Feds Charge 91 in $430 Million Medicare Fraud
October 9th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Ninety-one people including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were charged criminally in a new sweep of Medicare fraud involving seven U.S. cities and $430 million in alleged false billing, officials said on Thursday.
It was the government’s second big raid in recent months after a similar effort in May alleged $452 million in fraud in Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled.
The allegations include billing the government for unnecessary ambulance rides in California, writing prescriptions for patients in Dallas who did not qualify for them and paying kickbacks such as food and cigarettes to patients in Houston if they attended programs a hospital could later bill for.
Research Credit: ottilie
5 Broken Cameras
October 9th, 2012Via: Total Film:
In 2005 the people of the Palestinian village of Bil’in, in the Occupied Territories, learned that the Israeli government’s Separation Wall would run close to their village, depriving them of much of their cultivated land – land which would then be taken over by Jewish settlers.
They resolved to protest by every non-violent means possible – and one of them, Emad Burnat, decided to document the protests with his newly acquired camera.
Over the next five years Burnat doggedly carries out his plan – despite being beaten up, wounded, jailed and having one camera after another smashed by soldiers. “I film,” he tells us, “to hold on to my life.”
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Florida School District Considers ‘Trash-Cams’ in Lunchrooms to Study Wasted Food
October 9th, 2012Via: NBC:
Cafeteria trash cans in some Florida schools may soon be getting a high-tech makeover.
After finding out that most of the fruits and vegetables on the school lunch menu ended up in the trash, school board members in the Lake County school district in central Florida are considering attaching cameras to school cafeteria trash cans to study what students are tossing out.
“I said, how about we put cameras in the trash cans so we can document the concrete data of what students are throwing out,” School Board member Tod Howard told NBC News. “That way we can not only show what the students are not eating, but we can also look at how presentation affects consumption and present that data to the federal government if we need to.”
Howard said he made the suggestion as a 2010 federal law on child nutrition, vigorously promoted by first lady Michelle Obama, went into effect in schools across the nation.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
High Frequency Traders Trying to Create Arbitrage Opportunities by Flooding Market Systems Bogus Quotes
October 9th, 2012Via: CNBC:
Translation: the ultimate goal of many of these programs is to gum up the system so it slows down the quote feed to others and allows the computer traders (with their co-located servers at the exchanges) to gain a money-making arbitrage opportunity.
The Term ‘Food Unrest’ Will Become Part of Our Daily Vocabulary
October 9th, 2012Via: Daily Ticker:
“The term ‘food unrest’ will become part of our daily vocabulary,” Brown tells The Daily Ticker.
It reflects the imbalance between the supply of food and demand for food globally.
On the demand side, says Brown, is a growing global population — 80 million more people born each year — and more people moving up the food chain, which means as many as 3 billion people are consuming more “grain intensive products” like meat, milk and eggs. “Rising affluence may have eclipsed population growth” as a major demand factor for food prices, says Brown.
And in the U.S. about one-third of the corn crop is diverted to produce ethanol for gasoline. “We’re now using more grain to fuel cars than to feed livestock and poultry” says Brown.
On the supply side, severe drought in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, Pakistan and Kazakhstan have crushed grain harvests at a time when crop yields are stagnating in many countries. “Rice yields in Japan haven’t increased at all and the same is true for wheat yields in France, Germany and the U.K,” says Brown. He doesn’t expect that “glass ceiling” will be broken anytime soon.
“We’re doing everything we know how to do. We’ve eliminated nutrient constraints, moisture constraints and we’ve designed the most efficient plans we can….there’s not much else to do.”
The impact of all this are higher food prices in the U.S. and more competition for U.S. grains from China—which dominates soybean consumption now, says Brown. But in countries like Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Peru and The Republic of the Congo the effect is much more dramatic.
“There are now millions of families in the world that plan foodless days. They can’t afford to buy enough food at inflated prices to maintain their consumption levels,” says Brown.
No Updates Next 24 Hours
October 8th, 2012We’ve been on a roadtrip for the last several days and we’ve had an unscheduled stop in Auckland. I’m going to drive through the night to get home. I’ll resume updates tomorrow. Thanks.
Turkey and Syria Exchange Mortar Fire
October 6th, 2012Via: BBC:
Turkey has fired into Syria for a fourth day after a Syrian mortar landed near a Turkish village, reports say.
Turkish troops responded immediately after the mortar landed near the village of Guvecci in Hatay province, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
Turkey has been firing into Syria since Syrian mortar fire killed five Turkish civilians on Wednesday.
It was the first time Turkey has taken military action across the border since the Syrian uprising began.
Workers at Multiple Wal-Mart Stores On Strike for First Time
October 5th, 2012Via: Salon:
Today, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, Calif., store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.
FTC Releases Redacted Google Privacy Report
October 5th, 2012Via: The Security Ledger:
Google could tell you about its privacy practices except, well….they’re private. That’s the conclusion privacy advocates are drawing after the Federal Trade Commission took a black marker to an independent audit of the company’s privacy practices before releasing it to the group EPIC in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
SOME CALIFORNIA GAS STATIONS SHUT AS OIL REFINERS RATION SUPPLIES
October 5th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) are beginning to shut pumps as the state’s oil refiners started rationing supplies and spot prices surged to a record.
Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) stopped selling gasoline on the spot, or wholesale, market in Southern California and is allocating deliveries to customers. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is also rationing fuel to U.S. West Coast terminal customers. Costco’s outlet in Simi Valley, 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, ran out of regular gasoline yesterday and was selling premium fuel at the price of regular.
Update: Up As Much As 20 Cents a Gallon in Some Areas
