Report: More insured means less costs for indigent care

or years, the No. 1 issue for hospital executives in New Mexico — whether talking with state lawmakers or county commissioners — was the cost of providing care to patients who showed up at the emergency room without insurance.

Unlike other health care providers, hospitals are required under federal law to provide emergency care to patients without regard for their ability to pay.

But a new report by the Legislative Finance Committee shows that for the first time, hospitals are spending less money on indigent care because more and more patients have some type of private insurance or government-issued Medicaid coverage.

It is the first look at the issue of indigent health care costs since the requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a fine became federal law.

Read more: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/report-more-insured-means-less-costs-for-indigent-care/article_c8f30a87-141a-51b1-b562-c25a9afd977d.html

Man fatally shot by Laredo police identified as sheriff's deputy

Police fatally shot an off-duty sheriff's deputy Monday in North Laredo after they responded to a report of a suicide attempt.

The deputy was identified as Cesar Cuellar, 25.

The shooting happened after a person reported to police at about 11 a.m. that she had received messages from Cuellar saying he wanted to harm himself, LPD said. Two officers who responded to the report encountered Cuellar at an apartment at Kirby and Eskimo drives.

One of the officers opened fire after "repeated commands to the individual who was armed with a handgun," said Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman.

Read more: http://www.lmtonline.com/front-news/article_2cdd3578-870c-11e5-96b2-1fbfed068503.html

Ben Carson’s book is full of plagiarism and could be pulled from shelves

Ben Carson has yet another problem in the honesty department. After a week in which many of the claims he’s made in his books about his personal life in his various books have been exposed as phony, the issue has been compounded by the fact that long sections of one of the books have been copied and pasted from other people’s work. The issue is serious enough that the publishing house is now being forced to reconsider the books based on their apparent plagiarism.

Carson’s 2012 book, America the Beautiful, contains instances of plagiarism from at least three different sources, including one conservative website and two books written by other authors. The irony here may be that in his book, Carson admits that he was caught plagiarizing other people’s work in a similar manner while he was in college. It now appears that he failed to learn his lesson. Harper Collins says it’s reviewing the matter. In many instances books are removed from store shelves, and then sometimes later replaced with a new version giving proper credit, while other times simply abandoned. But the controversy surrounding his books is just getting started.

Various major news outlets have investigated the strange and often violent personal claims which Ben Carson has made in his books about his childhood and past, and none of them could find any evidence that any of the incidents really happened. So it turns out Carson’s books are a combination of fake personal stories he made up out of thin air, and real stories he plagiarized from other authors. Yet he’s nonetheless a republican frontrunner.

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/ben-carsons-book-is-full-of-plagiarism-and-could-be-pulled-from-shelves/23007/

Oil workers spot 'flying spaghetti monster' lurking off the Angola coast

In Texas, minorities less likely to own homes

While minorities occupy about half of the state’s housing units, they are less likely than white Texans to own their homes, and the state’s largest metro areas have some of the most substantial racial disparities among homeowners, according to recently released U.S. Census data.

A shortage of affordable housing, credit problems and lack of savings for down payments are among the main barriers blamed for creating the demographic divide.

Hispanics live in 30.6 percent of the state’s housing units, but only 27.7 percent of Hispanic households own their home, according to the data. Black Texans occupy 12.5 percent of housing units, but 8.3 percent of black households own their home.

Meanwhile, white Texans occupy 51.5 percent of housing units, but 58.8 percent of white households are owned.

Read more: http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/in-texas-minorities-less-likely-to-own-homes/article_0a23be06-8763-11e5-9fd8-5bc9400972d6.html

Texas Tech business dean resigns amid grading scandal

The former dean of the Texas Tech Rawls College of Business, Lance Nail, responded Wednesday after an investigation into grade changing prompted him to resign Tuesday.

In his statement, Nail admits to not following procedures “to the letter” in changing four students’ grades earlier this year.

“However, this was an extraordinary case in which there was no way to follow the policy explicitly and allow deserving students to graduate,” he wrote.

Nail said in his statement that prior to his resignation as dean of the Rawls College of Business, he had no opportunity to respond to the report by the investigating committee. He also said “multiple students” offered evidence that Jay Conover’s grading may not have been objective — an accusation Nail said Conover refused to address when the two met.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2015-11-11/texas-tech-business-dean-admits-not-following-procedures-letter#.VkQh07_ziuA

[font color=330099]To all employers, there are four MBAs from Texas Tech that did not pass their statistics class.[/font]

Martin O’Malley brings his long-shot presidential bid to Austin

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley brings his long-shot campaign Thursday to Austin, where he will have lunch with an unauthorized immigrant family, speak to students at the University of Texas and raise some money. He will also tape an interview with Texas Tribune editor-in-chief and CEO Evan Smith for his KLRU show, “Overheard.”

The Austin stops are part of a Texas trip that includes visits to Houston and Dallas in advance of the second nationally televised Democratic presidential debate Saturday at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in which O’Malley will face off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Carlton Carl, former CEO and publisher of the Texas Observer and one of the hosts of Thursday evening’s Austin fundraiser, said that O’Malley has two distinct advantages over his two rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. O’Malley accomplished more from a progressive perspective in his seven years as mayor of Baltimore and two terms as governor of Maryland than either Sanders or Clinton did in their careers in the Senate, Carl said. And, at 52, O’Malley is a generation younger than the 68-year-old former secretary of state or the 74-year-old democratic socialist.

So far, O’Malley has achieved little notice in the three-way Democratic race. Polls indicate that Clinton is securely in first, Sanders is solidly in second, while O’Malley was at 2 percent in the latest Fox national poll, and zero percent in the most recent Quinnipiac University national poll.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/martin-omalley-brings-his-long-shot-presidential-b/npLbM/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

John Bel Edwards campaign raises 10-plus times as much as David Vitter in past 10 days

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Bel Edwards may have lagged behind the other major candidates for governor in fundraising throughout much of the campaign, but that has changed, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

He’s still behind what Republican gubernatorial candidates David Vitter has raised and spent, but Edwards reported receiving more than $750,000 on Sunday and Monday alone. That brings his contributions from donors since Nov. 2 to the $1.5 million mark — outraising Vitter, by far, during the last couple weeks.

Vitter during the same period reported $107,500 in contributions during the special reporting period. He hasn’t reported any contributions since Friday.

The contributions are detailed in “special reports” filed with state campaign finance offices.

Read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/13950741-123/money-flowing-into-john-bel

George W. Bush surprises veterans visiting the Bush Center

A group of veterans were in for quite a surprise Tuesday while touring the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

As the group toured the Oval Office exhibit on Veteran’s Day, former President George W. Bush made a surprise entrance, speaking and taking pictures with the group of veterans.

“One of the things I’m dedicated to, for the rest of my life, is helping vets,” Bush said. “I miss saluting those who wear the uniform. And the reason why is after we got attacked on 9/11, I made it clear that we were going to defend ourselves and millions of people volunteered, not thousands but millions, such as you all.”

The former president has made veteran’s well-being and their re-entry into society one of the Bush Institute’s priorities. The institute hosts two annual events — the Warrior Open and a companion event and the Warrior 100K mountain bike ride — to honor the veterans and encourage them to incorporate sports into their recovery.

Read more: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/george-w-bush-surprises-veterans-visiting-the-bush-center.html/

Forget Jade Helm 15, Sheeple, and Get Ready For UWEX 16