March 31, 2014

Medicare fraud of $1.4M lands father, son from Grand Prairie in federal prison

A father and son from Grand Prairie who conspired to defraud Medicare with a doctor from Garland were sentenced Monday to federal prison.

Lawrence Dale St. John, 67, was dealt 262 months, or nearly 22 years, and Jeffrey Dale St. John, 42, got 135 months, or just over 11 years, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Both must also pay restitution to the government for their roles in the multimillion-dollar house-call fraud scheme.

-snip-

Prosecutors say ... Lawrence Dale St. John and his son Jeffrey Dale St. John of Grand Prairie, racked up $1.4 million in fraudulent claims.

More at http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/garland-doctor-gets-prison-must-pay-nearly-10-million-in-restitution-for-medicare-fraud.html/ .

March 31, 2014

LBJ Library civil rights summit tickets sold out

Tickets available to the public for the LBJ Library’s summit on Lyndon B. Johnson’s civil rights legacy were gone 19 minutes after they became available Monday morning.

The summit, to be held April 8-10, will include appearances by President Barack Obama and three former presidents, as well as other dignitaries, activists, politicians, historians and musicians.

A library spokeswoman said a portion of the available seats were reserved for the University of Texas community, which used a lottery to award available slots. She could not say how many seats were made available to the public Monday.

All of the summit events will be live-streamed. For more on streaming go to civilrightssummit.org/updates/#live.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/lbj-library-civil-rights-summit-tickets-sold-out/nfPRn/

March 31, 2014

Albuquerque police face hundreds of protesters; cyberattack on Website.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque on Sunday, days after a YouTube video emerged threatening retaliation for a recent deadly police shooting.

The video, which bore the logo of the computer hacking collective Anonymous, warned of a cyberattack on city websites and called for the protest march.

Albuquerque police said their site had been breached early Sunday afternoon and remained down hours later.

Investigators had not uncovered the source of the hack, police spokesman Simon Drobik said.

More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25450442/albuquerque-police-face-hundreds-protesters .

Additional story at http://revolution-news.com/anonymous-launches-opalbuquerque-senseless-police-shooting-scared-apd-removes-sites/ .

The Occupy video discusses the shooting of a homeless man that may have been schizophrenic.

Cross-posted in the New Mexico Group.

March 31, 2014

Albuquerque police face hundreds of protesters; cyberattack on Website.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Hundreds of protesters marched past riot police in Albuquerque on Sunday, days after a YouTube video emerged threatening retaliation for a recent deadly police shooting.

The video, which bore the logo of the computer hacking collective Anonymous, warned of a cyberattack on city websites and called for the protest march.

Albuquerque police said their site had been breached early Sunday afternoon and remained down hours later.

Investigators had not uncovered the source of the hack, police spokesman Simon Drobik said.

More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25450442/albuquerque-police-face-hundreds-protesters .

Additional story at http://revolution-news.com/anonymous-launches-opalbuquerque-senseless-police-shooting-scared-apd-removes-sites/ .

The Occupy video discusses the shooting of a homeless man that may have been schizophrenic.

Cross-posted in the Occupy Underground Group.

March 31, 2014

BaneCat--Sleep With One Eye Open

Move over, Christian Bale and Tom Hardy.

The latest take on 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” makes a major Batman nemesis seem somehow even scarier. It might be the claws.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, “Bane Cat” has gone viral. A search on Google produces 16.4 million hits, and counting.

Robs Rants announced on March 24 that he’s going to make “Bane Cat” a regular series on his YouTube channel. And it’s going to be popular. As of the end of March, the first installment for his villainous feline had already lured nearly 2 million hits, and growing. Fast.

More at http://blog.chron.com/hottopics/2014/03/peanut-goes-viral-as-a-batman-villain-2/?cmpid=hpts .

March 31, 2014

Greg Abbott's Serape and Leticia's Coming to Lubbock

[font color=green]Note: I am able to see the picture because the Stop Tony Meow app didn't replace it with a kitteh picture since "Abbott" wasn't in the tag line.[/font]

By Carol Morgan

I was performing my obligatory morning reading and research and there it was...

A picture of Greg Abbott wrapped in a colorful traditional Mexican serape atop a headline that read: Abbott Sees Future Linked To Hispanic Voters.

The image caused me to laugh uncontrollably for about ten minutes. It looked contrived and disingenuous and Abbott appeared to be about as comfortable as a lady of the evening at a Sunday morning sermon.

When will the pandering stop? Abbott is high on rhetoric, but his history as Attorney General doesn’t match his magniloquence. Abbott can don all the serapes and sombreros he likes, toss some tortillas around with his “meet my Latina wife” meme, but it won’t erase his history of bad policies that directly affect the population he tries so hard to attract.

More at http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-03-30/greg-abbotts-serape-and-leticias-coming-lubbock .

[font color=green]I love Carol's statement near the end of her blog, "As of right now, there are no guarantees of a November victory in this area, but one thing I can predict is that on Wednesday, she (Leticia Van de Putte) will not say, 'Meet my white husband.'"[/font]

March 31, 2014

Reps. Farrar, Howard & Dukes: All The King's Horses & All The King's Women...Fixing What They Broke

As recognized leaders in the area of women's health in the Texas Legislature, we have been deeply troubled and outraged by lawmakers' actions in recent years which have strongly compromised access to women's health services in the state, particularly the dramatic cuts to family planning funding in 2011. Leading up to last year's 83rd Legislative Session, we worked tirelessly to bring attention to the devastating impact of those cuts, and to educate our colleagues on the resulting closure of clinics throughout Texas. We were grateful to have bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate come together and restore funding for family planning, albeit to a different system of delivery. However, it now appears that some of our Republican colleagues are choosing to use this momentary display of common sense as a means of rewriting the past, and excusing their actions in the time that has followed.

The year 2011 was disastrous for women's health in Texas. The Legislature cut family planning funding by two-thirds - a loss of $73 million - despite projections from the Legislative Budget Board that this action could result in 20,500 unplanned pregnancies, costing the state an extra $230 million in Medicaid expenditures. Additionally, new legislative mandates resulted in the state ending its participation in the Medicaid Women's Health Program (WHP), leaving about $30 million in federal funds on the table annually. Contrary to any claims that these changes were somehow related to the recession, these actions were a coordinated, politically motivated attempt to bar a single qualified provider - Planned Parenthood - from receiving state funding. As if it weren't bad enough that the state's single largest provider of women's health services was shut out, the Legislature's decisions resulted in the shuttering of dozens of additional clinics who had zero affiliation with Planned Parenthood. And ignore the abortion red herring - state dollars were already and continue to be prohibited from funding abortions.

Following the protests and entreaties of health advocates and medical professionals, the state has since taken some steps to reverse course, but these advances have come with problems of their own. The Health & Human Services Commission replaced the highly successful federally-funded WHP with a Texas version, sans Planned Parenthood, now paid for completely at state expense. Furthermore, the rollout of the Texas Women's Health Program website was disastrous, its list of providers has been artificially inflated and riddled with errors, there's still no sign that its provider network can make up for the loss of Planned Parenthood, and enrollment and claims have both dropped significantly compared to the old WHP. And though the Legislature secured $100 million for a new Expanded Primary Health Care for Women program and expects to direct 60% of those funds toward family planning services, once again, the provider network is questionable, and the delivery of services is anticipated to be much more costly than the previous system. All the king's horses and all the king's women can't quite put this program back together again.

The state's family planning safety net took years to build, and the 76 clinics that were forced to close since 2011 will not be easily replaced. Even if everything goes according to plan, the current system is expected to serve only about one-third of Texas women in need of these services. Keeping this in mind, it's difficult for us to be wildly complimentary of our Republican colleagues who voted to destroy a successful program and then congratulate themselves for restoring dollars to clean up the mess. And though we will continue to push our fellow legislators to address our state's rate of uninsured - the highest in the nation - by adopting Medicaid Expansion and by embracing the Affordable Care Act, which provides women with preventive services, including contraceptives, with no co-pay, we still feel rage over 2011's cuts and last summer's two special sessions on unnecessary anti-choice legislation.

Make no mistake, we would love to stop talking about the war on women. But for that to happen, Republicans - including so-called Red State Women - will need to stop inserting themselves into the doctor-patient relationship, refrain from any further obsessive attempts to reduce access to legal reproductive health services, and quit using anti-woman legislation to boost their chances in a primary election. Until then, we'll call 'em like we see 'em.

Rep. Jessica Farrar has served in the Texas House since 1995, and represents Harris County. Reps. Dukes and Howard have served since 1995 and 2006, respectively, and represent Travis County.

http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/15025/oped-all-the-kings-horses-and-all-the-kings-women

March 31, 2014

Texas State Senator Sylvia R. Garcia: Do you call this progress? I don’t

By Texas State Senator Sylvia R. Garcia - District 6

Women throughout Texas have suffered a devastating loss of lifesaving access to health care. Over the last several years, more than 200,000 Texas women have lost their access to basic health care including cancer screenings, birth control, and the providers they trust. Seventy-six neighborhood health centers have had to close their doors.

The real life impact of these policies is severe and heartbreaking. Access to quality, affordable health care is not a political issue, no matter how much partisans in power have tried to make it one. It is a deeply personal issue. When a woman finds a lump in her breast, only to learn that the health care center she relied on is closed, no amount of political posturing alleviates her deep fear. When a woman in the Rio Grande Valley loses access to her annual exam, there is no talking point that will give her back the care she needs.

But now, in an infuriating and insulting twist, it seems as if those who caused such harm expect Texas women to send them Thank You cards. Despite all facts and experience to the contrary, those who cut access to care would like Texas women to believe their access has improved. It is outrageous to decimate women’s access to basic health care. It is even more outrageous to deny the realities of hundreds of thousands of Texas women.

Texas women, however, are anything but stupid. They understand the real world impact these policies have caused in their lives. Last summer made very clear that women are paying attention, and they know what harm has been dealt them.

The facts are that in 2011 the Texas Legislature slashed funding for the state’s family planning program by two-thirds and implemented a tiered funding system that excluded specialty family planning providers like Planned Parenthood from the program. As a result, Texas’ family planning program served only 75,160 women in 2012—63% fewer women than in 2011—and paid 15% more per client for care. This reduced access to birth control is expected to cost Texas taxpayers up to $273 million.

As a direct result of these policies, 76 health centers have closed or stopped providing family planning services and another 55 providers have reduced their hours.

During the most recent legislative session, the Texas Legislature adopted a biennial budget for 2014-15 that added $100 million in new funding to the state’s primary care program for women’s health, including family planning. But this new funding will primarily go to organizations that have not traditionally been the lead provider of family planning services in Texas. Despite the infusion of funding, Texas is still struggling to provide care for as many women as were being served before the budget shredding in 2011.

In yet another move to politicize women’s health care, in 2011, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission adopted rules that would exclude Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. Nearly 40% of the women in the program relied on Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings, birth control, and other preventive health care.

In order to circumvent federal law preventing Texas from denying women access to qualified providers like Planned Parenthood, state lawmakers ended the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, rejecting approximately $40 million in federal matching funds for the program that covered 90% of the program’s cost. Researchers from George Washington University concluded that alternative providers are unable to handle the massive increase of patients that would be necessary to preserve the level of care the program provided in 2011 without Planned Parenthood. During the first six months of the new program, it was reported that birth control services declined by 38% and the number of well woman exams decreased by 23% overall.

No amount of fuzzy math or spin changes these facts, or the reality that women throughout the state are unable to get the care they need and deserve. What can change that reality is this November’s election. Women will decide the outcome of this election. And one fact we can all agree on is that you can’t win in Texas by working against Texas women.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/pearland/opinion/garcia-do-you-call-this-progress-i-don-t/article_0b32ac1e-5c72-5ec5-a735-18504e15ab70.html (Pearland News Journal)

March 31, 2014

Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Dr. Quincy T. Mills, Associate Professor of History at Vassar College and author of Cutting Along the Color Line
: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America.

Today, black-owned barber shops play a central role in African American public life. The intimacy of commercial grooming encourages both confidentiality and camaraderie, which make the barber shop an important gathering place for African American men to talk freely. But for many years preceding and even after the Civil War, black barbers endured a measure of social stigma for perpetuating inequality: though the profession offered economic mobility to black entrepreneurs, black barbers were obliged by custom to serve an exclusively white clientele. Mills traces the lineage from these nineteenth-century barbers to the bustling enterprises of today, demonstrating that the livelihood offered by the service economy was crucial to the development of a black commercial sphere and the barber shop as a democratic social space. 



Cutting Along the Color Line chronicles the cultural history of black barber shops as businesses and civic institutions. Through several generations of barbers, Mills examines the transition from slavery to freedom in the nineteenth century, the early twentieth-century expansion of black consumerism, and the challenges of professionalization, licensing laws, and competition from white barbers. He finds that the profession played a significant though complicated role in twentieth-century racial politics: while the services of shaving and grooming were instrumental in the creation of socially acceptable black masculinity, barbering permitted the financial independence to maintain public spaces that fostered civil rights politics. This engaging history of an iconic cultural establishment shows that black entrepreneurship was intimately linked to the struggle for equality.

There is a half-hour podcast at http://kut.org/post/cutting-along-color-line-black-barbers-and-barber-shops-america .

March 30, 2014

Teachers who expect to be hit, punched, kicked

LUBBOCK — Special education teachers go to work every day expecting to be hit, punched and kicked.

"It's part of our job description," said Kami Finger, executive director of special education for the Lubbock Independent School District.

But Finger, a former teacher, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (http://bit.ly/1gX3QhZ) that she believes it's a gift — a calling that stays with special education teachers even on days when some feel like pulling their hair out, or they had a student try.

LISD recently allowed A-J Media to tour the district's special education classrooms and facilities — a tour that revealed the bond between a special needs student and his or her teacher.

More at http://www.caller.com/news/2014/mar/30/teachers-who-expect-be-hit-punched-kicked/ .