Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party |
- And They’re Off: Palin Reemerges While Bachmann Readies White House Bid
- Some Tea Party freshmen still adjusting to D.C. politics
- HHS inspector general says push for electronic medical records overlooks some security gaps
- The Doomsday Food Price Scenario Turning Hedgies into Survivalists
- Some Hospitals Consider Rationing
- School Wants To Allow Bus Drivers To Search Students
| And They’re Off: Palin Reemerges While Bachmann Readies White House Bid Posted: 19 May 2011 10:48 AM PDT By: Lindsey Boerma, Nationaljournal.com Political gossip junkies, take heart—the much-anticipated showdown between Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could finally be taking off. One day after Bachmann hinted that she may be lacing up her 2012 running shoes sooner than her self-mandated June deadline, Fox News and its affiliates began promoting Palin appearances on several shows on Wednesday. "Right now, it's anyone's race, so who does Sarah Palin think will lead the GOP to victory in 2012? Surprising insight from the former governor tonight on Hannity,” a Fox advertisement sang out. And at 10 p.m. ET, according to a tweet by host Eric Bolling, Palin will appear on Fox Business Network’s Follow the Money, where Bolling says they will discuss the GOP field. Because of the enormous center of shared attributes on the Bachmann-Palin Venn diagram—both are outspoken, often controversial female leaders with loyal followings in the tea party movement—many analysts have speculated that one's decision to run will eclipse the other's, particularly when it comes to constituent support. Advisers to Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, refused to speak on the record. Still, they indicated that her swing through the Fox prime-time lineup wouldn't feature any major bombshell announcements or endorsements. (She's a paid contributor for the network and could complicate election rules via the Fairness Doctrine if she did.) But Bachmann told National Journal last week that her decision (sources say that she "very likely" will run) is independent of "anyone being in the race today, or if anyone else considers it," including Palin. In a new fundraising letter, Bachmann asks supporters to vote with their wallets, contributing $25 if they think she should stay in the House, and $50 or $100 if they think she should take the presidential plunge. |
| Some Tea Party freshmen still adjusting to D.C. politics Posted: 19 May 2011 10:43 AM PDT By: Alan Gomez, usatoday.com WASHINGTON — Walking quickly toward the House of Representatives to cast a vote, freshman Rep. Kristi Noem chuckles when asked who she turned to for advice on settling into Congress. “I haven’t worried too much about learning the ropes,” said Noem, a rancher in South Dakota, during a recent House session. “In the past, that has been something that maybe has tripped up new members. It’s good to come up here and understand the process, but we need to make sure that we are doing it our own way.” USA TODAY interviewed Noem and other Tea Party-supported freshmen in Congress to gauge how they were transitioning from their 2010 campaigns, where they promised to change Washington, to actual governing in D.C. Noem, one of two freshmen who act as liaisons between House leadership and the 93-member freshman class, echoes some of her colleagues who don’t appear intimidated by working in the nation’s capital. “I’m not a freshman. I’m just new in Congress,” said Rep. David McKinley, who served in the West Virginia House of Delegates and later as the GOP state party chairman before his election to Congress last year. To read more, visit: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-05-18-tea-party-freshmen-transition-DC_n.htm?csp=34news |
| HHS inspector general says push for electronic medical records overlooks some security gaps Posted: 19 May 2011 10:33 AM PDT By: Washingtonpost.com WASHINGTON — The nation's push to computerize medical records has failed to fully address longstanding security gaps that expose patients' most sensitive information to hackers and snoops, government investigators warn. Two reports released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department find that the drive to connect hospitals and doctors so they can share patient data electronically is being layered on a system that already has glaring privacy problems. Connecting it up could open new pathways for hackers, investigators say. The market for illicit health care information is booming. In recent years, the case of a former UCLA Medical Center worker who sold details from the files of actress Farah Fawcett, singer Britney Spears and others to the National Enquirer gained notoriety. Most cases don't involve celebrities or get much attention. Yet fraudsters covet health care records, since they contain identifiers such as names, birth dates and Social Security numbers that can be used to construct a false identity or send Medicare bogus bills. The shortcomings in the system "need to be addressed to ensure a secure environment for health data," said the main report, adding that the findings "raise concern" about the effectiveness of security safeguards for personal health care information. President Barack Obama has set a goal for every American to have a secure electronic health record by 2014. Eventually, hospitals and doctors would be able to share instantly patients' clinical information online. That could prevent life-threatening medical mistakes like giving a patient unconscious in the emergency room a drug to which he's allergic. It could also save money by cutting duplicative lab tests and scans. To read more, visit:http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hhs-inspector-general-says-push-for-electronic-medical-records-overlooks-some-security-gaps/2011/05/16/AFpaH54G_story.html |
| The Doomsday Food Price Scenario Turning Hedgies into Survivalists Posted: 19 May 2011 10:30 AM PDT By Foster Kamer, observer.com On the rare occasion that New Yorkers talk about farming, it’s usually something along the lines of what sort of organic kale to plant in the vanity garden at the second house in the Adirondacks. But on a recent afternoon, The Observer had a conversation of a different sort about agricultural pursuits with a hedge fund manager he’d met at one of the many dark-paneled private clubs in midtown a few weeks prior. “A friend of mine is actually the largest owner of agricultural land in Uruguay,” said the hedge fund manager. “He’s a year older than I am. We’re somewhere [around] the 15th-largest farmers in America right now.” “We,” as in, his hedge fund. It may seem a little odd that in 2011 anyone’s thinking of putting money into assets that would have seemed attractive in 1911, but there’s something in the air-namely, fear. The hedge fund manager and others like him envision a doomsday scenario catalyzed by a weak dollar, higher-than-you-think inflation and an uncertain political climate here and abroad. The pattern began to emerge sometime in 2008. “The Hedge Fund Manager Who Bought a Farm,” read the headline on one February 2008 Times of London piece detailing a British hedge fund manager’s attempt to play off the rising prices of grains in order to usurp local farmland. A Financial Times piece two months later began: “Hedge funds and investment banks are swapping their Gucci for gumboots.” It detailed BlackRock’s then-relatively new $420 million Agriculture Fund, which had already swept up 2,800 acres of land. [More from The Apocolype Issue: Hipster Prophet Preaches Rapture and The Great Adderall Shortage of 2011!] Even Michael Burry, the now-defunct Scion Capital founder and star protagonist of Michael Lewis’ The Big Short-who bet against the housing bubble in 2008 with credit default swaps to enormous profit-gave a rare interview on Bloomberg TV last year, explaining that he’s thrown his hat into “productive agriculture land with water on site” as it’s going to be “very valuable in the future.” (Like most of those asked to comment for this story to The Observer, Burry declined to discuss his investments in farmland.) Three years later, the purchase of farmland both in America and abroad by outside investors has increased-so much so that in February, Thomas Hoenig, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, warned against the violent possibilities of a farmland bubble, telling the Senate Agriculture Committee that “distortions in financial markets” will catch the U.S. by surprise again. He would know, because he’s seeing it in his backyard: Kansas and Nebraska reported farmland prices 20 percent above the previous year’s levels and are on pace to double values in four years. A study commissioned by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and released in January estimated the amount of private capital currently committed to farmland and agricultural infrastructure at $14 billion. It also estimated that future investments will “dwarf” what’s currently being thrown into land, by two to three times. Further down, the study makes a conservative projection that the amount of capital potentially entering the sector over the next decade will fly past $150 billion. To read more, visit: http://www.observer.com/hedge-funds-running-farms-05172011 |
| Some Hospitals Consider Rationing Posted: 19 May 2011 10:23 AM PDT Reported by Alan Frio, wsmv.com Electrolytes are administered to a critically ill patient for nutritional support intravenously. They are given to patients who cannot get their nutrition any other way. O’Neal said he’s concerned that as supplies shrink, measures will have to be taken. “We are dangerously close, we believe, when we will have to ration care to the critically ill. I would say within days or weeks,” said O’Neal. Vanessa Kumpf has her doctorate in pharmacy. She’s also a clinical specialist. She supervises patient nutritional support at Vanderbilt. She knows how important the correct cocktail of electrolyte drugs are to a patient. “If one of the drugs is missing, it can be a very potentially life threatening situation. Your heart, your muscles, your lungs, every organ system has to have the right component of electrolytes,” said Kumpf. There are so few makers of electrolytes that when one drug company, American Regent, stopped production because of quality issues, it sent supplies in a tail spin nationwide. Kumpf told Channel 4 News that if you have a loved one in the hospital you should ask a very important question. “Are there shortage issues in the institution, and how are clinicians dealing with it?” said Kumpf. To read more, visit:http://www.wsmv.com/news/27946067/detail.html |
| School Wants To Allow Bus Drivers To Search Students Posted: 19 May 2011 10:17 AM PDT By: Theindychannel.com TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A western Indiana school district wants to give its bus drivers the authority to search students for weapons or drugs. The Tribune-Star reported that a Vigo County School Corp. proposal would allow the drivers to search a student and the student’s belongings if there is an immediate threat of harm or danger to those on the bus. Ray Azar, director of student services, said the Terre Haute-based district wants its drivers to have the authority to conduct searches in case they are on the road and must immediately respond to an emergency situation. That would include scenarios where a student might be in possession of a dangerous drug or a weapon. Drivers would have to first get permission from the transportation office and/or student services. To read more, visit: http://www.theindychannel.com/education/27948949/detail.html |
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