@4:01, 12/22/12

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1

Business Day

The Gaps in Mental Health Care and Coverage

By RON LIEBER | Dec 21, 2012

Bucks readers share stories about their efforts to get health insurers or their employers to cover treatment for mental illnesses and autism.

Asperger's Syndrome; Autism; Health Insurance and Managed Care; Mental Health and Disorders; 

Most policies have very limited coverage.  Obama care should change that.

 

2

Style

Candy Cane Scrooge

By JOE BRESCIA | Dec 21, 2012

Everyone, from the bank to the dry cleaner, wants to give my children candy. When did this start, and how do I make it stop?

Candy; Children and Childhood; Medicine and Health; Obesity; Parenting; Teeth and Dentistry; 

Unless she is home schooling her children there are several hours five days a week child free.  These errands can be run in that time.  The sugar bribe for business will be much less offered.  

 

3

U.S.

California: State Ban on Therapy to Change Gays Is Put on Hold

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Dec 22, 2012

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday put a hold on a new California law that bans therapy focused on turning gay minors straight.

Homosexuality; Therapy and Rehabilitation; Courts and the Judiciary;

At this point "repairative therapy" is faith healing.

It may be protected as freedom of religion.

If the arguments lean that way it is a "can of worms".

 

4

Opinion

Preparing Students for a Newtown-like Disaster

By SARA MOSLE | Dec 20, 2012

Children are already thinking about gunmen in schools, every time they have a lockdown drill.

Children and Childhood; Education (K-12); Gun Control; School Shootings; Teachers and School Employees; 

Preparing children to be targets is not something I want.

A mental health outreach program that would find the individuals at risk of becoming shooters, watch their condition, and incarcerate them as dangers to themselves and to others when appropriate.  The process would be medical rather than criminal.  There is a civil liberties question.

resolution in favor of such a program is possible.

 

5

N.Y. / Region

School Bus Drivers’ Union Threatens to Strike in January

By AL BAKER | Dec 22, 2012

For the second year in a row, a bid to increase school bus routes for special needs students has resulted in a potential citywide strike by the Amalgamated Transit Union.

Strikes; Organized Labor; Buses; 

The city looses this one.  

Mayor Mike is going to have to fix the law for his friends, the operators, or he may just take the easy way and require the union protective language.

6

Opinion

Empathy as a Path to Climate (and Energy) Progress

By ANDREW C. REVKIN | Dec 20, 2012

Can the kind of empathy driving a new push on gun control carry over to climate change?

Global Warming; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, Conn); School Shootings; 

There will be no effective legislation on guns in the near future.

Corporate law says the manager of a publicly held corporation has the duty to maximize share holder return within the law.  Externalizing costs to the future does that.

Limiting carbon dioxide emissions will not happen by market forces or by moral argument.

7

Business Day

Europe Proposes New Tobacco Rules

By JAMES KANTER | Dec 20, 2012

Health warnings should cover 75 percent of cigarette packs but governments should also have leeway to require plain packaging, the European Commission said Wednesday.

Regulation and Deregulation of Industry; Smoking and Tobacco; Medicine and Health; 

Nicotine is an addictive drug without significant benefits.

There is no safe way to use tobacco.

A ban would be well worth the job loss and the tax loss.

8

Business Day

Debt Ceiling Rises Again as Threat for the U.S.

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH | Dec 22, 2012

Financial markets and credit rating agencies are closely watching both the talks on the fiscal impasse and the raising of the debt ceiling.

Stocks and Bonds; National Debt (US); Credit Ratings and Credit Rating Agencies; Federal Budget (US); United States Politics and Government; 

I hope we are looking at the death of the Republican party.

   I expect business as usual.

The faithful do not learn.

9

N.Y. / Region

Princeton Review to Pay Millions After Forging Records

By AL BAKER | Dec 21, 2012

The Review provided tutoring to poor-performing New York City public school students through a federally financed program, but falsified attendance sheets.

Tutors and Tutoring; Frauds and Swindling; Education (K-12); 

There is no better argument for a black list.

 

10

N.Y. / Region

Ex-Officer Loses His Bid to Delay Serving Jail Term

By RUSS BUETTNER | Dec 21, 2012

A judge said Kenneth Moreno, who was acquitted of rape but convicted of official misconduct, had “chutzpah” for seeking to remain free on bail while the court weighed a motion to overturn his conviction.

Decisions and Verdicts; Sentences (Criminal); Police Brutality and Misconduct; 

Ok

 

11

World

China: Report Links Former Police Chief to Murder

By EDWARD WONG | Dec 22, 2012

A Chinese news organization reported that Wang Lijun, a former police chief in Chongqing, played a direct role in organizing the murder of Neil Heywood, a British businessman.

Murders and Attempted Murders; Police; Poisoning and Poisons; 

I have no reason to trust this report.

12

U.S.

Washington: Judge Backs Prosecutors in GPS Case

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Dec 21, 2012

A federal judge is allowing prosecutors to use evidence in a drug conviction that had been overturned because the police used a Global Positioning System device to track the suspect without a warrant.

Decisions and Verdicts; Police; Global Positioning System; Drug Abuse and Traffic; Surveillance of Citizens by Government; 

Sad.  Another reason to live squeaky  clean.

This can go on for years. 

13

N.Y. / Region

Foundation Aims to Put Business Issues on Agenda in New York Mayor’s Race

By DAVID W. CHEN | Dec 20, 2012

The Rockefeller Foundation said it would award the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce $100,000 to come up with ways to compel the candidates in next year’s race to pay more attention to business concerns.

Elections, Mayors; Grants (Corporate and Foundation); 

Really bad move.  

 

14

World

Family Sentenced to Prison in England Over Forced Labor

By DOUGLAS DALBY | Dec 20, 2012

A court found that members of an Irish family enticed mentally ill, alcoholic and homeless men to work for as little as $8 a day.

Forced Labor; Homeless Persons; Sentences (Criminal); Alcohol Abuse; 

There is no report of coercion here.  The story seems to be incomplete.

 

15

Opinion

Russian Orphans as Political Pawns

Dec 22, 2012

Barring United States citizens from adoptions is a cynical and cruel response to a new American human rights law.

Law and Legislation; Orphans and Orphanages; Adoptions; Human Rights and Human Rights Violations; United States International Relations; 

This was properly a matter for the state department if the U.S. had any standing.

Congress should leave it alone.

16

U.S.

U.S. Reopens Waters Off New England for Fishing

By JESS BIDGOOD | Dec 21, 2012

Regulators on Thursday voted to reopen about 5,000 square miles of protected waters off the coast of New England to new applications from commercial fishing interests.

Fishing, Commercial; Regulation and Deregulation of Industry; 

Political opinion will not change the number of fish in the sea.

17

Arts

Graphic Books Best Sellers: Pogo Possum and Friends

By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES | Dec 21, 2012

The second volume of Walt Kelly's "Pogo" is at No. 4 on the list.

Books and Literature; Comic Books and Strips; 

People give me these things.  

Pogo spoke to the time.

I will find it in the library if I need it.

18

Business Day

Renault to Build Assembly Plant in Algeria

By DAVID JOLLY | Dec 19, 2012

As auto sales stagnate in Europe, the Algerian market has grown 50 percent this year.

Automobiles; Foreign Investments; Automobiles; 

This kind of adventure has not been happy in the past.

 

19

Dining & Wine

Out of Its Shell and Onto Your Plate

By FLORENCE FABRICANT | Dec 19, 2012

Whelks, a type of sea snail that inhabits the Atlantic Ocean, are making news on cutting-edge menus.

Seafood; Cooking and Cookbooks; 

I have not yet ventured here.

 

20

U.S.

GTT ★

By MICHAEL HOINSKI | Dec 21, 2012

Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week.

Yoga; Christmas;

Texas is very strange.


Time for sleep.










































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