Thursday, May 2, 2013

In the news, Thursday, May 2, 2013


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WED 01      INDEX      FRI 03
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from Forbes

Oregon Study: Medicaid 'Had No Significant Effect' On Health Outcomes vs. Being Uninsured
For three years, an incredibly nerdy—but consequential—debate has raged among health policy researchers regarding Medicaid, America’s government-run health-care program for the poor. Piles of studies have shown that people on Medicaid have health outcomes that are no better, and often worse, than those with no insurance at all. But supporters of Obamacare were cheered in 2011 when a lone study, out of Oregon, purported to show that Medicaid was better than being uninsured. Yesterday, however, the authors of the Oregon study published their updated, two-year results, finding that Medicaid “generated no significant improvement in measured physical health outcomes.” The result calls into question the $450 billion a year we spend on Medicaid, and the fact that Obamacare throws 11 million more Americans into this broken program.

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from KHQ Local News (NBC Spokane)

FDA Reviewing Whether Anti-Bacterial Soap Is Safe

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from Slate
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

President Obama Can Shut Guantanamo Whenever He Wants

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from The Spokesman-Review

Jamestown scholars detail evidence of cannibalism
Earliest colonists faced brutal conditions in Virginia

YouTube says the battle with TV is already over

Obama taps Pritzker, Froman for economic jobs

For 3, bomb suspect’s friendship leads to charges

Dry winter increases wildfire risk
Officials say conditions in West similar to last season’s

Era of Itronix comes to an end

Illness keeps grandmother from being Bloomsday celebrity starter

White House appeals morning-after pill ruling

Greenhouse gas nears milestone
Steady, high readings have scientists worried

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In brief:  From Wire Reports:

Woman missing 11 years, found alive

Lititz, Pa. – A Pennsylvania woman who mysteriously disappeared after dropping off her children for school 11 years ago has surfaced in Florida, telling police she traveled there on a whim with homeless hitchhikers, slept under bridges and survived by scavenging food and panhandling, authorities said Wednesday.

Brenda Heist, 54, had been declared legally dead, Lititz police detective John Schofield said. The detective said he met with her in Florida on Monday, and she expressed shame and apologized for what she did to her family.

Heist was going through an amicable divorce in 2002 when she was turned down for housing assistance, which led her to despair. She was crying in a park when two women and a man befriended her, then invited her to join them as they began a monthlong hitchhiking journey to South Florida, Schofield said.

Her ex-husband, Lee Heist, who collected on a life insurance policy after getting the courts to declare her legally dead in 2010 and has remarried, said Wednesday that he was angry because of the effect her disappearance had on their son and daughter.


Alan Alda asks scientists to cut out the jargon

The “M.A.S.H.” actor who also hosted the long-running PBS series “Scientific American Frontiers” helped start a center on communicating science at Stony Brook University in New York. Its mission: to teach scientists how to get their points across more clearly.

Alda, 77, serves as a visiting professor of journalism at Stony Brook. He does not teach a regular course but frequently speaks at conferences and workshops at the center.

Alda says explaining science using clear, simple language can benefit society in many ways. It can help lawmakers make better decisions on scientific funding, help doctors explain operations to their patients and help consumers know what’s in the food they buy.


Treasury could ease size of debt auctions

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department says it could begin decreasing the size of some of its debt auctions in coming months based on an improving deficit situation that will allow it to pay back some of the national debt this quarter.

Treasury said Wednesday that any decrease in the size of the Treasury securities it sells to raise money to finance government operations will be gradual and investors will be alerted to the changes. Treasury said it plans to pay down $35 billion of the national debt this quarter, the first time it has reduced the debt in six years.

That pay-down will be only temporary and reflects in part higher tax revenues in April. Treasury projected that borrowing will increase by $223 billion in the July-September quarter.


Chinese firm to build electric buses in U.S.

LANCASTER, Calif. – The first Chinese-owned vehicle manufacturer in the United States has unveiled ambitious plans to build as many as 1,000 electric buses a year at a refurbished RV plant in the Mojave Desert.

At a news conference at its new facility Wednesday, BYD officials said the plant should produce the first 10 of its plug-in buses next year.

BYD hopes to be rolling out 50 a year within two years. It aims to be running the plant at full capacity, 1,000 buses a year, within 10 to 20 years.

BYD’s own rechargeable batteries will power the buses.


Windows RT sales lag as tablet market grows

NEW YORK – Microsoft is seeing slow sales of a version of Windows designed for thin and light tablets, a research firm says, even as the tablet market as a whole is growing.

Researchers at IDC say manufacturers shipped 200,000 tablets running Windows RT, the special version of Windows for iPad-style tablets, in the January to March period. That’s down from 900,000 shipped in the fourth quarter.

Microsoft launched Windows RT in October, along with the Surface tablet. The software also runs on other manufacturers’ tablets.

Microsoft’s larger Surface Pro tablets, which run standard Windows 8, did better.

Meanwhile, the global tablet market more than doubled to 49.2 million units.


Heinz shareholders OK Buffett acquisition plan

NEW YORK – Heinz is one step closer to going private.

The Pittsburgh-based ketchup maker said Tuesday that shareholders approved its acquisition by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, which also owns Burger King.

The firms have said Berkshire is acting as a financing partner while 3G, which is known for its aggressive cost-cutting, will run the company.
Lack of homes for sale slowing strong market

Editorial: Decisions on Plan B must be based on science

Milbank: Obama sitting on the sidelines
Dana Milbank

Doctor K: Corneal transplants have high success rate
Anthony L. Komaroff       Universal Uclick

Expect gusty winds through mid spring

Monument placed in park on Lilac festival’s 75th anniversary

Students use drama to address bullying
Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit SMILE

Careful planning keeps moss where it belongs: in gardens

Love Story: Her comic books won him over
Friends since children, the Zapfs will celebrate 48th anniversary May 29

Spokane Valley church members build garden beds, reclaim orchard

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from The Wenatchee World

APPLE BLOSSOM, 1926: Among the first floats from surrounding towns to enter the Apple Blossom Festival parade in Wenatchee was this entry from Chelan in 1926, winning first prize. Henrietta (Babe) Kelsey, sitting on the canopied throne, was Princess Chelan. At her feet “grow” flowers, symbolizing agriculture. The float also depicts scenery with a replica of Lake Chelan and the mountains.



Marchers call for family unity, immigration reform

Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Miss Veedol!

Diehard retailer?
Company could open smaller Sears store here

Wilf Woods: Fun days at Apple Blossom, long ago and today
By Wilfred Woods      Chairman of the Board


Once a queen: Kristie Adamson Hays, 1993


Sears’ best was plenty for me
By Tracy Warner      Editorial Page Editor

Fran James, beloved Lummi Nation elder, dies

West Coast League expands footprint to Yakima

Military grooms new officers for war in cyberspace

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 An historic photo from the Apple Blossom Festival, part of the new exhibit
at Wenatchee Valley Museum & Art Center.

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