Rebecca Neal, writing for the Indianapolis Star has an article entitled Richmond bidding to host national debates in 2008. Apparently Richmond’s mayor, Sally Hutton, sees this as an economic development tool. The price tag for a debate is cited at $1.4 million. A host site is also required to have about 3,000 hotel rooms within a 30 minute drive of the debate site. Dayton, Ohio is probably close enough to fit that bill. (In fact, I once knew some girls in high school who drove from Richmond to Dayton, picked up some lunch, and got back during our lunch our. Though, I’m fairly certain they seriously exceeded some posted speed limits.)

I’d be tickled if Richmond landed a debate. I was born there, and I think the city has some great history. (But, I repeat myself!) I doubt having a Presidential debate is much of an economic development tool. The article cites the little town of Danville, Kentucky, a town of about 17,000 that hosted a 2000 vice-presidential debate. I’m a political junkie, and I didn’t recall there having been a debate there. In fact, I’m usually all but oblivious as to where the debates are taking place. That could just be me, of course.

From reading the Star article, you’d almost get the idea that Richmond was some sort of far-flung province, foreign and mysterious to its readers.

“We want people in Indianapolis to know where Richmond is,” [Mayor Hutton] said.

The article goes on to provide a “Richmond at a Glance” sidebar:

RICHMOND AT A GLANCE
(U.S. figures in parenthesis)
• Population: 39,124.
• Median household income: $30,210 ($41,994).
• Median home value: $73,000 ($119,600).
• High school graduate or higher: 74.6% (80.4%).
• Bachelor’s degree or higher: 13.8% (24.4%).
• White: 86.8% (75.1%).
• Black: 8.9% (12.3%).
• American Indian or Alaska native: 0.3% (0.9%).
• Asian: 0.8% (3.6%).
• Native Hawaiian: 0.1% (0.1%).
• Some other race: 1.1% (5.5%).
• Hispanic, of any race: 2% (12.5%).

Ah, but what sort of language to they speak in Rich . . . mond (stumbling over the word)? Do they have any arcane rituals of which I should be aware? Are their people perhaps inverted, having their head at their feet and their feet at their head?

Richmondites?

Mary Beth Schneider has an article entitled It’s Dems’ party, but GOP left crying. A better headline, in my mind, would have been “Haggling over the price.” (Which is, of course, why I used it myself.) Apparently House Speaker Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) spoke at a function of some sort which cost $500 per person, the proceeds of which went to the State Democratic party for use in mayoral races and on general Democratic Party expenses. According to the article, Republicans are “outraged.” Not because it’s illegal — House Minority Leader Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) concedes that it is not. Not because it was conducted during the legislative session — Bosma himself was a speaker at a February 2 GOP dinner. No, the source of the “outrage” is apparently that the Democrats were charging $500 per head at Bauer’s function whereas the Republicans were charging $25 per head at Bosma’s function.

Which brings to mind the quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw:

“We’ve established what you are, madam. We are now merely haggling over the price.”

I don’t know if these mid-session fundraisers are bad public policy or merely unseemly. But, I have to roll my eyes when a politician purports to be “outraged” by something like this.

Because Kenn and Branden were talking about it, and I stumbled across an entertaining YouTube post on Creationism, Neanderthals, and mtDNA:

and, of course, I was looking for an excuse to post the picture of the kitten being threatened with a gun.

Senate Bill 192 School Safety. Sen. Lubbers. Rep. Porter.

This is a bill that passed the Senate in an innocuous form:

Requires school corporations to abate certain school building safety violations that are not immediate safety hazards before the earlier of: (1) one year after the state fire marshal’s determination; or (2) the start of the school corporation’s next budget year. Requires at least one: (1) tornado preparedness drill; and (2) manmade occurrence disaster drill; during each semester of school.

But, over in the House, it picked up a provision about which I have serious reservations: school corporation police departments. In the latest printing, a school corporation may establish a school corporation police department.

A school corporation police officer has general police powers, including the power to arrest, without process, all persons who within the view of the school corporation police officer commit any offense. School corporation police officers have the same common law and statutory powers, privileges, and immunities as sheriffs and constables.

At this point, I don’t have any well articulated reasons for my opposition. I just have a general feeling that we are over-regimenting our schools. Kids conditioned from a very early age to metal detectors and a prominent police presence probably won’t grow into the sorts of citizens envisioned by our Founding Fathers as they fought for liberty and railed against tyranny. Furthermore, I guess I’m not sure I like the idea of entrusting a police force to our local school boards. However, the provision passed the House Education committee unanimously, so maybe my concerns are not well founded.

[tags]SB192-2007, law enforcement[/tags]

DSC_0022.JPG

Originally uploaded by amasson.

Let me know when you’re getting bored of me posting family pics here, but this picture has a bunch of elements I like. The boy has his “Give Peas a Chance” t-shirt on along with what I believe are dog tags of our family friend. The boy is also using his charm and devastating good looks to pick up the daughter of our military friend. (And, might I add, she’s quite the looker, herself.) Finally, despite demonstrating his masculinity and complexity, he demonstrates his tender side by holding on to his good friend, Wolf. (Apparently there was a great deal of sadness yesterday as Wolf had to go through the X-ray machine at the airport. )

‘Atlas Shrugged’ – 50 years later. Short version: Rand was interesting, but her selfish-extreme ideal is no better than the Marxist selfless-extreme ideal. A balance is necessary.

It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.

Originally uploaded by amasson.

As it turns out, Harper, like our son Cole, is a climber. The other day, we found her in our toy closet up on the top shelf. She *really* wanted to play with Mr. Potato Head.

House Bill 1830. Local road and street account. Provides that the first $30,000,000 of the investment earnings on the major moves construction fund during each of the next two state fiscal years is to be deposited in the local road and street account. Rep. Austin.

This bill passed the House on a party-line 51 to 48 vote. It has now been referred to the Senate Rules committee. To quote Bones McCoy, “It’s dead, Jim.” (Or so I suspect.)

[tags]HB1830-2007[/tags]

(h/t Good Brownie) Health insurance jumps twice inflation rate:

Since 2000, health insurance premiums have gone up 78 percent; wages 20 percent.

Mr. Brown also spots a New York Times article:

Increasingly, the problem affects middle-class people like Ms. Readling, who said she made about $60,000 last year. As an independent contractor, like many real estate agents, Ms. Readling does not receive health benefits from an employer. She tried to buy a policy in the individual insurance market, but — having had cancer — could not obtain coverage, except at a price exceeding $27,000 a year, which was more than she could pay.

“I don’t know which was worse, being told that I had cancer or finding that I could not get insurance,” Ms. Readling (pronounced RED-ling) said[.]

This is simply unsustainable. Americans pay more and get less for their health care dollar than just about anybody. If money is no object, you can get outstanding health service in the United States. If you have decent insurance paid for by somebody else, things work pretty well too. But if you’re paying for your health insurance premiums or your medical expenses directly out of pocket, things can get pretty hairy, pretty fast.

The Associated Press has a story appearing in the Indianapolis Star entitled Hoosier focus of personal injury scheme. An individual by the name of Howard Awand has been indicted for allegedly conspiring as a medical consultant to fraudulently inflate settlements and judgments in personal injury cases. Awand denies the charges, but according to the indictment:

Awand owned and operated Nevada Medical Investments, a corporation that purchased accounts receivable and collection rights from health care providers, and Nevada Medical Consultants, a corporation “through which Awand purportedly provided medical consulting services.”
The indictment alleges that Awand conspired with doctors and lawyers from September 2001 to about November 2003. According to the document, Awand and others performed excessive medical procedures at inflated costs without the fully informed consent of the client and patient, and improperly influenced the sworn testimony of health care providers through promises and payments of kickbacks and protection from medical malpractice lawsuits.
Unnamed doctors performed medical procedures on patients without revealing agreements between Awand and the health care providers, the indictment said.
Lawyers involved in the scheme concealed from clients, the courts, defendants and others the “inherent conflicts of interest and self-dealing relationships arising from the undisclosed agreements” between the coconspirators, it said.

It looks like the indictment may have stemmed from Awand’s involvement in a Nevada case discussed in a column by Jane Ann Morrison in the November 14, 2005 Las Vegas Review Journal. In June 2002, a woman named Cynthia Johnson was rear-ended by a federal prosecutor. (Federal criminal defense attorneys can begin cracking jokes . . . NOW). Apparently Johnson checked with a family friend/doctor who got in touch with Awand. Almost immediately, Awand had arranged for her to see a particular orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedic surgeon then instructed her to see a particular attorney. Even though the case had settled, Ms. Morrison’s column reported that the interest of federal prosecutors continued. “Reports still float back to me of a dogged FBI agent asking questions around town about fees paid to doctors, how personal injury case referrals occur and whether anything unethical or illegal is occurring.”

In fact, it looks as if Ms. Morrison has written a number of columns on this subject: one on 12/01/05, and one on 7/20/06 also pop up with a Google search.

According to the 7/20/06 article, it looks like Awand may have gotten a piece of the action by purchasing liens on the medical procedures through his Nevada Medical Investments. Ms. Morrison cites a Colorado case where the plaintiff underwent medical procedures which would have been paid by her medical insurer. However, her attorney apparently directed the hospital to go through Nevada Medical Investments rather than through the plaintiff’s medical insurer. “[The] two surgery liens totaling $40,311 were purchased by Nevada Medical Investments. Soon after her settlement, the business wanted Veirs to pay $234,000 to settle the liens.”

A KLAS investigative reporter named George Knapp has apparently opened up a blog entitled “howardawand.blogspot.com,” but I don’t see any activity on that blog since March 2006.

So, with all of that as easily retrieved information, I suspect that Mr. Awand’s attorney was being a little disingenuous when he said, “I don’t understand the charges against my client. You can’t have a conspiracy all by yourself.”