News Day – January 22

All recount, all the time After coverage of every challenged ballot and video of every minute of the State Canvassing Board, you might think that the public appetite for more recount coverage is sated. Not so. Now the three-judge panel hearing the Coleman challenge to the recount will allow one TV camera, one still photog, and one audio recorder. After The Uptake’s faithful recount coverage, I wonder who will provide the single TV camera for the court proceeding?

Getting a running start According to the New York Times, President Obama is expected to sign executive orders thursday, ordering Guantanamo and any remaining CIA secret prisons closed, and also ordering an end to “coercive interrogation methods.”

News Flash: House Republicans find root of all problems! House Republican Minority Leader Marty Seifert discussed MN’s status as a “welfare magnet” in a press conference yesterday, reports MPR’s Tim Pugmire. Siefert cites an analysis release by — well, actually, Marty Seifert — last August. The analysis showed that food stamp or welfare recipients used their EBT cards to make $10 million in out-of-state charges in 2007, and he thinks this must stop. He also wants to reduce welfare benefits for people who have lived in MN less than five years. State Senator Linda Berglin said that all welfare benefits paid by the state total only one percent of the state’s general funds, so she doesn’t think Seifert’s proposal will go very far in addressing the state’s $4.8 billion deficit.

The New York Times cites a different burden on state budgets, saying that state bills for Medicaid coverage for unemployed, uninsured residents are surging. The NYT notes increase of 5-10 percent in state Medicaid populations in 2008, with greater increases expected in the near future. According to the NYT:

Eligibility for the income-based program can vary widely by state. But at any one time last year, Medicaid was providing coverage to an average of 50 million people, or about one of every six in the United States. The cost of the program — $333 billion in 2007 — is shared by state and federal governments, with Washington roughly matching the spending approved by the states. The federal government currently picks up about 57 percent of the tab, eating up 7 percent of the federal budget, and the program is one of the largest drains on every state’s budget.

Where’s a daisy when you need one? She’s out, she’s in, she’s out, she’s in–reports on Caroline Kennedy and whether she has withdrawn from consideration for the NY Senate seat flew thick and fast Wednesday. Early reports confidently asserted they had reliable sources. As the day wore on, claims of reliability faded. From TPM:

And now check out this hilarious AP news alert, time stamped at 10:38 p.m. ET:

“Source: Caroline Kennedy remains in contest to fill Hillary Clinton’s NY Senate seat. (Corrects APNewsAlert with source saying Kennedy had withdrawn.)”

But as of Thursday morning–it appears that she’s out of the running.

Free computers, no studying required! An online tutoring program that promised free computer and internet access was a fraud, according to criminal charges against the Minneapolis mother and son who ran CyberStudy 101, reports Lora Pabst in the Strib. The two filed tax returns for more than 1900 people in 2001 and 2002, receiving more than $2 million in education tax credit payments. They bought computers f rom Kmart for $529, but never paid Kmart. The company had no instructors, and was not eligible for the reimbursement. Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of the fraud is asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 651-293-3759.

Doc disclosure Park Nicollet Health Services now requires doctors, physician assistants, nurse midwives and physical therapists to publicly disclose all of their financial relationships with drug companies and medical device companies, reports Janet Moore in the Strib. Park Nicollet has more than 1,400 doctors and clinicians in 25 clinics and Methodist Hospital. Other health systems have much more limited disclosure requirements. Mayo makes disclosures only to individual patients, in contrast to Park Nicollet’s public website, and Allina says many of the docs who practice at its hospitals are not employees, so it can’t tell them to make disclosures. Really?

“I think that transparency is a terrific disinfectant for any conflicts, things that would interfere in the trusting relationship that patients depend on from our physicians and care teams,” said Dr. Samuel Carlson, Park Nicollet’s chief medical officer.