Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 22, 2014
G'mornin', folks! And a beautiful mornin' it is!
Partly cloudy...? Yep. But being a glass half full kinda guy I prefer to refer to the morn as partly sunny!
Showers expected later... in the afternoon...? Yep! Oh, well... we're all lookin' forward to a nice green spring and summer, right? We're beings made of 98% water, right? So what the hell... bring on a little rain!
Folks, it's two days after Easter and I'm still grateful for all my blessings.
As far as I know I'm healthy. Same for the the wife... same for the kid.
Rich? Nope. But doin' ok? Yeah...! Heck... we just bought a new car! (Yep... another 2.0T - 274 hp provided by the twin-scroll turbo!)
Next month... we'll be takin' the new car (Steffi) on vacation - "The Land of the Pines." (Yep... I'm talkin' South Carolina... Charleston to be precise... no doubt with a side trip to Savannah in the cards!) Yep... our annual trip to visit Pat, Vicki, and The Boys.
Summer vacation...? We're still considering. If for whatever reason (Kim's upcoming American wedding perhaps) we decide to "go easy" on summer vacation as opposed to making it an extravaganza it'll be more out of concern for time and energy than financial constraints.
Oh... oh... oh...! And as to the fall... it's Key West or bust! (If Ted and Mary can't accompany us... well... we'll be sad... but we'll drink for them!)
My whole point in this particular newsbites posting intro...? Nope. Not to brag! No... my purpose is to publicly give thanks! I recognize how wonderful my life is... how good I have it!
I'm grateful! Grateful to God... grateful to my wife and child for being who they are... grateful to that combination of luck and hard work that has given me an overall lifestyle which suits my needs, wants, and personality!
Folks... think about our lives compared to most people on earth! We have it friggin' made! Hey... I'm not sayin' we're not destroying America. We are! (They are!) I catalog my evidence day in and day out right here on this blog! But... but... in terms of "lifestyle"... while Mary and I may not live in a mansion, our overall lifestyle is pretty high end. Vacations... restaurants... cars...
We're warm and dry in the winter... cool and dry in the summer...
Our bellies are full... (OK... ok... "overly filled" in my particular case... but thanks to BodyPump I'm looking damn good above the belly!)
Anyway... you folks no doubt get my point.
Take a moment... pause... throw out a prayer of thanksgiving for your own blessings, folks! If you're not big on prayer... think about your parents... your upbringing... your best teachers and your own best decisions! Silently thank all of those who had something to do with your own success!
And, now... all this written... don't forget to check back later... tonight... tomorrow... to check out today's newsbites!
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http://nypost.com/2014/04/22/computer-glitch-creating-havoc-with-immigration-cases/
A computer meltdown is crippling the nation’s immigration courts — creating an overwhelming backlog of deportation cases, The Post has learned.
* AND HOW EXACTLY DID THIS "MELTDOWN" OCCUR? WHY DID IT OCCUR? HUMAN ERROR? EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION? LACK OF PROPER MAINTENANCE? LACK OF PROPER CYBER-SECURITY MEASURES? HAS ANYONE BEEN FIRED? (COULD SABOTAGE BE INVOLVED...???)
The problem began April 12, when five servers that help power a nationwide computer network failed and shut down the entire system, an insider at the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed.
(*RAISED EYEBROW*)
Without access to the electronic records, court proceedings have slowed to a crawl and officials are resorting to old-fashioned methods — including paper, pens and cassette recorders — to keep track of cases.
One illegal alien who was ordered deported to his native Brazil following a DWI conviction even got to skip a scheduled flight home Friday due to the problem, the ICE source said. He claimed to have filed a last-minute appeal, and prosecutors couldn’t check to see if he was lying — so he was released under an “order of supervision” that relies on him to check in with deportation officers, the source said. That man, who was not identified, came to the United States illegally in 1988 and has a history with ICE of skipping out on bond.
* A HISTORY OF SKIPPING OUT ON BOND...
The parts needed to repair the busted servers — located in Fairfax, Va. — aren’t expected to arrive for at least two weeks, the source added.
(*JUST TWIDDLING MY THUMBS*)
* HEY... DOESN'T OBAMACARE RELY UPON COMPUTERIZED RECORDS...?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?hp&_r=0
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.
* AMAZING, ISN'T IT...? FIVE-PLUS SHORT YEARS OF OBAMA...
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several — including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden — is much smaller than it was a decade ago. With a big share of recent income gains in this country flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.
“The idea that the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world is not true these days,” said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist who is not associated with LIS. “In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else. In 1980, we were richer. In the 1990s, we were still richer.” That is no longer the case, says Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist.
Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have literacy, numeracy and technology skills that are above average relative to 55- to 65-year-olds in rest of the industrialized world, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group. Younger Americans, though, are not keeping pace: Those between 16 and 24 rank near the bottom among rich countries, well behind their counterparts in Canada, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia and close to those in Italy and Spain.
* FOLKS... FOR GOD'S SAKE... CONNECT THE FRIGGIN' DOTS! THE LEFT IS DESTROYING AMERICA!
Companies in the United States economy distribute a smaller share of their bounty to the middle class and poor than similar companies elsewhere. Top executives make substantially more money in the United States than in other wealthy countries.
* AND, FOLKS... THERE ARE AS MANY OLIGARCHS ON THE LEFT AS ARE ON THE RIGHT - PERHAPS EVEN MORE SO WHEN YOU THROW IN THE CULTURAL AND ACADEMIC ELITES WHICH EXERCISE POWERS FELT BY EVERYONE LIVING IN OUR SOCIETY!
Other countries’ middle class incomes have grown since 2000. The United States’ has not.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* FOLKS... FEEL FREE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AS WRITTEN - WITH THE CHARTS INCLUDED. THE WRITER/EDITOR SKEWS FURTHER LEFT THAN THIS NEWSBITE INDICATED. AS ALWAYS, THOUGH, YOU CAN TRUST ME! MY EDITING HAS TO DO WITH LENGTH AND CLARITY... WITH GETTING THE TRUTH OUT THERE.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/04/21/insurer-admits-nearly-1000-doctors-wrongly-placed-on-covered-california-list/
Two months after KPIX 5 ConsumerWatch first reported about some doctors listed on the Covered California exchange were actually not accepting the plans, insurer Anthem Blue Cross admitted that nearly 1,000 doctors were erroneously listed.
* SO... ANTHEM BLUE CROSS IS MANAGING/RUNNING THE EXCHANGE...?
According to a statement by the California Medical Association, the insurer recently notified 965 physicians that they were wrongly placed on the exchange’s list. The notice, which was posted on April 9th, stated that the doctors were “inadvertently” listed for “a certain period of time” during the open enrollment period.
The CMA said Anthem Blue Cross acknowledged the error after receiving a number of complaints from physicians who believed they were listed inaccurately as participating. Guda Venkatesh, a Covered California enrollee, was one of those affected. He told KPIX 5 in February that he chose an Anthem plan because the website said the plan had a variety of Stanford doctors near him. “Except when I started going through the doctors, each one and calling them up, none of them actually accepted the Covered California plan,” Venkatesh said.
“The premise of Covered California is that you’re able to compare plans and see which one is best for you. But if they are presenting that they have all these doctors in network but they don’t, then it doesn’t work,” he said in February.
State regulations allow insurers to change their provider lists without notice.
* WHY? ALL THIS SHOULD BE ONLINE. WHEN DOCTORS LEAVE THE PLAN FOR ANY REASON IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE INSURANCE DATABASE SHOULD BE ADJUSTED PRETTY MUCH INSTANTANEOUSLY.
Lists must be updated quarterly, but regulators admitted to KPIX 5 that there is no system in place to check.
* QUARTERLY...?!?! AGAIN... WE'RE TALKING COMPUTERIZED DATA BASES! NO SYSTEM IN PLACE TO CHECK...??? WHAT SORT OF "REGULATION" IS THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA PRACTICING...?!?!
Anthem said the affected physicians were paid at 100 percent of Prudent Buyer PPO rates for services between January 1st and March 31st.
* BUT WHY DID THE DOCTORS ACCEPT THE PATIENTS... ACCEPT THEM UNDER THE GUISE OF THEIR BEING COVERED? SURELY DOCTORS KNOW WHICH PLANS THEY PARTICIPATE IN...?!?!
* FOLKS... IS READING THIS GIVING YOU A HEADACHE TOO...???
Claims for dates of service on or after April 1st will be reimbursed as out-of-network, according to the insurer.
Regarding patients, Anthem said they notified those who saw an out-of-network that they would need to either select a new in-network physician or change to a different plan by March 31st, or face higher out-of-pocket costs. Patients were also advised of their right to request continuity of care with the out-of-network physician.
Anthem sent this statement in response Monday evening: "As we have said in the past, Anthem Blue Cross continually works to improve the accuracy of our provider directory. In the process of updating our provider database, we found that while the vast majority of the listings were correct, there were some providers inadvertently listed. Many of the doctors inadvertently listed decided to join Anthem’s network during open enrollment period anyway and overall, Anthem has added nearly 2,000 doctors to our exchange network this year statewide."
A lot to be thankful for, yes :) as to the insurance issue...I truly regret ever supporting obamacare...the few good things are long since wiped out by the overwhelming and expensive clusteryouknowwhat it turned into...
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