The core principle of the Republican Right is to get rid of the trial lawyers. One must ask why is this so important to Republicans. Are Republican’s immune from Medical Malpractice? Are Republican’s immune from car wrecks? Do sleepy truck drivers only run over Democrats?
Of course not. The reality is that the Republicans are the party of Big Business and the Democrats are the party of consumers. Class is the real issue in all politics but especially American politics. What is unusual I suppose about American politics is that the rhetoric used by the Republicans attracts so many naturally conservative poor people. They are somehow convinced that they are freer with corporate welfare than with social programs. They are somehow convinced, despite the overwhelming evidence, that health care would be cheaper and better if doctors didn’t have to be accountable to juries for their screw ups.
Medical malpractice cases are not about frivolous lawsuits. In no area of law are there fewer frivolous claims than in medical malpractice. In order for a trial lawyer like myself to sue a doctor, has to commit at least $100,000 of the lawyer’s own money. With the attitudes of juries about medical malpractice, no sane lawyer would ever sue a doctor unless the conduct complained of was outrageously bad and the result catastrophic. The words “frivolous lawsuit” and “medical malpractice” do not belong in the same sentence. Just do the math. We lawyers are supposed to be so calculating. Would we risk $100,000 on something laughable?
What does that have to do with 9/11? Well the Republican’s are the ones who also think that every problem in our world requires the intervention of the American military. I have two confessions for my readers. One, I grew up liberal Democrat at the time we were drafting American boys do die in Vietnam. I was one of those at risk of being drafted. I struggled with what to do about that, whether to become an illegal immigrant to Canada, go to jail or serve in a conflict I knew was morally reprehensible. The first step in that decision was to file for conscientious objector status which I did before I graduated from high school. I didn’t get drafted because my draft lottery number was 252.
My second confession is that I listen to NPR, usually On Point with Tom Ashbrook. http://www.onpointradio.org/ I listen to On Point and I contrast this shows in depth treatment of the issues of our time against the experiences of my life. I reached adulthood knowing that war was wrong. I reached adulthood also having read all of the books of James Michener, particularly Caravans, a book about Afghanistan. I reached 9/11 very concerned about the ongoing domestic war in Israel, a war that seemed as if it would never end.
On 9/16/2001 I sat in the pew of my church, contemplating what had happened, contrasted against who I was, how I became that person and what I knew about history. What I concluded as the pastor was concluding his remarks was that regardless of how “war like” the attacks of 9/11 had been, we could not fight a war to prevent it.
I got up and said: “You can’t start a war to catch a criminal.” What we got instead was a War on Terror. That war has worked about as successfully as our War on Drugs. That war makes about as much sense as the Depression Era American government declaring war on Indiana to find John Dillinger.
While I am morally opposed to modern war, I do understand war’s necessity. World War II was necessary despite all of the horrible atrocities committed by all sides in its prosecution. But to have a war, you have to have an opposing government or force against whom to direct a legitimate military campaign. We had that in World War II of course. We even had it in Korea and Vietnam. But who did we declare war against in Afghanistan? Osama Bin Laden?
One of the lessons we should have learned in Vietnam is that it is very hard to win a war against an opponent you can’t find. When that opponent is a criminal, not a government, it is virtually impossible. Criminals know how to hide. That is one of the things they do best. They are not the German army or a Japanese aircraft carrier. They commit the crime and then they disappear.
If you occupy the country you are invading, they either hide better or move across the border. Certainly, if you don’t catch them by surprise, you will never catch them. It is much easier for an individual to escape than it is for a whole army to pursue them. While there might be certain ways to use military forces covertly to catch such a criminal, an invading force of 100,000 men isn’t it.
You cannot avoid events like 9/11 by invading a country. 9/11 was not launched from Afghanistan. It was an operation where the training by its perpetrators was done in Florida. If the Taliban had not provided safe haven for Bin Laden, he would have hid somewhere else, like Florida or Hamburg. There are no preemptive military strikes against criminals. As helpless as we may feel, the only defense against criminals is detective work. And like the crime itself, detective work is best done with stealth, not invasions.
When the detectives are done with their work, then it is time for the lawyers to prove the case. It is what a nation of laws does. It is our laws and our lawyers that have made America different.
As we look towards the serious issues our government must decide, we must remember that our legal system is what preserves our special place in the world, not our corporate wealth. We American’s must choose to return to a government of laws for the people, by the people, not a government controlled by corporate greed and the preeminence of our Military Industrial complex.
Junior lifeguards mourn death of girl hit by boat
Brain injuries and boating? Yes, it is a serious risk factor. We have had cases of people being run over by boats, people with partial drowings, even people who have been injured by the torque of the wash from the back of a boat engine. Summer and boating comes with serious risk. Beyond the obvious of wearing a life jacket and avoiding alcohol when operating a boat, there are other things to watch for, including serious risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://codamage.com
Date: 7/15/2009 3:45 PM
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Lifeguards mourned and left flowers Wednesday at a makeshift memorial for an 11-year-old girl who was run down by a boat while training to be a lifeguard.
Allyssa Squirrell (Skwehr-EHL’) of Laguna Hills died in surgery Tuesday. An autopsy Wednesday concluded that she died of deep cuts to her back and her left leg, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.
“In all probability, she was struck by the boat’s propeller,” Amormino said.
Junior lifeguards showed up at the city’s marine safety headquarters to remember Allysa. Mourners left flowers, a candle, a pot filled with sand and shells, a pink dolphin-shaped balloon and a message reading “God bless you sweet child,” Amormino said.
Noah Glass, 11, wore his training uniform of white T-shirt and red trunks. He came with his father to place flowers.
“She was really nice and funny. We always played games together,” he told KABC-TV.
Allyssa was with a group of 20 to 25 junior lifeguards who were training beyond the surfline at Huntington Beach when she was struck at about 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The youngsters were practicing speed drops, jumping off the end of a moving boat in pairs. Allyssa and another girl successfully jumped, Amormino said.
The 28-foot boat circled back to pick up the junior lifeguards when it struck Allyssa. The other girl was not hurt, Amormino said.
The boat’s pilot apparently didn’t see the girls because they had not yet swum back to the main group and the seas were choppy, Amormino said.
Allyssa was halfway through an eight-week lifeguard course. Training was suspended Wednesday and grief counselors were made available for the trainees, Amormino said. The program was to resume Thursday.
The boat was piloted by Lt. Greg Crow, a 32-year veteran of the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Division who held a public safety medal of valor, Amormino said.
There also were two instructors, one in the boat and one in the water.
Crow, 53, was traumatized by the accident and is on leave, Amormino said.
He voluntarily submitted to a toxicology test that found no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his body, Amormino said.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://codamage.com
Date: 7/15/2009 3:45 PM
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Lifeguards mourned and left flowers Wednesday at a makeshift memorial for an 11-year-old girl who was run down by a boat while training to be a lifeguard.
Allyssa Squirrell (Skwehr-EHL’) of Laguna Hills died in surgery Tuesday. An autopsy Wednesday concluded that she died of deep cuts to her back and her left leg, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.
“In all probability, she was struck by the boat’s propeller,” Amormino said.
Junior lifeguards showed up at the city’s marine safety headquarters to remember Allysa. Mourners left flowers, a candle, a pot filled with sand and shells, a pink dolphin-shaped balloon and a message reading “God bless you sweet child,” Amormino said.
Noah Glass, 11, wore his training uniform of white T-shirt and red trunks. He came with his father to place flowers.
“She was really nice and funny. We always played games together,” he told KABC-TV.
Allyssa was with a group of 20 to 25 junior lifeguards who were training beyond the surfline at Huntington Beach when she was struck at about 3 p.m. Tuesday.
The youngsters were practicing speed drops, jumping off the end of a moving boat in pairs. Allyssa and another girl successfully jumped, Amormino said.
The 28-foot boat circled back to pick up the junior lifeguards when it struck Allyssa. The other girl was not hurt, Amormino said.
The boat’s pilot apparently didn’t see the girls because they had not yet swum back to the main group and the seas were choppy, Amormino said.
Allyssa was halfway through an eight-week lifeguard course. Training was suspended Wednesday and grief counselors were made available for the trainees, Amormino said. The program was to resume Thursday.
The boat was piloted by Lt. Greg Crow, a 32-year veteran of the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Division who held a public safety medal of valor, Amormino said.
There also were two instructors, one in the boat and one in the water.
Crow, 53, was traumatized by the accident and is on leave, Amormino said.
He voluntarily submitted to a toxicology test that found no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his body, Amormino said.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Internet-based therapy shows promise for insomnia
Sleep issues and fatigue are one of the most common of symptoms after a concussion. Virtually everyone I represent has problems with sleep. Could the internet do more than keep us company in the middle of the night, but also improve our sleep?
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
https://waiting.com
Date: 7/6/2009 4:00 PM
CARLA K. JOHNSON,AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy.
No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users’ sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits — like avoiding daytime naps — through stories, quizzes and games.
“This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program,” said study co-author Frances Thorndike of the University of Virginia Health System, who helped design the software, called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi.
Such software could one day be a low-cost alternative for some patients, Thorndike said. And it could be the only non-drug option for people who live in areas without trained specialists, she said.
Prior research has shown face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy can have long-lasting results for insomniacs without the side effects of medication. The SHUTi program is based on that style of therapy, which helps patients change thinking patterns that contribute to poor sleep.
In the new study, released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers recruited 45 adults with moderate insomnia and randomly assigned 22 of them to try the Internet program.
The group who got the treatment woke up fewer times and spent fewer minutes awake during the night. The control group’s scores didn’t change. Even after six months, the Internet group’s scores remained improved.
The response was “fairly impressive and comparable to what you see with more intensive sorts of interventions,” said Jack Edinger, a sleep disorder specialist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who wasn’t involved in the study.
Participants were highly educated and had no sleep apnea or psychiatric problems. Testing the approach on a larger, more diverse group could determine which patients benefit most, Edinger said.
Shelby Harris, a sleep specialist at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center, said something valuable is lost in an Internet-based approach. A trained therapist can help patients stay motivated and identify anxieties keeping patients awake at night.
“There will certainly be people who prefer the face-to-face contact or do better with that type of therapy,” Thorndike said. “This will free up those limited resources for face-to-face therapy for the people who need it, benefit from it or would prefer it.”
The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
___
On the Net:
Archives of General Psychiatry: http://www.archgenpsychiatry.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
https://waiting.com
Date: 7/6/2009 4:00 PM
CARLA K. JOHNSON,AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy.
No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users’ sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits — like avoiding daytime naps — through stories, quizzes and games.
“This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program,” said study co-author Frances Thorndike of the University of Virginia Health System, who helped design the software, called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi.
Such software could one day be a low-cost alternative for some patients, Thorndike said. And it could be the only non-drug option for people who live in areas without trained specialists, she said.
Prior research has shown face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy can have long-lasting results for insomniacs without the side effects of medication. The SHUTi program is based on that style of therapy, which helps patients change thinking patterns that contribute to poor sleep.
In the new study, released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers recruited 45 adults with moderate insomnia and randomly assigned 22 of them to try the Internet program.
The group who got the treatment woke up fewer times and spent fewer minutes awake during the night. The control group’s scores didn’t change. Even after six months, the Internet group’s scores remained improved.
The response was “fairly impressive and comparable to what you see with more intensive sorts of interventions,” said Jack Edinger, a sleep disorder specialist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who wasn’t involved in the study.
Participants were highly educated and had no sleep apnea or psychiatric problems. Testing the approach on a larger, more diverse group could determine which patients benefit most, Edinger said.
Shelby Harris, a sleep specialist at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center, said something valuable is lost in an Internet-based approach. A trained therapist can help patients stay motivated and identify anxieties keeping patients awake at night.
“There will certainly be people who prefer the face-to-face contact or do better with that type of therapy,” Thorndike said. “This will free up those limited resources for face-to-face therapy for the people who need it, benefit from it or would prefer it.”
The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
___
On the Net:
Archives of General Psychiatry: http://www.archgenpsychiatry.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
A look at health care plans in Congress
Will Barack Obama’s legacy be more lasting on health care than Hillary Clinton’s? The next few months will likely tell us. The big controversy is going to focus on whether there is a “public option.” The attackers of reform claim that if there is a public plan, then the private insurers will adversely affected. With an 80 plus percent growth in premiums and a 400% growth in profits during the Bush years, we can certainly hope they will be.
I don’t want to give up my health insurance coverage, but I sure wouldn’t want to be without any coverage, which is where an increasing number of American’s find themselves. Pressure must be put on all Democratic Senators to side with their constituents, not the insurance lobby in Washington to get what the people need, finally, this time.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
https://waiting.com
Date: 7/6/2009 3:31 AM
The Associated Press
A look at health care legislation taking shape in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the system, cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and reduce costs. Many of the details are still being negotiated and any final health care bill would have to meld proposals from the House and Senate.
___
HOUSE DEMOCRATS
WHO’S COVERED: Around 95 percent of Americans would be covered. Illegal immigrants would not receive coverage.
COST: Unknown.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; $600 billion in unspecified new taxes, likely including new levies on upper-income Americans.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Individuals required to have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Certain small businesses are exempt.
SUBSIDIES: Individuals and families with annual income up to 400 percent of poverty level ($88,000 for a family of four) would get subsidies to help them buy coverage.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: A committee would recommend an “essential benefits package” that includes hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs and other services. Out-of-pocket costs limited to $5,000 a year for individuals, $10,000 for families. Health insurance companies can offer several tiers of coverage, but all plans must include the core benefits. Insurers wouldn’t be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: Plan with payment rates initially modeled on Medicare to compete with private insurers.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Through a new National Health Insurance Exchange open to individuals and, initially, small employers; it would be expanded to large employers over time.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: The federal-state insurance program for the poor would be expanded to cover all individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,404). Currently Medicaid eligibility varies by state, but childless adults are ineligible no matter how poor, and in some states parents with incomes well under the poverty line still aren’t covered.
___
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE
WHO’S COVERED: Aims to cover 97 percent of Americans.
COST: About $600 million over 10 years, but it’s only one piece of a larger Senate bill.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Another committee is responsible for the financing.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Individuals required to have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Employers who don’t offer coverage will pay a penalty of $750 a year per full-time worker. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers are exempted.
SUBSIDIES: Up to 400 percent poverty level.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Health plans must offer a package of essential benefits recommended by a new Medical Advisory Council. No denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: A robust new public plan to compete with private insurers. The plan would be run by the government, but would pay doctors and hospitals based on what private insurers now pay.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Individuals and small businesses can purchase insurance through state-based American Health Benefit Gateways.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Medicaid would be available to individuals with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
___
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
WHO’S COVERED: Around 97 percent of Americans. Illegal immigrants would not receive coverage.
COST: Around $1 trillion over 10 years.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Possible sources include cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; about $300 billion in revenue from taxing employer-provided health benefits above a certain level; and about $300 billion in revenue from a requirement for employers to pay into the Treasury for employees who get their insurance through public programs.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Expected to include a requirement for individuals to get coverage.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: In lieu of requiring employers to provide coverage, lawmakers are considering penalties based on how much the government ends up paying for workers’ coverage.
SUBSIDIES: No higher than 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four).
BENEFIT PACKAGE: The government doesn’t mandate benefits but sets four benefit categories — ranging from coverage of around 65 percent of medical costs to about 90 percent — and insurers would be required to offer coverage in at least two categories. No denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: Unlike the other proposals the Finance Committee’s will likely be bipartisan. With Republicans opposed to a government-run plan, the committee is looking at a compromise that would instead create nonprofit member-owned co-ops to compete with private insurers.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: State-based exchanges.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Everyone at 100 percent of poverty would be eligible. Between 100 and 133 percent, states or individuals have the choice between coverage under Medicaid or a 100 percent subsidy in the exchange. The expansion would be delayed until 2013, a late change to save money — the start date had been 2011.
___
HOUSE REPUBLICANS
WHO’S COVERED: The House GOP’s plan, in outline form for now, says it aims to make insurance affordable and accessible to all. There aren’t estimates about how many additional people would be covered.
COST: Unknown.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: No new taxes are proposed, but Republicans say they want to reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: No mandates.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: No mandates; small business tax credits are offered. Employers are encouraged to move to “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” rules for offering health coverage.
SUBSIDIES: Tax credits are offered to “low- and modest-income” Americans. People who aren’t covered through their employers but buy their own insurance are allowed to take a tax deduction. Low-income retirees younger than 65 (the eligibility age for Medicare) would be offered assistance.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Insurers would have to allow children to stay on their parents’ plan through age 25.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: No public plan.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: No new purchasing exchange or marketplace is proposed. Health savings accounts and flexible spending plans would be strengthened.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: People eligible for Medicaid would be allowed to use the value of their benefit to purchase a private p lan if they prefer.
___
OBAMA CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL
WHO’S COVERED: All children and many now-uninsured adults.
COST: Estimates as high as $1.6 trillion over 10 years.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Obama proposed cuts within the health care system and raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 annually.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Unlike his Democratic primary opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama did not propose an “individual mandate.” Instead he would have required all children to be insured, making it the parents’ responsibility.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Large employers would have been required to cover their employees or contribute to the costs of a new government-run plan.
SUBSIDIES: Obama proposed giving subsidies to low-income people but didn’t detail at what level.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Insurers participating in a new health exchange would have had to offer packages at least as generous as a new public plan. All insurers would have been prohibited from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and would have had to cover children through age 25 on family plans.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: A new public plan would have offered comprehensive insurance similar to that available to federal employees.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Through a new National Health Insurance Exchange where individuals could buy the new public plan or qualified private plans.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Would have expanded Medicaid eligibility, but didn’t specify income levels.
___
Sources: Associated Press research, Kaiser Family Foundation, Lewin Group.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
I don’t want to give up my health insurance coverage, but I sure wouldn’t want to be without any coverage, which is where an increasing number of American’s find themselves. Pressure must be put on all Democratic Senators to side with their constituents, not the insurance lobby in Washington to get what the people need, finally, this time.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
https://waiting.com
Date: 7/6/2009 3:31 AM
The Associated Press
A look at health care legislation taking shape in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the system, cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and reduce costs. Many of the details are still being negotiated and any final health care bill would have to meld proposals from the House and Senate.
___
HOUSE DEMOCRATS
WHO’S COVERED: Around 95 percent of Americans would be covered. Illegal immigrants would not receive coverage.
COST: Unknown.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; $600 billion in unspecified new taxes, likely including new levies on upper-income Americans.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Individuals required to have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Certain small businesses are exempt.
SUBSIDIES: Individuals and families with annual income up to 400 percent of poverty level ($88,000 for a family of four) would get subsidies to help them buy coverage.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: A committee would recommend an “essential benefits package” that includes hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs and other services. Out-of-pocket costs limited to $5,000 a year for individuals, $10,000 for families. Health insurance companies can offer several tiers of coverage, but all plans must include the core benefits. Insurers wouldn’t be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: Plan with payment rates initially modeled on Medicare to compete with private insurers.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Through a new National Health Insurance Exchange open to individuals and, initially, small employers; it would be expanded to large employers over time.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: The federal-state insurance program for the poor would be expanded to cover all individuals with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,404). Currently Medicaid eligibility varies by state, but childless adults are ineligible no matter how poor, and in some states parents with incomes well under the poverty line still aren’t covered.
___
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE
WHO’S COVERED: Aims to cover 97 percent of Americans.
COST: About $600 million over 10 years, but it’s only one piece of a larger Senate bill.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Another committee is responsible for the financing.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Individuals required to have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Employers who don’t offer coverage will pay a penalty of $750 a year per full-time worker. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers are exempted.
SUBSIDIES: Up to 400 percent poverty level.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Health plans must offer a package of essential benefits recommended by a new Medical Advisory Council. No denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: A robust new public plan to compete with private insurers. The plan would be run by the government, but would pay doctors and hospitals based on what private insurers now pay.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Individuals and small businesses can purchase insurance through state-based American Health Benefit Gateways.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Medicaid would be available to individuals with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
___
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
WHO’S COVERED: Around 97 percent of Americans. Illegal immigrants would not receive coverage.
COST: Around $1 trillion over 10 years.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Possible sources include cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; about $300 billion in revenue from taxing employer-provided health benefits above a certain level; and about $300 billion in revenue from a requirement for employers to pay into the Treasury for employees who get their insurance through public programs.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Expected to include a requirement for individuals to get coverage.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: In lieu of requiring employers to provide coverage, lawmakers are considering penalties based on how much the government ends up paying for workers’ coverage.
SUBSIDIES: No higher than 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four).
BENEFIT PACKAGE: The government doesn’t mandate benefits but sets four benefit categories — ranging from coverage of around 65 percent of medical costs to about 90 percent — and insurers would be required to offer coverage in at least two categories. No denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: Unlike the other proposals the Finance Committee’s will likely be bipartisan. With Republicans opposed to a government-run plan, the committee is looking at a compromise that would instead create nonprofit member-owned co-ops to compete with private insurers.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: State-based exchanges.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Everyone at 100 percent of poverty would be eligible. Between 100 and 133 percent, states or individuals have the choice between coverage under Medicaid or a 100 percent subsidy in the exchange. The expansion would be delayed until 2013, a late change to save money — the start date had been 2011.
___
HOUSE REPUBLICANS
WHO’S COVERED: The House GOP’s plan, in outline form for now, says it aims to make insurance affordable and accessible to all. There aren’t estimates about how many additional people would be covered.
COST: Unknown.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: No new taxes are proposed, but Republicans say they want to reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: No mandates.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: No mandates; small business tax credits are offered. Employers are encouraged to move to “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” rules for offering health coverage.
SUBSIDIES: Tax credits are offered to “low- and modest-income” Americans. People who aren’t covered through their employers but buy their own insurance are allowed to take a tax deduction. Low-income retirees younger than 65 (the eligibility age for Medicare) would be offered assistance.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Insurers would have to allow children to stay on their parents’ plan through age 25.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: No public plan.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: No new purchasing exchange or marketplace is proposed. Health savings accounts and flexible spending plans would be strengthened.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: People eligible for Medicaid would be allowed to use the value of their benefit to purchase a private p lan if they prefer.
___
OBAMA CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL
WHO’S COVERED: All children and many now-uninsured adults.
COST: Estimates as high as $1.6 trillion over 10 years.
HOW’S IT PAID FOR: Obama proposed cuts within the health care system and raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 annually.
REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS: Unlike his Democratic primary opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama did not propose an “individual mandate.” Instead he would have required all children to be insured, making it the parents’ responsibility.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS: Large employers would have been required to cover their employees or contribute to the costs of a new government-run plan.
SUBSIDIES: Obama proposed giving subsidies to low-income people but didn’t detail at what level.
BENEFIT PACKAGE: Insurers participating in a new health exchange would have had to offer packages at least as generous as a new public plan. All insurers would have been prohibited from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and would have had to cover children through age 25 on family plans.
GOVERNMENT-RUN PLAN: A new public plan would have offered comprehensive insurance similar to that available to federal employees.
HOW YOU CHOOSE YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE: Through a new National Health Insurance Exchange where individuals could buy the new public plan or qualified private plans.
CHANGES TO MEDICAID: Would have expanded Medicaid eligibility, but didn’t specify income levels.
___
Sources: Associated Press research, Kaiser Family Foundation, Lewin Group.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Move to child’s home major adjustment for senior
Date: 7/3/2009 8:14 AM
ADRIAN SAINZ,AP Real Estate Writer
From deciding where grandma will sleep to knowing her preferred bed time, turning a home into three-generation household takes plenty of planning and frank discussions that can be difficult.
Family psychologists, social workers and relocation specialists are seeing more seniors moving in with their grown children due to financial concerns. The recession has led to increasing job losses and shrinking savings accounts, forcing many seniors to change their retirement plans and consider moving in with their grown children temporarily, or permanently.
Multigenerational households made up 5.3 percent of all households last year, up from 4.8 percent in 2000, AARP reports.
In many cases, such a move is difficult and painful, in others it’s a relatively seamless transition. To make it as easy as possible, grown children and their parents, and often grandchildren as well, need to work out details of the transition.
“It’s an incredibly complicated situation,” says Marsha Frankel, a social worker with Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston.
Changes in a senior’s living arrangement — whether living independently or in an assisted living facility — can come suddenly, especially if eroded investments or job loss makes their current situation unaffordable. The unemployment rate for workers aged 55 and older hit 7 percent last month, almost double the rate a year ago, data released Thursday showed.
In fact, about one in 10 people aged 50 and older live either with their grandchildren or their parents, according an AARP survey of more than 1,000 respondents 18 and older released in March.
Sixteen percent of respondents 55 and over reported that moving with their family or a friend was necessary in the past six months. Among those 18 and over who say they are likely to make such a move, 34 percent cited a loss of income as a reason for the move, 19 percent cited a change in job status and 8 percent blamed home foreclosure.
When considering a move, seniors should honestly asses their relationship with their child and his or her spouse. A strained relationship could lead to conflict.
For many seniors, the last time they lived with their children was when they were teenagers whose lives needed direction and discipline, said Nancy Wesson, author of “Moving Your Aging Parents.” It’s the same for the adult child, who may have resented being told what to do all the time and rebelled against mom or dad as a teen.
“A lot of those dynamics are hiding in wait” and surface when the senior parent moves in, Wesson says.
But the relationship has now changed — both parties are adults and will need to adjust their approach to a more patient, communicative partnership.
If a senior decides to make the move, the first step is obvious but absolutely necessary: Have a family conference to discuss how everyone’s life is going to change. AARP suggests the household should also have regular conferences, perhaps once a week after dinner or on a weekend afternoon, to discuss the next week’s schedule.
Families can set up a three-month trial period and should have a backup plan in case the move just does not work.
“The key issue is everybody communicating and things being spelled out in advance,” Frankel says.
A key point of discussion is realizing how much care the senior requires in their daily lives, and how the younger family members are going to help.
It’s important for the senior to retain some control of their lives to keep from feeling isolated. A grown child should refrain from taking over every little aspect of the parent’s life and micromanaging their parents to the point of frustration.
“That’s offensive and they don’t appreciate it,” said Wesson, a senior relocation specialist. “It hurts their feelings. Involve them as much in the process as they are willing to handle.”
Preparing the home for the move is a big step. Homeowners should know if the house can accommodate someone who has trouble climbing stairs. Clutter should be removed from walking areas, and lighting can be improved to deal with any vision loss by the senior.
A grandchild who is being displaced from their usual bedroom should know ahead of time. Bed times might have to be adjusted. Times for having friends over should be established in advance.
The living space in the home should accommodate for Dad’s Favorite Chair, and everyone should have their own designated places, whether it’s to read or watch TV or do homework, AARP suggests.
Homeowners should review their insurance documents or make sure the senior is added to coverage in case there’s a household injury.
Also, the entire household should talk about finances. Seniors with a job, leftover savings or monthly Social Security checks can contribute some money for groceries, utilities or even the mortgage.
However, money doesn’t have to change hands. A more active senior could drive the grandkids to school, baby-sit twice a week or do the grocery shopping. Such routines provide consistency and help life go more smoothly.
But, as the senior gets older, he or she may not be able to drive any more and can’t help out in the household anymore. Adult children and their parents should look down the road and determine what the next step should be if the level of required care becomes too time-consuming.
“People often just think in the moment, that they’re in a financial crunch,” Frankel says. “What happens when mom has been putting her money into the household and suddenly needs more care? Those are the kinds of things that really get to be looked at and create all kinds of problems.”
These and other issues can be obstacles, but a situation in which a senior moves in with their children and grandchildren also can be a blessing: It can bring families closer together.
Multigenerational households should take advantage and try to eat meals together, look at family photos, and plan outings in which everyone participates. A grandmother’s or grandfather’s experience can be invaluable to a younger person who is willing to listen.
“It brings cross generational closeness that you can’t achieve when you are not living together,” said Elinor Ginzler, AARP’s housing expert.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
ADRIAN SAINZ,AP Real Estate Writer
From deciding where grandma will sleep to knowing her preferred bed time, turning a home into three-generation household takes plenty of planning and frank discussions that can be difficult.
Family psychologists, social workers and relocation specialists are seeing more seniors moving in with their grown children due to financial concerns. The recession has led to increasing job losses and shrinking savings accounts, forcing many seniors to change their retirement plans and consider moving in with their grown children temporarily, or permanently.
Multigenerational households made up 5.3 percent of all households last year, up from 4.8 percent in 2000, AARP reports.
In many cases, such a move is difficult and painful, in others it’s a relatively seamless transition. To make it as easy as possible, grown children and their parents, and often grandchildren as well, need to work out details of the transition.
“It’s an incredibly complicated situation,” says Marsha Frankel, a social worker with Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston.
Changes in a senior’s living arrangement — whether living independently or in an assisted living facility — can come suddenly, especially if eroded investments or job loss makes their current situation unaffordable. The unemployment rate for workers aged 55 and older hit 7 percent last month, almost double the rate a year ago, data released Thursday showed.
In fact, about one in 10 people aged 50 and older live either with their grandchildren or their parents, according an AARP survey of more than 1,000 respondents 18 and older released in March.
Sixteen percent of respondents 55 and over reported that moving with their family or a friend was necessary in the past six months. Among those 18 and over who say they are likely to make such a move, 34 percent cited a loss of income as a reason for the move, 19 percent cited a change in job status and 8 percent blamed home foreclosure.
When considering a move, seniors should honestly asses their relationship with their child and his or her spouse. A strained relationship could lead to conflict.
For many seniors, the last time they lived with their children was when they were teenagers whose lives needed direction and discipline, said Nancy Wesson, author of “Moving Your Aging Parents.” It’s the same for the adult child, who may have resented being told what to do all the time and rebelled against mom or dad as a teen.
“A lot of those dynamics are hiding in wait” and surface when the senior parent moves in, Wesson says.
But the relationship has now changed — both parties are adults and will need to adjust their approach to a more patient, communicative partnership.
If a senior decides to make the move, the first step is obvious but absolutely necessary: Have a family conference to discuss how everyone’s life is going to change. AARP suggests the household should also have regular conferences, perhaps once a week after dinner or on a weekend afternoon, to discuss the next week’s schedule.
Families can set up a three-month trial period and should have a backup plan in case the move just does not work.
“The key issue is everybody communicating and things being spelled out in advance,” Frankel says.
A key point of discussion is realizing how much care the senior requires in their daily lives, and how the younger family members are going to help.
It’s important for the senior to retain some control of their lives to keep from feeling isolated. A grown child should refrain from taking over every little aspect of the parent’s life and micromanaging their parents to the point of frustration.
“That’s offensive and they don’t appreciate it,” said Wesson, a senior relocation specialist. “It hurts their feelings. Involve them as much in the process as they are willing to handle.”
Preparing the home for the move is a big step. Homeowners should know if the house can accommodate someone who has trouble climbing stairs. Clutter should be removed from walking areas, and lighting can be improved to deal with any vision loss by the senior.
A grandchild who is being displaced from their usual bedroom should know ahead of time. Bed times might have to be adjusted. Times for having friends over should be established in advance.
The living space in the home should accommodate for Dad’s Favorite Chair, and everyone should have their own designated places, whether it’s to read or watch TV or do homework, AARP suggests.
Homeowners should review their insurance documents or make sure the senior is added to coverage in case there’s a household injury.
Also, the entire household should talk about finances. Seniors with a job, leftover savings or monthly Social Security checks can contribute some money for groceries, utilities or even the mortgage.
However, money doesn’t have to change hands. A more active senior could drive the grandkids to school, baby-sit twice a week or do the grocery shopping. Such routines provide consistency and help life go more smoothly.
But, as the senior gets older, he or she may not be able to drive any more and can’t help out in the household anymore. Adult children and their parents should look down the road and determine what the next step should be if the level of required care becomes too time-consuming.
“People often just think in the moment, that they’re in a financial crunch,” Frankel says. “What happens when mom has been putting her money into the household and suddenly needs more care? Those are the kinds of things that really get to be looked at and create all kinds of problems.”
These and other issues can be obstacles, but a situation in which a senior moves in with their children and grandchildren also can be a blessing: It can bring families closer together.
Multigenerational households should take advantage and try to eat meals together, look at family photos, and plan outings in which everyone participates. A grandmother’s or grandfather’s experience can be invaluable to a younger person who is willing to listen.
“It brings cross generational closeness that you can’t achieve when you are not living together,” said Elinor Ginzler, AARP’s housing expert.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Focal Dystonia? Ailing Guitarist Gets Second Chance with Left Hand
Date: 6/29/2009 1:32 PM
Ailing guitarist gets second chance with left hand
JEFF BAENEN,Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Guitarist Billy McLaughlin was at the top of his game a decade ago, a fingerstyle player noted for his technique of tapping on strings, when he began having problems controlling his right hand, missing notes with no clue why. Audiences thought he was drunk.
After a maddening couple of years in which his playing grew so bad he couldn’t perform his own songs, McLaughlin finally received a diagnosis: an incurable neuromuscular disease.
“When this first started happening, I thought I had done something wrong, I had committed some sort of musician’s sin or something,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t sleep enough, maybe I was out too many nights after the concerts carousing around.”
McLaughlin has focal dystonia, a mysterious ailment that affects about 10,000 musicians around the world. For horn players, it can mean clenched jaws or immobile lips. For pianists, violinists or guitarists, the result can be frozen fingers that spell the end of a career. In McLaughlin’s case, the pinkie and ring finger on his left hand — the hand a right-handed guitarist uses to form chords or run scales on the fretboard — curled inward.
Instead of giving up, McLaughlin decided to relearn how to play the guitar left-handed — something another Twin Cities acoustic guitar virtuoso, Leo Kottke, likens to “trying to breathe through your feet. It’s exactly that hard.”
Now McLaughlin is back on the road and the subject of a recent documentary, “Changing Keys: Billy McLaughlin and the Mysteries of Dystonia.”
On a late spring day, McLaughlin — in jeans and boots — shows off his skills at his friend Jeff Arundel’s studio in downtown Minneapolis. His eyes closed and his shoulder-length blond hair waving, McLaughlin runs through his composition “Church Bells,” and the familiar Pachelbel’s Canon. His right hand runs across the fretboard while the index and middle fingers of his left hand hold, then release bass strings. The pinkie and ring finger of his left hand remain bent behind the neck of his guitar, which is emblazoned with “BILLY” on the head. The sound is smooth, calming, flawless.
Arundel, 51, a producer and fellow guitarist, knew McLaughlin in his heyday and watched his return.
“Imagine a guy learning to pitch with the other hand — the idea that a guy would get back to the major leagues doing that,” Arundel said.
McLaughlin, 47, grew up in Minneapolis and started playing guitar around 13 after “failing” on piano and trumpet. He studied guitar performance at the University of Southern California, switching to steel-string acoustic when his electric hollow-body Gretsch was stolen after graduation in 1984.
While performing with an ensemble, McLaughlin developed his signature percussive style, a hammering technique that demands strong fingers. He would step out on stage while the band took a break and wow the crowd with his tapping style. Eventually McLaughlin developed a solo act and became a big draw on college campuses, performing 200 days out of the year and logging 400,000 miles on his van.
After self-releasing seven CDs, McLaughlin signed a contract with Narada, an instrumental and world music label, in 1995. His first Narada release, “fingerdance,” reached No. 7 on Billboard’s New Age chart. It was around the time of his second Narada release, “Out of Hand,” in 1998 that McLaughlin’s finger problems began.
McLaughlin slipped on ice on the way to a photo shoot for the album and dislocated two fingers on his left hand. He underwent therapy and had gotten past the injury, but he said “something never felt quite right in that hand.” He ended his contract with Narada, completing his deal by releasing a best-of CD in 2000, and his marriage fell apart.
McLaughlin found his pinkie wouldn’t reach notes and that he had to refinger even easy pieces. He tried acupuncture, deep tissue massage and a chiropractor, spending “a small fortune trying to get this hand to work.”
Finally McLaughlin visited the performing arts clinic at the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where he was told he had focal dystonia. He didn’t believe it and continued trying to practice through the problem until Mayo Clinic confirmed the diagnosis in 2001.
Focal dystonia is a localized movement disorder that’s part of a family of neurological disorders. In one form, it can cause a person’s eyelids to involuntarily close, effectively resulting in blindness. Writer’s cramp is another form. A generalized dystonia can contort a person’s entire body. The origins of dystonia — which affects about 300,000 people in North America — may be genetic. Treatments can involve anticonvulsants or surgery, but there’s no cure.
Normally muscles work together to raise or lower a joint, but in focal dystonia the muscles don’t act together and instead are in a “tug of war,” explained Dr. Mahlon DeLong, a neurology professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
After his diagnosis, McLaughlin called renowned concert pianist Leon Fleisher, whose own career was derailed by focal dystonia that affects the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand. Fleisher, 80, switched to a left-hand piano repertoire before undergoing Botox injections in 1995. The injections, combined with deep tissue massage, allowed him to resume playing two-handed (he recently released his first two-handed recording of concertos in more than 40 years).
Fleisher told him the skills McLaughlin enjoyed at his height were gone forever. But McLaughlin said he was relieved just to talk to someone who understood what he was going through.
For a musician, according to Fleisher, focal dystonia is “truly, profoundly tragic.”
“Your life is over, and it takes a special kind of courage to do what Billy has done,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Baltimore.
For McLaughlin, who didn’t want to give up music, the answer was to switch hands. He had his two guitars refitted and restrung for left hand and is about to receive his first custom-made left-handed guitar.
“What allowed me to do what I’m doing now is making a mental break from ‘What’s wrong with me?’ to ‘What do I have that still works?'” McLaughlin said. He took a left-handed guitar with him on vacation and for two weeks worked out his pieces note by note.
“The biggest hurdle initially was me allowing myself to sound like crap,” McLaughlin said. “I’m a beauty addict, and to not be able to create anything that sounded beautiful was difficult to get through.”
Ron Tracy of Hoffman Guitars in Minneapolis was the one who turned McLaughlin’s right-handed guitars into left-handed models.
“He basically had to start like a kid learning to crawl and walk, and did it,” Tracy said. “It’s really starting over. He had the noise in his head, but couldn’t make it come out his hands.”
When he was ready, McLaughlin debuted as a left-handed guitarist at a solo performance in Detroit in late 2005, an event captured by the “Changing Keys” documentary.
“We didn’t know what the story was going to be yet. We didn’t have an ending. It was a leap of faith,” said “Changing Keys” producer and director Suzanne Jurva. The documentary has been shown on Twin Cities public television and is looking for national distribution.
In April 2006, McLaughlin made what he calls his “comeback” performance, rounding up his old bandmates and playing a mix of old and new music with a string orchestra in suburban Maplewood for a self-released CD, “Into the Light.”
“That was me saying, ‘If I never play again, this is how I want to go out,'” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin tours Texas in July. He’s busy being a single dad to his 16- and 13-year-old sons and believes his best d ays of playing lie ahead. He lives with the possibility that his dystonia will migrate to his healthy hand.
“You know the vase hits the floor and in that moment that it shatters and that sound comes out you realize, ‘Oh, oh, that’s gone forever,'” McLaughlin said. “And in my case, there’s no new hand to put on. But I found another way around it. And that’s a lesson for every area of my life.”
___
On the Net:
Billy McLaughlin: http://www.billymacmusic.com
Dystonia Medical Research Foundation: http://www.dystonia-foundation.org
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Ailing guitarist gets second chance with left hand
JEFF BAENEN,Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Guitarist Billy McLaughlin was at the top of his game a decade ago, a fingerstyle player noted for his technique of tapping on strings, when he began having problems controlling his right hand, missing notes with no clue why. Audiences thought he was drunk.
After a maddening couple of years in which his playing grew so bad he couldn’t perform his own songs, McLaughlin finally received a diagnosis: an incurable neuromuscular disease.
“When this first started happening, I thought I had done something wrong, I had committed some sort of musician’s sin or something,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t sleep enough, maybe I was out too many nights after the concerts carousing around.”
McLaughlin has focal dystonia, a mysterious ailment that affects about 10,000 musicians around the world. For horn players, it can mean clenched jaws or immobile lips. For pianists, violinists or guitarists, the result can be frozen fingers that spell the end of a career. In McLaughlin’s case, the pinkie and ring finger on his left hand — the hand a right-handed guitarist uses to form chords or run scales on the fretboard — curled inward.
Instead of giving up, McLaughlin decided to relearn how to play the guitar left-handed — something another Twin Cities acoustic guitar virtuoso, Leo Kottke, likens to “trying to breathe through your feet. It’s exactly that hard.”
Now McLaughlin is back on the road and the subject of a recent documentary, “Changing Keys: Billy McLaughlin and the Mysteries of Dystonia.”
On a late spring day, McLaughlin — in jeans and boots — shows off his skills at his friend Jeff Arundel’s studio in downtown Minneapolis. His eyes closed and his shoulder-length blond hair waving, McLaughlin runs through his composition “Church Bells,” and the familiar Pachelbel’s Canon. His right hand runs across the fretboard while the index and middle fingers of his left hand hold, then release bass strings. The pinkie and ring finger of his left hand remain bent behind the neck of his guitar, which is emblazoned with “BILLY” on the head. The sound is smooth, calming, flawless.
Arundel, 51, a producer and fellow guitarist, knew McLaughlin in his heyday and watched his return.
“Imagine a guy learning to pitch with the other hand — the idea that a guy would get back to the major leagues doing that,” Arundel said.
McLaughlin, 47, grew up in Minneapolis and started playing guitar around 13 after “failing” on piano and trumpet. He studied guitar performance at the University of Southern California, switching to steel-string acoustic when his electric hollow-body Gretsch was stolen after graduation in 1984.
While performing with an ensemble, McLaughlin developed his signature percussive style, a hammering technique that demands strong fingers. He would step out on stage while the band took a break and wow the crowd with his tapping style. Eventually McLaughlin developed a solo act and became a big draw on college campuses, performing 200 days out of the year and logging 400,000 miles on his van.
After self-releasing seven CDs, McLaughlin signed a contract with Narada, an instrumental and world music label, in 1995. His first Narada release, “fingerdance,” reached No. 7 on Billboard’s New Age chart. It was around the time of his second Narada release, “Out of Hand,” in 1998 that McLaughlin’s finger problems began.
McLaughlin slipped on ice on the way to a photo shoot for the album and dislocated two fingers on his left hand. He underwent therapy and had gotten past the injury, but he said “something never felt quite right in that hand.” He ended his contract with Narada, completing his deal by releasing a best-of CD in 2000, and his marriage fell apart.
McLaughlin found his pinkie wouldn’t reach notes and that he had to refinger even easy pieces. He tried acupuncture, deep tissue massage and a chiropractor, spending “a small fortune trying to get this hand to work.”
Finally McLaughlin visited the performing arts clinic at the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where he was told he had focal dystonia. He didn’t believe it and continued trying to practice through the problem until Mayo Clinic confirmed the diagnosis in 2001.
Focal dystonia is a localized movement disorder that’s part of a family of neurological disorders. In one form, it can cause a person’s eyelids to involuntarily close, effectively resulting in blindness. Writer’s cramp is another form. A generalized dystonia can contort a person’s entire body. The origins of dystonia — which affects about 300,000 people in North America — may be genetic. Treatments can involve anticonvulsants or surgery, but there’s no cure.
Normally muscles work together to raise or lower a joint, but in focal dystonia the muscles don’t act together and instead are in a “tug of war,” explained Dr. Mahlon DeLong, a neurology professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
After his diagnosis, McLaughlin called renowned concert pianist Leon Fleisher, whose own career was derailed by focal dystonia that affects the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand. Fleisher, 80, switched to a left-hand piano repertoire before undergoing Botox injections in 1995. The injections, combined with deep tissue massage, allowed him to resume playing two-handed (he recently released his first two-handed recording of concertos in more than 40 years).
Fleisher told him the skills McLaughlin enjoyed at his height were gone forever. But McLaughlin said he was relieved just to talk to someone who understood what he was going through.
For a musician, according to Fleisher, focal dystonia is “truly, profoundly tragic.”
“Your life is over, and it takes a special kind of courage to do what Billy has done,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Baltimore.
For McLaughlin, who didn’t want to give up music, the answer was to switch hands. He had his two guitars refitted and restrung for left hand and is about to receive his first custom-made left-handed guitar.
“What allowed me to do what I’m doing now is making a mental break from ‘What’s wrong with me?’ to ‘What do I have that still works?'” McLaughlin said. He took a left-handed guitar with him on vacation and for two weeks worked out his pieces note by note.
“The biggest hurdle initially was me allowing myself to sound like crap,” McLaughlin said. “I’m a beauty addict, and to not be able to create anything that sounded beautiful was difficult to get through.”
Ron Tracy of Hoffman Guitars in Minneapolis was the one who turned McLaughlin’s right-handed guitars into left-handed models.
“He basically had to start like a kid learning to crawl and walk, and did it,” Tracy said. “It’s really starting over. He had the noise in his head, but couldn’t make it come out his hands.”
When he was ready, McLaughlin debuted as a left-handed guitarist at a solo performance in Detroit in late 2005, an event captured by the “Changing Keys” documentary.
“We didn’t know what the story was going to be yet. We didn’t have an ending. It was a leap of faith,” said “Changing Keys” producer and director Suzanne Jurva. The documentary has been shown on Twin Cities public television and is looking for national distribution.
In April 2006, McLaughlin made what he calls his “comeback” performance, rounding up his old bandmates and playing a mix of old and new music with a string orchestra in suburban Maplewood for a self-released CD, “Into the Light.”
“That was me saying, ‘If I never play again, this is how I want to go out,'” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin tours Texas in July. He’s busy being a single dad to his 16- and 13-year-old sons and believes his best d ays of playing lie ahead. He lives with the possibility that his dystonia will migrate to his healthy hand.
“You know the vase hits the floor and in that moment that it shatters and that sound comes out you realize, ‘Oh, oh, that’s gone forever,'” McLaughlin said. “And in my case, there’s no new hand to put on. But I found another way around it. And that’s a lesson for every area of my life.”
___
On the Net:
Billy McLaughlin: http://www.billymacmusic.com
Dystonia Medical Research Foundation: http://www.dystonia-foundation.org
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Autopsy completed on Travolta’s son
Date: 1/5/2009
By CHRIS GILLETTE
Associated Press Writer
FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) — Doctors in the Bahamas conducted an autopsy Monday on John Travolta’s 16-year-old son, but authorities did not immediately disclose the results.
Bahamian Minister of Health Hubert Minnis said the autopsy was finished but declined to comment on what may have caused the death of Jett Travolta, who had a history of seizures and was found unconscious in a bathroom Friday at a family vacation home.
Jett’s body was expected to be transferred soon to Grand Bahama’s Restview Memorial Mortuary, said Glen Campbell, an assistant funeral director.
The family plans to send his remains by Wednesday to Ocala, Florida, where the actor owns a home, said Obie Wilchcombe, a family friend and member of the Bahamian parliament.
Travolta tried CPR to revive his son, and Jett may have died in his arms before an emergency medical technician took over, Usmagazine.com reported, citing McDermott and another attorney for Travolta, Michael Ossi.
“We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives,” Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, said Sunday in their first public statement since Jett’s death.
Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46, have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome, an illness that leads to inflamed blood vessels in young children. Preston has blamed household cleaners and fertilizers and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine.
A police statement said that Jett had not been seen since Thursday when a caretaker, Jeff Kathrain, found him unconscious late Friday morning.
But Michael McDermott, an attorney for the actor, said police wrongly left the impression that Jett was unsupervised. He said two nannies were with Jett throughout the evening, and he does not believe the teen was in the bathroom for a long time.
About a dozen security guards and Bahamian police officers patrolled around the luxury Old Bahama Bay resort community Sunday where Travolta and Preston remained inside their home. The white-sand beach in front of the suites was closed.
The couple also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham sent condolences to the Travolta family and said the autopsy is a formality the country requires in cases of sudden death to rule out foul play.
____
Associated Press writers Vanessa Rolle in Freeport and Juan McCartney in Nassau, Bahamas contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By CHRIS GILLETTE
Associated Press Writer
FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) — Doctors in the Bahamas conducted an autopsy Monday on John Travolta’s 16-year-old son, but authorities did not immediately disclose the results.
Bahamian Minister of Health Hubert Minnis said the autopsy was finished but declined to comment on what may have caused the death of Jett Travolta, who had a history of seizures and was found unconscious in a bathroom Friday at a family vacation home.
Jett’s body was expected to be transferred soon to Grand Bahama’s Restview Memorial Mortuary, said Glen Campbell, an assistant funeral director.
The family plans to send his remains by Wednesday to Ocala, Florida, where the actor owns a home, said Obie Wilchcombe, a family friend and member of the Bahamian parliament.
Travolta tried CPR to revive his son, and Jett may have died in his arms before an emergency medical technician took over, Usmagazine.com reported, citing McDermott and another attorney for Travolta, Michael Ossi.
“We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives,” Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, said Sunday in their first public statement since Jett’s death.
Travolta, 54, and Preston, 46, have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome, an illness that leads to inflamed blood vessels in young children. Preston has blamed household cleaners and fertilizers and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine.
A police statement said that Jett had not been seen since Thursday when a caretaker, Jeff Kathrain, found him unconscious late Friday morning.
But Michael McDermott, an attorney for the actor, said police wrongly left the impression that Jett was unsupervised. He said two nannies were with Jett throughout the evening, and he does not believe the teen was in the bathroom for a long time.
About a dozen security guards and Bahamian police officers patrolled around the luxury Old Bahama Bay resort community Sunday where Travolta and Preston remained inside their home. The white-sand beach in front of the suites was closed.
The couple also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham sent condolences to the Travolta family and said the autopsy is a formality the country requires in cases of sudden death to rule out foul play.
____
Associated Press writers Vanessa Rolle in Freeport and Juan McCartney in Nassau, Bahamas contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Brain Injury Santa’s Wish List
I have been publishing a Santa’s Wish List on Christmas Eve since 1996.
My wish list has always gone something pretty much like this:
While I still believe in Santa Claus but I no longer believe in magic:
I wish:
1. That each time we see a child on a bicycle without a helmet, that we become righteously uninhibited and tell them and their parents off. OK, so I don’t do righteously indignant safely anymore, but this year I need to find someone to more helmets on children.
2. That we get the BIA to sponsor a physician brain injury conference in our home state and personally invite, pressure and lay a guilt trip on every M.D. we know, especially emergency room doctors, to attend; This is really getting to be a reminder of all those great ideas I have that never get done. This year I will promise to make some advocacy effort to help this generation of new doctors apply the lessons that are coming home from Iraq to Civilian brain injury.
3. That we eradicate the use of the term “mild” to describe concussion and permanent brain injury; I am still doing a good job of using the word “subtle” instead of “mild”.
4. That we are never too busy for our cyber friends in need; Sadly, the once vibrant TBI chat lists don’t seem to have the same community as they did a decade ago. I keep trying and keep finding ways to broaden our brain injury web of communication.
5. That we never quit our advocacy against insurance companies, neurologists and those who use the term “malingerer”; Had a good year on this front this year. The only doctor who flat out claimed a client of mine was a malingerer was made totally irrelevant by my deposition of him and the case settled for $1.9 million.
6. That we each personally tell a doctor, lawyer or health care professional about how much information there is on the web, how to find it and that it is their sworn duty to go get it; The web has changed so much in 12 years that even old doctors have figured that out. I still remember the defense doctor who when he looked up the answer to a question he couldn’t ask in deposition, wrote a supplemental report answering the question, and ended up quoting one of my web pages as a source.
7. That you all find a good neurologist and pass on the word when you do; This has still got to be the most frustrating part of representing brain injured people. Neurology is a very broad practice area. Few members of this specialty do any significant amount of brain injury. Please if you know of good ones, anywhere, let us know.
8. That we all make a caregiver feel how special and critical they are; Each year I try. And to the very special caretaker in my life, who “cares” for the daily needs of the clients of the Brain Injury Law Group, Jayne Zabrowski, you are the best. And to Angela, my proof reader (God knows I need her) and to Becca, the true pioneer of brain injury advocacy on the Web, thank you so much.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a safer, less overwhelming year.
My wish list has always gone something pretty much like this:
While I still believe in Santa Claus but I no longer believe in magic:
I wish:
1. That each time we see a child on a bicycle without a helmet, that we become righteously uninhibited and tell them and their parents off. OK, so I don’t do righteously indignant safely anymore, but this year I need to find someone to more helmets on children.
2. That we get the BIA to sponsor a physician brain injury conference in our home state and personally invite, pressure and lay a guilt trip on every M.D. we know, especially emergency room doctors, to attend; This is really getting to be a reminder of all those great ideas I have that never get done. This year I will promise to make some advocacy effort to help this generation of new doctors apply the lessons that are coming home from Iraq to Civilian brain injury.
3. That we eradicate the use of the term “mild” to describe concussion and permanent brain injury; I am still doing a good job of using the word “subtle” instead of “mild”.
4. That we are never too busy for our cyber friends in need; Sadly, the once vibrant TBI chat lists don’t seem to have the same community as they did a decade ago. I keep trying and keep finding ways to broaden our brain injury web of communication.
5. That we never quit our advocacy against insurance companies, neurologists and those who use the term “malingerer”; Had a good year on this front this year. The only doctor who flat out claimed a client of mine was a malingerer was made totally irrelevant by my deposition of him and the case settled for $1.9 million.
6. That we each personally tell a doctor, lawyer or health care professional about how much information there is on the web, how to find it and that it is their sworn duty to go get it; The web has changed so much in 12 years that even old doctors have figured that out. I still remember the defense doctor who when he looked up the answer to a question he couldn’t ask in deposition, wrote a supplemental report answering the question, and ended up quoting one of my web pages as a source.
7. That you all find a good neurologist and pass on the word when you do; This has still got to be the most frustrating part of representing brain injured people. Neurology is a very broad practice area. Few members of this specialty do any significant amount of brain injury. Please if you know of good ones, anywhere, let us know.
8. That we all make a caregiver feel how special and critical they are; Each year I try. And to the very special caretaker in my life, who “cares” for the daily needs of the clients of the Brain Injury Law Group, Jayne Zabrowski, you are the best. And to Angela, my proof reader (God knows I need her) and to Becca, the true pioneer of brain injury advocacy on the Web, thank you so much.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a safer, less overwhelming year.
Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname
Date: 11/8/2008
By ANDREA BROWN
The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
PENROSE, Colo. (AP) _ Go ahead. Call Chris Clear a pinhead.
Everyone else in town does.
“It fits me pretty good,” said the 19-year-old from Penrose who six months ago survived a freak accident with a garden tiller that shot a 2-inch metal pin into his brain.
What’s weirder is that he didn’t know he had the nail-like pin in his head until two days later, despite a trip to the ER.
He takes the “Pinhead” nickname as a badge of honor and displays it on merchandise.
Folks around Fremont County wear T-shirts with his brain scan picture. The gray X-ray image shows his skull with a long white pin.
The accident happened in April while he was helping a buddy steer an old rototiller.
“I felt something hit me in the face,” Chris said. “I thought it kicked up something like a rock.”
It came at him with bullet-like force, instantly causing a massive nosebleed and severe neck pain. Chris, an EMT and Penrose volunteer firefighter, was taken by ambulance to a Canon City hospital.
On his face near his nostril was a tiny cut — from the rock, it was assumed. He was sent home with a neck brace for whiplash and an appointment with a chiropractor.
For the next two days he had impaired vision and a really bad headache. Back he went by ambulance to the ER — and this time a brain scan showed the metal pin in his head.
“I heard them down the hallway say, ‘He has something in his head; he needs to get out of here,'” Chris said. “I was, ‘What the crap?'”
He doesn’t remember much after he was rushed to a hospital near Denver. During the nine-hour surgery, his parents braced for the worst.
His mom, Dawn, said it was like a Hollywood movie when “the double doors opened up, and here was this surgeon holding up the pin.”
The projectile had entered near Chris’ nose, then shot to the back of his head, missing several major arteries by millimeters and doing only minor damage to his optic nerves.
Chris was too drugged to remember his four days in ICU or his stardom as the patient who had a pin in his head.
When he returned for a checkup, he saw his pinhead X-ray on hospital computers. “They had it as their desktop,” he said. “It was pretty funny.”
The bizarre incident made national news, and the lanky, soft-spoken teen found himself in the spotlight, facing the public without his usual ballcap for protection.
He couldn’t wear a hat until the back of his skull healed from surgery. Nor could he drive his pickup for two months while his vision was returning.
During recovery, Chris, the second-oldest of eight kids, had plenty of company. “I got like 50 friend requests on MySpace in one day,” he said.
People he knew — and didn’t know — asked for images of the brain scan with the pin.
His mom set up a Web site to sell shirts, mouse pads and beer steins with the pinhead scan. Profits go to the Penrose Fire Department, where he’s back on the force and also working for American Medical Response.
There’s no scar where the pin hit, but when Chris pushes the spot his front teeth go numb.
He keeps the pin in his pickup to show those doubters who say, “I saw that on the news, and that’s not you.”
Not minding being called a pinhead should be proof enough.
___
On the Net:
Cafe Press: http://shop.cafepress.com/chris-clear
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Summary
By ANDREA BROWN
The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
PENROSE, Colo. (AP) _ Go ahead. Call Chris Clear a pinhead.
Everyone else in town does.
“It fits me pretty good,” said the 19-year-old from Penrose who six months ago survived a freak accident with a garden tiller that shot a 2-inch metal pin into his brain.
What’s weirder is that he didn’t know he had the nail-like pin in his head until two days later, despite a trip to the ER.
He takes the “Pinhead” nickname as a badge of honor and displays it on merchandise.
Folks around Fremont County wear T-shirts with his brain scan picture. The gray X-ray image shows his skull with a long white pin.
The accident happened in April while he was helping a buddy steer an old rototiller.
“I felt something hit me in the face,” Chris said. “I thought it kicked up something like a rock.”
It came at him with bullet-like force, instantly causing a massive nosebleed and severe neck pain. Chris, an EMT and Penrose volunteer firefighter, was taken by ambulance to a Canon City hospital.
On his face near his nostril was a tiny cut — from the rock, it was assumed. He was sent home with a neck brace for whiplash and an appointment with a chiropractor.
For the next two days he had impaired vision and a really bad headache. Back he went by ambulance to the ER — and this time a brain scan showed the metal pin in his head.
“I heard them down the hallway say, ‘He has something in his head; he needs to get out of here,'” Chris said. “I was, ‘What the crap?'”
He doesn’t remember much after he was rushed to a hospital near Denver. During the nine-hour surgery, his parents braced for the worst.
His mom, Dawn, said it was like a Hollywood movie when “the double doors opened up, and here was this surgeon holding up the pin.”
The projectile had entered near Chris’ nose, then shot to the back of his head, missing several major arteries by millimeters and doing only minor damage to his optic nerves.
Chris was too drugged to remember his four days in ICU or his stardom as the patient who had a pin in his head.
When he returned for a checkup, he saw his pinhead X-ray on hospital computers. “They had it as their desktop,” he said. “It was pretty funny.”
The bizarre incident made national news, and the lanky, soft-spoken teen found himself in the spotlight, facing the public without his usual ballcap for protection.
He couldn’t wear a hat until the back of his skull healed from surgery. Nor could he drive his pickup for two months while his vision was returning.
During recovery, Chris, the second-oldest of eight kids, had plenty of company. “I got like 50 friend requests on MySpace in one day,” he said.
People he knew — and didn’t know — asked for images of the brain scan with the pin.
His mom set up a Web site to sell shirts, mouse pads and beer steins with the pinhead scan. Profits go to the Penrose Fire Department, where he’s back on the force and also working for American Medical Response.
There’s no scar where the pin hit, but when Chris pushes the spot his front teeth go numb.
He keeps the pin in his pickup to show those doubters who say, “I saw that on the news, and that’s not you.”
Not minding being called a pinhead should be proof enough.
___
On the Net:
Cafe Press: http://shop.cafepress.com/chris-clear
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Summary
Sex offender in Vermont seeks state Senate seat
Date: 11/3/2008 7:10 AM
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Larkin Forney doesn’t have the most conventional background: He’s a convicted sex offender and drunken driver, a head injury victim and a marijuana legalization advocate.
But that hasn’t stopped him running for state Senate.
Forney, 31, of Milton, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a minor and has three driving under the influence convictions, said he’s running to bring public attention to flaws in the criminal justice system — and to let the world know he’s no pedophile.
He knows his background may scare off some voters, but he figures honesty might win him some votes in the race for one of six at-large seats representing Vermont’s most populous county.
“All my skeletons are out in the open, while other people continue to deny theirs,” he said.
Vermont law has no ban on people with criminal records running for office. If you live in the district you want to represent and you gather enough signatures from people — in state Senate races, that’s 100 — you can get on the ballot.
Forney did.
His name appears with 13 others on Tuesday’s ballot, under the “Justice for Vermonters” party label. In his campaign literature, he says diagnosed sexual predators and pedophiles should be sent to prison for life, marijuana should be legalized and U.S troops withdrawn from Iraq.
“We haven’t had situations where anybody with that kind of record’s been elected,” said Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz. “We’ve had people with criminal records run for office, usually at the local level, for constable or lister. At the end of the day, the voters make a choice.”
In any election, Forney probably would face an uphill battle. Running this year makes his candidacy especially unlikely.
The abduction, rape and murder of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett — allegedly by her sex-offender uncle, Michael Jacques — has badly shaken people in Vermont, and prompted a vigorous election-year debate over how best to prevent sex crimes and punish those responsible.
Electing a sex offender? It could happen, Forney says.
“I don’t think I have that bad of a shot,” he said. “The government can put the sex offender label on someone, but it doesn’t make them a pedophile or a dangerous person.”
Forney, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as an 8-year-old boy when he was hit by a car, blames the injury for some of his troubles, which include a suicide attempt in which he set himself on fire.
The sex charge stemmed from a 2002 incident in which he had sex with a 14-year-old girl. He says the sex was consensual, and that the girl lied about her age. Attempts to reach her for comment — through the Chittenden County victim’s advocate’s office — were unsuccessful.
Forney, who pleaded guilty to the charge in 2005, served 19 months in prison. He claims he was pressured into the plea.
Whatever the truth, his candidacy was a surprise.
“It’s a little odd that in this political climate, he’s willing to run,” said state Sen. Diane Snelling, a Republican. “To some extent, you have to give the guy credit. If he wants to take his case to the people, great. But his argument will only reach certain people.”
Pearse Corcoran, 22, of Burlington, who cast his vote last week at Burlington City Hall, said he didn’t vote for Forney.
“I had heard about him. I heard it was circumstantial and all that, but I think that’s irrelevant. Plus, there’s the DUI thing,” he said.
Should Forney win, he would not be subject to a state Constitution article that gives the House and Senate the authority to expel a member. Such expulsion can’t be for causes known to voters before the election, according to David Gibson, secretary of the state Senate.
“That sounds like it would exclude him,” said Gibson.
___
On the Net:
http://www.justiceforvermonters.org
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Summary
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Larkin Forney doesn’t have the most conventional background: He’s a convicted sex offender and drunken driver, a head injury victim and a marijuana legalization advocate.
But that hasn’t stopped him running for state Senate.
Forney, 31, of Milton, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a minor and has three driving under the influence convictions, said he’s running to bring public attention to flaws in the criminal justice system — and to let the world know he’s no pedophile.
He knows his background may scare off some voters, but he figures honesty might win him some votes in the race for one of six at-large seats representing Vermont’s most populous county.
“All my skeletons are out in the open, while other people continue to deny theirs,” he said.
Vermont law has no ban on people with criminal records running for office. If you live in the district you want to represent and you gather enough signatures from people — in state Senate races, that’s 100 — you can get on the ballot.
Forney did.
His name appears with 13 others on Tuesday’s ballot, under the “Justice for Vermonters” party label. In his campaign literature, he says diagnosed sexual predators and pedophiles should be sent to prison for life, marijuana should be legalized and U.S troops withdrawn from Iraq.
“We haven’t had situations where anybody with that kind of record’s been elected,” said Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz. “We’ve had people with criminal records run for office, usually at the local level, for constable or lister. At the end of the day, the voters make a choice.”
In any election, Forney probably would face an uphill battle. Running this year makes his candidacy especially unlikely.
The abduction, rape and murder of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett — allegedly by her sex-offender uncle, Michael Jacques — has badly shaken people in Vermont, and prompted a vigorous election-year debate over how best to prevent sex crimes and punish those responsible.
Electing a sex offender? It could happen, Forney says.
“I don’t think I have that bad of a shot,” he said. “The government can put the sex offender label on someone, but it doesn’t make them a pedophile or a dangerous person.”
Forney, who suffered a traumatic brain injury as an 8-year-old boy when he was hit by a car, blames the injury for some of his troubles, which include a suicide attempt in which he set himself on fire.
The sex charge stemmed from a 2002 incident in which he had sex with a 14-year-old girl. He says the sex was consensual, and that the girl lied about her age. Attempts to reach her for comment — through the Chittenden County victim’s advocate’s office — were unsuccessful.
Forney, who pleaded guilty to the charge in 2005, served 19 months in prison. He claims he was pressured into the plea.
Whatever the truth, his candidacy was a surprise.
“It’s a little odd that in this political climate, he’s willing to run,” said state Sen. Diane Snelling, a Republican. “To some extent, you have to give the guy credit. If he wants to take his case to the people, great. But his argument will only reach certain people.”
Pearse Corcoran, 22, of Burlington, who cast his vote last week at Burlington City Hall, said he didn’t vote for Forney.
“I had heard about him. I heard it was circumstantial and all that, but I think that’s irrelevant. Plus, there’s the DUI thing,” he said.
Should Forney win, he would not be subject to a state Constitution article that gives the House and Senate the authority to expel a member. Such expulsion can’t be for causes known to voters before the election, according to David Gibson, secretary of the state Senate.
“That sounds like it would exclude him,” said Gibson.
___
On the Net:
http://www.justiceforvermonters.org
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Summary