Once admired for its skill in treating a population afflicted by both social and physical ills, Grady, a teaching hospital, now faces the prospect of losing its accreditation. Only short-term financial transfusions have kept it from closing its doors, as Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles County did last year. That scenario would flood the region’s other hospitals with uninsured patients and eliminate the training ground for one of every four Georgia doctors.

Ms. Vaughn feels the strain when she has to counsel 20 patients in a day, twice as many as she did only five years ago. Or when she has to tell diabetics at risk of blindness that it might take four months to get an eye appointment. “It makes me sad,” she says, “that I’m a Grady baby and we have to go through all of this.”

Although the hospital is unique in many ways, the code red at Grady is emblematic of the crippling effect America’s health care crisis has had on public hospitals around the nation. Though Grady is among the most distressed of the country’s 1,300 public hospitals, others have faced similar challenges in recent years, including those in Miami, Memphis and Chicago, said Larry S. Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. There are 300 fewer public hospitals today than 15 years ago, with hospitals having closed in Los Angeles, Washington, St. Louis and Milwaukee, Mr. Gage said.

This article brings to light some of the troubles facing Grady (and similarly funded hospitals) as it tries to pull itself out of the mire. Basically, race, race and race. Also, a little illegal immigration thrown in for good measure.

I kind of felt like they glossed over the fact that it has been providing sub-standard care for a lot longer than it's been in a financial crisis. Yes, it would get better with more money, but it sounds from the article like it needs an entire management/logistics overall. Maybe closing would be a good thing, just to give it some time to re-make itself.

-janelane, compassionate yet objective

A Safety-Net Hospital Falls Into Financial Crisis - New York Times

The energy bill, boosting mileage by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon, passed the House 314-100 and now goes to the White House, following the Senate's approved last week.

Woo-hoo! 2020 is a long way off, but this increase has taken over 30 years to wrestle from the Republicans. Will it come to fruition? Will it narrow our range of choices to Scions and Saturns? Who the hell knows?! But at least we've finally gotten the auto lobby off their butts and motivated them to REALLY do something, and I mean more than just a few hybrids here and there.

-janelane, super-thrilled

Congress sends bill raising fuel efficiency standards to Bush - CNN.com

CENTRAL ISLIP, New York (AP) -- A jury on Monday convicted a millionaire couple of enslaving two Indonesian women they brought to their mansion to work as housekeepers.

One look at the picture of the wife, and I'll believe they were capable of inflicting any amount of cruelty on anyone. You leave those housekeepers alone...and all dalmatians!

-janelane

Jury: Millionaire couple enslaved housekeepers - CNN.com

Romney's money
Net Worth: $202 million

These are top candidate financial profiles. Anybody who says a president is "just a regular guy" should be punched in the face.

-janelane

Millionaires-in-Chief - Romney's money (6) - Money Magazine

By the 1920s, 38 states prohibited whites from marrying blacks, “mulattos,” Japanese, Chinese, Indians, “Mongolians,” “Malays” or Filipinos. Twelve states would not issue a marriage license if one partner was a drunk, an addict or a “mental defect.” Eighteen states set barriers to remarriage after divorce.

In the mid-20th century, governments began to get out of the business of deciding which couples were “fit” to marry. Courts invalidated laws against interracial marriage, struck down other barriers and even extended marriage rights to prisoners.
...
Perhaps it’s time to revert to a much older marital tradition. Let churches decide which marriages they deem “licit.” But let couples — gay or straight — decide if they want the legal protections and obligations of a committed relationship.

-janelane, approvingly

Taking Marriage Private - New York Times

“We suspected at that time the child had been surreptitiously given” [GHB] by a family member or friend of the family, he said by phone from Sydney on Wednesday.

A follow-up test two days later showed that the GHB had disappeared from the boy’s body, which confirmed that the chemical had been ingested and was not occurring because of a genetic disorder. It was then that Dr. Carpenter learned that the boy had vomited beads before and after going into a shallow coma.

Dr. Carpenter obtained more of the boy’s beads and tested them in a mass spectrometer, a device that helps identify chemical compounds. “I saw a large peak of a substance I didn’t recognize,” he said.

The “peak” was an obscure industrial chemical used to prevent water-soluble glues from becoming sticky before they are needed. But when ingested, the chemical quickly breaks down to become GHB. The United States tightly restricts the chemical’s sale and places GHB in the same category as heroin.

This is a fascinating read on finding dangerous chemicals in toys. It took a little over a month from the first Australian child becoming ill to pull the toys from global store shelves.

Until Bush gets off his hiney and puts in some government oversight, my nieces and nephew are getting video games and clothes.

-janelane

Sleuthing for a Danger in Toy Beads - New York Times

Woo-hoo! The big 2-7!

Party forthcoming, just as soon as our house has chairs. :-)

-janelane, the ball-and-chain that cares

Closing day was Friday, and Acidus and I are proud homeowners at last! Now we just need to buy more than two rooms of furniture so we can party, party, party. :-)

-janelane

We bought a house!

"Kathy Griffin's offensive remarks will not be part of the E! telecast on Saturday night," the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said in a statement Monday.

In her speech, Griffin said that "a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus."

She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "This award is my god now!"

The comedian's remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a "vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech."

According to the TV academy and E!, when the four hour-plus ceremony is edited into a two-hour program, Griffin's remarks will be shown in "an abbreviated version" in which some language may be bleeped.

The program was in production and unfinished, an E! spokeswoman said Monday.

Requests for comment were left Monday evening by phone and e-mail with Griffin's publicist. They were not immediately returned.

The Catholic League, an anti-defamation group, called on the TV academy to "denounce Griffin's obscene and blasphemous comment" at Sunday's ceremony.

The academy said Monday it had no plans to address the issue in the prime-time broadcast.

The organization may have another delicate issue to consider, this one involving an off-color fake music video that aired last December on "Saturday Night Live" and won a creative arts Emmy for best song.

Andy Samberg of "SNL" said Saturday that he had yet to be asked by the TV academy to perform the tune with Timberlake on the Fox broadcast, but he was willing. Timberlake, on a concert tour, is scheduled to be in Los Angeles next weekend.

The subject of their "(Blank) in a Box" video: wrapping a certain part of the male anatomy and presenting it to a loved one as a holiday present.

The academy has said that "show elements are in the process of being worked out."

ROFLMAO! Someone actually shows some creativity on cable TV, Emmy gives them an award for it, then turns around and censors them! The irony is simply delicious.

Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored - CNN.com

Aack! The spammers are attacking! The spammers are attacking!

-janelane, fuck those blogs!