including the controversial mandate. Ana Kasparian, Desi Doyen, and Jacki Schechner discuss on The Young Turks. Support The Young Turks by Subscribing Like Us on Facebook: Follow Us on Twitter: Find out how to watch The Young Turks on Current by clicking here:
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Healthcare Explained – Video
28-06-2012 21:26 A breakdown of why healthcare costs are soaring in America and how Obamacare is going to impact things going forward. by Omid Malekan @malekanoms
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After Supreme Court ruling, Medicaid expansion faces uncertainty
This week's Supreme Court on health-care reform represented a legal victory for President Obama on many fronts, but the ruling made it easier for states to opt out of one important area, the expansion of Medicaid for America's poor.
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After Supreme Court ruling, Medicaid expansion faces uncertainty
Health Care Reform Reshuffles The Race: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For June 29, 2012
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Health Care Reform Reshuffles The Race: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For June 29, 2012
We the People: Health Care
VIROQUA, Wis.-- Whether you agree with the Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold President Obama's health care law or not, it has no doubt sparked a debate in this country about health care reform.
We continue our series of reports with the "We the People" project, taking a closer look at the big issues this election year through the eyes of people from diverse backgrounds around the state. This month we're tackling the topic of the health care.
While health care reform is being framed as a political issue right now, it's also a very personal one. And even those who haven't been forced to choose between food and medicine or been denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, have an opinion about our health care system.
As a volunteer driver with the Vernon County Unit on Aging, Palmer Hoffland sees our health care dollars in action. "If someone needs a ride to see the doctor or some kind of appointment, the lady from the Unit on Aging calls one of us and sees if we can make the trip," says Palmer.
On the day we caught up with him, he was driving a man from his home near Chaseburg to the clinic in Viroqua for therapy following heart surgery. Luckily, Palmer and his wife Martha, have been able to steer clear of any major medical problems themselves. "We've been very fortunate. Our medical costs are not a very big part of our life."
At 71 years old, Palmer has been on Medicare for the past six years. And while it's helped keep his medical expenses in check, he's surprised by just how much. "My health cost is less expensive now than when I was working. Medicare and what I use, I don't use supplemental insurance, but I use another plan, but I pay very, very little for my health insurance."
While Palmer believes Obamacare might be helpful for some people, he thinks in his case, it won't be as good as what he currently has. But he's also not convinced sweeping health care reform was needed in the first place. Palmer says, "it just doesn't seem to me that this problem was as big and as present until the Obamacare issue came up and then that made it sound to us like we have a huge problem here folks and we better take care of it. Quite frankly, I didn't see that problem around."
He also questions one big plan that applies to everybody in the country. "In other words, lets not mess with the people who have insurance and it's all taken care of and it's not been a problem, let's come up with something different to help, if it is in fact 30 million, it's got to be cheaper to help 30 million than 350 million."
We the People participant Jim Klarich from the Madison area is also a retiree and on Medicare. He believes Obamacare is a step in the right direction. "I think everybody should have car insurance, I think everybody should have health insurance and it's all about being responsible and I think at times you need the government to step in and say this is what we're doing for your good."
Klarich also says it's the people who choose not to have health insurance that are costing him and everyone else more. "As you get poeple going to the emergency room for health care, my insurance costs rise and I don't want to see that."
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A moment for Obama's legacy
Health care and the high court
Health care and the high court
Health care and the high court
Health care and the high court
Health care and the high court
Health care and the high court
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Has the Health Care Ruling Upped the Ante for Election Contenders?
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to American politics.
Ray Suarez has two different takes on what yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on health care policy will mean in the presidential contest.
RAY SUAREZ: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and a top surrogate for the president.
Governor, welcome.
Yesterday, during his address following the release of the decision, the president kidded about the political value of the Affordable Care Act, almost implying there wasn't much. But looking at it now, is this a win politically for the president?
GOV. MARTIN O'MALLEY, D-Md.: Well, I think, ultimately, it will be.
What we have to do a better job of as a party is explaining the benefits and the rationale here. I mean, not only do we need to stop wasting money on a broken health care system, but we need to improve wellness and bring down costs, so that we can grow our economy, so that we can create jobs, and so that we can expand opportunity.
And that's the golden opportunity now that we have to better explain this important step in America's journey.
RAY SUAREZ: Well, in advance of that explanation, the public opinion research implies that the law is still pretty unpopular, even though the public says it likes parts of the overall legislation.
How is that an asset going forward to November?
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Has the Health Care Ruling Upped the Ante for Election Contenders?
Health care ruling strengthens GOP ability, resolve to repeal mandate
The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the federal health care law was a victory for President Obama, but it also could put a repeal of the individual mandate within reach of Republicans if they can win both the White House and a simple Senate majority.
A repeal of the entire law Obamas major policy initiative is all but a mathematical impossibility. To do away with the law, Republicans would have to win the presidential election, maintain their majority in the House and nail down a super majority capable of withstanding a filibuster in the Senate.
But because the mandate requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance was found constitutional based on its falling within Congress taxing authority, this part of the law could be repealed through an arcane process known as budget reconciliation, the same process used to pass the Affordable Care Act two years ago, a former parliamentarian of the U.S. Senate says.
And the budget reconciliation process requires only 51 votes to make changes, so long as one is reducing and not adding tax revenues to the budget.
That makes Chief Justice John Roberts majority opinion about as important to U.S. Senate races this year as it is to the presidential election, and perhaps nowhere more so than in Floridas match-up between incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, who is expected to win the Republican primary.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll, released this week before the Supreme Courts decision, showed Mack and Nelson in a dead heat.
It takes 60 votes to overcome the threat of a filibuster in the Senate. Democrats hold 51 seats, a four-seat edge over Republicans. Two independents Sens. Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders - nearly always vote with the Democrats.
Democrats, including Nelson, hold 21 of the 33 seats up for re-election in November, and six seats five now held by Democrats are open.
This is one of those situations where the stars are arranged in the right way for the Republicans. The magic number of four looks very doable, Lynn University political science professor Robert Watson said.
Robert Dove, who served as the Senates parliamentarian through 2001, said, Theres no question that if (the mandate) is indeed a tax, you can repeal taxes using reconciliation.
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Health care ruling strengthens GOP ability, resolve to repeal mandate
South Bay meets health care ruling with relief, outrage
Physician's assistant Denise Donahue with a patient at the Harbor Care Clinic in San Pedro. Photo by Brad Graverson 6-28-12 (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)
Tammy Sikora has sought treatment for bone problems in her neck, head and back for nearly 20 years, but only recently began to get proper medical care.
She's been turned down because she doesn't have health insurance, she said, and relies on disability payments to cover trips to physical therapy sessions and pain clinics at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance.
"No one would give me the care I needed because I've been uninsured," said Sikora, who is 47 and unemployed. "Had I gotten the care I needed in the past, I wouldn't have the problems I have today. ... My problems are not catching a cold or getting the flu. My problems are in my bones, and much more serious."
The Long Beach woman was among those on Thursday applauding the Supreme Court's ruling largely upholding President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law - a decision that drew varied reactions from residents, politicians, health professionals and others across the South Bay.
The court's 5-4 decision leaves intact the controversial requirement that nearly every American have health insurance, and allows the law to move forward with the goal of getting millions more insured.
"It's a good thing," said 30-year-old Jerry Hernandez, who works at a discount department store in San Pedro and is the only uninsured member of his family. "Most people have health insurance through their jobs. I don't. Everybody should have health insurance."
But even some
"It's kind of confusing to me so, when things are confusing, I just ignore it," said Jennifer Hanson, who on Thursday was visiting San Pedro's Harbor Community Clinic. "If I was able to pay for the cost of health insurance on a sliding scale, for $5 to $10 a month, of course I would."
Tamra King, the clinic's executive director, said she doesn't know whether the law will drive more patients to the already busy Sixth Street facility, which is in the midst of an expansion.
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Snowe: Health care law a ‘bloated monstrosity’
June 30 The senator renews her call for a financial analysis of the Affordable Care Act in light of upcoming budget work.
By Kevin Miller kmiller@mainetoday.com Washington bureau chief
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe on Friday renewed her call for a detailed analysis of the economic impacts of the Affordable Care Act and lamented the congressional partisanship that marked its creation.
Sen. Olympia Snowe
She made the comments during an interview the day after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its controversial ruling to uphold most of President Obamas signature health care reform law.
In the fall of 2009, Snowe was at the center of the political storm over how to reform the nations health care system.
The sole Republican still involved in the Senate Finance Committees attempts to craft a viable bill, Snowe spent countless hours working with Democrats and met repeatedly with President Obama.
All of which means that pretty much anything Snowe wants, she is going to get and any bill that emerges from this excruciating process will bear her stamp, Time magazine wrote in September 2009.
Of course, things didnt exactly play out that way.
Snowe would later join all of her Republican colleagues to vote against the Affordable Care Act in the full Senate. And on Thursday, she was among many GOP lawmakers who called for its repeal following the Supreme Courts divided decision that upheld most of the law.
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Health care law survives, with Roberts' help
Health Care Reform
June 28, 2012
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) In a momentous ruling touching virtually every American, the Supreme Court narrowly upheld President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul Thursday with the unlikely help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.
But the decision also gave Republicans unexpected ammunition to energize supporters in the battle for the White House and to fight "Obamacare" as a new tax on people who don't obtain health insurance.
Roberts' vote, along with those of the court's four liberal justices, preserved the largest expansion of the nation's social safety net in more than 45 years, including the hotly debated core requirement that nearly everyone have health insurance or pay a penalty. The aim is to extend coverage to more than 30 million people who now are uninsured
The 5-4 decision meant the huge overhaul, still taking effect, could proceed and pick up momentum over the next several years, with an impact on the way that countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.
The ruling handed Obama a campaign-season victory in rejecting arguments that Congress went too far in approving the plan. However, Republicans quickly indicated they would try to use the decision against him.
At the White House, Obama declared, "Whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country." Blocks away, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney renewed his criticism of the overhaul, calling it "bad law" and promising to work to repeal it if elected in November.
Demonstrators for and against the law crowded the grounds outside the Supreme Court Building on Capitol Hill as Roberts, sitting at the center of the nine black-robed justices inside, announced the decision to a packed courtroom.
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Scientists invent cure to smoking… – Video
28-06-2012 04:23 I also posted a text version of my article on sacns! The Daily Telegraph is reporting on an amazing achievement... a vaccine, which causes nicotine to have no effect whatsoever... on mice. Nicotine calms a person, and causes a slowing in heartbeat. These positive effects of smoking, are something the scientists, think... need to end. So... How does it work? Genetic Engineering... yes, I said it... Genetically Modified (GM) antibody... as a cure. The anti-body filters nicotine out of the blood, and after it appears once, the bodies... of the mice, mimic it. Such means: no more pleasure from smoking. It is suggested that, soon they may graduate from Mice to Men. But if you are a mouse or a man... the best laid schemes and plans of either... to quit, might determine if one is a mouse or a man... There is still the emotional addiction to deal with, if the process works, and any side affects, as yet unspoken. For more on what professor of Genetic Medicine, Dr Ronald Crystal, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, has to say to the Daily Telegraph: A jab that 'vaccinates' people against smoking for life being developed - Telegraph » Scientists have invented a jab that takes the pleasure out of smoking, it has emerged. 'A jab that 'vaccinates' people against smoking for life being developed; Scientists have invented a jab that takes the pleasure out of smoking, it has emerged.' by Richard Alleyne at 7:51AM BST 28 Jun 2012 www ...
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Vaccine May Block the Effect of Nicotine
Latest Prevention & Wellness News
Doctors May One Day Harness the Immune System to Help People Quit Smoking
By Brenda Goodman, MA WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
June 27, 2012 -- Scientists say they've developed a vaccine that may one day protect people against the addictive effects of nicotine -- but for now they have to settle for some success in mice.
The vaccine uses the shell of a harmless virus that, much like the Trojan horse, carries into cells genetic instructions for making an antibody against nicotine. When cells are "infected" by the virus, they get tricked into churning out a protein that blocks nicotine's biological effects.
"It's sort of like having Pac-Man floating around in the blood. [The antibodies] bind to the nicotine and prevent it from reaching its receptors in the brain," says Ronald G. Crystal, MD, chairman and professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.
Researchers have tried to vaccinate people against nicotine before -- by directly injecting antibodies into the blood. The problem is that the antibodies disappear after only a few weeks, and the studies ultimately had disappointing results.
This time, researchers say they may have found a way to get the body to keep making more.
In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Crystal and colleagues at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., described how they were able to successfully vaccinate mice against nicotine.
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New gene therapy for smoking kills the pleasure of nicotine
Cant kick cigarettes? A vaccine may one day help by preventing nicotine from reaching its target in the brain, according to research published this week.
Most smoking therapies do a poor job of stopping the habit 70% to 80% of smokers who use an approved drug therapy to quit relapse. Scientists say this is because the targets of existing therapies are imperfect, only slightly weakening nicotines ability to find its target in the brain.
So some scientists have been trying a different approach creation of a vaccine. It would work like this: People would inject the vaccine like a shot, and the vaccine would create nicotine antibodies, molecules that can snatch up nicotine from the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. The vaccine could be used by smokers who want to quit or people who are worried about getting addicted to cigarettes in the future.
Researchers have tried to create vaccines in the past, but the ones theyve come up with have not been particularly effective. The authors of the new study say this may be because previous vaccines just didnt create enough antibodies to get rid of all the nicotine.
The new report, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, attempts to solve this problem via gene therapy, in which a new gene is inserted into the body to do a particular job.
First the scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City put a gene that produces a nicotine antibody into mice. The gene was taken into the mices livers, and the liver started producing the antibody. Once produced, the antibody connected with nicotine, trapping it and preventing it from making its way to the brain, where it would otherwise have caused the pleasurable, addictive effects it is so known for.
Because of this trick, the researchers say that the new vaccine should only have to be injected once, and it will work for life, continuing to produce new antibodies in the liver.
The vaccine was effective: When mice were given nicotine intravenously, ones with the vaccine had a 47-fold drop in levels of nicotine in the blood compared with ones that hadnt received the vaccine. The antibody had successfully captured the nicotine in the bloodstream before it could reach the brain.
The work is still preliminary, and the authors admit the technology is far from ready for human use; it has only been used in rodents so far. But given the results, and the continued public health effect of smoking, it may not be too long before all those boxes of Nicorette are replaced with a single trip to the doctors office.
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Energy Futurist Jack Uldrich to Keynote Series of Utility Industry Events
Acclaimed futurist, business forecaster and best-selling author Jack Uldrich has been selected to deliver a series of upcoming keynote presentations to the utility industry. Uldrich will review major industry trends, including advances in renewable energy, natural gas, battery technology, solid-state transformers and transmission wires as well as discuss the importance of change management in ...
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Energy Futurist Jack Uldrich to Keynote Series of Utility Industry Events
House of the Day: A Mystical Mansion/Alien Ship on the Shores of Lake Tahoe
Friday, June 29, 2012, by Rob Bear
Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.
Location: Glenbrook, Nev. Price: $24,995,000 The Skinny: Named Wavoka after "mid 19th century Northern Paiute mystic who pronounced a life of harmony, peace, and truth," this waterfront mansion on Lake Tahoe looks more like an alien spaceship than a house and boasts a price to match at almost $25M. Built in 2001 to designs by architect Theodore Brown, the five-bedroom, seven-bath spread measures 9,200 square feet and features a waterfront boathouse, swimming pool, and an angular design that mixes Frank Lloyd Wright and futurism. The house was commissioned by the late casino executive William Ledbetter, who managed the Harveys Lake Tahoe hotel for many years and whose love for Native American culture was reflected in his home. Set on 2.73 waterfront acres, Wavoka, with its private beach and views of the lake and Sierra Nevada mountains, is one of the area's most unique estates. 1192 US Highway 50 [Zillow]
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House of the Day: A Mystical Mansion/Alien Ship on the Shores of Lake Tahoe
The history of Freedom Communications
Freedom Communications, the company that owned The Sun Journal for nearly 40 years, grew out of a newspaper operation started by two brothers in Ohio during the early years of the 20th century.
Raymond Cyrus Hoiles, known as R.C. and the man who founded Freedom, went to work for and soon became partners with his brother Frank in owning newspapers in Alliance, Lorain and Mansfield, Ohio. R.C. later became sole owner of the Lorain and Mansfield papers and in 1927 acquired another Ohio paper, the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum.
Shortly thereafter, R.C. became embroiled in a long and bitter battle with a local newspaper rival that included several attempts on his life, including the explosion of a bomb on his front porch. By 1932, the threats and bombings in addition to the competitive climate became so tense that R.C. sold the Lorain and Mansfield newspapers and temporarily closed his door on the business.
He made a fresh start in 1935, moving his family to Santa Ana, Calif., after acquiring the newspaper there, the Register. In this job and in this political climate, R.C. Hoiles began to formalize the philosophy that was to guide his life and the work of his growing newspaper company.
The political and personal philosophy that came to be known as libertarian a term that antedated R.C.s own awakening was, for him, built on principles found in the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence. These beliefs were shared and debated with readers in a public dialogue rooted in columns and editorials he wrote for the Register.
As a libertarian, R.C. Hoiles objected to coercion of any type, including the governments power of taxation. He believed that the only legitimate function of government is the protection of its citizens against fraud and force, and that all other government-run programs should be replaced by free enterprise and voluntary actions.
That was the message shared over decades by newspapers brought into the company that in 1950 was incorporated as Freedom Newspapers. By 1970, the year R.C. died, Freedom Newspapers had grown to 16 dailies scattered over seven states.
In 1973, The Free Press became the second newspaper in North Carolina after the Gazette in Gastonia acquired by Freedom. The next year, Freedom acquired the Sun Journal in New Bern and in 1977, the Daily News in Jacksonville. These dailies formed the basis of the operating group known as Freedom ENC Communications, which also included news websites and weeklies like the Havelock News and the Jones Post.
Clarence Harrison Hoiles, the eldest son, succeeded R.C. as the companys chief executive until his death in 1981. The 1980s saw diversification into television with the acquisition of five stations and Freedom created a magazine division in 1993. The Holies family maintained control of the company until 2010, despite a rift among siblings in 2004 that saw Freedom partner with private equity firms in order to create a recapitalization opportunity for those family members who wanted to sell their shares.
The debt created for the company by this and other developments resulted in Freedom filing voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in September 2009. The company emerged from bankruptcy the next April and soon after announced the naming of a new board of directors, a board bereft of Hoiles family representation for the first time.
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Gov. Perdue wants compensation for eugenics victims
Raleigh, NC -
Announcing her intentions to veto the N.C. General Assembly's budget, Gov. Bev Perdue today called on legislators to continue working to benefit citizens of North Carolina. She repeated her support for providing compensation to surviving victims of the state's former forced sterilization initiative.
"They failed to take action on a bipartisan plan to compensate the verified living victims of the state's former Eugenics Board program which as, you know, involuntarily sterilized North Carolinians in the 20th century," Gov. Perdue said. "It's not a lot of money but a tremendous move for the state.
"We can't change the terrible things that happened to so many of these vulnerable citizens in North Carolina. But I believe it's long past time for us to take responsibility as a people for our state's mistakes, and to show North Carolinians and the world that we do not tolerate violations of basic human rights."
Gov. Perdue's original budget designated $10.3 million to compensate verified victims and provide continued funding of the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. This week, she urged a compromise of $5 million. At this time, it is unclear if lawmakers intend to provide funding to the N.C. Department of Administration for continued operation of the Foundation or require DOA to find dollars from existing programs.
While more than 30 states at one time operated eugenics programs, North Carolina implemented the most aggressive program and had been poised to become the first to provide financial compensation to verified victims. Last Wednesday, the Foundation suspended intake of new victim verification. Because its original 2009 allocation of non-recurring funding will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, it has been preparing to shut down on Saturday.
The House approved legislation earlier this month that reflected Gov. Bev Perdue's call to pay $50,000 lump sum compensation to living victims, as well as funding for the Foundation's continued operation and expanded outreach.
To date, the Foundation has confirmed matches with archived eugenics records to 161 individuals in 57 counties, including 146 living victims. Foundation Executive Director Charmaine Fuller Cooper said the increase reflects discovery of cases in which multiple siblings and entire families were sterilized.
Fuller Cooper noted that time is not on the side of aging victims. An updated estimate from the N.C. State Center for Health Statistics earlier this month revised down the number of likely living victims from about 1,500 to 2,000 to about 1,350 to 1,800.
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