Saturday, January 12th, 2013
PAT GAROFALO, - Think Progress
Stephan: Here is an unintended consequence of a system which does not make national wellness a priority. If you get the flu there is a good chance this is how you contracted it -- a worker who can't afford to stay in bed because they have no sick leave.
The 2013 flu season is in full swing, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, it will be the worst in ten years. The New York Times reported that ‘the country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years.
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Saturday, January 12th, 2013
Stephan: This is the flaw in Obamcare. You simply can't create a viable nationwide healthcare system when it's principal function is to produce profit. Other countries have shown profit can be part of the program, but not its principal function. The greed in America is so great we cannot seem to muster the political will to overcome its drag. As a result we have some of the worst healthcare in the developed world, and pay vastly more than any other country.
America’s health insurers are raising rates by up to 26% despite the fact that President Obama was dead-set on curbing such increases, the New York Times reports. California’s Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, and Blue Shield of California have proposed increases of 26%, 22%, and 20%, respectively, on certain customers, while insurers in states like Florida and Ohio have increased some people’s rates by at least 20%. ‘This is business as usual,’ says California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. ‘It’s a huge loophole in the Affordable Care Act.’
ObamaCare does require that regulators examine any request for a double-digit rate increase, but only in 37 states can the regulators actually deny or decrease rates (one such state, New York, roughly halved a proposed increase to 4.5%). Consumer advocates say health-care costs don’t justify big increases, but insurers insist that medical costs for some customers are far outpacing that of the average policy holder. And federal regulators argue that ObamaCare has at least limited insurance premiums, while capping profits and getting rebates from insurers who overcharge.
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Saturday, January 12th, 2013
STEPHANIE STROM, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is another story that makes me feel better about things. Traditional poultry operations are vile; the conditions of the birds a form of animal torture; and the hormones, and antibiotics used in such operations threaten humans. But for the agricultural chemical and pharmaceutical corporations who make these things such methods are incredibly profitable.
But, if we change are values, alternatives present themselves, as this report makes clear.
FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. — The smell of oregano wafting from Scott Sechler’s office is so strong that anyone visiting Bell & Evans these days could be forgiven for wondering whether Mr. Sechler has forsaken the production of chicken and gone into pizza.
Oregano lies loose in trays and tied into bunches on tabletops and counters, and a big, blue drum that held oregano oil stands in the corner. ‘Have you ever tried oregano tea?
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Saturday, January 12th, 2013
ALEX KOTLOWITZ, - Mother Jones
Stephan: This is a wonderful story. An inexpensive, life-affirming reconnecting of people with growing plants. Such programs illustrate how our problem as a society is not money, it's a lack of vision and a failure of respect.
Click through to see the photos.
I suppose the easy thing to do would be to rail against food deserts, the dearth of fresh produce and other healthy foods for those living in impoverished neighborhoods. Or to enter the debate over whether there are, in fact, food deserts. (A couple of recent studies have suggested that proximity to decent grocery stores isn’t the key problem of inner-city nutrition.) But considering Emily Schiffer’s photos, I was reminded of Mother Teresa’s visit to a housing project on Chicago’s West Side in the mid-1980s. What rattled her was not the poverty of the pocketbook. She’d seen worse in India. Rather, it was what she called ‘the poverty of the spirit.’
Looking at Schiffer’s photos and talking with people involved in urban farming, I’ve come to realize that their efforts have less to do with providing healthy food than they do with a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of their community and their daily lives. Growing Home is one of Chicago’s larger urban farming projects, much of it located in Englewood, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. While it harvests 13,000 pounds of vegetables a year on a half-acre site, nearly all are sold to restaurants and at a farmers market […]
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Saturday, January 12th, 2013
JULIET EILPERIN, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here is yet another authoritative report. They all say basically the same thing and seem to be coming about once a month now. What will happen? Probably nothing. 'Congressional Republicans are expected to oppose any such efforts. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who heads the Republican Study Committee, said in a statement that it is clear Americans will not tolerate any new climate policies: 'Even President Obama acknowledged that our focus right now should be on putting folks back to work and growing the economy - not climate change.'
A federal advisory panel released a draft report Friday on how Americans can adapt to a changing climate, a more than 1,000 page tome that also sums up what has become increasingly apparent: The country is hotter than it used to be, rainfall is becoming both more intense and more erratic, and rising seas and storm surges threaten U.S. coasts.
The draft of the third National Climate Assessment warns that with the current rate of global carbon emissions, these impacts will intensify in the coming decades.
The report does not include policy recommendations, but it is designed to guide decision-makers on the federal, state and local level on how to prepare for a warmer world. In a joint blog post Friday, White House science adviser John P. Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote that it is aimed at Americans ‘who need information about climate change in order to thrive – from farmers deciding which crops to grow, to city planners deciding the diameter of new storm sewers they are replacing, to electric utilities and regulators pondering how to protect the power grid.
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