Guineas question for Lucky Liberty

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Michelle Payne is convinced Lucky Liberty has the X-factor to make his presence felt in the Australian Guineas - but he still has to get into the field.

Connections have pressed on with plans to run the three-year-old in Saturday's 1600m Group One race despite an unlucky last start which has left him on the borderline.

His saddle slipped early in the CS Hayes Stakes at Flemington and he finished 11th which left him 25th in the ballot order for the Guineas which has a field limit of 16 plus emergencies.

Payne galloped the gelding on Saturday morning and said he felt fantastic.

"He's going to work on Tuesday morning with the raceday saddle on, just as a precaution, and I'm really looking forward to next week," Payne said.

"Hopefully he gets in the field and I think he'll run really well.

"He's got that X-factor that you need to win those races and if everything worked out and he got a lovely run, I really think he'd be right in the finish."

Lucky Liberty won his first three starts at Mornington, Sale and Flemington before his first stakes test in the CS Hayes (1400m).

When Lucky Liberty's saddle slipped it left him trailing the field by about 10 lengths and he started to buck.

"The saddle slipped back a fair way and he obviously just wasn't happy about it," Payne said.

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Guineas question for Lucky Liberty

Solomon Islands Trade Policy Framework Endorsed

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28 February 2015 Solomon Islands Trade Policy Framework Endorsed by the National Trade and Development Council

The Solomon Islands National Trade and Development Council has endorsed the Solomon Islands Trade Policy Framework earlier this week. The Framework is expected to be presented to the Solomon Islands Cabinet for final approval before its official launch in March 2015. The Hon. Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Milner Tozaka chaired the meeting of the National Trade and Development Council to consider the key policy recommendations of the Solomon Islands Trade Policy Framework.

In his opening speech, Hon. Tozaka highlighted the importance of a cohesive approach towards removing impediments to trade, and building the productive capacity of Solomon Islands in order to benefit from market access opportunities.

The vision of the Trade Policy Framework is to Build the productive capacity of the Solomon Islands economy via sustainable trade and investment. The resulting creation of wealth and employment opportunities is aimed at promoting human development, reducing poverty and improving living standards for Solomon Islanders.

The Trade Policy Framework will assist the Solomon Islands government by integrating trade into the national development processes and will guide the work of the National Trade and Development Council in implementing its key policy recommendations. The Framework has been widely consulted at various levels including government, the private sector and community groups in Western Province, Malaita, Isabel and Guadalcanal as well as other provincial constituents over a two year period. The key objective of the framework is to promote greater coordination amongst government departments, the private sector and non-state actors in addressing critical trade related challenges.

The implementation process for the Trade Policy Framework will be managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade for the Solomon Islands. Support for this project has been provided by the European Unions Pacific Integration Technical Assistance Project (PITAP) under the 10th European Development Fund with technical assistance through the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Supporting the Forum Island Countries (FICs) in the development and implementation of comprehensivetrade and investment policy frameworks is an integral part of services that the Economic Governance Programme of Forum Secretariat provides to the FICs.

ENDS

Scoop Media

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Racism against aboriginal people in health-care system ‘pervasive’: study – Video

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Racism against aboriginal people in health-care system #39;pervasive #39;: study
A new study suggests racism against aboriginal people in the health-care system is #39;pervasive #39; in Canada. Click here for the full story: http://www.cbc.ca/ne...

By: The National

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Racism against aboriginal people in health-care system 'pervasive': study - Video

Veterans propose major changes in VA health care

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Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY 2:29 p.m. EST February 26, 2015

The Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix where the veterans health care scandal first erupted.(Photo: Michael Chow, The Arizona Republic)

WASHINGTON A national veterans task force is advocating radical changes in the medical system for America's former military personnel, including a choice to receive subsidized private care and conversion of the Veterans Health Administration into a non-profit corporation rather than a government agency.

The reform measures, if enacted into law, would affect America's roughly 22 million veterans dramatically, especially the 8.5 million enrolled for care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Repercussions would be even more profound for future veterans.

Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative non-profit, sponsored the study called "Fixing Veterans Health Care" amid a crisis in VA health-care services.

Among key recommendations:

USA TODAY

VA suspends probe of top Phoenix managers

Health care should be reprioritized to focus on veterans with service-connected disabilities and specialized needs. Patients already in the VA medical system would retain their access and eligibility while gaining new options.

All enrolled veterans would be able to continue using VA health facilities or shift to subsidized care through private providers. The government would pay a percentage of medical costs via insurance programs, with coverage levels determined by each veteran's eligibility status. (The VA already provides benefits based on tiered eligibility calculations.)

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Supreme Court decision on health care subsidies could affect thousands in N.J.

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Viorel Florescu/Staff photographer

Ariel Cordero helping Ana Morales and her son, Oscar, 6, sign up for health insurance in Passaic in January. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on a challenge to the Affordable Care Act that would end the federal subsidies for people who bought health coverage on the federal marketplace, a decision with enormous potential impact in New Jersey and not just for the 210,000 insured residents directly affected.

The loss of subsidies which average $309 a month for eligible consumers in New Jersey would make it difficult for many recipients to afford to continue insurance coverage, experts say.

The ripple effects could be substantial. Without the subsidies, the ranks of uninsured in New Jersey would grow, leading tens of thousands of people to fall back on charity care and putting more stress on hospitals and other health care providers, according to the state hospital association and groups that have filed briefs with the court.

States that want to protect consumers who have used the financial help to buy insurance will scramble to find ways to maintain the funding. For Governor Christie, who opposes Obamacare and vetoed legislation to establish a state-run marketplace as too costly, an adverse Supreme Court decision would present a difficult situation.

In addition, if residents pull out of the Obamacare plans in large numbers, it would push premiums up for those who continue in them, insurers say. The subsidy shutdown, as some call it, would be especially damaging to the newest insurance companies, for whom the majority of customers come from the federal marketplace, according to briefs filed with the court. If those companies exit the state or fail, competition and choice will be reduced not to mention care disrupted for their members.

A ruling against the Obama administration would be very consequential far beyond the people who would lose their subsidies, said Joel C. Cantor, director of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. It would have dramatic consequences for hospital finances and competition in the marketplace.

If the court ended subsidies and chose not to allow a transition period for officials to remedy the situation, there will be chaos in health insurance markets, millions will become uninsured and premiums will spike for millions more across the country, he said. This could happen as early as this summer.

Republicans have long fought the health overhaul as an overreach of government authority that they say drives up health costs, kills jobs and wastes taxpayer money. The most recent of dozens of votes in the House of Representatives to repeal it took place Feb. 3. The challenge to be heard by the justices this week initially was dismissed by the administration and its allies as an insubstantial threat.

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Local Health Care Firm to Merge With Indianapolis Firm

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VOL. 130 | NO. 41 | Monday, March 02, 2015

An Arizona-based real estate firm has acquired a Memphis mini-storage facility for $3.8 million.

Phoenix-based AMERCO Real Estate Co. bought the American Mini Storage facility at 7399 U.S. 64 from 7399 US Highway 64 Holdings LLC, which is affiliated with Florida-based LNR Partners Inc., for $3.8 million, according to a Feb. 24 warranty deed.

Built in 1999, the mini-storage site sits on 5.2 acres on the south side of U.S. 64 between Appling Road and Dromedary Drive. The Shelby County Assessor of Propertys 2014 appraisal is $2.7 million.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Amos Maki

Louisiana Governor and possible presidential candidate Bobby Jindal will speak to Shelby County Republicans next month as part of a leadership series of events for the Tennessee Republican Party.

Jindal is the keynote speaker at the March 20 party fundraiser at the Racquet Club of Memphis.

Jindal is considering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

The Tennessee Republican Party is hosting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another political figure weighing his chances in 2016, at the March 30 Statesmans Dinner in Nashville, the state partys largest annual event and fundraiser.

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Fate of health care law is in justices' hands again

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WASHINGTON Four little words will make a world of difference when the Supreme Court considers a potentially disabling challenge to President Barack Obamas signature health care law Wednesday.

In a case that concerns language and politics more than the Constitution, the ideologically divided court must divine the meaning of one crucial but arguably ambiguous phrase in the 906-page law. Its future, and insurance coverage for millions of people, might hang in the balance, for neither the first nor the last time.

We will be seeing Affordable Care Act cases before the Supreme Court for decades to come, predicted Jonathan H. Adler, a Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor whos a leading critic of the law.

The oral argument Wednesday morning in King v. Burwell marks the latest return of the Affordable Care Act to the Supreme Court since 2012. Then, in a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., the court upheld the laws individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

This time, too, Roberts might play an important swing role, as the self-appointed protector of the courts reputation.

And, as in 2012, the case has drawn an unusual number of kibitzers. Twenty-one amicus friend of the court briefs, some more trenchant than others, were filed supporting the challengers, and 31 defending the Obama administrations actions.

The Supreme Courts task this time is different from that in 2012 or in 2014, when a 5-4 majority ruled corporations could claim a religious exemption from a mandate to provide contraceptive coverage. Now, instead of determining whether Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in writing the health care law, the nine justices must interpret the statutes meaning.

Under the health care law, states are encouraged, but not required, to establish exchanges to offer one-stop shopping for insurance coverage. Obama has likened the exchanges to an online site such as Amazon, a place where consumers can compare plans.

As inducement, the law offers tax credits to those qualified by income who buy insurance through an exchange established by the State. The challenge turns on this phrase.

Driven primarily by Republican resistance, several dozen states declined to establish health insurance exchanges. Nevertheless, the Internal Revenue Service has extended tax-credit subsidies to residents in these states who buy insurance through the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov.

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Fate of health care law is in justices' hands again

New files could raise stakes in B.C.s health-care wait-list fight

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Six days before the B.C. Supreme Court was set to begin a long-awaited trial that could alter the public health-care system in B.C. in fact, in Canada the provincial government uncovered new documents in its own files that forced another delay.

These are not just a few errant scraps of paper that were somehow overlooked in the past six years of pretrial wrangling, but thousands of pages of Ministry of Health documents that have just made their way to the surface. They relate to surgical waiting lists and physicians extra billing the core of the case about the place of private health care in B.C.

Since 2008, the province has sought to tackle illegal billing practices at two private health clinics run by Dr. Brian Day. All the while, the province has been paying annual penalties to Health Canada for violations of the Canada Health Act related to the practices it has not managed to stop.

Dr. Day has made no attempt to hide the fact that, for years, the Cambie Surgery Centre and Specialist Referral Clinic have been breaking the law by charging patients for medically necessary treatment. What is now before the courts is his Charter challenge that argues British Columbians should be allowed to use their own resources to jump to the front of the queue for medical treatment because waiting lists in the public health-care system are unacceptably long.

The trial was set to begin on Monday but now has been postponed as both sides examine the newly found ministry files.

NDP health critic Judy Darcy says she hopes the government will throw everything it can at Dr. Day, because if he wins, she believes, British Columbia will be opening the door to a new two-tiered health-care system for the country.

She isnt convinced the B.C. Liberals wanted to fight this battle.

I think the government is under tremendous pressure to defend the Canada Health Act, she said in an interview. But at least at the outset, the province needed some prodding to engage.

The B.C. Nurses Union led the charge in 2003, challenging the provincial government to enforce the law and stop private clinics from treading on public-health turf.

It was 2008 when the province finally sought an audit of the books of Dr. Days two clinics. The two sides then spent four years arguing about the scope of the audit. Finally, in 2012, the Medical Services Commission concluded the clinics were extra billing patients and threatened an injunction, which is still up in the air.

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New files could raise stakes in B.C.s health-care wait-list fight