April 6, 2016


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/2016/04/05/473146450/how-will-trump-the-brand-survive-trump-the-candidate

How Will Trump The Brand Survive Trump The Candidate?
JIM ZARROLI
April 5, 20165:32 PM ET

Photograph -- Opened in 1983, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan has been a big part of the Trump brand, promoting an image for glitz and glamour. Mark Lennihan/AP


Donald Trump first made his mark in the mid-1970s by purchasing the venerable Commodore Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and covering it with stainless steel and glass.

It was the beginning of a long, carefully planned campaign to create a Trump brand of glitz and glamour — one that he would attach to everything from champagne to neckties.

Now some people think that the mud-slinging presidential campaign may have seriously damaged Trump's brand, especially with the high-income crowd he caters to.

"Among this higher-income group — the group that, at least for his hotels and golf courses and things like that would be the target group — we do think that this data is showing there could be significant problems," said Will Johnson, president of BAV Consulting, a division of the Young & Rubicam Group, which regularly surveys public attitudes about brands.

Among people with household incomes over $150,000 a year, the number who equate Trump with being "upper class" fell by 53 percent in the past two years ending in December.

Similar declines took place in the perception of Trump as "prestigious" (39 percent), "glamorous" (30 percent) and "intelligent" (29 percent). Trump did gain in the percentage of people who saw him as being "traditional," a word often associated with conservative values.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted for Forbes by the polling and consulting firm Penn Schoen Berland found that 45 percent of U.S. residents who earn at least $200,000 annually said they will make a point of not visiting a Trump hotel or golf course over the next four years.

Among them, 77 percent said they would stay away to protest his campaign. As Forbes put it:

"The results indicate that Trump's sweeping popularity among a certain swath of voters does not translate to the affluent Americans whom he seeks to attract to his luxury properties."

The results are potentially worrisome for Trump's vast and expanding business holdings, because he and his brand are essentially inseparable.

Trump may have got his start in real estate, building high-end hotels and casinos, but over the past two decades he has also lent out his name to a wide range of consumer products and services.

"Everything from meat to mortgages to vodka to bottled water. I don't think there's anything that someone might not persuade him to brand," said Michael D'Antonio, author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and The Pursuit of Success.

Because Trump's businesses are privately held, it hasn't always been easy to determine what his role in these ventures was, and how much of his own money — if any — went into them. While Trump eagerly serves as pitchman for the steaks, bottled water and suits that bear his name, he also has courted a certain ambiguity about his involvement.

"It's hard to tell when you're walking by a project, or you're a consumer looking to buy, whether the development is something he has lent or sold or rented his name [to], or whether it's one where he has his own money at risk or has his own development company in charge of doing the work," said Michael Cohen, Tri-State president of Colliers International, who has worked with Trump.

The private nature of Trump's holdings also makes it hard to know what impact the campaign is having on revenue so far.

The Trump Organization, which serves as the holding company for much of the candidate's businesses, says no evidence exists of any fallout so far.

On the contrary, Suzie Mills, general manager of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York, says business at her hotel has never been better.

"We've been very fortunate that business hasn't changed for us and we haven't seen any changes down the line for future reservations either," she said.

Customers are well aware of the campaign and frequently ask questions about Trump, she says.

"A lot of them sometimes think Mr. Trump's office is based here, and they ask, 'Are we going to see Mr. Trump?' But obviously we don't get into the politics of it. From a hotel standpoint, we do try to keep them separate," Mills says.

Trump's real estate holdings can probably survive whatever damage the campaign does, Cohen says:

"My view of history is that people have very short memories and one has to really go out of their way to have a lasting impact, to degrade a well-managed and well-established brand."

But he says a lot of the entrepreneurs and developers who have rushed to leverage Trump's name may be more cautious about doing so in the future.

"Perhaps the question we should be discussing is whether the folks who develop the buildings, as opposed to the people who are going to be buying the condos ... will continue to want to put the Trump brand on their real estate," Cohen said.



“Among people with household incomes over $150,000 a year, the number who equate Trump with being "upper class" fell by 53 percent in the past two years ending in December. Similar declines took place in the perception of Trump as "prestigious" (39 percent), "glamorous" (30 percent) and "intelligent" (29 percent). Trump did gain in the percentage of people who saw him as being "traditional," a word often associated with conservative values. Meanwhile, a survey conducted for Forbes by the polling and consulting firm Penn Schoen Berland found that 45 percent of U.S. residents who earn at least $200,000 annually said they will make a point of not visiting a Trump hotel or golf course over the next four years. …. "The results indicate that Trump's sweeping popularity among a certain swath of voters does not translate to the affluent Americans whom he seeks to attract to his luxury properties." ….. I don't think there's anything that someone might not persuade him to brand," said Michael D'Antonio, author of Never Enough: Donald Trump and The Pursuit of Success. …. "My view of history is that people have very short memories and one has to really go out of their way to have a lasting impact, to degrade a well-managed and well-established brand." But he says a lot of the entrepreneurs and developers who have rushed to leverage Trump's name may be more cautious about doing so in the future.”


“… Trump's sweeping popularity among a certain swath of voters….” That phrase comes just short of saying “the great unwashed.” It seems that as Trump changes the public opinion of himself more and more, he is ever more likely to lose any 2016 election, even if he does get the party nomination. While he proves himself to be sleazy and pretty ignorant except for business, our two Dems are both eloquent, intelligent, well-educated, well-spoken and also very popular among the voters. Of course there’s a basic difference between most Democrats and most Republicans, character is coming into play more strongly than usual. The way Hillary is being viewed progressively is, unfortunately, coming under a similar scrutiny. Whether or not she has been guilty, she is considered untrustworthy by many, while Sanders is very clean, as least as far as I know. I’m pretty happy about the election at this point, and can’t wait to go cast my ballot.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/live-updates-wisconsin-democratic-primary/

Bernie Sanders wins Wisconsin Democratic primary
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS
April 5, 2016, 2:50 PM


10:23 p.m.At an event in Laramie, Wyo., Sanders used one word repeatedly to describe his victory in Wisconsin and the path that's led him there: momentum.

CBS News Election Center
"Momentum is starting the campaign 60 to 70 points behind Sec. Clinton," he said. "Momentum is that within the last couple of weeks, there have been national polls which have had us one point up or one point down."

"We have now won seven out of eight of the last caucuses and primaries. And we have won almost all of them with overwhelming landslide numbers," he added.

berniegrab.jpg
10:19 p.m.Clinton tweeted to congratulate Sanders on his victory:


9:57 p.m.With results still coming in from across the state, here's a look at some of the key constituencies that helped contribute to Sanders' victory:

howberniewonwi.jpg
9:38 p.m. CBS News projects Bernie Sanders is the winner in Wisconsin.

9:25 p.m. Now that polls are closed in Wisconsin, here's a deeper dive into tonight's exit polling data:

As has been the pattern in previous Democratic primaries and caucuses, Sanders ran very strongly among younger voters while Clinton did better among those over 45. Sanders' lead among those under 45 is substantially larger than Clinton's margin among those over 45--he won among those under 30 by a 81- to-17 margin.

There was a significant gender gap as well: Clinton won 49 percent of women's votes, but only 37 percent of men's. Clinton also ran well ahead of Sanders among African American voters, but they were only about one out of 10 Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin. Sanders leads Clinton by almost 20 percent among white Democratic voters.

Clinton and Sanders ran about even among primary voters who said they think of themselves as Democrats, but Sanders had a big lead among independents voting in the Democratic primary.

More Democratic voters said that Clinton's policies are realistic (75 percent) than Sanders (65 percent). There is clearly an enthusiasm and inspirational gap between Sanders and Clinton: 54 percent of Sanders voters say they are excited about what he would do in office; 30 percent of Clinton voters said they were excited about what she would do in office. Fifty-nine percent of primary voters said Sanders inspires them more about the future of the country; 38 percent said that Clinton does.

On the other hand, Clinton is seen as the stronger candidate against Trump in November, by a 53-to-44 percent margin. Almost one in four of those who said that Clinton would be the strongest candidate against Trump still voted for Sanders.

9:00 p.m. Polls have closed in Wisconsin, and CBS News projects Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton.

6:50 p.m. Here's where the race currently stands between Clinton and Sanders, both in terms of delegates and in terms of state victories so far:

delegatessofar.jpg
wiwinssofar.jpg
5:52 p.m.As we wait for the polls to close in Wisconsin, here are some more highlights from the Democratic exit polls:

Democratic primary voters are divided over their expectations about life for the next generation of Americans: 33 percent think it will be better than life today, 38 percent think it will be worse, and 27 percent think it will be about the same. Sixty-two percent of Democratic primary voters say that their family's financial situation is holding steady, while 18 percent say they are falling behind and 19 percent say they are getting ahead financially.

Still, 31 percent say they are very worried about the direction of the nation's economy and 45 percent say they are somewhat worried.

5:15 p.m.Early exit polling is beginning to come in from Wisconsin. Here are a few highlights from the Democrats:

Jobs and the economy are the top concern of Democratic voters in Wisconsin, with 36 percent of them naming it as the most important issue facing the country. Second was income inequality, which 30 percent named as the most important issue.

As for the most important candidate trait, "honest and trustworthy" led with 32 percent, followed by someone with the "right experience" at 29 percent and someone who "cares about people" at 28 percent. Just 10 percent of Democratic voters said the most important candidate trait is someone who can "win in November."

witraits.jpg
5:00 p.m. Wisconsin voters are still heading to the polls in the first major primary of April, in a contest that could give Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders another fresh

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET in the state's open primary. For Democrats, 86 delegates are at stake and they are allocated proportionally to candidates that meet a 15-percent threshold.

A CBS News Battleground Tracker Poll released Sunday found Sanders with a slight lead over Clinton, 49 percent to 47 percent in Wisconsin. According to CBS News' latest count, Clinton has 1,710 delegates compared with Sanders' 999.

Follow here for live updates throughout the night.

Stony Brook University political science professor Stanley Feldman contributed to this story.


GO, BERNIE!!!



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-not-even-sure-bernie-sanders-is-a-democrat/

Hillary Clinton "not even sure" Bernie Sanders is a Democrat
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
April 6, 2016, 11:16 AM


Play VIDEO -- Bernie Sanders takes Wisconsin


Shortly after Bernie Sanders handily beat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin's Democratic primary Tuesday night, Clinton is out with questions about whether her rival, an independent senator from Vermont, was truly committed to the party.

When asked Wednesday if Clinton believed her rival was a Democrat, the former secretary of state said: "I think that he himself doesn't consider himself to be a Democrat."

"But it's up to the Democratic primary voters to make that assessment," Clinton told MSNBC. "I've been in the trenches for a long time and I believe in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. I want to see the United States Senate move back into Democratic hands."

She also hit Sanders on his recent meeting with the New York Daily News editorial board, which Clinton criticized as evidence of her rival's lack of practical strategy to deliver on his campaign promises.

"I think the interview really raised a lot of serious questions, and I look at it this way -- the core of his campaign has been break up banks and it didn't seem in reading his answers that he understood exactly how that would work under Dodd-Frank, and exactly who would be responsible, what the criteria were," she said. "That means you can't really help people, if you don't know how to do what you are campaigning on saying you want to do."

In a separate interview with Politico's Glenn Thrush, conducted April 1 but released Wednesday, Clinton called her opponent "a relatively new Democrat."

"In fact, I'm not even sure he is one," she told Thrush. "He's running as one. So I don't know quite how to characterize him. I'll leave that to him."

She added: "I don't know where he is on the spectrum, but I can tell you where I am."

In that same Politico interview, Clinton expressed frustration that the Sanders campaign is misleading voters on her policy record.

"There is a persistent, organized effort to misrepresent my record, and I don't appreciate that," the former New York senator said, pointing to the recent dustup over her campaign taking donations from oil and fossil fuel industries. "I feel sorry for a lot of the young people who are fed this list of misrepresentations."

But while Clinton is looking to halt Sanders' momentum with a win in New York's April 19 primary, some in the party are cautioning against her tactics.

David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist and Obama campaign veteran, warned in a CNN interview that Clinton shouldn't rely on such attacks on the young voters drawn to his campaign.

"One thing I would stay away from, I would stay away from the insinuation that these young people who are inspired by Bernie Sanders are dupes and they are being fed misinformation and that is why they are enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders," Axelrod said Wednesday.

"These kind of things I'm sure irritate her," he said. "The notion that she is a pawn of the oil and the fossil fuel industry when she's fought for climate change -- it irritates her."



“When asked Wednesday if Clinton believed her rival was a Democrat, the former secretary of state said: "I think that he himself doesn't consider himself to be a Democrat." "But it's up to the Democratic primary voters to make that assessment," Clinton told MSNBC. "I've been in the trenches for a long time and I believe in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. I want to see the United States Senate move back into Democratic hands." …. In a separate interview with Politico's Glenn Thrush, conducted April 1 but released Wednesday, Clinton called her opponent "a relatively new Democrat." "In fact, I'm not even sure he is one," she told Thrush. "He's running as one. So I don't know quite how to characterize him. I'll leave that to him." She added: "I don't know where he is on the spectrum, but I can tell you where I am." …. David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist and Obama campaign veteran, warned in a CNN interview that Clinton shouldn't rely on such attacks on the young voters drawn to his campaign. "One thing I would stay away from, I would stay away from the insinuation that these young people who are inspired by Bernie Sanders are dupes and they are being fed misinformation and that is why they are enthusiastic about Bernie Sanders," Axelrod said Wednesday.”


Yes, Hillary, he is a Democrat in the economically and socially liberal wing, which is my favorite philosophy. Democratic politicians have been producing “too little, too late,” for years now, and as a result some of us just don’t have much enthusiasm anymore. Then along comes Bernie. He is enthusiastic, cheerful, hopeful, eloquent, and for the 99%. He’s for unions, a much better minimum wage, social equality, and a plan to make the 1% pay a much fairer amount of tax. His goal of free college at state schools is great. There are poor people who would study harder in school if they thought they had a fighting chance to go to college. No politician can deliver a perfect situation, but he has very good goals and will make a real effort to produce results. We who like Sanders do it not because we have been “fed misinformation,” but because his plans can work. I remember Franklin Roosevelt. Democrats will have to win more seats in the legislature, of course, but I think the Republican Party is going downhill in the public view.



http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/05/473089452/how-patients-reports-on-their-health-can-help-doctors-do-a-better-job

How Patients' Reports On Their Health Can Help Doctors Do A Better Job
MICHELLE ANDREWS
April 5, 20164:03 PM ET

Photograph -- Drew Moore's mom tracks his weight, appetite and exercise daily to see if they stray from his healthy baseline. When Drew, who has cystic fibrosis, coughs, she records that, too. Courtesy of Holly Burkholder Photography
Photograph -- Erin Moore is collecting data to help her son's doctors make decisions about his cystic fibrosis care., Courtesy of the Moore family


For Erin Moore, keeping her son's cystic fibrosis in check requires careful monitoring to prevent the thick, sticky mucous his body produces from further damaging his lungs and digestive system.

Moore keeps tabs on 6-year-old Drew's weight, appetite, exercise and stools every day to see if they stray from his healthy baseline. When he develops a cough, she tracks that, too.

It has been nearly a year since Drew has been hospitalized; as a baby he was admitted up to four times annually. She credits her careful monitoring, aided by an online data tracking tool from a program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center called the Orchestra Project, with helping to keep him healthy.

"Now I have a picture of what health looks like for Drew," says Moore, 35. "Tools like Orchestra that allow patients to take a more active stance in managing our health are still really undervalued." (Moore is also a health care consultant who works part time with Cincinnati Children's on a variety of patient-centered and collaborative care projects and works with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on improving partnerships among cystic fibrosis groups and serves as a patient representative to the Food and Drug Administration.)

That attitude may be changing, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal Health Affairs that examines the movement to incorporate "patient-reported outcomes" into clinical care.

It may seem like a no-brainer to include patients' assessments of their physical and mental conditions and quality of life into medical care, but such patient-generated data have traditionally been confined to research rather than clinical settings. Clinicians have typically focused more on physical exams, medical tests and biological measures to guide patient care.

However, as patient-centered medical care has taken hold in recent years, there's been a growing interest in finding ways to use outcomes reported by individuals to help guide care.

"How are you feeling?" is a pretty standard conversation starter during a doctor's visit.

"The challenge is that we don't capture [the response] in a way that we can use [like] we do for blood pressure," says Dr. Danielle Lavallee, a research assistant professor at the department of surgery at the University of Washington and the lead author of the study.

Policy and payment changes are helping to drive the shift. For example, a pilot program mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that began last Friday requires roughly 800 hospitals in 67 metropolitan areas to bundle payments for knee and hip replacement surgeries and follow-up care. CMS will reimburse providers for collecting patient-reported outcomes. Total joint replacement surgeries for knee and hip arthritis are the most common Medicare inpatient procedures.

At the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center's arthritis and joint replacement center, pain and joint function are measured for patients considering replacement surgery and tracked at each visit. If symptoms aren't controlled with physical therapy and medical care, then patients and their doctors discuss whether surgery makes sense.

Dr. Patricia Franklin, a professor of orthopedics and physical rehabilitation at U-Mass who co-authored the Health Affairs study, and colleagues incorporated that template into a project funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that implemented patient-reported outcomes for knee and hip replacements in more than 150 surgeons' offices in 22 states.

"Patients were pleased because they saw that their assessment of their pain and function was part of the process," says Franklin. "Surgeons were glad to have the data on the severity of pain before and after surgery."

At Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the Orchestra Project provides better collaboration between providers and patients with chronic illness such as cystic fibrosis or inflammatory bowel disease, says Lisa Opipari-Arrigan, an associate professor at the hospital.

A patient will see his care team — in Drew's case, a pediatric pulmonologist, nurse, dietitian, social worker, psychologist, respiratory therapist and endocrinologist — a few times a year. But many health-care related events happen in between those visits, and they can be recorded in the tracking tool.

Together the provider and the patient decide what they want to track. Both can then monitor the details.

"It allows both the patient and clinician to see information in real time, both as a method of surveillance to find things out that are better to act on now, but also as a more specific and accurate record of what's working and for decision making," Opipari-Arrigan says.

Moore says that having concrete data has helped her work with Drew's medical team. For one thing, she doesn't have to call every time she needs to recall when a medication was changed; it's right there in the data.

Now they're also speaking the same language. "In health care it's such a struggle between the patient and the provider," Moore says. "Now we both speak data. I feel more confident and they feel like they have the information they need to make better decisions."

Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Michelle Andrews is on Twitter:@mandrews110.



"The challenge is that we don't capture [the response] in a way that we can use [like] we do for blood pressure," says Dr. Danielle Lavallee, a research assistant professor at the department of surgery at the University of Washington and the lead author of the study. Policy and payment changes are helping to drive the shift. For example, a pilot program mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that began last Friday requires roughly 800 hospitals in 67 metropolitan areas to bundle payments for knee and hip replacement surgeries and follow-up care. CMS will reimburse providers for collecting patient-reported outcomes. …. "Patients were pleased because they saw that their assessment of their pain and function was part of the process," says Franklin. "Surgeons were glad to have the data on the severity of pain before and after surgery." At Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the Orchestra Project provides better collaboration between providers and patients with chronic illness …. But many health-care related events happen in between those visits, and they can be recorded in the tracking tool. Together the provider and the patient decide what they want to track. Both can then monitor the details. …. Clinicians have typically focused more on physical exams, medical tests and biological measures to guide patient care. However, as patient-centered medical care has taken hold in recent years, there's been a growing interest in finding ways to use outcomes reported by individuals to help guide care. …. Moore says that having concrete data has helped her work with Drew's medical team. For one thing, she doesn't have to call every time she needs to recall when a medication was changed; it's right there in the data. Now they're also speaking the same language. "In health care it's such a struggle between the patient and the provider," Moore says. "Now we both speak data. I feel more confident and they feel like they have the information they need to make better decisions."


“… patients and their doctors discuss….” When I was young and even a middle aged adult (1980) doctors often acted as if my comments were naïve; my tendency to look things up at the library for an idea of what conditions were going on was “hypochondriac; and my statement of pain, if any, was possibly an attempt to get addictive drugs for my own pleasure. Sometimes they acted as though they had too little time to explain, answer a question, or that if they went into some detail I “wouldn’t understand” what they were saying. Too many of them wanted a kind of admiration of their vast superiority, and considered anything less than that to be rudeness on my part.

I have noticed changes about these things in the last 15 or 20 years as medical training centered more on the mutual relationship that is described in this article as a basic part of their “bedside manner.” My present family doctor is a young black woman who is warm, polite, and converses with me about my situation. She also sees me every few months even when I have no immediate complaint, and does regular blood tests. At my age, those things are important to me. I did like most of my doctors in the old days, but found several of them to be the “conceited” and bored kind. If medicine that isn’t spectacularly exciting (and productive of high fees) doesn’t turn a doctor on, he or she shouldn’t be in primary care.


http://www.npr.org/2016/04/05/473106012/who-decides-if-youre-too-young-to-marry

Who Decides If You're Too Young To Marry?
Heard on All Things Considered
TOVIA SMITH
April 5, 20164:47 PM ET

Graphic image -- Child brides are often associated with developing countries, but thousands of cases actually occur in the United States. A few states are pushing for laws to ban underage marriage. Eastnine Inc./ZZVE Illustrations/Getty Images
Photograph -- A photo of Rachel Holbrook on her wedding day. "The reason I smiled with my lips closed was because I still had braces and was self-conscious about them," Holbrook says. Courtesy of Rachel Holbrook
Photograph -- But the truth of the matter is I was a kid when I got married and I think that's almost in every case a bad idea. Rachel Holbrook
Photograph -- Maria Fabrizio for NPR, GOATS AND SODA, Children Get Married In The U.S., Too: #15Girls


More than 700 million women worldwide today were married as children, and most of them are in developing countries. But there is a growing recognition that many young teens are marrying in the United States as well — and several states are now taking action to stop it.

Advocates say the young marriages run the gamut: They include teens of every ethnicity and religion, teens who are American-born and teens who are not being forced into arranged marriages.

"To be honest with you, I begged my parents to let me get married," says Rachel Holbrook, who was 15 when she decided she wanted to marry her 21-year-old boyfriend.

Partly, she says, it was because of her fundamentalist Christian upbringing.

"I thought that was God's will for my life," she says. "I had been pretty much taught from birth that the highest calling of a woman was to be a wife and mother and that I needed to do that to be in God's will."

Holbrook says her other motivation was her belief that sex before marriage was a sin.

"You know, at that age, sex is very high on your priority list," she says.

After threatening to never speak to her parents again, she says they finally relented and signed papers allowing her to marry at 17.

Four kids and 12 years later, she divorced. Now, she believes teens should not be allowed to do what she did.

"I know how strongly you think you know what you want at that age," she says. "But the truth of the matter is I was a kid when I got married and I think that's almost in every case a bad idea."

Loopholes In Legal Marrying Age

Advocates say child marriage endangers girls' health, undermines their education and economic opportunities, and puts them at higher risk for domestic violence as well as divorce.

According to Jeanne Smoot of the Tahirih Justice Center, around 14,000 underage marriages occurred in the decade between 2000 and 2010 in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

"That's shocking to me," says Maryland Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary. She was also stunned by how many of those teens were 14- and 15-year-olds and how many were marrying men a decade or two older.

Like most states, Maryland sets the minimum marriage age at 18, but teens can easily get around that with a note from their parents or a doctor's note saying they're pregnant.

Atterbeary is pushing a bill to tighten those loopholes. Even stricter measures are pending in New Jersey and in New York, where Assemblywoman Amy Paulin wants to ban all marriages under 18.

"No exceptions," Paulin says. "Nothing sways me. I think it's inappropriate."

In Virginia, a bill aimed at underage marriage was just signed into law. State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel filed it after hearing that a man in his 50s was in a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. By law, that constitutes statutory rape, but when investigators started closing in on him, he married the girl, making it no longer a crime.

"People said, 'How is it possible that in Virginia that's allowed?' " Vogel says. "It's just appalling!"

Looking Out For Vulnerable Teens

"Many states have been asleep at the wheel," says Smoot. Any pregnant teen who shows up for a marriage license, she says, should set off alarm bells, not wedding bells. But in most states, clerks will simply rubber-stamp the marriages.

"I find it so troubling that [clerks] are not on the lookout, trained or mandated to consider whether there are serious child protection concerns," she says.

Smoot says teens are especially vulnerable because as minors, they can't get a restraining order or go to a domestic violence shelter. In many states, child protective services do not handle cases of spousal abuse.

Now under Virginia's new law, 16- and 17-year-olds who want to marry have to first convince a judge they should be legally emancipated and that they deserve to be seen as an adult in the eyes of the law.

"Someone would at least be looking to see that they're not being coerced, that the individual is mature enough to decide to marry and that the marriage is not going to endanger the minor in any way," Vogel says. "In that case, they'd be allowed to get married. Otherwise, you've got to be 18."

The bill passed over some objections, including from Delegate Richard Morris, who argued it would be better to change other laws, for example, to start letting minors get restraining orders, rather than have courts deciding who is mature enough to marry.

How Common Is Child Marriage?

The Tahirih Justice Center and Unchained at Last dug into marriage data from a few states. Here's a snapshot of what they found:
Virginia (2004-2013)

Close to 4,500 children were married, 90 percent of whom are girls
Nearly 90 percent were to an adult spouse

Maryland (Since 2000)
Over 3,000 children were married, 85 percent of whom are girls

Texas (2009-2013)
718 children between age 15 and 17 were married

New Jersey (1995-2012)
3,499 children were married, most of whom were between ages 16 and 17 with parental consent

New York (2000-2010)
3,853 children were married

"Is that really what we want our parental rights to come to?" Morris said during the legislative debate. "I think that is a huge infringement on parental rights and responsibilities and that's why I will not support this bill."

A group advocating for children's rights has also raised objections.

Stephanie Nilva, executive director of Day One, a nonprofit in New York that works against dating abuse and domestic violence, says she agrees that it's a good idea to have a judge make sure that parental consent is not actually parental coercion.

But she says some young people have legitimate reasons to get married. They might have custody concerns or want to secure certain spousal benefits before one of the couple is deployed in combat. Nilva says an outright ban on marriages under 18 could put some young people at risk.

"It's a little bit of a baby and a bath water thing," she says. "I just believe in the autonomy and the empowerment of youth, and that young people are in the best position to determine whether they're safe, and also whether they want to be married."

Legal To Marry, But Not To Vote?

But many who've been there will be the first to tell you, kids don't always know as much as they think.

Mary Hall was 16 when she decided marrying a guy she met five months earlier was a great idea, because her folks had just divorced and she didn't want to live with either one of them.

"It seemed like marriage was the best way out," she says.

By 20, Hall was divorced with two children. She thinks the minimum marriage age should be even higher than 18.

It makes no sense, she says, to tell teens they're too young to get a tattoo or vote — but not too young to marry.



http://www.tahirih.org/news/the-women-campaigning-to-end-child-marriage-in-the-united-states/

THE WOMEN CAMPAIGNING TO END CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 17TH, 2016 | by Fraidy Reiss and Jeanne Smoot in Girls Not Brides

Photograph -- Featured Image: Jeanne Smoot, Fraidy Reiss, and advocates delivered a petition to end child marriage in the U.S. to the White House Council on Women and Girls in March 2015.


Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of 500+ civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage, recently interviewed Jeanne Smoot, Tahirih Senior Counsel for Policy and Strategy, about Tahirih’s campaign to end child marriage in the United States.

Few people associate the United States with child marriage, a practice which affects 15 million girls every year.

That is why it may have come as a surprise to many when, last October, The New York Times reported on “America’s child marriage problem” and the legal campaign that Unchained at Last and Tahirih Justice Center are leading to prevent child marriage in the country.

As the campaign gains momentum, we spoke to Fraidy Reiss, Founder and Director of Unchained at Last who herself escaped a forced marriage, and Jeanne Smoot, Senior Counsel for Policy and Strategy at Tahirih Justice Center, about child marriage in the United States and how close we are to ending it.

Read the full interview here. Also Read: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/the-two-women-campaigning-to-end-child-marriage-in-the-united-states/, http://www.unchainedatlast.org/, and http://bahai-library.com/martharoot_tahirih_pure_1938.



“Partly, she says, it was because of her fundamentalist Christian upbringing. "I thought that was God's will for my life," she says. "I had been pretty much taught from birth that the highest calling of a woman was to be a wife and mother and that I needed to do that to be in God's will." Holbrook says her other motivation was her belief that sex before marriage was a sin. …. "I know how strongly you think you know what you want at that age," she says. "But the truth of the matter is I was a kid when I got married and I think that's almost in every case a bad idea." Loopholes In Legal Marrying Age -- Advocates say child marriage endangers girls' health, undermines their education and economic opportunities, and puts them at higher risk for domestic violence as well as divorce. …. "That's shocking to me," says Maryland Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary. She was also stunned by how many of those teens were 14- and 15-year-olds and how many were marrying men a decade or two older. …. Atterbeary is pushing a bill to tighten those loopholes. Even stricter measures are pending in New Jersey and in New York, where Assemblywoman Amy Paulin wants to ban all marriages under 18. "No exceptions," Paulin says. "Nothing sways me. I think it's inappropriate." In Virginia, a bill aimed at underage marriage was just signed into law. State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel filed it after hearing that a man in his 50s was in a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. By law, that constitutes statutory rape, but when investigators started closing in on him, he married the girl, making it no longer a crime. …. Smoot says teens are especially vulnerable because as minors, they can't get a restraining order or go to a domestic violence shelter. In many states, child protective services do not handle cases of spousal abuse. Now under Virginia's new law, 16- and 17-year-olds who want to marry have to first convince a judge they should be legally emancipated and that they deserve to be seen as an adult in the eyes of the law.


“The bill passed over some objections, including from Delegate Richard Morris, who argued it would be better to change other laws, for example, to start letting minors get restraining orders, rather than have courts deciding who is mature enough to marry.” Traditionalism, antifeminist thinking, man’s right to have sex with whoever and whenever he wants to – those are involved in this issue. When I was a teen an occasional girl (within my personal knowledge) did get pregnant and their parents may even have encouraged or forced a marriage. It goes on around the world and even in privileged households. Fear of societal disapproval (as in these religious cases) and a kind of benign neglect of girls in society are factors. Girls too often aren’t considered to “need” an education, so why send her to school? Just as this article said, her assigned position in life is to have babies and please a man in whatever way he wants. I’m glad to see groups using the legal system and the court of public opinion to stop such things. Perhaps then we will be a little way farther up the ladder of a civilized and enlightened society.



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/06/473146587/white-house-to-financial-advisers-put-savers-interests-first

White House To Financial Advisers: Put Savers' Interests First
April 6, 20166:00 AM ET
CHRIS ARNOLD
MARILYN GEEWAX


Photograph -- Labor Secretary Tom Perez speaks at a governors meeting in July. Under current rules, advisers "say things like 'we put our clients first,' " Perez said this week. Going forward, "this is no longer a slogan. It's the law." Steve Helber/AP


After more than a year of study, the White House on Wednesday finalized tougher requirements for retirement investment advisers.

The changes are intended to help Americans build bigger nest eggs while reducing fees and sales commissions they pay to advisers — keeping more money in workers retirement accounts instead of advisers pockets.

Critics say the changes will create burdensome legal requirements that could squeeze out brokers who earn commissions from working with small investors.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez, whose staff wrote the rule updates, says the new requirements will encourage long-term investing by making sure savers' financial interests get top priority in any decisions.

Under current rules, advisers "say things like, 'We put our clients first,' " he said. Going forward, "this is no longer a slogan. It's the law."

This rule-making process began in February 2015, when President Obama told the Labor Department to act upon the findings of a White House Council of Economic Advisers study. Those economists had studied the rules involving 401(k) accounts and IRAs, and concluded advisers' conflicts of interest were resulting in collective annual losses of about $17 billion for consumers.

Take this example: Say you need guidance on transferring money from an employer's 401(k) plan to your own individual retirement account. If your adviser were operating under the old rules, he would only have to recommend a "suitable" investment, such as an annuity, with no regard for the size of the commission, which can range from 1 to 10 percent.

Perez says the old rule meant that an adviser "can steer someone into a product that gives [the broker] a bigger commission at the expense of the customer's return. That's wrong."

In the future, an adviser will have a fiduciary duty. In other words, he or she has to act in the best interest of the client and put that duty ahead of the broker's own personal gain.

Retirement accounts get tax breaks, so the U.S. government has a big say in how they work under federal labor laws.

But many in the financial industry strongly object to the tougher fiduciary standard, saying it will raise their regulatory and liability costs, and make it tough to work with investors with low-balance accounts.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan sides with the brokers, tweeting last week that the final rule would become "Obamacare for financial planning." He promised to push congressional action to hold up the rule, which will not be fully implemented until January 2018.

Ryan says the new rules are too complex, costly and harmful to small investors who may get less service from advisers.

Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy expert for Public Citizen, a consumer advocate group, scoffed at such objections.

"Wall Street has argued that the hidden fees and commissions are necessary to serve lower-income investors. In effect, they're saying, 'If we can't scam them a little, we'll ignore them altogether.' This deceptive mentality is exactly why a new rule is needed," Naylor said in a statement.

Not all financial firms are against the rule. Scott Puritz is managing director of the firm Rebalance IRA. "I'm a card-carrying capitalist," he says. "And I believe that the free market if operating properly can offer the best benefit for the lowest cost."

That's why he thinks the new rule will help firms like his that he says are more competitive on price. Puritz says his advisers don't have offices all over the country. They talk to clients over the phone, which lowers costs. And he says there are no hidden fees or commissions. "The retirement investment world is really stuck in the last century, with a very expensive highly commissioned sales force selling expensive products," he says.

Some prominent investors are hopeful the rule will change that, too. David Swensen is chief investment officer for Yale University. "In the world of finance, you're dealing with an incredibly rich and powerful set of companies who aren't interested in serving their clients, they're interested in making profits," he says.

Of course, Swensen says, some financial advisers do right by their clients. But the Department of Labor requiring all advisers and brokers to be fiduciaries when it comes to retirement accounts — "it's a huge deal," Swensen says. "If you do have a true fiduciary standard, it's going to make a radical difference."

That "if" is important, though. Swensen and other experts worry there might be loopholes.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, a trade group, says it will take up the fight in Congress. NAIFA President Jules Gaudreau said financial advisers will "pursue a legislative alternative that will ensure the best interests of retirement savers without obstructing their access to much-needed advice."

NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley contributed to this story.


“After more than a year of study, the White House on Wednesday finalized tougher requirements for retirement investment advisers. The changes are intended to help Americans build bigger nest eggs while reducing fees and sales commissions they pay to advisers — keeping more money in workers retirement accounts instead of advisers pockets. …. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, whose staff wrote the rule updates, says the new requirements will encourage long-term investing by making sure savers' financial interests get top priority in any decisions. Under current rules, advisers "say things like, 'We put our clients first,' " he said. Going forward, "this is no longer a slogan. It's the law." …. Those economists had studied the rules involving 401(k) accounts and IRAs, and concluded advisers' conflicts of interest were resulting in collective annual losses of about $17 billion for consumers. …. In the future, an adviser will have a fiduciary duty. In other words, he or she has to act in the best interest of the client and put that duty ahead of the broker's own personal gain. …. "Wall Street has argued that the hidden fees and commissions are necessary to serve lower-income investors. In effect, they're saying, 'If we can't scam them a little, we'll ignore them altogether.' This deceptive mentality is exactly why a new rule is needed," Naylor said in a statement. …. Of course, Swensen says, some financial advisers do right by their clients. But the Department of Labor requiring all advisers and brokers to be fiduciaries when it comes to retirement accounts — "it's a huge deal," Swensen says. "If you do have a true fiduciary standard, it's going to make a radical difference." That "if" is important, though. Swensen and other experts worry there might be loopholes.”


Many, many businesses aren’t bound by what I consider to be the rules of fair play, especially Wall Street. As long as they operate within the letter of the law, they feel just fine about what they do. In short, they aren’t likely to end up in jail. Doctors and lawyers are in a similar category, but at least they do something useful for society.

I came to the conclusion years ago that in most cases where you find a “self-made man” you will see a scoundrel and a bully. Lying and cheating is part of the game, and amassing ever more wealth is the only goal – unless you want to get into politics like Donald Trump, of course. I think his goal is to be the most powerful man on earth.

Poor and Lower Middle Class people are at a severe disadvantage if they do decide to invest much money. Two people I know invested in the stock market and when a sudden recession hit, they lost thousands of dollars. If I win the lottery, I will spread my investments out over a wide area to prevent losing too much. For the most part, though, I’m not interested in stocks. No money either,so that's okay!



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/06/473228688/plan-for-antonin-scalia-school-of-law-is-tweaked-over-unfortunate-acronym

Plan For Antonin Scalia School Of Law Is Tweaked Over Unfortunate Acronym
BILL CHAPPELL
April 6, 201610:46 AM ET

Photograph -- A plan to rename George Mason University's law school for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (center) has been tweaked after the first name that was chosen sparked jokes on social media. Scalia is seen here with his fellow justices in 2009. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images


It must have seemed a straightforward way to honor a Supreme Court justice who was famous for, among other things, prizing straightforwardness. But then people began to titter about the unintended acronym of the Antonin Scalia School of Law – and now George Mason University has tweaked the name.

The new name for the institution in Fairfax, Va., will be the Antonin Scalia Law School, says law school dean Henry N. Butler, citing "some acronym controversy on social media" as the reason for the change. The name will become final in July, pending approval by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

In another sign of fallout from the renaming, the university is now looking at how to accommodate law school students who don't want Scalia's name on their diplomas, Butler said. While George Mason's name is the most prominent one on law school graduates' diplomas, the law school's name appears beneath the dean's signature.

Announcing the new developments in a letter to students and alumni, Butler also apologized to the many people in the university's community who were "blindsided" by the announcement, which came less than two months after Scalia died.

Saying that NPR's Nina Totenberg had learned of the looming name change and tweeted about it before a seal of confidentiality was lifted last Thursday, Butler said an embargo kept the school's leaders from discussing the matter until hours later.


In that tweet, published at 12:30 p.m., Nina reported the name that was later officially announced. She added, "The late Justice, a genuinely beloved teacher, must be on cloud nine!"

When George Mason announced the new name for its law school last Thursday, the school said it had received pledges of gifts totaling $30 million – and that to recognize the windfall, its Board of Visitors had approved the name "The Antonin Scalia School of Law."

In a news release, the school said that the combined gift – the largest it has ever received – "includes a $20 million anonymous donation and $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation."

George Mason said the decision to rename its law school for Scalia was made "with permission from the donor's family." Butler described it in more detail Tuesday, calling the $20 million a "naming gift" that was "contingent upon renaming the law school."

Last week's celebratory news release included a quote from Scalia's colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who called the late justice "a law teacher, public servant, legal commentator, and jurist nonpareil."

Ginsburg added, "As a colleague who held him in highest esteem and great affection, I miss his bright company and the stimulus he provided, his opinions ever challenging me to meet his best efforts with my own."

In Butler's note to the school Tuesday, he said he had received "a great many comments" about the gift and the law school's new name.

Of the feedback, he said, "most are simple congratulations, some congratulatory messages say they don't like the name but understand the realities and how the gift is great for the law school, many are very positive, many are very negative (almost all respectful)."

The range of that reaction was also on display in the public responses to Nina's tweet. The most popular reply — "I flat out would not attend any school named for Scalia." — drew this response: "Why not? Is the school being corrupted by Scalia's evil voodoo powers from beyond the grave?"

In addition to sparking the renaming of its law school, George Mason will use the money to boost the size of its faculty, and to create three new scholarship programs, including one that's also named for the late justice.

The goal of those programs, said Alison Price, Mason Law's associate dean for admissions, is to "open up all kinds of opportunities for students in all kinds of legal practice areas" – with the idea of helping law students graduate without crushing debt that might keep them from pursuing public service and other areas that don't bring the high salaries associated with large law firms.



“It must have seemed a straightforward way to honor a Supreme Court justice who was famous for, among other things, prizing straightforwardness. But then people began to titter about the unintended acronym of the Antonin Scalia School of Law – and now George Mason University has tweaked the name. The new name for the institution in Fairfax, Va., will be the Antonin Scalia Law School, says law school dean Henry N. Butler, citing "some acronym controversy on social media" as the reason for the change. The name will become final in July, pending approval by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. In another sign of fallout from the renaming, the university is now looking at how to accommodate law school students who don't want Scalia's name on their diplomas, Butler said. …. When George Mason announced the new name for its law school last Thursday, the school said it had received pledges of gifts totaling $30 million – and that to recognize the windfall, its Board of Visitors had approved the name "The Antonin Scalia School of Law." In a news release, the school said that the combined gift – the largest it has ever received – "includes a $20 million anonymous donation and $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation." …. In addition to sparking the renaming of its law school, George Mason will use the money to boost the size of its faculty, and to create three new scholarship programs, including one that's also named for the late justice.”


Now if we can just get Obama’s replacement nomination in the works before 2017 we’ll be okay. It’s good to know that the college will use the money partly to help less privileged law students with their debt load. I notice the Koch name popped up as a donor of $10million. Who gave the $20 mill, I wonder?



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/broken-jail-healthcare-system-poses-danger-behind-bars/

Broken jail healthcare system poses danger behind bars
By JEFF GLOR CBS NEWS April 5, 2016, 7:03 PM

Photograph -- glorprisons0405.png, Mark Burden CBS NEWS, Some might say inmates can't expect the best possible healthcare coverage, but Burden disagrees.
Photograph -- glorprisons.png, Dante Wilson complains of chest pains on the floor of his jail cell ROCK COUNTY JAIL
Photograph -- glor0405prisons.png, Danny Ray Burden, a diabetic, asked for insulin but never got it while at Grant County jail in Kentucky MARK BURDEN
Photograph -- glorprisonshealthcare.png, But problems with ACH medical staff extend beyond Kentucky. One nurse in Tennessee was convicted of covering up his failure to take an inmate's vital signs. The inmate died of a drug and alcohol overdose.
Photograph -- glorprisonsen.png, Advanced Correctional Healthcare settled at least six lawsuits with families whose relatives died from preventable causes ADVANCED CORRECTIONAL HEALTHCARE


A CBS News investigation into the deaths of jail inmates who were denied medical care that might have saved their lives found a danger behind bars. One of the nation's largest healthcare providers for county jails is fighting multiple lawsuits.

Six months ago, 39-year-old Dante Wilson was in a Wisconsin jail for a child support violation. He complained of chest pains. The jail nurse concluded he had heartburn and gave him two Tums.

Less than an hour later, Wilson asked for help again. "Relax," was the nurse's advice. Soon after, Wilson died of a heart attack.

The nurse told a detective weeks later: "Yeah, we don't wanna drag it out, s--t happens."

The nurse was fired. She worked for Advanced Correctional Healthcare, a company serving 255 correctional facilities in 17 states.

Dante Wilson's death was not unique. We found ACH settled at least six lawsuits with families whose relatives died from preventable causes. Like Wilson, the inmates were charged with non-violent offenses.

Including Danny Ray Burden, a diabetic accused of insurance fraud. A police investigation showed he asked for insulin, but never got it and collapsed.

"He didn't deserve a death sentence at Grant County jail," said his brother, Mark Burden, a retired Kentucky state police detective.

Jail records show Burden had prescription drugs in his system and his cause of death was inconclusive -- but a later police investigation found that Burden should have been sent straight to the hospital.

"I think that if you go to jail and you got a medical condition, like my brother was disclosing an emergency condition, you should be checked out by a physician at any hospital," he said.

What's even more troubling for Burden is that his younger brother asked for medical care, and there's a hospital just next door -- so close you can walk there in less than two minutes.

"Always protect your younger brother. If he gets into a fight at school, who's supposed to protect him? The older brother. And it's just hard to accept as a family, when you can't do that."

Six weeks before Danny Ray died, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the jail warning "unqualified staff are serving as gatekeepers to medical care." ACH would not talk to CBS News on camera, but they told us "staffing decisions are dictated by local jail administration."

Another inmate in Ohio died from a bleeding ulcer where the medical examiner concluded the "need for urgent medical intervention" would have been obvious to anyone. In one Alabama jail, three wrongful death lawsuits are pending -- including one for a 19-year-old accused of shoplifting. He was found naked with gangrene in his leg.

In their promotional material, ACH claims they provide better healthcare than inmates would receive outside of jail, and at a competitive price.

They say they can save jails a lot of money, but as Burden put it: "at the expense of someone's life -- at the expense of my brother's life."

ACH lost their contract with the jail where Danny Ray Burden died. The company is still promising other jails it can save them significant amounts of money. ACH told us they ''do not hire people we believe to be dangerous or unfit for the job."



https://www.advancedch.com/

https://shadowproof.com/2015/08/10/advanced-correctional-healthcare-doctor-faces-multiple-federal-lawsuits/

ADVANCED CORRECTIONAL HEALTHCARE DOCTOR FACES MULTIPLE FEDERAL LAWSUITS
BRIAN SONENSTEIN
AUGUST 10, 2015

Photograph -- File: A doctor's station in a hospital. Multiple lawsuits accuse an Advanced Correctional Healthcare doctor of negligence toward incarcerated patients. (Morguefile)

Editor’s Note
This is part two of Gaming the System, Brian Sonenstein’s three-part series on the privatization of correctional healthcare. -KO
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

An ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit alleges in less than one month at Indiana’s Dearborn County Detention Center, jail staff neglected the obvious and critical medical needs of a 69-year-old inmate, allowing his conditions to deteriorate so severely he would later spend nearly 200 days recovering in hospitals and nursing homes.

Advanced Correctional Healthcare and one of their doctors, Dr. Nadir Al-Shami, were responsible for the medical care of inmate Timothy Strayer. They are no longer named in the ongoing lawsuit he filed two years ago, but the company’s policies and the conduct of their staff lay at the heart of this story. As a result, the Strayers now potentially face hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

But Strayer is not the only inmate to have suffered under the Advanced Correctional Healthcare regime. A three-month Shadowproof investigation uncovered multiple allegations of misconduct at various jails served by the company and, specifically, Dr. Al-Shami.

Dr. Al-Shami has been sued in multiple states because ACH physicians are what is known as “circuit riders.” They serve as the site physicians for more than one jail at a time, managing the healthcare of hundreds of inmates. These doctors are also on-call to fill in for one another in the event they can’t make their shifts.

Although ACH contracts stipulate their site physicians are supposed to visit their jails once a week, the majority of their day-to-day care is provided over the telephone because the doctors usually live far from the facilities to which they are assigned. Under this arrangement, inmate complaints are often first evaluated by the jail’s staff. If a nurse or medical assistant can’t manage the complaint on their own, they call the site physician.

Analysis of statements by ACH officials indicate the company believes the key to efficiency in so-called “correctional health care” is discerning when and when not to treat an inmate’s medical issue. This includes decisions to discontinue or alter prescription medications ACH deems, in their own words, “inappropriate” for use on the inside.

ACH’s contracts are especially attractive because they provide medical services at a substantially reduced cost compared to what local governments would pay to provide care on their own. Because ACH’s clients are most often cash-strapped local sheriff’s offices looking to control their booming spending on inmate health care, it’s imperative companies like ACH deliver their services at a discount.

But there is a high cost associated with the seductive savings of privatized inmate healthcare. Some evidence of this has been reported by local news outlets over the years, but for the most part they have gone largely unnoticed. For instance, in 2014, the company was accused of “[withholding] the most basic medical care in order to save money, banking on the insurance of the medical contractor to cover any resulting lawsuits.” This included the case of a 19-year-old inmate who died of gangrene, naked on the floor of his cell, while in jail for stealing Star Wars DVDs and attempting to pass a fake $100 bill.

Earlier this year, I covered the story of another inmate named Brandon Clint Hacker, whose mother sued Advanced Correctional Healthcare and Doctor Nadir Al-Shami after her son died from heroin withdrawal at the Madison County Detention Center in Kentucky.

Dr. Al-Shami’s actions as told through multiple federal complaints further illustrates how the cost-saving policies of private inmate healthcare companies can have devastating effects.

Kenneth Collins

In November 2013, Kenneth Collins initiated a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Seymour, Indiana, several local police and jail officers, Dr. Nadir Al-Shami and Advanced Correctional Healthcare over “inadequate medical care” following his arrest and incarceration the year before.

According to the complaint, Collins had been arrested on August 12, 2012, for driving under the influence with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.28. Collins anticipated he would undergo alcohol withdrawal and requested to be taken to the hospital. Despite Jackson County Jail’s policy of not booking inmates with a BAC over 0.25, Collins claims Officer Cornwell held him in the station and falsely stated he had taken the inmate to the emergency room, where doctors had cleared him to go to jail.

Withdrawing from alcohol, Collins experienced severe delirium tremens, which is usually considered a medical emergency and has a high mortality rate. But two days after his arrest, on August 14, Collins was still in his cell, not in a hospital. A guard reported “Collins was talking to someone but was housed by himself.” When the two spoke, the officer noted Collins “knew where he was but was indifferent about who I was and his surroundings.”

Collins met with licensed practical nurse (LPN) Amber Easterday on August 15. She noted her patient appeared to be “paranoid and delusional” and described an encounter in which Collins told her, “I can’t get away from the door, because they’ll bust it down. I know they are there.” She had also reported Collins had told other jail staff he was on an elevator but had “called the wrong number.”

Dr. Al-Shami was unavailable when Easterday called that day, so she spoke with the next ACH doctor on-call, referred to only as “Dr. Butler,” who advised her to administer a one-time dose of Haldol and take Collins to the hospital if his condition did not improve in two hours. Dr. Al-Shami called back and Easterday said his condition was not improving. She was unable to take his vital signs. He was taken to the hospital for “acute dillusions [sic] (alcohol withdrawal).” The hospital allegedly did not want Collins discharged, but the jail insisted he be returned.

A jail log entry filed at 5:35 AM on August 16, 2012, stated, “Collins has been getting worse all night long.” Collins’ was not sleeping and had been found standing on top of his bunk.

A log dated August 17 stated an officer had been unable to take Collins’ vital signs for ten days “due to his physical state.” He was placed on a daily regimen of Librium, a sedative. Another log from that day prescribed treatments for a wound he had sustained on his shin and noted the Wound Care unit was “unable to see inmate Collins until his mental status and detoxing improves.”

On August 19, an officer reported Collins, “believed he was in the room of a house and [couldn’t] fix it.” Another officer witnessed Collins prodding at his leg wound using a broken piece of his eye glasses. The glasses were taken from him and his leg was cleaned and bandaged.

Just over one week after Collins had been incarcerated, logs from August 20 claimed Collins was “still talking like he is somewhere else” and told staff he believed “two kids [were] going around stealing stuff.”

By August 22, jail records indicate Collins was being taken to the shower in a wheelchair. Observation logs from that day indicate that, between 6:00 AM and 7:15 AM, he was “laying on floor naked.” He was given dextrose tablets because he had not been eating his food.

The next day, at around 10:00 AM, Nurse Easterday filed a report stating Collins was “unable to converse or maintain eye contact.” She wrote:

[Collins] is not able to stand or sit up without assistance. Appears to have urinated on himself. Skin is damp and yellow tinged. Was able to get him to take his medication with assistance, as well as eat 3 bites of a peanut butter sandwich. […] I called Dr. Alshami [sic] concerning his altered mental status and overall condition. Dr. Alshami [sic] advised to take him to the ER for labwork, fluids and further evaluation for possible liver failure. Inmate was taken to ER via ambulance, and officer T. Baxter followed. Nothing further at this time.

By now, Collins was suffering from broken ribs and seizures, as well as hypothermia, hypertension, acute respiratory failure, dehydration and acute kidney injury. He was released on his own recognizance that day after being taken to the hospital; liability for his medical care was transferred to him from the county.

According to the lawsuit, Collins was “sedated, put on a ventilator, and given treatment to raise his body temperature. He was kept in the ICU until September 4, did not regain consciousness until September 8, and was discharged from the hospital on September 12th.”

The lawsuit maintains Dr. Al-Shami allowed Collins’ condition to deteriorate so much so that he suffered “unnecessary injuries that he would not have otherwise experienced.” It alleges the inadequate medical care Dr. Al-Shami provided to Collins “was objectively unreasonable and constituted deliberate indifference to his serious medical conditions.”

In an affidavit, Dr. Al-Shami contended there was nothing inadequate about his care, and that he was never contacted about Collins during the five day period from August 18-22, in which Collins’ condition dramatically deteriorated.

Dan Brewington

Dan Brewington is an Ohio blogger, who was jailed in 2011 for intimidating a judge after he spent two years criticizing the handling of his divorce and custody proceedings on his website. After a controversial trial, he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and subsequently became a patient of Dr. Nadir Al-Shami.

Brewington was at Dearborn County Jail at the same time as Timothy Strayer. He remembers telling another inmate Strayer looked like he was dying. “You knew it wasn’t right,” he told me in an interview this past spring. “You could just get that vibe in the jail, that people were concerned about him. There’s no way [jail and medical staff] could say they didn’t know.”

Brewington was personally familiar with the quality of healthcare being provided by Advanced Correctional Healthcare’s Dr. Al-Shami. In a blog post from September 2011, Brewington claimed his prescription regimen was changed substantially upon his arrival in jail. He said Dr. Al-Shami altered his prescription for Ritalin without consulting with his prescribing physicians, writing, “[Dr. Al-Shami] had to consult with a prescription reference book to determine what average Ritalin dosages [sic] actually were before he altered the dose of my prescribing physician, who specializes in treating adults diagnosed with ADHD.”

Brewington also said Dr. Al-Shami changed the scheduling of his doses, prescribing one of his twice-daily doses of Ritalin at night despite the fact that insomnia is a common side effect of the drug. He said he suffered from withdrawal after his medication was abruptly reduced upon his incarceration.

Danny Ray Burden

Danny Ray Burden was the brother of Mark Burden, Detective Sergeant for the Kentucky State Police. He was sentenced to jail on March 27, 2013. When he arrived at the Grant County Detention Center, he told the intake nurse he was “medically diagnosed as an insulin dependent diabetic and also suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulminary Disease (COPD) and anxiety/panic attacks.” Burden received treatment for all three of those conditions prior to his incarceration.

According to the Virginia Mason Medical Center, normal blood sugar levels range between 70-140mg/dL. Before he was booked at the jail, the lawsuit states Nurse Kiefner took Burden’s blood sugar level. It was 336mg/dL. A glucose level as high as Burden’s should have provoked an immediate emergency medical intervention.

Kiefner called Dr. Al-Shami, who upon learning of his blood glucose level directed Kiefner to administer an insulin injection. However, she failed to administer the injection.

At 12:41 PM, Burden was seated for booking and given food. The deputy began asking him questions, but Burden was “increasingly lethargic to the point of nodding off and becoming incoherent and inconsistent with his answers.” About an hour and fifteen minutes later, Burden was struggling to stay alert and requested insulin, but that request was not met.

Burden began “coughing profusely.” The deputy stopped the booking process and asked him if he needed emergency medical attention. Burden said he did and also told the deputy he suffered from panic attacks and claustrophobia. The nurse advised ACH staff of the request for medical attention, but staff “failed and refused” to comply.

The nurse came to the booking area to take his vital signs, all of which should have indicated he was experiencing a medical emergency. Instead of sending him to the hospital, she allowed the booking process to continue.

Fifteen minutes later, his booking was suspended because Burden “was unable to stay awake and coherent in order to complete the process.” The complaint alleges Chief Warrant Officer McCarthy decided Burden should, at that point, be put in a detox cell.

McCarthy directed another officer to assign inmate trustees to watch over Burden. Around 3:00pm, the trustees found him unconscious on the floor. They tried to wake him but could not. The deputy arrived on the scene and made an unsuccessful attempt to wake Burden. Another deputy came and attempted to wake Burden by “knocking on his cell door, calling [his] name and, once inside the cell, banging on the sink with his keys.” Those attempts failed as well.

The officers requested medical assistance and a nurse came on the scene with smelling salts, which did not revive him. Another nurse came but could not wake Burden. It was not until about twenty minutes after inmate trustees initially found Burden that emergency medical services were contacted. When EMS arrived, they tried to resuscitate Burden but could not. He was admitted to the hospital for “altered mental status and cardiac arrest.”

Burden’s mother contacted the jail and was told her son had been taken to the hospital. Officials allegedly told her she had to come to the jail before the hospital “to sign a release bond,” despite the fact that this is not actually required by law. They did not inform her that her son was dying.

Burden’s mother did as she was told and went to the jail first. The lawsuit states “by taking the time to divert her travels to the [jail] to sign the ‘bond,’ she never saw her son conscious or alive again.” He was pronounced dead on April 4.



This is one of those super sad stories. Read them both for yourself. They’re too long for me to excerpt sections as I usually do. For Profit prisons and For Profit medical facilities have been in the news more than once in the last several years for scamming the public and mistreating prisoners. The purely capitalistic way of life is a “road to perdition” in my view, and both these things are well within the law. We need a new set of laws that make sense for everybody, not just the wealthy.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/newtown-teacher-accused-of-bringing-gun-to-school/

Newtown teacher accused of bringing gun to school
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP
April 6, 2016, 3:44 PM

Photograph -- Jason Adams NEWTOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT


NEWTOWN, Conn. --A middle school teacher in Newtown, Connecticut, was arrested on Wednesday morning for allegedly carrying a gun in school, police said.

The teacher, identified as 46-year-old Jason Adams, was seen walking into Newtown Middle School with the concealed firearm, according to police. He was detained by school security until officers arrived and arrested him.

Adams was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds. Newtown Police Chief James Viadero said in a statement released Wednesday that he has a valid pistol permit, but is not authorized to carry a weapon on school property.

The Newtown Public School system said in the statement that Adams has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

"This matter is very serious and troubling, both the Newtown Public School system and the Newtown Police Department took immediate steps to address the matter," Newtown schools said in the statement.

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed his mother before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where he murdered 20 students and six staff members before killing himself.



“Adams was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds. Newtown Police Chief James Viadero said in a statement released Wednesday that he has a valid pistol permit, but is not authorized to carry a weapon on school property.”

I am glad to see that no shooting occurred here, but then there wasn’t time. I wonder what his INTENTION was? He was stopped immediately after he walked in the door. They must have a metal detector on the door, or perhaps it wasn’t concealed well enough. Why do so many Americans think they need a firearm in a quiet little town like this? That’s like those fat, middle aged hoodlums who were on the Web walking through the neighborhood Walmart a few months ago with huge AK47s etc. strapped across their chests. If that’s good citizenship today, we really are on the way downhill fast.