John H. Cochrane on How America Should Have, and Still Could, Reform Health Care (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: University of Chicago

Photo Credit: University of Chicago

If you only read one column about how to fix health care in America, make it this one.

I had never heard of John H. Cochrane before I read this piece this morning in the Wall Street Journal. That was my loss. He is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, and he has a clear sense that even most Republicans miss about what was really wrong with health care pre-ObamaCare, and why ObamaCare was not the right solution at all.

Better, Cochrane has a game plan for what to do once ObamaCare has collapsed:

Only deregulation can unleash competition. And only disruptive competition, where new businesses drive out old ones, will bring efficiency, lower costs and innovation.

Health insurance should be individual, portable across jobs, states and providers; lifelong and guaranteed-renewable, meaning you have the right to continue with no unexpected increase in premiums if you get sick. Insurance should protect wealth against large, unforeseen, necessary expenses, rather than be a wildly inefficient payment plan for routine expenses.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why China is Stepping Up its Presence in Detroit Auto Industry

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

While the US automotive industry continues to rebound after its near collapse from the financial crisis few years back, China is quietly expanding its presence in the Detroit-based market. Encouraged by the low price of real estate and the high level of advanced engineering talent, dozens of Chinese auto companies and suppliers are opening plants and offices in and around the Motor City, where they hope to one day sell cars to US buyers.

So far, the emphasis has been on the supply chain, but automotive experts and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) hope that continued investment in the area will lead to much more, and they envision Chinese companies playing a big role in helping the city flourish after it emerges from its Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring, which got under way this year.

“They [the Chinese firms] want to be more global over time, so they need to look at North America. And if they’re looking at North America, this is the place to come,” Governor Snyder told reporters earlier this year.

Snyder is opening the door wide to China. In September he made his third economic development trip there in three years to court investors in all sectors, but mostly automotive. To date, he said, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in his state, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry. Michigan companies exported 22 percent more goods and materials to China in 2012 than in the previous year. Although not all of the activity from China is auto-related, Snyder says he expects to see more Chinese involvement in the auto sector.

“Detroit is the value place in the United States, in Michigan, and potentially the world in terms of a great value opportunity,” Snyder said. “Come in and invest now, because there’s going to be a great upside.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Man Arrested For Having Concealed Compartment in Vehicle (+video)

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A man was arrested in Ohio for having a hidden compartment in a vehicle and could face up to 18 months in prison, even though there was nothing in the compartment.

Just days before Thanksgiving, 30- year old Norman Gurley was pulled over for speeding, but Ohio State Troopers noticed wires running to the back of the car he was driving.

“During the search, they noticed some components inside the vehicle that did not appear to be factory,” Lt. Michael Combs told WKYC-TV.

“We actually figured it out and followed the wiring and we were able to get it open,” said Combs.

There were no illegal drugs or weapons in the compartment, but Gurley became the first person arrested under the state’s “hidden compartment” law.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russian-Led Alliance to Spend $1 Billion on Weapons in 2014

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/AP

Photo Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/AP

As Russia prepares to assume the rotating presidency of a military alliance of former Soviet states in 2014, a senior official announced plans Thursday to spend $1 billion on weapons for the bloc’s rapid-reaction force.

Headquartered in Moscow, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) currently comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and is often described as a Russia-led rival to NATO – and a bulwark against the Western alliance’s eastward expansion.

Evolving out of a Commonwealth of Independent States’ security treaty, it was established in its current form in 2002, during President Vladimir Putin’s earlier term at the Kremlin, a period that saw Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania join NATO in 2004, and Georgia and Ukraine explore the possibility to doing so too, to Moscow’s ire.

Under its charter, member-states are committed to defend each other if attacked and may also not join other military alliances.

A major CSTO development was a 2009 agreement to establish a joint rapid-reaction force, “to repulse military aggression, conduct anti-terrorist operations, fight transnational crime and drug trafficking, and neutralize the effects of natural disasters,” according to the RIA Novosti state news agency.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Supreme Court Denies Permanent Fund Dividend To Soldier Deployed To Iraq (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The 172nd Infantry Brigade, the Arctic Wolves, had an extra long deployment in support of Operation Iraqui Freedom. They were supposed to go for a year, but the year turned into 16 months, with some of the brigade’s soldiers unexpectedly going back to Iraq after arriving home in Alaska. The deployment went from August 2005 to November 2006. The brigade received the Valorous Unit Award for its time in Iraq. There were soldiers killed and wounded and the separation, unexpectedly extended, was surely hard on families.

Perhaps the extra penalty suffered by Richard Heller is not that large a matter. Still it bugged him and it bugs me.

If Richard Heller had spent those 16 months at Fort Wainwright, then the home of the 178th Infantry Brigade, the Alaska Department of Revenue would have sent him a check for $1,106.96. That would be the Permanent Fund Dividend paid in 2007 to eligible Alaska residents. (As far as I know Alaska is the only state with a division of its Revenue Department dedicated to sending money to all its residents). Richard Heller arrived in Alaska on June 17, 2005, assigned to the Headquarters Company of the 172nd Stryker Brigade. He promptly registered to vote, obtained an Alaska driver’s license and changed his military records to indicate Alaska residency.

Read more from this story HERE.

NPR Poll Shows Americans Want Limits on Teens Getting the Morning After Pill

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NPR

Photo Credit: NPR

NPR released the results of a poll they conducted on the Plan B One-Step morning after pill.

Michael Taylor, M.D., chief medical officer at Truven Health Anayltics told the Herald Online, “We survey 100,000 people annually to gauge the nation’s pulse on a variety of health related topics.’

He went on to say “We have been running this survey for over 25 years, and have addressed a wide variety of healthcare topics ranging from healthcare reform to drug side-effects. The data from the survey help us understand how consumers view the healthcare system.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Hundreds of Teens Trash Mall in Wild Flash Mob During Day After Christmas Sales

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Hundreds of teenagers stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall in a wild flash mob that forced the shopping center to close its doors during day-after Christmas sales, sources said on Friday.

More than 400 crazed teens grabbed and smashed jars of candy, stole cheap items such as baby balloons and beat up security guards at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., merchants said.

A violent game of “Knockout” also broke out on the upper level of the mall — and one teen may have been carrying a gun, sources said.

The teens used social media to plan the mass looting, vowing to put the mall “on tilt” – or to raid it, according to posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Clerks, who scrambled to close up their shops, said they were terrified.

Read more from this story HERE.

ATF Agent Sends Shockwave Across Internet with Explosive Allegations about ‘Fast and Furious’ and Brian Terry’s Death (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

John Dodson, the federal agent who blew the lid off the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking scandal, claims the FBI had ties to the men who killed U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010 near Nogales, Ariz. In fact, Dodson says the Mexican bandits who gunned down Terry were working for FBI operatives and had been sent to the border to do a “drug rip-off” using intelligence gathered by the DEA.

Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he doesn’t think the FBI was part of the rip-off crew, but the agency was “directing the rip crew.” The explosive claims were made in an interview with The Arizona Republic this week and are already creating some waves across the Internet.

The allegations are also found in Dodson’s recently released book, “The Unarmed Truth,” which chronicles his role as a whistleblower during Operation Fast and Furious. The Obama administration unsuccessfully tried to block the publication of his book.

Terry belonged to an elite Border Patrol tactical team sent to a remote area known as Peck Canyon, roughly a dozen miles northwest of Nogales, where violence had escalated because criminal gangs were stealing narcotics from drug runners known as mules. He was slain in a shootout with several bandits. Two assault-type rifles found at the scene were subsequently traced to Fast and Furious.

The operation, based in Phoenix, was launched in 2009 to identify and prosecute drug lords, but instead allowed guns to be “walked” into the hands of Mexican criminals. ATF agents encouraged licensed firearms dealers in Arizona to sell more than 2,000 weapons to known “straw buyers” who were working for cartels. Instead of arresting suspects immediately, surveillance agents took notes and let them disappear with the guns.

Read more from this story HERE.

The First 3D Printed Organ — a Liver — is Expected in 2014

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Organovo

Photo Credit: Organovo

Approximately 18 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. But that may change someday sooner than you think — thanks to 3D printing.

Advances in the 3D printing of human tissue have moved fast enough that San Diego-based bio-printing company Organovo now expects to unveil the world’s first printed organ — a human liver — next year.

Like other forms of 3D printing, bio-printing lays down layer after layer of material — in this case, live cells — to form a solid physical entity — in this case, human tissue. The major stumbling block in creating tissue continues to be manufacturing the vascular system needed to provide it with life-sustaining oxygen and nutrients.

Living cells may literally die before the tissue gets off the printer table.

Organovo, however, said it has overcome that vascular issue to a degree. “We have achieved thicknesses of greater than 500 microns, and have maintained liver tissue in a fully functional state with native phenotypic behavior for at least 40 days,” said Mike Renard, Organovo’s executive vice president of commercial operations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ice Foils Rescue Attempt of Russian Ship Stranded in Antarctica

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: John "Pathfinder" Lester

Photo Credit: John “Pathfinder” Lester

A Chinese icebreaker trying to reach a Russian ship trapped in Antarctica has been halted by thick ice within sight of the stricken vessel, a passenger and Australian rescue officials said on Saturday.

The Snow Dragon was one of three icebreakers dispatched to free the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which became stranded far south of Tasmania on Tuesday in ice driven by strong winds.

“Unfortunately Snow Dragon can’t get through. It’s standing by and waiting on another vessel to help. Everyone (is) well,” Chris Turney, an Australian professor who helped organize the voyage on the Russian ship, said via Twitter on Saturday

Earlier, Turney posted a photograph apparently showing the Chinese vessel, a speck on the horizon beyond an expanse of ice.

“It has encountered heavy ice and it’s not safe for them to continue to the Russian vessel for their own safety,” Andrea Hayward-Maher from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the rescue effort, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Read more from this story HERE.