Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalTeen Fights for Benefits as Medicaid Contractor Says No
By Christopher Flavelle and Charles R. Babcock - 2012-06-27T04:01:00Z
Melody and Steve Lancaster’s 16- year-old foster son, who’s paralyzed from the neck down, needed a mechanized ceiling lift to help him get into the bathtub or his favorite beanbag chair.
While Texas Medicaid officials had already paid as much as $13,000 for similar devices for others, the company that the state hired to look after the teenager’s health needs refused. Superior Health, a unit of Centene Corp. (CNC) that covers about 800,000 Texas Medicaid recipients, also rejected at least two other requests for lifts, state records show. The Lancasters’ foster son and another patient appealed, and won. The third case is pending.
“Superior is more concerned with its bottom line than the medical needs of these children,” said Peter Hofer, a lawyer with the advocacy group Disability Rights Texas who represented the teenager.
The October 2011 denial was based on Superior’s decision that the lift was a home modification not covered by its plan -- a determination a state hearing officer overruled in April, according to state records. Superior is committed to helping patients and is working with officials “to adjust our policies and procedures” on the lifts, said Sandy McBride, a Centene spokeswoman.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-27/teen-fights-for-benefits-as-medicaid-contractor-says-no.html
Pending Sales of U.S. Homes Climbed More Than Forecast
By Michelle Jamrisko - 2012-06-27T15:22:34Z
More Americans than forecast signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes in May, indicating the real estate industry is firming three years after the start of the economic recovery.
The index of pending home resales climbed 5.9 percent to 101.1, matching a two-year high reached in March, after a 5.5 percent decline in April, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 1.5 percent gain in May.
Record-low mortgage rates and cheaper properties may keep sparking buyer interest, even as cooling employment and limited access to credit remain hurdles for the market. The Federal Reserve’s decision last week to extend a program aimed at holding down borrowing costs may sustain the progress in residential real estate.
“This improvement adds to the recent flow of good news on the housing sector, reinforcing our view that this beleaguered sector is finally on the mend,” Millan Mulraine, a senior U.S. strategist at TD Securities in New York, said in an e-mail to clients. “It points to a decent pop in existing-home sales activity in June.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-27/pending-sales-of-u-s-homes-climbed-more-than-forecast-in-may.html
Heat Wave Wilts Corn as Supplies Diminish Most Since 1996
Source: Bloomberg
Corn supplies in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter, are declining at the fastest pace since 1996 just as a Midwest heat wave damages the world’s largest harvest for a third consecutive year.
Stockpiles were probably 3.168 billion bushels (80.47 million metric tons) on June 1, 47 percent less than on March 1, the average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows. The worst Midwest drought in more than a decade is wilting a harvest that the U.S. Department of Agriculture says will be the biggest ever. The agency updates its inventory estimate June 29 and its production forecast two weeks later.
Futures surged 25 percent since reaching a 20-month low June 15, and Morgan Stanley expects prices to advance another 10 percent to $7 a bushel in two months if the drought persists. The rally is boosting global food costs that the United Nations estimates dropped 14 percent from a record in February 2011 and widening losses for ethanol producers including Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co.
“We have a potential disaster developing for the U.S. corn supply,” said Peter Meyer, the senior director for agricultural commodities at PIRA Energy Group in New York who cut his corn- crop forecast after surveying fields in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio last week. “This year may be the worst yet.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-26/heat-wave-wilts-corn-as-supply-drops-most-since-96-commodities.html
Geoffrey Fieger Calls Obama Critics Racists In New Ad; Refers To His 'White Brethren' Being Bothered
DETROIT -
In a new 1-minute TV ad, Geoffrey Fieger refers to critics of President Barack Obama as racists.
In the ad Fieger begins saying, "Can we speak honestly about racism?" He then goes on to question whether people would question if President Obama was born in the united state if he was white.
In another portion of the ad he goes on to say, "Every time I hear someone insinuate that President Obama is a Muslim, or a communist, or a radical, or a foreigner, all I hear them say is that he's black. And as a white man in America I know damn well that it really bothers some of my white brethren that a black family is occupying the White House."
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http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/news/Geoffrey-Fieger-calls-Obama-critics-racists-in-new-ad/-/4714498/15238412/-/9070fmz/-/index.html
Anti-Israel Aid Billboards Are Taken Down (Los Angeles area)
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A subsidiary of the CBS Corp. removed 23 billboards in the Los Angeles area calling for a stop to U.S. foreign assistance to Israel.
The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, which sponsored the billboards, said in a statement that it received a letter from CBS Outdoor, a subsidiary of the CBS Corp., saying the contract was canceled because the coalition "used the ‘CBS Outdoor’ name without permission" in its publicity. CBS Outdoor refunded the undisclosed amount of the contract to the group, the coalition said on its Facebook page.
The coalition is asking supporters to demand that CBS Outdoor put back the billboards.
“If you support us trying to get our message of ending military aid to Israel back up on billboards in the nation's second largest city, won't you help flood CBS with phone calls demanding that our billboards be put back up and our contract be honored to the full term?” the coalition said in its statement.
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http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/26/3099211/anti-israel-aid-billboards-coming-down
Heat Wave Sweeps Texas Threatening To Push Electric Grid Near Capacity
Odessa, TX - With temperatures hitting near record-breaking this summer, the Texas power grid is in high demand, which could mean higher prices for consumers.
Today the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the City of Odessa and the City of Midland issued statements asking the public to conserve power from 3pm to 7pm. Officials said their trying to prevent electric outages before they start.
"We actually have peaks in the summer and we have peaks in the winter. We have already identified areas …so we have already been working on what we call our summer load, " stated Oncore Regional Manager, Sue Mercer.
ERCOT stated today we wouldn’t be short of hitting the peak demand of electricity used last year, which reached around 68,000 megawatts.
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http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=35514
Palestinians Hail ‘Great Guest’ Putin, Rename A Bethlehem Road In His Honor
Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a royal welcome on his first official visit to the Palestinian territories Tuesday.
Arriving in Bethlehem, Putin visited the Church of the Nativity and inaugurated a Russian cultural center. Palestinian media was jubilant at the visit, calling it “historic” and dubbing the Russian leader “the great guest of Palestine.” A main road in Bethlehem was even named “Putin” to commemorate the visit, the Palestinian news agency Maan reported.
Putin’s visit to the Palestinian territories comes at a particularly tense time in relations between Russia and the Arab world. Reports of Russian military support for the Syrian government crackdown are being highlighted in Arab media, and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States have been increasingly vocal during the past few weeks in condemning Russia. Worldwide demonstrations outside Russian embassies took place on June 13. Syrians have been burning the Russian flag in protest against Russia’s support for President Bashar Assad.
During their talks, Abbas asked his Russian counterpart to place pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and halt settlement building. Abbas told Palestinian media that direct negotiations with Israel are the only road to peace, and proposed holding an international peace summit in Moscow.
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http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-calls-for-moscow-peace-summit-ignores-syria-in-meeting-with-putin/
Putin: Don't Rush To Strike Iran
President Vladimir Putin expressed his reservations over the prospect of a military strike in Iran, urging Israel Monday to learn from negative US experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Putin's comments were made in a meeting with Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, after Israel's president asked the visiting leader to speak out on the Iran issue.
"Look at what happened to the Americans in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I told Obama the same thing," the visiting president said in a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, cautioning against hasty military action. "There is no need to do things too quickly; one should not act without thinking first."
"Iraq has a pro-Iranian regime after everything that has happened there. These things should be thought out ahead of time before doing something one will regret later," he said. "One should not act prematurely."
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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4247178,00.html
Congress Said to Delay Automatic Budget Cuts Until March
Republican and Democratic congressional leaders are weighing whether to delay automatic federal spending cuts until March 2013, according to a House aide and industry officials who were briefed on the discussions.
The $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over a decade, half of which would affect the Defense Department, are scheduled to begin in January 2013. At the same time, lawmakers must decide what to do about income tax cuts and other tax breaks scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Leaders in both chambers are discussing whether to propose a catch-all bill that would delay the automatic cuts, fund the government through March or later and temporarily extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts and other tax laws, said the House aide and industry officials, who asked to speak on condition of anonymity.
“It is being seriously considered as one of the options and there is no doubt about that,” Steve Bell, the senior director of the Economic Policy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in an interview.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-25/congress-said-to-delay-automatic-budget-cuts-until-march.html
Democrats Cancel Speedway Event at Charlotte Convention
By Hans Nichols - 2012-06-26T12:47:35Z
Democrats canceled a political convention kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and will move the activities to Charlotte’s main business district, the convention’s host committee announced.
“While we regret having to move CarolinaFest away from our great partners at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the City of Concord, we are thrilled with the opportunity that comes with hosting this event in Uptown Charlotte,” said Dan Murrey, the executive director of the Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee.
The move comes as party planners are grappling with a fundraising deficit of roughly $27 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal party politics. With a party ban on direct contributions from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10 million, well short of its $36.6 million goal, said one of the people.
Murrey said that logistics, not costs, were behind the decision to cancel the Speedway event.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-26/democrats-may-drop-speedway-event-at-charlotte-convention.html
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