News Cut: December 20, 2007 Archive

The health insurance debate

Posted at 7:27 AM on December 20, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Three new studies out today on health care insurance coverage.

An American Cancer Society study finds cancer patients without health insurance are twice as likely to die within five years as cancer patients with health insurance. There is a significant caveat, however.

The research by scientists with the American Cancer Society offers important context for the national discussion about health care reform, experts say - even though the uninsured are believed to account for just a fraction of U.S. cancer deaths. An Associated Press analysis suggests it is around 4 percent.

But the health care issue is more than an insured vs. non-insured debate, a study from the group Families USA suggests. The group lobbies for health care coverage. Yesterday the group released a study saying one out of four families in Minnesota with insurance coverage, will still pay 10 percent of their income on health care in 2008. The number is about the same in Wisconsin and is slightly higher in Iowa.

The Bemidji Pioneer's editorial (registration required) this morning says the report underscores the need to focus on the insured as well as the uninsured.

As a result, affordable quality health care is no longer a problem for the uninsured, but now also is a problem for those who have insurance. As health costs take up more and more of a family’s budget, hard decisions will be made that could put the family’s health in jeopardy. Policy makers, who seek reform to contain health care costs, need also to keep current protections in place for people now insured and that adequate coverage to do so is provided.

Getting significantly less attention this week was a study from Brandeis University on the impact of health insurance on farmers. Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota were included in the study.

While only 8 percent of American households buy health insurance through this market, the study found that 36 percent of farm and ranch families do. Those 36 percent of families are paying an average of $4,359 more than their counterparts who get insurance through an employer, the survey found.

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Diving for dollars

Posted at 11:44 AM on December 20, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

There's been plenty of coverage of pork spending in the last few days of the year. President Bush has criticized the omnibus appropriations bill because it contains money for a prison museum and a Portuguese-as-a-second-language program, among hundreds of other programs considered wasteful.

Rep. John Kline, in Minnesota's 2nd District, has gotten religion on the issue this year, promising not to pursue any "earmarks" -- pork -- in this budget cycle.

Among the listings for Minnesota in labor and human services appropriations, according to Earmarkwatch.org:

$200,000 for Bemidji State University for a nurse training program (Rep. Peterson)

$15,000 for Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota for facilities and equipment. (Rep. Ellison)

$100,000 for Children's Hospitals and Clinics for facilities and equipment for the Mobile Pediatric Health Simulation Center. (Reps. Walz and Bachmann)

$400,000 for Hormel Foundation for facilities and equipment for cancer research center. (Rep. Walz)

$250,000 for Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency, Virginia MN., for family-to-family community based mentoring program to assist low-income families. (Rep. Oberstar)

$300,000 for MnSCU, for a statewide veterans re-entry education program. (Rep. Walz)

$500,000 for Twin Cities Public Television Minnesota Digital Public Media Archive. (Rep. McCollum)

A news release from Sen. Norm Coleman lists several projects:

$1.2 million for the National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University

$430,050 for Bolder Options, a "non-profit agency in Minnesota that has improved the lives of more than 350 youth in the last five years."

$223,250 to replace St. Paul's warning sirens

$23,500 for a meth education program in Willmar

Earmarkwatch.org uses a Google map to chart some of the defense-related projects. There are two in the Twin Cities area. A Hudson firm gets $2 million for self-sealing plastic enclosures for batteries. Phygen, in Minneapolis, gets $3 million for "high endurance coatings."

At Fedspending.org, Minnesota is ranked 26th, with $3.9 billion in federal contracts. Alliant Tech Systems is the #1 recipient.

So here's the question: Which of these is pork? Is there good pork? If so, how should a system of doling out the dough be changed to preserve it while weeding out the bridges to nowhere?

Rep. Tim Walz and Rep. Keith Ellison addressed these questions on MPR's Midday today (best part is about 37 minutes in).

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Dispatches from Planet Parenthood

Posted at 11:48 AM on December 20, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

So "child star" Jamie Lynne Spears, now pregnant at 16, has gotten a head start at catching up with her famous sister. A swing around today's news proves you don't have to know the family Spears to shake your head at the good, bad, and ugly side of parenthood.

In Willow Springs, Illinois, a mother wanted to teach her 6-year-old son a lesson because he had a habit of wandering off. So she took him to a mall, and left him there.

In Texas, a woman ran out of gas and left her 5 year old and 10 month old in the car while she hoofed it to a gas station. The 5 year old ended up in traffic.

"Your mother loves you, but she's not very good at being a mother," said Judge Paul Tressler. "It's as simple as that." He was sentencing a teen for plotting a Columbine-style attack. Guess who bought him the guns?

In the U.K. a grieving mother has had photos of her soldier son, who was killed in Iraq, stolen by pickpockets while on her way home from a memorial service for him.

Doctors at Ruijin Hospital saved a girl's life by performing the city's first liver transplant using part of a liver from both her mother and father. Only five countries in the world have successfully performed such an operation, and there had been only two in China.

The number of single dads is climbing.

Father, brother, now son killed by drunk drivers.

The long-estranged father of 9/11 victim Kenneth M. Caldwell cannot claim a penny of his son's $2.9 million estate, a Brooklyn judge has ruled.

Raising four teenagers is a chore under the best of circumstances, when both parents are alive and well and money is not an issue. Brian Gardner is raising four teenagers alone. But they are not his children.

A father in Arizona is mourning the death of his wife, who died giving birth to triplets.

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Stanek's training video

Posted at 3:52 PM on December 20, 2007 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

One of the great joys of the journalism business is when a small story (in the big scheme of things) grows legs and then scampers all over the news business. The Star Tribune story of Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek's promotional video of his the county's response to the I-35W bridge collapse is a perfect example.

The original story detailed a heavy-on-Stanek "training" video that was shown to the men's group at the Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, and led to the question of whether Stanek was preparing another run for public office.

KARE picked up the story, and quoted Stanek as having no comment because he hadn't read the Star Tribune story. (You have to read the newspaper story to answer the question about the purpose of a DVD your staff produced?)

By Monday, Stanek was able to answer the question of the propriety of spending $30,000 for the video (which can be viewed here)

"You know, I disagree," Stanek said Monday, in response to the concerns. "I've spoken to the commissioners that commented over the weekend in the local paper. They did not have the benefit of seeing the presentation that goes with the video. They saw snippets of it."

Brian Lambert, the media critic and blogger, intercepted a copy of an e-mail that showed how Stanek's video was playing with some of the other people who responded to the I-35W bridge collapse.

"His theft of the credit is not going to sit well with my staff and our hard working partners," Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan said in the e-mail.

KMSP picked it up from there on Tuesday, reinforcing the notion that this is a not-so-thinly-veiled campaign video, by finding that the St. Cloud company that produced the video, is the same company that handled advertising and marketing for Stanek's campaign in 2006. KMSP's report suggested Stanek's splitting the $30,000 contract in two, was designed to avoid the rule that requires contracts higher than $15,000 to be put out to public bid.

In fairness to Stanek, he wasn't exactly keeping the involvement of the company a secret, since on his Web site it says...

As part of the historical documentation of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office work at the I-35W Bridge Collapse, we put together an informational and training video with the assistance of Johnson Group and Quarterton Productions. It has been an incredible asset as I travel the country to speak at various public and law enforcement events, helping to really tell the story of how preparedness, focus and the extraordinary efforts made by an excellent team created the conditions for us to complete our mission of rescue and recovery at this disaster site.

And the intro to the video itself makes clear Stanek's department wasn't the only agency involved in the recovery from the catastrophe. Plus there's this: Stanek -- and all the responders -- did a great job. Regardless of who gets credit for it, a discussion about the lessons learned (and it's important to note the video is part of a presentation, not the whole thing), is likely to lead to someone's life being saved. That's a good thing. Besides, anyone who's ever been at a seminar knows that the real training starts with the Q&A after the big flashy presentations end.

Lambert was back on the story again today, exploring the angle of the role of WCCO anchor Don Shelby, who narrates the video.

"What I was told was that this was going to be a training video to be shown at a national conference in D.C., and that I'd just be doing the ins and outs. They never said how often this would be shown. But my clear understanding was that it was just for this one national conference and then training for first responders. I was never told it would run publicly here in Minnesota much less at a Mount Olivet men's group."

So many angles in such a short period of time. And yet, the original question persists. Is Rich Stanek running for something?

This video, by the way, wasn't the dawn of "training" multimedia produced in the wake of the bridge accident. Firehouse.com produced "Leader's Toolbox: Lessons learned from the Minneapolis bridge collapse" with Minneapolis fire chief Jim Clack.

Clack was also on a panel in Oklahoma last month, "Minneapolis Bridge Collapse: Lessons Learned." so was Deputy Police Chief Rob Allen, and John Hick, medical director of Hennepin County Medical Center.

Ironically, perhaps, the least visible member of the response team is also the one many have hailed as a hero, mostly for putting work into an emergency plan ahead of time. Rocco Forte, who heads the Minneapolis emergency response team, reportedly had a bridge disaster group in place within 8 minutes of the bridge collapse.

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