Governor Culver Imposes Halt on Health Insurance Rate Hikes Pending Independent Review

###AFSCME

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Senate File 2191
Makes changes to Iowa’s banking regulations. The legislation was proposed by the Iowa Division of Banking. The primary provisions of the legislation concern the regulation of lines of credit issued over the internet by the creation of interest-rate caps on such loans, giving the Banking Superintendent the authority to intervene in situations where the failure of a national bank or federal thrift could harm a state regulated bank, and allow banks to have staggered terms for their boards of directors.

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It’s a dog-and-pony show without the ponies. A squealing, barking circus before the Iditarod begins for real Sunday in Willow.

Click map to enlarge

But Saturday’s ceremonial start in Downtown Anchorage — most fans’ best chance to see mushers and their dogs up close before they disappear into the Alaska wilderness — still has the power to send chills through the saltiest veterans.

Reigning Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Lance Mackey described what it feels like behind the sled: “People everywhere, loud. High-fiving me. Rooting me on. Just cheering for me.”

(Click for more)

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THE SHOWNOTES

#180 No Agenda For Sunday March 7th 2010
Media Corruption Now in 3D

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Saturn is brightest at Opposition. And it’s also as close to Earth as it ever gets in its orbit. You can view Saturn all night long now. It rises in the east at sunset and sets in the west at dawn.

If you face east in the late evening, you can see two planets near the distinctive constellation Leo. First, look nearly overhead. That reddish object you see up there is Mars. Closer to the horizon, the bright golden-hued object is Saturn. Saturn is well-placed for viewing from now through July.

This year, Saturn’s rings are slightly inclined. They were tilted 4 degrees in January. They’ll dip to nearly edge-on in June and then tip up to 10 degrees by year-end. The Solar System was a violent place to start with. There were many crashes in which small bodies broke into pieces and re-formed. The study of asteroids helps us understand a lot more about the early Solar System history.

Of the millions in our Solar System, only a few have been observed up close. Near the middle of the constellation Leo is the challenging-to-see and faint main-belt asteroid 21 Lutetia. You’ll need a good star chart and a medium to large telescope plus dark skies to glimpse this small twelfth-magnitude asteroid.  If you don’t see Lutetia, that’s OK, because the European Space Agency’s

Rosetta spacecraft will pay a second visit to this interesting object in July, passing within 3000 kilometers of the asteroid. Rosetta had its first look at Lutetia in January of 2007.

The OSIRIS camera imaged the asteroid passing through its field of view during the spacecraft’s approach to Mars for a gravity assist. Rosetta’s instruments will collect enough information to create a resumé of the asteroid’s past: where it was born, how it got started on its asteroid career and if there were any mid-course corrections.

The Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn, its rings and moons since arriving in 2004.

Cassini’s seven-year Solstice Mission extension, to the year 2017, presents an opportunity to follow the seasonal changes of an outer planet all the way from its winter to its summer.

During its 155 orbits around Saturn, including 55 flybys of the moon Titan, Cassini will fly by the icy moon Enceladus 11 more times. You can learn more about Cassini and other NASA missions at www.nasa.gov

The NASA contribution to ESA’s Rosetta Mission can be found at http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

› View Vodcast

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Iditarod champs face talented rookies

By KYLE HOPKINS (www.ADN.com)
khopkins@adn.com

As thousands of Iditarod fans watch Cim Smyth maneuver the streets of downtown Anchorage today, the Big Lake musher’s eyes will be on his dogs, scanning for the smallest of clues.

“Looking at their gaits really carefully to see who is happy and real sound and smooth, and who is maybe nursing an injury that I can’t really identify,” said Smyth, a 33-year-old veteran who finished fifth in last year’s race.

What he sees during the ceremonial start, an 11-mile trot to Campbell Airstrip, could decide his team’s chemistry for the rest of the 1,000-mile trek to Nome.

With hours to decide on their final 16-dog rosters before the race begins for real Sunday afternoon in Willow, competitors are looking for every advantage.

All but one of the top 20 finishers are back from last year. The 71-team field includes five former Iditarod champs and what race officials call one of the best rookie classes ever.

And then there’s Lance Mackey. The wiry, blunt-spoken Terminator has dominated the sport for much of the decade and is now after an unprecedented fourth straight win.

A throat cancer survivor who had his index finger removed when surgery-related nerve damage rendered it useless, Mackey said he’s feeling slightly weaker this year.

“My body itself is beat up more than most people in this race, but my mind is stronger than most people in this race,” he said. “If I can overcome some of the weaknesses I have with my body mentally, I’ll be in this sport for a long time.”

In the past several months, Mackey has mentored Newton Marshall, the Iditarod’s first Jamaican musher. He’s finished second in a record-breaking Yukon Quest and learned the Iditarod would begin drug-testing mushers for the first time — a move prompted by complaints from his competitors. Mackey has a medical marijuana card and has acknowledged using pot on the trail in the past.

Distractions aside, other top competitors say Mackey, 39, remains the musher to beat. His dogs look as strong as or stronger than any of his past Iditarod teams, said Kotzebue musher John Baker.

“Lance is the reigning champion,” said Baker, who placed third in the 2009 Iditarod and won the recent Kuskokwim 300 in Bethel. “We haven’t really been able to give him much competition the last three years, so he’s been kind of a step ahead of us.”

‘THIS COULD BE THE TEAM’

Mackey plans to bring six dogs from the 1,000-mile Quest on the Iditarod. Otherwise, he’s running with a relatively young team.

“If I can come in in the top 10 in the Iditarod with this team, I wouldn’t be disappointed. But I have higher expectations,” he said.

Smyth ranks Mackey among the top contenders again this year, along with Yukon Quest winner Hans Gatt and four-time Iditarod champ Jeff King.

King said he never knows just how good his team is until he gets to the Nikolai checkpoint, about 350 miles into the race. But his dogs are “clearly running on every piston,” he said.

“Those years I’ve won, I couldn’t tell you before the race that this is the team. I don’t know that until I get out there,” he said. “But I can tell you this could be the team.”

Baker too is confident in his dogs. “I’m expecting really good things, and I’m expecting to win,” he said.

For fans, it may be the last time some of mushing’s current stars appear together in the same Iditarod.

King, 54, has said he’s committed to taking a break from the Iditarod and may not run the race again. Each of the dogs he plans to run to Nome is retiring or going to another musher, he said.

Mackey says he won’t compete back-to-back in both the Quest and the Iditarod anymore, while 2009 Iditarod runner-up Sebastian Schnuelle plans to take a break from the Last Great Race after this year.

Gatt told CBC News in February he plans to retire from long-distance races. Mushers say the all-consuming nature of competitive mushing, the bruising toll on their bodies and a desire to run other races make it a challenge to run the sport’s premier contests every year.

“There’s still going to be a stiff field of competitors, no matter what. Unfortunately, the price of the sport is rising,” Mackey said.

PURSE DOWN THIS YEAR

The declining purse can’t help.

As sponsors withdrew in the injured economy, the payout for the top 30 mushers dropped from about $874,000 in 2008 to $561,000 this year, said Stan Hooley, the Iditarod’s executive director.

“I think it’s frustrating for (mushers), as it is for the rest of us,” he said.

King, one of the sport’s winningest mushers, donated $50,000 to the purse.

“For the most part, there’s nobody in this for the money. But we do have bills to pay,” he said.

That hasn’t stopped 22 rookies from entering. Eight or nine have a chance at rookie of the year honors, said race marshal Mark Nordman.

Among the up-and-comers is 22-year-old Dallas Seavey, who isn’t a rookie but is a top contender. Mushers and fans alike are watching Seavey, who leaped from 41st place in 2008 to sixth place last year to win the most-improved musher award.

The son of 2004 champion Mitch Seavey, Dallas runs dogs raised in his own kennel as well as from the team he bought from another of last year’s top 10 finishers, Aaron Burmeister of Nenana. “So he’s got a combined kennel right now that he worked with all season,” Burmeister said.

Peter Kaiser of Bethel, 22, is another second-generation musher who is “tireless with his questions about breeding and training,” King said.

“A few years ago you could have said, ‘Geez, Tim Osmar, Susan Butcher, Rick Swenson, you guys are Iditarod,’ ” King said. “And they were. And we have been. And there will be others.”

Read Iditarod Live, the ADN’s sled blog, at adn.com/iditarodlive. Twitter updates: twitter.com/iditarodlive.

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THE SHOWNOTES

#179 No Agenda For Thursday March 4th 2010
Douchebags

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Nebraska’s Hickman takes rare pass on invitation from ‘The League’

By Matt Hinton

Between mock drafts, the scouting combine, upcoming “pro days” on various campuses and next month’s draft, the collective mind of the football universe is completely submerged its annual obsession with sizing up players bound for the next level, as well as the many, many others who desperately want to be. From inside the belly of the beast, the only mantra this time of year is “NFL or bust,” even for fringe players and obscurities the scouts seem to think have “bust” written all over them. One team interviewing former Florida State safety Myron Rolle during the combine reportedly asked the aspiring neurosurgeon how it felt to desert his team to pursue a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study overseas as a Rhodes Scholar, perhaps a reasonable (if poorly-worded) question in a profession that demands total commitment for success.

Here, the mindset of a player like Nebraska offensive lineman Jacob Hickman — a three-year starter at a powerhouse program and likely late-round draft pick who turned down an offer to work out at the combine — is almost foreign. But at some point between the four surgeries, 14 screws in various parts of his body and early stages of arthritis he’s endured over the last four years, Hickman decided the game isn’t for him anymore:

“Playing in the NFL was never a dream for me, like the end-all, be-all,” Hickman said. “I kind of thought if that happens, it’s something I would do. As it has progressed, I’ve kind of gone in a different direction.”

Some scouting services ranked Hickman as high as the No. 10 center available in April’s NFL draft. But a few days after the Cornhuskers beat Arizona in the Holiday Bowl, Hickman came to the conclusion that he simply doesn’t feel like playing football anymore.

“I enjoyed everything I did here,” Hickman said. “I had a great experience. I didn’t feel the need to continue playing. It just didn’t feel like it’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

The surprise, of course, isn’t that Hickman decided to pass up his big chance, but that more players — guys like Myron Rolle, who clearly have other goals in life — don’t come to the same conclusion. Certainly many more players (especially linemen) on hand in Indianapolis over the weekend have felt the same way at various points in their amateur career, and may still harbor some of the same doubts as Hickman about the incredible toll a pro career will take on their bodies, especially as we continue to learn more about those risks. Others may be burned out on the game, or the physical workload it requires. But Hickman remains an oddity in big-time football; among the small fraction of players with the freakish physical talent the league requires, who have devoted their entire lives to the game, passing on the biggest prize is out of the question, whatever the cost. If you can play, you play.

For his part, Hickman says he’s not burned on the game; he enjoys the “mental aspects” and may go into coaching (he also has a degree from Nebraska in construction management). Most of his peers vying for a spot in the draft or just a training camp will be joining him on that route shortly. In the meantime, the siren call of “The League” remains too strong.

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Prison inmate faces more time after attack on guard

by Pat Curtis on March 2, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

A prison inmate serving time on sex abuse charges will likely face more time behind bars after attacking a female officer at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. Iowa Department of Corrections spokesperson Fred Scaletta says the officer was conducting routine unit checks at 3 a.m. Monday when she was attacked by 24-year-old inmate Antonio Mikhal Johnson.

“He approached her and stuffed some cloth into her mouth so she wasn’t able to yell or scream for help,” Scaletta said. “He did get her to the floor before a couple other inmates noticed the commotion.” The two inmates pulled Johnson off of the correctional officer who was then able to activate an emergency alert.

The officer, who’s name is not being released, was not physically injured. Scaletta says each officer carries an emergency alarm to summon other security personnel when necessary. “In this particular case, had inmates not heard or noticed the commotion, it could’ve been worse,” Scaletta said. Johnson was convicted in 2008 of third-degree sex abuse in Johnson County. According to online records, he was tentatively set to be released in April 2012.

Scaletta says Johnson has been placed in segregation while the incident is under investigation. Findings of the investigation will be provided to the Henry County Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

##Afscme

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Plug pulled on appliance rebate program after one day

by Pat Curtis on March 2, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

The $2.7 million rebate program in Iowa for the purchase of energy efficient appliances is already out of money. The federally-financed program launched Monday morning and the registration for rebates was in such high demand that the phone line and website crashed.

Don Tormey with the Iowa Office of Energy Independence says the appliance rebate processing contractor, Helgesen Enterprises Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota, had never seen this kind of turnout for any program run by a state or a Fortune 500 company. The contractor was prepared to handle 850 calls and 11,000 web hits per hour.

Iowa households receiving a rebate will get between $100 and $500 to recycle an old appliance and buy a new energy efficient one. “It helps not only the consumer but the retailer who’s selling these appliances, it helps the manufacturer who makes them and it helps the contractor who might be installing them for people,” Tormey said.

Eligible appliances include dishwashers, hot water heaters and refrigerators. People who still want to apply for a rebate will be placed on a waiting list and might receive money if those who registered do not meet or fulfill the program guidelines. Tormey says around Iowans are already on the waiting list.

Find out more here: www.energy.iowa.gov

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THE SHOWNOTES

#178 No Agenda For Sunday February 28th 2010
HAARP-ing on Earthquakes

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This, I will have to admit got me kind of hooked, then it hit me. What the hell are they talking about? Not just the Democrats, but the Republicans as well. If they both want the pre-existing condition option, then pass that now. Not the whole bill, just the part about the pre-existing conditions. Or was President Clinton some kind of super hero? He got it passed when he was in office, and it stayed that way until George “screw the little guys” Bush came into office and removed it and added a cap on malpractice suits for his Big Business buddies.

But the main point is, if Clinton could get a bill passed just targeting the pre-existing condition part when he was in office, then it can be done now. So what the “F” is up? Take out all the stuff that both parties agree on, and draft a bill on just those points and argue on the rest later. It can be done, and has been done in the past. /MM

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FDA Gives Novo the Go-Ahead to Market Victoza® in the U.S.
by Patrick Totty

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has received Food and Drug Administration permission to begin marketing its type 2 drug Victoza® in the United States.

Victoza, the brand name for liraglutide, is a GLP-1* analog that is taken one a day by injection to help control blood sugar-and in some cases, help with weight loss-in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The drug, which has already been marketed in Europe, is being offered as both a monotherapy and as an adjunct to other diabetes drugs that are taken orally.

In making the announcement, Novo repeated its caution that Victoza is not insulin and it is not known if the drug can be safely used with insulin. The company further warned that Victoza is not a therapy for people withtype 1 diabetes or people with diabetic ketoacidosis, that that the drug is not recommended for use with children.

The FDA’s approval comes in the wake of concerns that GLP-1 drugs like Victoza have been implicated in increase cases of pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition that can led to death. Novo, in attaching cautions to the drug’s use, recommended that type 2s with gallstones, high triglyceride levels, alcoholism or previous episodes of pancreatitis tell their doctors about these conditions when considering taking Victoza.

Other cautions included relating that lab rats and mice developed thyroid tumors, some of which were cancerous, when given the medicine in Victoza. However, it is not known whether the drug causes thyroid tumors in people.

Novo also said type 2 patients or their family members who have Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN 2), a disease where people have tumors in more than one gland in their body, should not use Victoza.

Victoza only stimulates pancreatic beta cells to produce insulin when blood glucose levels are high, making it unlikely to produce hypoglycemiain patients. However, if taken with an oral medication like a sulfonylurea, the combination could lead to hypoglycemia. Novo suggests that patients who do take Victoza with other diabetes drugs may want to lower the doses of those drugs to avoid episodes of too-low blood sugar.

Novo is currently testing an oral version of Victoza among 155 British patients with type 2. The hope is that an ingested rather than injected drug will be far more attractive to Victoza users.

The past year has seen Novo win extensive international approval for the drug. The 27-member European Union approved its sales on June 30, 2009, and Japan approved sales in January, 2010. Novo applied for marketing approval in China last August and is awaiting a decision.

*GLP-1-glucagon-like peptide-is a delicate gut hormone whose beneficial effects on the digestive system have made it one of the most promising diabetes therapies in modern times. Those effects include:

• Stimulation of insulin production
• Decrease of pancreatic glucagon production
• Increase in pancreas beta cell mass
• Inhibition of acid secretion and gastric emptying in the stomach
• Increased insulin sensitivity
• Increase in feelings of satiety, leading to less food intake

* * *
Source: Novo Nordisk press release

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I’ll Get to It… Right After My Nap
by Russell Phillips, Ph

I have always felt that a little snooze in the middle of the afternoon works better for me than a jolt of caffeine. However, the guilt induced by the very thought of sleeping during the day (especially at work) has kept me drinking coffee or tea instead of crashing on my desk and drooling on my keyboard.

But now, I feel a little better about my afternoon break, because according to preliminary investigations at UC Berkeley, it turns out that a siesta can actually reboot the brain and allow for improved afternoon learning.

In the sleep study, 39 college students were divided into two groups – nap and no-nap. The participants were subjected to a rigorous learning task at noon. The task was intended to activate the hippocampus, a part of the brain that helps process fact-based memories.  Both groups performed at comparable levels.

At 2 p.m., the nap group took a 90-minute snooze while the no-nap group stayed awake. Later that day, at 6 p.m., participants performed a new round of learning exercises. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. In contrast, those who napped did markedly better and actually improved in their capacity to learn.

Those who remained awake performed about 10 percent worse on the tests than those who napped. Normal folk’s ability to learn typically declines about 10 percent between noon and 6 p.m., but those succumbing to a siesta were able to negate that decline.

“Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap,” said Matthew Walker, in a news release from UC Berkeley. Dr. Walker is an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies.

These findings reinforce the hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain’s short-term memory storage and make room for new information. Sleep researchers have established that fact-based memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus before being sent to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which may have more storage space.

“It’s as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you’re not going to receive any more mail. It’s just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder,” Walker said.

Walker presented his preliminary findings on Sunday, Feb. 21, at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, CA. In addition to Walker, co-investigators of these new findings are UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Bryce A. Mander and psychology undergraduate Sangeetha Santhanam.

* * *

Source:

UC Berkeley news release

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Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23, and Enrico Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11 year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two-story home.

It seems  the two crooks never learned two things: they were in Montana and Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since she was nine.

Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father’s room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.

Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old’s knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals.

When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.

It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen .45 caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. That victim, 50-year-old David 0′Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab wounds to the chest.

Ever wonder why good stuff never makes NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, or ABC news…….. an 11 year old girl, properly trained, defended her home, and herself…… against two murderous, illegal immigrants…… and she wins, She is still alive.

Now that is Gun Control!

Thought  for the day:
Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist’

I like this kind of e-mail.  American citizens defending themselves and their homes.

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The reason is that I want to get back into my continued learning on programming and learning what is new and different in HTML 5. Thanks for your understanding.

For those who are curious, yes, I will still post relevant information regarding AFSCME in Iowa, Diabetes information, and info I find useful concerning Ubuntu Linux. / MM

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by Dar Danielson on February 25, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

Wellmark executives say Iowa’s aging population is to blame for rising insurance premiums; not greed or mismanagement. Representatives from the state’s largest insurance carrier testified at the statehouse Thursday at the request of lawmakers. Legislators want to know why 80,000 Iowans face premium increases averaging 18%.

Wellmark vice President Laura Jackson says it’s largely due to Iowans age and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. “We can talk all day about health insurance reform, and there’s some great things that need to happen there, but if we do not address the underlying drivers we continue to have this rate of increase,” Jackson says. She says 60% of Iowans are overweight, which leads to higher incidence of diabetes and knee and hip replacements.

Jackson says in 2009, the company actually paid out more than it took in, forcing them to raise rates. She says 94 cents of every dollar they collected in premiums was spent on healthcare services, with less than ten cents allocated for administrative expense.

“So we take very good care of the dollars we do have and take very little for ourselves. In fact if you really compare it to a lot of not for profits, I think you would find that not even those amount of dollars go towards overhead, so as you think about that we really try to take good care of those dollars,” Jackson says. She urged lawmakers to create an environment that would promote healthier living and bring down costs.

But Representative Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says she remains unconvinced. “I left the table feeling the same way I felt last week that were not doing enough to regulate them and understand what the cost drivers are and what we can do to have an impact on the bottom line of what the rates are going to be for Iowans,” Petersen said. Petersen says she’s heard from many older Iowans whose rates have gone up regardless of health.

Petersen says, “I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t be outraged. I mean Iowans are not going to be able to continue to afford it. It’s really affecting all aspects of our economy.” Petersen wants legislation that requires the state’s insurance commissioner to provide more detail when premium increases are approved.

Commissioner Susan Voss says one of the reasons rates are going up is because doctors and hospitals are turning to private payers as government reimbursements for Medicaid and Medicare decline.

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IRAQ – Governor Chet Culver today is in Iraq, where he is meeting with Iowa reservists who are serving on behalf of the United States mission.  The Governor is joined on the trip by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and is meeting with soldiers and reviewing the progress that has been made on the ground.

“As Commander-in-Chief of the Iowa National Guard, it is an honor to see the work that Iowa soldiers are doing on the ground in Iraq,” said Governor Culver.  “Iowans should know the troops our state has deployed are incredibly dedicated and acting out of a spirit of service. I have been impressed and inspired with their work ethic, their focus and the love of country that motivates so many to serve.  To all of our Iowa veterans on behalf of a grateful state, I say a heart-felt thanks for your legacy of service in the name of freedom in America and abroad.”

During a call with reporters this afternoon, the Governor once again called on the legislature to pass four bills that help Iowa soldiers and their families.  The Governor highlighted the “Trailing Spouse Bill” (HF 2110), which expands unemployment benefits for spouses who are forced to leave their jobs when their spouse receives a military reassignment or deployment, the Exemption of Veteran’s Benefits from Income Tax (HF 2138), Modification of Visitation Rights for Veterans (HF 2417) and Addition of Veterans Representation on Commissions (SF 2175).

Prior to their departure, yesterday both Governors met with US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, received a briefing from Defense officials, and visited with injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.

The Governor will return to Iowa in the coming days, however for security reasons, that information cannot be shared at this time.  More information will be available upon the Governor’s return to Iowa soon.

Governor Culver was invited to join the trip by the US Department of Defense, who covered the expense of the trip.

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Microsoft this week won a court order allowing it to shut down a so-called botnet that was distributing malicious software and spam. The botnet, called Waledac, is essentially a collection of tens of thousands of PCs from around the world that have been remotely taken over by hackers and organized into a cohesive network of malware-spewing hosts.

“At Microsoft, we don’t accept the idea that botnets are a fact of life,” says Microsoft Associate Counsel Tim Cranton. “Given the recent spread of botnets, we are getting even more creative and aggressive in the fight against botnets and all forms of cybercrime. That’s why I’m proud to announce that through legal action and technical cooperation with industry partners, we have executed a major botnet takedown of Waledac, a large and well-known ’spambot’.”

Microsoft’s takedown of Waledac, known internally as “Operation b49,” began months ago with an investigation and consultation with law enforcement. According to the software giant, Waledac is one of the 10 biggest botnets in the world, and prior to the takedown, it was spewing out over 1.5 million spam emails per day, including over 650 million spam emails to Hotmail accounts during a three week period in December 2009 alone.

On February 22, the US District Court of Eastern Virginia granted Microsoft a temporary restraining order that cut off 277 Internet domains believed to be run by criminals and the central hub of the Waledac botnet. Additionally, 27 “John Doe” defendants were accused of violating federal computer crime laws.

The action cut off the communication channels between the hacker criminals and most of the infected computers in the botnet network. Effectively, Waledac has been taken offline, but Microsoft says it will continue taking “technical countermeasures” to prevent any remaining peer-to-peer control communications from continuing as well.

That said, the infected machines are still riddled with malware. Microsoft recommends that users follow its guidance for keeping PCs clean of malware. You can find these “Protect Your PC” resources on the Microsoft website.

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Workers at the Internal Revenue Service Center in Covington, Ky., sort many of the thousands of tax returns arriving at the center’s mail room. (Al Behrman)

About 50 inmates at the Stock Island Detention Center near Key West in Florida brought in close to $100,000 in profits by filing for fake refunds with the IRS before their scam was uncovered, the Miami Herald is reporting.

In total, the inmates filed for about $1 in false refunds.

“I was shocked that inmates could steal from the IRS that easily and that blatantly and not be prosecuted. Even when the case was handed to them on a platter,” Rick Roth, a retired Monroe County Sheriff, told the Herald.

The evidence includes a taped phone conversation at the jail involving one of the alleged ringleaders, Shawn Clarke, who, according to a former investigator on the case, said: “I’m through with the street crime. I’m strictly white collar from now on. I love the IRS.”

Here’s how the scam worked: Inmates, their friends and family members filed 1040EZ forms along with the one-page 4852 form – a substitute for the W-2 when an employer doesn’t provide one. They used the names of phony or defunct businesses and fabricated tax withholding and income figures, which they often claimed to have earned at a time when they were incarcerated. Many went through unverified.

Law enforcement officials learned of the scam after a ‘how-to’ note was reportedly found in an inmate’s cell. Soon after, Key West police reportedly received a call from a bank when a relative of an inmate tried to cash a $5 thousand refund check using the power of attorney.

The FBI and other agencies were called in to investigate and it was discovered that a number of the fraudulent refund checks had been sent directly to the jail; the money was either directly deposited into the inmate’s ‘canteen’ account which was then used to buy items in jail or signed over to relatives.

The investigation led to two alleged ringleaders, Clarke and Danilo Suarez, each of whom had their own followers, some inside the jail, others not.

Stock Island Detention Center carries common tax documents, but not form 4852. The inmates got them straight from the IRS. One even wrote to the agency that he was upset he had not received the multiple 1040EZ and 4852 forms requested three weeks earlier. The letter said: “Our group would greatly appreciate your help in this matter so we can file accordingly.”

While the IRS did not comment specifically about Stock Island, it did issue a statement saying it “takes refund fraud seriously and has programs to combat it.”

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Inmate Kenneth Shong (Wisconsin Department of Corrections)

MADISON, Wis. — A lifelong con man imprisoned in Wisconsin worked with associates outside the walls to operate a suspected diploma mill that was recruiting students for at least two years until authorities uncovered the scheme.

Kenneth Shong, 44, helped to run “Carlingford University” while he was behind bars, according to interviews and documents obtained through the state open records law. Prison authorities uncovered the scheme in late 2008, but Carlingford’s Web site was taken down only this month.

The school was apparently just a phony moneymaking venture, according to state regulators. Its Web site claimed Carlingford had an office in Mobile, Ala., and a “regional training center” in Green Bay, but both were merely post office boxes.

Web designer Brian Truckey acknowledged in an interview that he ran Carlingford’s Web site and that it contained inaccurate information he was told to post. He said Shong, an inmate at Racine Correctional Institute whose criminal career has spanned the globe, was in charge.

“We don’t move forward until I get instructions from him,” said Truckey, president of a small business in Green Bay called Serpent Technologies.

But Truckey insisted Carlingford was largely legitimate and added he was earning a graduate degree in exchange for running the site, which he said was his “thesis.” Hours after the interview, the site was suspended.

Higher education regulators in Wisconsin and Alabama had already sent letters to Carlingford representatives asking them to cease and desist operations.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Carlingford, which boasted of “delivering knowledge at the speed of thought” and offering degrees that were accepted worldwide.

“It has become apparent that Carlingford University is likely part of a criminal scheme being conducted by one or more inmates or ex-inmates,” David Dies, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, wrote DOJ last year in asking for the probe.

The investigation comes as Wisconsin lawmakers consider a bill that would make it easier for prosecutors to press charges against so-called diploma mills and their customers. The bill would make it a crime to issue and use false academic credentials.

Shong, who has several aliases, including Kenneth Onapolis, has not been charged in connection with Carlingford. But he was put in isolation for 45 days as punishment after prison officials uncovered his role in late 2008 by reading his mail.

A prison investigation found Shong’s main partner was David Kaster, a convicted sex offender he met while serving time. Kaster, a former high school swimming coach convicted of sexually assaulting female students, was released in 2007.

He wrote to Shong on Carlingford letterhead to discuss plans to set tuition rates, design degrees and class rings for “CU” and spend money to advertise online.

At least three inmates applied to Carlingford while the prison was investigating and Kaster cashed two $35 checks covering their initial fees. The prison stopped payment on the third. Kaster also contacted groups to market the school to other inmates, the investigation found. It’s unclear how many, if any, diplomas were issued or how much the scheme netted.

Investigators obtained a letter sent from Carlingford’s “dean of students,” another Shong associate, that congratulated inmate Kenneth Fleming for being admitted and noted he had paid $1,740 to enroll.

“Should I just send Fleming a course completion certificate with his ‘grades’ for the last course he took?” Kaster asked Shong in one letter. “He is looking for something like that.”

Fleming wrote to an investigator last year that he considered himself a victim of the scheme and wanted restitution.

Kaster could not be reached for comment, but authorities ordered him to not have any contact with Shong or anyone associated with Carlingford.

In a telephone interview from prison, Shong acknowledged that he had advised others on how to run Carlingford but downplayed his role in the scheme.

“I would not say I’m the driving force behind anything,” he said.

He claimed Carlingford was part of a legitimate London-based outfit that offered academic degrees around the world, a claim the prison investigation found untrue. Its London address was an empty storefront, it found.

Shong has been convicted of bank fraud, theft and other financial crimes and has a history of “outwitting, outplaying and outlasting authorities,” as one judge wrote in 2005. After years on the run, he was captured by U.S. marshals in Vanuatu, a small island near Australia, in 2002 and returned to the United States to face federal fraud and tax evasion charges.

After his prison term ended, Wisconsin authorities brought him back to finish serving a 12-year sentence on a 1989 sentence on forgery charges. He had escaped while on parole in 1993.

Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh declined comment on the investigation. But Dies said investigators were poring through “a fairly large volume of material” they obtained, including bank records.

At a court hearing in 1989, Dane County prosecutor Ann Sayles said Shong used fake checks, obtained bank credit to buy an expensive car, and defrauded companies to buy plane tickets under a fake name. She called him “a professional con man” and said his shady business activities were continuing in jail. “I’m not so certain,” she said, “the public is safe even with him in prison.”

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The American Diabetes Association welcomes this effort. We also believe that the success of the Summit is dependent on whether it truly moves the nation to meaningful health care reform this year.

You can witness the bipartisan summit from your own television or computer on Thursday, February 25 at 10am Eastern.

Just tune in to C-SPAN 3 or visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/live to watch Members of Congress and the President have a dialogue on health reform and see what they ideas they consider to move health reform forward. As you watch, share your thoughts with us on Twitter @AmDiabetesAssn.

Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed health care reform bills that will eliminate denials of health insurance based on pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes. Since the beginning of the year, Congress has been struggling to move forward with reconciling the two bills and voting on a final package.

Yesterday, the President released his health reform proposal in advance of this week’s Summit. The President’s plan uses the Senate-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as the foundation and includes several changes to bridge the gap between the House and Senate bills. An overview of the proposal is available here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal.

Your American Diabetes Association

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Officials say woman falsified leave for time off, pay.

By JOHN MANGALONZO (www.TheHawkeye.com)

jmangalonzo@thehawkeye.com

FORT MADISON — State authorities have charged a former Iowa State Penitentiary correctional officer, alleging she forged military documents to make it appear she needed to be on leave for U.S. Army training.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office have charged Jennifer Lynn Leggett, 26, of Niota, Ill., with second-degree theft and felonious misconduct in office. She could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted of both charges.

In addition to her employment at the prison, Leggett also was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to a detachment of the 801st Combat Support Hospital out of Bartonville, Ill. Court papers indicate when she attended drills as a reserve, the Department of Corrections paid her hourly wage of $19.31.

According to the investigation, officials at the Fort Madison facility reportedly told agents of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation attendance was an issue with Leggett, who had been reprimanded in the past for the issue.

In September, the director of human resources at ISP questioned some of the applications for leave submitted by Leggett, authorities said, adding ISP has acquired a training schedule from Leggett’s reserve unit as reference.

That document reportedly showed when the woman was scheduled to participate in training and the times she was absent from them.

Last March, Leggett submitted an application for military leave that had U.S. Army assignment dates of April 14 to 22, 2009. Authorities said she later submitted a second request, this time for July 6 to 20, 2009.

However, according to the documents from Leggett’s reserve unit, she did not have military duties on the days specified on the two leave requests.

Investigators said a closer review of the documents revealed they were U.S. Air Force Reserve papers, which authorities allege were altered to appear like it came from the Army.

Agents went by the tracking numbers on the documents and found they were previous military orders meant for another person, identified in court papers as Ashlee Craw, an Air Force reservist.

Investigators would soon discover Craw, who they say goes by the name of Ashlee Craw-Leggett, is the wife of Jennifer Leggett.

During a January interview between DCI agents and Jennifer Leggett, the woman allegedly admitted to forging her wife’s documents and submitted them to ISP officials.

Jennifer Leggett was paid nearly $2,000 for the unauthorized leave, state authorities said.

Leggett was hired as a correctional officer in October 2005. She worked at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility until June 2007 when she was transferred to the Fort Madison facility as a vacation relief officer.

She later was reassigned to the facility’s Clinical Care Unit.

Leggett resigned from ISP in January following an internal investigation.

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Cab driver, passenger and man accused of causing wreck are all injured in Thursday incident.

By JOHN MANGALONZO (www.TheHawkeye.com)

jmangalonzo@thehawkeye.com

Shortly after being treated in the hospital, a 45-year-old Burlington man was arrested Thursday afternoon on allegations he intentionally rammed his pickup head-on into a taxi, injuring the cab driver and a passenger.

Donald McClanahan was booked in the Des Moines County jail on initial charges of willful injury, leaving the scene of an injury accident, driving left of center and reckless driving. Police said they found drugs in the man’s pocket that netted him additional charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police Sgt. Chad Zahn said officers were called to Central and Valley streets at approximately 2:51 p.m. Thursday on an initial report of a hit-and-run crash.

McClanahan, according to police, was driving a full-size pickup southbound on the road when he crossed over to the center line and started to drive north. Witnesses reportedly told officers McClanahan accelerated his speed into the path of a northbound A2Z taxi, colliding with it head-on.

The man apparently left on foot after the crash and was found walking nearby.

The identities of the cab driver and a passenger, both of whom were taken to Great River Medical Center, were not available late Thursday afternoon. Their conditions are unknown.

It remains unclear what caused McClanahan to accelerate the truck in the wrong lane. Police, however, are calling it intentional, based on witness accounts.

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Gang leader Michael Rigby escaped from a maximum-security area of Florida’s Osceola County Jail last week by ripping a combination toilet and sink from his cell’s cinderblock wall and burrowing his way to freedom.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said Rigby “crawled through the wall” and that the passage led to “a small maintenance area behind the cell,” according to Lizasuain, that has egress to a grassy area outside the maximum security facility.

After ripping open his cell’s wall, Rigby, 21, climbed through the hole and over some pipes before breaking a lock on a rollup door roughly half the size of a single car garage door. He was then outside of the building. Rigby either went over or under the two razor-topped fences that surround the Jail and fled to freedom, central Florida’s WESH.com is reporting.

It is not clear how exactly Rigby was able to clear the fence, but his discarded jail clothes were found in a pile on the other side.

Two of Rigby’s family members have been arrested, accused of providing him with a car, money, clothing, food and a cell phone. Rigby himself, however, remains on the run.

Rigby, who broke out the night of Feb. 18, leads a gang accused of opening fire at a birthday party in July in Poinciana, a community of 70,000 residents on the Osceola-Polk county line, according to court records, the Orlando Sentinal is reporting.

Security at the Osceola County Jail has been a concern for county officials since Rigby escaped without anyone noticing what may have been days or weeks of digging. Arrest reports in the past year show inmates opened cell doors simply by shaking or kicking them.

Corrections Chief Greg Futch told Central Florida News 13 that multiple measures have been taken since Rigby escaped and security changes were already under way.

Rigby’s impending trial has multiple ties to street-gang violence in Poinciana, Florida. More than a dozen men and women with extensive criminal records and some with ties to Rigby’s gang have been called to testify, according to subpoenas issued by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

The case centers on a shooting last summer in Poinciana that crippled one woman and missed striking two other guests. Few details have been released about what happened.

Tuesday, Jail Chief Gregory Futch apologized to the community for allowing the escape and admitted it is possible Rigby was not checked every 30 minutes, as designated under jail policy.
He was discovered missing at 5:40 a.m. Friday, Feb. 19, but was likely gone from jail property by 12:30 a.m.
Police said they believe Michael Rigby is no longer in Florida, and may be with a girlfriend from out-of-state. He is believed to be driving a red, four-door Mitsubishi Mirage with black rims and tinted windows, with possible Tennessee tag number 4H15251.

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THE SHOWNOTES

#177 No Agenda For Thursday Februaru 25th 2010
Vajazzling the Slutsquad

Direct Link to the show.

Comment

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Accused Middle East assassins have tie to Iowa bank

by Radio Iowa Contributor on February 25, 2010

Some of the accused assassins who allegedly took out an Islamic fundamentalist leader last month reportedly booked their flights and hotel rooms with the help of an Iowa bank. Credit cards issued by a northwest Iowa-based financial institution were used by a Middle Eastern hit squad.

According to officials in Dubai, 14 of 26 suspects in the murder of a senior leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were in possession of credit cards issued by Storm Lake-based MetaBank. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed on January 19th. Two of the suspects are being held in Dubai.

Warrants have been issued for the others. MetaBank is owned by Meta Financial Group, which also owns Meta Payments Systems, a major provider of credit cards. MetaBank officials haven’t commented pending a review of the situation.

By Joel Hermann, KAYL, Storm Lake

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Deere bringing back workers in Davenport, Dubuque

by Radio Iowa Contributor on February 25, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

Some laid off Deere and Company workers in Iowa are headed back to their jobs. The farm equipment manufacturer says it will recall 65 workers to its plant in Dubuque and another 52 to its Davenport Works.

They’ll report to work March 8th. A Deere spokesman says the recalls are needed to meet increased sales of construction and forestry equipment and to replace workers who have retired.

Last March, the Moline, Illinois-based company laid off more than 200 workers in Dubuque and more than 100 in Davenport.

By Phil Roberts, Davenport

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Having failed to sell the Hummer brand off to a Chinese car manufacturer, GM is shutting it down. This car was like the high-fructose corn syrup of automobiles, something that concentrated everything bad about motoring until it underwent a phase-change and somehow became an object of desire.

“We have since considered a number of possibilities for Hummer along the way and we are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed,” said John Smith, GM’s vice-president of corporate planning and alliances.

“GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner.”

Hummer brand to be wound down after sale fails (via Memex 1.1)

(Image: Hummer limousine, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike image from Franco Folini’s photostream)

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by Pat Curtis on February 25, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

Iowa grocers would have a new incentive for stocking Iowa grown foods under a bill filed by a Democratic lawmaker from Iowa City. Senator Joe Bolckom’s bill would enact a tax credit for stores which buy local fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats. Bolckom says grocers want to support small local producers but it’s not always easy to do so.

“Providing some sort of incentive to them because of the additional hassle they have to go through to interact with local producers rather than one distribution warehouse is what’s behind the bill….creating some kind of incentive to see more Iowa products end up in places like HyVee, Fareway and Wal-Mart,” Bolckom said. Bolckom introduced the bill at the urging of economic development leaders who want to encourage Iowa food processors as well as Iowa growers.

“The average meal in Iowa travels about 1,500 miles to get here,” Bolckom said. “I think many people around the state who are working on local food issues see great economic development potential from Iowa consumers consuming more Iowa grown vegetables, fruits, dairy and meat products.” Bolckom admits the bill will have a hard time this year because of pressure on the state treasury, but he says it was worth introducing to see if there’s support.

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Iowa ACLU sues Atlantic School District over strip search information

by Dar Danielson on February 25, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

The Iowa A.C.L.U. is filing an open records lawsuit to force the Atlantic School District to reveal the punishment given two school officials who conducted a strip search of five high school girls last August. A.C.L.U. executive director, Ben Stone, says the school did identify the individuals involved, but never released their punishment.

Stone says,”We feel it’s important to not allow any school district to conceal the consequences…for people who violate the law,and so we feel we need to pursue a court case to force the Atlantic school system to reveal the discipline, if any that was given out to the school officials who did this search.”

Atlantic assistant principal/activities director Paul Croghan resigned in November, and was one of the two employees identified by the district. The other employee was identified as Heather Turpen, but nothing was said about their punishment. Stone says there have been reports of people resigning, but nothing officially, and he says they want to know what exactly was done for those who engaged in the strip search.

He says they need to see the punishment to know if the district took the issue seriously. Stone says it is a balancing act to allow some personnel information to remain concealed, versus the public’s right to know. “We think in this case that the public interest in seeing that government officials are held accountable for violating a law like the strip search prohibition would be a more important piece of information than the plain privacy interest of the people that have been disciplined,” Stone says.

The girls were strip searched in a locker room on August 21st after $100 was reported by a classmate.

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Jennifer L. Leggett of Niota, Ill. worked as a correctional officer at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Ft. Madison. She was also a member of the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to a detachment of the 801st Combat Support Hospital out of Bartonville, Ill.

Leggett allegedly attached fraudulent military orders to her applications for military leave. Allegedly, the orders were U.S. Air Force documents that had been altered to appear to be U.S. Army orders for Leggett.

Because military leave was taken by Leggett, Iowa reportedly compensated her for 11 days

The Department of Public Safety announced Thursday that following an internal investigation by the department, Leggett resigned from her position Jan. 14.

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Toyota should be toast by now. In fact, the only difference between ‘Toyota’ and ‘toast’ should be that the word ‘toast’ has the letter ‘s’ in it and Toyota doesn’t.

But of course I have to use the phrase ‘should be’ because Toyota is so well-connected in Washington, DC that it can never be clear if the Japanese car company will reap the just rewards for what it’s been sowing, which include a blatant disregard for safety, attempting to sweep that disregard for safety under the floor mat, and then actually blaming many of their problems on the floor mat.

According to the investigative reporting of the Associated Press, the contribution of common sense to the issue of Toyota’s unprecedented volume of recalls in the past few months will surely have to overcome plenty of political obstacles. And we don’t even have to worry about the Alabama senators (Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions) that headed the “drop dead Detroit” team when the American automakers were getting raked over the coals for non-safety issues like financial problems and flying private jets. Senators Sessions and Shelby have been remarkably silent this time around. Anyway, here are some of the major political obstacles.

1. Top investigator in the massive safety-centered recalls is Toyota cheerleader Senator Jay Rockefeller (D, WV) who routinely credits himself with successfully lobbying Toyota to build a factory in his state in 1996. Rockefeller bragged in 2006 at the 10^th anniversary celebration for the West Virginia plant that “By the time Toyota decided to make Buffalo [WV] its new home, I felt like a full-fledged member of that site selection team.”

1. House investigative panel member, Rep. Jane Harman (D, Ca.), represents the district where the Japanese automaker’s U.S. subsidiary resides. Rep. Harman and her husband Sidney own over $100,000 in Toyota stock according to their latest financial disclosure report. Sidney Harman is also the founder of Harman International Industries, which sells vehicle audio systems to Toyota. Rep. Harman also paid tribute to the late lead Toyota engineer David Hermance on the House floor after he died in plane crash in 2006, referring to him as the “Father of the American Prius.” The American Prius? The one made by a Japanese company in Japan?

1. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) who remarked at the 20th anniversary of the Toyota Kentucky plant in 2006 that “Kentucky is still reaping the rewards of its 20-year partnership with Toyota, and we hope to continue to do so for years to come.” The Toyota Kentucky plant? The one that was constructed by Ohbayashi Corporation of Japan with Japanese steel? The one that received its financing by Mitsui Bank of Japan? The one that paved the way for a special trade zone so Japan could import parts duty-free? The one where we gave away 1,500 acres of free land to Toyota? The one where federal and state government grants totaled over $100 million?

1. Current NHTSA chief David Strickland, who worked under top Toyota recall investigator Senator Jay Rockefeller, as a lawyer and senior staffer for eight years.

1. Main federal government liaison for Toyota, Christopher Tinto, who worked for NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Standards dealing with truck braking standards.

1. EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee member (and Toyota executive) Tom Stricker.

And we can’t forget the prominent people on Toyota’s diversity advisory board, such as Clinton administration Cabinet Secretary and co-chair of President Obama’s presidential campaign Frederico Pena; Former Labor Secretary (Clinton administration) Alexis Herman; Former republican representative turned lobbyist Susan Molinari; and former U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission chairman Gilbert Casellas.

It’s fairly safe to say that if it had been GM or Ford’s head on the chopping block, foreign car lovers would be railing against Detroit and once again calling for their demise. It’s already obvious that Toyota’s American defenders and apologists cry foul about their perceived unfair treatment in the media and by congress. Over 100 Toyota dealers plan to rally in Washington this week. One Iowa Toyota dealers has been telling customers that Toyota’s safety problems aren’t due to flaws in their cars, but rather they are due to an overzealous media. Really? That’s going to be a tough one to back up.

Such injustice claims are hard to authenticate given the thrashing the Big Three took on Capitol Hill during the bailout hearings or the intensity of the John McCain-led inquisition into Ford’s role in the early 1990’s SUV rollovers involving Firestone tires.

Akiko Fujita, a Tokyo reporter for Public Radio International (PRI), said on February 2 that “Toyota’s success story has long been a source of National pride in Japan.” But founder Kiichi Toyota launched the company in the 1930’s after visiting Ford’s Michigan factories.

And how does one come to the conclusion that any car company is truly a success to be revered? In America, one would think to consider an auto company’s market share here. At the close of 2009, GM had a U.S. market share of 19.5%, which jumped to 21% in January this year even as it was cutting its number of brands from eight to four and reducing fleet sales. Toyota ended 2009 with a 17.9% U.S. market share, which plunged to 14.1% in January. Also in January, Ford passed Toyota in U.S. market share at 16.7% after ending 2009 with a 14.1% U.S. market share. So much for the claim American companies don’t build cars Americans want to buy. GM and Ford’s number one and number two market share, respectively, is sufficient proof Americans do like American cars.

With almost any other country you consider, there is an American automaker with a higher market share percentage than Toyota. According to Automotive News, GM lost the number one market share crown in Mexico for the first time in 14 years to Nissan. Toyota didn’t make the top five. Volkswagen was third, Ford was fourth, Chrysler was fifth.

In China (now the world’s largest automotive market), GM has the number one market share. According to a February 11 article on the website TradingMarkets.com, Toyota’s 2009 sales in China were the lowest in 31 years. The stated reason was “the quality of its car models.” Toyota ranked fourth in Chinese market share as of November 2008.

In Europe, Ford comes in third with a 9.2% market share, while Toyota’s market share is less than 6%. GM-owned Opel’s share alone of the European market, not even including Chevrolet, is nearly 7%. And Ford outsells Toyota in Russia.

So let’s recap. GM beats Toyota in the two largest auto markets in the world (the U.S. and China) but it’s GM that isn’t building cars people want to buy?

Actually, Toyota has been a failure in the United States when you consider its advantages and its inability to capture the number one market share crown. In 2004, GM spent $5.2 billion on health care for its workers and retirees, or about $1,500.00 extra per vehicle. By comparison, Toyota and Honda only spent a few hundred dollars on health care per vehicle, mainly because GM has been making cars here for a hundred years and Japanese automakers only have been making cars here since the 1980s.

Now let’s say you and I both go into business making similar products in the same industry, and I have to constantly do more with less, having to spend about a thousand dollars more per product than you do. I have less to spend on design, research, marketing, manufacturing, safety initiatives, etc., yet I have a higher market share than you, outselling you year after year. Which company fits the term “failure?” Is GM a failure at 21% market share compared to Toyota’s 14.1% market share? Is Ford a failure, beating Toyota by over 2 ½ percentage points in January? Or with all the advantages of lower legacy costs (health care, pensions, etc.) in America, isn’t Toyota the real failure for not being able to take the top market share spot, having such large built-in production cost advantages?

True pride is rooting for the home team even when they’re down. Baseball fans don’t switch favorite teams according to the standings. They root for the home team even when they aren’t winning. GM and Ford are the home teams, and they’re winning. Just like Japan has national pride in Toyota, we should have equal national pride in our American auto companies. Sure, American automakers have taken hits they certainly deserved throughout their history for various shortcomings, but your favorite baseball team has probably had a scandal before or some other embarrassing moment. Did you switch teams? Maybe some did, but the true fans stayed with their team – the home team.

In my opinion, true Americans stand behind their home teams, especially when they’re in the lead. If your opinion is you should stand up for the away team (Toyota) instead then let me make sure you know at least some facts first that prove Toyota knew it had safety issues in the U.S. and did nothing.

Toyota’s American executive Jim Lentz said on February 1 that the company’s repairs will “solve the issues that we know of.” They clearly knew of other issues. According to a 51-page report by Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. at least 2,262 Toyota owners have reported unintended acceleration causing 815 accidents and 19 fatalities since 1999.

According to a February 10 Wall Street Journal article, when NHTSA wanted Toyota to issue a recall to remove floor mats, “Toyota assured us this would fix the problem,” said NHTSA’s administrator at the time. Toyota was asked if they were sure it wasn’t the gas pedal, and they assured the NHTSA it was just the floor mats.

But then a Michigan lady was killed in 2008 when her 2005 Camry surged from 25 mph to 80 mph, went airborne, and stuck a tree. Her floor mats were removed days earlier.

On January 19 of this year, two top Toyota executives offered American regulators surprising news in a closed-door meeting. It wasn’t just the floor mats. Toyota was aware of the gas pedal problem for over a year.

According to Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan, there is a Japanese proverb, “If it stinks, put a lid on it.” On February 4, Japan’s transport minister Seiji Machara said Toyota denied problems existed and was not sufficiently sensitive enough to complaints. Still want to believe Toyota wasn’t hiding anything?

On the same day, Toyota president Akio Toyoda, a full two weeks after the gas pedal safety recall, finally spoke up and apologized for the “inconvenience” to consumers. I’m sure those who had funerals for family members and friends didn’t quite think of it as an “inconvenience.”

Go ahead and have your pride in your Toyota if you want. It’s definitely not national pride or pride in the home team. I can understand Japan wants to have pride in their national champion, even when they are down, but we as Americans should have our national pride in our winning national champions, too. The failure of Americans to root for the home team is, to me, un-American.

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Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes “Buy American Mention of the Week” articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week among many other publications.

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House votes to ban writing, sending texts while driving

by O. Kay Henderson on February 23, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

The Iowa House has voted to make it illegal to send a text message while driving.  While some lawmakers argued the bill doesn’t go far enough, others said it goes too far.

“Once again we go after Iowa’s youth because we’re too old to remember what it was like when we were driving 70 miles an hour on a two-lane road with no seat belts,” said Representative Lance Horbach, a Republican from Tama who voted “no” on the bill.  “And we think we’re making it safer.”

Representative Mike May, a Republican from Spirit Lake, is a retired school teacher who argued in favor of the ban on texting while driving.  “Folks, I think the bottom line in all of this is that our children are dying in automobiles,” May said. “We are giving them another gun or another knife in the car to inflict bodily harm on themselves.”

The bill approved in the House would establish a $30 fine for someone caught writing or sending a text message while driving.  But the penalty does not apply to reading a text message in a moving vehicle.  Representative Dave Heaton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, called that a major flaw in the bill.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me that if we’re going to address the issue of texting why we exempt reading (a text message),” Heaton said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

In mid-January, Governor Culver said he hoped Iowa would follow 19 other states and ban texting while driving — including a prohibition on reading text messages as you’re driving down the road, something that is not in the House-passed bill.

“That’s the goal so we hope to work with the legislature to make that happen,” Culver said early Tuesday morning, a few hours before House began debating the issue.

Some Republicans pressed for other limits, like barring drivers from using a hand-held device to surf the web or play games behind the wheel, but those were rejected.  The bill passed on a 64 to 31 vote.  It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

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by Radio Iowa Contributor on February 24, 2010

Iowans who are sick of winter might find a little solitude in a new book that highlights some of the many wonderful things the Hawkeye State has to offer. Lauren Rice, of Des Moines, is the author of “Iowa: An Explorer’s Guide.” Rice says it’s great for visitors, newcomers and longtime residents.

Rice says she spent four months traveling some 6,000 miles across Iowa for the book, keeping her eyes open for new places to explore or familiar sights that needed a fresh look. The 408-page book features a list of unique attractions all over Iowa. She says there was plenty of eating during her journey.

On the trips, she tried to find the best pork tenderloin in Iowa, but says it’s difficult to name a favorite. A restaurant in St. Olaf offered a one-pounder, which was the largest tenderloin she encountered. Rice has a few suggestions for travelers exploring the state.

Get off the interstates and visit small towns, ideally staying in bed and breakfasts. “Bed and breakfast owners themselves are treasure troves of information,” Rice says.

“They have so much knowledge and they can really send you to spots that regular people aren’t going to.” Those spots include attractions and great food, in addition, the B-and-B owners can fill you in on juicy local gossip and legends. Find Rice’s book at: “www.countrymanpress.com” or hear her talk Friday at 7 P.M. at the Kendall Young Library in Webster City. She will also host a writing workshop Saturday at the library.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

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by O. Kay Henderson on February 24, 2010 www.RadioIowa.com

Governor Culver has signed legislation backed by doctors and cancer survivors who believe it will encourage more Iowans to participate in clinical trials. The new law requires state regulated insurance policies to continue covering routine medical care for patients who agree to try experimental medications.

Doctor Richard Deming, medical director of Mercy Cancer Center in Des Moines, says even though many clinical trials are privately funded, patients are afraid to enroll for fear of being dropped by their insurance carrier.

“Cancer is still the number one killer of Iowans and the only way we can make improvements in cancer treatment is doing cancer clinical trials, but millions of cancer patients are afraid, especially nowadays, to do something that may cause them to lose healthcare coverage,” Deming said. While most Iowans are covered under federally regulated insurance plans, supporters of the bill say it still sends an important message to cancer patients.

“Most patients are not fearful of the actual treatment, they are very fearful of what the consequences might be if they were to lose coverage,” Deming said. Healthcare advocacy groups have been pushing for the legislation for three years. Deming says the new law does not require insurance carriers to cover the cost of the clinical trial itself – only the routine medical care the patient needs.

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by Matt Kelley on February 23, 2010 (www.RadioIowa.com)

Iowa’s largest health insurance company is announcing plans to significantly raise rates in April by as much as 25%. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s sending a letter today to the C.E.O. of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, asking for justification of the rate increases that are being planned.

“I’m getting questions from Iowans about this and I need to know the basis for Wellmark making these decisions,” Grassley says. “What factors were considered? Did they have individual actuarial analysis? We need data on their reserves.”

Some 80,000 Iowans buy their own health insurance through Wellmark and their rates are expected to rise between 10% and 25 %. A company spokesman has said the rate hikes are due to increasing health care costs, but Grassley says he wants more detail from Wellmark, though people in several other states are facing similar premium increases.

“I think we’re entitled to documentation of these insurers’ efforts and how it relates to their seeking to be fully nonpartisan status, but my purpose is to study what’s going on,” Grassley says. “I want an informed policy debate on these issues.”

Wellmark raised insurance rates for individual policyholders last year by more than 9%. Overall, Wellmark insures 1.8 million Iowans, with most of them buying their health care coverage through their employers. Grassley, a Republican, says he wants to see the numbers.

“I’m asking because Iowa consumers deserve to know and as the health care debate in Washington continues, insurance rates are a major issue,” Grassley says. “The legislation passed last year didn’t drive costs down. In fact, premiums would’ve gone up.”

Wellmark is constructing a new headquarters in downtown Des Moines that’s expected to cost $194-million, but company officials say the structure has no impact on its rates. The move will gather workers from five existing buildings into one central location.

#afscme

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System Offers Unique Approach to Diabetes Management Between Physician Visits

#diabetes – Bayer’s A1CNow® SELFCHECK At-Home A1C System Now Available In Local Pharmacies

This press release is an announcement submitted by PRNewswire, and was not written by Diabetes Health.

Bayer’s A1CNow SELFCHECK, cleared by the Food and Drug Administration last year, is the first and only system of its kind with at-home results in five minutes. It enables patients to more closely watch their A1C level in between doctor visits so they may have a more informed discussion with their healthcare provider to ensure their diabetes plan is working.

Measuring A1C levels is important for diabetes management, as even a one-percent point reduction in A1C may lower the risk of complications by up to 40 percent.(1)

“A1C testing is an important measure of long-term diabetes management,” said Olivier Jarry, Chief Operating Officer for Bayer Diabetes Care. “Bayer’s A1CNow SELFCHECK provides patients with a new way to partner with their healthcare providers to help meet their blood sugar goals over time.”

A1CNow SELFCHECK complements the healthcare provider-administered A1C test but is not intended to replace it or routine blood glucose testing. Bayer’s A1CNow SELFCHECK, when used in conjunction with blood glucose meters, such as Bayer’s CONTOUR® or BREEZE®2 blood glucose meters, lets people with diabetes know where they stand with respect to their treatment goals.

A1CNow SELFCHECK comes as a 2-test-kit for a suggested sale price of $29.99. For more information or to find out where you can buy this meter, visit http://www.a1cnowselfcheck.com/or http://www.simplewins.com/. These websites also contain valuable educational information for patients to help them better understand and track their A1C progress.

About A1C (5, 6, 7)

A1C is a measure of how much sugar is attached to hemoglobin – a protein inside the red blood cells. The more sugar there is in the blood, the more will stick to hemoglobin, which increases a patient’s A1C level. Once it sticks, sugar remains on the hemoglobin for the life of the red blood cell, about three months.

An A1C reading provides the average blood sugar level over the past 2-3 months and indicates how well your treatment plan is working. A1C levels, for most people without diabetes, range from four to six percent. For most patients with diabetes, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends an A1C under seven percent. A1C levels higher than seven percent may increase the risk of developing complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye disease, nerve damage, amputations and circulation problems.

The ADA recommends performing an A1C test at least two times a year in patients who are meeting treatment goals and have stable glycemic control. The ADA recommends testing four times a year for patients whose therapy has changed or are not meeting glycemic goals.

Bayer Diabetes Care

Bayer Diabetes Care is a worldwide leader in diabetes care, supporting customers in 100 countries and, for more than 40 years, has led the way in diabetes care product innovation. Bayer introduced the first portable blood glucose meter and test strips, innovated the measurement of A1C (glycated hemoglobin) with A1CNow+® and A1CNow® SELFCHECK and was the first to offer a suite of blood glucose monitors (CONTOUR® and BREEZE®2) with No Coding(TM) technology. Additionally, Bayer’s meters feature no interference from maltose and galactose, making diabetes management easier. Today, Bayer Diabetes Care offers an unparalleled choice in diabetes monitoring systems and comprehensive support including education, tools and resources designed to simplify life with diabetes. Bayer Diabetes Care is a business of the Bayer HealthCare LLC, Medical Care Division and has its global headquarters located in Tarrytown, New York. For more information visit http://www.bayerdiabetes.com/, or in the U.S. http://www.simplewins.com/.

Bayer HealthCare

The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany. The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Medical Care and Pharmaceuticals divisions. The pharmaceuticals business operates under the name Bayer Schering Pharma. Bayer HealthCare’s aim is to discover and manufacture products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. Find more information at http://www.bayerhealthcare.com/.

1. Association of glycaemia with macrovascular and microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes (UKPDS 35): prospective observational study BMJ 2000;321:405-412.
2. http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics/prevalence.jsp Last accessed May 11, 2009
3. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/search.pdf. Last accessed May 4, 2009
4. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/general.htm Last accessed May 4, 2009
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National diabetes fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2003.http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2003.pdf. Last accessed May 11, 2009..
6. http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/blood-glucose- control/a1c/
7. American Diabetes Association. Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes – 2010. Diabetes Care, 2010; 33(1): S11-61.

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Source: PRNewswire press release

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by Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young children may be more apt to have high blood sugar, a precursor to diabetes, if they average 8 hours or less of sleep a night, report Chinese and American researchers.

This risk may be even greater among obese youngsters, Dr. Zhijie Yu, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai and colleagues note in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Moreover, Yu said in an email to Reuters Health, shorter sleep seemed to influence blood sugar “independently of a large variety of risk factors,” such as age, gender, birth-related influences, early life feeding or later diet, recent illness, physical activity, body mass, and waist girth.

Yu’s team investigated sleep duration and blood sugar levels in 619 obese and 617 non-obese children who were 3 to 6 years old and free of diabetes or blood sugar problems.

Parental reports showed a greater percentage of the obese (47 percent) than the non-obese (37 percent) kids averaged 8 or fewer hours of sleep nightly.  These reports also showed nightly averages of 9 or 10, or 11-plus, hours of sleep less common in obese (37 and 16 percent) versus non-obese (43 and 20 percent) kids, respectively.

High blood sugar levels, defined as 100 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood after not eating for 8 hours, appeared about 1.35-fold and 2.15-fold more likely in the shorter-sleeping non-obese and obese kids, respectively. (For comparison, 110 milligrams per deciliter is considered “pre-diabetes,” while diabetes is diagnosed at 126 milligrams.)

High blood sugar levels were evident in 23 of the 217 non-obese and in 49 of the 291 obese kids sleeping less than 8 hours.  By contrast, 21 each of the 175 non-obese and 229 obese kids getting 9 or 10 hours of sleep nightly had high blood sugar.

Overall, 11 of the children had levels above 126 milligrams per deciliter, the level at which diabetes is diagnosed.

These findings hint that, similar to adults, adequate sleep may help kids, “maintain a healthy body weight and an optimal (blood sugar) level,” Yu said.

However, Yu’s team highlights the need for further studies to confirm these findings in both Chinese and other populations of youngsters.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, January 2010

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Microsoft’s Hotmail email service suffered a temporary outage Tuesday related to problems with the Windows Live ID user-authentication technologies. And although the service is now back up and running normally, there are limited reports that some users’ accounts might have been compromised during the outage, allowing others to view account details and other private information.

“Around 9:30 a.m. PST [Tuesday Feb 16th], the Windows Live ID sign-in service experienced a partial outage: Some customers were unable to sign in to services using Windows Live ID for approximately one hour,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “The service is now restored to normal. Microsoft apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused customers.” A posting to the Windows Live blog expanded on the explanation, noting that the outage was “due to the failure of one server, increasing the load on our remaining servers [and causing] Windows Live ID logins to fail for some customers.”

Hotmail is one of the most popular email services on Earth, with hundreds of millions of users, so this outage could have hit a wide audience. And although any failure of a web-based service is sure to raise new concerns about cloud computing, this outage comes with an additional twist in the form of potential privacy violations.

These reports are currently limited, but Microsoft is investigating. “Microsoft takes customers’ privacy seriously, and immediately upon learning of these reports, we started an investigation,” a Microsoft statement reads. “We will take appropriate action once we have completed the investigation.”

The Hotmail outage also comes amidst widespread outrage over a new social networking feature, Buzz, which Google added to its own Gmail email service. According to privacy advocates, Buzz “breaks privacy laws,” and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been asked to investigate. At issue are the service’s bizarre opt-in policies and lack of customization. Some have complained that Buzz gave anonymous strangers access to their private contacts list. Google has changed the service twice in the past week to address complaints but has done little to quell the furor. Google admits that its users are “rightfully upset” and says that it is “very, very sorry.”

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by Pat Curtis www.RadioIowa.com

State officials are releasing more information today about a rebate program on purchases of large, energy-efficient appliances. The rebates on selected refrigerators, hot water heaters, furnaces, dishwashers and other appliances range from $100 to $500. Iowans will be able to reserve their rebate starting at 8 a.m. next Monday.

Today, the website and toll free phone number where rebate reservations will be accepted are being released. Linda King, with the Iowa Office of Energy Independence, says just over 9,000 rebates will be available. “This program is on a first come, first serve basis. So, we are encouraging people to call in the first week of the program, reserve their rebates and then they’ll have plenty of time to make decisions and make their purchases,” King said.

The rebate reservation website, which will become active today at 12 p.m., is www.iowaappliancerebate.com. The toll free number is 1-877-267-7495. The website won’t have registration information and the phone number won’t be “live” until March 1 at 8 a.m. King says Iowans who reserve their rebate do not need to select a manufacturer or model number when they place their reservation.

The only information needed for the reservation is the type of appliance being purchased. Iowans who obtain a rebate reservation have 30 days to make the purchase and mail in the required paperwork. A waiting list will be made available once all of the rebates for each appliance are reserved. More details about the program and what appliances are eligible for rebates can be found at www.energy.iowa.gov .

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