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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Giuliana Rancic Announces She Will Undergo A Double Mastectomy (Video)
A couple of months after announcing she has breast cancer, Giuliana Rancic has revealed that she will be undergoing a double mastectomy as she continues to fight the disease, wow. On the Today Show this morning with her husband Bill by her side, Giuliana announced that she has decided to have a double mastectomy after lumpectomies failed to completely get rid of the disease. As for why she chose to go this drastic route as opposed to having another lumpectomy and undergoing radiation, well it is simple, Rancic wants to make sure the cancer is gone. Plus the likelihood that the cancer will return is like 1% with a double mastectomy. Basically it is drastic but she believes it is the best chance to live a cancer free life. As I am sure you can imagine, this had to be a very difficult decision for the E! News correspondent. I was fortunate enough to be able to watch this interview on the Today Show and all I can say is she is an inspiration. As you can see from the below video, which I highly recommend you watch, Giuliana talks about what led her to her decision and her willingness [...]
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Mindy McCready & Son Zander Found Hiding In Closet (omg!)
Mindy McCready and her 5-year-old son, Zander, have been found by police after being reported missing on Tuesday.
On Friday night, the country singer, 36, and her son -- who she does not have custody of -- were reportedly found in Heber Springs, Ark., in a home belonging to the man believed to be her boyfriend, local authorities told CNN.
PLAY IT NOW: Mindy McCready: 'I Did Not Steal My Child!'
"The child appeared to be in good condition when we found him ... he was in the closet with his mother," eastern Arkansas's chief deputy U.S. Marshal, Davuid Rahbany told CNN.
Zander is currently in the custody of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. The organization is expected to arrange for the child to be returned to Gayle Inge (McCready's mother) and her husband, Michael Inge, who have legal custody of the boy and live in Florida, CNN reported.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Mindy McCready
As previously reported on Access Hollywood.com, on Wednesday, McCready responded first to Access Hollywood, following a report she and her son were missing.
"I am working with lawyers to try to get all this straightened out," she told Access Hollywood in a previous e-mail. "I did not steal my child, as it would be impossible for me to kidnap what already belongs to me! There never was any missing persons report and never an Amber Alert."
According to the Associated Press, however, the Department of Children and Families said a missing persons report was filed in Florida on Tuesday.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebs Who Have Been In Rehab
It was also revealed on Wednesday evening that McCready is expecting twins.
A rep for the embattled singer confirmed the news to People, and, according to the Associated Press, which spoke to McCraedy on Wednesday, she is 7 months pregnant.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Boots, Ten Gallon Hats & More: The Stars Of Country Music
Neither report listed details of who the father of the babies is.
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Germany's Merkel fights for euro, Cameron for UK (Reuters)
PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) ? British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened on Friday to obstruct a Franco-German drive for swift change to the European Union's treaty, a sign of the difficulty leaders will face transforming Europe to save the euro.
France and Germany are reaching a consensus that euro zone economies need to be bound more closely together if the single currency is to survive, which could mean changing the EU treaty to give Brussels powers to punish spendthrift euro states.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said there was a danger that the euro zone bloc would split up unless it implemented new rules and stuck to them.
"When we are not able to set up and keep to more conditions and ground rules, then many countries in the euro zone will no longer be able to pay the very high rates for sovereign bonds," he told the daily Krone.
"The next effect will be that you won't find anyone to buy them. Then the euro zone has to break up because of this.... it is a very real danger."
After talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Cameron said he was not convinced treaty change was needed to reinforce the single currency zone, which Britain has refused to join. If the 27-nation bloc's charter were reopened at a crunch summit on December 9, he would have his own agenda.
The British leader said euro zone institutions such as the European Central Bank needed to "get behind the currency" to convince markets that it had the required firepower, and member states had to make their economies more competitive.
"Neither of those things require treaty change, but if there is treaty change I will make sure that we further protect and enhance Britain's interests," he told reporters. There was no immediate comment from Sarkozy's office.
Cameron faces pressure from Eurosceptics in his Conservative party to loosen Britain's ties with the EU and secure guarantees that any move towards fiscal union on the continent does not harm the interests of the City of London financial centre.
Sarkozy tried to persuade him to allow stricter budget discipline procedures for the euro zone without insisting on returning powers over social and judicial affairs from Brussels to London or seeking a veto right over EU financial regulation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called earlier for rapid but limited treaty change to remedy what she sees as the root causes of Europe's raging sovereign debt crisis, warning that Europeans faced a "marathon" to regain lost credibility.
Outlining a long-term approach to tighter fiscal integration in the single currency area, with tougher budget discipline, she dismissed quick fixes such as massive U.S.-style money printing by the European Central Bank or issuing joint euro zone bonds.
"Resolving the sovereign debt crisis is a process, and this process will take years," Merkel told parliament, vowing to defend the euro, which she said was stronger than Germany's former deutschemark.
The chancellor travels to Paris on Monday to outline joint proposals with Sarkozy for treaty changes to create coercive powers to reject national budgets and impose automatic sanctions on serial deficit sinners. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will meet key leaders and central bankers December 6-8 in Europe the EU summit.
Next Friday's gathering is seen by some as make-or-break for the euro zone after a string of half-measures agreed too late by European leaders over nearly two years have failed to stop bond market contagion spreading from Greece to Ireland, Portugal and now Italy and Spain.
Sources close to Merkel said she was willing to see the ECB step up buying of troubled euro zone countries' bonds, alongside smart use of the bloc's rescue fund, as a bridging measure until budget controls took hold, but she did not see it as a lasting solution.
Her speech set the agenda for a week of intense diplomacy to try to frame a new political deal to restore market confidence and give the ECB grounds to act more decisively to defend the euro and support teetering banks.
The European Central Bank has been reluctant to commit to buying bonds in large quantities like the "quantitative easing" carried out by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
ECB executive board member Juergen Stark said a solution was urgent but added finding it was the job of politicians.
"The lingering and expanding sovereign debt crisis must be halted to avoid macroeconomic and financial disaster, in the euro area and beyond," he said in a speech in New York. "No country is immune any more to a loss of market confidence in its public finances."
BREAKUP SCENARIOS
World stocks and European bonds continued to gain on hopes that euro zone leaders may be moving closer to a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis.
But in a sign that business leaders are beginning to doubt whether the currency will survive, the chief executive of Austrian energy group OMV said dozens of top European executives were working on post-euro contingency plans.
"I was recently in Paris with some other representatives of large companies and we discussed this question," Gerhard Roiss told reporters on Friday when asked if he had plans for a euro breakup. About half the 45 firms present had confirmed they were working on such scenarios.
ECB President Mario Draghi sent a crucial signal to markets on Thursday, opening the door to more aggressive action to help fight the euro zone's sovereign debt and banking crisis if governments adopted a new "fiscal compact."
Sarkozy embraced German calls for a new treaty tightening fiscal discipline in a policy speech on Thursday, but unlike Merkel he made no mention of greater powers for the European Commission and European Court of Justice.
Instead, the French leader, struggling to win re-election next May, called for an "intergovernmental" Europe in which the presidents and prime ministers of euro zone countries would be the ultimate arbiters over national budgets.
His socialist opponents denounced him for advocating an "austerity treaty" dictated by Germany. Merkel went out of her way to rebut such accusations, telling the Bundestag it was "misleading" to suggest Germans were trying to dominate Europe.
The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek of Poland, said treaty change could be "dangerous" because Europe's citizens were unlikely to warm to the idea.
MARKETS RECOVER
EU diplomats said Paris and Berlin hoped to find agreement among all 27 member states for limited treaty amendments rather than having to take the more divisive route of drafting a separate blueprint for the 17 euro zone states or fewer.
German officials praised the conservative Sarkozy's courage in telling voters that France would have to overhaul its social model and cut public spending.
On the markets, German 10-year Bunds outperformed safe-haven U.S. Treasuries and British gilts as investors saw prospects of an EU summit deal and ECB action to ease funding for cash-starved banks and to counter a looming recession in Europe.
Italy's 10-year bond yield was down to 6.65 percent, well below the danger levels close to 8 percent they hit last week, which analysts said could make it impossible for Rome to refinance its debt next year. Spain's 10-year borrowing cost tumbled to 5.68 percent.
Sentiment has turned more positive since the world's major central banks took emergency joint action on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar funding for European banks, a move which suggested they feared a funding crunch was imminent.
A key measure of dollar funding stress felt by euro zone banks, the three-month euro/dollar cross currency basis swap, has narrowed by 30 basis points since the coordinated central bank move to around minus 130 bps.
(Additional reporting by Noah Barkin in Berlin, Kirsten Donovan in London, Emmanuel Jarry in Toulon, Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Janet McBride, Mike Peacock and Peter Graff)
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Iranian diplomats expelled from London arrive home (AP)
TEHRAN, Iran ? Iranian diplomats expelled from London in retaliation for attacks on British compounds in Tehran arrived home Saturday, the official IRNA news agency reported, sealing Iran's most serious diplomatic rift with the West in decades.
About 150 hard-liners waiting with flower necklaces had gathered at Tehran's Mehrabad airport to give the roughly two dozen diplomats and their families a hero's welcome. But the Iranian government, apparently opposed to any high-profile display that could worsen the fallout, took the diplomats off unseen from a backdoor, reflecting Iran's own internal political rifts.
Tuesday's storming of the British Embassy and residential complex ? which the British government alleges was sanctioned by Tehran's ruling elite ? deepened Iran's isolation, which has grown over the decade-long standoff with the West over its nuclear program.
Germany, France and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors, and Italy and Spain summoned Iranian envoys to condemn the attacks.
It amounted to the most serious diplomatic fallout with the West since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy after the Islamic Revolution, and some Iranian political figures have voiced doubts over whether anything can be gained from escalating the diplomatic battle.
The obstruction of Saturday's welcome ceremony reflected the disagreements between hard-liners and the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which opposed downgrading relations with Britain and condemned the attack on Britain's embassy.
Iran's relations with Britain have become increasingly strained in recent months, largely due to tensions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a key component of its nuclear program. The process is of deep concern internationally because it can be used to produce material for nuclear warheads in addition to reactor fuel. Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful.
Along with the United States and other nations in Europe, Britain has backed sanctions that have so far failed to push Iran to halt its enrichment program.
Hard-liners in Iran have said the embassy attack was an outpouring of the wrath of the Iranian people who believe Britain is a hostile country seeking to damage and weaken the Islamic Republic. Mohammad Mohammadian, a representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised the attackers, saying they had targeted the "epicenter of sedition."
Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, approved a parliamentary bill into law requiring the Iranian government to downgrade relations with Britain. The government opposed it but said it would carry out the law.
The diplomatic freeze from Europe, including key trading partner Germany, further isolates Iran just weeks after a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency that alleged Iran was making strides toward mastering critical elements for atomic weapons.
The current breakdown in relations with the West could embolden hard-liners who want a tougher stance against the International Atomic Energy Agency, which they accuse of being manipulated by the U.S. and allies.
Britain's ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott ? now back in Britain ? offered new details about the attacks, saying the experience had been "frightening."
"We had no idea how it was going to end," he said, describing how the mob trashed rooms, damaged furniture, scrawled graffiti and tore up a portrait of Queen Victoria, as staff took shelter in a secure area of the embassy.
"It felt like very spiteful, mindless vandalism, but it wasn't quite mindless," Chilcott said. "They removed anything that was electronic ? mobile telephones, personal computers ? anything that might give information about who you were talking to or what you were doing."
At one point, the intruders started a fire inside the chancery building, forcing the staff to leave the safe area, climb down a fire escape and exit the building. A small number of police escorted them to a building on the edge of the compound and told them to lie low.
"We turned all the lights out and we sat in the dark and we could hear the noise of the intruders going on around us," he said.
He said seven staff at a separate residential compound that was also attacked were seized and "quite roughly handled" by the invaders.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague has led the accusations that the rioters had a green light from Iranian authorities, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. On Thursday, he said the attacks were "clearly premeditated" by high-ranking officials.
Iranian government officials said the storming of the embassy by angry protesters was unexpected and Iranian police intervened to protect the British diplomats and get the attackers out of the buildings.
The demonstrations had been organized by hard-line groups on university campuses and Islamic seminaries and included denunciations of the latest sanctions on Iran over its nuclear efforts.
Such major anti-Western rallies are rarely allowed to occur without official approval and often include state-backed forces including a paramilitary group known as the Basij, which is part of the vast security network controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Images broadcast around the world showed demonstrators tearing down Union Jack flags, brandishing a looted picture of Queen Elizabeth II and tossing out looted documents.
The deepening tensions with Britain and others may also trigger further rifts within Iran.
For months, Iran's ruling system has ordered arrests and intimidation against political allies of President Ahmadinejad, who has sharply fallen from favor after challenging decisions by the head of the theocracy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ahmadinejad has remained silent since the attacks, but his supporters have raised questions about whether Iran's interests are served by a diplomatic battle with the West.
___
Associated Press writers David Stringer, Jill Lawless and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Statewide ? Automotive Center/Loans- Full Time Employee Needed ...
Call or Text (310) 871 ? 2943
Doing more interviews today 12/3/11 (Saturday) until 7PM PST.
- Must have computer/internet skills.
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Task examples: Take photos of cars & upload to internet. Order/Manage parts, etc.
$11/HR (Monday ? Saturday 9AM ? 7PM)
- Location: Sun Valley, CA
- Compensation: $11/Hr
- Principals only. Recruiters, please don?t contact this job poster.
- Please, no phone calls about this job!
- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
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SupaBoy portable SNES, the most fun you can have without a soldering iron
We previewed Hyperkin's SupaBoy back in the summer and loved the idea of toting 'round original SNES games without resorting to Ben Heck-style crafting. The handheld takes full-size cartridges, packs a 3.5-inch screen and a battery that's disappointingly rated for just two point five hours (best keep a power cable handy). It'll also double as a home console: there's an AV-out port and slots for two classic controllers for when you wanna kick it old-school. It's reportedly compatible with titles like Mario World, A Link to the Past and Starwing Starfox, but who needs them when we've got a mint condition copy of Tetris Attack at home? It'll cost you $80 and is available from Amazon as of yesterday -- we suggest you get to practicing blowing the dirt from the connectors, since you'll be doing a lot of it soon.
Continue reading SupaBoy portable SNES, the most fun you can have without a soldering iron
SupaBoy portable SNES, the most fun you can have without a soldering iron originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Yoani Sanchez: Cuba's Forum on Alternative Media and Social Networks Ignores Alternative Voices (Huffington post)
Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)
By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Dec?1, 5:17?pm?ET | The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage hovered just above its record low for the fifth straight week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. Here's a look at rates for fixed and adjustable mortgages over the past 52 weeks. |
| Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low |
| 30-year fixed 4.00 3.98 5.05 3.94 |
| 15-year fixed 3.30 3.30 4.29 3.26 |
| 5-year adjustable 2.90 2.91 3.92 2.90 |
| 1-year adjustable 2.78 2.79 3.40 2.78 |
| All values are in percentage points. |
| Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. |
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Copyright ? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Eurozone ministers OK $10.7 billion Greek loan (AP)
BRUSSELS ? Eurozone ministers threw a lifeline to Greece on Tuesday as they scrambled to prevent financial chaos from spreading further and driving Europe's common euro currency into a catastrophic breakup.
The monthly meeting of 17 nations was dominated by attempts to keep Greece afloat and find enough money to coat a veneer of credibility over Europe's rescue fund. It came on the third straight day that Italy has taken a beating in the bond markets, with investors growing increasingly wary of the country's chances of avoiding default.
Markets rose for the second day Tuesday on hopes that the enormous pressures on the ministers would produce some results.
The finance ministers approved the next installment of the Greece's bailout loan ? euro8 billion ($10.7 billion). Without that money, Greece would have run out of cash before Christmas, unable to pay employees or provide services. Two officials in Brussels reported the development, speaking on condition of anonymity while the meeting was still going on.
The installment is part of a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout from eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund that Greece has been dependent on since May 2010. The new cash came after the EU demanded, and received, letters from top Greek political leaders pledging their support for tough new austerity measures.
In the latest sign of trouble, Italy was forced to pay an excruciatingly high interest rate on an auction of three-year debt Tuesday. Demand was strong, but the 7.89 percent rate was nearly three percentage points higher than last month, an enormous increase. The auction raised euro7.49 billion euros ($10 billion).
"But it's still worrisome that those yields are past the point which a week ago would have terrified global markets," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist for Prudential Financial.
Italy is too big for Europe to rescue. If Italy were to default on its euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) debt, the fallout could break up the currency used by 322 million people and send shock waves throughout the global economy.
At the meeting, the finance ministers were discussing ideas that until recently would have been taboo: countries ceding additional budgetary sovereignty to a central authority ? EU headquarters in Brussels.
Strengthening financial governance is being touted as one way the eurozone can escape its debt crisis, which has already forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into international bailouts and is threatening to engulf Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy.
Aside from the money for Greece, some ministers acknowledged Tuesday they probably wouldn't reach their more important goal of increasing the leverage power of the European Financial Stability Facility. The fund, which is supposed to be a firewall against financial contagion swallowing up nation after nation, needs to be expanded from euro440 billion ($587 billion) to something like euro1 trillion ($1.3 trillion).
"It will be very difficult to reach something in the region of a trillion," said Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager. "Maybe half of that."
And the task of agreeing on grand changes that might save the eurozone from splitting up will likely fall to the European presidents and prime ministers attending a Dec. 9 summit in Brussels.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her support for changes to Europe's current treaties in order to create a fiscal union with stronger binding commitments by all euro countries.
"Our priority is to have the whole of the eurozone to be placed on a stronger treaty basis," Merkel said Tuesday. "This is what we have devoted all of our efforts to; this is what I'm concentrating on in all of the talks with my counterparts."
Merkel acknowledged that changing the treaties ? usually a lengthy procedure ? won't be easy because not all of the European Union's 27 nations "are enthusiastic about it." But she dismissed reports that the eurozone, or smaller groups of nations, might go ahead with their own swifter treaty.
Countries outside the eurozone heaped on the pressure, fearing drastic consequences if the euro were to fail. Bank lending would freeze worldwide, stock markets would likely crash, European economies would go into a freefall and the U.S. and Asia would take a big hit as their exports to Europe collapsed.
"I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is," Radek Sikorski said in Berlin. "I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity ... the biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Poland would be the collapse of the eurozone."
Eurozone countries have enormous debts that must be refinanced ? with euro638 billion ($852 billion) coming due in 2012, 40 percent of which needs to be refinanced in the first four months alone, according to Barclays Capital.
The 17 ministers are also discussing jointly issuing so-called eurobonds ? an all-for-one, one-for-all way of having the different countries guaranteeing one another's debts.
Right now each nation issues its own bonds, meaning that while Italy pays above 7 percent, Germany pays about 2 percent. Having stronger countries like Germany stand behind the general European debt would lower Italy's borrowing rates and perhaps help it avoid a debt spiral toward bankruptcy. At the same time, it would raise Germany's borrowing costs.
An even more radical solution was proposed Tuesday by the head of Germany's exporters association: urging Greece and Portugal to leave the eurozone. BGA President Anton Boerner told The Associated Press that's the only way those two nations can spur the growth needed to overcome their crippling debts.
Analysts were doubtful that new cash for Greece and mere talk about the stability fund would bring the financial relief that Europe craves.
"The marginal impact of these bits of 'good news' should be limited at best and investors will still cast a nervous eye towards this week's bond auctions," said Geoffrey Yu, an analyst at UBS.
_____
Angela Charlton in Paris, Melissa Eddy and Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Pan Pylas in London, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report. Don Melvin can be reached at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Medicare back on the brink over cuts to doctors (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Politicians of both parties outdo each other vying for the approval of seniors, but their inability to compromise on the federal budget has put Medicare in the crosshairs again.
Unless Congress acts before Jan. 1, doctors face a 27 percent cut in their fees for treating Medicare patients. That could undermine health care for millions of elderly and disabled beneficiaries.
Last year around the holidays doctors were looking at a cut of about 20 percent. It's become a recurring symbol of the government's budget dysfunction.
The cuts are the consequence of a 1990s budget law that failed to control spending but never got repealed. Congress passes a temporary fix each time, only to grow the size of reductions required next time around. The supercommittee's breakdown leaves the so-called "doc fix" unresolved with time running out.
A thousand miles away in Harlan, Iowa, Dr. Don Klitgaard is trying to contain his frustration.
"I don't see how primary care doctors could take anywhere near like a 27 percent pay cut and continue to function," said Klitgaard, a family physician at a local medical center. "I assume there's going to be a temporary fix, because the health care system is going to implode without it."
Medicare patients account for about 45 percent of the visits to his clinic. Klitgaard said the irony is that he and his colleagues have been making improvements, keeping closer tabs on those with chronic illnesses in the hopes of avoiding needless hospitalizations. While that can save money for Medicare, it requires considerable upfront investment from the medical practice.
"The threat of a huge cut makes it very difficult to continue down this road," said Klitgaard, adding "it's almost comical" lawmakers would let the situation get so far out of hand.
There's nothing to laugh about, says a senior Washington lobbyist closely involved with the secretive supercommittee deliberations. The health care industry lobbyist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make public statements, said lawmakers of both parties wanted to deal with the cuts to doctors, but a fundamental partisan divide over tax increases blocked progress of any kind.
The main options now before Congress include a one-year or two-year fix.
The problem is the cost. Congress used to add it to the federal deficit, but lawmakers can't get away with that in these fiscally austere times. Instead, they must find about $22 billion in offsets for the one-year option, $35 billion for the two-year version. A permanent fix would cost about $300 billion over 10 years, making it much less likely.
"It's going to be a real challenge, and there's not a lot of time to play ping-pong," said the lobbyist. "It's entirely possible given past performance that Congress misses the deadline."
Congressional leaders of both parties have said that won't happen. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., says the Medicare fix is too important not to get done before the end of the year. His House counterpart, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., agrees. But how? The endgame for a complex negotiation also involving expiring tax cuts, unemployment benefits and dozens of lesser issues remains unclear.
"They have to come up with a solution, and they will have to appear to pay for that solution, and that will be contentious," said economist Robert Reischauer, one of the public trustees who oversees Medicare and Social Security financing. One option: cut other parts of Medicare. Another: trim back spending under the health care overhaul law. Either of those approaches would mobilize opposition.
A nonpartisan panel advising lawmakers is recommending that doctors share the pain of a permanent fix with a 10-year freeze for primary care physicians and cuts followed by a freeze for specialists. Doctors aren't buying that.
The Obama administration says seniors and their doctors have nothing to fear.
But doctors are becoming increasingly irritated about dealing with Medicare. Surveys have shown that many physicians would consider not taking new Medicare patients if the cuts go through. Some primary care doctors are going into "concierge medicine," limiting their practice to patients able to pay a fee of about $1,500 a year, a trend that worries advocates for the elderly.
Ultimately, the solution is an overhaul of Medicare's payment system so that doctors are rewarded for providing quality, cost-effective care, said Mark McClellan, an economist and medical doctor who served as Medicare administrator for President George W. Bush. That continues to elude policymakers.
Instead, the threat of payment cuts has become a holiday tradition, said McClellan. "It's just not a very enjoyable one."
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Newsmaker: Technocrat "oil man" takes charge of Libya lifeline (Reuters)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Libya's new oil minister is seen as the right kind of technocrat, deeply experienced yet not too closely tied to the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, to help restore the OPEC member's economic lifeline after eight months of war.
Abdulrahman Ben Yazza is in his mid-50s and brings experience from both Libya's oil industry and Italian firm Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya before the war.
He worked at Libya's Waha Oil company and at the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), culminating in a seat on the management committee. He then headed a joint venture between NOC and Eni.
"He's an excellent oil man," NOC Chairman Nuri Berruien told Reuters. "He's a first-class professional ... The most important (thing) is that he's from the oil patch. It is very important, it is good to work with people who speak your tongue."
A source close to Ben Yazza said the married father of four from Tripoli had been living in Milan for the last few years and traveling frequently to Libya.
"Ben Yazza is an old guy, well known and well liked. He knows Eni very well but that doesn't mean he will be pro-Eni ... he will be pro-Libyan," one Libyan oil industry source said.
"He's more a technocrat politician. Remember this is a transitory government, a bit like the Monti government in Italy ...It doesn't represent the power equilibrium and none of the big shots are in it."
Of all the new appointments in Prime Minister Abdurrahim El Keib's government, set to lead the country to elections next year, analysts and industry sources said Ben Yazza is seen as the most technocratic and least colored by the country's regional politics.
"In meetings he would listen to everyone's opinion," a person who worked with him at the NOC said, describing Ben Yazza as "very respectable."
NEW FACES
Before the February revolt, Libya's oil policy was run by the NOC headed by Shokri Ghanem, who defected in June and is believed to be living in Europe.
Officials have since indicated there will be changes, with plans to split commercial arrangements from policy.
Ben Yazza himself is seen as somewhat independent despite his NOC history, as a man who reportedly clashed at one point with Ghanem and who carries no strong affiliation with the ousted regime.
He is "very competent with a strong personality," one diplomatic source said.
"There were other candidates in the sector who had good international pedigrees, but they were often very closely associated with Col. Gaddafi - or they amplified their connections with Gaddafi in order to increase their prestige," said Geoff Porter, a U.S. independent expert on Libya.
"In the new post-Gaddafi Libya, they are tainted and would have been rejected by the Libyan population and by the hydrocarbon sector workers in particular."
The new set of faces will have to sustain the revival of the industry, which is returning to the international market faster than expected.
Libya holds Africa's largest oil reserves and was pumping 1.6 million barrels per day before the revolt.
Questions remain about the future, with a potential shake-up that would give more power to the oil ministry and carve up the NOC's responsibilities.
Berruien said the oil ministry and NOC would "complement each other."
Ben Yazza's appointment could see a number of former Libyan state oil company executives return to the public sector, according to political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
"Highly experienced and extremely well-connected, we expect Ben Yazza to announce the recruitment of a number of his former NOC colleagues and friends to the NOC and the ministry," it said.
"The implications for the sector are good. Separating the regulatory and oversight functions from operations will remove some conflicts of interest," it said.
"Ben Yazza (will have) the opportunity to root out some of the more entrenched examples of corruption."
Still, he could encounter opposition from some workers still wary of former NOC officials. Waha Oil workers just recently ended a strike after their demands for a new chairman were met.
"Lack of experienced personnel has long been a retarding factor in the Libyan oil and gas sector and Ben Yazza will see the return of senior officials currently with IOCs (independent oil companies) as important if the sector is to reach its full potential," Eurasia said.
(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun and Christian Lowe in Tripoli, Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Jessica Donati in London; editing by Jason Neely)
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