Brain protein may help control Alzheimer’s
By TEMPLE UNIVERSITY 01/31/2012 13:29 Protein could create amyloid beta, the major component of plaques implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. By Thinkstock/Imagebank
A protein recently discovered in the brain could play a key role in regulating the creation of amyloid beta, the major component of plaques implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at Temple University’s School of Medicine.
A group led by Domenico Pratico, professor of pharmacology and microbiology and immunology at Temple, discovered the presence of the protein, called 12/15-Lipoxygenase, in the brain three years ago.
Related: •With a little help from our ancient friends•Rx for Readers: Given the runaround“We found this protein to be very active in the brains of people who have Alzheimer’s disease,” said Pratico. “But three years ago, we didn’t know the role it played in the development of the disease.”
Following two years of study, the Temple researchers have found that the protein is at the top of a pathway and controls a biochemical chain reaction that begins the development of Alzheimer’s. They have published their findings, “Transcriptional Regulation of ßsecretase-1 by 12/15 Lipoxygenase Results in Enhanced Amyloidogenesis and Cognitive Impairments,” in the journal Annals of Neurology.
Pratico said that their research has shown that 12/15-Lipoxygenase controls Beta secretase (BACE-1), an enzyme that is key to the development of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s patients.
“For reasons we don’t yet know, in some people, 12/15-Lipoxygenase starts to work too much,” he said. “By working too much, it sends the wrong message to the Beta secretase, which in turn starts to produce more amyloid Beta. This initially results in cognitive impairment, memory impairment and, later, an increase of amyloid plaque.”
BACE-1 has long been a biological target for researchers seeking to create a drug against Alzheimer’s disease, said Pratico. But because little has been known about how it functions, they have been unsuccessful developing a molecule that could reach the brain and block it.
“We now know much better how Beta secretase works because we have found that the 12/15-Lipoxygenase protein is a controller of BACE functions,” he said. “You don’t need to target the Beta secretase directly because the 12/15-Lipoxygenase is really the system in the brain that tells BACE to work more or work less.”
Pratico said that they have validated 12/15-Lipoxygenase as a target for a potential Alzheimer drug or therapy.
“By modulating BACE levels and activity through controlling the 12/15-Lipoxygenase, we can potentially improve the cognitive part of the phenotype of the disease, and prevent the accumulation of amyloid beta inside the neurons, which will eventually translate into less of those plaques,” he said. “This is a totally new mechanism for controlling BACE.”
Pratico said his group has looked at an experimental compound that blocks 12/15-Lipoxygenase function as a potential therapy to inhibit BACE function in the brain. In their lab, using animal models, they saw the drug’s ability to restore some cognitive function, as well as improve learning and memory ability.
“There is an opportunity here to study this molecule and develop an even stronger molecule to target 12/15-Lipoxygenase function in the brain,” he said.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple’s Office of University Communications at pmoretz@temple.edu.
This article was first published at www.newswise.com
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=255460
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
State mulls ban on shark fins
State mulls ban on shark fins
BY ANDREW MALONEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau January 30, 2012 6:18PM
Updated: January 30, 2012 8:17PM
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois could be on its way to banning the possession and sale of shark fins if state lawmakers decide to take the bait this spring.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) would institute the ban on shark fins — the central ingredient in an Asian delicacy — in the state starting July 2013.
“I have a very large, devoted-to-animal group in my district,” she said. “So this landed on my doorstep.”
Shark fin bans have already been implemented in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California, and similar legislation has been introduced in Florida and New York.
Feigenholtz said she collaborated with the Illinois wing of the national Humane Society, which is helping lead an effort to curtail shark finning, the practice of extracting the animal’s fin and throwing it back in the ocean.
She said even though Illinois is not an ocean state, the appetite for shark fin soup — an Asian delicacy — makes the distribution of shark fins a destructive trade everywhere.
But shark fin soup might already be on its way to extinction at some restaurants.
At the Phoenix restaurant in Chinatown, banquet manager Carol Cheung said the soup has traditionally been served at weddings or large get-togethers. But now the staff is making plans to take it off the menu.
“You will get traditional, die-hard Chinese food enthusiasts that say, ‘I can’t have a banquet without having shark fins,’” Cheung said. “I can’t remember the last time I had someone order some from me.”
She added that the ban probably wouldn’t harm business too much, and that the restaurant has actually tried to dissuade customers from ordering the soup because of its taste and low nutritional value.
“It’s too expensive, and people don’t like it,” said Ron Moy, part-time manager at Emperor’s Choice Restaurant. “Not my customers, anyway.”
Although sharks can still be fished for meat, a difficult preparation process means demand from fishermen tends to be low, said Christopher Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Center for Oceanic Research, Awareness, and Education.
So those who enjoy other shark entrees need not worry about a fin ban, Chin said.
“Because that one piece is more valuable than anything else, that’s what the animal is sought for,” he said. “So if people want to have shark steak, they can continue to do that, this doesn’t really address that.”
Feigenholtz said she is not sure the bill will make it out of committee, but added “I think that any legislation that doesn’t cost anything could move.”
“We’ll see where it goes. Sometimes it flies, sometimes it dies. That’s the nature of the business.”
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.suntimes.com/10333001-417/state-mulls-ban-on-shark-fins.html
Editor's note: Your ProbateShark believes that all sharks are entitled to and have a God given right to retain their fins! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
BY ANDREW MALONEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau January 30, 2012 6:18PM
Updated: January 30, 2012 8:17PM
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois could be on its way to banning the possession and sale of shark fins if state lawmakers decide to take the bait this spring.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) would institute the ban on shark fins — the central ingredient in an Asian delicacy — in the state starting July 2013.
“I have a very large, devoted-to-animal group in my district,” she said. “So this landed on my doorstep.”
Shark fin bans have already been implemented in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California, and similar legislation has been introduced in Florida and New York.
Feigenholtz said she collaborated with the Illinois wing of the national Humane Society, which is helping lead an effort to curtail shark finning, the practice of extracting the animal’s fin and throwing it back in the ocean.
She said even though Illinois is not an ocean state, the appetite for shark fin soup — an Asian delicacy — makes the distribution of shark fins a destructive trade everywhere.
But shark fin soup might already be on its way to extinction at some restaurants.
At the Phoenix restaurant in Chinatown, banquet manager Carol Cheung said the soup has traditionally been served at weddings or large get-togethers. But now the staff is making plans to take it off the menu.
“You will get traditional, die-hard Chinese food enthusiasts that say, ‘I can’t have a banquet without having shark fins,’” Cheung said. “I can’t remember the last time I had someone order some from me.”
She added that the ban probably wouldn’t harm business too much, and that the restaurant has actually tried to dissuade customers from ordering the soup because of its taste and low nutritional value.
“It’s too expensive, and people don’t like it,” said Ron Moy, part-time manager at Emperor’s Choice Restaurant. “Not my customers, anyway.”
Although sharks can still be fished for meat, a difficult preparation process means demand from fishermen tends to be low, said Christopher Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Center for Oceanic Research, Awareness, and Education.
So those who enjoy other shark entrees need not worry about a fin ban, Chin said.
“Because that one piece is more valuable than anything else, that’s what the animal is sought for,” he said. “So if people want to have shark steak, they can continue to do that, this doesn’t really address that.”
Feigenholtz said she is not sure the bill will make it out of committee, but added “I think that any legislation that doesn’t cost anything could move.”
“We’ll see where it goes. Sometimes it flies, sometimes it dies. That’s the nature of the business.”
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.suntimes.com/10333001-417/state-mulls-ban-on-shark-fins.html
Editor's note: Your ProbateShark believes that all sharks are entitled to and have a God given right to retain their fins! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Doctor's kids win right to see him in family feud
Doctor's kids win right to see him in family feud
Posted: 01/25/2012
By: Val Clark
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (WXYZ) - Tears of joy today after three of Dr. James Chism's biological children reached a compromise in court with their stepmother Karen Chism.
Mrs. Chism didn't speak with 7 Action News, but as a result of this motion she's no longer her husband's guardian.
An independent person has been appointed.
The children will now be able to see Dr. Chism when Henry Ford Macomb Hospital can accommodate them.
The Wednesday court hearing came about because the children became so alarmed over their father’s drastic weight loss that they started a Facebook page and a campaign to be able to feed him.
After the hearing Dr. Chism’s daughter, Susan Lucier, said "I'm gonna hold him and tell him I'm never leaving. I'm gonna find out everything about his medical condition."
Judge Anthony Vivano appointed an examiner to review Dr, Chism’s finances and said the doctor’s children as well as wife must be made aware of his medical condition.
He also called the family tug-of-war an emotional mess.
Dr Chism has been too ill to know what’s been going on, but he is getting better. Currently he’s been taken off a ventilator and is being fed intravenously.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/macomb_county/doctors-kids-win-right-to-see-him-in-family-feud
Editor's note: The abridgement of visitation is a favorite tactic to control heirs who complain about the treatment of their loved ones. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060
Jan 30, 8:23 AM EST
Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems.
The population estimate released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry paints a grim future.
In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
The total fertility rate, or the expected number of children born per woman during lifetime, in 2060 is estimated at 1.35, down from 1.39 in 2010 - well below more than 2 needed to keep the country's population from declining. But the average Japanese will continue to live longer. The average life expectancy for 2060 is projected at 90.93 for women, up from 86.39 in 2010, and 84.19 years for men, up from 79.64 years.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged to push for social security and tax reforms this year. A bill he promised to submit by the end of March would raise the 5 percent sales tax in two stages to 8 percent in 2014 and 10 percent by 2015, although opposition lawmakers and the public pose challenges to its approval.
The institute says Japan has been the world's fastest aging country, and with its birthrate among the lowest, its population decline would be among the deepest globally in coming decades.
Experts say that Japan's population will keep losing 1 million every year in coming decades and the country urgently needs to overhaul its social security and tax system to reflect the demographic shift.
"Pension programs, employment and labor policy and social security system in this country is not designed to reflect such rapidly progressing population decline or aging," Noriko Tsuya, a demography expert at Keio University, said on public broadcaster NHK. "The government needs to urgently revise the system and implement new measures based on the estimate."
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_POPULATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-30-08-23-59
KawamotoDragon.com
Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems.
The population estimate released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry paints a grim future.
In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
The total fertility rate, or the expected number of children born per woman during lifetime, in 2060 is estimated at 1.35, down from 1.39 in 2010 - well below more than 2 needed to keep the country's population from declining. But the average Japanese will continue to live longer. The average life expectancy for 2060 is projected at 90.93 for women, up from 86.39 in 2010, and 84.19 years for men, up from 79.64 years.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged to push for social security and tax reforms this year. A bill he promised to submit by the end of March would raise the 5 percent sales tax in two stages to 8 percent in 2014 and 10 percent by 2015, although opposition lawmakers and the public pose challenges to its approval.
The institute says Japan has been the world's fastest aging country, and with its birthrate among the lowest, its population decline would be among the deepest globally in coming decades.
Experts say that Japan's population will keep losing 1 million every year in coming decades and the country urgently needs to overhaul its social security and tax system to reflect the demographic shift.
"Pension programs, employment and labor policy and social security system in this country is not designed to reflect such rapidly progressing population decline or aging," Noriko Tsuya, a demography expert at Keio University, said on public broadcaster NHK. "The government needs to urgently revise the system and implement new measures based on the estimate."
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_POPULATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-30-08-23-59
KawamotoDragon.com
Firm sues former Brooke Astor lawyer for legal fees
Firm sues former Brooke Astor lawyer for legal fees
1/26/2012 COMMENTS (0)
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A law firm that defended a former attorney convicted of forging the will of philanthropist Brooke Astor has filed a lawsuit for unpaid legal fees.
Davis & Gilbert filed the suit Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging that Francis Morrissey owes it about $220,000 in unpaid fees.
Morrissey was found guilty in 2009 of forging a change to the will of Astor, who died with a $200 million estate in 2007 at the age of 105. The change in the will gave Morrissey's client, Anthony Marshall, control of about $60 million of the Astor estate. Marshall is Astor's son.
After a six-month trial in 2009, Morrissey was sentenced to up to three years in prison. Marshall was convicted of grand larceny and other related crimes, and sentenced to up to three years in prison. Both men appealed their convictions in March and have remained free pending the appeals. Morrissey was disbarred in 2010.
Wednesday's lawsuit asserts that last spring Morrissey quit paying Davis & Gilbert, which wrote trial briefs and worked on his appeal, according to the complaint. It is not clear how much he had already paid the firm. Morrissey's lead counsel at trial was Thomas Puccio, who is not associated with Davis & Gilbert. The lawsuit asserts claims of unjust enrichment and quantum meruit, but does not allege breach of contract.
Miles Baum, who is representing the firm, did not return a phone call seeking comment. A message left at a phone number listed as Morrissey's residence was not returned.
The case is Davis & Gilbert v. Francis X. Morrissey, No. 0650226/2012.
For the plaintiff: Miles Baum, Davis & Gilbert, New York.
For the defense: Not immediately available.
Reporting by Leigh Jones
Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal
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Please read complete article at link below:
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/01_-_January/Firm_sues_former_Brooke_Astor_lawyer_for_legal_fees/
1/26/2012 COMMENTS (0)
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A law firm that defended a former attorney convicted of forging the will of philanthropist Brooke Astor has filed a lawsuit for unpaid legal fees.
Davis & Gilbert filed the suit Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging that Francis Morrissey owes it about $220,000 in unpaid fees.
Morrissey was found guilty in 2009 of forging a change to the will of Astor, who died with a $200 million estate in 2007 at the age of 105. The change in the will gave Morrissey's client, Anthony Marshall, control of about $60 million of the Astor estate. Marshall is Astor's son.
After a six-month trial in 2009, Morrissey was sentenced to up to three years in prison. Marshall was convicted of grand larceny and other related crimes, and sentenced to up to three years in prison. Both men appealed their convictions in March and have remained free pending the appeals. Morrissey was disbarred in 2010.
Wednesday's lawsuit asserts that last spring Morrissey quit paying Davis & Gilbert, which wrote trial briefs and worked on his appeal, according to the complaint. It is not clear how much he had already paid the firm. Morrissey's lead counsel at trial was Thomas Puccio, who is not associated with Davis & Gilbert. The lawsuit asserts claims of unjust enrichment and quantum meruit, but does not allege breach of contract.
Miles Baum, who is representing the firm, did not return a phone call seeking comment. A message left at a phone number listed as Morrissey's residence was not returned.
The case is Davis & Gilbert v. Francis X. Morrissey, No. 0650226/2012.
For the plaintiff: Miles Baum, Davis & Gilbert, New York.
For the defense: Not immediately available.
Reporting by Leigh Jones
Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal
Follow us on Twitter: @
Please read complete article at link below:
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/01_-_January/Firm_sues_former_Brooke_Astor_lawyer_for_legal_fees/
The Neighborhood Files13 in Area Health Care Charged in FBI 'Takedown'
The Neighborhood Files13 in Area Health Care Charged in FBI 'Takedown'
Lincolnwood, Morton Grove residents among 111 across nation accused of bilking $225 million from Medicare.
Editor's note: Check out comments below "for additional locations"
By Ted Regencia Email the author February 22, 2011
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder announced the crackdown and arrests over Medicare fraud at a Feb. 17 news conference. Attorney General's Office context
Photos (3)
Photos
Credit Attorney General's Office Credit Ted Regencia Credit Ted Regencia Upload Photos and Videos It is the largest health care fraud crackdown in U.S. history, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. More than 100 people are accused of bilking more than $200 million from Medicare.
In Chicago, at least 13 individuals in the health care industry, including Lincolnwood and Morton Grove residents, and employees of a shuttered Lincolnwood home health agency, are facing charges ranging from fraud to falsification of documents.
The charges came after the FBI took into custody a Chicago-area doctor, two chiropractors, three nurses, a pharmacist, and several home health staff on Thursday. They are among 111 defendants from nine cities--including Chicago, Miami, Detroit and Dallas--arrested in the sweep over illegal Medicare billings that added up to more than $225 million.
“With this takedown, we have identified and shut down large-scale fraud schemes operating throughout the country," Holder said in a release.
"We have safeguarded precious taxpayer dollars. And we have helped to protect our nation's most essential health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid,” he added.
The Chicago-area suspects are also accused of offering or soliciting kickbacks in exchange for referrals of Medicare patients.
While several sources confirmed that eight of them are originally from the Philippines, it is not clear whether they are U.S. citizens or not.
One of those arrested is Alona Dizon Bugayong, 35, of Lincolnwood. She was arrested Thursday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole in Chicago.
Bugayong allegedly "devised a scheme" with Han Woo, 35, of Hoffman Estates, "to pay kickbacks in exchange for physician referrals of home health care patients," according to Holder.
Woo operates New Covenant Home Health Agency in Villa Park and Healthquest Homecare in Des Plaines. Both businesses were mentioned in the FBI's charge sheet.
A Healthquest representative pleaded for "privacy" in refusing to be interviewed.
Elsewhere, five individuals from Goodwill Home Healthcare are facing "criminal complaints" for "conspiracy to violate federal anti-kickback statute." They are accused of agreeing to offer, pay, solicit or receive kickbacks for the referral of Medicare patients.
Marilyn Maravilla, 54, of Chicago; Junjee Arroyo, 42, of Elmurst; Ferdinand Echavia, 37, of Chicago; Kennedy Lomillo, 43, of Mundelein; and Baltazar Alberto, 47, of Morton Grove, were named as defendants. They were also arrested Thursday.
Goodwill's Medicare billings raised suspicions when it nearly quadrupled over two years, going from $679,596 in 2008 to $2.7 million in 2010.
According to records seized by the FBI, an estimated $410,998 in kickbacks were paid to 28 people who had referred 912 patients.
Goodwill's last address was 7161 N. Cicero Ave., Suite 2, in Lincolnwood. A check inside the building at the corner of Cicero and Estes avenues revealed that it was no longer a tenant.
Also arrested were Virgilio and Merigrace Orillo of Chalice Home Healthcare, which has offices in Chicago, Freeport and Morris. They reportedly falsified documents to increase payments received from Medicare by making "patients appear to be sicker than they actually were," according to the release.
Charged separately with one count of fraud are Drs. Jaswinder Rai Chhibber, 48, and Andrew Carr, 41. Chhibber of Schaumburg serves as president and owner of the Cottage Grove Community Medical Clinic in Chicago and Carr is licensed chiropractor from Lake in the Hills.
Two counts of health care fraud were filed against pharmacist Jay Hammermann, 62, and Brandy Howard, 35, of Naperville.
Each count of health care fraud carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A medical services company, U.S. Occupational Health, which performs physical and medical tests for private and government employees, is charged with one count of mail fraud.
Kimberly Nerheim of the FBI said the investigation is ongoing. The probes are being lead by the special HEAT Strike Force, formed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate fraud.
“Paying for Medicare and Medicaid patients is a crime," said Fitzgerald, who prosecuted former Illinois governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. "We are focusing our resources on making sure that those who offer or solicit kickbacks are held accountable by the criminal justice system.”
There are more than 1.3 million licensed Medicare suppliers nationwide, with 18,000 new applications every month, according to news reports. So enforcement and investigation of suspicious agencies are daunting tasks.
It is a problem that the Obama administration is trying to address. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the raids were part of the president's effort to save tax dollars.
"From 2008 to 2010, every dollar the federal government spent under its Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control programs averaged a return on investment of $6.80,” said Sebelius, adding that $4 billion was recovered in 2010.
Email Print Follow comments Submit tip 4 Comments Ruth H
9:38 am on Tuesday, February 22, 2011
This doesn't surprise. There are so many individuals that live in mansions that prey on seniors medicare money. Unfortunately, this is just tip of an iceberg.
Log in to reply Marsha
8:26 am on Thursday, February 24, 2011
Keep looking, there is more out there. Please look into Misssissippi. Bad situations
Log in to reply BEBE
6:44 pm on Sunday, March 27, 2011
You are right , keep looking theres more out there... by Lincoln ave. by N. Cicero Ave . near Devon Ave. and by , W. Peterson and N. Cicero Ave. , by Touhy Ave. and Kostner , by Oakton St. and also in West and North Suburbs theres a lot...... go to South side Chicago .....
Keep on going and working hard you will get them....Very Soon!!!!!!
Log in to reply GEN
10:49 pm on Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Don't forget Skokie too...by Lincoln Ave and Oakton and Grosspoint...unnecessary medical home health services, home health agencies providing walker,cane, commode, wheelchair, name it they'll get it in order to get and retain patients!!! providing multiple therapy services to those who can walk and drive! paying $ for each patient referral...owners riding all kinds of luxury cars, Lexus, BMW, Range Rover & Porsche...name it they got it! Hunt them or else government medicare funds will be drained!!!
Please read complete article at link below:
http://mortongrove.patch.com/articles/13-in-area-health-care-charged-in-fbi-takedown
Lincolnwood, Morton Grove residents among 111 across nation accused of bilking $225 million from Medicare.
Editor's note: Check out comments below "for additional locations"
By Ted Regencia Email the author February 22, 2011
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder announced the crackdown and arrests over Medicare fraud at a Feb. 17 news conference. Attorney General's Office context
Photos (3)
Photos
Credit Attorney General's Office Credit Ted Regencia Credit Ted Regencia Upload Photos and Videos It is the largest health care fraud crackdown in U.S. history, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. More than 100 people are accused of bilking more than $200 million from Medicare.
In Chicago, at least 13 individuals in the health care industry, including Lincolnwood and Morton Grove residents, and employees of a shuttered Lincolnwood home health agency, are facing charges ranging from fraud to falsification of documents.
The charges came after the FBI took into custody a Chicago-area doctor, two chiropractors, three nurses, a pharmacist, and several home health staff on Thursday. They are among 111 defendants from nine cities--including Chicago, Miami, Detroit and Dallas--arrested in the sweep over illegal Medicare billings that added up to more than $225 million.
“With this takedown, we have identified and shut down large-scale fraud schemes operating throughout the country," Holder said in a release.
"We have safeguarded precious taxpayer dollars. And we have helped to protect our nation's most essential health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid,” he added.
The Chicago-area suspects are also accused of offering or soliciting kickbacks in exchange for referrals of Medicare patients.
While several sources confirmed that eight of them are originally from the Philippines, it is not clear whether they are U.S. citizens or not.
One of those arrested is Alona Dizon Bugayong, 35, of Lincolnwood. She was arrested Thursday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole in Chicago.
Bugayong allegedly "devised a scheme" with Han Woo, 35, of Hoffman Estates, "to pay kickbacks in exchange for physician referrals of home health care patients," according to Holder.
Woo operates New Covenant Home Health Agency in Villa Park and Healthquest Homecare in Des Plaines. Both businesses were mentioned in the FBI's charge sheet.
A Healthquest representative pleaded for "privacy" in refusing to be interviewed.
Elsewhere, five individuals from Goodwill Home Healthcare are facing "criminal complaints" for "conspiracy to violate federal anti-kickback statute." They are accused of agreeing to offer, pay, solicit or receive kickbacks for the referral of Medicare patients.
Marilyn Maravilla, 54, of Chicago; Junjee Arroyo, 42, of Elmurst; Ferdinand Echavia, 37, of Chicago; Kennedy Lomillo, 43, of Mundelein; and Baltazar Alberto, 47, of Morton Grove, were named as defendants. They were also arrested Thursday.
Goodwill's Medicare billings raised suspicions when it nearly quadrupled over two years, going from $679,596 in 2008 to $2.7 million in 2010.
According to records seized by the FBI, an estimated $410,998 in kickbacks were paid to 28 people who had referred 912 patients.
Goodwill's last address was 7161 N. Cicero Ave., Suite 2, in Lincolnwood. A check inside the building at the corner of Cicero and Estes avenues revealed that it was no longer a tenant.
Also arrested were Virgilio and Merigrace Orillo of Chalice Home Healthcare, which has offices in Chicago, Freeport and Morris. They reportedly falsified documents to increase payments received from Medicare by making "patients appear to be sicker than they actually were," according to the release.
Charged separately with one count of fraud are Drs. Jaswinder Rai Chhibber, 48, and Andrew Carr, 41. Chhibber of Schaumburg serves as president and owner of the Cottage Grove Community Medical Clinic in Chicago and Carr is licensed chiropractor from Lake in the Hills.
Two counts of health care fraud were filed against pharmacist Jay Hammermann, 62, and Brandy Howard, 35, of Naperville.
Each count of health care fraud carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A medical services company, U.S. Occupational Health, which performs physical and medical tests for private and government employees, is charged with one count of mail fraud.
Kimberly Nerheim of the FBI said the investigation is ongoing. The probes are being lead by the special HEAT Strike Force, formed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate fraud.
“Paying for Medicare and Medicaid patients is a crime," said Fitzgerald, who prosecuted former Illinois governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. "We are focusing our resources on making sure that those who offer or solicit kickbacks are held accountable by the criminal justice system.”
There are more than 1.3 million licensed Medicare suppliers nationwide, with 18,000 new applications every month, according to news reports. So enforcement and investigation of suspicious agencies are daunting tasks.
It is a problem that the Obama administration is trying to address. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the raids were part of the president's effort to save tax dollars.
"From 2008 to 2010, every dollar the federal government spent under its Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control programs averaged a return on investment of $6.80,” said Sebelius, adding that $4 billion was recovered in 2010.
Email Print Follow comments Submit tip 4 Comments Ruth H
9:38 am on Tuesday, February 22, 2011
This doesn't surprise. There are so many individuals that live in mansions that prey on seniors medicare money. Unfortunately, this is just tip of an iceberg.
Log in to reply Marsha
8:26 am on Thursday, February 24, 2011
Keep looking, there is more out there. Please look into Misssissippi. Bad situations
Log in to reply BEBE
6:44 pm on Sunday, March 27, 2011
You are right , keep looking theres more out there... by Lincoln ave. by N. Cicero Ave . near Devon Ave. and by , W. Peterson and N. Cicero Ave. , by Touhy Ave. and Kostner , by Oakton St. and also in West and North Suburbs theres a lot...... go to South side Chicago .....
Keep on going and working hard you will get them....Very Soon!!!!!!
Log in to reply GEN
10:49 pm on Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Don't forget Skokie too...by Lincoln Ave and Oakton and Grosspoint...unnecessary medical home health services, home health agencies providing walker,cane, commode, wheelchair, name it they'll get it in order to get and retain patients!!! providing multiple therapy services to those who can walk and drive! paying $ for each patient referral...owners riding all kinds of luxury cars, Lexus, BMW, Range Rover & Porsche...name it they got it! Hunt them or else government medicare funds will be drained!!!
Please read complete article at link below:
http://mortongrove.patch.com/articles/13-in-area-health-care-charged-in-fbi-takedown
Corruption in Cook County: Anti-Corruption Report Number 3
Corruption in Cook County:
Anti-Corruption Report Number 3
February 18, 2010
Please click on link below to view corruption reports such as Greylord, Poet, etc.
Authored By:
Thomas J. Gradel
Dick Simpson
And
Tom Kelly
With
Andris Zimelis
Kenneth Chow
Alexandra Kathryn Curatolo
Emily Gillot
David Michelberger
Marrell Stewart
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Political Science
and the
Better Government Association
http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/Anti-corruptionReportNumber3.pdf
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Shigetomo wins Osaka women's marathon
Jan 29, 2:53 AM EST
Shigetomo wins Osaka women's marathon
OSAKA, Japan (AP) -- Japan's Risa Shigetomo boosted her chances of going to the London Olympics by winning the Osaka International Women's Marathon on Sunday.
Shigetomo pulled away at about the 16-mike mark and crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds for her first marathon victory.
Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko was second, 1:23 behind, while Japan's Azusa Nojiri was third in 2:24:57.
The Osaka race is the second of three domestic qualifiers for three spots on Japan's team for London. The final Olympic qualifier will be in Nagoya on March 11.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ATH_OSAKA_MARATHON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-29-02-53-44
KawamotoDragon.com
Shigetomo wins Osaka women's marathon
OSAKA, Japan (AP) -- Japan's Risa Shigetomo boosted her chances of going to the London Olympics by winning the Osaka International Women's Marathon on Sunday.
Shigetomo pulled away at about the 16-mike mark and crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds for her first marathon victory.
Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko was second, 1:23 behind, while Japan's Azusa Nojiri was third in 2:24:57.
The Osaka race is the second of three domestic qualifiers for three spots on Japan's team for London. The final Olympic qualifier will be in Nagoya on March 11.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ATH_OSAKA_MARATHON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-29-02-53-44
KawamotoDragon.com
Giant fault to magnify tsunami found in west Japan
Giant fault to magnify tsunami found in west Japan
Scientists have found a 200-kilometer-long cliff on the seabed off Kii Peninsula, western Japan. They warn it could magnify the scale of tsunami in the event of a major earthquake.
A team of researchers from University of Tokyo and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology found the giant fault using a deep-sea research vessel.
They say the underwater cliff crosses neighboring focal zones for major earthquakes that periodically hit western Japan.
The 200-kilometer-long drop-off is up to 1,000 meters tall.
The scientists also determined that the fault drives upward from the boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate and another plate that lies underneath western Japan.
Movement of the fault lines along the plate boundary is believed to magnify major tsunami.
Associate Professor of the university's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute Park Jin-Oh said the newly found fault line is evidence that quakes in the area hit simultaneously in the past.
He stressed that the fault should be taken into account when planning the limitation of damage from earthquake and tsunami.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 14:51 +0900 (JST)
Please read complete article and view map at link below:
.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120129_14.html
KawamotoDragon.com
Scientists have found a 200-kilometer-long cliff on the seabed off Kii Peninsula, western Japan. They warn it could magnify the scale of tsunami in the event of a major earthquake.
A team of researchers from University of Tokyo and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology found the giant fault using a deep-sea research vessel.
They say the underwater cliff crosses neighboring focal zones for major earthquakes that periodically hit western Japan.
The 200-kilometer-long drop-off is up to 1,000 meters tall.
The scientists also determined that the fault drives upward from the boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate and another plate that lies underneath western Japan.
Movement of the fault lines along the plate boundary is believed to magnify major tsunami.
Associate Professor of the university's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute Park Jin-Oh said the newly found fault line is evidence that quakes in the area hit simultaneously in the past.
He stressed that the fault should be taken into account when planning the limitation of damage from earthquake and tsunami.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 14:51 +0900 (JST)
Please read complete article and view map at link below:
.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120129_14.html
KawamotoDragon.com
Nebraska chief justice outlines efficiency effort
Nebraska chief justice outlines efficiency effort
StoryDiscussionNebraska chief justice outlines efficiency effort
Associated Press
Posted: Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:03 am
Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican outlined plans Thursday for a new, regional approach to court services designed to improve efficiency.
Heavican told lawmakers in his fifth annual State of the Judiciary address that the courts are launching a series of pilot programs this year, with help from the National Center for State Courts.
"It is hoped that these projects can serve as models for rural courts and allow us to preserve jobs in communities with fewer needs, while easing the burden of courts which have greater demands on staff time," he said.
The plans were part of a wide-ranging speech that highlighted the court's role in helping children and the elderly, as well as the rise of computer technology to process cases.
Heavican said one pilot program will allow service-sharing across county lines. Judge Anne Paine of McCook is conducting another pilot program in the 11th judicial district, in which one employee will oversee the collection of fines from all courts in the 17-county area.
The chief justice said he anticipates a rise in the number of guardianships and conservatorship cases, driven by the state's growing elderly population. While the total population of the state is expected to grow 11 percent by 2030, he said, the number of Nebraskans between the ages of 70 and 79 is expected to grow by more than 80 percent.
Heavican said the courts have adopted the requirements of a new state law requiring background checks for guardians and conservators, who make decisions for elderly relatives or others who are incapacitated. The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, also requires that conservators post bonds when the assets of their wards are greater than $10,000.
"None of us is naïve enough to believe that elderly persons will no longer be subject to abuse," Heavican said. "But the statutory changes made by the Legislature, which are being implemented by the judicial branch, will provide for better checks and balances."
He said child welfare remains a top priority for the courts, and highlighted the success of a Douglas County pilot program that allowed juveniles on probation to access rehabilitative services without becoming state wards. Heavican said 635 juveniles participated in the program, and 83 percent were able to stay in their own homes.
"We think this program is both efficient and effective," he said. "We hope the program will be fully funded and expanded to at least one county in rural Nebraska."
Omaha Sen. Bob Krist and five other lawmakers have introduced a measure this session, LB985, that would create a statewide pilot program for juveniles. The proposal is part of a broader effort this year to overhaul the state's troubled child welfare system.
Heavican's remarks touched on themes similar to his earlier State of the Judiciary speeches. Last year, the chief justice emphasized the state's duty to protect children and the elderly
Read more:
http://columbustelegram.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska-chief-justice-outlines-efficiency-effort/article_5638b782-eed1-58eb-959b-8a0a788f6431.html#ixzz1krc8smP9
http://columbustelegram.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska-chief-justice-outlines-efficiency-effort/article_5638b782-eed1-58eb-959b-8a0a788f6431.html
Etta James' funeral: Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder say goodbye
Etta James' funeral - Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder say goodbye
Los Angeles Times
January 29, 2012
Etta James’ funeral marked a final goodbye for family, fans and famous friends as they gathered Saturday in Los Angeles to bid farewell to the singer.
Christina Aguilera helped give the four-time Grammy winner a fitting sendoff by singing James’ signature song, “At Last,” for the hundreds of mourners at Greater Bethany Community Church in Gardena, Calif. Stevie Wonder joined up with the church choir to pay his respects to James, who passed away Jan. 20 at 73, and Al Sharpton was there to give the eulogy.
The funeral follows a public viewing on Friday where fans gathered at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary to reminisce about the legendary singer.
"Whenever I hear that song, I freeze," Donald Hicks, 67, of Inglewood told the L.A. Times about James' megahit "At Last." "I even pull over when it comes on."
News spread in December that the rhythm and blues singer was suffering from terminal chronic leukemia. The bleak diagnosis followed past health issues like sepsis, kidney failure, gastric bypass surgery, dementia and drug addiction. In addition, her children were involved in court proceedings to take control of James’ estate away from her husband, Artis Mills, but lost.
An inspiration to generations of musicians, she was “equally at home singing unadulterated blues, searing R&B and sophisticated jazz," says Times pop music writer Randy Lewis.
This story originally appeared on latimes.com
Please read complete article and view video at link below:
http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-etta-james-funeral-christina-aguilera-stevie-wonder-say-goodbye-jan29,0,5464530.story
Los Angeles Times
January 29, 2012
Etta James’ funeral marked a final goodbye for family, fans and famous friends as they gathered Saturday in Los Angeles to bid farewell to the singer.
Christina Aguilera helped give the four-time Grammy winner a fitting sendoff by singing James’ signature song, “At Last,” for the hundreds of mourners at Greater Bethany Community Church in Gardena, Calif. Stevie Wonder joined up with the church choir to pay his respects to James, who passed away Jan. 20 at 73, and Al Sharpton was there to give the eulogy.
The funeral follows a public viewing on Friday where fans gathered at Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary to reminisce about the legendary singer.
"Whenever I hear that song, I freeze," Donald Hicks, 67, of Inglewood told the L.A. Times about James' megahit "At Last." "I even pull over when it comes on."
News spread in December that the rhythm and blues singer was suffering from terminal chronic leukemia. The bleak diagnosis followed past health issues like sepsis, kidney failure, gastric bypass surgery, dementia and drug addiction. In addition, her children were involved in court proceedings to take control of James’ estate away from her husband, Artis Mills, but lost.
An inspiration to generations of musicians, she was “equally at home singing unadulterated blues, searing R&B and sophisticated jazz," says Times pop music writer Randy Lewis.
This story originally appeared on latimes.com
Please read complete article and view video at link below:
http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-etta-james-funeral-christina-aguilera-stevie-wonder-say-goodbye-jan29,0,5464530.story
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Gov Picks Political Consultant Bill Rosen for Hampshire County Probate Post
Gov Picks Political Consultant Bill Rosen for Hampshire County Probate Post
by PROBATE COURT on JANUARY 24, 2012 · NO COMMENTS · in BAD BUSINESS, COOK COUNTY PROBATE, COOK COUNTY PROBATE COURT, COUNTY PROBATE COURT, EDWIN CO, EDWIN COE, EDWIN COE LLP, GUARDIANSHIP, LAW FIRMS, LAWYERS, PROBATE COURT, PROBATESHARKS, SOLICITORS
We are pleased to announce the unveiling of a new guardianship abuse resource blog for the victims of the Cook County Probate Court. The purpose of this blog is solely to provide easy-to-locate resources for identifying and reporting the illegal and unethical activities that occur in the Cook County Probate Court. The blog is dedicated to fellow guardianship victims and their loved ones, with the hope that it will help to bring an end to the criminal activity being endured. The new blog can be viewed at: http://www.ProbateAbuseManual.blogspot.com We at ProbateSharks will continue to bring our readers the same resource information as can be found on the new blog, along with personal and special interest stories as we have in the past. Signed, Your ProbateSharks Advocate to End Guardianship Abuse Source: ProbateSharks.com Source: blogspot.comSource: probatecourtco.com
Video: YouTube Videos matching query: hampshire county probate court
Related Posts:
Probate courts: guardianship and conservatorship appointments, P.2
New Hampshire Law Library: Help From the New Hampshire Probate Court
ProbateSharks.com: “The Puppet’s Court!”
HUGE! Foreclosure Mediation Returns to Pinellas County!
How NOT to Administer a Trust in Florida
Please read complete article at link below:
http://badbizuk.com/category/cook-county-probate/
Editor's note: We welcome our cousins from across the pond. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Prison inmates stitch their mouths fighting for bright future
Prison inmates stitch their mouths fighting for bright future
27.01.2012
Hundreds of prisoners organized a desperate action of protest in Kyrgyzstan. The inmates mutilated themselves under patriotic slogans. Officials say that the action was organized by criminal kingpins, who demand so-called open cells in prisons.
The action of protest behind the bars took place under the following slogans: "If you're for the people - stitch up!" and "If you're for the future - stitch up!" As many as 1,087 prison inmates stitched up their mouths in the morning of January 25. Many of them went on hungerstrike, Interfax reports.
In the meantime, officials with the State Service for the Execution of Punishment of Kyrgyzstan say that the situation is far from being dramatic. The night in Kyrgyz prisons and colonies, where the action of protest took place, was quiet. "The number of inmates, who stitched up their mouths in Kyrgyz prisons, has not increased," officials said. "The situation at penitentiary institutions is quiet despite various rumors that appeared earlier," they added.
"On Tuesday night, 385 inmates took part in the protest action at the central detention station of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. However, three people refused from the action and requestion protection against the criminal community. They were transferred to closed cells," officials said.
"The majority of inmates did not want to mutilate themselves, but they had to do so because they were concerned about their own lives. Criminal kingpins forced many to take part in the action - they stitched their mouths in cells," officials said.
As many as 271 people asked for medical help at the hospital of the central detention center of Bishkek. Forty-eight of them had their mouths stitched. All of them said that they were concerned about the fact that the government did not show any reaction to their action.
According to the State Service for the Execution of Punishment, the inmates demand at least one "open" or "common" cell be arranged in each penitentiary institution of the country. The inmates staying at such cells have an opportunity to move to other cells.
In the event the authorities do not meet the requirements, the inmates say that they will attract their relatives and friends. The latter will either start to stitch up their mouths in public or go on hungerstrike near the buildings of the parliament and the government.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/crimes/27-01-2012/120347-prison_inmates_kyrgyz-0/
Religious leaders demand answers about overcrowded morgue
Religious leaders demand answers about overcrowded morgue
7:24 a.m. CST, January 28, 2012
CHICAGO— Local religious leaders are demanding answers, as to why human remains have been piling up at the Cook County morgue.
A group of pastors visited the morgue Friday morning and prayed for the deceased.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is calling for an overhaul, after seeing bodies stacked up in coolers waiting for burial.
Those were the remains of poor and indigent people.
Preckwinkle says it's time for a shakeup, and some workers may be fired.
Pastors are asking that any family who has loved ones at the Cook County morgue or a person recently declared missing to call the Leaders Network HOTLINE number at 312- 473-6496.
Please read complete article at video at link below:
http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-religious-leader-visit-morgue-jan27,0,4946685.story
Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the morgue. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
KawamotoDragon.com
7:24 a.m. CST, January 28, 2012
CHICAGO— Local religious leaders are demanding answers, as to why human remains have been piling up at the Cook County morgue.
A group of pastors visited the morgue Friday morning and prayed for the deceased.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is calling for an overhaul, after seeing bodies stacked up in coolers waiting for burial.
Those were the remains of poor and indigent people.
Preckwinkle says it's time for a shakeup, and some workers may be fired.
Pastors are asking that any family who has loved ones at the Cook County morgue or a person recently declared missing to call the Leaders Network HOTLINE number at 312- 473-6496.
Please read complete article at video at link below:
http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-religious-leader-visit-morgue-jan27,0,4946685.story
Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the morgue. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
KawamotoDragon.com
Retiree says he lost life savings with Stanford
Jan 27, 7:23 PM EST
Retiree says he lost life savings with Stanford
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) -- A retired architect and military veteran told jurors at Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's fraud trial Friday that he lost nearly all of his life savings investing with Stanford, and has survived by eating "a lot of macaroni and cheese" and selling his possessions on eBay.
Joseph Flynn, 69, also said he has had to forgo some medical treatment for a heart condition because he can't afford it. Flynn testified that starting in August 2006, he sunk most of his life savings - more than $1.6 million - into certificates of deposit, or CDs, that he purchased from the Caribbean bank owned by Stanford. Federal prosecutors allege the CDs were part of a massive Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $7 billion over more than two decades.
Flynn, who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, told jurors he was not allowed to redeem his CDs just before Stanford's bank and other businesses were taken over by authorities in 2009.
"How has the loss affected you?" prosecutor Andrew Warren asked Flynn.
"It's been a pretty severe loss. Eating a lot of macaroni and cheese. I've been pretty good at selling our assets on eBay" including a car and watches, he said. "We've had to cut back and restrict everything we have done. Currently our expenses are $2,500 more than income we receive from Social Security and disability."
Flynn, who had open heart surgery in 2009, said his doctors last year wanted to treat him with a new drug. But he said he can't afford the $2,500 it would cost each month because it is not covered by Medicare.
Stanford's attorneys contend the financier was a savvy businessman whose financial empire was legitimate and who never failed to pay what was owed to investors.
Stanford is on trial for 14 counts, including mail and wire fraud, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was once considered one of the United States' wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion.
Authorities say Stanford, 61, sank investors' money in a variety of his own businesses and that he used up to $2 billion of investors' money as personal loans to buy homes and yachts and fund cricket matches. The financier's businesses were headquartered in Houston.
Flynn, who lives in a suburb of Orlando, Fla., said after retiring he met with a financial advisor from Stanford's companies, who had also managed his company's 401(k) plan. The advisor suggested Flynn invest his retirement in the bank's CDs.
Flynn said he was told "it was a very secure investment" and that the CDs he bought would be insured by Lloyd's of London, the world's fifth-largest insurer.
"We were told if we needed the money anytime we wanted, we could have it back" in case it was needed to pay for health care costs, Flynn said.
Kenneth McGuire, one of Stanford's attorneys, asked Flynn if anyone forced him to buy the CDs. Flynn said he was not forced but persuaded.
Flynn also told McGuire he couldn't remember if he had read sections of a disclosure statement he had signed when he bought the CDs that indicated the CDs were not insured and investors could lose their money.
Stanford's attorneys have suggested that the ex-chief financial officer for the financier's company, James Davis, is the real culprit behind the financial fraud alleged by prosecutors. Davis has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify next week on behalf of prosecutors.
Stanford has been in jail since his arrest 2 1/2 years ago. His trial was delayed after he was declared incompetent due to an addiction he developed in jail to an anti-anxiety drug and he underwent treatment. He was declared fit for trial last month by U.S. District Judge David Hittner.
During a break in Flynn's testimony, Hittner told attorneys he had noticed that Stanford had been holding his head and that if he needed to lie down, he could listen to testimony from a back office. Stanford declined and remained in court.
The trial was to resume Monday with testimony from a former Stanford employee, who began testifying late Friday.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STANFORD_TRIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-27-19-23-16
Editor's note: Again, ProbateShark asks, "Why, when the Judges of the Probate Court of Cook County commit exactly the same crime as Stanford are they not prosecuted?" Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Retiree says he lost life savings with Stanford
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) -- A retired architect and military veteran told jurors at Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's fraud trial Friday that he lost nearly all of his life savings investing with Stanford, and has survived by eating "a lot of macaroni and cheese" and selling his possessions on eBay.
Joseph Flynn, 69, also said he has had to forgo some medical treatment for a heart condition because he can't afford it. Flynn testified that starting in August 2006, he sunk most of his life savings - more than $1.6 million - into certificates of deposit, or CDs, that he purchased from the Caribbean bank owned by Stanford. Federal prosecutors allege the CDs were part of a massive Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $7 billion over more than two decades.
Flynn, who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, told jurors he was not allowed to redeem his CDs just before Stanford's bank and other businesses were taken over by authorities in 2009.
"How has the loss affected you?" prosecutor Andrew Warren asked Flynn.
"It's been a pretty severe loss. Eating a lot of macaroni and cheese. I've been pretty good at selling our assets on eBay" including a car and watches, he said. "We've had to cut back and restrict everything we have done. Currently our expenses are $2,500 more than income we receive from Social Security and disability."
Flynn, who had open heart surgery in 2009, said his doctors last year wanted to treat him with a new drug. But he said he can't afford the $2,500 it would cost each month because it is not covered by Medicare.
Stanford's attorneys contend the financier was a savvy businessman whose financial empire was legitimate and who never failed to pay what was owed to investors.
Stanford is on trial for 14 counts, including mail and wire fraud, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was once considered one of the United States' wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion.
Authorities say Stanford, 61, sank investors' money in a variety of his own businesses and that he used up to $2 billion of investors' money as personal loans to buy homes and yachts and fund cricket matches. The financier's businesses were headquartered in Houston.
Flynn, who lives in a suburb of Orlando, Fla., said after retiring he met with a financial advisor from Stanford's companies, who had also managed his company's 401(k) plan. The advisor suggested Flynn invest his retirement in the bank's CDs.
Flynn said he was told "it was a very secure investment" and that the CDs he bought would be insured by Lloyd's of London, the world's fifth-largest insurer.
"We were told if we needed the money anytime we wanted, we could have it back" in case it was needed to pay for health care costs, Flynn said.
Kenneth McGuire, one of Stanford's attorneys, asked Flynn if anyone forced him to buy the CDs. Flynn said he was not forced but persuaded.
Flynn also told McGuire he couldn't remember if he had read sections of a disclosure statement he had signed when he bought the CDs that indicated the CDs were not insured and investors could lose their money.
Stanford's attorneys have suggested that the ex-chief financial officer for the financier's company, James Davis, is the real culprit behind the financial fraud alleged by prosecutors. Davis has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify next week on behalf of prosecutors.
Stanford has been in jail since his arrest 2 1/2 years ago. His trial was delayed after he was declared incompetent due to an addiction he developed in jail to an anti-anxiety drug and he underwent treatment. He was declared fit for trial last month by U.S. District Judge David Hittner.
During a break in Flynn's testimony, Hittner told attorneys he had noticed that Stanford had been holding his head and that if he needed to lie down, he could listen to testimony from a back office. Stanford declined and remained in court.
The trial was to resume Monday with testimony from a former Stanford employee, who began testifying late Friday.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STANFORD_TRIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-27-19-23-16
Editor's note: Again, ProbateShark asks, "Why, when the Judges of the Probate Court of Cook County commit exactly the same crime as Stanford are they not prosecuted?" Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Assisted living facilities under the gun
Assisted living facilities under the gun
9:08 PM, Jan. 19, 2012
Prompted by reports of substandard care and abuse, the Senate is poised to pass much tougher standards for Florida’s assisted living facilities, but the initial reaction from key House members and lobbyists remains unclear as bills began to move Thursday.
There was no opposition Thursday as two Senate panels passed committee bills that would tighten Florida’s oversight of ALFs. The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee passed SPB 7176, while the Senate Health Regulation Committee passed SPB 7174 – both of which would close ALFs when a resident dies of abuse or neglect.
The bills would also increase monitoring and criminal sanctions, boost the qualifications for administrators and staffers, and give residents and their families more protection.
“This could be really watershed legislation in protecting the lives of 80,000 individuals who live in assisted living facilities in this state,” Bob Sharpe, CEO of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, told lawmakers. “If you’re successful in sustaining the provisions of this bill throughout the session, you will have done a remarkable thing.”
In the wake of last year’s Miami Herald investigative series “Neglected to Death,” lawmakers began responding to reports of dreadful conditions and care at some of the state’s nearly 3,000 ALFs. Statewide, residents were dying of abuse and neglect at a rate of nearly one per month. The Herald also found that inspections by the Agency for Health Care Administration had dropped 33 percent over the past five years, even as reports of abuse and neglect increased.
Neither Senate measure has a House sponsor yet. Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon and chair of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, said she’d talked to "multiple members of the House" about getting a House sponsor.
"I’ve been assured that they’re waiting on what the Senate is going to do,” she said.
Rep. Matt Hudson, a Naples Republican and chair of the House Health Care Appropriations Committee, predicted his chamber would fund additional AHCA surveyors in areas of the state such as Miami-Dade, which contain a high concentration of ALFs. (continued)
Please read part 2 and the complete article at link below:
http://www.news-press.com/article/20120119/NEWS0107/120119039/1075/Assisted-living-facilities-under-gun?odyssey=nav%7Chead
9:08 PM, Jan. 19, 2012
Prompted by reports of substandard care and abuse, the Senate is poised to pass much tougher standards for Florida’s assisted living facilities, but the initial reaction from key House members and lobbyists remains unclear as bills began to move Thursday.
There was no opposition Thursday as two Senate panels passed committee bills that would tighten Florida’s oversight of ALFs. The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee passed SPB 7176, while the Senate Health Regulation Committee passed SPB 7174 – both of which would close ALFs when a resident dies of abuse or neglect.
The bills would also increase monitoring and criminal sanctions, boost the qualifications for administrators and staffers, and give residents and their families more protection.
“This could be really watershed legislation in protecting the lives of 80,000 individuals who live in assisted living facilities in this state,” Bob Sharpe, CEO of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, told lawmakers. “If you’re successful in sustaining the provisions of this bill throughout the session, you will have done a remarkable thing.”
In the wake of last year’s Miami Herald investigative series “Neglected to Death,” lawmakers began responding to reports of dreadful conditions and care at some of the state’s nearly 3,000 ALFs. Statewide, residents were dying of abuse and neglect at a rate of nearly one per month. The Herald also found that inspections by the Agency for Health Care Administration had dropped 33 percent over the past five years, even as reports of abuse and neglect increased.
Neither Senate measure has a House sponsor yet. Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon and chair of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, said she’d talked to "multiple members of the House" about getting a House sponsor.
"I’ve been assured that they’re waiting on what the Senate is going to do,” she said.
Rep. Matt Hudson, a Naples Republican and chair of the House Health Care Appropriations Committee, predicted his chamber would fund additional AHCA surveyors in areas of the state such as Miami-Dade, which contain a high concentration of ALFs. (continued)
Please read part 2 and the complete article at link below:
http://www.news-press.com/article/20120119/NEWS0107/120119039/1075/Assisted-living-facilities-under-gun?odyssey=nav%7Chead
Record-breaking $200 million nursing home verdict came without a defense
Record-breaking $200 million nursing home verdict came without a defense
By Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer
Stephen NohlgrenTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, January 14, 2012
ST. PETERSBURG — A $200 million verdict in a nursing home abuse case this week not only set a record for the Tampa Bay area, but outstripped other big verdicts several times over.
Of course, it didn't hurt that no lawyers showed to defend the nursing home.
The case stemmed from the 2004 death of Elvira Nunziata, 92, a resident with dementia at Pinellas Park Care and Rehab Center.
Her bloody body was found at the bottom of a stairwell after she toppled one story while strapped to a wheelchair.
Former aides at the home testified that the door to the stairwell was supposed to be locked, but that staffers often disabled the alarm so they could go smoke.
The home had a history of deficiency citations and abuse complaints and the aides said it was frequently understaffed.
The defendant was Trans Health Management Inc., who had sole authority to operate the home at the time, but has since gone defunct. Its parent company, Trans Health, Inc., is in receivership in Maryland.
The Tampa law firm of Wilkes & McHugh, which represented Nunziata's estate, alleged that the true owners were private equity investors who shuffled the assets of Trans Health Management into affiliated entities to avoid liability and then chose not to mount a defense.
Tampa lawyer Marsha Rydberg filed an unsuccessful motion on behalf of the management company three days before the trial, trying to stop it.
Any verdict could rebound against the Maryland receivership for the parent corporation, she alleged. And Wilkes & McHugh had sandbagged the receivership, she said, by promising not to pursue litigation against it. So the receivership did not defend the case.
Pinellas Circuit Court Judge Pam Campbell denied that motion.
In their news release announcing the verdict and in a later interview Thursday, Wilkes & McHugh representatives failed to mention that they had the trial courtroom all to themselves.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/record-breaking-200-million-nursing-home-verdict-came-without-a-defense/1210577
Judge postpones hearing on Rosa Park estate dispute
Judge postpones hearing on Rosa Park estate dispute
6:22 PM, January 24, 2012
By David Ashenfelter
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
A Wayne County judge postponed Wednesday’s court hearing where he was to decide whether to return the estate of civil rights icon Rosa Parks to the individuals she picked for the task.
Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. said he adjourned the hearing to await await instructions from the Michigan Supreme Court.
The high court ordered Burton on Dec. 29 to put Elaine Steele, Parks’ longtime assistant and caregiver, and Adam Shakoor, a retired 36th District Court judge, back in charge of the estate. They would replace attorneys John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., whom Burton put in charge after Parks’ nieces and nephews contested their aunt’s will.
Burton told the Supreme Court last week that Steele is unfit for the job. Her lawyer, Steven G. Cohen, disputed that and urged the Supreme Court on Monday to remove Burton from the case.
Cohen asked the Supreme Court last summer to intervene in the case, saying Chase and Jefferson, with Burton’s help, charged the estate excessive attorney fees and trumped up phony charges that prompted Burton used to strip Steele and the institute of a share of the estate, which includes Parks’ memorabilia collection said to be worth up to $8 million. Burton said in court documents that he’d pick a suitable charity to received the forfeited chare. Cohen has complained that Burton has conducted most of the proceedings in secret.
Chase and Jefferson, through their lawyer, have denied any wrongdoing. The Michigan Court of Appeals said the lawyers recognized the worth of the memorabilia collection and added value to the estate. The appeals court faulted Steele for her conduct in the dispute.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.freep.com/article/20120124/NEWS02/120124067/-No-heading-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp
6:22 PM, January 24, 2012
By David Ashenfelter
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
A Wayne County judge postponed Wednesday’s court hearing where he was to decide whether to return the estate of civil rights icon Rosa Parks to the individuals she picked for the task.
Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. said he adjourned the hearing to await await instructions from the Michigan Supreme Court.
The high court ordered Burton on Dec. 29 to put Elaine Steele, Parks’ longtime assistant and caregiver, and Adam Shakoor, a retired 36th District Court judge, back in charge of the estate. They would replace attorneys John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., whom Burton put in charge after Parks’ nieces and nephews contested their aunt’s will.
Burton told the Supreme Court last week that Steele is unfit for the job. Her lawyer, Steven G. Cohen, disputed that and urged the Supreme Court on Monday to remove Burton from the case.
Cohen asked the Supreme Court last summer to intervene in the case, saying Chase and Jefferson, with Burton’s help, charged the estate excessive attorney fees and trumped up phony charges that prompted Burton used to strip Steele and the institute of a share of the estate, which includes Parks’ memorabilia collection said to be worth up to $8 million. Burton said in court documents that he’d pick a suitable charity to received the forfeited chare. Cohen has complained that Burton has conducted most of the proceedings in secret.
Chase and Jefferson, through their lawyer, have denied any wrongdoing. The Michigan Court of Appeals said the lawyers recognized the worth of the memorabilia collection and added value to the estate. The appeals court faulted Steele for her conduct in the dispute.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.freep.com/article/20120124/NEWS02/120124067/-No-heading-?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp
Canadian dwarf-tossing contest stirs controversy
Canadian dwarf-tossing contest stirs controversy
Published January 27, 2012
NewsCore
A dwarf-tossing contest scheduled for Saturday at a Windsor, Ontario bar has generated heated controversy but local authorities say there is no law to prevent it.
Barry Maroon, manager of Leopard's Lounge and Broil, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. he saw no problem with the contest and even claimed he had been getting calls from little people anxious to attend.
He also said any human projectiles would wear protection and would not be in any danger.
But othersagreed with Jamie Danforth of Windsor -- the father in a family of four dwarfs -- who called it "ignorance at its highest level" in an email to the CBC.
"It is insane that in today's society we still have this going on," he said. "I don't need my daughters thinking this is the type of thing they have to be subjected to. We wouldn't throw the elderly or people in wheelchairs."
City councilor Ron Jones, contacted by a local resident trying to stop the event, told the Windsor Star, "there's nothing provincially and no bylaws here that would prevent this from going on."
He added that the dwarf to be tossed had his own agent.
"A person has a right to make a living," Jones said. "If this person being tossed was being tossed against his will, then it's a human rights issue and I'd be all over it."
The scheduled toss comes just weeks after actor Peter Dinklage, while accepting his Golden Globe for "A Game of Thrones," mentioned Martin Henderson, a fellow dwarf who was seriously injured last fall in England when he was picked up and dropped in an attack at a pub.
Windsor, in the Canadian province of Ontario, is just across the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan.
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/27/canadian-dwarf-tossing-contest-stirs-controversy/?test=latestnews#ixzz1kkoqTIO8
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/27/canadian-dwarf-tossing-contest-stirs-controversy/?test=latestnews
Editor's note: Your ProbateShark has no comment. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateShark.com
State investigators say DCFS contract fraud could be worse than known
State investigators say DCFS contract fraud could be worse than known
By Monique Garcia
Clout Street
7:45 PM CST, January 27, 2012
State ethics investigators say they may never know the full extent of an alleged contracting scheme that they say cost taxpayers at least $18 million and led to last year’s resignation of the head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The comments came during a legislative hearing Friday examining a probe that found numerous violations by George E. Smith, who held various state contracts across a number of agencies, including DCFS.
The state executive inspector general’s office accused Smith of forging documents, presentingfalse information about grant funds for after-school services, submitting budgets that allowed him to conceal funds, and accepting payments he was not entitled to receive.
But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.
“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”
Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”
The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.
Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.
Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.
Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.
The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.
Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.
Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.
Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.
It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.
“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-state-investigators-say-dcfs-contract-fraud-could-be-worse-than-known-20120127,0,6850092.story
Editor's note: Why should we not be surprised? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
By Monique Garcia
Clout Street
7:45 PM CST, January 27, 2012
State ethics investigators say they may never know the full extent of an alleged contracting scheme that they say cost taxpayers at least $18 million and led to last year’s resignation of the head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The comments came during a legislative hearing Friday examining a probe that found numerous violations by George E. Smith, who held various state contracts across a number of agencies, including DCFS.
The state executive inspector general’s office accused Smith of forging documents, presentingfalse information about grant funds for after-school services, submitting budgets that allowed him to conceal funds, and accepting payments he was not entitled to receive.
But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.
“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”
Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”
The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.
Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.
Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.
Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.
The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.
Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.
Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.
Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.
It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.
“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-state-investigators-say-dcfs-contract-fraud-could-be-worse-than-known-20120127,0,6850092.story
Editor's note: Why should we not be surprised? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Friday, January 27, 2012
What makes Japan cling to Russia's Kuril Islands?
What makes Japan cling to Russia's Kuril Islands?
26.01.2012 13:58
Updated 1-28-12
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_RUSSIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-28-04-13-45
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to make a six-day visit to Japan in a few days. It is expected that the host county will focus on the ever-present topic of the status of the Southern Kurils.
The current visit of Lavrov will be held sometime after another demonstrative "inspection" of the South Kurils by a high-ranking Japanese official. On January 14 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Kōichirō Gemba inspected the island from the deck of his ship, which gave rise to another wave of statements of politicians, public figures and journalists on the territorial issue between Russia and Japan.
Recently, the territorial issue for the Japanese has been more acute than ever (think "celebration" of the Northern Territories Day by the Japanese on February 7, 2011, abuse of the Russian flag and a bullet delivered to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo in an envelope). The situation is aggravated by repeated statements by the U.S. State Department of their support for Japan's territorial claims.
Russia confirmed a fair opinion on the inadmissibility of using the term "return of the islands", since such a statement carries a tint of unwillingness to accept the conditions of the postwar world. The proposed replacement term "voluntary transfer" on the one hand, emphasizes the benevolent attitude of the parties, and on the other hand, does not imply reconsideration of the results of the Second World War.
The vast majority of Russians do not accept the idea of transferring the South Kuril Islands to Japan. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the portal Superjob.ru in March of last year, even in the wake of the general sympathy for Japan after a major earthquake, 75 percent of Russians did not consider it right to give the islands to Japan. After a possible transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan border issues with countries such as China, Estonia, and Finland may escalate.
It is unacceptable both for the political leadership and for the citizens of Russia, most of whom have witnessed the dramatic events of the collapse of the USSR. In this regard, it can be argued that Russia in the foreseeable future is unlikely to change its position on the Kuril Islands. Nevertheless, the Japanese are unlikely to settle down.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japan lost its role of a "Pacific aircraft carrier" for the U.S. and started searching a new role in the region. On the one hand, in the wake of the collapse of the superpower neighbor, the desire to return the "captured" territory was revived. On the other hand, the need to adapt to gradually diminishing role of Japan for the U.S. has emerged. That is why the development of economic cooperation between Russia and Japan occurred along with the toughening of the territorial demands.
The Japanese are attracted by the natural resources of the Kurils: 1,867 tons of gold, 9,284 tons of silver, the world's largest deposit of rhenium used in jet engines creation, deposits of natural gas, oil, sea rich in plankton, and ice-free straits of Vries and Catherine. For the country that always had scarce natural resources, the possession of these islands could play a positive role.
Russia, feeling the urgent need to attract investment into its economy, has repeatedly proposed "internationalization" project of the Kuril Islands, creating an Open Economic Zone and introducing visa-free regime for Japanese nationals at the islands.
This would open up a greater access to Japanese companies to the Russian Far East. In addition, the two countries have accumulated rich experience of cooperation in Siberia, where Russian companies along with the company "Mitsui" lead the development of the Elkon uranium deposits, and on Sakhalin Island, where the "Gazprom" along with the Japanese consortium Japan Far East Gas are designing a plant for processing liquefied natural gas and its transport to Japan.
The increase in turnover is quite obvious: in 2001 it was four billion dollars a year, and in 2009 it reached 30 billion dollars. However, against the background of progress in economic cooperation, primarily in the development of the natural resources of the Far East, it is odd that Japan does not see Russia as an economic partner in the Kuriles. Japanese political elite initiated the creation of "Association for the Return of Northern Territories", and is making laws indicating that the South Kuril Islands belong to Japan.
What is behind this paradox? On the one hand, the reasons must be sought in the nature of the Japanese elite. It is a corporate group, many of whose members descended from the politicians of the early to mid-20th century (a vivid example of this is the Hatoyama family, whose representative Yukio Hatoyama served as prime minister in 2009-2010, and his grandfather, Ichiro signed the declaration of 1956 with the Soviets) .
"New players" caught in this system have to play by the established rules. This reduces the area for maneuver in decision making, which explains the commitment of the Japanese to one course. Once in the highest echelons of power in Japan, the politician must demonstrate their unanimity with the common point of view, especially in foreign affairs that are extremely important for Japan.
Loyalty to the general course is required for members of both the Democratic and Liberal-Democratic Party. This is the way to instill the necessary group characteristics of the Japanese politicians. As a result, experience has shown that Japan's position in the Kuril issue has hardly changed since coming to power of the Democratic Party, and in the near future it is unlikely to be different.
The second important point is in the peculiarities of the functioning of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In foreign matters Foreign Ministry is an intermediate between the main economic partner of Japan, the U.S., and Japanese business. On the one hand, the Japanese Foreign Ministry makes statement on favoring the activities of the Japanese companies abroad, and on the other, indicates that there are limits to observe so that the interests of U.S. companies are not hurt.
With regard to Russia, the Japanese Foreign Ministry voiced the collective position of political and business elite of Japan, as well as part of transnational corporations and the U.S. that also has its own interests in the Kuril Islands. No softening of the Japanese position is expected. The topic of ownership of the South Kuriles will long continue to hinder the development of Russian-Japanese relations.
After a major earthquake on March 11 of 2011 and accidents at nuclear power plants "Fukushima," Japan's energy crisis erupted that has increased the demand for imported energy. In the current circumstances, Russia will become a major supplier of gas to Japan, providing an opportunity for the gradual recovery of the country. This was discussed during the talks between Prime Minister of Japan Noda Yosihiko with Vladimir Putin in September of last year.
However, no progress has occurred in solving the territorial issue, and the ministers once again only touched upon the need to solve this problem. The need for new sources of energy to Japan also increased due to the threats of Iran to block Strait of Hormuz and thereby interrupt the supply of oil (the share of the Middle East in Japanese imports is 87.1 percent). Russia, according to experts, can cover approximately 10 percent of Japan's import requirements. However, Tokyo does not agree with the Russian proposals.
Last March, the presidential envoy in the Far East Federal District Viktor Ishayev said that Russia made offers to a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region for joint development of the Kuril Islands, and if Japanese companies do not participate, other investors from America, China, Brunei, Singapore, and Malaysia will be attracted.
This means that if Japan, as before, will not agree to jointly participate in the economic development of the Kuriles while maintaining them within the Russian Federation, it risks losing its leading position in the Far East of Russia and further exacerbating the crisis state of the economy. But the Japanese elite did not react to this warning.
The territorial issue for Japan is not just a disagreement with Russia (and not only with Russia, it has similar disputes with China and South Korea) on ownership of the islands. This is a deciding issue that determines whether or not Japan will be as successful and prosperous in the future as it has been in the past. It is also the question of the mentality of Japanese politicians who are very slow and reluctant to change.
Victor Sukovitsyn
Pravda.Ru
Please read complete article at link below:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/26-01-2012/120335-japan_russia_kuril_islands-0/
KawamotoDragon.com
26.01.2012 13:58
Updated 1-28-12
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_RUSSIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-28-04-13-45
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to make a six-day visit to Japan in a few days. It is expected that the host county will focus on the ever-present topic of the status of the Southern Kurils.
The current visit of Lavrov will be held sometime after another demonstrative "inspection" of the South Kurils by a high-ranking Japanese official. On January 14 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Kōichirō Gemba inspected the island from the deck of his ship, which gave rise to another wave of statements of politicians, public figures and journalists on the territorial issue between Russia and Japan.
Recently, the territorial issue for the Japanese has been more acute than ever (think "celebration" of the Northern Territories Day by the Japanese on February 7, 2011, abuse of the Russian flag and a bullet delivered to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo in an envelope). The situation is aggravated by repeated statements by the U.S. State Department of their support for Japan's territorial claims.
Russia confirmed a fair opinion on the inadmissibility of using the term "return of the islands", since such a statement carries a tint of unwillingness to accept the conditions of the postwar world. The proposed replacement term "voluntary transfer" on the one hand, emphasizes the benevolent attitude of the parties, and on the other hand, does not imply reconsideration of the results of the Second World War.
The vast majority of Russians do not accept the idea of transferring the South Kuril Islands to Japan. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the portal Superjob.ru in March of last year, even in the wake of the general sympathy for Japan after a major earthquake, 75 percent of Russians did not consider it right to give the islands to Japan. After a possible transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan border issues with countries such as China, Estonia, and Finland may escalate.
It is unacceptable both for the political leadership and for the citizens of Russia, most of whom have witnessed the dramatic events of the collapse of the USSR. In this regard, it can be argued that Russia in the foreseeable future is unlikely to change its position on the Kuril Islands. Nevertheless, the Japanese are unlikely to settle down.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japan lost its role of a "Pacific aircraft carrier" for the U.S. and started searching a new role in the region. On the one hand, in the wake of the collapse of the superpower neighbor, the desire to return the "captured" territory was revived. On the other hand, the need to adapt to gradually diminishing role of Japan for the U.S. has emerged. That is why the development of economic cooperation between Russia and Japan occurred along with the toughening of the territorial demands.
The Japanese are attracted by the natural resources of the Kurils: 1,867 tons of gold, 9,284 tons of silver, the world's largest deposit of rhenium used in jet engines creation, deposits of natural gas, oil, sea rich in plankton, and ice-free straits of Vries and Catherine. For the country that always had scarce natural resources, the possession of these islands could play a positive role.
Russia, feeling the urgent need to attract investment into its economy, has repeatedly proposed "internationalization" project of the Kuril Islands, creating an Open Economic Zone and introducing visa-free regime for Japanese nationals at the islands.
This would open up a greater access to Japanese companies to the Russian Far East. In addition, the two countries have accumulated rich experience of cooperation in Siberia, where Russian companies along with the company "Mitsui" lead the development of the Elkon uranium deposits, and on Sakhalin Island, where the "Gazprom" along with the Japanese consortium Japan Far East Gas are designing a plant for processing liquefied natural gas and its transport to Japan.
The increase in turnover is quite obvious: in 2001 it was four billion dollars a year, and in 2009 it reached 30 billion dollars. However, against the background of progress in economic cooperation, primarily in the development of the natural resources of the Far East, it is odd that Japan does not see Russia as an economic partner in the Kuriles. Japanese political elite initiated the creation of "Association for the Return of Northern Territories", and is making laws indicating that the South Kuril Islands belong to Japan.
What is behind this paradox? On the one hand, the reasons must be sought in the nature of the Japanese elite. It is a corporate group, many of whose members descended from the politicians of the early to mid-20th century (a vivid example of this is the Hatoyama family, whose representative Yukio Hatoyama served as prime minister in 2009-2010, and his grandfather, Ichiro signed the declaration of 1956 with the Soviets) .
"New players" caught in this system have to play by the established rules. This reduces the area for maneuver in decision making, which explains the commitment of the Japanese to one course. Once in the highest echelons of power in Japan, the politician must demonstrate their unanimity with the common point of view, especially in foreign affairs that are extremely important for Japan.
Loyalty to the general course is required for members of both the Democratic and Liberal-Democratic Party. This is the way to instill the necessary group characteristics of the Japanese politicians. As a result, experience has shown that Japan's position in the Kuril issue has hardly changed since coming to power of the Democratic Party, and in the near future it is unlikely to be different.
The second important point is in the peculiarities of the functioning of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In foreign matters Foreign Ministry is an intermediate between the main economic partner of Japan, the U.S., and Japanese business. On the one hand, the Japanese Foreign Ministry makes statement on favoring the activities of the Japanese companies abroad, and on the other, indicates that there are limits to observe so that the interests of U.S. companies are not hurt.
With regard to Russia, the Japanese Foreign Ministry voiced the collective position of political and business elite of Japan, as well as part of transnational corporations and the U.S. that also has its own interests in the Kuril Islands. No softening of the Japanese position is expected. The topic of ownership of the South Kuriles will long continue to hinder the development of Russian-Japanese relations.
After a major earthquake on March 11 of 2011 and accidents at nuclear power plants "Fukushima," Japan's energy crisis erupted that has increased the demand for imported energy. In the current circumstances, Russia will become a major supplier of gas to Japan, providing an opportunity for the gradual recovery of the country. This was discussed during the talks between Prime Minister of Japan Noda Yosihiko with Vladimir Putin in September of last year.
However, no progress has occurred in solving the territorial issue, and the ministers once again only touched upon the need to solve this problem. The need for new sources of energy to Japan also increased due to the threats of Iran to block Strait of Hormuz and thereby interrupt the supply of oil (the share of the Middle East in Japanese imports is 87.1 percent). Russia, according to experts, can cover approximately 10 percent of Japan's import requirements. However, Tokyo does not agree with the Russian proposals.
Last March, the presidential envoy in the Far East Federal District Viktor Ishayev said that Russia made offers to a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region for joint development of the Kuril Islands, and if Japanese companies do not participate, other investors from America, China, Brunei, Singapore, and Malaysia will be attracted.
This means that if Japan, as before, will not agree to jointly participate in the economic development of the Kuriles while maintaining them within the Russian Federation, it risks losing its leading position in the Far East of Russia and further exacerbating the crisis state of the economy. But the Japanese elite did not react to this warning.
The territorial issue for Japan is not just a disagreement with Russia (and not only with Russia, it has similar disputes with China and South Korea) on ownership of the islands. This is a deciding issue that determines whether or not Japan will be as successful and prosperous in the future as it has been in the past. It is also the question of the mentality of Japanese politicians who are very slow and reluctant to change.
Victor Sukovitsyn
Pravda.Ru
Please read complete article at link below:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/26-01-2012/120335-japan_russia_kuril_islands-0/
KawamotoDragon.com
Millions now manage aging parents' care from afar
Millions now manage aging parents' care from afar
Published January 27, 2012
Associated Press
Kristy Bryner worries her 80-year-old mom might slip and fall when she picks up the newspaper, or that she'll get in an accident when she drives to the grocery store. What if she has a medical emergency and no one's there to help? What if, like her father, her mother slips into a fog of dementia?
Those questions would be hard enough if Bryner's aging parent lived across town in Portland, Ore., but she is in Kent, Ohio. The stress of caregiving seems magnified by each of the more than 2,000 miles that separate them.
"I feel like I'm being split in half between coasts," said Bryner, 54. "I wish I knew what to do, but I don't."
As lifespans lengthen and the number of seniors rapidly grows, more Americans find themselves in Bryner's precarious position, struggling to care for an ailing loved one from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
The National Institute on Aging estimates around 7 million Americans are long-distance caregivers. Aside from economic factors that often drive people far from their hometowns, shifting demographics in the country could exacerbate the issue: Over the next four decades, the share of people 65 and older is expected to rapidly expand while the number of people under 20 will roughly hold steady. That means there will be a far smaller share of people between 20 and 64, the age group that most often is faced with caregiving.
"You just want to be in two places at once," said Kay Branch, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, but helps coordinate care for her parents in Lakeland, Fla., about 3,800 miles away.
There are no easy answers.
Bryner first became a long-distance caregiver when, more than a decade ago, her father began suffering from dementia, which consumed him until he died in 2010. She used to be able to count on help from her brother, who lived close to their parents, but he died of cancer a few years back. Her mother doesn't want to leave the house she's lived in for so long.
So Bryner talks daily with her mother via Skype, a video telephone service. She's lucky to have a job that's flexible enough that she's able to visit for a couple of weeks every few months. But she fears what may happen when her mother is not as healthy as she is now.
"Someone needs to check on her, someone needs to look out for her," she said. "And the only someone is me, and I don't live there."
Many long-distance caregivers say they insist on daily phone calls or video chats to hear or see how their loved one is doing. Oftentimes, they find another relative or a paid caregiver they can trust who is closer and able to help with some tasks.
Yet there always is the unexpected: Medical emergencies, problems with insurance coverage, urgent financial issues. Problems become far tougher to resolve when you need to hop on a plane or make a daylong drive.
"There are lots of things that you have to do that become these real exercises in futility," said Ed Rose, 49, who lives in Boston but, like his sister, travels frequently to Chicago to help care for his 106-year-old grandmother, Blanche Seelmann.
Rose has rushed to his grandmother's side for hospitalizations, and made unexpected trips to solve bureaucratic issues like retrieving a document from a safe-deposit box in order to open a bank account.
But he said he has also managed to get most of the logistics down to a routine.
He uses Skype to speak with his grandmother every day and tries to be there whenever she has a doctor's appointment. Aides handle many daily tasks and have access to a credit card for household expenses. They send him receipts so he can monitor spending. He has an apartment near his grandmother to make sure he's comfortable on his frequent visits.
Even for those who live near those they care for, travel for work can frequently make it a long-distance affair. Evelyn Castillo-Bach lives in Pembroke Pines, Fla., the same town as her 84-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. But she is on the road roughly half the year, sometimes for months at a time, both for work with her own Web company and accompanying her husband, a consultant for the United Nations.
Once, she was en route from Kosovo to Denmark when she received a call alerting her that her mother was having kidney failure and appeared as if she would die. She needed to communicate her mother's wishes from afar as her panicked sister tried to search their mother's home for her living will. Castillo-Bach didn't think she could make it in time to see her mother alive once more.
"I won't get to touch my mother again," she thought.
She was wrong. Her mother pulled through. But she says it illustrates what long-distance caregivers so frequently go through.
"This is one of the things that happens when you're thousands of miles away," Castillo-Bach said.
Lynn Feinberg, a caregiving expert at AARP, said the number of long-distance caregivers is likely to grow, particularly as a sagging economy has people taking whatever job they can get, wherever it is. Though caregiving is a major stress on anyone, distance can often magnify it, Feinberg said, and presents particular difficulty when it must be balanced with an inflexible job.
"It's a huge stress," she said. "It can have enormous implications not only for someone's quality of life, but also for someone's job."
It can also carry a huge financial burden. A November 2007 report by the National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare, a division of United Health Group, found annual expenses incurred by long-distance caregivers averaged about $8,728, far more than caregivers who lived close to their loved one. Some also had to cut back on work hours, take on debt of their own and slash their personal spending.
Even with that in mind, though, many long-distance caregivers say they don't regret their decision. Rita Morrow, who works in accounting and lives in Louisville, Ky., about a six-hour drive from her 90-year-old mother in Memphis, Tenn., does all the juggling too.
She has to remind her mother to take her medicine, make sure rides are lined up for doctor's appointments, rush to her aid if there's a problem. She knows her mom wants to stay in her home, to keep going to the church she's gone to the past 60 years, to be near her friends.
"We do what we have to do for our parents," she said. "My mother did all kinds of things for me."
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/27/millions-now-manage-aging-parents-care-from-afar/print#ixzz1khmToAfT
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/27/millions-now-manage-aging-parents-care-from-afar/
Editor's note: This article is most informative...perhaps too informative. To publicize the names of these elderly folks makes them targets for the predators from criminal enterprises such as the Probate Court of Cook County. These long distance caregivers could find their loved ones guardianized and OBRAsized and entangled into the web of evil doers. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
KawamotoDragon.com
Pentagon unveils details of US defence cuts
Pentagon unveils details of US defence cuts
Strategy announced for absorbing $487bn in defence cuts, including reducing ground forces and slowing weapons purchases.
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2012 12:16
Pentagon leaders have outlined a plan for absorbing $487bn in defence cuts over the coming decade by shrinking US ground forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter jet and retiring older planes and ships.
In a bid to pre-empt election-year Republican criticism, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, said on Thursday the plan shifts the Pentagon's focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to future challenges in Asia, the Middle East and in cyberspace.
More special operations forces such as the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden will be available around the world, he said.
"Our approach was to use this as an opportunity to maintain the strongest military in the world, to not hollow out the force," he said in a statement prepared for a Pentagon news conference.
Some US legislators were quick to dispute him.
"Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger," said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.
Panetta announced that the administration will request a 2013 budget of $525bn, plus another $88bn for operations in Afghanistan. Combined, those totals are about $33bn less than the Pentagon is spending this year.
Panetta said, however, that the Pentagon's base budget will grow to $567bn in 2017.
At that point, the cumulative budgets over five years would be $259bn less than had been planned before the administration struck a deficit-cutting deal with congress last summer that requires projected defence spending to be reduced by $487bn by 2022.
Army to shrink
Panetta announced that the army would shrink by 80,000 soldiers, from 570,000 today to 490,000 by 2017. That is slightly larger than the army on September 11, 2001.
The Marine Corps would drop from today's 202,000 to 182,000 - also above the level present during the September 11 attacks on the US.
Panetta said that the air force would retire some older planes, including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes.
Inside Story Americas examined where the new strategy would leave the US's military commitments
The navy would keep a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned. It also would delay purchase of some other ships, including a new Virginia-class submarine.
Purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets, to be fielded by the air force, navy and Marine Corps, would be slowed.
Current plans for building a new generation of submarines that carry long-range nuclear missiles would be delayed by two years, while the current fleet of nuclear-capable bombers and land-based nuclear missiles would be left unchanged.
Military pay raises will remain on track until 2015, Panetta said, when the pace of increase will be slowed by an undetermined amount.
President Barack Obama will ask congress to approve a new round of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was left vague and there is little chance that legislators would agree to this in a presidential election year.
The defence spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to congress as part of the administration's full 2013 budget on February 13.
Prominent in the Obama plan is a renewed focus on Asia, where China's rapid military modernisation has raised worry in Washington and rattled US allies.
Panetta also has made clear the administration will resist any effort to shrink the navy's fleet of aircraft carriers.
He said last weekend while on board the fleet's oldest carrier, the USS Enterprise, that keeping 11 of the warships is a "long-term commitment" that Obama believes is important to keeping the peace.
"Our view is that the carriers, because of their presence, because of the power they represent, are a very important part of our ability to maintain power projection both in the Pacific and in the Middle East," he said.
Presidential contest
The defence budget is being reshaped in the midst of a presidential contest in which Obama seeks to portray himself as a forward-looking commander in chief focusing on new security threats.
Republicans want to cast him as weak on defence.
Obama has highlighted his national security successes - the killing of Osama bin Laden, the death of senior al-Qaeda leaders and the demise of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi - to counter Republican criticism.
He also has emphasised the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Iraq and the start of a drawdown in Afghanistan as turning points that offer new opportunities to scale back defence spending.
But several congressional Republicans see a political opening in challenging the reductions in projected military spending that the party and Obama agreed to last summer as part of a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority.
They have echoed Obama's potential presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who plead for fiscal austerity but contend that sizable cuts would gut the military.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/2012126192730588814.html
Editor's note: America should take heed to the lessons of ancient history. The Ming Emperor chose to improve his gardens and parks rather than equipping his army to meet the Manchu invasion. Ironically, the Ming Emperor lost his gardens, parks, empire and life to the Manchus... Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Strategy announced for absorbing $487bn in defence cuts, including reducing ground forces and slowing weapons purchases.
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2012 12:16
Pentagon leaders have outlined a plan for absorbing $487bn in defence cuts over the coming decade by shrinking US ground forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter jet and retiring older planes and ships.
In a bid to pre-empt election-year Republican criticism, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, said on Thursday the plan shifts the Pentagon's focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to future challenges in Asia, the Middle East and in cyberspace.
More special operations forces such as the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden will be available around the world, he said.
"Our approach was to use this as an opportunity to maintain the strongest military in the world, to not hollow out the force," he said in a statement prepared for a Pentagon news conference.
Some US legislators were quick to dispute him.
"Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger," said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.
Panetta announced that the administration will request a 2013 budget of $525bn, plus another $88bn for operations in Afghanistan. Combined, those totals are about $33bn less than the Pentagon is spending this year.
Panetta said, however, that the Pentagon's base budget will grow to $567bn in 2017.
At that point, the cumulative budgets over five years would be $259bn less than had been planned before the administration struck a deficit-cutting deal with congress last summer that requires projected defence spending to be reduced by $487bn by 2022.
Army to shrink
Panetta announced that the army would shrink by 80,000 soldiers, from 570,000 today to 490,000 by 2017. That is slightly larger than the army on September 11, 2001.
The Marine Corps would drop from today's 202,000 to 182,000 - also above the level present during the September 11 attacks on the US.
Panetta said that the air force would retire some older planes, including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes.
Inside Story Americas examined where the new strategy would leave the US's military commitments
The navy would keep a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned. It also would delay purchase of some other ships, including a new Virginia-class submarine.
Purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets, to be fielded by the air force, navy and Marine Corps, would be slowed.
Current plans for building a new generation of submarines that carry long-range nuclear missiles would be delayed by two years, while the current fleet of nuclear-capable bombers and land-based nuclear missiles would be left unchanged.
Military pay raises will remain on track until 2015, Panetta said, when the pace of increase will be slowed by an undetermined amount.
President Barack Obama will ask congress to approve a new round of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was left vague and there is little chance that legislators would agree to this in a presidential election year.
The defence spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to congress as part of the administration's full 2013 budget on February 13.
Prominent in the Obama plan is a renewed focus on Asia, where China's rapid military modernisation has raised worry in Washington and rattled US allies.
Panetta also has made clear the administration will resist any effort to shrink the navy's fleet of aircraft carriers.
He said last weekend while on board the fleet's oldest carrier, the USS Enterprise, that keeping 11 of the warships is a "long-term commitment" that Obama believes is important to keeping the peace.
"Our view is that the carriers, because of their presence, because of the power they represent, are a very important part of our ability to maintain power projection both in the Pacific and in the Middle East," he said.
Presidential contest
The defence budget is being reshaped in the midst of a presidential contest in which Obama seeks to portray himself as a forward-looking commander in chief focusing on new security threats.
Republicans want to cast him as weak on defence.
Obama has highlighted his national security successes - the killing of Osama bin Laden, the death of senior al-Qaeda leaders and the demise of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi - to counter Republican criticism.
He also has emphasised the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Iraq and the start of a drawdown in Afghanistan as turning points that offer new opportunities to scale back defence spending.
But several congressional Republicans see a political opening in challenging the reductions in projected military spending that the party and Obama agreed to last summer as part of a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority.
They have echoed Obama's potential presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who plead for fiscal austerity but contend that sizable cuts would gut the military.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/2012126192730588814.html
Editor's note: America should take heed to the lessons of ancient history. The Ming Emperor chose to improve his gardens and parks rather than equipping his army to meet the Manchu invasion. Ironically, the Ming Emperor lost his gardens, parks, empire and life to the Manchus... Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Disabled patients’ wishes ignored
Disabled patients’ wishes ignored
January 22, 2012
By Peter Schworm
The wishes of individuals declared mentally incompetent often go unheeded in family court, lawyers and social workers say, costing them control over the most personal decisions.
In light of this month’s stunning family court ruling that a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized, mental health specialists say the case, while an extreme example, casts light on an often unsettling reality for those deemed unable to make decisions for themselves.
Even when individuals voice opposition to a course of treatment, from antipsychotic medication to hospitalization, the courts often rule otherwise, lawyers say.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-22/metro/30650025_1_family-court-mental-health-mental-illness
January 22, 2012
By Peter Schworm
The wishes of individuals declared mentally incompetent often go unheeded in family court, lawyers and social workers say, costing them control over the most personal decisions.
In light of this month’s stunning family court ruling that a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized, mental health specialists say the case, while an extreme example, casts light on an often unsettling reality for those deemed unable to make decisions for themselves.
Even when individuals voice opposition to a course of treatment, from antipsychotic medication to hospitalization, the courts often rule otherwise, lawyers say.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-22/metro/30650025_1_family-court-mental-health-mental-illness
Jim Reeves royalties fight focuses on treatment of singer's widow
Jim Reeves royalties fight focuses on treatment of singer's widow
Second husband seeks royalties, faces some bizarre allegations
4:36 AM, Jan. 25, 2012
A trial to determine the division of royalties earned by 1960s country star Jim Reeves entered its second day in a Nashville courtroom with testimony about the finances and mental state of Reeves’ widow, Mary Reeves Davis.
Mary Davis, suffering from dementia and other ailments, passed away in 1999 — more than 35 years after “Gentleman” Jim Reeves died in a Brentwood plane crash in 1964.
Davis owned all the rights to Reeves’ intellectual property and had successfully managed his posthumous career, which earned up to $400,000 annually.
Her second husband, Terry Davis, wants a larger share of her estate than the $100,000 in cash and some property that Mary Davis’ will would leave him. Her other surviving beneficiaries, Jim Reeves’ nephew and niece, dispute his claims. The resulting legal battle has been raging more than a dozen years.
Old report details feces, frozen cats
Mary Davis’ mental capacity, living conditions and allegations that she suffered abuse or neglect at the hands of Terry Davis are a key focus of the trial in Davidson County Probate Court.
Under Tennessee law, Davis has the right to petition for a larger share of his late wife’s estate than is specified in her will based on their 30 years of marriage.
Terry Davis, who is representing himself after firing his sixth attorney in the case last week, denies the abuse allegations.
On Tuesday, Richard Robinson, a Department of Human Services adult services supervisor, testified that DHS officials had witnessed a large number of cats as well as animal feces at the Murfreesboro trailer the Davises shared.
Reading from DHS reports from 1995 and 1996, Robinson cited one instance of Mary Davis being taken to the hospital near death, suffering from cat scratches, fever and sepsis or blood infection while in Terry Davis’ care.
Davis has been cited in the past for animal cruelty. At one point, officials found 114 dead cats in the freezer of his home. Davis has said he was waiting to build a cemetery for the deceased pets.
The trial has been slowed by Davis’ efforts to represent himself, with long pauses while Davis sits at a table reading documents to himself during questioning of witnesses. That has sparked frequent prompts from Davidson County Probate Judge Randy Kennedy to move forward.
“If you are going to ask him only one question every four or five minutes, we are going to be here a long, long time,” Kennedy told Davis on Tuesday.
The trial will continue Wednesday and likely return to court Feb. 6 to accommodate a witness’s schedule.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120125/BUSINESS01/301250090/Jim-Reeves-royalties-fight-focuses-treatment-singer-s-widow?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs
Second husband seeks royalties, faces some bizarre allegations
4:36 AM, Jan. 25, 2012
A trial to determine the division of royalties earned by 1960s country star Jim Reeves entered its second day in a Nashville courtroom with testimony about the finances and mental state of Reeves’ widow, Mary Reeves Davis.
Mary Davis, suffering from dementia and other ailments, passed away in 1999 — more than 35 years after “Gentleman” Jim Reeves died in a Brentwood plane crash in 1964.
Davis owned all the rights to Reeves’ intellectual property and had successfully managed his posthumous career, which earned up to $400,000 annually.
Her second husband, Terry Davis, wants a larger share of her estate than the $100,000 in cash and some property that Mary Davis’ will would leave him. Her other surviving beneficiaries, Jim Reeves’ nephew and niece, dispute his claims. The resulting legal battle has been raging more than a dozen years.
Old report details feces, frozen cats
Mary Davis’ mental capacity, living conditions and allegations that she suffered abuse or neglect at the hands of Terry Davis are a key focus of the trial in Davidson County Probate Court.
Under Tennessee law, Davis has the right to petition for a larger share of his late wife’s estate than is specified in her will based on their 30 years of marriage.
Terry Davis, who is representing himself after firing his sixth attorney in the case last week, denies the abuse allegations.
On Tuesday, Richard Robinson, a Department of Human Services adult services supervisor, testified that DHS officials had witnessed a large number of cats as well as animal feces at the Murfreesboro trailer the Davises shared.
Reading from DHS reports from 1995 and 1996, Robinson cited one instance of Mary Davis being taken to the hospital near death, suffering from cat scratches, fever and sepsis or blood infection while in Terry Davis’ care.
Davis has been cited in the past for animal cruelty. At one point, officials found 114 dead cats in the freezer of his home. Davis has said he was waiting to build a cemetery for the deceased pets.
The trial has been slowed by Davis’ efforts to represent himself, with long pauses while Davis sits at a table reading documents to himself during questioning of witnesses. That has sparked frequent prompts from Davidson County Probate Judge Randy Kennedy to move forward.
“If you are going to ask him only one question every four or five minutes, we are going to be here a long, long time,” Kennedy told Davis on Tuesday.
The trial will continue Wednesday and likely return to court Feb. 6 to accommodate a witness’s schedule.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120125/BUSINESS01/301250090/Jim-Reeves-royalties-fight-focuses-treatment-singer-s-widow?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs
Texas Attorney General examines Brooks Co. forfeiture fund after audit finds hundreds of thousands of dollars for cars, dinners, wares from Cavender’s Boot City
Texas Attorney General examines Brooks Co. forfeiture fund after audit finds hundreds of thousands of dollars for cars, dinners, wares from Cavender’s Boot City
Monday, Jan 23, 2012, 10:04AM CST 0 comments Add comment
By Mark Lisheron
Security on the Texas border has created yet another insidious problem: an acute shortage of public accountants to keep track of the largesse from all the illegal trafficking.
An audit of $562,000 of criminal asset forfeiture fund spending by former Brooks County Sheriff Balde Lozano has been turned over to the office of the Texas Attorney General, according to a story by the Corpus Christi Caller Times.
Lozano has not been charged with any crime.
The investigation comes eight months after a Nueces County district judge sentenced former Brooks County District Attorney Joe Frank Garza to jail and ordered more than $2 million in restitution for skimming at least $1.2 million from the same kind of fund for himself and three of his former staff members.
The same auditor in the Garza investigation said Lozano, sheriff from 1997 through 2009, spent $394,000 on 18 cars bought without county approval for reasons that appeared to have nothing to do with law enforcement. The sheriff returned $21,550 to Brooks County after five of the cars were sold, according to the audit.
Lozano, 59, now a police officer in Falfurrias, charged more than $88,000 in restaurant dinners, department and electronics stores, hotels and gas stations. The bills for Cavender’s Boot City were nearly $3,000, the audit says.
Another $80,000 went to a contractor for construction work on the sheriff's office, more than $10,000 of which went through Garza’s office first. Garza had also paid the contractor through his own forfeiture fund for work on the county jail and courthouse.
Declining an interview with the Caller Times, Lozano issued a written statement. "I have been out of politics for the last three years. It seems like the present sheriff's administration continues to try to drag me back into it. During my 12 years as Brooks County sheriff, all my funds, including seizure funds, were complete and audited yearly with no findings of improprieties or irregularities. All documents and moneys were accounted for and were left behind in proper form as requested by law."
Local officials declined to discuss the investigation. Investigators for the Attorney General's office do not comment on ongoing investigations.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/01/texas-attorney-general-examines-brooks-co-forfeiture-fund-after-audit-finds/1327333832.column
Monday, Jan 23, 2012, 10:04AM CST 0 comments Add comment
By Mark Lisheron
Security on the Texas border has created yet another insidious problem: an acute shortage of public accountants to keep track of the largesse from all the illegal trafficking.
An audit of $562,000 of criminal asset forfeiture fund spending by former Brooks County Sheriff Balde Lozano has been turned over to the office of the Texas Attorney General, according to a story by the Corpus Christi Caller Times.
Lozano has not been charged with any crime.
The investigation comes eight months after a Nueces County district judge sentenced former Brooks County District Attorney Joe Frank Garza to jail and ordered more than $2 million in restitution for skimming at least $1.2 million from the same kind of fund for himself and three of his former staff members.
The same auditor in the Garza investigation said Lozano, sheriff from 1997 through 2009, spent $394,000 on 18 cars bought without county approval for reasons that appeared to have nothing to do with law enforcement. The sheriff returned $21,550 to Brooks County after five of the cars were sold, according to the audit.
Lozano, 59, now a police officer in Falfurrias, charged more than $88,000 in restaurant dinners, department and electronics stores, hotels and gas stations. The bills for Cavender’s Boot City were nearly $3,000, the audit says.
Another $80,000 went to a contractor for construction work on the sheriff's office, more than $10,000 of which went through Garza’s office first. Garza had also paid the contractor through his own forfeiture fund for work on the county jail and courthouse.
Declining an interview with the Caller Times, Lozano issued a written statement. "I have been out of politics for the last three years. It seems like the present sheriff's administration continues to try to drag me back into it. During my 12 years as Brooks County sheriff, all my funds, including seizure funds, were complete and audited yearly with no findings of improprieties or irregularities. All documents and moneys were accounted for and were left behind in proper form as requested by law."
Local officials declined to discuss the investigation. Investigators for the Attorney General's office do not comment on ongoing investigations.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Please read complete article at link below:
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/01/texas-attorney-general-examines-brooks-co-forfeiture-fund-after-audit-finds/1327333832.column
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Pre-surgery diet linked to survival odds, study finds
Pre-surgery diet linked to survival odds, study finds
Written By Allison Becker
Published January 26, 2012
MyHealthNewsDaily
Avoiding foods that contain the amino acid tryptophan might help prepare the body for surgery, a new study suggests.
Mice that ate a tryptophan-free diet for a week or two prior to a surgical procedure, or that were treated with a drug that blocked tryptophan's effects in the body, had less damage to their kidneys and higher odds of survival than those that ate a normal diet.
"We're excited about the possibility of simple, brief dietary interventions to reduce susceptibility to surgical stress, and anxious to see if such treatments will work in people in clinical trials," said study researcher Dr. James R. Mitchell, assistant professor of genetics and complex diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health.
However, because the study involved mice, it is still unknown whether the results would apply to humans.
"We don't know how or if this will translate to humans, but we are hopeful," Mitchell said. Ultimately, the researchers would like to find an optimal diet to prepare the body for the stress of surgery, he said.
The study was published today (Jan. 25) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
What not to eat
Prior studies of fruit flies found that a protein-restricted diet extended lifespan more than carbohydrate restriction, Mitchell said. And because the researchers already knew that calorie restriction helped mice to heal, they wanted to see what role protein in the diet played.
For two weeks, the researchers fed mice either a regular or protein-free diet, and then mimicked surgery in the mice by blocking blood flow in and out of the kidneys. Afterward, they monitored the waste products in the blood to gauge how well the kidneys were working (normally, kidneys eliminate waste).
The stoppage of blood flow that occurred in the mice, known as ischemia, is a common effect of stroke and heart attack in humans, Mitchell explained. Human surgeries can increase the chance of having a heart attack or stroke, but currently few preventative measures exist. Some cardiovascular surgeries have a 10-percent risk of stroke during the procedure.
The researchers found that the mice on a protein-free diet had far less waste in their blood, meaning they had better kidney function after the surgery. In addition, 40 percent of the mice on a regular diet died, but all the mice on the protein-free diet survived.
"If our results in mice translate to people, the possibility exists to use brief dietary interventions to reduce incidence or severity of complications associated with surgery, such as heart attack or stroke," Mitchell said.
The researchers repeated the experiment, feeding the mice for six days instead of two weeks, and achieved the same results.
Next, the researchers set out to find what component in protein, when eliminated, protected the mice from kidney damage. The researchers eliminated specific amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, from the mice's diet, and found that a diet free of the amino acid tryptophan was as effective in protecting the kidneys as a protein-free diet.
Finally, they tested a drug to see if it was as beneficial as dietary changes. They injected mice for three to six days with halofuginone, which mimics the effects of being deprived of tryptophan, and found that it protected the kidneys as well.
Human benefit
"Right now, there aren't adequate ways to protect the body" from the risks of surgery, Mitchell said. A specialized diet "would be a potential way to mitigate this risk, so we need to test this in humans," he said.
Other researchers in the field of dietary restriction believe the study has substantial findings.
"The work contains high-impact data. They have linked these changes in diet to stress resistance in a major way, something many of us have been working on for years," said Dr. Holly Brown-Borg, a professor at University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences, who was not involved with the study.
Mitchell said the researchers will next focus on how to achieve maximal stress reduction, and if protein or amino acid restriction protects other organs, such as the heart and brain. "We want to know what the optimal diet and optimal timing is," he said.
The study noted that Mitchell has worked as a consultant for L-Nutra, a company that develops medical food to fight diseases.
Pass it on: A mouse study suggests that avoiding foods containing tryptophan might improve the results of surgery, but studies in humans are still needed.
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/26/pre-surgery-diet-linked-to-survival-odds-study-finds/#ixzz1kZn4aIax
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/26/pre-surgery-diet-linked-to-survival-odds-study-finds/
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