Billing for 32-hour days for three days in a row, as reported in the May 23 Star Tribune, looks like an outrageous example of health care fraud. Turns out – it wasn’t. The personal care assistant in the example didn’t receive the overpayment. The health care billing agency that did receive the money paid it back when they discovered the mistake. Continue reading
Mainstream meets Twitter meets Gaza Flotilla
A “late-breaking” news item at the end of the 10 p.m. TV newscast said the Rachel Corrie ship, part of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” had been boarded by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). That sent me diving for my computer, to find out what I could.
UPDATE 8:15 a.m. 6/5/2010 Minnesota time: About five hours after the Twitter and news reports described in this post, the Rachel Corrie was, in fact, boarded by the IDF and towed into Ashdod. That would be between 3 and 4 a.m. CDT, between 4 and 5 a.m. EDT, or between 11 a.m. and noon in Jerusalem.
The Twitter-verse was full of news on #RachelCorrie and #flotilla, mostly about the IDF boarding the ship, placing all aboard under arrest, and steering the ship toward Ashdod. I like Twitter, but consider its reliability very limited, so I headed for more traditional news media. Continue reading
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Unemployment numbers, MN nurses, Gaza news, BP cap
Officially, unemployment fell slightly in May, to a seasonally adjusted 9.7 percent. The total unemployment figure, including those who are marginally attached to the workforce, discouraged workers, and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time work – seasonally adjusted at 16.6 percent. Continue reading
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No campaigns / No Hope / No BP fix / Erlinder update
Campaign season, but these politicos can kick back and relax: Willmar’s West Central Tribune reports that MN Representative Paul Anderson from Starbuck (District 13A) doesn’t have to worry about campaigning this summer. He’s one of five legislators with no opponent in November. All five are Republicans – State Senator Warren Limmer (District 32), Representative Paul Shimanski (18A), Representative Paul Torkelson (21B), and Joe Hoppe (31B). Continue reading
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News Cut / Twin Cities schools / BP, Gaza, Afghanistan
I’m a fan of MPR’s “Five by 8” – five stories highlighted by 8 a.m. in the NewsCut blog. They range from the deadly serious (competing video accounts of Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla) to the whimsical (robots creating robots) to the silly (do dogs prefer HDTV?) A little later than 8 a.m., my picks for the stories of the day include Twin Cities school news and lay-offs, Gaza news coverage, attacks on peace talks in Afghanistan, and BP’s ongoing failures as the oil slick nears Florida beaches. Continue reading
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BP: “This scares everybody”
UPDATE 6/2/2010: The latest maneuver – trying to cut the pipe and then cap it – ran into trouble, as the drill got “stuck.” The Justice Department is now pursuing unspecified criminal investigations. And the oil is nearing Florida’s beaches.
Operation Top Kill has failed to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The Los Angeles Times quotes BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles: “After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it is time to move on to another option . . . This scares everybody — the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing or the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far.” Continue reading
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Let’s jail all the lawyers? / LatAm volcanos / Pakistan battles
Morguefile photo, http://mrg.bz/nik5xX
Minnesota lawyer Peter Erlinder has been jailed in Rwanda, where he went to represent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who was accused of “promoting genocide ideology.” In 1994, genocide in Rwanda killed about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis. Ms. Ingabire, a Hutu, has called for prosecution of people who killed Hutus during the genocide. According to BBC: Continue reading
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On the road – old dog learning new tricks
I write non-fiction, as a journalist, as a blogger, as a freelancer, as an author of books. Given that I’ve never had any fiction published, attending WisCon, a feminist sci/fi and fantasy convention in beautiful downtown Madison, seems like a strange way to spend Memorial Day weekend. While spending a weekend with my daughter was a major motivator, I was also intrigued by the possibility of learning about a genre that is not my own. Continue reading
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News Day: Fast and cheap / Robyne Robinson / Operation Top Kill
From Facebook @stacey.burns and @chrissteller
What were they thinking? A misguided U.S. Wireless billboard campaign folded after a few hours of intense Facebook-organized protests yesterday.
USI Wireless is a pimp. This is how they’re selling their wireless service in Minneapolis. Give them… a call at 952.253.3262 (Option 1) or email: info@usiwireless.com. When I called, they assured me that they did some test marketing and everybody loved it, but the 100,000 American girls sexually trafficked in the US with an initial recruitment age of 11-14 might not guffaw quite as loudly as the focus group did. By: Stacey Burns Continue reading
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News Day: Jobless benefits running out / St. Cloud, Owatonna and Muslim students / Lori Berenson / Jamaica
Unemployment benefits extensions are running out at the end of the month and extension is far from certain. A House vote could come as early as today, May 26. Without the bill, millions of unemployed workers will lose both their unemployment benefits and support for COBRA health insurance extension, at a time when there are with 5.6 unemployed workers for every job opening. Continue reading
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Mary Turck